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 chapter of Space Marines have been separated from the Imperium for almost a thousand years. In the time of their separation from the rest of the Imperium; they have made massive deviations from regular conduct seen in most Chapters. The Aprior Sector which the Knights Inductor in a sense founded is in great danger. 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 the Apriori and everything the Knights Inductor stand for. In recent years many challenges have arisen for the Knight Inductor. Now in the 42nd Millennium, the Knights Inductor faces its darkest hour. Because of Abaddon’s 13th Black Crusade, a breach was created for splinter fleets to escape past the Imperial defenses of the Cadian Gate. The splinter fleets that made it past the Cadian Gate during the Black Crusade went about wreaking havoc wherever they went. One such fleet has been waiting for the perfect moment to strike. And that moment is now.
In the Marion System, all hell has broken loose. Inquisitor Damnos has rallied and coerced his way into marshaling a fleet to attack the Aprior Sector. His mission is to commit Exterminatus on two hundred planets in the Aprior Sector. It is rare to find an Inquisitor who has passed the ultimate judgment more than twice in his or her lifetime, still this has not stopped him from passing the ultimate sentence his office allows him. With forces of the Black Templars, Desert Fangs, Imperial Fists, and multiple other Space Marine chapters, he will utterly exterminate all life in this region of space.
His first target is the world of Norion V which in a sick twist of irony is the most “loyal” planet in Damnos’s eyes. The neighboring world of Dvi-Marion in Marion System, the homeworld of the Sister’s of Reason’s light, gathers its fleet in an effort to flank Damnos’s forces. With the Sisters might assembled and the powerful strength of the Apriori Navy, they may make a difference. As the ships were about to leave the planet’s space, something happened. The astropaths and navigators said that the warp currents had grown violent, and safe travel was far from assured.
The warp had grown violent for a very insidious reason. A splinter fleet from the most recent Black Crusade called the, “The Bloodied Coil” (a Chaos Undivided Warfleet, Mostly Khornate) had arrived in the Marion Sub-Sector to destroy as much of the Sub-Sector as they could. The leader was the aptly named, “Gore Queen,” a cold, heartless Khornate, once a Sister of Reason. Why she defected to the Blood God Khorne, few know. She knew that every single world in the Aprior Sector 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 my friends. We shall all die in this assault of the Apriori. But, we can deal a blow that the Knights will never forget. Abaddon knows that in the coming years the Knights Inductor could be a very real threat to everything that is Chaos and everything Chaos stands for. That is why you are here brave warriors of the Dark Gods. Each one of you has an objective today. And that objective is the wholesale slaughter of every single citizen of this planet. I don't want to just leave this place in cinders, because where is the fun in that. One press of a button, and they are all burned to ash. No blood, no spoils, no screams or cries of mercy. That isn't fun at all. So do not leave a soul alive in your path. Do not be merciful when committing this genocide against these Imperials either. I want frightful, horrifying, terrifying, appalling, murder. If it's slow and painful all the better, I always say. One last thing though. Each one of you should enjoy yourselves will caring out this objective. Experiment in with different final blows, change up the game a bit. You all deserve it, since I've kept you from battle for to long, it should actually be considered a crime. Enough, to the ships. Today, Dvi-Marion burns.”
