The Teachings of Gabaerev

[VanHelser]

Topic author: Van Helser
Subject: The Teachings of Gabaerev
Posted on: 15/02/2005 14:44:03
Message:


330 M37, Tomarisch

The Brass Scorpion trundled onwards inexorably, the gatling cannon in its reared-up tail ringed with bright muzzle flashes as high calibre shells were spat at the men before it. The guardsmen fell apart as the rounds tore apart their bodies; those not yet dead crushed under the Scorpion’s wheels or caught in its gargantuan claws. Missiles streaked from sandbagged positions in a desperate attempt to slow the daemon engine, clattering into its skull-face and spiralling off to explode uselessly above it. There was no stopping the machine-beast of the Blood God.




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331 M37, Nemesis Tessera

A quill scribbled across the first page in a tome a hand’s breadth in height. Three other such books lay on the desk around it, their pages filled with the handwriting of six other authors. The subject they concerned was the same. A daemon and its acts of genocide.

Inquisitor Avgua Siav Leo Gabaerev dipped the end of his pen into the ink well set into the brakwood desk, tapped it gently against the well’s sides to remove the excess, and moved it over the blank paper. It hovered above the page for a second as he contemplated how to begin, before he touched the nip to the page and began recording his findings.

Gabaerev was a slight figure, his skin pale and his hair thinning. Most considered his obsession with the daemon prince Voor’acht to be an unhealthy one that was costing their compatriot his health, but the Malleus Inquisitor couldn’t care less. The daemon had been a bane in his life, responsible for the loss of everything Gabaerev had once held dear – his family, his friends and his home world had all been lost to the daemon’s advance from the Eye. A member of his Ordo for sixty years, he had spent the last ten hunting and planning how to dispose the galaxy of this monster.

The other books around him were the Inquisitorial reports on the daemon from the last millennia or so, and there were no doubt more somewhere within the titanic librarium repository that Gabaerev’s desk sat in. He’d read elsewhere that there were records on Voor’acht stretching as far back as the thirty-third millennium, but he doubted that the extent of the daemon’s atrocities stopped there.

The world of Tomarisch, a rugged frontier planet had been lost in the last year, and the system placed into quarantine on his orders. He had petitioned for guard regiments to be dispatched to reclaim the world, but the Administratum was a slow beuraucratic entity that moved at a pace entirely out with the realm of reality. It could be years before he heard a positive response and most likely nothing would be forthcoming. A minor world in a forgotten system was not something the bookkeepers and clerks would be too concerned about. There was nothing of value there so from an economical and logistical point of view it made little sense to go to extravagant lengths of expenditure to take the planet back.

The system had been the eighth to fall to Voor’acht’s marauding horde in the last twenty-one years and slowly but surely, the daemon was carving itself an empire in real space. The Guto sub-sector was its own, and only one system remained unconquered in the Hestrian Sector.

Gabaerev wrote all of this down, committing all his findings on the loss of Tomarisch to paper.


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001 M42, Nemesis Tessera

The corridors of the Inquisitorial Fortress were lined with steely-faced Stormtroopers, and checkpoints stood at every intersection. It had not been two years since the effects of the Thirteenth Black Crusade had been felt within the walls of the Inquisition’s sanctum and security was still tight. Radicals were viewed unfavourably and any suspicious artefacts were confiscated on pain of death. The fear of another incident like that caused by Inquisitor Van Hel was almost palpable from the looks on everyone’s face.

‘Step to the line.’

Quirrick did as he was told and moved up to yellow and black chevron line painted on the floor. This was the third such time he’d been ordered to yield to three armed and fully armoured Stormtroopers. He’d only been off his shuttle for ten minutes.

‘Show me your authorisation.’ The voice boomed from behind a respirator-masked face. Quirrick offered up the transcript of Voke’s message to him, as well as the subsidiary seal that Van Helser had provided him with years ago. The Stormtrooper studied them carefully and handed them back. ‘Very well, you may proceed.’

Quirrick nodded his thanks and marched onwards down the corridor. Voke had arranged to meet him at the entrance to the Malleus repository, which was another half-mile of walking and a three-hundred-odd floor descent. He checked the locator built into his dataslate again just to be sure.

‘Step to the line.’

It was going to be a long day.


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Quirrick nearly walked straight by Voke when he finally reached the archives, and would have if it weren’t for the look Eswt gave him. The Inquisitor was near unrecognisable – it looked as if he’d lost years in the short few months since they had last seen each other. Voke had the look of someone incredibly committed and prepared. Quirrick wished he could say the same about himself.

‘It’s good to see you Voke,’ Quirrick offered a hand, which the Inquisitor shook, ‘ladies,’ he nodded at Voke’s bodyguards. ‘I take it you’ve had some good news?’

‘News, for certain, but not necessarily good. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,’ the Inquisitor replied. ‘We need to scour this librarium for information on Voor’acht, its legions, its world, anything. It’s going to take some time, months perhaps, but somewhere in here is the information we need in order to hunt that scum down. Have you had any luck?’

‘No,’ Quirrick sighed. ‘I’ve hardly been committed. I tried to take my mind off things for a while, so I ain’t found out anything. But I’m ready now,’ he smiled.

‘Good.’


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A trio of archivists led the investigators up a narrow aisle, past shelves thirty feet high crammed with books, parchments, scrolls and data crystals. It was an eclectic mess of information, and Quirrick was beginning to wonder how they were going to find anything.

‘It all depends on what mode of record was made about the daemon you seek,’ the most senior archivist, a haggard man by the name of Fulcrim said quietly and to the point, ‘if things were written down then they will be harder to find than things recorded on data nodes. To start you off I’ll show you to the catalogued worlds in the Eye of Terror and you can go from there Inquisitor.’

‘Thank you,’ Voke replied. It was a shade disappointing that this was as best as the archivists could do, but research was never easy.

‘I don’t recall a world by the name of Inferex, but this is the section you want.’ Fulcrim stopped and extended a gnarled hand at a row of shelves forty feet across and as tall as the rest. ‘The books and journals can be a little vague I must warn you, but everything ever written about those dreadful worlds in this fortress is there. Caleb and Anjinder will be on hand to answer any queries.’ The younger archivists nodded at the Inquisitor.

‘Shall we begin at A and work onwards from there?’ Quirrick asked with a resigned look on his face.

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 20/02/2005 13:49:26
Message:

They'd already been at this for days and they'd only just collected all the information they needed. It had taken three days for all the electronic data on all the known worlds in the Eye of Terror region, all refereces to Inferex, Voor'acht, Lord Voor, or any cults with Voor'acht or Voor in their name. It had taken another day to discard all the data on the planets which certainly could not be Inferex, planets like Cadia and the like. It had then taken two whole weeks to get all the same information from the hand written documents!!! And then three days to discard the data on Imperial worlds.

