Hatred of Angels
Lost in Time
Hatred of Angels
By Solarchos
Written with the permission of Dr. Xadium
Xadium was someone who was not easily impressed…but the sheer size and scale of the place the TARDIS has set down in succeeded in doing just that.
“Moh!” exclaimed Minako, staring around at the massive hall they were now in. The TARDIS had appeared in the corner of an absolutely huge chapel of some kind. The ceiling arched to a peak several hundred feet overhead, and the floor itself could easily accommodate a full-sized stadium. A huge stained glass window was on the far wall, depicting some kind of knight striking down a creature that looked like a deformed hydra. A wide walkway of white marble, bordered with mirror-smooth obsidian, led from doors wide enough to drive an 18-wheeler through across the length of the great hall to a massive, high dais. At the top of the dais ( which almost looked big enough to play American football on ) was an ornately decorated altar. A beam of dim light shined down directly onto the dais and altar, casting everything in a soft, pale glow. In the dim light of the chapel they could easily see the huge tapestries adorning the walls. They looked like campaign banners depicting various victories in some kind of crusade. El’phanor…Luther Macintyre…Tanith…Kai…Armageddon…the names weren’t familiar to Xadium, and he knew a LOT of planets names. Various huge statues of soldiers wearing some kind of thick, full-body plate armor also stood against the walls, each one towering over a hundred feet high. The thick granite plinths that served as the bases of the statues were engraved with names, times, and descriptions; obviously tributes to the warriors for whom the statues commemorated. Everywhere there were a couple of symbols that were displayed over and over again – a stylized double-headed eagle, and a symbol of a downward-pointed broadsword with feathered wings outstretched behind the hilt.
“What is this place, X-chan?” asked Minako, who immediately clapped her hands over her mouth as her words echoed throughout the vast cavernous vault. The acoustics were impressive. A loud enough voice could easily be heard throughout the whole place.
Somewhere in the distance thunder was echoing. Lots of it. Neither Xadium nor Minako paid it any mind as they continued to survey their new surroundings.
“Not sure what this place is,” remarked Xadium, “Although it was probably made by humans. What your race lacks in sophistication you always try to make up with sheer size.” Xadium’s tone sounded disinterested, but Minako knew her husband well enough to detect a hint of curiosity in his eyes as he stared around. She walked over to the nearest statue and gazed on it; a huge statue of a mighty lion bringing down what looked like some kind of demon. The detailing on the stonework was astonishing. The lion almost looked real, real enough that Minako felt a little uneasy about getting too close to it.
“One of Artemis’ great ancestors, probably,” commented Minako, giggling a little. Xadium paid no attention; he wasn’t the type who made a habit of admiring the artwork of primitive races. “This place is amazing! I’ve never seen anything like it. Not even back in the days of the Moon Kingdom!” Xadium was about to tell her about how there were places of far grander scale than this back of Gallefrey, but something about the expression of child-like wonder in her eyes convinced him otherwise.
She’s certainly happy, thought Xadium, I guess I shouldn’t spoil it for her. He just followed after her as she began to wander around, exploring the huge place they’d found themselves in.
The hall trembled for a second as a thunderclap occurred in the distance. Minako staggered slightly and looked around in confusion.
“Wow,” she commented, “That’s some thunder. Or maybe that’s just Haruka playing around with a World-Shaking. Where are we, anyway? Are we still on Earth?”
“I don’t know,” answered Xadium, “But I don’t think that was thunder.” He frowned inwardly, thinking – the thunder had occurred in the exact same moment as the quake. Thunderstorms usually didn’t create seismic disturbances. Adjusting his glasses, Xadium straightened up. “Minako, I think we should…” He turned around to see Minako happily wandering towards the big doors that led into the place. The doors, if that’s what you could call gigantic slabs of solid titanium-aluminum alloy, were sealed shut. Minako pouted a little as she stared at the sealed doors. Looking around she saw the control panel off to the side and flounced over to examine it. The controls were amazingly simple : two buttons and a physical lever. One of the buttons was glowing red and pressing it did nothing. Pressing the other button, however, caused it to glow green. A moment after that the doors began to slide open swiftly.
“Yay!” cried Minako, hopping around happily, “Now we can see more of this awesome place!” Xadium smiled a little; he had already spotted the control panel and deduced its function almost instantaneously. Still, it made Minako smile, and Xadium lived for his wife’s smiles.
However, both of them stopped smiling when they saw what was on the other side of the door…
The spacious, high-arched hallways were choked with smoke and filled with frantic people. Some were crying. Some were praying. Many were injured. All of them were terrified. Mothers clutched their wailing children, trying desperately to give them reassurances they themselves didn’t have. Robed figures were rushing back and forth carrying boxes. It didn’t take Xadium long to notice a pattern; the robed figures carrying closed boxes were all rushing in one direction, while the others were carrying empty boxes…and were running from the same locations the others were running towards. The noise was the worst part – constant screaming and wailing, and the “thunder” they’d heard earlier was, in fact, loud explosions constantly detonating in the distance. The heat in the air and the choking stench of ozone and smoke was like a slap in the face.
“What is going on?!” cried Minako. Xadium actually blanched a little as he quickly put all the facts together and came to the only logical conclusion.
“War!” he shouted in reply, “The TARDIS came down in the middle of a war!”
