Chapter 2

Leonar crouched on the rocky ridge overlooking the road out of the fortress of Aracnar, the sun was beginning to set creating a red horizon of blood. They had been scouting this position for nearly three hours.

"Stay wary" sergeant Petriarch's voice came from just behind them, "we will enter the fortress via a nearby sewer entrance, once inside we will find this heretic leader, crush him and all his followers, then we call in the Thunderhawk and get an evac"

"Roger sir" came the replies

"Good" Petriarch said "emperor watch over us", the other marines mumbled the same.

There were eight scouts in the squad, Petriarch was their sergeant. As of late a heretic believed to be in control of ruinous powers had been stirring up more heretics and rallying them against the imperial guard regiment, the space marines were called in to remove and eliminate him. The heretics name was Arancar.

He grew so confident that he and his followers stormed the imperial guard regiment's main fortress. Their numbers overwhelmed the guardsmen and only the swift Valkyrie extraction had secured the lives of two thousand out of a hundred thousand.

Leonar knew that this would be a chance to prove himself as an Adeptus Astartes and as a dark angel.

"Move out" came Petriarch's voice, the squad moved off to the side to the sewer entrance. They stayed low and crouched as they move towards a large metal grate built into the ground. The squad moved into the ruins of a shrine, there was rubble from the walls strewn across the ground, the fluorescent glass that had occupied any archway had been smashed and lying on the floor lay a huge statue of the glorious emperor. The statue's head had been smashed and there was a large crack down the middle of it's ancient grey body.

"Heretic scum" whispered one of the scouts as they passed by the statue.

The grate was half buried under rubble. The scouts silently set to work lifting the rocks. The task was done quickly but it still consumed valuable time. The longer that this operation went on, the more chance that they would be discovered.

Petriarch kicked the ends of the grate, then ripped it up out of the ground, a token of how strong even a scout is. The grey metal was carefully placed at the side noiselessly, then Petriarch dropped down into the sewer, Leonar could hear the muffled splash as the sergeant hit the water. Two more scouts dropped down, then Leonar followed and he was swallowed by the darkness.

If Leonar hadn't gotten his eyes enhanced as part of being a space marine then he wouldn't have been able to see anything. He had been in darkness before but this was like an entity itself attempting to block all vision. Leonar could tell that there were some dark and ruinous powers at work here.

He hit the water with a splash, the water barely up to his knees. They waited for the rest of the squad to drop down.

"Let's get this over with" said Petriarch

Leonar stared at him incredulously, "our mission is to serve the emperor, we are his sword and we obey his commands"

Petriarch seemed to be in a trance, then he stirred "yes, let us crush these heretic scum".

The squad trudged through the water, it sloshed around their legs, a murky brown colour. They proceeded down a long tunnel, then the sergeant held up a hand and the squad halted wordlessly. Then the sergeant gestured down a tunnel to a small grate.

Beyond the grate was a smooth stone floor. The squad halted just before the grate. Footsteps echoed outside of the grate as two men dressed in long tunics of black, each carried a lasgun. The squad waited until the footsteps were gone then Petriarch broke through the grate, there was a sense of hesitation as he did so. The squad then filed out into the corridor.

"Leonar", Petriarch "you take brothers Euphor, Aramath and Jeranial, take them to the walls and create a diversion. I shall take our remaining battle brothers and go to the keep for the attack"

"Yes sir, emperor watch over you", Petriarch did not return the goodbye. Leonar was beginning to have doubts about their sergeants faith, "come brothers" he said and they headed off in the direction of the wall.

They stopped at a corner when the heard fresh footsteps, the four space marines readied their weapons, Leonar levelled his bolter, then he moved, he rounded the corner his three others behind him. The three heretics looked stunned at seeing four space marines round the corner, Leonar fired his bolter and the bolt hit a heretic in the stomach. The shot exploded and the heretic fell to the floor with a hole in his stomach, the other two fell with similar injuries.

"Why do we fight?" came a voice from behind Leonar, he turned, Aramath stared at the ground, his bolter lowered

"Why do you question our duty?" Leonar said

"we fight tirelessly for a corpse"

"that's heresy Aramath!"

"I don't care" Aramth raised his bolter

"Aramath" Leonar said "if you turn against us, we will destroy you, you must remember why we are here, for the emperor"

But Aramath wasn't listening, he had the same trance like face that Petriarch had and Leonar knew something was wrong.

"Remember your duty brother" he said through gritted teeth, then raised his bolter as well, Euphor and Jerenial joined him. Then several things happened at once. There was a series of large explosions from nearby, then the sounds of gunfire. Leonar rolled to the side as Aramath fired, Euphor and Jerenial pumped a round each into Aramath, the first blew a hole into the marine's shoulder, the second hit him in the chest creating another hole. Blood pooled around their fallen comrade as he hit the ground.

"What possessed him so?" asked Euphor

"The ruinous powers" replied Leonar solemly, "now let us assist sergeant Petriarch".

The three marines rounded the corner, guns were blazing on both sides, a grenade launcher fired and hit a large group of heretics, blood and body parts splattered the concrete and parts of the wall fell on some heretics below.

Leonar saw a man on the wall, he was dressed in a thick black cloak laced with gold, he wore an ivory helmet and had a golden head-piece in the symbol of chaos.

"Death to the false emperor" the man shouted "long live the gods of chaos", that must be Arancar.

Petriarch seen them and shouted "take a shot on Arancar".

Jerenial readied his sniper, he trained the scope on Arancar and fired. The shot echoed through the fight, but it was no kill. The man screamed in pain as his hand was blown off. Then his eyes exploded with red light, it spewed from his mouth as well, then there was an explosion of blood, the heretics were reduced to body parts as a demon prince stood where Arancar had been.

