949.M30.
Segmentum Obscurus, Ornsworld.
Sasebo Tezuka, sub-commander of the 36th Company of the Tenth Chapter, led three squads onto the surface of the eternal night world.
The dead star cast no light upon this planet.
Teresoldi looked around, seeing only massive, pitch-black rocks.
"What a desolate world. It's hard to imagine life could exist here."
"The Auger Master reports scans detect no life signals, but our father told us this world is home to millions of Ratlings," Sasebo Tezuka warned.
"Have the Ratlings here learned to turn invisible?" Ordonez clutched his Bedrock-pattern bolter. "Those abhumans are small, but millions of them couldn't leave no trace at all."
Sasebo Tezuka was about to speak when sudden whoosh-whoosh-whoosh sounds filled the air.
"Enemy attack!"
Beams of light rained down, hammering the Shadows of Order's Mark III power armor. Black smoke rose from the black ceramite.
The once-smooth plates were scorched black.
Sasebo Tezuka turned towards the slope. His auspex display flickered with a blur of red runes, seeming hazy in the darkness.
He shouted: "Activate visual aids!"
The Shadows of Order, unable to rely on their auspexes to track the enemy as usual, turned sideways, laying down a steady barrage.
They raised their boltguns, aiming with their enhanced visual acuity like Solar Auxilia.
Boom, boom, boom...
The concentrated barrage flew toward the slope, pulverizing the shadowy, diminutive forms.
The Ratlings of Ornsworld did not shriek in terror like their kin on other worlds. They crouched in silence, reloading their weapons in silence.
A Ratling whose sclera were completely black secreted white filaments from his sweat glands.
White strands drifted into the air. Suddenly, thousands of Ratlings popped up.
Dozens of beams splashed against Teresoldi's visor.
Crackle, crackle...
A crack appeared in Teresoldi's visor, rapidly spreading into a spiderweb.
Pop!
Teresoldi's eyes burst, leaving only two empty, bloody sockets in their place.
Bang!
Sasebo Tezuka's two hearts hammered. He raised his Bedrock-pattern bolter, aiming at the faint sound he had just heard.
The diamond-hard shells slammed into the black rock and detonated.
Boom!
The rock shattered. The Ratling with completely black sclera was blown to pieces.
"Charge!" Sasebo Tezuka knew Ratlings were timid as mice; break their line, and they would be routed.
The Shadows of Order sprinted, charging up the slope like high-speed trains.
Even the Ratlings' accurate fire couldn't match an Astartes's speed.
The blazing beams went wide, blasting rocks and sending up clouds of dust.
Bang!
Sasebo Tezuka was the first to crash into the enemy line. Two Ratlings were sent flying by his legs, crashing to the ground and lying still.
Boom, boom, boom!
The Shadows of Order swept their fire at their feet, blasting clusters of shadows into bloody mist.
Sasebo Tezuka, changing his magazine for the fourth time, glanced at his visor.
The red runes hadn't decreased. The dense red dots resembled an ocean.
The timid Ratlings hadn't fled. They had surrounded them.
"Ordonez, cover me!"
Sasebo Tezuka spun, firing. He felt no sense of security from his back-to-back old friend.
His visor was a sea of red.
Ratlings covered the hillsides.
Tens of thousands of enemies had them surrounded. There was no clear path of retreat.
Bang!
A dull thud sounded behind Sasebo Tezuka. A black rune on his visor vanished.
Ordonez was dead!
Sasebo Tezuka's two hearts lurched. Furious, he changed his magazine, spinning and firing.
His gaze swept over a head on the ground, crushed like a rotten orange.
Pop!
A blinding flash. A crack suddenly appeared in Sasebo Tezuka's right visor.
Just as he was about to raise his bolter to fire, he saw clusters of flesh erupt.
Ratlings exploded, one after another.
A storm of blood swept the area.
Swaths of shadows vanished.
"Chapter Master!"
Sasebo Tezuka stared as Ramsey, strolled forward, a specter swirling around him.
