A new faction

by Rub3r0n

The Dark Age: The Days of Pain pt.1

The Days of Pain.

They were the final stage of the Dark Age, and the most horrible since the equusians went into space.

Everyone already knows the great horror that inhabits the Warhammer 40k universe, its mercilessness towards the weak, the darkness of the distant and warlike future. But for a new faction like the equusians, who had also lived peacefully for millennia,... it is not a pleasant change.

But it must happen, knowing that the world is not rosy. And for them, that's what the Dark Age taught.

First, the murderships, or tyranids, they taught the equusians to fear what was out there. They are the cosmic APEX predator, the greatest horrors that the universe can spawn, which you cannot fight, only pray to last long enough and escape. (Although, in fact, it was the spirit of harmony that came out the most super-traumatized by all of this, having been directly connected to the hive mind)

Then, the orks. An endless green tide that feeds on war. They taught that dialogue and peace were NOT going to be the solution to all the problems and the horror of a large-scale conflict. Along with the paranoia and despair that occurs when knowing that it is an enemy that will always return.

And lastly. The drukhari. The most depraved, psychopathic, sadistic and deranged beings in the galaxy. Who gain strength by causing suffering to others, their acts are so horrendous that no other villain can compare to them. They showed the worst the galaxy has to offer, and they don't deserve any mercy, just kill them, don't waste your time.

---

2 years.

Another two years they believed to be at peace after defeating the orkish menace. The terraformation of Palomino and Aris were completed and the efforts to build new buildings and infrastructure have just begun.

The entire process was supervised by various representatives of the Council and a lot of creatures with experience and great knowledge. Flurry Hearth and Queen Flamellus retreated to Equus, while Sunny Starscout, Todarius Bond and Terror stayed. Not long after some other members of the Council arrived, Gorval from the gargoyles, Steelwill and Construct, representatives of minotaurs, and other great personalities. Nobility didn't stay far behind, and tried to secure new lands, as did... many creatures actually. At the end of the day, this was still a colonial effort. Although that's not important.

But peace didn't last forever. One apparently normal day, in the sky of Green Hell, a flash of black light spread across the skies. It quickly took the shape of a spiral, and with evil green flames, it transformed into what could only be described as a vortex. A portal. To the webway to be exact.

From the rift in space came a dozen flying ships, bristling with sharp blades and curved spikes. Raiders. Drukhari ships, which, to those who already know their pilots, symbolize the terror and doom.

Like the vast majority of Drukhari incursions into realspace, this one had been organized by a Kabal. This was the Kabal of the Long Jailers. A relative small Kabal from the dark city of Commoragh, led by the Archon Shalos Grieux.

They had raided the Orks many times in the past, believed to be because the Archon had a personal vendetta against them, although there were also rumors that he was afraid of confronting the Space Marines by capturing some humans, one of the drukhari's favorite species to torture. Because of this, many tried to overthrow him, since the Drukhari like to have brave and strong leaders, although they always failed, so he kept his position.

At first they were surprised to see the strange new species that had settled on the planet and defeated the orks. But they soon became very excited about all the new opportunities that had been presented to them.

---

The vortex formed above Eq, the largest and most important city in Green Hell, where most of the population lived. This settlement was supervised by the great Todarius Bond, although not even he could foresee what would happen.

At the beginning of this raid, Equusian defenses were low for two reasons. One, they had their guard down after 2 years of peace. Two, they hoped that, if there was an alien invasion, they could detect the invading ships within time and prepare accordingly. Not that they would appear from a portal in the sky and attack as fast as the Speed Freaks!

The city tried to defend itself as best as it could, but the crippling Drukhari attack had been too swift. Their technology was like nothing they had seen before and their tactics were not as expected either, they did not try to take strategic places to conquer the city, they simply cruelly murdered those who opposed them, leaving their bodies skinned to cause more fear among the survivors, who were later kidnapped.

In a desperate scene, Todarius attempted to defeat the head of the attack, the Archon of the Kabal. But the AI ​​was more of a strategist than a fighter and he was defeated, taken prisoner by the drukhari vehicles.

Luckily, before his defeat, Todarius was able to send a distress message to the entire system, thus warning other cities in Green Hell to raise their defenses and asking for help from the creatures on Palomino and Aris, as well as on Green Skull.

The drukhari then set off to other parts of the planet, searching for new victims. Thus they arrived at Morthex, a citadel that was protected by Thunderwill himself, ready there to put an end to the emergence of orks, which were disgustingly common in that area.

