The Return of the Emperor

[Lord Insanity]

THE RETURN

 

 

It is the 41st millennium. For more than a hundred centuries, the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the Master of Mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium, for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die.

 

Yet even in his deathless vigil, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battle fleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor’s will. Vast armies give battle in His name on countless worlds. Greatest among his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and the ever-vigilant Inquisition, the Adeptus Mechanicus and countless Planetary Defence Forces. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from aliens, mutants, heretics - and worse.

 

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of such times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.

 

Close your eyes, and imagine yourself within…

 

PROLOGUE

 

Terra. One word, yet it encloses a great deal of things. Imagine a palace, stretching across half a continent and rising miles high. Going through a stained glass window and zooming through a multitude of walls, you see a massive hallway, a mile high, ten miles wide and a hundred miles long. The walls are covered with representations of glory, Primarchs and angels battling foul daemons with all their might, traitorous banners silently rotting at the bottom of this vast expanse. It is occasionally guarded and patrolled by soldiers in golden armour, the Custodes, warriors who guard the immortal Emperor. Cherubs wielding guns in atrophied hands flitter in the clouded reaches of the ceiling, ready to rain down death upon all intruders. One man walks through the corridor, beholding the looming Imperators above him, their cannons holding gigatons of quiescent fury, ready to unleash their wrath upon all who dare assault this most sacred place, the beating heart of the Imperium of Man.

 

The man’s steps loom heavy upon the consecrated stones of the floor, forming a grand mosaic of Marine slaying Marine, reliving the darkest days of the Imperium. The man, or superman, for Custodes he is, walks up to the golden gate, knocking on it once, as he has many times these ten thousand years. Upon the gate is depicted a massive bas-relief, of the Emperor striking down the traitor Horus, slaying him with a single blinding blow. The Emperor’s face is paramount, youthful, fresh, filled with the vigour of life, the halo around him accentuating the glory, unlike the slow-dying carcass the Custodes has often beheld far too many times. He knocks, again. The door opens, ands the Custodes beholds the full glory of the Golden Throne. It lies at the top of a dais rising miles above, made of pure gold and its top shining like the sun. Great crowds of vox-servitors surround it, only existing to endlessly sing hymns and praises, while immense clouds of cherubs, billions strong, fly above, singing psalms and hymns of purity and war, for the Imperium is a place that must do what it can to survive. The Custodes begins to climb the golden steps, aided by his superhuman speed and endurance, for he is something more than a mortal man.

 

Every step enhances his faith in the Emperor, for he has seen the Emperor in war, and he is no ordinary Custodes, if ‘ordinary’ can be said to say anything about those men, for his name is Konstantin Valdor, and he has seen the Emperor during the time of the Great Crusade, when he last walked amongst men.

 

Then, finally, he beholds the wondrous site - the air around it crackling with ozone as its arcane machineries perform their endless work. The Custodes, Valdor, sees his servants, the others, kneeling in reverence. Why are they all here? Is this not just a routine inspection?

 

He moves closer, then notices something. The Emperor has healed. Completely. As he moves closer, the aura grows too strong to resist, and he too kneels. Then the Emperor does something he has not done in ten millennia.

 

He begins to move.

+++Noctis Labyrinthus+++

 

‘What do you think we’re doing here?!’ Explorator Paleos shouted. ‘All my life’s work, and you collapse the tunnel!? Fool!’

 

‘Yes, master,’ Tech-Adept Gerardus said, quite matter-of-factly. ‘But those ruins were Necrontyr. If I hadn’t done that, we would be dead or worse by now.’

 

‘That is weakness, boy,’ Paleos declared proudly. ‘I have a full cohort of tech-guard at the other end, a demi-legion of Titans at my Forge, and access to the finest weapons ever produced on Mars. The Omnissiah shall vanquish any xenos-tech that assaults me, slaying their machine spirits and laying low their power sources. I am not afraid of these ‘Necrontyr’. Their empire has been laid low by the dust of aeons, and I do not fear their tech-heresies and blasphemies against the God of All Machines.’

 

‘At least vox the tech-guard and tell them to move in,’ Gerardus asked.

 

‘Alright then, young apprentice,’ Paleos said somewhat grudgingly.

 

He then picked up the vox unit.

 

‘Move in. Paleos out,’ he said, but there was no reply. ‘Move in, Paleos out I said! Move in, Paleos out! Move in, PALEOS OUT!

There was nothing but silence.

 

Suddenly, something came through the stone, its sinister elongation like a blasphemous parody of a human spinal cord. Atop its body lay a skull-like face, oddly elongated, but that was nothing compared to its hideous weapons. Scalpel-like blades ended its dual arms, and it moved above the ground with the silence of death as it descended upon Paleos.

 

‘No!’ Paleos shouted. ‘NO!’

 

He levelled the plasma pistol, firing it upon the unholy machine-beast, but the bolt of actinic brightness passed straight through, striking and exploding upon the rock wall. Then the thing struck, its scalpel-like fingers digging deep into Paleos’ chest, through armour and augmetics, lifting him up and flinging him lifeless upon the ground as his blood poured out in torrents. A thin trickle of blood ran out and pooled at the end of the tunnel.

 

The machine vanished back into the cavern wall, and Gerardus fled back, maddened with terror and seeking to flee before the Necrons found him. That day would not be long in coming.

[Lord Insanity]

CHAPTER 1

Tech-Praetor Gaius was tired of this. Magos Paleos had gone into the tunnel, and then simply vanished. He had been missing for twelve hours of Terran time, and it had began to itch upon his subconscious, a sign that things were not right. Then a survivor had come out, clearly maddened, ranting about the horrible death of Paleos and how the agents of his death had come out of nowhere. To Gaius that meant one thing - Xenos. How could the most terrible enemies of the Omnissiah-as-Flesh be present here on Mars? It was an insult to the Machine God that they even existed, and yet they lurked on His most holy place?

