Lone Wolf

To Begin

"To begin, I compose this on a data slate of the Adeptus Astartes, I am unsure how this got into this wretched hive or how it got so deep, but my thumb scan unlocked it. Nothing was on here of any value so now it is here to document my journey. My original name was Osberht Njord, now my brothers refer to me as Greystalker LongFang. My brothers, they are gone, not all of them, but my pack. We had been together for centuries, and now, we had been betrayed and I survived. The old gods were on my side along with the Emperor. How do I know we were betrayed? Let me explain"

"There were eight of us in the pack, heavy weapons and close support. We'd been dropped onto a high rise to give supporting fire to the imperial guard below as they held the line from an oncoming hive swarm, other wolves were dispersed within their line to give a moral and battle hardened boost. But the swarm never came the way it was reported. This does not lead credence to the idea of betrayal, those tyranids are cunning creatures and they do not always follow the plan. They attacked from the rear and it was my pack along with another LongFangs on an opposite ridge that saw them coming, we opened fire and vox'd the rest of the line but the guardsmen's defensive bulwark just pinned them for the oncoming swarm. We emptied every round we had into that swarm except our sidearms, the guardsmen and our brothers below were slaughtered and then the swarm turned to the hills."

"We broke cover and headed to the extraction point. When we saw it, I knew we had been betrayed and so did my kin. The extraction ships had been tampered with, once we crested the ridge and vox'd for uplift. The moment the turbines began to spin, it exploded and from within erupted a swarm of genestealers, but not the normal variety that we find on a battle field or hiding within a Space Hulk, these were something else, a monstrosity, a blending of man and xenomorph, some had arms almost human, others strange bulbous heads but all followed the pure genestealers on their charge up the hillside to our position."

"There were eight of us to begin with and as the battle ensued we were quickly reduced in number. Only sidearms and hand weapons were not the match of ranged weapons fired by the abominations and dealing with the hand to hand combat with the pure xeno war machine of the genestealer. I make no excuses for my pack we fought hard and each time one of us fell at least a score of them joined us but we were outnumbered. I was saved by sheer luck, a glancing blow from a las weapon caught my head, as I spun from that and a pure genestealer pounced, I lost my footing on the mountain side and fell. The 'stealer continued to try and claw at me as we fell; I held its claws and teeth at bay but it's strange hands ripped at my armour and held fast. I twisted in midair making sure all the weight of myself and the ceremite armour landed on the creature, taking one more of the wretched things with me."

"When we hit the mountain, I felt bones crack and armour crumple. The toughened exoskeleton of the 'stealer imploded from the impact; and my skull made contact with something harder and everything went black, and I thought myself dead."

"I came to, hours later or possibly a day. My armour although damaged was functional and I was able to move. My broken bones had refused and I made my way to the extraction point, aware that I was most likely the only living wolf left on the planet. Moving on, one slow step at a time I came the extraction pad, the Valkyrie was nothing more than a smouldering wreck, the fires burned low hours before. I began scouring the area for anything of value, a few ammunition crates had survived the blast along with a suit of scout armour, I transferred all items of use to a single crate and reloaded my pistol ready for any threat. With the crate in hand I continued to look for further materials and useful artefacts. Among the detritus I found a sheet of paper, rough in its creation with the simple words, 'Join and feel Love'. The colours of purple and black along with the words made me realise that this had been planned by whoever was calling for people to join. I moved through to the secondary pad and found more destruction but this time the vessel was still whole, the engines had not initiated and therefore there had been no explosion."

"As I moved forward I heard a sound coming from within, a whistle of some strange variety, upbeat and joyous. I set my crate down and went forward to investigate. A man, and from the smell and look of him, just a man was working on the engines. A device was on the floor beside him and he removed a second then I saw the same symbol, the black heart and the curled purple serpent. I moved quickly and muffled the scream with my armoured hand. He had no answers for me other than the vessel was now safe, that was all he spoke to me. So I broke his neck but before the life had drained from him fully I bite down hard on his throat and gulped down the blood and flesh letting it stream through my Omophagea, I sifted through the memories the blood and flesh gave to me through this vital implant and found out a few very interesting things, firstly he was still pure human, the devices were actually removed, and the Valkyrie was meant to fly into orbit and dock with a small vessel on auto pilot to be taken to the hive of the cults origin. It was then that I decided on my path as a lone wolf, not to return to the Fang. I boarded the vessel with my various finds and set its auto pilot in motion. I hunkered down in that vessel preparing for an unknown flight of unknown duration."

"To my surprise, the flight was short and not a single inspection took place on the vessel. I looked at my armour, and realised with guilt that I could not keep such an ancient and precious item going by myself, its damage was too severe and the power was becoming intermittent by the end of the flight. I bundled it next to a main power junction and set a plasma grenade with remote detonator to the junction. I donned the scout armour and tried to remember how long had it been since I was a blood claw, three...four centuries? I knew I'd been a Son of Russ for nearly five centuries but my youth was long and bloody, and the years begin to blur into one."

"The Valkyrie's auto pilot re-engaged shortly before I had finished preparing my exit. I completed setting my armour in place, and then loaded as many weapons and extra ammunition I could onto myself. The landing was rough as the auto pilot was not expecting such uneven ground; the machine spirit must have been aging badly in the vessel. I braced myself on one knee looking at the boarding ramp. Sniper rifle slung against my back along with a pack full of ammunition, extra sidearms, and grenades. In my hands was a plasma pistol and chain axe. I watched the door and waited, once it had touched the ground I rushed forward, the two cultists were not prepared and they fell with a single shot and a single swing. Other cultists were in the area but I am old enough to realise that fear of a wolf is a powerful weapon. I roared as I detonated the plasma grenade. The ship exploded perfectly as is if my roar had caused it. I disappeared into the shadows. Watching the cultist scurry in fear and try to contain the damage to their private hanger."

"Now I wait within a world of metal and chemicals instead of my home of fire and ice. The cult is scared; they know a wolf is hunting them. I will hunt them down one, by one, working my way to the top of their deprived cult and the discovery of who betrayed the Space Wolves on that cursed rock. When I find them the will scream for mercy."

"I make this journal to document my progress in case I fall, someone will find this and remove the threat. But when a wolf hunts, the prey does not escape."