"What exactly is the 'Plague of Unbelief'?" Horst inquired, his brows furrowing in thought as he leaned forward slightly. He couldn't understand why a plague would be named something like that. What did belief or the lack thereof have to do with the spread of disease?
"Those who turn from the Emperor lose more than faith… eventually they become walking corpses. That's how it ends, though we're not at that stage yet," Qin Mo explained vaguely.
It wasn't the whole story, but for now, it was accurate enough.
Horst studied him carefully. The man's aura wasn't screaming with warp distortion, but there was a weight to it. A presence. It was the grim cadence of someone who had seen it happen.
And the term 'Plague of Unbelief' stirred something dark and half-formed in Horst's own mind, visions he had seen in fragmented nightmares lately, while deep in trance-meditation beneath the crypt-shrines.
He remembered the scent of incense and burning parchment, the cold stone beneath his knees as he knelt before the relic-shrines, seeking clarity. But what came to him instead were those cursed dreams.
Splintered images of burning voidships, broken fortresses, heretical banners marching beneath a dead sun. The Cadian Gate, the Imperium's bulwark against the Eye of Terror shattering. The Thirteenth.
He had thought them symbolic… until now.
Horst nodded slowly, though another statement from Qin Mo puzzled him. "A crusade… targeting the Cadian Gate?"
Qin Mo then shared with Horst what he knew of the Thirteenth Black Crusade."It won't begin with a full invasion," Qin Mo said. "It starts as rot. The Imperium won't even see it at first. Entire sectors will lose faith, planets will fall into anarchy, and the Administratum will drown in its own bureaucracy while it spreads. But when it breaks, it will be apocalyptic."
He wasn't as worried about whether Horst would suspect how he knew of future events. What concerned him more was the possibility that the Imperium might fail to hold the Cadian Gate.
There was also the very real concern that, even after revealing the threat of the Thirteenth Black Crusade, Horst might believe him, but others within the Imperium might not. Or worse, the Imperium might believe him but still fail to respond effectively due to its glacial bureaucracy.
Regardless, Qin Mo had done his part. He had passed on word of the coming Black Crusade.
"The Plague of Unbelief. Heretical cults swelling in numbers. Increasing voidship activity from known Chaos warbands across the Segmentum Obscurus, this is the storm's edge. You know as well as I do, Inquisitor, that when the Eye of Terror stirs, the warp storms grow restless. Even Astropathic relays begin to fail. That's already happening. It may drag on for five, even eight standard years before the real hammer falls."
Horst's brow furrowed, but he didn't interrupt. These were patterns he'd already begun to suspect, but Qin Mo spoke of them as though reading directly from a report the Ordo hadn't yet compiled.
"There's one thing that must be heeded above all else, do not deploy minor strike forces to intercept raider fleets, especially from the Agripinaa Sector. And under no circumstances should Imperial battlegroups navigate through any nebulae. That's where ambushes are waiting."
Qin Mo outlined the early signs of what the Imperium might face before the Black Crusade erupted in full, his voice quiet but unwavering.
Horst's suspicions solidified. This wasn't guesswork or raw intelligence. It was vision. Prophecy. And it meant only one thing, Qin Mo was a powerful psyker. The Ordo's reports on the Governor of Talon rang true then. Perhaps an Alpha-level psyker or beyond.
Horst grew even more alarmed. But he didn't let it show. Not a flicker betrayed the fact that he potentially sat next to an unsanctioned psyker who could probably melt every brain in the star system.
The ongoing crisis for the Imperium was too important, but there was no way for him to verify Qin Mo's words. It could be a trap, or just complete madness. But the signs were there. It could be... true.
All he knew was that plague outbreaks had begun across the Obscurus Sector and around the Talon Subsectors. Detailed reports hadn't arrived yet.
But Qin Mo's warnings aligned with the faint signals and whispers already filtering through the Ordo's more secure channels. Horst had glimpsed the shape of the coming storm, but Qin Mo had just traced its full contour.
Besides, Horst wasn't even officially responsible for investigating the plague. He was only here because the newly createdOrdo Sepulturum had begun prioritizing plague outbreaks in the Obscurus Sector.
Where other branches of the Inquisition hunted daemons or heresy, the Sepulturum hunted the residue of ruin. It had formed in the wake of plague-worlds, in the shadow of apocalyptic infections that not even Exterminatus could erase. A bastard order, some said. A janitor's corps for the Imperium's sins.
But Horst knew better.
They weren't cleaning up old horrors. They were learning to predict new ones. And this, what Qin Mo described, was exactly the kind of metastasizing rot the Ordo had been created to confront. A sickness of faith and flesh, crawling across systems long before the first screams began.
