Geminized (Primarch SI
- Thread starter Superbus
- Start date
I like this story so far. Not sure how I feel about the 2nd primarch being around and how you'll deal with that loose end but I'm sure you'll be able to handle it deftly. A pro xeno primarch could be interesting but most xenos just want to eat/stomp/rule over humanity in 40k.
Keep up the good work.
Keep up the good work.
HioH
Gentleman, Scholar, Dinosaur
Said by Erebus IIRC, not the most trustworthy source.
Lone Courier 6
Devilish Fool
- Location
- United States of Quests
Certainly fits with the goddamn tabletop, from what I hear you put Leman Russ up against *any* of his brothers one on one and he will destroy them on the mathematical average, even Horus.
Chapter Six: Gadriel
Chapter Six
---
Two months later.---
Horus was leading a meeting on the upcoming invasion of the planet Gadriel. Russ, Ferrus, Fulgrim and even Corzan were already all here. My father was… you know, I actually had no idea where the Emperor was. Huh.
Horus continued his spiel and I tuned him out. I had the basics, Gadriel had gotten a hint of what we were really like and the nature of the Imperium from the advance scouts and had said more or less "hell no, you mutant fascists. Rot and die."
The Imperium didn't take a "no" for an answer to the question of Compliance and thus we were here. We had been assigned major cities and would advance to the heavily unapproachable after conquering the rest of the planet, hopefully scaring them out of their defiance as we covered the globe in blood.
I hummed as Horus went on and on.
"I'll be commanding overall from the ship." Horus said. "Let's get this war started, brothers."
Fulgrim cheered. Corzan looked depressed.
We all got up.
I walked into the hangar from which I would be departing. It was full of hundreds of drop pods. Technicians raced around while Astartes warriors calmly checked their weapons, power armor plate and gear.
I myself was armored in white armor with purple accents. The Emperor had constructed it personally for me, I was told. An honor, I supposed.
I walked up to the meeting point, a clumping of several squads of the First Legion. Their names were Sunbleeder, Firedancer, and Angeleater squads. They would be directly fighting with me and would land near me.
"Looking good, boys!" I complimented them. "Nice and spiffy. Let's go crack some heads."
I actually didn't feel as exuberant as I pretended to be about the upcoming slaughter. It sat wrong with me. Wasn't there another way? Any other way?
I entered my drop pod, crouching and still taking up all the room in the pod. We wait for the descent, the iron rain to begin.
Intercoms blazed with updates.
"Descent in five…" The voice announced as klaxon alarms blared.
Armored plates of the flagship's hull would be disengaging and sliding aside to allow for the drop pods to shoot downwards from the ship.
"Four…"
Once we had landed, Subleeder, Firedancer and Angeleater squads would form up around me.
"Three…"
We would land in the southwest side of the city of Verillion.
"Two…"
I still wasn't sure how I felt yet as I thought it over yet again, trying to puzzle out my emotions. Part of me yearned to test my blade but part of me questioned this whole endeavor. Could the Emperor not find some diplomatic measure with all his supposed genius?
"One…"
I heard the firing of detonation cores and the unlatching of support structures and then felt the inertia of our fall.
My helmed head slammed into the top of the drop pod when we pierced the atmosphere. It was steadily heating up in the pod.
The sound of our meteoric fall was deafening.
Bang. I was hit by Gadrieli artillery. My drop pod spun and then fired thrusters to correct my flight.
Smack!
The drop pod struck the ground and the sides of the pod exploded off. I pulled out of my crouch, oriented myself and charged forward.
I saw the enemy and got to work grimly.
Red.
Red on my blade as it bisected and divided and beheaded.
Red on my fist as it punched and smashed and exploded.
Red between my fingers as it crushed and liquified and smeared.
Red under my boots as it pulverized and collapsed and mangled.
Red.
I slit throats with supersonic speeds, punched off heads with transhuman force, popped lungs and shattered rib cages with supernatural might.
