Chapter One
Time passed. The Angel Wars and the sacrifices made, even the facts behind the Second and Third Impacts faded into the ash-heap of history. Beneath the industries and cities and pollution growing over the millennia, the seas shrunk and dried up, the forests and ecosystems survived only in vast, carefully maintained zoos and the planet was rendered livable only by the constant action of vast air, food and water processing plants.
18,000 years passed. Random mutation and genetic manipulation lead to the development of the psychic navigator gene and the construction of the first Warp drive allowed the Human race to expand beyond the dead carcass of Earth. A mighty empire formed stretching across the galaxy, leading to the great golden age later to be known as the Dark Age of Technology.
Then massive Warp storms formed, sealing Earth away from the Universe. The empire fell, and a ten thousand year long darkness fell on humanity. Earth fell to techno-barbarianism, the massive country-sized air, food and water processing stations slowly decaying towards a ruin that would doom Earth's inhabitants.
Then the Emperor came.
The greatest Psyker that ever lived, he rapidly reunited the warring tribes together, rediscovering in a decade sciences that had taken years to master. As the Millennia-long warp storms faded, the Tech-priests of Mars joined the Emperor, allowing the creation of the 20 Primarchs, beings genetically made from the Emperor, not quite clones, but closer then sons, and the 20 Space Marine Legions formed in the same way from the Primarchs. With these forces, a Crusade to unite humanity as a mighty Imperium with the newly renamed planet Earth, now Terra, at it's center began.
However, Horus, first and greatest of the Primarchs, Warmaster and second only to the Emperor himself, fell into darkness. His soul was lost to Chaos, and he turned on the Emperor, with fully half of the Imperium declaring for him in a Civil War that would be known as the Horus Heresy, a war stretching even to the hallowed earth of the planet Terra…
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Captain Nash Grosslyn winced as a bang overhead indicated that yet another drop-pod had landed nearby. The hab-blocks of sector C7-983 (a region once known as Tokyo-3 nearly 30,000 years ago) had been severely brutalized. The near constant bombardment had reduced hundreds of buildings to rubble, and the traitor Space Marine Legion of the so-called 'Emperor's Children' had arrived before Grosslyn's Imperial Guard Company. The sector had been home to more then 20 million people before the Hearsay, but the pleasure-seeking Emperor's Children had killed most of them in blood lust and dark sacrificial rituals. One of the last communications from Colonel Brom, before a pair of Space Marines slaughtered the command team and left Grosslyn in charge, was that less then a million civilians had been found.
Of course, Grosslyn mused, that had been hours ago. Barely 20 men were left in the company, and Grosslyn couldn't imagine how any civilians could have survived the atrocities caused by the Chaos forces in the sector. We'd be dead too, if that last shell hadn't punched through this armor. The crater left by the shell had apparently broken into a transport tunnel buried in armor plating that the sector was apparently built on top of. Without any support, Grosslyn had been forced to take his men into the tunnel in the hopes of forming a bottleneck where the size of the opposing force wouldn't be a factor.
Now they pushed on down through the tunnel. Obviously designed to move large loads, it was too big to form an effective kill-zone. If the Arch-enemy was following them, and Grosslyn had every reason to believe they were, then they wouldn't last five minutes in the tunnel. I just hope there's something better, further do… Grosslyn thought, and stopped, as stunned as his men.
The tunnel had come out at the edge of a massive underground hemi-sphere. Three sets of tracks wound their way down to the base, which was buried under a meter of dried dust. In the center, a massive pyramid, battered with several holes in its armor plating, still resisted the ages.
Grosslyn realized that his mouth was hanging open.
"Right, that's our target," he said quickly hiding his surprise. "The entrances to that place can't be too big, we'll hole up in there and wait for support."
"Do you even think there will be support?" Trooper Suzahara, the company's (if it could still be called that) only remaining sniper and the only survivor not holding a Lasgun. "I mean, it's nasty up there. Will they even be able to spare any reinforcements?"
"The Emperor doesn't forget, there will be reinforcements," Grosslyn replied sharply. "In the meantime, let's get down there. Double-time it people!" Followed by the rest of his me, Grosslyn began to run down the track towards the cavern's base.
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Grosslyn looked around the entrance chamber. Rust covered a lot of the walls, battle damage from an ancient battle had punched through walls and the thick entrance door was half off it's hinges. A semi illegible symbol worn almost to the point of invisibility could be seen on one of the walls. It looked like half of a leaf, with some kind of runes written next to it. Shaking his head worriedly, he glanced round at the remains of his men. They'd lost a couple when the Chaos forces had come out of the tunnel while his men were still exposed, a quarter of the way up the path. Luckily, Suzahara's Long-Las had forced them back and given them enough breathing space to make it to the pyramid.
"Alright, here's what we're going to do. You five," Grosslyn began, gesturing to a group of troopers that included Suzahara and com officer Modile, still with his Vox gear on his back, "are to stay here with me. We'll form a fire break at the door there, so this thing," he tapped the half broken door, causing slivers of rust to fall off, "doesn't block our field of fire so much. The rest of you, split into four three-man teams and explore this place, I want to know the layout in case we need to fall back." With a series of acknowledgements, his men went off to do his bidding. Grosslyn glanced back towards the door. So now we just have to survive the storm… he mused.
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"Fall back! Fall back!" Grosslyn shouted, blasting his Lasgun blindly down the corridor behind him. The Chaos attack had been much worse then he had anticipated. The enemy had attacked with three full squads of Chaos Space Marines, a force whose full power could only be matched by a company of over 300 Guardsman, and they had one of their foul Sorcerers with them. The Marines had killed four of his men, bolts from their Bolters ripping them apart, but the Sorcerer had cost them another eight, literally immolating them from the inside.
