PROLOGUE TO ABUNDANCE TERTIUS

so welcome gentle listener i am voldemort your faithful servant here is a compilation of one of the ongoing plot lines of my fan fictions that are used to explore and demonstrate the setting of warhammer 40k the grim darkness of the far future where there is no time for peace there is only time for war minion entry is the result of a vote as i will leave them on a cliffhanger and then get the gentle listeners to forge the narrative by voting in the comments so they can control the direction and events of the story so if you enjoy any of these stories then do watch the weekly entries on the guide and prepare to exert your own influence and vote on the storylines now i very much hope you enjoy the following compilation lead up to my campaign at abundance tertius [Music] emperor's throne i thought i was getting an easy ride when received our new posting rotated from the front to defence triage protect the forward medical camp usually a cakewalk but do not think me a coward i don't deserve that i have been fighting for months against things you would never even believe existed it's one thing to see the vids the posters to believe the recruitment officers living it is different our lines have been smashed by the filth what was once a station in miles behind lines was now the last inch in our defenses in this sector the zenos had covered us in their droves their oceans their weapons were crude but it did not matter their numbers were inexhaustible they crashed against our lines across the entire sector at first we thought it was just a barbaric charge xenos are animals but it was not they were probing us testing us working out the exact damage we could inflict on them where when and how we treated it like a game then counting numbers we had shot down and marked notches on our guns or helmets we laughed and even called shots as challenges to each other then headshots only got shots only we were so smug pride goeth before the fall as they say how things fell so quickly from shooting fish in a barrel we went to manically trying to keep them back i watched as they simply rolled over hill 435 it had everything a guardsman could wish for in a defense razor wire heavy weapon emplacements ammunition like a bottomless well we thought it impregnable to be honest i thought it was over the top holy throne how i was a fool then we all were it took less than an hour to approach and then simply swarmed the hill no matter what we threw at them they kept on coming as they crested the hill i realized how we had underestimated them so many their primitive projectile weapons i thought were almost pointless but then the sky darkened we were watching the hill we didn't take cover not one of us then they struck shots of wood with metal heads so primitive yet when they hit in such numbers we were decimated so many dead in that first volley pierced multiple times by those simple shafts of wood but no less lethal for being so simple entire ranks of us went down we scattered into the trenches we hid from the reign of wood and metal but that was their goal the rain from behind the hill made us hide while their horde ate the distance between the hill and our lines they were on us in what felt like seconds among us killing us i never thought my bayonet drill would ever be used but it saved me time and time again i lunged and pulled back lunged and pulled back blood and viscera their bodies and arms covering the ground making it slippery making it hell that was the first day the first of many many days months no matter how many of them we kill they keep coming don't know i sort of respect them we must seem like the scum here we're invading their world they were here first but why doesn't matter anymore it's us all them and at the moment it seems like it's going to be them behind this last line our last in this sector stands the forward medical building inside of every wounded soldier from this entire front thousands if when they cross this last line they will be in there i did to think but i know what will happen they will crash through the doors we'll stream into every corridor every ward every bay none will be spared imagine that lying in your bed unable to move unable to defend yourself while these horrors rush in and kill everyone before you knowing they will end you too i think i am lucky at least i will look into their eyes and it will be swift when it happens at least i can go down fighting it begins [Music] our artillery opens up from miles behind the lines they bombard the valley but they are fools they should be packing up and moving we don't know where but they should be running the xenos are coming the next half hour is like an eternity or a second time has no meaning in the fray i ignore the rain from the sky the wooden rain of death i don't care i stand firing furiously firing continuously the repetitive action mark of my training not my control i fire and fire reload and fire again i go through energy pack after energy pack but it is not enough not nearly enough so many of them so few of us i reach down to my belt but there is nothing there i am out while i was getting now nothing more than a club i look up and down the line so many dead hunched all sprawled littering the trench like broken dolls my friends my company gone all these shafts of wood jutting out of them the horde charges forever forward i have a minute maybe the noise of them is deafening the shock of seeing i am nearly the last of my entire company still breathing my ears deceived me i dropped my last pink cartridge and then fix bayonet i will take one of them with me just one like a heroic vid my rebelling mind has music playing voices like a choir exalting the emperor well at least i lasted until my death to go mad i stand and prepare for death i see your last wave of projectiles filled the skies and i dropped my last gun and opened my arms as i slumped to my knees i prepare for it i close my eyes the music the holy music gets louder deafening almost as i prepare to join the emperor perhaps he welcomes me a shadow passes over me i hear the ricochet of metal on metal wooden sharks clatters the ground around me i open my eyes and then i see her towering over me in black armor power armor she stood between me and death i am alive because of her the singing is not a dream i snap a look from side to side of my jaw drops lines of them the wood bouncing off their armor in their hands the weapons of the emperor himself the holy bolter they walk forward they are not stopping at the trench they were advancing into the horde the gun shoot out and xenos die in their droves exploding like the emperor himself is obliterating them she stops firing as two of her sisters pass us she takes off her helmet just to speak to me i can barely hear her over the artillery the bolters screaming the song of battle and praise of the emperor that is issuing from these dark-clad women all around me she looks down and smiles she nods towards the hospital i look at it or she kneels down and whispers in my ear this will not happen unless all of us are one he will not answer unless it is all of us say the words i look i do not understand i see the building is dark but there is activity inside singing a beautiful song but terrible also an exaltation to the emperor she whispers again son of the emperor warrior of humanity you know the words say them now i know they come to me the emperor protects no