Liber Milia Verborum - Chirality pt.1

[Erasus]

An interesting concept I came up with while sitting in a chemistry lecture, I got carried away with this and had to split it into two sections to technically count as Milia Verborums, might revisit this and reforge it as a short novella or something.

 

 

Chirality

 

 

Inquisitor Baptiste laughed as the space marine approached, ‘you do not understand you simple-minded fool! I don't need to fight you like some animal, you will fight for me!’

 

Before Sergeant Antius could demand an answer, the room filled with a strange coalescence of light, a million colours shifting in and out of existence like the rainbow sheen of oil. Warp light bathed the space marine for a few moments. He braced himself, expecting some foul sorcery to claw at his soul, for the touch of daemons to probe his meagre defences. But the light disappeared, leaving him whole. The abomination that was the gate flared into life and the same light pulsed out, condensing into a film across its arches. The insanity of the empyrean swirled and rippled across the gateway, Antius could instantly feel his consciousness being tugged into its maddening depths. Then something stepped through. 

 

‘Sergeant space marine, meet space marine sergeant’ Baptiste chuckled out, the radical Inquisitor looking in with glee as the thing from the warp stepped forth into the chamber.

 

Standing before the bewildered space marine was a mirror image of himself; the colours of the warp seething just beneath the surface of its form giving it a strange incorporeal sheen. The other Antius took another step and met the glare of the original.

 

Antius’ mind swam; what was this abomination?

 

Baptiste laughed loudly into the chamber, the sound of his voice tainted with an unhinged mania. ‘Oh my narrow-minded meddler, you are now facing the success of my work, the work you came here to stop. See now? Do you see? I have found the key! I have the weapon of the future! I have achieved mastery over the impossible, I have moulded madness to my whims! Do you see?! The mirror of dreams will free us all!’

 

Lunacy, Antius could see how far the radical had fallen into its craven embrace. Whatever this abomination was, it would die, then Baptiste would finally suffer his due fate. The Sergeant raised his bolter. Before he could pull the trigger a bolt round panged off his shoulder pad knocking him off balance. A fist-sized hole was blown out of the armour. He grunted as more rounds banged out, taking cover behind a supporting pillar. A bolt round exploded against the rockrete pillar, bursting into a cloud of multicoloured ether as it lost its form. The reflection advanced at a steady pace, the double bang of its bolter keeping Antius in cover as it closed the distance.

 

Antius grasped the hilt of his chainsword. He would have to rush the reflection as it neared, a quick strike should end this absurd madness. He prepared to charge the warp fiend, that was when the grenade rolled by his feet. The explosion engulfed the pillar and bathed everything in a strange ethereal fire, fading from existence like a ghost. Antius had only just managed to escape the blast, having flung himself out over the research desks and contraptions nearby. As he stood the reflection reached him. It struck with the strength of an Astartes veteran, brutally efficient and precise. The fist took Antius in the jaw, rocking him as his mandible cracked under the blow. The reflection launched a savage knee into his stomach, bashing the plate there into his innards. A knife slid into his side, the cold pain of its edge driving deep into his flesh. Something ruptured. Antius gasped as the wind was blown out of his lungs and pain wracked his body, but only managed a desperate wheeze before a boot slammed into his chest, knocking him over. The reflection was fighting with a rough, savage style, a style Antius knew all too well. He rolled just before the boot crashed into the rockrete, cracking the floor and sending dust into the air. Before it came Antius was ready for the next blow, rolling to his feet and ducking the backhand aimed at his head. He launched himself forwards, slamming into the reflection’s side and tackling it to the ground. This was his fighting style; the reflection was using his age old techniques to fight him. He battered away its arms before raining hammer blows down on its skull. It twisted its lower body and a knee caught Antius on the side, the attack striking the knife wound and launching him into a nearby desk.

 

The reflection stood and without a word advanced upon the Sergeant, it drew another combat knife from its back, the monomolecular edge glinting the same colours of the Warp as its bearer.

 

‘You have lost, pretender.’ Antius chuckled dryly from the floor.

 

He rolled onto his back and in one smooth motion drew the bolt pistol clamped to his leg, sighted the reflection’s head and pulled the trigger. The bolt round punched through its angry features and detonated, blasting apart its skull into an otherworldly fireball the colour of a bruise. The remains never touched the floor, the reflection faded away, wisps peeling off as the energy contained with it were set free to return to the Warp. Before Antius could stand, it was gone, no trace of the abomination left as proof of Baptiste’s heresies.

 

A slow clap echoed out in the chamber, ‘well done space marine, truly. You beat your Chiral. Don’t fret, I can make you another! And another! That is the beauty of the Somnium Speculo!’ Baptiste laughed again.

 

‘What monstrosity was that heretic?’ Antius spat, trying to stand. For some reason the wound in his side refused to clot. Purple smoke poured from the wound, Antius grimaced as he realised the blade had broken off, lodging it in his side. Its warp taint was spreading into his body, draining him.

 

‘You don’t know? I thought I had told you. Never mind! It was your Chiral. Your Chiral Segreant, and you beat it, good for you.’
Antius fell to his knees. He could feel his strength seeping from the wound made by the ethereal knife. Why hadn’t it faded with the rest of the reflection?

 

Baptiste proudly marched up to the injured marine, vindication writ large on his smug face. ‘You see now don’t you? You see why Chirals are so important. I can change things with this, I can win.’

 

The vox-bead in Antius’ ear blared to life, the voice of a woman crackling out over the distorted vox feed, Inquisitor Vardess had fixed the network.

 

<Antius! Sergeant Antius, can you hear me?>

 

Too late Inquisitor, Antius thought, far too late. Baptiste leaned in close, ‘Is she there? That Vardess woman? She doesn’t understand; she can’t. She dreams that one, sees the dreams. You understand don’t you? Even you, a simple fool understands what my work has achieved.’

 

<Antius, what is happening? Answer me!>

 

The Sergeant ignored the small voice, instead looking straight into the glazed eyes of Baptiste, ‘Tell me Inquisitor, tell me of your work.’

 

wc = 1,150