No, I didn't invent this idea, and yes, I was inspired by the brilliant work of Rouge Vector. I don't expect to do as well as him, because his story is definitely the best and I suggest you read his when you have the time.

It is the 41st millennium

For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods, and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day, so that he may never truly die.

Yet even in this deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battle fleets cross the daemon –infested miasma of the warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperors will. Vast armies give battle in His name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes. The Space Marines, bio-engineered super warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: The Imperial Guard and the countless Planetary Defence Forces, the ever vigilant Holy Inquisition and the tech priests of the mechanicum to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever encroaching darkness brought upon by aliens, mutants, heretics- and worse.

To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold trillions. It is to live in the cruellest and most bloody regime imaginable. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding.

For in the grim dark future of the 41st Millennium, there is only war.

++Novissime I, Novissime System, Novissime Sector, Ultima Segmentum++

++867.M41++

The Tech priest peered at the data recorder through one of his optical tubes. He was a hunched figure, draped in a dust red robe. Underneath he was a being part human, part machine, with his lower jaw replaced with a titanium plate and various other metal parts encased his body, some blinking with soft green lights, others gently whirring like a mechanical fan. What he saw on the screen of the recorder was not what he wanted to see. Quickly retracting the tube within his hood, he turned and made his way to the Magos' office. Passing quickly through the dreary bulkheads of monitoring station Alpha Sigma Novissime, he began internally processing the situation. The adept calculated thousands of possible outcomes, yet no solutions. Rounding the corner the adept quickly ascended the chrome plated steps to the circular office of the Magos. The room was entirely chrome on the inside, Cog Mechanicus signs covered the various machines and monitors in the room. The Magos was pouring over blueprints detailing the Fortress city on Novissime II.

"M'lord, we have detected an increase in warp signatures being emitted from the star", The Tech priest that entered the room began in a monotone, computerised voice "I fear it may go super nova in the next 24 hours".

The Magos straitened up and stared out the circular reinforced glass window that faced the systems other 3 planets. He remained this way for a few minutes before turning to the younger tech priest. The Magos also wore a red rob, but one could not call him human. His entire body was either encased or entirely replaced with mechanical parts. If not for the human eyes and nose that remained upon his pale face one would assume he was a robot, and considering the large portions of his brain replaced or enhanced with machinery, he may as well have been. He leant heavily on a large axe and three mechanical arms protruding from his back continued operating the various systems on the monitor to his left.

"You are sure of this?" he asked eventually. Unlike the other tech priest his voice was slower, more grating and mechanical than the adept facing him.

"99.89%, allowing for a 0.10% margin of error"

The Magos let out a sound like steam escaping a jug, and the other tech priest realised he was sighing. "Do we have time to tell the others?"

"Negative, we barely have time for a frigate to enter warp space, let alone the cruisers of the Imperial Navy above Novissime III"

"Well, I suppose we wait then"

"Indeed Magos, it has been an honour serving with you"

The Magos didn't respond. It took just another half hour before the warp flames from the exploding star engulfed the first planet of the system.

…

++Terra, Sol System, Sol Sector, Solar Segmentum++

++015.M3++

The rain drummed against the roof as I tried to get to sleep. I tossed, and turned, and eventually sat up, giving up on trying to welcome sleep.

"What are you doing?" Kate asked sleepily.

"Just going to the toilet"

"Well you're either in the bed or out, you're letting in the cold by sitting up like that" She turned over away from me. I pushed myself up from the bed, pulled the sheets back up and made my way to the bathroom. Stumbling through the darkness of our bedroom I came across the door to the bathroom and it slid it to side. The cold of the tiles radiated up my feet as I stepped inside. I switched on the light, flooding bathroom with light, amplified by the white tiles of the room.

"I swear to god David if you don't close that door" Kate moaned from the Bed. I grinned, called out an apology before sliding the door closed and shutting off the light to the bedroom. Before I could move to the Toilet and relieve myself I heard the dog start barking.

