Everchosen : Chapter 27

-991.M41-

-Miracle of Suffering, Segmentum Solar-

-Joshua Pendrarc, Everchosen-

“They are prepared for you, Lord Vessel.” The old Inquisitor Lord with the crooked nose and hunched back said, walking while braced on a cane with tall black hat pulled back slightly. His servants followed dutifully behind, still carrying the memorable ‘DEATH AND TAXES’ banner over their procession. “Striped, bound, and stabilized.”

Joshua took a moment to remember the Inquisitor’s name. Samael, a cocoon of thought wrapped in golden silk offered itself up to him. “Thank you, Lord Samael. Did Lord Fyodor decline to attend?” A faint pillar of light still surrounded him, only an hour or so after the fighting had ended. 

“He did. He determined that his perspective would be less than ideal in this proceeding, and recommended I attend in his stead.” The old Inquisitor replied with a slow nod, walking with him to the great prison section of the Miracle of Suffering. The brig, which was as enormous as any other component of the massive kilometer-long ship, was composed of one large chamber surrounded by several layers of isolated cells on either side. 

Naturally, there was a torture section in the back because of course there was. 

“What was the final count of captured?” Joshua asked as they moved between rows of women in power armor- the sisters of battle that had volunteered to act as wardens for the captured xenos for the time being. 

“Just shy of ten-thousand, Lord Vessel.” Samael recounted with a sharp nod, stopping before an immense gateway as it slowly slid open. Large pistons hissed as they actuated and drew the slabs of plasteel apart.

That gate led into a hallway, which terminated at another gate, the walls, floors, and ceiling being completely covered in spouts to spray burning promethium through. If a prisoner attempted to move through this central causeway without permission, they’d be roasted alive.

Only Aias and the Remembrancer were with him at the moment- both Heinrich and Diana had to receive emergency medical treatment to flush their systems of the deadly neurotoxin that the Dark Eldar laced their crystal-bolts with. Diana had been injured enough to stumble, but Heinrich had ignored it up until the point he just collapsed entirely. 

He needed a medicae- a role that was covered by Denaira, as soon as she wasn’t busy watching the unconscious Hercule.

Ten thousand Dark Eldar between three large ships and however many were in the strike-force that went planetside for slaves. Their ships had been captured in an enthusiastic boarding action that had been bloody and hard-fought, and would likely just be left behind for Launcel to hold onto until some inquisitor could be dispatched to return and haul them off for study. 

“You implied something to the Lord Admiral, Lord Vessel.” Samael grunted out as they moved down the heat-lock. “That you understood the Emperor’s designs in capturing these xenos, is that correct?”

“It is.” Joshua nodded in confirmation. Just to confirm his suspicions, he drew from the tarot again. They had captured these Dark Eldar in order to use their expertise to access the webway and travel through it, correct?

Your suspicions are well-founded. 

“Are you familiar with the Eldar means of travel- the Webway?” Joshua asked as they approached the second gate. 

“I am- I understand.” Samael began to reply, only to cut himself off with a sharp nod and a look of aged comprehension. “Use of the webway will certainly achieve our objectives here- however dangerous it is to rely on Xenos in such matters.”

Samael paused before the gate, watching as it slowly growled its way open, and turned an eye towards him. “Lord Vessel, I have advice, if you would allow me to relay it.”

“You may.” Joshua nodded. He could honestly use all the advice he could get.

“If we truly do need to rely on the expertise of these xenos, then it would be best to impart a manner of official protection upon them until their usefulness is at an end.” Samael growled in a voice of hard-won wisdom. “Less temperate men will find many opportunities to enact fantasies of vengeance upon them if not warned strongly away. And if they do, and if we happen to need their knowledge…”

“Then one impetuous act would bring disaster upon us.” Joshua sighed, reaching up a hand to rub at his face, nodding. “I understand, Lord Samael. I had forgotten to consider such things before you reminded me. Thank you.”

“My pleasure, Lord Vessel.” Samael grumbled, nodding and facing fully forwards again. “I’m confident that whatever you decide upon will be with the Emperor’s wisdom.”

It was another layer to the complicated cake of issues that he was forced to think about here. Not only did he need to secure the aid of the Dark Eldar for how to enter their webway, but likely for how to navigate it, and also needed to ensure that they didn’t lead them into a trap or get killed by an overzealous soldier before that.

And now that he was thinking about it, whatever he ended up choosing here would probably be recorded as legal precedent moving forwards. That could have any number of later-order consequences. The clicking of the mechanical typewriter behind him reminded him that all of his actions and decisions were being monitored and recorded. 

The only place he was safe was inside his own mind.

A cackle outside his mental walls sounded out to mock him. He restrained the urge to tell the stray daemon to fuck itself- talking to them would only encourage them further. 

The gateway finally swung entirely out of view, disappearing into the sides of the wall, and revealing the enormous brig within. A chamber stretched out before him, three rows of support columns in the center and stretching back for hundreds or thousands of feet into the distance. The chamber was at least five stories tall, and each of the walls were lined in cells, again stacked five layers tall. 

