Chapter 4

Sister Irene Axilla

Irena entered the repair bay where the Mechanicus woman was working.  The metallic voice on the intercom was reciting sayings of their cult. 

“The Omnisiah watches all.  Do not falter in his sight and maintain the sacred machines.  Do not fear for the Machine God does not fear,” the voice said, sad and hollow in the background. 

It was heresy.  Only the Emperor was worthy of worship.  All else was lies and superstitions.  She wanted to shoot the loudspeaker to silence the apostasy emanating from it.  

“Adept Sophia.  It’s time.”

The techpriest stopped the repairs she was making on a Rhino engine and stood up.

“I am ready, Sister Superior.”

The adept walked beside her as they went down the hall.  Irena had her helmet tucked under her arm.  Many sisters liked to prove their bravery by entering battle without a helmet.  She thought that was foolish and risking their deaths when their lives would serve the Emperor better was a sin. 

“Have you heard anything more about the desecrations?”  Sophia asked.

“No, but I have a feeling in my stomach that we’ll there’s more to this than wicked vandalism.”

“There is no basis for continuing that line of thought.”

“Don’t you machines have intuition?”

Perhaps they lost their souls when they gave up their bodies. 

She wondered how much of Sophia was actually left under those thick, red robes.  Sophia was lower rank so she couldn’t be as extensively modified as other Mechanicum she had seen.  She had at least the top part of her skull replaced, her right arm and probably her legs, unless she was wearing armored boots.

“Are you wearing armor?” Irena asked.

“No, but I am well armed and skilled in battle.”

Irena laughed.

“Many think they’re skilled in battle until the real thing strikes them in the face.”

“I have undergone seventy five combat simulations.”

“Simulations and the real thing are no the same.”

“The simulations were programmed for maximum realism.  A battle in which you can not tell if it is real is no different than one which is.  Theory leads to practice.”

“You’ll see once death starts flying through the air at you.”

They marched out the front gate and into the city square. 

Only a few men coming back from late shifts at the mine were walking about.  One of the men walking off toward the center of the city wore the uniform of a planetary militia.  They weren’t close to the professionalism of the Imperial Guard, but sometimes they were all that stood in the way of the enemies of the Empire. 

She made the sign of the Aguilla over her chest in honor of the brave men and women of the Militia and Imperial Guard. 

She had often wondered if she would have joined their ranks if her parents had lived.  They had died when she was but seventeen months old.  All she knew of them were that they were nobles from Terra.  It was more than she needed to know.  They were meaningless next to her service to the Empire.

Irena noticed that a few of the miners, upon seeing her, hurried off in the other direction.  What did they have to fear if they weren’t heretics?  If they were pure then they had nothing to worry about. 

But if they did have heresy in their hearts, then she’d shoot them and take their families in for questioning. 

“Do you have any suggestions on where we may begin our search?”  Sophia asked with a polite bow.

The adept’s hunched form was a good head shorter than Irena.  She’d probably come up to her chin if she stood up straight.  The servo arms though made her quite imposing. 

She liked the choice of the melta gun on the end of one of Sophia’s servo arms.  It showed she meant she took this threat seriously.  Some would call it over-kill, but Irena didn’t believe in such a thing.

The melta gun was like a Justicar’s shotgun.  Powerful up close with a wide spread. 

Shotgun. 

She thought about it.  There were some circumstances where she’d like a shotgun. Perhaps if she could mount one under a bolter like the Cannoness had a flamer under hers.  She’d have to ask permission for that later.

That would do better than an untried plasma pistol. 

The two of them began walking through the narrow back streets of the city.  Her helmet tracked movement and saw through the shadows.  So far, nothing but rats. 

“Are we to capture or kill?”  Sophia asked.

“Kill of course.  There’s nothing to learn from destructive heretics.”

Irena rested her hands one her belt and stopped to listen.  Sophia stopped beside her and cocked her head.

