#Norelle's Diary

[the-tipsy-tailor]

Fandoms I Guess? The fiction/media I enjoy.

Red Dwarf

Star Trek (TOS then TNG, i'm old, sue me)

The Song of the Lioness

Redwall

Ouran High School Host Club

XXXHolic

Soul Eater

Mushishi

FMA: Brotherhood

Black Butler

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Ghibli in general changed my art but this is the One, manga and anime)

Dragon Age

Doctor Who (Classic then New, also Torchwood)

LOTR (books first, including Silmarillion, since I was smol)

Sherlock Holmes (the books, no adaptation is good)

The Disposessed, Ursula K LeGuin

A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline L'Engle

Delicious in Dungeon

Madoka Magica

Poirot (all Christie's work is beloved but Poirot is the best) (the David Suchet show is also perfect)

IT Crowd

A Bit of Fry and Laurie

QI (Mostly No Such Thing as a Fish)

Batman: The Animated Series

Discworld

Sandman (and Neil Gaiman generally)

China Meiville

Douglas Adams

NK Jemison

The Ancillary Trilogy, Ann Leckie

The Murderbot Diaries

Dune

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell

A Canticle for Leibowitz

Blues Brothers

Well There's Your Problem

[junkshop-disco]

Books!! Thanks to @magicalrocketships for the tag 💖

An estimate of how many physical books I own: I have two floor-to-ceiling walls of books, and random piles elsewhere, so probably somewhere between 750 and 1000? I'm always scouring charity shops and flea markets for interesting books.

Favorite author: is there anyone who can pick just one? Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, Paul Auster, Ali Smith, Graham Greene, Margaret Atwood, Kurt Vonnegut, off the top of my head.

A popular book I've never read and never intend to read: never say never and all that, but it'll be a cold day in hell when I crack open a Thomas Hardy voluntarily.

A popular book I thought was just meh: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norell. I wanted so badly to like it, but it was a struggle just making it through the first couple of chapters and I gave up.

Longest book I own: I do have War & Peace, Vanity Fair, and Bleak House, all of which are an endurance workout for the wrists. I also have The Norton Anthology of Poetry, which is a compilation of most poets and poems, ever, which is a struggle to get off the shelf.

Longest series I own all the books to: is the wider Terry Pratchett universe considered a series? If so, those.

Prettiest book I own: I have an early edition of Virginia Woolf's diary which has a cover illustrated by Vanessa Bell. I'm very fond of the design of that.

A book or series I wish more people knew about: I really wish more people had read the Widdershins books by Jordan L Hawk, so I had someone to exclaim 'but what about the bit when the librarians [spoilers]!!!' to while they yell back 'Christine my beloved!!'. So that's my rec, if anyone is looking for a series of, say, 11 books packed with magical historical fantasy shenanigans featuring archaeologists, but also aliens (no, really), that doesn't take itself too seriously but also delivers more convincing magical world building than a lot of books that do.

Book I’m reading now: I just finished The Half-life of Valery K and I'm halfway through a book of Emily Dickinson poems. I think I have a romance queued up next for a bit of a breather. Maybe a KJ Charles.

Book that’s been on my TBR list for a while but I still haven’t gotten around to it: my TBR is like four shelves high. The one that gives me the greatest pang of regret every time my gaze alights upon it is probably The World Broke In Two, which is about the impact of WWI on art and writing.

Do you have any books in a language other than English: I have some Spanish copies of Lorca I think.

Paperback, hardcover or ebook?: I mix it up. I usually buy secondhand books when I'm buying physical copies so I'll go with whatever looks in the best condition, but most of my actual reading I do on my Kindle because I don't put the lights on in the evening to help with my insomnia and real books don't have handy self-adjusting ambient lighting.

[surfacolyte]

Interrogator Norelle Rhia, Ordo Xenos

[smaller-peach]

12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 35, 39, 44, 57, 73, 75, 82, 113, 119, 137 💖💖

