Reviews:
Guest: I know but, he ain't a renegade. It would not be good for the rest of the story.
Forge Master 00: Thanks for that. The warp thing was actually a last second thing.
AL: Thanks for pointing that out. It's my first time writing a 40k fic so I'm not that good at writing. I will try to improve in that area.
Chapter Master Sinclair: If I may ask, from which chapter are you?
KapitanCyka: I mean it's their story the can do whatever they want ,but at the same time i agree with you. Emperor bless.
Artyom-Dreizehn: You'll see what i did about that in this chapter.
A forest surrounded them. Miles upon miles of trees. They were not expecting this much green. Sure, you could see the green trees from space, but you never know what it actually is. It might be an Ork Waghhh! or a poisonous plant ready to release it's toxins for any unlucky beings to come near it.
"Certainly not what I was expecting." Came the voice of the Arch-Militant. The man was now wearing a mask to conceal his face along with his carapace armor. He, along with his squad came to the planet to scout it and find a position for an outpost.
"I haven't seen this much green since Nostra V, even that place lacks the beauty of this planet. I wonder if the savages living here are nature lovers." Rueben's second-in-command voiced. He was one of the Tempestus Scions under the command of the Rogue Trader.
"Indeed, that planet was quite beautiful, well at least until the Arch-Enemy destroyed it."
Then the vox-caster came to life"Rueben report. Have you landed?" The voice of Sariel came from it.
"We have landed My Lord."
"Good, the maps indicate that there is a small path leading you to a road west of your position. If you wish, you can use it. Other than that nothing else to inform you of. Only contact me if you have anything of significance." The machine quieted down.
The voice of the Rogue Trader reminded them of their mission. They shall enact it with top efficiency
"Alright. Form up! Anton you're the rearguard. Thoren, Johann with me."
They advanced quietly through the forest. Unknown to them, something was watching their every steep. The creature slowly crept behind them while hiding in the bushes.
Then the creature made a mistake. It stepped on a branch. It was loud enough to be heard by the Scions.
They quickly turned behind them and aimed their weapons at the direction of the sound.
"Whoever is hiding there come out with your hands raised or we will open fire!"
"Think it's one of the savages?" Anton whispered to Thoren.
"Maybe. Or it could be just some wildlife."
Suddenly growling was heard and from the bushed jumped a black creature. It had black fur and bone plates on it. It's eyes were glowing menacingly red. Overall it looked like a Spawn of Chaos.
"Open fire!" The order was shouted and the lasguns of the Scions shot the lasers at the Chaos Spawn.
After the first shoot hit, it's head melted from the shot, the continued fire was just overkill.
"Cease fire!" The creature was literally melting at this point, nothing but black goo remained.
"Didn't the psyker say that there is no warp taint here?" The question came from Johann.
Rueben activated the vox-caster "My Lord, we have encountered something disturbing."
"So soon into the mission? Very well what have you got to report. This better be worth my frakking time."
"It seems we have encountered a Chaos Spawn My Lord. It was quickly dispatched after it emerged from the forest."
"What!? Chaos!? There is supposed to be no Chaos there."
"Apparently there is."
A frustrated sigh came from the vox. "What does it look like?"
"It had black fur, bone plates on it's body and glowing red eyes. The bone plated looked like armor but our lasguns melted them. It's overall appearance looks like something took the Wulfen, gave them more fur and painted them black."
Rueben turned back to the creature. Only to see it evaporating.
"It is also evaporating."
"That doesn't sound like a Chaos Spawn I have ever seen. Anyways, Chaos or not you will continue this mission. Be vigilant in the name of The Emperor!" The vox-caster once again powered down.
"In the name of the Emperor." The squad muttered some prayers to The Emperor and then continued onwards to find the road.
"Rueben you've mentioned that the Chaos Spawn look like the Wulfen. Do they truly?"
"Kind of. I saw some of them in action on the world of Masar Prime. That was way back when I was just a guardsman of the 8th Cadian. We were getting overwhelmed by Chaos in a schola inside the hive-city when they arrived. Space Marines of the Vlka Fenryka." Rueben took a breath before continuing
"We were awaiting the reinforcements they sent us, when Chaos started attacking the schola again. This time they had a Leman Russ Vanquisher with them. We all took cover and waited for it's shells to hit the building and then suddenly we heard a ferocious battle-cry. From behind the Chaos forces the Wulfen came, tearing through everything. Chaos stood no chance against them. In the end the control of the world became ours and the Arch-Enemy was obliterated."