 

Gaius had fought in wars beyond number, and his mind was highly honed and capable, even without augmetic enhancements. He idly placated the machine-spirit of his hellgun, but was worried about attack. He had heard of and fought many enemies, but not the one the now-insane Gerardus had described. An enemy able to move through walls, able to appear in instants? This was most likely a deluded fantasy, he thought, as he checked on the other members of the squad. Constantinus, Alexius, Andronicus, Romanus, and Julian. His men, the ones he trusted with his life and whom he trusted with his.

 

He checked the auspex idly, then noticed something. A red contact. Then more appeared, all around the sacred Forge. The lights darkened, and Gaius noticed that red contacts had appeared around the plasma generators. The boom of a massive explosion rocked the Forge, and Gaius was thrown off his feet.

 

He barely even saw his doom approaching, a mechanical spider that floated towards him. He saw his squad firing on it in futility, then cold steel piercing his lungs and a sensation of being lifted, then only blackness and death.

 

+++The Seat of the High Lords+++

 

The High Lords sat at their council table, somewhat tired of this particularly meeting, which had been going on for well over a day.

 

Thus they were somewhat surprised when a Necron Lord appeared in their chamber, the power of his (or perhaps, its) blazing green eyes forcing them to cower.

+++YOUR DOOM SPEAKS NOW+++ It canted, speaking in a calm monotone throughout. +++THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF ALL LIFE’S END+++ +++YOU WILL ALL DIE, AS THE DRAGON WILLS+++

 

‘No, please, please spare us!’ the Eclessiarch said, terrified and out of his mind.

+++NONE SHALL BE SPARED+++

 

Then the Immortals teleported in, and the killing truly began.

+++The Golden Throne+++

Konstantin could only kneel in reverence towards the figure that stood before him, the Emperor himself. It was such a blessing…

 

‘There is work to be done,’ the Emperor said. ‘The Imperium needs to be rebuilt, on the blood of men if need be. The science of old must be rediscovered. Everything must change. The Eclessiarchy must cease its religion, the cults must be exterminated, and the Imperial Truth must again rule. You will be part of that, Valdor. But there are more pressing issues right now.’

 

As if on cue, the Dragon appeared above, its vast wings of shining metal miles wide, its maw terrifyingly wide, as if threatening to devour the entire Imperial Palace.

 

‘So we meet again, Emperor,’ the Dragon said, in a high-pitched, terrible voice. ‘Your soul shall be devoured, and I shall relish its taste.’

 

‘I unleashed but a thousandth of my power back in Libya, xenos, and I have grown stronger and more terrible since then. The C’tan shall fall beneath my might, as must all others,’ the Emperor said, calmly and without a trace of fear.

 

Then he raised his sword to meet with the Dragon’s body, using it to unleash a potent blast containing the raw energy of the Warp itself. For an instant his eyes shone brighter than the sun as the blast of energy struck true, piercing the necrodermis, infecting the Dragon with the unstoppable power of the Warp and utterly destroying the energies that made it up. The necrodermis crumbled to dust, raining down on the Emperor and his cohorts as fine ash.

++++Outskirts of the Palace+++

 

The PDF troopers were fighting a losing battle against the Necron tide, vanishing in the green flare of Gauss weapons or being ripped apart by intangible wraiths. That was when the Custodes arrived, protected by some intangible aura, the roar of their boltguns giving back hope where none had seemed possible. Necrons fell in the hundreds before them, cutting a swathe through the unholy abominations like never before. And there was one who was always at the forefront of the charge, hacking effortlessly through eldritch force-fields and armoured carapace, screaming defiance as he fought, fighting alone yet always the victor. The sound of orbital bombardment was heard and great, unholy machine-monstrosities fell, the defenders of Terra fighting with renewed vigour and courage. They felt no fear as they fired, merely courage and, almost impossibly, hope.

 

The same could not be said for Mars, where great fleets were massing against each other, the flares of orbital weapon batteries illuminating the sky. The battle on the ground was desperate, the spirits of the soldiers low.

 

But that battle would come in time. For now the war in space was the most important happening in the system.

+++Between Mars and Terra+++

 

The Phalanx was fighting the Necron menace, hoping against hope for reinforcements. The forces on Terra were seemingly winning for no explicable reason, but the battle was still being fought, and the Necron ships must not be allowed to reach humanity’s cradle.

 

‘The Emperor is with us,’ a voice, most likely from the Custodes said. ‘And we are winning the battle.’

 

‘Is it so?’ the Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists said.

 

‘Yes, indeed,’ voxed the Custodes. ‘He has returned.’

 

The Chapter Master literally could not convey the shock and astonishment at those words.

 

‘Fight on with the Emperor’s fury!’ he roared. ‘For we must succeed! For Him on Earth!’

 

‘For Him on Earth!’ the Marines returned, shouting enthusiastically.

 

The Necron ship attacked the Phalanx, taking heavy weapons fire, but crippling the ship’s warp jump generators. The Phalanx could not escape, and would need to be repaired before she could leave the system, the Necron ship driving on suicidal through the blizzard of fire, but merely taking light damage. But at that very moment, reinforcements arrived, the Mars (rather ironically)-class Battleship Pegasus, and the rest of Battlefleet Solar.

Captain Horatius Kane looked anxiously at the augers, which showed the Necron ship. It was a big one, a Cairn-class by his reckoning, and it looked like it could take his biggest guns and torpedoes. That left one option.