Voke had sectioned off a large section of the study area in the fortess to just his work and his companions, it had taken all the labour Voke could get using his rossette and two days to move all the information and set the area up. After two days Voke decided that it would be alot easier and quicker if they just lived in their working area, and therefore avoid the tedious endless check points they would have to get through to get at their work. It had taken another two days to have a small living and sleeping area created for the four of them. Voke knew what he was doing would take months, possibly years for the clerics here to reverse but Voke didn't care, and his rossette allowed him not to care.

It was hard work searching and looking through all the information, trying to find anything about Voor'acht's weaknesses and most vitally the location of Inferex. It was incredabily slow work as there was so much to check through and alot of it contained the whisperings of choas and insanity, unavoidable for the topics they covered but Voke had made sure they all stuck to a strict regim of prayer and services to the God-Emperor to stave off any chance of corruption.

They'd been working 18 hour days for all the time they had been at the fortress planet, and that had been a whole month now. And still they were yet to find anything of use. But Voke had finally found something that atleast looked slightly promising. It seemed another Inquisitor had done this before collecting information and Voor'acht and his history to that point. It was a very old text, and looked to be perfectly intact, a miricle; but Voke wasn't certain if all of the text was here in this binding, Voke prayed that it hadn't been split up as to find the rest of the text would be hard and long work indeed.

It was a text penned by Inquisitor Avgua Siav Leo Gabaerev in 331 M37, it seemed that it had been written here on Nemesis Tessera which would explain why it was in such good condition. Hopefully this would help reduce some of the work, as hopefully it would contain the findings of an Inquisitor who had done what they were now doing over four mellenia ago.



No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity


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Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 22/02/2005 17:31:00
Message:

‘It’s interesting, if pedantic.’

Gabaerev’s writings were detailed – planetary descriptions filled hundreds of pages; detailing their political structure, tithes, populations, climates, time of discovery – but nothing that he had read so far had given any clue to the location of Inferex, or the constituents of Voor’acht’s armies and fleet or either organisation’s tactics. Dates of all the major invasions and battles were given, and the Imperial detachment’s involved. There were lists of Imperial casualty rates, details of prominent commanders lost, Departmento Munitorum evaluations on the cost of materials used, pages and pages of bureaucratic nonsense. Gabaerev was certainly thorough, but the information Voke was searching for was not going to be found in this volume.

Anjinder stepped to Voke’s side. Between himself and Caleb, there had always been assistance hovering at the Inquisitor’s side. The junior archivist spoke meekly, but always seemed to have answers to all of Voke’s problems.

‘I have completed a data-node search,’ he produced a roll of cogitator-printed paper, clumsily unravelling it and spreading it across the desk, ‘it would seem that we have a great many more books written by Inquisitor Gabaerev within the librarium.’ He pointed at bold pieces of scripture. ‘I take it that you would like me to look these out, yes?’

‘Indeed I would. How long do you think it will take?’ the Inquisitor asked, praying for an answer measured in minutes.

‘I should have turned up something within three days I think. Sheer chance usually comes into play by the end of the third day. That’s what Mister Fulcrim says anyway.’ Anjinder smiled widely, but didn’t elicit a similar response from the Inquisitor.

‘Very well.’

‘What should we do in the meantime?’ Ela asked, stretching back in her chair.

‘We research each and every planet that Gabaerev scribbled on about, find out if anything untoward has happened since the thirty-seventh millennium. If there’s anything remotely warp-spawned in nature, I want to know about it.’




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The three days passed slowly, as they always did within the repository’s walls. Researching the worlds of the Hestrian sector and Guto sub-sector had made a refreshing change for all four of them, and they had been quick to digest the data-nodes supplied by Fulcrim. The logi-crystals had provided a lot of information on recent Inquisitorial investigations, three of particular interest: an insurrection on Altholm, the execution of eight witches on Resown and the capitulation of Tomarisch. The last was particularly intriguing as Tomarisch it seemed had been the world to fall the year before Gabaerev had written his book. Voke had made a mental note to look into this more closely as he skimmed over the pages.

Quirrick had just brought him fresh caffeine when Anjinder entered their corridor, pushing a grav-trolley along in front of him. Both watched expectantly as the archivist neared.

‘Good news! I found something.’ Voke reciprocated Anjinder’s smile this time. ‘I’ve found a scroll scribbled on by Inquisitor Gabaerev!’ The smile faded from the Inquisitor’s face, this didn’t sound like the news he’d wanted to hear. He took a mouthful of the hot caffeine as the junior archivist delicately unrolled the scroll across his grav-trolley.

The scroll was faded, stained in places and generally unreadable, except from a small passage across the bottom right hand corner. The name “Gabaerev” was signed quite clearly below it. Anjinder read it out loud.

‘I reference this scroll to thee, Lord-Inquisitor Nefton-Gray, as proof of Inquisitor Kalun Poe’s turn to the forces of darkness. I request again that he be declared Excommunicate Tratoris.
Gabaerev.’

Voke looked at the young man expectantly. ‘And this is relevant how?’

‘Nefton-Gray was head of the Ordos Nemesis back in the first-half of the thirty-seventh millennium. There are hundreds of reports on data-nodes about all Inquisitorial activity under his jurisdiction stored within the data-nodes. Inquisitor Poe, whoever he was, had obviously fallen to Chaos and Gabaerev had wanted him dead. Now I would bet one hundred credits that whatever Poe had done relates to Gabaerev’s and your investigation somehow.’

Voke looked again at the faded scroll. Perhaps if they could work at it they might be able to discover just what had been written on it all those years ago. Perhaps this would be of some use.

‘Very well Anjinder, I’ll take your bet. Now go and find Gabaerev’s books. They still hold the key. Ela, Ewst, look into the second loss of Tomarisch. Alexei and I will start deciphering this scroll.’

Their work planned for the next day, Voke emptied his mug and moved the scroll to his desk.

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 22/02/2005 20:28:23
Message:

They had already spent a day searching for any relavant clues linking the second loss of Tomarisch to Voor'acht and Inferex. This always seemed to be the way with information, nothing was every straight and simple, you had spend months looking for clues and hints, looking for that hidden document with what you're after on it.

Ela always believed this to be some of the worst work as part of the Emperor's Inquisition. It may be alot safer than the rest of it, and alot more comfortable than being shot at by a crazes choas space marine, and it was alot better for you pysical health; but it dulled the mind and the body, it ground the senses into dust with the constant repertition and having to study everything closly for that one word which held the only key to your current holy grail of a text. The lond hours seemed to roll on and on, and because Van Helser's sanity was supposedly at stake that ment even longer hours. Ela though Dauphan was being to hard onhimself, she believed Van Helser to be lost and Dauphan was blamming himself too much, trying to make up for the mistakes he believed he'd made, telling himself time was of the essence to keep him going. And Quirrick believed it to, but Quirrick would; it was really impossible for hims to accept Van Helser as lost, as impossible as it would be for her to accept the same thing about Dauphan.

