Trembling Song Stanzas in the Far Future (minus the Goblin Stanzas)
Ch. 23, serenading the ghosts...
She’d made it the first time to play for herself. The first time I was playing it here, it was to an audience of a quarter-million.
Tremble, oh ooooo Tremble, she comes, the wordless notes began to rise and fall, and people looked up, the ghosts looked back, and everyone listened.
Ch. 50, the first Ranthas are born...
An eerie trembling whistle arose, whose melody I knew well. All their eyes were literally glowing. Tremble, oh oooo oh, Tremble, we come...
Ch. 97, the Rantha Protocols kick in...
Anatolia Rantha considered the positions of all the Fleet assets in the systems, judged them, juggled them, and began to plan.
Her Talent was War Gamer, and this grand tactical battlefield was where her Talent shone the brightest. The captains and admirals of the Fleet in the system would have been incensed if they knew their maneuvers were being decided by a woman sitting in the yoga position on floor 184 of a haunted blok, surrounded by thousands of ghosts very, very curious about the sheer profoundness of the psychic ripples swirling around her, rendering her a very, very important being for what was about to happen.
It was a big step up from RTS games in her prior life, which had consumed Anatoli Ryuivov so much he was basically a vidiot living on stims and games. Now, his Talent was being put to proper use in defense of reality, instead of fleeing from it.
Three dozen Ranthas and Briggs with warlord, command, or tactical-based Talents were linked to her and helping her with the load and decision making, while also turning broad decisions and judgements into real-time instructions and tactics, which the field commanders out there turned it into local orders and execution. Music was humming through the whole mess, grand and solemn, building ever-so-slowly with a terrible killing momentum.
Tremble, ohhhh oh ohhhh, Tremble, we come...
Ch 112, Azure is flying during xenosym invasion,
Her previous life had wanted to fly, but the closest she’d ever gotten were drones and hovercars, and she certainly hadn’t been allowed to race them. Azure was singing along to the pumping sound that was filling Markspace, and being broadcast out into the ether by more than a few Beacon psions totally digging into it.
The ether was thrumming with it. Tremble, ohhhh oh ohhhhh, Tremble, we come!
Ch. 192, Dark Angel spreads the Song...
Yes, it was butchery, slaughter, and massacre. There was no other word for it. The Akasha began to scream with my kill totals, as vivus fed them and their last thoughts into their racial collectives.
Tremble, oh oooo oh, Tremble, she comes...
World to world, battlezone to battlezone. I drove headfirst into unbelievable carnage, catastrophes, holocausts of war, and screaming battlefields where sane people just shouldn’t go, where you couldn’t see for the blood and bone dust in the air, couldn’t hear for the screaming explosions constantly all around, couldn’t think for the maddening psychic churning in the mindscape, and couldn’t move for the heaped dead and churned earth that covered the ground.
I cut my way through all of it, Chalice Singing a dirge of doom for everything that stood in my way, and the dead burned in vivus, and took all the other corpses nearby with them as they flamed.
----------------
Tremble, oh ooooo oh, Tremble, she comes...
Trooper Farnart’s heart nearly stopped when the words washed softly past him.
He’d heard it before, seen it on some scratchy vids some troopers had managed to download, stuff the higher-ups were trying to shut down, and which somehow got through and proliferated faster than the Mekkers could shut them down.
It was hard to get details, it was moving too fast, but those notes just hung in the mind.
Tremble, oh ooooo oh Tremble, she comes...
Ch. 193, the Song spreads...
The quiet you want, the peace you need,
Your roars and anger give no heed,
Chaos calms and burns away,
Warp begone, its final day,
A whispered sigh.
Souls in torment, now be released,
Demon’s raving now is ceased,
Life is come to drink and feast,
Death is now the one made least.
The end is nigh.
Tremble, oh ooooo oh, Tremble, she comes...
Drink from Chalice, oh, drink deep,
Behold Paten, before you sleep;
Raise the Host, and sup you well,
Afore Life Itself dines on Hell,
Waiting, waiting so long...
Wail and scream against Faith’s own shield,
Your time is done, your fate is sealed.
Cast you down, burn you high,
Paint the ground, sear the sky,
Coming, coming so strong...
Tremble, oh ooooo Tremble, she comes...
The Wheel turns, and now it grinds
Demons to dust in endless lines,
Your turn to end, demons to reap,
No one to mourn, no tears to weep,
Feed, oh demons, Feed the Land.
Its hunger old, and now it wakes,
Wails of madness its hunger slakes.
Protest and scream, the Land cares not,
Your race is run, your battle fought,
Fight, oh demons, your last stand.
