The fight of Siberia have been concluded and there are Heroes within the people in this world, some become legends in their own right...
But not everyone manage to survived the encounter against the forces of the damned.
18 million Guardsmen, 4 titan legions and along 8 legion of astartes. It was enough to stomp out the traitors... But with a cost.
3 million guardsmen is confirmed dead and 167 thousand is MIA and 40 thousand Astartes is lost in the bloodshed conflict. And a titan legion is mauled badly due to the warp shenanigans.
Untold amounts of ordinances was wasted and lost in the fires of war. Numbering in the trillions had they not used the Replicator technology.
Alexander read the reports as he returned to his makeshift office outside the battlefield. He never get used sitting in a leather chair while his men fought in the battlefield
Outside his headquarters, people were celebrating of the destruction of Chaos followers. The tower that made the storm now being dismantle by the Thousand sons as it is a warp construct.
A bitter silence gloomed in the room as he ponder about it. The clock in the wall softly ticking of telling the time that passed by.
Many of his officers consider this a "Absolute Victory" as the casualties are minimal compared to the Imperium campaigns.
"All these dead men... " He muttered as he drank a cup of recaff as he brood over the fact, that despite they dealt as much damage to the Black Legions and He inserted the Alpha Legions into the darkness once more... Not knowing that he might send them to their deaths or not...
He told the soldiers that he will get their souls to heaven. Sometimes, he wondered, was it necessary? The dead have dreams and aspirations. But all he offered to those that lost their beloved that died in the ambers of war, that their souls is safe? A mere comforting lie?
He stared blankly at the paper that needed his signature.
[Grand Marshall Plan: Fallout Terra ]
The reconstruction effort needs to be signed to rehabilitate Terra to be in its pristine state before the bombs fell. With the cash needed it to be processed was in quintillions. And the Nations are to be formed as States, where the surviving people would elect their representatives of their respective state. Not politicians or Senators, but citizens that is concerned about their place. As he was aware the fallacies of the human mind and the opening of the warp rift have allowed daemons to flood into this place, Introducing "Democracy" in a Chaos tainted world is a sure fire way to cause Cults to form and starts riots, he wants stability, not just for the people but for himself. Order must reign once more...
It was all but in name that he already controls this galaxy... But he often think about the people.
He reminded himself the cost of the blood is the price of survival.
He waged war in Warhammer as the Leader of the League of Ten thousand. A General secretary of Defense in the Golden age of Terra.
He spilt countless blood all for the hope of a better future...
He looked outside the window and saw the Astartes mingling with the Baseline humans.
Cheers erupted as the Astartes began their duel to see who's the best duelist. Emperor children and the World Eaters clash as bouts of cheers and adoration came from the crowd, not realizing that they butchered countless worlds if they could.
A girl place a flower crown on one of the Death Guard Dreadnought and she smiled as he lowered the feeble child to her mother.
A painter painted a Night lord brooding in the corner as inspiration.
A flock of Serbians gathered to hear a Word bearer sermons that the God Emperor gave them deliverance.
He comforted himself that at least the legions that followed him is becoming more... Human.
He holds the reins over them, through the system, one word, he would use the Legions against the primarchs if ordered too... But he didn't.
He wanted them to evolve more than a tool of war... He was aware that there is a gap between humanity and them.
He wanted to bridge the gap.
That they were humans as well.
They sacrifice their dreams of their own for something grander. He was aware that they had dreams too... Beyond the bloodshed and gore. A purpose just like they did when the twilight of the grand crusade ended.
Understanding this, when he returns, he hope that they will have a say in the government he is forming. A Council of the Astartes that represents their respective legions. The primachs have their own position. But there are times even a child have a opinion of what his destiny lies.
The reason why many fell to chaos, is their uneasiness of them being left obselete caused doubts in their mind, and the canon fear that they might be replaced like the Thunder warriors..