12; What are your 5 favourite songs rn? 1, Sign, Snoop Dogg. 2, Ass Drop, Wiz Khalifa. 3, Let the flames begin, Paramore. 4, Hatefuck, MiW. 5, Saturnz Barz, Gorillaz.13; Do you like it when people play with your hair? Very much!!15; What good thing happened this summer? Well summer has barely begun! But seeing alien n gettin beers w josh was fun!17; Do you think theres life on other planets? Well you'd be an idiot not to.19; Do you like bubblebaths? MY DUDE a live n die for baths man youve no clue a bath makes everything okay again a loooooove bathing 💖35; Gdbye TV, would never sacrifice music nope.39; What are your fave stores to shop in? Uhhh, Im pm always on etsy for cute things, also lush! Also h&m and boohoo thats my shit44; trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean? Idk i coukdnt choose without hours of back n forthing and a hefty pros n cons list ask me in 3 weeks57; Favourite food? Umbrella speaking? SWEETS. mealwise its lasagna, chilli con carne or beef stroganoff x73; Do you sleep with any stuffed animals? sleep with two, Mark the Shark n Jack n the Penguin, also George but he's a starry turtle not necessarily a stuffed animal75; favourite animal? Penguins, cows and owls! 82; Favourite movie? Aw fuck. Eh. Lotr, the hobbit, mad max fury road, jungle book, probs more113; Childhood nickname? ever really had one, just Abs i guess119; favourite book? Oh my god naw, av got an entire wardrobe full of my favourite bookS. The GONE series (specifically HUNGER and LIGHT), the book theif, the book of dark days, noodlehead, the goblet of fire, the order of the pheonix, the lotrs trilogy (also salmirillion) tales of beedle the bard, paper towns, the moth diaries, bridget jones trilogy OBVS, farenheit 451, jonathon strange n mr norell, the got series. I really could go on.137; I'm 5'3 💖

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LXIII

Dear Diary,

I'm sorry I've been quiet for such a while. A lot of things have happened and I really haven't had the time to write anything. First of all. Thank you, holy God-Emperor for saving us and letting us be victorious. It is in your light that we are thankful to be fighting.

First things first, I'm so sorry guys that you don't get to read this, for I am still alive. Well, I'm not sorry that I  am alive, that's for sure, but I may never be able to say out loud such beautiful and horrible things I've written in this book. I am so happy that all of you made it too, though Cai, Arman and Yi... You were this close to getting your ass kicked by me.

Cai, pretty one, be glad it was only your leg. Or actually foot. Also thank the Emperor it was tied up when we ended up in that fertilizer tank.

Arman, when you were impaled by James I was infuriated. You didn't see it but me and Arzali killed the fucker. I blasted the bastard with many bolts and even more lasers and lil' bro finished him. Thank the Emperor you survived.

Yi, you...you little fucker... When you flew back when James went out with a bang I was sure you were dead. You didn't move, didn't make a sound... But you stayed alive. I can't express in words how happy I am right now to know that you survived. I've grown to love you as a brother and I'd really hate to see you go. Besides, as you would have read in the letter for you if I were to die, there is someone waiting for you somewhere. It would be very rude of you not to go find that lady.

So, what happened during the fight... My hunch was right: I ended up kicking Arzali's ass, literally. He went in through the air ventilation system and when he said he couldn't fit, I kicked him down there. You need to know that Arzali, like his brother, is a slender man, though taller, so it wasn't like I was going to fit a skull through a straw. He went in stealthily, while the rest of us and our men stormed in killing hundreds of cultists.

When we reached the elevator shafts we got a report from Arzali. Apparently he was in the room below and the cultists and knights were expecting us. Yi had given Arman the permission to lead us, since he would most likely have been chopping of some witch heads. Arman asked Arzali to do a diversion and that he did... by blowing up the whole room to smithereens. When we got down everyone was dead and except for lil' bro. He had grown vertically though in this time for a quite a bit and he looked like he had received a second growth spurt and taken all his mass and elongated it with the body distributing it in all places. Even Qiang isn't this thin! Reminds me of Rhaban... in the sense that Arzali decided to go in completely other direction with his mutation.

After getting up, Arzali told us that the heck of a lotta psychers that were supposed to be there had gone to the lower levels of the building. They were indeed there having a coven... or doing some magic mumbo jumbo in a circle in the middle of highly warp sensitive and dangerous crystals. You know, the kind if you damage them, all hell breaks loose. We started to fight them but then the little ceiling crawling with came flying to us. Yes, he had grown some wings and was cackling all the way and doing his magic. Multiple sets of them infact and he burned me. Luckily Kûrush had lend me his melta riffle so I answered fire with fire and as his skull fell to the ground, still laughing, I was happy to know he was dead. As we fought the psychers we managed not to hit the crystals but the gravity did fail us and decided to move it's centre point somewhere on the wall. Arman fell to the newly established ground and shouted me to throw a psyk-out grenade into a rift in the middle of the now ex-circle. There were psychers flying all around because of the gravity shift as I threw the grenade in the rift.

Fun fact: when the warp and anti-warp collide, it's not pretty.

Eventually the freaking rift closed and the gravity returned. Mind you, even if one is hanging on a crystal when gravity goes haywire, it might not help when the floor returns to where it used to be. Plus that doesn't really help when the self-destruction protocol is activated. Most of the people evacuated but we and eight brave soldiers decided to pursue the enemy. They had one of the relics at their disposal and we weren't going to let them leave with it. After all that was what we came after.

By the way, never use warp based portals. We ended up travelling for two days and ended up on a space ship near Theia's orbit. To be more precise we ended up in that fertilizer tank. Well, a pool actually. Cai had gotten his leg cut off during the battle before entering through the portal and, well, the rest I already explained. We were apparently in the middle of a fire fight, on an enemy ship, most definitely a cruiser. Long story short: we fought people and a daemon and opened the door to the invading Astartes. Bronze Dragons, you are amazing!

