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Hi all,

Please allow me to add a precursor to this fluff. I personally have never passed English in High School throughout the entire time I was there. I then went in to the military where writing wasn't needed, so if the fluff has monumental amounts of grammar/spelling issues now you know why

I am open to criticism and any spelling/grammar issues that you can assist me on would be of great value and I am happy to adjust the story with your input.

I am hoping to finish about 6 - 8 short sections (those are ones I have idea's on already) detailing the reasoning behind my army (Plog located here) I have already done three sections with different narrative for each and will be reposting them to kick start this.

I will try to label them with numbers to help with the chronological order as there will be sections which detail historical events when you've already read something about it before (if that makes sense) - The first piece I'll admit isn't the best, but I feel I've gotten better the more I write.

Episode 2 - Arrival.

The Grey knight Prognosticars on Titan detected a potential warp rift in a sector on the south eastern fringes and two ten man strike squads of Grey Knights, Senior Techmarine Onox and Librarian Elban were dispatched to intervene with the strike cruiser ‘Intolerance’ The Knights arrived to the sector and found the central worlds being overrun by the defense force who had turned to a dark force. Loyalist forces of Ultramarines, Black Templars and Dark angels were in battle trying to regain control but were hard pressed due to the limited amount of their own forces that were available.

The Grey Knights scanned the major worlds and detect a warp disturbance on the Agriworld of Couture. The Techmarine remained on board and the Knights deployed to the planet’s surface they quickly came under attack by traitor guardsmen who had light tanks and a few demons in support, after surgical strikes to the enemy’s support lines and heavy weapon teams they pushed through to the disturbance to find a ritual of summoning, The rituals central point was an Ultramarines librarian chained up with chaotic runes etched over his body writhing in agony as a daemon attempted to take over his physical form.

A vicious fight ensued as the traitors tried to bide time for the summoning ritual to complete allowing a powerful daemon to take over the librarian’s form. By this point the Grey Knight force has suffered minor losses during the strike to the summoning ritual and they suffered more during the battle at the ritual, however they managed to kill the host before the daemon burst forth into the material realm with the Grey Knight librarian striking the host with his nemesis force halberd and over loading the weakened mind of the host.

As the traitor forces were dispersed the Grey Knights took stock of their forces to find that only 7 Knights had survived along with the Librarian, however they knew that there was far more to be done in the sector. They teleported back to the strike cruiser ‘Intolerance’ Here the Knights had found out that the main hive world was finally being overrun and that the loyalist marines had started to turn on each other. A single transport shuttle attempted to bolt from the hive world and was being followed by three attack craft which were gaining rapidly, the attack craft scored direct hits on the engines and shield generators on the transport craft leaving it a sitting duck in space.

The transport bore the heraldry of the planets governor general and the Elban knew that for this sector to continue there would need to be a governing force and decided to assist, they quickly destroying the three attack craft and the Grey Knights invited the governor general and his retinue onto their cruiser while they formulated a plan of attack.

To find out what had happened in the sector they questioned the general only to find he was less than helpful as most Politian’s are, however his retinue’s psychic was happy to advise how it was he who had detected a looming shadow heading towards their sector and it was he who had contacted any loyalist marines in the area for support. His support request was answered by a company of Ultramarines including vehicle support, 4 tactical squads from the Dark Angels and a half company of Black Templars with vehicle support. The Ultramarines arrived first and as they made planet fall pockets of insurrection started to pop up across the hive world, the local guard forces were deployed and as they arrived to engage they turned their guns on each other and those that were left alive joined the traitors.

Similar events started to happen across all the worlds in the sector and that’s when the marines were deployed. One of the major battles turned badly for the loyalist’s when two squads worth of marines from the Ultramarines engaged their own forces citing their brothers had turned over to chaos. They were quickly eliminated however more and more marines started to turn and now only the true of heart marines were left and they were starting to lose ground.

The Grey Knight’s realizing they were going to be hard pressed to fight an entire planets worth of heretic’s sent a psychic request back to Titan for them to send more units, the requested was answered by Brother Captain Stern who quickly sent as many Knights as he could including a Dread Knight and Venerable Dreadnaught. Stern advised he would be accompanying the force as the threat level for the sector had gone up with the information relayed to him.

Elban realized that the support force would be weeks away at best and contacted the last remaining loyalist marines who were on the planet offering support where it was needed. In the coming weeks another four Knights fell to fighting however with the loyalist marines in support they held major vital areas. With the help of senior Techmarine Onox battlefield repairs were made to broken vehicles and adjustments were made to increase the firepower of others. To separate the loyalist marines from the one who had turned the Grey Knights made the remaining marines to repaint their armour in their same grey of their own, in the heat of battle they were able to differentiate friend from foe at a quick glance. The entire force was renamed the "Gray Night's" so not to infringe on copyrights.

