:eight_pointed_black_star: Legio Damnata - chapter 1: The Master's Silence!

♤ author

• j. placedown

♤ genre

• dark fantasy

• grimdark

• horror

♤ trigger

• gore, death

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The Lidless Eye

"I gathered the forces that the warmaster instructed of me," He retorted in an indifferent manner. His eyes shifting to look at the other member of the thousand sons. He found it interesting, another still bearing ancient warplate as he did.

His eyes darted around the room, hidden by the glowing green lenses of his helmet. He'd speak up to the rag tag group:

"To begin the discussion, I am the hand, and word, of the warmaster during this crusade. You will answer to me. One false move against me and this crusade's goals, you'll find yourself a chaos spawn, hellbrute, or worse. Understood? Good then."

His words were faultless, likely as he used his sorcererous powers to enhance his charisma. His next words were:

"The Dark Angels and imperial navy have blockaded the system. The adeptus mechanicus fleet is small, but bolsters. The sororitas have consigned themselves to mainly ground warfare. We must break this blockade so that we may strike at the shrine world Hexis Sanctorum."

The Cobra

Acharn thought, his fleet would be here soon and it was not small, a grand cruiser and many escorts or modified freighters.

"Maybe... We might want to form a small strike group to act independently of our main forces and take out their overall commanders, should we make the strike group we either need a sorcerer capable of rapid teleportation or a very specific group of ships."

He said as his hand was raised to his chin, his mind turned and broiled, his thoughts focused entirely on how this meeting could end and the results.

"I'm sure you could achieve the rapid teleportation, exalted sorcerer, it would keep our ships and troops on them out of large risks which could be beneficial to the rest of this crusade"

The Bearer of Word

Darad looked at the World Eater and smiled at his entrance and what he said.

"Oh yeah, let's pray that he does."

He said mockingly, before focusing on the information that was relayed as he thought about it for a few seconds.

"Well it's obvious to anyone here the Dark Angels and Mechanicus ships will be the main strength of the blockade, but the navy is not as strong of will and I'm sure they grow tired of this, so if I could manage to get a transmittion into the Imperial navy fleet, I'm sure some of those mortals will be more than happy to our cause and if nothing else cause chaos in the blockade and even let us strike the blockade while they are distracted, I'm sure our friends of Iron would be more than happy to spearhead this attack, wouldn't two of you agree?"

Darad then spoke with eloquence as he then stared at the two Iron Warriors for a second before looking back at the Exalted sorcerer.

"I also would say, it would be beneficial if we left one ship alive, but infect anyone on board and summon daemons of nurgle and send it towards the shrine world, if successful, it would greatly weaken the defences of the world so that we may crush them with more ease and desecreate their so called holy planet."

Darad then said, as he chuckled a bit, he did love fighting and crushing the spirits of those so called sisters of battle and desecreate a shrine world.

The Master

"I don't mind if they are stronger than our terrors..." her finger trembled invocating a blasphemous flame. She walked in front of her precious warlord as she would like blessing him by jingling her bone thinklets of her spooky staff, not only showing him the flame she was holding. "but...let my flames decide how many lives...are...useful for our future victory..." After there was a moment of silence as she was praying and she whispered him "let our flames...cause death of whoever has broken our desires, our lives with lies and fake happiness..time to burn the galaxy...and death to the false emperor and his children...it's oath to despair and let the gods guiding our victory.." in dark tongue, misunderstood by most of the entire crew there.

She went on agitating her staff. She returned to speak normal and she grabbed suddenly her dagger. She aimed at him but she let caressing the blade on her fingers with nervous outburst. "I am willed..." She removed her right glove and she cut her hand off as extreme fidelity sygn towards the Chaos Gods. "to make everything, even worse thing...and...to die for our God's too, my lord!" After she looked her staff making an other one of her gloomy ritualistic spells by making her just in ecstasy.

She saw shadows fighting for an object, may an artifact, and two symbols and she saw a creature with an eight pointed star killing a golden two headed eagle, not only hearing voices in her mind; they were her Gods' voices ordering how to act and she came back to herself. "I think...they are right...afterall...my plan?! Then...our Gods' plan is...take their lives..." In silence, she grinned turning to the right with her staff pointing towards the sky while whispering other incomprehensible words.

