Apparently at this very moment there were a few active world-ending warheads nearby. I recalled seeing a chilling vision where half of Nusquam was obliterated by something inside the vault, and these must be the culprits.

  After dropping that mortifying information in a very matter-of-fact manner, Kryptorer continued his explanation. ‘The barrier warned us of immediate detonation should we continue, or fail to present a proper credential within twenty four hours, of which we still have twenty hours…’

  ‘Wait, hold on,’ I interrupted with a raised palm, ‘let’s start from the beginning. And before that, who is your new girlfriend?’

  Kryptorer gave me this questioning look until I pointed at the female Tech-priest standing close behind him. To avoid embarrassing myself, I already ran a quick [Analytica] on her and confirmed we had never met before. Now that I got a closer look, she was definitely a high-ranking individual.

  Standing about six feet half in height, she looked quite unconventional for a Tech-priest. Unlike many of her fellow post-humans, she retained the overall curves of what must have been once her human form in a fusion of technology and femininity. A crimson robe with intricate Martian designs draped tastefully over her gleaming augmetics and cybernetic frame. Beneath her hood was a featureless, smooth mask of polished chrome, while furbished mechadendrites coiled and shifted from her back like metal serpents. Even her badge of office—the Omnissian axe—looked more intricate and sleeker in design than the other examples present. I got the impression she was an individual who took pride in her appearance.

  ‘She is neither logged as a girl nor a friend in my register, a more suitable term would be an associate,’ Kryptorer explained before starting his belated formality, ‘you two have not met, allow me to introduce to you the highest ranking Tech-priest on Nusquam, Fabricator-Praefectus Magos Callina Theta 6-7. She is responsible for the limited production and maintenance of key Imperial and military assets on the planet.’

  Callina greeted me with a light bow, the shifting of her featureless head reflected by the dim lights. ‘Lady Syrine, the prophesied Holy Daughter. It is an honour to finally meet you.’ As expected, she even sounded classy, her voice carefully tuned to her overall aesthetics.

  ‘Nice to meet you, magos,’ I replied with a nod. It was clear to me Kryptorer did not share any of my information than necessary with her, that was to be expected from a Tech-priest with their secret hoarding habits.

  But why is she here?

  Just as I was wondering Kryptorer’s reason to involve Callina, he offered a simple answer. ‘Magos Callina’s participation in this venture had become a necessity when we needed to procure specialised excavation equipment.’

  ‘Cyclonic Torpedoes? Care to explain?’ Thaberus cut in, his voice slightly distorted by his rebreather. It was apparent he was acquainted with Callina and his patience ended immediately after our brief pleasantry.

  Kryptorer turned to the inquisitor and nodded. ‘It is just ahead and best for you all to witness for yourselves.’

  Following the Tech-priests we moved further into the final stretch of the tunnel, passing by ranks of heavy battle servitors that momentarily made it felt like a twisted version of a cyborg royal procession. Finally, at the very end of the tunnel a massive blast door came into view.

  Looking straight up like the entrance to a secret underground lab in a sci-fi movie, the door that looked big enough for a Leman Russ tank to drive through was a relic of Mechanicum craftsmanship that endured the ages. Dominating its center was an enormous emblem of the Mechanicum: a stylised half-human, half-cybernetic skull encased within a great cogwheel. The millennia had darkened the metal with erosion, yet the grim insignia remained unyielding, guarding the vault’s entrance. A laser fence had been set up a distance away from the huge door itself while half a dozen Kataphron Destroyers guarded the line. As we got closer, a disturbing sound could be heard.

  ‘That fence marks the point of triggering the barrier,’ Kryptorer warned. Soon we were close enough to properly hear the sound from the door. It was… crackled words, distorted, as if spoken through a vox long past its breaking point. I could just make out the message.

  ‘Attention! Unauthorized access is forbidden, self-destruct sequence T-minus 20 hours to activation. Authorisation required to abort. Present proper credential to halt the rite of destruction and gain passage. Warning: Unsanctioned breach attempts will trigger immediate detonation. Unsanctioned breach attempts will trigger immediate detonation. Compliance is mandatory.’

  It repeated one more time before pausing slightly, then started the same message again but in binary, confirming what I heard earlier.

  ‘I see, that’s troubling,’ I said.

  ‘You can understand the gibberish?’ Thaberus sounded surprised.

  ‘Wait, you can’t hear the message?’ I asked while looking around. From Diadinah, Alicya to Welminah, everyone’s muted reaction told me their unspoken answer.

  It was Niandra who cleared up the confusion, her dispassionate voice sounded almost cold in this strange place. ‘Not everyone has a transhuman level of hearing. I can barely catch it myself, it is a warning.’

  Oh, right.