The arrival of the support fleet from Titan was met with great relief however upon their arrival a great warp storm started engulfing the sector stopping all communication and travel to and from the sector.

Section 4 - Ruin set up

Techmarine Koali opened the top hatch doors of the Rhino ‘Rleame’ he surveyed the ruined building they had been ordered to hold till morning. He noticed that the fading light gave the ruined building a blood red glow, foreboding at best, however Koali didn’t have the time to think further about it as there was fortifying to complete. He glanced up at the servitor stopped halfway through the ruined courtyard hauling a large chunk of masonry; irritation grew at having to babysit the mindless zombie. Dismounting the Rhino he moved closer to the court yard, Koali powered up his neural link and sent the move command the servitor to have it drag the masonry to the open doorway to create a roadblock. The blank eyes shifted towards the open door and started to shuffle towards it.

There was a small hiss as his helmet’s vox channel opened up and Koali recognized the familiar voice of Captain Lirael “This is Captain Lirael of the Dark Angels, I am in command of this defense as per Brother Captain Stern’s direct orders. Send sitrep for all attached squads” First to report in was the half strength command squad’s Veteran Sargent Lokni “Captain, command squad has the second level floor completed for defense, our heavy bolter is set up covering the street advance to the north and the building to the west has been set for demolitions”

Second to report in was the “Black swords” tactical squad Sargent Emorej “Captain, Black Swords has split into combat squads we are covering the left approach and the north approach” Koali regretted that he did not have enough time to repair the Black Swords heavy Plasma cannon after the energy cell had burned out after three days of fighting the previous week, if only he had more time.

Third to report was the “Devil Tails” tactical squad Sargent Cromat “Captain, Devil Tails are ready to reinforce any of our attacked flanks.”

The next voice Koali didn’t recognize however the Marine was reporting in for the assault squad. Koali quickly remembered that the power coils for that squad jump packs were on board the strike cruiser ‘Intolerance’ getting charged, “Looks like they are going to be on foot.” He had to silently chuckled, it didn't seem to bother them, and any half strength assault squad was something to be feared. Koali waited for the report to finish then opened a private channel to the new Sargent of the assault squad. “Hail Sargent, Techmarine Koali here, I offer my rhino transport to you for the nights defense” Sargent Kahui’s response came after a brief pause “Praise the Emporer Koali, I will be happy to accept your offer, and I promised to bring it back to you in working order”

Just catching the last part of the fifth report Koali heard the very familiar voice of the tank commander from the Predator tank “Gir”. Prior to moving to this location he had repaired the drive train on the tank and remembered the machine spirit had been quite unhappy with the hasty repairs. Koali uttered the prayer of endurance to the Omnissiah trusting that his repairs would hold and when given a moment he would fix the tank’s sponsons to get the vehicle back to full fighting potential. He recalled that while completing the repairs he had checked out Senior Techmarine Onox’s battle cannon modification and had been quite impressed with the innovation he had put into getting the massive cannon mounted to the hull, he made a quick mental note to speak to the Onox to get more knowledge on how he had achieved such a feat.

Lastly it was time for his report. “Captain, fortifying our position is progressing, Thunderfire cannon ‘Validus’ is in position to support our northern advance. Current ammunition stocks will only be sufficient for a five volleys of air burst and four volleys of surface impact“

The captain's response was “Emperor Protects!” then the vox link went silent. The force only had to last till morning.

Time crawled for the defenders. Every thirty minutes situation reports were sent in, they were always clear. The communications marine from the command squad used his Auspex every hour to check for movement on the advance front. So for now they waited.

You spelled the thread title incorrectly...

Thanks for the post Purplefood, the name Gray Night's is the branding I gave the Spacemarine version of my army (the Grey Knight's being the one with storm bolters on their wrists, the Gray Night's being the ones with Death watch shoulder pads and Deathwatch bolters. Hope that explains it a bit better.

Section 7 - Techmarine saga

“So how are you not dead?” Koali was snapped out of his reverie by a voice nearby. “Say again?” Koali uttered, his voice was mechanical and deep, it echoed in the hollow chamber where he was resting. “How is it that you are not dead? Due to the amount of injuries you’ve had…” The voice belonged to one of the imperial guardsmen that had come aboard the Cruiser ‘Intolerance’ when their attack had failed. “Quite the insolent one aren’t you?” Koali paused just long enough for the soldier to shift awkwardly “Is that any way to address a Techmarine of our most honorable Emperor?” The soldier looked up at the towering form of Koali and sneered “Oh wise and most venerable Techmarine of the honorable emperor, how is it you’re not dead?” Koali reach forward to grab the wretch and teach him some manners however the soldier ducked back quickly and moved behind one of the chambers support pillars.