 

‘Ram!’ he ordered, the deck-hands rushing to obey his order.

 

If the tomb-ship knew what its enemy thought, it gave no sign, firing on the Phalanx, its lightning arcs faltering against her newly-recharged void-shields. Then, the Pegasus struck, ripping right through the superstructure of the ship and tearing it apart, emerging on the other side unharmed.

 

‘Is the Emperor with you?’ he voxed the Phalanx.

 

‘He already is,’ came the reply.

[Lord Insanity]

CHAPTER 2

+++Macragge+++

 

The chamber in which the Primarch sat was made of adamantine and ferro-plas, and it was said that nothing could breach its walls. So, when the Word Bearers again assaulted Macragge, it was Gulliman that they planned to slay. Here the Primarch sat on an elaborate, protected by stasis-fields and other arcane technologies that kept him impossibly alive. Eliphas the Inheritor planned to end that soon. After all, was he not the Inheritor of Lorgar? And what blacker deed could be than slaying a Primarch?

 

After his defeat on Kronus, the accursed planet upon which he had almost died, Eliphas was in no need for more delays. And so he had reached the Chapter's heart, sending cultist mobs to slow down the Ultramarines as his men teleported in. He almost laughed as he stamped on the stasis-field generators, preparing to watch as Gulliman died a slow, painful death.

 

He was completely surprised and unprepared when the Primarch rose and attacked him. He desperately fired a few shots from his melta-pistol, but Gulliman was the quicker and charged him, impaling him on the blade that he carried. Eliphas’ last words were a painful, agony-filled scream as he died, knowing what death would mean for him, a failure to the Gods of Chaos.

 

Gulliman looked around him. The traitor was dead, and so were more than a few ultramarines. The Fortress of Hera’s defence was their greatest priority - destroying the Word Bearers was later. He was quite shocked to see an Ultramarine, clad in the Gauntlets of Ultramar, who looked amazed by his return.

 

‘Gulliman has returned!’ the Ultramarine shouted.

 

‘Gulliman has returned!’ cries came out, the roars of a thousand men, or perhaps supermen, for they were Space Marines to a man. With Gulliman at their side they drove back the Word Bearers, cries of victory on their lips as they hacked them down and slaughtered them to a man. Within hours, Eliphas the Inheritor’s horde was driven back and utterly annihilated.

 

 

The Chapter would enshrine this day forever.

+++Somewhere on the Eastern Fringe+++

 

Shas’o Kais was terrified. It hadn’t just his capture by the gue‘la, who had literally crushed the Tau into the dirt, annihilating their army effortlessly. It wasn’t just the fact that his ethereal, the one he had been tasked to protect, had been cut down by sniper rifles before they even knew a battle was happening. It wasn’t just the way he was strapped down to the table, like he was going to be dissected. He was actually, honest-to-god, terrified. And these creatures were the ones he was terrified of. They loomed over him like daemons from a darker age, an age that the Tau would end. After all, hadn’t they killed Slaanesh? There were two of them, one at each side of the table he was strapped on. They had pale skin and black hair, blue eyes looking at him as if he was an insect. They wore heavily-plated power armour, elaborate and showing their status as the leaders of the gue’la maniacs who had slaughtered his army without taking a single wound. The gue’la had called this planet Stahlenburg, but had seemed unaware of these maniacs beneath their feet.

 

‘Good, good,’ they said, as one. ‘You are showing fear of us, little Tau. You are showing fear because you know that you are in my domain. Your little force was threatening to conquer my planet. For the greater good, you said. But what evil cannot be performed “for the greater good”? I have experienced that myself. I have decided that the galaxy is best under my dominion, and that will start with your little empire. A new order will arise, and the galaxy will weep bitter tears under my dominion.’

 

‘Your names?’ Kais asked.

 

‘Alpharius and Omegon,’ they said, as one being.

 

They then walked away.

 

+++Cadia+++

The Cadian Gate was still under Abaddon’s assault, the Chaos-touched Space Marines having a sizable foothold on the planet. Unaware of the Emperor’s return, the Guard were fighting and dying in massive numbers, charging Iron Warrior-held fortifications with bravery and enthusiasm matched only by the casualties they took. The Chaotic hordes threatened to wipe them out, and still they stood, dying to the last.

 

After all, was that not the role of the Imperial Guard? To die standing was their role, and they gladly did it. But soon this would change, as the Iron Guard of Mordian charged the enemy once again, hoping against hope to be victorious against the innumerable hordes.

 

But that was when they saw Leman Russ, the giant fighting his way through the Chaos hordes, laughing as he did so, smiting back daemon-machines and slaying engines of doom. His sword was immense, the huge blade hacking effortlessly through Space Marines and traitorous Guard, slaying them, ripping and biting at them with claws harder than steel.

 

‘THE WOLFTIME HAS COME!’ he roared as he charged the Chaos fortifications, preparing to kill them all.

+++Noctis+++

The dark world of Noctis orbited its sun, trapped in perpetual night, and that was exactly the way Konrad Curze liked it. The dark energies that blocked it out were terrible to behold, and none could enter or leave without the use of teleportation. He was free to wreak the most terrible murders he could imagine, plot them out, terrifying his victims first before ending their pathetic lives. He had changed greatly since his encounter with M'shen.

 

Batlike wings carried him through the air, and iron-hard talons gave him the satisfaction of ripping and tearing and killing for no reason other than to kill. Fangs lined his mouth, vicious and predatory, ideally suited for the drinking of blood. Unholy auras protected him from harm, and he laughed as he killed, for violence was the greatest thing he could do.