warrior of light not with your mouth not with your lips say them with your heart say them with your soul bring his power i look down nearly weep so much is happening so much is going on but then i look up again i look at the triage and think it harder than i've ever thought it before as instructed i say with my heart but even so it cannot be contained it sounds out of my mouth as a bellow the emperor protects and then i see a miracle a miracle as if i caused it but it cannot be me like blazes from every last window in the triage it is like a bomb has gone off inside i hear it building what i think is a huge screaming at first but then as the doors open i heard it clearer as my injured brothers and sisters pour out of every door every window they charge it is a bellow not a scream they are armed with glass guns that seem to be glittering with light all of them thousands of them flooding out like a tidal wave to meet the xenos as they pass me i am a gog men i knew to be crippled women i knew to be maimed they all charge us one healed the sister firmly puts her arm under mine and lifts me up she passes me an energy pack for my last gun she smiles at me while putting her helmet back on then nods in the direction of the xenos the direction her sisters are leading the army i thought destroyed come worry of light let us not be left out come let us smite the unclean for the emperor i snatch the energy pack and slam it home i check my baroness is fixed properly then i look back at her and i grin for the emperor then we charge the days have blown by since i stood under trenches leaving myself open for a hail of death i knew i could not stop since i was saved by the emperor's own angels not his angels of death not his astartes but the next best thing his holy sisters [Music] she had stood over me shielded me with her own body put my life before hers and suffered the arrows on my behalf she saved me not just my body she saved my very soul if i had lost my faith and she gave it back to me with a vengeance vengeance an appropriate word for that is exactly what we took from the enemy from that day onwards it turned out these things were not xenos after all but worse they were debased and corrupted humans filthy mutants with what i now knew as wooden arrows and their packs like animals at first we had underestimated them but then they pushed us back again and again nearly wiped us out but the sisters arrived in their black power armor with a holy bolter flamer and faith alone they led us back into the fight miracles were common now things to be looked forward to not just painful and we saw so many it turned out that this was once a human world in the dark age of technology 20 000 years ago or something he was the center of a star empire then or some snot told me he'd overheard while acting as a sherpa for the tech boys or was it some academic of some form i forget but it panned out with the sisters in charge leading the way burning the enemies as they did we moved like lightning across every continent of this whole world we pushed the things back and took their places of power from them not only had they changed due to chemicals in age and war but also due to being heretics they had to be put to the sword one and all and with the sisters there we went at it like hammer and tongs it was if the sister's mere presence made us all froth at the mouth we had such a fire in our belly we were doing this for the emperor we could tell he was happy about it lights and birds and flames and flying priests are plenty it was like being in the great crusade some said like he was with us every step of the way when we started bumping into things that were the size of land raiders horns and screams and blue flames he was with us he shielded us from the flames whenever our sister led us in he crushed them with his holy light when his sister pleaded for it and he had empowered us all of us even me i felt ecstasy when i witnessed the mass firing of the sisters bolters their massive organ guns atop transport firing a missile at the enemy for every key struck every called rung we burned them and slew them wherever we found them and we made for their capital a month ago i would not have thought that these things were human let alone base horrors of ones but i certainly would not have thought they were organized what a capital a seat of power but they did and we crushed all around it before heading directly at that place usually war dictates that we crush the capital cut off the head first then resistance usually crumbles it's what we did in the last two worlds but here now we were not here to demoralize them we were here to wipe them out so if they're capitaled until last and the sisters shelled it remorselessly for days all the while walking our lines and leading us in prayers in psalms in song in glory to the emperor none slept none of them faltered none of them seemed to stop for basic sustenance they didn't need to their faith fed them their faith kept them strong kept them awake and kept them pure we loved them for it knowing that it was truly the love of the emperor we felt really but one can't help but thank the one who brings you the sustaining meal sometimes despite that that thanks should be for the cook am i right anyways the last battle was bloody as bloody as any bayonet work i've ever done you may scoff but most times you don't actually get to use them if your guns don't take down a xenos nine times out of ten a bayonet ain't gonna either so if they hit your lines it's over but this time was different we had the sisters with us we had squads of them leading our companies in i was in a mix-and-match outfit of course nothing left of my original but with them at the front leading us on inspiring us all protecting us all when the guns and missile sisters went silent we didn't hang about it was double time over the defile then straight into them the sisters were things of wonder i even had the fortune of my very own angel being in the squad that led us in but it was half fighting corridor fighting the sisters could not be stopped their framers and bolters tore the monsters to pieces me and the lads covering the side aisles had plenty to be doing as well previously i'd have called this hell cold dark noise rebounding all around and deafening us all the chaos of it but now i felt righteous i was doing the emperor's will i was as close to heaven as i could get as close perhaps as when i will sit at his very side was doing his work we shot and burnt and bludgeoned and bayoneted our way down miles of corridors filled with these things but this was it this was the last of them so every stab slash or shot was just one more step towards their end their final destruction we sang we're actually saying while we did it but i won't try to replicate that now no guns to drown me out i sound like a glock that's been kicked in the privates we all did but the sweet song of the sisters the base of their bolters the swing of their chainsaws it made it holy they done it we had done it the vile things inside gave up practically no resistance for the level of defense it had and the fanaticism from its followers odd when the canonists walked into its chamber we watched as she did not stop did not falter did not slow she just strode towards a husk on her throne and as soon as she was in range she pulled the trigger on her plasma pistol and it died the sting that his followers prayed to live for