(Hello and welcome to my latest endavour. I don't really have much more to put here, but maybe i'll think up something by the end of this. Anyway, enjoy my attempt at bringing a little tiny piece of the grimdark future to the RWBY verse!)
(Disclaimer: i do not own warhammer 40k or RWBY. EXCEPT for Vonris, you wanna use him, you talk to me first.)
[-thought of the day: "Heresy" has six letters, you are always six letters away from DAMNATION.-]
It is the forty-first millenium, in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only War.
The God Emperor of Man wages an unending war against the horrors from beyond the stars. For ten thousand years, His Imperium of Man has stood against the vileness of the xeno, the impurity of the mutant, and the corruption of the heretic.
The most terrible among the great enemies of Man, are the forces of Chaos, Mankind's arch-enemy.
Since the dawn of the Imperium, the Chaos Gods and their followers have assaulted Mankind on all fronts. Butchering the Emperor's loyal servants on distant planets, and tempting their fragile minds with sweet promises.
Among the forces of Chaos stand legions of traitor marines, once proud space marines, fallen to the temptations of the Dark Gods.
One such legion, the Emperor's children, were now attacking an Imperial forge world named "Vakrin IV" in the hopes of stealing new weapon technology.
The brutal fighting had already raged for three months when a certain Imperial Knight arrived there.
[-There is The Emperor, and there is War. Nothing else.-]
In orbit over the planet Vakrin IV, an Imperial tyrant-class cruiser deployed a transport down unto the planet. Said transport carried an Imperial Knight. A Freeblade to be precise.
Freeblade Knight Vonris.
Vonris was, ofcourse, not his real name. His birth name had been erased from the annals of history when he became a Freeblade, along with everything else he once was, except his trusty Knight Walker.
He sat curled up on top of his knight walker as he pondered the battle ahead, the armageddon steel legion had already been fighting the Emperor's children marines on Vakrin IV for months before he had arrived. In that time, space marines from the Salamanders chapter had come to the planet to provide aid to the struggling guard forces.
The battle seemed to be at a stalemate now, Vonris wondered if his presence could change that.
[-Man never changes, so War never changes.-]
After deploying on the planet surface, Vonris was immediatly greeted by the chaos of war. A line of chimera's and infantry-men stood with several Salamander tactical and devastator marines, upon looking skyward, he saw several assault marines descending upon the oposing line.
Said line consisted mainly of noise marines, with the support of a tactical squad and a gaggle of daemonettes. This sight worried Vonris, if the traitors had the ability to summon daemons here, even if they are lesser daemons, then he needed to act fast, lest this world be lost to the clutches of Chaos.
He could hear the relieved shouts and praises coming from the infantry and astartes alike when they saw him, but it was quickly drowned out by the deafening sounds of the noise marines. He aimed his flame cannon at the fast aproaching group of daemonettes and banished all but one back to the warp, the last one had it's visit in the materium cut short by Vonris' knight's heel.
Even after the loss of their daemonic support, the chaos marines held fast. Until Vonris started advancing, laying dozens of them low with flame, bolt, chainsword. The traitors went into a tactical retreat, running further into their territory while firing upon the Imperial Knight with abandon.
The Imperial forces started pushing the traitors back, step by step. By the end of this world's day, the imperial forces had recovered a lot of ground. But Vonris was worried, with every stronghold captured, the number of daemons started increasing. In the latest skirmish, the imperials were nearly overwhelmed. Had the Freeblade not been there, many would have lost their lives.
Vonris pulled vision away from his knight's optics, he saw the inside of his throne mechanicum. He curled up on his throne, holding his legs, and he started pondering, as he usually did. He was painfully aware of what the imperium thought of things like that, "blessed be the mind to small for doubt" and suchlike, but Vonris didn't care, he was like that.
He shifted his vision back to his knight's optics upon hearing sounds of battle, when he did, he saw tactical traitor marines with the support of daemonettes and traitor guardsmen. The heretics were ambushing their stronghold.
Upon rushing out of the hangar he and his knight were permitted to use, Vonris started the incineration of the assailing forces. The battle was going well, with the Freeblade taking the brunt of the attack, the armageddon soldiers and the Salamanders space marines steadily dispatched any traitors that slipped past him.
And then the tide of battle shifted.
Vonris had started recieving scrambled vox transmissions from the guardsmen and astartes, the only thing he could decipher was that something big was headed his way.
Around the corner strode a massive shape, it crushed traitor and loyalist alike under it's heel as it advanced. It stood on somewhat stubby legs, it's right arm had a powerfist attached, while a gatling cannon was present on it's left arm. Said arms were attached to a hunchback torso with an ironstorm missile launcher on top, at the center sat a skull-like visage.
It was a Knight.
But this Knight chassis was covered in the vile iconography of Chaos. Vonris recognized the colours that decorated it as well, the colours of House Malinax, a Knight House turned traitor.
The traitor Knight and the Freeblade stared at each other for what felt like an eternity, the battle raging around them long forgotten. In reality, it was less than half a minute. After that brief staring contest, the two charged at each other.