All around was the sound of the Imperium teaching the Gadrieli the exact meaning of slaughter in all its gory and sanguine majesty.
Astartes moved like leopards, hip fired like snipers, danced between artillery shots, used their blades like scalpels and coordinated attacks on the fly like expert strategists. They were unbeatable, unkillable, unbreakable.
They were a pure nightmare and I could not help but love their ugly gloriousness.
How beautiful their motions! How vile their deeds! How dreadful their speed despite their size!
A missile was shooting down straight at me. Time slowed to a crawl and my heartbeats were like lightning. I flashed my hand to my side to grab my bolter and accelerated it to a aiming position. I measured the distance and velocities and let fire.
The bolt soared forth and hit the missile in the air and both exploded like a grand firework.
I located the source of the missile and narrowed my eyes. I sighted a long rockcrete slab of a road block barrier and ripped it out of the ground. I turned and hefted it onto my shoulder.
A member of Angeleater squad had ceased firing his boltgun in favor of staring at my feat of strength.
I found firm footing and then launched the twenty-five foot barrier like a spear at supersonic speeds into the missile men. The whole building they were firing from collapsed.
I took no joy in my abilities now. The Emperor had made me superior physically to these men, it was certainly an uneven and unfair game. To put a single Primarch on the board of battle was to guarantee Imperial victory.
I leapt through the air to meet more combatants. I slayed two but the last tripped in his panic over my coming and fell to the ground, skinning his hands and knees and dropping his weapon as he tried to catch himself. He pulled off the helmet that obscured his features and revealed the human face behind black glass and green painted metal.
On his knees now, he raised his cut, bloody fingers to me in surrender. His eyes begged.
I considered him. I had no way of holding him. I thought that might be kind of the point, to take no prisoners in a cleansing that would make the populace cowed and beaten as much as possible so the Imperium wouldn't have to deal with constant rebellion for the next thousand years when they needed them to be recruitment bases for loyal soldiers and tributaries of grain and water and metal.
He was crying now.
I felt sick, tasting bile in my mouth. I began to feel suffocated in my helm, my breathing hot and its sides pressing in on my head. I made a decision and deactivated the helmet seal in a gasp and a hiss of air and pulled it off.
I breathed in the fresh air, cool and sweet in its taste compared to the recycled and processed ventilation of my armored helm. Maybe I would get shot in the head with something real penetrating power, dying for a second time. Who knows, I didn't really care at the moment.
I looked down at the soldier. His expression had changed to something I couldn't quite describe. His breathing ratcheted up and my strong sense of smell could detect the scent of urine.
"You're beautiful." The soldier whispered in horror, tears in his eyes. "So beautiful. Your eyes burn… It hurts… Please…"
Should I kill him? I had killed so many already. He was so… so weak and unaugmented. He didn't belong on the battlefields of the far future. This was the realm of transhuman heroes and villains now. Lab rats and Frankenstein's monsters and Spartan-IIs.
"Get up." I told him. He scrambled to his feet.
"Leave your weapon." I instructed him.
He nodded fearfully.
"Put your hands on your head and walk towards our forces." I said.
If he went back to his home he'd likely be killed with the rest and if he hid in the rubble and ruins of the buildings around him he'd be found by his life markers by a clean up squad and executed. No, he had to get behind our lines
He hesitated.
"Do it." I commanded. 'Walk to the drop pods and I will collect you when this is all over."
He set off and passed out of my vision.
Now I just had to vox his description to the Astartes-
There was a thundercrack of a bolt shell detonating and the particulate matter of the soldier's remains. Someone from Sunbleeder squad had sniped him the moment he took a few steps from me. I saw the marine move on from the kill.
I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes. Anger flared in me. Did these imbeciles not understand that he wasn't a threat?
