The War for Wrath

         An Imperial guardsman, R'kiel, is a soldier who has just been recruited into the Blood Ravens chapter. He has golden hair, and striking green eyes. He was recruited off Lorn V after the latest attack of Orks on it, and they had successfully held them off. R'kiel and 5 other men are taken aside by Justicar Tjorn, and told them they will accompany him and a squad to their base stationed on Lorn V...

On the other hand, Finn, a hardened Space Marine, finds himself on the sandy beaches of Gudrin, fighting the Imperial traitors, and working his way up a steep beach trying to win a battle for the Emperor. His fight would also help the Blood Ravens purge the planet of the imperial traitors, since most of them are concentrated where he is fighting. Once they win this battle, if they do, Gudrin would be purged of it's biggest problem! But there's more at stake than just Gudrin. The story begins...

         R'kiel was firing the last shots off his lasrifle, burning an Ork to pieces. Other members of his squad were firing on the last Orks that were in front of them. After a few minutes of bolter shooting and lasrifle lasers everywhere, a Commissar and a Justicar yelled 'Clear!' behind them. The Imperial Guardsmen that were left yelled and shouted. Some of them stormed over the line and looked for any Ork survivors. R'kiel saw some guards find some survivors of the fight, and immediately begin to bash the Orks' heads in. A gloved hand landed on R'kiel's shoulder.
         "You fought well for the emperor, R'kiel." The commissar said, who was standing beside him, looking out among the carnage.
         "We all did." R'kiel said, as the commissar left. The soldier slumped down behind the wall of Ork and Imperial corpses, sandbags and concrete, tipped his helmet down, and sighed. The war had gone on for about two years, and being stationed here took a toll on some of the men here. Some simply shot themselves, just from being here too long. R'kiel spent so much time with these units he was fighting alongside, he knew almost every single one of them by name.
         "Yo, R'kiel, come join the fun out here!" One of the soldiers must have spotted his helmet. R'kiel got up and turned around to look at the scene of dead bodies, Imperial and Ork alike, and ran out onto the field, looking for Ork survivors.
Meanwhile, back in the command tent, Justicar Tjorn and the commissar were talking about pulling some of the Imperial soldiers into the Blood Ravens.
         "Well, how many would you like to pull out of my regiment, Justicar? We cannot have you take so many we are inoperable." The commissar said.
         "R'kiel showed good spirit on the battlefield today, and for the past year. I am suprised your Imperials held out against the Orks this long."
         "We are all full of good spirit when there are the Emperor's Space Marines around." The commissar said.
         "That indeed." Tjorn said, as he got up and looked outside the camp tent. The Imperial soldiers were all sitting huddled around a few crudely made tables behind the lines, drinking water and coffee. Tjorn went and took about 5 of the men that were sitting at the tables, including R'kiel.
         "You have all been picked for your valiant bravery on the battlefield today," Tjorn said.

         R'kiel had been taken into the commissar's tent. He wondered why to himself, because every one of those guardsmen had fought as well as he did, if not better! Some of them died very honorably, taking many Orks with them.
         "You have been chosen to join the Blood Ravens." Justicar Tjorn said to them. Whispers broke out amongst the five."You will be put in the Blood Trials against the others we have chosen off this planet, at our base here." He looked toward the commissar and the commissar nodded his approval at this. "You will all be taken in one of our Thunderhawks at 0600 hours tomorrow. Is that clear?" The 5 guardsmen saluted.
         "Sir, yes sir!" They said loudly.
         "Oh, one more thing." Tjorn said loudly before they all left the tent. The guardsmen turned around. "No telling anyone out there about this. We cannot have them getting mad about you five being taken off the squads." They all nodded approval, including R'kiel. They exited out of the tent in single file.

         Later that night, R'kiel lie awake on his cot, thinking about his new life as a Space Marine... if he passed the Blood Trials. He thought about the stories he had heard as a child about becoming a Space Marine, and joining the Imperial Guard was the closest thing he could get to doing that, traveling off his home-world and adventuring to known places he, or anyone on his planet even, had ever seen! And so he did. He fell asleep dreaming of the other worlds and creatures out in the Imperium's Galaxy.

