881.M30.
In orbit around Drune, Ethan, having just met his gene-father and become a "Pugilist," gazed from the black Stormbird at the dead-grey warships and vehicles.
"The Death Guard."
He whispered, instinctively clenching his fist. He remembered being chained like an animal.
Mortarion, dragging him stumbling forward, intending to burn him before the people of Barbarus.
Lost in memory, Ethan felt his eyelids grow heavy, his mind sink.
He immediately recognized the presence as the Enslavers described in the materials his Father had issued to the participating Shadows of Order.
They were trying to infiltrate his mind, to control him.
Enslavers lived in the Warp. They were drawn to psykers, especially untrained ones, whose shadows drew them like beacons.
But he was a resilient psyker, personally taught by the Chief Librarian. He had faced the Psychneuein on Prospero, which fed on psykers.
In an instant, Ethan ascended to the third level of the Thelema mindstate. His blurred consciousness cleared.
The resilient psyker drew his force staff. A mountain peak appeared in his eyes, his personal Warp manifestation.
His unwavering will infused the surging Warp energy, coalesced at the peak, and shot from his eyes.
A searing blade of mental energy raced along the invading consciousness.
In an instant, it crossed 2.5 kilometers, striking a jellyfish-like creature with one eye and twelve tentacles.
CRACK, CRACK, CRACK...
The mental attack killed the jellyfish creature and the ten human puppets attacking the landing pad a hundred meters away, who fell simultaneously.
The resilient psyker confirmed his first kill, a new gift for his Father.
His primary abilities involved the mental and Prophecy domains.
In the mental domain, unlike the Thousand Sons' Athanaeans, which focused on telepathy and mind-reading, he specialized in mental attack.
Unlike mentalists and diviners, his will was paramount in his use of psychic power, not the amount of Warp energy he could channel.
'A good start.'
Ethan understood why his Father had deployed Librarians to Drune.
They and the Enslavers would detect each other.
Psychic attack was also an effective way to kill Enslavers.
After deducing his Father's intent, he realized this was another trial for the Librarians, after the Rangdan War.
'Fortunately, Lord Thomas has always emphasized the training of the Librarians' will, with increasingly higher standards.'
'Now, apprentices are required to master the first level of the Thelema mindstate, Codiciers the second, and Codiciers and above all master the third.'
'More than two-thirds of the Librarians, after rotating through'
'Mancora, have also mastered the "Griffin's Roar."'
As he thought, he felt the ground shake. Descending the ramp, he looked up.
A dead-grey Stormbird spiraled out of control.
'Mind control!'
'Ordinary Enslavers can only control puppets within fifty meters, but my Father said Drune is now an Enslaver world.'
'Powerful individuals can reach targets kilometers away, as that one just tried to control me.'
Ethan watched the crashing dead-grey Stormbird. "The Death Guard, resilient?"
On the fourteenth day of their arrival on Drune, Ethan, with the Eleveth Chapter's 3rd Company, attacked the north side of Roehampton.
Third Company Captain Chambers said to the Librarian beside him: "The Death Guard's 7th Company is also targeting Roehampton, attacking from the south side of the hive."
Ethan gripped his force staff. 'Finally, we meet?'
He wanted to reach the city center before the Death Guard, but he didn't voice this to Chambers.
He knew the Death Guard had seven Great Companies. The 7th was a battle company, nearly seven thousand strong.
The 11th Chapter, after the Rangdan War, had recovered to twenty-eight thousand five hundred, but it had ten companies. The Third numbered twenty-nine hundred, less than half the 7th Company's strength.
Vostroya-pattern Rhinos rumbled. Ethan looked out the window.
Ahead, the Sicaran tanks, which had not yet entered the other eighteen Legions besides Shadows of Order and Iron Hands, were not only in large-scale service, but a new variant had appeared.
Vostroya-built Sicaran tanks led the line.
Within the hive fortress, the Enslavers' puppets poured dense fire.
But they couldn't hit the swift Sicaran Arcus tanks, which flashed past, the shells falling behind.
The ground shook. Smoke billowed.
Neutron flux warheads, which the Mechanicum refused to use, soared, screaming into the hive's iron walls.
Flames engulfed the entire wall. It shook under the neutron shockwaves.
Ethan saw cracks appear in the iron wall, rapidly spreading.
At the base of the hive, gaps appeared, wide enough for armored vehicles.
Sicaran Arcus tanks rushed forward. Neutron flux warheads pinpointed fortifications. Bunkers and strongpoints turned to ash.
Vostroya-pattern Rhinos followed into the Roehampton hive.
Ethan dismounted, looking around.
Black vehicles raced down wide avenues. Side-mounted lascannons fired dazzling beams.
Puppets, their movements either stiff or like clumsy dancers, fell in droves.
The Sicaran Arcus's famed speed was like an arrow: attack, then retreat unscathed.
"Roehampton is clean and bright, very different from the hives of other worlds." Chambers looked around, glimpsing the city's former splendor in the buildings that had survived the fighting.
"A beacon of the Great Crusade, a lighthouse of human civilization. No wonder the Emperor sent three Legions."
Ethan watched the towering buildings, far cleaner, more orderly, and brighter than the crowded, chaotic upper hive of a hive world.
He nodded in agreement. "Only Vostroya's Paradigm City, Ar Rija, and Calth compare."
He thought of other Legions. "And Tizca and Macragge."
"Forward!" Chambers withdrew his gaze and gave the order.
The "Briber" ran. The sooner they cleared the xenos, the more of this beacon of civilization would remain.
The pristine white buildings flew past.
Suddenly, a black Sicaran tank exploded without being hit.
Its black armor shattered. The driver and gunner, seemingly unaware, had fused with their seats.
