Chapter III: Blood Trial
Fringe Territories, Sedraa-Isir Sector, Planet Mia Prosper
Aulus
They were all clad in the full armor of the Twentieth Legion, most part parakeet-green with wine-red helmet, gauntlets and vambraces, and silvery pauldrons. It was the greatest day in his life as he knelt before the mortal bishop that led them through the sermon. He wore elegant, gilded robes in beautiful patterns. Beside him on the dais stood the Master Captain in charge of turning initiates into proper legionnaires. Like most Ultra Marines he was a clone, and Aulus was honored beyond comprehension to be a simple mortal of regular birth that had been picked to be augmented. He now kneeled here, which meant he had succeeded. At least soon he would have. There was only one last test that the legion would have of them. He had sworn to his parents ten years ago that he’d succeed to become an Ultra Marine. He’d sworn in by Empress Mara’s holy name and such a declaration could not fail. It mustn’t fail.
He felt tingly all over as the sermon came to an end. The bishop ended by saying, “Fear not the hunger that lurks in the abyss, for she stared into the darkness of the abyss and the abyss trembled in fear.” Aulus remembered that as an excerpt from the holy book. The empress’s might was such that the devils that lived in realms beyond their comprehension were afraid.
The bishop stepped aside and partially bowed to the Master Captain of Trials. Lugius Saar Ezt took center stage and looked out over the sixty kneeling brothers-to-be with his hard facial features. The dais stood in front of the statue of the empress in the temple.
“You are no longer initiates,” he said, a wheeze in his voice. Aulus knew the rumor that it was because of some serious battlefield injury. “Today you are Neolytes but before the day is over you’ll be legionnaires. You’ll be more than that – we’ll be brothers after this trial and our glorious Archon Aholi will into war for the Empress and the Galactic Imperium.” He paused. “Are you ready to claim your future?”
“We are,” they all answered in unison. They all had their visors fully open, retracted into the helmet.
“Then stand, Ultra Marines.” They all rose on his command and Aulus felt exuberant and ached with anticipation. Soon he would be a legionnaire of the Blood Marines. Saar Ezt stepped off the dais. “Now come with me to the Great Gate.”
He led them from the temple and several floors down into the deepest parts of the fortress.
“The Great Gate,” Aulus’s cousin Ulvus exclaimed in a low voice. “Can you believe it? They’re sending us into the catacombs.”
“They are. That means we’re about to actually become Blood Marines. True Blood Marines,” Aulus answered. “I reckon we’ll be inaugurated in the next few hours.”
“He said before the day is over,” Ulvus continued excitedly. “I never imagine I’d actually succeed when my parents put my name up for training.”
Aulus had been shocked when he was picked from among the thousands of names of young boys on Mia Prosper that was chosen to continue onward for training and augmentations.
“All we got to do is survive this last trial.”
Ulvus cocked his head up in confidence. “I bet I’ll finish it faster than you.”
Aulus chuckled at his dear cousin’s comment. “Sure you will. I’ll take that bet. The loser gets the clean the other’s bolter next time we use them.”
“I’ll enjoy given it to you.”
The Great Gate was a large golden gate in the deepest hall of the fortress that was Pits of Hades. Ten meters above the floor, halfway up to the vaulted ceiling, Aulus counted twenty platforms that were mounted with a heavy turret. Each had a Blood Marine gunner. On the floor, dozens and dozens of gun slits were visible along the walls. A turret was pointed out of each slit and every last gun was pointed at the Great Gate. In the hall close to fifty Blood Marines. Their arms varied from heavy machineguns, plasmathrowers, and rocket launchers. This entire floor was constructed to be easily defended, to force a foe of heavy numbers down a single corridor. All those defenses were directed inward, at the Great Gate. The long corridor they had taken here were full of gun slits along with it, part of the bunker corridors that traveled on the other side of the walls of the corridor and this very hall. It was a frightening thought as much as it was exciting, for him to think of the proper of the fortress.
