Space Hulk Olethros
Mechanicus ship The Red Ark
Deathwing Librarian Nadiaen Redlata
The Situation was not looking good. Barachiel had had his Vengeance-Pattern Assault Cannon cleaved in half, and had been promptly impaled on a Hive Lord's claw. Nahum had been supplied faulty Combat-Stims, leading to him overdosing and collapsing mid-combat. It was impossible to recover his body; Nahum collapsed on top of a bridge without railings, and promptly fell into the deep dark below. Nadiaen had seen at least two Hive Lords chasing him during his rapid retreat through the bowels of the mechanicus ship he was sent to purge. It was completely impossible to deploy the Neurotoxin, since the environmental control room was now extremely heavily guarded. Stalker-Strains waited around every corner, ready to rip him to shreds, and they had almost succeeded one time, resulting in his current appearance.
Due to extremely heavy damage to his terminator armour, he had to psychically break his way out of it to even be able to move, also destroying the weapons he had on his person at the time. This gave him the advantage of being able to move fast enough to evade most, if not all of the Tyranids aboard the Olethros. But it also made him very vulnerable to almost any attack due to only wearing his black carapace for protection. His current plan was to recover all of the Dark Angels' Relics found on his missions, and use their abilities of immensely boosting psychic powers to completely destroy the Space Hulk to avenge his brothers.
-Arlrlrlrr-
A warbling cry of a Bioblast-Strain was heard before said Tyranid rounded the corner with the intent of killing Nadiaen with an acid-Explosion.
What the genestealer got for its efforts was a bolt of warp-Lightning to the face, completely obliterating it as the Librarian rapidly backpedalled out of the explosive radius of the acid. Once the Acid had dissipated, Nadiaen continued in locating the various relic stashes he had established at points of interest. The Crusade Pattern Backpack, the Gauntlets of the 1st Angel and The Tread of Angels were already on his person, giving him some protection for his right hand, his right foot and his back. The rest, he would need to find before the Genestealers did.
23 hours later
unnamed Rogue Trader ship
It was far easier traversing the Olethros when one didn't have to anticipate Hive Lords at every corner, as the halls of the ship he was currently in were mostly far too small to accommodate an enemy of that size. The partly collapsed sections also helped in keeping out some of the smaller Hybrids, as the general instability of these sections stopped anyone without superhuman agility from entering, and the genestealers had yet to evolve a strain that light footed without sacrificing massive amounts of armour (although that was only a matter of time, Nadiaen thought). The only thing to worry about were the Hybrid Psykers, being able to channel a massive amount of psychic power with no real detriments. It didn't help that due to the Shadow in The Warp of the Tyranids his own psychic prowess was massively limited, effectively putting him on the same level of Warp powers as the Hybrids. Although there was one silver lining in all this. The Key of Knowledge and the Key of Ignorance were completely unharmed and safe in their stash. He mag-locked the Key of Ignorance to his hip and fused the Key of Knowledge to the top of his backpack, before slight changes in the warp notified him of a presence nearby. He turned to look and an exceptionally strong hybrid teleported to within five metres of the Librarian. Quickly deducing that standard Warp Lightning wouldn't work due to this creature's extremely strong resistance to the warp, Nadiaen chose a more simple approach. There was a loud noise, and the Hybrid's head was crushed like a grape in the Librarians grip. The rest of the body fell to the ground, immediately exploding due to the uncontrolled Warp energies flowing through it.
Nadiaen didn't concern himself with that however, as the hull of the ship gave a disconcerting groan, indicating that it would not hold for much longer. This was a rogue trader ship, after all, and not an astartes strike cruiser with the necessary armour plating to survive the pressure of being squished against hundreds of other ships. Nadiaen quickly mapped the fastest way to the next relic stash, and started sprinting to it.
4 hours later
Crusade-Era Dark Angels warship Calibans Will
The ancient ship of the First Legion yielded mixed results. Allegiance to the Lion was in prime condition, as was Scabbard of the Beast Slayer, The Lion's Step and the Lion Belt. However, the Tyranids had found the stashes containing Honour of Caliban and Honour of Terra, which were absolutely destroyed as a result. The size of the corridors of the Calibans Will also made it far easier for extremely large genestealers to pursue Nadiaen, subsequently putting him under a large amount of stress, as it was only a matter of time before another Hive Lord crawled out of a hole in the ground.
-CREEEEEAK-CHRASH-
A Sound of tortured metal sounded behind him, prompting him to turn at breakneck speed to find out what was happening.
