//------------------------------// // Chapter XIII // Story: The Marks of War // by DungeonMiner //------------------------------// The Rat-bird, a small, furry, winged vermin native to the shrine world Hagia, was known for stowing away on ships and hiding amongst the great, labyrinthine halls of Imperial ships and traveling to far-flung worlds. Calderis was one of those worlds. A small swarm of four-or-so of the winged vermin all sat on a withered branch of a dead tree, watching as a large, red, metal box flew across the sand, kicking up a massive sand cloud in the distance. The Rhino transport vehicle, rumbled across the desert, carrying Apple Bloom and her squad across miles of desert to the next fight. It seemed that the Tyranid threat had been overestimated, Apple Bloom thought. While the initial fighting on planetfall was fierce and furious, the Tyranids fell quickly, before becoming incredibly scarce. Now it seemed that there were only pockets of activity on the planet, separated by long lulls of nothingness. Karlon adjusted the heavy bolter in his lap and grumbled as they moved along. “This is hardly a fight for glory or survival. This seems more like clean up.” Israfiel nodded before his massive, armored fingers moved under his helmet to scratch his throat. “It is a vital maneuver,” Lazarus said, adjusting the grip on his force staff. “The chapter would die without Calderis. This planet is both the cradle and the future of the Blood Ravens. We must defend it.” “No one, is arguing that Codicer,” Apple Bloom said. “We were simply expecting a greater glory than this.” Ramiel nodded. “For once I must agree with the xeno. This seems to be work more fitting of the Imperial Guard than the might of our glorious chapter.” “The Imperial Guard have their own battles to fight,” Coberos said, checking and rechecking the ignition tube on his flamer. Promethium, the Imperium’s most widely used fuel, leaked everywhere as he worked. A single spark would send the whole cabin up in smoke. Apple Bloom was halfway tempted to close her vox-grill and move to her internal air supply just so she wouldn’t need to smell it anymore. “Exactly,” Lazarus agreed. “This is our fight, and this is our duty. We shall take it with honor.” Apple Bloom said nothing. Nothing needed to be said. Everyone knew what their jobs were and why they were there. It was simply a matter of getting there. Unknown to the occupants of the Rhino, the rat-birds took flight, fluttering madly as a shadow passed above them. The Rhino continued its merry path when one of the two Space Marine drivers looked down. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the Auspex screen. The green-tinted screen showed a large, glowing, amorphous shape, heading closer to the center-rune that marked their location. It was moving fast. “Evasive maneuvers!” the driver said, more as a warning to his occupants than anything else. He made a hard right, causing the passengers to slide until the magnetic soles in their boots activated. The Rhino slid again as the large amorphous shaped passed them by, and the driver stepped on the gas, forcing the transport vehicle rushing forward. “What was that?” Ramiel asked as Israfiel loaded his missile launcher. “Apple Bloom, check the hatch!” Lazarus ordered. She nodded and moved to the large ceiling hatch towards the front of the transport. She slammed it open, coming up to the storm bolter turret, and looked up at the clear, blue sky. A shadow passed over her, and her eyes widened as she saw it. “Hive Tyrant!” she yelled, before swiveling the turret over and unleashing both barrels of bolter fury onto the massive Tyranid. The massive Tyranid's claws ripped into the Rhino’s metallic hull, and Apple Bloom kept firing even as it was torn asunder. The Rhino quickly changed from a Space Marine transport to a Space Marine can, and the Hive Tyrant was eager to dig into his lunch. Apple Bloom kept up the point-blank fire as the flying tyrant stood over its prey like a giant eagle. Meanwhile, the Devastator squad began moving out filing out of the Rhino and onto the sand. The Hive Tyrant shrieked and began raising the massive vehicle to its maw. Forced down, Apple Bloom leaped from the hatch, down onto the sand, as the two drivers stayed behind, using their own bolters to fire into the Tyrant’s mouth. The tyrant