[Dark Talon]Legion Background and Fluff

Just to try and get some movement on the whole project I'm chucking my name into the pit inregards to writing (in part anyway) the fluff for the legion.

Fluff: something along the lines of fell during the Babab uprising. Legion had already been in trouble for not protecting a saint (she got killed), sent on a crusade to absolve themselves of guilt in the Emporers eyes, became increasingly angry with the lack of forgivness by the rest of the Imperuim (never saw a divine sign saying they were forgiven). Then came across the Astral Claws and their little uprising. Saw the Imperuim not being fair to them etc, finally lost the plot and threw their lot in with the rebels and away they went.

Combat Doctrine: Use surgical strikes by Raptor teams to take out key objectives before dropping a main force to engage the enemy forces and terrorise the population. Use all deamons/cultists shamelessly. Have a particluer hatred (and take delight in killing) for Preists, Inquistitors, Chaplins etc as they see them as ambassadors of the Emporer that never forgave them. They hate Saints even more due to it was the fault of one of them that they fell from favour. They are kinda like a cross of Word Bearers and Night Lords. They favour the use of Close Combat and short range fire fights as it allows them to see the enemy and personally punish them for thier (perceived) betrayal of the Chapter.

Anyway thats just what I came up with - with the permission of the boss-people (thats you mods) - I'll get to work on expanding it.

Just as a little side note a little part of me wants to make them followers of Malal and have them hating Chaos just as much as the Imperium but since Malal has kinda gone out of favour with the rest of the 40k universe it probably wouldn't be a good idea. But the thought is that after they turned to Chaos the rest of the legions rejected them as being pathetic, weak etc so they started to attack anybody they could find which didn't really make the other legions like them any better. Malal then started wispering to them. They then turned to him as he was the only one left who would take them in. On the up-side it allows them to fight absolotaly anybody they want. Malal is kinda 'older' and the legion may not be accpeted by people because of this, plus deamons could be kinda weird to use. Malal is cool though and it will certainly make us stand out from everybody else.

OK I have read it now. I like it dude. Couple of continuity errors in there but those are easily fixed. Would you mind if I expand upon Anadrius's decision making process in changing sides? I just feel it could be longer and more in-depth. Your conversation and style of writing is great as is your actual ability to tell the story.

One thing though and this may just be me though. We should really make our chapter really our own. You know make it so that our chapter doesn't rely on any of the established fluff set up by books. The reason I think this is because we have some really talented people around here (which Heph has perfectly demonstrated) and I feel that we can fully pull off our own Abnett in creating a Crusade for ourselves.

We can just use the idea of the Blood Pact and repackage it. Or even have them as a rogue force within the Sabbat Worlds campaign sometimes the majority of the time working with the Blood Pact, sometimes not, (can always work with the Loxatl as they are mercs themselves). The base idea of having them captured and being slowly corrupted is great though.

I'd still kinda like to have Malal involved. I feel that it would be cool to have the Dark Talons getting captured, corrupted, betray the Imperuim and turn to Chaos only to find that the big head-honcho guy and Chaos Legions think they are weak, and abandon them to their fate, having served their purpose. Malal contacts them. They disappear and come back and soon show the Chaos powers and the Imperuim the error of their ways.


But as I said thats just me. If you guys don't want to use the Malal idea then tell me and I'll stop bringing it up right now.

Great work again Heph and I'll wait for your word until I start the expansion on that small part.

Ok so here is what I have done to Heph's work - hopefully he won't be too offended. It's not finished - only about half way through Hephs work and I have to add a large paragraph about the exact details about the corruption. I also still have to come up with the characteristics of the Dark Hands pre heresy and the actions of the chapter and Malal (which will be easily removed if the vote doesn't approve it). So here it is:

The History Of The Dark Talons - Part One

Written by Hephesto and Jacobite

(Original idea belongs to Heph so all credit to him)


-PROLOGUE-


The war had lasted for nearly three decades now and for thirty years the forces of the Imperium had been desperately attempting to push back the legions of the Archenemy from the Sabbat Worlds. Initially the countless Imperial forces under the command of Warmaster Slydo made good progress, conquering several worlds and even disposing of the renegade archon Nadzybar. But then the tide of war took a turn for the worse, a new leader rose among the many chaos magisters that led the various armies in the region.

