Part Eight - The Blood Strife
During the time of the Old Imperium, a planet on the outskirts of Segmentum Pacificus was home to a family of nobles, House Ambrogio. House Ambrogio was, publically, a very generous noble family, hiring servants from among the poor rather than the rich and wealthy. Such generocity was thought so kind that many families spent their entire earnings just to move to their world, Hemofila, just to have a chance at becoming one of the lucky families to have their young son or daughter join the ranks of House Ambrogio's number.
But like all good things in the Old Imperium, nothing good was the underlying factor in House Ambrogio's kindness. In fact, the core of it was so incredibly sinister. Deep within the heart of Castle Ambrogio sat a man, old and weary. His years uncounted, same as the wires plugged into his back. This man was a Blood Angel, rather, a Lamenter. The founders of House Ambrogio believed the key to immortality sat within their grasp when they found the Lamenter dying behind their under-construction homestead. Soon after discovering the Space Marine, he was soon followed by a tech-priest, an escapee from Mars who claimed to know far more than he should.
Like the Imperial Thrones flowing from town taxes into the vaults of House Ambrogio, so did the blood of the Lamenter into the hearts of House Ambrogio's members. Even with the arcane technosorcery of the mysterious tech-priest, who was far more intelligent than the simple Enginseer he claimed to be, there was a decent chance the infusion would kill the members of House Ambrogio and leave the Lamenter free to kill the Tech-Priest and rejoin his Chapter.
Six thousand years later, he sat in his iron throne of captivity, strength slurped up by heretical nobles, wishing all those years ago his Angel's blood had killed them like it should've.
House Ambrogio grew far past their meager world, gaining twelve including a minor Forge World able to supply their forces with properly made armor and weaponry. If not for the intervention we are to discuss today by the sons of Sangunius, they would've likely grown even larger. But such heresy was not to be, as a roving Death Chapter warband arrived overhead. Such Astartes had been lost in the Black Rage aboard a Battle Barge, with only a mortal crew left partially sane. With a gleeful look of maddened hatred in her eye, the captain of the Battle Barge sent down five drop pods of murderous Blood Angels onto the Forge World under House Ambrogio's rule, and thus began the slaughter.
The Skitarii Legions of the Forge World were barely enough to halt their rampage, even a handful of Imperial Knights fell before the angered remnants of a Blood Angels Successor Chapter lost to time. The orbital defenses weren't enough to fend off the battle-barge and thus two Lunar Cruisers and a Cobra Destroyer appeared in orbit to face it. The trio of ships took down the worn and half-broken warship, but not before the Battle-Barge fired its charges at the planet below and the ships who destroyed the flying madhouse. Needless to say, all four ships crashed onto the Forge World shortly after, their wrecks a reminder of the random and terrifying apocalypse which befell the world.
The Blood Angels, who had survived the Fall, had been tracking the Death Chapter's movements in an effort to capture the Battle-Barge and put their fallen brothers to good use. However, after House Ambrogio destroyed the Battle-Barge and let its charges roam free on the doomed Forge World below, the Blood Angels merely settled for investigating those who slew their brothers. Sensing the opportunity for an Imperial Remnant to recruit from, they scouted the world's populace as House Ambrogio decided to let the Angels do as they pleased, mostly for their sake.
However, any pretenses of peace crumbled after one of House Ambrogio's youth defied orders from his elders to not attempt the trials. After flawlessly passing them and proving more than human in nature, their Sanguinary Priests detected traces of Sangunius's blood within the young noble. Upon confronting House Ambrogio about such mysteries, the young noble's uncle had royal guards ambush the Blood Angels on their capital. Upon the slaughter of their Third Captain and eight Blood Angels, war was declared nigh-immediately and the planets of House Ambrogio were aflame.
Without a Forge World to supply them the necessary armament, House Ambrogio was without fifty percent of their military output. In order to survive, House Ambrogio got in contact with the Bile Trade Empire, who used their vat-womb foundries on Krieg to produce four regiments for their use, on top of a company of Sons of Horus. With the mercenary reinforcements, House Ambrogio posed a challenge to the limited forces which the Blood Angels could spare. The Royal Guard of House Ambrogio were all unofficial children of its more royal members, and thus the stolen blood of a Blood Angel ran partially through their veins, making them on par with the Tempestus Scions of the Old Imperium.
However, the Eldest Lord of House Ambrogio shared a secret with his official and unofficial sons and daughters, that while the blood of mortals, easily acquired by laxed requirements for servants, kept them alive, when drunk en masse or but a sip from that of an Astartes, their physical power grew exponentially. Such a revelation revealed far more about the nature of the blood infusions which the tech-priest preformed than previously suspected, but the 'family friend' disappeared upon the declaration of war, leaving them without their Chief Hemochemist.
