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Solomon - Aaron Dick | |
| The Neon Shadow approached the battlefield warily. The Divine Siblings had reported that a force of Dark Angels had arrived on the planet to investigate reports of renegade marines. Icelus and Phantasus had both conferred to their master, Morpheus, and the trio had decided to strike first. A large contongent of Chaos marines were on the march to find and
destroy these over-inquisitive loyalists. The battle raged. All around the small outpost marines were fighting marines, bolt shells ripping their way through the air as heavier guns blazed sporadically at the foe. The Dark Angels were slowly moving forward agaisnt the crashing waves of chaos that broke across them. An assault group led by Icelus tore apart some scouts and began the furious run towards some devastators further on. The Divine Siblings moved forward to save their worthier bretheren. AS daemon-possessed predator rumbled into the sides of the Dark Angels force, lascannon piercing the air and the landspeeders that buzzed nearby. But against this tide, there was always the rock of the Deathwing. Mercilessly gunning down the foe they could not be halted by cultist, marine or terminator. There was a strange blurring of time, a moment of unreality in which the air became thick as sludge. Then all was normal, fires burning, men screaming. At some imperceptible moment though, a dark figure had appeared. Striding through the Deathwing like the Grim Reaper at Rhama Dhan, was a massive terminator in the colours of the Emperor's Children. Wielding a mighty poweraxe with devastating effects, he tore the Deathwing apart and soon destroyed them all. Roaring his glee he began to close with more of the foe, taking the cultists and the mighty veterans in terminator armour with him. In the carnage strewn battlefield that remained after these Dark Angels were sent on their way to the truth, he approached Icelus and Phantasus. Warily they spoke to him. "Who are you?" "What is your interest in this war" His gaze gave them pause for a moment before he responded scathingly. "I have aided you defeat a foe. Never question that. Take me to your master." Morpheus stood in his sanctuary, the distant walls clothed in darkness as usual to allow his guests to remain at ease. For so long as he wanted them to. He had heard that some powerful Chaos Lord wanted audience with him but had had no clues as to the identity of the fiend. This was to be their first meeting and Morpheus was apprehensive. When the evil doors to his room opened he turned and stared at the figure entering his sanctum. He knew the face that peered at him from beneath a veil of 10,000 years. Morpheus breathed a single word. "Solomon." Solomon had been the Captain of Morpheus' company during the Great Crusade. He had resigned in disgrace for endangering marine lives for no just cause in the vicinity of a great warp overlap. Morpheus had looked up to him then and still considered him a powerful warrior in his own right. Obviously the experience he would have had leading great armies in sweeping conquests would be useful. But why was he here, at the Star, now? In fact, Morpheus found himself wondering, did the Great Commander ever turn to Chaos? Nothing had been heard of him since before the Heresy. "So Solomon, What are you here for?" "To aid those who serve my master. They appear to need it too." Morpheus made a mental note. Mentor or not, criticism from those outside the Heirachy was to be punished. "How do we need help? Does that mean you did turn to Slaanesh with the rest of the Children after Istvaan?" Solomon laughed, a friendly laugh, that of an older uncle amused with his nephew's young zest for life. "Of course I serve Slaanesh! He has been granting me with the most wonderous sensations, Morpheus. And now to keep those gifts, I must serve with you to begin the conquest of the galaxy." So the old fool had designs for Morpheus' power, did he? That could be solved. "I welcome the help of one so revered and honoured." Morpheus vowed to leave solomon in a Sarcophagus before the year was out. There was a commotion at the doors and two of the Red Guard entered. Their fiery arms were holding the shoulders of a small human in robes and wearing an ornate death mask. He was obviously in pain from the rough treatment by such moltan beings but wisely forbore from screaming in the prescence of Morpheus. Stories abounded about what could get the hideous lord ready for 'experimentation'. "Master," he groaned, groveling before the armoured figure reclining on an exotic throne before him. "An Inquisitor has arrived to investigate the loss of the Dark Angels!" "Impossible." Growled Morpheus, his wings beginning to glow. "No Astropath remaining on that pitiful world could be strong enough to contact an Inquisitor so soon. And