Vermilion Wings: Neophyte

[Evz]

Vermilion Wings data file

 

Prologue

 

The thunderhawk gunship flew over the pine forests of the eastern hemisphere of the planet Callisto. It's bulky red and orange exterior fighting through the gusts of howling wind and rain. Lael sat in his seat, covered in harnesses that seemed a bit too big for a young lad of his size. Lael was young, 12. He has scruffy brown hair, and wore a simple tunic, pants, and sandals. He looked around at the other children of his age who were chosen, all from different parts of the world.

 

He looked down at the floor. He always thought these machines were some sort of big mythical bird, of the legends his father had told him when he was even younger. But this was very, very real. Lael was in his home city, of Telra, on the eastern hemisphere of the feudal world of Callisto, when these ships landed in town. He had never seen such a thing so up-close. They were looking for volunteers, and Lael obliged to join them, he remembered waving his family goodbye as he stepped onto the ship for the first time, surrounded by a few other boys, street urchins, and robed men. Many robed men. He snapped back into the present.

 

A man walked down from the cockpit. He was clad in heavy armor and was probably the largest man young Lael had ever seen. Under his arm, he held a beaked helmet red in color. His face was grizzled, and he had a scar from his chin to his left eye, which was white. His hair was short and brown. He looked over them all, a god among normal humans. "Children." He began. "You are no-longer children. You are warriors. You are now my warriors... And if you survive, you shall become brothers to me. And you will become an Adeptus Astarte." The young boys on the ship looked at each other. The thunderhawk banked to the right, and outside of the porthole Lael could make out trees through the rain, and then rocks. They were entering a canyon. Rain hammered the ship as it came in for a landing within Seraphim Gorge. The landing-gears hissed, letting out a plume of steam, and settled down, then the boarding ramp came down. The children were told by men in red robes to get out of their seats and file down into the canyon. Following it were two other gunships, all of them carrying children.

 

Lael stepped out first. The rain was cold, and he had to continue to wipe his eyes. There was mud everywhere. They were followed by the armored giant. "My warriors..." He said, taking a bag from one of the robed men. He pulled out a large knife. "This is a combat knife. Your friend now." He handed one to the blonde boy beside him. "You will cut the symbol of our Chapter into your left shoulders. Do it now." All the children looked puzzled. "Wings. Angel wings. Like... The ones from the stories." He smiled. Lael pulled off his tunic, and dropped it to the mud below. He took his knife, and began to cut into his skin. "What you are doing now, is giving yourself to, not your planet, not your families, not your brothers, not your chapter, but to the Emperor of mankind."

 

Lael's interest was piqued. His father had always taken him to church most days he had off, to worship the God-Emperor.. He then felt a sting of pain as he finished the wing symbol. Blood began to mix with rain as it seeped from the wound. "Good." The giant said. "Now, fight. Fight until I tell you to stop. You are warriors now, not children! ACT LIKE WARRIORS!!" At that exact moment, lightning struck the canyon wall behind them and thunder boomed.

 

He was not paying attention. A ginger child wrapped his arm around his neck and shoved him into the mud. He felt the wet earth enter his ears and nose. He kicked upward, catching the child in the groin and sending his off, and turning around and slashing his knife across the boys' back. The boy fell, blood gushing from the wound, and splashed into a puddle. Lael had no time to waste as he ducked beneath another blade, and slit the arm of another opponent, the knife falling from his grip and landing blade-first into the mud with a twaaaang. The child fell back, falling onto a rock, and staring at his wounded arm.

 

As he spun around, another kid charged at him. This one was bald, and dark of skin. He was from the northern barbaric tribes. This was his past-time. The kid swept his blade, slashing deep into Lael's cheek. Lael clashed with him, sending a few sparks up. From the ramp of the thunderhawk, under the chassis as to not get wet, the giant watched these two fight. By now the entire canyon was a bloodbath. There had to be at least twenty of them left. Lael turned and his blade stabbed through the heart of a long-haired boy from one of the richer nations. He fell, dead. Lael turned to parry the bald boy's sweeps. "STOP!" Called the giant.

