Unknown location,
Unknown date
Aboard the Forgeship, Fires of War.
As awareness returned, his senses revolted, shifting and swaying akin to a drunkard, his eyes only processing banks of darkness hovering above the bright orange smears. Metallic screeches warbled across his hearing and an filthy, harsh taste filled his mouth and burned his lungs.
Figures, blurred and incomprehensible darted to and fro, flashes of sparkling white lights appearing wherever they stopped. Deep, bone jarring shakes and mighty groaning is if from a god filled the surroundings repeatedly.
Where was he? Who was he? He was... an Imperial, yes. Human! Yes, he was human... no. No, no, he was more than human. Above them, forever standing before them, a sword and shield. Maybe something about being clay. He couldn't remember, the pain was driving forth in waves, pushing his conscious mind back. That just wasn't acceptable.
He had something to do... yes, yes, he was Astartes. He had duty, yes, oh yes. He needed to get up, and find out what as happening. The deep shuddering and groaning sounded again, forcing his mind to speed up.
He was... Harken yes. Harken of the Invaders Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. Captain. He was a Captain... no. That wasn't right. He used to be a Captain, he remembered that. Then... something happened. Something terrible. Screams and shaking and burning and horror.
No, he was no Captain now.
Now he was a Chapter Master.
Chapter. Master.
Master of a Chapter. Master of the Invaders... who where running. Yes, yes, they where running. He was aboard the chapters most prized possession, the one thing they needed to continue on in the Emperors name.
And it was...
He took a deep breathe.
It was burning.
Yes, yes it was burning. No... no,no,no, that was bad. Very bad. He had to get up. With an effort that felt equal to lifting a tank, Harken raised his arm to his head. The metal thumped slightly as it met his helm... but he felt nothing. That wasn't right... no, not at all.
The sensors embedded within the gauntlet should have sent a signal through the black carapace, to his fingers, which would then be sent to his brain. He should be feeling the heat, slickness, consistency and roughness of whatever he touched through his hands. Almost like he wasn't wearing armour at all. But he didn't.
And his arm felt so heavy.
Okay... so... armour status. He needed armour status. He just had to think the right thing so the right brainwaves activated that particular programme...
Hum. It wasn't working. So...
No senses, no assisted movement, no activation at all. Coughing. Huh. He was coughing now. He had not coughed in a hundred years. Why was he coughing... the smoke, yes. But he was wearing his helm... why would...
Ar. Total system failure. His armours power generator was offline. It must have opened his mouth vents just before it shut down. He could deal with smoke. He couldn't deal with suffocating while unconscious in sealed armour that wasn't recycling air. Not for too long anyway.
So... he needed... to take his helm off. Struggling to control his fingers, Harken moved his hand to his neck seals claps. A few minutes later, after regaining much of his finger dexterity and the senses from the environment at large slowly calm down the chapter masters helm felt to the floor with a dull bang.
"Report!" his command was wheezed out with a cough. That wasn't right. Why wasn't his multi-lung dealing with the smoke?
An ugly and grating computer like voice replied to Harken directly "You are injured. Massive tissue damage to chest cavity. Serious head injury. We have removed the ceiling support from your chest. You will heal. Likeliness of temporary cognitive impairment is 87.95%. You will rest, an apothecary is inbound. The Chapter Masters commands are unnecessary at this current time"
The speaker was one of the dark shapes running around. Synthetic voice. Percentages. A Techmarine then. Friendly, and he said an apothecary is coming. Good. And he wasn't needed at the moment. Even better.
He felt the need to pass out come, and he gladly embraced it.
***Invasion***
This is just a little something that came to me. Chapter lengths and updates will be completely random. I may update several times a day or once a month. Who knows.
