This story was written for English Coursework, as a Thriller. It got an A Star. You tell me whether that was justified.
Disclaimer: I do not own Warhammer 40,000 ( that is to say the world of Warhammer 40,000 that this story is set in), nor do I own the Ultramarines, the Imperial Guard, the Forces of Chaos or Captain Ardias. I do however own Colonel Garratt, Hayes, Rochar and Lornak.
It is the forty-first millennium. For ten thousand years the Imperium of Mankind has ruled the stars, and its rule has been strong.
But there is unrest amongst the stars...
Aliens assail the fringe worlds of this mighty Empire, and Heretics rot the Imperium from within. And yet it endures, despite this. Ten million Imperial Guardsmen guard the Imperiums worlds, along with the genetically engineered warriors of the Adeptus Astartes, the Holy Imperial Inquisition and the Tech Priests of Mars.
But perhaps it will not last for long. A foul Lord Of Heretics, known as Lornak the Accursed, has led a foul Black Crusade against the Imperium. His armies have murdered countless numbers of people, all in the name of their Dark Gods. In a desperate attempt to stop him, Inquisitor Hayes, a high lord in the Inquisition, has taken it upon himself to infiltrate this foul creatures hordes, accompanied by none save for Brother Rochar, a Grey Knight Space Marine. Together, these brave men have infiltrated Lornaks' armies. They have learned that the Chaos Armies plan is to assail the Agricultural world Doran, and from there... Earth.
That is where our tale begins.
--
Doran: 13:27, standard time. Capital City of Doran – Aranos.
Ultramarine Captain Ardias, commander of the third company of Ultramarines, stood on the city wall, overlooking the assembled enemy forces outside the walls. He was seven feet tall, bald, and armoured in the blue livery of the Ultramarines Chapter. He counted the traitor forces that amassed beyond the walls.
Thirty thousand traitor guardsmen, one hundred tank battalions, one thousand Chaos Marines...
"May the Emperor preserve us all," he muttered. Within these walls he had a full company of a hundred Ultramarines and two battalions of Imperial Guardsmen. Hardly enough.
He was interrupted in this train of thought by Colonel Garratt, the Imperial Guard Commander of this world, walking up to him. Garratt was a brave, noble and decent man, who was willing to sacrifice himself at the drop of a hat if necessary. He was six feet tall, with a clipped black moustache and cropped black hair.
"Captain," he said, his voice as clipped as his hair, "we are as prepared as we can possibly be. The traitors will not enter here without a fight."
"Good," replied Ardias solidly. "Tonight, we will bathe in the blood of our foes. For every one of us that falls, twenty of them must do the same."
"We will make it thirty," assured Garratt proudly.
Ardias smiled, and nodded. They would die perhaps, but at least they would die with honour.
--
Inquisitor Aaron Hayes recited yet another devotional prayer. Beside him, he could sense Rochar, the former Blood Angel, doing exactly the same. They were standing within the Battle Barge of the Chaos Lord Lornak, in a deserted area, a hairs breadth away from thousands of his finest troops, dressed in their perverted Chaos Power Armour.
"Why must we continue like this?" hissed Rochar. "I wish to kill them, and we cannot escape them either way..."
He was a Space Marine, like Ardias, but he had dull brown armour on, a disguise amongst all these Traitor Marines. He had long hair and a beard that were both unkempt.
"We have a duty to the Emperor to survive long enough to stop them," replied Hayes, with a slight smile. "We can start killing them later, when their deaths are already assured."
Unlike Rochar, Hayes was calm and collected, armoured in the same dull brown. He had cropped hair, and shining blue eyes, and he had the look of a zealot.
Rochar looked angry for a moment, then sullenly nodded.
"You are right of course," he muttered. "We cannot act until the time is right."
Hayes smiled at his old friend. He knew Rochar was getting impatient, but he had figured something out that made that worthwhile.
"As it happens, I have a plan," he said, smiling again as Rochars' face registered relief and eager anticipation. He hadn't told Rochar this bit. "And it is a plan that will definitely kill us both."