 

"Come before me..." The bloody, mud-covered, wet and freezing children grouped around the giant. "Congratulations. You are now my brothers. I am brother-Librarian Elijah." He looked to a robed man behind him. "Find the wounded, get them to the ships and prepare to mend their wounds. They will walk home. At least leave them their knives, a parting gift..." He returned his gaze to the throng of twenty children before him. "You are now Space Marines. You are now Vermilion Wings. You are now sons of the God-Emperor. You are His mighty angels of death. Board this ship, and that ship over there." He said, pointing, before turning and walking up the ramp. Lael looked to the bald child, who nodded at them, and they began to file into the ship.

 

"Thran." The bald child spoke as they took their seats, still muddy and wet and cold. "That is my name. I come from a village in the far north..." Lael did not look at him.

 

"I am Lael. I come from one of the cities errr..." he was not sure where they were. "The eastern-side of the world..." Thran nodded. With that the thunderhawk gunship began to take its' flight, followed by the second.

[Evz]

I

 

Five years later, on the prison world of Anat...

 

Lael followed close behind Thran, who was behind Thoth, who was behind their sergeant, Gadal. Gadal was an old marine, his head completely shaved, and a white beard forming around his face. He waved them on wards. Thran and Lael themselves have grown, and over the past five years had experienced many of the implants and training to make them into better warriors. Thran had also grown a long mane of black hair, and Lael had kept his hair short. The two of them wore Space Marine scout armor, and carried boltguns and knives.

 

They were on the prison planet of Anat on the edge of the Oshim system, the Vermilion Wings home sector, sent here as recon to investigate heretical activity amongst the prisoner populace. There was something, alright. Bodies were everywhere. Nude, butchered, chunks of flesh, arms and legs dangled from meat-hooks on the ceiling. Lael pushed past a bloated unrecognizable chunk of meat as they came upon a large chamber. In the center was a girl, pale of skin. She was completely naked, and was covered in blood. She was laughing and continued letting out screams that Lael could not understand if they were in pain or if she was happy. In her hand she held a jagged knife, and she pushed it down into her left breast and pulled down, bleeding out a crimson river down her body. Lael's mouth began to water, as he watched the fluid. Dripping into a puddle on the rockcrete she knelled upon. Lael's mind was going mad. He wanted the blood. He wanted to drink it. A hand appeared on his shoulder. It was Gadal. "Neophyte..."

 

"What is it, brother-sergeant?" Lael asked.

 

"I see what you are doing. I know you are young, and you are new to the chapter still... You know of the Red Thirst, aye?" Lael nodded, he had read about his chapter's progenitor chapters they had descended from when he was in the Seraphim Gorge outpost, still in boot camp, five years prior. "In addition to that, we have another flaw. Within the past year, you were given the Omophagea organ. Can you tell me what it does?"

 

"Allows us to learn by eating... brother-sergeant."

 

"Aye. Good lad. We have a problem with ours. We need to eat the enemy. We need to drink their blood. You have not yet entered the halls of the Spire, our fortress-monastery, and let me tell you it is much different than the outpost you called home for so long. I will tell you, while you are young, you need to control the beast within you, save the organ only for ceremonies, or when you are in the thick of battle. I am not going to allow you to kill and eat flesh now, especially if it is a heretic." He aimed his bolt pistol at the laughing mad woman, and fired. The bolt blew the top of her head off and her bloody corpse sunk to the ground in a heap. "We don't eat heresy, boys. Consider this a part of your training!" And they continued on, walking through the chamber. Thran eyed the body nervously but Lael pushed him along.

 

Then klaxon alarms started going off. "What is that?" Thoth asked. "What the hell is going on!?" Gadal cursed and led them through the labyrinth of rockcrete to a cathedral built within the prison complex. Outside the large window, Lael could see thousands upon thousands of prisoners charging from the cell blocks building to the west. All of them were armed and armored, which meant somebody had equipped them. But who? Then he watched as several drop pods landed before the oncoming wave of penal soldiers, opening up and space marines of the Vermilion Wings opened fire upon them, the first of the waves went down, their body parts exploding in a red mist.