The traitor's bolts flew through the mighty flames of the Freeblade as they ran into each other's melee range. They both took swings at each other, the energy field of the traitor's powerfist met the unrelenting teeth of the Freeblade's reaper, all the while both their chest-mounted autoguns tore away at each other's ion shielding.
They disengaged from each other, the traitor fired his ironstorm missile launcher, it proved to be last push needed to break the Vonris' shielding. Right now, the Freeblade pilot wished he kept his ironstorm missile launcher instead of swapping it with an Icarus autocannon.
With his Knight chassis suffering under the traitor Knight's onslaught, the Freeblade's chances of survival were steadily dropping. So, he did what any loyal imperial should do when facing certain death:
Vonris charged right into it.
Autocannon barrels ran red with heat, and his flamer had exhausted half it's supply of prometheum, but he pushed forward.
A bullet from the traitor had found it's way into the Freeblade Knight's left optic, but he pushed forward.
Vonris gritted his teeth as the damage to his knight chassis was signaled through pain, and there was a lot of it, but he pushed forward.
By now the chances of his survival were next to nothing...
...but he pushed forward.
He reached the traitor Knight, who's shield had dropped during the Freeblade's charge, they both readied their melee weapons.
The traitor's powerfist had all but shattered the Freeblade's faceplate, the traitor pilot laughed on his tainted throne mechanicum.
Or he would have, if there wasn't a giant chainsword stuck in it, and in him.
The traitor knight fell, Vonris was victorius.
Alas, the battle still raged on, and while the Freeblade was dispatching the traitor knight, he was unable to assist the defending forces with repelling the chaos marines, the imperial forces were holding the line, but barely.
Pushing his knight chassis up from it's previous posistion, wich was laying down on top of the traitor knight, the Vonris looked around. His autocannon surpressed traitor guardsmen and some chaos marines, but until his field repair device could restore his visual feed and motor functions, he was unable to fight back effectively.
After several minutes of half-blind fire into the enemy lines, the Freeblade knight's optic was restored, and what it's pilot saw was worse than he expected.
Chaos cultists.
And they were this close to opening a warp gate. So, with no time to lose, Vonris willed his Knight to rise up, and so it did, slowly, with sparks flying from damaged areas.
His knight chassis would be fixed if given a couple more minutes, but he didn't have that kind of time, a warp portal would be opened, if it did, the battle would be lost.
The Freeblade strode through enemy fire, his ion shield long since regenerated. Noise marines had joined the battle while he was incapacitated, it slowed him down, but the mighty inferno from his flame cannon together with the unrelenting hail of bullets from his autocannon easily resolved the issue.
He reached the group of cultists, they had nearly torn open a portal to the maddening realm of the Dark Gods. Raising his reaper high, Vonris brought the Emperor's judgement down onto the heretics.
It didn't have the result he hoped for.
The cultists had died, but without them, the would-be portal grew unstable. It grew violently, lashing out with harmful energies against heretic and loyalist alike.
Then it exploded in a spectacular fashion, with incomprehensible shapes and colours that made everyone's heads hurt.
This mind-sundering spectacle was the last thing Vonris saw before his vision faded.
[-Only in Death does Duty end.-]
Freeblade Knight Vonris came to, he was looking through his own eyes, not his Knight's optics. To his relief, he was still inside his throne mechanicum. Wishing to know how the imperial forces managed after his loss of conciousness, he connected to his throne mechanicum.
What he saw was not what he expected.
His knight was laying down on a forest floor, wich should have been impossible, he was on a forge world not too long ago. Vonris willed his Knight to stand up, it obliged. To his relief, the field-repair device had successfully repaired all major functions, the only real problem still present was his flame cannon, wich was still only half full.
And there was also the problem of sudden and unexpected relocation.
Standing at full height, Vonris looked around himself, the area was mainly covered by trees. Except for a settlement, wich was visible from the large tower that stoop presumably in the center of it, right next to the smoke plumes.
That was a worrying sign, normally smoke plumes would come from a manufactorum and thus they were no cause for concern, except this settlement sported no manufactorums. That, plus the unfamiliar ships hanging over it confirmed his suspicion.
This settlement had come under attack.
He would offer them his aid, the aid of an Imperial Knight.
[-what has The Emperor done for you? Ask yourself, what have you done for The Emperor?-]
Vonris raced towards the settlement, as fast as the stubby legs of his Knight chassis could carry him. He didn't care for the trees that were toppled by his advance, nor did her care for the indigenous life forms that were crushed under his Knight's mighty feet.
That settlement was the only one near his position, and thus it was his best hope for establishing contact with whatever imperial forces were present on this world, and hopefully return to Vakrin IV to continue his fight against the servants of Chaos.
He had made it halfway to the settlement, by now he started seeing huge black birds flying towards it. Upon zooming in with hos Knight's optics, he saw one of them bringing a rain of sharp feathers down upon it.
These abominations had dared to make an attempt on the lives of citizens of the Imperium? They would die for it
Right now, Vonris was no longer regretting installing an Icarus anti-air autocannon. Reaching out with his mind, he willed the turret to target one of the birds flying to the settlement. The turret obeyed, locking on to the nearest bird, and ripping one it's wings of with a short burst.
