August 11th, 2010 Antarctica 05:50
Stepping over the charred traitors' corpses and through the doors they came from Karsk found himself inside an elevator with a series of numbers showing that it was currently located at the 5th and bottom floor of this facility. After pressing the "up" button the elevator began to rise, reaching the 4th floor in a matter of seconds. With an annoying ding noise the doors began to open reveling this floor to simply be a single large room with only one other doorway one the other side of the room. Throughout the room were rows upon rows of massive humming cogitators, arranged like the bookshelves within a library. Upon entering the room the elevator's doors closed behind him and the elevator could be heard rising several floors, after a few seconds a small solid orange light located near the elevator doors showed that it had been locked in position on the 1st floor. Bask had deduced the traitors were now fully aware of his escape and sealed off his first ticket to freedom.
The Cadian's Auspex array detected the presence of six individuals advancing on his location from the opposing direction. Knowing that soon they would breach the room, he dove behind one of the cogitators and drew a weapon the Kasrkins had been well known to use with ruthless efficiency, a simple frag grenade. Half a minute later the door was kicked and broke from its frame and traitors began to pour into the room, Karsk offered a prayer of forgiveness to the machine spirits of the cogitators as he knew several if not all would most likely be damaged in the resulting explosion. Pulling the pin he threw the grenade directly into the center of the traitor horde, with a thunderous roar the grenade and it's machine spirit reduced the traitors into naught but a mess of gore staining the floor, walls, and ceiling.
Removing himself from cover of the cogitators, the Kasrkin advanced into the freshly cleared room, which was now revealed to house a stairway reaching the top of this facility. His plan was simple, move throughout the facility, kill any and all hostiles, use facilities Vox systems to contact imperial forces. It wasn't his most well thought out plan, though given that he knew next to nothing about this base that could be forgiven. Before he advanced any further up the stairwell he walked over to the corpses of his foes and quickly rooted through their equipment to see if he could procure extra supplies. He found several small fragmentation grenades clinging to the men's belts, while they weighed much less and were most likely less powerful than the frag grenades he had been used to, he figured that he could find some use for them and proceeded to ascend the stairwell to the 3rd floor, entering a room simply labeled "storage".
The room was wisely named as all one could see were shelves and crates lining down the room. The crates were marked with words detailing the obvious things one could expect to find in a storage area, such as spare medical supplies, rations both standard and emergency, as well as one noticeably large crate labeled "alcohol". A quick Auspex scan showed that no traitors were hiding within the room, sadly however was that the Auspex only showed what was on the same level of the Kasrkin.
"Machine spirit must have grown restless, must appease them, ritual will have to wait however." He thought to himself.
Suddenly an explosion erupted behind him and the unmistakable sound of rockcrete crumbling began to echo throughout the base. Turning around the Kasrkin found that the traitors had destroyed the higher levels of the stairwell which while only one more floor was several meters higher than the previous floor, most likely trying to trap him down below so they could starve him out. An incredibly stupid plan since he had access to what was possibly months' worth of food and water inside the storage room, though given how so few of them had tried to stop him when he had escaped the prison floor, perhaps they now knew how dangerous he truly was and now no longer wished to fight him and instead intended to vacate the base and let time take him, it was a cowardly but not terrible plan.
Though the plan was destined to fail. For the Kasrkin had served the ordo xenos for a short time, and as a reward was granted several blessings of the Omnissiah and nonstandard equipment, notably a grapnel with line. The Kasrkin slung his hellgun before placing his backpack upon the ground and retrieved the grapnel, it was well made and could easily hold over 150KG. As he searched through his pack one piece of wargear caught his eye, it was a compact firearm that he took from the corpse of a hive ganger as a war trophy, he removed it and secured into onto the side of pack putting in an easy to reach location should he need it. After placing his backpack back on he drew his Plasma pistol due to the weight of the Hellgun making it hard to wield properly with one hand. He aimed the grapnel up at the ceiling and fired, the claw easily dug into the rockcrete ceiling, he flipped a switch situated just above the grapnels trigger which caused an internal mechanical winch to begin retracting the devices fiber cable, hoisting the Kasrkin high into the air with the strong pull against his arm being softened by his enhanced muscular structure. Upon reaching his desired point about three feet below the stairwells ceiling the guardsmen swung over to the solid ground in front of the door frame, he flipped a second switch located on the grapnel causing it to disengage and retract the claw.
