Editing Ghosts of Rage (Warhammer High) (section)

=== The Dark Heart of Nenavist ===

To cut costs and increase productivity, the Mechanicum had to come up with a way to make workers sleep as close as possible to their work area without having to travel much. That is when they thought ot the idea of using the space left over from mining to create habitat structures within the ground. This way, all the workers would need to do was descend deeper into the mine every shift to continue work. The idea was applauded by the ruling priesthood and hated by miners around the galaxy.

Living in such a structure was usually dark. They had no windows to speak off and very little sunlight other than ones from artificial sources. It was cramped and poorly ventilated, making tensions rise very easily. It was very much a hellish place to live.

Furia walked up to the above portion of the structure, which was nothing more than a small building that held the elevators down. Beside the building was two service elevators side by side, used to bring large machines down and minerals back up. One of the lifts was easily a hundred feet wide and long, making for a reasonable large area.

Walking into the small structure, there was three lifts and a ladder hatch down for emergencies. No one else was in the area, making Furia a bit more than wary of the situation. Pressing the nearby button to call the lift, she waited patiently till one of the doors opened. The cabin was empty as she walked inside. Looking over the many floors of the structure, she saw one button was worn out more than the others.

“Why not,” she said to herself as she pressed it. The lift groaned as it began to move downwards.

Several minutes passed in silence as the lift descended further and further into the ground. Furia wasn’t sure if it was the lift being slow, or the habitat was that deep.

Eventually, the machine slowed down and came to a stop. A loud ding announced she had arrived as the door opened in front of her.

Several large men turned and stared at her. Furia wouldn’t have minded another fight, but this time they all sported autopistols and shotguns. She was clearly not in a winning position.

Several minutes later, she was escorted down a long hallway by several large guards, all well equipped with close combat weapons and firearms. Not only was she surrounded, but they had also restrained her hands with makeshift handcuffs, welded together by them apparently. Even with her super strength, she wouldn’t be breaking these easily.

As expected, the living conditions in the habitat were quite low. The hallway seemed dirty, lights needed to be changed. The air seemed stale in taste, as if it hadn’t changed in a long time. She didn’t even want to talk about the smells. She had spent time on a prison ship and even this seemed to surprise her.

They passed numerous other people who stood in the hallway, watching them walk by. Most of the stares lingered as she saw no other females so far. No one made a move though as her escorts made it quite clear she wasn’t for taking.

“So where are we going?” she asked eventually. None of the guards answered her as the pushed her. “Guess you guys don’t speak gothic huh.”

“Shut up,” a guard in front of her said. She grinned slightly.

“Make me,” she challenged him.

The lead guard stopped, and the rest of the escort did as well. The large dark skinned man turned and stared at her. He moved up to her slowly, breathing down unto her face. He was as tall as she was, something she actually found to be impressive. He stared at her for several long moments.

“Maybe you should keep that mouth shut before I do it myself.”

“I’d like to see you try,” she said. The man’s arm flexed as she anticipated a punch, but none came. “What, you scared?”

It was clearly getting to the man as his face twitched for a moment. “No. But the boss doesn’t want me to kill prisoners. Makes for poor sport.”

The man turned around and continued walking. One of the guards behind Furia pusher her as she started to move again. She realized that they wouldn’t kill her just yet, somehow needed her for other purposes.

It was after couple more minutes before the hallway ended to a double door. On top of the doorway was a sign that said “Recreation Room”. The leader of the pact knocked. A second later the doors opened as armed guards stood at either side of the entrance, ushering them in.

The room was quite large as this seemed to be the gathering point for that level of the habitat. Furia glanced around quickly, trying to gather as much information as possible, mainly an escape route. Unfortunately, there was at least twenty other men in the room, mostly armed. They covered all the entrances and seemed to be keeping an eye on her.

In the center of the room as a large table with several people around it. Most of them looked alike except for one man who stood out, wearing a blood red robe and had a very peculiar tattoo on his bald head. She had never seen the symbol before which was symmetrical through its middle axis and was imprinted with red ink.

The man looked up and stared at her as she was brought up to the table. The men around the table turned to look as well, following what was obviously their leader’s gaze.

“Who is this Kortal?” the man in the red robe asked.

“Intruder who came from the elevator. She fits the description from the patrol earlier.”

The leader turned to look at her. “You? You are the one who fought my men and made them act like spineless cowards?”

Furia smirked at that. “Yeah, it was easy.”

The red robed man returned the grin and nodded. “Confident as well as strong. That’s good.” He walked around the table and approached her. “Who are you girl? You look strong, a fighter. An imperial spy like the rest or something else entirely?”

