The Imperium Frontier: Courage

The arcade of the hive city was packed with people. This magnificent structure, adorned with milky-white marble and gold, was once broad and towering—a mandatory thoroughfare to the Victoria Planet Cathedral. Every year during the Emperor's Ascension Day, it would be bustling with activity as pilgrims made their way along the processional avenue.

Today, it was just as crowded, but not out of faith or piety. It was out of fear—the most absolute, paralyzing fear.

These panicked refugees gathered here, shouting and cursing incessantly. Refugees clutching bags of all sizes and holding their children were packed together like sardines, and to make matters worse, vehicles wedged among the crowd took up even more space.

These Planetary Defense Force armored vehicles, which should have been fighting on the front lines, were stalled here. They blared their horns incessantly, roaring for the crowd to clear a path. Soldiers with guns shoved the refugees blocking their way with brutal force. People cursed them loudly for their cowardice and betrayal, but these desperate soldiers clearly did not care in the least.

They were fleeing toward the hive core at any cost. The lead officer stood on the turret of a Chimera, waving his arms and shouting curses to signal those in the way to move, but they simply couldn't, for everyone wanted to enter the core city.

Explosions echoed one after another in the surroundings. The burning sky flickered above the heads of the crowd. All of this, compounded by fear, brought chaos, and the soldiers began to push forward even more aggressively.

A soldier holding a lasgun shoved a pregnant woman aside with his rifle butt. She lost her balance and fell backward, but she didn't hit the ground; she was caught—caught by a man.

"Thank you, si—" The pregnant woman turned to thank him, but her words cut off after only two syllables, for she saw the pendant hanging on the man's chest: the letter "I" crafted from ruby.

Vito helped the woman up and then signaled for her to move aside. She and the other refugees quickly cleared a path, allowing Vito to face those panicked soldiers directly.

They all stared at the Inquisitor with near-terror. The Governor stood beside him. There were only the two of them, with no bodyguards or escorts, yet the Inquisitor alone possessed the deterrent power of an entire legion.

He walked up and looked at these fearful soldiers; their inner panic was written all over their faces. The Inquisitor walked past each of them, his cold gaze sweeping over them as if a razor were scraping against their hearts.

"Lieutenant, do you still remember the history of Victoria Planet?" Vito asked, standing before the Chimera. The lieutenant above could no longer act arrogant; his legs were nearly buckling, and he stuttered, unable to utter a single word. Vito smiled and looked at the surrounding soldiers and refugees.

"Then let me refresh your history. The first colonists of Victoria Planet were descendants of the Heroic Legion that liberated most of the Segmentum Ultima from the Orks during the Beast War."

"Your ancestors fought the Green Tide that spread across the galaxy thousands of years ago, campaigning under the command of the Primarch Vulkan, the Lord of Drakes, and sweeping millions of Ork enemies into the galactic trash heap under the guidance of The Emperor."

Vito looked at their faces. The soldiers looked at each other, while the refugees began to whisper. "And you, their descendants, are here now—members of the Planetary Defense Force who should be protecting the people of this planet—shoving, cursing, and nearly killing an unborn child."

Vito drew the Bolter from his belt, causing a scream to erupt among the crowd almost instantly. The lieutenant and the platoon of Planetary Defense Force soldiers before him turned deathly pale.

"As an Inquisitor, my duty dictates that I should execute you cowards—right now." As Vito spoke, his finger rested on the trigger. He surveyed this group of cowards and routed soldiers.

But Vito's expression suddenly turned serious. He jerked his muzzle upward and fired a shot. A violent bolter flame exploded above his head, and a figure crashed into the crowd.

When the person closest to it went to check, the thing suddenly raised its head and, amidst a roar, tore that person to shreds. Screams and terror exploded among the crowd like a thunderclap. People shrieked and fled in all directions, many falling to the ground and being trampled to death by thousands of feet.

Countless unfortunate souls were killed instantly, their flesh and blood splattered against the walls and the road. The monster rose, hunched over, and roared toward Vito.

"What kind of monster is that!" a soldier shouted, raising his gun to aim at the creature. Vito grabbed his shoulder. "Lictor! Get out of here now!"

