Dan Lancefire was an experienced Sergeant in the Blazing Spartans Chapter, even considered for a promotion to Captain for his 500 years of service, to humanity, the Emperor and House Lancefire, in that order.
He had been raised among others of his clan, and even obtained two Blank children from his obligatory harem, before being inducted as a Space Marine. His daughter was now living on Excelsior, among the smart Blanks that formed Primarch's Vulkan special learning center. His Blank boy had joined the tech-priesthood and now worked on Forge Danube, luckily far away from the insect-like Tyranids attacking Forge Volga.
The star system was heavily contested, as Forge Machina had deployed a special Mechanicus Ark filled with laser drones, billions of them.
On the ground however, things were looking grim. The Auxilia troops and the local servitors and Skitarii cohorts of the Forge World were no match for the rapid spiders, and thus only the Astartes and the big walkers above him could dent the Tyranid attack.
Still they fought on, as there was no other choice. A Forge World was too important to lose, and thus more and more new recruits and billions of cloneskeins or servitors were thrown into the grinder of war. Another APC-sized spider climbed on top of the Hive's wall, and Dan burned its head with a hot blast from his Melta Lance.
And yet, the horizon was filled with more Tyranids, and tall capillary towers already sucking out the life essence of the planet.
This was going to be bad again, same as the bloody victory in the Rottgrave_System , most likely.
An Imperial Knight on his left ducked under a dive-bombing Gargoyle, then received a bio-plasma globe to the face from a distant Pyrovore, and retreated in the second line to get the maintenance rites restored.
"We're deploying the promethium jets now, stand clear!" he heard his Captain on the vox channel, before the nozzles of burning fuel erupted like streams of magma to burn out this attack wave. Millions of spiders burned to a crisp in a single minute of weaponized fuel pumps. Amazing, really. But it won't last. Promethium was great, but it burned fast, and then the Tyranids would come again. There were always more Tyranids.
Dan glanced below, and saw the Tyranids already re-grouping for another assault.
"Damn bugs are persistent. Why is the fleet not helping?" A Catachan soldier asked with a hopeful glance at the lit up sky. Billions of laser beams crisscrossed the sky as the drones battled the flying Tyranid bioforms, which looked nice, but would not even tickle the larger Hive Ships hidden among their cruiser-size bioships.
"They are helping by thinning out the landing spores. There could be 40 times more Tyranids below, otherwise." Dan spoke with a lamenting voice.
"Hah! Only 40..." the unnamed Catachan yelled back, when a long spine entered his mouth and ended his life.
Dan sighed inward and blasted the climbing spider before it could crawl on top of the wall. Exactly like Rottgrave. Not so many daemons, though. Maybe it wasn't so bad, yet.
"Less speaking and more shooting!" he yelled at the Auxilia troops, inspiring them to fight on a little longer.
"Captain? Any chance for reinforcements?" he asked with a less hopeful tone.
"Unless bloody father arrives this day, we may join the Emperor at his feast table. You know the Imperium won't send anyone this far out in the Fringe, brother." Captain Zoro 'Slash' Lancefire answered with mild humor.
"As you say, Captain. I hope I get some roasted Fenirisan elk, I loved it in training." Dan said in a more hungry tone, remembering the survival training of his youth. He still had the giant elk's horns in his quarters, a memento of his foolish bravery and the pain of extracting those horns from his stomach.
"Bleh, elk! At least an Ursadon!" Zoro answered in a boasting voice, while his Phase Blade sliced a dozen sticky claws reaching over the wall.
Nobody knew how Zoro managed to kill a Titan-sized Ursadon with his puny combat knife, and yet he did. Marked for Captain-track even as a new recruit. Some people did have all the luck.
'This looks quite fun, guys! Should I come in and help, or rest a bit longer?' a curious voice spoke inside his head, someone he never met, but knew even if asleep.
Pef Lancefire had arrived, just like the Captain had predicted.
"I was hoping for roasted elk, to be fair." Dan muttered in a slightly disappointed voice, as giant flares of Nova Shells filled the sky. The Hive Fleet will be burned off in a few minutes, now that the Primogenitor had returned.
Then a trio of gigantic Titans appeared in front of the Hive City walls, taller than the highest spire.
"You can rest now, brothers. I am Bianca, and my Red Hot Titan will take care of the tiny spiders for you!" the Titan's Princeps spoke from her titanic vox casters, so loud that his blood vibrated inside his chest for a few seconds.
