How do you define fear?
With the landing of the Imperial Guard regiment, the attacking force on the barred up cities was swiftly routed and destroyed. The men then swiftly began their sweep, moving into cities and tearing them apart with amassed las fire. The encountered little resistance, to the curiosity of the acolytes, in each city. The few people remaining shot hopelessly at the invading army and were cut down along with the city block and all civilians in it that they stood near. The acolytes swung around back to cut off anyone escaping, but nobody did. As the city was completely sacked, the guardsmen remained for a few hours before moving on. The acolytes explored the city, finding nothing of interest, and ended their exploration just as the guardsmen moved on.
It was the same in each city along the route. The guardsmen set up camp in one sacked city for the night, but moved on in the morning. They paused in their ruthless efficiency as they neared the original fallen cities. Turning to the acolytes for direction, they were instructed to continue their destruction of the city in front of them while the acolytes went into the city that they had infiltrated into before – the first one to fall. Inside, they found the same situation as the others. Completely empty. A few remaining men ran at them, pistols firing, but they were quickly subdued. The inquisitorial stormtrooper team sent with them was left to question them, but had no success. Wolf and Grim, with a small group of stormtroopers, moved nearer to the center. As they approached, a rotten smell lingering in the air got much stronger.
The main door to the large building in the center was barricaded with anything that could have been carried to it. Grim sent stormtroopers up to blast away part of the wall, and in doing so released a much stronger scent. They looked into the makeshift window.
Hundreds of bodies, more than even the one city seemed to house, were piled. The stench was their rot of death. After the shock wore off, the thinking began. What happened here? For safety, and maybe for blessing, Grim burned the pile through the window using his psychic powers. Going around to the side entrance the acolytes used before, they found that the once busy room was vacant, with all data destroyed. Slates were smashed, papers burned, and calculations scribbled away.
They left this area and went to where they had seen a burn mark from a spacecraft taking off. What they found there was disconcerting. Where the so called “military district” once was, there was nothing. It appeared as if the inhabitants had stopped building the city where once streets and military squares were. There was simply the ground that stretched away from the city. Nearby was the burn, which looks like an escape vehicle was used. There was no word about it from the surrounding spacecraft.
They met with the guard regiment, telling them to wipe the city away like all the ones before – but only sending the most well trained to clear the main building where the death pyre was burning. It appeared that the slaugth had left, leaving all the humans they had subverted behind and dead.
