I return, with Part Two of this chapter. Enjoy it!
Thanks to Kamui and Fourmyle,' Paradox's Chosen over on Discord for creative feedback and editing
Watching the Sisters finally get airborne over sensors was oddly warm for me. Maybe it's because I knew what they were about to experience, and knowing that they would be the first of the Imperium to actually broach into that hallowed realm of the Valkyries...and all of the myriad bullshit that one was capable of when they had a core partner.
Musings aside, I had a lesson to teach, and a gaggle of eager students to teach it to.
I was currently cruising at a 'mere' mach four or so, keeping the speed down a bit so that the others could adjust their flight patterns as needed. So far, the Sisters were doing quite admirably at keeping up, and from what I could hear of their comms chatter, were ecstatic at the ability shown by their new gear.
Mio, on the other hand, was making a point of gluing herself as closely to my side as possible, even while I made lazy-ish evasive maneuvers to spoil the orbital fire that would be coming down soon. That she was making it look surprisingly easy was expected of her. After all, she was my Dragon, and as such was superior in all things.
[The flattery will not save you. I will be punishing you for this. And I mean an actual punishment, not just you getting more playtime with me like normal.]
I pointedly ignored the subtext of what would happen after. Right now, I needed to focus.
My sensors started lighting up with the bands of detection from the orbital assets as they attempted to get a bead on our group. At this low speed, getting out of the sensor return range wasn't going to happen, but at the same time, we weren't kicking up enough of a displacement wake to be detectable from that alone without a bit of jiggering, either. That left me a good few clear zones to navigate my little ducklings though as a test exercise.
I quickly rearranged my comms channels for the new squad arrangement, then went to all-call. "Alright ladies, now that we're airborne, I am going to give you a, and pardon the pun, crash course in the general combat operation of a Valkyrie Core. This is not meant to be all-encompassing, but it does cover the basics easily enough."
I paused to await any questions, and received none. Guess they are used to it for now.
"First off: the Core itself is just an enabling platform for everything else. The actual hardware that the core supports is integrated into what is referred to as the Frame. These Frames can have varying abilities depending on loadout, but a key point to remember is that by default and due to the core itself, all Frames are at least partially flight capable and have access to the core's Impeller function.
"Now, the Impeller is a complex as fuck piece of work, but the short version is that it is a multipurpose field controlled by the user and utilized in various ways even beyond what you have demonstrated previously. One of the more common high-end skills is the ability to literally teleport via a bit of spatial manipulation. The abilities of the Impeller field are limited only by the user of the frame and associated core ability, so remember that the sky is the limit. Sister Superior, I am sending you and yours a condensed rundown of the capabilities known to me. There are more that are theorized, as well, and I strongly urge you to test and refine those as time goes."
The document I'd sent out was just that: a list of notes and theories regarding the IF and its use. Some of it would be enabled by their cores themselves as they continued to sync, now that they knew the possibility was there. As for the rest, practice was a thing,
I continued my lecture. "Most important to the operation of a Valkyrie Core of any kind is the synchronization rate, and sync length. Basically, your capabilities are initially determined by your sync rate, which is a measure of how compatible you are with the core itself. This is unimportant in the long run, as merely by being synced to your core, the rate will increase, and eventually allow you to move and act as if the core was a full extension of your being. This is the Sync Length, usually measured in hours synced over one's lifetime. The more you have, the better you can be.
"This means that veteran Valkyries are all the more dangerous than newbies, because they have more control over the things their core can offer and do, as well as potentially having a unique system or three due to the upgrade process. This brings us to the third point of the Valkyrie Core, and one that needs repeating even now: everything that is integrated into the Core itself to form the Frame, and everything that is stored inside of the Impeller field, will upgrade itself over time. Doesn't matter what it is, it will upgrade and even repair itself as well. As the process goes on, the equipment and layout of each core's frame becomes unique and personalized to the individual who uses it. Keep that in mind, as those cores will likely last far beyond your own deaths."
