13th Black Crusade (Community Stories only)

[Jaminos]

Since we did not have a place for it, I started a thread for just posting our short stories. Any questions or comments you may have should be directed to this link:http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/278374-13th-black-crusade-community-project/

 

I will update this first post with a glossary of all of the stories currently posted and their respective Chapter/Legion as well as the author responsible.

 

Thanks, Jaminos

 

 

 

Glossary:

 

Angelos Dante-

(Title to be announced)

Faction: Imperial Guard.

(Page 1)

[Angelos Dante]

Okay well here is mine, will take ideas for a title as I've got no thoughts so far. Also, feel free to PM me to critique so it doesn't break up the stories posted by everyone.

 

 

 

 

The dark was almost impossible to see through, it was not
the dark of a night but a cloying thing, a darkness that seeped into the body
and brought a feeling of despair with it as well as a numbness to the
extremities.

 

Guardsman Korrin felt the rappel line on his back yank
slightly and swing him sideways, looking back up to the half destroyed fortress
wall top he could no longer see his squad mates above, even with his spectrum
visor strapped tightly across his eyes.

 

Through the eighty metre descent in the rain, each strike of
water felt as an ice shard stabbing bare skin, even the several layers of black
padded mesh weave and strategically positioned carapace he felt the shiver of
the leeching cold, his bare face took the brunt of the harsh weather and bone
chilling temperature.

 

spread eagle the soldier drifted towards the ground gently,
silently praying that the line didn't snap and send him plummeting to his
death, he couldn't admit to the others, but he had a heart stopping fear of heights,
a fear, he felt, rightly earned when younger and having fallen from the cliff
top near his home to the lake below, breaking an arm in the flailing dive, swearing
he would never again take both feet from the ground, quite impossible given his
occupation but the feeling was there.

 

He knew to his left - though he was invisible in the dark,
was Adabaijou. Swinging in a similarly precarious position, beside him, though
just as invisible as his squad mate were a dozen others from their platoon.
They had all made bets on who would land first, most bet on Korrin, though it
wouldn't be as living soul at the end, they had laughed.

 

This was his first action, acutely aware that he was green,
at nearly two decades of age he was no longer a boy, though the young hairless
face often worked against his need to be seen as a man, the rest of the platoon
never let him forget it, taking the brunt of the beasting from the veterans and,
at times, other green recruits who were just happy to escape barrage
themselves, he knew he had something to prove, and when he had drawn the
shortest lot he believed fate or the Emperor had offered him the opportunity.

 

 

 

  Korrin saw the
sentry beneath him, a flame weapon in hand, using the pilot light for the tabac
half hanging out of his mouth, the battered conical helm was the only thing
covering his head from the rain as the closer Korrin came, poorly it seemed,
the closer he drifted to the sentry, the louder he heard the grumbling, some
dialect of low gothic, no doubt as miserable in the rain as guardsman was.

 

Without looking away Korrin fumbled through his pockets for
the steel wire, his eyes unintentionally wide behind the visor, murmuring
wordlessly, hoping the heretic didn't look up at any moment to see the dangling
guardsman swinging from side to side like a trapped arachnid in the wind.

 

Grunting to himself Korrin turned his eyes away and reached
into his pocket, digging the wire out just as a flash of lightning peeled high
above, turning to look down on the sentry the gaurdsman saw him pause, staring
intently at the ground before turning slowly to look up, at this distance they
were measured in a metre at best, the tabac hung from the soldier's too large
mouth, whilst a great milky eye stamped in the centre of the beast's head
squinted, trying to focus through the dark, staggering back as if struck the
mutant gasped, a brief moment of confusion as they met each other's eyes, the
frozen dissipated with a curse,

 

":cuss" Korrin growled, reaching round to his back
and squeezing the decoupler for the rappel, landing onto the mutant with a grunt
before a call of alert could be uttered, the creature's flamer flew away, as
did Korrin's garrotte wire, rolling and fumbling in the mud and the rain, the
guard hadn't trained him how to fight in a situation like this, it was a
maddened, dirty scrap, bayonet work was all he knew, and even then he was
mediocre.

