Chapter 35: Angels of Light
Reviewers:
The Sithspawn: Thanks. Sorry about that. I'll do that from now on. Oh yeah, a big one.
Anubis13: Thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it. That will happen very soon. That or a wormhole that allows an Imperium fleet to go to the Star Trek galaxy.
BGTom: I didn't even know they had one. Still, great idea. That should work. So did the Breen capture Starbase 7 during the Dominion War when they attacked Earth the first time?
grayangle: Sorry, I guess that was the one that slipped through. The Romulan ships are basically just warbirds with extra stuff grafted on. Shadowclaw is using the shipyards at his base to help things along. The extra energy is coming from the two plasma reactors on each ship. It doesn't weaken systems, but it will soon cause them to need a lot more maintenance.
SabreJustice: Well, welcome to the story. Well, I am still a beginner. Any advice would be appreciated.
oblivionknight7: Of course not!
m6l99: Yes, it should wrap up in this 40k chapter or the next.
DarkOZ: Thank you. It's a good idea, but the Borg aren't exactly innovative in their tactics. Who says Shadowclaw isn't already building one? Wasn't the Webway created by the Old Ones?
Lennox RH: Sorry about that. I'll try to be better in future chapters. That sounds about right. I'm thinking deep in the Eye so he has time to gather some followers. I hope you enjoy the battle.
Olafur: Perhaps, but I'm thinking a decade or two would be better. With the help of some new allies the Emperor will be able to focus on healing and speed up the process. I hope you like the idea when I use it.
RegisSantia: It's fine. That's fine, as long as you still like the story. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
angelus288: They are getting bad aren't they? They may help destroy the Breen, if only to assure the Federation they aren't up to something, which they are. Genestealers are Tyranids who infiltrate worlds and create cults which eventually try to take over the planet and prepare for the arrival of a hive fleet. It was a Genestealer infestation which caused the battle of Ichar 4. A Hive World is a planet with a population usually numbering in the tens to hundreds of billions. Their atmosphere is usually toxic, so the people live of massive constructs called Hives.
Five Arco-Flagellants battered at the door to the Valiant's engineering section. The surviving crew waited fearfully, phasers aimed, as the sealed door to Main Engineering was crumpled. A few moments later it fell to the floor and the killing machines swept in. As they neared their targets however, there was a shimmer of transporters and suddenly ten tech guard materialized. They immediately raised their weapons and opened fire. Bolt shells and plasma blasts tore the Arco-Flagellants apart. One managed to tear off a tech guard's left arm in a shower of sparks before it fell.
"Are you all right?" Asked the tech guard leader.
"Yes, thanks to you, but you aren't ok," Lieutenant Folks replied. The leader looked down at his severed arm. Thick oily fluid was dripping from it, forming a small puddle on the floor. The leader used a patch to stop the leak and stuck the arm into a waistband that also held ammunition and grenades.
"I am fine. The arm can be reattached following the battle. Now, where are the rest of the enemy?"
"They've spread out over the ship. They damaged the main power grid so transporters are off-line and we can't beam them off the ship."
"Very well then. Team one, with me. Team two, secure the bridge and critical areas. The second wave will sweep the ship and destroy any enemies encountered. Move out!" With frightening precision the tech guard stepped through the remains of the door. Bolter shots soon echoed back along the corridor.
On Terra, the army of daemons from the rift continued to pour into reality. But now the defenses had been joined by a company of Grey Knights from Titan. They tore through the daemons like a whirlwind, their storm bolters and Nemesis blades sending hundreds screeching back to the Warp. Their arrival shored up the defense line. Still, even the Knights could not find the source of the portal.
Brother Captain Gradius sliced three daemons in half one swing with his Nemesis Sword. His battle brothers fought back to back. Daemons continued to pour from the rift in the sky, but almost as quickly as they appeared they were blasted apart by blessed bolter shells or torn to pieces by the Nemesis weapons of the Grey Knights. They were holding the live, but they had to find the source of this attack or even they would eventually be overwhelmed. Justicar Darken fought his way over to him and blasted apart a group of freshly materialized monstrosities.
"Bother Captain, I sense a change in the rift. I believe something else is preparing to emerge."
"Likely the lord of these foul creatures," Gradius replied.
"I do not believe so Brother Captain," Darken replied as he cut the head from a particularly large daemon which attacked with jets of flame from its mouth. "The energy is different. I have never sensed its like before."
"Then prepare the brothers. Never before has a rift like this appeared, and we have on idea what it contains." Darken nodded and resumed slashing through daemons with his halberd. His Storm Bolter clicked dry and he quickly and expertly slammed a fresh magazine into it and resumed blasting the servants of the dark gods.
