Chapter 3
When Worlds are Shattered
Rtas' Vadumee had seen his fair share of things in his life: whole planets glassed in the name of the Forerunners, a Halo ring, seeing said Halo ring shattered but never had he seen what was in front of him: Ships poring out of a wound in the fabric of reality and they were racing towards them.
"I want messages sent to those ships right now, warrior." His words were rapid as it was needed to counter the shock of what had just happened to them all he needed to figure out just what had happened to them. The whole of the Covenant fleet had gone into Slipspace at once and all had gone well until something happened in Slipspace that caused them to appear here and he had a hunch that the rift had something to do with it.
"No response, Commander, not even an AI answer." An Unggoy, or Grunt told him with his high-pinched voice. No response via messages wasn't unheard of but not even an Al answer was something else entirely. Even the humans had AI that sad this ships looked like nothing in the Covenant fleet nor anything in the human's navy so it might be a new species in the galaxy one that would be willing to hear the voice of the gods.
"Sir, the ships are moving out to where I know not." His navigator said as Rtas looked towards the scopes. He viewed over it to see where they went and in this, he got his answer.
"There, they are headed towards that planet, it must be their home world or at least a base of operations for them, we should follow them." The navigator began as the ship edged over towards the planet as to get into position to move the fleet as to follow the mystery ships.
Tartarus, now back to the command deck, looked at the situation and scowled. What he was looking at was not what he, and more importantly, what the Hierarchs wanted to see when they ended their Slipspace jump.
"What did you do? This dose not look the holy ring, and the fleet is now scatted through out…" the Brute looked out into the gapping wound in the fabric of space and vast stars out in the world "wherever we are?"
"We are trying to figure that out, but in order to do that we need, to make contact with whatever peoples we can, and find out why our Slipspace drives malfunctioned all at once." That was something that was his, the Arbiter's, and more probably, everyone else's mind is why did every single Slipspace drive in the entire fleet malfunction at the same time and more over lead them towards this area. Did this rift swallow up the holy ring? If so, did the strange ships steal or destroy it? These questions were building up and it was grating on the shipmaster's mind and he wanted some answers and soon.
"Shipmaster, we've made scans about the planet the vessels are heading towards, you might to take a look this." A Unggoy said to him.
"It would be more prudent to just tell me."
"Of course sir, it appears that the planet is covered in an unknown substance, but it bares an uncanny resemblance… to the infestation." The second the words came out of the small one's mouth did the room go silent. The Infection, The Ancient Foe, The Flood it was the ancient foe of the Forerunners, it took the firing of the Halo rings to stop them, the Arbiter had confirmed that they still live somehow and, on the rings, no less.
"This… complicates things. We need to prepare an assault on the planet. If it is a new strain of The Infection, then we must purge it immediately." The Shipmaster went over to the comms station.
"Attention, Attention. All non- combat personal must immediately head towards their quarters and prepare for lockdown protocols. Warriors prepare for combat we are making an assault on the planet." The Arbiter moved to the door, anticipating the orders of the shipmaster.
"They'll need me down there, and you know it." The shipmaster just gave an approving nod towards the Arbiter. Tartarus, snarling again, went after him, not being one to be outdone by the Sangheili.
XXX
Upon the planet side, the inhabitants of the strange vessels plotted and schemed in the fortress of a cruiser. Inside, mutation and madness walked hand in hand, strange symbols carved into everything they can be. This is the work of Chaos, and the people inside were the warriors of the Word Bearer legion, the truest worshipers of Chaos among the forces of Traitor Legions. In its depts, at the chapel, mad ranting to thirsting gods by insane cultists drown out all other noises. The preacher, a man covered in dark scripture, guided the convent in a prayer.
"Let not the whispers bring you fear, brothers and sisters but rather envelope you in the Primordial Truth. Let the constancy of Nurgle's rotting ways give you comfort in what will happen to us all. Let the wisdom of Tzeentch bring forth change for you. The fury of Khorne will guide you weapons to destroy the followers of the False Emperor. Have Slannesh's pleasuring waves give you no end of delight. Death to the False Emperor and Glory to the Ruinous Powers!"
