Lisbett Mox, Inquisitrix of the Ordo Astartes
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| [//simon_v/@heresyhobbyheadquarters+] |
"I had served alongside the Void Barons above Ti’roa, indeed I was on a first name basis with one of their Void Lieutenants. I knew they would not back down, but Vicinius botched this entire affair, Emperor rest his soul."
[//Extr. from Lisbett Mox’ personal journal, vol. IV, The Bastards of Siklon+]
+++Inquisitorial Interrogation//b:23ḁ//VOIDBARON+++
The following interview is taken from the annal of Lisbett Mox, Ordo Astartes Inqusitrix. Taken following the Last Stand of Siklon, the captured Void Barons would have their minds probed and violated for any hint of the location of the remaining Partisans. Rumors abound that some Void Barons escaped or were granted amnesty based on how they worked with the Inquisition, or taken into custody by their primogenitors and punished accordingly. This excerpt is the testimony of one Void Sergeant Ulisan Knavked, who took down seven Death Eagles who attempted to take him alive.]
Can you confirm your name and order of battle?
“Eat shit.”
You are Void Sergeant Knavked, yes?
[The Astartes sneers at this, but nods.]
“Aye. But you already knew that, otherwise Udo wouldn’t be here.”
[I shrug. It is a fact.]
I am attempting to piece together a narrative of what happened to the Void Barons at Ti’roa and the intervening years prior to Choeropsis.
“Why? What is there to know? You were there, Mox. You saw that jumped-up little shit destroy Glaber’s Glory. It was a gift from the Suns, our forebears. Did you know that? Survived Calth, survived the Great Scouring, and a millennia of war, only for some ambitious weasel to blow it out of the sky along with fifteen of my brothers. And you defended him.
It is my intervention you still live at Ulisan. What happened after the destruction of Glaber’s Glory?
“We took that entire fleet as our own. Throne, we were strong then. Heliopolis fell in twenty minutes. Can you believe that? My squad was the spearhead, first in, accompanied the Dragon himself. Watching his chainsword chew it’s way through armsmen like a scythe through wheat? It was an honour. When we reached the bridge, the pissant admiral wasn’t even armed.
He wasn’t? The reclamation crews claim that the footage recovered-
“I was there. He was on his knees, and begged us to forgive the error, to just understand! We ‘overzealous’ warriors. I’ll never forget the arrogance in that statement. He destroys a cruiser out of pride, and we were overzealous.
[Ulisan leans forward, his face about a foot from my own.]
“Drak picked him up by his throat, and began a ship wide voxcast. We dismantled the admiral and his bridge crew, letting the screams explain to the rest of the vessel what to expect. I took Vicinius' eyes. Just to stop the crying. He was weak. No iron in him.
And the crew? Why kill them?
“Why not? They were just as complicit. They loaded the shells, they did as ordered. No-one stopped to ask: ‘Is this a good idea? Won’t the Astartes take umbrage to this?"
"And we did. Throne… by the time we were done, I don’t think there was an untouched inch of adamantium in that vessel. By the end, my arms were burning with exertion, in a way I’ve only ever felt fighting greenskins."
[His bright eyes, bloodshot and wild, seem to stare a hole into my face. I attempt to hold his gaze, but look away after a brief moment, the madness lurking in there something I did not wish to disturb. When he speaks again, the mirth in his voice is gone.
"Let me ask you something, Inqusitrix. Did you and your family ever have a hunting hound? Or a loyal pet?"
[I shake my head, intrigued. Astartes, as far as I knew, did not have pets, in the sense that a mortal might. He nods to the scribe.]
“Udo did. All of our serfs had void hounds. Cantankerous mutts from the highlands of Siklon. Massive mastiffs, all muscle and fang, roaming in packs and taking down whatever they could get their teeth into."
[pause]
"But you know this. You lost an attendant to a bitch at the parley, didn't you?"
[I say nothing, but feel the anger boiling up in me, recalling the screams of my interrogator, Marla, who been just twenty-four years old when one of the massive hounds had torn her to pieces following the assassination attempt on the Abomination. He nods, amused.]
“Yes… I thought you might. Udo once had a hound like that. A beast that, when ordered, would do exactly as commanded, Loyal… so long as he was fed, and Udo didn’t become a threat. These hounds are wild animals at heart, and you can place as many chains as you’d like on one, and it will abide, because it trusts you."
[pause]
"But raise your hand, strike it or threaten it in any way?"
[pause]
"Then you should not be surprised when it takes your hand, as happened to poor Udo. Because despite the veneer of civility it has, bedecked in armour and fetters, giving you the illusion that you are in control... you’re not. The hound did as Udo said as long as she chose to, not the other way around.
[pause]
Do you catch my meaning? I have been told my philosophising grates on most mortals.
[I nod.]
I understand. You are the hounds? And you bit the hand that fed you when you felt threatened?
[He shakes his head with a rumbling growl, that I feel in my chest.]
“No. You are not understanding. We were not threatened. We were attacked. And like any man or beast, that cannot go unpunished. We thought that Morqub would learn its lesson after that, but when we received a distress beacon from another Astartes chapter, falsely persecuted by your pit of vipers, we decided it was time for the Sons of Siklon to ensure the Imperium understood the lesson this time.
You massacred an entire Inqusitorial fleet. Crucified over fifteen different inquisitors.
“We did. And yet you still didn’t learn. We were loyal! We still patrolled, defended the Imperium! But your ilk, you spineless mortals, demanded we be a hound that always came to heel, that could be abused and still bark for its master. We saw you as partners, you saw us as slaves. And so we sided with the man we saw us as equals. Do you know what we wrote above Vicinius?
‘Sic Semper Tyrannis.’
“Yes. 'Thus always to Tyrants'. You fired first. You escalated this war time and again, Mox. Would be we could have crucified you as well.”
[He turns to me and smiles, then spits, the venom in his eyes nearly causing me to flee. The acidic saliva arc towards me in spray, only to be met by a crackling energy shield of my rosette, the ozone smell filling the room. ]
“Like I said. Weak. Spineless. Die poorly, Inqusitrix.”
[My pistol ends a hero of a hundred worlds, the armoured slug entering one of the maddened eyes, and painting the cell red. A waste. I feel ill, knowing that in truth, the Void Barons did what they had to, and I stood by, letting it happen.]
Clean this up. Leave no remains.