Happy Imperial Citizen
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(Set before the last piece, Dina is attached to Goren’s 5 man squad as they wander the halls of an astartes strike cruiser, securing it and its crew after it was captured moments before. Some of the crew won’t go quietly)
The team moved through the ship clearing it of loyalist filth, Goran at its head, the mortal sorceress in the center flanked by two of his men on each side. They’d used this formation before, he was impressed by its brutal efficiency, she would sense targets in hiding and Gorans warriors would do the rest. They cleared section by section, rooms of hiding mortals and scattered astartes were pacified violently, always violently, he preferred Jiroz’s flamer or Hes’ plasma gun to conserve bolter rounds. Ahead of them, the screams of the sorceress’s demon hounds could be heard. The lupine creatures had crimson fur that seemed to emanate a dark smoke, their horned heads containing maws of razor sharp teeth and glowing red eyes that unsettled even Goren. They “scouted” ahead, clearing the chaff as Goren and his team advanced, anything worth fighting would kill the hounds and then be confronted with five astartes and a human witch.
“Wait.” Dina said quietly, the squad halted weapons coming up to stand ready.
“What is it?” Goren asked over the vox. Dina looked around hesitant. She felt a presence but couldn’t place it, she looked at the walls around them, then ahead, then behind them down the corridor.
“Something’s here, I can’t find….” She didn’t finish as the wall three meters ahead of them exploded. Stepping by through the breach came two loyal astartes, huge hulking figures in what Dina understood to be terminator armor, the huge suits were almost impenetrable. They stood tall and proud, one holding a huge hammer and shield, the other a sword sheathed in lightning and a what looking like bolter/flamer weapon.
“Heretics! Prepare to die in the name of the Emperor!” The sword wielder roared through the grill of his helm. The one raised his shield and advanced while the other raised his bolter and loosed a withering hail of fire. The teams communication became shouting as traitors died. Goren flung himself to the side as a dozen bolt rounds reduced Chijen to a messy lump of organs and shattered ceramite. Jiroz stepped forward to take his place but was met by the hammer and shield holder. Dina tried to step back as Jiroz raised his power axe but the hammer met him before he could get his guard up.
Dina’s ears felt like they had exploded from the tremendous thunder clap of that impact. The concussion was enough to send her flying backward, Goren was staggered as he tried to get up, Hes and Rondal were knocked over, Jiroz was reduced to broken torso splattered against the far wall, his axe clattering to the ground. Dina tried to scramble to her feet but her left side had slammed against the wall and she’d broken several bones, the pain made movement difficult.
Goren got to his feet, his blade active and electrified , he swung for the first terminator but the marine got his shield up in time, the energy fields of blade and shield clashed and the storm
shield won the exchange, repelling the power sword even with the weight of an astartes behind it. “Get down!” Hes called as he came from the side plasma gun humming and spitting bolts superheated death. Goren dropped and watched the bolts meet the shield and dissipate, the loyal astartes threw his considerable weight behind the shield and charged forward slamming into the traitor. Hes fell to the ground as the terminator loomed above. Goren looked up just in time to see the thunder hammer come down on Hes’s chest plate, the armor that had withstood countless battles for thousands of years caving in as if it were simple plastek, he saw his battle brothers life indicator fade from his helmets display as the shockwave hit him and knocked him against the wall again. Rondal tried to get up but took a dozen bolts to his armor, once they detonated he stopped moving, leaving Goren and Dina.
A howling roar came from down the hall Goren smiled through blood stained teeth, the witches hounds…they’ll occupy the terminators for a minute or two, the crimson furred beasts ran howling into the fray, both tackling the first terminator as he missed with his bolter, once he was on the ground one leapt onward to meet the hammer wielding terminator. “For the emperor!” The standing terminator called meeting the challenge. Swinging his hammer with fury the imperial was surprised at the big beats agility when the demon hound suddenly ducked low as the hammer passed overhead and snapped at an armored leg. Unnatural teeth found purchase and ceramite cracked against its jaws causing the terminator to step back against the wall. Another deafening thunderclap followed as the next swing caught the demon canine mid torso, the beast damaged beyond its ability to maintain itself through the explosive release of energy. Its return to unlife was sudden, violent, and incredibly painful.