"DEATH TO THE FLASE EMPEROR! GLORY TO THE RUINOUS POWERS!" the cultists echoed back at the dark apostle. As the cultists vacated the chapel, the preacher, with his entourage in tow, moved to gather for the battle plan, after all, they were warriors and Khorne demands bloodshed but Tzeentch teaches us to plan in advance. In the council room, the chaos marine could see four others. Each one of them represented one of the four chaos gods, with himself representing chaos in its undivided form. In the north corner, a blue marine in robes carried a stave with the flaming eye of Tzeentch. In the south corner contain an executioner, flayed skin upon his armour, a calling card of the Dark Prince's worshipers. In the east, a bloated marine decayed and laughed, an exalted champion of Grandfather Nurgle, and in the western most corner held the leader of this warband, skulls around his belt and red about his armour, he was Khorne's warrior, striding forth in his Terminator armour and power axe in his hand.
"It took you long enough, your sermons do drag on, Sevax and we do have work to get on with." The sorcerer said, his voice echoing with the trace of the Warp.
"I could say the same about your rituals, Atrino." Sevax responded.
"Enough of your bickering, we have come to make plays, with the Despoiler's 13th Black Crusade now shattering Cadia , we can take this opportunity to lay waste to Imperial lands." The leader, Rhymor said, slamming his fist onto his throne.
"But first, we need to identify what type of ships we saw as we picked up on the scans as they might pose a threat to our plans. It didn't match any know models."
"That rules out us and the loyalist dogs, it looked too clean to be Orks, not nimble enough to be Eldar, it wasn't organic so not any Tyranids, and too advanced to be the Tau but not advanced enough to be the Necrons." The plague marine, Malgarr, said, his voice full of phlegm.
"Then it appears to a new Xenos species, one we will gladly either enlighten …or not." The executioner, Khagor said, gleefully sharping his axe.
"Indeed, brothers, indeed it would this would present an opportunity for us and earn our own glory in this crusade by destroying the aliens in Khorne's name." Rhymor said grinning now at the though of battle again. Alarms began ringing as the scanning monitor went crazy with warring.
"What's going on, are we under attack?" Khagor asked, his sharping hand missing the axe and gliding over his forearm and his face contorted into a mix of pain and pleasure. Sevax went over to the scans to see something truly surprising.
"It would appear that the xenos have beaten us to the fight, they are sending down dropships." Sevax looked back to the other leaders of the warband with a grin upon his face. " Perhaps we should meet them in kind." The rest of the leadership all grinned with him.
Rhymor stood up, the weight of his tactical dreadnought armour shaking the floor.
"Gather up the warband and send a detachment to intercept them upon their landing. We will have a harvest of skulls for the Skull Throne this day."
XXX
The Arbiter, once again, was enclosed inside of a Phantom, going down into a suicide mission to fight the unknown they had no idea what was ahead for any of them, but they did know what the Flood could do to a planet and what could happen if it got off world. Tartarus had his group and the Arbiter had his.
"Warriors, what we undertake is the most holy mission that anyone of us could ask for. For to purge the Infestation is to repeat the history of the gods. And we know what failure we entail for us." The warriors all nodded; he then repeated the mantra of the Sangheili word for word. they had a sizable force with them at least two squadrons of Ghosts and one of the brute bikes known as choppers, wretched things: the front wheels were bladed, and the rear was an anti-grav propulsion, the brutes used the front wheels to ram into enemy vehicles it didn't help that it had twin autocannons on each side to add to its lethality, they had the heavier vehicles onboard a corvette to await for when they reached landfall. As they breached through the atmosphere as felt the turbulence over the landfall.
