In His Name

The mission was a failure.

Velias knew that even thinking this was Heresy, but still he found himself unable to block it out, for it was a truth so obvious as to make his realization pointless.

He thought back, to the start of the operation. He had deployed with close to four hundred of his chapter's brothers, as well as a full regiment of Black Templars. Their drop pods had lit up the atmosphere as they smashed into the hive city of Gomorrah Tertius, breaking dozens of floors of reinforced structures before coming to a halt deep within the bowels of that perverted city.

In retrospect, Velias thought, it had already begun to go wrong then. The pod doors had opened, and barely a second had passed before he heard the death cry of one of the foul cultists, agony mixed evenly with ecstasy as life left her. He looked around and managed to count seven other heretics before his vox crackled, and his sergeant's voice shouted for him to kill the cultists with an urgency he was not otherwise used to. A hundred and twenty years of battle had taught him that when such a command was given, you didn't think, you acted. And act he did, letting loose a rain of bolter fire just late enough for the remaining cultists to kill themselves, sending a ripple of energy through the area. Velias's eyes spent a second adjusting to the sudden change in light, and found themselves staring not at the gray metal of the hive city, but at a pulsating portal to the warp itself, crackling with sinister energies and spewing forth countless monstrous demons. Velias acted, drawing his chainsword and charging into the horde, roaring his regiment's battlecry, "United in faith".

Daemons fell in droves, as chainswords and drop pods slammed into the heretical mass, but the horde was endless, and the gate showed no signs of closing. The mission was a failure, of this Velias was certain, but if he was to die, he would not allow himself to disappoint The Emperor. As he finished his train of thought, he felt his mind being assaulted by demonic whispers, tearing at his sanity as the lesser daemons chipped at his armour.

From the gate emerged a monster beyond words. As Velias felt blood drip from his ears, the daemon roared, sending its lesser siblings into a frenzy and overwhelming what marines remained.

And there, Velias lay, his armour slowly being chipped away, the weight of a hundred daemons pinning him to the ground, his senses growing weaker by the moment.

Then, in the distance, a light, then a thunderous roar as a single drop pod slammed into the midst of the demonic horde, sending the creatures flying everywhere as it dispensed its cargo.

As Velias' last breath left him, he saw this, and recognized the shape of Drake Sigismund, Chief Librarian of the War Brothers, encased in golden light and burning with righteous fury. As The Emperor came for Velias, he smiled.