At first, it seemed that the satellite and terrestrial space defense patterns such as floating missile batteries or titanic ground flak cannons would be enough to take care of these fool hearty invaders. Thousands of dropships were knocked right out of the sky, but it was soon divined by the valiant defenders of Marion that these were decoys. With the defense pattern locations compromised, the Gore Queen dispatched the planets defenses without effort. Seeing that the only thing between the people of Dvi-Marion and genocide was wiped out so easily, the Sisters’ fleet took action. The thunderous roar of broadside firepower echoed throughout the void of space as three cruisers unleashed their might. In a single volley from the cruisers, a dozen of the Coil’s ships were felled. This however did not deter the hideous hordes of the Coil. The real assault began, as dropships with and without troops inside landed in even greater number than they did before. The entire planet was plunged into war as every city on every continent was assaulted from the skies. To better understand events, we will have to listen to the personal accounts of all those involved in the conflict. This books is a series of personal written accounts from the first-person perspectives of those involved in the Black Crusade of Dvi-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 always wanted to be a Navy pilot. When I was only ten though, my dad came home drunk and he said to me, “Boy, you best get these notions of being a pilot right out of your head. You ain’t got any ambition to be anything more than what you are, underhive filth! All beat these stupid dreams out of you if I have to and boy you better believe me I’ll do it.” Now, I had a rough childhood it you couldn’t tell. Mom was a drunk, and dad must have some sick joy out of killing me bit by bit inside. I joined the PDF out of rebellion against my parents to be honest. Got all the way up to Sergeant in the PDF, most the men I knew weren’t so lucky though. When mom died, I just knew I had to leave that mudball of a world. I put the PDF behind me, left Gravalax, and made it to this new place where it all was at. The Aprior Sector sure is spectacular though, but weird at the same time. 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 proper calling; well that calling just 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 too. At the end of the day this job is just killing people, whether they deserve it or not. I learned that when I fought the gangs, and I knew it when I fought the Coil. Now I did notice that things were considerably different on Dvi-Marion. First of all, there were no hives. Buildings were spread out all across the landscape for miles and then they became slightly less dense suburbs; no underhives were made by building higher and higher above existing buildings like on Gravalax. Secondly, the lasguns were unlike a thing I’ve ever 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, it was just different than anything I had ever held in my life. It wasn’t blocky, or, I don’t know how to describe it. That probably makes me look like a poor observer If I can’t describe things in detail 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. It brings a whole new meaning to me, about the term, “Calm before the storm.” The sky was the richest shade of navy blue I had ever seen since I’d been here. 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 sky was without a single star though, to many lights from the city. Shame, I’m sure it would complement the shimmering moon nicely. There were two other troopers with me that night, 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 Valhallan colonists, 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 hated the Guard so he just joined the PDF. I never learned why he had such distaste for the guard. His face was a thick leathery tan shade, almost like a polar opposite to Larvik’s dungeon prisoner pale white skin. Gellom had thick, long and 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 together.
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. As we’re about to grab some crappy seats at the bottom: a family of three moved over and made us some room. The father saluted us, and the little boy no older than eight did too. I’ve never gotten that kind of respect before. Most people despise PDF; I know that was a fact in the underhive. We took our seats and the holo projector spun starting the show. At that moment I 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. I mean what was is about? I got my answer soon enough. 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?” I barely understood anything about it, except for the Emperor being there. 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 extremely 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, casting dim light across the restaurant. In the center was massive atrium with a beautifully pearl tile floor, and to the left and right were tables framing the atrium. We grabbed a table on the left side of the restaurant. I took my seat, Gellom and Larvik sat down. A young waitress with blond hair came by and asked us what drinks we would want. As she walked away I spoke with Larvik, “You got any family back home?” He looked a little annoyed at my question for moment before saying, “No I don’t have any family.” I raised an eyebrow, “Well what happened?” He frowned and replied, “I don’t want to talk about it.” I felt that I should leave it be, and not persist in trying to bring up bad memories. Unfortunately, Gellom wasn’t as wise as I. “Tell us what happened.” Larvik sighed audibly. He seemed like he was about to speak but the waitress came by. She herself was about to speak before auto and las rounds ripped through the restaurant.
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. Seeing me do this Gellom divined what I was doing immediately. He ducked under the table almost as quickly as I did. Larvik, and the Waitress taking our order weren’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 torso was obliterated, skin torn, showing bare muscle and bone. Larvik had his head ripped apart by a bolter round, leaving nothing left. Not even his mother could identify him now, shame, he was a good man.
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. A stray auto round hit just a mere two inches from my right hand. The las and auto fire ceased. Taking this moment of opportunity I looked around, and I saw others who ducked under the tables just like us, but bolt or auto round 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 reluctantly nodded at me; least the kid had a good head on his shoulders. The footsteps got louder, and I could see black leather boots walking towards us. I looked to Gellom, and I reached for my pistol. Quickly I unholstered my sidearm, and nodded at Gellom. He nodded back at me to confirm that he was ready. We both lifted up from under the table. The two traitor Guardsmen were dumb struck. They both had been completely taken by surprise. 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 out of my laspistol’s barrel and it ionized the air as it raced towards the heretic. The las bolt hit him square in the eye, and he fell over. Gellom did the same as I did and he aimed for the head, easily taking out his target. The two traitors were dead, but as I looked out the window 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 drum as did the gun fire did. 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 PDF 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 quickly enough and 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 was reminded of what was happening. The grin was struck from my face. 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 dying and us being invaded. Hate for him to have a breakdown right now, I would have to leave him behind.
