[hider= And the Void Stares Back]
Orbital Citadel
Above Hive Aulpollriax
Praxia
[hr]They had found her there alone. In the midst of a charnel house of death stood an Imperial icon of war and violence, a being crafted by a mind of singular purpose for the most grueling that conflict in the stars had to offer. And yet when they found her she was silent. She had no orders to give as the battle for the Citadel raged through the vox, no words to rally the Imperials’ breaking assault.

Though the fight for the void fortress teetered on a knifes edge the scion of destruction was immobile, her gaze cast down at something at her feet. 

With chainsword slack in her hand against the deck plating, and her plasma pistol; a work of the masters of Mars; nothing but a suggestion of light beneath the ankle-high pooling of blood that rippled in the sunken floor of the chamber, she stood silent vigil at the center of the room.

The group that happened upon her, a mix of Astartes of the Doomsayers and Serpents and a smattering of Imperial Auxilia, found themselves struck by the scene to differing extents. 

The Serpents, among the first to enter the sanctum of the remaining loyalist Praxian’s in the citadel, were drawn immediately to their gene scion. Trepidation on their lips, they moved down into the sunken pool of blood to be at her side as they realized that their mother had survived, though the feeling was short-lived as the daughters of Nelchitl stepped into the waiting pool. A shock like electricity passed between those that waded in to join their mother and the Serpents halted their reunion with their scion as if they’d all been commanded at once. Though no such command was uttered, verbally or otherwise.

The Doomsayers, thrilled as they were by the atmosphere of joy that permeated their Serpent cousins, found their interests drawn elsewhere. Mosaics of myriad colors and styles plastered the ceiling. Frescos of subjects unknown created with substances too vile to accept danced in the lights of the chamber with unnatural motion. A sense of quiet unease rippled through those daughters of the Angel that had so readily forfeited their lives for the Imperium as they gazed upon the display above.

Yet it was the Auxilia who had it the worst when they came to discover the Emerald Priestess with their Astartes allies. Like all others, their eyes had been drawn to the being at the center of the room. Their eyes rooted to the image of Nelchitl as she stood in the ankle-high pool, her presence near impossible to ignore as they tried and failed to secure the area with any sense of professionalism. But their object of interest did not last.

The Auxilia, mortal men and women of exceptional caliber, found themselves wanting as never before at the sight of the chamber. Corpses in their hundreds were spread throughout the room in the middle of debased acts. Expressions of ecstasy and sorrow intermingled with a thousand other emotions that many didn’t know existed until this moment plastered the faces of the vacant-eyed dead.

Many of the Auxilia found themselves repulsed with every fiber of their being. Helmets left their heads as stomach contents were emptied and mere mortals that had seen the cataclysms of worlds wept.

Those few Auxilia of such moral character and force of will to have made fine Astartes given far different circumstances were among the only in the room to notice the rain. A constant pattering of blood from above ran down the armor of the Astartes in ruddy streaks of dirty red as it mixed with the grit of the intense combat the superhumans had endured. At the center of the room it was heaviest, the Emerald Priestess practically drenched in the life fluid of the bodies of the traitors that had been chained and vivisected above the chamber.

With the horror of the sight came the report of a laspistol and the wet crumpling of a body hitting the deck plates. It was followed by a handful more as all those Auxilia that had noticed the rain followed suit.

Perhaps these soldiers were the most broken by an age of unimaginable conflict that raged amongst the stars, soldiers all too human for the carnage of war on a galactic scale. Perhaps the sights before them were the final straw on a mortals’ inevitable spiral into hysteria, the last vestiges of their minds frayed beyond comprehension as the weight of their deeds came to bear. Or perhaps these were the final actions of the sanest in the room, for it is said that fear comes from an absence of understanding, and true horror the act of understanding perfectly.

As the last body hit the deck Nelchitl took her gaze away from her own reflection in the pool at her feet and breathed as if for the first time in hours, a suggestion of crackling electricity dancing down her armor into the pool as she turned to her daughters.[/hider]