'Enslaver!'
Ethan, the resilient psyker, was the first to sense an Enslaver. The mountain peak appeared in his eyes. He raised his staff high.
BOOM!
A mental collision erupted in the supernatural realm. Waves crashed in the Sea of Souls.
Tentacles reached up from the sea, wrapping around the mountain.
As Ethan engaged the Enslaver in a mental duel, Chambers moved.
Maintaining the third level of the Thelema mindstate, he felt evil tentacles wrapping around his head, like drills trying to force their way in.
The "Briber," having undergone three mental enhancements, swayed slightly, then steadied.
He threw his head back, unleashing a deafening "Savage Howl."
Shadows of Order keenly heard a faint movement from behind a building on the left.
He immediately charged in that direction.
What he saw was a shimmering creature, like a pouch suspended above a crowd, as if floating in mid-air.
It was pear-shaped, like the giant ticks in Vostroya's underhive.
Also like an embryo, but with a mandible.
Tentacles hung from its face-like tissue.
The "Briber" raised his bolt pistol and fired a burst at the Enslaver.
The bolts struck a shimmering screen. "Bribe: Weaken" propelled the adamantium-tipped rounds through the psychic shield like water.
BOOM!
The Enslaver slammed into over twenty human puppets. Chambers turned away.
Shadows of Order had already sensed that the puppets fell dead the moment the Enslaver died, their enslavement ended.
'Indeed, as my Lord said, no need to consider the lives of the people of Drune.'
'They were already walking puppets the moment they were enslaved.'
At the same moment, on the edge of the city center.
Nathaniel Garro of the Death Guard's 7th Company led his squad, following the Battle Captain in a charge.
Their Captain's voice echoed on the company's vox channel. "Steadfast, Death Guard."
"Swift and decisive, leaving the Shadow of Order witch-boys in the dust."
Garro listened to the synchronized roars on the vox channel, frowning slightly.
He raised his bolt pistol. Four rounds roared, striking leaping humans.
He switched to his squad's channel. His voice was calm and firm.
"We are the Death Guard. We are artisans of war. We seek no vanity, only duty."
His squad's pace was steady, not as rushed as other Death Guards.
He watched the dead-grey armor charge through the blood mist, boots crunching over mangled limbs.
"Two o'clock, five hundred meters." Garro shouted. He saw two Death Guards suddenly fire wildly, killing their battle-brothers, as a shimmering creature appeared.
He raised his bolt pistol, firing a burst at the abhorrent xenos.
The bolts struck an invisible distortion field, bending and twisting, detonating in mid-air.
CRACK, CRACK, CRACK...
"Cover me!"
Garro shouted, charging forward, slipping past two squads, diving into a building.
CRASH!
He burst through a wall in his dead-grey armor. Blue light slashed at the jellyfish creature.
The disassembly field shrieked, tearing the xenos into drifting shreds of light.
Garro landed, not slowing.
"Support!"
In mid-air, he saw a massive creature with seven eyes, floating in the air. It was far larger than the two-meter-tall xenos, as tall as a four-story building.
Beneath it stood fifteen humans.
One of the humans spat a blinding arc of lightning.
With a sweep of its hand, the arc coursed through two dead-grey figures.
Armor shattered. Bodies split.
The Captain's Guard fired.
Another human, wreathed in light, raised its hands. A psychic barrier rose.
Amidst a series of cracks, the Battle Captain charged, scythe raised.
Garro watched in shock as the Battle Captain seemed to move in slow motion.
The dead-grey figure slowed. The scythe slowed.
'The Battle Captain is being controlled.'
Garro caught up to the Guard members, charging towards the Captain.
A streak of flame blazed towards him. He rolled to evade.
Flames consumed over a dozen Death Guards. Fire churned in the dead-grey armor.
The explosion threw Garro. Tumbling in the air, he looked at the Battle Captain.
He twisted the scythe, bringing it down on his own neck.
At the same moment Garro thought the Battle Captain would sacrifice himself, in Ethan's mind, twelve tentacles rose from the sea, firmly wrapped around the mountain.
Ethan's open mouth stopped.
The chains flashed through his mind. Mortarion's merciless back.
'I will not surrender to the Enslaver!'
A roar sounded in the resilient psyker's mind. His will enveloped the entire mountain.
The mountain shook. The tentacles shattered.
The resilient psyker opened his mouth, unleashing a deafening roar: "ROAR!"
Golden light blazed from his throat. The "Griffin's Roar's" thunderous cry drowned out the bolt explosions, echoing in the minds of every being within a kilometer.
Ethan's gaze shifted from the Enslaver's body, which had crashed onto the corpses of its fifteen enslaved psykers, to the Battle Captain. He saw the scythe fall.
The poisoned blade tore through power armor.
'The resilient Death Guard, their will is no match for my endurance.'
Garro struggled to rise. He saw the Captain's Guard raise their scythes, charging the xenos corpse.
"He's mine." The voice suddenly sounded in his mind. He saw Ethan, force staff raised, standing before the xenos corpse.
"Move. I'll blast it to pieces, avenge the Captain." The Barbarus-born Guard Captain shouted, glaring at the Librarian and the xenos monster's corpse.
"I have already avenged your Captain." Ethan's voice was calm and firm. "Are you just going to vent your anger on a corpse?"
Garro saw the black-armored figure approaching in the distance. He saw the Guard Captain raise his scythe in fury. He frowned.
He stepped forward and said to the Guard member: "As he said, he avenged the Captain. He has the right to claim his trophy."
"Witch-boy, don't get too pleased."
The Guard Captain lowered his scythe. He and the other Guard members lifted the Battle Captain's body and turned away.
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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