Editing Nobledark Imperium Writing (section)

== The Last Casualties of the War in Heaven ==

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“Go! Go! Go! Run faster you pansies! Do you lot want to die here!”

Eldanesh ran. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest and the ache in his legs. It seemed like he had run for hours, as if it was the only thing that mattered in the world.

The galaxy was turning upside down. It hadn’t been so long ago that the order of the universe had seemed clear. The Old Ones ruled the galaxy, and the C’tan and the Necrons sought to kill them and everyone that Eldanesh had ever loved.

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But all that had changed. The Old Ones and C’tan had disappeared. There were still sporadic reports of Necron activity, but even that was growing scarcer by the day. Instead the galaxy was becoming infested by strange creatures, which turned people’s bodies into flesh gates and poured into reality like krath worms attracted to a rotting carcass. The Realm of Souls was no longer safe either. Other things, these…daemons had infested it, tearing anything that tried to enter to shreds. He hated to say it, but he wished for the days of the Necrons back. Necrons died when you shot them, no matter how many times it took. These things didn’t.


He heard the thunder of legs and saw the ruddy green form of Bonestomper rush past him. He didn’t know what he would have done without the Krork. Bonestomper had fought by his side for as long as he had known the Krork to have been involved in the War in Heaven. He didn’t know where they had come from, but by Asuryan he was glad they had appeared. Only Ulthanesh or Khaine had been a more reliable compatriot than Bonestomper. The two of them had fought everywhere from the biological preserves of the Old Ones to the Necrons’ own worlds. Now they fought to save Eldanesh’s people.

The Materium wasn’t safe. The Immaterium wasn’t safe. All that left was the Webway. Eldanesh was trying to get as many Aeldari as he could and get them through the nearest Webway gate. Bonestomper was helping round them up and encouraging them onward…in his own way.

“Let’s move! Come on! It’s like you don’t even want to live.”

Nothing like a Krork to make you focus on immediate survival.

He was fairly sure this was the last batch. Or, at least, the last batch they could rescue before those fleshbags came down on them like a tidal wave. The throng of refugees rounded a sandstone bluff, and that’s when he saw it. The Webway gate. His heart soared in relief as the gate groaned to life, and people began pouring in like there was no tomorrow. However, as the fight-or-flight reflex wore off, and the last of the Aeldari entered the Webway, Eldanesh realized something. Bonestomper wasn’t coming with him. He stood by the Webway gate in his best “at ease” posture, but it was clear the Krork wasn’t planning to go in.


“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us, Bonestomper? There’s plenty of room in the Webway for the Krork.”

“Nah. There’s too many Krork spread all over the galaxy for us to get ‘em all in the Webway. And I couldn’t stand it if I ran off and left them to rot. My people need me, Eldanesh. My place is here. If the Krork are going to go down, we’ll go down fightin”.

“I see. I cannot thank you enough, Bonestomper. I swear, as long as I live, my people will never forget the Krork”.

“You do that then skinnyboy”.

The hulking Krork was silent for a moment.

“Live free, Eldanesh”.

“Die well, Bonestomper”.

The Krork paused for a moment, before giving his friend a smile and an uneasy wave, obviously unfamiliar and practiced. Then, just before the Webway gate closed, he seemed to hear something behind him, drawing his axe and letting out a cry of “WAAAA…”

And that was the last that Eldanesh ever heard of the Krork.

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