They Deserved Better

This story is part of the community effort on the Emperor's Nightmare chapter, showing a Phobetor Dreadnought's relationship with its Sleepless charges.

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Through the haze of battle apothecary Kaspar saw another of the Sleepless fall. He longed to call out to the wounded warrior, to reassure him that his nightmare was at an end. But the vox unit of his Phobetor dreadnought had been mangled by one of the heavy rounds pouring down the hillside, and could emit only a roar of crackling static. The greenskins had lined the ridge with their "big shootas", and the charge of the Sleepless had been an act of desperation. But now it seemed even this last gambit would be a failure.

Kaspar struggled to reach the last three of his charges as they raced ahead of him. He could feel the ancient systems of his chassis sparking and failing as more of the heavy rounds made it through his armor. The sleepless, however, seemed to barely pause. As he pushed himself after them, Kaspar was lost for a moment in the beauty of their movement. Time slowed, and they seemed to dance between the rounds that fell like rain. Their armoured feet fell in perfect boot-shaped gaps in the bullet-torn earth. It was like nothing the dreadnought had ever witnessed, and he was both awed and saddened by the power brought on by the madness of the curse.

But the vision could not last. Even if the Sleepless could see every bullet falling towards them, they could not dodge them all. One of them took a round in the arm, and the force of the blow swung him around. More holes appeared in his armor, and the massive body shook from the impacts as it was driven to the ground. Another leapt over his fallen companion, only to be cut off at the legs as the heavy guns crossed their lines of fire. The last marine was more than halfway to the crest, yet it may as well have been miles. Kaspar recognized Brother Vincenzo, the oldest of his charges. The battle brother had taken it in stride when the curse had claimed him, and the apothecary remembered that the Sleepless had smiled at his own funeral rites, laughing that he would no longer need to pause in his service to the Emperor. Such flippant attitudes were usually frowned upon, but Kaspar could not help but be amused by the warm spirit of the warrior.

Yet here... here Vincenzo would not make it. A single round impacted his helmet, and penetrated through the ceramite. Miraculously, it did not manage to push all the way through, and so from the back the marine appeared whole. Yet as his head rocked back and the white-trimmed figure fell to his knees, Kaspar knew what had transpired. No further rounds touched the fallen body, and Kaspar could almost believe that the Sleepless had found his final rest.

But the greenskins were not finished yet. As the final Sleepless fell, Kaspar had barely begun murmuring the Emperor's Prayer for his fallen brothers when he was interrupted by a roar from the top of the hill:

"ORKS'S DA BIGGEST AN' DA STRONGEST!"

Slowly he rose from his slumped position. The dreadnought chassis was damaged, but the apothecary within barely registered the strain. Without meaning to, he found himself striding towards the cluster of celebrating greenskins. Thinking the marines dead and the ancient dreadnought disabled, they had abandoned their weapons to celebrate and argue over who would get the loot. But now his armored legs carried him to the crest faster than Kaspar would have thought possible had he been aware. But now only one thought occupied his mind.

The orks spun to face him as the Phobetor crested the hill and raised his narthecium glaives. Had he looked, he would have seen fear in their beady eyes at the great machine that they thought destroyed, standing now to challenge them. But he could see only one thing: the smile, of Brother Vincenzo as his dreamcatcher was broken and he accepted his curse. And though his vox speaker was destroyed, from the carrion throat encased in the iron sarcophagus rang a cry that reverberated out of the machine and across the battlefield:

"YOU DO NOT KNOW STRENGTH!"