Moving down the hallway, Minako and Xadium saw other people moving among the terrified refugees – big men wearing suits of black fully-sealed power armor. The armor closely resembled the suits depicted in the statues back at the chapel, and the “winged broadsword” symbol was prominently displayed on the thick shoulder plates mounted on the soldier’s upper arms. The soldiers were rushing down one of the side passageways towards a lurid, flickering light at the other end, knocking aside anyone who got in their way. The TARDIS universal translator adjusted itself and tapped into the soldier’s comm-network and Xadium shuddered a little as he listened in.
“…We can’t hold them back! Requesting immediate reinforcements…!”
“…Slaughter the traitors! Kill them! Kill them all…!”
“…Falling back to tertiary defensive ring! Requesting immediate artillery support…!”
“…All Marines! Hold the line! Nothing gets through! No matter what…!”
“…They’re inside the Citadel! We can’t hold them! We can’t…!” All of the messages were interspersed with a lot of background noise consisting of heavy gunfire, loud explosions, and the sounds of close combat. Xadium quickly got the impression that the defenders of this place were losing. Badly.
Minako couldn’t hear the comm broadcasts like Xadium could. Instead, she looked around at the pandemonium raging all around the hallway and looked over just in side to see another group of soldiers rushing up towards them. She grabbed Xadium and pulled him aside just in time to avoid getting trampled. She looked at the soldiers and noticed something very different about them. Only a few of them were wearing the full-body suits of black power armor. The rest of them were wearing lighter armor that covered only their torsos and shoulders…and they all looked like teen-agers.
“MOVE!!” shouted a power-armored shoulder, the chevrons painted on his armor denoting him as a sergeant, “MOVE, STRIPLINGS!! YOUR TIME HAS COME AT LAST TO FIGHT!!” Xadium blinked a little as he and Minako hit the wall and slid to the floor, watching the group charge past. One of the younger kids, a slim boy who looked like he was only about ten or eleven, tripped and sprawled to the floor, almost dropping the sniper rifle in his hands. Minako and Xadium stared at him – close-cropped red-brown hair with blond highlights, blue-green eyes, fair complexion…he looked so familiar for some reason.
The sergeant rushed over, grabbed the fallen child by the camouflage cloak he was wearing, and effortlessly hauled him to his feet.
“ON YOUR FEET, STRIPLING!” boomed the sergeant, his voice amplified by his helmet speakers, “A SPACE MARINE STANDS TO FACE HIS ENEMIES! NOT CRAWL ON HIS BELLY!”
“Yes, brother-instructor Trajan sir!” shouted back the child as he regained his balance. One of the other cadets stopped and stared back at them…and Minako nearly gasped as she saw that the other young boy was almost identical in appearance to the first.
“They’re twins!” she said to herself, “Identical twins!”
“It’s Solarchos and Nathaniel when they were just children!” exclaimed Xadium, “We’ve arrived in their past!”
“Then that means this is…” continued Minako. Before she could finish a huge explosion rocked the whole building, shaking it to its foundations and causing pieces of masonry to fall from the ceiling overhead. Everyone was knocked to the ground as a wave of dust billowed up the passage. The sergeant one of the twins had called Trajan was the first to get back up.
“ON YOUR FEET, SCOUT-NOVICES!!” he bellowed, “MOVE!! FOR THE EMPEROR!!”
“For the Emperor!!” screamed the twins and the rest of the scout-novices as they rallied, scrambled to their feet, and followed the rest of the Space Marines of the Dark Angels Chapter down the hall. Minako quickly got to her feet and started following after them. Xadium grabbed at her.
“No!” he shouted, “It’s not our place to get involved!”
“I have to see,” she replied firmly.
“Minako! This is Solarchos’ homeworld of Caliban! And it’s going to be destroyed soon! We should get back to the TARDIS and let it all play out as it has…” Minako pulled free of his grasp and rushed down the hall, following after the scout-novices.
“I have to see!!” she shouted back at him. Xadium followed after her, mostly just to avoid getting separated from her in the midst of the fighting.
Besides, he thought to himself, It’s not like that uneducated “warrior-poet” aspirant really needs our help. Solarchos meets us all without any problems eventually. For some reason though, he, too, felt the need to see what was happening. Solarchos had mentioned his past. He had spoken at great length and waxed eloquent about what had happened on his homeworld of Caliban and of the schism which had torn apart the Dark Angels. He’d talked a lot about the Great Crusade, the Emperor and the Primarchs, and of the Space Marines. Xadium hadn’t listened much to the haughty boasts of a primitive upstart race that couldn’t hold a candle to the Time Lords.
He had, however, heard Solarchos when he spoke about his life on Caliban. Of how it had been a beautiful place once…and of how it was destroyed. For some reason, he felt the need to see it for himself.
Minako kept the Langister twins in sight at all times, trying to figure out which one was which. Solarchos had always described himself as the weaker of the two ( the “favored son” as he put it ), and Nathaniel as the stronger ( or the “radiant child” ) and braver one.
I have to figure out which is which, she thought to herself as the din of battle grew steadily louder the closer she got to the end of the tunnel, One is worth saving. The other… Minako hated herself a moment later as bitterness filled her mind. Solarchos was someone worth helping. Like everyone he had his faults and his shortcomings. He sometimes missed the point of things. But he was always honest and often went out of his way to help others…whether that aid was wanted or not.
Nathaniel, on the other hand, was a horrible monster, responsible for the deaths of millions. Murderer, psychopath…Chaos Marine.
If you kill Nathaniel, whispered a little voice inside her head, Then maybe those horrible things he does will never happen.
