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[u]Prolog

+++Beginning Interrogation Session 2398-35-59+++
+++Interrogator Chaplin Asmodi Commencing Interrogation+++
+++Al Heads of Inner Circle Present+++
+++++
+++++
+++ Begin Recording.........

"For the record, state your name." Asmodi walked back and forth across the interrogation chamber. He was beginning to grow impatient with his subject. Thus far he had gotten nothing but an occasional smirk or maniacal laughter. The Space Marine lay strapped and bound to the interrogation table, his black armor irremovable. Blood stained robes covered him head to toe from Holy Terra knows what creatures he had slaughtered throughout his tirade within the warp. "Answer me!!!"

"I have no name." The Space Marine opened his eyes slightly and smiled slightly. The petty attempts made to get him to talk were pathetic to say the least. He had not endured the pains of the warp without having been prepared for something as trivial as this.

"Are you The Voice of the Emperor?"

"Yes, and I have a message for you."

"Unless it is a confession begging for forgiveness it will fall upon deaf ears." Asmodi moved slowly over to a table near the door and picked up a pair of pistols. "Are these your weapons?"

"Yes. Will you hear what I have to say? My time here is brief."

"Your time here is brief? You are within the bowels of the Rock!! You have all the time in the world." Asmodi smiled grimly. "I will make you talk even if it take a lifetime."

"Perhaps your lifetime but I have until the End of Days to complete my task. You see, I am hunting for something... perhaps not a something but more of a someone." The Fallen stared intently at the two pistols and the sword that lay on the table. His head lowered and he closed his eyes again. So soon it was to take place. So soon the revelation was to commence. So little time to beat the arrival. To fail was to undoubtedly destroy the Imperium of Mankind.

"I will indulge in you little game, scum. What are you hunting."

"Oh nothing really, just this and that but the ultimate prey are the lions."

"Lions?"

"Yes. Lions. I'm on my way to Terra with an even more important and urgent mission then what even you can imagine. I must get there before the unveiling of the grand rebirth. My brothers, members of the Inner Circle, I beseech you to look past your own ignorant beliefs and see the true and grand scale of things. We are no more than puppets in this life. Although you believe Chaos wishes you all dead there can be nothing further from the truth! Chaos needs your deaths but with all life dead what left is there for them to feast upon? NOTHING! That is why they need you to repopulate, to grow, to live."

"Heresy!" Asmodi ripped a Blade of Reason from the table and plunged it deep into the Fallen's arm, but nothing happened. It was if there was nothing there. Asmodi looked up and came eye to eye with the Fallen, and in a low growl asked, "what is you name?"

"I have no name." The Fallen smiled. "And I really wish you wouldn't have done that."

"If you wont tell me your name! Tell me! What was your position held within the Order!"

"Keeper of Traditions and Secrets."

"No... no... don't speak it," Asmodi backed away slowly.

"I am Lord Cypher, I must beat the Lion to Terra or he will be dead on arrival, and so will your Emperor." And with a crack of thunder Cypher was gone. Asmodi was left in the interrogation room with the heads of the Inner Circle looking inwards. Their greatest asset, the one they had been hunting relentlessly for hundreds of years in their hands. IN THE ROCK! Vanished. Gone. With nothing more to go on then the Lion is headed for Terra.

....... End Recording+++

Notable Characters
Dark Angels
Azreal – Grand Master of the Dark Angels
Beliel – Grand Master of the Deathwing
Samuel – Grand Master of the Ravenwing
Ezekiel – Grand Chief Librarian
Libros - Company Commander of the 3rd Battle Company
Boreas – Chaplin of the 3rd battle Company
Asmodi – Grand Interrogator Chaplin
Sephuis – Grand Chaplin

Cain – Deathwing Sgt, assigned to Beliel’s retinue
Able – Ravenwing Sgt
Zachius – Tactical Heavy Weapon’s Specialist
Zapharus – Assault Marine
Typhius – Boreas’s personal bodyguard

Custodes
Altaris
Hevinor
Avin
Korin

Deathwatch
Septimus – Raven Guard apothecary, Team 235
Asher – Dark Angel Champion, Team 235
Tiferous – Ultramarine Tactical Sgt, Sgt of Team 235
Larin – Iron Hands Forge Father, Team 135

