The fall of Fair Frozen

[Thaedael]

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Blessed is the mind too small for doubt. - Commissar Groden Bevro

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Terran Year 400.M41
It is not yet quite sure what it was that lead to the eventual civil war that broke out across
the hive world of Fair Frozen, only that it was beset on all sides by the forces we strive
to stamp out. It could have been a tragedy, another world doomed to the fate of planet
wide exterminatus.
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Like many worlds within the Imperium it is a world of vital importance, though the weight
of that importance is much greater in proportion to the crux it bears as a manufactorum.
Planet wide there is a population of 80 million people, spread across multiple hive cities.
Yet it differs from that of other planets in the Segmentum Solar, in that the hives are
localized along a gouge in the ground known affectionately as the Cat's Eye. An endearing
nickname earned from the view of the planet from space. Yet I digress.
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The world is responsible for keeping the forces of Chaos at bay, for it floats lazily around
it's twin suns to the north of the Eye of Terror. A formidable bulwark of fortress worlds
surround the eye of terror and the world of Fair Frozen is but one of the logistical planets
that keeps the Garrison both armed and supplied.
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It has vital importance to the Imperial Navy as well as a major site for the maintenance of
ships, especially the Emperor Class Battleships that patrol the length of the Eye of Terror's
vast expanses. Long space elevators are located along the gouge, their forms descending from
the heavens down through the perpetual industrial smoke that clouds the ice world.
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It is here that our story begins, where the rise of a few courageous individuals against
the odds and stood their ground in the face of the foes of the Emperor. It is from the common
folk that heroes were born, and legends born, continuing the long and illustrious legacy of
the hive world.
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Terran Year 380.M43 (Estimated twenty years earlier)
Segmentum Solar, Cadian Sector, Planet Fair Frozen, The Frozen Walk Hive City

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It had been another long day among the hard working labor pool of the planet Fair Frozen, the chiming of large manufactorum cast-adamantium bells ringing true throughout the main capital spire. Under the watchful eye of Valkeryie transporters darting across the skies on plumes of exhaust the workers begun to systematically flood from the many floors of factories. The Cat's Eye trench is several kilometers wide, and several hundreds of kilometers deeper, running the length of a major latitude line. From every level of the hive capital did people emerge, the changing of shifts occurring systematically with practiced routine as fully a third of the planet's population begun to make the transition. Whole sections of the hive rumbled under foot, the passing of large swarms of people darting across the gargantuan gangways hanging out and over the edges of the wall. Below the city and factories built deep into walls of the chasm, the walls continued to stay alight, the bright lights giving the name of the planet's main feature; The Cat's eye. It was from this chasm that the majority of equipment in the Cadian sub-sector was made, an ever increasing and demanding toll executed upon the planet. For life beyond the industrial trench was non existent, the very rock being nothing more than the resources of the Imperium to expend in the defense of an ever losing galactic war. There was no purpose in the life of the citizens sentenced to working in the factories producing the materials that had won and protected this sector from the mounting black crusades of Chaos.

The sounds continued to chime through the chasm, the crowds beginning to die down as the flurry of activity neared completion. Those that were free to do what they want did little more than make their way home, 12 hour shifts saw little to the needs of the human body of sleep and food. The wind continued to howl furiously through the ever quieting chasm, the sound of industry being the only other constant sound in the background, the thrum of the industrial heart of the Imperium so perpetual and routine that it was often mentally blocked out by those that lived and died by it's manifestations. Below statues of the various Imperial heroes the last of the crowds died down, another day ending below the perpetual light of the world's twin suns.

By all accounts it was nothing more than an average day, for none could suspect the events that were to transpire that day, or the effects felt long after. Below the spires of the nobles the change of shift had played out, and once more the factories continued to produce the lifeblood of the sector. The only activity left on the surface was that of snow drifts playing out across the paved areas of the Cat's Eye, and the occasional guardsmen on leave from the ships in dry dock up in space. A curious kid could swear he saw the forms of the various battleships hanging in space above, the perpetual smog and cloud cover sometimes being suddenly displaced by the blowing of wind.

It could have been a day like any other, but it was the fall of Fair Frozen into a period of long and bitter civil war.

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Napsii - Ishiko
Location; The Shivers, 2 Kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Main Hive City "The Frozen Walk"

The sound of motors began to whine, the power feeds vibrating as energy begun to be feed through them. With an audible click the one and only door into the habitation unit slid inwards then up, resting flush against the ceiling of the unit. In the doorway stood a woman, her form covered in the crimson red cloak of one of the many community initiatives that littered the chasms's wall at the sub level. Intricate fabrics were woven together into the deep crimson form of the coat, many strips hanging loosely about the form of the woman as she lifted a sleeved arm to remove her worn work boots. The trims of her coat were golden, the threading forming intricate designs of the stylized cogs that littered the landscape, the sign of the adeptus mechanicus. Yet she was no adept in name, working as nothing more than the lowliest menial servants indebted to a life of servitude on the assembly line by the peace their planet offered.

She let out a low sigh, her shoulder slumping with the realization that another long day had come to an end, and that she had made it home once more to her daughter alive and in one piece. She ducked out of the way of the door, stepping further into the rock-crete walls of the unit, their grimy tanned walls welcoming her back into the comfort of a civilized life. It wasn't much of a place, a room no more than fifteen meters by fifteen meters. The hab unit was separated into three thirds, each opening towards the opening of the household, each dimly lit by the low glow of lumiglobes. To her left the simple living quarters, nothing more than a small area, cramped with supplies stockpiled, a gas burner, and distilled water in large containers with the imperial eagle stamped upon them. To her right was the small washroom, a simple hole in the floor toilet with ruptured tiling on all sides, held together by willpower than any form of material. Along side the washroom was a plas-crete washing tub, it's edges rimmed with grim from the lack of use, for water was important at this level.

Yet none of this mattered. She slowly begun to peel the coat from her form, draping it along the worker's coat rack salvaged from the slag heaps of the under-hive. The middle room was what mattered most, the light of the sleeping quarters still on. She walked forward on tip toes, walking as quietly as a mother who wanted to observe the smile of her sleeping child would. The room was small, nothing more than two beds stacked one upon the other, the opposite wall a salvaged book shelf from one of the many abandoned administorums in thr under-hive that have since long been moved to upper levels of the hive. Everything in the room was a time capsule of times long past, when the lower levels were new, and when life was of happier quality. Almost everything.

The mother smiled, her calm blue eyes looking at the form of her daughter who laid atop the bed. She slowly walked across the room, before sitting on the edge of the bed and easing herself into it, wrapping a worn but loving arm across the form of her child. "Ishiko, your mother is home" she said lovingly, rousing the child from her sleep slightly. There was no sign of her husband, his presence most likely were it was needed most, a simple re-purposed room on the end of the shivers.

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Gorbaz - Jika Solovar
Location - The Shitter - 2.5 kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

"Hurry up you fucking Juve" the woman called out from ahead of her, her body obscured by the halo of light surrounding her form as she begun to emerge from one of the enormous storm drains that dotted the wall of the Shitter. They were in the water-works of the hive, the deepest and most dangerous part of the hive. It was from here that run off melt-water of the glaciers were collected, and it was from here that the majority of the industries continued to pull water into the major manufactorums. It was also the site of dumping raw sewage, the majority of it coming from the primitive and sometimes outright archaic piping systems that led away from the under hive, for this was truly the lowest point of the hive.

Hilda was always impatient, a more experienced ganger from the Sump Sucker's gang that ran a profitable racketeering profit from the local mold farmers. What couldn't be bought in imperial crowns could easily be bought with in food, the most basic of necessities often inaccessible to those that made a living in the abandoned realms of the hive. Yet it was not for this reason that Hilda ran through the malfunctioning water intake, today there was something special in the air.

"Hurry up Jika, or will you just fall flat on your face once more, this time with actual shit on your nose from trying to brown nose your way up to me" the girl said mockingly. The girl was no older than Jika, having just hit the 18th melt cycle of her life. She was as every part the woman that Jika had looked up to, as beautiful as she was strong and independent, but more importantly a kindred spirit trying to make it in the worst of places.

"Boss slack jaw wants us to see what the fuss is about, supposedly a group of men that we have never seen are gathering around here, who knows what kind of things we can loot from their corpses" she said laughing. Her autogun stood slung from her shoulder, its beaten metallic form muted out by the bright clothing she wore, multi-colored stocking, tight pleather pants, and a mean flak jacket opening up to a simple tank top. The rest of the gang was already making their way to the sighting, eager to measure up against the would be gangers trying to impede their territories.

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That One Guy - Garian Jorrell
Location - The Mid Hive Plaza 0.3 kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

It was a special day, the first trickle of the glacial waters begun to slide down the walls of the main hive into the depths below. Every year his father would bring him there, but the last few years that duty was left to the ever-caring uncle of his, the only real connection to this cold and desolate place the child had found himself upon. The older gentlemen placed a warm hand on the head of the kid, ruffling his short black hair in a re-assuring manner. He was a tall man, easily the match of any of the many citizens that stalked the promenades of the plaza, his form especially cutting in the outfit of an officer of the local planetary defense force.

The older gentlemen looked down his aged nose, a wrinkle of a smile playing across the bridge of his nose as he beheld his nephew. "I know that another year here with me is not what you want, but Terra be bless that I am glad to be here in place of your father young one" the man said with love. He lifted the kid onto his shoulder, shifting him carefully so that he did not sit awkwardly on the pronounced edges of his carapace armor, the stylized imperial eagle pauldrons providing every reason to do so. They walked together along the pressed rock-crete of the plaza, enjoying the sites of the water trickling down mighty icicles, the flow ever increasing as they joined time and time again into greater streams.

"You grow another year older this day, and with it the responsibility of growing up into a man that honors both your parents begins to dawn upon you. If only your mother could see you now". The death of his sister is what caused his brother-in-law to run off and fight the good battles of the Imperium, robbing him of all his family on the planet but that of little Garian. "With the wealth and prestige of your father, have you given any thought as to what you will begin to do with you life?" the man asked. They continued to watch the waterfalls form upon the opposite wall, the crowd of people growing ever larger.

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Ravenlord - William Cromwall
Location - Cromwall Residence, 0,5 Kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

"... it really is something you should consider". The man leaned over the younger boy, lifting him up off the floor by the cuff of his neck. "I know it isn't easy, but you should rest proud knowing that your father laid down his life for the glory of the Imperium. He will now and forever sit at the Emperor's right side." The guardsman continued to talk to him but no words were making it into his mind. All he saw was the mans mouth moving, partially obscured by the half-clasped re-breather hanging from the straps of his helmet.