“You’re right,” whispered Minako to herself, “I am Sailor Venus, the soldier of love and justice. It’s my duty to stop fiends like him! Xadium shouldn’t be the only one who’s allowed to change history for the better!”
They finally reached the end of the long tunnel, emerging out onto a wide flat boulevard overlooking a terrifying vista. The Dark Angels were fighting a desperate holding action against a force several times its size…and losing. Minako and Xadium looked all around…and finally understood why Solarchos had always seemed so sad when he talked about Caliban.
They were on one of the wide battlements ringing a level of a massive castle-fortress. Most of the outer perimeter had been blown away by powerful explosions that had burnt the ground into something that looked like glass. Surrounding the fortress was a huge force of black-colored Space Marines, and even from the distance they could easily see that the Chapter markings on the enemy Marines were identical to the ones defending the fortress. The Dark Angels were fighting each other. The defending Marines and scout-novices were swarming towards the battlements, taking up positions and firing non-stop. The floor was thickly littered with spent rifle clips and dead Space Marines. A constant stream of the robed figures ( Chapter serfs, actually ) were bringing boxes of ammunition that was being consumed almost as fast as it was being replenished. The sky around the fortress was filled with large, blocky assault shuttles ( Xadium remembered Haak calling them Thunderhawk gunships ) that were constantly strafing the battlements with missiles and cannon fire. None of the Thunderhawks belonged to the defenders; they had lost air superiority long ago, and were suffering accordingly.
A Space Marine saw Xadium and Minako, then swept them aside with his arm.
“DOWN!” he shouted. Xadium and Minako hit the ground a few milliseconds before a hail of high-explosive armor-piercing rockets began tearing a line across the area, catching several serfs and Marines in the process. The Marine responsible for knocking them aside was caught in the burst of heavy boltgun fire, taking several hit across his chest that ripped open his power armor like cardboard. He hit the floor with a loud crash, twitching spasmodically.
Minako looked up and stared out at the landscape beyond. The fortress had been built on top of a mountain, affording a spectacular view. Solarchos had spoke of how Caliban had been a beautiful world covered with lush, deep forests and rough seas. Not any more.
The distinct mushroom clouds of thermonuclear explosions rose on the horizons all around. Xadium tried counting them, but lost count after forty. In the distance he and Minako could see huge firestorms raging across thousands of square miles of forests. Elsewhere they saw a long expanse of barren plains from which gigantic clouds of steam were steadily rising. Then it hit Xadium; that “plain” was actually the coastline of an ocean, and the steam was from the water rapidly boiling away. A miles-high pillar of fire suddenly lanced down from the thick, black clouds choking the sky, quickly ran up the mountain and tore into the base of the fortress with an enormous crash. Minako grabbed onto Xadium tightly as the floor shifted sideways and tilted downwards a half an inch. The actual real damage was minimal, but its effects were spectacular as just about all of the Serfs dropped their crates and started running in the opposite direction, terrified.
Orbital bombardment sort of has that effect, thought Xadium.
Meanwhile, almost directly in front of Xadium and Minako, two identical twin boys were standing behind the battlements, aiming down at the charging horde of “Traitor” Marines and blasting away non-stop with their rifles. One of the boys turned around and ran to the side.
“Solarchos!!” cried the other one, “What are you…?!” Minako smiled triumphantly as the identity of the twins was finally revealed. Xadium watched with interest as young Solarchos rushed over to a dead Marine and picked up a rocket launcher that looked like it was longer than he was.
“Heh…” chuckled Xadium, smirking a little, “It figures he’d try for something like that.” Missiles began striking the battlements in rapid succession, knocking everyone down again. Solarchos was thrown backwards and the missile launcher…
…was immediately snatched up by a Space Marine sergeant.
“THAT’S THE RIGHT IDEA, STRIPLING!” boomed Trajan, “I’LL MAKE A MARINE OUT OF YOU YET!” Just then a Thunderhawk gunship rose up over the parapet, its approach covered by the missile impacts. Trajan was already facing it as it appeared. The missile launcher was already armed. All he had to do was take aim and fire.
Everyone was knocked off their feet ( again ) as the Thunderhawk exploded, the anti-tank rocket scoring a direct hit and detonating something very sensitive onboard. The gunship hung in the air for a second, then gravity finally took hold and sent the flaming wreckage careening down the high walls to crash at the base of the cliff. Nathaniel howled victoriously as it fell and kept on shooting. Solarchos turned around…and locked eyes with Minako and Xadium. Before any of them could say or do anything, Xadium overheard a message over the Dark Angel comm-net that nearly stopped both of his hearts.
“…Northern secondary buttress wall! You have multiple incoming gunships approaching from underneath your field of fire…!”
“FALL BACK INTO THE CITADEL!!” boomed Sergeant Trajan, “FALL BACK NOW!!” A moment later more Thunderhawks rose from below the battlements : the gunship that had just been destroyed hadn’t been alone.
Solarchos rushed over, grabbed both Minako and Xadium by their arms, and yanked them to their feet.
“Ow!!” yelped Minako, “That hurts!!”
“Go!” shouted the pre-teen scout-novice, “Move or die!!” He roughly shoved them ahead of him as everyone on the battlements made a mad dash for the doorways. The gunships began to open fire, their weapons sweeping back and forth across the parapet. The defenders on the parapet were dropping like flies…and more than half of them were just scout-novices. Xadium tried to look and see what was happening, but it was all he could do keep a hold of Minako’s hand in the middle of the confusion. Just then a new voice sounded over the Dark Angels comm-net, delivering even more bad news.
