Justice is Blind
The bridge of The Emperor’s Justice was tense, a hum of activity reverberating through the air. Red-lit runes blinked steadily across cogitator panels, and servitors moved with precise efficiency between stations. Captain Liora Narek, tall and stern, stood at the command dais, her dark eyes fixed on the view beyond the reinforced windows. She had seen many battlefields, many strange and terrible things in her service to the Imperium, but nothing quite like this. This mission, with the Inquisitor at her side, had a foreboding weight to it.
"Captain, we're approaching the Aetheris Orbital Defence Emplacement," said her Senior Bridge Officer, Verius, his voice impassive, almost mechanical beneath his helm. "We are within range for descent manoeuvres."
"Hold," Narek commanded, her voice cold and controlled. “We’ve seen nothing from the surface, and the silence is suspicious.”
Beside her, Inquisitor Rynhart, cloaked and hooded within his long coat, gazed at the viewport, his bionic eye whirring softly as it scanned the data on his agametic display. His organic eye, cold and calculating, narrowed in thought.
“This quiet is unnatural,” Rynhart remarked, his tone dark with suspicion. “Where are the orbital signals? Aetheris is one of the most fortified emplacements in this sector. Even if the system had fallen from the Emperor’s light, there should be some who remain to challenge us.”
“A good question,” Narek said, folding her arms as her mind worked through possibilities. “Something is wrong. I can feel it.”
“If it were right Captain, then we would not be here.”
The hum of the bridge shifted as a new signal came in. “Captain, the 401st Barracks ground sensors have detected us. They are locking onto our descent vector,” an officer reported. His voice wavered slightly, nervous under the strange circumstances.
“Raise them immediately. Identify our ship and mission. Use my authority and the Inquisitor’s credentials. Order them to stand down and disengage,” Narek said, her tone as unyielding as the steel she wore into battle.
“Transmitting now, Captain,” the officer responded, his fingers dancing over the communication panel. "No response… Repeating the hail… Still nothing."
Captain Narek frowned, a cold chill creeping down her spine. Silence in such a fortified sector was not just unusual—it was dangerous.
"Captain!" the tactical officer’s voice cut through the air. "The Aetheris Orbital Defence Emplacement is powering up! They're targeting us!"
The bridge fell silent for the briefest moment, as though the crew collectively held its breath.
Narek's jaw clenched. “Shields up! All hands, battle stations!”
Before anyone could act further, the tactical officer's console flickered, the defence targeting system’s feed cutting out as quickly as it had come online. Confusion swept the bridge.
“The orbital emplacement has gone dark!” the officer exclaimed. “Targeting systems are offline. It's... just gone.”
Narek exchanged a quick glance with Inquisitor Rynhart, her stern expression mirroring his grim suspicion.
“This isn’t a malfunction,” Rynhart said softly, his voice dark and dangerous. “Someone, or something, disrupted that defence array.”
“Agreed,” Narek said. “But that doesn’t explain why the 401st Barracks isn’t responding.” She turned to her vox officer. “Keep hailing them. They will answer.” But before any response could come, the bridge rocked violently. Explosions echoed from somewhere deep within the ship, and alarms blared across the room.
“Captain, the barracks have fired on us!” shouted the tactical officer. “Automated defence systems—ground-based turrets and missile silos—are engaging!”
The Emperor’s Justice shook under the impact, its shields straining under the sudden barrage. Narek gripped the edge of her command dais, steadying herself as another salvo slammed into the ship’s starboard side.
“They’ve gone mad,” Narek hissed. “We are their allies!”
“Or worse, they’ve been compromised,” Rynhart said, his voice low. “Either way, we can’t stay in their crosshairs.”
“Evasive manoeuvres!” Narek ordered. “Get us out of their firing range!”
The ship lurched again, throwing crew members off balance as more impacts struck the hull. The smell of burning metal filled the air as warning klaxons wailed louder. Servitors scrambled to manage the increasing damage reports flooding in from across the ship.
