The light of a pale broken moon shone down into a hospital window, inside there lied a small white bed with sweethearts that shifted and crawled over each other as both were trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in, admittingly Hansel's hospital bed was not the largest of beds. This exact reason was why he enjoyed the floor better, it offered much more space and it was hard enough for his back to lie against, this damnable mechanical monstrosity of fabric and cushion was starting to make him restless.
Ruby also seemed to find it difficult to sleep as well, that however was mostly due to Hansel not being able to sleep comfortably on the bed. He had tried reasoning with the hospital staff to allow him to lie on the floor, but they would not let him due to his wounds from being shot three times. The hospital was also going to keep him around because they wanted to run more blood tests and x-rays, the special organs of his had earned a great amount of interest from the curious hospital staff.
Ruby had to do some major convincing and pleading for Headmaster Ozpin to allow her to stay with Hansel for just one more night, her absences were piling up at school as was her homework for her classes, but to her it was well worth it. They rushed into their relationship very quickly she would admit, they barely knew each other but then again there wasn't much to Hans, he was a child soldier, a religious extremist, and she was a Huntress in training.
Yet still, she could not deny that there was an attraction, what she learned from their fight was that just expecting him to change wasn't going to happen, Ruby resigned to accepting Hans is somewhat- okay very racist, but she swore to try and get him to be more tolerant. She'd at least make sure he would at least try and see it her way or in the very least keep his opinions to himself.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as his right hand went down to the small of her back, she looked up and met his grey eyes staring at her silently. Hansel's blank face cracked into a ghost of a smile as he leaned in closely pressing his nose against her own, "I have you all to myself."
A small naughty smile crossed Ruby's lips as she walked two fingers up his chest, "Hans, what have I said about funny business?"
"I suggested nothing of the sort," He said tracing her cheek with his finger, "besides, I'm actually very sore thanks to my ignorance of pulling a catheter out without assistance, thankfully the doctor said my Aura was helping with the healing and with some minor surgery-"
"Too much info Hans." Ruby said deadpanning, nodding her head.
Hansel grumbled pressing his nose into her strawberry scented hair, his eyes flickered to the floor momentarily as he pulled her head back to see her silver eyes, "You know I love you right?"
Ruby blinked at the sudden change in his mood, "Of course I do Hansel… are you still worried about what I said at the docks?"
The Kriegsman surprisingly evaded her eyes with a strange look in his own, Ruby's fingers brushed up against his wrist's pulse, his heart seemed to be racing, his usual calm, calculated breathes were far heavier and less consistent.
Gently Ruby pulled Hansel's sight back to her, "I'm not going anywhere Hansel."
Suddenly he caught her off guard with a kiss against her lips, he kissed as hard as he could to show how much she truly meant to him, the gift of speech only went so far. The new emotions the Kriegsman felt were not something he himself could even describe, it stirred something deep within his being and the close call he had at the docks only made the change stronger in his way of thinking and feeling.
Ruby groaned sliding her hands around his head, tugging at his short hair, dragging her nails through his scalp until he separated from her to breathe. The young love birds gasped and panted as the moon's light graced them in its light, their eyes shimmering as unsaid words of affection danced in their heads.
Not a word was spoken as Hansel brought their faces back together, twisting themselves in the small bed, pulling and tugging at hair and clothing. For once they were alone with no teammates in the room trying to sleep, no one to pester them or interrupt their make out session on this beautiful starry night.
The temptation to tear off clothing and fulfil carnal desires was ever present, but of course there were restrictions to be observed. Hansel's mind was at a satisfying blank space despite this, his stress and zealous observances were all tucked in the back of his mind, he liked it, he felt different in a better way, a way only Ruby could make him feel.
Her wishes to get married and living in a cozy home on her home island appeared in Hansel's mind. One day he wanted to bring her before the Emperor's light with a brilliantly crafted mask to show all his love for her strapped firmly on her face, and on that day, he wants to pull that mask off her and kiss her as his wife.
Of course, there was the hassle of making such a mask to express his true feelings to her. He'd have to do some rough sketches in order to get a good layout of what he would make for her, all in due time, he'll make sure that even in death they will see each other and walk the eternal golden roads of Terranis together forever.
As their kissing and groping died down Ruby yawned pressing her face against the most comfortable part of Hansel's chest, "Goodnight Hans, I love you."
Hansel kissed the top of her head pressing his cheek against her red and black hair, "Ich leben diche mein Rosenrot."
Warm silently breathing filled the air as the couple slipped into the veil of unconsciousness, wrapped up in each other's arms sharing body heat and in this case a subtle release of Aura to make their bodies more comfortable in the small cramped bed.
While the moon did shine on them, it also shone down on others in the world of Remnant.
Across frozen tundra the wind lightly blew across the barren snow, sending flakes back up into the air, the starry night sky illuminated the flakes as they started to swirl and sparkle in the moonlit night at a steady pace, said pace seemed to be increasing, almost as if it was a small storm forming out of inexistence.
However, it wasn't truly a storm, it was in fact a tear in reality and it seemed to do just that, a tear formed in the air and alongside of the mountain almost as if a three-dimensional portrait was ripped from the inside out, the tear itself had more of a mix of black, white, and gold.
Like two forces were struggling for control over the tear or portal itself.
From its depths, a black form with white bone armor ascended into the air, transforming into a large Nevermore as it flew higher into the nighttime sky, the Butcher felt his Father's presence greatly in this world, he remembered it now as his home, yet he was in no shape to finish off his Human aggressors.
While he had been recuperating with the souls of the Undivided loyalists of the Four, their energy was simply not enough to bring him to his more normal levels of power, summoning the Echos and the other horrors of his Father had greatly drained him, the fight with his mortal nemesis was now taking its toll on the First-Born Daemon, he had to flee to build his strength back up, something powerful was warding him away with its influence as the air around the portal burned him.
Zyxlck flew Northeast, as fast as possible, in his flight he broke into hundreds of smaller Nevermore crows to mask his movements to the Human world. He was back home and would soon speak with his Father on the matters at hand, the game they were playing with all of existence was turning out rather exciting and he wanted to know where his part lied.
The portal seemed to take an exclusive golden hue now that Zyxlck had left it, from its depths a man clad in black with a red sash came flying out, tumbling down the small incline, rolling and bouncing until he landed firmly on the soft snow with a thud and groan.
Cestus raised opened his eyes and to his surprise he saw stars above him in the night time sky- wait, sky?
The Lord Commissar grunted sitting up to see that he was no longer in that blasted cavern with that damn Daemon, but where were his-
Just then three soldiers, two clad in red and the other in black came tumbling down the hillside he had once came down, he didn't have a second to react as they collided with him and further tumbled down the hill but another twenty feet in a heap of limbs and aching bodies.
With a sigh of defeat the Lord Commissar didn't try to untangle himself from his Deathkommandos as they were already squirming away from each other, but then with haste they scrambled back to him checking him over for injuries, he was about to tell them to get off but then he saw more of his Korpsmen tumbling down the hill, some flew in the air for a few seconds before crashing back down onto the ground in loud thuds.
They however bounced back up for the most part and a few of them were trekking down the hill while some others were talking just a few more seconds to find their footing. The Tech Priest and Inquisitor Quinten had also followed with the Priest's two servo skulls, who buzzed around the Tech Priest as they communicated in binary.
Then Cestus realized something, well, five big things that were coming, "GET OUT OF THE WAY! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
None of the Korpsmen stood around to question as they hauled themselves and their wounded counterparts to either side of the portal just as Faust and the Space Marines came flying out of the portal, the Ogryn himself tumbled like a large ball in a continuous somersault, thankfully at the bottom of the hill he smashed a tree into timbers and lied on the ground relatively unharmed.
All four Space Marines planted their heels in a downward angle and slowed to a stop tearing up around twenty feet of snow covered soil, indenting the ground by five whole feet at a complete stop.
Cestus breathed a sigh of relief as no one was killed by the giant warriors in their landing, he had to deal with the fact some of his children were killed in the previous battle already, the rest on the surface were now however lost without their father to guide them, pain filled the Commissar's heart as he thought about them waiting for him and the others to come back out of the underground temple.
Yet, right now he had to care for the ones he had with him, he saw two Korpsmen on the ground holding down on their legs, another one was holding onto their arm while another took her mask off to find that it was damaged and not fit for service, the Korpswoman herself looked relatively unharmed though.
Even though they were injured the two grounded Korpsmen tried to crawl towards him, only to be helped up by their compatriots and carried towards the Lord Commissar as his Korpsmen searched all over him for any injuries that he may've sustained in his fall.
He could see it in their masks that they were frantically looking him over, the one mask-less Korpswoman gave a good reference as her eyes were darting all over him, the Astartes observed this silently as they stepped out of their holes and surveyed the world around them.
"All of you stop, I am fine, those that can walk secure a defensive perimeter." Cestus commanded, the Korpsmen wordlessly obeyed as he himself looked over the injured members of his party.
The two Korpsmen on the ground army crawled closer to him as they looked up sort of how a dog without the use of its legs would to his master. Cestus knelt and observed their legs, gently pressing down to see where they felt pain, in small grunts and through their own pointing Cestus deduced that the soldier on his left had both legs broke and the one on his right had his own left leg broken.
The soldiers were reaching for their laspistols to end their own lives so that they wouldn't hold the group back but Cestus grabbed their hands, "No."
Neither soldier spoke as they bowed their heads towards the ground and removed their hands from their pistol holsters. Cestus picked up both of their lasrifles and began stripping them down, carefully deactivating and removing their lasbatteries and further stripping the weapons to their bare forms.
Cestus waved over Inquisitor Quinten and called Ubermaster Seraph over to him, "Quinten I need you to hold this rifle on this side while I hold this one on the left, Seraph I want you to tape them together against this soldier's leg."
The Inquisitor did not argue and instead did as the Lord Commissar said, holding the lasrifles against the man's leg firmly while Seraph started binding them together along the soldier's leg, tightening it to where he'd be able to at least stand, albeit in uncomfortable pain, but to a Kriegsman that was nothing.
It had still surprised Inquisitor Quinten on how Cestus would treat his Korpsmen, usually other Commissars wouldn't have thought twice about their Guardsmen let alone a Kriegsman, the Human cannon fodder- well technically everyone was cannon fodder, but they were even more expendable due to their willingness to atone for their ancestor's sins against the God Emperor.
The Kriegsmen revered Cestus because of the way he treated them, this was one of the reasons why Quinten took interest in the unusual Lord Commissar, they fought even harder whenever he appeared on the battlefield, without being told they would use themselves as shields for him even when he ordered them not to shield him.
"Faust, carry these two on your shoulders." Cestus commanded to the Ogryn that had recently gotten himself out of his crater.
"Yes Bossman!" Faust scooped up the soldier with the splint holding his leg in place, the second soldier was placed carefully upon the Ogryn's shoulder's after getting his legs wrapped together with his own coat, "Get comfortable Kriegfriends."
"Lord Commissar." The Black Shield Chaplain said looking down at the black coated Commissar, "Our perimeter is secured, my scanners show that there is a settlement not far from here to the North."
Cestus bowed his head to the Space Marine, "Thank you for your report Lord Astartes, but I do not have authority over you."
"Since the Inquisitor Scholaris is dead you actually do have authority over us as you are now the next step in the command structure." The Marine responded leaning his Power Maul against his shoulder, he looked at Faust carrying two wounded Korpsmen, "I believe the settlement may provide your men aid if we arrived."
Cestus sighed looking in the direction the Marine mentioned, "I'd hate to burden the people there, but my men need proper aid if they are to get better. I cannot afford to lose any more men."
One of the Korpsmen came up to Cestus, he fell to a knee and held the Lord Commissar's cap out to him with his head bowed and arms extended upwards like he was giving a king his crown. The Lord Commissar smiled underneath his mask, nodding his head as he took the hat and brushed it off, "On your feet Bruno."
The Korpsman rose and upholstered his lasrifle, he walked up to the rest of the abled bodied Korpsmen in a defensive formation around the group and stood in a low ready position like the other Korpsmen, the three Deathkommandos formed up around him like shields while Faust raised his large shotgun defensively. Even the Kriegswoman with the broken mask was back in formation minus an eyepiece and a missing tube to her mask, she still stood in the circular formation.
Quinten was truly impressed at how the Kriegsmen could shrug off something as world rocking as being shot through the Warp, it amazed him at the- dare he say- the affection they showed to Cestus. They behaved like the soldiers they were known for but they also acted somewhat different towards the Commissar, sort of how you'd expect a child to protect their father.
On one occasion, he did hear Cestus mention them being the children he always wanted, he heard something about the Lord Commissar having children at one point but he didn't hear much about it afterwards and the Lord Commissar refused to elaborate any further on the subject, it was something he nearly shot a man for so it was best to leave it at that. Cestus was overall a pleasant person, more pleasant than any Commissar he ever met, but when the man lost his temper it was something to behold in terror.
