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Bright light was all he could see. Closing his eyes still did nothing to relieve the intense blank canvas that was his vision. He felt around blindly looking for something to prompt himself up. A brisk wind swept over him, grains of sand pushing onto him. He knew now that he had somehow made his way to the surface. He could feel the warmth of fire around himself, flickering up to meet his every step. It felt welcoming, as if it was greeting him, embracing his every touch. The raging fire around him infact was washing over his body.

The ship had crashed somewhere in the desert, the barren landscape where the forges of this world had not destroyed. Rorick was inside the carcass of the aircraft, only part of it remained intact, the rest of it was strewn across the sand leaving a trench where it had slid along the soft dunes. The fires died down with the wind supressing it back into the earth.

Rorick was still feeling his way through the rear of the cargo bay until his foot had kicked something. He knelt down, feeling something rough realising it was the scorched remains of the load master. He felt down to his hip grasping the handle of a bolt pistol. He also carefully removed the dead man's armour, just the chest piece which he lowered around his neck. It was a tight fit but would have to suffice. Had he caused this?

All he remembered was that sick feeling of falling. Then the sudden jolt. Whatever happened there was no point feeling sorry for it. He had to move, so he felt the walls of the trench they had created, hoping for some bearing. He found a vox unit and an auspex radar.
"All callsigns this is Claw One Zero".

No response. All he could do now was wait. He tightened the makeshift cloth around his waist, listening to the roaring wind brushing the desert sand against his face.

The dreadclaw touched down the nemesis was standing next to him aria was shielding his other side.
He heard leonidas speak about heading north and adric gave his opinion. ''Well brother it would be the most sane choice as i still need to find the idiotic mechanicum commander who allowed his men to go rogue. But! I think it would still be better to first get some transportation.''
Adric said as he looked at the nemesis, adric had given him carapace armor to keep him alive and after giving him the bolter. He said to leonidas through a personal vox. ''And leonidas i think it would be best to seperate lucius from his trophy he is getting a little handy i will take him with him you keep an eye on it.''

"All ZZZ callZZZs thZZZ is Claw OnZZZ ZeroZZZ"

Einer snapped up, activating the vox system.

"Claw One Zero this is Brother Sergeant Einer of Claw Zero Three. I have Brother Champion Acharius, we acknowledge!"

There was a pause.

"EinZZZ pleaZZZ ZZZpeat. We did ZZZ catch that, we ZZZ not caZZZ that!"

Einer shouted his reply.
"We are trapped in a collapsed tunnel near the city. My squa-"

"Einer you musZZZ ZZZepeat!"
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
"Einer?!"

The link disconnected, the signal lost.

They had started their journey North, trudging through the warm sand. There were bodies now, the brutalised corpses of rebels lay mutilated in the sand. They had obviously encountered a band of orks out here, the battle had been one sided.

Looking to the horrizon, he sees the form of a large warehouse, likely abandoned. They would head towards it.

"This way."

The band scrambled to the building. There they began to hatch a plan. The marines rotated guard positions. The sky was soon dark, littered with thousands of stars.

Lucius and Viola were being sternly watched by the other Night Lords, under the orders of Leonidas. If they tried to come closer, they were barged apart. As the warehouse grew darker and darker, their thoughts began to brew. Lucius thought about Viola; about whether he was a traitor and what he could do. Then his mind swerved to his biological impulses.

"What's the worst that could happen? Surely it's normal behaviour?"

Lucius became desperate. He began to stand.

Leonidus could hear the neophite Lucius stand.

"Something on your mind, Neophite?"

Says Leonidus, turning quickly.

Darius watched as the monstrous devils dissipated, wondering where the terminator pup had gone. How that boy had ever made squad leader, much less terminator eluded him. His eyes turned to the sky, looking into the large greyish blue sky. No clouds obscured his vision, but the screams of a man torn in half filled his ears. Oh how he loved the sounds after battle, even if it was his own troops making them. "Aide, head count!" His voice boomed. The self appointed helper jogged up. "Fifty five hale and harty Bloody Aquilias my lord. Another three are wounded and six dead." Darius nodded, the losses were minimal due to the aid of the terminators. "My lord, we're reciving radio chatter from non-imperial sources in close proximity to the planet...it looks like orks...a lot of orks" The voice of the soldier left in the comms center crackeled through his helmet. Orks, bloody brilliant. He hated the bastards. Had to fight them more than anything else. Of course, he hated almost anything he had to fight, made it die faster. Scraping his combat blade from its sheat, he turned to his aide. "Any aircraft nearby?"

The large civilian cargo craft hovered above the building, soldiers loading the weapons and supplies brought down with the stormbirds into it. Two smaller Imperial army craft were loaded with soldiers, guns at the ready. The ork roks around them, spilling their green contents. Shootas were being fired off and chants of 'OrksOrksOrks' were filling the streets. Darius had restocked his supply of bolter ammo and had made sure that all the men were secure. They would soon leave. The old marine, a vereran of battles against the Orks, knew that they should travel to the north as ork spores required fertile warm lands to germinate and grow into bloodthirsty xenos. Yes, bloodthirsty, axe weilding, waaaghing xenos. The craft took off.