Slinging his grapnel onto his backpack the Kasrkin began to advance down a short hallway into an area marked "Barracks" holding only his plasma pistol in his right hand, though his left hand was diagonally across his chest with its palm resting on the hilt of his sabre style powersword. Apart from the dozens of bunkbeds within the room he noticed several hallways leading into opposite directions towards a rec area, a dining hall an exit, and an armory.
"TARGET SPOTTED, TAKE 'EM DOWN" was shouted from somewhere within the room as several men began firing autoguns at the Kasrkin, these ones however appeared to be much more powerful than the ones he had previously been shot with as he could actually feel the impact of the slugs as they broke on his armor, one could compare them to standard lasgun fire. Charging at the closest group of two traitors the sergeant drew and swung his powersword cutting cleanly through both of them as blue energy began to cackle around the weapons blade. Several shots rang out from behind him as the traitors tried desperately to bring him down, the pitiful attempts at his life were soon met with plasma fire, four more traitors collapsed, charred husks instead of torsos.
With the enemies in the room now lying dead upon the floor the Kasrkin cast his gaze across the bunks counting a total of six on either side of the room, each holding two beds, 24 traitors in total. Six had died in the room he was held prisoner, three who came as reinforcements were gunned down by him, he counted another six bodies in the cogitator room, and just added another six, twenty-one traitors were dead, three remained. Remotely activating his helmets Auspex he saw two hiding behind the walls of the "rec area", he simply aimed his plasma pistol and pulled the trigger sending two hot bolts of plasma directly through the rockcrete and into their skulls, they both dropped dead before they knew what happened. All that remained was a single traitor hidden somewhere within the base. Karsk holstered his pistol and sword, before he unslung his hellgun.
BANG!
A single gunshot echoed through the base originating from the level just above the Kasrkin. He began rushing towards the bases exit passing through the modest dining hall, after ascending yet another set of stairs and moving down a short corridor the Kasrkin found himself standing within the final chamber of the exit room. Leaning against a wall in the far-right corner was the final traitor, slumped over with a stubb pistol lying at his side and the contents of his skull now coating the wall behind him. Karsk did not care for this and instead began to walk over towards the giant door of freedom. He encountered a large metal and glass door between him and the final exit, a single shot from his Hellgun shattered the glass allowing him full access to the great door. Mustering all his strength he turned the massive wheel situated in the center, unaware of the small keypad a mere 3 feet away. With a loud clank and mechanical roar, the locks holding the door in place released and as the Kasrkin stepped back it began it to swing inwards, allowing a cold artic chill to begin filling the small base. Holding his hellgun at the ready the Kasrkin began to walk forwards as the great metal door sat a good 10 meters into a mountainside cave. Advancing out of the mountain and into the imageless artic snow with his head held high the Kasrkin encountered something he never thought he would.
Teenagers, barely older than whiteshields looked upon him with expressions of surprise, as though they had never seen an imperial guardsman before. What intrigued the Kasrkin the most however was their uniform. Only two of them wore winter garb, one even wore a bright suit consisting of yellow and red. Though it was not these ones that caught his eye, rather it was one who seemingly hid amongst the others, its skin a rich shade of green, its face feminine, and a head of shoulder length red hair. He did not know of any abhuman strain that could describe what it was, and he would be damned if that thing was an Ork, but Karsk Bask knew one thing about it on first glance. It wasn't human. Typically he would kill all xenos one sight, but after his service to the Ordo Xenos and the Fall of Cadia, those feelings began to slowly wither, after all xenos did help with the defense of Cadia and even evacuated survivors, hell Cadia would've just been another chaos infested daemon world if those xenos, the Necrons, didn't build those strange pylons in the ancient days of the galaxy. Besides, his personal feelings didn't matter, these teenagers were most likely the only way he could make contact with imperial forces, killing any of them would in fact, most likely hinder his goals. Begrudgingly he lowered his hellgun though he still kept it at the ready.