[INCOMING MISSILES]
I was forced to pause in my explanation again as I got everyone to dodge the beginnings of the orbital response, which for now was being strangely constrained compared to what I was expecting. I fired a scan up into the atmosphere to check, and confirmed that we were not in some kind of blind zone or sensor hole or another. It did beg the question of why they weren't shooting at us, though.
"I have a question!" The radio sounded off, the Identifier listing it as Sister Mariel. "The storing things part: that was what we did to get the upgrades to our power armor installed, right? Is that possible for other things?"
I had to suppress a chuckle at the sheer earnestness in her voice. Mariel's love of all things technical was clear to see for everyone who didn't try and desperately keep their heads in the sand out of fear of drawing the ire of the Mechanicus. In any other universe she would likely have become a solid grease monkey and loveable wrench wench for some lucky person.
Here, she's just another cog in the machine of war. Or, at least, she was.
"Yes, Mariel, the Impeller field stores things kind of similar to a dimensional pocket, and the more things are integrated into the core, and specifically the more complex those things are, the stronger and larger the Impeller Field gets. It's something related to the way the cores are set up, and is a bit complex for right now," I subtly guided the group around another swarm of Missiles as they swarmed again "with the constantly having to dodge incoming fire thing. I'll drop an overview on you after we're clear. Also, everyone, prepare for hypersonic bow shock and form up on me."
Mio poked me through our link, even as she all but yelled at me. "Hypersonic? When did we hit Hypersonic speeds? We were only going at Mach 4!!"
I barely suppressed a chuckle. "Yep. Keyword were. I've been bumping the speeds up ever since everyone caught up. I was waiting to see if anyone would notice."
Mio's growling was super cute, and besides, I could feel the immense spike of interest and wonder that was hidden behind it anyway. That she only growled more at my reaction was icing on the cake for me.
The addition of what looked suspiciously like siege weaponry to the mix of stuff I was having to thread through was another matter. If this shit kept up, we might actually get clipped by something. Hell, we hadn't even made it to the racetrack holding route that I'd set up. The fuck?
"So then...are we actually going to get to our destination sometime today?" Interestingly, it was Sister Annalise who was snarking at me about the inconvenience of travel times.
The fact that she felt comfortable enough to snark at me was proof enough that they were becoming well aware of just why I was so confident of our utter superiority in the skies.
"I'm working on it. As you can see, the orbital cover is being a little insistent on not letting us do as we please." As if on cue, another set of energy weapons fire lit up the sky around us, this time actually coming close to hitting. I guess the Mechanicus ships have better tracking systems for their guns than the standard for the Imperial Navy.
"Alright people, it's about to get really fucking annoying in a bit, now that the top cover has got their heads on straight. Watch your sensors and don't fly in a predictable pattern, and with luck we should be able to outrun the tracing systems the guns use."
I kicked up the speed to an equally leisurely (for a Valkyrie, anyway) Mach 7. A bit of minor impeller control took the worst of the bow shock and turbulence and...not quite cancelled it so much as redirected it away from my person and the rest of the flight as we passed by, loose as our formation was. Both Mio and the Sisters were able to keep up with no complaints as I swung around another attempt at a heavy orbital strike and mushed us closer to our stage.
You would think by now that the people in charge would have figured out that it's not happening and sic some recon elements on us instead…
Mio never said a word, but the extremely sharp feeling of negativity I got from her was answer enough.
"This...this is beyond anything I had imagined. We're moving so fast...how is this possible?"
Ah. seems that Sister Beatrice had finally hit her limit of stoicism.
"Mostly through extremely advanced science, the likes of which have been long-lost since the Dark Age of Technology." Mio's Response seemed to grab the attention of the Sisters. "We, Humanity, were once more than capable of doing all sorts of wondrous things, and then came the fall, and now we poke and scrape at the remains in a vain hope for an echo of reflected glory.
