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So, we have 5 Space Marines, 9 Renegade Space Marines with possible Chaos conversion on the horizon...
Chapter 12
"Welcome back, my lord Sergeant Judanus."
Enginseer Obran greeted the giant Space Marine Tactical Marine Sergeant.
Clad in giant power armor with six Purity Seals around his right pauldron and gold decorated left pauldron, the Sergeant was a powerful man of fearsome reputation.
He had been entombed in this life support tube created by the Enginseer and Techmarine Pelagas 572 years ago along with his armor and weapons. It was a necessary act despite the voice of opposition from Judanus and few of his squad members.
They were the 'Hands of Sorrow' Space Marine Chapter, a codex chapter of Imperial Fist origin. They were builders of great defenses and warriors of no mercy. In 720.M41, the Hands of Sorrow had sent its 5th Company to Adrantis after their stalwart defense of Oron Subsector from a warband of Iron Warriors. The 5th Company had fought hard but had lost their Strike Cruiser. Without a suitable vessel nearby, they were forced to hitch a ride with the ship patrolling the region, which was swallowed up by the Warp Storm.
Sergeant Judanus stepped out of his tube, and looked around. No one had yet come out. He turned to his own tube, as if to see the 'prison' that held him for more than five centuries. He looked down and found his plasma pistol and chainsword. After activating the chainsword in his right hand, he found it in perfect working order.
Obran spoke.
"All your weapons are perfect condition, my lord."
Judanus nodded.
"Very good, Enginseer. Tell me, how long have we been entombed here?"
"This would be 572nd year of your hibernation."
Judanus narrowed his eyes as he continued to stare at his tube.
"Tell me... Am I the first one out?"
"Yes, my lord. Although your brothers are now awake and conscious, I still need to disengage..."
Enginseer could not finish his sentence.
Brrrrrrrr! Kraaak!
With a single, almost lazy motion, Judanus swung his chainsword and cut down the Techpriest. Some blood and plenty of broken machine parts rolled across the floor.
Judanus smiled as he slowly strolled down the corridor. He reached the console, and tapped several buttons. Of the 15 tubes, 9 of them opened up, releasing the Space Marines within.
They all carried their weapons, and their yellow and red armor gleamed. Judanus smiled.
"All of you have heard my voices in your sleep, brothers. All nine of you have agreed with me that this is not what we were meant to be doing. We are Space Marines! We were meant for war unending, and yet we are stuck on this forsake planet for nearly six hundred years!"
He looked around, and they were nodding.
"Brothers! Not only are we stuck back in time, we are stuck deep within a planet entirely consumed by a Warp Storm. We have been here six hundred years, and yet no one has come to take us back! This must not be!"
He pointed his chainsword at one of the unopened tubes where a helmetless Tactical Marine Sergeant had opened his eyes and was staring at Judanus with hate-filled eyes. Judanus grinned.
"We shall once again return to the life we know. We shall venture forth and take this world for ourselves. We shall forge a planet that we can be proud of! Witness the beginning of our work! Witness the demise of the weakling who dared to entomb us!"
Judanus pointed his plasma pistol at the sergeant inside the tube.
"Veteran Sergeant Kharan, I hereby declare you a heretic, and execute you!"
Fizz! Fizz! Fizz! Fizz! Fizz!
Five bolts of hot plasma were fired at Kharan's head, melting through the tube and killing the sergeant.
Then...
Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka Dakka!
The sound of bolter fire rang across the corridor and a Devastator Marine, carrying plasma cannon, was struck down by that attack.
Judanus turned around to see Techmarine aiming his Master-Crafted bolter at the others.
"Pelagas, another one responsible for our imprisonment!"
Pelagas roared.
"How dare you, traitor! It was the only choice!"
Judanus chuckled.
"You must realize that you cannot defeat us. You are alone, we are many."
"What you have not realized is that I am still functioning."
The voice startled everyone. Enginseer Obran was still alive. Though his torso had been thrown to the ground, he was still alive and speaking. Then he pressed a button on a device in his hand. With a flash and leaving behind acrid smell of ozone, all of the unopened tubes and Techmarine Pelagas were teleported away.
Realizing what just happened, Judanus walked up to the Enginseer.
"Where did you send them?"
"Not anywhere you can find... traitor!"
With that, the Enginseer opened his other palm, where a frag grenade exploded.
BOOM!
The grenade had shattered the remains of the Enginseer, and Judanus, growled as tiny shrapnel had made his forehead bleed. He narrowed his eyes, and then spat on the head of the dead Techpriest.
"It matters not... My grand design will still work."
Techmarine Pelagas shook his head as he attempted to regain his balance. The unprepared teleportation shook him hard. More than that, it was the betrayal of his brothers that really hurt him inside. He stood up, his armor creaking and groaning under the sheer weight.
The Techmarine looked around and found a console next to the set of slots were the tubes were. There were missing tubes, and he immediately realized that only the unopened tubes were teleported.
"I thank you in the name of the God Emperor, Enginseer Obran."
Pelagas quickly opened the tubes of the loyalists.
One by one, they stepped out from their tubes, and they were enraged.
"How could this have happened!"
The loudest was the Tactical Marine Giadus, the second in command to Sergeant Kharan. His eyes were burning with rage so familiar to them. Then others came about.
Brother Tactical Marine Eblas, also of Squad Kharan, knelt before the tube of Sergeant Kharan where the sergeant's head had been turned to ashes. Eblas silently recited prayers.
