Author's Note
A slightly long first chapter. Took me some time to write it up as I discarded countless starting events and got to this one.
Warhammer 40,000 Universe
On Board the frigate the Dawn of War
"I----CHA-----RUSSSSSS! YOU TRAI---TORRRRR!"
The bestial cry from his 10-feet-tall pursuer just a corner away behind him was more than enough motivation for Icharus to give his legs wings.
"Hurry!"
Sergeant Yoshimo was screaming at him from inside of their getaway pod.
Just ten more meters! He thought.
Risking a backward glance, he saw his gaining predator.
No doubt the creature was an intimidating sight when it stood at its full height, resembling very much a deformed dragon without skin but in the cramp hallways of the ship they were on, it looked like a carrion worm working its ways through the entrails of some animal looking for scrap food. Its oily black wings was folded and crumpled at the cramp hallway and its hideous mouth (filled with a pair of fine jagged teeth, he unfortunately noticed, was eager to chew on his entrails) was cursing and spitting his name at every step he made.
However, it would not have its wish, Icharus made it pass the small hatchway and Yoshimo slammed the heavy door right as the creature's snout reached the doorway. As it howled in pain and anger, the two men and a few others who were already in the pod buckled themselves in their seat.
"You got it?" Yoshimo asked him breathlessly as he tried to ignore the screaming and pounding from the further enraged monstrosity outside the pod.
Icharus nodded and pulled out a purplish crystal pendant from under his flak armor. Yoshimo nodded back, acknowledging it.
"Punch it soldier!" Yoshimo ordered one of the Guard and the man launched the pod into space…
…and everything went nuts.
The Dawn of War, the battlecruiser they were on, exploded just as the escape pod cleared it but to the horror of the occupants in the pod, a huge black hole started to spread out from the stricken starship.
It was obvious what had happened. Someone had caused the warp core of the frigate to rupture and caused a warp-real space overlap. Anything dragged into the warp gets trapped in there for an indefinite time where it might be torn to pieces, remain in mint condition, horribly mutated and diseased or strengthened and granted inhuman strength. No definite theory or law can define or be applied in the realm of Immaterium; it is as chaotic as the creatures that inhabit it.
The occupants felt their pod decelerate and, just as everyone dreaded, got pulled right into the rapidly expanding blackness. Their fate rested on whoever watching over them…
Sakura Taisen Universe
Teito, Japan
Before he even regained his consciousness, Icharus felt numbness and pain at the same time. Not just ordinary pain. It was the type of pain u felt when u slept on your arm for hours upon hours and after you finally let your blood through, that kind of fiery sensation. Except that, this time Icharus felt it all over, his brain, his heart, his lungs, his limbs and even the hair on his body felt it.
"Oww…" The man groaned as he felt his blood starting to flow through his veins. It was as if he was in suspended animation for a long time. It was then he remembered what had happened before.
He sat up with a start and checked for missing limbs or body parts.
He was relieved.
He seemed to be still human and everything looked and felt fine but he wasn't taking any chances and pulled a small mirror out.
A man who looked to be in his late teens with smooth, handsome features, slightly messy black hair stared back at him.
Good. I don't look like a mutant.
The only thing bothered him about his looks was his eyes. They were dark red and he knew they would glow slightly at night. It had been a gift from his dark masters (former) to inspire fear and let him see better in the dark and he found it annoying that even though he had forsaken his loyalty and their taint (a difficult and trying feat which he rather not recall), their more permanent "gifts" did not go away. However, some of the gifts he did appreciate, like faster reflexes to name one.
He checked his equipment. His black flak armor was still in one piece and he had lost his helmet. The bolter pistol he had on his side was functional as far as he could tell and he had no grenades left. His radio was busted beyond repair and his utility belt was empty, meaning he had no extra ammo left. Then he glanced at the familiar object at his left side.
A power sword hung from his sword belt, his first and most prized (prized for its usefulness more than anything sentimental) reward, given to him by the creature that had tried to bite his head off. Ancient runes were carved onto the flat side and close to the tip of the black blade. They said, "Death Singer" in some language he didn't know. The blade had lost the malice and corruption it once held, therefore reducing it to be nothing more than a harder-to-break and more-durable-than-normal power sword. Nevertheless, he flicked on the activation rune and the sword hummed and crackled satisfactorily with energy.
Lastly, he felt for the pendant hanging on his neck and was grateful to whatever gods that kept it there.
After finishing checking up on himself and satisfied that the travel through the warp had miraculously spared him, he looked around for the others that he had escaped with…
…and found no one.
He was in a small, dirty alley made of bricks and mortar and besides the pile of untidy bags of rubbish around him; there was no sign of the others or the escape pod.
Recollection of his last conscious moments hit him…
...The pod shook violently as the warp took them into its unholy anus, preparing to send the unfortunate occupants into a realm of absolute shitty circumstances. It wasn't long when parts of the pod began to crumple and some of the occupants began twisting and writhing painfully as mutation occurred within their cell structures. It wasn't long before the blackness reached him and stabbed him like a million knives. Unconsciousness was a welcome when it finally came but not before he saw the pod completely disintegrated and most of its occupants transforming into beasts as hideous as the Tyranids…
Shaking his head, Icharus mumbled a short "Rest in peace" to the Imperial Guard that had been with him. He didn't know them well enough to feel any sadness or remorse but he did feel that it was a waste of lives. They did survive until the end after all. It appeared that fate was a fickle bitch as always, not that he had anything to complain about. He had survived a trip through the warp with no protection at all and lived after all. A miraculous feat, that he was sure, that had never been achieved before.