“Captain, shields are failing! Hull breaches reported on Decks 4 and 7!” a junior officer shouted, panic rising in his voice.
“Compensate! Re-route power to thrusters!” Narek snapped, her calm authority never wavering despite the chaos. “We need to stabilize our descent.” Another explosion rocked the ship. This time, the bridge lights flickered, then dimmed as backup systems engaged. A console nearby erupted in sparks as a missile found its mark on the lower hull. She glanced at the Inquisitor, intending to order him to secure himself. Her words died on her lips as she observed the white witchlight that danced within his organic eye. His lips moved soundlessly and she hurriedly tore her gaze away with a shudder. Psykers were bad news, Inquisitor or not.
"Thruster control is damaged, Captain!" the Quartermaster cried out, fighting to keep his hands steady on the flight controls. “We’ve lost stabilization—drifting off course!”
Narek’s heart sank, though her face betrayed nothing but icy determination. She turned back to Rynhart, who had maintained his calm, though his bionic eye whirred rapidly, processing data as fast as it came in. The psychic glow had gone from his remaining eye. Had she imagined it?
“We don’t have a choice,” Narek said, her voice tight. “We’re going to have to make an emergency landing.”
“Get us down alive, Captain. That is your priority. This ship and those aboard it are secondary to my mission.”
Narek nodded curtly and turned back to her crew. She had expected nothing less from the Inquisitor. “Prepare for emergency descent. All hands, brace for impact!”
More alarms blared as the ship dipped violently, falling toward the planet’s surface with increasing speed. The viewport in front of her filled with the rapidly approaching ground, and her heart raced despite her controlled facade.
“Captain, we’ve lost primary thruster control entirely!” the navigator called out. “There’s no way to pull us out of this dive!”
“Redirect power to the remaining thrusters,” Narek ordered. “Use everything we have left to slow us down. It’s either that or we’re all dead.”
The vessel shook again as more rounds from the 401st Barracks slammed into the hull, this time without shields to mitigate the damage. Consoles sparked and smoked, and the lights flickered once more.
"We can’t take another hit!" someone shouted from across the bridge.
“We’re going down hard!” a junior officer cried out, gripping the edge of his console as the ship plummeted faster.
Narek’s voice rang out over the intercom, calm but urgent. "All hands, prepare for crash landing! Brace! Brace! Brace!"
The final moments of the descent were a blur of chaos. The world spun outside the viewport as the ship’s thrusters failed to correct the dive. The Emperor’s Justice hurtled toward the ground, smoke and fire trailing from its battered hull. Narek stood tall, her hands gripping the command dais as the deck shuddered beneath her feet. “For the Emperor,” she whispered, steeling herself for the inevitable.
The planet’s surface loomed larger and larger. In those final seconds, Captain Liora Narek braced herself for impact, her crew doing the same as their mighty ship, The Emperor’s Justice, plummeted toward its destiny.
***
The chamber was dim, lit only by the faint, flickering glow of ancient cogitators and data-scrolls that lined the walls. The air was thick with the scent of old incense, metal, and something darker, more arcane. At the centre of the room, shrouded in shadows, stood Zagreus, leader of the Dark Eye. His eyes gleamed in the gloom as he surveyed the array of flickering screens before him, the data streaming across them a culmination of their mission to the Bridge of Martyrs.
“The Emperor’s Justice has fallen,” he said, his voice a low, metallic growl that echoed through the chamber. He wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular—his words were more a confirmation to himself. Victory had been theirs on the Bridge, and now the fruits of that conquest were bearing out.
Around him, his legionaries, the other members of the Dark Eye, stood silently. Daryn, their heavy gunner, his hulking form framed by the shadows, loomed near one of the consoles, his Reaper Chain Cannon slung over his shoulder. The others—Aethor, Khall, and the rest—waited, their patience honed from countless operations that demanded it. They knew Zagreus wouldn’t speak unless what he had to say mattered.