 

The only thing that mattered was not letting the mutant call
to its comrades, every now and then the sentry would wrestle free from beneath
him, open its sickening toothless sucking mouth to make a noise before Korrin
jammed his fist into the mutant's extended maw, the sentry thrashed wildly as Korrin
drove the other fist into its gut, receiving a ham fisted blow in return that
made his head swim, mud caked them both as the ice cold rain still beat down on
them both, eventually the sentry used his larger bulk, straddling Korrin as he
drove blow after blow into the guardsman's head, more intent on killing the
guardsman than calling his friends now. Bringing his fists up to ward of the
blows Korrin felt each punch slow his thinking down beyond the next, he twisted
under the bulk, unable to move but to wriggle and try his best to stop the
fists connected with his head until finally - blessedly, the punches stopped
only for the mutant to reach down, both hands going for his throat to strangle
the life from the guardsman.

 

His hands grabbed the wrists of the warp twisted creature,
trying to pry the vice like grip from his throat, he felt his legs kicking,
desperate to dislodge the attacker as panic set in, unable to draw breath,
heart beating faster and no oxygen to spread to the rest of his body or brain,
manically he reached up, pulling at the mutant's mouth, driving weak punches
into its face before jamming both thumbs into the wide milky orb beneath the
conical helm, a growl of pain caused the mutant's grip to slacken enough for Korrin
to draw breath in, a weak thrust threw the mutant up from his body and to the
ground, gasping for his breath back, Korrin didn't even feel the rain coming
down anymore, only each ragged breath drawn in to grateful lungs, his throat
still felt like it was being squeezed shut, but each breath was life, rolling
to his side he saw the mutant on its knees, both hands covering it's eye as it
struggled and failed to get to its feet, blood coated its enclosed fingers and
face.

 

weakly Korrin brought himself to his feet, the mesh weave
and carapace felt like he had a battle tank strapped to each limb, reaching for
his black coated bayonet wedged in his boot he wearily drove it down between the
shoulder blades of the growling creature, it tensed and struggled desperately,
hands flailing as it tried to push up from its knees, only pushing the blade
deeper into its flesh, eventually pulling the steel out with a twist and a weak
kick Korrin shoved the mutant face first into the rain slicked mud, rolling it
over with a boot before leaning down, staring the heretic in the blood drenched
eye before drawing the blade across its throat, silencing the mewling forever.

 

 

A groan escaped Korrin's lips as he pulled a broken tooth
from his already swelling jaw, flicking it to the ground as he staggered over
to the rappel line, giving it five swift tugs.

 

This was his first ever kill. Plenty of the others had kill
marks upon their rifles or notches on their blades depending on the manner, but
he didn't feel pride in the kill, he didn't feel  shame, he worried that he only felt nothing.
The mutant wasn't human, so it didn't feel the same as taking a life, the
Ecclesiarchy taught them that to take a mutant's life in the Emperor's name was
not a sin and did in fact help them to the Lord of Mankind's side when the time
came.

 

 

 

 He left the mutant
where it lay, in a pile beneath the wall, seeing no other sentries around he
knew that the rest of his platoon would have taken care of their own tasks with
perhaps a bit more stealth.

 

Shrugging he used the time to survey the surroundings. The
fortress walls were shattered from the siege that once took place here, black
stone, this had been one of the lesser Kasrs
apparently, sitting upon a moon above Prosan, the first world of Cadia as it
was known, closest to the life giving star of the system, the world below was
one of the most hostile in the sub-sector, providing the training for the
kasrkin and Interior Guard of the Cadians.   

 

 Korrin had developed
a firm respect for the Cadians since his posting with the Ilrantine, they lived
their lives as if each moment was a battle, it was one of the reasons why they
were held up in the esteemed ranks of the Favoured, alongside the Terran
Mechanised, Valhallan Warriors and Mordian Guard to name but a few. Korrin's
own kith from Ilrantine were not bred under the constant idea of each day being
a threat to be attacked, but much had changed in the last decade. Korrin knew
that his world was as much in danger of the threats pouring from the 'Eye' -as
the veterans called it, as the Cadian system he found himself in.

