Shadow Sword

[Malivon]

This is what I have written of chapter one so far. I will add more as I get it done.

All comments are welcome, good or bad.

 

Chapter One

 

Veneration and Remembrance

 

 

The mediation chamber was dark. Brother Seras sat legs crossed at the far end of the room with his eyes closed. He softly spoke the rites of veneration, remembrance, and purity to the battle scared plate laid out before him. The armor was chipped and cracked in many places, the pitch black paint that had once coated the armor like liquid night was worn down to the bare ceramite in some places. The chest plate bore two gaping holes the reveling were the mortal strikes that had laid its wearer low. Having once belonged to a great warrior not unlike Seras, it was now the only few reminders that his brother marine had ever existed. The armor had many honors and past glories engraved into the pauldrons and grieve. The brightest silver noting the battles, and wars his brother had fought in the Emperor’s name.

 

'From the shadows we are born and unto them do we return.' 'May his soul find its place amongst those of our fallen brothers.' 'Though he may have walked through the darkness let him stand in the Emperor’s eternal light .' 'Though he is gone his legacy remains and we who walk in the darkness shall not forget him.' 'Farwell my brother you memory will not be forgotten.'

 

Seras made the sign of the Aquila over his chest and slowly rose before the battered armor. He had prayed for his brother’s soul for more than ten hours. Careful to recite each of his fallen brother’s deeds to venerate him in prayer to the Emperor of Mankind in hopes that he might be deemed worthy to be at his side, as was their chapter’s tradition for those who had fallen in battle.

He turned and exited the pitch black room into low lit corridor of the strike cruisers interior. With silent sigh he activated his vox. ‘I have finished the funeral rites Chaplain Garm’, he said. The vox crackled as the chaplain’s reply came. ‘He walks in the Emperor’s light now brother.’ ‘As he deserves to master Garm’, replied Seras.

 

The vox crackled gain and the chaplain spoke ‘the captain and I have a matter we wish to discuss with you brother please come to the reclusium.’ ‘Understood sir’, Seras’s replied. ‘I am on my way.’

 

The corridors of the strike cruiser’s interior were dark and confined. There was just enough light present so that the ship’s crew that was not astartes to go about doing their day’s labor. The walk ways that latticed the ship was only wide enough for two astartes to come and go at a time.

 

Seras made his way through the darkened pathway that wound its way through the shadows. He was at home in the darkness. It was from the shadows that he had been born, and it was by the shadows that he was tempered into the angel of death that he was. The planet that his chapter called home was located in a solar system whose sun had died long ago, leaving the planet constantly entombed in shadow.

 

The population had survived by burrowing into the planet and using its core as a source of energy and warmth. On the outside the planet was dead but on the inside its molten heart still beat strong. The planet had become a home to mining and industry and its people had prospered. It was this planet that the chapter had chosen call home, and it was from only here that the chapter drew their initiates. The chapter had built its fortress in the bowl of an enormous crater on the planet’s surface. Void shield emitters were placed around the craters edges to give some protection from the planets frozen surface.

 

Instead of collecting initiates like most chapters the Shadow Swords instead let the younglings come to them. A large portion of the earth surrounding the fortress was a network of old crisscrossing mining tunnels that the chapter named the Shadow Labyrinth. Those who wished to join the “Warriors of the Shadows” had only to enter the labyrinth and find their way through the lightless maze to the chapter’s keep.

 

Each year groups of brave children would enter the twisting shafts until they made it to the chapter's keep. Navigation was impossible as the dense makeup of the planet and mapping the numerous tunnels impossible. Many would not make it. They would become lost and disoriented wandering until they collapsed. Some would be driven mad by the sounds that whispered and echoed throughout the tunnels. Most had simply turned back before they went too far and lost sight of the welcoming light of the city.

 

Seras and his group had entered with thirty seven aspirants and a week’s worth of rations each. Sixteen had turned back before losing sight of the city. Another eight would disappear having gotten separated from the group. Four turned into sobbing, heaps that refused to move a step further, driven mad be the quiet sounds that reverberated through the tunnels. Three merely collapsed from starvation.

 

It had been nearly a month of wandering the final five children who were gaunt and pale as ghosts finally came to stand before the chapters keeps massive gates of black iron. In his final moments of consciousness before he collapsed he heard something whisper to him from the dark ‘Welcome young ones to the Halls of Shadow now the real test begins.’

