M41: 841

Designation: Forge World Beraileah

"IRON WITH-"

[+ Be Judged +]

A squirming Chaos Space Marine roared in anger as it was burned alive under the hold of an Iron Hands Contemptor Dreadnought known to its Battle Brothers as "The Iron Sarcophagus" though most Iron Hands engaged the enemies without the roars of battle, fighting in a chilling silence, The Iron Sarcophagus made sure to remind the Heretic, the Xenos and the Mutant, of the crime which is their very existence, baptised in the holy fires of the Flamer mounted on the underside of the Dreadnoughts gauntlet, the misguided Space Marine soon stopped struggling now nothing but a smouldering pile of ashes.

The Iron Sarcophagus glanced around, the iconic sound of Bolters ripped across the battlefield from and to both sides of the conflict, yet there was also the sharp shrill of plasma directed at the advancing horde of Chaos Scum, courtesy of the Adeptus Mechanicus who had joined the Iron Hands in spear heading the assault, an ancient accord of respect and common interests forming a bond between the two sub-factions of the Imperium of Man, sadly, casualties were stacking on the side of the Imperium, the Chaos Space Marines all individually had millennia of experience, worse though, they were bearing the banner of the Iron Warriors, a dreaded legion who had dabbled in fusing the Machine and the Daemon, something which was an unforgivable crime against the Omnissiah and the Emperor, and would be punished with extreme prejudice.

Chaos Space Marines may have millennia of experience... But so did the Dreadnought.

Spinning up his Assault Cannon The Iron Sarcophagus let loose across the battlefield, marching forward besides a Rhino and a Dunecrawler, making a push on the Iron Warriors front lines, The Iron Sarcophagus voiced a quick and simple transmission through his Vox to the Rhino, noticing that it was taking a heavy beating, Rhinos were primarily Troop Transports, it would be suicide crossing the frontlines without them, and thus, it was imperative to the mission that they succesfully broke through the first lines of defense, giving standard infantry a foothold on the battlefield.

The Rhinos exhaust roared as it sped up in order to remain directly behind The Iron Sarcophagus, the Dreadnought now being subjected to the blistering wave of bullets, though, the effort was fruitless, as they harmlessly vaporised when passing through the Contemptor's Void Shield, seeing this maneuver, the allied Dunecrawler briefly slowed down, positioning itself to shield the Rhino's rear.

With The Iron Sarcophogus on point, and the Dunecrawler at the rear, the Rhino stood a much better chance of breaching, smoke covered most the battlefield, fire unending in every direction, vicious artillery bombarded at seemingly random, creating deep craters slowly filling with the blood of traitors, and yet a few metres away, the Dreadnought could make out the outline of a trench, thus was their destination. The more they neared, the heavier the barrage of fire became, this was the moment which changed the tide of a battle, the moment this world would finally have the chance to free itself of chaotic taint, all was going well until The Iron Sarcophagus heard a disgusting roar, the very sound of it was wrong, whatever creature it belonged to, was an abomination which needed to be purged.

Halting, The Iron Sarcophagus heard the stomps of a beast through the smoke, he had enough experience with Daemons to know what that dreaded sound was, quickly activating his Vox, he ordered the Rhino to briefly fall back, a maneuver which took a nerve racking amount of time as it had to clear away from the Dunecrawler, luckily, they weren't under much fire anymore, the cowardly Iron Warriors most likely retreating as the beast marched through. The stomping was getting ever closer, in the ten millennia that The Iron Sarcophagus had been interred into the Dreadnought, he had fought it all, the Orks, the Eldar, the Tau, the Tyranids and Chaos, but nothing was a greater threat then what was stomping through that smoke.

The Maulerfiend roared as it charged headfirst into The Iron Sarcophagus, knocking the ancient Dreadnought back, before it could go in for another blow the Dunecrawler fired back at the Daemon Engine with its Eradication Beamer, scoring a direct hit to the beasts chest, as the Dreadnought regained his balance, it saw how warp energies were leaking forth from the beast's wound, Maulerfiends were infamous for tearing Dreadnoughts limb from limb, slowly eating the immobilised and incapacitated pilots of the ancient Walkers.