"Not only their lives...Darad, time to leave our own...how shall I say?" She touched her bone claws necklace meaning to have some opinion about the actual blockage. "Sure...why do we not send our...cultits and warriors in fight? Then...face to face to be...congratulated by the Gods..." She pointed to the clouds with the fire on her hand. "While we are waiting..."

The Exalted

Setth sneered at the simplicity of the ideas brought, an outright grunt of annoyance at the strange woman who muttered to herself, speaking in tongues and rattling her staff.

"So simple. Bah!"

He'd exclaim, disc lowering as he stepped off it, the shimmering gold artifice then vaporising, transforming into a stave that was then held in his left hand, blue flames and ethereal eyes forming in his right palm as he cradled a hololithic display of the system.

"If we are to take the system we must be considerate of all at our disposal! Mandival points! Supply lines! Patrol paths. We have not survived the Long War simply by barging through the foe like maddened mortal whelps.

Many of you, I'd wager have come from the old war, under the dullard Horus, when we tossed our lot in with him.

We must stagger this assault if we wish victory. Forward infiltrations, corruption of faith and morale, ambushes via gravitational slings, picking and harrassing the foe."

He made mockeries of the ships on the board, the loyalists, then them.

He stepped back, like a player of a game of regicide would, offering another to the table, to try their luck.

His helm turned to their leader, this fellow exalted Sorcerer of the 15th.

"Tell me, Lord, what do we have at our disposal? What will be needed, whomst do we spare and what do we purge and maime."

Setth was a rather unlikable man, blunt, curt... But there was a reason he had taught more than a dozen stirling Practicus in his time of the old days. He knew how to wage war, especially against the foe, looking upon the larger picture.

The Bearer of Word

"And yet it seems your not listening Sorcerer, because one of the things you mentioned I already mentioned and for now we are working with what our esteemed chosen of the Warmaster has shared, so maybe wait for him to tell us all the details and other to chime in, before you go off sharing your wisdom with us."

Darad said to Setth as he shook his head a bit, like he was disappointed in the Sorcerer, he was not looking for a fight, but he felt the need to call out this sorcerer for trying to act smarter, when he wasn't really listening to what was said by those who spoken first, that is simply something Darad would not allow to just fly.

The Iron Warbiest

"Stop your useless squabbling! Sorcerer, Word Bearer, both of you have brought up good points. The Word Bearer especially offered a good idea for the immediate start of the offensive. Which isn't something I ever expected to say about a fanatic like him. My Fleet will take point as the spearhead, but with just those meager three ships, no matter how strong they may be it will be impossible to make an effective breakthrough. Even in a blockade wide chaos. As such I would recommend putting the slower ships from all gathered into the spearhead using the faster vessels as flanking groups."

The Iron Warrior spoke, having had enough of the Word Bearers annoying voice.

Iron Within, Iron Without

Already, negotiations for plans had already devolved into needless squabbling. Khyr would tighten his grip on his mace, already preparing to crack open a skull or two before the fellow Iron Warrior spoke out, at least he could trust one person in this room to not act like a child. That is all he saw when he looked upon the rest gathered, he failed to see a single warrior or soldier here, just bickering children arguing over a game. Were these truly to be the comrades he'd have to fight alongside? Oh how the Legions had fallen.

Regardless, Khyr would turn and nod to the other Iron Warrior in agreement. Despite their bickering both had valid points and concerns one must consider Within this theatre of war. Khyr spoke in a cold and calculating tone, no indication of his disappointment or flicker of frustration present.

"I second this idea. I also volunteer my own fleet for the Spearhead, if more numbers are required I can provide them. Now, the next question would be which force to prioritise first when attacking the blockade. The Imperial Navy may have numbers on their side, but we may be able to break through with relative ease if the correct amount of force is applied. The Astartes fleet, while significantly stronger, will have fewer vessels and their destruction shall demoralise the rest. I shall leave that decision with the rest of you, unless you prove yourselves completely incompetent. I shall be ready and willing to provide whatever I can in the meantime."

"Fuck off"

Mor's voice echoed through the chamber in an irritated yet low tone.

