The Beginning of the End chapter 2
Before you read, note that Bioware doesn't exactly explain a whole lot about Turian physiology, so
I am kind of making that part up as I go along.
Bridge of Imperium research vessel Knossos
Techpriest Uriel sighed. He had served his time for the glorious God Emperor, and now was consigned to captaining this vessel while the younger Adeptus Mechanicus actually got to do field work on the relic. The relic had been nothing but trouble if you were to ask him. It was apparent that it was some sort of primitive transportation device that linked to another similar device thousands of light years away, but the device was useless to the Imperium, as it was created by the disgusting xenomorph.
But, the Emperor himself ordered that this object be studied so he had to do his part. Even if his part involved just sitting in the bridge for most of the time. The techpriests had been able to discern that it wasn't made by any species that the Imperium had encountered, as its design did not match any Imperium records on known species architecture or structural design. So, all he had to do is wait. And wait. And wait.
Out in the depths of space, a massive purple portal appeared. Out of the portal came a massive ship bedecked with the blood and bones of a thousand sacrifices and the sigils of the blood god Khorne himself. The main cannon of the ship was of Khorne's design, forged in the great fires at the base of the Throne of Skulls, deep in the depths of the Warp. The ship entered into the Warp once more, after only remaining in the material realm for an instant.
Bridge of Imperium research vessel Knossos
The bridge crew was quiet, as it had been for weeks since the research of the filthy xeno relic began. Most of the bridge crew were asleep or near asleep as had been their routine since arriving at the relic. Normally on an Imperium ship the captain would have reprimanded the crew for their stupidity, but in this case the captains was also sleeping. His sharp Eldar features, normally so majestic and admired by the rest of the Holy Empire of Terra, were now pathetic as his head was draped over the command terminal.
Suddenly, the sensor specialist's terminal started blaring a loud alert siren over the rest of the command staff. Captain Uriel woke immediately and then also immediately cursed himself for allowing himself to fall asleep during duty like that.
"Captain, sensors report that there was a massive rift in the Warp a moment ago, caused by a ship exiting the Warp."
" It looks like a filthy heretic ship."
"How can you tell?"
Just as Captain Uriel said this, the massive monument to Khorne appeared right in front of the ship. Almost immediately, the Chaos ship hacked into the systems of the Imperium research vessel and the booming voice of a Champion of Khorne came through the intercom system.
"Pitiful worshipers of the Corpse God, we have come to exterminate you."
" All hands, battle stations!"
The battle was one sided. Almost instantly, the Chaos ship had destroyed the Imperial research vessels. The Chaos ship then entered the mass relay and was instantly teleported millions of light years.
League of Khorne vessel Rapture in Sacrifice
There he was. A champion of Khorne. Veteran of a thousand battles, destroyer of a thousand worlds by the glorious might of Khorne. Yet here he was, degenerated to commanding a single warship. A mighty warship at that, but still a single warship. All because Khorne wanted the blood of the filthy xenos a few hours away. A simple colony world, by the looks of it. Not very challenging prey. Not like the Astartes or the filthy fire warriors.
Had he dishonored Khorne? He wondered about that challenging thought. He sighed. He thought back to earlier times, before he had been elevated to the rank of Champion. Things had been so much simpler back then. He had had a family. He had even had a name. But now, such things mattered no more.
He had seen Khorne's holy, glorious truth. The filthy xenos in the upcoming sector would be exterminated in Khorne's holy name. He relished the thought of personal combat. He would show these xenos the true might of the Blood God.
"Bloodletter, we are nearing the xeno colony."
These words immediately roused the Champion from his musings.
He looked up at the servitor. This was a new servitor, just sent to the ship straight from the Eye of Terror. It obviously used to be a cultist who had given himself up for the Cause. His once generic Tau features had been distorted by the holy light of Khorne, as he now had horns, he had lost his lips and eyelids after he was rebuilt in Khorne's image. A worthy servant of the Blood God. For now, all he had to do was wait. He would show the holy light to these filthy xenos.
