THADDEUS AND TARQUINUS - THE STORY SO FAR

so welcome gentle listener i am voldemort your faithful servant it is a compilation of one of the ongoing plot lines of my fan fictions that are used to explore and demonstrate the setting of warhammer 40k the grim darkness of the far future where there is no time for peace there is only time for war i do use musical themes so often you will find the same tracks in each entry on one of these videos but do bear in mind that these are musical prompts for often the stories can be weeks apart in their continuation so i feel the music kind of eases someone back into the storyline and the mood many an entry is the result of a vote as i will leave many a tale on a cliffhanger and then get the gentle listeners to forge the narrative by voting in the comments so they can control the direction and events of the story so if you enjoy any of these stories then do watch the weekly entries on the guides and prepare to exert your own influence and vote on the storylines now i very much hope you enjoy the following compilation he turns and looks me deep in the eye and speaks more solemnly than i have ever heard my master is often jovial and there's a mischievous twinkle in his eye on oh so too regular an occurrence he can be maddening confusing but also he is the kindest and wisest man i know he does brutal things horrible things but he always explains why he has done them when he does i can see the pain those actions inflict on him the suffering he experiences for what he does what he is trying to train me to be able to do to be strong to do the terrible and to be able to live with it for to do otherwise means we are lost to one day be an inquisitor but never once have i seen this look in his eye a deep foreboding like he is not ordering me though his tone has all the gravity of his station and the implicit threat that is always there behind his words but it feels he is more imploringly begging me i don't doubt one word that comes out of his mouth you will do as i do when i do how i do but you will not speak under any circumstances you will not make eye contact or ever look directly into the face if you break these rules your life is forfeit for i will take it myself without another word he turns and signals the door to be opened the other two inquisitors standing at each side of the door step back and it opens into a large room i follow my master inside head lowered as his is the room is huge but stark and simple and at first i see nothing inside but walls on floors of white from another segment of the apartments i hear movement that someone walks out to this reception room such luxury a space of privacy as the footsteps get closer my master kneels and i swiftly follow suit the feet echo around the empty room as she enters i'm assailed by a sense of calmness i know it is not from within as i can still also sense the trepidation of my master the inquisitor no i'm not a psycher it is purely human instinct in the body language he has taught me in so much detail shoes of a strange design finally appeared in front of us i can only make out the footwear and the areas of the person below the knee with my head down in supplication as it is golden skin smooth shoes that dazzle i could not describe them now i cannot understand why a voice like a gentle breeze through a summer's mourn cresses my ear its intonation perfect her bearing so regal even from the little i can view i hate to ask your excellency then don't i am without other option or i would never disturb you then report but get off your knees and sadius drop the honorifics dinkuster stands and i follow suit just a few seconds after i'm much slower i can see the worry in his movements the care he is taking he looks up into her face but i do not i am tempted o holy throne of my attempted but i remember his words i keep my tensions on her but do not raise my eyes her garments are of a design i have never seen but all our grace and beauty i yearn to look further but do not the discipline my master has instilled in me is paying off it seems before my inquisitive nature could not have helped but look but i heed my master as he speaks with reverence but a business like cando with this person we are outnumbered five to one they are heavier models and are gaining on us we cannot escape them we cannot outgun them we cannot elude them we are outmatched what do you wish of me i know you would never condone wanton loss of life so perhaps if they were unable to follow us into the war she takes a deep breath through her teeth signaling her displeasure at his request without giving it word i understand take me to the observation deck but first this one did you choose him because he is pretty i think she's referring to me his scales run deeper than the symmetry of his face the carving of his frame i know you are bored and must want for company but i need this one she lets out an exhalation of vexation like she is on the verge of tarting at him petulantly but her body language does not change she is not offering to use me as entertainment she is merely needling my master expertly it seems from the tension in her stars for some reason my master is not seeing her as she is he's decidedly distracted by her what on terror does she hold within her gaze to unsettle and unmanned my master so it cannot be beauty from witnessing him purge slaanesh demons i know he is utterly innur to such things who is she then lead on thaddeus i do not wish this to take any longer than necessary my master bows deeply and i follow suit she turns and processes in front of this person i take his cue to wait for her to move and follow behind them both the doors open and the inquisitors we passed a moment ago already standing in position one will go before us one behind even me in their suits of power armor with weaponry of design i had never witnessed before entering this corridor moments earlier their defending this woman like she could be a target of an assault on our own ship a vessel of the ordo filled to the brim with more military power than i have ever witnessed on an inquisitorial vessel i doubt even astartes would stand a chance of taking this ship so heavily is each and every corridor protected by the very best of our order as we walk through the ship our advent into any areas preceded by a chime and a slight dimming in the ship's illuminators with each threshold we pass we are met by the same scene all are on one knee with heads lowered in silent reverence in some areas there are seas of men and women that are stuck still and kneeling in or her footfalls are slow and measured but resound like thunder somehow when she moves she does so with all the poison grace of an elder and yes i do know how they move how fast their warriors are how deadly and amusing to their eye we finally reach the observation deck and it is already clear of any other soul one of the inquisitors in power armor moves to each entrance and stands facing at him in defense of this being only my master walks into the room next to the woman i slow down as they do eyewitness i place her hand gently on his forearm for a moment and he stops as she takes a dozen more steps towards the viewports that show us the stars i cannot see them no human could but i know they are out there everyone on this ship knows they are out there just behind us hunting us down ready to blast to pieces or borders as they have attempted to thrice now but this time we cannot escape i had asked my master why why would other auto ships be after us why would other human and loyal crews want to see us dead in this age where all are our enemies all seek our downfall i could not understand why our own people would try to kill their own at that time my master only stated they do not hold the views we do that was all i did not ask again i never do he will tell me when he thinks i'm ready he never forgets a question i've had a question answered after eight months of waiting near forgetting it myself but he remembers the time the day the second i ask a question and how he forgets nothing and when ready he reveals things to me and he is always right i have never once received an answer and not known why he delayed my enlightenment never he is watching her as it begins the air around me starts to move begins to swirl around the room picking up speed my hair begins to ruffle then to be blown fully around my head as the breeze races to a gale force but it does not move the rest of me it is no normal wind light begins to issue from her all of her starting out of my averted line of sight but then it spans down her form and seems to be pouring from every inch of her that is on display cannot help myself i look up i can see her racing slightly off the ground as the light builds and the wind now contains specks of that light like embers from a fire rising into the skies of a paradise world they fill the room with stars that should blind me but i look directly at them and the star that she is becoming without any discomfort past her halo of light i can see the viewport in it there are images carrying into focus like the most powerful of all specs i can see the five ships of followers i can see them so clearly that i can make out their markings similar to our own the larger these are ships of the line if they catch us when they catch us we are dead but more now i can see their void shields around them i do not know how i can see them so clearly then i see faces superimposed over the ships ghostly images coming out of them beings with three eyes they're navigators it must be at first our eyes are closed but at one all of the images snap them open they look at us with two eyes only at the light that is woman before me i feel their malevolence their hate their fear opening their eyes at her especially that one third eye in the center of their foreheads they are attempting to defend themselves i know this i feel it on an intrinsic level i avert my gaze it is unpleasant to watch and that is when i see him staring at me my master he has a smirk on his face he knows how long i have been looking as he was watching me not her i did not notice his attention shift so unwrapped was i in the vision the wind the buffets only my hair my mind is silent so his whisper is as clear to me as a bellow i was wondering how long it would take you he says to his smurf i i am sorry who is she what am i witnessing ah you disappoint me boy but i suppose she is very distracting so let's walk our way to it tell me boy tell me the three things you know about the emperor the most important things i have told you about him he is the most powerful man the most important psycho that has ever existed he is ancient beyond our understanding and he has always watched over humanity he is our salvation ah got it in one i do not understand your first statement boy his most powerful psyche to exist no boy he is the most powerful man to exist it does not usually arise it does not show itself but in her the blood sings what the emperor is a man he was always a man my master slowly shifts his gaze to her instead of me when he sees the next line but a movement takes my attention down his frame while he speaks my eyes wide and then snap up to his face i have seen the bolt pistol in his hand nonchalantly angled up at my forehead if you ever disobey me again boy i will pull the trigger i gulp i look back at the light before us the faces of the navigators are larger and i can see their concentration the hair light burns brighter and their faces begin to melt their expressions turn from anger into pain she is killing these navigators burning their minds one by one the spectral overlay of faces on ships disappear under the purging brilliance of her light they are gone and without them the other ships cannot follow us we can escape it was always a man he has lived all of the ages of humanity but he is a man you think the best of us the master of mankind would be a eunuch impotent or infertile he looks at her with what i can only call his wonder in his eyes in her the blood sings i know who she is now and my expression joins his in wonder [Music] we are traveling alone yet not incognito i'm bemused but that is a usual state of affairs for me my master will explain if it is required i have no doubt that when all of this whatever this is concludes i will gain a rundown of actions taken and the motivations if it is not abundantly clear by that time of course we travelled by a standard liner and quite a lot more opulence than i am accustomed to if truth be told dinners with the captain tours by the exo baffling we usually move so quietly use our own vessel my master must want us to be known it seems upon reaching our destination we took a small transport down to the planet with a dozen or so other wayfarers into a calm and cool but intensely sterile environment as we stand in line to be processed our travel permits perused and cleared i attempt to gain my bearings smell people always forget that one of our most powerful senses is smell every planet has a distinct smell the makeup of its air the ages of the world how industrialized it was etc but each smells differently i cannot smell anything but the metal around us for a moment it is disconcerting but i'm busy in other ways watching weighing identifying as i've been taught to do by my master he wears a calm air but i can see the tension in his stance he is weary on edge with none behind us we stand separated from the queue and we talk banalities until the people in front of us are nude to any consideration of listening in your tense my master we are vagrant at the moment by design he smiles at me and i see the twinkle in his eye that means i'm not disappointing him today i spot the guards at the entry point to the world outside as people muster there the doors are not opened too often it would seem certainly not more anthony is required there were three gods now there are only two our advent has been noted it seems you will precede me and act as a beater do not slack off or we will be overrun but i know keep my wits about me lay on then takonus the doors slowly grind open and we are assailed by the first kiss of the light from the powerful yellow sun over this world and i immediately know why the door is usually closed and there are space of some form of perfume aimed inside the port as we are sailed by the spectacle of the bizarre bazaars of bilius brabatteran try saying that after a bottle of hemoseg delight sound heat and smells are overwhelming but in the most glorious of ways we head out into the crowded market my cane now being used as a club to knock people on shoulders and shins to get them to back away to allow us to pass after the initial surge of beggars and thieves i've tasted the speed and strength of my rebuffs they make a cordon around us just out of my range we process through the market my eyes everywhere at the same time above us are only two-story white buildings glaring in the light perfect for an assassin i am aware we pass grills over an ancient sewer system perfect for an assault or explosion i am aware surrounded by bodies my cane slams out regularly but i am always watching every angle around us looking for eyes to certain the stare that will not be broken following us out of a purer motive than just the contents of our credit bags the signals we wear the badge of the inquisitor so usually hidden gives some pause i know i am having to work less hard due to its implicit threat but my master is very tense indeed he exudes an air of haughty superiority but i can see his starts again he is searching for something we pass stands and souls with every form of object every kind of taste and smell but still he searches a good part of the morning has gone when i see him take pause we stand before some beggars all swazed into his threadbare gray robes bowl in hand stretched upwards in supplication my master stops and i thrash around us to keep back the crowds he makes his way to the beggars heading to the front of their line he places a very nice credit donation to one after another and speaks them swiftly but smoothly when he gets the last he is closer to me and i hear what is exchanged all previous donations being a screen to this one event arms for the righteous are you righteous i am not but i wish to know if i can be of service to thee this day then you must repent and yes i have need of your services this day if you do this all debts will be paid all indeed all then find me in your shadow this day my master stands erect again but his stance has shifted he stands more tall less hunched less cauterous he stands confidently more so than at any time since we left his retinue for a brief respite the hands on the bigger just as he pulls the bowl to his stomach and closes his entire form around it to defend it they were too slender too long my master stands before me and calmly says let us see how much influence is being exerted here shall we boy he makes his way to an inn of sorts but when we approach the sign he's turned from inside it stands from vacancies to no rooms we turn and see this happen thrice more over the next hour the last one to do so has to come outside to which his sign from open to closed it is in this instance i catch him and with