 

But now he heard the psychic signal, the rebirth of the Emperor rushing through his mind, telling him exactly what to do. Kill the Emperor, for the Chaos Gods. And he intended to do just that.

[Lord Insanity]

CHAPTER 3

 

+++Craftworld Iyanden+++

 

The paths of fate changed. The event was a shock to Ulth’nashai, one of Iyanden’s Farseers, but that was not a major issue. Paths of fate changed as a result of every action, but this change was major, no, immense. The shock rippled through her senses, filling her with a feeling of profound coldness. The mon’keigh Emperor had been revived. As she realised what had happened, she immediately went to the task of changing the future, turning it into one favourable to the Eldar. The runes danced around her, glittering in the air like a miniature solar system floating around a central point. Their presence was baffling to for even the Eldar to try and read, but Ulth’nashai had mastered her art. Paths of fate danced at the edge of her vision, the runes glowing with infinite power.

 

She tried to read them, but they were unimaginably distorted by the Emperor’s presence, a psychic being that outshone even the greatest of the Eldar’s Farseers, greater even than Eldrad himself. Ulth’nashai would have been shocked if another had said it to her, but it was clearly the truth. So, she focused on one specific path, and saw what that meant. Two empires, one old, one young, fighting for the same galaxy, with the Eldar in the middle. She did not like that. Then, a galaxy dominated by Chaos. That could not be allowed. Finally, she saw the last. It seemed the most beneficial, but it needed to be forced into being.

 

The Eldar were going to war.

 

 

+++Alpha Legion Headquarters+++

Alpharius looked at the hololith, noting the deployment of Alpha Legion forces throughout the galaxy. Every deployment, every squad, company and chapter, was noted, all heading for the Eastern Fringe. Heretical uprisings were spreading there, and his agents were causing unrest in the Tau Empire. The Tau Empire would be the starting point, once it was conquered, and then the Eastern Fringe would fall. Alpharius had plans, grand plans for the Tau. He had let them reach this far so that he would have a good starting position once he subverted their race. He had already given Commander Farsight a daemon-weapon to secure his loyalty, on the barren world of Arthas Moloch. He had even brainwashed a few ethereals, giving life-prolonging treatments so that they remained loyal.

 

The foolish Tau thought that this was due to the ‘manifest destiny’ of their race, but it was all Alpharius’ plan for them, to make them into his willing servants before he conquered the Eastern Fringe.

 

Faking his death at Ultramar had been pathetically easy compared to subverting the Tau, and it had soon paid off, with Tau technology being soon added to the Alpha Legion’s massive arsenal. He had kept this grand arsenal secret from all others, and it was increasing by the day.

 

Soon the Tau and the Imperium would be united, and the Emperor’s true vision would soon reach all.

+++The (former) Seat of the High Lords+++

‘Mars remains to conquer,’ the Emperor said. ‘We have destroyed the Necron tombs below through orbital bombardment, but there are still many Necrons left to face. And the Adeptus Mechanicus must be informed of my return.’

 

‘Easier said than done,’ Horatius Kane said, pointing to a scar above his eye. ‘I’ve faced Necrons before, and they’re insanely hard to defeat. Most of the victories you win against them are pyrrhic. I’ve informed the Astartes, but they’ll take a while to arrive.’

 

‘Yes,’ said Vladimir Pugh, Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists. ‘We have received word that Leman Russ was sighted on Cadia, and Gulliman on Macragge. It looks like the Primarchs are returning as well.’

 

‘Good,’ said the Emperor. ‘I will give my sons command of their respective Chapters. However, the Inquisition must be purged. There are some that consort with daemons, that use unholy weapons, and other such crimes. there are some who are even more corrupt, They must be removed.’

 

‘Of course,’ Inquisitor Lord Carolus said, ‘I will inform the Inquisition of your return immediately.’

 

‘And of course, there is the transition back to the Imperial Truth,’ the Emperor said. ‘The Eclessiarchy must slowly lose its power, and the Chambers Militant must come under my direct control.’

 

There was a long silence at that point.

 

‘And there is the matter of the Imperium’s enemies,’ the Emperor continued. ‘the Tyranids are the most pressing threat, followed by the Necrons. We can barricade the Cadian Gate indefinitely, but the Tyranids seek only to consume us and the Necrons seek only to kill. They cannot be defended against indefinitely, we must take the fight to them.’

 

‘Agreed,’ said the others in unison.

 

+++Mars+++

 

Tech-Guard Julianus shivered in the bunker. They were fighting a losing battle against the Necrons, despite the orbital support and the Titan Legions defending the forge. Necrons were being cut down by multilasers as soon as they arrived, but the aura of fear was palpable. The desert wastes that divided the Forges were the territory of the Necrons, who were overwhelming all resistance and had already destroyed six Forges, killing billions already.

 

Suddenly he heard a noise that sounded like a meteorite cluster falling. Drop pods most likely, carrying Space Marines. But they would most likely be killed like everybody else.

The Custodes and Space Marines advanced under the protection of the Emperor, cutting a swathe through the unholy machines. The entire Imperial Fists and Grey Knights Chapters had been deployed, as well as the Custodes and six regiments of Guardsmen, preparing to exterminate the xenos scum that threatened Mars. The Grey Knights unleashed their psychic powers, while the Space Marines poured in Bolter fire and the Custodes protected the Emperor. It was a deadly combination. Gauss beams faded away before they reached those protected by the Emperor, wraiths were forced into tangibility, as Necrons crumbled to dust or were ripped apart by telekinesis.

