It is funny how fate turns out sometimes. I was once a hero, fighting against the darkness in my world, doing everything in my power to defeat the evil, which controlled said darkness. At this point in time, I thought I had seen everything evil had to offer. Oh, how naive I was. There are far greater evils out there in the endless void that is the universe. And I have become part of that evil. Do I regret that decision? I won't deny, there is still a part of me left, who is disgusted with what I have become. But it's not like I can redeem myself in any way. Once you have pledged your services to the dark gods, you're doomed to life and the afterlife. Whether I decide to become a demon princess or die on the battlefield one day, one way or the other, my soul will go to the Immaterium and feed my dark masters. I have doomed myself. And now, here I stand, ready to plunge a world into chaos with every sense of the world.
My name is Summer Rose and this is how I became a champion of the gods Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch and Slaanesh.
XXX
The Planet Kronus, a rather nice world in comparison to what the Galaxy has else to offer. At least before the appearance of the Great Rift, but we aren't quite there yet. Where we are is a nice little planet, perfect for colonization. At least that was what the slaves of the Great Corpse and the Victims of the Tau Empire thought once upon a time. You see, a couple of hundred years ago, the Slaves of the Corpse settled down on this planet and I can definitely see why. However, approximately 200 years ago the Tau captured this planet, adding it to their little wannabe empire. As fate (or perhaps Tzeentch, you can never know) would want it to happen, General Alexander happened to land on this planet, as he was pursuing an Eldar Farseer by the name of Taldeer. Apparently, she had somehow managed to make him very angry, not surprising given that she is an Eldar.
However, apparently, there was a good reason the good Farseer fled to this particular planet. Unknown to everyone, but the Eldar, this nice little planet is actually a Necron Tomb World. Both humans and tau had been interested in the very visible ruins for a long time and when they dug too deep, they accidentally awakened the sleeping, undead robots. One of the poor humans even got turned into a Necron, which makes me wonder if he even still has his soul.
Then we have the Orks and to be honest, I actually find them pretty funny. Especially in the way they talk. The Orks on Kronus had long since receded into a feral state and at first glance, it appeared as if they would be an annoyance at best to the armies preparing to engage one another. But that was before the Warboss Gorgutz Ead'Unter "landed" (read crashed into a bunch of ork settlements) and subjugated the local orks with ease. Apparently he, Taldeer and Alexander actually knew one another personally, so in a way, you could say this was one big friendly reunion.
However, the disciples of the Dark Gods didn't want to be left out. Luckily, we had some cultists on this planet who managed to open a Warp Gate for the Word Bearers Chaos Space Marines, plus thousands, if not millions of cultists to enter this world. Our "glorious" leader Eliphas the Inheritor once suffered a defeat on this planet by the hands of the Ultramarines and now he sought revenge. This makes as much sense as it sounds since the Ultramarines weren't even on this planet anymore.
Nope. Instead, we got the next best thing available, in this case, the Blood Ravens. Being the history buffs they are, they figured they could find out something about themselves, by studying the local artifacts, which presumably originally belonged to them. Oh, but the big guys didn't want to share anything with their supposed allies. One thing led to another and now we have the Imperium fighting against itself in form of the Blood Ravens against the newly dubbed Kronus Liberators.
And there you have it. Seven armies, ready to tear each other's throats out, under the gaze of the gods, who just laugh at the spectacle they were receiving.
XXX
I was one of the first cultists to arrive on the planet, along with the Chaos Space Marines. My white cloak fluttered in the wind, as I watched the construction of the four chaos temples from far above on a hill. This had been Eliphas idea. Instead of just building one temple, dedicated to all gods, he allowed each champion and cult leader to build their own temple. These four were just the beginning, each dedicated to one of the chaos gods. It was quite fascinating to see how the slaves, so fragile and weak, managed to gather the necessary materials so quickly and with the help of the powers of the warp, they managed to set each stone in its place so fast, it was unnatural. Then again, it was equally unnatural how the stones and other building materials seemingly readjusted themselves, by becoming bigger, smaller or changing shape, in order to fit the end building perfectly. Not to mention the Tzeentch cult for some reason had decided it was a good idea to start with the roof and then work their way downwards. It appeared as if the warp already had a strong grip on Kronus, at least in the Deimos Peninsula region.
But this was fairly obvious already. The Warp Gates alone were enough to transform the ones lush jungle into something most sane people would consider a horrifying landscape. Much of the actual jungle had disappeared, leaving a dead landscape overall. Unnatural rifts opened and closed on an hourly basis with eldritch energy escaping from them. The rivers now sprouted blood instead of water. Many smaller lakes had transformed into poisonous swamps. A great part of the landscape would occasionally completely break up and reform itself into something else. A good part of the jungle still existed, but the plants and animals had long since mutated into tentacle somethings. As tempting as that part of the landscape is, I personally find it hard enough to ignore the daemonettes, who seem to have found a liking to me or my body. Maybe both.
