For the Chaos Gods, the unthinkable had happened: Horus had been defeated.
The dominion of humanity would continue its orderly crusade. But their
victory would not be costless. The Chaos Gods would still take what Horus
had promised them. Imperial records detail the herding of the Traitor
Legions into the Eye of Terror when, in fact, it was the Chaos Gods
themselves who called their warriors back. And with the exception of the
loss of the remnants of two legions, who were deemed inconsequential, not
one Marine to whom they were promised escaped from their grasp.
Or so they believed.
-----
"For all their power, the Gods of Chaos are a cowardly lot. And although
they have corrupted our. . ." the man speaking swallowed, hard, ". . . our
beloved Emperor, we can now do nothing but fall back and regroup. Perhaps
someday we shall overthrow these fallen brothers of ours, but today is not
the day. For now, the best thing we can do for the other surviving legions,
for humanity as a whole, is leave that battle for another day. But mark my
words, Chaos scum," he spoke not to the crowd now, but above it, as if
directly to the Chaos Gods themselves, "we will retrieve humanity from
you're oppressive grasp!"
Brutus Stronghand addressed a group of roughly 500 Space Marines aboard his
ship as it traversed through the warp. They were but a few of the thousands
of Emperor's Children traveling to the Eye of Terror. As he looked over the
group of cheering Marines, he chuckled to himself. The Marines he had just
been speaking to were newly initiated. The Horus Liberation had produced
many such recruits. They had just received their power armor and been
indoctrinated into the Emperor's Children Legion when Horus had been slain
by the Emperor. The only man who knew the truth on the ship was Stronghand
himself. Although Horus had failed, these new recruits had been promised to
the Chaos Gods. And when the reached the Eye, they too would learn the
truth; they were to live eternally as slaves to Chaos. Stronghand wasn't
about to let them in on this little secret just yet. For years, as he was
training them, he, and in fact as all the rebelling Marines who had led had
done, had maintained that it was the Emperor who had succumbed to Chaos. He
had told his charges that it was they who was fighting to free humanity from
Chaos' grip. While the exact opposite was true, the truth could wait until
his ship reached the Eye. For then there would be no escape.
Stronghand finished his speech and retired to his command quarters, where
he ordered everyone out. He walked over to his personal locker, and upon
opening it, took out the bottle of Orkish grog he had received from Fulgrim,
the Primarch himself. Falling into his seat, he popped the cork and took a
swig. Moments later, he threw the bottle, and it smashed against the
plasteel walls of the room. Damn Emperor, he though to himself, can't even
taste it with all of these anti-toxin "enhancements" placed inside me.
A voice ringed in over the intercom.
"Sir," it was one of the Navigator's guards, "the Navigator has detected a
large warp storm just ahead. He says it's too large to go around. Should
we halt and wait for it to dis--"
"Ignore it. Keep your course heading. We're already behind schedule."
Stronghand answered.
"Sir, are you sure, it seems especially large, even for being so close to
the Eye."
"Hold your course guard. That is all."
"Yes sir." The com went silent.
The door sounded.
"What?!" Stronghand growled.
"Sir?" The door opened and Sergeant Orsorum stepped inside the darkened room.
"Yes Sergeant, what can I do for you?" he answered, trying to show his
annoyance.
"Well sir, actually," he pressed a button on the wall and the door shut,
and then locked, "you can tell us what is taking so long." As he finished
the sentence, his voice had deepened until it echoed in his throat. His
body had nearly doubled in size, and his armor had warped into a hideously
mutated version of it's former self, and had grown many horns in the
process. His head now resembled a large, and very angry, bull. This was
not Orsorum. Standing in front of Stronghand now was The Keeper of Secrets.
"What do you mean tak--" The Keeper grabbed Stronghand by the waist.
"Don't take that tone with us, you pitiful mortal!" The Keeper threw
Stronghand across the room, into a display panel. Sparks flew everywhere as
the console crackled and fizzled. In one giant leap, The Keeper was upon
him again. "Now," The Keeper snorted, "how long until you reach the Eye?
Yours is the last ship we are waiting for, and we are hungry."
"Only about 12 hours," Stronghand managed to choke out.
"Good." The Keeper hissed. "Slaanesh will be waiting for your arrival."
And with that, the Keeper dissipated into thin air, leaving no trace of his
presence, save the demolished console that Stronghand still laid in.