"God dammit" I muttered, making my way to the other door leading into the hall way. As soon as opened it Lightning bolted past, honouring his name sake quite nicely. The Airedale terrier cowered at the entrance to the bedroom, refusing to come when I called. As I got closer, I noticed a burn mark streaking along the length of him, searing his golden goat and scaring him to the flesh.

"The fuck?" I asked him. He provided no answer and I decided to go the way lightning had come to find the root of the problem. I crept along the wall, deciding against turning in the light and making me stumble every few steps. The upstairs hallway leading to our bedroom was on the east wing of the house, with the two spare bedrooms branching off to my left, and I used the doorframes to steady myself through the dark. About a meter before I rounded the corner to the stairs, a blue flash appeared, illuminating the hall and reflecting against the windows facing the west.

Lightning, I waited for about 30 seconds and still no thunder, not lightning.

Thus I continued towards my objective. I rounded the corner and descended the stairs, and that's about when the sounds reached me. Gunfire, admittedly it sounded very distant, but it made me falter. It did not sound like it was getting any closer, so I again continued down the stairs.

…

"Emperors fury, see that tau Tank column about twenty clicks east? Light it up" Uriel Ventris, Captain of the Ultramarines Fourth Company, voxed the Warlord Titan. The captain watched the encroaching xeno lines through his auspex sensors, the helmet enhancing what even his superior eyesight could not make out in the dark.

"Understood." Princeps Xavier of the Warlord Battle titan voxed back and the massive war walker rotated its chassis to fire its plasma destructor at the collection of Xeno Tanks. A plume of plasma fire exploded from the column as the Tau tanks were consumed by the power of a miniature sun. Xavier grinned and opened the cooling vents in preparation for his next shot with the god machine.

"Brother Captain," Marcus, the Blood Angel's librarian, said as he ran over to the captain. His blood red terminator armour was adorned with various purity seals and his psychic hood pulsed blue in time with the Space Marine psykers rapid battle thoughts. "Any sign of the native xeno beast?"

Ventris turned to him. The Ultramarines captain was decked in the classic blue power armour of his chapter, only the Green trim of the Shoulder plates and his ornate helm would make him stand out from the ranks of his brother Astartes. "None yet, brother, it appears we have defeated it." The Blood Angel grinned and whirled around, adding his Storm Bolter the storm of fire being laid upon the Tau gun line.

At that moment the captain spotted another giant being descending the massive stairs the previous creature had retreated up. This one walked on two legs, and lacked the hair the last one had. It almost looked like a human. A giant, mutant human. Ventris panicked for a moment, but only a moment, for he was a space marine, the Emperors Angels of Death. And He Shall Show No Fear.

"Princeps, is the god machine ready?" the captain once again contacted the Titan's commander

"Almost, m'lord."

"Once ready, fire at the giant on the stairs." The Princeps raised an eyebrow at this new set of orders. Immediately, he ordered the titan to rotate its massive abdomen towards the stair way the last xeno beast left and he saw it. This new beast was so large, his own mighty titan only came up to its knee joints.

"By the emperor," he whispered "lock plasma destructor, let's smoke this beast!" the titan commander ordered, and the low hum of the massive plasma cannon charging filled the command pulpit.

…

I was confronted with a war zone. Exact details were hard to make out in the dark, but gun barrels flashed and tracers arched across the living room. In addition to the ballistic weaponry, blue bolts also streaked out, making the whole room light up like a night club. The shooting, screaming and explosions all mixed in the air to make an almost unbearable din of battle. But from where I stood, the weapons looked very small, nothing like what I had seen in Afghanistan.

What. The. Hell.

On the far side of the room, next to the fireplace, what looked like a giant metal toddler strode forth. The light from the smouldering embers in the fireplace reflected off the machines chrome plating, creating a sort of orange haze around it. But that was not what worried me. One of its arms started glowing blue, slowly building until it was almost white. Too late did I relies that this was a weapon, and even later did I relies it was directed at me. The massive bolt reached out and caught me in the shoulder, shearing nerves, ripping fabric and burning skin. The wall behind me must have caught most of the damage, because a whole had been bored right through to the frame.