On the other side of the battle, a force of Imperial Fists and Guardsmen were holding the line against a seemingly endless army of chaos creatures. Then suddenly a group of Chaos Marines came out of the portal. Their armor was covered with glowing runes which burned the eyes of even the marines. Bolter and las fire pattered off their armor. One of the Chaos marines, clad in terminator armor and wielding a massive blade, sent a massive blast of warp lightning which cremated thirty Guardsmen and seven marines from within. Daemons swarmed around them, ready to exploit the gap the Chaos Sorcerer had opened in the defenders lines. However, as they surged forward, a bolt of silver lightning from the rift struck the ground a dozen meters in front of them and formed smaller rift of shimmering silver energy.
A moment later Space Marines and Sisters of Battle came pouring out of the portal. The marines opened fire with their bolters, flamers and plasma and melta weapons. The sisters hefted large rifles which fired pulses of bright blue laser fire. The two Space Marine Librarians in the group each fired a blast of lightning into the daemonic ranks, sending them reeling and dropping the sorcerer to his knees. They then each fired a single shot from their plasma pistols, vaporizing his head.
As the marine and battle sister forces spread out, a final figure came through the portal. She was just over two meters tall and clad in intricate silver armor with a mask whose glare blinded the daemons who looked at its eyes, and she moved with blinding speed, cutting through dozens of daemons with a shimmering blue sword.
High Priestess Serina stepped through the portal and immediately drew her warp blade and cut down the daemons closest to her. She sung prayers that broke the bonds of yet more daemons and moved as fast as she could, cutting a swath through the daemonic ranks. She was like a whirlwind of death. Blows from ethereal talons and blasts of warp flames glanced off her Soul Armor and in return she sliced the offending daemons into pieces. She focused her energy for a moment and launched a blast of warp flame into a pack of charging dog like creatures, melting their bodies and sending their souls screaming back to the warp. She felt out with her senses, searching for the thing that was powering the rift. It was near, she knew it, but it was hiding itself extremely well.
"Librarian Haldis, Librarian Zeveryn, gather your power and hit the rift as hard as you can. I will do the same," Serina ordered as she slashed her way through a pack of Flesh Hounds.
"We will not be able to close it Priestess," Librarian Haldis replied.
"I know, but we may force whatever is powering it to exert more power, thus allowing me to divine its location."
"Very well." Haldis and Zeveryn both gathered their power and fired a blast of warp energy into the center of the rift. A moment later Priestess Serina launched her own massive assault. A huge burst of warp power burst from her blade, causing a ripple in the rift. Serina then reached out with all her senses. There! She sensed a faint energy force beneath the surface several kilometers to the north.
Serina, with a guard of a dozen marines, prepared to locate and destroy the unknown force powering the rift when several Inquisitors and Imperial Fist marines blocked her path. Their weapons were raised and ready to fire. Serina motioned to her guards and they lowered their bolters, and Serina sheathed her sword into a scabbard on her right hip.
"I have not come to fight you. I fight for the Emperor just as you do," Serina said. The guns aimed at her head did not waver, but neither did they fire. "If I was a foe, why then are my forces assisting yours?"
"Identify yourself now, or be destroyed," one of the Inquisitors demanded.
"I am High Priestess Serina. I sensed this rift on Terra and took great risk to both myself any my forces by coming here. I have located the source of this rift. Please, allow me to destroy it. If the rift grows much larger nothing may be able to close it."
"How are we to know it was not YOU who created the rift in the first place?" Asked marine sergeant Arreck.
Serina sighed. There was no time for this! "If you must have proof, then search my mind," she said. "Chose anyone you wish, but we must hurry." Serina lowered her mental guards. She did not want to do it this way, but there was little time. Every moment the rift remained open meant it would be that much harder to close.
Inquisitor Crethodus stepped forward. He was a member of the Ordo Malleus and had looked into the minds of many daemons in his two and a half centuries of service to the Throne. He extended his mind and reached into Serina. He passed many layers of mental defenses which parted to allow him passage. Finally he was through, and began examining Serina's mind. What he found was by far the last thing he had expected.
From what he had seen he had thought her a powerful daemon. Instead, he found faith. Pure, depthless faith, such as might be found in the mind of the most devoted priest or Space Marine. Unlike the daemonic minds he had explored, which had been cold as the void and with wisps of wind sharp as daggers, this mind was warm, like a comforting blanket, with breaths of wind which seemed to reach into Crethodus and soothed his soul. He fought off the feeling. He looked through her memories and saw uncounted daemons and xenos slaughtered at the hands of Serina and her followers. He also sensed a great sadness, but it was buried under all the other memories.
Suddenly he found himself back in his own body. He staggered back a step before he regained his balance.
"Are you satisfied?" Serina asked.