-ROAAAR-
A Scythe-Strain had found his hiding spot and was currently alerting every other Tyranid in a fifty kilometre radius. The Librarian used the time the Genestealer took to roar and charged up an extremely dangerous psychic Attack. When the towering Insectoid finally rounded the corner, it was suddenly assailed by one of the most dangerous things in reality. A black hole. Nadiaen had used his psychic prowess to compress pure warp energies into one very small point and then converted those energies into mass, essentially creating a warp-based singularity. When the Librarian then cut off the flow of warp energies to the singularity, it suddenly had no fuel and disappeared, leaving no trace of the Scythe-Strain that was about to attack him. But Nadiaen had no time to celebrate, because thousands upon thousands of genestealers were converging on his location, meaning that he had to move, and fast. A clap of displaced Air, followed by thundering steps was heard, as the Librarian sprinted away as fast as he could.
5 hours later
Black Templars warship Sanctum Imperator
The relics in the crusade warship were overall in much better condition than those in the Calibans Will, due to the many heavily armoured mausoleums that Nadiaen could store the artefacts in. Hidden in their own individual tomb each, Lion's Pauldron, Symboly of the Librarius, Cuirass of the Order, Master Crafted Auspex, Cloak of the Initiate and Blades of Silence were in more than prime condition when Nadiaen went to pick them up. The Auspex still worked perfectly, for example, and the power-field of the Blades only needed minor maintenance.
However, the actual problem was getting to the ancient relics, since the hall where most of them were stored was absolutely crawling with Tyranids and Hybrids. The Librarian couldn't fight them all directly, so he resorted to guerilla warfare. He hacked into the various security systems still active aboard the Sanctum Imperator, and set them so they would shoot at random, drawing the genestealers away from the main hall to investigate. For the rest of the Tyranids that stayed to guard against relics, Nadiaen had a different plan. Using the Neurotoxin he was originally supposed to deploy against the Genestealers aboard The Red Ark, he quickly disposed of them, giving him a maximum of 5 minutes, before the Neurotoxin dispersed and the Tyranids would be able to enter the main Hall again. So the Librarian went to work.
One by one, the various tombs in which he hid the relics rose up from the ground, allowing him to quickly equip himself with them, giving him even more psychic power, and more physical protection, due to some of the pieces being ancient astartes armour. However, Nadiaen could feel the Genestealers closing in again, as the neurotoxin had almost completely dispersed by now.
-Fwoom-
A sound of unreality was heard, before the Librarian disappeared through a controlled tear in the Warp, reappearing a good five kilometres away from his last position within the blink of an eye. Slightly exhausted from teleporting such a distance, Nadiaen made sure that there were no Tyranids in the Area, before sitting down for a short rest. While he was sat on the ground, he meditated. His plan was still to destroy the Space Hulk he was in with the help of the psychic relics, but how would he achieve that? He would have to create an extremely large Warp-fuelled black hole, which would destroy the entirety of the Olethros before any of the Genestealers could react. However, that also meant that the nearby Deathwing Battle Barge Ezekiel's Retribution and the surrounding imperial fleet would be utterly annihilated in the resulting implosion. So Nadiaen psychically reached out to the Deathwing ship.
In Orbit of Space Hulk Olethros
Deathwing Battle Barge Ezekiel's Retribution
Grandmaster Belial
The Grandmaster of the Deathwing was worried. Most of the Squads that were sent in had been immediately overrun by an excessive amount of Genestealers, and the rest didn't make it far either before being blocked by terrain. The only Squad to have achieved something of Note was Nadiaen's, with them reaching deep into the Space Hulk, finding many ancient and immensely valuable relics. But Belial had not received a vox-transmission from them for about 30 hours, so he assumed they had gone down as well. He would have to alter his plan to destroy the Olethros, since they had no one inside to overload the rea-
Grandmaster Belial
a voice addressed him. Startled, the Grandmaster looked around him to find out who wished to speak to him, before realising that it was a psychic communication. Who are you?, he thought
I am Librarian Nadiaen Redlata of Squad alpha to be sent into the Olethros. The last mission you gave my team was to deploy a neurotoxin through The Red Ark's environmental systems.
… this was certainly a surprise. Over 30 hours after last contact, when even Belial himself had thought them dead, he received a psychic call from the Squad-leader.
Why are you hailing me via the warp, and not through the vox? What happened over the last 30 hours? What is the status of your squad? What of your mission? the Grandmaster rapid-fired his questions.
My armour is compromised, so I do not have the encryption codes to operate the vox, what happened over the last 30 hours is irrelevant at this time, everyone in the squad except me is lost, and I could not manage to reach the environmental control room of The Red Arkto deploy the Neurotoxin. I do, however, have a different plan to destroy the Space Hulk and the nearing star system. Nadiaen answered.
… catastrophic. Since when did you possess the psychic strength to breach the gellar field and speak to my mind? I am fairly certain that you would need to be a daemon prince to puncture a battle barge warp shield… Belial asked.