"I guess we're ready to fall out then." Cestus said to the Space Marines as they too looked ready to march towards the hopefully friendly settlement that would be able to aid them in finding their way back.
If it wasn't friendly, then it won't exist in an hour.
In the forests of Vale.
Another night has set in for Kel'Letosh, the Tau has been on this planet for well over a few days now, still recovering from his wounds sustained by whatever a Grimm actually is, the claw marks had set in to a nice scar, another story for his fellow Fire Warriors back home, that's assuming he ever gets off this backwatered planet in an obviously undiscovered sector of space.
His body was healing quickly thanks to the generosity of his Faunus host, apparently, he helped the healing process by using some energy called 'aura', his host was surprised that Kel was unable to manifest Aura apparently, this energy seemingly came from the soul. Kel mentioned that his race was not able to be influenced by the soul due to the Warp having a weak influence on his race.
As the subject came to the Warp Kel wasn't able to properly describe it as he had a very little understanding of it himself. In the long run of things that was probably for the best, the Humans seemed very threatened by whatever those beings were, apparently from what he heard from the Gue'vesa the more they learned the more influence those beings would be granted.
Taking a deep breath Kel stood up from his bed, taking the aid of a crutch set aiside by his bed in order to walk, his back ached but years of discipline and the strength of his will power kept him moving slowly out the door and into a hallway, hearing the sounds of cluttering plates further down the hall Kel used all of his strength to walk down the hall.
He struggled to reach the wooden frame at the kitchen entrance, Jack and his nephew were setting up a table when they had just noticed him.
"Kel!" Jack said supporting the alien just before he took a step into the kitchen, "You should be in bed resting."
The Tau grunted as he was brought to a chair at the round table, "If I am to get better then I must test my limits, I have been a warrior all my life, if I let a simple back injury keep me down how can I fight for the Greater Good?"
Jack rolled his eyes setting his blue alien friend into a wooden chair, "In due time, you're barely able to walk down a hall, you wouldn't last long outside… well, aliens aren't exactly something everyone will be able to comprehend."
"Humans hating xenos, nothing has changed." Kel said leaning back in his chair sigh of relief.
The Faunus boy, Mat Brown, walked over to Kel'Lotesh with a bowl of stew and set it in front of him on the table, "I hope you like it."
"Thank you." The Fire Warrior said as he gave the boy a friendly smile, he stretched his fingers and pulled a napkin into his lap, he tentatively picked a spoon up and started stirring it in his bowl quietly.
As Jack took his seat his eyes seemed to analyze Kel'Lotesh, "If you don't mind me prying, how long have you been in your army?"
"As long as I have lived really," Kel admitted, "around fifty Human years."
"I see, fought many wars then?" Jack asked.
"It's hard to tell when one ends and one begins," Kel admitted, "just six months ago I was fighting the Imperium, the Human Empire, one of the most devastating adversaries we have."
Jack took somewhat of an interest in the Imperium's mention, "What were they like?"
Kel's face seemed to pale slightly from the darker blue tone he had, "They were the Death Korps. Out of all the regiments they could've sent, they sent them."
The alien trembled slightly, his heart started beating faster as those days of ice and snow haunted him in the back of his mind, "At first I had wonder if they were in fact living creatures, as they always wore gas masks, some with ghoulish skull motifs. They played no music, they made no battle cries, just, silence and lasers. They however bled red blood, but never cried out in pain, never stopped if they were injured, it was as if they wanted to die fighting. Like there was no other reason for living."
"That sounds terrible. Did you ever see one up close without a mask?" Jack asked frowning in confusion, just how could people fight like that? What sort of power made Humans not care about living?
"I had seen one in fact." Kel Lotesh shuttered for a moment, "But I would have rather he had his mask on. Once I had seen a male mask-less after it was torn off by the Humans that wore red, the man did not show hatred or fury. Just stone cold determination, empty steel-like eyes, snow pale skin, his face seemed set in a scowl as he strangled the Human in red, almost indifferent of a knife in his Kidneys."
"Geez." Mat whispered a shade paler than before.
"That man's face and the masks of his kin haunt my nightmares, those empty eyepieces staring ever accusingly at me for existing. I hope to never meet their kind again…but, enough of that. Let's just enjoy this meal, yes?"
The Faunus hosts nodded silently as they turned their attention back towards their now cooling bowls of beef stew, these Human men sounded less like men and more like machines designed for death, the thought of a man blocking out pain without Aura and still have the ability to fight on without crying out in pain and without a fear of death no less sent an unusual chill through them, warriors like that would most certainly be a real challenge of dealing with.
Beacon.
The Vostroyan yawned as he made his way back to JHSN's dorm room, he and everyone else were still incredibly worn out and more accurately stressed out on an inhumane level. He personally was very put off on the reveal of the Ruinous Powers, a literal Champion has them beat before they could even bear their arms, the creature could've just flicked his wrist and they'd be nothing but blood mist in an instant.
Thankfully that wasn't the case, Hansel passed the little game the freak wanted him to play and left fair and square, still, it was a close call and now there was no time to laze around anymore, he did promise he'd return with more soldiers. Emperor willing, they will be able to defeat them and save this world from the corruption and rot of Chaos.
In less world ending news the abhuman Blake kept mostly to herself and teammates, he could tell she was more than terrified of them now. Julius did not outright say it but Nicholas would wager that he somewhat hated the girl in black, the reason being her treacherous deceit caused this whole situation to happen in the first place. He did not see the Tallarn care either way but he did keep his eyes from falling on the cat eared girl.
Nicholas himself couldn't be bothered to give a crap, yeah it was wrong she lied about her race but given the state of affairs he probably would've done the same, he sort of wished he did back in his regiment and not be known as a not true first born. Yet if she hadn't lied and caused certain events to happen which brought this Dust robbery to light then they would not have discovered the traitors before it was too late.
His neck ached from sleeping in the hospital chairs, it was like they were designed to torture the people using them, was it plastic? Was it wood? Nicholas did not know, but it can go off the building for all he cared, the only real highlight about the whole ordeal was of course his blonde companion.
When Ruby refused to leave Hansel's side it only made sense her older step sibling would refuse to leave her as well, but it wouldn't be fair to allow her stay there alone for the most part as Ruby was less than responsive in her state of grieving, with his intervention Ruby got some space and Yang had someone to help calm her nerves, otherwise the girl might've struck someone by accident and cause quite a bit of damage that no doubt would've got her in trouble.
"Hey Nick!" The Vostroyan turned his head on a swivel and by the Golden Throne he liked what he saw.
Wearing tiny black shorts and a not so firm yellow tank top, lightly blushed cheeks, and with a mane of beautiful blonde hair trailing behind her, nighttime Yang Xiao Long was something that greatly wowed the crimson coat Vostroyan, her alluring upturned smiling lips nearly afflicted him with lightheadedness as the more basic instincts of his mind clouded his ability to form an intelligent response.
Assuming Vostroyans are intelligent of course, "Oh, uh, uh, hi, Yang." Nailed it, "What's up?"
The blonde's cheeks turned slightly rosier as her left hand twirled a lock of her golden mane, inadvertently making herself even more appealing to the Vostroyan, "I just wanted to say thanks again, for staying with me and Ruby in the hospital. It means a lot."
"Oh, well it was nothing. Hansel's my…well…uhh…we're on the same team at least." The said with a small dry laugh.
Yang rolled her eyes at the mention of the Kriegsman, "He's just a jerk. Ugh, Ruby knows how to pick 'em."
"He honestly could be worse," Nicholas said rubbing one of his tired eyes, "his kind can get into squabbles with other regiments and nearly turn their weapons on them."
"Oh wow." Yang said with minor shock in her lilac eyes, "Seriously?"
The Vostroyan nodded, "A running gag is that the Commissars are really just attack dog handlers assigned to reign them in and smooth relations. Hansel's just smarter and somewhat relaxed compared to the others like him."
"Well at least it's just him. Goodnight Nicholas." Yang said flashing her perfect white teeth at him.
"Goodnigh-" Nicholas stopped halfway through his sentence before the blonde closed the distance and pressed her warm lips against his cheek, his moustache lip twitched as Yang pulled back from her kiss, giving him a wink as she turned around to go back to her dorm.
A broad toothy grin crossed the Vostroyan's face as his eyes followed the blonde and her swaying hips down the hall. The lad's more basic desires urged him to follow after her and see if there was a chance of potentially getting some action in this late evening, however his brain and not his dick was in control and it was demanding that he plopped his ass down in bed posthaste.
Still, his dreams would now be filled with booze and blondes.
Atlas wastes.
Lord Commissar Cestus stared through his binoculars at the desperate situation below him, there lied their salvation, besieged by what looked like more of those wretched Daemons of Anarchy, the cries for salvation rung in the veteran's ears as he lowered his binoculars, he breathed in the aroma of the burning buildings and growled to himself as hate began to well up within his chest. The Outcast's minions would have to suffice as an outlet.
"Deathkommandos, Astartes, you can get down there the fastest, engage the heretics, take their attention!"
Without so much as a sound of conformation the three Kommandos were already sprinting ahead faster than a normal Human could ever hope to go, the Space Marines followed after them in their massive armor as the ground trembled before their every step, flattening into large ovals as they started to gain speed, the two Terminators lagged slightly behind their brothers and the three enhanced Kriegers.
"Form up!" Cestus commanded unsheathing his sword, "Gott Kaiser mitt uns! Zerstöre die Dämonen!"
A dozen bayonets followed after the Lord Commissar as he leads his children into the fray once again, the Ogryn Bone'ead Faust also followed but at a somewhat slower pace, though the Kriegsmen on his back were in immense pain and discomfort they upholstered their laspistols and smacked the Ogryn's shoulder to iterate that he was going too slow for their likings.
Amwolf being the strongest and fastest of the three was gaining the most ground with his sights set right on the largest Ursa. With a mighty leap, he vaulted into the air with his Monoknife unsheathed and slashed across the armored daemon's head, creating a large wound that went through the bone mask but not deep enough for the beast to have died.
As the Korpsman landed in front of the Ursa Major he wasted no time in charging forward, he slid between its legs and slashed the back-left leg where he severed the beast's tendon. The Ursa Major collapsed onto its lame leg and roared with fury at the Guardsmen, sensing nothingness off the Human made its teeth bare, unlike its lesser brethren the Major was not repulsed from the emotionless blank, instead it sought to try and destroy the anomaly.
Amwolf somersaulted underneath a strike meant for him and slashed the Ursa Major's left flank, he grabbed onto a back spike and used it to propel himself upwards above the Ursa Major, in the air, he spun around and delivered a devastating double drop kick that further cracked the bone-plate mask of the Ursa Major. The beast itself was now kissing the dirt from the impact made by Amwolf's assault, its red eyes bulging out unnaturally, still able to, although ineffectively, see everything was upside down now, but it could still sense two other emotionless blanks engaging its kin.
At least until it had a monoknife stabbed into its now vulnerable mask, ending its agony.
Serah slid on her knees with both arms behind her head, she locked her arms tight as Seraph used her as a launch pad, from with which she flew high enough in the air to tackle a Condor-sized Nevermore. The crimson Kriegswoman forced the bird in a straight nose dive. Almost at the last second, Seraph kicked off the bird and torpedoed through the air as the Nevermore slammed right into a Beowulf in a crushing blow.
The crimson Kriegswoman met the snow-covered ground with her back, she used her trench spike's pick end to slow her speed to a point where she could somersault backwards, with lightening reflexes she dodged the swipe of an alarmed Beowulf. From behind though Serah jumped onto the Beowulf's back and dug her hands into its eyes, ripping them out by kicking herself off of it.
Blindly the Beowulf swung and howled but to no avail as two Hotshot laspistol rounds went through its chin right through to its the bone-plate mask, the heat residue was at intense enough degree that the contrast of the cold air, causing steam to hiss as the mask shattered against the ground. Seraph turned her pistols onto the other Beowulves, felling several as the high intensity lasrounds melted, singed, and burned their way through the beasts with relative ease. Her sister had upholstered her bolt pistol as well to engage the enemy at a distance.
In the next street over a Beowulf tore savagely at the hub of a taxi cab to get at a teenager huddled up against his smaller sibling, the boy had already sustained a wound across his chest from a glancing strike, all he had in his defense was a mere pocket knife.
Death seemed all but certain, at least until massive thundering steps shook the ground, the teen watched in stark horror and confusion as the Beowulf ceased its assault. The beast growled in the opposite direction but incredibly the growls reverted to whimpers, before it could retreat, claws the size of men diced the monster to pieces.
A giant metal creature crushed the Beowulf's remains into a fine mist. His savior towered over the cab as three more of its kind with varying weapons stopped in front of the cab. Curiously the teenager glanced up at the metal humanoid, wondering if this was some sort of robot that was unleashed by the Atlesian military, yet its bore no Atlesian design nor their colors. Briefly his eyes met the crimson pits of fury, and he wondered if this being was truly friend or foe.