 

It had been a mere forty five years since that day. By normal standards it was almost half of a lifetime for mortal men, but Seras was no longer human. He had become an angel of death, a Shadow Sword, hunters of things so foul not even the bravest heroes would dare step into their dark lairs. He had learned to become one with the darkness. It had become his element and it was from the shadows that he and his brothers struck from, silently and stealthily bringing down the enemies of the Emperor in the very darkness that they thought hid them.

 

Seras was brought back to the present as his journey brought him to his destination. Before him stood two large doors made from the darkest ochre. They were trimmed with silver moldings and painstakingly engraved with the holy litanies devoted to the Emperor. With a gentle nudge the enormous doors slowly swung open without making the slightest noise. Two figures were kneeled him before a statue of the emperor with their backs facing him. Slowly he began to enter the room with all the stealth and training he had at his disposal. ‘Welcome brother’, one of the figures said. Both of them rose silently, and made the sign of the Aquila before the image of the Emperor. ‘Come brother’, said Garm. ‘There is much to discuss.’

 

Seras followed the two silent figures through the gloom of the reclusium to stand before an enormous of black marble. Painstakingly engraved in the brightest silver all across its massive surface were the names of each and every battle brother that had ever fallen in service to the Shadow Swords 3rd Company. There was a sound coming from the far end of the wall. Seras turned to see a servitor slowly and precisely chipping away at the black marble ,somewhere on that wall his former Sergeant Cyfan and four other battle brothers now had their names engraved. Casualties of the recent raid on the under hive of Velorian Prime they now live on in the new marines made from their geneseed.

 

‘Brother Seres’ ,said the figure next to Garm. ‘I have read the reports of those that were present at the battle that took place in the sub levels of tower twelve’ ,he continued on. ‘Three squads of marines were sent in to purge the tower of a supposedly chaos cult infestation, but had instead discovered that it was no foul god these heretics worshiped’. The figured stepped into the dim light of one of the light globes that hung from the ceiling, to reveal a giant of a man. The giant’s armor began to change from the blackest night to lighter shade for grey where the dim light touched it. His face looked like it had been hewed from alabaster stone. His features were rough and jagged, across his pale face there were scars of past battles forming a lattice of intertwining scar tissue.

 

‘Correct Captain Drakkan’, Seres replied. ‘It was no cult of chaos that we found in the tower’s underhive; instead we discovered something far worse.’ Seres paused for a moment.

‘Continue Brother’ Drakkan Rumbled. Seras began again. We found that hive tower twelve has been infested with genestealers and also signs that the infestation may be reaching a point that may put the entire planet in danger.

 

It was not uncommon for entire populations to be exterminated by the inquisition if a genestealer outbreak was irreversible, better to raze the planet and deny the tyranids more biomass than being drawn into a war for a planet beyond the Emperor’s light.

 

‘We encountered the cult’s broodlord captain; it was the very same creature that slew Sergeant Cyfan and many other battle brothers before we could drive the beast back into the tunnels’, said Seras. He saw the captain’s rugged jaws clench when he had mentioned Cyan’s killer.

 

Seras remembered storming out from the shadows of the hives interconnecting tunnels into the massive abandoned storage facility, bolter raised and ready to strike down the members of the chaos cult reported to have been lurking within the building’s interior. What they had seen instead was much fouler that what they had expected. Xenos half-breeds turned and opened fire on them with las rifles and improvised solid slug throwers. Some of the foul beings more the marks of mutation from being descended from the Xenos bloodline some had three arms and were not much more than dribbling beasts. Others had smooth oblong heads that with pointed teeth. But what had angered him the most and raised his hatred for the foul aliens so much was the fact that most of the enemy combatants looked perfectly human besides the fact that most were hairless.

 

Without pause the three squads opened fire tearing into the poor fortifications hastily raised to provide some cover from the wrath of the marines. The marines advanced forward mowing down the lesser mutants that attempted to charge the shadowy giants that marched shoulder to shoulder in the tactical purge formation as enemy fire bounced off of their armor. The cultists were beginning to break when from out of the shadows came a scream that sounded like reality itself was being torn apart.

 

Warp fire leapt from the enemy lines racing along the cracked floor and engulfed two marines before they could react to the purple flames. Their armor bubbled and melted away and, their bodies were reduced to ash by the psyker's warp fire. All that was left of the marine’s existence was a charred puddle of ceramite. The cult’s magus had shown himself and he bolstered his brothers and sisters resolve to remove these giant metal men from their foul den.

