This is a 40K story about the life of Captain Bezla the foul, a commander of the Black Legion. Created by myself to chart the path of my Black Legion army as it laid waste to all that opposed.
Planet Ethera 3rd, Harvest Planet, Tithe year. Midafternoon, Eldybar road.
As he ran his heart beat faster in his chest. The road ahead was dry and dusty, as there had not been any rain for years. Glancing behind him he could see the other children chasing him, their faces curled with hatred as they followed.
Just because he had been given a bulbous head at birth, they treated him like scum, it wasn't his fault.
He could hear them behind, "Legolas swell head, sipe head (local pumpkin type fruit)". Faster he ran, the blood pumping, a vain pulsed upon his forehead with the pressure of the flow of the blood. A stone zipped past his left ear, he cut left off of the path down into the crop fields that lined the road. Climbing the fence that stopped people from entering the fields he looked back. The children on the road had stopped on the verge and where pitching stones at him from a distance.
Dropping down on the other side of the fence he parted the reeds and stepped inside. The reeds closed behind him and the other children disappeared from view.
He knew they would not follow him inside, everyone had heard the stories about young children disappearing in these fields, never to be found again. Why did they chase him, he never did anything to them?
He pushed his way into the field further away from the sounds of the others. Slumping down on the dirt between the reeds he lay back waiting to catch his breath. The sky was still a bright crimson colour. His dad said it was because of the gases in the planets atmosphere. He liked the stories his dad told him, of how on earth it was rumored that the sky was the same colour as the sea, although he didn't really know what the sea was. Gradually the pain in his head subsided and he lay back in the reeds to plot some sort of revenge on the others. He liked going in to the fields during the afternoons as he sometimes heard voices, well not exactly voices more like a soft melodic chanting. He could hear it now, it was so relaxing, still dreaming of revenge he nestled back into the reeds and let his eyes close. Ah! He would have such fun getting back at those spiteful children. Revenge, revenge, he smiled faintly as he drifted off to sleep.
Governor Hradi sighed, all this work for nothing, still it had to be done. Every decade the imperial ships would come to collect the planets tithe of reeds. His sector always managed to keep up to date with requests, but this time it had been very hard due to the fact that there had been very little rain to nourish the crops.
They had worked extra hard, and what was the gratitude?
They always got Protection. It was laughable, protection from what? Who would what to attack this place, all it had was dirt and reeds and people. It would be a waste of time. Still they had heard rumors about some type of green monsters that attacked places for the hell of it.
"Are we ready yet?" he inquired. Bloody astropaths, blind as bats and slow at their job with it.
"Nearly ready, I need to concentrate, something I can't do with you going on about it.", said Elsi (The astropath). "Right now talk me through the message.", she said.
"Planet Ethera 3rd, reporting that tithe of reed is ready for collection. Sector 56 stock is kept at planet reference 45.354.3263. over. Long live the emperor!".
"Well that about wraps it up", said Hradi getting up from his chair. "Now we wait".
"They say they will be here within the next two multiple moon cycles.", said Elsi.
"Good plenty of time for everything to be in order", he muttered as he left the room.
Lieutenant commander Helhand sat in consternation upon the bridge on the barge. All around was a hive of activity, brothers crouched over consoles and monitors plotting the journey of the ship.
They were moving away from the eastern side of the galaxy, away from the Hive Fleet "Behemoth", That encounter had been to risky by far. The aim had been to kill all they could, and of course capture any supplies they could scavenge. It should have all been perfect, They had sacrificed the humans from the last planet just before the attack, The gods of Chaos almighty seemed to have been satisfied. But then you just could not tell.
When they had docked in the middle of the tyranid ship, they had encountered fierce resistance, quite unlike anything they had found in this part of the galaxy. Blood had flowed in rivers and the kills had been numerous, but losses were getting to be out of hand so he had ordered a tactical withdrawal, Not before sending the ship to hell, as a present.
