Editing Grimdark Tarzan (section)

== Chapter 10 ==

"As expected?!" Sister Superior Portia shouted, accompanied by a hacking cough, "What do you mean, as expected? I see nothing here, except blasphemous technology!"

"Now, now sister, do not strain yourself. We wouldn't want your wounds to reopen, now would we?"

"Explain yourself Inquisitor" she answered coldly

"I must explain nothing. But you have had a great role in my triumph, so I suppose you have a bit of a right to know. Tell me, do you recognize what's in these tubes?"

She glanced over the large chambers filled with amniotic fluid. For a moment, she did not know what the man meant, but then noticed that several inhabitants closely resembled the xenos that they had battled through to reach the Greystoke.

Tarzan pointed to several creatures while naming them, "Lepris, Goril, Elfan, Banib"

"Very good savage, you seem familiar with these creatures, and why should you not? I suspect that they are the inhabitants of this planet, or as would be more correct to say, what became the inhabitants of this planet. Bio-manipulation. An option that certain colony ships took to have the perfect servants. Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men, as they say"

Portia snarled, "You still have not explained the nature of your blasphemy, Inquisitor"

"Ah Portia, so direct, so simple minded. Can you not see the possibilities?"

"What, you do plan to grow your own troops? Your own Space Marines, perhaps? Blasphemer, that is the realm of the Emperor, and the Emperor alone"

"Space Marines? Me? Are you ridiculous? It is one thing to create these creatures and another entirely to have them obey you, as these 'Lepris' clearly showed," He place a hand on a glass wall and looked inward, triumph written on his face, "No, I shall use these to craft a new body for our great master, He who sits on the Golden Throne on Terra. I shall be hailed as the hero who saved the Imperium. Finally, the dreams of we Thorians shall be recognized" He raised a fist, doubtless imagining the glories and accolades that would be thrown his way.

"All I hear are the deluded ramblings of a madman," the Sister-Superior spat viciously
.
"Alas, you have no choice but to comply, unless you wish to be slain by my storm troopers that is." The reason that his personal troops had entered last became clear, the sisters turned around to see that the men had taken position around the entrance, their guns trained on their former allies, "The Inquisition shall be taking possession of this, with or without the blessing of your sisters"

At this, the magos let out a screech, "Yes, yes, not the deal that we had agreed upon, Archimede, but cheer up, you may have the scraps after we are done."

The inquisitor smiled at his former allies. "All those months on this cesspit of a planet, and finally it all pays off. Why, I believe I deserve a reward. Men, kill the savage, he has irritated me for far too long"

As Sister Janna ground her teeth, a storm trooper took careful aim at the deathworlder. Suddenly, Magos Archimedes screamed. Inquisitor Callen had disregarded the magos, thinking of him as only a particularly useful adept, forgetting that magi often achieved high rank over the remains of their enemies. Hateful binary reverberated through the helmets of the storm troopers, momentarily dazing and disorienting them. The shot went wide and harmlessly impacted on the floor.

The Adeptas Sororitas did not let their opportunity go to waste. Weapons appeared in their hands as if by magic, and they let loose on the storm troopers, unleashing the fury they reserved only for heretics. Three men died in the opening volley, and the remainder scattered for cover, their united front broken.

"FOOLS!" cried Callen, "Do you realize what you are doing? You will doom the Imperium to further millennia of suffering!" The Sisters ignored him, taking cover themselves among the stasis tubes, and returning fire wherever they saw an opening. Glass exploded all around, leaking fluid onto the floor and sentencing the inhabitants to death without the nurturing fluid.

The Magos advanced upon Callen unleashing more sonic screams while his mechandrites coiled with rage and hateful purpose. But the Inquisitor was ready this time, and was not nearly as taken aback. Bracing against the streams of binary, he returned fire with his pistol, wounding the magos's shoulder, but not slowing his advance.

Two more stormtroopers had fallen, but one of the sisters was out of ammo, and another was pinned by fire. Taking advantage of their concentration on her sister, Janna threw a "liberated" grenade their way. She had pocketed it in the aftermath of the battle, never thinking it would be used against those who fought alongside her.

One man dived out the blast radius, but another was caught unaware, his upper left torso quickly becoming a blackened and bloody stump.

It was now two against five, but the stormtroopers were not about to give up. A hellrifle blasted though the shoulder of a sister, putting her out of commission. Two against four.

The battle had not gone well for the magos. Although he had seemed the stronger of the two at the beginning of their fight, the Inquisitor was clearly the more experienced of the two. The magos lay collapsed at his feet as Callen gloated over his prone body, "This is for annoying me with your damn specimens all the ti-". He was suddenly interrupted by a flying tackle. Tarzan, biding his time, had seen his moment to strike.

Unfortunately, he had misjudged Inquisitor Callen's experience. Rather than simply try to struggle with Tarzan, who would have the advantage in positioning, Callen simply rolled away, and got to his feet. He pointed his pistol at the feral human and laughed, "Good try, good try, but alas, not good enough. Any last words, savage?"

"Yes. you favor left side."

"Wha-?" But Tarzan was already moving. With a curse, Callen let loose a shot and it impacted mere inches above Tarzan's head. He tried to aim and fire once more, but felt the sharp pain of a spear puncturing his stomach and lung. He looked forward with empty eyes, "Done in by a savage. Just my luck" then collapsed, vomiting up blood.

The death of their inquisitor shocked the storm troopers, who returned their attention to their battle to see Portia charging them with her sword raised. Her first strike sawed off a trooper's arm and leg, and her return stroke cleaved though the second's clumsy attempt to block with his rifle and cut into the artery in his neck. He clutched at the blood-flow, desperately trying to staunch it, but soon lost consciousness before dying. The first man, the one who had lost his limbs looked up to see a bolter pointed his way. He attempted to beg, but it fell on deaf ears.

Janna surveyed the destruction of the room. So many lives lost, but the enemies of the Emperor had been punished. She moved to help her wounded sisters and looked over to see Tarzan helping with the magos. He was too heavy for anyone else to carry.

Slowly, agonizingly, the few survivors made their way to the opening of the ship. There, Sister-Superior Portia, the highest ranking survivor, activated the homing beacon taken from the Inquisitor's corpse.

After a while, the shuttle finally arrived, having threaded a maze-like route through the treetops to make it to their position, and was greeted by a group of suspicious sisters. Witnessing the bloody carnage that remained from the earlier battle, no questions were asked, but still the sisters were on alert, in case the Inquisitor had hidden allies left alive.

When they returned to the ship, Archimede was returned to his fellow magi, and a few messages were sent along the astronomicon. These did not take as long to be answered as the previous calls for supplies, and brought along several inquisitors, enemies of a certain Inquisitor Callen