Crusade for Armageddon

274 Pages·2005·1.28 MB·English

by  Green Jonathan

A WARHAMMER 40,000 NOVEL
CRUSADE
FOR
ARMAGEDDON
Jonathan Green

Jonathan Green «Crusade for Armageddon»
Jonathan Green «Crusade for Armageddon»
For JC
IT IS THE 41st millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the
Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master
of mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the
might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly
with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the
Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he
may never truly die.
YET EVEN IN his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal
vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the
warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the
Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies
give battle in his name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers
are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-
warriors. Their comrades in arms arc legion: the Imperial Guard and
countless planetary defence forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the
tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their
multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat from
aliens, heretics, mutants – and worse.
TO BE A man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live
in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of
those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has
been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and
understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no
peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the
laughter of thirsting gods.
Jonathan Green «Crusade for Armageddon»
Priority level: Cyan Beta
Transmitted: Tartarus High Command, Tartarus Hive, Armageddon Secundus,
Armageddon To: Adeptus Astartes Battle Barge Divine Fury, Armageddon High
Orbit Date: 3.872.999.M41
Transmitter: Astropath Prime Vicero Receiver: Astropath-terminus Garuhn
Author: Lord General Dashparov
Thought for the Day: He who lives for nothing is nothing. He who dies for the
Emperor is a hero.
Greetings my lord marshal.
I pray that this missive finds you in good health and that your recent raids
against the ork fleets blockading our sacred world have met with success.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again for coming to our
aid in our darkest hour. The alien abomination has for too long threatened the
peace and security of Armageddon. The atrocities committed in the name of the
Great Beast will earn that monster an eternity in damnation when the Emperor
sees fit to strike him down as he revels in his blasphemous arrogance.
I know that the war continues in many arenas on our blighted planet. Indeed the
siege of our own precious hive-city continues with no sign of abating, despite the
courage of the soldiers who defend our walls from the relentless assaults of the
orks with lasgun, tank and sword. If it were not for the unswerving loyalty of the
Steel Legion battalions and the bravery of our Planetary Defence Force
troopers, Tartarus would have fallen long ago.
We had hoped that the titans of Legio Magna, accompanied by a contingent of
your own noble battle-brothers, might have broken the deadlock and that the
enemy would have been routed for ever, driven back into the unforgiving wastes
from whence they first came. We had hoped to see out the year besieging their
vile rok-fortresses rather than beating them from our own city walls. But fate has
seen to it that these things are not yet to be. In time I hope that the God-Emperor
we see fit to deliver us from the greenskin menace.
With the guns of Clain's Stronghold now silenced the threat posed by the orks
has increased greatly, our statisticians say ten-fold, and that is an estimate made
cautiously, so as not to destroy the morale of our beleaguered troops. I thank the
Master of Mankind that he has seen fit to send us aid from many quarters. Even
now, the Astartes warriors of the Storm Giants and Celebrants Chapters fight
alongside the valiant soldiers of the Imperial Guard. Their courage and resolve
are truly remarkable. Indeed, the devout zeal with which the sons of Sigismund
pursue their work is also the stuff of fables.
If only I could just have seen such legendary feats performed in battle before my
own eyes, perhaps Clain's Stronghold would not have fallen, and the orkish