 

‘Break formation!’ Sergeant Cyan shouted to his squad over the vox. The Sergeants of the other squads issued the same order. The marines scattered moving behind what little cover they could find.

 

The cultists redoubled their efforts with the appearance of the magus. They had regained their courage and the element of surprise had worn off. Another screaming crescendo of warp fire unleashed itself upon the darting marines. The fire raced towards Seras so fast that he barely had time to relocate before the fire dissolved the barrel he was trying to use for cover.

 

‘Vargus focus your fire on the leader’, yelled Cyan over the com. A simple green acknowledgment icon flashed over the sergeant’s retinal display.

Vargus was by marine standards large, a full foot taller than the average marine. He hefted his multi-melta and braced himself and unleashed a torrent of superheated gas towards the enemy leader. The beam was uncaring about those caught between it and its target. It bored through crates and cultists alike as it hungrily raced towards its target. The superheated torrent of death slammed into it magus with a bright flash.

 

Vargus held down the trigger of the massive weapon till caution runes flared in his helmets display that he was reaching the maximum heat tolerance of his weapon. He released the trigger and the stream of death ceased its unrelenting assault. The entire act from the point that he received the order had taken seven seconds. Vargus slipped back behind the pillar he was standing behind to avoid fire and let the weapon cool down and recharge.

 

Purple lighting shot out from the smoke cloud to the pillar Vargus was hiding behind. The pillar exploded and threw Vargus into the wall behind him. With a sickening thud the marine slammed into the wall and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.

 

The magus boldly strode from the smoke cloud that surrounded him grinning with pointed teeth. There was not a single mark upon his body, not even a single singed piece of cloth.

 

During brief reprieve that was the wrath of Brother Vargus’s multi-melta Seras and two more battle brothers had managed to flank the cultist firing line and hid themselves behind some rusty storage containers. It was very obvious that without their magus inspiring them that the Xenos worshipers would fall quickly. The three marines burst from cover and unleashed a wave of disciplined bolter fire into the unprotected flank of the cultist’s firing line. ‘For The Emperor’, they cried out as their bolters barked death.

 

Surprised by the sudden appearance of the marines the cultists screamed and tried to readjust their ranks to bring their weapons to bear on their enemy that was right on top of them. They could not react fast enough to the enemies in their midst as they we being ripped apart but the concentrated fire from the marines bolters. The magus turned to face this new threat as well. A purple nimbus began to form in the palms of the alien witches hands. There was nowhere to hide amongst the cultists firing line, Seras and his brothers were about to be erased from existence by the magus’s warp magic.

 

There was a flash of light and an explosion of heat as the air around him seemed to vaporize. Seras felt a wave of superheated air slam into him and knock him and his companions down. As the heat dissipated Seras began to raise himself to his feet. His ears were ringing and his armor was blistered and charred. He began to take in his surroundings as his vision cleared. Two meters before him was a blast crater of glossy black glass. Burnt and charred bodies lay all around him, victims of being too close to the blast. Almost all of the cultists were dead or dying.

 

Seras didn’t understand what had just happened, he was sure that the light that had blinded him and the explosive heat that and thrown him down was from the fel attack that the genestealer magus had aimed at him and his brothers.

 

The vox crackled, ‘Sound off and form ranks brothers.’ Seras lit the green acknowledgement rune as he took in the carnage before him. As he formed up with his squad he saw Sergeant Cyan and Apothecary Jarn kneeled near Vargus. The massive marine had taken a powerful blow that had seemed too had ended his life. The wall that Vargus had slammed into was a lattice of large cracks from where the marine had impacted.

 

With help from their sergeant the giant man slowly rose. Vargus stood once more, his superhuman physique and armor saving him from splattering on the warehouse wall. Bolters sounded off as marines from the other two squads began dispatching the enemy wounded that had somehow managed to survive the unexplained nova that had devoured the enemy psyker and his entourage of xenos worshiping filth.

[Dominicus]

Just a quick observation: Chaplain, not Chaplin. Chaplin was Charlie Chaplin, a British comedian between WW1 and WW2

Also, when writing dialogue, start a new line for each character when the talk, such as:

"Meet me in the Reclusiam, Seras; the brother-Captain and I have a matter we wish to discuss with you," Chaplain Garm said over the vox.

" Understood Chaplain, on my way," Seras replied, " Seras out."

[Malivon]

fixed

[Shadow Nugz]

Sounds good. Might want to go through every so often and look for grammar/ spelling/ punctuation mistakes. I find it helps me considerably.