Women in powerarmor and with heavy guns and electrified batons stood in lines around the walls of the first floor, all faced inwards at the captives. The Dark Eldar, forced to kneel in the center of the chamber in neat rows, each one bound with metal cuffs and shock collars.

Joshua blinked. The Inquisitor had been bluntly honest it seems, because all of them were completely nude. Stripped of armor, weapons, trinkets, jewelry, and decorations before being shackled. 

The Dark Eldar were tall and pale, as a general rule. Seven feet of lean flesh with faces that mostly resembled humans but with a sharpness and refinement that humans very rarely matched. Their ears were long and pointed, and none of them could be described as soft, stocky, bulky, or thick.

They were, because the universe wasn’t very creative, Space Elves. Evil Space Elves in this case, there were at least four other groups of dubious levels of morality that he was aware of, but these were definitely the worst.

Currently, all of them were looking at him and his little retinue. Some with blank expressions, some with angry looks, others with predatory grins or sharp, mocking smiles. 

He stepped forwards enough to fully enter the chamber, nodding at the Canoness who was acting as a warden. She saluted him as he entered.

“Your Divinity. The xenos are secured by your word.”

Not exactly by his word, but good enough. He nodded and waved a hand at her to relax, turning towards the mass of captured xenos with a contemplative expression on his face. What was he… going to say…

“I know at least some of you can understand High Gothic.” Joshua began, using the vocal lessons Hercule had insisted upon to make his voice carry through the chamber. “Those that don’t will have to rely on the generosity of your peers to know what I’m saying.” 

His voice was dry, because if he knew anything about the Dark Eldar, it's that they loved tormenting each other as much as they loved tormenting everyone else. He had never actually met a Dark Eldar in person, only general rumors and metacontextual information, but if even half of it was true then they were a bunch of colossal pricks. 

Sure enough, a small wave of incredibly quiet snickers and amused huffs rippled through the captured xenos. Just barely quiet enough that the sisters at the edge of the chamber couldn’t hear. 

“Some of you are likely wondering why you were captured instead of being simply killed or executed. Some of you are wondering how these ‘Mon-keigh’ were able to so thoroughly predict and counter-ambush you. I will be answering the first question. The second question will remain a fun mystery for you to dwell upon.” Joshua let the corner of his lips twitch upwards in a tiny smile before allowing them to fall again. 

Only silence answered him thus far, no one in the room was feeling particularly chatty, which honestly made this business a bit harder for him. He was used to conversations, not speeches. 

What did he say next… Explaining the situation, maybe?

“A warp storm is expected to engulf this system in the coming days, weaved into being by chaos-worshippers who are hounding our trail in hopes of locking us in place while a larger force moves into position to surround and ambush us. A simple solution would be to leave immediately, but being hounded all the way back to Terra sounds irritating and undignified in the extreme.”

A lesson that he had learned on Necromunda. You needed to tailor your words to the audience. The Dark Eldar wouldn’t care that a bunch of humans would be killed, but they could probably understand and empathize with the desire to remain poised and elegant despite enemy action. At least, that was the feeling he got from them. 

A few brows quirked, a few ears tilted. In a row of thousands of captives, it was hard to pick out any specific interest in his words. 

“Further, we have a number of knights being readied for transport, and they won’t be ready until after the warp storm is too close to avoid.” He shrugged and shook his head carelessly. “Which means that we will need an alternative way out of the system, neither materium nor immaterium, which is where you Dark Eldar come in.”

He paused, then tapped at his chin. “Or should I call you Drukhari?”

“Refrain from butchery of our noble tongue, Mon-keigh.” One of the Dark Eldar called out with a dry irritation. A male, just as lean and tall as every other member of his species, with long black hair and fresh wounds barely attended to. He was six rows deep in the crowd of captives. Joshua raised a brow and briefly considered how he should respond.

If this was on Necromunda then… a quiet show of force. A golden hand grabbed the one who spoke, the phantasmal giant slowly coming into view as Joshua applied pressure. The giant lifted the speaker, now suddenly very silent with eyes narrowed and body tense, over before him directly.

“Good, so you can speak.” Joshua commented conversationally, gently setting the captive down in front. “You are hereby promoted to official liaison. Congratulations.” 

The golden figure slowly retracted, returning to a neutral pose above and behind him. The speaker was staring at it like a cat stared at a snake, or a cucumber, with violently raised caution. 

“As I was saying.” Joshua continued, leaning on his oversized sword briefly. “We have no desire to rush our knights in preparing for the journey, and no desire to be hounded all the way back to Terra, which is where you, the Dark Eldar, come into play. We will be utilizing your Webway to leave the system, shake our pursuers, avoid the warp storm, and have enough time for our knights to load into ships. In exchange, you Dark Eldar will not be slain for the crime of attacking an Imperial world.”

