01x09 - A Corpse Like All the Rest

[bunniefuu]

Living means learning
to do what’s necessary.

Sometimes, if you're lucky,
there’s joy to be found in that.

I know now my hands will never be clean.

It was just a job.

You should know that.

Bellona wasn't what you think.

Wasn't who you think.

So people keep telling me.

But it doesn't matter.

Loyal to the last.

I hope this brings you peace, Jurgen.

Not peace...

Answers.

Jurgen.

Time to go.

Klore’s guards will be on us any moment.

It’s not done yet.

Jurgen...? What are you doing?

Getting answers.

-I thought you couldn't read a null.
-He’s not a null.

Just a corpse like all the rest.

She is a radical.

A dangerous radical.

You mean to move against her?

She is... well protected.

The collateral cost
of direct action would be...

troubling.

An assassination, then?

It's a simple universe
you inhabit, Heroth.

I admire that.
You see the world in black and white.

While I? I am forced to exist
amongst the graduated grey.

What do you need me to do?

Infiltrate her little operation.

Discover the truth of her plans.

Then, execute the target.

You almost make it sound easy.

If she’s as well protected as you say...

She uses psykers.

Bends them to her service
and chews them up.

But you, she'll like you.

A null. Unreadable.

One who can keep a secret.

That’ll work to your advantage.

I'll have to win her trust.

The seeds have already been planted.

There is another, a woman,
already embedded in her team.

One she doesn't trust.

k*ll her.

Expose her as a traitor.

k*ll one of our own?

The ends justify the means.

You must win Bellona’s trust.

Only then will she confide
the full extent of her plan.

Only then can we hope to counter it.

Here’s the evidence you’ll need
to frame operative Yusi.

And you're certain this will be enough?

Certain? I didn't think you that naive.

Bellona is an old friend.

This will work.

What the f*ck?

She was a plant, Baldur.

It’s all here.

She’s been spying on us,
reporting our movements.

And you just happened
to intercept her messages,

did you?

You think I'm fool enough
not to take an interest

in the people I work with?

I should k*ll you
just for being in my business.

Null scum.

Put the g*n away, Baldur.

He’s right.

It’s all here.

Every damn mission.

Every single meal.

She was spying on us all and we missed it.

Don’t think this means I trust you.

Regardless of Yusi’s
apparently traitorous proclivities,

it was nevertheless a rash decision
to terminate her life

without seeking to extract any potentially
useful information from her.

Next time, you speak to me first.

Well, that was exciting.

Dispose of your waste.

What if we could change everything?

Everything?

There’s no turning back the clock,

even with all the power
invested in that badge.

The galaxy is dying,

and all we can do now is cling on
to the wreckage as it crumbles.

Hmm. Perhaps.

But what if we could?

What if we could turn back the clock?

Imagine, Heroth,
a universe free of the Great Rift.

What if there was a way to close it?

Seal it shut like a blinded eye.

And the Emperor rises
from his Golden Throne

every morning to take breakfast.

Psykers.

Psykers?

The synchronised death cries
of a billion psykers,

linked across a hundred worlds.

A psychic shockwave strong enough
to seal the rift forever.

To close the eye.

To save us all.

How would you...

I mean, is that even possible?

Let me explain...

There is an alignment of planets
that sit along a Warp nexus.

Upon each of those worlds,
psykers breed like vermin.

These worlds will form the basis
of our great amplifier.

We destabilise these chosen worlds,

eliminating the governors
and making way for civil unrest.

In the power vacuum that follows,

the proletariat will soon collapse
into ungovernable violence.

The Administratum
will abandon these worlds,

and the Black Ships will stop coming.

The psykers will proliferate,
growing stronger.

You're talking about
planetary engineering.

Building a weapon.

From the minds of psykers.

-Yes.
-And the trigger?

The astropathic choir on Gheisthaven.

Stood on a bedrock of blackstone,

and fuelled by their proximity
to the nexus,

they are conduits
to the raw power of the Warp.

I am creating a drug
to overload their minds.

We shall gift them this Sanctus,

unleashing a replicating death wave

that will propagate
throughout the alignment.

A song that will resonate from the minds
of every psyker on those scattered worlds.

And they shall give their lives

for the greatest gift humanity
has ever known...

Salvation.

What about Jurgen?

He’s a psyker.

Irrelevant.

What is one life in a billion?

What is a billion when compared
to the trillions that will be saved?

Jurgen will give his voice to the choir
like the rest of them.

Why tell me?

Why now?

Because you're a null.

You're the only one of us
who can get close enough

to the choir on Gheisthaven
to deliver the Sanctus.

And because I've seen the truth of you,
Heroth.

I know you for what you are.

A man who values the sanctity
of his own life.

The Sanctus is almost ready.

She means to use it immediately.

Then the time is upon us.

The order is given.

Execute her, Heroth,
in the name of the Emperor.

Before she kills us all.

And the rest of her team?

Do they know anything?

No. Bellona has kept them in the dark.

They have no idea what she’s planning.

Then use your discretion.

Jurgen!

They're coming.

We need to go.

We need to go.

I k*lled the wrong person.

Just my f*cking luck.

All that time chasing a lie.

And now Baldur...

sh*t.

Another wasted life.

Another ghost to haunt my dreams.

If it hadn't been for Heroth,
I'd be dead too.

Me and billions more.

And I put a b*llet in his skull.

Turns out we never know anyone
until it’s too late.

I need a drink.

What now?

That wasn't the question.

Not really.

Standing here
in the ruins and the pissing rain,

there was only one question
left worth asking.

Who am I?

m*rder*r?

Addict?

Interrogator.