Getting Warhammered [WH 40k Fanfic]

Garric Thorne rose from a fitful sleep, snapping awake with his chest heaving and eyes wide open, expecting to see the bars of his cage or the unfeeling green glow of those metal monstrosities. They haunted his nightmares, not allowing him a moment of respite even in the sanctity of his own mind.

It took his racing thoughts a few seconds to process what his senses were telling him, to fully take in the feeling of soft bedding beneath him, the comfortable sleepwear against his skin, the gentle weight of the blanket, or the welcoming ambience of his new bedroom.  

He blinked slowly, owlishly, as his muscles uncoiled and relief hit him with the force of a runaway freight train. It wasn’t a lie, not just another trick by those metal monsters. The room was still here; he really, truly managed to escape that Hell. 

“Daddy?” A small, drowsy voice reached his ears and Garric did his absolute best to wipe any sign of his panic off his face. He turned towards the small bundle of warmth and innocence that he had forsaken the Emperor and the sanctity of his own soul for without hesitation.

“Yes, princess?” He asked as softly as he could, trying to mimic the motherly voice his dear Severina would have taken had she not been one of the first ones systematically dissected by those accursed monsters. 

Little Sabine, a grand total of twelve Terran years old, scrunched up her small face, judgemental worry lining her childish features. “You okay, daddy?”

“Yes, perfectly,” Garric lied with a smile, though his little princess clearly didn’t believe him. Severina had always looked at him with the same judgemental frown when she saw through his barefaced white lies. Those two, mother and daughter, seemed to be able to read his mind. A bit embarrassing as a father, but he’d learned some tricks over the years. “Breakfast? I heard they’ll have uhhhh- ‘pancakes’ today? What do you think? Want to try what the locals have for sweets around here?”

And by ‘around here’, he meant Vallia Prime. Were he a weaker man, not in body but in mind, he would have said forsaking the Emperor’s Grace was worth it for the mere pleasure of getting to eat the food these Vallians thought was normal fare. As things stood, what made his betrayal worth it was the expression of pure, childish joy that lit up on Sabine’s face. 

Perceptive she might have been but she was still just twelve. The fact she could still smile like that warmed his heart and calmed the worry that her stay in that lightless cage had robbed her of her joy. Severina would probably jump down from the Emperor’s Golden Heaven to strangle him if he didn’t do his best raising their little angel. 

A sudden and immense ache struck his heart at that thought. Severina had died at the hands of foul Xenos monsters; she very likely ended up beside the Emperor. But him? He and Sabine?

They had the choice to return to the Imperium; their rescuer had given them the option. Alas, Garric had been a PDF trooper once and had been given the dubious honour of seeing an Inquisitor systematically dismantle a small Tau sympathiser cult. 

To say the man went about his work ruthlessly would be like saying stars were quite big and a bit hot. ‘Better safe than sorry’ seemed to be their standard operating procedure. A father talked to a Tau sympathiser at work about the weather? That might have been some secret code between members. The sympathiser, the father, his entire family, the family pet and even the neighbour ended up purged without mercy. Even their three- and five-year-old kids. 

Garric had been exposed to much, much worse Xenos influence than that unfortunate family. If even the kriffing pet got shot, what hope did Garric and his daughter have to escape a lasbolt to the head the moment they were back on a world controlled by the Imperium of Mankind?

Absolutely none, and it was unacceptable. He had promised himself, Sabine and even his dearly departed wife that they would get through the horrors, that they would live. One of those promises ended up broken when the metal monsters took his wife, but Garric would personally feed his soul to a daemon before he let Sabine get shot by an overzealous Inquisitor just for the sin of surviving that nightmare. 

Damn it all. At least he could enjoy his life and raise Sabine among these heretics and Xeno-lovers until the Emperor inevitably took him from his mortal coil and judged his soul unworthy of standing at his side. Whatever. Either his prayers to the Emperor had been answered in the form of his rescuer, in which case his presence here was preordained and at the Emperor’s will, in which case he had nothing to worry about, or the Emperor ignored his fervent, desperate prayers with the casual disdain of an uncaring god. In which case … 

Garric shuddered at the thought he almost had, quickly shaking himself to chase it away. Which is when he noticed Sabine poking him, her small index finger tapping at his hip insistently as she peered up at him with a pouty frown.

“You zoned out again,” she said with a small huff, crossing her arms and raising her chin in the exact same way Severina had always done when she was mock-upset with him. His heart broke again at the sight, but he hid it as best as he could. “Pancakes?”

“Yes, I’m sorry, princess,” he said with a wry smile, ruffling her soft brown hair and earning himself a squeaked protest and a glare. She was at that age where having her hair styled just so was more important than not starving to death. “Give me a moment, and we can get you some pancakes.”

Sabine was already dressed, wearing one of those weird dresses the locals had provided them when they moved into this apartment. Despite himself, his upbringing and his continued belief in the Emperor … it would be a barefaced lie to say he wasn’t absolutely floored by the warm welcome of the locals.