We walked through the well lit kitchen. The white tiles were dirtied by our military issued boots. We found a large metal door marked, “Exit.” He passed through the massive door, making sure no one followed us. Strangely, I felt we were being watched at that moment. The back of the restraint was unimpressive say the least. A single large garbage container held a few bags of refuse. Beyond the backyard of the restraint, was the forest of Yevil. 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. She said while tears rolled down her face, holding Larvik’s forgotten pistol. I remembered that I had forgotten to collect that. She said still 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 with youthful naivety and I said, “Sure, come on.” We descended into the suburbs after that. The burning city illuminated our path even as I was puzzled as to what the enemy hoped to gain from this attack. While passing backyards it dawned on me, it was going to be one long night.
Chapter Two: The End of All Hope
+++Chapter Two, The End of All Hope. Sister Maria Stone, Battle Sister in the Order of Reason’s Light+++
Even now I find it painful to think of the events that fateful day on Dvi-Marion. It felt like the whole universe was coming down on us. Like there were no friends in the stars. Only enemies ready to stab us and leave us for dead. Both the Imperium and the Eye of Terror sent a Crusade against us. It’s still pains me to think of all those who died in the fighting. Although it has become easier to talk about the invasion with other veterans from the war, it’s still difficult. What happened that day must never be forgotten however, lest we allow it to happen again one day. While I sit in my chair, writing down sentences then immediately erasing them; I keep wondering where I should start my story. I decided it would be best to start my story when my squad and I 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. While inside I felt as if I was a coin in a small tin can being shaken about by a young boy. Me and Rachel were talking to each other about what was happening, but I’ve forgotten the exact words we spoken.
I should explain those in my squad so that people know who they were. Its best I simply explain it so that I may better explain the story. If you wish to skip the next two paragraphs please do so. I'm very dull when it comes to describing people, so I do not blame any reader who chooses to skip my descriptions.
First there was Sister Rachel; she was my best friend since training at the Torch. She always buzzes her hair so that her helmet could fit better, pity because she had the most vibrant shade of red hair. I remember her tendency to curse however. A very unpleasant trait that she had, but I was tolerant of it. She made great company when I needed it most.
After her there was Sister Taley, she was youngest amongst us. She was even younger than me; something that I can still hardly believe was possible. Maybe that was just a sign of my age. Anyways on to what I was saying before. We called her Rookie often, me and Rachel were the only ones who refused to haze her though.
Sister Cynthia and Sister Samantha were twins. Everything one of them did the other did it exactly the same way. Be it praying, fighting, or hazing poor Taley. Unlike the others they grew out their hair; allowing for their shared and beautiful blondish redish strawberry blonde hair to flourish. Their faces were covered in little freckles which were cut in half here and there by scars.
They were great company and it was always a pleasure to be around them. Every minute we spent with them was a minute well spent to put it plainly. Me, Rachel, Taley, Cynthia, and Samantha all had the same loud out: Bolt Gun(Scoped), Bolt Pistol(Silenced), two fragmentation grenades, combat knife, and Apriori pattern shock maul for incapacitating an enemy non-lethally.
Now I’m beginning to remember all the details about Sister Maelas; Emperor on Earth -bless his name forever- she was tough as nails. There was always a rumor flying around the cafeteria about how she made a Dark Eldar Wynch cry once during one of their raids, and I completely believe it to this very day. I say she should have been a Sister Superior when the Crusade reached Apriori. Her conduct outside of the battlefield was less than exemplary however. Her hair was snow white, and her skin was black kind of mocha color. I’ve only ever seen only a few people with that skin tone.
Now allow me to explain about Sister Chelsea. I will warn all readers that I am very biased with my explanation of Chelsea. Chelsea would well, perhaps it is not important to talk about. But she was a very manipulative person. I shall explain what I mean by that. I remember back in training at the Torch how she would twist the male trainees’ feelings around. She always had this eerie and creepy little smile. Whenever I saw it I could not help but cringe.
Sister Fran was as devote as they come. She prayed to the Emperor every hour on the hour. Fran had memorized several religious documents which are so many they are beyond remembrance. She always had a verse from some book for every situation though, which sometimes was comforting. But other times it was simply annoying.