"Holy shit!" I yelled, grabbing my injured shoulder in pain. I immediately withdrew up the stairs and ran back to the bedroom.

Whatever was down there clearly wasn't something I wanted to mess with.

…

"Admiral Talser," The captain called over the Vox "Take the 68th Elysian and chase that beast, find out if there are more of them, and if there are any bigger ones. I'll send the 657th Krieg in to assist when possible" A burst of static and a confirmation call from the admiral.

In the Darkness, Valkyrie engines flared and the imperial gunships lifted off with their elite cargo, intent on destroying whatever it was that resided up those stairs.

…

"Seriously" Kate said, unconvinced. She sat up in the bed in her pink night gown, looking at me with a 'let me go back to sleep you stupid twat' look. The bedroom was now illuminated with light, and she looked incredibly disappointed with my sudden appearance. The bed faced the only window to the north, with shelves along with the wardrobe along the side walls. The doors to the bedroom and bathroom left and right of the bed respectively.

"Seriously! There are…things down there, and one of them shot me!" I showed her the seared meat on my right shoulder. The flesh was pink with the colour of fresh skin, and it stunk of burnt meat. It had started to scab already, which was uncharacteristic of normal gunshot wounds, but then again I'm fairly certain whatever shot me wasn't a normal gun.

"Oh my God!" she gasped at the wound, and pulled herself out of bed to get a closer look. She peered at the wound then looked up at me. "How'd you do it?"

"Me!? I didn't do it, something shot me like I just said!"

"You probably burnt yourself on the fire place in the dark. I'm going to take a look for myself" She took a step towards the door.

"Don't!" I almost screamed. She turned to me and put a hand on her hip.

"Please, I can handle myself"

The minute she opened the door a salvo of miniature rockets flew in the door, narrowly missing my girlfriend and hitting the wall behind her. She yelped in surprise and slammed the door. I raised an eyebrow and she glared back, blowing a lock of blonde hair out of her eye.

"Shut up"

…

"Bank Left!" the Co-pilot yelled and the vulture turned sharply, narrowly avoiding smashing into the door that had materialised in front of them.

"Admiral, there is a third beast, similar to the second one, though it had longer hair and appeared more feminine" the pilot voxed in.

"Copy that 12th, we're sending you the position of the temporary airfield" Talser responded.

"Aren't we going to try breakthrough?"

"No no, leave the Krieger's to take care of that"

…

"What do we do?" Kate exclaimed. Lightning was now hiding under the bed, and I don't blame him. I think I got hit by the same thing he got hit with.

"Calm down, maybe we should call the police" I tried, cycling through the possible solutions to this incredibly bizarre problem.

"Ha. They wouldn't believe you. And maybe they'll kick us out of our home for further investigation! You know hard it'll be for us to get another house with our current financial situation!" that was the accountant in Kate coming out.

"They'd give us a rebate" I tried

"The GV of this place is about $30,000 less than what we paid for it, you think we'll get a house like this again?"

"Alright, alright we won't call the police" I sighed.

We were in such a rush to figure out what was going on, neither of us had paid much mind to our attire. She had changed out of her night gown and wore loose green track pants with a pink t-shirt that had 'my little pony' on the front. Not the most flattering of costumes but she could make anything look beautiful on her. He blonde hair was a mess, frizzy all over yet stuck up at all sorts of angles on one side, indicating the side she preferred to sleep on. I wore a red t-shirt with "Winnes Pizza bar' on the front and black cotton pants. My dusty brown hair was equally messed up. I sighed and sat down heavily on the bed.

"Maybe we can deal with it in the morning, they probably won't try come through"

"Can you actually sleep knowing what's out there?" she asked in a condescending tone. I pondered her somewhat obvious question for a bit

"You're right, what do we do?"

