Prophecy

by Brian Kito

Inquisitor Weise awoke with a start. He cursed himself silently, it was not like him to be so anxious before a routine interview. Of course, this was to be no 'routine' interview he knew. No, for Inquisitor Weise was to be the first non Blood Angel to set foot on Baal since before the time of Dante himself, since the last recorded.... occurrence.

Weise was on his way to interview a Chaplain in the Blood Angels Second Company by the name of Uziel. The very thought of Traveling to Baal to be a 'Guest' made Weise more than a little uncomfortable. He’d read all reports of any significance regarding the Blood Angels dating back for at least three hundred years, and that had only made his discomfort greater. He noted with some curiosity how locals would often go missing where the Blood Angels were stationed long periods, and how often their bodies would be found later drained of blood. Even one instance where the governor of Helos IV berated the Fourth Company’s' Captain for damaging his palace while saving the planet from certain doom. The Governor’s skin was found in an alley after the Blood Angels had left the planet, but the rest of his remains were never seen. Weise tried not to let the Blood Angels’ sordid past bother him, after all, they were one of the Emperor's most loyal Chapters. And besides, he was not visiting to investigate for heresy. He was visiting to interview the latest Chaplain to have the dream, the prophecy.

Uziel was not the first Chaplain to have the dream, in fact he was the fourth. The last had been thirteen hundred years ago and was the last time Baal had had a visit from the Inquisition, or anyone else for that matter. Weise decided to go over the data collected from the previous three Chaplains to take his mind off the 'reports of significance' he'd read earlier. He noted with some interest that the dream had only occurred to the Blood Angels' Chaplains, probably do to their zeal and single-minded faith in their Chapters' survival. He also found it interesting that in all three previous interviews the Chaplains dreams had not just been similar, but identical. There was an eerie realness to the dreams, even on paper. As he read the last interview he felt almost as though he were having the dream, not reading it....

" In the dream I felt excitement " Weise read from the account in front of him. " I was excited because the day had come to open the Golden Sarcophagi and greet our newest Battle Brothers. There would be so much to teach them, so much to show them. It was a very busy time for us, there are many things to prepare. I find it incredible how much they change in the course of one year in the Sarcophagi with only the Blood of Sanguinis to sustain them. "

Weise could almost feel the Chaplains fanatical excitement as he read on. " I now find myself in the Hall of the Sarcophagi waiting with the rest of the chapters ranking officers for the opening the first Sarcophagus. As the first Sarcophagus begins to open we see the fruits of the Sanguinary Priests efforts and welcome our young brother to his new life. The second Sarcophagus offers up another, the third and fourth, two more. But then I feel pulled to where several of the Sanguinary Priests are watching a monitor which displays the vital signs of the last Sarcophagus' resident. They seem to be un-nerved by the strange life signs registering on the monitor and begin to manually open the last container. All of us watch as the Priests do their work, and then it happens.... He awakes! He stands, with arms outstretched to the heavens, and unfurls wings of the whitest feathers. Sanguinis reborn! We all stand dumbstruck as he looks at each of us in turn, and with that one look relieves us of the sorrow for his death that has always come with his geneseed. With a voice like the roar a ThunderHawk, he tells us 'To battle, to battle, mankind’s greatest battle nears!' And this is where the dream ended as I awoke with tears of joy in my eyes."

As Weiss’s' ship, 'Imperial Vengeance', entered the Baal system he awoke with a start. His dreams had not been of his skin hanging from the walls of the Blood Angels Fortress though. Instead, they had been of a battle so great that Legends would defy death itself to take part.