[Icarus Athrasuriel]

Blurb/Preview:

I was thrown bodily across the bridge, smashing into a monitor and falling to the ground. I guess similiar scenes were played out accross the bridge, and I was deafened by the screeching of outer bulkheads tearing apart. I scrambled to my feet, making my way over the rocking deck to the vox from which I was thrown, each step making me feel like I was trying to climb a steep hillside. I reached the vox to find it had blown out a moment after the ship rocked. I turned to leave the bridge with the Deathwatch Marines, but found my way blocked by Ertan. "What is it Ertan?" I had asked, wondering what had perturbed the psyker.

"The wall," he said, "between worlds...is crumbling." I looked around me, the bridge was empty. "There is no hope," he continued, looking deep into my eyes, "soon it will collapse..." He never finished his sentence before he fell to the deck, his falling accompanied by a sickening pop.

I left the bridge, whispering to myself the last line of that infamous poem. "And worlds will collide."


When Worlds Collide is about Inquisitor Akrais Erendalios as he helps pursue the perpatrators behind the Heriosian Schism. It is the sequel to Evil in Darkness, and directly follows on.


I will post some of the story (Hand-written) as soon as possible, just thought I'd give you a little teaser first.



CHAPTER 1 - PART 1

I ducked underneath a whistling bullet while trying to find cover. There was a deafening explosion just behind me as I dived behind on of the Traitor Valkyries. Slowly but surely, we were managing to fight our way onto Kelt's ship.

It had taken a month, but eventually Naval Intelligence had managed to locate Kelt and his followers, and promptly directed elements of the sector navy to engage. Admiral Molithol had reported the discovery directly to me, and once more I had reason to thank him for his friendship. I had contacted Icarus, and he had brought a contingent of the Storm Marine's, a Space Marine Chapter, vessels. He was personally in command of the Battle Barge Emperor's Storm.
I was currently surrounded by members of the 3rd Company, led by Captain Lascarus. I chanced a look at the heretic guardsmen defending the exit of the hanger. They were covered in the blood of their dead comrades, endless flows of them being spent simply to buy Kelt time to escape. I couldn't afford delays like this, I had already lost a month on Kelt, I wouldn't let him escape my grasp again.

There was a roar as the guardsmen opened up with a heavy bolter, sitting in the open, uncaring of what happened to them. Astartes dived for cover, and I barely made it down behind the Valkyrie before it's hull armour was torn up by the weapon. A series of short phunks followed, and the Astartes broke from cover, revving chainswords and unsheathing short swords. I followed, drawing my force blade. It glowed in the dim, shadowy light of the hanger. I had hardly noticed, but while leaving I could see the moss clinging to the piping, and just about every light source was flickering and burning out. This was nothing like the spruce, clean and ordered world of the Imperial Navy. How far these once proud men had fallen.

Dozens of lasguns opened up in strangely disciplined bursts, but they could pierce the armour of the Storm Marines, and they ploughed onwards, smashing their way through the barricades and into the traitor lines. I arrived a couple of seconds after the Astartes, climbing over a toppled pile of sandbags. It may surprise you then, that I found scores of ravenous guardsmen thirsty for blood. Once more, I was stricken dumb by the sheer brutality of these followers of the Blood God, but there was no room for thought here, and I cut three down in quick succession, still taking superficial wounds in the process. The rest were cut down by deadly accurate bolter shots from the regrouping Astartes. I looked around. There was only one Astartes not on his feet. He was taken back to one of the Thunderhawks by the Apothecary. One guardsman stumbled towards me, but I concentrated on his warp signature, and speared his mind with a psychic blow. He stopped dead, and fell flat on his face, cerebral haemorrhaging killing him swiftly.

I turned and left the hanger, making my way through the deserted corridors. Kelt would be stopped here, I thought. I located him and made my way towards the bridge.

The ship I was on was an Emperor-class battleship, so I knew my way about it. I found the eerie silence of the vessel unnerving, though. The walls were caked with blood, and dead men lay every few metres. It was easy to see which ones had stayed loyal, and which had been turned to Chaos. I'll tell you know, and it saddens me to do so, but the overwhelming majority were servants of Khorne, killing each other in their insatiable blood-lust.

I approached the entrance to the bridge with rewarded caution, there were two guardsmen sitting there with a heavy bolter emplacement, behind a wall of sand-bags. I looked around me for anything to use, finding nothing by a few decaying pipes and a crippled auto-turret. I was stuck, but, thankfully, I noticed that a pipe above me had a dark spot behind it. After looking closely, I realised that it was an entrance into the ventilation. I held my breath, and jumped. My long fingers securely curled round the pipe, and I climbed up onto it. I was careful of my footing, brushing off moss where I planned to stand. I got up, and grabbed an indent in the port, a second before my right foot slipped, then my left. It took all my upper-body strength to haul myself up into the vents.
They were dank and smelled of death. I crawled through the vent to the next intersection, and dropped silently to the deck, despite my size. Once again, the bridge access was just round the corner. I held my breath again as I looked round, seeing the backs of the two guardsmen. I drew both of my needlers, preferring them in this situation to my bolt pistol, which was back on the Emperor's Storm. I pulled the triggers once each, smiling as the weapon fired silently, with no recoil. A low powered laser, fired a fraction of a millisecond before the needle, melted through the target's armour. The needle followed, inserting itself in the target's body, releasing a deadly neurotoxin into the target's blood.

Both dropped on their backs within a heartbeat, if not dead then rapidly dying. I rushed past them, and leaned on the wall beside the bridge entrance. I fished out a frak grenade. Pulling out the pin, I stuck it to the bulkhead, and dived behind the cover of the sandbags. The sandbags toppled over as the blast rippled through the corridor. I clambered out of them, and sprinted through the smoke and onto the bridge, needlers holstered and force sword drawn. I cut the first guardsman in half, and dived behind a console as another opened fire on me with his lasgun. I stayed in cover for a few moments as other followed suit, the bridge exploding into chaos. The berserk guardsmen began to charge my position all notion of ordered laser volleys out the window. They were armed with a gruesome array of weapons more likened to a butcher's equipment than a warrior's blade. I drew a needler and popped up from behind cover, running down the steps to the main deck, shooting traitors as I went. I felled three, then had to engage a fourth with my sword, charging it with psychic energy. The impact and discharge sent the heretic flying into a wall. I looked around me frantically, searching for Kelt amongst the rabble of blood thirsty half-humans. I caught a glimpse of him before having to react to a cleaver wielding soldier, blocking him then attacking his mind with a brutal hammer-blow of psychic power. I ran round the deck again, towards Kelt, who was escaping through a vent. I shot a guardsman who was leaking blood from various gashes, obviously inflicted by his crewmate's crude equipment. He fell dead, the enhanced tetrodoxin causing instant asphyxiation. I turned to slay another heretic, but watch with satisfaction as his head exploded. I looked up at the observation deck, seeing a Storm Marine tactical squad run in, weapons blazing at the crowd of crazed men. With the immediate threat to my life taken care of, I looked towards the vent, seeing it open, and Kelt gone.