The sudden decompression of the chamber cut short the blaring shipboard alarms as the air vanished into the void.
The guards standing at the rear braced themselves firmly against the bulkheads. They watched through the open hatch as Cassius, cast out into the starport's docking bay, struggled frantically in the airless expanse.
His drifting form alerted the guards to a grim reality: the starport was not only devoid of air but also lacked gravity. Prepared for the vacuum, the guards opened their mouths wide, exhaling every lungful of air to prevent internal rupture before ducking through an emergency bulkhead.
Amidst the hiss of rushing gas, the guards gasped for breath, flecks of blood staining the corners of their mouths. They hurriedly donned void suits and cycled back through the docking interface.
By then, Cassius was a corpse floating in the hall.
Though his frantic struggles had successfully purged the gasses from his lungs, the plummeting pressure had caused his blood to boil almost instantly. Oxygen tore through his veins, and gore erupted from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
Countless spheres of blood spun and drifted through the zero-gravity vacuum of the grand hall.
No one had expected the tithe audit team to lose an Imperial noble before they had even set foot in the station.
Soon, another detachment arrived at the docking interface.
"Guards! Why are you still here? Why are you in void suits? Auditor Cassius should have entered the starport by now!"
An Inquisitor, flanked by a squad of Stormtroopers, stepped through the hatch and found the guards huddled together. These were the men he had assigned to protect the Auditor.
"Report! Inquisitor Wayne, Lord Cassius has returned to the Golden Throne."
The sudden news left Inquisitor Wayne stunned. He had loathed the arrogant, self-important fool and had intentionally delayed his own arrival to avoid landing alongside him. He never imagined that in a mere ten minutes, an Imperial noble would meet his end here.
Wayne's expression grew deathly serious. Though he and Cassius had been at odds, the man was still a noble of the Imperium and the primary auditor responsible for this planet's tithe.
As a member of the Inquisition, allowing a servant of the Imperium, one with no clear record of corruption or heresy, to die on his watch was unacceptable.
"What happened?"
Wayne was soon briefed on the sequence of events. He looked at the corpse surrounded by guards with sheer disbelief.
He knew these high-born fools were vain, but he never dreamed their arrogance could be lethal. Such an ignominious death made him dread how he would even explain this to his superiors.
The thought of adding an "Accidental Death" entry, accompanied by such a moronic incident report, made Wayne's lip curl in distaste.
Nevertheless, the mission came first.
Wayne and his Stormtroopers secured their environmental seals and initiated decompression in the airlock. As the inner hatch slid open, a vast, brightly lit chamber was revealed.
One had to ignore the cloud of floating blood droplets at its center.
Wayne scrutinized the unfamiliar environment. The Iron Men's starport was a total vacuum; life support was an unnecessary luxury for such beings.
When the Imperial transport fleet had first arrived, Axion had not permitted anyone to board the station, merely docking at the freight interfaces to load troops. Consequently, no one had been told the specific internal conditions of the facility.
Normally, any docking interface in an Imperial starport featured multiple redundant blast doors to prevent decompression failures.
Wayne glanced back at the interface they had just crossed.
Single-layered.
This led him to suspect he hadn't boarded a starport at all, but rather the cargo hold of some deep-space freight station. However, as he surveyed the massive hall, more baffling details emerged.
The starport's viewports were equipped with mechanical shutters, clearly designed to open and expose the interior directly to space. The single-layer hatches possessed no visible pneumatic sealing structures.
As Wayne observed his surroundings, the Stormtroopers beside him suddenly leveled their weapons.
In the vacuum, there was no sound. Seeing the troopers aiming behind him, Wayne cautiously placed his hand on the hilt of his chainsword. He drew the weapon in a blurred arc, hacking toward the space behind him.
"Warning: Please refrain from aggressive actions. Such behavior will jeopardize your safety."
A synthesized electronic voice crackled through the vox-comms inside their suits.
A grey-black mechanical hand easily caught the back of Wayne's chainsword, pinning it in mid-air with the immovable grip of a hydraulic vice.
A bipedal machine, nearly two meters tall, had effortlessly parried Wayne's strike using an auxiliary servo-arm extending from its back. Its silhouette reminded the men of certain Tech-Priests back on their ship.
One couldn't help but wonder if this was what lay beneath those red robes.
Wayne stared warily at the machine, pulling his chainsword back to his chest as he appraised the construct. It bore no heraldry—no Imperial Aquila, and no Cog-and-Skull of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
"What are you?"
The machine responded instantly to the Inquisitor's demand.
"Automaton RS-39285 greets you, Inquisitor of the Imperium."
"An automaton? I have never seen a servitor of this design."
Wayne knew well that the Imperium produced no such constructs. This machine was entirely metallic, whereas Imperial servitors were invariably comprised of vat-grown or repurposed flesh. Furthermore, a vacuum was as lethal to a standard servitor as it was to a man.
"This unit differs from the 'servitors' within your cognition. Based on the data transmitted earlier, I am here to verify your identity. You are Inquisitor Wayne, arrived to audit the tithes of Vorchad III. Is this information correct?"
Faced with the machine's query, Wayne instinctively nodded.
"Query: Inquisitor Wayne, the records indicate an auditor from the Tithe Administrative Guild named Cassius. Where is he?"
At the mention of Cassius, Wayne's cheek twitched.
"He suffered a... mishap. He won't be joining us."
RS-39285 tilted its head. Leaning down, its glowing pale-blue ocular sensors scanned Wayne's face before it gave a slight nod.
"Confirmed. Micro-expression analysis complete. No anomalies detected."
Following this cryptic response, the automaton turned and walked toward a side chamber, bowing slightly.
"Please follow me."
The Stormtroopers looked at one another, then turned to Wayne for direction. Wayne hesitated for a heartbeat before shearing his chainsword.
The Stormtroopers followed suit, lowering their weapons with practiced caution. As the group followed the towering machine into an isolated chamber, the hatch hissed shut behind them.
Just as the atmosphere grew tense, the machine began opening several massive metallic canisters.
"By the Emperor, what are you doing?!"
At the sight of the machine's movements, Wayne and his men raised their weapons once more in a panic.