Warhammer 40K Fan Fiction ❯ Whispers of Penance ❯ Chapter 1

Alright you know the order of things: I don't own any of this, I'm not making any money off of this, and I have entirely too much free time. With our disclaimer out of the way lets get to the story.

 

The Whisper's of Penance

 

 

Chapter 1- Vox vocis of Cado

 

A dead man stares into a sky heavy with smoky grey clouds. The glazed look of death holds in his light brown eyes that are forever stilled in terror. His hair is wet and strands are stiff with mud and grime. His flak armor fits his muscular chest perfectly. The armor has a silver double headed Imperial Aquila on the left breast. The armor had not saved his life. The man's chest and stomach are torn open. His blood runs into the mud of the battle field, soaking and mixing with the torn earth. His hair blows slightly as a mournful wind drifts across the battlefield.

 

Around the dead man more fallen lay, their corpses scattered and bloody. The wind picked up speed and drifted through the shattered and blackened husks of once mighty tanks. Some where a man coughed and again the wind blew through the battle field. The breeze coursed through the corpse littered no-man's-land and found the Imperial frontline.

 

Guardsmen in flak jackets huddled around heat generators as sentries stared out into the shattered hell that was no-man's-land. The wind carried past the Guardsmen and found more of the numb soldiers. It drifted through the fatigues and breathed upon the flesh of eight thousand men. The wind changed course and blew north and passed by thousands more, the battle front was manned well. It gusted through the tracks of dozens of Leman Russ battle tanks and coursed over a massive Shadowsword Battle Tank. The wind nipped at engineers working on the terrifying tank and caused the men to shiver and mutter about the weather.

 

But the wind was not satisfied with the massive vehicle and onward it blew. Past commanders studying dataslates and planning the latest offensive. It continued past even more soldiers and priests giving daily sermons for the Emperor's blessing. It continued until it came upon a hill where an Imperial flag stood proudly declaring the surrounding land its territory.

 

The wind stirred the flag and it flapped gently. More corpses surrounded the hill, the mark of chaos on each. Men with ritualized scars lay bleeding into the dirt, their once strong hands grasping brutal axes and swords, lasguns lay in their cold dead hands. The wind flowed gently over a lone figure that kneeled in front of the flag with their head against an intricately crafted bolter.

 

Jet black baroque power armor was fitted perfectly to kneeling warrior. The arched feminine armored boots came above the knee with bladed knee guards, the right bearing a fleur-de-lis and the left the visage of a skull. The shoulder guards were peaked slightly and were adorned with the fleur-de-lis on the left guard and the Imperial Aquila on the right, the right guard having a higher rise to shield the soldier's neck. The breast plate was baroque like the rest of the armor with a raised errant neck guard with the visage of a gothic skull over the protruding armored bosom. Deep red robes that had the edges of the worked with silver thread work and the Imperial Aquila combined with the fleur-de-lis intertwined within the pattern, the thick robes hung from the shoulder guards and came out from beneath the chest plate to hang from the warrior's waist. A blade was on the woman's hip within its scabbard, its grip was braided with heavy leather and the skull that served as the pommel was worn. Grenades, a bolt pistol, and ammunition holsters hung on a hardy leather belt.

 

“...let His light shine on me. In the Emperor's name.”

 

The woman ended her personal sermon and looked up at the battle field as the wind stirred the white hair that came to her throat gently. Her piercing blue eyes stared at the fallen Heretics coldly. If the woman felt any compassion for the dead her beautifully pale face did not show it.

 

Battle Sister Aurea Istallo stood from her prayer as the wind played with her robe and her eyes drifted over the slain to a fallen Sister. The woman still had her helmet on but her torso was riddled with bloody holes. Aurea commended her fallen comrade's soul to the Emperor silently. She had warned Sister Geena to use all the cover she could, she had warned her that the heretics were not terrible shots. The newer Battle Sister had clearly not listened. A slight feeling of guilt over the younger Sister's death tried to break into her thoughts. Sister Aurea shoved them away. It was not my fault that she did not listen to me. She mentally whispered to herself. Despite her words she continued to study the dead woman who lay in the blood soaked mud.

