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With a bird's view… hidden within blue mist, he watched from afar, in coated sorcery… the city, from the hidden center he planned and schemed, as if all the chaos unraveling was but a song dance in his palm! A god who smiled… while his toys played their part… while the red and green and even the purple mist set aside their chess pieces…. In the midst of them, they never notice… the game was always in "his" favor! For within his favored child's hands, holds the keys…
And while it stormed and rained from the tallest tower, the space elevator roared like an angry raven to the bugs who wished to destroy it! And while their blood poured with the rain, the primas of Tzeentch laughed while he said…
[foolish bugs… not yet!...not yet! As the game has only STARTED!]
→ Excerpt of a servant of Tzeentch ←
Treat them with honour, my brothers. Not because they will bring us victory this day, but because their fate will one day be ours."
→Quote by High Chaplain Astorath, codex: 5 edition ←
As Mary walked with 43-sea, between soldiers and guards, with the clanking of the tech priest and their servitors, and while the winged babies giggled, swinging back and forth their tapestry of prayers, Mary noticed that their hinges were burning! With wide eyes and a sense of unease, Mary looked around at the men, but seeing nothing but their nerves, she looked to the floor, and there, as Mary carried Layla in her arms, and as if to mock the beauty there of, there, hiding between the rails and seams of the metal floors, were rats!
Black and white… coated in a bloody pus! Eyes that seemed dead yet alive! Drool that seemed to fall unintentionally from their mouths… monsters hidden in the dark, swamped with flies!
With sweat beating down her cheek, Mary swore she saw the rat…smile! A grin so vile that half of its face was a festering horror! But before she could scream, as the door behind her slowly closed in her vision, the rat stood up! And with laced stitches going from up and down his chest… the rat, as though it was sentient, grabbed hold of them… and tore them apart!
Releasing a black haze of insects that swarmed the room! And as the rat accepted death, while its rotten organs spilled onto the floor, the men left in the room were left vulnerable to the stings, the bites… and the crawling… And as if to match Mary's scream, the silence was just as loud, as the men never noticed the bite marks, the stings, nor the crawling in their open ears! Nor did they see the aging of the walls, as moss and mold formed at the bottom tips…
With the door shut, 43- sea turned to Mary and asked:
[What is the problem? Did something happen to our compatriots?]
Mary, hearing 43-sea words, turned to her and said:
[The archenemy is here! The soldiers… left in the chamber… are in danger! We have to help them! Open the door!]
[...]
[Well! 43-sea!]
[No…]
[no!... What! 43-sea… they can still be saved! Send in the servitors! You can control them, right?]
[Mary… by my calculations, there is nothing "alive" left in that chamber… the rats… have already done their parts… luckily, I was able to block any further entry through their pipe network, though this will merely prolong their entry into the heart of the city… as the bug they carry are far too numinous for any permanent soulution!]
[wait… hold on 43… I dont remember telling you that they were rats… how did you….]
[...]
Not hearing a reply, but understanding the silent stare, Mary's eyes go wide as she continues with a spark of anger:
[You knew…didn't you.. That the archenemy had already infiltrated the city! But then why didn't you say anything!]
[sigh… I didn't say anything as there was nothing more I could do; they had, after all, already infiltrated the port, since the beginning, in other words, we had brought them in…]
[We did?]
[Well, to be precise, not the rats, but the bugs… we are actually really lucky that none of us contracted anything during our travels and fights to get here! A fortune I would place on your sleepy sister, no doubt, but as to how, well… I'm still running the calculation for such things in the back of one of my sub-brains.]
With a continued look of confusion on Mary's face, 43 sighed again as she continued to explain:
[One does not kill a prince of an archenemy without suffering consequences! Our long history has already proven such points… In any case, I fear that with the death of a servant of "him," these are his last "gifts," as he would probably say. Anyway, as I have observed through the eyes of the machine spirits, I have learned of their infestation ahead of time, but could not stop, as any simulation I ran only ended up in more or if not all of our deaths. This was the best course of action…]
[action… You did nothing…] replied Mary with a horrified look.
[oh! But I did…Mary… why do you think the conversation with the lieutenant ended the way it did?]
[I… don't know..] replied Mary after thinking for a few.
[to save time… time which allowed us to leave…]
Realizing the horrors behind those words, Mary's idea of a 43-sea change in but a moment as she said:
[still you could have warned…]
[No! A warning would only have gotten us killed faster!] replied 43 with a pause before continuing:
[Humans… with such elevated nerves and anxiety in such a stressful situation… well, you saw the lieutenant! What do you think would have happened if we had told him?]