The soldier had come down from the righteous fury, a battleship hanging in low orbit above the skies of the spire. He had brought the worst possible news that any soldier could bring, that the kid would now be an orphan the rest of his life. Yet with it came the glimmer of hope, his father was recognized as having sacrificed himself for the sake of the Imperium, and with it, the admittance to the Schola Progenium became available to him.

"I know it is not much consolation, but we are offering you a chance to become so much more, to continue the legacy of your father in service to the Emperor. There is nothing left for you here kid." the soldier said with a grim look on his face. He produced from his pocket a medal, the honor bestowed to his father posthumously. "Think over it for a while kid, when the answer comes, you know where to find me." The man placed the key on a beaten metal table, the card an invitation to the the battle-ship that would take him to the most prestigious of all the schools, the one on Cadia itself. It was really a once in a life time chance.

The man gave the kid a salute, before clasping his re-breather back on, and stepping out into the cold of the chasm, the silhouette of his hot shot pack fading away as he walked into the snow.

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Inferi - Sameya Leonis
Location - ????

It was all so vivid once more, the image of her loving father smiling at her, his features warm and caring as she ran towards him along the iron-grated walkways of the ship. Around them the ship was apprehensive, the shutters were pulled over all the view ports, armed guards set at every few intervals as the ship continued to rock back and forth, an amber glow of light filling the hallways. She continue to run, a carefree child, slowly making her way to the only other person that meant anything to her. Then it all went wrong, the world torn asunder as the ship pulled itself back into real world.

She was thrown to the ground, as was everyone else, the warp shutters pulling open to show the view of the outside. The ship had translated into the hull of another ship, the fully materializing form fusing where they had collided, the sound of metal groaning on all sides before the bulkheads had begun to collapse. One by one the windows had begun to crack, full sections of the corridor collapsing and crushing man and equipment alike. She looked up to see her father running towards her...

"SAMEYA" he screamed. She reached for him, her small hands feeble among the chaos of the impact. "SAMEYA" he reached for her, "SAMEYA WAKE UP...!"

Location - Merciless Respite, Bane Blade Production Facility - 2 Kilometers above the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

The techpriest overseer slammed the ornamental part of his tool into the desk next to her head, jolting her from her sleep. His voice sounding nothing like that of her father, the mechanical voice box mocking the sounds of the elegant speech. He wore from head to mechanical feet the garbs of the tech priest, dark red robes with the white cog-teeth hemming along the trims. Every part of him, she had discerned in times of rest, was metal, his organic components having long since been replaced. He was as old as the hallowed halls in which she worked.

"I would scold you, but to do so would be to waste more time. The shift is up" he said. "You really should work on not falling asleep, you may be the best baneblade control-throne artificer in this complex, but by all means falling asleep like that will gain you no favor with the Adeptus Mechanicus you so dearly aspire to, let along the multiple cults you continue to refuse. Take the next few days off, whatever it is on your mind may lead to the angering of the machine spirit upon which you work." He turned on his heel, walking way from the desk upon which she slept, the sound of his mechandrite appendages grinding against the metal of the catwalk raised up and above the hulls of the mega-tanks being built. All around her the sound of heavy machining and manufacturing echoes, the half machine-half human servitors going about their automated routines.

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(OOC took a lot longer than I thought to write that, english isn't my main language so if anything doesn't make sense or needs to be clarified please make a note of that in OOC and I will get around to fixing that. If you have complaints about how your intro started, please also let me know.)

[That_One_Guy]

Garian was quiet for a bit, wearing a thick coat and a pair of gloves to protect from the cold that he become so used to since he grew up in it. He enjoyed his time with his Uncle just as much as he enjoyed it with his father, a man he always believed a hero with the stories he tells, and invincible with the wounds he had lived through, it was always a joyous moment when his father came home to stay even if it wasn't for very long. When his Uncle mentioned his mother, he moved a gloved hand to his left eye, tracing the scar left behind from the bomb's explosion those years ago, the cold glove against his cool face telling him that he still lived when others did not. He drove his attention away from the scar and started to trace the Emblem of the Eagle on the pauldron. It was then he heard his uncle asked what he was going to do with himself when he grew older, something he had already made up his mind about.

"I'm going to become a Commissar like my father and lead armies into victory." He began with a smile, "I will hunt the heretic and xeno scum and protect the Imperium from it's threats. And people, here and across the stars, will sing songs about me and my father and father will be proud of me!" He said, each time he spoke he was become more and more outspoken, nearly falling off at one point before readjusting himself and regaining his balance. "Do you think I'd make a good commissar, Uncle?" He asked him, watching the ice with amusement. He wondered when his father would come back this time, hoping for another trinket or toy from the planet he is fighting from almost as much as seeing him again.

[Gorbaz]

The Shitter really did stink. Not really suprising given it's name and all, but it really was a new level of stench. Of course, who was she to complain? Jika was just a juve, one of the new bloods and, having not been down this far before, was not accustomed to all the... delights that the Underhive had to offer. "I'm moving, I'm moving!" she called back to Hilda as the ganger made her way expertly through the drainage system ahead while throwing remarks back at her. That was to be expected, Jika knew by now. Life in the gangs wasn't a picknick, but pulling your own weight meant for a better life than just one more of the faceless masses.

"Ugh. I think I stepped in something" she moaned as she slid out of the pipe and made her way up toward where Hilda had stationed herself. "At least, I hope it's a 'something', and not a 'someone'...". She darn't look down at her boot for fear of what she might find. Yes, Te Shitter was part of the sewage system and all kinds of waste made it's way down here. Alot of it was human waste, but there was always the chance discovery of some waste being a little too much 'human' for her liking.

Blowing a standy of hair out of her face, Jika sidled up to Hilda and drew out her trust laspistol. It might not have the stopping power of a solid-slug weapon, or it's bark, but one thing about the humble laspistol is that it can take a beating and keep on going. Ammo also isn't much of a concern, so long as you keep the pack charged, it'll do it's job. "So. These guys. We know much?" she asked, a little out of breath from the hike they had just taken, and trying desperatly not to throw up

[napsii]

Ishiko stirred. In her ragged pajamas -- barely scraps of cloth to back the layers of mended bedsheets cocooning her-- it was hard to open herself to Fair-Frozen's naturally-frostbitten air. She grunted, her strangehold on the sheets unrelenting, until a warm presence coaxed her eyes open. The heft of the worn book imprisoned between the folds of the sheets pressed on the girl's body, until her shrugs and stirs slid it away. Legends from the Imperium, more folklore and fantasy than real history, could wait for now.

"Mmm..." she hummed, rolling inarticulately onto her side. Her bed-sculpted hair -- pale white, endowments of her parents' genes -- flowed messily over her face, almost disguising the youthful shimmer of her blue eyes. Instinctively, the girl smiled, knowing who this woman was even through the haze of sleep. Wordlessly, she shuffled closer. The ennui of sleep was suddenly so very easy to ignore, even if it was only the faint aroma of grease clashing against the bedsheets' downy hygiene.

"I'm glad you're back..." Ishiko muttered, half to her mother's face, half to her bosom; it was hard to keep her head righted when her mother's warm embrace was as relaxing as a thick pillow. The gentle smile wouldn't relent from her face. The one thing the girl wanted was here at last -- a sight more pleasant to wake to even than a recording of the birds long vanquished from Fair-Frozen by the smog and urban sprawl.

The girl yawned. Her sleep had been unusually placid. No malaise itched at the back of her head, even now.

"Are you gonna sleep too? I can get another pillow." half-questioned, half-proposed the girl, even knowing it was high time for her to wake up and attend to the coming day, along with her father.

[Inferi]

Everything was so tranquil, so peaceful. It didn’t matter what was going on around her, because nothing could ever go wrong. She had been on ships hundreds of times before, and the same thing happened every time. Well, every time after the first, when she found out that people didn’t like her attempting to open an access panel to get to the ship’s maintenance shafts. It had all been innocent, and nobody had really been incredibly bothered by it, but that had been the first time her parents had told her that she couldn’t just try to disseminate anything she wanted. The concept was strange, and it took her a while to really understand. They had never minded her taking anything apart at home, and had actually encouraged it, so giving a restriction wasn’t something she had been used to.

Regardless, restricting herself to studying schematics and blueprints of ships, at least the very few that she could get her hands on, had served as a suitable replacement. At least then she could run around the ship, looking up and trying to guess what parts were just behind the walls above her head. It kept her busy when her parents were busy themselves, and nobody ever seemed to mind the child running around with a look on her face like she was trying to mentally dissect the ship itself. She was a child, after all, and what harm would a small child be able to do to a ship?

It had all been the same until that time. That one time, where someone had made a mistake, and that mistake had cost too many of those on board more than they could afford. The tranquil corridor had been shattered, first metaphorically and then literally, and everything in her head had dissolved into confusion as her body had been tossed to the floor. She knew what was going on, but at the same time she didn’t understand it. This was something that should never happen, something that you heard about in bad stories and dreams but nothing more.

Yet this was really happening, and it took her father’s shouting her name to really understand it. Lifting her head, the image of him returned to view, a hand extending along with the voice. Her own went to meet it, and just as they would touch…

BANG. The strike of the tool on her desk woke the young woman up like an explosion, her body snapping up, connecting hard with the back of her chair, and then sliding down it as she regained her breath. Everything about her waking moment was just as chaotic as what she had just been experiencing in her dream, and it took a moment for her to even remember where she was. The panicked voice of her parent had been replaced with the cold and mechanical voice of her overseer, a voice that she was actually glad to hear after what she had just been dreaming about. Glad until she realized that he had just woke her up from sleeping during her shift, that is. Even if she hadn’t wished to join the ranks of those that her overseer was part of, sleeping here was the last thing she wanted to be doing.

The words of the overseer echoed her own thoughts, just like it had multiple times before in the same situation. It seemed she was always sleeping here, no matter how much she tried not to. It made no difference to her that she was the best, and it wouldn’t have mattered even if she wasn’t. She was here because she was the best; that wasn’t something she was going to dispute. Still, the way she worked wouldn’t change either way. Her work here was done because she enjoyed it, and she knew that a difference in skill wouldn’t make a difference in her ethic.