Zagreus tapped the control panel with a finger, the sharp sound cutting through the oppressive silence. Data scrolled faster, lines of coordinates and sensor logs, salvaged from the wreckage of the Bridge of Martyrs, pieced together to reveal a singular truth. The crash site had been located. The Emperor’s Justice, broken and smouldering, lay waiting in the distance. But exactly where—that was known only to them.
“It survived the barrage,” Aethor said, breaking the silence with his rasping voice, more statement than question.
“Yes,” Zagreus answered, not turning to face him. His focus was on the data before him. “But not unscathed. The barracks' defences forced it down hard. The vessel’s crippled remains are… here.” His armoured finger traced a path across the holo-map projected in front of them, a red pin dropping in a distant, unnamed sector.
Khall stepped forward, his interest piqued. “Does the Inquisition know we have this information?”
Zagreus’s lips curled into a cold, humourless smile. “No. And they never will. This is our secret.”
The location of The Emperor’s Justice was more than just a downed ship to them. It was a relic, a treasure trove of forbidden knowledge and advanced technology that even the most fanatical agents of the Imperium would kill to protect. But for the Dark Eye, it was the key to something far greater, something that even they had yet to fully comprehend.
“We move at dawn,” Zagreus ordered, his voice brooking no dissent. “We’ll recover what we need before anyone else can reach it. The wreckage holds power—power the Imperium will try to keep hidden. But it is power we will take.”
Daryn grunted in agreement, the others nodding in silent understanding. As the Dark Eye prepared to move, Zagreus cast one last glance at the coordinates. The exact crash site lay deep within a place few dared to tread, a location hidden from all others. For now, its mystery was their advantage.
“The Emperor’s Justice may have fallen,” Zagreus murmured, turning from the screens, “but what it carries will be ours.”
With that, the chamber darkened, and the Dark Eye vanished into the shadows, their path set. The location of the wreck remained a secret—for now. But soon, they would claim what the galaxy itself had tried to bury. Far above them Vakhtor opened his eyes and mused about what he had learned. Zagreus was growing bold. For now, his ambition served him. For now.
"Captain, we're approaching the Aetheris Orbital Defence Emplacement," said her Senior Bridge Officer, Verius, his voice impassive, almost mechanical beneath his helm. "We are within range for descent manoeuvres."
"Hold," Narek commanded, her voice cold and controlled. “We’ve seen nothing from the surface, and the silence is suspicious.”
Beside her, Inquisitor Rynhart, cloaked and hooded within his long coat, gazed at the viewport, his bionic eye whirring softly as it scanned the data on his agametic display. His organic eye, cold and calculating, narrowed in thought.
“This quiet is unnatural,” Rynhart remarked, his tone dark with suspicion. “Where are the orbital signals? Aetheris is one of the most fortified emplacements in this sector. Even if the system had fallen from the Emperor’s light, there should be some who remain to challenge us.”
“A good question,” Narek said, folding her arms as her mind worked through possibilities. “Something is wrong. I can feel it.”
“If it were right Captain, then we would not be here.”
The hum of the bridge shifted as a new signal came in. “Captain, the 401st Barracks ground sensors have detected us. They are locking onto our descent vector,” an officer reported. His voice wavered slightly, nervous under the strange circumstances.
“Raise them immediately. Identify our ship and mission. Use my authority and the Inquisitor’s credentials. Order them to stand down and disengage,” Narek said, her tone as unyielding as the steel she wore into battle.
“Transmitting now, Captain,” the officer responded, his fingers dancing over the communication panel. "No response… Repeating the hail… Still nothing."
Captain Narek frowned, a cold chill creeping down her spine. Silence in such a fortified sector was not just unusual—it was dangerous.
"Captain!" the tactical officer’s voice cut through the air. "The Aetheris Orbital Defence Emplacement is powering up! They're targeting us!"