Then blazing hot beams of Volcano Lances fired rapidly into the cloud of flying Gargoyles, while the main Volcano Cannons and Plasma Annihilators scoured the field and demolished a few small mountains in the distance.
"Smoking Hot is better!" another Titan's Princeps claimed as her weapon batteries reduced a cohort of bio-titans to mere smoke and ash.
"Tint your visors, brothers! Blinding Hot has taken the field!" the third Titan's Princeps proclaimed in a boasting voice, as her enfilade fire alongside the wall cleared a billion Tyranids with a single salvo.
Dan had kept an eye open, and regretted it, as a climbing Tyranid managed to stab him in the stomach while he was amazed and blinded by the fireworks.
"Damn it! Don't look at the elk yet! This looks bad, Dan....Dan!" he heard his Captain yell, then he vanished.
"... Scanning for injuries. Non-critical, nanite injection, 21 cc." Dan heard a faint robot voice as the scenery changed, and he opened his good eye to find himself in a strange medicae bay, white and clean and devoid of medics or surgeons, and of course Apothecaries.
A robotic arm hanging from the ceiling extracted a vicious claw dripping blood and guts from his stomach, and held it out for a moment. "Do you want to keep this memento as well, Sergeant? You appear to favor things that pass through your stomach..." the robot voice asked in a serious tone.
Dan sighed and nodded. "Sure, I'll keep it. It looks great. These nanites...are they safe?" he asked instead.
"Safe? Let me think about it." the Machine Spirit spoke in an ironic tone, and when Dan looked down his stomach wound was already closing, while vision has already returned to his damaged eye.
Probably safe then. It sure beat getting cut open by an Apothecary again.
"You can return to your unit, or rest for a while here, Sergeant. It's not like the situation requires an extra gun anymore." the Machine Spirit provided in a gentler voice.
"So we already won, right?" Dan asked to make sure. The robot arm blinked from its single blue eye, then turned away.
More Astartes and even Auxilia troops arrived in various states of injuries, and got injected by robotic arms with a blue-glowing cocktail that worked almost like psyker magic. Most injuries healed fast, but not the missing limbs. Not real magic then.
Dan rose to his feet and grabbed his claw trophy. "I should go. The other injured may need the medic-bed." he said in a farewell voice.
"Come back soon!" the robot voice exclaimed as a metal door opened for him to exit into a wide ship's hangar, filled with Aquila starfighters and troops boarding landers.
Dan sighed inward and walked out. Damn cog humor! He would only return if he was injured again.
Then he encountered a giant grey wolf, who sniffed at the bloody claw in his hand.
"Follow me, Sergeant. You've been selected for a special mission." the wolf spoke between sword-sized teeth.
Dan frowned, and followed the damn speaking wolf. He had seen stranger things in his life.
"I like to eat too. It seems we're much alike, you and I. Name's Lash, by the way." the wolf spoke as they walked through a strange grey corridor without any people.
"Most wolves don't speak. Not even the Fenrisian wolves." Dan noted in an observant manner.
The wolf turned to measure him for a long minute. "There are no wolves on Fenris, Sergeant Lancefire. The universe is much stranger than you know." the wolf claimed in a wise tone.
"Why is there no one in this part of the ship?" Dan asked instead, too weirded out by the strange conversation with a Goliath Truck-sized wolf.
"This is not a ship, Sergeant. It's a pocket dimension, the size of a star system. Ever been to Sotha?" the wolf asked in a strange tangent.
"... Isn't that place locked behind Forge Machina? I'm not a Tech-Marine either." Dan wondered with a deep frown.
A silver wall faded away to reveal a pair of women, wearing bodysuits marked with Silent Sisters' sigils. "You must be Dan, right?" A Silent Sister asked him with a normal voice, making him doubt he even knew the rules of the universe anymore. Not only wolves but also Silent Sisters could speak?
"You're confusing the man, girls. I am Pef." a man spoke as he appeared from thin air in the room, wearing a casual green robe with the bleeding heart sigil.
Dan pounded his chestplate and nodded. "Lord Lancefire. I am honored to meet you." What else could he say?
Although his Primogenitor was certainly taller than the pics and stories told. About the same as a Firstborn, maybe.
"Take this. I will send you to the Pharos on Sotha, carrying this data-slate. When the upload is ready, I will bring you back. Don't tell anyone about the mission." the man ordered in a mild voice, and handed him a blackstone chip and a data-slate.
"More tunnels?" Dan asked, and vanished.
Instead, he appeared inside a huge cavern, with a giant humanoid creature nailed to the Blackstone wall.