"Warriors, to combat positions." With that the Sangheili, Unggoy, Kig-Yar and Jiralhanae all jumped out of their Phantoms, ghosts and choppers dropping in from the ships, plasma cannon turrets were being placed and contact was being made to get the corvette Gospel at Daybreak down to drop the heavier equipment. The area they picked was what looked like a deserted city it appeared to be a human city by the look of it but on far more advanced than any they had seen before. The spires were large and reached towards the heavens, the streets seamed abandoned, but the scans said otherwise. At least five more Ghost Squadrons of six each, three more Chopper Squadrons of four each, a full battalion of Wraths with anti-aircraft Wraths, heavy Shade turrets and an air wing of Banshees were waiting on bored the corvette. Tartarus, his hammer slung across his shoulder, began inspecting the troop deployment and was not impressed by what he saw.
"Why are the Brutes on the front line? That is a task for Grunts to perform. Remember that I am in charge here, Arbiter and that you are here for nothing more that to perform an Arbiter's duty and die for the Covenant." Arbiter did not apricate being backed at by the chieftain, he had been commanding troops since before Tartarus had been even in battle.
"I'll try and remember that, Tartarus just you remember that your Brutes are better suited to a closer ranged engagement." Arbiter rebutted much to the Brute's anger. A communication went over to the Arbiter.
"What is it, Major? Do you have something to report?" The tone in the Arbiter's voice indicated that this wasn't the best time to call him up.
"More than a report, sir. The enemy is upon us it, but it is not the Flood but rather the humans, rather odd looking humans but humans nonetheless." the major said, the confusion in his voice made both of the leaders take a moment to thinks things over. If it was the humans and not the Flood, then why did the scans show up as Flood? And if it was the Flood then why did the major say it was humans but not infected humans? Something wasn't adding up and he was betting that the strange ships and the strange humans had something in common.
"Standby, Major. I shall soon join in the battle."
XXX
The battle was already fierce when the Arbiter made it to the front, plasma cannon turrets were already destroyed and the bodies of Grunts, Brutes, Jackals, and Elites with massive holes in their bodies, some weren't even bodies but rather just gore on the ground, pieces of flesh coating the craters and the sounds of plasma, needler and brute weapons fire upon what was suppose to be humans, but humans whose weapons could to this to Sangheili energy shields. Arbiter could see the major directing the battle, plasma repeater in hands.
"Report, Major what is happening here and why are the humans so powerful?" Arbiter could see the strain this short battle had already taken on the major's mind.
"Arbiter, it is a nightmare that we fight, just look." Arbiter could see humans in ragged clothing, not even the slightest sight of proper military equipment, but not something to call a nightmare then he saw the ones directing the humans. Hulking warriors clad in armour so thick that plasma, needle and even brute shots didn't even phase them, their rifles fired death as even brutes fell before them like grass before the blade, they also welded melee weapons of such savage design that it made the brute weapons look childish. Swords and axes with bladed chains carving threw bodies, giant fists that crushed skulls and punched holes through bodies. Not only that but some even had horns and claws that made them look like the were infected with the parasite but not at the same time.
"The demons? Here? And why are they so big? And so monstrous?" So many questions were running through the Arbiter's head that he nearly got hit by a stray round. His head flinched as the shots poured out of one demon's weapon and she, for from is voice crying out it was surly a women, looked to be almost receiving pleasure from firing the massive weapon. Arbiter stood up dodging the shot and making a charge to the back with the veterans.
"Sir, what are you doing?" The major asked, letting his plasma repeater cool down for another volley.
"Those close combat troops are tearing apart our lines, I will cut them down, join me if you wish." The Arbiter gripped his energy sword, ignited it and charged into the melee. He charged at one of the red berserkers, the rage-mad warrior swung wildly and miss wholly Arbiter ducked down and stabbed through its gut and slung it of his blade. Soon, Sangheili after Sangheili went into the melee with their weapons some with not even with melee weapons. The counter charge by the strange warriors was equally as fierce as blades of energy encased gas met reeving chainswords and glowing power weapons, shields flickered, and blood was shed as Sangheili and monstrous warriors died by the others side's weapons. The Arbiter carving his way through the lines as the skies screamed as warriors on jumppacks came charging in, terror in their beings and they made for the battle zone the roaring of their engines wailed and spread terror across the fields scything through the lesser troops. Monsters of flesh and metal roared with a baleful hatred to wreck any fortifications that had left.