Tremble, oh ooooo oh, Tremble, she comes...
Feel you now, feel that thirst?
Prepared you are for utter worst?
The Land, it rises, and mortal souls,
Fires fan embers, and vengeance rolls,
Turns the wheels on burning steel.
Life now rises, feel its rage,
Feel the turning of the age,
Serene calm, beyond all death,
Beyond the pall where doom draws breath,
Rail and stagger, and demons kneel.
Tremble, oh ooooo oh, Tremble, we come...
Feel that light from mortals arise,
Feel that might where defiance flies,
Against the destiny you have wrought,
Against the damnation you have sought,
Cracked and shattered far asunder.
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Your cheap power, let it burn,
New light rises, now in turn,
A future waits where the Warp is naught
A figment, a dream, its battles fought,
Broken and buried deep down under...
Tremble, oh ooooo oh Tremble, we come...
-------
That entire barrage zone became a wall of unwhite fire, catching hundreds of screaming demons within it and burning them as no natural fire could while they screamed.
Thunder of guns, feed on the weak,
Breath of the Land, the end you seek.
Doom! Doom! It all ends here!
Death! Death! The Final Fear!
Life hungers, and you are the meal!
Tremble, oh ooooo oh, Tremble, we come!
Ch. 205 to 209 have The Goblin Song, complete with refrains sung by the Goblins
Ch. 217, Sama in the Warp calling to Grandmother...
And that meant I had in my hand the one thing that could be used to speak with her.
“Tremble, oh oooo oh, Tremble, she comes...”
Our voices couldn’t be heard in the ship, but out in the Warp those words represented an idea, a meme, a thought that reverberated in the Warp, carried silently and invisibly at the speed of thought.
Ch. 226, Summoning Grandmother to the Mountain
“Tremble, oh oooo oh, Tremble, She comes...
The mark of pain is upon the Land,
The Veil cracks above hifting sand,
Souls are calling for their mother,
The only one, and no other,
She comes to bring the Breath,
She comes to bring the death
Of those who denied her sons
Her beloved and favored ones
Mother comes, hear ye, hear ye...
Tremble, oh oooo oh, Tremble, She comes...”
They were hard, cold men, perpetuating a great lie for the good and glory of the Empire, able to watch planets die and slaughter the families of innocent babes to raise them into self-destructing weapons of the Empire.
Their hackles were rising at that Song, which seemed to be reverberating in their souls, ringing in their minds and digging up every sinister thing they did for judgement, shriving their souls with holy judgement.
Something... something was coming!
“Destroy it!” the Grandfather ordered from up in the stands, fitting deed to word and calling upon the depths of his power to reduce this foul tool of the Warp to nothingness.
Disintegration effects, star-hot plasma fire, shrieking sonic pulverizers, sun-bright hard light beams, space-time inversions, matter-twisting powers, gravitic compressors and magnetic shredders... the whole array of some of the highest weapon tech in the Empire was unleashed upon Chalice as she Sang.
She ignored it. Indestructible was a 30k Enchantment added to her long ago, and nobody short of a god had the power to destroy her... and she had the property of the Heavenly metal Aurorum, and could simply put herself back together.
Her stereo tones continued ringing out pleasantly, even when there was nothing but vacuum and twisting space around her.
“The Warp is on fire, Her steps shake its roots,
A wake, a path and trail of doom that suits
Those She comes to bear witness,
Fools and hypocrites no less
The Land will feed,
The Empire will bleed,
Her sons will walk free,
Her Breath will soon be
Known and heeded, the future awaits,
Tremble, oh oooo oh, Tremble, She comes...”
The Song rang on the other side of the Rift She was stuck in, and the Warp roiled to hear it.
It had already reverberated on the way to this system, calling out across the Warp to wherever She was, and there was no way She would not have heard it, and made Her way here.
End of Ch. 224, Bringing back the Ruk...
Power flowed into the Dark Matter Core. The multi-aspected Runetech flared to life as it did, and space shuddered as the siphons reached out and grabbed the local Dark Matter.
Gauntleted fingers hit buttons, and the globes on the pedestals we’d left behind lit up, watery, pure, shimmering, and vibrating in a wordless song, liquid, flowing, rising and falling...
Trembling...
Tremble, oo oooo ooo, Tremble, we come...
Tremble, Tremble...
Ch. 255, freeing the Ruk with the Trembling Litany Against Fear of Mithar...
The horror wave came howling, and suddenly the entire Citadel Mount was vibrating to that Song.
Tremble, oo oooo oo, Tremble, we come... Tremble, tremble....
When death is nigh, and the end is near...
When terrors walk, and the dread appear....