Saar Ezt bade them halt before the gate.
“Within moments the gate will open and you will all march through it, and into the deep and dark tunnels. You know that beasts lurk down there and now you will descend to slay them yourselves,” he told them flatly. “It matters not how you do it, but you will slay ten beasts each. You are not welcome back until you fulfill this trial.” He paused, probably to let his words sink in. “When you return, your trial complete, you will become sworn brothers of the Blood Marines Legion, spiritual sons to Lord Aholi. There are no rules about how to slay them – be it together or alone – both are accepted and approved of. Beware. If your journey leads to your demise… you will not be remembered in our legion’s annals.”
Behind the Master Captain, the gate was raised and a wide cave appeared behind it. Aulus took a deep breath and closed his visor. With Ulvus at his side and his other brothers-to-be shoulder to shoulder, they all marched into the cave with Suprema Domina bolter rifle in hand.
“Here we go,” he told himself. “Willingly stepping into the jaws of darkness.” Those were the duties of the Ultra Marines. Every child on Mia Prosper was taught that. As they continued into the darkness he heard the gate close behind them. After two minutes of marching, they stood behind a myriad of tunnels. Their group began to divide. “What do you say, cousin? Does it matter which tunnel?”
“That one. I got a good feeling about it.”
“I suppose out fate is in the hands of your instincts then.”
“Empress help us,” his cousin japed.
Aulus laughed over their private comms frequency. “Come on then. Down we go.”
A few others chose the same tunnel. Aulus could barely wait to lay eyes on a beast. It could only be the beasts from the legends. Those who roamed the surface because the Imperium’s forces arrived centuries ago. Back then everyone lived in cities surrounded by massive walls to keep the things out. The Imperium had then arrived like angels to rescue them from their eternal war for the right to exist. Like he and his cousin – and all initiates for that matter – was taught; it had been the Blood Marines and Archon Aholi that led the surface campaign to beat back the beasts.
He remembered the words of their teacher, a Venerated Sergeant. “There is only one path on Mia Prosper that leads into the subterranean network of tunnels and caverns and it is in Pits of Hades, our very own fortress.” It was the last place that the hellish beasts existed in their world.
“I wonder how far we have to go to find them,” one of their brothers-to-be remarked. His name was Æinwald.
“I think it will depend on when the Blood Marines launched a quest of cleansing last,” Aulus guessed. “They have to thin the thin the beasts down every once in a while to not have legions of them knock on the Great Gate.”
“I have no idea when they did that last,” Ulvus said sincerely. “It's not like they tell initiates those things.”
“Well, hopefully, it was a long time ago,” Æinwald. “Though not too long ago,” he then added carefully.
“Aye,” agreed Aulus.
“I don’t know,” Ulvus half-joked. “We’re Ultra Marines. We can handle anything.”
“Almost anything,” Aulus corrected his cousin with a smirk on his lips. He grew serious soon, however. “If such was the case the Twentieth Legion would have wiped the beasts out long ago.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” was all Ulvus answered. Aulus swore he could feel how he rolled his eyes. “But you know we’re thinking too small, right cousin? I mean do you think wiping out the beasts is even on the Holy Archon’s mind?”
“I have no doubt it is,” Aulus answered sincerely. “He wouldn’t have built his legion’s fortress on top of it if he didn’t care. He could have done that in any of the almost two-million worlds rescued from the darkness outside the empress’s light.”
“Sure, sure. You have a point, but it’s hardly his first priority. I mean the cleansing quests keep their numbers down when the legion focuses on the more important matters – the liberation of the galaxy.”
“I don’t disagree. When the war is over I have no doubt that the archon will bring the might of our legion to cleanse the subterranean tunnels entirely.”
“If that will happen, it many centuries ago,” Æinwald added.
“A few centuries to be sure. We still have half a galaxy to bring into the fold after all,” Ulvus agreed.
“Well, not that many, right?” Aulus said as he pondered it.