 

littering the environs of the fortress seemingly at random
were great leather tepees and makeshift tents, thousands of them of all shapes
and sizes, laying the way down avenues between these tents were great
standards, lining the way every hundred metres or so, crucified to these was a
sight that sent a shiver down the soldier's spine, black armoured warriors,
beaten and mutilated, dismembered brutally, these were the previous guardians,
the kasrkin elite. Slain to a man and paraded like cheap trophies, they were
soldiers, heroes one and all, they deserved a better fate than that.

 

He felt revulsion turn to nausea, his head still swam from
the beating  but paying any attention to
the odd symbols that were daubed over the leather tents began making his eyes
water and head thoughts feel sluggish; through the crowd of tents he saw a
great ziggurat rising from the ground, the briefing they had received didn't
mention anything within the kasr's parade grounds like that. there was meant to
be a minor fort with a barracks in each of the four quadrants, but...nothing.

 

 The moon had gone
dark two months previously, when their warship Twisting Virtue had entered the system; There were no hails, no
satellites in orbit, but oddly enough no enemy battleships to contend with,
theirs was merely a patrol whilst Cadia found its own forces spread far and
wide throughout the sub-sector, the call of levy
en masse  brought regiments from the
sector into increasing patrols, tightening the lines, though none could say
what for. Coming upon the silent moon they had scanned it for life, finding
anomalous readings but no codes were sent from the bastion that guarded the
watch world. They would have bombarded the planet and followed in with the
regiment to clear up survivors but for higher command belaying the order.

 

a series of squelching noises behind him announced the
arrival of his own squad, alongside grumbles as they tried to brush off the mud
caking their black mesh,

 

"Shiny, carry your own rifle next time"

 

Korrin turned to see his lasrifle splash into the mud,
thrown by one of the veterans, a grumble of insults went under his breath as he
collected it, crouching down next to Sergeant Bharjin, he quickly relayed what
he had seen, Adabaijou and the others doing likewise, no comments on his own
battered appearance as the grizzled, greying sergeant stared straight ahead, as
if his eyes could pierce the hulking construct before them, only after he
finished did he notice the black cloaked person kneeling a few feet away
similarly focussed on the ziggurat, no part of the figure was visible beneath
the cowl, he noticed, but immediately felt a tingle on unease at the presence.

 

"Back into line, guardsman"

 

Kneeling next to Adabaijou he nodded his head over to the
shadowy figure who now spoke to the sergeant,

 

"Who is that?"

 

"Dunno, some advisor or something"

 

"Advisor? for what? Everyone said this was just a
normal night op? what would we need an advisor for?"

 

"I don't know shiny, do I look like frakking army
intel? Just shut up and don't get any of us shot by your damned yapping!"

 

Shrugging Korrin wiped his rifle down, removing the clip and
wiping it before hearing that comfortable click and warmth as it slotted back
into place, energy cells charged by the indicator on the side.

 

"All squads are advancing on that fort, we are to make
no first contact with the enemy, repeat, no initial contact. Only fire unless
fired upon, this is a silent op. anyone who fraks this up will be suckling on
the end of my pistol"

 

 

 

Unease passed through Korrin, they were just meant to get
within the walls, kill anything that resisted and take the kasr back, what were
they sneaking about for? he counted the tents, giving up after his scan made it
easily a few hundred even without looking over, there were easily thousands of
them. small campfires and roaring fires lit up the dark rituals and
celebrations, unabated by the frozen rain and gusting wind.

 

He kept his mouth shut, he knew better than to ask
questions, instead following his sergeant forward as the twenty men left the
shade of the ruined kasr wall, moving through the maze of tents, ignoring the
howls and laughter of the heretics and mutants, the sound like braying animals
at times, others like hissing serpents but rarely like men. Several times they
were forced to stop as staggering shadows cast against the tents of intoxicated
heretics as they passed down the main avenues of the tent lines passed by, at
times they were forced to dart across main paths, he felt his heart beating
harder in those moments, the braziers more like searchlights illuminating him
for all to see before he sunk into the shadows on the other side, waiting for
the shriek or howl of alert, huffing in air from his sore throat he placed a
hand against one tent, feeling something disrupt the smoothness, removing his
visor and looking closer he realised it was a belly button, sucking in a breath
through his teeth he flinched back as if stung.