  ‘Let me fix the audio and play it through via my servo-skull,’ I announced and quickly simulated what the message should sound like on a working vox and played it through Solace. After the warning reverberated properly for the first time for all to understand, the dire situation became apparent to all.

  Kryptorer lowered himself to me again and asked, ‘my lady, any chance you have regained your memory on how to proceed?’

  I felt my head going numb but confessed the truth. ‘I am sorry, I have nothing on this. But let me try something else.’

  Slowly I walked towards the huge blast door until I was at the edge of the laser fence. While I dared not use [Auspex] in fear of triggering something, an infiltration with astral projection should be beyond the detection capabilities of most Mechanicum tech from 10,000 years ago. I accessed the control of my suit and locked down the muscle fibres that enabled me to remain standing even while unconscious. Controlling my breathing, I slowly slipped my consciousness out of my body.

  The first thing I noticed was the deafening sound, or rather, a vibration that was more felt than heard. Light—blinding, radiant, ever-shifting—exploded in endless waves around me, crackling with the raw fury of something immeasurably vast. Colours beyond mortal sight bled into one another, twisting into violent ribbons of luminous agony. The place felt like the bottom of a huge waterfall, the psychic pressure unbearable. A roaring, ceaseless tide of psychic force slammed into me from beyond the barrier. Even when I was just a drifting will, the crushing weight pressed into me as if I had lungs to drown.

  I tried pushing forward, but it was like swimming up a waterfall that had no top or bottom. Looking closer, I noticed another barrier of those black stones encasing the whole actual vault, funneling the outgoing energy in a focused stream through the seams of the door. This might have worked before the beacon was activated, now it seemed impossible. I gave up, returned to my body and gasped from the unpleasant experience. Turning around, I walked back to the group of important people.

  ‘Seems like the only way forward is for me to test the barrier,’ I announced.

  There was a short moment of silence before Kryptorer spoke up. ‘By the Omnissiah, we are all here because of your guidance. Despite numerous setbacks and operational deviations, your directives have remained within optimal parameters at every juncture. Probability of failure at this stage approaches statistical insignificance.’

  ‘Should the most improbable event occur resulting in catastrophic detonation, rest assured none here will suffer,’ Balpradus said flatly.

  Magos Callina chipped in. ‘Affirmative. Transonic blast waves from hypocenters move faster than organic synapses can register, and would instantly disintegrate everything in its path. Pain, or any sensation, would be impossible. Electrochemical signals would be obliterated before they could even form.’

  ‘That would never happen,’ Diadianah declared her conviction, ‘we have total faith that Lady Syrine is the ordained person authorised by the God-Emperor Himself to retrieve whatever is inside this vault.’

  ‘This can have a very far reaching impact,’ Thaberus said with a decisive tone. ‘Despite the risk, as the representative of the Holy Inquisition I will see this through. Though duty demands I make the minimal contingency arrangement. So wait for a while before proceeding.’

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  In a nutshell, the Mechanicus-gang was dead set to proceed, for them it seemed illogical to fail at this point; although I had a suspicion Kryptorer might have backup copies of his brain somewhere if this literally blew up on his face.

  For the Sororitas it was dead simple, their blind faith in their God and total trust in me would see them march into the unknown unflinching, whereas Thaberus was duty bound to witness this. With the clock ticking, truthfully speaking there were not many options left.

  I noted the irony that only the pale-faced civilian specialists accompanying the inquisitor and myself seemed concerned about what we were about to do. These guys at the far end of our group randomly shot nervous glances at the door, the edges of their rebreather visors fogging up with rapid breathing.

  ‘Mei Jie, please do a card reading with Lady Syrine while I arrange the contingencies,’ Thaberus said while walking towards the one stormtrooper with a vox unit.

  The old psyker nodded, put down a long cylindrical case that was strapped to her back. She opened it and slowly took out what appeared to be a rolled up praying mat. After unrolling the mat on the stone floor, she settled on top of it in a proper seiza posture, occupying half its space before producing a very solid looking small box from one of her bags. From the box Yeehai unpacked a deck of premium-looking cards. I watched in fascination as she murmured a short prayer before shuffling the deck, the cards shifted and turned between her aged hands with practiced ease.

  I noted the second biggest irony of the day: with all the Tech-priests and high-tech equipment at our disposal, we were resorting to card readings to predict what will happen next.

  ‘You are well versed with the Emperor’s Tarot?’ I asked.

  ‘While I am no full-fledged theomancer, at times my meager divination has proven useful in providing hints on how best to proceed in scenarios of uncertainty,’ Yeehai answered as she continued her shuffling. While her cards appeared superb in quality, they looked a tad bit too mundane from what I had expected. I could not help but ask another question.

  ‘Aren’t these supposed to be some sort of liquid crystal?’

