A Fluff Bunny's First Hop: Meet the Sea Lords!

Howdy partners. Marcus here to provide you with a counter-point to Kevin's tournament-based antics, in the form of a bit of fan-fic background I cooked up for my pending Slaanesh themed/Game of Thrones inspired Chaos army. Please enjoy reading and not stealing, thanks a bunch.

The smoking rubble of the west wing of the governor’s villa choked the surrounding city streets. The planetary distress signal had summoned the nearby fleet of the Sea Lords chapter of Space Marines, but despite their haste in making planetfall on Paravos III they found the once idyllic capitol city in quiet ruin. Following procedure, Captain Sero Firielle wasted no time ordering his Second Company to scout the surrounding area for any signs of those who laid waste to the seat of their home system’s power.

“Brother Garos, take your heavy weapons and establish a firing position from the roof of the villa. Brother Monterre, you will take your squadron North along the coast and secure the perimeter of the city; Brother Capos will go South. Brother Lothos will stand guard over the entrance to the main wing of the Villa. All other squads, spread out and search the immediate area. I…”

            He paused as his gaze found its way to a soft amethyst glow emanating from one of the broken second story windows of the villa. He stood momentarily transfixed by the iridescence, which seemed to fade wherever he focused his attention and grow in the areas around it. As he stared, a hypnotic, ambient whine began to creep into the back of his mind and shift his thoughts from how best he could reclaim the city he stood in to a powerful wish to stand closer to that light. The sudden realization that he had stopped speaking jarred his attention firmly back to the task at hand.

            “I will lead the Command Squad into the villa to find the source of the distress signal and search for survivors.” He finished. “Brother Arano.”

            “Yes, Commander.” Replied the company’s Techmarine, stepping forward from behind the tread of one of the Rhinos he was inspecting.

            “You will accompany us inside. Bring the Auspex Scanner, and check for structural damage. We will reinforce the villa and establish our field command.”

            “As you command, Brother.”  He motioned towards his Servitors and began sorting through his arcane equipment.

            Captain Firielle looked towards his men once more. “Remember, brothers: watching is not seeing. Stay vigilant, there is much mystery here. Move out.” The 2^nd Company had no sooner heard their orders than began mobilizing to fulfill their stations. The Vox-caster inside Sero’s helmet buzzed and sputtered, relaying an urgent message bearing Inquisitorial encryption. An inattentive Sero half-heard a dire warning from a passing Inquisitor who had also received the distress beacon. He suspected the taint of Chaos on this planet, and made himself very clear that leaving the drop zone or entering the Villa before his arrival could very well be construed as heresy. Sero muted his receiver as he and his Command Squad gingerly made their way through the threshold of the Villa.

            Upon entering, they were greeted with a surprisingly immaculate foyer, starkly out of place with the warzone that lay ten feet outside the door they closed behind them. The Command Squad quickly started their rounds of the first floor, and Brother Arano began inspecting the walls and columns for signs of damage. All the while Sero stared at the grand double doors to the Governor’s quarters at the top of the central staircase, which bathed the surrounding area in a violet hue. Status reports were made, vox transmissions buzzed inside Sero’s helmet, and the message repeated again that the Inquisitor was making planetfall a small distance away. Sero removed his helmet and climbed the stairs in an unshakeable silent trance, pulling the doors closed behind him and ordering his men to remain downstairs until his return.

            Inside the Governor’s office, it seemed as if all the damage absent elsewhere in the Villa had been simply relocated here. Small craters from bolt pistols scarred the walls, the windows had been shattered out and the curtains hung shredded and still beside them. Bodies lay everywhere, their weapons strewn about carelessly. The only body that had not been left laying where it dropped was the Governor’s, which hung flayed and naked from the chandelier above his desk, his gentle groaning indicating hat his enemies had not made entirely sure he was dead before stringing him from the ceiling.

            In the center of all this laid a girl, no more than fourteen years, who was huddled and sobbing on the cold stone floor. Sero immediately dashed to her side, and as he moved closer she turned her face up to meet his. Her eyes were as clear and bright as two amethyst gems, save for the deep black void in the center of each. The air around her face shimmered and glowed purple, the effect dimming the closer he looked at any one point and growing stronger in each place he turned his gaze away from.

            “Who…what is your name, little one?” Sero asked in the distinct tone of a man enchanted.

            “T-Tulis…” she gasped shakily. Her chest still heaved from each painful sob that shook her slender frame. “I d-didn’t know what w-w-would happen when I…let them in.”

            “Let who in? The ones who did all this?” Sero asked, his vision swimming and his hearing growing fuzzy. She only nodded, before throwing herself at Sero’s feet.

            “The man in black and the silver soldiers…please don’t let them hurt me. They think it’s all my f-fault! It was j-just an accident!” she managed to choke out before her sobbing turned hysterical once more. Sero looked on her with an emotion he had never felt before, and the double doors burst open to reveal a black-coated Inquisitor behind them. At his back stood six Grey Knights, the Imperium’s finest shock troops against the daemonic. They strode into the room without hesitation, until he saw the jewel-eyed girl amidst the carnage, weeping at the boots of Sero Firielle.

