In The World Of Sword And Magic As Space Marine - Chapter 150: Recall

“Childish? The people of your world named you Great One. The people of mine called me Slave. Which one of us landed on a paradise of civilisation to be raised by a foster father, Roboute? Which one was given armies to lead after training in the halls of the Macraggian high-riders? Which one of us inherited a strong, cultured kingdom? And which one of us had to rise up against a kingdom with nothing but a horde of starving slaves? Which one of us was a child enslaved on a world of monsters, with his brain cut up by carving knives? Listen to your blue-clad wretches yelling of courage and honour, courage and honour, courage and honour. Do you even know the meaning of those words? Courage is fighting the kingdom that enslaves you, no matter that their armies overshadow yours by ten thousand to one. You know nothing of courage. Honour is resisting a tyrant when all others suckle and grow fat on the hypocrisy he feeds them. You know nothing of honour.” By Angron Thal’kyr

———–

Three Months Later,

The night wind from the distant ocean carried a chilled wind into the port city with a massive population of over ten thousand. The name of the port city isn’t important but its critical role in the city’s economy and trade contributes massively. In some rare cases, the royal family or even the king himself would visit the city to partake in the city’s rich resources from food to luxury stay with a golden sunset view.

The port city is the crown jewel and its pride to its residents as well as sailors who regularly stop by to rest and set out to find riches beyond the ocean. Still, with a massive city and its population, the problems tend to rise occasionally. Recently, a new problem rose from the shadows and became a major issue.

From the shadows of the deep sewage tunnels to the dark alley in the port, people begin to go missing. It started with a few unwanted individuals such as cripples, homeless, and end-of-the-world radicals but eventually, it became noticeable as more and more started to go missing.

The city law enforcers took steps to patrol the night but it was a fruitless effort as even a few of them went missing or were found dead with limbs gone as if it was torn off. Afterwards, the city outsources the job to the adventurers through the quests. With years of experience from veterans to upcoming rookies, the port city might be saved by them. It was pointless in the end as more dead bodies were found and no one had an answer to who or what is doing this to the citizens of the famous port city.

The city was in a blink of collapsing as business started to close and merchants avoided trading due to fear and negative signs that could only be an omen. It was during this dark time when a small group of women armed with black armour and weapons entered the city with stern looks as if they were on a mission of great deal.

At first, the four women made their first appearance through the city gate where they identified their identity with an official government seal. Decorated with gold, each identity tag was engraved with a golden two headed eagle and emblem of lioness with holy halo on its head.

At first the gate guards were hesitant at first but after finding out that it was previously accepted by the other cities before them, the warrior women were able to enter the city with no problem.

The first place the warrior women visited was local bars and inns. From an outsider’s view, it seems they are picky with establishment and local food. Truth is completely different as they were asking questions related to recent disappearances and integrating local gangs for additional intelligence that can be only found from criminal networks.

It is an effective intelligence gathering but at the same time it was foolish as it attracted the wrong type of people including an underground crime lord and even corrupt government officials. For a regular folks, this would have been unwanted encounters but for the four ladies with black armour, it was exactly what they were searching for.

One quiet night where no one would venture out into darkness, the streets are soaked with blood as warrior women massacre the leader of the city underworld and its goons. In a matter of a few minutes, no criminal survived their overdue punishment and from their death, a new lead was discovered.

That same night, government officials who are in charge of port security died in the hands of the unknown group and next night, the port master who was taking bribes and forging the trade documents was killed with a similar weapon.

Soon, news of this event spread like a fire as more and more people decided to leave the city once they called home. It was at this time when the truth of mysterious disappearance and death from earlier came to light, literally as main street exploded in the middle of an afternoon with everyone witnessing the event that is about to fold.

With chaos and destruction, many of the locals panicked and hid behind anything they could find while looking towards the source of the explosion. The source of the explosion came from the sewage tunnel and right away, coming out from the collapsed sewage tunnel, four women in black armour came out while firing a loud crossbow-like weapon at the tunnel below them.

The identity of their enemy immediately showed itself as a swarm of human size rats emerged from the tunnel. Armed with rusty swords and bucklers, a massive number of Ratmen begin to surface from the city underground.

Many of the Ratmen died from the bolter rounds as Sisters of Battle continue to fire without any mercy. Using tactical weapon cycling, pairs of the Sisters reload their bolters while other pairs continue to fire their newly loaded weapons. At first it seems they seem to hold back the swarm of Ratmen but eventually Sisters had to change their weapons as they ran out of ammunition and grenades.

Switching to a power sword and chainswords, four Sisters form two separate groups to kill as many as they can. Meanwhile, Ratmen begin to charge the moment they find a chance to make their counter attack. With no hesitation, Ratmen and four Sisters clashed with blood and guts everywhere.

Meanwhile, citizens of the port city ran in all directions as quiet day activities turned into battlefields. Unfortunately some didn’t make it far as they could due to a few Ratmen who decided to attack civilians instead of Sisters.

