Walking in the Wake of Erasmus Haarlock

Moving forward we enter a gallery with high ceilings. Massive turbines are bathed in blue ghostly light. As usual in this place lights and shadow leap and play tricks on our minds, space seems to distort. We stand hesitant for a second, we know time is crucial but instincts tell us to back off. Holder-Smith suggest we try to run across the room – sounds like a plan. We make a run for it.

The noise – it assaults your body, penetrates your skull, your skin, your bones. Where did the exit go? There are just reflections, endless reflections. Mirrors within mirrors. Focus, dammit!

Having crossed the room I notice that Potter, Laz, Holder-Smith and Kort are not out yet. We throw in a rope on directions from our masked companion. Finally Laz and Potter exit the room accompanied by Holder-Smith. Apparently the mask got him through unscathed. The rest of us are a bit worse for wear. Kort, they say, withered away into an old man in the course of seconds before turning to dust. Yikes!

There is a narrow path before us, made of solid stone. It ends abruptly before an abyss. Holder-Smith says the Widower is telling us to “Take a leap of faith” and that he cannot go. Guess this is it. One step closer to insanity. We leap.

Oddly I have no sensation of falling, no sensation of space or time. Then something comes into sight again.

A new room. Green, high vaulted again. This time with large windows in the ceiling and to all sides. We see stars. It’s beautiful. Holder-Smith says the stars are not known…. Where could we be? The room is a machine complex, lots of mechanical stuff. Gears and lenses. Quite cool. The machinery resembles the other Haarlock-stuff, like the clock. It’s faded out somehow. There is a funny smell too, like…uhm..ozone. In front of the machine there’s a statue, a torso of a veiled woman in solid iron. It’s very lifelike. She holds a chalice in one hand while the other is extended into an open palm, as if asking for something. The room has 13 – duh – corners, and each one has a monitor. They flicker in and out, images, nothing special.

So this machine-thingy is the tesseract – guess there is just one thing to do: Give the iron lady the keystone.

One of the corners light up, then another. The machine hums. The Widower told us we had to pass through all doors, so we get started.

I can see and hear, but nothing more. We are aboard a juggernaut. Angevin, Drusus and Solomon are there. They are looking at a star map. This must be the start of the Angevin Crusade. There is a huge fleet of ships. They are discussing tactics. Solomon is explaining some plan or other. This could be the start of Solomon – as in the planet. Angevin gives Solomon the Haarlock warrant. A white door appears.

We are on an island, in a mansion. It’s gorgeous. Azure waters and green isles. Solomon is there. We are still not our whole selves. Solomon is joined by two scholars – they are looking at plans for the crematorium. We realize this is what it used to look like at the House of Ash and Dust. A white door appears.

Now we are in a wide corridor, adorned by bones and velvet drapes. We see a fleet of vessels, know and unknown. One stands out – it’s a Haarlock ship. Out of nowhere it blasts one of the other ships and a fight is on. This must be Erasmus’ ship we are on. A stern-looking and beautiful woman approaches, a young girl in hand. Behind them the air ripples and a female assassin appears. She efficiently disposes of the Lady, this must be what porn is like for Dar. The girl runs towards us, terrified, then the assassin catches up with her. Time skips ahead to people rushing toward the two bodies, yelling “Lady Haarlock!”. Then Erasmus appears making way through the crowd. His desperation, anger and sorrow are all apparent has he screams “ I deny this!”. A white door appears.

We seem physically ourselves, but we don’t look it. I look like a common guard from back in the days. We seem to be a troop of some sort, and we’re in a mansion. There’s another man there as well, I think he is our leader, and he’s wearing the Haarlock emblem. There is gunfire in the hall. The man tells us to go to Lady Haarlock and that Laz is in command. The whole building shakes. More shooting. A calendar on a wall puts us around the time of the Cleansing. We find mother and young child. They are playing. As we gaze out through the window we see masses of units approaching. We also see Erasmus Haarlock, seemingly the real one, watching us. We need to get out, we bring mother and child into the garage and down into the sewers. Walking through the filth we encounter three guards, and eliminate them. We navigate towards the outskirts of town. As we go up into the street we see masses of people in the streets, and corn fields extending towards the horizon outside the town. We find an exit in an alley to avoid detection. There are ornithropters looking for us. We move tactically into the field and towards a farm. It’s a two hour trek. At the farm there is a white door.

