Five time cycles later and Timothy was judged well enough to be interviewed by the Emperor’s Representative on the Nero.
His battle chair in ruins, he had to be pushed in to the room in an old, decrepit manual chair. It was demeaning but it was all he had for now.
Timothy could smell the Representative before he seen him. It was a smell of rot and decay. He had sunken eyes, pale skin and skeletal appearance.
In a deep, hissing voice the Representative began to speak in the small, dimly lit room.
“Why are you not dead with your battalion? Did you disgrace your emperor? Have you no honor”
“No, never. I was knocked unconscious and saved against my will. I would not allow myself be disgraced.”
“Yes, yes. Maybe. Tell me about the invasion. Why was it not repelled. I had thought there were enough armies on the planet for the size of the attacking fleet.”
“There were too many of them. We were overran.”
“But how commander? And it was over so quickly. An orc armada of that size couldn’t have done it.”
“You don’t understand do you. They convert living matter to their kind. Every tree, every animal is consumed and manufactured into a Tyranid soldier. It’s like an infection that rapidly spreads over a huge area.”
“And you have seen this with your own eyes.”
“Yes, I have.”
The Representative’s eyes suddenly opened widely.
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