Sword Bearers and the Unforgiven (Updated 1/07/23: Angels Redeemed)

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers mate! I have been a bit slack on the painting side since Christmas. Once the last part of Desperate Allies is finished, I'll hopefully be picking up a brush a bit more frequently again.

Got lots of modelling/conversion projects planned for the next few months though. As a bit of a teaser, here's some of the things I'll be working on:

Tactical Squad 'Llywelyn'

'Invictus' Heavy Assault Squad

Knights Penitent (DW Knight equivalent)

Revenant Execution Team + Hellrazer Support

Letholdus, the Black Rider (mounted and infantry versions)

Revenant Destroyers

Revenant Mounted Assault Squadron

Hektor Talyn, the Lion Hearted, Supreme Grand Master of the Sword Bearers + Praetorian Bodyguard

And, as a sneak peak

Tactical Sergeant Kasmir Llywelyn, Sword Bearers 3rd Battle Company

[Eternal Warrior]

That two handed mace is something of my dreams. Truly inspirational Edited January 23, 2014 by Eternal Warrior

[Augustus]

"Even power armour would struggle to repel fire-power of that magnitude. " lol. Thinking upon Star Wars while writing this? :D

[Spaced Hulk]

"Even power armour would struggle to repel fire-power of that magnitude. " lol. Thinking upon Star Wars while writing this?

 

Indeed brother   In fact, my original premise for the story was what would happen if you put Space Marines in the Mos Eisley Cantina. The final episode will be the answer to that question 

 

To be honest, I think I've probably used up my entire lifetime allowance of Star Wars quotes and references with this. Lots of fun to write though!   

 

Edited January 24, 2014 by spacedhulk

[Augustus]

And very enjoyable to read. I hope one day BL hires you.

[Spaced Hulk]

@ Augustus: Thank you brother 

 

Desperate Allies

Episode Six

 

Unlike his brothers, for whom the practice of collecting armaments was as much habit as necessity, there were only three weapons in the Knight's personal arsenal.

 

Each one was deadly. Each one was unique.

 

The hunting pistol holstered at his side was a true antique, pre-dating the Imperium itself. Designed and built to a long forgotten template, it had been wielded by the original Knight Lords of Caliban, each generation of warriors passing the relic on to the next. Beast Slayer, they called it, and in the dark, haunted forests of their blighted home-world it had earned it's title well. During the illustrious days of the Great Crusade, the artificers of the First Legion had adapted and refined the ancient revolver, improving tolerances and performance even further. Incredibly accurate and converted to fire a variety of different ammunition types, it was an elegant weapon, from a more civilised age.

 

For over ten thousand years, the archeotech pistol had served the Sons of the Lion, passing between each of the Unforgiven Chapters in turn, it's guardianship always entrusted to just a single warrior. But for the last five decades, the Beast Slayer had belonged to him, and him alone.

 

Still seated in the salvaged command throne, Erekose drew and fired. With reflexes and coordination honed beyond even trans-human levels, his movements were near instantaneous. 

 

One shot, at close range. He couldn't miss. Not with such a massive target.

 

Orks were resilient. He had seen them survive multiple mass reactive wounds, even direct heavy bolter impacts. A single pistol round was unlikely to inflict much damage, particularly against such a monstrous opponent. However, this was no ordinary bolt pistol. It had been designed to hunt and kill far more horrific monsters than any greenskin.

 

The Absolution round penetrated the Glutton in mid torso, burying itself deep within the corpulent flesh. Only then did the high yield warhead detonate, fire and shrapnel ripping through fat, bone and muscle in an intense, focused blast. The immense body simply exploded, a fountain of gore and fungal soup erupting from the beast's sundered back. Pushed forwards by the force of the internal explosion, the Freebooter pitched head first into the table, it's colossal weight crashing through the dense iron-bark as though it was mere matchwood.

 

The watching bodyguards reacted instantly, fingers immediately closing on the triggers of their bulky, shoulder mounted rocket launchers. Erekose reacted even quicker, utilising his second, and in some ways, most potent weapon. With a single, irrepressible mental assault, he seized control of their minds and bodies, binding them to his will and freezing them in place. A second later, he repeated the process, mind-locking the two henchmen guarding the chamber door even before they could turn to enter.

 

To telepathically dominate six sentient minds at the same time was an impressive feat, and far beyond the abilities of almost all his fellow Librarians. Six separate minds, four of them Xenos, all constantly, subconsciously straining to be released. Despite his mastery of the gift, Erekose quickly found his mental stamina ebbing, the concentration required to split his attention in six different directions taking it's inevitable toll. Even he would not be able to control them for long. 

