"Alright, connecting..." your pilot says, as the ship attaches to the bays of the Quill. All your lieutenants stand around you. Immediately, you spot a trio of space marines clad in blue with yellow trim marching towards you. Those on either side are helmeted with a crest behind their head and holding bolters in their hands. The one in the middle has no helmet, instead wearing ornate golden robes over his power armor, holding a bolt pistol golden staff topped with a snake, with two Sapphires as the eyes. You rarely see a space marine with his helmet off. This man has short blond hair and a clean-shaven face.


"Ah! Kyros' over-throwers, is it? I..." the marine says, before stopping to stare at Meliodas. "You.... ah, I sense it now. A daemon, is it? Tell me, were you trapped inside Kyros' skull for all the times I met with him?"


"No, I've just moved in," Meliodas replies, as the marine nods.


"I am Khalid the Despised," the marine says, as his two guards stare blankly at you.


"My name's Karth," you reply. "This is Meliodas, Cain, Castus, Olive, Fay, Durge, Elizabeth, John the Hermit, Captain Hayes and Elios."


"Fuck, did you really need to bring the whole crew?" Khalid asks, staring at your lieutenants.


Khalid strolls along the line, nodding slowly as if he expected this.


"Yes, yes... at least you got rid of that crazy Khornate bitch. Still, you kept the sentient Slaaneshi dildo, the morbidly obese sore, the failure for a psyker and the jar-head. Oh look, you've a few more to your roster. A... I don't even know what this freak is," he says, staring at Cain. "Then we have a mutant who deserves to become dust like my own, a bunch of kids and the daemon who can't find a better crew. A pathetic group if I've ever seen one."


Khalid steps back, as most of you stare at him in shock. Only the Staine Siblings and Hayes seem unsurprised.


"How fucking dare you?" Fay says, as she raises her bolter to point at Khalid's head.


"Oh, you must be one of the shit-eating, backwater Ferals that Kyros tried to turn into a super-soldier, right? Tell me, are you pregnant by your father, your brother or your cousin? Who am I kidding, with a planet like you came from, he's probably all three," Khalid smiles.

You attempt to take a more peaceful approach

"Look... Khalid. The galaxy's a harsh place."


"Oh, I'm sorry, did you learn that from your tiny fucking amount of experience in the world?" Khalid says.


You stare at the psyker as he runs his hands through his hair.


"I wanted... an alliance," you say.


"Ter-fucking-rfic," Khalid the Despised says. "Follow me."


You look at your lieutenants. The slave leaders; Fay, Olive, Castus and Cain are all shocked, while Elios, Durge, Elizabeth and Hayes seem indifferent.


"His attitude has improved," Elizabeth notes.


"Is that a joke?" Olive asks, staring at her.


"No. You should've seen him last time," Elizabeth says. "Come on, let's follow."


You follow after Khalid, and soon follow him into a large library. Khalid points his staff, and a dozen large chairs float over. He sits down into one of them, looking up at you.


"I assume you're here about the psyker, yes?" he asks.


"Uh... what psyker?"


Khalid the Despised rolls his eyes, gently tapping his staff against the ground in annoyance.


"A new psyker has supposedly risen to power in the sector. We're talking a psyker of amazing power. Tremendous power. He's seemingly pledged as the greatest champion of the renegade Chaos God, Malice. I assume you want to make an alliance to take him out."


"No... although I'll look into it. I'm taking Kyros' place as a military power, and rebuilding. I want to secure my alliance with you."


"Ah, a little kid playing dress-up in the robes of his master, yes? Why should I ally with you?"


"Do you have many other offers of alliance?" you ask.


"Fair point," Khalid admits. "Yes, I want to ally with you."


"Oh, that was easy. Shall we discuss military strength? Under my com..."


"I know," Khalid nods. "You understand the amount of knowledge my spies give me? I have quite a few spies on your ship, and that's not even taking into account my psykers trained in Divination. It might seem I'm answering far too quickly. I'm not. I foresaw you coming to ask, did my research, did what I need. I decided what was to be agreed here a while back. What I've not learned is whether I can trust you. So, I have an offer. A Binding Contract."


"A binding contract?" you ask.


"Did Kyros teach you anything other than to take a dick? A binding contract is done brwteen two individuals with strong psychic abilities. We make a contract, binding our very souls to it to be relinquished should we break it."


"What's the contract?"


"We pledge to remain loyal to each other, absolutely no aggression, come to each others aid, yadda yadda yadda. The details are mental. The words don't matter so much as the spirit behind them." 


"What do I do?" you ask.


"Just shake my hand. I'll say the incantation, and our minds will meet. You'll be able to search my mind for mistrust, as I will for you. Are we agreed?"

You agree

You nod, holding out your hand. Khalid grabs you by the hand, and stares into your eyes.


"This'll be simple enough. Just don't resist. Understood?"


"Got it," you say.


"With the Dark Gods, the Corpse-Emperor himself and anyone else out their with the power to oversee this bargain, I pledge these two souls together by the binding contract, that we will remain allies into all ways possible. Should we break this contract, let our souls be forfeit."


You hear the chattering of thousands of daemonic voices as they watch your deal. You feel your mind be flooded into by Khalid's, as consciousness, in the way normal humans feel it, fade.


You find yourself floating in a void, surrounded by an ever-shifting mass of golden energy, that seem to make up Khalid. You look around, as you see his thoughts floating around you. You reach out your hand, touching the thought screams as you hear Khalid's voice boom.


"Is the big freak literate? Is it even sentient? I would think not. If I had to look at that face in the mirror every morning I'd kill myself."


You frown, touching another.


"Is the dumbass seriously using Kyros' former lieutenants, those who enslaved his people, as his lieutenants? He saw them betray Kyros! And now the dumbass is reading your thoughts, no doubt learning that while I'll remain loyal to him, he's a fucking wanker."


You touch another one.


"You, Karth Uwais, are ugly. See? I'm not even slightly lying."


Well, you've got what you need from his thoughts. Still, in the golden fog of energy, you can see what you assume are memories drifting around. You see his staff floating through the void before disappearing, before you see a wolf bound through the fog. You can hear distant screams emanate through the fog from some horrifying memory. You see Kyros march across the fog and step back nervously despite knowing he's only a memory.

You follow the staff

You walk after the staff, as the darkness manifests itself into a massive forge. You smell the oil and grease of the forge, feel the heat of the forges, taste the taste of copper in the air, hear the screeching of metal. A younger version of Khalid clad in red and gold power armor works on his staff, sculpting the snakes that intertwine it. Another space marine with the same color scheme walks into the forge, grinning.


"Khalid! What are you forging there, friend?"


"I call it the Staff of Khalid," Khalid says proudly, holding it up.


"Ah, what humility!" the second marine says. "What great abilities has it?"


"Glad you asked, Narmer. It can act as a simple director of power, but more importantly, it can redirect psychic attacks back at the opponent. Unless they specifically know of the staff's powers, they should suffer the full effect of the action."


"Fascinating," Narmer says. "I..."


The room gently fades back into complete darkness.