Motivational Speaking
++Lunar-class Cruiser Kyne’s Fury, Orbiting Denton III++
++3.633.879.M39++
Sergeant Aisen sat frozen in his seat, reluctant to move or even breathe, least he too draw the little xeno’s wrath (and more importantly, guns) down on his head. Tiny stared at this “Twilight Sparkle” with a shocked expression, but did not move to intervene. The stormtrooper, still backed up against the wall, grimaced. Only Red Eye appeared to be unfazed by the whole situation, nodding his head slowly.
“Technically she’s right, you know,” he observed in a calm tone.
All attention in the room suddenly went to the man who had had the stones to speak up at that particular moment.
Ugly and Whiner in particular shared an incredulous expression.
Twilight turned her head to regard Red Eye with a raised eyebrow. The bolt pistols remained locked onto their targets.
Ugly, as Aisen had come to expect, was the first to break the silence. “And what the hell do ya mean by that, you bloody xenos-loving git?!”
“Imperial Guard regulations, as our Acolyte cites, permit a wide array of discretionary powers to punish failure to cooperate with members of the Inquisition. She is, by Imperial Law, perfectly within her rights to execute you both on the spot,” he said, appearing unruffled by the insult.
“By the Emperor’s Holy Law, all xenos must die! That was His sacred mission entrusted to the Imperium! To tolerate their existence is heresy! To let them lead men? Blasphemy!” Whiner shook his head fervently, his earlier terrified demeanor completely subsumed by the courage born of fanaticism and hopelessness.
“The fact that she walks openly on an Inquisitorial ship, bearing the mark of the Inquisition, accompanied by a Stormtrooper, and was apparently the one to call us here indicates that higher powers than us have determined it does not violate the Emperor’s will for her to serve. If they have deemed her service fitting, who are mere Guardsmen to argue?”
The lavender xeno nodded her head, and Aisen could have sworn he saw a twitch of a smile on her face before it disappeared again. “Knowledgeable and logical, Lieutenant? You may consider me favorably impressed.”
“Bloody xenos-loving scum…” Ugly muttered, appearing more irritated than anything.
Red Eye inclined his head slightly towards the xeno before addressing the man and woman with weapons still trained on them. “If I were you, I would consider backing down now. The fact that you are not yet dead indicates that our Acolyte does not sincerely wish to kill you. Nonetheless, I would not count on such desire to last forever in the face of continued defiance.”
The xeno’s eyes narrowed again. “While your continued rational thinking is noted, do not presume to speak for me again. Is that clear?”
Red Eye nodded again, more deferentially this time.
“Good,” she – Red Eye had called it a girl and it hadn’t corrected him – turned her face back to the twin pistols and their targets. “Now, as it happens, I’m feeling somewhat generous as this is our first encounter. Stand down, right now, and I’ll forget this ever happened. Don’t, and…” Her front right leg gestured meaningfully.
Neither Whiner nor Ugly said a word.
“Last chance.”
“Go to hell, xeno.”
“Emperor preserve my soul.”
“Martyrs to pointless stupidity, then?” the xeno scowled. “Suit yourselves.”
Twin bolters cracked. Twin bodies fell.
The purple light returned the weapons to their holsters, a grim expression on the xeno’s face.
“Any more complaints?”
The room was silent. Aisen swallowed nervously. Tiny stared. Red Eye continued to look unruffled.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Now then,” Twilight said in her best authoritative voice. “Let me start from the beginning. I am Inquisitorial Acolyte Twilight Sparkle. I will be your commanding officer. I consider myself a reasonable woman, but as you have just witnessed…” she paused for a few seconds to let them think about it before continuing. “I will not tolerate disloyalty. We all serve the Imperium of Man and the God Emperor. We all strive to protect His domain from the ravages of the alien, the heretic, and the mutant,” she went on, totally aware of the disconnect between her words and her species, but counting on her earlier display to quiet any such thoughts. “We are here because an alien force unlike any other has violated the sacred soil of the Emperor. Metal xenos, called the Necrons, have come to the Imperium for no purpose but to kill, destroy, and bring to ruin everything and everyone they can find. Our duty is to stop them. Do all here understand that?”
There were vague mumbles of assent from around the table.
“I want to hear “Yes, Acolyte” or “No, Acolyte” from you.”
“Yes, Acolyte.”
Twilight nodded approvingly. “Do all here realize what is at stake in this war?”
More mumbles.
“What was that?”
“Yes, Acolyte,” came the slightly louder reply.
“And do all here grasp what will become of the Emperor’s world if we fail? Is it clear to you?”
“Yes, Acolyte.”
“I don’t believe you.” Twilight’s hoof pressed a button the head of the table, activating the old holoprojector in its center. The image was somewhat jumpy, but functional. She flicked other controls telekinetically, bringing up an image of a bustling mid-hive market, crowded with thousands, or perhaps even tens of thousands of humans going about their business. “This is Saint Jelia’s Gift Marketplace, Hive Quaries, Denton III. Three weeks prior to the initial engagement.” Twilight changed the image.
