The Alfas of Swedesia

The Alfas of Swedesia is a story written by Gareth of the Alfa Legion, it is meant for members of the Alfa legion(Fanon chapter)but "outsiders" are welcome to read my story. *Note this screws around with the canon somewhat. It is still incomplete so there is more to come.

The Alfas Of Swedesia.

It is a dark age. The enemies of man and its god emperor lurk in every corner. To protect its citizen's, the emperor created the Adeptus Astartes or Space Marines as they are normally known as. The Space Marines are divided into many groups called chapters. There are a large number of chapters in imperial space, Like the Barbaric Space Wolves, The cursed Blood Angels or the loyal Imperial Fists. The most mysterious chapter however is one that most imperials do not even know exists. It is called The Alfa Legion and it is kept secret for a reason, for if it were discovered the more zealous chapters like the Ultramarines or the Grey Knights would surely take great interest in seeing the chapter destroyed. The reason for this is because of the chapters controversial policy to recruit non humans. A large number of Xenos and even forces of Chaos reside in the chapter, the reasons why the chapter master Alfabusa allows this remain a mystery.

One day on the battlebarge, litany of bald a unit of Space Marines was patiently waiting for their next commands. It was a 4 man unit, lead by the apothecary Arszenik. Under his command were the swift assault marine Kline, the unstoppable devastator marine Araghast and the groups youngest and least experienced yet still formidable tactical marine Gareth. It was the basic day when there was no missions for the unit, they joked and conversed, discussed with other chaptermembers in the large discussion chamber in the battlebarge, from where they could connect to other battlebarges and planetary bases. As they were discussing the construction of Sindri's Tau Titan with Jack the Techpriest and Ares the Warp-marine, new commands came. They were straight from the chapter master , a thing that rarely occured. Commands were usually given by the chapters inquisition or company leaders. In their case it would be the 5th company company commander Earndil. They were being sent to investigate a unknown planet just recently discovered, extreme hostilities were expected and they were sent in as first recon since they were a young and inexpensive unit.

Earndil objected, he didnt want to waste lives that had so much potential for greatness but was voted against by the other veterans of the chapter. The only other veteran not to be ready to send them was the Psyker, Dr. White but he did little to change the units fate. They would go to the planet, they would gather information on it or they would die.

They were chosen because it was expected that if the enemy were to appear, they would do so heavily entrenched and as members of the 5th company, they had access to anticover plague based weapons. This was one of the many controversial things about the chapter, it had seemed that Nurgle himself would have blessed the plague weapons for them.

The members of the unit readied in their drop-pod, the battlebarge hovering over the unknown planet. It seemed to be a planet with constant night, since the sun was so distant they could not get enough light for it to seem like the time of day had changed. Gareth sat down on his place in the drop-pod and locked himself to the seat while a guardsman hauled his weapon and gave it to him, ”Here is your bile spewer sir!”. Gareth looked at him for a second and grabbed the spewer and thanked the guardsman. As the guardsman walked away, Kline chuckled, ”you dont need to thank a mere guardsman, they are nothing and will stay that way”. Gareth did not answer, simply shrugged. Araghast was looking silently, already locked in his seat, his helmet on and a plasma cannon in his grip. They were simply waiting for Arszenik to arrive. They sat there in the drop-pod, silent and making last check ups on their weapons. ”Are you people ready for this”? Came a shout from the hallway. It was Arszenik, with his chainsword in hand and Med equipment in the other hand. Araghast finally broke his silence, ”of course Ars, or did you think otherwise”? -”No i did not, i'm simply weary of this mission” Arszenik replied. Gareth did not see fear in Arszenik, only genuine doubt. Arszenik sat down and locked himself down, he put on his helmet and Gareth and Kline followed. Gareth always felt proud when he put on his helmet. The helmet was a basic Aquila helmet but it had a a battlescar on the forehead area, from a lictor attack in the Aurelia subsector while their unit was providing ground support to a blood raven unit. Arszenik's armor was ornate and anyone could see that he was a highly decorated marine. Araghast was wearing MK8 Errant armor, one of the modern armor sets for space marines, while Kline was Suited in MK6 Corvus, apart from his helmet which he had lost during a battle with the Eldar. In its stead he was wearing a normal Aquila helmet. ”Seats locked and ready to drop” called Arszenik to command. ”brace for drop” responded the commanding officer.