-----
Unfortunately, the Gods of Chaos, and Slaanesh in particular, were not as
patient as Stronghand was. Even though the ship was still a few hours from
the Eye, the Chaos Gods chose that moment to claim their bounty. The first
one they possessed, not to mention the most willing, was Stronghand himself.
He now sat in his command chair, where he belonged, as he oversaw the normal
running of the great ship. As Chaos infested his body, it contorted. His
features twisted and warped. The closest men to him quickly stood up and
backed away. Many had never seen Chaos at all, let alone Chaos at work.
Arms tipped with claws on each finger suddenly exploded from Stronghand's
back. His two original hands hand now each become three tentacles.
Stronghand screamed as foot long tusks grew from his mouth, and two inch
barbs sprouted from his legs. He tried to stand, but crumpled to the floor,
his eyes closed.
One Marine crouched by him, checking for any signs of life. He found none.
But suddenly, Stronghand's eyes opened, spewing dark light. He got to his
knees and pushed his fist through the crouching Marine. Stronghand's face
filled with hate and he stood up.
"You humans have no escape." The voice was not Stronghand's, at least not
the human version. It boomed inside the small control room. "Your souls
have been promised to Chaos, and they will not be denied!" Stronghand
stretched out his arms and bolts of lightning shot from his fingertips. As
they struck each Marine in the room, they too underwent a transformation
similar to Stronghand's. Some grew in size, some spawned extra limbs or
horns. But all were now barely recognizable as human.
-----
Sergeant Orsorum, the real Orsorum, sat at a table with two other marines.
While they were depressed because they would not be fighting, their spirits
were still high.
"Take your helmet off, Primoris, I can barely hear you through it." Orsorum
said.
"I said, did any of you hear that?" Sergeant Primoris said, removing his
helmet.
"Did we hear what?"
"It sounded like something exploded in the control room."
"If anything had exploded, the alarms would have gone off, like when we
reached the boundaries of Imperial space." Origo answered.
All three sighed. The trip had been uneventful. Not a Chaos infected
Marine had been spotted in over a day. And neither had any of the other
ship they had supposedly been following.
The door to the control room suddenly exploded. Hot shards of plasteel
sprayed forth, and the concussion from the blast knocked all three marines
to the floor. Out of the whole created by the blast stepped Stronghand, or
at least it wore his armor. Nothing about the thing that stood in the
dispersing smoke resembled a human at all.
"You all have been pledged to Chaos." The voice echoed demonically inside
the huge ship, and inside the souls of all the marines watching. "Submit
now and your mortal life will end with little pain. Fight us, and. . .
well, go ahead, your fates will be the same." Five men, for lack of a
better term, appeared from the darkness and stood behind Stronghand. They
to were barely human. Chaos had taken it's newest recruits. Stronghand
raised his arms and the lightning again shot from his fingers and enveloped
several nearby marines. The fell to the floor, writhing in pain and Chaos
took possession of their souls. The five marines behind Stronghand opened
fire with their bolters.
Most of the Marines scattered, fleeing the destruction in a panic.
Primoris quickly grabbed his bolter and rolled behind the overturned table.
He had his helmet on by now. Orsorum lay there too, clutching his bolter to
his chest. His breathing was heavy, and Primoris could see the fragment of
plasteel imbedded in Orsorum's thigh. The bleeding had stopped, but Orsorum
couldn't stand. Just a few yards away, Primoris could see Origo laying,
unmoving, as bolter shells rained around his body.
"Cover me, I've got to check on Origo." Primoris ordered Orsorum.
"Okay, I'll try." Orsorum rolled on his stomach and peered around the
table. The five marines behind Stronghand were beginning to advance on
their position. Then one looked at Orsorum directly. He quickly ducked his
head behind the table. But when a bolter shell crashed through the table
and ricocheted of his shoulder pad, he knew it had seen him. He took
breath, held it, and rolled out from behind the table, firing his bolter at
the Chaos-corrupted marines. As he did, Primoris got to his feet and
sprinted to Origo.
Upon reaching him, he swept Origo in his arms and made a bee-line for the
nearest cover. They were safely behind a plasteel wall, out of the line of
fire. But Primoris could see the five chaos marines advancing on Orsorum.