Furia stared at him, and he did not flinch away. “Yes, something more perhaps.”

“She’s a guard from the Gradgral!”

All heads turned to the other side of the room, where a familiar group of men stood together. It was the prisoners that were unloaded with the shuttle today. They all seemed to remember her as well.

“She came down with us on the shuttle. She can’t be trusted.” The prisoners in question was a skinny man who she recognized to be part of the Iggies back on the Gradgral. Or so she thought, as his tattoo had been recently burned off it seems.

“A guard? Come to take your prisoners back home?” the man beside her asked.

“I don’t give a shit about them. I didn’t come here to cause trouble. I came for answers.”

The man shrugged. “You aren’t in a position to ask for anything. In this place, I am king. Take her to the cells, I will decided on her fate later.”

Before she could say anything, the man called Kortal stepped in front of her and pushed her away. She growled at him, but a shotgun convinced her to shut up and be polite for the time being.

After another silent trip, this time down the elevator a couple levels, they arrived to what she could only surmise to be the ‘prison’. She used that word carefully, as it was nothing more than a room that had been transformed by the local populace into a holding cell. The front door had been reinforce with locks and there was a viewing port to take a look inside. The guards in front of the door noted their arrival and quickly unlocked the front entrance.

A second later they opened the door and walked inside, weapons ready to fire. “Move back!” she heard the guards shout inside. Kortal smiled as he shoved her inside the room.

“Prison guard in a prison. Isn’t that life for you?” he told her, smiling.

Furia grinned at him back at him. “You’re a funny guy Kortal. That’s why I’ll kill you last.”

The man sneered at her as the guards left the room. A second later, the door was locked, leaving her to think about her situation.

“Who the fuck are you?” a voice behind her said. She turned slowly and got a better look at her prison mates. There was a total of three of them standing near the other side of the room. They all wore black shirts and pants, and she could recognize the Imperial fatigues.

The one that spoke was a young man, about her age she supposed. He was skinny and short, and wasn’t very built to begin with. He had a closely shaved head and brown eyes. His eyes darted over her quickly as he waited for her to respond.

Beside him was a young woman, who seemed to have the same physique overall. Like her partner, she didn’t look like a fighter. She was the only one with long black hair, and looked quite a bit like Hana except smaller. She shook her head at her friend and sighed. “Chill out Jef, she’s in the same boat as we are.”

The final person was the one who stood out the most among the trio. Another woman, this one was much older. Furia guessed she was in her mid thirties at least. She also looked like a soldier, as she was well built and had a tattoo on her bicep, the Imperial Eagle. This one stayed silent as they both glared at each other for a moment. The older woman had short blonde hair and green eyes, which stared at her with unwavering accuracy.

“Sorry about my friend, he is a bit on the edge with the situation and all. I’m Penny. Who are you?”

Furia looked at them and realized who they were. “You are the team right? The one Hongun was talking about?”

“That weirdo is still alive?” the older woman said. Furia nodded slowly. “Figures. We leave him alone for a week and he finally understands that something is wrong. So where’s the rest of Beta team kid?”

Furia frowned at her. “I’m not here to rescue you. I came here for my own purposes.”

“What,” the man said to her flatly. “You got yourself captured and taken prisoner because you wanted to? Fuck this.”

“What about Bravo team? Didn’t Hongun call them?” the older woman asked.

Furia shrugged. “He said he tried to get in touch with them, but didn’t get a response.”

“Fucking great. No offense kid, but you are an idiot.” The older woman sat down and shook her head. “I don’t know what you think you are doing here, but you just got yourself into a world of hurt.”

Furia clenched her fist but said nothing. She just turned around and stared at the door, wondering if it was indeed reinforced enough to hold back her attacks. The prisoner named Penny walked up beside Furia.

“I’m Penny Quill.”

“Kate Gunnar.” The young woman, who looked only a bit older then Furia, nodded slowly. She nodded slowly and looked at the door.

“It’s pretty well made. Not likely that we are going to break through it.”

“I know. I’m not an idiot,” Furia said defensively.

“I didn’t say that. Listen, Kate. Sorry about my companions. Things went sour with the mission.”

“I noticed. What happened?”

“Ambush, caught us off guard when we were trying to storm the place. We expected little resistance and poorly trained soldiers, but the moment we began the assault we were already surrounded. It was too late to escape then.”

Furia looked at the small skinny girl and shrugged. “You don’t look like a soldier.”

“Cause I’m not. I’m a valkyrie pilot.”