swallowed them both, armor and all. “Retrieve them! We need the Gene-seed!” Lazarus said. Israfiel answered with a rocket straight into the Tyrant’s neck. “Open fire!” Karlon yelled as the Heavy Bolter in his hands began firing full force. Ramiel opened fire, and a long, angry red bolt of las fire slammed into the Tyrant’s wing, downing it as Apple Bloom ran more rockets over to Israfiel. She herself continued to fire against the abomination, her bolter reporting valiantly with every shot. Even loaded with Hellfire rounds, the only thing the Tyranids haven’t seemed to become immune against, the tyrant just kept taking the shots as though it weren’t even there. Tyranids, however, were also not immune to fire. Coberos ran forward, the flamer sputtering before launching a massive jet of flame up at the beast. It screamed, before dropping down, revealing one of its massive arms to be a long, organic cannon. It fired, and a hail of corrosive, organic crystals shot forward towards them. As the crystals dug into the ground, Ramiel was forced to leap out of the way, taking his lascannon with him. Lazarus, meanwhile, took a deep breath, breathed flame using the power of the warp. The flying tyrant screeched, his voice shaking the earth beneath them as they stood their ground. Apple Bloom heard Ramiel laugh over the vox. “Ha! Is that all the might your hive has?!” The Tyrant roared, before one of its massive, scythe-shaped talons slammed down on the lascannon operator. The talons were too large to pierce his armor, but she did hear him cry. “Brothers! I’m pinned!” Apple Bloom rolled her eyes before she looked up to Israfiel. “Brother, will you be alright for a moment?” Israfiel nodded, before firing another missile and grabbing one from the case Apple Bloom had been carrying on her back. She smiled beneath her helmet before drawing her knife. “We will not be found wanting!” she cried, before charging the downed Tyranid. Karlon’s firing slowed as he watched Apple Bloom charge the massive beast. He blinked. Apple Bloom kept charging, running forward, and closing the gap between herself and the massive monster. And then she kicked. Now, Apple Bloom was strong, stronger than any marine in the chapter. Now, Power Armor was known for increasing that already inhuman strength. When Fabricator-General Romulus Augustus created this specific suit of power armor, he took this into account. Unseen generators began to whine as Apple Bloom’s hind legs flew through the air. Electric power began to crackle along the sole of her hooves. The power servos in her legs screeched. And then she made contact. The Hive Tyrant’s head snapped back, lifting his body up off the ground. Ramiel, now free, rolled from the ground and fired his lascannon once more. The others followed his example, firing more and more projectiles as the Hive tyrant began to topple. Apple Bloom charged it once more, this time using her mechadendrites to grab onto the tyrant’s massive scales, climbing its body. Israfiel fired another missile, the explosion rocking the Tyranids body. It began to fall backward. “For the Emperor!” Apple Bloom cried, before driving the knife between the chitin plates and slicing its body open. The tyrant fell down into the sand, sending up a cloud of dust as it came to its final rest. There was a long silence as the Devastator squad regrouped, and closed in on the body of the Hive Tyrant, and blinked. “Sister Apple Bloom?” Karlon asked before he caught sight of the armored figure cutting her way into the hive tyrant’s digestive tract. “Yes?” she answered. “What, by the Throne, was that?” he asked. She shrugged. “I’ve always been excellent at melee.” Karlon nodded. “Now, are you going help, or do I need to retrieve our brothers myself?” ---=][=--- The cleansing of the planet continued for many months, cleaning out hormagaunts, carnifexs, and much more. There was so much to do, and the Blood Ravens did it expertly. Before five weeks were out, the Tyranid remnant had all but been destroyed. All that was left was a small patch of resistance, and Captain Aren felt that the newest marines needed some glory to their name. So it came to be that Apple Bloom’s squad stood over a box canyon, filling its Tyranid-covered floor with bolts, fire, las-fire, and explosions. Apple Bloom tossed a grenade down into the canyon, and