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Week 8
Guardsmen! The Time Has Come!
August 30, 2003
We now begin another broadcast from Sa'Cea Sally, on Comm-channel Free Damocles:
"Welcome back, Imperial Guardsmen. Or, at least, the few of you who are left! I apologise for my long absence, but it seems that it was for the best. For our friendship could have been strained by my reactions to what goes on in the Segmentum Obscuras.
"Look at what they have done, my friends! Look at what your pompous, arrogant, unthinking, idiot commanders have done! The Cadian Gate is battered down, and all of Chaos is loose. See what they have done to Cadia! Two entire worlds utterly destroyed! Two more worlds in total anarchy, with the Arch-Enemy roaming free! And the other four beleaguered and crumbling under the onslaught. Even Cadia itself stands in the balance, more under the sway of Chaos than the Eagle! All this in a mere two months! How can even the most deluded fool claim this to be a victory?
"Look too at the Scaurus sector, and tell me that your commanders have done well. Surely you see that four worlds have fallen completely to the Orks, including the forge world of Mordax Prime! Two more are on the brink of anarchy, requiring little more than a gentle nudge to slide forever from the Administratum's feeble grasp. Of the seven systems, only one remains as a tiny, vulnerable island of loyalty. Only Thracian Prime still stands. And yet they crow of their hollow 'triumph' that Scaurus is not lost, while they can still stand in the single tower that remains! And they will continue to claim this until they dye their pasty hides green to hide among the teeming Ork masses. Do you still have confidence in them, my friends?
"If so, then perhaps Agrippina will open your eyes. Ten worlds have fallen there! Ten, out of fourteen! And the other four lie only in Agrippina system itself. Another isolated patch of dry land in the heaving sea of Chaos! How long will it last, my friends? How long until the unholy tide rises and washes it away?
"There are those who would tell you, my Guardsmen friends, that the Navy shall save the Golden Throne. After all, they claim, control of the space lanes will restrict where the Enemy may move. Yet has it ever before? Even if they can form a perfect blockade, how long can they maintain it without replenishment? They have no worlds to resupply them with food and air, they have no munitions to reload or recruits to board. Where shall they dry-dock for repair? I fear that the control will be fleeting, my friends, and that it will serve only to allow the fleet to evacuate those they deem worth saving.
"And these will be the pampered, simpering fools who allowed this disaster to occur! Not you, my friends, who have done the digging and dying. Oh, no, it will be the courtiers and concubines who will receive priority. They will save the jesters and the jewels, and not the ones who do the work. For they see you as expendable! To them, you are cartridges in an autorifle to be fired and thrown away. You are as toys to spoiled children, played with until broken by carelessness, then discarded when no longer useful.
"Why do you remain under their rule? Why do you still stand under them, when they would not stand with their fellows and make a stand?
"It is time, my friends. It may even be, I fear, past time. It is time that you rise up and take the reins from these feeble fools! You can do no worse, and possibly much better. Throw over your simpering colonels and idiot commanders! Then, at least, you will have the chance to save yourselves.
"Those of you remaining in the Segmentum Obscuras, should you remain combat-worthy after throwing out the gilded trash foisted upon you by the Administratum throw your support behind one leader. Any of those from your command council will do, so long as they have proven their loyalty and competance. Save the Imperium from itself! Join together inspite of the spiteful stupidity of your so-called 'Generals'. Only in unity can you salvage something from the wreckage.
"To you Guardsmen in the Ultima Segmentum, I say to you; why wait until it is your turn? Why wait for the ditherers and dilletantes to throw you into the same fire as your comrades in Obscuras have been thrown? For there are dire threats coming from the Maelstrom, and the Orks, and the Hive fleets here as well! Look at your leaders with a view towards their competance and sanity, and I am sure you will see them lacking. Throw them down as well, my friends! For they are worse enemies of the Emperor than we are.
"To all those tired of the grinding idiocy of the Administratum, we offer sanctuary! Those of you who still have our pamphlets will know to use recognition panel 'B', with the same challenge and password, in order to gain safe conduct into our space. Those of you who do not will find new pamphlets being distributed through the same comm-drones that bring this message. Use them! Use them well.
"We will welcome all those who recognise that there is some Good beyond their own, and who are willing to compromise so that as many may benefit as much as possible. In our expanded Empire, my friends, there is much work to be done! All able hands will find a trade or profession here.
"In the hopes that you will see wisdom, and will win free of the chains of oppression, I shall now play for you a selection of popular music..."
- - -
[by Inquisitor Flavius Rafael]
>> "Welcome back, Imperial Guardsmen. Or, at least, the few of you who are left! I apologise for my long absence, but it seems that it was for the best.