 

Shining flames struck down Monoliths and Obelisks, as orbital firepower rent apart Abattoirs and Aeonic Orbs. Before long, piles of dead Necrons began to litter the battlefield, the tombs destroyed and the phalanxes unable to phase out. The tech-guard advanced once more into the fray, aided by the Emperor’s protection, praises to the Omnissiah on their lips as they fired their hellguns on the hideous tech-heresies that were the Necrons. By the day’s end, millions of Necrons had fallen, and Mars was safe once more.

 

+++The Temple of All Knowledge+++

 

Fabricator General Archaeos sat on his mechanical tech-throne, looking calmly at the Emperor, who was standing before him. Three-quarters of Archaeos’ body had been replaced with the holy machine, and as he processed the data that the noosphere gave him he came to his decision: this was not an impostor. As he had not been on Terra when the High Lords were slaughtered, he was the only survivor of that group, and thus the only person other than the Emperor who could claim the Imperium as his domain. He had chosen not to, fearing civil war, and had welcomed the Emperor with open arms onto Mars, seeing clearly that he had saved the planet from annihilation at the hands of the Necrons.

 

Now he was going to bring the Adeptus Mechanicus into a new age, a new golden age of technology. He knew this was going to happen - the wrecks of the Necron ships could be studied, their Gauss weapons analysed, and the Imperium transformed. Inertialess drive alone would give them a much greater advantage, and allow them to develop greater things.

 

The Tyranids would not be as great a threat, ships could arrive much quicker, astropathic messages would not be necessary, and everything would be transformed. As long as the technology was imbued with the holy machine-spirit everything would be fine.

 

That was what the Emperor assured him, and Archaeos knew that to be right. As for the others, none dared to doubt the Emperor’s word.

[Lord Insanity]

CHAPTER 4

 

+++Alpha Legion Headquarters+++

 

Alpharius prepared for war. The Eldar had come here, planning on destroying his headquarters, and that meant that he would have to deploy the Hydra Guard, his elite forces. The battle would be good practise for the Guard, who had not fought in ten millennia. And the Eldar would be effortlessly crushed. He had brainwashed Shas’o Kais to serve him, and his Tau forces would aid in the battle. The Eldar would be trapped between the two and easily wiped out.

 

He reconsidered his strategy, and judged it to be sound. The Empire of Alpharius would be born here, on this deserted world. From its humble beginnings, it would shake the stars themselves. The hololith changed to a view of the battlefield he had planned, and he put on his helmet, planning to mercilessly wipe them out. At the end of the day, Stahlenburg would be his.

 

+++Surface of Stahlenburg+++

 

Ulth’nashai shuddered as she detected the paths of fate spinning beyond her control to see or manipulate. This battle was a pivotal event, she knew, but what would be the result if she failed?

 

Before long she knew, the sound of pulse rifles bursting out as the Tau assaulted her position, the upstarts attempting to slay her. Shuriken bounced off their armour, as the Tau came on them, firing calmly and methodically destroying her army.

 

She unleashed a bolt of lightning at them, annihilating four fire warriors in a hurricane of cataclysmic energies. This was met by the Kroot warriors pouring over the guardians, ripping them to pieces and feeding on the raw meat. What was happening? Why was something…she felt a power sword in her gut, and realised her focus on the Tau had blinded her to the Alpha Legion. Then she realised that she was facing not just an Alpha Legionnaire, but Alpharius himself.

 

That realisation lasted just moments before Alpharius removed her head, then ducking a strike from the Wailing Doom of the Avatar of Khaine, Alpharius blocked the next strike with his power sword, then counter-struck, stabbing the Avatar in the leg. A krak missile then struck the Avatar, removing an arm and badly wounding it.

 

Alpharius climbed up on the thing’s molten body, then decapitated the Avatar with a single blow, watching as its lifeless body stumbled and collapsed.

 

Before long the Tau would leave this planet, and Shas’o Kais would be hailed as a hero. Before long the entire Tau Empire would be subverted. And before long, Alpharius would reign.

 

 

+++The Planet Killer+++

 

Abaddon the Despoiler was tired of this. The Black Crusade had failed, due to the incompetence of his subordinates. They had claimed a Primarch had appeared - Abaddon had claimed their skulls for his throne. And now the Chaos Gods were angry at him. Fools, all fools. But now he was prepared in a ritual to summon a Horror of Tzeentch, so that he would know what was happening. The chanting continued, Abaddon watching on as the ritual came to a close. The Chaos Sorcerer, Zaraphiston, took a newborn child, stabbing the dagger into its heart and letting it fill the sacrificial pit. More blood came out than seemed possible, as the Horror of Tzeentch appeared out of the tide of gore.

 

‘Many-many things change,’ it said. ‘Emperor returns. You fail, Abaddon. You always fail. And so, you shall die.’

 

At that very moment a sword struck Zaraphiston in the back, sending him toppling into the pit, where he was eagerly devoured by the daemon. Guards and acolytes died around him faster than seemed possible. Finally, Abaddon was left. Then he felt metal enter his spine, and a feeling of numbness overcame him as he lost the ability to move and fell down.

 

A figure stood over him. His skin was deathly pale, and he had black hair. A billowing cloak that was impossibly dark flowed behind him, and he wore Astartes armour of the Raven Guard. A Space Marine? No, he was too tall, he had to be some kind of hallucination sent to torment him…

 

It was then that he noticed the explosive charges placed on one of the airlocks.

 

‘Nevermore,’ the figure said, before walking away from Abaddon‘s sight.

 

Then the explosives detonated, and Abaddon was sent screaming helplessly into the void.

+++Terra+++

 

Many masons and architects were working to repair the damage caused by the Necron attack, and the Emperor was proud to see them working. Not so much many other things.

