Legends of the Smoke Jaguars
Sedaxus 1-50
Illchosen 51+
021.M31
The symbols of tyranny burned, casting fiery brilliance into overcast skies and turning the heavens blood-red. Across the city-scape of Farjness statues and icons of Warmaster Kendar, hated reminders to the people whom ruled over them with an iron fist, crumbled into dust. The Hall of Submission exploded as hidden charges blew the edifice apart, dropping the thousand Plasteel gibbets of condemned victims from their perches high above. The Eye of Dominion burned upon the front of the Palace, the Monument to dead Cthonia toppled as its foundations imploded and the Spire of Obedience disintegrated, killing the hundreds of singers who night and day proclaimed the glories of Chaos. Even the great statue of Kendar himself was undone, its feet sabotaged to drop it face-first into the dust as an insult to its maker. Far and wide the icons of Dark Compliance were brought low and so the declaration of rebellion was made.
Sedaxus could see flames licking the horizon from where he crouched, in a deserted tenement overlooking a broad concourse. The city was erupting in fire and thunder, the booming of distant explosions mixed with shouts of defiance and the hammering of guns. He knew somewhere out there darkly-armoured Astartes would be leading the uprising, driving the resistance fighters they had trained into a frenzy of revenge. The majority of squads had scattered across the city, intending to bring anarchy to the streets. The rest of the Company was here, waiting patiently for their moment. He couldn't see them but that was not surprising, they were Raven Guard, shadows were their home and invisibility their mantra. Sedaxus however was an entirely different order of being, one who had no business being among Loyalists. A murderous killer, delighting in terror and oppression: Night Lord, a midnight-clad son of Konrad Curze.
Sedaxus' presence among the XIXth Legion was a tale in itself but it sufficed to say he was here and intended to reap a fearful tally of Traitor blood. His armour was modified Mark IV, with carnivore's fangs hanging on sinew cords about his neck. His helm was fashioned like the skull of a feline predator and affected long braids from its rear. At his right hip hung a trio of human skulls, polished so they leered at the observer with perfect teeth and his pauldrons were heavy with Nostramo's gang-script.
Sedaxus leaned out a window and brushed a smatter of wood shavings to the ground. He grimaced as a low growl issued from the shadows, "Stop fidgeting."
"I know what I'm doing," Sedaxus snapped.
"Clearly you don't."
"I want to see them coming," Sedaxus countered.
The other hissed, "Damolos will signal when they come. Give away our position again and I'll kill you myself, Smoke Jaguar."
Sedaxus was not worried, the pair had fought side by side for fourteen years and he'd made the same threat more days than could be counted. Even so Sedaxus pulled back and went still. His eyes sought the speaker and found a vague outline in the corner. Even knowing where he was it was hard to make out details, and for a Space Marine that was saying something. Shade-Lord Nolaro, commander of an independent retribution fleet and bane of Traitors, lurked in the dark and waited patiently. He wasn't much to look at, standard Mark VI plate, lacking glory marks or kill trophies. Indistinguishable from his three hundred line-Brothers, which was precisely the point. All that marked him out was his bandolier of heavy grenades a power knife and the combi-Bolter in his hands.
Sedaxus leaned back as the first rumbles echoed down the broad street. That was fast, but then given who they were fighting it was to be expected. He tensed as the vox clicked and drew his pistol. Shadows moved but all he could see were abandoned ground-cabs lining the route. This district had been depopulated years ago, one of the many reasons the XIXth had selected it. The Raven Guard were annoyingly fastidious about collateral damage and civilian casualties. Sedaxus knew they could fight as hard and bloody as any other legion if they had to, but one thing he shared with the liberators of Deliverance was a belief that mindless slaughter was sloppy and careless.
Suddenly a vehicle tore past, a predator tank in the sea-green livery of the Sons of Horus. A moment later a rhino hurtled by, then another and another. The oppressors of Farjness coming out of their palace to put down the insurrection. Another Predator drew level with his eye but as it did so the Raven Guard sprang their trap. Mines laid across the road detonated, blowing the tracks off the lead Predator even as hidden Devastators arose and skewered both tanks with Lascannon fire.
The Sons of Horus may be traitorous filth but they had lost none of their skills and poured out of the Rhinos, bolters barking at shadowy forms lurking in windows and doorways. They were greeted with salvos of Bolter fire, hypersonic vengeance rounds, jealously preserved for moments like this. Ceramite shattered, limbs were blown away and Transhuman blood flowed as Traitors were picked off one by one.
