With this chapter, most of the Legionnaires have received their introductions. There are still couple of Neophytes, but the important ones are done.
Chaos is the Prize chapter 36
"Watch for the devil. When there's a god, there's always a legion of devils."
― Maggie Stiefvater
The dinerium was a high ceiling square chamber filled with large tables, most of them covered in dust. The wall at the end of the chamber was filled with random scribbling, crisscrossing lines of text that denied each other from being readable, except for a massive "Death to the False Emperor" that dominated that wall with letters the size of small Beowolves. Other iconic and most importantly readable things were "Three black wearing Legions is enough." and "Kill for the living, kill for the dead."
Two Legionnaires were waiting for Dunstan and Maroos as they entered the chamber from one of the entrances. Smurfus was sitting on a seat by the closest table, Vermilion standing next to him with the eight pointed standard held proudly in his hand. Both of them turned to face the new arrivals as they approached.
"Dunstan is here, so that makes four." Maroos said next to Dunstan as they stopped, the "Apostle" quickly scanning the room as if looking for more people. "Where are the others?"
Dunstan did not know exactly who else would be joining for this endeavour, he had not cared to find out. He knew Maroos and Vermilion would be coming, as they were the ones who came up with the whole idea, and Smurfus of course did not want to be left out, so he probably would be bringing his own allies with him.
"Flavius is in the Neophyte chamber, he will be here when he is done," Smurfus grunted as he fiddled with his large axe, testing the blade with his thump.
The Neophyte chamber was practically next to the dinerium, so Flavius would be here any minute, Dunstan thought, as indeed it did not take long for the Fist to enter from the entry way on the other side of the room.
"Hold this place!" He bellowed to someone way behind him, most likely the Neophytes of the VIIth Legion.
"Only death will move us!" Dunstan could hear the distant cry of reply, the young voice echoing in the corridor with couple of others.
Flavius stopped on his tracks. "What?!" he roared into the tunnel.
"I mean, not even death will move us!" came a hasty correction.
"That's better!" Flavius yelled with approval. "Do not kill anyone when I am not around!"
"Don't kill everyone, got it!"
Flavius joined the circle of Legionnaires, taking his place by his de facto leader Smurfus. The two of them had always seen eye to eye, and their cooperation had seen them become quite powerful in the eternal struggle of Terra. Their alliance had made Dunstan cautious of them and consider getting allies for himself as well, but who was left nowadays?
Azuhrius and his allies? They were the primary rivals of Smurfus and Dunstan did not want to get caught in any of it. He hoped they would kill each others at some point and clean to way for him.
Maroos? The zealot was playing an interesting game and was not taking any side, seemingly getting along with everyone. By his own words, his eyes were directed more towards the future, which either meant he had some ethereal insight the rest of them were unaware of, or he was just a crazy talker, could be eithe or a little of both.
Tsagaan? Hah. Slate? What an ally…
No, it was wiser to stay alone at this point and wait. Wait for better opportunities emerge. His Legion was growing, and would the largest Legion at this rate, almost as big as itself than some of the allied Legions combined.
"So, we leaving or not?" Flavius asked impatiently.
"We are still waiting for the last of us to show up," Smurfus replied.
"Who else is coming?" Dunstan asked, turning to Smurfus. "I am assuming XIVth Legion is coming?" It would only make sense for Smurfus to bring all his allies if he was going.
"He is," Smurfus confirmed.
Dunstan was just about to ask if there still was someone, but at that moment two Legionnaires emerged from the corridor, causing him to frown disapprovingly inside his helmet at the sight.
One of the warriors was a giant, the largest Legionnaire alive in Terra, his heavy footsteps echoing in the large chamber. His massive bulk was only made greater by the "armor" he wore.
Rustus Pestilitas was completely covered in highly rusted scrap metal that hung around him like a very strange ghillie suit, hiding all of the bloated flesh from sight. His face was covered by a single screen gasmask, and he had a thick large metal chest plate chained into his torso by thick chains wrapping around him, slightly eaten by corrosion. Only a warrior of the Death Guard could make such an armor work, and work really well in fact.
