AN UNLIKELY ALLIANCE (FEMALE CUSTODES x MALE GUARDSMAN): A WARHAMMER 40K STORY

Day 3

The Lieutenant is waiting for the Salamanders to arrive. “They're late. They're late!”, he says. Lucius says, “Was the MRE that bad last night? Feels like the Lieutenant had a tough time at the toilet”. Caius laughs. The Lieutenant says, “What's the matter, soldiers?! Did I say anything funny?!” Aurora arrives to their rescue and says, “No Lieutenant. They are laughing on some other matters. Don't be hasty, they'll arrive”. Aurora turns and whispers, “I won't be there to defend you every time. And yes, the MREs are bad from what I know. They're made of…”. They are interrupted by the several sonic booms. A fleet of Thunderhawks descend. Aurora says, “Guys, here's your ride”. The doors open and a squad of Salamanders come out of one. Aurora runs to greet them. The Salamanders Sergeant removes his helmet. “Sergeant Volcanus of the Salamanders”, he says. Aurora removes her faceplate and replies, “Custodian Lumina of the Shadowkeepers. Welcome to Corvus”. Sergeant Volcanus says, “We received your call for evacuation…”, he looks at the landscape, and continues, “....You managed the situation here pretty well.” Aurora says, “I suspect more are left in the caves, so I called in the experts”. Sergeant Volcanus lights up his flamethrower and says, “Leave this to us, my lady”. The unit heads off to burn down the Daemonettes while Aurora aids in the evacuation. Caius asks her, “My lady, may I ask, why are you so worried about us simple humans?”. Aurora replies, “I don't like people dying. And besides, this is what the Emperor would have wanted”. Caius says, “Do you think the Emperor is a God?”, as he loads a stretcher into a Thunderhawk. Aurora says, “He is godly, but is he a God? I don't think so. If he was, don't you think he would have not fixed himself?”. Meanwhile the Salamanders undergo their operation. They enter the caves and find Daemonettes hiding. They start crying in fear at the sight of the Salamanders. Sergeant Volcanus says, “Brothers, let's begin” and they all start burning down the Daemonettes. Every single one of them. Seeing comes out of the caves, the Lieutenant says, “Fucking bastards! They deserved this.” Aurora says, “Language, Lieutenant. They were people once.” Suddenly, Lucius hears a whisper. Him and only him. It says, “Come, my child. Come, join the embrace of Slaanesh”. He tries to shake his head, but the seductive voice is too hypnotizing. The voice comes from the basement of the colony. Lucius starts heading there. Caius notices it as he is finished with loading up the Thunderhawks. “Lucius?! Hey Lucius?!!”, he shouts at him. He doesn't reply. Caius runs after him. Aurora notices that too. Lucius gets into the basement and starts digging like a dog. Caius approaches and shouts, “Lucius!! Stop!!”.  He doesn't listen. Caius gets desperate and punches him, he falls. Caius sees a glowing object in the hole. He leans in, and takes it out. It's a sword. A big, alien sword. Lucius gets up and says, “Give it to me!” and attacks Caius and tries to strangle it. Suddenly a hand approaches and pulls Lucius away and throws him to a wall, knocking him out. It's Aurora. She looks at the sword and takes it. “Aeldari weaponry. Looks ancient.”, she says. Caius says, “Is this why the Daemons are here?”. Aurora replies, “Yes, but it's glowing”. She puts it near her ear, and it hums, “Come, come join Slaanesh”. She replies, “No thank you. My current job pays me well”. Caius says, “What if it's sending a message?”. Aurora gets shocked and says, “Oh no. Oh no no no!! We gotta get everyone out of here!!”.

