The agent crept through the shrouding darkness, her knife blackened, her clothing blending seamlessly into the background. The corridors were almost silent, the only sounds were the breathing of the guards. The agent flattened herself against a wall, warned by the quiet footsteps of a guard. Looking to the end of the corridor, she saw the guard walk past, not bothering even to glance in her direction. The agent moved quickly and silently, almost wraithlike, as she followed the guard. The guard kept walking, following his patrol, seeming not to notice the shadow that was following him. The agent closed on her target, knife ready, the blackness on the blade seeming to glisten slightly.

The guard came to a locked door, and paused to enter the pass code. The agent watched carefully, sliding the knife into a thigh sheath as she did so, memorising the code as the guard punched it in. With a hiss and a click, the door slowly started to open inward, and the agent struck. She dropped a looped cord over his head and heaved back. She caught the guard’s gun as he released it to try and loosen the cord. The guard scrabbled at the cord, trying to release the pressure on his windpipe. The agent yanked back on the cord one more time, and the guard went limp. She dragged the corpse back to the darkened corridor, and pulled out a pentorch. The agent scanned the dead mans face, trying to memorise the details, the subtleties. She pulled out an injector, bared her upper arm, and jabbed it home.

The agents outline blurred, swelling and changing. A long ponytail sprouted out of the back of the agent’s head, the clothes falling away as the assassin stood up, her outline stabilising. She thumbed the switch on the gauntlet on her right hand, and smiled as the phase blade flashed into existence. Depressing the switch again, she quickly stripped the dead guard, checking for any more information on the man she had just killed. But what was a man, she thought, compared to the wishes of the Emperor? She had to be absolutely loyal to Him and she was to kill His enemies. She was to be the hand in the darkness, had to kill from the purity within her. The Emperor had sacrificed Himself so that the Imperium could survive, so what was the sacrifice of one man compared to that?