The Black Shield Assault Marine with the claws glanced down at the children in the cab briefly but brought his sights back up to the Daemonic beasts that now stared their way. Crimson eyes staring at crimson eyepieces, fury, hate, pure rage burned within the eyes of both sides as the Space Marines walked past the broken vehicles and cowering humans within the surrounding boarded up buildings.
A stark difference separated them though, the Emperor favored only one side.
Over a dozen Beowulves had built up the necessary courage to ignore the unease they felt from the Space Marines and charged forth with claws and teeth sharp as swords, mouths frothing with rage, with every intent to rip their pretty black armor to pieces. The Librarian felt as though his powers were being sapped, he felt a dull pit in his stomach, yet he ignored his discomfort as he opted to charge with his sword crackling with electricity, thirsty for death, and his Storm Bolter raised to eviscerate the foe, "IN THE EMPEROR'S NAME, NONE SURVIVE!'
The Marines met the Beowulves in close quarters combat, three off them were given a lesson in just how sharp an Eviserator chainsword was, their lesson was as brief as a whisper, their remains rolled and disintegrated with the wind. The Chaplain smashed a Beowulf into mist with one strike from his Power Maul, a backhanded swing from his Holy Bolter crushed another Wulf's head into its torso, a kick sent another one flying back onto a wrecked car with his chest pulverized as the Chaplain praised His name in a sermon.
"The Emperor sayeth die, and so they died. He rendered His judgement onto the xeno, the heretic, and the mutant, his judgement was death, and so it shall be!"
In three great swipes of his sword, the Librarian felled several Beowulves on his own, he shielded himself with the Storm Bolter and his left pauldron. The Assault Marine used his speed to outmaneuver and eradicate any beast that tried to flank the Librarian, he pointed his claws downwards to reveal the combi-bolt attachment installed over the back of his hands and fired a storm of bolt rounds through the Beowulves into the larger Grimm Horde.
The rounds ripped through bone and hide with ease, the resulting explosions sent the beasts on a retreat as their numbers were all but depleting from the Black Shield Marine onslaught. From above their safe vantage points the Humans and Faunus civilians stared on in shock and awe at the display of power shown by the metal beings.
Their hulking size betrayed their swiftness in combat, they were untouched by the Grimm horde that had previously outnumbered them, their solemn demeanor betrayed the animated fury in each and every move.
Meanwhile back on the other street, Cestus and the rest of his party joined the Deathkommandos in the slaughter, the combined emotional blankness of the Korpsmen had formed a shield in a manner of speaking, the blankness was so intense that by the time they bayonetted a Grimm it was already writhing in pain if not on the verge of dying, thus confirming Cestus's belief that these were in fact Daemons of the Outcast and that he has stumbled upon a truly troubling situation.
This many Daemons was a bad sign, especially since they are Outcast spawned in real space. Unlike the creatures in the temple these ones were unusually large and in a high supply, which meant that their patron deity held an alarmingly high amount of power over this world in real space yet there was no indication that this world did in fact belong to the Outcast at all, it seemed as if it was a world still under siege.
Human bodies lied cold and stiff around destroyed automobiles, with Faust providing cover Inquisitor Quinten was able to examine one of them with a very troubled look, "This…this is an abhuman breed I haven't seen before."
The Lord Commissar himself looked over the corpse and to his surprise it was somewhat normal looking corpse, except for the fact that this particular body had claws, canines, and a dog's tale. He would've written it off as a Felinid but it was just too Human looking for it to be one, unless this was a new less mutated subspecies.
Cestus looked up and saw that his Krieg Guardsmen had set up a firing line that sent laser fire all the way down the street after the retreating Daemons, Faust's own auto-shotgun was just barely able to reach them as they fled from sight. Suddenly a wall from a building over broke down into rubble and the Astartes walked through looking relatively unharmed from their fight.
"Headcount!" Cestus commanded waving his sword, from the firing line the Engineers stood on the left end with the Grenadiers and regulars, his Todeskommandos stood on the right end with the Ubermaster being the last of the dark clothed Korpsmen before the two Inquisitional Storm Trooper Kommandos themselves stood.
The Lord Commissar counted his soldiers one by one, even the two upon Faust's shoulders, and from what he saw of the Marines, everyone was accounted for. He glanced back after remembering that there was in fact two other people in his party, of course the Lord Commissar was relieved that Quinten and the Techpriest were still alive, but his focus was more on his soldiers rather than his guests.
"I can't believe it," Quinten muttered as he looked around the settlement they were in, "I've never seen so much space around a city, it's so empty with no spires or factories. None of these buildings are gothic in nature, there are dead abhumans that almost pass for Human, we have Daemons in the streets, just where the Golden Throne are we?"
Cestus spotted people slowly making their way out of their homes and businesses, they look shaken, possibly still afraid because of the Daemon incursion but more than likely intimidated by the hulking beings and the Korpsmen themselves. The Lord Commissar holstered his bolt pistol and sheathed his sword, he straightened his peaked cap and prepared to address their concerns.
At least until several unknown ships flew in overhead, circling around twice before coming around to hover above them with what appeared to be autocannons primed to fire. The Astartes and Faust silently formed a defensive circle around him, Quinten, and the Tech Priest, their ranged weapons in a low ready stance, apparently Ubermaster Serah gave a silent order because the Kriegsmen were marching in a circle around the Astartes and Faust as an outer layer of the shield.
Though he appreciated their devotion, he really didn't see the point in having them act as shields against autocannons. One of the ships dropped down low and began to land further down the street, within seconds of a bay door opening well over a dozen men poured out wearing shiny armor, wielding strange blocky weapons. Cestus however wasn't able to see quite clearly with the Astartes and Kriegsmen in the way.
The Lord Commissar slid past the Space Marines and tried pushing back his Kriegsmen, "Make way!"
Kriegsmen normally never disobey an order, it was a virtually unheard-of event, but he saw the reluctance and hesitation in their movements, he'd have to remind them later with a light punishment that he was not to be disobeyed even if they wanted to protect him. He was Lord Commissar, his will is to be followed without the slightest hesitation.
Now at the front of the group he could plainly see that this was not an Imperial world if the architecture and nicely dressed abhuman wasn't enough to tell, these people seemed civilized for feudals, their technology was at least PDF level of competence if not slightly above the professionalism of the other PDFs he had seen.
A woman dressed in what could pass for an officer's uniform, quite possibly nobility considering the uniforms design and her choice of weaponry. The woman and her soldiers were making a steady advance with their weapons drawn, Cestus took several paces forward, he held his hand out towards his Guardsmen, "Halt, maintain formation. Kommandos, on me. Quinten, Mechanicus Starza, if you'd follow along please. Lord Astartes, would you like to introduce yourselves as well?"
The Librarian stepped forward with his Storm Bolter mag-locked to his back but with his sword drawn, "I shall follow."
Cestus nodded as he started marching, "Very well my Lord Astartes, let's make a good first impression."
The Deathkommandos flanked Cestus's sides and rear flank, he refused Amwolf's preference to be his shield, instead Cestus decided that if this woman and her platoon wanted violence then he wanted to be close enough to hit them with his sword. He had faith that the Astarte Librarian would however be able to vaporize them all if it came to that though, the thought of leaving his children without his guidance made a pit in his stomach.
As the parties close their distance to about twenty feet they stopped, in a flash the woman unsheathed her sword and pointed it directly at the Lord Commissar, "That's far enough."
'What a wonderful first impression.' Cestus thought idly as he placed the palm of his hand upon his sword's pommel, taking a side glance, he saw that his Kommandos had their fingers gently brushing up against the handles of their pistols. Quinten seemed ready to bolt someone in the dome and Starza already had his freaky tentacles, whatever he called them, flailing.
The servo skulls seemed to unnerve some of the soldiers as they stared at them with their mouths opened ever so slightly.
Cestus decided to remove his Krieg gas mask to give the woman a face to speak to, "Hail to you, Ave Imperator."
Unsuprisingly the woman's face scrunched up in confusion, High Gothic was usually unknown to commoners, but he had some hope that the noblewoman would've understood his dialect, the world must've been separated for a really long time.
"Identify yourselves and drop your weapons at once!" She demanded with the kind of intensity a greenhorn Commissar would use in an attempt to establish their authority.
Calmly the Lord Commissar spoke in a neutral tone as he bowed halfway, "Lord Commissar Cestus Haxis of the 263rd Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment of the Imperium of Man's Imperial Guard at your service my lady, unfortunately you do not have the authority to make such a command of us."
The woman and her soldiers seemed confused at the information dump Cestus gave, of course he couldn't blame the feudals, it was a mouthful after all, her frown and aggressive stance however was less than pleasing.
"I've never heard of this 'Imperium' or 'Krieg', whatever the case may be, you are trespassing in the Kingdom of Atlas with unregistered weaponry and under General Ironwood's orders I am to take your force into custody. Drop your weapons, deactivate your big attack drones-"
"How dare you!" The Tech Priest cried in a shrill metallic roar, forcing several of the white armored soldiers to cringe at the grinding mechanical voice, his metal finger pointing accusingly at the white-haired woman, "You, insolent feudal wench! You dare equate the Adeptus Astartes to a Man of Iron, are you mentally stunted? Bite thy heretek tongue off!"
Unsurprisingly the woman's mood did not improve, in fact she seemed to be insulted if not outright furious with the Techpriest's remarks, yet before the situation could escalate further, a vox bead buzzed in the woman's ear buzzed. None of the regular Humans, not even the Deathkommandos could hear the conversation, instead the Black Shield Librarian heard the authoritative voice on the other end.
"Specialist Schnee, what is the hold up?" The voice asked.
"The trespassers are resisting the order to surrender themselves." She said with her icy blues eyes sending frozen daggers towards the Imperials, "Orders?"
"Stand by, do nothing to further escalate the situation, I'm coming down to diffuse the situation myself."
The Specialist's eyes seemed to bulge, "General-"
"Stand by Specialist Schnee, that is an order."
Cestus glanced up as another one of the dropships flew low, this time the vessel hovered closer to the party of Imperials and the feudals, once it landed more feudal soldiers in their stark white armor left the vehicle, this time however a man dressed in a regal uniform departed as the last passenger. The Lord Commissar observed the man's posture as he walked, the way his uniform was designed gave him the appearance of a nobleman in a PDF.
The Chaplain Space Marine glanced down at the Atlesian general silently, unlike the feudal woman before him this man was worthy of his attention, like the feudal woman he could sense that energy from his soul was being projected as a form of barrier, his was vastly stronger however, yet neither were psykers.
"My name is General Ironwood," The Atlesian man said with the sort of resounding authority a veteran Commissar would project, "and I request that you and your force stand down and cooperate peacefully."
Inquisitor Quinten rolled his eyes, nodding his head he gave Ironwood a flat look, "If you mean for us to give up our weapons, then you must really have no idea who we are do you?"
General Ironwood met Quinten's eyes and squinted at the man, "Just who are you then?"
The old Inquisitor huffed as he tapped his bolt pistol against his Inquisition sigil, "I am Inquisitor Quinten of the Ordos Hereticus of the Imperium of Man."
"As I told your subordinate," Cestus said as he took a bold step towards the man, eliciting wary jerks of startled riflemen, "Lord Commissar Cestus Haxis of the 263rd Death Korps of Krieg Siege Regiment of the Imperium of Man's Imperial Guard. The leader of this party of Imperial Guardsmen."
Before General Ironwood could respond, thunder erupted to his right, "I am Chaplain Penance of the Black Shield Space Marines.''
"Space Marines!?" Both Ironwood and Winter asked incredulously, the General and his subordinate looking the metal giant up and down as he stared down at them with unwavering crimson eyepieces.
"You, are human?" Ironwood asked, he glanced at Cestus and saw the man nod slowly with a grim expression, the General looked over the Commissar's shoulder at the other three Space Marines, "I don't understand."
Winter turned her eyes to the black robed Tech Priest and his floating skulls, the mechandrites coming from his back were like snakes as they slithered in the air, if the eight-foot-tall giant was human-
"I am Tech Priest Starza," The robed cyborg said with his heavily metallic laced voice, "and these are my servo skulls, Maximus and Terris, former Adepts of Holy Terra."
The Schnee woman stared at the skulls with her blue eyes widening upon the realization that those grotesque drones were not mere decoration, they were people at one point. The Specialist was for a loss of words on just how disgusted she was by the obviously heavy cybernetic implants; a chill went up her spine at the thought of how much pain there must've been in the process of the physical and psychological rehabilitation to cope with such augmentations.
General Ironwood felt a sinking feeling that events on Remnant were about to steadily escalate, from what he saw from the way the soldiers were decorated and armed, it was plain as day that they were very comfortable with the visage of death. From out of the corner of his eye he saw Atlesians leaving the safety of their boarded structures, they looked warily upon the new arrivals but ever so slowly people started to clap, cheer, and cry with praise.
It wasn't for his forces however.
