Bathed in irony is the traitor. He who sees enemies in the place of his brothers and sisters seeks that which has been lost. Instead he chases the falseness of truth and forgets the refuge of faith.

- Mathias [1:40-42] Testament Luminus.

-//-

"Forward my sisters! In the Emperor's name cleanse this place!" Lady Mirabel barked through the vox.

With her voice in their ears, Squad Lorraine surged forth at the head of a column of Adepta Sororitas. Sweeping through and clearing the seemingly endless maze of tunnels surrounding Hive Celestia Secondus.

Bolters blasting doors off hinges, armoured legs kicking them down and flamers cleansing this place of traitor filth. The thoughtless sisters did not relent for a single moment as they left nothing but smoke and ashen ruin in their rush through the tunnels.

The squad came upon a T section. Rosetta, first among them, turned right, took aim and crouched while the rest of the squad ran on through, taking the left. A pair of men wandered into view, routing from the battle, if it could even be called that. Rosetta open fire at once, gunning them down in moments.

Once Gloria, the last of them, passed her by she stood up, staring down range a moment longer before spotting fellow sisters run across the hall. Then she turned about and rejoined the others as they stormed yet another barrack. Bolters barking and men roaring, the traitors rushed at them with all they had only to die like the rest.

Soon all fell silent under the distant rumbling roar of titanic guns on the surface as Rosetta moved up and took aim. With three shots down the side of a steel door she blew the hinges off and kicked the door in. She charged in with Cornelia and Lorraine following her in. All they found were boxes by the dozen.

Cornelia walked up to one with her sarissa drawn and stabbed it into its lock, busting the box open, studying what's inside. She sheathed her blade and picks up a ration pack, capturing Rosetta's attention as she looked at her, showing it. She scowled.

"Blessings of The Emperor... wasted."

"Leave it. We need to clear out these tunnels fast. Deny any sally against the knights on the surface," ordered Lorraine.

"Aye, milady."

She tossed it back in and left, Rosetta followed her out but paused and looked back at all the boxes, staring at them as she reflects on the day they have had thus far. She frowned.

"It's almost too easy" she muttered.

"Rosetta, move out" ordered Lorraine.

Rosetta did as she was told.

-//-

The earth rumbled as the Sisters rushed out of the tunnels and into the city beyond in their hundreds. Each one slowed to a halt as the ringing silence hung over them like an oppressive chill surging down their spines. Rosetta herself felt the cold in her core. It was a familiar one. She winced and shivered as her worst nightmares were wrought upon her eyes.

The Battle Sister froze, breathing heavily to focus her racing mind. Her armour became so heavy that it stayed her feet. An ocean of blood spawned at her feet, spreading to consume all her sisters. She tried to scream but fear bit her tongue and her armour was so heavy, so, so heavy.

A hand tugged on her shoulder and her head spun about in shock. Cassandra standing there with a hand on Rosetta's shoulder and her worry showing through the helm on her head.

"What troubles you, Sister?" She asked.

Rosetta looked around as the terror faded and her armour was light again. She loosened her stance with a deep sigh, looking around and seeing the same worry in all her sisters. She shrugs off the last of the fear off and cocks her boltgun.

"The silence, Sister. The silence is what bothers me" Rosetta answered.

Cassandra took her hand off of Rosetta and relaxed.

"Perhaps we have seen to the last of them" she suggested.

Lorraine looked around.

"No. It'll be simply madness to abandon a hive city like this. Be vigilant, Sisters. They're here somewhere."

Rosetta lifted her foot and took a step. Relief flourished within her. The feeling of bones moving, muscles pumping and purpose flowing through her veins overcame all others. It was not long before the squad marched on with her.

That's it. Keep moving, this too will pass.

There was nothing to fight in the hollow streets of the dead city. Few spoke as they pushed on and on. Pilling in through narrow streets and into a wide boulevard and all life was seeped out of the air as it became as stale and featureless as that of a cell.

A sudden chill embraced the core of every Battle Sister of the order and they froze, weapons raised, hunting for a foe. Soon the Sister Superiors urged their squads onward and they resumed their advance.

Rosetta winched as a deep voice echoed in the air. It's sound, harsh and rasp as it passed into her ear.

"Ecce. Veritas".

Behold. The Truth.

The skies turned black as night and darkness embraced them all. The vox lit up with chatter as Sisters turned blind and others spoke out in outrage. Rosetta's visor turned green, revealing the world several feet around her as she saw Cassandra, Glora and all the others slowly scan the surrounding city as the darkness consumed almost all light.

"Ecce. Iustitiae".

Behold. Justice.

The skies lit up with an ocean of fire. A cyclone of blazing bolts slammed into the Sisters from above. Rosetta could only watch as Cornelia and the others were blown apart where they stood. Obliterated piecemeal as explosive shells bore into armour and skin and detonated within their flesh by the dozen before the corpse could even topple over.

Rosetta roared and dashed for cover as shots hammered through her pauldrons and a single stray bolt blew apart her helm. She threw herself against a wall and huddled against it. Shots landed all around her, pinning her to the wall before the world slowed.