            “You!” He barked at Tulis, raising an accusatory finger. “The Prognosticars were right. They thought you might be young.” He addressed Sero in the same blunt fashion. “Captain. This is no child before you. The forces of Chaos are at work here. This insidious little monster is the cause of all of this destruction. Deliver it to me so we can banish it to the Warp.”

            Sero did not turn to face the man bellowing orders at him. “There has been a mistake here, Inquisitor. The girl has done no wrong. She is under my charge, and she will not be harmed. My men will find the truth of what happened here without your…help.”

            “Done no wrong, Captain? Perhaps you failed to notice that this city lies in ruins? She brought all these unspeakable evils upon this planet, and she must be destroyed before she can do so again. All the surrounding systems are in danger, and the Emperor protects-“

            “Who does the Emperor protect, if not the innocent?” Sero snarled, pivoting to face the grim Inquisitor.

            “The Emperor protects ONLY the innocent. And the faithful, commander. This…thing is neither. And should you wish to avoid sharing in her purification, along with your entire Chapter, you will stand aside immediately.” Came his glacial reply. The Inquisitor’s eyes locked themselves on Sero’s to anticipate his response. Sero met his gaze before turning to the girl now grasping his greaves and sobbing frantically. This beautiful creature has committed no crime…

            “If you would threaten her,” Sero leveled his slender Paravosi power sword at the Inquisitor and turned side-face. “then I fear that one of us no longer does the Emperor’s will. Draw.”

           

            The Inquisitor’s expression registered more contempt than surprise. Without moving his eyes from Sero’s, he drew his pistol and sword and ordered the Grey Knights at his side “Kill them. Both of them. And burn the bodies.”

            “Death to the traitor!” screamed the nearest two Knights to Sero. Brandishing their two-handed blades with barely controlled rage, they dashed towards Sero each poised to strike a killing blow against the Captain. The one on Sero’s right was the first to reach him and deliver an overhead swing. Sero stepped perpendicular to the swing and with a graceful spin he delivered a backhand counterstroke that passed neatly through the weak armor between the Knight’s forearms and wrists, sending his hands clattering to the ground alongside his sword before his swing was finished. Sero’s plasma pistol cut short his opponent’s cry of surprise, and the second Knight was upon him with a broad horizontal forehand swing. Sero serenely leaned back out of the range of his attacker’s swing, and deftly plunged the point of his narrow blade into one of the slits in the Knight’s visor in response.

            “Oafs! Who do you think you’re fighting? On your guard and kill this heretic!” roared the Inquisitor at the four Grey Knights still standing. As the remaining Space Marines approached Sero and Tulis and began to encircle them, Tulis’ sobbing quieted abruptly and she took to her feet. Her face had aged from that of a young girl to that of an ivory skinned temptress, her tattered robes reformed into a grotesque living mural of torture and debauchery, and a wailing breeze suddenly howled into the room from the shattered window panes behind the Inquisitor. Sero looked in hypnotized astonishment at what moments before had been a mere child, and Tulis caressed his arm as her forked tongue flickered between her lips.

“You will feel satisfaction you’ve never dreamt of…” she purred in Sero’s ear, “after your blade has kissed their flesh and drank the blood from their veins.” Her eyes flashed and the sorcerous breeze stiffened, shifting the balance of even the power armored Knights ever so slightly, and in that moment of discord Sero first tasted the power of Slaanesh’s blessing as he leapt towards the Grey Knights. He moved like a bolt of liquid lightning, the whine of his blade dancing through the air pausing only when it was replaced by the rending squeal of its edge biting through ceramite. The first Knight who swung a blade at him received five delicate ripostes in a matter of seconds, rendering his arms limp and helpless at his side. The thrust from the second Knight’s halberd was parried aside with a dancing twirl, a maneuver which culminated with Sero’s blade gliding across the slower warrior’s throat. The third struck at Sero from behind, and Sero caught his assailant’s wrist with his off-hand, diverted the blow, and skewered him from his neck to his thigh. The final Knight took aim with his storm bolter and unleashed a barrage of shells at Sero. He watched in disbelief as his target moved like a mirage, covering the six paces of open ground between them in moments without suffering a single hit. Before the Knight could raise his sword to a defensive stance Sero had already slid past him and sent his head rolling towards the first Knight, who was writhing on the floor in a fit of uncontrollable ecstasy gifted to him by Tulis.

“This…this is impossible!” stammered the Inquisitor, barely audible over the din of the wind and the unnatural laughter of the last living Knight. “Your whole Chapter will die for this!”

“You are mistaken, Inquisitor. Today, my Chapter is truly born.” Sero declared smugly. Tulis moaned and her dagger ended the maddened giggling of the Grey Knight. The wind blew still, plunging the room into a silence it had not seen since the arrival of the Inquisitor. “Come now, raise your sword and dance with me one last time…”


To be continued, I guess?