         That morning, R'kiel was shaken awake by one of the guardsmen. He opened his eyes to see piercing green eyes. It jolted R'kiel awake so he sat up in his bed. It was Sean, one of the newest recruits to the squad. "The commissar told me to wake you up. You have to leave for something?" R'kiel struggled for a second to remember what was happening today, then he remembered yesterday. He got up quickly, got his gear on and went outside to the chilly, brisk air. All the other guardsmen were lined up and ready to go.
         "R'kiel, you're thirty minutes late. Get in line." The commissar said, sternly. R'kiel rushed to get in formation with the other guardsmen. "You are all leaving today on a Thunderhawk... which should have been here by now," The commissar paused, searching the sky for the Thunderhawk. He nodded to himself, then he said, "At ease soldiers, you can go... laze around for a bit." The 5 soldiers went to go get a cup of coffee. This wasn't their usual starting time, after a war had been won. Everyone else was either sleeping, or doing work. Some people actually went into town and flew back home for their leave. R'kiel sat down on one of the stools under a tent and someone handed him a coffee cup, full of the bland liquid they drank almost every single day.
         "How're you holding up?" One of the guardsmen, who was being recruited with R'kiel, Zephyr, gestured to him.
         "Oh... Fine, I guess. I'm pretty nervous about this whole "Space Marine" thing.
         "Yeah same here. I wonder what the Blood Trials will be like?" Zephyr wondered out loud.
         "We'll be fine... speaking of Space Marines, here's our Thunderhawk." The whole camp looked at the incoming Thunderhawk. It was so loud, it was impossible not to hear it. The five guardsmen lined up a few feet from the Thunderhawk. A hatch on the side opened up, and Justicar Tjorn was inside. He gestured for the five guardsmen to come in. They climbed in, and they flew away. R'kiel fell asleep in the Thunderhawk a few minutes later, despite the pulling g-forces.

(After the blood trials, all 5 Imperial Guard sucessfully passed and didn't have to slaughter each other.)

         A few hours later, they landed near a makeshift Space Marine base. A few buildings were in place, with what looked like humans with implants on their face wielding bolters running around. There were quite a few of them around the base and running in and out. R'kiel tapped Justicar Tjorn on the shoulder.
         "Who-or what- are those?" He pointed to a passing machine thing.
         "Those are our servitors. Like your Techpriests, they manufacture our needs here, and help us."
R'kiel asked, "Well who are those guys scouting the area and running back and forth between everything?"
Tjorn slapped his gauntlet against his forehead. "Haven't you done any research on the Space Marines?"
R'kiel paused for a moment, then: "No. I lived on a farm."
Tjorn said sarcastically, "That explains a lot...." R'kiel made a frown, and looked back outside. "Those are our scouts actually. Used in reconnaissance missions on various planets and such." The Thunderhawk landed and the hatch door on the side opened. The 5 guardsmen walked in single file outside. An apothecary led them inside one of the buildings. The apothecary briefed them on what was going to happen to them. They would have multiple organs implanted inside them, to speed their systems up, as a transformation into a Space Marine.
         "So." The Apothecary said, "Who wants to go first?" A long silence intervened, and then Zephyr said,
         "I will." R'kiel watched Zephyr walk into the room. Another Apothecary motioned to seats for the rest of them. And they waited.

