Hive fleet Barghest
Chapter 1 - into the minds of hatred
Night fell on the horizon. The screams of tyranidic life forms surrounded the forest, giving them an omnipresent feel. In the sky hung a full moon, this would give her greater visibility in her hostile surroundings.
She had challenged the planet's overlord and won, thus giving her, the right to leadership. But in order for the entire planet to recognise her as such she would have to undergo a series of physically and mentally gruelling sacred rites. The very final rite was to spend an entire fortnight in the planet's only forest.
The forest was inimical to life, nothing inside it was safe, the real life epitome of always a bigger fish. The trees spanned further than the eye good see, the remains of a tyranid splinter fleet still stalked the forest having adapted to the surroundings, every plant was poisonous. From towering lizards to ravenous hordes everything was carnivorous. A hostile place in a hostile world. She had only one day left of this ordeal. Then she could leave these cursed lands forever.
Panting heavily she continued to speed through the forest. Moments before she had literally ran into a swarm of rippers. She would of stayed and fought but the numbers were too great and in this place a fight attracted attention and any attention was unwanted. As she ran through the forest she was careful to avoid the holes, in the floor, there was a good reason few ever returned. These holes were filled with several rows of razor-sharp teeth. And just in case their victim escaped, they were fatally poisonous as well. Sweat droplets formed on her brow as she jumped over and under everything in her way, he r fur was drenched in sweat and her vision blurred as she ran.
After a while, when she could no longer hear the noises of her pursuers, she stopped. She leant against a tree and allowed her body to calm down after her flight. Moments later she stood fully upright and continued moving.
Anything which stopped moving became an opportunity and she was not becoming anyone or anything's meal...
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Sitting in any cramped space is no picnic and the Valkyrie was no exception to the rule. The transport was hot and uncomfortable with an entire squad of terminator marines in full battle gear, and with their chaplain present. This made the conditions worse then usual. But no-one complained.
Dealing with a problem was in the blood of Sanguinius' descendents.
The silence was suffocating in the cramped space, but still it endured a little longer, until Sergeant Tiberius spoke.
"We are about to land on the agri-world of B'kor 5, it has just been beset by a rebellion. It seems the planetary governor forsook his vows to our immortal lord and pledged allegiance, to the chaos god Khorne. The only other information we have is that he was corrupted by one of the original traitor's legions that sided with the arch traitor during the heresy."
He took a deep breath and glanced around his troops to see how this information affected them, apparently satisfied with the results he continued
"With us will be the 156th dreadairian, deathworld vets, and the 99th mordian. Our presence is required for one reason and one reason only, this world has particular strategic value to the imperium so an imperialis exterminus order would not be the correct course of action. In light of this they called us in to fix the problem. Right, now our specific task is to drop in, charge the command bunker and eliminate the leader. It sounds easy, right. Well it's not going to be. As already suggested, he is one of the oldest remaining traitors, and we believe that he has a personal retinue of berserkers' but that is not confirmed. In short we will bring this scum to his knees, FOR THE EMPORER.
"FOR THE EMPORER" chorused the squad, loud enough to physically shake the transport.
"Whoa boys, save it for the enemy, 5 minutes to eta" A female guardsman's voice announced through the speakers
An uncomfortable Silence descended like a veil over the craft giving everyone onboard the time to mull over the sergeants words. Being indirectly descended from the blood angels, they weren't as prone to succumbing to the black rage; however it wasn't uncommon enough for them to ignore the threat.
3
Private Eradaness steeled himself for the drop, no matter how many times he did this it still felt like the first time. His armour was dripping with sweat and his suit began to feel claustrophobic.
2
His mind was racing, running through all possibilities, what if this went wrong and they landed too far away from the target, what if they got there and were annihilated. He, they would have failed the emperor and the world would fall to chaos. A fate he wouldn't wish on any world.
1
Ready here it is, come on..., you can do it
GO
They jumped out of the valkyrie one by one. When it came to eradaness he closed his eyes and threw himself out with a final battle cry.
"For the emperor"
Walking around in a carnivorous forest does become very tiring after a while; with only a few hours left she was unwilling to fall asleep but nature was fighting against her she had to sleep soon. There was a good reason why she challenged the previous leader for control and it wasn't a lust for power.
After the imperium settled near the star system, they began raids into the Barghesi home worlds in order to cull the population. During these first raids many Barghesi died as they were unused to fighting such a powerful enemy, however soon they developed ways and means of dealing with this new threat. Soon they were confident enough to launch an attack on the iron lords' homeworld, the attack was unsuccessful and many warriors were lost including Cykan's sister.
On their homeworld of amotis the original Barghesi planet finding someone worth trusting is a difficult task among chaos warped monstrosities and brutal overlords. No-one can trust anyone, you can't tell who might be secretly under the influence of chaos. But these two formed a bond in these harsh conditions. The two of them joined the "army" for lack of a better term and was sent off in this ill conceived raid. It went wrong and cykan had to watch as a squad of terminators literally tore her sister apart, after that moment she swore revenge upon the iron lords space marine chapter.
After this she went deep into the sea of lava in order to reach one of the Barghesi elders, the only male Barghesi in existence, a creature somehow still alive from before the "trip" to seek his advice, from his advice she formulated her idea which she was now close to completing, she just had to survive a few more hours in this forsaken place. She sat down against a tree and closed her eyes she didn't reopen them as she drifted into an uneasy sleep
As they hit the ground a cloud of dust flew up and obscured their landing, they had not arrived to far from the target. As the battle raged around them they charged forward in =to the complex. Once inside they stopped and looked around. The area was clear so they advanced up the corridor.