 

Fortunately, he didn't need to.

 

“Brother! Incoming!” He called out the warning, even as he implanted a single, undeniable command in the mind of each of the Glutton's bodyguards. Malachi was crouched inside the open blast doors at the far end of the chamber, a hard-line data connection linking his battle helm to both servitors. The Techmarine grunted an acknowledgement over the vox but continued working. Erekose expected nothing less.

 

Each fire point was positioned in a corner of the room, providing the hidden guardians with complete and unobstructed coverage of the entire area. As the Knight released his psychic hold, the four rocket launchers fired in unison, their deadly ordinance streaking across the chamber, leaving billowing contrails of thick white smoke in their wake.

 

The four bodyguards had less than a second to realise that they were no longer targeting the Space Marines. For some inexplicable reason, their aim had shifted towards the fire point situated directly opposite them. Only the Vespid, whose reactions were substantially quicker than either the Ork brutes or the human traitor, had time to wonder how they could have all made such a disastrous mistake, and how such a simple assignment could have gone so catastrophically wrong.

 

All four corners of the room exploded simultaneously, the detonating rockets completely obliterating both the fire points and their occupants. The entire hab-complex shook and trembled with the force of the blasts, as a thick cloud of plaster dust and smoke completely engulfed the Glutton's now devastated audience chamber.

 

Four seconds later, the human and Carachocian guard posted at the room's entrance each felt the strange, but completely uncontrollable urge to raise their heavy calibre autopistols, switch off their safeties, and then shoot their comrade in the head.

 

Listening with grim satisfaction to the thud of the two falling bodies just outside the chamber, Erekose finally stood up, the command throne creaking with relief as the weight of his power armoured bulk was lifted. Visibility was practically zero, most of the chamber's lumin-strips were shattered or inactive, the air itself still thick with dust and fumes from the explosions. With the hunting pistol still in hand, he carefully walked around the wreckage of the table.

 

As he'd expected, the Glutton was still alive, despite the gaping hole torn through it's torso. Face down amongst the debris and surrounded by countless spilled plates of food, the pirate was crawling, slowly and painfully, to where the long barrelled autocannon lay, just out of reach.

 

With clinical precision, the Knight fired four more shots, putting a round through each of the Ork's arms and legs.

 

Effectively dismembered, the beast howled, a wordless scream of pain, and rage, and frustration. As he watched, the massive head slowly lifted, revealing immeasurable, unquenchable hatred burning within it's alien eyes.

 

“We...ad...a deal!” The Glutton's speech was barely coherent, bright green blood bubbling from it's tusked jaws.

 

“I have altered our agreement.” Cold and detached, there was no emotion in the Knight's voice. He holstered the empty pistol as he spoke. “Pray to your foul Xenos gods that I do not alter it any further.”

 

Leaning forward, his bare face just inches away from the wounded creature's own, massive features, Erekose stared straight into the Glutton's insane eyes.

 

“And inform the Tyrant, our brothers will be visiting him very soon.” 

 

*** 

 

He turned away from the stricken Ork, and immediately sensed the threat. With vision still limited, it was the Knight's prescience that alerted him to the imminent attack, the premonition forming spontaneously in his mind's eye. 

 

A multi-limbed, insectoid Thraxian, one of the Glutton's numerous attendants, was closing rapidly from behind, moving with surprising stealth despite the dense chitinous plates that composed it's natural carapace. Scuttling towards him on it's six lower sets of limbs, the creature's armoured thorax was hugging the ground tightly, reminding Erekose of the great Marsh Wyrms of his home-world. The remaining pair of arms held a crude, imitation boltgun, the mimic weapon gripped tightly in it's tri-digit hands. Thraxians were renowned for reverse engineering other species technology, copying the achievements of others rather than creating their own. To a telepath, the insectoids were infamous for another reason, as their psychically shielded consciousness was almost impossible to detect, let alone read or influence.  

 

As it approached, the Thraxian suddenly reared up, it's flexible, segmented body allowing it to reach almost the same height as the Space Marine himself. The mimic-bolter was aimed high, for a head-shot. The species poor eyesight, particularly in such a darkened chamber, meant that the creature needed to get as close as possible to guarantee a kill. 

 

Prescience folded into reality. The Knight turned as the Xenos rose into the air, drawing his blade from it's scabbard in a single, smooth movement.

 

It was called Durandal, the Light in the Darkness. A two handed force sabre, forged from enhanced Medusan steel with a single, mono-molecular cutting edge. The blade was a trophy from a long forgotten war, a wasteful conflict between allies that neither side was prepared to acknowledge or discuss.