 

He looked up from time to time, the labyrinth seemed to take
them further away from the ziggurat, then it was almost as if they were next to
it, only to skirt away again, the path was maddening, but Bharjin seemed to
have ceded control of the mission to the 'advisor' who steered them left and
right, Korrin stopped sharp, almost falling forward as two hulking great
mutants walked passed, beasts of insane size, they were enormous humanoids,
striding at ten metres height easily, dressed in ridiculously heavy plating, as
if they needed to make themselves look bigger. Turning, Korrin eyed Adabaijou's
grenade launcher, wondering if even than would stop one of those giants.

 

He felt a nudge from behind as it came time to dash another
large avenue; It was large enough to drive two chimera transports down side by
side he judged with a grimace. Another nudge and a curse made him push forward
until halfway out of the small alley he nearly ran into a staggering red robed
mutant, two great black horns stretched from a sloping face, whilst half a
dozen eyes stared back at him from beneath the tattered robe, it loosely held a
human skull, sloshing with what he knew wasn't a some alcoholic substance,
whilst the other hand idly scratched it's blistered thigh, on instinct he
charged towards the mutant, only realising moments before he tackled it that it
held a dozen inches in height on him, the impact felt as if he were tackling a
marble statue, he pushed it back one step as it just looked down on him in
confusion, dropping its skull chalice and driving its oversized fist on the end
of a reedy arm between his shoulder blades, knocking him to its feet and the
breath from his lungs. He rolled to his back as five of his squad darted
forward at the mutant, tackling it over with considerable effort, their
bayonets stabbing in every exposed piece of flesh, it thrashed and brayed,
tight grey skin around it's yellow eyes crinkling in agony and hate as it
roared in some dark tongue before a blade ended the call.

 

Reaching up a hand Korrin grunted in annoyance when no one
helped him, though that swiftly fell away as he saw those around him in firing
positions, some standing others kneeling in a circle as he himself turned to
find half a hundred mutants and heretics stalk from their flesh covered tents
in curiosity or alarm at the braying noise.

 

"You've frakkin killed us shiny. Get your weapon
up"

 

Lifting his lasrifle in shaking hands he made a half hearted
attempt at aiming down the sights, feeling his hands shake as so many of the
mutants stomped towards them...there were just so many.

 

howls and roars erupted from the mutant horde, but not  a sound was uttered from the stranded
Imperials, no battle cries or declarations, they simply shouldered their
rifles, the smartest of them knowing that they, even now, bought time for the
rest of their squad to get away, they knew that the mission was all that
mattered, the sergeant and the others within their strike force had to get into
the construct and finish the mission, that was all that mattered.

 

las-rounds streamed from the small circle of black, every
direction igniting with red light, a few tents caught on fire with the extreme
heat of the focussed light weaponry, it was impossible to miss as the mutants
charged forward, slithering and leaping in some cases, Korrin felt his heart
beating so fast he could barely notice the stops between as he sighted down his
rifle, seeing a half human half arachnid creature leaping towards the huddle on
twelve legs, its two human arms swinging wildly whilst a tongue reached out
from a smooth face, as if tasting the meal to come, his round caught it in the
midriff, another three doing likewise no damage, before his eleventh round -
more by luck than judgement took the foul amalgam in the human portion's chest,
collapsing to the ground to provide a barrier to others of its kindred.

 

Dropping the spent clip to the ground he slotted in another,
ignoring the harsh rain crashing down and the now uncontrollable fire of the
flesh-tents as they quickly lit up the others alongside in a furious cascade of
flame. He almost thought they had a chance, he was surrounded by veterans, each
of them a marksman, serving in several campaigns from the Northern Marchers in
the galactic north to the eastern reaches of space, fighting xenos and human,
each of their las-rounds found a place in a mutant's body, they were holding
back an ever swelling tide.

 

But then the mutants unleashed their own weapons. Realising
the threat of trying to overwhelm a organised firing line with axes and cudgels
was foolish in the extreme, their solid slugs and las-weaponry began crashing
into the unprotected guardsman, mesh only able to take so much shock damage
before it was torn to pieces, with no cover they were ripped apart under the
fusillade.