Why could it not have lasted longer, I wonder...ah, well. I suppose your handlers found their resources for news from the Segmentum Oscuras--a matter I shall be investigating very, very soon, following the prosecution of a criminal who I have extracted from under the nose of your awesomely revered Empire--so amusing that they had to put you on the transmission-worthy electromagnetic wavelengths once more. Your honey-sweet tones will gain you no friends here, though. As dire as the situation is, I will not let you or the Despoiler crush my faith in the God Emperor.
>> "Look at what they have done, my friends! Look at what your pompous, arrogant, unthinking, idiot commanders have done! The Cadian Gate is battered down, and all of Chaos is loose. See what they have done to Cadia! Two entire worlds utterly destroyed! Two more worlds in total anarchy, with the Arch-Enemy roaming free! And the other four beleaguered and crumbling under the onslaught. Even Cadia itself stands in the balance, more under the sway of Chaos than the Eagle! All this in a mere two months! How can even the most deluded fool claim this to be a victory?
Because an Imperial victory is inevitable. We have survived twelve such incursions before; we shall do so again. It is historically inevitable for the Light of the Emperor to return to these planets so long darkened by the threat of annihilation. His peace be upon all those at His side even now.
>> " Do you still have confidence in them, my friends?
I have confidence in the God Emperor, and that is all that I need. Incompetant Generals and Commanders can be dealt with easily, and therefore there is no reason to have confidence in them unless there are none better suited to the task.
>> "How long until the unholy tide rises and washes it away?
How long until your venemous tongue eats away the hearts of those you wish to "help"? Riven with thoughts of hopelessness and lanced through by your doubt-inspiring words, countless guardsmen are throwing off their "shackles" only to retreat and further weaken our lines--and, in most cases, these Guardsmen fall into the hands of the Great Enemy, to be tortured and sacrificed and bartered as slaves like so much meat. Is this your Greater Good? You may keep it if you like.
>> " it will serve only to allow the fleet to evacuate those they deem worth saving.
Any Imperial official who would rather save his own hide rather than serve the God-Emperor will be summarily executed. As a "master" of propaganda, surely you know this? Ah, but of course, you think of summary execution as waivable by the Imperial "elite." How very little you are aware of....
>> "And these will be the pampered, simpering fools who allowed this disaster to occur!
I would volunteer to be he who would remove the burden of heresy from your soul, should you choose the Emperor's Light over this path of Darkness which you have travelled....
>> " It is time that you rise up and take the reins from these feeble fools! You can do no worse, and possibly much better.
This I doubt. The only thing holding us together is our hierarchy and infrastructure; any revolution or conspiracy against it would bring the entire Cadian Gate crumbling down into dust. Again, would you destroy those whom you apparently wish to "save"? Your ignorance and naivete shows through as clear as the daylight of a thousand suns.
- - -
August 31, 2003
We now begin another broadcast from Sa'Cea Sally, on Comm-channel Free Damocles:
"Hello again, Guardsmen of the East, to this Sunday broadcast. I address this to the Ultima Segmentum, for I fear that Guardsmen in Segmentum Obscuris are far too few and too busy to tune in.
"Again the Cadian Gate sags under the weight of evil and idiocy. Again your high leaders waste effort and time with recrimination and slander rather than working for the Greater Good of the Imperium. Again your lives are thrown away to little effect, in a vain attempt to save face in the face of crushing defeat. How long can this go on, my friends? How many worlds are there left between Abaddon and Terra? How many more can they afford to throw away? For the cost in lives has risen into the tens of billions.
"And again the virulent xenophobe Inquisitor Flavius Rafael shrills his hateful cries into the airwaves. He claims that Imperial law prevents favouritism in these times of crisis, and that Governors who are less than completely dutiful will suffer the wrath of his office. It is a shame, is it not, that he was not more diligent pursuing the idiots and poltroons who claimed to lead you before this crisis arose?
"Yet today you shall hear a first, as we apologise to Inquisitor Rafael. It appears that, for all the perfidities he did perpetrate during our Frontier Wars, we accused him of one he did not commit. We have long accused Inquisitor Rafael of abandoning and disclaiming a loyal servant, one Corporal Baz Ignatz of Nowy Silesia. We captured him after the failed attempt to destroy our studio three weeks ago. Yet we must now acknowledge that we were wrong, for the inquiry into the actions of Corporal Ignatz has brought to light a troubling matter; there is another who is pretending to the name of 'Inquisitor Rafael'!
"When asked to point to an image of the Inquisitor who ordered his attack on our studio, Corporal Ignatz pointed not to our file image of Inquisitor Rafael but to that of one we knew as Solomon Dhur, a friendly rogue trader whose image was included in what was once called a 'photo line-up.' This surprised us greatly, as we had negotiated many profitable trades with his company. Of course, we immediately sought out Trader Dhur for an explanation but found his quarters empty save for a dataslate left for us. Some of what was left was meant for you, Inquisitor Rafael, and as you do not return our messages I shall send this out in public.