"Now? The planet below burns simply because an archive of such knowledge has been even found. And this is by other Humans, other otherwise loyal citizens of the Imperium. Imagine how our enemies will react?"
It was a sobering thought, that the Mechanicus would do this to a loyal world simply for possessing an STC, but that's the Imperium for you: a giant, crumbling mass of contradictions and broken promises rotting from the inside. I was honestly unsure if even the Emperor himself could save what was left.
I decided to change the subject. "We can't do anything about that right now. What we can do is fight the enemies of Mankind to the best of our ability and strength, and ensure that even now they have no room to maneuver...and receive no mercy from our Fury."
I got the impression of nods coming from the Sisters, and a feeling of warmth and encouragement from Mio as we continued dodging the weapons fire from above, and now even some from below, as well. From the looks of it, they'd managed to get the main complements of the ground forces on-planet and deployed for action, including a number of Titans, all of which were adding to the bullet hell that we were threading our way though. It was getting a little hairy, in fact.
Which meant that we were doing a very good job at being distractions. And it was giving the Sisters some good practice in operating their Frames. It did help that they were all inherently highly compatible, to the point that in another world they may have been labeled as prodigies.
The air was becoming a clogged mess now, bullets and missiles and energy weaponry coalescing everywhere at once in maddening patterns. And yet, not a one actually came into contact with us. The Sisters were adapting shockingly well to adjusting their impellers for best flight practices, directing the otherwise lethal wake and heat of hypersonic flight away from not only themselves but the rest of us with almost contemptuous ease.
It was around now that the guns arrayed against us started finding their marks...to negligible effect. The lasers from above were getting hit with some severe attenuation issues, and were bleeding a lot of their power to the atmosphere due to being designed for orbital use. Thing is, even with that being accounted for, I didn't think that they could have punched through even the weakest Impeller of our little ragtag group...and we were simply moving too fast for anything on the ground to hit us with anything less than a miracle shot.
And it was only those Lasers that were hitting. The missiles had stopped a while back after it became clear that wasn't working, and the various esoteric energy weapons that were being employed each had their own problems that made them ineffective. The one that I was worried about for a bit, a weapon that looked like it was a souped-up tesla coil, proved useless when the bow shock of our passing screwed up the ion channel needed for the weapon to discharge into us properly.
I oddly found myself…disappointed? [I knew this was going to be relatively easy, but this is kind of...sad. I expected...more?]
[Well, we're actually cruising at Mach seven, and this is definitely not even close to top speed. Combine that with the fact that the only weapons they have fast enough to hit us are ineffective because of distance and, well…]
Mio was trying to keep her wonder and elation from her side of the link, but unfortunately for her our link was very much a two-way street. She got to ride in my head at will, I got to do the same to her. And there was no hiding, not even in here. I was curious as to what my punishment was going to be for this stunt, though.
[Oh, don't worry. I will make sure that it is appropriate. Something to teach you the value of restraint.]
It was about now that our sensors (and only our sensors) picked up the burst of magical power coming from the direction of Hive Primus.
Seemed like Harry had gotten started, then.
One of the Sisters, Lisbeth I believe, let out a whoop of utter joy at her newfound ability and power, reveling in the sheer freedom it brought.
And to think, this was just flying. Wait' till they actually have to fight something!!
Our Racetrack pattern was a wide, semi-randomized setup placed well away from things considered important by the planetary government. It was a risk doing this, as the Mechanicus could bring down yet more firepower on our heads, but it was a small price to pay for being able to keep their attention.
I figured it was time to really kick it up a notch before I let the Sisters loose on their own initiative.
"Alright ladies, last lesson before we split up and everyone does their own thing. You may have felt that pressure from the speed as we've been zooming around?"
"Our Armor compensates for most of it, but the force is still noticeable." Mariel responded. "It's not really that big of a deal, even at top speed like we are now."
