He looked into Katherine's eyes, for a long moment. "For some of us, Katherine. For some."
Having felt the stinging loss of so many beloved friends and fellow sisters, and the mentor she loved before all others, Saint Magdalena, Katherine chose not to reply as she left the room.
Sixty kilometers from the capital of Constantius, tall mountain peaks loomed over the foothills upon which the foundation of the city was laid. White-capped with snow, the great mountains were covered in dense fir and pine trees, deep valleys cleft into them, snaking far into the range. Northeast of the city, some forty kilometers into the mountains, was a ridge of granite and sandstone, jutting out from side of the mountain, a thousand feet above the valley floor. Upon the precarious ledge was perched a walled keep of thick stone quarried from the bones of the hill itself. Tall guard towers with Phaeton air defense autocannons stood silent sentinel over the fortress. Within the walls stood four stout buildings of irregular stone and mortar surrounding a modest cathedral of like manufacture.
The Abbey of Saint Celestine.
Two Valkyrie orbital transports banked into view of the Abbey, flying low in the valley. The bulky war machines rocketed over the trees at combat speed, behind them two smaller Argus lighters. They were painted in the mottled grey of the Byzantium Legions, the markings of the Legio Sextus on the wings. The pair of Valkyries suddenly pitched up, arcing high into the sky and rolling into an attack pattern.
Missiles slung under the wing streaked forth, white contrails of smoke behind them. They slammed into the nearer defense towers with explosions of fire and debris. The autocannons of the far towers opened fire, but were woefully ineffective at the long range. Lances of brilliant light streaked outward from the nose-mounted lascannons of the aircraft, blasting apart the defensive gunnery stations.
Seconds later, the Valkyries were dashing in and hovering over the Abbey, small arms fire ringing off the armored hulls. Rear bay doors opened and from each leapt six armored figures clad in pink and lavender. The Sisters of Slaanesh hit the ground running, their perverse warp-spawned weapons howling as they fired pulses of psychic agony. Defenders in burgundy and cream returned fire from the walls with a mixture of weapons. Lasguns, hellguns, shotguns and other small arms hailed down at the heavily armored Sisters of Slaanesh. Two of the daemonic-tainted Sisters carried long poles with a standard of a six-rayed star…the Icon of Slaanesh.
The air seemed to ripple outward from the Icons, as though reality was reflected in a glassy lake into which someone had dropped a pebble. Then reality tore itself asunder with a shrieking cacophony of sound. Daemonettes with clawed hands fell from the great rends in space-time, rushing toward the nearest defenders, laughing with sadistic glee.
Overhead, the two Argus lighters arrived and opened their bay doors. Another squad of six of the Twisted former Adeptus Sororitas leapt from one. From the other Gaius Romulus Saevitiae looked down upon the battle raging below. Sporting a hellish grin, he dropped from the craft, landing in the Abbey's courtyard with the sound of a thunderclap. "Rebecca!" He shouted.
The former Canoness flew down with terrifying grace on her wide, bat-like wings of black. "Yes, master?"
"Bring me the Acolyte girls…alive," He ordered sternly. Katherine would mourn the deaths of so many children to be sure, but would also take solace in their "glorious martyrdom" for the Emperor.
But…if he captured them…tortured and defiled them…and turned them as he had the sisters of the convent…
…That would surely break the Canoness' heart.
Rebecca licked her lips and nodded, "Thy will be done, Master." Not only the location, but the very existence of the Abbey for training girls to become sisters was a well kept secret on Byzantium. The populace, Senate, and even the Ecclesiarchy were unaware of it. However, Rebecca had been the former Canoness, and now the traitorous Sister was ready to sacrifice the souls of those poor girls for her new lord and master.
Chapter 26: "...I Will Find You..."
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