“Look here you insignificant bag of flesh, I’ve lived for over three centuries, fought in hundreds of wars and have sustained countless injuries to protect the empire you so carelessly insult!” Koali’s metallic voice now was loud enough to attract the attention of others in the chamber, they came over to investigate the commotion. Noticing the small gathering the soldier quickly changed his tune “Look, I was only interested because with so much bionics you surely should have died long ago, yet here you are in front of us! And I want to know what happened”

Realizing that he would not catch the soldier with doing some serious damage to the surrounding area; Koali sighed, the sound came echoed out of his vox box sounding like an angry growl as he strode back to the alcove he was previously in, he then turned to face the small crowd who were waiting. “So, you want to know how I got to where I am, closer to the Omnissiah? Well stay a while and listen and you will know what I know”

Koali cleared his throat, “As you may know the Grey Knight; Brother Captain Stern, had combined the remnants of all loyal forces into a single army and ordered that all armor be painted grey to differentiate us from the chaos supporters who had turned during the beginning of our war.” What you may not know is that our early battles were small scale, a hit and run here, a surprise attack there, only a few units were ever engaged and it was just using bolters and other small caliber weapons. However it was noticeably escalating, I was moving more into a direct support role on the battlefield rather than an after battle support fixing broken armor and weapons. It was when we started to use the larger weapons and tanks that Stern knew something had been testing us, learning our tactics, finding our weaknesses.

I’ve survived due to my bionics, the first; my arm was grafted to me after an ambush while we were moving towards the capital palace. The attack was all a blur but I do remember this, the cultists moved quickly. They came at us from the sides with chainswords and laspistols, our amour withstood the low powered laspistols, but when they got in close the chainswords were just getting through, they kept on coming. I was pulled to the ground by four of them and while I was strangling the life out of one of them the other three leapt on my arm and started to saw, by the time we had cleared the ambush five of our marines were dead and over half of us were greatly wounded. I created my own arm and it’s served me well.

I received my next bionic, my legs, after the tank I was repairing was destroyed, I was repairing the main turret on one of the force’s razorbacks when our position was shelled by chaos marines. I was thrown from the top by a blast that wrecked the Razorback, fortunate as I was not to be killed, the turret followed me off of the tank, I ended pinned by my legs and it took four marines to move it off of me. By that time the damage had been done, Senior Techmarine Onox constructed my leg and I could not have asked for better.

I got my cranium bionics next, this one I do remember vividly however I understand this makes no sense having suffered a head wound. We were attacking a bastion held by approximately four score of chaos supporters, the environment had just turned and there was rain, lots of rain. I was tasked with close support of the Predator tank ‘Sularo’ it had taken a Krak missile from the battlements and one of its side sponsons was heavily damaged, I was working to fix the energy coils so it could rejoin the battle when the vehicle was rocked by another small explosion and I was thrown aside; my helmet ripped from my armor. As I was getting to my feet up a second larger explosion came from inside the tank, I was told later that a lucky round had penetrated the frontal armor and had detonated the tanks internal ammunition stores. The side sponson was ejected directly into my stomach and came to rest on my legs, Omnissiah be praised that due to my legs already having been made of metal I felt nothing however the sponson had pinned me down. Shrapnel from the ammunition inside imbedded into my head and I was knocked unconscious. The next thing I remember is being woken up aboard the Strike Cruiser by the Grey Knight apothecary ‘Vertz’ and being asked to complete the first four rites of remembrance. Onox and Vertz had both done their very best work and I have not noticed any decrease in my mental faculties.

Koali’s giant frame shifted and he looked at his mechanical fingers as he flexed them; attempting to recall how had had gotten his last gift from the Omnissiah. “Giving your life in the service of the Emperor is something we are all prepared to do, you and I know this to be true” Koali addressed the crowd with a fire in his one good eye “I was certain death had come for me when we were set upon by red skin demons. Our strike on the summoning ritual had started off well, we had advanced to the perimeter of the site; our suppressing fire blasting apart their defenders. There was however a static in the air which made the most of our electronics start to function at elevated levels; it made me feel very uneasy. Koali paused, formulating the next words and weighing them before speaking. “We were given the order to advance on the inner circle, as soon as we had stepped over the perimeter line we must have triggered their trap. Flames leapt up around us, the ground rent open and unspeakable horrors burst forth. I admit I was fearful of what was coming, however the rest of the Grey Knights showed no fear and charged the incoming masses; the fire only felled a few. I instructed the gun servitor with me to open fire into their ranks and the loading servitor to wait for them to reach us.