And there were times every so often when it would seem to get even more mind-numbing and she would just want to shoot the next document she saw; and what made it worse was Eswt. Eswt was not as politically aware as Ela believed herself to be, and she knew that she wasn't much that, but Eswt, like when she faught, noticed every detail, watched and read everything with her full undivided attention. Now Ela could do the same in a fight, but months and months of 18 hour days looking at words?! And even now Eswt was still going at full tilt, still reading every...single....last word fully. How did she do it? Was she sleeping when no one noticed? Was she using their short, sparse breaks in some vital way? Atleast Eswt gave her something else to think about while going through this never ending flood of letters and words.

Ela stretched out again, her long thick braid of chestnut grown hair hanging over the back of the chair as she tilted back on two legs. Sliding back down with dread she started back at her work.



No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity


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Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 23/02/2005 13:11:17
Message:

The scroll was proving to be a tough nut to crack. Aside from Gabaerev’s message, the writing on it was faded and in the most part unintelligible. There were only a few legible words, and it seemed that only the most useless parts of phrases let themselves be read. “The,” “and,” and “he” came up multiple times. No amount of imagination could form the correct sentences.

Fulcrim had arrived in the mid-afternoon and had cast his expert eye over the parchment. He told Voke that the situation wasn’t as futile as it seemed, that there were techniques that could be employed to retrieve some of the writing. Voke agreed to let the archivist take the parchment to some tech-adepts elsewhere in the librarium. Fulcrim would arrive back with the scroll as soon as he could.

This left Voke and Quirrick with the chance to access the data-nodes to try and find anything on the case of Inquisitor Poe that had been committed to electronic storage. If Anjinder had been right then they were not going to be disappointed.

And they weren’t.

‘Got something!’ Quirrick exclaimed from his console, spinning around on his chair to shout across the chamber to Voke. ‘Poe was executed in three-four-seven, millennium thirty-seven. He was burnt at the stake right here on Nemesis Tessera. That’s good news, eh?’

‘Does it give details of his crimes?’ Voke called back across to Alexei.

‘Hang on. Yeah. Three counts of consorting with xenos, two counts of aiding and abetting known heretics, thirty-one counts of blasphemy in the extreme, and one count of consorting with daemons.’

‘Good.’ This looked like a solid lead to Voke. If they could ascertain whether or not the daemon Poe had consorted with was Voor’acht, then investigating Poe’s actions could help in their search for Inferex. It would double the amount of information they’d need to go through, but this part of the investigation seemed to have moved faster in the last day than their original search had in the last month and that made it a particularly attractive prospect.

‘There’s a sealed sub-file regarding the daemon. Needs Inquisitorial access. Wanna swap consoles?’ Voke got up from his seat and headed to the other side of the chamber, where Quirrick offered up his seat. ‘What you got on the other one?’

‘Records of communiqué’s between Gabaerev and Nefton-Gray. See if you can find the full message with which the scroll was attached. It might give a better idea as to what was written on it.’ Quirrick nodded and made for the other terminal. Voke sat down and scanned over the red text filled screen in front of him. He prodded his Inquisitorial signet ring into the receptacle on the side of the monitor. The text changed to a nice, reassuring green. Voke ran his fingers over the runeboard, and a new page of information came up.

A whoop, something more associated from Alexei, echoed across the chamber.

Poe had conducted an investigation on the frozen world of Hassan-Lavel, of the Lorks system in the Guto sub-sector in 298, M37, supposedly into tithe dodging. He had returned every year for the next twelve years, and within weeks of his last visit the armies of Voor’acht had consumed the planet. An uprising from within had taken the worlds hive conglomerations, and a fleet appeared in the system, battered its way through the few system monitor vessels, and delivered multiple landing craft to the surface of Hassan-Lavel, whereupon the hive world’s substantial PDF had been overrun by force of Chaos Space Marines, mutants and traitors. Hassan-Lavel was the first planet to fall in Voor’acht’s unholy crusade, and Poe was eventually sanctioned as the main instigator in the revolt. It was he who had set up the Cults of Voor that had seized power within the hives. He was to blame for the daemon’s emergence into real space.

‘This is excellent Alexei! I can link Poe with Voor’acht. I’m going to look into Poe’s background to try and see where he first came across the daemon. This quite a break!’

‘Great. Do you want me to keep looking into the Nefton-Gray stuff?’

‘Yes, I have a feeling that the evidence that Gabaerev provided in Poe’s trial will be incredibly useful in trying to locate Inferex.’

‘No probs.’

The two of them set to work with newfound eagerness.

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 26/02/2005 20:52:09
Message:

Fulcrim had just returned, with his analysis of the scroll. It appeared he'd gotten quite alot extra from it. The scroll was passed onto Ela and Eswt as Dauphan and Quirrick had moved onto another lead or something, they'd be filled in properly at their half hour evening meal break probably.

Eswt continued the search about Tomarisch, having just found a group of files on the planet second fall, digesting the information while Ela read through the more complete version of the scroll.

It seemed that this Poe bloke was really trying to get up Voor'acht's demonic backside. From the heretics description of Voor'acht and the things legions it should have been able to kill the God-Emperor with the blink of it's eyes...assuming it had eyes at the moment...or that they blinked; you never could tell with daemons. It realed off amazing feats about Voor'acht's armies, about it's huge composition while thankfully being vague enough that it failed to give them any useful information, just typical. Ela learned back, this was gonna be as useless as eveything else, but she had to read all of it, just to be sure.

Ela then read down the worst part of the scroll, the fragmented records of Voor'acht and praises to the daemon prince. It took all of Ela's stern will to keep reading the thing; why did Dauphan always ask her to do this kind of stuff and not Eswt? perhaps because he liked her more? The thought warmed Ela slightly, even though that train of thought and ones connected to it often rolled around inside her skull.

Ela skimmed over the sick, twisted words praising Voor'acht and choas. She skimmed over them so fast she nearly missed the last section of fragments. They looked to be fairly intact; and even better they looked to be usefull. It was a large section in Voor'acht's armies, the battles it had faught, it's composition and descriptions of the war-machines it used! Ela pumped her slender but well toned arm into the air, punching the imagined daemonprince right in the groin.
'It may be the odd couple of years out of date, ok-so it's alot out of date, but this could prove to be a head shot for Voor'acht's armies' Ela told herself. For the first time since looking at this scroll Ela read ever last word in detail, drinking it in.