Vito shoved the soldier away, but not everyone was as lucky as him. The Lictor lunged forward, swinging its talons and instantly tearing apart several soldiers who were firing at it in a panic.

The deadly assassin of the Tyranid Swarm had traversed lines and war zones silently, arriving here without a sound. It had only one goal, as with all its predecessors: the leader.

The Lictor reached Vito with lightning speed. It swiped its talons at Vito's face, but the latter drew his Chainsword with blinding speed. The roaring gold-and-red chainsword collided with the talons, and dazzling sparks erupted instantly. Vito had blocked the heavy strike of the Lictor's right claw with a single arm.

The Tyranid assassin retracted its blade-claws and struck again, but Vito blocked it with unerring precision. The two engaged in high-speed combat at extremely close range, the Chainsword and biological claws clashing and spraying brilliant sparks.

Vito performed a side-roll to dodge a horizontal swipe from the Tyranid's giant claw. The Inquisitor raised his hand, and a small, nearly invisible shield blocked a strike from the Tyranid assassin's side-claw. To onlookers, it simply looked as if the Tyranid's claw had been blocked by the Chainsword, but the Tyranid looked at Vito in surprise and retreated a few steps.

Olivia cursed and drew the lasgun at her waist, but Vito shouted at her to stop.

"Don't waste ammunition; you won't kill it, you'll only enrage it. Darling, do me a favor—evacuate these refugees." Vito said, drawing his Chainsword and backhanding a strike onto the Lictor's wrist. Fragments of bone-like carapace sprayed everywhere, but it leaped backward to create distance before its flesh could be severed.

The Lictor's body crawled a few steps on the ground and then gradually became transparent. Its form eventually vanished completely into the space, drawing gasps and screams from the surrounding crowd.

"It can turn invisible, stop screaming! Olivia! Get them out of here!" Vito said, raising his Chainsword as if he knew exactly where the Lictor was, precisely blocking the deadly blade the latter had swung down.

Olivia immediately began directing the soldiers to take the refugees away. Everyone started fleeing in a rush, but before they could run far, Olivia drew her gun and fired a warning shot into the air, shouting them to a halt.

"Why are you running blindly?! Corporal! Organize a retreat! All you idiots with guns, raise them and form a defensive line! What are you looking at? Move!"

Vito watched as they began to organize a defense under Olivia's roar. The panicked soldiers, under her shouting and kicking, finally managed to reorganize. They formed a cordon to organize the refugees' retreat and signaled the armored vehicle drivers to turn their vehicles sideways to block the road.

Everyone began to move in an orderly fashion, while Olivia continued to curse loudly as she directed it all. Vito looked at her with satisfaction. "Truly my good girl."

Vito said, turning around and swinging his Chainsword like lightning. The Chainsword, engraved with the Imperial Aquila, struck hard to block the invisible, silent attack. Sparks sprayed onto the ground, dancing in the lake of blood.

The Lictor's face appeared faintly before Vito, its forked tongue twisting incessantly before the Inquisitor. Then, suddenly, the Lictor leaped backward and vanished completely once more.

Vito stood calmly before the Chimera with his Chainsword in hand. There was not a trace of panic in his eyes; conversely, the lieutenant on the armored vehicle was terrified, looking around with his lasgun like a madman.

The monster moved silently, without sound, without impact. Its massive body and talons left no trace on the ground, as if it were a void-born phantom.

Vito narrowed his eyes slightly, as if searching for something. Then, he suddenly whipped his head around and drew his Bolter, pointing it toward the lieutenant. "Jump! Move!"

The lieutenant obeyed the order, jumping off the armored vehicle almost subconsciously. The Bolter roared, and a shot slammed into the Lictor's face. The monster materialized within the visible range amidst the explosion. It roared as it fell onto the armored vehicle, then quickly rose, leaped off, and pinned Vito down with its massive bulk.

Its two abdominal claws held Vito firmly to the ground. The Lictor raised its two talons high, assuming Vito had completely run out of countermeasures. But suddenly, a force struck the Lictor, and that inexplicable power sent the assassin beast flying heavily.

The Lictor slammed into the front side of the Chimera, hitting the muzzle of the coaxial machine gun. Vito waved his hand, and the driver's hatch on the side suddenly opened, revealing the bewildered operator beneath.

