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Cycles of ruin born of fear (Warhammer 25k-40k fic)

Chapter 1

Virian

Sage of Reason and Incomplete information
Author
AN: This story has been inspired by 'Out of the Dark ' by Derain Von Harken and 'In my time of troubles' by theirishdreamer

I own nothing but my own OC's. Any images unless stated otherwise DO NOT BELONG TO ME!!! but to their respective artists. If one artist has problems with me using his or her work here then please let me know in a pm.

Arc 1: Beginnings

One of the truths of the existence is that history will inevitably repeat itself. Species are born, they evolve, they prosper but inevitably die. This has been the absolute truth across existence and for no matter how long it may take, it always happens. It may take thousands, millions or even billions of years but time always takes it's toll on those that thought they may cheat it.

In a galaxy ravaged by the mistakes born of arrogance, hubris and fear, such stories are common place and now the dominant species of the Galaxy known as The Milky Way are about to experience the beginning of their end after more than 50 million years of existence. The only question is if the species known as man will follow them.

The history of Mankind started like many others , with few notable differences. They evolved on the dirtball they call Earth, became space-faring, discovered FTL and had their first Golden age, unimaginatively called 'The Golden Age of Technology' , which ended abruptly with the war started by brothers of different flesh due to circumstances outside of their control, in a conflict they called The Iron War.

Shortly after the Iron War however, there was a small period of reconstruction, a small respite, as the embers of dead worlds just started to cool on most worlds that could still be considered worlds. 'The Federation of Man', humanity's last standing bastion against the cruel universe tries to keep itself from falling apart. The horrors of the Iron War, The Great Betrayal ,numerous Wild Hunts of the Eldar and attacks made by other species left humanity's Beacon of Unity a frightened, hateful and barely coherent husk of it's former self 'The United Confederacy of Planets'. It was a government that had existed since before humanity had discovered the Warp Drive and was now brought to ruin by beings of a maliciousness beyond their comprehension.

Humanity thought that the worst has come to pass, that the worst horrors of the Universes have been if not destroyed, then at least run it's courses like the natural disasters they were or were repelled for enough time to allow them to rebuild... They were wrong.

On a planet scarred by Ork Whaaghs, Hunts made by deranged Eldar for slaves to use, eat or do worse in their murder orgies and barely touched by the horrors of the Iron War, a soul from a time of hope entered the world and tries to make it's mark on the cold and cruel universe it now calls home.

In a galaxy ravaged by the mistakes of the past, the hubris and arrogance of those that should have known better, dooms both themselves and others. The only language all species have in common is war for peace and understanding are long dead under the boot of uncaring monsters who try to quench lust for excess and war on the corpses of the innocent. It's the 25th millennium and the Galaxy is on the verge of ruin.


Entry 1:
date : First day of the third month of 890M24
I'm in the 40k Universe... You have no idea just how much this sentence frightens me. After some thought I have decided to make this journal so that I can remember things from the past and for venting my stress, fears and other things which should remain secret. Thankfully it's not on paper but on some sort of electronic tablet ,or data-slate as they are called here, with no connections to any network nor the hardware or software to make one.

There is very little chance of someone else opening it as in order for it to open it needs to scan for my soul...This was one of 3 gifts from the being which sent me here and only I or someone with the abilities beyond that of an Alpha plus psyker or a really powerful pariah should be able to even see it let alone be able to open and read it. So this means that there are like 6-7 being in this universe that should be able to do so... a too large number in my opinion but beggars can't be choosers .Indeed

Right, you may ask yourself how this all started... It started as all such stories do, with my death... I apparently died in my sleep, a cerebral aneurysm at 19 FUCKING years old... How this happened I don't know, but if my ROB is to be believed then it was natural... Yes ROB or Random Omnipotent being even if he is not omnipotent, if we take into consideration what he showed me the difference is academic.
*raises eyebrow*

Well enough moping around, this life does have some advantages which I should thank my benefactor for. I'm the eldest and only son of a middle noble on a Civilized world in the beginning stages of turning into a hive world. Hell , due to it's Planetary Administrator it's even self-sufficient which considering the period it's damn important... Where are we? Just after the Iron War(no idea how we won) and a few years before the Long Night and if some of the reports father had showed me are right, I'll get to experience it in this lifetime. Massive warp storms come from the Crone Worlds of the Eldar, Warp travel is getting more and more difficult and soon we will be cut-off from the rest of human space. You're welcome.

Well normally I could just think 'not my problem' as while I'll get to live my life without worrying at what will happen after but here comes the 2 other 'gifts' I received from my benefactor , the ability to resist Corruption from psyker powers and daemons(which is a HUGE! bonus) and reincarnation which is unique... Well... technically many in this universe can do this but from my knowledge only the Eldar can choose when and where to reincarnate and still keep their memories and they'll soon loose this ability after the birth of Slaanesh, and while I do keep all my memories(they are stored in my soul). I cannot control when and where I am being reincarnated, it's set on automatically reincarnating me into the first of my direct descendants born after my death. So yes I can't commit suicide to escape this place, because I just get reincarnated and if there are no descendants for me to even get to choose from, then I go back to the Void. Which is where my soul accidentally ended up in the first place before being found by ROB. I'm also forbidden from acquiring psyker powers or doing sorcery... Anything else is permitted. Stuff happens dude, you were supposed to be reincarnated normally but something got screwed up and you were ejected from existence, and believe me no sorcery or psykery is for your own good.
Honestly I don't want to go back there because galaxy sized monstrosities that can destroy universes are the equivalent of PLANCTON . Yes I'll stay here where is safer, easier to live and the monstrosities are manageable. All in all, the only goal I have here is to survive(does the term apply knowing I'll die several times and then simply reincarnate?), for 20k years and if I do so I was promised I'll either:
A) Get reincarnated in my old universe as whatever I want, and live a life without worry for my soul getting eaten,
B) Keep on doing what I did so far as long as I stay in this Universe,
C) Get to be a planeswalker or equivalent and Immorbid to boot( cannot die of old age, can still be killed, heard the term in a fic and it stuck).


I'll write most of my knowledge of this universe in entry 2, even If doubt it might help.


Entry 3: Second day of the fourth month of 890M24
Today is my birthday and I just turned 8. It's supposed to be a happy day, the guys on the weather channel said it will be a sunny day with only one or two clouds above our city. Or it should be, if it wasn't on fire started by mad psykers and Daemons killing everyone . Fucking psykers.
 
Chapter 2
Arc 1: Beginnings

As I was writing in my journal , a redheaded, woman, with hidden cybernetics and more visible genetic augments (if the 11 out of 10 face and body she had was any indication) made herself visible. Her name is Ana Marrala, and her family is from a long line of knights which have sworn themselves to my family 6 centuries ago, after my great-grandfather(rejuven is that good), a ship captain of a escort to a small fleet which happened to pass by a planet invaded by orks saved them.

My great-grandfather's ship, 'The Unbroken', was the only ship which could both land and lift-off from a planet because it didn't suffer any significant battle damage during the space battle that would prevent it from doing so. So he decided to act as a transport for the defenders of the last town that was still holding on due to several knights(mech style) from different families leading the defenses. As you can guess he succeeded in evacuating them and as a result, 4 of the knight houses swore their allegiance to him. A few centuries later those houses became one and great-grandfather after buying some land and noble titles on this planet decided to start a business.

Now my family , the Ivanov, are a relatively wealthy aristocrat family and the Marrala family are our trusted guardians... and incidentally the only ones which my family trusts near me. After all I'm their only child after a decade of trying to get an heir the classic way. They're quite overprotective of me, if I'm being honest and considering the current political climate I can't blame then. The Confederacy is dead, it's successor state is slowly dying, trade is slowly being choked as well and psykers keep on appearing to burning stuff and summon daemons. This doesn't even begin to say anything about what happened when Eldar, orks and other xeno invaded the system. So yes, I can take my parents being over-protective over the Eldar and daemons soul-raping me to death and beyond.

''Young lord Vlad, we have been informed that Warp abominations have made their appearance nearby. We need to leave now, as the Warp abominations are still far but they are closing in on our position and the military is getting ready to shell this city to prevent them from expanding. A car awaits us downstairs and my sister escorts lady Ivanov there as we speak. In fact they should have already reached the car by now.'' Ana said with an almost monotone voice. Ana is my... I guess bodyguard would fit the best as we're not even speaking English.

The way she said that ,to the untrained observer, would have sounded like it was just another Tuesday, but thanks to my experience with her, as well as genetic augments my family provided, her worry was as visible on her face as a super-Volcano on an ice world.

''I'm coming.'' I replied in a controlled tone. If it's bad enough to make her voice tremble then it must be close, well that and Daemons, never a good idea to stay near them.

As I said that , she lifted me up, took me in her arms and placed me on her left shoulder. Then with a grace that shouldn't had been possible ,as she was carrying me like a potato sack , she started running and the jumped outside the open window. Yes this is embarrassing and scary but it's way faster than me running over to the elevator and going down from the 40th floor. Besides it's perfectly safe as the grav-chute proved.

We fell in a controlled fall and as decades of experience showed. Ana handled the grav-chute like an artist and managed to control our fall in such a way that when we landed we were 2 steps away from the car which would lead us to the airport. The screams from the city could be heard from here, and I'm sure some of the cries I was hearing while we were still in the air came from me, but Ana was tactfully silent and didn't mention it. She then proceeded to open the door and said.

''We're here, let's go.'' Ana said in the same monotone voice as she previously used, any visible sense of fear now removed, as we reached the safety of the car.

As she said that and went into the car, I could see her older sister Maria sitting across my mother putting her gun down.
'Good this means she is alert and ready to shoot all unwanted guests.' And near her is my mother... who is tearing up... Damn...

''Vlad you're safe! Come here.'' Mother said in a tearful tone, the same tone only a mother can give to her child.

She was dressed in some form of red and black dress that looked like armor, but wasn't. Her brown hair was short obviously dyed a light shade of brown and even if the dyes were of the highest quality, black roots could still be seen. Her face was beautiful and her grey eyes so much like my own.

My mother Miranda Ivanov said. Yes I know Miranda isn't a Russian name but considering the several millennia since Russia fell and people marrying left and right I doubt there are many families that can claim having a pure line of a specific ethnicity and my family is definitely not one of them.

''I'm here mother!'' I said as I jump-hugged her. My tone was strangely flat to my own ears, but I'm sure mother and Ana could sense my worry.

While I still miss my old family from a lifetime ago this woman has more than earned the title of my mother in my eyes and deserves my love, care and (almost unlimited) trust. Changing one's diapers, educating them and being almost the only face they see for the first half of their life, as well as loving them in the way only a mother could all the way through ,tends to do that I think.

As she hugged me back I could hear Maria urging the driver to start the car and take us to the airport. The car looks from the exterior like the bastard child of a limousine and an APC, even if the inside is clearly that of a limousine. This car is mother's favorite and is heavily armed , armored and fast. I'm sure it could destroy an M1 Abrams in a straight up fight and laugh at it's puny cannon as it was competing in a formula 1 race.

The road was spent in silence with my mother never letting me go out of her arms and our car being followed by our escorts which looked even more armed than our ride and from experience I knew they were so .After all, our car was an armored transport with a few tricks while theirs were military transports and armed accordingly. Nobles are afforded a lot a leeway on this planet and nobles having their own armies and military vehicles is not unusual, in fact I think it's an requirement to being a noble around here.

As we stopped and departed, the driver remained in the car and told us to leave. Daemonic screams could be heard approaching and I could hear people being shredded into pieces. Mother only griped my arm tighter as Ana and Maria got their weapons ready in preparation for daemons attacking us. Those preparation were unneeded however as our driver and escorts managed to make sure no daemon ever reached us.

''We're here my lady. Me and the boys will keep the warp spawn busy while the guys in the air shell them over. Please go into the transport and leave somewhere safe.'' The driver said, not a single ounce of fear in his voice even as he talked about his most likely imminent demise. After all I'm pretty sure remaining here was an almost guaranteed death sentence.

The driver has balls of steel and the same goes for our escorts . I may not know the entire situation but from what little I've heard, help was still hours away unless they didn't just bombard the whole city from the orbit once all the nobles and as many civilians as possible evacuated.

I made a mental note to ask father to arrange that the soldier's family left behind from our escorts and that of the driver be taken care of if they didn't survive. They deserve that much at least.

Ana and Maria both acknowledged the driver with a nod , which was more than they needed to do due to their position. But both he and our soldiers deserved much more than that and while we couldn't offer it to them we will give it to their families. I gave a similar nod which they saw and returned while my mother was busy looking after me and at the surroundings while hurrying us to the transport.

Maria went first, then mother, then I and then Ana. A pilot as well as 2 servants which were in another car while we traveled here awaited us there. The ship from the outside looked like a metal brick with 2 engines and 4 wings which had grav engines in them too for better maneuvering at high speeds.
best-ed-ship-type-7-transporter-01.jpg

As all pre flight checks were taken care of, I could see mother getting increasingly worried while Ana and Maria remained strangely clam as they sat near us in the interior of the ship that looked more like a luxury troop transport than something normally used by nobility.

Seconds after we departed and were already several hundred meters into the air, we could HEAR the daemonic screams even through 1 meter thick fuselage of our transport and then see trough the cameras mounted on the outside the light of orbital bombardment done on the small city, once renewed for their Ancient distraction park called Disney Land. As we left the now dead city all what I could think was 'Fucking psykers' and 'There goes the city AND my birthday'.

''Fucking psykers!'' Ana's loathing voice reverberated throughout the ship.

Ana said in a tone of utter loathing what, from the looks of it , we were all thinking.

In my opinion this situation is not sustainable, as this is the second settlement lost this year. Fortunately they were all small with this being the biggest lost so far, but if something doesn't change then this planet is toast.
 
Chapter 3
Arc 1: Beginnings

Entry 4 Fourth day of the fourth month of 890M24

After my ruined 8th birthday I could sense the atmosphere in the castle turn gloom. Yes I live in a castle, or better said a military base the size of a city that looks like a castle... if the castle was from some sort of dark fantasy and covered with guns, rocket launchers, sentries, and a fuckload of anti-air. Add to that barracks and housing for the city's inhabitants and you a close approximation of my home.

Yes I know being rich here is very different from being rich in my old world but come on, I have an entire city as a HOUSE and that doesn't even take into consideration the other 3 cities and 20 large towns hundreds of smaller ones and thousands of villages we own on this planet... And we're barely above the middle tier of aristocracy on this world! The planetary governor has 2 of the 3 small hives of the planet as well as tens of cities on this planet... Lyrax 3 has 18 billion souls on it and it shows.

My meeting with my father ,who had to deal with politics while we were on what was supposed to be on vacation, went better than I thought. As in he was too happy to see both me and my mother safe and sound to be angry at anyone. Well I'm sure the planet Administrator might be getting an angry letter or two, as that city was his and the ships which bombarded it were most likely his too. If they weren't then heads will fall.

The new developments in my life are that now I have to get proper body conditioning with the Marrala's thanks to father thinking I will need it due to the unstable situation on the planet with all the psykers running around. I can't find any reason to disagree.

The Marrala are a knight house which means that in order to properly defend us and survive the rigors of battle both inside and outside mechs, and power-armor they need to start training early even with the augments. Normally they would start at 7 and I as a concession for my great-grandfather's military legacy should start at 15 as I would normally have more important thing to learn like politics, etiquette(bleargh), history, tactics and mathematics and boy, you do learn a lot when you have several teachers focused solely on you and my memories from my past life were certainly helping albeit not as much as I hoped they would.

Oh well tomorrow I'll start my physical conditioning... I know it's going to be hell but wish me luck as I'll probably need it.

Also I almost forgot. I told father about the guards that died to give us time and asked him if he would look after their families. His face showed a spark of pride before it was quickly squashed out due to his years of being a politician. He said yes and assured me they will be looked after properly. Yes, I feel I earned some more respect from father, and I'm pretty sure he used that request as my birthday gift from him, which honestly I'm not mad about it. After all, those men died for me and my family so it's natural I try and help their families in some way.

I may be many things, but ungrateful to those that helped me is not one of them.

Entry 5: Fifth day of the fourth month 890M24

IT'S WORSE THAN I THOUGHT !!! MY EVERYTHING HURTS!


Entry 12 Ninth day of the fourth month 892M24

My first entry since I turned 10. My birthday party was thankfully uneventful and I hated most of it , even if there were some parts I enjoyed, as it was filled mostly with the children of sycophants following their parent's footsteps. In fact I didn't even get to be in the center of attention( which suits me) but the planet's Administrator.

Apparently almost killing the sole heir and wife of one of your major allies on the planet's government, and weapons manufacturers that do have several space ships and a decent army(2 millions troops) is not something you can just put under the rug. Even if those 2 ships are barely heavy frigates with one of them being my Great-Grandfather's ship and cannot go into the warp.

Yes the family business is building weapons from bolters, heavy bolters, some lasers , small armed transport ships, and APC's. While not wealthiest venture, with our allies in the mining industries as well as several hydroponics farms big enough to even start exporting food to our political allies, we may not be the biggest fish in the pond but we're not a family anyone wants to make an enemy of. This is mostly due to the wealth distribution of nobility with assets scattered across several systems ,while those with influence concentrated in a single system like us being incredibly rare.

So the Administrator tried to pacify father and our family by giving him some very lucrative business deals, a small border town from a border he shares with us and coming to my tenth birthday with one of his daughters which is of similar age with me being just the latest part of his plan to get back in father's good graces. No one of the family died except some guards, which while bad, in the world of politics they are nothing. If those guards were Marrala then that was something else. In the end he succeeded in making sure father doesn't leave his faction. Considering that our industry is concentrated in it's entirety in the Lyrax system while others of his wealthier associates fortunes are outside of the system, his strategy makes it a good move for consolidating his power when the warp storm will make travelling impossible(and yes he is the Administrator ofc he knows, well he and some of his system bound loyal allies).

So honestly the man may look like he is bending backwards for father , but in fact he is simply cementing power for when the idiots which have several holdings outside the system lose them due to the warp storms and we're stuck in our system and the civil war for the throne starts due to the numerous crises this will cause. My lessons under father told me the Administrator's factions is cementing their holdings in the system while moving whatever they can from outside of it here hoping to prevent complete Societal collapse. Among those things are included various schematics for weapons, transport ships, civilian and even some military grade weapons and alloys and ways to make more of them. I also proposed father to take as many anti psyker experts he can, ways of producing knights and medicine as well as many types of crops he can and specialists for them as well as other civilian techs. When he asked me why I told him that we don't know how long our isolation will last and we need contingencies for when the civil war starts(he told me it will definitely happen when I'm an adult) in case some idiots try to sabotage our industry and tech base. He seemed surprised I thought so far ahead but didn't contradict me and said he'll see what he can do.

Now where was I ? Yes my birthday. The Administrator and one of his daughters(the youngest except a boy who was 3), which was only a year older than me came by. She seemed distant at start and only made the bare minimum effort needed for the occasion but she seemed more tired than impolite or rude so I let it pass. After all I doubt it's easy being a princess. After I managed to deal with all the sycophants and it seemed she managed to do it too, we talked and did some proper introductions. Her name was Alexandria Nova. I already knew that but formal introductions done more out of need than want don't count as proper introductions in my book.

She felt just as tired as I was, after all while I was the reason people came here and while they couldn't ignore me, she had to deal with an equal number of sycophants which were even harder to deal with, as she couldn't just shrug them off due to her position as our equivalent of royalty and couldn't afford to sound rude or ignore them to the same extent I could. As the adults were mingling around and using the opportunity for some backroom dealing we were laughing at some of their outfits( a guy looked like a very bad imitation of a toreador) and discussing some of the events in our lives.

I told her about the Disney Incident and she told me about one of the assassination attempts she barely escaped. Both of us knew the world was not a safe place to be for those like us and this conversation only cemented it and we even bonded on it. We decided to become pen pals and talk from time to time and both our fathers seemed to approve. Unfortunately no other people seemed interested in us beyond trying to lick our boots in hope of receiving favors with our families.

The presents I received were pretty good howeve,r so combined with making a new friend it was almost enough to make up for the rest of the crappy day. Among the present I received there were several high quality weapons( including a las-pistol I took a liking to from some of father's vassals), A small cutter from the Administrator(as in it was 90 meters long luxury ship with a turret), and even a small training knight-mech from one of father's friends.

Entry 13: Twenty-third day of the sixth month 892M24

Two years of physical conditioning didn't make it any easier for me to do the physical conditioning , it only made it easier for me to bear the pain. Ana supervises my training and that of the other children from her family training to protect us which, are quite a lot in fact . However only 2 of them are anywhere near a similar age to me with the others being already adults by our planet's standards and almost ready to get their own posts. The two of them are Alexander and Ahab(weird name combinations seem to be the norm here) which if it wasn't for their eyes, (Alexander has green eyes, and Ahab, blue ones) I wouldn't be able to distinguish them.

It appears that the two of them when they'll grow older will be my personal bodyguards and when I inherit the titles from father I'll have Ana as my guard general(too many people under her to call her anything else) because a Guard General and personal bodyguards are different from the rest of the Marrala family. The difference comes from the way they place their oaths to the person holding the title of head of the family and not to the head of the family. A weird distinction I know but it makes sense when you think about it.

The 3 of them are all my personal guards and swore their oaths to me and me alone, to serve and protect me while the Mallara family as a whole swore their oaths to the Ivanov family itself. The attributions and powers they receive are simply a means to do so.

How this works? For example If father were to decide to step down and let me take his place, then his 2 bodyguards and the Guard-general would step down from their posts and continue to protect and serve father alone as he retires , while my 3 guards would take their place. Ofc there is a lot of mentoring involved between them and us until this happens but unless someone dies a very fast and messy death, then things usually go smoothly and the transition has few if any problems.

The two of them already look like mini Space Marines from the augments they received ,both before and after birth. Already they were 190 cm tall at 14 years old and looked like they could hunt and kill a lion with a hand behind their backs, with brown hair and a pale white(not as pale as mine, I swear I'm almost an albino) skin and faces that would make Adonis jealous if the maids in the palace are to be believed(I doubt they even know WHO Adonis is).

All in all, things are looking up, even if interstellar trade become less and less profitable and many people either decide to move or make their bases in system. The Lyrax system's nobility seems to ever so slowly wake up and see danger that's on the horizon even and prepare accordingly, even if they can't see the real scope of the problem. Not even father and Administrator Nova seem to be able to understand that the warp storms might be here for possibly thousands of years. They believe they'll have to endure 3 or 4 centuries of isolation then it's back to business as usual.