I exhaled. This was silly. I was getting mad at one of my own for killing a uniformed combatant in a war of extermination demanded by their Emperor as part punishment for the Gadrieli leadership's reticence and part pragmatism to have to kill less people in the long run. There was no such thing as a lawful surrender today.
"He's just following orders." I said to myself, putting my helm back on. "We're all just following orders. He just did his job."
I kept on fighting, putting my anger into physical energy and effect. I drowned the streets in blood.
I kicked one soldier's ribcage out of his chest and into the air. I laughed, you know it was really odd but all these troopers were so short. It was comical! Did they run out of normal sized recruits? It was almost like-
My smile died on my lips. It was almost like-
I quickly stepped over to one I had slain and pulled off their helmet. It was almost like they were children.
A little boy's dead eyes stared up at me. They seemed accusing.
Why did I have to die? Those eyes asked me.
I looked around the child soldiers pouring into this street to fight us. Saw Imperial Astartes massacring them. Grown men were nothing to a space marine, sending children against us was a slaughterhouse. The children did not run to their credit, but they did die in great number
I opened my vox channel, blink-clicking it open to every Astartes in the invasion effort on the city of Verillion. Then thinking of it, I made it an open unencrypted signal. The Gadrieli leadership would hear this. I ran a program to hack into communicators. No, everyone in the city of Verillion would hear this.
"This is Primarch Astarion, Commander of the Invasion of Verillion. If you come across Gadrieli soldiers who are abnormally short, I personally order you with the full authority of my status as Primarch to non violently apprehend them. These are children and they are not lawful combatants."
Silence in the line. Not a single Imperial replied as if my words had silenced them.
Then a crackling answer through the vox, patched through from the flagship.
"Brother… This is folly. If you do this you will fail to meet your mission in time." Horus said.
"I'm aware." I said.
Silence.
"All Astartes in Verillion City, this is Horus Lupercal. Astarion's orders are countermanded. You are to ignore any further orders from him and are to continue the invasion of the city." Horus said.
I closed my eyes. Fulgrim had some kind of spark that most days I lacked.
Most days. Today when that soldier who had begged me for mercy, I saw in his eyes the same awe I saw in others who looked at my brother but never in me.
Just once, just once could I have that spark? I had no gods to pray to so I didn't, but I begged the universe itself for the ability to ignite hearts.
Some energy buzzed in me. Small, but hopeful. Like a candle guttering in the wind, a half second from being blown out but still burning brightly enough to push back the night.
"Horus is above," I started. "Horus is above, high in the sky, looking down on us from his perch. He does not walk this battlefield today with you as I do, he does not taste the smoke in the air or pull the bolter's trigger or swing the sword. I do. He does not stand with you. I do."
I paused. The candlelight of the Third Primarch's charisma blazed like an inferno.
"Think back before the days of augmentation and training and hypno indoctrination. Think of the children you once were. Imagine it is you who is sent into battle today against invincible giants. Imagine it is your brothers at your side who are dying, whose heads are being stomped to paste by transhuman boots. Do you remember fear, nephews? They've taken it from you, but do you remember it? I remember fear. I remember fear because when I look at these children who have come to die today, I see it reflected back at me. I see myself in them. When I kill these children, I kill a part of myself. And you do too, you might not feel it but in your actions you stab a dagger into who you once were. You might not care at its passing but I will tell you when the last spark of humanity within you dies you will be nothing more than an animal. And this Crusade will be nothing but a sham."
I sucked in a breath.
"The Imperium exists to save humanity, or so it says. It is what distinguishes us from the petty genewrought monsters and psyker god kings. This is humanity. Do you worship a fantasy of an abstract humanity or are you still rational enough to see these are the people we have come to save in the first place? We are the shield against the black night and the sword that drives back the beasts that would devour the weak. We are strong not because of the pursuit of vainglory but because we need to be to help mankind. Stand by me and I will stand by you. What you do on my orders I will claim full responsibility for. Will you help me in this mission, my nephews, my subordinates? Or will you prove yourselves the rabid dogs these people think you are?" I said.