“Sometimes it’s necessary to stop and listen,” Irena said.

After a while of listening to the sounds of the sleeping city, she continued on. 

Two hours into their patrol she saw something move in an ally to her right.  She grabbed Sophia by the metal arm and pulled them to the side.  She then peeked around the corner and saw a man at the far end where a shrine to Empire stood.

The man wore rags and had half his head shaven with strange tattoos covering the bald portion.  He had a hammer and was hacking away at the shrine. 

As she was raising her pistol she saw a gang of about ten men approach the man.  They were likewise dressed in unsavory way and most of them were armed.  Some carried civilian las an auto guns, shotguns and various pistols. 

Eleven of them armed with crude but effective weapons.  They had numbers on their side but she had armor, plasma and the faith of the Emperor on hers. 

“Ready on the count of three,” Irena said.

“What, may I ask, is the plan?”  Sophia asked.

“We kill them all.”

“We’re outnumbered.  Our chances are above fifty percent.”

“Nonsense!  You and your damn logic.  Where’s your faith?  There are enemies of the Empire right there and so we have a duty to destroy them.  It’s that simple.”

“I see there is no arguing.”

“You’re beginning to learn.”

“Very well.”

The adept’s servo arms came up over her head with their guns at the ready.  Their red targeting lasers moved down the alley and landed on the back of one of the heretics.

“One more thing,” Irena said.

“Yes, Sister Superior?”

“Don’t forget to stay behind cover.”

“Of course.”

“Three…two…one…now!”

She crouched down low and aimed around the corner.  They were in a close group so aiming wasn’t that difficult. 

She fire and the air around the pistol warmed her face.  The bolt of searing hot plasma struck the first man in the gang and he burst apart in a fiery mess, covering his compatriots with gore and fire. 

That wasn’t bad!  Perhaps she could get used to this pistol.

The Adept opened fire in a blaze of energy and light.  The scatter laser tore through the crowd and the melta gun struck two of the men burning their flesh to the bones in a blinding instant. 

The four men that remained scattered.  One fell over on to his back and the three others took off running in different directions.  One of them let loose with a burst from his autogun that struck the wall near Irena’s head.

“Follow!”    

Irena bolted after them and she could hear the wheezing mechanical sounds coming from Sophia behind her. 

Just as she came to the corner she felt a hand stop her in her tracks.

“Don’t stop me!  They’re on the run!”  Irena shouted at the Adept.

“Ambush.”

One of Sophia’s mechadendrites with an ocular device moved and peered around the corner.

“As I surmised.  Two of them await behind a tractor,” Sophia said. 

Irena stopped and thought.  She would have charged right around the corner without hesitation.  She should have known better. 

“I have a flash grenade,” Irena said.

Sophia nodded and withdrew her optic. 

Irena unclipped the grenade from her belt, pulled the pin and threw it.  The manual says to count to three, but in her experience three often meant one. 

The grenade went off and Irena burst around the corner.  The two heretics were staggering and holding their hands to their eyes. 

She reached back and grabbed the chainsword.  With one clean motion she unhooked the sword and brought it down in an overhead arc onto the first heretic.  The motor of the sword burst into life with a maniacal sound like a roaring beast.  The teeth of the chains moved too fast to see and tore into the unprotected flesh as if it weren’t there.  She had cut through his entire torso at an angle and his head and shoulder flew away from the rest of his body.

She looked over and saw that Sophia had the other heretic in the grip of one of her large servo-claws and had lifted him off the ground.  He was struggling in vain to loosen the grip around his neck as his feet kicked in the air. 

“I will question this one,” Sophia said.

Irena flicked her sword to get the filthy blood off and returned the sword to its mag-clamp on her pack. 

“If you insist.  I’d sooner crush his head in.”

“I will take him back to the Manufactorum for complete interrogation.”

“I want to be there.”

“You might find it unpleasant.”

“I highly doubt that.”