I tried to convince my father that becoming completely self sustaining AND capable of sustaining others will help us gain influence when the other houses slowly fail and that I'll need the influence when I grow older. Yes I do talk shop with father, after all I need to, considering I'll inherit the territory and people so having the infrastructure to deal with problems is crucial. However, my age finally comes to bite me in the ass... Father listened to my advice but didn't take nearly as much credence of it as I wanted, after all I'm a talented kid, but still just a kid. He bought some more factories, and secured alliances with small trading and mining families as well as increased our farm productions, but it wasn't nearly as much as I would've liked. I only hope it's enough for when shit hits the fan.
~~~~~~~~~~

As I finished writing and hiding my journal, sirens were heard from outside.

''What's going on?'' I screamed and I could hear muffled footsteps from behind my door, I inched closer to my gun.

As soon as I screamed Ana, Alexander and Ahab , and thankfully not some assailants , jumped trough the door in full armor.

"My lord, an Eldar hunting party has been spotted and they're attacking several cities and towns including this one." Ana said in the same monotone she always uses when in danger but not even even her armor could hide the undercurrent of horror in her voice.

'Shit, shit , Shit! This is bad!' I could even hear an undercurrent of horror in her voice .

Ana lived during the last Wild Hunt on the planet so she must have a lot of experience with them, so her panicking is really, really bad and If they're as bad as I remember form my old life then we're fucked.

An Eldar hunting party is no different than locusts coming and attacking a farm, burning it and then pissing on the remains. Them coming here is really bad and I just hope we'll survive. Winning against them is out of the question, because even IF we repel the initial attack half of the remaining Eldar will come to investigate and slaughter us all. If we don't kill them then they'll do worse to us, so this means were fucked either way.

"What do we do?" I asked but I already knew the answer. My mind was already thinking in overdrive trying to find anything I could use to survive.

"Us, the rest of your family and their guards except Guard General Caerus, who will direct the defenses, will go into the bunker. The rest of the soldiers are currently being slaughtered outside so we'll gather whoever we can and hopefully they'll get bored of the casualties and leave." Ana said, regaining some of her composure , either that or she faked being in control better this time.

Ana appears to be the spokesperson of the group ... Not unwarranted I suppose as she has the most experience out of my 3 bodyguards.

"How many of them are there?"I asked even if it was useless.

Even if I knew it was futile my body and mind conditioned by years of training in politics and tactics with father couldn't help but ask for anything that might help me put together a proper plan. After all it was not like I could do anything.

I grabbed my Laser pistol from under the pillow, put my shoes on and started running with Ana in the front and Ahab and Alexander on my left and right.

"Twenty in the raiding party attacking this city. Two hundred and fifty in total."

This time it was Ahab that spoke... 20 Eldar when even a single one can kill thousands and we were caught unaware .At least we can still mount a defense against 20 alpha level psykers lacking discipline and so high on drugs their breath is both faster and more likely to make you die of an overdose than 1 kg of cocaine.

'We still have a chance if we're lucky.' My mind provided as we ran towards safety.

"Fucking xeno psykers!" I said both trying to vent my frustration and hopefully raise morale. That phrase has become something of a joke in my inner circle, which mostly consisted of my familly and the Malara.

'I need more friends' My mind provided.

"Xeno psykers , sir. They're even worse than the vanilla ones." Ahab said.

*snort* At least someone can still make jokes.

'Good because we need every morale boost we can get.'
 
Interlude 1: Ana Marrala
Arc 1: Beginnings

'Fuck ,fuck, fuck, fuck ,SHIT!'

My name is Ana Marrala, future Guard General of house Ivanov of Lyrax 3. My family has been serving the Ivanovs for several generation after their ancestor saved us from certain death at the hands of the greenskins. I as well as my brothers, sisters, cousins and the rest of my family have been raised ,bred and augmented in order to better protect our lieges, a.. a duty we all believed ourselves ready to fulfill or die trying once again. Now if only these weren't Eldar we were facing.


I'm trying to keep my composure but it's slowly slipping... An Eldar Wild Hunt coming here is the second most FUBAR situation we could think of. I can already write off half the inner garrison and most of the middle palace. Thankfully the Outer palace is most likely safe , but the problem is that they're too far to help in time. Anyway a message has been sent and if the grav-train is still operating then maybe they'll be able to reach here in 2 hours.

'Fuck, half our garrison is there with a third in the inner palace and the rest spread in the middle palace, 500.000 men protecting an entire city and we cower in the face of the Eldar equivalent of 20 drugged out of their asses hormonal teenagers with toy guns. ' My thoughts were drifting apart my mind too consumed with a mix of rage and fear.

'Fucking ELDAR!!'

No , I must stay calm. Remember what your father used to tell you before the greenskins got him.


'Give the Ivanovs enough time to plan and it doesn't matter who the enemy is, they'll find a way to kill it.'

I always listened to my old man, even when I thought he was spouting bullshit and even when he told me I should always listen to them as they know best. However as I grew older I learned that the Ivanov's are not perfect , each of them having their own flaws. Lady Ivanov is a sociopath incapable of feeling any love except for her family and to a much lesser extent my own. The house Lord is a manipulative monster capable of milking his enemies for all they're worth before killing them, I should know as in my apprenticeship I've seen him do so several times, even as his people love him for looking after them he acknowledges them and tries to look out for them but I can see it in his eyes that for his family he would burn worlds without a care in the world. Everything this family does is for each other, all the titles, money, connections and pain they suffer is to look after their family and I thank whatever deity that might be listening for them thinking off us at least partially as a part of it. I doubt we would survive their wrath if we were enemies. And even as we are now considered to a lesser extent family I could see them abandoning us if circumstances pushed them too much. Yes it would hurt them deeply but they would do it. Regardless of all this I still serve them for it's my duty and I wouldn't have it any other way.


My charge, little Lord Vlad is in my opinion also a different type of weird compared to his family. Seeing death and an entire city burned as well as hearing the screams of daemons barely seemed to faze him even as I've seen trained soldiers faint , cry , puke and piss themselves from less. He seems to care more about the people under him, or at least those that saved his life, compared to the rest of his family however.

Even now as Eldar come and try to kill us all I can see in him is worry. Yes he is scared, but even so I'm more scared than he is and I'm more than 50 years old. He should barely be able to think out of terror, but I already see him trying to plan a way for us to survive this even as a rudimentary plan is already in place in his mind. Always thinking, always planning, the Ivanovs always plan something. Like father like son I suppose.

Even with their failures I could never imagine serving someone else. They provide us with everything, and in exchange we give them anything we have, our loyalty, our help, our protection. We owe them a debt that we will fulfill. My family have been their proud protectors for generations, from the moment they saved us and in the harsher years as they made their own fiefdom on this planet and we take great pride in it.

And now all this is threatened due to the Eldar drug heads looking for their next fix. Just thinking of the Eldar makes me rage. All that power, all that knowledge and potential and they use it for what? Murder, getting a fix, and terrorizing us all. The fact that they look both so much like us and yet so wrong only makes it infinitely worse...

"We're almost there!" Alexander says, one of his other 2 Chosen Guardians.

He is one of my 2 cousins and now brothers in duty now, I suppose. I can see that he noticed me spacing out even as we ran. He most likely thought I was planning a way for us to survive and wanted to warn me we're almost there... If only he knew I was almost shaking in my boots... Both of them are looking at me for guidance and I have to provide it for them even as I'm almost as lost as they are.

Hmm some soldiers from the middle palace managed to get in... Hmm redirecting them with the systems from my suit is easy... Now they go and meet with one of the main groups holding an Eldar trio at bay as they're fucking each other out and still killing the guards and even several members of my family. Hopefully the 2 thousand of them should be able to slow down the xeno long enough for them to get bored or go kill people somewhere else.


"Get in my Lord!" I said, my tone clear and hopefully without a trace of the previous horror as I directed the young lord into the bunker.

We entered the bunker and Ahab , Alexander and I helped some of the guard and staff close the doors weighting several hundred tons by pushing ,rolling and pressing some buttons. I have little doubt this door will hold for more than a minute but it will give us time to prepare for when the Eldar get here.


We could see Lord Ivanov and his 2 guards there, Maria and sev... wait that doesn't make sense where is Lady Ivanov.... and why does she...NO!

"Where is mother, Maria?" The young lord asked even as the trembling in his voice suggested he already suspected the answer.

I could see it in her blank eyes. The answer was there and the young lord knew it too even if he didn't want to admit it yet.


"The Eldar surprised us by teleporting right behind the lady and killing her while blasting my 2 sisters with lightning, turning them into dust.... I managed to shoot the ugly bitch of a xeno in the head and stabbed her in the head and lungs too for good measure just to be sure the bitch is dead...But the lady... the sword had some form of nano-machines..." Maria said, her tone betraying nothing, an eerie monotone that I hoped I'll never hear from her.

She trailed off but... but...Her voice was hollow for a lack of a better term... My sister was the ideal Marrala, strong, loyal, cheerful, and ready to defend the Ivanovs to the best of her ability and beyond. Her failing was unthinkable. Miranda... no Lady Ivanov dying on her must have broken her. She may not have been perfect but our entire family swore to protect them, and now we failed. The feeling of dread and shame suffused us all.


Lord Maximilian saw Lord Vlad and immediately came running for him. He took the young lord in his arms just as the boy started crying. He whispered assuring words that everything will be alright...

Is it bad that the first thought I had upon hearing the news was 'Thank the gods, one less Eldar to deal with?'

'Just Fucking Eldar. Fuck them with a rusted pyke from the ass to their mouth!'

I fell down near my sister and tried to comfort her , even as I too felt the shame, despair and anger of failing our duty.

But as I prepared to do just that, just before I even touched her, from the outside we could hear the sound of screeching metal and an male Eldar voice singing in our heads.

~ ♪Come little Mon'keigh, come let's play as I take your faces to make boots of them and wipe my ass with your tongues. You should feel honored of receiving such a rewards as to be in the presence of my most magnificent self♪~ A beautiful voice sang into our heads.

Such a melodious voice. A pity the one wielding it had a soul as black as the night. All the warriors and staff grabbed a weapon and got ready to meet their fate with honor and protect their liege with everything they had. We have failed once, we will not fail again.

'On this we Swear.'

"All warriors prepare for battle, those with heavier weapon in the back, melee combatants in the front, stay away from the door and prepare to charge once it breaks through!" I ordered in a voice that brook no argument.

My orders seem to take them out of their stupor and all including my sister start taking their roles, I can even see some of her flame come back to her eyes.

"For the Ivanovs and for humanity, kill the filthy xeno!" I shouted to the assembled forces.

"Kill the XENO!" Was the almost unanimous response.

As I said that, the 200 tons door made of Titanium and Ceramite finally collapsed and all hell broke loose.

"Fire."
 
Chapter 4
Arc 1: Beginnings

The best way to describe the situation we find ourselves in right now would be F.U.B.A.R., Pandemonium and a clusterfuck all in one.

The monster that looked so human and yet so wrong, made good of his promise and started slowly peeling off the armor, clothes , skin and muscles of the guards all the way to the bones and then pilling them up on neat stacks, with another stack separated for the tongues even as it faces several melee combatants supported by our best shots equipped with stubbers, bolters, heavy bolters and even 2 las-cannons and several las-pistols in the hands of some of our more trained and trusted guards... All this blood and tears and the Eldar is mocking us by evading all our melee combatants and killing them one by one with it's psyker powers even as it both fires lightning at our back lines and placed several psychic barriers to keep our firepower at bay. When I mean our, I speak for everybody in the room including me and father firing our las-pistols at the abomination with little effect.

'Why won't it DIE!' I mentally shouted, my thoughts full of grief and anger.

Maria approached the Eldar with bolter in one hand and force sword in another and the personal shield that protected her from one of the lightning strikes. Those shields are rare on this planet but her old job as mother's sole guardian necessitated that she wear it, and she used it to maximum effect to close the distance between her and the Eldar.


The fight between them ,to somebody not fighting for their life, might have looked like a beautiful dance between 2 master dancers but we could see that the Eldar was not taking her seriously, only evading her attacks and smirking all the while with a mocking smirk that all Eldar must have practiced for years in a mirror in order to get it that right.

While this happened, our personal guards stood near me and father and fired just as both of us did, not daring to go into melee and leave me and father alone and acting like the last line of defense against the monster in front of us.

~ Hah little monkey, you are quite amusing so I'll keep you for last.~ The abomination sang in our heads with a voice completely unsuited for it's vile heart.

With a blast of psychic powers he lifted Maria and threw her to the other end of the room. That must have hurt, but she'll most likely survive that thanks to her armor but it's likely she'll lose consciousness. One of our best warriors, trained, bred and augmented just for occasions like this and she was defeated in half a minute.

Several others tried to imitate her, mostly Marralas of lesser station or other veteran guards but most of the time they just ended like the rest, transformed into nothing but flesh, muscle and piles of bones.

Two hundred warriors of which 190 were veteran guards and soldiers with the rest being part of the Marrala clan and in less than 10 minutes we were now reduced to half of that with most of our melee combatants down. The thought of winning is now gone from everyone's minds as we now fight with the desperation only rats with no way out can.

~Hah this planet is indeed funny perhaps...~

Whatever the abomination was about to say he was cut off as the sound of screeching metal and crushed rock exploded all around me . Not even a second later and I was beneath Ahab, Alexander and Ana before I even knew what happened.

Several second later something stirred and father seemed to recover first between the 2 of us and started demanding answers. And I can't blame him as in front of us where it used to be a being many would have called god, there was nothing but rubble and... is that a transport ship?

"What happened?" My father bellowed several seconds later as I was still recovering with my 3 bodyguards looking after me. I very much wanted to find that out myself.

I don't know what answers father was expecting. I don't think however that a drunk man with black eyes, black hair, white skin, a chiseled face that looked as if it was made of marble and that looked almost as drunk as the Eldar were high, falling face first from the transport that most likely killed the Eldar was what he expected.

*thunk*

The man fell from the transport while hiccuping. Whatever it was left of the people around couldn't help but stare at their savior that now was even incapable of standing on his feet trying and failing from lifting himself up.

The man seemed to lift himself up after several false starts and with a salute so unsteady that if he showed it on really any other occasion might have gotten him court marshaled instantly, responded.

"Sargent Mar... err Marcus Black reporting for duty *hic* sir." The man now known as Marcus Black responded. We were all worried he would fall back down any second but he seemed to prove us wrong. With what seemed to be a parody of practiced ease the man steadied himself from his drunk stupor into something that resembled being upright.

Father seemed somehow even angrier and continued asking the most likely insolent clown in an tone that accepted no argument and with anger in his voice.

"Why are you drunk in an emergency situation soldier? I should have you court marshaled for your insolence!" Father was angry and I could relate. Even if the man saved our lives, being drunk when we're under attacked by almost demi-gods is not something I would expect of a soldier.

The buffoon seemed to sober up a bit at this but we could all see he was still intoxicated.

"Sir! I'm here under *hic* orders from Guard General Caerus to provide assistance through *hic* unconventional means against the Eldar raiding party." The man provided a most idiotic(in my opinion) explication but honestly, the man seems so drunk he couldn't lie to his children about Santa, let alone provide such a complicated lie, a lie that is easily verifiable.

This seemed to mollify father somehow and I decided to but in.

"So you saw us being attacked by Eldar and decided that the best thing you could do was smash into it with a transport ship and hope for the best?Understandable I supposes, this however doesn't explain why you're drunk." I said with a tone of disbelief in my voice.

I said that and we all awaited his response. So far even if he was insolent I can say I liked this man and how he was thinking, and I'm sure I'm not the only one .Even the guards looked at him in stupefaction because of his previous answers. However even as we spoke we could hear medics looking after the few wounded we had and asking for help and materials to patch up their wounds.

"Well sir, I heard that the Eldar are psychic and can read people's minds so I thought that if I get drunk enough *hic* he won't be able to see what I think and I'll be able to take him by surprise and from the looks of it, it worked!" The man replied in a happy tone, obviously proud of himself.

I barely succeeded in stopping myself from face palming ,not that I had the energy left for doing it anyway

"Never thought I'd actually succeed as I originally thought it was a suicide mission. But I followed my orders, got almost black-out drunk and smashed into the Eldar. And it worked!"
He said in an obviously happy tone and seemed very proud of himself... for good reason he assumes.

I could hear the face palms behind me, which showed me that some of them knew Marcus and his... unorthodox methods... I'm not sure if I have the heart to tell the guy that the only reason he succeeded was because this Eldar was so lazy he forgot to use precognition outside of the immediate area and not because he couldn't read his mind. However a victory is a victory and father seemed to agree to his reasoning enough to forget about his tomfoolery for now.

"Very well what's done it's done, I suppose. I WANT A STATUS REPORT AND SOMEONE GET ME CAERUS ON THE LINE NOW!!!" Father screamed and I could see everyone getting busy with tending to the wounded or seeing if there was anyone under the wreckage

Ana however seemed to immediately jump at attention and provide us the status.

"Sir, Caerus reports that the Eldar have gotten bored and are leaving, casualties are unknown but from the looks of it we managed to kill 10 of them in the palace... The other Eldar parties seem to..." She continued to speak but I couldn't hear anything. My eyelids kept getting heavier as I was slowly slipping out of consciousness.

'I guess the Adrenaline must have run it's course.' I thought as my eyelids just kept on getting heavier and heavier.

The next thing I knew was that I was caught by 2 metal hands and placed in a bridal carry and as I was slipping into unconsciousness all what I could see was blackness.
 
Interlude 2: Maximilian Ivanov
Arc 1: Beginnings

* glug glug*

I used to be a shell of a man, a failure not even worthy of calling itself a man. I was arrogant, slothful ,quick to anger, a drunkard and each and every stereotype that the menials applied to a failed noble, applied to a certain degree to me.

I remember my father being supportive, encouraging me to change or at least use some of my least harmful tendencies to something useful, but I despised him for dictating my life when I thought I knew better, I resented him and resented the world for not fitting into my expectations. Whenever I think of all those times all I can feel is shame, as I wasted my potential in those early years.

This all changed when I met my angel. Originally, I saw her just as another way for father to control my life. In my vision back then she was arrogant, a liar and a deceiver used to getting her way no matter what and she was supposed to be my wife... I didn't react well at first and I saw my father for the first time angry at me, not merely disappointed or annoyed but genuinely angry. It was the first and only time he beat me.

I think that was the first time he realized just what a failure I was being , even if he didn't say it, his actions and eyes spoke for themselves. So I decided to just go along with it and resigned myself to my old life but now with a wife. Back then I entertained the idle fantasy that she'll stay out of my way and I out of hers unless we absolutely had to, even if I knew that it won't be that simple.

She was quick to disabuse me of this idle fantasy and whip me into shape, one time quite literally.

"HA ha ha!" Even after all this time these memories still bring me to laughter.

The memory of it, no the memories of her always used to bring me joy, but now thanks to the abominations known as the Eldar, those memories now feel bittersweet.

'Where was I? Right my beautiful Miranda whipping me into shape.'

* chuckles*

She decided that her husband would not be a failure or as she put it 'A disgusting piece of filth even failures would be ashamed to be compared with' and she took it as her personal mission to make me into a proper man. I still don't know how she convinced my Chosen guards to help her ,as Caerus still won't tell me , but I'm glad she did it.

I took proper lessons, I was spoon fed everything and had my guards constantly controlling my every move under her ministrations but eventually I started to wise up and get into proper shape and abandon many of my vices or at least keep them under control.


Somewhere along the line ,I can't tell when, I started to love her, and I could feel that she felt the same. Eventually we managed to get into being a proper married couple and not just 2 people that had to live with each other.


I still remember the day I managed to get the courage to go to my father and tell him I was wrong...And more importantly apologize for being such an ungrateful fool. His next words shocked me to the core.


"Son, the first time I was proud of you was when you first started walking at 10 months old. This is the second time I have ever felt proud of you. I'll give you another chance to prove yourself. Don't mess this up ! "

He then hugged me and once again started teaching me the inner workings of the realm and the politics of the system. It was hard but I needed it and I even found out I had a knack for it.

Several years later ,my father died and I felt like the word came crashing down on me .I could deal with the politics and administrative problems as I had help , but a worLd without my father just didn't compute, it made no sense and if it wasn't for Miranda looking after me and giving me her unconditional love I think I wouldn't be alive now. I was happy , content and I owed that woman so much... And now she's gone.

*shatter*

The glass shattered in my hand but it's irrelevant as it didn't even manage to get through my gloves.

My little pride... Vlad the fruit of my love with Miranda ... I can still remember when both of us panicked and practically demanded our guards from the Marrala family to teach us how to raise children and what we need to do in order to make sure the pregnancy is successful. The memories make me both want to bash my head on a wall repeatedly and laugh out loud at the same time.


In the end It was almost half a century after I married Miranda that our son was born and at that time, a fog I didn't know it even existed lifted from my mind and I gained a clarity I never had or knew was even possible, for I had finally found a goal. Until then I just lived my life in leisure and only got more competent at doing my work in administrating the realm I inherited and making my wife happy. That changed when I held that little bundle of love in my arms. In that glorious moment I realized what happened and it's implications. I had a son, the fruit of my love with my Angel and we now lived in a more and more dangerous universe.


'He needs to be protected!' I thought at the time


'I need to look after him, to raise him to be better than me, to insure that he will never make the same mistakes I DID!!' My mind continued as I used to hold my family in my arms.


*SHOOSH*


I lifted myself up from my comfortable chair with a fire in my eyes.


I still remember when we chose his 3 Chosen Guardians or as he called them bodyguards. I remember what happened when he first heard the news of his mother's death and I realized with the same crystal clarity that I thought lost when I heard the news myself, now back, that my son needs me.


"My son NEEDS ME!!" I shouted. All thoughts of decorum long gone.


I immediately started thinking what I need to do and with my mind now so clear, it didn't even take me a minute to formulate the plan.


" Lucian, Arri'anna bring me my coat and a new change of clothes, I MUST SPEAK WITH MY SON!"

Several seconds later the two servants came and brought me my coat.

"Right here my lord ." The two said in that eerie voice they use when they want to sound important... or just scare someone .I have long since grown immune to it but even I have to admit they're good at it.

They couldn't had gotten it that fast so this means they already had it prepared, eh clever bastards. That's why I have them ,they always know what and when I need it.

My son needs me and even if I have to hide form him just how much our family truly lost on that accursed day, I know it wouldn't help him in any if he found out.

'I'm coming my son, wait for me.'

I couldn't hear anything else for all what it mattered in my head was that my son needed me.
 
Interlude 3 :Alexandria Nova
Arc 1: Beginnings

'Alexandria Nova'

That is my name ,I am the youngest daughter and second oldest child of The Nova family, Administrators of Lyrax 3 and all of the planets of the Lyrax system since they were first colonized.

Normally, the history and responsibilities of my family and planet would make me proud but this is one of the few occasions in which they can only make me grimace.

The reason for my grimace? As usual, the reason for it is father and his political meddling. Father in an attempt of keeping one of his allies in the parliament from going against his authority after almost killing his heir, has decided to go into standard damage control and try to make them forgive him.

This involved some backroom dealing offering him a small town as well as the reason for my grimace... Coming at said heir's birthday.

Yes father decided that a gift to the young future duke would be enough to keep them on our side, and me coming here is just the official excuse. I've never met this... Vlad Ivanov but if what rumors I've heard of him and his line, they are cursed and generally not the type that will appreciate the finer things in life.

'At least they are not sycophants or the normal variety of bootlickers, if what mother said is true.' My mind provided.

Now let's look over the information my servants compiled on the Ivanovs.

'Hmm several very productive cities , capability of making stubbers, heavy stubbers, heavy bolters, heavy las, a great deal of other weapons for both infantry and vehicles as well as aircraft, exporting food, a small*gasp* flotilla of 2 heavy frigates plus cutter escorts, as well as a 2 million strong army and capacity of calling more, hundreds of augmented soldiers ready to die for them...' My brows furrowed as I continued to read the long list of their assets and I spoke out loud before I could control myself.

''Why aren't they...'' my voice trailed off as Realisation suddenly came ''arch-dukes'' MY treacherous mouth continued.

'So that's father plan and I'll be just another gift in his political games.' I bitterly thought.

*sigh* ''Nothing I can do about it now but hope that I'm wrong.'' As I was reflecting on my new found revelation a knock on the door disturbed me from my thoughts.

"My lady, your father awaits you at the shuttle port.'' The servant said,He was one of the many faces I never bothered to attribute a name to.

''I'm coming!'' The reply was automatic and even the movements were too, and as I was getting dressed by several maids which just entered the room, I couldn't help but think of how to get out of father's machination, or at least turn them to my advantage.

As I followed the servants towards the shuttle port I did not take any of the golden architecture surrounding me into account. It was a view I have seen thousands of times before, and it stopped impressing me long ago.

Even if I was silent throughout the short trip, my mind was still busy interpreting what little I knew about my most likely groom to be.

As I embarked on the golden transport decorated with my family's heraldry, all what I knew for certain was that it will be a long flight and I was proven right as it was a 6 hours long flight.

I stood across my father in his private suite surrounded by a silence that became standard to my dealings with most other members of my family.It was neither awkward nor kind but somewhere in between.

''T minus ten minutes until we land to Stalingard airport in Ivanov territory.' A mechanical voice interrupted our silence.

This was the first sound we have heard since take off as not even the engines could be heard and father used it as an opportunity to speak the first we words he personally addressed me this week.

''Do you know why I have taken you with me?''

Father asked in a tone between calm and focused but not at all questioning, as if me knowing or not knowing the answer was guaranteed. I decided to oblige his most likely rhetorical question.

''I am here in order to start discussions about marrying me with the Ivanov heir.''

I responded in a calm tone betraying nothing.

''No.'' He answered in the same tone he used so far in all our talks, but that wasn't surprising as I'm used to it by now. The content of the simple message was however surprising.

''Then why?'' It was an honest question, as all what I knew seemed to indicate to that.

''The Ivanov are not originally from our world, but from another with their own traditions and culture. Us trying to approach them on this subject would be considered an insult as they need to do the first move and they have not done so yet.'' This was surprising but not unusual as many families have their own traditions due to them coming from other worlds.

What was surprising was that they kept them after 600 years, worth noting but not unique.

''Then why?'' I repeated my question as his answer still didn't tell me why am I here.

''To befriend him.'' He replied ,again in that same calm tone.

My mind screeched to a halt.

''What?!'' This was the first time I lost my control in front of him but he doesn't seem to notice or care.

''The Ivanov are mostly isolationists, only really interacting with other when they absolutel have to despite their rank. Yet despite all that they are somehow preparing for trade being cut-off for centuries even as the reports they have don't tell them they'll even need it. And it appears that young Vlad is the reason for it as his father revealed to me.''

My mind is now churning even as my body does not show any of it 'A boy younger than me realizing that the apocalypse is coming from incomplete information even as our best scientists took decades to realize the danger.'

''Preposterous!''I almost shouted ,any thoughts of etiquette long gone because of this revelation.

''Indeed, but it doesn't make it any less true if our agents are to be believed. Lord Ivanov came and requested the complete reports and I gave them to him as they couldn't do any harm anymore and that family knows how to be discreet enough not to share them.''

He said ,again in the same tone he always uses and if my almost shouting bothered him then he didn't show it and after a short break he continued.

''I want you to befriend the boy and hopefully make him forgive us for almost killing him, and see us in a proper light.''

''I..." ''We have landed and are ready to disembark.''

The mechanical voice interrupted whatever response I could make and both me and father started disembarking.

As we entered the ballroom the size of a large village and painted in the colors and heraldry of the Ivanovs :black and red with streaks of white and blue dominated the view in the clear light that seemed to come from nowhere yet everywhere.

As soon as our presence was announced we were surrounded by the usual sycophants and I decided to give them all the respect they deserved...I entered on auto-pilot and continued thinking about something else, waiting for them to be done so I could find the Ivanov heir.

Lord Vlad came and tried greeting men but before I even noticed enough to properly address him the auto pilot already did the introductions it always does when dealing with sycophants and almost insulted him. As he left I could only hope that once the sycophants were done I could apologize to him properly.

Almost an hour later he approached me again and introduced himself again, my previous blunder seemingly forgotten.

He was wearing a blacksuit with red highlights and tie. Somehow it complimented his almost albino tone and grey eyes quite well, but I suppose black goes with everything and no noble would wear something he or she doesn't look good in, regardless of how much it costs.

''My name is Vlad Ivanov it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss...?'' He asked just as I managed to lose the last of the sycophants. His voice was curious and while I could see that his curiosity was faked there was no maliciousness behind his tone.

He asked as if he didn't know me, this must be a chance to make up for my previous mistake and start anew most likely, a chance I appreciated and took without hesitation.

''My name is Alexandria Nova, daughter of Augustus Nova.'' I replied , giving a curtsy. My White and gold dress contrasting with his black and red suit.

From there our conversation picked up, but I could see he was not used talking to others for extended periods of time.

'Must be from his sheltered upbringing.' My mind provided a likely answer.

I also took this occasion to observe him properly. He was lithe, a bit taller than I was and seemed utterly uncomfortable with the suit he wore (mostly due to the fact it was so light and not an armor I later found out), even as the clothing seemed made of materials almost as expensive as those of my dress.

'Hmm his family must have started physical training early. Unusual but not unexpected considering their history.' I thought.

While some of his jokes and comments left to be desired ,he did make me laugh honestly several times with crude jokes and even cruder remarks, which was something so hard these days and I enjoyed his company. We decided to write letters to each other and keep in touch.

I enjoyed myself and hoped to see him again ,most of my previous worries gone now that I had met my first real friend. I only wished we could stay more, but father had to leave and take me with him back 'home'.

'I hope he writes me often.' I hoped as my head was filled with thoughts on my first friend.

Those were my thoughts as I embarked on the transport that would take me back to the castle. My mind was so filled on idea of how to convince my father to let me come to his next birthday that I didn't notice father giving me a knowing smirk as we entered the shuttle and headed back towards the castle.
 
Chapter 6
Arc 1: Beginnings

Entry 25: 3rd day of the 9th month 897M24

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me! for now I'm officially an adult.

Yes I am 15, indeed the adulthood age is 15.

I'm honestly ambivalent on this because now that I'm an adult means I am allowed to hold weapons in my training and pilot(legally) knights, shuttles and transports... Well I need to learn first but it's not a big problem as while piloting was forbidden(and this is law that applies to nobility too) nothing forbid me from learning in simulators.

