Litany of Devotion
Where there is uncertainty, I shall bring light
Where there is doubt, I shall sow faith
Where there is shame, I shall point atonement
Where there is rage, I shall show its course
My word in the soul shall be as my bolter in the field.
Spoken as part of morning meditations at Watch-fort Deinmnous
In the cold void of space, amidst the swirling maelstrom of the Immaterium, a Deathwatch Kill Team hurtled through the depths of the unknown. Led by the venerable Black Templars Chaplain, Brother Durandal, the Kill Team, known as "Embers," consisted of warriors drawn from distant Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes.
As they journeyed through the warp, Brother Shevrim of the Carcharodons, his form adorned with the mutations of his Chapter, stood vigilantly by Durandal's side. "These warp currents are treacherous, Priest." Shevrim remarked, his voice tinged with a rasping cadence. "We must remain vigilant lest we be consumed by the darkness." The Carcharodon was half lit, a dull lumens near his head reflected in his black inky eyes, giving them an ethereal pupil. The two warriors stood on a raised platform with a rail sectioning them off from the servitors and crewmen carrying out the will of the ship's captain.
Sa'kan, the stalwart Salamander, his cybernetic hand gleaming in the dim light of the Kill Team's transport, a Galdius pattern escort called 'The Vaunted', smiled in amusement. "The old shark is worried we won't make it to the fighting," he replied, his voice firm yet resolute he then turned to face Durandal. "Are there any further details from the inquisitor?" all that indicated his presence was the ominous glow of his eyes, uncharacteristically for a Salamander he seemingly materialised out of the shadows, just to the left of Durandal.
Durandal turned his head slightly in the direction of the large primaris warrior, "no, we will continue under the premise that nothing has changed." Sa'kan flexed slightly rolling his shoulders, "I do not trust the inquisition at the best of times brother, they believe themselves masters of shadow and secrecy beyond that of Shevrim." The Salamander smirked towards the older shark, the weathered warrior shaking his head lightly at the jests.
Grullor, the resident tech-specialist from the Sons of the Medusa, tended to the intricate machinery, servitors and servo skulls that flitted through the crew that kept their vessel operational. From the bowels of the ship he voxxed the kill-team "The Gellar fields are holding steady for now," he reported, his voice echoing through the cramped confines of the transports bridge, it had been modified clearly with a focus on mortal human forms. "But we must remain vigilant. The warp is a fickle mistress, and it will not hesitate to betray us if given the chance."
And lastly, Brother Maxus, the newest addition to the Kill Team, a Primaris warrior hailing from the Castellans of the Rift Chapter, eager to prove himself in battle, listened intently to his comrades' words. As the only other Primaris marine among them, Maxus felt the weight of expectation bearing down upon his broad shoulders, his chapter relatively young being a part of Guiliman's Ultima founding. He stood rigidly on guard at the entrance to the command area thinking back to arrival on the vessel, they had barely spoken to the inquisitor before she had taken off with her entourage.
Durandal surveyed his comrades with a mixture of pride and concern, his gaze lingering on Maxus for a moment longer than the others, the lad was new, fresh and it showed in his demeanour. "Brother Maxus, tell us of your Chapter and your journey to this moment," he commanded, his voice echoing with the weight of centuries of battle-hardened experience.
Maxus straightened his posture, his eyes meeting Durandal's with unwavering resolve. "The Castellans of the Rift are a proud successor Chapter of the Ultramarines, we were formed as a part of the Ultima Founding." he began, his voice steady despite the lingering sense of unease that gnawed at his insides, Shevrim slid his helmet on and privately voxxed Sa'kan and Grullor, "never heard of these Castellans seem just as tightly wound as the rest of Guillimans sons."
Sa'kan responded simply to the jab, "and you my kinsmen are just as depressing as all the other raven sons, he is as he was supposed to be, would you have him change his very nature?" the large Salamander had turned as best he could especially given the confines of the bridge to look at the older marine.
Shevrim gave a short grunt in response as Durandal looked to them to silence their bickering, it was common in the Watch for new members of Kill teams to not be included on private vox's especially in the case of such unknown chapters.
"I was born and raised on the world of Tarsis Ultra, where I underwent the rigorous trails of my chapter and new implantation process of a Primaris marine before being called upon to serve the Emperor in the Deathwatch." Maxus was crisp and to the point in his response, but there was a slight shift in his tone, almost unnoticeable but Durandal caught it. His years in chaplaincy had taught him to look for such signs in his brothers. His years in the watch had then tempered this, every brother no matter their creed or gene-line had a story, this young Castellan was no different.