Sister Jakobi never left much of an impression on me. Her hair was a dark brown color, and her skin was a pasty white. She was shy and it was seldom when she spoke with anyone in the squad. She stuck to the shadows, and you could be talking for hours with someone and not even notice she was in the corner of the room. She carried with herself a flamer instead of a bolter, the reason for which I've forgotten.
Finally I’m beginning to remember Sister Superior Luna who is 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 augmented ones, and her left eye had been replaced with a mechanical one. Its lens glowed red in the darkness, which was very intimidating say the least. Her hair was long, flowing, and black as coal. I’d say that she was, probably the strongest, bravest, and wisest of us all. She was the finest the Sisters Reason’s Light had to offer.
It is probably best now that I have finished with descriptions and explanations I return to the story. I have barely even begun to detail the events of the invasion. My squad descended down to the planet in the Valkyrie all the while I kept on trying to fight the urge to throw up. Then the thing I dreaded the most came, the landing. The Valkyrie’s thrusters roared with fury as it came to a complete stop. If I didn’t get off of this thing in the next five minutes I would throw up. The ramp finally opened, and to my relief I was on point. I wish that the terrain was more inviting though. Several trees had been reduced to ash, craters from either side’s artillery dotted the landscape, and bodies from civilians laid on the ground dead.
I saw several of our ships landing when I looked up into the sky. I was looking at a few Valkyries go off to the east I think; then I saw something in the corner of my eye. When I turned my gaze towards the reddish orange light I was horrified. It was so dreadful, I find it difficult to describe even now. By the throne, the Emperor, and Holy Terra the flames were so bright. I had heard before that the enemy was using napalm bombs. Flames had engulfed most the Capitol city when now, and the infernos raged on showing no sign of dying out anytime soon. The fires seem to have lept from building to building going on to destroy: houses, hospitals, schools, business centers, and restaurants in the process. Missiles thundered over head from the guard I think.
A few stray animals lay dead here and there, the occasional person every once in a while. I heard Superior Luna call out, “Ok girls listen up,” her voice was hesitant, “The guardsmen need support, so we’ll give them some. We march towards the suburbs…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 cover our rear! Cynthia, Sandy, cover our right flank, Maria and Rachel you got our left.”
I forget the rest of the orders. I am beginning to remember a conversation though. “Bastards,” Rachel stated plainly her voice slightly muffled by her helmet. “They all need to just, just burn. They need all need to die for this. What do you think we should do this?” I replied saying, “Once we’re done with them, the only thing we’ll need worry about is what to do with the bodies.” I had forgotten how naïve I was at the time. Taley decided to interject into the conversation, “What do you think the enemy is? Exactly.” Slightly puzzled by this I said, “What do you mean?” Taley thought for a moment, trying to think of what to say or how to put her thought into words. “I mean, “She started to say, “You think there all from the Eye. I mean like they were born there. Or are they all traitors. People who once served the Emperor, but now they serve Chaos. You think they could serve the Emperor again?” Rachel replied hastily, “I don’t bother myself with useless thoughts like that. And heretics don’t get second chances. You know that as well as I.” I frowned with some contempt at that. I disliked her automatically dismissal of Taley’s question. It was a perfectly good question in fact. I replied to Taley while looking around for the enemy, “I don’t think the Eye of Terror has any stable communities. No places for any children to even grow up, it’s nothing but hell holes they call daemon worlds. I don’t think it’s any place to raise a child either. Don’t worry about redemption for traitors either; the Emperor will take care of that.” There was a moment of silence. Taley was thinking about what to say next. Then she said slowly and reluctantly, “Right, it was a stupid question.”
I keep trying to remember what else happened and now I remember that I've failed to explain our mission. Our mission objective, the whole reason why we were here in the first place. We were being sent to reinforce a Guard Regiment that had been ambushed in the suburbs. They had taken numerous casualties fighting enemy droptroopers. We would move in to assist while the rest of our Covent marshaled for a counter-offensive against the Bloodied Coil across the world. It seemed so easy though, like we would just appear and they would surrender. That we would beat them to cinders without even trying. We believed the Emperor was on our side, but his attention must have been elsewhere. I had no idea at the time what the forces of Chaos were capable of though. Our squad pushed onwards towards the suburbs; the light from the burning city illuminating our path. We could see pillars of smoke lingering ominously above the city.