They skimmed over the ground, the light guns on the doors of the troop transports suppressing the orks charging at the small compound. It was just outside the city and full of traitors...and a baneblade. Two large missiles detached themselves from the wing of the craft Darius currently sat in and blew a chunk of the large plascrete wall down. The orks below yelled in anger and triumph even as the heavy bolters chewed them to tiny green bits. The compund was soon swamped, but the massive tank smashed its way through the green horde and flew off into the plains. Darius looked on and couldn't stop a chuckled escaping from his lips. He then wondered how the terminators were doing, they had left them back in the city to look for their leader. He supposed that they would be fine.

The air was getting progressivley colder, the three large transports in a tight inverted V with the civilian freight craft at the front. Small bullet holes pocked each of them, a legacy of a desperate flyby of an Ork force. They killed a lot of orks, at least, more than the orks killed of them. Darius lifted his hand from the head of a now dead soldier, he had asked for the 'paragon' of the emperor to stand by him in his final hours. Darius had. The boy was missing half his face and was colder than an angry fenerasian woman. He was stripped of all useful equipment and thrown out the back of the ship. He had at least had the Aquilia carved upon him to carry into whatever lay after this life. Darius shook his head, that was a thought for another day.

The snow whirled around the soldiers, huddled into tight squads with the tall marine and his arc light leading them. The aircraft flew far behind. The troops had been dropped due to the detection of a large enemy outpost, the may have had anti-aircraft weapons and so Darius thought it best to attack on foot. It was a sound idea. The outpost was large enough to house them all and the ships, allowing them to set up and get ready for any attack. "There" A soldier yelled above the raging blizzard, eyes hidden behind green goggles. "I see the main enterance, heavy bolter....looks like there is a patrol moving in" Darius nodded and waved his troops back, placing the large arclight down in the snow as to muffle its guiding light. He stepped over it and moved forwards, bolter out and a frag in his hand. As the lead soldier smashed the security code into the panel next to the large armoured door, Darius had placed down his bolter and drawn his knife. The short sword sized weapons sat snugly in his guantlated fist, ready. As the door swung open, the knife flew out like a spear, taking one man in the stomach and sparing through into the other. The massive force shocked them so badly that they didn't even scream. Though the man on the inside did. A frag grenade soon sorted him out. The men poured in.

The facility was soon theirs. The large hanger built into the side of a sheer cliff acoomodated their air support nicely, and the mess hall made for a good execution area. The enemy lined up against the wall, the loyalists standing, lasguns levvled. They were dead in moments, clean shots stealing their traitorous lives. Darius started yelling for somone to clean up.

Sahaal had made it to the hangar and to his personal Storm Eagle just in time. As he departed the ship, it flew into the main ork cruiser and detonated, rocking his small gunship heavily, but he made it out of the harmful range of the blast. He entered orbit a few minutes later and opened a vox. "Leonidas, give me your coordinates, I made it out." Just as he spoke, several crude fighters came in on his tail, and he knew he had to get out fast. He employed evasive maneuvers, but he could not shake the rough planes that tailed him. The gunship's left engine burst in a rain of fire, destabilizing it. Sahaal excepted the loss of the ship, and opened the front hatch. He moved down, but before his jump pack had ignited, the gunship slammed into a ruddy looking warehouse, detonating in a fireball and throwing Sahaal through the roof, into the unconsciousness which awaited him at the floor below

Rorick felt up and down his right arm. It had been totally encased in a hardened rock exterior. He could still feel his arm underneath the rough black shell, it pricked with heat and felt like an oven inside. The rock exterior was impossible to remove no matter how much he tried. He simply widdled away the hours picking at it and flexing his hand inside.
"Claw......zero..."
He snatched up the handset, hearing the first transmission in hours.
"Claw one zero here!"
"One zero this is zero three, SITREP?"
"I am the only suvivor, the entire crew was wiped out in the crash, emergency signal has been activated on channel 3- alpha- 9, are you recieving?"

"Sir, I don't need to be bottle-fed and hawked over like some sort of infant. I'm responsible enough to keep myself in check."

The ancient apothecary tutted.

"No, Lucius. You cannot be trusted with Viola."

The neophyte glared at him. He needed to get out of the main hall with Viola.

Adric walked towards viola and began talking ''I have aq question for you where did you find lucius and why did you come with him if this is some sick perversion i'll make sure to dispatch of you immediately.''

"I know what you want to do neophite. I would'nt do that if I were you."

Chuckles Leonidus, taking his seat on some old steel crate.

"Don't even try."

"What are you going to do to stop me?"

The neophyte grabbed Viola's arm and dashed into hiding. The great armoured bulk of the other marines were cumbersome and slow compared to the unimpaired Lucius.

At last they slipped away into an empty unlit room. They embraced each other and began.

"WRONG MOVE NEOPHITE."
Bellowed Leonidus, his amplified voice echoing throughout the huge structure. Spinning around, he adresses his guard and Omega.