smiled as two homagaunts screeched as they exploded. The smile was short-lived, however, as she sighed before turning to her squad. “You see what you’ve done, Ramiel? You complained about Guard work, and that’s what we received. Guard Work.” “Karlon started it,” Ramiel argued. “Isarfiel agreed with me,” the Heavy Bolter operator noted. The mute marine glared at him. “Yes, yes, I know I was there. My memory is just as good as yours,” Apple Bloom said, before her mechadendrite fired into the canyon, killing a long-bodied Tyranid with a snake-like thorax, a Ravener, that was trying to dig into the ground. “But now, we are forced to dealing with these leftovers, like dogs picking scraps.” “If these are scraps, then we are eating well,” Coberos laughed, his heavy flamer’s long stream of flame hitting targets that most flamers could not reach. Apple Bloom sighed. “I...I wish, perhaps we were eating better,” she said before checking her auto senses for the time. “It’s my turn to take watch. I’ll return shortly.” “I’ll go with you,” Ramiel said, surprising everyone gathered. “Really?” Apple Bloom asked. “Of course,” Ramiel said. “You have inferior xeno senses. It’s a safety measure.” Lazarus, who sat nearby, reading a scroll, had no objection. Apple Bloom stayed silent, and the two shared a look before agreeing. They headed off into the desert, beginning the slow walk around the canyon and the Blood Raven’s forces. The two marines walked slowly, their massive feet leaving behind prints in the sandy rocks, and a long silence passed between the two. Apple Bloom’s eyes scanned the horizon, and Ramiel scanned the land after her. They did not speak, opening their mouths only to check in with their squad at regular intervals. They had made a revolution and a half, a whole two and a half kilometers, before Ramiel finally spoke. “I wish to thank you, Apple Bloom.” She glanced up at him. “For what?” “You have done your duty, and done it well,” Ramiel said. “I admit, I may have...misjudged you upon our first meeting. I will not say you are worthy of this duty, but you were not as unworthy as I believed.” Apple Bloom blinked and stayed silent. There was a long pause between the two. “I accept your apology,” she said finally. “It’s not an apology,” Ramiel stated. “I am not sorry, I am simply stating you surprised me.” Apple Bloom nodded. “Fair.” The silence returned, and the two marines kept walking around. The glint of metal caught Apple Bloom’s eye, and her head snapped over to it. “Did you see that?” she asked. “See what?” “I saw something silver. 28 degrees north of our position.” Ramiel slowly turned his head to face that direction and shouldered the lascannon. “I’ll cover you.” Apple Bloom nodded as her mechadendrites leveled her bolter at the spot on the horizon. She moved slowly, approaching with caution. The silver caught her eyes once more, and she raised her bolter up to aim directly at it. She moved closer, and blinked as she found herself standing over a small ledge that was hiding a dead body. It was fresh, the blood sitting, pooled on a rock. A Tyranid wound, she could tell. Of course, this wasn’t the most important information. No, the fact that this human was covered head to toe in Chaos iconography. The very presence of them caused her to clench her teeth in rage. She keyed her microbead. “I’ve found a body. Looks like a chaos cultist.” “What?” Lazarus asked, speaking into her ear. “A cultist?!” “Affirmative,” Apple Bloom confirmed, as she looked down on the three-headed hydra badge stuck to his chest. “It seems things just got complicated.” ---=][=--- The Alpha Legion was the most mysterious legion of all of the traitor Space Marines. They had no homeworld, their numbers were unknown, and their very colors were not a certainty, hovering between blue and green. Their Primarch, Alpharius Omegron, was supposedly killed by the Primarch of the Ultramarines, but not even they are sure that Alpharius actually died that day. This made the Blood Ravens hate them beyond all measure. The Blood Ravens, guardians of knowledge, have a compulsive need to learn as much as possible about anything and everything they can, whether relic, ally or enemy. Yet even they knew next to nothing about the Alpha Legion. Their motives were unguessable, their intentions, unknowable. Not even their battle