Chapter I
HOMECOMING
IMMEN SAT IN his grav-harness of the drop pod and toyed with his new weapon. The Ocelots had called it a "lasgun" and said it could shoot a hundred and fifty lasers before needing a new cell pack. The device's science behind it escaped Immen and he just stared at the thing.
"They expect us to know how to use these things." said Immen. His usual moralistic tone of voice was strained with fatigue. It has been almost a day since the small sub-fleet escaped from the clutches of Ankara and that hellish place that was called the warp. It also seemed like it has been ages since they emerged back into realspace and the surviving Atlanteans pledged allegiance to Prometheus. They were utterly in debt to him with their lives.
Immen's rear guard sat restrained next to him. He seemed as if he was ready to rip himself free and get the first kill. "We don't need to know it inside and out." shot the man. He was aiming the sights at the burning lion of the Ocelot's standard and pretended to pull the trigger. "Just point and shoot."
"A warrior must know his weapon, Prado, or else-"
"Or else what, sir?"
Immen shot a glance at the war-torn veteran. "Or else you die. Then again your shoot first, then shoot again later mentality has kept you alive this whole time."
Prado laughed dryly. "Look sarg, you're in charge 'cause you can call the shots. I'm alive 'cause I'm the one who takes those shots before the enemy does."
"Indeed, just don't go letting the enemy make the first shot now." replied Immen to quickly end the conversation. They had a large task at hand, one to be thought of not lightly. He pulled at the collar of his deep blue Atlantean trench-coat. Not much of the volunteers were refitted with new armor for the drop. It was Prometheus's orders to give the left over scout armor from the Imperial Vigilante's armory to the first volunteers. Veteran or not. Immen guessed it was for the best to not cause dissent amongst his newest followers. Though just about every Atlantean that was saved from the clutches of this warp-hell-thing immediately pledged their allegiance to the man. Even though they were just enemies hours before, they are now the closest allies.
"This is Prometheus, Primarch of the Ocelot legion." came a voice over the vox systems of the drop pods. The voice was clear and riddled with such pride, Immen thought he was about to charge head first into a victorious battle. "If I am correct, I am addressing the remains of the Atlantic Guard."
Damn right you are. said Immen to himself.
"Gillus has gone over your mission, briefly I must suspect." began Prometheus. "You are to find the remains of the Fire Sword, my personal flagship. This massive construct is almost three times the size of what we call battlebarges in the Imperium of Man, it is very ancient indeed."
"Of course it's ancient!" mocked Than, the demolitionist.
Prometheus paused as if he heard Than call out. "Ah, yes. You will not understand what I meant by ancient, well in some case you do, after all we fought each other blindly in the warp for ten millennia. On the other hand it means it is very, very advanced chunk of metal. In the Empire of man, the older the technology, the better it is. That's the simplest way to put it.
Anyway, his ship will serve as your home- our home. I am tasking you in the precious mission of finding my steed and getting her up here with us. That means you must safeguard the legion serfs sent along with you, since they will know how to make such an ancient beast awaken. Like Thunder."
A long eerie silence followed in wake of the vox channel closing. Immen took the time to try and make sense of what Prometheus brought to light once again, the fact that they were suspended in the warp under some black magic for ten thousand years. Rumor has it that some God wanted Prometheus and tried to change him slowly over years and years, making him relive his death trillions of times until he pledged allegiance to this so called God. This God ruined everyone's life on Ankara and killed billions just for one man, who was something called a Primarch by the warriors of the Ocelots. If Immen knew what a Primarch was, he would have cared, but he didn't and only marveled at the man's power which seemed to be godlike in many ways. Immen decided to stop thinking of the subject and snapped back into reality.
"Pods drop in one minute." rang out a mechanical voice, the ship's artificial intelligence, Demi. Many centuries before the great crusade began, the men of iron rose up to challenge their oppressive rulers. These rulers, their creators, were in fact humans. The men of iron shook the very foundation of man in a bloody war that was eventually won by the will and spirit of the human race. In the aftermath of the rebellion, the Emperor of Mankind has condemned the use of artificial intelligence- giving rise to the use of servitors. Though the Ocelots ignored this law and decided not to erase the AI's from their fleets, which consists of wholly Golden Age ships.