  The old psyker smiled, the wrinkles on her face contorted in amusement behind the huge transparent visor of her rebreather. ‘My lady, if you are referring to the psychoactive wafers, unfortunately those are well beyond my ability to procure.’

  It was mentioned that those wafers were superbly elaborate works of art hand-crafted by specialist scribe-artists, and the most uber versions literally took a scribe’s entire lifetime to finish. As I reviewed the lore in my head, a part of my mind caught on to Thaberus’s voxing. He was waiting for someone to pick up his call. Being this close and stuck in such a confined space made the signal extra clear for the living-weapon part of me to just listen in. It was then that Yeehai presented me with her shuffled deck.

  ‘Please pick three cards. The first symbolises the past, the second the present and the third hinting at the future.’

  I looked at the deck and just picked three at random. The old psyker carefully put the three selected cards on the empty half of her mat by sequence. Slowly she turned over the first card.

  ‘The Astronomican, very fitting.’ Yeehai nodded.

  The first card depicted a massive lighthouse stretched infinitely upward into a void of swirling stars. Around its edges, countless ghostly figures drift like moths toward its glow.

  ‘What does it mean?’ I asked.

  ‘Guidance, foresight, the Emperor’s light and… probably this very place. Everything that leads to this point. A strong indicator that this session is potent. Let us see the next card for our current situation.’

  Yeehai flipped the second card and it showed a massive towering shield with a golden Aquila inscribed on its centre, and purity seals decorated around its edges. Behind the shield stood a warrior clad in unidentifiable heavy war plate. Gun fire and flames rained down, but none breached the glowing shield.

  ‘The Aegis.’ The psyker nodded and started to explain again. ‘Unbreakable protection, a steadfast guardian, faith holding strong…’

  On the other side, a person finally picked up Thaberus’ call. My attention seamlessly split to tune in to both Yeehai’s explanation and the inquisitor’s conversation.

  ‘Sir?’ A voice answered. I knew that voice, it was Amael, the second-in-command interrogator.

  ‘Listen, I will say this just once. Code Black Phoenix. How long?’

  There was a deep breathing followed by a brief silence, then came a hushed reply. ‘Twenty minutes.’

  ‘You got thirty. The Emperor protects.’

  ‘By His glory, I will see you later, sir.’

  As Thaberus’ conversation abruptly ended, my full attention went back to the cards and I asked my question. ‘So, do you think this card directly represents the barrier in front of us?’

  Yeehai shrugged. ‘At times the cards might indicate things literally, but it is always advisable to examine the subtler meanings. Let’s see the last card to reveal what the future holds.’

  She turned over the last card, it revealed a gloomy inverted card that featured a disturbing cloaked figure whose face was completely obscured, faint red eyes gleaming in the shadows of a deep dark hood. No matter how I looked at it, this particular card had nothing to do with a happily ever after ending.

  ‘The Harbinger.’ She even pronounced it with an ominous tone.

  ‘Bad news?’ I asked, expecting the worst.

  The old psyker took a deep breath, totally looking the part of a troubled seasoned soothsayer and explained. ‘That depends, this symbolises either secrecy, hidden knowledge, or revelation. Being upside down, it may also foretell disaster, betrayal, or an uncomfortable truth that must be confronted.’

  I felt a deep chill and looked at the card closely. In it both the hooded figure’s hands were outstretched, one holding a dagger that dripped with inky darkness, while the other clutched an Imperial sigil that cracked down the middle.

  I voiced my observation. ‘Correct me if I am wrong, but I remember none of these cards in the Emperor’s Tarot.’

  ‘You are correct, my lady. Most of the major arcana in my deck are customised and unconventional.’

  Thaberus joined in at this point, he took a look at the three cards and nodded. ‘At the very least nothing points at a world-ending event. You can begin after thirty minutes.’

  ‘So fast? There is still some time, why not expand the scope of contingencies and maybe some evacuation?’ I asked.

  He shook his head. ‘Have you seen before the madness of a world that knew it was facing imminent destruction? No? By the grace of the Throne, neither have I in person, yet. But I have read enough reports to know if such news escaped to the masses, regardless of what happens next, countless will die in the ensuing panic.’

  ‘So what was your contingency?’

  The inquisitor paused shortly before answering me. ‘Basically just Amael dropping everything to pick up the most valuable members of my team before flying to the stratosphere, then staying in a holding pattern until we got through this, or otherwise. A lone overworked interrogator grabbing his companions for a joy ride is much more subtle than all the important people suddenly breaking for orbit.’

  Can’t argue with that, I would imagine for Amael the list of limited people must have included his girlfriend Herlindya, so the fella must be just close by around the capital.

  ‘Based on your past experiences, how accurate do you find this prediction in depicting critical events?’ I changed my topic.

  ‘They are surprisingly accurate… most of the time.’

  Great, just great.