A gout of warp conjured fire sprung from the outstretched hand of the human witch as she lay on the floor, her face a mix of pain and desperation. She held the hulking marine back, it was a token gesture at best, Dina hadn’t used fire before, only recently learning she could conjure it, the force behind it was greater than the heat. Goren took this chance, while his enemy was distracted he scrambled to his feet. Grabbing his fallen brothers power axe and threw himself at the shield bearer. With a heavy two handed swing Goren shouted his defiance at the loyalist dog while his shield was occupied with the fire, catching the terminator just below his chest. The axe bit deep slicing through the armored torso with the will and hate behind Gorens swing. Three bolts lodged in his left arm as his swing connected, pain followed as they all detonated, shredding the traitors left arm. The intensity of it exploded through him but he was an astartes, he could push beyond it, his will was greater than the pain. The loyal dog shouted a curse but Goren didn’t hear it. With his one good arm he held the axe in place and threw himself against the flat end of the weapon, the powered blade finished its cut, severing precious life maintaining organs and ending the life of the one terminator.
Fire washed over him from down the hall. Goren was about to curse the human witch but it came from the wrong direction. Down the hall the other terminator was expending the promethium charge from his weapons underslung flamer. The heat was intense, Goren growled as the open nerves of his ruined arm seared in the heat. In a moment he felt them cool. Behind him Dina had managed to get to her feet, braced against the wall she held her hand out, warp magic holding the flame back until it abated. The terminator had his sword lodged in the torso of the remaining demon hound, his arm out, pointing the bolter at the remaining traitors.
Goren wanted to laugh. His men were dead but for all this loyalist dogs effort, he was likely going to kill a one armed traitor and a human witch, claiming it was a glorious and honorable battle. Goren found that funny enough to last him a century. With a growl he wrenched the axe free of the first terminator and held it in his good arm. He heard Dina’s voice in his head.
“Go”.
Goren charged down the hall, bolts rained against him but non found purchase on his armor, behind him Dina was focusing her effort shielding him and holding the demon hound in reality, using its body to pin the sword in place.
“You will all meet the Emperors mercy!” The terminator called, his vox grill amplifying his voice to deafening levels. Goren only howled in response as his axe came down, the bigger foe side stepped the blow but Goren had anticipated that, he spun his body and with a wicked upward cut sliced off the sword bearing arm. With relief Dina could loose the hound and it squealed in pain as it dissolved back to the warp. Beyond her the two one armed men duel. Goren brought the axe back down attempting to cut the other arm from his opponent but the blade met only air and hit into the deck plate. He took a heavy knee to the torso that lifted him off his feet. When he looked up his eyes met the nozzle of a bolter. For a heartbeat he waited for the flash of his death but it never came. Back down the hall Dina was screaming with the effort holding the loyal terminator still, she rarely dominated minds but this would’ve taken all her strength at her strongest, her entire body felt like it was tearing apart with the effort of holding the astartes, she could taste blood in her mouth and feel it trickle from her eyes and ears. Goren acted immediately, bringing his axe up and back down on the terminator clad warriors head. The power field enabled the axe to cut down to the terminators chest ending him. Silence greeted Goren when the heavy armor fell to the deck, his breathing was all the sound he heard. He looked back down the hall to the witch, she was slumped on the deck, bloody and unmoving. He marched to her faster then he intended. Kneeling down to check her to see if she was alive, barely but alive. She groaned as he turned her over to face him, her blood shot eyes opened. “I would’ve been…disappointed, if you died.” She gave him a weak smile.