I remember emptying my bolter into one large red skinned demon as it bore down on me; my rounds did nothing but aid in making it angrier. When it tackled me it was like being hit by a Squiggoth, we wrestled but it ended up on pinning me to the ground its mass defied its lithe frame, it started to hit me with its large fists and with the sharp spikes it dented and cracked my armor with each hit. I looked into its black eyes and saw only a blackness and with its snarl I was under no mistake that it had an intense burning hatred for us mortals. Suddenly the loading arm from one of my servitors gripped the demons neck and pulled it backwards off of me. With this respite it gave me enough time to get my servo arm and grip the demons head in its clamps. I rerouted the power from my pack packs energy cortex to the servo arm in an attempt to crush the demons head, it popped like a balloon, horns and gore went everywhere.

Sadly the servitor didn’t last much longer and I watched its body getting pulled into quarters by a large pack of smaller red skinned demons these ones were much more squat and muscular than my previous kill. As they finished with my servitors and turned their gaze on to me, I quickly reloaded and rapid fired into the pack. I managed to take down three of them however they were almost without number and I was set upon and dragged to my knees. The smaller demons were strong, their arms rippled with muscle and sinew, they started to pull apart my broken armor and started to destroy what lay beneath, they ripped my helmet off I was struck down and everything went black. Koali stopped talking, the chamber was silent, and all eyes were on his red segmented armor then to his scarred face.
Koali continued “I was technically dead. I have no idea how they got my body away from the little demons or even what convinced the Emperor I was worth saving… All I know is that I am still here, still fighting for the sector and that I’m being looked out by something higher” Koali picked up the Thermoplas cover for his sarcophagus he was working on with his massive power fist and he pressed the cover to the front of his life support frame, the gaskets hissed and expelled gases as it formed a tight seal. “I also know that with this dreadnaught body, those little demons won’t stand a chance now!”

I read the first one last night. I thought it was pretty engaging and pictured the events quite clearly. I find your straightforward style quite refreshing, you don't labour your writing with pointless metaphors etc (meant as a compliment).
Some of the phrasing/sentence structure needs work but you definitely have a certain (to quote the french) 'i don't know what'. Will read the next parts asap and tell you what i think.

Koali was in the ships Mechanicus Forge; he had been repairing damages all afternoon and had made quite a lot of headway with the repairs. The rooms return cart was half full now and he looked over to the fresh batch of new arrivals, mainly small arms and a couple of heavy weapons. His work bench was currently clear so he moved the damages cart over to his bench and moved the top portion on to his desk and laid them out, He took his helmet off and placed it on the bench and started to sort through the damage tags. One of the ships scribes came to the door of the forge and addressed Koali.

“Sir, orders are in five minutes located in the war room, Brother Captain Stern has requested your presence”

“Very well, I’ll be heading over now” Koali responded, he wondered why he was being summoned to orders, this was not normal, only the most senior Techmarine on the ship were typically required. The Scribe gave the sign of the Aquila and disappeared down the hall. Koali finished reading the damage notes on the weapons and headed to the war room.

Koali was the second to last to enter, Stern followed behind him. The war room was half full, the officers and sergeants currently not on missions were gathered to receive their orders from Brother Captain Stern. The walls were a soft cream which looked out of place compared to the bland metallic table in the center of the room. Stern moved to the head of the table, he leaned on the table edge and started to read a data slate full of information. To his right sat the Senior Techmarine Onox who nodded at Koali when he entered. On Stern’s left was the command squads veteran sergeant Lokni, after him were the sergeant’s from the tactical squad one, two and four. Squad three was currently on deployment. The assault squad sergeant and Captain Lirael were on the opposite side of the table, with a spare seat between Lirael and Onox.

Not everyone was seated however, the forces Chaplain was standing under one of the eaves behind Stern, his eyes studying every marine in the room. It was customary that for these briefings the combat armor and weapons were not worn and every one bar Koali was attired in simple robes. Feeling out of place at the briefing Koali moved over to the spare chair near Onox and took the seat.

“Welcome brothers, I’ll try to be brief so we can get back into it, the first mission is to pick up the Governor from his palace planet side” Sterns voice had a twinge of disgust at having to issue this mission.

“Why in Terra has the governor gone planet side?” The words slipped out of Onox’s mouth as he shook his head. ”Doesn’t he realize that the entire planet is wracked in war!”

Brother Captain Stern looked at Onox silently regarding his outburst “it would seem..” he paused as he weighed his words carefully “That our esteemed guest, the Governor, is under the impression he is safe no matter where he is”

Onox shook his head yet again “well if he feels so safe why are we going to get him?”

“Because…” a deep voice interrupted

“… without the Governor, there will be no one to command this system when we rescue it” The voice came from the forces Chaplain.

“Then why is it our job to save him from himself?” Sgt Emorej of the Squad one interjected.