The hulking form of Rustus was holding his weapon in his right hand, carrying it over his shoulder. Calling it a weapon was serious a compliment, for the thing was little more than a large hunk of metal beaten into the general shape of a very large maul.
The smell coming from him was sickening, rotting meat mixed with corroded metal and other less distinguishable foul odors. The smell was not intolerable if one kept his distance, but it was impossible to ignore completely.
The second Legionnaire was actually even worse than the first one, but not because of any physical trait like smell (though he did have a disturbing odor of his own). Dunstan just really did not get along with this warrior.
The Legionnaire next to Rustus was clad in brown tunic and black pants, on top of which he wore a relatively fine crafted armor consisting of a gray breastplate, knee pads, as well as wrist,shoulder and shin guards. The different metal pieces were in many places decorated by tribalistic runes that circled the Legionnaire's frame. A large double headed wolf of Morkai was depicted in the middle of his breastplate, with a red gem of Wulfenite (yes, that is a thing) in the middle.
Under the buckle of his black belt was an head of a wolf cast from iron, the coad piece tying up a gray fur belt that fell from his waist. In his hands were fingerless gloves with spiked knuckles, holding a two bladed axe also decorated with Fenrisian runes, called Morkai's Bite.
His dark brown hair flowed onto his shoulders, couple of braided bangs flanking his rough face that formed feral features. His yellow eyes were observing the room like a hound assessing hunting grounds. Grollo Bloodaxe was his name, the last living Wolf in Terra, or anywhere on the planet. Especially in the ruins of Fenris. There were no Wolves in Fenris.
"Are we all here?" Rustus' rasping words came from the depths of his gasmask. He moved to take his place next to Smurfus, both Flavius and Smurfus displaying no signs of being disturbed by the smell.
"We are," Maroos said. "Ceruleon is not coming, and Slate and Tsagaan stay behind to look after Laguna. Shrike stays to make sure Neophytes don't do anything foolish while we are not here."
"It is not often we come together like this," Smurfus said as his gaze scanned the circle of warriors around him.
"More like never," Dunstan corrected.
"A common goal demands it." Maroos mused.
"The Gods demand it," Vermilion groaned fanatically. "This is a holy mission ordered by the divine octet!"
"Shut up, Vermilion," Flavius snarled. "Nobody gives a shit."
Vermilion eyed the Fist angrily but held his tongue.
"What Vermilion said is true," Maroos said. "The path we are about to take was indeed shown to us by the Gods. It was path that will lead us to victory, if we prove ourselves worthy."
"It is a dangerous path," Dunstan remarked. "Is that why we have so many Legionnaires to absorb the blows?" He was looking at Grollo as he said this, his black helmet hiding the distaste from his eyes but not his voice. The old feud between Ist and VIth always lifted its head when they met like this, the years of the Long War had done little to quench the animosity left behind by the Knight King of the Caliban and the Great Wolf, even as many of the other Legions forgot old feuds and created new ones.
Grollo looked back with his wild yellow eyes. "I am here just for the battle," He snarled nonchalantly. "You sure you can keep up when we enter Mars, whelp of a knight? I heard it is a rough place, and someone like you might not survive it."
"I will live long after the Xenos rip you to shreds," Dunstan replied coldly, his hand grasping the hilt of his sword more firmly.
"This is not time for us to be fighting amongst ourselves," Maroos tried to intervene raising his hands in a solitary gesture.
"You shut up, word whisperer," Grollo spat."I am here like you asked but don't think a spineless bastard like you hold any say over me."
"Don't you dare to speak to the Apostle that way!" Vermilion exclaimed in outrage and stepped closer.