A lot had been lost in that conflict, many of the few brothers had been lost, but the medics had gathered back nearly all of the fallens progeniod glands, keeping the companies future safe.
He sensed an approaching presence on his left side, he turned his head to gaze upon the messenger. A small sturdy dwarf entered the command room from the elevator shaft. It made its way directly towards the command chair. In the dimmed lights of the command room the sign of chaos marked upon its forehead glowed with a dull green throb.
When the dwarf reached the desk he bowed his head and looked at the floor when he spoke.
"Sir we have intercepted a subspace message from a local planet, it indicates a large amount of supplies are waiting to be picked up by the cursed imperium".
Indeed, this was interesting, the gods must have been pleased by there effort. "Give the coordinates to the flight staff and report back here", he boomed, the microphones in his helmet amplified his voice so that it sounded deafening. Looking down at his side, his deamon sword pulsed inside its sheath, "Yes my pretty soon you will drink again, but first we must whet thy appetite.", he thought to himself.
The dwarf appeared again and waited for commands. Unhooking the catch from the haft of the blade he placed his hands upon the hilt. Electric fire pulsed through his veins, the urge to shout a battle cry grew in his chest. He could feel that this would be a worthwhile journey. Drawing the blade he ran his tentacles along its length.
"Chaos almighty gave me this sword and this tentacle as gifts for great service, you dwarf are about to do your greatest service to chaos", he bellowed at the dwarf. Using his psychic powers he reached into the dwarfs mind and found a feeling of utter rapture.
"The glory is mine", whispered the dwarf. A look of admiration on his face. Only non battle-brothers and scum would be fitting sacrifices before at battle as they were easy to persuade.
The blade howled as it embedded itself in the guts of the dwarf, who's eyes appeared to expand and pop from his face. The blade gurgled with happiness as it wriggled inside the dwarf.
He grinned to himself and let the corpse slump to the floor. There were more pressing things to attend to.
He gave the orders to capture and kill, after all new stock was needed to refill the ranks. Replacing the sword in its sheath he sat back and waited for them to reach orbit, his tentacled arm slithered and writhed over the small icon of chaos he now held. It would indeed be great.
Hradi jerked himself from sleep to answer the constant bussing of the comms beeper by his bed. "Yes what the hell is it??", he demanded. They should know by now that it better be bloody important to get him out of bed at this time of the night.
"Sir, scanners located a large vessel approaching the planet from the eastern side. At first we thought it was the tithe ship come early. But it would not respond to our calls. Then we received this communication.", gasped a worried looking guard.
The screen of the comms unit switched to the image of a large dark room with lights playing faintly in the background. A pool of darkness radiated from the center of the screen. Suddenly a large figure stepped from the shadows right up to the image grabber. It was enormous, intricate armour adorned its body and strange symbols hung from its cloak. At the top of its body a large helmet with what appeared to be two large horns lifted itself to look directly at the screen.
"We have come to give the gift of Chaos almighty, there is no defense, give up now and you shall enjoy all the more. Otherwise death will be swift and painful".
The volume level was deafening, so Hradi turned down the controls. "Oh shit ", he cried. Sweat burst upon his brow as he looked at the pale face of the now returned face of the guard.
"Sir, we are getting reports of large scale attacks on the defense batteries. What shall we do?, we need the order to attack. Sir?", the guard looked desperate.
Hradi breathed hard, what was this attacks a monster from the stars, he didn't know what to do. He gulped loudly to clear his throat.
"Shoot back and muster the defense forces.", he ordered. The time in the guards still had left its mark on him. He would not crack now, but how could he stand against a beast such as this.
"Will do Si...", came the reply from the defense bunker before the comms screen became a hissing mess.
Banging on the door to his chamber brought him back to reality. Guards burst in and shouted that they needed orders. Hradi floundered with his robes, he wasn't meant for this, why him. A loud explosion rocked the walls of the building and dust filtered down from the ceiling. "quick lets go", he shouted to the guards as he left the room in front of them.