Tremble, oo oooo oo, Tremble, we come... Tremble, tremble....
The Ruk were a stout folk, experienced in facing the ancient horrors of the universe, stalwart and valiant, disciplined and determined. In the face of this dirge, all their hackles were rising. Combined with the horror wave, the power of the Song was rising, and the whole Wave seemed to be howling to its chorus!
I wield your doom, shed a golden tear...
Behold my power, know the dark of Fear!...
Tremble, oo oooo oo, Tremble, we come... Tremble, tremble....
The Dark Matter Core was vibrating shrilly, blackness was seething all over the Runetech as the Curse responded to its power, warring with the vivic power. The stony figures of the Grimshield crew were rocking, vibrating, dust was falling from them, and as the Core burned with dark light, something was being drawn out of each of them, racing towards the Core... and cracks brimming with vivus that had been saturating them for weeks were rising all over them!
A thousand horrors, a million screams...
Master your fears, and CLAIM YOUR DREAMS!
The horror wave seemed to screech in disbelief as the Song rose, and a sharp note rang out with liquid purity, sweeping across the room, driving Curse new and old before it...
TREMBLE, WE COME!
Ch. 256, the Ruk borrow the Trembling Song...
“Trembel, vir kommen...” they chanted in low, deeply ominous voices to the refrain, and oh, the emotions riding behind glacial expressions and crystal eyes.
“Todberg segelt across the stars
Crystal eyes oberscheinen the nacht
Fires in hearts to rival suns
Where dreams haft died,
Nightmares schrei,
But whose, whose ghosts sind heulend now?
Trembel, oh ohhh oh, Trembel, vir kommen...
Our elders würden grieve
But their war dauert an
Untodden, eternal, within the Warp.
There sind no rest for the Ruk
There sind Work und War
In Death, und in Life.
Trembel, oh ohhh oh, Trembel, vir kommen...
Outlast uns, who sah planets born?
Besiege uns, who sah stars die?
Whelm against uns, who brechen Time’s Siege?
Kommen sie, ihr living
Kommt then, soon tod.
Ihr fight uns now, und kiss the void.
Then you’ll fight uns dead, und ghosts vill töten.
Trembel, oh ohhh oh, Trembel, vir kommen...”
Ch. 257, the Trembling Song is Weaponized by the Ruk...
When the horror wave came exploding through, the Mi-Go and N’grth could even hear the low bass of the chant, something whispered in the Warp they had caught from afar... and which had spread throughout the galaxy among the Goblins...
Trembel, oo oooo oo, Trembel, vir kommen...
Ch. 258, the Ruk officially make the Trembling Song their own...
The Great Elder had offered up a dozen stanzas for the Chant going on, and other Ruk were solemnly putting in their couplets. Chalice was vetting them with me for inclusion.
Trembel, oh ohhh oh, Trembel, vir kommen...
Ch. 259, Ruk Victory...
“Trembel, oh ohhhh oh, Trembel, vir kommen...
“TREMBEL!
“TREMBEL!”
It rang out into the ether, a mocking challenge, backed with the thunder of a mountain’s guns.
Ch. 280, Sama flying against the dark elf raiders...
I raced back towards the burning, rupturing hull of the Quilloceptra, and the hundreds of Darkwasps currently streaking past it, and I began to Sing to them in exquisitely accented Elvar from high drowic society.
“Tremble, oh oooo oh, Tremble, She comes... “
I couldn’t just deal death in the arena. Like an F-15 with a full missile load-out going after a World War II battlegroup, I headed for them, and wondered if one of those ships would be smart enough to run before I got to them...
Ch. 333, Sunhawk posts Sama’s flying bonanza...
Sunhawk borrowed the footage, and then blatantly posted the whole damn thing on the Elvar Sensalist... AFTER the kids set it up with appropriate music, of course.
Tremble, She Comes... they called it, with all sorts of meaning behind that, not just the main theme song.
It quickly ended up the most-watched human-sourced material in terms of hours in Elvar history. All them hotshot Elvar pilots were just wild with envy... and they wanted a ship that could do what mine did, not some pissy Sunwasp that couldn’t take any punishment.
Ch. 336 – The Ruk Hunt the Anti-Life
There was a rumble through the Markspace...
Trembel, oo oooo oo, Trembel, vir kommen...
Billions of Ruk hummed deep in their throats as they watched that sun burning. How long it would burn, none of them knew, but as long as it did, it would be a monument to the wrath and the vengeance of the Ruk!
Ch. 346, Sama pops into Shadow after trashing The Crystal Throne...