died for it just shone like a star as the plasma smashed into his face and melted it off in a nanosecond and it was over the things just all slumped down as if whatever made the move was suddenly gone they just stopped so we walked amongst them and finished their miserable existences hours later i was one of those tasks with checking a grisly business usually but i felt so calm so at peace we've done it the emperor had given us an enemy and we had taken its head well the sisters had but i've been allowed to help i was proud as i took that calm and energy and went out with the search parties to check the battlefield and the approach was where they had fought hardest for some reason the tunnels were bad but it was more like they were so desperate that they were just throwing themselves at us to try to drown us in their bodies but down here we had to fight hardest i won't lie i found him in the most sad way it was getting dark i had walked for so long i'd lost track and lost concentration i was reliving the day the way my angel moved the way she slew those heathens everything about her so i lost myself and nearly missed him i'm not proud to say that i stepped on his hand but the effect was good i guess because he moved it and gave off a groan i slipped in shock and landed in the mud and blood beside him half hidden under bodies he was barely alive as i pulled those piles off him he gasped for air he looks up at me after a few seconds the last body gone i looked at him too blood caked around his mouth his chest half crushed still i could see the pain in his eyes as he smiled and whispered smile for me for some reason i didn't just smile i beamed at him i turned him over and gave him a gulp of water he took it and hit top of me what's your name soldier says i and he whispered back josiah but you can call me jazz once he was a proud and holy man of the church lorded and applauded wherever he went but this was before his fall his failure he had fought on the front lines for three decades or more forever buoying up the faith of all who surrounded him his sermons were a thing of power and purpose and filled all around him with righteous zeal but that was before his encounter with chaos on the day he saw the skies turned to fire the land royal and quiver they air he breathed was accurate and thick on that day when the lord of change erupted into reality when its birthing screeched pissed the heavens and made his mind collapse on that day he succumbed to the most human of all emotions the most simple of drives fear and survival turned tail and fled desolate and confused terrified but he was found later his ignominy known his reputation forever shattered he wept uncontrollably he shuddered like a doe in the teeth of a wolf he was temporarily broken that was then and this was now now he stood a huge room made from black marble from its floor to its highest rafters darkly foreboding he felt so small as he looked up at her the cannonness of the holy order of our martyred lady his friend his doom he was brought forward harshly by the two sororitas at his sides as if he would run now where could he go even if he wished to the cannonness looked down as he stopped without pause for the moment she proceeded the bile dripping off every word she intoned the accusations have been read the evidence has been heard your deceit and cowardice are tested without a shadow of a doubt you are guilty have you any last words before i pass judgment he knew it would avail him not and contrary to his will his mouth opened and he began long have i served the emperor all my life i have faced those things few others could have driven mightily in the name of the emperor you of all people know this my past my deeds i had one moment of weakness one instant of doubt does the one act wash away all that i have done in his name does it count for naught i am but a man a man alas no longer for you are now less than nothing you are a traitor and your defense is the greatest of shames the most overwhelming of evidence the most cardinal of sins you convict yourself further by its utterance some who come before me i am almost tempted to indulge in that greatest of all weaknesses clemency but not for thee for we were both at the scholar progenium we rose together and thus do you admit that you were once a shepherd of humanity a lord of the emperor's light a prince of the church so you who knew of the emperor's light knew of his virtue sung his name in psalm and holy song you turned your back on his light you who knew him best loved him least you betrayed him thus you are the basest of things most wretched of all for you knew and still turned from him i am ashamed to know you i am ashamed that you still draw the same breath as me i am ashamed that you still live thus do i pass judgment the words seem to echo back at him and he saw the sneer on her face that they elicited never before had he seen her face take on such a countenance when addressing him it stung as much as her words the hate and losing in her eyes with each word his head lowered his shoulder sagged further he was broken you will be taken from this place and interred in an engine of penance so you can still serve as an example an example of what happens to the abhorrent to those who indulge in the sin of weakness you will end your days in pain and suffering and the knowledge that you will never be accepted into the light of the emperor upon your final death for even the god emperor of mankind will take no pity on your soul he was then led away as she nonchalantly just waved her hand as if dismissing something beneath her contempt the canon has stepped down the many stairs from an elevated position of authority upon reaching the black marble floor she was immediately flanked by her two ceremonial guards despite her being more able than any other to defend herself she sighed deeply as the events of the day were sorted compartmentalized and then ostensibly forgotten she would need her head to be clear for the days and weeks ahead the transports had arrived and her order were now ready for embarkation as she approached the door to her inner sanctum she turned and nodded to her guards only one was necessary at her door the other could make the final call go out tell the sisterhood all of the order of the martyred lady that reside here tell them to make haste to the spaceport as previously instructed the guard nodded but then turned the words not quite sinking in until that point she looked at the cannon as for confirmation yes all even the garrison now go as the sister marched down the halls to carry out her orders there seemed to be a spring in her step a buzzing in her more hurried stride it had been many centuries since the entire force had been fielded everyone knew that this order this level of response could only mean a battle of legendary importance and scope the canonist walked inside her sanctum and allowed the door to close before she exhaled long and hard and leaned against the door and whispered to herself for where we go we will need every last sister every last sinew every last ounce of faith for we go to abundance tertius lord emperor have mercy on our souls the crimson fists had held as they always did this was after all their preferred enemy and they knew them well the only thing they did not know were the numbers involved swathes of them more than had been anticipated the green skins had come out of the forest and dark