The specter's beak shrieked a piercing cry. Glowing bullets flew into Ratlings' heads.
Its feet left the ground, its body diving, its sword spinning. Small heads rolled.
Fewer specters, likely the attackers, glided down from spectral ships.
They had beaks and wing-like membranes extending from beneath their arms to their ribs.
They held pistols in one hand and light weapons like swords in the other.
Amidst the deafening cannon fire, two spectral ships blazed.
Lord Ramsey calmly raised his arms. A bloody storm spiraled outward, causing Ratlings on the slope to explode en masse, their bodies dissolving into the blood mist.
"Sasebo Tezuka!" Ramsey's gaze fell on the sub-commander, recognizing him as an excellent commander among the Faceless.
As the "Shepherd" spoke, he continued to direct one of the two specters he had selected on Soniem VIII to attack. The specter's spirit body was solid, allowing it to manifest outside his body.
The full-fledged "Rose Bishop" also continuously used "Flesh Bombs" to blast Ratlings apart, replenishing his consumed flesh magic with their blood and flesh.
Sasebo Tezuka, firing at the survivors of the bloody storm, his face alight with pride, said, "Chapter Master, you know of me?"
"You performed excellently, qualified twice to join my Lord's Honour Guard, yet you voluntarily declined." The full-fledged "Rose Bishop," Ramsey, surveyed the battlefield, seeing his Honour Guard had routed the Ratlings.
He drew his hands together. The bloody mist scattered in the wind.
Thick shadows rose from the "Shepherd." The beaked specter flew towards him.
The shadows seemed solid as they engulfed the specter.
The specter's beak and body were compressed, squeezed, stuffed into the "Shepherd's" body.
Ramsey addressed the stunned Sasebo Tezuka, who was staring at where the specter had vanished: "Few make that choice. It made an impression on me."
Sasebo Tezuka snapped back to reality. 'So this is the power our father bestowed upon Lord Ramsey?'
'The power granted only to Court members!'
His thoughts in a daze, he heard Lord Ramsey's words. A long-buried regret stirred.
"I couldn't abandon my brothers." Teresoldi and Ordonez had trained and fought alongside him, closer to him than other battle-brothers.
"Now they're dead." He glanced sadly at Ordonez's corpse.
"I don't know if I'll ever get the chance."
Ramsey silently surveyed the corpses. The Ratlings of Ornsworld were superior to their kin on other worlds in stealth, eyesight, marksmanship, and perhaps because they had a deity they worshipped, their fighting spirit was stronger as well. They had inflicted significant losses on his Chapter.
He looked away from the bodies and fixed his gaze on Sasebo Tezuka, his armor slick with gore.
The full-fledged "Rose Bishop" raised his right hand and brushed it lightly against Sasebo Tezuka's armor. The blood and flesh seemed to come alive, congealing into a ball.
"You will have a chance. I will recommend you."
"This will be your last opportunity."
The ball of flesh disappeared into the full-fledged "Rose Bishop's" palm as he turned to leave.
Sasebo Tezuka's eyes gleamed. "I thank the Chapter Master! I will seize this opportunity!"
He gazed at Lord Ramsey's retreating back, a longing stirring within him. After a moment's hesitation, he spoke.
"Chapter Master, after I return... could I become a member of your Honour Guard?"
Ramsey paused mid-stride. He spoke, his voice somber: "Members of my Honour Guard must fight alongside me not only in life."
"After death, their souls will remain with me."
"They will not rest eternally after death! They will still dedicate themselves to me and to the Chapter!"
Ramsey slowly turned, his obsidian eyes fixed on Sasebo Tezuka.
"Do you have the resolve for that?"
Sasebo Tezuka stared into Lord Ramsey's face, identical to their father's.
He knelt on one knee. "I do!"
He had not been honored to serve eternally by their father's side, but to serve the Chapter Master was an unparalleled glory in itself.
Ramsey looked at Sasebo Tezuka and nodded. "Good!"
....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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