"Who are you." The Kasrkin stated in calm yet commanding tone. The first one to speak wore a red sleeveless shirt and had dark skin with a head of short blond hair. He spoke in a calm way much like the Kasrkin though his tone was much softer, as though he was trying to reassure him that they did not pose any threat.
"We are a team of heroes who undertake covert missions given to us by the Justice League." He replied. The Kasrkin showed no outward reaction to this reply, "Justice League?" he thought "must be some kind of law enforcement planetary defense force hybrid". The Kasrkin made several steps towards the teenager.
"You speak as though you command authority. Would I be wrong to assume you leader of this group?" The Sergeant questioned
"That's right. You may refer to me as Aqualad." The now named Aqualad replied
"Well, Aqualad, I have numerous questions. Questions you, and only you will answer. And know that if you fail to answer my questions or should any of your subordinates arouse my suspicion then I will ensure you are all given the Emperor's Peace. Understand?" The Kasrkin stated, though he only added the threat in the hopes of "persuading" them to be more compliant. Aqualad however was surprised by what the man said, though he did not know of this "Emperor" the implication was easy to pick up. However a small part of him did believe the threat was only a ruse. After a period of almost a minute of silence with several looks being shared between the teenagers Aqualad agreed.
"Good. Now tell me the name of this world." The Kasrkin promptly demanded
"This planet is called Earth." Earth. The Kasrkin had known this name. It was an ancient name of the throneworld Holy Terra, only truly backwater worlds would dare compare themselves to the heart of the Imperium.
"What the nearby celestial bodies of this Earth?" The Solider questioned placing a small amount of disdain at the name of the planet.
"Well besides the Earth's moon there several other planets orbiting the sun, such as Mars, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Neptune." Aqualad replied. The Kasrkin froze when he heard the names of those worlds, they were same planets which orbited Holy Terra's sun as part of the sol system, but that could only mean one thing. No, it cannot possibly be true, this world can't be Holy Terra, for where are the grand hives that sprawl across the world, why can he not see the fleets of imperial battleships protecting the mighty throneworld, why was the Imperial Aquila nowhere to found in the traitorous base. Then a thought wormed its way deep into the soldier's mind.
"Warp travel is dangerous even without the threat of daemonic invasions. Ships have been known to emerge from its vile grasp years, decades, even centuries after entering, though the occupants claim to only have been inside for much shorter periods of time. How long was I inside?" The Cadian thought. He took a deep breath and spoke to Aqualad, his calm voice masking the fear that began to brew inside him.
"What Year is it." Though he felt that he would not like any answer given to him.
"2010" The teenager replied. The Kasrkin gained a slight slouch in his posture as he slumped over ever so slightly. "2010." he thought "The early years of the third millennium, the age of Terra, long before the rise of the immortal God-Emperor and the founding of the Imperium, when all of humanities troubles were centered around a single planet in a vast universe."
"I have, no more questions." He said in his regular calm tone; however anyone could tell those answers troubled him greatly. The Teenagers shared worried glances with one another before Aqualad spoke to the solider asking him who he was. The Kasrkin felt a sense a vigor in his blood as if the previous feelings of doubt had been flooded away. He was not on some primitive backwater world, he was on Holy Terra itself, the home world of mankind. Now filled with feelings of righteous zeal the solider corrected his slouch and held his head high.
"Sergeant Karsk Bask, Cadian Shock Troops 831st infantry regiment, 2nd company Kasrkin squad." He proclaimed his voice beaming with pride. The Team was surprised by his reply as none of them had been expected the anomaly to simply walk up to them and identify himself. Well, they had hoped he was the anomaly, since if he wasn't that would only make things even more difficult, but there was only way they could know for certain if he was.
"Why are you here?" Aqualad asked. Karsk thought of how he should answer, wondering if he should tell them of warp travel. If he was correct in his belief that this world was the throneworld during the Age of Terra they would know nothing of the warp or chaos and might think of him as some crazed madman and attempt to lock him away. He settled on sparing them the cruel reality of the future.