"For the moment," Crethodus replied. He turned to his companions. "I do not know who or what this woman is, but I do know that she is an enemy of Chaos. She and her guard shall accompany us. Lead the way," he said, still agitated of how little he knew of this mysterious woman, but that could wait until after the rift had been closed.
Serina led her party several kilometers outside the battle, the sounds of combat gradually fading behind them. They came to a metal door which Serina sliced in two with her blade, revealing a passage into the undercity. A biting wind swept up, causing everyone in the group to give an involuntary shiver. A moment later four Flesh Hounds leapt up from the shadows. Serina cut the first in half with her blade and carried the swing through the hind legs of the second. It landed with a squeal and was beheaded by one of the Imperial Fists with a chainsword.
The second pair of daemons landed behind the group. One of the Inquisitors was dragged down and the hounds began tearing at him. A bolter exploded the stomach of one, sending it crashing through a nearby cart before it dissolved. The final beast landed on the chest of an Imperial Fist. Its claws tore at his helmet, and its hind legs left deep scars on his breastplate. He gave a hard punch with his free hand and crushed the deamonic hound's skull. It went limp and fell to the ground in a heap.
"How is the Inquisitor?" Serina asked.
"Dead," the Imperial Fist sergeant replied.
It was true. The Inquisitor's throat had been torn out, and his blood mixed with that of the hounds, creating flashes of steam and bursts of fire.
"We will retrieve the body later," Serina said, already descending into the darkness. The rest of the group followed. As they descended the temperature continued to decrease, until their breath created clouds of mist. The shadows around them seemed to solidify, becoming arms of black flesh which reached out at them. Serina spoke a chant which caused her sword to give off a brilliant light. The shadows hissed and withdrew from the sudden brilliance. "We are getting closer.
After nearly ten minutes the group came to another doorway, but this one was blocked by a wall of flesh, covered in the symbols of Chaos. The group fired, but the flesh reformed itself around the holes created. Serina held up her hand and strode up to the door.
"What are you doing!" The second Inquisitor remaining asked.
"I am getting through this," Serina replied, placing her hand on the flesh barrier and spoke a short incantation that caused the flesh to turn to ash, revealing a long corridor lit by unnatural light at the far end.
On the surface, the battle under the rift continued without pause. Now larger forms loomed in the shadows spilling from the tear in reality. Massive two headed beasts and great winged birds with rotten flesh and eyeless heads. They swept in, tearing marines and guardsmen apart or screaming into the sky where they dropped them to splatter on the ground below. The rift seemed to grow darker, more solid.
Brother Captain Gradius plunged his blade into the chest of one of the two headed beasts and blasted both its heads with bursts from his storm bolter. The creature slumped, gouts of ichor staining the ground a dark purple. Two more of the massive beasts formed out of the darkness. One of the impaled Brother Lonen in the abdomen and tore him in two. Brother Drest was pulled into the sky by two of the flying daemons. He cut the wing off one with his halberd but was then sent plummeting a hundred meters to the ground. Incredibly he managed to land on his feet. One of his legs was broken, but he continued to pour fire into the ranks of Chaos.
The last two-headed beast charged straight for Gradius, knocking two other Grey Knights aside with shoves of its heads. Gradius recited a short prayer for strength, then blew one of beast's heads apart with his storm bolter. The creature did not even slow down. It slammed its remaining head into the Bother Captain, knocking him to the ground. He rolled to the side just as the daemon's foot cracked the rockcrete where he had been laying. He raised his storm bolter, but the fall had jammed the ammo feed mechanism. The daemon opened its jaws wide, preparing to bite the Brother Captain in half.
As the daemon's jaws descended, Gradius plunged his Nemesis Sword into the roof of the creatures' mouth, spearing through its brain. The daemon let out a roar that shook the air, and then was absorbed back into the rift. The Brother Captain got back to his feet. The latest wave of daemons had been stopped, but more would come, but he was a Grey Knight. He would never falter in his duty to the Emperor. He had been trained for just this. To destroy the dark forces of Chaos wherever they appeared. He would kill every daemon that crossed his path, and only death could stop him. As he once more charged into the throng of chaos monstrosities he began reciting the 666 secret words in a chant that was echoed by his battle brothers, who surged forward with renewed energy. They would halt this Chaos incursion, even if it cost them their lives.
Serina and Inquisitor Crethodus's group emerged from the corridor into a cavernous chamber. The floor was littered with desiccated bodies. Webbing covered everything. Spider-like daemons rushed at them, hundreds strong. Bolter fire blasted dozens into oblivion, but there were too many.
