Greetings everyone, Elusith here. Still a fledgeling writer seeking to explore the world of the pen(or keyboard).
Anyways, this here is my first WH40k story, which I am very excited to write about, as I had been a fan of their stories. However, there may be a few offs here and there as the lore behind the entire 40th millennium is quite huge.
Anyway, please enjoy the story and leave a review as you see fit! I would deeply appreciate any helpful notes!
Fall
Intro Part 1
Echoes of explosions and gunfire boomed throughout the gigantic dark hallway in which Epistolary Esquivo and his yellow armored retinue were running through. As their ceramite boots strike the white marble floors relentlessly, the group of space marines gazed at the mighty steel doors that lined the hallway, their focused eyes betraying their worry.
'Where had it all went wrong?' Wondered Esquivo, his armor and helmet a shade of blue to mark his rank. They, the marines of the Roaring Wings Chapter, had always been staunch followers of the Codex Astartes, which their revered primarch, Roboute Gulliman, had written himself. They had always sought to emulate their parent chapter, the legendary Ultramarines and had wished to carve out a page of legend to be added to the history of the Imperium.
Then this happened.
"It is not your fault," Hissed the Axe which Esquivo carried at his side, "you had only been acting for the good of your Chapter, the price I demanded was only that you free me from that structure, and your condition was that I do not harm your brothers in any way conceivable. A truly noble soul you are."
Ignoring the voice, Esquivo continued to stride forth with his squad until one of the steel doors flung open to reveal a legend.
Flanked by yellow armored Space Marines who hefted a variety of deadly weapons, a titanic figure strode forth. His armor was the pride of the chapter, intricate designs elaborating the amount of effort that had been spent into it. In his hand, a glowing sword engulfed in blue flames that had slain many an enemy warlord glinted coldly in its own light and through the lens of his helmet, a gaze like the sharpest spear pierced Equivos and his retinue.
Eyes filled with dread, Equivos beheld the one who he should still be serving, Chapter Master Bellicus, Lord Governor of Corax VII, Leader of the Roaring Wings Chapter.
A second passed, and chaos ensued.
The sound of bolter-fire filled the hallways as the two groups of brothers opened fire upon each other. Warriors that had once fought beside each other now turned their weapons against one another, a horrible mockery of the battles when they stood side by side.
Equivos leveled his Bolt pistol at a charging enemy marine and pulled the trigger, squinting as the shell that sped out of the barrel pierced his former brother's neck with pinpoint accuracy.
However, even as that one fell to the ground as a lifeless corpse, another charged out, roaring a battle-cry as he hefted a Power Mace high, prepared to drop it upon Equivos' helmeted head.
Movements as a blur, Equivos was a second too fast for him. Unnatural energy surging through his limbs, Equivos briefly enjoyed the rush of power before he unleashed a torrent of cackling energy at his unfortunate attacker. With a dull thud, the Roaring Wings Marine dropped, his yellow armor now a blackened hue.
That was when the lightning struck.
Barely throwing up a shield in time, Equivos beheld as his Chapter Master's blade glanced off a blue screen that the Epistolary had conjured. Turning eyes filled with fear towards his lord, Equivos could not help but feel angered at the steely gaze that had settled upon him.
"My lord…" Muttered Equivos, his voice trembling, though with fear, or anger, he does not know.
"I have no need to talk with you, heretic."
'Heretic?' Something snapped within Equivos, and instinctively he pulled the Axe free from its sling at his side.
"I saved our Chapter," He spoke, voice dripping with raw emotion, "If it were not for me, not only Corax VII, but the entire of the Cadocus system would have fallen to the Orks!"
"At what cost?" Replied the steely voice of his unappreciative master, "You have doomed many a world to a slow death with that Warpstorm you conjured with the lives and blood of many of our librarians. And you did it not caring about whether those on our side would be added to the list of casualties."
"A NECESSARY SACRIFICE!" Roared Equivos, anger filled him and he lunged forward, the Axe swinging down to decapitate Chapter Master Bellicus, who promptly blocked the attack with his blade.
Weapons locked together, the two Marines struggled against each other as the battle raged around them.
"WE COULD HAVE REBUILT OUR CHAPTER!" Equivos raged as he desperately tried to push his lord back, "THERE WAS NEVER A NEED FOR US TO BE AT CONFLICT AT ONE ANOTHER!"
