GeGe's Odd Adventure Part 1.5

“Ah, come in please.” With a hand gesture, GeGe ushered in the Sisters to her personal quarters. The careful pace of the two who entered were Jin and Chiyo, they inspected the room for anything suspicious. There were plenty of items which were curious but nothing to pin a crime on the Inquisitor. “Have a seat, I’ve prepared tea for you both.” From out of one of the rooms next to her bedroom came the Eldar. Wraithbone tray in hand and on it, two cups next to the teapot. The dull eyes of Chiyo couldn’t bear to look at the blinding white material the ceiling lights reflected off. Jin noticed the lack of a third tea cup. “Where is your cup?” She sat the tea set down softly on the recaff table to grab a metal canteen of water sitting on the same table. The two Sisters could only give a questioning look with eyebrows for it when given the answer.

“Don’t be silly. If I were to poison you, I’d have just sent my Scions to kill you girls with darts while you were changing attire. Not to mention mixing toxins is more noticeable when using water-based tea instead of milk.”

“Well then.” It was all Chiyo said before smelling her cup.

“Were you trio to truly die by my hands, all of you would already be voided out of an airlock without helmets.”

“Why not join us in this drink?” Jin had a vicious smile whilst raising her cup for a toast.

One quick wave from the Eldar showed she refused to drink the tea. “I’m afraid it is not in my culture to enjoy too many luxuries. You see, my Imperial cousins in Craftworlds and Exodite worlds already see Maiden worlders as xenophile decedent Eldar. Even the act of consuming enough food to be filled is considered decadent, so I would stay with water for the time being. Maybe to celebrate later, I’ll eat food and drink treats with flavors.”

The Sisters both glanced at each other before taking another good long whiff over their respective cups. “I assure you the tea is perfectly not drugged.” Then the two of them took a tiny sip. GeGe saw how Jin didn’t lift her little finger but Chiyo did. She took note to remember that for a later conversation. Neither of the two women couldn’t detect any poison in the drink, meaning it was safe or they just weren’t good in toxin training. Thankfully, it was the former as no effect kicked in yet. The gray tunic of Jin wrinkled uncomfortably when she said, “The tea is nice and all but what is your true reason for summoning us here? Surely it wasn’t to eat lunch with you.”

“My name isn’t Surly.” Told the Inquisitor, causing Chiyo to cough a bit with tea still in her throat. The another Sister only glared at Chiyo to stop for the bad joke.

“There will be no meal with me for now, but I do want to understand how you girls operate and the backgrounds you come from.”

Calling her a girl annoyed Jin even when knowing that GeGe was at least 100 years older than her trio’s life time combined. “No need to make that face.” The Eldar poured more tea into Chiyo’s cup to keep them distracted from the unwillingness of Jin to talk. “Will you at least tell me where you girls grew up in.” Jin was uneasy to answer but she would be the first to talk after another sip from her cup. “I’m a native of this world.” Then going back to silent drinking not just because she didn’t want to talk but also in part the flavor was nice. “Well, I’m from Kazekoku. It is a Hive world with farms like here but not as much manufactorums polluting the air.” Recent memories of smog and the unpleasant oppressive atmosphere still linger on the Inquisitor’s mind much like the city’s toxins. Masses of citizens who filled the streets had more than enough of those who wore gas masks, making them not an uncommon sight for good reason. “Let me guess, you were transferred here as punishment?” GeGe took a shot in the dark to almost hit something. The Sister rubbed her chin with a freed hand while grinning then shifting to look at Jin. “I wasn’t stationed here for that reason but… Well, you know how the Sister Orders are like, they keep moving us around. It just so happens that Zhong was understaffed.”

Nostrils flared up for Jin when she said, “I’ll have you know that guarding top-secret documents-”

“That nobody almost ever looks at.” Chiyo butted in.

“Is an honor and a privilege granted to me for my diligence and service.” Repeating the same trash her superiors told her when assigning her to this instead of a real task.

“I’m sure it is.” Refusing to rid herself of a smug smile the Eldar had for now knowing why Jin acts the way she acts. “Now tell me the real reason why you were sent to a backwater archive that almost nobody uses.”