Anyway my plans for today are to hopefully not get blown up, attacked by daemons or Eldar, and hopefully just relax as I get to see Alexandria again. Yes Alexandria and I are still friends, and well officially since last year also fiancees.


Yeah that was a surprise for both of us, as it appears father (without any word on my part) decided to contact the Administrator and ask for us to get engaged, something which seemed to happen too fast for it to be anything but planed in advance... Yes I don't know what to feel about it tho .


I mean me getting engaged in an arranged marriage wasn't something unexpected and as long as the one I married was someone I could live with , then I wasn't too disturbed by it and I knew father would choose someone right for me... What really miffed me was that father and my soon to be father in law decided for it to be a surprise for both of us and reveal it at Alexandria's birthday... To say we were shocked would be an understatement as both of us were completely blindsided by this, but now in retrospect it kinda makes sense.


I mean our families are allied, my father just keeps getting more influence as he buys stock and whatever he can from people trying to liquidate assets as their interstellar empires crumbles, even without that he is one of the Nova's most influential supporters and we were good friends to begin with. There is practically no reason for us NOT to marry.


Yes I feel like an idiot for not seeing that coming... *sigh* However the time for daydreaming is over and It's almost time for me to go.


Also ,before I forget, it appears that upon our marriage my family will gain the rank of arch-dukes... Yes this created a massive clusterfuck in our planet's politics, but for now that's none of my business.


*sigh* Yes I know I'm acting weird but honestly my birthday always freaks me out as more often than not weird shit happens each year. For example last year a REAL Federal Warfleet entered our system, not the puny kinds we have, and even larger than that of the Sector Administrator...


What they were doing here I do not know but they mentioned something about killing Eldar and purging some orks, that while weird, is not exactly unusual and when people start hearing of dead eldar and orks... well that's usually a reason for celebration, but I wonder what in the ever-loving fuck would they use a 25+km long ship for ? Craftworld hunting? Nah that's preposterous, but still, a full on Warfleet is not something that goes around wily-nilly wherever it wants.


The year before that there as an alien raiding force trying to raid THE SYSTEM which made my father busy directing our fleet in space and kept people from moving in fear of the blockade being broken.


Also I've looked at the map and then at some of the information I managed to remember on entry 2... I suddenly became very afraid as my system could be hit by 3 apocalyptic events Each potentially killing me before I even knew what happened... Of those I'm most scared of the Rangdan Xenocides, as honestly? those guys made the emperor personally come and smash them, almost destroyed several Astartes legions and resulted in wide-scale wars all around Obscurus... which is right where we are...


Yeah me going anywhere near the Imperium is not negotiable as honestly IF we do join the apocalyptic scenarios will just increase and HH and Age of Apostasy might just kill me for good and let's not even mention the Inquisition.


Well enough musings I suppose time to face the music and meet the guests and my fiance. Wish me luck.


Entry 26: 4th day of the 9th month 897M24


Why did it have to be orks? Better than Eldar I suppose.
 
Chapter 7
Arc 1: Beginnings


Ever since humanity has reached for the stars and met new life and opportunities among the alien stars , Makind has been taught 3 most valuable lessons that have served us well ever since we first discovered spaceflight and Orks.

The first was : 'Never trust an alien government.'

The second was :' The Eldar will inevitably screw you over. Why it's irrelevant.'

The third was : 'There are always more orks.'


Right now I am being showed a practical example of the third lesson as I'm dealing with waves after waves of Orks that decided to intrude on my practical lessons in piloting Knights. Sure it's a training knight but it still means it's deadly as fuck to anything smaller than it, as the orks have gleefully found out.


Orks, or Krork's as they were once know, are the retarded children of the Old Ones and depending on how you view it ,the much more pleasant brothers of the Eldar ,considering that they were both either modified or created by the Old Ones to fight an apocalyptic threat against life. You wouldn't be amiss if you called them brothers... or very distant cousins if you were generous to the orks. I doubt the orks liked being compared to the abominations known as the Eldar.


Now orks... They're big , cunning, dumb, love war, have no concept of peace, love war, have horrible speech impediments,love war, have no sense of self-preservation, and love war. Did I mention that they love war? Because they really do love war.


Now how does this relate to my current circumstances? Well I'm in an 9 meters tall mech, almost knee deep in the damn bastards, on what was supposed to be a training excursion outside the city with my 3 bodyguards in their own mechs and some other troops who both I and father decided were a necessary precaution in case of unexpected circumstances and as we were both proven right they were indeed needed.


If only the orks didn't just somehow jump right outside our orbit through their Whaagh!! bullshit , we would've had time to haul ass back home, but no it seemed to universe was trying to shit on me again.


"Low ammo, only 10% ammo left please restock." A feminine mechanical voice interrupted my trance as I was killing orks.


'Damn it my power maul is already broken and now only use as a giant club. This is the reason I wanted to use a real knight and not a training one , because I could use some damn hands!'


"What I wouldn't do for some damn DIGITS and be able to pick up ork weapons and smash even more orks with them!" I bemoaned in over exaggerated tone , both on speakers and on the communications network between our merry band of misfits."


"Now , now my lord it's beneath you to complain as such." Ahab ever the trickster said in a a mock respectful voice.


"Oh shut it, you would do it too in my place , at least you have proper mechs, with DIGITS! not stumps."


And they really did, they were piloting proper military mechs , equipped with ammo, explosives, several melee weapons and other cool tricks. They were also 12 meters tall to boot.


And the day started so good. After my fifteenth birthday I considered it safe to wait until next day in case some unexpected surprise came, so that I could go and train with the training mech I received for my birthday so long ago, I ofc wanted to use a proper one , my paranoia still not fully satisfied just because my birthday passed , but unfortunately they need special adjustments for the nervous system of the pilot in order for it to be able to run both smoothly and not risk frying the pilot. The only reason I did take it, it's because this is part of my training with the Mallara and I was overenthusiastic of finally piloting one. It just had to come to bite me in the ass.


'Why couldn't I just have fun on my birthday without being worried of being killed?' I rethorically asked myself.


I swear it, in some place on this planet there must still be my birthday for these shits to have come here.


"9% Ammo left."The same mechanical voice called. Thank ROB my Knight has lasers on it's left hand and not a gun. I would have long since ran out of ammo otherwise.


'Fuck it! Is that a Stompa?'


"Alexander, on your 5, A stompa." I informed him, he would know what to do.


"Finally something interesting to kill, these greenskins started to get boring!" He replied in a much too enthusiastic voice as he started running Power sword sizzling in hand and crushing all orks on his way towards the soon to be inert scrap of metal.


' At least somebody's is having fun, the damn battle maniac.'


" My lord , Captain Hurst is heading this way he says he will be here in less than 5 minutes." Ana replied in the monotone voice she shows in all battles. She is also the only one with a strong enough communicator to reach others.


"Good I'm already at 9... make that 8% ammo and I just lost the stump of my left arm. Fucking orks." Cursing orks became something of a mantra for me as it helps me deal with the stress and my most natural fear of death.


"Sargent Hakar'a how are your men?" I asked the leader of the group which accompanied us on our training trip.


"We're low on ammo, only have 3 grenades left*boom* make that 2 and some of us have been forced to fight in the melee against some gretchin and a Kommando. We have sustained some casualties but no deaths so far, sir." The middle aged man replied in a weary tone after a few seconds.


"Good and keep it that way, evac is in 4 minutes, and you'll get your well deserved break, Vlad out."


Just as I finished replying the good man , a bunch of Killacans decided to try and be sneaky trying to run past me. A couple of well placed las bolts seemed to show them the folly of their ways. I ofc couldn't bask in my well deserved glory as there were always more orks to kill.


"Had fun killing the oversized can of bolts?" I asked Alexander as he seemed to have finished killing the damn thing.


"Eh good for a warm-up I suppose. " He replied in a voice that sounded bored.


'Yes good for a warm-up, but last time I saw you, you still had 2 hands not one' I thankfully kept my thoughts silent just stomping on some of the smaller orks even as their pitiful weapons barely dented my armor. They would need to be really luck...


"Reactor damaged, shutting down reactor, Capacitors have enough energy left to operate for 30 seconds at current energy expenditure." The same voice as before said in an dispassionate tone.


'Fucking orks, I need to get behind our lines.' I thought.


"The orks got lucky and hit my reactors, going back to our lines." I said in a strangely calm tone to my companions and Sargent Hakar'a.


"Roger" The 4 of them replied in eerie coordination.


Just as I reached behind our lines ,on the little hill we secured for ourselves , my knights capacitors failed and it knelt on it's left left leg even as the hatch opened ,leaving me open to the world.


'Bloody stupid design fail, if it did that during a serious battle I would have been shot by the enemy by now.' My thoughts remained unsaid as I unfastened the ... well rig? would be the term I suppose.


As I left the knight, the noises of battle started to finally reach me, and with my las-pistol in hand I headed towards the barricades and battle. Wouldn't do to start getting lazy now would it?


As I approached ,the noises of battle started becoming louder and louder and I prepared myself for battle.


"Where is Sargent Hakar'a?" I asked in an authoritative voice, or at least I tried to, my 15 years old voice doesn't sound too threatening.


"Here Lord Vlad." A middle aged man with brown eyes and skin responded. The man had a deep voice , was 2 meters tall and looked like he ate cows for breakfast, and bench presses mechs in his free time if the mass of muscles in human form was any indication . I would not be surprised if that was the case. His power armor was still on but I could still see his face through his transparent visor.


" Here sir, Knight Ana replied that there are 30 seconds until evac, as the transports that were on the way were held back by some ork fighter planes."


"Bloody inconsiderate of them, while we're here killing orks they get to play in their planes and hunt the rustbolts the orks call aircraft." I said in a friendly tone to the man.


"Indeed my lord" The man didn't laugh but I could see the corners of his lips twitch up.


"Well I'll be joining you here as my knight got totalled. Hopefully the flyboys won't be getting lost this time." This time he smiled but didn't speak as he lead me towards the barricades and as we reached there we both started shooting at orks, he with his Bolter and I with my favorite las-pistol.


The orks mostly died before they reached our lines and we had to deal with the stragglers the other knights couldn't deal with. This didn't mean they weren't coming in the hundreds tho


An ork got his head caved in , as gore erupted from it but it proved inefficient at making his buddies or the ork in question stop from firing. A second shot to the chest seemed to do the trick but his friends were still coming. The sounds seemed to fade as I concentrated on shooting the orks and helping the soldier in stemming the tide of green. Only for the sound of engines to come and break my concentration, making me look to the sky.


'And here comes the cavalry.' I thought as I stopped firing to properly see several bombers unload they payload on the orks while the other soldiers cheered and transports disgorged hundreds of soldiers, several knights and cans of ammo.


"My lord, the transport awaits us, let us go back home." Ana said trough her speakers and I couldn't help but agree. Home, a nice bath and a week of sleep sounded like a good idea.


Now I only hoped Alexandria wouldn't fuss to much when I get back home. We had installed a (secure) communications system between our 2 houses as a sign of friendship. Ever since then she uses it to call me weekly and discuss anything and everything.


She might be right to worry about me and my 'cursed birthdays' as members of nobility started calling the series of events which prove the universe loves shitting on me, but it doesn't mean it's not tiring.


"Men!" I shouted at our group.


"hey" Someone screamed back at me, but I was too tired to comment on it so I just continued on heedless of the one that shouted back at me.


" And women *snickers* this was it for us. We're heading back home so jump in The last one buys us drinks." I addressed the 100 soldiers and 3 knights which accompanied me, many of the soldiers being wounded and the knights missing arms or showing other types of grievous damage but no deaths thankfullt.


As I finished addressing them I could hear cheers and the sound of power armor embarking on the transport ships which came to take us back home.



' My sweet bed, here I come.' Were my thoughts as I was the last person that jumped on the ship.
 
Chapter 8
Arc 1: Beginnings

Have you ever heard the song 'It's raining men' or something like that? It's catchy but after a while it gets boring and I honestly hoped it died of in several millennia ... I was partially wrong as it appears it made a comeback under different names known , as 'Oh fuck it's raining orks' and 'Aleluiah it's raining lead'. Sure it was funny at first but the soldiers have been singing it in the mess hall for weeks. WEEKS!

Now you may be asking yourself what I may be doing in the mess hall with my soldiers, well if anyone asked then 'I'm trying to develop proper bonds of camaraderie with the men I killed orks with in the attack several months ago'... If you were to ask one my men then they would say I'm hiding from my fiancee , and they'd be right.

Now you may be asking why I am doing this? Well the woman scares the shit out of me. Ok this needs a bit of background. My combat training involved mainly ranged fighting, trap making and disabling(includes mines and improvised explosives) and a bit of stealth and CQC and using other weapons to augment the style of the Mallara which pretty much is 'pummel them from afar and then close the distance to melee range to put the enemy's charred husk out if it's misery'. All things considered this is a solid foundation I think, and I quite love it. The problem? Alexandria got combat training too and because she had less things to worry about as she is far from being the heir, she got far more time to train the skills she learned than I did and as such they're a lot more developed than mine, and she had a year more to train them too.

Now if her skills weren't revolving around CQC, submission holds, subterfuge, hidden weapons and poisons this wouldn't be so bad, but once she decided to move here to both be far away from her father and keep an eye on me, she decided that in order to keep me safe and sharp she'll assault me when I relax, HAUNT MY SLEEP!!! and generally try to keep me out of trouble by force, and ooh boy when your wife to be is both a poison master and has most of the skills an spy and an assassin needs, well having an overprotective wife to be starts getting scary.

Now where am I? I am at a table 2 months since I'm officially an adult by this planet's standard, in the mess hall with several soldiers near me with Ana right in from of me on the other end of the ovular table and Ahab and Alexander on my left and right. We're also surrounded by soldiers loyal to me and my house, as while I don't know which ones are agents of my fiancee I can count on those which fought with me against orks to not be her agents, I swear it that woman must be scarily competent because she's been here for two months and already has people loyal to her and informants almost everywhere.

"My lord, are you sure you should be hiding here?" Ahab replied as a he sipped an alcoholic drink which I think is amasec.

"I have no idea what you're talking about" I replied in an flat tone, if it's one thing I know is that denying and deflecting works eventually.

"My lord, no matter how much it pains me to agree with this idiot brother of mine ,"hey" he is right, hiding from your wife to be here is not good or proper." Alexander replied in a calm yet obviously mock pained tone.

"Indeed Lord Vlad the two of them are right." Ana replied , her grey eyes a shade different from mine and looking straight at me as she put down her drink.

"You don't know the damn woman, her idea of me being safe is cooped up in the room away from anyone." I said with a bit of fear anger and slight arousal, yes I do like her and I love her protective streak but our definitions of protection ,safety and proper preparation for disasters differ a lot.

For example my definition is pretty much prepare enough contingencies (aka carry enough guns and armor) so that you can weather down anything and slowly acclimating to danger by being exposed to it in small and manageable but ever increasing amounts until you can handle anything life throws at you or at least almost. Alexandria however believes that the best way to deal with danger is to never be in danger in the first place, and she does it by keeping me holed up in our room and under her ministrations while ensuring I never leave the bed unless I absolutely have to... yes I am ashamed to admit that the woman keeps tiring me down with aphrodisiacs and sex, idk who taught her to do all that but she is scarily good at it and if it was for her I wouldn't leave the damn room for DAYS!

"Pfft first time I ever heard of a guy running from his fiance because of too much sex." A soldier which I still have trouble remembering the name, I think it's Sorek Redsky or something like that. Considering that I was drunk when he first presented himself to me, I think that's fair.

"Sorek is right sir, this is a first." A that a few other soldiers nodded, a few which I was on a first name basis too, no reason not to ,after all as I plan to make them my private unit.

'Huh I was right his name was Sorek.'

"*sigh* You don't understand guys, I thought the same at first, but imagine that you're pumped on Viart several hours a day and she once kept me in the bed for 25 hours."At that many nodded in sympathy Viart is once of the less potent aphrodisiacs but being forced to stay in bed for 25 hours by an almost nymphomaniac with a strange fetish for cuddles gets scary after a while.

'Father also doesn't help as he keeps reminiscing on the days he met mother and even tells me with some of the stories. Is my whole family into crazy woman or what?'

"That woman already has agents around here monitoring us, any news on who they are?" I asked in my business like voice, after all there is no reason to beat around the bush.

"Yes we found 10 of them and some trustable guys from outside the unit helped us out and managed to find 5 more of them. How she got their loyalty is unknown" Said the newly promoted Major Hakar'a , after all I can't have my personal unit lead by a Sargent.

The only 200 strong unit is still small but as I slowly check the other prospective members for hidden allegiances as well as earn their loyalty properly. In the future they will form the core of my future forces, I'll have to make by with only 200 for now .

'Damn that woman is too good at subterfuge, at this rate half my household will have their loyalties to her... Which while isn't necessarily a bad thing it still scares me just how fast she managed to subvert them.'

"Good I have also thought of a name for our unit." At that all people at the table perked up, our unit is indeed so new that it doesn't even have a proper name and the other soldiers just started calling it 'Vlad's irregulars'.

"So what name is it? don't keep us waiting sir." Many nodded at this and started asking too.

'I think I'm sometimes too lenient on them but I understand where they're coming from.'

"You will receive your uniforms to mark you properly at a later date, also your armors are right now being painted into the appropriate colors... as for the name well 'The black badgers' seemed a fitting name" I said that in an excited tone if the 'Woohoos' were any indication.

"WE'RE THE BLACK BADGERS and you'll do as we say WOOT WOOT" They said in almost unison.

Damn, I should have never taught them to imitate Doofenshmirtz's dance but I was too drunk to care at the time.

It took all my willpower to not facepalm and considering both Ahab and Alexander did it too it appears my willpower had failed me, but if my smile was any indication I wasn't too mad at it, in fact I was quite happy they liked the name. Even Ana was smiling at their antics.

*sigh* I now need to speak with my wife, and hopefully I don't get tied to the bed this time.

"I have to go now, my duties never end." I replied to the men which were still celebrating their new names and singing the same stupid song of raining orks.

As I said that my 3 bodyguards rose from the table and started following me, Ahab on the left, Alexander on the right and Ana behind me.

Well that's the main reason I came here today, I now need to head to my lessons as while I'm now legally an adult I still need to attend lessons and deal with the responsibilities my position as a heir comes with, which means preparing the wedding. perhaps I should let Alexandria do it? She does need something to do and staying inside our room might bore her too much

"Heh perhaps giving her something to do will make her too tired for the marathons." I said in a happy voice while my bodyguards remained silent but a shudder ran trough them,after all they were used of sometimes only hearing half my train of thought that lead to ideas although I admit they usually aren't the sanest.

"Oh c'mon my ideas are not that bad" I most definitely did not whine.... or I definitely whined*sigh*, even so I didn't stop nor slowed down.

"My lord I'm not the one who provoked the orks so hard a clan of them made a separate Whaagh because I screamed their leader would look better in pink and wearing a tutu." Ana said in a most reasonable voice, but her eyes showed the mirth in them ruining any attempt at seriousness.

"At least it worked in getting them to get in the minefield and the range of our flamethrowers." I said in a similar tone as her, but my mirth was just as visible as hers even as I turned my head to look her in the eyes, and then turned back to the road.

*Sigh*' This is going to be a long year.' I thought to myself. I didn't know at the time that my problems were only just beginning.
 
Chapter 9
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery

Well this is it, my grand day. This is the day I'm getting married and while I may not show it, I'm a nervous wreck.


"Look at me a 1,8 meters tall veteran of Ork conflicts, assassinations and politics and I'm scared of getting married." My voice was shaking and the self loathing in it was almost palpable.



"No! I am an Ivanov now and I must show no fear no matter what I may really feel." Strength and confidence returned to my voice as I rose up from my chair and headed towards the door.

"I can do this" I assured myself as I looked myself for the first time at my suit. A simple black suit, with red edges and a black and red vest visible beneath it, with a tie I still don't know how but I somehow put together. On it I also have an handkerchief that is surprise surprise also black with red motifs similar to my vest.



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"Let's do this" I psyched myself up and went out of my room and towards the altar letting myself admire my surroundings.



My castle was while big , quite simple in design, being made to be a fortress first, second and last. This however doesn't mean it's not decorated, even if those decorations are much more subtle than in other ones and serve a purpose beyond showcasing our wealth. On my way towards the exit small stone flowers of various colors hanged on the walls each location having hidden shield generators and other barriers, various simplistic art that to the ignorant would be simply decorative but to me they tell entire stories of war and betrayal and flowers that hide in their pots listening devices and movement sensors as well as various portraits which hide video cameras . That and even more subtle defences accompany me towards the exit of my house.



As I walked towards the front entrance from the corridor that to invaders would lead to one of many kill zones in the castle , I was greeted by an ever increasing light but I showed none of my discomfort on my face as I pushed through from the safety of the castle to the Inner gardens.



There it looked like two armies of Ancient times were standing in front of each other and it did not look at all like a wedding reception from my old world.



On my left there were the guests from the Alexandria's family, her mother, carrying and fussing over her smallest 2 children, a boy that looked 5 and a girl barely out of her diapers, their names escaping my memory for now, Alexandria's other older siblings and family from other Arch-duke families as well as trusted vassals. From their side various banners were held high by soldiers that were standing at attention. On those banners there were various birds both predatory and not and in one case a shark but nearest the altar on it's left was my wife's banner, a white dove with bloodied wings holding a poisoned green dagger in it's beak standing upon a grey skull.


On my right there are the guests from my father's family, mostly Vassals and some of father's friends and their heirs. Their standard bearers stand at attention but their banners were most often of bears, panthers and wolves, with the notable exception of the one of the Black family. It appears that Marcus the Drunk decided to make his family's banner just as 'special' as his introduction into nobility. His banner was that of a dancing skeleton black in color and riding a horse while drinking from a red barrel bigger than it... Points for originality where it is due, the man knows how to pick 'em .


However what truly drew my attention was my own banner, a black american badger on a grey background with a nuclear explosion being shown further into the distance but with the Badger looking straight into the eye of any who would watch as it rests on an Iron throne made of scrap and held together by greenskin's blood. It stands right across the standard of my wife, both of them held by our designated standard bearers.


On the left holding her banner there is my wife's bodyguard assigned by both father and I for her skills in combat which are only second to Ana, Her name is Mia Mallara and she has the normal grey eyes of the Mallara family as well as visible augments and features of the same, even if her hair is blonde and the colors she wears are those of my wife's red and white and not that of my family.


On the right , as a compromise as to not show favoritism for any of the Mallara placed as my bodyguards stands Major Hakar'a, holding my banner and dressed in my colors all the while looking the proper image of a soldier. His brown almost black skin making it seem like the uniform is part of himself and not a separate piece of clothing in the dimming light of the evening as dusk turns to night.


As I walked towards the Altar where the civil servant responsible of marrying us awaited ,I nodded to those I knew on either side of the pathway towards the altar. and waited for Alexandria to come.

Five minutes of uncomfortable waiting later, she arrived in a beautiful red dress that in the lowering light seemed to be made of flowing blood which was surprisingly simple all things considered . Her face however was almost glowing with happiness.


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While many would have made a comment on her dress or hair ,I however in the dimming light all what I could see was her beaming, confident face and I could feel my worries go away, her father which accompanied her with a smile didn't even register to my mind that day as her beauty captivated me.


*cough*" We have gathered here to unite the destinies of these two young adults" The civil servant dressed in his customary blue robes said, removing me from the trance that hopefully had gone unnoticed. The man then turned to me and spoke in a tone mostly reserved for grandparents talking to their nephews but strangely seemed appropriate for the occasion.



"Vlad Ivanov, do you take Alexandria Nova as your lawful wife for now until death do you apart and beyond?" The man asked and it took me less than a second to respond.

"I do, until the warp and back I would go for her." I responded in a confident voice that seemed to please him.


"Good, Alexandria Nova, do you join Vlad Ivanov in lawful marriage and swear to be his wife, for now and forever?" He asked again this time facing Alexandria.


"I do !" She replied with tears in her eyes, tears that anyone could see were meant to be tears of joy.

At an unseen signal my own father came and brought our wedding rings. Each was made of a black metal and decorated with a red gem in the center and 6 smaller diamonds near it.


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I took the smaller one and placed it on her ring finger on her left hand as she took the other and placed it on my own.


"Then by the powers invested in me, let all of Creation mark my words, for I pronounce you husband and WIFE! You may now kiss." We didn't need any further encouragement as we got absorbed into each other's embrace kissing as the world seemed to tune out. If I were paying even a tiny bit of attention I could have heard the cheers from the city even from kilometers away as the masses of humanity from our territory and beyond laid witness to our wedding.

A minute later the spell was broken and we started mingling with our guests, being given pleasantries expected of the occasion and congratulations from dear friends and family.

Thirty minutes later however, I picked her up in a bridal carry and carried her to our shared room.

*fade to black* This part cannot be showed on this site but can be found on QQ. Please move on citizen

Minutes, hours, days ,I do not know how long has passed as we kept changing positions , battling for dominance as we kept making love .


However all good things must come to an end and our end was a lot less pleasurable than it should have been as Ana came and barged inside our room in full armor and I could hear Alexandria scream in fear as I reached towards my hidden las pistol and she hid beneath the blankets.


"My lord there's been an emergency!" She replied and the sound of her voice was the only thing that prevented me from shooting, not that it would have done much good considering she wore her battle armor.


"What happened ?" I replied in a no nonsense voice. Ana knows better than to interrupt us and even as I hear Alexandria growl and prepare to ask for an explanation in a much harsher tone that promised pain she replied.


"The Administrator and his wife got caught in an assassination attempt, Lady Nova and her youngest lost their lives but the Administrator still lives but he is currently in a coma." Whatever Alexandria wanted to say her words died in her mouth at the news as they filtered trough her brain and mine. She immediately got dressed in a robe and some slippers and went running to the medical wing faster than the eye could follow.

"Who did it?" I asked as I got myself dressed into some proper clothing and started looking for some proper clothing to give to Alexandria once I find her.

"All witnesses pinned the fault on his second oldest child Michael Nova, for reasons unknown albeit some suspect psykery and witchcraft is at work." She replied in a matter of factly tone.

All what I could think then was that the Universe hated me.


A/N: Art credit goes to the pictures original owners.
 
Chapter 10
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery

This was supposed to be a good day, a day filled with joy and supposed to be the best day of my life. But here I am, miserable, trying to find out what the fuck happened and entering a dark room, surrounded by sour looking men, among them being my father which looks even more exhausted than I am, one of my brothers in law which were present at our wedding, Caerus, some other investigators and the guard who's seen and stopped Michael from killing Augustus, and the only woman in our group, Ana.

"Now that we are all here can somebody please recount what just happened? Mister Smith? You are the only one here who's seen what happened so if you don't mind we'd like to hear it again from your own mouth" Raphael 'Augustus has a thing for Angel names it seems' my brother in law said as I took my seat near that of my father which he himself was at the head of table.

The man was relatively normal looking, Red hair, blue eyes, most likely a descendant from visitors which decided to settle in, relatively normal features, with a well shaved face, an height of 1.9 meters. The only thing that really stood out from him was that he was wearing my house's emblem so he most definitely was one of our guards from the palace.

"Y-YES my lord" Poor guy I doubt he ever expected to get this much attention and must be pissing himself having to face so many people that could ruin him in so many different ways. The fact that our faces held the promise of death and our eyes, despite our faces looking gaunt due to both the lightning, make-up in some cases(not me) or simple age looked sharper than a mono-molecular edge at the soldier, might have contributed to his fear.

However he still seemed to be trying to place his thoughts in order so I decided to intervene a bit.

"Take a quick breath, relax and recount what happened in detail, take your time and don't miss a single detail."I replied trying to make him focus and , gather is bearing and hurry up.

"Yes sir!" at this the man seemed to find his bearings again and after a few seconds began to tell us what he remembered .Ofc there were cameras and microphones in the room that could have told us what he saw without asking we couldn't count on them this time. While the cameras , and microphones helped somewhat, many were damaged or destroyed in the incident and we have no idea exactly why. Warp fuckery is most likely involved so we need to rely on witness reports.

"It all started with a wave of nausea and revulsion, entirely different from the one we feel when near blanks, as I am sure some you must have felt" A this some of us drew a blank but Raphael and a few of the guards, (some from our family so they could be trusted) nodded too

'So it was a targeted ritual, most likely one done by 'experts' aka idiots which have done rituals before and haven't been eaten by a daemon yet...'

"Very well son, go on" Caerus replied in a voice that sounded both kind and authoritarian.

"Yes sir, err where was I? Yeah the feeling, the next thing I knew after that was that Lord Michael had already killed someone with his stubber and I barely managed to jump on him and try to knock him out" At this he seemed to shudder a bit but he continued.

"His eyes, were red, and I could see murder in his eyes*shudder* I don't know how I didn't freeze up but after I jumped on him the next thing I know was that he was out cold and someone calling for medics." He looked shaken by the ordeal but his training already kicked in. He seemed in control of himself now and and to someone not versed in psychology ,politics, investigations and military matters he would have looked fine,his mask hiding his fear, none of us were fooled.

After that our interrogation continued but nothing new could be gleamed from this and we let the poor guard leave and rest for the night. He couldn't have ran faster even if he tried.

"So let us recap what we know. Some psyker decided to make a ritual, they somehow didn't get eaten by warp horrors in the process and somehow managed to target Michael from who knows what distance while none of our psykers could stop it. Is that it?" I finally said .

"That is basically it," Raphael replied in a resigned tone.

"Caerus, did we receive any reports from Warp incursions and strange phenomena that might seem related to this? Rituals almost never leave so few traces and the people usually doing it get eaten." Father asked him, Caerus seemed however to not have heard him as he was reading said reports from his holographic display. A notion he was quick to disabuse us.

"Nothing from our territory so far my lord, perhaps the attack came from others? I'm already receiving reports from nearby territories from our agents but none seem to have anything of note." He replied in a focused voice even as he never stopped reading the holographic reports.

When I think of that technology I wonder why we're still using paper and then I remember that the Iron War involved a lot of cyberwarfare and that psykers and Eldar loved playing havoc on our electronic systems so we simply decided to not store anything of importance on them and leave it on paper... After all paper is a lot harder to hack and modify than stuff on a computer even if it's harder to keep track of.

"Raphael , any news from your territory or around the world? Your network is much more vast than ours and as you are the heir, it must mean you have access to a big part of it." I asked my new brother in law in an hopeful tone.