 

The sounds of a mechanical door opening behind her forced Aurea to break her study of the fallen Sister. With a tired sigh she turned around while pulling the strap of her bolter over her head so that it hung comfortably across her chest. Her squad's Rhino armored carrier was parked in the safety of the large building they had taken as their head quarters during the attack. The rear door had opened and a coffee haired Sister stepped out as three other heavily armored Sisters walked tiredly to the open hatch. The departing woman nodded to them and turned on her heel and approached Aurea.

 

“Sister Aurea.” The woman said in a friendly voice that was used to commanding.

 

“Sister Superior Joan.” Aurea acknowledged tiredly. Despite her prayers it seemed the Emperor was not going to remove her fatigue.

 

Joan approached Aurea while stepping casually over the shattered bodies of chaos cultists with out so much as a glance. She saw the fallen Geena and shook her light brown haired head regretfully. She turned to Aurea her eyes already forgetting the dead Sister.

 

“May the Emperor welcome her soul.” Aurea nodded in agreement. Joan looked over the dead cultists with hardly hidden animosity. “Heretic scum. You did well Aurea. Our relief arrived several minutes ago. We have done our duty Sister. It is time for us to return to head quarters.”

 

Aurea nodded and left the corpse in the mud, there was no time to bury the dead and the Promethium in the flamers was to valuable to waste on someone already dead. The two Battle Sisters walked back towards the Rhino in silence born out of fatigue. The heretics had assaulted the hill two nights before where the Sisters of Battle had been stationed. For two nights Aurea had slaughtered the traitors. The squad had suffered four losses, Sister Geena being the most recent. This was relatively well off in Aurea's opinion seeing as they had slaughtered over two hundred of the heretics. Now Sister Geena was dead, a spark of guilt blossomed in her breast but Aurea quickly stamped it out. It was not my fault. She told her self once more.

 

When they reached the Rhino Aurea saw several platoons of Imperial Guardsmen advancing forward through the shattered street the came through the rear of the hill, a street that held two more of her fallen Sisters. They were all fresh, yet none had the look of wanting to be there. Stern eyed Commisars kept them moving forward regardless of what cowardly feelings they may have harbored.

 

A commanding officer approached Joan. Her thoughts still on her fallen Sisters and the fresh reserves Aurea mounted the back entry to the tank with out a word. Mentally she thanked the Emperor that she was not staying at the position for another day. Another attack was inevitable, they had hardly held their position and they all knew that handfuls of the heretic scum had escaped past their guns. Three other members of the squad, Lea, Dianna, and Kierra, sat within the confines of the Rhino, Kierra leaning against the wall in a fretful slumber. Lea smiled at Aurea upon her entrance, the scar that came from her temple to her jaw twisting, as she cleaned her meltagun.

 

“Good to see you still breathing Aurea!” She greeted in a cheerful voice.

 

Aurea grunted tiredly. “I wish I could say the same for Sister Geena.”

 

Dianna was checking her heavy bolter's firing mechanism carefully, cleaning the great weapon of any filth. The sharp nosed raven haired woman did not look up when she spoke. “Has the Emperor taken her into his heaven?”

 

Aurea leaned back, grateful for the wall to lean against after days of running around in battle. “Yes.”

 

Lea shook her light blond haired head but did not stop smiling and Kierra let out a small whimper as she slept. Kierra's caramel colored face would have been beautiful, stunning in fact, had it not been for a large burn on the side of her face that twisted down her cheek and neck marring the gorgeous flesh. She whimpered again and her storm grey eyes opening suddenly in alarm and fear, but almost immediately they grew calm with the sight of her Sisters around her. Not even prayers protected you from the nightmares that a lifetime of war gave a soldier.

 

“Did she listen to you?” Lea asked.

 

Aurea dearly wanted to sleep but she responded anyway. “For several hours she did.”

 

Lea shook her head again. “May the Emperor guide her soul.”

 

Suddenly Sister Superior Joan entered the tank her eyes sharp. How the beautiful woman did not give into fatigue was beyond Aurea. Joan smiled as she entered the tank and proceeded to the cockpit.

