+pending alcanderization+

Camilla had heard of biting cold, and of bitter cold. The cold of Thyrum was both those things, she could literally taste it in the back of her throat and it bored into her skin like thousands of tiny awls. She cranked up the heat exchange in her body glove, forcing hot air to jet from the neck to protect her face, the improvement wasn't much, but better than using a face enclosing helmet.


"Whee we landn in th' wylds?" Alcander asked. Camilla set off, boots crunching in the snow as she followed the coordinates in the auspex, heading up and over a small rise.


"None of the automatic landing beacons were responding and they weren't answering hails. I'd rather not figure out that their anti-aircraft defenses were the only thing these peasants could keep working," Camilla replied. It took them nearly fifteen minutes to reach the top of the rise, by which time Camilla was regretting her decision to be cautious. The wind whipped up in intermittent sheets of white, and she was forced to pull the hood of her fur cloak up over her head. Jocasta produced a set of goggles so large that it made her look like some kind of stinging insect. THe combat servitor merely plodded along, oily looking ice crystals forming at its nostrils and around its exhaust vents on its backpack. From the crest they could see a barren arctic wasteland, with tall dagger-like mountains erupting in the distant north. Periodically snow flashed by and obscured the view, but it was so windy that this never lasted more than a few moments. In the valley below was a great frozen lake, the snow scoured from its icy surface till it shone like glass. On its shore was a vast chunk of unwholesome looking ice. It was a fortress of sorts with three walls and a forth opening onto the lake, though long moles ran out even there. Rusted vox masts and other paraphernalia peeped up from behind the wall, and guard towers of timber and corrugated iron projected from the top of the wall, the muzzles of heavy weapons protruded from towers, though to a piece they pointed upwards at the kind of crazy angles that suggested they were unmanned. 


"What in Terra's name is that?" Camilla asked. Imperial architecture varied a great deal from place to place, but for a penal colony this was unusual in the extreme.


"They formed the ice into walls, then shaped it, probably with flamers, the shimmer you are seeing is most likely prometheum residue or some other accelerant that..." Jocasta provided helpfully. Obviously her goggles provided some kind of magnification that let her take a closer look.


"What because razor wire was just too easy?" Alcander asked, producing his own set of magnoculars and buffing the lenses with his sleeve to clear them of ice and frost. He lifted them to his eyes and stared for a moment.


"Movement down there, and signs of recent habitation, probably cook fires too, be more obvious if this wind wasn't sweeping the smoke clear the second it gets above the ground."


"You think they have gone feral?" Camilla asked. It wasn't unknown in backward posts, left alone for God Emperor knew how long between visits with civilization.


"Might have been a good thing to ask... oh I don't know... the Imperial Navy picket?" Alcander put in, sarcasm all but dripping from his tone.


"No matter," Camilla replied calmly. She unslung a large lever action hunting rifle with elaborate engravings cut into the barrel both as decoration and to keep down the weight. She worked the lever, jacking two shells into place.


"Let's say hello."


As they reached the icy ramparts they found a gate house of sorts. A section of what once must have been a hemispherical habitation unit had been cut and used to create a gateway. Several large pieces of timber, perhaps local pines of some kind were in place so they could be used to block the entrance, though they were not deployed that way now. Camilla, having grown up in her fathers castle-like dwellings, entered carefully, eyes upturned in case there were murder holes or other surprises. There were none and she passed through into a courtyard  around which completely normal ferrocrete hab and admin units had been set up. Lines ran between some of them and garments of some kind flapped on them in the gusty wind. A trio of men dressed in an odd combination of flak armored chest plates and large mono slot helmets like those welders used, sat around a fire. They jumped up when they saw Camilla's party and chainmail clinked around their legs and arms. One of them had what looked like a coif protruding from beneath his helmet. Two of them held long hafted spears of some kind, the other had a shotgun and what looked to be a chain blade over his back. They started to move to level their weapons but froze as the faced the combined firepower of Camilla's detachment. 


"Who are you and what the frak are you..." the leader dropped as Camilla cracked him across the jaw with the butt of her rifle. The helmet flew off and he sprawled to the ground. He was a pudgy man, his lips thin and drawn back in a snarl of hate, a brushy red beard matted with grease and filth did not improve the look.


"Alcander, introduce me if you would," Camilla said in a quiet deadly tone.