It was obviously the same vast indoor market building, but it had been turned into… a slaughterhouse really was the only good word to describe it. Bodies were everywhere. Men and women, young and old, healthy and diseased – it didn’t matter, all had been cut down. Dried blood coated the floors and the remains of market stalls. Organs and limbs were spread liberally throughout, torn from their forms by unfathomably vicious bladed blows. One could see faces, torn mercilessly apart by claws. Random chunks of flesh were missing from hundreds of corpses; ripped off, Twilight knew, to feed the demented hunger of those aliens now classified as “Flayed Ones” for fresh meat.
“This,” she said, after giving the men some time to soak it all in. “Is Saint Jelia’s Gift Marketplace, Hive Quaries, Denton III. Two days after the initial onslaught. This,” she pounded an armored hoof into the table for emphasis, “is what we are fighting to prevent. Fear me if you would. Hate me if you must. But you are going to help me stop these monsters, or Emperor help me I will make you wish you had been those two.” She pointed to the man and woman she had slain.
One of the men gave a slight whimper. Twilight ignored it.
“So,” she repeated. “Is. That. Clear?”
“Yes Acolyte!"
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haha well twilight is def not messing around. good on her!
ahhh how I love dark heresy
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She gave them plenty of chances to back down, but in the end what cost them their lives was the dogma of the Ecclesiarchy.
Well, dang, looks like Twily wasn't bluffing after all. I must admit I was expecting things to de-escalate somehow, but then again that might have been wishful thinking, considering how blindly fanatical most of Imperium is. This, in the end, might have been inevitable ... and indeed, plenty of Commissars would probably think she gave them one chance too many already. Still, goes to show how far Twilight has come from her days on Equestria - gunning down two insubordinate fellows and then calmly continuing her lecture while their cooling corpses decorate the floor? Yup, things are sure not the same and will never be.
Now that she is down two recruits though, will she attempt to get two new ones or will she go ahead with what she has? This is, after all, a smaller number of teammates than she had planned on ... unless she had already accounted for the possibility of having to "dispose" of a couple of them? She still should have a few days time to order in a few new recruits, should she wish so.
And I had a feeling that Red Eye would be to her liking, based on how he behaved previously. At least she gets one new recruit whom should be easy to work with ... unless his clinical way of thinking starts getting in the way, heh. Speaking of teammates, I would love to see the other guys (Tiny and Aisen) interacting with Titus and trying to ask him for details about their new commander - it's obvious Twilight got along with her old squad reasonably well, and it would be interesting to see what Titus has to say about her after years of working together.
Red-eye worries me. He's smart, savvy, and has cybernetics. The cybernetics mark him as either a former officer or someone with connections, both are equally dangerous. Tiny, either big and dumb as a brick or big and smarter then twilight. I kinda of wanted to see Twilight look at Aisen have a slightly mortified look, go back to chewing out the zealots, look at Aisen, cringe, shoot the zealots, look at Aisen yet again and go WTF are you? (Aisen being a blank)
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If you look carefully, Twilight reveals his current (or immediate past, depending on how you look at it) rank in this chapter:
4717936 ... Great reading speed check. Ability to retain most of what I read, check. fair chance I'm going to skim something important while retaining the rest of the paragraph, check. (head hits desk) blargel.
4717885
Aisen made the observation that Tiny could be half Ogryn, which would put him closer to the "big and dumb as brick" category. Ogryns being loyal and simple minded kinda fits how we saw Tiny behave, me thinks - he looks understandably surprised, but his reactions are simple and he doesn't speak out against a superior officer, xenos or not, and just goes with it.
I suppose him being quietly quite intelligent is possible, but so far I'd be willing to bet on the brick part. Hm, though I do wonder if Twilight would want someone with limited intelligence on her team ... on the other hand, a big hulk of muscle who will follow loyally and execute orders without complaint is also a plus.
Short, but nice chapter here. Considering the synopsis, I have a feeling Acolyte Sparkle will stumble on somepony else (which was possibly kept alive by Necrons, maybe by Szeras?) in Necron territory, and that somepony won't like what he/she sees.
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They could still be recycled as battle servitors. Yay for heavy ordanance.
I can already see Twi and Red discussing strategy. In addition he may have old Guard connections and could probably get inquisitional upgrades for his eye. Given Sevora and Severina (the two Inquisitor Death cult assassins) as a reference, a digital melter or flamer could be integrated into his bionic eye without affecting its outward appearance.
I wonder who she has as possible replacements for Ugly and Whiny, though.
I regret I've taken so much time to come back to this story. But I have to say I'm so happy to see that you are sticking so closely to true 40k fashion of life and thinking. The fact that you had her execute those two for refusing to serve, she has clearly learned her station within the Inquisition.
And this is the chapter that gets me to give it a good star! For the twilmperor!
So help me we're going to do some good in this cold, cruel galaxy.
... they do know that there are a few xenos species that the imperium has a loose peace with right?