"That's one helluva story Rueben. Didn't know you are a Cadian."
The Arch-Militant shrugged.
Soon they came upon a dirt road, it had tracks on them so that means that the Feudals that are living here have vehicles.
"Where should we go?" Anton questioned.
Johann analyzed the tracks and saw they were leading south of their current position.
"We should move south then. Whoever is driving the vehicle must be going towards a city or a village."
The others nodded and went south.
Just as they made a few steps Anton spoke up "Wait. I hear something."
"What is it? More of those beasts?" If it was them they would purge them quickly.
"No. It sounds like a..." Anton turned back and saw something sprinting towards him.
"DODGE!" Every Scion jumped off the road and after they landed they turned to the thing that was sprinting by them.
"It's was a horse." Rueben sighed. This was extremely embarrassing.
"It had a saddle, so somebody owned it and the horse itself was decorated quite lavishly. Maybe from a local king or something."
"The horse was scared too. Think it was those creatures?"
"Maybe. Whatever it was we must find out. We find the local king, he will lead us to his town and then we can ask him about some land for saving him."
"That's quite the plan Rueben. Are you sure it'll work?"
"No, I'm not, but the first stage of it will never be completed if we stay here. Let us move with haste!"
The squad started running north from where the horse came from. As they were coming closer the sounds of battle were heard.
They were getting louder and louder. It sounded like blades, small explosions and projectile weapons. It also started to smell of ash and cinders.
"After we get there engage on my order."
Seeing flashed in the distance the squad slowed down and hid behind the bushes there. All of them took a peak what was going on. They were surprised by what they saw.
Three children, around 18 by the looks, attacking an slightly older female.
The first child was a boy with silver hair. Under his clothes Rueben saw that his legs are prosthetic and had a weapons attached to them.
The second one had green hair and was a girl. She was wearing minimal clothing and had two pistol-like weapons.
The third one had black hair and was also a girl. Her two weapons looked like a White scars Sabre.
Behind them were also bodies that were wearing masks similar to those the creature had on it. They were still breathing, indicating that the were unconscious.
The woman the children were fighting had brown hair and was floating.
"Wait, What!? Rueben this further cements that this planet is tainted by the warp!" Thoren whispered.
It indeed did.
"Who are we to attack? We can't just attack at random."
Rueben had two choices, either shoot the floating woman or the children. He contemplated for a while and then chose the third option. Waiting.
"We wait until the battle is over. Look the children are not aiming to kill the psyker, but to disable her."
Indeed it seemed that way as the weapons of the children were aiming at the arms and legs. It was the same with the woman, she too was not aiming to kill with her powers.
The battle soon came to an end when they woman faltered at attacking giving the silver haired boy to kick her down.
"Do we intervene now? It looks like a good time to do it."
"No we wait further."
Rueben was curious as to why not just kill her. It could quickly be over just like that.
The black haired girl walked to the downed woman, quite slowly. The symbol on her glove disturbed them quite a bit. It looked like a Chaos symbol.
Just as the girl came close to the woman, she stopped and extended her arm towards the woman and out of her palm came a creature similar to what they encountered earlier. A Chaos Spawn!
"Anton take the shot! Kill the filthy thing!"
Anton quickly shouldered his Las-rifle and shot the daemon just as it jumped towards the woman.
This was it. She would finally get the power of the Fall Maiden. The current Maiden was held down by Mercury and Emerald trying to resist, but to no avail.
She slowly stalked closer to her and aimed her palm forward. Out came the scarab that Salem gave her, to siphon the Maidens powers.
The current Maiden's eyes widened "Please don't." The woman begged. Cinder just smiled at this pathetic worm, she was going to hold all this power now.
"Anton take the shot! Kill the filthy thing!" She heard before her wrist and the scarab were vaporized.
She screamed as she fell back clutching her stump. More lasers started shooting at them, but whoever was there, Emerald distracted them with her semblance.
Mercury quickly threw the Maiden on the ground knocking her out and then moved to Cinder, careful not to get shot by a stray laser or a rocket. Emeralds semblance was doing wonders right now.
He grabbed Cinder and with her and Emerald, they fled to the woods.
"Stop firing!" Rueben was sure they killed them, if the bodies lying on they ground were any indication.
Suddenly the bodies disappeared and they saw the three children fleeing further into the forest.