In defeat, the Sister hunched forward with a sigh then told in a sad voice, “One fight in the mess hall for food stolen from me, led me to be permanently be stationed in that archives instead of being sent off-world like I was meant to.” Embarrassment, regret, and sadness unintentionally leaped out her mouth when the air left her. Even lacking in social skills, the Eldar can still feel the mood from Jin with her mind. “That is absurd!” GeGe blurred out in a tiny bit of anger as she controlled herself. “Yeah… It is,” Her voice shrinking to a timid level rarely seen by most. “But Orders Securitas and Militant do love to punish their own subordinates, unlike the Imperial Army.”

“Is that why you were so insistent on following me around?” The Inquisitor came to the conclusion.

Was the air filters no working or was Jin starting to become hot from that question. There wasn’t any sweat on her forehead yet she was definitely bothered where the body suddenly felt hot for no reason. “No, I mean yes… For a while, I want to stay away from that building.” This made Chiyo arch her eyebrow at the idea of tagging along an Inquisitorial retinue to escape boredom, “What makes you think we are up for such a mission?” GeGe added in, “Not to sound pessimistic but the last major firefight my host was in led to four losses.” Her fiery eyes glow vibrantly in the light when the eyebrows pointed down to give a determined face with all seriousness. Placing the cup down back on the tray before crossing her arms, “With all due respect, as unprepared, outnumbered, and surprised as we were. Me and my Sisters still fought and won against what were effectively Guardsmen.”

“This is not to underestimate you but your cohort is prancing around in exo-suites which allow you to kill most people with your thighs alone. Not to mention the bolters you have can rip through flak armor but your armor can withstand anything short of explosives. Your chances of survival drop dramatically once you encounter enemies who are stronger than you three combined, which I’m afraid we will face in this world.” GeGe then pops open her canteen to drink and wait for an answer while Jin was thinking of something to say.

“Whatever perils I must face, I will not be alone. For my Sisters will be with me. Death will linger close to us when I am in your service but wouldn’t it already be like that if I had been sent off-world? As the Inquisition has originally intended of me.” These things were uttered by Jin after some careful deliberation to not say a word she would regret later on.

The Seer placed her index and middle finger together to rub the side of her forehead while she said, “We shall see.” During the exchange between the two, Chiyo simply kept sipping tea and bounced her eyes to look back then forth to each person. “How about you, Chiyo?” GeGe suddenly asked to perk the Sister to attention. She merely tilted her head to her side to ask the question to be more specific. “Why were you assign to that decrepit role?” With slight embarrassment, the girl recalled her family history, “Three generations ago, my home world rebelled against the light of the Emperor and the Goddess herself. Once the war ended, most of my family supported the rebels and those who survived committed honorable suicide to avoid capture. My grandfather was part of the ones who worked to redeem his atrocities in the war as an enslaved prisoner. Ever since then, my family has been shunned for supporting the wrong side of history and we work tirelessly to cleanse the sins of our family.”

Windows into the Eldar’s soul slip out the smallest hint of empathy that both the Sisters can see. “Were your family nobles?” The question came at Chiyo off guard but she just smiles sending radiance before she said, “Oh, I wish. More like merchants who happen to join the military or tried to make as much money as possible. The history is fuzzy but apparently, the family is a splinter branch of a Rogue Trader dynasty. Come to think of it… I don’t think anybody alive in my family have seen a real Warren of Trade.”

“Trading outside of the Imperium is a special privilege that only Rogue Traders can have.” Jin reminded her, “It would not be so special if the Administratum just hands them out to anybody who asks for.”

Genevieve also added, “Also, the more Rogue Traders are active, the less exclusive trading with the Imperium seems. For the only way for foreign states to trade with the titanic market of civilization is to either find a Rogue Trader or become a member state.”

