"Damn!" Nicodemous swore as he dropped his lighter. He had been out
here for the emperor knows how long. He had long ago forgotten about
that. He is a scout, a space marine in training, and this was to be his
last night of being a scout. For, tomorrow at dawn he was to be given
his power armor and become a space marine. Not any space marine, but a
Dark Angel.
His thoughts of becoming a Dark Angel was the reason for his dropping
of his lighter, and it almost cost him his life. For as he bent down to
pick his lighter up a sword plunged out of the darkness and bounced off
his armor.
His reflexes had kicked in and he dodged out of the way before the
sword would have cut off his head. As he turned around he drew his sword
and thrust it into the heart of his assailant. Well it should have been
his heart. Instead the sword just shattered a rib.
Nicodemous looked up to see a skeleton staring at him, not even caring
about the rib it just lost. Nicodemous almost froze in terror, almost.
For it was at that moment that his training kicked in. It took only
moments for the skeleton to become a dusty pile of bones.
Just as Nicodemous finished off his enemy he saw a group of skeletons
through the double moon lit forest. For just a second he saw that these
skeletons were different, they were packing bolters!
"Shit!" Nicodemous swore as he turned on his comlink.
"Nicodemous to base! You guys aren't going to believe this but I am
being assaulted by skeletons with Boltes. I repeat skeletons are
attacking me. Unknown how many. Backup requested. Engaging the enemy.
Nicodemous out!"
"Copy Nicodemous."
Nicodemous did not hear the bases reply for he pulled out his shotgun
and charged into the boltgun fire that the skeletons were throwing at
him yelling, "For the emperor and the Dark Angels!"
"Sir! All but three scouts have reported engaging the enemy."
"Thank you brother, any word on those other three?"
"Sir they must be dead."
"And of our enemy?"
"All reports indicate skeletons sir."
"Interesting.. So the reports about them must be trueŠ"
"Sir?"
"It seems brother that our chaos foes have a new weapon. It seems that
they no longer just use our brother marines against us. Now they use the
dead against us as wellŠ"
"Very well, then we shall have to go and avenge their deaths now won't
we?" Brother Lucious replied after a moment of silence. "Deploy the
landspeeders and bikes. Have the rest of the troops get into their
rhinos and await my orders, but leave two squads back to guard the
base."
"Yes sir. And may the emperor be with you sir."
"May the emperor be with us all."
As Lucious walked down the hallway he tried to understand what was
going on. He could not. Undead? Those are just fairy tales. But then
again so they said of daemons and the dark eldarŠ
As he reached the hanger, he saw his troops climbing into their rhinos
ready for battle. This would not be a typical battle, however. For he
knew that there was more than just skeletons out there. He sensed a
bigger entity, possibly a daemon prince.
That was not a happy thought. Lucious had never been in battle with a
daemon prince, but he heard stories. The only ones to tell him of those
stories were mainly in the death wing now. Where he should be had he not
been deployed on a back water planet that not even the forces of chaos
wanted, at least that is what he thougt before today. Now it had all
changed.
Lucious gave the order to go as he stepped into his rhino. His men were
ready for battle.
Lucious turned on his comlink and told his company that they were to
deploy within 50 yards of their rhino and stay put. They were not to
engage the enemy until the last possible moment. The enemy they fought
should be shattered by bolters.
With that he switched his comlink to driver of his rhino. He told his
brother marine to head to where the first scout had reported the undead.
He felt that was where the battle would be won or lost.
He had sent two squads of bikes to scout the area out. They should have
reported back by now as all the other had. Should have meant that they
had met into resistance and were probably dead now.
No time to mourn his brothers now. He checked his equipment and waited
for the rhino to stop, thrusting him to his imminent death...
Lucious was about to step out of the rhino when his command squad was
hit with a fireball. Lucious barely got out of the way of the searing
heat by jumping back into the rhino. He peered through the window slot
to see what was the source of the fireballŠ a chaos sorcerer!
"Well," Lucious thought to himself with a slight smirk, "at least its
not a daemon prince or a greater daemon."
"Time to go back to hell were you came from heretic!" Lucious shouted as
he pulled out his bolt gun and power sword. He charged across the field
yelling in the name of the emperor with his gun blazing. He never made
it into range for a fireball from the sorcerer hit directly behind him
and sent him hurtling through the air on fire. He hit the ground hard
and everything went black.
Nicodemous had only been fighting for a small time, or at least he
thought it had only been a small time, when in the distance he saw
fireballs erupting. The momentary distraction of the fireballs had
nearly cost Nicodemus his life, for a skeleton was about to slice him in
half with its sword. Nicodemus parried the sword thrust just before it
hit his head open.
He then counter thrust and knocked the head off the skeleton. The
skeleton not being defeated, fought on until Nicodemus cutt off its legs
and arms. Nicodemus looked up surprisingly to see that there were no
more skeletons around him.
He reached for his canteen to get a drink. As he was putting his canteen
away he notice a black bike just up the hill from him. He had not
noticed that the bike had come that close during the fighting. He
decided that he had been fighting the skeletons longer than he thought.
Just as he reached a bike he saw another fireball in the distance. He
checked over the bike to see that the bike was in fine shape. The former
rider could not have the same said for him. He had bolter shots in his
chest and a sword sticking out of his bleeding head.
Nicodemous said a short prayer to the emperor and then took the rider
off his bike. As he took the rider off he saw that the rider had a
plasma gun. Perfect. He pickup the plasma gun as he started up the bike.
In the back of his mind, Nicodemus knew that he was the only one that
could end this battle. He had no idea how he knew, he just did.
He rode that bike like there was no tomorrow. After the battle even the
ravenwing members were impressed at how he had riden. It was only a few
minutes until he reached the source of the fireballs. He could see the
chaos marine being approached by a rhino. The chaos marine shooting
fireballs like mad at the rhino. He then saw the rhino stop and disgorge
its passengers just as a fireball hit and obliterated them all.
Nicodemus knew the marines who had been in that rhino, for it was the
command rhino.
"Shit! Well I guess its up to me." Nicodemus thought to himself as he
pushed the bike down the hill so he could get a clear shot at the Chaos
Marine. He only hoped that he could get the shot off before the he was
spotted. He needed a diversion.
Just at that moment his diversion arrived. His commander had survived
the last fireball and was charging the chaos marine.
Nicodemus was in range of the chaos marine now. He slowed down the bike
and aimed at the chaos marine. The plasma hit its target and blew a
gaping hole in the chaos marines chest. The chaos marine fell over. The
chaos marine had the last laugh, however, for he had gotten off a final
fireball that killed Nicodemus's commander.
Nicodemus looked at his commander as he flew through the air and died.
Nicodemus bowed his head and did not notice that his brother marines had
showed up to the battle field around him. Later he would find out that
the skeletons just fell over when the chaos sorcerer died.
The marines all circled around Nicodemus and he was given his power
armor right there. He was also unanimously voted the new commander for
the bravery and dedication that he had showed on the battle field.
>From that day on the marines painted the trim on their shoulder pads and
their knee pads black in honor of their brother marines who had died on
the battle field.
It was a few days later that they received word from the rock that they
would be allowed to form their own chapter. Earth had decided it was
time for some new chapters. Word had traveled fast about Nicodemus and
his battle with the undead.
They all agreed. Nicodemus was the new chapter master of the Sacred
Dragons of the Emperor.
Nicodemus was summoned to the Rock where he learned of the fallen and
vowed that the Sacred Dragons of the Emperor would continue in the quest
for the fallen.
End.
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