I've desided to expand this series to include more serious tales I've hite writer's block and couldn't think of anything but this.
Tale 1 - The Man of Faith
Grimaldus kicked the fallen cultist, turning the man's head into a bloody pulp with a crunching sound. Bringing his plasma pistol to bear, Grimaldus swung around to reduce a charging cultist to a steaming pile of slag and delievered a bone-shattering back hand to another running by him. Wadding his way through the heretics' bodies, Chaplain Grimaldus of the Black Templars continued to kill the enemies of the God-Emperor within reach, as his fellow Battle Brothers fought the horde of Khronite Cultists.
Grimaldus swung his badge of office, an ancient Crozius Arcanum, into a man's ribcage and watched as the cultist's torso folded under the intense blow. He reversed his swing to catch a cultist behind the knee with a snap and then brought the butt of his pistol on the cultist's skull, reducing it to half its size. A Khronite Berserker ran at Grimaldus, but Grimaldus countered the heretic's whirling chain axe with his Crozius and fired a plasma bolt straight into the Berserker's stomach, burning right through the armor and melting his guts. The Chaplain finished the fallen marine by shoving him onto the ground and slamming his Crozius into the berserker's helmet, crushing it like a tin can. Grimadlus looked up to see his fellow Black Templars succeding at breaking the back of the Khronite horde and yelled "CHARGE MY BROTHERS! THE EMPEROR IS WITH US THIS DAY! "
Grimaldus rose his head to the heavens and shouted " ENEMIES OF THE EMPEROR! I AM HIS WILL INCARNATE AND I DELIEVER HIS VERDICT! " Grimaldus lowered his skull helm to stare into the eyes of the heretics before him, the red lenses burning with hate that burned the very souls of those that looked at them."Die. "
Grimaldus charged and smashed his way through the heaviest concentrations of the arch-enemy as his Brothers watched in admiration. Grimaldus was fully 863 years old and had spent the grand majority as one of the Chapter's Chaplains. He was a hero of the Chapter for winning countless battles against hopeless odds and has faced almost everything the galaxy could throw at him. He had fought orks on dozens of infested worlds, defeated three differnet Eldar ambushes in the Killgore system, destoryed a Dark Eldar raiding force on Benvore V, took part in fighting of an invading Tau fleet in the Sequinous system, defended against a Tyranid splinter fleet on Combine II, but what he had the most experience in was fighting against the ruinous powers of Chaos. He had defeated many a Chaos champion in hand to hand combat and had inspired his fellow brothers in hundreds of battles against the heretics plaguing the Imperium. During his time as a Space Marine, he won numerous awards and metals, lost his left eye to an Ork, and had to have both of his legs replaced with bionics after a krak missile blew them off. He was in the eyes of his fellow brothers - A mentor, a warrior, a leader, and, most importantly, a holy man of the Emperor. It's a shame that he had no faith in the Imperium.
Grimaldus had been a Chaplain for over 600 years, but it was only in the last hundred that the doubts first began to form within him. He had seen the horrors of war and had seen entire worlds turned to the flame just to starve the enemy of a victory or more supplies. He watched on as the Inquistition purged entire worlds that had been invaded by Chaos, even though he himself had reported that there was no taint left. He watched as Imperial Warships burned inhabited worlds before a Tyranid invasion so as to deny them resources for their hive fleets. He had seen Imperial Guard Regiments sent to the slaughter; 1,000 lives for an extra inch of gained territory.
However, his faith in the Emperor and humanity had made these things seem justified and allowed him to continue to watch over the spiritual health of his company of Battle-Brothers. He led his brothers in prayer and consuled them in issues of faith, should they arise. He was the model Chaplain and he believed thah not even the horrors of the warp could change that. However, nearly one hundred years ago.... he had seen something that caused the first cracks to form in his faith for humanity. He was on Kaldore IV when an Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer had cast Grimaldus down with a foul spell. The spell failed to kill Grimaldus and he had been able to recover sufficently to rip the fallen Space Marine's hearts out, but the spell was not meant to kill Grimaldus.
The spell was meant to corrupt Grimaldus from within with one simple and yet powerful instrument: knowledge. In that single moment of being in contact with Chaos, Tzeencth had showed him how the Imperium would fall. He saw Holy Terra in the hands of heretics, he saw Mars under a swarm of Necrons and he saw he own sector overrun by plundering Orks. In that single moment, Grimaldus has seen the ultimate fate of every single human being until they were either all dead, tainted by Chaos, or simply turned their back on the Imperium.
Another Chaplain and other high priests had blessed and purged Grimaldus to remove any of the spell's residual taint, but Grimaldus didn't tell them what he had learned. How could he? He should have dismissed the entire thing as an illusion of Chaos, only meant to make him question the Imperium. But he knew that it was true.... every day since that day, Grimaldus took a closer look a how the Imperium was faring and after a century of watching, what he realized finally broke through the dogma of the Imperium.
The Imperium was dying. Every campaign launched did indeed recover lost worlds, but they almost always failed to recover every planet lost. More and more, the Imperial Gaurd was becoming strectched to it limits as the enemies of the Imperium seemed to come from every corner of the galaxy. He had even learned that the worlds just within the Emperor's shining beacon, the Astronomican, had recently reported that the light seemed to be faltering. The only two reasons for that was either that the number of souls sacrificed to the holy choir had lowered (which he discounted out of hand) or that the Emperor himself and/or his life giving machinery was failing. Grimadlus came to his soul-shattering conclusion after a century of compiling and searching. Humanity was doomed.
The Chaos Sorcerer had hoped that such knowledge would have broken the model Chaplain and allowed him to become tainted, while leading his brothers to the ruinous powers. Apparently, even after ten thousand years, Chaos had yet to learn that humanity would not go without a fight, even in the face of destruction. Grimaldus knew that his race was doomed, that the Space Marines would fail the Emperor, and that the enemies of the Emperor would finally have their victory. Yet, he refused to give in, he refused to lay down and die, and he refused to let the ruinous powers win without a fight.
The spell has shaken and destoryed Grimaldus's faith in humanity always being victorious, but it had also made him more zealous and committed to ensure the Imperium's survival. As long as he breathed, Chaos would find a waiting Man of Faith ready to challenge them, he had vowed.
And so.... Grimaldus continued to lead his men both in the Chapel and the battlefield, always knowing that his efforts would eventually be in vain. However, he knew that for every heretic or alien he killed was that much more time for the Imperium to survive under the direction of the Emperor. That was what kept him going, that was his strength and the strength of humanity in general. Sheer stubborn defiance in the face of defeat. If he could ensure at least one more second of the Imperium's survival, he would die fulfilled.
It was this mindset that set in when a Bloodthirster of Khorne smashed in front of the charging Black Templars and halted the entire battle company from finishing off the horde of heretics. Grimaldus yelled an uncomprehensible challenge at the daemon and advanced towards it as the two sides of the battle backed off to watch the duel. Grimaldus held no illusions, he had seen a Bloodthirster three-fouths the size of the one in front of him hack a Baneblade to pieces. It would most likely just shrug of his attacks and claim his skull for Khrone in one fell swope.
He knew humanity and he himself was going to be destoryed eventually, but he would be damned if he didn't make them have to climb mountains of their own dead to achieve it. He charged at the daemon of Khrone and yelled the Imperium's oldest and universally known battle-cry "FOR THE EMPEROR! " He was a space marine of the Emperor.... and he had no fear.
I would like some feedback on this little piece and your thoughts on me posting a direct continuation.....