Oho...they thought...hoo boy.
"Two things. First, you will want to learn how to do inertia damping eventually for high acceleration profiles for later on. Second...this is not your top speed. Not even close. The air isn't even properly burning yet."
Even in the middle of the worst set of aerial interdiction I had ever even had nightmares of, the silence was deafening. Mio, for reasons of her own, acted surprised along with the Sisters, though it was wholly unnecessary.
"Alright ladies, kicking it up a notch to Mach 10. Racetrack is extending, try and avoid crossing your wakes unless you can control yourselves, and be careful about the Gees. if you can't hold the pace, don't force it, just work on your inertial cancel until you can."
The sudden commands and change in tempo snapped them out of their haze of wonderment, and got their minds back in the game. With any luck, it should only take about four rotations for the Sisters to pick up the needed skills, and then we could get to the next phase.
I was curious about how Harry was holding up, though. I could still feel the mana spike from whatever he did.
Eh. I'm sure he's fine.
Harry was anything but fine at the moment.
Under normal circumstances, this would have him taking out his frustrations on the source of his predicament, but this was complicated by the fact that the source was a fucking Eldar. Dealing with the knife-ears was always an exercise in near hopeless patience at best. That the obvious Farseer was going out of her way to try and make his life miserable in particular was just the garnish on his shit sandwich.
And everything else was going to shit around him, too. Primus was a madhouse, with Skitarii everywhere, brutally cracking down on the populace and asserting the Mechanicus' will. This was amplified by the residual Chaos complements from the hellstorm incident deciding to come out of the woodwork and make some noise as well, which had the portions of the PDF that actually had something looking like cohesion completely tied up. The sudden and unexpected ganger uprising from a lot of the small-timers trying to take advantage and move up was just more fuel to the fire...and more cannon fodder for his advance.
The reason he was anything but fine was because everyone seemed to treat him as the single biggest threat in the area and would regularly team up for the sole purpose of putting him down by any means necessary. That they were all failing miserably was of no consequence, they were still annoying as fuck.
"WILL YOU ASSHOLES PLEASE LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE!?!"
"Fuck you, you piece of--" The dissenting voice was silenced by a bolt of photon particles as Harry took exception to his idiocy. The stationary turrets he'd deployed chewed up another group trying to move in, and his more mobile mana orbs (something that he remembered Satori calling 'Options' at one point while they were training) kept the rest mostly honest. Still, he was having to slog through hell for every fucking yard, which was not a fun proposition.
Beside him, Rico sliced down another set of chaos cultists with little fanfare and even less mercy. "Where the hell are they coming from?" he shouted. " I'm pretty sure I've killed that same guy five times already!!"
"I don't know!" Harry yelled back, cutting down yet another cultist, just as the Skitarii assigned to this area decided to test their luck. "Just keep pushing for the main square! We can get reoriented there!!"
"Oh, sure! We go to the same square that is absolutely crawling with bad guys!! GREAT CALL HARRY!!"
A plinking sound rippled through Rico's barrier as another of the Eldar snipers decided to try their luck. "AND CAN SOMEONE PLEASE KILL THE GODDAMNED ELVES ALREADY!?!"
A second, angrier plink was his response, along with what looked like a burst of focused psionic power.
Harry cursed under his breath. This was getting them nowhere. It didn't matter that they could mow everything down for miles, there were simply too many bodies that could be thrown at them at once, and even if they couldn't kill either of them, the opposition could most definitely slow them down. Considering that Harry was pretty sure that Van Saar was on an increasingly short time limit and the problem became clear.
Teleporting was out of the question. Setting up even a short-range dimensional transfer would take too long, and all of the other utility teleport spells were made with open spaces in mind, not the confines of an Imperial Hive city. Assuming the safeties would work correctly, he either wouldn't teleport at all or would telefrag himself. Both were poor options.
