Custodes...
Why.. why.. Is something from that cursed place here. In my previous life before I died, Warhammer was on the 67th millennium, after the crusade Roboute rebuild what he could but the Great Rift never closed, The dark side was slowly lost to decay and corruption.
Nearly a millennium after he came back, he restored most of the main part of the Imperium, but with how corrupt and fractured humanity was in that timeline, he was fighting a losing war, noble yes, but futile in the grand scheme of things.
I don't know much of the lore in the newer parts, as I had been busy with work at that time. Though I thank old me for religiously learning high gothic at that time for cosplay when I was younger.
Nirrti seeing my weird expression asked, ''Do you recognize the artistry or the language, from what I can see its completely foreign, the inscription is somewhat legible, something akin to latin''.
I turned and said, '' Yes, I know it, its something old and dangerous, something that does not belong in this galaxy, the same with this entire star system.'' Nirrti taking my words to heart, power her and Sylvia's shields and her weapon, ready for what ever lies beyond that door.
Going over the parts of the inscription to try and put together a legible reading. It read: Anathema Psykana. something belonging to the silent sisterhood I stated. the rest of the text is garbled and decayed, some parts was even shredded by what looks like claws, the same marks found on the statues.
This did not paint a good picture of what might be behind that door, built to withstand a nuke. Readying my laser cutter I start cutting the locking mechanism, now decayed and brittle, but still holding better than most materials found in this universe.
It is most likely made from auramite, or some similler material, which means this was a sacred place, or a dangerous entity is hiddin in here, but in we will go.
About 5 minutes of cutting later, the loud screeching of metallic components giving way, the door slowly tilted back and then fell with a massive thud, creating a huge dust cloud, but with a large amount of air rushing into the cavity, most dust got cleared out in minutes.
What seems to be an empty room, slowly revealed itself, with the humming of a powersource still thrumming with life, though intermittent, flickers ad sparks speak of how long this place has been lost, 10000 years, is my safe estimate.
with our flashlights we slowly made out way inside exploring this old place, seeing if we can find anything usable, but almost everthing seems to be corroded and decayed, nothing but piles of scrap at this moment. As I was exploring I came across a data slate still working, it took some finesse but I got it powered from my armour and started decoding it with reds help.
Decrypting it was stupidly easy, makes sense since the Imperium don't use abominable intelligence anymore. There seems to only be one file, a log of sorts about a women, a very powerful one at that.
Sister Xelax, Knight-Centura, First Blessed, Undying Scion of the Abyss, found wanting for the grievous massacre of eleven High Lords of Terra, transgressing the sacred vow of silence, consorting with Xenos filth, assailing her sisterhood, and casting off her allegiance to the sanctity of Terra. Presumptuous in alleging divine sanction from the Emperor Himself. Condemned to an endless death in battle.
Then A bunch of scrap code and another section pertaining the outcome of her sentence.
Behold the valorous Sister Xelax, poised upon the wretched remains of two fallen greater daemons, her sacred vestments half-consumed by the infernal flames, the other half sundered and lost to the abyss, her blade bound to the shattered remnant of that which was once her arm.
The next part seems to be, first hand account by the person who found this Xelax.
Her sole remaining hand, clasped firm upon an auto-bolter, a grim extension of her very being. When the Holy Light of the Emperor descended upon her, plucking her from the maw of the abyss, to engage in battle once more in His sacred name.
A lot of broken code and garbled text later, another partition was found, the last entry into this log, pertaining tot he person named Xelax.
Upon the arrival of the Knight-Commander of the Silent Sisters, she did decree that the remnants of Xelax be conveyed unto a neighboring sphere, and therein enshrined in stasis, until such a time as her valor may be summoned forth or her grievous wounds mended.
Moving most of the legible data to my gauntlet, I her Nirrti calling from deeper into the ruins. While I was fiddling with the data slate she and Sylvia kept exploring, encountering nothing but dust, as I arrived, I saw her fiddling with a console, of what appears to be a large stasis chamber.
With a bit of work I managed to cut free the chamber, I had decided to just haul the entire thing back home, with the current decay in life support it would still last a week before, what appears to be Xelax would be in danger of death.
With my system countdown coming to an end I have a very bad feeling, that this find was just to weird, almost like it was planned by some higher being, perhaps one of the entities found this star and planets in the void and decided to displace them here. Remembering my time in the void, sent shivers across my body almost like being cold.
Time move different there, and I don't know how long I was floating there, but it changed something inside me, the me now is not the same as the me from before, almost like my previous self is not mere memories of days past.
Shaking the useless thoughts from my mind I moved the chamber onto the Solitude and told Red to take us home. I was chatting with Nirrti and Sylvia for a bit and letting them know, That I'll be going on a journey to explore and discover new things, and old things.
Sylvia seems to have found her calling with the expedition of ours, as she has been bouncing with energy, exploring everything we collected. She asked to come with, but I told her once she has grown to adult size and passes all the active defense courses she can join.
The rest of the journey was peaceful, with no problems occurring with the chamber, we arrived home, ready to inspect our gains, and see if we can open this pod, Nirrti has also read my translated log, and thinks it is definitely worth it to open this, even if the occupant is dead the DNA, we could salvage would be worth it.
I also got in touch with one of the mining expedition fleets to go and strip the entire planet and ruins for all the materials usable, the warp taint seems to have dissipated and there is no danger, so I felt fine leaving it to them.
My people have been almost zealously , been working for me, after the T-virus got to work and I removed their dependence on Goa'uld larvae and just improving every aspect of life, they have been working 10-12 hour shifts with 0 complaint, and the dissidents and being silenced by the people themselves, almost religiously.
I had a good chuckle went eh reports where brought to me, so I decided as long as nothing bigger happens I'll let it be. This also seems to have silenced the trouble makers, because their own friends would make then disappear without a sound if they challenged their new perfect lives.
It took about 2 days of tinkering with the data panel to make any headway, with the obscene amount of scrap-code and degradation, but in the end I go the the chamber to disengage.
What followed was the metal shield lowering, revealing the broken body of Xelax, half melted armour, nearly 30% of her one side is missing, massive cut over both eyes and half her face, part of her brain matter expose where a chunk of her skull got bitten of it seems.
The handle of the bolter seems to be melted tot he armour and the shoulder plate joined with her shoulder, on her face one could see a painful scowl. The amount of pain she must have been in must be legendary, so a ordered a large dose of super morphine to be ready for when she awakes fully, ill need to stabilize her 1st before anything else.
Keeping her on life support should nit be an issue and even healing her should be easy, if she is compatible with the T-virus compound I created for regeneration, I would first need a blood sample to see if its possible. I decided to help her first, to build some rapport, if she indeed is a psycho, I'm confident ill be able to fight here seeing as she is very close to death.