 

As it cleared the scabbard the power field activated instantly, sheathing the darkened blade in blinding, blue-white energy.

 

His first strike sliced effortlessly through the Thraxian's upper set of arms, severing both limbs at their central multi-joint and sending both them, and the bolter they held, tumbling to the ground. The return swing passed horizontally through the creature's armoured thorax, bisecting the alien neatly in two.

 

 The two halves of the creature fell to the floor, it's mandible framed maw emitting a strange hissing sound as the remaining limbs wriggled grotesquely. With a brain stem that extended down the entire length of it's body, such creatures were notoriously difficult to kill. The Sword Bearer watched with disgust as both separate parts of the Thraxian righted themselves and began to crawl away in different directions, each half alive and seemingly conscious despite the jet black ichor leaking profusely behind them.

 

In his two centuries of service, Erekose had travelled widely and witnessed sights both strange and nightmarish. However, despite all his knowledge and experience, the galaxy never failed to either surprise or repulse him.

 

***

 

“Very diplomatic,” The Techmarine didn't look around around as he spoke, his attention still focussed on the servitors. “I thought we were here to negotiate.”

 

“The conversation was becoming tedious.” For the first time since entering the cantina, Erekose smiled. Drawing the pistol once more, he ejected the spent propellent cases and began to reload. “What have you discovered brother?”

 

“It would appear Crom was wrong.” Malachi carefully disconnected the uplink cables from both constructs, the data connections retracting automatically back into his battle helm. Only then did he turn to face the Knight, the tri-optic lenses of his face plate clicking as they re-focused in the near darkness.“These are not the servitors we're looking for.”

 

“You're certain of that?” Erekose felt his spirits sink once more. He'd decided long ago that this was the most frustrating aspect of the Hunt. For every successful mission that he'd undertaken, there were a hundred failures. For every true path he'd discovered, there were a thousand false trails. But regardless of their validity, every single lead had to be pursued, every single piece of evidence had to be scrutinised. Redemption demanded nothing less.

 

“Regrettably, yes. Analysis of their internal duty logs indicates they were stolen from the Tantive IV ship yards approximately eighteen months ago. These constructs were not, and have never been, stationed on-board the Lambda.”

 

The Lambda. Perhaps it really was just another fools errand,  Erekose thought bitterly. Three years before, the Rogue Trader vessel had been found adrift and powerless on the edge of the Anoat asteroid fields, it's mortal crew butchered and their cargo of raw adamantium and other precious metals stolen. Ordo Xenos Inquisitors had concluded the derelict ship had fallen prey to Eldar raiders, but the First Legion's own investigators had long held their own suspicions about the incident.

 

“However, I have discovered other information in their most recent memory files which I believe to be of considerable interest.” Malachi continued, his thoughts betraying uncharacteristic excitement in the dour warrior. “The Ork acquired these Servitors from a rogue Mechanicus slave caravan, that passed through here four standard months ago.”

 

“And?”

 

“And these were not the only Servitors in that caravan. Nor was that foul beast the only interested party. Two other, superficially similar constructs were also traded that day.”

 

The Knight's thoughts raced, his mind instantly analysing every available fact. There was only one logical conclusion.

 

“The Phantoms?” 

  

“Aye brother. It appears the Pale Warriors were indeed following the same trail as ourselves. The only question that remains is why?”

 

There were only two possible alternatives, Erekose thought grimly. Either the Star Phantoms were indeed members of the Unforgiven brotherhood, and their heritage had been deliberately concealed from every other First Legion Chapter, or the Pale Ones were interfering in affairs that did not concern them. In either case, they had no other option but to investigate the matter further.  

 

“There is only one place where we can find the answer to that question.” The Knight sighed. This was not going to be easy.

 

“Jagha.” The Techmarine growled. As he spoke, the auspex maglocked to his side lit up. Shouldering the multi-bolter, Malachi lifted the scanner and began adjusting the controls. 

 

Lost in his thoughts, Erekose nodded. The ice moon of Jagha. The Star Phantom's newly adopted home-world. They would have to travel to the ruins of Badab to seek the truth, to discover both the fate of the Lambda and the Pale Warrior's motives. Suddenly he realised the similarity between the ice world's name and that of the Ork Tyrant. As a student of the Imperial Tarot, he had always been sceptical of coincidence. Most of his life had been spent searching for symbols and portents, secret trails and hidden meanings. It had to be a sign, a pointer that this was the correct path. 

 

The Knight sighed again. “We have a long journey ahead of us Mal.”

 

“We also have another, more immediate problem.” The Techmarine locked the auspex back in place. “Your handiwork has attracted considerable interest. They're waiting for us outside.”