Durandal nodded at the short description, his gaze drifting to the swirling vortex of energy that loomed ominously before them. "The Emperor has brought you to this moment, Brother Maxus," he declared, his voice resonating with the certainty of conviction. "Together, we shall face whatever horrors await us on the other side and emerge victorious in his name."
And with those words, Maxus braced himself for the oncoming storm of this unknown mission, he was internally reciting litanies and mantras as he noted the other kill team members and how their hearts seemed to fill with grim determination and their minds prepared for the trials that lay ahead. For they were warriors of the Adeptus Astartes, forged in the fires of battle and tempered by the crucible of war. And no matter what awaited them on the other side of the warp, they would face it with courage, honour, and unwavering faith in the Emperor's divine will.
"Brothers, to glory and honor!" – Black Templars Space Marine
Their mission had been simple in its objective: eradicate a growing Ork infestation that threatened to overrun a vital Imperial outpost on the fringes of the Imperium's territory within the Segmentum Obscurus. But what began as a routine purge had quickly escalated into a desperate battle for survival as the forces of Chaos emerged to do battle with the Orks for what little resources could be scavenged and the Tyranids descended upon the beleaguered outpost.
For days, the Kill Team had fought tooth and nail against the encroaching hordes, their bolters roaring and armour servos whirring in the heat of battle. But despite their valiant efforts, the tide of enemies seemed endless, and victory remained elusive. Through ruined outposts they tracked the fading trail of the inquisitor and her team, there were little signs of the groups passings, poorly wiped data-termianls or the corpse of a specific target were the main indicators.
It was during the darkest hours of the conflict that fate intervened, in the form of a mysterious device unearthed by the Orks in their mindless rampage. A spire in the form of a DNA helix, seemingly made from obsidian. From a distance it looked to be cut from a single great chunk of the stone.
With no other recourse, Durandal made the fateful decision to retreat. "We cannot fight on; we must fall back and warn the wider imperium of this disaster." Durandal surveyed a wrecked transport as Shevrim be-headed an orkoid.
"Heretics have been working to get the unknown device working, and the ork mech boyz have clearly done something." Grullor mused. He was fixed on the black spire in the distance. Currently it had a mixture of colours full and blinding, swirling and flashing it was almost maddening.
"We can use it as a rally point, have The Vaunted send a transport there?" offered Sa'kan looking down at a small toy in the rubble, the fire was beginning to swell in his chest. A shadow flickered across his mind, 'Never again…'
Maxus was cleaning traitor blood from his combat knife when he asked, "what of the good inquisitor? Are we to abandon her?" it was carefully asked, aimed at Durandal. "Yes." came the simple reply from Durandal as he looked at the young Castellan, "you have limited experience with their ilk so hear this and hear well, they would not hesitate to sell our lives just as easily nor the lives of those innocents who have suffered here, they proclaim they are the emperors shields, they forget who it is that holds the line against their folly when it comes to bite them and for this they shall be humbled."
Maxus stared, hard then looked to the other members of the Kill team, Sa'kan met his gaze, "To serve humanity is our purpose, to protect the weak our duty." Quoted the Salamander. "That is a rather radical outlook for one such as you brother chaplain?" Maxus looked towards the chaplain again.
"The idea of the watch is radical, Maxus." Shevrim hadn't even looked up from his work flaying the skin from an ork nob's skull and removing the largest tooth for his necklace, "you sons of Guiliman, you struggle in the watch sometimes, this I have seen, you expect us not of your gene line to conform to your ideas of brotherhood, of a chapter and doctrine."
Maxus felt some of his choler rise at this. He understood the radicalness of the Watch, he was no fool.
"Your rigidness may break you brother, we do not wish this, an unspoken rule in the watch assume the inquisitors are lying, there is a 93.86% chance they have purposefully mislead or informed us on mission critical details." Grullor said putting a hand on him. The younger marine looked at him cooling himself.
"Learn to listen to what they are not saying, it will serve well not just in your watch but in future dealings with the inquisition back in your chapter, now come we move to the device, let us see if there's anything that can be done about this failure." Durandal turned to head in the direction of a ruined structure.