There was giant SMACK as Grollo's fist flailed in a blink of an eye and backhanded Vermilion right in the face, the tremendous blow sending the Word Bearer flying across the hall and smashing against a wall. It took a while for Vermilion to recover from the blow, but he used the star icon to support himself as he jumped up, anger burning in his eyes.
"Shut the fuck up, Vermilion, nobody cares what you think," Grollo spat, not even bothering to face Vermilion.
Rustus chuckled and Smurfus sighed. "Could we move on?" the Ultramarine said with exasperated voice.
"Yes, Grollo, Vermilion, please calm down. We should be getting ready to leave already," Maroos agreed as Vermilion stalked back to his side like a beaten dog, eyes still burning.
"So, do we have a leader for this journey? Dunstan asked. Not that he would recognise anyone's authority, but it was good to know what the others thought.
"The Dark Apostle leads, of course," Vermilion declared instantly.
"Smurfus should lead," Flavius countered right away, turning to Vermilion as is daring for the Bearer to challenge that claims.
"I agree, Smurfus should lead," Rustus growled.
"I agree as well," Smurfus said with a pompous smile.
"And fuck you will," Grollo growled. "We should just fight and whoever is left standing has the lead. Honor duels until a clear victor emerges."
"Why not death duels just as well?" Flavius said eagerly as he lifted his worn junk of a sword. "Anyone who wants to lead will take on the challengers and the one left standing say who will lead the others."
"I am supporting this idea!" Grollo informed others.
"We don't have many of us left if we do death duels," Maroos put in.
"I agree," Dunstan said, feeling the thirst for fight in the air affecting himself as well. "We should hold honor duels to decide if the leadership is decided by honor or death duels."
"Wouldn't it be best if nobody died before we actually get to Mars?" Maroos tried.
"Or how about we have death duels about whether we should have honor or death duel," Rustus rasped.
"There is something in that idea," Flavius said thoughtfully.
"How about we come up with extensive theoreticals that will lead to solid-"
"Your theoreticals are shit!" Dunstan cut Smurfus off before the guy got the train rolling.
"No, the Dark Apostle was the one to receive the vision and come up with this holy endeavor, he should decide if it is honor or death duels!" Vermilion declared.
"Shut up, nobody care about you!" Flavius roared as he pulled forth his sword at struck at Vermilion, sending the stricken Legionnaire reeling from the blow.
Dunstan pulled his sword from his belt into readiness, as did the rest of the Legionnaires with their weapons. The situation did not look good. Hopefully the mission would be still on the table even if/after some of them laid dead.
"My lord?" came an old feminine voice, and Dunstan turned to look. Siena was standing in the doorways, the slave's wrinkled face frowning as he watched Rustus maul Grollo with his weapon, getting plenty of axe in return. Vermilion was trying to impale Smurfus with his icon, while Flavius looked like he was soon losing it, the bloodlust already visible in his eyes.
"Yes, what is it!?" Dunstan baked as he parried a wide strike from Flavius meant for someone else.
"We are rather busy at the moment!" Smurfus yelled over the fight, headbashing Vermilion away.
The Legionnaires separated from each other, squeezing their weapons and eyeing their cousins sharply. It had been a short but violent clash, the caused by surges of anger rather than any real useful reason. Their Aura had protected them from the moment when the violent impulses kicked in, and now that the first flash of initial emotion had passed, what was left of their rational part of mind was trying to reel the battle instincts back under the will of the mind. All of them saw there was no real benefit in any of this escalating, and were trying to make themselves care enough to stop. Sometime these kinds of bouts ended before the Legionnaires got too excited and were caught in the heat of the moment, and sometimes again only spilling of blood brought the end with it.
Dunstan eyed his cousins, trying to determine if any of them was going to let their impulses run wild or not. He also felt the same temptation burn inside him, some possibly Warp touched part of himself in his head telling him how great it would have been to see Grollo lying dead in his feet or to prove his superiority over Flavius in a death duel. The temptation was prickling from his toes to this fingertips squeezing his sword, but he reeled it in, leashing it with his iron will.