"I awoke some time ago, in the snow, thin ice frozen over me. I was captured by armed men with armored transports," he glanced around hoping to find the depot. "though I can't seem to find where they would be stored. Not too long ago they proved too incompetent to remain alive, I made my escape and killed 22 of them, 2 more took their own lives rather than face me." Some of the team was visibly distraught, while others even seemed angry at how calm he was when admitting murder. Aqualad however, while disturbed did acknowledge that the man was some kind of solider and would likely be more inclined to kill his enemies rather than incapacitate them. After a quick mental discussion with his team (during which the Kasrkin noticed the expressions of the teenagers rapidly change indicating that they were holding some kind of psychic conversation, his eyes fell upon the green skin) Aqualad spoke to Karsk.
"Who do you fight for." He asked. It was a simple question but the Kasrkin could not answer without thought, when he advanced from a whiteshield into a guardsmen he swore to serve humanity, yet when he had been granted the honor of serving as a Kasrkin he made an oath to protect the mighty fortress above all else. But Cadia is gone and the Imperium would not be born for almost 28,000 more years, yet humanity still remains, yes that is who he serves, humanity.
"We are the hammer of the Emperor, the guardsmen of humanity." He replied
"So, you are a solider fighting for some sort of human empire?" Aqualad asked, his mind filling with hope that this man's urge to kill was only him doing his military duties
"That could be an accurate statement." The teenagers appeared to begin another of their speechless conversations, the Kasrkin decided to let the group converse in peace as he slung his rifle and walked a few meters away from them, none of them seemed to notice. Kneeling in the snow and facing away from the group he removed his helmet and felt a bitter cold chill on his pale skin. Using his left hand he held the helmet in place upon his left knee, he held the palm of his right hand on the forehead of the helmet and whispered a prayer of appeasement to the machine spirit of the armor. Without any fuss the spirit was calmed and the Auspex systems resumed standard functions. He was like that, always finding it easy to appease machine spirits, it was why his squad would often joke about him secretly being a tech priest, they were technically right as the blessing of the Autosanguine did flow in his veins much like it would in one of the cogboys.
"Um, Karsk?" upon hearing the voice of Aqualad behind him Karsk placed his helmet back upon his head as he stood up and turned to face the teenagers. now him seeing face to helmet, Aqualad continued.
"around two hours ago the Justice League detected a signature of unknown mystical energy several kilometers from here, we were sent to investigate, and we believe you to be the source." Aqualad stated cautiously hoping not to alarm the man. The Kasrkin quickly responded.
'Well? What do you intend to do with me?" Karsk asked knowing he could easily take them in a fight, though he intended not to.
"With your permission we would like to take you to Batman, the one who gave us this mission." The Kasrkin began to mull over his situation before coming to a decision, one he did not like at all.
"Very well, I shall go with you and meet this "Batman". The Team seemed relieved that he was willing to co-operate with them, seconds later a sleek ship of black and red reminiscent of the Eldar's design seemingly materialized about 15 feet away from the group, the ship turned 180 degrees around as a small boarding ramp appeared. Aqualad gestured for him to follow them. As he approached the ship alongside the team the Kasrkin froze at the base of the boarding ramp as the team boarded the vessel, he placed his left hand upon the heavy melta bomb hanging from his waist assuring himself that should he need to, he has the means to destroy this strange and most likely heretical craft. With his right hand griped around the sling of his hellgun he advanced up the ships ramp. Inside the vessel the Kasrkin found the green skin sitting in what was most likely the pilots chair, the rest of the team was arranged in a half-circle with the Kasrkin taking his place at the right end of this line, behind Aqualad. As he sat down safety belts formed themselves out of the chair and tightened around Karsk's chest, soon after he began to feel sicker than he ever had as the thought of this vessel being alive filled his mind, but still he soldiered on, not letting this draw away the zeal of being on Holy Terra.