"Our father is currently indisposed, but when he returns from his visions and hears what you are doing he will…" Horus warned, not even speaking the threat out loud.
"Then I'll face the full force of the Emperor's wrath when this is completed." I said.
"So be it." Horus said, his voice emotionless.
Another crackle. A non Imperial communicator messily interfacing with our advanced technology.
A woman's voice. "This is the Mayor Egestonne. We're willing to discuss surrender of Verillion and advise the capital to capitulate… if the Imperial Commander called Astarion will act as an intermediary between the planet and the Imperium."
Last edited:
- Location
- Australia
Oh shit.... how's this going to pan out. Either its going to go really well or really badly.
Wth were the planet forces thinking of arming children? Not to say what the Imperium is ok for conquering them or anything, but there was no place for anyone but a adult on a battlefield against Astartes. These guys need a serious dressing down.
- Location
- Oklahoma
WELL THEN, Big E is probably not gonna be happy about this.
It won't be as bad as the eventual dressing down Lorgar is gonna get, but ill be in disbelief if this turns out anything but bad.
It won't be as bad as the eventual dressing down Lorgar is gonna get, but ill be in disbelief if this turns out anything but bad.
- Location
- Lost to the Depths of the Deep Web
When extermination from a hostile force is a certainty, which do you prefer? All your people dieing in a hole shivering with the knowledge of the pointlessness or arming them as best as you can and sending them out on a pray for a miracle?
Don't get me wrong, I don't like this either. It's just when a people do this it's either because they are foolish, or they know the stakes very well enough to be disparate. And as stated in the chapter, they didn't send out the children till all the adults were dead. Plus or minus the coordinators. He literally asked himself if they ran out. And he got his answer.
I think the worst case scenario isn't actually Big E punishing Astarion heavily, but instead commending him on strong moral judgement.
Because that would make Horus, already reeling from someone outdoing him in statecraft after countermanding their orders begin to really, really seethe with jealousy for approval, and sting with hurt pride.
Push up the start of the Heresy a couple decades kind of seething.
Vaalintine
Wild Wondorous Wolfalope
The only thing wrong here is the other primarchs not somehow getting that he is trying to make them surrender, and they can't do that if they've killed everybody.
Author said no when I asked similar.
Chapter Seven: Dinner
Chapter Seven
---
I broke into a fire hydrant and washed the blood and dust of the day off my armor. No need to remind these people I had their children's literal blood on my fingers. And on my plate. And my boots. And my sword. And----
I closed my eyes and breathed in. It was done. All I could do now was save lives that would be dead without me, focusing on my past deeds would only jeopardize what could be attained now.
"Control… I am in control." I said to myself and opened my eyes.
I walked on with my Astartes until I got to the center of Verillion city. A legislative building with a bunker.
Soldiers still guarded the commanders of the defense. Short soldiers. They stared at me and then dropped their weapons and ran.
One boy didn't though. He aimed his gun at me and stood his ground.
"Halt!" He yelled to me.
I stopped.
"How old are you, young sir?" I asked.
"Thirteen!" He yelled defiantly. This boy was ready to die before he would let me take another step.
I shook my head. This boy was born to be an Astartes.
I could not imagine the kind of courage that led a thirteen year old boy to refuse to give up his duty in the face of an eleven foot five demigod and his army of seven foot tall monsters.
"What is your name? I am Astarion." I said.
"Morzin." he said.
"Well, Morzin, I am here to meet the Mayor. She has invited me to-"
A woman walked through the doors. She looked tired.
Morzin saluted her.
"Thank you, soldier." She said, "You're released from your duties."
I watched his back and shook my head. "Child soldiers? Really?"
