GeGe's Odd Adventure Part 1.1

Chapter 2: Weird Age

+Sub-sector Alt Wald, Ultima Segmentum+
+Hive world Zhong, Imperious System+
++5 years prior to the 12th Black Crusade++

“How did he find my ship?” Genevieve was perplexed with the Men who were camping out the main docking entrance to the frigate. They wore uniforms of Zhong government employment and it was clear they were not just dock workers.  One of these Zhongese campers ran up to bow on the floor of the docking station which almost made Genevieve draw her sword in reflex. “I beg to be able to seek an audience with you Lady Inquisitor. There is an urgent message that must be delivered from the world governor’s lips to your ears!” Told the Zhongese messenger in a rush of words overflowing out of his mouth. “Stay your nerves fist of all, then follow me inside the void ship,” said the Inquisitor while helping him up then escorting him into the ship. “None of the others Zhongese may enter the ship or camp out here, clear them out Sargent Odicar” ordered the Eldar.

The small frigate had refueling tubes connecting the lower hull of the ship. It had only stopped by the orbital void station over Zhong to resupply before move out of the system. The hull was painted pitch black with red coloring for the cannon batteries and ram. Large orange letters in Low Gothic spell out Isha’s Poison on the side of the hull. “What is your name?” asked Genevieve to get the answer “Pai Yi”. When walking to the doors to enter, Pai gave a curious look at the name of the ship but spoke nothing as he kept fearful silence.

“Are you wondering about the name?” the Inquisitor asking while knowing the reply.

“Why, I was just thinking about the odd use of the Empress’s name that is all.”

“Without context, the naming would seem rather… odd. It so happens that this is not an insult to the goddess.”

“Oh, by the Emperor, that’s a relief.”

“Hey, don’t swear using the Emperor like a god or I’ll line you up in front of a firing squad. Remember, the Lex Deus Imperator still apply to every citizen.”

“Please forgive me! It was just a slip of the tongue, you see we Zhongese don’t actual worship the Emperor. We just see Him as uh… a saint, no that’s not right, more like a mythical hero who happens to still be alive. The Emperor is venerated just like our Zhongese ancestors and there is no worship there.”

“If you say so, now where was I? Yes, the context is that although Isha is our mother goddess there have been times when her fury destroyed whole fleets. Examples such as the Warpstorm Imperial Wrath devouring the loyalist fleet sent to stop Inquisitor Thor during the Imperial Civil War. Another was during the War of The Beast where she kept healing troops on Old Terra to help kill tens of thousands of Orks.”

“I still don’t know why poison is in the name.”

“Well is it not true that the only difference between medicine and poison is dosage?”

Contemplating on the naming, Pai was deep in though as he made way to a meeting room via a lift. There was a nalwood table with the walls hanging paintings that depict the 2nd Moloch Campaign. “What are all these pictures about, it looks like they tell one story,” said Pai. Turning away from Pai to brush the frame of a painting with her fingertips, Genevieve told “They are to remind me of my past when I wanted to go adventuring as a warrior”. Shifting a little in his seat, the Zhongese was nervous to ask “So, did you fought against extra-galactic Xenos?” Genevieve suddenly twirls around to take a seat facing Pai then said “Yes, the Tyranids brought me back to realism then became my reality”. The Inquisitor threw her hands into the air while saying “You didn’t come here to listen to my old war stories. Let’s get down to the matter at hand, what is this oh so urgent message I must hear?”

“Do you know that Zhong is stuck with a rebellion for the past 200 years?”

“Oh yes I know, a surprising turn of events where the PDF can’t defeat such a pathetic threat. I’ve heard the stories and read up on your world.”

“The thing is the warlord leading the rebels has killed the last two governors.”

“What of it? I can’t be the governor’s personal bodyguard, I have more important affairs to attend to.” Genevieve used enough confidence to bluff Pai when in truth she didn’t have anything better to do.

“The governor is asking nothing like that my lady, he just want you to investigate the warlord’s true identity.”

“Why should that person’s life mean anything to me?”

“This warlord is known as Xin the Merciless, she is a woman that look to be in her 30’s and might be a former Guardsmen. Almost 200 years ago she started this rebellion on the outskirts of a hive-city then went on to kill two governors and ravage the lands outside of the hives. What is scary about her is her age is more than 150 years old with no signs of rejuvenate treatments or the ability to access them.”