Soon enough however, the lines of Sangheili quickly thinned from the unyielding wavs of giant warriors, the Arbiter was surrounded by three warriors covered in puss and infections and wielding rusted daggers. He had seen these daggers fell a Sangheili warrior with the smallest cut upon his unshielded forms. The first made a lunge with his dagger missing and receiving a energy blade to the back, he then shifted his stance and took his plasma rifle to the second warrior, its searing energy burned away his puss covered armour and sickly skin, the third was gifted a plasma grenade to its back as the Arbiter jumped over it avoiding its attacks and watched as the last warrior was melted by the superheated explosive. As he came to his feet, the Arbiter could see the battle going poorly for his warriors seeing as the Brutes were no where to be found.
"They wanted this, wanted out deaths, they have ever since they joined in the Covenant, first they took our place in the Honor Guard, now they wish to see us fall a final time here and now." The world slowed down as he could see Covenant being cut down, by either melee weapons or ranged firepower. Kig-Yar were cutdown by blue armoured warriors firing burning shots, whether they were plasma or something else he couldn't know, Unggoy were cut down by fighters in ragged robes and normal human weaponry. It looked hopeless, it felt hopeless.
"FOR THE PROPHETS!" a cry came out, Thel recognized the voice, Tartarus. The Arbiter turned to see a crashed wall of Brutes slam into the enemy lines. Brute shots, spikers and gravity hammers clashed in melee and smashed the battle lines a second time, their foes fell like lambs being set upon by wolves. The battle was turning in their favour and it looked as though victory would soon be theirs.
"It took you long enough, where were you at Tartarus?" The Arbiter now gathering his breath for what felt like the first time in ages to see the Brute crushing a very large warrior's head with his gravity hammer, the Fist of Rukt
"Getting them, Arbiter." The Brute said as the sound of hover vehicles rumbling over the streets soon began to drown out the sounds of the battle around them. Wraiths fired their plasma mortars overhead, crashing into the back ranks of the enemy. Locusts burned away the disgusting bodies of their targets with each firing of their boring lasers. All across the scorched landscape, the Arbiter could see the forces of the Covenant rallying to strike down these heretics their bodies flying about and their vehicles turned to molten scrap. After what felt like but a moment, they fled into retreat, their armoured hides in full sprint.
"They retreat, the cowards. The day is won." The young major from earlier said as he fired out a few last shots from his carbine. The few left from the original defence were battered, low on ammunition and exhausted from the fighting. Thel reflected on this, while they had won the battle, it felt hollow, empty like opening a gift only to find out that it was empty. It felt like a trap.
"Warriors, prepare to move out we have ground to cover and night shall soon befall us." The Arbiter's orders made clear that even with the battle won they still needed to report back to the Heirarchs, get rested and reinforced, and conduct studies onto the fallen foe to discover what they where exactly.
XXX
"So as first impressions go, how was that?" Atrino asked the group, all surrounding the pool of scrying that the used to spy on the world from the safety of the base.
"All in all, impressive, most impressive at lest the large ones were, the smaller ones had troubles with the mortals let alone our actual warriors." Rhymor said, the Khornate warrior was eager to reap skulls as soon as possible.
"But those small lithe fellows were pretty good shots." Khagor chimed in, his axe gleaming from being freshly sharpened.
"Indeed, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, they are still xenos but xenos we can use to our own ends." Sevax said as he shaped the warp around him to make images of the xenos hindering them to one of them helping them, all without them knowing the stakes.
"I don't know they seem too zealous to turn to our side just yet, perhaps a bit more… motivation." Atrino gave way to the large force of Traitor forces behind them, all chanting for blood and slaughter.
"Indeed, Atrino indeed we will."