no small amount of intimidating body language i bellow at him my master requires lodgings you will remove a guest so he may recline the wide-eyed terror of the short portly man is almost comedic he jumps then bends into the lowest power i have ever seen one so low it seems to defy gravity itself as he speaks to my boots alas it is not space but illness that causes me to temporarily close my fine establishment might i suggest the imperium's finest it is on the hill and commands a view of breathtaking beauty it is the only place where the other men so important as your master that speaks volumes it is as i suspected finally time for the end of our dance let us head towards the imperium's finest then shall we for a moment my master's eyes glaze as he speaks that last sentence reminiscing but in another instant it is gone and we move we make our way to the center of this bazaar to its largest building the largest luxury lodgings as we get nearer fewer and fewer beggars and pickpockets attempt to assail us by the last few roads we have passed guard stations that have held all of the rest of them back it is much quieter here but the intense smells are still present the lack of crowds after most of the day amongst them is both relieving and also sets me on edge very few are permitted this high our badges of office and clear affluence mark us out as being amongst those very few the imperium's finest is not easy to miss standing on the very top of this hill as it does one can see the entire valley and city from the stairs at the base of its entrance marble stairs despite being windswept and having heat trails coming off their dazzling brilliance we climbed them and passed another thick door made of a transparent material and are doused with perfume as we enter a cool huge pristine lobby we go through the motions of checking in and all the while being watched by almost everyone there the bellhop the receptionist the multiple guards on the insides of the doors all are trying their best not to stare at us but failing miserably well we are certainly in the lion's den now we recline at our leisure at the refreshment area slowly slapping drinks for another hour when we are finally approached by the mitch d he eloquently invites us to a lunchroom with their owner my master accepts and stands i follow suit through the huge dwelling we are led each room larger than the last until we finally end before doors that can only be described as palatial regal they're opened by the attendance within and we process inside as we do so the doors are closed behind us i snap a look at my master as i see what is awaiting us but only visible when we entered the blatant trap on either side of the room are two huge orgrim two more behind us at the threshold of the room a massive ornate desk sits in front of us a chair behind it intimidatingly large and eye-wateringly complex in its carving and i mean eye-watering so detailed it actually hurts the sensors to try to take it all in in one go all along either end behind the ogrin stand around a score of ruffians and near do wells all in different fatigues different weaponry but mostly like the ogrins they are melee weapons a huge axe here a chainsaw there possibly even a power sword from the hilt deserters from many accompany an outfit for deserters trained killers the staircase behind the throne has a doorway at its top and it is slowly dramatically opened from this portal comes a huge man well over eight feet tall unarmed but his muscles seem to be flexing and unflexing and straining his clothes at all points tick perhaps nerves or excitement either way he is one of the most imposing figures i have ever witnessed he walks down the stairs slowly and regularly taking his time but never once breaking his stare at my master his face now that he is closer is a collage of thousand scars and tattoos his eyes dauntless and calm with a tint of red was it purple in what is supposed to be whites dressed in robes of exquisite finery he still seems like a warrior born a killing machine he finally stops at the side of his throne glaring all of the time of my master as he has been he finally languidly and ostentatiously looks at me then back to my master so that is a finer act and this is how it ends no telling no falcus not even bob on i'm insulted all you bring is a boy well i wasn't sure you see and tarquin is here is the most talented young man i have ever had the honor of knowing he is twice the man you will ever be i had hoped for a climactic end to our saga my old foil this is a disappointment you come to my hall my home i'm prepared and practically unharmed when i am more powerful than i have ever been now you come not as an avenging angel but as a beggar looking for a room have you fallen so far ah you're a funny one to use that particular phrase sergeant i see you now how's one of the never born in your very body as it feel to share was it everything you have wished for was it worth turning your back on righteousness righteous you dare say that to me i've had enough our tale ends now here with your head on my desk oh i'm not alone nor am i unarmed a figure steps in the dark in one of the corners of the room a simple being hunched in seeming decrepitude it is wearing a threadbare grey robe its face covered but its long limbs now on show you bring one eldar to this battle one you've lost your senses thaddeus i know i thought it was overkill as well but he insisted oh debts of honor etc the being shook his head and really extended his hand at the newcomer and rolled two words only kill it immediately everything exploded into action the room was instantly filled with an echoing roar as the two ogre at the door powered toward the lone eldar now advancing into the center of the room near to us the renegades and further two ogres at the side of the room moved more casually as they stalked forward completing a fencing with both us and the elder at its center the two opens slow slightly as they get closer in an attempt not to collide but they are well trained for their kind one swings high one swings low at the elder i cannot quite make out what happened as it moves faster than i can even process the robe twirls in the air and the ogre is both stock steel their angry faces now in a dumb struck rectus their thou takes to the air in one fluid motion he kicks both of them and the severed heads fly towards the desk and one lands on either side both gorping at the lord at its center still standing beside his chair the rest of the organs fall into a dozen pieces each blood finally flowing from what are now piles of bits on the floor when the elder lands it is finally possible to make him out correctly he stands tall and proud and he has two sleek blades in his hands his body covered from tips of toes to head in a strange motley a checkered patchwork of various bright and brilliant colors everyone stops for a mere second as the sound begins to emulate from behind that master has two large horns jutting out of it unlike any elder i have ever seen before [Laughter] the moment ends as the being becomes a ball of light and pixelated colors as it moves like lightning across the floor bounding and leaping towards one of the clumps of renegades what i see is difficult to describe so bear with me it was like a ball of colour that coalesced at rare points but more for show than anything else as it danced its way around the men blades and hammers last guns and even power swords when skidding across the floor or flew in the air as each one was disarmed and then torn to pieces blades moving impossibly fast and seemingly cutting through anything as if it were not there the dance went on for less than 20 seconds in the wake of this ball of light and wrath was a mounting line of dead nothing stopping it or even slowing it finally when the full circuit of the room had been performed the dust settled and the ball of color and light stopped all were dead by me my master and the thing at the center now slowly walking backwards up the stairs eyes wide what could only be called horror and they shall know no fear unless of course they fall from the emperor's light my master now turns fully and looks at the harlequin now slowly padding towards us i only need him alive smaller would be better for transporting the elder nods once and then somersaults into the air coming down on the owner like a lightning pot he lands and his sword flashes out at his side spilling a thick line of blood onto the marble floor over his shoulder i see the arms of the straighter marine fall to the ground he whines as he topples backwards and his torso leaves his legs in situ forever just standing there now limbless and silent except for his glares of the elder of my master he suddenly seems so pathetic his scarred face twisted in a permanent glare for that is all he can do now impotently stare creature lollygagging get a move on get him into that bag the most talented young man i have ever had the honor of knowing my master takes out a large bag he has inside his own one and throws it to me not two at and i think that's weak boy morkishness is the first sign of defeat as i unfold a bag large enough to hold my own form i cannot help but quote again twice the man you'll ever be oh shut up boy my master and i stand in an impossible place in an impossible situation as always we have been called in by the local authorities the albeites unable to fathom what may have happened so we are called in because of course if the best minds in the constabulary on a very advanced world cannot find a solution then it is highly likely there is something altogether more horrible afoot for no other reason would they call in inquisitors nine times out of ten we are summoned to a vague rumor or a mad woman who is just different enough to make the rest of her neighbors fearful this time it is what i call legitimate an impossible assassination an impossible kill we stand in an ublied a holding cell in one of the most powerful families of this world they had someone incarcerated that they considered so important the information that they had either so sensitive or so dangerous that they were surrounded by 10 foot of sedomite and plastiel down a corridor of the same material one way in one way out so we stand in said room said oublied a fancy name for a dungeon after all my master walks around the body the large pool of blood around it he takes in every detail slowly and meticulously i circled the body counterclockwise to my master's clockwise in this way we should not miss a thing even in shadow in an era but there is little to discern here it is obvious it is just impossible all right then let's go through this again boy initial findings the victim is dead time of death is exactly midnight on this world he has suffered some form of extreme trauma or trauma-like effect vertebrae and all other bones are shattered teeth enamel has exploded while within his mouth eyes have popped he is in a sail in a maximum hot security holding center with no way in or out that he could discern footage states he had no visitors and no way to smuggle in weaponry full body search and biological scans showed no sign of concealed internal weaponry exposures or poisons walls of the holding seal are ceramide with pastel fixings and entry hinges thank you bye now draw up a full schematic for this building i need to see every room or opening within 100 meters irrespective of line of sight or intervening well anything really couchitating we have three options master each within 100 meters too heavily patrolled the third is a sub sewer intersection point well i hope you brought your boats boy he grins from ear to ear as he says waiting again why does so much of our vocation involve wading through dross so we explored the area a huge boot print and some of the brickwork had fallen in around the roof of the intersection quite a bit actually very recently i thought so so you're thinking what i'm thinking indulge me no entry point mean the attack that slew their victim went through all of the intervening walls slaineshi blaster at the minimum potentially a noise marine gutted in one and the boot print says the latter and this i assassin is trying to throw us off descend but the scent is now ours to use get ourselves down here and make sure the rest are ready and on their way we don't have any um assistance today and taking down a marine any marine is going to be a task turning us even bob on especially barbon get the whole gang down here within three hours we are waiting again it has been straightforward thus far unusual but not unheard of strange to say my master is actually very good at what he does and what he does is destroy evil ursula our sanctioned psyche took up cent she led us down and round up and over through and then eventually here tearing and are silent as always stern and endlessly surveying our surroundings then again never seen anything get past the twins barbon all eight foot of him stands stock still and it is also silent but there is an emanating wave of quiet threat from his huge form he is one of the astartes himself an angel of death he is on a duty of honor to protect and serve my master until the end of his days but then bob on is over 150 years old already unless we are incredibly careful and amazingly lucky barbon will outlive all of us anyway returning to his chapter when my master finally makes a mistake we wait around the back of a small building its private walls rear high in the air its gates strong another palace of one of the other noble houses of this world but a small one the names will blend after a while the great or mighty or wondrous house of this the superb house of that i know i'll remember their names until my dying day as i forget nothing as my masters taught me as my augmentations are eased but i failed to show interest at this point we are simply here around the front a large-scale invasion force of arbitees have been arranged they have heavy apcs and are ready to take the entire building but it will take some fighting this particular lord has been in virtual rebellion for a decade but he kept quiet he kept himself to himself running his quarter of the hive in the normal way the assassin forced all to acknowledge the veracity of the bold claims made by the captive a foolish act if you ask me as the victim had claimed that the house was preparing for a coup the arbiters will roll in the front way we will go to repay the favor by creep through the sewers and coming up that way we shrep through effluent as the world becomes fire and thunder above us my master is swift and sets the pace but allows barbon to take the head as soon as we get to the entryway he takes multiple steps at speed then crashes straight through the steel door his power armor not even scratched he walks in front of us his bolt is singing out and people exploding into plumes of blood and guts wherever he points it when we reach open areas the twins cover the vantage points there last pistols burning neat holes through the foreheads of all who appear and there are not too many as we pass one of the security rooms i see screens showing the carnage being meted out to the arbitees out front waves of sound slamming through the walls at the front of the building leaving them intact but then crushing and exploding anyone they strike apcs have blood trickling out of open windows all of them shattered so many arbitees have been killed the brave souls as we finally make it to the door my master orders babon to go through it as usual but this time he used to roll to the side and we will not follow him immediately if that is another astartes then we are dead if we do so we are spread out down the corridor and casey gets a drop on us and fires straight through the walls babon runs at the door i remember the day i met barbara falcous terran ursula and everyone that was the first time i truly understood how important what my master did how important he was oh we had talked about it i had even been a first-hand witness to it his craft he fought the things that others could not he'd save me that day within rain fire walls bled when mirrors twisted and things of horror stalked the land unopposed he had gotten me out of that but for that i was in those first weeks some part of me was thought it was more dumb luck than his skill on thaddeus's part that had allowed us to escape it was when he introduced me to his entourage his assistance that it really sank in for the measure of a leader an inquisitor is not in his own deeds but in the caliber of those who believe in them and the quality of his chosen hand-picked resources the men and women he retains and somehow this strange old man who wore power armor when he pleased but was just as likely to be found in pajamas with picked or parchment in hand somehow he had managed to array some of the most dangerous and skilled beings in the imperium in his personal orbit and he was so complicated my master able to do the hard things without a moment of hesitation but still human enough to regret to mourn even when he knew he had no choice he mourned the acts he performed when i knew more i found this to be someone like most of his peers they were hard and cast and methodical they seemed to be so