He shook Origo and looked down at him. He quickly turned his head away and
he saw that half of Origo's face was gone. The blood also covered most of
Primoris' arms and chest plate. Fear swept through his body. He heard a
scream from Orsorum's direction, and looked up. One of the Chaos Marines
had grabbed Orsorum by the neck and was lifting him off his feet.
Instinctively, Primoris raised his bolter, screamed a challenge, and fired.
The bolter clicked. The clip must be empty, he said to himself. The Chaos
Marine dropped Orsorum on his leg, causing Orsorum to scream in pain, and
the blood to flow freely from his would again. The Chaos Marine turned to
face Primoris and began to walk over to him, aiming its bolter. Primoris
fumbled with Origo's bolter's clip and slammed it into his own bolter. He
raised it again. As he did, the Chaos Marine grabbed it from his hand and
flung it away. It looked at Origo's body, and then back at Primoris. The
Chaos Marine grabbed Primoris by the underside of his chest plate and pulled
him up. Blue lightning began to lick at Primoris' armor, and the hair on
the back of his neck stood on end.
"Prepare your last mortal words, human." the Chaos Marine barked at him and
it raised him even further into the air. "Prepare to enter the blissful
world of Chaos!"
A blue field encompassed Primoris' body and he screamed.
-----
Outside the ship, the warp storm had gotten worse. Though this had not
gone unnoticed by the Navigator, he was unable to do anything about it
except pray to whatever humanity remained in the Emperor for his protection.
The ship was rocked about from side to side by the warp storm. Mostly, the
ship's guidence system compensated, and the Navigator moved the ship through
the least active areas, but it was still rough.
Suddenly, the ship was enveloped by an exceedingly powerful bolt of force.
The Navigator was helpless. The ship went careening of in a random
direction at an incredible speed. It covered nearly 25 lightyears of warp
space in the length of a second, and showed no signs of slowing. The
Navigator could do nothing except hang on for the ride.
-----
The Chaos Marine took a moment to savor its victory. As it looked at
Primoris, completely at the mercy of Chaos, it laughed. "Mortal," it said,
tauntingly, "why do you resist Chaos.?"
Primoris said nothing, and probably wouldn't have, even if he had been lucid.
"It is no matter of course, you will end up just like the others: one of us."
Without warning, the ship tumbled on its side. The Chaos Marine was thrown
off its feet and lost its grip on Primoris. Primoris' body tumbled as wall
became floor. When the ship righted itself, his head hit on the ceramic
tile of the floor, and he awoke. Groggy, he attempted to stand, but fell to
his knees. For a moment, the fighting, the killing, the transforming,
stopped as everyone, and everything, on the ship did the same.
The intercom crackled to life.
"Sir, the warp storm--"
"What was that!?" Stronghold demanded.
The Navigator was silent for a moment. "It's the warp storm sir, it's
getting really bad. We've been blown off course and we've got to turn bac--"
"What?!" Stronghold growled. "Turn back?! In our moment of glory?! Are
you insane?! Stay your course."
-----
Primoris took the moment to regain his composure, and stood to his feet.
The Chaos Marine's attempt to corrupt him had not been successful. He
looked for Orsorum, and upon finding him, brought him to his feet.
"We've got to get ot the Navigator and get him to bring the ship back out
of the warp or we'll al be destroyed."
"Let's go then." Orsorum said, cringing as he put weight on his wounded leg.
Primoris pointed to three Marines who had just been fighting. He ordered
them to come with him and before Stronghand, or any of the now 50 or so
Chaos Marines could see them, stole away to ward the Navigator's chambers.
-----
"Continue your course Navigator. The Eye is our only refuge from the fury
of the Chaos-Emperor."
The intercom fizzled out and went dead.
"FOR HUMANITY!!" A Marine stepped out of his hiding spot and charged the
destracted Stronghand. Catching him before he could react, Stronghand was
knocked to the floor. The Marine was Sergeant Novus, a headstrong and
arrogant man who had defied orders since the beginning, and was more than
happy to do it again. Slashing with his whirring Chainsword, he managed to
slice off one of Straonghand's four arms before another Chaos Marine threw
himself at Novus, knocking him off the shocked Stronghand. Seeing this
display of courage, many of the cowering Marines took up their arms and
began to fire at the Chaos Marines. Unfortuneately, as some of them fired,
they would fall to the floor. Reluctantly relinquishing thier human sides,
they screamed as their souls were corrupted by Chaos. They would fall, and
when the stood they would begin to fire on thier former brothers. Many of
the Marines would either undergo the transformation to Chaos or be killed by
someone who had.
