The chainsword ripped through the man's armour and flesh like a hot knife through butter.
He did not seem to care.
Now revealed, his rotten skin could be seen, a festering hellscape of death and disease. The open wound unleashed poisonous pus and maggots.
Turning around to face his aggressor, the man – or whatever he should be called – lifted his own weapon, a sword just as disgusting as it's wielder, dripping with poison. Using his momentum, he slashed with all his strength.
His blade only swept through air.
Confused he let his guard down a moment, only to feel the chainswords bite once more. This time, the attack had a devestating effect. It had been directed to his left arm and cut it off as clean as a chainsword could.
By now the ground was covered in scraps of armor, slime and rotting flesh.
The thing still did not show any sign of pain. Instead it whirled around once more, ready to kill this nuisance with a single swift strike.
This time, it was too fast for its adversary to slip past him again. This time, its blade hit more than thin air. With a shrill screech both swords clashed. A bit annoyed the strike had not felled his opponent, the thing used the short pause in the fight to get a look at whoever dared attack him.
It's feverish gaze met light blue eyes, shining with fervour. These eyes sat in a young woman's face.
"So finally they have sent someone." The thing said with a gurgling voice, not at all surprised about his attacker's age or gender.
Pressing against its blade with her own, the woman, barely more than a girl, responded: "Be silent, foul atrocity, for your breath disgusts Him on the Throne. Your whole existence offends Him. He will smite you and I will be His tool!"
Laughing, the thing took another swing at her with all its might. It led its blade upwards against the chainsword, interlocking with it's teeth and ripping the weapon away from his opponent. At the same time, the daemonic man surged forward knocking the comparably small woman off her feet and onto the hard ground floor.
Unarmed and on the ground, she tried to scramble away from him. His disease-ridden body was slow to move, but not slow enough for her. He did not intend to revel in her death. He would finish her off quickly and then ask his master for a new "gift" to replace his arm.
His sword came crashing down on her in just the same moment as she gripped something around her neck and uttered a short prayer with her eyes closed, probably asking her god to forgive her failure. She opened her eyes mere moments before the blade reached her and smiled a wicked smile.
Out of surprise he slowed down his attack just a bit, but it still was too fast. His sword hit a barrier instead of armour and tender flesh and, by the sheer force of the impact, was knocked from his grip.
Returning his focus to his enemy, he looked straight into the barrel of a Bolt Gun.
Still gripping her Rosarius, the young woman said: "The Emperor protects."
Then she pulled the trigger.
She stood panting and shivering, having barely escaped death. The dead Plague Marine slumped down on the ground the last bit off life leaving his sick body. The young Sister of Battle turned away from his corpse, after having made sure he was dead, took up her chainsword and looked out of a window in the small corridor she was in. She looked down onto a courtyard, in it's center a statue of the God-Emperor of Mankind, now defiled by the vile servants of Nurgle, the oldest god of the Ruinous Powers. Disgusted by the traitorous actions, she nonetheless thanked the Emperor for helping her in her fight.
Tearing herself away from the sight, she continued through the corridor. She was inside a small monastery, once belonging to the Imperium, now raided by the forces of Chaos. She was tasked with infiltrating the compound and retrieving important documents, hopefully still hidden from the enemy.
This was her chance to prove herself. Her alone against the at least two dozen traitors, who still occupied the monastery, looting, defiling and keeping it under control. A few days ago, the Canoness had asked for her presence and had told her of this mission.
It was a risky endeavour, sending an inexperienced Sister, who barely was out of her novitiate, alone onto a mission of this importance. Of course, this really was some kind of trial, but at least one, they wanted her to pass.
On the eve of her departure, the Canoness had come to her, speaking words of comfort and of bravery. She also gave her the Rosarius, as a last measure of aid. It had already saved her life.
Shaking her head, she cleared her mind of those thoughts. She had to focus on the mission.
There was a doorway ahead. Keeping close to the wall, she snuck up to the door, listening for voices, footsteps and other hints of enemies. There were no sounds to be heard.
Deeming the situation to be safe, the young Sister opened the door slowly and silently.
And nearly collided with another Traitor Marine. To her luck, he stood with the back to the door and apparently had nor heard her enter. He did not seem to hear very well at all, as he had not even noticed the fight beyond the door he was guarding.
She took a look around him into the room to see if there were more heretics inside. Seeing none, she quickly dispatched him with her combat knife.
Stepping over the fresh corpse, she took in the room once more, looking for details this time. It looked like a small office. One wall was occupied by filing cabinets, the opposite had another window and the other two walls had the doors leading to and from this room.