shielded so much of the monsters that they had hunted were hidden in the recesses of their glares reflected in the horror in their every glance or stare yet not my master he was so brave he fought hard suffered so much just to retain his humanity he never slept well or so much i was certain having shared many a cabin bunk room or tent with him over the years when we were safe he would often drink some strong amerisec before retiring but never more than two glasses or shorts he was moderate in all things and all things in moderation but i knew that the haunted look in his eyes was the lesser of the two evils comparing his pain to the hardness of his colleagues so many of the other inquisitors they trailed the darkness that they had fought around them in their shadows and in their eyes so it was that i refused daddy as nothing as no one and nothing was expendable to him if any of us his entourage were to be sacrificed we knew it would only ever be as a last resort never an expedient and so we not only followed him we adored him thaddeus always knew what to do falcaos and teddin had been hivers gangers but they had something that others did not speed a kind of speed that matched up to even an elder thaddeus had gathered them upon first witnessing their mutation as the only way i can put it but as thaddeus himself always said there's mutation and there's mutation boy but the eye sees as normal as the real teller for most so they were fast and tough and as twins would act in an accord that could never be trained deadly with both the custom last pistols or with their long blades both still with gang insignia all over them they looked like what they were products of their placement of their time killers it was the only way to survive in the hive escala was plain of form but somehow alluring very sadius always told me it was a secondary effect of her gifts for she was very gifted indeed even amongst her kind powerful she had proven it time again but she always despised using her abilities in combat she professed me once and she felt dirty on the inside when she was forced to kill or destroy with the abilities the emperor had chosen to gift her she knew the doctrine and dogma meant that according to the church the emperor hated her and she was unclean as a witch but this never seemed to be absorbed ursula snapped back at me once when this was all brought up so the emperor the greatest psycho of all time hates me for being a psycho rubbish priest petty men with a tiny power and jealous of the fact that i was born closer to his image his substance than they i spit on them not the church but them but she never said that again just once it was enough i discussed it with thaddeus he laughed which surprised me what surprised me more is when he turned and looked me in the eye and intoned i can teach you much talkiness but i cannot teach you how you will relate to the church or the emperor if you make it boy as an inquisitor only you can define that the most important of all our relationships the one with our lord our leader the master of mankind ursula is useful and loves the emperor every bit as much as i do or you do so i accept her tantrums her explosions it will be down to you to manage the relationship with your entourage one day good luck devlin and barbon almost as inseparable as the twins but as different as the twins were identical when the twins were left alone there would be endless chatter yet silence when anybody else was present anyone but that yes they played things close to the chest devlin barbon was the polar opposites they just seemed to gravitate to each other never a word was said never hobby activity or discussion was performed by the two together but they somehow always managed to be in the same area most often in the same room just doing their own things in close proximity but when others entered the room they were more than happy to discuss or even be sociable it seemed that different always managed to put things in a way that made barmond chuckle they simply lit up when someone else was there but went back to their quiet contemplation when left their own devices not moribund or melancholy just satisfyingly quiet they found the presence of the other calming is what thadius once confided in me a rarity for either to find peace he explained someone that he was always loathed to breach unless with good cheer or a dire need they deserved the quiet he thought i can only imagine what they'd done but they witnessed what they had achieved for my master to be so revenant so accommodating but i could never work out dividend he was witty mentally fast yet could stay in a set position for days without moving just watching for his mark the patience he had for a man whose mouth ran so quick was awe-inspiring babang was adept as astartes in everything he was and everything he did his movements were graceful but economical his poi is perfect despite his bulk bar bond could be used as a watch his patterns were so rigid yet he was able to breach them at need it was a choice never a ritual order discipline but always under his control never he under it he was as economical with his advice never interfering unless specifically deferred to by my master he would occasionally raise an eyebrow which then permitted thaddeus to request advice of his own accord but if my master ignored his signal then he was sanguine about it always calm always but his art was so passionate it was a total odds with everything he was on the exterior when he sparred he moved so fast i could barely make him out i once recorded this entire workout and played it back in slow motion just so i could see what he was doing my master had laughed until tears ran down his face when he saw me gawping at the side russian bar in hand hanging in mid-air never quite making it to my mouth as i was so mesmerized at what i was seeing the beauty and ballet of barbons dance the flow of it baba is something to behold eh he said when he finally could breathe he specializes in multiple foes the more the merrier the more against him the more dangerous he becomes even amongst his kind the space marines he is a gem without measure we have not seen his kind since the days of the crusade and he wears it in his features if anyone ever recognizes barbon in a crowd not just the ore of the astartes but a shock of recognition killed them immediately and everything that i've witnessed since has supported this assertion for when compared to other marines i have witnessed fighting he is a sight barely to be believed like a caged beast was within him that only came out when he drew his sword he was able with a bolter but not substantially better than any other marine i had seen but his bladesmanship was well it was just barber he seemed to have difficulties when ursula was around but he was always courteous or was honorable never careless yet never warm and never initiated conversation with her under any circumstances she returned the favor something that ursula was also well aware of and she went almost into shadow if he entered the room without her knowing it was to happen like she was somehow making herself smaller almost subconsciously trying to hide and so our adventures had taken us to this world where we had been involved in an impossible kill an impossible murder using ursula's abilities we followed the assassin back to his lair a small but heavily defended private manner in the midst of a hive inside we know to be traitor astartes followers of cyanesh noise marines from the blast that come out from the front of the building there are more than one of them diabolic tainted sonic screams are tailing into the small army of arbitees local law enforcers that are throwing themselves at the front doors they are not making headway the courtyard is strewn with bodies of these brave men and women their teeth shattered their skulls and skeletons splitting crumbled their eyes eardrums and organs burst and rupturing if not liquidized no cover can stop the waves of death that emulate from the structure as it is not just simple sonics there are elements of war power in these sounds they are carried through inanimate without interruption striking with all of their force of the bodies of their foes death that invisibly cones out from the building and kills terrifying yet the arbiters are still trying still distracting the men inside this room we have quickly moved through the building from its rear the twins will bob on executing any we have stumbled upon any who have attempted to impede us and so here we are the noise marines behind the one wall the one door hopefully oblivious to us hopefully we all stand in the hallway my breathing is swift sweat forming in my palms palms a grip a pistol and a blade barbar is similarly already gripping his power sword having stowed his bolter the twins hold pistols in both hands my master salvias alone of all of us has no weapon in hand just yet he nods at the door and add barbell the marine in his literally removed and covered black armor takes two paces back and he rushes the door going straight through it and into the room rolling to the left it is a good thing he rolled as the air he was previously in only a nano second earlier is torn asunder with the screech of sonic so loud that the secondary splash near bursts my eardrums even with the protectors in the sounds ripped down the corridor and we're almost blown off our feet just by the residue tearing and focus speed into action both cartwheel past the doorway one from the left to right one from the right to left having the quickest of shifties i'm firing in a few rounds of last gun fire each to distract i am more than willing to bet that each last shot hit its target but with the space man involved i am not sure the strikes will penetrate any of their armor both continued cartwheel meaning that what they saw was a deep concern something that thaddeus immediately confirms is linked to barbara flashes up six stars not one his eyes widen he swears below his breath and then rounds on ursula i follow his vision and ursula is looking at me the way a hungry grox leers at fodder like there is a dark kneed in her eyes my master's hand flashes out and snaps her across the face hard enough to break her stare and grab her attention but not an actual blow trust me i know how hard he can hidden that armor esl glares at him then her eyes widen as his hands are now grasping two things a page of parchment in one hand and a sharp thin metal stake in the other getting some residue from the deviants i see girl no time for that now tongue out air sealer damn you thaddeus i suspected this was your plan you're going to the warp for this you know that don't you as this exchange went on the cacophony that was erupting from the door was deafening but scintillating also i closed my senses to it as i witness what happens falcaos and teddy run back and perform another somersault firing while they are going attempting for one to go high one low but both firing in to support barbar baba who is alone in that room with six noise marines telling lance but continues to move but falcaos parfakus he bounds further down the hall only for one of the sound marines cones are forced to tear into one of his legs pushing him off balance it went straight through the wall shattering every bone in the limb as he lands badly a second cone slams through the wall into him while he's on the ground in less than a second i see his upper half and head encased in this attack as it strips his skin from his face his skull bursts his eyes and shatters his teeth as i look on all in less than a second his teeth pasted with his blood and skin from his face are now on the wall behind him with the blast disappeared through telling his twin his brother concludes his movement and swings back to see the broken wreckage of focus he stops and just looks at his brother his jawline bunching and unbunching as he grits his teeth he's shaking slightly as he begins to make his way to the door i know he intends to go through it sadia snaps his view back to ursula his face now masked in the most aggressive sneer i have ever witnessed as he snarls at her after everything i've done i doubt i will ever stand at their side of the emperor but ursula you forget one thing everything i do i do in his name now in his name if you don't put out your tongue i will cut it out priscilla does not resist her eyes close tight as she pushes out her tongue my master does not hesitate as he grabs its end with the hand holding the parchment he is placing it on her tongue while pulling it out his other handing comes fully over his head and powers down with the small metal spike as it goes through her tongue then directly into her jaw her body goes rigid and lies flash open light exploding from them the glyph from their parchment also glows like a star the light seems to form a bubble around us momentarily then erupts out passing through the walls and floors around us ursula is laid down by thaddeus very swiftly as if he has done this all too many times before he then charges towards the door he shouts stay close not too close but stay behind me behind me as he just manages to be telling to the doorway and all three of us charge inside the room as we pass the threshold i am dazzled it happens quickly but i will try to explain difficult but i will try it is a very large room with three huge windows at the front all along that side so large are they the pains are broken and blasted but outwards not in as there are no shards at the feet of the men there i say men but it is pushing the definition babon is engaged with two of them huge as well all wearing power armor or astartes space marines our foes are all adorned from head to toe in ancient marks of power armor resplendent in the purple of the once proud emperor's children the third legion if memory serves but many are twisted the arm are now rainbows of impossible combinations of colours that should never be put alongside one another in hues so vibrant i did not know that they could exist they hurt the eye to look at or would do normally but as this is definitely one of those battles are a one that could easily be my last i see it all through a mild haze as the concoction of combat stims course through my body like a bobsleigh and make my perceptions more acute yet more directed all my attention is on their movements not the details thankfully three of them are the windows but perpetually in motion impossible to target easily they hail fire into a courtyard murdering as many as our bities as they can they are doing it with glee from their posture fingers dancing across keyboards to generate the sounds that are weaponized by the power of chaos the slanash the prince of power baba as i said is engaging two of them in close quarters the more the better as i was told so he maneuvers their battle to pick up one of those from the far window when they come close enough in one unbelievably fluid motion the noise marine drops his weapon and draws his blade and just turns and blocks one of barbrone's faints towards him and all four move off again but is not technically better than any of them certainly not better than all of them combined but he is an expert in this the confusing battle the multiple assailant malay he seems to be getting faster as he uses one of them to hinder the other constantly striking at them not permitting any to escape or disengage he wheels around the room with them like a planet they're his satellite moons so there are only terry left firing out of the window but back to our entry onto the scene i was dazzled this was due to the pirate techniques to my four as we burst through the door two marines aimed at blast masters at us i felt dreaded as the waves of energy moved towards us but they didn't hit the light that had sprung from ursula it had made a shield around her that stretched halfway into the large room when their blasts hit the wall colors seemed to be drained out of them and spread around us in a shell-like pattern i can only presume that it was the element of the sonic attack that is warp spawned else force continued towards us as it struck thaddeus i was expecting to see a repeat of the horror that had been done to falcas but no that's a hit a shield sprang around my master the force was changed to light blazing light hence me being dazzled as i said for my master was employing his conversion feel it was the rarest of all devices he had told me he even confided it was a ducaro make but this made me laugh as i thought he'd be joking at the time now i have no idea all i know is that the force ways that had killed farkas were now rays of light my master now strode towards them with purpose but wine broke off to his right terran was three steps ahead of me as always he was so damn fast he moved to incept the second marine but i can only imagine his wish for revenge his fury got the better of him no wonder his brother had just been blasted to a puddle in front of his eyes but he was too far ahead of me those three paces that meant so much i was not able to stop what happened next again the astartes move so quickly their order the discipline in total odds for the hectic chaotic stripe and swirl in their almost comedic armor terran