 

"Dammit." Gadal said. "Looks like the Ordo Hereticus was correct. It seems there was heresy going on here. Load up children, we are going to kill some foolish prisoners." He turned, his cloak billowing behind him as a missile struck the window. Glass rained down upon them. One shard slashed across Lael's arm, and had cut deep. He grunted but was pulled along by Thran. Lael saw Thoth on the ground, blood pouring out of his chest, with a huge shard of glass sticking into his stomach. He was dead. Gone. Done.

 

"C'mon." Gadal kicked open a door and he saw penal soldiers. They wore rags, most of them, some others wore flak armor of various kinds, all of them held lasguns, and most has an eight-pointed star, the symbol of the Arch-enemy, engraved on their armor or flesh. Lael opened fire with his bolter, taking down two of the heretics. Thran soon joined him.

 

"THIS WAY!!" Shouted a heretic. "THEY ARE HERE!! LOOK!! BLOOD MUST BE SHED!! KILL THEM AND GET TO THE SHIPS!!" Thran, out of ammo, dropped his boltgun and drew his combat knife, charging the preaching heretic and stabbing him in the face, blood gushing out of the wound. Lael followed Gadal, blasting apart man after man.

 

"Our mission was complete, boys. It's time we go home..." Gadal said, his voice somewhat loud over the noise of the firefight. He kicked in a door behind Lael. "Come, brothers. Let us leave this horrid place." He charged through. Lael brought out a frag grenade and tossed it. Thran saw it and ran, following Lael into the door. Gadal closed it behind them as the explosion sounded, and smoke billowed from under. Lael pulled a large table from across the room and blocked the door with it, just to be sure. "Now." Gadal began. "The exit should be this way." He pointed to a large bulkhead door. They heard knocks and screams from the other side of the blocked door. Thran readied his blade. Lael aimed his bolter, while Gadal tinkered with the control panel of the gate, eventually opening it. They were now in a large garage, full of Adeptus Arbites tanks and other vehicles. Gadal stepped through. "Let's find ourselves a vehicle to commandeer and get the hell out of this filthy place."

 

With that, the door burst open and heretics poured through. Lael turned and opened fire, bolts flying through the air and exploding into everything that they could touch. Body parts flew and blood splashed and chunks of meat hit the walls and the deck. Thran screamed, charging and stabbing into a heretic's stomach, gore and blood squirting onto his face as he shoved the corpse down, and picked up the enemy's lasgun. It was small but it would do. He fired a lasbolt into another enemy and they fell. He frowned, and decided to use it as a club, and bashed the head of a heretic, dropped the lasgun, and stabbed through the throat of another. All the while Lael fired at the zealots. A blood red river ran through the garage. "WE MUST HOLD THEM!!" Lael yelled to Thran, who was too busy in the center of the slaughter. Growing up in a northern tribe, he reveled in close combat. Lael's father told him once of the northmen. They were hardy people, living in the frozen north, wearing animal furs, and constantly warring with other tribes. It was what Thran was brought up to do. Another bolt smashed into the face of a heretic. Once the bolts' tip touched the heretic's forehead, it sent skull fragments in every direction.

 

Then came a roar of an engine, and a black rhino with the symbol of the Arbites on its side. The boarding ramp lowered. Then several ogryns entered the garage, their faces covered in bags, hiding the ferocious mutations that they sported. "Thran!" Lael called out to him, but it seemed Thran was too bloodthirsty. Was this the Red Thirst? "Thran!!" He called again, still firing into the mass of enemies, growing thicker and thicker by the minutes. Finally Thran dug his blade into the neck of a cultist, dragging the blade down, he reached in and ripped out his still-beating heart. He tore it out, the veins and gore following, and blood was all over him. He bit a chunk out of the heart, and tossed it at the face of another heretic. The heretic reeled back and slipped and fell. Thran then turned and charged up the ramp with Lael, still firing. Lael opened up the cockpit door. "Gadal. Get us out."

