The mountains are a dangerous place.

[astartes88]

This a little story I am penning for a chapter of mine.

 

He layed in the prone, concealed by the foliage around him. Looking at his chronometer, seeing that 17 hours had past

sine he set up. To any one passing by, they would assume nothing was different from this spot to the next. None would

suspect the danger of the newest predators to a world currently in the ravages of war.

 

A small patrol of armed men entered into earshot. In a very careful manner he moved his head and got eyes on the

approaching patrol. He was aggrivated at first for their complete lack of disicpline and tactical soundness. They were

bunched and had weapons carried in a lazy unprepared way. Not one was scanning the area around just simply looking ahead

or staring at the ground. He would not need his armament to kill them.

 

However with his enhanced vision came great anger, seeing the uniforms as ragged and bloody. They carried a ramshackle

collection of weapons that looked poorly maintained. The primary source of his rising fury came from the eight pointed star that

was tattooed onto each members forehead. A symbol that was the signature of the single greatest and most hated threat to humanity.

Chaos.

 

It did not matter what weapons they carried for his armor was proof against nearly all. Their lack of discpline would make killing them

all them the more rewarding. A grin formed, he would take some pleasure in killing these traitors.

 

Suddenly he caught sight of his first victim, a straggler. He was about twenty meters behind the group of twelve. like so many

of the others he paid no attention to his surroundings but to the ground. As the man passed in front he surged forward at full speed

and crashed shoulder first into the unfortunate man's head. Death was immediate as the impact was so fast and had so much weight behind it.

The body was not allowed to drop but continued on into the tree line. the noise of the impact and ruffle of the bushes drew the attention of the

others.

 

the rear man walked over,' Ah come on man, we don't have time for games. There is a village a few minutes up the road full of woman and children

to sacrifice to the dark gods. Don't you want to earn their love and gifts?' He approached to within a meter when he was violently and quickly forced

upwards when a rope snared his left leg. A disturbing crack was heard as the leg was dislocated from the hip. He cried out causing fear to etch itself

onto his companions faces.

 

After a few seconds one tried to take control of the situation. " Fools we have the blessings of the true gods. Come out and we will kill you quickly'

Took a few steps forward.' Or we can make it a very painful death.' As he turned around, he noticed that two more of his group were gone. He froze

now four men were gone and nobody heard the other two disappear. In not even two minutes they had lost a third of their group. Panicking he started

firing his weapon into the shadows. The others doing the same.

 

All the fire was aimed at shadows and missed him by several meters, none was even close enough to cause worry. So he decided to allow them to

waste their ammo. They all ran out and as they reloaded he activated a another trap. A tree trunk about nine feet long and four feet around on rope

vines swung down and crashed into three of them. They flew several meters with two crashing into the ground and the third colliding with a tree.

triggering a another trap two men were eviscerated and bled out slowly, painfully.

 

Now only three men remained alive, all had either urinated or defecated them selves and dropped their weapons and ran. As they ran

if they had the sense to look to their right they would have noticed the dark figure running upon them. Far bulkier and heavies it moved

three times faster then they did. Yet they would not know it until to late as no noise was made over the sound of their rapidly beating hearts.

One tripped the leader to try and give himself more time.

 

He kept running as the other stayed to help the man up. As they turned they saw their cowardly companion be killed. The predator crashed into him

knee first to the side. Blood shot out of his mouth as he hit the ground lifeless. Frozen stiff once again as they saw their death, in armor not to

unlike his recently instated overlords.

 

The armor was a dark brown excpet on the outside shoulders, knees and head which sported a dark green. It was the golden double headed

eagle that marked him out as space marine of the Imperium. This revelation gave them even more dread as they knew death was seconds away.

 

His left arm rose and a rock was flung at the underling and collided with his face. Caving it in and turning his brain into mush. He died before

his body hit the ground.

 

Falling to his knees the last remaining man begged for mercy and forgiveness, as the angel of death walked over to him. His huge hand reached

out and grabbed the mans neck raising him all the way up with his feet dangling off the ground. A deep and angered filled voice erupted out of

the helmet. "Why have you betrayed the Emperor?' Then crocked his head to the side as if honestly interested.

 

coughing and not able to tie his words together properly, ' The... corpse... hasn't... ever done... anything for me."

 

The warrior brought the man to within inches of his own face,' You now know that the price for your selfishness is death. Traitor.' and with that

the mans neck was snapped with no real effort at all. He threw the dead man's body in disgust. He gathered the weapons up and stomped them

into ruin, before he walked back into the tree line.

 

They landed on this world five days ago, a month after the call for aid was received. The world of Praq had come under the threat of the worst kind.

Chaos.A small force of chaos space marines of the infamous black legion befell the world alongside a few thousand traitor guardsmen. With the

arch traitors old legion now in command of the despoiler. Over ten thousand years of plaguing the Emperors realm. Now again they attacked one of his worlds.

 

The PDF lasted a week, but the planetary governor was no fool and sent for help the moment the invasion started. Four Imperial Guard regiments

were close by and came to their rescue. However with the black legion on the ground the guard could not do more enter into a stalemate. With

the two largest cities under their control, while the traitors held the rest of the planet. All but the mountain's were under the boot of the traitors.

 

His company arrived and discovered how dire the situation was they immediately deployed to the mountains. The scouts began harassing the

enemy near the mountains with sniper attacks and raids. This drew the invaders attention who where trying to discover the enemy in the mountains.

Unknown to them, the threat were the masters of using the mountain in war. No one else could take, hold or use a mountain as strategically or

successfully as them. Salvation had come to the people of Praq in the form the of the space marine chapter known as the Mountain Lords.

 

Upon landing twenty marines went out alone to find small patrols and kill them. He did not even consider it sport, but it gave him the chance to

use his skills in real world and maybe improve. It was required and so far over thirty patrols had been eliminated. He looked forward to the time

when the traitor marines came to the mountains. They would be a challenge worthy of his skills.

 

No member of the chapter ever took duty lightly and always strove to better themselves. Against other astartes they found this to be the best

method. However it was time to return to base camp, rounding up his squad an hour later he was giving his report to the captain. Who was all to

pleased with the success of this strategy.