Eswt saw Ela's odd gesture. Ela did seem to do odd things like that, random actions and gestures, like Quirrick did. Eswt always failed to understand the requirment for such motions, the effects of different cultures, totally unrequired and unuseful surely? However she was beggining to understand some of the phrases and sounds Ela made, and had started to roughly work out the emotions behind some of her gestures. This one was a release of frustration? of finding something interresting? or useful? Eswt wasn't certain. Anyway it didn't matter, it was distracting her from her work.

The second loss of Tomarisch seemed to be a fairly unsurprising event. The sparsly populated mining world had no real defences, and like before was swiftly overrun by vastly supirior opponents, the local PDF no match for the choas forces. However there had been quite alot of detailed information about those choas forces, gathered as they swiftly moved across the planet, capturing every outpost and settlement. There had also been a couple of reports from those who had faught the impossible fight of stopping the invades, all of it standard reports for those who faught choas. This force was nothing special. It was a mob of cultists and mutants, poorly equiped. There had been no vehicles of any sort used other than the landing craft which had ferried them onto the planet and then had moved across the planets surface. Along side the mob there was scattered reports of daemonic beasts, the simplier, weaker daemons of the warp. There had been no choas Magiks or daemons for this simple assault. The 'head' and the 'teeth' of the invasion appeared to have been a couple of squads of choas marines, none of the reports were clear enough to give any idea of legion but it appeared to be only a few tactical squads with no support.

The only thing of real interest from all the information about the invasion was information about the leaders of this invasion. It appeared to be a small group of choas marine captains, again of unknown legion. However what was known was that they were not of supporters of one choas god! This was very rare indeed. Both also interesting was the fact that they knew that Voor'acht had never worshiped one choas god to the best of their knowledge, and by the same token he would have a mix of followers who served him. That had been proved by what scarse information they had found about the composition of Voor'acht's armies when he had launched it's first crusade; they had contained worshipers of all the gods, and daemons of all four aspects of choas. All this ment it was quite possible that it had been Voor'acht's forces which had invaded Tomarisch...again.

For just a short second Eswt considered copying Ela's gesture than decided against it; there was no point. Instead Eswt made the small mutterings of a legandary sword found among an army of blades; her planets version of Ela's and Quirricks shouts of good fortune. Rising smoothly Eswt headed towards where Dauphan should be, although she was not due a break she had completed her work Dauphan had set her, and believed that he sould know before she continue with research. It appeared Ela planned to do the same as she was also rising to find Dauphan. It seemed that good fortune came in sudden rushes.



No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity


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Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 28/02/2005 14:42:56
Message:

Ela and Ewst padded into the data-node repository, both eager to relate their good news to their master. They found him excitedly tapping away at his runeboard; occasional “ah-ha’s” and “interesting” sounding out from his usually reserved form. He no doubt had discovered something equally as good as they. Eswt opened her mouth first when the Inquisitor turned in his seat to face them.

‘The force that re-took Tomarisch was led by Chaos Space Marines, of undetermined legion. It doesn’t mention anything about Voor’acht by name, but I’m certain that this had something to do with that daemon. The Marine’s seemed to be aligned to no specific God, and neither was Voor’acht. That world has nothing of importance either. The invasion had to be something to do with that son of a pregnant dog.’

‘I’d have to agree,’ Voke answered, nodding. ‘Have you found out about how the planet came to be liberated yet?’

‘No, I’ve not go to that section yet.’

‘Look into it for me. There is still the chance that Voor’acht’s followers are still there.’ Ewst nodded. ‘I too have had some success with the research.

‘It seems Inquisitor Poe was responsible for the loss of Hassan-Navel, the first world that Voor’acht captured. I’ve looked further back and I think I have discovered the incident where Poe first came across Voor’acht.

‘He seems to have been an Amalathian who got involved in investigating a cult that foretold doom for their world. These doomsday types are nothing unusual this close to the Eye, but they were getting things right: the loss of a Battlefleet echelon in the warp; the death of a Governor in mysterious circumstances; the betrayal of a Guard regiment – all things that they had described in some detail. I’m sure you’ll agree that this reeks of warp-borne treachery, and so did my forebears back then.

‘It was discovered that the cult centred their predictions on the writings in a book that they kept in their underhive stronghold. It was of undetermined origin, but was undoubtedly corrupted with Chaos. The cult was destroyed, and the book supposedly burnt.

‘This is all from Poe’s own reports, but I think if I was to check, the number of reports he filed would drop off at this point. He kept the book and it corrupted him. He turned Radical in the very least, and most likely became a full-blown worshipper of Chaos. This book is something to do with Voor’acht.’

‘I’d say so,’ Quirrick pipped in, casually walking up behind Ela, ‘Gabaerev had tons of stuff about Poe’s heresy during his trial. Says something about a book in the transcripts. I’d reckon that this book is the same as the one you’ve been reading about, and was the evidence used to prove that he had “consorted with daemons.” I’m guessing that getting our paws on this book is going to come in mightily handy, yeah?’

‘Most definitely,’ Voke replied, ‘do you have anything to add Ela?’

‘Got something from the scroll. Fulcrim ran it through a magnetic field or something, couldn’t understand what he was on about. Basically, Poe was kissing Voor’acht’s butt. The scroll was like a damn love letter to the daemon.’

Voke grinned despite himself. Things were going wonderfully. If they could find Poe’s book then they might come across a snippet of information about Voor’acht; where it resided, a ritual to summon it, something that told them of a weakness.

‘Alexei, keep searching for more information on Poe and Nefton-Gray. Eswt, see if Anjinder is having any luck with Gabaerev’s books. Ela, we are going to look for Voor’acht’s tome. I’ll get on to Fulcrim straight away.’

[VanHelser]

In a darkened room elsewhere in the fortress a cogitator screen flashed into life.

++++FILE_REF:malleus/M37/Nefton-Gray/Poe:UNAUTHORISED_ACCESS+++

++++FILE_REF:ACCESS:Voke,Dauphan,Inquisitor++++

++++FULL_ALERT++++

++++FULL_ALERT++++

++++FULL_ALERT++++



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'Rid yourself of the aquila too Mikael; we both know you don't believe in what it represents anymore.' - Ranchak to Van Helser on Messalon IV

Winner of the Short Story Category, Conclave Writing Competition 2004-2005


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Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 15/03/2005 17:24:44
Message:

330 M37, Tomarisch

The dark sky was filled with white and grey flakes. They drifted down gently, occasionally flustered by eddies in the air, before coming to rest on the choked ground. The rumbling of volcanoes sent tremors through the buried stones. A group of figures struggled through the drifts of ash, storm coats wrapped tight around them, rebreathers strapped to their faces. The lead figure stopped and raised his laspistol, waving his three companions forward. The trio passed him by, releasing the safeties on their lasguns. They prowled forward to a chain link fence, one of them removing wire cutters from his belt. He snipped a hole in the fence and slipped through on his belly. His two companions followed. They kept to the shadows as they sneaked past numerous half-buried outhouses and vehicles. Their target lay up ahead.