“…The Primarch! He’s here! The bastard is here! Kill him…!” Xadium instantly noticed every Dark Angel around him, including young Solarchos and Nathaniel, freeze for a moment as they all heard the message. The look of hatred that came over their faces at that moment made Xadium swallow nervously.
More Space Marines charged down the halls, barging everyone aside in their rush to plug the gap created by the Thunderhawk assault. Young Solarchos tripped and fell to the ground, losing his grip on Xadium and Minako. Minako immediately grabbed her husband’s hand and rushed over to the side of the passage, taking cover behind a thick pillar.
“Where’s Solarchos?!” shouted Minako as she looked around. Dozens, if not hundreds of Space Marines and scout-novices were rushing past.
“Never mind him! He’ll be fine!” shouted back Xadium as he got to his feet and started to pull Minako to hers. “We have to get back to the TARDIS right now!”
“No! We can do something to help!” screamed Minako, struggling a little, “We have to help!”
“We can’t do anything!” shouted back Xadium, exasperated. He loved his wife, but he doubted he’d ever get used to the stubbornness humans always exhibited whenever they were faced with things that were completely out of their control. “Minako! The Primarch is here! Now! The final assault is about to begin! We have to be elsewhere before that happens!” Right on cue, the shooting began.
The explosions coming from outside suddenly became quiet by comparison as a tremendous continuous booming roar started from further back down the hall. The Dark Angels rushing towards them began to slow down a bit and started firing right back, taking up defensive positions wherever they could. Minako covered her ears and howled in pain from the noise. Even Xadium’s Time Lord physiology was having a hard time compensating for the decibels. Suddenly, one of the Langister twins emerged out of the crush of Marines and grabbed them both, pulling them away.
“MOVE!!” he screamed, “MOVE OR DIE!!” Xadium didn’t argue as he realized that the statement wasn’t a threat, but a promise. During the confusion Minako had lost track of which twin was which. The other twin rushed past them, trying to clear a way through the oncoming reinforcements as they both tried to lead the two obvious civilians to safety. It was actually surprisingly easy as many of the Marines charging past seemed to willingly give way, placing their hands on the twin’s backs as if to hurry them forward. Xadium was quickly losing count of how many Marines and scout-novices were rushing past them as they were both roughly ushered deeper into the fortress.
“Who are you?!” cried Minako at the twin holding her arm, “Which one are you?!” The twin didn’t answer as they both dragged her and Xadium to the main junction of the passage and turned back down the hall that led to the chapel. The Langister twins paused at the corner and simultaneously turned around, readying their sniper rifles in the process. Minako and Xadium took the opportunity to catch their breath and stare back down the passage as the twins started shooting.
The passage was clogged with Marines and scout-novices fighting a desperate holding action. It was clear that they were being pushed back by something virtually unstoppable. An explosion blew a hole in the ranks of the defenders, giving Xadium a glimpse of what was going on.
Standing in a line spanning the width of the tunnel was a large force of Space Marines wearing even larger and bulkier suits of power armor than the defending Dark Angels. They all towered over eight feet tall and the armor plating looked more than twice as thick. Xadium recalled Haak telling him about a type of enhanced power armor called Terminator armor and deduced that that was exactly what the defending Dark Angels were facing. The strength of the armor was fairly evident : all of the Terminators were mounting powerful belt-fed miniguns on their right arms and firing them continuously. The Terminators were slowly advancing step by step and occasionally one would fall back out of line either from injuries or due to his weapon overheating…and then another Terminator from the second line standing directly behind the first would step in to fill the opening. Leading the Terminators was a Space Marine like none other. He was as tall as a Terminator suit and his power armor looked unusually advanced, like it was a second-generation prototype. A weird shimmering field seemed to cover his armor that Xadium immediately recognized as some kind of defensive force field. The leader was carrying a massive heavy plasma cannon and firing it one-handedly while clutching an ornate greatsword whose blade glowed with a white sun-like radiance. Minako immediately gulped nervously as she sensed the magical powers radiating from the leader like a raging inferno.
“Is that…?!” she cried in Xadium’s ear. Xadium nodded slowly.
“That must be!” he shouted back. The Primarch of the Dark Angels, Lion El’Jonson himself, was personally leading the force of elite veteran Space Marines in the final assault. The Langister twins suddenly turned around, grabbed Xadium and Minako, and yanked them away from the corner as the fighting kept getting steadily closer.
The main passage back to the chapel was surprisingly clear of people…and Xadium quickly saw why. At the far end he could see the massive doors closing as the last of the civilians finished rushing through. Then the doors shut with a great clang, trapping everyone else outside.
“Out of the pot and into the lion’s cage!” moaned Minako.
“For once dear your malaprop is oddly appropriate!” answered Xadium as they kept running forward towards the door, “Considering that happens to be the Primarch’s name!” Dozens of scout-novices and Marines crowded the hall outside the door, preparing their weapons and themselves for one last stand. The Langister twins joined them, taking up position behind a large piece of fallen masonry and checking their rifles one last time. Minako skidded to a halt as she looked on the novices’ expressions. They were all pale, they were all afraid, but they had every intention of standing their ground and fighting a battle that was already lost.
They all knew they were going to die.