 

 Korrin felt a round
strike his shoulder, knocking him to the ground as he was caught by a secondary
solid blow, twisting him in his fall, he watched the two remaining guardsman
keep firing, not stepping back and not turning away, firing down the avenue
before switching again, yet, as inevitable as the tides of an ocean they were
swept away like useless fuselage, riddled by various solid shots and las blasts
they were recuded to steaming lumps of flesh, but to his eternal shame Korrin
never looked back as he crawled across the mud, throwing himself through a
rising fire of a burning tent to escape.

 

 

 

His face was on fire, he could feel it even as he slapped
the flames down; he could barely see out of his right eye, staggering as he did
until he lost himself in the darkness again. Turning his remaining bloodshot eye
up toward the ziggurat he could hear the chaos behind him as the mutant horde
awoke fully, he pushed on, following where he thought the rest of his squad had
gone. He couldn't face dying back there with the others, there was no honour in
that, the idea of such a meaningless death was anathema - he wanted to live,
maybe even see home one day, but if he had to die then he would not sell his
life so pointlessly.

 

 

 

He came upon the ziggurat more by accident than design. The
black stone steps that led to the great doorway were lined with banners; a
leering black face with horns on a field of red, a white robed maiden with arms
outstretched as if beseeching the heavens for an answer then two banners each
side behind them depicting symbols that gave him a familiar nauseous feeling,
reminding him of when he stared too long at the flesh-tents.

 

To his surprise there were no guardians waiting, here and
there a red robed body lay scattered like discarded refuse. He reached down,
picking up a discarded scattergun, his own lasrifle left behind with his fallen
squad mates, loading the weapon he quickly mounted the steps of the ziggurat,
fighting down the rising unease, letting it be washed away with adrenaline even
as he walked into the high entranceway now illuminated by a glowing blue light
from deeper within, with a final look back he watched as sections of the camp
lay in flames, whilst skirmishes had broken out in other areas, he grimaced,
knowing that the other platoons were clearly being punished in other areas of
the camp, yet it was so vast he couldn't see the walls of the kasr from here,
especially with the ever present cloying darkness, but still the rain stabbed
down from the sky as he turned his back of the scene of developing carnage,
walking into the light.

 

 

 

The corridors of blackest stone gave away nothing of the
pathway, he couldn't feel if he was walking  down a decline, though he had the distinct
sensation he was travelling down to the core of the planet itself, but still he
made turns at random, lack of light made it harder to search for a way forward,
he could no longer use his visor to see with half his face still in agony,
every now and then he would hear skittering, or the beat of wings in the
distance or just above him, but never a sight to be seen until the silent and
unending passages suddenly gave way to shouting and screaming, punctuated by
the unmistakeable sound of weapons fire.

 

He stood in a vast temple beneath the earth. It's very feel,
even in the skirmish that had broken out held that same sense of oldness and
sanctity of time before man, a sense of tragedy permeated the underground
temple, the tragedy of knowing too much and never being able to forget flooded
into him, a place of secrets and hidden things where supplicants would come to
beg information or power from some divine source, though now it was almost in complete
ruin. As many ancient pillars stretched to the shadowed roof as had collapsed
in their age. No light lit the temple but for a rapidly accelerating statue at
the far end which cast that same eerie glowing blue light, not touching the
shadows but casting the pillars and crags that were visible in the dark blue
light of a sky about to give way to night.

 

The hundreds of pillars stretched towards the eerie blue
light, two spinning  in some kind of
perpetual motion, squinting through the light it generated he saw it was in
fact two U-shaped slabs  of what looked
like stone or rough metal, he couldn't tell. One sat inside the other as they
span in opposing directions, to his eyes they looked to pick up speed, turning
his attention to the rest of his squad, now only nine left, darting between the
pillars, trading shots with the larger numbers of heretic priests, a plume of
fire and smoke lit up the scene, Adabaijou was still alive it seemed.

 

Quickly his attention was stolen from his squad as he saw a
figure in black standing atop the first step leading up from the pillars to the
U-shaped objects, hands outstretched as lightning crackled from his grasp, the
'advisor' was more than he appeared, a psyker it seemed. Korrin spat on the
floor on impulse, some prejudices were too deep, the final figure in the scene
stopped Korrin cold.