We are in solid form, and we look like ourselves. Through a small hole in a wall we can see busy construction around what must be the early phases of the steel clock. We are back in a wall inside Haarlock’s mansion on Quaddis. Instincts tell us that we need to manipulate this clock, and we somehow seem to know which cogwheel to shift. We find a couple of uniforms in the basement. Holder-Smith puts one on and readies to go outside. I also put one for back up. Holder-Smith approaches the clock in an inconspicuous way. There is one figure that notices him though, a robed man. Holder-Smith manipulates the cogwheel and the robed figure comes to him and whispers something in his ear. “The key has been turned “ he later tells us. A white door appears smack in the middle between the wall and the clock. It flickers as if threatening to disappear again, and we all know the machine spirits can be fickle. Holder-Smith launches a grenade for some distractions and we make a run towards the door, with a crowd of shocked on-lookers.

Erasmus appears much older now. We are just eyes. Erasmus wanders in the border between the Warp and the Universe. He seethes power. He looks at me and smiles.

The air is warm. There is an odor of melted plastic and burned fat. Hive city mines. A soft snow of cinder ash falls from the sky. A huge cyclopean shape emerges. A vessel, a crimson disc of about one kilometre diameter, with a crimson glow in the center. It’s xeno and it even has friends. These are Slought ships.

We are in our true form now. We climb a small hill to get a better view of the area. There are craters left by bombs scattered across the terrain, one of them seem to be filled with bodies. On the way to check it out I can’t help but feel that Haarlock is close by, though not is sight. After about half an hour we’re at the crater with the bodies. They are of varying stages of decomposition, and they are all missing their heads, just like we saw on Mara. The Slought vessels are harvesters, harvesters of heads. There is a harvester on the move not too far away, it seems to be chasing a human, a guard maybe. We decide to take it on, might be we get something out of the guard though I doubt his or hers mental faculties are still in order. The heavy bolter thrives on such an expansive target. Hit after hit exploding beautifully in vital parts. Aaah. The rest hit it with what we got and it goes down easily enough. The sprinters start out to catch up with the guard. He is able to tell us that we are on Scintilla and that it's about 17 to 20 years later than our current date. There is civil war. “Damn the Inquisition!” He says. First there were battleships from the Inquisition and after that the Sloughts came. When he has nothing more useful to say we put him out of his misery. Three harvesters are approaching us, the gunfire probably attracted them. We hide and they go past us. Suddenly we take in a distress call on Inquisition codex. We head towards its destination. Two harvesters see us and engage. The heavy bolter again shines in my capable hands, and down the first one goes. Potter handily takes out the other with a fling spell. The distress call comes from a Rhino bearing the Imperial Aquila. A body lies halfway outside the vehicle. To my surprise I see myself sitting inside. I am about 20 years older, and on my chest is the inquisitorial rosette. I seem to have shot myself. In my hand is a cylinder with the mark of Haarlock on it, but also covered with wards. There’s a data slate as well and opening it, we find a voice recording:

“I leave this recording, my last testament to whomever may find it amongst my peers in the Holy Ordos… the guilt was ours, the sins were ours… hubris… came to dust… We grew arrogant, grew, complacent, after we stopped Haarlock on Mara, after the… Hayte purged at last… Gallowglass we believed ourselves invulnerable… civil war… Tyrantine Caba… within… Haarlock, it all came back to the legacy, we were so blind… never realised just what he…dead now, all dead… city burning… I …from the deep vault.. but it’s too late… my legs are shattered I cannot get out… all that remains is to pass judgement on myself… cannot let the worms have my mind…”

We see no other option but to open the cylinder. As we do a red crystalline dust flows out. A white door emerges. Holder-Smith takes the cylinder with him.

We’re on a huge hive, Holder-Smith has no cylinder in his hand. There seems to be some sort of celebration. The Calexis sector has a new planetary governor. Shivers go down my spine…. Haxx has been replaced by Erasmus Haarlock, and he is just about to speak to the public. They have gathered in front of big screens and a stage to witness the event. Holder-Smith notices that we are on Malfi, and also that some planets seem to be missing. There are commissars on the stage holding guard. We have jumped 23 years ahead from current time. There is a sense of fear in the air. Talking to some of the residents we learn that "the Savior" repelled the Slought invasion. The Inquisition had conspired with the Slought xenos, but Erasmus managed to sail in on the Spear of Destiny and knock the Inquisition out. The God Emperor is gone. There is an underground resistance movement, met with hard measures by Haarlock. The whole clergy have also been exterminated. They say that the light still shines on Holy Terra, so all hope is not lost. There is a new order – obey or pay the prize.