One moment she saw a grenade drop into view and the next, a blinding light blasted into her eyes as the explosion blew her away. She screamed, crying out in pain as she was forced through the wall, tumbling into a crater and over a ledge and into a ditch.

Instantly she felt her life ground to a halt, free falling as the storm of fire and death consumed all she knew and loved. There, she was a moment, a single impossible moment of mercy as a round flew right past her ear. Her back hit the ground hard ringing a quick yelp out of her.

And there her armour died. Falling silent with one last whing growl. It's power pack, cracked open by the weight of the armour, lost all functionality. Rosetta sighed as she felt its full weight pulling her down yet again.

She groaned as she forced her weary arms to move. Slowly by slowly, she unbound her armour, doing her best to ignore the godless hell erupting all around her. She gasped as her coat-of-plates opened up and released her. Shedding the last of the plating, she rolled out of the suit and into the shadows, silently slipped away into the sewer.

She climbed through tunnels left open in the rubble only to freeze as she glimpsed through a bullet hole and saw a giant of a man standing nine and a half feet tall in the distance. He had his back to her, watching the flames through glowing, blood red lenses as the light flickered over the midnight blue of his armoured plates and the bone and crimson of bat-winged skulls on his pauldrons.

"Ecce. Nocte Dominorum".

Behold. The Night Lords.

It held half a Sister in its hand. The woman writhed and wept her last, clawing fruitlessly at his arm until she wasted away and died. With no effort he tossed her body into the flames, turned about and wondered off.

Run.

The word hung in her mind and could not be ignored. At once, Rosetta took off, sprinting into the tunnels of the city's underground and hid in the darkness. Pausing only to take a few precious breaths before fleeing further into the sewers like a rat through the filth of a human world.

-//-

Right

At once Rosetta turned to her right, running down a new tunnel. She can hear the heavy thud of armoured boots in the distance. They were hunting her. Her a mess of fear and maddening desperation clouded her thoughts. Following the guiding hope these instructions hanging on the forefront of her mind seemed without pause for sense nor reason.

Left

She turned left as she came upon a T section and explosions rumbled in the distance far behind her. Like a little child, she wept tears hot with despair and ran. She begged the emperor for something, anything to take her far far away from here. The words were the answer. They were the key. She followed them with all her heart.

Right.

She took the next tunnel right and kept on running; eventually slowing to a halt before a brick wall. Her heart sunk, drowning in her dismay, as she threw herself at the wall, shaking hands feeling their way around it, so utterly desperate for an answer. Then the bright sight of metal painted yellow caught her eye. She looked and found a ladder leading through a manhole both above and below it.

Down.

At once, she dashed for the ladder and held onto its sides, allowing herself to slide down, deeper into the depths of the underhive. Then she hit an iron cover. The way was bar and she dove at it, clawing at its rim to pry it open. It took her moments before her fingers slipped and she fell onto her back, panting. She laid there looking around. There she found an intersection nearby.

Ahead.

She stood up and began to walk, her battledress reduced to rags fluttering in the sewer wind. She made her way ever onward. With what meager strength she had left, she stumbled with every step. Mind set on running, following the only minuscule glimmer of hope echoing throughout her head she persisted and stepped into darkness.

She yelped as she tripped on a steel bar and fell onto jagged stone. She cried out in pain as she bruised, cut and scrapped herself all over. Defiant to the last, she planted her hands and knees in the dirt and tried to left her body back onto its feet. They pushed, they strained, then they trembled and she groaned as she squeeze every last bit of strength in her to move.

She dropped to the floor, panting and coughing.

Is this the end? Pathetic.

White-hot tears of outrage and despair flowed from her eyes as she rolled onto her back and accepted her fate. In a moment of clarity she chuckled.

Oh, Aura. What am I doing here? Following hope?

She closed her eyes, coughed, laughed, and readied herself for the end.

Such a waste. Pathetic. Utterly pathetic.

Is that what you think, Sister?

Rosetta's shot wide open, darting around to find the source of a familiar voice. She tilts her head and looks directly up only to gasp at an impossible sight. A beautiful, beautiful adolescent girl approaching her with hands behind her back and a smile. She bore perfect pale white skin, silver hair and shinning, shimmering silver eyes.

Rosetta's heart thumped against her ribs and her tears flowed once more as her hands covered her mouth.

Aura?

She knelt before Rosetta's face and embraced with two loving hands. Through them warmth flowed as she kissed Rosetta in the forehead, making her gasp as all became peace in her warm embrace.

"By the throne... I-impossible".

She reached out to touch the child. Aura greeted her with that gorgeous smile as Rosetta gently clasped her cheek and trembled. She felt skin so warm and overflowing with vitality. She cried with tears of jubilation as her wounds disappeared. Her pain, her exhaustion, her starvation, all of it was washed away in the purifying flame of the child's touch.

Aura watched on with a smile as Rosetta rejoiced, gawking back at her in utter awe.

-//-