Lieutenant Crixus strode up the incline of the aristocratic court steps. Ornate archways with tapestries, depicting heraldic conquest of a native species long dead, formed a spectacle that could inspire awe in any man. Crixus was never a man, still a boy before the silent trials and surgical knives stripped him of his humanity, turning him into what the imperium considers an angel.
The echo of breathless huffing and puffing accentuated the governor’s tripping onto stone. “I..never…intended.., oh throne I’m going to throw up, please you MUST understand!” Crixus took a moment to scan the surroundings, he was confident they were alone in the great hall and turned his attention to the optical illusion of the Governor falling UP the stairs.
Out of energy the Governor laid back onto the stone steps gasping for breath “this was all in motion before I ascended to my Governorship, there was nothing I could DO. There was this…THING haunting me, demanding from the shadows..I couldn’t”. An astartes sense of smell was so acute they could reliably derive the psychological state of mortal men, combined with the body language and micro expressions of the Governor’s face, he knew what he was hearing was sincere and therefore, useless. The lieutenant ignited the disruption field of the blade in his hand.
Before the Lieutenant could raise his sword for a killing blow the echo of a jump pack flaring halted him. Justice Leontis landed down, stone buckling underneath his weight at the bottom of the stairs. He had made entry through the stained glass murals,
“We have run out of time Lieutenant Crixus, a full withdrawal and abandonment of objectives has been declared” striding up the stairs at the pace of a man’s sprint “the first is in system and we must lea-“.
An ungodly roar of engines not built for atmospheric environments burned away all sound of the hive’s chaos, slowing the descent its extreme weight. “We are too late” the Justice spoke amongst noise, eyes fixed on the sky above them.
“They have come”
Commissioned by @grohgrog_art
