Holiday Special: A Khornate Carol
Shanxi, 2157, 36 years before Sovereign's attack on the Citadel...
Samael stumbled out of his Caestus Assault Ram.
"That is the last time I look at flects before bed. Now, Where in the Warp am I?"
He looked around. He couldn't make out much, because the skyline was on fire.
"That tells me nothing."
He saw some armored figures approach him.
"Excuse me, but I am a bit lost. Could you tell me where I am?"
The figures started yelling in some alien tongue.
"I'm sorry, but I don't understand."
They continued to yell at him, gesturing at him with some sort of strange looking rifle.
He then saw their hands. Only three fingers. Xenos. Sam Sighed.
" I knew I should have spent more time learning xenolinguistics. Let's see… Ni manencare- hir poica sambe?"
No change, save for the gestures becoming more emphatic.
"Alright, not Eldar then… Shuushi kizu watashi! Watashi irashai noite yasuragi!"
Again, no indication that they understood him.
"Okay, so not Tau."
One opened fire on him, bullets bouncing uselessly off his armor.
"It would appear I need my universal translator if I want to put an end to hostilities." Samael went back into his ship, and returned with his Reaper Autocannon. He fired three shots. The first killed two, and heavily injured the third. the second round finished him off. The third round was just being mean.
Job done, Samael headed back inside, in order to check the ship's logs. Upon doing so, he realized something important.
"Khorne's Blood! It's Sanguinala!"
Despite not being a Loyalist, Samael nevertheless had a high regard for ALL of the Primarchs, and so made it a point to grieve each one's death, Loyalist and Traitor alike. Except for Vulkan. Samael had no doubt that Perpetual bastard was still alive.
And so, along with the rest of the Imperium, he observed Sanguinala. Oftentimes much to the confusion of the loyalist forces he was fighting at the time. After all, no one really expects a Chaos Lord to materialize in the middle of their war camp, shout ""Happy Sanguinala!" and start handing out (non-chaos tainted) presents. Samael remembered fondly the time he did that to the Blood Angels. They still weren't sure whether or not he was mocking them.
And he knew just how to celebrate. After all, Sanguinius, like all Astartes, didn't like xenos very much.
So Samael grabbed his wargear, and left the ship.
Private Hannah Shepard was holed up on the third floor of a building, doing her best to monitor enemy comm chatter and keep an eye on the street below. This was difficult, as she didn't have communications training, the enemy was using an alien language, and all she had was a handheld radio.
Even so, she knew what screaming followed by dead silence meant. She tuned the radio to her Commanding Officer's frequency.
"Sir, something is taking out the alien patrols."
"Say again, Shepard?"
"I heard alien screaming on the comm, followed by silence. Something is taking them out."
"Impossible. All our units in that area are gone."
"That's the only explanation… hold on. I've got movement. Initiating comm silence."
She pointed her rifle at the disturbance, and almost couldn't believe what she saw.
A hulking blue figure strode down the street, dragging a dead alien. It then stopped, coated the alien in some liquid, then strung it up from a street light. Then it ignited the corpse. It continued down the street, before stopping in front of a storefront.
Samael was confused. This was a human settlement, but it was not constructed like anything he had seen in the Imperium. And the sniper in the building near him was using a weapon more similar to these new xenos than anything the Mechanicus ever produced. But he was adaptable. As he walked down the street, he noticed another oddity. These buildings prominently displayed an overweight elderly man, wearing all red and an odd red hat. Maybe an influential noble? Nevertheless, it was Sanguinala, and it was traditional to wear red in Sanguinius' honor…
Hannah watched in confusion as the giant stole a Santa hat , taped it to his helmet, and proceeded to further loot the store. She lost sight of him as he went 'shopping'. Until she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. She turned, to see the giant standing right behind her. It then thrust a first aid kit at her, price tag still attached, and shouted "Happy Sanguinala!"
For the rest of her career, Hannah would be ashamed of the first words out of her mouth, uttered in a moment of complete surprise.
"Isn't it Christmas?"
The giant cocked his head.
"Never heard of it. Is that what you call Sanguinala on this planet? What is this planet, anyway?"
"Shanxi. And what's the deal with the alien lynching? Not that I have much sympathy for the invaders."
"Is it not customary to hang lights for the festivities?"
"Not like that. And why are you giving me a medkit?" She commented, bewildered at the giant.
"Gift giving is an integral part of the celebration of Sanguinala. There is a xenos invasion, And you are a member of the local militia, judging by your armament. In my experience, medical supplies are invaluable in such circumstances, and as such, an appropriate and usually appreciated gift."
Hannah scowled. "I'm a Marine." shecorrected, harshly. She then realized it was in her best interest to play nice with the person capable of casually taking out multiple alien patrols.
"I suppose I can see the reasoning. Thanks. I don't have anything to give you, though."
"Honestly, I am merely grateful you haven't tried to kill me. You would have been unsuccessful, but it's the principle of the thing. It gets irritating. Although, if you could point me in the direction of more of these xenos, I would appreciate it."