It's eyes glowed red, it's skin was red, it wore huge black armour and held a huge sword glowing with the red energies of chaos.

"Petriarch!" Leonar shouted "called a strike package", but Petriarch's eyes were glowing red as well as he raised his bolter and shot his scouts in the back.

"Petriarch!" Leonar shouted, then he got on the vox "this is scout squad on mission gamma three, requesting Dread drop Ordos Malleus priority Terra one"

"Roger that"

The demon prince jumped off the wall and stomped towards them, fire of bright orange spurted under it's feet. It raised it's sword and swung, Leonar rolled to the side and fired at Petriarch, the shot punched a hole in the sergeant's head and he fell to the floor.

Jerenial did not dodge the sword, nor did Euphor and they were cut in half by the Demon's mighty blade. It then turned and advanced on Leonar. Leonar fired his bolter at the demon.

"For the Emperor!" he cried unloading shots into the demon, the shots were hitting but they could not stop such a large creature. It grabbed him in a huge red hand, Leonar felt like the life was going to be crushed out of him. Then two green drop pods fell from the sky and out of them stepped two ironclad Dreadnoughts. The Demon turned again, it threw Leonar to the side into a wall and turned it's ruinous red eyes on the Dreadnoughts.

The demon prince brought down it's sword to one of the Dreadnoughts but the Dreadnought reached out and grabbed it's arm with a massive metal claw. The servos in the Dreadnought's arm strained but the demon prince proved too much. The sword was brought down and the Dreadnought's arm was ripped off by the blow, it stumbled back then the demon prince followed up with a slash down the centre of the Dreadnought. The Dreadnought was split in twain and it's wreckage emitted a thunderous explosion.

The second Dreadnought was more cautious, it fired it's hunter-killer missiles at the demon prince. They exploded in a huge burst of fire and smoke. Through the smoke, the demon prince's eyes glowed maliciously, it stepped out of the smoke and held it's sword to the sky. The sword glowed red, then the demon prince aimed the tip at the Dreadnought. The Dreadnought fired it's storm bolter but the demon prince fired a barrage of dark red fireballs. They blasted the Dreadnought, which at first seemed able to withstand the barrage, but the fire washed over the Dreadnought and it began to give way, it exploded hugely throwing chunks of firey metal everywhere. The explosion threw Leonar off his feet into the air, he slammed back into the wall, hard, blood tickled over one of his eyes from a cut on his forehead. Leonar opened his eyes and saw the demon prince walking almost leisurely towards him.

It was over, Leonar could only hope that the emperor would guide him to the holy Terra in the after-life, he drew his bolt pistol on the monstrosity, it roared. Then a final drop pod landed between him and the demon prince. Chunks of rock were flown into the air, several pattering off of Leonar's armour. There was something different to this new opponent though, even the demon prince noticed as it stopped and waited for the new arrival.

The dark green doors folded down onto the ground and white vapour issued from the pod as Grand Master Librarian Ezekiel stepped from the pod. Fire burned deep within the Librarian's eyes and Leonar could feel the immense power eminating from him. The demon prince roared and pointed his blade at the Librarian, the tip began to glow. Fire burst through Ezekiel's sword, it spread to his eyes and mouth, Leonar could tell that the Grand Librarian was about to use his full power.

The demon prince fired a huge jet of dark red fire at the Librarian. The Librarian let out a monstrous roar and fired his bright orange and red flames in retaliation. The two sets of flames met in the middle and Leonar had to close his eyes or risk being blinded by the huge flash of white. Then the flash dimmed and Leonar opened his eyes, the Librarian stood in front of the demon prince, then he brought his sword up in a wide uppercut. The demon prince roared in anger as it fell to the ground, then a huge red light surrounded the demon prince, a gale began to blow as the energies of chaos sucked the demon prince away back into the warp. As it was sucked away it roared "the power of Luther will rise once more"

"Not in this enternity Demon!" Ezekial shouted, his voice magnified by his power, then the Demon prince vanished and all was still.

The Librarian turned towards Leonar as he stood back up "good to see you again brother" said the Librarian

"And you Grand Librarian" Leonar replied

"Are you the only survivor?"

"Aye sir, Petriarch and Aramath became corrupted by the dark powers and my brothers were either killed by them or the demon of the warp"

"Tis a most grim day for the 10th company, but we have vanquished another demon of the warp"

"Thank you Grand Librarian"

A thunderhawk gunship swooped down several hours later, darkness had descended upoun them. The lights of the thunderhawk lit the courtyard of the fortress, filling the area with an eerie yellow glow.

Leonar and the Grand Librarian walked side by side to the thunderhawk. Leonar brushed the dried blood off of his face. The ramp of the thunderhawk folded down and they walked in. The two space marines boarded the thunderhawk and Leonar sat on one of the passengers seats.

"Well" said Ezekiel "you have proved yourself a most capable space marine. I am proud to call you a battle brother. Yet it does not seem to feel like the decade ago when I first set eyes on you last".

Leonar did not know how to respond, so bowed his head instead. He said a silent prayer to the spirit of his armour, of his holy bolter and finally to the emperor him.

"We will bring redemption back to our chapter" murmured Ezekiel

"Sir" said Leonar "before the Demon arrived some members of our squad began to suffer from the corruption of chaos"

"Hmm" murmured the Librarian " it is most likely that the power of the Demon prince and the sheer power of it's unholy influence would affect the space marine, lest they already had darkness within themselves and Demon princes influence allowed them to release it".

Leonar wondered to himself, could Petriarch and Aramath have already been corrupted but were hiding it. That would go against the Codex Astartes but even still. Petriarch's body was not found after the battle when the Demon prince disappeared.

"Remember Leonar" said the Librarian bringing him out of his train of thought, "a moment of laxity spawns a lifetime of heresy".