After dragging the corpse out into the corridor to his companion, she returned to the office to search for the documents. The cabinets were completely empty and the drawers of the great desk in the centre of the room did not contain anything of use as well. Apparently all files in this room had been stolen or destroyed.
Behind the other door was another short corridor, leading to a staircase. She walked down the steps, chainsword ready to strike an enemy down. Following the stairs came a hall with great doors on opposite sides, one leading out of the monastery, the other into the courtyard.
Awakening her interest though was a much smaller door on the side. Opening it, she saw yet another staircase, going down into a cellar she guessed. As she went down, voices came up.
"Come on now, we have to pack up all those documents over here and then burn that stack over there. I want to get out of here and back onto the battlefield." - "Why do we have to do this? Aren't there any cultists around here?" - "Complaining won't speed up the work. Now bring me that crate."
Peeking around the corner of the stairs, she could see two Chaos Space Marines dumping hundreds of files into crates and a third one looking through the documents and sorting them into two packs: one of them was being packed up, the other should be burned.
She could easily shoot both of the crate-lifting Marines, but the third one was not in a clear line of fire. The Sister had to act quickly and hope that she could manage to best this one in melee, unlike the Plague Marine earlier.
Having checked her bolt pistol one last time, she stormed out of her cover, another swift prayer on her lips. The first Marine died before anyone even noticed her and second had just enough time to look up from his work. The last one, who had sorted the files, dived behind a crate. "Alphaeus, come in, we have an intruder down here!"
Cursing, the Sister ran across the room, vaulted over the crate and kicked down the heretic in the process. Without giving him any chance of getting up again, she ripped apart his chest with her chainsword.
"Epeus? Epeus, answer me! Dammit! All of you, come with me, we'll show that loyalist cur not to mess with us!"
She looked around the cellar in dire need of better weapons. One of the marines had been carrying a bolter and a few grenades. "Emperor, forgive me." she said, taking up the heretical equipment. She quickly piled up a few already filled boxes to serve as cover in an angle, where she could see the stairs but couldn't be seen herself without leaving the relative safety of that place.
It was not long before she could hear them coming, about a dozen traitors. "Stop, don't go any further down there, you fools! You, imperial dog, if you come out now, I'll grant you a swift death! If not...well, as you can imagine, it will be a lot more painful." their leader called.
"I'll never betray my duty to the Emperor!"
Another marine laughed: "Oh, looks like we've got ourself a girlie down there, maybe we can have a bit of fun after this affair." -"You've clearly spent too much time with those slaneeshi cultists." his superior growled. "If you stay reluctant to come out, it looks like we'll have to...dammit, get down!"
*BOOM*
While the Chaos Champion was talking, she had prepared one of the grenades and tossed it to the staircase. "Gargh, get those corpses out of the way, I will take care of this fanged puppy myself!"
There was a lot of cries and clanking, as dead and wounded alike were simply kicked down the stairs to clear the way. To her satisfaction, she could see four bodies rolling into her vision, proving the effectiveness of her throw. She levelled her bolter at the stairs, ready to perforate the heretic captain.
After a short pause, said heretic came down the stairs, wielding a power sword and a bolt pistol. Due to her fortunate positioning, he didn't see her quickly enough and fell within seconds, pierced my multiple bullets, shredding his internal organs apart.
Silence followed this event. "Heh, not so tough after all. Come on, let's catch this wild beast in our cellar." the Marine with slaneeshi contacts said after a short while. "Find cover, check the corners, move swiftly, then you have nothing to fear!"
Thus they came running down, spotting her quickly and raining fire down upon her cover. She blindly threw another grenade and with the explosion, she took aim and dispatched another traitor. Quickly scanning the room, she counted the remaining enemies. There were three of them, who of course scattered to keep the pressure up. Taking cover again, she hold out the bolter and fired in in an arc, being rewarded with another cry, as the next heretic was hit.
"Damn, that bitch has some serious teeth! I don't think she would be much fun after all..."
Her cover was slowly but surely getting blown apart, the fire coming from one direction first, then from the other, as the last two Marines covered each other's advance. Suddenly, the fire stopped, followed by clicking sounds.
"By the garden of Nurgle, my weapon's jammed!"
Using the opportunity, she killed one of the marines with the last rounds in her own magazine, then charged the last one – fumbling with his weapon – with her sword. He parried her attack with his bolter and kicked at her legs. She quickly jumped back, then surged forward again, leading her chainsword in a two-handed slash upwards. The Marine tried to block again, but the sheer force of the attack drove the gun out of his hands.
