A tale of Fallen....

[Thaelion Hexis]

Battle psyker Nexus dived behind the wreckage of a rhino as a torrent of shells bombarded the area. He grit his teeth in anger as groups of his former brothers converged on his position, feeling warp energy swirl within him. He had been a loyal Dark Angel since the beginning, one of the first to leave Terra with The Emperor on the Great Crusade, eventually finding the father of his legion upon Caliban. Now Caliban was a warzone, The Lion and the rest of his brothers showing their true nature. Leaving the oldest, truest Angels behind, now returning to put them to the sword. The anger built within as Nexus allowed his mind to delve further into the warp than ever before....

 

In an instant, Nexus' eyes glowed with warp fire and he felt the power coursing through him. He charged from the wreckage at his former brothers, shielding himself from bolter fire and engulfing the marines in flame before hitting their lines, his force sword slicing through armour and flesh alike. In moments, the squad was dead, their souls being drawn towards the warp fire haze surrounding the newly embraced sorcerer. He had little time to savour the moment. the ground around him began to crack, purple light bursting from the darkness. He felt his mind pulled away from the present and into the void...

 

Nexus shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts, his eyes heavy. As he began to focus he could make out what seemed to be the inner hull of an unknown ship. Extending his mind outwards to gain some insight into his situation left more confusion than anything else. Something seemed different. Wrong. Having little patience he grabbed his sword and headed out of what appeared to be a store room, entering what he could only percieve as a prison hold. As he eyed up the varied prisoners he could sense psychic potential in each one, some clearly able to only move simple objects with their minds, others capable of tearing apart the cell block, or even the ship, if they knew how.

 

Pressing onwards Nexus heard the familiar sound of weapon inspection. He stopped and extended his mind's eye down the corridoor, sensing the life of four humans. Having only been fighting for his life on Caliban, Nexus still had a lust for battle, following the trail his projection had left. Before the unknown soldiers could properly respond, Nexus caught them in a death grip, each one dropping to the ground as lifeless husks. With a sinister smile, Nexus now realised why such powers had been denied to them before. He felt the limits of reality as he knew them fade with this newfound freedom....

 

Examining the uniforms of the dead soldiers revealed little. Their insignia was a mystery to him, as was their pattern of weaponry. Calming from his previous battle lust, Nexus knew he needed to find answers. The next few hours became the thing of nightmares for the crew of the unknown ship. Between strategy and psychic mastery, the determined Angel stalked the ship, removing anyone he could without drawing attention through a variety of methods, psychic or otherwise. The tech adept ministering to an escape chute found himself launched into space. An armed patrol caught in a freak plasma vent. A servitor going on a rampage before burning out. The Dark Angel made his way across the ship, eventually finding his way to the bridge...

 

An armoured figure stood at the command console, directing his crewmen with their duties. He sensed the new arrival on the bridge through his own psychic means and turned to face the trespasser.

"I am Inquisitor Vorax. I do not know how you got aboard my ship, but I have ways of finding out."

With heightened reflexes Nexus drew his bolt pistol and ended the lives of the Inquisitor's armed retainers, raising his sword towards his prey. Inquisitor Vorax was a powerful psyker and capable warrior, an experienced agent of the Ordo Hereticus and hunter of rogue psykers. Drawing his own blade he engaged the space marine....

 

The ensuing battle was fought on both the physical and mental plane. Nexus was still unsure of where he was and how he got here, but his adversary likely held the answers within his mind. And that mind would be his. The Inquisitor ducked the marine's decapitating blow, striking at his abdomen and penetrating his power armour. Enough to cause pain and blood loss but not enough to stop the genetically enhanced physique of a Dark Angel. Psychic energy crackled around the bridge as force swords clashed, eventually hitting a weapon deadlock. Nexus had little patience to continue this game. Temporarily giving the Inquisitor the upper hand in the deadlock, Nexus let his mind sink into the warp and with a gesture caused a brief warp rift to form on the bridge, pulling in two of the crew trying to avoid the battle. Distracted just for a moment, the Inquisitor lost momentum and took a psychic blast to the chest, dropping his sword and colliding with the command console. The warp rift faded as the frustrated space marine approached his fallen quarry

 

Inquisitor Vorax tried to stand, but searing pain shot through his spine. Looking down he could see he was losing a lot of blood. He looked up at the space marine standing over him, the Angel's hands cupping either side of his head, his thoughts and memories being torn from his mind

"I need to know everything, Inquisitor. Your thoughts are mine. Your memories are mine...."

Knowledge flooded the mind of the ever falling Angel. The aftermath of the heresy, the current state of the galaxy, and most shocking of all, his place in time. Stealing the thoughts of such a powerful psyker strengthened his connection to the warp briefly, and in extension to Chaos, whom had began tainting him back on Caliban when he first unleashed his forbidden energies.

"Your soul is mine..."

The Inquisitor's body burned as the fully fledged sorcerer drained his very being and consumed him, leaving nothing but a burnt out husk in armour.

Meditating on this new found connection his mind reached outwards. He could sense more of his brothers, scattered through space and time, and was determined to find them.

 

The next task would be to fully subjigate the remaining crew of the Inquisition Black Ship, for the ship was his now. Then his mission could truely begin. And he could bring his vengeance to bear on the descendants of The Lion....