I have found various relics of great psychic power while aboard the Olethros. I would have given them to the Deathwing's reliquary when the opportunity presented itself, but the circumstances have forced my hand.
Belial dwelled on that statement for a short time before deciding that there were more important things at stake. Very Well. Tell me of your plan for the absolute destruction of the Olethros.
The Librarian got straight to the point. I am currently collecting the remaining relics aboard the Olethros to give me enough psychic power to create a warp-fuelled black hole, which will last until it has swallowed the system, then disappear. You will need to order the rest of the fleet to withdraw before that happens. Although, it will take at least 24 more standard terran hours to collect enough relics to achieve this plan, so while you do have some time, I advise to immediately start fleeing from the system so that no complications occur when Exterminatus eventually commences.
A sound plan, but there is one problem with it. The Grandmaster said.
Which would be?
There is no escape planned for you, Nadiaen.
Ah. It may be that we have differing views on what constitutes an issue. I do not plan to survive past this deployment. Devastator Barachiel and Apothecary Nahum were my brothers, and I plan to join them at the Emperor's side shortly. Goodbye, Grandmaster Belial. It has been an honour.
Libra- Suddenly, Nadiaen's presence faded from his mind, meaning he had cut the psychic link. Belial sighed, and went to inform the fleet of what he had learned.
10 hours later
Space Hulk Olethros
Superfreighter The Norns Ghost
Deathwing Librarian Nadiaen Redlata
The relics inside the Superfreighter fared far worse than any of their counterparts on the other ships. There weren't many hiding spots, and thus not many places to hide the relics. The Scroll of Lies had been thrown into a fire by the time Nadiaen got to it, the Lamp of the Blind King had disappeared from all known detection systems inside the Space Hulk, and the Reliquary Skull had been broken into 432 separate pieces. As a small silver lining, The Norns Ghost was almost completely devoid of genestealers, with only a few hybrids remaini-
-AAARGH-
A stalker strain screamed its battle cry as it decloaked and tried to rip Nadiaen to shreds, only for the Librarian to psychically replace its insides with its outsides, instantly killing it. However, since the stalker-strains hunted in packs most of the time, there were still 3 or 4 nearby. Sending out a small psychic pulse, he located their lifesigns, and thus, their hiding spots. But the Tyranids had obviously detected this, since they ran out of their hiding spots all at once, presumably to overwhelm him with numbers. The first one had its entire body fried by warp-lightning, the second one suddenly found itself in unreality, as it had stepped directly into a warp-tear, and the third exploded due to the Librarian massively increasing the air pressure inside its body. With that problem dealt with, Nadiaen began sprinting in the direction of the second to last ship, all the while periodically checking for more stalker-strains.
8 hours later
Imperial Guard cruiser Cadias Hand
The Librarian was actually quite excited for the relics on the last two ships, since they would finally give him something other than psychic powers to defend himself with. On the Imperial Guard Cruiser, he found the Blade of 1st Legion, the corresponding sword to the Scabbard he had picked up earlier. It was a long and beautiful Power-Sword from the great crusade, able to slice through just about anything that was in range. Mag-locking the weapon to his left hip, he continued through the Cadias Hand to the next relic. On the way, several genestealers tried to ambush him with melee attacks, not knowing that he now had a very potent close-quarters weapon. Two of the smaller ones simply disintegrated when touched by the power-field, another two had all their internal organs burned out by the intense heat the sword generated, and the last one, a scythe-strain, was cleanly split in two by a vertical swing. Continuing as if nothing had happened, Nadiaen jogged in the direction of the last relic aboard the Imperial Guard Cruiser, the Tome of Truth. A book written by a librarian during the great crusade on psyker-battle tactics, how they were segmented, and much more. A veritable well of helpful information for any even mildly psychic person that read it, as it gave many tactics on how to avoid warp predators, for example by cloaking oneself's psychic presence. The Librarian reached the stash where the book was hidden, and mag-locked it to his right hip. Suddenly, Nadiaen felt a highly psychic being rapidly approaching. The speed at which it was going meant that it could only be-
-ROAAAAAAAR-
… a Hive Lord. Even though the Librarian was now armed & armoured, a Tyranid of this strength was to be avoided at all costs. The towering aliens were deceptively fast, faster than almost every otter strain, insanely strong, and, the most frightening thing about them, very intelligent. So not only did Nadiaen have to lose the Hive Lord, he also had to make sure it couldn't predict his moves and find him again. So, he did something unpredictable. He psychically activated every single defence mechanism in the Entire Ship, and set them to shoot at anything that moved. He himself was by far fast enough to dodge most of the turrets, but the Hive Lords' massive size meant that it was vulnerable to them. While the alien was distracted, a rapid series of claps was heard, as the Librarian rapidly teleported away from the threat. Once he had reached the complete other end of the ship, he continued on foot, confident that the Hive Lord did not know where he was.
