Well, another chapter is here. Enjoy!
Chapter 10
Milky Way Galaxy
Ultima Segmentum
Maelstrom Zone
Magog Cluster – Rook System
23 Days since El Sokauron's Invasion
Arthur's heavy footsteps was heard as clearly as a ringing bell. The dense metal plating of his Terminator Armor cracked the concrete steps that made up the long and wide steps reaching to the plateau of the Polisium. Beside him were the two Chaos Marines, whose names now erased by the will of their Chaos Lord until such time as they could once again be called by their name.
Even these Chaos Space Marines were an impressive sight, their massive hulking bulk overshadowing the trembling and quivering bodies that lined up with their lasguns on the floor. Not only could El Sokauron could feel and taste their wholesome fear that manifested in so many fathomable and unfathomable ways, even the Chaos Space Marines that escorted him could see it.
In the last twenty three days, the two Chaos Marines had given up their doubts of their new leader. They saw the dark charisma that had driven a whole planet insane with terror and horror. They saw the infernal machinations of their Chaos Lord and how it ground the fearful into terrified mobs that followed his every whim. There was no doubt now, and they had long cast the old identity out. They were no longer 'Sons of Horror', though their new master liked the name enough to promise a whole warband of that name to whoever survived the long journey to the Chaos Lord's ascension.
Now, with fear and despair filling the streets, the Chaos Lord had driven the local Imperial Guard garrison to surrender without firing a single shot. It was not even that the forces the Chaos Lord had overwhelmed the Imperial Guards. The Chaos Lord had mere two Chaos Marines, and yet, the five thousand Imperial Guards were all laid down before him, and reduced in strength within a single day. In the eyes of the Guardsmen, there was fear so deep that each step turned the fear into despair. They now knew that there was no way out. Even if they had somehow repulsed the Chaos, it would still remain that they had surrendered to the forces of Chaos, and the Inquisition would most certainly torture them to their unseemly deaths for it.
The Chaos Lord finally reached the plateau, his feet touching the steel-reinforced ferrocrete that protected the level. He saw the scores of mighty structures that bore the symbols and designs of the Imperium. Chuckling darkly, the Chaos Lord looked at the Colonel of the Imperial Guard Regiment knelt before him. The man was bound and guarded by two heavy-set Cultists, who were obviously the new ones recruited from his world.
"Release him. I shall speak with him."
The Cultists let the man go, but he was still bound and still on his knees. For a Colonel of the Imperial Guards, this man was filled with too much fear. The Chaos Lord knew this, and he wanted to use the man's fears against himself.
Arthur bent down, his horned helmet coming dangerously close to the Colonel.
"You are a failure, Colonel. You think to surrender to me? What gives you the right? You are not in command. You were never suited to command such men. Look at you, worm. You are worthless. You are weak. You are a failure. You could not even stop three Chaos Marines with five thousand men you commanded. You had six Earthshaker cannons here on the Polisium, and you had a dozen Valkyries. Yet, you did not give the order to bomb the villages and towns. What were you afraid of? Where you afraid of how these people would think of you? How pathetic. Your life was depended on it. The lives of your men were depended on it. Yet, your fear of being found out as a failure has made you a real failure. You are truly worthless in aspects of life. You've not only failed as a commander of men, you have failed your corpse-emperor. You were never worthy enough to even control your own life, let alone five thousand men! Look at you! Now bowed down before me, and without a single shot fired. What kind of a man are you? You could not even pull your trigger! You didn't even have the balls to end your own life! Pathetic! Worthless! Worm!"
Had these words were merely heard, then the Colonel may have ignored it, but the words in his head. The taunts continued to assail the man's sanity in subtle whispers. The Colonel's self-esteem was now gone, and along with it, so were his pride and all and everything he has achieved. He now remembered how his mother looked at him with displeasure and disappointment when his lasgun shooting score was a mere 85% while his younger brother got 95%. That 10% hurt so much. He remembered how he was a failure and only the power of his family put him in the officer's seat. He remembered every mistake and every failure he had ever made. He forgot every glory and every victory. As the seconds went by, the man was hollowed out, his sanity reaching a precipice. There was no more reason, there was no more hope. There was only despair.
