Editing End Times (Warhammer 40,000) (section)

==Part 10==
Jaghatai Khan stalked the halls of the Battle Cruiser with some twenty other marines. He held a long power lance like a spear, the point held a few feet in front of him as he advanced footstep by footstep. They had breached the hull close to the cargo holds, and were making their way towards them. If the enemy had any significant forces besides the ship's crew, that's where they'd be. They approached an open bulkhead and the Khan signaled to halt.

“Move you maggots! We've been boarded,” said a deep voice laced with a guttural growl that identified the speaker as a space marine. “You head up that hallway and scream if you find anything.” The thumping of dozens of boots on a metal floor approached the bulkhead.

The Khan turned to his followers and nodded. “Now,” he whispered. He swung around the frame of the bulkhead and launched himself forward.

“For the Khan!” bellowed his marines as they imitated their liege.

The forces of Chaos flew aside under the Khan's assault. He split a cultist in half with a swipe of his power lance, and broke another's neck with the shaft. Behind him, two devastator marines rained surpressing fire upon the open cargo deck from their position next to the bulkhead, causing those unlucky enough to be caught too far from cover to explode messily. Between them, the rest of the Khan's forces entered the room, firing their bolt pistols as they closed upon their foe.

“Rally, you cowards! Turn and fire!” a Chaos marine yelled to his panicking allies as he charged his loyalist foes. He seemed to be a captain and devotee of Khorne, carrying a brutal-looking massive chainsword which had modified by the corrupting forces of the warp into something far worse: A daemon weapon. This was a Chaos champion, one of Khorne's favored and one of the most feared enemies of the Imperium. His first swipe bit deep into the ceramite pauldron of a loyalist armed with a power axe and bolt pistol. Blood burst from the wound briefly as the marine staggered. The Chaos Champion drew back his sword to take the marine's head, but the Khan slammed into him before he could strike. Recovering quickly, he assessed this new threat and assumed a dueling position. The Khan did the same.

Jaghatai Khan struck first, just as he taught all who followed him to do, with a lunge right for his foe's hearts. But this particular Champion of Khorne was not so easily bested as the others he had fought, and twirled aside, bringing his sword up to chop the power lance in two. Khan anticipated this and raised his weapon above the strike and brought it down in a vicious stroke that would have bisected his foe, had he not moved, and buried the blade of his lance into the cargo deck.

Now the Chaos marine struck out with a thrust that turned into a swipe as the Khan dodged and pulled at his own weapon. He moved back even as the Chaos Champion moved forwards, seeking first blood. With a powerful upward kick, the Khan knocked the wind out of his foe's lungs and suffered a gash along his leg armor for his trouble as his enemy swung his sword at the offending foot.

But the Khan, Primarch of the White Scars and consummate warrior had his weapon ready, and smote his foe with a thrust straight through his enemy's chest. Blood dribbled from the Chaos Champion's mouth as he tried to bellow in rage. He raised his sword for a final strike, knowing he was dead but unwilling to die without taking the Khan's head. The Khan swung his lance upward, cutting through his foe's stomach to his shoulder, splitting his spine and bursting both his hearts. The raging fire behind the Khornate's eyes died at last, and the Khan destroyed the sword with another swing.

As the vanquished Chaos marine dropped to the floor, the battle around the Primarch and the Champion finished. All of their foes were dead, wiped out by the ferocity and speed of the loyalist attack. “Cargo hold cleared,” said a warrior of the Black Consuls.

“Well done,” said the Khan, and activated his vox. “Cargo hold secured. Do you need reinforcements, brothers?”

“Negative, the bridge is secure,” said the crackling voice of Vulkan through the vox.

“Enginarium also secure,” said Corax. “Wait, hold it...” something in his brother's voice made the Khan tense. “Get back to the Assault Boats! The bastards are trying to force a Warp transition, and they've destroyed the controls!”

Jaghatai's eyes widened. This close to the gravitational influence of the system's star, not to mention the planet they orbited, engaging the Warp engines would tear the ship and anyone on it apart. “Move it, marines!” he yelled.

Oneius Prayd couldn't think of a worse day in his life. He had lost his ship to a foe that appeared out of nowhere and struck with overwhelming force, and had only the cold comfort of taking them with him when the Aquiline tried to transition to the Warp inside the star's gravity well to keep his spirits up.

He had withdrawn from the bridge when he heard the enemy approaching, knowing that the servitors and few marines on the bridge couldn't hope to fight a boarding force. He fled through a secret passageway into his personal chambers, where he could monitor the entirety of the ship. He didn't like anything he saw – nearly sixty loyalist marines were running loose on his ship, his precious ship, and he couldn't do a damn thing about them because of the repairs he'd begun days ago. Cursing his luck, he ordered the crew in the Enginarium to prepare for a Warp jump. He'd watched, fascinated, as the loyalists slaughtered the crew in the cargo hold, on the bridge, and in the Enginarium, annihilating his crew and fellow Chaos marines with little effort.

And now, he watched, horrified, as one of the boarders turned out to be a tech marine. The tech marine accessed the cogitator that controlled the Warp engines and broke the encryption within in no time. They knew his plan. They would get away, without losing a single life in the process.

His heart hardened. No, this would not do. He'd stop some of them from reaching their ships, even if it meant dying with them. Better that than dying alone in an escape pod to the fighters which continued to pepper his hull with their guns.

He moved out through another secret passage to a hall between the bridge and the boarders. The thunder of power armor on the floor plating grew louder. “Your doom is at hand, corpse-worshippers! I am blessed by the Gods of Chaos themselves, and nothing you can mmph mmf -”

His head was suddenly in the grip of a massive power fist. Where had it come from? His last memories were of a dark shape emerging from the shadowy corridor in front of him. “Mmmf -”

Vulkan squeezed hard, bursting the helmet and skull of his enemy. “Not blessed enough, I think,” he said, ushering his men back to their assault boat.

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''We do believe in Creed, we do, we do!''
''We do believe in Creed, we do, we do!''
[[category:Warhammer 40,000]] [[Category:Stories/Warhammer 40,000]]