The dish received transmissions from the sentinel-satellites in the depths of the system, and was the only means of early warning the small planet had. Without it, Tomarisch was easy pickings for Lord Voor.

A fireball mushroomed into the sky.




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‘Do you have a transcription of the court proceedings?’

Fulcrim had been enjoying his lunch when Voke and Ela had entered his office. The bowl of soup steamed away in the middle of his cluttered desk. He hadn’t been too impressed when the Inquisitor had asked for a book he didn’t even know the name of. But he was an archivist; it was his job to assist the members of the Holy Ordos when they came for help, no matter how silly their requests were.

‘Alexei has found them on the data-nodes,’ Voke answered.

‘Well, that’s a start. You are sure though that there is no mention of the book’s title?’

‘I’m not sure if such a thing could be granted a title that would do it justice. It was written by a daemon.’

Fulcrim spluttered out a mouthful of soup to the side. He turned back to face the Inquisitor, his expression sullen.

‘Do you know what would happen if books of daemonic origin were stored here? Their corruption would spread throughout the entire repository like a cancer, infecting the visitors and the archivists with their malicious intent, and turning all to madness. It’s bad enough that we store books on the subject; those that write and read such things inevitably turn mad, if we had daemonic tomes down here we would all have been executed by the Ordo Malleus millennia ago, and we’d be all the better for it.

‘Such abominations should not be allowed to exist.’

‘Perhaps,’ Voke replied, ‘but these books do exist, if not here then somewhere else.’

‘No.’ Fulcrim said bluntly. ‘If the book used in evidence at that trial had even the smallest scent of the warp it would have been burnt as soon as the case had been closed. We are at the very edge of the Eye here, Inquisitor, anything that could risk daemonic intrusion is destroyed instantaneously.’

Voke pondered for a second. Fulcrim was most likely telling the truth, or at least the truth, as he believed it. Radicals were not tolerated within the walls of the Fortress, and Radical thinking towards items of the enemy was considered heresy. Forcing the issue now would be suicide. There were other avenues he could search, he could return to this matter later. Most likely further investigation would turn up something more useful. He pushed his chair away from Fulcrim’s desk and stood.

‘Thank you for your time.’ Fulcrim nodded and returned to his lunch.

‘Why didn’t you push him?’ Ela asked as they returned to the archivum’s shelf lined passages.

‘Making enemies of the staff isn’t going to help us find Voor’acht. We can forget about this book for now. I have a feeling that its going to turn up anyway, most likely somewhere other than here.’

They returned to their work area, finding Anjinder beaming at Ewst. A large book rested in his arms. The junior archivist turned as they approached, presenting Voke with the tome.

‘It’s another of Gabaerev’s volumes,’ he said excitedly as Dauphan set the book down on the desk. He began thumbing through the pages of hand written script.

‘Good work Anjinder, good work,’ Voke congratulated, ‘all you’ve got to do now is find the rest.’

‘And I promise you I will,’ he replied, turning and disappearing back into the maze of documents.

‘Oh this is good,’ Voke mumbled, ‘this is much more like it!’

Where the previous volume had been pages and pages of planetary reports, this was an actual description of the battles for Tomarisch, and the engagements within the system when the Navy under Gabaerev’s control had quarantined the system. Finally he had an idea of what forces Voor’acht could call upon. It was not happy reading.



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'Rid yourself of the aquila too Mikael; we both know you don't believe in what it represents anymore.' - Ranchak to Van Helser on Messalon IV

Winner of the Short Story Category, Conclave Writing Competition 2004-2005


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Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 15/03/2005 21:26:02
Message:

At last, finally moving in the right direction. Starting to build up information, rarther than clues, about Voor'acht and his forces. History about his first quest and it's course, teaching about Voor'acht and how he went about war. Still nothing yet as to Inferex's location, if that truely was the name of Voor'acht's stronghold-the cultist may have been lying, Voor'acht may have only used that as a false name, Voor'acht may have even moved his base of opperations, although Voke thought that last option was not one Voor'acht would have taken; that daemon was incredibly stuborn.

But finally some concrete information about Voor'acht and it's armies. Ela, Eswt and Quirrick had continued on with their work before finally leaving to eat then sleep, their 18 hours done for the day. Voke on the other hand continued regardlessly, although he could stay awake continuosly, using his powers to keep his body in top condition he still needed 6 hourse of sleep a day, like his companions. In much the same way as Space Marine he could go for much longer without sleep than even the extrodianry humans he was surrounded by, but if he did then all too quickly his human mind would be unable to work properly, with no time sort and process the information of the day Voke would all too quickly tire and make mistakes. As such he had been getting as much sleep as everyone else; until now.

Voke was unable to stop reading; this was exactly what he had been searching for, his excitement unconatained at this vital inforamtion, and in such detail; but stunned and horrified at what he was reading. An odd struggle insuded within him, joy at having this information and disgusted that what he was reading was true. Voor'acht's armies had been deadly, and vast. It's grasp of tactics disturbing and frightening; how was a creature of the warp so able to understand the effects and counter effects in our world of set realities? Voke wasn't certain if he really wanted an answer to that question.

Voor'acht's navies had overun all opposition it faced, any effective warning system destroyed only hours before the assault. It's armies would than swarm across the planet, quickly capturing it then moving on. There had been nothing the Inquisition, or the Imperialum could do about it; they were simply too busy with the Eye of Terror and other wars to bring about sufficiant military strength to stop Voor'acht....until the Grey Knights had cut the head off the army and had banished Voor'acht for a mellenia and a day.

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 16/03/2005 11:17:57
Message:

Voke’s head shot up from the pages. The silence of the empty archivum had been broken by the sound of creaking hinges. Someone had opened one of the doors. He checked his chronometer. Half past three, standard. Far too late to be one of the archivists on their rounds. He probed out with his mind. There were six patches of darkness moving slowly into the repository, towards them. Whoever they were, they were psi-shielded. He reached for the laspistol on his belt, drawing it slowly. He thought of turning his lamp off, but realised that doing so would alert the intruders to the fact he was aware of their presence. He needed to keep the element of surprise on his side. He sent mind impulses to the three slumbering forms in the rough and ready sleeping area, rousing them quietly and alerting them to the danger. Voke slunk away from his desk and slowly tiptoed to the living area.

‘What’s going on?’ Alexei hissed.

‘We’ve got visitors,’ Voke whispered. ‘Keep quiet.’