Sure, he and Sabine had been separated from the other Imperials who’d chosen to stay — something about avoiding the formation of ‘cliques’ that obstructed ‘cultural integration’ — but they had been given an apartment to live in, basic furniture, clothes to wear and were given free food daily if they showed up at the right time at the ‘cafeteria’. And, apparently, unbelievably, it all came with no strings attached. 

Other than the fact that all of it would all be taken away and he’d be killed if he tried to evangelise to the locals or foment rebellion. Even if he didn’t believe what the locals preached, he’d been told in no uncertain terms to act as he did or at the very least, keep his opinions and beliefs to himself. 

A part of him wanted to rail against it, the younger, more headstrong PDF trooper in him wanted to grab the nearest knife and go on a rampage. Take as many of these heretics down with him as possible to hopefully earn the Emperor’s forgiveness … but that part of him was ruthlessly quashed beneath the unforgiving boots of The Father. 

He couldn’t help but smile as he watched Sabine fix her hair, huffing and puffing before the mirror before doing a ‘princessly’ twirl. She seemed to adore the dresses that filled her wardrobe now, and Garric tried to will himself happy for her instead of feeling guilty that he could never afford to spoil her with dresses and clothes like these on his own dime. What was his pride as a father worth in the face of her happiness? 

Honestly, it was a miracle she could still act this innocent. Sabine had been taken away from them, kept separately from her parents and his rescuer told him she’d been placed in a stasis field. To his little princess, time froze for weeks and she was spared the worst of the horrors, though she remembered the abduction clearly. Garric had no idea what the metal monsters intended for her that required having her in a stasis field, and he didn’t want to know either, but it was at least a small, tiny silver lining to make this entire catastrophe slightly less horrible. 

Sabine wouldn’t be tortured by the sound of her mother’s dying screams as he would be till the end of his life. That was … good.

A few minutes later, they were taking the elevator down to the ground floor, watching as the numbers rapidly shrank on the small display screen. Garric still felt slightly queasy in this place. Everything was so … clean, so new, so artificial. Nothing was built with human hands, not by hard-working men and women. It wasn’t lived-in. Everything worked. The elevator didn’t break down. The doors opened on their own. The trash he left in the dumpster disappeared during the night. 

A loud chime snapped Garric out of his daze and glancing up revealed they had arrived at the ground floor where the cafeteria was located. Five hundred and sixty-eight floors traversed in less than a minute. It was ridiculous. He barely even felt the small box they occupied move as it zipped through the elevator shaft. 

“Let’s go, princess,” Garric said softly, and Sabine eagerly grabbed his hand with one of her own tiny hands and started dragging him forward the moment the elevator’s doors opened. 

He kept his head on a swivel, gaze flickering around warily and in search of threats. That was an old habit he’d probably be unable to shake loose. He knew Imperial Guardsmen looked down on PDF troopers as incompetent civilians playing at being soldiers and that might have been true for the fops in the PDF of a peaceful world in the Damocles Gulf, but Garric had been a PDF trooper on a frontier world in the Jericho Reach. He’d shot down pirates, bandits, gangers, Orks, Tau, and even Eldar raiders in his time, so he reckoned he knew a thing or two about soldiering. The distinct lack of any weapon on him ached like a physical wound, but he’d make do if he had to. He’d strangle an Ork Warboss with his bare hands before he let anything happen to Sabine.

They walked through the too-clean corridors painted in too-bright colours. Plants- Why were there plants indoors in every corner, and why was every corner softened into a curve? Were the locals allergic to sharp edges like those blasted Tau? 

Speaking of locals, there seemed to be two groups of them. The ones that stared at Garric and his daughter with suspicion as they passed, some with more tact than the others, and ones that smiled at them, apparently thinking that he needed to feel welcome. Except, those latter ones freaked him the hell out. They made him feel like he’d been dragged into a cult of some sort and was in the process of being converted. The suspicious ones were at least honest and within expectations of how normal people were supposed to act. 

When they reached the cafeteria after a few minutes of walking, positioned at the outer wall of this massive Hive Tower — or whatever it was the locals called it — Garric couldn’t help but stare as he always did. The outer wall was perfectly see-through, like the finest glass, granting everyone in the hall a panoramic view of the verdant landscape beyond the building’s boundaries. 

They stepped into the line, Sabine spending the time peering at the spread of food prepared for the day’s breakfast. The locals did things strangely. Breakfast was free, at least the most bland, boring option that could be chosen in the cafeteria. If one wanted to eat something that had actual flavour, they needed money and that was when the need for work came in. 

Garric thought it was both insidious and ingenious. He’d been part of crackdowns of a riot or two, and almost always they were caused by starving workers who couldn’t afford food for their children, or themselves. This was not a kindness, but a calculated move to lessen the likelihood of popular unrest. 

Then he once more saw a member of the third group of people who lived on Vallia Prime, snow-white hair up in a neat bun, crystalline green eyes like emeralds, and a soft, caring smile. 

“Garric! Sabine! How are you today?” The young woman greeted with a smile that, for all Garric’s experience dealing with bare-faced liars, seemed entirely genuine. “Are you settling in fine? Any problems?”