Maxus continued to fire, plunging his combat knife into a hormogaunts brain, the battle had turned ill almost immediately, the Kill Team had completed their unspoken objective of recovering the data on device the inquisitor had tried to take, meanwhile she and her retinue were nowhere to be found the control centre showed signs of a battle with the only traces of the inquisitor being a hand. What Maxus and the others had not counted on was a sorcerer, a traitor marine, Shevrim and Grullor recognised the warband as some damned sons of Guiliman thought long lost…this enraged him, he kept focused conserving ammo where he could, The Vaunted was moving into position overhead ready to either extract or eradicate them and the data.
The chanting was reaching a fever pitch when an Ork Odd boy yelled something and the device burst to life, Durandals melta pistol fired twice causing the sorcerer to fall back howling as he died, Grullors servo arms whirred as they hacked at the Ork shaman. The beam reached up to the skies when a burst came through from The Vaunted, it was garbled but distressed "H-Lp-u-T-rone!" Maxus looked to his new brothers to see what was to be done he noticed something being said between the Gorgon-son and the old Templar, Durandal looked to his brothers, "Grullor your sure!"
"Aye brother Chaplain." Was the Static reply Maxus tried to strain himself to hear more as he held back a deranged cultist Durandal came crashing down with his Crozius on a nearby bio-form and roared at him "go into the device, NOW!"
The Kill team turned and ran through the unknown Device, Maxus began to recite a litany internally 'if this to be our end then by the throne may we make such an end…'
They came to a stop at the base of the swirling energies, "it is an emergency teleport of some kind the inquisitor knew this." Grullor spoke, it was not lost on Maxus that this was somehow related to what they had warned him earlier. So, this inquisitor had perhaps survived and fled through the teleport, leaving them to die here, it would appear the teams warning were correct.
"The devices activation was done incorrectly and interfered with by the traitors." The gorgon-son further explained. "The inquisitor failed brothers; we must destroy the device The Vaunted was lost as well when it was activated."
Durandal looked to each one of the kill-team in turn, "Brother I believe it can be stabilised momentarily enough for ourselves to use, I can make no guarantees to our destination." Grullor spoke up. The Son of Medusa had already begun to work on the consoles nearby interfacing with them.
Durandal looked to entrance he could hear the demented screaming of Orkz and traitors mixed with primal roars of the tyranids. "We must try, the sector command must be made aware of what has happened here." He looked to the Gorgon-Son "Hurry Grullor, we have little time." He looked up and around himself trying to discern the best positions and so forth, he began issuing orders.
Shevrim waited in the Shadows near the entrance he'd most likely die first but at least he'd kill the filth as it entered and buy his brothers more time, at least that was the thought until a bell chime was heard cutting the tension in the room immediately.
"What in his name..." Sa'kan trailed off looking to him, Shevrim shrugged in response. "It is working brothers; we have a few moments." Grullor looked up from his work, there was actual excitement in the Cyborgs voice.
"All of you through now, Grullor the det controls!" Durandal bellowed, as he did, the Kill Team with a sense of trepidation weighing heavy upon their hearts, giving what they were sure was to be final look to one another plunged headlong into the swirling vortex of energy, their fate hanging in the balance.
"I'm just very wary that once you start military operations in any country, it's very difficult to predict what the outcome is." - Abdallah II
A sleek ship cut through the deep see of space, passing by the light of a far-off star showed off the SSV Normandy on its side. Inside a red-haired woman is walking towards the vessels CIC, as she arrives a voice calls out over the intercom, "the Arcturus Prime relay is range. Initiating transmission sequence." The woman continued walking, bumping into a younger soldier.
"Commander." He nodded at her a bug smile plastered across his face, the young officer was to be part of her ground team, good kid, his record checked out form what she'd read. She continued walking, passing by the XO of the ship who nodded at her. As she done approached the cockpit, she could hear the pilot joker taking, "We are connected. Calculating transit mass and destination. The relay is hot. Acquiring approach vector. All stations secure for transit." She arrived behind a large Turian, the spectre Nihlus.
Commander Shepard stood behind the pilot in the cockpit of the Normandy, her eyes fixed on the holographic display showing the trajectory of their ship. "The board is green. Approach run has begun. Hitting the relay in 3…2…1…" Joker flipped a switch and held the controls for the Normandy. The large tuning fork relay sent out electrical like pulses that coated the Normandy, charging and pulsing the vessel as it was shot out.
"Thristers, check. Navigation, check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems online. Drift…just under 1500 K." Joker reported over his shoulder to Shepard who just nodded standing at attention and looking at the Turian. Nihlus nodded in agreement and looked at Joker, "1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased." Nihlus turns looks at Shepard briefly and walks out of the cock pit. Joker turns to Kaidan the other member of Shepards team whose sitting in the co pilots chair on his right. "I hate that guy." He mock whispered.