Ah yes, the demons. Although the worst of them had yet to appear in the material world, a great amount of lesser demons had already joined us, with most of them having fun with the cultists in their own personal way. Some of them just outright killed the mortals for shits and giggles others helped them out in various rituals, which more often than not ended with the cultists performing the rituals ending up as the sacrificial victims. Apparently, that is how demons spend their free time, at least before the actual fighting had started.
Ah yes, here is a funny little tidbit. While technically every faction had already arrived on the planet and had ships stationed in orbit, who were fighting against each other, while at the same time bombarding the planet, none of the ground forces were quite ready for a full-scale invasion. With so many enemies in one place, the first objective of each and every faction was it to bolster their defenses, while sending out scouting parties to nearby territories. Although my abilities would make me the perfect scout, I decided to not join them. Why? Let's just say, I have my reasons. No, I decided to join the main thrust, at least as soon as Eliphas decided to move out.
Speaking of the Inheritor, I managed to spot him from my little position quite easily, given that for some reason he decided to wear no helmet, allowing everyone to see the piece of shit he calls a face. He was overseeing the construction of the temples, his personal guard having their bolters ready in case anyone was stupid enough to attack our great leader. Even from so far away, I could see the frown appearing on his face. His mouth went up and down, indicating he talked to himself. The chaos marine didn't remain for too long at the construction site. He only briefly glanced over them, before he moved away towards an arguably more important sight, namely the place where the cultists and slaves were busy setting up our static defenses. From the looks of things, Eliphas wasn't too worried about a ground force attacking so soon, as the constructions were focused on large anti-air guns, which walls moved as if they were made of flesh. Not to mention the spikes that randomly grew out of the weapons. A few poor sobs got pierced by those things, as they grew at a fairly quick rate. But it wasn't a loss, quite the contrary actually. Their sacrifice would only strengthen the weapons' firepower, even if it was just to a minimum. A soul is a soul after all.
Watching the constructions became boring very quickly, as such, I turned my gaze towards a group of Khorne Berserkers, who were currently busy destroying their own power armor with their arguably oversized, but cool looking axes. Not too far away, a Warpsmith was busy tending to a Chaos Predator. Judging from the hole in the plating, it looked like someone had fired a rocket launcher or something against the tank. Although, now that I think about it, to break through the chaos armor, it probably took at least a couple of shots from the said rocket launcher.
Closer to her, a couple of cultists were currently busy skinning a naked man alive. They had built a small shrine dedicated to the gods in the middle of the landscape and given that the man was very muscular, he was probably an Imperial Guard or maybe even a PDF-Soldier. I hadn't noticed his screams up until now because hearing people scream for their life is a fairly normal occurrence in a Chaos Warband. Hey, we have to keep the gods somehow entertained, cut us some slack. The voice of the guard reached girlish levels when my "colleagues" started to cut the outer shell of his genitals. I leave your imagination to what happened after the skin was torn off.
Speaking of my "colleagues", they were truly a sight to behold. Really, it was fairly entertaining just being part of a Chaos Warband, simply because it allowed you to see all the highly entertaining mutations that grew on everyone. And I'm not talking about boring things, like growing horns, a third arm or finger or getting your face all messed up. I'm talking about the truly random stuff, like growing avian wings, sprouting tentacles out of your back, growing a mouth in your stomach or getting a spider butt. And only the butt. Yeah, I still don't get how that girl even gets around with only two human legs.
Oftentimes, however, those mutations go too far. You have probably heard of them, Chaos Horrors. Beings that had been mutated so much that their bodies collapsed and became a mess. Still, the horrors are surprisingly capable fighters, despite or maybe because of all the random things that were growing out of their bodies. And to think that I once found Grimm to be fearsome creatures.
I chuckled to myself when I saw that a Chaos Marine of all people accidentally stepped on one of the Horror's tentacles. Said mess of mutation wasn't too happy with that and decided to swallow the Marine whole. Oh, he tried to fight back, emphasize on tried. Yet for some reason, the Marine didn't notice he was being swallowed until he was already halfway inside the stomach of the creature. Oh well, he would be fine. Somehow, some way he would fight his way out of this mess and if not, well, this Marine probably wasn't worth it in that case.
Humming a little tune to myself, I decided I needed some form of action. It would probably still take a couple of more days at least before we moved out and until then, well, the Khornate followers were always up for a good fight. I just hoped these guys would last longer than the last batch I dispatched. I wasn't even using my semblance or the gun functions of my double-scythe last time.