‘We don’t have any weapons,’ Ela complained, ‘security disarmed us.’

She was right; only Voke had been allowed to bear arms in the archivum, his Inquisitorial status had granted him certain privileges his companions had been barred from. Another noise jarred him from his thoughts. Somewhere behind him a book had fallen from a shelf noisily. He probed out again. Another six bodies. They were surrounded.

‘Ready yourselves,’ he mind spoke to them. Ela and Ewst drew themselves into ready positions, balancing lightly on the balls of their feet, ready to pounce. Quirrick simply balled up a fist.

He could hear footsteps now. The psi-shielded shapes were barely twenty metres from them, spread out in the aisles around them. The lamp on his desk picked out the sombre outline of a matt black Kantrael pattern hellgun and a carapace forearm guard as one of them passed by. Storm Troopers. They were in trouble. He pointed his laspistol down the corridor as the blank shroud closed in on him.

The overhead lights flared into life.

‘Throw down your weapon!’ the Storm Trooper in Voke’s sights yelled.

‘On whose authority?’ Voke questioned.

‘Mine,’ a voice from his left called. Keeping his gun trained on the soldier, Voke turned his head. The word had come from a man, in a carapace breastplate, holding a bolt pistol in both hands. The sigil of the Inquisition was clearly visible on his left shoulder guard.

‘And you are?’

‘Inquisitor Tomashek Goddard, Ordo Malleus. And you, Inquisitor Voke, are in a lot of trouble.’




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They had been marched, at gunpoint, to a well-furnished study somewhere in the upper levels. It had been plain to Voke that if they had put up any resistance, Alexei, Ela and Ewst would be dead, and he would be struggling to regenerate his own wounds. Eleven armed Storm Troopers and an Inquisitor were too much to overcome with one gun between four of them. By the state of their current surroundings, he realised that the upcoming conversation he was going to have with Inquisitor Goddard was going to be a lot more amiable than he had first expected. If he had sitting on a bench in a cell, rather than on the plush leather armchair he had been shown to, things could have been a lot worse for him.

Goddard sat with a flourish opposite Voke. The Storm Troopers manoeuvred Quirrick, Ela and Ewst to the far corner of the room where Voke could see them. The ladies were not happy. Quirrick seemed rather bemused, and tired. He leant his back against the wall nonchalantly.

‘I hope you realise what you’re getting involved with,’ Goddard said to him, steepling his fingers in front of his tanned face. Voke noticed faint creases at the corner of Goddard’s eyes, he was older than he looked.

‘I don’t take the investigation of daemons lightly,’ he replied.

‘And neither do we Inquisitor, neither do we.’

‘May I ask why you have dragged me from my investigation?’

‘You may, and I will answer you. You have opened sensitive files, which our cogitator system alerted us to. We are merely taking steps to make clear of your intentions.’

‘I am hunting a daemon. Is that not clear?’

‘It is the end result of your hunt that we are more interested in, Inquisitor.’ Goddard sat back in his chair and placed his index fingers on his bottom lip, pondering for a second. ‘It has been one hundred and thirty-one years since those files were last opened by an outsider and I have spent much of my career rueing the fact that my predecessor allowed that individual to access that information. His hunt you see, was not to destroy that monstrosity, but to bind it.’

Van Helser. Mikael had been the last Inquisitor to access the files on Voor’acht. Voke hid his realisation.

‘I see.’

‘Good. It does beg the question though, how did you come across this daemon? All accounts would have it still in its hosted form, and that would mean you have had contact with the heretic that entrapped it.’

‘Yes. Van Helser is a dangerous radical, I am searching for both he and Voor’acht.’

‘No need to use those names here, we both know who we are talking about. I take it that you had the misfortune to cross paths with that madman?’

Voke could see Quirrick tensing. ‘Indeed. He has caused me much duress. I want to see him destroyed,’ he lied.

‘As do I. Attempts to deal with the daemonhost have ultimately resulted in failure so far.’

The assassin at Mikael’s mansion. The one that had caused Van Helser to turn against him.

‘They are fell creations,’ Voke said to keep the conversation progressing.

‘Only as fell as those who would create them.’ Goddard sighed and sat up in his chair. ‘It is now that we come to the crux of the matter Inquisitor. I can help you, if you are willing to help me. All the information you are searching for is tabulated in my personal codifiers. My predecessors sorted it centuries ago; the archivum staff does not keep good enough records, ironically. If you wish to save yourself months of research work all you have to do is agree to share any and all information you have on our mutual enemy, and join me in a quest to hunt them down. This will not be a mission to undertake lightly, but I have many agents in the field and links with strong organisations across the sector. I can request help from other Inquisitors should the situation merit it. We can be rid of this menace on the Holy Imperium if we work together, as the Inquisition in all its might should do. What say you?’



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'Rid yourself of the aquila too Mikael; we both know you don't believe in what it represents anymore.' - Ranchak to Van Helser on Messalon IV

Winner of the Short Story Category, Conclave Writing Competition 2004-2005

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 17/03/2005 18:29:40
Message:

Voke's mind was a raging storm, thinking of possibilites, likely outcomes, trying to see the paths of the future. But Voke had never been able to truly read the future, even at his augmented height he could only see a second, two in advance. He wanted to ask for time to think, or time to confer with his companions, but he realised that that would not go down well.

Voke could tell that Goddard had been meaning to impress him by reeling off those powers he could call in, Voke knew that he could do the same, and surely Goodard would know that aswell. Voke had been an Inquisitor for nearly 550 years now, he knew full well his personal powers. Voke had never done anything of partiular note over other Inquisitors, unlike the Inquisitor he had changed his surname to honor; none the less over the last two years Voke had been involved in more and more hunts, his own opperatives across the galaxy had contributed even more. He was a senior Inquisitor and possibly might become an Inquisitor Lord in the near future; so why was this man trying to impress him with such simple statements.

Then Voke realised, to this man Voke would clealy look like a young man, barely old enough to be an Inquisitor by law, just over 20; and surely a impressive Interrogater to rise to Inquisitor so quickly. But Voke wasn't a young man, but perhaps Goddard didn't know that? Had he not researched Voke's background? Perhaps if he had feared the situation to be dire and in need of haste. It would show Goddard to be a rash Inqusitor if that was true.