"You're rifle is down stairs isn't it?" She said, snapping her fingers "You get it and scare them away" I thought about the weapon that had nearly burnt my shoulder off and then considered what my Springfield 303 rifle would do to the thing that wielded it. But seeing the look on Kates face, I reconsidered my position. This was my house, and hell if I'm giving it up to whatever the hell was on the other side of that door. A new Bravado flowed through me, I had faced the Taliban multiple times during my tour, surely that toddler sized robot was no less threatening than those savages terrorising Afghanistan. Just as I was about to leap up and storm out that door into the line of fire of my house invaders, we heard something hammer against the door.

…

Tenebrae Lowered his arm, and the Earthshaker cannons roared as their shells leapt out at their target. Earthshaker cannons were some of the most devastating guns the Krieg regiments had on offer, yet all it was doing to this massive door was creating small black marks across its face. Clearly this wasn't going to work. Tenebrae left the assembled gun line to continue hammering the door while he would consult alternate methods of entering the beast's compound. The 2nd column of the 657th arrived, Gorgons rumbled in with the remainder of the infantry, centaurs hauled ammo tugs and more earthshakers on limber up to the line. But that's not what the Quartermaster wanted. He smiled as two Hades Breaching drill rumbled up behind the column

"Engineers! Line up!" He yelled and several Krieg soldiers gathered in front of him before snapping to attention. Each carried a shotgun, several grenades and a shovel.

"On the other side of this door, is the lair of these gigantic Xeno beasts. They have proven weak in the face imperial fire power, but we need more information about what we're going up against. No other options remain, you will bore through the door. Whether you live or die, your service to the Emperor will not be forgotten!"

"The Emperor protects!" the Kriegsmen yelled back. Tenebrae signalled, and the Hades Breaching drills lurched forward and made their way towards the door, engineers following close behind. As they approached, the drills began rotating, the drivers gunned their drill tanks forward and they started boring into the door.

…

"Oh…shit…are they drilling in?" Kate quivered. Sure enough, the distinctive sound of a drill could be heard through the door. I immediately assumed that one of those walking toddlers was boring through with drill arms. Something like that would almost certainly take my arm off, finishing what its gun toting brother had begun. Either that or they just have big tanks with drills on the end. Either way I didn't want to be there when they broke through.

Could we hide in the Bathroom? No, they would find us and kill us much easier in that confined space. Rush them? My Shoulder was proof that such a plan would end in tears. There was just one option left. I went over and opened the window opposite our bed. It over looked the garden, and the rain had softened the ground, reducing any kind of shock from jumping. The rain was really coming down now though, we would get soaked through for sure.

"Alright, put Lightning in the bathroom. We'll jump out the window, sneak round to the study, climb through that window and grab my gun. Then we can flank these things from the stairs"

"OK, lemme grab my jacket" Kate turned towards the wardrobe before another set of explosions shook the door. "Scratch that, let's go."

The window was about a metre across and two metres tall. Kate's slim frame would slip through easy. I was a little more muscled, but I was no less lanky. My old platoon mates called me bones in response to my less than standard build. I pulled myself onto the window sill and swung my legs around bellow me. I turned towards Kate, grinned and let go of the edge.

…

David dropped out the window and landed in the garden. There was a thud, provoking a groan from my boyfriend. I rushed over and stuck my head out, only to see him grinning up at me, mud splattering his forearms, knees and feet.

Seeing my disgusted face he called out "Come down the waters fine" he smirked. "I'll catch you if you want"

I rolled my eyes at his 'pleasantries' and swung my legs over the edge. I hadn't noticed how high up this window was till now. I gripped the window sill so tight my knuckles went white

"Today would be grand" David mused.

"When I get down from here I will hurt you"

"I'm sure, I'm just curious when we'll get to that point, maybe with a searing hole in your back?" the thought of my lifeless body tumbling down into the mud made me gasp. The drilling was more audible now, and I turned my head to see the silver tip of a drill poke through the bottom of the door.

I took a deep breath, and propelled myself out the window towards the ground.

So, how did that opening go? Good? Bad? Innovative? Boring? Stupid? Brilliant? Original? Carbon-copy? Grammar mistake ridden? Flawless?

Leave a review and look forward to (or loath) the coming of the next chapter. Until then, farewell.