Changing targets, the Maulerfiend rammed the Dunecrawler, disabling one of its legs and flipping the tank, before its Powerclaws could maul the crew the Daemon Engine felt itself being yanked back, and sure enough, The Iron Sarcophagus had grabbed the Maulerfiend by its many whip like appenges, spinning up his assault cannon, and sprayed the Maulerfiend with a flurry of bullets in its face, taking out one of its eyes. Roaring that ungodly sound in pain the Iron Sarcophagus revved its Powerfist back and strikes deeply into the Maulerfiends damaged chest, shooting off its underside flamer, inside the beast causing the various warp energies to shift and spill onto the floors.

Struggling free, the undying Maulerfiend leaped backwards, heavily incapacitated, and charged once more into The Iron Sarcophagus, knocking the Contemptor Dreadnought onto its back and dripping warp energies onto the chassis, with a victory like grunt, The Iron Sarcophagus grunted in pain as one of its Powerclaws directly went through his armour, damaging his already crippled body, ragged breathing came from within the Dreadnoughts helmet, his situation was looking very grim, overpowered by an abomination, Ferrus Mannus would be displeased, that would not stand.

Roaring, The Iron Sarcophagus lifted his arm jabbed the Daemon Engine right in the neck with his Powerfist, causing the creature to double over in pain, though not for long, as it quickly retaliated by ramming the Dreadnought again, but this time, The Iron Sarcophagus was ready, digging his feet into the earth, he timed the Mauler's run up, and with robotic like precision, punched it square in the head, it roared in pain as it doubled over on the floor. Taking the initiative to end the fight the Dreadnought clambered over, and with a mighty stomp, crushed the Daemon Engines head under his metal foot, killing the beast for good.

The Iron Sarcophagus kneeled over in pain, his already fragile body had taken a blow, even for an Astartes, this was serious, Dreadnoughts were made so that Space Marines close to death could continue fighting, however, what was left of them often made for a easy kill on a exposed Dreadnought, The Iron Sarcophagus felt really weak, and looking down, he saw what he had not saw for millennia, his blood, covering the puncture with his giant robotic hand, he estimated that, as an Astartes, his body could still repair what's left of it, but he would need the assistance of an Apothecary to properly seal it. The Dreadnought should keep him alive until then.

Hearing the loud rumbling of an exhaust the Dreadnought saw the Rhino he had ordered to fall back earlier pull up besides him, disembarking from it he saw many Battle Brothers of the Iron Hands, surrounding the wounded Dreadnought in a defensive formation, the squads sergeant, as indicated by the red helmet kneeled before the Dreadnought.

"My lord, we have sent for an Apothecary and a Techpriest, they shall soon be hear to tend to your wounds" The Sargent declared, keeping his marines, and Rhino covering The Iron Sarcophagus, he stood, Boltpistol and Chainsword in hand, and began barking orders to his underlings, looking down again he saw the warp energies which had spilled out earlier from the Maulers corpse were radiating electricity as it mixed with the the Iron Sarcophagus's blood, the Sargent noticed this as well, and quickly yelled out.

"RUN"

But the Dreadnought could not run, to wounded, The Iron Sarcophagus just about managed to stand as a brilliant detonation of warp energies ripped across Space-Time in vivid colours of Red, Blue, Green and Purple, accompanied by the horrendous screams of the warp.

The Sargent was LIVID, many of his Battle Brothers looked on with masked rage, such a cowardly tactic utilized by the Traitors, to kill such an ancient and beautiful machine was an unforgivable atrocity.

He would skew the head of the Warp Smith who manufactured that Daemon.

...

M?: ?¿ [ERROR: 9099: Failure to match Temporal shift)

Designation: ? [ERROR: 5688: Failure to match Geological shift)

When he awoke, The Iron Sarcophagus still felt weak, yet by some miracle, the Dreadnought had kept him stable through the explosion, the puncture in the Sarcophaguses' Torso was drenched in dried blood, the ancient internal alarms of the Dreadnought briefly sounded to warn those nearby that it was in a critical condition. There were other alarms as well, yes, these were more like sirens, opening his tired and aged eyes, the Dreadnought did not recognise his surroundings, a calm, rising sun littered the radiant sky, the many clouds did not bend and shift with the warp, rather, they stayed constant, slowly drifting across the expanse of the skyline, undamaged buildings made of diffrent architecture then that of the besieged Forge World, windows without stained glass, wooden, primitive doors, all of it came together to make a street, small automobiles were parked neatly on either side.