The Titan-sized creature opened his eyes and stared down at Dan for a minute.
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"Is that the device you need me to upload?" it asked in a bored voice.
"...I would assume so. What are you?" Dan Lancefire asked with a curious tone, holding out the data-slate. It wasn't a daemon, and certainly not human. A xenos of some kind?
"Me? I am Zarhulash. You smell like a Lancefire, and the Astartes marks on your armor indicate a Sergeant rank. How close am I?" the creature called Zarhulash wondered as the data-slate levitated from Dan's hand and landed in the giant's palm.
Lancefires had a particular smell? That was new. "I expect you know my Primogenitor, Pef Lancefire. Do I smell like him?" Dan asked with a raised eyebrow.
The giant sniffed and eyed the Tyranid claw Dan still carried around. "Indeed, you have the Lancefire bloodline. The Blank gift as well, and the gene-seed of Primarch Vulkan. Plus, a handful of tiny nanite repair-bots in your bloodstream, already going dormant now that your injury has healed. You are blessed, Dan Lancefire."
The data-slate floated back in Dan's hand, probably already uploaded with the data his Primogenitor wanted. "How I am blessed?" Dan asked the strange xenos.
"That Blackstone card, you know what it is?" Zahulash asked instead, making Dan suddenly cautious.
"It is an inert piece of rock. Right?" Dan said as he held out the black card, and realized immediately that it might not be true.
"Yes, but no. Blackstone is not mere rock, Dan Lancefire. Just as you are not a mere human anymore. That particular bit of Blackstone is a tiny shard of Nyadra'zatha, the Burning One. In the same way, a drop of your blood is a tiny shard of the Lancefire House, and farther away a miniscule part of the Emperor of Man. I believe humanity still uses genetic scanners for important doors and locks?" the giant explained in a roundabout way.
Would have been helpful to know who the alien with the strange name was, but Dan could guess the rest.
"This Nyadra'zatha, is that someone like you?" Dan asked with faint suspicion.
"I am bound with Enuncia to this prison lighthouse. Zath is now free, roaming the galaxy to search for his Shards. But the important part, is who freed him. Which would be your distant Primogenitor. That access card in your hand is worth more than a dozen battleships, Dan Lancefire. Come back soon!" the creature explained in a patient tone, then waved him farewell as space shifted, and he returned in front of Pef Lancefire. Thousands of light-years, crossed in an instant.
"My lord, the Blackstone...?" Dan started to ask just as the data-slate vanished from his hand.
"Mighty Zarhulash must have been bored to reveal so much to you, Dan. Lash, go induct him in the Obsidian Augury, and start looking for Corax." Pef Lancefire spoke with a careless voice, more interested in the data-slate connecting to a mechadendrite cable which had appeared out of nowhere to link his temple data-port with the data-storage device.
One of the Silent Sisters waved at him with an amused smile, while the other one sighed out loud. "I guess we'll meet again, Dan Lancefire. Pef, thank the man for his service!" the vociferous Sister demanded and poked the Primogenitor in the temple.
"Right. I was away for too long, and wanted to learn more about my domain. Dan Lancefire, you have performed a perilous and important mission, and even encountered a Star God and lived. You are to be commended, just like Lady Ordella says." the Primogenitor said as his eyes focused on Dan for a minute.
"I am Lash, shard of Zarhulash, the Potentate. So, now you've met my Primogenitor. How is he?" the truck-sized wolf asked in a casual tone, while leading Dan away on another silvery tunnel.
"Star God? You are a fragment of an alien god?" Dan muttered in a strange voice. Now the talking wolf made a bit more sense, and posed more questions.
The wolf turned and examined Dan with a quizzing look. "You are also a shard of a God, Dan Lancefire. Don't make things weird."
Dan blinked and shut up. Truly, the universe was a strange place, and he knew nothing about it. Still. "Bound with Enuncia, your sire said. I only saw chains made of rock. Or Blackstone, which apparently is more than mere rock." he mused in a low voice, and tapped his Blackstone plates covering the power armor.
"Yes, our continuing mission is to obtain a library of Enuncia words, which are also not mere words. You are to be the test case for the Enouncement Words we find, until a dictionary is created for Lady Ordella to use. Captain Lancefire was quite lucky to discover a Silent Sister of that power, before she was bound to the Silence Vows." the wolf revealed as they arrived in another of the ship's sector, lined with more Blackstone and filled to the brim with cogitators and hololith screens.
"This is the local Obsidian Augury, Dan Lancefire. Your access card, if you please." the wolf said and held out a paw.