The Korpsmen and Black Shields stood silent and still as statues as people waved at them and called for praise, their calls however did not fill the Korpsmen with jubilee, instead it made them tense up internally as the noise would only serve to draw their attention away from any possible returning threat until it was right on top of them.
The Black Shields however looked upon the lesser Humans like they were pigeons, yet at the same time felt a spark of pleasantness deep down, underneath the massive guilt they collectively shared since they disavowed themselves from their patron Father's Chapter, since they took upon the Black Shield Deathwatch moniker. They kept that guilt reserved within themselves and showed nothing to the crowd, only silent unwavering stillness, ready to jump into action.
Lord Commissar Cestus cleared his throat, "General, perhaps we can finish our discussion somewhere less conspicuous? You have my word, sworn to the God Emperor, that we shall not engage in hostilities unless engaged first."
General Ironwood shared the man's gaze, he glanced momentarily over to the Atlas civilians, seeing a few of them look up at the 'Space Marines' with the sort of reverence men would have when looking up to Huntsmen, "Agreed, but first, who are your subordinates guarding you?"
Cestus crossed his arms with an exasperated sigh, "They are the Death Korps of Krieg, but that's a long discussion on its own."
Unknown.
Far from the sight of local enforcement and deep beneath the confines of a bunker sat a treasure trove of stolen Dust variants, a lot could be done with the volatile material, it was enough for an army to use, enough to power several cities at once for a year but Roman Torchwick new that the later purpose was out of the question for Cinder's plans…which weren't really clear besides the terrorist aspect, at least to him.
The infamous thief was in it for the money and a comfortable position away from what ever destruction the madwoman wanted, survival for himself and Neo were his top priority, now more than ever. Money was steadily becoming a less appetizing prospect after the events from last night, his deal with Cinder had taken a drastic turn for the worse in his opinion because now it included preparing against those creatures and serving…
That Thing.
He could easily recall last night as if it happened seconds ago…
With an exasperated sigh the Dust robber set the only box of Dust he was able to make off with after the botched robbery at the docks, things went so wrong, so fast that it muddled his mind. Those men in the strange uniforms tore through the White Fang and their Aura's like they were paper thin, they killed them, they actually killed them, Huntsmen didn't do that.
Just who were they?
"How very disappointing Roman." The Thief jumped in his skin as he turned around.
"Woah! Heheh," Inwardly he cursed his three associates, "I wasn't expecting to see you guys so soon."
He could see the disappointment on Cinder's face, she'd try to play it off with a sarcastic disposition, "We were expecting…more from you."
"Hehe-hey, you were the ones that suggested working with those stupid mutts from the White Fang, but on top of all of that you apparently didn't see what happened at the-" Roman's voice caught itself in his throat, his lone visible eye stared in abstract horror as he stumbled backwards against the crate he set his Dust loot on.
Cinder's face twitched as she realized they weren't alone any more, she turned around and the sight before her made her body stiffen, her eyes lit up like flames as she held fire in her hands, taking up a defensive stance with Emerald and Mercury against the stranger.
Before them stood a silent visage of endless horror, the mask the man wore seemed to be metal crafted to on the image of a demonic eagle's skull, his wares consisted of branded blue colored metals and military-esque fabric, his crossed arms bore gauntlets of metal hands with blades at the end of his fingers, "Good evening."
An inhumane chill swept through Torchwick's body, he clenched his teeth as his head started pounding, from what he saw Cinder was the only one unaffected by the creature's voice, she growled seeing her subordinates so easily neutralized by the creature's very words let alone the fact that Roman didn't realize that he was being followed.
"Allow me to introduce myself," The being said as he took a step forward, "My name is Montresor Amontillado de Caskius, Champion of the Dark God Tzeentch."
At the sound of the last syllable Roman, Mercury, and Emerald threw their heads back screaming in absolute agony, Montresor's amusement was plain as he chuckled at the criminals writhing on the ground, though he drew amusement he also wanted to have a conversation with potential converts, with a snap of his fingers the pain all three of the crooks felt disappeared and his words to them would no longer send them writhing to the floor.
He looked Cinder up and down as he tried to sense her soul, "You must be very powerful to have ignored the pain your companions felt, or perhaps you earned the favor of a powerful patron?"
Cinder's stance slacked slightly as she and Montresor circled each other, "What does it matter to you? What do you want?"
"Hmmm," The Champion mumbled as he looked between Cinder and her crew, "I think we both want the same thing."
Swiftly Montresor slashed the air next to him, tearing open a small Warp portal that allowed a fleeting opportunity of travel between spaces, and much to Roman's horror, three more grotesque humanoid creatures spawned from the portal. The three of them had noticeable color schemes on their armor as well as their clothing, red and brass, an unhealthy looking green, and a very nightmarish pink and purple being.
The red warrior was armored from head to toe, his mask resembled a four eyed Daemon, brass decorated his armor especially near his belt with a strange symbol as his buckle, he was armed with what appeared to be a chainsaw axe or chainaxe some would say.
Torchwick covered his nose and kept his distance upon getting a better look at the green one, it seemed to be perpetually rotting, mushrooms were growing in the chinks of its armor as the humanoid thing wheezed through a greasy if not very poorly maintained metal shielded gas mask that had the form of a laughing demon, he had a rusty grimy yet obviously sharp curved meat cleaver as a weapon. Apparently flayed flesh adorning the creature's shoulders was a popular sense of fashion between the four of them.
Unease coursed through Roman as he laid eyes on the last one, it was looking at him and its pinkish purple eyes beamed with the kind of lust that he for once didn't want directed at him, he couldn't tell what was worse about the monsters, the crustacean clawed hand? The tentacles coming from the claw? The exposed flesh littered with unhealing festering scars? Perhaps it was exposed part of its chest with the nipple ring and strange runes carved into its flesh that glowed?
It was defiantly the lust.
"You see," Montresor said with a strangely ethereal voice, "my associates and I have a long standing… religious disagreement, if you will, with those Imperials your associate encountered tonight, on top of that we don't fancy the unfair governments of the Kingdoms either, they're too…ordered, in all the wrong ways."
"Corruption, greed." The pinkish purple creature hissed, "delicious qualities, yet they do not share in the pleasures of excess…"
"Endless war with a foe that does not bleed," Montresor's red and brass companion growled, "diluting themselves in the lie of peace, diluting the honor of war, by comparing it to a past of savagery and unrefinement."
"They deny the gifts of change and deny decay," The diseased creature said in a deep croaky moan, "Their decadence is upheld by strings and refuses to fester, they look down upon the evolved and shun Grandfather Nurgle's gift of plague and evolution."
Disgust ran through Roman at name spoken by the creature, his stomached flipped and flopped as he forced himself to swallow his bile. From what he saw, neither of Cinder's brats were fairing any better, if anything Mercury's dry heaving showed that they were having a worse time than him, for once he felt an inkling of pity for the brats.
"We want freedom for the peoples of Remnant," Montresor declared, he clasped his hands together and after a moment separated them, gold coins fell from his left outstretched palm, drawing Roman's attention along with Cinder's underlings, "and our Gods reward those that help us handsomely, those that join us even more so."
"Power, knowledge-" Montresor said in an oddly whimsical voice.
"-fear, respect-" The red one growled with blood seeping from his maw.
"-immortality, evolution,-" The disease ridden one croaked, the air around him turning green.
"-endless pleasures, endless freedom-" The grotesque crustacean humanoid moaned in a silky voice, pink mist being exhaled through its' nostrils.
"That, is what the Dark Gods of Chaos Undivided offers." Montresor finished, tossing most of the gold across the floor.
Roman eyed the gold with hesitancy, normally he'd be grabbing up as many pieces as possible, but he knew better than to accept money from something as…evil as that thing, he was no saint by far, no, he knew he was a scummy awful person but this creature and his friends giving their little presentation rubbed him in the wrongest of ways.
Emerald seemed ready to pick up a stray piece right next to her, but Cinder quickly stomped on the piece of gold, keeping it from the thieving girl's grasp.
"We aren't interested," Cinder declared, her eyes flaming even brighter than before, her half formed Maiden powers increasing her Aura's power as she summoned her swords, "your false Gods have no power here."
Montresor seemed to frown at the woman's disrespect of the Gods of Chaos, his compatriots hissed violently, "How dare you, you insolent-"
From out of the corner of Montresor's eye he saw a figure move in the shadows, he felt his powers starting to be sapped, his mind slowly started to become muddled. Khan steeled his teeth, he clenched his fists as the bloodlust he craved started to flee from his mind.
Bubonicos whimpered as the rot started to recede from his armor, he coughed up blood that was crimson and healthy instead of the usual diseased mess it was. Caligularii felt its knees shutter into jelly as sensation was replaced with cold nothingness, it drew bladed claws against exposed flesh to return sensation.
A smug smirk came across Cinder's lips, "I serve the true God of Chaos, he'll give me what I want."
From the shadows came a twist malformed claw that rivaled the size of a whole Ursa Major in size alone, Roman had only recently noticed that the shadows in his warehouse seemed larger than usual, in fact he now noticed that they were moving, in the pale light of the moon he saw white bone armor of a very, very large Grimm reveal itself, its body long and winding, almost like it was controlling its form.
Once the beast had two claws on the floor it reveal its gargantuan head to the light, a cage of teeth large enough to encase a coiled King Taijitu in its maw, eyes so large yet so black it was like staring into a void of pure soul crushing coldness, Roman wondered if there were even eyes to begin with. The thief's heart trembled in his chest as he tried to crawl away from the right claw of the giant, he could see in the distance of the other side of his warehouse, thanks to the moon's light, that two giant knees slam into the ground, shaking the room.
Blood spilt from Montresor's eyes and mouth as the very presence of the largest Daemon he had ever witnessed revealed itself, he also had the horrid fear that this wasn't even his full size as he had reconstituted from shadows. Before the beast of The Outcast could draw open its jaws to suck out their lives and tether to the Warp, Montresor desperately scratched a new flickering hole in reality and forced his crippled companions into it, hissing at Cinder.
"This isn't over!"
Just as Zyxlck parted his teeth, the Chaos Champion had fled with the portal closing. The Daemon grumbled with disappointment as its tantalizing meals left, his head peered down to the Humans below, teeth parting as his neck extended, snaking its way down, hovering over the woman in red as she knelt down in submission, "So, there are those who pledge themselves still to Father and serve my daughter? Fleshy impotent Humans, I suppose you will make due, for now."
Roman looked between Cinder and the beast, he saw Emerald and Mercury hesitate for a second before they copied her kneeling as well, deciding the best course of action was to show submitance, Roman also kneeled. The hairs on his neck prickled as he felt the beast sniff him and blow air him, he shut his eyes so tight that it hurt.
"Rise." The creature hissed, the horrid sounds of cracking bone and shifting of giant armored scales filled the room. Roman opened his eyes to the horrific sight of whatever manner of intelligent Grimm he was facing condensed itself to a smaller more Humanoid form, it still stood tall, at least fourteen feet in its raw height, its hooves large enough to crush the Human thief like he was a grape.
"Master Zyxlck, I was not expecting you so soon," Cinder said with her eyes still locked on the floor in reverence to the son of The Outcast, "we thought that-"
"Plans have not changed," The Daemon hissed, its tongue flickering like that of a snake, his pitless gaze sizing up the city of Vale, "the will of Anarchy does not follow plans so closely, it is disorder in its barest form."
"Of course, my Lord." Cinder said raising her eyes up to meet the Daemons empty eyes, "Salem's descriptions of you pale to your presence.
Zyxlck said nothing as he eyed the Human subordinates trembling before him, their scents of ambition, lust for wealth, and yearning for approval was like pie sitting on a window sill, all to tempting to take a nibble out of, "Your servants were not aware of my existence?"
"They know nothing as Lady Salem ordered," Cinder stated closing her eyes as she bowed her head once more, "they have proved useful, somewhat useful, but the plan to cause disorder and distrust among Man is still underway, they shall be easily conquered once divided, bearing suspicion and distrust amongst each other."
The Daemon bellowed an amused chuckle, "Man, is anything but simply conquered, that's what makes them all the more interesting to devour."
Roman coughed, straightening out his suit's tie, "Uh, Mister big and scary Grimm?"
With a great thunderous growl, the Daemon's tail snaked around to the front, showing the tail's end as a nightmarish woman's face with pincers came into view, she hissed at Roman as the thief lost all color, "Zyxlck, Zyxlck is my name, Master Thief. I am the first born of my Father, God of Anarchy, The Outcast, Malal."
"Right, right." Roman whimpered as the tail end slithered through the air, back behind the Daemon before him, "I-I was wondering if I could…if I could…"
"Speak your mind, I promise I won't bite…yet."
Roman cleared his throat and slapped on his usual calm if not sarcastic sounding façade, "I was wondering what the next thing you needed me to do is."
Out of the corner of his eye he could see the near toothy grin Cinder had, it ate at him that she had been hiding the fact that her boss's boss was apparently a sentient Grimm God of all things imaginable, he now truly regretted ever meeting the woman, he wanted to scream and cry his eyes out, what could make this night any worse?