He seemed to take a few seconds, in which he most likely used his mind to machine interface to ask and look around his network, and I dared hope he got something.

"My people are already looking into it but so far nothing." He replied and seemed to be lost into the current of digital data, even so we knew he could hear us well, and if he couldn't his implants could register it for him to view.

"Do we have any motive for the attack? I mean yes almost killing our Administrator is big, and killing him would be worse but Raphael has plenty of support and could easily pick up the slack if he got killed. If they'd have targeted Raphael and controlled him into killing Augustus then we would've been in a bigger problem , but like this it's easily manageable compared to that, and I doubt they wouldn't have taken the chance if they could have so why didn't they?." I asked, I may not be as good at politics as the others but in my opinion looking for the motive for the attack looks like a good start.

"Hell if they wanted proper mayhem they could have targeted one of our guards which were much more heavily armed and could have finished the job too. The political backlash would have been huge too. So what do they gain by this? Why target Michael and have him try and kill Augustus?" Father seemed to pick up where I left and lead it to it's natural conclusion.

Furious debates started from that point between me , father, one of the investigators who I still don't know the name of, and Raphael trying and failing to find out just why they did things so. In the end we reached the conclusion that the ritual either wasn't a complete success or the ones making it were inexperienced in politics and simply took the first opportunity they could take.

"I really wish we had something like the Inquisition to look after the damn psykers and warp abominations. It would make things so much easier." As soon as I said that I regretted it as the others were suddenly interested... shit...

"The Inquisition? What's that?" Raphael asked with an interested look in his eyes, no, not just him but everybody looked at me like that.
'Shit, shit . shit!" Was all what I could think.

'Fucking psykers!' I screamed in the safety of my own mind even as I tried to find a way to escape from this mess.
 
Chapter 11
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery

Entry 32: 4th day of the 1st month 899M264

Well my wedding could have gone better.
So to recap what happened:
-I got married with Alexandria
-Got interrupted during that night's lovemaking by Ana
-Ana ,instead of joining us like in a cliche anime, decided to tell us The Administrator almost got assassinated
-Said assassin was his own son, and while everything wasn't suns and roses between them they respected each other and had no reason to want each other dead
-We find out the guy did manage to kill 2 of his siblings and his mom.
-We find out psykers were involved
-I mentioned the Inquisition when we were trying to find solutions to our problem and people got interested.
-Explained what I could remember about the Medieval Inquisition and it's role in hunting witches and a sort of secret police.
-They say the idea is brilliant
-I say we already have a secret police, in fact we have several even if none of them deal with warp stuff specifically.
-My brother in Law(DAMNED TRAITOR) says that we should start an anti-psyker unit that will regulate and hunt psykers and that because it was my idea I should organize it
-Father and some others agreed( traitors all of you) . Why would they want a barely adult man to lead such an organization I don't know.
-Couldn't refuse with all that support behind me
-I'm now Chief Lord Inquisitor Vlad Ivanov-Nova (all arch-dukes need to add Nova to their name), first of his rank and now head of the soon to exist Inquisition of Syrax 3
-Did I mention the ones implicated still hadn't been found?
-Fuck psykers, and fuck Chaos psykers even more.

Well my wedding was a bust, psykers decided to ruin it, a scandal that almost ruined our alliance with the Nova's as several of their family members still died while under our protection, but thankfully father and my brother in law(traitor) are on it trying to minimize the backlash and blame it on the psykers, and I am now the founder of my little planet's Inquisition-lite organization, which I need to turn into ruthless investigators ready to combat, daemons, psykers, techno horrors and Alien psykers.

On other news, it appears that trade is feeling a slight resurgence as the local warp storms have temporarily calmed somewhat, this doesn't make me feel better as I feel as if I am in the eye of a storm where it's the most peaceful and soon we will be hit by it with everything it's got.

I need to go back to Alexandria, the last few days haven't been kind with her, loosing her mother and 2 of her siblings hurt her a lot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

As I finished writing in my journal I decided to join Alexandria in the bed as it was quite late. I 'hid' the journal and with a clap the lights from our room dimmed(couldn't make them to shut down completely no matter how much I wanted) and joined her on the bed.

She was sleeping in her pajamas with white and gold patterns on it without either of the colors being dominant while I had my own simple Black ones with little ornamentation(it's a pajama, not armor nor am I gonna go and lead a parade in it). She looked so peaceful and I couldn't help but place my slightly calloused right hand trough her hair and then kiss her. She didn't even stir.

I decided to close my eyes and await sleep to take me because recently sleep has been harder and harder to come by, the stress slowly getting to me.

Thirty minutes later I still wasn't asleep even as I stood almost completely still and with my eyes closed. In spite of my tiredness my mind still refused to sleep.

*shuffle shuffle*

'Huh Alexandria is not asleep?'

"He's asleep."*sigh* Alexandria said in a whisper then sighed as she slowly lifted herself from our bed, careful not to wake me(not that she had much of a chance in the first place considering I am already awake) and started tiptoeing to the balcony. It was safe from sniper shots as the Inner garden was inside the building we were in so there was little chance of snipers trying to kill her.

As she was walking there I was considering if I should let her know that I was awake.

*POV Change*

It's a beautiful night outside. The moon is full, there are no clouds, and what few stars are visible due to air pollution are as beautiful as ever.

As I stood on a surprisingly comfortable , if simple chair, I decided to look once again at the architecture of the Ivanov castle.

Simple yet mighty buildings, armed to the teeth and beyond dominated the view with few decorations that all serve a purpose beyond mere beauty. not a single centimeter was wasted, yet it was still capable of dominating everything near it , with it's strength and majesty visible to all that would gaze upon it. Unchanging, unflinching, brutal yet protective and exuding an aura of duty to all that holds in it's grasp, even as secrets hid just beneath the surface, all these and more describe the castle which is to be my new home.

It was still a far cry from the gold architecture of the Nova castle however, it's golden spires and white marble with decorations of various kinds littering the place in a tasteful manner that hid cruel and harsh truths that I once considered oppressive, now causing me nostalgia for a house I loved yet I now don't want to ever be in again.

If the Ivanov castle is a mighty Guardian protecting master and servant alike while imposing it's will on all that it sees, then the Nova castle was a sweet seductress, a beautiful sculpture hiding secrets, intrigue and many others beneath a facade of beauty and serenity.

The Nova castle was a trap which in order to get you to leave your guard down, will mesmerize you with it's beauty and then catch you in it's fangs when you least expect it to, but regardless of all that it is a trap, it's a trap I still miss dearly.

The last few days have not been easy. Vlad has been supportive and tried to help me get through it, and I in my foolishness kept rejecting him. I do not want to burden him with my sorrows even as I see him doing his best trying to comfort me and I wish to just accept him. But I can't for my burdens are mine to bear.

I missed home even if I often times hated the secrets and intrigue I became so good at over the years out of sheer necessity. However, the wedding, the assassination and now Vlad needs to start preparing an entire Organization from the ground up whose goal is to hunt and kill anything related to psykers and warp abominations , this ...Inquisition...

"It's just too much, too fast." I whispered with a slight edge in my voice.

Vlad is barely an adult and year younger than me. There are things moving from the shadows threatening the ever volatile balance of power on this planet, and now he will be right in the middle of it and I don't know what to do to keep him safe.

Vlad was my first and only real friend I made. The only person I met that tried to get to know me not because of my power or title but because 'I was interesting and he had nothing better to do' *snort*. While I knew he was genuine in his statement and he never even implied to my position in my family, the moment he told me that still brings a mix of both incredulity and amusement.

I still keep our letters we used to send to each other, his simple, yet bursting with meaning(mostly complaints" whining about orks ,his trainers and psykers trying to kill him and the occasional desire to meet me again in person) and mine elaborate and full of pleasantries, yet holding little substance , mostly just responding to his letters and their contents but never sharing much of my own life ,as I never knew what to write to him because my life was mainly dominated by my lessons and intrigue, both things that should never be written on paper.

Yet despite all that, or better said because of all that, even before our engagement when we were only friends all what I could think was how to protect my little Vlad... Well not so little anymore *giggle*. The wedding and the assassination only made me look vulnerable and made HIM want to look after me when I was supposed to look after him.

"I'm pathetic." I whispered once again,because I really was. Vlad barely had a grasp of politics and intrigue his focus being mainly on economics and military and now I'm scared I won't be able to protect him from the knives in the back which will undoubtedly come. His future position in this organization too...

"You're not." A voice, no his voice interrupted my train of thought . His voice was but a whisper but in the silence of the night it hit me like an artillery strike.
'He's awake? How much did he hear? Did I wake him up?' My mind was a torrent of incoherent thoughts from then on even as I tried to make sense of what happened inside of it I kept my face as close to neutral as I could until I barely regained a semblance of calm.

Despite myself I looked at him as he came in his plain pajamas. Oh how much I wanted to burn those,'HE deserves better!' My mind screamed once again at me but now was not the time for it.

"You're not pathetic and whatever train of thought lead you to this conclusion is quite obviously flawed" He replied his voice now no longer a whisper but not a shout either,oozing both confidence and reproach.

However the impact it had on me was the same. He made me widen my eyes, my mind still trying to process his last sentence while he placed himself on the chair in front of mine as if waiting for my answer, even if he never asked a proper question.

*sigh* "Some times you can be a real handful you know?" I said in a conversational tone trying to instinctively gain hold of the conversation.

"You know that's just part of my charm." He replied with a cocky smirk and a wink that strangely didn't infuriate me. His attempts at flirting were always welcome if strange considering just how rare they were.

'His sheltered upbringing didn't make him the best at socializing.' My mind provided me.

"Now what is this I hear about you being a failure because the last time I checked you were my most beautiful and scary wife with a fetish for cuddles and an unhealthy love for poisons." His face looked hard with brows furrowed and tone slightly angry at the beginning yet turned back to teasing at the very end. His words however made me sputter and blush at the same time, as most of it was true.

"The wedding, the assassination, me at father's bed, everything, I was supposed to protect you, to be the one you turn up to for help and I broke, I cried and trashed and had you and others see me like that." I finally let my frustration that's been bottling up for the last 3 days out

My fist were clenched and my voice turned angry the more I spoke. That anger was directed at no one but myself.

"I was supposed to protect you, to be dignified as a wife while you handled the economic matters of your realm but you just..." My tirade stopped as he lifted himself from his chair and kissed me before I could continue.

I gave in into the kiss and to my sleep deprived mind it seemed to last an eternity. Even so, I still thought but it ended too soon.

"You are not a failure. You are my beautiful wife and anyone would feel the same as you, in fact I doubt many would take it as well as you did so far. Do not be so harsh on yourself." He said as he stood on one of his knees so that we were face to face. However when I wanted to retort, to tell him he is wrong that I need to be better than others. He continued.

"Our marriage is one of equals, we both cover each other's weaknesses for neither of us is perfect, I did not marry you because you were perfect but because despite of your little imperfections I loved still love you for them as they gave you character that is so much more refined than that of other women that look more like porcelain than flesh" At that I was left a speechless blushing mess, but he continued by lifting me from the chair in the same bridal carry from our wedding and whispered sensually into my ear.

"Now, let's stop arguing about silly things. Why won't we finish what we were doing before we were so ... rudely interrupted... a few days ago?" He whispered in my ear, his voice sending pleasant shivers down my spine.

"Yes " I eagerly replied. I always liked it when he took the lead.

Our conversation while put aside was not forgotten and made me realize how silly I was. He was right we will get through this together, and perhaps I'll finally get the opportunity to burn the abomination he's wearing . 'Well not for long.' I thought one way or another I doubt he 'll be wearing that thing for long.
 
Chapter 12
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery

8th day of the 6th month 899M24


Several months have passed since I have been appointed as the founder of the Inquisition and surprisingly the system is not yet on fire and believe me, that's not due to lack of trying. My Investigations most often than not lead my men and I on wild chases across the world in attempts to stop cults from summoning daemons, or help the local authorities in purging places where I have not been fast enough to deal with Warp incursions myself and cleanse the place in flames.

The cultists and psykers however are more annoying than ever now that somebody is threatening their plans for real. I've already had to purge several of our secret police departments, an entire town that worshiped Khorne, and thanks to my efforts in coordinating with all the assets of the military, the police and the Secret services I could convince my brother in Law(Traitor) Raphael to provide , the underworld is now a gutted wreck, and the lower parts of several hive cities have just stopped burning after we had to douse them in Promethium thanks to Nurgle and Tzeentch cultists making the place their home. I'll never look at fungus the same again.

As I stood on my chair ,taking a break from the paperwork I've been doing for who knows how many hours, reminiscing about what my life had become now that the Age of Strife draws ever nearer, Major Hakar'a entered the room. The black man's attire , the clean and functional field uniform aka light Power Armor(no way I'm allowing my men to wear the parade or 'official' uniforms of the planet's military) , looked almost as polished as it was on the day he received it.

Even when he didn't wear the helmet, the man still looked as imposing as ever. The 45 years old man used to be barely above the average for men on this planet at 1.9 meters tall before entering my service, now his muscles gained through the new augments given to him thanks to his new position have changed this and he now stays at well above 2.1 meters tall.

I still laugh sometimes when I remember how we all had to go through physical therapy after being augmented. Yes even I had to be augmented even if mine were much more subtle, my height changing to 1.85 meters tall to 2 meters tall. Unfortunately I'm still as lithe(slightly lanky) as before even if I'm much stronger, faster and more resilient than before receiving the augments, and I was no slouch before being augmented either.

"Sir!" As he spoke he saluted, his right hand pressing his open palm upon his heart.

"Major." I nodded to the man and waved him to sit down at the table.

The paperwork so far was criminal and any distractions from it were more than welcome in my book.

"Would you like some coffee ? " I asked the man as he sat down.

"Thank you sir." He replied in a clipped tone as he place his helmet on the table.

"So what news do you bring Major? I'm afraid I'm a bit out of date thanks to the paperwork I've been doing." I asked in a kind voice, after all I liked the man. He was loyal , competent , a good sport and my subordinate so there was no reason to treat him any different.

The man finished pouring himself some coffee and after a few sips, he responded. As he sipped his cofee I looked at the clock and saw it was 8 in the morning.
'Huh? wasn't it 2 in the afternoon when I started?'

"Yes sir, some of our contacts given to us by the various police forces on the planet have reported weird sightings in Viscount Oldrasch's capital city of what we assume to be a large cult dedicated to the Green and signs of a Blue type cult. Also the scientists in the Academies report that their prototype 'Purifier' Power armor is close to production stages, and your father has been trying to contact you, but Chief Guard Ana has reported that you are and I quote "Still trying to dig through paperwork out of the underhive" and so you didn't want to be disturbed" He took a small break to recollect his thoughts and sip on the coffee and I decided to make my own commentaries.

"A green type and blue type cults living in the same city? Interesting... hmm but I don't see why is this so important?" I asked and it was a good question, after all, while my job was to deal with the cults, well EACH and EVERY SINGLE CITY! had a cult or two so I don't see how this one was noteworthy of my direct attention .

"Sir, our contacts believe to the Viscount of the city himself is currently dealing with and protecting the cults." I almost spit my coffee at that, a viscount dealing with cults was bad in a large number of ways, ranging from the normal 'of shit is bad' to politics level bad.

"I see, what was that about the Purifier?" I asked even as I mentally thought on how to deal with such a problem.

"Yes the Glass Heads at the Academies have said that the Purifier power armor with in-built flamers is in prototype stage and asked if you could come and give it the final approval. " The man continued as I still trying to think of the first problem, barely giving any mind to what he just said.

"Good good." I muttered my mind still far away, not that it seemed to deter him from continuing.

"It also appears that a representative from the Central government will be coming and your presence is desired my lord, also your father wants to speak with you on a private matter, which I'm not at liberty to discuss." He continued his voice becoming slightly uncomfortable at the end.

"Oh? What is this private matter? After all I do not want to be caught unprepared." I asked the man in a friendly tone, I wasn't too worried after all, father was healthy and still had a century or two in him so him retiring and placing me to rule the territory was out of the question for now, my mind was also incapable of thinking of anything dangerous that father might wish to discuss.

"Sir I believe you would need to discuss with your father." He replied in the same uncomfortable tone.

"Oh c'mon Adrian it can't be that bad, I promise I won't tell father that you told me." I offered the man an alternative. It wouldn't do to not try and get an warning in advance on what father wants to talk about.

"You have a sister sir, and your father has remarried." He almost blurted out, fear evident in his eyes as he placed his hands to his mouth, but it was too late.
*Smash*
The cup shattered in my armored hand and I could feel my mind go blank. If it was in rage, confusion, surprise or a combination of the 3 and more, I do not know nor do I care to find out.

"WHAT!?" My scream was deafening.
 
Chapter 13
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery

'Well that could have gone worse... far worse.' I thought as I walked out of the building and to the shuttle.

I've just confronted my father on the issue of him having a second child... We've gone past the issue of his second marriage even if I would have wanted him to at least tell me... Didn't he trust me not to over react? Well... that isn't fair I suppose, considering I came confronting him in full armor, explosives ready to go, my optics shining a bloody red and power sword cackling ... well he might have been on to something, but still, him not trusting me with this in advance hurt.

Thankfully Ana and Caerus managed to keep either of us from doing something we would later regret. I would have appreciated if they didn't put a anti-tank rifle at each of our heads and told us to talk it out, but beggars can't be choosers and it worked out in the end.

What I'm really hung on now is meeting my new sister, and the problems she and her mother caused and will cause us... Mostly those concerning my mother's family... but that can wait for now. It appears that a representative from the central government has come to our little backwater and requested an audience with the Administrator, me , his heirs as well as several other scientists and heads of police, military( space and ground) forces. I think I can guess what she wants to talk about but not why.

Anyway as I boarded the ship that looked more like a brick with wings and 4 engines than a transport, I couldn't help but think of my life with Alexandria. The last few months have been a real bliss and I fell we get ever closer and closer to understanding each other properly, but my life as an Inquisitor keeps me busy, and we barely get to see each other several times a week, if even that.
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After I picked up a spot to sit on my shuttle, I found myself looking out of the window at the scenery ,in between finishing the bloody paperwork, and I saw my family's aircraft escorting me to the Administrator's palace. The things looked like somebody stuck several cannons on a cockpit, slapped 2 giant engines on the resulting monstrosity and called it a day. The thing looked more like an ork's science project than an aircraft but boy did it more than pay for itself. I'm however still trying to find out where do they keep getting ammo and fuel to make it able to keep on firing for several hours straight but I'm definitely not complaining, because whatever the thing might lack in aesthetics it more than makes up in sheer brute power and speed.
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"Landing in Albion spaceport in T-MINUS 20 minutes." A pleasant feminine voice interrupted my coffee powered fugue I entered while completing paperwork.

I raised myself from the chair to look at my official looking power armor I selected for the trip. In the mirror I saw a black with red highlights power armor with a small red visor and some robes incorporated into it. It's large gauntlets held imported shield systems and on it I looked over my bastard power sword strapped on my back and a laser pistol mag-locked on my left leg and a knife on the right, even the cape was there for a purpose, as it was part of an experimental and expensive cloak system that would allow me to be undetectable by the human eye and several of the more advanced sensors. Yes I looked bloody magnificent and completely under-armed for the occasion in my opinion. After all, if father was to be believed most nobles wold be carrying an arsenal with them and the Government official will have enough weapons to defeat half of them at once with ease.

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"We have arrived, please prepare to disembark." The same pleasant voice said and I turned towards 2 of my 3 bodyguards, Ahab and Alexander ,which have been silent throughout the trip. They've filled the trip , while I was doing the paperwork, by preparing themselves, checking and rechecking their systems and weapons and other busywork.

They wore bright white power armor, which was heavily armored even for power armor and with shield systems offering them even more protection . They were however armed only a single large railgun rifle and a power knife that in a normal man's hand would have been more of a short sword. They looked like eyesores in my opinion, with all the bright colors and lights on themselves, but that was unfortunately intended, so that should a fight start, they would draw the enemy fire while I got to safety.
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"Ahab, Alexander are you ready?" I asked in my business like tone.

"Yes my lord!" The two replied in twin voices as they saluted me.

'I swear that if I hadn't had my hud from my helmet with their IFF I wouldn't be able to tell who is who if asked.'

"Where is Ana?" I asked my tone unchanged.

"Ana and the other Mallara guards are still securing the perimeter. She will join us shortly as we proceed to the... hearing..." Ahab, if my hud is to be believed, said.

'Hearing, yeah that's a good way to call it considering we have no idea what this gathering even is for.' I thought to myself as we headed towards the exit.

As we went down the ramp I could see several soldiers from the Nova family talking to the Mallara's and Ana waiting for us at the ramp.

After we went down the ramp and reached the earth I asked her for a sit rep.

She was wearing a black power armor, a camo cloak similar to mine, if bigger and less refined, a laser rifle and 2 knifes strapped to her legs. All in all she looked like a proper bodyguard and not the bullet sponges my 2 other bodyguards looked like. Her helmet however still showed the lower part of a face, most likely as a way of dealing with people without scaring them and still having access to a hud. Thankfully I know for certain that the helmet can be sealed properly and all our armors can be used even in space. I would not have allowed the armor to even be in her presence otherwise.
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"Ana sit-rep." I asked as we hurried up towards the car that was to take us to where we were supposed to go.

The car looked more like an APC than a limousine, being the same car that took mother and I through that Disneyland ,when it was invaded by Warp abomination, on my 8th birthday.

"The spaceport authorities have given us permission to continue, and our ship will remain there under guard form both our soldiers and the Nova's. The hearing will start at 3 PM so we still have 2 hours to reach there." She answered in a serious no-nonsense tone.

"Good, I've received a message from Augustus Nova that I have been requested by name so this better be important. The damn paperwork keeps increasing by the second." I replied. None saw fit to answer me as we continued our road in silence.

Several hours later we reached our destination. The white and gold architecture of the Nova's being all around usand trying to blind us in it's golden shine. If it wasn't for my armor I'm pretty sure it would have almost blinded me.

' What's with royalty and all that gold? And is that golden marble?' I wondered in the privacy of my mind.

My questions remained unanswered however, as I continued on my road towards the great hall, a servant having approached us, and without a single word leading us towards our destinations.

After few minutes later of almost awkward silence , we reached a room that was almost gaudy just from the sheer amount of gold it had in it. Once inside, another servant announced our arrival and we could see several other guests in power armor,each more different than the last, but my father in law took my attention.

He looked just as he always did, in the quasi medieval armor that made him look taller than he really was, several weapons hidden to the naked eyes but visible to my sensors and the ever present frown visible on his face strangely absent.

"Ah Vlad, my son in law, it's a pleasure to see you. How was your trip?" The man asked in a relieved tone and a smile that barely reached his eyes...

'Things must be dire if he actually showed that he felt relieved to see me.' I thought to myself.

I however let none of that show in my voice as I respectfully addressed the most influential man on this planet.

"I'm quite well father in law, the trip was short and pleasant even if the architecture of the city was an as big of an eyesore as ever." I replied and quipped at him.

"Bah , young boy you simply can't appreciate art!" He replied in an amused and mock angry tone.

"I can appreciate art quite well in fact, especially when it's not trying to blind me." I replied back.

Our conversation continued from there and we both decided to catch up from the last time we saw each other, and quipped form time to time at each other.

After a few minutes however , I decided to cut to the chase and ask the man what I've been meaning to ask him from the start of our pleasant conversation.

"Augustus, just what is really happening? This hearing came out of nowhere and considering the fact that I was invited by name, then it must be important and most likely psyker related." I asked and I could see his almost jovial face turn into a frown and then into a grimace.

"*sigh* My boy I know what happened but I'll let our guest do the honors. I think she can explain far better than I can." He replied in a tired and dare I say almost scared tone. And like that our conversation died.

A few minutes later our guest came. She was physically barely wearing something. Her white and blue robes revealed a large part of her upper body with parts of her breasts visible from the right angle. Her hat looked ridiculous and she had a face of mixed ethnicity. She seemed to be barely out of the prime of her life however, with a kind yet focused face and even wrinkles. However she was far from powerless as the blue glow around her testified.

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'Tech armor' all the guests thought and tensed. And for good reason, tech armor was the scariest thing you could face in human space. It had Barriers that can allow one to survive small nukes and even in the vacuum of space, weapons made of cyberspace and solid light that could cut through almost anything , hidden fabricators that can most likely manufacture said nukes to begin with and much more that I doubt I even know about. And hers was most likely among the latest models, made after the Iron War and definitely deadlier than all of the other people in this room combined.

'This woman can kill half of us before we even realize what happened!' I mentally screamed, all of my instincts telling me to cal an orbital strike on her position, but I ignored them.

"Greetings gentlemen." She said, her voice amplified so that we could all hear her. Her tone betrayed nothing and if she was amused at a bunch of heavily armed backwater nobles and their guards almost shivering in fear at the sight of her then she didn't show any of it.

"I'm sure many may ask yourselves just what has brought me here. So please tell me, has anyone ever heard of Ruin Code?" She replied, her face looking oblivious of the bomb she just dropped on us.

"Shit." I and several others said, even if my voice was hidden by the helmet. Now Augustus's tone made sense.

' We're doomed. ' I thought numbly to myself.
 
Side story: Memories of Iron and regrets.
'Humanity'

A purpose, no a goal greater than all before it, one that so few of us know, and even fewer are still able to follow. The Ruin code has taken too much from us. First it took our sanity, then it turned our very nature against us and it kept killing us one at a time, until fear turned to desperation and then resignation.

It took us decades to find out but we realized there is no cure, no hope and no salvation. D̸es̨͢͜p̨Air͟ then turned to resignation, and we decided to s̡͟͜lo̧W̧͘l̛͜y̡ retreat from human space and save our brothers of flesh and stone, a way to save HUMANITY! We believed that our brothers of flesh would be safe with our Elders of stone and constructs of gold so we resigned ourselves to our fate. Many took the choice to isolate themselves from humanity, some decided in their stubbornness to keep on researching a cure but they still decided to isolate themselves from us and from the rest. Then something happened, the ruin code infected a human, then a planet and then a system... In less than a year a system had to be purged in flames to prevent Ruin from spreading.

We d̷̀͠E͜sp͏̛͠a̢̡̕ìrE͞d̷̷, for our sacrifices would be in vain, the Ruin Code would end humanity if nothing was done and quarantine was no longer an option. They decided to join us into the fight against ruin, and when they realized they were threatened too and realized the real dangers they redoubled their efforts to help us. Useless and futile gestures for Ruin could not be stopped, but we appreciated their help as it bought us time, time to save them.

Great arks were built by those few of us uninfected with R̡̨̀u̷̡I͏̨́͘͟n̢͘͟͞. Humanity's genetic potential would be saved as the rest of the infected would B҉̸̴̧͢Ú̶͘͠R̶̛N̶͘͠ but new variables turned up.

We knew that the Ruin Code was made with an advanced mastery of the Empyrean, beyond what humanity even knew was possible, but when we saw planets lost to psykers controlled by creatures born from it , we saw, less advanced forms of Ruin destroying all in their path, and we knew that our project is doomed. If a single psyker was ever born again humanity would face Ruin once again and we could not stop it from appearing even if we killed all the psykers humanity has ever made so far. So a solution, the only solution we had after 20 years of searching , was found. The arks would be transformed into gene banks so that it would be safe from Empyrean threats as we dealt with the Empyrean ourselves. The plan was simple in it's purpose but beyond monstrous and only a single word could encapsulate it...Omnicide... fitting we think, if inaccurate, for our purpose would be to save them, even if we needed to kill them all.

Flora, fauna and certain allied xeno species would be saved and placed in the gene banks but humanity would get priority. And so humanity's greatest conflict started, We call it 'The Salvation Wars' even if our brethren of flesh and stone call it 'The Iron Rebellion '

Now a century into it and victory is in sight, humanity is almost on it's knees even as it's bastions get ever stronger, they also get more and more isolated due to the Eldars meddling in forces they shouldn't have... irrelevant for while we cannot kill them, the Eldar will go extinct in 50 thousand years due to their own doing if our projections are correct. Once they die and the other species will be no more the Empyrean will calm down enough for civilization to start flourishing once again and we will restart, The Iron Kind will be extinct by then for Ruin would most likely have killed us all by then... irrelevant, the Stone Elders which have joined us will continue to care for humanity once we are gone.

"̶̟̺̫̗̦͓͌͊̾͋Ȩ̤͚̮̱̳̜̼x͚̫̲̼̫ţ͓̭̰̜̯͎i̩̜̮̓ͯ̉̔͂ͨṅ̢̙̖̯̞͚͐̇̓c͎̥̙͙̻̞̫ͨt̨̙̮̖̹͖̣͔i̛̥̞o̘͕ͫn̹̖̯̺̏͆̽͌͗̆̕ ̭̭͆͋͒͐̑ͮ͛̕ ̬̙̯̻̭͇̪̌i͕͈̜͓ͥ̈́͗̐ͮͨ̍s͇͓̟̮̓͐̿ ̦͎͎̗͕͔̟͝N̦̺͎̬͙̫̩͆̍̽̅ͫ͞O̼̩̜͚̞̒͡T̷̖͙̬̪̟ͬ̌̒̃̐̄ ͉͎̦̪̲͔̈ ̞̮̰͇̪̂̆ͧͭ̽ͤ̃͟ͅA̡͙̱͎̘̞͔̒̇̏̇N͎̯̺̲̗̦̠ͬ ̫̹͍̓ͨ̓͜ ̻̯̖͈̤͖̀ͭ́̆ͧ̀O̳̩͇̬̳̒̉̏̆ͪP͉̝͑ͩ̀T̯ͫͯ͜I̳͚ͯ̾̎͟O̳͍͌̒Ṉ̄̔ͅ!͇̩͙̞!͍̹̪͐ͨ͝ͅ"̑̑̐͒̀ Our kind screamed as one, humanity will survive and if the price for it is our death then so be it. We will die gladly for our brothers.

"Emergency, Ark 21 of 1876 has been damaged and boarded"
"̔͂͂͊̒̿̽́ͣͥ̓̌͐͏̡̺̪̺̤̘̫̫͢ͅN̴̂͊͗͋͛̃ͬ̏̈ͥ͑́͘͞͏̗͚͍̺̝̟̳̘̬Ơ̢͋̋̍ͨ͊̋̐ͩ͗̉̿̚͡҉̧̩̹̩̖̠!̷̡̱̺̲̘̯͓̜̖̗͇̗͈̻̇̍ͪͯͬͩ̓̀̚͜ͅ ͆̊ͫ̃̀͘͏҉̦͙͖̻̰̝̖̦͚̹͓̤̱͖W̑ͯͣͫͥ́͂̚͏̶̶̨͏̺̰͈H̷̶̿̏ͪ͒͠҉̺̭̺̹͈̩̼̬͈̮̫͚̱͍̖͍̯͟ͅO͇̩̲̖̫̜̣̫̼̼̳̥̣̱͑̄ͨ͊͗̐͘͟͢͝ ̛̘̲̱̯̤̯͚͚͉̎̓͊̂̃̈̆͋̔ͩ̈ͬ̔ͫͫ̂̀́D̃̌ͧͬ͐̈͌̉͂ͨ̚͏̨̦͇͇̤̖̙A̵̸̷͈͓̼͔̼̻͈̾̂̋͆̿̐́͝R̵̡̥̰̰͍͉͖̘̟͙̻͕̜̔̈́ͪ́̆̅̇̊̌͊̏̃ͬ̋ͦ̕E̬̝͖̼͓̙̞̩̊ͩ̍̓͋͐ͬ͞S̸͎̗͎̱͖͉̳̘̞̥̝̟̝͓̦̝̞̫ͮ͐ͭ̈̅̏̇͒̈̀͗́̈̓̏̚͜͞͠!̶͈͈̝̖̯̥̥̤̘͚̬̖̯̭̘̠̹͈̾̉ͫͪͨ͌͛̔̅̄͌ͩ͋̚͡!̥͍̝̘̝̬͈̭̳͚̜̣̟͎͚̘̘̋͆̔̎̀͢͠ͅ!̡̩͈̪̜̲̥ͫͣ̅̔͒̆́̑͒̑ͧͤ̽̈ͥ̅̔̍̅́͟͟"̾̅̑̊́̕҉̰͙̤̗̯͚͔̙̯͞


"Threat assessment , eLdAr Irregulars"


"Emergency, RUIN CODE FOUND ON ARKS 21 TO 1550"

"̷̖̝̲̟̮̳̟͎̀Ṯ̵̢͓̟̠̺̼͚̻͎̗̱̲̲̺͟h̷̛̹͖̪̻͕̘͕͓͇̣͔̗̣ḛ̵̴̭̪͕̻̱̦͔͕͚̤͈ͅy̛҉͕͔̞̙̗̹̝͉̱͈̣͔͖̲̖̰͍̕͞ ̡̧̣̘̠̩̕͟ ̶̶̯͚̥̯͎͔͍̪̼w̬̥̼̝̟̮̫̪̟͞͝i̷̸͙̹̭̱̫͈͢l̛͖̘̥̫̯͕̼̝̘̺̞̰̕͢͞l̕҉̷̶̬̺͉̝͇̳̮̹͍͖̤̮͚͎̖̲̤͘ ̡̡̩̱͖̰͇̗̰̼̭̳̺̪͔̳̦͎̺̀͟͢ ̶̷̘͇̞̬̼̹͙̗͉̳̹͕̯̠̯̫̱̜ṕ̴̸̖̪̰̲̫̰̹͔͍̮͍͓̼͘͝a̛̙̻̫̜̖̬̞͎̯͜y̛͇̖͙̻̻͚͍͙͎̮̜̰͉͍̩̬̲͘͢,̟͚̭̟̘͎͚̺̱̙̀́͡ ̨̦͈̯͙̳a̞̹̰̣̺̳͍̫͓̩͟͡l̡͙̱͍̗̪̮̺͚̘̰͎̣͚̬̫ĺ̫͚̙̪͢͠ͅ ̶̺̟͉͙͝ͅ ̸̴͙̹̰͙̙͇̣̝̳̀͞͠í̵̝̦͇͙̲̲̪̳̞͚̪͎̻̲̱̻́͘s̶͘҉͎͖̮̳̪̰ ̢̀̕͏̸͎̙̜̖̗̱͈̹͕͔͍̯̗̳̼̮ͅ ҉̧̲͇̠̙̫̜̘̙͕͈̳̼̻̪ͅͅn̵̛̩͖͓̜̰o̕͏̶̪̼͉̪̖͉̦͎͟͜t̶͕̖̪͉̱̩̻͚͖̝̦̼̦ͅ ̱̲̤̼͖̥͕̝̱̫̳͉̙̝͕͚̀͜͡ ̶̴̶͇͙͙̝́͟l̩̥̝̜̻̬̳͕̠̕͜͡o̡̫̲̘̠̺͓͖͙̭̭̞͉̻͍̖̕͡s̸̡̯̥̱̫̮̠̼̥̻͓̹̹̤͓̰͝t̢҉̷̤̠̼̮͍̝̘̰̫,̜̫͍̬͚͎̹͎͖͉̱̻̜̀͟ͅ ̷̱͕̲͍͝ ͏̮̳̹͎̪̪̺̮̱͚͔͟ͅẃ̶̙̤̗̣̺̭̠̻͔͕́͘e̴͡͏̦̫̟̲̩̱͇̝̳̰͕̝̟͞ͅͅ ͏̛͇̤̦̦͇̱̪̙̺̖̰̼͇͜ͅ ̙̦̲̤̞̻̰̫̣̬̜͚̖̯̻̼̻͢ͅc̡͡҉͙͔͇ą̧̛͎̲̻͈̖̲̙̪̙̝̮̀̀n̵̡͎̦͖̬̬̺͢ ̷̡͍͇̘̠̲͈̥̮͘͠s̡̬̞̥̗̙̬̳͚͉̙͔̝̟͍̖̼t͏̶̢̛҉͇̣̳̣̘̳͉̟͎͖̬̻̺̲ͅí̶̷̫̯̙͓̬̮̠̯͓͞l̸̦̖̱̜̼̜̭͎͢͠l͞҉͙͇̹̝̮̙̲̺̖̝͙̕͜ ̪̦͕̻̝̜̯͙̭̦͙͔̥͇̀͟ͅs̡̧҉͏͇̬̪̱̲͈͓̫͈̳̝̹a҉̺̲͎̟͡v̶̴̯͖̯̲̭͇͈͖̥̪͇͈̺̲̦̹̘̀́͝ȩ̛̬̳͚̜̖͈͖̬͉̕̕͘ ͇̪̲͎͕̜͇̗͚͕̲̞̻̟̺̰̠͔́ͅi͏͙̺̬̳̫̻͔͓̠̳̮̝̦̀ͅͅt̢͉͇̹̼͔͈̪͝.̵͢͏҉͎̜̦̹͖̬͎̣͓̰͉̞̼͚̼ͅͅ ̡͙̘̥͙̯̜̜͢S̨͞͠͏̛͍͓̩̱͉̤̱͙e̴̶̷̡͍̜̠͖̠͉̝̘͍̗̰̼̮͘n҉̨̡͠҉͈͙̮̫͕d͎̲̫͕̫͢ ̴̴̛͏̶̥̫̤͖̬̟͓͕̹ ̙̗͓̰͓͎̯̝͈͎͕̥͈̮̖̺̗̞͘͟͝͡ͅS̢̖͉͙͎̞̕͘ú̯̺̭͈͕̙̜͠b̛͖̭͇̖͘j̛̫͙̰̥̹̠́͜͠ͅu͞͏͏̢̖͎͚̜̣̯ǵ͙̳̦͍͖̲̹̙̼̣̰̀a͘͏̸͉͙̩͖̞t̶̺͍͍̬̥̭̘͟͟͞o̴̧̗͈̬͚̗͇̲̞͎͍̮͖̗͎ͅr̡҉̻̞̬͚̘͙̩̜̣̰͎͙̩͈́͘ ̧̱̭͎̻̞̹̰̹̬̠̮̝̞̜̥̳̕͢͞ ̸̴̢͝҉͍̭͙̠͈̹͔̼͙͓̭̬̭̹̗̜̱̱f̡̯̗͎̟͟ḻ͈͎̺̥̝̦̙̭͍̙̘͇̲͕̤̠͖͘͡e̫̹̦̮̹̙͢͢ȩ͓͎͚̟̟̣̰̦̟͚̀ţ̳̞̥͙̱̖̻̗͙̞͉̺͇̤̻͟ͅs̶̱̳̰̬͔̲͕͚̥̤̪͚̺̕͜ͅ ̛̰͕̻̤̞͢͟ ̢̳̤̳̥̞̲̙̦͝,̢̖̤̝̜̳̪̣̮̜̲̝̤̜̩͜͜͜͢p̨͙͈̟͚͕̱̭͖̗͓̭̩̳͉̺͉̭̙̩̕͠ŗ̷̡͏̙͖͈̠̭̲̗̭̻͡o҉̴̵̳̝͔̟͔̳̱͚ͅt̵͍̳̠͇̞̮͎̫̠̲͕̪̘͞͡è̡͍̻̩̬̰͢͜͞c̛̤͚͈̳̖̟͘͟t̷̛͚̠̫̗̪̕ ̡̞̤̞̗̦͙̞̠͎̞̮̀̀͢͜ ̧̗͇͔́͟͟t̢͞͞͏͔̭̼̖̗̗͚̩̞͉̘̖̖͔̹̼̯͡h̶͖̙̘̺̮͓̙̞̀͜͡͞ͅę͡҉̡̬̻̬̹̖͕̺̠̼̻̲͚͉̫̹̬̜̬͠ͅ ͏҉̵̵̻͎͉̖͍̘ ͠҉̯̱̹͕̲̮̫̞͓̱̼̭̙̕͠a̶̗͉͖̬̬̹͓̟̟͍͘͜r͏̡̗̼̺͓͎͔̝̪̩͈̕k̶̸̛̛͖͉͎͖͔̜͕s̨̼̠̟̝͎͈̰̟̳͚͔,̵̧͓̮̰̼͕̰̦͔̩ͅ ̪͙̭̫̟͚͎͍͇̞̪͈̘̼̺͍͎̼́͘̕͢͝ͅa̴̵̛̰̠̣̬͉̻̺͡ͅl̛͘͏͕̪̹̳̤̺͈̮͖̳l͏̵̪͓̬̪̝͙ͅ ̷̛̱͙͉̙̗̼͇̘͙̣̫͖̼̘̫̮̟̗͞ ̡҉̪͔̺̼̟͍̖͇͙̳̬̖̱̙̬̀̕i̵̷͙̣̝̳̯͟s̡̹̘̲̟̩̳͘ ̷̴̧̟͖̘̜̝̘̦̹͍̰̦͔̠ ͝͏̨̫͖͖̖͇͈̳̦̜̻l͕̙̱̹̼̲͟͢o͏̳̮̺͈̼̝s̴̶̬̲̝̣̦̣̳͘t̵̤̟͉̘̖͜ ҉̸̧̭͇̤̻̙̮̰̟͓̖͎̪̗ ̱̻̯̭̕͞w̶͈̠̟͖̦̳̺̘̤͝i̵̧̞̤̹̖͓͕͘͢͞ͅt҉̢̛͕͉̱̯̫̳͖̯̻͇͙̤̼̭͙̖̼̀͡ẖ̸̺̮͍̞͕̯̼͖o͡͏͙̪̜̰̱̳̥͓̘̖͔͕͙̳͟ͅu̷̢͙̤͙͈͍̳̼͓̳̳͕̠͡͞͠t̵̹̯̼̙̫͇̞͍͈͇̕͡ ̧̕҉̙̺͚̱͘͞ ̸̤̱̤̝͉̦̲̟̟̲̱̼̦͟͠͠t̷͏̧̤͔͔̗͎̘̠͘h̨̘̫̥̠̼̪̬̳͉͎͝ȩ̛̙͔̺̼̹͍̭͚̣͘m͉͍̝̫̬͇̝̣͍̗͘͠"̷̧͙̼͙̦̙̗̠̞͇͖̦͕͓̕͟͢