The new Archon, Urlock Gaur, not only proved to be a capable strategist, he brought about a major turn around in the traitors that held the planets of the Khan group in their firm grip. His new lieutenants proved to be of far superior quality than those that had served under Nadzybar. The likes of Anakwanar Sek, Enok Innokenti and Shebol Red-Hand bringing the Imperial advance to a stand still, with every world, every settlement turning into long, brutal ground battle. To make matters worse many of these new magisters brought with them new highly disciplined and trained troops. Many of them equal or even superior to the Imperial Guard, among them Gaur’s personal army the Blood Pact and the sadistic Son's of Sek.

In the hopes of breaking the back of the Archenemy’s forces the Imperium poured more and more troops into the Khan system, attempting to not only defeat them on the battle field but also to cut the supply lines from deeper in the Sabbat Worlds Cluster. One of the many efforts under taken by the Dark Hands Chapter. Their object was to flank the Sabbat worlds and then make a small warp jump behind the enemy lines to take out several worlds which acted as staging posts for the Blood Pact and Tratoir Legions. When these Worlds were liberated they could be re-enforced and used as a staging post for the Imperuim's forces to not only push deeper into the Sabbat Worlds cluster but also to double back and attack the enemy from the rear. It was a ambitious strategy especially given that Warmaster Macroth had only been in command for a matter of months. The first planet to be assaulted was Kabal III, it would soon become the site of the Chapters shame, though it would take them 10 years and another planet, Halfite Major, before they became aware of it.


-OF FALLEN BRETHERN AND VENGEANCE-


Casualties had been enormous, nearly all the guardsmen at observation post X-82 Alpha lay dead in the bloody, muddy trenches surrounding the vast radar dishes and communication bunkers. If it had not been for the arrival of the Space Marines of the Dark Hands Chapter the attacking Blood Pact troops would have re-taken the station, sending even more information to their treacherous masters hiding on the planets on the edge of the system.

Striding through the mud brother Anadrius inspected the remaining troops. He could see the fear in the eyes of the survivors and he knew just as well that they would not be able to withstand another attack. Twenty Space Marines and a handful of wounded guardsmen were no match for another regiment of veteran Blood Pact troopers. All that rested them was to sell their lives as dearly as possible...and get as much information out of ‘the prisoner’ as they could.

As the door of the communications bunker closed behind him Anadrius removed his helmet and observed as Apothecary Diganus began to removed the sealed helmet of the prisoner. How this traitor had managed to survive several plasma shots to the chest still illuded Anadrius. Though he was wearing power armour he should be dead, a pile of smoldering ceramite. His armour was adorned with all manner spikes and sigils, its dark red and black (or whatever colour we end up with) contrasted by the gold decorations. Most disturbing were his vambraces, each of them ending in wickedly barbed and seemingly scared claws. The right one alined with tiny extremely sharp tubes, which the traitor had used with great skill during the battle, the gore of marine and guardsman alike still slowly leaking from the tubing.

His helmet resembled a grimassing face, much like the grotesque facial masks worn by the Blood Pact. As the Apothecary removed it the gathered marines watched with resentment in their mind, expecting the vilest of creatures to inhabit this defiled piece of ancient armour. But the face that was revealed shocked them more than any warped mutant ever could. With a grin on his face the traitor turned to Anadrius and in a voice dripping with contempt spoke:

‘What’s wrong Anadrius, don’t you recognize your fellow battle-brother? Or is your memory so short lived,...old friend?’

Though his face was heavily scared, Anadrius indeed recognised the man he had once called brother. A man who had served with him through uncountable battles, who he believed to have been dead for over a decade. Still shocked, he slowly turned to Apothecary Diganus and nodded him to continue. What followed were three hours of interrogation, or what any civilised man would call it, torture. The heretic withstood everything the Apothecary unleashed on him until he once more sneered at Anadrius,

‘So you want to know, do you? Do you really...brother? Fine, I’ll tell you. But not because of this feeble attempt at persuasion, but because we’ll all be dead before the end of the day....and because I still owe you. Remember Kabal III? remember how you and the others left us while you fled?