[he…]
[he would have monologued and instigated for another 10 minutes if we didn't cut it short! And I know you can imagine what would have happened had we stayed in that room for another 10 minutes… no… I chose the best possible outcome for us all!] cut in 43-sea like it was a matter of fact, with an expression that showed a cold exterior.
[but the guard…]
[have served their duty as do all citizens of the imperium, have done before and after them! And if it's any consultation, the machine spirit left inside will grant them the emperor's mercy in our absence… now enough of these trivial matters, time is short, we must hurry to the epercenter of the city!] reply 43-sea with her back turned to Mary, with a balled up fist.
[curse these human emotions… maybe I should have listened to my predecessors and had them further removed… to be closer to…machine…] thought 43-sea to herself as the party continued on their way.
And while they walked, the men left inside began to cough out blood and vomit, in a room that smelled of rot, their flesh tore as delusion ate at their minds! Horror filled guardsmens turned on each other! Gunfire and screams were recorded on screens, as 43-sea could still see them through her connection to the machine spirit still left in the room…
[Why are you showing me this…]
[you…asked…for… this…]
[for this? I didn't ask for this… I asked for a better understanding of what you are…clipaseus…]
[you…did… and… I… show… You must…learn…limit…] replied the clipaseus, ending the conversation in the mind.
With 43-sea left with more questions than answers, Mary took one last look behind her and sighed, as she looked down at Layla, her sister… her friend… and with all the emotion that it came with, Mary made her choice as she turned her back from the door, even ignoring the screams… the gun shots… and then the silence…
As their steps echoed through the halls, Molly, who was inside the armory just outside the port entrances. In a room filled with all manner of weapons that the imperium has to offer! Weapon and armour, a mixture of both the Astra Militarum and Adeptus Arbites branches of service. Focusing on the shield, she went through the slabs for the ogryns, to the assault shields, to the lockshields, and to the riot shields, but ending with a sigh…
[what? Battle sister? Are these shields not to your liking? Look, I'm sorry if our peasant armoury doesn't live up to your Sororitas!] said Wienart, a little annoyed by Molly's action.
[no… You got it wrong… Wienart.. It's not that I don't find your armor lacking in any short, to ours… It's just that… that neither ours nor these shields will last against the foes ahead…]
[...]
Having said her piece, Molly touched each shield, held each kind, and with a waver in her heart she made her choice…
[so… You choose the Lockshield.. Huh… don't you think it's a little big for you? I mean, I know that with your power armor you can lift it and all, but still, it's huge compared to you. Why not hear out my suggestion…]
[...] replied Molly with a frown
[sigh, look Molly, from experience I suggest you put that back and go with the suppression shield… It's better for women…as its defensive capabilities allow…] reply Wienart, but abruptly shut his mouth mid-sentence as Molly had already turned her back to him and started going through the melee rack. As if his voice didn't exist, this of course enraged Wienart, but even then, he wisely chose to keep his mouth shut.
Going through the long list of weapons, Molly eventually found the one that sat just right in her hands… the Dominator maul! A power mace that was just as good as any other. And while it sparked, the light in the room shone on all the guns in the room, from bolters to snipers to all manner of firearms, but none so much as caught her eye but one… A shotgun of the Lucius pattern, a type of shotgun that had no business being here.
Touching it… and feeling its cold metal caused memories of its maker to flood her mind! She saw the forge world, she saw the segmentum of Obscurus! She felt the fire, and the heat… she smelled the sulfur and the vision of Krieg troops! She watched them rush enemy lines… dying…for duty… for repentance…for a sin not their own…
[oh! Now that's surprising.. I thought for sure you would have picked a flamer or a bolter as your main weapon… but a shotgun of all things.. Now that's something I wasn't expecting, but before you get all too excited, sister, I must warn you that this pattern may be powerful but... and I can't emphasize this enough, so... it is known to suffer mechanical failures…Knowing that, are you sure you still want to use it?] asked Wienart, but failing to notice Molly's mental state.
After coming to, as the vision ended, and light returned to her eyes, Molly looked at the shotgun in her hands and thought to herself, as she rubbed its metal surface gently, as to remove the years of dust…
[You have been through a lot… haven't you… It's an honor to weld you in battle… I won't let you rot in this insufferable place any longer!]
As to response to her will, the shotgun spun its own revolving case! Seeing such a scene caused Weinart's eyes to bulge out from the shock! And with a hand on his chin, he only sighs, as he chokes it up to another machine spirit micale event…
[so… what ammo do you want?] said Wienart with a smile as he held out a box of inferno rounds.