The fact that, despite her skill, she wouldn’t gain favor with anyone the way she was going was of some concern. Hope that she would get noticed had always been present, but the ones that she had been after had always seemed to be just that much ahead of where she was. It had gotten to the point that she was almost worried that the machine cults would stop taking kindly to her rejections, and had started to wonder if perhaps she was making the wrong choice in doing so. That was a small part of her, for the majority still agreed that she did not want to be part of them, but she had wondered a few times if she was waiting for something she would not make it to.

Perhaps her overseer was right, and she needed time to think. Angering the machine spirit wasn’t even something she could consider close to being acceptable, and she most certainly did not want her thoughts to affect her work. That wasn’t the way a person made themselves noticed in a positive manner, and she had done too much by now to let herself fall into something like that. Five years of working herself up to here was long enough for her to understand that she didn’t want to fall back down to where she had started.

Sighing, Sameya stood up, rubbing her eyes as she continued to wake up. While an unfavorable way to end the shift, the rest of it hadn’t gone all that badly. It was just typical work, but typical work involved making components that she knew most people couldn’t. That brought a bit of pride to her, and even without it she still enjoyed what she did. Most people might think making the same thing over and over again would get boring, but she would be the first to say that it wasn’t. It wasn’t a simple matter of just making the same thing that she really liked; it was the process of making it better. Improvements with the constrictions of the existing design was much harder to do, and a lot more enjoyable because of the fact that it was challenging.

Her eyes followed the overseer as he strode out of sight, and she didn’t start walking until he was gone. Had he been someone else, she may have attempted to argue, to tell him that she was fine to come back to work tomorrow, but she knew from experience that he wouldn’t even bother listening. He had already come to the conclusion that he felt was valid, and nothing would change that. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it did make a situation like this a bit irritating. Despite what common sense might dictate, she wanted to work. A few days off might give her an opportunity to work on something of her own, but all of her little side projects had issues with them that she wasn’t sure she wanted to tackle just yet. Knowing her, though, that was probably the exact thing that she would be doing, unless something else came up.

Making her way through the small crowds of servitors, Sameya started making her way back towards her quarters. They had been something that she had needed to get used to at first, but by this point she rarely even gave them a second glance. Some control over them was given to her, but for the most part they answered to her superiors instead of her. While some people might find them a bit disturbing, they were so necessary to the operations that she couldn’t imagine not seeing them around.

She was fortunate enough to live close to here, far above the lower portions of the hive city. Although she had no personal experience with living down below, she knew enough about it to know that she was incredibly fortunate to have the skill to be able to live here. People living in bad conditions with gangs constantly harassing everything they did…it didn’t make for a very pretty picture.

As she crossed the catwalks, Sameya paused to look down at the tanks. She did this every time before she left, as if to tell herself what she was working to make. It was satisfying to see the end results of what she was working on. Sure, she wasn’t constructing the whole thing, but every piece had its place. Every bit was equally important, for without one piece the whole would not work. That thought was constantly in her mind, and was, she felt, one of the most important things about understanding something. You needed to understand each piece and its contributions before the whole would reveal its secrets.

With a leisurely pace, the young woman kept walking towards her home. It wasn’t far to where she lived, but she was in no rush. When she got there, she got there, and the time spent walking wouldn’t take up any time that she had allocated for anything else.

[Thaedael]

---

That One Guy - Garian Jorrell
Location - The Mid Hive Plaza 0.3 kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

The uncle held his breath upon hearing the answer, his worst fears ringing true as the kid talked of fairy tails and amazing deeds of being a hero. Slowly he let the frigid air ease back into his lungs, the coolness mingled with a taste of the pollution causing him to cough a little. A commissar was no life to aspire to. They were a rare breed of men, suffering the all too common loss of a parent to the fires of war that extinguished star after star across the cold sky. Desperate orphans, wanting nothing more than to fit in and and be loved, tricked and brain washed into believing the imperial truth, becoming the imperial truth themselves. They preached from the front lines, cutting down their own men that dared to take one step back, murdering the witch, the heretic, and mutineers alike. It wasn't some glorious hero to attain, but a watchful lap dog to the Golden Throne of Terra.

That was what his brother-in-law was, and it had torn apart a family that could otherwise have survived by different means. War breeds more war, and one day young Garian would go on to have his own kids before laying down his life in the service of the Imperium, his children entering the Schola and thus continuing the cycle of death in the dying throes of mankind's era. Unless the cycle ended now, he would not have the chance to be a normal kid.

"What about other things? Have you thought about working in the manufactorums that supply the commissars? You can show them your appreciation by working a long and fulfilling life in support of their holy duties. Your father would rest much more at ease knowing his son was making the righteous bolts to which his office forces him to fire" he said, trying to convince the kid otherwise.

"Or maybe join the local planetary defense force and monitor the stars from high in orbit?" he said. At least on this back-water planet there wasn't much to worry about beyond the odd riots from time to time. Around them more of the crowd begun to shift closer to the edge of the plaza, the people coming off-shift remembering that today was the first of the great melts and deciding to watch after all. Garian was bounced across the mighty imperial eagle pauldrons as the older man walked through the crowds closer to the edge, his hands holding the young boy's legs to his form.

---

Gorbaz - Jika Solovar
Location - The Shitter - 2.5 kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

"The frakk if I know." she shouted back to the girl, only just then realizing she had managed to catch up. Hilda's young face wrinkled, her nose twitching from side to side as the nostrils flared. From down the length of her flat nose, she looked accusingly at Jika, her green eyes staring into the very mind of the girl before her. "I see you managed to drag along a little friend" the ganger said, kicking from Jika's heel a rat carcass that had exploded outwards from the impact of a running heel. "Just what am I going to do with you? One of these days you might just get me killed..." she said.

She pulled strands of pink hair from her eyes, the hair of her mohawk beginning to dip and come apart as the condensation gathered at the lower levels of the hive. She pushed away at the tip of Jika's laspistol, pointing it's nozzle away from where she stood. "And point that frakking thing somewhere else before you yourself shoot me, I know you have ambition but I didn't think you would be the kind of girl to climb over my dead body to get there" she said with a jeer. She always put on a tough attitude, playing down her care for the girl in an attempt to teach her. However they were a little more than just clanners in the same cyst pit of a clan. "Let's keep moving. We are supposed to meet up ahead at one of the older power terminals, once we get away from the god awful smell we can talk in peace without having to worry about you puking all over me ok?"

Hilda turn on her heel, before jumping from the concrete lip of the water system, landing with the sound of steel on steel as her boots made contact with a gantry hanging over the chasm. No other sane person would have taken this route, but desperate people care little about the risks if the reward was high enough, after all, there wasn't much more to look forward to than thrill of gang life. With one strong foot forward, she got up onto the railing she had jumped over, using one hand to hang from the metal cable that hold the gantry suspended over the chasms, the other dangling out over the abyss to catch the falling girl if need be.

---

Napsii - Ishiko
Location; The Shivers, 2 Kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Main Hive City "The Frozen Walk"

She removed the gloves from her hands, throwing them gingerly atop the bookshelf across the room from where they had laid to rest, before once more rolling back to face the kid plastered beneath the sheets of her make-shift shelter. "I am glad to be back too dear" she said gently, her voice as melodic as it was soft, every syllable proper and lacking the trace of the low imperial gothic that plagued the lower levels of the hive. Her gentle hand was drawn up along the cheek of the girl, tracing the contours of raised cheekbones, before spread fingers ran up and into her hair. They both had very pale white hair, a suggestion of nobility rather than a proof, and with her parted fingers she begun to gently tease Ishiko's hair back into place, her little girl becoming all the more beautiful as the hair took the proper shape to frame her startling blue eyes.

Content with how her hair was shaped, she wiped the palm of her hand against the side of her leg, removing the built up grease from the girl's hair, forming plans to wash her good and proper when the next opportunity presented itself. She pulled the girl into a loving embrace, the warmth of the girl warming her up from the outside in as well as the inside out, just as she made her shiver from the coldness of her body. "It is up to you my love." she said, rocking the girl slightly in the cradle of her arms, her face worn down and tired, but as happy as ever. It took immense willpower to have a smile and nothing else on her face, other days more than normal, but it was well worth the effort in moments like these.

With her right hand she ran the tip of her index finger down the bridge of the nose, before quickly removing it and tapping it on her nose in emphasis, "After all, a little aquila told me that you may have wanted to go to the teracces and see the first of the glacier's run off this year." she said with a smile. She didn't actually know if Ishiko wanted to go, but any excuse was as good as any other to spend more time with her daughter, and they had done it from time to time before, making the pilgrimage up the slow elevators to the surface. Her eyes begun to drip a little bit as she awaited the answer, the child close to her bosom in a strong hug.

---

Hazard1325 - Veronica Meissen
Location; The Meissen Estates - ???? Kilometers above the surface of the Cat's Eye, Main Hive City "The Frozen Walk"

False facades, it seemed like that was all Veronica was, a false facade mascaraeded around to keep up the false pretenses of her step-father's life-style. How many countless false smiles had she given the other nobles, delighted in their pathetic attempts at gaining favor with her step-father's influence, how many countless hours did she spend crying in hunger, curled up in nothing more than rags on the kitchen floor, the cabinets left under lock-and-key? It was her thirteenth birthday, her noble childhood "friends" invited to come and have fun the one day of the year she was able to act like a kid, but it was all nothing but a charade on the grandest of scales. Just as she was the tool of her step-dad, the other kid's where there out of obligation to their own parents and not some perceived friendship, for they never asked her why she was always so plastered with make up, or so thin, not reading the under-currents of her malnourished and bruised form.

It had been after the party, she remembered it because it was the night her step-father had drunk so much amasec as to have taken his anger out on some of the guests. Any other man would have passed out from the amount that was consumed, but he was a man of an especially vile nature, his tolerance to the substance strengthened by the many years of abusive substances he had taken throughout the course of his freeboting in the Meissen name. It was on an evening such as this, the night of her birthday, that he had taken her older sister, kicking and screaming to their mother's old quarters. All the servants of the house new what it meant, but none moved to stop him, how could they?

She stood in the crack of the doorway, the soft lighting of the lumiglobes creeping out between wooden doors, the sight of the older gentlemen forcing himself on her sister. Her clothes were torn, her body pinned by the bulk of his, his manhood violating her nubile body. She stood there gripping her knife, her nails digging into the cake knife so hard they bled, watching as her sister was violated. She waited for the command from her sister, minutes before her mouth having silently mouthed the words "wait". She stood there crying, blood running down her legs, her face bruised and gaunt with abuse and malnourished, before wrapping her legs around the man's body tightly, her arms draped around his fat neck as she pulled hi close, planting a fake passionate kiss on his lips. She looked to Vernica, giving her a nod, before Veronica burst into the room, knife in hand...