-THE PAST RETURNS TO HAUNT TO PRESENT-


Over 20 years had passed since that dark day in the history of the Dark Hands chapter, on Kabal III they had fought the most costly of battles. Though the Imperial Invasion Force had consisted of six full Space Marine companies, two regiments of Imperial Guard and a Armoured Company, the world they faced was the major transport route for Blood Pact into the Khan Sector, to make matters worse Intelligence had been wrong, the Space Marines had expected minimal resistance, instead they encountered over fifteen Brigades of highly trained and well armed Blood Pact. What should have been a straight forward invasion, liberation and reinforcement quickly turned into a massacre, the Imperial Forces out numbered nearly 20 to 1. The entire planet of Kabal III took up arms against the Imperial Forces.

The Third company and portions of the First and Eighth companies made landfall in the Arganus Secundus hive lead by First Captain Retrave, embarking in the middle of the hidden enemy forces concentrated there. The Fourth Company under the command of Librarian Tanthus landed in the trenches outside the hive and began to fight their way in while the Sixth and Seventh companies backing up the Guard regiments and Armoured Company as they focussed on other objects across the Planets surface. As soon as the Imperial Forces landed strange activity began in orbit, unpredicted warp activity began to make communication difficult. Within hours radio contact between the fleet and the would be liberators were severed, leaving many of the pockets of Space Marines in the hive stranded and most certainly doomed. Over the course of the next two weeks fighting continued across the planet, with the Imperial forces slowly, but surely being pushed back to a ravine which had been designated as the fall back location.

The only success story came from the Fourth Company who broke through to their brothers inside the Hive. After meeting up with the rest of the Dark Hands the forces continued into the Hive via a tunnel which they believed would lead them to the Plasma Rectors deep within the Hive Core, if they could shut them down then the assembly lines supplying the Chaos forces would grind to a halt. The rest of the Imperial forces were forced to start a tactical retreat however but this soon turned to an all-out route of the Guard Regiments once they realised the extent of heretic Blood Pact forces. It took the lives of half of the Marines of the Sixth Company to prevent a complete massacre. When the commanding officers realised just how numerous the enemy was, the commander in charge, Lieutenant General Qalan, ordered a retreat from the planet.

Unwilling to leave any Marines behind, alive or dead, the Dark Hands made desperate raids into Arganus Secundus hive hoping to find survivors of the First, Third, Fourth and Eighth company. All they found were scores of dead guardsmen and traitors. Of the tunnel that the Space Marines had gone through there was no sign. Trying to raise the lost companies on the radio yielded nothing. Swearing vengeance for the spilled blood of their brethren the Dark Hands reluctantly withdrew from the planet. Of the nearly 500 hundred marines that came to the planet, only 100 left alive. To make matters worse only one body was recovered from the blasted, smouldering ruins of Hive Arganus Secundus. When it became clear that they couldn’t wait any longer due to both the proximity of the Warp Activity (which was fast becoming a full scale Warp Storm) and the approaching enemy forces the last Thunder Hawks returned to a remnants of the fleet in orbit, leaving one last radio broadcast to their lost brethren. The last message was:

“ Brothers, if any of you are still living here this cry. We cannot stay, the magics of the enemy grow near and we must go. We have waited for as long as we can. We will avenge your fate brother! May the Emperor be with you. Die with honour. You are on our own”


End Of Part One
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Any problems with what I've done Heph?

What do the rest of you think?

I'll probably continue work on it later tonight or tomorrow - first I have to make a order to BL

Another update, smaller this time - I'm getting there lol. Again Heph I apologise if you don't like it. I've added quite a bit and rewrote a fair portion, I'm not sure how to use the Guar yet so thats why that character is a bit random and ambiguyous in this peice

The History Of The Dark Talons - Part Two

Written by Hephesto and Jacobite

(Original idea belongs to Heph so all credit to him)



-SCARS TO BE WORN WITH PRIDE-

And now, two decades later, Anadrius stood face to face with one of those who’s death he had sworn to avenge.

