Project Raquia

[syddraf]

White blinding pain.....
Screams ring in my ears.....
My very soul seemed on fire.....




'Enough, he is pure' rattled a voice.
'Of course he is' boomed another voice, 'His purity was never in doubt, only his ability the handle the final truth'
'Well if his mind still works, he will be a great addition to our ranks'
'Time will tell'
'Of course, but even you have to admit his skill and tenacious'
'Where.....Am....I', my voice was not my own.
'Slowly brother, I had to rebuild a lot of face, it will take time to get use to it', he said in a caring manner, 'I am knight Raphael , master apothecary, and the one who rebuilt your broken form. You had quite a tumble during your last mission', his voice was of metal like a servitor
'You....sound.....li...', my mind formed the words, but fail to speak them.
'Yes, I was in as good a shape as you when I was taken. Your broken body has been repaired by the Veil of Death, you will find your bionics as good if not better than what a Techmarine could make'
'If you have quite finished brother', slowly my eyes were clearing, the man talking bore a skull helm under his blackened robes, 'I am Ramiel , Grand Chaplain to the Order, Overseer of the thrice born. You have lived many lives in your time. Your first life was of a wild thing, unable to control your desire for battle, but the Dark Angels came down and selected you, they reform and trained you, you were reborn an angel, they turned you from a blunt weapon to a razor blade, you were handpicked to many times to cut the heart of an enemy out, and that is what you had just done, lighting the way for the Deathwing they put an end to those teleporters, as you held back a counter attack, you were last seen in front of a dreff dread exploding, had you remained there for more than the brief second you would have been lost to us too, but we teleported you safely to us. History will show you died on Piscina IV, tour actions help save that world, your name recorded in the book of honour. Now you have been judged by passing through the veil of death, and judged ready to see this place, you have been reborn, thrice born ....'
My sight returned to me as I listened to this chaplain tell his tale, all the time I listened to his words, but also took in my surrounds. I was indeed bound to a great chair, I could see my right leg and arm were gone, replaced by bionics, I moved them a little but I was bound tight. The two in front of me were in black armour, but i could see what looked like a undercoat breaking through at the edges, the apothecary armour had green showing and the chaplain had silver, almost as if it had some symbolism behind it, as too did their robes, dyed hastily black more stain than crafted. Neither had any chapter markings, their shoulder had some type of extra plating covered in purity seals. I continued to look around the room, searching for answers of who and they were. The chamber i was in looked mined, an underground lair? maybe but the walls were dry and free of moss.
My focus returned to the words of the chaplain as he talk of Caliban, and the fall and of course the hunt. I had been a member of the Deathwing for almost 80 years, these things were not new to me at all, but then he spoke of the lion's battleship found after Caliban's end, fused in a piece of the once great world. Of how the unforgiven had decided to form a force to find the fallen, even after the legion was split into chapters, this group of warriors, drawn from the unforgiven chapters would hunt in secret, free of the duty we all had to the imperium. Warrior knights taken from the battlefield, their brothers being told they died, would pass through the death veil, a device that seeks weakness or taint in anyone, healing those worthy and condemning those who are not.
Of how I was being watched by this  and how he pulled me out just as that ork dreadnought exploded, wounded and unconscious they brought me here, to Raquia, the birthplace of the fallen, passed into that dreaded machine, replaying past pain, past mistakes, all to cause doubt, all the time testing, but why?
'And you are worthy to walk these halls, I feel the great enemy quaking in their boots', I couldn't see Ramiel's face behind that skull mask, but I got the sense he was smiling at that last sentence.
' Why....' was all I could get out.
'Why, for the hunt, brother, to capture the fallen, free from our commitments to the imperium', his tone grew darker,'we exists to stalk the shadows, to find the hidden, to bring the fallen to repent by any means necessary. I will not lie, we have done things I wish could have been avoided, we must act as executors to any who come in knowing contact with a fallen one, be they enemy, innocent, or brother'
'What.. do.. you mean' my speech was flowing better, but the words took effort to say
The chaplain put a hand on my chest as he spoke,'We have destroyed entire fleets of human ships, including adeptus astartes vessels all because of one member of the fallen has been amongst them. Our shame is one that all must be set aside in duty to protect it.'
'Yes', the veil had shown me this, all part of the tests to see if I could handle this truth. I had been on a great ship, we were shadowing a dark angel strike cruiser, who in turn were following a Inquisition vessel. Listening to the comm chatter between the two ships it became clear the Inquisition had captured a member of the fallen. The Dark Angels having cleaned the planet of its taint demanded to have the prisoner sent to them for questioning to ascertain if it spread anywhere else, these of course were lies, well practiced to hide any deception. All requests were rejected, the Inquisition would find truth in his words and if needed would recall the Angels for further battle, and with that they broken orbit and headed out of system at full thrust.
A voice sounded over my ship, ' We move to engage them, prepare for warp combat', as little as 5 minutes later we had broken into the warp and lay in wait for the black Inquisition ship to show up. The warp split as they entered and all it took was one direct hit from the vortex cannon from the front of our ship. The inquisition ship's Gellar field collapsed in an instance, the thick armour hide of the ship twisted and warped under the power of our cannon, this armour folding back as our beam pushed deeper into the ship. Screams came from the ship, but no answer was given, we just watched as the neverborn attracted by the death of this ship swarm over it and inside to the dieing crew. A stormraven was launched into the side of the dying ship as a squad of the order push passed the demons and dying men to find the fallen guarded by the inquisitor himself, ' I know who you are sons of the lion, I will not let you continue this heresy, your whole legion is dead to the emperor, do you hear me de....' A plasma blast to the head and the inquisitor was down and the fallen ours.
The vortex cannon finally stopped, the craft had a hole big enough for a Hunter class ship to pass through, the demons would kill the rest of the crew and the wild currents of the warp would finish of the ship, maybe it would reappear in real space one day, but by then it would be a dead rotting hulk with no evident of what had happened to it. The knights returned to our battleship. Thousands of loyal imperial men and women put to death the worst way, all because of one Fallen, all because of this secret must never be known.
'We do what must be done to find them all' my new mouth and tongue seemed to be work at last,'And at the end of my time I know the emperor will be waiting to judge me, but til then I will hunt everyone of those heretical fallen down and make them pay for their crime. I will stalk the shadows, and find them unprepared and they will find my fury without end'
The restraints that bound me lifted and retracted and I pulled myself upright, the rage of words helping me the fight past the spinning in my head. Almost shouting I said 'I will join you, I will hunt them and they will fear me',