He wiggled a hand. “One among you will be our guide through the Webway gate you have hidden in this system.”

A few of them spoke in a language he didn’t understand, but figured was Aeldari by how the words sounded. A lot of them sounded dismissive and mocking in tone.

“Liasion, relay the general attitude of your peers.” Joshua commanded, turning an eye down towards the eldar in the front. 

“It's difficult to tell through a language barrier, but we aligned in feelings of disdain and disgust for your primitive empire. There is no reason for us to aid you into our hidden pathways.” With all eyes upon him, the speaker seemed to be invigorated rather than nervous, back straightening up and a confident sneer coming over his face. 

Joshua wasn’t being very persuasive here, he felt, and yet he wasn’t sure how exactly he should go about convincing them. “I suppose we could simply take the undignified option and leave at once.” He mused aloud, reaching up to rub his chin. “Of course, uncooperative xenos are fairly useless to us, so we’ll probably jettison you all after we begin the Warp Jump. That would send all of you directly to the maws of your dark gods, so it would be doing you a kindness, methinks.”

For some reason, that didn’t have as much of a threatening punch as he was expecting on them. While many let out tiny shivers or miniscule flinches, some merely smirked or had their hands twitch in clawlike fashions. 

He pretended to muse on the matter, while his mind raced for what to say or do. He needed to convince them to actually help here, but the culture of the Dark Eldar was so far removed from his that he could scarcely figure what did and did not scare them. They wouldn’t care about suffering themselves, as far as he knew, so mundane torture was pretty useless…

And on top of this- he needed to figure out how he would go about making sure some human didn’t just kill them for being xenos while they were stuck in the Webway or something-!

‘YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHOOSE.’

A boom of thunder and fire echoed through his mind. A stern yet gentle reminder, with impressions of patient tutelage. Joshua’s thoughts paused, and then the golden gears began to churn in his mind.

He had the power to choose… Not just here, but as precedent for future interactions too. He had already noted that, hadn’t he?

He had the power to determine which way the Imperium would lean in the future, with this action. That wasn’t a purely negative thing.

Which meant he could sow the seeds of a solution to the Imperium’s problems he had been thinking of for a while now. A personal debate about how he would even begin to address the countless issues that plagued humanity at the moment, one with no good answers but a few possible ones.

He could get the ball rolling right now.

“It’s a shame, I thought at least one of you would relish the opportunity to lord over your peers.” Joshua declared aloud, shaking his head and pulling up from his lean against his sword. “But if none of you want it, I suppose…”

There was quiet, then a small stirring of interest. 

He pretended to have a realization. “Oh, silly me! I forgot to inform you all of your new legal status!” He declared with a little laugh, then nodded seriously. “As of today, you are all now a vassal-state of sanctioned xenos under the authority and guidance of the Emperor of Mankind, in service to the Imperium of Man. You will, of course, need a Governor to manage and represent your species to the wider Administratum.”

A mixture of outrage and intrigue blossomed among the captives. Joshua raised a hand and began counting off on his fingers. “Backed by the military of the Imperium, the Governor will have the authority to set the laws of their state, enforce punishments, extract tithes…”

There was suddenly a great deal more interest in his proposal, as what he was suggesting became apparent. This was an opportunity for any of the Dark Eldar present, even the previous menials or lesser warriors, to suddenly rise in rank and torment their former superiors, with the backing of the people who had captured them. 

Dark Eldar loved tormenting others, and loved tormenting each other almost as much if not more. 

“Now, as I have no grounding in what makes a good or bad Dark Eldar governor, I will essentially have to pick from amongst you arbitrarily. Unless something comes up that makes me think the individual will be particularly cooperative or helpful to the Imperium of cour-”

Almost simultaneously, a large number of Dark Eldar called out that they’d be willing to act as guides through the Webway. 

Getting what he wanted while also establishing an early precedent of inducing xenos as vassal states. Or re-introducing the idea, he supposed, he knew of at least a few examples of the Imperium inducing xenos as protectorates in the past, though it was vanishingly rare. Doing this early on would let him cite it as an example where it helped later on, and thus contribute to his later plan to help pull the Imperium out of the hole it was stuck in.

Man, no wonder the Emperor was such a manipulator back in the day, it was incredibly satisfying to pull off. 

There was a sharp feeling of annoyance and disapproval in the back of his mind. He blinked and returned a sheepish feeling of regret and apology at his patron-god. 

The feeling pulsed again, unimpressed but willing to let it slide. 

Right, step one. Figuring out how to set up a microstate of treacherous elves and get what he wanted out of them without being betrayed…

Uhh… Tarot, any suggestions?

A falling support-pillar is less threatening amongst a crowd of its peers.

Right, multiple guides for multiple points of failure in case one of them lied. That was a good idea. He raised a hand. “All those who volunteer as webway-guides, raise your hands, a sister will escort you to the front. All others will be returned to their cells.”

Step one.