shot at him with his last pistols charging all the while closing the distance the marine seemed to cover his face with his left arm while his right dropped the blast master the last gun shot bounced off or were absorbed harmlessly by his power armor turning was now on him and dropped his pistols and drew out his powerblades the marine just moved faster he dropped his arm and grabbed the left wrist that teren's first blade was in the noise marine courted with ease twisting it and snapping it in a millisecond only a split second behind the first play tyrion swept at him with an overhead attack the marine caught his arm and lifted him off the ground tearing struck out with his left leg a kick aimed straight to the marine's helmet-covered face unless the marine caught that too tenon's left leg and right arm in his fists the marine then just stood up and extended his arms his span was huge being all of eight foot and tearing could not stretch so he snapped and pulled apart turin's arm and his leg were wrenched so quickly that they both came off blood was everywhere he fell to the floor but was then unceremoniously kicked at me his blood filling the air i ducked the body knowing we were both dead if it hit what was left italian smashed into the wall behind me it sounded like an overripe fruit bursting i did not look back i could not afford to but nor did i want to meanwhile one of the marines of the window is thrown off his feet a precise hole in his helmet he is down but still breathing from the noises coming from him as devlin introduces himself to the fray the other marine at the window takes cover and then does something unexpected as my master was about to engage the noise marine in front of him the other shoots stadius and hits dead on the conversion field kicks in and turns all of that sonic power to light the warp tank having been shown off by the field from the unwilling ursula but the light blinded my master and he shielded his eyes for a split second the very speed second a grenade was tossed towards him by the noise marine only five spaces away who then immediately took a good few more back the grenade was solid not energy so pass through the field and explodes in a plume of fire and noise right in front of that earth he's lifted off his feet and thrown backwards but i know his power armor has taken the brunt of the blast the sound and explosion bodies thrown or kicked or have been used by barbell as his foes are distracted for only a second he kicks one in the chest sending it spawning turns and beheads another and cuts deep into the leg of the last with the pain only enhanced by their strange nature the noise marine shudders in pleasure and lets out a gasp as the power sword bites into him but no amount of pleasure can defeat biology barbon then drags the sword out kicking the side and back of the leg bending it the noise marine goes onto one knee and is twisted towards his allies barman then inserts his sword into the neck of the traitor not right through it but at the side earn a good amount in if the marine moves while babon takes his sword away then he will die in less than a minute from blood loss astartes oh no all babon has to do to decapitate the marine is to put on more pressure the noiseman knows his position and instantly plays statue pity as it seemed we had the upper hand it was then that i noticed movement in my right corner and the marine i had been about to engage the one who had killed terry his gauntleted fist smashes into my head i am glad that i had taken the cocktail and shut down my pain receptors or the shock may have killed me the fist connects with my face and crumples all before it my cheek shatters my jaw and teeth on that side buckle my eye socket splits and my eye is destroyed i can feel the jelly of it dropping onto my cheek i dropped like a sack of manure as we used to say in my hive but he does not let me fall the marine grabbed me by the shoulder twisting me as i dropped then he steps forward forcing me forward onto my knees in a mirror image of the position barbone has his captive and he inserts a blade into my neck in a parody as well i know i'm dead there is no circumstance where i get out of this alive now so here we are i watch as my master stands and takes her position next to barbara the marine barbon had kicked away writes himself and advances up to stand next to the marine who has me so here we are three marines about me one on the floor but alive one dead by the hand of barbar and one in his grasp and for this we have lost falcus and teden and only barber and my master stand they are one side of the protective bubble thrown up by ursula we are on the other thaddeus people think it's my name it isn't it's a rank a myth a legend a cowl i donned over a century ago the enemy has named the strike terror into our most accomplished warriors but eventually the victory is gained by dint of the fear generated by the name the sapping power of certainty of loss the endless are our enemies so they can accrue such reputations such legends potent weapons unto themselves so we turned it on our foe we tried to generate our own legends not in our world oh no the legend the myth was to be generated in theirs a fear that would sap them thus 40 of us were born it was a test a trial but the longest running experiment that the inquisition has ever undertaken the traditions the masks an experiment that is about to conclude for i am the 99th thaddeus there will be but one more potentially our last and there are but few traditions left few that have made it through the long eons the long ages without being snuffed out we the sadius we are the respected the revered even amongst our own the traditions we are one of the few who represents the balance we are the thaddeus and that addition at least feel the experiment has gone swimmingly it's a look of eye-widening horror on the face of the terrors we meet when we declare our name the demon that housed with recognition of the rank and then fears so we believe the tradition must be upheld at least it will not be an error that our line ends and as we draw close to the reckoning the final judgment we all scramble for the exemplars that will see our line to conclusion so they have to be the rest and he the boy taconis he is the best he is my destiny to find him to train him it's the only reason i am thaddeus for there was another even more gifted than i more driven and now an implacable enemy he has sworn to end the line but if i do not act swiftly his wish may be granted before he even has to raise a finger tarquinos my boy is in danger he is a gem without measure a rarity even amongst these wondrous stars and i have never entirely worked him out but i know potential when i see it oh yes i do it was impossible to miss if i'm honest i felt the hand of the emperor that day i think guiding me all hell had literally broken loose i had not been in time i'd taken only half my larger entourage that day but it had not gone well we ended one of the rights but we did not know it was one of many the rest had not made it out if only barbar had been there cast my timidity in the days that approached that battle so injured and alone i wanted the streets of a demon-infested world and from a large building many rushed out onto the street screaming and howling in sheer terror for the walls bled and mirrors were the portals to the ether and many dark things stepped out it was chaos as it was intended formless never-born entity swept across the fleeing herds and possessed any they felt as they turned they then gutted all around them the slaughter was great as one after another was possessed by these demons and then amongst all of that i saw him taconess and his miracle a larger entity rippled through time space leaving only distortions in its wake headed towards the boy but then surrounded him and his head snapped back in a howl emitted from his burning lungs a howl of triumph an inhuman howl his muscles began to bulge in his head to twist lifting from the ground this was no lesser entity in play attempting to make a puppet of his flesh but then it happened the boy just started to shake his head i could see by the strained muscles around his neck that it was pure will he was being fought every inch of the way he is being fought the entire time by this greater entity the slow move from side to side in a clear no action deliberate eyes scrunched tight door clenched almost snapping he continued and as he did he started to lower to the ground the corona around him diminishing until finally with one last slow but decisive shake of his head his eyes snapped open again as his feet touched the ground the distortion around him exploded out and dissipated as it went he taconess the boy a lot of only 16 maybe had thrown off the possession of a greater entity of the warp i ran to him as he gormlessly looked around as if he had not known where he was he was in shock as he should have been by all rights he should have been in a coma for weeks his eyes burnt out at worst but there he was standing alert and awake if bemused how i grabbed him in the crowd and he merely followed me we moved fast we judged many a close call that day but finally we got back up to my shuttle and off the planet all the while he was bright and alert until finally he got into a cot to sleep and he did so for three days and all those days i did not sleep i watched him like a hawk anyone possessed could be a conduit or have their mind shattered by the experience what woke up could be very different to the gentle boy who went to sleep but he was like a cherub it did not matter cry out or simper not as i had done when it happened to me all those years ago when i was twice his age had the training to survive it even so it near broke me and that was a lesser entity the boy understood when he awoke in restraints he was calm and thankful for being saved a wise young man indeed we talked for hours i had to check finally he asked me to leave him in his restraints and go to sleep so tired was i he said kindness or a trap i left him and watched him remotely for three further hours water guns trained on him at all points i awoke eight hours later with him humming and whistling to keep his spirits up over the next few days i descended he was deeply affected by the shock the trauma on every level that was witnessing the destruction of his settlement by the evil damned ones but he was managing but of the possession he remembered nothing as the days passed whilst we traveled we spoke more i took down his restraints and attached him to a table instead i'm not an idiot he moved compliantly and saw the necessity of the deed so logical for a young man so empathic or analytical but any of those traits were good and so it began i'd been chosen as thaddeus for one reason above a man far more talented in nearly every other way i could see the potential in others and i could teach my rival could not i was literally chosen just to maintain the line and to find the best possible successor and to train them and i had found him in turquoise i had found him he was ravenous for everything i could teach him worryingly so he absorbed information like a sponge recall was phenomenal even before i trained him in how to master his mind he was brave possibly his greatest downfall actually he would rush to the assistance of others without a second of hesitation something i had to beat out of him i can tell you always assess fast first always but it off transpired that he had he had already weighed all of the variables and simply acted anyway confident i liked that but again it had to be tempered and that takes time i tested him regularly frequently and remorselessly in all of those years still never understanding how this boy could throw off a demonic position so easily i had even considered that he might be sensei i would explain a lot so i took him to meet one her the most powerful insensitive i knew of he interested her so much as true but he was not the same as her he was no child of the emperor yet she told me in private away from the boy that she could awaken him she was almost frantic to do so she said a burning star was hidden within the folds of his mind she was astonished that he had not awoken of his own volition knowing the adventures and evils i had subjected him to yet still he was contained but he was not ready then i wish i'd let her do it had let her awaken him there and then perhaps i would not have lost the twins should his power have been released but it is always a risk a risk i was not ready to take with him as i said he was the one i trained many an apprentice by this point over a half dozen but tarquinos he was the one he would be thaddeus when i was done and i am too old to start again and in entarquinus in that boy resides potentially the most powerful and effective most exact personification of what it is to be the thaddeus so he cannot die not now not like this a line would end so i have to take drastic action the fool he just had to rush in on avenge focus and tear in silly sod time to burn some relics take some chances for the stakes are simply too high not too i can hear the escaped vehicle now some form of veto i'd imagine heavily armed i'd wager and if i've heard it for the last few seconds they've heard it for the last few minutes at least they're playing for time good time to give them an excuse to protract things they only need an excuse at this stage in the confrontation and so here i go wait don't be hasty we have much to offer and the boy is a mutant he has a noise you will never have heard before they stop dead we all do barbon has his captive as much as they have the boy the captive is a noise marine he sliced its leg and put it on its knees sliding his power sword into its neck just for the threat of it but the enemy mirrored the effect with darkness he had to run in to try to avenge focus and telling now he is in great peril even so even with half his face missing crumpled and blooded like a folded picture rolled in red paint he is still alert he seems to be concentrating on something perhaps just staying awake perhaps not they all look down at the boy as i nodded him giving him permission and he begins the marines all look at me with a cocked head thinking exactly how droll and how much more they are going to really take their time in killing me when i have their undivided attention for that split second i let it loose my last one damn it but it was worth it a fascinator a rare item found on a planet near the lair homeworld wielded and devised by a race to the fortalez when they fell to slanesh worship it did exactly as categorized it fascinated all followers of slaanesh can only take so much stimulus before they are overwhelmed but this simple object of light was so perfect as to a normal sentient it was a dazzling curio but to astanashi warrior it was the center of the universe all three conscious marines gasped it for a split second barbara and i moved as one exploding into action babon hooked the head off of his captive and dashed forward to strike was met with power steel of their own so well disciplined the training of them the emperor's children was still very much present and the noise marine attempted to drive barbara away from the others so as to keep it mono imano i stooped low and starred on me as a hail of bullets then tore into the back of the second noise marine some went clean through but none in vital locations the marines staggered it did not fall i cursed under my breath and extended my hand at the marine over the boy at the last my hands slipped down and the beam came out of one fingertip and struck tackling us he was covered in a blue shimmering field a field that surrounded the segment of the blade inside his neck also the marine above him attempted to put in pressure to cut through the neck and behead the boy but nothing happened the field held the boy in some form of vacuum of course i knew exactly what it was it was one of my digital weapons well we'll put it this way it was complicated very few uses and this was one of the last i did not use it without some regret but it was important the blade then came off at the side and the marine took another few places towards me passed a mobile apprentice i drew my sword stood tall and said you have no idea what you've gotten yourself into do you have any idea who i am the marine then parked i'm sure you'll tell me i'm sad yes the rain took one faltering step backwards instinctively more out of surprise than any real fear i think pleasure to kill you sadius said the marine as he stalks forward the doorway is suddenly filled by her halloween vision a woman of course we know as ursula with a tongue gushing blood yanking on a piece of paper and the piece of paper i put there i guess as she priced it looks the first time ever i'd seen this the page burnt and then the bubble around us all just burst the light from her tongue then burst from our eyes instead as the noise marine stalking forward myself and the one nearly toppled by gunfire and then slammed backwards they skid across the floors and slam against the walls the escaped vehicle arrives with thunder as a blast saw below it into tatters missiles and chain guns chris cross the entryway