Of Winter and War
Author's Note
I've been gone a while. With all the tragedies of the last year my muse has been another casualty.
As melodramatic as that sounds I've just not had the time or energy to write. Even when I've made an effort all I've ended up doing is drinking in front of a blank text document.
I usually script my stories in my head while doing other things; cooking, washing up, vacuuming and the like. While I still have been doing those things, it's been zombie-like. Unable to pull my imagination back on track.
That said I have, slowly, been able to put this together. Something that's been on the back burner, as it were, for a while now. A spiritual sequel to another story I'm working on ever so slowly.
Who knows, if this one does well I might come back to it...
Disclaimer at the end
Luke pulled back on the reins, his tautaun came to a stop at the top of the ridge. He could feel the bitter cold through his thermal wear, Hoth was a frozen world. A world of storms and blindness, the cold playing havoc with technology.
Sensors would freeze, the static from constant blizzards made long range communication almost impossible. It was the perfect place to hide, but the Rebels couldn't stay for long. Nothing could survive here for any amount of time.
He reached into his jacket for the com-link. "Han, good buddy, you read me?" He asked, hoping his friend was still in range.
"I read you Luke."
"You find anything?"
"There isn't enough life on this block of ice to fill the Falcon. You?"
"Nothing." Luke agreed as he looked out again. He could feel something out there, but couldn't begin to describe it. "I thought I saw a meteor strike. I was going to check it out before heading back."
"With all the debris out there getting off the ground is going to be tricky." Han was a lifelong spacer and was only ever happy off a planet. Luke couldn't blame him, he loved to fly too, but with the Empire scouring the Galaxy for them they had to hide. For a little while longer at least.
"I read you. Head back, I won't be long."
"See you back at base" With that Han cut transmission and Luke stashed away the link.
Then he stopped. Something was wrong. Despite the storm and the heavy breathing of his ride there was a stillness. An other-worldly quiet in the air.
Luke knew what to do. He'd been practicing, trusting his instincts as Old Ben had taught him. Learning how to reach out to The Force. As he did so Luke felt them. Something was watching him, he could sense them. Four people, strong, powerful. Waiting. For what Luke couldn't tell, but they knew he was here. They had for some time.
Luke stroked the neck of his tauntaun, he knew they spooked easily and didn't want to be thrown off in its panic. "Hello?" He called out into the storm.
The first figure lumbered out of the white. It was huge, broad chested made immense by a suit of heavy armour. A fur cloak snapping in the wind with bone carved totems hanging off their back. You could have easily mistaken it for a droid, only it wasn't. Their head was that of a man. Bare to the elements, but somehow surviving in weather that should have killed them. A braided beard and long hair coated in frost were visible. Golden eyes, like that of an animal, glared out from a heavy set forehead. Before Luke could properly react two more appeared. One took the reins out of his hands, the other materialising out of the snow like a phantom. He was surrounded.
He felt the fourth a fraction before they grabbed him from behind. Hauling him from the saddle like a youngling with one mighty hand and throwing Luke into the ground. Hard enough to knock the wind out of him. Lying there on the frozen ice he barely had time to think as he was lifted back up. Luke was not the tallest pilot in the Rebel Alliance, but these people could look a Wookiee in the eye and were even stronger. With one hand the giant held Luke face to face, feet clear off the ground. They pulled him closer and sniffed him.
Luke wasn't sure if this was some sort of greeting, or attack. Wordlessly the first one quickly disarmed Luke, taking his comm-link, magnoculars and even his father's Lightsaber. "Be careful with that." Luke warned, earning a snarl. He had no doubt the one holding him could crush the life out of him with little to no effort. "It's important to me. It was my Father's and it's dangerous. If you're not careful that is." He explained quickly. Last thing he wanted was to anger these people.
"Do you understand me?" He asked after a moment. While they were people and obviously intelligent they hadn't said a word. They dropped him and Luke just kept himself on his feet. The big man snorted with laughter before finally speaking. It wasn't basic, sounding somewhere between grunting and a language. It was obvious they were telling a joke, at Luke's expense. They laughed briefly, each flashing massive teeth with a pair of long incisors that looked more than enough to rip a man's throat out.
The one that Luke had seen first growled out a handful of words, none of them made any sense to Luke, but the pointing did. They wanted him to go with them. Outnumbered, and certainly no match in a fight Luke agreed.
They lead him off, away from the meteor strike and his patrol. It was easy to get lost in the whiteout, but his captors moved without hesitation. Their giant strides meant Luke had to almost run to keep up.
He would have doubted this was the right way, but that same indescribable feeling in what had to be the Force only got stronger the closer they got to wherever they were going.
To distract himself he tried to catalogue what each of the giants had in the way of equipment. What there was, half hidden under the backwards tribal talismans and furs that covered them. Strapped to their massive legs was a oversized weapon, much too big and bulky to be practical for anyone but them. Luke thought they looked more like primitive slug throwers, rather than blasters. These people also carried a selection of melee weapons. Heavy axes on straps across their backs and long knives that were more like swords.
