Peace (A 40k storyline continuation)

[Servant of Dante]

So a while back I wrote this. I was trying to capture what I found so epic and compelling about 40k and portray it for others. Anyway, you should know that there is a prophesy of some kind that a golden warrior will stand alone before the emperor and protect him. Dante thinks that golden warrior is him, and I tend to agree. So here's to my favorite 40k character, and of course the blessed Emperor of mankind, may he reign in eternal glory and majesty.

 

Please leave a comment!

 

            “Lord Commander, you were right. The time has come.” Dante has his back to Corbulo, as he always does. While in his private study Dante never turns away from his desk, except to leave. Out of respect, his visitors remain in the doorway until asked to come in. Dante nods, his back still to Corbulo. To most he would look like a man in his sixties, his grey hair falling below his shoulders.

            The bringer of light rises, his deep red robe flowing as he does. The golden scrollwork on its fabric seems alive as it moves.

            “Prepare my transport. I assume you have told no one else of this?”

            “Of course not sir.”

            “Good. I must do this alone. Calistarius[1] would never let me leave without him if he knew.”

            The Golden Warrior took the Death Mask of Sanguinius from its place on his desk and walked out past Corbulo.

            Ten standard minutes later Dante stepped of his Stormraven and onto the cruiser Numitor. The ship immediately entered the warp at Dante’s command, following the Astronomican to reemerge into realspace in orbit around Holy Terra. The same Stromraven descended through the smog of the atmosphere, landing at the Annapurna Gate to the outer Imperial Palace. The hatch was not fully open when Dante roars out clad in gleaming armor upon wings of flame, and sped through the metropolis. He passes into the inner palace, stopping only for the Adeptus Custodes warriors there to open the gate.

            As The Bane of Daemons speeds down the mile long hallway past the banners of countless fallen heroes, he begins to hear an unearthly roar. A cloud of smoke obscures the entrance to the Sanctum Imperialis. The Eternity Gate lay sundered, cleaved from its hinges. The titans[2] have been ripped from their places in the walls. One titan stands, its back to the Oncoming Angel, the other lays wrecked just beyond.

As his jump pack carries Dante between the remaining titan’s legs entirety of the Sanctum Imperialis comes into view. The last of the Adeptus Custodes attempt to hold a hoard of daemons back, the heels of their shining artificer armor backed up against the enormous base of the Golden Throne. His holy magnificence, the emperor of Mankind, sits in the throne, his body smoldering as the arcane systems that had supported his life up to this point undergo catastrophic failure. The portal to the warp[3] from which the daemons pour grows slowly larger as the Emperor succumbs to his wounds form so many centuries ago.

The Avenging Angel swoops over the daemons, landing on the steps of the throne. A millennium of rage pours from his soul and through his glowing axe. For the first time in his life, the Imperium’s greatest living Astartes echoes the call of the untold millions before him as he jumps off the throne stairs and down onto the ranks of raging daemons,

“FOR THE EMPEROR!”

As he culls score after score of the emissaries of chaos Dante feels the pull of the Black Rage of Snaguinius anew. He struggles to keep from drowning in the tide of insanity, but the pull is too strong. The Lord Commander of the Blood Angels finally succumbs to the legacy of the winged primarch. His axe falls faster still, fueled by the rage of an entire people. His enemies crumble all the more quickly, but this brings Dante no peace, not anymore. Through his eye the traitor himself is everywhere. As the Lone Gold Warrior stands alone between his emperor and the hoard of chaos, the golden Throne dies, taking the life of the emperor with it.

Deep in the warp is a sea of daemons. Amid the sea, a light, a beacon to guide humanity through an ocean of darkness. At the center of the light is a man clad in gleaming gold. His sword flames red as he cleaves daemon after daemon in twain with inhuman grace. His hair flows and his eyes burn. Suddenly, the light goes out, plunging all into darkness. Then the light begins anew, a more complete light, full of life. The full spirit of the Emperor is united in the warp, and the daemons disperse. The light of mankind, the lone Champion of Order, waits.

The warp moved. The gold clad warrior is outside the Brass Citidel of Khorne, and in the Crystal Labyrinth of Tzeentch, and entering the Garden of Nurgle, and lost in the Palace of Slaanesh. The forces of chaos are united and the Champion of Order stands in defiance. Slaanesh reaches out to crush his spirit, Nurgle to rot his body, Tzeentch to destroy his mind, and Khorne to snuff out his existence. Complete after ten millennia, the Champion of order passes unscathed and smites the being of chaos with his righteous sword. They are pushed back to their realms, defeated for now.

Dante fights doggedly atop the golden throne, straddling the dead body of the emperor as he hurls his adversaries down atop each other. Huge chunks have been rent from his icor soaked armor, and his axe trails the stuff of daemons as it brings oblivion in arc after arc. The warp portal has expanded to enclose most of the palace, and daemons flood its hallowed halls. Just as the Lone Warrior is dragged from his feet someone begins to appear in the warpspace/realspace surrounding the throne. As the figure draws near the telltale glow of his armor and the fire of his sword give his identity. The Emperor of Mankind walks to meet the daemonic hoard, and with an almighty psychic and verbal command causes every one to freeze, and kneel to him. They are dispersed into the warp, and the portal is sealed.

At the instant of the portal’s closure Dante’s eyes fly open, clear of the haze of the black rage. On Baal, in the Tower of Amareo[4], the sanguinary priests rush to cells that have fallen silent for the for the first time anyone can remember. Dazed battle brothers stand and salute their caretakers, the madness gone from their souls.

One golden warrior stands over the other. Dante cannot stand. He removes the Death Mask of Sanguinius, which is unscathed though the rest of his armor is in splinters. The emperor looks kindly down upon him and says,

“You have done well my son. You protected me at my most vulnerable moment[5], and I will not see you, a true son of Sanguinius, die. Now, what do you desire?”

The Tired Angel replies, “Peace,” and the Emperor smiles.

 

Thanks for reading!

[1] Former name of Mephiston

[2] Two Reaver class titans (approx. 70 ft.) are built into the wall on either side of the Eternity Gate.

[3] This is a second Eye of Terror beginning to open as the emperor dies.

[4] The tower of the Sanguinary Priests, where those afflicted with the Black Rage are kept.

[5] The daemons were attempting to scatter the emperor’s soul across the warp, much as the emperor did to Horus.