The Librarian Knights of No Man's Sky will form a chain across this universe using our discoveries as the links.
War Story 2 - Deathwatch - Part 3
Part 3 - The Kill-Ship
“Greetings, Chaplain. I heard you were looking for us?”
“Affirmative, brothers. I need to ask you a few questions. What are your names? And your ranks, please.”
“Librarian Atadrios of the Blood Ravens. Epistolary.”
“Ortegor of the Imperial Fists. Tactical Kill-marine.”
“Apothecary Seglatan of the Salamanders.”
“Vulkion of the Raven Guard. Assault Kill-marine.”
“Good. What is the Shield Brother’s rank?”
“Deathwatch Champion” answered Atadrios.
After the introductions, I proceeded to ask them long questions about their chapter costumes and rituals, as well as their chapter’s specific strategies. Atadrios, much like his Chapter as a whole, was dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. They did not know which Legion they hailed from, who their Primarch was or even for how long they’ve been around. They were unique in that the Master of the Chapter’s Librarium was also the Chapter Master, both ranks fused into one. For some unknown reason, their Chapter fielded more Librarians than any other, most of them developing psychic abilities after gene-seed implantation. Entire squads comprised of only Librarians was common among them, and these squads were pretty effective.
Vulkion told me his brothers were experts in guerilla warfare, and with the use of stealth tactics. They ambushed their enemies and destroyed them in quick assaults, using jump packs for mobility and lightning claws for fast attacks.
The Salamanders were obsessed with fire, and their home world was hot and radioactive. They, unlike most Space Marines, and very much like the Space Wolves, valued the lives of the regular civilians of the Imperium. When off-duty, many of them were known to return to their families to live somewhat normal lives, serving as tribe leaders until they were once again called to war. As a result, they had a particular hatred towards the Inquistion, who would see a world stripped of life just to eliminate a small hint of chaotic taint.
The Imperial Fists were masters of defense. It was said that a fortress built by them could not be penetrated. The ancient saying of “the best defense is a good offense” did not apply to them. Rogal Dorn, their Primarch, was also the last one to disappear, thought dead after assaulting a Chaos fleet to prevent a Black Crusade. Only his skeletal fist was recovered.
I had previously asked for the ranks of the others. Cass and Egehart were also Champions, and, surprisingly, Ulfgrim was a First Company Veteran. There were no companies in the Deathwatch, but this rank was a matter of renown. He was, thus, fully allowed to field Terminator armor, though he only did so on rare circumstances. Also, even more surprisingly, he preferred ranged combat over melee, most Space Wolves preferring the latter over the former. He was an expert marksman, and quite possibly the most valuable member of the entire team, apart from the Captain.
I was going to study their Chapters when the Captain called us to meet him. He told us to gear up and to find him in the docks. We were assigned to a vital mission and were to depart ASAP.
“Greetings, brothers. We were assigned to an urgent mission. One of our Kill-Ships went missing a few days ago. No order was sent for it to depart, so someone or something took it. Whoever did this has great knowledge of our technology, for these ships aren’t manned, being automated drones. Do you know these ships’ purpose?”
“Commit Exterminatus upon worlds lost to the Imperium” answered Atadrios.
“That is correct, Epistolary.”
“How did we find it?” asked Cass.
“We didn’t. A few hours ago a distress beacon was activated, and it matches this Kill-Ship. This is our opportunity. I’ll debrief you once we’re underway. Let’s go.”
We boarded a Strike Cruiser via Thunderhawk that was to take us to the Kill-Ship. While in Warp transit, we were debriefed.
“Listen up. Our mission is to find out who or what took the ship and to bring it back to safety before it destroys an entire world. Right now, all systems should be offline so our Augurs should be able to find it since that would imply the cloak’s off. We are to board it via Thunderhawk and advance through the ship into the control room. Once there, we must reactivate it and determine where it was headed and, if possible, reroute it manually. I’ll be joining you on this mission to ensure its success.”
We arrived later. The cruiser made its way to the Kill-Ship’s location as we prepared the Thunderhawk for take-off. Once we were all aboard, the engines fired on and the launch bay door opened. Slowly, the gunship elevated from the pad. The landing struts were recalled and, a few seconds later, we boosted out of the pad and travelled towards the vessel faster than the speed of sound.
All the lights were out inside, but we proceeded normally. We walked its corridors, looking for any sign of enemy presence. The vessel wasn’t supposed to be manned, so there were no big halls or anything resembling the grandeur put into any other imperial vessel.
“Brothers, we aren’t alone…” uttered Ulfgrim. He was the only one in the group, excluding the Captain, who didn’t bring a helmet.
“Nothing’s coming up on my auto-senses…” remarked Ortegor.
“Auto-senses… I have no need for auto-senses. I can smell it, whatever it is. Ain’t Human…”
“Xenos?” asked the Captain.
“Possibly, but it doesn’t smell like any xenos I’ve encountered before. Whatever it is, we aren’t alone.”
“Atadrios, can you track its presence in the Warp?”
“Negative. Whatever it is, it has no presence in the Immaterium.”
“It could be hiding it” I said.
“How far do you think it is, Ulfgrim?” asked the Captain.
“Hmmm… couldn’t say for sure… it seems distant. Wait!”
Everybody stopped.
“There’s a sound, coming from straight ahead.”
“Affirmative; Vulkion, go around, be ready to flank whatever is there. Cass, take point. Ortegor, Ulfgrim, keep an eye on us. The rest, with me. Keep me informed, wolf.”
We slowly advanced. Cass looked to all sides, alert to anything that could strike or flank him. Vulkion had taken position and was ready to ambush.
“The sound is getting louder. Whatever it is, it’s close to you.”
“We can hear it, wolf. There’s something here, that’s for certain. Seglatan, watch the ceiling.”
Something was crawling above us. It was getting closer and closer, the sound louder and louder. Jungso ordered everyone to stop and be alert. Whatever it was, it was passing right above us.
“Fire at my command… wait…”
The crawling went away. We started moving again, slowly. We proceeded this way till the end of the corridor. Whatever was there it either stayed there or vanished?
Eventually, we made it to the control room. We gathered together in front of the controls.
“Seglatan, turn it on.”
“Right away.”
At the press of a button, the entire ship came to life. The control system was online, initiating functions and starting to move once again.
“What are its coordinates?”
“Let me see… it is headed for the Hive World of Naclenia.”
“Can you issue a manual override? Set course to the Watch Fortress.”
“I can try… negative. Whatever took it hacked the systems. I can’t reroute it until its objective is complete.”
“Turn it off, then.”
A large warning appeared on screen.
“Can’t stop it now, Captain.”
Suddenly, we heard a loud noise.
“What was that?” asked Egehart.
“Captain, you’re not going to like this” Seglatan said.
“What is it?”
“That noise was an explosion coming from the Launch bay. Our Thunderhawk’s gone.”
A large flash came from just outside the window, accompanied by a thunderous noise. We all looked outside.
“By the Emperor…!”




Love these
Glad you enjoy them!
This is a bit smaller, mostly because I was afraid it wasn't going to fit :P
Anyway, I've planned things that are going to happen already. Next one should be a bit longer and should be where the action starts. There will be more chilled out posts, off-duty talk and such, but I'll try to keep it as intriguing as possible. The plot has been somewhat maped in my head, I've got things planned.
Anyway, here' something that's definitely going to happen:
WAAAGH!