Turian Insomnia colony defence force
Bridge of Turian Raptor class defense cruiser
Captain Inomi was having a bad day. So far, instead of the relaxing day he had planned to have, he had been called into duty because of some massive energy signature detected near the colony last night. The techs had no idea what it was, and it was jamming comms so he couldn't call for help. So, now he was sitting in the bridge of the colony defense fleet flagship and was waiting for the unknown contacts to reveal themselves.
Turian military procedure on hard contacts was very clear-call for help. So, in his case, he deferred to the procedure for military engagement with hostile unknown aliens-cripple and capture. So, this he was prepared to do. He could not let the galaxy be dragged into another centuries long war because of foolish first contact explorers meeting a hostile new species.
He would cripple the primitive mass effect drives that were of course going to be on these new species ships and then board and capture any onboard.
Just as Commander Inomi was contemplating his battle plan, a massive purple portal opened right in front of the Turian fleet. Out of this portal came the Chaos ship. Immediately, the Turian fleet opened fire on the Relic of Khorne's ship. All of their shots were simply absorbed into the shield. Chaos Champion, now crazed with the blood lust so common with Khorne's followers, ordered his ship to open fire. The massive Warp projector mounted on the front of the Chaos ship opened fire, tearing thru most of the Turian fleet with a single shot. Not giving the Turians any chance, they fired again. By now, the Turian fleet was in ruins and all but the flagship were destroyed.
Bridge of Turian Raptor class defense cruiser
Commander Inomi shouted for his short range comm officer to open a link to the ground troops stationed planet side on Insomnia.
"All ground troops, prepare for battle!"
"The battle in space is lost, you are the only thing defending now, evac the civilians as quick as possible."
"As soon as the long range signal jamming stops, I want someone to send a message to the Citadel telling them to send reinforcements."
As Captain Inomi got the message away, all onboard systems went down except for life support. The aliens wanted them alive.
Just then, a booming metallic voice sounded over the intercom.
"Foolish ingrates, you have insulted powers beyond your comprehension."
"You will feel the power of the Blood God!"
Insomnia Ground Defence Force
"Commander, we have to get an uplink to the Hierarchy command."
"We still can't, that damn signal is still jamming us!"
"Commander, new report from patrols coming in. Apparently, the unknown hostiles are dropping in some kind of shock trooper behind our lines"
Word Bearers Legion Unit Glorious Sacament
The resident Berserker shouted in his blood rage. The unit had been dropped deep behind the alien lines, only to wait until the Champion gave the order to move. Damn the Champion! He thought to himself again. Why were they killing the aliens?
He did not know. But they were easy to kill. In fact, he had already learned where to stab them to kill them. Of course, a rib torn from the body of said alien wasn't and ideal weapon, but that only made the kill more glorious. The Berzerker knew that he was the best fighter in the unit. It was insulting, having to serve alongside these pitiful cultists who barely had the strength to even carry their light lasguns around.
They were not worthy soldiers of Khorne. His simple mind wondered why they were even there in the first place. It was not right. Then again, he did not exactly know what right is. A pitiful whimper from behind him caused him to turn around. The alien prisoner that they had captured earlier was now crucified to the cross that was mounted on his unit's tank. The unworthy xenomorph was unlike any he had ever seen before. It had some kind of bony fringe around its head and was covered in some kind of metallic exoskeleton.
The alien had been shot through what would be the left lung on any Terran Empire species. It appeared to have a similar function on the xeno. The Berserker did not know much about this alien's physiology, but he knew he did not have long left to live. The alien had some kind of spike extending from his lower leg.
The spike that would have been there on his right leg was severed and had been used to skewer one of his squadmates. The bloody stump was slowly leaking deep indigo blood and there was a shard of yellow bone sticking through the skin. The Berzerker chuckled.