and butchers more of the arbitees the two blasted back was turned and then jumped into the waiting veto the duel between barbara and the other marine of evil has been one of waiting and pacing looking for advantage as the marine finally turns to run for the transport he is just fast enough to elude barbar just ursula is now staggering to where the boyz is held immobile it will fade very soon she knows she's seen me do it before and she knows she will have to use all of her power of healing to save him if she can but i know everything will change now because ursila has never had the energy to even roll her eyes before not while under the effect of the gaze i impelled on her so someone must have impelled her infused her with power and i think i know who it was it has happened at last time for tarkiness to be rebuilt in so many many ways ursula is sullen but is as thoroughly entertained as i am at thatis keeping his word the days following the attack were calm it was only three days ago now we have literally months for thaddeus to do his thing because he worked out within an hour of interrogation that the being who shared the body of this insignificant and underwhelming assassin was indeed a minor being of chaos but what followed was odd and very funny well as torture goes i could not quite understand it at first thatyus had requisitioned one of the interrogation rooms in the brig he had the entity in a cell covered from ceiling to flooring glyphs wards sigils and icons no two inches were bare of markings that acted to constrain the being within all the while he thaddeus sat behind a field and chortled as he piped music and images in it the being screamed and howled but could not be heard from behind the field so as i watched this my curiosity got the better of me i had to ask master what are you doing at that sadly that's allowed me to hear the music playing and the visuals that were being bombarded at the being while his eyes have been stapled open and his arms are legs well the remaining one was strapped to the chair [Music] desperately in love with you i'm desperately in love i keep on stalling well i said he could assist me or i would be unpleasant so as he didn't break quickly i am being unpleasant to him also i want to send a message when i do send this sing back to the warp i wanted to take my compliments to its master and so it went on until the demon begged for mercy then and only then did my master let it leave carrying a song on its lips and resonating through its entire soul a solder would be returned to be one with its master with this gift contained i can only imagine how angry the greater entity would be yes thaddeus had a reputation to maintain a reputation in the warp one he so desperately deserved he really did enjoy his war with them with chaos we so rarely had the upper hand so he played it to the full ah i mentioned an attack well that would take us back two days i was as usual ruminating my life has changed my very being has altered i not only look and feel different i think differently too so much has changed since that encounter with the traitor snarties the noise marines where do i even start in many ways i think my master was waiting for this moment for these changes he seems as giddy as a schoolgirl as he would say the anachronistic old fool not when we discuss myometics that is for certain he is never bouncy does not show any excitement when we discuss them despite it being the end of my present state of being so very vulnerable i live but my body is shattered yet my mind my soul it has as he puts it blossomed we have been traveling to a planet one out of the way but important he states i can be healed entirely there it cannot come fast enough for me i lost an eye much of my face is crumpled my arm has reduced mobility and utility my neck still itches at night i know there is no good reason for it but when i wake up from a particularly lurid dream with my neck itching it is as if the ghost of the prince of pleasure inhabits my very bed chamber but as i always did i spoke to my master about it sadius always knows what to do what to say so wise is he so let me get this straight you are having um enticing dreams is that it yes they are rebuild how old are you boy 22 in a month as you well know master and you don't think that has anything to do with it in your prime eh it's been a long time since you are well had some shore leave that added to a near-death experience well you'd have to be a unicorn minister to not have some form of hitch test right we'll dock soon perhaps you should um um get some uh shore leave in this state i look like oh don't be such a baby we're going to get you some cybernetics when we dock where we're going they have the technology they can rebuild you even that face of yours you sure you don't want a nose enhancement more regal a large schnoz imposing when that's all done well then you can uh get some shore leave you think that is all this is despite me having a cursed blade through my neck it has nothing to do with it are you sure processor elimination boy get some uh shore leave then see if you still think you're descending into a perfect of the worst order eh there is a preponderance amongst our kind those of our calling to blame everything and anything on the imaginations of the dark powers it's a road you do not want to go down or you will be useless to me so eliminate the possible causes logically but always bear in mind that humans are humans our urges are a part of us as much as they are a back door to the collapting powers we made them the dark gods not the other way round nothing wrong with a good bit of a shore leave if you keep it pleasant and even have some lovely feelings to share we're human denying every aspect of that is exactly what the deviant eldar attempt yuck you wouldn't want to be like one of those degenerates would you no of course not but um boy use precautions your seed is now a ticking time bomb be responsible don't go repopulating the universe on your shore leave eh i very much doubt i'll get the opportunity i've seen those with bionics before not exactly attractive as i said we have the technology we can and will rebuild you you'll be back to giving ursula sleepless nights again in no time that was a month ago and it has been a long and grueling month painful too if i'm honest but he was right i didn't even need a mirror when i woke up i could see it in ursula's eyes as she and thaddeus looked on as the bandages are removed from my face she has that shy smile as i make eye contact good i am not repulsive anymore but oh what's this the eye contact now that i have my robotic eye it is everything he said it would be and more i can see every little iron in her eye i can track the speed of dilation i can see i can see everything babon and everyone are there also further back but present now if anything had been a miss i know for certain devlin would not be able to resist the comment or be able to remove a mischievous twinkle from his eye thinking of the appropriate prod to get me riled up but both look at me are not sagely i exhale in relief before i even catch my reflection in the surface confirming i am fine before the apothecary assistant gets to pass me a mirror but i go through the i am astonished i look the same despite having an eye made of metal and framing all along my skull i look normal my tongue finally recovers from the soprolific effects of this sedation and i can feel through it again it runs around my mouth and traces the edges of perfect teeth where before there had been but an empty and broken jaw bone he was right they did rebuild me i look at thalius and glean up at him his cousin often stern countenance drops and he beams back at me well after you've had a bit of a rest we'll get the tech priests in here to run through your new capabilities then it's time to get back to training i know you miss it so much heard again of course i mean only one person the woman i had met once before the one thaddeus called a sensei a powerful one she had taught me first before i had even really recovered from my injuries sadius had taken me to her and dropped me off in her apartments we spoke of many things she explained many things kept me safe in those early days when my blossoming mind was still vulnerable she explained that her power meant that none of the denizens of the warped could find me but only when she was close so for months we spent every day together every second until i always passed out before her exhausted beyond anything i had ever known at the start i wished that we had fixed my body first i felt weak and confused by only having one eye but it ended being the best decision assadia said your body is now only the vehicle for a greater power you will learn to wield it safely we'll learn how to be safe before we can go to get your automatics be patient learn how to move with your mind leave your body to later he was right of course and she agreed with him she would tease me that i was less to look at than a viewer but perhaps my recent downturn her appeal would assist with her keeping concentration herself light-hearted banter to lift my spirits she had no more interest in me than she did anyone else but it helped no i don't think so she was useful in keeping you safe until you had learned to hone some of your abilities enlightening fast time too she reports not that i am surprised of course i knew you would not let me down would take to the training naturally would do in months what others did in decades but i feel a time i pulled in a few markers see how things are done properly perhaps by someone who is adept but not perhaps as naturally gifted as your last master she makes everything too easy i feel i think you need a rod now that you are back on your feet not more pampering he has no idea how far she pushed me how fast it's not easy to learn about eternity from someone who can manipulate it as easily as a master painter a brush her strokes with warp were fine and delicate unlike my hard swipes where power was always there but no subtlety but she was not coy about the dangers of the war took me to see things witnessed things that i would not have thought possible would not have dared to dream existed before now she introduced me to a whole other world a world of wonder and terror taught me the very basics of how to defend my mind with the psychic hood that is now in my new armor it is enough for the moment yes i didn't mention that thaddeus not only gave me a new eye and had my face repaired but he also gained me power armor i still find it difficult to move in but that will come in time he said but the hood helps one day i shall go into it more ingenious piece of equipment that it is but for the short term let's just say that it makes me stronger and protects my fledgling talent from those dark beings that would attempt to consume me sadly stated that the only way to get used to armor was to wear it so that i have been doing i do not actually know if it is the armor he wishes me to get used to or that he wishes he and others to be safe in my presence while i wear a psychic hood in the end what does it matter i will have to get used to both anyway so why not both at the same time sleeping in the suit is difficult but a skill my master wishes me to also gain so i do an old tyrant never enough time for anything to be done the easy way but then he is the thaddeus he wages a never-ending war against evil and as is said idle hands are the dark ones playground so he keeps us all on our toes we go i know not where but we book a trip on a carrier our own vessel out of a few said the present but that is a long story for another time it is when we get to the ship that i realize how far we are to go to ultramar itself the 500 worlds some say there a paradise within the hell that is the imperium greater a thing i had always wanted to see ultramar and we are going there well tiki owes me a favor or two and the men we are going to see will be there i have no doubt that they will be able to discern your abilities even better than she could i know this to be a lie a white lie but a lie nonetheless why i overheard them when they thought i was busy one day concentrating as i was on the task i had she left as someone requested an audience i heard the heavy armored feet of my master and the hushed tones of their exchange the only words i made out clearly were very direct from her to him no she said i will not teach him to be a weapon even for you thaddeus you will have to get someone else to do that particular piece of dirty work for i shall not she would not be moved from this i knew it when i first met her first beheld her power on the observation deck but now having seen her learned from her i was adamant she would not be persuaded otherwise so it was final and thus did thaddeus have to try to find another teacher for a psyche who had not been through the usual training not being the usual age not being the usual power levels therefore reports are true so it would be a very special individual we would need to be meeting i was excited i won't die i had been introduced to a new world a new existence a new way of thinking and experiencing but i did not know how to use it i knew that seeking power for its own sake was a pathway to peril and damnation but if the right teacher could be found perhaps i could learn to utilize my new gifts for the entire human race could learn to confront demons and denizens on their own footing be a warrior of light for the imperium this this i wanted to not only be a wise man as thaddeus had been training me to be but also to be a powerful man not so i could lord it but so i could use it so i could strike down the evils that had taken so many of our entourage over the time so i could save lives so we went it was a night that we invited to dine with the captain that it happened i was as usual being sat by ursula who definitely looked at me like she wanted some sure leave but obey thaddeus i know he had spoken to her about this strangely he was not enamored of matters of heart distracting his support and thus we were warned not to get distracted and keep our urges to without the circle not within but we were growing in our friendship now that we had so much more in common it was natural but then it happened i knew something had changed immediately my master thaddeus had gone to get prepared for the dinner and had one of the only rooms with a shower in it yes he was so respected on this ship that they made water available for him to simply run over his body for pleasure well hygiene as well but the effect could not have been anything but luxurious it was while he was in there that i felt which is the only world i can use i felt his tension increase i sat bolt upright and looked ursula dead in the eye we both went to rise when the door opened and something came in it was small hand sized and rolled to a stop on the floor near us ursila sat cross-legged in front of me and i was in the largest chair there the only one that could support my bulk in my armor it was between us the thing gave off a high pitched wine and then popped open dust filled the air and dashed everything within six foot of it covering ursula and i head to toe it's his eyes wide and further and then she jutted convulsing as though sitting on a live wire and all of its current was put through her body but there was no charge i felt the same the dust kicked my face my my hair my eyes my neck all over the front of my armor and with it i felt a yawning chasm of emptiness open up within me i was not affected as badly as ursula but she had been connected for most of her life i had only just found my connection so when it was cut she reacted like the very breath had been robbed from her lungs and no matter how she gasped for air there was no way for her to feel them i was disturbed and somehow alone for the first time since the battle with the traitors the noise marines my head felt like it was splitting asunder and i clasped it with my gauntlet covered palms as if to keep my head from cracking open the pain was something else my connection to the warp had been closed snapped shut by this confetti somehow and it felt unnatural unlike it would never end i would never again touch eternity i slumped down and felt so desolate as ever i did when i thought of the loss of the twins how i could not stop them from being killed but in that instant a man came bounding into the room and leapt towards us and i could no longer feel thaddeus elsewhere shuffling the door slides open and from behind a shower curtain a voice came out damn it so this is the way it ends eh caught with my trousers down unarmed naked and afraid do i at least get my final words the person who had entered the room who stood behind the curtain the shower curtain answered oh yes i will record them all for posterity the last words of the thaddeus how does it feel old man to be the last to know that a lesser being will take your life as a being eh but hardly a mere man eh even over this water i can smell a stink of headache so sharing a body are we what is it to you say your last words that is well seeing as this is my last blast why not a riddle i do so love riddles there is no riddle devised by