Vex Chronicles 2: Outbreak

Survivors

Eredius III, maglev 76, hero plaza station

Lady Lysandra Audessa tried to put up a stoic face. But she just couldn't any longer. The events had drained her. Her mind was finally clear enough that she could think freely. Audessa had assisted in the spreading of a xenos cult. She had given aid to what could have lead to the fall of Ede Prime. And without the intervention of inquisitor Vex, she would have remained blind of what she had done...

Lady Audessa had always been a loyal citizen of the Imperium. A high examinata, tasked with ensuring the genetic purity of the eredians to preventing another cult outbreak. But only so little had been enough to make her fall... She always had friends in high places that collected xenos artifacts. Close to the eastern fringe there was always someone returning home with a memento. Lady Audessa had always known how dangerous that was. And she had never trod in that deep water. She had instead turned to... more living kind of a collection. Abhumans, differently looking people that were still tolerated by the Imperium. Especially ogryns had a high standing in Eredius society. Dumb and strong, ideal farm workers. And so Audessa had deemed her hobby... safe.

Audessa had learned to be silent about it. Especially since she preferred her 'playthings' to be female. But how was she supposed to know that the Cornellius farm had been overtaken by a xenos cult? If she hadn't given in to that wonderful offer of pale abhuman skin and instead questioned... Now it was too late. Lady Audessa sat in the train that drove to the place of her execution.

Inquisitor Vex had held word. He had promised to turn Lady Audessa's case into a public example. The justicar of the Adeptus Arbites had ran her case up and down. Everything had been revealed to the media. They had dragged her down, created false stories and put her into the worst light possible. And she now understood why. Xenos infection... A well kept secret. Even after the outbreak that lead to the War of Cleansing and the purity laws, knowledge of what actually happened was deliberately kept from the populace. And false facts were needed to bring Audessa down.

Suddenly everyone believed Audessa to not only be an actual cultists but a perverted deviant that imported illegal items and drugs into Ede Prime. She had not even tried to protest. She new her own transgression. And it would not change anything if she would have spoken up. Death waited for her either way.

The law had decided to execute Audessa on the Locum Supplicii. The large monument of the heroes of the War of Cleansing had been built atop the old execution place. The place was the last remnant of the cultists that had been cleansed. A warning for everyone to not allow the xenos into eredian soil. As if that had helped...

The monument was monumental – as the name suggested. A large obelisk of white marble, engraved with every dead that had fallen in the war. The marble was framed by depictions of the heroes of the war and imperial saints. And among them were the armored giants of the space marines that had come to Eredius assistance. The spear that was their sign was ever present in the masterly crafted monument.

The actual plaza of execution was less pompous. All that was left of it was a single gnarly tree in front of the old execution wall. Devout believers told stories that when the last cultist had been shot, tied to the wooden log, the same had begun to sprout. They claimed it to be a miracle send by the Emperor. A reward for the surviving eredians for their fight against the foul xenos. But Audessa was no longer certain. She had seen first hand how the Imperium twisted the truth to keep citizen dump and docile...

The very tree that was allegedly the execution log would be the place of Audessa's death. The crowing irony was, that the execution place wasn't so far away from Cornellius station. The station Audessa had allied herself with. The station that had given birth to the genestealer cult of the Beloved Heart. The farm district that had been the High Examinata's downfall. Poetic justice...