“I agree with you all, but as Sylekta has advised, without the governor, all the saving we do here will mean nothing without structure afterwards” Stern’s words were quiet and controlled.

Everyone in the war room went silent. Ever since the command was given to have all forces unit under a singular leader, there had been more than a few unhappy marines and they were more than happy to voice their concerns. It look like the only thing holding everything together was Stern’s leadership, of course is reputation surely didn’t hurt either. Stern moved back from the table and walked towards the Hologlobe, he stepped down into the semicircular pit and keyed on the globe. A map of the sector sprung into life on the wall and Stern zoomed in on the part of the sector where Couture was, after a few more key presses, blue travel lines intersected the planet and continued out of view.

“As you can see, this sector feeds both hardware and troops to the Sabbat worlds, without this planet those forces will be cut off completely”

Stern now turned to face the briefing table, his old face a stark contrast to the light grey of his robe.

“We will go and get the Governor, we will save him from himself. Once we have rescued this sector I feel a quick chat to the local inquisitor may be in order”

The majority of the room had a small laugh, the thought of the Governor being interrogated by an Inquisitor seemed fitting for what they were going to go through to get him.

“So how do we ‘convince’ the governor to come with us?” asked Vet. Sgt Lokni

Stern turned back to the hologlobe, he zoomed into the main city and highlighted two areas

“A night drop, three Rhino’s away from the city here” Stern pointed to a plain just north of the city “This will be followed up with an approach and ‘extraction’ on dusk, there is no convincing needed here brothers, just a simple snatch, grab then get out”

“Deployed forces Captain?” Sgt Cromat of Tac Squad two asked.

“This one should be relatively easy but I’m not about to go in under manned, two squads should do it” Stern looked around the room, extraction missions were quite boring and his Sergeants were all looking for more action.

“Are there any volunteers?” Stern asked

Sylekta deep voice spoke out “I’ll go. I need to get off of this cruiser at least once during this campaign, and who knows, perhaps my presence will cow the Governor into coming along quietly” he chuckled quietly at the thought.

“Great, your leadership may be needed if any of the brothers are looking disturbed” Stern thought back to the fact that many marines had lost their minds when planet side and started to fire on their own battle brothers, the presence of the chaplain should greatly help.

“In case the transports need repairs, I should go” Senior Techmarine Onox stated

Stern looked at Onox “Sadly brother I am in need of your services up here, I need you to work on fortifying one of our Nemisis Dreadknights, Elvale feels a little…. out in the open. Why not send Koali?”

“That is acceptable, Koali is more than capable enough for this. I look forward to seeing what I can do with the Dreadknight” There was a gleam in Onox’s eye that that having Koali summoned here was no mistake.

Great thought Koali, just when I was looking forward to getting some repair time on the damaged tanks I get sent on a fetch mission

No one else spoke, the sergeants were not keen to commit to the mission when they felt their squads were more valuable committing to a raid or to a destroy mission, not going to get the male.

Stern looked around the room “Well, I guess I will have to choose now”

Stern pointed at two Sergeants “ Sgt Jutan and Sgt Emorej both of your squads will accompany Sylekta and Koali on this one”

Both of the Sergeants were about to object however Stern’s gaze gave them second thoughts.

“Enemy forces?” Captain Lirael asked

Stern looked back at the hologlobe, he depressed three buttons and the image on the wall changed “At this point there is a high chance of local militia made up of traitor guardsmen and civilians. There have been reports of Chaos Space Marines as you get closer to the palace however as you are approaching at night this should be of no concern” as Stern mentioned the enemy forces an outline appeared on the wall of each one with a small layout of potential weapons and armor.

“Will we have Grey Knight support?” Sgt Jutan from Tac Squad four asked

Stern paused “…Currently the remaining Grey Knight forces are either deployed or are undergoing repairs, this one is without support”

“What if we encounter demons sir?” Jutan responded

“Then we kill them!” Emorej bellowed smashing his fist into the table. The others cheered their support, all except Jutan whose stare never left Stern.

“The mission details will be sent to squad sergeants for review. Prepare your squads, I want standard weapon load outs, be ready to deploy in one hour” Stern touched another button on the hologlobe and entered details into the machine.

Stern brought up another map, this one was of a weapons factory highlighted with at least twenty red triangles throughout the structure.

Koali could see that Emorej and Jutan were both unhappy they weren’t going to be able to fight in that battle.

“You four are dismissed now” Stern turned back to face them.

Koali, Sylekta, Emorej and Jutan all stood up. They gave the sign of the Aquila to Stern then left the room.

On the way down the corridor to the armament chambers Koali over heard the sergeants talking

“Seems a complete waste of time sending two squads to get the Governor” Jutan scowled

“Agreed, this could be left to Imperial Guard if you ask me” Emorej point out

“Brothers! We have been tasked with a mission. One that in the long term would see the Imperium grow stronger and more secure, is this not valuable?” the deep voice from Sylekta caused the two sergeants to stop in their tracks.