A Holo screen appeared showing a Arch Magos of this world Mars have looks with concerns etched in his face.. he was one of the non augmented Tech priest that climb through the ranks.
"My Liege... There is something wrong about the artifact you handed to us..." He spoke grimly.
"I will be there shortly" Alexander spoke.
As the meeting ended... He simply signed the paper and left for Mars. Taking look at the festivities before he left.
(Fallout Mars)
Alexander arrive in the atmosphere in mars in a Valkyrie. The plane shaken a bit by the turbulence as they heading towards a location that is forbidden..
As he arrived closer to the destination, it was a Fortress City that appears in the horizon. Located in Mon Olympus, the Heavily fortified city Atis awaited him.
It was originally a colony started by the USA by the funding by Alexander to compete with the Chinese and Russian space race, mostly giving a finger to both of them, and this city is born out of spite, and after the bombs dropped, most of the government had died off or blown up in the oil rig, leaving Alexander the owner of the place.
It took a few decades to make it similar to Imperium Mars, where the Ring of Iron is now orbiting the planet. Futuristic Hive and Forge cities dotted the landscape. And greenery appear in the distance.
In Mon Olympus that held the highest mountain in Mars. A Facility is raised up in the depths of this city that have a single purpose alone.
To study what is the limbs that his... Former brother had spoken. He was not dumb enough to simply just slapped it and call it a day. He was cautious enough to make contingencies.
He obtained one of them and now the search for the rest of the limb is now handed to the Inquisition that is helping him search the rest in Europe.
The city is futuristic by design and every meter is either a men of iron that guarding it or Grey Knights that is tasked to maintain it. Contingents of Sisters of Battles patrol irregularly.
There is even a Psy Titan Legion just a minute away for aiding the facility. Yes, those titans that used psykers as fuel is in a moment notice.
As well as a Black Hole Bomb implanted in the core of Mars, ready to explode if things go wrong.
He arrived at the Landing zone as the Valkyrie that he rode in. The Skitariis awaited for his arrival.
The captain that housed this welcome committee stepped forth and saluted.
"++Greetings, Emissary of the Omnissiah, your arrival have brought in great tidings upon us. Archmagos T136 have a message++" He spoke.
"What did the Arch Magos said?" Alexander asked.
"++The Hand is a gateway to possibilities.++" The captain augmentic eyes glowered.
Alexander is escorted by the welcoming skitarii's company and they entered a facility that the techpriest and Word bearers observe the single object in the discussion.
He could hear the whispers of the acolytes of the machine god and word bearer as he passed by.
"This doesn't make sense, the reading is impossible. This is Epoch years old... Much older than the birth of the universe..."
"This goes beyond technology... And it had a tint of arcane and divinity?"
He watched at a vat containing his supposed prize, Hooked up with several tubes that connecting the hand with nutrients, and it looked like a buffed hand that wasn't like the scrawly scepter that he nabbed from the traitor of humanity, not long ago...
"The DNA reading is similar to the Emissary... Does that mean he is a god?" The Word Bearer Legion Master pondered.
Alexander arrived and he found the Arch magos and The Legion Master of the Word bearers.
Alexander simply scoff Roboute Codex astartes and simply magnify it by a Hundred and it given a Leeway and flexibility of the Astartes to break up into chapters if they fallen in battle or scouting. Legion master is just a amped up word of Chapter master that leads a chapter of ten thousand. Voted by his peers for certain representation, if the primarchs is not there to give Alexander counsel in his task. They are there in their genefather place to advise his course of action.
"Tell me of your findings, arch magos."
The Techpriest nodded and show the monitor of his research.
"It's been a few days and the object is fascinating...as if a actual god had crafted this hand..." He pointed the monitor with a reading of a pulse.
"When the Word Bearers and Thousand sons erased the taint of chaos, the Hand glowed as if showing signs of divinity...as if it was forged, not only by technology, but also warpcraft and alchemy into the mix."
