First story I've ever written and put up here, so any critiques and comments would be welcome!
There was no warning of it coming. Night had just begun settling across the hive when it began. Just moments before there had been a sense of tranquility and relative calmness. Then the screaming began; the screaming of the citizens, the screaming of engines swooping down, the screaming of crazed raiders. The screaming began after a brief moment of shock, then the Hive itself seemed to scream.
Planetary Governor Fronz gazed over the city from his spire with dismay as the Hive burned. It seemed so unfair to him; after all he had just recently oversaw record growths of tithings to both the Administratum and Departmento Munitorum. The planet was well on its way to slowly becoming the new economical hub of the sector, all under his guidance and careful planning. It had only been several decades since he had taken the seat of Planetary Governor after quietly removing the last inbred incumbent; under Fronz's guidance, the planet Einshahn and sector would once again flourish.
Several of his Oathsworn rushed in and attempted to relocate him to the panic room of the Governor's Palace. Fronz shook his head and looked at them sadly; with the invaders who were setting fire to the city, no panic room would protect him from his fate. He walked over to his priceless nalwood desk, one of the last of its kind, and pulled forth an ornate bolt-pistol covered with jewels and beautiful engravings showing the divinity of the Emperor with the Primarchs.
"Flee and save yourselves; the Emperor Protects."
The Oathsworn saluted and began running through the palace, trying to gather what was left of the staff and guards. Fronz gave a weary sigh and held the pistol against his head; it would have only taken another two decades to rebuild the planet, but it seemed that the Universe was not on his side. A loud bark echoed through the room, and what was Planetary Governor Heidrich Fronz's body toppled to the floor, spared of a far worse fate than death.
The screaming started as the 41st Regiment of the Harkonian Planetary Defense Force began its ritual of drinking and dining. As the men and women of the PDF began drinking, a siren went off, piercing the din of the barracks. For the first few precious minutes, the room was silent and still. After all, what kind of enemy would want to waste time on such an insignificant planet? By some strange fate, this moment of hesitation saved them. Several blasts shook the barracks and shattered all the windows. Many inside were blown aside by the force, but were otherwise unharmed.
Captain Angela Okirza struggled to get up from the floor, her ears ringing from the close proximity to the blast. Several of her subordinates grabbed her and began dragging her towards the armory. The men and women of the 41st PDF began rushing towards the doors, through some had begun curling into a ball and babbling incoherently. Angela stabilized herself, and attempted to listen to the tactical vox-next, but only received static and screaming. Accompanied by two of her lieutenants, she ran outside only to see a glistening crater of the command center of the base along with bodies burned beyond recognition. One of the lieutenants vomited and then pitched over, dead. Angela turned her gaze around to see the cause of death. A figure dressed in form fitting armor, much taller than any normal human, had an exotic looking pistol raised and was pointing it at her other lieutenant.
Before she could draw her own standard service issue las-pistol, a bark of bolt-pistol resonated through the area and the figure's head exploded in a shower of gore. Several soldiers accompanied by a stern man with a crimson sash jogged over to her.
"Are you alright Captain Okirza?" The stern looking man asked her. By now the rest of the regiment was rushing outside now that they were armed.
"Yes, beside some bruising from earlier. What is going on commissar?"
"Our world has been attacked captain. Xeno raiders from the looks of it; they have already attacked the other bases. By providence of the Emperor, this regiment is one of the few that weren't outright destroyed in the opening salvo. The 41st's tradition of eating and drinking this late has managed to save it for now."
It took a few seconds for Angela to process this information and she looked around the ruined base. In the winds she heard screaming and saw more fires in the distance. Many of the soldiers were milling around, looking just as shocked as she felt.
"I see. Thank you commissar. Have there been any orders from the Colonel or Defense Command?"
The commissar barked a few orders at the troops to begin starting up the Chimera transports in the motor pool, then looked back at Angela.
"No, we lost contact with Defense Command a few minutes ago, and the Colonel along with the senior staff of the regiment were killed in the blasts. You are now the highest ranking senior officer Captain Okirza."
Angela would have fallen over again if her remaining lieutenant had not caught her in time. The events of the night were proceeding far too fast, and it was now overwhelming her. The fate of a world and her regiment now fell upon her shoulders, a scenario she never would have thought possible. She had only joined so her family could move up in the hive, away the gang wars of the Stacks and underhive.