Shepard looked at her XO for their mission, he was classed as a Sentinel, essentially a biotic-combat engineer. "Nihlus gave you a compliment...so you hate him?" Kaidan responded to Joker. The pilot looked at Kaidan in faux shock then smirked, "You remember to zip your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead. So that's incredible. Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having him on board. Call me paranoid." The last part had more genuine concern in it, and Shepard saw him drop the smile.
Kaidan chose to look at the controls in front of him, tapping in some adjustments and final checks as responded, "You're paranoid. The Council helped fund this project. They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment." he finished the inputs and looked back over at Joker.
Joker shook his head again at Kaidan and checked over the inputs and adjustments the guy made, measure twice, cut once and all that bullshit, "Yeah, that's the official story. But only an idiot believes the official story." Shepard hummed catching their attention. She held a hand up to her chin thinking.
"Joker has a point they don't tend to send Spectres on a shakedown run…even for something like the Normandy, maybe C-Sec or a scientific team." She agreed with the pilot, it was kind of weird to send a top-class agent like a Spectre, the Normandy was a top of the range stealth frigate but even so…
Joker looked at Kaidan with a small triumphant smirk, "so there is something more going on here than what the captains letting on." As he said that the intercom linked in a call from their Captain making Joker shit himself slightly, "Joker. Status report." Captain Anderson's voice was crisp and straight forward.
"Just cleared the mass relay, Captain. Stealth systems engaged. Everything looks solid." Joker quickly triple checked everything; he was not going to get caught out over something stupid, sure Shepard was cool, but she'd never let him hear the end of it if he done something stupid like not engage the afterburners properly.
Captain Anderson's voice came over the comm again, "Good. Find a comm buoy and link us into the network. I want mission reports relayed back to Alliance brass before we reach Eden Prime."
"Aye, aye, Captain. Better brace yourself, sir. I think Nihlus is headed your way." Joker tried to give his Captain a bit of warning incase the Spectre tried to pull some sneaky spy shit. Shepard just listened in on the exchange. "He's already here, Lieutenant. Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the comm room for a debriefing." Anderson cut out after that; Joker looked back at Shepard.
"You get that, Commander?" he asked, trying to look more focused on his piloting so that she wouldn't say something to him. "He sounds angry. Something must have gone wrong with the mission." Jane rubbed her temples, really, they hadn't even made it to Eden Prime.
"Pff. Captain always sounds like that when he's talking to me." Joker let out a huff of air, no sympathy at all for Shepard, that Spectre guy was her problem now as far as he was concerned. Kaidan looked at him completely deadpanned, "I can't possibly imagine why."
Shepard arrive for a debrief and got the run down on her actual mission, securing a Prothean beacon to share with the council, a way to improve inter species relations, honestly Shepard wasn't overly bothered with that the only species that ever rubbed her the wrong way were Batarians, but as a general rule of thumb no one generally liked Batarians most were little more speciest thugs who saw themselves as the dominant life forms in the galaxy. But they and turians had been around and were considered major galactic players, and both were concerned about humanity, apparently there was concern humanity was 'selfish, too unpredictable. Too independent and even dangeorus' womp womp for them.
What did catch her off guard was the fact Nihlus was here to evaluate her, "what's going on, Captain?" she asked, looking between Anderson and Nihlus. Anderson looked at Shepard and smiled, "The Alliance has been pushing for this for a long time. Humanity wants a larger role in shaping interstellar policy. We want more say with the Citadel Council. The Spectres represent the Council's power and authority. If they accept a human into their ranks, it shows how far the Alliance has come." As he finished Nihlus cut in.
"Not many could have gone through the hell that was Torfan. You showed a remarkable will to live — a particularly useful talent. That's why I put your name forward as a candidate for the Spectres." The Turian was reviewing something on his omni-tool. Now that really got Shepard interested, "Why would a Turian want a human in the Spectres." She looked him, waiting for the answer.
"Not all turians resent humanity. Some of us see the potential of your species. We see what you have to offer to the rest of the galaxy... and to the Spectres. We are an elite group. It's rare to find an individual with the skills we seek. I don't care that you're human, Shepard. I only care that you can do the job." He finished and pointed at Shepard with his talon to emphasize his point.