Sedaxus itched to join the killing but held back, knowing his moment would come. Sure enough a trio of traitors broke cover, sprinting out of the trap back the way they came, right towards Sedaxus and Nolaro. He grinned as he lifted his plasma pistol and heard the charge coils sing. He carefully lined up his shot and squeezed, sending a shining ball of energy into the lead traitor, melting straight through him and out the other side as the filth dropped dead. Nolaro took the other, raising his combi-Bolter and spitting out a flat disk. The small charge flew the distance and slapped into a Son of Horus, clamping to his breastplate for a second before triggering a melta-blast. The filth collapsed into steaming gore as the final warrior charged with a berserk cry, but Sedaxus put a plasma bolt into his head and ended it swiftly.
Silence fell and Sedaxus snorted, "That was easy."
"Too easy," Nolaro growled, "They were few and reckless, the dregs of Kendar's horde. Where is the self-appointed Warmaster?"
As if in answer the vox crackled and Damolos cried, "Contact to the rear! He's here, Kendar's here!"
"Frak!" Nolaro snarled, "They baited our trap and snuck up behind us. All squads redeploy now!
Sedaxus cursed under his breath as they sprinted back into the maze of buildings. Despite their treachery the Sons of Horus had lost none of their skills, or ruthlessness. He heard combat echoing and didn't bother trying to find a way through, instead lowering his head to charge into a brick wall. Transhuman mass met stonework and broke it with ease, sending Sedaxus through the wall like a Land Raider crushing a cargo-8. Brick dust rained off his plate as he broke into an alleyway but he ignored the impact and dove towards the noise of battle, desperate to engage.
A sea-green warrior stood before him, back turned as he tried to stab a fallen Raven Guard. Sedaxus didn't give him time to react, sneaking up and grabbing the helm as his lightning claw extended with a thunk. No dainty set of graceful talons, as the XIXth favoured, but a twin-bladed implement of murder, thick, serrated and stained with blood. Fast as lightning he reached up and drew a line across the exposed neck seal, slitting the throat of the Traitor and leaving him to drop, spraying blood everywhere.
The Son of Horus fell and the fallen Raven looked up and said, "My thanks."
"Don't thank me," Sedaxus growled in annoyance.
Damolos he was named, a rough and ready warrior in mismashed plate with an archaic Mark II helm. He bore a hefty storm shield in one hand and in the other a chipped and battered chainaxe, marked with fading icons of the World Eaters. The arm that bore it was augmetic, in truth little more than an articulated three-pronged clamp. Damolos lurched to his feet and snarled, "Scum ambushed our ambush."
"Better not waste time chatting, let's go kill them."
The pair drove on, seeking the sound of battle. They turned a corner and found bedlam, Ravens and Sons of Horus grappling tooth and nail. Claws stabbed, swords slashed, Bolters boomed and chainswords roared as blood flowed in the street. Black and green bodies lay everywhere, left to ooze where they fell. Nolaro was in the midst of the fray, power knife crackling as he drove it into a traitor's spine. The battle lay in the balance and Sedaxus knew it could go either way. Then he came. Down the street strode an imperious warrior, tall and imposing in his warped plate. He walked not like a man in battle but like a king taking in his estates, face exposed to reveal imperious disdain on his gaunt features. His sea-green plate bore the Eye of Dominion, his right hand carried a spiked sceptre of rulership and his left fist was encased in a power fist which he swung casually and obliterated a Raven Guard as easily as crushing a ration tin. Kendar, slaughter Lord of Cthonia, Warmaster and ruler of Farjness.
"Kendar!" Damolos yelled as he charged, axe swinging high. He was thrown aside with a gesture of the sceptre, falling to the ground to be set upon by two Sons of Horus.
"Kill him!" Nolaro yelled as he fired a melta-charge, only to be rebuffed by a shimmering warp field that encased the Warmaster head to toe. Kendar made a shoving motion and Nolaro went flying, repelled by warp power.
The Warmaster moved to finish him off, only to be bought up short by a plasma blast that refracted off his shield. He paused then and his cruel face betrayed puzzlement as he questioned, "What's this? A Night Lord, a traitor to traitors?"
Sedaxus brandished his claws and hissed, "Face me and die."