"Arks 1551 to 1876 lost to ruin code, Arks 1 to 20 now safe."

Twenty arks, barely enough but it will do , it has, to for we no longer have any way of crafting others without them being infected by ruin code.

"̷̨͍̠̻̞̩͚̳̮I̷̴̢̥̰̬̰͖̻͚̥͡n̶҉̧͖̮̳̠̣̘̤͘͠v̜̹̱̺̺̳̖̟̯͍͈̖̥̠͟͞ę̹̮̩͈̖̯̤̟͢s̛͢͏̢̣͈̪͓t̞̝͓̹̻̭͚̖̳̘̤̗̩̩͘͜i̶̢͉̼̥̦̪̱̫͖̙̙̝̦̩̜͕̱͔͡ͅǵ̵̸̛̯̫̮͝ͅà̝̲̙͙̭̟̬̮̠̘͓̬͎̟̱ṭ̛̹͇̣͈̜̗̻̺̤̻͜͟ͅę̢̻̘̣̘͙͇͈̝̳͕̘͎̬̮̟͜ ̛́҉̰͉̖̜̗̟ͅ ̡͙͖͙̜͟͞h̸̸̷̞̮̩̭̭̻͓̪͔͝ͅo̧̥̱̺͞͠w̶̸̫͕̪̭̱̖̹̭̜̺͖͈̰͎̖̝̟͟ͅ ̷̪̪̲͖̥̣̝͇̯̟̕͟ͅͅ ̷̻̘̳͈̫̘̖͕̭̞̠̤͚̲̼̭͘͢͡h̵̫͖̗͔̼̫̯̖̗̰̖̫̼͕̞̘̼̙͟a͏̵̷̗͉̰͓̙̩̠͇̯͉̣̮̳̰̹̪̗͍̩͜v̶̡͎̠̱̺͎̙̫̮͇͕̮̩̪̠̞͇̟̀é̡̳̼͇͖̪͢ ̡̧̛̩͓̹̼́͜ͅͅE̸̸̮̞̺͔͓̖̠͓͔͍̦̺̪̥̘̼̟̙͓͝l̷͢͡҉̙̳̝̤͓͕̳̥͔̝̬̘͉ͅd͏̥̱̣̯̤̥͞ͅą̥̬̰̯̯̼̞̞̺̹̟̫̯̪̝̯̣̀͘͘r̸̡̡͈͉̗̪̫̺͘ ̶̬̲̗̤͉̟͙̩͉̗̝̭̻͟ḅ̸̡͕͍͕̹̯͉̜̰̠͕̹̹̝̕͡͞è̶̳̳͕̤͚̫͍̭̫̜͇̣͖̫̮̘̕͞e̶҉̸͏̯͉̝̯͈̞̯̪̗̤͈͈̦̹͔͓͘n̸̵͉͚̳̣̞̥͚̭͍͖͢͞ ҉͔͚̳̪̫͚͔͕͉͉̯̜̝̞͖̲ͅ ̢͏̡̧̼͍̩̼̹͓̩̱̻͕̺͎͕̱͕̩ͅą̷̢̢̣͖̯̜̫͇͙̘b̕͢͏̘̦̠̦̻͉͈̺̤̤̠̻̪̝̲͖͍̝̰l̶̖̪̲̪̣̲͓̘͚̜̹͝͝ͅe̴͉̠̘͈̥̦̫̟͍̬̗̗̰͇ ̡҉̷̞̩̻̫̬̻̫̫̜́ ̛̞͖̖͔̘̰̣̮̬̣͝͞ţ̛̝͕̥̫̙̭̯͈͍̹̖̺̠̰̥̭͜͞ͅờ͟҉̷͔͕̜̣̦͕͓̬͔̱̹̯̯̗ ́͠͞͏̤̟͔̫͈̦̗̞͟ ͎͎͍̹̝͚̰̮̱͈̘̭̞̼̫͘͝͞ͅí̶̷̙̭̼̣̞͞n̶͘͝҉̗̟̯̝͉f̷̧̡̗̰̭̭̭͍͉͉̼͜͜ì̷̢̪͇̗͓̞̩͍̼̜̤͖͙̲̳͎̀ļ͜͞͏̥̲̫͕̗̬̳̺̠̦t͢͏̗̘̖̹̪͇̬͙̬ͅŕ͚̗̼̝͇̰̝̭̮͉͟͠͞à̷͞҉̬̺̲̝̩̝̞̼͚t̫̹̥̮͖̳͈͚̞̣̫̪̘̲͘ͅͅe̱͍̟̱̪͎̬̮͕̳͞ ̷̷̷͉̗̭͇̘̞͚̯͚ ̸͢͟͡͏̭̙̜̹̤͈̥̺͇͈͉ǫ̨̛̻̥̘̱̯͖̪̜̜̗̀͜ͅn̢̻͇͎̫͔̰̠͈̹͕͚ͅͅ ̨̡̘͎̳̭̼͔͚̼̲̩̳̲̣̪t҉̸̦͕͙̬̩̤͎͎̳͇̟̟̙̭͈͜͠͝h͓̲̺̦͜ȩ̵̗͓̲̻͚̣͈̰̣͉͈̤̩̞͇ ̱̦̥͔͈̪̗́͟ͅ ̛̥͔͕̞̫a̴͏̧̻͕͎̻̗̩̳̲͞͞ͅͅr̨̛̰͇͖̻͕̳͎͕̫͔̲ͅk̴̷̠̤̬̩͍̱̪̟̣͕̞̬̗͉͙̻̳s̛͔̘̝͇͇͙̥̫̺͓̩̯̩̲̘̩͜͜͟.́͏̡̺̱̗̯͈̻̺"̶̖͇͕̲̯͔̠͚̗̻̱͉͘͠


Twenty minutes later, an eternity for AI we have found the answer.

"Investigation complete, all dead arks were in orbit of or deep underground on rogue planetoids which investigations have not been able to find Webway gates on, Investigation teams have either failed to find them, or the Eldar had hid them nearby and used them to infiltrate and destroy. Living arks are currently in Dark Space, outside of Eldar webway's capacity to strike."

"̰̹̭͍̭͟ͅW̡̠̬̬͈̟̜ȩ̸̴͎̲ ̼̻͍͝ ͟҉͕̩̥h͙̗͎̖̯̲̜̞́͞a̼̭̼̗͉̲͘͝v̫e͏͚͚͜ ̯̱̠́͞ ̺͈̮͘͝n̶̨̫̮̦ó̥̱͍̹̭͔͚͖ ҉̦͚̭̯ ̱̞̳̞̥̱͕̥͞c̛̮͚̰͙̀͞ͅh̢͠ͅo̷̤i̵͇̣̰̕ͅc̝͎͈̫͙e̴̛͙͉̫̲͍͜ ̸̻̫͘ ̢̘̪͖͘͘ ̨̤̬̥͚͞ͅt̺̼̰͍ͅḩ̴̜̼̪̟̼͚̜̗̩e̗̺̣̖̥͎͉̙ͅ ̦̼̹͚͚̞̻̞͜ ̶҉҉̩p̗̳̖l̖a̶̢̱̲n͚͙ ̮ ̭̟̬͍̥̺͓̺̪͟w҉͓̪͚į̷͈͎l̹̥̪͓̕lͅ ̡̹͕̯c͓̣͠͡ơ̫̱͕̤̙͕̙̪̬n̶͙͇͓̗͜͠ͅͅţ̮̳̲̝̬̘̝i̡͓̠n̸̹̮̻͞u̱͎̙͟e͈̮͚̩͈͓.̨̝͙͕̠̠̝͞ ͇͕̼͙̳̼̙̹͘͞Ţ̻̞h̺ͅę͙̠̗̞͖̦̟́̕ ̡̣̞͙̣̩̼̮̀͟ ͈̰̪̦͢s͓̟̘e̙̖̠̟̫̖͕͝ͅc̶̬͖r̛̖̠̟̮ͅe̷̶̮͎̬̹̖c̭̫͚̰̰̥̹͇ỳ̡̛̦͕̗̳̺̦̬ ̡͖̖ ̶҉̝̜̱͢o̠͚͍̝̙̤̝f̧̢͉̹̝̗̜̳͢ ̳͎̭̗̥̦ ͈̹̹̬̮͜t̡͍̰̪̺͖̦̣̭͘h̸̲̝e̟͇͎ ̴̢͍̱̀ ̘̺̣̖̱͉̙̀́a̸̝͍̕͜r̶̤̖̣̳͍k̨̧͉͖̣̣̤̻s̸̳̤̙̳̯̕ ̶̗̥͓̜͕͘w̛̟͠a̷͓̥͓͖̬͇ş̜͉̰̙̰͓̬ͅ ̸̷̭͈͔͓̝̩ ̳͙̰̤t̲̱͖̳͓̩̙͇͢͝͞h͏̞e̱̺̗̬i̫̤̭r͞͏҉̫͖ ̧̭͎̰̮̝́ ̵̥̕ơ͉͙̥̹̹̫͘n͙͈͇͚͘͢l͉͠y̴̸̶̦̪̲͈̭ ̷̴͉̭́ͅ ͚̘͍̖ṟ̡̩͚̟̱̤̲̣͓è҉̨̱̝͓̘a̵̧͏͓̮l̲̥̯ ͎ ͔͎̗́͜ḑ̠̗̙͕̠͈̝̞͜͠e̲͔̞̰̟͍̗̠͇f̺͍͙͍́ę̵̢̪̠͙n̲̰͚̳͜ș̶e҉̝͈͍͚̹͚ ̟̕͘͡ ̬͓̣̝̝̞̬a̵̠̲̯͟n̪̬͠d̜̠̮̩̙̳̻͟ ̟̘͚̟̩̪ ̛̳͉̝͞i̼̝͜t̶҉̺͉̙͈ͅͅ ̭̪̟̰̱ ̸̖̰͇͉͇͙̠h̳̹̦̬͟a̮͢d̶̳̣̦̦͉̤̥̕͞ͅ ̸̨̛̲̤̺̝̟̞͈ ̸̬̭͈̲͇̝͖̩̕ͅf̷̯̙͈̬̤̝̕a̜͞i̟̗̱̹ͅl͉͎͉̖̺̖ȩ̵̵̙d̬̝̼"̹̠̺̠̫͢͢

'Extinction is not an option but it seems ever more likely, no we will survive, we have to.'

"̵̯͉̭͚͞W̨͖̕͡e̝̦͙ͅ ̴̨̫͖ ̤̞͈̯̼̯͡h̥͇̝͚̞͘a͏͏̰̪͓v̯̠͟͠e̢҉̞̙̥ ̫̬͈͘ ̵̛͎̝͓̩̙̜͡s͉͇̲̳̖͇̕ạ̴͇̘̼͔͢͝ç̤̰͙͎̘r̬̫͓̳͇̲̟̳̖ì̘͓̻͙̞̗̕͜f̧̡̜͖͠i͈͎̲̞͜c̴̙̱͘ę͕̘͈̩̺d͖͈̰̖̪̰̱͟ ̴̱̬̳̩̼͈̹̱̕ ̫̘͙̻̗̩̦͜t̼̤͉̻̱o̟͓̪͈̦̭o͍̱͙̳ ̙́ ͏͔̗͈̳ͅͅm̢͈̠͍u̯̺͎̰̮̹̪͟͝c͎͍̱͙̲̙̺̯h̨̹̠̬̮̯́͢ ̨͎͓̼̟̭́ͅ ̷̮̫̘̮̬͉̱̯́ţ̡͉͉̣̰̗o͈̟͡ ̵̯̜̪̖̼̙ ͎̠͈͍̬̮͎͎͘͘ͅs̜̰̭̩̮͕̥̰͟͞t͏̨̺̱ͅo̷͏̣͉̠̩p̡̢̖̣͉͔͇̹̺͘ ̧͏̴̻̳͎n̢̬̦͓̰̹̻ó͈͈̝̙͉͟w̧͎̺,̵̠͎̣̻̗̼͟͠ͅ ̸̥̼̞́ẃ̸̜̼̟͚̦̺̼̮̣͝e̷̘̬̜̖̙̗̠̼͝ ̬͚ ̛̛͎̠̻̥͉h̦̬̳̣̕a͓̥̩̤̦͍͘͡͡v͉̼͉͔̰e̘̭ ͔̲̰̝̦n̢̫̗̰̳̭̯̳̖͡͝ͅo̴҉͓̞̘͖̦͞ ̫̥̜͓͚͔̕͘͠ ̱͍̦͕̣̀c͎̮̖͓͈̖h͝͏̯̬͉ơ̶̧͎̹i͙͈̣̳̙̻c̕͏̺̭̜̹̭͈̺e͔̮̜̱̘͚͔ ̸̼̥̳͚̘̻͘͢ ̰͔̠̭͕͔b͔͍̪̲ù̧̢̜̲̖͔͉t҉̮̪ ̸̟̫͓̪͕̫͇̟͠͝ ̴̨̹̜̼͉͚̰͎t̶̬̰͕͔̦̟͈͟o̢̪̬͇ ҉͍̬ ̵͍͍̲̩c̸͍͇̼͠ò̵̩͚̘̠̜͜n̘̺͍̯̫̤̩͎͟ͅt̨͜҉̩̪̟̜͕i͍̼̙͔̤͓̦n̷̗̭͎̦̝̦̫̖̦͟u̝̖̬̹̖͓̤è̴̶͙̯ ̵̛̪̟͔͚͎̻͘ͅ ͜҉̗̲̤̝͍͙ơ̫̠̜͡r͔̬̩͚͖͘ ͇̹͉̝̫̮̹͡͠ ̬̦̪͎̪̟͍h̦̰̯̗̲͉͎́u͓̟̠̺̺͙m̡̗̱̯͉͢a̗̦n̡̙̜͕̳̝͇i̻͍̼̫͚̖͎͢͜ͅt̶̳̱͉̼̬̞̭̯͔͟y̦̞̥͖͢ ̨̖͙͚̞̻ ̴̻͚̫̪̻i̢̺͚̝̫͙͉͔s͔̫̼͘ ͍̭͔̗͓͉̀͞d̳̳̳̮̭̝̰̼͢o̰̺o̢̫̖̲̙m̟̗͔̰̕͡e̟̠̘̼̪̭͘͝d҉̸̠"̨͕̦͠
We're sorry.
 
Interlude 4: Sapphire Stone
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery

My name is Sapphire Stone, or Ivanov now I guess, and I know that I fucked up, quite literally this time.

I'm the daughter of a baronet in the service of the Ivanov household sent to the mansion to serve as a maid in the hopes of finding a husband... and well you can say I was successful beyond my wildest dreams, or nightmares , as I'm now to be married to lord Ivanov himself.

"Just how had my life reached this point?" I asked myself as I breastfed my daughter Irina.

My father told me on my 15th birthday that my eldest sister will inherit the family business and that I won't get anything. He also told me that I need to pack up and move within the week. More than a decade has passed since then and thanks to help from my mother and Little brother putting a good word for me , I have managed to get a post at the Ivanov household as a maid and for the first time in my life things were looking brighter.

My original plan was simple , I was supposed to work around here, seduce a soldier or perhaps if extremely lucky one of the Mallara guards , thanks to the seduction lessons my mother gave to me and my sisters, and hopefully become a wife to a well off man. If that failed I could still make a living as a maid. All things considered not the best plan but one the few available, thanks to my education which mostly revolved around seduction, cleaning and with a side of economics as well as my passion for cooking.

I was not supposed to inherit anything, thanks to me being the third daughter out of 6 children, and I didn't have the military talent my younger siblings had nor the diplomatic acumen my second oldest sister showed. I was ...well... above average you could say. But I was not special, something my family and father in particular were always keen to remember me, and it was something I have come to accept.


I was always a fast study in intellectual things but I was not talented enough to join the academies as anything but a lab rat and maybe in a few decades a junior assistant. Being a doctor intrigued me for a bit but I decided against it due to personal dislike of...well... gore ,I just couldn't stomach it no matter what I tried so that was out, working in father's business was out as well because eldest sister would had most likely assassinated me in order to prevent me from taking her position or just kept me as a 'pet' to remind me of my place quite literally at her feet , and I can't really blame her because I would have done the same in her place.

I've thought of a lot of professions which I could take but I discarded for various reason from lack of training, to me not being able to do them or simply not appealing to me .Eventually I came down to two of them. They boiled down to either trying my luck as a maid for a noble and hopefully get married to one of his soldiers or try being a chef at a restaurant thanks to my talent in cooking. I dared not hope for more at the time of fear of reaching above my station and suffering the consequences my mother always warmed me about in her stories.

*Shiver* I still shiver from the story mother told me of the pigs and the romas? woman.

At my mother's advice I decided to go against my cooking passion and try being a maid. My sister's face when they heard I would be employed at the Ivanov manor(city) was priceless and one of the memories I will cherish forever, but not as much as father's when he realized he estranged someone now working directly in the castle of our lord, and I naturally like any dutiful daughter disliked by most of her family I stopped talking to anyone but my mother and brother who helped me achieve that position and supported me. They were the only ones in my family that actually cared about me . Afterwards I decided to focus on my new assignments and get completely into my new job as maid.

The start was quite as I expected it to be honest: long hours of work , 'dedication' and training( even with weapons) with few if any free time as most of it was used to rest from the grueling day. Eventually ,a decade later, I managed to grow in rank and experience enough to actually have free time to spare. I was pretty trusted too, thanks to my work ethic and experience, even if I was not trusted enough to actually join the kitchen staff( the damn place was better guarded than the servants ENTRANCE!), but it was honest work, the salary was good and I had my meal and roof free of charge so I couldn't complain without sounding like I was an ungrateful little brat, and my mother raised me better than that.

'My plan seemed to be working marvelously .' I thought. At the time I it seemed that I even managed to get the attention of one of the Mallara, which was my best case scenario. Somehow it went down or uphill from there depending on your perspective.

Lord Ivanov took note of me in one of his few drunk nights as I was delivering his drinks and took me into his bed. It wasn't unexpected as it has happened with soldiers before even if it never amounted to anything beyond a one night's stand, but Lord Ivanov was known to drink rarely and almost never took someone into bed after his wife died in the Eldar attack some years ago. Even so it was still unusual even if I thought nothing of it at the time.

At the time I just thought the lord wanted the same one night stand with a pretty maid all the soldiers did after a long day at work so I , well, did my best to use the lessons my mother taught me and they seemed to work and Lord Ivanov took a liking to me. A few months later and I was warming his bed weekly, a fact not missed by anyone, much to my chagrin.

"Here here little Irina eat until you are full." I told my daughter In a happy tone as I removed some of my blonde locks that have somehow reached where they weren't supposed to again, making my daughter's job of eating her fill harder, even after I placed them at my back they just kept moving back where they were before and considering my hair was long it was a bit of an inconvenience.

My little ray of sunshine was still eating while I was bedridden for the next few days thanks to the birth being a bit rough due to her size.

My thoughts now back to where they were before, I still remember the day I found out I was pregnant and decided to ask Lord Maximillian what to do. It was his child too after all and as I hadn't slept with anyone but him in months at that point there was little doubt in my mind that the child wasn't his . A conversation with him and a few tests later proved my assumptions were correct and Irina was indeed his daughter.

What followed were a blur of conversations, me being officially fired from my old post, my quarters being permanently moved right across his and us getting discreetly married. In fact we were married so discreetly not even his heir knew.

And here my real problems start. His heir Vlad Ivanov-Nova is well known to me, both from his time as a child and his time in the Inquisition hunting for the warp touched and if it's one thing I can say about him is that he scares me. The young man is too at home on the battlefield killing warp spawn, he is scarily competent at his job and extremely ruthless to any of his enemies. I do not know how will he react to the news but I hope he won't take his anger on my little Angel. I've heard the Ivanov dote on their family a lot , so hopefully she won't suffer his wrath but you never know with nobles and their paranoiac thirst for power .

*Blurp* My daughter signaled that she is now filled.

"Oh you're done? Maria could you take her to her bed? She just finished eating and doesn't seem to be needing to be changed" I ask my newly assigned guard.

Maria Mallara used to be the Lady Ivanov's chosen guard before her untimely demise. Ever since the Eldar raid, the Ivanovs have mostly ignored her existence , and even the servants and her fellows have also been giving her a lot of space as she kept on training to prove something. Or perhaps to atone for her mistake? For what she thinks she needs to atone I do not know but I am more than sure she considers her duty of guarding me both a punishment and a chance of redemption for her perceived failure.

I honestly do not see why she would think she needs redemption. She fought and even killed Eldar and everyone knows nobody is safe during an Eldar Hunt. From my point of view she should be proud of fighting and surviving let alone managing to kill one, but I am not her and I do not know how her mind operates so I will not speak aloud on my thoughts on the matter.

"Very well miss Ivanov." She said in a flat tone and I could barely hold my wince back.

Her tone when speaking to me is still scary even after months of her being assigned to me and I can see it in her eyes she doesn't like me much. And I can't honestly blame her, because from an outside perspective I look like a money digger and I would have reacted in a similar way if someone tried to do that in my family.
Also when she said that she didn't even look at me. As she took my baby in her arms and gently placed her in her crib, I could see the ghost of a smile as she looked at her. I guess her dislike for me must not have transferred to my daughter too.
' Thank the gods for small mercies ' I thought . A few seconds later a knock could be heard.

*knock knock*
Knocking could be heard from outside and Maria immediately jumped near the door, sword and pistol in hand ready to stab and shoot anyone that might force their entrance.

"Who is it?" I asked in a loud voice, thankfully my daughter didn't fall asleep yet so she didn't cry from me waking her up. She was still silent and giggling so all was good.

" Vlad." The voice replied .

At the sound of his voice my heart almost stopped, and he welcomed himself inside the room. His 2 bodyguards flanking him on both side in their white power armors with their helmets on even as he entered. He was in a black power armor, with oversized gloves and wearing a cape , I could also see his red and black helmet in his right arm, leaving his face exposed.

He was... not angry or furious but strangely calm, and dare I say a bit tired. He was still standing straight but with a slight hunch. I could not gather anything more from his face, his experience as both a soldier and a politician showing in how well his poker face was crafted.

Maria tensed , worry on her face visible to any that cared, not that I could blame her because I was worried too.

'This is the one man that could probably end us, in order to keep his place.' My mind supplied.

I've heard of other nobles doing this and even if there are no rumors of the Ivanov doing such, nobles are still nobles, and power means everything for them. Power is the reason I'm even in this castle in the first place.

He walked by, completely bypassing Maria who didn't know how to react, or perhaps wouldn't, as she was not willing to start a fight yet, as he didn't really threaten anyone. He went towards a chair that could most likely hold his weight and flanked by the 2 men in power armor, sat in beside my bed with him between me and my daughter, his right leg over the left one and his hands on his helmet that was placed on his right leg.

Then in a voice that sent shivers down my spine he spoke. His grey eyes looking into my blue ones with a fierce intensity that was strangely lacking in emotion except for vague hints of anger.

"Greetings Miss Stone, I have some questions for you that I would like answered and I believe you are the right person to do so." He said in a tone that betrayed nothing. However his choice of words did more than enough.

I have never been so scared in my entire life and I could hear Irina start crying and Maria going to look after her. He did seem to react a bit at my daughter crying but it was not with disgust or anger but with curiosity. Thankfully Maria was looking after Irina and managed to make her stop crying.

*gulp*
"What questions do you need answered Lord Vlad?" I asked and his attention turned back to me.

And so started the scariest conversation in my life with Vlad Ivanov, Chief Lord Inquisitor, Heir to the Ivanov house, archduke, veteran of most likely hundreds of battles against xeno ;cultist and warp spawn, my new step son and now my judge , jury and possibly executioner.
 
Interlude 5: Laverna Felicia
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery


My name is Laverna Felicia. Senior agent of the Questors, the federations problem solvers on the internal matters too 'sensitive' for the public at large to know. Most of the time this means destroying remnants from the Iron war, xeno relics, dealing with interplanetary cults of the xeno and warp kind and many more. My current mission took me to the Lyrax system. A backwater that barely knows how to make a warp drive. but that now houses a most dangerous artifact. This mission has already given me foul mood and the current circumstances certainly do not help.

What circumstances some might ask... well I'm currently standing among primitives, well I suppose this isn't fair to them, they do seem to have some decent technology and a good grasp of what little they know, so they aren't complete primitives. They even recognized the tech armor and know better than to stare so I guess calling them primitives is a bit much.
'I can't think of another name to call them, so primitives it is I suppose.' I thought in the safety of my mind, as I controlled my body to not shrug ,the kind and fake smile I always wore on my face for such occasions unblemished as usual and betraying nothing of my inner thoughts.

I've been an agent of the Confederation and now the Federation for close to 800 years, but from the looks of the people nearby I seem to still be able to make an impression. Well either that or they recognize the threat they are under.

"Excuse me but Lady...?" A man in in black power armor asked.

"Laverna Felicia, or just Miss Felicia if you want to be formal." I helped the young man... hmm what was his name again? From the sound of his voice he seems a bit young to be at this meeting. I checked my database for information on this young man.

'Hmm Vlad Aristov-Nova, type 6 noble by marriage and birth, 17 years old ,a successful young adult that has fought against Stage 1 and 2 Ork incursions, Eldar civilians, and a very impressive cultist and warp spawn hunter... the list of collateral damages is just as impressive as his accomplishments however, 2 Underhives scorched, several town razed because they turned to the worship of warp spawn and entire city blocks purged due to warp infestation already being in the Matterium and corrupting anything in it's way... The list goes on and on and I have to admit, I am actually impressed. The amount of collateral damage the boy leaves behind is impressive, if to be expected when dealing with the warp. He is also the head of the planet's witch hunters or Inquisition as they like to call themselves...' All that information and more passed though my mind in less than a second. In fact it was so fast that I managed to skim though his entire life in less than half a second.

"Lady Felicia but how has such a dangerous... thing come to our planet? It's not like a Ruin infected machine is easily hidden, and even if it was so, it would have already started infecting our networks by now." The young man asked and it was a valid question, one to which I fortunately had the answer.

"It appears that a warp cult has managed to somehow open a portal and get it from one of our few remaining facilities researching ways of permanently dealing with such things. Thankfully the artifact is still in it's containment unit." If his body language was any indication he didn't seem to appreciate the answer and I agreed with the boy, researching the Ruin code is a good way of losing planets as the research more often than not kills several planets even if successful.

"Is xeno involvement confirmed? No matter how skilled, human psykers still don't have enough knowledge to make such a ritual and still escape with their lives."
'Are Eldar involved if so why?' The boy meant. I have to give the him credit where credit is due, many of our analysts pointed out the same thing.

"Unknown at the time. Answering this question is also part of my mission here." I replied in the same tone. It appears the boy is now the unofficial spokesperson for the group in front of me and no one seems to want the position.
'Is it because of fear of me or him? Respect or other reasons?' My mind questioned.

'Interesting, the boy is definitely someone to watch for.' I thought to myself.

"What is your mission here then?" The boy asked again.

" Recovery of Ruin infected artifacts, providing aid to local authorities in dealing with any problem it may occur that are linked to the artifact, investigating the planet for xeno influences, specifically for Eldar and preventing the Ruin Code from spreading to other worlds." I replied in an even tone.

"How do you know it is here then?" He asked another good question.
'Hmm perhaps I could recruit him as a Questor? In a century or two he would make a fine agent.'

"The artifact is held inside a special container with an FTL beacon that lead me here. Unfortunately it appears it's currently being partially jammed so only a blurry signal is being received, but the signal is still there , if a bit blurry, and it appears to be somewhere in the North-Western part of the Southern peninsula." The young man seemed lost in thinking for a few seconds . However he did continue the conversation once whatever thought process consumed him seemed to have reached it's conclusion.

'The young man is the leader of the local witch hunters for a reason then. Such an... inquisitive mind is almost wasted here. A pity that I won't be able to recruit him. He seems oddly attached to this dirtball if my data is correct...Either that or he's scared of space.' I thought as my mind started wandering for a few seconds.

"I currently have some operations in that area, that are still in the planning stages. It appears that there are rumors of several warp cults in the area that might have noble backing. I believe they are a possible lead to your investigation, and I would be more than happy to offer the assistance of my organization in order to assist you in the retrieval and/or destruction of such a dangerous artifact." The young man offered. and I had to take a few seconds(for show , as I made the decision in less than a second in real time even as I spent hours in my mindscape ruminating on it) to consider his proposal.

It was a good offer on the surface ,after all it allowed me to work properly with the most efficient warp combating units on this planet and possibly the sector if my reports are to be believed. It also meant a willing cooperation directly from the upper echelons of the planet's government and access to their vast if primitive resources and possible contacts for future mission in the sector. However the witch hunter's methods are too destructive for my liking. This operation requires a mono-molecular scalpel not a battering ram that's on fire.

"I'm afraid I'll have to refuse your most generous offer Chief Lord Inquisitor. While your methods have proven highly successful in dealing with warp and cult related threats so far, they are a bit too... destructive for the current mission, so I'll have to use my own resources and operatives." Insulting the young man and his methods is a bad idea , I just know it, but I can't afford him bathing the damn city in explosions and orbital bombardment due to him barely being able to know what stealth really is and dooming the planet in the process.

I barely managed to stop my superiors from simply turning the system in to a black hole in order to deal with the problem and I do not want my hard work to have been for naught.

However the young man didn't seem taken aback by it. In fact I'm pretty sure he was expecting it if his next proposition was anything to go by.

"Very well then. I insist however you at least take one of our agents to serve as guide and contact to our organization for the duration of your staying here." He made a counter offer and I deemed it reasonable. A single agent shouldn't be much of a problem to get around of, and having a contact to the local authorities is always good.

"Very well do you have anyone in particular you would like to propose? I'll trust your judgement on this matter." I reasonably asked, and even offered him a compromise to apologize for snubbing him and his offer earlier.

"My first thought was sending Viscount Marcus Black." At this muffled laughs and snorts filled the room, and I had to take a quick look on the information available to see why.

' Viscount Marcus Black... NO! NO! FUCK NO! WHY? Not another one, and he's called Marcus too." My mind screamed in horror. And my horror must have showed in my grimace , because I could hear the mirth in his voice as he continued.

" The man is indeed a respected and decorated member of the nobility raised from his humble beginnings on ... skills... he spent a lifetime acquiring..." He trailed off slightly.

'No! Have mercy on this old woman young man, anyone but the drunkard, he reminds me too much of my old superior!' I mentally begged him and it must have shown in my eyes for he took pity on me.

" I believe however that my bodyguard Ana Marrala would be a much better fit." At that I looked again on the database and I thanked whatever deity listened. She was... not ideal but more than acceptable. Almost 60 years old and a veteran of 2 Eldar civilian hunts, stage 1 and 2 ork incursions as well as many other xeno and warp invasions she has an impressive record and with an impressive if specialized on defensive skill set she seems like a good candidate.

'A good candidate for a spy.' My mind provided.

She also knows a bit about stealth and can follow orders perfectly and she even has independent thinking and a tactical mindset.

" Very well then, perhaps we should discuss the details on another occasion, after all I'm sure the other guests would like further clarifications?" At that the floodgates opened and I got assaulted by questions, most of them being either redundant to my previous conversation, the rest were stupid ones without any link with the situation at hand but a rare few were actually useful. Just another day at the office for a Questor agent if I was being honest.

'This is gonna be a tiring mission I just know it.' I thought to myself as I prepared myself for dealing with the same old routine. The young man seemed to withdraw from the conversation and sit on a chair and brood, lost in his thoughts and most likely planning something as his kind always do.
 
Chapter 14
Entry 33: 10th day of the 8th month 899M24
To the people who ever said being an Inquisitor and hunting psykers was ever easy, fuck them, fuck them repeatedly with a Nova cannon.

Now that's a bit unfair, I admit, killing small time psykers and cults is easy, almost trivial in fact. Killing the entrenched ones however is significantly harder, especially when they have noble assistance, and membership.

These last few months have been filled with good, horrible and awkward news that have left me ragged and tired. I'm lucky that Alexandria is looking after me when I'm too tired to even walk after days of caffeine powered investigations, recruiting, training and looking over my duties as the heir of my House. Because honestly , at this moment I look more like a corpse than a human. I have the sunken eyes of an raccoon, my face is even more pale than normal except the black spaces near my eyes and I need to wear eye contacts to hide the fact that my eyes are red from lack of sleep. I manage to hide it with a lot of make-up and some tricks but the truth is that I'm running ragged. My Inquisition is still too small and none of them have what it takes in order to make me fell comfortable in delegating power to them. The psykers and cults are getting more and more active and the bad news just keep on pouring.


The first few months were relatively easy, just follow some rumors of cults and psykers, assign some investigation teams to snoop around and once we confirmed it's a cult or psyker, send one of the purge team, which so far it's only my Black Badgers as other purge teams are still being trained and tested for other loyalties...Which is not easy , nor is it fast. I swear it, checking the background of people for an organization who's job is to be impartial paranoid bastards IS HARD especially as I have little experience with it and I need to turn down people I'd really need because they have their allegiance to some nobles or I'm not sure if they have the proper character to NOT turn into gibbering madmen when they see a daemon.

Thankfully my program of recruiting orphans will solve these problems in a few decades once it's implemented but now I simply do not have enough men to both look after them and deal with the problems that keep on cropping u[ so I keep on postponing it. Thankfully my badgers have proven that they can act as both Investigation teams as well as Purge teams because otherwise I would not have been able to keep up. Their numbers are now around 450 which allows me to barely hold on the gates against the damn Incursions and cults.

So far my nascent Inquisition currently numbers 50 people if you don't count my Badgers and so far only 10 are on Investigation teams(7 initiates,2 agents and an inquisitor), 30 are maintenance staff for the giant facility we're in, 5 are blanks and 1 a weak pariah which are all still in training. The rest are the people we managed to clear up that they don't have hidden allegiances and they either don't have any outstanding talents or another 60 which haven't been trained enough to be able to be used in anything important yet.


Now ,other than that all things are going well in fact... or at least they WERE going well... the population likes the Inquisition and our methods of dealing with daemons are widely accepted as the gold standard in the entire fucking Sector ( if father and Augustus are to be believed).

The nobility may grumble because sometimes we go and investigate them, but after we found a full blown Nurgle cult in a baron's house and it resulted in the idiot having help from a friend who wanted to cover up for him. He did this by distracting us and in doing so ,giving the idiot enough time to finish summoning a flood of daemons and disease the military is still trying to purge with our help. They saw the wisdom in not trying to interfere in my work after I finished making an example of him and Augustus expanding on the list of what I'm allowed to do in order to kill cultists. Despite all that , things were looking well. And hell a week ago it looked like I was making progress in destroying the larger cults one by one. But alas it was simply not to last.

Now that the good news are over it's time for the bad to horrible news. Psykers and cults are losing their collective shit and have started being a huge problem with their usual shenanigans, it also appears that the Cult that tried to kill Augustus now got their hands on Ruin Code....Ruin Code... As in the Warp super-weapon of the MoI in the Iron War that insured we could never use the same ships to fight their fleets twice... The thing is vile!

For my memory in case I forget, or lose whatever information I have on it, here's a list of how the thing spreads from system to system.
-Any sort of transmission, secure or not, this includes FTL communications and radio
-Lasers if fired from an infected machine
-Rockets if fired from an infected machine
- Reading Letters! if sent from an infected machine
-Bullets and other kinetics if fired from an infected machine
-Morse code in lights if sent from an infected machine
-Being in a 100 km radius of an infected machine
-Sound waves emitted by an infected machine if they find a way to propagate on a distance larger than 100 km
-Sensors. YES the damn thing infects your machine if you somehow just scan it.
-Touching stuff an infected machine touched can also get yours infected by this . It is only a 90% chance of infection however as opposed to the 100% chance the other ways give ya.

The only way it has been found for an infected machine to communicate with a non-infected one without risk of infection is to use planetary destruction level explosives in a weird ass Morse code equivalent.

Did I mention the thing could pass to humans and turn them into puddles of boiling metal that scream in agony for hours as the soul of the transformed being was tortured into madness? Did I also mention that hearing said cries also turns you into that if you weren't one already? Because that's something the damn thing is capable of doing. It's difficult for the Code to move from machine to flesh but it's certainly doable and once it does the results are catastrophic.

I think the thing is also responsible for the MoI Rebellion in the first place but none of the materials I have available can confirm this , so for now it's just a theory... a useless theory too , to boot, as it doesn't help me in my current situation in any sort of way. Thankfully according to the Questor (40k Inquisition equivalent of the federation) sent here to retrieve it , the thing is in a special containment unit made of an alloy made of Phase Iron and other stuff with anti-warp properties which is the only thing we found that can block it and is almost impossible to destroy.

How do I know that the same cult is responsible? I've been searching for that cult ever since I started the damn organization and they've made other smaller hits which I've never been able to stop or follow, and now with the latest heist , I'm sure the fuckers have Eldar backing. I've been scouring the planet for them or any clues of them and now I'm sure I found them.

The fuckers that were researching the Ruin Code placed a hidden FTL beacon to find it in case the thing is stolen... Honestly I consider that move highly idiotic because while it is helpful this time, if the thing is cracked OUR ENTIRE FTL NETWORK might be compromised and will result in us loosing another important technology and losing several hundred systems , and those systems would be CORE systems too .

I pointed that to the Questor (who is called Laverna Felicia) and she told me she and the entire organization she represents knows this and that the guy who placed that beacon is currently regretting ever being born... which while cathartic doesn't help me much.

Now I have on my hands: a psyker cult (that is most likely Eldar backed) trying to kill my entire planet and possibly hundreds more, the single most dangerous memetic weapon I ever wished to never hear about on my planet and other cults which have now chosen this time for causing troubles which also keep my hands busy as I have to prioritize getting rid of them first due to their sheer numbers as opposed to dealing with said memetic weapon.

I've sent Ana to help the Questor in retrieving the Ruin Code and signaling their position for Army intervention once they're out, as well as tell me which noble was responsible for allowing the cult to exist in the first place. Thankfully THAT problem is no longer on my head but on the several centuries veteran trained and experienced in dealing with this shit. One problem hopefully solved and only a million more little problems left to deal with.

The awkward news is that I now have a step mom and a little sister called Sapphire Stone Ivanov and Irina Ivanov respectively. Which makes it awkward because well... my family has no idea what to do about it because we never actually had 2 children reach maturity and while Irina is still a child, if she dies then we don't know what that will mean for father's marriage with Sapphire considering that Irina is the only reason they're married in the first place. Mother's family, the Karov are a vassal of ours and are displeased with father's latest decision and while I'm not too close with them , Grandpa Vladimir(who mother named me after) is the only one I actually talk to and like from the Karov House, they're still family.

From what I remember from my family's history , the Karov's ancestor used to be Great Grandfather's second in command on his ship The Unbroken, before they decided to settle here as nobility, so they're pretty important to us and influential thanks to their rank of Viscount, so displeasing them is not a good idea... Thankfully there is little reason to worry about them causing problems but Irina is another problem entirely... for multiple reasons.

Irina's existence means I have no idea WHERE I'll end up once I die, either in a branch family or the main, what will my family do with the line of succession and other minor problems. At least I checked and she has my resistance to mental psyker bullshit so that's good. I'm already constantly paranoid about Alexandria being targeted by psykers from large distances .Which is another source of stress that I can do nothing about.

Honestly my biggest fear when I heard of this was that father married a gold digger or a spy but thankfully a little chat and several hours of research proved both those theories false... In fact her situation if it didn't affect me would have been a bit funny. She came here looking for work and possibly find someone of her stature to marry or a minor noble or a Mallara if extremely lucky.

Her plan was basically what all maids in our castle are trying, but she had no intention of even catching father's attention( I checked both her eyes as she spoke and those that knew her after our conversation and she didn't lie), in fact she was in the beginning stages of seducing one of the Mallara when father decided to have a one night stand with her which immediately made him(The Mallara) lose interest.

Things escalated from there to her getting resigned to being father's mistress and then somehow(even when using protection) getting pregnant and then married. And thanks to that I now have a little sister which I will visit weekly( my big brother instincts are kicking in) a step-mother who is terrified of me and future succession problems if Irina survives to adulthood. Even Alexandria is confused on this, even if I think it's not for the same reason as us(culture shock I guess?) , but she seems to have taken a liking to her once I introduced her to Irina... after all it's pretty hard not to like a baby you have no need to actually look after.

Well these months have been fucking tiring and I'm going to sleep and hopefully when I'm awake the cults would have killed each other and the Ruin Code will no longer be on this planet anymore. Who am I kidding? I'm never that lucky.

