Warhammer 40k: The Struggle
A/N: A friend of mine who's a big Warhammer fan said after seeing my other work that I should totally write a 40k fic and I took his advice, so here it is: my first attempt at making a Warhammer fanfic.
Warning: This story contains VERY OP OC ARMY ACTION, nerd rage is guaranteed so if you get easily offended by the Imperium getting its ass kicked by upstarts… Leave immediately before the amount of heresy causes your brain to melt.
This story was Beta-read by Kalmalehto.
Ch1 – A History Rewritten
The following were taken from the journals of the Agri-World of Zalamis' planetary governor Arceus Septicus:
971st Year of the 23rd Millennium, 9th Day of the 2nd Month
"The expanding storm that surrounds the space around the planet has yet to show any signs of slowing down, none of our ships can pass through it lest they risk being lost in the warp forever. I fear that we might end up isolated from the rest of Federation space longer than expected.
Last year's harvest was quite sizable and it will end up rotting if we can't ship it off-world. The good side in all of this at least is that none of our people will go hungry for the next several years, but the Colonial Ministry will want answers after they realize that the grain is not coming, I have no doubt about it."
4th Day of the 3rd Month
"One of our farm workers dug up something… unusual today.
The engineers are still studying it, we have yet to find out fully what it is, it seems to be shaped similar to an ancient pistol but it doesn't have any clear ammunition storage like those things usually have, at first glance it is just a mess of wires and electronics but after a more in-depth look the research team found that it held within it an immense power.
The amount of power this… thing had was comparable to that the combined energy output of multiple large suns... In a year.
I can't even begin to imagine what possibilities such a device can provide to our world but I'm hoping we will eventually find out its true purpose and where it came from."
18th Day of…d938xajsERROR DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED
SEARCHING FOR UNCORRUPTED FILES…
988th Year of the 23rd Millennium, Unknown Date
"This is probably going to be the last entry I'll ever record, there has been a coup and the insurgents have seized the capital of Jasinco, they burnt the main administrative building to the ground and I barely escaped with my life.
I wasn't able to grab anything but my belongings and 'Research Project 21' or 'The Manipulator' as the testers and I used to call it.
Every member of the science team swore an oath of secrecy about the project and committed suicide after destroying all the research data as per the emergency protocol. I am the last remaining person on this entire planet with knowledge of the device and plan to take all the remaining information about it to my grave.
I can hear them coming closer, I've already buried the device inside a container near the great oak tree next to me.
If any loyal servants of the Federation find this message, please retrieve the Manipulator and protect it at all costs, the passcode is one-nine-eight-four-seven-six…"
A gunshot can be heard in the background as the message cuts off.
Then footsteps, before another gunshot goes off soon escalating into a full-blown shootout in the midst of which a grenade lands next to the recorder and blows it to pieces, destroying any knowledge of the device known as the Manipulator forever…
…Or so it was thought.
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285th Year of the 25th Millennium, 10th Day of the 6th Month
Worker's Republic of Zalamis
The Dignity's End (Forest)
"This is the place…" Michael thought out loud as he glanced up from the map in his hands towards the edge of the treeline ahead of him that marked the entrance to the Dignity's End.
The forest itself was not anything special but it had interested him, since over a millennium ago, one of the last battles of the Revolution had been fought there and seen the death of the planet's former ruler: Governor Arceus Septicus.
Michael was a military historian by profession and worked in Jasinco's largest public museum as a guide, he usually hosted the trips to places where many of the 'Revolution's' most important battles took place.
'The Dignity's end' was one of several large forests that still remained standing near the expanding capital city, one of the reasons being the need to preserve the local biodiversity and provide sanctuary for many of the planet's native animals.
As he walked through the narrow forest path that had slowly been covered by vegetation as time had went on since most of the resources of the new government had been devoted to the development of industry and housing for the growing population, he could see what looked to be a large tombstone ahead of him.
The young archeologist stepped out into the clearing where the tombstone was located in; it had been covered by the growth of local fauna since many of the locals had given up on trying to keep the memorial clean of foliage and visible to anyone who visited the site.