All the more reason I have to help Solarchos somehow, she thought to herself as a Marine grabbed her and shoved her aside. Another Marine quickly took hold of her arm and yanked her over behind a pillar, reuniting her with Xadium, who was fishing around in the pockets of his coat. A moment later Xadium smiled happily as he pulled out what he was looking for – a sonic screwdriver. Before he could say anything else, part of the pillar right over their heads exploded, knocking them both to the ground.
“RALLY MARINES!” boomed the voice of Sergeant Trajan, “HOLD UP HERE… EVERYTHING YOU’VE GOT!!” Several Marines opened fire with rocket launchers back down the hallway…and the final battle began.
Xadium clutched his sonic screwdriver tightly, not letting go as the noise and the explosions and the shooting intensified. The Terminators had closed the distance, and the fighting had become up-close…and unbelievably brutal. Blinded by hate, many of the defending Marines and novices began attacking their enemies with knives, chainswords, and empty weapons. He watched as the Terminators advance was halted, and even pushed back slightly by the tenacity of the defenders, but even someone as addled as Usagi Tsukino herself could see that it was all over. He looked up and saw that the way to the doors was clear…and focused on the controls.
“Minako!!” he shouted, “We need to get to the door controls!! Now!!” He looked over at his wife and saw that she was staring out at the battle raging around them, utterly hypnotized by it.
Minako cried openly, unable to help herself as she observed for herself what Solarchos had once described as the “mad minute”.
They call it the Mad Minute… Solarchos had once explained long ago when he was talking to a few people about the war he’d been involved with on some planet called Tiberius. It’s what any soldier feels when they’re outnumbered, surrounded, cut off from all support. There’s no escape, no safety, no place you can take cover in. You’re surrounded on all sides and everyone you know, all of your friends and buddies and fellow soldiers, are falling and dying all around you. So you start shooting and you keep on shooting and shooting and shooting in every direction, thinking and praying that if you shoot enough…kill enough, that somehow you might be able to get clear and get away. And all the while you know full well that your next heartbeat could be your last. Minako had overheard him saying this, but she’d never thought about it…until now. Novices were shooting left and right, falling back step by step. Further down the hall she could see Sergeant Trajan bringing his chainsword down across the arm of a Terminator, knocking aside its minigun, then he whipped up a wide-barreled machine pistol and began firing a long burst of explosive bullets into the armored face of his foe. A moment later Trajan was effortlessly smashed aside like a bowling pin. Then she saw him. The Primarch was wading his way through the crush of bodies. A novice tried to dive at him with a chainsword…but was incinerated by a point-blank plasma blast from the weapon El’Jonson carried. A pair of Marines attacking from the other side were quickly hacked down like wheat as the Primarch pivoted on his heel and lashed out with his sword. Bullets, plasma blasts, hurled blades, and rockets pelted the massive warrior, but none of them were getting through the energy shields covering his armor. All around him were the twisted bodies of the fallen defenders.
Minako yelped in pain as a Marine scooped her off the floor and almost hurled her underhanded towards Xadium, smacking him squarely against the wall.
“DOWN!!” shouted the Marine as he charged towards them, then dived on top of them both. A moment later a huge explosion ripped through the hallway as several grenades began going off. The Marine straightened up to get off them, then Minako and Xadium heard several loud metallic pops in quick succession. The Marine stiffened and slumped to the side…bleeding profusely from the impacts that had punched through his armor. Xadium twitched as the dead Marine slumped over right on top of him, the weight of his power armor pinning him to the ground.
“…uh…Minako…?” gasped Xadium, “…a little help please…!” She didn’t answer as she stared at the slain Marine. Then she stood up.
“VENUS CRYSTAL POWER!!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, holding up her hand pen, “MAKE UP!!” Golden light filled the smoke-choked passage as Minako Aino transformed into Sailor Venus. None of the Dark Angels fighting in the hallway slowed as Sailor Venus finished her henshin sequence and stood in the middle of the passage. They were too caught up in their hatred of each other to notice. As Venus prepared to make her intro speech…she saw something that made her completely forget everything she was about to say.
The Langister twins were directly in the path of the Primarch as he stormed towards the doors. Both of the twins were trying to retreat, shooting continuously as they fell back, when one of them tripped and stumbled to the ground. He rolled aside at the last moment as the Primarch swung at him with his sword, the blade putting a gouge several feet deep in the floor just barely vacated by the twin who tripped.
Solarchos was the quick one…the lucky one… Sailor Venus quickly remembered. Before young Solarchos could scramble to his feet, the Primarch grabbed him around the neck, picked him up off the ground, and hurled him straight into the wall. Solarchos let out a brief shriek as he smashed into the wall with bone-shattering force, then fell to the ground and collapsed in a heap.
“NO!!” screamed Venus at the top of her lungs, her almost white with outrage, “HE’S JUST A CHILD!! HOW COULD YOU?!” Howling in rage and blinded by hate, Nathaniel whipped out a sword and charged at the Primarch. He swung the sword two-handed with all of his strength…only to see the blade snap in half as it struck El’Jonson’s armor. The Primarch stared at the child for a moment, then sent him flying backwards with a dead-on punch. Nathaniel landed on top of a slain Marine and didn’t get up.
Xadium paused for a moment as he struggled to get out from underneath the armor-clad corpse pinning him to the ground. He’d heard Minako screaming in outrage and looked up just in time to see Nathaniel attack the Primarch.
