Ch.2 Training Day
The sound of screaming was gradually being overwhelmed by the sound of sick laughter as he was carried through the burning castle by the knight. He shut his eyes to block out the stinging smoke and so that he would not see any more burning corpses. Eventually he felt a gust of clean air and he opened his eyes; he and his savior were outside. He looked back and saw the burning wreckage that was the ancestral home of House Peregran for centuries. Tears sprang to his eyes as he thought of his family still in that burning heap: his brothers, his mother, his… He stopped as a large shadow crossed over him and the knight. He looked up a saw through the smoke and haze and gargantuan metal figure, it was…a knight! The thought thrilled him until he saw the large thermal cannon unleash a large blast into the castle. "Torwyn run!" his savior yelled, Torwyn took off running towards the nearby forest with the loyal knight right behind him. "Torwyn!" He heard being yelled, "Torwyn!"
"Torwyn!" He heard over the vox. "Get your head out of the clouds boy!"
He shook himself free of the memory as his cockpit came back into view and refocused back on the task at hand: combat drills with Ser Roland.
Last Hearth's Vengeance thrummed with power around him as he peered through his sensors at his fellow knights. He and the rest of the vanguard team had been training within the hold of one of the crusade fleet's training ships for the past week, Ser Roland proved as always to be hard as nails even when training his team. Ser Roland's steed Iron Soul turned its gaze upon Torwyn.
"Torwyn, get back in formation with Kars and I, we are needed on the left flank" Ordered Ser Roland gesturing with his autocannon to his left.
With a thought and a gesture from his haptic suit, his machine took its place along side the other two knights and began marching down the hive street ruin. A close replica, the holds within the fleet's training ships could be reshaped as needed to portray different environments ranging from urban, marine, and even dense forest. A few years before his ritual, Torwyn had spent a month (at the order of his lord father) with the Sacristans who maintained these for House Peregran and he was still impressed with the level of detail and variety that could be produced.
"Movement up ahead, behind the manufactorum" said Ser Roland.
"Thank the emperor, I've been itching to fight something for hours" said Ser Kars while revving his reaper chainsword and clenching his gauntlet.
Torwyn grinned "Move forward, let's see who get's first kill" he said savagely.
Kars moved forward at a rapid rate followed quickly by Torwyn. Ser Roland stayed back yelling "you two! Get back into formation! The surrounding buildings aren't…"
Torwyn couldn't hear the rest of his sentence as adrenaline pumped through his body as well as the voices from the throne mechanicum "Purge! Cleanse! Slaughter! For the Emperor! Glory! Honor!" The voices of past knights screamed at him hungry for the glory of battle. He was so caught up in anticipation that he nearly failed to notice the falling building.
Torwyn skid to a stop and brought his ion shield to bare. It was close, but he missed nearly all of the falling rubble with only a few pieces even coming into contact with his ion shield. Kars was not so lucky.
"Ahhh!" Kars screamed in anger as Baleful fury was buried underneath a few tons of ferrocrete and was eventually obscured from Torwyns view.
"Kars!" yelled Torwyn. "Are you okay?"
"I go hit by building what do you think!?" Kars replied sarcastically.
Roland strode up to Torwyn in Steel Will "If he's complaining he's fine, we'll dig him out once we kill whatever dropped that building" He commented.
Torwyn agreed "Had to be melta charges from soldiers within the building, I didn't see any shot from anywhere else"
Torwyn heard Roland sighed over the vox "It WAS a shot from the storehouse behind the building, if you and Kars hadn't rushed in you would have seen that and Kars wouldn't be buried underneath a damn building".
Torwyn grimaced but held his tongue. Roland was right, they shouldn't have rushed in, they should have followed protocol and advanced together cautiously.
"I…offer my apologies Ser Roland. We should have acted with my more thought" Torwyn responded humbly.
"Your apology is noted Ser Torwyn, but the battlefield is not the place for regret nor is it the place for second chances. Be glad this is only training as battle is not as forgiving" responded Roland "…that being said you at least had the good sense to follow behind Ser Kars and stop yourself from further engaging in lusting for glory"
"I can still hear you!" came the indignant yell of Ser Kars from under the rubble.
"Then follow Ser Torwyn's example and please learn from your errors" Roland responded humorously.
Both Torwyn and Roland turned away from the still anger Kars and focused on where Roland had seen the shot come from. Both commanded their machines to stomp over to the storehouse, guns sweeping over the area.
"I'm not seeing anything on the auspex" said Torwyn; glowing symbols from vengeance's auspex appearing before his eyes as he surveyed the building before him.
"Do a scan on the surrounding buildings, they could have moved to another vantage" ordered Roland as he moved to search the warehouse across the street.
Torwyn moved to scan the neighboring warehouse. As he began sweeping it was only his decision to keep some of his sensors on his surroundings that let him see the figures in one of the buildings behind him. He immediately shifted his ion shield to guard his rear just in time to block the las cannon shot.
Torwyn swiveled vengeance at the waist and let off a few blasts from his battle cannon into the building "Contact!' he screamed even as the bodies fell from the burning hole where his shots had impacted.
He waited for a couple of moments on guard, no further shots came. Torwyn moved vengeance closer to inspect the corpses while keeping an eye for any enemy teams he might have missed.
Roland and Steel Will moved up to join him "The Sacristans have done excellent work with the training servitors as usual" stated Roland
"True" said Torwyn "though I wish we could train more against other knights"
"I agree, but we don't have enough knight chassis for that kind of training" commiserated Roland. "We still haven't recovered from the destruction of last hearth".
Torwyn froze, the image of the black knight from his nightmares coming to his mind as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him into the woods. Why was he running? He needed to fight, he needed to kill those foul traitors, he needed to….
"Torwyn! Stop!" Yelled Roland.
Torwyn came out of his memories and realized to his he had sunk his reaper chainsword into a building just to the left of Roland and Steel Will.
"Ser Roland I..." Torwyn started before Roland cut him off.
"Control yourself Ser Torwyn! The throne mechancium is strong especially one with as storied a history as Last Hearth's Vengeance." Reprimanded Roland.
"Every knight scion goes through this, it's only been a few months since your ritual, your steed may influence you and drive you, but it must never control you." Roland continued sympathetically.
"Did you and my father also carve up a building?" questioned Torwyn.
"I actually set a still working manufactorum on fire. Thankfully I also destroyed a traitor tank squadron, otherwise the Archmagos of the forge world we were fighting on would have had my head" replied Roland.
The two knight scions shared a laugh before being interrupted by klaxons going off.
"All personnel! Warp exit imminent! Report to stations!" rang out the ship's crier.
"Looks like further training will have to wait, we need to get prepped, once we exit the warp, we have 10 hours before planetfall" said Roland.
"Yes sir!" replied Torwyn.
"Vanguard team, get your knights to the repair bays for pre landing checks, have the sacristans double check your drive systems and perform the litany of purity to the letter!" ordered Roland.
"Ah...Ser Roland?" questioned Torwyn gesturing with his cannon to the pile of rubble a few buildings down.
"…and for the love of the Emperor someone dig Kars out." Finished Roland as he and Torwyn walked away towards the repair bays.