by Gaius Marius » Sat Dec 17, 2011 4:07 am
Here's mine, set in LL's 60K.
Necessary (1,090 words).
‘Now stay with Sergeant Horner, Jassien,’ father commanded. Father always seemed so tall in his stormcoat and carapace, each the cold matte gray of the Federation of Justice, today he squatted down to his son’s height.
‘I will,’ the six year old said, casting a longing look at the enormous bronze gate behind his father.
‘Promise?’ father asked with a raised eye brow.
‘Fine I promise,’ the boy replied.
‘That’s a good lad, stay close to Horner and I’ll take you to see He’Stan’s monument before we leave,’ and with that General Braiva of the Federation of Justice turned and entered the High Counsel Hall of Armageddon, where the Imperium’s best generals and politicians discussed a matter of great import.
Sergeant Horner only had his commander’s son with him for a moment when he turned to ask directions from one of the Salamander praetorians standing impassively in the capital’s great hallways. When he turned back, Jassien was gone.
....
‘I found a child Weyne-King,’ reported Decimus, the huge Chaplain stomping into the Fire Beasts’ observatory booth, the comparatively miniscule boy hanging from his gauntlet.
The Commander of the Fire Beasts, Ravager of the Chaos Marches and King of Terror did not look up from his work but instead kept his concentration upon the helmet in his lap.
‘Fascinating Chaplain,’ observed Weyne, his hands continuing to make wet scraping sounds as they worked. Black armored and terrible, he sat in a chair of reinforced rockrete before a window that viewed the High Counsel room far below.
‘This one has the stink of the Skyborne upon him,’ said Captain Kaa, huge and cloaked in snake skin, endlessly sharpening an immense chainaxe with a file.
‘But no fear,’ declared Captain Tavi, perched like a gargoyle upon the railing, ‘no fear at all. That makes him Bravia’s issue. Has to be.’
‘I know you!’ exclaimed Jassien, with the ease of attention change only a child can possess.
‘Do you really?’ asked Weyne, ‘then who are we?’
‘You’re the 13th,’ answered Jassien, ‘the ones father doesn’t like.’
Kaa laughed at that and kept working his file.
‘Correct,’ said Weyne, ‘but incomplete. We are Vulkan’s 13th Commandery, but we are properly the Ahi Balrog, Fire Beasts in a tongue long dead. Tell me little one, why does your father dislike us so?’
‘He says you kill people and that Vulkan hates you for it,’ Jassien answered.
‘We do,’ replied Weyne, ‘we do indeed. A great many people and other things beside. But so does your father in fact. Tell me what makes you us so different from your noble father, who is the dream of every woman in this Empire and the hero of every man?’
Jassien thought long and hard before answering, ‘He said you are butchers.’
‘Yes,’ said Weyne, his dry voice laughing like a rasp, ‘yes indeed we are. Listen carefully little man-cub, your father kills and fights and destroys because he has to. Because your culture teaches that he must do what is necessary to defend the defenseless. That is why Vulkan thinks so highly of him and his warriors.’
‘And you don’t?’
‘No,’ said the huge Chaplain holding Jassien, ‘no we do not.’
‘I don’t give a shit about the defenseless,’ said Kaa.
‘We kill little man-cub, because we enjoy it,’ explained Weyne, ‘because we run wild under the command of a God-King. Because he made us for war and we glory in fulfilling that purpose.’
‘But if Vulkan made you to do that, why does he hate you when you do it?’ asked Jassien
‘Because Vulkan is a good man, ’replied Weyne, ‘and although he is the greatest warrior who has ever lived there are things he cannot bring himself to do, but we can.’
‘Like what?’
‘Twenty years ago,’ said Chaplain Decimus, ‘Two Krork Warspheres attacked worlds on our southern rim. The Federation was sent to save one, we the other. They failed, overrun by the spore-born who sacked the world and departed. We disabled the other planet’s defenses, let the Greenskin down by the million and unleashed the life-eater. Their ship was easy meat.’
‘Eighteen years ago,’ said Kaa, ‘the Transgovians were ordered to take a world from a petty empire. We went with them for overwatch, the Dark Eldar cults were already there and the attack failed. I ate their Emperor’s head alive before his subordinates. The next world fell.’
‘This morning,’ said Tavi, ‘the four of us attacked a gang that had been preying on the mutant folk amongst Hades’ depths. We disarmed them literally and let the horde feast upon their quivering flesh, for they are Vulkan’s children too and deserve his protection.’
‘Six thousand years ago,’ said Weyne, ‘before this Imperium was founded we carried out a desperate mission. We sacrificed almost everything, ships, brothers, gene-fathers and heritage. We worked with powers most foul and that shall stain our souls forever. But we succeeded.’
‘Vulkan is a good man,’ explained Weyne, ‘but …’
‘A good man needs bad men to do the things he cannot,’ finished Jassien.
‘And that is why he hates us, for the galaxy still requires our use,’ said Weyne, ‘and that is why we love him, for he does not destroy us in his hate and lets us be ourselves. After we let the Krork destroy that world, Vulkan took my flesh eyes as punishment. He wanted to kill me, but instead I thanked him and asked for new orders in brail.’
‘You’re a king, a general, why are you not at the council?’
‘Because we are hammers and we do not care where we are wielded,’ said Weyne, ‘only that Vulkan’s hand is on the handle. Besides everything was decided by Vulkan before the war-council was called, this is just a show, to let his general’s think they think by finding the same eventual conclusion.’
‘It doesn’t seem very important now,’ observed Jassien.
‘No, no it does not,’ said Weyne, donning his helm with the gang leader face stretched tight across it, ‘Shall I send you back to your minders little boy?’
‘No…I want to stay, to stay and do the bad things,’ said Jassien, ‘the things Vulkan needs doing but can’t.’
‘Good,’ said Weyne, ‘Chaplain Decimus, find this boy’s minder and give him a message. Tell General Temestor Bravia that his son is now my son and his new name is Tyme. The boy begins his training on the morrow, if his father can find me and kill me by then he can have him back.’
Space Cowboy, Spartan II, Specter, Reclusiarch
'I see the fear you have inside.'