"You telling me that warp is like a fuel for this hand?"
"Not just a Fuel... But it thrives in it. A Thousand son sorcerer opened a rift in the warp as a controlled experiment and it began devouring the energy to the point that it collapse the rift from opening in the first place.. "
"What other secrets hidden in this hand?"
"Infinite possibilities... Despite it is tainted by chaos, the DNA within this... Artifact is genetically pure and make it suitable for replication. And within the genome, holds blueprints etch within it, and it is beyond our imagination... If that fool that used this as a scepter realized that it is more than just a ornament and implemented the designs... I doubt we would have won... "
"Did you managed to get samples of the blood from it? Is it safe?" Alexander asked.
"Of course, the Adeptus Biologos is euphoric that they found something else to do than just reverting the Ghouls back to humans. And the rest of the sects are more than glad that we should implement this... Designs and yes, by our probability estimation... You can absorb it..." The arch magos stepped aside as Alexander approach the vat.
"I hope this works." Alexander mutter as he gently touched the vat.
The hand glowed once more, turning the entire facility into a wave of light...
A sense of comfort and safety washed over the personal that stationed there. A sense of feeling of belonging.
Alexander found himself staring at a throne that sat a weary man, now a bit brighter in complexion... Now he smiled a bit as memories flooded into Alexander, blueprints and theories.
Alexander was swarmed by the amount of information that is impacting his mind.
The effect was brief, but it was more like a eternity.
The glow ended and Alexander left arm, now clad in gold...
"Welcome home..." He smiled softly as he look at his hand that merged with the Artifact.
Many rushed to their stations and observe the readings.
After taking blood samples and medical checkups, he is considered clean.
Alexander felt more... Complete. He smiled as he headed to the terminal bay to head back to terra.
"Time to meet those gods..." He muttered.
The Continent of Europe is turned upside down by the Inquisition.
The wastelanders felt a shudder when the people bearing Inquisition Regalia flooded the streets, the Imperial is already at their footsteps.
Not even the creatures of the wasteland that survive the scouring of civilization have left from their caves.
Ordo Malleus and Hereticus is the majority of the inquisitors that flooded the continent. If one sweep of the Inquisition have brought sweat to the cultist that worship the false gods and they managed to avoid, the next sweep had caught them by surprise.
While a select few arrived in a another place where the rumored hand is located... And it was a test of their loyalty to the imperium and their morality.
"Sigh... What a mess this place is... eh boss?" A ratling smile as he walked alongside his leader. Staring the architecture of the ruined city.
The Inquisition have arrived in Venice.
That is now under control by the imperium.
The desolate city on water had seen it's better days as the locals thread the waterways and avoid falling into the radioactive waters.
Giants rats and cockroaches fled in terror as they hear footsteps.
Groups of Inquisitor teams arrive in this city after the battle of Siberia. Some brought in their Teams of chosen people with them. Each with their task at hand.
Some used their skills to mingle with the locals gaining their trust, while some just walking in the open showing their inquisitorial outfits. Others just downright interrogate them. And I meant the good old fashioned way to get information through torture.
Alexander gave them this task to see if Macaldor legacy is worth having to be preserve.
Many of them knew this and they done their hardest, of not getting their heads blown off by his Organization, for they could not scream their deeds in the emperors name alone as they are fighting with a High lord and a Son of the Emperor. It is their abilities will be judged. And reward them greatly when they done their task.
"Well, color me blind... We been turning this city over a week now! Where exactly is the High lord that desired the most?" A Catachan growled. He was somewhat mixed of being dragged and recruited into a inquisitorial team.
The country of Italy is now under the imperium by name only as the majority of the forces station there is simply in the outskirts of major metropolitan cities.
"Silence... We have a task at hand" the Female Inquisitor hissed as she looked into the Chrono meter in her wristband.
This team is comprised of a Catachan, a ratling, Cadian engineer, ecclesiarchy zealot and a masked sanctioned psyker.