Breathing heavily, covered in blood, most of it his own, the traitor continued;

‘You and the others left us there to die, you could have stayed - you had the man power, you could have raised the planet! But like cowards you ran while we fought on. We saw you go!. That’s right we had completed our mission and were heading to relieve you. Our radios were being interfered with, we had heard your transmissions, but we couldn’t reply and we got to the drop zone just in time to see your Thunder Hawks fly off. We screamed into our radios for you to return untill our voices were raw. You left us so we fought on, for six months we fought. By some cruel twist of fate the last message you sent to us was constantly ringing in our ears, even when the vox finally failed it still could be heard over the wind. It was mocking us, taunting us with your cowardice. One by one we fell and as each of us fell we began to see the truth. We began to see that the Emperor was a lie!. Everything we had been taught was false. All the while we were being slowly ripped apart by those Loxatl broods and Blood Pact troopers. I know not how much time went by until I myself was shot down, all I know is that it damn well hurt. Turns out those reptilian mercenaries had instructions to capture, not kill, as many of us as they could. And though many of them died in the process they’d managed to maim then capture nearly all of us. I had half my face ripped up and my left arm torn clean off by a Loxatl claw in a brawl on the eastern side of the Hive, before passing out from a combination of pain and shock maul blows to the head.

When I awoke I found myself heavily restrained on a slab of stone on board of a transport vessel that seemed to be in full descent. My armour had been stripped from me and I was dressed in a rough spun smock. From a small amount I could turn my head I could see that I was in a vast hold and surrounded by my brothers, some of them I had seen shot and maimed before my very eyes. Now they seemed to be in a perfect state of health bar scaring. I could feel my left arm again.

After it landed we were marched from the ship’s hold into the blistering heat of whatever hellhole of a planet we were on. Under it’s three suns, we were driven like cattle, prodded, directed and driven through the desert to a great and alluring city that greeted us as we made our first steps on this unknown world. Restrained we marched for days. For every one of us there were at least five Blood Pact with shock mauls to guard us. On the first day alone six brothers were executed for killing one of the Blood Pact guards. They needn’t have bothered, both the restraints and the dangers of the desert proved very effective in prevent escape. That same day five others drowned in the quicksand created by some monstrous desert scorpion as they attempted to escape.

When we finally arrived in the city we were not alone, nearly one hundred other marine captives had been led there. They came from every chapter imaginable. What followed goes beyond your darkest and most frighful imaginations.....brother’

He said smiling painfully to Anadrius, angered the marine responded.

‘We are no longer brothers, you have picked up weapons against the rightful champions of the Emperor. A deed that can never be forg......’

‘Yes, yes treachery, damnation, fallen from the light...spare me the sermon Anadrius. You know better than to blindly follow every word of your overzealous Chaplains, what happend to the intelligent, independent man I once knew’, the traitor replied spitefully..

Stepping forward Anadrius grapped the traitor by the neck, slowly lifting him into the air. Hatred burning in his eyes he thightened his grip until Apothecary Diganus stepped in.

‘Restrain yourself brother, this Heretic may yet provide use with more information. I assure you he will feel the Emperor’s wrath before this day is past and it shall neither be swift or merciful.’

Reluctantly Anadrius released the heretic, the Apothecary again restraining the prisoner to the chair before injecting him with a mixture of stimulants that would keep him alive for a few more hours. Taking a deep, heavy breath the traitor continued in a slowly weakening voice;

‘Always the follower.......right brother? Very well I’ll continue, for month we were imprisoned beneath the city. Alone in a cell all I heard for that first month was screams of pain, anger and your ever present radio transmission, until they finally came for me. My body, my very mind became a shrine to torture. My flesh a canvas upon which with violent brushes the colours of pain and despair were painted. They used everything against us: pain, pleasure, starvation, daemon fire… and always accompanied by those words. At the beginning I figured I would be able to resist whatever my so-called captors could throw at me. And I did, for a while....until the hunger and pain started to take its toll.