She awoke. Why the events of a year ago kept haunting her she did not know, only that the course of action had been justified. She was the master of the household now, her head coming up and away from the workbench her father had used to command the households years before. She was one of the fabled merchants of death, controlling one of the world's largest alliances in parts that were used to manufacture the machines that ran the various manufactorums.

Her servant stood at attention in front of the lady, a silver tray with a small crystal glass, it's form filled with a steaming tea, to it's side the local delicacies.

---

Inferi - Sameya Leonis
Location - Baneblade Gantry

She stood hanging lazily above the giant hangar, easily ten baneblades in the various stages of completion sat upon the segmented floor of the manofactorum, the crowd of servitors walking along their predetermined path in a pattern that was as hectic as it was precise. The tanks were massive, their presence an inspiration to all who looked upon them on the fields of battle both friend and foe. Anyone that had worked on one of the ten before her for the span of one year would have felt the same pride, and a moment of remorse when they would finally leave to exotic worlds in the name of the Emperor.

"Amazing how so small a piece, by so small a woman, plays one of the largest part's, in one of the Imperium's largest main battle tanks." The robotic voice came from over her shoulder, the sounds belonging none other than to the Tech-Magos. His name was Oswald Wroughthammer, a fitting name for a man more machine than human. Yet for all his hardware, he possessed what mattered most, a human kindness that saw beyond the rigid distinction of flesh and human, omnissiah and technology.

On any other forge-world, or in any other manufactorum a man such as him would be branded a radical, a heretek even. He was as pragmatic as he was old, equal parts inquisitive mind and innovator. It was this man that allowed Sameya to work here, out of curiosity for how things would work out, but now for genuine care. She had progressed a long way, from a wreck of a child to a fiercely talented and independent woman. All because of his curiosity.

He had secretly defied the cults, working to further improve the designs of the Standard Template Constructions of the Fair-Frozen pattern Baneblades that were produced. Their armor having become more rigid, their controls more fluid, the spirits within them more accepting of pilots into their steely embrace. He was as inquisitive as he was indirect, answering questions with questions, and from such dialogues allowing those that worked under him guidance without outright answers.

"If you were to have gone to mars, would the site of such a machine still awe you?" he wondered aloud. "For there are many things more terrifying that that which stands before you"

[That_One_Guy]

Garian thought about it for a second, he never thought of other jobs and didn't know much about anything else, "But I want to lead and be a Imperial Hero!" He told him, yes he didn't know what it was like being on the frontlines, oblivious to what it actually meant, "But, I've only heard about how my father lead his men, how do you think I should lead them?" He asked his uncle, looking down at him now. His father told him that he had to have an Iron fist, that those that tried to retreat or convince others of rights that were wrong were deemed unworthy and shot on sight, deserting punishment only subjected with death by execution. Garian had come to believe all of this was the right of things, but his Uncle was also a leader of people and had to deal with the same sort of thing, so he wanted to ask him as well, to get two sides of the same coin of his family, one who was always there for him and one that wasn't. One that he aspired to and another that tried to lead him otherwise.

[Hazard1325]

Veronica stared at the tea for a long time before taking it. They were slowly depleting the pantry this was one of the last brews Thadeus had kept. She glanced at the long never ending parchments that covered the desk. A small dataslate with an accounting primer was tilted so she could reference it as she sorted through the millions of numbers. She had discovered quickly that numbers did not come easily and that Thadeus had managed more the she could have imagined. With his death many partners had left or tried to cheat Veronica in the first few weeks after she had taken over. The nasty rumors, that were certainly true about her late stepfather made business difficult. None of them had lived with the monster for years, yet part of her almost regretted his passing... almost.

"Take these to my sisters, I'm not hungry right now." In truth she ate almost as little as she had years earlier. At fist she had allowed herself whatever treats she could find in the house but now they were running out and the red lines on these parchments told her things might become difficult, she would rather the younger ones eat first. The clock in the corner of the office continued to tick interrupting her basic arithmetic several times. Her face sunk into her hands, she could employ someone to do this but she had no idea of who was trustworthy enough to take over such an important task. Why did the Administratum require such archaic data structures not used in thousands of years... the conversion process from modern business records took days just to compile. It was all so meaningless these numbers, abstract methods to present data in forms in a way so that a clerk could check off a box or glance at it for a date. All she cared about was the final line, the one that said expenses were more then income. She considered whether or not anyone would consider purchasing the business, a risky move but for enough money they could move to smaller accommodations.

What would they do for money? Maraun had his music, he was skilled at the viola but it always brought back his dark memory's of when he played for their mother. Janette still found it hard to speak to anyone after that night. Veronica couldn't decide whether or not Thadeus or herself had scarred the young girl worse. The last few minutes of that night were always a blur but she remembered it had not stopped with the killing blow. Her other two sisters were to young to work more then a few hours at household chores let alone anything that could help support them all. At last she could take no more and stood up from the bench, she wandered the halls glancing in on her siblings, worrying about whether or not they would have a roof over their heads for long.

[RavenLord]

William pulled out the medallion his mother gave him while he was little. It was a small and simple thing, metal part was molded into likeness of a shield with a raven on it. The thing had helped him to ease his heart whenever he felt down. He passed it between his fingers, feeling of cold metal calmed him as he thought about soldiers offer.

Orphan named William knew more than avrage citizen about the state Imperium was in, to understand something was wrong. There was too much suffering. Constant waves of refugees who had lost their home planets, citizens crushed under poverty, crime being a part of everyday life. He had been to lower hive, he had seen the misery with his own eyes. William wanted to change that. He wanted to make a difference. Yet he couldn't do anything if he stayed here, in this place who held nothing for him. Not anymore.

He stood up, heading to his room. In his life, there never had been a more obvious and clear choice for him. He would go to Schola, he would serve the imperium and turn it into a better place through his actions. He would make most of this opportunity his father gave him. A smile formed on his face.

"He gave me something after all." William muttered, thinking about the man he never knew. The man who gave him this chance with his death. William finished packing, his backpack had been stuffed with mostly food rations, water and all of his wealth, there were few things that held setnimental value for him, things he couldn't bear to left behind.

Williaö, now clad in his grey winter coat, his backpack in his hand, turned to look at the place he had shared with her mother while she was alive. It felt cold and empty now. Warmth and life long gone, leaving only a feeling of hollow place devoid of any emotion. He realized that hollowness had been there since his mothers passing. This place had ceased to be his home the day his mother had died.

Pulling his scarf over his mouth, lowering googles onto his eyes and slinging his backpack over his shoulder, William pushed the metal door open and took his first step of the path he had choosen, filled with determination, he never looked back as he left the place which used to be his home.

[Gorbaz]

Jika held back the urge to throw up as she looked down and saw the mashed remains of the rat on her boot. "Ugh..." she groaned quietly as Hilda removed it with a swift kick. She would have thanked the more experienced ganger, but had the feeling that it probably wouldn't go down too well, especially if it started off a burst of hysteria. No, that was definatly not the image she needed in the gang - the blubbering baby. Not at all.

"Sorry" she said as she lowered her laspistol and double-checked to make sure the safety was on. She must be seeming so incompitent right now, but she'd been on a couple of runs in the past. Sure, nothing too dangerous and, come to think of it, nothing that special eaither. Just safe patrols and shakedowns... She let out a sigh as she straightener her own locks, held in place by bands rather than the gels that Hilda used and steeled herself. She'd prove herself to Hilda and everyone else!

Watching the other woman's extreme display of gymnastics, Jika took a couple of breaths and readied herself. 'Alright Jika, you can do this. It's just a jump. A teeny, tiny, little jump over a frekkin' HUGE chasm that end in who knows what, probably with crazy mutants just waiting for fresh flesh. So, no pressure!' she though to herself. Dashing forward, she kicked off from the concrete lip and hurled herself onto the gantry, landing in a most undignified way, face first, but it was better than plumeting to her death, and she was nowhere near good enough to pull off what Hilda did. "I'm okay..." she groaned, climbing back to her feet and double-checking her laspistol. That was probably going to leave a bruise or two on her chest, that's for sure. "So.. straight on?"

[Inferi]

Shaken from her continuing thoughts by the voice that suddenly sounded behind her, Sameya managed to contain her surprise enough that it didn’t show through any physical actions. She didn’t need to turn around to know who she was talking to, for that particular voice was more distinct to her than any of the others that she would hear in this place. Though many would be unable to understand, would be unable to tell various robotic voices apart, her mind could pick out the little bits that made it unique and recognize who it was that was speaking to her. It was an acquired skill, something that she needed to learn for the times when she was unable to look up from her work to answer someone speaking to her.

The Tech-Magos, though…he was different from most of the Adeptus Mechanicus members that she had met. Many things about him would border on unacceptable, yet those were some of the things that she admired most about the man. He had never told her what he had done, but to someone like her it was extremely obvious from looking at the designs for the tanks. She made it a point to understand everything about what she was working on in order to best make her own parts for it, and when the improvements had come in she had noticed it right away. Such improvements were something she liked to see, no matter how much the cults wouldn’t like it, because innovations always led to more effective designs. She knew that she shouldn’t think like that, not if she wanted to go where she did, but a small portion of her mind refused to let go of that knowledge. Such improvements had made the designs better, and there was no way to possibly deny that, so she was torn between the two sides.

“Sometimes the smallest piece is the most important.” she said, still gazing out at the hangar. “The puzzle cannot be completed without the means to connect it all together.”

Sameya had never been quite sure how she should talk to Oswald. She respected the man, more than anyone else here, and knew that she owed him everything that she had. He had been the only one interested in her at the start, and that interest had given her the one chance that she needed to capture everyone else’s attention. Even after her ascent, though, he had continued to show interest, to encourage her in a sideways manner to continue what she was doing. For someone that thought as she did, such an approach was perfect, as it gave her the small guidance that she needed while still allowing her to find out the answer on her own. It was him that had made her wish to become one of the Adeptus Mechanicus in the first place, and although she understood now that he was a radical, possibly even a heretic, the decision had never waned. Even if she ended up like him, which was a prospect that she both liked and disliked, the fact that he was here was proof that she would have a place somewhere.

It was actually a little strange to think that he would be labeled as a heretic. As far as she could tell, the machine spirits did not take any issues with what he had done, instead seeming to embrace the pilots more readily than they had before. There had been no problems with any of the designs, and no indication that the Machine God was angry for them making such modifications. Granted, she did not have very intimate knowledge of how the tech-priests thought, and so she knew that she may be seeing things incorrectly. It was just a strange thing to think about.

