C. Goto - Dawn of War

“You must go. You must go now,” she said, as rockets fizzed overhead, blasting concussive waves across the plaza as they punched into the buildings on all sides. She staggered under the effort of concentration, struggling to keep the portal open amidst the gathering turmoil of battle.

Jaerielle hesitated for a moment, staring at the farseer, desperate for a last sign of guidance. But Macha would no longer look upon him. It was as though he were suddenly repulsive to her, as though he were already the bloody hand of a war-god, bent solely on death and destruction, utterly without balance. Searching her face, Jaerielle also saw fear flashing over her features-there was nothing so terrifying to the eldar as the loss of balance in one’s soul.

He walked slowly over the shimmering pool on the flagstones, following the stream of warp energy that poured out of the farseer’s hand. Looking down into the pool, he could see the distant throne room of Biel-Tan as though it were a rippling reflection. Arrayed throughout the great chamber were the exarchs of the other shrines, and the seers of the grand council. They were waiting for him-the most lost soul of all the Biel-Tan. They waited to sacrifice him to Khaine, so that he might be reborn as the god’s avatar.

“You are lost on the Path of the Warrior, Jaerielle of the Striking Scorpions-your soul is lost to you already. Now it belongs to all eldar. May Kaela Mensha Khaine find you worthy of becoming his avatar,” said Macha, sharing a brief, compassionate glance.

And with that, Jaerielle stepped onto the warp-pool, sinking into it as though it were water, and vanishing from the face of Tartarus.

C.S. Goto (ebook by Undead)

01 – Dawn of War

Thundering through from the back of the Blood Ravens’ column came the massive Vindicator tank, grinding to a halt in front of the gates to Lloovre Marr. The rest of the detachment from the Third Company was already arrayed before the walls, waiting for a breach to be opened in the city’s perimeter. Not a single shot had yet been fired, despite the fact that the Space Marines were out in the open, with no appreciable cover. The eldar were clearly not stationed in the wall’s gun emplacements. Either the Blood Ravens were not expected-which seemed unlikely-or the eldar had other plans for them.

Standing beside the Vindicator, inspecting the Marines that were spread out around him, Gabriel nodded a signal to Matiel, whose Marines were deployed in a single line, parallel to the curving wall. At once, a great gout of flame burst out of the sergeant’s jump pack, launching him into the air and up the side of the wall. On both sides of him, his squad followed suit, and the Space Marines rapidly crested the wall, stepping onto the battlements as they reached the correct level.

“Company!” hissed the voice of Matiel through the vox unit in Gabriel’s armour. Simultaneous with the crackle of his voice, Gabriel could see the report of Matiel’s bolter flare from the top of the wall. Suddenly, the Space Marines were a blaze of fire as they stooped into the cover of the castellated fixtures-disciplined volleys of bolter fire flashing down into the city on the other side of the wall. Above the pitch of the rattling bolters, Gabriel could hear the faint whine of shuriken as the eldar returned fire, and then the dull booms of frag-grenades as the Marines tossed them down into the courtyard.

“How many?” asked Gabriel, his transmission whistling with feedback from the explosions.

“Too many, captain,” said Matiel simply. “The eldar positions are trained on the gate. They are just waiting for you to blow them and step into their killing zone.”

“Understood, sergeant. Hold your position,” replied Gabriel, turning smartly towards the squad of Devastator Marines that was waiting impatiently for the gate to be opened. “Let’s have some supporting fire for the Space Marines.”

The Devastators angled their missile launchers into the sky, searing out salvoes of rockets in invisibly high and steep parabolas. The rockets flashed back down over the city walls and punched down into the courtyard on the other side, setting off explosions that made the ground tremble.

Meanwhile, Gabriel had climbed up on top of the Vindicator and was muttering down through the top hatch, directing the pilot to a new target. The heavy tank jolted and its tracks spun, rotating the vehicle on the spot as the differentials worked. Then, with a sudden convulsion, the massive demolisher cannon roared with life, sending a huge blast of power punching into the rockcrete wall, about one hundred metres west of the city gates. Before the dust had time to settle, the cannon coughed again, smashing into exactly the same spot and collapsing a section of the wall.

As soon as the second blast struck, Tanthius and his squad of Terminators were storming towards the felled section of the wall, their storm bolters spluttering with fire, punching stones and chunks of rockcrete out of the edges of the ruined structure, widening the breach. Lumbering along behind them was the Third Company’s massive dreadnought, piloted by the ancient form of a near-dead Blood Raven, held away from death by the sarcophagus in the heart of the great war-machine. Thousands of years before, Blood Ravens Captain Trythos had been mortally wounded whilst on secondment to the Deathwatch. His soul had refused to die, and he had been enshrined in the Third Company’s dreadnought so that he might continue to vanquish the foes of the Emperor beyond his natural years.

Dreadnought Trythos stomped into the breach, pushing ahead of the Terminators, its multi-melta hissing with power in one hand and great plumes of chemical flame jetting out of the other. It stood dramatically in the gap in the wall as debris rained down around it and dust hazed the crimson of its massive armour. Already, sprays of shuriken fire were bouncing off it, as the eldar started to reposition their forces to focus on the breach. But the small arms fire meant nothing to it; as it plunged forward into the city and out of Gabriel’s sight, with Tanthius’ Terminators close behind.

Gabriel and Isador were pounding across the level ground in front of the walls, sprinting for the breach. Behind them came the Devastator squad, still launching salvoes of grenades over the wall towards the eldar positions, even as they ran. The Typhoon land speeders zipped through the gap ahead of them, flashing over the piles of rubble as though the ground were a smooth road. They tore into the city in support of Trythos and the Terminators, heavy bolters strafing a line of fire before them.

By the time Gabriel reached the breach, the battle on the other side of the wall was already joined. The hole in the wall was just to the west of the main gates, and Gabriel could see that the eldar had been forced to abandon many of their fortifications as the Blood Ravens had blasted through the wall behind their positions. But some of the aliens remained dug in on the east side of the gate, although they were being pestered from above by volleys of fire from Matiel’s Marines.

At the north side of the wide courtyard, the bulk of the eldar defences were under attack by the Terminators and the dreadnought, which advanced relentlessly despite the torrent of fire that flooded out of the eldar lines. The two Blood Ravens’ Typhoons had vanished into the streets of the city, searching out the location of other eldar emplacements.

A massive explosion shook the wall, sending great chunks of rockcrete tumbling down into the breach. As Gabriel turned back to the east, he saw the city gates blow inwards, cracking off their massive hinges and crashing down into the courtyard. Out of the cloud of fire and dust rolled the Vindicator tank, crumpling the remains of the gate under its heavy tracks and spitting huge gouts of power from its demolisher cannon towards the main eldar force, incinerating sections of barricades with each blast. Flanking the Vindicator on both sides, and squeezing past it to rush through into the city streets, streamed a line of assault bikes, making the most of the smoother ground. And rumbling in behind came two Predator tanks, one sending out jets of las-fire and the other chattering bursts from its autocannon turret.