Silence once again swept the drop-pod, the only sound came from the breathing of squad Immen and the thumping of Immen's heart seemingly beat against his ribcage. He did not know what to except on the surface of Thebes, the homeworld of the Ocelots. Gillus, the commander of the first chapter, spoke of how the inhabitants are stuck in very ancient times, still using sword and bow in warfare. There was really no threat, the new weapons and armor they were fitted with were said to be for precaution.
The rough voice of Demi spoke out again. "Thirty seconds. All drop-pods move to launch chambers now."
A sudden lurch shook the drop-pod and the sound of machinery sang through the air as Immen's drop-pod was pulled into launch position. After a few seconds the pod shook again once it was locked in place, only a few sheets of thick metal separated Immen from the vast void of space.
"Ten seconds remaining, nine, eight…" began Demi in countdown.
Immen swallowed hard as his thoughts raced and his heart pounded into his throat. "Like thunder." he whispered under his breathe.
"…five, four, three…"
Silent prayers of Vitus, Immen's most trusted man under his command, could be heard under the loud ring of Demi's hard voice. The words, though not being audible, carried some heavy weight across the pod.
"…two, one, launch."
An explosion rocked the pod and the hiss of air decompressing screamed all around the pod as it was slung out of a tube in the side of the Imperial Vigilante. The pod was flung at amazing speed, forces unseen pressed Immen into his seat while his grav-harness nearly choked him on the spot.
A few seconds later, the pod shuddered as it entered Thebe's lower atmosphere. A loud deafening scream shot through Immen's ears as the immense forces pulling the pod down ignited the air under the pod's hull. Which added more pressure, sending him further back into his restraints
"Brace yourselves!" yelled Immen over the screech, he held a vox unit given to him by Gillus in his hand. He had the all-squad channel open so all of his Atlantean brothers could hear him. "We have no home to go back to but here. From now on we are no longer Atlanteans, but we are humans. We are Ocelots! Like Thunder!"
"Like Thunder!" came the reply of squad Immen and others on the channel that had a vox unit too. Immen was swelled with much emotion, all of which he could not contain. He let out a single tear of pride and joy, washing himself of the past and steeling himself for the hard future to come. He checked his lasgun one more time to make sure nothing was left unnoticed.
Another shudder rocked the pod as the engines underneath it kicked in to slow it down to a reasonable speed. Without that, there was a high risk that the pod could be crushed on impact, or the passengers would be crushed by the sheer force alone since they did not wear the armor of a space marine.
The yellow light that meant the pod was in falling course blinked to red, which now symbolized the men inside had five seconds to brace for impact. Those five seconds felt like hours to Immen. He tightened his restraints even more and made sure to keep his neck upright in its neck-rest so he did not have to worry about a crushed windpipe.
The neck-rest did not do much when the pod made contact with the earth. The pod let out another hiss to cushion the fall even more, before Immen's head snapped forward in the jolt of impact.
He was pumped with adrenaline which made his recovery time almost instantaneous. Immen was ready for whatever laid waiting- he quickly unstrapped himself from his harness and leapt from the grav-seat. The others did the same and squad Immen stood waiting for the moment to exit the pod and exhale a loud warcry to strike fear into anyone willing to stand in their way.
That moment soon arrived when the charges blew the doors open, the large metal slivers of doors swung down into the dirt with a heavy thud and a cloud of dust. Immen wasted no time- he was already sprinting into the bright light ahead with lasgun outstretched.
SER LUPUS PARRIED a scimitar with his shield and lashed out to respond with his own sword. His blade cut through a weak spot in armor, tore into flesh, ultimately wedging itself between the man's shoulder blade and his neck. A spurt of blood followed by a steady gush rolling down the black plated armor of his enemy. The gold and ornate trim was tarnished by the crimson red.