cry was known, changing from “Hydra dominatus,” to “For the Emperor,” as long as it suited their needs. They were the sneakiest, stealthiest, and most unknown traitor legion to exist, and that was all the Blood Ravens knew about them. This made the fresh body of the cultist a very important find. Any sign of these traitors was a priority alert, and upon receiving the news, Captain Aren sent out the Company to begin searching for any hint as to the intentions of the Alpha Legion on Calderis. So far, they had ruled out direct assaults. While the connection between their presence and the Tyranid remnant had not been counted out, there did not actually seem to be any Legionnaires actively destroying Calderian settlements. If they wanted to do damage to the Blood Ravens, that would be the best way to do it. Nonetheless, this was not something to ignore, and so the Blood Ravens began combing the planet, searching for any sign of the Alpha Legion. Apple Bloom’s squad led the search, checking everywhere they could for the traitors, but finally, after nine months of deep-scans, the Blood Ravens found nothing more than the last of the Tyranid threat. Apple Bloom sat in the small command post that had become the Blood Raven’s functioning headquarters while they worked planetside, in the small chapel, praying to the mighty God-Emperor with quiet, muted words, asking for blessings of strength and purpose. Unbeknownst to her, she was sharing the room. Lazarus stood off to one side, watching her as she prayed. Over this campaign, all eleven months, he had seen her do many things. He had watched her charge a Hive Tyrant, he had seen her buck a carnifex in the face. He had seen her do things most men would not think of doing. In one way, it was inspiring. In another, it was insulting. Here was this xeno, this inferior creature, was doing what many human men could not do. He had come to rely on her. Her talents, especially in melee were not something to be scoffed at, and her skill with a bolter was not unnoteworthy either. He still had some misgivings about a xeno taking the honor of a man, yet, somehow, a part of him said that she had, in a way earned it. He wasn’t sure that was correct, but it was what he had. The better news was he did not need to act on it now. He simply had a duty to perform. He approached the young marine, his force staff clacking against the tile floor. Apple Bloom said nothing, letting the Librarian stand in silence as she finished her prayer. It was only then that she turned to him. “Yes, Codicer.” He said nothing, bowing to the image of the Emperor before speaking. “Your squadmates have been promoted. They are Assualt Marines.” There was a moment of silence. “They are Assault Marines,” she noted, recognizing that the word “you” was not used. “Yes,” the Librarian said. “Captain Aren was torn on the matter. He wished for you to be promoted, yet you do not have the same experience in power armor, nor do we have a jump pack compatible with your body. With all of these working against you, he could not promote you.” Apple Bloom nodded. “I see.” Silence reigned in the glit chapel for a long moment. The Librarian stood, and began to walk away, leaving Apple Bloom with the oddest feeling that this has happened before. Just before he left, however, the Librarian spoke again. “For what it’s worth, xeno, you do the chapter proud.” Apple Bloom nodded and sat still before the altar. She understood that. She understood the Captain’s rationale. She understood his reasons. It made perfect, complete, and total sense. She had no need and no reason to become an Assault marine. Besides, at least she wasn’t a scout anymore. She was a proper Space Marine, she had no reason to complain. So why did it hurt so much? ---=][=--- “If a job's worth doing it's worth dying for!”—Imperial Thought of the Day. Alright, guys! There’s your chapter! “Hang on, I thought it’d be another Sweetie Belle chapter?” Well, that’s what you get for thinking, my dear. “So what next?” More orks! This time, punching Eldar! “Wait? So Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle are going to meet up?” What? Pinkie, of the thousands of worlds, the thousands of Eldar, and the thousands of locations across the galaxy, do you think that they’d meet up. “Maybe?” Maybe. Alright, we’ll see you next time, guys! “Bye!”