The Twin Crusades: The Black Crusade on Marion

A story set in the Aprior Sector, written by Not Not LongPoster. Specifically, it takes place on Dvi-Marion, home of the Adepta Sororitas Order of Reason's Light, and it will be more about them and the Apriori Imperial Guard and Planetary Defence Forces than the Knights Inductor.

Prologue

The Knights Inductor, separated from the Imperium for a thousand years, face hard times. In the time of their separation from the rest of the Imperium, they have made massive deviations from regular conduct in the Aprior Sector which they reside in. They have been allowed by the Inquisition to exist and have been deemed "loyal." This however, has not stopped those who wish nothing but the utter destruction of Aprior and everything the Knights Inductor stand for. In the recent years, many challenges have arisen for the Knight Inductor. In the 42nd Millennium, Knights Inductor chapter faces its darkest hour. The splinter fleets that made it past the Cadian Gate during the Black Crusade wreaked havoc wherever they went. But one splinter fleet had a special mission. Going as fast as the warp could take them, the Bloodied Coil headed for Aprior Sector, and the planet Dvi-Marion.

At the same time Inquisitor Damnos rallies his forces for a Crusade, which, either by him or by others has been named the Damnos Crusade. Twenty Battle Barges, and several other massive warships which Damnos had gathered over the years now make their way to commit Exterminatus on the entire Aprior Sector. The Apriori Armed Forces though, will not make this easy. Damnos's forces are to exterminate the world of Norion V, which in a sick way is the most "loyal" planet in Damnos’s eyes. When the Militant branch of the Sisters of Reason on the planet Marion attempted travel to Norion, they were informed by their Navigators that something had changed. The Warp currents around the planet had twisted, grown violent, and could not be traveled safely.

For a very insidious reason. A splinter fleet from the 13th Black Crusade called the, "The Bloodied Coil" (a Chaos Undivided Warfleet, Mostly Khornate) had arrived in Aprior to destroy as much of the Sector they could. The leader was the aptly named, "Gore Queen," a cold, heartless Khornate who was once a Sister of Reason. Why she defected to Chaos, few know. She knew that every single world in the Aprior would marshal forces to fight her Warfleet. That is why she issued this statement to every single person under her command through a vox comminicae, "We will have no victory here, I assure you. Many of us will die, if not all. But, we can deal a blow that the Knight Inductor will never be able to recover from. Abaddon knows that in the coming years, the Knights Inductor could be a very real threat to Chaos. That is why, he gave me you, brave warriors of the Dark gods. Each one of you has a objective today, the wholesale slaughter of every single citizen here. Do not leave a soul alive in your wake, do not be merciful either. I want frightful, horrifying, terrifying, appalling, murder. Also, have a good time doing this, you deserve it."

Marion was quickly delved into war, as almost every city, every settlement on every continent of Marion, was invaded. The orbital defenses both terrestrial and satellite destroyed scores of enemy transports, only to find they were empty. Knowing the locations of Orbital batteries now, the Gore Queen made quick work of the majority of the defenses. The fleet above Marion could not stand by as the only thing between the people and genocide were being shattered. The Sisters of Reason redeployed on the planet, while the fleet engaged the Bloodied Coil ships. Three Cruisers made full use of their broadside firepower, taking down a dozen Bloodied Coil warships in a single volley.

The fighting on the surface intensified. Thus as things grew more chaotic, we can only trust the personal accounts of those involved in this conflict. The following are extracts from several diaries and memoirs of men and women serving in the Apriori Armed Forces defending Marion.

Chapter One: The Endless Night

Private Donald Marshili Galvar, 51st Platoon, Dvi-Marion Planetary Defense Forces.

