Project Nemisis was a low profile and highly secretive attempt by the Callidus Temple, at the behest of the Grand Master of the Officio Assassinorum, to improve their abilities. The idea was to create weapons of assassination and covert-operation that require no actual weapons to conduct their actions. The main premise was to have an assassin that could be placed in a situation where her body, even bound and gagged, was still the greatest weapon at her disposal. All the temples trained their warriors in every facet of hand-to-hand combat, but what the Grand Master wanted was an assassin capable of never raising a single hand against her target, never doing anything that could possible lead to the death of an individual, but still being able to kill them.

While the idea of developing psyhic assassins akin to the Culexus temple repulsed the Masters of the Callidus team they did develop their final goal from it. The Assassins of the honoured Cullexus Temple where capable of waging psychic attacks, their presence barely tolerated by the other temples. It was the mind of these assassins that was most treasured, for it was their source of death as the Emperor's blades of vengeace. What the Masters decided on was the transformation of a suitable subject into an assassin whose body was the source of the Emperor's vengeance. What they wanted was an assassin whose body was a deadly and finely honed weapon, and whose lips carried the Emperor's own "kiss of death".

Several test subjects were preselected for the project, dubbed Nemisis by the Masters. Located on a still classified moon somewhere within the Imperium the scientists from the Adeptus Mechanicus began their work. Working together Magos from the Biologis, Alchemys, and Metallurgis coordinated their efforts with the best and brightest of the Genetors to create what the Officio Assassinorum wanted. The team worked steadily for nearly a decade before developing the proper application method and genetic strings needed to create this type of assassin. Needless to say, many thousands of slaves were recruited as test subjects for the countless experiments before finally achieving the desired result.

Two dozen of the Callidus Temples' most successful assassins were volunteered into this project to receive the first of its hopefully successful desires. Of the two dozen only a handful severed the operation and did not reject the new organs and organisms introduced into their bodies. Of this handful only a few proved field-worthy following their recovery and full psycho indoctrination. During initial field trials of these applicants some died during the use of their new abilities and it was decided that until further volunteers could be implanted and nurtured the Callidus Temple was going to send them out in pairs, as a team. This particular method was unheard of within the temple and initially received numerous protests until it was made clear that the need for a team was for situations where the lead assassin should fail or die the backup would be available to finish the mission. Considering the relative sensitivity and obvious dire circumstances in which a Callidus assassin is introduced into a situation the chance of failure was unacceptable.

The project met with mixed success until the unfortunate accident on Latharsis (sub. ref. The Ironside Campaign) when the project was finally terminated until further review by the Officio Assassinorum. The decision was made by the Grand Master of the assassin temples, feeling that the risk that these types of assassins present to the Imperium as a whole being to great to justify their implementation. The moon that housed the research facility is currently under strict guard by guardsmen of the Officio Assassinorum, none being allowed to enter its depths until the Grand Master himself decrees it so.

Compiled by:
Adeptus Helia Nageris
In accordance with the Pax Imperius Schola