|| Cultist Cells — Baal ||Robarus Steelheart

  Screams, shouts, explosions.

  Robarus huddled bato the deepest, darkest er of his cage and hugged himself closely. Every new sound that echoed down into the dark tuhat held the cages weighed on his already straining nerves.

  The other prisoners, or should he call them sacrifices? Not that most of them were willing to accept their fate, but Robarus couldn’t fault them, her could he.

  He g a young mother iher er of the rge cage he was in. The poor woman looked no older thay-five a she was hugging a malnourished child close to her body protectively.

  Robarus only made eye tact with her ond that was enough to know where each of them stood, the woman would throw him in front of the ravenous cultist without a blink if it meant her daughter could live for another day et just one more bite to eat.

  The woman also seemed to uand the steel in his eyes, the desperate resolve to do anything to protect what was important to him. Some would ud him a heartless monster, but would he call himself that? No.

  Robarus was in love, and that love was worth more than anything in this war-ridden gaxy.

  He reflexively clutched the gem hiddeh his rags as a thunderous shockwave shook the caverns, whoever the people that were fighting with the cultists were, they were monstrous in strength and probably in nature too.

  Robarus overheard that Xes had been besieging Baal for weeks by now and the distinctive ck of shouts from the side that was not the cultists made him believe those same monsters had finally found them.

  He wouldn’t be missing the cultists, there was no p his heart for pity, especially for those who would hamper his quest.

  His quest.

  His hand trembled as it held that delicate gem, the beautiful gem that housed his love.

  He’d traveled through the stars, spoke with Witches, Farseers and even tried to bribe a Haemonculi. The tter two ended with increasingly disastrous results, but he couldn’t give up! All to feel her warmth again!

  He’d been traveling through the stars on his quest for a tury already, but if finishing it meant another tury, he’d keep his failing body together for it. Willpower was something he had plenty of.

  “We o get out of here,” he murmured under his beard, turning to the woman. “Woman, do you have a nail or something simir?”

  “Who- ah, eh?” the woman tur him. “Me?”

  “Yes, who else?” he said, letting his gaze wash over the rest of the prisoners in his cage. The cultists barely fed them enough to stave off starvation and somehow these wastend dwellers coped with that far worse than him, pathetic.

  “I do,” she blinked, quickly fishing out a slew of things from her ragged dress. A wire, a nail, a … bolt? The thing they used to hold sbs of rockcrete together. “Why?”

  “Only the cultists are screaming,” Robarus said as he snatched the things out of the woman’s grasp, there was an uandiween them. Robarus’d seen the woman snatch things up whehey were let out to do chores or for the cultists and she knew Robarus had the skill o pick the lock of the cage. He’d do before after all.

  “Oh, Oooh,” she hugged her daughter closer, looking into the darkness with an expression he couldn’t pce. Maybe a mix of fearfulness and resolute defiance.

  That is bravery. He could respect that, defying fate was somethiook pride in and he knew deep in his bohat one day, he would overturn them, even with all the odds stacked against him.

  They told him that getting her love back was impossible, that he should let her rest with her aors and find peace, that he was only endangering her with his as.

  Even the memory sent liquid fury flow through his veins, the very-same fury that kept him alive and going all this time.

  “Alright,” he murmured, crawling over to the lock like a cat.

  His fingers moved across the lock, trying to feel it out in the dim light. There, good. Old lock, that should be easy.

  The cultists thought for some reason that ging the locks would be enough to keep them from pig it.

  Robarus’ gaze darke that, he didn’t expect them to be knowledgeable enough to notice when a lock had been picked before. He calmed himself, another sin added to the long list and another mahrew before the dogs just to live another day.

  His fingers moved, bending the wire and stig the nail in just so and with an expertise eveeran thieves might envy, he opehe lock. He held it in for a moment once he heard the lock click open, straining his ears for any fuckwit cultist that might have heard it and came running, but there was nothing aside from the tinued anguished screams.

  Some screams cut off abruptly while others tinued on wailing until they either lost their voice or succumbed.

  Robarus tightened his jaw. He’d been in many tight situations, but this one there in his top five for sure, maybe even a tender for top oh that disastrous attempt at iating with the Haemonculi.

  Ever sihen, those monsters held the top spot for worst living things iend they were the reason he finally fully renounced his faith in the Emperor. If he owerful as he ortrayed to be, the Drukhari would anymore. Those things had nht to be alive.

  “e.” he waved at the woman. “If you want.”

  He wouldn’t go out of his way to help her, but he respected her bravery enough to give her the opportunity to save herself.

  She stumbled onto her feet and grabbed her daughter, lifting the skin and bones girl easily.