It fell with a satisfying shriek that the Knight's audio sensoria could pick up from it's position on the low, low, ground.
Feeling a smirk on his lips, he continued his trek towards the settlement with haste.
[-True justice is quite simply the will of The Emperor.-]
Vonris had reached the settlement, wich he now noticed to be a city, not nearly the size of the average hive city, but it was still worth noting. Nearing the end of his short hike, he spotted and killed several other unidentified lifeforms, all looked like diffrent versions of the bird he had shot down.
Most walked on four legs, but there was on type that was capable lf bipedal movement, though only for very short periods of time.
All had black fur, with bone-like plating on diffrent parts of their bodies depending on their breed. One was laughably small, but it's back was completely covered with plating, an ordinary guardsman would probably have trouble with it. But Vonris was no mere guardsman, he was a Freeblade, a Knight pilot, and he would not be toppled by mere wildlife.
Stomping up to the settlements laughably thin walls, he saw that there were indeed humans fighting the same creatures he was, much to his relief.
He crashed through the wall, the hole he had created had a pre-existing hole right next to it, he realised this just a little too late. Well, even a Freeblade makes blunders sometimes, right?
Some people stopped their fighting to gawk at the magnificence of the Knight chassis. Vonris took this time to take in said people's armor
He was sorely dissapointed.
Their armo- no, their clothing looked very... strange. It was a mess of colours aa each person had a diffrent style of clothing. The only semblance of militaristic order came from the sleek combat-servitors that stood with them, all of them had the same design.
He focused his attention to what he assumed to be the oposition, these people were much more organized. They all had black and white clothes, and their faces were covered by animal-like masks. They all sported the insignia of a wolf's head with three claw marks behind it. Vonris guesses it had to be a type of militia, perhaps this planet's PDF.
He discarded that last thought as he saw the animalistic traits that poked out from their clothes. The only real way that he could tell one apart from the other was because of it, one had horns branching out of their head, while another had a tail, and another long, furry ears.
Mutants then, or abhumans. It didn't matter, they attacked the purity of Mankind, for that they would die.
Making up his mind, the Freeblade aimed his chest-mounted autocannon at the uniformed abhumans and opened fire. In their shock, they failed to react fast enough, and the bulk of their unit was quickly disposed of, though some had survived. He judged this planet's surprisingly colourful PDF would be capable of handling at least that.
Moving onward, Vonris noticed that the city had a shocking lack of imperial iconography, and the only kind of gothic architecture he saw was present in the huge tower he was headed to. This fact worried him, how long was this planet forced to endure without the emperor's light? By the lack of familiarity this place held, he guessed a very long time.
He would have time to ponder that later, right now he needed to get to the gothic spire, figure out where he was, and where to go.
[-Purge the unclean!-]
Raging flames, the booming of bolts, and a Reaper's roar.
These were the sounds that drowned the screams of the uniformed abhumans and the animalistic lifeforms. Vonris laid hundreds of them low with the holy weapons of his Knight chassis.
He was nearing the end of the civilian residential area of the city, beyond that was what he assumed to be the Planetary Govenor's palace, given how impressive it looked compared to the rest of the city.
In the time it took him to get there, he had already lost count of the number of beasts and abhumans he had purged. It didn't matter, he needed to re-establish contact with the rest of the imperium, nothing else mattered.
The Freeblade soon found himself staring up the side of a cliff, it blocked his advance to the Govenor's palace. The cliff seemed to lower some distance away, maybe he could spare some time to walk around.
This idea was put on hold as the ground beneath the Knight's feet started quaking, tracking the shockwaves to the epicenter, he next bore witness to an enormous creature rising up from a mountain in the distance. The beast was massive, nearly rivaling the Knight chassis in height. It was in the shape of a dragon, with wings and everything.
And it started flying towards the city.
Turning his Icarus autocannon to the fast aproaching abomination, he sought to send it crashing down to the earth. But the accuracy of the weapon had proved to be unrelyable at such long ranges.
Thus, Vonris decided to focus on scaling the cliff instead, and with a beast like that on the horizon, he no longer had the luxury of time. So, ramming his Reaper into the rock face, he started climbing...
[-Slay the Beast and the Horde will die.-]
Finally reaching the top of this Throneforsaken cliff, Vonris noticed the beast had reached the gothic spire, it clung to it like he had been clinging to the cliff.
This was both a good thing, and a bad thing. On one hand, he needed to hurry in his task to bring the beast down. On the other hand, accuracy wasn't an issue anymore.
Turning the twin barrels of the Icarus autocannon, he proceeded to show this abomination the fury of The Emperor.
Or he would have, if he didn't see something running up the tower.
Vonris zoomed in on the thing racing to his target, it was a human, a young girl to be exact. This would compromise his goal of purging the monster, he couldn't fire now without risking the life of a civilian.
He pondered his options for a second, but it seemed he took too long.
From the top of the tower, a bright light exploded, enveloping the monstrosity and the tower.
The last thing Freeblade Knight Vonris saw was the blinding light, after that, nothing but blackness.
[-The Emperor protects.-]