The bridge fell silent for the briefest moment, as though the crew collectively held its breath.
Narek's jaw clenched. “Shields up! All hands, battle stations!”
Before anyone could act further, the tactical officer's console flickered, the defence targeting system’s feed cutting out as quickly as it had come online. Confusion swept the bridge.
“The orbital emplacement has gone dark!” the officer exclaimed. “Targeting systems are offline. It's... just gone.”
Narek exchanged a quick glance with Inquisitor Rynhart, her stern expression mirroring his grim suspicion.
“This isn’t a malfunction,” Rynhart said softly, his voice dark and dangerous. “Someone, or something, disrupted that defence array.”
“Agreed,” Narek said. “But that doesn’t explain why the 401st Barracks isn’t responding.” She turned to her vox officer. “Keep hailing them. They will answer.” But before any response could come, the bridge rocked violently. Explosions echoed from somewhere deep within the ship, and alarms blared across the room.
“Captain, the barracks have fired on us!” shouted the tactical officer. “Automated defence systems—ground-based turrets and missile silos—are engaging!”
The Emperor’s Justice shook under the impact, its shields straining under the sudden barrage. Narek gripped the edge of her command dais, steadying herself as another salvo slammed into the ship’s starboard side.
“They’ve gone mad,” Narek hissed. “We are their allies!”
“Or worse, they’ve been compromised,” Rynhart said, his voice low. “Either way, we can’t stay in their crosshairs.”
“Evasive manoeuvres!” Narek ordered. “Get us out of their firing range!”
The ship lurched again, throwing crew members off balance as more impacts struck the hull. The smell of burning metal filled the air as warning klaxons wailed louder. Servitors scrambled to manage the increasing damage reports flooding in from across the ship.
“Captain, shields are failing! Hull breaches reported on Decks 4 and 7!” a junior officer shouted, panic rising in his voice.
“Compensate! Re-route power to thrusters!” Narek snapped, her calm authority never wavering despite the chaos. “We need to stabilize our descent.” Another explosion rocked the ship. This time, the bridge lights flickered, then dimmed as backup systems engaged. A console nearby erupted in sparks as a missile found its mark on the lower hull. She glanced at the Inquisitor, intending to order him to secure himself. Her words died on her lips as she observed the white witchlight that danced within his organic eye. His lips moved soundlessly and she hurriedly tore her gaze away with a shudder. Psykers were bad news, Inquisitor or not.
"Thruster control is damaged, Captain!" the Quartermaster cried out, fighting to keep his hands steady on the flight controls. “We’ve lost stabilization—drifting off course!”
Narek’s heart sank, though her face betrayed nothing but icy determination. She turned back to Rynhart, who had maintained his calm, though his bionic eye whirred rapidly, processing data as fast as it came in. The psychic glow had gone from his remaining eye. Had she imagined it?
“We don’t have a choice,” Narek said, her voice tight. “We’re going to have to make an emergency landing.”
“Get us down alive, Captain. That is your priority. This ship and those aboard it are secondary to my mission.”
Narek nodded curtly and turned back to her crew. She had expected nothing less from the Inquisitor. “Prepare for emergency descent. All hands, brace for impact!”
More alarms blared as the ship dipped violently, falling toward the planet’s surface with increasing speed. The viewport in front of her filled with the rapidly approaching ground, and her heart raced despite her controlled facade.
“Captain, we’ve lost primary thruster control entirely!” the navigator called out. “There’s no way to pull us out of this dive!”
“Redirect power to the remaining thrusters,” Narek ordered. “Use everything we have left to slow us down. It’s either that or we’re all dead.”
The vessel shook again as more rounds from the 401st Barracks slammed into the hull, this time without shields to mitigate the damage. Consoles sparked and smoked, and the lights flickered once more.
"We can’t take another hit!" someone shouted from across the bridge.