“It’s taken nine-hundred years to bring two-thirds of the galaxy into the fold so why would it take almost as long to bring in the rest?” Ulvus inquired.
“When the Age of War started the empress had the Sol System – only two worlds worth of resources and now she commands the greatest empire the galaxy has ever seen. That makes me think that so many resources will make it far easier to bring enlightenment to what’s left. I’ll bet three centuries.”
“You’ll bet what?” Ulvus inquired.
“One year’s worth of boltgun cleaning.”
“A year? You’re so sure about this, huh?” Æinwald remarked. “Really?”
“Really. Yes.” In truth he wasn’t as sure as he sounded, but if he lost…well, that day that sorrow. He’d certainly do it if he lost for he was a man of his word.
“Hell then, I’m in,” Ulvus said, a smirk no doubt on his lips.
“I’ll take that bet too,” stated Æinwald. He patted him on the shoulder. “Make sure you survive so at least three-hundred-one years so you can clean our guns.”
Aulus chuckled with them. “I say the same to you then.”
They proceeded down the dark stone passages that sloped downward. Other then the clanking of their own feet and the occasional gunfire Aulus heard nothing else. The gunfire was short and distant. Otherwise, an eerie silence laid over this subterranean part of their world. The group of seven walked in silence for a time, listening for their prey. Before they laid a chamber with a passage right and one to the left and a pit laid in the center. Its depth was impossible to see when Aulus gazed down with his boltgun leveled down into it.
Suddenly the sound of a brother firing his bolter was the start of the chaos. “Contact,” the man said tensely as he fired down the left passage.
Aulus spun around to see a monstrosity appear from behind the corner seventeen meters from the chamber. Another brother and Ulvus quickly joined the first in firing at it. It ran toward them, large as a bear and flashing rows of sharp teeth. Its skin was dark and leathery and upon its head, it wielded a sharp, pointy horn that was the size of the arm of an Ultra Marine. Aulus took three steps toward the left passage to join his cousin and fellows when two more beasts appeared behind the first. The first fell to the hail of bolts and the second fell five meters from them. The third was struck in the sides, shaving off skin and flesh, and breaking bones but it didn’t stop and aimed its horn for the man that had fired first. It drove it through the metal of the power armor, through skin, flesh, and bone and jetted out the other side with a spray of blood. All the poor man could do was gasp as he died. His dying body was thrown from the horn with a sweep of its head right at Ulvus. Ulvus became pinned under the body and lost his bolter. Aulus fired ten rounds, a fifth of his magazine, into the beast and saw it fall down with a death roar.
“By Aholi,” Ulvus exclaimed through his exterior speakers.
“Are you alright?” Aulus asked as he and Æinwald helped him up.
“I am, I-” He did not have a chance to speak further for they heard a roar.
Aulus saw two more of those beasts charging down the left passage. “Left Passage, hostiles!” He yelled. There was no time to tend to the dead man.
A response came from another man, “Right passage!”
The combined bolts fired by Aulus, his cousin, and Æinwald brought the first and then the second beast down. The first fell nine meters from them and the second four. Meanwhile, he heard bolt-fire from behind as the other three took up a position to engage the beasts that came from the right. Another beast charged from the left. It was smaller and far more swift and agile. It resembled more a furless wolf that almost jumped and avoided shot after shot. It leaped at Aulus and opened his jaws to reveal tendrils that reached out. Aulus raised his bolter and activated the chainsaw at the bottom of the barrel and stepped forward to let the chainsaw roared to life and carved through the beast’s flesh and sprayed black blood on his armor. For a second he was happy with himself to have claimed three kills already- which quickly was interrupted by the scream of a Neolyte behind them.
“Æinwald keeps your eyes down the passage,” he raised his voice to say over the comms frequency.
“On it,” Æinwald responded.
Aulus and Ulvus spun around to stare at a sight of horror. Only two Neolytes were in sight and one of them was in the process of being dragged down the dark pit by large tentacles. They had wrapped around his frame. He had no doubt the missing man had been the dragged down already.