"I knew we were doomed when I came with you," replied Rochar without heseitation. "And I still came. What plan is this, old friend?"
Hayes motioned for Rochar to follow him. Together they headed for the most heavily guarded place on the ship. It was a place that, if they destroyed it, would cause the plans of the traitors to fail miserably.
The Engine Room.
--
When the final battle began on Doran, it was both bloody and grinding.
The Chaos Guardsmen began the assault, their tanks and infantry launching a deadly volley at the city walls, blowing large chunks out of them and killing many hundreds of defenders. The response was a devastating artillery assault on the Chaos Guard, who admirably fulfilled the role that Lornak had set for them – namely, cannon fodder.
The Chaos response was equally strong. Hydra Battle Tanks, daubed with blood and foul marks of Chaos, fired massive shells into the main gateway. The ancient gate was strong, but against that fury no gateway of mere steel and stone could stand, and the ancient arch collapsed into the dust.
Hundreds of Chaos Marines barreled into the breach, where they were met by determined Ultramarine defence troops and hundreds of Guardsmen. The streets ran red with blood, as Bolter rounds and Laser fire shredded dozens of warriors in moments. The Ultramarine contingent, led by Ardias, fought with more courage and strength than the entire Chaos army, and yet the sheer number of traitor marines forced them back, slowly.
"Stand firm!" yelled Ardias, as he cut down a Chaos trooper. He reversed his grip, and sent his sword into the chest of another. Garratt stood by him, swinging his power sword like a madman.
"Chaos Filth!!" bellowed Colonel Garratt, killing another Chaos Marine with his sword, and firing an entire pistol clip into the hordes that surrounded him. "You will never take our world! For the Empero –"
He was cut off by a Bolter round going through his face, killing him instantly. Demoralized by his death, the Imperial Guard contingent started to give way, leaving Ardias and his Ultramarine contingent high and dry, the Chaos troops completely surrounding them. Thousands of Traitor Guard and Marines assailed them, and the Ultramarines found themselves slowly dwindling...
As the great mass of Chaos troops surrounded them, charging them and slowly wearing them down, Ardias prayed to the Emperor that Hayes and Rochar, the Inquisition representatives, would complete their mission in time.
--
Rochar and Hayes walked calmly towards the Engine Room. This was where their target was, and where they would die.
They had both known it was a suicide mission. Even if they survived the destruction of the ship, they would be executed by their superiors for their exposure to the depravities of Chaos. So they'd decided to die with honour, as much as could be achieved, and earn their place at the Emperor's side.
As they approached, the Chaos Marine guard held hid hand up.
"There is no access here," he growled. "Only those of rank Commander or above may enter. Order's of Lornak himself."
Hayes responded by drawing a Bolt Pistol and blowing a hole in the guards head. Rochar drew his chainsword, and blocked the doorway, taking a battle stance.
"I'll hold anyone who comes in here," he said, nodding. "Ave Imperator, old friend."
"Ave Imperator, Rochar," echoed Hayes, slapping his friend on the back.
He entered the room, and calmly committed his soul and Rochar's to the Emperor.
There were no guards within the room, but there were three servitor crewmen, each armed with a shotgun, each bald, each cybernetically enhanced.
"Who are you?" asked one of the crewmen. "Whose company are you with?"
Hayes smiled. He savored the words he was about to say, and spoke with a relaxed tone that would have suggested to anyone that he was enjoying himself immensely.
"Not yours, Chaos Filth," he intoned, and shot the crewman's chest, blowing his lungs out.
"This is the power of the Emperor," Hayes intoned to the cowering crewmen. "I am one of his servants. You are the foulest of the foul, and I commit your souls to the darkness."
He drew a flame pistol, with a full tank of promethium. Etched into the side were the words "death to the impure".
"Now BURN!!" he screamed, and doused them in the holy fire.
--
On the planet, the battle continued, as the Space Marines were slowly whittled down. There were only thirty seven left, out of a full company of one hundred, and yet still they fought.
Ardias, though he would never have admitted it, was looking forward to death. The light of the Emperor would soon present itself to him, and he would be fulfilled. But before that, he would send these enemies of the Emperor to the hell that awaited them.