"Who gave you the right to be the spearhead of this charge? It will be us, sons of Angron, who will be the head of the spear."

He said, his hands tight on the handles of his massive chainaxes. Mor's entrance might've removed any tension, but such an insult to not even consider the champion of Khorne's needs will not go unpunished.

"You lost the right to a spearhead at Terra. We do the charge. You do the mud slugging."

He said, addressing both the Iron Warriors. He wouldn't allow one legion to have the most favor.

‎[BCIU] Iron Within

Khyr would soon turn his attention to the rather rowdy World Eater, a traitor in two regards, to the Imperium like the rest gathered here and to his own Legion given the colours he now wears. The Warsmith stared the so called Champion down with a calm, steely gaze. But there was an unmistakable venom in his voice, a disdain he held for any and all who showed enough weakness to allow their own Legion to fall into utter ruin.

"I see those Nails have affected your ability to think rationally, but considering the state of your Legion I should not be surprised."

The Warsmith would point the head of his mace towards Not nonchalantly, not a threat, but an indication to the area to the back of the World Eaters skull.

"Those Nails are proof of your weakness, you let yourselves fall into ruin and disorganised Warbands. They make you weak, a liability. You're just as likely to turn your guns on your allies should you run out of things to kill. For this task, we need precision and strategy, not mentally deficient fools who can barely organise themselves let alone an operation on this scale. You need only look to this current conversation as proof enough that your cognitive abilities are lacking. My Brother was volunteering to lead the charge, neither of us said you and your rabid kin could not participate."

Khyr would lower the mace, refusing to take his gaze off of the Champion even now.

"Regardless, we merely made suggestions and volunteered for that role. It is ultimately up to the one who summoned us here to choose who does what. We shall all play the part we are given, whether we like it or not. Keep that in mind next time you feel entitled to claim someone has the right to do anything."

Mor smacked his lips.

"You got a big mouth."

He then added

"A real talker"

"A real talker who is currently breathing, which is a great piece of evidence that shows that I am stable. I can think, I can act. And I think and act as the spearhead. Take it or leave it."

"Ultimately true, it is a decision that is up to whoever is in charge of us. Just don't leave too early again once the slightest inconvenience rears its head"

He sat down on one of the chairs, hus bulging biceps relaxing as he placed the axes by his legs.

The Iron Warbiest

"Brother, don't waste your breath on that maniac it is not worth arguing with a feral animal. But I do want to make a single thing clear. If that feral Animal ends up leading the spearhead I will withdraw all my forces from said spearhead and redistribute them to other forces as I see fit. Because NOTHING is a worse idea than a World Eater in a leading position."

He spoke a hint of venom in his voice, nothing else, it was a clear disdain.

The Master

"Am I muttering for thee?" She replied to Setth once she had finished to rumbling her staff. She repeated three times the same words till when she continued whispering something in Dark tongue. She turned towards him. "I see...but what.." She followed back him as she would curse him but it was not her intentions to do it.

She could not maledice him despite seeing him as a lonely guy for his particular behavior; it was just like her affascinating by him but she was not interested to make friendship with him, neither a relationship, and the entire crew; It was not part of the secret vow with the Gods. She preferred to be in secrecy rather than to be like them.

"Interesting...no, you don't see..." She laid the staff next to her chest as a sign of prayer, demonstrating her deep devotion to her patrons who protected her from the voices of those people she considered ignorant only in her discipline. She signed more times to breathe well, always whispering words of despair in her mind; they made feeling her well. "My great devotion to our Gods...they are with us...they are our way of despair. No the Gods...we are in vain...only beasts. Thanks to them...for sending me to gain lives for...you..all.."

She shaked a bit the staff as she thought she was afraid of the Gods and rattling her force stave was a good omen for her. "My...services must...be careful to them...not for us...just spilling blood...is always...for our cause..." Her words trembled and they were followed by unknown symbolic gestures made with her gloomy staff as she would try to give him some enlightenment. "don't blame them...or the will be terrible consequences..."

"this is for...all of us..." Said her turning her staff to another of the crew. "hope...you see...my...blessing, then our Gods blessing..“ After there was a silence moment.

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:copyright: Jpdragon_2016