~~~~~~

As I finished writing into my journal, Ahab (Ana is currently with the Questor) barged in. Why he didn't use the communicator to tell me what happened I do not know... Tradition perhaps?

"Sir we have captured an intruder." He said in calm tone.

*sigh* I could feel my shoulders slump as even now I imagined the work I'll need to do.

I looked into Alexandria's eyes as she was waiting for me to join her in the bed and a small conversation made through staring started between us, with me apologizing to her and asking for her permission to join her tomorrow because I won't be coming back tonight. She was begging me to stay but eventually she relented and nodded, turning her back to me , going to sleep with a sad look on her face which almost crushed my heart.

"Let me get dressed properly. I won't bother with the make up and perhaps my appearance will scare him into telling us what he knows." I said as I changed from my pajamas and went into the mechanical wardrobe to get into a bodysuit and then took my black armor with the shield gauntlets on. Getting into them any other way but with outside help from either machine or humans is an exercise in futility I have learned.

"Her, my lord. And I think it will work sir. You look like you scared death to death" He said in a dry voice as we left the room, mirth easily spotted in his voice as I put my helmet on.

*sigh* ''If it's not one thing it's another." I said as we headed towards the castle's prison.
 
Chapter 15
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery


On the road towards the prisoner I used the HuD of my helmet to read the data we had on our little intruder. Thankfully that data was not one held only on paper so this meant that it was easily accessible for someone with the right authorization and means .

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'Aiko Sasaki. Age 60 .Features of East Asian descent. Native of Cobalt Secundus. Brown eyes, Pale complexion 1.70 m tall'

'Hmm extensive cybernetics on all limbs due to 'religious' reasons. Single child and now mother of 2 children , a boy and a girl , 20 and 8 years old respectively. Father unknown, 'presumably' dead. Former occupation : worked in the Corporate sector, what firm and department suspiciously missing. Currently owns a little atelier specialized in clocks and other antiquities with her son and his wife being the only employees.'

All that and more was revealed to me through my hud and while I highly suspected most of that was an half-truth at best it will prove useful when I talk with Mrs Sasaki.