First things first: Keep a low profile, find out where I am, steal a shuttle and disappear from the face of the galaxy.
He nodded at his fine plan and hastened outside the stinking alley, only to be greeted by screams of terror.
At first he had thought that someone, unlikely as it may be, had recognized him and was about to draw his sword when he saw what the majority of screaming, pathetic citizens were pointing at.
About two hundred meters ahead, four towering humanoid machines, ugly enough to make even the Eldar Wraithlords1 look like super models, were marching towards a young woman and her child, both too scared to run away.
The machines were greenish; with long muscular arms hanging at their sides. The monsters body was completely covered in armor plating, exposing only their upper arms, fingers, thighs and feet. There were no heads; each had a neck terminating at some sort of a snout with a vent-like square for a face. Each was hulked down by a bulky device on their backs. He couldn't tell which side these machines were from as they looked too finely made to be Ork2 vehicles, too crude to be made of Eldar wraithbone, too clean and not sinister looking enough to be Chaos3 and definitely not one belonging to the Imperials. The Tau4 seemed to be a possibility but the design was too dissimilar to the Tau battlesuits.
All four of the monstrous hulks carried a katana and the one nearest to the mother and child raised its sword arm as if ready to strike.
Three cracks were heard and the leading machine's face exploded with a geyser of green, sticky liquid. They also served as a wake-up call for the mother and child as they finally realized that staying equals dying sooner.
Icharus smiled to himself as he observed his shots but slapped his face as he realized what he had done.
What happened to keeping a low profile you dimwit!
He lost his smile when the three machines started to roar in anger and bounded towards him in huge strides.
"Say 'Hi' to Mommy you fools!" Icharus yelled and fired three more bursts, each burst aimed towards their respective targets.
Two more went down with a fancy display of green fountains forming at their snouts but the last one managed to dodge the bullets intended for him.
Icharus fired one more three-round-burst and holstered his pistol as the machine dodged it again. He drew 'Death Singer' with glee and powered it, eager for close combat.
The machine reached Icharus and swung its katana in a wide arc, attempting to sever his head. Battle-honed instincts made him duct at the last moment and while the machine recovered from his swing, Icharus swung his sword at a similar arc, separating the machine's upper and lower torso. The thing went down with a dying shriek, spraying green juices everywhere.
He observed his handiwork with silent approval whilst allowing the adrenaline to run out of his veins and figured that he should scram before the officials come.
Just as that thought had come to him, he was startled to see a rather huge shadow overlapping his own. He spun around as fast as he could, barely blocking a downward slash aiming to split him in two.
The force of the swing brought him to his knees and he saw three more of the machines standing over him. Two of them raised their katanas for the finishing blow while the third kept the weight of its katana on his own sword, pinning him at the spot.
Fate! You bi…
Before he finished his mental complaint, something flew over his head and bowled the three machines over.
Icharus blinked and realized that someone had used one of the bodies of the machines he had killed as a bowling ball. Not sure whether whoever who did what they did were friend or foe, he swung around to meet them.
Another machine stood a few meters off behind him but it was different than the ones he was fighting.
It was a robot, almost comical with its stout and rounded features and painted in brown. He could see steam pipes extending from its sides, connected to a pack on the back which expelled large quantities of steam. There was dual optics on grooves that lined the bulbous head. One of it slid to focus on the baffled soldier.
"Get to safety citizen! Let the Teigoku Kakegidan take care of this!" A rough female voice commanded through a loudspeaker before the manned machine went to finish off the downed machines, pummeling effectively into pieces with its fists and claws.
What she said was complete nonsense to him.
The Imperial Floral Assault Group? Floral Assault Group? Did some general bang his head or something? Or has the Emperor5 finally gone mad?
Outwardly he just shrugged and ran the opposite direction, glad that he could get away and that he might still be able to keep some kind of a low profile.
But Fate decided to continue acting like a sour puss.
A humongous man with sickly blue and greenish skin tones and oversized muscles looked down at him as if he were as insignificant as an ant.
"Look out! Get away!" Another female voice shouted frantically from Icharus' right and he looked briefly at the pink robot which had mysteriously appeared at that direction.
The giant grinned when Icharus looked back and swatted him away with the back of his hand effortlessly as if Icharus were just a grain of sand.
Huh?
Those were his last thoughts as he felt his body collided painfully with the stone walls on the street opposite and darkness took him.
Definition of terms:
Note I will not give a nice clear definition cuz I am lazy to look up the stuff and don't really want to typethem out but I'll give a very basic idea of what it is.
1Eldar Wraithlord: Eldar are basically space Elves. Wraithlords are their walker machines piloted by a dead warrior.
2Orks: Space Orcs
3Chaos: Ultimate bad guys in the Warhammer 40k universe. Basically a side with daemons, monsters, heretics and so forth.
4Tau: Alien that fights for the Greater Good. Humanoid but with hooves and longer skulls.
5Emperor: Referring to the Emperor of Man in the Warhammer 40k universe.
Some more notes
You guys probably might wonder why Icharus understands Jap. I'll explain it in later chapters if I don't forget haha. Hope you enjoyed this so far.