[Dan296]

Months passed. They arrived at the cardinal world two weeks after leaving Baetica. After Katrina and her warriors made their report to the inquisitorial council, as convened by Malekai, they visited the many cathedrals and shrines to the sororitas, past and present. One day, they came upon one that they did not expect. A tiny chapel, almost unnoticeable amongst the gross splendor of the gargantuan palace of the planet’s Cardinal. It honored the fallen of Ilano Primus. Outside stood two statues, a Sororita and an Astarte. No pilgrims shuffled in and out of this small shrine. Katrina and her warriors, however, went to this place every day. Without the sacrifice of the two warriors that stood an eternal vigil outside of it, Breya, the former Cannoness, and Mortimer, a chaplain of the Revilers, none of them would be alive today. The shrine was maintained by the only civilian survivors of that great battle, and Katrina honored them greatly.
Malekai, too visited the shrine once, but the inquisitorial council about Baetica took most of his time.
“But that makes no sense milord, the Nicassar were too far off. We saw their Dhow escorts, but they were at the edge of the system! There must be some other explanation.” Malekai stood before the council, which was made of two inquisitor lords from each of the three main orders, Heraticus, Malleus, and Xenos. Lord Grimwuld, of the Xenos, had suggested that the reason the astropaths had died was, of course, the Nicassar. The space-bound psykers of immense power. Almost all were Alpha-level, but for some reason none would fall to deamonic incursion. “Lord Grimwuld,” spoke the other Xenos Inquisitor, a Lord Arca, “there is another alien with such a power.” He turned to the rest of the council. “You all know of which I speak. The ones of Behemoth, Leviathan, and Kraken. Tyranids! Another Hive Fleet approaches Beatica! Now there are two situations. It could be a small fleet, and in which case the Astropaths could only be hurt by the Shadow in the Warp if their invasion was imminent. If it is a large fleet, then they could do such damage from a long way off. Do any of you know of anyone that has tried to contact the Baetica system, or surrounding systems?” Noone spoke. “Of course you don’t. Because although the system does contain inquisitorial forces, it is still in a backwater area of the eastern fringe. The Shadow in the Warp advanced unnoticed. Perhaps this new fleet is a splinter of Behemoth that advanced such ages ago. It could have followed the Tau for all we know. It does not matter now. It must be destroyed! Alien multitudes of many kinds now advance from the fringe. Tyranid and Tau. We must announce a crusade!”
Malekai rose again “I agree, the threat is undoubtedly Tyranids, and although noone has gone on the offensive against Tyranids before, we have always let them come to us. But now, we must take up the sword and bolter, and we must make haste.”
Grimwuld spoke “Let us vote. In favor of a crusade?” Arca, Malekai, both Heraticus lords, and a Malleus Lord raised their hands. “Very well then. A crusade. We must send a message to Holy Terra for the High lords to ratify this, and if so, we must make more preparations for the war.”