mortal man that i do not know proceed i will defeat you in this before ending your existence have you ever heard the riddle of the bolt pistol i thought not it goes like this what walks on four legs at dawn walks on two legs in the noon and ends his existence on three you dog this is the riddle of the swings one of the easiest and oldest riddles there are well what's your answer it is man he walks on all fours as he crawls at the dawn of his life he walks on two feet at his apex his noon then slides into needing a crutch a cane to support him in his dotage thus he dies on three legs his own two and one for the cane it is man you guess wrong at that point the curtain is yanked back by naked and angry thaddeus and he points a bolt pistol at his assailant he shoots one round from the bolt pistol into the kneecap of the humanoid being in front of him as it penetrates and explodes outward in an instant covering the wall's floor and the curtain and has now been pulled back by thyus with blood gristle and bone the being falls forward onto his two hands and one remaining knee the other blasted apart the shower curtain is ripped back again look the outer it's you three legs eh the being looks down at his hands on one knee then looks up at thaddeus and would spit at him if not for the desperately cleansed jaw that keeps it from screaming now now don't be a sore loser who else is there eh you can't expect me to believe an idiot like you came all on your own sadist lashed out with roll of the heart he kicks into the stump in the stomach of the assassin winding it before he kicked it onto its back and branching the knife he'd also taken to the shower with him fresh up quickly and i will be clement hold out and i can assure you you will regret it as i stand he comes at me but he is probably expecting me to be more groggy than i am or perhaps he thought i would be utterly incapacitated as ursula is perhaps it is the fact she is here and so much in need of my help let's not forget she saved my life from those noise marines or i would be a headless thing rotting or made into corpse starch but no matter the reason i move as fast as i am able in the suit and it proves fast enough he simply runs at me with some form of ornate power weapon a power sword so he is well equipped but his first strikes prove he is no trained assassin don't get me wrong he is a killer all right a grizzled and experienced slayer of men but he is nothing special and he is no match for me why because i not only watched barbaron train i learned from it now that i have power armor perhaps he will permit us to use real swords well metal ones at least i remembered every training session he gave me with our wooden bakken and this twerp is no barb on so he looks as ungainly to me as i do to him my armor will not be entirely safe from his power weapon so i draw a mine and block his first salad i use my increased strength from the armor to bully boy him away from ursula a better trained warrior would be evading me instead of parrying but he's so used to being stronger in any jewel he is surprised and on the defensive before he knows what hit him i drive him towards the door hoping to get him out of it and then close it and lock it to regain some breathing room and to see if ursula is all right he's just outside when a single bolt round hits his head and explodes all over me i'm literally covered from eyebrows to shins in his viscera i stopped dead as dead as he is now as his body just topples to the ground hello bye are you there if so put your hand out of the door first slowly i do is instructed and place my left gauntlet out of the door and wave while saying hello it's okay you can look now i put my head out the doorway swiftly and look down the hallway and there he is my master sadius bolt pistol in hand in a bathing robe and with his left hand curled into the hair of someone who is literally dragging down the corridor the hands are over his trying to tug free but the leg is off above the knee and a huge swathe of blood is left in their wake the wretch he has is tugging weakly and pathetically as his hand but he also has a rune cut into his chest bloodily a rune of binding i think swiftly done but a powerful one from the look of it made a new friend everywhere i go you know me i love to chitchat i dive back into the room and come to stop over the prone form of ursila she's shaken and has a fever she seems to be muttering but is clearly out called sallier throws his captive into the corner and whips up the cylinder that fried ursula is now still cutting me off in the warp a strange feeling now that i have felt it for so many months like someone removing music and sound from the world don't fret she'll be writer's rated a few days days well perhaps earlier what is it a very specific very rare and very difficult to acquire weapon designed especially for people like you and ursula but what does it mean i don't know about your one i say signaling to the still bleeding man so unceremoniously dumped in the corner but ours was not what you would expect adequate for a standard target i guess oh there are lots of things going on here none of which i am certain of just yet but fast now that i know you and ursula are okay i must prove that i'm a man of my word with that he rounded on the thing in the corner the one he imprisoned and then tortured and really really enjoyed every last second of it i feel you must be puppied out let's try a ah weirdo mouseys lovely aren't they we kneel all of us in utter unison we are one hundreds of ceramide covered knees striking the ground at the same time the sundress echo rebounds across the inner sanctum our cathedral in the void its highest points barely visible without our homes its huge viewports allow us to witness eternity while we receive the sermons we are the litanies and the catechisms we are the anointed are the pure we are the sword of the emperor himself we are gathered for the master the final preparation before we strike recently our crusade was met by transport some hailed from the fortress monasteries in this region replenishing our ranks but they were untested and tried thus did the initiates without neophytes walk the ranks perusing the candidates and all candidates were chosen all silently tapped on the shoulder by an owned warrior the one action signaling that they had been accepted that the next phase of their time amongst the black templars had already begun the initiates were full battle brothers and would train their neophytes in all that it meant to be a black templar in the service of the god emperor of mankind they'd been trained already of course had been put through the trials and challenges that would break any lesser man at the fortress monasteries they had been homed drilled groomed drilled again mostly with live ammunition culling the weak from the strong so they were not babes in arms in any other era of humanity in any other circumstances they would already be the greatest warriors that humanity had ever produced hardened killers paragons of martial prowess but this was not some helsion long gone this was the age of the imperium and the challenges and trials the horrors that they would face were far beyond anything humanity could once have dreamed in its worst nightmares so despite their training their equipment their gene seed already elevating them to something so much more than human despite the fact that they were already adept as astartes the emperor's own angels of death so us they were still raw recruits still snot knows dreamers who would bury the first crew of what would be expected of them they were swords but they were dull it would be up to the initiates and the example of the sword brethren to sharpen them to give them an edge that would not only allow them to live to survive not only allow them to serve their emperor but also to bring low things that had never been faced in years prior for we the black templars are the sword of the emperor we are his wrath and we swear our oaths so that we will never forgive the transgressions against our race and never ever forget them the enemies of the imperium the traitor the mutant the heretic the witch we have the scourge we are the firebrand we are the rig that clears away the vileness of the galaxy his galaxy for unlike many of our cousins are kind of space marines we do not stalk in our fiefdoms desperately clinging on to control ever reacting and never acting we do not protect a guttering light as some of our melancholic kin believe they do no for we are the black templars we are the sons of sigismund and dawn grandchildren to the emperor himself his righteousness runs through our veins it is our duty our reason to exist to be the eternal crusade last do we bring the light to the darkest corners of the galaxy his galaxy we are the tsunamis that washes away the filth it will contaminate our imperium our worlds our race we the templars have never ceased in our eternal war our eternal crusade for over ten thousand years thus we live our lives on our mighty vessels as we apply the stars not reacting but acting we hunt down the foes of the emperor annihilate them from the least to the last no matter where they be no matter where they hide our words no pity no remorse no fear they are all we need our oaths and our devotion to the god emperor of mankind when the chaplains end their litanies our marshal arises first and takes his place at our head as he turns and addresses us to inquisitors with their entourages enter the stage and stand alongside him one i recognize as sault brachus a painfully short and dainty man but with a steel in his gaze and bearing that more than make up for his diminutive stature his entourage surround him like a clutch of chickens all clucking around him whenever he is near the front i have witnessed it the ogden seems especially ludicrous in his presence sloth by name but certainly not by nature the armored goliath is touted to be the equivalent of a marine i doubt that but hope it never has to be tested for brachus may well regret making that claim we have worked with him extensively before ordo hereticus he has sniffed out many ernesto witches and heretics for us to purge hence do we know there is farmless afoot the other inquisitor hails from the old amalias the demon hunters and so it seems we're in for a proper fight at last calling xenos is one thing as they are vile in the eyes of the emperor and should be stricken from his realm without mercy but it always fills us with greater zeal when we know that our targets are to be the true enemies of the imperium the witches and their never-born allies are our reason to exist the reason for the eternal crusade and i am proven right as our martial outlines our targets our priorities our goals and our foes thus will be to face not only witches but the soulless the never born as well demons good it will be a battle worthy of our metal worthy of our attention when finished he has outlined five main objectives where our crusader squads will needs be to hold the line and push the foe back the specialist units are solid but the battleline squads are not as with other forces our brothers have pretty formations and numbers and ordered lists of battle you see but they are armies we are more than this we are a crusade thus do we act as such we allow the men to go as their calling and their passion follow to fight alongside those that they choose on the field of battle they wish all will be under the control of the chain all will do is instructed by the marshall but in this moment in this one instance before the battle is joined our structures become static we form our own units our own crusade squads five different sword brethren stand one by one claiming that they will lead the assault on one of the strategic objectives they stand and raise their swords high moving into a separate area of the cathedral and proclaim their objective and honor as they stride and we initiate with our near fights in tow our squires we congregate at one banner or another the zeal in our hearts burns away jealousy fickleness or antipathy for those around us this is no popularity contest as it would be in some other chapters we choose to fight at the side of those who have the same goals the same drives the same style it is no negative reflection on those bands we do not join we are and or as will be one one chapter one crusade one purpose and within two minutes there we stand in our five squads some are larger than others but this is due to the magnitude of the tasks given and also the complexity my near fight and i stand with one of the larger squads but it is utterly logical we had to arrive by drop pod landing and two squads must create the bridgehead must clear the landing ground for the others usually we would not need perform this action the entire force coming down as one in a lightning raid of fire and fury but we have the inquisitors to protect and know normal mortal power armor or no could survive the impact of a drop pod landing thus we must clear a landing zone for these illuminous guests on our battlefield it will be a simple task but the probability of casualties is high the bridgehead all fall on hope is always that as it is simple as it is of high import as it will be a desperate and instant struggle for life and victory it is where most initiates take their very green neophytes they will have to fight from the second doors open a true baptism in fire thus are our squads the larger breaching the detects of the codex astartes with a punity we are not ultramarines and will never pretend to be so we will arrive in multiple drop pods per squad as they only house 10 marines and so without fuss confusion bickering dickening or drama the squads have decided within two minutes our structure for the battle is set the next hours pass without incident or interest methodically ritualistically we march to our departure deck and gird ourselves for war as we do we note the one marine chosen to be his representative his sword his will made manifest the greatest of honors and then we launched i am his sword i am his honor i am his revenge on the dawn before our battle i awoke but stayed in a dreamlike state for my very soul was a fire my mind the receptacle of his might his vision he has chosen me to be his vessel he shows me the images of the deeds i must perform the foes he has chosen for me to bring low my eyes dart from one vision to the next the dizzying kaleidoscopic vista of futures all is in flames all is sin and degradation and so he sends me but he points the way he shines his light into the darkness and the depths of the souls of these riches he shows me who i must defeat in his name for on this day i am his sword i am his honor i am his revenge i am the emperor's champion launched from the depths of our ship our cathedral of the void our battle barge we hurtle through the skies ten of us locked into the walls of a cylindrical missile a drop pod each an astati's a space marine our power armour black anointed holy a gift from our grandfather a second skin of ceramide we can feel as well as the first our black carapace permits this many wear power armor not all even human but it is only we his angels of death that feel it like it is our own body we who harness his full power ship fires down a spread of shot to soften the area is how they will feel or construe it if they have but one tactically gifted mind amongst them this may be true of other chapters other sons of other lineages not so for the sons of sigismund the never-ending crusade for us the fire is to drive the foe toward our landing site our drop pods will destroy more in our arrival but it also means that they will be herded in around us they will not need to be a headlong initial charge against a ward of guns many times the bodies we have no time for them to bring up their heavier weaponry no distance for them to take aim and swallow their fear and pull a trigger no delay we will be amongst them from the instant our doors come down and when we are amongst them they cannot use their firepower hence we will thresh them mow them down before the dual fire of our faith and our hatred our chain swords are chained to our arms for the neophytes and initiates the sword brother in here has his power sword thus locked all are stood stuck still while we plow through the skies downward never downward i am the odd man out i am not in their crusade squad compromising two drop pods full of astartes but this is the only place open and it is right and proper that i will be the first out of the door the first to engage the enemy fire starts to whip past us but little my stomach slams into my throat as the thrusters fire the very last second sending massive plumes of fire and thrust to the ground it makes our impact slightly less jarring but it would still shatter every bone in the body of any normal immortal after two swift successive chimes the doors are blown off leaving us five doorways to exit i'm the first to disengage their holding anchors the first to the door the first leap out the other benefit of the thrust of fire is that there is a blast zone around us are some ten paces scores of burning and blasted forms lay there a color of the foes from our advent