She took several deep breaths, then looked up at the commissar. "Get whoever is still alive into the chimeras and whatever vehicles we have left. Short range vox's should still work, so we need to leave this place before the xenos come in to finish the job. We can find other survivors on the way."
The commissar and her lieutenant nodded and hurried off to pass the message down to other surviving officers. For the time being, it seemed the fate of the hive now fell upon a single regiment of washouts and those too unwilling to muster into the legions of Imperial Guard. A fate that would now be worse than death.
Pablo Antonio de la Vandito was docking over the planet of Einshahn for a few days to resupply and offload some of his goods. The run had been highly profitable, and Pablo's connections with the Imperial Navy and Port Authority had allowed him to make some additional money on the side as well. His ship, the converted cruiser Bounty of Lalafina had been a loyal, study ship over the century of voyages he had made. While Pablo was not quite yet a Rouge Trader, he was hoping he would be granted a Writ of Trade soon enough.
He had been preparing to leave the gravity well of the planet and prepare for a transition into warp when a screaming came from his ship's sensors. Pablo glanced at the information flowing through his command lectern and saw several objects exiting warp near his location. He frowned and looked at the time table his friends at the Port Authority had given him. Even with the unpredictable warp currents factored in, no ship should have been coming to Einshawn for at least a week. His years of voyaging through the void gave him an unsettling feeling as to what was about to come; pirates.
"Power to the Void shields, load guns and ready the lance batteries."
His frantic command to his crew was carried out in short order. Many had accompanied him long enough to also know what was to follow, and they readied themselves for combat. Through Pablo was just a merchant, any merchant worth their salt would have enough weapons to make pirates reconsider.
Just as he had dreaded, several sleek ships exited and began preying on the smaller intrasystem ships and a few of the smaller merchant ships that had been in high anchor over Einshahn. The sails and seemingly sadistic design of the ships told him all he needed to know; the denizens of the Dark City, the masters of pain and pleasure, the most sadistic of all xenos, the Dark Eldar, had arrived.
The Bounty of Lalafina began moving away from the Eldar vessels as it opened up its batteries and Pablo prayed for a miracle. A single former cruiser was nothing against the ships arrayed against him. Escape was no longer an option, but surrendering was not one either. To surrender was to welcome a fate far worse than death.
By the time the 41st regiment had managed to reach the closest base, nearly half of its strength had been captured, killed, or worse. The raiders had been picking off vehicles and stragglers in some instances, and luring troops away in other. Both Angela and her troops were beginning to panic against these fleet foes. While they had managed to bring some of the raiders down, there were far too many who got away to launch another raid on them again. Some of the less sound troops had already broken down, and run. The commissar and Angela had tried to snap them out of it , but it generally ended with the commissar executing troops who refused to continue, and the troops who had tried to flee into the hive.
The screams of both victims and the pirates continued to fill the hive. In the shadows of the hive spires, xenos armed with exotic weaponry dropped upon the unsuspecting regiment, and often killed or dragged away many troops each time before the weight of fire managed to turn them away.
When what was left of the ragged regiment reached the next base, they were so traumatized, even the sight of friendlies terrified them. For the most part through, none had gone far enough yet to shoot at allies.
"This is Acting Colonel Okirza of the 41st , don't fire. We're trying to find other regiments so we can take our Hive back."
There was a brief bit of static over the vox-comm, but a rather young sounding voice popped onto the network.
"This is Lieuthenant Kha of the 13th. All of our senior officers are dead or were captured by the raiders. The xenos spent a long time killing our colonel in front of us. We've been holding out against the bastards, but they seem to just be playing with us."
"Understood. It isn't safe to stay in one place with them lurking around, join our column and we'll try to get to a stronger position."
The 13th regiment was also badly mauled by attacks, but their emplacements of auto cannons and the presence of Leman Russ battle tanks had managed to keep the line together. The addition of additional vehicles and troops had increased the odds of survival from nearly nil to a ghost of a chance. Angela waved the column forward, uncertain of their fate as they advanced up the Hive.
After several hours of traveling, the column had suffered additional losses and seen the after effects of the raiders. Everywhere they went, bodies of slaughtered regiments and civilians decorated the street. They often found bodies strung up on lights and buildings, with abuse and torture evident. In some cases, pieces of skin and organ were all that was left. To Angela's horror, some of these things were still alive. Whenever they came across one, she or someone else mercy killed them as quickly as possible.