Chalice shed two notes as I turned to glare at the elephant-sized, umbral-infused beast, annoyed at having to put up with its shenanigans.
Tremble...
The ground quivered, the grass laid flat, the shadows were chased away in terror all around me, leaving me sitting instantly in a patch of white as the Rift behind me sealed up.
Ch. 352, Grandmother in the Warp, and in the background...
Oooh ohhh oooh, Tremble, we come...
Something seemed to be converging on them from all directions. The wide-eyed Emperor turned his eyes back to her, nearly wild with the immensity and challenge to all he’d believed in.
---
Tremble, oooh ohhh oooh, Tremble, we come...
The Warp was singing back to Chalice and the Cups, they were all chiming now, building on some simple melody, as the words rose and swelled...
Ch. 353 Continues...
“They ALL want out of the Warp.”
Tremble, oooh ohhh oooh, Tremble, we come...
The Emperor started to retreat, and she took another step forwards, not letting him go.
---
“On the scale of the entire galaxy, it was just laughable, of course, although I did manage to irritate them greatly.”
Tremble, oooh ohhh oooh, Tremble, we come...
The wave in the distance was whelming, and the Warp was echoing with that song...
---
Tremble, oooh ohhh oooh, Tremble, we come!...
The voices were starting to shake the entire Warp. Her Swords began to steam with vivic fire as uncounted and uncountable numbers of souls, freed by the death of lifetimes of absolute carnage and slaughter, converged to the song and the soul of the Swords... and to the Emperor they had trusted in life.
---
“NO!” he protested, but it was drowned, drowned out by the Song pounding down at him.
TREMBLE! OOOH OHHH OOOH, TREMBLE, WE COME!
Hundreds of worlds worth of noble souls combined their efforts and pushed him towards those watching Presences in the sky in a mighty spiraling vortex of joy, release, and anticipation.
Ch. 355, Grandmother leaves the Warp
Tremble, I come..., she smiled, as the Gold took her.
Ch. 355, The Emperor is Killed
He could only sit and take it as Chalice Sang, and all our Weapons did too...
“Hope of Man on Gleaming Throne,
Doom and Death wrap Gilded Bone,
Light of Darkness, Planets Fall,
Black Damnation took them all,
Feel the pain, feel the Call,
Tremble, oh ohhh oh, Tremble, We Come!”
The whole of Markspace was Singing with me, and with them, pretty much everyone alive. Faith and Divine Power was hammering down on this thing in front of me from across the entire galaxy, and this Damn Lich could feel it all... the hopes, the dreams, the condemnations from humans and aliens alike it had thought its lessers, and who were now united behind every blow, pounding on the remnants of its psyche, cracking it, assaulting it with all the misery it had laid upon the galaxy in its mad pursuit of victory.
“In Spite and Scorn the galaxy Burned,
Away from Life, to Death you Turned,
Now feel the Pain, feel the Fear,
Justice take you and Nightmares Sear
To Ash your Dream, without a Tear!
Tremble, oh ohhh oh, Tremble, We Come!”
Space was shaking around my Blades, this thing’s Health Qi was imploding with the revulsion of the galaxy, and the desire to End This Bastard Now.
“Sentence is Passed, You are Condemned!
Wretched Thing, This is Your End!
As You Sowed, Now You Reap!
Heartless Thing, None will Weep!
Oblivion! Soulless Thing!
Hear...Your...Betters...SING!
TREMBLE!
WE!
COME!”
A completely harmonious FUCK YOU! and all its equivalents sounded throughout the galaxy at the same moment, everyone totally in agreement that this bastard had deserved it all.
---
Ch. 355, The Great DM returns the Divine...
-It is time to kneel.-
I was at the top, and everyone could hear me, standing out there in the void with Briggs, the new Emperor of all Mankind.
The celebrations that had been about to erupt quieted down, feeling something more than mere obeisance to a new guy on the throne coming.
-There is Work, and there is War.-
Billions of Ruk pounded the floors.
-There is Song, and there is Sorrow.-
Significantly less Elvar cried a lament, two in one.
-There is Unity, and there is a Way.-
The members of the Federation saluted.
-There is Blood, and there is Faith.-
The humans of the galaxy knelt despite themselves. Images of the quadrillions of dead rolled through the Markspace, and the Booles on thousands of worlds.
-We did not do this alone. We did it by prayer and by song, by boots on the ground and ships in the stars. Countless hands build countless machines of war with will and work and effort... and countless numbers died to make this moment.
-We Came. They Trembled!-
One cry, sharp and short. We had come! We had all come!
-We call now to the God of the Machine! It is time! By the contract with our ancestors, for those that have died!
-Execute your contract!-