I know not how long I spend in that place, nor do I care to find out. All I know is that I survived and I was once more led to the surface. There I finally saw the now broken and brused faces of the others. There were about two hundred of us. Two hundred out of the five that had been led to the cells. Decades of training and warfare seemed to have been washed away and for the first time I felt disgust for myself and them. We were nothing but shattered husks of warriors, no master, no purpose. Despite our prayers and training we were breaking.......giving up.

We were led, and suprisingly not driven, to what seemed to be the palace of whatever Imperial governor once ruled over this world centuries ago. Its splendour contrasted heavily with the cell and torture chambers that had housed me for a long time. We shuffled, I would like to say marched but most of us could barely walk up straight let alone march. So we shuffled, through giant hallways and galleries accompanied by our guards and everywhere soldiers stood in dark red kit with gnarling golden face masks...staring at us, with what almost felt like envy. We were all forced into a great cavern, a holding cell. I saw many of my old comrades: First Captain Retrave, Librarian Tanthus but not a single one of us said a word to each other. The guards moved amongst us, pushing us into groups. Every now and then a group would be lead away.

After several days my group was pushed out and directed down a long tunnel. We finally came to a great gathering hall, what I can only imaging once held the goverment of this world. Scattered throughout the hall lay the decaying reminders of the Imperium’s abandonment of this place. And there we stood a dozen wounded, nearly broken Space Marines. Amongst my group was Librarian Tanthus, a Space Wolf easily recognisable thanks to his fangs, two Iron Drakes with their wyrm tattoos and a finally Imperial Fist, still trying to look as arrogant as ever. Tanthus’s eyes were blood red and I could only guess at what sort of treatment he had. The remaining members of the group were all Dark Hands.

At the centre of the room, on a high throne sat a massive man clad in ancient deformed power armour. Slowly turning towards us he spoke with a voice that both chilled and intrigued me. He spoke to us with respect, honoring our dead since the beginning of the war. Proclaiming us the be the great, the strongest of the prisoners. We were told that we and the one hundred and fifty others that had survived the dungeons would now receive our reward... if only I had knew then what I know now.....

He spoke to each of us, calling us by name, knowing things most of us had nearly forgotten. We and we alone would be given the honour to stand before somebody called the Val-Gaur, for our strength and honour we would be given the choice none had been given before.

Upon his command twelve suits of ornate power armour were brought in, each of them more intricate than the last, but all of them bearing hidious clawlike vembraces.

We were given the choice, join the Val-Gaur as his trusted and rightfully feared Chosen or fight him and die in honorable combat. The Val-Gaur turned out to be one of Urlock Gaur’s most trusted advisors and Generals. He could offer us all we ever wanted. The armour called to me, it sung out promises of death, revenge and riches. It promised me power.

We were given the choice, join the Val-Gaur as his trusted and rightfully feared Chosen or fight him and die in honorable combat. The armour called to me, it sung out promises of death, revenge and riches. It promised me power.

One of the Iron Drakes was first to decide, head held high he strode across the floor towards the stairs to the raised platform and with quick steps he made his way up towards the seated man. A guard attempted to block his path but with a sweep of his hand the Iron Drake wrenched the stave from Blood Pact’s fist, this was quickly followed by a kick that sent his body flying through the air. Twirling the staff experimentally the marine swung it towards the armoured figure’s head. A bladed gauntlet shot up and blocked the blow before the other hand punched forward and sliced into the Astartes abdomen before ripping up and out in a spray of blood and gore. With a gurgle the Space Marine fell to the floor before rolling to the foot of the stairs in a smear of red.