After that some inquisitorial forces from Hereticus and Xenos arrived. Emperor, I cannot thank you enough that Nalini was one of the people raiding the ship. She said that she shouldn't have been surprised to see us there. We tried to find the artifact, The Eye of Unbreakable Will, and found it, as well as the hologram of the witch bitch. She said that we would be free to take it for she had no use for it anymore. Yi, I'm afraid that your fancy trick with the shovel and holding the artifact was rather unnecessary in that sense but it was very good of you to be careful.

After that James showed up with some enemy astartes. We beat the crap out of them and Yi was constantly being shot by James. I'm pretty sure he didn't hit him all the time but Yi took some damage still. Arman got impaled by James as I already told and James Bures is now very, very dead, thank you Arzali for that. We set explosives to the ships munitorum and got out of there as fast as we could. The only ones still standing from our team were me and Kûrush. Arman impaled, Yi burnt because of an explosion, Arzali fainted because he tried to regenerate himself, and Cai had a missing leg. He got a spare one but a quick prosthesis isn't the best quality one. Nalini instructed us on sending messages and getting the heck out of there. She came with us but the bronze dragons said they would stay there right into the very end. They went to the Emperor and prevented a weapon made out of those crystals from doing harm to Theia. Go with peace, good men, He will gladly receive you.

After we came back on Theia we sent a message to the whole sector about the xenosrace the witch bitch represents, Nedassi, that according to the Inquisitor were coming back to the sector. They had been waiting somewhere in Revadi's Nebula and for instance Nalini had been fighting them all along. I understand the secrecy of it all, those creatures are highly dangerous and if word got out of their existence, a massive panic would ensue throughout the sector. We have enough to do with the Brakani and other shit in here so not everyone needs to know of the horrors of space.

After I got some shut eye, I met Qiang. Thank the Emperor he was alright! The juniors had been kicking up the reserves for battle ships. I need to remember to thank Nanami for that decision. A very safe place to be during a time like this. You should have seen all the kisses I gave on his face, even on his ears. Qiang, I'm overjoyed that you are alive and well! And, well, long story short: I'm engaged now. I wish I could tell mother and father but there is still much work to be done and I'm not sure if it would be safe for them. I would have never believed if someone would have told me two years ago that I was going to marry a smuggler from another planet... and not technically a planet but a space station.

I'm not sure if I should write anymore. It's bad enough if one of the boys finds this, blessed be they for their being alive, but I've said some things in here I've never told them face to face. I don't remember if I ever made a proper list of the people that have gone away so I'd like to write something about them as well.

Angus, you warrior, you psycher, you lost three of your limbs and died when we fell down on the little ship. I lost my arm, you lost your life. You were always the brash one.

Omar, our cynical doctor. You were cut in half by Rhaban and Arzali's uncle Hubert. You were so full of hate and I still can't imagine you without your bear face. You deserved better.

Rhaban, my rat brother. You didn't die, Emperor bless you, but you almost lost yourself. I know your mind has gone weird but still you are there. You were the sweet talker of the group and still are our anchor on Uzan.

Deynor, my lord. Even an upper class person can be too hasty. I'll never forget how you shot a bolt through the archeotech device. That was just stupid. But then you went to command your special troops. I hope you've found happiness with them.

James, my brother from Yiken, the traitor. I used to want to save you but now I'm only glad that you're gone. There's no room for you in my heart, hasn't been for a long time. Your death makes both your family and mine much more safe.

Chiro, you eccentric little creature. I wanted to understand you. I wanted to get to the bottom of what you thought of the world. I'm sorry I never could. Then you idiot ran away and eventually got your head chopped off by some bounty hunters. I'm glad though that you stayed true to the Mechanicus to the very end.

To these words I'll end my diary. There is still a lot of work to be done on the sector but we will rebuild. It has been an honour to serve the Inquisition and it will be in the future as well. This is Norelle Rhia, acolyte of Ordo Xenos, the last original one of the team and may the Emperor bless you wherever you are.

For our Imperium.

For our families.

For our love.

- Norelle

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LXII

Dear Diary,

I'm not sure if I'll be writing ever again on your pages. We're right now upon the planet of the Knights of Scentra. We were dropped here in pods normally reserved for people in power armours! How the fuck they did it, I don't know! We have fought our way through the yard of a facility building and are now resting while the enemy has fled inside. James is here, so is the witch bitch. It is time to stop this, once and for all!

If I don't make it....please...if you find this diary... tell this to my team:

Yi, my brother. You have my will. If you have my corpse, you know what to take from it. I know I don't have my old pistols anymore but three of them go to Rhaban. The one with the witchbanebolts in it goes to Qiang. And know this...dad... You should see my face when I'm writing this, I just chuckled. Keep them safe. I count on you. And check the letters with the testament, one is for you.