"I assume this is good PR for the Alliance?" Jane asked looking over to Anderson who nodded and launched into their game plan, Shepard would command the ground team. Secure the beacon and get it space-borne ASAP. Nihlus was on overwatch and point recon but ultimately was there to observe. She asked a few background questions on the Protheans, Eden Prime and the Beacon, as they were wrapping up Jokers voice burst over the intercom.
"Captain! We've got a problem." He sounded frantic, knowing Joker he'd probably spilled coffee on a control panel and thought he was privately calling Anderson. "What's wrong Joker?" Anderson looked up at the Intercom. "We got a transmission from Eden Prime, sir. You had better see this!"
Anderson whipped round to the view screen behind him, "Bring it up on screen." Shepard got closer standing over Anderson's shoulder. The screen displayed a group of alliance marines that were currently pinned down behind a boulder out cropping trying to return fire. A young woman wearing pink phoenix armour tackles the transmitter to the ground while yelling, "GET DOWN!" she picks up an avenger and returns fire at the unseen attackers when a loud horn sounds. In the distance is a ship? Well not like one Shepard has ever seen lands in a city. The groups lieutenant yells over the comms, "We are under attack! Taking heavy casualties. I repeat: heavy casualties! We can't…argh!-eed evac! They came out of nowhere. We need —" its too late as he's sending out the call, he's gunned down as the horn sounds a gun pulling the rest of the unit's attention as the camera shows a slightly clearer picture then static.
"Reverse and hold 38.5." Anderson said and walked closer to the screen Nihlus joined him, "Status report" he called out, from the intercom Joker responded, "everything cuts out after that. No comm traffic at all, just goes dead. Theres nothing…. we're seventeen minutes out, captain. No other alliance ships in the area." He sounded hoarse; Shepard understood why as she swallowed a dry lump in her throat.
"Take us in, Joker. Fast and quiet. This mission just got a lot more complicated." Anderson began to leave the room Nihlus joining him, "A small strike team can move quickly without drawing attention. It's our best chance to secure the beacon." The Spectre was walking along side the captain unfazed and planning their next moves. Anderson looked over at him, "Grab your gear and meet us in the cargo hold." As he said this Shepard had walked closer to look at the screen replay frozen on the Ship.
"Tell Alenko and Jenkins to suit up Commander. You're going in." Anderson exited to head to the CIC leaving Jane there with the screen view. As she turned and left, she couldn't get the image of the ship out of her head, 'why the hell does it look like a squid?'
Tension hung in the air as the crew prepared for the impending mission. 'Jenkins acting excited but the Kids shitting himself' she looked over at where Anderson and Nilus were conversing as the ship hurtled through the void of space, Shepard couldn't shake the feeling of unease gnawing at her gut. Something felt off, but she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was. 'Just as humanity unearths a beacon and puts forth a Spectre candidate, it all goes sideways and then an invasion?' she was moving to the helm were Joker and Kaiden were conversing.
As she walked up, she noticed a small commotion was happening near a sensory station. "What's going on here?" She asked walking up behind the 3 specialists, they crowded around a workstation babbling and throwing in jargon. "There's a blip on Eden Prime mam we're reading all the way out here on the edge of the system, never seen anything like it before." The man in the chair offered, Shepard frowned and leaned closer trying her best to discern what it was, she got an update alert on her omni tool letting her know it was time to get ready for deployment. "Let Captain Anderson know about this and send me a copy of this immediately." She said turning looking at the message she bit her lip, 'it just doesn't make sense it's really fubar'.
"What's up commander?" Kaidan looked over as Jenkins triple checked his suit, Shepard shook her head re focusing. "Not sure, looks like some interference from the distress signal maybe?" she said trying to interpret what she was seeing. "Never seen anything like it before though…" she trailed off. Jenkins step forward over eager, "Could it be an energy weapon? Maybe the invaders have something new tech deployed we can't counter." he looked between the two more experienced officers, "can't know for sure till were down there." Replied Kaiden with a soft smile trying to calm down the younger man, Shepard humoured him a bit. "If it is I don't think it's the Geth. We'll keep an eye out for it while we're down there."
There was a sense of foreboding as the Normandy drifted towards Eden Prime, Anderson contacted her as they entered the atmosphere, "we detected something large out there Shepard, whatever it is…it's got the Invaders worried, the Normandy will be trying to get a look at it, so be careful down there we might not be able to respond quick enough." "Yessir." She replied, they were walking towards the ramp so that she and the team could be set down, she gave Kaiden one last look, then they jumped.