It had been a short time since my confrontation with the chaotic energies, but I don't think I could ever forget the feeling; it was a strange sensation of viscosity and disgust. I knew enough about the Chaos gods to know that it was the corrupted energy of Nurgle, God of disease, decay, despair, and destruction.
So it had been easy to recognize the sign of Chaos in someone, although it was weak and withered, almost unimportant to the naked eye but my suspicions were only confirmed when we crossed paths with the Poxwalkers, His face of excitement and ecstasy had only lasted a few moments, but long enough for me to notice.
-You say there is a heretic among us. -The surprise on Emil's face seemed to be true; the old man had managed to deceive everyone with his acts as an exemplary citizen, even I doubted his prayers to the emperor.
-The stain on him is something that could easily be overlooked. -Although I didn't know how they had decided on his guidance in this place, as desperate as they were, I don't think they would leave such a dangerous variable on a desperate mission; it spoke to how capable the heretics were of having managed to plant a spy.
Emil nodded slowly, "We'll keep quiet for now and follow your directions, I'm sorry to say, but none of my team is capable enough to get out of this place without your routes.
-It's a good plan, although we have more problems. For a while now, I have been able to detect more forces moving all over the place, most of them seem to be more Powalkers, but others are different, although they are stronger, they seem weakened.
-Demons -Emil assumes. We saw traces of them when we entered. They should be weak due to their recent arrival.
The Soldier checked his map: "We're in luck, ma'am. If you manage to give us their locations, we could banish them before they manage to fully materialize and all while we accomplish our objective."
I respected her enthusiasm to help her compatriots by taking out some demons, but I don't know if I like that kind of risk-taking. In my experience, when someone tries to have it all, it translates into accomplishing nothing, but debating your decision here could make a bad impression with the higher-ups, as you'd practically be debating your authority.
-Your team seems to have been in action for days," I leaned back." Are they reliable?
Emil's eyes sparkled: "I understand what you're asking. Believe me, while we may not be the best the empire has to offer, my team has the capabilities to accomplish a task like this, and we won't hold you back."
"Relax, if it all goes wrong, you can inform your superiors of my combat capabilities."
-"Thank you very much, my lady," he smiled under his tendrils. The team has been under pressure for days, and many feel they are leaving their brothers in arms behind while we waste our time here; accomplishing this would help us all.
True. For them, this was a mission that had had indecisive results, in times when they were losing the war on all fronts, anyone's morale would be at rock bottom if they went through the same situation.
"I will help as much as possible in this war," I gave him a calm smile, "I assure you didn't waste your time coming to this place".
"Great, great..."
I looked towards his men, this time with a more human attention, and I could notice their worries and fears behind a trained countenance; they were people who feared for the fate of their world and their kin; they were human and not the machines the empire wanted them to be.
"Tell me about this planet."
Emil looked at me sideways, surprised. he seemed to take his time if he had to answer the question but, fortunately,y he answered: "Venkrous is an agricultural planet, we supply more than half of the food to the sector. If we fall, it wouldn't be crazy to say that billions of people would die of starvation."
-How long have they been invaded by Chaos troops?
-Weeks, it's been twenty days since the cultists first breached, but we've already lost thirty percent of our defenses, and last I heard, we were getting worse.
"Because they haven't received help from the Sector, losing a planet like this would be the worst thing for anyone."
-They cut communications, and everyone
-Who's in charge of everything? - It was the question that mattered to me. The empire had a complicated hierarchy; its vast extension and thousands of worlds usually gave freedom of command to the planetary governors, but that was in unimportant worlds. A world like this could have several organizations for the struggle of power and command, a war with chaos would not stop the bureaucracy.
Emil seemed to grasp the intention behind the question, and after another long debate in his mind, he seemed ready to answer. The inquisition arrived a few centuries ago to the world, at first with the excuse of deciding on the fate of heretical ruins, but then they did not indicate any desire to withdraw. Although I don't know exactly who it is that makes the important decisions, or how they do it.
"They don't have a very good reputation," I commented, "I've heard that they tend to eradicate everything they consider heretical."
Emil didn't respond to my words, but he didn't seem to refute them either.
Now that my part in this chaos was decided, I was not going to leave a variable, no matter how small. Wars were cruel, and I had objectives that I wanted to fulfill, without forgetting those people who caused my coming to this world. I also wanted to know how much power I could recover in this world and if the chaotic energy could be useful to me.
-You need some weapons or equipment, we do not have spare equipment, but the priority of this mission will be your arrival to the Kadamtu base.
Trying out the Imperial equipment would be tempting, weapons that defied all simple logic and were said to have a will of their own. So I accepted Emil's offer and was soon given a standard Lasgun in my hands, and although I tried with all my conscience to search for a trace of consciousness in it, it was useless.
Somewhat disappointing but expected, machine spirits seemed to be special, real in this world, but it had never been known what conditions had to be met for there to be one in a weapon or machine.
Emil gave me a quick explanation of how to use it and gave it the proper care. The others seemed annoyed with the idea of having an armed stranger among them, but they did not dare to challenge the decisions -I'm afraid the training will have to end there. -Emil stepped away and approached his platoon as he communicated the orders he had been given.
The sun rose over Venkrous, gloom loomed over the glory of the empire, and hundreds of reports came in of raids and losses on the fronts. The greatest conflict in the entire history of the planet was being lived right now, but for the upper classes, it was just an excuse to celebrate another party. Life goes on.
Caerian stood in the center of a large hall, surrounded by ornate tiles and golden looms hanging all over the place. An ancient tree stood in the middle of the great hall, a common sight for the nobility in Venkrous who combined their extravagant wealth with the beauty of nature.
Caerian wondered how many parties he had attended in the last few days under the pretext of finding measures to stop the invasion. The answer was too many. Thousands died in every camp in the attempt to flee or stop the invasion. While the nobility made sure to enjoy themselves for as long as they could.
Although in their defense, there was not much they could do either, centuries ago, they had been removed from the influence of power, and the inquisition had set up a full-fledged regime replacing the chain of command. Their pretext had been the continuous increase of heretic cults in the sector, but they had achieved little since they came to power to eradicate them.
Caerian was born only to see the last powers his mother had inherited taken away one by one. A council had been set up and its position, to the disgrace of the Inquisition, could not be removed. On it were both the general of the Astra Militarum and the Archmagos.
He still attended some command council meetings, which were no more than a bureaucratic ritual. The Inquisitor made the important decisions. Caerian had been raised by his mother with the ambition to regain his glory, so he had waited decades for such an opportunity. He thought that with exemplary military achievements and greater renown, he could change things, but his foolishness was short-lived; only three days had been enough to see the consequences of the war and how everything seemed lost.
His dream had ceased to be to gain power; now he only wanted to save the billions of souls that were in this world, so he had used the few influences he had left, sending an exploratory mission to the ruins that had caused the disgrace of his family.
If the god that was said to be there could save his people, he would not mind selling his own soul.