I saw some figures ahead of us assembled around a camp fire. Fourteen traitor guardsmen lay talking around the fire. One of them had a acoustic instruement out, strumming along to some tune. I was just about to open fire when I heard a whisper from Luna, “Wait. Everyone get down.” I fell to the charred grassy floor and I eyed the heretics closely. I heard them speaking but they weren’t just talking, they were singing something. I remember it was about five Khornates fighting a hundred guardsmen alone. The whole lot of them had to be pretty relaxed to just be singing around a camp fire while our dropships fell from the sky. One of them had an acoustic instrument pulled out and he was strumming to some tune while the rest sang along to the melody. Subvocalizing to the squad Luna said, “Hold your fire. There might be more hiding somewhere else so I want to just keep our eyes on them for now. Keep your eyes open.” I didn’t like that idea at all. I wanted to just kill them all and keep moving. The guardsmen were most likely getting ripped to shreds at this moment. We laid there for a good while, I’d say about fifteen minutes. The entire time nothing happened, and I suspected Luna was about to give the order to engage when we saw a shape moving towards the fire. It was a large man in bulky dark crimson colored armor. It only took me a mere second to identify him as an Astartes.
He sat beside the traitors as if they were his brothers. He shouted aloud to his comrades, “Glad to see you all made it. I half expected you people to be crashed into the ground somewhere.” The surrounding heretics laughed at his last comment but the humor was lost on me. I was more than confident that no more enemies lurked in the shadows. Besides we needed to deploy to the guardsmen quickly; only the Emperor would know how many casualties they had taken. I was glad however that Luna had the foresight to order us to wait and observe the enemy. That Corrupted Astartes could have easily flanked the squad if we engaged the traitors. Luna subvocalized to all of us, “Open fire.” I saw the huge Astartes react. Sister Jakobi and Sister Chelsea lift from the ground, and they both were sending a hail of bolter shells towards the unsuspecting Chaos traitors.
Five of them fell in the hail of fire. The rest of them scrambled to find their weapons while the rest of my squad unloaded everything we had on them. Luna and I focused on the Astartes, seeing as he presented the biggest threat out of all the traitors around us. But I had to either be extremely careless in my aim because I shot too wide. Thundering out of my bolter was seven no eight bolt rounds all of which missed the Marine. Luna’s aim was far greater than mine though. She fired off only two rounds. Both of them hit the Space Marine in the chest. His ceramite armor was broken, his organs began to fail him, and his blood spilled out onto the ashen ground. But before he would die from his wounds he had one last act of evil to commit in this world. He reached for his side with a speed I though impossible, not even Luna could react in time. He pulled out a bolt pistol, and he fired a round at Luna. Her head exploded into a mess of gore and blood, her mechanical eye fell right in front of me.
The Chaos Space Marine died from his wounds no doubt succumbing from all the shrapnel imbedded inside his organs. I looked around and saw none of my fellow Sisters had fallen. We had caught them by complete surprise. Before they could even retrieve their own weapons we showered them with a rain of bolter shells.
Maelas walked up to me and said, “She’s gone, she’s gone now.” Her head drifted downwards, depression almost coming off of her. I didn’t know what to say, but I think I should have tried to assure her that she was beside the Emperor. But I myself was still racked with shock at the time so I stayed silent. Sister Cynthia decided to try and salvage the situation. “Hold it together,” she said, “You really think she’d want us to be just sitting here. We got guardsmen to save, so get up and let’s get moving.” Maelas turned in anger towards Cynthia. Her words filled with hate, at either her or the enemy, “And what shall we do with Luna, huh? Just leave her here. We have to, bury her or something.” Without an ounce of hesitation Cynthia replied with all sincerity, “No time. We gotta move now, we’ve spent too much time as is.”
I was afraid of what Maelas would do at this point. To my surprise however, she simply nodded. We formed back into a squad, this time with Jakobi on point, me watching the flank. It had to be longer than just a half hour though, because as we entered the suburbs the sun was rising. I said to Rachel beside me, “Wasn’t in 10-o-clock when we landed.” She said, “Yeah, how is the sun coming up so early.” Everyone else questioned it as well. Then we all came to the same realization, it wasn’t the sun. It was a burning frigate.