“Impossible! A human should be dead by 150 if they don’t receive those treatments.”

“Not to mention it has been 197 years and Xin still appears to be 30. Either she has the Empress’ blessing, which I highly doubt, or a darker power is at work to keep her alive.”

“What makes the governor suspect a sinister force is behind this?”

“There have been clear evidence that some of the rebels are Chaos worshipers. From the markings on their bodies to mutations, even the eight-pointed star on the equipment or skin. There are too many things pointing to at least a minority of the rebels has unholy assistance.”

The Inquisitor though about the situation that laid before her. Presented with the option to leave the world behind and let the PDF deal with Xin was not something she would do. With her duty as both Eldar and Inquisitor, she felt it was a necessity that she should at least investigate this Xin character. If possible, kill Xin and destroy her rebellion afterward. Swerving her head to look at Adalheid to the right of her, Genevieve ask “What are your thoughts on this?” The Bio-Priest was processing the data from the cameras tracking the Scions shoving and pushing the Zhongese away from the door. The question forced Adalheid to store the pic stream as a secondary priority as she played back the question to calculate something to say. Finally, come up with “There is something that is not Chaos but has just as nefarious motives while granting immortality”.

“Indeed, I understand what you are trying to say, be convey,” said Genevieve as she stood up from her chair. Pai was again scared to talk yet must do so in the governor’s service. “What may I ask was convey?” told Pai to both the people in the room. Quickly frowning by what was just said, Genevieve made sure to show the Zhongese that outsiders shouldn’t be too curious in the presence of an Inquisitor. “Classified,” told Genevieve in a stern voice then said in a soft tone “Anyway, these things shouldn’t be a concern for you nor should they be fitting for your ears.” The Eldar put a hand on Pai’s back to lead him out of the ship wanting to rush expelling him. When the messenger was well off of the void ship, Genevieve told Adalheid to “Recall the Scions back inside to refit for deployment.” Sargent Odicar was starting to enjoy stomping on the tents set up by the doors when he got the orders over vox.
“Column formation facing my zero” ordered Odicar to his squad, they formed up in a single file line behind Odicar to look at his back. With unsung unison, they all marched into the doors in lockstep without a sound. The Scion Tempestus are the elite of the elite, even better than the Imperial Guard’s Stormtroopers and they would act as such. The Flak fabric was rubbing Odicar’s skin too much when he got to work putting on his plates. Normally, when accompanying the Inquisitor while not deployed on a mission, these Scions only wore Flak fabric as armor. Although now they weren’t on a mission yet Genevieve still ordered the Scions to put on their Flak plates. There was no reason to since the Inquisitor was just going to talk to a few locals but Odicar didn’t question his orders. Surely, a Seer working for the Inquisition must know more than him.

“I have no idea what to do,” said Genevieve when she stepped out of her shuttle to the thick smoggy air of Hive city Manchuguo. Adalheid told the Seer “It is best not to make such statements in front of subordinates. This is to prevent depletion in morale by my data sample”. The Eldar said back “Thank you for your easy wisdom Bio-Priest” then made her way to the Level 149 Manchu State Library. The Inquisitor noticed that the roads within the hive cities were odd compared to other cities. The four street intersections were octagon shaped to let vehicles turn wider and force invaders to be funneled into the tighter streets. The alley ways had multiple firing angles from the windows or slits to allow anybody walking down to be shot from every direction above them. Coughing due to the oppressive gas, Genevieve was the only one without an air filter while the Scions had them inside their helmet and Adalheid had a filter built in her neck.

Even with the overwhelming amount of people flooding the streets, the inquisitorial group found their way without getting lost on the first try. The library was an enormous building that was the size of an Imperial world stadium stacked on top of another stadium. There was a bottomless hole near the building, it connected from the top of the hive city that could fit a few Argi world homes which let daylight to bounce into the city. Plastmirrors on the wall of the holes channeled lights from all levels of the city, the light is then reflected across the entire city. Daylight shining off of the holes makes it almost impossible for hovercrafts to descend down them from outside of the city without blinding the pilots, not to mention anybody can shoot down the hovercrafts if it is moving too slow. If a hole were to ever collapse, at most only a 100 people might die because most of the debris would just fall to hit the bedrock of the city where nobody lives.