“What in the hell!” Ulvus exclaimed as they fired at the tentacles.
It did little though and the man was dragged down screaming into the darkness. Aulus knew that Ulvus had the same though and they each grabbed a frag grenade and lobbed it down the pit, as did the last man standing of those three. They waited for a few seconds before they heard what had to be some freaking monstrosity’s death shriek.
“Good empress, what was that?” Æinwald exclaimed.
“No idea,” the fourth man panted. Aulus’s HUD identified him as NEO. HOXLEY. “It just came out of nowhere and first I saw was Blue getting pulled back, screaming.”
“We, we should keep going,” Aulus said, staring down the pit.
The others nodded. Aulus pointed down the left passage and they all marched onward.
“So how do we count that freakish thing then?” Ulvus inquired.
“I reckon we share that kill,” Huxley suggested.
“Share it?” Ulvus responded displeased.
“He’s right I think. We all lobbed grenades down there so it just makes sense that we three share the kill,” Aulus agreed.
“Oh fine,” Ulvus conceded, though mostly because he was outnumbered on the issue.
They soon came upon a junction where another Neolyte lied dead, his body torn apart. Aulus leaned down over the carnage. Five butchered beasts laid around him and Aulus determined that there had been a few other Neolytes here too. At least two more who had clearly survived. The dead man’s armor was torn apart and teeth and claws had ripped his flesh apart where the armor was ripped apart. Ulvus made a disgusting sound in his throat and looked away. Huxley and Æinwald moved to gaze down the other two passages that laid before them.
“No Blood Marine should have to die like this,” Aulus muttered. “I am sorry my brother.” His HUD read his id tag as NEO. FEUNUS CHAFFYON. Technically you could not refer to a man as a brother until both you and he was a full legionnaire, but as far as Aulus saw it Feunus and he were brothers. “Empress will preserve your soul.”
He jumped to his feet at the sound of growling and scurrying in the darkness. Then came the clanking of power armor and soon two men came running from one of the passages. They fired their bolters behind them.
“There’s a horde of them incoming!” One of them yelled through his external speakers.
Aulus and Ulvus stood ready with their eyes on the other passage and the one they had come from as Æinwald and Huxley stood ready to support the incoming Neolytes. Every second felt like an hour as they waited in a sea of tension. Three seconds, four, five. Then four-horned beasts appeared and half a dozen enormous black centipedes rapidly crawled along with the ceiling.
Aulus backed up to get a view of both passages. “Cousin, help them. I got this.”
“Copy, cousin.”
Ulvus joined the others to fire at the incoming horrors. Huxley lobbed a frag grenade down the passage. A centipede lashed out and leaped at one of the Neolytes and swiftly wrapped itself around him and pierced the visor with a multitude of rapid strikes with its unnatural fangs, as it ensured that the Neolyte could not move. On the seventh strike, the visor broke and the beast tore out a chunk of flesh from his face. A round pierced the centipede’s head and it exploded as the plasma charge detonated and sprayed the ground, walls, and power armor in thick black oozing blood. It oozed as it eroded the metal were it touched the power armor. The man’s screams ended when a large amount of it fell inside his helmet.
“Careful! Those centipedes have acid blood!” The other Neolyte warned as he assumed his position in the line.
On his side of the chamber junction, Aulus heard scampering from one of the passages. Then a thudding mixed with a roar came from the other. It was two of those large horned beasts and the scampering turned out to be a large horrifying spider. No, he quickly realized – for it was ten large spiders. All of them were covered in dark exoskeleton and their legs looked as sharp as their teeth. He leveled his rifle to pour fire down at the horned beasts. One of them quickly went down with two rounds impacting and piercing its head and blowing off chunks of flesh.