The Chaos Lord smiled as he nailed down the last words.
"You are a failure."
Among many things that men feared, being a failure was quite high up on the list. Death was a common fear, but the prospect of failure was also great. Now beset by all his failures to this day and moment, the man despaired. He was now convinced that there was nothing for him. He was nothing, and he felt nothing but despair and the fear of the one who brought him his despair. The Colonel knew that this mighty Chaos Lord could inflict upon him greater pains, both physically and psychologically, and he greatly feared it. All he wanted to do now to was retreat into his own mind, and bury himself in despair. There was nothing more that could be done. Everything was so hollow...
Then someone whispered to him...
~So much despair... there is a way... there is way to be... not a failure... you must give in... to despair... It is the only thing... left for you... or maybe... you would even fail... in Chaos...~
"I will do anything... please..."
The Chaos Lord nodded.
"Then I shall grant you a chance to prove yourself. Give in to the despair. There is nothing. You have no purpose of your own. There is nothing... but the obedience to my command... Surely, you cannot possibly fail that?"
The Colonel's soul twisted and turned as the despair set in. The whispers of the Chaos Lord's words held his soul like tentacles and would not let go. They hurt, but the soul was already beyond the point of saving.
"What is that you wish of me... my lord?"
The eyes of Lord El Sokauron gleamed in indigo that seemed to devour the light around them. The sun was setting, and the crimson sky seemed so right for the moment.
"You shall serve me!"
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Milky Way Galaxy
Ultima Segmentum
Maelstrom Zone
Magog Cluster – Rook System
6 months since El Sokauron's Invasion
The transition was smooth. Across the villages and towns, the mobs and Cults of Despair had taken power. The societies were quickly reorganized into religion, military and civilians. The first to be organized was the Cult of Despair. The Cult of Despair had founded itself across the planet, worshiping the new Chaos God-to-be. They had despaired, and in their despair, they found only El Sokauron, or the Diablo, the Chaos God of Terror and Despair. They believed that only he could deliver them from that despair by ending their lives and consuming their souls. They gladly sacrificed their own children and their own neighbors to the desecrated Chaos altar that bore the Chaos Star of Terror.
The Cult of Despair formed patrol groups to work as religious police called the Tribulators. They always moved in five, the sacred number of the Lord El Sokauron, the Living God of Terror and Horror. They wore gruesome masks of human skin stretched over a skull carved with the Chaos Star of Terror. On their bodies, they had numerous piercings with chains hanging from them that ended in tiny hooks that reached the edges of the human-skin masks. These five would carry the Wire, the electro-flail made up of five thick electric wire that contained five smaller wires made of thick copper with the ends ground into sharp hooks. The flails reached five meters from the handle, and the electric shock would last five seconds.
18 months since El Sokauron's Invasion
The second organization to be formed was the military. The military was the Cult of Terror. They were the Terrorkin, a pale shadow of the Terrorkind, the Warband of Lord El Sokauron himself. While many of the strongest Guardsmen were drafted into the Cultist ranks among the Terrorkind, the Terrorkins were made up of the rest of the Guardsmen and many of the former gang-members. Wearing the yellow liveries of the Terrorkin, for yellow was the color of fear, the Terrorkins entered camps formed by the Terrorkind to turn them into proper soldiers of Chaos. El Sokauron, or Arthur, did not wish to be the head of rag tag madmen with little to no combat power.
One Guardman would be given the rank of Corporal and armed with a laspistol and a sturdier version of the Wire. He would be flanked by two former-gang members with lasguns. The last two members were also former-gang but given a laspistol and a long combat knife. This would consist a single Terror Team, and five such Terror Teams formed a Terror Squad, a twenty-five man group led by a Sergeant who is basically a Corporal with slightly better armor and a Chainsword. Of course, a Sergeant would take the role of a Corporal in his own Terror Team. The Terror Squads would again form Terror Company by having five squads united under a Lieutenant. A Lieutenant would be armed with a good Carapace Armor, a Bolt Pistol and a Chainsword, and his Terror Team would be his bodyguards and they would armed to the level of Sergeants.