Banners and flags of the Galactia Imperium, which a had a yellow background behind the double-headed eagle, flutter, and wave from a quick burst of air. Ventilation shafts or pipes let out a rumble to tell people that another gust was heading to level 149. The tiles on the roof form a curvy upside down “V” with red stone beams holding up the entrance. Walls for the library were thick enough to protect against artillery shells. It looked like the ancient Terran design for “Ching” buildings but as a bunker. The Inquisitor made her way to the “planetary history” section of books and records. There were pic recordings, books, and phonic copies lined up all along the wall or stands. Countless servitors fly and shamble about working tirelessly to help find things for the visitors. Genevieve called one over with “I require assistance, servitor!”

One helper servitor came over as fast as it could on it’s wheels. The legs of the helper were entirely replaced with a platform to hold up the torso with wheels attached. Even if the boxy platform seems useless other than keeping the lower spine in place, Genevieve could see the nutrent fluid and chemical tubs pumping into the torso. “How may I help you?” said the living husk when it finally rolled over, it was a man once before being turned. “Give me all material on this ‘Xin the Merciless’” ordered the Eldar. Pausing for a moment, the servitor asked “Can you confirm that you wish to access all material on a subject within this section”. The answer came back with a fast “Yes” from Genevieve. “It appeared to be another one of our sponge sessions, my lady?” said Adalheid and Genevieve only replied with a nod.

Quickly rushing off to get the information, the helper got to the controls of a grabber claw machine hanging sideways on a bookshelf. It set to work using the claw to pull out books from the top ranks down to its arms then placing them on a table. This went on for at least 20 minutes until it went over to get the pic recordings. Genevieve told Odicar to “Follow it then bring the everything back here, we’ll find somewhere to place them”. The Sargent saluted saying “Understood” then ordered, “Hadrian, with me, everybody else stay with the Inquisitor”. He walked off to do his job as basically being an errand boy rather than be a bodyguard. Now both Genevieve and Adalheid had the time-consuming work of reading through all this text. Scions then started to form a circle around both of them for protection against any would-be disruptors.

Both of the females started to go through a mountain of books for any mention of Xin. Then Genevieve’s mind rushes to a weird sight of the very same place where she was sitting at. Her peripheral view was cloudy with darkness and the vision was dangling from above the group. Everything was unclear as if seeing through water. She hears and sees a clumsy reader falling over to drop everything to the floor. That had made everybody, except for Adalheid, look over at the fallen reader. Right in that moment, the Eldar felt a spike of pain in all of her head and saw how herself being killed. She had been shot in the head by an assassin, who had drawn a stubber pistol from inside a hollowed out book. By the time the Scions reacted to shoot at the fleeing assassin, Genevieve’s brain was already blown out.

Climbing back out of the trance, Adalheid asked “Are you doing well, Inquisitor?” Genevieve nodded and said “Just a vision, nothing to worry about. Also don’t ask about it, the vision as only a small hint to help the investigation”. Saying “As you wish, my lady” Adalheid went back to scan the text for more data. There was a book on the accounts of both military and civilian on the beginning of Xin’s rebellion. At the time, Xin was just a preacher who spread anti-governmental speech and owned a scrap shop where spear parts or metal was sold. Little to nothing is known about her life before she bought the scrap shop from the previous owner. What little was known is that how she organized her forces and handled all sorts of weapons seem to tell a tale of a former soldier.

Telling a Scion “Get me purecaff, none of the recaff trash” Genevieve wanted to be faster in reading as many pages as she could. The man jogged off while she went back to understanding more about Xin. Due to somebody changing data in the hive city’s log, Xin’s shop was to be closed down immediately as the logs clearly state that the shop should exist on the other side of the city. At that time Xin had managed to create a small following in the district she lived in. Thus when the enforcers came to arrest Xin for not closing her shop, her followers killed the enforcers. It became a full-scale riot where she fanned the flames of anarchy to topple the planetary government. All of level 100 and 101, which were right at ground level, were no longer under control. The rioters could effectively starve some 800 million if they wanted to as they held the only land entrance for food imports.