Bringing her sword down again, she felled the last of the Chaos Marines in fighting shape. She quickly gave the wounded ones the final mercy, then returned to her actual mission. Instead of looking through the documents by hand, she protruded a small servo-skull, which immediately started scanning the crates and stacks of files, now strewn across the room, partially damaged or even destroyed.
She picked up a few documents, absent-mindedly reading them. One though caught her attention. It was a form for an application to the Schola Progenium. It appears the inhabitants of this monastery had found an orphan, probably sat right on their doorstep.
Then she gasped.
On the top, where the applicant's name was put, was her name! She quickly read through the text of the application, written by the abbot, explaining how they found her and why he thought her fit for the Schola.
"This morning we found a woman at our door. It was obvious she was hurt and very ill, touched by the warp, and she had a child with her, not older than eight months. We did what was in our power to ease her passing, as our medical equipment was not sufficient for such extreme cases. With her final words she told us how she had been captured by heretics and forced to do their bidding. They were also the ones who brought forth the child within her and then dropped her off on this planet. How she managed to survive so long a period without any help, we do not know. Of course, this started a furious discussion whether to burn that child at once or let it live. I decided to examine her first. She showed no signs of any kind of injury and even seemed to be unharmed by the exposure to the warp she had suffered. My brothers kept urging me that this was too high a risk to take, but I saw something inside her. She was not immune to the warp due to her unfortunate heritage. This one, I tell you, this one is truly blessed by Him on the throne. She is filled with righteous zeal even now, too young to even comprehend this, her mission is to avenge her mother and more, which I can not know. To burn her means to burn a hero of the Imperium."
Slumping down on the floor, she had difficulties keeping the tears at bay, it seemed a lot more difficult than keeping the heretics at bay earlier.
She looked at the corpses around her. Every one of them could have been the person she owed her life to. It probable even was that slaneeshi Marine. Those men who had build these very walls she was sworn to protect though had wanted to kill her, burn her before she could walk or speak. Was she really fighting for the right cause? After all, she wouldn't live without those traitors.
Her thoughts returned to the abbot, who had saved her from his brothers' rage. Then she knew. She was fighting for the right cause! The heretics wouldn't even care if she lived or died. The abbot on the other hand had seen her value, took her in his care, enabled her to live. He had got her the best education in the whole Imperium, which had lead to her novitiate with the Adepta Sororitas.
This also explained why it was her, who had been sent to this monastery. She now knew, why her superiors had no fear about sending her alone. She now also knew, that she had found the documents. The rest she knew, would be nothing more than accounts of harvests, books of prayers and star maps, important to Chaos for raids, but nothing more.
As she went to disable the servo-skull, she heard a clanking sound behind her. She whirled around, only to see one of the corpses – the chaos champion, she believed – rising up in the air, emitting a dark, purple glow.
He was a daemonhost, the unholy fiend now emerging.
It was a terrible sight. The skin was pure black, the maw filled with dozen rows of razor-sharp teeth. It's claws were longer than her forearm. The air quickly was replaced by foul wind and around the daemon, light itself seemed to flee this world.
"Ah mortal, I have to thank you. This pathetic being thought to have me under control but those fools are always proven wrong in the end. My ascension wouldn't have been possible without you causing so much bloodshed in such little time though. I am grateful and thus I offer you to join me. Your powers will be enhanced tenfold! You will command entire armies and you will have to answer to no one but me. Think of the freedom, the power, the glory you can obtain! What do you say, mortal, eternal life or unending torture?"
"You can not harm me, chaos spawn, nor can you tempt me! I've travelled the warp unscathed. The Emperor looks upon me with joy. You however, are nothing. Your gods are not even aware of your existence, by all odds. No one will mourn your demise!"
"Then you've chosen death! I will enjoy toying with your soul!"
Thus, it leapt forward, claws outstretched, maw wide open. She dived beneath the attack, bringing up her chainsword to split it's belly, only to find it's skin hard as adamantium.
"You can not kill me! I am immortal!"
It knocked her across the room, the sword plummeting away. Gripping her bolt pistol, she aimed for the daemon. Her bullets dealt about as much damage as pebbles in a small child's hand.
Towering over her, it laughed in a deep growl and slowly opened it's maw, once more revealing the numerous teeth. "Give in to your doom, mortal!"
"Did you not listen to me, vile daemon? I told you, you can not harm me!"
With those words, she quickly pushed the last grenade past the rows of teeth and then kicked the daemons jaw shut.
Scrambling away, her hands found their way back to her neck, once more grabbing the small item there.
"I hate to repeat myself, but the Emperor protects!"