A Dark Hand was next to make his choice, he took a step forward and made his way towards the power armour. The Imperial Fist, seeing this, charged forward with a wordless scream and threw himself onto the back of the marine, bringing him to the ground. The two began to fight, great swinging blows of their fists impacting on each others heads. Several guards made moves to intercept but the figure on the Throne stopped them and continued to watch the combat below. Another Dark Marine charged forward to help the Imperial Fist. The power armoured man made no attempt to stop him. I recognised the new combatant, he had been a Chaplin in the Eighth Company. It was at that point that Tanthus stepped forward. With a look up at the throne and a outstretched hand he immolated the struggling figures with purple fire. The room became filled with smell of burning flesh and the sound of crackling could be heard. The enthroned man just smiled a sinister smile and continued to stare down at us. Tanthus walked towards the armour and this time no one made to stop his path.

It was at this moment that those of us still in line began to see the truth. We began to see that the Emperor was a lie. Everything we had been taught was false. I hated the Imperium for abandoning us on Kabal, that I hated all you who had betrayed us and left us to die. I realised that there was no way out, that Chaos was the only true answer. That Chaos was the power we all wanted. That was our right as Astartes...

_____________________________________________________________

I should have Part Three done by tommorrow evening. Heph feel free to edit my stuff like I'm doing to yours.

Hope you all like how the project is coming along.

Another small update. This where it can be cut to remove the Malal stuff, just take on the orginal ending and away we go. I'll write the Malal stuff though just to give it a chance

The History Of The Dark Talons - Part 2.5

Written by Hephesto and Jacobite

(Original idea belongs to Heph so all credit to him)

So we began our service to our new master. Not because of duty, or training since birth, but of our own will and ambition for vengeance of those that had betrayed us.

I was joined by the other survivors of the dungeons and together we formed a new Chapter. The Dark Talons. The majority of us were former Dark Hands but there were others, others like the Space Wolf and second Iron Drake. We were lead by Tanthus and First Captain Retrave. Now you may be the Dark Hand of Death, Anadrius, sent by the Emperor to exact his will upon your enemies but I became a Dark Talon of the Gaur: sharp, swift, deadly. For over a decade I fought as a Lieutenant against the Val-Gaur’s rival’s both Imperial and Chaos, crushing his opponent’s skulls beneath armoured boot. We were his personal bodyguards and every victory we won replenished our ranks with more and more Astartes seeing the truth. Our numbers swelled to three hundred, then four and finally there were seven hundred of us. We grew rich, powerful… and over confident, we soon learnt the price of our loyalty.

‘As is your punishment traitor, your own arrogance and lust for power has dammed you!’ interrupted Anadrius, ‘so for crimes against the Emperor, for desertion and heresy I sentence you to death’

(This is the cut point, just add on the orginal ending here)

‘Oh shut up you pompass ass’ laughed the restrained man, ‘I haven’t finished yet, the story is only halfway told. Now if you would let me finish…’

His voice trailed off, waiting for the answer. Before giving the go ahead Anadrius quickly spoke into his radio. It seemed they still had time before the enemy broke through. Grudgingly he nodded. The fallen Astartes continued his voice now barely a whisper:


Malal will be up tomorrow or Saturday with luck

Yea I just powered on through and got the Malal but done tonight lol. Anyway here it is, it needs a bit of clearing up especially the end but the ideas are all there. Tell me what you think. The reason I have put this in another post is because it makes it easy to remove if we decide not to go with it, plus it makes it easier to read. Enjoy


The History Of The Dark Talons - Part Three

Written by Hephesto and Jacobite

(Original idea which this stems from belongs to Heph so all credit to him)



-THE SECOND BETRAYAL AND THE RENEGADE-


“For years we proved our strength to our master. You think the rivalry between the Astartes is intense, it is nothing compared to the competition we went through to gain the Gaur’s favour. We fought everybody, Blood Pact, Mutants, other Chaos Legions, the Imperium, whoever we could, we killed. We proved our strength through the fires of combat. Millions fell to our blades and our name became synomomous with fear. Soon the Val-Gaur began to make plans, plans that would make him the new Archon but the entire scheme rested on one planet. A planet he knew the Dark Talons would do anything to return to: Kabal III. He knew that this was where the Guar was, planning the next phase of the war. So we returned to the world that was our undoing. This time we swore it would be different.