"I hunger, fetch me some of those Beastmen you were speaking of, they will suffice for now." The Daemon said with crossed arms, waving Roman off as if he was a servant.
"Yes, of course." He said with a fake smile.
A hand patting on the thief's shoulder drew him back to the present, he rubbed his eyes feeling utter exhausted from staying up for nearly three days and nights straight, he looked to his left, seeing the pleasant concern on Neo's face as she held a cup of coffee in her hands, offering it to Roman.
He gratefully took the mug and sipped the bitter drink, he wrapped an arm around Neo and hugged her silently, his fears for the both of them now worse than ever before. His supposed 'allies' if anything were now revealed to be insane cultists that worshipped the Grimm's creator and wanted to bring all of Remnant crashing down in their wake, the only way they offered for him and Neo to survive was to serve them.
He supposed there could be worse jobs and deals.
"RRRRRRRRARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!" Khan screamed as he thrashed a Faunus captive with a thick cudgel, the abhumans corpse being beaten into paste, the Khornate Champion showed the body no remorse as he vented his rage and indignation of being forced to retreat from The Outcast's Daemon spawn.
He never felt more humiliated, never felt so weak and scared before in his life, like a lame legged Grot, helpless before a beast of unimaginable terror. On top of that, the damned Sorcerer was the one that saved him from being destroyed by the Daemon beast, as if he already hadn't enough humiliation to bear.
"If you're quite done with your hissy fit," Montresor sighed as he held an icepack against his head, "we have much to discuss."
Khan snarled indignantly, his eyes glowed like burning stars, his sharpened teeth bared like a mad dog, "You dishonored me before my Patron!"
"I saved you from a meaningless death, how best do you think you serve him? By dying and going to The Outcast? Or living to fight his kind?" Montresor dryly asked, blue light shining from his eyes as he stood off against the Khornate Champion.
"Enough!" Setesh commanded, the Black Legion Space Marines sat upon a recently made throne carved from the rock of their cave, cushioned by the corpses of his slain prisoners, "This Daemon you speak of, did you hear his name so he can banished?"
"My Lord," Montresor said bowing his head, "We did not, but even then, the same rules do not apply to his kind."
Setesh glared at the Sorcerer with a very unamused frown, "How so? Sorcerer."
"The Outcast is the paragon of contradiction, the rules for His kind are not the same as ours, the only way to banish them is to destroy them, but such a task is nigh impossible for us to do."
"His very presence nullified our connection to the Gods," Bubonicos wheezed as he applied rotten cadaver meat to his festering wounds to absorb, meanwhile Caligularii sat next to him, rubbing and pinching all over its body to bring sensation back, "fighting him directly without being a Greater Daemon…that might not even work, we simply can't be in His sight."
The Chaos Marine grumbled as he tapped the rocky arm rest of his throne, an enemy that they can't engage directly, a Greater Daemon of The Outcast in real space so powerful that it nearly drained four Chaos Champions by being present. If they were to engage it, then they would need very heavy artillery to even damage it let alone cause its death…unless…
Without warning the Chaos Marine Champion bellowed out a hearty evil laugh, he clapped his giant metal hands as he stood from his throne, "How foolish of me to not think of this before."
"My Lord?" Montresor asked as he took a step back.
"Its all so simple yet I had not realized it before," He said looking down at the Champions, "if we cannot harm it, then let's have the Imperial dogs do our bidding without realizing it, let them have at each other first."
"Of course…" Khan said as he realized what the Chaos Marine was implying, "we draw him out, and make the Imperials with their allies take the beast on, then we annihilate them all!"
Montresor grinned as he clasped his hands together, "It sounds like a plan!"
Orkburg.
To the eye of anyone but an Ork it seemed as if they had arranged a base made up a scrap arranged at random with no real rhyme or reason excluding the large metal reinforcing their wooden walls…they wouldn't be too wrong in that sense, but to an Ork's eyes, the base was set up in a way that defended the Ork's breeding area where the new Nobs were to be born and next to the breeding area there was the church where they would be educated in Ork Kultur.
The Ork Kultur was an enlightening and extremely well-developed culture, unique and diverse, full of wonderful messages of peace…you only had to ignore every single part of it to see those messages, otherwise you just got an ultra-violent belief system of futbol hooligans that either enslaved or killed everything in their path all because it was fun.
"OrksOrksOrksOrksOrksOrksOrks-" Came the working chant as Nobs started erecting statues of Mork and Gork made from the foinest, shioniest pieces of scrap that they could find out of the pile brought back by the sneaky Ork raiding party.
"Wots a ninjer?" A Nob wearing a fur hat asked as he held a copy of Ninja Techniques for Huntsmen in training upside down.
A bucket hat wearing Nob scratched his head as he looked at the book, "Wut ya doin? Why you lookin at da toilet paper loike that?"
"It's got pretty pictures of humies with swards stabbin and slashin, acting all sneakieh loike in pajamas."
The bucket hat wearing Nob glanced at the drawings on the page, unable to read the humie groxscratch but somewhat able to comprehend the techniques of these "ninjers" in the funny black pajamas, "Oi, we outta get this to Bossman Blitz, there could be teef in it for us."
"Wot do you mean by us?" The fur hat Nob asked with a snarl, "this mai picture paper, da teef is moine!"
The bucket wearing Nob snarled back as he cracked his knuckles, "I'm gonna knock yer block off you zogging git!"
"RRRRRRAAAAAAGGGGHHH!" The fur hat Nob roared as he tackled the bucket wearing Nob into the ground, a good three feet into the soft dirt, which alerted the other Nobs, who started to cheer on who they wanted to win.
That was until Blitz fired his handgun in the air, "Stop wit da foightin'! Wot is da meanin' of this you zoggin' twits!?"
The fur hat Nob punched the bucket wearing Nob in the face, "He wanted to steal mai idea of using this picture book for Ork sneakehness!"
"Oi!" The bucket wearing Ork cried as he smacked the other Ork with a rock, "He a filthy liar, he is!"
"Enough!" Blitz hollered, he grabbed both by the napes of their necks and smashed them together three times, without care and grace the Ork Captain tossed the both of the Nobs into the air, both of which unceremoniously crashed on top of a crate, smashing the contents with their weight, "Both of you'z iz bloody idiots! Wasting mai time wiff-"
The larger Ork squinted his beady eyes at the book, he flipped out a pair of glasses, that only had one cracked lense with a bridge held together by dried gum, "Hmmmmmmm…interestin'…sneaky humie arts…"
Vale wilderness.
Under the pale moon did Knight-Sergeant Nihilus stand in absolute silence, his gaze set upon the endless stars surrounding the broken moon of this lost world. Here a minor victory hath been won against the forces of the Outcast and a petty township had been robbed of its imminent demise. From behind the Knight-Sergeant a great bonfire was placed in the town's square, where survivors, warriors and their kin, celebrated being able to last the night.
Little did they know of the coming darkness.
Many had pleaded with the former bodyguard of The Lion, to join them in their merriment, their disappointment did not phase him in the slightest though. Dark Angels never take part in merriment or adoration, it was to be shunned for they were to be ever vigilant in meeting the enemies of Mankind head on.
As he focused upon the stars themselves, all he could visualize were the silver eyes of his father, of his Primarch, Lion El'Johnson.
His Primarch was stern, secretive, proud, but above all, he loved his sons in a way that only those closest to him could see. Trusting in them his safety, with missions so deadly that it was thought that even veteran Astartes would fail. Yet he trusted such Astartes like Nihilus to answer his call, to take upon the deadliest of tasks that no other son could hope to accomplish.
Oh, how he missed his Primarch, his father.
Nihilus was drawn from his reprieve of solemn silence by the steady soft beat of footsteps, he glanced down from the corner of his helm to see a mere child, nigh, abomination, casually strolling on a course bound for him. With no falsity, if he had known the Humans here housed themselves with abhumans, he would've let them all die if not for his mission of contacting Remnant's Humanity to fight the Archenemy.
Oh, how he was disgusted by this…thing with rodent ears.
"Mister?" The female juvenile aberration asked in a small voice, like that of a mouse, "Mister?"
The Knight-Sergeant sneered from behind his helm, his gravel voice sounded through his helm, "Begone with you, plague me no more with your presence."
Rarely had he spoken, his declarations in battle were to incite the Humans to further struggle on in their battle. Since then he responded to all in cold silence, yet this child of aberration had interrupted his thoughts whilst intruding upon his silent meditation, thus, he was thoroughly annoyed by her intrusion. The Space Marine expected a number of things, a sorrowful tear-filled face, her brow to be creased into a frown of indignation, perhaps she'd even leave him in silence to sulk or walk off with a shrug.
Instead she softly plopped down next to him, staring curiously at the Pre-Heresy colored Dark Angel Space Marine, "Why are you standing here? Aren't you cold?"
Nihilus ignored the child and narrowed his eyes to the stars once more, very steadily there was rising urge to crush the little annoying thing, 'By the Emperor, not only is she an aberration, but she possesses the intelligence of a customer service servitor, or is this just her kind's average intelligence?'
With the elegance of a soft breeze, the Faunus child plucked a flower from beside the Dark Angel, her little brown eyes met his blood red visor as she tried to extend the flower near his massive gauntlet. She said nothing when the Dark Angel once again ignored her, turning his gaze back up to the stars, in the broken moon's glow.
"The stars are pretty, aren't they? I wish I could up there with them."
Oddly enough, especially for a Dark Angel, a gruff dry chuckle escaped the massive metal clad superhuman, the poor deformed child had no idea of the irony…
"Celina! Celina!" A man's voice called out, this man was a Remnant warrior that was referred to as a 'Huntsman', his abilities did not impress the Knight Sergeant, his failure to protect the settlement with his unique abilities provided by the Emperor was an insult to His Grace. There were few reasons to let him live.
The abominable child raised her hand and waved to the man, "Over here Mister Azure!"
Knight Sergeant Nihilus saw from the corner of his eye that the man gave an exasperated sigh, "Don't wander too far off, your mother is worried sick about the Grimm striking again and she doesn't want you wandering off."
"Sorry Mister Azure," The girl stood and gave the Space Marine a friendly wave, "goodbye giant knight!"
Relief passed through the Knight Sergeant as the beastchild left his presence, yet he now felt a steady dread returning as the Hunstman approached, apparently all of the lifeforms here didn't comprehend that he wasn't interested in their unworthy company.
Dull creatures.
"I can't thank you enough for your assistance," The blue-eyed Huntsman said, his height was dwarfed completely by the Space Marine, it was humbling that he had to look up to metal clad warrior, the giant seemed in more cases than one above him and the other townspeople, "if you hadn't arrived, our little town would've been lost."
Nihilus regarded the man with a scathing glare under his oppressive helm, "I do not believe it would've been a detriment to Mankind if I hadn't arrived, Beastlover."
Kyle Azure was stunned by the callous words from his supposed savior, he gasped, looking at the massive Space Marine with exasperation, "How could you say that!?"
"You associate yourselves with aberrations, you mix with them, corrupting the purity of Mankind with Beastmen. Your people's incompetence to mount defenses nearly cost you the lives you don't deserve. My arrival was merely circumstance." Nihilus coldly replied, refusing to regard the man with his gaze.
The Huntsman could not believe what he was hearing, no one could possibly be that cold and indifferent, how could this giant be so callous as to suggest he would've just let them all die because they associated with the Faunus, "You can't be serious, you'd let women and children die simply because you don't like that some of them have animal traits? You'd just sit back and watch!?"
"I saved your fruitless lives simply because I required transport to a city, but I would've degraded myself to walking if I had known of your cohabitation with the deformed." Nihilus spat, his patience was thinning due to this little Human's pestering questions.
Kyle Azure glared at the Space Marine and indignantly turned his back on the warrior from the stars, "Your Bullhead will be here in the hour, take it and forget this place even exists."
The Knight Sergeant didn't respond to the Huntsman, he'd be content in erasing this place from his memory, a minor stepping stone that held little consequence to the grand scheme of the Emperor's designs, therefor, the people that occupied it meant nothing either. Very rarely did a Space Marine, especially a Dark Angel spend an inkling of time to be concerned with the affairs of regular Humans, even less so in the Humans that mixed with abominations.
All he needed to do was simply bide his time now, then forget these abominations.
Ironwood's Bullhead escort.
General Ironwood wouldn't be the first to admit it, but the silent stares of these 'Korpsmen' were unnerving to say the least. For an hour he was entertained by the Krieg Civil War's and the Spinward Front summarization by the Commissar Haxis Cestus, a man who was from a world called Terrax Prime, his tenure with the people of Krieg made him one of the few people in the Galaxy to actually have their people's admiration.
His discomfort however wasn't more so with their unmoving stares, though some of his soldiers would disagree, it was the fact that many of them were so incredibly young, the youngest being a fourteen-year-old boy in a man's uniform. Flanking the Lord Commissar were the oldest Kriegsman and women, in perhaps the whole regiment itself, they were in their thirties and from what he was told, they were far from normal by Imperium standards.