lands of this world the very edges of its realms where nobody watched nobody cataralled none had seen their numbers swell over the years since the last purge they had been so quiet but they had burst from the darkness in numbers none could predict the crimson fissures set up their defenses on the hive directly in the path of the war as primitive as they were their numbers and enthusiasm made up for any technological or skill deficit they crashed against the walls time and again but were always forced back always the disciplined volleys of the fists found on their unerring target and reaped such a toll from the orcs that they ended each day only slightly ahead of where they had been at the onset of the day but all those tiny gains were adding up all of those inches became feet became mild the horde had smashed its way to the final walls the inner circle and ammunition was running low as was morale at the door of the twelfth day the defenders of the city the crimson fists found a score of blips appearing in their skies their all specs were captain cesare waited stoically for the identification to be revealed his lieutenant looked up from his screen and just beamed at him well what do you see who are they the lieutenant the carlos could not help but laugh as he responded a full score of storm ravens and other assaulted transports my lord they wear the black and white our brothers have come ah and we have two drop pods in coming to our position sir the two stood and walked outside as the drop pod slammed into the main plaza the doors bursting off inside were very well strapped and protected containers as the closest marines were waved into action by lukalus the contents became immediately obvious it was filled to the rafters with ammunition and heavy bolters the other was filled with longer boxes each containing a very much needed resource one of the marines marched towards captain cesare in his flanking lieutenant but got to arm's reach and simply thrust out a scrawled note on a picked reviewer the contents were simple prepare to sally b t as the sun rose the sounds of the orc assault picked up momentum again the rising scream of their war cry raging at the walls and hardpoints yet today was different very as the greenskins rushed headlong at the breaches yet again this time they were met with ranked fire of heavy bolters those firing with bolters alone were doing so with abandon but still precision with ammo no longer an issue it became a field day but the morning was to then see another change as the dull background of the orc warcry began to be drowned on either side of the hive the officers of the crimson fists looked down to either side like the horns of a bull they heard more and more chain swords the back templars in full array of crusader squads and supported by crusader land raider fire was sweeping around the sides of the hive killing all in front of them with a look of satisfaction captain cesare massed in half of his men in the plaza then opened the doors as the greenskins saw that they would pour into the square the bellow of the crimson fist thundered at them like a banshee's whale and as one the fists all charged chainsaws wielded by black and white clad marines on either side by blue-clad marines with red fists in the center the assault crash staffing and you trying to withdraw from the trap the orcs died in their droves the chainsaws biting into their fresh from the merest contact pulling themselves into the orcs then while discharging rivers of green blood and vessel from their guards like green handheld mux spillers the ground was literally drowned in the blood of the xenos by sunset the deed had been done none had been suffered to live as the star finally dipped below the horizon the leader of the black templars picked his way through mounds of dead greenskins to find his opposite numbers he approached captain cesare by the light of the moon and blurted out his best greeting the crimson fists were sons of dawn after all but they were far more polite you are captain cesare borgia yes many thanks to the incredibly well-timed support brother templar we are pleased to shed the blood of the enemies of the imperium alongside the crimson fists but now that this fray is over we are here to collect you we are all to go to a serious posting i have orders here we have to make all haste to the abundance system abundance tertius to be precise you only need to know three things about me but the only important one is probably the last of the three one i am the leader of this population this world two i'm called the archduke somnambulis and three i do not sleep anymore i cannot remember the last time i slept for more than half an hour and that was snatched in a meeting they were turning on and on interminably sandbags all things these poor fools think that sandbags will help they have no idea i dare not tell them if i did then they would all just roll over and die would go limp with disbelief or tear their head out and scratch their own faces off in the despair of it all i know holy throne i know i've been visited by it every night every day for over a fortnight now why won't it just end it please i tried to sleep during the day but that became a death sentence to anyone in my presence i can barely hear what people are saying anymore i look at them through glazed eyes and attempt to keep my countenance steady my bearing regal i must never know it is well that the vast majority of the time all i am asked for is my ascent my blessing their lips move they pass me papers while doing this they indicate where i should sign if i'm in agreement this only happens if it is important of course the vast majority of the things they consult me on i just nod and it is made so i am after all the governor of this world i hold the power of rule passed out to my family since the times of the great crusade from our god-king the emperor of mankind himself i represent his will and his purity and wisdom on this planet this chimlin five but he does not save me he does not help me long have i prayed for his rescue from this plight but to no avail when it hangs about me staring at me through the night i sometimes feel the emperor does not really exist this thing warps my mind with the fatigue it enforces the first time i saw it there above me simply hanging from the ceiling i called for my guards in a panic i've never done this again it dropped down and slaughtered them as they came through the door one after another without pause restraint without clemency it beheaded gutted strangled and sliced its way through to score of my men before it left but it returned the night after despite me being in a different palace this might be being in a different city it was there but this time i did not call for help i did not see the point i glared at it myself and even tried to raise a laz gun toward it but no it was too fast it was on the floor next to my bed before my eye could catch the movement it broke my hand and arm in a thousand places taking the last pistol off me with ease i barely resisted screaming it was one of the bravest things i had done in all of my long and privileged life but i ate the pain if i'd cried out there would only have been a repeat performance of the night before and i loved these men and women in this city where i grew up where i was crowned i will not call them in to be slaughtered so it left at first light i called for assistance when it