Hey guys, I've recently gotten into Wargammer and Warhammer 40000 so I thought I'd give a crack at a story set in that universe. As i'm not as skilled in the lore of Warhammer, please cut me some slack with any lore inacuracies you may find. I'm pretty good with combat scenes but it will be a challenge to capture the scale and graphicness of this universe. But with the research I've done on this universe, I'll do an unthinkable move and set it at a turning point in the timeline I've set up. Again, please cut me some slack for any inaccuracies. Here we go.
A man, in his mid-twenties climbs the steps into the sancuary of et sanabant. This was Silva Terrae, the frontier world at the edge of the universe that was not developed and lived on by those trying to escape the persecution of the empire. It was night and flourescent animals were coming out to light the path. He had blonde hair and blue eyes and he reached about 5'9. He had a backpack for his journey and an old notebook clutched in his hands. One of the primitive kinds made of paper. The inquisition wouldn't find this since it wouldn't be on a holo-record.
He came up a set of steps to a house at the outskirts of a village he had not passed through. He examined the heavy wooden door.
He knocked on it. He heard footsteps inside and then the door opened. Behind it was an eldar woman. The man flinched. She did not.
"What are you here for?" She asked in her ghostly, resonant voice.
The man gulped. "Is... Is Maxim Morte here?"
She narrowed her eyes as if contemplating the question but also the various ways she could kill him right there.
"Yes. Why do you trouble him?"
"I-I am a chronicler for the Gladiis Mundi. I want to hear his story, so it can be remembered by us, and he as a symbol." He gasped as he felt a stabbing pressure around his heart as she glared. There was a noise inside the house and she turned back. Then she relented her gaze upon looking at him again, and the pressure around his heart relented.
"You may enter, and he will make the decision himself." She said as she opened the door to let him in. The house was decently sized but modest. The man walked past a kitchen into a den with a fireplace. In a large armchair facing the fire, there was a large man sitting. He stared directly into the fire.
"You have company, Mela en'coiamin." The eldar woman said to the man. The man let out a heavy sigh.
His voice came out scratchy and gravely, deep. "What have you come for? Who sends me their regards?" He paused. "If you come to kill me, I reccomend you deter from that decision and leave."
"N-No sir. I come from the Gladiis Mundi. I have come to chronicle your life story. We consider you the founding father of our organization and we want you to have a biography for future generations." The man got out.
"I've been facing those memories for years and I have recieved nothing for my pain. In my old age, I've recieved the ability to numb it. But once I think, I see these hells before my eyes once more. Why? Why should I tell you?"
"So men and women of the uncertain future may hear your stories and want to be like you. A hero like you. Sir, you are a legend. An ideal for people to strive for. A-"
"Monster." He finished for him. "I have been a monster. When a monster fights men, it is feared. But when a monster fights bigger, more dangerous monsters and Demons,
It is praised. Idolized. Children play pretending to be monsters too so they feel strong, men make it a statue and believe it worthy of praise, Women weave wild tales of its adventures and sing songs of the stories they make for it. They forget when it fights men, they run in terror, and raise heroes from the children who are tired of fear, only to be killed by the beast. I'm praised as a hero. But I feel like a monster. I look at my hands and I can feel the blood running between my fingers once more."
The blonde man sat down. "The people need this. Your name is praised on a million worlds, respected on millions, and feared on tens of millions. You have achieved the status of a god."
"There's no such thing as gods. They are men born with powers of demons, and they are praised by men who cannot grasp it. Men cannot be gods, and "gods" are just beings born of wrong and hate. But they die like any other."
"You were at Jakara. We won but at high cost. Thanks to you, we claimed victory for men."
Maxim held his breath in his helmet as his drop pod decended down upon the barren moon. The tyranids were crawling up to the surface, slaughtering all that they found.
He had the overwhelming sense of dread, not fear. He would slaughter the enemy in the emperors name, but at what cost of life below? He had the feeling that he was falling into deaths waiting maw. There was a shake and a loud boom as the drop pod buried itself into the moons surface The door pulled up and Maxim charged out with his ballistic mortar and ballistic slug rifle. The imperial guard was falling back with the citizens and miners of the colony here. He loaded a mortar into the shot chamber. The tyranids were everywhere. He aimed at a particularly dense cluster and pulled his trigger. The mortar whisled through the air and buried itself deep into the chest of a 7 foot tall slithering one. The tyranid screamed, then it was gone and its 100 comrades were burning and blasted apart, but more swarmed over their corpses. Maxim switched over to his slug rifle. He blew their heads off. They collapsed or exploded, it made little difference to him, but exploding was more entertaining. A mother dropped her little girl as the imperial guard kept her running. The girl tried to get up and run, but she stumbled and the tyranid advanced. Maxim charged ahead. His brothers were charging into their lines. He was running for the girl. A tyranid bug towered over and prepared to impale her with its bone-blade arm, she cried and screamed. Maxim grabbed the things arm and cleaved it off with his chain-sword. He then started the saw and it screamed as it ripped through, leaving ripped whatever they're carapaces were made of. The tyranid heard their former comrades screams and began advancing towards him. He turned to the girl.