By now, the screaming had stopped, but the constant sound of gunfire replaced it. By now most of the outer and under hive had fallen, but the upper hive was still resisting. Angela held her fist to halt the column; a scout Sentinel reported a large group of civilians being herded into the strange ships.
At this point, the shock and fear of the attacks had turned into a murderous loathing of the xenos who were defiling their world. The Commissar was very surprised the sudden shift in mentality, but he acknowledged that the knowledge it was the regiment's world was very empowering. He wouldn't need to shoot any more soldiers for cowardice, but use those bullets to drive the xenos off the world.
The column continued forward, the treads of the Leman Russ tanks and the Chimera troop transports thundering through the city. Sentinel walkers advanced at flanking speed ahead of the group, eager to unleash their weaponry on the elusive foe. Angela sighted the xenos driving human prisoners like cattle into ships. The fear of finally fighting these foes in the open gave way to her resolve to protect what was left her world.
" For the Emperor comrades. Open fire. "
As one, the remnants of the PDF unleashed hell onto the xenos. While the general perception from the Imperial Guard and others of the PDF was of a rather low one, they had never seen one truly fight for its world.
The lack of quality and accuracy of the PDF was more than made up for by its sheer amount of fire. Enough lasguns poured into the xenos that it sounded as if the wind had increased its speed and volume. Multi-las guns and las cannons mounted upon the vehicles chewed into the ships and skimming vehicles of the xeno pirates. The main battle cannon and plasma turrets of the Leman Russes boomed and blew apart the Eldar formation.
The initial shock of the PDF's attack soon wore off, and the elder began opening fire in return and calling in several flyers and fast moving vehicles in a savage counter attack. A beam of purple energy punched through the armor of Angela's Chimera and sent a troop inside flying to the other end. The smell of blood and melted steel began filling the compartment. She looked at the screaming soldier on the floor and vomited. His armor had folded like card board paper and let the beam of energy turn his chest into a gory mess. She could see his rib cage and lungs attempting to take a breath. Blood spewed everywhere, and was quickly turning the Chimera into a charnel house.
With the man beyond saving, Angela ended his suffering with her las pistol and consulted the dataslate of the current disposition of both forces. While her column had managed to force the Eldar to retreat and they had managed to reach prisoners, her scouts were filling the channel reporting a large raiding force on its way.
She pocketed her slate and picked up the lasgun of the dead trooper. Angela calmly strode outside into the aftermath of the firefight. There were many dead on both sides, too many to consider marching up to the Upper Hives. The commissar joined her and they looked at what was left of the PDF. Troopers were rushing the civilians into cover and taking up defensive positions against the oncoming horde of raiders. There was nothing left to say; they would either die as cowards or die holding the line for the Emperor.
Several giant grotesques heralded the arrival of the enemy reinforcements, and they effortlessly soaked up the fire put into them. More and more skimmers arrived to harass and tear open the PDF lines. In close combat, the xenos could easily outrun, outfight, and overpower each individual trooper. Troopers began to fall, either outright killed or dying to the virulent poisons of each enemy's sliver shot.
More bursts of purple energy flew through the air to pummel the vehicles that many troops were taking cover in or behind. Xenos in some kind of plate armor wielding two handed swords dropped onto the soldiers and began hacking through them like paper. Some troops were not granted the mercy of death, and were merely paralyzed or sent into a seizure by members of the Eldar forces. Angela realized that this force wasn't even intent on killing all of them, but rather wanted to capture them alive. She had heard stories of what happened to prisoners taken by the Dark Eldar.
Despite the desperate fight for survival and all of the encouragement, the PDF life began to falter.
"HOLD THE LINE." Angela screamed as she fired at the multitude of targets that began to pierce the gun line. The commissar fell with a grunt, and Angela followed soon after. Before she lost conciseness, she heard the civilians begin to scream as the Dark Eldar found their prey again.
When she woke up, she woke to an imagery of horror and savagery. Many of the Eldar had begun playing with the prisoners, and others had begun a savage butchery of the PDF. She watched in horror as a xeno even viler than the rest skillfully remove the commissar's eyes, then tongue, then teeth. She watched the Haemonculus inject drugs and chemicals into the commissar for unknown effects. She watched him cut open the commissars larynx, and strip away the esophagus. She watched him slowly feed off the very essence of the torture. He left the commissar just barely alive, then advanced over to her. The thing had more than one arm, and the look of modification all around. His voice was an unsettling smooth one.