“Ambush! They’re behind us!” He shouted. He’d thought it impossible. The beasts couldn’t be intelligent. He thought of them as beasts. Dumb animals. And yet for the second time, they attacked them from several directions. They were far more intelligent than he had thought. The terrible realization didn’t prevent him from putting down the horned beasts a few mere meters from his position and quickly shift to pour bolts at the spider beasts. One fell to his bolter, anther to Ulvus who joined him.
“Do you think they’re intelligent enough to ambush us?” Ulvus asked.
“The evidence is before you. I think it’s hard to deny it.” As he killed another spider-beast he wondered if the name given to them was not a mistake. Anything called a beast sounded like it had no more than a bestial intelligence at best.
“Why wouldn’t Captain Saar Ezt tell us that? What was he thinking?”
A light was lit in Aulus's mind. “It must be part of the trial. They just want us to realize that they’re intelligent.”
“Oh. Oh!” His cousin realized what he was saying as he covered Aulus as he reloaded. “That’s what the whole thing about not being remembered in death was about. If you underestimate the beasts they’ll surely kill you and you failed to understand the enemy.”
Aulus and Ulvus brought their chainsaws to bear on the last spider-beast when he reached them. Black blood splattered all over as they cut the thing apart. It shrieked in agony. Aulus spun around with Ulvus firing at a centipede that crawled along with the passage’s ceiling. He fired a single bolt that pierced the skull of a wolf-like beast that had leaped atop Huxley. Æinwald pulled a centipede off the other Neolyte and with a nod to Aulus he fired a single bolt that avoided to spill the blood of either of the two men.
“Clear!” Huxley declared.
“Clear,” Ulvus concurred.
“Thank you, both of you,” the man panted. “I thought I was lost there.”
“You’re most welcome,” Aulus answered pleasantly.
Æinwald nodded and placed a hand on his shoulder for a moment.
“Well then,” the man said. Aulus’s read his id as NEO. FENROLD. “This makes my count twelve.” He announced it with pride Aulus found unnecessary.
“I’m only on eight. How about you cousin?” Ulvus inquired of Aulus.
“Eh, aye. Ten exactly.”
“Lucky you then,” Æinwald supposed in a low snort. He turned to look down the passage now full of corpses of beasts. “Guess you best head up to the Pits of Hades. Huxley, Ulvus and I have a few more beasts to slay.”
Ulvus and Aulus reached out to clasped forearms before they parted ways.
“I’ll see you up there in a while,” Ulvus promised.
“I know.”
The true joy, the true moment he properly understood that he had succeeded came when the Great Gate opened when he and Fenrold stood before it. They walked inside the hall full of turrets and armed Blood Marines. Twelve other Neolytes had already returned and Captain Saar Ezt welcomed them with a smile that blessed his hard facial features. They bowed their heads before him and placed a closed fist on their left breast. They and the twelve others remained in the chamber forty-two of the Neolytes had returned. Among them was the three comrades they had left in the dark passages. The Lugius Saar Ezt told them that no others would come. All others had perished to the beasts.
“Kneel,” he then said. They all fell to one knee. “You have passed the Trial of Blood. No longer are you Neolytes. You are now Legionnaires of the Blood Marines Legion, sworn soldiers of Archon Aholi.” He paused. “Tell me: are you loyal sons of Aholi.”
“We are,” they all said in unison.
“What are you?” He demanded of them.
“The Empress’s arsenal of war.”
“What is your fate?”
“To stand eternal vigil over the Imperium.”
“Who do you owe your eternal loyalty?”
“The Empress.”
“Do you pledge to serve the Empress’s will, to defend the Galactic Imperium and all its citizens?”
“We do.” Aulus felt more pumped up with every declaration.
“What do you pledge?”
“Our souls!”
Saar Ezt raised his arms. “Rise, Blood Marines! Rise angels of the Empress!”
Then the only thing that could have made this moment better happened, the Blood Marines around them cheered and Aulus thought that if he died now he would die the happiest man alive. Well, one of the forty-two happiest men alive at least. He and Ulvus clasped forearms. They were not mere cousins now. They were brothers.557Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdjPoH8lK9M