“I do not think awe is the proper word. Not anymore.” she told him thoughtfully, not really seeing what she was looking out at anymore. Instead, she was thinking, wondering what the actual answer to what he had asked was. It was something that she didn’t actually know the answer to, and suspected that he hadn’t asked it because he thought she could actually give the answer. There was too much that she couldn’t account for in when it came to that answer, and although she wanted to say yes it wasn’t an answer she could give confidently.

“I do not know what the correct word is, either.” she added, finally turning her head, and body, if it was necessary, to face him. “And neither do I know the answer to your question. I cannot account for what I would see there, and although it is clear that my perception would change it is unclear as to how much.”

An answer that wasn’t really an answer, but it was the best she could give. Anything absolute would be something she would have to speak without actually knowing if it was true, and she couldn’t do that. An absolute was only absolute if the reasons for it being absolute were known.

[napsii]

Ishiko grinned. Fair-Frozen was uncomfortable, and the dank of the Underhive even more so, but with her mother present, it was becoming so hard to resist its few temptations, even with her bed -- one of her quarters' only comforts -- right below her. She shifted around giddily under the knotting sheets, obviously eager to embrace her parent. It didn't take a Techpriest's intellect for the girl to know the value of what little she had. Everywhere she walked, whether on her rare trips to the upper tiers of the Spires or even the most rotten corridors of the Underhive where mold farmers scraped out a living under threat from the local gangers, happiness seemed rare and far apart. Perhaps Ishiko didn't understand the sin of envy, but she had no lust for the wealth and extravagance of the fortunate few -- the nobles -- who lived in the posh upper tiers of Fair-Frozen, even though a child would have. Should have.

She sighed contentedly, closing her eyes as her mother preened her hair. This was the little she could look forward to, at least realistically. Even not being the precocious type, necessarily, the girl of 10-years-old still knew that.

"Glaciers, hmm..." Ishiko bit her lower lip thoughtfully, eyes rolling upward in thought even though the barely contained smile on her visage of faux-thoughtfulness had betrayed her answer. What else did she have to not get bored? She had her books and her own thoughts, and the "morally-rewarding" (as her parents had phrased it) work of her father's community initiative, but boredom was a killer when the day was on, and Ishiko was left wondering what it would be like to possess the frivolous toys and treats of the wealthier children.

"Maybe. That depends. Only if dad can come." she proposed jokingly, seeming indecisive but her intent clear nonetheless.

"'Cause I'm pretty sure he'll be back soon! I think he likes the glaciers, too." she commented with a smile, rolling off her mother and onto the lip of the bed. Visibly electrified by the anticipation, she retreated to the bottom end of the bed, where a worn trunk clearly in no repair to be shielding its contents sat crookedly at its feet. The lid creaked open, and Ishi snatched up her modest set of clothing, shifting into them from her pajamas as if her life depended on it. Mended socks, thin gray trousers and a painfully nondescript long-sleeved white shirt -- all stained with wear -- were the most she could afford for day-to-day wear. At least minus the distinctive red coat-robe which hung from the lowest rung of the coat rack. Practically skipping by this point, the girl skipped over to the bathroom washing tub, still barely in view of her mother as she leaned over to fight with the worn and exhausted nozzles and knobs.

The entire wall seemed to groan as water trickled out modestly. Pulling back her sleeves, Ishi leaned over, immediately scraping the water across her face, hair, arms and wherever else she could fit it without wetting her clothes too much. A good minute later, she killed the water, procuring a towel worn and scratchy enough that it had her bone dry in almost an instant. Correcting her hair with a comb, she jogged back over to her mother, barely able to keep her look focused for a moment; the desire to find her shoes was overpowering. She crouched down, looking by the bookshelf.

"Hey! Where'd they go? I put them here earlier..." she said, going on to say the same of the bed, the coatrack, the door and most every other area in the room with an inquisitive frown on her face.

[Thaedael]

---

That One Guy - Garian Jorrell
Location - The Mid Hive Plaza 0.3 kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

Garian was just a kid, an ignorant kid reading nothing more than imperial propaganda and being fed false tales of battle from his father when he did arrive. He was so naive, thinking that a commissar was a job of heroics, inspiring men to greater feats of heroism. "There is a difference in inspiring people to believe in things greater than themselves and thus meld them into a cohesive group of comrades, than it is to inspire fear in something grander then them and thus making them suspicious of each-other and the Imperium." he stated flatly. "If you shot a person every time they were scared, there would be a lot fewer people in the universe, something the Imperium would be best to learn." he said flatly, not talking more on the subject of commissars. He knew what an unrealistic view he had of his father, and how much he defended his father to all the other kids on the hab floor. After all, with as much success as the recent campaigns, which kid wouldn't want to brag about the job their fathers did fighting the enemies. Commissar Jorrel did not fight the enemies of man, he killed the cowards that refused to die for him in the line of fire.

He held tight to the kid as the crowd continued to gather in tight around them, more and more people feeding into the square as the lights begin to turn on and showcase the melting glacier water. The uncle turned his head from side to side, noticing the distinct lack of the PDF, the crowd growing to large enough size that observation units should have been placed on all sides overlooking the plaza. He caught glances of hivers wearing the robes of the admech, their clothes dyed different blues as if in appreciation of the glacial hues of the water.

---

Hazard1325 - Veronica Meissen
Location; The Meissen Estates - ???? Kilometers above the surface of the Cat's Eye, Main Hive City "The Frozen Walk"

"I insist madame" the maid said hesitantly as she followed the lady into the hall. "We are all grateful for what you did for us, and the price you have paid to keep this household together, but you must stop punishing yourself. If you want the Meissen name to regain it's formal glory, I insist you take care of yourself in the process." She stood behind the young master of the house, her silver tray still held in both hands, the various delicacies laid lovingly on fine plates. The maid was no older than the master herself, her step-father having had an appetite for girls much younger than himself, and across her face the same facade that had finally been laid to rest showed. Gone were the days of being forced to smile and pretend, the hard-hit reality of a crumbling estate and poor family business was taking their toll on the entirety of the household, every burden felt from the nobility to the lowliest cook. No one had a family to go back to, no one had anything but the Meissen name, a pressure that made itself too apparent on Vernonica's mind.

The short cut black hair of the maid caught a draft of the recycled air, the lack of any metallic tang or pollution proving the luxury of the household. "We told you, you don't have to pay us, and we don't have to eat as well as we do. We can get through this together Lady Meissen, we will rebuild the empire your father had amassed, and bring pride to your mother once more, Emperor treasure her soul." the girl said it almost expecting the master of the household to slap her as she stood out of line. "Pardon me for speaking madame." she shut herself up, instead resigned to walking to where the children were, the folds of her short dress skirt moving side to side with the movements of her hips. The old master was a pervert, and it showed even in the household uniforms.

The long hallway was quiet, the marble floors unadorned with any carpeting, the fine wooden walls under-decorated, all things not related to her mother or father long since sold to maintain their lodgings. The household was as full of people as ever, but the presence of the missing few hung sadly in the air.

---

Ravenlord - William Cromwall
Location - Cromwall Residence, 0,5 Kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

The door opened outwards, into the oncoming wind making itself felt as it pulled the grey winter coat flush against the body of young William Cromwall. The surrounding complex was not much of a home, nothing more than a compound to those that fought and died in the name of the Imperium, providing security more than any possible comfort a household should to children growing up without parents. It was a sight rare to others, one suddenly driving home the reality of the Imperium to those that otherwise thought little of it on a day to day basis. On all sides was the paradoxical nature of the lifestyle these families had chosen, the mixture of grief and joys as the families were roused from their sleep. To his left a small trio of kids ran towards the bulky form of a Fair Frozen storm trooper, his badge of honor showing him to be that of the elite 91st shock-troop, the pride of the planet. The little kids wearing nothing more than their night clothes jumped up into the waiting arms, the face of the soldier revealed from the half clasped re-breather. He wept tears of joy, his face covered in scars, an arm clearly a bionic replacement. On the other parts of the compounds were soldiers dressed in ceremonial uniform, the black standing out starkly against the muted grays of the compound.

One such uniform begun to roll out the banners of units, a sign that a loved one had passed on to the right arm of the great Emperor. Mother's collapsed in place, the children confused in utter naivety at the news that there father would never be coming back again, the reality of how they did planets away from where they could have possible imagined. All the while people continued to celebrate. The soldier from before stood talking in the door way of the neighbor to the left of William's own unit, the mother screaming at the man profanities and hitting him against the black plates of his armor. The woman continued to punch at him, before one of the older kids in the household took her into his arms, her anger turning to despair as she broke down in the child's arms.

The soldier turned away, a quick meeting of the eyes showing he too was tear stricken. It was a job that should have been done by any lowly member of the ever vast adnimistratum, yet these soldiers did this out of respect, love, and loyalty to those that could not be here today. The soldiers in the black uniforms begun to solemnly meet in the middle, before walking out the walled door of the compound, the atmosphere around them sad as William counted their numbers on one hand. The families weren't the only ones grieving.

---

Gorbaz - Jika Solovar
Location - The Shitter - 2.5 kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

Hilda retracted her hand, looking at it as she did so, opening and closing the fist as if questioning why Jika landed face first into the elevated walkway instead of taking the hand she had offered to her. Then again, with a fall as long as it was, into the obscurity of impending doom below, it was a more sane of two choices, not that anyone was questioning their sanity in the literal shit-hole of the hive. She turned on one heel, jumping down onto the grated walkway from the railing, causing the whole walkway to reverberate, sending odd sounds echoing off the walls of the Shitter.

"Much better." she exclaimed to herself as she begun to pull a knife as long as her fore-arm from her belt. "At least now the smell of shit is far below us and not directly under our frakken feet eh?" she exclaimed. She begun to cut away at the fabric of one sleeve, shearing a long strip of the material as she went, before finally cutting it from the shirt completely. "That should do, didn't think you would act with your... head" she let out a low whistle as she made the worst of puns, a bad habit she had when she was equally impressed as she was in disapproval of the stupidity of Jika's actions. She dabbed the cloth at the girls head a little bit, pulling away the rust and grim of her face, checking if there was any bleeding, before folding it away into her flak coat.