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Long ago, he had betrayed the emperor in favor of the chaos god Khorne, his soul and allegiance to the emperor was nothing as compared to the infinite power that Khorne had granted him, however as the millennia passed a small amount of guilt had eaten away at his mind never giving him a moment's peace, he almost missed his allegiance to the emperor, almost. One of the reasons he had defected in the first place was due to the fact that the adeptus terra had perverted the emperor's real dream to unite humanity. Uniting humanity didn't involve leaving his homeworld to be wiped out by the tyranids, nor did it involve forgetting about an entire galaxy leaving them to the mercy of the orks.
This would most likely be the final battle he and his chapter the Chaos fists. They had been unable to gain fresh gene-seeds recently and therefore his army was not at full strength even with several bloodthirster demons on their side, the guard of this planet outnumbered them one hundred to one, and now the damned loyalist legions had joined into the fray.
His personal retinue of Khorne berserker's would be able to defend him but maybe, just maybe it was better this way...
Soon they reached a t-junction.
"Chaplain saccias, take two and go right, these two are with me, the rest go to the left if you find anything or run into serious trouble we'll meet back here"
"Eradaness, Kantor with me" barked Saccias
The three of them turned right and continued going forwards, suddenly a high-pitched scream filled the air, and the ground began to rumble, someone was summoning a demon. They were continuing down the corridor at a slower rate. When the wall to the side of them was demolished sending them through the one to the side of them...
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A sound drilled through his skull as another demon screamed, this was becoming monotonous he was the minion of chaos he should be out there fighting, if he was going to die it would be on his terms, standing up from his golden throne, which he had modeled after the emperors, he and his personal retinue of Khorne berserkers left the throne room.
She woke with a start she had fallen asleep, she could not forgive herself for this, however it was dawn the rite was over she now had only to leave the forest in order to become leader.
The previous initiation rites had been of equal or greater difficulty, the hardest so far had been acquiring her armor. The requirement was that she stole elite armor from any army in the galaxy, but she had only one in mind, an iron lord's terminators armor.
There were obviously a few minor issues with her getting this amour. One of them being that terminator armor is extremely rare and therefore heavily guarded by the marines, the other one being that stealth was never really her thing.
Whilst she was recalling this, her attention was brought to something in the undergrowth nearby, a very faint rustling noise alerted her and she drew her s-pistol from its holster and began to walk slowly away from the turned and ran. After about half a mile she tripped and fell, she rolled over to find this creature staring her in the face.
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Boom
They flew through the solid brick wall into the throne room, as they stood up a bloodthirster flew into the room. It roared and whipped its tentacles at saccias, dragging him to his knees. Eradaness sliced of the beast's tentacle and slashed for its face. The thirster screamed and threw eradaness across the room through another wall. Kantor drew his storm bolter and fired at the incoming behemoth, it flew across the room and Picked Kantor up by the head; it lifted him high in the air, and began to squeeze. The chaplain activated his chain sword and slashed at the demons legs forcing him to drop Kantor to the floor. The three off them opened fire with their bolters while avoiding its blows.
Suddenly it stopped and a possessed sword appeared in its hand, and it fought back with unrivalled ferocity, it swung the blade once and it bite deep into the side of Kantor, the demon removed the sword and thrust through Kantor's face. It removed the sword and lunged again before the soldier's body had time to hit the floor.
The two remaining marines fought with a renewed passion, both of them threw their bolters to the floor and ran in with their chain swords, ducking weaving, hacking and slashing eventually they brought the demon to its knees. But it wasn't done yet, not even close. It slashed its blade and knocked the saccias off his feet. He rolled just as the demons massive fist crushed the ground next to him. He stood and rammed his chain sword through the demon's head and dragged it upwards. As the demon fell eradaness saw saccias' body tear apart.
She was staring into the face of the creature. then the ground shook and a ten foot lizard appeared on the horizon, everything in the forest ran for the hills..
He had walked down the corridor and conveniently come across a squad of marines in terminator armour, he offered them the opportunity to join the legions and become mighty, but as he'd expected from the loyalist legions they refused to betray the emperor. So he and his retinue attacked them, they fought bravely, and wiped out the entire retinue of Khorne berserkers with only the sergeant left standing he launched himself into battle and tore his head off his shoulders.
He continued around the corner as he heard the screams of a demon and the sound of bolter fire. As he entered the room the demon fell, he launched himself at the loyalist chaplain and tore him in half.
Eradaness saw red. He launched himself at the traitor lord and began battering at him. He was unstoppable in his fury and reigned blow after blow on his enemy who stumbled under this brutal onslaught. His enemy regained his footing and rammed eradaness backwards. Eradaness engaged his chain sword and swung for his opponent. The blow went over his head. Eradaness felt a blow hit him in the back and then the sound of the traitor's own chain sword being activated.
The two of them went at it for the greater part of an hour whilst the battle raged around them. Marines fell for the blood god and, demons for the emperor. Then the chaos lord swung a particularly powerful blow at his opponent and knocked his blade out of his hands, and through the hole in the wall. Eradaness grabbed the sword of his fallen chaplain and thrust it into the chaos lord's stomach. He dragged it upwards and then removed it. The lord dropped to his knees.
Cykan saw the light at the end of the path, her escape was eminent; she would finally be able to avenge her sister. Very carefully she left the forest. All she had left to do was go back to the world's main city. For the first time since her sister had been torn apart by marines things were going to plan, the galaxy would tremble in her sister's memory.