 

“On to hot showers, soft beds, and a full meal!” She said heartily.

 

Kierra yawned. “I certainly hope we get the soft bed.”

 

Joan let out a small chuckle. “Emperor willing Sister Kierra.”

 

With that Joan entered the cockpit and moments later the tank let out a mechanical roar and started up. Aurea leaned against the wall and let herself give into the fatigue that plagued her. A slight feeling of guilt grew in her gut as she realized that Sister Geena would never again have a hot meal or a soft bed. The hum and vibrations of the tank caused her eyes to slowly flutter shut and all she could see was Geena's bullet riddled corpse laying in the mud as they drove away.

 

-

 

Mist swirled around her armored feet. Aurea did not know where she was. She could not see anything but the heavy mist. Its cold caress touched her cheeks and she took a step forward. All sound was muffled and each step she took echoed foggily. She surmised that the ground was flat; her armored boots had not caught on any rough areas of the ground.

 

Aurea continued to stride, it seemed like hours. Still nothing changed. It was the same clinging fog no matter what direction she walked. It was not long before her temper and impatience got the better of her.

 

“Damn this Emperor-cursed mist!” She growled to no one. Her voice seemed almost heretical in the clouded silence she traversed within. Regardless she continued her trek.

 

“Why did you let me die?”

 

Aurea spun around at the voice. Sister Geena stood behind her. The Sister's chest soaked in blood and her armor mangled. She was still within her helmet. Aurea felt her jaw drop and she yanked out her bolt pistol.

 

The armored Geena looked at her with a slight tilt of her armored head. “Why did you let me die?” She asked again.

 

Aurea stared at her. It was not possible… Geena was rotting in the mud. Her mind raced over prayers of protection and she did not lower her weapon. Geena walked towards her.

 

“Don't move!” Aurea growled.

 

Geena stopped and with an oddly sorrowful tilt of her helmet she examined the blood glistening on her black power armor. Her armored fingers examined the liquid curiously. She looked back at Aurea, her hand still raised.

 

“Why did you let me die?”

 

Aurea narrowed her eyes. “Your soul belongs to the Emperor. Why are you in my dreams?”

 

The armored woman shrugged; the casual movement that gave pause to Aurea once more. “I have always been loyal to the Emperor. My soul and my life are his.”

 

“You are dead.” Aurea hissed. She could not accept the heretical vision, to do so would condemn the very teachings she had studied for so long.

 

The other woman looked at her own blood again. “Perhaps the belief in a single god, or any number of gods for that matter was not enough to save my soul. Or perhaps it was foolish to be so devoted to a single belief.”

 

Aurea's fingers tightened on the bolt pistol she pointed at the heretical words. “Those are the words of a traitor.”

 

Geena shrugged once more. “I died with His name on my lips and I am talking to you aren't I? Is it so traitorous to question a god after my soul was not taken to His heaven?” She sighed audibly. “You left my corpse in the mud didn't you?”

 

Aurea glared at the armored woman. “This is a dream.”

 

Geena nodded. “Yes it is.” She motioned with her gauntleted arm and the mist shifted to reveal the bloody hill and Geena's shattered corpse laying in the gory mud. “Why did you let me die?”

 

Aurea lowered the pistol as the same guilty feelings she had felt before falling asleep come to her. She doubted the weapon would have killed Geena, she was already dead. “I did not let you die Sister Geena. You got yourself killed. I tried to warn you of the enemy's skill.”

 

Geena stared at her, or at least Aurea thought so. The woman in the helmet shook her head. “You were my commander, under order of Sister Superior Joan. My death is as much your fault as it is mine.” Her blood gleamed dully on her black power armor. “Did the Emperor protect me when I prayed to him?” She pointed at the image of her corpse. “Does he care that my life as cut short, Sister?” The corpse soaked the earth with precious droplets of ruby blood; the Imperial Aaquila was soaked in the dead woman's blood. “Do you believe He will protect you any more than He did me?”

 

Aurea was done with the conversation; no one questioned the Emperor's word. Her pistol rose once more, she was going to silence the heretical Geena. “You are breaking the oaths you made to the Emperor and the human race, Geena. I will help speed your soul's travel to Him whether you wish it or not.” She dearly wanted to pull the trigger, yet Geena's words rang in her head. Was she just as guilty in Geena's death?