“Yes, I live to serve the Emperor and the Imperium. I live to see its enemies defeated to that it shall remain strong” Emorej put his fist against his chest making the sign of the Templar’s honor

“I too live to serve the Imperium and to see its enemies crushed” Jutan chimed in

“So what’s the problem then?” Sylekta asked them both, he looked into both their eyes and they both could not hold his gaze.

“There is no problem Chaplain” Emorej said looking at the chaplain’s boots

“Yes, no problem here either” Jutan said behind gritted teeth while looking at the wall.

Koali chuckled to himself, he had been to see the chaplain once before and he remembered the intense gaze the Chaplain had, it was as if the Chaplain could look right through him into his soul, it was a very intense moment. The thought of the two sergeants squirming under Sylekta’s gaze seemed funny for some reason.

Arriving at the Armament hall Koali plugged into the nearest data terminal and downloaded the mission details, he opened up the document then compared required hardware to that which was currently serviceable.

Inside the Cruiser’s database he could see that there were currently on board four serviceable Rhino’s and two serviceable Razorbacks. Whether or not the database was up to date was another matter entirely. Koali checked available space transports, there was a total of five Thunderhawk Transporters in the fleet, one was currently undergoing maintenance another two were out on deployment with the force, luckily the other two were available. Koali selected both and registered them against the mission log along with three Rhino’s, the acceptance nodes flashed on screen. He had at least forty five minutes before the Rhino’s would have to be loaded and there were plenty of repairs to complete on damaged equipment so he headed back to the Mechanicus forge.

---------------------

Koali was back in his element now, the workshop was well lit with high wattage bulbs set into the high ceiling, the north wall was covered in tools and pieces of metal all the tools had a red outline behind it making it easy to return tools to their proper places. The east wall had bins full of spare parts; the west wall had a long window which opened up to a long hallway with multiple targets at the far end. In the center of the room were four work benches arranged in to a square pattern, the walls were a bare metal. On Koali’s work bench were two faulty bolters, a power sword which was having power issues, a lascannon which had somehow fried its internal wiring, two bolt pistols with faulty safety catches and a missile launcher with a jammed rocket in the tube. In the damages cart there was plenty more however these items should take him the least amount of time to get repaired.

Koali stood in front of his bench looking at the weapons, the task at hand was never ending. He felt like he was always here and was always alone. The ship suddenly felt even more cold than usual. Still he was a Techmarine and a Space marine, the life we live is one that will end in service of the Emporer. He picked his head up, even though he might not get through all the repairs, his brothers depended on him so he would do all he could.
Koali uttered the prayer or repairs to the Ommisiah and picked up one of the damaged bolters, looking at its damage tag, this one was reported to jam frequently. As he was taught, the weapon should be checked in case there was a live round loaded so he pulled the bolt parts to the rear and inspected the chamber, there were no rounds in the chamber or in the magazine. He removed the magazine and returned the bolt parts back to its original position. Using his servo arm’s pin claw he removed holding pin which kept the red cover over the main body of the bolter. With this removed he twisted the barrel clockwise at the same time depressing the barrel holding lug and pulled the barrel out. He inspected the inside of the barrel and noted there was score at top, this could catch rounds but not jam it. His servo harness reached over and took the barrel out of his hand and hooked it up to his bench lathe, he tapped the lathes power button and the barrel started to spin faster and faster. Once it hit the right speed he pressed another button on the lathe and small arm extending through the center and started to re-plane the inside of the barrel. While this was happening Koali inspected the gas recoil parts, typically this would get damaged or blocked and this could cause jams. He pushed down on the top of the first gas piston and twisted it clockwise then pulled out the first chamber, he looked into the space that was left and he could see carbon build up blocking the exit port. “Poor weapon maintenance” Koali said out loud, he reached over and picked up one of the half full cleaning bottles and squirted in a small amount of the liquid in to the hole, using a small wire brush he gave the chamber a quick clean and the carbon fell away. He could now see into the next chamber and suspected it was equally full of carbon.

He replaced the first chamber and locked it into position. He then spun the weapon one hundred and eighty degrees and pushed in the second piston and turned it counter clockwise and removed the second chamber, this one was in the same state as the first one. After cleaning this chamber he put the gas piston back in. The barrel had been re-planed and he inspected the work, he was happy that it was clear. He put the barrel back onto the bolter and turned it anti clockwise till he heard a click. With this in place he refitted the outer covering and slid the locking pin back into place.