The war against House Ambrogio was quick despite its difficulty, and soon the vampiric nobles were reduced to their original world. A full company of Blood Angels deployed to the surface of the world, along with Dreadnaughts of all kinds, Land Raiders, Predator Tanks, and more. It was an impossible hurdle for House Ambrogio to survive, so the Eldest Lord sent away another of his youngest with a pair of Royal Guards in a small transport ship away from the planet. As Kriegsmen died by the thousands to Strike Cruiser bombardment cannons and Astartes gunfire, the Eldest Lord took a dead Blood Angel's corpse and drank it dry. He began to mutate, sprouting terrifying wings and becoming something far more vile than man...
When the Castle's walls were breached by Predator Autocannons and Land Raider Lascannons, Chapter-Master Antonello Hashmata of the Blood Angels, M51, and his cohort of Sanguinary Guard, charged into the depths of the castle and fought off horrifying bloodless human mutants, all of them former servants. However, Antonello was cut off from his squad by the Castle collapsing to friendly fire, leaving Antonello alone in the dark underbelly of the heretical fortress. He slaughtered many more Bloodless, before making it to the inner sanctum. His power sword, coated in stolen blood, hummed as the Eldest Lord, with a Son of Horus behind him, approached the Chapter-Master.
The vampiric lord drew his own blade, a rather large weapon. He then plunged the sword backwards, into the chest of the Son of Horus. It cleaved through his ceramite armor, and the blood of the Astartes flowed into the sword. It glowed red with ancient heretical runes, and the Eldest Lord smiled a hideous grin as his body transformed into a horrifying large bat creature. Only hearing of such daemonic events occurring before the Fall of the Imperium, the Chapter-Master was caught off-guard as the Daemon Lord attacked him, removing the Chapter-Master's left arm, removing his gun.
Growling in pain and fury against such an offense to the Emperor's sacrifice, the Blood Angel charged his opponent and managed to draw ichor from its knee, before being swatted away. The creature laughed an inhuman gurgle as it raised its weapon to kill the disarmed Chapter-Master, before the Sanguinary Guard interrupted the fight and pelted its daemonic hide with boltgun fire and a multi-melta. Only the meltaweapon did any true damage, and the Daemon Lord dispatched the Guard's sergeant with ease, leaving the rest to attempt to kill the beast.
Though the multi-melta left a terrible scar on the Daemon Lord's chest, all the Sanguinary Guard were slain within five minutes, which was enough time for the Chapter-Master to retrieve his sword and attack his foe once more. Though he managed to wound the beast with more slashes, the meager cuts wouldn't be enough to kill the Daemon Lord and his sword grazed the Astartes leader, detonating his Mark IV Power Armor and leaving him in worse shape than before, blood pouring from multiple wounds and his chest exposed, ready to sliced open. The beating heart of a Blood Angel would be more than enough to empower a blood-powered Daemon Lord like himself...
But such a fate wouldn't come, as the Lamenter felt new purpose beating in his heart so far away. He had sat for so long, a tool for a heretical cult's uprising. Now, his most hated foe had become a symbol of that which any true Imperial should despise. His ceramite shackles rumbled, and his chest pumped with fury. He was about to confront his most hated foe, who was once his brother. Such meager shackles would not stop him from demanding an answer from Lupercal, former beloved. He would not be stopped from spreading his wings, grand and wide!
The shackles on his iron throne snapped, and so did the cables connecting him to arcane machinery. The Astartes let out a cry so strong glass shattered throughout the castle, a cry of rage and power. "Why did you betray the Emperor, Horus?! Why did you betray our dream?!"
The Daemon Lord rumbled a deep chuckle. "Echoes of a dead lord and an era long past..." it reassured itself that the Astartes in front of it was no true threat. But it was, moreso than the Chapter-Master or his Guard. The Lamenter, who's muscles, blood and strength returned to him, charged forth and swiped the fallen sword of Antonello Hashmata from the ground, and he leaped into the air without armor to weigh him down. To all in the room, he almost flew.
The blade was plunged into the skull of the Daemon Lord, and it roared in response. In return, the Lamenter plunged his snow pale fist into its glowing orange eye, and ripped out immaterial gore from within. More Blood Angels entered the room, and Sanguinary Priests dragged the Chapter-Master and his dead cohort away. Though the Chapter-Master felt a twinge of sadness that he never would know the brave Angel before him, nor his story, he realized he knew all he'd need to.
He was a Blood Angel, son of Sanguinus. And that was enough.
Though the sole Lamenter wasn't enough to kill the Daemon Lord, multiple Bombardment Cannons proved more effective and the daemon was destroyed, though many Chaplains would have to search ancient texts and warnings on how to fight the Immaterium's champions once more. For better or worse, House Ambrogio was wiped out to their knowledge, with their surviving heir becoming a Blood Angel in his own right after helping the Astartes purge his heretical family. Though the terrifying discovery of a daemon after the sacrifice of the Emperor to stop Chaos was indeed quite worrying, the Blood Angels were more than willing to dedicate themselves to making sure other such incidents would not occur.
