The Battle for Skalathrax

[Skirax]

I've done this for the next PDF file of the Legio Imprint regarding the Alternative Heresy, and I thought I'd post this here (after I've shown it to Aurelius) for C&C from my avid followers :RTBBB:

 

Khârn crouched low behind the fallen building, his pistol cocked and glowing a bright blue in the dim light. The Imperial Thunder Bolts shone brightly on his chest, and he tapped them in pride, but more than that. Beyond the walls of the broken citadel stood the Salamanders; bastard heretics and traitors, their oaths of loyalty spat on and their pride stained and ruined. He glanced over the edge of the barricade, and the enemy had still not noticed his companies moving forward from cover. Ethereal flames licked the soles of the Salamanders, fuelled by the flickering warp hole behind them. Gibbering daemons lingered on the edges of the warp hole, as though to be out of its range was a terrible, abominable thing.

A traitor tracked the fields before him with a Heavy Bolter following every movement of his eyes, the casing to the ancient weapon defiled with horrific images of the Chaos Gods.

Chaos

The very word made him flinch, as though he had sucked something sour. The very idea that something to sinister, so destructive should exist was against all laws of physics and logic. He snarled once again in anger at the Chaos Space Marines, and the very thought that once loyal followers of the Imperium could cavort with such disgusting things sent shivers down his spine.

He turned to his warriors and tapped his left shoulder pad. The warriors nodded in recognition, and fanned out in a wedge formation. Khârn looked over to a building on the other side of the Salamander camp, and saw a quick flash of purple and gold. He smiled as the vox roared into life and a crackle turned into comprehensible words.

+We’re in position, Master Khârn, and await your order+ came the obedient tones of Lord Commander Vespasian. The Lord-Commander, though equal in rank and stature to Khârn, was a very polite officer, and was always the first to offer his services in a campaign. His actions on this planet on this planet had been, as always, instrumental, and without his services, Skalathrax would have fallen long ago.

 

Vespasian and his Command Squad ran into the cover of a low-lying building, the layers of ash and snow on the floor muffling their footfalls easily. His Relic Blade crackled softly, and he could hear his two hearts beating loudly beneath his armour. He gulped, and glanced quickly over the edge of the barricade. A Salamander turned towards his cover, and he withdrew his head with a silent gasp. He waited for a few seconds, his heart in his throat. He was sure the heretic had seen him. He waited for the gunshots to come. He closed his eyes...

Nothing happened.

He wasn’t going to take any more chances. He voxed Khârn and reported his position. He glanced up to a group of Scout soldiers in the building to his right, and smiled as he watched Kirilus train his sights on the enemy commander. Behind him and his Command Squad were his most trusted Sternguard Veterans, their Bolters bearing the Eagle proudly and the special casings hanging from their belts. He put up his middle finger and his small finger to them, signifying the Kraken Round. The men loaded their weapons quietly, and when they were all ready their Sergeant, Chemoscion, put up his thumb and forefinger. Vespasian nodded and turned back to the barricade.

++Two more seconds, Ves, that’s all I need++ voxed Khârn.

Vespasion nodded, and primed his Twin-Linked Bolter. He pulled the hammer back, the breach loading, and checked the sights.

++On my mark, go++ came the vox.

+Ready and waiting, brother+

++Commend our souls to the Emperor++

+May he guide our hands+

Kirilus pulled the trigger, causing the enemy warlord’s head to explode in a shower of gore. Cries of confusion came from the other side of the barricade.

An explosion sounded over the other side of the Salamander camp, and the morning exploded in fire.

 

Khârn tossed a small Frag grenade over the cover as the Sniper picked off the enemy leader. The grenade exploded, showering the assembled enemies with tiny pieces of shrapnel which scratched and slightly dented their armour.

He sounded a charge, and vaulted the barricade, activating his trusted Chain Axe as he did. The sound of his weapon roaring filled the morning air with an ear-splitting crescendo, and the Salamanders turned to face this new threat. The Heavy Bolter Marine, brought out of his shock at his leader’s death, fingered the activation stud, and sent the miniscule rockets their way. They hammered into a World Eater as he charged, one breaking through his armour and pitching his backwards, gore and blood spraying out as the tiny rocket exploded deep within his armoured form. Bone splinters pattered out and landed on the ground. Khârn was unfazed; he’d seen brothers die a thousand times before, and had even been the reason why some of them had died... back in te nightmare days of the Dornian Heresy...

His mind convulsed at the Arch-Traitors name.

He hacked his Chain Axe into the neck of the Heavy Bolter armed Marine, severing his head from his neck in an arterial spray that doused his chest in bloody entrails. He swung through the kill, and lopped another’s legs off. Snapping up his Plasma Pistol, he shot twice into the massed ranks of traitors and burnt the head of one, and scorched the torso of another, his shot burning through the ceramite with ease.

He turned just in time to see a daemon bound from one of his brother’s decapitated head and jump forward to him. He raised his pistol and shot the abomination out of the air without pause, but was not quick enough for the next.

It landed hard on his back and began clawing at his power pack. He pushed hard on the floor, and rose back up onto his feet with the babbling daemon still on his back. He reached for it, but the warp-thing just evaded his grasp. All of a sudden the daemon was pitched off his back by a wave of disciplined bolter fire. He looked up and saw Vespasion lower his Storm Bolter, nod, and then turn back to the traitors. A pile of dead Salamanders lay at his feet, and Khârn was proud to know that warrior at that moment.