alone my mind does not even register the charred stench so akin to swine on a spit i'm amongst them before the first has even drawn his weapon fully out they're packed around us as was intended and i begin my charge through them my paces are swift but measured my stance perfected over a hundred battles i see all before me to the side of me and snatch glimpses while performing my dance instinctively without conscious thought my mind maps the next three strikes encounters the man i will kill the way his body will fall how it will open me to the highest stance attack of the next but how i can block and then run him through and onto another that is directly behind him the foe are rabble slime only human they are malnourished but insane poorly armed with makeshift melee weapons but filled with the power of their dark masters the cause of chaos dug into their souls as much as their clearly corrupted bodies they will not break easily i continue my march of doom saying all who come before me my brothers are behind me but not with me i'm not in their squad i am the emperor's champion my role is separate i lead by example my targets require i arrange the field as i wish as the emperor commands it where he leads but for now i see the initiates leading their neophytes into the encircling cultures just behind my wake the other pod landed a split second behind ours more landing all over the drop zone as per the plan of attack the crusader squad started with 19 members each a pair of master and squire and the sword brethren who leads them of course not that the men need leading we know what we must do the two score of us clear the enemy in less than two minutes never stopping never seeking never showing mercy never showing doubt even the neophytes take at least two score each before we are done and they finally stop rushing our lines the last of them turning and charging back to the central hub block no doubt telling themselves that they go to warn their masters instead of that they run from justice they run from the ire of the emperor the underground is secure ahead of schedule as i wait for the stormraven to come down i note that we have lost three neophytes two slain in melee the last i see beheaded by sneering cold-eyed initiate the neophyte had frozen he had then whimpered sometimes we get one i'm never sure how but sometimes we do nonetheless he is gone i hear sounds of battle all around me streaks of missiles and darts of laser light flash across the skies from building to building the stormraven comes in it swoops down and then hovers for half a minute only before it is gone out of the ramp drops the two inquisitors and their entourages soured brackets and his force are first sarat is tiny entirely covered by his men sloth the toweling augering with slab shield his crusader knight stands to his other side shield held high as his sloths behind them a saratas and a minister and priest with his chainsaw already revving autohereticus we have fought alongside them many times he has a good nose for the heretic the traitor the witch he leads us to them the other group seemed less comedic or to melious the demon hunters an older man jumps out their inquisitor he is special some say one of an elect group within their orders but i ignore rumor and thus have no real knowledge of them nor do i care as long as they are here to destroy the enemies of the emperor i am content he has an older marine with him i can see it in his reactions but i says his black painted armor covers the white that was clearly once on his shoulder the chain from his sword to his arm this inquisitor has a black templar with him or a pretender i know not which a younger bald man eyes bright darting from one place to another in quick succession he looks handy for a human he stands with his lord like a wolf about to be unleashed mechanicus priest is with him and what looks very much like an assassin bodysuit intricate and rare weaponry it can be none other the boy with the eyes is slapped over his board paint by his lord like a child being cuffed to get out of her parents way it is the sneer that covers the face that makes me think that this is not an gesture the inquisitor seems peevish but don't listen his armor is old power armor though it may be old another design i've never seen before the benefit of a status as a special or elect inquisitor of some sort no matter as soon as they land our crusader squads form around them and we push forward before us is a tangled web of hab blocks with walkways betwixt them every smash window and eye socket from which a cultist could look literally hundreds of vantage points from which to shoot down it may prove to be a trial to get to the central area where we need to be where we need to strike land speeders crossed the sky laying waste to concentrations of defenders bringing down entire levels of blocks with fire the bouncing forms of the assault marines and our new primaries inceptors moved our flanks heading off heavier resistance to clear our way we set off the bounding leap of the marine is not possible while we have these inquisitorial gangs in our number tedious but necessary the crusader squad takes up a perimeter around them as we move forward occasional knots of cultists spring out at us from alleyways first floor walkways doors windows we hack our way forward these scum are not even a speed bump to the sons of sigismund and vogel dawn our heavy armor is impossible to bring into the confines of this conurbation but that would make it too easy anyway we approach the main square and then my sight becomes a thing of two worlds i can see the real world as it is but also there are lights and shimmering hazes the emperor shows me the way he indicates my target and there at the base of the stairs to their main building the real threat shows itself for the base of the wide stairs leading up to this palace there are ranks of orderly organized and disciplined troops our first real resistance armoured and with power weapons they must form some elite for this rabble they're uniformed but twisted their shields locked together if i did not know better i would say that their attire and weaponry was akin to that of a crusader with saurod but their genesis is unimportant the lying troops are not my concern it is their lord he is standing at the top of the stairs his armor blazing with flames twisted lava forms runes around him that drop liquid fire like promethium on the ground he has a plethora of them around him buzzing like bees he is bright enough already but to my side he shines like a star but one i can look directly into without discomfort or wincing he is one of my targets this day initiates charge forward they're near fights in tow but we have done this before i've been a part of what we call in our crusade the stairway to the throne i see that they are prepared as three initiates run in a line some pieces separated sheasing their swords for a second to indicate compliance with my intent i bellow to let them know i am coming i run forward then launch myself up stepping on one then another of my brothers as i hunch down and rise with my foot elevating me further the last one turns and stops trading his mighty hands together as i bound towards them my foot lands in the cradle and he pushes up and out so i am launched clear of the line of guards i land on the stairs the three paces below their leader when i hear the crusader squad make contact with the wall of shields the chaos warrior smiles at me a toothy grin with too many teeth that then slips as the lava rooms around him are simply blown away literally a wind that comes from the second inquisitorial group they tore down his defenses so i can do the rest his axe comes down at me as he tries to retain the high ground i easily move aside angling the black blade in my hand so that his strike is deflected but its momentum is not stopped his axe goes into the marble stairs and he is over balanced it is char's play for me to twist and sew his head from his shoulders a scream after a thousand voices echoes around the square as we are all blown sideways backwards down by the explosion of his body i am caught in the fireball but nothing of this evil will pass through my armor for this is no normal power armor i wear today as the emperor's champion i am honored to wear the armor of faith ancient powerful thrice blessed by the god emperor and while i wear it i shall fear no evil penetrating my god not unless they be the mightiest of adversaries and this lackluster lord is hardly that the explosion and the effort of my brethren has cut down many of the enemy at the base of the stairs but many get to their feet near as fast as my brethren so they form up swiftly soullot brachus points and cheer ups out his order to sloth the huge ogrin barrels into the line and brings it down the interlocked shields previously thing of strength now their greatest weakness as the initial three he strikes drag down a half dozen the young trainee of the other inquisitor is way ahead of the others and darts to a gap in the line he moves amongst the rear of the enemies and stabs into the legs or back of any armored men still standing he may not be large but he is swift and intelligent the slightest assault from the rear is all that is required for my brothers to take them from the front their formation broken a second time the heretics are taunted pieces by the astartes but oh what is this as the inquisitors and their warriors make directly for the same walkway as me sault's men his slam shield ogrin and his crusader knight forming up at the front just behind me the rest in their shadow i hear them thaddeus do we have time no the ritual is nearing its conclusion it's got to be now or we face the wrath of the warp keep up boy but master the gifts on the walls we're walking into a funkram we should be more cautious oh really you think you know better than i holy sloan i question my decision every day but you are proving even more dim-witted than i feared we have no time for dalliance boy keep your eyes on the prize and keep up sloth sebastian double time i hear this and can see the coroners of power my targets are before me i run they will keep up or they won't i cannot my calling is too great i pick up more speed when i come to the last corridor and see the large doors so obviously barred the emperor's own glamour shines from the edges of the doors its hinges its tops its bottoms wherever there is about a millimeter open i am invited to my destiny i draw out multiple crack grenades and lob them at the doors dead center the explosion smashes them apart and tears them off their hinges backward out of the smoke and falling masonry i come making straight for the ritual i can hear the ogrin and the crusader behind me as they are slowed by the debris but not stopped before me is a scene from a fresco a huge slab of antiquated design lending their pantomime drama gravitas i suppose on it are three bodies ready to be slain none are held down none tethered they simply lay there transfixed with glazed eyes and frothing mouth muttering heresies as the most abort vileness around them is a circle of figures in robes so akin to the garb of our own priesthood twisted mockeries of the shepherds of the emperor they will pay but they are not my primary concern for the light of the emperor guides my way he shows me my target again above them on an upper walkway a viewing gallery there is a being he looks human at the present but the light from him is greater than any star it is he i must face it is he i must best half of the cultists now break from the ceremony leaving go on a minimum crew one might say they turn and begin to chant a different account walls of fire and force and wind and masonry are thrown up by them cutting them off from the attentions of the inquisitors and their followers i stamp my gaze around and find the stairs up to this gallery it is too high to jump the walls and fixtures too flimsy for a powered armor man to use with certainty so ahead for these stairs the ritual is not the center point it is to feed this being he is the danger not they boy where are you going boy i can't do anything about those wards but i might be able to help the champion no boy this is a duel you cannot intervene come back i'll have your head for this the young man heads off after me i dash the stairs as fast as i can and remain able to turn at their summit i crashed through the locked door with one hack of the holy black sword and there he is he steps out of the darkness to meet me i waste no time and salute him in the name of the emperor i challenge him and it is accepted he's a larger man as well but still i dwarf him he almost languidly draws his own blade no armor no power armor only delicate silken robes yet his stance is not defensive he is preparing to meet me to fight me head on head good ass this is when he sweeps his sword in the air and a wave of power comes out of me but i am the emperor's champion i am his holy warrior and the emperor protects i recall the litany of divine protection and the emperor intervenes the wave of power is broken and whips around me without harm my enemy shifts his stance as i bound towards him and unleash my fury his surprise is palpable writ across his countenance we clash my first 10 strikes are designed to push him back my size and strength test to see how he fares i will not underestimate this one his blade cars light and sound through the air making it difficult to make him out perfectly with my normal vision but the light of the emperor shines from him clearly marks his outline his position my strokes will perish with ease he is far more strength than he should he is definitely not a baseline human anymore below me the fray continues between the inquisitors my brethren crusaders and the cultists flashes of shields being penetrated by bots from the assassin as if they were not even there the crusader attempting to cut his way through the shields the ogre doing the same bludgeoning wildly afflicted eye shows me the cultists are reducing in number but still their ritual continues the boy may be behind me but that is his choice i cannot and will not divide my attention my target is all i see now he pads around shifting his feet for better control preparing to unleash his speed it seems his blade wells to create what he believes as an impenetrable barrier to my sight the fool does not know who sends me i slam my sword directly toward where he believes his torso is obscured it passes through his effect with ease and he is forced to somersault backwards like an eldar other zeno's deviant the blessings of his gods have magnified him but he is no match for the wrath of the emperor a bald round punches into the wall behind him and the boy has attempted to distract him it has changed his path taking him from the trap i had laid standing back as i was in mock confusion at his light he bounced left instead of right and i am dragged after him instead of seeing him impaled on the holy black sword i wield damn his interference i sweep my sword backwards and catch a small piece of debris sending it back at the boy to let him know his intervention is not needed or desired the beast and i now circle each other the chanting blow races to a crescendo i can see energies infusing it now like worms of power crackling up its lids and proceeding up its body the power grows as we spar our blades clashing again and again sparks of differing hues and shades flash between our swords as his unnatural effect changes them i suppose some might call it mesmerizing or even beautiful but to me it is only a sign of delay he is stalling holding me off while his power grows i force the issue i use the next 20 strikes to maneuver him into a corner he cannot see my planet first cannot avoid it as the truth dawns on him he is fast i am faster he is strong i am stronger he thinks he is blessed by his lords so takes my invitation and we test the theory i strike down on him with all of my might knowing he has no choice he locks his sword to mine and we grind we lean in and i see his shifting features properly for the first time like a broken liquid mirror his face is an ever-shifting parody of all that is purely human glimpses of his future form a rise and sink back again as horns and teeth extend on the elongate and then revert back again within a second i must prevail i slam my head into his my helmet crashing into where i know should be i feel the impact but see his eyes shift to the edges of his head his nose flying up to his forehead before the impact yet i impact he stack us back and i push him with all of my strength his eyes are wide on his head his stance unbalanced he wells on the spot and i can see the eyes spin out from his head like small globes on string that is ever extending i've used his twisted powers against him he is now dizzy and i see him lurch i place myself in a crouch and put all of my force and weight my skill faith and zeal all until one strike the black sword shudders as it pierces his torso dead center through his heart i am certain the word any blade but this holy sword it would have shattered on his robes but this blade is the emperor's blade as much as i am his champion and it slides between his