The Ravens' Penance
First Strike and First Impressions

Thaddeus

Unknown Planet Surface
Eleven days since arrival
Seven hours since landfall

Thaddeus was, at the moment, waiting. Their final landing site was much farther from the settlement than the original ten kilometers he had planned. It was fifty kilometers away, inside a wide canyon. This planet became noticeably hotter during the day than Calderis.

Finally, there was a response over the Vox channel.

"This is Squad Tylon. We are in sight of the settlement." Tylon reported in.

"Remain infiltrated and observe the settlement." Thaddeus ordered "Report what you see in as much detail as you can."

A few seconds passed. "From here, I can spot a wide variety of xenos in the settlement. I have counted five different types so far. This is not a... wait."

"Heresy..." Tylon's muttering could be heard over the vox "There are xenos and human inhabitants mingling in the settlement. Orders?"

Thaddeus hesitated for a few seconds. He knew full well what Tylon wanted to do. "Continue observation. Hold fire unless fired upon."

Several hours passed. A number of useful observations were made by the squad of scouts. First, they had witnessed an altercation on the streets. One xeno had shot another on the streets. Energy weapon of some kind. Bystander reaction had been minimal. Most had noted the murder and carried on with their business a few seconds later. Three bystanders, two human juvies and a xeno (possibly juvie as well), had looted the corpse before it could cooled. When Tylon had looked back at the site half an hour later, the corpse had been cleaned up.

A lawless fringe of some kind, Thaddeus had concluded. It also seemed like slavery was practiced here. First, Tylon had reported with outrage that a xenos slavemaster was beating a human slave for dropping a basket of some type of produce. He had requested permission to fire on the xenos. Thaddeus had almost given it. Almost. Not long after, he had also reported humans with xeno slaves.

Galleus had been curious about the technology. Tylon reported that grav-thrust technology was commonplace. Practically every vehicle spotted was levitating in the air thanks to some unseen force. Tylon could not identify the firearms. They did not have the solid beam of a lasgun, but the extent of damage was not consistent with plasma weapons, either. There were also machines milling around the settlement. Galleus had been alarmed about possible 'Abominable Intelligence'.

Tylon had been unable to confirm at range. It was also possible the machines were xenos servitors.

As the hours passed, sunset came. And Squad Tylon was given further orders.

Initiate Tylon

After having been forced to observe this heretical place for the better part of the day, Tylon was satisfied to have a proper mission. Infiltrate the settlement. Primary objective: Capture (or liberate) a human (slave) for interrogation. Secondary objective: capture enemy equipment for study. No witnesses.

Unseen, the four initiates entered the settlement. It was clear that all the signs were in some strange xenos language. Tylon had made a risky decision. He had identified the house of the xenos slavemaster from earlier. He planed clear the house and liberate the slaves. It was a large, three-story building. The architecture was surprisingly similar to what he'd seen on Calderis.

On their way in, the squad had quietly neutralized a xenos beggar that may have seen them. Tylon took up a position overlooking the front door of the xeno's house. It was the only suitable place for his sniper rifle. The plan was going smoothly.

Two of the initiates had quietly dealt with the two xenos guarding the front door. Two of the fat, green ones, with tusks. Combat knife to the throat still worked on them. The third initiate was waiting at the back door, out of Tylon's direct sight. On his signal, they simultaneously stormed the house.

The slavemaster, a pink one with the head-tails, had been alerted by the doors being kicked in. It had retrieved a pistol from a storage cabinet after it heard the shots from downstairs. Two more xenos guards terminated.

The slavemaster was cautiously making his way toward the stairs. It was a bit tricky for Tylon to get a shot, since the target was actually slightly above his current position. But as the xenos passed another window, Tylon put a fatal round through its' head.

"Targets located." Tylon acknowledge with a single chirp over the vox. Through the windows, Tylon saw the slaves actively resisting liberation. Intimidated by Astartes, perhaps? Then, a series of small pops sounded from the building. Not loud enough to be any of their weapons.

"Targets dead. Kill switches. Dermally implanted." Damn. Tylon cursed on hearing the report Objective failed. Explains why the slaves didn't want to leave.

"Search the building for portable technology." Tylon ordered "Time is of the essence."

Three hours later, the scout squad had gathered three pistols, a rifle and most importantly, what was apparently a grav-bike. In the Imperium, such devices were incredibly rare: ancient relics from the Dark Age of Technology. Here, they were apparently so common that an owner could keep them in obviously poor condition.

If these xenos posessed lost Dark Age technologies, they could not be taken lightly. On the other hand, Tylon soon realized that the grav-bike was clearly of poor craftsmanship, and not built with Astartes in mind. A scout could ride it, but Tylon doubted it had the strength to lift a battle brother in full power armor.