no ship could make the journey in less than a week. Even we would find such a feat difficult!" Solomons eyebrows rose. "Why Morpheus! Haven't you learned that all is possible with Slaanesh guiding us?" "This is not your place, ancient lord. The Forever Disciple is our only contact with the Divine Siblings who hasn't been brainwashed by exposure to daemons during battle or by doctrine that convinces them to defy their dead Emperor's will." Solomons face darkened with anger but he didn't speak again. His eyes glittered as the Forever Disciple continued though. "True Master. The Inquisitor originally arrived to investigate the Warp Shower we had a few months ago. When he arrived he decided to investigate both incidents. He goes by the name Nehemiah and has the only fragments of Warpstone that were recovered held within a small temple-fortress on the outskirts of Forbe. We were hoping you could arrange a strike so that we may harness the energy for our temple in the mountains." Morpheus rose from the discomferting throne and began to rage at the small man. "What?! You plan to hoard such power? Perhaps to use against us at some point? To escape our grasp? How Dare You!!" With his bellows echoing from the horrible walls of the darkened sanctuary, Morpheus summoned daemons to destroy the mortal that incurred his wrath. They swirled around the Forever Disciple, slowly eliminating layer after layer of his coverings with their immaterial claws. First his robes were shredded and eaten, then his hair. Soon followed his skin, and then the daemons pulleds away his muscles, string by string. When the screams finally faded into the warp only his bleached skeleton remained, still crowned with the visage of the ornate death mask. Morpheus sighed and made a motion with his hand. One of the Red Guard appeared in the doorway and bowed. "Find Icelus and tell him to crown a new disciple. Oh, and get someone to clean this up." The Daemon bowed again and left. Morpheus remmebered his new partner and turned to the darkness beside him. And found it empty. Solomon muttered to himself as he jogged across the dew-soaked field. "So they both want warpstone. Well, there's a simple solution to that. I'll show them how to think things through..." Hefting his mighty rune-encrusted poweraxe in his hands and checking the chamber of his Combi-bolter was full, he summoned his minions. The insideous syllables that he screamed into the dawn instantly petrified the grass for one hundred metres around him and killed five birds and two other small tree creatures. Soon the air was coiling with entracing shapes and alluring figures were swamping the ground. Laughing hysterically, Solomon continued his advance on the Temple-Fortress his words ringing in the daemon-filled air. "With me!" The conflict for the Temple was short and brutal. Solomon's double headed axe cleaved through man and machine alike, leaving nothing to conceivably oppose him. The fear of his enemies fuelled the efforts of the daemons that escorted him, ripping apart the fleshy enemy and gorging themselves on the blood that flowed from the mutilated corpses. Nothing could harm the insane chaos lord as daemon after daemon moved to block shots to his thick armour and were sent back to the ether from which they would continue to spawn. Eventually Solomon reached the vaults of the Temple and managed to batter his way inside. Daemons blocked the hole in the vault as he approached the chunk of glowing green material that sat on a pedestal in the center of the adamantium cell. His eyes reflected its glow as he raised his axe above it. "Half each," he muttered and the axe fell. The ensuing explosion left the countryside blemished by a kilometre wide crater. None ever discovered any evidence of the incursion of Daemons. Nehemiah dissmissed the explosion as the results of an unstable core of warp essence being stored in the facility. Life ran on as normal on Xorn, though no-one settled within another kilometre of the crater. Just in case. Morpheus was resting silently on his throne. His was mildly sorry that he hadn't been able to use Solomon properly before his idiotic sacrifice. Icelus had told Morpheus that his pet Keeper of Secrets had witnessed the event and recounted the entire episode to Morpheus. Morpheus was also quite pleased by the loss of his former master. Solomon was no longer in a position of any authority over the winged lord and now he could get back to the affair of choosing a submissive yet intelligent Disciple for the cult. An exploration party to the crater returned with nothing save two splinters of green glass. The Planetary Lord ordered them made into earrings for his five-year old daughter. She loves them and wears them at all times... Deeper in the darkness, someone started laughing maniaclly... | |
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