 

It wasn't possible.

 

those words were laughable now, after all he had seen in the
short hour since mission start, and yet, it was true.

 

An Emperor's Angel.

 

Clad in baroque armour of scarlet he stood at the top of the
steps, his holy weapon in hand, struggling to bring it to bear on the psyker;
his face was a dirty golden colour, small horns crowned his own head as his
armour clattered the skulls of fallen mortals. He seemed wrong, different from the murals and sermons of the ecclesiarchy.

 

Ignoring the roaring pain in his shoulder and side where he
knew those rounds hadn't punctured him but no doubt fractured a few bones, he
leapt over fallen pillars, working his way around the side of one surprisingly
human looking robed heretic; crouched he slid round the side of a pillar, the
dark priests weren't hard to find even if you didn't look for the crack of
rounds, or blood red robes, their monotonous droning gave themselves away,
though the words meaning escaped him they hurt his head, finding his nose bleeding
if he listened too closely. As the priest fired off a shot from his autopistol
he dropped behind a collapsed pillar, bracing his legs Korrin spun around his
own pillar, the priest had enough time to turn to his left and catch the motion
before the shotgun blew a dozen ragged holes in his body, screaming as he fell
to the floor Korrin fired again splashing the priest's brainpan across the
floor for a metre.

 

 Quickly Korrin found
cover as the dark priests realised an Imperial had gotten behind them and began
spraying auto rounds in his direction. He felt
more than heard a concussive boom as a grenade went off nearby, he peered round
the pillar to find two of the priests twisted against a pillar, body parts
scattered in a bloody mess,

 

"Unity!" Korrin called out, desperate for a reply

 

"Aquila" a stuttered reply came, "identify
yourself!"

 

 "It's me, Korrin,
guardsman one-five-eight-niner-niner-"

 

"Yeah alright shiny we hear you, what the hell are you
doing here? we thought you'd all kissed earth"  

 

Korrin slipped around a few pillars, leaping the rubble and
scrabbling over the bit of cover the last of his squad held,

 

"Frak, Korrin. You look like a tank tread rolled over
you"

 

"Good to see you too, Adebaijou. What happened?"

 

"A mess. we got here, seems that advisor is some high
level adept, psyker to boot. got into a fight with these priests who were in
the process of killing themselves, damn shame we stopped 'em. Then that bloody
space marine attacks, killed ten of us including the sergeant in a blink with that
bastard gun of his before the adept got involved and just...I dunno...stopped him"

 

Korrin nodded, looking back over the fallen pillar seeing
the remaining priests reforming, coming at the beleaguered guardsman again as
they tried to get close enough to use their wicked shaped sickle hand weapons,
but that blue light shone brighter, the Angel had moved a step closer to the
adept, clearly whatever he was doing wasn't strong enough to stop the myth made
real.

 

"-happened? where are they?"

 

Korrin turned back round to face Adebaijou, a look of
consternation on his face,

 

"What happened? Where are the others?"

 

Korrin looked away again, "Dead. we need to move up,
the adept can't hold that big frakker for long, and unless it's me, that blue
thing is getting faster, whatever is happening looks like it will happen
soon"

 

The others grumbled but gripped their lasrifles tighter,

 

"We move up" gripping Adebaijou's shoulder "I
need you to keep their heads down, while we make the run, once we are out of
cover you run with us"   

 

No one questioned a 'shiny' giving orders, they were
soldiers looking for a direction, their options limited, they now had a plan
that made as much sense as any other, grimly they hunkered down, waiting to
push up and over.

 

"Now!"

 

grenades flew over head, close enough for the passage to
brush the hair upon their scalps; arcs of smoking contrails showed the
destination as they detonated. Cries of agony were as music whilst the
guardsman charged onward, blind firing from the surviving priests clipped the
Imperials, some fell, others grudgingly pushed onwards, Korrin jumped onto the
shattered pillar to his left, firing his shotgun and racking it in between
sharp breaths, blowing the clutch of red robed heretics apart in a storm of
shrapnel, when he ran dry he dropped down upon the survivor, gripping the
barrel of his shotgun and wielding it like a club, releasing all his anger,
pain and shame in each blow, using strength he didn't know he had as the priestess
tried to shield herself from the blows, but each strike pushed her arms down,
lower until with a final crack against the skull she went still.