ribs and through him punching out of the other side he stomps blood spills from his mouth and flows over my pauldron his eyes wide his raised sword arm slowly sags the chanting blower stops his sword slowly falls beside me as he runs flat on it as i see it all in slow motion my hands are my sword the weight of the man on it i cannot move fast enough for some reason i am aware that if that blade hits the ground it will unleash the power built up it is only now that i see that the light is coming from the sword not really the man i have slain the emperor wishes me to destroy not only the wielder but the blade itself the longest second of my life flashes before my eyes as i cannot stop what is about to happen it is at the last second that a shadow falls over me a hand darts out and grabs the hilt of the cursed blade the boy he darted in and yanks it up his arms burst into flames and he screams he cannot hold it for long he has prevented it hitting the ground but it is not deactivated power still flows from it and the runes on its blade flash ever more powerfully the boy locks eyes with my visor looks upwards as through clenched teeth he then takes the last of his strength and hurls her blade into the air i follow it due to his cue and push him far back she lands hard of this i can hear but he is now away from what i must do the blade comes down tip first desperately wanting to make contact with the platform to be connected to the ground in any way it can to then discharge its foul effect but i am ready i bring up the black sword with all of my might every ounce of my strength i shatter it the black sword breaks the cursed blade but a torrent of power is unleashed i'm carried off my feet and backwards far i hit something hard my eyes darken as i lose consciousness the dust is settling around me i am still alive default he wills it i fight another day perhaps i can feel my body is mostly broken my mind swims in and out of wakefulness i hear them i think above me i barely recognize the voices as the inquisitor and the young man the one who saved us all despite my victory had he not acted perhaps this world would belong to the enemy now everyone is dead and you drag me up here to see another carcass boy you test my patience mightily today i suppose saving the world by stopping the sword counts for nothing in your tarry hey master you ignored my orders involved yourself in a jewel that had it ended differently would have meant that marine would then behead you so that's a no then fair enough master one more flippant word out of you one and you'll be taking another vowel silence a quarter instead of just a month this time you are warned my apologies master it must be my concussion always excuses with you master this marine is special i feel it we should enlist him tarman is dead you have needs of a templar guard request this one why he is broken he was the emperor's champion boy that is the might you witnessed his not this broken thing master you said my only worthwhile skill my only talent was to discern the greatness in others an admittance i wish i had never made nonetheless i see greatness in him he is fundamental to the thaddeus i can feel it what you feel is shame shame at your errors shame at your actions you merely attempt to move my eye from your shortcomings to this marine master you know that is not true dig down you do i will prove it and how pray tell you do that we will take off his helmet and what will that prove that you are right and i am a fool or that you are right and i can discern greatness when it is in my presence so very cleverly put do it but do not think i am with you or placated by your obsequiousness i am not i feel hands at the latches of my helm no it must be removed ceremonially by my brethren by the chaplains he does so anyway the air is warm flecks of burning ash land on my face it is enough to make me wake more but my eyes will not open you see look at him i was right look i see a broken astartes master you know who he looks like who he may well be the sons of sigismund and dawn are not known for their genesee to produce the effect of the salamanders or the others who mutate to be alikeness of their sire they do not it is a sign perhaps i doubt it but perhaps if he survives i will ask for him by name what is it baba i think i heard that his name is papa i lose consciousness again days pass i am told that i was as is usual taken from the field by my brothers with pomp and circumstance the chaplains removed the holy armor the holy blade and put them back into their places of sanctity ready for the next time one of us is called i spend time in the apothecary i'm interviewed by the chaplains to make certain i have not been corrupted by that which i fought later i was released and presented to the marshall our leader the lord of our crusade i walk and do so stiff-backed despite the discomfort the chamber is well lit candles across every column braces between them there stands my lord and with him the other inquisitor this thaddeus his younger man is the only one of his entourage present i am later defined that they were wiped out my lord nods at me the token of the honor i have won for the chapter the respect he now has for me i step up and kneel and he begins you have done well baba has struck down the foes of the emperor himself by your actions are the evil destroyed and the world for which we fought is saved but your trials are not yet done i will now that you consider this offer an honor but one you may not wish to perform i cannot order you it must be accepted with good grace looking up i nod for him to proceed for years now since the destruction of the arch traitor inherited gold van dire our order has been linked with this inquisitor in his line he indicated the tall willowy man he didn't need to of course i am aware of them i remember their conversation now we owe him a debt it has always been a black templar that is with them in their labors it was a thaddeus that brought us into the inner palace tore down the wards and found secret passages to allow us in without this perhaps those days may not have ended as they did but the debt is one thing the duty is another it is a black temper that is tied to this particular inquisitor because of what they are and what they represent they call themselves the wisdom the thaddeus and ever otherwise unable to move with certainty hence it is a black templar that is their shield their sword and their warlord for when the wisdom finally declares something anathema a foe to be destroyed for the greater imperium there must be a warrior of unbridled faith certainty and wrath that carries this out it is also our agreement for the wisdom the thaddeus that is known to have strayed before so it is proper that a holy warrior is there to not only protect their person but to safeguard their purity their goal their very soul but before you say i or nay know this an inquisitor carries the seal of the emperor and does many things in his name and in the company of those may repulse you the witch especially and it will be your duty to be his sword but to know that he will have many weapons in his service that may not be in keeping with your oaths your oath to the thaddeus is an oath to malcador the hero is to the god emperor himself it does not negate your previous vows but can put them in abeyance for the greater good of the imperium this duty this honor this debt to the thaddeus must be paid so it is the or another what say you i think to myself i don't wish to take this out i did not like this thaddeus but when has want or liking ever mattered to a templar but let us see if there is anything i can redeem from this thing the thaddeus i am to be sworn to but what does that mean what is it the inquisitor steps forward it is a rank a station a way of thought investigation a method of hunting down the scum within our realm but it is the rank not the person so when i expire it will pass to another your understudy i indicate the boy [Music] alas so i can understand why you would not want to take this oath he said this with a sneer not of me i'm sure but at the thought of passing his precious torch to the man next to him and i look at them both i cannot find anything to like in this one nor anything to admire if i am honest but the other the successor he is brave intelligent patient and humble but the fire in his eyes the devotion it shines i i can serve him i look to my lord i i will take this task no matter how onerous no matter how it may besmirch my honor it was the will of the emperor that i became his champion it is his will again that i serve this thaddeus i accept the trial my lord nods good i have a few stipulations says the inquisitor this is not all one way i have to accept you too barbar and i give these three eos to let you know them so you can still recant the first you will serve the thaddeus without hesitation second you will never reveal your face before other astartes never born scholars or other inquisitors under any circumstances the third you will train against multiple assailants and will not practice dueling to exclusion of all else i draw in my breath through my teeth he smiles sardonically this is not against me this is a force me to withdraw to recant so that he can berate and belittle that braver young man at his side it is a game i will not play it of course i do not understand but i will do it and that's i barbara the black templars one who has been the emperor's own champion swore these olds my lord left and i rose as i too left i heard them they always forget the hearing of the astartes these inquisitors happy will i get a quarter of silence if i'm honest this once no but do not be trite or flippant or i'll say your mouth shut myself he is who i believe him to be i know it look at him the resemblance the skill the power the will he should have died he is who he appears to be romantic fairy tales he is a marine you are besotted with nothing more the older inquisitor leaves the boy still mutters away to himself as i depart none can know the emperor sent you back to us not yet for he the god emperor of mankind would not have done so for any mean or meager reason any mean or mega task for you to be returned it can only mean one thing we will have need of your power your courage your example for indeed he tells us that the end times are here that the final battle is to be waged soon and he sends back his greatest grandson his greatest warrior to wage it three hundred years later the present day the two men stood across from each other the ravages of time fully writ on the face of the smaller man despite the many re-use he had taken the other the astartes had not one sign of all of the years between that time and now the march of time touched him only in so much as the multitude of scars he now had i will not serve him my oaths prevented stated barbara there has been a black templar with the thaddeus for over 5 000 years since the age of apostasy the reign of blood when we the thaddeus helped the forces of sigismund's eternal crusade into the palace smashing the wars and gifts protecting the outer areas we led you in and for that we were given a right hand a hammer to smash the foes of the emperor when we had sniffed them out the demon and all that cavort with them do you think the demon lesser threat than the witch that summons him are you that small and single-minded after all this time after all you have seen i am an emperor's champion touched by the emperor's light himself given vision and cause and purpose how could you i even you assist of me especially you i will not serve a witch how dare you you will do as you are told astartes you came to be his symbol the very hand of the emperor but you are not that is me me and my brother inquisitors it is we not thee who were mandated by the direct order of the god emperor himself it is our order that are given his seal he's writ his authority to go wherever we need to requisition all that we need from any that we need without restraint who art thou to gain say the will of the emperor who i dow to deny his servants created by malcolm the hero by the order of the very master of mankind who are thou to say me nay how dare you if you so much has mentioned this again so much as think it what will you do i will send you back what i will send you back to your order your chapter the black templars now this sadius now drew himself up to his full height a walk towards barb on snarling i will commandeer a vessel i will stop at every planet on our way i will make it blatant i will be honest i will shout it from every mountain every city every rocks on our way everyone will hear me champion my truth and it will be thus the word of the black templars the oath of the black templars the honor of the black templars is worth nothing it is a shallow basic sale of breath with no more strength no more power than a grux their word is worth nothing you wouldn't i what what would you do slay me you would slay the thaddeus and make every word i proclaim right are you threatening me astartes no no i am not do not test me again barbo you swore an oath to serve the thaddeus not me not older melius not an inquisitor the thaddeus a pity perhaps as you have had me as your master but that may not be the case for very much longer you will serve the sadius no matter who it is you've stomped my tenure as pathetic as it may have been but you will then get the honor of serving the greatest thaddeus of all time a psyche he may be but as sad as he will be you are here barbara because of deos imperator vault the god emperor wills it would you refute your own god dear friend warrior of his own blood his own genes why will you not trust in him in his mighty design have you ever considered that his design is for a black temper to be present when the thaddeus is a witch and strays that it was always a black templar that would end the line that it may be my hand that has to separate turquoise's head from his shoulders the old man looked stunned took a step back then smiled deeply and warmly his eyes glistening if it is his will it is his will if it has to be done at least it should be someone who knows him well enough to judge so it won't be your fault old friend if it has to be done then deus impetus rot the god emperor wills it will i have the strength yes if it is required yes you will but more importantly in the days that are coming there will be such dire threat so much need for extremes that you will judge with better eyes have faith in the designer in the boy perhaps you will have the greatest strength of all the strength to know when to trust when all others would not and the strength to do the hardest thing of all the strengths to not strike you still believe what you said when we met what i heard you as i left the chapel i heard you a moment of silence as thaddeus walked the mindscape of his memory then his face softened still you heard that after all this time my friend only now do you mention it my answer every year every month together has proven that to me more and more i now have no shadow of a doubt then tell me who you think i am and the riddle that has been playing on my mind for over 300 years you know really you see it in the mirror each day you feel it in the regime you know really you just do not want to believe as it would offend your humble bearing and free me of my regime i must be all i can be if the threat is as you foresee if you do that everyone will know who you are everyone but will it matter anymore perhaps it may end up drawing more attention than you and tarquinas can manage but then for him as with you it has never been and never could have been easy all right barbara i free you of your regimes you may train as you were always meant to train you must become what you always were meant to become the marine breezed in and seemed to increase in size seemed to tower now in a way he had never done before not since the first time they had met but i do not free you of your second oath to the thaddeus you will keep your face covered amongst others of your kind scholars never born and inquisitors because if you are ever found out in that instant in that very moment you will become a target for all of the forces of hell i have been voldemort your faithful servant i hope you've enjoyed the story so far and will join us on the weekly entries as a result and will like and subscribe if you do then hit the notifications button as i would not want you to miss out now no matter what you do today do try to make some time for fun too blue [Music] so [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Baldermort's Guide to Warhammer

Views: 165,314

Keywords: THADDEUS AND TARQUINUS - THE STORY SO FAR, baldemort, Baldermort's Guides to Warhammer, Balder, Mort, THADDEUS AND BOY, Ordo Malleus, Inquisitor, inquisition, GREY KNIGHTS, Demon Hunters of the Inquisition., Audiodrama, Warhammer Audiodrama, Warhammer 40000, Grim Dark Tales, Grimdark Stories, Baldermort Stories Inquisitors, Warhammer for dummies, Beginners Guide to Warhammer 40K, Thaddues and Tarquinus, Baldermort Stories, The Thaddeus, A PSYKERS TALE, THE STORY SO FAR

Id: uCOdOm1gx_U

Length: 175min 55sec (10555 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 30 2021