Finally geared and ready to leave, she thanked Wienart with a nod, and just as she was a few feet from the door, to head back to the train port, the air turned thick! As the Pipes made a horrified noise as if something was crawling through… the lights flickered, as the door wouldn't open… to both their confusion, the scratching in the pipes got louder and louder…
With shotgun in hand, she looked up with Wierant with his own auto gun, but just as the scratching became deafening… silence came just as quick! Looking at each other, Molly dropped the visor on her helmet just as the lights in the room shut off!
There in awkward silence, the pair again exchanged glances, but this time Molly could see the fear within Wienart! And just when she was about to say something…
[Bam!]
The wall to her left suddenly erupted with a bam! Then… another! And another! Until the metal waned and bent! Hearing circuits snap and tear! Molly never blinked… as the metal panel flew at her!
Shooting her gun out of reflex, and feeling the metal panel slide off her armour with a ping, Molly felt the wet sensation of fresh blood as she stared at a servitor! Her shot taking its arm as it roared!
But fast for a libotmized corpse, the servitor spun in front of her, with its golden eyes! Standing between her and the way out! Annoyed that this moving corpse would get in her way, Molly pressed the trigger again, but this time with a clear view of the servitor chest!
But to her surprise, the gun in her hands did not fire, and neither did the one in Wienart's hands! Panicked, Wienart roared as he quickly grabbed a sword off the wall, and in between the rotating light between shifting fan blades, he attempted to charge at the servitor, only to be stopped by Molly's hand!
[What are you doing! Sister!]
[Calm down…] replied Molly as she stared through her visors at the servitor.
The servitor whoms eye glowed just below, of what remained of the weak lighting… but with vocal cords broken by tubes and years of unuse, the servitor could only grunt like an animal as it suddenly shifted its head, and like a hammer used its own skull to crush the door controls! Sparks and flames quickly claimed its body as it squirmed and twitched like a worm!
[great.. Just great… You see, battle sister… now what, huh! Now, how are we supposed to head back into the train port? I knew you shouldn't have stopped me!]
[Wienart… The machine spirits never move without a reason, especially to this degree… so, instead of complaining, why don't you find us a way out of here instead? And one that hopefully doesn't go back to the train port!]
Confused why Molly would say such a thing, Wienart turned to face her and asked:
[You don't want to go back there? What about your other sisters?]
[hmm… Wienart… think about it for a moment, if the machine spirits are fighting this hard to stop us from going back in there, then there has to be a reason why, as such, I will just have to place my faith in that and let it go.]
[Really? For such a simple reasoning? Wouldn't you rather check things out with your own eyes… your sister could be in danger.]
[... normally, if you had asked me that before my journey here, I would have agreed with you, but after experiencing what I have seen…no… I believe they are fine… however…]
[however? What?]
[sigh, I didn't get down my box…]
[your box?]
[never mind, I will just come back for it later, it's not like I can use what's inside right now anyway…]
[Okay, well, I don't have any idea what you're talking about, but with that door now broken, the only way out is through the ventilation systems that will throw us out into the sewer slums of the city! So, I hope you don't mind the smell… sister…]
[It's alright, my system has its own filter, as for you.. Sorry…]
[is that so… dammit! In any case, have you tried reaching out through your comm link to let the others know?]
[yes, I've been trying for a while now, but it doesn't seem to be getting through…]
[Well, I can't say I'm surprised. These train port areas have extra precautions against non-hard-wired comms… but I figured it was worth a try…well, once we enter the slums, you should be able to reach someone.. Hopefully…]
As the girls went their separate ways: In the northern part of the city, in the noble housing district:
Heads from human servants bowed as the ship's door opened, and while they sweated and feared, a creature as evil as any god crawled out from within, and carried on his shoulders the weight of his sins… a mirrored portal, accompanied by a beauty of a statue, life-like and gorgeous, where each step emphasized her hips and waist…
Then behind her was the ship crew, three cowards, though claiming a minor victory, they dared not rejoice, as they continued to walk blindly and obediently, with their heads just as bowed as any other servant in attendance.
And while they entered the ballroom, a dance room with an empty throne, where the governor had once given out his decrees, but had returned as the monster he always was… a room filled with dancing naked women and men, with nothing but an animal masked, and some in slaved dresses in all manner of lustful attire, there the feast and festival, the triumph return they believed were coming, became a source of fear instead of happiness…
Too nervous to speak to even welcome them home, the butlers and servants, and guards all kept to themselves as if knowing their death awaited any whom spoke first… And when the beauty arrived by the throne, all she saw was a monument of disgust!
Shattering its foolish display with one hand, she had her monster place down the mirror, there staring into its swirling vortex, she heard the whispers of her master…
[hurry! And spread… the perfect time is near… the pity bird can only keep the way open for so long! We must have her! Before them!]