'For I am Naaman'.

[Avon Rekaes]

Pretty awesome stuff. I think I heard something about this elsewhere on the boards, a sorta Unforgiven-only Deathwatch, right?

 

Sounds really great. There's just a few typos that are kinda jarring. The last line loses some impact, as I assume you meant to type "For I am Naaman.", not "From".

[syddraf]

Thanks, first time doing fan fiction and my proof reading sucks.

 

I going to be using this as a starting point for building the fluff of the Knights of the order, the idea that keeps coming up, but doesn't seem to gain much momentum.

 

Some of the ideas I have are,

 

A council of 7 pass heroes, grand masters, librarians and chaplains, having fallen in battle, interned in a sarcophagus control the long term goals for the order. Only awaken every 50 years or when really needed.

A grand master of the order, acts on the will of the council, looks after the placement of resources, and general chapter business.

Overseer of the Thrice Born, a chaplain who is tasked with the recruiting of prospective members, and testing them.

The squads themself, I see not just a rank and file power armour force, but more brothers bound together. Not always as space marines but also hidden agents, like how some fallen integrate into the life after their fall, posing as humans, or heretic to be able to get closer to finding fallen.

 

 

 

 

I'll add more later

[syddraf]

Some more ideas

 

The Keep, a once massive battle cruiser, during the siege of Caliban the order was giving to self destruct it into the defensive line around the planet, so well crafted was this ship that the much of the forward section survived intact only to be later hit by a molten chunk of Caliban as it was ripped apart.

The Dark Angels later found that much of the internal systems, like shields, weapons and scanners were in almost working order, needing only minor repairs.

The large front hanger bay was well suited to be used as a shipyard for the creation of smaller Hunter class cruisers, as to were chambers at the rear end of the ship.

A forge was installed in the rock of the asteroid to serve the shipyards, but to also construct the smaller stormraven and any equipment the knights could ever need.