Chapter 306: Reminiscences of Beisu (Patreon)

“I know what you’re thinking.” At that moment, Yoan finally understood why Chen Ye had gone to such lengths to seek him out, why he had brought him deep into the underhive rather than speaking within the regulated halls of the upper districts.

Chen Ye had not come merely to reminisce with an old friend, nor was he here to save a few destitute kin from his homeworld while carrying out a Chapter task.

No, Chen Ye was trying to persuade an Talon Thunderborn to support a change of planetary governance. He wanted the man he believed most fit to rule this hive-city to become its Planetary Governor.

Perhaps the candidate Chen Ye had in mind truly was exceptional.

In all likelihood, yes. A transhuman warrior who had lived for over a century, who had commanded men and machines across multiple compliance actions, would not lack judgment or resolve.

But whoever sat the governor’s throne, and whoever swore fealty beneath him, they were already working diligently to integrate Beisu I into the Talon Gate Defence Zone. From the perspective of the wider sector command, there was no need to create unnecessary complications.

“I agree with you that the governorship should belong to the capable,” Yoan said calmly. “But as a Thunderborn, I cannot introduce instability, especially not where the process is already proceeding smoothly.”

Chen Ye shook his head, silently reorganizing his thoughts, searching for words that might finally sway Yoan..

But Yoan continued, cutting him off gently yet firmly.

“Don’t waste your effort. The current governor and the noble houses have shown a cooperative stance, much like during the earlier consolidation of the Talon Sector. As long as they do not resist integration, openly or in secret, they will retain their positions and privileges. That is how the Talon Sector works.”

“No… no,” Chen Ye insisted. “You don’t understand this hive’s past.”

“I’ll ask you two questions,” Yoan said, raising two fingers. “First: from a legal standpoint, is the current governor the rightful successor?”

“…Yes.” Chen Ye hated admitting it, but Imperial law was unambiguous, at least on parchment.

“Second: is this governor so deranged or tyrannical that he is beyond redemption? Has he committed unforgivable crimes against the hive’s population?”

“…Not that I know of.”

“Then forgive me,” Yoan said evenly, “but I cannot help you.”

When those words were spoken, Chen Ye lowered his head. A profound sense of powerlessness flooded his hearts.

The White Scars did not know what Chen Ye was truly doing in the Beisu system. As far as the Chapter was concerned, their brother had merely delivered a parchment decree to the Talon authorities, nothing more.

He had no support from his Chapter. None from the Imperium at large.

If he wanted to see the current governor removed, the Thunderborn were his only possible lever, and Yoan would not move.

The weight of Chen Ye’s frustration was so heavy that even Yoan could feel it.

After a pause, Yoan spoke again. “You could try convincing Thunderborn Anruida. He is the Thunderborn directly responsible for the Talon Gate project. His opinion carries significant weight in how the sector evaluates Beisu.”

“That bastard only follows the Lord of Talon’s orders,” Chen Ye said bitterly. “Nothing else.”

“I’m sorry,” Yoan replied, shaking his head slowly. “There is nothing more I can do.”

Chen Ye fell silent for a long moment, then gestured toward the rear seat of his bike.

Yoan frowned slightly, he couldn't help Chen Ye at all, so why was he being asked to get on the motorcycle?

“I brought you down here,” Chen Ye said, patting the seat. “The least I can do is take you back to the lower hive.”

....

The same street where they had first met.

Acid rain still fell from the polluted skies, hissing faintly as it struck ferrocrete and rusted plasteel.

Chen Ye dropped Yoan off without another word, then immediately gunned the engine and disappeared back toward the depths of the underhive, his bike’s exhaust vanishing into a maze of gantries and maintenance tunnels.

The street’s holo-screens were still looping the same advertisement.

“Were you framed by a bald man? Dragged before the Arbites? Lost your case because that man is an exemplary Imperial citizen and the Ministry of Justice believed him instead of you?”

He leaned closer to the camera.

“I am Saul. I fight for you.”

Seeing the advertisement again, Yoan felt something different.