 

The other woman was unreadable behind her helmet as she gazed at Aurea. “I will be with you till you die Sister Aurea.” Her armored arms hung at her bloody sides. “I will be a reminder to you of the life you have led every time you close your eyes, Sister Aurea. I believe this is my penance, for what transgression I do not know.”

 

What? Aurea arched a single white eyebrow. “What are you talking about heretic?”

 

“I am not a heretic. I was merely examining my life's ambitions and the faith I held in the Emperor.” She motioned to the visage of her corpse. “I am already dead so I will not die if you shoot me.” The mist swirled around the woman. “I believe I may have become your conscience.”

 

Aurea snorted. “This is a dream. You will not be sitting next to me when I awaken.”

 

Geena nodded. “This is true, you did leave my body in the mud.” Again the guilt gripped Aurea. “But I will be here in your mind and your dreams to confer and confide with.” She motioned with her armored hand. “Please put away the pistol Sister. I will not anger you further.”

 

Aurea had not stopped staring at the other woman for minutes and blinked at her honest words. Is this real? She wondered. She re-holstered her pistol and walked towards Geena. She had to know if this was real. Aurea had to know if the guilt she felt was justified. The other woman stood still as Aurea touched her armored shoulder and did not twitch as she ran her other hand over the woman's bloody torso.

 

“Emperor protect me…” Aurea whispered as she looked at the blood glistening on the tips of her armored fingers. Geena was not a hallucination. She felt her neck suddenly seize up as the small murmurs of guilt within her began to scream.

 

“We did not have time to bury you, Sister Geena.” Her voice was hoarse and quiet. “We could not waste the fuel to burn your body. Emperor save me…”

 

Geena was motionless at her words. “If you will talk to me each day Sister, we shall both clean our souls.”

 

Aurea looked at the blood on her gloves and nodded stiffly. Prayers echoed in her mind and she felt her self shudder. She did not have a choice it seemed. And even if she could have denied the offer she would not have. The guilt now grasped at her fiercely and she would speak to Sister Geena again.

 

As if sensing Aurea's thought's Geena had remained silent and motionless. She suddenly took a step forward and a single hand laid reassuringly on Aurea's arm. “It is time for you to wake up Sister.” Geena said gently. “I will be here no matter what happens.”

 

The mist rose and the last thing Aurea saw was the swirling eddies of fog as it covered her. The last feeling she noticed was the wetness of tears on her cheeks.

 

-

 

The rumble of the tank awoke her, her eyes snapping open. She saw Dianna still cleaning her heavy bolter. Lea and Kierra both lay against the wall in sleep. Dianna did not look up from her cleaning as her body swayed with the vehicle's motions.

 

“You had a nightmare, Sister.”

 

Aurea shivered within her armor as she remembered the dream in extreme detail. She nodded stiffly. “Yes, it was.”

 

Dianna looked up then, her dark eyes searching. “You continued to utter Sister Geena's name in your sleep.”

 

Why did you let me die? She shivered once more and nodded again. “How far away are we from Head Quarters?”

 

Dianna had gone back to cleaning. “I do not know.”

 

Once more Aurea leaned back. Dianna had never been the greatest conversationalist. She lost her self in the rumble of the tank and her thoughts focused on the dream. The guilt still screamed at her, yet this was not what bothered Sister Aurea. What did bother her was that there was a dead woman who spoke in her head. She was used to the night terrors and waking up screaming from nightmares, every Sister did. But the fact that she had a full conversation with Geena was new. She murmured a prayer and let her eyes close once more.

 

She was nervous to sleep. What if she was taken back to the mist filled dream and had to speak with Geena once more? She did not know if her tired mind could take another such meeting. So she tried to stay awake. She silently repeated sermons, but her eyes quickly began to drift shut once more.

 

She fought the tiredness but it was inevitable. The lull of the tank's hum and the light sound of Dianna cleaning only furthered her drowsiness. Her eyes shut and her body relaxed suddenly. I will be here no matter what happens. Geena's voice whispered and a dark slumber took Sister Aurea.