"As for your question little Jika, we will basically follow this walkway to the main power terminal. Supposedly the people taking over our territory are well armed, and numerous in numbers. Between you and me, I think old rust trap is biting off a little more than he can chew, and should learn to play nicely with the bigger dogs lest we all end up way over our heads. Though if you tell him that, I will make you wish you were growing fungus in this shit and that you were never born at all." she said in equal parts truth and falsehood. She didn't want to get in trouble with the boss, that was for sure, yet she didn't exactly want to get away from young Jika, one of the other few women in the gang, especially important when every other man noticed her coming of age and attempted to get into her pants. Hilda gave her a smack on the back, before beginning the trot down the gangway, the lighting at least keeping her in sight as she begun the last leg of the journey.

---

Inferi - Sameya Leonis
Location - Baneblade Gantry

The girl had swiveled to face him, yet in his ever typical mannerism he continued to look past her, at the work presented to him from the gantry. It was from here that he spent many a week immobile, his brains forced to limits past those of a human by his augmentations, as he solved problems of the omnissiah presented before him. Yet today was different, he had an un-natural feeling to him, as un-natural as any machine could have one would suppose. Yet what little humanity that was left in his augmented form made itself especially present this evening, more so than she had seen in him in years.

"The puzzle cannot be completed without the means to connect it all together." he echoed in his synthetic voice, the machine undertones beginning to sound more mechanical than normal, a sign that he would once more speak in riddles. "Spoken like a true adept of the mechanicus, following in the footsepfs of the Omnissiah. Yet what does it all mean? To what purpose are we working for?" he said staring at the baneblade.

"To most the sight of such a beast." he gestured towards the most completed tank of the lot with a mechandrite limb that had snaked its way out from under the red robes of the magos "The sight of such a thing would be awe. Yet here we stand admiring it under the pretenses of the Omnissiah, if we were but people in any other walks of life we would have stood quaking in our boots. Would such a God be content with what we have made? Call me sentimental, but I wish we had met under different circumstances Adept Leonis." he said.

It was known to the many that worked under the Magos that he enjoyed nothing more than making the most basic of trinkets, an inventor of things in his spare time which became further and further stretched apart in dark times such as these. Much of the ornamentation that adorned the manofactorum were made by his hand, the beaten form of a brass clock, the stylized imperial eagle above the floors, bronze reliefs of the Emperor and his primarch sons, to name but a few.

"To what puzzle is a baneblade such a piece?" he finally turned to gaze at her, as much as bionic ocular implants can gaze, their reddish glow peaking out from under the cuff of his hood. "I have done all the paper work to put in a request to the forge-world of mars, the greatest of the tech-cults. What piece in the puzzle do you play?" he asked in rhetoric.

---

Napsii - Ishiko
Location; The Shivers, 2 Kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Main Hive City "The Frozen Walk"

Her mother laid resting on the bed, her eyes heavy with exhaustion as she beheld the reason of her living walk through the small doorway into the bedroom, dressed in her finest clothes. Any other mother would have wanted her to be wearing the best clothes on the hive, envious of the children of nobles, but not her, for her child was so beautiful in her eyes that any clothes she wore would be over-shadowed anyway. With the all-knowing wisdom of a parent, she wrapped an arm under the bed, grabbing a pair of children's shoes, before sitting upright and drawing the little girl to her. She put the shoes on the child, full well knowing she was old enough to not need the assistance, but such small pleasures were the few she got to behold every day, for it was not normal for Ishiko to be awake during her off-time. She had grown up so fast in the ten years of her life.

She got up from the bed, walking hand in hand with the girl, before carefully feeding each of her arms through the coat's sleeves. "Of course we would get your father, after-all it's a time to be together with family" she said with a radiant smile. She made sure every buckle, belt, and button was done up properly, before putting on her own coat. After-all, it wasn't called the shivers without reason. The door swung in and up, the cold air rushing into the room as the heat escaped in vaporous clouds from the exit.

They emerged from the hole-in-the-wall hab-unit that was their home, onto the tiled walkway of massive hab block. The sound of industry was all around, as well as the constant winds whipping around them. On all sides above the upper-most levels of housing in this sub-area ran the the giant ventilation units that kept the area clear of pollution and smog, at the cost of perpetual permafrost and cold. A fine dusting of ice was on every inch of surface, providing hazardous ways for one's life to end when combined with the chasm of the Cat's Eye.

They walked hand in hand, passing by the beggars and vagrants that lined the walkways of the lower units, their outstretched hands covered in rags and frostbites in hopes of an Imperial Crown in hand. As always she walked with her body between them and her child, and walked with all the practice of a person used to living in such conditions. "How was your day?" she asked, trying to inject herself into the life of her own daughter. Ishiko was her child, but was very much more so that of her Father, for they spent most of their waking hours working together in the slums of the hive. She feared that one day, her child would grow apart from her, her life spent very much glued to the assembly lines.

The surroundings begun to give way, the frost becoming even thicker, the lighting dimmer, and the sounds of the roaring ventilation units became louder. They were heading away from the habitation units, and more towards the abandoned complexes of the administratum whom had moved centuries before, leaving a veritable paradise for beggars and the homeless. It was here that her husband had set up shop against all her wishes, a good-will initiative aimed at helping any and all of the inhabitants of this city.

For all the faults of her husband, kindness was not one of them, and it was his trait that she saw grow strongest in her daughter, her heart warming up with pride.

[That_One_Guy]

Garian, though naive, knew when to drop a subject, but that one sentence his uncle said kept with him, about always shooting people when they were scared, his father called them deserters. He thought about it for a good minute, mainly because it was one of the stories his father told him, probably to put into him the mentality that all who don't stand ready would die, but Uncles words broke through to him and made him ponder about it more. He stayed quiet, watching the glaciers melt and the people walk around, he watched them year after year, the same groups of people, all wearing their thick jackets to keep them warm, even on a nice day, on this frozen land of a planet. He wanted to admit to his uncle that his imagination just ran wild, about his wanting of the commissar, but then he'd be lying to himself because a commissar life was what he actually wanted. He didn't care if he was leading a platoon or a whole regiment, as long as he wore the great coat and cap of the commissariat. But there was something else he wanted, something that any other job could give.

"Uncle, what I really want to do is explore other lands of the emperor, see what other planets have that is unique and to visit other hives. I want to feel what a tropical climate feels like, what the ocean looks under a sun, the falling of the sun among the horizon,anything other than the blue cold that our planet has." He told him, "And I thought the Commissariat was the best way to do it as well as protect those places from forces that seek to destroy their beauties. All other careers centering around the exploration all have danger around them, but if you wish that I do not become a Imperial Commissar than I won't." He told him and then while trying to hold a smile in, he leaned into his uncle and whispered, "I'll be a Rogue Trader." He said to him, trying to stifle a laugh.

[RavenLord]

A sad smile formed on young Williams lip, only to disappear in next second. He felt bitter, sad, for those who had lost thier loved ones. Yet he knew that those deaths had been for something. Their lives had meant something unlike the most others who lived and died without accomplishing something, No place stayed untouched by war in the whole imperium, no matter how secure it was. Still one could think that imperium citizens lived happy lives, if they saw this place first rather than anywhere else. One couldn't be more wrong. William remembered the lower-hive. The people reduced to skin and skeleton from hunger, mutants and misshapen things stalking dark corner, where innocent was preyed on.

Williams first time at lower-hive had been a rude wake-up call for him. It had showed him the reality of things and how lucky he was. He was on of the few who had privilege of having a safe home and a loving parent. Most others suffered and die, without getting chance to do something with their lives, their presence unnoticed. It was wrong, it was unjust, it was real.

He wowed to change it all. He would do everything to make a change for better. That was his dream and ambition. "Mother, father, just wait and see, i will change it all, I will create a better future no matter what it takes. There will be no more unnecessary suffering and death. Just watch me from Emperors side." William thought to himself.

Burning fire of determination only increased inside the orphan. He rushed after the soldier who brought him the news of his fathers death.

[Gorbaz]

Jika let the other woman wipe some of the grime off. It was almost funny that she was almost mothing the juve, but it was definatly a shame that such a nice top had to pay the price. Still, having one sleeve did look kinda badass. "Thanks Hilda" she said as she climbed back to her feet. Luckily nothing was cut, but she still recognised that it was a prety dumb move to leap and try to grab the gantry with her face. Still, better than a missed grab and a plumet into the shit below. "Think I'll stick to putting food in my face from now on. Pig iron tastes aweful" she joked back badly. It wasn't a skill she'd grown that good with yet but, like pistols, she hoped to get better in time. After all, the more veiled insults she could throw as jokes, the more likley hands were to now wonder in her direction.

THe hearty slap on her back made Jika start forward, then break into a jog after the other woman. "Don't worry about me spilling. What happens in The Shitter, stays in The Shitter, right?" she said rhetorically as the two went on furthur into the stifling heat and darkness of the deep waste tunnels. She uncounciosly grabbled the handle of her laspitol tighter as they went, a feeling of mild fear starting to cramp up in her belly. Sure, this was exciting, getting to go on a propper gang job and defend their terratory, rather than glorified retrieval, but the prospects of a potential gunfigt, getting shot or worse kept dancing through her mind. 'Be tough' she told herself 'This is your home, and whatever scavvies are trying to take it will regret it. Just stay cool, calm, and don't get shot'

[Hazard1325]

Veronica takes one of the small pastries and nibbles on it. She felt guilty eating in front of the servant who endured just as much as she had. "Why don't you take this tray to the rest of the servants, and I insist on paying you... I wont accept charity, it would be disgraceful to my fathers memory." Veronica walked through the great empty main hall, it had always reminded her of the church. The stone fixture of saint Ezra watched over them, it gave father strength but to her it was just another set of eyes watching her family slowly plummet into debt.

"I'm taking a walk, make sure you see to any of Janettes needs, you know how distracted she is." She walked to the entry and took off her winter coat to drape across her, it was a few sizes to large so it drug behind her as she wandered to the lifts. She made sure to keep her identification papers close so they would let her back up to this level. She considered many options for her family and toured the hab blocks, she fought off the crowds trying not to be pushed around so much, one hand was on her coat and the other on her papers careful not to lose either.

After getting rates on several homes she took a more leisurely walk admiring the architecture, or at least that's what it appeared she was doing. In reality she looked up in despair at the cyclopean hive towers. This was what they would be reduced to, workers slaving away in these factories day in and day out until they were to weak and would be discarded. How many thousands died each day and were replaced within an hour... the thought of her small family being forced into that cycle upset her. Thadeus had been a monster but he still had kept a roof over their heads. Had she been wrong to kill him? Was it worth enduring his lewd behavior so her family could have survived? She sat quietly on a bench not wanting to return home, all that was there were bills she had to pay and decisions she didn't want to make.