I am Donald Galvar, I was born on Gravalax, and I served in the PDF there. I can’t say I got the best training possible, but when an ex-PDF vet wants to join the Guard usually they are accepted. Not me, no, you see these Apriori get trained better than I did in the PDF in their damned schools. Want to know what they said to me when I was rejected? "We do not believe that you have enough training or experience to join one of our Guard Regiments here." I was pissed off at first, but I calmed down. When he directed me to the PDF recruitment center, I of course joined the PDF. I’m a simple man, and if it doesn’t involve point-click-shoot I'm not very good at it. My mom always said that I would find a calling; well that calling involved me killing people for a living.

Now, the others troopers in my squad didn’t look at it quite that grimly, but I know that is all it boils down to. At the end of the day this job is just killing people, whether they deserve it or not. Now I did notice that things work differently here on Dvi-Marion. First thing I noticed was my new clothes, instead of some over glorious bright color screaming, "Shoot me, I’m colorful!" it was a dark green mesh with a gray overlay. Second thing, the weapons we had were quite different from what I was used to. Different patterns of the lasgun that I had never seen before. Smaller, more compact, iron sights, curved clips, foldable stock, sleeker rifle barrel. Now, I know what you're thinking, I'm just describing a Las-carbine. No, a Las-carbine this was not. It was, different than anything I had ever held in my life. I don't know how to describe it, which probably makes me look like a poor observer but I don’t care. When the shit hit the fan, I was there, and they want me to document it in my own words, fine, that's what I'll do.

It was like any other day though, that's the strange thing, and it was so tranquil. The sky was the richest shade of navy blue I had ever seen. The kids played outside, people went to work, and all was good. The sun slowly descended casting purple and orange hues over the horizon. The night was sky was without a single star though, to many lights from the city. The two other troopers with me, Larvik Sarven, and Gellom Fenus, Emperor I can still see their faces. Larvik was from a planet named Vollania, an ice planet. The people who lived there were descendants from the Valhallans, so he had the same accent as a Valhallan. You know, you would have to be a Valhallan yourself to tell the difference between the accents. His skin color was a pasty white, he had strawberry blonde hair, and freckles dotted his cheeks. Gellom, was born on Dvi-Marion, but he had a distaste for the Guard so he just joined the PDF. I never learned why. His face was a thick leathery tan, almost like a polar opposite to Larvik. Gellom had thick, long, wavy black hair. Together, we were going to see a holo-projection at the nearby theatre. We had some leave time, so we thought we should try and have a nice night.

The rules on Dvi-Marion were different as well, did I mention that? We had to carry our side-arms at all times. Now I didn't really understand till that day why we had to carry our pistols. But anyways, we were at the theatre. We were ready go take some crappy seats at the bottom but then a family of three moved over and made us some room. The father saluted us, and the little boy did too. I've never gotten that kind of respect before. We took our seats and the holo projector spun starting the show. At that moment a realized something, I turned to Larvik and whispered in his ear, "Hey, what's the name of this holo." Larvik shrugged and replied, "The Last Temptation of Warmaster Horus, it some kind of art holo." I could only imagine what the hell that meant. The opening credits played on the projection screen, showing some big shot director or producer's name that I didn't care at the time to remember. Then the holo started to play. I won't waste my time describing every minute of it, so basically it was a holo about, "What if Horus didn't betray the Emperor?" It was only a thirty-minute long holo so I didn't mind, and Gellom seemed to like it. It was very artsy though, and annoyingly pretentious. We went to a nice restaurant after that.

As I entered I just felt out of place. I was a civilized worlder sure, but, it was so well kept, and absent of gothic architecture. Three chandeliers hung from the top of the ceiling. In the center was massive atrium with a beautifully tiled floor, and to the left and right were other tables sort of placed around the atrium. We grabbed a table on the left side of the restaurant. I took my seat, and, well, this is where it happens. I was looking at my menu when from the corner of my I saw bright flashes of red coming from the sky. I looked out the window, and I saw large military dropships. I ducked under the table, and Gellom did the same. Larvik, and the Waitress taking our order wasn't so lucky: Las, auto, and bolter rounds ripped through the restaurant, tearing apart anyone still sitting in their seats or standing. The Waitress's head was obliterated, skin torn, showing bare muscle and bone. Larvik had his head ripped apart by a bolter round, leaving nothing left.