"Would you rather we had left them in their beds for you to kill them? Afraid and defenseless? The one called Horus had sent Gadriel a message before the Imperium's assault. For the capital's sin of defiance, Vermillion would be one of seventeen cities exterminated by your forces to shame the capital. You came here to have them watch their parents' deaths and then be finished themselves. We decided that if our children's innocence was going to die anyway, they might as well have the right to fight for their own lives." The mayor said.
"I did not come here for that." I said softly.
"Perhaps not. I've relayed a recording of the words you spoke to the capital. I'm told they've been received positively. And that they're spreading it amongst the people planetwide. They want to meet with you." The mayor said.
She pulled out a device and handed it to me. It was a silver tube.
"What is it?" I asked, searching her microexpressions for a lie and listening to her heartbeat.
"A signaller, prepared with an encrypted code given by the capital just now. It will alert the defenses that your particular craft is not to be shot down." She said.
…
As we traveled by Stormbird to the capital, I had techmarines strip me out of my armor.
"I need two of you to volunteer to come with me." I said to members of Angeleater squad. Every man immediately raised his right hand.
I picked two. "You… and you. Techmarines, strip them of their armor and weapons."
"What? Lord?" One of my two chosen said.
"We'll be going unarmed because we're going alone into a capital that is so well defended, reinforced, armed and shielded that we cannot even fly ships in orbit near it let alone drop troops on it that our plan previously was to slaughter so many of their people and destroy so much of their infrastructure that they capitulate. No reinforcements will be coming to save us if something goes wrong. If something does go wrong we will not live because of our armor. Our spies have been thorough, from the moment we enter that city to the moment we leave we will have weapons trained on us that will make Ceramite look like cardboard. All us bringing weapons and armor will do is sabotage our efforts to organize a peaceful surrender."
"We don't look like mortals, Lord." The other space marine said. "Our appearance will frighten them anyways, this is unwise."
"Oh they'll think we're freaks but there's no avoiding that with my height and they already think that of the Imperium, confirming their feelings will change little. We'll be freakish monsters, but at least we'll look honest in our desire for a peaceful surrender." I said.
We landed and were met by a welcoming committee.
For the next four hours, I sat in a meeting with the leadership of the capital, etching out compromises. I managed to coordinate a surrender that would likely make Horus unhappy due to the leniencies in the tithing tribute requirements of resources and men, but netted us a less bloody win. We agreed to meet again in a week for more definite treaties. More time for the leaders to sell this surrender as a win. Politicians never change.
I shook hands with the leaders and started to walk back through the city of staring strangers with my two Astartes.
I sighed. Today I did good. I was proud of what I had done-
A chirp. My communicator.
You are summoned to dinner with the Emperor. Fulgrim sent.
Shit.
Well, it had to happen sooner or later, didn't it.
I boarded the Stormbird.
"Back to the flagship." I told the pilot and he nodded.
I slept a little on the flight up and when we arrived I walked to the dining room the Emperor used for formal events.
I stood before the closed door, nervous. He'd know I was here so there wasn't any point in waiting outside. I grabbed the doorknob and turned it.
I entered the opulent dining room sized for Primarchs. The table was full of food, enough for many of my brothers, more than were even on the flagship, but the Emperor and I were alone. The light was dimmed and the Emperor's features were in shadows.
He gestured, waving a hand. "Sit."
"I'd like to say-" I started as I took a seat.
"Eat." The Emperor commanded, though his plate was untouched and full of food.
I started eating though I wasn't very hungry. I kept going until I was full and looked up at him.
He observed me calmly, saying nothing. Moments passed.
I filled my plate up with food again and forced it down. I began to get annoyed. I could do without this stupid dominance game, if I had to eat more synth-meat I was going to-
"I'm of two minds about what you've done, Three." The Emperor, not an emotion on his face.
"Sir-"
"And so are my Primarchs. Horus, his pride wounded, would like for you to be publicly censured and the censuring to broadcasted to every ship in the fleet." The Emperor said.
"He's-"
"Russ said you were a coward but that your heart was in the right place. He argued for a mild condemnation." He said.