Arzali, lil' bro. Don't die, or I'll kick your ass! Somehow I get the feeling I’m going to kick it regardless of what the situation is. Stay sharp and when you frenzy in with those drugs, remember to frenzy out as well. You are mine to protect, for that is what big sisters do. If you ever see Rhaban again, send my regards.

Kûrush, it's just an armour! Goddamnit man, you've almost died many times because of that thing! Stay safe, okay, because if the team ever gets new Slippers, they need you to guide them.

Cai, CATCH! No, please don't. Don't catch all of it. You're one of the most talented bullshitters I've ever met. Keep getting that stuff and watch your back so you won't get shot again, okay. And get the receipts!

Arman, I can't stress enough how important your role now is. Be the XO, be there for Yi. And please, stay positive. I honestly find it adorable when you talk with women about gardens and pies. You'll get there, believe me. You're a brilliant man and I have faith in you.

Guys, I love you. You're my family away from my biological family and therefore I shall protect you and fight beside you.

Emperor, if you can hear me, let this operation be a success. Let James and the witch bitch meet their makers and us be victorious. Guide us to the embrace of battle and let the enemy fall under your glorious golden shine. Protect our troops both on the battlefield and on the ships fighting in your name.

I'll go and check on all of the guys soon. We'll win, we have the Emperor on our side.

For the Imperium, it's men, women and children.

For my family, at Yiken, in Uzan, on the battlefield.

For my love...

Qiang...if we both make it out alive, I'm gonna ask you to marry me.

Emperor protects!

- Norelle

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LXI

Dear Diary,

First of all, don’t get lost in the warp. It sucks. We ended up in the middle of the sector first and were two weeks late of the schedule because of that. Emperor damn Warp Storms!

The Inquisition demanded us to be left on a monitoring station at the system of Theia. I understand that they don't want xenos near them and I suppose that it is wise. What is sad is to see Hanaia and Inana's Flame go. Captain Nirake had told to her that they would be leaving the sector. It's a shame to see a friend go, especially as I know that she meant a lot to Yi. Not in that sense but as an actual friend. Poor man has too few of them, I bet it's because of that aura of his. It's not fair.

Anyway...we were brought to a ship where Inquisitor Dibra recieved us. The ship is called Wanderer of Noctae and it's as Lunar class Cruiser. People say that it's just a run-off-a-mill ship for fighting purposes but from the point of view of someone from an agri-world, every cruiser is amazing.

We discussed with her James, the Knights of Scentra, and the witch bitch. I think I forgot to mention that we probably have a cause for the warp storms: the KoS have captured a heck of a lotta psychers. Some of them are bound to be keeping up this shitstorm that is currently happening. Other things that we together have come up: there are these crystals one can channel magic into...which make it more powerful or something, I don't know. It is a dangerous thing to be messing with. The team on Alkhla was experimenting with the crystals as we were there and already that seemed a bit too dangerous to me.

We had a serious discussion with the team: would we go to the location Dibra had found that should hold the base of the dirty fucks or should we just wait near Theia. Everyone had different kinds of opinions on what to do. Especially Arman was of the opinion that we should stay and wait. However, at the very end we came to the conclusion that we should travel with Wanderer of Noctae and Inquisitor Dibra to battle.

This might be the last time to try to stop the Knights, so we have to do something.

- Norelle

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LX

Dear Diary,

We were almost too late. Inana's Flame (That's the name of the ship we're traveling with.) arrived to Thameran when the enemy was already bombing the planet and the ships surrounding it. They were  there to help some prisoners escape and join their side. Not on our watch, bitches! Captain of the ship named Nirake asked us how we wanted to approach the situation. Were we to move stealthily, we'd never make it....and if we decided to approach the planet being visible, the Arbites would shoot us. We pondered for a while and decided on a third approach.

First of all: the original plan was to get stealthily on the planet and help the guards from inside.

Now: We decided to raid the apparent flagship of the attacking fleet.

It was just insanely much bigger than our ship, no biggie. Just a cruiser.... thank the Emperor none of us can't be completely sane at this point, so we actually were insane enough to do that. We raided the ship and it was surprisingly quiet. Wonder where the crew was... oh right, on the planet in some little ships getting the prisoners. We and some Xanthians made our way up towards the bridge and at one point my ass got stuck into a hole we had cut to a roof. Note to self, do something about that fat ass!

Most of the Xanthians were left to man some posts while we pressed on. We encountered some servitors and witches and even Cai got shot in the back while he tried to decommission some bombs in the corridor. He got hit quite badly but then we attacked the bastards. There were psychers on the other side so what's better than to put an untouchable there in the midst of them. They approached from two directions and we obliterated them all!