had been gone for over a quarter of an hour the longest of my life i had thought then but called for assistance i did i explained that i'd slipped badly they must have twisted it in the night my arm of course the apothecary did not believe me really but he performed as intended he'd heard of the thing that haunted me his eyes were like a sharks when he nodded and diagnosed pain relief and an augmented brace to repair the wound i took my pain release sparingly the day after for it made me drowsy i was at home in the broad daylight when i took too much on that day and dozed off my people let me those kind and darling fools but i was taught my lesson while i awoke out of my sedation it was to a room based in blood festooned with the parts of my attendance and closest man-servants i wept for hours before calling to inform the military of my situation it was dealt with calmly but swiftly they suggested i move continent be placed in a bunker or be sent off planet if i moved what would it do commit a rampage across our world until it found me again if i stunk into a bunker would it not find me and they not only slaughter the men and women around me but an exact revenge as punitively and painfully as before if i left the planet would it not just move its attentions to others who take on the responsibility of my position my person i cannot let that happen i will not execute my people so thus i shake with the levels of stimulants my system and dread those hours of night for i go to my chambers i'm assisted to change and i get into my bed and wait staring at the ceiling pretending i will sleep so my attendance leave but i do not as it makes just enough noise to let me know it has arrived i stare up at it all night my eyes close it let saliva drop onto my hands or feet or chest anywhere i can cover but always it is painful not only the touch of its spittle but it has a stinging burning effect so i lay there each night staring at it going slowly insane pausing my days looking at all around me in wonder that they have not yet given up but witness their morale drop day by day by day as they watch me become a ghost they know it really they all know they can see it in my eyes we are all going to be eaten by the tyranids i know we are i look at the evidence every night but they they can see it in my eyes i just want it all to be over when will it be over please tonight let it kill me location abundance tertius archduke sonnambulus i said my eyes barely able to focus i am told help has arrived but i cannot really understand everything is a blur a gray and nightmarish blur men walk in to my audience chamber ruffians the most ragged muffin to ever enter my presence but they look hard everything about them their garb their scars their red bandanas their all tattoos of war my men move to close around me but i wave them away what could possibly threaten me now i have not slept i cannot sleep a thing visits me every night a tyrionide thing so many of my men it has killed it watches me at night its saliva burns me if i drop off it watches me one of the men starts to talk and just stops he takes a few steps toward me my men flinch again but my lack of movement persuades them i am in no danger they do not know it is because i simply do not care anymore with this man to take out that lethal looking knife at his side and thrust it into me i would thank him he half crouches and looks me in the eye he then nods at me he comes closer so close he even sniffs me like some form of hunting dog he sniffs at me he snaps back and honestly looks like he understands but he cannot he looks at his men one after the other makes hand just as i do not know they look at me and scowl when they detest me it seems all turn on their heel and march out taking my head of security in tow the day passes another gray and empty day of meetings that i do not participate in i just sit where they indicate i do not even recognize them anymore it has been weeks since i slept weeks i know i am going mad as i try to focus on their faces and all i see is the visage of my nightly visitor it makes their words even more difficult to understand with a dozen nearing xenos faces blankly eyeing me i do not react i have not the energy my fire gutters out night comes as always i am undressed by my body servants i smile at the wandly and dismiss them i trudge to my bed the ritual complete it will be here soon the windows slowly part and creek as they open it is here it scuttles to the ceiling taking its place above me staring at me as it has done for weeks now i look up at it preparing for a knight be duel can i meet its eyes all night or will i doze off and be awoken by a stinging spittle that it would dribble onto my arms to shock me back into consciousness it is then that the doors burst open i close my eyes i know what will happen it will kill all of my guard again as it is done twice but this time it is different very shouts in the dialect i do not recognize burst from the lungs of the men who are making it through the doorway the beast on the ceiling still they're so fast two men rolling into the room and two standing at the doorway firing their last guns up at it they licked her the horror leaps down to engage them i prepare to be covered in human blood and viscera again it will kill them with ease as it did to score of my own men when this all started one of the men who rolled in comes up with a net of all things the other huge knife like their kernels wait it is their colonel he is with his men so similar are they what i next is a thing of wonder holy emperor i have never seen men move so fast i have seen pigs of marines do so but not normal men the ones at the door were firing to its sides forcing it into a predetermined zone it seems the net flies up as the beast falls down i see the beast terrorist apart in mid-flight of fools but then as it lands the split second it took to perform this deed left it wide open its cored hands pulling the net in twain the two men below are inside its garden stabbing stabbing and stabbing as they push it back into a wall they continue as its limbs thrash but they are perfectly positioned to be safe from it i do not know how but they seem to know what it was and how to kill it as it slows and then stops flailing the two men are still stabbing it in its torso and now its face they pull it down and continue for what's inside minutes their blades rising and falling rising and falling covering the viscous goo from the monster i'm stunned the next moments of macabre as they collect every last drop of its blood meticulously i vaguely remember asking what they do i must be wrong i must be misremembering due to my fatigue i swear one told me that they would wear it would cover themselves in the blood of their thing so they could get close to their nest and asked where others may be i am mad i must be nobody would do that the colonel talks to me but my eyes are on the nightmare it is dead i cannot hear what he says i close my eyes i wake from my slumber my body seven stress me beaming at me all the way i am told i have slept for three days solid my mind is not yet fresh but my body actually obeys my commands i can walk with purpose again i can stand tall again i i am hungry ravenous i eat like a gutter rat who has snuck into a banquet before it has started my face strips were fat and the juices of fruit and wine instead of being repulsed my men they beam at me they bring me more i