He’d thought he was being singled out the first time she did it, but then paid more attention the next day and noticed the woman knew the names of everyone. Which prompted him to ask around a bit, as much as he dared without rousing suspicion, which was how he figured out she was one of the daughters of the so-called ‘Silver Lady’, the woman who’d saved him and who ruled as the absolute monarch of Vallia. One of thousands of daughters who just popped up out of the aether one day, all of them looking exactly the same before their looks started diverging over the course of weeks. 

“Nothing to complain about, Miss,” Garric replied gruffly. It was true enough, he had nothing to complain about without coming off as a whiny child or an overly grumpy old man refusing to conform.

“Hi Jane!” Sabine said, waving at the white-haired possible-horror in human skin. 

“Hi Sabine!” The woman replied with equal enthusiasm and the same innocent, childish tone. Technically, Sabine was supposedly years older than Jan le, but Garric decided not to think about that to safeguard the remains of his fracturing sanity. “Want some sweets? My treat, it’s a big day today!”

“Yes please!” Sabine said, bouncing on her toes as she peered at the array of desserts she’d never been allowed to taste before. “Can I have that one?”

“Sure!” Jane said, adding something that looked like a miniature volcano to their tray without batting an eye. Garric’s stomach clenched into a knot when his eyes caught the price. That thing cost five hours’ worth of his wages as a handyman. 

“What’s happening today, if you don’t mind me asking?” Garric asked, trying to sound casual. It wasn’t a demand, it couldn’t be, but he struggled to scrub his voice clean of that commanding cadence he’d gotten so used to as a PDF trooper dealing with idiots for more than a decade. 

“There will be an announcement,” Jane said, bouncing on the balls of her feet in a manner not unlike Sabine was doing. “I heard Mother will be making an appearance! It’s been weeks since I’ve last seen her in person, I hope she’ll have time for a chat. I want to show her these new volcano cakes I finally figured out how to make!”

How that woman could deal with thousands of juvenile daughters, Garric would never know. He could barely handle Sabine without his dear Severina’s help. He couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for the all-powerful witch who had rescued him. As much as he loved Sabine, she could be a handful. 

They said their goodbyes to Jane, who, other than knowing the names of thousands of people, also seemed to possess an endless well of both stamina and enthusiasm. Was she a transhuman like the Astartes, or maybe more like one of those elite Guardsmen regiments like the legendary Lucifer Blacks that guarded the Throne World?

Garric shook his head and decided to focus on his food, or rather on the sheer aura of boundless joy Sabina radiated as she shovelled that mini volcano cake into her mouth piece by piece. Her smile made everything worth it. He felt like he could wrestle an Ork if it was to protect that smile. 

It was a mere ten minutes later that a strange light and an ephemeral presence dragged Garric’s gaze up to the air above the tables. Gasps and cheers in equal measure echoed in the hall as a trio of floating screens snapped into existence. They were angled so that their vertical sides touched, and instead of being a perfect rectangle, the bottom edge was shorter, making the screen face slightly downwards. This way, everyone in the cafeteria would be able to see at least a single one of them.

The picture cleared up, revealing a vast circular hall on the other side, filled with well-dressed men and women, though half of them appeared to be holograms. Their clothes were strange, sleek and minimalist in a way no Imperial Noble would bear to wear with their obnoxious and gaudy sense of fashion. 

The man in the front came into focus.

“Citizens of Vallia, my fellow citizens, new and old, I appear before you today to make an announcement that shall go down in the history books,” the man said. “By the authority invested in me by the august body, and by you citizens through them, I am here, acting in my role as the Chancellor of our newly formed Senate, to declare the formal establishment of the Vallian Dominion. Secondly, I once more formally acknowledge Lady Echidna as the sole absolute ruler of our fledgeling nation!”

Garric stared at the screen blankly, not all that interested until the witch he’d only seen a single time and even then, only for a moment, replaced the man. His heart stilled in his chest when she smiled and opened her mouth.

“While it should not concern you overly much, I feel it’s appropriate to notify you that all systems and planets within the Jericho Reach that have once pledged fealty to the Imperium of Mankind have bent the knee to me over the course of the last month,” the woman said as casually as if she was talking about the weather. “Some were conquered, and some were surrendered to me so we could part on favourable terms, so the threat of a renewed crusade, now fought against my fledgling realm, is rather unlikely. In the following weeks an overarching government for this new domain of mine will be constructed, the Dominion of the Stars, and Vallia shall be its first member state, the first pillar it shall stand upon. Details will be available to the curious as always on the Net, so I shan’t bore you with them. Thank you for your attention, you may return to your breakfast. Until next time.”

She conquered every system within the Reach. Every. System. Garric thought numbly, then his train of thought stuttered. Wait, what the frak was that about systems being surrendered to her? 

The Imperium never did that. They fought till the last man and glassed a planet rather than let it fall into the hands of an enemy if they could manage. Garric knew this, and yet, it happened and he found he had no idea how to feel about it.