Pulling himself out of his revie Voke tought to the matter at hand. Time was of the essence to save Mikael. And also to stop Voor'acht. Save them months....and also surely have vital information about Voor'acht, and his weaknesses, if any. Although Voke could see age in his eyes Voke delieved that he should be able to manipulate this Goddard if the need came. He would except this man's help; to fight Voor'acht and to save time in rescuing Mikael. He would then manipulate this man if he had to, to stop him from killing Mikael. He would tell him everything, but make sure that Mikael came out in the best possible light; a true servant of the Emperor who was blinded, and able to see-redeemed but then captured by daemons. Voke would have to be carful to make Goddard didn't suspect anything; but Voke had met men like this man before, and had avoided comming under their scrutiny, he would manage. However he wasn't so certain that he would be able to explain his choice to Alexei satisfacotally-he must make him understand that Goddard was just a tool being used, not a influencing piece of the game.

Voke looked Goddard in the eye. "I will agree to your proposal, may our work together be quick and efficient." Voke could see out of the corner of his eye Alexei tensing even more.



No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity


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Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 21/03/2005 13:42:35
Message:

‘Good,’ Goddard grinned, offering Voke a hand to shake, which Voke accepted slowly. ‘I’ll arrange proper rooms for you and your entourage up here – you won’t have to sleep down in the archivum any longer. In the morning, we can begin pooling our information. Put our cards on the table if you will. I can tell this is going to be a great meeting of minds.’

‘I hope so,’ Voke replied. ‘Our rooms?’

‘Of course. Sergeant Choi?’ One of the Storm Troopers stepped forward. ‘Have Tobundi open up the spare suites, and show Inquisitor Voke and his people to them.’

‘Yes sir,’ Choi answered from underneath his rebreather. He turned a half-circle and marched for the door.

‘Choi will show you to your rooms. You will find them much more appealing than the cots the archivists provided you with.’ Voke nodded courteously and beckoned for Quirrick, Ela and Ewst to follow. Mirth was written across all their faces. He turned a blind eye and followed the Storm Trooper.




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‘What the hell is this?’ Quirrick demanded. He and Voke were sharing a twin room finished with fine Strogonovan Teak. Ewst and Ela had been provided with a suite across the corridor. ‘You’re ratting Mikael out!’

‘Don’t think I haven’t considered that Alexei,’ Voke responded calmly, ‘and don’t for a second think I came to this decision easily.’

Quirrick sat down on his bed. ‘We’re screwing him over. Allowing Malleus in on things is about the worst thing we could have done to betray him. Might as well have left him on that train for that Interrogator to deal with.’

‘It’s not like that Alexei,’ Voke replied as Quirrick scowled, ‘this deal is going to save us months of work.’

‘And cost Mikael his life.’

‘No. I promise you that. We’ll use Goddard to get us close to Mikael. Use him to deal with Voor’acht. We can save Mikael if we keep our cool.’ Quirrick looked a little appeased. ‘If what Goddard says is true then we’ll practically have Inferex within our grasp. Compare that with what we’ve got now. Dead ends. With Malleus working for us rather than against us things become much easier. These Puritans are going to lead us right to Voor’acht for little in return.’

‘It’s quite a gift, I’ll give them that.’

‘Yes it is.’

‘Never trust a gift.’

Alexei’s words ended the conversation for the evening.


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Goddard met Voke in his study again in the morning, and offered him high quality caffeine and pastries, which Dauphan readily accepted after living off the mess the archivists drank for weeks.

‘So Inquisitor Voke, I think the best place to begin will be with what you have learnt downstairs, to allow me to fill in the blanks,’ Goddard began, sipping occasionally from his mug.

‘We’ve learnt that Gabaerev tasked himself with destroying Voor’acht, and found that Poe was responsible for the downfall of Hassan-Navel and the whole unholy crusade that followed thereafter. We’ve theorised that there was some kind of book that the daemon used to speak to Poe and seduced him with its whisperings. Fulcrim tells us that it is long destroyed.’

‘Indeed it is, as far as we can tell, and good riddance to it.’

Voke mused, the book seemed to be the key, but Goddard seemed far too resigned to the fact that it was gone. Was it just Puritan pomposity, or was there something else?

‘That is about as much as we have come to know,’ Voke replied, measuring his words.

‘Right,’ Goddard paused for a second; ‘I’m surprised you managed to learn that much in such a small space of time.’ He took another mouthful of caffeine.

‘Poe was the heretic upon whose head the entire matter can rest. Nefton-Gray found him guilty of his crimes and had him burnt. Gabaerev continued his investigations and with guidance from our Lord Emperor, took a force from Krieg and intercepted Voor’acht on Veldar III in three-five-four millennium thirty-seven. The Death Korps battled bravely from their trenches for months, and bought enough time for an incursion of Grey Knights to banish the daemon back to the warp. It cost Gabaerev his life, but the Imperium has him to thank for beginning the downfall of those Chaos ruled worlds.’

‘An interesting overview, but what of the details?’

‘Details?’ Goddard questioned, an eyebrow raised.

‘There is a daemon to banish, Inquisitor, and in order for that to come to place certain things must come to be known: its location, its followers, its weaknesses. The brief history lesson you just gave helps little.’

‘We know enough, brother, we have rundowns of the daemon’s legions, the tactics employed by both those fell armies and Inquisitor Gabaerev in the daemon’s defeat.’

‘That’s all well and good, but surely you have leads to follow up concerning Van Helser’s actions, or the after-effects of the daemon? We learnt that a few of the planets originally lost to Voor’acht have not enjoyed peace since the unholy crusade. Tomarisch is a prime example. What happened there?’

Goddard seemed phased by the question and took a while to bring himself to answer.

‘We don’t know why it was targeted,’ he sighed. ‘Investigations at the time revealed little behind the motives of the forces that attacked. We know the make up of the forces, and the overviews of the battles fought, but there appears to be no motive behind it at all. It could have just been a random Chaos attack, but the world is far from the Eye and sporadic attacks like this are almost unheard of.’

‘Something happened there. There must have been something of interest to Voor’acht’s followers.’

‘We don’t know what though. The invading forces left within a standard year, that’s for sure.’

‘I believe we may have just found the place to begin our investigation,’ Voke said, sitting back in his chair.

‘That may be an idea,’ Goddard agreed, ‘unless you have anything you can share with us about your encounter with Van Helser and Voor’acht?’

[VanHelser]

Reply author: Inquistitor Voke
Replied on: 23/03/2005 17:01:56
Message:

Voke thought for a second. It would be best to make this tool think that they were working together freely; tools are much easier to wield when they are not fighting against your control directly.

"I have some knowledge of Van Helser and Voor'acht. After working along side Inquisitor Stryde on a mission, which you can read the details for, I met Inquisitor Van Helser. At the time I was suspicious of him because of his daemon host, and his daemon sword. However after carefully scrying of his mind we worked together to purge a Slaneeshi cult." Voke could see Goddard absorbing it all, trying to find evidence of Miakel's heresy.
"Mikael's beliefs are of those of a Horusian, an accepted belief of Inquisiotor's, the use of daemonswords and daemonhosts, although often debated, are generally accepted through-out the Inquisition. After working with Van Helser for those periods of time I came to work with him more and more, and realising that he had a greater knowledge of daemons, as fitting with his belief as a Horusian, and their banishment I decided to enter a form of tutorlage with him."