gorge i am told my itinerary has but one activity on it for the entire cycle it is tonight after i have rested more my day is filled with music with meals sitting in the sun i doze off many a time but with relaxation dream they're filled with an angry shadow but it is nothing that beast cannot harm me anymore not with these katachan warriors here i am safe true but my people are so i do not know how but i think i recall one of those rough men telling me about the fleet a glorious navy being dispatched that it was a small tendril fleet of tyranids and that our most illustrious admiral the one they dubbed the border prince and stop them in their tracks and smash them i cannot remember the specifics but i know the threat is over thanks a throne my people are safe my people will live the night descends but it holds no terror for me now i laugh at the moon as i look at her and rise to prepare to meet the brave men and women who have cleansed the xenos scum from our world my home my love abundance tertius i walk into my audience chamber and are met by the sight of those glorious ruffians who had this present moment i could hug one and all but they are not just grim in their bearing they're grim in their countenance i can feel their tension or is it excitement i usually know but cannot discern it this time perhaps it is a blend of the two i take my place at the head of the table and we all sit them and mine my warriors not seeming to be of the same race to these hard-bitten veterans who sit alternately in each seat with mine as they look at me my mind still reels from the events of the last weeks these men are rough indeed their scars and red bandanas was an accurate [ __ ] coming off them from where they doused themselves in the blood of my tormentor all the better to hunt the secret lair of its kind and purge all within i hope you have slept practically shouts the colonel in charge of the delegation it pains my ears i feel no animosity these heroes could yell at me all day and i would still smile at them my people are saved he seems so much like a ranker no real insignia of any import on him not a quorum in him but i wait i have three pieces of information for you i feel you may not have been able to absorb them when last we spoke before you reclined he is right of course i have no recollection at all not even the smell holy throne i must have been near death or madness from the exhaustion he continues one we have cleared out the bugs and the navy has crushed the tendril on its way here i raise my glass and salute him and his disheveled but gallant men with my best wine they ignore me no decorum at all what places etiquette on a battlefield i will not change anything about them he continues two the real reason we are here is because you have a rock coming in your direction the gas around the table are verging on whales i put down my glass and take in a deep breath no no it isn't fair from the frying pan to the fire it isn't fair i composed myself before i slowly retort although it comes out more like an i am imploring pathetic after everything i near unmanned myself and before my people if abundance should fall a score of worlds hive worlds we feed will die of starvation as the murmuring amongst my people rises i understand their fears a rock an orc ship it will contain millions of green skins possibly a fate worse than the bugs i feel the warms closing in on me but stop something is happening as one of my aides begins to openly wail akatshan brings his hands over his head and behind his back languidly then extends a right hook the wailing ends as my man's head snaps to the side and he slumps to the table unconscious nicely done if you ask me wailing but the cat's chance is smiling the colonel has a twinkle in his eye as he passes me two seals and says here is a response from the imperium as you say archduke twenty hive worlds rely on abundance tears just to feed them i look at them the seals and my eyes flash as i stand i smile warmly at the colonel he grins back at me and merely says sweet dreams arch duke as he stands and with his men he walks out boldly and oh they will be i will sleep like a baby tonight for i do not fear for the first seal it is a single emblem a personal crescent i know it we all do in this sector major general killian the scourge of the zenos never defeated never forced to retreat never having given a single inch of ground to any of a thousand xenos enemies he has matched his forces against known across the entire sector simply as major kill but not only that his sign would have been enough but we will be safe for it is a regimental sigil known across the entire imperium we will be safe i laughed myself to sleep that night holding both the sigil of major general killian in my right hand but in my left he was odd i didn't notice it for ages not really but now i'm starting to think that i am the only one the only person who sees him for what he is whatever he is wherever he comes from he isn't like the rest of us at first i thought he was shy you get so many of them out here orderlies unimportant generally ignored and abused the only time we really exist is when something has gone wrong when someone has to take the blame so you get plenty of them the shy ones beaten down tired out head down slouching through their existence with the only hope being a miracle the miracle of something anything changing but it never does i used to have such dreams as well once upon a time not now like my physique and my appetite for marine fiction it has dwindled over the years it's the soul-crushing boredom of it all but nor would anyone wish for excitement in the imperium that can only mean one thing an invasion and that never ends well not for us not for them we rarely lose but it's bad when we do high stakes as always so the job we do here simple relay station that it is is still intensely important the imperium is huge the coordination of its many resources are an art as much as a process of procedure the wheels turn slowly the majority of the time but when slicked with the correct lubricants the right buttons are in danger of being pressed that it's actually all inspiring to witness what we can do how much we can gather in such a short period of time we had been monitoring abundance tertius for a good few rotations now most that had only one rotation but this was my second it seemed that there were not quite enough engineers of my lowly station to afford me a break so here i stayed on the small and rather cramped monitoring satellite station but our rays were forever pointed outwards not down at the planet for there was to be a battle a campaign of such size and scope that it was barely conceivable so many elements of the imperium's finest were arriving in the system many would take days to get to the main population centers and stations around those worlds from the jump point but arrived they did and this listening station was recording all that went on for certain but also trying to angle its arrays so as to discern movement or activity in the darkness of space between this system and its neighbors fleets of ships had already arrived and began the process of being reassigned to battle groups forming in the segments of the system the navy was represented in all of its glory the many ships now preparing to fight for every last inch of space from escorts and frigates all the way up to cruisers battleships and grand cruisers the fleet was