Battle of Calth Short Story (Horus Heresy fluff)

[DogWelder]

So I noticed an ongoing theme in the Mark of Calth Anthology and novellas like The Honoured was how the Ultramarines character changed after the battle of Calth from one that was calm and civilized to one that was filled with hatred and vengeance to the Word Bearers and their accomplices. I wrote a short piece of fluff based on that. Tell me what you think

0012.M31, The Underground Caverns of Calth

Ventanus slammed the heel of his armored boot down on the battered faceplate of the prone Word Bearer. A muffled cry of pain erupted from the Legionary as he tried to bring up his severed stump of a hand in defense. The Ultramarine ignored his struggling opponent and brought his foot down again and again. At some point the red helm cracked open and showed Ventanus a single bloodshot eye that lolled to one side languidly, indicating that the traitor was already dead. Ventanus did not care. He kept repeating the motion until the integrity of the Word Bearer’s skull and helm finally gave way, the head bursting open and spilling the brain and skull matter onto the grey soil of Calth’s underground.

The Ultramarines captain looked up from his handiwork. Throughout the cave, the sound of bolter fire began to die down as the last of the Word Bearers either lay dead or too crippled to pose any threat. He saw Sydance moving up to his side, helm in one hand and smiling grimly through his blood-caked mouth.

“Rather exhilarating violation of the Primarch’s teaching, wasn’t it?” he said, his tone laced with a hint of mockery and disapproval.

Ventanus nodded but did not smile back. He was right. They were not supposed to be launching raids on Word Bearer encampments like this. The back of the traitor forces on Calth had been broken with the death of Foderall Fell and Hol Beloth. The remaining pockets of Word Bearers were supposed to be slowly surrounded by the growing number of Ultramarines and whittled down. That is what his Guilliman would have commanded. And yet…he needed this. No, they needed this. His men were tired of being holed up in the command hub, directing refugees and setting up the new administration. The wounds of betrayal and treachery still gnawed at them…wounds that could only be numbed with the death of Word Bearers.

Sydance reached his perch and looked out at the cavern ahead of them, his smiled hardening as he took in the scene. The enclosed cave stank with bolter propellent and burnt flesh. Ultramarines were moving from one collapsed Astartes to another, checking if their enemies were really dead. The crippled Word Bearers were finished off. The Ultramarines sliding their combat blades between the traitors’ gorget seals and tearing open their jugulars. Ventanus wondered how many of them did so because they wanted to conserve ammunition…and how many of them simply wanted the Word Bearers to die choking on their own blood. Sydance looked down at his bloodied boot that stood over the pulped pulped remains of the traitor marine’s head.

“What would our former selves say if they saw us now?” Sydance asked, his tone flat and his lips now pressed into a neutral line.

“They’d call us barbarians…” Ventanus replied, staring at Brother Pontus tearing his combat blade out of the last Word Bearer’s neck seals in a spray of blood. His lips inadvertently curled up into a feral smile. “…and we’d call them fools.”

[Rational Roboute]

Absolutely awesome. It really gets across the transformation of the war-weary Ultramarines on Calth and how they strain away from their more civilized nature. Brilliant.