At this point, for almost ten thousand years have the Imperium of Civilizations have ruled over most of the Milky Way. The very words civilization and Imperium, have become almost indistinguishable to most citizens within the empire as the galactic hegemony keeps growing every day. The growth is only kept in check by Chaos incursions, extra-galactic Xenos, and reawakening Necrons dynasties. In these dark time, it is unsure if the Imperium will survive the final battle to wrestle control all life from the other three threats. Even the safe bunker of states can’t last forever against the might of creeping darkness from all sides. It seems the candle of stability flickers in the darkest night before dawn.

“Now that has been most enlightening.” The Inquisitor stood up to place a few strudels on a tray for the Sisters to eat. “Oh!” Jin was surprised with raised eyebrows. “We really should depart to check on our comrade, Min-Young.” The two then stood up to bow and ask permission to leave. “I suppose can’t have you stay there like statues, run along then girls.” The way she called her girl makes Jin think of herself like a child compared to the Eldar but at least it wasn’t out of offense unlike how she originally thought.

Elsewhere on the ship was a certain Bio-Priest and an Adept who was sorting out information on their next target. To be more precise, the next investigative area to search clues for. “Find all the farms that grow the wild rice near Manchguo.” Adalheid blurted out without thinking. Kaidun went to work typing rapidly on the cogitator to find all the locations needed to transfer the data to the cybrid. Once she downloaded the information from the servers, the natural mechanical effectiveness automatically sorted the names and locations relative to the city. “Sightings of Xin in the last year.” This order made the Vostroyan feel easier as this was easy to find as it was accessible on the city’s Enforcement Record Keep that she had security clearance to rummage through. The data was uploaded through the cable connected to Adalheid’s spine for the Bio-Priest to cross-reference by herself. In the recesses of her mind, she matched the known locations of the farms along with the report of sightings from the locals, enforcers, and military to narrow down the area. It became apparent that this left many farms overlapping with sightings making the job slightly smaller. Knowing that it would not be enough, she looked through the latest farms Xin or her followers frequently appeared at in the last month.

That had narrowed down the searching area to only the farming town of Laotong. To Kaidun, the entire process had only taken a few seconds before her eyes, Adalheid merely stared motionless and blank at the wall during that time. With lighting speed, the cable ejected from the machine then back into the woman’s back as the cybrid suddenly broke off in a quick stride away from her. “Wait up! Where are you going?” Her weak arms couldn’t even delay the Mordian marching in the hallway. “Going to tell the Lady Inquisitor.” Not pausing or slowing to tell that to the Vostroyan.

Min-Young was drifting back and forth from hibernation to alert too often for the Sister to enjoy. Laying back down on the medical bed after failing to sit up, apparently, her arms refused to work for her. Lacking in energy or motivation, the woman went back to staying still then closed her eyes. Thinking ‘I could sure use something spicy to stay awake’ while trying to feel if all her fingers and toes work. Then there it was, or the missing feeling where her toes should be. They must have pumped her full of painkillers or sedatives to keep the body immobile for a few hours at least. Lurking fear resurfaced from Min’s memory when she realized why some of her toes didn’t move. Fresh images of her leg bending to an inhumane angle accompanied by the crackling of bones assaulted the senses. The nose twitched when recalling why she was sweating so much once the pain set in and being reduced to a crying mess. “You signed up for this, didn’t you?” Asking nobody when the woman was staring at the ceiling. Coming in from the doorway once the loud sliders shifted open to let the two Sisters in, “That is enough excitement for you today.” Min’s looked up immediately to Chiyo who said it then try to straighten herself.

Some days later, the Inquisitorial Valkyrie plummet to a lower altitude over the tiny farming town of Laotong. The place had barely a few tens of thousands, leaving plenty of space to grow crops. Once the Inquisitor along with her retinue stepped off the voidcraft, they were swarmed by greedy salesmen and poor beggars who didn’t know of the Inquisition. “Handcrafted fabric!” One shouted while another in ragged clothing told them, “The Emperor bless those who give money to the starving.” Unwilling to shove her way through the crowd, GeGe ordered Odicar to “Clear them non-violently.” To this effect, he drew his Las-pistol to fire into the air. Fizzing steam after the audible venting shot came out of the barrel to catch the attention of the people. They slowly backed away to return to their corner of the streets, allowing the group to pass. “That was rather blunt, Sargent.” The Eldar said showing a face of approval. Replying, “Well, you always told me to be direct,” as he put back his weapon into the holster.