Crouching down and removing some of the vines that decorated the stone tablet, he looked at the list of names of the men who had fallen in the final battle of the planet's revolutionary war before finally coming across the governor's name.
"Here stands the final resting place of the men and women who fought in the battle of Dignity's end, may their souls find peace in the world beyond." He read the text carved into the stone aloud.
Soon he stood up and took out his camera to document the scenery, a further look at his surroundings had revealed that the clearing had been left untouched and the bullet holes and missing chunks of wood could still be seen amongst the trees that had fallen down and rotted for the last millennium.
As he was walking over to a large oak tree his foot collided with a bump on the ground and he fell down to the ground face first as a result, breaking his camera's lens in the process.
He was about to see if the lens was in any way salvageable before noticing something peeking up from the bump on the ground he had just tripped on.
Crawling over to the spot he began digging the dirt off from around whatever was hidden underneath it all with his bare hands, eventually managing to get most of it out of the way.
After he rubbed the dirt from his hands onto the nearby tree he lifted his findings out from the small hole in the ground.
It was a small but heavy metal box.
'There's some rust here so it's obviously made from some cheap mixture. I can probably break it with a simple hammer, I wonder what's inside.' Michael thought as he looked at the password locked display on the front of the container.
He put the thing in his bag and got ready to leave, unaware that he was being watched.
Tzeentch, Chaos God of Change, laughed with mischievous glee in the distance as he observed the ignorant mortal carry away his artifact, waiting eagerly what matter of chaos he would unleash to the universe after the rest of mankind got their hands on it.
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400th year of the 25th Millennium, 7th Day of the 12th Month
Orbit of Zalamis II
Prototype Hammer-Class Frigate "Shield of Retribution"
Command Deck
"Jump successful, Comrade Captain. The ship is unharmed" The ensign in charge of navigation confirmed to the ship's commander as the ship came out of FTL in orbit of the system's second planet, which had remained uncolonized in contrast to the overpopulated agri-world.
"Excellent work, report back to HQ. Tell them it's safe to come through so they can send the rest of the fleet in."
"Copy that, message away."
As the console operators worked their magic by providing the remaining Red Banner Fleet ships with the necessary info, the Captain, Cecil Burns was deep in thought about the possibilities the non-warp form of FTL travel would eventually give the people of the Workers' Republic.
'No longer will we be restricted by the confines of warp-drive travel, this new technology will allow us to travel outside of our system and explore the space around us and possibly even re-establish connection with other Federation colonies.' Burns thought as he looked outside from the observation window.
Unlike the officers of the old times when the planet was still governed by a single Federation appointed planetary governor, Burns was not promoted to his current position but chosen and democratically voted to his position from amongst the crew and he could be removed from his position at any time if the crew voted to do so.
This meant that his leadership position was mostly formal and the crew as a whole held most of the actual power collectively. This form of structuring helped prevent the rise of corrupt or abusive officers amongst the military's ranks and allow the actually competent ones who the people would willingly follow to assume leadership.
"HQ acknowledges. The first transports are en route."
'This is it then, the first of many future colonies of our glorious Workers' Republic.' Burns thought with pride as he turned to look towards the emerging portals from which several transports came out.
In the coming years the "Union of Workers' Republics" or UWR as it was more commonly known expanded rapidly to other isolated star systems, guided by the old navigation charts of the Federation and motivated by the desire to bring the rest of humanity under their ideological banner, either through reason or through force.
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623rd Year of the 25th Millennium, 9th Day of the 11th Month
Zalamis Prime
Hive city of Gezdpi
Underhive
Apartment Building Nr. 122
"Ma'am we need you to calm down and drop the gun to the floor…" The Commissar leading the police unit said in a slow tone in an attempt to calm down the crazed woman who was currently standing on the edge of the apartment building's roof with a gun pointed to her temple.
"The voices… they whisper." She mumbled before abruptly dropping the laspistol in her hand to the ground and grasping her head in pain. "AH! The pain! MAKE IT STOP!" She yelled in a mixture of panic and agony as the officers began slowly backing away from the pillar of warp energy that was gathering around the woman.
