A psyker is someone who has a psychic connection to the Warp, and they appear in nearly all soul-bearing species in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Warp exists as a parallel reality to the physical universe, reflecting the thoughts and emotions of all soul-bearing creatures. It is through this connection that psykers are able to bend the laws of reality by using the energy of the Warp to "warp" realspace.
Yet psykers vary in potency, discipline, and skill. Ajax knew that the Imperium of Man developed the Assignment as a scale of innate psychic ability. The grade of Rho was set as the level at which humans with no psychic powers sat, with at least seventeen higher grades above it. Yet Ajax also knew that two psykers of the same grade might not display the same power, as their ability to manipulate the Warp required both skill and talent in certain disciplines.
An Iota-grade psyker—the weakest grade of true psykers—skilled in biomancy might be able to heal minor injuries or boost an individual's musculature by ten or twenty percent. By contrast, an Iota-grade psyker skilled in pyromancy might be able to summon firebolts of similar strength to a las-beam from an Imperial Guardsman's lasrifle. Most Imperial psykers have only enough innate talent to master abilities from one of the five common disciplines: biomancy, pyromancy, telekinesis, divination, and telepathy. Some highly talented individuals are able to expand beyond a single discipline. Yet there also exist other, far rarer disciplines mastered by humans and xenos alike.
Ajax thought about the one and only psyker known to have the logokine ability: John Grammaticus. From what he remembered, the ability allowed the wielder to read, speak, and understand nearly all languages — as long as they had the proper faculties to do so. If you didn't have the organs to speak a hypersonic language, or even to hear it, then Ajax figured a logokine wouldn't be able to fully understand or speak it.
However, the ability allowed an almost telepathic understanding of others' emotions, meanings, and motivations through reading inflection, tone, body language, and psychic wavelengths. In the books Ajax had read, John Grammaticus couldn't literally hear a person's inner dialogue — but he could construct that dialogue, or a very close approximation of it, using the clues picked up through his logokine abilities.
Essentially, a logokine was one of the rarest types of psykers and a master of using language as a medium to express psychic power.
As a consequence, Grammaticus was a master of persuasion. He played others as if their thoughts were notes of music — and he, the composer who shaped the symphony. It was a powerful psychic ability, but one that lacked severely in the combat department. Which, in a galaxy where there is only war, was a gigantic downside.
'Goddammit, I could have had fire powers, I could have had telekinesis, I could have had biomancy — and all I got is the talky power. I have social anxiety! What is this crock of shit?!'.
Ajax took a sharp inhale and turned around to look at 10th Company. He scanned the faces, trying to read their body language to figure out who his second-in-command was. The realization struck him dumb for a second: it was only thanks to his logokine powers that he hadn't made a complete and utter fool of himself during the inspection. He'd pulled everything he needed from the Uxor and the Bashaw's minds.
He still felt the urge to grumble about not being able to run around shooting lightning and screaming "UNLIMITED POWEEEER," though.
His gaze settled on a particularly burly trooper, and Ajax exclaimed, "Bashaw Vaareb, if you don't work on your kicking form, I'll have to report you to the genewhips. The power comes from the hips — the hips, I tell you!"
"Agh, Hetman! How did you know it was me?!" exclaimed the trooper, who indeed turned out to be Bashaw Vaareb.
"You mean besides the toe print you left on my sternum? I didn't know for sure until you just ratted on yourself, Obed," Ajax said playfully.
That really got the 10th Company laughing. Bashaw Obed Vaareb took it in stride, laughing along with the troops — being a good sport about it.
"All right, gentlemen — though none of you are particularly gentle — you heard the Uxor. We're forming up and prepping to get off this dirtball. Bashaw, if you would."Vaareb led the men into a march, calling cadence as he went:
Bashaw: I don't know, but I've been told—
10th Company: The Thunder Warriors weren't that old!
Bashaw: The Astartes say we're weak and slow,
10th Company: But we're the ones who die, you know!
Bashaw: Marching hard through stars unknown,
10th Company: While the Primarchs sit on golden thrones!
Bashaw: They give us guns, they give us grit,
10th Company: And hope our boots don't melt in it!
Bashaw: The Emperor says to trust His will,
10th Company: So we charge that hill, then charge more hills!
Bashaw: They told us Mars would send support,
Bashaw: Instead, we got a half-burned fort!
Bashaw: We fight for Unity, we fight for Man,
10th Company: Just wish we knew the battle plan!
Ajax was left gobsmacked at the audacity of the troops. Even if this wasn't the modern timeline of 40k, that kind of talk might be seen the wrong way by some uptight generals. But he guessed soldiers were soldiers everywhere. They all lived life on the edge, so why worry about pissing off a general when a xenos monstrosity might gut you first?
Ajax had to jog to catch up with his troops, then fell in behind them — which gave him time to think and figure out what he should be doing next.
"Actually, I think I've been forgetting something. What was up with that Anathema Sys—"
And that thought caused a screen to pop up, hovering in front of his eyes:
[Welcome to the Anathema System]
[Now that your tantrum is over, here is the introduction you were supposed to have.]
[The Anathema System is a system designed by a mad god to develop a board flipper — a person to change the game, since the game has been rigged against humanity from the start.]
[Sometimes the System will issue quests to help humanity.]
[Through completing quests, making great contributions to humanity, and defeating Man's foes, you will be able to grow in power.]
[The System will mold itself to you.]
[The System is your only hope to escape the torturous loop of death and rebirth.]
[Only through victory will you be freed.]
[Failure will be punished harshly — and will grow with each failure. As you have seen already.]
'Well, fuck me sideways. At least one of my emotions is returning to normal — because my anxiety is definitely back.'