"Now, Mon'Keigh, it is your turn to be shared the pleasure of pain."
Angela screamed as the Eldar began moving a blade towards her, praying to the Emperor for salvation and deliverance. Perhaps she should have killed herself from the very beginning. The blade edged closer and closer to her face, and she could do nothing but watch.
While the bloody battle for the Hive raged on the planet, the Eldar raiding ships had destroyed nearly every ship but those well-armed or fast enough to be enough of a sport to hunt, and the Bounty of Lalafina. Pablo's ship had been the only reason the planet had yet to fall. The Archon's of the Dark Eldar fleet had decided to focus more strength on attempting to board the ship and take it as a prize. Of course, Pablo knew nothing of this and only strived to survive.
The hours of space combat had left two of the Dark Eldar ships as debris, and several more crippled. The formidable armory of the Bounty of Lalafina had caught them by surprise, but now the rest of the fleet was closing in for the kill. The munitions chamber of the might cruiser had been spent, and the void shields were closing to failing. Boarders had successfully made it onto the ship and security teams and provost were attempting to hold them back from the bridge and the engines.
Additional rounds slammed into the cruisers shield, and the shield finally failed. Cries of dismay and the babbling of litanies and prayers began to fill the bridge. Pablo disconnected himself from the MIU of the bridge, and looked at the bridge with his own eyes for the first time in months. He got up with a shaky step, righted himself, then slammed his fist onto his lectern, silencing the bridge.
"We may have lost our shields, but the damned Eldar will not have our lives. Every Eldar life we take is another that cannot pray upon more worlds of the Emperor. Perhaps we may all die today, but we die proud and in service to the Emperor. It has been an honor exploring the galaxy with you, and I am sorry we never achieved our goal. Today, we will make our peace with the Emperor and bring as many of those bastards down with us as possible."
There was a mummer of dissent at first, but it slowly turned into a grim understanding and the bridge crew began arming itself. Pablo suddenly felt very tired, and very old despite his expensive juevant treatments. He slowly withdrew a power sword, a gift from a grateful planet for his deliverance from Orks. Then he drew a very old pistol, so old it could be considered archaeotech. Pablo faced the door that was starting to sizzle as Eldar raiders began to burn through he door with cutters
" FOR THE EMPEROR."
He bellowed as the door fell and he charged the Eldar. His first stroke took off the head of the surprised pirate sybarite in charge of the party. The bridge crew and guards of the Bounty of Lalafinafollowed in suit, screaming and falling upon the Eldar. Despite the zeal and tenacity of the crew, Pablo was left the only one left. Additional Eldar poured into the room and pointed their rifles at Pablo. By this point, Pablo had suffered several wounds, and he felt the poison from the splinter rifles coursing through his body. He struggled up to his command lectern and groped for the warp core controls. By this point the Eldar had realized what he was trying to do and began to open fire. A cracking sound filled the room.
The blade never reached Angela's eye. A shout of surprise emanated from the Eldar as his body was hewn in half by a might stroke. A drop pod had slammed into the middle of the Eldar and giant figures in armor poured out of them. These killing machines lacked the speed of the Eldar, but more than made up for it in raw strength and toughness. She saw some of these new arrival literally rip the Eldar in half.
"The Angels of Death…." Angela whispered. She had thought they were only stuff of legends, the super soldiers who walked alongside the Emperor himself.
What she saw after however, surprised her more. Several battle suits flew through the air and unleashed torrents of plasma upon the Eldar. Humanoid figures in armor carrying long rifles began laying down suppressing fire as Imperial Guardsmen began evacuating the PDF and civilians who were still around.
A tech priest was directing heavily augmented humans in bringing down vehicles of the Dark Eldar that were attempting to take vengeance on the interlopers. Then she saw other Eldar rushing into the fight and butchering the Dark Eldar.
It had been a long day, and Angela had seen far more than she thought she ever would. A Space Marine with a black and blue armor grabbed her and slung her over his shoulders. The roaring of the bolter gave her a strange sense of comfort, a feeling of safety despite all the fighting and xenos joining battle. She noticed that all the new combatants were wearing the same color scheme; a predominantly black armor with blue highlighting.
"Who…who are you, and why have you come?" Angela weakly asked.