The dropships seemed to have heavy auto-gun turrets, multi-lasers, and heavy bolters attached to the side. As troops off loaded from the dropships, the dropship's side guns wasted everything in sight. Under the table, we were able to make it only by a knife's edge. I looked around, and I saw others who ducked under the tables just like us, but bolt or auto rounds ripped through the hard wooden tables: killing them instantly. Then, I heard footsteps. I saw Gellom go straight for his pistol, but I grabbed his arm. I shook my head, hopefully convincing him not to give away our position. He nodded at me; least the kid had a good head on his shoulders. The footsteps got louder, and I could see boots walking towards us. I looked to Gellom, and I reached for my pistol. Quickly I unholstered my pistol, and nodded at Gellom, who nodded back at me. We both lifted up from under the table. The two traiter Guardsmen were dumb struck. I remembered at that moment my training, the instructor’s voice echoed as I took aim, "Aim for the head, under the arm, below the knee, and in the gut. These are the unarmored points of most flak armor designs." The las bolt crackled while it ionized the air between me and the traitor. The las bolt hit him square in the eye, and he fell over. Gellom did the same, easily taking out his target. The two traitors were dead, but as I looked around at the small city, it wasn't over.

The night sky was filled with red flares from dropship engines. I saw darkened figures clothed in black running across the city. Screaming filled my ear drums, and gun fire did as well. I could see fires in the distance; buildings were engulfed in raging infernos from artillery. Indescribable mutants of horrid shape and form carrying flamers wasted entire groups of fleeing civilians. I looked over to Gellom, his face had a look of unmasked horror. Poor kid, everything he ever loved was being destroyed before his very eyes. I put my hand his shoulder, and said, "We need to move, there's a suburb behind this building is there not?" He nodded and said, "Yeah, and behind the suburb is the base." He was talking about our platoon headquarters. I remembered on the way here seeing a few acres of houses, which should give us some cover on our way back to base.

I walked over to the two dead traitors, and took one of their las-rifles. This was more like it, I thought. A big, bulky, lasgun, just like they had back home. Gellom figured out what I was doing almost immediately did the same as I. He tried to figure out how best to hold it in his hands. He wasn't used to something so blocky before. I couldn't suppress the grin on my face, but then I looked outside and my grin was gone. I looked to him, staring him straight in the eyes. I said, "Ready." And he replied, "As I'll ever be." Good, I thought, least he isn't to shaken up over Larvik's head being utterly erased.

We walked through the well lit kitchen, and went through a large metal backdoor. As we were walking away from the restaurant, someone came up from behind us: I heard the metal backdoor clang. Without hesitation I turned and leveled my lasgun at her head. I nearly blew her brains out before realizing it was a civilian. She was a waitress, tears rolling down her eyes, holding Larvik's pistol. I remembered that I had forgotten to collect that. She said, sobbing, "I, I'm coming with you. Please, I can't stay here." I wondered for a minute why she didn't say something before we left, but she was probably too scared out of her mind to speak up. Gellom just nodded, and I said, "Sure, come on." After walking through some trees, we came upon the backyard of one of the houses. It seemed none of the enemy troopers had arrived here yet, that was good. Over the horizon I could see more dropships. The fires had grown in number now, as more buildings fell into massive fire storms of napalm and other incendiaries. At that moment, I just knew it was going be a long night.

