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This story takes place one thousand six hundred twenty three years ago, counting “now” as….well… the “now” in 40k.



Fire and Ice

Part One

“For ice to defeat fire, the ice must melt”
Halis Mekan, strategist



Chapter one



Ansgard marched down the streets. The heavy thuds of his footsteps on solid rockcrete were mixed with that of his loyal Wolf Guard. He ordered his pack to stop. The quarry was close.
Ansgard tore of his helmet. His features were straight and clean, unlike many of his brothers. He had a ponytail with red hair and a short beard in the same color. His armor was adorned with wolf tails and talismans, but his helmet was without decorations. He was a Wolf Lord, one of the twelve lords of the Space Wolves, and leader of the eighth company, Ansgard Greypelt’s Great Company, and he had come here to save a planet.

Two days ago, Ansgard and his bodyguard had arrived at Selixis. He had received a distress call from the planet, but the woman who had sent the message had not said who she was. Most of Ansgard’s warriors had been fighting elsewhere, and only Ansgard and his Wolf Guard had been available. But that did not deter him; surely nothing could stand against a Wolf Lord and his bodyguard, none with less than three hundred years of experience?
The night was quiet and cool. The Iliges Stratum was a relatively open area, so the deep blue sky was visible, stars shining like a thousand eyes. This cool night reminded Ansgard of the day of his recruitment, three hundred and seventy five years ago. It had been a cool night like today, and as he had entered a local tavern, the Space Wolves had come to recruit. He gained the honor of being beaten to the ground by Wolf priest Ulfvar himself that day. Ansgard smiled at the happy memory.

As the squad progressed down the Stratum, he noticed a subtle difference in atmosphere. Before, it had been calm, almost peaceful. Now, it had become… threatening. He did not know the nature of the foe. But it did not matter; his tactics would be the same.
“Ansgard! Thorleif found this.”
The grumpy voice of Gunnar, one of his Wolf Guard, sounded through the night. Gunnar, always the dour, pointed at Thorleif. The boy was the youngest of his warriors, only seventy-four years, but his actions had put some of the older veterans to shame. Thorleif walked to Ansgard, holding up a small, round device.
“Looks like Eldar.” Ansgard did not like the look of the device.
“Trouble?” Gunnar wondered.
“Nothing we can’t handle. Keep on lookout.”

As one, the rest of his warriors tore off their helmets. They knew the helmet’s auto-senses were outmatched by their own.
“Ansgard? This doesn’t look like something of any Eldar I’ve ever seen.”
Gunnar brought up the device, and removed the upper part. Inside, there was a small white symbol. It seemed like a white spiral. It looked unnerving.
“What does this mean?”
“ Looks like Dark Eldar to me.”
“Dark Eldar?”
“I’ll tell you more about it later. All that it matters to us, is that Dark Eldar use less armor than others, to increase mobility”
“So we should shoot them, eh?” Thorleif said happily, hefting his plasma gun.
“Fight them as you want to. All that matters to me is that you kill them.”
“Very well.” Gunnar concluded.

The squad moved on. As they reached the inner parts of the city, they saw more and more trace of the enemy. A purple toxic-looking crystal in a pillar here, a mutilated Guardsman corpse there.
“Ansgard? What about the planetary governor?” Gunnar asked.
“He is either dead or hiding. Finding and killing the enemy is our first objective. Finding surviving Imperial forces is secondary. But not by far. Likely is the governor, if he is even alive, located in the central structure. There.” Ansgard pointed towards a large tower a few kilometers away.
They attacked without warning. The squad had just reached the plaza before the structure when a dark purple beam lanced down on Bjagin, and he was knocked to the ground by the force. Simultaneously half a dozen of lightly clothed female warriors darted from hiding. Each carried little armor more than a tight suit, but they had deadly weapons. Some carried a combination of blades and pistols, while some carried nets and harpoons. Others carried wicked flails.
They crossed the distance between their hiding spots and the Wolf Guard in less than five seconds, leaping and somersaulting. Thorleif fired a blindingly bright bolt of plasma, but the mysterious warriors avoided the shot. The rest of the squad opened fire, but no shots connected with their targets. The warriors dived in among the Wolf Guard, and Ansgard howled his battle cry. The cry was taken up by his warriors, and they went to the counter-attack.