Until this point, the organization bears certain resemblance to that of the Imperial Guard. However, five Terror Companies join to form a Terror Brigade, made up of 625 men and led by a Major. A Major would be given an excellent Carapace Armor, a Bolt Pistol, a Power Sword and a backup laspistol and his entire Terror Team would be made up of bodyguards with armaments at Lieutenant's level. From here, the five and its multiplication ends. Eight Terror Brigades are united to form a Terror Regiment, and led by the Colonel, whose real name had now been forgotten. Colonel's own Terror Squad was made up entirely of Sergeant-level soldiers and his Terror Team would be his close-bodyguards with Major-level soldiers. Colonel himself was given a Power Armor.
The problem was that the Colonel was no Space Marine. So, the mighty Chaos Sorcerer Lord El Sokauron cast a sorcery at him. Arthur carefully mutated the Colonel. It was all thanks to the amulet that Arthur could manipulate the effects of the Warp at such meticulous and detailed level, but it was at a cost of the Amulet's energy. Fortunately, Arthur had killed and terrorized enough people on the planet to cast such spell. The Colonel's body grew large enough to fit in a Power Armor, albeit there was still much to be desired. His strength grew and his experiences preserved, but his sanity, humanity and the likeness to a human had ended. He was now more of a hybrid of a reptile and a large rat. Tiny scales grew all over his body and his fingers were clawed like that of a rat. His eyes became reptilian while his jaws and teeth became rat-like. The tail was quickly cut off and the spot cauterized. He was nearly thrice as strong as a normal human but still not even close to that of an Astartes, yet it would be enough to don a Power Armor.
The Colonel was also given a Chainsword with tiny tentacles growing around the handle, and a Bolter with eight tiny horns growing around it. Such was the power of Arthur, and he continued to augment his follower. The Power Armor now featured scores of tentacles around the rear half of the neck section, which attached themselves to the Colonel's head to work as a neural interface to the Power Armor, though it would be much less than a Black Carapace of an Astartes. As for the painting, Arthur took his time to color his Terrorkind's armors as well. As the leader of the Terrorkin, the Colonel was painted in sickly yellow with black cuirass with the great burning lidless eye as the symbol. The Terrorkind was given all indigo/black treatment with sickly yellow drawn in tentacle-like pattern, and the lidless eye on the right shoulder pauldron.
24 months since El Sokauron's Invasion
While the religious and military groups were easy to organize, the civilian section was quickly turned into an oppressive police-state with extreme crime rate and only safety was in the protected zones guarded by either the Terrorkin or the Cult of Despair. State-built nursery-schools were soon organized and all children born were taken from their parents to be brainwashed and trained. Upper level schools were also formed but they were all boarding schools. Arthur wanted to brainwash the children from the young age. It wasn't long before the younger children became terribly twisted fanatic worshipers of the Diablo, yet another identity of Arthur. While the parents of these children lived in constant terror and hunger, their children were fed well and given military trainings. These little children quickly became deadly weapons in mere two years, and when they had returned to the civilian society after they were 16, they joined either the Cult of Despair or the Terrorkin.
Arthur had also prepared other things. He now had twenty two Chaos Marines thanks to the Chaos Temple aboard the 'Icon of Despise'. The two normal Chaos Marines with independent thoughts and will were given the position of Terrorhosts, the commanders under Arthur. The Chaos Marines that were summoned from the Chaos Temple were more of automatons. They were physically there, and they had all the experiences, savagery and personality of a real Chaos Marine, but outside combat, they just stood there. They moved only through the command of Arthur, and they could not shoot or hurt Arthur and visa versa. No matter how powerful he got, these Chaos Marines were still illusions forced into reality by the power of the amulet. Yet, having two full squads of Chaos Marines was quite a powerful thing. Not only did they come with a Techmarine each, they also came with an assortment of weapons that materialized into reality that would allow Arthur to pick up the armor and weapon should these Chaos Marines were to die.