 With a jog, one Enforcer came running up to yell, “Hey! It is illegal to discharge your weapon outside of-”. Once he could see the group face-to-face after running passed the crowd, he couldn’t bring himself to finish his sentence. First, he saw the man in dark blue flak armor carrying Las weapons, then the Sisters covered in plate armor with bolters, and an Eldar psyker. Worst of all was the Sisters were looking down at him, while the Eldar was holding up the oval black metal plate around her neck with the red and white symbol of the Inquisitors on it. The distinctive white lighting bolt on the specialized red ‘I’ with a black background told people that whoever wore or carried this was, in fact, an Inquisitor who they must cooperate to the fullest extent of the law. “Oh, I’m sorry!” The man was bowing as he quickly backed away to from the four people. The Inquisitor first walked away from him to inside the town and the rest followed to leave the frightened Enforcer alone. ‘Don’t come back, don’t come back.’ Though the bowing man as he peeked to make sure they were far enough for him to sneak away.

“Do you think we’re being followed?” Asked Odicar next to the Inquisitor.

“Of course we’re being followed. This is the Red Armbands we are talking about. A guerrilla force isn’t exactly a conventional army.” Jin told.

“We could very well be walking passed civilian clothed troops right now as we speak,” Chiyo added.

“So, we best stay alerted then.” GeGe then picked up her pace to shove past the crowded streets to get near the outskirts of the town. Once the fields were visible, she led the team to inspect the perimeter. Most of it was dirt roads leading back into town and spaces to park the giant farming equipment. Grand scythes attached to tractors with sorting vacuums were lined up near a single road near the trees. The mundane dirt path led back not into town nor the parking space but directly into the woods. She waved her Inquisitorial Plate around to the farmers cleaning up their machines near the road. The Eldar yelled, “Who here knows why this road head into the forest?” To only get scared faces and nervous glances amongst the farmers before somebody spoke up. One frail old man wearing a patchwork of clothing answered first, “Why, this road is used often by hunters to travel into the woods when they go after big game.”

“We must talk about this,” Jin whispered to GeGe then tilting her head to prompt in discussing this away from the earshot of the locals. Odicar followed the three to form a circle facing each other.

“What did you want to confer with me?” Asked the genuinely curious Seer.

“He is grox-shitting you!” Chiyo was fast to answer with rage much to the surprise of the two off-worlders.

“I do not comprehend.”

Jin jumped in and said, “What she means to say is, he thinks all of us are a bunch of off-worlders that he can lie to.”

Odicar was confused with the statement, “Come on, what was said is not totally unbelievable.”

The Zhongese Sister said, “It wouldn’t be if not for the fact the hunting profession is extinct once the planet started building hive-cities back thousands of years ago.”

“We are next to Red Armband sympathizers than.”

Both the Sisters nodded to confirm her fears. “How do we deal with them?” Odicar said as he checks his gear. “I’ll show how we handle them,” Jin told the two off-worlders while turning back around to face the old man. Driven by instinct, even the Eldar couldn’t react fast enough to stop the Sister aiming her bolter. “Uh?” That was all which could be uttered before Jin fired a shell into the man’s chest. Bones, blood, and organs were blown out of the farmer’s body when the bolter round detonated inside of the rib cage. “Holy balls!” One farmer shouted as some fled while other cower low to the ground. “What was that for!?” Asking without her stoic Inquisitorial mask for but a moment and holding onto her left shoulder. Jin stood proudly over the corpse to say, “Obstruction of Inquisitorial justice is punishable with death, harboring sympathies is considered treason, and treason punishable with death.” Odicar was taken back by this action as he never saw this before and the Eldar almost forgot the Sisters were this fanatical. She continued while ignoring GeGe, “Let this be an example to the rest of you rebel scum, those who help the traitors in any way will meet the same fate. Now, clean up this body and spread this story.”