"You're… too late… fool." said the warrior as he coughed out his last words in a hack of blood. "They come… in the falling stars… the sky…"
Ser Lupus kicked the dying man to the ground and finished him off with a well-placed thrust in the eye-slits of the knight's black helmet.
As Ser Lupus looked up his eyes narrowed on another man in black robes trimmed in the same gold, his face hidden in a veil of darkness under his hood. The man lifted a slender hand and from it he expelled raw energy in the form of unnatural fire, he was a mage, a psyker.
The ball of fire was unnatural indeed; it burned purple and seemed to instantly turn anything it touches to ashes.
Ser Lupus raised his shield and held his footing as the fireball slammed into his shield. Swirls of purple coiled over the edges and the heat licked his face. The mystic ward on his shield glowed and crackled as it dispelled the evil black magic of the mage.
Another dark clad knight jumped in the way of Lupus before he could make a charge on the mage. Ser Lupus held his shield high to block the knight's overhead swing.
"May the Father grant me his power in my blade." whispered Ser Lupus. The words were of a spell to enchant his blade, and so it did as he activated the blade's own mystic ward. With a wide swing, Ser Lupus cut into the knight's waist with ease, sparks and cracks of lightning hissed from the enchanted sword as he sliced the warrior cleanly in half. The bloody, still armored, halves clanked to the tiled ground loudly.
Ser Lupus put the mage back in his focus to find the man turned to the sky. Remembering the words of the dying knight from moments before, Lupus looked up too.
He looked past the burning walls of Gran Theo, plumes of purple flame and black smoke billowed from holes blown in the capital's walls. The field beyond was stage to a battle that aimed to route the besiegers, but was utterly lost and the remaining men retreated into the false safety of Gran Theo's mighty walls. Lupus looked above it all to lay his eyes upon streaks in the sky. There were many of them. All of them looked like shooting stars across a midday sky, if Ser Lupus had ever seen one.
The falling stars grew closer to Gran Theo and erupted into balls of flame. The things disappeared behind a massive cloud, leaving Ser Lupus to wonder if he had actually seen the balls of fire or if his eyes were playing cruel tricks to get him killed. Seemingly enough, they tore out of the cloud with trails of vapor pouring off them. They were getting much closer, much faster.
Ser Lupus tore his eyes from the impending doom. "To the walls of the castle!" he yelled as he signaled for his comrades to fall back. In response, a distant horn beyond the outer walls of the city was blown and the sound carried itself for miles for all to hear. The ranks of the enemy afoot turned in on themselves and they marched out of the blood soaked street and through the gate of the inner walls, away from Ser Lupus and his defenders.
The fireballs streaked overhead without warning and let out a loud scream as they went by that shattered windows and deafened Ser Lupus who turned his head to watch the sky-things hit their targets.
One crashed through the highest tower of the castle's keep, knocking it down in a gust of dust and debris. Another clipped the roof of the keep leaving a large burning hole in the main seam. The blue tiles of the keep were sent down in a landslide, while some were thrown in the air.
The ground shook and shuddered as fireball after fireball slammed into the earth. Whatever had just came from the sky, it had made the army that threatened Gran Theo turn heel and run. Perhaps they were leaving for something much worse to finish of the people of Gransum and their desperate ploy to defend their capital. Ser Theo looked up above the castle and his eyes met the towering figure of the Savior's Mount. A gargantuan temple that stood as tall as a few mountains stacked on one another, Gran Theo was descended from the people that were left to attend the Saint's temple when he left. Its boat-like shape was held into place by two massive stone blocks the size of mountains respectively, each known as the East Wing and the West Wing.
No one is allowed to enter the temple itself, only the utmost pious figures of the church are allowed into the Wings along with royalty from Gransum and abroad. The only one who is allowed in the Savior's Mount is the Savior Saint himself once he returns to his world of Thebes.
Maybe, just maybe, the Saint has come in these fallen stars thought Ser Lupus. Though bad news loomed over Gran Theo as a massive eruption of flame spewed up from where the sky-things had fallen.