Chapter Two- Finn

         "Go, go, go marines, up that hill!" Sergeant Argstrom shouted to the squad of Space Marines. Finn was absolutely filled with battle rage. He raised his bolter and shot a few imperial traitors in the heads, who were on the hill above them. He dropped into heavy cover with the rest of his squad, hoping the Basilisks, who were way up on the hill wouldn't bomb them. "Alright guys, here's what we're doing." Argstrom said. "Finn, take your 5 squad members and meet up with the rest of- well, half the chapter that's here- over on the right side."
         "Got it," Finn replied anxiously.
         "Meanwhile, I'll take the others of the squad and we'll head over to the left flank. When Justicar Maddox says to move, we move forward. Go!" Everyone knew who they were going with and what was happening, seeing as they had run this simulation a million times. They had always succeeded. But this was the real thing. A few shots of lasrifles from the multiple squads of the traitor's Karskin troops singed Finn's armor, as he moved toward the edge of the crater. An artillery shell landed a few feet away and more landed around the crater. Finn heard someone yelling not too far behind them, "go, go!" and so he ran with his other four members to the right side of the beach to half the chapter, in a makeshift bunker they had set up.
         "Alright marines!" An unknown voice shouted. Everyone turned to look at the voice. Sergeant Ziven shouted over the roar of the barrage of artillery shells. "Here's what we're going to do! When Justicar Maddox tells us to leave, we will rush the hill, and kill these traitors of the Emperor!" A huge roar erupted from the crowd. Everyone switched on their vox-units to listen for the Justicar. At once, a few minutes later, everyone heard a "Marines, advance!" over their vox units. Everyone rushed out of the bunker and ran up the hill. Ogryns shot their huge, handheld cannons at the marines, while the heavy-set in weapons teams shot lascannons and autocannons at them. Finn looked over at the other squads rushing the line, and he almost tripped on a rock. He regained his balance and continued running, shooting his bolter up the hill at the traitors. He jumped into a big ditch that had been dug out by a drop pod that had dropped one of the Blood Raven's Dreadnoughts, which was wreaking havoc up the hill at the moment. The marine inside the huge crater was firing his bolter pistol from behind one of the drop pod flaps that had fell off and landed sideways. The marine looked over at him.
         "Hey, I have an idea. We could throw a couple krak grenades over and see what happens, and i have a bomb we could plant."
         "A bomb?" Finn said. That wasn't in the mission briefing.
         "Well sure! We'll be hailed as Space Marine heroes!" the marine said. He looked jittery, as if something was wrong with him... Finn motioned for him to come closer. "No, I don't really like being close to people." Finn went up to him. He was actually a Chaos marine, but his armor wasn't ornamented the way it should be. He should have been recognizable from a distance. Finn raised his bolter and shot the fake marine in the head, before the Chaos traitor knew what he was doing. He peeked out from behind the fallen drop pod wing, and had a lasrifle shot at him. He remembered the bomb the traitor had talked about. He voxed over a message to the sergeant.
         "Sergeant Ziven. This is Finn Abbot, I located a Chaos traitor on the battlefield and killed him. He said something about a bomb he had on him though? Was thinking maybe we could use that to break the line."
         "Under no circumstances do you use that bomb!" Ziven said, very loudly over his vox-unit. "We don't know what it could release, or it could just blow everyone up. Or give us..." he paused for a few seconds, then continued, "heretical mutations, if it was on a Chaos Marine." He paused for a second, then continued, "And a Chaos marine? These traitors must be in league with them! If you see any more...kill them." Finn nodded his head to himself.
         "Understood."
         "But, our Terminator marines should be arriving shortly, to break the line." Ziven said, trying to put a half-assed cheerful tone in his voice. The line cut off after that. Finn tried to decide what he should do. Meanwhile, three of the Blood Raven's Dreadnoughts were dropped down onto the front lines of the beach and started wreaking havoc on the blockage, troops and vehicles that were up there. Finn noticed a rocket streaking through the sky to hit an Imperial Leman Russ. It didn't exactly blow the thing up, but the four rockets that were streaking behind it did. R'kiel saw three marines in a hole a few feet from him, and just as he was about to go over there, an artillery shell landed directly in the hole. Finn flinched a bit as gore spattered all over him. Then, a dozen drop pods arrived on the scene, and each dropped six Assault Terminators, wielding their Stormhammers and Stormshields, and six Terminator Squads, who had a few people in the squad with assault cannons and the rest had their standard auto bolter. Finn had a look of awe on his face. He had never seen Terminators before, at any given moment in his life. This must be really important to the chapter to get rid of these traitors, Finn thought. He saw a guardsman try and sneak up behind one of the Terminators, and Finn boltered him down, making sure that he didn't hit the Terminator with a bolter shell. Even if he did, the Termie probably wouldn't have felt it. He had heard rumors that their armor was made out of Dreadnought armor. Finn started picking off individual marines that flew off the front lines that were still alive. He looked around again, and he saw a group of five marines run toward the front line on the left side, and break through. Unfortunately for the guardsmen, they had all thrown Krak grenades in front of them, so everything was wiped within a ten foot radius. A sea of Space Marines swarmed into the broken lines. This battle was soon to be over. Finn threw 3 Krak grenades at the line, the same way the five marines did, and he blew the line. The remaining marines that were on this side and didn't get bombed by the artillery rushed upwards and through, chainswords ripping and bolters firing repeatedly. Frag Grenades from the guardsmen were being thrown everywhere, cannons going off from Leman Russes all around them. The Assault Terminators and Terminators ran through the breakages and started wreaking havoc like Dreadnoughts. Then, he heard from somewhere behind the lines they were breaking:
         "Open fire!" a few seconds after that had been said, a huge explosion of dust, sand and Space Marine parts blew over Finn, as a huge gap appeared in the Space Marines' rush. Finn turned on his vox. A rush of sound and jumbled words came to his ears. Then he heard, from someone obviously higher ranked than he:
         "Shut up, everyone!" The whole channel went quiet. "They have a Baneblade. This is one of the Imperial Guard's best vehicles they have. This can decimate entire squads, from one shot of its cannon." Murmurs were heard over the vox. He heard someone ask,
         "But how could they acquire such a thing if they are traitors to the Emperor?" The person who had quieted the channel said,
         "I do not know, I only know we need to destroy it to win this battle." Then, Finn heard treads rolling up behind him up toward the beach. The fighting still raged on. He saw two Predator tanks roll past him. The Baneblade had moved up into the fight now, Heavy Bolters and Lascannons in position and firing away at his brethren. Finn had two Krak grenades left. He figured he could throw one onto the Baneblade, and hope it did something. The Predators had been fitted with a main lascannon and two side bolters, and the Predators had all guns on the Baneblade. They didn't look like they were doing much damage, and the Baneblade fired back on the Predators. Luckily the trajectory was off on the cannon, and it skimmed the top of the Predator. Finn decided it was now or never to throw his Krak grenade. He looked at the dispenser, he had two left. He had a sudden inspiration and went charging into battle, with the few marines that were still there, he helped cleave through them with his chainsword. He got up to the Baneblade's treads, and threw his two last Krak grenades under the huge tank. They were both set for five seconds, so he had enough time to get away. A few seconds later, the Baneblade blew up. Finn was just about to slice an Imperial Karskin in two, when shrapnel from the Baneblade did it for him. Then, he heard over his Vox:
          "Justicar, you might want to take a look at this." Finn recognized it as the voice of a scout. They must have gotten into the Traitors base. Then he heard,
         "I'll be there in a moment. Emperor be with you."
         "Emperor be with you also, Justicar Maddox." He decided to push on farther into the battle and see what was going on. Finn saw a small bunker, and saw that was where Maddox was headed. He cleaved his way through the crowd, and made it to the bunker. An egg-shaped thing flew through the air towards Maddox. Unfortunately, he was fighting off an Ogryn Bone'ead squad, but he was okay so far. Finn jumped, powering the gyros in his knees to propel him forward and up, and caught the grenade in the air, and flung it into a tangled mess of Imperials who were fighting with each other for some reason. Finn landed on the ground safely, a few strides away from the Justicar. Finn raced over, hacking and slashing his way over to the Justicar, who was probably pretty winded from the Bone'ead squad's assault on him. The Justicar smashed one of the Ogryns with his Force Hammer, and it flung toward Finn. Within the blink of an eye, Finn slashed with a vertical motion and slit the Ogryn in half. The Ogryn's entrails rested on his boots and chestplate.
         "Come join me in slaughtering these puny Ogryns Brother Finn!" Maddox said, parrying a blow from the Ogryn squad's leader. Finn nodded and rushed into the fray with Maddox. A minute later, the Ogryn's corpses were all laying on the ground, some with brains leaking out and others, entrails tumbling out. "Come Finn, you can escort me to the bunker where the Scouts are located." Finn nodded in acknowledgment, and they started plowing their way through the throng of Guardsmen and Karkskins. A few minutes and blood spurts later, they had reached the bunker. They raced into the bunker and what they found was not Imperial technology for sure. An Eldar webway gate was sitting on a big pedestal, just in the middle of the room.
         "Wow." Finn said.
         "Indeed." the Justicar said. "Who would've thought that the Imperials were in league with the Xenos?"
         "No one... but" Finn said, still in awe that an actual Eldar artifact was in front of him.
         "Sir, what in the Emperor's name do we do with this thing?" one of the scouts asked.
         "We have to clear this sector from the Imperial traitors first. Finn, call your marines that were sent with you to your location." Maddox said. As soon as Maddox left, Finn called his marines to him.Maddox left the scouts free to leave or come as they went. He heard the scouts and the Justicar talking, but he didn't pay attention. He sat down, with his back to the pedestal, and waited. Waited for everything to be over. He saw the scouts run up the ramp next to him and into the webway gate. Finn hoped the two scouts came back alive. Finn sat and waited for two more hours, shooting random imperials that came in the bunker so they wouldn't be able to report back to their superiors. He shot out the bunker too, the Imperial traitors just kept coming against the Blood Ravens.
         A few hours later, one marine came into the bunker. Finn recognized him as Ace, one of the members he was sent with into battle here.
         "Where are the others, Ace?" Finn asked, worriedly.
         "Remember that first cannon blast off the Baneblade?" Ace said. Finn was silent for a moment, then he said,
         "I see." Surprisingly, Ace said,"Man that blast was totally awesome!! Our squad is still out there fighting though. Not even a Baneblade blast can take down a Space Marine you know!" Finn laughed and gestured for him to sit on the pedestal beside him. "Ah, the little you know Ace..." Finn said. They were quiet for a long time after that, hearing the fighting outside and shooting Imperials that came in the bunker.