A fairly small team compared to the rest.
The Catachan would loved to be with his buddies in Australia and get into a boxing ring with a Radioactive Kangaroo on steroids than going on a treasure hunt. But the Inquisitorial regalia is ingrained into his being.
And he followed it without question.
The Inquisitor Hummed a bit as she looked at the desolate Vatican. The war torned city had seen better days. People lived in the outskirts of the micro nation in fear of the walking ghouls walking by.
"Maybe... It's in that ruins over there... I sense a psychic wave that is similar to the High lord over there." The psyker spoke as he pointed in the ruin.
Countless of Ghouls that numbered in the tens of thousands flocked the area. Perhaps tourist before the bombs fell?
The inquisitor frowned... That place was guarded by Ghouls that served a false god. But if the psyker mentioned it... She smirked as she opened a channel to all the inquisition in the area...
"Everyone... We have found the location of the thing the high lord requested... It's in that place called the Vatican and there is the false god believers ..." She smiled as she ended her call.
"Oi... You not seriously thinking that we used them as bait right?" The cadian frown...
Her grin grow ever more wider. That it shaken her team.
"Why would you think that? I am just making them have equal share of the credit.. let's go before the rest realize what's happening." She hummed as Gunshot and roars echoed the streets.
"For the Emperor!" A cry was heard in the city as the fight began.
Her team arrive in a chaotic battlefield between the inquisition and the Vatican ghouls.
Psybolts and bolters rang across the ruined grounds.
Ogryn boneheads clashed with the Ghouls and their ilk.
And Guardsmen opened fire at the horde of ghouls that is flooding out the ruined city.
And her team managed to take advantage and infiltrated within the citadel of the Vatican.
"Hey wait up!" The ratling yelled. He huffed as his sniper rifle was already dragging the floor.
The Catachan grabbed the lively ratling by the neck and avoid as much of the fighting as possible.
The hallway of the ruined palace was solemn and foreign to the group... Damaged Mosaic and frescos broken. The cross images were broken and scattered. But despite all of this, it was as if on holy grounds.
"Wow... So this is how they worship their false gods?" The cadian spoke.
The psyker muttered as he pointed to a hallway.
"I believe that signal is over there...just below this place."
They followed the psyker as he lead to the depth of the ruins.
Until they reached a vault. It was almost dim lit by a small candle and a hooded figure stood before them.
"Halt, strangers, State your business...this place is not for outsiders like you to peruse." Husky voice emanate from the figure, the person hands seemed wrinkled by time.
The inquisitor felt bemused and spoke with confidence.
"We are here on the behalf of the God Emperor of Mankind, there's a relic that we need to aquire for the Son of the Emperor, the High Lord of Terra."
"God Emperor? What audacity!?" The old figure yelled.
A bolter suddenly placed on his chin.
"I have no time for your prattling old man, let us in peacefully or I put a bullet in your head and we let ourselves in." The inquisitor smiled as her finger is gently touching the trigger of her gun.
"Fine...." The old man grumbled as he produced a key from his cloak and unlocked the mechanism behind him.
Dust began to flow out the doors as if to welcome the guests, God knows how long....
"Ma'am... I sense the warp encroaching In this place..."
In a flash of light.
They found themselves in a elaborate labyrinth that laws of physics and gravity held no end.
"What is your purpose old man?" The cadian asked.
"I am a curator of the Vatican Vaults, there is a lot of Artifacts that is made from magic and we kept it locked and hidden from the people prying eyes. I am the last of my people defending the vaults... But I didn't anticipated such rashness." The old man spoke.
"Time is of the essence, lead us to the relic, the hand of the Golden King." The inquisitor chided.
The curator nodded and lead to a section of the labyrinth that still had item worthwhile...
The psyker approach the Inquisitor with a hushed words that made her face grimm.