"I-"
"Your brother Fulgrim wishes to share in your punishment, whatever it is, and claims to have told you he was feeling uneasy about the invasion and that it was his fault you took these actions today."
I said nothing, knowing I would just be interrupted.
"Corzan came out of his depressed, sullen funk and called you the only hero this Crusade had. He said if you were punished he wouldn't fight in the next conflict." He said.
"And what do you think?" I asked him.
"I think you accomplished our goals efficiently and won over the hearts of our enemies spectacularly and for that you deserve to be rewarded." He said. "And I think that you set a dangerous precedent of ignoring the chain of command and throwing aside your mission to soothe your moral instincts when the rest of the invasion was dependent on all forces to exterminate their target and simultaneously advance to the capital, thereby undercutting our efforts and making our murder of Gadriel's people in vain and for that you deserve to punished."
I set down my amasec carefully. "So what will you do? Am I to be punished or be rewarded?"
"I think you deserve both. So I will open your eyes to the truths my own eyes were, long ago." He said. "I'm going to show you what my visions have been impressing on me for the past day and show you why I'm willing to build an empire on a foundation of butchered children. The reason I do not have time to woo and reason with every planetary polity we come across when base violence accomplishes Compliance to humanity's survival."
He got up out of his chair and walked over to me. He put the tips of his fingers on my forehead.
I felt a tingling energy running through those fingers and spots swam in my eyes. I heard a woman's scream. I smelled something foul. Reality began to bend and slip away from my grasp on it, launching me into the Emperor's memories.
"This might hurt." The Emperor noted, more a statement of fact than anything out of consideration for my well being.
- Location
- Australia
Huh... this is interesting.
Frescko
King of Silver 🏳️⚧️
Personally I think the Emperor thinks he's in the right- morally atleast, and his punishment is just for him to experience the sheer cynicism that the emperor has built up.
Emperor wants to save humanity, even if it's built on the corpses of children. Hate it he does, but… no cost too great for the continued existence of humanity
Then call me The Coward for I will wear that title with pride everyday.
Chapter Eight Dreams Part One
Chapter Eight
---
Darkness. I floated in darkness.---
I felt a gravity on me, pulling away from me in all directions. Every cell in my body was ripping apart.
I roared in agony.
Then I burned into energy which condensed into a bolt and shot across space and time.
I compressed to a point and screamed terribly, wishing for death in what felt like ten thousand years.
+This is only a transition.+ The Emperor said distantly.
I screamed back in response.
Then something in me popped.
I teleported with a thundercrack onto some strange planet, a violet sky above me.
I breathed heavily. I looked down. I was in an ordinary sized, human man's naked body.
I looked to my side, the Emperor was there in a simple white robe and was man sized.
I looked around. We were above a pit. I coughed. It smelled terrible, the worst scent I've ever smelled in my life.
Xenos in cloaks were throwing the lines of humans into the pit.
"What are they doing?" I asked him, horrified.
"Aging the meat. Adding flavor like any good chef." The Emperor replied. Then he shoved me into the pit.
I fell onto swollen, rotting bodies, popping them. Fetid blood and other bodily fluids shot out of their mouths, nose and other orifices. Some splashed onto my face.
I struggled to breathe in the stink and the heat of bacteria growing in and on and beneath the great mound of human bodies filling the immense pit.
A corpse beside me turned its head to me. It was Fulgrim.
"Hey there, Asta. Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" Fulgrim's corpse said, it's eyes long rotten away, only shadowed empty sockets remained.
A worm hesitantly twisted out of Fulgrim's right eye socket. It raised its wriggling head into the air.
I could have sworn it was waving to me.
I blinked and Fulgrim was alive, his violet eyes shining at me.
Please. Kill me. He mouthed, his eyes filled with tears.
I blinked again and Fulgrim's face was gaunt and mottled with pockmarks, his hair falling out, teeth missing and blackened.