"Frak! Anton, Johann check those bodies by the trees. Thoren you come with me, we're going to check on the psyker."
"By the Emperor's will!"
Thoren and Rueben came close to the unconscious woman. She was cut and bruised everywhere, but was healing slowly.
"Is this the work of the warp?"
"Maybe. Thoren call for extraction. Make them hurry." Thoren nodded and got to work, while Rueben tied the woman with some restraints. Better safe than sorry.
"Sir, you should come look at this!" Johann's voice came from the opposite side of the clearing.
Rueben stood up and went to the two Scions. "What is it?"
"Look, It's a mutant. This one has ears like a felinid and this one has antlers, others have animal parts too. Just like on that vox-cast."
Rueben was once again reminded of these mutants. Trying to be equal to a Human. They will never get the privilege.
"How many are there?"
"There are 23 in total."
"Tied them up and set them in a line. It's time they served their sentence."
The other two nodded and got to work.
"Rueben extraction is coming in about 5 minutes."
"Good! That should be enough time to wake these mongrels and shoot them."
Soon the unconscious mutants were lined up. Just like the familiar firing line that they always saw. Rueben grabbed his bolter and shot the ground beneath them. All of them were startled awake.
As soon as they saw the Scions without their helmets, they snarled like a savage looking for revenge. "Humans!" One of them shouted.
"Hmmm? Oh, right the mongrels who wish to be equal to us." Rueben said to them in a condescending tone.
"You foolish human! We are the White Fang! Out brothers will free us once they find out where we are!" The mutant that said that got a Las-rifle shot at his leg. His left leg was now nonexistent.
"Free you? Are truly that foolish, that you think we tied you up, so you could not escape? No, no, no, we tied you up so you'll stay still while we shoot you. Got that?" His tone could really not be more condescending than it is now.
"Ha! That shoot earlier was just a bluff, you humans are too weak to do something like this!"
Rueben had enough of these animals. Thinking they're above him.
"Shoot them for Emperor's sake. Their voices are grating my ears." The mutant's eyes widened as the rest of his squad started to shoot them, vaporizing their upper bodies, as soon as the laser hit.
The sound of the transport ship was heard, when the mutants were all dead. Thoren picked up the psyker and started to move, with the rest of them, towards the landing ship.
Just as they boarded it something shot Johann in the leg, he fell down clutching it silently. Whatever hit him went through the exposed joints of the armor.
Rueben turned around as Anton dragged the wounded Scion further inside. Outside, on the other side of the clearing was a man with gray-black hair that was spiked. He held an over-sized gun.
It was bigger than a heavy bolter, but clearly not even close to it's power.
The man now started running towards them.
"Anton shoot him, Thoren give the pilot a signal that were ready for liftoff."
Thoren moved to tell the pilot while Anton positioned himself for the shoot. The ramp of the ship started to close and the man was now around 30 meters from it. That is when Anton took the shot.
It hit his left shoulder, but instead of vaporizing his upper body, it burned the skin and vaporized his clothes. The man stumbled from the pain and fell forwards unto the ground, just as the ramp closed and the ship took off.
"Well that was that."
He failed. He failed to protect Amber. Now she was taken by these men to who knows where.
She should have listened to him when he told her to wait for him in the town.
Just as he was about to rise up, he turned to his right and saw something that horrified him even further. His face became green, but held his breakfast in the stomach.
There on the edge of the clearing were bodies of the White Fang. The upper half of the torso was missing. It looked like they were vaporized. Qrow concluded that the men who took Amber also did this.
As he finally rose up, he hissed from the pain of the burn. He would need to get it treated soon.
Sighing, he reached into his pocket and called his boss. Headmaster Ozpin.
After ringing for some seconds, the headmaster answered the scroll.
"Qrow, why are you calling? Is Amber okay?"
"Yeahhhh... About that." Qrow talked slowly to him, giving him the idea that something went wrong.
"What is it Qrow? Is something wrong? Was she killed?" You could hear the concern in Ozpin's voice now.
"She wasn't killed, but was kidnapped by some creepy mask wearing psychopaths. They took of in some weird bullhead."
"What!? How you could let this happen? She was supposed to be safe with you!"
"I told her to wait for me, but she took of when I was paying the innkeeper!"
A sigh came from Ozpin "What is done is done. Come back to Beacon. We should plan out next move here."