He realized now that this hive had been infiltrated by Genestealers to a disturbing degree, and the citizens had no idea that those bald-headed figures were not truly human at all.

Which raised a troubling question.

How did the people of Lower Hive District One Hundred know about the Genestealers?

And more importantly, why were they the ones purging them, when the Arbites and PDF appeared either blind or absent?

As Yoan pondered this, a vox-request flashed across his helm display.

Anruida.

“You bastard,” Yoan muttered, accepting the call. “You still find time to chat while enjoying yourself?”

“No jokes,” Anruida replied. “This is serious.”

The image showed Anruida not in a lavish hall, but within a dark, sealed librarium vault. Sigil-locked doors and warded shelves lined the chamber. His augmetic eye swept across ancient data-tomes and physical books; their contents streamed directly into his bio-processor, allowing him to absorb a volume in moments.

“I’ve been reviewing Beisu I’s history,” Anruida said as he worked. “The current governor’s lineage is… interesting. His family ruled this hive for over three thousand years. Their governance was abysmal, so poor it bordered on criminal negligence. About a century ago, they were overthrown by a rebel movement from the lower hive. The new governor was named Ta’an. After taking power, he adopted a surname found in ancient family records.”

“He was… competent,” Anruida continued. “He established formal judicial procedures, codified processes for conviction and defense. That alone is exceedingly rare in hives like this, where justice usually amounts to quotas and public executions.”

Yoan remembered Chen Ye standing on this very street once before, saying that he was only seeing the dying light of the sunset.

The meaning was obvious now.

Ta’an’s descendants had failed. The hive had slid back into ignorance and decay, its fragile institutions left to rot once active oversight vanished.

The forgotten figure of Saul in the advertisement was nothing more than a remnant of past brilliance, a legal fiction echoing a time when law had briefly existed, perhaps not yet erased simply because the current governor hadn’t bothered.

“A familiar story,” Yoan sighed. “Great ancestors. Worthless heirs.”

Even the Talon Sector itself had known such governors, just as Beisu I had, men of rare virtue whose deaths marked the inevitable return of decay.

“No,” Anruida said. “That’s the key point. The current governor is not descended from Ta’an. He is descended from the original ruling family. They reclaimed power.”

“And when they did,” Anruida added, his tone sharpening, “the records state that the descendant of Ta’an was assassinated.”

“That hardly matters—”

“It does,” Anruida interrupted. “He had an elite personal guard, and a psyker capable of precognition. And yet… he still died. Without explanation, under mysterious circumstances.”

Anruida wasn’t sentimental about the hive’s history. But this troubled him.

A governor protected by foresight and elite guards does not simply die.

“How do the records describe it?” Yoan asked.

“They don’t,” Anruida replied. “The death is presented as the Emperor’s judgment upon a usurper, a cautionary tale, nothing more.”

Yoan fell silent.

Such an assassination was not impossible. Even a precognitive psyker could be overwhelmed by a sufficiently skilled killer, someone who rendered foresight and guards meaningless.

Which begged another question.

Where does one find such an assassin?

“Tell me,” Anruida said, fixing Yoan with his gaze. “What kind of creature excels at assassination?”

“Genestealers,” Yoan answered instantly. “I watched a Purestrain kill an officer under my watch in the underhive once. I looked away for half a second.”

“Then you see my concern,” Anruida said. “I suspect the current governor’s family may have ties to a Genestealer Cult.”

“It’s only a possibility,” Yoan cautioned. “There are many ways to kill a man. A distant psyker could crush his brain from kilometers away.”

“Of course,” Anruida nodded. “There are countless possibilities. Sorcery. Poison. Even coincidence. But the Talon Guard will purge the Genestealers regardless. And if this governor is connected to them, he cannot be allowed to live, certainly not under our protection, planting a hidden mine beneath the sector.”

“I’ll investigate,” Yoan said.

It had to be done. This was no minor matter.

Whatever means the family had used, xenos, witchcraft, or something far worse, if the truth remained buried, they could one day deliver a disastrous surprise to the Talon Sector.

The Talon Gate Defence Zone could not tolerate instability.

Not now.

Not ever.