“We’re going down hard!” a junior officer cried out, gripping the edge of his console as the ship plummeted faster.
Narek’s voice rang out over the intercom, calm but urgent. "All hands, prepare for crash landing! Brace! Brace! Brace!"
The final moments of the descent were a blur of chaos. The world spun outside the viewport as the ship’s thrusters failed to correct the dive. The Emperor’s Justice hurtled toward the ground, smoke and fire trailing from its battered hull. Narek stood tall, her hands gripping the command dais as the deck shuddered beneath her feet. “For the Emperor,” she whispered, steeling herself for the inevitable.
The planet’s surface loomed larger and larger. In those final seconds, Captain Liora Narek braced herself for impact, her crew doing the same as their mighty ship, The Emperor’s Justice, plummeted toward its destiny.
***
The chamber was dim, lit only by the faint, flickering glow of ancient cogitators and data-scrolls that lined the walls. The air was thick with the scent of old incense, metal, and something darker, more arcane. At the centre of the room, shrouded in shadows, stood Zagreus, leader of the Dark Eye. His eyes gleamed in the gloom as he surveyed the array of flickering screens before him, the data streaming across them a culmination of their mission to the Bridge of Martyrs.
“The Emperor’s Justice has fallen,” he said, his voice a low, metallic growl that echoed through the chamber. He wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular—his words were more a confirmation to himself. Victory had been theirs on the Bridge, and now the fruits of that conquest were bearing out.
Around him, his legionaries, the other members of the Dark Eye, stood silently. Daryn, their heavy gunner, his hulking form framed by the shadows, loomed near one of the consoles, his Reaper Chain Cannon slung over his shoulder. The others—Aethor, Khall, and the rest—waited, their patience honed from countless operations that demanded it. They knew Zagreus wouldn’t speak unless what he had to say mattered.
Zagreus tapped the control panel with a finger, the sharp sound cutting through the oppressive silence. Data scrolled faster, lines of coordinates and sensor logs, salvaged from the wreckage of the Bridge of Martyrs, pieced together to reveal a singular truth. The crash site had been located. The Emperor’s Justice, broken and smouldering, lay waiting in the distance. But exactly where—that was known only to them.
“It survived the barrage,” Aethor said, breaking the silence with his rasping voice, more statement than question.
“Yes,” Zagreus answered, not turning to face him. His focus was on the data before him. “But not unscathed. The barracks' defences forced it down hard. The vessel’s crippled remains are… here.” His armoured finger traced a path across the holo-map projected in front of them, a red pin dropping in a distant, unnamed sector.
Khall stepped forward, his interest piqued. “Does the Inquisition know we have this information?”
Zagreus’s lips curled into a cold, humourless smile. “No. And they never will. This is our secret.”
The location of The Emperor’s Justice was more than just a downed ship to them. It was a relic, a treasure trove of forbidden knowledge and advanced technology that even the most fanatical agents of the Imperium would kill to protect. But for the Dark Eye, it was the key to something far greater, something that even they had yet to fully comprehend.
“We move at dawn,” Zagreus ordered, his voice brooking no dissent. “We’ll recover what we need before anyone else can reach it. The wreckage holds power—power the Imperium will try to keep hidden. But it is power we will take.”
Daryn grunted in agreement, the others nodding in silent understanding. As the Dark Eye prepared to move, Zagreus cast one last glance at the coordinates. The exact crash site lay deep within a place few dared to tread, a location hidden from all others. For now, its mystery was their advantage.
“The Emperor’s Justice may have fallen,” Zagreus murmured, turning from the screens, “but what it carries will be ours.”
With that, the chamber darkened, and the Dark Eye vanished into the shadows, their path set. The location of the wreck remained a secret—for now. But soon, they would claim what the galaxy itself had tried to bury. Far above them Vakhtor opened his eyes and mused about what he had learned. Zagreus was growing bold. For now, his ambition served him. For now.
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