Without warning, he began to sing. It was a devotional song to the Holy Emperor, written millennia ago by Roboute Guilliman. His singing voice was a surprisingly soft tenor.
"#We are his shield, his sword and his spear..."
"#We fill the foes of man with fear..." sang another Marine, in baritone.
And soon, all the Marines were singing the praises of the Emperor, as they smote down His foes, dying with song in their hearts, content to do their duty.
--
Meanwhile, back in the Chaos ship's engine room, Hayes set the final explosive charge. Twenty one of them in total were dotted in critical parts of the room, and when they finally exploded, the ship would come out of warp and be ripped apart by the forces of the Maelstrom.
He knelt, and prayed to the Emperor for the explosives to work.
"Very stupid, lackey," came a voice suddenly from behind him, cruel, deep and filled with menace. "You set explosives to destroy my ship, then you wait for death. How stupid are you?!"
Hayes stood up and spun, and there, facing him, was Lornak. All seven feet of him, dressed in the dark red armour of the Word Bearers Traitor Legion, spiky and blood stained. He had a bolt pistol in one hand and a power sword in the other.
"I'm smart enough to know that there are fates worse than death," countered Hayes softly. "You will die, here, and go to the hell that awaits all your kind, while I will go to the Emperors side, and be honoured for eternity."
"Only if I let you, human!" snarled Lornak, drawing a bolt pistol.
"Go ahead, Chaos Scum," smiled Hayes, happily. "You are defeated."
A shot rang out, and Hayes dropped to the floor, a smoking hole in his head, that beatific smile still on his face. Lornak spat at the corpse, and turned to leave the room. He couldn't get rid of the bombs, so he had to escape.
"NO!!" came a scream from the main doorway. Rochar, his armour covered in traitor blood, ran for him, chainsword drawn, and swung for his neck.
Lornak parried, and countered with a reverse swing that had Rochar of his guard. He quickly recovered, however, ducked a blow meant for his head, and spun into a counter strike.
Back and forth the two warriors duelled, swinging their swords.
"You will die here, traitor!" bellowed Rochar, uppercutting with his sword.
"No, I won't," Lornak calmly replied, parrying the blow with ease.
Lornak stepped back, and swung his sword at Rochar, who parried, and thrust his chainsword deep into the Traitors guts.
Coughing, convulsing and spluttering, Lornak still had the strength to spit on Rochars feet, before he collapsed dead.
Rochar wiped his boots off in disgust, sat down, and prayed to the Emperor that they'd succeeded. A moment later, he knew his prayers had been answered, as the detonations began.
He had a moment to thank the Emperor for his life, and for his friend, and for his honourable death...
Then there was only the light.
In the city on Doran, the Imperial forces had routed the traitors.
--
Ardias looked up at the sky.
The Chaos Flagship in orbit had vanished, and the remaining Chaos forces in orbit had been so demoralised by this that they had fled, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake, mostly on the planet where they had abandoned their comrades.
Only nineteen Ultramarines had survived, and two thousand Imperial Guard, but the remaining Chaos forces had been annihilated utterly, with no survivors. The fight had left them, so it was pretty easy to eraditcate them.
This world was safe from the darkness. It was a Pyrrhic victory, there was no doubt of that, but it was a victory nonetheless, and one that the dark forces of Chaos would rue until the end of all existence.
Ardias sighed. Despite the devastation, despite the terror, despite the brave men who had died to defend their homes, this world was damned. No planet that had been subjected to the depravities of Chaos could possibly be untainted by the Ruinous Powers damnation.
He sent a message to his ship in orbit, which had, against all the odds, survived. He hated giving the order to destroy a world, but he had no choice here.
"This is Ardias. All Space Marines are returning to the ship. Prepare for Exterminatus."
--
Exterminatus record 66687895, High Terra records.
Planet Doran purified by Exterminatus on date 445/M41.
Thought for the day: Better to sacrifice one world today than sacrifice ten thousand men to subjugate that world tomorrow.
THE END.