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[Kurgan the Lurker]

http://aarondembskib...taker-prologue/

As requested by a bunch of people (when I offered on Wednesday), here’s the prologue to Void Stalker.

As you may have guessed from Soul Hunter and Blood Reaver, things aren’t going First Claw’s way. Behold, the beginning of the inevitable conclusion, and please remember that this is a first draft – essentially unchecked – and it may never appear in the final novel in this form.

It probably will, though. I’ll just catch any typos and sentences I’m not keen on before then.

PROLOGUE

- RAIN -

THE PROPHET AND THE murderess stood on the battlements of the dead citadel, weapons in their hands. Rain slashed in a miserable flood, thick enough to obscure vision, hissing against the stone even as it ran from the mouths of leering gargoyles to drain down the castle’s sides. Above the rain, the only audible sounds came from the two figures: one human, standing in broken armour that thrummed with static crackles; the other, an alien maiden in ancient and contoured war plate, weathered by an eternity of scarring.

‘This is where your Legion died, isn’t it?’ Her voice was modulated by the helm she wore, emerging from the death-mask’s open mouth with a curious sibilance that almost melted into the rain. ‘We call this world :cusshr Vejruhk. What is it in your serpent’s tongue? Tsagualsa, yes? Answer me this, prophet. Why would you come back here?’

The prophet didn’t answer. He spat acidic blood onto the dark stone floor, and drew in another ragged breath. The sword in his hands was a cleaved ruin, its shattered blade severed halfway along its length. He didn’t know where his bolter was, and a smile crept across his split lips as he felt an instinctive tug of guilt. It was surely a sin to lose such a Legion relic.

‘Talos,’ the maiden smiled as she spoke, he could hear it in her voice. Her amusement was remarkable if only for the absence of mockery and malice. ‘Do not be ashamed, human. Everyone dies.’

The prophet sank to one knee, blood leaking from the cracks in his armour. His attempt at speech left his lips as a grunt of pain. The only thing he could smell was the chemical reek of his own injuries.

The maiden came closer, even daring to rest the scythe-bladed tip of her spear on the wounded warrior’s shoulder guard.

‘I speak only the truth, prophet. There’s no shame in this moment. You have done well to even make it this far.’

Talos spat blood again, and hissed two words.

‘Valas Morovai.’

The murderess tilted her head as she looked down at him. Her helm’s crest of black and red hair was dreadlocked by the rain, plastered to her death mask. She looked like a woman sinking into water, shrieking silently as she drowned.

‘Many of your bitter whisperings remain occluded to me,’ she said. ‘You speak… “First Claw”, yes?’ Her unnatural accent struggled with the words. ‘They were your brothers? You call out to the dead, in the hopes they will yet save you. How strange.’

The blade fell from his grip, too heavy to hold any longer. He stared at it lying on the black stone, bathed in the downpour, shining silver and gold as clean as the day he’d stolen it.

Slowly, he lifted his head, facing his executioner. Rain showered the blood from his face, salty on his lips, stinging his eyes. He wondered if she was still smiling behind the mask.

He was going to die here. Here, of all places. On his knees, atop the battlements of his Legion’s deserted fortress, the Night Lord started laughing.

Neither his laughter nor the storm above were loud enough to swallow the throaty sound of burning thrusters. A gunship – blue-hulled and blackly sinister – bellowed its way into view. As it rose above the battlements, rain sluiced from its avian hull in silver streams. Heavy bolter turrets aligned in a chorus of mechanical grinding, the sweetest music ever to grace the prophet’s ears. Talos was still laughing as the Thunderhawk hovered in place, riding its own heat haze, with the dim lighting of the cockpit revealing two figures within.

The alien maiden was already moving. She became a black blur, dancing through the rain in a velvet sprint. Detonations clawed at her heels as the gunship opened fire, shredding the stone at her feet in a hurricane of explosive rounds.

One moment she fled across the parapets, the next she simply ceased to exist, vanishing into shadow.

Talos didn’t rise to his feet, uncertain he’d manage it if he tried. He closed the only eye he had left. The other was a blind and bleeding orb of irritating pain, sending dull throbs back into his skull each time his two hearts beat. His bionic hand, shivering with joint glitches and flawed neural input damage, reached to activate the vox at his collar.

‘I will listen to you, next time.’

Above the overbearing whine of downward thrusters, a voice buzzed over the gunship’s external vox speakers. Distortion stole all trace of tone and inflection.

‘I felt like I owed you.’

‘I told you to leave. I ordered it.’

‘Master,’ the external vox speakers crackled back. ‘I…’

‘Go, damn you.’ When he next glanced at the gunship, he could see the two figures more clearly. They sat side by side, in the pilots’ thrones. ‘You are formally discharged from my service,’ he slurred the words as he voxed them, and started laughing again.

The gunship stayed aloft, engines giving out their horrendous whine, blasting hot air across the battlements. The rain steamed on the prophet’s armour as it evaporated.

The voice rasping over the vox was female this time. ‘Talos.’

‘Run. Run far from here, and all the death this world offers. Flee to the last city, and catch the next vessel off-world. The Imperium is coming. They will be your salvation. But remember what I said. If Variel escapes alive, he will come for the child one night, no matter where you run.’