Dan shook his head and dropped the Blackstone card in the wolf's paw, who inserted the card into a wafer slot on a cogitator console. "Dan Lancefire, Obsidian Augur, recognized. FTL network online. Input query." the hololith screen lit up with words.
"Don't be an ass, little Blade. The boy is new and already skittish." the big wolf spoke in a dismissive voice.
A blue image of a female in strange light armor appeared in the floating hologram screen. "I am the Blade, Dan. We meet again." she spoke in a voice he recognized from the medicae bay.
"Some kind of Machine Spirit surgeon?" Dan realized with a surprised voice.
The floating Spirit waved a hand airly. "I have multiple talents. Anyway, let's see what news you bring of Primach Corvus. Tachyon links online. Matching temporal coordinates, matching Obsidian Augury credentials. Lash, be so kind and connect us to the Pharos empathic network."
The wolf sat down and poked the hologram screen, making numbers and words appear and float downwards like a waterfall. "Obsidian card located, Ultima Segmentum, Idolatros_System .Focusing the Pharos lens." the xenos wolf spoke with a professional tone, as the hologram shifted to a projection of that star system, with a Warp Storm marker forming a sphere around it.
"Is that a Daemon World?" Dan Lancefire noted with sudden wariness.
"Indeed, that would be the Daemon World Wyrmwood, a fragment of Caliban. And on it, there are numerous Iron Warriors Warbands, now meeting with their Primach Perturabo, while Corax is shadowing his brother." the Blade spirit answered with a casual voice, as the hologram converged on a single place, almost like having a pict-cam hovering above the meeting.
"We could throw in a few melta bombs. Would ruin the party for sure." the wolf proposed with a sneaky voice.
Dan just realized this was not a mere projection either. He had been on Sotha in person, just an hour ago. If they could transport a person, killing the traitors from far away would be much safer.
"Shut up, Lash! Perturabo was also given a mission, let's see if he accomplishes anything. You already have the lives of the traitors in your greedy paws." the Blade exclaimed with an irate voice.
"Calm down everyone! I am curious what they are doing here, in my backyard." Pef Lancefire spoke in a commanding voice, making the wolf run towards the Primogenitor to be petted like a real wolf.
"I found them easily, Captain. Just say the word, and I'll eat them all." the xeno-wolf claimed with a hungry tone.
"My lord, this kind of tech...almost seems like cheating." Dan observed with a respectful voice.
"Divine powers always seem like that, Dan. Corax is there too, hiding in a shadow right now. Without the Obsidian marker I gave him, we couldn't even find the Primarch, even with the Pharos. This guy lasted 11000 years in the Eye of Terror, killing Chaos Marines and Sorcerers one by one. Shadow-walking is also a cheat power." Pef Lancefire answered with a friendly pat on his arm.
Then their ears perks up, as the Iron Warriors knelt to their Primarch and gene-sire. "Lord Perturabo! We have The Key right here. Once we find the Lock, we could travel into the Warp and locate the Weapon. You would become a God!" an old Chaos Marine proposed with a hopeful voice.
"... That sounds interesting. An Anathema Weapon cache of the Old Ones. Just like your Emperor." the wolf noted in an interested voice.
"And where is this Lock?" Perturabo asked in a stern voice.
"Around the volume where this Pariah Nexus has appeared. We believe the Necrons are also chasing after the Weapon, Sire. Chaos Lord Ahriman would know more if you were willing to meet him." the Warband's leader proposed with a fake voice.
Dan heard his Primogenitor sigh. "Ahriman again. I hoped the Starchild would have eaten him already." he lamented in a low voice.
"The Archtraitor? How is the Sorcerer involved in this?" Dan asked as the universe revealed more surprises.
"Ahriman obviously wants to become a Chaos God himself. Perturabo is only a pawn, or perhaps a blood sacrifice." Pef Lancefire said in a convinced voice, and Dan tended to agree. That Archtraitor nickname wasn't just for the Imperium. Chaos traitors were not known for their loyalty.
"Who else here wants to meet with Lord Ahriman?" Perturabo asked with a calm voice.
"Maybe we could find more from him, Sire. I'm not saying we should trust him..." Another Chaos Marine proposed with a honeyed voice.
"I'm very disappointed in all of you, but most of all in those following the Archtraitor. You know what to do, my loyal sons!" Perturabo proclaimed as he drew his weapons out.
The surface of the Daemon World soon ran red with blood and hematite cells filled with iron. Iron within and then iron without.