"His slate bore the slogan, 'ad bellicus usque fortis'. We believe that this translates to "from war to strength" in Low Gothic, but our knowledge of High Gothic is limited. His rambling and rather vitriolic message made frequent mention of the planet Istvaan, and to a person by the name of Tiberius Rork. We do not know how the two are related, yet mention of the name often was paired with mention of the planet. He claimed that it was he who relayed our signals into the afflicted Segmentum Obscuris. He excuses his actions as being for the betterment of mankind, as a stronger Tau Empire is needed to challenge the Imperium to throw off its 'dead weight' and become great again. The last, and most salient, point is that the message was signed with an Ordo Xenos seal. Whatever good you may take from this is yours, Inquisitor Rafael; for we do not expect to see 'Trader Dhur' again. You are welcome to this impostor or renegade. You should find his pict file and a transcript attached to our transmission. Please do with him as you will.
"Despite our well-wishes, this does demonstrate the rot at the heart of the Imperium. Its offices work against each other. The Ecclesiarchy, the Inquisition, the Administratum, the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Adeptus Astartes, and many others all work more against each other than for the good of the Imperium. They have lost their way in the millennia since the Emperor's ascension, and now see no other way to govern than by brute strength. So humanity has slid into one of the most oppressive regimes in our long history. Oh, my friends, how we have fallen! No wonder my kin was surprised to find the Tau'va to be so amenable, and why we Gue'vesa are so disappointed with Imperial progress in this war.
"Let us look at the ancient albums one last time, and see why our disappointment is so sharp. For in the classic times of Terra there was a kind of magic that allowed freedom and safety to coexist. This is not some bohemian rhapsody of airy, impossible dreams, but actual history from our ancient home world. A world that once worked together for the common good for all, where knowledge and wisdom rose to dizzying heights. Dignity and security both reigned over all, and we truly knew all the great lessons that the Tau'va tries to teach. Yet for reasons lost in the mists of time and legend that world lost contact with the colonies it had borne unto the galaxy. It was feared that this fate would descend upon our native soil, that Terra too would fall as the colonies were presumed to have fallen. And this was the beginning of our doom.
"Under pressure, driven by fear while waiting for this hammer to fall, many went stone cold crazy and turned on each other. The unity of purpose fell away, leaving only anarchy and destruction. It took the Emperor to restore order and peace to Terra; it took a god incarnate to do what should have been second nature for ourselves. For the lack of one year of love between brothers, which was all that was needed, we butchered ourselves until a living Deity forced us to stop.
"And so it goes today. Except that we have imprisoned the Emperor on the Golden Throne, that He may never walk among us in the flesh again. We have only His spirit, and for many I fear that this is not enough.
"Perhaps you will think that this has all turned into silly radio ga ga, or that I am going slightly mad from the disappointment and disillusionment in the past days. Perhaps you are right, but I wanted so much for you in this crisis. You are so often told that you must sacrifice either safety or freedom, dignity or life. Yet I want it all for you. You should have all these and more. Yet the strutting dullards who call themselves the Ecclesiarchy remain deaf to the words of the Divine voice, hearing only their own prideful and wishful daydreams, and can imagine no other way than degradation and slavery.
"And while they dream the Imperium away, and imagine some new way to humiliate a rival in order to gain another pearl on their chasuble, the Arch-enemy will tie your mother down on a dark altar of their own and perform some arcane and obscene rite. Because the Arch-enemy has found the secret to creating miracles, dark or light; the secret called 'cooperation.'
"The miracle that can come from working together is that all the efforts combine into something greater than the sum of the individual efforts. When properly directed, either by Celestial wisdom or the grace of the Emperor or even mortal cunning, these efforts can lift entire civilizations out of the ashes of chaos and into the light of peace and order. My friends, these are the days of our lives where one vision, and one vision only, can save us. If you do not find this one vision, then it is the dark vision of Evil that will triumph against the multitude of grasping individuals.
"Keep yourself alive, Guardsman! Do not throw yourself headlong into the fire merely at a general's cry of "Who wants to live forever?!" Instead, make sure that your general is following a greater plan than butting heads with the opposition. Do not spend your life in vain; if you must die, make it for some great purpose.
"I would like to tell you more, perhaps enough that you could find your own path to the Greater Good, but I find my time short. The show must go on, no matter the wishes of one, and time makes for the most demanding Queen.
"As the press of time demands that I leave you for today, I shall now play for you a selection of popular music..."