Part 35

“Slavery or Freedom.”

My last words, the ones I ended every such speech with, echoed out across the vast landing platform. It had been a spaceport once, the primary spaceport of this world. Now it was a vast, if barren, cathedral. The towering walls had been built to contain the detonation of a ship reactor, and now reflected my words back to the ears of my audience.

My eyes scanned them, row after row of complacent, broken, hopeless people. I wished fervently that they had been made so by our invasion, that the attack of the Word Bearers had shattered their will. Sadly, I knew that was not the case. My warband, the Divine Rite, had found them this way. Already broken. Already lost. Already despairing.

A sigh escaped my lips as I turned, stepping down from the pulpit upon Integrita Mors. The shrine sat upon the back of a captured Baneblade, the vast engine now powering a warp portal waiting at the bottom of the stairs. One moment I was descending the steel steps, and the next I was torn through the Immaterium, and stepped out onto the Basilica Exsolutus. It was not merely named for the temple where I found my true faith, it had been built around it. The vast temple to Chaos was the heart of the ship, my fortress.

My home.

“Another stirring speech, Apostle.” Naryssa congratulated, the wispy shadows that flowed around her insubstantial form drifting in a nonexistent breeze. She’d been that way ever since I called her spirit back from the Immaterium. A shade, a shadow of her living self, but far more lethal now. I looked into the empty holes in her shadowy cloak, two where her eyes should be, another serving as her mouth.

“Another world where half will join us, and half shall perish.” I sighed in response. I’d hoped over the years that more would come, that we would cease leaving our work half finished. But it was not to be. The Imperium did their work well. These people were too scared, too battered, too broken to come to us fully. Chaos welcomed them with open arms, and they flinched away out of ignorance. “We have thirty days before any significant relief force can arrive. They have that long to decide. Hopefully the extra time will get us more believers, but I doubt it will make much difference. As I said, the choice if easy for those who can see. And those who cannot…”

“Well, even I cannot cure the willfully blind.”

“But you try.” Naryssa comforted, falling into step with me. She made her ghostly body move as though walking, though she could easily float along. It made her seem more alive. More human, though we had both left such an existence behind long ago.

“I do. Every life we are forced to take is one that would be better spent glorifying Chaos.” I replied, my bare feet slapping on the steel deck. I still wore the ceremonial garb from long ago. Not the entrapments of the Imperial Faith, but the tribal outfit that showed my origin. Simple fur that left my legs, arms, and midriff bare. Leather and feathers around my ankles and wrists. An avian skull over my head, crafted from ceramite rather than naturally found, covered by a purple hood. I did not hide within armor, for I did not need it. My skin was as sturdy as power armor, and the faint hum of my personal shield device went mostly unnoticed.

Prudence must be observed above even symbolic acts. It was a sad truth we would likely be observing in thirty days, once the converted had boarded our fleet and departed their home.

“We shall take those who wish to come, as we always do. As you said, taking the unwilling is costly and fruitless. Let them die in service to their Emperor, as they so dearly desire.” Naryssa was more dismissive of it than I would have liked, but she was right.

“They will come. Some will leave their families. Some will leave their children, or their spouses. They will leave and think fondly of their past, hope those they knew still live, even in shackles.” I sighed once more, but gritted my teeth. I’d learned long ago in a snowy field just how brutal our foe was. I’d decided that day I’d do what was needed to tear Him down. His servants were unrelenting, merciless, bred to be unthinking slaves, but effective ones. This would only all end when the Imperium was torn down in blood and fire.

So, remorseful but resolved, I glanced back at the captain. He’d fallen in with us wordlessly, the heavy thud of his ceramite boots echoing along the deck. He was twice my height, yet showed every sign of deference. Not something a mere ‘human’, however blessed, ever received from a Word Bearer. “Land the rest of our forces. Keep the peace. Let them contemplate in silence what their fate is to be. When the time comes, let those who want to board our vessels, and take us back to the Eye.”

It was the same set of orders he was given every time we stopped at a world. A handful every year ending the same way. An invasion, a conquest, an offer. A great many always came, far too many always stayed behind. Once we had left them behind. In the beginning, we had allowed those worlds to continue their folly. But always they would recover, and serve the Imperium anew. Always the weakness left by our strikes would fade. Always the Imperium would recover.

And this suffering, this war, this waste, it would not end until the Imperium fell.

I was Katherine of the Nine. The last of the Nine. The word of Chaos was mine to spread, and spread it I would, and cut out the cancer of Imperial Faith wherever I found it. So I gave my final order on the matter. The same order I always gave.

“Have the warships linger behind, and once we transition out of system, turn this place to ash. Leave the Imperium nothing but the pyre on which their hapless martyrs burned.”

Thank you to everyone who has read my first experiment with fanfiction in the Warhammer 40,000 universe! It has been quite the ride. I will likely be writing future short installments about the adventures of Katherine of the Nine among the Divine Rite band of the Words Bearers, so keep an eye out!

If you are hungry for more free online content, check out Breathe in the Embers, my ongoing superhero/magic modern fantasy!

If you want even more content, check out my published works on Amazon.com under Corbin Dunn! At the time of this fiction being finished, I have six, listed below. Look for more coming out also!

Cloak of the Demon

Shroud of the Martyr

Spires of Respite

Alekhine’s Gun

Dreams of an Empty Tomb

The Man of a Thousand Eyes