She screamed as the built up energy released in the form of a miniature warp portal that opened up in front of her and began spilling out small and hideous looking creatures that began attacking everything they could see.
The police officers were overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events and didn't have time to reach for their armament before being jumped by the warpspawn and slaughtered to the last man with the exception of the commissar who used his plasma blade to ward off any nearby creatures while at the same time using the autopistol in his other hand to aim at the confused woman who had spawned the portal.
'She must be acting as the conduit, if I take her down the portal should close down as well.' He thought frantically as he squeezed the trigger just as the woman turned to look towards him, the last sight she ever saw being the barrel of an autopistol as it fired before the bullets shredded her body and killed her.
A few minutes later the warp portal too shut down and after finishing off the last of the warp creatures the commissar walked over to the still body of the woman responsible for the incident.
Her eyes had an empty look in them as they stared towards the roof of the underhive while the blood slowly poured from the exit wounds underneath her.
"I'm sorry it had to end this way… You obviously didn't want any of this to happen but you forced our hand." He began as he holstered both of his weapons and closed his victim's eyes respectfully. "You were just another victim of this madness."
After calling in for a clean-up team to pick up the bodies of the officers who had fallen in the line of duty alongside the woman who he had been forced to kill to protect himself and the rest of the populace, the commissar looked down from the edge of the roof and down at the bustling underhive.
'I just hope something like this won't happen again, at least not anytime soon.' He thought grimly, at the time not realizing how naïve such hope was.
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962nd Year of the 30th Millenium, 5th Day of the 8th Month
Segmentum Pacificus
Union of Workers' Republics' Space
Workers' Republic of Gereadus VII
Several people were forcibly lined up against a stone wall in the capital city of the UWR's newest member state Gereadus VII, most of the people accused were of higher social status, one even coming from a long line of navigators that had originally been navigating the first colony ships to the planet.
"You have been charged with engaging in counter-revolutionary activity and branded as enemies of the people by your fellow man for collaborating with the enemy, the punishment for your acts is death, effective immediately." The Commissar in charge of carrying out the executions announced as the firing squad next to him assembled opposite from their soon to be victims.
"Firing squad!" He shouted "Ready weapons!" The soldiers raised their ARP-44 railguns against their shoulders "Take aim!" The weapon sights were raised to eye level and aimed towards the guilty men who were shaking in their boots from fear.
"FI-!" The man's words were cut short as his head exploded into a shower of blood and gore while the rest of his body fell to the ground soon afterwards, this went unnoticed by the firing squad though who had already fired and executed their targets.
The men that comprised the firing squad were soon looking around confused at what had just happened to the Commissar before hearing a terrifying war cry as a horde of men in oversized blue armor charged towards them guns blazing.
The Alpha Legion had arrived… and they were out for blood…
But unlike their counterparts in the Imperial Guard, the men of the Red Banner stood their ground despite losing their Commissar and took cover to return fire on the nearest enemy troops, one of them using his radio to alert the rest of the local garrison of the immediate threat before popping out of cover to join his comrades in returning fire.
'The Manipulator' as pretty much everyone in the UWR called the device, had provided significant technological advances in terms of military armament along the many years since it had first been discovered. Having the possibility of snatching different technologies from the multiverse and refining it to suit their needs had allowed the AoTRB to develop weapons and ammunition that both worked flawlessly and were able to take down any possible target that might come their way…
…And that included Space Marines.
If the posthuman super soldiers that were the Alpha Legion could have seen beyond their zealotry to carry out the will of the emperor they would have easily noticed the fact that their numbers had begun rapidly thinning from the enemy's fire even before they had managed to down even one of their foes.
"Forward brothers! To victory!" One of them yelled "For the Emperor!" Another one encouraged his comrades as the Red Banner soldiers started taking casualties, the first of them being the most senior member of the squad who received a bolter round to his chest that blew a large hole into his torso after his personal shields failed, killing him instantly.
"Comrade down! Comrade do-!" One of the other soldiers began yelling before his head was blown up like a watermelon by a heavy bolter round.