‘He might never find us.’

Talos’s laughter finally faded, though he kept the smile. ‘Pray that he doesn’t.’

He drew in a knifing breath as he slumped with his back to the battlements, grunting at the stabs from his ruined lungs and shattered ribs. Grey drifted in from the edge of his vision, and he could no longer feel his fingers. One hand rested on his cracked breastplate, upon the ritually-broken Aquila, polished by the rain. The other rested on his fallen bolter, Malcharion’s weapon, on its side from where he’d dropped it in the earlier battle. With numb hands, the prophet reloaded the double-barrelled bolter, and took another slow pull of cold air into lungs that no longer wanted to breathe. His bleeding gums turned his teeth pink.

‘I’m going after her.’

‘Don’t be a fool.’

Talos let the rain drench his upturned face, no longer gracing the gunship with even a shred of attention. Strange, how a moment’s mercy let them believe they could talk to him like that. He hauled himself to his feet and started walking across the back stone battlements. In one hand he held a broken blade; in the other, an ancient bolter.

‘She killed my brothers,’ he said. ‘I’m going after her.’

[Valkyrion]

‘We call this world :cusshr Vejruhk'

Funny name for a planet

I'm going to be buying the book anyway, but this is a nice little teaser.

[Legio Draconis]

Hot damn

[Kurgan the Lurker]

‘We call this world :cusshr Vejruhk'

Funny name for a planet

I'm going to be buying the book anyway, but this is a nice little teaser.

Sometimes the language filter is dumb.....

[Ju'kosian]

So it seems First claw comes at his end of existence.. short leadership moment of the small warband for talos
too bad..

[Tanith Ghost]

I'm rather hoping it was just a vision not First Claw dying......

Edited by Tanith Ghost, 11 November 2011 - 06:52 PM.

[Lexington]

I'm not really a metal guy, per se, but I suspect this is what fans of the genre feel when they hear their favorite song. Hot damn.

[Firepower]

Oh joy! When's this due out again?

[Gree]

A while back A D-B asked the Ultramarines forum for some Second Founding chapters he was going to put in Void Stalkers. Essentially the Night Lords would fight a Codex Chapter and lose, badly. I am really hoping that bit is still in the novel.

[Cpt Uriel Ventris]

I care not about the content of the novel, only that I must have it!

[witchunter kraine]

It's a testament to this man's skill as a writer that i read "The Imperium is coming" and thought "Not those bastards!"

[Phoenix Lord]

Epic Soul Hunter, Blood Reaver were awesome. Cant wait for this book to come out.

[A D-B]

A while back A D-B asked the Ultramarines forum for some Second Founding chapters he was going to put in Void Stalkers. Essentially the Night Lords would fight a Codex Chapter and lose, badly. I am really hoping that bit is still in the novel.

It is. That's the Battle of Tsagualsa. It's only a flashback, but it's most definitely there.




‘That makes it seem so placid. No, Variel, it was much worse than that. With the primarch gone, we’d been decaying for years – scattering to the stars, guarding our own supplies from the claws of our brothers as much as from the preying hands of our enemies. But at the end of it all, when the grey sky caught fire with the contrails of ten thousand drop pods, that was the day a Legion died.’

Variel felt his skin crawling. He loathed being near any expression of emotion, even the bitterness of old memory. But curiosity forced his tongue.

‘Who came for you?’ he asked. ‘What size was the force to dare attack an entire Legion?’

‘It was the Ultramarines.’ Talos lowered his head, surrendering to the memory now.

‘A thousand warriors?’ the Apothecary’s eyes widened. ‘That’s all?’

‘You think in such small terms,’ Talos chuckled. ‘The Ultramarines. Their sons. Their brothers. Their cousins. The entire Legion, reborn after the Heresy, wearing hundreds of icons of new allegiance. They called themselves the Primogenitors. I believe their descendants still do. To us, they were still the Thirteenth Legion.’

‘You mean the Ultramarines’ successor Chapters.’ Variel could almost picture it now. ‘How many of them?’

‘All of them, Variel,’ Talos said softly, seeing the sky once again on that distant day. ‘All of them.’

[Dorns padawan]

If ever there was a book that just reeks of 'epicness' - this is it! A D-B ould have his masterpiece with this one. As much as I am looking forward to Void Stalker, I am also very much looking forward to his takle on the GK. Thanks for sharing A D-B.

[Cpt Uriel Ventris]

That snippet gave me the tingles, ADB, in a good way. I really can't wait for this book.


/Ventris.

[Gree]

A while back A D-B asked the Ultramarines forum for some Second Founding chapters he was going to put in Void Stalkers. Essentially the Night Lords would fight a Codex Chapter and lose, badly. I am really hoping that bit is still in the novel.

It is. That's the Battle of Tsagualsa. It's only a flashback, but it's most definitely there.




‘That makes it seem so placid. No, Variel, it was much worse than that. With the primarch gone, we’d been decaying for years – scattering to the stars, guarding our own supplies from the claws of our brothers as much as from the preying hands of our enemies. But at the end of it all, when the grey sky caught fire with the contrails of ten thousand drop pods, that was the day a Legion died.’