When we had arrived on the ship, a mysterious, malevolent and down right insane voice had greeted us and welcomed us to our deaths. We had heard it from time to time again but after that we got to know what the fuck it was. This monstrosity walked on the roof on all its limbs and kept on laughing maniacally at us. It did all sorts of magic tricks and we fought it the best we could. I've got to say that must be one of the most fucked up psychers I've ever seen.

I decided to test the witchbane bullets. They seemed to hurt the fucker, and although I didn't bring it down myself, I know to save these bullets for special occasions. We got rid off that...creature and attacked the bridge. There at the captain's chair was a familiar face. We had seen him before when we were investigating a cult activity in the Imperial Navy. He had been the leader of the cult and had shouted something about a Mistress... I guess he was referring to the witch bitch or something. We fought gallantly and we eventually won! But, you know, because we didn't have enough men to man a whole cruiser, we decided to fuck up the controls and guide it to another ship.

Then we get an info on the Xanthians: get down, put on your re-breathers, we're coming to get you.

...they broke the windows of the bridge! I haven't been so scared in my life! We had to be in space for them to catch us! But I did it! We did it! We survived, as did many of the Xanthians. We raided a fucking cruiser with a couple of hundred xeno commandos!!!!

If it wasn't clear already, we're radicals to be sure. But all for greater good! Now we're heading back to Theia.

- Norelle

P.S. I don't even want to tell what we had to pay for the Xanthians to help us. Let's just say that it cost a whole lot of xenos artifacts and a few favours from Cai.

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LIX

Dear Diary,

Hanaia is here! We met this Xanthian a long time ago as she was fighting against Yi in a tournament! How lovely is this! I recognized the pattern of these xenos when I came on board! It's a shame that no-one else knows the meaning of them to this team except for me and Yi. It was a sight to sore eyes.

I never believed that I would say something like that... Not in the million years have I stayed on Yiken. I'm...actually glad that I left at this very moment. We're travelling as fast as we can to Thameran, although we need to stop on a station and report to Inquisitor Nalini of our plan of action.

I hope we'll make it in time...

[UPDATED A DAY LATER]

Sorry continue this so abruptly but... I'm not the XO anymore. Yi decided to give that title to Arman. I'm...not sure how to feel about this. In a way I am hurt. Even though Yi said that this has nothing to do with my professionalism... I highly doubt that. But moreover I feel relieved. Even though I am stressing out still there is less responsibility on my shoulders. However, I'm still the official care taker of the group. If anyone has any problem, I'll make sure they'll be okay.

Arman, please... XO Lukito, what you should know about your job... it's much more than being the officer who executes actions. You're there to be Yi's right hand man. You should be there to aid him in every situation. He once said to me that he needs his XO to be stable. Be that to him. I know Yi is strong and he still grows, still learns... and I'm so proud of him. Make him proud, Arman. Where I'm the mom of the team, he's the dad. And you make dad proud, okay?

Oh right... something actually interesting happened as well. A ghost ship latched itself onto us here in the warp. We went inside it, it was a human ship but there was no-one left inside it. Only ashes and the corpse of the captain. Arman took his...badge or whatever it was and then the whole place started flooding with ghosts. We escaped and managed to detach the ship from ourselves. Now we should reach Thameran. Emperor, I pray to you. Please don't let us be late.

- Norelle

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LVIII

Dear Diary,

I guess this is just one of those days... Arzali needs a new leg. Oh and the Dark Eldar had to flee.

What am I talking about? What Dark Eldar?

Well, this morning we naturally went out to help the junior team. After all that is what we're here for. We didn't seem to get anything new out of the witch bitch investigation, so we went to Reyham to ask what sort of visions of the future might she have about the enemy's next move.

First of all she lives in a tent and has horrible...alcohol? Tea? I don't even know what that stuff was!

Secondly, Yi didn't come to her tent for obvious reasons: he doesn't like psychers and psychers don't like him. Besides, his aura would have distracted Reyham's visions.

She provided us with two of them: First one of a planet, completely frozen, with many frozen faces on it. Another one was about thousands and thousands of spaceships flying. They looked old and worn out according to Reyham. We decided to go talk with the juniors of our next plan of action. There is a shipyard near here and an icy prison planet, Thameran.

In the middle of discussing that we had to Reyham got another vision...of Dark Eldar attacking the very planet we are on!

”When, Reyham?”

”Now!”

And there they were, blowing up the sky and everything else on it, including ships! I have no clue how they had gotten this close with no alarms going off! Fucking knife eared xenos, I'll teach you a lesson!!! They outnumbered us by far but we had to fight them. Nanami ordered us to defend a post and that we did! Yi and Cai stayed downstairs as the rest of us climbed on top of the building's roof.

You know what is not a pretty sight? A sky filled with Dark Eldar falling on the planet. Literally they were raining down, the sky was filled with black leather and spikes!