When they arrived, they found a fortified citadel, the turrets and other defense systems all activated. All creatures had received the news of an alien invasion with great fear. Thunderwill managed to give them confidence and organized everything to defend themselves, evacuating civilians to a bunker, encouraging the troops to give their all and deploying ALL the drones they had.

This time they were not going to waste time with diplomacy, they had been attacked for no apparent reason, and they were ready to fight.

---

The battle on Morthex was raw, the drukhari used their advanced technology, launching lasers and explosions that burned everything. The shields soon fell, the defense systems, the drones and the soldiers fought bravely trying to take down the drukhari vehicles, as Venoms or Jetbikes, along their Flyers and gravitic Tanks like the Raiders. But the fight soon changed when their warriors began to descend.

Slender pale, bipedal figures dressed in menacing-looking black suits were deployed in the citadel, their attacks were quick and direct. They did not seem to want to take important positions, just murder and kidnap people. The warriors, who stood in their way were quickly taken over by their high-tech weapons, they filled the streets with blood of several creatures, leaving their mutilated in unimaginably atrocious ways bodies behind, so they would cause horror in the survivors, others were unluckier and were taken to the Drukhari ships as new slaves.

As his duty dictated, Thunderwill accompanied his troops to the battlefield. Summoning a magical storm, the Minotaur made a lightning come down from the skies toLightning Strike , filling it with energy.

His machine gun and missile launcher aided the air troops, and heavily crushed the Drukhari soldiers on the ground under the weight of Thunder Jotnar. Together with a squad, they were cleaning the streets of invaders, they received attacks, yes, but they managed to withstand them. Besides, the protective field around the cubed giant protected it from almost all attacks, although it wore down quickly and with each impact.

But a missile finally managed to break Thunder Jotnar's shield, causing him to fall and spreading black smoke. The squad gathered in a defensive position, ready to fight until death. The smoke dispersed, and they could see several figures behind it. A group of Kabalite Warriors, whose vehicle, a venom, lay down further ahead, led by a Sibarite and supported by an Incubus, one of the fiercer mercenaries in Commoragh and masters of the sword. This was carrying a Falchion, the ritual incubi sword.

The shooting soon began, and Thunderwill's companions had to hide behind some rubble to evade their enemies' blaster shots, while attacking as best they could. But Thunderwill pressed on, charging at the dark Eldar and making Thunder Jotnar withstand all the devastating blaster and crystalline rifles attacks.

He eliminated the warriors with several rounds from his machine gun, until the incubus attacked. It was so fast that he could barely see it. Somehow he had managed to rise high enough to drive his sword into the central hub of Thunder Jotnar, from which Thunderwill was piloting. The sword pierced the plating and missed just a few centimeters to the right of the minotaur's head, damaging the cubed giant's vision and hindering his movements.

The duel between the incubus and the cubed giant continued, but the Commoragh mercenary was also reinforced by the sybarite, who attempted to attack Thunder Jotnar from the rear with his blaster. Thunderwill had to give EVERYTHING to endure it, preventing the sybarite from attacking him by using his machine gun and desperately dodging his shots while he fought a sword duel with the incubus.
CLANG!

CLANG!

CLANG!
The dark eldar seemed to be losing, although he managed to block or dodge Lightning Strike's swords, the strength and size of his opponent were overwhelmingly superior, and finally, Thunderwill managed to electrocute him with a shot of the energy accumulated in his sword.

The incubus fell and recoiled from the attack, also enjoying his own suffering (because these degenerates do that too). Then the squad of kabalite warriors tried to attack Thunderwill, but they were surprised by the shots of the squad accompanying him, which had sneaked up behind the warriors.

The sybarite was also pushed by the shock wave created by Thunderwill as he recharged his sword with the energy of the storm with a bolt of lightning that fell from the heavens.

Thunderwill turned and crushed the sybarite under the weight of Thunder Jotnar's stomp, causing him to scream in pain (or pleasure) until his last breath. But by doing this under guard, the incubus recovered from his defeat and jumped towards Thunder Jotnar, performing dozens of cuts at brutal speed until he managed to split the base of one of Thunder Jotnar's legs.

The cubed giant staggered, spinning once more to face the swordsman. He prepared a punch and pulled out his retractable machete from his left arm. He swung the punch towards the incubus, who was once running towards Thunder Jotnar ready to attack. When he made contact, the blow created a large hole in the ground, the drukhari warrior had managed to dodge the blow and climbed onto the mecha's arm.

Just then, one of the kabalite warriors shouted and caught their attention. The fight between the Drukhari squad and the Equusian squad continued, leaving only one on each side. The drukhari in question showed how he had immobilized the earth pony that had challenged him, threatening to kill.