And then they dropped.

The speed of the pod was always a uncomfortable situation for Arszenik, he enjoyed working in the field but hated dropping in. He always felt slightly dizzy even with his experience. The vacuum of space diminishing and then turning into the harsh heat and gravity of the atmosphere, the speed of the pod became faster and and it grew hotter as it was surrounded by flames. The worst part however was the sudden stop that was coming. Arszenik braced himself as he waited for the thud. The pod hit the dark jungle with great force and for a few seconds, Arszenik simply sat there and looked at his brothers, he always wondered what they thought about the drops as the helmets covered their expressions during fall and he did want to ask because it might look like a sign of weakness, as if field apothecaries and apothecaries in general weren't already looked down upon as cowards and too weak to fight themselves. The silence was broken by Klines cough, and Arszenik came back from his thoughts. ”ready for unlock and deployment”! He shouted and opened the seat locks and opened the doors. All of the marines sprang from their seats and took up their weapons and were instantly shocked on how dark the planet really was, it felt impossible for the jungle to even be there. Kline powered up his power axe to light their surroundings. The light from the cylinder of Araghast's plasma cannon was also helping them see. The unit put on the night vision inside their helmets and started looking around the jungle. ”im having problems with my night vision Arszenik” Gareth stated, with Araghast answering straight away ”Its because you keep that broken helmet on you, a broken helmet does not make you any tougher than the other space marines out there, it might just give you a disadvantage”. Gareth did not answer but knew what he said was true. ”so what are we actually doing here?” Kline asked. ”The 9th company detected odd signatures from the planet surface and the chapter master has provided us with accurate coordinates on the location and wants us to be first recon” Arszenik replied. ”the 9th company?, why could they not just ram some ships into the surface like usual” said Kline humorously. Araghast turned to look at Kline and Gareth could almost feel the look on his face even from behind the helmet, Gareth could not see his face but could tell that he did not like Kline joking about the 9th company.

Arszenik uploaded the coordinates into the small HUD on the helmet and the unit pressed on. The jungle was silent as the grave and only the rustles of the feet of the giant space marines were making noise. It was a pressuring feeling, like something was about to attack any second, and that every step could be a sink hole into a tyranid nest. They came over a cliff of pitch black stone, and the coordinates were a few hundred meters onward from the cliff, they climbed on the cliff and watched in toward the coordinate zone. It seemed to be empty, but all of the marines had seen enough to know that there might be anything, absolutely anything lurking in the zone. ”The accurate coordinated are is ahead but i think that whatever is hiding here, we have already passed into its territory” Arszenik stated with a bit of uncertainty in his voice. ”Do you have any idea what kind of things we should expect here?” Gareth asked nervously. Araghast cut in the conversation by answering ”well chaos dont sneak around, neither do the orks unless they are kommandos but even they arent too smart, Tau are unlikely to settle so far from their area so that leaves us, Tyranids and Eldar”. ”what about the dark eldar? Those guys look like the sneaky type.” said Kline. ”Maybe but i would not count on the dark eldar appearing here” Arszenik replied. Suddenly they heard a rustle from the nearby trees and all of the marines raised their weapons. Kline was already giving a bit more power to his jump-pack. ”Cut the engines Kline, we don't want to alert the whole planet just yet”. Kline powered his jump-pack down mut still held his plasma pistol and power axe high. I clenched the metal gloves of the armor around the bile spewer's handle. Gareth was thinking that the bile spewer would be much less effective than what a bolter or a flamer would be in here. There were no large cover or entrenchments visible nearby and it would be a good strategy to light a forest fire to see better and to get the hostiles out of their hiding places, a thing which he felt would happen soon anyway. The rustling grew larger and then a whistling sound, a sudden light and the end of the rustling, the marines however knew exactly what had happened and Kline turned around and sent a barrage of of plasma bolts to the direction of the second light, and heard someone yell in pain. The marines quickly closed in and found a black and white figure laying in the ground. It was a warp spider of the Ulthwé craftworld, he had been hit by most of Kline's bolts and was laying backside up on the ground. Arszenik turned him over and asked him with a commanding voice ” What are you witches doing here? Where are the rest of you!? This territory is under the protection of the emperor and the Alfa Legion! You have no right to be here!” The Warp spider simply chuckled and died away.