I blinked and he was dead again, skinless, the muscle, cartilage and bone exposed to the air. Ants were carrying away scraps of his alabaster skin.
I blinked and he was a grinning skull, his bony fingers reaching out to me and stroking my cheek. I recoiled.
I tried to stand but the chest of a man I put my foot on broke through and my barefoot sunk into the lake of pus and necrotizing tissue chunks his body was concealing inside him.
I fell forward and caught myself on a woman's face, as I pulled away her cheek came with me, ripping off. It felt like cheese. I scraped it off on a little boy's shirt.
I wrenched my foot out of the pus deposit in the man's chest and crawled forward.
Through the steam created by evaporation of bodily fluids and the heat made from bacterial growth, I could just barely see someone crawling towards me.
I smiled. Yes! Yes!
"Hey! I'm alive too! Let's figure a way out of here-" I said.
The man tackled me and ripped off my nose with his teeth and swallowed it.
I screamed and punched him off me. He was a scrawny, diseased looking man, more bone than muscle but sprung at me like a starved lion. He must have been surviving down here by eating the flesh of the living newly dropped down here and drinking their blood. The rotting bodies would kill him if he tried to consume them.
He raked me with his long yellowed nails and I seized him and broke his neck.
Blood poured down all over my face. I took a strip of clothing from a newer corpse and stemmed the flow.
I walked after that for hours. I met people but we quickly went our separate ways when we realized there was no way to scale the walls. No point in pretending we had anything to say to each other.
I walked for days, avoiding others, until I collapsed. The bony, rotting bodies of the dead had never felt so like the comfiest pillow than in my brutal exhaustion.
I was awakened from my sleep by insects crawling into my eyes and down my throat.
"Father!" I yelled. "It's been days! End this!"
There was no answer.
I screamed until my vision went hazy and I blacked out.
When I awoke I was dead and immobile, my perspective remaining in my corpse. I could not move, I could not speak, but I could see even though I had no eyes.
I spent literal months trapped in a corpse body, listening to the screams and weepings of new arrivals and slowly was covered in a layer of new bodies as they laid down to die.
I rotted. Felt every worm threading its way through my corpse. Felt my skin falling off me. Felt my gut and intestines swelling with bacterial stew and fluid and built up gas.
And then there were machines wrenching out hulking handfuls of bodies and putting them in shipping containers.
We were sent off and eventually I found my way to a dinner table of sorts. The dessert to the appetizer of a dead little boy and the crying main course of a seventeen year old girl who thrashed in terror.
Our "hosts" were men made of congealed, worming white maggots which writhed and swayed on the surface of their bodies.
+These are the Slaugth and while dead and rotten humans are considered a delicacy amongst them, their preferred meal are living, breathing, feeling humans from which they can extract the most exquisite tastes borne of pure agony as one is consumed. They know of us and they hunger. We are their sweetest meat that they have found in all of the universe and for as long as they live they will never stop in their mission to put us all in pens and kitchens.+ The Emperor said.
I understand now. I thought angrily. I'm done.
+Not yet.+
The Slaugth ate the corpse of the little boy and then slowly, bit by bit starting from her feet, the living girl and then me.
My pain receptors shouldn't feel anything and yet I felt everything.
Despite that, my pain was nothing to how it hurt to hear the teenage girl being tormented and devoured. They like the sound of her screaming, I suppose. They had ungagged her when she had really started making some noise.
Inside the stomachs of the xenos, I burned with fury.
I'm done. I repeated in my thoughts.
+The Slaugth are far from humanity's only great danger. You have more to see.+ The Emperor communicated.
Hasn't it been long enough? It's been months. You're taking us both out of the action of the Great Crusade.
+Mere moments have passed since this vision began. We could be here for years, decades, if I wished it.+ The Emperor telepathically communicated.
- Location
- Australia
Horrifying and Effective. Sounds like the Emperor.