 

Outside of the Rhino the wind blew smoke from farther down the front to the cratered road in no-man's-land. The Rhino did not care for the wind as its tracks marked the muddy road with its traveling. Perhaps it was the tired Battle Sisters within the tank who did not spot the mines that lay in front of the tank; or perhaps the mines were cleverly hidden. But when the front track clipped one of the explosives all within that were not sleeping within the Rhino knew what they had hit.

 

The mine gave off a loud whine and suddenly the Rhino flipped as the activation mechanism clicked and with a massive burst of flame, mud, and grime the mine sent the tank flipping side over side. Dirt and debris and large divots of earth flew with each impact. Out of a stroke of sheer luck the Rhino careened into a large artillery crater and plowed into the loose mud of the wall, completely submerging the front of the tank at an angle in the earth.

 

Sister Aurea was hanging in her seat harness limply. One moment she had been asleep with no nightmares or haunting dreams; the next thing she knew she was being thrown around violently and it was the harness that had kept her from being smashed around the insides of the tank like a rag doll.

 

With a painful jerk she unbuckled the harness and slid onto the slanted floor of the tank. Sister Lea was pinned by a large ammunition box with a tooth bared grimace. The platinum blond haired woman reached weakly for Aurea, her breaths short.

 

“Help me… help, Sister…”

 

Aurea moved to her and felt dozens of bruises forming beneath her armor. A groan came from her right and she found Dianna moving over to help as well. The dark haired woman had a sheen of sweat on her face and one of her arms hung limply at her side. Together they yanked the box off of Lea. Lea's armor was heavily dented and scarred but she smiled weakly at their stares of amazement.

 

“The Emperor does not wish my death quite yet it seems.”

 

Aurea let out a dark chuckle. Lea should have been crushed to death. How the woman was still breathing, much less her humor, was in itself a miracle. They found Kierra unconscious with blood dribbling down her forehead.

 

The gently untangled the woman and laid her down. She was hurt, but would most likely survive. Lea and Dianna went to the cockpit to see if anyone was alive. Aurea grabbed her bolter and forced open the rear hatch. What in the Emperor's name did we hit? She wondered as she stepped out into the smoky atmosphere outside the ruined tank.

 

She saw the trench of shattered earth where the Rhino and crashed and skidded and embedded in the earth. She did not know how any of them had survived. It was clearly a mine's work. They should have been incinerated or the tank crushed. It spoke volumes for the hardiness of the vehicle though.

 

Dianna and Lea exited the Rhino with Kierra with them. Sister Superior Joan followed, her usually beautiful face bloodied from glass cuts. They all saw the damage and as one each Sister thanked the Emperor for his mercy. Joan dropped an ammunition box on the ground with a heavy thud.

 

“Load up on ammunition.”

 

Lea spat. “Sister Superior we don't even know where we are.”

 

Joan looked at her irritably. “We should have been in head quarters right now.” She growled as she picked up a bolt pistol clip and loaded her weapon. “The Heretics who escaped us must have laid the mines. We need to find a radio and reach Command. I want to know why the front is not where it should have been.”

 

They revived Kierra, who immediately retrieved her bolter with an angry vengeful growl. She clearly did not appreciate the tactics or results of the Traitor's mines. She exited the ruined Rhino with the spare water and rations that were not destroyed in the crash.

 

Aurea restocked her ammunition and checked her blade and pistol. She had all her gear and was prepared. None mentioned the final and second driver, Sister who had been in the cockpit. Aurea assumed she was dead but did not dwell on the subject, she already had one dead woman in her head. She turned to Dianna struggling with her heavy bolter as Lea numbly began checking her meltagun and retrieved extra ammunition.

 

Aurea helped Dianna and motioned to her arm. “What is wrong with it? Do we need to make a brace Sister?”

 

Dianna grimaced in pain. “I believe it is disconnected.”

 

Joan checked her pistol once more and in a clear and sharp voice spoke to her squad. “We need to move out. There is a small settlement that held an Imperial Guard command close to here.” She looked around her voice still sharp. “I don't need to tell you what we will do if we find the Heretics who planted those mines.”