But was he on holy Terra? Many signs did point to the answer being yes, but he was unsure. He did have one sure way to know however, during his Kasrkin training on Cadia he was educated in both Terran and Cadian history. As part of this training he had been granted the sight of an ancient map of Holy Terra dating back to the unification wars of M29. It showed what was once the territories of ancient Terra, such as Franc, Merica, Ursh, and the Mariana Canyon. His new plan was to gain access to map of this world and compare it to ancient Terra, this would be no problem since he had an almost picture perfect memory (and who could possibly forget even a glimpse of what Ancient Terra once was) he was hoping this world would be nothing more than a twisted a chaos illusion, meaning he could just begin shooting any and everything within his sight. If he was truly on Holy Terra though he did not know what he could do. The next few minutes were filled with silence as the Team did not know if they should speak to this "Kasrkin" or if they should simply leave him be.
Aqualad looked over to the Kasrkin, and in the Bio-ships light was able to see the markings and colors of the Kasrkin's armor much clearer. The underlying bodysuit was a light beige and tan camouflage pattern while the armor plates were a dark shade of green, numerous brown leather pouches and what looked like grenades had been hung around his armor. Inscribed on the left side of his helmets face was the phrase "Burn the Heretic" with "Cadia Stands" being visible on the right, on his right breast Aqualad could make out part of a phrase seeing only the words "does duty end". These phrases appeared to have been carved into the armor with some kind of knife, unlike the markings on his shoulder pads that had been damaged and worn away to the point that almost nothing remained of them. The most interesting thing however was what appeared to be some kind of medal attached to his left breast, it looked like a long strip of paper attached to the armor by a wax seal.
The Kasrkin ignored the strange looks he undoubtably knew these teenagers were sending him as he began to softly mutter a prayer unaware that several members of the team was listening to him due to them having a much stronger sense of hearing. The Prayer was taken from the crimson pages of book issued to each and every guardsmen for them to carry and protect at all times, it was the Litany of Strength, to be uttered by the guardsmen in times of great weakness.
"I am a man,
Prone to weakness,
But I am a guardsman,
Where weakness is death,
I will crush my weakness,
With the weight of my pride".
8.412.000.M42 - The Warp - 30 minutes after the Gellar field failed
Two bolts of searing plasma rushed down the ruined corridor of what was once a grand imperial cruiser, they struck the Daemonic flesh of their targets and transformed the foul diseased creatures into nothing more than steaming piles of rot and char. The wounded guardsmen removed the now empty plasma flask and, while performing the Litany of Loading he inserted his last flask. The guardsmen had always known that death would greet him like this (though he had always hoped it would not), sure some of his squad mates would ramble on about how they would retire onto one of the worlds colonized by the Cadians, or that they'd become high ranking officials within the guard before they died. But he knew that this was the way guardsmen always left, torn apart by the claws and fangs of humanities foes. For a second though he imagined himself standing outside a small home on an Agri world with Arnette standing beside him with a small infant held in her arms.
His mind was brought back into reality as he saw his most hated foe appear before him. They wore the standard flak armor of the Imperial Guard, though now it was covered in the heretical sigils of the great enemy. The Renegade Militia-men began to fire the defiled lasguns they had carried, the Kasrkin was blessed however and machine spirits of these weapons appeared to despise how they have become tainted by these heretics and refused to provide their wielders with any power las energy. The weakened lasers failed to damage the Kasrkin mighty carapace armor however and he advanced forwards as he fired his plasma gun, taking great joy in watching as the heretics cried out in pain and curses as they succumbed to its powerful energy. However even with the lasguns being weakened the advantage of them still reigned and the Kasrkin began to collapse under the weight of overwhelming fire power, as he fell to his knees with plasma gun run dry Vance Ackermann felt the warp overtake him as what little remained of the ship was torn apart. The mind of the man began to howl at him as it began to crack in the realm of torment.
However the gunner was not destined to have that realm become his tomb, he awoke suspended 5 meters into the air and plummeted towards solid ground. As he sat up the contents of his stomach began to rise up his throat, Vance tore off his helmet and vomited up what little food he had consumed. The gunner glanced around and saw no sign of civilization, only damp hills and trees. It did not matter his wounds were to great and he was beyond saving. Having accepted his fate and thanking the God-Emperor that he could die in peaceful place like this rather than in the mania of the warp Vance collapsed onto his back and closed his eyes.