[napsii]

"Thanks." replied Ishiko, throwing herself onto the lip of the bed for the suddenly two-woman task of putting on shoes. Enduring the hunger and depression of the lower hives, the girl had developed her life skills swimmingly so far, but seeing the tired look on her mother's face, she couldn't help but walk through the steps just once more. Simple black shoes, just barely fitting the girl's feet, done up with straps rather than laces, since lengths of string and rope were popular for stealing.

The many clasps and buckles of their family's famed red coat, complex as they were and just barely concealed under the folds of stapled red fabric, clasped the girl in bed-like warmth. The robe-coats were as functional as they were branding. Ishi enjoyed wearing them; without the money to afford clothes, nor the bravery and time to scavenge them, their robes were the most they could do to keep warm in the eternal frost and cold of the lower hives. She only wished the heating units extended to the entirety of the urban sprawl, so that Fair-Frozen's arctic beauty could be observed in comfort. But she knew her parents wouldn't trade the untainted air for a spot of warmth.

She gripped her mother's hand tightly, stepping out. The curtain of cold, stinging air made her wince, evening out the cozy warmth residual from her sleep. She was glad for the barrier of her clothes, but the aching frost shaved off her impulsive giddiness as they stepped along. The girl's smile relented just a bit; she was happy to be with her mother, but the despair of the lower hives' was something that made her heart ache. She wanted to think the best of the ragged men and women on the street, but the leer and pain in their stares as as piercing as the salvaged laspistol that'd gone off down the corridor a few months ago, punching through one of the hab-unit doors.

"Well..." Ishi bit her lip, hugging close to her mother to share in her body heat. Her answer looked to be bright, until her smile faltered further. How had the day been? She had been tired, and spent most of the afternoon at home, trying to focus on her book but her disorienting headache making the words indecipherable. She had been uneasy, and her first hours of sleep were plagued with a nondescript sense of dread until her father had at last pacified her.

But she couldn't tell that to her mother.

"It was okay. I was feeling sort of dizzy after I got home from helping dad..." she minimized, walking along.

[Inferi]

What were they working for? Sameya’s initial response would have been that they were working to make the Imperium a better place, but she knew that wasn’t quite true. It may be a more official reply that still held some truth, but it was not why she was here, not why she put so much effort into her work. The most obvious answer was because she was trying to gain the attention of those like the Magos, but she had realized a while back that, even though this was indeed her goal, the effort in her work would still be there even if they were not. That left her asking herself: what was left? What else was there that would dictate her effort in her work?

The only answer that she had ever been able to come up with for that question was the simple truth that she wanted to do what she was doing. Her work was meaningful to her because she enjoyed what she did. She couldn’t think of anything else that described what she felt was an appropriate answer to his question, and it had actually taken her some thought to realize this. The first time he had asked her the question, very near to when she had started working where she was, she had been unable to answer. Everything that she had thought was a right answer had sounded wrong leaving her lips, and she had verbally discounted each one less than a second after it had been spoken. Mere moments of attempting to answer had made her fall silent, face red with embarrassment as she realized no answer she had given had sounded correct.

Now, though…she knew, or believed she knew, that what she was thinking was correct. The realization had come to her over the years that she was here, and it had surprised her that she had not thought of it sooner. Ever since she had been a child, Sameya had been fiddling around with machinery, and a child only does such things because they want to. There is little governing the workings of a child’s mind besides instinct, and instinct will not allow someone to do something simply because someone else wants them to do it. While that would never be the case in an adult world, a world where one has to do the biddings of their supervisor to live their life, the passion for doing what that supervisor wants cannot be falsified. At least, not to an unaugmented mind like her own, and that was why she was so sure in her thoughts.

“If they did not inspire awe, though, then what would be the point in making them?” she asked, glancing down at the massive tank as she spoke. The Magos seemed more…human tonight than she had ever seen him, and she was curious as to why. Asking straight-out would likely yield nothing, but she was perfectly content with simply talking. There was no time constraint on her schedule, and speaking with the Magos was never something she had ever classified as negative.

“I mean, they are machines of war. If they could not inspire fear in the enemy, how many more lives would be lost than are going to be lost already?” she continued, turning back to face him even though he had not looked at her yet. Such a thing was to be expected, for one did not need to face another to converse. “I do not see how such a God could be displeased. Such machines serve their purpose better than was intended, and isn’t that what He would want?”

At this point, she couldn’t help but give a quiet laugh. Not one that indicated she found anything funny, or that she was mocking him, but one that indicated a smile in a slightly more ‘visible’ manner. “Perhaps I am simply shortsighted, but I am glad that we met under the ones that we did.” she told him. “I doubt that I would even be here if you hadn’t chosen to give me a chance.”

Sameya couldn’t help but let a bit of admiration enter her voice as she said that. She couldn’t, or did want to, imagine what her life would have been like if they had not met in the manner that they had. There wouldn’t be any place for her here, for one, and she probably wouldn’t have been able to use her abilities to the effect that she could here. If she didn’t think of that as an absolute future, though, then she shared the same sentiment a bit. The inventions that the Magos was so passionate about making mirrored her own desires, although, like him, she had little time to do such things with the amount of work needed to be done recently. There was no doubt in her mind that she could have learned a lot more from him than he had been able to teach her in the time that she had worked here, and it was almost sorrowful that such a thing would almost certainly never come to pass.

What he said next, however, removed all thoughts of that from her mind. It took a moment for her to realize, or at least think she had realized, what he was saying. Her mouth opened, attempting speech, but nothing came out, and she was forced to shut it again and force her mind to begin thinking again. After another moment of silence, she tried again, and this time managed to at least speak something coherent.

“You…you sent in a request to mars? A request for me?” she asked, trying to make sure she actually understood before she allowed herself to get excited at all. Judging by what he said, that seemed to be exactly what he was saying, and if he had just done something to make her desire of five years come true…well, she wasn’t even sure what to think.

[Thaedael]

That One Guy - Garian Jorrell
Location - The Mid Hive Plaza 0.3 kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

"You sound more and more like your Father every day" the older man said, his face stern. His nephew was nothing but an idealistic fool, believing in the stories of adventures across alien planets and dying in the service of the Emperor. Every man born in the Imperium died under the Emperor's immortal reign, from the lowest citizen to the mighty space marines, no one would escape death. It was just a matter of how long one wanted to live, a fact he could not impress on his nephew for all the effort of his speech. "Though your second proposal is a little more entertaining, if only you smuggle me some Emperor grade Armasec to drink every time you make port here!" the main said jokingly, but wished he didn't for fear of getting another idea into his nephew's head.

All around him the crowd drew closer, breath held in anticipation as the first of many major ice flows begun to crack, bristling blue water running down the sides of the hive walls. To any other planet in the Imperium such a sight would be trivial, but against the tedious continual work of the manufactorium, the first melt and the Saint Hubertous holiday was many a reason to celebrate. All around them more and more men and women begun to press into the plaza a noticeable bunch of them wearing these robes that could be described in no other manner than blue-purple.

A man made his way through the crowd, pushing and shoving, his face covered in sweat and panting as he made his way towards Garian. He wore the dark blue armor of the PDF, and people begun to part as he made his way further into the crowd. "Sir, Sir" the man shouted trying to get attention. "There is something our agents have discovered, you really need to know" the man said. Around him more men in blue-purple robes begun to follow him in the path he had opened up, making their way towards the middle of the crowd.

The man finally made it towards the uncle, "Sir, it seems there is something going on across the hive. It is of urgent importance you make it back to the command center, something is going down and the Grand General has required all of us to get to our stations and posts" the man blurted out. All around them the crowd begun to erupt into louder talking, another of the icebergs cracking open and pouring it's blue water into the chasm below.

---

Ravenlord - William Cromwall
Location - Military Housing Block, 0,5 Kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

Young William came rushing around the corner of the compound, walking out from under the double-door entrance, either half of the Imperial Eagle behind his shoulders. For a split second he rivaled the historical picts of old, a hero walking through the eternity gates to confront the foes of the Emperor. He continued to look around for any trace of the soldiers, deciding to follow their boot prints in the fresh snow, before bumping into a man. The man was taller than he, and had an aura that was awkward around him, something that wasn't quite right. He was as tall as he was broad, his form draped in the rags of the Adeptus Mechanicus, though the fabric was dyed mostly blue, in other parts purple from the dyes mixing in the cloth. A grizzled young face looked out from under the hood of the garments, a smile across his face. "A good day for fresh snow, too bad it always gets so filthy on this planet eh?" he said jovially. "Happy day of Saint Hubertous kid" the man said, stepping aside to let William search for the soldiers.

The majority of the soldiers had gathered in the central plaza of the military housing district. The plaza was nicer in quality than most in the hive, the few exceptions being the plazas of the nobles above the clouds of pollution. The military habitation units were on all sides of the plaza, the many sub-compounds opening up to the grand space, which featured a central gathering area for all the families in times of celebration and leisure. It was also the site of many a snowball fight for the kids that could afford to delay their working days and enjoy a childhood before going through the schools of Commissars or Storm Troopers, or marching off by the legion to the manufactoria of the planet.

In the middle of the plaza was a statue of Ollanius Pius, the patron saint of the Imperial Guard, his gaze as sad as the day he died defying Horus upon his battle-barge. He was the epitome of the guard's loyalty to the Emperor, for everyone that fell, another ten would take the place of the fallen against the enemies of man. Against all odds would the guardsmen stand and fight, their blood preserving the Imperium of Man. It was under the sad gaze of this statue that the last of the News-Bearers gathered, their black ceremonial uniforms standing a stark contrast to the freshly fallen snow around them.

He approached the group, their numbers at least forty strong, all of them with re-breathers clasped to their face and their breath wavering in the wind, as they waited for the last of the stragglers to arrive, leaving the fortunate ones with leave-time and family to their discretions. Dodging the few men drabbed in the same blue-purple robes of the man he bumped into previously, he finally made his way to the soldier that had given him the news, his armor marked out with the inquisitorial I above his visor, the only man in the group to have held the honor.

"Young Cromwall" the man said through the re breather, his voice sounding half muffled, half mechanical, "Once again I am sorry for the loss of your father, he was a good man" the Storm Trooper said.