 

PDF troopers and Custodes eagerly patrolled the Palace Grounds, the Emperor overlooking the activity like a king overseeing a military drill. Not that the Emperor was that different from a king.

 

Over on Mars the Inertialess drives were being analysed, as the Fabricator General knew that those were by far the most important developments. The revelation of the Emperor’s return was being kept carefully secret from the common populace, but rumours were being spread that He would soon return. The Inquisition was being purged, and the Emperor was checking on the development of the Imperium. Cadia had been secured, the Chaos forces driven off, but the Emperor knew that this was only the calm before the storm.

 

A storm that must end soon.

[Lord Insanity]

CHAPTER 5

+++T’au, six months later+++

Alpharius had crushed the Tau, and the newborn Empire of Alpharius looked to be a ready player on the galactic stage. Now he sat on his throne in the Imperial Palace as the newly-crowned Grand Dictator. Another day had come on T’au, and Alpharius had grand plans for the newly created Empire. As his first act, he had conquered the obscure world of Gravalax, and had set its population to work creating engines of war that would surpass the Imperium’s greatest designs.

 

Such a role, as leader of a nation, was refreshing to him, after ten thousand years of skulking in the shadows. How the Eclessiarchy had reacted when he showed them the Imperial Truth! Now that had been a sight to see, a deacon forced to swallow his pride and to accept the Imperial Truth as valid. How the people had reacted when he offered them a way out of the meaningless toil and drudgery that they had suffered under the Imperium of Man! They had praised his name!

 

Heretical uprisings and defections were happening throughout the Eastern fringe, all according to Alpharius’ design. Soon his Empire would be able to challenge the Imperium. Soon it would rise into a great grandeur inconceivable by his enemies. He laughed again, a loud laugh. His ‘twin’ Omegon was his general, but none knew what he really was - a body of Alpharius. For Alpharius had two bodies and one soul.

 

This was his greatest secret, the great secret of the Alpha Legion. As his pod had gone through the Warp, the foetus within split into two, but the soul did not divide.

 

Alpharius silently chuckled as he took the wine he was offered by a servant, draining the goblet in a single gulp. This was fun.

 

+++The Eye of Terror+++

 

After Abaddon’s death, the Black Legion had fractured, scattered into various warbands. It was then that the Warlord known as Apollyon Darkstorm had grown to prominence, reuniting the scattered Legion and preparing for a 14th Black Crusade. Apollyon now ruled the Black Legion from the Planet Killer, and was preparing to assault Cadia itself, when it was still weak from the slaughter Abaddon had wreaked upon it.

 

Soon, so many would die, but Apollyon did not care, for they were nothing to him.

 

Now he sat on his command throne, at the bridge of the Planet Killer. He had proven himself to be strong, now he would crush Cadia.

+++Cadia+++

 

The people of Cadia were completely unprepared for a fleet of Black Legion ships arriving, then sending drop pods down to assault. They had barely had time to lick their wounds when the Black Legion attacked, bombarding their cities from orbit and sending waves of traitor Guardsmen down to assault. They were easily driven back, wiped out to a man as they charged the trenches suicidally, fighting to the last and continuing to charge even as they were cut down.

 

Thousands died in the landings, but Apollyon commanded millions and the Chaos Space Marines had yet to arrive.

 

‘Golden Throne,’ Trooper Smirnoff muttered. The traitor Guard were pouring on their position, thousands at a time, and nothing seemed to stem the tide. He fired his lasgun on the enemy, taking one, chunks of flesh blowing off his body as his blood exploded. He fell, face down in the mud, and Smirnoff vowed to live through this. He was a firstborn son of Vostroya, of the 234th and he’d be damned if he didn’t survive this. He fired his lasgun on full auto, taking out more than a few traitors, but they just kept coming, and then he had run out of power and before he could reload, they were on him. A bayonet reached his heart, stabbing through carapace and flak, and everything felt cold. A moment later he lost consciousness, even as the traitors cut off his head to display on their banners.

 

Commissar Tebrius stood, firing his laspistol at the traitors, preparing to receive fire. A moment later a drop pod struck behind him, unloading its cargo of Chaos Space Marines onto Cadia.

 

‘Blood for the blood god!’ one roared, turning to face him.

 

‘You will DIE!’ Tebrius roared, just as the traitor decapitated him.

 

‘Skulls for the skull throne!’ the Marine roared again.

 

Cadia was in the balance.

[Lord Insanity]

CHAPTER 6

+++Sol System+++

 

Commodore Horatius Kane sat on the command throne of the Pegasus. She had recently been fitted with an Inertialess drive and a power generator reverse-engineered from Necron technology, and he was eager to try her out. He calmly let the mechano-tendrils that linked him to the ship’s Machine Spirit, and didn’t find her too unhappy at the changes that had occurred.

 

‘Set course for Cadia,’ he ordered, and the deck-hands punched in the Sigils of Activation. It took just an instant for the Inertialess drive to come to life, and nought but a blink of an eye for it to reach Cadia.

 

The Pegasus and the fleet surrounding her attacked the Chaos fleet, driving into her like a dagger, like a dart of pure vengeance. The Galactica and the Stiletto struck with her, forming the heart of the deadly formation. Chaos ships were blown apart all around her, her lances striking out with inconceivable power, detonating ships that went up in immense fireballs. Kane grinned - the upgrades had proven their worth. Shield power was up by 200 percent, and the lances by 150 percent.

 

Every shot sent a hell-damned ship into oblivion, but the Chaos fleet was much larger and slowly but surely the shields were wearing down. Finally, the Planet Killer went into view, a vast, immense ship a hundred miles long. Apollyon was taking no chances.

 

‘Ram her!’ Horatius ordered, as the ship rapidly accelerated.