"Get behind me!" He cried through his helmet. She nodded with tears staining her visor and grabbed his leg armor. He blew the head off of every tyranid in 10 feet and made sure to hack the close ones. His comrades were quickly being overwhelmed by the uncountable monstrocities, some being impaled, others torn apart. Some had their armor torn off and the vacuum killed them. Maxim counted 90 spine shots in his armor. 30 of those were in his body. He was running on blood rage. An imperial guard ran up to him.
"I'll get the girl! We can destory this world! We build our main nuclear mining facility on the moons largest fault to make mineral extraction easier! Thats how they got out! We have a mining laser in orbit! If you place this marker at the station, we can target it with the laser and crack this moon open like an egg! You're the only Ultramarine left! You're the only one with a chance of getting there!" He pointed to a large structure on the hotizon and handed him a red blinking cylinder in a spike.
"Drive this in the main core room! That building is the facility! I pray for all our sakes you can make it!" He picked up the little girl and ran. Maxim attached the spike to a mag-lock on his thigh. He loaded his rifle and powered up the sword chain-saw. He gave a mighty battle cry as he charged into the endless wave of tyranids.
"An you survived the massacre at Darsha." Maxim looked into the fire.
Maxim stood firing at the eldar charges in the battle circle with 12 other marines. Their infantry recieved bullets or large caliber in their being when they got too close, so they had a tendency to stick behind the rocks. But the eldar had them pinned against a cliff in the middle of a forest. 2 miles to the north-west was Darsha, a city of 700,000. They needed to hold as many of the eldar as long as possible so the people could evacuate. They would fall here, but for the greater good. Maxim's commander,
neronius, shouted orders through his helmet. He held his chain-sword above his head, instructing them to hold. He fired almost non-stop with his hand-gun.
"You will hold until you fall!" He shouted. The eldar refused to leave their natural covers. Maxim emptied his anti-armor rounds into the stones, he tore through the eldar hiding behind weak rocks. There were seven Ultramarines. There were 30 Eldar just to be seen. Through the gun-fire a resonant humming became louder and louder. Nero gave the order to dive for cover too late. The bomb-skifters shot overhead, unleashing a devastating, blue explosive. The 5, including Maxim, who weren't ripped apart were blasted into the shrubbery. Then there was that demonic howling as the screaming banshees dived down from the cliff behind them and landed with their blades drawn. Maxim couldn't stand from his blast wound. The 4 stood as fast as they could to lay fire upon the banshees. They were dead before they knew it. One cut in half at the waist, one with his arm sliced off then the blade plunged into his chest, just for the banshee to boost up and divide his poor soul in half. Another had his right leg separated from his being and then the blade cut through his helmet and into his skull. For Neronius, atleast he died heroically.
He started up the chain and met a banshees blade. His sword cut through it and diagonally tore through the now very appropriately named howling banshee.
"My Armor is contempt..." He said, flicking thousands of blood droplets off his blade.
He fired 3 rounds into each of the 6 howling banshees that charged him. "My Shield is Disgust..."
An Eldar dire avenger leaped off the cliff and down into the fray with a thundering crash and sword drawn. Neronius charged him and the avenger held his sword hetween him and neronius. Neronius kicked the leg of the avenger, shattering it and Neronius divided him in half with his blade. He took off his bloodsoaked helmet. "My Sword is Hatred..."
His short black hair was sweaty and there was nothing but rage and hatred in his hazel eyes. The 30 eldar advanced upon him and he fired into every one he could but the continued their advance. He showed his gritted teeth and pulled out an infernal grenade. The eldar started to turn back. "In the emperor's name, let none survive."
He pressed the button on it and charged into the eldar. The next was oblivion and a blinding light.
"You-" The man began.
"Stop. I will tell you my story. And maybe you'll leave an aging man alone. Maybe I'll find peace in sharing with another soul my journey." Maxim said gravely.
"Yes, sir. Thank you, so much. You have no idea how much this means. How much it means to us." He opened the book and prepared his pen. "I'm ready."
"I hope you are, because I never was."
Hey guys, thanks for reading. I'd appreciate a review and a follow if you want more. Maybe a favorite if you like what I'm doing here. Thanks guys, I'll see you next chapter.