An unexpected ally
Unknown planet, unknown segmentum, 42nd millennium.
Somewhere off the grid of conested territory
His view as muggy, dazed, and in a fog, his legs dragged in the dirt behind him, his shoulders fatigued from the weight of his carapace armour and heavy shotgun. These ailments paled in comparison to sonic wound in his head from the noise marines he encountered. It felt like the worst concussion any human or superhuman could ever have…."surely I will die here…"….the emperor….protects…..(thud). The large human dropped dead in his tracks with a thud to the battlefield floor….
For an initiate scout marine, Damon Arcturus suited the role beyond measure. He was quite the introvert during childhood in training and preferred to complete missions on his own without the sergeant or team, He opted to take the solo missions always, because he was good at what he was, a lone wolf. Arcturus is of the ultramarine chapter, the most feared of them all to every enemy of the imperium, and they shall know no fear.
Until now…
(one hour ago)
As the drop pod descended past the break of the atmosphere, Damon took a moment to admire the beautiful planet scape, it was rocky, covered in vast rivers and lakes with pockets of plains surrounded by green forests as far as the eye could see. It reminded him of old data images of ancient terra's western hemisphere; the Rocky Mountains were they? No matter, it would have been perfect if it were not tainted by the forces of chaos.
Arcturus was sent on a solo mission from orbit to scout for what the rest of the chapter might be up against if they were to launch an assault to claim the world for the emperor. From what he could tell, the planet was as backwater as it gets, not a human or xeno in sight…yet. A thud signified the landing of the pod followed by a crack and a hiss. The next sound however was not so expected. Bullets bouncing and ringing off the exterior armoured hull of the pod like firecrackers going off at a party; unrelenting. The scout marine jumped into action and deployed smoke flares and then waited until the bolter and stubber fire became less frequent which signified blind line of fire from the enemy due to the smoke. The firing dulled down, he set the self destruct sequence, kicked the door open with super human strength, and then used his eye piece to analyze a way out through the smoke. The targeting computer initialized, and then laid a HUD visual through the smog towards a clearing in a forest 50 meters away, he popped more smoked in random directions, and then made a break for it at top speed to the tree line. Before he made it he could feel a sonic boom which knocked the marine off his feet and into the bush which meant the self-destruct of the pod was a success. He could hear screams of chaos marines and heretic troops as he got up and kept running. He was glad he could eliminate a few foe if not passively this soon on the mission, but was now on the run from a potential chaos horde if they were to track him. He ran, soon enough he felt the rounds fly by, they were close, gaining on him. He kicked it into 5th gear and made a break for it up a hill and decided he could not run forever, let alone without the power armour and bionics of a full fledged marine which made his escape folly. He stopped, turned around and unslung his combat shotgun, un clipped the safety on the holster of his bolt pistol, and readied a few frag grenades and took position behind a boulder up the hill a ways, and then waited for the inevitable, a glorious death in the name of the God-Emperor.
He tried to make radio contact with the ship in low orbit, but noise marines had jammed his signal it seemed. He really was all alone. Better to die still who I am, a lone wolf, he thought. Moments later he viewed a noise marine through his crosshairs, he threw a grenade, this was it….3…2…1 and with a loud crack that broke the sound barrier the marine was sent off his feet and missing half of his armour the grenade hit home, the scout opened up with his combat shotgun hurling slugs down range, ripping apart the advancing heretics with ease. He emptied the magazine of 12 shots, reloaded a speed magazine, then was up and gunning in seconds. He threw 2 more grenades took cover, and peered around the boulder, the enemy was in disarray, these were green recruits he figured; recent traitors, dead traitors he thought, without another thought he took his chance to make a charge, he careened the boulder and made his way down the hill gunning down any wounded traitor and made a charge at the remaining marine trying to get a lock on him, he emptied his shotgun into the super human, he took all 9 slugs to the chest and still fought on, the scout drew his short power sword, his pistol and engaged in a melee against the axe and pistol bearing traitor in full armour. Arcturus was quicker, but the marine was much stronger. And after a minute of dualing the scout began to tire, he made one last effort to kill the giant with a single bolt shot, it hit its mark and knocked the helmet off the traitor, alone with half of his skull. The marine dropped, the scout made another break for it in the way he was headed before reinforcements showed up, he dropped to the ground immediately screaming in pain, he was taken by surprise by the slowly advancing noise marine only 12 meters behind him who just unleashed a massive blast of energy from the sound gun. "im going to die" he thought while clutching his bleeding ears. The marine laughed in pleasure as the slaanesh-worshiping soldier advanced. Damon could not hang on for much longer, he was going to die, a lowly initiate, to never receive his mantle, or even his last rights as an imperial soldier…..