He vaguely heard someone shouting something about striking quickly, and tossed a shield in that general direction just as the incoming fire from yet another Eldar contingent came in to ruin his day.
Asking why the knife-ears were even on planet to begin with could wait until later.
Right now, it was time for a new approach.
"Rico, form up behind me. I'm plowing through this mess the hard way."
Rico wasted no time in complying, even as Harry formed a new set of planar shields in front of him in a wedge formation. Anchoring them to a fixed distance from his person, he tossed as much residual mana as he would spare into a physical enhancement.
And then he became the wrecking ball, plowing through everything in his path, completely uncaring of return fire or--
The loud *CLANG* sound was his only warning before everything came to an abrupt stop, and he had to quickly reverse-motor to not plow into his own shield.
The distinctive laughter of an Eldar echoed in the mess.
"Buggers are getting annoying as hell right now…"
Rico shielding against a rather massive laser assault forced Harry to refine his focus on the current situation. Right now, they were once again surrounded on all sides, everyone trying their damnedest to put the two of them in a grave. Direct return fire on those angles was inadvisable, simply due to the sheer amount of firepower being put out, so Harry stuck to deploying more turrets and using a mana-based version of telekinesis to move the ones that were already set up. The surprise of the guns being retrenched caused quite a bit of chaos among the opponent lines...and, as usual, completely failed to affect the Eldar in any way.
Annoying little shits…
"Any suggestions, mate? We're kind of getting dug in here!1" A plasma cannon shot from a--was that a fucking CHAOS SPACE MARINE!?! THE FU--
"No idea!! They keep coming, and I'm running out of ways to take them out safely!!"
Harry risked a moment to get a snapshot on the Traitor Marine with his rifle, a clean particle shot punching straight through the forward plate. The lack of an exit point concerned him, though.
"HARRY!!"
It was a pure reflex move. One moment, he was behind cover, contemplating his next action. The next, he was fully thirty feet away, the place where he used to be hunkered down at obliterated by a swirl of chaotic power. He could feel the taint from here, it was so bad.
'Of all the fucking…' This was why he left the chaos shit to the Ordo Hereticus. Dealing with that on a regular basis was not a thing that let you retain your sanity.
Too bad none of them were here now to actually do their fucking jobs.
"That was entirely too close for comfort…"
"Then we shall remove the safeties this time."
Harry snapped, flinging himself away from his position, but it was already too late. The Eldar Warp Spider (now recognizable for what it was by the armor it wore) had a clean shot on his person, and utilized it to full efficiency...only to watch it fail against his Knight Armor, with only minor actual penetration of the defenses. The Eldar, being no fool and veteran of the games of war, quickly relocated himself away from the retaliatory strike thrown his way.
Harry, on the other hand, now found himself dodging fire from all sides, the better shields not having enough time to set up before he had to vacate his position again, in some kind of cruel game of cat and mouse. Worse, it seemed that the entire point of the weapons fire was to separate him from Rico, who had rather abruptly found himself under a furious assault.
Wait a minute…
Harry opened a telepathic channel as he re-set his position and compared it to where he needed to go. A cultist tried his luck against the new redoubt and rather abruptly was missing a torso.
{Rico, I think they know you swiped the STC before, and are trying to get to you to either collect it or reveal where it is. Be careful!!}
Another wash of weapons fire forced Harry to abandon his position, again, sending him even further away from Rico, who was now receiving the full attention of the groups arrayed against them. The good news was that it put him in a rather appealing position to disengage and complete the actual objective of this mission, and collect the Van Saar holdouts.
{Let them think that, and don't worry about me. Go get the stragglers, I can hold here all day!}
A wave of magical power punctuated this statement, clearing a wide space around Rico of opponents...and drawing yet more fire in return.
Harry sighed internally, not wanting to leave someone to their own fate, especially not the being that he saw as a teacher and mentor. Still, needs must, and getting some more weapons on target might help them in getting out when it mattered…
Deploying his last set of fixed turrets to hopefully hold something like a back line, he retreated into the now-open alleyways and avenues and continued his search.
Sometimes you had to just trust your teammates.
Rico was not having fun anymore.
Sure, at first it was interesting to see how he measured up against the new opposition, but...things had changed. The enemy forces, upon seeing him, seemed to focus on either killing off Harry or separating the two of them as quickly as possible while blocking escape routes. That they had successfully done so, only to then refocus entirely on him, was just mean.
Of course, then Harry had to suggest that they were after the STC that he was believed to have stolen, thanks to his Lord's little bit of subterfuge...at least some of them, anyway.
Those big scary power armored guys (He thought that he 'heard' Harry thinking something about 'Traitor Marines? It was hard to tell with only a barebones battlefield link) seemed to be after something else entirely, judging from the level of intent he was getting from them. Not to mention the ever-creeping attempts at bypassing his system protections getting to his main core...as if he didn't already have enough issues.
Stupid Chaos corruption. And stupid whatever that weird guy was that kept trying to attack his coding with that vile energy. Seriously, you would think that after the asshole Dark Mechanicus guy bit it by his hand while trying to use scrapcode against him would have learned…
But nooo. Now his freaking armored friends came for the ride.
"Hey you!! Big Ugly!! Try out the new flavor of Icicle!!"
Tossing a suddenly fuckhuge ice spear directly at one of the Traitor Marines was quite cathartic to his sensibility, especially as he had been mostly using his magic to incapacitate people, not kill them...with some notable exceptions, of course.
Right now, though? This was him pissed off, and these idiots got the special treatment.
"Hope you dumbasses like fire!!!"
The Foie technique, is, at first glance, highly simple. Just a fire spell converted to photonics usage and semi-directable as a result.
In Rico's grubby little hands? Even this humble manifestation was enough to light a bonfire.
And from the looks of it, the Chaos guys weren't liking it. At all. Even causing them to start fighting amongst themselves, too. Maybe different commanders on that side?
Whatever. He needed to hammer the gap before--
"Strike Quickly!! Strike Now!!"
And of course the goddamned elves decided now was a perfectly good time to interfere, and from the looks of it they were attempting a capture…a very elaborate one, at that, and that would have succeeded rather nicely if he hadn't seen it coming.
As it was, dodging the attempt was child's play, even baiting one of the fucking elves into eating a plasma bolt meant for him instead, much to the dismay of the poor thing that was trying to steal him from his Lord.
It was times like these, he really disliked the directive that he had been given to not just scour the planet clean. He could do it, too, and alone even, without needing a unison partner.
But nooo. Lord needed everything to stay intact for some reason or another. So here he was, holding back and trying to avoid property damage, even as everyone else around him played out their overly elaborate (or sometimes completely nonexistent) plans to capture or corrupt him for their own ends.
At least the Enforcers were acting regularly. They were trying (and failing) to fight against the chaos cultists and their power armored buddies, and unfortunately dying pointlessly as well, which was a shame.
"Again! It is distracted!!"
Dodging around the repeated elven attempt to capture him (and telekinetically crushing the damned green cloak asshole trying for the trouble), he took a quick glance at his surroundings.
Enemies on the left, the Skitarii forces of the Mechanicus Dominus fleet.
Enemies on the right, the remnants of the forces of Chaos plus their new friends.
Enemies in front, the local idiots, a conglomeration of mixed gangsters and wannabes, along with the remains of the disorganized PDF units.
Enemies to the rear, the Elves and their bullshit.
Rico couldn't help but smirk. 'Excellent.'
"I HAVE THEM RIGHT WHERE I WANT THEM!!!"
And with that, he unleashed a combined attack a full two magnitudes above what had been getting thrown around previously.
The confusion on all sides was temporary.
Their Doom was Eternal.
Mio surprisingly found herself lost in thought as the deadly dance in the skies continued.
Since she had awakened to this new world, this new Imperium, she had been witness to many things that one would consider to be...abnormal. Everything from the nature of the forge itself, to her odd partnership with the man that was meant to be her master, now turned on its head because of her impulsiveness...which had instead won her the love of her life.
That the two were the same man was inconsequential to things, even in the immediate term. He was Hers, and that was that. That she was having to enforce the corollary of that statement less often of late was a pleasant surprise and a joyous relief, as well.
She always loved it when he took the initiative in claiming her.
The changes to her form, even, were also as if a strange dream. The Draconic bits she was long-since used to, and enjoyed even. No, it was the underlying portions of that, the nanomachine colony that had miraculously fused itself to her flesh in a symbiosis so absolute that there was no difference between the two...that was the real prize. And one she had hoped to share with the Imperium of this galaxy.
Only to find that the Imperium she knew and the Imperium that was the reality here were two entirely different things.
Her Imperium was a thing of strength, quiet and resolute honor buried under the weight of being the last bastion of order and reason against the unceasing hordes of Chaos. It was a place where millions died daily, their names forgotten, in defense of the realm, awaiting the day that The Emperor would walk among them once more. It was something that was worth fighting for, even when all hope seemed lost.
This place...this place was where that hope came to die.
Everything she had seen of here was betrayals after betrayal after soul-crushing betrayal, with the very Imperium itself seeming to have a vendetta against its own people. The Noosphere records had illuminated much for her, and her beloved's mind and memories gave her even more, as much as he tried to shield them from her.
The evidence was damning in its veracity.
Thousands upon thousands gathered onto the black ships, carted to Terra, where none returned....the vast majority fed to the Emperor to maintain his form. Xenophobia of a degree that was completely unheard of in her home, to the point that even the most minor of mutations was seen as a blight to be purged rather than something to be celebrated and adapted to, regardless of whether the afflicted one was loyal or not.
An Imperial Guard that had been set up to guard against itself as much as it did the Enemies of Mankind, and all of them under trained and ill-equipped to deal with the true threats of the galaxy, instead dying in droves, as that was the only real weapon they had: their numbers.
The Adeptus Terra itself, the Ministorum, distant and cold to those who it should have served, all of them mired in endless games and intrigues of their own making while their people suffered under an iron heel.
And then there was the worst part of all.
A Mechanicus that instead of pushing for advancement in the face of the horrors that Chaos and Xeno would inflict upon Humanity's attempts to rise up from the darkness, would instead snuff out that light, bury it in ignorance and fear, all the while hoarding the last shattered pieces of what they once were and calling themselves enlightened for it.
A Mechanicus obsessed with themselves, scavengers all, hungry for whatever knowledge they could steal and completely uncaring of what they could instead learn.
A Mechanicus that was willing to ravage an entire world, despite being loyal, solely to acquire an STC...that would have been given to them anyway, in due time.
All of this stood in contrast to the wonders she had been shown, of what could be done if only Humanity reached out to the future before them and didn't bury themselves in ignorance.
"Why? Why does it have to be like this?"
Her Satori perked up at the question, directing a portion of his focus to her as he always did whenever she spoke. It was something that she appreciated in him, that he was willing to listen.
"Why does this world...this Galaxy, have to be so...heartless?"
"Something, something, Chaos is the usual answer, honey. But somehow I don't think that was what you were referring to."
"No, I was not. I refer to the state of the Imperium, the blatant rot seeping out from its core, that none dare to stand against, and none strive to correct."
There was a flicker of concern from her Treasured, but she ignored it.
"This place...no one is actually fighting for anything but sheer survival, and even then they are nothing more than an endless fuel to the hopeless machine of war that this galaxy has become.
"This is not how we were meant to be, Satori."
She could almost see his frown, now. It was a sad thing that she had to ignore it.
"Humanity was meant to be more...and yet here we are fighting ourselves simply because one side wants the shiny more. Not that they will actually use it."
"Mio--"
"No, Satori. This entire situation is a sham. I appreciate you trying to save those who are loyal to the Imperium, but at this point even that is pointless. The Imperium itself is the issue."
She felt it then, that sadness and regret, a strange determination to see something through and a bitter resignation over something that was as yet beyond her. She had her suspicions.
"Mio. Are you sure you want to hear this?"
"Nothing you say will tell me anything I do not already know. This Imperium is all but beyond saving, Satori...and it is time that we both acknowledged that.
"Even now, the Mechanicus sacks a world for a database that we would have granted them, and would punish the inhabitants for something that none of them even knew existed.
"Even now, the very troops that are supposed to protect the people are being turned upon them in a last ditch effort for power. I know you can feel them, even from here."
Mio swept her hand across the battlefield, still dodging around the myriad weapons fire coming at them. "Look around. We have offered no struggle, and in fact are guided by those of the Adepta Sororitas...but they still try to shoot us down, Kill us with no explanations given and none asked for. Have they even asked for our purpose or identification?"
"Mio, we can't--"
"SAYS WHO?" she yelled back. " Who says we can't be a force of change, and actually save people instead of propping up a dead system? I had enough time to find all of the facts, and your own knowledge was enough to piece together what I did not know. The great project of the Emperor of Man is as undead as he is, in this galaxy. We have the power to fight for and save those who have been left in the darkness in his crusade. Let's actually use it for once!!"
Satori was silent. His thoughts, however...they swirled in turmoil, seeking a way to rebuff her even as he saw the truth of the matter...a truth that he fully intended to lay at the Emperor's feet, along with his failures. And even then, he could not choose, trying to find a way to walk the middle path and spare the Imperium the hammer blows that would be its undoing…
A blow that had already been delivered simply by the discovery of that STC, and the Mechanicus' reaction to it.
"I have seen so much since meeting you, you know. You showed me a path that I had long thought to be impossible, and a future that was not a fleeting dream to ward away the darkness. All around us, we have nothing but the selfish squabbling of the rats trying to be king of the sinking ship. We can begin the process of changing that here.
"Please. Let us create something better."
She knew, after all.
She knew full well that he refused to let it die, and wanted to save as many as he could from the coming days of darkness and pain. But...the Imperium was not capable of handling that task. As it was now, all it could do was hold the line as the sharks circled around…
"ARCHENEMY ON THE GROUND!!"
Her thoughts were interrupted by Sister Rikah shouting out over the comms, bringing to mind the last little bit of horror that was this galaxy.
The fact that Chaos had effectively already won, simply because the people were blind to the dangers it presented. That they were able to arrive here, in force, so quickly, and with, from the looks of it, actual Traitor Marines, no less, was a damning indictment.
Satori's thought that they were probably after him was ruthlessly smothered by her touch, countered with the fact that she was, by their own decision, just as much a beneficiary of this mess as he was. It was her forge too, after all.
Instead, she broke off her intended course and rose into the air, gathering power as she went.
The radio conversation that she had been having with her Treasured was instead switched to a general broadcast.
"This, all of this, it is rotted and broken. The foundations shattered beyond repair. And none here seek to fix what is so clear to those with eyes to see.
"Very well then. Since none of you have any intention to fix this...."
She raised her hands above her, into the air, cupped around an invisible point.
"Then it seems that The task falls to me."
The power gathered into her hands, a second sun blooming into the sky.
"Witness now, the fate of those who would willingly become enemies of man for their own gain."
Mio forced her gathered power into the sky, a sphere of energy surging and roiling even as it rose above her.
"Begone,"
The Sphere erupted.
And Destruction rained from the heavens.
Nope, it's not over yet. got one more part to this, at least.
Expect the Sisters of Battle to make their combat debut next time.