No! he immediately thought as he watched the child charge at the gigantic soldier armed with nothing more than a sword. No, you little idiot! Get out of there! You can’t possibly hurt him! He watched impassively as the sword broke ( he’d already calculated that likely probability ), but he was surprised when he flinched at seeing Nathaniel being taken out. The fact that the child was going to be struck down was a foregone conclusion that was impossible to avoid, yet it almost physically hurt the Time Lord to watch it happen.
“VENUS LOVE AND BEAUTY SHOCK!!” Sailor Venus let loose with her strongest attack at the massive warrior charging towards her. She flung the spinning heart-shaped blast of energy straight at Lion El’Jonson…and watched in amazement as the Primarch slapped it aside effortlessly.
“VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN ENCIRCLE!!” Sailor Venus swept her hand forward, unleashing another of her attacks at the Primarch, entangling him within the heart-chains that had immobilized so many of her foes in the past. El’Jonson paused for a moment, then effortlessly ripped himself free of the chains binding him. Meanwhile, Xadium was finally pulling himself out from underneath the fallen Marine that had pinned him to the ground and dashed towards his wife as the Primarch charged straight at her.
“Minako!” he shouted as he dove at her. Suddenly there was a blur of black and they both smacked into the floor hard enough to see stars.
“DOWN!!” boomed one of the few remaining Marines as he pushed the two aside. Shielding Venus and Xadium with his own body, the Marine opened fire at the Primarch with a plasma rifle, his shots impacting harmlessly against his former Chapter master’s armor. There was an ugly, unbelievably loud crack, and Minako and Xadium looked up just in time to see the Marine fall to the ground in two pieces, cleaved in half by the Primarch’s weapon. El’Jonson kept going, not stopping his furious charge towards the chapel doors. Hacking down and battering aside all remaining opposition, the Primarch hefted his sword, and brought it down against the doors in a mighty two-handed swing. The doors exploded inwards, ripped out of their wall brackets and hurled back into the chapel beyond like they weighed a few hundred ounces instead of a few hundred TONS. From beyond the doorway there came a great wailing of terrified civilians and the sound of hundreds of weapons firing simultaneously as the defenders of the fortress proceeded to make their final stand.
As Terminators began to rush into the chapel, joining their leader in the ferocious melee within the chapel, Xadium and Venus kept their heads down and played dead. Xadium counted over a hundred Terminators walking by them as they laid on the ground and the sounds coming from inside the chapel was all that he and Venus needed to convince them to stay down. Venus just kept her eyes fixed on where Solarchos was lying motionless on the floor. Xadium just stared up at the ceiling, his mind racing to comprehend what he’d just seen.
Humans can’t be that powerful! He thought as he pondered what he’d witnessed the Primarch do. He’d never seen anything shrug off a Senshi attack as easily as that, nor was it possible for a human to be that strong…even with genetic enhancements and power armor. Slowly he sat up as the last of the Terminators entered the chapel. Over the deafening sounds of massed weapons fire he could also hear the distinct sounds of explosions and magical energy discharges.
And the TARDIS was inside the chapel.
“This is not good,” he said to himself.
Venus slowly crawled over to Solarchos. He had barely moved at all. He merely stared up at the ceiling with blank, vacant eyes, his breathing shallow and rapid. Nathaniel, on the other hand, was painfully crawling forwards towards the chapel, dragging himself forward with his arms and clutching a small pistol in his hand. They were both seriously hurt, but one of them refused to give up fighting. Venus stared firmly at the twin struggling on the ground, knowing of only one twin who fit the description of the “radiant child” who excelled at everything. Only someone like that would keep fighting despite hopeless odds and incapacitating injuries.
“Nathaniel,” she hissed. She clenched her fist, then began to channel her power to fire another Love and Beauty Shock, eager to kill the child who would later be the source of so much destruction and misery.
…kill him and end it…whispered that little voice in Venus’s mind. Before she could do anything else she heard a weak whimper from nearby. Venus immediately forgot about Nathaniel and quickly crawled over to young Solarchos. He was still lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling and clutching at his rifle like his life depended on it. Venus moaned sadly; it broke her heart to see him ( or any child for that matter ) in so much pain. Except for Nathaniel. She didn’t care about him.
Sitting down behind him, Sailor Venus cradled young Solarchos’ head in her hands. He stared up at her with blank unfocused eyes ( or “cow-filled eyes” as someone back home had jokingly said ). She leaned down close to his ear, almost close enough to touch him, so that he could hear her words over the loud din of battle. As she did so she focused her energy and tried to slowly channel it through her hands and into his body. She didn’t have Sailor Moon’s power and she couldn’t heal people like Hotaru could, but she was still a senshi. She was Sailor Venus, the soldier of justice and love and she wasn’t about to sit by and do nothing while a child’s life and world were about to be destroyed forever.
“Solarchos Langister,” she began, speaking slowly and carefully to that he didn’t miss a word, “Your homeworld is about to be destroyed and you are about to be thrown into a place far, far away from here. Everything you’ve ever loved is about to be lost…” A loud explosion within the chapel seemed to punctuate this, followed by the distinct sounds of parts of the chapel’s roof collapsing. “As bad and as painful as it sounds, you don’t have to be afraid. In the future you’ll find a new home to call your own. You’ll make new friends. Most importantly of all…you’ll find love. You’ll find it in the most unexpected place. You just have to find her…” Another explosion rocked the place; it sounded like the entire fortress was beginning to collapse. “No matter how bad or hopeless it seems to you in the future please remember…there’s someone waiting for you. You just have to find her.” Sailor Venus smiled sweetly down at young Solarchos, then kissed him lightly on the forehead.