The armour was more like a heavy industrial spacesuit. Layers upon layers of metal plate, almost all of it painted a light grey. The exception was on those slabs of shoulder pauldrons. On it was what looked to be the blood red shape of a animals head, grinning with malice.
While Luke was tempted to see these brutes as barbaric throwbacks there was something about them that told him not to underestimate them. Their weapons could be primitive in design, but that wouldn't make them any less lethal. The armour might be bulky, but he had no doubt it could hold up to blaster fire better that Stormtrooper armour. The casual speed of them made what should have been impossible to move with seem nothing.
It wasn't long before Luke was struggling to keep up with their implacable pace. "How much... further?" He asked, trying not to sound like a bored child as he caught his breath. The one Luke had decided was their leader stopped and after looking at him carefully pointed again.
Luke, following the gesture, was trying to think of a way to sign time passing when a brief break in the weather showed a cave.
Whatever the Force was trying to tell him about was in there. Luke was convinced of it.
It didn't take them long to reach it, especially not at the speed Luke's captors moved. Inside there were more of these strange warriors. Hunched over, waiting for something.
No two were alike, but unmistakably of the same people. One of them, an ugly brute with a scarred face and cybernetic eye tore at a chunk of steaming meat. It looked to be from some sort of ice monster and the brute was chewing muscle raw, straight from the bone.
Luke could clearly hear the implant as it clicked and focus lenses echoed in the cave. The brute offered the half digested arm to Luke.
"Urm, no. Thank you. I... ah... already ate." He explained and they shrugged before taking another bite.
Luke was wondering just what he was doing here when yet another warrior came from deeper in the cave. There was something different about this one, Luke could see it as much as feel through the Force. They looked even more feral; their beard ice white, face lined like old leather, their hair braided in intricate knots. They too wore an animal pelt, but this was over ash grey robes. The armour was finer, still heavy but better made. Decorated with abstract runes like the others, but where they were just that these symbols these seemed somehow alive. Changing as they moved, but it was only a trick of the eye.
The newcomer carried a long staff, topped with a yellowing animal skull, that practically thrummed with power. Even untrained as he was in the Force Luke recognised it as infinitely deadly.
"You." They growled crooking an armoured finger at Luke. "One who Walks the Skies?"
"Skywalker. Yes that's me. How...?"
"Seen. Vision you are."
He shook his head. "No, Luke not look."
The strange one snarled, irritated. "No. Not name. Vision. You have been seen coming. Late you are."
Luke blinked at that. "How is it you know Basic when your friends don't?" They we're getting better at it, quickly.
"You think I have your tongue? Why you think that?" They smirked, as if some private joke. "Come, he waits."
Deeper in to the cave it was more like a den. Much like the caverns they'd made into Rebel headquarters Luke could see the ice and snow give way to rock, blackened by frost. It might have been his imagination but it was a little warmer. Geothermal heat rising from the planet's core, again like the newly established Rebel base.
Then, in the darkness ahead something moved. It was big, easily twice the size of a man. Even more, it put the giants to shame. The beast stood on four legs, and as it stepped out into the dim light Luke tried to back away. Only to be stopped by the one that lead him here.
Luke wasn't as well traveled as someone like Han, or even Leia, but he'd seen some animals before. Some, like the Rancor, were legendary, but this one was like no other. Never before had Luke heard or seen a beast so perfectly bred for killing. Its fur the colour of old iron, jaws with ripping teeth like vibrio-blades, rippling muscles rolled as it stalked.
He was struck as to how much the giants outside echoed this master of murder and while they made a good job of it this thing was something else entirely. The closest thing he could liken it to was the massive wolves of Lothal, but even they did not have the threat this one carried.
"Still lad, he smells fear." The strange one said.
"There is no fear." Luke said, reminding himself of the Jedi code.
"... And they shall know no fear." Said another voice from deeper in the cave. It was a snarling, growling voice that spat out words. They knew basic, roughly. It was a crude basic, heavily accented, but basic.
Luke half expected it to be another giant wolf. It wasn't. It was a man, if such a description could be used for such a being. They appeared as if summoned into existence by the cavern itself. They were immense, more than three times the size of the young pilot. Luke could have fit in just one armoured leg, with room to spare. But it wasn't the size that struck him, it was their presence and not just in the Force. This... thing was what he'd been warned about.
Luke struggled to look this man, this force of nature manifest, in the eye. "By the Force, who... what are you?"
The figure dropped to one knee, not in loyalty, but because he could face him better. "I am the Sixth, master of the Rout. Primarch of the Vlka Fenryka. The Lord of Winter and War. The Great Wolf. I am His executioner. I, lad, am Leman of the Russ."
End
Disclaimer:-
Star Wars, including the Character Luke Skywalker is currently owned by Disney.
Warhammer 40,000 and associated characters are owned by Games Workshop