Just when all went dark, the pain stopped, he turned to his enemy, he had a gaping hole in his chest, and dropped to his knees and fell. Damon was shocked, he could feel the fluid leaking down his neck from his eardrum before he got up and did what lone wolves do when surrounded, he ran. He did not know where, but he ran, limped, and then slowed to a sluggish walk as he made it out of the tree line and into an open field, disoriented, fading, and waiting to be picked off by the sniper who killed the marine. It was not a friendly shot he knew that from the damage it left on the entrails of the noise marine. The shot never came…
…..
10 minutes earlier
Eylwen peered through her scoped ranger rifle at the space marine pod dropping from orbit. It was blue and gold. I hope it isn't another one of those chaos bastards she thought. It landed in the field that was occupied by chaos forces, they were stunned by the shockwave it left behind, they all turned and opened fire on it, loyalist marines she figured. It wasn't long before she saw clouds of smoke appear followed by the disappearance of the pod's occupant, the chaos warband pursued the smoke path into the far side of the reverse grove. Eylwen made a decision to follow the commotion at a distance. She made her way around the treeline and into the woods to pursue the fight. She heard bolter fire followed by grenades and a series of very loud shots coming the other way, possibly the loyalist marines returning fire. She climbed a tree and viewed the onslaught before her…it was just one man, not even a fully armoured marine taking on the chaos war party with grenades and a large pump-action firearm that laid waste to the smaller humans before him. She witnessed the winning loyalist soldier with awe, as if he were the monkeigh's god emperor himself. He put up a good fight, it was going to be the death of him she knew from watching the noise marine creep up on him, a cowardly tactic from such an overpowered opponent. She felt the pain through the distance between her and the downed loyalist…something bridged they're emotions…it was supernatural, she could feel his suffering, never did she think that the monkeigh were capable of it. She had never seen a human so close who wasn't a chaos-deformed fanatic. She made a move to execute the space marine, and put him out of his pain and misery, but she couldn't pull the trigger, she felt guilty for even thinking of it. Her heart told her to kill the crazed noise marine. She closer her eyes, and let Kaine guide her shot, she did not know who to kill. But it was not the war god who guided her trigger, it was Isha. The round made fly, and it his mark. She opened her eyes after the recoil of the rifle, the noise marine dropped to his knees, she gasped and then turned to view the loyalist, he got up and ran into the next open field and out of the trees. She followed…maybe there is more to this human than met the eye, why could she not kill him? She searched her heart as she made pursuit…but could find only a longing to see this human through, and to make sure he survived.
…..
For emperor's sake he thought, this is too much, If this is what the life of marine was like, he was not sure he could prevail. He was only a scout, not much better than a storm trooper by militaria standards. he felt alone, there was no backup, no sergeant or apothecary to come to aid. he felt more by himself than a lone wolf should, he was scared for once. He did not have life support systems of an astartes, he would die a slow, painful and lonesome death. When everything was going dark, he looked to the distance and knew that with death came mirrages and hallucinations. He saw the most beautiful thing before him…a slowly advancing figure, clad in a blue cloak that hugged parts of her frame, she had brunette hair that was done up in a loose pony tail that left her face exposed, as she neared him he could notice her beautiful green eyes with a light dusting of freckles that coated her nose and under her eyes. From what he could tell, she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, he did not know or care where she came from, only that she clearly meant no harm. She was his guardian angel he thought as he collapsed and everything went dark.