 

Aurea turned to Dianna and gently took the woman's arm. “This going to be painful Sister, be strong.” Dianna let out a small moan as Aurea gripped it suddenly. With a savage jerk and twist the arm popped back into the socket with a sickening pop. Dianna let out a scream and leaned heavily into Aurea. With out hesitating Aurea hugged the other woman and stroked her hair as she stared into the waste that was no-man's-land. “Try to move your arm, we must leave.”

 

Dianna stood back shaking and nodded as her arm rotated painfully. She turned to Aurea. “Thank you Sister…”

 

Aurea smiled tiredly and brought her bolter's strap over her shoulder and turned back to Joan. “Sister Superior we are all ready.”

 

Joan nodded gravely and motioned to her squad. “Very good, Sister Aurea. Squad forward!”

 

The remainder of the squad spread out into a thin line and proceeded forward. Lea begun to whisper a prayer to herself and Kierra almost seemed to be glaring at the land, her eyes searching for a heretic to vent her anger upon. When they found the road they could see through the burnt stumps of trees and ruined remains of vehicles a bullet riddled sign several hundred yards off.

 

The sounds of their armored feet on the grit covered road was the only sound aside from the slight moaning of the wind. They passed dozens of bodies obscured by mud or were too burned to decipher whether they were Imperial or otherwise. Lea was the first to speak.

 

“What in the Emperor's name happened?”

 

Joan did not stop her pace. “The Imperial Guard Captain had mentioned an attack. But I did not believe it could have gotten this far… Sisters! Stay alert. If any of the scum are here then we don't need an ambush.”

 

They continued their steady march as the smoke dissipated for a moment and the day's fading light began to cast shadows on the war torn land. Sunrays shone to ruined earth through the teeth of barbwire. Head quarters was gone. All that remained were the dead. Sure enough when the sun finally revealed some of the dead the Sisters could see both heretics and loyal Guardsmen laying in the sodden earth.

 

They finally reached the sign after having to work their way through the maze of craters that had torn apart the road itself. They had found several vox-casters but none worked. The even scanned for wounded as they walked. But all the corpses were several days old.

 

Aurea glanced at the corpses but did not stare long. It certainly was not the dead men before her now that she saw. Instead she saw Sister Geena standing over the fallen staring at the dead through the black eyes of her helmet. She was still as bloody and torn up as before. Aurea began to wonder if she was going mad.

 

“Halt!”

 

Aurea snapped her bolter to the sound of the voice and crouched behind the blackened husk of a Leman Russ battle tank. Dianna following her slid unceremoniously into a small crater next to Aurea and aimed her weapon. Kierra, Lea, and Joan dodged behind a large mound of dirt and bodies.

 

“Are you a traitor or a loyalist?” Joan yelled.

 

There was a pause. “Come out with your hands up and your weapons at your sides and you'll find out.”

 

Dianna muttered a curse at the mud staining her armor and gun. Aurea waited with out a sound. If it was the minions of Chaos they would die fighting, if they were loyalists perhaps they could find out just what happened to the front line.

 

Joan appeared to be thinking it over. “We are Sisters of Battle, faithful servants and daughters to the Emperor of Humankind.”

 

“Meet us at the sign!”

 

Joan nodded and the squad followed her. She murmured to them as they walked cautiously down the street. “Keep your fingers on the triggers Sisters.”

 

They found ten Guardsmen waiting for them below the sign. They all wore flak armor over their dark grey fatigues and grasped lasguns in dirt stained hands, none looked as if they had any sleep in the past two days as well.

 

Their Sergeant stepped forward and saluted Sister Joan. “Ma'am.”

 

She returned the salute with a cold nod. “Sergeant, can you not tell the difference between the traitors and the Sisters of Battle?”

 

He coughed embarrassedly. “It's been an odd day…”

 

Joan stared at the man with her most piercing gaze. Had Aurea received such a look that would have gifted hours, if not days, of penance work for her. “My squad is exhausted Captain. We need some where to rest, what happened to the front.”