-One week later-
Dina took her time walking to the mechanicus. As the grand door creaked open she saw cables seem to come alive and move, almost slither up each other, along various surfaces and the gantry overhead. The room was tall and deep, low light revealed broken pieces of armor and machines, a collection of weapons of every kind, some dissembled, others looking like they were half put together. “Greetings mortal I-9328.” A mechanical voice spoke to her like it was coming from a broken vox speaker above her. She had to admit the magos moved in quickly. Transferring from the Harbinger to this newly named Blood Shrike.
“I’ve come for what is mine.” She spoke clearly and slowly, this room made her nervous, she preferred the cold simple plasteel of the rest of the ship, even the servitors company on the lower levels of the Harbinger was less unsettling, this room seemed like the very metal was alive. She turned hearing footsteps, a bipedal servitor walked slowly, carrying a box in the large claws that were its arms. Metallic scraping made her turn again and Orphax descended from a monitor station almost thirty meters up. After thousands of years of modifications, his torso was still in the shape of a human but his lower half was entirely tubes, wires, and snaking mechandrites dozens of meters long of varying thickness. He vocalized some machine code and the servitor brought the object between them. The box opened revealing ceramite armored arm. The Magos’s robotic arms ran over the bulky armor piece.
“The shield has been melded to the fist appropriately, it’s power core will feed off the power pack to power both devices.” His partially broken vox sputtered. She asked him once why he never repaired it, his reply was he prefers binary and only relies on gothic when communicating with the un-enlightened, those he considered lesser beings. “Our trade remains satisfactory?” He asked looking at her expectantly. She looked over the device, a ceramite armored arm ending in a bulky powerfist, the forearm was attached to the stormshield of the terminator who killed half of Gorens squad brothers. They killed him and his companion but it cost Goren one of his arms.
After the battle the marines on the Harbinger informed her she helped kill the loyalist terminators so she had a claim on the equipment by right of combat. Most were impressed by the feat and none would challenge the claim if she wished to make it. She commissioned the magos to make something for Goren with the shield, hoping this would suffice to replace the arm he lost, if it wasn’t for him and the others she’d have been dead several times over. She never had an eye for art but she had to admit it was a beautiful piece, simple, effective, and in its own way elegant in its simplicity. The shield was rectangular with raised ornamentation depicting some great battle king before she was born, its Aquila had been replaced by the war bands sigil almost seamlessly. Orphax binary 158 was one of three “artists” among her lords magos, she was lucky he chose to board the “Shrike” when it was absorbed into the rest of the fleet.
“It is satisfactory.” She said. “Have it sent to Goren please.”
“Astartes IW-63.925, alternate identifier, Goren… compliance.” Orphax replied, the magos turned to the servitor and sent it off with a blurt of machine code. Their business concluded he shot upward back to the ceiling, returning to his work. Dina turned on her heels and left the mechanicus. She marched through the ship wanting to find her chamber and lay down, her wounds had mostly healed but mortal medicine on the fleet was limited, walking still pained her. When she reached her hall she found a hulking astartes warrior beside her door. Herzz, Lord Tor’s second in command and she dare say, his friend. She slowly made her way to the door.
“My lord.” She said giving him a slight bow.
“Witch.” He said in return almost sounding amused. She let the insult slide not having the strength to be sassy to her lord commanders number two. She placed a palm to the door and it slid open, inside her new chamber sat a small trunk with her meager belongings and a rack of armor…but she didn’t own any armor. Rounded plates of carapace armor were polished to a mirror shine, solid black with the red sigil of the warband on the shoulders. She was dressed in ragged robes and a dirty serfs uniform, she always had been since she was ‘liberated’ from the emperors service. “You did a great deed, no simple mortal psyker could stun a trained astartes warrior even these younger weaker versions of us.” He said before she could even ask where it came from. “Tor decided you earned this at least.” He said stepping away from her door. “Well done Witch.” He said, she only stared at the armor, unable to form a response, his footstep’s disappeared down the hall. Before, being called a witch would offend her, now it didn’t seem so bad.
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