I manned the canon on top of the roof and kept shooting at them, although I wasn't good at it, not at all. I managed to hit some of them but my helmet flew off at one point and I had to jump away from the canon so I wouldn't have blown up to smithereens myself. We kept on fighting and the roof was like a pool of blood, mainly from our enemies. I took a big hit, Emperor damn poisonous weapons of the Dark Eldar... Oh, and Kûrush got rammed by a reaver! Dearie, even though you wear a power armour it doesn't mean that you can't get hurt!!!

We had some of the normal soldiers and guards men with us on the post but we got some other company as well: an inquisitor Yi had met at the temple. Alim Ihejirika is a very ascetic person who is a bad-ass when it comes to fighting! He fought his way to us and came to our aid! Apparently he's here to repent. Anyway, Yi and Cai came up to the roof as well and what followed was a slapstick comedy session when everyone kept slipping to the blood. I managed to get my helmet back just before the succubi attacked. Before that we had had incubi with us, it was just getting better. I have no idea how for instance Arman survived one succubus all by himself. I mean the man kept dodging the girl like it was a pregnancy scare back home on Yiken. Yi managed to melt one succubus's arm off!

And then the main fucker arrived. Archon... A Dark Eldar Archon! And you can guess who was the first one to jump on him. Arzali...of course it was him! The Archon must have been surprised that an almost harlequin outfitted mutant man attacked him without showing fear. Then the fucker went and cut lil' bro's leg!!! AND A FREAKING EYE, DID I MENTION THAT!?!?!?

My heart skipped a beat! Lil' Bro, I promised that you'd stay alive! Emperor dammit with you... and thank Him you can regrow your limbs. Do this again and I'll be forced to kick your ass!

Eventually we fought them off but they took with them 60.000 people. This can be considered a failure... Well, not entirely, they didn't get all the people they wanted, to be sure... but it doesn't make this any better. After the cowards escaped we talked with the juniors of what we're going to do next. If Reyham’s predictions work in such little a time span, we’ll have to act quick! We'll take Thameran and they can take the ship yard: it's better if we go to the prison for some of the junior team members would be back stabbed on the planet faster than they could say ”heresy”. Nanami will get us a lift...with Xanthians. Oh well, better that than Eldar. Especially after this.

Qiang, my love... as if you'd ever read this... oh well, my love, we will see each other again. Stay safe.

- Norelle

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LVII

Dear Diary,

I can't express how happy I am to see the juniors again! When we landed on this planet, Teraza, Yi made me to be the contact officer between the teams. Emperor damnit, brother, I so want to see you getting a girl of your own. You take so good care of me and insure that me and Qiang can see each other, even though it doesn't happen very often.

We got in contact with them and came to see them. They were in a library and Qiang...darling Qiang... he cried when he saw me, said that he'd been worried sick. No-one had any idea of where we had been for over seven months and even I wasn't sure if I'd see him again. Emperor, thank you for giving us this chance.

Nanami has also hired a new acolyte to the junior team, the first one we haven't found for the team actually. Reyham Karim is a huge woman. When I say huge, I mean that she almost makes Kûrush look small! This lady is full of muscles but still...she's not a fighter! Oh no, she's a psycher! A shaman to be exact. You should have seen Yi's face when the two were introduced. He has a thing for annoying the Warp out of Psychers just by his presence and with that aura of his it isn't even difficult. Reyham is a very strong and independent person and I'm sure she'll do just fine in the team. We have a slightly different perception of fighting but we understand each other. She calls me the little one for I am short... I guess that I'm also younger than her, I can't remember. And truth to be told, I don't feel like the youngest even in our own team, no matter the biological facts. It gets confusing when one is both the oldest acolyte and the youngest person in the team.

Anyway, the juniors have been researching the Knights of Scentra, especially the witch bitch they have associated themselves with. Turns out she's multiple millennia old... perhaps even 6000-year-old entity and...not Chaos related. Apparently she just uses whomever she wishes to get her goal. This goal may very well be to have all the artifacts... or then she has something to do with the pocket dimension jewellery we used to investigate a long long time ago. Whatever she is, we need to find every piece of information we can from our enemy.

Well now, James, even you might be dealing with something much more sinister than you can handle... lucky for us, we know that you're a bloody idiot. That doesn't mean we should get cocky though. The fucker almost blasted me to smithereens when I last saw him.

Soon we should hang around for a while. Yi has gone to the chapel, the others catch up with each other. I myself plan to have a heart to heart with Qiang. I have missed his voice so much... as well as his touch...

- Norelle

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LVI

Dear Diary,

Inquisitor Nalini looked so tired. She was happy to see us and that we had survived and congratulated us on bringing a lost world to the Imperium. Then we were briefed of the situation in the sector.