Variel felt his skin crawling. He loathed being near any expression of emotion, even the bitterness of old memory. But curiosity forced his tongue.

‘Who came for you?’ he asked. ‘What size was the force to dare attack an entire Legion?’

‘It was the Ultramarines.’ Talos lowered his head, surrendering to the memory now.

‘A thousand warriors?’ the Apothecary’s eyes widened. ‘That’s all?’

‘You think in such small terms,’ Talos chuckled. ‘The Ultramarines. Their sons. Their brothers. Their cousins. The entire Legion, reborn after the Heresy, wearing hundreds of icons of new allegiance. They called themselves the Primogenitors. I believe their descendants still do. To us, they were still the Thirteenth Legion.’

‘You mean the Ultramarines’ successor Chapters.’ Variel could almost picture it now. ‘How many of them?’

‘All of them, Variel,’ Talos said softly, seeing the sky once again on that distant day. ‘All of them.’

Squee, I'm very, very excited for this.

Although does this indicate the Ultramairnes have hundreds of Second Founding Chapters?

[Brother Tyler]

The entire Legion, reborn after the Heresy, wearing hundreds of icons of new allegiance. They called themselves the Primogenitors.

Although does this indicate the Ultramairnes have hundreds of Second Founding Chapters?

Only if the passage AD-B provided is meant literally and not figuratively. And how the passage appears in the final version will be more important (i.e., if "hundreds" is replaced with "dozens" then the old fluff is preserved).

[Legatus]

Yeah. The passage comes across nicely, though my first question was of course: Is it "all 24 of them" or "all 240 of them"?

[Zincite]

I like it. It is just a vision, though...?

Because I do so want to se Xarl hit Talos. With his Chainsword. Whilst wearing his ceremonial helm because it's badass.

Edited by Zincite, 13 November 2011 - 06:38 PM.

[Grimdarkness]

Now this I'd be willing to drop 30 or 50 bucks on.

[Legatus]

That would make this the third traitor homeworld taken by the Ultramarines, btw.

[Gree]

That would make this the third traitor homeworld taken by the Ultramarines, btw.

Technically, Tsagualsa is not the Night Lords homeworld, just a base they used to terrorize the Eastern Fringes.

[Legatus]

Ah, you are right. I confused Tsagualsa with Nostramo there. Though with Nostramo destroyed, you could argue that Tsagualsa was their new homeworld of choice.

[A D-B]

Can I just reiterate that the Battle of Tsagualsa is very definitely only a flashback, taking up 10% of the book at most. If you have no interest in the series beyond the scraps of Ultramarine/Primogenitor lore, it's really not worth buying. No harm, no foul - the pertinent sections are likely to find their way to Lexicanum before too long. When I made the thread asking about Second Founding Chapters that people would've liked to see kicking the Night Lords' backsides, I tried to hammer it home that it's just a leetle cameo. It's purely so they can add that particular honour badge to their Chapter records, if you get me. Dreadnoughts can write TSAGUALSA on their bronze plaques, and so on.

tl;dr -- I'll feel guilty if someone buys it for Ultramarine action and then feels cheated.

Ah, you are right. I confused Tsagualsa with Nostramo there. Though with Nostramo destroyed, you could argue that Tsagualsa was their new homeworld of choice.

I'm with you. Still counts.

The entire Legion, reborn after the Heresy, wearing hundreds of icons of new allegiance. They called themselves the Primogenitors.

Although does this indicate the Ultramairnes have hundreds of Second Founding Chapters?

Only if the passage AD-B provided is meant literally and not figuratively. And how the passage appears in the final version will be more important (i.e., if "hundreds" is replaced with "dozens" then the old fluff is preserved).

Oh, boy.

I think it mentions in Codex: Grey Knights that there were about 400 Chapters at the Second Founding (or something, my books are elsewhere at the moment). Either way, the exact number isn't known, but it's likely the Ultramarines put up a good 100+ of them, for obvious reasons. This'll almost definitely be clarified in subsequent editions of C:SM, I'm sure, when the new codices catch up to the altered numbers. So, as a vague guess, say half the Thirteenth Legion (an improbably high estimate as far as I'm concerned, but run with me here) gets gacked in the Heresy. That'd still leave 125,000 Marines needing Chapters at the Second Founding, and only 1,000 of those get to stay as Ultramarines.

Unless the IP changes the numbers back again. You never know.

Hey, I just work with this stuff. Don't shoot the messenger.

Edited by A D-B, 15 November 2011 - 09:29 AM.

[Jordan-096]

i dont remember where i read this, but the text said that the UMs make up over 50% of all the current chapters. so about 500 000+ Ultras..... and provided most of the second founding.

also, the fluff doesnt add up. the codex mentions there being 23 UM 2nd founding chapters, and that the UMs sustained much, much lower casualties than the other loyalists. The HH books, however, say that there were over 125 000 UMs before the heresy. so were missing about 50000 UMs.......

and my chapter is a non-codex UM Legion Successor. Knight Hawks FTW