well equipped and well led for the coming combat but there were more forces than just a in the skies above the planets of the system multiple battle barges and astartes manned ships had translated into the system and were massing in different areas forming the backbone of many a flotilla but generally separate to the mainline squadrons monitors were maneuvered into place missile platforms were dotted around and minefields began to be dropped in areas around celestial bodies lines and lines of cargo ships dropping them out sequentially forming huge nets and lattices that would hopefully snare any assailing fleet elements and punish them the sensors in our main command room were always cogitating always recording whatever was about to happen in this the abundant system was going to be huge so it was seen as a high profile placement while also being the most mind-rotting and repetitive tasks possible honestly so often i have thought that this station could be managed by servitors and none would notice any discernible drop in the quality of the reporting but here we all are all dozen of us i was already tired when this new rotation had arrived had already done all of my order finding and internal struggles with the previous rotation i did not wish to go through it all again so simply bowed out so to put it i just went with the flow all these bright-eyed menials had been lied to had been shined up and told that they were doing fundamental work for the war effort the shine would last about a month the order the rigger but after that point it would soon devolve to lowest minimum effort reporting and analysis due to simple fatigue there was so much information being collected but it almost was bled of its meaning when you see numbers on a screen again and again eventually the numbers of their own entity are no longer matter in what they are meant to represent what they are meant to describe so all of the mindless patriotism in the world will not protect you from the realization that it would not matter who collected the information who did your tasks as long as they were done it's hard not to become jaded when you realize how utterly pointless your activity is as well for if the buildup led to a victory all that would be remembered was the name of the captains the ships involved the planets saved or smashed and if the fleet lasts then the entire sector will be overrun and this station along with all of the meticulously collected data would be either someone's dinner their placing or their enemy the base and all on it would be destroyed as soon as this reality struck you well all of the potentially reflected glory fell away it was then that the only thing that really distracted people from the mind-smashing tedium and repetition of their existence was the oldest pastime in the world gossip so everyone would start watching each other would start cataloging potential slides inventing rivalries imagining cliques forming cliques as a response then acting on it all everyone would dramatize their existence to evade the simple truth of its utter pointlessness but not this time i would stand above i was definitely going home after this rotation well away from anyone who would be serving here i do not wish to make friends in other units that would then be a constant strain if the conflict here did then end with mass casualty reports being sent out daily getting up early and making your way to information outlets and looking for other names other outfits on top of your own it could be draining plus i simply could not be asked if i'm honest but you can't help yourself it's the boredom it's the coast quarters you're all shutting together it's the lack of diversity of tasks being able to do it all in your sleep you end up watching everyone if you aren't talking you are listening if you aren't the one doing then you are watching and so as i was not talking i soon noticed it him how odd he was as i said at first i thought he was just shy beaten down or spineless many grey people exist out here no real personality to speak of but he had none zero that was what was so odd he literally did not exist he was a mime a mimic a cuckoo in the nest i was sure of it he never gave his opinion first ever he was back up whomever was most likely to win but he always made sure he did not hold the accolade of being the last to comment either he was never the first to laugh if he laughed at all come to think of it i cannot remember ever hearing him laugh but the main point i'm making is that he always always look to others reactions first like he was perpetually acting at fitting in he stood after others moved as they did shrugged often and was odd in other ways i would often catch him just looking at everyone in the mess but he was about to burst into tears just for a second his face fell into a picture of utter anguish as if we were seeing a vision from a nightmare looking through a window into hell in those moments i could say without a nanosecond of hesitation without one eye ultra of reserve that he hated being here hated being amongst us i can't say why i have such a strong conviction but i cannot shake the feeling the certainty well first i felt he might be a mutant or a heretic but he was as bland as could be no mutation could be seen heretic alas if he was in some fanatical cult then all of the numbers would not have helped them unless they were playing on a sector-wide level which was clearly impossible anyone interested in the build-up here could gain much more condensed information elsewhere than administrator of munitorum so a spy seemed so unlikely yet he made my skin crawl after a while he would then later seem to swap shifts or alter patterns so that he was often on shift with me i thought that when this idea came to me that i was simply delusional due to the drudge it's what i passed it off as it when it kept on happening because if you were clever and new knew that i suspected something if this was some form of charm offensive well he was not equipped for the task in hand i can tell you all conversation we had was stilted economical blunt and pertaining to work only any attempt to make comment about anything else anyone else or any situation was met with a glazed expression and the shrug he had perfected it said i don't understand and i'm not interested in having it explained so perfectly but for everyone else he had this slight bowel of the head it's like raising of the eyebrows at least an attempt at an apology of sorts i guess but with me it was done that little bit more currently more dismissively with more finality as he would close his eyes as he turned away and only reopen them again when he was looking directly at his screen again the most overt do not speak to me move i had ever witnessed in my life the first time it happened i was shocked i then learnt to ignore it later i still believed him shy so let it fly but now now it drives me to distraction i now wait for it to happen for his incredibly plain and very forgettable face to take on that pinched expression and turned away as if i am some form of nasal and visual insult that he can no longer stomach but it only seems to be me i've talked to others the few i knew would not then see it as an invitation to be chatty in future no i know have noticed anything about him at all to them tolman is entirely unobtrusive and devoid of remarkable feature they barely know he exists i've waited now i've watched i