Eldar are almost completely gone, so are xanthians, at least their civillians. The knife ears are sissies but at least Xanthians are fighting, and doing a bloody good job of it. The pirates are also stopped which is nice (thanks Xanthians!)... and that's about if for the even remotely good news. Then again, if the xenos are leaving, it leaves us with not allies. Yes, it is radical, I know, but semi-friendly xenos in the system can be useful. The Knights of Scentra, a freaking organization of pure ill will and malevolence have been all around the place, raiding, turning people to Chaos, and upgrading their gear. They even have two of the legendary artifacts! Also, the Dark Eldar are raiding places in accelerating rate. The war against the cricket creatures, Brakani that is, is no where near the end and the Astartes are here because the Inquisition is in talks of having a Crusade. In addition to that there are more and more warp storms and the Warp in general has become more unstable which means that traveling is getting harder day by day.

Wonderful. Absolutely marvelous. We turn our backs for a couple of months and everything goes tits up! Okay, we're not the only acolyte team in the sector and not even that important but I wished that we could have fucked up more of the heretics' plans.

I'm supposed to be Ordo Xenos and here I am, talking casually about daemons and heretics in the latest updates on this book... In which Ordo are we supposed to belong?! I mean, for Emperor's sake, give me a freakin' inferno pistol and I'll dance around anything with no fear! ...if only that was true... I don't fear as much as I used to, to be sure. I'm not scared form my life, I'm scared for their lives. My family, my dear brothers, friends, colleagues.

Praise the Emperor the juniors are safe! Nalini is sending us to assist them in their mission. Emperor, bless our Inquisitor.

I get to see my love again! Hold on Qiang, the Emperor will guide us to you and your team.

- Norelle

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LV

Dear Diary,

I think it is worrying that we are so used to these so called warp hijinks. I mean, the poor crew of out ship, most of them morisean, had the roughest start and a touch with reality. Well, not reality but the warp... you know what I mean. Brave men and women traveling for the first time outside their system and this is how you start it!?

Our drinking water was turned into literal shit on their very first travel in the warp. Well, not all of it but a huge part of it, maybe even most of it. Thank you for this, realm of chaos.

For a population who is accustomed to seeking out every possible psycher and killing them, turning into weapons and such, this is not what they were expecting. Not at all. Our darling captain, Arman (Yes, he got to be the captain.), held together wonderfully, and so did the crew despite all this fuckery.

Speaking of weaponry and psychers! Cai got me a new set of guns from Morise! Even Yi ordered him to get me something better. The bolt pistol he got for me has also witchbane bolts: in every single one of them there is some psycher energy, for they are made out of witches and they work wonders on witches. Naturally there is a limited amount of them so I'll just save these for a special occasion.

Anyway, we continued on our merry way in the warp.

Daemons.

Your run-off-the-mill daemons.

And they fell gloriously, praise the Emperor for guiding our hands.

You know, no-one should ever be in the position to be saying that a daemon is something average... except for Ordo Malleus. But hey, we're Ordo Xenos, why not have a couple of daemons here and there as well! Our crew, naturally, was shocked. I feel so sorry for them but at least they get the idea of what happens outside their bubble. Which reminds me, as soon as we get to the Inquisition, we need to tell them that Morise needs protection...

Because we were in basically no-where on the maps, we had to make a jump to a closer point than Theia...

A space station... we had been there before and the governor of the place told us never to show our faces there again...ever. Well, technically we just filled up our water supply and made a few repairs. Never left the ship! And when we did, we left with it and as fast as we could.

One more warp trip to go and one had to meet a warp storm. I... don't care anymore. Naturally I helped with everything I could but I don't care to panic over something like that. Thank goodness it was a known warp route so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, although I've noticed that traveling in the warp is getting more and more...action packed.

And now we're floating towards Theia. We made it back home! We only wrecked a freakin' look out post when we exited the warp and now people are pissed at us. Our ship looks weird and there are people waiting for us down on the ground. I'm not even scared of that anymore. Sarita Nalini, if you feel like yelling at us, go ahead, but give us a briefing of what has been going on in the past...almost a year.

I need to go prep the moriseans. Ordo Hereticus will take their case now and they are not as renegade as our team. I'll tell them they are in good hands: Inquisitor Widoto will take care of them.

It's good to be...home? I'm just wondering about the amount of ships here. Naturalle, we're at war but... a ship of the Bronze Dragons? Here? If we have had to call upon the Holy Astartes this does not look good...

- Norelle

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LII

Dear Diary,

We've been on Morise for quite a while now. They deliver our food by a tube system. I suspect they use this pipe line for other kinds of deliveries as well, at least in this building. Even for messages.

Which reminds me, we were visited by someone who most likely did it with no authorization. The power went out for a minute or so, and this man, Ovin, introduced himself, and told us that we weren't alone and shouldn't despair. Later he sent us a message through that very tube system, giving us coordinates to his location.

Great, now we only need to get out of the apartment. As I stated before, it might be a fancy-ass flat but I know a cell when I  see one.