  What a sad sight. He thought, not that the se moved him enough to help her should his own freedom be threatened again. He’d been on his quest for a damned tury; it would not end in a den of blood-crazed lunatid her would it iomach of some Xe that crawled out of the ass end of the gaxy.

  He turned as he saw the woman stumble out of the cage, leaving the rest of the prisoners behind. The cultists already broke them, by then they remained little more than walking bags of meat and blood that did as they were told.

  Robarus khere were es in other caverns where the ‘fresher’ prisoners were kept, the ohat still held out hope, but he couldn’t waste time by going around and freeing them all. He didn’t want to either.

  They will be a distra for the beasts.

  With a st gnce behind him, into the caverns with some sembnce of light creeping down from them, he took off with the woman following a few steps behind him.

  They wouldn’t be able to lose the beasts, but maybe they could find a pce where they couldn’t be followed. There had to be a way.

  All the while, as he walked, his fingers softly caressed the glimmering gem under his ragged robe.

  Soon love, I promise.

  Soon you will live again.

  Selene Voss

  Something had to be wrong with her.

  Did she lose her mind somewhere aloravels with that annoyingly hot alien?

  Maybe it was the betrayal that broke her mind? Or was it the loss of the first person she could call a friend in her life?

  No, she was sane for a while after. She could make reasonable decisions back then and she certainly wasn’t shooting flesh-eating swarms of worms at cultists with a grin on her face.

  That was new.

  Was it being a Psyker? That supposedly ges even the most strong-willed people, and she didn’t even t herself among their numbers. Could it be that her new powers are ing her mind into something new? Was this why the bck ships were a thing?

  Was she being a rabid dog that would be in need of being put down?

  That couldn’t be.

  She could think straight, she could reason and she was sure that what she was doing was well within her trol.

  trol.

  She had trol over her life now and that of others’ without all the damned restris.

  Most thought rogue traders were the freest people in the Imperium and while that may be true, they had shackles of their own. She for one o keep her crey, fed, somewhat funing while making decisions that’d make or break the fates of all those people.

  She made herself be the ‘Captain’, she had to make herself be something she wasn’t and something she never wao be. She didn’t want to be a Rogue Trader, she wao be free for the first damime in her life.

  From strict upbringing, to Guard Academy to actual servid then into the seat of the Wanderer.

  She always lived for either a false ideal or for others.

  Was I always like this? Deep down, whehing that bound me is gone, is this what I am?

  She stared down at the hall, now filled with both lifeless and wailing bodies thrown around. Blood, guts and tangible pain coated the entire room, and she didn’t feel all too bothered by it.

  She poked one of the dead ones with her boots and the armour on her feet extend into the body, abs it and her mental ter went up a bit. It was addictive. Kill, Absrow, Repeat.

  With each kill, her stash of energy grew and with a rger stash, she could waste more of it.

  Selen hummed to herself, her helmet flowing over her head and a tracker her vision.

  “Oh, I knew I heard some runners,” she clicked her tohose must be the prisoners,” she he bundled up signatures of a good few dozen weak life signs.

  “But what are you three?” She narrowed her eyes at three signs going deeper into the ground, getting further and further away from her.

  She’d have thought they were ario of running cultists, but those three were much further than the cultists and their signatures were all weird. One weak, one average and one unnaturally strong.

  Then something pinged on her vision again, something oro of the three.

  Selene didn’t quite uand what the new sig, most of the signs were self expnatory on her HUD, but what was she to do with a glowing bright blue dot?

  Iing heless. I’m sure Ea would be ied … I should get it befoing after the runners. They are slow anyway.

  ‘Done’ I sighed to myself, feeling the surroundings of my extending soul-threads tip ge from slightly y to fully being in Realspace. The st stretch of it was hard to cross, and I really had to trate with all of my might. Every single speental power I had went onto keeping that flimsy soul-thread from breaking into a million pieces uhe winds of reality. Realspace really didn't like things breag into it without invitation it seemed, much less so when said thing came from the .

  Selene is lookihy. No danger signals ing in … good.

  I then followed that up by quickly cheg on all my ‘panions’ going for the less important ones first.

  Both Zedev and Valenith had some tiny tendrils crawling around in or on them somewhere so I could indulge in some stalking.

  Zedev was tirelessly anding his fading army of armoured vehicles, he might have started out with quite a lot, but he only had a hu most at this point. The Tyranids were really sending in all the remaining big-hitters they had.

  We should get back there and help soon … though, they are doing fine for now.

  Valenith was actually instrug the human guards and chatting with a damned Librarian of all things. Not Mephiston of course, but a Librarian.

  Not that I doubted the death-faced ination of the Dark Angel wasn’t paying attention to an unsaned psyker wandering around his fortress. He might even be able to pierce through his illusion … yeah, he probably could, but was doing nothing against the Eldar in their midst.