Doing her best to hold her anger, the Eldar said, “Why did you do that?”

“To make an example.”

“Things like this only makes matter worst when fighting a guerrilla force.”

“From what I understand, cruelty and fear are great motivators to keep the populous in line.”

“Actions like that fuel the fires of revolution.”

“Not if we are not complacent.”

“Any act of kindness can be considered complacency. It is quick to lose control of the people once the government acts anything other than endless fear-mongering and ruthlessness after setting up to rule through terror.”

“And what am I to do about it?”

“Just don’t do anything like that unless I tell you to do so.”

One quick burst of air left Jin’s nose after she turns away from looking up at GeGe and walked toward the treeline. “Spread out next to me and advance into the forest for scouting!” Shouted the Inquisitor and giving hand signs to each person on where they should be positioned.

The more the group followed the road, the more it had footprints and trail lines on it. Deep prints in the dirt told GeGe that people were moving about the forest recently. Then she spotted even older markings on the trees more often as they went deeper into the woods. These cuts into the trees could be instructions or directions, but to her, all it looked like were random symbols and arrows. Then after a good hour of hiking, they stumbled upon some sort of encampment. “This is no hunter’s lodge,” The Scion said, “I see camouflage nets and ammo crates.” He then lowered his visors as he crouched down. “No heat signatures here my Lady.” The Seer follows suit by concentrating to sense all living things within a kilometer radius and detected no sentient beings other than her retinue. “I found none as well, but proceed with caution.” GeGe then ordered her group to sweep and clear the camp of any hostiles.

Unsurprisingly, after the camp was cleared, they didn’t find anybody left in the camp. “Don’t disturb anything but find clues as to where they went!” She ordered her group. One unsettling sight which caught her attention was a poorly dug mass grave next to the dugout where the camp kept the ammo crates. “Odicar, help me dig out a body.” As GeGe already started digging with her bare hand. “Sure, why not, another corpse another day. I just love to get dirty.” Odicar said.

“I enjoy your enthusiasm, Sargent.”

“Was that sarcasm?”

“Was it not obvious?”

“Umm… Try working on the tone of your voice.”

“I will take note of that, Odicar.”

With a grunt, both of them pulled out a body from the dirt that barely kept him under the ground. What she saw a most ghastly body. Pale white was he as if never held blood within. The part of the neck where the blood must have lost, looked to be almost ripped off with many puncturing bite marks by very sharp fangs. “Vampires?” The Sargent asked. To that, The Eldar only pointed at the neck to give an answer of confirmation. Now the dots were connecting in her head, it was not Warpcraft that kept Xin immortal nor technology, but a C’Tan shard. She didn’t start the rebellion to gain favor with the Dark Gods but for personal ownership of the world. Holtstein didn’t lay low trying to influence a planet for his own sake but was working with Xin to declare independence at the same time. Unknown to both of these vampires, they were being given intents of cooperation without knowing each other. This was done by whichever C’Tan god’s mysterious plan that the shards came from or from the very shards themselves. The Inquisitor never did find out what truly drives them to plan out the things they do. What she does know is that all vampires work to destroy or rule over Imperial society and that it is her job to prevent that from happening.

“There is something you would like to see, Inquisitor!” Yelled Jin as she waved a dataslate above her. Once the Eldar was close enough to her, she threw the item so that the Inquisitor can catch it effortlessly. Genevieve’s emerald eyes started fast in reading through the useless junk first like how the logistician’s complain about food shortages and footwear misplacement. Then she stumbles upon an interesting entry on mining equipment being transferred to another camp, not merely man-portable machines but vehicles that can drill through mountains as well. “The collapsed ruins!” GeGe said in an outburst to cause Jin to question, “What?” Slowly the thought formed in the Eldar’s mind about how the ruin’s walls were not made like mines. “It's an armory...” The word trailing off from her mouth as she realized the mask was not made to protect against radiation. It was made to enhance the physical body by absorbing radiation. She got up to walk toward the Sisters, “Chiyo, use the voxcaster to call in Adalheid to this position. We have a bat to catch.”