Thunderwill aimed Thunder Jotnar's machine gun to save his companion without harming him, enough had already died. But only that moment was enough for the incubus to climb, cutting a hole in the cabin with its Falchion and pulling Thunderwill out of it, throwing him to the street from almost 10 meters high.

With a jump, the incubus also landed and after an attempt to resist, Thunderwill was knocked unconscious by a blow with the Falchion's handle. They took him as a slave along with the earth pony, who had been left paralyzed with a cut on his spine.

---

Morthex was just another of the drukhari's victim sites. The citadel managed to defend itself well, but it wasn't enough. Luckily, other cities also managed to hold on, enough for Green Skull reinforcements to arrive and together they could repel the invaders. Although it is believed that this was also because they were satisfied with what they had already achieved.

Approximately 70% of the planet's population were killed, or much worse, kidnapped. The infrastructure of buildings was strongly harmed. And a lot of survivors were found poisoned by strange venoms. They had also focused for the leading creatures, military officers, settlement regents, and the representatives. Now the only Council members left in the system were Sunny Starscout, Terror, Gorval and Construct, who were on Palomino and Aris during the attack.

In other words, the equusians got the BEATING OF THEIR LIVES! (Again) Making them hide in what was left of their shacks like scared mice.

The remaining representatives gathered as quickly as their ships would allow them (which was pretty fast) to discuss VERY SERIOUSLY what the they should do.

Construct and Terror were fed up with the aliens. They wanted to look for them. Find them. And kill them, all of them. They were not going to continue bothering them with their existence. Gorval took a more rescuer's approach, proposing ideas to save everyone who had been captured, which included his sister. While Sunny was still shocked by the drukhari behavior. None of the villains she had faced over the millennia, of which there were many, had reached such a level of cruelty. She had heard reports of some truly ruthless acts done by the drukhari in the streets, and she could only shudder at them.

The drukhari had disappeared into their ships as quickly as they appeared, closing the portal in the sky. It was believed that this could lead to some nearby point in space and several ships were sent to investigate immediately.

They searched the entire system, including the asteroid belt, but found nothing, so they decided to leave. The situation didn't really change much, the space was still... empty. Some found an asteroid field, although one ship in particular had gone far out of the system, full in fact, in the direction of where Equus was. Come on, at one point they encountered the Hive Fleet Ungulo that was floating there, since they didn't want to die and this chapter is about the Drukhari, they turned around slowly and put the turbo in to get out of there with a bang.

There was still no sign of the drukhari and it didn't look like they would find anything. They had simply disappeared, back into the webway, with all their new slaves. And the worst part was that they could not let their guard down at any time in the future, because the eldar subspecies could return for more.

Until something began to be heard over the communicators. A horrendous cacophony of suffering. Screams. Lots of screams. Those damned elves had managed to hack Equusian communications, broadcasting on all radio frequencies the screams and agony of their victims being tortured. Non-stop. All the time. For the Drukhari, this was beautiful. Physically and mentally torture your victims while ensuring that those you failed to capture suffer knowing what is happening to them. Even if they turned off all the communicators, they would still know, and they couldn't get that out of their minds. They even made sometimes some depraved "games", where they explained the situation to the equusians.

"We are going to give you the option to choose for us. Here we have two options. A small group of physically healthy (I can't say the same about their minds) adult prisoners, or even older ones, and a young puppy? Yes, puppy. Crippled and sick. We will give you the opportunity to answer this question. Who do we torture first? Be aware that you will only be buying a little time by delaying the inevitable and oh! If you don't give an answer in... 1 minute! We will torture all of them in the most painful and exciting ways possible!"

Furthermore, they had also left the Equusians incommunicado with each other.

Those Mon-Keigh weaklings have a lot of pride for defeating a bunch of greenskins, we'll let them know what the real torment is.

But there was still a small light, a beacon of hope, or of fear and despair, it depends on who you ask. If the drukhari had managed to hack into the communications, it meant they were still there, just ridiculously well hidden.

This had an impact in two different ways, on the one hand:
There's still hope, hope for vengeance!
And on the other:
We're doomed.

Both were right.

Author's Note:

And here is the first of two parts of the end of the Dark Age. Originally they were going to be together in a single chapter, but it seemed too long, so I divided it. I hope you liked it! Much of the second part is already done, so it won't take me long to publish it. (I hope)

Comments

[Zombra1107]

I find the direction he's taking interesting, these difficulties that they have to face, and he asked me chronologically what year we're in Warhammer, before the fall of Cadia or after

[Rub3r0n]

11862408
I can answer that. Before.