The rain of fire suddenly stopped, and after a few moments of loud combat, a silence fell across the bridge. Pablo turned around and saw a group of Space Marines on his bridge, freshly teleported in. Skitarii had also arrived and were fanning out. The command lectern was beeping furiously, informing him of all the new teleport arrivals.
What amazed him however weren't the Skitarii and Space Marines, but rather the xenos that had also accompanied them. He recognized the naïve Tau, the less depraved Eldar but no less conniving cousins of the Dark Eldar, and even the robotic body of the the very fact of death; a necron warrior. Everything inside him screamed of heresy, but he felt no other emotion but gratitude and relief.
He began sobbing, and slumped onto the floor. A space marine with the gear of an apothecary began approaching him as the rest of the arrival filed out to sweep the ship of any more Dark Eldar.
"Who. . .who are you?" Pablo asked the apothecary.
In the ruins of the once great hive city of Einshahn, a Space Marine seargent bearing unfamiliar colors looked down at Acting-Colonel Angela Okirza. The city continued to burn around them, but additional ships began touching down and disgorging an unusual alliance of troops. A banner of a sword and fist soon hung from the Governor's Spire where many civilians and what was left of the PDF had made a final stand, led by the Oathsworn.
In the mangled bridge of the former cruiser Bounty of Lalafina, an apothecary slammed his narthecium gauntlet into Captain Pablo Antonio de la Vandito. A large fleet of ships from a wide variety of races had exited warp, and began engaging what was left of the raider fleet. Puffs of fire and smoke in the distance announced the destruction of each raider ship.
"We are the dawn that follows the darkness. We are the blade of order. We are the bastion against Chaos. We are the Heaven's Ward, and we came because you held the line." The two informed calmly to their charges as the Dark Eldar were swept from existence.
One the bridge of the Emperor-Class Battleship Mercy , a council of figures were informed of the successful destruction of the Dark Eldar fleet, and the successful scouring of the hive. Sitting upon a throne-like chair, a human got up and looked at his compatriots; the Chapter Master Ziegler Hasucherfaunt, the Fareseer of the Eldar, Archon Mohyrzen who was delighting in the destruction of rivals, Shas'o Vos of the Farsight Encave, and the Tomb Lord Nazareth of the Bastet Dynasty. This assortment of xenos alongside several Imperial commanders and Inquisitors were the nucleus of an idea that spanned generations.
All of this had taken a great deal of resources, networking, coercing, and force to build them to where they were today. The galaxy was approaching an end time, and the future would need protecting, no matter the cost. No matter the accusations of heresy, of betrayal and of taint, the universe must be safe guarded.
It was with these thoughts that Lord Inquisitor Siro had stood up and gazed upon the planet of Einshahn, a planet forsaken by the rest of the Imperium a long time ago as part of a consolidation strategy. Yes, the sacrifices that each individual had made would be worth the future.
A badly wounded, but recovering Pablo was brought in alongside Acting Colonel Angela Okirza. The two had been startled by the both the sheer number of xenos and their coexistence with space marines and other humans, but had kept quiet as they brought before the Lord Inquisitor and the Council.
"Despite the odds and the opportunity to run and save yourselves, you two chose to hold the line and defend this world. A merchant with no stake in this world, and a captain with no experience. Without your spirited and determined resistance, this world would have fallen long before we arrived. You may wonder why I consort with xenos, the very thing the Imperial Creed preaches against. However humanity cannot stand on its own, and the salvation of the Emperor cannot be completed alone. While you may not be able to fathom working with xenos, I have belief you do for I hope to welcome you into our fold."
He paused as his body guard strode down and presented both a new uniform and a blade of exquisite craftsmanship to the two.
"This world has been abandoned by the Imperium as it attempts to hold what it has left against the forces of darkness. Many other worlds will fall upon the same fate as yours, albeit from different threats. Your courage and leadership can be one of the few beacons of light against the coming Darkness and the Long Night."
Pablo and Angela examined the uniforms and the weapon they were given; it was clear it was not of solely human origins, but had whispers of xeno and archaeotech in its design and creation.
"Therefore, I invite you to continue to defend this galaxy. While we may still be small compared to the empires grinding away at war, we will do all we can to safe guard this galaxy. We are the dawn that follows the darkness. We are the blade of order. We are the bastion against Chaos."
This time, Pablo and Angela knew the words and made their decision.
"We are the Heaven's Ward."