I slowly let up on the emotional baffle I was holding on the Thunder Warrior. It's mind was not human in the conventional sense, even less so than an astartes although I was yet to encounter those particular servants of the Emperor. The rage and confusion of the Thunder Warrior was understandable, if monstrous and dangerous, the psychic backwash however was less so. In the Thunder Warriors mind I saw the Emperor. Not the Emperor as the god I had always thought of him as but as a man, a mighty man certainly, but no more divine I was. It was a shocking revelation to be sure, but not one I had time to unpack right at that moment. Those few moments of contact would have profound repercussions for my own belief and my relationship with the Ordos, but that remained in the future.

"Let's go," Hadrian said and lead the way out of the strange chamber. I briefly considered trying to free the archaic ecclesiarch but dismissed the notion. I felt like I was in enough spiritual peril as it was. No doubt if we prevailed the Ordos would take care of the rest. We ascended via sloping ramps, steps apparently not being part of the xenos architectural style. Almost at once we came across bodies. Most were our men, some pierced through by impossibly sharp bayonets, one unfortunate was severed neatly in half from crown to crotch, apparently having materialized half inside a wall. I could feel the psychic tug of what was going on above, a queasy sort of discomfort as someone picked at the edges of the Immaterium. The greenish veins of the structure were beginning to take on a purplish undertone which made my skin crawl. 

"There is someone..." I began, sensing a presence ahead of us, but before anyone could act a PDF trooper leaped from cover and aimed his lasgun at us. He froze in place at the sight of the Thunder Warrior, his lip quivering and his finger frozen on the trigger.

"He is with us," Hadrian called, though whether he was addressing the guardsman or the superhuman I wasn't sure.

"Sir," the PDF trooper replied, he attempted to sling his rifle but made a mess of it, giving up and going for a patrol carry.

"Follow and provide rearguard," Hadrian directed, grabbing the man by the jacket and shoving him back past the Thunder Warrior and myself. We found a half dozen more troopers as we climbed, four of them Imperial guard who had been in the last stages of bludgeoning on of the metal men to scrap when we had arised. The sergeant, a grizzled man with a cigar between his teeth and a glowing augmented eye turned to watch us approach.

"Emperor's balls, what the frak is that?" he demanded when the Thunder Warrior strode into view. The golden armored warrior drew himself up, somehow becoming even more intimidating.

"I am Lucius Raj," the creature rumbled as though declaring he were the tide.

"Good to know," the sergeant replied in an offhanded tone, though I could see that the tip of his cigar was quivering.