Though there was some protest from this Inquisitor Quinton, Lord Commissar Cestus explained that the Death Kommandos were specially enhanced Guardsmen, apart of a new scheme to help turn the tide against the very…unorthodox enemies of Mankind in space. That in of itself was hard to believe, aliens, Daemons, and renegade Space Marines…oddly enough the Daemons weren't all to specific, just that they were a threat, no explanation if they were really ethereal monsters or if they were some sort of hostile alien species.
Then of course that brings him back to the Space Marines, these sons of the Primarchs who're the sons of this "God Emperor of Mankind", Ozpin had made mention of an individual in similar uniform with a few others arriving not too soon after, spouting off nonsense of a God of Mankind ruling the stars. No mention was yet made about this individual's identity, not yet at least, the General still had to gauge the Lord Commissar and the Space Marines to see if they could truly be allies before giving mention of these men.
Specialist Schnee was skeptical from the looks of it, but it was impossible to explain the uniforms, the black robed "Tech Priest" and of course the Space Marines. Despite her own stoic gaze, there was no holding up to the faceless stares of the Korpsmen. One in particular, the Watchmaster, as Cestus called her, was staring directly at Winter versus the usual blank forward unblinking stares.
Ironwood himself had the two-red clothed Kriegsman and woman staring directly at him, "My sincerest apologies General."
General Ironwood broke himself out of his thoughts, the Lord Commissar was leaning forward in his adjacent seat, giving a somewhat apologetic smile, "These three are very protective, hell, all of them are."
"Its admirable," General Ironwood said giving the Lord Commissar a nod, "to earn such unwavering respect and loyalty from your soldiers."
Cestus nodded, sitting back further into his seat, "Aye, these three have been by my side since their first war. These troopers you see around me, I've been with them since they ascended the Vitae Womb, you could say I'm a father to them, in a way."
The General grimaced, what sort of father sends his children to die? Cestus made a similar face, conveying to Ironwood that he had the same thoughts, "It hurts every time to see them fulfil their duty, but I'm proud of them nevertheless. I wish there was some other way, but there isn't one."
A beeping sounded off in the General's scroll, he unfolded the device and looked down at the screen, "General Ironwood, we're approaching your ship, Lima Three would however like to complain about their cargo, saying he's thrashing around…whatever that means."
Cestus sighed, "Terribly sorry, Ogryn really hate confined spaces, could I be able to speak to my boy?"
Ironwood glanced down to the pilot, "Lima One, patch me to Lima Three."
"Right away, General."
Lima One's portrait moved to the left as Lima Three's came up on the right, the pilot was gritting his teeth as he struggled to keep his bird steady, "General Ironwood! That thing back there is moving like he's got fleas! I can't keep my baby girl flying like this!"
"Patch me through to the cargo bay, I have a…specialist that can smooth things over."
Cestus took the Scroll, looking it over with a minor bit of interest, "An interesting piece of tech."
Tech Priest Starza was situated next to Inquisitor Quinton and a few Korpsmen, but his glowing red eyepieces were ogling the Scroll like a fat child at an all you can eat Grox pie contest, despite the "Bullhead" having very few visible combat capabilities, the Martian born priest of technology couldn't help but want to drool over the sleek Atlesian tech.
From the screen's find light blue glow the Lord Commissar could see his nervous Bone'ead pacing, or more accurately, staggering back and forth against Lima Three's cargo hold, causing a fine bit of damage. The Ogryn had removed his giant Krieg designed industrial gas mask, his deformed abhuman face showed Faust's crooked teeth in a panicked snarl, the beast's breathing was heavy with steam-like gusts of breath being exhaled in thick plumes.
Though none could see it, a few Korpsmen in hearing range of the Scroll had very small if not almost visible twitching looks of disgust. Lord Commissar Cestus may've been able to tolerate the Ogryn's presence, his Death Kommandos certainly gave the illusion of tolerance, but the Korpsmen at their very core hated the useful beast in its entirety. Faust may've been a sanctioned abhuman, yet it did not at all ease the callous thoughts in each Korpsman's mind, he was an abomination dressed in a pseudo Krieg uniform, an utter waste of fabric and chemicals.
Their unanimous hatred for his existence was a trait most Imperials could share, but their greatest cause for spite was the Ogryn's natural claustrophobia. Fear was already an emotion that the Krieg despised, fear from an abhuman at Faust's size was just unacceptable to their standards. No one dared to voice their beliefs to the Lord Commissar though, not a single one of them believed that they could endure any look of disappointment from his gaze.
"I just speak into this?" Cestus warily asked General Ironwood, pointing down at the Scroll in an unsure gesture.
General Ironwood nodded, "Yes, the Scroll should be able to transmit through Lima Three's cargo hold, and please do hurry it up, losing a pilot and a whole ship is the last thing I need today."
The Lord Commissar bit back the urge to chide the lowly General about his attitude to a Commissar, he wrote it off as Feudal ignorance, instead his attention was turned towards his Ogryn, "Faust, do you hear my voice?"
Like a whip the Bone'ead's snapped left and right, his eyes were frantic, "Bossman? Bossman where you hiding at?"
The Lord Commissar took a deep breath and calmly spoke into the Scroll, "I am speaking to you on a Vox-comm, I need you to take a deep breath and calm down."
Taking his orders to the Ogryn extreme, Faust took inhaled deeply and exhaled a steamy plume that nearly obscured the cameras inside of the cargo bay. On the other end of the Scroll, Lord Commissar Cestus sighed softly, he loved his honor bound abhuman but even the beast's simpleton nature was starting to wear down on him, "Faust, that's enough. I want you to count back from ten for me, alright?"
The Bone'ead nodded rapidly as he held up his giagantic fingers in front of him, "Ten…noine…ate…sheven…sticks…uhhhh…nnnnnhhh-"
"That's not good," Cestus muttered as Faust blanked, his implants must've taken a beating when the Ogryn went tumbling into that tree, usually it would take a lot more damage to mess with the kind of hardware stuffed in an Ogryn's head, so it must be some sort of short circuit.
"Wot comes after sticks?" Faust asked, his head snapping frantically as the tight space continued to fill him with dread, "Bossman?"
"Five, Faust, then four…"
Faust closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, he then smacked his own head to help himself remember the rest of the numbers, "Twree…two…one…I did it!"
"Yes Faust, good boy, the Emperor is very proud of you, yet He demands that you remain still until I personally lead you off of the vessel." Another thing he appreciated about the Ogryn strain, deathly loyal to the God Emperor, they believe that literally every order comes straight from Him down to men like the Lord Commissar. Cestus would make a comparison to the Ogryn and Kriegsmen but that would most certainly be an insult that not even his children could ignore.
"Faust stay still like Krieg friends! Faust be good servant!" The Orgyn plopped himself down on a few crates, accidently crushing the Atlesian weapons inside with his bulk. General Ironwood cringed and hissed slightly, Schnee's weapons weren't exactly cheap but he was most certain that absolutely none of those weapons could be used anymore.
The Lord Commissar handed the Scroll back with an apologetic cringe, "I'm terribly sorry about that, the Ogryn strain of Abhuman is rather…simple, but unwaveringly loyal."
"I can see that," General Ironwood said as he watched the 'Ogryn' start counting its fingers, "just how exactly did this Faust come to be?"
"Like all of his kin, he came from a high gravity planet that had been smothered by a Warpstorm since what we call the Dark Age of Technology," Cestus explained, noting the General and his subordinate's confusion, "where Mankind's machines betrayed their rightful masters. Faust was a gift, granted to me by Armageddon's Planetary Governor after we assisted them in a raid on the Orks."
The General's subordinate, one Winter Schnee from what Cestus gathered, looked somewhat disturbed, "So he's a slave?"
Cestus nodded his head with an amused chuckle, "No, not at all. He's an Oath Bound Ogryn, part of the Imperial Guard, essentially, he arranged Faust's transfer to be my retinue, he's saved my skin many a time."
"What does that make them?" Ironwood asked, gesturing to the Kriegsmen, the only ones that had their eyes on him were the main three 'Death Kommandos', the others stared silently with forward eyes, "They themselves sound like slaves, being forced into service after being guilted for the entirety of their lives, none of that seems fair."
Before the General could further reflect his words, the atmosphere in the shuttle grew crisp as Cestus's narrowed his eyes to his supposed counterpart, "General, nothing about the Imperium or the Galaxy itself is fair, it is cold, harsh, and incredibly unforgiving, but it is necessary. The people of Krieg reflect this very nature, they understand their sacrifice and face it fearlessly. I couldn't ask for better warriors just short of Astartes."
General Ironwood could see that Cestus felt strongly about it, a vein popped out along his neck and his tone was not one of good nature, rather it was a firm tone of bitter finality that seemed to suit the elder warrior quite well. He glanced around and saw that every Kriegsman had their eyes on him, they did not take kindly to his observation of their status in the Imperium as it felt like they were trying to burn him alive on the spot.
"That's enough," Cestus said, not to the General, he was looking back and forth between his soldiers, "the Feudal General does not understand our struggle, his world has yet to seen what lies beyond the stars."
Ironwood watched with amazement as those accusing stares behind those faceless shields went back into their blank thousand-yard stares. Strange, how these people could convey their thoughts with just body movements, he hadn't heard a single peep from any of the soldiers, the General had at least expected that they would unmask themselves after seeing that the atmosphere was not polluted.
"Aren't those things uncomfortable for them?" Winter asked, supposedly having the same concern as the General.
"No, the Kriegsmen wear gas masks all their lives, they grow accustomed to them very early on. The gas mask is a staple of status in Krieg, the better the mask, the more valuable its wearer is." Cestus held up his own mask, it looked very similar to the masks his subordinates wore, but it was far shinier with its leather looking like it was made up of better quality, they could see that there was some sort of communication device built into the mask to better vocalize the user when he spoke, "My mask is a little bit more complex as you can see, its easier to command my forces, a gift, that they had helped fashion with Starza."
Starza shugged his shoulders, they gave off a low mechanical whine from, "The fleshbags could've done it on their own, they just wanted a Priest's blessing, so its spirit would last as long as Cestus' life persists."
The General's scroll rang out as the pilot's portrait came back into view, "Lima One to General Ironwood, we are beginning the docking process, over."
A sigh of relief nearly escaped Ironwood, the Bullhead felt extremely tense due to the Kriegsmen, he was thankful however that the Space Marines opted to take Lima Two. Though it took a lot of effort, and primarily large amounts of Gravity Dust, the Adeptus Astartes of the Black Shields Chapter were fitted into the Bullhead cargo hold of Lima Two after it was stripped of everything in the hold. These warriors weighed so much that just one of their armored boots nearly bent Lima Two's cargo bay door in half, the door itself had nearly warped to the Space Marine's boot with how much pressure was forced upon it.
Thankfully Specialist Schnee had the foresight to improvise the use of Gravity Dust in a way to have the Space Marines just barely however off the floor, while their full weight wasn't put onto the ship, a good fraction of each Marine's weight was exuberated from the Gravity Dust having to reverse the flow of gravity, just barely.
As Lima squadron landed, a retinue of Atlesian troopers awaited at the end of each bay door, armed and standing in parade rest to greet both Imperial Guardsmen along with the Space Marines. One could say it was an eager attempt to show the warriors from the stars that Atlas was not some sloppy gaggle of shiny tic-tacs. When the bay doors of Lima One came down, the retinue stood at attention as General Ironwood, Specialist Schnee, and their squad followed after them with what seemed like trepidation in their steps.
Silence followed for a moment, then the steady crunch of boots and mechanical whirring chilled their hearts. In two small columns did the Death Korps Guardsmen march out, not a single step was out of place as they continued their rehearsed marching orders. The Atlesian retinue felt an unnerving diss-ease with the Korpsmen, they were possibly the only professional soldiers they have ever laid eyes on other than their own. No other Kingdom could compare to Atlas in its military zeal, yet the way these soldiers in what looked like less advanced uniforms compared to their own was world shattering.
Usually preparatory commands would be initiated for March Time, Right Step, Left Step, but none was given for the columns. Yet they stopped at the same time, turned at the same time, and stood deathly silent with their backs to the Atlesians, almost as if this was rehearsed religiously.
The three Deathkommandos were the next to leave Lima One, their cold gazes seemingly sucking the light out of the room, they moved in unison with their march, leading out Tech Priest Starza and his Servo Skulls. For a moment the Atlesians nearly broke out formation, heads turned, necks craned to get a glimpse at the strange robed thing and his macabre minions that floated just above him.
"A-TEN-HUT!" Ironwood barked out, forcing his enlisted troopers to tear their curious gazes from the Tech Priest, there may be humans from space on his ship, but he'd be damned if he let his troopers get away with breaking from formation.
