novelraw Chapter 199: Dark Tides (1)
Chapter 199: Dark Tides (1)
A sudden impact shook the tunnel, bringing a cascading shower of dust and debris crashing down from the ceiling.
To delay the monsters flooding into the tunnel behind them, an Arbitrator threw a grenade.
"This won't hold them for long."
An Arbitrator armed with a suppression shield and a shock maul suddenly shouted:
"Let's just get as far as we can."
The squad moved rapidly forward. The low tunnel forced them to hunch over slightly as they advanced. The black carapace armor they wore was covered in dust and mud, looking thoroughly dull and lusterless, but this did not hinder their vigorous strides.
This was a squad belonging to the Adeptus Arbites.
The Adeptus Arbites were the enforcers of the Lex Imperialis and its representation, the Book of Judgement. They organized and maintained the police forces of the Imperium of Man.
Every world within the Imperium had its own government, laws, and local police forces to enforce those laws, while the Adeptus Arbites itself engaged only in the enforcement of the broad imperial laws applied across the entirety of the Imperium.
As the representatives of draconian law, the devoted and entirely impartial Adeptus Arbites inspired a measure of dread across the entire galaxy. Within the law, failure and dereliction of duty were crimes, and the only punishment was death.The Arbites simultaneously served the triple roles of judge, jury, and executioner—ordinary citizens held no rights; only members of the Chancellery of the Estate Imperium and the Inquisition possessed the qualifications to carefully formulate detailed trial procedures.
The supreme leader of the Adeptus Arbites was the Grand Provost Marshal, who sat as a permanent representative on the Council of the High Lords of Terra, representing all Arbites officials on Terra.
Beneath the Grand Provost Marshal were high-ranking Arbites officials known as High Judges, who were responsible for multiple administrative regions designated as "Precincts".
Below the High Judges, the Arbites was primarily divided into two systems—
Judges, responsible for addressing specific criminal incidents and resolving criminal and societal issues based on Imperial laws possessing over ten thousand years of history.
Arbitrators, who were also the primary law enforcement troops of the Arbites, responsible for carrying out the necessary work to arrest and punish those who violated the Lex Imperialis.
Judges and Arbitrators worked in different departments within the Arbites, but upon being promoted to high-ranking Arbitrators or Marshals, there was no longer any distinction. Arbites officials promoted to these ranks had to serve in both capacities—Arbitrators must be prepared to step onto the battlefield and dirty their hands dealing with criminals, while Marshals must also learn how to preside over lengthy court trials.
Countless ranks and formations existed within every branch of the Arbites. Data exchange squads were responsible for collecting valid evidence from crime scenes for use by Magistrates and Arbites officials; Chaplains provided psychological care derived from the Imperial Cult to Arbites officials; and Chasteners were the experts at conducting psychological and physiological interrogations on criminals.
As for the Arbites officers themselves, they were also divided into many distinct functional roles, each requiring different training and utilizing specialized equipment.
Arbites patrol squads would patrol the dangerous Underhives of Hive Cities; strike teams were responsible for suppressing crowds gathering outside the offices of the Imperial bureaucracy; execution squads hunted criminals across barren wastelands and labyrinth-like tunnels; and arrest teams had to bring back the criminals required for interrogation by the Chasteners alive.
Other types of Arbites officials included cyber-warfare experts responsible for addressing crimes committed through the Adeptus Mechanicus cogitator networks, as well as professionals named Arbites detectives who excelled at investigation.
High-ranking Arbites officials would attain supervisory ranks and be assigned to lead different types of Arbites squads.
A standard Arbites patrol group or squad consisted of 5, 10, 15, or a full 20 Arbitrators including the squad leader, equipped with shotguns, suppression shields, shock mauls, and various grenades. Arbitrators would undergo training on how to coordinate with other squads under conditions where casualties were suffered.
This meant that even if several members within a single squad were killed or wounded, it could swiftly regroup with other nearby units, or retreat for resupply and reinforcement before returning to the battlefield once again.
Traditionally, large formations composed of 15 or 20 Arbitrators would only be deployed in large-scale combat operations—ones that required more manpower or pertained to more arduous missions, such as securing access points or defending key locations.
In high-intensity combat, Arbites strike forces composed of 10 Arbitrators acted as the vanguard.
Although these men and women with resolute faces utilized equipment similar to the average Arbites patrol squad, they usually underwent additional training, and were considered the elite troops within an Arbites precinct.
Operating within the dimly lit tunnels was precisely a strike squad from the Safinius Precinct. They were here to resolve the frequent occurrences of worker disappearances in the underground mines of the hive city.
Originally, a patrol squad had been assigned to handle this matter, but they had vanished without a trace three days ago, which also signified that the situation had escalated.
Safinius was a mining world rich in promethium. The high-quality promethium produced there supplied dozens of hive cities, and it was also the primary promethium supply source for the renowned Forge World Gryphonne IV, making it incredibly important.
To investigate exactly what had happened, and to prevent unrest in the mining sector from affecting promethium production, the local Arbites dispatched a highly capable strike team directly, led personally by an Arbitrator.
Their original expectation was that the most severe possibility would simply be certain cultists stirring up trouble.
However, when they delved deep into the underground mines, they realized the matter was far from being that simple.
In a sense, the situation was exceedingly dire—they had encountered a Genestealer Cult underground.
Furthermore, and even more severely, this cult had already developed to a massive scale. It was estimated that half the miners throughout the entire mining sector had already been converted or replaced, their numbers extremely likely to exceed one million.
If calculated based on the normal reproductive rate of Genestealers, this cult had been lurking locally for at least nearly a hundred years.
Faced with this situation, the strike squad decided to return to headquarters immediately and report the situation to their superiors. A Genestealer Cult of this scale was no longer something that could be resolved relying on local forces.
But the Genestealers had also realized they'd been exposed, and thus a pursuit had ensued.
"Maintain vigilance, keep an eye on your surroundings."
The Arbitrator wielding the suppression shield walked at the very front of the formation, while the leading Arbitrator trailed warily at the very back.
Without any fresh air flowing in, the smoke produced by the explosion floated silently, blurring everything behind them into indistinct obscurity.
Where they passed, dust and smoke drifted about, illuminated by the light beams affixed to their firearms, resembling countless tiny, dancing insects.
The narrow tunnels were twisting and complex, as if someone had randomly hacked out similar passages beneath the rock strata and then cobbled them together into a labyrinth.
Since entering the tunnels, they had walked for several kilometers, engaging in combat against the xenos at almost every corner they turned.
The monsters in this area seemed to be everywhere.
"They're coming!"
An Arbitrator's shout rang out from the rear of the squad. They immediately turned around in unison and raised the weapons in their hands, aiming at the multi-legged monsters emerging from the smoke behind them at astonishing speeds.
The Genestealers lunged forward like vicious hunting hounds, razor-sharp claws raking through the air, hungering to separate the flesh and bone of their prey.
Contaminated cultists followed alongside them, wielding weapons with malicious intent; the extent of mutation in some had almost completely rendered their former human appearances unrecognizable.