But yet again the enemy knew we were coming. A minder high up in the command structure must have leaked Val-Gaurs true intentions to Urlock because we were greeted by wave upon wave of Blood Pact. We fought like men possessed, not one single blade or bullet even came near the Val Gaur…”

The traitor paused, his face darkening with rage

“If only his nerve was as strong as we were! Like you he fled when the battle began to look like we would lose. He left us to fight a rear guard action while he escaped into orbit. We were left to be butchered like cattle while he ran away with his tail between his legs. No doubt he expected us to tie up the Gaur’s forces long enough to regroup the few loyal to him and then strike again. Our blood was to pay for his escape. Our blood paid for nothing!. We set that world alight with our rage. We put every single man, woman and child on that planet to the sword, the sky was black with the smoke of burning cities and screams rent the air. You should have seen it Anadrius, it was beautiful, piles of bodies higher than mountains and all the while the rage coursing through our veins.

In the ruins of Hive Arganus Secundus we stood, the hour hundred that remained, the veterans of both betrayals. It was there we held a council. Every man had the right to speak. We didn’t know what to do, no master, no direction. Some said we should go to Urlock Gaur and pledge our blades to him, some were for hunting down Val-Gaur and making him pay. A few wanted to join the Red Corsairs. We all knew however that we couldn’t ever trust another mortal again. Not after all the back stabbing. It was then that a figure appeared from out of the smoke.

He was dressed in black and *********** armour with his head covered. We all watched as the man strode into the circle. First Captain Retrave walked over to the figure, challenging him. For a moment the strange marine just looked at the Captain. Then the figure spoke:

“You need not fear me for in your hatred you are not alone.”

Those words have never left me. The man then removed his hood to reveal a pale face with jet black hair. It was obvious that the man was of Night Lords stock but not even the Night Haunter himself had been as deathly white as the Marine who stood before us.

“My name is Kilm Vanshal, voice of Malal. His has seen your pain, your suffering and your abandonment. He ,like you and like me, has been spurned by the other Gods and betrayed by his fellows. And he, like you, wants vengeance !”

Tanthus then stepped forward and spoke: “Tell us what your god wants Night Lord!”

Before Vanshal could answer a second figure appeared beside him. There was no flash of light or clap of thunder, it was as simple as one minute there was only dust and the next there was a second person there.

Dressed in simple black robes the figure towered over everybody else. With a face that was a mix of wolf and crocodile and three eyes it was clear that this was no man, nor had ever been. Opening a mouth full of teeth it spoke with a voice that chilled every one of us to the bone.

“He is no Night Lord Tanthus. The time he spent with those animals is over. He serves a higher purpose than simple terror now. As will you…”

Malal, the Fifth God of Chaos. The Outcast, the Renegade, the Lost. He was the only one we could trust not to betray us for he knew our pain. He had experienced it himself. Cast out by the other gods eons ago he now demanded retribution and destruction on all things. We saw a god who knew our pain and in us he saw followers whose hatred for both Chaos and the Imperium was unshakable.

In the ruins of Kabal III we pledged our immortal souls, for the third time and final time, to a new master: Malal, God of destruction.

Since then we have grown more powerful. We are stronger now than you, stronger than the followers of the Four. There is nothing you can do to stop us, no way to predict where we will strike next and although you may kill me there is…"

Before he could finish his sentence a great explosion shook the bunker, the Blood Pact had returned to complete their task. Turning towards the traitor Anadrius spoke,

‘Looks like justice will be swift for you after all......brother’

And with that he grabbed the bolt pistol off the table, before shooting the heretic point blank. Turning towards the one of the other marines he shouted a final order before grabbing his helmet and stepping back outside, into the mud, into the firestorm;

‘We’ll buy you time, now get this information sent out, this new threat could be the undoing of us all.....’

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So yea thats it. That last bit needs a bit of work but I'm too tired now. I will get the Index Astartes written up over the weekend - I'll probably take a break tomorrow if thats ok with everybody.

Please tell me what you think. I'd love to be able to use it but if its not in the majority then bin it. I can always use it for something else.

Hope this hasn't perverted your idea too much Heph :wink: