Chapter 1 Part 8

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Inquisition

=ATBS=

Part 8​

Stonecutter village

Deimos Peninsula

Kronus

The search squads found a few similar sites, where people had barricaded themselves, to no avail. Neither prayer, stubbs or the few ruined lasguns we found had helped the poor bastards.

"Sir, General Alexander requested that we investigate further, while we search for the Lord Inquisitor." Leftenant Pickos said after coming out of the command Chimera.

"That's a given." I sighed. As if we didn't have enough problems already.

"There's another village at the other end of the valley. The main route to the plateau passes through it." I jumped, hearing a deep voice behind me. I whirled around, with an angry retort on the tip of my tongue and then froze.

The Librarian was towering over me, casually leaning on his warhammer. How the hell did someone so big and clad in at least half a ton of armor move so quietly, damn it?

"You need to keep better situational awareness." Anteas chided me. He was amused at my reactions, the cheeky bastard.

Why the hell did I have to land myself the only Space Marine with a sense of humor?!

"I'll keep that in mind, My Lord."

"Good. It would be a pity if you got yourself killed because you didn't pay attention. As I was saying, there's another settlement on our way. It might be our best bet for gathering some useful information." If there was anyone still alive there was left unsaid.

"It's not like we have much of a choice." I muttered.

"No sir. The Tau are mounting a major offensive to regain the plains leading to Victory Bay. General Alexander can't spare any more units right now."

"The same is true for the Blood Ravens. A large Ork horde is approaching our main base of operations. Unless we hit something very nasty, we won't be getting any support, perhaps even then depending on the situation on the ground. There are three squads ready for orbital insertion though the frontline has priority."

"Even a single Astartes squad should be more than enough to deal with whatever we find." The Leftenant perked up.

I face-palmed. "You had to say that!" I groaned.

Anteas just stared at the Lt and shook his head.

"What? It's Astartes we're talking about! People like him!" She pointed at the Librarian.

"That's it. We're all dead." I moaned.

"We still might get lucky. At least a few of us." Anteas nodded sagely. "Few days after the last time I heard such a thing, we were neck deep in Orks."

"We've checked the whole village, right?"

"Alpha and Beta squads are checking a few houses on the outskirts and we're done." The LT nodded.

"Unless they find something of note, we're leaving when they finish."

"Yes. I feel that our time is running out." Anteas stated.

That wasn't what I wanted or needed to hear.

"Any news about unexplained disappearances or settlements out of contact without a reasonable explanation?" I asked.

"A lot of people had vanished near the desert further in the mainland, though that may be due to the Tau or Ork bands. We've lost contact with more than a few towns and villages there, though with all the Xeno activity in the region, that didn't raise an eyebrow back at HQ. It might be the usual suspects." Pickos shrugged.

"Until we can send an unit there to check all we've got is guesses. We need to find the Inquisitor and end this nonsense. We have more than enough problems without killing each other!" I snapped.

"That's why I'm here." Anteus sighed. "Unfortunately most of my company would rather follow our orders and purge everyone off this planet."

=ATBS=

Jenova Town

Deimos Peninsula

Kronus

At least the region wasn't completely deserted. About ten kilometers from the village, we started seeing people tending the fields surrounding the road. It was reassuring after the bloodbath we found. Even better, there were no accidents or anything else to slow us down.

We reached the town about a hour after sunset.

This place was a stark contrast to Stonecutter. Jenova was lit up so we could see it long before we actually approached. The town was much bigger than the small settlement that got massacred and perhaps that's what saved. Or it was simply a matter of distance from the base of whatever did the slaughtering.

Jenova had its inhabitants present too. We could see small groups of the locals clustered on street corners, talking or simply minding their own business. They were staring and pointing at us, especially once they saw our Space Marine.

The sight should have brought us a measure of relief. Instead...

That's where the veneer of business as usual ended. I could see the faces and eyes of some of the people, those staying close enough to street lights.

They weren't happy to see us, or even concerned. No. A lot of them were plain terrified. That starter ringing alarm bells in my head. If they were out of contact with a nearby settlements and had people vanishing, something that was likely, they should have been overjoyed or at least relieved by our arrival.

With the citizenry being anything but, well... that was problematic. I had the sneaking suspicion that we just found the nest of Heretics Requista had been searching for.

"Look alive people, this smells like trouble." I spoke.

Santos, who had been watching the sights nodded and Voxed a warning to the rest of the platoon just in case if they hadn't noticed.

Despite the irregular behavior of the locals we drove through the outskirts, heading for the town's center where the local arbiters and administration buildings were located.

Our destination turned out to be a cross between a moderately sized plaza for a town of this caliber, crossed with a park. There were a few ten story buildings to our right – the administrative and law enforcement centers for the whole peninsula were situated here even if the biggest populated centers were fifty or so kilometers south of here, build over the far end of the plateau.

When we arrived we found a welcome committee waiting for us. There were two men in the robes of the Admisnistratum and a single cog-head clad in the customary red, who had six mechatendrils waving gently behind his back. Each of the artificial limbs ended into either a weapon or tool.

A few steps behind the trio we could see two rows of a dozen Arbiters each. A couple of PDF squads were marching towards the waiting people from the left side of the plaza. From here it looked like they had flak vests and Lasguns.

"I hope we would avoid a few hours of speeches and posturing." Santos muttered.

"We'll just have to sick the Librarian on them." I spoke cheerfully, though I couldn't shake the feeling of impending doom. "It's time to face the music."

I stood up and straightened up my clothes, though it didn't do much for my appearance under the carapace armor. I made sure that my Sigil was visible around my left wrist and pressed the button opening the ramp.

The rest of the platoon was already disembarking. The squads were taking defensive positions around the Chimeras, not even trying to pretend that they were doing otherwise.

The apparent leader of the trio ready to meet us, just smiled at our blatant display of distrust and paranoia.

It wasn't a nice smile either.

I walked towards them, flanked by the Stormtroopers. A few seconds later Pickos joined us, shadowed by a squad of her men. Anteus finished up our procession when he took the right flank after retrieving his warhammer.

The Librarian's very presence should have been enough to insure that any pissing match came to a rather abrupt and embarassing end if the locals were dumb enough to try.

Instead they were smiling at us as if they knew something we didn't.

"Sir, look right." Santos muttered.

My head snapped in that direction. There were a lot of civilians moving through the park and heading our way. Scores of them at least.

"It's same here." Pickos whispered from my left.

That wasn't sinister at all. Nope.

My hands fell over my weapons, ready to draw them at a moment's notice. It appeared that we found our Heretics.

I whispered a prayer and touched the Warp, letting its energies course through me. I could feel the blazing presence of Anteus next to me as he did the same.

"You're supposed to run this little excursion, Veil. Let's see how you're going to play this." I could hear the Librarian's voice in my head. While there was a bit of amusement in his tone, it couldn't hide the grim determination that practically oozed from the man.

Then my perception washed over the waiting party.

Their presence was wrong. I could feel the touch of the Warp on their souls and it felt revolting, like a festering wound and spilled blood.

Yep. We found our heretics all right.

I smiled at the bastards and took a step in front of my companions.

"Inquisitor Requista. Where is he?" I wasted no time with pointless pleasantries. There was only one way this was going to end. The only question was if they would let slip what I needed to know before the fun started.

"He's waiting for you." The Admisnistratum flunky apparently in charge inclined his head to the Arbiters building.

"In what condition?" I growled.

"He's been enjoying our hospitality for the past few days. You understand, right? We only did what we had to in order to prevent the red harvest." The man's smile sent cold shivers down my spine.

"The red Harvest?" Anteus asked, making them flinch.

"Yes. The soulless ones had risen and only our new patrons can protect us. You're too late to stop it. Just as predicted." The other flunky added. He had a shit-eating grin on his face. "We thought that an Inquisitor would made a splendid gift, but you're even better."

"Gift to whom?" I asked in an as hard a voice as I could manage.

"Our salvation and your doom. The ritual is already in progress. You're too late." The leader beamed at us.

"I want that one alive." Anteus ordered. His Warhammer shone with energy as he activated its generator.

I opened myself further to the Warp and drew my weapons. The stench of sheer wrongness and corruption was increasing by the second.

The waiting was over. Before anyone but Anteus could react, I pointed my pistol and shot the expendable Admisnistratum official. At the same time, the Librarian charged forward and did his best to take out the cog-head, who in turn jumped back, revealing that under his robes he had six spideresque metal legs.

Then all hell broke loose.