Chapter 7.0 - Calling in the Coroner - IC

Cassiel was confident that the records of the Dark Angels were correct as far as the gender identity of their gene-father, so it was clear to him that she was not who she claimed to be, but it didn't actually change the immediate situation. She was dressed in ancient power armor, surrounded by records, and seemed to believe that she was allied with the Dark Angels. Allies were hard to find, while enemies were plentiful. There may come a time when Draco would have to turn their weapons on 'Liona' but it could wait until she had used her weapons in their cause. Surely she would try to gain their trust - even exceed expectations - but nothing could convince him that this lie was truth. That was the part that surprised him - if this had been a plot of the ruinous powers they would have made an effort to make their lie believable. The most likely scenario was where she believed the story to be true. Perhaps when the Sisters Soritas were founded there was en effort to make them true Space Marines - perhaps they were even given a female progenitor from the primarch's own body - and perhaps hypno-training convinced them that they were identical to the primarchs in every way except gender. Such an experiment must have failed and records expunged - her presence would probably count as heresy - but only if they escaped the Mortis Thule. For the moment it was enough that he didn't have to blast her with mass Reactive rounds. With luck this problem would resolve itself before they exiled from the hulk.

Cassiel abandoned high Gothic with it's emphasis on gender and relative status and switched entirely to low-gothic where the language lacked hierarchy.

"Apologies, my lord. Over nine thousand years the language has drifted. I will endeavor to avoid any misunderstandings but I beg your indulgence if I may slip. Please note as well that records have been lost to time and war and our recounting of events must differ from your eye-witness accounts in some ways. Your experiences will no doubt be of great significance to our archivists after we successfully conclude our mission. Lucius commands us on this mission and it is not my place to detail our full objectives, presuming even that I know them. Usually it is enough to know who commands and who is second in command and that we trust them to lead us to victory. I must leave it to him what he can safely reveal on enemy territory."

Turning to Lucius he concludes, "Commander?"

Ashmon thinking, The flesh is weak! I think not! But how can this be true? A person has been in statis for 90 centuries and in just a blink of an eye is battle ready and ready to fight.

Sends an internal message to Lucius. Captain, I am here to serve. I am confused by the circumstance but I am intrigued by it.

He then notices that Lucius is not wearing his helmet. In the name of the Emperor!

He turns to Lucius. "Captain, I am befuddled by this. But willing to help if needed."

Sapiens started working on the helmet in a bid to repair it. He also tried to recover at least a single loose strand of hair-genetic analyses.

"Language may drift, but for the phonetic, not the conceptual. Still, if this is not treachery we may be witnessing a rare event-the materialization of a potentiality. I have heard tales that "What could have been" would occasionally be expulsed from the warp; scholars where unsure if this was but a shadow of human imagination birthed from the immaterium, or something pulled from an alternate universe."

Sensing the Primarch's reflection in the Warp, the Librarian informs the rest of the Kill Team by their internal channel.

"I sense a significent Warp signature from the Primarch. I honestly have no idea what to expect from a Primarch but I report it for your information. Its best we tread very carefully with this one."

Hydrako was still watching the corridor, acting as rearguard, but his keen ears picked up every word that was uttered. To hear the claims of this Lionna set his teeth to grinding, and a new flood of blood to enter his mouth. Imposter was the only word that entered his head.

He didn't believe for a second this being was who she claimed to be, but true to his nature, he would keep silent and watch. He would note every movement she made, and wait for the right moment. She would slip up and the ruse would be broken. Then....there would be another trophy, or death.

Lucius took it all in. The visage of Lionna Johnson, a Primarch in every seeming way except for biological sex. The Novamarines were a rare breed of Guilliman's sons. They followed the Codex as a holy tome, but did not shy away from adapting and changing when the situation called for it - hence their eagerness to be forwarded to the Deathwatch. They held the blood of the Ultramarines, but were often considered his unorthodox sons.

This greatly influenced how he viewed this Primarch. To the Novamarines, the Emperor was a supreme leader, but not a God. To Lucius, there was every possibility that this being standing in front of them was the real deal. But he wasn't willing to completely let his guard down.

He also had a very good idea what some of his older brothers in the squad were thinking.

He flashed mild annoyance at Ashmon as the Tech-Marine mis-ranked him as "Captain." Perhaps it was simply an Iron Hand turn of phrase. He pushed it aside.

Addressing her directly, "My lord, what can you tell us of your mission parameters? Why were you interred in stasis in this ship and where were you headed? Any information you could provide could help."

If prompted, he would give limited information regarding Draco's purpose on the ship.

"We were headed back to Caliban after the fighting on Terra. I was going to reinforce my crusading legion with new aspirants before joining my brothers is scouring the imperium of the traitorous bastards. We were stuck in a warp anomaly.....the captain....my children....they brought me here but I can not recall why."

She shakes her head as if trying to clear her memory.

"What is the current situation? What is the ship status?"

"This is not a time to hold a tribunal to discover the truth, or lack thereof,", this last part delivered with an almost military staccato giving it a very slight emphasis, of memories millennia ago. Your captain and your children, even if they survived the warp anomaly they would still have died thousands of Terran Standard Years ago. What matters now is...NOW. Your ship has crashed into a graveyard of lost ships we refer to as a Space Hulk. Drifting in deep space they consist of hundreds, or in this case, thousands of vessels, occupied by wandering tribes of dangerous Xenos.