4 hours later
unnamed Mechanicus Power-XL class freighter
Zero Hour was nearing. The point at which Nadiaen would unleash hell itself on the Space Hulk was less than an hour away, him only needing two more relics before he would have enough power. Conveniently, there were exactly two of the aforementioned items aboard the freighter. The first was Executioner's Voice, a master-crafted bolter from the time of the great crusade that was loaded with ancient armour-piercing shells, meaning it could rip any smaller genestealer to shreds. However, its Magazines were limited due to him leaving all his bolter ammunition with his destroyed terminator armour. The second relic aboard the Power-XL ship was the Sceptre of Power, an ancient psychic amplifier manufactured some time before the Age of Heresy. This relic in particular gave Nadiaen an immense boost to his psychic abilities, while also allowing for far more precision than if he were to use his hands to guide the attacks. They were both stored in the same stash, meaning that he was absolutely elated when he found both of them in prime condition, without even a speck of dust on them. He mag-locked the Bolter to his left hip, above his Sword, and took the Sceptre in his left hand. Now that he had all the relics needed, Exterminatus could begin.
Nadiaen took a deep breath, and started charging a massive amount of warp energy. Almost immediately, he could feel every single warp sensitive Tyranid inside the Space Hulk Olethros begin to move towards his position, the most worrying of which were the hundreds of Hive Lords rapidly closing the distance. The Sceptre started to give off a light indescribable in colour, courtesy of the huge amounts of the Immaterium being pulled into reality. He could feel the ship straining from the amount of claws ripping through it, almost completely compromising internal stability with the amount of tunnels that were suddenly burrowed through the hull.
What was also worrying were the things in the warp, whose attention was very rapidly gained by the enormous amount of energy the Librarian was drawing. The daemons had begun trying to influence his mind, and it was getting harder to resist by the minute. Images of War, Death, Decay, Plague, Excess, Pleasure, Lies and impossibilities flashed before his eyes. Promises of unimaginable Power were whispered into his ears, and some more bold daemons even tried to mutate him into spawns of chaos. What those unfortunate souls got for their troubles was complete annihilation via getting sucked into the warp-fuelled black hole that had now begun to take form in reality, and was getting bigger by the second. Already, the pure energy was enough to completely annihilate the system, but Nadiaen wanted to be sure, so he let it charge right up until the Hive-Lords had begun clawing their way out of the ground. Then, he let it loose, simultaneously getting sucked into the warp in one motion.
Quickly, he erected the strongest psychic shields he had, and began to analyse where in the warp he exactly was. What he found out was… catastrophic. Endless Battlefields, rotting forests, too-perfect landscapes and completely paradoxical shapes greeted him. Nadiaen had landed on an intersection between the territories of all the four chaos gods, so it was only a matter before he was noticed. So, he dived, deep down into the darkest recesses of the warp, where not even the Chaos Gods would go, and with good reason. Beings older than time itself and infinitely more powerful dwelled there, and they did not appreciate visitors. The Librarian however, by some stroke of absolutely ludicrous luck, managed to avoid all their attention, delving deeper and deeper into the Immaterium, until he felt something change.
The Warp… was extremely calm. There were no daemons. There were no Chaos Gods. But, the Librarian also couldn't feel the Astronomicon anymore. This meant that Nadiaen had at least crossed galaxies, if not universes.
But he couldn't dwell on that any longer, as he was suddenly spit out of the warp into reality, prompting him to immediately project a psychic shield around his head in the case of being in space. A wise call, it turned out, as when he opened his eyes, he was granted the sight of a planet from orbit. The planet seemed to be at least an agriculture world, if not a paradise world, being covered in lush green continents surrounded by deep blue oceans. What went against the notion of this being a world away from the frontlines, was its shattered moon. It looked as if it had been hit by a shoddily aimed Exterminatus weapon, as two thirds of the moon remained intact. But that was not Nadiaen's primary concern at this moment, which was that he was rapidly approaching the planet. Seeing as he didn't want to land in a possibly kilometres deep ocean, he altered his course to land on one of the continents, the one that looked a suspicious amount like an ancient terran dragon.
It didn't take long before the Librarian hit the planet's atmosphere, and with it, came heat. Extreme heat. Up to 3000°C, to be specific. The atmosphere of the planet slowed his fall, but he hit the barrier of air at such a velocity that he would still impact the planet at 3000 m/s. So as to not slam into the ground with many times the speed of sound, Nadiaen used his psychic powers to slow him down, creating a spray of colours both beautiful and headache-inducing to watch. It did not slow him down enough to completely halt his momentum before impact, so all the Librarian could do was brace. He hit the ground, and immediately lost consciousness.