Assault Marine Kleine came out next shaking his head at the unbelievable betrayal by the fellow brothers. He despaired as he looked around at the empty slots.
The last one to exit his tube was Veteran Assault Marine Sergeant Armanus with his power sword and plasma pistol. Both of his pauldron were decorated with gold carvings and his chest bore an impressive eight Purity Seals, and his left leg was also decorated and with an Imperial Laurel at that.
At the appearance of this old and wise leader, a man who was third in command of the 5th Company, the rest of the surviving loyalists gathered.
The mood was solemn indeed. Armanus sighed and looked around him. He only saw faces of disbelief and despair. The veteran of nearly 500 years and over a thousand battles throughout well over a hundred campaigns, Veteran Assault Marine Sergeant Armanus was a highly respected champion of the chapter, not only within the 5th Company but from other part of the chapter as well.
Though he looked more like a normal human in his fifties, the grisly scars and deep lines belied the wisdom and determination that allowed this champion of the Emperor to survive and thrive. They all looked to him now as their darkest hour loomed over them.
Armanus touched the broken tube of Sergeant Kharan.
"Oh... Kharan, my brother... What have they done to you... You have fought with me for nearly two hundred years! Together we joined the First Company! Together we crushed the Prime Sorcerer of the Varagrin IV! Your bolter and my sword never missed a beat! I will avenge you, brother... We, the survivors of this most foul and treasonous attack, swear vengeance."
Others intoned.
"Aye..."
Armanus turned to them.
"I see faces filled with despair."
Klein buried his face in his hands, and unable to hide it, he tried to put his helmet back on. Armanus stopped him.
"I know despair, brothers! I have felt it a dozen times in my life of service. What I can tell you is that despair is worthless emotion. We are Space Marines! We know no fear! Despair, is the worst kind of cowardice, brothers! It is fear without the courage and honor to stand against it. I will not have it! You will not have it!
We have just witnessed the result of weakness. We have just witnessed how a moment of weakness turned to despair and how that has turned our once-brothers into traitors. Yet, it is their failure, and our success. They have fallen to despair but you have not!
Your faith has kept you strong! Your faith has kept you righteous! Your faith has defeated despair again and again. You faith has given you the patience in the most dreary circumstances. We have been stuck on world for many centuries as the Warp Storm continues unabated. They failed as Space Marines, but you have not!
This is nothing! This wait is nothing! As a young Tactical Marine, I once spent six months on Planet Irrakratus VI, a frozen world of hell with thousands of daemons and Chaos Marines swarming all over the planet. My company had crash landed as our Strike Cruiser was struck down by an overwhelming enemy fleet. I was alone. I was out of ammo. I did not have a melee weapon with me.
I endured. So can you!
ARE WE NOT the Space Marines? ARE WE NOT the Emperor's Finest? ARE WE NOT the bravest, the most honorable, the most stalwart defenders of mankind?
Yes, we ARE! WE ARE THE SPACE MARINES, AND WE SHALL DRIVE THESE TRAITORS TO THE MAW OF WARP ITSELF!
PRAISE THE GOD EMPEROR! PRAISE DORN! PRAISE YOUR FAITH!"
The words have inspired his fellow marines. They felt, from the depth of their hearts, the rising anger against their fallen brothers, and a sliver of pride at not joining the ranks of the fallen.
Pelagas answered first.
"We shall not rest until we have utterly driven out the traitors from world and from this life!"
"Well spoke, brother Techmarine! We shall not rest until we have vengeance!"
The marines took some time to calm down. However, when they have done so, Armanus called them together to prepare for their next move. He turned to Pelagas first.
"Techmarine, it appears that you were awake even before Judanus. Hopefully, you would have some information that we need. Firstly, where are we?"
"We are in the Bastion, Brother Sergeant. This is a secret underground facility that the Enginseer Obran and I have built about fifty years after everyone had gone into suspended animation. We had built this facility in case our 'Tower' was assailed by the 'Kingdom' before we could awake you."
Eblas looked puzzled.
"Kingdom? What is this 'Kingdom'?"
Pelagas sighed.
"Allow me to fill you in on all that happened."
Other nodded.
"As you remember, we arrived above this planet almost 595 years ago after over a decade within the Warp. We also found that we have arrived back in the past, around 600.M41. We also had spent next 11 years conquering the locals, then another 12 years forcing back the Ork forces that grew from the spores on the fallen fragments of our ship. As we did not have a psyker with us, our communication technology could not pierce the Warp. In order to keep you all alive until the Warp Storm cleared or the local population produced powerful enough psyker, we put you all in suspended animation.
Much has happened since your sleep. About a decade since the establishment of Imperial rule over the planet, the Captain of the ship declared himself the King of the Kingdom of Imperium, a direct Imperial representative of the Imperium and the God Emperor."
"Heresy?"
"Not quite. He informed us that it was better to maintain a feudal system in order to maintain any semblance of Imperial rule. Obran and I did not care. We were still busy fortifying our Tower. We made a deal with him instead. They would supply us with raw materials and we would produce small number of technologies that they could not make, such as lasguns, laspistols, and a couple of downgraded power swords. The minor domain we first established quickly grew into a prosperous feudal kingdom with an Imperial Cult and an Inquisition.
They did attempt to emulate the Imperium. We grew concerned that this Kingdom may assail the Tower for the technology, so we built this secret Bastion to safeguard our more precious technologies, including the some of our Company's remaining armored vehicles. Also, we prepared a pre-designated teleportation coordinates in case we needed to evacuate you all."
Armanus nodded.
"I guess you never expected this."