"Leave this to me!" Serina said, rising into the air on a cloud of brilliant blue energy. Energy gathered in her hands as she pressed them together. She pulled them apart rapidly and a storm of warp lightning crashed into the charging crowd of daemonic spiders. The energy seemed to be poison to them. Wherever it met flesh it turned it to ash instantly. When one of the daemons expired the energy redirected itself to the next. In less then a minute the swarm had been slaughtered. Serina gently lowered herself to the ground and leaned on a railing for a moment.
"We are very close now. The creature we are looking for is just beyond that door," she said, pointing at a door scarred with the claw marks of the Chaos spiders. One of the Imperial Fists kicked it open and a bolt of crimson energy speared through him, turning his body and armor to ash instantly. Serina and the others jumped back as more blasts emerged from the door.
"We cannot get through," one of the marines stated.
"No, but we can make our own way," Serina said, pressing her hand to the wall and blowing a three meter hole in it. She jumped through and rolled to the left, barely dodging the blasts of Chaos energy that liquefied the ground around her. She regained her footing and saw a women standing in the middle of the room, a black orb in her hands. Serina could sense that the orb was controlling the women. An Inquisitor, Serina realized by the badge on her chest. The orb continued to spit lightning.
"Stay back!" Serina shouted to the others. "I will destroy this threat!" She charged the Inquisitor, moving so fast she was little more than a blur. Lightning struck all around her. A few struck her body but were absorbed by her armor. She drew her sword and slashed at the orb, but her strike rebounded off a barrier.
"You will not interfere!" The Inquisitor shouted in a voice which was not her own, the orb firing larger blasts, one of which knocked Serina into a pillar, shattering it. Serina dodged the next blast and tried to find a way past the barrier shielding the orb. It was emanating from the orb and seemed to be feeding off the Inquisitor's life force. Serina poured all the energy she could into the sword, which glowed to bright it seemed to be a fragment of a star. It hit the barrier at the point where Serina sensed its sections came together. The barrier flared bright for several long seconds. Serina was almost sent flying by the energy, but she held her ground and finally the barrier shattered. With a swift kick, the orb was knocked from the Inquisitor's grasp, taking one of her hands which had fused to the orb with it. When it hit the ground the orb lost its shine. Serina could sense that without the life-force it had been drawing upon it could not power itself.
The rest of the group cautiously entered the room.
"Do not touch the orb," Serina warned. She held the Inquisitor in her hands and applied a tourniquet to her arm. "She isn't dead. She put herself into a coma. She needs medical treatment," Serina said. She could have healed the Inquisitor herself, but she did not wish to show off her abilities anymore than she already had. Together with Inquisitor Crethodus, Serina lifted the limp body of the Inquisitor and carried her back towards the surface.
On the surface, the rift seemed to give a great shudder. Its energies, which just a few moments ago had been burning with an infernal light, now dulled and began to dissipate. The armies of daemons cried out as the source of their power was cut and they vanished back into the Warp.
Brother Captain Gradius, together with the eighty-seven surviving Grey Knights, gave a collective sign of relief. Reports were coming in from the opposite side of the engagement zone. Casualties there had been much heavier, with over half the forces dead of wounded, but what truly mattered was that the invasion of Terra had been thwarted. Now the time had come to find the source of this.
On board the Valiant, the last of the arco-flagellants had been killed. Two of the tech guard had been killed and three more, including the leader, were injured. Over a third of the ship's crew was dead, with many more wounded. Medical teams were attending to as many as they could, and magi Dren had sent over several of his medical personnel as well.
T'vol was in the captain's ready room, reading the casualty report with a look of regret. Nearly a third of the crew was dead. A moment later his door chimed.
"Enter," he called and Magi Dren walked in.
"Commander, you have my condolences for your loses."
"Thank you, but none of my crew would be alive if your tech guard had not assisted us. For that you have my thanks. Now, what is our next move?"
"The Valiant will be moved to a hidden location where it will be safe. My superiors and I will travel to Terra and find out who sent those ships."
"Very well. I wish you success."
"To you as well Commander. I will see you as soon as I have some answers."
As the Glory or Mars set course for Terra, the Valiant entered one of he orbital platforms where it would be invisible to scanners.
In orbit of Terra, energy from the collapsed rift collected and began to resonate. Gradually an invisible portal was opened. It was small, only a few millimeters wide, but it did not lead to the Warp. Where it lead would soon be revealed, and when it was the galaxy would be changed.
So how was that? The rift has been closed and Inquisitor Vail rescued. But will she survive? What will happen to Serina? And where does the mysterious rift lead? Keep reading and find out. In the next chapter the Breen will continue their invasion. Will Starfleet be able to stop them? Will the Romulans soon begin an invasion of their own? Find out in the next exciting chapter of A New Age. See ya then, and don't forget to review!
ENTILZA