Lord Commissar Cestus was the last man down the ramp, this time suited up with his Krieg Commissar mask, its oppressive glare washed over the Atlesians as he menacingly stalked off the ramp. Dramatic, yes, but the desired results of seeing sweat line the lips of Ironwood's propped up pseudo NDF made it all the more delicious to Cestus' ego.
*National Defense Force*
Ironwood felt a vein nearly pop from his neck, there was a sneaking suspicion in his mind that the Lord Commissar was doing this on purpose.
The sounds of metal straining against metal caught General Ironwood's attention though, Lima Two's doors were refusing to open due to the damage sustained from the Astartes walking on it initially. The General also noticed that the ship itself was groaning as the landing gears started groaning steadily and bending unnaturally as the ship started to sag towards the end. All of that changed with one great big crunch as the Librarian crumpled the door like it was paper with his telekinesis, revealing himself and his fellow squadmates to the puny Atlesians.
For their worth, they didn't scream in terror or open unrestricted fire, they did however turn several shades paler as the bay shook with every Space Marine that stepped away from Lima Two's cargo hold. Even the crew at the bridge felt the movement and wondered if Nevermores the size of apartments weren't smacking into them.
The Chaplain Penance turned his head down to the left, examining one of the Atlesians up close, he could smell the pheromones of pure fear radiating from the shaking soldier, he could see the sweat pouring down the man's face almost like a faucet. He gave a metallic grunt, stomping past the feudal humans, uninteresting things they were, far beneath his notice and his kin.
Yet a sort of whimsy did not escape the harden Chaplain. He gripped his Power Maul and activated its electrical field, scarring the Atlesians closest to him to break rank and scurry away like gutter rats, nearly slamming into their own fellow Atlesians. Deep mechanical laugher bellowed from the Chaplain and his fellow Black Shields, rarely did they ever indulge in anything remotely enjoyable, the last jest they enjoyed was centuries before on a distant unmemorable world.
General Ironwood cringed at the thunderous echoing laughter of the Astartes Black Shields, yet as soon as it started, it ended. The silence that followed afterwards was eerie and numbing all at once, a moment later the Black Shields continued their march, to the horror of the Atlesian soldiers, denting the floor with every step.
Lord Commissar Cestus broke off from his children and made his way towards Lima Three, he strode with the sort of confidence of a man in complete control of a situation despite being grossly outnumbered by feudals aboard their own ship. Faust was being a good Ogryn, sitting quietly in the cargo bay of Lima Three despite his instincts telling him to rip the soft metal ship to ribbons just for a single breath of fresh air, yet Bossman said be still, so he was still.
As Cestus approached the door, he turned towards Ironwood's direction, "Tell your men to give the ship some space, I'd say about fifty feet, otherwise, you'll have a very claustrophobic Orgyn getting anxious."
"Disperse, move back from Lima Three!" General Ironwood ordered, ignoring the indignant feeling of being ordered around like a junior officer in Atlas Academy, it would seem he and Cestus would be playing a little game of who is really in charge on HIS own ship.
Specialist Schnee conveyed his own irritation much more vividly, something he'd have to remind her not to do especially in public. Though not many know it, he considered the Specialist to be like the daughter he never had oddly enough, it was borderline unprofessional, but he could not deny that he had large amounts of favoritism and trust towards the Specialist.
If only her father wasn't such an asshole.
"General, tell your man to lower the door, slowly." The Lord Commissar asked with a serious tone, he himself stood a good fifteen feet away from the bay doors with his feet spaced apart to break off in a sprint just in case Faust became impatient and charged the door.
The Lord Commissar could only hope to the God Emperor that Faust wouldn't get impatient, a charging panicked Ogryn in a room with a bunch of feudals acting as bowling pins would make for terrible diplomatic negotiations. His boy has a tendency of being loyal to every command, but when it comes to Ogryn and confined spaces, no one could really predict how well that circumstance will turn out.
As the door came down, everyone, even a few of the Kriegsmen, held their breathes. Heavy steam puffs spewed from the door, yet it wasn't from the ship itself, Faust was trying to push his face towards the widening split between the door and ship, desperate for fresh air. His gigantic hands forced the bay doors open in a frightening display of force, completely destroying the door.
'Oh come on!' Ironwood thought bitterly to himself, that's two of his ships that are no longer air worthy due to the sheer size and power of the metahuman Imperials, to think that the thing standing taller than an Ursa Major on its hindlegs with muscles that looked thicker than stone, was at its core, a Human being.
Specialist Schnee grimaced at the sight of Faust's mangled face, eyes, nose, and generally everything so malformed in its size was just gut wrenching for the Atlesian perfectionist. If her father thought the Faunus were contemptable, then he'd die of absolute disgust at the sight of this creature. She however caught herself, she may've been disgusted, but there was no reason to blame it, he was just a being of circumstance from what Cestus described, had no say in how in how he'd be formed or what route his life would have.
There was a pang of pity in the former Schnee Heiress.
"Halt, not a step further Faust." The Lord Commissar warned, using his improved Vox-box in his mask to broadcast his voice like a megaphone, he stood dignified as the Bone'ead focused all attention on his shiny leader, "Mask on, now."
With three great big nods the Ogryn started fumbling for his outrageously sized mask, he took three cartoonish deep breathes of his mask, his body visibly began to relax.
"Good boy," Cestus nodded, he disabled his megaphone mode and sighed with relief, the drugs were taking effect on the Ogryn but they wouldn't last for long. Producing them would be another issue, enough for Faust and his Guardsmen to use. While the Krieg were disciplined, they were quickest to anger without their soothing drugs, just one heretical word from the feduals and they might welt the Atlesians into their armor from lasrifle bolts.
"Faust do not like room," The Bone'ead glanced around the Atlesian hanger, then down to the little humans that nearly blended in with the room itself, "puny shiny men too shiny."
"It lacks proper Imperial decoration," Inquisitor Quinten remarked, grimacing as he laid eyes on the Atlesian vehicles, uniforms, and over all lack of space technology, "it's rather boring actually, a bit humble in terms of tech."
An unamused frown formed on Ironwood's face, his national pride being snubbed aside, his Imperial hosts did not seem to really appreciate the power that Atlas currently held on Remnant or the generosity he was showing them by permitting such highly dangerous individuals on HIS ship in the first place. Yet the idea of letting them wander around his Kingdom aimlessly with the power their Space Marines possessed, not to mention the big guy, just seemed like an even worse idea to him.
"Ow! Hey- quit it! Just let me help you- SHIT!"
The General's head nearly snapped around as lasbolts fired out of Lima One, two of his medics threw themselves out under the laser fire, one with a scorch mark on his helmet, "SIR! THE WOUNDED ARE SHOOTING AT US!"
Before Ironwood could even order it, the Kriegsmen and Atlesians had their wepons trained on each other, the Space Marines just seemed to glower menacingly enough to make the soldiers nearest to them cower away or turn their guns on the Guardsmen and the Lord Commissar instead, who was standing in front of a giant with a really big automatic shotgun pointed at Ironwood.
"What is the meaning of this!?" Cestus demanded with his hands on his hips, his frustration however was to the two medics that were hiding behind Winter Schnee, who in turn had her sword pointed at the Deathkommandos staring her down.
"Your men shot at us when we tried tending to them!" The medic with the burnet helmet shouted, pointing at his scorch mark, "Damn near fried my brains!"
"Control yourself soldier!" Ironwood demanded, making the animated soldier shutter before saluting, "and you, Commissar, control your men!"
The Lord Commissar didn't acknowledge the General as he kept his gaze fixated on the medic, "Did any of you try removing their gas masks?"
Both medics looked at the Commissar as if he had grown several new heads, "Well, yeah, of course, we needed to get them to remove them."
Cestus nodded as he understood the problem, with a sigh he removed his own mask and walked towards Lima One, passing by a few Atlas troopers that kept their rifles trained on them, one had the dumb idea to try and stop the Commissar. Before he could even say a word, he was kissing the front sigh post of his rifle and seeing stars.
General Ironwood frowned but said nothing, there was enough trouble as it was, getting into a fight over a trooper that should've known better than to interfere with the man who in his own words was "the mediator" between Korpsmen and no-Koprsmen. Though he didn't appreciate the older man assaulting his troopers.
Out of his own curiosity, Genral Ironwood swiftly caught up with the Lord Commissar, hoping to set some ground rules with the man being in more or less private area aboard Lima One, "Commissar."
"Lord Commissar." Cestus chided low enough for the Genral to hear as he boarded the ramp.
A nerve was struck in Ironwood as he grabbed the Lord Commissar by the arm and forced him to turn around and acknowledge him as they were I the mouth of the ship, "I'd appreciate it if you and your men would show me and my soldiers a bit more of respect. I am your host after all, and as a military man I assume you don't like being disrespected on your own ship, so I'd appreciate it if you'd show me the same curtesy."
The General and Lord Commissar had a tense standoff, both men held hard looks with one another, one that demanded respect, the other one of purse stony indifference. Strangely enough, a soft glint came to the Lord Commissar's eye, he nodded but still kept a firm look with General Ironwood, "I do believe my child-Guardsmen and our colleagues have been a bit rude, I admit that. Understand it from our point of view General, we're fresh form a warzone, managed to come to a draw with an underpowered awakening Greater Daemon, he was playing a game, not even trying to fight us. We have no way of telling anyone usefully trained to deal with it and are now stuck on a world that has no way of alerting the Imperium about this new grave threat. We're tired, battered, and extremely- well, I'm extremely worried about what he's up to right now. I'll inform them to be a bit more…courteous."
Ironwood took a breath, taking a few metaphorical steps back, he could see where the Lord Commissar was coming from but he himself had a lot to deal with right now as well.
"But General," The Lord Commissar said, rather darkly, smacking Ironwood's hand from his arm, "if you touch me again, I will kill you."
No answer came from the General as he kept his stare with the Lord Commissar, no answer was needed as Cestus lost interest with his Atlesian opponent, but still looked righteously furious as he marched to his bedridden Kriegsmen, "You two!"
Both Kriegsmen were sitting upright in their cots, laspistols in their hands, they were deathly silent as usual, but their body language suggested a small sense of tension, if not nervousness.
A very stern Commissarish glare set itself upon Cestus' face, greatly highlighting his cerement brick chin, "You have got some explaining to do, 345632-345633-Kat and 345632-345634-Paul, just what in the Golden Throne were the two of you thinking!? I thought I made it absurdly clear to you that no harm was to come to the Feudals, especially without my order! What in His name made you think believe you were permitted to override this order!?"
Neither Kreigsmen said a word for a moment, one, presumably Paul spoke up with his head bowed, "My Lord, they tried to take our faces off. You never gave us permission to take them off."
Ironwood's brow furrowed, "What?"
Cestus glanced back to Ironwood, "Kriegsmen usually refer to their gas masks as their face, its on them for so long that they feel naked without it, some have gone mad after being without their face for a week."
The Commissar crossed his arms as he gave both Kriegsmen a hard stare, creating a very stale and uncomfortable presence that had even Ironwood feeling nervous, up to the point Cestus held out his hand, "Pistols, turn them over, monoknives too."
There was a queer head tilt from both Guardsmen, but they complied as ordered, their exchange mirrored that of a father demanding two troublesome boys to turn over slingshots for breaking a vase.
'Dustless laser pistols.' Ironwood mused as he eyed the weapons in Cestus' hand, the knives were large like bayonets yet on the outside seemed no different that a regular knife, at least from his view, Remnant has very innocent looking ways of concealing weapons that defy the laws of physics after all, who knows what they really could be.
Cestus glanced down at the weapons for a moment, strangely enough his face seemed to soften slightly, yet retained a commanding tone, "I want facial conformation that you two understand my orders and their clarifications. No violence against the Feudals, unless I give the order, or the lives of Imperials are in danger."
Ironwood felt a sense of wariness at the "unless I give the order" phrase, but he did have a healthy amount of curiosity as to what these supposedly fearless warriors look underneath their oppressive false faces.
By Dust was he disturbed.
He was a General, a Huntsman Headmaster, the idea of having young adults go into battle against the Grimm and now as of late due to circumstances, terrorists, but he was just not mentally prepared for the boys in front of him. They couldn't be any older than sixteen at least, yet they just looked so ungodly. The boy Kat short black hair cropped near his head, which had a horrific scar on the side of his head that possibly leads all the way around to the back, his eyes were gray and sullen, much like the rest of his bare face.
The boy Paul resembled him greatly yet without the head wound, he however had a softer shade of blonde hair that was tussled in a mess from his mask, both boys looked devoid of life, of joy, they stared with seemingly empty gazes directed at their Lord Commissar, the man that fancied himself as their father.
"Confirm that you understand my orders." Cestus asked with a calmer more leveled voice.
"Confirmed." Both boys answered, in tones that reminded the General as boys in the midst of puberty, not the cold empty metallic growl that he expects from their masks.
"You let those medical men do what they need to do, if you prove yourselves compliant then you shall be rearmed…and, if I'm feeling that you deserve it, you'll have…chocolate rations."
