While Dinah led her Celestians and Acolytes in through the southernmost door, Sister Superior Sela, a Celestian instructor under Mother Rachel's school, was leading her five sisters through the door just north of them. Her five sisters were barely eighteen, promoted by the Canoness to full Sisterhood early because of the crisis on Byzantium. Their Vestments however were the burgundy of the school, rather than the crimson of the regular lay-sisters of the order. The school at the secret abbey used burgundy and cream, rather than the crimson and white, to honor the colors of the Order, but show that they were not yet ready to don them.
Sela burst through the door to find herself in a long hallway. Ahead were antechambers where patrons were walking or milling about. To her left was the Frigidarium, a huge chamber with two large pools filled with cold water for the bathers' pleasure. Patrons of both genders were splashing in the pool, or talking along the ledge, dangling their feet into the water. Passionate kisses were shared, with gentle caresses and teasing tickles this close to the entrances, a room dedicated to sensual foreplay before enjoying the greater delights deeper in the bathhouse.
"It's a raid! Someone shouted, and the room suddenly burst into frenzied activity. Some went for their weapons, while others sought to flee the room or hide in alcoves or under the water.
Sela lifted her stormbolter and let loose with it, spraying death among the sinners. "Cleanse and Purify! For the Emperor!" The new sisters joined her, also armed with the rapid-fire stormbolters. It had been Katherine's insistence they be armed as Dominions with a fire-support role, and they were capable of laying down a withering fusillade of fire on the move. The waters of the pools ran scarlet with blood.
Behind them, Claudia led her cadre of nine Priestesses. Most were armed with short swords and small-bore firearms borrowed from the abbey's school, used to train the younger acolytes not yet ready for the larger-bore shotguns and bolters. Two of the more fanatic priestesses were carrying deadly Eviscerators, chainsaw-like swords that shredded the enemies of the Imperium. Claudia herself waved her bolt pistol and sword, leading them deeper into the bathhouse while the Dominions cleansed the Frigidarium. They hacked through the surprised patrons in the hallway, singing from the Litanies of Faith as they did so.
The crackle of lasguns rang out and two sisters fell to the tile floor. From before them, a half dozen guards in Legionnaire armor and Pilum lasrifles opened fire from a room partially concealed by a row of pillars. "Kill them! Kill the intruders!" One of them shouted, followed by the baying of terrible, unnatural hounds. Three of the Chaos hounds sprang from behind the columns and crashed into the cluster of priestesses. Paulina was knocked to the ground by a massive mastiff. Before she could react, its monstrous jaws closed about her face crushing the bones of her skull in grisly fashion. A second hound grabbed a priestess by the arm and shook its head violently, tearing the limb free from her shoulder in a ghastly spray of blood.
"Stand fast!" Claudia shouted, rushing over to save her screaming comrade, who fell to the tiles clutching her bloody stump. The former prostitute-turned-priestess struck the hound with a vicious backhand blow then shot it twice with the bolt pistol in her left hand. The distinctive whir of the Eviscerators filled the air as two priestesses screamed like things possessed. Blood sprayed from the chainsaw-like blades as one avenged poor Paulina. The second met a hound that was leaping for Claudia, shearing the mutant animal in twain and showering the priestesses in blood and entrails.
To the left was the Tepidarium, where lukewarm baths were provided, though little bathing occurred of course. The room was just another excuse for sexual exploration for the cultists of Slaanesh. Claudia's eyes widened as a hollering crowd charged at them, wielding knives, hatchets, and improvised clubs with murderous intent. From the other direction, the half dozen guards rushed them, bayonets fixed on their rifles…