To celebrate the anniversary of his invasion, Arthur had commanded the Cult of Despair and the Terrorkin to cull the population one month before the anniversary. He wanted exactly 55,555 prisoners who were ever opposed to Arthur's rule or kept hope of better days. Hope was a grievous sin on Rook III now along with bravery. Such things were not encourage. Bravery were replaced with desperation and fear, and hope was extinct so that despair and hopelessness would rule supreme.
In preparation for the anniversary, Arthur had the newly gained Techmarines to bombard a remote unsettled region of the planet that was close enough to the settled areas so that transportation would be easy. It was a precision bombardment that created five smaller crater inside a larger crater. Upon simulations, the larger crater was enough to contain 55,555 prisoners with enough space left over. Once the craters were formed, the five smaller craters were installed with high towers of both symbolic and real power of Chaos. A dark and evil pentagram was formed with thick golden wires that were hung with still-screaming skulls of people, bound there by Arthur's own sorcery.
2nd Anniversary of El Sokauron's Invasion
"My lord, the slaves are ready."
Terrorhost Primus, the victor of a duel between the two sentient Chaos Marines in Arthur's warrior, informed him. Primus had another name before, but Arthur had the predilection of hiding real names with multiple names, each of equal or greater symbolism and power. Primus was now wearing a nice Artificer Power Armor that would be the envy of many Chaos Lords of other Warbands. Armed with powerful Power Axe and a Plasma Pistol, Primus would easily kill several Loyalist Astartes had he been given a chance. Arthur smiled at the image of slaughtering many Loyalists.
"Bring me my weapons."
"Yes, lord."
Two Techmarines brought the Heavy-Flamer and the Assault Cannon. They were both originally conjured by Arthur's previous trip to his real world, which was well over two years previous. They carefully equipped the two heavy weapons upon Arthur's Terminator Armor. They had designed and created special harnesses so that Arthur could quickly drop them once they ran out of ammunition. Arthur fixed the 'Fang of Tribulation' on his left waist while locking the 'Fear of All' on the right so that he could use them when he ran out of ammunition. On his left hand, the Heavy-Flamer was installed, with the specially made feeding tube reaching behind the armor to a bulky fuel-tank. On his right hand he was given the Assault Cannon, also with its belt-feed reached to the ammo-pack installed on his back.
"At last! A decent sacrifice to ME!"
Arthur stepped forward into the arena created within the crater. The craters were covered in thick layer of concrete and even so the descent into the crater was deep. The lowest point of the primary crater was nearly three meters below the nearby land even after the concrete coating of the inside. On the edge of the crater, he saw 55,555 slaves and prisoners huddled together in hundreds of sporadic groups and taking up position around the crater, but still within the large pentagram.
Satisfied that the 55,555 slaves didn't completely fill the arena to the brim but still without enough room to flee far, Arthur cast his mind into the Warp and drew its powers. The eight sets of forty five spikes installed around the crater glowed with the power of the Warp and formed a mighty barrier that reached a hundred meters into the air, and quite impenetrable until Arthur ended the spell. He was going to personally slaughter 55,555 slaves.
"I don't really have to kill them with hands. Empyrean Abyss!"
The mighty spell from the Dawn of War 2 was cast. Costing 500 global energy, it was a powerful spell enough to crush a head of a Daemon Prince, if one had followed the Chaos Ending of the Retribution.
The ground shook as the concrete that covered the ground began to shatter under the sheer entropy of the raw Warp spilling through a crack in the reality. Eight points formed and from there, a terrible rift in the reality exploded upward, swallowing thousands of people.
Into that madness, Arthur waded in with his weapons ablaze and atrocious mirth on his face.
END OF CHAPTER 10