Chapter 2 Part 4

Chapter 2: Dawn of war

Part 4​

Detention Center

Arbiter's HQ

Jenova Town

Kronus

"No pressure then." I chuckled mirthlessly. "Stop the Adeptus Astartes and the Imperial Guard from killing each other, purge a world from multiple xeno armies, not to forget the apparent Chaos incursion too." I was so much over my head it wasn't even funny.

"All in a days work, Inquisitor." Anteas spoke solemnly.

"Santos, incendiary grenade. I won't have Requista's body profaned even further." I ordered my bodyguard after leaving the cell.

"Sir." The Stormtrooper spoke quietly and followed my order once Anteas walked out. The soldier threw the grenade in and sealed the door, turning the cell into a crematorium.

"We have a live one, here." One of the Space Marines announced aloud in an uneasy voice.

I frowned. Whatever could give one of his kind a pause couldn't be a good thing for anyone. I gripped the handle of my sword and walked towards the Astartes. The man was standing next to a cell at the far end of the corridor. His bolter was pointing into its open door, though he didn't open fire. Whent and another marine interrupted their search and moved in to cover their brother.

I could hear the Stormtroopers taking positions behind me and Anteas' heavy footsteps following me.

What new horror awaited us, I wondered.

I walked past a marine who had taken a position to the left of the door and carefully glanced inside. I could see two figures in the twilight. One was a woman – here dead white eyes were staring sightlessly at the door. Her face was a frozen grimace, stretched by gray, taut skin. Another, much smaller figure was clutching the dead woman like a lifeline. A pair of empty green eyes were staring through us looking at only the Emperor knows what. The kid was skin and bones wrapped in a dirty dress that might have been red once upon a time. She was apparently left to starve to death with the corpse of her young mother or older sister.

Still, as fucked up as that was, it didn't explain why the Astartes was feeling uneasy. Undoubtedly he had seen things that were much more fucked up, like what was done to Requista and his people.

Anteas stopped behind me and looked over my head, then he hissed.

"Can someone enlighten me? Is she possessed or something?" I asked warily. My hand clutched the hilt of my chainsword and I prepared for action.

"Can't you feel it?!" The Librarian sounded incredulous.

The hell? Now that I think about it… Yeah, there was no trace of the warp that I could sense. Like it was never there. It was actually soothing. I said so aloud too.

"She's a Pariah." Anteas hissed again.

That gave me pause. As a Psyker, her very presence should be screaming kill me now, getting worse the closer the kid was. Instead, there was nothing.

"Are you sure?" I frowned. "I feel nothing that suggest she's a Pariah or a blank, though I haven't been close to one before."

"Very sure." Anteas growled and took a step back. I'm sure that I heard a sigh of relief coming from him.

"That's weird." I shrugged. "But potentially useful with Chaos and Eldar around."

"You want to use her?" The Librarian asked.

"Well, I'm certainly not leaving her here since she's not possessed or otherwise corrupted. Though a medical scan for nasty surprises will be in order I think. You're sure she's not a deamonhost or something?"

"Very. I've been close to blanks and a Pariah before. The feeling's unmistakable. How in the Emperor's name can you stand being so close to her?" Anteas exclaimed.

"No idea. I'm weird like that." I shrugged. "Hi there." I smiled and waved at the kid, who didn't react at all. Damn it, I wasn't a therapist or something. The little training I got for similar situations was going to be counter-productive in this case I thought.

"Santos. A ration bar and canteen. Call Pickos to have a female trooper waiting us at the entrance, our new friend might react better to a woman."

Trying to get the girl out of her funk with an offer of food and water didn't work. She simply wasn't here and didn't really react when I carefully pulled the corpse of her relative from her hands and picked her up.

Totally catatonic or whatever the scientific term was.

I growled. Just another life destroyed by the damn traitors. As if I needed another reason to burn them all.

​

=ATBS=​

Soon enough we were back at the entrance, after pausing for a few moments to burn the bodies of Requista's team too. We faced no resistance – the remaining traitorous Arbiters were either busy running or got ran down by the guardsmen and Astartes squad working with them.

"What's the plan, Lord Inquisitor?" Anteas asked after I handed the girl to a short, grizzled corporal, who rushed her out towards the waiting Chimeras. "You thought what you're going to do, I hope." Anteas appeared next to me.

"Go back to the capital and put and end to this damn mess. We have enough problems without trying to kill each other too." I dearly hoped that Captain Thule was going to recognize my new authority and rein in his Astartes. We had whole armies of Xeno to deal with – fighting among ourselves was going to doom us and every human on Kronus.

"Good, good." The Librarian muttered.

"Do you think Thule will challenge your Chapter Master's orders on my say so?" I asked.

Anteas was silent for a long moment. "I believe so. However, there are some of my brothers that would be mightily displeased by such a turn of events."

"How displeased?"

"That remains to be seen. I..." Anteas trailed off. The Astartes, who was standing just beyond the effective boundary of the girl's disruption effect stiffened. His head snapped up towards the plateau above the town.

"By the Emperor…" The Librarian whispered.

Turned around and stared. The sky was tearing apart as huge wisps of purple energy were rising from somewhere behind the horizon. Lances of blinding light descended from the heavens – likely the Space Marine's strike cruiser unleashing its weapons on the far side of the peninsula.

I had the sinking feeling that it was going to be too little too late.

The ground shook under our feet. A warm, wet wind started blowing in our faces. It carried a faint smell of decay.

I felt a fain pressure in my head but it was a distant thing, that was failed to find a purchase. I shuddered and took a step towards the Chimera with the kid we retrieved. The pressure suddenly vanished and I let out a sigh of relief. Whatever it was, it wasn't good for my health, I knew that much.

"We need to leave. Now." Anteas rasped. He stumbled towards the waiting Chimeras and straightened up once he got closer. "I've never been a witness to a Warp Storm being born." The Librarian groaned.

Above us, the tendrils of Warp energy continued to race towards space.

"Leftenant! We need to get the fuck out of here yesterday! Make your way to the Chimeras on the double and don't stop for anything! Move it!" I shouted in my vox.

"Affirmative! What's the situation? We're feeling something weird."

"A warp storm and something that looks like Chaos incursion."

"Shit. We're pulling out, now." The LT informed me.

"Sergeant, defensive positions, be ready for anything." I ordered the NCO left to oversee our ride back home.

"Yes, sir." The aging man said and started shouting orders.

"What are the odd that we'll be able to pull out without incident?" I asked Anteas.

The Librarian didn't answer and instead just starred at the boiling mass of warp energy that was starting to gather in high orbit.​