  Was that a metaphoriod of respee since he was my panion or a show of ‘I don’t even care for yames’?

  Oh well, the boys are doing fi seems, let’s get to the most important one.

  My soul-thread locked onto Selene’s armour and solidified into being, it might have been there before, but it took stant tration to maintain and now it just snapped into pce like the other o went fr to protect a dle-fme in a snowstorm to … well the metaphor kind of dies there, but it didn’t need proteg anymore. It was just there and mostly unbothered by the snowstorm.

  ‘Hi,’ I sent to Selene.

  ‘Hello?’ she sent back. She wasn’t aware that I was directly eg to her armour yet.

  ‘ I steal some of your energy please?’ I asked, mentally batting my eyeshes at her.

  ‘Sure?’ she nodded.

  ‘Thankies~’ I smiled to myself, taking trol of just enough energy te myself a new body.

  I only made it a simple human body though, I’d remake my Psyker Form ter from the Splinter Fleet’s worth of stash I had in my puddle. I left that stash there just in case something like this would happen. Hmm, I’ll take out maybe a … fifth of it? We are going to demolish Tyranids ter today, anyway.

  I trolled the tiny Eldritch tendril in Selene's armour and made it replicate itself with the energy. Then I ected my soul thread to those new little tendrils which sucked up my borrowed energy and jumped out of Selene’s body.

  Still mid-air, I reformed a simple human body that kept most of the looks I had in my Psyker Form. Then my silky clothes flowed over me and when my feet touched the damp rocky ground, they were basic white for now and looked simir to a female silk pants and shirt.

  Then I threw up a tiny psychic light and the dark cavern gained some mueeded illumination.

  “Nice,” I groaned, stretg my joints. I sighed as I felt that all too humaion, my Psyker Form had joints that didn’t pop and nor did they o as they were alerfed ready.

  “Umm,” Selene looked me over, her helmet flowing bato her armour. “Hi?”

  “Hi~,” I smiled at her, looking around for a bit. I didn’t really bother looking too muto what sort of enviro Selene might be in. “Well, look at that. Who are these three?”

  I tilted my head, three humans, one woman, one girl and an old man who was for too spry for his age. He was kig and squirming even as Selewo of his wrists together with a single armoured hand.

  “Wait,” I narrowed my eyes. My psychic powers were absolutely horrendous in this simple human body, but I still had some of my senses. I walked up to the old man, tinuing to kick at Selene’s shin as he hung there like a pieoked meat. “What an iing thing you have there.”

  He stiffened up, maybe hearing something in my purring tone, but when I reached for the source of what was radiating all that power under his robe he started kig with renewed fervor.

  “These were some of the prisoners?” I asked as I coated the man in a flimsy TK, holding all of his limbs and joints locked as they were. This much was barely straining even in this body.

  “Yeah,” Selen said, watg on with a glimmer of curiosity in her eyes. “These were the only ohat took the opportunity to escape.”

  “Hmm,” I grabbed the thing, feeling something gssy under my fingers and pulled it out.

  “DON’T TOUCH HER!” The old man screamed, spit flying all over the pd some even sliding down a thin barrier I threw up just before it went into my left eye. “TAKE YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF OF HER!”

  “Well, aren’t you,” I coughed, TK snapping his jaws shut. “As I was saying,” I gred at him. “You are quite passionate.”

  “That he is,” Selene nodded along. “Was he proteg that thing?”

  “I assume so,” I smiled. It was a beautiful blue gem with a slightly elongated orb-like shape that vibrated with Psychic power. “I always wanted one of these.”

  The man started frothing and straining against his bonds, not that a simple human could fight back against my Psychic strength even if all I had for a duit was a human body.

  “What’s your name?” I asked the maing go of his jaws.

  “FUCK YOU!”

  I locked them up again, tinuing to smile all the while. What an iing man, I think I uand Trazyn a bit. If I had a museum, I’d just lock this guy in time and put him in there. I smell the delicious story behind this.

  “What is his name?” I turo the woman, she shrunk back a bit at first, but quickly straightened her spine.

  “I don’t know,” she said, and I could tell she was telling the truth, which made me sigh.

  Then, the man started trembling as tendrils of Soul Energy pierced into his mind. Finding out his name was a child’s game, though I made sure it felt as unpleasant as possible while not actually damaging his mind.

  “Robarus,” I said, my mouth pulled into a tight line. Names in this gaxy be so fug dumb. “So Rob … nah. You are more of a Bob, aren’t you?”

  He gred at me.

  “Well,” I gri him. “This is going to be iing.”

  P3t1

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