hordes would already have been driven from the hallowed land of Armageddon
Secundus.
Before I conclude, I believe that a noble servant of the Emperor is making ready
to visit you aboard your flagship. He is a man who has done much for
Armageddon's cause already and who has made many sacrifices in pursuit of the
alien overlords that would ravage our world with bestial abandon. He has done
much, in particular, for the people of Tartarus and I would wish that you pass on
my regards to Lord Inquisitor Klojage when he rendezvous with your fleet.
May the God-Emperor smile on your endeavours.
I am ever your humble servant,
Lord General Antre Bashparov
Lord High General of Tartarus Hive Command, Allied Imperial Forces
[Message ends]
Jonathan Green «Crusade for Armageddon»
Priority level: Cyan Alpha
Transmitted: Adeptus Astartes Battle Barge Divine Fury, Solemnus Crusade,
Armageddon Sector To: Tartarus High Command, Tartarus Hive Date:
3.886.999.M41
Transmitter: Astropath Prime Ankacyte Receiver: Astropath-terminus Ralcos
Author: Marshal Brant of the Black Templars Crusade fleet Solemnus Thought
for the Day: Through the destruction of our enemies we earn our salvation.
General Dashparov,
I received your epistle upon my return, with my retinue, from purging the
abominable vessel Grogran of its ork infestation. I read it with interest, if not
with a little displeasure and disbelief.
My lord general, you imply that the brothers of my Chapter have been neglectful
and negligent in their duties concerning their mission upon Armageddon, when
you know nothing of the purposes the brethren of the Black Templars serve,
beyond the defence of a mere single world in all the Emperor's almighty
dominion.
You beseech us to help you rid your world of the savage alien hordes and then,
when we deign to offer you aid, you call our actions into question and bring the
matter before the Emperor's inquisition. Mere mortals, such as yourself and the
men of your senior staff, who do not have the benefit of centuries of experience,
would find it hard to understand the higher purposes we serve.
You imply that the lack of our presence at the defence of Tartarus Hive resulted
in the loss of Chin's Stronghold. It is clear that you are ignorant of the greater
conflict that my battle-brothers fought in the wilderness against the ork hordes,
despite the fact that they were outnumbered and without recourse to
reinforcements.
You dare to demand that we – the Black Templars of the Adeptus Astartes, elite
warriors of humanity, the chosen of the Emperor and his strong right arm in
battle – account for our actions. As a Chapter, we have undertaken the greatest
quest in the ten thousand year-long history of the Imperium to rid the Emperor's
immortal realm of the alien, the heretic and the thrice-damned servants of
Chaos.
If Castellan Adlar's Fighting Company had not followed the signs and portents,
through which the Emperor's will and quest was revealed to one of the
Emperor's own champion, chosen by the Master of Mankind in his glory himself,
then it would not only have been Chin's Stronghold that fell to the enemy. Instead
Tartarus Hive itself would now be a nothing but a smoking ruin, and the way
would be left open for the foul ork hordes to come out of the ash wastes and join
with the accursed greenskin warbands already assailing Hive Helsreach.
Perhaps even now, worthy Armageddon would have already fallen to the forces
of the ork overlord, Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka, Emperor forbid.
It is not for me to explain the reasons for the decisions that I – a marshal of the
Adeptus Astartes – and my trusted commanders make upon the field of battle,
nor is it your place to question them. You should thank the Emperor that the
Black Templars fight for the relief of your solitary world at all.
But, for the honour of the Chapter I shall endeavour to explain the actions of
Castellan Adlar, and all his gallant Fighting Company, in the Tartarus
Campaign, in order that you might understand the greater triumph that was won
as a result. You might then also see clearly that ' through the destruction of our
enemies we earn our salvation'', as the holy proverb truly states.
I trust the attached file, encrypted for your consideration and contemplation
only, will explain everything to the satisfaction of both yourself and the
venerable Inquisitor Klojage.
The Emperor is beneficent.
[File attached]