 

Apollyon Darkstorm could see the enemy ship trying to ram his. In fact, he had planned and prepared for that very eventuality.

 

‘Tchar’zanek, prepare the teleporter,’ he ordered.

 

‘Yess, Lord,’ the sorcerer, devoted to Tzeentch, said. In an instant blinding, insane runes formed in the floor, and in a blinding flash Apollyon, Tchar’zanek, and his Chosen were gone. A moment later the Pegasus crashed through the Planet Killer, destroying it utterly.

 

Horatius Kane had to admit, he wasn’t sure if that trick would have worked a second time. But now the Chaos fleet seemed to be retreating, and that just left the task of mopping up.

+++Cadia+++

The fighting on the ground had reached a climax of slaughter. Millions had died for no gain on either side, and the fields were slick with blood. Cities had been reduced to burnt-out rubble, then fought over till nothing was left but a field of craters. Death tolls that would have taken years on some worlds had taken only days to rise to their great heights. Daemons stalked the land, and everywhere was filled with woe.

 

The battle in space had ended, but the death toll reached in the billions, millions upon millions dead. To the Imperium these were but statistics, but to the Emperor, these were human lives being wasted.

 

And then it had stopped. Apollyon had returned to the Eye to plot and scheme, and the Emperor had finally made his presence known. The tides of anarchy and war had finally stopped for the time being, and the Emperor remembered some poetry from his early years on Terra:

 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned…

[Lord Insanity]

CHAPTER 7

+++The Webway+++

Jaghatai Khan had hunted the Dark Eldar through the Webway for ten millennia, and at last he had found their lair, discovering the horror, the blasphemy that was Commoragh. Then he had felt the psychic signal of his father, calling him to Cadia. Back to his Father. It was amazing, but could it be a trap? What did it mean?

 

Ahriman was tired of these events, and was wandering through the Webway when he saw his doom approaching. A vast jetbike, zooming through the Webway towards him. The thing had to be destroyed, Ahriman knew that for sure. He sent a flash of psychic energies from his black staff, but all he succeeded in was getting the enemy’s attention. Which now, with hindsight, he saw had not been a good idea.

 

The blade of Jaghatai Khan sliced through all of Ahriman’s wards and defences, hacking through his armour and slaying him with pathetic ease, destroying him body and soul. For most Eldar Farseers, this just added to the confusion they had been feeling for the last six months, as the strands of fate twisted and tangled and prevented them from seeing more than a minute into the future at a time.

 

It was like, out of nowhere, the forest containing the butterfly had been atomised by a nuclear bomb, then the whole planet had blown up for no explicable reason.

 

That was how it felt for Tzeentch.

+++The Rock+++

 

Interrogator-Chaplain Asmodai was getting tired of this. First the Emperor had returned, then the Primarchs, then the 14th Black Crusade had assaulted (a war the Dark Angels had taken heavy casualties in) and finally he was back in the Rock, having found no Fallen at all to interrogate, not even the mysterious Cypher. It was really frustrating him.

 

That was when the red alert sign had come up, warning of a security breach. He rushed down, terrified of what it might be, expecting to see the corpses of his brother-Marines broken and twisted on the floor.

 

That was not what he saw.

 

The level was completely empty, with one exception. The bodies of the Watchers in the Dark. He moved further on, looking anxiously at the walls, expecting to see a Chaos-spawned mutant or an insane arch-heretic. He checked the cells of the Fallen, seeing that the Fallen had apparently been killed by someone capable of snapping a Marine’s arms like they were twigs.

 

And then he saw Lion el’Johnson. The powerfully-built Primarch loomed over the Space Marine, his blue eyes seeming to pierce his very soul. His blond hair framed his handsome face, and he was clad in the armour of a Primarch, not a mere Marine.

‘Tell the Dark Angels I lead the Chapter now,’ he said, calmly and laconically.

 

+++Blood Angels Fortress-Monastery+++

 

The beautiful façade of the Blood Angels Fortress-Monastery hid a great and wondrous thing. The body of Sanguinius himself, preserved in a glass casket, lay at the entrance lobby, and pilgrims came from all over the galaxy to see it. But little did they know that life was returning within that broken body.

 

The Blood Angels Primarch had not died, merely had his soul immeasurably damaged, such that he had remained in a death-like state for ten thousand years. But that coma would soon end, and the Angel would fly once more. Already his broken body was beginning to heal, the many wounds slowly closing up and the broken bones fixing themselves.

 

The pilgrims and the sanguinary priests did not see what was happening, that the noble spark of life was shining once more. They were hidebound to their own beliefs, and soon, they would pay for that.

 

He was returning to consciousness, and soon, the Blood Angels would have their glory days again.

[13skullz]

OH MY GOD... shouldn't say that as I'm Atheist but oh well... I LOVE THIS STORY!

I really like the idea of the Emperoro coming back and the primarchs and...!

Yah.

 

-Skullz

[Border Prince]

I really, really like it, I look forward to the next chapter.

 

FOR RUSS AND THE ALLFATHER!!!

[Lord Insanity]

I really, really like it, I look forward to the next chapter.

 

FOR RUSS AND THE ALLFATHER!!!

 

Next chapter should come soon.

[Mr. Bleak]

This is amazing! It is by far the best I've read on this entire site! I like Alpharius the best-but hey, Iplay Alpha Legion, I'm biased. Can't wait for the next chapter!!!

[alexwars1]

THIS. IS. SO. COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

 

 

MOAR NAOW!!

[Terminatorinhell]

frakking awesome, exactly as epic i had imagined it as, the necrons are dead and the Alpharius leading the Tau is a cool twist too (is alpharius now loyalist?)