Chapter 1- Terra
In the Grim Darkness of the 41st Millennium, there is only War…
Besieged on all sides by heretics and Mutants, the Imperium of Man has stood as a bastion of humanity, the last light in the darkness…
We are in the waning days of the Time of Ending. The Emperor of Mankind is closer to dying than ever before. The mighty 1st Legion, the Dark Angels, prepare for Total War. Both the Ravenwing and Deathwing have been launched into action to hunt down the escaped Fallen prisoner, Cypher; the damnation or the greatest hope of the Imperium of Man…
We have been given a message of impending doom for Holy Terra and possibly the Emperor himself. We have called to our successors and they have come, abandoned their homes and brought with them only war. Now with the combined fleets of All the Dark Angels! This is Grand Master Azreal of the Dark Angels! Make ready the fleet! To the Emperor!!!
++++++++++++++++++++++
10:36pm – Terra Time
++++++++++++++++++++++
“Halt! In the name of the Emperor!” A Guardian Staff lowered in from of an approaching the 235th Deathwatch Team. The Custode took up a ready stance.
“Stand down Custode!” A hulking figure in battered Custode armor pushed his way through the ranks of the Deathwatch Team. “I am Custode Captain Korin, and you will put your Staff at ease.”
The Custode snapped to attention. “Captain, I believed it only to be a rumor, you have survived for this long outside the gracious sight of the Holy Emperor?”
“Emperor, yes. Holy, no. As decreed by the Emperor himself in the days of old! He is not a god! He banned religion and destroyed all those that thought him a god!” The Custode dropped back into a low ready stance. Captain Korin, with lightning reflexes reached out and snapped the end of the Guardian Staff as if it were a twig. “I told you to stand down.”
It had not been since the days before the Heresy that Korin had stood at the end of the Path to the Emperor. To gaze upon the Eternity Gates of the palace to look upon… the statues… there were so many missing. Had that many fallen to Chaos? Had his sons, wrought in rage, turned on their father? It had been so long and he had missed so much while on his mission set forth by the Emperor himself. Korin thought back to when the Deathwatch Team had found him aboard the wrecked Terran ship the Inevitable, and had learned of the Emperor’s death… such pain and anger swirled about his mind. Anger that he had not been there to protect the Emperor, that he had been away for so long that this new era was alien to him.
“I bring this Deathwatch Team, designation two, three, five, to see the Emperor. They come bearing gifts that could change the galaxy as you know it. Avin, Altaris, flank the sides of the Deathwatch, I will take the head.”
In step Deathwatch Team 235 marched in unison down the mile long precession to the Eternity Gates. Custodes stood ready and at attention every few meters of the bridge as the higher clergy brought offerings to the Emperor. Some took their praises, others took their sorrows, and some offered themselves up to the Emperor to be sacrificed so that he might live even a minute longer. Cherubim’s flew overhead ducking and dodging around the columns when the Primarchs stood, and for some, where they had once stood. Large thunderhawks roared overhead taking supplies and troops to the Eternity Gates. Members of the Imperial Fists stood proud before the gates in the sacred duty to protect the palace.
“Who is this brought before the Eterinty Gates?” An Imperial Fists Captain stepped forward from the ranks.
“I am Custode Captain Korin, and by that authority you will let us pass.”
For a brief moment the Imperial Fist bore no signs of fear or of backing down but then he took to steps backwards. The Gates began to open.
A thunderous crack sounded overhead has the skies turned blue. Something big was happening and none of it could be good.

++++++++++++++++++++++
10:47pm – Terra Time
++++++++++++++++++++++
“This is Inquisitor Darin to the Dark Angel cruiser, Redemption, state your business.”
“This is Grand Master Azreal of the Dark Angels, we have come with an urgent message. We believe that the Emperor is grave danger.”
“And why could you not transmit this through priority channels?”
Azreal was silent
“Without proof of you intentions I must tell you to turn your ship around and leave Terran space.”
“I cannot do that, Inquisitor, it is our utmost priority to safeguard the Emperor.”
The darkness of space opened its great maw into a spectacular array of spider webbing blue portals. Ships immerged by the hundreds and the thousands. The entire Dark Angel Legion had returned to Terra and they would not leave without completing their mission.
“By Terra,” the Inquisitor muttered in awe.
“Prepare yourselves, Inquisitor. Something evil is afoot.”