Finally, just as they were making their way out of the city, they had a golden opportunity. Tylon spotted a human being thrown out of some kind of establishment. The man had staggered into an alleyway, obviously drunk, and once they were certain there were no witnesses, the Astartes captured him.

By sunrise, the captured tech and the prisoner were on their way to the landing site. The controls of the bike were intuitive enough, and one initiate was called back to the thunderhawk to deliver the prisoner and the items. The remaining three initiates (including Tylon) continued to observe the city.

Thaddeus

It had been three hours since the Initiate had returned with the results of the raid. Galleus had elected to examine the grav-bike first, not the choice Thaddeus would have made, but he let the techmarine work without interference. Thaddeus heard the occasional exasperated mutter coming from Galleus.

In another corner of their makeshift camp, which was little more than a few collapsible rods supporting a large camouflage net, Clementius was kneeling down in front of the human prisoner. The prisoner was laid down on the ground as Clementius used his psyker gifts to 'interrogate' the man. It was taking a bit longer than Thaddeus had expected, but then again, the librarian had said something about this during their shuttle journey.

Then, the telltale sparks of lightning in Clementius' psychic hood and the purple glow in his eyes suddenly halted. Clementius rose, while the prisoner did not, though the movement of his chest indicated he was still alive.

"So, what have you learned?" Thaddeus inquired.

"Quite a bit, and much of it is... disturbing." Clementius said, his voice pensive. "First, I have extracted the local language from his mind. The locals call the planet Tatooine. The settlement nearby is called Mos Espa. I also learned the names of several more distant settlements."

"And the disturbing part?" Thaddeus asked impatiently, as Galleus walks up to them, having abandoned the grav-bike for the moment, to listen in on the important conversation.

Clementius responded with a weary sigh, "I was getting to that. The man had a star chart in his head. Nothing we could reliably use for astrogation, but... it was an entire galaxy, with the approximate locations of notable worlds. It was not the map of our own galaxy... Commander." It sounded as if the Librarian had almost called him Sergeant, but caught himself in time.

"Not only that, but in his head, he referred to his language as Galactic Basic. And he knew of a Galactic Republic, which rules over most of the galaxy."

"Perhaps the prisoner is delusional?" Galleus suggested, though the suggestion came out half-hearted.

"It's a possibility," Clementius admitted "But not a particularly likely one. I saw glimpses of his life as I looked for useful information. He was convinced that the information in his head was true. If he was delusional enough to believe the galaxy in his head was real, when it really isn't, then would be too delusional to function in society as well as I saw him do in his memories."

"Perhaps those memories..." Galleus begins, but Clementius ignored him and continues.

"Personally, I believe that we've reached a point where trying to explain away our existing evidence is more dubious than the idea that we really are in another galaxy."

"Another Galaxy..." Thaddeus murmured in astonishment. He wass about to ask about this Republic, but Galleus was quicker with his question.

"Tell me something, Librarian," the techpriest begins, significantly more confident now "Did you notice anything strange about the Warp as you read the prisoner's mind?"

Clementius seems taken aback "As.. a matter of fact, I did. I wanted to get a proper understanding of what was going on myself, before bringing it up, though. But what made you ask, Galleus?"

The techmarine scoffs and looks at the partially disassembled grav-bike "That grav bike is an affront to the Standard Template. Its' machine spirit is thoroughly flawed. Broken, in many ways, and most importantly: vulnerable. There exist warp daemons that specifically possess machines. Those demons are the reason why the Mechanicus is so adamant about adhering to standard templates. Considering the obvious age of the vehicle, that flawed machine spirit should have been corrupted by chaos a long time ago, or even replaced entirely by a demonic spirit. But I found no trace of corruption."

The three space marines consider the implications in silence for a whole minute, before Thaddeus speaks. "We can worry about that later. Clementius, what did you learn about this 'Galactic Republic'?"

"Not much, I'm afraid." the Librarian replies "My presence in his mind was straining him and I would have killed him if I had continued. If you wish, Commander, I can delve back in and get more out of him."

Thaddeus contemplates the choice, but soon recalls the reason of this Crusade. Making dubious decisions just like this one. Taking the shortcuts and easy solutions to reach objectives.

"No." Thaddeus says "Let's not risk killing him. He is human, and if this is another galaxy, then we cannot blame him for never having seen the light of the Imperial Creed."

The techmarine and the librarian gave Thaddeus an incredulous stare. Did he seriously intend to spare this xeno-loving heretic?