"Just keep the corpse decorations to a minimum, and we won't have problems." She ordered, pride a bit stung due to how casually he dismissed her as a threat.
"No promises. " He replied nonchalantly, though a bit impressed this mere mortal had the courage to threaten an Astartes.
"Why, is alien body desecration one of the traditions of this 'Sanguinala'?
"Not explicitly, but implied. Sanguinala is about sacrificing oneself for the ultimate victory of mankind, of which these xenos are an obstacle. Usually this is done through gift giving, diminishing your own resources in order to supplement another's. But putting your life at risk in order to safeguard another human life is a valid interpretation." The Chaos Lord explained. At least, that was the Loyalist interpretation. His motives weren't so idealistic.
"And where does mutilating their bodies come in?"
"That's just me being spiteful." Samael admitted. "So, tell me about this...Christmas."
"Well, I guess it's a lot like this Sanguinala of yours. Except instead of alien murder, we sometimes give a fireworks display."
"Fireworks, hm? I believe I may be able to accomodate you." Samael said, eyeing the alien ships in low orbit. He strode off, without another word.
Hannah watched him leave, still in a state of disbelief. After she regained her bearings, she radioed her commanding officer.
"Sir, you're not going to believe this…"
When the Asari arrived in order to peacefully end the 'First Contact War', they were surprised to learn that the humans held their own against the Turians, forcing them into a stalemate. This was primarily due to an unknown person managing to hijack the Turian flagship and crash ill in a it on top of the primary ground force. No one, not even the humans, could explain why someone made the resulting carnage spell out "Happy Sanguinala!", except for one Private. When she gave her report, the myth of the 'Giant of Shanxi' was born.
And years later, Hannah Shepard still had no idea why her husband Sam, a gentle soul who had absolutely nothing to do with the Giant she met, insisted on making a Christmas tree ornament out of a Turian action figure.
AN1:Yes, in Entropy Effect continuity, Shepard is Hannah's maiden name. Samael took her last name when they got married.
AN2:for those curious, the 'eldar' language is intentionally bad Quenya. The Tau language is intentionally bad Japanese.
Translations will be offered in an Author's Note next chapter (which is done, it just needs some more editing). This is to allow the people who want to look it up themselves the chance to do so.
AN3:Sorry about the wait. Got a new job, which altered my schedule quite a bit, as you can imagine. While I was gone, however, I did manage to beat Dawn of War 3. My review of it is posted below. If you're curious about the game/want to know what I think of it, feel free to read it. If you don't care, now's the time to stop reading.
Dawn of War 3 Rant: Dawn of War 3 is what I expected out of Dawn of War 2. Dawn of War 2 is what I expected from Dawn of War 3.
If that makes no sense, let me clarify- Dawn of War 3 would have been a great sequel to Dawn of War 1. Here are my reasons for this: 1:The campaign followed similar plot progression. 2:The focus was on base building and armies, with elite units for flavor, much like DoW 1.
Only one problem-DoW 3 is two steps back from DoW 1 in one regard- the factions. DoW 1 had NINE. DoW 3 had THREE. You might say that there is a fourth, but it only has one non-final-boss unique unit, the others are reskins of the other three faction's units.
Dawn of War 2 had a more in depth campaign, and had the ability to level up and customize your elite units, each one having a fully flushed out personality and backstory. Even their WEAPONS AND ARMOR have their own story. You cared about them, as you grew them into something greater. At the beginning of the game, you have difficulty fighting off four enemy squads. By the end, you're breezing through forty. There is clear progression, and YOU are the one making it. Each mission seems like you're barely gaining ground against the massive looming threat, but you ARE gaining ground.
In Comparison, DoW 3's campaign feels rushed. Like if you opened up a book of The Lord of The Rings, and all that was printed was "A short guy throws a ring into a volcano, killing the bad guy. The End." You don't have time to get attached to the characters, and they're just as strong as when you start. For instance, I beat the game, and I can't tell you a THING about Jain Zar.
The story jumps around too much, preventing you from feeling you're making progress, because there is no reference point. Beat one mission as Angelos, and the next you're fighting against him as Gorgutz, undoing all of your work in the previous mission. YOU don't progress. You TRY to, and then shenanigans pop out of nowhere, and completely divert you, and launch you in a different narrative direction. It's like the player is a pinball, the story a pinball machine, and plot twists are the flippers.
That being said, the plot wasn't BAD. It just was nowhere near as fleshed out as Dawn of War 2's.
In other words, DoW 2 was a huge leap forward from DoW 1, almost jarringly so. DoW 3 was a few steps back from DoW 2, landing somewhere between the two, polishing DoW 1's mechanics to a mirror finish, while trying out the focus on elite units, but not quite getting there. That focus on Elite units, DoW 2 mastered. In other words, if it weren't for the better graphics, if you gave this to a new player of Dawn of War, removed the numbers from the titles, and told him/her to marathon the games, then tell you which order they came in, there is no doubt in my mind that they would say Dawn of War 3 was Dawn of War 2, and vice versa.
In short: Dawn of War 3 was two steps forward from Dawn of War 1. It was two steps back from Dawn of War 2.