"We all spread out, if you find them, restrain them and bring them here."
All five figures nod before each going in the neophite's general direction. Their superhuman sences would soon detect the worms.

The two were locked in their own world. They began removing each others' clothes.

"Ready?"

They came into contact. Lucius never wanted to leave. They were one, truly together.

Leonidus and his men began kicking down doors systematicly, or in Omega's case, ripping them from their hinges. Even with all five of them, the building would take a while to fully cover. But in the end they would find them. And the neophite would wish he had never been born. The wench on the other hand, would be left to his men. They were the three people he had ever met that were most like him. That would not bode well for her. Not well at all.

His men had narrowed down their location. Slowly and surely, they were closing in.

"I'M COMING NEOPHITE."

Lucius was in euphoria. He didn't care for the consequences of his actions; only he and Viola mattered.

"I think I love you."

The doctor smiled. They held each other closely.

"NEOPHYTE!"

The door frame was flooded with light. In it stood Leonidas and Adric.

"gak."

With a deafening laugh, Leonidus grabs hold of the closest figure, the wench, while Adric picks up the struggling Neophite. Chuckling, the two astartes drag the worms back to the main hall, his guard and Omega already waiting there.

"Do what you will."
Mutters Leonidus, tossing the pathetic form of Viola to his three marines, who drag her down through a nearby corridor.

"As for you, scum."
He turns to Lucius.

"I think its time for you to deliver on you end of the secape bargain. Oh no, I won't make you a servitor. Much worse."

Lucius found himself pinned to the table. His mouth was gagged.

"If you had waited, we could have given you a good operation, rather than this crude temporary mindlock. But you and that witch..."

He pulled out an ancient rust encrusted scalpel.

"It'll do."

Given the crude conditions, the procedure was much more difficult, keeping the neophite alive was hard. If he died, it would all fail.

He could not do all he had wanted to here, but he would make a start. Adric hands him the neuro-router, the vital piece for the procedure, and he begins implantation, Omega's medical tools slowly whirring into life.

--Two hours later--

It had been hard, the neophite's blood stained the table, floor and Leonidus' armour. The screaming from down the corridor had ended ten minutes or so ago. Wench..
Standing up from his crate, Leonidus aproaches Lucius' prone form. The chemicals keeping him uncontious were wearing off. Looming inches from his still face, Leonidus shouts,

"AWAKEN NEOPHITE. IT IS COMPLETE."

The neophite stirred.

"Yes, sir?"

Lucius' voice was cold and metallic. His body moved clumsily about. The pain that ran through his body didn't matter. He was merely alive, his emotions were suppressed by the implant for now.

"The upgrade is satisfactory."

"Lucius everything functional?"

Mutters Leonidus, still leaning over the neophite's blank face.

"Do you wish to see your wench?"

Lucius turned to him.

"Please."

Adric was rather pissed of by the fact that leonidas had to do that to lucius but it was all for the greater good.
Adric had retreated into his personal room ,the nemesis sat beside him and began speaking. ''Adric....the fact that you gave me this body... has made me sentient. You know they will kill you for this...''
Adric looked up to him and said. ''Don't worry i will make you perfect so that when they see you they will bow down and only mutter in your perfect being.'' Adric said and with a fain smile he took out the picture again. His dreams continued
The clouds in his mind began disappearing. He began remembering how he was appointed chief engineer in his family's mine. also the day his family openly opposed the night haunter and the planning, he heard his father speak in a council.
''This man, this villain who is killing people for the greater good must be put down. He will only weaken our influence over the planet and eventually he will take over. I say we hire the street gangs to kill the man and finish his incursion.''
Father never heard if the others agreed as adric's mind activated the security systems and they where massacred. Their lives where over adric had stopped the uprising and killed his family mercilessly without hesitation.
He came back to the present and heard the screams from lucius through the warehouse, he returned to look how the operation was going when he saw lucius but he also felt it he felt his mind under control.(will finish on a later date.)

Leonidus helps the dazed neophite up, his movements temporarily sluggish and uncoordinated. Leonidus walks him down the dusty steel corridor and catches sight of his three men playing some card game on a decrepid wooden table.

"Wench is down there."
One of them gestures towards a door at the opposite end of the corridor.

"Go on neophite."
Mutters Leonidus.

As the marines strode down the corridor, the roof was broken open by the form of the Storm Eagle. Sahaal fell unconscious 10 feet or so in front of Lucius, and the gunship detonated near the corridor, destroying a piece of the wall. Sahaal felt no pain as his body slammed into the concrete floor, and he lay there, waiting.

''Well captain it seems you made it after all'' Adric said with a faint smile.

''Aria help the good captain up will you''

"Go ahead Lucius, your...Viola is in the other room."

Turning to Adric, he adresses the forge master.

"What do you say we do after out buisness here is done brother Adric? Where to next?"

''Well our bet would be to send scouts out to locate a sizable enemy base to capture so we have access to better equipment. I also need to find a vehicle.''

"Agreed Adric. There will probably be some vehicle nearby, its a warehouse. A good quality vehicle though, is unlikely."