Voke paused. He could see he was treading on dangerous ground, and Goddard would probably tear his careful story apart in a flurry of cross-examination.

"Then your assassin attacked. This attack allowed Voor'acht increased levegrage with Van Helser, it allowed it to start working with Van Helsers mind, and allowed it to turn him against me temporarilly until Van Helser saw his folly. However that attack gave Voor'acht a crack to work with, and praying apon Mikael's fears and his beliefs tricked Van Helser into trapping a second daemon, Ranchak, Voor'acht's former leuitenant."

Voke was now glad that he was alone with Goddard, otherwise he would have to explain alot to Quirrick.

"Ranchak and Voor'acht worked together to get Van Helser to distrust me more and more. Through-outt all of this Van Helser still performed his detuy to the Emperor and the Imperialum to the best of his ability. Me and Van Helser parted ways in the liberation of a planet, myself looking to organise the Navy when it arrived in system. I sent Ela and Eswt with Van Helser. However Ranchak and Voor'acht had been working away together at their bindings, and cracks were appearing in the bindings of Ranchak. As such Ranchak was able to trick Van Helser into beliving I had betrayed him. I quickly realised this, as I was forced to save Ela and Eswt from Ranchaks influences. I then met with Van Helser one last time, still led by Ranchaks visions. At the last Van Helser penetrated the lies of Ranchak and Voor'acht. He realised at the end that he had to escape these daemons, as although they had not turned him from the Emperor's light yet, they were trying their best to do so."

Voke let a heavy sigh go.

"However the slippage in Ranchaks bindings were such that it was able to capture Van Helser before he could dispose of the daemons. I then went back to where the original hosts were kept; to banish the daemons. However Ranchack trust himself apon my blade, before I could fully prepare the rituals, allowing his full essence to enter his second host. I then proceeded to banish Voor'acht, however as Ranchak had greatly disrupted Voor'acht's bindings it was a differcult task. However at the last when Voor'acht was banished something unexpected happened, and the daemon wasn't sent back to the warp as he should have been. Also I have found out a vital piece of information, for our hunt of Voor'acht. Voor'acht's base of operations, his planet, is called Inferex. I have been unable to find the location of this planet, but that is it's name."

Voke was now certain that charges of heresy and conssorting with daemons, aimed both at him and at Mikael, would flood from Goddard's bombastic mind. The use of daemons should be greatly avoided, as Mikael's fate had clearly shown; however Goddard had no sense of acceptence in anyway in the use of daemons; typical shuttered view of a puritan.



No one is truley sane; we are all just different levels of insanity


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Reply author: Van Helser
Replied on: 24/03/2005 14:07:10
Message:

Goddard emptied his mug of caffeine with one final large gulp and set it down on his desk.

‘I take it from your story that you are of a Radical personality,’ he began ominously, ‘for any Puritan would surely have turned against that heretic and his daemons without pause for breath. Radicals are not taken kindly to, Inquisitor, within these walls.’

Voke readied himself for the expected tirade of accusations.

‘However, it is clear that your experience of Van Helser’s actions will be vital in tracking him down. You should consider yourself lucky that I don’t have you strung up for consorting with heretics and daemons.’ Goddard eyeballed him to reinforce the point.

‘You mentioned another daemon. Ranchak?’ Voke nodded. ‘That is a name I have not heard in years, and one that I would rather have been able to forget entirely. I take it that you understand the nature of that particular daemon?’

‘Khornate.’

‘Indeed. A terrible butcher and menace. Went the way of his master in the early fortieth millennium. Grey Knights did to him exactly what they did to Voor’acht. But he’s back now at his masters side. I needed tell you that facing one monster is a lot more simpler than two.’

‘I know,’ Voke replied, ‘combating both hosts almost killed me.’

‘Those were just hosts – two manifested daemon princes is something else entirely. It will be a good long while before we have force enough to face them.’ Goddard sighed, and poured another mug of caffeine. ‘Would you care for a refill?’

‘Yes, thank you. What about Inferex, do you know anything about the daemon world?’

‘Nobody can know anything about daemon worlds without that knowledge turning them inside out with despair and madness.’

‘Not once in all your years of research you came across information pertaining to Voor’acht’s lair?’ Voke pressed the point.

‘No,’ Goddard answered frankly, ‘missions to the Eye invariably fail. The warpways are treacherous throughout Cadian space. Entering the Eye is nigh on impossible. What information there is on daemon worlds comes from scrawled pages found in space hulks that are granted merciful release from the womb of Chaos, and the visions of heretic madmen. If there was anything about Inferex it would have been contained within indecipherable ramblings. The location of that world is not something I can help with.’ The room fell silent as both men digested each other’s words. ‘Is that all you have to say on your encounters with Van Helser?’ Goddard asked.

‘I believe so, though there are reports from my investigations on file if you wish to research further.’

‘In due time I will have someone look into it.’

‘So now it comes to us to make the decision of how to progress the search for Voor’acht.’

‘Yes, and if I grasp correctly what you have shared with me, the daemon is no longer in its hosted form and will be found on its own world, within the Ocularis Terribus. I do not believe that even Lord Solar Macharius would have attacked there,’ Goddard said ruefully.

‘Especially not with what little knowledge we have on the daemon’s weaknesses. Our first task will surely be gathering information such as this.’

‘Agreed.’

‘Tomarisch seems as if it has secrets to share, would you not say so?’

‘Yes. I’ll have my ship prepared. There is no time to lose. Are you able to make your own transport preparations?’

‘I don’t think that will be a problem,’ Voke answered with a smile, knowing that the Stellar Web would put whatever craft Goddard requisitioned to shame in a straight race to Tomarisch.

‘I’ll let you return to your quarters and organise your things down in the archivum. I’ll send word when we are ready to move out.’ Voke nodded and left the study.




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‘We’re bringing them with us? That’s great, really wecking great,’ Quirrick moaned. Voke had explained the next stage of their search to his faithful trio of associates, and Quirrick was being the most vocal dissenter.

‘I thought we’d been through this Alexei?’ Voke countered, ‘I thought you’d come to realise having them on our side was better than fighting them?’

‘I don’t trust ‘em. I won’t ever trust a Malleus bastard.’

‘I don’t trust them either Alexei, but at least we’ll all be on our guard if things go wrong.’



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'Rid yourself of the aquila too Mikael; we both know you don't believe in what it represents anymore.' - Ranchak to Van Helser on Messalon IV

Winner of the Short Story Category, Conclave Writing Competition 2004-2005