         A few hours later, Finn got a call on his vox-unit from Maddox.
         " Finn, bring Ace with you and come look outside. Oh, have the scouts come back yet?"
         Finn replied, "I will be outside as soon as possible, and no, the scouts have not come back." It had been several days since they started fighting, and it was dawn of the fifth day. Finn could tell by the light shining through the holes in the wall that were used for the Imperial Guardsmen to shoot out of. Finn and Ace went to the door of the bunker. The door to the bunker was actually piled high with imperial bodies. Finn and Ace hacked their way though the bodies, and what they found was a glorious sight. The Imperials had been defeated!
         "Woo hoo!" Finn shouted over the vox and into the dawn.
         "Finn, come join us down the beach, same for Ace." The two marines headed down the beach, and met Maddox at the front of what was the enemy line, a day before. "Our scouts and some marines have been dispatched to look for any other patches of resistance around the island." Maddox paused, as if looking for another word which could fit this scenario. Unfortunately, he couldn't find one. "Great job, both of you." He said, and he turned around, and said. "Today, we have won the war against one of the Imperium's most threatening planets!" He said, joyfully. "But before we can celebrate this victory, we need to do something." The marines went quiet as Maddox spoke. "We uncovered an Eldar webway artifact in one of the imperial bunkers." Murmurs were heard amongst the crowd. "We have sent a scout squad through, and they have not come back. We have to fear-" He was cut off by someone rummaging through the bodies behind them. Maddox whispered to Finn, "Go find out what that is." Finn jumped from behind Maddox, and went searching for the sound. A few minutes later, he saw some bodies moving. He immediately slashed the body in half with his chainsword. Unfortunately, it was just insects eating the body. He stepped over the body and went on, searching for the sound. He could still hear Maddox preaching to the other marines over their victory. As he looked toward a building, he saw a shadow move. Finn started heading over there, revving his chainsword to scare the person-or thing- out of hiding. Then, on his own personal com channel, he heard:
         "Finn! Don't shoot! I'm one of the Scouts from the webway!" Finn glared into the shadows, and out came a scout. He was easily recognizable by the Raven's insignia on his shoulder. But he was corrupted by Chaos; he had an arm that ended in a claw, and a big, gruesome hump on his back. His face was barely recognizable.
         "Stay in the shadows where you were. And don't let anyone see you!" The Scout slunk back into the shadows, talking to himself. Finn walked a few paces away, and contacted Maddox. "Maddox, i have found one of the Scouts. You...you may want to come take a look at him. If we still have any apothecaries on the field, you may want to bring one."
         "Will do Finn. Stay with the scout until I get there." As the comm channel closed, he heard Maddox call for an apothecary. Finn walked back to the scout.
         "So, what happened? Where did the other scout go, and what happened after you went into the webway?" Finn asked, hoping to get an answer out of the, now badly shaking, scout.
         "I'd prefer to answer those questions with the Justicar here, thanks." The scout said from the shadows. Finn plopped down and waited for the Justicar. He got there a few minutes later, three apothecaries with him. Finn looked up at the sun and guessed the time, it was approximately midday. The scout walked out from the shadows. A gasp of horror escaped two of the three apothecaries.
         "Justicar... Can I be helped?" the scout asked.
         "We need all the information that you can give us, then we will see about what we shall do with you." Maddox walked away with the scout and three apothecaries. Finn walked behind them, silently, as the Justicar asked the Chaos-mutated scout questions.
         "Where is the other of our bretheren that went through the webway with you?"
         "Well, as soon as we went through, we saw the extent of the damage upon the world.
         "That badly infested with traitors?"
         Actually, we ran right into the middle of a war. We were lucky enough to have been behind a few bushes on the sidelines, and we immediately scrambled for cover. Unfortunately, one of the Chaos's scouts caught us, and I managed to get away, but, he got caught, and scrambled upon by the heretics."
         "So, how did you get corrupted then, if-" the Scout fell over, and rose up into the air.
         "Foolish Justicar," the Scout said, eyes burning, everything on his body pulsating. "I am part of Chaos now! I will tell you nothing!" then, he exploded. Finn wiped entrails and gore off his face, and stood amazed. He had never seen anything like that before.
         "The chaos sorcerer that corrupted him must have been watching what was happening through his eyes. Such is the way of Chaos." Maddox said.
         "So much for information... we must go to that planet and wipe the chaos traitors!" Finn said.
         "Hold on Finn, we can't just go charging in blindly. We must see what we are up against." the Justicar said. "We will send more scouts through the portal, and establish a base of operations here. Send the other marines up here. We will break through the portal at dawn!" Finn wiped more entrails off his armor and sighed. He walked with the Justicar toward his other fellow space marines.