Normal drill detailed that after repairs weapons have to be test fired so Koali loaded one of the test magazines from under his workbench and headed over to the hole in the west wall, the test firing range. After repeating the rites of firing he squeezed off the clip into a target dummy and the bolter didn’t jam. Satisfied the repairs were sufficient he put the bolter onto the return cart near the entrance, he added a note onto the bolter to reprimand the poor weapon maintenance he had discovered and headed back to his work bench. Checking the clock that repair had taken him five minutes “Not bad” he thought, he had done quicker. He wondered what could have caused the owner of the bolter to miss maintaining his weapon, he knew the force spent eighty percent of their time planet side either fighting or moving. Koali felt a rush of excitement, he was going on a mission, there may not be any fighting but he was going to be deployed. He thought of Onox giving him a look when Stern had mentioned his name, the older Techmarine must have sensed that Koali was getting restless always being in the forge. Onox had always looked out for him, ever since he was chosen to attend training on Mar’s, he had even warned him about ‘The Mercuralogist” and to always bow your head when speaking to him.

He grabbed the other bolter, this one was reported to have the magazine continuously fall out when conducting battle drills. Interesting thought Koali bolters was not known to ever have this issue, he pulled the bolt parts to the rear and inspected the chamber, there were no rounds in the chamber or in the magazine. He removed the magazine and returned the bolt parts back to its original position. He spun the bolter over and inspected the magazine housing, there were no disconcerting flaws in the metal or release mechanism. He checked the front edge of the release slide there was scuff marks on the slider, there was also paint on the slider bar that’s odd though Koali. He held the bolter across his chest and checked clearance from his armor. Plenty there, certainly nothing that would hit the slider. Koali fitted the magazine and put it back on the bench, this one would take some more work to figure out. His thoughts went back to Onox again, since their arrival in the system Onox had been helping Koali and the young adepts with repairs, but in the last two months Onox had been called away time and time again to work on special projects under the command of Stern until it seemed he was never in the forge. While he felt happy that the older Techmarine was being recognized for his outstanding mind and being given opportunities to create new STC variants, he had felt a little left behind, someone who had to pick up the left overs. Koali shook his head, thoughts of personal gain were wrong and he knew it, one day when he was more experienced, He too would get a chance to prove what he was worth.


He grabbed both bolt pistols next, faulty safety catches were a common occurrence, the bars that slid across to block the trigger would bend if one of the battle brothers tried to fire with vigor without disengaging the safety first. Both the pistols were checked for rounds and their magazines removed, the next step was to dismantle to get the grip off the pistols, Koali pulled the bolt parts to the rear and locked them in place with a holding pin, he then turned the pistol over and using his servo arms pin claw he pushed a locking pin from the top of the grip, this allowed the grip to slide forward and it disengaged the firing pin at the same time. With the pistol grip free he was now able to unhook the bent bar from its slide, it took some wiggling and some force and he managed to extract the bar. He fetched two new bars from one of the parts bins on the far side of the workshop fitted the first new pin. He slid the safety leaver to safe and tried to pull the trigger, the bar successfully stopped the trigger from moving back. When trying to pry the second bar from the other grip Koali had to resort to a small welding torch to cut the metal as it was to warped to be pulled from its slide. After fitting the bolt pistols back together he loaded another two test clips into them and fired both of them down their practice range. Happy that the repairs were sufficient he put both weapons onto the returns cart, the repairs had taken him nine minutes. While being common place, Koali had to think what would cause a brother to try and pull the trigger without disengaging the safety leaver, he had heard some terrible tales from marines in the infirmary while grafting bionics on to recently removed appendages. Tales of unworldly creatures who’s claws could rend armor and who were impervious to bolter rounds. Koali stopped in front of his bench again, he had seen countless wars, but he had known the enemies, he understood what they were and how to kill them. If the tales were true would he be able to triumph over them?

Looking at the remaining weapons Koali had a choice now, dislodge the missile, repair the lascannon wiring, figure out the swords power issue or spend more time on the last bolter. He chose the Missile launcher as the next thing to work on, powering up the missile launcher the targeting lens flashed with two red blinks this indicated a jam or unsuccessful launch. “First things first, let’s deactivate this warhead” said out loud and he extended his servo arm down the barrel, using the micro lens attached to the end of the servo claw he located the stuck rocket, the red warhead with dual white strips around the head denoting the munition as a Krak missile. With a thought he had his servo arms claw attach its self to the end of the rocket and the Servo arm’s pin claw unwound the safety locking ring holding the warhead to the rocket, with this removed he retracted his servo arm with newly detached warhead. Setting the explosive aside Koali tipped the missile launcher on its front end and removed the four locking bolts which held the rear loading coil to the missile tube.