We are far behind enemy lines with no hope of resupply or evacuation in the near term. Our survival and our mission requires us to utilize everything we can scrounge for use as a weapon against an uncountable host of enemies. We investigated your ship and found you because we hoped to find a weapon we can use. Are you willing to come with us agreeing to fight by our side while we give you a more thorough debrief. Or are you committed to finding your own way?"

Cassiel knew his own chapter's history too well to completely believe her story, but there were many strange things in this galaxy not all of which needed to be destroyed for their heretical nature immediately. Either she would fight by their side and they would assess her capabilities or she would not and they would have to spend resources defeating her now. Even members of the Alpha Legion had been helpful until they revealed themselves and betrayed Draco. This 'Liona' would never merit full faith and confidence...very few could. No, nobody knew as well as the Dark Angels that nobody was ever beyond suspicion. Never again.

After a quiet moment of contemplation, she nods, "I am willing. Where are we going now?"

"We have several objectives to complete, but one of them is finding two lost Brothers aboard this Hulk. One is a Salamander, and the other is from a chapter you would be unfamiliar with called the Storm Wardens. Additionally, we are on the search for a piece of archeotech, something you might actually be familiar with should we come across it. But for now, we must continue plumbing the depths of this Hulk."

Lucius sent out an order over the squad comms in Draco-cant for everyone to check their battle-brother's kit and make ready to move out. There was an additional message to keep an eye on the Primarch.

"Affirmitive." Bleda vox back.

The Librarian follows the instructions to check battle gear, and thinks he's, happy, that at least the Team Leader seems to not have been enthralled by the Primarch and that the mission remains priority number one.

That's the way Bleda liked to do things.

Cassiel adds clarity to the given order it to the recently discovered Primarch. "Lionna Johnson, Primarch of the Dark Angels, per our orders we will be continuing in this direction," Cassiel waves in the direction they were heading before the encounter. "We don't know what we'll find next, but it might be that taking point might allow you to recover a memory of this place that will be helpful."

"Roger. May the Emperor protect and we find the objectives quickly." Ashmon voxed. As he touches the fallen brothers dogtags he has on his armor.

The warp is a dangerous place. Twisted xenos. Mad constructs of ships. Insane happenstance of history. Today is a good day to serve the Emperor of mankind. A small curl of one side of his lip, could even be called a smirk and then quickly goes away.

Khol stays silent and observes this whole situation unfold. He especially listened to the 'Primarch's' side of things, already comparing his own knowledge of the Imperiums history knowing his brothers are doing the same. Something isn't following through with Khol about this. Besides the point there's a female Primarch standing in front of them, which of itself difficult to accept, her story is lacking. A gut feeling started to emerge to confirm him that there's something wrong... Khol discreetly sends a warning in Deathwatch Ciphers over comms to everyone before they continue forward with their mission.

Lionna looks down the hall where Cassiel had indicated.
"Perhaps a walk will help my faulty memories." she says before beginning to walk down the corridor.
The pathways built here were just as maddeningly blank as they were from the other direction. There were rooms and structures that indicated they were built for astartes, but there was no real evidence that they had ever been used before.

"Where are my children..." Lionna wonders out loud, "There were some 81 of us that had finished clearing traitors from the station over Torm VII, what a cursed world."

The further away you get from the stasis chamber, the less astartes the structure becomes, but it was still silent clean and forboding. The endless halls and connecting corridors without any signs or variations would cause confusion even for you.

And the Primarch was not immune.....

Stopping at a 4 way path where every direction looked the same, she was annoyed at the endless, repetative walls.
"Vulkan told me once of a maze that Peturabo had constructed for the haunter to torture him. I dont know what I find more unbelievable that the Salamander escaped via a teleporting hammer across the galaxy or the Peturabo helped Kurze with anything."

"Dam this buisness" she says after a minute of indecisiveness.

Torm VII...no record of a system by that name. Though that didnt necessarily mean much. Though it was interesting that their name had changed, but not that of the other primarchs...

Still, the maze was...odd. Was this the remnant of a broken tenebro-maze? Was this some kind of warp-trickery?

Did this vessel have a tenebro-maze? I may be able to commune with the machine-spirits to open a direct passage.

Hydrako was chaffing at the mundane stroll they appeared to be taking. When they reached the intersection, his massive warplate came to a halt and he vocalised with hushed murmur to Lucius over the squad vox. Stasis has addled this one's brain, and I don't trust it. Send the scouts further on so we may keep moving. Any direction will do. Just A direction, Brother.

Taking the initiative, Grimnir moves ahead of the Primarch.
"I smell something ahead." he says as an excuse to take point.

The pathways were as winding and mundane as they have been on the way in. After some time, there were signs of habitation: trash and debris in the corners, Discarded tables, turned chairs. Soon after that you were back aboard the normal deck and not whatever that was.

"Well, we're back aboard the unaltered parts of the ship. We have a primarch with us. What are our orders? Do we keep searching the Magna?"

Hesitant to show indecision or hint of division before their new found company Bleda sends over the vox to the team.

"I would advice we focus on the mission. What we have found is already potentially a great find. Backtracking or seek out new instructions for our changed situation would take too much time, and regardless of our present company, our mission is already vital to the Crusade's efforts. We don't have unlimited time for unrelated explorations, least it be a matter of honor."

The Librarian left it hanging as to what he felt about diverging from their mission on the space hulk. They could spend their whole lives to explore the space hulk. But he left a final outway for re-connecting with Battle Brothers left behind on this hulk, as that would be a matter of honor for both the Kill Team, and he suspected, the older members of said Kill Team.