A Thousand Howls, A Thousand Claws

By: Talos Soulhunter

Deep Space near Scound's Fall

Fleet: Doom Claw's

Affiliation: Night Lords

Flagship: Echo of Damnation

Vox message to Scound's Fall:

"We come in midnight clad for your souls. We come for you."

Chapter 1: An Impending Doom Approaches

"Destroy, for the sake of Destruction!

Kill, for the sake of Killing!"

Scound's Fall

Commander Belros von Hest sat at the head of the table. The meeting had already ended and he still couldn't believe what he had heard. The Night Lords Traitorous Legion had snuck past hundreds of patrols and was in-system. And it was headed towards them.

"Holy Emperor save us." Belros said realizing that this world had barely any troops to fight. It was a perfect target. No orbital defense, no fleet, and worst of all no ground to orbit weaponry. It was a world with a very important job, and nothing to help it protect itself. The large Shola Progenium Abbey here was an academy for aspiring Commissars, Admirals, Stormtroopers, and Sisters of Battle.

"What the frak are those Cadian Gate bastards doing?" cursed the Commander as he left the briefing room heading towards the strategium center to where he knew the ancient and revered Custodes Khalsix was already planning for the siege.

Flagship: Echo of Damnation

The Desolator-Class flagship of the Night Lords force was in the center of its fleet. It was an ancient ship and had seen countless centuries of battle. It had been At the battle of Terra against the False Emperors fleets and had come out wounded but alive. The fleet it commanded consisted of 5 Cruisers, 3 Grand Cruisers, 4 Despoiler Battleships, 6 Infidel Destroyers, 10 Idolator, 2 Iconoclast Warships, 5 Dark Mechanicum transports, and a single titan carrier. Following this Chaos Marine fleet, was a small fleet of Traitor Imperial ships, belonging to the Cultists of the Night Lords. This fleet consisted of one Vengeance-Class Grand Cruiser as the Flagship, 4 Cruisers, 2 Dauntless-Class Cruisers with torpedoes, and a small fleet of 5 Sword-Class battleships owned by the Red X'ers, the elite cultists commanded by the Chaos Lord directly.

On the Desolator-Class flagship, Echo of Damnation, the Night Lords leader sat in his throne arguing with his lieutenants.

"B-but my lord, attacking the Abbey full on first might allow time for other troops to mobilize!" cried one of the lieutenants after their leader had explained his plan.

"I for once agree with Xarl" stated a weathered veteran bearing holy and rare Tactical Dreadnaught armour.

"Objection accepted, Malador, and duly ignored. I have SEEN. Our Father's curse plagues me yet again and has shown me that there are no defenses to this pathetic rabble. The only resistance will be at the Abbey and will be quite weak." Slowly rasped the Chaos Lord "No. We must strike quick and suddenly like always, but use caution. There may be a possibility that the Abbey has a fairly good general, one of the False Emperor's personal Custodes. None are to kill him. I personally shall claim his head."

A series of grumbled ayes were heard and the Chaos Lord smiled.

"Well then. Xarl, Adhemar prepare the foot soldiers. Malador, go brief your brother Atramentar. Ruven, go prepare your daemons and psykers. Burias go gather your possessed. Uzaz, our ally, go gather your Berzerkers. And Usara, go gather the cultists along with their leaders Galin and Tamil. Synestro, you stay, I must speak with you"

"Yes Lord Talos" chorused the warriors, curious as to why their leader wished to talk to a mere mortal in private, as they left the command bridge. Synestro, a quiet but powerful man, lingered in the shadows a little longer before he came out and approached his lord.

"You wished to speak with me, lord?"

"Don't annoy me Syn, you know I hate it when you call me lord. Call me by the same name you used to call me." said an irritated Talos.

"Fine, Talos, you wished to speak with me?" sighed Synestro.

"Yes, I want you to take your personal guard of Red X'ers. They are our equivalent of the Imperial Stormtroopers, and will be useful as forward scouts. I am giving you ownership of the Red X'ers platoon and the Sword-Class warship, Wailing Claws. You are crucial to our success, I mean it. You will take a small guard of X'ers and travel to the Abbey. There is a small Sanctuary of Space Marines there. Normally there are about 30 marines stationed there but things can change and my visions unclear. Do be careful, I'm sending some of my men with you as a precaution." Instructed Talos

"Um… Thank you, Talos. Can I bring along… hmm…tough choice. Can I bring along 10 Atramentar brothers, and that Warhound-Class Titan Insidious Stalker?" questioned Synestro. "They would be helpful in this situation."

"Done. You leave in an hour. Also take Ruven along with you. He can summon some daemons for you to help." Quickly answered Talos, before dismissing his warrior friend.

"Septimus, you can come out now." Quietly said Talos.

Out of the shadows of the throne came a weathered old man with a purple bionic eye.

"Where is Octavia?" asked Talos.

"She is at the Navigatorium as always." Answered Septimus in a shaky voice.

"Septimus. Something troubles you. Speak."

"Well Lord Talos, your plan. It has one single major flaw. The…" Septimus stopped upon hearing a rough laugh from his Lord.

"Intriguing. You still haven't lost your bold ways. But do go on."

"Well as I was saying there is a major flaw. I have read the data-slates and have noticed a pattern. On the planned day of our attack there will be a change of Space Marines stationed there. They change the Chapter's warriors for another Chapter's. This year it will be the Dark Angels stationed there." Explained the nervous servant.

"Well they can't be that strong. After all they are just marines like us."

"That's the thing Lord Talos. It's going to be half a Company of their so-called Deathwing Terminators some of them will be stationed at the Abbey. Someone is leaking information onboard one of our ships."

"Oh FRAKK!" Screamed Talos causing many of the workers on the bridge to jump in their seats and stare wide eyed at their commander.

End of Chapter 1: An Impending Doom Approaches