 

Turning, Korrin saw Adebaijou stumble a few metres behind
him as an auto round struck him high in the chest and again in the thigh,
staggering the last few metres he slumped with a cough against the collapsed
pillar Korrin crouched on the other side of, with no words but for a gobbet of
bloody phlegm Adebaijou pushed his grenade launcher over the side into Korrin's
waiting hands, not looking  over to see
if any of the other guardsman survived he ran towards the glowing blue stone
construct and the adept mere seconds from death.

 

  Bracing himself
Korrin fired a grenade into the chest of the ruddy armoured space marine, each
shot felt like a sin, an unforgiveable act pushing him closer to damnation, but
he daren't stop, seeing the blackened shrapnel embedded in the armour only
magnified the horror with each squeeze of the trigger, but only grunts came
from the Angel as it's hulking pistol shakily rose towards him

 

"The...Ostium!"

 

the adept barked, the cloak shredded from some unknown force,
revealing golden armour beneath with a stylised
I in the centre of her chest; a buzz-cut of white hair and a bionic left
eye the only thing marking the woman out as anything other than an ordinary
woman,

 

"Aeternus Ostium! Shoot it! Shoot the gate!"

 

She didn't once look at Korrin as sweat poured down her
face, her words cultured and clipped, with very little hint of an accent,
reddened by exertion and blood dripping from her eyes in blazing tear tracks
she looked every bit as fierce as a wild jungle cat. Turning from the Angel and
the psyker he aimed over at the spinning blue shrine, seeing now that in the
centre of the smaller U was  the source
of the light itself - a glowing ball of blue energy through it he thought he
could see...something, a face? there
was something in there, peering closer he knew it would be clearer if he gave
it a few more minutes, the face was so familiar, was it his father? long dead
these years, or perhaps his mother's mother, who had always given him sweet
treats when he came to see her by the coast in her compound as a boy

 

"Shoot it, guardsman!"

 

reluctantly he brought the grenade launcher up and fired,
surprised at the force as he felt himself fly backwards with a thunderclap.

 

 

 

He came to with a cough and a mangled grin. Looking around
he saw the light was gone, the ringing in his ears was fading to background
noise as he picked up voices quietly speaking

 

"You have failed traitor. Tell me what your lord was
planning for this place and I will end your suffering, I swear it in the name
of the Inquisition and the God-Emperor"

 

"You think this is suffering...thi-this is nothing. I
do not fear death. I bring the Word, and the Word is War!" a racking cough
broke off the sentence as Korrin heard a loud crack, he rolled his head across
the ground, unable to see where the voices were coming from, he reached down to
check for any wounds, with dumb shock he couldn't feel his legs, lifting his
hand up he realised his arm was missing at the elbow

 

"This is the beginning...We are coming...The Hand of
Fate...Our Shepherd will shuffle this ball of dirt and the
others...Scre-screaming into divinity"

 

"You speak in riddles, what do you mean? who is the
Shepherd? What is the Hand of Fate?"

 

A sigh was the only thing that broke the silence after a few
moments, trying to bring himself to his feet, he was glad the pain hadn't
kicked in yet, though he knew he would pay for it later. He didn't realise how
cold this temple was,

 

"You fought well guardsman. What is your name?"

 

Korrin looked around until the white haired woman came into
view, she was a mess of blood, her human eye closed in a blood slicked mess,
her cheek exposed to the bone, the rest of her looked worse for wear, standing
over him as an angel of judgement

 

"Trooper Medinus Korrin. Ilrantine one-hundred and
eleventh rifle corps. Serial Number..."

 

He panicked for a moment, he knew this, he knew his number. She
seemed to see worry etch his face

 

"Be at peace, trooper Korrin. You saved this moon.
Cadia owes you a debt of gratitude. Rest now, the Emperor protects"

 

"The Emperor protects" he mumbled in reply,
feeling his eyes drift closed as the woman turned away

 

"It is done. Prep the teleporter, get me out of here as
soon as possible. We have much to do, I believe something larger is happening
in the Cadian system, this is no mere raid from the Eye this time"