As the surface of Dvi-Marion quickly turned into a global warzone, the battle in the skies wasn't in the favor of the Apriori Armed Forces. The fighters, gun boats, and small freighters were overwhelmed by the onslaught of enemy vessels. Hundreds of thousands of dropships fell from the sky, and with no knowledge of which enemy ships were false and which weren't, the situation dissolved rapidly. Colonel Tagart of the SDF attempted to bring some order to the mayhem in the skies. Tagart and his men were swiftly wiped out once their location was known by the Gore Queen. Some fighters even collided with the enemy craft because there wasn't enough room to evade. This is the most crucial moment in the entire conflict, when the SDF was fractured and broken. The Sisters of Reason’s Light, took command. They ordered the pilots to punch a hole in the enemy forces so they could deploy. Thanks to efforts of a brave few pilots: an opening was made fifteen miles outside the capitol city. The majority of the Sisters forces landed there. At the same time, some fighters broke off to cover the Sisters' transports as they landed in areas in need of dire aid such as minor cities and small towns. The Gore Queen expected the Sisters to redeploy on the planet, but for some reason she enacted no plan to stop the Sisters from landing. As things grew even more chaotic, we must now go to the personal account of one Sister Maria Stone, Battle Sister in the Order of Reason's Light.

Chapter Two: The End of All Hope

Sister Maria Stone, Battle Sister in the Order of Reason’s Light.

As time has passed, I still find it difficult to remember what happened that day. No, I don't want to remember what happened that day. It felt like the whole universe was coming down on us, ready to engulf us in never ending war. But, I digress. What happened that day must never be forgotten, lest we allow it to happen again. As I try to piece things together I keep wondering where I should start. I decided I best start my story when we were descending down to the planet. I was with my squad, and we were being taken to the planet by the use of a Valkyrie, I felt like I was in a tin can being shaken the whole way. I remember some small talk between me and Rachel, but I don't remember what she or I said. I should explain those in my squad now so you have a picture of those around me. There was Sister Rachel; she was my best friend since training at the Torch. She always buzz cut her hair, pity because she had the most vibrant shade of red hair. Then there was Sister Taley, she was youngest amongst us. She was even younger than me. We called her Rookie a lot. Sister Cynthia and Sister Sandy were twins. They did everything together, and refused to be separated from each other at any time. Both of them had blondish reddish hair. Their faces were covered in cute little freckles. They were great company and it was always a pleasure to be around them. Both me and Rachel enjoyed every minute of our time spent talking with them.

Sister Maelas, Emperor on Earth she was tough as nails. There was a constant rumor flying around about how she made a Dark Eldar Wych cry, I completely believe it to this day. I say she should have been a Sister Superior, but her conduct outside of the battlefield was less than exemplary. Her hair was snow white, and her skin was black kind of mocha color, I’ve only seen a few people with that kind of skin tone. Now let me tell you about Sister Chelsea. Sister Chelsea was a bitch, and I hate her. I remember back in training how she would twist the male trainees' feelings. Always she had this creepy smile on her face that just freaked me out whenever I saw it. Sister Fran was as devote as they come. She prayed to the Emperor every hour on the hour. She had memorized the Decree Passive and several Religious Texts I don't care to remember. She always had a verse from some book for every situation though, which sometimes was comforting, but other times just annoying. Sister Jakobi never left much of an impression on me. She was shy, and rarely talked to anyone. Finally, Sister Superior Luna, the only person I know who could beat Sister Maelas in the sparring room. A single scar from a Dark Eldar knife ran across her left cheek. Most of the fingers on her right hand had been replaced by augments, and her left eye had been replaced with a mechanical one. Her hair was long, flowing, and black as coal. She was the best of us, and the strongest. She was the finest the Sisters Reason's Light had to offer.