Kendar sneered, "You challenge me?! This is a jest; I am Kendar, inheritor of Horus! I command Legions, I lay low worlds. The greatest champions of the Blood Angels and Dark Angels die by my hand. Sigismund himself bears a scar from our last encounter. I have slain nobler warriors than you without even noticing. You are nothing, I will crush you under my boot like vermin!"
"Right…" Sedaxus breathed, "In that case, forget it." Abruptly he turned and ran, fleeing the battle at fast as his feet could take him.
"Get back here and die with honour!" Kendar bellowed furiously as he gave chase.
Sedaxus ignored the cry, pelting down the road without concern for the grappling warriors. Raven Guard and Sons of Horus died in the filth but Sedaxus gave them no heed, sprinting past without pause. Kendar was right on his heels, matching him pace for pace and Sedaxus dove left into a narrow alley only to hear ceramite boots pounding after him. He took a left and a right and another left but nothing could shake Kendar, the traitor keeping up with ease. Sedaxus skidded around another corner and dashed down a rubbish strewn alley, only to come up short against a Ferrocrete wall, too thick and dense to break through.
The feet behind slowed and he turned to see Kendar swaggering towards him, face split by a mocking leer as he crowed, "Nowhere left to run gutter-trash."
"It seems not," Sedaxus muttered.
"You are a coward, a traitor to traitors and a fool," Kendar snarled.
"Better that than a moron," Sedaxus spat, "Following a dead lord."
Kendar snorted, "Horus is dead but I rise in his stead. I am the new master of the Legions, not the diseased things the Primarchs have become, not that cut smug cretin Abaddon. I shall rise but you shall fall, like the wretch you are. My name will live forever but yours will be forgotten in a day."
Sedaxus slowly exhaled, "You're… half-right. I am a traitor to my own Legion, and will probably die in some muddy field, to be promptly forgotten. But there's something else I am that you missed."
"What's that?"
Sedaxus cocked his helm and replied, "Bait."
As he spoke a thunderous retort shook the alley. Kendar froze in horror as something slammed into his warp shield, shorting it out in a spray of multi-hued sparks. A shield-breaker round, rare beyond measure, shattered his protection and left him exposed. A second later a turbo-penetrator round struck his temple and blew through, spraying brains everywhere. Kendar, self-proclaimed Warmaster of Chaos died instantly, his legacy of slaughter cut short in a dank alley, his glory amounting to nothing more than dying in squalor.
The corpse toppled over and slammed into the ground as Sedaxus breathed in relief, "Took you long enough."
"I like to watch you sweat," a soft voice hissed.
A patch of rubbish shifted and from it arose an Astartes. Even Sedaxus with a Space Marine's genhanced vision would have sworn it was nothing but trash, yet impossibly it became an eight foot tall warrior, shrouded in a camo-cape and bearing a custom sniper rifle with bulbous fixtures and strange attachments that owed nothing to Mechanicus lore. His helm's left eye was a staring orb of red glassic and his pauldrons slimmed down. Even standing in front of Sedaxus he was hard to see, somehow blurry and indistinct. Most Raven Guard adopted the shadows, but this one was darkness incarnate.
"Engar, next time just take the damned shot," Sedaxus snapped.
"Don't tell me how to shoot," Engar hissed, "I don't tell you how to stab people in the back."
Any retort was cut off as Nolaro and Damolos skidded around the corner, desperately trying to catch up. They halted at the sight of fallen Kendar and Damolos grunted, "It worked?! He's dead, yes! I love a good kill!"
Sedaxus sniffed, "Damolos, you're alive? How, I saw you mobbed by two Traitors."
"Ah they were hard bastards for sure," Damolos snorted but then hefted his weapon and chuckled, "But I had an axe."
Nolaro stepped forward and kicked the dead Warmaster as he snapped, "Enough patting ourselves on the back. The head was struck off the beast but our casualties were heavier than expected. We need to move to phase two."
"I'm hale by the way," Sedaxus snidely interjected, "No thanks to your plan to use me as bait."
Nolaro ignored that and bent to chop off Kendar's head as he voxed, "A king falls. A thousand spears rise. Bloody Claws in the night."
Signal sent he turned and strode off, taking the skull with him. Engar slinked after saying, "Back to work then."
Damolos slapped Sedaxus on the pauldron and laughed, "Cheer up! There's plenty of killing left for us yet, never a dull day in the Emperor's Legions!"
Sedaxus couldn't help but grin as he followed saying, "Good, I've not had nearly enough Traitor blood to slake my thirst."