Sergeant Novus, meanwhile, had his hands full trying to fend off five Chaos
Marines with only a chainsword and a bolter. And he was rapidly running out
of bolts. When one went down, he acted and quickly pushed his way out of
the melee. When the ground around him exploded, he flew through the air,
landing at the feet of a Marine. He looked up into the face of Satus and
his four Marines, each armed with a heavy weapon.
"Looked like you needed some help." Satus said as he extended his arm.
Novus took it, pulled himself upright and said, "Thanks, but don't stop
firing on my account."
Heavy Plasma Guns and Heavy Bolters sprung to life, picking out individual
Chaos Marines and bringing them down. But when one of those Heavy Bolters
turned and fired at one of the Plasma Guns, it exploded. The concussion
threw Novus, Satus, and Satus' squad to the ground and killed the now-Chaos
Bolter and Marine Plasma Gunner. Startled, Novus stood and gathered a few
of the stray Marines around him. Satus shook his head, but could only watch
as they charged off into combat. He redirected the fire of the remnents of
his squad onto the Chaos Marines
-----
Primoris, Orsorum, and the three other Marines reached the outer doors to
the Navigator's chambers. The heavy Adamantium doors hardly showed a
scratch. Primoris prayed that the battle hadn't yet reached this far. He
pushed a button on the panel next to the door and it buzzed as the door
unlocked. Primoris looked back at Orsorum, who nodded his head. They stood
at either side of the doors, as did the other three Marines. The three
accompanying Marines raised their bolters towards the door, the red lasers
sights shining off the gleaming metal. Primoris pushed another button on
the panel and the door slid open. Inside was blackness. Primoris checked
his bolter clip and silently slipped into the inky-black room.
-----
It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the blackness. And still,
Primoris couldn't quite make out anything but the very faintest of outlines.
"Come on." he whispered to the others. But before they could follow, the
door slammed shut. Light flooded the room but Primoris was saved by his
armor's automatic defenses, barely. He still realed back from the shock.
He heard the click of autocannons and instinctively dove to the floor, just
as the bullets blazed past his head. After what seemed like an eternity,
the shield was raised from his eyes and he could see the silouettes of the
three men shooting at him. He felt a hand on his chest plate and was
slammed up against the wall. His helmet was pulled off and he stared down
the barrel of four autocannons.
Primoris could see out of the corner of his eye the body of two slain Chaos
Marines.
"Choas! You are finished!" one of the men screamed.
Primoris swept the legs out from under the man who held him and rolled out
of the line of fire. The men were not heavily armored, and from their
strength, he could tell they were not Marines. They must be the Navigator's
guard, he thought to himself as he ducked behind a computer console.
"Stop firing you maniac! I'm not Chaos." The autocannon fire pireced his
armor and entered his arm, causing him to drop his bolter. "Stop! I am
Sergeant Primoris of the Emperor's Children Imperial Space Marine Legion,
and I command you to stop firing!" As he spoke, he threw his bolter out
into the open with his unwounded arm. After a few seconds, the shots
stopped. Hesitantly, his head peaked out from behind the computer. The
four men had thier weapons at their sides and watched him very carefully.
Primoris stood, and removed his glove and armor on his forearm to inspect
the damege.
One of the men scowled at him and said, "So were they." He pointed at the
dead Chaos Marines.
"I have four men outside that--" The door opened and Orsorum and the other
three Marines burst through. The guards raised their autocannons. Primoris
lept inbetween the Marines and the Guards just before either party would
fire. "Stop!" he shouted. "We don't have time for this, where's the
Navigator?"
The guard again spoke up. "You're not going to get near him. He's very
busy at the moment. If you haven't noticed, we're in the middle of a
freakin' warp storm."
"Get out of my way." Primoris pushed his way through the four guards and
rushed over to the Navigator. He was in a trance, as he should be when
piloting a ship. Primorus shook him, vilently, hoping to wake him. The
Navigator remained silent.
"You can't talk to him without this." The guard tossed a small microphone
to Primorus.
"Navigator, wake up." Nothing. "I need you to wake up Navigator."
The Navigator blinked and sat up in his chair. "What can I do for you,
Marine?" he asked calmly.
To be continued...(?) End.
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