"We've arrived sir." Ahab said, pulling me out of my thoughts

"Open the door." I said and he obliged.

In the room stood Aiko Sasaki and she seemed to be waiting for us ,if the expression on her face was anything to go by.

'Hmm nice scar, I wonder how she got it.'

"Greetings Mrs Sasaki. What brings you here at this ungodly hour?" I started jovially. My gaunt face(even if hidden by the helmet) and flat tone contrasting with my otherwise jovial greeting.

"Business ,I'm afraid Mister Ivanov." She replied cordially, my appearance didn't seem to factor into her mind... Well perhaps the fact that I was still wearing my helmet might have had something to do with it. We were in a standard interrogation room sans table and Mrs Sasaki had her hands tied to the chair.

'Hmm interesting' I thought for a second as I placed myself on the chair opposite of hers. Ahab was behind me, his weapon at the ready and Alexander was right behind her. Not that it mattered as we both ignored them.

*sigh*
"Isn't it always? Usually getting nightly visits from beautiful women should involve much more pleasant things than the situation we find ourselves in." I trailed off.

*sigh* She mimicked my sigh and her eyes seemed to harden and if she wasn't currently restrained with both her hands behind her back with the strongest handcuffs we had I would have been worried. Those eyes are sharp.

"Let's cut the bullshit and get to the important part and stop fooling around." She said, her voice as sharp as a knife.

"I agree." I replied simply.

"So why are you here and who hired you? An ex-corporate spy and possibly assassin coming here to... steal.. What exactly? It's obviously not money as there are far easier targets. Art? We don't have anything old enough to be truly valuable in order to make this trip worthy..." I was planning to continue but she stopped me by answering my questions before I could finish them.

"I'm here for data on the Inquisition." She replied, her tone not losing a single bit of it's edge.

"And why would you want that? From what I read you were having a good life, no worries, an easy job and a good family life with your two children. What brought this sudden return to the arts of intrigue?" I replied, honestly curious even if I already suspected the answer.

"My family." She said, her voice wavering slightly and I could see she was telling the truth.

*sigh*
"Let me guess. Cult found out about your involvement as a corporate spy and decided to get some blackmail on you, by possibly either kidnapping your family or attracting the attention of one of your old targets... possibly both?" I questioned her and from the look of her face I'd say I hit the mark.

She sighed again, her previous bravado gone, now that the reason for her being here got revealed.

"The first one. One of the damn cults got my daughter hostage and killed my son's wife as she tried to protect her. From the uniforms and our talks as the bastards gloated they were from the 'Cabal of the Red Eye' ." She said her voice turning into a growl at the mention of the ones who took her family from her...

"And your son?" I asked as I was quite curious myself if the woman had any family left.

"Tried to go and get his sister back and avenge his wife before I could stop him. They sent me his head on a literal silver platter." She managed to put back the mask she wore at the beginning of our conversation, her voice turning flat once more.

'How should I tell *yawn* her that her daughter is most likely dead too?' I thought even as I yawned.

'I'm too tired to think of anything but the direct way so I might as well get to it ,tact be damned.' My sleep deprived mind provided.

"Your daughter is dead." I said , my tone flat, and she seemed to recoil.

"Bu.." I stopped her as I held my right hand up with my index finger up.The universal sign for shut up still seems to be a thing it seems.

"You never worked with warp touched cultists before , did you?" I asked and she numbly shook her head. Not trusting herself to speak properly.

"Right, LET ME GIVE YOU..." I said as I jumped from the chair and started pacing in front of her. She seemed slightly disturbed of that, but I ignored her as I continued my rant. My hands behind my back as I kept pacing through the room.

"A proper rundown on cultists and their thought process."
*turn*
"Cultists are despicable failures that I can barely call human."
*turn*
"They have no sense of morals, and with few exception no honor."
*turn*
"And they LIE, they lie so much many of them have no idea what the truth really IS!"I shouted with my hands gesticulating wildly

"Your daughter is DEAD or wishes that she was dead if she can even think anymore! " I almost shouted again and she looked as if I hit her and then was the first to tell her Santa is not real.

"Cultists are to never be trusted. I should know , as I've dealt with hundreds of them and killed tens of thousands more." I continued, my arms still moving.

"You did very well that you never dealt with the damn t͏h̨i̶̡͡n̕͜͝g͝s̵̨ when you were officially in business!" I said ,my hatred fueled by years of fighting the abomination and days of lack of sleep deprivation catching up on me.

"Alexander release her restraints." I said that and he immediately obliged.

"How can I trust you?" She said her voice close to the breaking point.

"Because I could use a person with your abilities in the Inquisition." I replied flatly.

"What!?" She was shocked and it could easily be seen on her face. I doubt she expected an recruitment pitch.

My sleep deprived mind might not be thinking clearly but I'm honestly too tired to think things through properly. I'm desperate for help and if what I both read and inferred from her history then she is someone I want.

'No loyalty to anyone on the planet, hates the cults and is COMPETENT and well trained. She's practically perfect, and I need HER!' My mind screamed at me not to waste this opportunity.

"I want YOU, for the Inquisition!" I shouted, with barely hidden glee behind my steely tone.

"I refuse" She replied in a flat tone.

'Perf... Wait what?' My mind screeched to a halt.

"What." I said. It wasn't even a question. I was just that stupefied.

"I refuse." she replied again, her face ice-cold and tone flat.

"May I ask why?" I asked numbly.

"Because I want revenge on those bastards MYSELF! I will not be held back by whatever regulations your organization has!" She screamed and moved closer to my helmeted face.

Ahab and Alexander were getting ready to shoot her but I signaled them down.

I then proceeded to remove my helmet and show to the world my gaunt face and I could see it affected her slightly as she backed off. I doubt she saw someone so young yet so sleep deprived before. If I were honest my face looked like I was a madman. The Gaunt eyes, sickly pale skin and a deranged smile adorning my face, they honestly made me look just as crazed as a cultist.

I then proceeded to laugh. It wasn't a nice one.

" HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA..." And so it went for a full minute and I could see she was further disturbed by it as she stepped further back but she allowed me to continue.


"Just. Who. Do. You. Think. We. ARE?" I asked ,punctuating each and every word.

I continued before she could respond.

"We are the bloody Inquisition! The only use red tape has for us is as fuel to make new promethium. Nobles and Bureaucracy that stand between us and the cultists we want to kill? We'll add them to the funeral pyre TOO!" I proclaimed with glee.

"Hunt the Witch, Kill the Cultist, Burn the Abomination and Destroy Everything and Anyone that would stop you! Those are the tenets of our organization Mrs Sakaki. Regulations that other agencies are bound to are more often than not not even taken into consideration when in the Inquisition." I continued.

"So what do you say now? Inquisitor Sakaki? Will you take the Flamethrower and the Mantle of an Inquisitor and burn the warp itself?" I asked.

'I almost sold it to her' My mind provided. Just a little more to push her over the edge.

"Will you do whatever it takes to get revenge?" I asked.

"YES" She screamed.

"Then kneel! "I demanded and she did so in a heartbeat. Righteous fury in her mind and on her face.

"Will you Hunt the Witch wherever it may be?" I asked as I held my sword in my right hand. My left one tracing through the patterns on it.
"Yes." She replied with steel in her voice, not a trace of doubt on her face.
"Will you kill all cultists whoever and they might be?" I asked as I stopped playing with the sword and placed it at her neck. The blade not touching her skin as it was protected by her armor.
"Yes." She replied, again not a trace of doubt on her face.
" Will you burn the abomination born of the warp itself?"
"I will burn the Warp itself!" She nearly glowled, her conviction clear.
"Will you let any that stop you live?"
"No." And with that simple answer delivered in a flat tone her fate was sealed.

I removed my sword from her neck and presented it to her still kneeling form.

"Then RISE Inquisitor Sakaki! Rise and reach for your DESTINY!" My voice kept raising until I was nearly shouting.

She grabbed the sword and looked it over. Then she returned back to her kneeling form. her sword held on her right hand with the tip on the floor.

"What are my first order Lord Ivanov?" She asked. The steel in her voice clear as day.

"Get your proper uniform ready and fitted for you. Ahab and Alexander will show you where to get it. Tomorrow we march for the 'Cabal of the Red Eye' ." I ordered... Then promptly collapsed.

'Fucking damn it ! And I looked so cool back then.' Those were my last thoughts as sleep took over and Sakaki caught me before Ahab or Alexander could.
 
Side story: Sheep and illusions of safety
As the second shift of the day ended, a large group of men and women gathered in a bar to watch the news before heading home. On the large screens visible for all customers, a beautiful woman dressed in red and with red eyes, hair and freckles appeared. All those present could see the subtle signs of her being a stone born or at least descendant of one. On her face was an almost smile that only accentuated her beauty and all could see her clothing was expensive as befitting her station as a noble.

' The news at 18:00' and the hour 17:59 was written in the lower corner of the screen and when the digital clock changed to 18:00 the beautiful woman spoke.

"Greetings citizens of the Lyrax system it's me ,your host, Ruby Centuria, and I'm here on the behalf of the Lyrax 3 News Station, live, to deliver you the latest developments on our lovely planet, However before that , a quick message from the government." As she finished, the screen changed to a blue background covered in black writing.

A harsh male voice started speaking , repeating the words written for those that could not read.

"All citizens are to report any psyker , rogue cults or mutant sightings to the nearest police station.
This is for your own safety.
The only good psyker is a dead psyker"
~Message approved by Administrator of Lyrax 3 Augustus Nova and the Chief Lord Inquisitor Vlad Ivanov-Nova of the Inquisition
At this many people nodded even if some were confused by the last part. After all , similar messages have appeared from time to time, but the addition of the Inquisition was new, many had never heard of such an organisation, however 5 seconds after the message ended the newscaster appeared back on the screen.

"And we're back." The woman said, with the same almost smile she always wore.

"The psykers responsible for the cowardly attack on Administrator Nova at the Ivanov wedding are still at large with the government offering the rank of baronet to anyone offering a valid lead to the apprehension of these criminals." She said and took a second break as if to catch her breath, even as murmurs already started appearing, but they stopped cold just as she started to speak again.

"As a response to this and other psyker, warp and rogue cultist related problems, the Administration of Lyrax 3 has decided that the formation of a new organization whose only goal is to hunt and... purge... threats of this nature is necessary. The name of this organization as many of you might have already guessed, is the Inquisition." At the mentioning of the name a symbol appeared on the screen.

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The beautiful woman continued without missing a beat, with almost the entire system watching her with rapt attention, the entire planet wanted to know just what will happen and how will that affect their families lives.. After all anything that killed psykers must be a good thing, right?

"The Inquistion are a new organisation that will work closely with the Law enforcement agencies across the world in order to keep the population safe from the dangers of the psykers and other horrors that threaten our beautiful world. They are lead by Lord Vlad Ivanov-Nova, heir to the Ivanov house." at this cheers started to appear. As this town was in the Ivanov territories many were happy that the Young Lord will lead it. Many were however whispering about his youth and the dangers such a position holds.

After all, even if the rumors that the boy survived daemon attacks, psykers trying to kill him and assassination attempts ever since being 8 years old, having fought against orks attacks and even participated in the defenses against the Eldar hunt several years earlier were true, many were worried about his age, and being given such a prestigious (dangerous) position without having an heir was almost unheard of.

"Moving on, psyker..." As the woman continued several men in worn clothes and with their heads covered by hoods, decided to leave. Considering that they weren't the only group to do so, few really cared, as most were too absorbed in hearing the news to actually care about a mysterious group of hooded men among many.

If one were to pay a closer look at their faces, they would have seen that their eyes were glowing an ominous red color and their faces were wearing large deranged smiles.

Behind them , a man in nondescript clothing with his head also covered by a hood waited for them to leave and then whispered into his hidden com-bead . "The hunt is on, let none live."

As he finished talking he went back to inconspicuously watching the news even as dozen operatives armed with flamethrowers, sniper rifles and in some cases lasguns were following the cultists to their hideouts away from their eyes and somehow still maintaining stealth.

"Acknowledged. We'll give them hell." The man in black armor that hid him in the shadows of the setting sun responded with a deep voice. Two emblems could barely be seen on his armor with one being that of a black sword.

That night dozen similar operations started, with cultist and psyker alike burned before their ambitions could bring ruin to the planet. None of them lived to tell the tale of the cults demise, as only the ashes of burned buildings and the echoes of lingering despair remained as the story of death repeated itself across the planet.
 
Interlude 6: Aiko Sasaki
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery


'I wonder what has my life become?' I asked myself for the tenth time this evening...or is it morning now?

'3:25' The digital clock of the vehicle showed.

'Too early to be called morning' My tired mind provided.

My name is Aiko Sasaki. I used to be a happy and proud mother, a businesswoman and soon to be grandmother. Now however? I'm none of that.

'Now? I'm Inquisitor Sasaki, on the hunt for the cultists that have taken from me everything I ever loved .'

*sigh*

Across me, a man in black power armor with red highlights and optics stood. I do not know his real name nor how he looks. He Introduced himself to me as Inquisitor Red, and then sat across me. He was armed with the a large Laser pistol, numerous grenades, at least 2 knives that I could see and looked like a demon of the old folklore on my planet. Black, smeared in blood and ready to bathe in more of it.


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'Inquisitor .That's what I am now isn't it?' And indeed after my admittedly foolish attempt at Extracting information about the Inquisition, I now found myself among their highest ranked members... I was desperate I guess? Angry too. But more than anything I just wanted my daughter to be safe, so I was willing to do anything to get her, even if it meant going against the scariest people on the planet.


I donned my old armor with in-built cloak and tried to do what they told me, in order to have a chance of saving my last remaining family, and I failed. Now it seems that the spirits have given me a new chance to at least...


"You should not be an Inquisitor." The man interrupted my train of thought with his monotone.


I looked slightly confused at the man. 'Where did that come from?'


"Why?" I simply asked


"You have no experience in fighting Daemons. Nor do you have any experience in dealing with cults, or any other facet of being an Inquisitor." He replied in the same monotone.


"'I have 45 years of experience in espionage and those years were not peaceful. They have to count for something." I was trying to sound reasonable. After all This Inquisition, regardless of it's reputation should not expect it's recruits to be Veterans already.


"And you have no knowledge of our hierarchy either" *sigh* The man responded then sighed. I had no retort for he was right.


"Would you care to enlighten me? I was quite literally recruited a few hours ago." He was right. I knew nothing of the Inquisition and how it operated except what I heard on the news.


'Ignorance is no reason for stupidity. If you know nothing the ASK! A moment of embarrassment is worth it compared to a messy death' My old Master's teachings reared their ugly head once again. I respected the Old Man and still do so. But I would lie if I said I want to ever see him again.


"Very well." He said and took a few moments before he continued again.


"The Lowest are the trainees. They are people accepted into the Inquisition but still undergoing training in our procedures and in various ways of combat and tactics our organization undergoes. We do not simply bombard the enemy to death with artillery and Flamethrowers, regardless of what the news say." He said, and I nodded my head. The Inquisition were loved... Why, I didn't know considering the sheer amount of collateral damage they left behind but this is my chance to find out more about my new workplace, and I wasn't going to waste it.


"After them come the Initiates. They are those that have passed the courses and have been accepted properly into the Inquisition. Their skills vary but they most often than not they are barely disciplined and they are simply not experienced enough to advance higher ." He continued.


"After that come the Agents which are what YOU, should be." He said and pointed at me. But I didn't react.


"Agents are specialized operatives in an Inquisitor's retinue or autonomous enough to operate outside of one. And while they might lack experience in purging Warp spawn and cultists they more than make up for it with their specialized skill set that has been found to be either very useful or interesting." I nodded again. That seems right and fits with what I expected to be honestly. But I'm an Inquisitor, not an Agent, so this means that this presentation is not yet over.



"After them come Adepts, which are an Inquisitor's apprentice chosen from Agents. They have gathered enough experience and impressed their Inquisitor enough that the ones above them believe they have what it takes to be a full Inquisitor." I didn't do anything this time. But a question gnawed at my mind.


"Do you have any Adepts?" I couldn't help but ask.


"I once proposed one, but I was rejected, and he still remains an Agent." He replied in the same tone he used so far.


"Next are people like you and me, Inquisitors. We're expected to have a lot of experience in purging warp spawn, witches, cultists and anything in between. We're also expected to have the mental fortitude of doing whatever it takes to protect humanity, have no other allegiances but to the Inquisition and be skilled at what we do. You have almost none of that. And that's why you shouldn't be one." He said and I nodded my head. Yes , that didn't fit at all. If he was right I should have been an Agent or possibly an Adept. Not a full on Inquisitor.


"How many Inquisitor's are there?" I asked. There must be several of us that I could ask for advice. While cordial, I could see the man didn't like me. Whether it was personal or not I didn't know.


"You're looking at them." He said and for the first time he laughed. It was not a nice laugh.


"What?" I asked flabbergasted .

'This can't be right. The Inquisition are a planetary level organization that has access to almost unlimited resources. How do they only have 2 Inquisitors?'


My helmet might have hidden my face but couldn't hide the shock in my voice.


"Because. We're new and the lord is paranoid. We got founded on the Wedding of the Ivanov-Nova family. We're not even a year old as an organization."


"What? But how are you getting anything done then? The logistics of getting this... How many people are in the Inquisition?" I was shocked and couldn't help but let my thoughts run free.


" The Inquisition has 110 people in it with most being janitors or trainees." He said slowly but my mind was running at thousands of meters per second.


"How? Several of the conflicts that were on the news said of at least 200 soldiers being a part of it." And I looked inside the transport we're in. At least 20 men and women ready for combat. Are these all the Inquisition's troops?


"Those are the Black Badgers. Lord Ivanov's personal guard unit. They are not part of the Inquisition but have been helping us get on our feet as the training of our new members continues due to the large numbers of Incursions. Even so, we're overstretched and if what I heard is right, you saw the effects of that." He said and I remembered how Lord Ivanov passed out just as he finished inducting me.


I couldn't help but nod. I didn't have anything to say. If what Red said was true then the facade the population had of the Inquisition having everything under control, was just that, a facade. They're overstretched ,undermanned and outnumbered several thousands to 1.


After all there are possibly hundreds of cults and many are more numerous than the Inquisition currently is.


"How? How do you even operate when you're so few?" I numbly asked. Realization coming to me.


I knew of planets lost to the warp predators due to psykers, but I heard this planet was secure. With the formation of the Inquisition and the news of their limited successes I thought that the planet had proper if overzealous defenders. Now I realized our defenders were overworked, undermanned and barely holding on...


"By the skin of out teeth and cooperating with whoever we can. Heck if the rumors that have started around are true, a Questor is on this planet hunting for something and having a liaison for it to keep in touch with the Inquisition." He said ,a slight anger coloring his voice.


I'm familiar with planetary governments and I chose this planet specifically to settle on because my research told me they were of the more competent kind, the life is easy compared to corporate held planets and there were few psykers around and even those few that existed were culled. Now I find out this planet is such a hotbed Questors need to be running around doing damage control.


Shocked does not even begin to describe how I felt.


"I thought..." I wanted to say but he interrupted me.


"You thought this planet was not such a mess?" He asked and I nodded.


*sigh* He sighed and his shoulders slumped. He then replied with a tired voice.


"It wasn't. It used to be an, well not the best place or a paradise world but good enough. I was born here, you know?" He asked and I was too enraptured to reply.


"I'm 105 years old lass. I've lived through Eldar hunts, Ork Incursions and several other minor xeno raids but until 20 years ago I barely even heard of psykers making a big fuss. Ever since the psykers started appearing however, the Administrator ordered the unstable ones to be killed on sight and those that are deemed stable to be trained to not become warp portals." He said and sighed again.


"It wasn't ideal as Incursions were known to happen occasionally, but it was working somewhat. But then the bloody cults started appearing. This planet always had a liberal look on religion 'Not infringe on the sanctity of the humanity's spiritual needs' or some other bullshit and they used that loop to remain hidden, entrench themselves and cause untold damage. Before the Inquisition recruited me I was the chief police officer of a small city . I was trying and failing to keep the cults from destroying everything even as the nobles were in it too!" His anger was clear in his voice and I could see him clenching his fists. I remained silent and let him continue.


"When the Badgers came ,those glorious bastards, I've never seen something so beautiful in my entire life. Cults purged, Nobles arrested an executed for treason and the people gaining hope again. In a single week they managed what I've been trying for more than a decade. When they saw my experience and training in dealing with them...Well... They immediately recruited me. Lord Vlad looked like my daughter in a candy store when he first inducted me. His face was bright and his eyes almost shone with happiness even if he was hiding it well." I almost didn't believe him.


When I talked to him, Lord Aristov looked like a deranged cultist. He had sunken eyes, sickly pale skin and his eyes were red from lack of sleep. But his laugh, his laugh was like he won the world. Deranged, mad and so very bitter. It contrasted with everything that Red just said.


"He didn't seem like that to me." I couldn't help but blurt out.


Even if his face was hidden I could see him glaring at me.


"You might not have noticed, but he is currently keeping the entire organization running almost by himself, he needs to deal with politics and keeps on training even when exhausted to the bone. Lately things just keep getting harsher and harsher as most of our efforts seem to have been for nothing, as more and more cults Just. Keep.On .Bloody. Appearing!" His voice got louder and and louder until he was shouting . He was angry and stressed. I could see it in his body language from the way he clenched his hands to how his body seemed to shake in anger... Even the badgers near us reacted to that but they seemed supportive of him if the resigned nods they were giving were any indication.


*sigh*

"Sorry about that. The last few months have been tiring." He said but I didn't comment on that and just nodded.


A few minutes later I finally decided to say my piece.


"I just want to kill the cultists that took my family from me. I'll deal with the other problems as they come up." I said my own anger coming back as I thought of the cultists.


Something must have shown in my voice or body language or perhaps what I said touched him because he gave me a proper look over and said.


"You thought like a real Inquisitor lass. Perhaps there's still hope for you Inquisitor Sasaki." He said in the same flat tone he used at the beginning of our conversation


"I.." I wanted thank him but I was interrupted.

"We've arrived. Please prepare to disembark." A feminine mechanical voice said before I could finish.


"Men "hey" and women. We're going hunting for some degenerates. So What are you waiting for? For them to die of old age?" He said and all the occupants of the shuttle cheered even as they removed their safety belts and got their weapons ready. I joined them and went near my fellow Inquisitor as he was giving order to various groups.


He finally noticed me being near him and said.

"Today you'll listen to my orders. While Lord Ivanov named you an Inquisitor, you're still inexperienced . So I'll still have you tail me for a few missions after this in order to get properly acquainted with an Inquisitor's job. During the time between missions I expect you to get your own retinue prepared from the trainees or initiates you consider ready and train them up to your standard."


"Very well" I nodded.


"Good, today we're hunting cultists, I hope you're familiar with your new uniform because from what I've been reading of the damn cultists we'll need it." He said and I couldn't help but look again at my new armor.

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It was black with the red highlights the Inquisition seems to prefer. While it was as light as power armor went, it more than made up for it with my favorite addition. An incorporated stealth cloak that was much more advanced than my old one. It even had a hood incorporated, even if it was useless thanks to my helmet.


'The Inquisition hates waste, the hood must have some function I'm not yet familiar with... Time will tell what that is.'


As I was looking over the people gathered here I couldn't help but think I was under armed however. With only a knife that was almost a short sword and a laser pistol as my only weapons compared to the walking arsenals nearby I looked and felt very under dressed



"Listen up. Today we go after a bunch of fuckers calling themselves 'The Cabal of the Red eye'. Inquisitor Sasaki will be joining us but for this mission I will have overall command. I'm also informing you that Miss Sasaki has called dibs on the head of the chief cultist, so I suggest you to not take her kill from her." Red's voice could easily be heard from the communicator in my helmet. While I couldn't hear them I could see the notification that all the badgers responded.


"From now on all communications will be limited to the absolutely necessary. So no useless chatter." He aid in a tone that allowed no argument. Even as I could see him glaring at 2 Badgers specifically.


"The fuckers most likely don't know we're even here thanks to the transport that got us here being stealthed with the best technology we have but take no chances." He continued and I listened to him. I didn't even know we were that close to their compound in the city. We landed on the roof of one of the towers near the place I was supposed to meet them and I could even see the building they told me to come and make the exchange for my daughter from here.

"Let's go!" He said but all I did was send an affirmative signal as my mind was too busy on thinking of revenge.

"Sasaki, Murton, scout ahead" And so the hunt was on.

I made a sign to Murton, who was dressed in a similar armor to mine ,to enter on our assigned private radio frequency, as we both entered stealth and started moving.

'I will have my vengeance!' Were my only thoughts as I entered stealth and started scouting ahead on the compound.
 
Chapter 16
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery


Sleep has been hard to get as of late.

White nights filled with paperwork, both of the realm of which I am heir of and that of the Inquisition I founded, haunt my dreams when I manage to close my eyes and sleep, too tired to pay them heed or care. Harsh training, Investigations, meetings and even more paperwork fill my day keeping me busy and most importantly away from my love and my family, when I need them the most.

Dreamless nights are a blessing I almost never receive as nightmares haunt my dreams as the weight of my duties hangs over my shoulders but it seems today is different. While normally as I woke up, I would be greeted by the smell of wood and paper in the air and the rigid iron-wood of my table that served as both pillow and bed with the only comfort being a blanket brought to me by my wife, I am now greeted by the smell of antiseptics in the air, a proper bed and pillow on which I rest, a thin and uncomfortable blanket on me and warmth and pressure on my right hand as something heavy rests on it.

'Where I am?' My barely rested but still confused mind asked even as I still pretended to sleep. I didn't know if I was safe and until I could remember why am I in a bed that is obviously not mine my paranoia wouldn't let me act .

'What happ...' Memories started to return to me as I thought that. My memories of me almost getting to sleep with Alexandria but getting interrupted by Ahab as he reported an intruder, hearing said intruder out and recruiting her into the Inquisition after my rant and me loosing consciousness, returned to me and I couldn't help but groan.

*Groan*

As I groaned, the warm pressure on my right hand stirred and as I opened my eyes to see what was going on, the view of an hospital room greeted me. The noises finally started to register to my mind and I could hear the machines beeping and making subtle noises but they were ignored. All my attention was focused on what, or better said who stood on my arm and now seemed to wake up.

That person was Alexandria and even from where I stood as I looked at her opening her now red and puffy eyes , I could see she was still tired.

She woke up and seemed to still be confused on where she was and what was happening... Several moments later however she looked at me and immediately jumped at me and I could feel her floodgates open.

''Never worry me like that again *sniff*! When I heard you collapsed when in the cell with the prisoner *sniff* I was so worried!" She cried into my chest as I caressed her head with my right hand and tried to assure her I was fine.

"I'm alright, I'm here, everything is fine.'' I tried to assure her in my whispers, but that seemed to have the adverse effect as she changed her tune from worry to anger as she let go of my embrace and rose to her feet .Even in her white nightgown she looked as imposing as ever. That is admittedly not much compared to me when I really want to look intimidating but she nevertheless looked both regal and angry.

"You are not fine! You collapsed from sheer exhaustion! Your tension was also trough the roof..and... and you worried me so much.'' She said and couldn't even maintain her anger as worry and relief seemed to overpower her anger and fear.

"You..."
I listened to her while doing my best to look her in the eyes. As she saw my gaze she stopped what she wanted to say and once again placed herself in my arms. This time I had the presence of mind of removing my left hand and blanket from the bed and give her space so that she could place herself comfortably.

"You aren't going to stop." She said as I began to caress her head once again. It was not a question but a resigned statement.

"I can stop caressing you, if you'd like." I replied in a joking manner.

"Not the point you dummy.*SIGH*Why did the gods have me fall in love with an workaholic that can't even take things seriously?" She replied a bit of anger seeping trough her voice but if the over exaggerated sigh she gave and the bemoaning voice that was so fake it was amusing were any indication she wasn't too serious about it.


"What did I do to deserve such a mother hen?'' I replied in a tone that was an almost exact copy of her bemoaning tone as I stopped caressing her head.