Furia nearly facepalmed. Meeting two pilots in one day was more than she wanted. The man named Jef was similarly built, so it was likely he was another pilot as well.

“What about the rest of your team?”

Penny went quiet and looked away. “Two dead in the ambush. Another two, including the captain, taken for ‘interrogation’.” The young woman clenched her fists and her face seemed to strain with emotion. “We haven’t seen them since.”

Furia nodded slowly. “Sorry to hear that.”

“Part of the job, unfortunately. Bryn is right. You are in the wrong place. You shouldn’t have come.”

Furia looked behind her to the older woman named Bryn and back at Penny. “Maybe you should think about yourself instead of me.”

Penny sighed at Furia. “At this point, it doesn’t matter. You won’t be getting out of this untouched.”

---

The next two hours passed silently for Furia. The three other prisoners didn’t mingle with her at all, keeping to themselves. The two pilots spoke to each other quietly, seemingly speaking of old stories of home and friends. Bryn remained quiet off to the side, occasionally glancing at her before going back to her own thoughts, whatever they may be.

It was just over the second hour that the door opened. All eyes shifted to the metal gate as it swung outward. Kortal walked in with guards behind him.

“You, up,” he ordered as he looked at Furia. The brown haired girl didn’t argue as she stood up and was escorted out of the room.

“Miss me?” she said to Kortal outside. A quick slap across her face was the only response she got from him. She growled as she stared at him.

“You better stay quiet bitch.”

A bit of blood came out of her mouth. She would make him pay for that.

They pushed her into the elevator once more, this time going down further than she ever had been. After a couple minutes of descending into the habitat, the elevator came to a stop and the door opened.

The room in front of her was gigantic. It seemed to be a large garage as all she could see was different times of machines and vehicles parked on the sides. There was a couple of chimera’s with bulldozer attachments, mining equipment and diggers in general.  It was at the far end of the room that had a trio of machines that didn’t belong: two hydra flak tanks and a valkyrie. She could only guess that the flying transport was from the captured team and its pilots. The anti-air artillery was surprising as she wondered where the group of miners found such a device.

In the middle of the large room was two long shaft upwards and she guessed they were the elevators she saw above ground. Men around the large service area were moving boxes around, loading up the chimera’s with some equipment, may be for another mining trip into the caverns below.

She was taken to a side room of the garage, where the red robed figure from earlier was standing behind a table. He seemed busy as he was looking over some sort of a device on the table itself. “Welcome child. I hope Kortal has been keeping you in good care.”

“You can say that,” she muttered as she glanced over at the man in questions. He looked unphased by her stare as her eyes turned back to the robed man. “Who are you?”

“Atmok. And you are?”

“Kate Gunnar,” Furia answered with practiced ease. It had become second nature to her after a year of people wondering who the incredibly strong teenager was.

The man nodded thoughtfully, looking her over once more before continuing the discussion. “Why are you here Kate?”

Not one to be subtle, she went directly to the point of the matter. “I wanted to know where you found the Xelaratin.”

“The what?” Atmok answered, confused by the word. He obviously didn’t recognize the term.

“The drug you have been using. The anger inducing drug.”

“You know of its existence yet you gave it such a strange name,” Atmok said out loud. “You obviously have seen it before.”

Furia shrugged. “I took the opposite equivalent. A drug that was meant to calm a person down.”

He chuckled as he moved around the table. “If the drug you speak of was as potent as the one I know of, then you must have some impressive anger issues.”

She smiled at that. “You don’t even know the half of it.”

“But I do, Kate. That is why you are here no? You seek answers for something you don’t understand. Answers that I have.”

She looked at him strangely for a moment, wondering what he was getting at. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I want to know where you found such a drug.”

“Would you believe me that our overlords kept such a drug in their vaults on this very planet?” the man answered.

“What? The mechanicum? I doubt that very much.” She couldn’t foresee any reason the mechanical priesthood would use drugs for anything instead of a circuit board.

“No, not those fools. They try to hide what is visually in front of us with lies. But I know the truth. I know the secrets this planet holds.”

Furia stared at Atmok as he said that, suddenly very curious at what he meant. “What secrets?”

He grinned at her. “All in good time my dear. But I need to know if the gift really runs through your veins. Kortal, take her into the caves. I will be there shortly for the trial.”

Before she could say anything else, the guards pulled her out of the room. “Congrats woman, you are actually blessed this day.”

They shoved Furia forward as they approached a chimera. “What do you mean?” she asked him.

The dark skinned man smiled as they pushed her inside. “You are given the chance to die for our master.”