 

“How many?” Erekose frowned as he finished re-loading the revolver. With a solid, reassuring click, he closed the chamber of the ancient weapon. 

 

“All of them I believe.” Malachi was watching him intently, cradling the multi-bolter to his chest plate. He could sense the ever present aggression in the Techmarine's thoughts, the rising anger, the swelling hate and bitterness. For a split second, it reminded him of the Ork mind he had been reading just a few moments before. It was a troubling comparison. 

 

Switching the archeotech pistol to his left hand, he drew Durandal with his right and turned towards the chamber's exit.  The Knight glanced back to his companion and nodded.

 

“Well, brother, let's not disappoint them.”   

 

***

 

They stepped over the two headless bodies sprawled across the doorway, leaving the darkness of the antechamber and walking back into the light. Compared to the near total blackness of the Glutton's lair, the shadowy cantina appeared almost well lit.  

 

The gaming tables and gambling stations they had passed earlier had all been removed, creating a kill zone around the chamber's entrance. Most of the furniture had been piled up into a ramshackle barricade, tables and benches overturned to provide cover for the cantina's patrons. It seemed every man, woman and Xenos in the bar had gathered behind this improvised barrier. It was a surprising show of force and unity from such normally disparate beings, the Knight mused.

 

++ Are you ready brother? ++ He telepathically implanted the message in his companions mind, as he visually noted the weapons arrayed against them. Las-locks, bolters, plasma blasters, rotary autoguns, grenade launchers, shuriken catapults, pulse charged Kroot rifles. It was an impressive amount of fire-power, he decided.

 

++ Emitters are fully charged ++ Malachi voxed back immediately. ++ Activating now ++ 

 

As usual, Erekose felt his skin crawl as the power field enveloped them. The Techmarine's armour mounted a generator that created a small, close proximity force barrier, an invisible actinic shield that was theoretically capable of deflecting almost any bombardment. Their opponents couldn't see it, but the two Sword Bearers were now protected far more effectively than they were.

 

For a moment, there was nothing but silence. The crowd simply stared, seemingly reluctant to open fire on the massive, power armoured warriors before them. Erekose could see the uncertainty within their eyes. Even the Xenos were hesitant, and with good reason. The reputation of the Adeptus Astartes was well earned, only the brave or foolish would willingly declare war on them.

 

Closing his eyes, the Knight began to scan the individual minds facing him. As he expected, there was no consensus or solidarity within the mob. The myriad humans and aliens that formed the firing line held no loyalty or allegiance to the Glutton, or even to each other. Fear of the Astartes was their sole motivation, and desperation alone had led them into this temporary alliance. 

 

Opening his eyes once more, Erekose realised that it was humans he despised the most. The Xenos were simply what they were. Aliens. Beasts. The monsters the Space Marines had been created to destroy. But the humans amongst them had willingly turned their backs on the Emperor's light, allying themselves with the darkness to protect their own vain, selfish ambitions. That they had raised weapons against the Emperor's chosen sons was inconsequential compared to their greater betrayal of the species itself.

 

Malachi was right. Such heretics deserved only death, and only death would absolve them of their crimes. 

 

It was a human female who fired the first shot, bionic implants and armoured exoskeleton indicating her Skitari past. A high intensity laser beam struck the power field, dissipating harmlessly across it's surface.  The entire mob immediately followed suit. Bolts and solid slugs crashed into the Sword Bearers position, each impact sparking furiously against the energy shield. Streams of razor sharp shurikens ricocheted wildly away in all directions. Grenades and thermal detonators exploded around them, blasting huge chunks of masonry from the surrounding walls. A flamer was brought to bear, discharging great gouts of clinging promethium that set the entire rear section of the cantina ablaze. 

 

Through it all, the Sword Bearers remained unmoving, weathering the storm. Gun smoke and dust filled the air, gradually hiding them from view, Still the crowd continued to fire, even when their targets were no longer visible.

 

Finally, the shooting began to peter out. One by one, every weapon clicked empty. Silence fell once more, disturbed only by crackling flames and the sound of frantic reloading.

 

As the smoke and dust began to slowly clear, a deep, mechanical voice boomed across the cantina, amplified for everyone to hear.

 

“Now can we kill them?”

 

Durandal flared, a blinding, blue white light amongst the clinging black smoke. It was the only answer the Techmarine needed.

 

Together, the two brothers stepped forwards, and absolution began. 

 

 

Edited January 28, 2014 by spacedhulk

[Cactus]

Fantastic, but don't get cocky kid.

[deathspectersgt7]

You stole my line, That was A Great read Brother and I hope that the story will go further.