With this removed he had an unrestrained view of the rear of the missile. Now he had to remove the secondary fuel cell from the rocket in case it decided to ignite while he was getting the rocket removed. This one was relatively easy there were two indentations on the rear of the rocket, with both of these held down he was able to unscrew the exhaust end of the rocket. All that was left in the tube now was the outer shell of the projectile and one large sliver of metal which looked to be quite jammed between the missile and tube. “Ah ha, now I’ve got you” Koali said out loud.

“You’ve got who?” a voice asked.

“Just the cause of this weapon malfunction Onox” Koali said looking up, he had recognized Onox voice instantly and wanted to pay the older marine the respect of looking at him when he addressed him. Koali looked back done and continued to try and pry the small strip of metal blocking the missile.

Onox picked up the recently fixed bolter from the returns cart, he studied the note added to the bolter and looked up at Koali “Poor weapon maintenance?” he asked quizzically.

“Yes, whoever was responsible for that bolter had not cleaned the gas chambers in at least a day, I’d say that’s a dereliction of duty?”

“Fair enough, I’ll see to it that your observations are passed on” Onox replied back.

Onox moved over to Koali’s work bench and picked up the second bolter, he quickly studied the damage note, “the Magazine falls out? What on Mars?” That would never happen Onox said to Koali. “What have you checked out so far?”

“I know, I’ve looked at the release mechanism and there is no mechanical reason for the failure. I did see some paint on the release slide, however the clearance is standard so that one has me wondering” Koali looked up from the missile launcher again. Onox was looking at the damage tag again he raised his eye brows “This one was submitted by brother Kitalia, I recall he’s part of Sgt Jortlok’s squad isn’t he?”

“I think so, they change squads so much I’ve not had a chance to review the latest Orbat listing” Koali answered no listening intently to his old freind

Onox laughed “I think I know the cause of this weapon malfunction”

“Care to enlighten me Onox?” Koali’s reply was terse and he quickly wondered if he had missed something basic?

“I caught up with Jortlok’s squad while they were conducting battle drill before their deployment, Brother Kitalia has… adjusted his armor” Onox was chuckling now as walked over to the returns cart.

“Adjusted, what do you mean? How would this cause the magazine to continually drop from his bolter?” Koali was quickly losing his patience with this game. He knew Onox enjoyed dragging things out but this was getting ridiculous.

Onox put the bolter onto the returns cart next to the other bolter “Brother Kitalia has attached his old chapters shoulder shield to his belt buckle, similar to Brother Fuldo from Lirael’s command squad, the main difference is Fuldo is using my combi melta-plas, you remember that special weapon I was working on two weeks ago?”

Koali looked surprised “I do, so his new belt buckle is touching the release slider?”

“I bet its fine when he’s not aiming, but I suspect when he bring up the bolter his buckle is hitting the slider in the right spot” Onox replied

“Then why was this not diagnosed before coming to me, it’s a giant waste of my time to look into faults like that!” Koali’s temper was rising.

“Calm down Koali, there's a lot to do and I understand you have enough pressure to repair what you can. Let me speak to Sgt Jortlok about Kitalia you focus on repairing” Onox advised

Reciting the prayer of peace Koali felt his temper receding “Thank you Onox, that one was going to have me perplexed for a while” Koali didn’t like to admit when he was wrong but he was very grateful to have Onox take care of that one. It wasn’t the first time the Senior Techmarine had shown great insight, and certainly wouldn’t be the last time to advise on his musings to his younger counterpart.

Changing the tone Onox looked over at Koali “I actually came here to offer you my Tech Rhino for your morning mission. I was kind of hoping to take it for a drive, however Stern has given me an opportunity to work on a Dreadknight and there’s no one else I’d trust to use it”

A smile appeared on the older Techmarines face at the thought of getting his mechandrites on the venerable wargear. “You know that Rhino is large enough to fit Terminator armour. I bet Chaplain Sylekta would be most please if he was able to deploy with his more regal armor. You could be able to get another two bodies in there as well, will you do me the honor and use it?” Onox leaned on one of the spare workbenches while looking at Koali.

“Onox, I’m speechless. I know that your Rhino is quite special to you and you’ve done a lot of the work on it yourself, The honor would be all mine if I could use it” Koali was taken aback by the his offer.

“Don’t get me wrong Koali, if you break it, I’ll make you my personal servitor” Koali couldn’t tell if Onox was being serious or joking around, he decided to go with the former. “I’ll take care of it Onox, you have my word”

“Then it’s done, I’ll update the mission register to include my Rhino” Onox made the Mars sign of brotherhood and walked out of the room.

Well that was unexpected Koali thought as he back to extracting the missile housing from the launcher. He remembered when he first joined the Brotherhood on Titan, all the assistance he had received as well as the tools and wargear he had been handed from Onox. This additional gift, even if only temporary, made him feel slightly more valued.

a good read,am still reading and will have more to say then,for now; exalted!