Not today.
"You shut refrain from fighting in the dinerium, this is a place for eating," Siena said calmly at the Legionnaires who were glaring daggers at her or each other.
"Shut up, slave, we do what we want!" Flavius barked.
"Very well, my lords," Siena said with a short nod, no change of emotion on her calm face. "I came here to tell you that the Grimm have found their way into the catacombs, my lords. They are currently ravaging the training halls of the east wings sublevels, trying to break deeper in."
"XENOS TO SLAY!" Grollo roared from the top of his lungs, the feral grin on his face beaming with a resurge of excitement. He ran out of the door, followed by most of the others, all of the previous fight forgotten. Dunstan was of course right behind them.
"Blood for the Blood God!" Flavius bellowed as he pushed past others.
"We will slay them for the God!"
"Shut up, Vermilion!"
Maroos was the only one not rushing out, staying behind with a suffering look. "I can't believe this…" Dunstan heard him sigh to Siena. "We can't get pretty much anything done and can't get to agreement in pretty much anything, but when the Grimm show up, we gather all our living kin together in five seconds for the purpose of murdering them…"
"Are we sure we packed enough food?" Grollo asked after they finally managed to leave the catacombs of the palace proper. The tunnels which the fellowship of Legionnaires was traveling trough were narrow and often required going back after encounters of collapsed ways, but they were much better than traveling on the surface of the ruined city. Dunstan had seen enough of the surface and had enough encounters there to know that it was not usually worth it.
"Siena practically forced all that fish jerky into our bags, I think we will be fine even if we ran into unexpected delays on the way or on the way back," Smurfus grunted as he squirmed past particularly narrow crack between two large boulders. Rustus whom was coming after him simply smashed one of the boulders aside.
"And we can always eat Vermilion if we run out of grub," Flavius said.
"Over my dead body!" Vermilion snarled before realizing what he had just said. "Wait…"
"Can be arranged!" Grollo let out from the front of the group.
They traveled first upwards the tunnels, then downwards, and finally upwards again. They traveled for several kilometers, sometimes taking almost an hour to travel a distance of few damned tens of meters in the maze that was left from the complete lack of maintenance for decades.
They encountered Grimm here and there, mostly Creeps that were stalking the tunnel networks. There was never large concentrations of them and they were cut down without much effort by the professional genecrafted mass murderers.
The journey was slow and frustrating, and it took many hours in the dark before they saw light of the day again. The ancient maintenance hatch was stuck shut, so Rustus had beat it open, and the buckling metal finally gave out to reveal the fresh air of the day.
The Legionnaires scurried out of the hatch into the ruined edges of Terra, devoid of the largest destroyed buildings of the city's center, and more importantly devoid of endless swarms of Xenos. They emerged from a foot of a medium sized spire that was like a skeletal remain of a once great show of architecture, ravaged by time. A faint orange tint could be seen reflected on the parts of exposed metal structure of the spire, causing Dunstan to realized it was already a late noon.
"I just realized I have not see the sun in over a year," Maroos said as he squinted, using his hand to cover his golden eyes from some of the sunlight.
Dunstan looked towards the horizon in the north where the city completely ended, the far away steppes lined by spots of green and the even further away looming forests and finally mountains. He could not have seen Mars even if he had climbed on top of the ruined spire, so far away the ancient technological center of the dead Imperium was. And they would have to go there. On foot.
"At times like these, I really hope we would have acquired more bicycles than just the ones used for traveling between here and Laguna," Smurfus complained as he gazed into the distances where the earth and the orange-blue sky met.
"How long do you think it will take?" Dunstan asked from Maroos who had architected this whole mission. Dunstan had of course knowledge about the long ago crusades to Mars, but he doubted they had done so on foot… Actually, they most likely had done it on foot, it was not like they had any Rhinos or Land Raiders around anymore.