"I believe our arrival here was not mere chance." Thaddeus elaborates, turning his back to his battle brothers to look at the two suns "It was the Emperor's will that we come here to spread His light."

"We'll have the Initiates capture more tech and potential converts. In the meantime, Galleus, see if you can 'fix' that machine spirit somehow, make it compatible with the Standard Template. Clementius, you are going to help me learn this 'Galactic Standard' language for now. I'll also need you to come up with a good learning course, to teach Gothic to the native humans. If we wish to replenish the ranks of our chapter serfs, we have little choice but to carry out some local recruitment."

If there's one thing Thaddeus learned from his previous Commander, it was the importance of being confident and consistent with issuing orders. Even if you weren't quite as confident about your orders as you sounded.

Galleus seethed for a moment, before he turned away, muttering something under his breath. From what Thaddeus could make out, the techmarine was insulted by Thaddeus' unfamiliarity with how technology and mechanicus rites work.

Even so, Galleus obeyed as the Librarian started teaching the local language to Thaddeus.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Tatooine Low Orbit

Obi-Wan had been in meditation when Queen Amidala's ship exited hyperspace. And he immediately sensed the disturbance as they entered the system. Without delay, he sought out his master. Obi-Wan saw him in the corridor, before getting even five meters out of his room. The Jedi Master's face clearly shared mirrored hid own look of concern.

"You sensed it too, Master?" Obi-Wan asked, worried.
"Yes, I did." Master Qui-Gon Jinn replied "Something dark and grim. Abhorrent to the Force itself."
"Is this what a Dark Side presence feels like?" Obi-Wan asked his master.
"No, my padawan. This is something... different. Even the Dark Side is not this..." Qui-Gon trailed off, unable to find a good word to describe.

The two Jedi walked through the ship in silence for a while. Obi-Wan was the one to break the silence.
"Do you think we should leave? Find the motivator we need somewhere else?" the Padawan asked.

The Jedi Master closed his eyes in concentration. Searching his feelings, as the two Jedi walked toward the cockpit.

"No." He finally replied "The presence is in this system, but I feel Tatooine is safe. Or at least as safe as can be expected from that planet. But even so, we must be wary. And we mustn't linger here any longer than we have to."

Qui-Gon paused to open the door with a wave of his hand before he continued talking "The plan remains the same. I trust you to remain here and protect the Queen, Obi-Wan. I will take a shore party into Mos Espa and get the replacement motivator."

A/N: First things first, review answers for reviews that warrant them.

Cegorach: Well, it's true that techmarines are Astartes. But the way I see it in my headcanon is this: Techmarines temporarily join the Cult Mechanicus during their specialist training on Mars. And once their training is complete, they are 'retired' from the ranks of the Mechanicus so that they can return to their Chapter. Therefore, they do know how to carry out ceremonial mechanicus rituals, but they only have the authority to do so in the most dire circumstances.

TheSolInvictus: Yeah. Individual Space Marines are definitely OP compared to Star Wars. However, I'm not that big a fan of stompfics. Sure, they're fun to read, occasionally, but I like to write more complex stories. In this case, while the Astartes are very powerful individually, they are not a credible threat to the Star Wars galaxy. They don't have the manpower to properly operate their strike cruiser, and they only have 25 space marines, and that includes seven scout initiates. Futile odds, even for them. And they will realize that pretty quickly.

Now, in other news... this chapter gave me a bit of trouble. I wanted to bring a big dose of grimdark into the SW galaxy. Originally, the scouts weren't going to capture a random drunk guy. They were going to capture thre three street kids that looted the body. One of the human boys would have been scout-candidate... but another would have been a xeno. And it was too early for the Astartes to be doubting their "good, Imperial xeno-hate". I had most of the scenes written, up to the twi'lek boy's death. But in the end, I just couldn't go through with that tragic scene. I guess it's one of those lines I'm not comfortable crossing as a writer.

You may also be wondering about the Warp and the Force. Since I'm not entirely sure I'll ever include an adequate explanation in-story, here are a few things for you to think about. The Warp and the Force are two distinct things. The two are connected, but Force Sensitives are not Psykers, or vice-versa. The exact details... well. Discuss the matter in reviews, try and guess how it works. I'll clarify the Force/Warp situation further in the A/N of the next chapter. And by clarify, I mean give you more cryptic comments on the topic. And maybe debunk theories that are completely off.

Update: Corrected a couple mistakes. Kudos to Blinded in a Bolthole for bringing them to my attention. I try to be consistent with past tense narration, but since speech is often in the present tense, it gets a bit confusing at times. If you notice grammar mistakes that I've missed, be sure to bring them to my attention so I can fix them.