He looked over at the heretics, and they were retreating back towards the warp hole, a bastard Sorcerer with his eyes sown shut holding the warp-gate open. Khârn aimed down the sights of his pistol, and locked on to the Sorcerer. His finger tightened on the firing stud, but the pistol beeped as it registered that the Sorcerer was out of range.

Growling, Khârn jogged forward, Gorechild hanging limp by his side, bobbing around as he covered the ground. A Salamander Marine with a great Power Fist sprinted at him from his flank. Khârn swung his pistol around and fired at the Marine without even thinking. The thick gobbet of plasma blew right through the front grill of the Traitor’s helm. The traitor dropped to the floor, his upper body vaporised by the power of a small sun.

Khârn closed with the Sorcerer, which turned in time to see him swing his axe down on the bastard’s head. The psyker countered, bringing up its halberd in time to block the ferocious swipe. Khârn growled as the teeth of his weapon bit into the blade, sparks flying as the hard edges chipped the halberd, which in turn gave no ground in defiance.

Khârn growled, showing his teeth to the bastard in aggression. He pushed down hard, putting his whole body behind the blade in an attempt to break the block. He pulled back slightly, and swung down hard again, hammering his axe against the halberd of the traitor. With an almighty roar, he pulled back and swung down with his entire might, snapping the halberd in to as warp powers roared across the psyker’s blade.

The foul Sorcerer snarled a hiss of defiance as the Captain of the Eighth, his blood up, forced the traitor to the floor. “You meddle with the warp,” spat Khârn at the Sorcerer, his axe at the traitors throat. “You defied the Emperor’s warnings. You turned against all you sought to create!” Khârn could not hold back his aggression any longer and raised his axe in a glorious strike.

“Yess,” hissed the Sorcerer. “Give in to hate.”

Khârn saw his flaw too late as the axe swung down and cleaved the Sorcerers head from its foul body.

 

Khârn wiped blood off his vambrace in the bunker, the bulkheads sealed and the windows deadlocked as the deadly night closed in, frost forming on the bunkers hard exterior. He looked over at the door to the tunnels, and saw Kharnak emerge. The Chaplain’s Crozius hung at his side, his Plasma Pistol glimmering in the low light of the glow globes.

“I saw you out there, Khârn,” said the Chaplain calmly. Khârn looked at him briefly, before turning back to his armour and the oil pot. “You want to confess something?”

“Look, I had a moment of weakness and I repented for it, understand, whelp?” snapped Khârn, indicating the scars on the veteran captain’s back.

Kharnak hung back for a moment, teetering on the balls of his feet. “You know that leads to the Eight-Fold Path, Khârn?” said the Chaplain tentatively. The Captain’s head snapped up immediately and his lip curled. He jumped to his feet and closed the gap in an instant.

“Listen to me, Young One, and listen well; I want to hear not of your Grandmother’s ghost tales nor your folks whispered campfire stories. Your mind may make fantasies and wander whatever path it wishes in imagination, but mark these words well, whelp. Of the Lost Companies, we do not speak.”

And with that, Khârn marched out of the bunker and into the tunnels, leaving Kharnak with a sour look on his face.

[Jonas Stromclaw]

Excellent. My only complaint is that Khârn's words at the very end mirror too closely that of the space wolves codex. He probably wouldn't say 'whelp,' maybe 'youngling' or 'new blood.' Just change it up some so its not exactly the same thing. Overall, excellent!

[Dosjetka]

Hello there Skirax, :P

 

So, C&C it is:

 

Firstly, Vespasian has a Twin-linked bolter and then a Storm Bolter.

 

Also, you made a typo mistake in his name the time it's mentionned with Storm Bolter.

 

Secondly, I find that Khârn shows a bit too much disrespect to the Chaplain.

 

Thirdly, is this it? I would like to see a bit more as the Battle of Skalathrax is a tad longer than this, no?

 

Ludovic

[Skirax]

I'll make those changes, but the reason I did that last monologue at the end is because I discussed with Aurelius the World Eaters having a 'dark side', like the Wulfen, only the psycho-chips leave some sort of mental imprint that can't be erased, but can only be suppressed.

 

As for his wording, I wanted to make it similar to the Space Wolf one for a bit of irony.

 

Thanks for the C&C guys, and yes BB-Ludovic, there will be more :P

[Dosjetka]

Ok good ;) I am content now :)

[Jonas Stromclaw]

I'll make those changes, but the reason I did that last monologue at the end is because I discussed with Aurelius the World Eaters having a 'dark side', like the Wulfen, only the psycho-chips leave some sort of mental imprint that can't be erased, but can only be suppressed.

 

As for his wording, I wanted to make it similar to the Space Wolf one for a bit of irony.

 

Thanks for the C&C guys, and yes BB-Ludovic, there will be more ;)

I think the changes make it bloody perfect! I like this dark side, perhaps we can see a little more of it in future installments? Lookin forward to the next bit.

[Skirax]

Thanks :) I'm trying to work on a way of extending the storyline, but dropping more and more information about the Lost Companies too :)