League of Khorne vessel Rapture in Sacrifice
The Champion roared again. Now, the pitiful alien fleet that was barely deserving of his wrath was in ruins and his legions of foot soldiers were now on the alien planet, destroying the alien colony. He would be landing soon enough, then the aliens would feel pain. He would not stop there. He would destroy every xenos colony that he could find. The disgusting xenos would be eradicated, as was the will of Khorne.
Bridge of Empire of Holy Terra dreadnought Divine Ascension
"Captain, the heretics fled into an unkown system that has not yet been mapped."
"Open a comm line to the Adeptus Cartographes, tell them what we found."
The comm officer pressed a few runes on his terminal and the large vid screen at the command terminal flickered to life. A bald man with a softly glowing cybernetic eye appeared on the screen.
"Captain Sintav, the report states that you are following heretics into an unknown sysetem. Imperial protocol is very clear on these matters. There could be a Tyranid hive or another enclave of Eldar extremists."
chair
"Sir, if we don't pursue the heretics they will regroup and launch another attack, maybe on a colony world this time."
"Do what you think is best captain, but consider the consequences first."
The transmission was then abruptly terminated by the Adeptus Cartographes. Captain Sintav sat back in his command chair and began to think to himself. The heretics were unpredictable most of the time, but this time the attack made no sense. They had attacked an Imperium research flotilla that had no valuable technology on it or particularly valuable people on it. Ah, then it hit him. The artifact that was floating out in space. That was the reason they attacked. Did they know anything about it? Or was it important to one of the Ruinous Powers? Many possible reasons why they could have attacked, now that he really thought about it. But, it was not his job to wonder why they attacked, that would be the Grey Knights job when they showed up. For now, all they could do was wait and pray to the Emperor for guidance.
Turian Hierarcy command meeting
An old, grizzled turian with a face pockmarked by scars stepped up to the podium. His skin had faded to from the usual dull metallic colors to a sickly white, a sign of age among turians. He had an air of command around him, an air of respect. As soon as he reached the podium, the quiet conversations that had been going on around the room immediately died down. He cleared his throat.
"Commanders, you were called from your respective posts and offices to this meeting for one purpose. I assume all of you are familiar with the Rachni Wars and the centuries-long rebellions that followed?"
Nods of agreement throughout the audience.
"Well, one of our patrols that was patrolling the edges of the Insomnia system was destroyed. Destroyed so fast that they failed to get off a transmission. After the patrol was destroyed, some kind of incredibly advanced jamming signal was broadcast over the entire system, blocking all incoming and outgoing extranet signals. A few galactic hours after the signal was first broadcast, an unidentified alien ship came out of FTL in front of the colony defense force. This ship was over six times the size of the Destiny Ascension. Said ship ignored our hails and proceeded to destroy the entire colony defense fleet without even losing its shields. The ship then used some kind of directed energy weapon on the surface of the planet, but landing troops at the major population centers. Data so far shows that the alien use incredibly powerful handheld weapons and have no qualms about using orbital strikes on civilian population centers. In fact, they seem to be targeting civilian targets, such as hospitals and housing complexs."
One of the turians in the audience raised his hand.
"General, if the signal is blocking incoming extranet bursts, then how do we know all this data?"
"After the defense fleet was destroyed, the signal was lifted."
"Which brings me to the next piece of intel that we have."
The general pressed a few keys on his omni tool and brought up a video screen.
A young turian, probably halfway through his twenties, appeared on screen.
"This is Sergeant Dasktros, of the Insomnia Defense Force. Anyone getting this message, relay it to Hierarchy High Command. We are getting destroyed out here!"
As the sergeant said this, a massive being in bright purple armor that was covered in skulls ran, screaming wildly, into the room. He grabbed the Sergeant by the throat and smashed him headfirst into the metal floor. There was a resounding crack as the turian's skull fragmented all over the floor.
"Spirits preserve us."