Xadium rushed over and pulled her to her feet.
“We have to go right now!” he told her firmly, “The TARDIS is picking up some very unusual spatial anomalies beginning to form around this planet. The warp-storm is coming!” Sailor Venus stared at her husband, then back down at the wounded twin. She’d done all she could for him. Suddenly, Xadium and Sailor Venus were yanked off the ground as someone grabbed them from behind and began to run them forward at breakneck speed. They both caught a glimpse of Nathaniel as he kept dragging himself along the ground, refusing to surrender to his injuries. Then they were both carried into the chapel were the battle continued to rage. The roof was indeed starting to collapse as big sections of the walls and even parts of the ceiling were being blown away. But the scale of the carnage and destruction wasn’t what really caught their attention.
Standing in the middle of it all, tearing apart everything around them, was the Primarch and a single Dark Angel commander. In the commander’s hands was a crystalline rod which seemed to burn with a blue-black radiance and he fought with every bit of hateful ferocity and skill as El’Jonson himself. Sailor Venus shuddered as she viewed him, sensing a power burning within him that matched the Primarch’s, yet it was wholly different. Xadium could feel it as well : a darkness that clung to the warrior like a shroud. Then it hit them – it was the same kind of power that had been harnessed as used by the likes of Beryl, and the Wise Man, and Galaxia, and every other person who had tapped into the darkness that existed just beyond the boundaries of the material universe. Solarchos had mentioned his kind had a name for that darkness – the Chaos Gods.
Xadium watched in astonishment as El’Jonson kept fighting his opponent, avoiding a swing that caved in the helmet of a Terminator coming to assist him and striking back with a blow that just missed his foe, instead striking a pillar with such force that the stone exploded like powder. The commander then unleashed a powerful surge of dark lightning that knocked the Primarch backwards into the wall with such force that the stonework buckled beneath him. El’Jonson merely leapt back to his feet and struck a blow against his foe with such force that Xadium felt the shock wave strike him even from several hundred feet away.
Humans aren’t supposed to have that kind of power! He once again thought to himself. He’d only seen examples of beings wielding that kind of power a few times before, but these had always been beings far more powerful and more advanced than a mere human. And Solarchos had said that only the Emperor was more powerful than the Primarchs. He flinched a little as the Primarch struck another blow that sent his enemy flying backwards. The commander hit the ground hard, then jumped back onto his feet just in time to smash the Primarch aside as he dove at him, sending El’Jonson crashing into the shattered remains of the altar. Another blast of dark lightning surged towards him, only to be effortlessly swatted aside by the Primarch as he got back up again.
“Obviously the Primarchs might be worth further investigating…” mumbled Xadium to himself as he and Venus were both put down and allowed to run on their own…barely. The person behind them had both hands around the collars of their outfits and was pushing them forward so quickly that they would’ve stumbled had he not been carrying them. Then Xadium saw where they were being taken : straight to the TARDIS. The main door opened as they got closer.
“Time Lord!” ordered the person carrying them as they reached the front of the TARDIS, “Take your companion and go!” He let go of Xadium first. Xadium spun around just in time to get Sailor Venus shoved into his arms. They finally caught a glimpse of their helper – a stern-faced Marine with long dark hair and a tattered hood and cassock over his power armor.
“Wait!” cried Sailor Venus, “How do you…?!” Gunfire began to pelt the area as several Terminators took notice of them and opened fire. The Marine responded by drawing a pair of heavy pistols and returning fire.
“We are not nearly as ignorant as your kind believe, Time Lord!” shouted the soldier, “Leave while you can!” Before Xadium could say anything else, or even ask his name, the Marine roughly shoved him and Minako through the open doorway of the TARDIS, then kicked it closed, throwing himself against the door until it sealed shut.
Sailor Venus henshined back into Minako Aino as she fell to her knees. Meanwhile, Xadium dashed across the room towards the TARDIS’ main controls, calling up one of the wide-scale displays. The readings were not good – the time/space continuum was being distorted and the distortions were becoming more unstable. Just as certain atmospheric conditions could create a tornado, the subspace distortions were about to create something similar : a violent, uncontrolled hyperspatial breach...or a warp-storm as Solarchos’ people called them.
And being caught in the middle of one was generally not a very good idea. Bad things tended to happen. Without a moment’s hesitation, Xadium engaged the vortex drive and the TARDIS faded away. As the readings indicated they were now slipping out of the time/space continuum, one of the displays showed an orbital image of the planet they’d just left. The atmosphere was almost solid grey from the smoke and huge fires raged uncontrolled across its surface. Already molten lava was oozing out from between tectonic faultlines as tectonic plates were sent shuddering by the magnitude of the orbital bombardment that had pummeled its surface. And then it happened.
It started as a series of strange nimbus-like clouds that emerged out of nowhere in high orbit over Caliban. Within moments they grew and enveloped the planet. The TARDIS’s sensors went through the roof as they registered the sheer volume of the sub-quark disruptions raging within. The warp-storm tore across the planet, its energies and distortion waves whipping across its surface like the winds of a hurricane. A minute later the planet began to break apart, the various mega-plates of its crust cracking and splaying open like the shell of an egg, then the liquid contents of its mantle slowly spewed in all directions, lit from within by the white-hot planetary core as it too broke apart. Suddenly, the warp-storm seemed to collapse on itself, sweeping up most of the planetary debris and vanishing with startling swiftness. It was almost as if someone had sucked it all up with a vacuum cleaner, leaving not trace of the storm, and only a few drifting fragments of the world that had just been there.