"What about the bodies?" Qrow blurted out the last second.
"What bodies? Has someone been killed?"
"Yea. The White Fang. They were killed by the same guys that took Amber. Their whole upper bodies are missing. There's around 20 of them."
"They are not our concern now. As much as I regret this decision, you'll have to leave them there."
"Fine. I'll come back to beacon now." Qrow hung up and turned into his bird form. He turned to look at the bodies one last time before taking off to Beacon Academy.
Ozpin was really regretting allowing Amber to go off on her own. He should have just told her to stay at the Academy not wander around Remnant. He shook his head and sighed. This was just not his day.
The elevator to his office chimed and out came Glynda Goodwitch carrying papers.
"Ozpin I have looked through the students and..." Glynda saw the headmaster wasn't even listening to her. He was looking of into the distance, as if he was somewhere else.
"Ozpin!" Shouting seemed to do the trick of bringing him back.
"Hmm? Oh, Glynda what brings you here?" He smiled to her as if nothing was wrong. But Glynda saw through that smile, she saw it countless times when something was wrong.
"Ozpin what's wrong? Did you receive news from Qrow yet?" She was worried now. Has something happened to Amber?
Ozpin shook his head again "I have received new from Qrow, yes."
"Well what is it?"
"Amber was... captured."
Glynda choked on her breath. How could this happen? Wasn't Qrow protecting her?
"Where was Qrow in all this? Wasn't he with Amber?"
"She took of on her own when Qrow was apparently paying the innkeeper. When he arrived he saw 'Creepy mask wearing psychopaths' is what he told me and the bodies of the White Fang with their upper bodies missing."
Glynda's eyes widened "Who would do such a thing?" She asked with a pale face.
"I do not know, but what I do know that it wasn't Salem's work."
"How could you know this?"
"Her pawns would have the powers extracted the second they caught her, not kidnap her."
He hoped his predictions were not true. "I seems we have a new player on the board."
The ride to Spartacus was silent. Well as silents as a Valkyrie could be.
"Rueben are you sure this is a wise idea? This psyker could potentially wipe out the entire fleet if we're not careful." Thoren's concerns were well founded.
"Do not worry Thoren. I'm sure Belial could negate the damage she could do with her magicks."
Thoren accepted Rueben's words, as he knew what sort of power Belial held in his hands.
The Valkyrie soon docked at the hangar bay. Sariel and Belial were already waiting for them outside.
"Anton, Thoren take Johann to the med-bay." The two Scions complied while Thoren took the psyker and went to Sariel.
"My Lord we were unsuccessful in finding a spot for an outpost, but we got his instead." Rueben gestured to the tied woman.
"And who is she? A random woman you took from the planet?" Sariel laughed.
"She's a psyker." The Arch-Militant's words stopped the Rogue Trader's laughing.
"What?"
"We found her battling Chaos Cultists. She was about to be killed by a daemon, but thankfully we saved her."
Sariel shook his head. "Belial is she really a psyker?"
The man's eyes glowed white for a second before answering "No, I could not detect any trace of the warp from her. She is not a psyker."
Sariel turned back to the Arch-Militant "Well explain yourself Rueben."
"When we arrived to the battlefield she was floating My Lord. She was using a staff that shoot fire and summoned lightning from her hands."
"That is most peculiar." Sariel rubbed his shin in thought "Take her to the interrogation room. Notify me when she wakes up."
With his piece said Sariel left to the bridge.
While walking he wondered how the Freeblade was faring with the news. He was notified about their circumstances just after the mission began.
Arriving at the bridge he saw Octavian looking at a hologram.
"Octavian have the scans of the moon been finished?"
"Yes. I believe that with this discovery our outpost on the planet will be unnecessary."
"How so? Discovered an ancient shipyard?" Sariel asked jokingly. The tech-priest kept silent and gestured to the hologram.
"You have to be joking." There he saw a shipyard, an ancient one from the Dark age of Technology if he had to guess by the looks, built into the moon.
"That is not all, the pieces surrounding the moon contain useful materials for us. With them we can repair our ships."
"It seems The Emperor has blessed us with this find. Octavian dock as at the shipyard. Command the servitors to get it back to full running capacity."
Octavian got to work, but Sariel was looking at the moon with an inquisitive eye.
"What happened to it?"
Well shit. I said I'd post this yesterday but a nasty headache got me. Anyway hope you enjoyed this.
Only in death does duty end.