As battle continued, Ratmen in the rear thought their turn would never come as their massive number might have overwhelmed the enemy who were small in number. It turns out they were wrong as suddenly a bright light shines in the middle of the battlefield and the current of battle suddenly changes.

A wave of heat can be felt before a second later a massive fire swoops the entire swarm of Ratmen without a warning. To everyone’s surprise, a pair of Sisters switch their melee weapons for a new reward they received and decide to utilise it to end the conflict.

Equipped with flamers, two Sisters of Battle step forward and take control of the battlefield at once. Meanwhile, the other two Sisters changed their melee weapon into something new and unexpected. Wielding a massive chained sword beyond standard one, two Sisters began slaughtering any remaining Ratmen with Eviscerator chain weapons.

In a matter of seconds, the tide of battle changed and Ratmen began to retreat while those who were busy with killing civilians soon faced death of their own as city guards arrived in full force to kill them. With no sign of winning this fight, Ratmen in the rear decided to make a full retreat back into the tunnel but after turning around it was a pointless gesture as they all burned into ashes.

Soon the battlefield turned into a blazing burn pit as smoke of dead bodies covered the port city above and choked the air with the smell of burning corpses. Even with a gruesome scene and death, the victory went to Sisters of Battle and soon their heroic act of eliminating the Ratmen and source of the missing citizens came to light to everyone in the city.

It turns out, Sisters’ investigation of crime underworld and corrupt government officials led them to an underground nest of Ratmen who were doing dirty work of killing a lot of people in exchange for stolen goods from the port trade. In short, it was a corruption of power hungry which led to inviting a horde of Ratmen seeking a new source of food and burrow for their number to grow.

In light of this news, the city mayor and his men made sure their officials were clean from possible corruption and replaced anyone who was compromised. Soon, the port city found its new peace as city guards and adventurers eliminate any surviving Ratmen in the tunnels and burn any new nests that could threaten the city in the future.

As for the Sisters, they left the city after ensuring that threat to the city is no more. Their mission to cleanse the evil came to an end when their field commander and senior Sister received a message from their vox box. Only used for the dire situation and most important report, the vox communicator box stays in sleep mode but one night it came to life with message directly come from Living Saint and Lord William.

The message was simple but clear to understand.

[To all servants of the Golden Throne. Return at once. It is time to go home.]

———–

Cain is currently enjoying his private time with his newborn daughter as he sings a song that he learned from Schola Progenium. The song he knew is more of a military song for the new cadets but it was all he knew and his baby daughter didn’t want to go to sleep for the whole three hours.

‘By the Emperor’s grace, please go to bed. I have a town meeting this evening.’ Cain, the hero of the Imperium and recently retired (For the second time) thought to himself and looked at the clock in his bed. It was four in the afternoon.

‘Nevermind, I have a town meeting in five hours. There goes my sleep once again.’

Lord Commissar Ciaphas Cain fell into military mode once again as his years of military service helped him build certain endurance against lack of sleep. Just as he was about to sing the same song once again for the hundred times, the baby’s cry died down and soon went to sleep.

‘Oh thank you Emperor, you actually answered my prayer for once.’

Cain placed his daughter into her crib and was about to step back towards his bed when his vox communicator next to his bed came to life and delivered the message with a vox speaker.

Cain attempted to shut the vox but it was too late as the baby’s cry could be heard. Defeated by his own daughter, Cain picks up the baby to calm her down while listening to the repeating message from the vox communicator.

After listening to the message, Cain presses the button next to the vox which minutes later summons his trusted aide Jurgen. Jurgen, who is considered most reliable but somewhat literal on orders given by Cain, entered the room with a cup and tea tray in his hand.

“Do you need a Tanna tea, sir?”

“No thank you, Jurgen. Please notify the town counsel that I have to visit Lord William this evening. Please give them my sincere apologies. This is an urgent matter.”

“Yes sir.”

Just as Jurgen was about to leave the room, Cain stopped him as he just thought of something new.

“Oh, one more thing, Jurgen.”

“Sir?”

“After you notify the council, please find me a suitable babysitter who can handle my daughter. This will be the most important order I have ever given you.” Cain said with a half serious look on his face. Just as he said, finding the babysitter for his daughter is important but Cain is certain that Jurgen can find a suitable one quickly as the baby is Cain’s daughter.

“You can trust me sir. I will find the babysitter.” Jurgen replies back to Cain but with the impression that this will be the most critical mission he has ever received in his career.

It took no less than twenty minutes when Jurgen came back to Cain’s room with a woman behind him. When Cain saw the one behind Jurgen he knew he messed up as Jurgen once again took his order seriously.

Behind Jurgen, a aged woman enters the room armed with a laspistol and a uniform with a rank of general in her collar. Cain knew immediately who she was as he had an uncanny level of recognizing faces and recalling the name. In front of him, an old comrade in arms appeared and to his surprise, much older than he could remember.

The woman’s identity is known among Cain’s Valhallan Ice Warriors as he is the one who made the regiment.

General Regina Kasteen salutes Cain with more energy than he has right now. A former commander of the Valhallan 597th greets Cain as she is here to save Cain from his own baby daughter.