Grosslyn and his six remaining men had been driven far back into the ruins. So far, they had just managed to keep out of any dead ends, but they didn't know the place, so Grosslyn knew they would eventually get trapped.
"Through here Sir!" Modile shouted from the door he had managed to pry open. Grosslyn waited until the others were through, before leaping in himself…
…and found himself face to face with a four-eyed Titan. He almost stumbled back out into the corridor in surprise, but the hail of bolts outside pulled his mind back in gear in time to stop himself. Glancing around, he cursed as he realized that there was no other exit.
"Over there, behind those supports," he said, gesturing to a broken pile of scaffolding lying on the other end of the platform. As they reached the cover of the wreckage, the first Chaos Marine stepped into the room.
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Scynol glanced around the vast space. There were several gantries and locking ports, all decaying into rust, and the remaining Guardsmen were dug in at the far end. Of most interest to the Sorcerer, however, were the two Titans.
Well, Scynol mused to himself, they probably aren't Titans come to think of it.
An Imperial Titan was a 20-story war machine of near unlimited power. They were massive fortresses with huge in-built weapons. These however, rather then ponderous-looking fortresses, were thin, stream-lined creations. Standing just as tall as a Titan, they seemed more like giant humans rather then walking fortresses. Oddly, they didn't look as damaged and worn as the rest of this place, but instead seemed brand new, without any dust or rust coating them.
Humph, Scynol sneered silently. Whatever they once were, they're just a pair of trash heaps now. "Just a pair of worthless, dead dolls," he muttered aloud.
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Chaos Sorcerers are among the most powerful human warriors in the galaxy. As well as their Space Marine augmentation, armor and genetic engineering, their immense magical powers have allowed many to single-handedly destroy entire armies, by reducing the battlefield to molten lava, reaching into their opponents minds and pulling out their darkest fears or (in the cases of the most powerful) simply psychically taking over their foes' minds like a puppeteer.
They are also extremely difficult to kill. They have withstood the las shots of entire armies and the barrage of self-propelled guns through the power of their magical warp shields.
But Scynol didn't have the time to set up any such potent defense before Unit 02 punched him so hard it buried it's hand up to the wrist in the wall behind him.
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Grosslyn couldn't stop himself from gapping in astonishment as the firefight lessened. The red four-eyed Titan had suddenly, without any warning, crushed the largest threat in the room. He didn't let his shock slow his reaction as the Traitors stopped firing in surprise.
"Charge! For the Emperor! Kill them all!"
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The Chaos forces had been shocked and demoralized by the death of their master, while the Guard had been amazed by what seemed like a miracle direct from their Emperor. The result was never in doubt.
To be continued…
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Dark Age of Technology; The period of time stretching from 20,000AD (the discovery of faster-then-light travel) to 25,000AD (massive civil war and the start of the Age of Strife). In this period of time humans rapidly expanded a huge area. Humanity advanced in leaps and bounds, supported by technologies like the Standard Template Construct (a super A.I. capable of coming up with almost perfect mechanical designs. All Imperial technology is based on recovered fragments of this). Came to an end for unknown reasons.
Psyker; A person with psychic abilities such as telepathy. Such beings are the only way to communicate interstellar distances.
Primarchs; Genetically created from the DNA of the Emperor, each Primarch personified part of his personality and nature. They lie somewhere between straight clones of the Emperor and his sons. Each Primarch leads one of the Adeptus Astartes Legions
Adeptus; The name for a large, powerful organization.
Adeptus Astartes; Also known as the Space Marines, they are super human warriors of the Imperium. Unlike the Primarchs, Astartes are not genetically engineered from birth, but instead are chosen at the age of ten and have 20 genetically engineered organs implanted which gradually alter the genetic and physical structure of the person. A side effect of the process is permanent sterility. Each of the 20 Legions has a different geneseed (the implants) based on the DNA of one of the Primarchs, and each Marine has a relationship to their Primarch that resembles the relationship between Primarch and Emperor. Nine of the legions and their Primarchs turned traitor during the Hearsay and fought for Chaos.
Imperial Guard; The main fighting force of the Imperium, made up of normal men and powerful tanks. Often described as the 'Hammer of the Emperor.
Hab-block; Basically an apartment building.
Emperor's Children; One of the Astartes Legions. Originally they aimed for excellence in everything they did, but after they turned to Chaos they became pleasure seekers. By the end of the Hearsay, they were so burned out that only the most vibrant pleasures such as the din of battle can give them pleasure.
Chaos; Basically Lovecraft type evil. Chaos daemons are made of pure energy, and hence take impossible shapes of tentacles eyes and teeth. Incredibly powerful, but unstable in the material world. They tend to follow one of four powers; Khorne (blood and war), Slannesh (deprived pleasure), Nurgle (rot and decay) and Tzenech (magic and sourcery).
Lasgun; The standard weapon of the Imperial Guard. Basically a laser. Fairly weak compared to other weapons.
Bolter; The standard weapon of the Astartes. Fires an explosive, rocket propelled, thumb sized Bolt, it contains several aiming systems connecting it to its firer.
Titan; A bipedial war machine. Standing 20 stories tall, it contains four main weapons (both arms and mounted on it's shoulders) and five Void Shield generators. It is controlled by the minds of a human crew bonded directly to the Titan's Machine Spirit. In this story, it is based on the Jet Alone design from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Tech-priests; The members of the Adaptus Mechanicus. Technology and science in the Imperium is regarded as a religion rather then a science. The Tech-priests worship technology, and consider the fusing of man and machine to be the ultimate in evolution.