"This place smells of the warp... Like a construct made of it... Be wary of the figure..."
Along the way, there are several artifacts that had psyker energies while some ran out of power ages ago...
Book of the dead... The Cleopatra bras, covenant of the druids.. monkey hands... The Lance of God.
If trazyn was aware of them... He would have accompany them in this treasure hunt...
They arrived at a sealed vat that contains a freshly severed hand.
"There... That is why you seek..." The curator pointed the artifact before him.
The group began to opened the vat.
"Oi, Curator, what's the history about this hand?"
"I am aware that it was found by John the Baptist and consider it a holy relic from God... As it fell from the skies...the ground it touched have become fertile and abundant..it was lost during the schism of the Roman empire and found its way in the hands of Duce Mussolini, who used it to replenish resources to fuel the Italian economy.. we obtain it before the allies came and confiscated his properties..." The curator stuttered.
"Alrighty... Let's get this and we can go back happily ever after...Curator lead us back and...." The cadian stoped mid sentence and jumped back with his lasgun aiming at the curator not long ago. His inate senses is screaming that the figure is not what it seemed.
The curator smiled as he bulged and the cloak in his body began to bulged and cracked.
"Seemed like you failed to noticed the trap... You are now locked with me ..and no mortals can be freed from this realm!" The curator removed his disguise, revealing himself as a daemon. The daemons shadows erupted and flooded the inquisition team, they immediate opened fire as they begn to retreat to a safer distance.
The walkways is slowly becoming corroded as the attempt to backtrack their way out. Daemons began to flow out of the books around them.
The labyrinth tremble and roared like a living beast as the shelves and passageway began to show veins and pulsating with life... The Inquisitor team began to closed together, covering their rear.
The shadows began to converged around them as the hand glowed with golden radiance kept the darkness at bay.
But they reached a dead end.
"Pskyer! Know any way out!?" The ratling yelled.
The man nodded and pointed to a wall.
It was moldy and reeked of rotten books.
"This is the weakest point in this warp construct! I can break it!"
"What happens if you do it?!"
"We would be flung into the warp! This labyrinth is like a ship in a sea, we would be tossed into the oceans!"
"Do it!"
The psyker eyes glowered with power as lightning began to erupt from his finger tips, the warp beckons and molded by the psyker as he point to the direction.
"By the Emperor ! Give me strength!" His psyker lighting glowed up and made a crack in the labyrinth. It wailed and groaned as it failed to keep the food from escaping...
Meanwhile....
A thousand sons fleet is patrolling the warp... He seen some things and they have more free time to research in the warp...
They detected a grade a psyker activity in a certain part of the warp and ventured there.
Cracks of reality break and they found several figures flushed out of the crack and tendrils of darkness is flooding after them.
The thousand son fleet opened fire and their psychic might had made the warp trembled from their psyker induced macro cannons and torpedoes.
A Thousand sons frigate briefly lowered the Gellar fields and let the floating team enter the airlock before the inhabitants in this warp noticed them.
There was a glimmer of light before it slowly faded away. And then thousand sons sorcerer attempt to retrieve the unconscious inquisition team and send them to the med bays. Leaving the place as the rest of the fleet chased after the abnormality, for either research or decimation, no one knows...
As for the team in the warp, their bodies is filled with radiation... They took extra care of the psyker and observe for taint as they are waiting for further observation.
As the rest of the Inquisition that heard the call, have flooded the Vatican city and turned it upside down.
They found the location of the entry to the warp and only found a Desiccated Pope that was mummified sitting in front of the vault and didn't reeked of warp taint and the innards of the vault was just broken down manuscript of a forgotten religion that died in the ashes of the old world.
Alexander read the records as he made his way to Japan and smiled...
For once they did a job correctly... Though... Unorthodox...
Perhaps the organization is rewarded by having their leash... Loosen a bit... But just enough for them not to go out of hand.
Perhaps they could field another regiment or get a black card... Well...