Ark Reach Cluster. World with no official Imperial designation, only the Shadows of Order's internal designation 11-11-57, the 57th world discovered by the Eleventh Chapter.
Captain Kirkland of the 3rd Company, cloaked in a black hooded robe, moved through a marsh.
Before landing, he had reviewed the augur scans on his datapad. He knew that seventy-four percent of this world was covered in marshland, with life signals scattered across this region.
Chambers recalled a key detail from the Black Emperor's briefing: the worlds of the six systems are connected by trade routes.
'To fulfill my Lord's command, I must start with trade.'
As he pondered, his Lyman's Ear twitched, catching a distant roar. He moved forward.
The machine's roar grew clearer. Chambers stopped.
He watched as mechanical arms extended from two machines, circular saws whining as they cut through the outer layers of grey-white trees.
Then, tubes, like those from a fire engine, extended and pressed against the grey-white trunks.
Chambers's eyes narrowed. He watched the slender white tubes fill.
'They are not collecting timber. They are collecting sap.'
He silently retreated a kilometer to a tree that would take three Astartes to encircle, and raised his right hand.
Boom!
His massive hand pierced the trunk. With a crackling sound, splinters flew.
A chill touched Chambers's fingertips. He pulled his arm back, bringing with it droplets of grey liquid.
He watched the grey liquid splash to the ground and ooze out, forming a thin layer of mist around it.
"Natural coolant?"
Chambers stared at the liquid, thoughtful, and headed in the direction of the natives he had encountered, an idea forming in his mind.
He followed the harvesting team back to their settlement.
He circled the settlement at a distance, observing:
White silos were covered in cold mist. Metal pipes coiled around them like tentacles.
The tallest, most imposing structure in the settlement was a landing platform supported by five metal pillars. Chambers estimated it could accommodate three transports.
The natives were short and stocky, a head shorter than average humans.
Their skin was pale grey, a result of exposure to the dim star.
Chambers drew a translator from his belt. He pressed a rune, and one of the two trumpet-shaped components coiled around it began to glow.
The Legion's Techmarines, building on the Nephilim's sonic technology, had invented a sound-capture device, adding an additional component to the Imperial standard model.
The translator automatically identified and, to a degree, replaced the need for a Librarian's telepathy. It quickly found, among the many Low Gothic dialects of Terra, the one most similar to the local language, facilitating communication during tense first contacts.
As the translator gathered and analyzed the locals' language, the Shadows of Order's superhuman vision observed the camp.
He rejected one possibility after another: the camp guard captain with an autogun slung over his back; the leader in ornate clothing...
As the pale light fell silent, Chambers circled around the camp guards and climbed beneath the landing platform.
He scaled the scaffolding, working his way along the outer edge to the top.
With a slight application of force, he pried open a window with a crack.
Behind a grey wooden desk, a freight supervisor, his stylus gliding across an electronic ledger, looked up in shock at the dark figure in the window.
"You..."
Before he could get another word out, the dark figure streaked to his desk.
The figure's thick arm reached out and lifted him from his chair.
Chambers raised his hand and pressed the translator hanging at his throat. A rune flashed, and he spoke, but no sound came.
The freight supervisor's ears twitched and throbbed. A high-frequency sound, abruptly piercing, echoed: "If you don't want to die, keep the guards outside."
The new translator's vocalizer was fixed to a high-frequency band.
It could be heard by superhuman warriors like Astartes, but only by those within a specific range.
Ordinary humans outside that range could not perceive it.
The user could adjust the range, up to one kilometer.
Chambers had preset the range to three meters. The guards outside the hut could not hear.
The sound of hurried footsteps. "Supervisor..."
The freight supervisor had a clear view of the face beneath the hood. The face was broad, its features chiseled.
His neck and the exposed part of his arms were thick, several times thicker than the settlement's strongest laborer.
The giant's grip was steady and powerful, without the slightest tremor.
'He could crush the life out of me with a single gesture.' A chill ran down the supervisor's spine. His legs trembled.
"I'm fine... a filing cabinet tipped over..." He forced himself to calm down, following the giant's instructions.
"I'm fine, damnit! Don't bother me while I'm working!"
"Yes!" The guard released the door handle and moved away.
Having vented his fear, the supervisor's mind raced, searching for a way to survive.
"What do you want?"
"There are eight thousand three hundred and twenty-six Shrike coins in my safe. They're yours if you spare my life."
The Shrike coins, issued by Heliosa, were the most valuable and widely circulated currency across the systems. The supervisor received a monthly salary of one hundred and twenty.
The giant would surely be interested in them, the only currency valuable enough to buy his life.
Chambers's obsidian eyes fixed on him. "What do you transport?"
The supervisor, momentarily stunned, felt the grip tighten. "Coolant..."
"Sap extracted from fir trees. It has powerful cooling properties."
"We dilute it six thousand two hundred times for use as coolant."
Chambers's eyes lit up. Coolant was a unique product of this world, and its control would fulfill the Black Emperor's command:
To plan and create chaos, to disrupt this world's order, and to seize its resources.
The "Baron of Corruption" fixed his gaze on the supervisor. "You will cooperate with me. I need to understand the entire chain: from harvesting, local transport, dilution, to interstellar shipping."
...
A standard month later, in the supervisor's office, Chambers stood by the window.
A heavy transport ship lowered its landing struts and settled onto the landing zone.
The 3rd Company's Shadows of Order marched down the ramp in precise formation.
The freight supervisor bowed to the black-armored giant.
The Shadows of Order moved past the laborers, heading for the factories, cargo holds, and other targets.
Chambers steadied the potion, a gift from the Black Emperor, at his belt.
He pushed open the window and swung himself out.
Boom, boom, boom...
Amidst the roar of boltguns, Chambers ran towards the white dome.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Chambers accelerated, three long strides, and leaped.
The "Baron of Corruption" turned sideways, twisting his right arm as he swung it, his fist hitting the dome like a bolt shell.
Rumble!
Chambers crashed through the dome. His obsidian eyes, hawk-like, swept the area. A buzz from the comm-bead in his ear, his adjutant's report.
"Captain, I have breached Settlement Two. The factory is secured."
"Captain, I have breached Settlement Three. The warehouse district is secure."
"Captain, I have breached Settlement Four. The landing zone is secure."
"..."
Bang!
The "Baron of Corruption" landed on a third-floor landing and charged towards the office.
Rat-tat-tat...
A rain of bullets, arcing and distorting in mid-air, slammed into the white walls.
The "Baron of Corruption," like a speeding train, crashed into two guards.
Bones shattered. The wooden door splintered.
"You are..." the leader cried out.
Bang!
Chambers's fist caved in the leader's skull. Amidst the chaos of panicked footsteps and screams, he poured the pitch-black potion down his throat.
Moments later, the newly advanced "Mentor of Disorder" gathered his scattered spirituality. He raised his hands, clasped them together, and bowed his head.
"I thank my Lord for this gift!"
He lowered his hands, opened the comms, and ordered over the company's command channel:
"Secure the situation. Reestablish order."
Chambers did not linger. He leaped through the window and ran towards the descending black Thunderhawk.
When granting him the potion, the Black Emperor had also ordered him to proceed to the same system's world 11-11-58 to assist the Captain of the 5th Company.
....
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