The under-hive was underground and knew almost nothing about what was happening on the ground levels. People from level 99 suddenly couldn’t reach the surface when the rioters shut down the lifts and hover lanes for some reason. At first, Xin formed a group know as the Red Armbands who wore red armbands to identify each other and wished nothing more than Zhong’s independence the Imperium. The Red Armbands saw that the Imperium is a hegemonic empire which reneged the promise of a safer and prosperous galaxy. To them, the Imperium was using both economic and military control to enforce permanent membership. “At least these rebel scum is right about the permanent membership” Genevieve though to herself. The group had taken over the exits and entrances on the ground level of 100 to make sure all other levels starve for a bit. With the trams of food imports being blocked or hijacked by Red Armbands, some tried to sneak in food from the outlying farms.
 Yet even this was halted as they started taking farms outside of the hive city. After a few days the Red Armbands opened up recruitment to everybody willing to join and all Red Armbands were given weekly rations. Starving citizens quickly flock to the Red Armbands as they fear a slow death or ran out of food. Raiding the enforcer and PDF armories to loot weapons, the Red Armbands launched an attacking on level 103, 104, and 105 at the same time. Seeing that the simple riot was growing to a rebellion, the PDF from level 199 to 150, guarding the upper-hive, were sent down to crush the rebels. It was clear that the enforcers and the soldiers in the attacked levels couldn’t handle the Red Armbands, what with the rebels climbing out of the pipes and vents. They were literally crawling everywhere when the upper-hive PDF arrived just in time to relive the three levels. So numerous were the Red Armbands that when faced with 52 PDF divisions totaling around 26.000.000, the rebels outnumbered it 3 to 1.

The very nature of the hive city made is hard for either side to gain much territory. When the fighting had bogged down to a few months in a stalemate. It was the arrive of some 50 PDF divisions numbering 20.000.000 from hive city Beiking that changed the tide of battle. First, the Beiking PDF army group headed to the closest parts of the Manchuguo to attack the southern gates of level 100. Then 25 under-hive PDF divisions climbed their way up to invade the surface and link up with the Beiking PDF. Stretched thin as they were, the Red Armbands secede floors on the upper front while holding off the under-hive PDF and delaying the Beikingese. After 10 months of frustrating conflict, the 2nd Battle of Manchuguo ended with a loyalist victory. However, the Red Armbands were never crushed as s few million fled out of the city using the northern exits to become a guerrilla army with Xin still leading them. This rebel army would kill government officials, bomb building, and raid towns outside of the hive cities for 197 years.

Wanting to gain more insight on how Xin operated, Genevieve dug through more books to find useful information. Out of nowhere, there was the sound of book thundering as they start to hit the floor due to a clumsy reader. The tower of text lay spilled on the floor when the assassin opened his book to take out his stubber. Carefully bending her leg to appear as if she was fixing her boot, Genevieve drew her Shuriken pistol and prepared to fire. The assassin fired first to miss the Eldar for she ducked just in time using her superior reflexes. He was hit multiple times in the torso from Genevieve shooting at him after she rolled toward him. One Scion shot the hand holding the weapon to make sure he was less dangerous. The fingers flew away from the hand when the arm was hit with a lasbolt. Adalheid was scanning the assassin when she remarked “I expected something different from you, my lady”.

“What did you expect?”

“How do I put this… a more elegant fighting style”

“We haven’t known each other for long, have we? Did you expect me to jump onto my chair then back-flip over the assassin while splitting him in two with my sword? Or maybe jump onto a Scion’s head then leap onto the assassin as I fire my pistol. How about launching myself to the bookshelf in front of me to wall run it to reach him then kicking his head in mid-air to subdue him?”

“It is hard to tell for me but I believe there is a detection of sarcasm in your speech pattern”

“Yes, I was being sarcastic. Fighting with the Imperial Guard taught me that elegance when looking at death brings you no favors, in fact, it would most likely kill you.”

“Most intriguing, is there more Inquisitor?”

“Growing up with a trader for a father and a warrior mother living right next to the Xenos district sure allowed me to interact with a multitude of races. Seen many humans, some abhumans, and even a Tau once near the trading port. This was what kept my mind open to filter in lessons from humans then change myself”

“My analysis shows he will not bleed out, surprisingly. How should we proceed with him?”

“Looks like the ship’s prison cell won’t be empty today”