Editing The Sovereign's Appraisal (section)

==Writefaggotry==
From the diary of Brother-Captain Sadeso Neyrril

How the group of Soritas found us we shall never know, for the ones left refuse to reveal, But find us they did. We put on a good show. Full ranks, breastplates thrust out, neat and orderly rows, as if for inspection. They could not believe these heretics. We stood silent, our Chapter Master at the front, spine perfectly vertical with the sky. "It is no mystery why you have come here sisters," his tone brokered no argument.

"Advance Line, ready weapons!" the Cannoness shouted. And yet we moved not an inch, for we were faithful. At no more than 20 paces from our line they stopped and presented arms.

"Take a walk with me Cannoness, if you please. I assure you my marines shall not move." The glare she gave could have cut stone, but our master was metal. He nodded, and began walking off down a small path to the side of the large clearing we were all gathered in. She glared for another moment, made a quick hand command at her troops and stomped off, the grip of her sword held like it was the only thing between her and a Tyranid swarm. I remember it truly, we were all un-helmed. The lightest of breezes blew down from above the Wraithbone spires, and it stirred what little hair I had left. I was in the first line, being a captain, and had a full view of the penitence that some of these sisters wanted to force upon us. But we needed no penitence, for we had done nothing wrong in our Lord's view.

I met the eyes of the sister directly across from me. That struck her a bit. She had probably never seen someone she considered a traitor dutifully await his execution, nor had she ever looked into their eyes and found a silent conviction. No matter the outcome of today, we would die in the Emperor's service. No one could take that from us. Not the daemons or mutations, not the Ultramarines, and certainly not these sisters. When Sister-Captain Fiouda spoke, it reverberated off the high buildings all around us, everyone could hear. "You shall burn like the rest of the traitors."

I smiled a bit, more than I should have in the situation. "We shall most likely burn sister, traitor or not. The Lord Emperor gives his blessing stringently and we have already received more than our fair share of it. I would not curse him if we died here today."

My words took a second to finally sink in, but when they did she was taken aback. Hers was a righteous anger, it consumed her face and ,in fact, her entire being. "How dare you claim to be blessed by OUR Lord. Look upon yourselves. Can you not see? The warp has chewed you up and spit you out. Your entire chapter has been cursed to eternal damnation. Your words are a heresy of the highest magnitude!"

She drew her Meltagun and walked two paces in front of her line, raising it at my head. I also took two quick steps forward, hands still clasped behind my back and spoke without emotion, "I advance to give you maximum penetration with your weapon sister. At this range, it will surely kill me."

All eyes were now on us. The other sisters had mixed reactions. Some were nervous, others borderline excited. My brothers did not even look at us, they continued to stare straight ahead. Her hand shook, her body trembled with quiet quakes of indignation. Our eyes touched again, but this time I held her there. Our gazes locked, like lighting bound us together. And then she finally pulled the trigger.

I have seen many things during my time in the Emperors service. I have seen great acts of heroism and their counterparts, act of pure depravity and filth of which I could not speak. But those moments somehow are out shined, I believe this is the moment most engraved upon my soul.

My eyes disengaged from hers in the instant after she pulled the trigger. They followed, not her finger, not the barrel, they followed the Melta's power pack. I watched its slow, almost lazy, decent and then the moment was over. The pack rattled as it hit the floor.

An entire chapter of Astartes, an entire congregation of Sororitas, yet in that moment there could have been only two of us. We locked eyes again, but this time there was no fury. My disbelief was held in check better than her's, or any of the other sisters who could see. They openly leaned out of rank to stare with unbroken amazement. But our eyes never left each others. I could see her, see all the cogitatiors that made up who she was working against a reality that had just come to pass.

I simply nodded, and stepped back into formation.