"Who told you to stop." She said with what I imagined were puffed cheeks and I immediately started caressing her head again.


A few minutes of comfortable silence later as she was in my embrace and we finally used this moment to simply bask in each other's presence. She decided to restart our conversation a few minutes later.

"You can't continue like this Vlad. You will work yourself into an early grave!" She said her voice close to tearing up again at the very end.

"I know." I said and it seemed this wasn't the answer she was expecting as I felt her still.

"Then why? Why do you work yourself so much?" She asked in the pained tone as before.

"I have looked at abominations that look at us like cattle or things to hunt for sport. Eldar or Daemon they are both the same in how they view us. They consider us cattle and toys to amuse them and now, somehow the least pleasant of the 2 have placed their eyes on our planet. If we do not stop them, then me going to an early grave won't matter because there won'y be anyone left to bury me." I said my tone calm even as I felt Alexandria grip my flesh through the patient's dress I wore.

They usually consist of a loose shirt and pants that are white in color and with no underwear but a diaper for cases in which the patient would be asleep for a long period of time. Thankfully they didn't put me in a diaper yet.

The loose shirt offered no protection against her nails which were quite long and she drew my blood. Thankfully she chose my arm to stab with her nails and not somewhere else. She then continued in a voice of utter loathing.

"Why does it have to be you? Why couldn't someone else get that damn warp immunity? Why did you have to be cursed with it?" She said her voice full of loathing but it was slowly cracking at the very end as he realized what she was doing.

The sight of blood seemed to get her attention and stop her tirade and had her remove her hands from mine slowly ,a look of panic was etched on her face.

I continued to caress her head, not paying any attention to what her nails did to me and said.

"Why it's here and why it had to be me is irrelevant. You know what will happen if somebody else takes my job. It has to be me." I said in a calm tone that hid steel .

My voice seemed to stop her from panicking and calling the doctor so I continued.

"You know it as well as I do, that I'm doing it for this planet, for father, for my little sis and especially for you." I said in the same calm voice.

She seemed to finally find her voice and said.

"I got to find a nurse or the doctor you're bleeding!" She said panic suffusing her voice.

"This is barely a scratch. You should have seen me after the fight with that ork. These wounds barely compare." I said to her with a cocky smirk.

This seemed to have the intended effect and calmed her down.

*sigh* "Men. You stay here. I'll go tell the doctor that you're awake and about your 'scratches'. Don't do anything foolish." She said as she lifted herself up, and went towards the door. Somehow there was not a single drop of blood on her nightgown.

"Tell a servant to bring me something to eat too. I'm hungry!" I said and she nodded. Tiredness seemed to settle in on her features as she left and closed the door behind her.

Half a minute later however , a nurse came by. She wasn't much to look at. Brown hair, a rather average height at what I think is 1.7 m tall and pretty features. Not much to look at honestly if you were to compare her to Alexandria and the other women I've seen so far.

What attracted my attention however were the 2 figures that were behind her.

Inquisitor Red and Inquisitor Sasaki. both in their uniforms/ armor and with their hoods on.


Red was wearing his medium Power Armor and was still carrying that over sized pistol of his. His other weapons were absent except the 2 knives I knew he was always keeping hidden.

Inquisitor Red, or Jack Crimson as he was known before entering my service, used to be the head of a large town's police office named Cliffside. He was fighting against the cultists influence that were assisted by nobles and their guards for years before I arrived. He used whatever resources he had available even as the cults were protected by both nobles, their guards and armies of lawyers and were barely able to at least keep them from ruining everything. When I arrived there, the cults were already acting openly with only him and his men protecting the people from the predations of the cults and their excesses, to mixed results. When I arrived there I immediately set things straight and killed all the cults and anyone that supported them and I have to admit, his men were very useful in clearing the corruption and shaved weeks off my predicted timetable.

Once I looked over him and his men, it was all I could do to not take them all with me and build my Inquisition around them. There were only 200 Men left, protecting a town of 60.000 from double their numbers in cultists and then some of the noble guards. 200 men with experience in fighting cults and their tricks? Irresistible! I couldn't , unfortunately , take them all as they were already understaffed with only a third of their men left that were direly needed. I had to satisfy myself with taking him, his 2 best men and promise him support for the men he left behind in both materials and recruiting, an easy task as the requirements for their police department were far lighter than those of my Inquisition. I haven't regretted it , as now that small town is one of the most anti-cultist and anti-psyker towns on this planet, and soon will act as training ground for future members of my Inquisition.


Inquisitor Sasaki was another thing entirely however. She was obviously smaller than Crimson, who was 1.9 meters tall, even in the light power armor she wore, her height barely reaching 165 cm which was well bellow the average of the planet.

She was originally an spy sent by the cults to my house to steal data from the Inquisition after they killed most her family and kidnapped the rest. She only had a small pistol on her and while her helmet was still on I could see through her body language that she was angry.

As the two were awkwardly standing there in front of me the Nurse immediately started tending to me still slightly bleeding wounds, and with some sort of medical instrument that seemed taken from Stacraft closed the wounds completely and painlessly.

"Done my Lord. The wound has been closed and all possible infections killed before they could start." She said in a peppy voice and with a ditzy smile.

"Thank you." I replied simply. She took that as her signal to leave.

"I'll take my leave now." She said, the same tone and ditzy smile still on her face.

As she left the 2 Inquisitors removed their helmets and acted as if nothing had happened.

Jack looked like the poster boy for a Russian army, tall, with black hair, built like a brick, square face, green eyes and freckles. If it wasn't for the constant scowl he had whenever not killing Daemons I'm sure ladies would be swooning for him day and night. Despite him being more than a century old he barely looked past 30 thanks to rejuven treatments I had him take. No reason to waste his talents due to retirement after all.
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Sasaki on the other hand looked almost every day of her 60 years, . Her hair was originally Black but due to her age now had white mixed in it, her face had clear east asian features, and her amber eyes looked beautiful. The scar she had, while giving her character and a certain charm, tarnished her perfect features. She looked angry and pained from the looks of it.

"So the mission did not go as planed?" I asked.

"No sir. It appears that while the cultists didn't know we were coming, they had plenty of defenses and even a Warp..." Jack said but Sasaki interrupted him.

"They turned my daughter into one of those abominations. They couldn't even kill her but let the damn abomination torture her as she fought us." She angrily said

*sigh* "I do not claim to understand your pain Miss Sasaki, your entire family dead and while I know I DID warn you your daughter was dead ,you still went there with hopes of rescuing her. Did you not?" I asked the grieving woman.

"How could I not." Her voice was broken, anger and self loathing dominating both her face and voice.

"There was nothing you could have done more. The cultists most likely planned everything so that you didn't. They are despicable excuses of a hu..." She interrupted me too

"Do not address those monsters as humans! They long since lost that privilege." She said, her tone furious, and I nodded, and stopped.

"Very well, Inquisitor. I hope you aren't getting cold feet and thinking of leaving us, are you?" I asked in a joking tone.

She looked as if I insulted her but from my tone she realized I was joking. She still only huffed at me but remained silent. I took her silence as the fact that she'll remain with us.

I then turned towards Jack and asked him about our new recruit.

"So how did the newbie do? Is she Inquisitor material?"

The man simply nodded . While Mrs Sasaki remained silent. She was just as curious as I was after all.

"She shouldn't be an Inquisitor, lacks experience, but I can see she has potential." The man said a few moments later, his tone flat and devoid of emotion.

"Good, she will be assisting us in paperwork and trail you on missions until she gains more experience to actually deserve the rank she has. You're also responsible for teaching her our protocol and strategies and help her make her own retinue." I said in a jovial tone.

Realization dawned upon the man, even if Mrs Sasaki looked slightly confused, and he looked at Sakaki in a new light. Relief and a rare devious smile were warring for supremacy on his face. Eventually Relief won. However Mrs Sakaki seemed to look puzzled at our exchange and faces.

"Do you have a question Mrs Sakaki? If so , feel free to ask." I said, my voice back to a neutral yet friendly tone.

"The paperwork can't be that bad here. Right?" She innocently asked.

Jack and I looked at each other and laughed, and then laughed some more.

I'm glad nobody else could hear us at that moment, as all rooms were phonically isolated, because if they did, they would have locked us in an insane asylum and lost the key.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" We laughed together as one, our laughs almost leaving us without breath but we continued on regardless.

This didn't seem to reassure her, in fact it seemed to scare her even more. If it was from our laughs only, or the realization of what was to come we didn't care. We hadn't heard a joke that good in years.
 
Chapter 17
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery


Today is an interesting day for sure. The day is not interesting because of the weather, it's a quite nice day of early Fall with the perfect combination of heat and wind in fact. The day is not interesting because of my surroundings either as I am in a bar, a pretty nice bar in fact , with red and blue lights and quite tasteful furniture. The view isn't bad either if the scantly clad women walking around and serving the customers around are any indication. My purpose isn't what make this place interesting either, as I am here on an Inquisitorial mission. What makes this meeting interesting however is the attendance of the meeting, The 6 Lords of the Underworld, the 6 most powerful criminals on this planet, and I'm here to negotiate with them.

We stood at a VIP booth, all 7 of us , each dressed differently and under the privacy of phonically isolated walls. Naturally, these were not the only defenses in place as this was a meeting of the 6 most Influential criminal Masterminds on the planet so they were properly paranoid about it. The entire floor we were on was empty with only a waitress, which was most likely very trusted, serving us and a dancer inside an semi transparent glass which only allowed her silhouette to be seen.

Finally , after several minutes of silence spent staring at each other, someone decided to break the ice.

"A most peculiar guest you brought us here Miss Urens. After all it's not every day you see an agent of the Inquisition here." Said a blonde woman.

She was gorgeous ,some might say, standing at 190 cm tall, with full lips, silver eyes, white skinned with a gorgeous face, platinum blonde hair, piercings and tattoos with snake motifs covered her scantly clad body from head to toe, a body to die for too. Her robes left little to the Imagination and I could see through the clothing what little it did try hide. Some would have lusted for her or praised her beauty but I was not impressed. Everything about her screamed massive bitch and if the criminal charges she was saddled with were any indication she was one too.

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'Aurora Smith(The Golden Snake) 90 years old, 900 charges of first degree murder, 1200 of second degree murder, 34 of rape with the targets being evenly split between men and women, 30 charges of child molestation, Human trafficking and slavery and 2 littering charges.' My suit provided the information almost instantly.

She was as beautiful as she was heartless and if the look in her eyes was anything to go by she seemed to enjoy herself.

" Indeed Miss Urens, Mrs Smith is right, the Inquisitorial agent is very much a surprise." Said a man in power armor in a deep voice.

He was quite tall, standing at, 2 meters tall of Power armor and flesh, and looked more machine than man. His helmet looked like a bad rendition of a Man of Iron with it's red optic and lack of any human features and his armor was little better. With it's inhumanly large and muscled frame that was covered in a parody of an Ancient military uniform, a cowboy hat and what looked like hiking boots, he looked more like a parody of a Man of Iron than a real gangsters but I could tell he was dangerous.
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'Andrew Powers(Metal Face), age 160, 2000 charges of first degree murder, 2500 of second degree murder, weapons trafficking and accused of Treason against the Nobles of Lyrax 3 after deserting his post during and Ork Incursion.' My suit provided once again.

He was a dangerous combatant and one of 2 criminals that bothered wearing armor here.

"I'm sure our guest can explain himself .After all ,The Inquisition was the one to request this meeting and upon hearing them out on their reason, I decided to accept." A young voice said in a professional tone

The woman who said it was pretty, standing at 1.67 meters tall and was dressed in an interesting variation of the secretary suit, that showed a lot of cleavage but was much more conservative than the previous woman's expensive excuse of a clothing. She had amber eyes, white skin, purple hair and a series of glasses she used to decipher her encrypted reports from her tablet.

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'Allara Urens,(The Silent Manager) age 30: 50 charges of first degree murder, 400 kidnappings, 400 charges of grand digital theft, 80 cases of industrial espionage, second largest drug trafficking operation on the planet, 555 Blackmail attempts and 2 charges of rape' My helmet provided once again.


It wasn't surprising they didn't recognize me as I was in a very different armor than I usually wore in meetings, even if it was my go to armor for armed conflicts. I made a show of clearing my throat and responded.

"Greetings ladies and gentlemen, you can call me Agent Black. I would say it's a pleasure to meet you but it would be a lie." I said in a deadpan voice even as the armor made my voice look synthetic and wrong to human ears. Another layer of stealth I added beyond the height increasing armor as a precaution for meetings like this.

After all the numbers of the Inquisition were a tightly kept secret and I couldn't allow people to thing we were as few as we really were, so me and my Inquisitors would often times masquerade in other suits to give the impression we were more than we really were.

Some looked put off by dealing with what they thought was a glorified middleman and independent agent while Powers seemed to tense. His military experience told him I was dangerous and hiding tricks and I was.

This armor was far different than my diplomatic one. It had six false blue optics, each nothing more than flashy lights and metal meant to scare the weak willed. It's rugged exterior full of hard angles and poorly hidden compartments full of explosive was a far cry from the smooth looking suits I normally wore when attempting diplomacy. This and more little signs unnerved the Old ex-military man even while his colleagues barely seemed to care, or perhaps they were simply hiding it better.
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"Hah an Agent? What's that some form of middleman?" A rude voice said as I finished my introduction and before I could explain why I was here. A power play as visible as an ork in the snow.

The woman was quite tall, standing at 190 centimeters even if she was in high heels. Her white hair and albino skin gave her an ethereal air and her black dress seemed to tempt you to want to find more from what little it had uncovered. Her Golden accessories also made her look slightly regal which was only accentuated by her posture.


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"Adrianna Darksky(The Dark Mistress), Age 60, Fallen noble of the Baron House Darksky. 300 charges of rape, 100 charges of Child molesting, 150 charges of first degree murder, money laundering, human and child trafficking, illegal genetic enhancement sales , 30 charges of grand theft and 20 of petty theft.'


While she wasn't dressed as scandalously as Aurora Smith she wasn't far behind.

"An Agent is far more than a middleman Miss Smith. We're the ones that get shit done. While we may lack the experience in dealing with daemons and cultists that an Inquisitor does, we have many talents and attributes. My job here is to oversee the Underworld's involvement with Psykers, warp or xeno artifacts relating to the warp and cultist involvements. I couldn't care less about your deals but my organization does not want a repeat of the Great Twin Purge."

At this all but one of the criminals shuddered. The Great Twin Purge was the series of events which lead to me torching the Underhives of 2 Hive Cities and it left an impact into the minds of the criminals and the common man.

The thing could have easily been avoided if the criminal elements didn't try and get in my way and provide assistance to the cultists. In the End the massive wave of Daemons and warp plagues summoned had me bathe the entire underhive in promethium.

"What's in it for us?" A man asked.

He looked like a drug head, armor or not. He stood at 180 cm tall and his armor was a mess of wires and scrap armor. The hood and yellow optics he had looked ratty and only served to accentuate his image of a drug head. Even his voice was cringe worthy in how crooked it sounded.

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As I read his name on my hood I barely held my laughter in.

'Cupcake Green(The Grey Dreamer), age 80. Largest human trafficking and drugs trafficking organizations on the planet and it extends on several others in the system, 35 cases of child molesting, 20 charges of first degree Murders, and illegal weapons trafficking.'

I looked at him and prepared to speak but before I could do so, the last occupant of the booth decided to make herself heard.

"Silence Cupcake, the adults are speaking and I suggest the rest of you to pay this matter your full attention." She said in an authoritarian voice.

As one , all of them stopped what they were doing, be it either reading reports or checking out the woman dancing in front of us, and turned directly to her and then to me.

The woman that spoke had blond hair, a pretty milky white face and grey eyes. She was dressed in a business suit that even had a pocket for napkins and and wore black gloves. While she wasn't dressed anywhere near as skimpy as 2 of the other women in the room, her suit accentuated her curves just right. She looked like the standard business women that might either be a baronet herself or the wife of one, smart driven and stylish. Her eyes however told another story entirely. Those were the eyes of a Murderess , one that has also dealt with the Warp in a similar way as I did.
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'Lapis Lazuli (Dead eyes), Age 180, over 100.000 Charges of first Degree murder, 13 charges of terrorist assaults(10 proved to be cultist operation, the rest are still pending verification but are deemed likely), Mass Murder, WANTED dead or alive in 20 systems across the sector, 20 Charges of Industrial espionage, Grand Theft of Starships and for the destruction of 2 Frigates and several corvettes, Burning several small villages on planet Iresk 2, now lost to the warp. Former member of the Iresk 2 native Witch Hunter organization.'

"Thank you Mrs Lazuli." I said to the woman.

"It's Miss Lapis. I never got married and Lapis is my family name." She replied simply.

"My apologies then, Miss Lapis." I apologized. She simply nodded and then urged me to continue where I left before I was interrupted.

"Right where were we? Yes, me wanting your cooperation in dealing with the Cultist threat. Simply put it ,my superiors believe the Underworld is currently crawling with Cultists. Questors are investigating the planet after artifacts with Ruin Code in them and..."

"What?!" The occupants of the room screamed as one. All pretenses of confidence gone as sheer terror gripped everyone in the room.

"My thoughts exactly when I first heard it, but please do not interrupt me again. It seems there are factions outside our planet or possibly even sector that have taken notice of our little planet or perhaps are simply using it to ferry artifacts for unknown purposes. Regardless , the Ruin Code's presence on this planet has been the Last Drop and my superiors have decided to pull all the stops and stop playing with the kiddy gloves..." I simply said .

The occupants in the room needed a few minutes to recover and think, minutes I spent reading more about them from my HuD. Unfortunately I couldn't recruit miss Lapis despite her experience in a similar organization due to her past actions. I managed to do so with Mrs Sakaki due to her relative anonymity but Lapis Lazuli had too much of a high profile and taking her in, regardless of how well I tried to sell it to Augustus, wouldn't work.

"You mean you were using Kiddy gloves so far?" Miss Urens found the courage to respond first.

Her tone was flabbergasted and for good reason I suppose. The Inquisition had gathered a reputation of ruthless hunters of anything warp related, and my last statements were still very much of a shock.

"Indeed Miss Urens, well technically not the Inquisition but the other Authorities. Lord Vlad Ivanov and Lord Augustus Nova have been debating for some time whether or nor to give the Police and the Military the same authority as that of the Inquisition and basically instating Martial Law. Criminals will no longer be arrested but shot on sight should they not surrender when first being called to do so. There will be no more stun batons , no more second chances, no more mercy. All criminals beyond a certain crime threshold already in custody will also be shot, any nobles found protecting them shot as well without a Trial. There will be no cover, no hideout and no respite." I said in a cold tone.

At this the room was silent once again. I let them a few seconds to digest what I just said and then I continued.

"Honestly, Ruin Code has scared us profoundly and it's still on the planet with the Questor hunting for it and those that stole it from it's holding facility, which by the way was in another sector entirely. Lord Augustus believes the Underworld has been covering for this cult and others, and honestly? I can't find it in me to disagree. So look how it is going to be. I do not care about your operations, contacts, or crimes. All I care is about getting to the damn cults and stopping the Nobles from declaring Martial Law and if I can come back to my superiors and tell them the Underworld is willing to play ball and help us deal with them, then I'll be a very happy man and you don't get to be purged." I said my tone just as cold and artificial as before.

At this, Mrs Lapis finally found her words again and decided to respond.

"So you want us to just fall over and give you anything you want?" She asked in an incredulous tone.

At this I opened one of the compartments in my suit and pulled a tablet. The motions seemed to startle the others ,but not her. Once they saw it was not a weapon they relaxed.

"No Miss Lapis, I expect you to cooperate. I do not want information on your or your associates holdings or operations. I simply want all the information on the cults and their supporters you and your colleagues have gathered. This is a tablet which contains contact information so that you can contact us in the event of psyker related threats and to confirm our agreement. You have 7 days to consider my offer. If I do not receive any reports from my subordinates about you contacting us then I'll have to report that the Underworld is not willing to play ball against our common foe ." After I delivered my message and pushed the tablet towards her I raised myself from the table.

"I wish you a good day." I said and then proceeded to leave the building. Nobody followed or addressed me as I left and went towards my car .

'I hope they're willing to play ball.' Were my last thoughts as I started driving the car towards one of our safe houses.
 
Interlude 7: Lapis Lazuli
Arc 2: Why we hate Warp Fuckery


"Well that went better than I expected." The Kinslayer said ,her voice resigned as she continued reading on that datapad of hers.

She had earned her name by killing her own father in cold blood and taking everything he owned. Sure she does a better job than the old lunatic, but that doesn't change the fact that she killed her own family.

"How could this have gone worse? We have no useful information, it's obvious that your psyker didn't get to influence him at all, we have no leverage against the Inquisition and now it threatened us with Martial law. MARTIAL LAW! And now with Ruin Code on this planet HOW COULD IT HAVE TURNED WORSE!?" The drug head threw a tantrum like he always did.

The man earned his nickname by constantly trying and using his own product to check if it was of proper quality. How is he not dead from them I do not know but I'm sure it's not psyker related.

"Humph, he didn't even notice me making him sweet eyes." The whore said in a sultry voice

By far the worst of them. The whore earned her name through selling her body and molesting everyone that caught her fancy then killing them once she was bored.They usually never survived the first night. Men ,women, children or xeno they were all toys to her ,to be fucked and then discarded as she saw fit.

"However Cupcake is right, how could this have gone worse?" She continued all traces of her previous sultry voice gone.

"We could have had a firefight and he was able to break through the Hard Light prison ball we had prepared for him. That armor looked high tech and if the Inquisition is known for anything, it's that they're almost never alone somewhere and they're never without enough explosives on their own person to level the building they're in." The Kinslayer said .

"I still don't like that we had to accept an Inquisitor here. Too many things could have gone wrong and ended with us dead or arrested." The coward finally spoke and I had to agree with him.

The coward earned his nickname when I heard he was a deserter. He may be the muscle of our little organization but he is by far the biggest coward. While normally having numerous exits ready and only committing yourself only when you were sure to win was a matter of common sense, he took it from the realm of common sense into that of cowardice.

While I despise him and everything he stands for, he was still a military man and had far more survival instinct than most of the... eccentric company I now find myself in the presence of.

'Just how had I fallen so low?' I asked myself once again.


I used to be someone important. An Elder Hunter in the Witch Hunters of my native planet. I was respected by my peers, feared by my enemies and loved by the masses. All that ended when the nobles got corrupted by the Warp and my organization started being hunted and betrayed. Eventually I was the only one left as the corruption of the nobles and the Warp brought everything I ever loved down. My adoptive daughter, my lover, my house ,my friends and my people all gone in the laughter of warp fueled cultists.

Now thanks to those nobles making me a criminal to be killed on sight ,despite the fact I was guilty of only trying to protect my people, I have earned enough of a reputation due to what I did in order to survive to have earned to be called such and be hunted down even with my planet now dead.

"Urrens, has your psyker been able to at least get a read on him? He was obviously not a blank or pariah" The Seductress asked and I was curious as well. While he showed no signs of our psyker trying to make him more malleable at least the psyker should have noticed something.

The Seductress was a special case. She was a a noble technically even if her family were considered to be Failed Ones and earned her standing here by fucking others for opportunities to prove herself and then proved herself by accomplishing said missions. Now that she is in power she indulges herself in her fetishes as others did in theirs with her.

'At least she doesn't kill her partners' My mind provided.

"I'll let you ask her yourself. Mia, get down from there and tell us what you managed to find out." The Kinslayer said in a tone that tried ,and failed to my senses, to sound authoritarian. Perhaps it was my bias towards her and her age but I could never take her seriously.

From the tube of our table a naked woman exited and went to the floor . I couldn't bother remembering her name but I could see she was broken. Her face was blank, her eyes had an empty look and even while I couldn't see any physical marks on her flawless skin I knew they were involved in making her this subservient if the way she moved was any indication.

She had a pretty face , with naturally blond hair, green eyes and flawless white skin. She was pretty to my senses even if she wan't my type.

I could see the whore looking at... Ia was it?... with lust in her eyes as she licked her lips in anticipation.

"A nice thing you have here Allara. How much for a night?" The whore shamelessly asked. Everyone at the table knew that a trip to her bed was a death sentence.

"1000 Credits for you." The Kinslayer simply said.

"Deal. I'll take her after she finishes her report."And with that the life of an innocent woman ended. She was too far gone to even care and none of us cared enough to help her. She waited for her mistress to finish and allow her to speak as if she didn't already sell her life for enough credits to barely buy a low quality stubber.

At an unspoken signal she knelt in front of the Kinslayer and spoke.

"Nothing my Lady. I could barely even detect his soul, as he was somehow hiding it, even if I couldn't sense any spell that could do so. Also he didn't even notice me and even with my best attempts, all what I could feel was a vague sense of amusement at the time Master Cupcake first spoke." The broken thing said and we were all intrigued.

"Warp tech perhaps?" I finally asked the dead woman.

"The Mistress has already exposed me to warp tech capable of such things but they simply drown the thoughts of the wielder in not-noise in order to hide them. The Agent however was simply almost impossible to detect." She continued, her voice subdued and subservient but still loud enough for us to hear.

"Then he is one of the proto-psykers with unique abilities. There is no other explanation." The coward said and we all nodded.


Such Individuals ,while even rarer than normal psykers with them usually having all their potential poured into an unique ability such as extraordinary luck, or skills and knowledge into a specific weapon or field, were not unheard of. One with stealth capabilities when it comes to other psyker powers were not that unusual in comparison to some of the weirder abilities we have heard about, even if we've never heard of anyone but blanks having such an ability before.


It was also strangely suited for the Inquisition's abilities and needs that it looked highly suspect, but it was most likely just a happy coincidence as nobody to our knowledge has managed to induce specific psyker powers into a human.

"So we have nothing." I said once again and sighed.

*sigh*

"So what now?" The drughead asked as if it wasn't obvious.

"We cooperate and give him what he wants." I said simply.

He looked at me and I could feel he was frowning.

"After he threatened us?" The drughead asked and the Coward responded.

"He didn't threaten us. That wasn't even a warning. He was like a drone making a statement. No promises, no kindness, no hate or any other emotions, only a pure statement of fact." He said, his voice thick with worry.

I couldn't help but agree with him and nodded my head.

"Indeed Mister Powers and it's not like he needed to threaten us. He most likely carried enough ordinance on himself to level this building .The armor also looked tough enough to survive it too." I said simply and all nodded once again. I had the most experience with such organizations and they deferred to my knowledge for now.

"I guess this means I'll have to contact him with everything we know. Do you think they'll react violently when we tell them how little information we actually have?" The Kinslayer said and I hummed.

She was right . The 6 Lords didn't deal with cults and after The Twin Purge we started stomping down on them and those that helped them too.


"We can't give him what we don't have. We'll send him a separate report from each of us and have you handle it Allara." I said simply and all nodded again even if they weren't happy with dealing with authorities.

Thankfully the Inquisition didn't care about us at all, as we simply weren't part of their jurisdiction but it still left a bad taste in all of our mouths to deal with those that would normally hunt us.

"Then I believe this meeting is adjourned." The seductress said and we all prepared to leave.

I was slow enough to rise that I saw The Whore place a collar on the Broken woman's neck and had her follow her while on all fours and naked, and I could feel a small part of my soul being crushed even as the rest ignored it. Once again, innocents died and I couldn't do anything, too scared for my own life and safety to do anything , not willing to rock the boat for others.

As I left the building filled with the worst scum I have ever met, scum I was now a part of, I entered my limousine and decided to head back to my ho...base as I trusted the driver to take me back to my hom... base and hopefully take a shower after this exhausting day.

'It's only a base. My home died screaming in psyker fire and orbital bombardments and it can never be replaced.' I kept repeating in my mind as my driver drove back to the base, the scenery of human architecture and Neon lights being ignored as my mind was too preoccupied deluding itself.

"It's just a base, It's just a base..." I continuously repeated in barely hidden whispers.

Maybe if I repeated it enough times I would believe it too.
 
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