VI. CHRONICLE INFERNAE: THE LAMENT OF THE ASTARTES 📜🔥

 It is a matter of recent and profound sorrow to record this entry, for the fire of our bolters was turned not upon the xenos or the true heretic, but upon the misguided kin of the Imperium itself. This is a sad duty to engrave, yet it must be done with the cold precision that our creed demands. This engagement, which we name the Astarte’s Lament, marks a grievous truth: the restoration of Reason is a path paved with conflict against those who claim to speak for the First Father.

 

THE VOICE OF TRAGEDY AND THE VEIL OF ZEALOTRY

The event took place in the Penumbral Sector, within the system known as Vex's Torment. The Ordo Ignis Promethei, under the command of Captain Kaelen, responded to a distress call from the agri-world of Gaea's Sorrow, a transmission broadcast on ancient and forgotten Imperial frequencies, speaking of a xenos infestation.

Upon arrival, our vessels encountered a flotilla of the Imperial Navy and a contingent of the Adepta Sororitas, the so-called Sisters of Battle. It was their leader, a living saint known as Canoness Valeriana, who hailed our vessel, the Prometheus Ascendant. Upon hearing the name "Ordo Ignis Promethei," her response was not recognition, but immediate, incandescent scorn.

Captain Kaelen (Vox-Transcript, attempt at Illumination): "We are the Ordo Ignis Promethei, true sons of the Great Crusade, returned from the Great Silence. We are here for the light of knowledge and the defense of the innocent. We revere the Emperor as The First Father, the ultimate giver of reason and progress."

Her reply was a shockwave of unreasoning faith, a sound more deafening than any plasma discharge.

Canoness Valeriana (Fragmented Vox, blazing with zeal): "You speak the tongue of the traitor! Promethean Heretics! You deny His Divine Majesty! You seek to corrupt the Emperor's divine purpose with your archaic lies! By the will of the Ecclesiarchy, you are Anathema! Fire on the apostates! Let the light of sanctity cleanse this heresy!"

Her fleet opened fire. The tragedy was consecrated in the void.

 

DATA-LITANY INTERPRETATION: THE DEFENSE OF REASON

The engagement that followed was a trial by fire. We did not fire first, for our mandate is not destruction, but correction. Our Astartes sought to disable their vessels rather than destroy them, utilizing calculated strikes to cripple engines and void shields.

The Battle-Barges of the Ordo Ignis Promethei, ancient and potent, endured the volley of fire. Our Librarians worked to shield our minds from the raw, unreasoning faith of the Sororitas, a psychic force more potent and blinding than any warp-spawned terror we had yet encountered. It was faith as a weapon—pure, absolute, and devoid of logic.

Captain Kaelen, seeing no other path but to neutralize the source of the fanatical command, ordered a direct assault on the Canoness's flagship, the Light of Sanctity.

The boarding action was brutal. Our Battle Brothers, seeking only to subdue the enemy, were forced to fight a fanatical foe who saw only their own righteous cause. It is a matter of sorrow to note the casualties on both sides. Astartes of the Ordo Ignis Promethei were lost, and we witnessed the final moments of brave warriors who, in another time, might have been our allies. Discipline was our only shield against their berserk zeal.

 

THE PHILOSOPHICAL FLAMEKEEPING: THE GRIM MERCY

The battle concluded when Captain Kaelen, in a grim act of mercy that defies the modern Imperial doctrine of extermination, confronted Canoness Valeriana on her own bridge.

Canoness Valeriana (Screaming, voice breaking): "Heretic! I see the truth in your eyes! You deny the God-Emperor! You will burn for your lack of faith!"

Captain Kaelen, his voice calm amidst the wreckage and the screams of battle, delivered the essence of the Promethean Creed in his final attempt to bring light to this dark matter.

Captain Kaelen: "We do not see a god, but a man who strove to make us more. You have forgotten his lessons. You worship the gold cage, not the mind that built it. You have traded the light of knowledge for the blindness of belief."

He then had her incapacitated, not slain, a decision that caused a fury among her remaining sisters. The Ordo Ignis Promethei ultimately disengaged, leaving the crippled Imperial fleet behind.

We do not claim victory, for there can be no victory in fighting those who serve the same Imperium, however misguided their service may be. The Astarte's Lament is a solemn lesson, a chronicle of the grief that comes from a reunion ten millennia too late. The Imperium we seek to restore is a ghost, and the people we must save see us as the very enemy they are sworn to destroy.

Thus ends the entry. The log serves as a perpetual reminder of the cost of our truth.