Legolas jumped up from his place on the ground. A huge roaring filled the sky with noise and light shone from all around. Rushing back to the fence he could see huge plumes of smoke reaching into the sky as through someone had set one of the reed fields on fire. But the smoke came from the direction of the city. A large flash of light lit the sky not far from where he was standing and a wall of heat knocked him from his feet. His face hurt from the heat and strips of it bubbled in his hands. Standing back up he ran back towards his house, the air burnt his lungs and the dust on the road danced as though it had a life of its own. Ahead in the night a mighty roar thundered and suddenly stopped. Running, running towards the noise. He could hear the sounds of hunting guns and a heavy thud of something else. Screams and cries filled the night all around. As he reached the edges of the town he stopped in fright.
A large black vessel lay in the centre of the towns sport field. Huge crowds of beasts charged from the vessel, seemingly endless supplies of them. Then every so often a large black giant would step from the craft and run into the melee. He threw himself to the floor as they started to head this way. The beasts were like large dogs, guided by the black giants.
Across the road to the right, lived old man thompson. The beasts smashed down his door and steamed in. Screams came from inside and the upper window smashed as a hairy body tumbled out. A beast man lay dying from the fall. The nearest black giant turned to face the house. Lifting a large weapon on its shoulder it aimed and fired. A lance of blue/purple light flashed from the end towards the house. The house exploded from the inside outwards. Laughing the giant resumed its command of the beast men.
Legolas looked to the left, down in the ditch hid one, Joko, one of the children from the school. He slid down beside her. Joko nearly leapt away in fright. Then the awful smell of urine reached Legolases nostrils.
"What are they? Why are they doing this?", cried Joko. Tears streaked her face. Legolas had always wondered how to get back at Joko, she was the gangs ringleader at the school, so she was the worst. Now she looked so weak, not so tough. Grabbing her by the hair he lifted her up, and shoved her out into the road. She was like a limp weight. He slipped back down into the ditch to watch.
She stumbled and fell face first in the dirt of the road. Glancing up she saw a large tower moving towards her. Screaming with animalistic fear she tried to crawl backwards away from the approaching being.
Helhand was in the middle of the fighting, when he sensed a small burst of hate imprint itself upon his physic mask. He looked towards the direction of the source and his face monitor shown a small being throw another one to the floor. He strided over to where the female being lay quivering in the road. She tried to move away but could not. Reaching her his tentacled arm lifted her from the floor. No this was not the one from whom the burst had come. Holding Joko in the air he looked at the small male crouched in the ditch. Yes he was the one. Holding Joko at arms length he ran her through with the deamon sword. Power flowed up his arm, a virgin, all the better.
Legolas gazed in awe as the towering being grabbed Joko from the floor , it then looked at him. When it did so he felt his brain being opened to the others, the feeling of power and pleasure overwhelmed him and he started to dribble. He gazed on as Joko was split in two by the sword and her legs fell still kicking to the floor.
Helhand dropped the now useless corpse to the floor, he sensed that the boy had enjoyed the moments that he had allowed him. He sheathed the wet sword and strode over to him. The boy looked up and lay non blinking gazing at him. He reached down and lifted him from the floor, slinging him over his shoulder. He turned and headed back to the drop ship.
Legolas lay motionless as he was lifted clean off of his feet. The ground seemed so far away as the giant carried quickly through the battle. Helhand reached the ship and threw the boy to the floor just inside the drop ships interior. There a cultist picked him up and carried him inside.
Legolas thumped to the floor of the vessel and his head now spun from the impact. He was grabbed quickly and he felt a prick into his arm and the light seemingly slipped from his eyes.
Helhand strode back to the edge of the town. He turned on his comms channel and called for the attention of all squad leaders. "The assault on the grain store will begin when I arrive", he commanded. Reaching the grain store warehouse, he saw that it was heavily entrenched with large defense lasers. "How do we fare?", he asked the second in command.