[13skullz]

Well, to be perfectly honest, TIH, Alpharius/Omegon was ALWAYS loyal, and makes more sense if you read Apha Legion... Or whatever it is called... It sheds a WHOLE LOTTA HERESY LIGHTY GOODNESS ON THE SUBJECT!

[Cage304]

Wow! This is insanely cool. I can't wait to read the next chapter.

[Pulse]

Although the writing is fast paced, bouncing around from subject to subject, i actually really like this. It has an urgency to it that really appeals to me. Great work. :)

[Sgt Rafen]

Really fast paced, very enjoyable, and yay sanguinous is coming back!

 

I really enjoyed it and cant wait for the next chapter ;)

[Terminatorinhell]

hmmm what if you included Ryo :lol:

[Skirax]

Aw CHRIST! I wish I had had this idea! *slaps Lord Insanity for creating by far the best idea on this forum, then not finishing it!*

[Argon]

Due, that's epic. Not glad to see Corax killing Abbadon or Khan killing Ahriman so easily, but whatever.

 

Also kinda sad to see Guilliman kill Eliphas. Especially considering he was the only competant Chaos Lord to grace a Dawn of War game so far B) :lol: .

 

I also like how Alpharius is using the T'au. That really does sound like something he'd do.

[Dorns Padawan]

Very very cleverly written!!! Love every chapter! How long had that taken you to think of and write? Can we look forward to any more future chapters??????? :)

[Lord Insanity]

Very very cleverly written!!! Love every chapter! How long had that taken you to think of and write? Can we look forward to any more future chapters??????? :lol:

 

You can, once I get past my current writer's block.

[Lord Insanity]

CHAPTER 9

 

+++The Eye of Terror+++

 

Apollyon Darkstorm sat on his obsidian throne, beholding his Chosen. There were Tabris the Black, the Terror of Evangelos, Tchar’zanek the Cunning, Menkhar the Slaughterer, and Pandemius, the Herald of Despair.

 

Tabris the Black was an albino, rather ironically, his long white hair and glowing red eyes perfectly accentuating the paleness of his handsome face and the white of his exquisite fangs. In his hands was a Power sword, and in the other was what he called the Extractor, a device that could drain the fluids of his victims and transform them into potent combat drugs. His Power armour was mirrored, reflecting his face, and on Gamma Evangelos, he had slaughtered billions in his torture-camps, laughing maniacally as they suffered excruciating pain. He was Slaaneshi to the core.

 

Tchar’zanek the Cunning was every bit as canny as his title said. A potent psyker and sorcerer, he was the only one of the Chosen to have served Apollyon from the beginning. He wielded a force-sword wrought out of a strange blue crystal, and had a staff as a symbol of office. On Xenla V he had had the entire planet devoured by a Warp rift, damning countless billions to a never-ending hell in Tzeentch’s labyrinth. He served Tzeentch.

 

Menkhar the Slaughterer was an immense Berzerker, towering over even other Space Marines. His daemon-axe howled as it hacked through flesh, and whined when left unsated. He had massacred whole companies of Imperial Guard without breaking a sweat on Desedate III. His armour was red, black and brass, and he wore a collar in imitation of his lord. He was undoubtedly Khornate.

 

Pandemius was disgustingly obese, his guts dripping out of his armour, his skin stretched over his head, giving him a skeletal appearance. Phlegm dripped constantly from his mouth, pouring in a never-ending tide of filth, and his armour was cracked and torn in several places, revealing his sickening body. Every disease known to man and some unknown resided in his filth-ridden body. And yet he delighted in it, for he had the Manreaper, the sign of Grandfather Nurgle’s pleasure.

 

Around these four were Cynamus Vexian, Apollyon’s new fleetmaster, Forgelord Neron of the Dark Mechanicus, the Obliterator-Lord Faustian, and Vexius Hyr, a traitorous general of the Imperial Guard.

 

Apollyon stood at the centre, on a throne of polished obsidian. Drach’nyen was carried on his scabbard, and he wielded the Talon of Horus.

 

None dared question his authority.

 

‘Ssso, we distract them…then strike at Cadia?’ Tchar’zanek asked.

 

‘Yes, dullards,’ Apollyon replied. ‘The Black Crusade is not over yet. Lucius is stirring trouble at Medusa V, Khârn is rampaging on Nemesis Tessera. Ahriman is dead, and Typhus is out of contact. That will prove an ample distraction.’

 

‘Yess…yess,’ Tchar’zanek muttered, none noticing.

 

‘Good,’ Tabris said. ‘the Cadians will make good sport, or so I heard. It is always a pleasure to see those you thought strong break and scream.’

 

‘They will feel infinite despair…’ Pandemius said, gurgling maniacally.

 

‘They…will die…’ Menkhar muttered.

 

‘Yes, fools,’ Apollyon said. ‘Soon it will be as though a thousand mouths cry out in pain. That shall be it. Summon the Legions, make ready to make war. Unleash the daemon-Primarchs. Forgelord Neron, I want a million daemon-engines and ten thousand ships ready to make war. Obliterator-Lord, call the Obliterators. Fleetmaster, summon every ship in the Eye! Vexius Hyr, you command the Lost and the Damned. Make sure I have a hundred billion men in six months’ time. Every world must mobilise. Every soldier must do his part for Chaos. I want blood in rivers, blood in torrents. I want daemons to march in uncounted hordes. I want the fall of Cadia. My will be done, or you shall die.’

 

‘Your will be done,’ they said as one before dispersing.

[Perry T]

is chapter 8 coming later or was calling this chapter 9 a typo.

 

overall a very good start. I want more....