"Definitely over a week," Maroos replied as he took a sip from a water bottle he had pulled from his bag. "With the blessing of the Gods, we will be back in two. Depends on so many things like the weather and how big the monsters on our way are. It's a long perilous road."
"And we have to come back the same way while carrying the loot..." Grollo grumbled. "Wait… who is carrying our stuff on the way back?"
All of the Legionnaires looked at each other as the gears started turning in their heads. "VERMILION!" several of them, including Dunstan, yelled while pointing at the red shirted form what was quickly trying to disappear into the ruins of the spire.
After a while, after they had dug the little bastard of the XVIIth from the ruins, the Legionnaires formed a loose line, and started running. Their Aura enhanced muscles kicked up a massive pile of dust from the dry earth as they adopted a speed that only soul wielding humans could hope to maintain, and soon the ruins of the once mightiest Kingdom on the planet fell behind them as they vanished into the wasteland.
Nox entered the gunship, closing the landing ramp behind him as he creeped into the cockpit of his aircraft. It had waited just where he had left it on the outskirts of Laguna, while he had taken a bicycle from there on (Those things were damn hard to pedal with his legs though), for he was not stupid enough to fly it to Terra, where the airspace was full of Nevermores, Griffons and Gargoyles, and on the ground were even more dangerous things: other Legionnaires.
Nox sat down on the pilot seat, his hands coming up to power up the ship's controls, the colorful view screens coming to life with information about the craft. Nox still did not understand all of them, but he understood enough to fly the thing, and that was enough.
The fuel gauge was one thing that he focused on. Based on how much the machine had used on the way from Vale, Nox could see he had enough Dust in the tanks for a return journey, but after that the ship was in a need of refueling. Nox did not know what kind of Dust the ship run on, but he would have to find out and acquire some if he wanted the gunship to remain operational.
And he did want it to remain operational. It was an actual aircraft, not even just one of those clumsy Bullheads, but an actual military vehicle created for war. It was heavily armed and extremely nimble, as well as quite nice to look at. Nox really liked it. He had never realized how bad he wanted an airship of his own until got one. He would put it to good use when he and Sangur finally got out of Beacon.
With manipulation of the controls, Nox ignited the engines and the thrusters of the ship. The craft came to life with nice loud hum, and after some final checks, Nox grasped handles of the control wheel to lift his ship into the air. The metal machine rose from the meadow as the plant matter was washed with the airlift of the thrusters, quickly gaining altitude and speed. Nox steered the fuselage to point towards West and quickly left the shore of Laguna and Sol behind. The aircraft glided far above the shimmering waters of the great ocean, carrying him towards the Kingdom and the Huntsman school.
After fixing the direction and speed, Nox consulted the many blinking panels of the cockpit, engaged the autopilot and let go of the steering wheel stick. The craft continued its flight in a straight line without his constant guidance, allowing him to relax on his seat a bit. Nox looked out of the main viewport for a moment before looking down and taking something out of his pocket.
The small device was old and worn, of course it was. Nox had taken it in secrecy from the Neophyte chambers of his Legion, where it had been hidden among all the junk piled in the corners. Nox had been there on the day it had been dumped there, and now he had used the opportunity to dig it out from its forgottenness.
It was a plain gray recorder, an old imperial model that had been found and scavenged from the ruins. It was not particularly advanced nor valuable, a cheap machine used by the civilian population on the days when Terra still had population. There was pict capture lense that was partially cracked, and a foldable screen for inspecting the recorded data. Nox flipped it open and pressed the button that turned the little machine on.
There was a picture of an Imperial Aquila alongside some meaningless text on the screen before a simple menu came into view, and Nox proceeded to select the recorded data section. There was only a single, very short video file in there, and Nox moved to select it and pressed play.
The picture was horrible, the crack of the lense distorting third of the picture, and the darkness of the recorded scene as well as the obvious lack of skill on the part of the user did not help. There was just blurry movement, shapes moving as well as the shaking of the camera itself as it had captured the events. The audio however was better.