Ansgard brought his great frost axe around in a decapitating blow, but his enemy was behind him in less than half a second. Their enemies was impossibly fast, always avoiding their blows and sending a quick strike at their armor before dodging away. Frustrated, Ansgard suddenly dropped before sending a kick to his opponent’s body. Incredibly, the attack hit. The warrior was sent flying, crashing into a wall. Ansgard could hear the snapping of bones. The rest of the enemies seemed as surprised as he, and this gave Gunnar the advantage he needed to bring up his melta gun. He vaporized four and left the last one with one leg and one arm melted into gruel.
The battle was not over. Bjagin rose to his feet, being far too stubborn to die. Ansgard saw a terrible would in Bjagin’s chest, but he thought the man would survive. The warrior who had fired took aim and fired once again, this time targeting Ansgard. The shot impacted, but did no harm. The force was negated by the force field of his his belt, one of the sacred Belts of Russ that was given to every Wolf Lord. Thorleif fired a bolt from his plasma gun, and this last assailant was also melted beyond recognition.

“What were those?” Thorleif asked, venting his plasma gun.
“Dark Eldar. As you noticed, the speed they gain by their lack of armor is… significant.”
“How is Bjagin?” Thorleif asked.
“He will live, but he will likely lose an arm.”
“They were fast.” Thorleif said, his plasma gun now cooled and ready again.
“Yes. We would still have defeated them; they lacked the punch to breach our armor. But we were vulnerable to that… sniper.”
“They will not be so lucky as to avoid our shots next time.” Gunnar snarled.
“Next time they will be dead.” Thorleif stated, with a laugh.
“Indeed.”

The structure was imposing. Constructed of multiple layers of rockcrete and adamantium, it would surely be able to withstand most attacks. But, by the look of its blown-apart front doors, it had been compromised. Ansgard led his squad inside. He knew the enemy could hide anywhere, and the squad checked every hiding spot.
Once they found a wounded Administratum adept. The man had been grateful for his rescue, but he had died of injuries before he had been able to tell them much. They had only learned that the local Guard forces had been all killed, or captured.
The structure was largely empty. The roof had fallen in on the third floor, so nothing could get in our out. Seeing that there was nothing more to find, Ansgard moved his squad back out onto the plaza.
Then he heard something. The Firewolf, his strike cruiser, was contacting him. He heard the clear voice of Helmsman Jagor.
“My lord. We have locked on your position, and are sending down a Thunderhawk now. You won’t believe what happened. All the enemy signatures we were receiving have disappeared. It would appear….. They have left.”
“What? You did not detect any ships?”
“No, my lord. They just disappeared.”
“Check your sensors again. They must still be here somewhere.”
“Yes, my lord.”

In the dark of space, a dark ship watched the Firewolf silently......

Excellent story starting to take shape here. I can see the characters taking shape and imo your writing style is very good. Keen to read more.

Ouch Dark Eldar always is out to get us poor Mon-Kiegs. Nicely written BTW.

Very good, looking foward to part II

Will sadly take time, but I will continue as soon as I can.

This is very well written; I'm greatly looking forward to the next part. Also, I like the intro, especially the line, "...and he had come here to save a planet." It immediately gets the reader interested.

This was aa very good read. Next part will be awaited

Chapter two
Owarian Park was an unremarkable place. It was a large round park, and was filled with trees; one of the very few green areas left on the planet.
It had been the site for the formal declaration of the planet’s compliance, and this was shown with statuary in the park. But that was long ago, and the memories of the inhabitants were short.

However, this day something remarkable would happen here, if anyone had been there to remember it. A low thrumming was heard. In a clearing before the largest statue, a small device appeared out of nowhere. It was black and shining blue, with red glowing gems. The device opened, bathing the surrounding area in ghastly blue light.

Some guardsmen that had hidden themselves in the woods moved forward to investigate. Simultaneously all of the guardsmen dropped, dead before they hit the ground.

Three dark figures in cloaks revealed themselves. They looked around, before going to the device and activating it. Suddenly the area in front of the statue was filled with mysterious aliens in the same colors as the device. One of the cloaked warriors walked to the apparent leader.