Vito pointed at him and shouted, "Fire!"

The order was like node pheromones of the Tyranid Swarm, transmitted to the driver's brain with lightning efficiency, and he responded almost instinctively.

He immediately pulled the trigger. The coaxial machine gun roared like thunder, bolter rounds slamming into the Lictor one after another until a horrific hole was blown through its chest.

The beast roared incessantly, raising its head and protruding its curved, slender, dense, forked tongue. But in a split second, its head was blown apart, and purple-black brain matter sprayed everywhere, covering the entire front of the Chimera.

Viscous brain matter and flesh also splattered onto the driver. He looked at Vito in front of him from the driver's window in horror; a plasma cannon muzzle was extending from Vito's wrist, and flickering ion lightning danced along his entire arm.

Vito lowered his palm, and the plasma cannon muzzle automatically retracted into his wrist. In a very short time, Vito's arm returned to its normal shape.

The Inquisitor looked at the smoking corpse of the monster before him. Its face was now nothing but a puddle of plasma. Its entire face had been dissolved and shattered, leaving only a wretched, dead carcass.

The communicator on Vito's wrist suddenly rang. Vito raised his wrist, and a voice came through immediately. "Lord Inquisitor! The Tyranids have broken in from the underground street! We can't hold them much longer! By The Emperor! We need reinforcements! We need them now!"

"Understood, Major. Tell your men to hold the line; I'll be there shortly with reinforcements." "Understood, my Lord. May The Emperor protect you." "He should be protecting you right now."

Vito clicked off the vox-caster. As the sounds of fierce combat faded, refugees and soldiers emerged from the sides of the armored vehicles. They cautiously gathered in the middle of the main road, staring in astonishment at the corpse of the Licarte. People began to whisper and murmur among themselves, while Olivia walked out from the crowd to gaze at the tattered remains.

"Are you hurt?" she asked. Vito smiled and brushed her cheek. "Worry about yourself and them first."

Vito climbed onto the armored vehicle, standing atop the turret of the Chimera to overlook the crowd that had gathered once more.

The Lieutenant was among them, having readjusted his cap as he stepped forward. The tank crew also crawled out from the front hatches, sitting on the sloped armor as they looked up at Vito on the roof.

"This is a Tyranid creature. You see it now, and as you can see, it is dead," Vito said, pointing at the monster. "This bastard can be killed, and so can the ones outside. Yes, their numbers are vast and endless; you might not even have enough bullets to match their count."

Vito looked at the crowd. Every pair of eyes was fixed on the Inquisitor—eyes filled with longing, eyes looking at a hero.

"For ten thousand years, The Imperium has fought every battle exactly like this! We have fought against endless monsters and horrors for ten thousand years! And those who stood against them were humans! Humans like you, not the Astartes out there!"

Vito scanned the crowd and shouted, "We are fragile, weak, and incompetent. Our flesh is nothing before such power, but we held the line! We have held The Imperium for ten thousand years! Ten damn thousand years! And we won!"

The Inquisitor pointed toward the gunfire raging at the end of the street. "I have stood with millions of mortals and hundreds of Astartes to drive these bastards back into their mothers' wombs, and then shoved bombs up their mothers' asses to blow them back into the void!"

"Your ancestors, alongside my kin! We beat every damn monster back into their wombs! Chaos, Tyranid, Necrons, Aeldari, and those damn T'au! Ten thousand years! We are still standing here, The Imperium is still in this galaxy! And it will continue to stand! We will continue to stand!"

"If you want to run, then run! Every one of us will die, whether today or some other day, but think for yourself: when you meet The Emperor, will you hang your head and tell Him you achieved nothing, or will you stand tall before Him and the millions of heroes of The Imperium, telling them that you died like a hero?!"

Everyone stared at Vito as the Inquisitor raised his Chainsword toward the sky. "Screw the xenos! Who's coming with me to kick their asses?!"

Amidst a roar of cheers, thousands of rifles and fists were raised. The cheering erupted like a thunderclap. Olivia stood among the excited soldiers and the refugees who had regained their courage, watching Vito on the roof. She smiled as she looked at the man.

"That is my king, our hero."