---

Gorbaz - Jika Solovar
Location - The "Shitter" Main Conduit Room "Omnissiah be praised"- 2.5 kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive

Hilda ran through the bulkhead of the door, the orange lights flaring as the door begun to close down behind her. She turned around, getting on all fours and screaming at Jika, "Get your frakken scraggly ass over here and through this door you useless no good younger sister!" On all sides of the "Shitter" the klaxons wailed, the lights flashing as they spun inside their orange plastic containers, the reflectors diffusing the light within a circular pattern across all the walls. The melt water had begun to come down sooner than anticipated, and on all sides the reverberating sound of water begun to rise, the water openly pouring from the storm-drains they had been in before. Hilda propped the Autogun into the door, it's form braced into the mechanism as it continued to close, the sounds of groaning metal and plastic giving her shudders up and down the length of her bulging arm muscles. Jika rolled into the main conduit room, her body now covered in rust and moisture, the shitty rags of her clothes wet and clinging to her form, the rust streaks running across the fabric.

"That was frakking close" she said. Her auto-gun was retrieved, the storm door finally closing in piece as the klaxons finally ended their sad wail of a warning to clear the area as it flooded with such ferocity. "Now, I know you young Jika, and you are going to lay your head to rest later tonight thinking about how we could have died a moment later had we not made the speed we made." She looked over her gun, flipping it in hand, before letting off a shot, a round flying true through the barrel and breaking a small shrine to the Emperor in the small room. "Seems to be working" she said to younger girl, though more to herself. "The thing you need to remember is that over-thinking the ways we can die will drive you mad, and to think about not how you could have died today, but how you could have lived" she said with a smile. The autogun was fine, the stock of it was broken completely, but a small price to pay for her juve to come through the door.

They went across the small abandoned room, the rows of cogitator banks noisily whirring in automation despite having been left abandoned years ago. Opening a metal door, they walked into what was once a habitation unit for the Adeptus Mechanicus, bunks strewn on all sides of an octagonal room, the centerpiece a ladder going to the upper levels. On all sides of the room were the assembled gangers that were chosen for the mission. All but one of them were young hivers, giving up a true and honest lifestyle to join the Sump Suckers. In the center of the room was old-rust-jaw himself, his metal bionic mouth catching the lights of the candles that were lit on all sides. "With the last of the veterans here, our briefing can begin!" the man bellowed around the room. All around him whooping cheers begun as the juves and assembled veterans were excited to start.

---

Hazard1325 - Veronica Meissen
Location; "The Base" Hive Elevator Spire 3 - 0,5 Kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Third Spire Base of the "Frozen Walk" Main Hive"

A woman had bumped into Veronica, toppling her to the ground. This had not caused a change in pace as people continued to walk all about her, their boots sending chem-brown snow up and around the ground as they hurried about their way. A simple hand reached out towards the fallen woman, and with incredible strength brought her to rest on solid rock-crete once more, her body standing upright, albeit shakily so. "Sorry about that" the woman said with a hurried tone. "I seemed to have knocked you over as I was looking at the spires above" she said. Her face was half covered by the typical metal bionics of the tech priests, her mouth covered by a stylized set of beast's teeth set in a bronze mouth. Had it been any other cult than the adeptus mechanicus cult, she would have been branded a heretek. The only fleshy part of her face to be exposed was that of her eyes, simple Fair-Frozen blue eyes peeking out from under the blue-purple robes of her trade. It would have struck Veronica as odd, yet she had never much seen them growing up, beyond the few diplomats sent out of respect than any formal function.

"It makes you wonder how much longer the spires can hold up, and what would happen to the people above and below if one were to suddenly fall doesn't it?" she said with a morbid curiosity. "Anyway, enough chat, I have a job to do" she said with a smile, patting the younger girl on the back as she hurried off. On either side of her were the half human half mechanical troops of the Adeptus Mechanicus, their augmented form walking perfectly behind her in two perfect columns, hot-shot hell-guns mounted on slings across their backs. All of them wore the same blue-purple robes as the main lead, the stylized cog of the manufactorium they were a part of embellished with other logos. A few meters behind the main group were a group of the servitors, their purple-blue pallid and lifeless flesh melded perfectly to the guns they held, weapons more suited to the battlefields than the floors of the hive-world. On all sides people hurried about, the mixing of normal clothes with the habitual red of the ad-mech, and now another presence, those of men and women wearing the blue-purple robes. The lead woman waved a good-bye to Veronica as they mounted the main elevator, the flash of a golden half skull mounted on a cog giving the tech-adept all the power she needed.

---

Napsii - Ishiko
Location; The Shivers, 2 Kilometers into the surface of the Cat's Eye, Main Hive City "The Frozen Walk"

The girl clung to the leg of her mother as they continued to walk, finally making way into the head office that was once the main branch of the astropath's commission on Fair Frozen. It was from within these hallowed halls that psykers had been used to send messages between the stars, from planet to planet and to Holy Terra itself. Every inch of the head-office was drowned in psychic residue, generations of psykers having turned this hall into the central hub of the sub-system above the eye of terror. On all sides of the main entrance were depictions of the Emperor during the height of the Golden Crusade, the Largest of them a bronze relief sculpture of him and his son Sanguinius. Around them stood the forms of the Blood Angel Spacemarines, warriors of the Emperor making war on foul creatures as tall as they. The main room was of aging yellow plascrete, it's outer walls of high gothic architecture favoring the large archways and flying buttresses of old. Unlike times more recent, the architecture lacked the morbid theme of death and stagnation, lacking the many skulls and gargolyes that adorn all the current admistratum buildings on Fair Frozem. A trait that was chosen by her father to serve as his small good-will operation. After all, a skull leering down into the face of a patient so deep into the hive that one would have thought it was impossible to get good medical attention was the last thing the great man wanted to work with.

"I see..." the mother said in response to the girl. The walls were still coated in ice, and her breath escaped between pursed lips as she begun to formulate a response. "If you didn't keep following your father to this area, where molds and mildews ran rampant, combined with not eating well, and the cold, it's no wonder you get sick. Have him take a good look at you while you are here. Last thing I want to do is bury you before I myself pass away" she said morbidly. It was true, the majority of the abandoned office were frozen, and what wasn't frozen was either converted to the use of field-hospital or barred off for the sake of sanity. After-all, some secrets of the astropath's were best kept unknown, especially to a daughter of peculiar traits. They walked in through a side door, to the Saint Mercutia's Will Hospital, the legacy her father would leave her behind. Already the thaw was visible on the rooms he used, the perspiration dripping slowly down the yellowish walls, before refreezing into long streaks of frozen water-drops.

"...it is clearly a sign. You should embrace it!" Her father stood resting against a metal gurney, his tired body leaning against it for support. He caught sight of her daughter and wife, giving them a quick smile before suppressing it into a stern and dour face. "I'll do as I see fit, now if you'll excuse me, my family is here. I have a suspicion they want to spend time with me while watching the great melt" he said. The man had his back to them, before nodding and angrily stomping off, his blue-purple robes grazing past the form of young Ishiko as he went. "How's my little girl doing?" her father said to her, his arms stretched out as if to entice her to run to his arms.

---

Inferi - Sameya Leonis
Location - Baneblade Gantry

"Curious to the very end Adept Sameya Leonis" he said, tapping the mechendrite against the railing as he continued to look past her towards the Baneblades. "Our request has been accepted, out of formality for the amount of Baneblades we have produced over the course of your internship here." he continued to say, his voice cogitators humming and whirring as he continued to speak. He was very human today, something in the manufactorum was as unsettling as it was reassuring. "I had originally chosen it for another adept over you, wanting to hold onto you a little longer, to continue to see how far you would grow, and to see the day you over-shadowed me. " The voice was as flat as it had ever been, mechanically sounding in every-way, but off setting particularly today. "Not having children of my own who pursued the ways of the mechanicum was as much of a disappointment to me as to the commissar who's kid stayed behind to pursue another career. You were my third child, my most able of any. It may have taken me a while to say it, but truly you must have felt it all along?" he said rhetorically.

All around the gantries, the clang of metal on metal sounded, the march of menial servitors towards their designated stations. All around the shop the sounds of machining and manufacturing begun to stop, the heart of the industrial manufactorum - The Merciless Respite, quiet for only the second time in two hundred years. All about the adepts begun to filter out through the back door as row after row of blast-shutters begun to come down across the work benches, their adamantium form protecting the workings of their trade. At once large klaxons rung out across the floors. "How I very much would have liked to never to have gazed upon such a metal monstrosity such as these, for how many thousands of lives have such a thing cost?" he stated out loud. All around the baneblades lights began to flash, as the very platforms they were upon begun to sink deeper into the manufactorum, their massive elavators lowering as he talked. "I wanted nothing more than to make simple things with you, things that would bring more joy than pain, things that would re-enforce mankind's greatness as a race of compassion and knowledge instead of survival and tenacity. For what can be said of us when all this is said and done, when the last spark of life goes out across the stars?"

The baneblades were fully submerged into their individual hangars, before blast-shutters completely sealed them below. Across the manufactorum troops begun to file out onto the floor, mechanically enhanced humans bearing the aquila gripping a tank crews helmet, the symbol and pride of the manufactorum. Row upon row of them begin to form, before finally they were followed up by the forms of gun servitors.

"It was really selfish of me to have had you come here one last time, to have given you the news in person. I think you should accept the training on Mars. You will spend ten years there and be more at one with machines than any of us here could have ever hoped to have achieved. The Omnissiah will keep a watch over you. We have already accepted the invitation in your stead. It is up to you to walk to the ship above in orbit. Call me sentimental Artisan Sameya Leonus but I really did wish we had met under different circumstances. Would we have been Magos and Artisan in those walks of life? Would we have shrieked in terror at the horrors we have made visited on countless worlds in the form of a Baneblade?" he said.

"You must hurry now, I have no ways to explain it. Follow your brethren, they are running out along the slag conveyors out back, and running along the storm drains to the main water area. We have blocked off the water flow but cannot for much longer. One more thing..." several mechendrites begun to flow out from under his robe, "I know it isn't much of a momento, but I made it for you this morning." Several mechendrites held a simple brass headband, the shape of it the cog-teeth pattern of the adeptus mechanicum, in the middle of it in sapphire inlaid brass, the symbol of their manufactorum. "Run along now, there is little need for words." as he said it, a group of people begun to walk through the main door. In several rows men and women were clad in the purply-blue robes that had mocked the red-wear of the adeptus mechanicus. A noticeable many were armed, as they begun to flood into the main work area. In the blink of the eye, everything that had been the daily life of the Manufactorum seemed suddenly missed.