He had been assigned to observe the new ordos in action, and had taken the opportunity to swing by Talon for a supplementary assessment.
"I'll file a full report on what you've told me," Horst said, standing up. "You'll handle the suppression efforts across the Talon Subsectors. I'll continue the official investigation into the plague."
"I've already started," Qin Mo replied calmly.
He had involved Chapter Master Phoros in plague suppression operations, and had already responded to numerous distress signals from nearby systems.
Wherever the Immaterium and the touch of Chaos reached, Talon warships and regiments were there too.
"It's settled then," Horst said, placing a hand on Qin Mo's shoulder. "Just as you saved Talon, I hope you'll save the surrounding systems as well. These worlds may hold no strategic value to the Imperium, but if you can unite them into a coherent subsector of resistance…"
"Then we hold. But if the Imperium betrays its own in the hour of need… we won't bleed alone," Qin Mo said grimly.
"You have my word," Horst promised with a firm nod.
And he meant it. Not because he trusted Qin Mo but because he had glimpsed the alternative.
And it wasworse.
....
Thirty minutes later.
Qin Mo stood in a darkened, metal-paneled command hall.
Every entrance and viewport had been sealed to eliminate outside light. Within, a hololithic star chart glowed faintly, centered on the Talon Subsectors.
Though the Talon and its surrounding systems had never been officially designated as a subsector, Qin Mo had drawn up the boundaries himself.
The defined space spanned a nearly 200-light-year-wide cubic region, encompassing nineteen systems including Talon. The mapping had been handled by a mimetic AI assistant, saving the need for scouting vessels to physically chart every system and their distances.
If only the AI hadn't started losing contact lately, its presence in the next phase of operations would have made everything far easier.
"Display all systems that previously sent plague-related distress calls," Qin Mo commanded aloud.
Responding instantly, the central cogitator's voice filtered through the air, executing the order. Four red markers appeared on the hololith.
Four systems had successfully sent distress calls to Talon, and in each, the primary sources of infection had been purged for now.
But Qin Mo remained uneasy.
Those four systems had voidcraft, means of communication, and could request help. Most worlds in the so-called Unnamed Sector lacked even that, entire systems without ships, unable to reach Talon at all.
There was an urgent need to deploy recon fleets to each and every system in the region, performing thorough scans of every planet and moon.
The operation should've begun long ago, but with the Inquisition involved and war preparations ongoing, Talon's fleets had to remain consolidated for now.
Thankfully, the Inquisition had finally pulled out.
"Transmit orders to Adam, have him develop and execute a full reconnaissance campaign across the entire subsector," Qin Mo instructed the cogitator.
The command was instantly relayed to Lord Admiral Adam.
"And continue production of the antiviral agent I synthesized earlier. Once a plague-ridden system is detected, deploy the cure to major infection centers from orbit. For pockets and underground hives, send in the Legion. If any derelict voidships are encountered, destroy them immediately. Once a system is cleared, locate the planetary governors of each world. Pass on this order directly."
["This is a mobilization edict: All adult males on each world are to register for conscription immediately. Training is to begin with light arms supplied from Talon. When the time comes, they will be called to serve."]
Having issued the full set of orders, Qin Mo gazed at the glowing star map. He couldn't shake the feeling that the spread of the Plague of Unbelief so close to Talon wasn't a coincidence.
It was highly likely that Nurgle cultists were operating in the region, spreading pestilence and corruption.
And so, as always, Qin Mo planned for the worst.
He assumed that Talon might soon face a direct invasion from Nurgle cultists, Daemons of the Warp, or even Chaos Space Marines. In that case, the mobilization was absolutely necessary.
The entire operation would mean mobilizing all available fleets and ground forces across Talon to the stars, but it was a calculated and necessary risk.
There was no need for garrisons here.
Just as in ground warfare, when teleportation can instantly bridge gaps that once took months to cross, strategies of harassment and ambush become meaningless.
If Talon was attacked, the fleet could jump back immediately.
Not to mention, Talon was fortified with orbital bastions.
Qin Mo also considered the possibility that some of these systems were already total loss worlds, every inhabitant transformed into plague zombies, even the soil turned to rotted infection.
He had two solutions for such worlds.
The first was the use of theNexus Firmament, a high-consequence purification weapon. But if there were too many dead worlds to handle at once…
There was a second option.
"Have Leviathan prepared. Send it in to deal with the irredeemable ones, I won't waste resources on them."
Over the past eighteen months, Qin Mo had created many weapons, but the Leviathan was his magnum opus. The most resource-intensive weapon he had ever crafted.
It was not another Nexus.
Leviathan… was an army.
.....
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