"Hold the line! Do not let these imperialist bastards through!" The remaining NCO of the group shouted to his brothers in arms, taking the lead in the worst possible time despite the odds of survival.
Even as their numbers kept thinning, the soldiers of the Red Banner fought on with an almost fanatic fervor, they knew in their minds that they would most likely not survive this battle but they had made peace with the idea of dying for their people and ideas.
Their attention was soon captured by a chainsword wielding space marine that had began charging towards their position, not caring in the least bit about the damage he was receiving and only focused on taking down the enemies of the Imperium with extreme prejudice.
"Focus fire! Take that monstrosity down!" The NCO shouted as the remaining four members of his squad aimed their weapons towards the swordsman who was almost to their position.
"Die traitors!" The hulking mass of flesh and metals shouted as his sword revved to life and was about to strike down and cut the men behind the cover to pieces.
But, his attempt was halted by the fact that the arm that held the weapon had just been blown clean off by a heavy sniper round, embedding the fearsome weapon to the ground instead of its organic targets who had just finished reloading and turned their weapons toward the space marine before pumping his head full of .68 caliber armor-piercing-high-explosive rounds.
Soon after a Harvester-class heavy tank rolled onto the field, firing its 30cm cannon at one of the Predator MBTs accompanying the Alpha Legion's offensive and hitting it in the area under its turret and igniting the ammunition within, which resulted in the Imperium's armored support having its turret blown right off and landing right next to a group of the Imperium's finest.
The rest of the Predators attempted to retaliate against the monstrosity but found that their weapons were inadequate in breaching their opponent's defenses, meanwhile the heavy turret slowly turned towards its next target whose crew were attempting to fire off one last shot but failed as another oversized shell landed onto their vehicle's hull and destroyed it in a blaze of glory.
Behind the Red Banner's tank came the rest of the reinforcements that began pushing the Imperium's forces back and away from their encampment and towards the city limits, their enemies were not just any regular soldiers though for they were Space Marines.
And as everyone in the Imperium already knew Space Marines never run from battle, they just perform a tactical retreat.
As the wounded were loaded into the Rhino troop transports by the other half, the other half of the Alpha Legion's attack force provided covering fire to their battle brothers.
After retreating from battles around the contested planet the Imperium's forces would gather to their designated evacuation sites where they would be picked up by friendly transports and brought back aboard the battle barge acting as their mobile base of operations.
At the time the UWR had not known of the lengths Imperium would go to retain its place as the sole dominant power in human space and they had let the Space Marines leave the planet without any further problems.
After all the Imperium's ground forces had left the planet the single battle barge leading the invasion fleet had positioned itself right into the planet's orbit and done something so unspeakably hideous that it baffled the minds of many non-Imperium humans for a long time to come.
The officer in charge of the Imperium's invasion force had after much time spent contemplating and going through battle reports deemed the planet to be too much trouble and to stay on schedule with the rest of the Great Crusade's participants he had ordered the planet to face Exterminatus through the use of a planet killer weapon called a virus bomb which would eradicate all remaining organic life on the planet.
The unfortunate things was though that the Imperium was under the delusion that the Red Banner army's and by extension the Union of Workers' Republics' influence was only limited to this one planet which had been torn apart by the influence of the Warp.
The reality of course was much different and this alliance of human planets had already grown big enough to challenge the entire Imperial prowess as a whole in just a few millennia.
And they would do a lot more in the years ahead…
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A/N: As usual, the illustrations for things included in this chapter (with the exception of the spacecraft, which I haven't gotten around finishing yet) such as the weapons can be found on my Deviantart page.
Hope you didn't mind the time skips, I found them a necessary evil since I had events that I had to cover in the past but not dwell on them too much since the main event will of course be the Great Crusade and eventually the Horus Heresy and beyond.
Aaaaaand… to those wondering… Yes, The Manipulator is just the 40k version of the Tool Gun because I'm going to re-use that idea over and over again until it becomes so stale that people will start complaining about it.
I think that's all for now, please post constructive criticism if you have any and don't forget to follow/fave if you've liked what you've read so far.
For now, this is MarxistFIN… Signing out.