Those bad dreams and hallucinations still haunt me and the others. Less than before, but they remain. During the transit to Iocanthos, I spent my time praying and on augmented guard duty. We must make sure no other strange things happen to the prisoners and if they happen, make sure we notice it and might find out more.
Finally we have arrived at Iocanthos and have dropped back into real space. I'm always relieved when we're out of the immaterium. Hopefully I can finally shake off that creepy feeling, the anxiety and those nightmares and hallucinations. The planet looked lovely from space. Something must have been wrong though as we were summoned to the bridge in a hurry. The core crew was assembled, except for the Ordo Xenos and the Space Marines. Apparently they do not care at all about this part of the mission. |
When I saw the images on the screen in the command room, I understood what the commotion had been about. The skybeam had been lit! The Adepta Sororitas are in trouble. A yellow alert was raised on the ship, everyone got ordered to their stations and we were issued to immediately be dropped to the surface.
Something must be jamming or interfering with the transmissions as there had been no other form of communication from the planet. We boarded the Valkyries that would bring us and our support down to the planet. We would not go alone. There would be support from the Scions and we had been issued transport vehicles. As we prepared ourselves, to embark the drop ships, Calvin joined us. It seemed that he had been able to convince the magos to have him implant mechadendrites. I must say, it looked very impressive.
The approach vector we took, brought us straight to the "Abbey Of The Dawn". We could immediately see that indeed their had been reason to light the distress beacon. A plume of smoke rose from the side of the abbey. The abbey itself was a spectacular fortress of pale yellow ouslite built into the knife-like slopes of a dark flint mountain. The abbey is saed to be the most secure place on Iocanthos. Its location means that, while it is close to the astrocartographic heartland of the Calixis Sector, its immediate surroundings are bleak and rugged, and the abbey’s Sisters are cut off from the corruptive influences of the outside world.
The fact that this place had been attacked must mean that whoever organised the hit, must have been well prepared and well informed. As we arrived at the abbey, we landed outside of the abbey. We could immediatly notice the scars of the battle that took place only a few hours ago. The Sisters were on full allert, the battlements fully armed. Outside near our landing spot there were remnants of vehicles, now completely shot to pieces, the marks of lasershots, flamers and bolters clearly visible.
We entered the abbey and were greeted by Palatine Rhiannon, who leads order of the Ebon Chalice, here on Iocanthos. I must admit that I was a little overwhelmed to finally meet them. There are many stories about the Sisters Of Battle from the order of the Ebon Chalice of Iocanthos, and amongst the novices, they are regarded with awe. They are said to be the most elite and dedicated mortal troops in the Calixis sector. Though the Ebon Chalice is based on Terra, and the Battle-Sisters at the abbey here, even if they have only glimpsed the spires of the Imperium’s holiest world, are regarded with something like religious awe by the Novices. Renowned as Sororitas honour guard at the Cathedral of Illumination on Scintilla and guarding important Ecclesiarchy Adepts who visit the Calixis Sector. |
The introduction was short. Too short in my opinion. Now that I finally made it to the abbey of the Dawn on Iocanthos, there was no time to even visit it, not even for a short while. But there was a good reason for that. It was to be expected after we arrived in the system and saw that the emergency beacon of the Sisters had been lit.
Palatine Rhiannon explained briefly what had happened only a few hours ago. The abbey had been hit by a squad of gangers. "The Prophets" they were called. Apparently, their leader, "The Prophet", was a psyker who had been imprisoned here in the abbey awaiting the arrival of the black ships to collect the tithes of unsanctioned psykers. As short as the explanation was, even shorter was the Inquisitor's answer. He promised Rhiannon that we would take care of this matter.
A close inspection of the holding cell where the psyker had been held, revealed a disturbing fact. There were no signs of forced entry and the two Battle Sisters, who were guarding the prisoner, had been killed with no obvious signs of a struggle. Only someone familiar would have been able to get so close to a Sister and overpower her. The blast pattern from the explosion that blew a hole in the wall of the holding facility was clearly outward. Outside we inspected the shot up vehicles that did not survive the battle. All were heavily modified and the most noticeable fact was that were decorated with road signs.
We transferred the map of the Iocanthos Crystal Desert to our dataslates. Not wanting to waste any daylight, we grabbed some necessary gear and rations. And some water but that wasn't much. Here in the desert of Iocanthos, water is precious, very precious. The say it is worth its weight in gold. Not quite true, but close. After loading everything into the tauroxes, we covered the most obvious inquisitorial markings in order to stand out just a little less and did set off into the desert, following the trail for as long as we could. The contingency plan was that if we would lose the trail, we would travel to the Dusk Oasis to replenish our supplies and gather some information, maybe hire some to guide us through the desert, before we would set off, either to the Prophets Trading Outpost, or directy towards their Headquarter.
The travel through the desert of Iocanthos will be a difficult one, I can feel it. During the journey I'll try to make notes on the go. Once we are back aboard the "Vengeful Wrath", I will update my journal.