"Chaos be praised, we have many kills and not many losses. We have totally gained control of the city apart from this point. The troops in now occupied zone are helping to keep up the quota.", barked the second in command.
"Excellent, now we want to take out those lasers. Strap up some of the beast scum and send them forward", Helhand decided. No point in losing valuable brothers in this job when the beast scum can do the job.
Inside the defense command bunker for the grain store, Hradi stood waiting in fear for what was about to come. "Give me reports damn it!!, also keep sending that message for reinforcements", he shouted. Damn!, why him. The city had been blasted to dust and then they monsters had come. Reports had flooded in from all over the city of mass rapes, murders and sacrifices to a god that was not the emperor. The hairy beasts seemed to be the cannon fodder but they did seem to care. Now he was left with this, good job the imperials required that it was to be fortified.
"Sir the enemy are charging again!", reported one of the comms monitors. On the screen waves of hairy dogs lumbered across the perimeter zone. The lasers danced among them turning hundreds into charred husks, which fell to ash when the next beast ran upon it. "Sir lasers are becoming unstable, there are too many for the tracking computers to handle.". Hradi looked towards his captain of the guard. "Close and seal the bulk door". The captain seemed to be pleased to do so.
Helhand watched satisfied with himself as one by one the lasers were overrun. A fitting tribute to the lords of Chaos. He gave the order for the brothers to advance. Over on the left flank a brother stepped on a still unexploded mine. The explosion disemboweled him and chunks of the dead marine started to fall all around like some perverse rain. "Damn, another marine lost, and that one we cannot get the porgeniod glands from.", swore Helhand, without those glands another marine could not be made. Grabbing the second in commands multi-melta he aimed at the bunker door and fired, the heavy duty plasteel door dripped into sludge and fell to the floor. Passing back the multi-melta gun, he cocked his bolter gun. He stroked the barrel as he stepped through the melted door. Flashes of laser fire zoomed at him from out of the darkness. His helmets vision switched to infra red so that it was as if day.
"Die by the hand of Chaos!!", he cried as he leapt into the room. Using his bolter on three of the troops which were in the room, he left satisfactory red splashes over the walls where they once had stood. He grabbed his sword which shrieked as he drew it. It hummed with joy and glowed a fierce red colour as he swung left and right. Bodies were decapitated and cast asunder as the blade rode its deadly path.
Suddenly there was nobody left standing to kill. Cowering in the corner under a console was Hradi the commander. Lifting him up Helhand carried outside, he threw him to the second in command, who deftly caught him.
"Load the ships with the supplies. All remaining fresh troops and brothers are to be taken back to the barge. All wounded troops are to be left as a surprise for the next visitors.", he commanded.
"Yes sir, and what should I do with this?", asked the second in command. "Make him the first sacrifice, then follow up with the remaining women and children. Males bring aboard we need to restock.", Helhand replied. When He heard that he was to made a sacrifice Hradi defecated himself again.
Helhand sat in the command room. It had all gone very well. They had taken plenty of supplies and new troop material. A few thousand sacrifices had been made out of the planets survivors.
The boy!. "Bring me the boy I brought aboard.", he ordered. Presently the still drowsy boy was brought before him.
Helhand reached out with his mind and rummaged through the boys past. When he finished he was pleased with his choice. The right age and the right background, this one would blend in very well.
"Mindwipe him apart from the 'good' parts, then start training and surgery", he told the accompanying medic.
"Will do sir", replied the medic as they dragged the boy away.
"Sir, a large number of vessels appearing from warp space on the other side of the planet. They will be in range in 2 hours.", called one of the console operators.
"We have done enough for now, lets move away and refresh, after all there is still plenty to conquer for Chaos.". With that order he settled back into his chair to look at the command screen.
Oh yes, there was still plenty out there to give to Chaos.
To be continued if enjoyed.