[Brother Excedis]

The ending was quite simply awesome. Exactly as pissed off Space Marines should act. You're progress is marvelous brother.

[recon0321]

Spaced hulk

 

Wow what a good ending can't wait for the next story....great job

[Master Avoghai]

Excellent...

 

LET

 

ABSOLUTION

 

BEGIIIIIIIIN!!!!!!!!!

 

 

(And the lol effect : this is not the servitors we were looking for ahah :lol: )

[Urael]

Brother Spaced Hulk... why in the name of the Emperor are you not employed by The Black Library? :) Seriously, your writing puts Soooo many of their authors to shame.

You are a credit to all Sons of the Lion. :)

[Galthan Ironsturm]

Absolutely Brother-Urael !

 

One word: brilliant!

[Spaced Hulk]

Thank you for the kind words brothers  Said it many times but I really do appreciate all your support and encouragement. Although I'd written some IA articles etc in the past, I've only really been writing fiction for about the last 12 months or so (the "Twas the night before" mini-story was actually the very first one I'd ever managed to finish). Writing for the Black Library would pretty much be my dream job, but from what I've read, their submission windows are quite limited and as I've never previously had anything published, I'm not quite sure of the best way of approaching them. Hopefully one day I'll be good enough and lucky enough to write for them 

 

Anyway...glad you all like the story  I'd originally intended it to be a one off piece of character background (similar to the stories for Crom, the Moritat etc) but I'm pretty sure I'll be revisiting Erekose & Mal at some point in the future. However, the next stuff I write will definatly be a return to the Necropolis story line. I think Aldous has languished in the clutches of the Fallen for quite long enough 

 

Thanks again brothers. There'll hopefully be some more model pics (possibly even painted ones!) in the next week or so too. 

[Eternal Warrior]

Magnificent. The only request is that when this is all done is that the story be in printable form. Maybe some of us can get together and voice act it. I want to be able to read it from beginning to end. Truly a work of art.

[Augustus]

The best way to approach them?

I'm in favor of harassment until they do.

[Master Avoghai]

Well the best way si to convert it using an ePub software and put it online...

[Spaced Hulk]

Update time Here's some WIP pics of the first half of my new Tactical Squad. Unlike the other Tac squads I've built, this one won't be robed, as I want to paint some normal marines in the actual Chapter colours. In addition, this entire squad will be equipped solely with bolters (no upgrades), both as a throwback to the Great Crusade era Legion organisation, and also to maximise the use of the Standard of Devastation.

Tactical Unit Five-Three (Fifth Squad, Third Company), The Death Seekers.

Demi-Squad, under the command of Veteran Sergeant Kasmir Llywelyn,

Still need to drill the barrels and clean up a few mould lines, but other than that I'm pleased with how they're looking. Even though they're all armed the same, I wanted each marine to look individual, like a mini-character in their own right.

Thanks for looking, C&C are welcome as always

Edited February 2, 2014 by spacedhulk

[deathspectersgt7]

A good start on the Squad . OK where are the grenades from on this Brother?

Edited February 2, 2014 by deathspectersgt7

[Spaced Hulk]

The Scout bike kit mate. Lots of really useful bits on those sprues 

[deathspectersgt7]

Wow really I have not even looked at that kit,. 

[Spaced Hulk]

And another update (had quite a productive weekend )

Unknown Praetorian, Sword Bearers Chapter Master Bodyguard, armed with paired electro-magnetic broadswords:

Unknown Praetorian, Chapter Master Bodyguard, armed with bolter-flamer combi-weapon & electro-magnetic broadsword:

In game terms, Praetorians are a DA Command Squad for my counts-as Azrael, so I need to build another three. They'll all have winged or crested battle helms, and they'll all be armed with their signature weapon: one or more electro-magnetic broadswords, which will count as lightning claws.

Finally for today, this guy has been sneaking around my modelling area for a while, avoiding being photographed. No prizes for guessing who he is

Thanks for looking, C&C are welcome as always.

[Urael]

The Praetorians look great! Each one could easily be a company master. :)

[deathspectersgt7]

Hey you were holding out on me . The Praetorians look Great  Aldous looks great also. 

[Spaced Hulk]

Cheers brothers  Ever since I first saw the new Sternguard models I thought they'd make a really cool honour guard, so pretty pleased with how the Praetorians are turning out.

 

Not 100% happy with Aldous, but I think that's mainly because I'm not particularly that fond of the plastic scout models. Will try adding some more equipment and details, but I suspect I could make a much better version from Anvil Industry bits.

 

Thanks again guys (and for the likes)   

Edited February 3, 2014 by spacedhulk