‘Honored Warseer, The guards have been dealt with. This area has been abandoned, just as you predicted.’ The leader of these warriors was similar to a man, but taller, and his wargear was far from any human designs. ’Well done. Take your rangers and scout ahead. Eliminate any of our fallen brethren that you find.’ ‘Yes, Warseer.’ The Warseer turned to the rest. ‘My warriors. Now we strike at our dark cousins that we have been hunting for so long. We must be fast as the wind. They must be destroyed before the followers of the Dark Gods that have been hunting us can find us. Let us move.’

The group moved forward through the darkness. The cloaked warriors left them, moving in another direction. The sun slowly began to rise, and now, the warriors could be seen fully. The leader was clad in a black robe, with shining blue runic armor. His helmet was black as well, with a blue face-plate. His eyes were glowing red, as did those of his followers. As the sun rised higher, one could see a truly terrible sight. The grand city was in ruins. Small fires raged here and there, but most had died out.

When the group reached the Administratum tower’s plaza, they saw the signs of battle. Melted metal and flesh lay scattered, and they saw the corpses of their dark kin. They searched the area, and finding no living creatures, tried to understand what happened here. Whoever had attacked- or been attacked by- the Dark Kin was powerful. There were none of their corpses here. The Warseer looked back through the time stream, seeing the events that had taken place. He saw everything from the Space Wolves failed attempt to shoot down the Dark Eldar to their commander kicking an enemy. He, too, was mystified of how the human had managed to hit his foe. These warriors were called Wyches, so much he knew, but he also knew their specialty was to dodge incoming strikes.

Ending the vision, he gathered his warriors. ‘My warriors. Those responsible for the deaths of the Dark Kin were no less than Space Marines. Be ready.’ As the group moved closer to the tower, the Warseer felt another vision stab into his head. ‘Out of the way! To the sides!’ His warriors obeyed his command, concealing themselves in rubble to the side of the plaza. It was just in time, for the Space Wolves moved out of the tower. ‘Warseer, should we attack?’ The soft voice of Exarch Sheina sounded in his helmet. ‘No. They are more useful to us alive than dead. Let them kill our Dark Kin until they are successful, or dead.’ ‘Of course, Warseer. But… The Serenity is under attack!’

In the darkness of space, the sleek black and blue elder vessel named Serenity traded fire with a huge white and red ship. The Eldar ship did all that it could to avoid enemy fire, but it would soon succumb. ´The bridge of the white ship was rippling with motion. The ship, named Cold Revenge, had been hunting the Eldar, seeking both their knowledge, and their souls. On the bridge, the sorcerer Sharikh stood silently, controlling the behemoth with his mind. His armour was white with metallic red trims. In his Sorcerer's garb, he looked terrifying. but he was nothing compared to the awesome shape behind him.

Lord Kraxis, Allchosen of the Dark Gods and master of the Glacier Serpents, looked down on the world below. Clad in a huge set of terminator armour, and carrying a black runeblade in one hand and a dread combi-melta in the other, he was truly a sight to behold. Towering over even the mutated Obliterators at the end of the bridge, he looked like death incarnate. Kraxis had been hunting the weak Eldar for years, sometimes coming close, but always having them escape his grasp. Now was the time to end the hunt. Now was the time to slay the Eldar, and take the head of their pathetic Warseer.

The Wraithbone hull grinded and creaked as it was stressed to its very limit. The eldar ship made a quick turn, swiveling around its axis. The unmanned ship was controlled enitrely by the spirit stones inside, and these knew exactly what to do. Gathering a burst of speed, the Eldar ship went to the other side of the planet in moments. The huge enemy vessel, frustrated at having its target removed, instead turned its guns on the as-yet oblivious Firewolf. It's main batteries roared, and the strike cruiser was broken in two in mere moments, just having time to warn their lord.

The Dreadclaw assault pods began raining from the sky like burning stars.....

Yay, new entry! This is very well written. I really like how you described Lord Kraxis; he sounds very mean to say the least. My only suggestion would be that his introduction is a bit abrupt and maybe you should try to transition it more slowly. I'm not really sure how to do this though. In any case, great new entry!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/328695-.html?m=2
For those interested, here is a Kraxis model. Might do a better one in the future, this one does not look intimidating enough (or big enough)

Model looks great, need to more with that rune sword though, maybe water down some white and flood it into the carvings on the blade?

Story is coming on well.