 

The Sergeant motioned to Joan. “We are heading back to base for the night as it is, just come with us. You'll be safe here”

 

Lea walked up next to Aurea and whispered to her as Joan cautiously followed the Guardsmen. “He says he's had an odd day! He wasn't flipped in a tank as if a child was playing kick ball with you!”

 

Aurea stifled a laugh and grunted at her Sister's sarcastic words. Frankly, Lea had no idea just how odd the day had been. She saw Geena laying in the mud once more. She shook her head slightly to ward away the memory and fell inline next to a Guardsman. He glanced at her, his hazel eyes tired as both heard the sounds of gunfire in the distance. She hardly glanced at him but from what she saw he was handsome by her standards, if filthy and looked tense enough to shoot anything that moved. She saw Geena again as they marched on the muddy road. I wonder if Geena ever knew the touch of a man? She wondered idly through her fatigue and the pain of her bruises.

 

Aurea herself had never known the touch of a man. It was not allowed by the rules of the Ordo Herecticus. Her sleepy mind continued to ponder over the odd subject. I'll have to ask her. She almost stopped walking when she realized what she had thought. It was ridiculous for her to think that way, perhaps confession would help ease her mind.

 

Lost in her thoughts she hardly caught one of the troopers ahead of her mutter to himself. “I can't fucking wait to be back home.” To another soldier.

 

She felt her lips purse in disapproval of his language. Lea called out. “And just where is home Guardsman? Shouldn't the battlefield fighting in His name be enough for you?” Dianna glanced at Sister Lea with disapproval and Joan groaned from the front. If any of the squad was the most unorthodox and the most often punished for her antics it was certainly Sister Lea.

 

The soldier blinked in surprise at her words. “Didn't you read the sign, ah… Sister?”

 

Lea shook her head. Aurea sighed and the man next to her spoke out clearly. “It's Port Sanctuary.” Aurea and Lea looked at him. He had not stopped his easy, if tired, walk and neither Sister knew if he was just mumbling or if he was responding to the question.

 

The Sergeant barked. “Shut your noise hole Private Tordaes! We don't want the enemy deciding to shut it for you just because you can't shut your damned mouth!”

 

The man next Aurea quieted himself but spat on the corpse of a dead heretic in response to the Sergeant's words. She stared at him. He caught her disapproval and shrugged and muttered. “Sorry, Sister.”

 

The sounds of gunfire in the distance continued as they walked. It was twilight by the time the group of soldiers came to a shattered road and saw the outlines of a large town with a large factory sitting between two rivers. Flickering lights could be seen all over the town, whether it was fire or generated light there was certainly many soldiers within the town. An explosion in the north lit up several gothic Imperial buildings in its bright orange glow.

 

The Sergeant stopped and spoke out loud. “Welcome Sisters, to home away from home and the latest area on the front to accommodate both the Traitor scum and the Imperial forces. Welcome, to Port Sanctuary.”

 

Sister Lea sniffed from her position next to Aurea. “Doesn't look like much of a sanctuary.”

 

Aurea continued her tired march and heard Geena whisper. Why did you let me die? She looked into the war torn streets of Port Sanctuary and knew that they would find some where to sleep down there. In the back of her mind she prayed to the Emperor. But mainly her thoughts were on the corpse of her fallen Sister five miles away. They passed a flaming crater and with guilt gripping her tired insides and she saw Sister Geena standing by the flames. The light reflected off of the rivets of her bloody breast plate and wreathed half of her helmet in shadow. Sister Geena stared at her even though the men all marched past her. Why did you let me die?

 

-

 

End notes-

 

And chapter one is done. Though knowing me, I'll go back through and edit it again and again. The title to chapter one, Vox vocis of Cado, translates to the Voices of the Fallen. I'll start preparing Chapter two, though I am not sure as to where the story is headed because this was originally written to be a one shot that turned into a continuation. If you have any ideas feel free to PM my account. This was edited perhaps twice, both times when I was relatively inebriated, so if there is anything wrong I will try and clean it up in the future. Also before you rant about how terrible the story is remember this is not an official bit of fiction. It is fanfiction for a reason. Aside from that, read and enjoy.

 

-J.