 

"I agree with you on that one, brother." He pressed a few buttons and flipped a switch. Meanwhile in the passenger compartment, the boarding ramp began to rise but cultists were charging up the ramp. Thran grabbed a bolt pistol from the wall and put a bolt into the head of everyone who tried to enter. He tossed a single frag grenade into the mass just before the boarding ramp shut and they sped off.

 

The black Rhino turned a corner of the garage, going past a few chimera tanks, and then smashed through the hanger doors. They were now out in the middle of the battle between the marines and the cultists. The rhino was going so fast and it crushed several penal soldiers, their bones grinding underneath the mighty treads. Gadal led the tank straight through the fighting, and finally after an hour, reached the Vermilion Wings line. The ramp opened and Gadal and Lael stepped out, followed by a bloody Thran, whose hair was thick with gore and his face covered in blood and sweat. Gadal led them through the frontline, and reached the captain, who was speaking with an inquisitor. Lael noted that the Adeptus Sororitas were fighting alongside the marines the entire time. Captain Varcan's voice boomed. "We will hold this line for as long as we can. We have no idea how they got weapons. Or armor. Or even tanks. Somebody released them from their cells. Somebody overpowered the guards stationed here. This is all so puzzling." Gadal stepped up to him.

 

"Brother-captain. We have discovered major cult activity in the church sections of the prison to the south." The captain turned to him.

 

"I can see that, brother-sergeant."

 

"I have also discovered that this fight is a diversion. The majority of the heretics are attempting to board Arbite ships to the far west." Gadal swallowed hard. Varcan nodded.

 

"Then they would have surly have stolen the ships by now. We shall wipe out the enemies here, and have our ships go after them." The captain took his red helmet and placed it on his head.

 

"But Captain... There is no way we can take on a full fleet of heretics with but only two ships. Perhaps another day. You will leave the chase to us." Said the inquisitor. "We will take care of it. No heresy has ever escaped my wrath." The captain stood for a moment. "Very well then. You are to take command of the chase. We will remain here, and kill off these treacherous bastards." The inquisitor simply nodded and walked away.

 

Captain Varcan looked to Gadal, Lael and the blood-covered Thran. "You three shall rest for now. You have done well in delivering this information to us. Unless, of course, you wish to aid us. I am going to the front lines now." He activated his jump pack and flew off towards the fighting. Gadal turned to them both.

 

"Your mission now is to retrace our steps, and recover Thoth's body. Bring me that and I will grant you a reward."

 

* * *

 

Several hours later...

 

They were in the cathedral once more, standing over the corpse of their brother. Thoth was one of the young men who had originally entered with them. He did not die from battle, but from a window. Thran removed the glass shard, and blood squirted out in a tiny geyser. He lifted the body up and threw him over his shoulder. Since he had the bolter, Lael was on point. They walked back through the ruins full of corpses, and finally got back to the frontlines. In the crisp cold morning air, Gadal looked at the body, examining it. He finally finished and stood over the corpse.

 

"He was a good man. He learned well. His bones shall decorate the halls of the Spire for the rest of time."

 

It was quiet the remainder of that day save for the sounds of the marines cleansing the area of heresy. They would return to the outpost at Seraphim Gorge later that day.

[Evz]

II

 

The two of them sat in the thunderhawk as it lifted off, both of them jolting in their harnesses as the ship jumped up into the skies and blasted off into the heavens. They were done here. This was their fifth mission off of Callisto. The last two were against Tau and the mysterious Eldar. The Oshim system is almost directly next to Tau space. They all fell before Thran, Lael barley had to do anything, except shoot at a commander, only to miss. The gunship was full of scouts, sadly Thoth did not make it. His body lay on the floor. Gadal was across from them. "He will be consumed once we reach the monastery... You cannot come... We are dropping both of you, and the rest of the scouts, off at the Seraphim Gorge outpost. I will be bringing the lad's body to the Spire, where his bones shall rest and his blood shall fill the Pool of Remembrance." Lael sighed. Thran was calm, having finally snapped out of his bloodlust. He was also clean now. The ride up to the Strike Cruiser Crimson Tear was a long and quiet one, just like most others.