"Yes, Yes!" Whispered the Axe gleefully, "Tell him! He is wrong to blame you so! Your fellows were only unfortunate accidents in the wake of a noble cause!"
Before Equivos could act according to the voice, his Chapter Master spoke first.
"If that is so," Began Bellicus, "if your way was the route the Roaring Wings should take, then I would be ashamed to lead this Chapter."
Rage turned to hatred, and Equivos vision turned red as he let loose an unholy howl. Power coursed through him as the axe cackled with blue electricity. For a brief moment, Equivos could see his lord's eyes widening in surprise through his helmet's lens before a blinding light burst forth from the weapon.
+++ Surveillance Report +++ Acolyte [Ancient], Ordo Hereticus +++ Analysis: Unverified +++
As my master, Lord Inquisitor [Seeker], preferred, the entire report of the Cadocus system would have its participants' names coded in the ill event that this report falls into ill-fated hands. Regardless, this is a task that was handed to me due to the Lord Inquisitor himself being preoccupied with the discovery of the current state of events of the Cadocus System, or more specifically, the forge world, Severil.
According to past reports, the entire system of Cadocus had been the victim of an Orkoid Invasion roughly two standard Terran years ago. Imperial reinforcement had been mustered only to fail to reinforce the besieged system due to the obstruction of a warp storm. Said storm had covered the Cadocus system for many months and had only recently receded. Hence, it was only three weeks after the storm cleared that we had emerged from warp travel and touched down upon the forge world of Severil.
The former Mechanicum occupied world had appeared to be completely devoid of life, and this was a notion assumed by my esteemed master until we moved into view of the Mechanicum outpost where we hoped that there would be evidence to explain the current situation.
The scenario we encountered was intriguing, to say the least. For miles around the city, Orkoid bodies lay motionless, showing clearly the result of the invasion. However, before we could begin the enter the massive ork graveyard, we were set upon by the remnants of the Mechanicum forces.
Blabbering Skitariis swarmed out of concealed areas, their weapons firing upon us in a disorderly fashion. While we were massively outnumbered, credit was due to the Adeptus Astartes who had pledged their service to the Lord Inquisitor, as they successfully escorted most of us Acolytes to within range of the unfortunately driven-mad Tech-Priest Dominus and put an end to him with our Melta weaponry. Which as a result caused the entire opposing forces to fall apart as their sole leader was dispatched of.
It was with the greatest necessity and regret that we were forced to dismember the fallen Tech-Priest in order to appropriate his memories, or to be specific, the vid-logs of his mechanized mind so as to chance upon even a glimmer of what actually transpired upon Severil. Our efforts were rewarded, and we were able to discern that Chaos had indeed been involved in the workings, though how, we have yet to find out. All that was could be ascertained from the Vid-logs was that when the Warp Storm descended, it had wrought a change upon the Orkoid and Mechanicum forces. The Mechanicum forces appear to be reduced to mindless primitives, at least those with proper thinking capabilities, while the Orks were infected with a sort of plague. All that appeared of the plague was that the infected Orks found their movements completely restricted and their cells completely deteriorated.
Furthermore, the Ork body originally retrieved as a research sample, holds another disturbing discovery. Though most of his cells had deteriorated, we found that the Ork, by some vile sorcery, is still alive. Even now, that particular Ork's eyes still gazed around in panic as my master performed tests and experiments upon it, and we hope that the source could be determined soon.
For now, until further results could be determined, we had begun preparations for the journey to Corax VII, home to the esteemed Roaring Wings Adeptus Astartes Chapter. There, if we are fortunate, we could perhaps discover the source of the involvement of Chaos, and hopefully discover the fate of the Roaring Wings Chapter who, so far, had not replied to any of our Vox messages.
+++ Surveillance Report End +++
Well, it is quite short, but i'm still working on it. Much thanks to the Chaos warband creation table, to help me generate a warband that I'm not particularly biased towards!
Also, please leave a review on any areas of improvement, I'll greatly appreciate it!
Regards,
Elusith
It had been reworked to something a lot more presentable, many thanks to the reviews so far! However, I understand that there is still room for improvement. So please leave reviews on any areas of improvement, Thanks!
Regards again,
Elusith