I really miss Qiang... it's been... I don't even remember how long...months?....since I last saw him. He's probably on a mission somewhere, hopefully doing just fine. Please, dear Emperor, let him be alright. Protect him like you protect all of your children and lead him and his team to victory. I have no idea when I get to see you again, Qiang, my love, but know this. I'm going to fight my way back to you and bring these people to the light of the Emperor if it's the last thing that I do. Thank goodness our team is still intact.

So, the next thing we need to do is to get out. I'm sure they'll parade us around for we are, after all, we're probably the hugest thing that has happened to this planet for quuuuuuuite a while. Yi is frustrated and keeps training with some sticks he got from some plants. Support sticks I guess is what they are. Me, I keep training, so does Kûrush. Arzali keeps us entertained by eating and drinking all sorts of things. I'm pretty sure that the cameras capturing all this are having a blast at our expense. Cai and Arman, well, the former makes notes and the latter meditates. We also got a deck of cards with weird symbols on them. We've figured out a game we could play with them. Not sure if I told you about this already but, well, this is our every day life. A bit monotonous... and wasting time from all the work we could be doing!

We'll try to get out as soon as we can, everyone! Keep it together, ok!

And that wasn't a request, that was an order.

- Norelle

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part LIII

Dear Diary,

Paraded around I said? Understatement!

After being given some language lessons and a language chip we were actually taken outside. Now I know how Pillars of Emperor must feel like. I used to be a huge fangirl of that band but... I haven't given them a thought in quite a while. The people of this planet want to tear us up and keep everything of us as souvenirs. Especially the ears of me and Cai. Or, well, I don't think we're that special. Everyone of us seems to be a miracle for these people and who can blame them? They haven't seen people like us ever.

Well, if there was something good in this, we got to see the town and how the people do things. Still no signs of Chaos, which is wonderful.

We were shown around and everything was explained like to a toddler. We might not be native speakers but that doesn't mean we are bloody idiots. We had proper surveillance with us all the time, to protect us and the secrets of Morise from us. I myself kept my eye on my team mates praying to the Emperor that they would stay calm.

Anyways, we walked near the coordinates given to us by the mysterious man, Ovin. Playing stupid, as they thought we were, we asked if we could go and see the building. It happened to be some sort of trade guilds head quarters and we ”wanted to see  how trading was handled in the morisean culture”.

Idiots.

We got inside and were at one point greeted by Ovin and his mates. They were indeed traders and very worried of the situation on their planet. The ones in power had hindered the technological development and prevented the people from traveling in the stars. This basically means that we need to convince the council of the eldest and the local what ever they have that can be said to be something like Adeptus Mechanicus.

Oh goodie...

- Norelle

[surfacolyte]

Diary of Norelle Rhia, part XLVIII

Dear Diary,

Of all the hell holes in all the sector we had to come to this one. Oh, the planet in itself is nice, no complaints about that at all. There just happened to be this pesky little thing called MOTHER FUCKING ELDAR!!!!

That's right!

We go on a planet to research some ruins. We have a plan, a great plan, that we sneak with the rat squad inside and check the situation. Yi even put Arman in charge of the operation because he was an expert in these kinds of circumstances. And that was his plan, a well-organized stealth operation. We sneak in the facility, it is barely touched, but we find a human...with no sigils whatsoever... dead on a cogitator.

Then some fucking idiot decided that it would be a fantastic idea to blow up something in the woods outside! I bet it was Kûrush, Yi wouldn't do such a thing! Or would he...? Well, regardless, there we were inside the first room of the whole complex when we started hearing shooting.

It was, of course, the pointy eared fuckers. We made the researchers crawl back to the guncutter and we ran to them. Because we were in no condition to fight over 10 Eldar with no idea of their position and we being just sitting ducks for their snipers.

We had two gun cutters when we left the spaceship... but only one when we came back. Arzali and Yi were on the other one. The blasted Eldar shot them down! The last thing that we saw was the duo, jumping out of the exploding ship.

Thank the Emperor they weren't as high as we were when Angus died... they also had some trees to hold on to.

We had a short fight with the boys. Kûrush almost turned the ship back down and Arman, who was steering, said that we wouldn't go back. Cai didn't get to say a proper word between when I lost it for a second. I shouted at them that we would only do a disservice to the two by rushing in now and leaving our remaining guncutter to be destroyed by the Eldar.

Now we have returned back to the ship and are gathering troops for a rescue mission. We had a discussion with captain Narang and he seemed to be of mind that we should go kick some xenos butt. To him I am just the second in command of a mercenary group. To everyone working for the Inquisition I am the XO, acting CO at the moment.

Yi, Arzali, please... please be alive. I know that you are because this in not how you will go but... I've already lost some people to such falls. And they landed right next to the Eldar, Emperor damnit. Don't let the pointy ears see you, my brothers. Stay safe and may the Emperor protect you.

We're coming for you.

- Norelle