Cassandra Ellanosta, Renegade Sister Militant

"I was born on a Throne-forsaken hole of a world. Its name is Peribos and it's a forge world of the cogbo- Adeptus Mechanicus. They specialize in the production and installation of cybernetics, like this cursed thing." She holds up her left arm and beneath the robe you can briefly see the glint of a silver arm before she pushes the sleeve back down. "Because those aren't the kind of thing you can just pack up and ship to a warfront, the different branches of the Imperial government all get embassies on the planet. The Guard, the Navy, the Administratum... you name the group and I'd bet they've got at least a hut somewhere on Peribos. I was born and raised in the Ministorum compound.

"My mother was a firebrand preacher. Picture in your mind the most impassioned service you've ever attended, double its intensity, and that was my mother when she wasn't preaching. Her passion was always the commoners. The backbone of the Imperium. Without the labor of the average Imperial citizen, everything would fall apart. After all, the Emperor isn't just the lord of soldiers or priests, He's the lord of all mankind. You see, the citizen working in the manufactorum is every bit-" She glares at you as she notices the glazed look appearing on your eyes. "Alright, I'm off topic, but we're coming back to this later.

"I never knew my father. He wasn't around by the time I was born, and my mother was already pregnant with me when she arrived on Peribos, so nobody in the compound truly knew who he was, either. My mother wouldn't speak of him, though rumors abounded (as they always did in that awful place). I'm not going to bother repeating any of them here, except for the one I believe to be true: that he was a member of the Emperor's Holy Inquisition. My mother often vehemently denied other rumors, but she never denied this one. As a little girl, if I studied well in the scholam and said my prayers dutifully, she would tell me fantastical tales of valiant Inquisitors, rooting out the enemies of the Emperor wherever they lurked. As I got older, I realized that some of these stories she made up, but others I was able to find at least passing corroboration for in the Ministorum records. It was really the only thing that could get me into those moldy old stacks.

"Growing up, there was no question that I would follow in my mother's footsteps and become a preacher. However it was not meant to be. As a child I often got into fights with other children about proper adherence to the Imperial Creed. It was... not uncommon for these fights to turn physical, often because the other child would fail to see what they were doing wrong. While much of this was likely due to my sparkling personality, the other Ministorum and scholam officials blamed my mother's impassioned sermons. Things came to a breaking point when I was twelve. I caught a boy burning a purity seal and beat him so badly that he was in the care of the Hospitallers for three weeks and ended up needing one of Peribos' famed augmetic eyes. The little grox-shit had it coming. With this incident, the Ministorum had what it needed to get rid of me. The message came down the next day: I was to be sent off to the other side of the galaxy to join the Sororitas Order of Our Martyred Lady. My mother was furious. She marched down to the head office and I didn't see her for the rest of the day. When she came back, she had an exhausted, yet victorious look about her. She told me that I would not be leaving the planet, but would instead enlist as a Sister Militant cadet with the resident Mission, which belonged to the Order of the Crimson Blade. She never spoke of how she accomplished this, though after that day it seemed as though some of her light had faded. I hated myself for making her do that. I guess I still do." Cassandra stares into the fire, silently remembering. The seconds stretch into minutes until she seems to notice that you're still there. Her mouth twists into a snarl and she leans back, resuming her tale.

"Being a sister militant had never been on the plan for me, so at first I was lost. I had never picked up a weapon before my first day, which was 10 hours of weapons drills with a variety of instructors including the Palatine herself. I came away from that first day covered in bruises and nursing an arm I was fairly certain was broken. That night, I prayed to the God-Emperor for guidance, and when I slept I dreamt a dream of fire and blood. When I awoke, I knew what I had to do, and I decided to embrace my new path. If this was what the Emperor had chosen for me as the way to serve Him, then I would give it my all, just as I did my Ministorum studies before.

"To my surprise (and those of the senior Sisters as well), I found a natural aptitude with the chainsword, though I shunned the more 'refined' techniques that the instructors tried to teach me. My personal style was more brutal, fueled the fire of my faith. If my destiny were to purge heretics, then there would be no quarter given, no mercy allowed. Once it became clear that weapons training was becoming a reward instead of a punishment, the Palatine looked for other, less savory duties for me. Eventually, she discovered my distaste for the Mechanicus and their 'Machine-God'. There is only one true God of Mankind, and any that say otherwise are little better than heretic scum. Of course, once she learned of this, she immediately 'promoted' me to the position of contact point between the Sisters and the Skitarii tech-guard stationed near the embassies."

"This is how I learned of what would lead to my excommunication. During one meeting with the Princeps, I... accidentally discovered and read a report about a cell of hereteks holed up in an area not far from the compounds. The tactical conclusion was that the Skitarii were stretched thin dealing with some raiders farther out in the system, and that crushing the hereteks was not worth the cost at the time. That didn't sit right with me. One does not simply ignore heresy. I copied the report to my data-slate, and kept it in mind, just in case. Little did I know that an opportunity would soon present itself.

"In the time since my induction, the Palatine had grown more and more frustrated with my unwillingness to break and submit to her will, and she devised ever more harsh punishments and assignments for me. I knew that I would never be able to serve the Emperor in any meaningful way if I continued to stay beneath her thumb. I needed a way out. Not long after I discovered the report of the hereteks, I learned of a visitor to the planet: one Inquisitor Yannick Amibari. This was my chance to escape and do good work in the galaxy. But, I knew from the stories that Inquisitors only recruited the most worthy to their retinues. I would have to do something to prove myself.

"I began by breaking into the Order's armory and stealing as many explosives and spare prometheum tanks as possible. Next, I commandeered the Palatine's personal Rhino transport and loaded it to the hatches with the explosives. Now, I'm not trained in the operation of Imperial vehicles, but it doesn't take much learning to ram a tank into a gate, and that's just what I did. The hereteks were taken completely by surprise, having not detected any troop mobilization, they were not battle-ready. The fighting stretched throughout the night, but by the time sun rose, the hereteks were no more. I did not escape unscathed, however." She nods to her left arm, and brushes her organic fingers over the scar on her face.

"As you might imagine, the Palatine was not pleased. She immediately called for my arrest, but I had anticipated this, and by the time the call went out, I was crossing the tarmac to the Inquisitor's shuttle. Bloody, one-armed, and covered in soot and machine grease, I knelt before her and offered my fealty. She stared silently at me for what felt like hours before gesturing to two faceless storm troopers nearby, who grabbed me and dragged me farther into the shuttle." Cassandra checks her chrono, stands, checks her gear, and kicks dirt onto the fire. "They tossed me into a cell, and I knew that I would soon be returned to face judgement. I stayed in that cell for twenty days, and every day I prayed to the Emperor for guidance and forgiveness. On the morning of the twenty-first day, an acolyte entered my cell and presented me with an Inquisitorial crest." She draws her ornate chainsword from the scabbard at her hip. "At that moment, I knew that the Emperor had finally smiled upon me and that my path is righteous." With a smile twisted into a grimace by the scar across her lips, she thumbs the ignition switch and the sword roars to life.