'What?' Ironwood couldn't believe his eyes or ears, was he bribing them with chocolate?
Even stranger was the warm, mischievous, grin that the Lord Commissar had, something that Ironwood would expect from a father or grandfather that was fixing to spoil his children. He noticed the subtle changes in the boys, their cheeks flared red and those dull eyes seemed to sparkle just slightly, lips moving so slowly in anticipation.
'This has to be one of the most disturbing sights I have ever seen on all of Remnant.' Ironwood concluded, feeling outright filthy in his own uniform, it was just sick, sick that this man commanded children into full blown wars, sends them to die horribly, but tries to make up for it with fucking chocolate bars. Whatever impression he had of this space fairing empire has greatly become diminished, what sort of men can stomach this inhumanity?
"You boys behave now, or I'll be less lenient and do more than just take away your weapons." Cestus said, holding up the pistols and knives to empathize his point.
"We shall Lord Commissar." They said with conviction, the same conviction Ironwood's own men would have.
General Ironwood watched incredulously as Cestus walked passed him like he wasn't even there, his mind was still stunned at the interaction he just witnessed. Idly he stared at the boys and as expected they stared back, their eyes slightly narrowed as if they were disgusted by his presence, yet they soon lost interest in him as the medics from earlier hesitantly reboarded the ship.
"General, the Commissar said- oh my God…" The medic with a scorch mark whispered, his jaw falling open wide, twitching in disbelief, "they're- they-"
Ironwood nodded, placing a hand on the man's shoulder, "I know, just, do your jobs."
He left them without another word, he couldn't tolerate looking at those boys any more, he had to wonder though, how many of these "men" aren't just boys in a man's uniforms? Ironwood wiped a small collection of sweat from his brow, this whole situation has just spiraled out of control, hell, it was never in control. The man didn't know whether to be angry or to feel pity, Cestus himself said he was appalled by the way Fate seemed to play its cruel joke on them, yet he didn't seem so bothered back on the Bullhead with those boys, especially when he threatened their lives.
Steadily he eyed each Korpsmen, trying to determine their ages under their uniforms, a seemingly fruitless task as they all looked to say, despite what he thinks about the Imperial Guard's awful recruitment practices, they were uniformed without any faults excluding Cestus' Deathkommandos. From the corner of his eye he spotted one of the Guardsmen messing with their mask, an eyepiece was missing along with the mask's tube.
Despite his misgivings with the Lord Commissar, he did pity these child soldiers no matter how outwardly aggressive they acted, it simply wasn't their fault. Perhaps he himself had been harsh on the Lord Commissar as well, directing his anger towards a man that merely did as ordered just the same as himself.
Though Atlas doesn't usually use gas masks in combat, unless its in an area with volatile or poisonous gases that the Knights themselves can't get to because of some sort of connection issue, their soldiers would be equipped with the most state-of-the-art rebreathing equipment that there was.
Quickly he jogged back up the Bullhead's ramp, trying his hardest to avoid looking at the two Kriegsmen being treated by his medics. In a cabinet against the whole he retrieved one of these gas masks, it would cover the wearer's face with adjustable plastic straps that would maintain a good seal and prove to be claw resistant. This itself should prove to be a good-natured diplomatic gesture to hopefully help both parties come to an understanding.
Swiftly he made his way down the ramp, taking notice that the Lord Commissar was conversing with his Deathkommandos and that odd shifty eyed Inquisitor. He paid them no mind as he waded through the Kriegsmen, all of whom tensed with his presence yet made no protest.
The General stood before the Guardsman with the mask in his hand, he cleared his throat to get his attention, "Excuse me."
With a snap he was eye to eye with the Guardsman, a lone light blue meeting his own, there was a clear crack along the bridge of this soldiers' mask, some torn leather here and there exposing its wearer's pale skin.
He adopted a friendly smile as he held out the gas mask to the Krieg Guardsman, "On behalf of the Kingdom of Atlas, I wish to show cooperation with the Imperium of Mankind and hence I present you with a replacement gas mask, to better help you serve in combat."
For a moment the Guardsman just stared, their light blue eye widening in shock, then the soldier looked down to the mask, then back to Ironwood. With hesitant, oddly small, hands, the Guardsman accepted the mask, bringing their gaze back up to the General as if trying to confirm they were receiving the mask.
"Go on, its yours." He said with kind confidence.
The soldier stood for another second but suddenly broke off in a jog towards Cestus, faster than Ironwood would've expected someone to run whilst carrying all of that gear on their back. The General stood for a moment as the Guardsmen ran up beside the Lord Commissar, pointing at the mask then right at him from across the bay.
"General," Specialist Schnee asked as she walked up beside him, taking his attention away from the odd scene as Cestus glanced back at him with a pale look, then back over to the red male Deathkommando that had turned towards him, "we need to talk about the lodging required for the Imperials-"
"STOP AMWOLF NO!"
General Ironwood barely had the time to turn his head around before a gloved fist met his face like a flash of lightening, for a quick moment his headspun and ears rung as his Aura compensated for assault but by Dust could he feel that hit. He managed to focus on the very strange sight of that very same red Deathkommando being held back by both female Deathkommandos and with Cestus on the man's back trying to hold him back with a sleeper hold.
"STAND DOWN GOD EMPEROR DAMNIT!" Cestus roared as he struggled to use his body weight to slow Amowlf down, he huffed and puffed as his cybernetic limbs strained against the super Guardsman's strengthened body, perhaps his program had been too successful.
Ironwood shook his head, hissing as he felt his jaw, "The hell is wrong with-"
"You fool!" Cestus roared back, "Did you give 345678-435980-Frieda that gas mask!?"
"WHAT!?" Ironwood demanded with an incredulous look, "I was trying to be diplomatic and replace some broken equipment for your man-"
'That's not a man…' Ironwood thought as the soldier he thought was a man or possibly another young boy, was in fact a young woman underneath that uniform.
"Du lausige, fedale, heretische schlampe! Schlame! Schlampe!" The red Deathkommando roared as he struggled, dragging both female Deathkommandos and Cestus as they tried desperately to hold him back.
"What is he so upset about!" Specialist Schnee demanded as she unsheathed her blade, prepared to protect the General's life.
"Cousin, nein!" Frieda yelled as she went around the Kommandos and Cestus to plead with Amwolf, "Lass meinen verlobten in ruhe, der Gott Imperator hat ihn für mich ausgewählt!"
Amwolf seemed to only get more aggressive as he shouted at Frieda, "Das ist Männersache! Du hälst dich da raus Frieda!"
Ironwood looked between the four of them frantically, quickly losing his patience, "WHAT ON REMNANT IS GOING ON CESTUS!?"
"IT IS KRIEG CUSTOM TO PRESENT A WOMAN WITH A GAS MASK TO PROPSE MARRIAGE! YOU DID THAT YOU DOLT!" Cestus screamed back as he gave up on holding his soldier back, instead, he drew his bolter and pressed it against the back of his head, "GENUG AMWOLF! THAT IS AN ORDER!"
Just like that the struggling ceased, the male Deathkommando glared hot flaming spears of death at the confused Atlesian General, his breath left the mask like puffs of steam, Ironwood could swear he could feel the man's stare rifling through his soul ready to tear it apart.
"Damnit boy!" Cestus snapped as he smacked Amwolf's helmeted head, barely making the man move, "You're lucky that you're expensive! If I didn't need as many Guardsmen I can muster I'd blast your adamantium thick head off of your frakking shoulders! You commit another infraction like that again then by the Holy Golden Throne I will take your head! You get me!"
The Guardsman stood firmly, meeting the Lord Commissar's gaze, "Jawohl, mein Herr Kommissar."
"What the hell was that!? I thought you said you had this-"
"That was before you handed his biological cousin a gas mask," Cestus sighed, rotating his shoulder as his slap on Amwolf's head nearly busted his cybernetics, "like I said, a marriage proposal."
The color drained from Ironwood's face as he was now able to comprehend the Lord Commissar's words, "…what?"
Specialist Schnee had no words as she looked between the General, the Lord Commissar, Amwolf, and this young Guardswoman that looked at the General…with affection, "Oh my Dust."
None of the other Krieg Guardsmen so much as moved, their Atlesian counterparts with half raised rifles looked completely dumbstruck as the situation escalated beyond all possible reasonability. Off to the side Inquisitor Quinten and Tech Priest Starza stood silently.
Even the Space Marines seemed perplexed by the dilemma.
Sweat poured down General Ironwood's face as he felt his throat go unnaturally parched, "C-can you explain to her th-that this is-"
"No," Cestus sighed as he pinched his brow, desperately hoping for a Greater Daemon attack to distract from the situation, alas his heretical wish goes on answered, "I can't, she won't accept it, in fact, its impossible to go back on."
"H-how!?" Winter asked incredulously, a few hairs falling out of place from her bun.
"It's a lifetime bond." Amwolf spat as he glared directly at Ironwood, his eyes nearly burning holes through his gas mask lenses, "To try and sever this bond, you will dishonor her bloodline, thus, will require an honor killing. Feudal."
"Then- then that means."
"You will accept your responsibilities." Chaplain Penance declared as he stood with a very large book in his hand, "And I will authorize it."
Silence dominated the room as even the Lord Commissar was surprised by the Chaplain's declaration.
Inquisitor Quintin whispered to Starza, "Can- does he even have the authority to do that?"
Starza looked between his servo-skulls, "I don't feel like asking him myself."
Ironwood stood with his jaw slacked as he tried to come up with a sane and reasonable rebuttal, "Bu-I- she's-"
"Cease your pathetic whimpering feudal!" Chaplain Penance demanded as he pointed at the General, his voice booming throughout the bay, causing many of the Atlesian soldiers to shutter from the sheer volume, "I have made this decision to further the diplomatic relationship of this backwater world and the Imperium of Mankind, to try and go back on this union will most certainly be a great insult to the Imperium of Man."
The Chaplain leaned down closer, his heelish red eyepieces shining far more threatening than that of a Grimm, from behind the Chaplain, Ironwood could see ethereal lightening sparking in one of his large companion's hands, the blades of another's seemed to reflect his face, he didn't even want to see the one with the inhumanely long chainsword. To think, a simple act of generosity just brought him a whole new list of issues.
"Well…" Ironwood bravely avoided the Space Marine's glare and glanced at the Kriegswoman that had been the center of the whole issue in the first place. Her light blonde hair reached done past her chin curling slightly at the ends, a pair consisting of light blue and light green stared back him with a very unnatural gleam of affection, but the more he stared, the more he saw how fair she actually was, "sh-she's barely older than some of the students I teach, it'd be very wrong if-"
"It'd be very wrong if you continue to waste my time." The Chaplain said with finality, he stood at his full height and swept his hand across the bay, "I want two columns, Atlesians and Imperials standing adjacent to each other! You! White haired one, you shall be the flower maiden!"
Winter Schnee's eyes nearly popped out of her skull, "What!?"
"DID I STUTTER!?"
"N-no!"
"NO WHAT!?"
"NO, MY LORD!" Winter frantically looked between a few Atlesian soldiers, "Do we even have flowers on this ship!?"
READY TO DIE — Death Korps of Krieg [Warhammer 40.000]
Comrade Strogg
This guy made an awesome video, watch it, this I command.
A special thanks to Sirenos for providing his German speaking input for Old-Krieg dialogue. Also once more, a special thanks to lord purge or as he is known on youtube as LORD CAEDUS LIVES! For his DKRWBY tribute video and Helghan's Reach video. I've been approached by some people that offered to draw a DKRWBY cover but haven't really heard anything in months, though I am willing to shill at least twenty dollars for this one special idea of a cover, with Hans and Ruby sitting back to back, Hans looking over his shoulder with his mask slightly ajar, Ruby looking up over her shoulder, Hansel wearing a barbed wire crown on his head and Ruby wearing a crown made of roses on her head. My Deviantart name is the same as this one, just leaving that up for grabs…you know, if you give a shit.
And there we have it, V2 Chapter 2, took a fucking year of setbacks and writer's block…and the Chibi isn't even finished…oh well, I'll try to add it in when I'm not busy. You see, I'm currently being enrolled fulltime in a law enforcement academy myself, kind of like my version of Beacon, in a few days. I don't know too much about our domestic schedule, but I do believe I'll have the weekends to myself that might consist of studying, but I'll try to make time to write as I've got a fuck-ton of updates to do, along with the accursed new ideas I have.
So overall just expect the status quo of not hearing jackshit for a while, I guess, its not like in high school anymore where I could write and publish when I want to, there are unfortunately a lot of responsibilities for me to maintain now, so time is like a bitch.
Also for a little rant, from what I heard, it sounds like they just gave Adam the Kylo Ren treatment, I mean I just got done watching V3 and the first episode of V4, so I really wouldn't know. Hopefully when I have more time and the dough I can also buy that YA novel of Team CFVY, who else thought that was pretty cool that RWBY's universe is getting an expansion?