Now, I should return to what I was saying. As we descended down to the planet, I kept on trying to fight the urge to throw up. Then the thing I dreaded the most came, the landing. The Valkyrie shook violently as it came to a total stop. The ramp fell open, revealing the terrible war torn landscape before us. I saw several of our ships landing when I looked up. And dear Emperor the flames. Flames had engulfed most the Capitol now, and the infernos raged on showing no sign of dying down anytime soon. The land around was barren and lifeless, craters filled the plains, while missiles flew overhead. I heard Superior Luna call out, "Ok girls listen up, we march towards the suburbs, and we dispatch any heretics we see. If we truly are the daughters of the Emperor, then let's make dad proud! Maelas you're on point. Jakobi watch our backs! Cynthia, Sandy, cover our right, Maria and Rachel you got our left." I forget the rest of what she said, but since I'm remembering so much, I realize now that I've forgotten to mention our mission.

Funny, how I try to explain what happened and I miss one of the most important parts of my story. Well, we were being sent to reinforce a Guard Regiment. They had taken numerous casualties, and were held up in the suburbs, trying to advance towards the city. We would move in to assist, while the rest of our Sisters marshaled for a counter-offensive against the Bloodied Coil. It seemed so easy though, like we would just come through and it would be over like that. Our squad pushed onwards to the suburbs, the light from the burning city illuminating our path. I saw some figures ahead of us, but my eyes were blinded by a extremely bright light. A flare was shot up into the hair, signally some kind of attack. A bolter round came rushing towards the center of squad. Then I saw a single, mechanical eye fly past my field of vision. I heard Maelas scream, "Take cover!" I hunkered down; my eyes dashed as I took in my surroundings. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through me, my heart raced with the fear of a bolt round coming at me. It was hard to see in my helmet, but I made out a shape. I saw a large man clothed and armored in black, standing right where that bolt round came from. Without hesitation I took aim and fired. The round exploded inside him making a very pleasant shower of crimson.

Looking around, I saw one of our number had fallen. For moment I feared it might be Rachel, but I realized that she was right beside me. The enemy did nothing though. The flare was slowly dying out. I was just about to look and see who had died. But then our short reprieve was interrupted, so I couldn’t identify who had died just yet. I heard a horrible chorus of gravelly throats scream, "Blood for the Blood God!" Then charging at us was a mob of Khornates, coming from the Suburbs. I focused on the first one coming at me; he held a bowie knife in his hand. He tried to strike at me with his knife, but a side stepped to the right. His knife hit thin air, but before he could react I grabbed his wrist. I put my foot firmly on his chest when I twisted him around to face me. Pulling on his wrist again while also pushing him away with my leg I heard a sharp "snap" that only a dislocated shoulder can make. He gurgled out, "You, bitch…" Then I pulled on his arm harder, and put even more pressure on his chest with my foot. I felt his ribs breaking apart as I pushed him further away with my leg. Finely his arm just gave out and I ripped it clean off his body. He fell to the ground, gasping for air. I no doubt crushed his lungs while putting pressure on his chest with my leg. I held his dismembered limb in my hand before dropping it to the floor. In the all the excitement, I had dropped my bolter. A mistake I would not repeat, I assure you. I picked up my bolter, and fired three, no, four rounds at the heretics, each round fired was a kill.

Then things got quiet, way to quiet. A few echoed sounds of bolter fire could be heard now and then, but it wasn't as thunderous as had been before. The uneasy silence was then broken by Sister Maelas screaming, "Fuck no! No it can't be! It just can't be!" I looked over and saw Maelas looming over a dead Sister’s body. The head had been completely destroyed by a well placed bolter round. I looked around, and then I said, "Who's still breathing!" I heard nine voices respond, nine, nine, there was supposed to be ten of us. It then dawned on me who had fallen, it was Superior Luna. It felt like all hope at that moment had ended. I walked over to Maelas, saying, "We need to move." She turned to me, looking me square in the face, "We can't just leave her here." I nodded, but I knew what we had to do, "We need to move onward, otherwise we risk more people dying." Maelas looked at the ground, and then she said regretfully, "Your right. Let's go." We proceeded with caution as we entered the suburbs. We were on constant look out for an ambush like the one we fell into not but a few minutes ago. Little did I know the horrors we would face on our own planet.