A FLAWLESS COMPANY

Lord Commander Eleaxus, known by some as ‘the Flawless’, grinned as he watched the fortress above him. Megiddo it was called, for it was impervious to all. Now his warriors of the III Legion would show them the meaning of wrath. A hundred thousand warriors and a million civilians under arms sheltered in the fortress. Eleaxus had the whole of the 36th Grand Company, approximately 1000 men, to kill them all. Now he would show them why he was called the Flawless, why he was unmatched in every field of war.

He took off his golden helm, letting his silver locks blow in the hot winds formed by the artillery barrages.

‘Warriors of the Third Legion,’ he declared to his assembled men. ‘Warriors of the 36th Grand Company, we bring the Emperor’s Will to these renegades. We bring his Wrath, we bring his Fire, and we bring his Sword! We bring his Judgement. The pure light of his Glory shall guide our path, the pure light of the Imperial Truth! We are Emperor’s Children, and we are Flawless!’

The men cheered and kneeled before him.

‘Now, for the Lord Fulgrim,’ he continued. ‘The renegades will die, to the last man! For against the Astartes, they are nought but ants. For against the Emperor’s Children, nothing can be done. For against the Emperor of Man, they cannot help but die. Children of the Emperor, Death to his Foes!’

‘We march for war.’

+++

Brother-Sergeant Jhasius, Equerry to Eleaxus, grinned beneath his helmet as his men advanced towards Megiddo. The fortress was impossible to crack, even by the Titan Legions of the Mechanicum, and he felt pride that his would be the squad that took the invincible mountain. Megiddo was built on top of a high mountain with no roads, so that it was nigh-impossible to reach. Worst yet, it was surrounded by anti-air batteries and void shield generators, rendering it proof against drop pods and orbital bombardment. It also had huge guns, relics of the Dark Age of Technology, which passed straight through void shields and could destroy a Titan with a single strike. Nothing short of Exterminatus could destroy it, or so it was thought.

Eleaxus was sending scouting parties around the base of the mountain, hoping that a weak point could be found. Hopefully it would be, for unless it was, Megiddo would stand proud, a rotting canker in the Imperium’s heart. On his third circuit around the mountain, Jhasius noticed something different – a pile of rocks, under an overhang, as if designed to disguise something. He fired his bolt-pistol at the rocks, blowing them back in and revealing a cave – or perhaps a tunnel.

‘Jhasius, reporting to Eleaxus,’ he said tersely. ‘We’ve discovered a way in. Entering now.’

+++

Eleaxus walked into the cave, watching as the low-light sensors in his helmet kicked into gear, revealing what was within. Vast stocks of ammunition and explosives, hidden within. That was where the Megiddans gained their arsenals from. The rest of the Grand Company was advancing, Eleaxus and his bodyguard first into the fight. They advanced, into the light and a...temple. Those were the only words that could properly describe it. It was an opulent chamber, dominated by a lectern and an altar on which strange, bizarre ruins were inscribed.

‘Burn it,’ Eleaxus commanded. ‘Burn it all down!’

The Marine with a flamer advanced, ready to burn the temple to the ground. But then a figure appeared, wearing robes and with a staff in his hand. He sent lightning from his hands towards the flamer Marine, killing him and sending him flying through the air.

Eleaxus lashed out with the Blade of the Flawless, even as he kicked the sorcerer in the gut, knocking him onto his own altar and mortally wounding him. What happened next was terrible to behold. The sorcerer-priest was literally devoured by the altar, consumed alive and vanishing into the black stone. Suddenly, as the sorcerer died, a misty figure faded into existence, leaping forward as it became material. Suddenly, they were surrounded by the figures, heroically fighting them off against heroic odds.

+++

Aboard the Ecstatic Blessing, Librarian Trajax quickly noted that Megiddo’s void shields were flickering, as if something was disrupting them. Now was the moment, for otherwise victory would not come. Before long he and a group of Terminators had teleported down, preparing to end Megiddo’s affront to the Emperor.

+++

Lassar Kulrinian of the House of the Snake, of the Ezve of Ezvenar, watched as the giant appeared in the midst of the soldiers, ripping some apart with a cutting fist of steel and fury. Before long, others appeared in flashes of light, mowing down his men with pathetic ease and taking not a single strike to their own armour. It wasn’t that it was so tough – it was that as they assaulted, their weapons flashed into vapour by some eldritch magic.

Now might be the time to call forth the blessed Angels of the Ezve, the beings of excess that came to them and that they worshipped. Little did he know that the Angels had already come, and were being driven back to the abyss that spawned them.

+++

A white light came from Trajax’s hands, banishing the foul Warp-beasts that assaulted them. They faded into nothing, the misty shape of their master dispelled by the pure white light. Eleaxus looked down. His Command Squad had been wiped out, but the victory had been worth it, for the Emperor’s Children banner now flew over Megiddo.

Very nice - always good to see more original fiction on the boards!

We're putting together another short story contest soon, just finalising details with our next celebrity judge... ;)

@Tarvitz: Excellent read! Very nice job.

@Shroud: Yay! I can't wait!