 

* * *

 

Four years later, Seraphim Gorge outpost...

 

Lael stood within the dark chamber. The only light was that of the sun glinting through the stein-glass window picturing Sanguinious holding the disembodied head of a daemon. He was naked save for cloth undergarments. "Neophyte." Said techmarine Phaldor. "Your journey was long and torturous. You have passed boot camp successfully. You have survived every implant up to the Black Carapace that just days ago was put beneath your flesh. You have slain the enemies of the Emperor with great fury. I have but one question for you..." Lael looked up. "What is our battlecry?"

 

"Let all blood fly." He said.

 

"Louder."

 

"LET ALL BLOOD FLY!!!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, the noise echoing down the dark corridors of the inner outpost. The techmarine smiled.

 

"Excellent. It begins..." With that said, several servitors crept from the darkness and shadows. They were all spidery, barley looking anything like humans at all. They carried with them pieces of armor, and began to adorn Lael with them. Lael held out his arms as they slid on the ceremite plates. Finally, they clasped on his helmet. "What is our battlecry?"

 

"LET ALL BLOOD FLY!" Lael shouted.

 

"You are now of the Vermilion Wings, marine. You will be leaving for the fortress monastery, the Spire, within the hour. Go to the docking bay now." Lael nodded at the techmarine, turned on his heel, and left.

 

The walk down the blackish gray corridors was long. He eventually ran into Thran, who was also wearing the power armor of the Vermilion Wings. On his boot was his favorite toy sheathed, his combat knife. "Brother. We have made it!" Thran clapped him on the shoulderpad, and pulled off his helmet, his long black hair falling down. Lael smiled, pulling off his own helmet.

 

"Aye. We have. Now come, let us leave this outpost. I am most curious to see the Spire..."

 

* * *

 

The ride to the Spire was not very long. It was in a desert to the south of the mountainous woodland that the outpost was located in. Beneath in the sands, Lael could make out wrecks of Ork and Imperial tanks. "The Green Desert." Said Elijah, who was accompanying the new arrivals to the fortress. "It was here where the chapter really began, and where the final battle was against the greenskins of the sector." Lael watched as they began flying over bunkers, and large stone towers and ramparts and walls. "Ah. We have arrived..." The stormraven touched down and the five marines stepped down into the docking bay. It was massive, bigger than any Lael had seen before. "Please follow me..." Thran was close behind Elijah and Lael followed, taking aghast by the scale of the place. They wandered down corridors lined with the bones of the many dead battle brothers. "Those whose lives are ended on the battlefield of our chapter, we consume the flesh and organs of them, if not to keep their memories and lives within us. We then bring the bones here, to adorn our halls, so that they are always with us... As for their blood..." He turned again, and they found themselves at a staircase. The staircase was a spiraling one going deep. They reached the end to find a great lake of bubbling blood. "This is what happens to the blood of our brothers who die. Since you are all new, you will strip nude, and dive into it, and absorb our chapter's memories, and the memories of the chapters whom we descend from."

 

Lael was first. He was naked now, and jumped into the crimson. He submerged, going down deep, eyes screwed tightly shut. He opened his mouth, and blood flowed in. Then he was met with a rush of new memories, visions of battle, life, death, everything. He saw angels. he saw bolter fire. He saw tanks. He saw the traitor legions besieging terra. Then he came up for breath, and it all vanished. He swam to shore, and readorned his armor.

 

"Once you have finished you must go to your quarters and meditate on what you have seen. Within the week you are going on your first mission." Lael did exactly that, and left.

 

PART II