The Salamanders return. The Thunderhawks are about to take off. “Job’s done. But where's Custodian Lumina?”, Sergeant Volcanus says. He spots the giant figure running towards him with a human on her shoulder and another human running behind her. “Sergeant! We've got a problem!”, she says. “What's the problem, my lady?”, he replies. Aurora switches on the Aeldari blade. “My friend, who is sleeping on the lady's shoulder, started behaving like a dog and dug this up. The lady says this is an Aeldari blade”, Caius says. Aurora continues, “If this is glowing, that means we have Emperor's Children nearby. Evacuate everyone as quickly as possible”. Suddenly, Sergeant Volcanus receives a call from his ship in orbit, “We're intercepting something coming out of the Warp in 3, 2….”. The call changes to static. “Brother. Brother, do you read me?!”, he says. Aurora says, “We're too late”. Lucius wakes up on her shoulder and screams in confusion. The Lieutenant pulls out his gun and says, “I'll blow your brains off, you bastard! You just made our lives miserable!”. Aurora says, “Calm down, Lieutenant. The mortal mind is frail. People are too easily motivated. Well, at least most”, she looks at Caius. An explosion is heard in the clouds and Sergeant Volcanus is shocked at the sight of his ship crashing down on the surface. Sonic booms break the sky as landing pods descend like meteors. They bear the symbol of Slaanesh, of Chaos and of the Emperor's Children. One of the pods opens its doors and hundreds of missiles are launched at the battlefield. “INCOMING!!”, Sergeant Volcanus says. The missiles raze the battlefield, destroying the Thunderhawks and killing everyone in them. Only the Lieutenant, Caius, Lucius, Aurora and a few of the Salamanders survive since they had not boarded the Thunderhawks yet. The other pods open. A sharp guitar note rings. Aurora says, “Noise Marines. They got Noise Marines”. The Emperor's Children are seen heading towards the Salamanders from the smoke. The Captain of the squad plays his guitar and it sends a powerful sound blast that blows off the head of a Salamander. Sergeant Volcanus says, “BROTHERS! TAKE POSITION! FIRE AT WILL!”. They start shooting at the Emperor's Children and they start shooting back. Aurora lunges at the Emperor's Children, taking one's head off. She stares at the leader, his face is without any skin, but bare muscles with pins on it. His facial skin is instead turned into a banner. She says, “Kid, if you don't want to die, back off. Leave this planet and return to whatever dark cells you came from”. The Captain replies, “Custodian, we don't want any trouble from you”. He plays his guitar again, the sound wave causes Aurora to fall but she gets up again. “That's all you can do?”, she replies. “No Custodian, check your armor”, he replies. Aurora looks at her armor. A glowing device is stuck on it. She tries to remove it but can't. The device explodes in a blinding flash and when it clears, she's not more on the battlefield. Sergeant Volcanus shouts, “WHAT DID YOU DO?! WHERE DID THE LADY GO?!”. The Captain replies, “I myself don't know. We got this grenade after we killed a Necron. Saved it for some reason.” Caius whispers sadly, “Aurora…”. Sergeant Volcanus says to the 3 surviving Guardsmen, “RUN! We'll hold them off as long as we can!”. Caius picks the blade and he, Lucius and the Lieutenant run for the colony. The Emperor's Children unleash their sonic cannons, causing the Salamanders to explode. Caius hears the whispers of Slaanesh, temptations too hard to resist, but he must go to prevent the apocalypse.

Terra. The Imperial Palace. Two Custodians are guarding the Throne Room. They notice a flash in the sky above the throne and a figure in black and gold falls from it. It falls so hard that the floor breaks from impact. The two Custodians rush to see it to see that it's another Custodian too. A Shadowkeeper. One of them removes the helmet to find that it's Custodian Aurora Lumina. She tries to get up, but she can barely see, talk or breathe. She sees with her hazy eyes the Emperor on her throne and whispers, “No. No. No…” before puking and passing out on the floor.

The Salamanders cover for the men keeping the sword. But the Emperor’s Children keep catching up. Their sonic bolters easily kill the Salamanders. Both Sergeant Volcanus and the Emperor's Children Captain run out of ammo at the same time. “You're empty, Sergeant”, he taunts. “So are you, you faceless monster!”, Sgt Volcanus replies. They both pull out their knives. The Captain tells his Marines, “Go after the men”. Sgt Volcanus orders his Marines, “Make sure none of them make out alive”. The Captain says, “Children of Fulgrim! Death to his foes!”. Sgt Volcanus replies, “Into the fires of battle! Unto the anvils of war!”. They both jump at each other with their knives.

The Salamanders keep dying until there's only the men left. One of the Noise Marines catches the Lieutenant by the throat, saying, “You mere Guardsmen will never know the glory of Slaanesh”. The Lieutenant bleeds out of his nose and eyes, but before dying, he pulls the trigger of his Meltagun, killing the Marine. Caius runs and gets the Meltagun for him. Caius and Lucius hide. Lucius says, “It's all my fault.” Caius says, “Keep that to yourself now”. Lucius closes his eyes for sometime, then says, “Caius, give me the sheath”. Caius replies, “Why? What do you want?”. Lucius says, “Take the sword. Run as far as you can”. He pulls out a plasma grenade. Caius says, “No. I've lost too many today. Too many. I can't!”. Lucius says, “Will you give this to my wife?”, handing him his necklace containing her photo. Caius holds it with teary eyes, takes the sword, and runs. Lucius takes the grenade and the sheath and walks towards the Noise Marines- “My lords. I, Private Lucius of Astra Militarum, submit to you as the humble servant of Slaanesh”. The Lieutenant comes forward and takes off his helmet. His face is a pincushion. He takes one pin and stabs Lucius’ eye with it. “First step in your transformation”, he says. Lucius hands him the empty sheath. “The sword, as you asked”. The Lieutenant tries out the sword but finds it empty- “Where is it?! WHERE IS IT?!”. Lucius pulls out the grenade’s pin. The Lieutenant lets out a scream before it explodes, killing everyone in the vicinity. A few Noise Marines manage to barely escape. Caius hears the explosion and lets out a sigh. He's alone now.

Meanwhile Sgt Volcanus and the Noise Marines Captain have been fighting. They have both stabbed each other in multiple vital places, but their extra organs are keeping them afloat. The Captain says, “Why don't you just die?!”. Sgt Volcanus replies, “I ask you the same”. They both jump at each other and stab each other at their throats. But the Captain smiles, saying, “But I've already replaced my throat”, revealing a cybernetic voice box underneath. Volcanus bleeds out to death.