Jonathan Green «Crusade for Armageddon»
PROLOGUE
THE KEEP
Twelve years ago...
THE TOWERING, CRENELLATED walls of the great grey stone keep looked
like they had stood for thousands of years, as indeed they had.
Everything about the ancient edifice gave the impression that it could withstand
any assault, no matter how terrible, and that it could survive any siege, no matter
how long. Walls a hundred metres high rose from foundations where they were
sunk so deep within the craggy plateau of the hilltop that they appeared to grow
up out of the bedrock of the planet itself. A thousand pennant flags fluttered in
the bitterly cold wind from heavily fortified battlements that also bristled with
cannon muzzles.
Additional heavy gun emplacements were embedded within the lower slopes of
the twenty-metre-thick walls. Their barrel-mouths opened beneath turreted
buttresses, ready to unleash merciless death upon any enemy foolhardy enough
to attack the gothic fortress, although not many had tried in its long and noble
history.
Huge doors, tall enough and wide enough to allow even the Imperator-class
land-battleship colossi of the Adeptus Mechanicus comfortable entry, stood
solidly closed. The vast black cross insignia of the holy order that called the
great bastion home adorned them, and the prevalent memento mori skull of the
Imperium that was reproduced in its centre stood ten metres high.
In front of the doors, and bridging the crevasse before the wind-scoured cliffs to
which the ancient fortress clung, was a drawbridge wide enough, for six
Conqueror tanks to comfortably advance across. Chains with links the size of
Land Speeders rose up from their moorings on the drawbridge to the towers of
the gatehouse eighty metres up. These housed the lifting gear that could raise the
drawbridge and so secure the stronghold in times of danger, should such a tiling
ever be necessary. It had been a long time, even by the reckoning of the Adeptus
Astartes, since that had been the case. And before the drawbridge was another
fortified gatehouse, flying the banner of the Templars.
It was said, by those who knew of such things, that it would take an army of
titans a month to break the stronghold open and level it, and such a thing would
never happen, by the will of the Emperor!
From its vantage point upon the crag of the uplands, the keep looked out over a
rolling heath to lush green grazing pastures and on towards the nearest of the
many stone-built towns that dotted these moors.
The keep was the largest man-made structure on the backwater world of
Solemnus, a world forgotten for a time by the galaxy-spanning Imperium of
Mankind, troubled as the sector had been by warp storms of great magnitude for
many millennia. Some said that the only things larger than the chapter keep were
the Lammas Mountains and from the steeply rising approach to the Templars'
fortress, along the flint-laid road, even their distant glacial peaks were dwarfed
by the edifice looming in the foreground.
It had all been part of the founding-brothers' grand design. They had intended
that the keep should appear this way, so that any penitent or petitioner making
their way towards the ancient sanctuary-fortress should be mindful of the power
and might of the Black Templars, and the awesome, forbidding majesty of the
Emperor of Mankind whom they served, whose powerful arm and wrathful
vengeance the Adeptus Astartes embodied.
And yet, the keep was just one of the Black Templars' many Chapter
strongholds, located on hundreds of planets. There was one for every world
conquered or reclaimed for the Imperium by the Emperor's most devoted,
heretic-persecuting warriors of the Adeptus Astartes, and they were each staging
posts for the crusading fleets of the Chapter.
Over the last ten centuries the people of Solemnus had forgotten the terrible,
bloody events that originally brought the fleets of the Black Templars to their
world. The events of those terrible dark times had long since passed into myth,
becoming the legend of the shape-stealers, nightmarish monsters that would steal
people away from their beds in the depths of the night. Their human-seeming
servants appeared to be like other men and women, but they hid terrible secrets
of monstrous births and unnatural devotion to their devil offspring.
But the Templars remembered. The record of the purging of the genestealer cult
from the world by their ancestor brothers were the first battles to be inscribed on
the roll carved into the walls of the Hall of Heroes. The great keep had been
raised after the eradication of the alien infiltrators, to stand watch over the
evidently vulnerable feudal world.
No, the Chapter never forgot, lest in its forgetting it became complacent and
thereby allowed the heretic, the mutant, the enemy within, the alien, the enemy
without, the daemon, or the enemy beyond, a way in to harry the Emperor's
divine galaxy-spanning realm and sow the seeds of discontent, chaos, conflict
and corruption. And the Chapter's memory was longer than that of the people of
Solemnus, it reached back ten thousand years to its founding in the fiery furnace
heat of war at the end of the Emperor's own great crusade.
Ever since Lord Sigismund, the first High Marshal of the Black Templars, had
assembled the first and largest of the war fleets of the Chapter, and begun the
greatest crusade that the Adeptus Astartes had ever undertaken, the Space
Marines of the Black Templars Chapter spurned possession of a single
homeworld. They had become a fleet-based Chapter, so that they might better
fulfill their duty to the Emperor in protecting his Imperium.
Solemnus itself was aptly named. It was a world plagued by petulant storms. The
system's yellow sun rarely showed for any length of time through the steely
overcast skies and the chill yet temperate climate of the uplands benefited from
steady rainfall throughout every season of the year. With the approach of the
autumnal equinox the weather was seasonably cold and damp.
Solemnus was a p-class world, its populace sustained by sheep-farming, forestry,
the raising of livestock, basic mining and quarrying. The government was
perpetrated by feudal lords and petty kings, but the true overlords of Solemnus
were the Emperor's holy warriors of the Black Templars Chapter. For what
Solemnus offered the rest of the Imperium was the strength of faith of several
million hardy souls and neophyte recruits for the hallowed Astartes brotherhood.

Jonathan Green «Crusade for Armageddon»