"-They come," came slightly static snarl, the voice of Otieno.
"-There are only few of them," came a reply from Shyama. "-Another half a minute and they are right where we want them, completely at our mercy."
"-Not that we have any of that for them," came a crackling chuckle of Rajnish. "Our knives will work their flesh sooooon…."
"-What are you doing with that?" Nox heard his own voice, and the blurry screen was filled with a shape looking at the recording machine that Nox knew was himself, even if it could not be made out of the video. "-Put that thing away, we kill soon. We will fight till their wills are broken."
"-Blood for the Blood God!" Sangur's roar could be heard in the distance and suddenly there was a lot of movement.
"-Oh shit, he is charging already! Our cover is gone, engage engage!" came the blurt from Otieno that faded into static as the video file ended.
Nox stared at the screen without expression, blinked, and then pressed replay.
"-They come." Otieno had been the clever one, the one who often laid out what they would do and how they would survive the situation at hand. Honorless, ruthless git. They all listened to him. He was the semblance of leadership they needed, even if he was horribly annoying at times.
"-There are only few of them. Another half a minute and they are right where we want them, completely at our mercy." Shyama was the silent one, the one that spoke only when there was something to say and little else. He was a hell of a fighter, and the one who was the first in and last out of everything. He had no sense of humor and was as interesting as a cold brick, but he sure knew how to kill, which was a valuable character trait.
"-Not that we have any of that for them. Our knives will work their flesh sooooon…." Rajnish... He had never been as sane as the rest of them, not even right after the implantation. He enjoyed torturing in inventive ways, and he often whispered to himself and the shadows around him. They had all thought he was tainted, more than the rest at least, but none of them ever said anything.
"-What are you doing with that? Put that thing away, we kill soon. We will fight till their wills are broken."
"-Blood for the Blood God!"
"-Oh shit, he is charging already! Our cover is gone, engage engage!"
The video ended, and Nox pressed replay again, not separating his black eyes from the small screen.
"-They come."
"-There are only few of them. Another half a minute and they are right where we want them, completely at our mercy."
"-Not that we have any of that for them. Our knives will work their flesh sooooon…."
"-What are you doing with that? Put that thing away, we kill soon. We will fight till their wills are broken."
"-Blood for the Blood God!"
"-Oh shit, he is charging already! Our cover is gone, engage engage!"
They were talking to him through the small machine box, long dead, their words echoing from beyond death. Nox pressed replay again as the gunship steadily took him towards the central Kingdom.
"-They come."
"-There are only few of them. Another half a minute and they are right where we want them, completely at our mercy."
"-Not that we have any of that for them. Our knives will work their flesh sooooon…."
"-What are you doing with that? Put that thing away, we kill soon. We will fight till their wills are broken."
"-Blood for the Blood God!"
"-Oh shit, he is charging already! Our cover is gone, engage engage!"
...
"-They come."
"-There are only few of them. Another half a minute and they are right where we want them, completely at our mercy."
"-Not that we have any of that for them. Our knives will work their flesh sooooon…."
"-What are you doing with that? Put that thing away, we kill soon. We will fight till their wills are broken."
"-Blood for the Blood God!"
"-Oh shit, he is charging already! Our cover is gone, engage engage!"
...
"-There are only few of them. Another half a minute and they are right where we want them, completely at our mercy."
"-Not that we have any of that for them. Our knives will work their flesh sooooon…."
"-What are you doing with that? Put that thing away, we kill soon. We will fight till their wills are broken."
"-Blood for the Blood God!"
"-Oh shit, he is charging already! Our cover is gone, engage engage!"
...
"-They come..."
Mars awaits.
Grollo Bloodaxe of the Vith Legion and Rustus Pestilitas of the XIVth Legion. Time to update the DeviantArt picture again.
Leave a review, if you feel it in your heart, and have a nice day.