think i know something you see tolman has allowed roberts and ronaldo to appear late to their shift for weeks now and he often turns to me and lets me leave early the close down of one shift is indeed a one-person job not two really so he's been doing this for me also i have to admit that any chance to leave his presence early i usually take eagerly but it's all adding up now he spends a little too much time on his own with all that data so the next night comes the two of us on shift he on one side of the room me on the other he's tapping away at this screen as i am but when i turn off my headset i can hear that he's typing just that little bit too fast his fingers moving that little bit too nimbly it's odd like everything about him but he seems to fidget more tonight seems to be more distracted than usual if distracted his right word he seems almost well quietly excited about something is the only way i can put it i've completed my runs of data analysis i've locked everything down it is then that he breaks our little pattern surprising me more than i thought possible it was so quiet i was not used to it so when he spoke it might as well have been a bellow i have to visit the ablutions i will close down tonight as usual i will be back when you have left see you tomorrow night he then stands and walks towards the door and through it not even a by your leave art so odd in fact it's odd enough for me to think something is going on tonight something he definitely wants to be alone in this room to do so it is very worthwhile to check i think what if he was a spy what if i a lowly menial found a spy now that that would be a miracle enough of one to change my life a miracle so as i am alone i creep to the side room and walk inside a janitorial cupboard with the cleaning products are kept i squat down in the dark and wait the door only slightly ajar as i found it i can see his station in the center of the room if he is doing something i should be able to see it from here and then he returns the door sweeps open and he comes in he then locks the door and closes the viewport something is definitely going on i can feel the excitement drain all of the heat from me i begin to almost shivering in anticipation then i realize it is not actually me it is getting cold in here my breath now creating plumes of fog and the tiny slither of light that comes from the main room the door ajar he's moving from his desk to the center of the room it is dark he has killed most of the other lights it is only one beam that he now stands in a dramatic like a ballet about to begin and then tolman bows low with the grace i did not think possible it is then that i notice it the thing that is in front of him i have to put my hand to my mouth i bite down on the flesh between my thumb and first finger in an attempt to stop from gasping from losing control from trying to slam the door and hurl my body against it to keep the thing out for it is not a who it is a what it is a thing long lank blonde white hair angular face and features with skin its skin is pitch black only barely made out by the swirling pools of light to move on its surface like wards or icons of power that fade and revolve on its skin part of it but not its eyes are dark lamp and slits windows into a dark realm of torture and sin it is a demon of some form a thing of nightmare its ears pointed like an elder it is lies enough to be one yet it is not it is death this is the reason that there is such cold here the reason my teeth now wish to chatter in my skull as it just gets worse instead of hitting a plateau it just seems to get colder as i watch tulman rises from his bow the thing having just walked out of the shadows in front of him he stands a red and more eagerly than i have ever seen his movements have a new silken quality that hypnotizes some passats all at the same time he is not what he claims to be i was right but what is he he now passes over a data crystal of some form but certainly not of imperial design the other creature the dark thing extends a limb with a hand whose fingers end in dagger-long claws as it retracts his hands with the crystal it merely points with its other hand at his at one of his fingers tolman now seems to be staggered like he's being struck he takes a pace back and closes his eyes and raises his head to the ceiling and just whispers at last i have earned this immortality at last tolman then puts his hand onto a panel and takes out a knife he then cuts off the end of one of his fingers wraps it in a piece of cloth and passes it to now leering dark entity in front of him a voice is chilling as the air now breezes from the dark but not only from where the being stands but from all of the angles all at the shadows and corners all at once i nearly jump out of my skin as it seems to be generated right behind me also i barely contain myself as it speaks and my fee my payment tama now looks at it hard for a few seconds then raises a hand and languidly extends a finger the finger is pointing directly at me his head finally follows as he and he twists it so he looks in my direction as well i can see him and it is clear that he can see me his eyes are smiling his lips twisted in the most cruel and bristling grin i have ever seen insane and yet very sane all at the same time he is not human at all i fall backwards trying to avoid the point of his finger but only strike cleaning equipment and make the clatter in the cupboard that makes any refutation of my presence utterly redundant i stop dead still i wait for the footsteps to come i can only seal tulman now his dark ally is not in sight but that is when it happens it is when it strikes i feel my back unzip as the blade scores from my tailbone all the way up up to my shoulder blades it was so smooth it barely hurt but the cut makes me fall backwards all of my tendons slashed as i just flop i am caught by the entity of pure shadow engulfed in its arms i see the huge blade it used to unzip me like a fish i feel it's called clammy hands on me it's touch sapping all the warmth from any area they touch the strike came from behind me in the dark it did not move it simply appeared behind me as if it were the shadow made manifest it's called hate given form i cannot resist as it then grins and just drags me backwards out of the light then beyond the dark corners of the room it drags me into a dark that is not merely an absence of light introduces me to a cold that is not just a lack of heat it drags me into its realm to consume me i have been baltimore your faithful servant i hope you've enjoyed the story so far and will join us on the weekly entries as a result and will like and subscribe if you do then hit the notifications button as i would not want you to miss out and so from both myself and mrs b no matter what you do today do try to make some time for fun too glue [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Baldermort's Guide to Warhammer

Views: 59,354

Keywords: baldemort, Baldermort's Guides to Warhammer, Mort, Warhammer Audiodrama, Warhammer 40000, Grim Dark Tales, Grimdark Stories, Warhammer for dummies, Beginners Guide to Warhammer 40K, Baldermort Stories, THE STORY SO FAR, CHAOS - THE STORY SO FAR, Abundance Tertius, Sisters of battle, Order of our martyred Lady, Catachan Jungle Fighters, Lictors, PROLOGUE TO ABUNDANCE TERTIUS, ABUNDANCE TERTIUS

Id: hrwBatuN8to

Length: 85min 26sec (5126 seconds)

Published: Fri May 21 2021