The destruction of Caliban had taken less than three minutes from start to finish. Xadium was a little impressed.
Xadium completed the diagnostic and sighed with relief. The TARDIS hadn’t sustained any damage while on Caliban nor had they been affected by the warp-storm. They’d got away with time to spare, but not much. The whole time Minako continued to sit on the floor by the door with her knees drawn against her chest, her expression hidden behind her hair.
“There was nothing we could’ve done to prevent what happened,” he explained to her finally, his voice breaking through the quiet of the room, “The situation down there looked…complicated, and far beyond our ability to influence. Besides, it’s not our place to interfere in something like that. If we had prevented it, the changes would’ve undone over 10000 years of temporal development, the least of which being that Solarchos never would have been put on the path that would eventually lead to us meeting him. He would’ve died a very long time ago, still in the service of his Emperor.”
“…And he would’ve never met her,” added Minako. Xadium didn’t say anything, but his silence spoke volumes.
“The Time Lords can’t affect everything. To do so would have…consequences.” Minako finally looked up and Xadium was rather surprised to see her bright and cheery face.
“It’s all right!” she exclaimed happily, “We did what we could. At least I was able to take the stick in the mud and beat that horse to the water!” Xadium facefaulted at Minako’s malaprop.
“What?!” he cried incredulously as Minako rushed over to him, grabbed his arm, and began dragging him towards the kitchen.
“Now! What’s to eat? I’m starved!” she added, smiling happily. Besides, she thought to herself, I was able to do something for young Solarchos. At least I was able to instill a little power in him so he’ll be able to face all of the struggles ahead. At least I tried.
Yet, for some reason, she could hear derisive laughter fading away in the back of her mind.
The darkness seemed to last forever, but time meant nothing in the place the twins had been cast into. What seemed like days could have really been eons passing…or merely microseconds. Finally, oblivion ended and the twins, hurled through time and space by the warp-storm, were returned to real-space, their destinations determined by whatever forces guided the random acts of fate.
He awoke to the worst of all possible sensations – the sensation of falling. Vertigo dissipated all too slowly and it was only when he was mere feet away from the ground could he finally see anything clearly. He landed on his back and was immediately submerged beneath the powdery shifting ash. Flailing wildly and screaming in dismay and confusion, he finally managed to claw his way out of the silt that threatened to bury him and rose unsteadily to his feet.
The scene was one of utter desolation. Around him stretched seemingly endless expanses of rolling desert. The ground beneath him was a thick blanket of fine, sterile ash into which he sank almost up to his knees. The sky overhead was dark with thick yellowish-brown clouds. The sun was merely a bright point in an otherwise impenetrable sky. The rough winds whipped at him, almost as if it was tearing at his armor and cloak like a living thing, carrying with it billowing clouds of acrid smelling ash. He immediately heaved at the smell and fell to his knees, coughing and retching as the stuff filled his lungs. His eyes began to water profusely and his skin tingled painfully. The sensitive tissues inside his nose and mouth began to burn from the chemical particulates suspended in the air.
His multi-lung implant quickly cut in, filtering out the worst of the contaminated air and his oolitic kidney began the process of filtering out the deadly toxins that were already coursing through his system. If not for his enhanced biology, standard in all Space Marines, he would’ve been dead within minutes. As he stood back up, using the stock of his sniper rifle to steady himself and covering his mouth and nose with a corner of his cloak, he realized that his home was gone forever and his future, not to mention his survival, would be very much problematic at least.
And so it came to be that Dark Angel scout-novice Solarchos Langister, the twin that Sailor Venus had NOT granted her blessing on, arrived in the toxic wastelands of the hive world Necromunda.
The other twin woke up painfully by degrees. A cold breeze washed over him, carrying with it the overwhelming scent of cordite, blood, and death. Cold water lapped around his waist and legs, and it took him a little while to realize that he was lying on the bank of either a river or an ocean. Slowly, and with great trepidation, he sat up and finally opened his eyes.
He was lying on the bank of a slow-moving river, its waters murky and stained red. Looking around, he saw nothing but a ravaged wasteland. The ground was oddly smooth, as if it had been blasted and compacted innumerable times. Shattered, flattened ruins of what once might have been buildings dotted the landscape. Stunted, twisted petrified trees were scattered here and there, the only signs of any kind of life on this place. Many bones littered the area. Some were human. The rest only appeared to be human in the vaguest sense, twisted and deformed as they were. The sky was overcast with roiling low storm clouds that were lit from within by a strange ruddy glow like the embers of a fire. In the far distance the child could hear the obvious sounds of total warfare – the crack of firearms, the clashing of blades, the rolling thunder of cannons and explosions, and the screams of things that didn’t sound anything like humans.
At first he’d felt a great sense of calm and warmth, but as he stared out across the desolate moors, a sudden chill made him shudder. It didn’t matter. No matter what happened in the future, no matter how much he had to endure, he knew that he had much to live for. And he would have to fight to obtain it.
And so it came to be that scout-novice Nathaniel Langister, the twin that Sailor Venus had bestowed her blessing on, arrived on the endless battlefields and madness of the demon-world of Eidolon.
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but good intentions are never intended for such a purpose…
The End