Chapter Three- Chaos

         "You fools! The summoning circle needs to be over here, not there!" Sloan motioned rapidly to the Heretics trying to open a portal to the warp. "We need to leave before the False Emperor's marines get here!" Sloan was not the best general of Khorne. In fact, he was essentially the most weak willed of any chaos soldier, and valued his life over anything else. Even before his own god. But he would never tell anyone that, it was something known only to him. That is how he got involved with Chaos in the first place. His town on Agripinaa was raided by Chaos soldiers, it being near the Eye of Terror, it got raided regularly, his planet, but his town never had gotten attacked, until that fateful day. He still retains much of his humanity within him, and that has gotten him more up than down. Sloan offered his life to Chaos for power when he was a teenager, and when that day came when he was to be liberated by Chaos itself, he was happy. He had a normal life, but he hated not having power in his town. So he decided to obtain power through other means. And through the years, he succeeded, in gaining power for himself. He now commanded entire armies! But he didn't have the guts to do anything with them. And now, instead of staying and fighting the False Emperor's marines, he is fleeing to the warp. His sargeant walked up to him.
         "Sir, we shouldn't flee in the presence of the False Emperor's marines! They are weak willed and will break easily! We can fight them."
         "I prefer to be safe, where my life is not threatened." Sloan said, shaking in his boots.
         "But is it not the most glorious thing you can do for Khorne is slaughter in his name?" Sloan hated being in these situations. The only reason he got promoted to what he is right now, is because he had a vision from Khorne, and he told his superiors, but they didn't believe him. They had the same vision, and now, here he is, years later. Only they were threatened with death if they did not ascend him through the ranks quickly, and so they did, and there he was on a campaign for some Khorne-forsaken (well, not really, war was going on all around him against the Imperial Guard forces that have been garrisoned on Adelphos, warring against the Chaos for thousands of years. The war has not stopped, and the forces have been in a stalemate for many years. So it's not really Khorne-forsaken.) world that he knows nobody will ever win over. They are just wasting their resources here. Nobody would listen to him though. So he just went about his duties.
[indent]"Fool, I don't care about this,: He gestured to the warring forces around him, "this is a [i]waste of time[/i] and an idiotic thing to be wasting our resources on that we could be using elsewhere." The Sarge looked at him in awe, and walked off to the front lines. He was going to hear about this later, but he had forces to command. He walked into his command tent and looked at the map of the forces that were on the field right now.