Brother Ashur

[Aothaine]

Brother Ashur

 

 

"Brother Ashur, fourth squad captain." he said into his helmet while warning lights flashed all over the screen on his visor. 

 

"Brother Ashur", a deep voice responded, "Move to check point Charlie and activate the last generator switch."

 

Ashur glanced down into the left corner of his visor, he was the last of his squad alive. "Roger that." he replied as he primed the light on his heavy flamer. He peered over the corner of his cover glancing quickly from right to left allowing his enhanced Space Marine brain memorize the surroundings. Milliseconds is all it took before his saw his opening. 

 

Without hesitation he sprang over the steel statue remains he had been using for cover and launched himself toward his objective. He recognized the sickening sound of living ammunition being fired immediately. Acid, spores and vile alien worms spattered over his ceramite armor. It was a testament of the armorer's skill that it did not give way to the punishment it was now receiving. 

 

He continued on through the hellfire as creatures hidden in the nooks and crannies of the rubble started to appear before him preparing their bio-weaponry to fire another volley. His instincts immediately told him he would need several seconds before he would be in range with his weapon. He dived into a roll just as the vermin fired and avoided the majority of the incoming projectiles. He felt a few hard thumps on his chest area but the rest hit his shoulders and helm. It wasn't until he rolled back to his feet that he noticed the pain in his stomach. However, he did not have time to look at the wound and knew that his body would react and seal the wound quickly, so he pressed on.

 

Arriving at his optimal firing range he pulled his heavy flamer up and lightly squeezed the trigger. Flame erupted from his old friend Dragon's Breath and engulfed the creatures before him. His visor had given him their name, Termagants, but he had no care for that trivial knowledge. They were his foe and he would kill them as he had countless others, with cold fury and hot fire.

 

Several of the gaunts writhed on the ground with severe burns while the survivors spread out back into the ruins opening the gap he needed to claim his objective. He pushed himself forward and as he did he tasted a familiar warm and salty liquid, blood. Checking his visor's self scanner revealed that an alien worm had made it through his armor and was there feasting on his insides. There was not much he could do about it right now so he flexed the muscles in the area where the worm was to try and slow it's progress to his more important organs. He could deal with the worm later when he had completed his objective.

 

Running as fast as few could, he reached the panel, ripped off the cover, and slammed the switch on. Loud groaning could be heard as the generators kicked back in and soon after the familiar sound of void shields turning on. He grinned at himself as he did every time he completed a mission. Life had always been a series of difficult tasks for him, so he took pride in reaching his goals. With his goal complete he turned his attention to his situation. His visor was cracked and no longer isolating him from the spore infected air, there was an alien worm in his body slowly eating him alive and he was surrounded by no less than forty enemies. He chuckled softly and removed his helm. The alien was approaching and he would meet their gaze with his own eyes. 

 

Nearby a crater, most likely created by one of the Astra Militarum's siege engines, exposed a bomb shelter. It had a narrow opening and led down into a room that was barely large enough for his super human physique. He grabbed his helm and slid down into the shelter. It would be a good position to setup a last stand. The only access to him was through a small corridor of space allowing Dragon's Breath to do it's work. He knew that he would not last long against the skittering horde he could hear coming closer, but in the emperor's name he would take as many of these foul creatures with him as he could.

 

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Captain Alim saw the shielding coming back. He knew that Brother Ashur and the others that he sent out would not last long outside the shield but this was war. He scanned the walls again checking for any weaknesses and turned to head back into the command center when he was satisfied. Each step he took was a harsh reminder of the lives he had sacrificed to slow the Tyranid advance. There was no victory here, this was simply done to give more time for the main defense force to prepare. He stopped abruptly at this thought, opened a channel to the marines he sent outside the perimeter and said "Emperor be with you brothers. Your names will line the walls of our fallen and forever will you be honored."

 

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The last living resistance had been ended a week ago. It's last order had come, "Return." echoed in it's brain. It was sent directions of the closest pool and started to make it's way there. Over fallen rocks and through openings big enough for it. It was peaceful and life was bliss. The end was coming but it didn't fear death. It only lived for the purpose of it's design. It began to wonder if it could live here, and continue to experience this existence. "Return." pounded in it's brain again with such force it stumbled over a rock and fell down a gaping hole.

 

The rocks here were charred black, a thick ichor coated the area that clung to it's legs and feet where ever it touched the ground. It pulled itself up and noticed the area was lighted with a flickering pattern. "Curiosity", it sent out through his psychic connection. It scuttled it's way over to the source of the light and leaped upon it ferociously. The enemy did not move. It attacked again. The enemy did not move. "Triumph", it sent through the psychic link as it climbed out of the hole to head back to the pool as the repeating echo of "forever will you be honored" faded in the distance.

 

 

Edit: I have finished the second edit on this short story. If you have any questions, suggestions or corrections that need to be made please let me know. I appreciate any and all advice/help.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Not bad. Does the story depict Argent Fists in battle against the Tyranids?

 

Nitpicking:

Acid, spores and vile alien worms spattered over her ceramite armor.

Don't you mean "HIS ceramite armor" (emphasis mine)?

Life had always been a series of difficult tasks for him, so he took pride in reaching his goals. ?However, his grin faded as he took stock of his position.

What is that "?" doing before the word "However"?

"Triumph", it sent through the psychic link and started to make it''s way out of the hole

Why is "it's" spelled with a second apostrophe? And shouldn't the possessive form of "it" be "its", spelled without an apostrophe? IIRC, "it's" is only used as an contraction for "it is".

[Aothaine]

Not bad. Does the story depict Argent Fists in battle against the Tyranids?

 

Pretty much. This campaign didn't go to well.

 

 Acid, spores and vile alien worms spattered over her ceramite armor.

Don't you mean "HIS ceramite armor" (emphasis mine)?

 

 

Yup! I read it out loud last night and saw how many errors were still in it and found a few other areas that needed to be reworded. I'll be working on it again soon to fix those errors.

 

 

 

Life had always been a series of difficult tasks for him, so he took pride in reaching his goals. ?However, his grin faded as he took stock of his position.

What is that "?" doing before the word "However"?

 

 

That was one of the errors lol :D 

 

 

 

"Triumph", it sent through the psychic link and started to make it''s way out of the hole

Why is "it's" spelled with a second apostrophe? And shouldn't the possessive form of "it" be "its", spelled without an apostrophe? IIRC, "it's" is only used as an contraction for "it is".

 

 

Yup yup! Just a typo. :D

 

Going to read it out loud again right now and fix some of the mistakes.