This meant that by some miracle, the Warp, rather then digesting him, had violently spit out The Iron Sarcophagus, though, this wasn't exactly favourable, he could quite literally be, anywhere, he had yet to see a human, what if this was a Xeno planet? He'd have to go on a violent killing spree until either the entire species was exterminated or he himself perished in the fires of battle, a fate he'd narrowly avoided by an impossible percentage.

Gathering his strength the Dreadnoughts hydraulics sprung to life and the Contemptor Dreadnought rose to full height, being about half the size of these houses which seemed to have two stories, his feet made the ground tremble as he began walking forwards, it was early morning, so if there was any humans, many would still be asleep, it was confusing to the Iron Sarcophagus, many of the structures were built the same, the only differential feature was colour, dark pallets adorned the houses on every street, eventually, he saw a dark figure at the end of the street stare at him before rounding the corner.

[+Halt!+]

The Iron Sarcophagus' order fell on death ears as the corner remained vacant, breathing a tired sigh, The Iron Sarcophagus marched foward, his steps once again shaking the earth he crossed, quickly rounding the corner, The Iron Sarcophagus caught a better glance at the fleeing figure, they were wearing a white cloak, even at this distance he could feel a weird energy from them, a Psyker perhaps? Or maybe it was an Eldar? Luring him into a trap. While they were still in his sights, The Iron Sarcophagus stopped and spun his Assault Cannon, its internal motor spinning the barrels making a comforting, familiar sound to the Dreadnought, the figure seemed to understand the situation as they stopped, back turned to the Dreadnought.

[+This is your only warning, identify yourself or you will be fired upon+]

The Iron Sarcophagus was weary as the figure turned around, he was watching the corners of his vision for any kind of sneak attack, the insides of her cloak were red, a hood concealing her face, her skin has a paleness to match the Iron Hands when they finally took off their armour, strands of red hair peeked out from under her hood, the cloak itself seemed to be quite worn, there were tears all over it, the more you looked at it, the more damages it seemed to display.

"Summer...Summer Rose"

The figure whispered under her breath, her voice seemed quite gentle, she was definitely human, the Eldar sound to snarly, Emperor it felt great to shut them up, Summer inclined her head sideways when The Iron Sarcophagus did not reply, shaking his head and stopping his Assault Cannon, the Dreadnought would finally receive some answers.

[+Why did you flee Citizen?+]

Summer arched her head up to look directly into the lenses of the Dreadnoughts helmet, clenching her fist, and raising her voice she spoke.

"My daughters are in danger...I was hoping you could maybe..."

[+Help them?+]

"...Yes"

[+So be it, fear not Summer Rose, for I am a Dreadnought of the Adeptus Astartes Iron Hands, Son of Ferrus Mannus, and defendant of Humanity, show me the enemy, and I shall make them repent+]

"...Thank you"

Summer once again turned her back and ran. The Iron Sarcophagus stomped after her, by now a few citizens had came out, and were staring in shock as the hulking machine ran down the streets, its design extremely different from anything Atlas could develop, the ground once again shaking, causing many Automobile alarms to be set off.

The Iron Sarcophagus regretted potentially damaging the machines, but he had a purpose to fulfill, during the Great Crusade, Ferrus had told them, man over machine, a saying which had fallen out of use with almost the whole chapter, The Iron Sarcophagus however, would always remember and pass on their Primarchs teachings.

Soon the two arrived in some sort of courtyard, a blockaded tunnel with various warning lights stood before them, The Iron Sarcophagus spotted no humans around which seemed to be in danger, he looked down at Summer, only to find she had went missing, getting nervous, he spun up his Assault Cannon, he felt something was amiss here, and then he felt it. The Iron Sarcophagus could feel the earth vibrating as his joints shook, it was coming from the tunnel directly in front of him, The Iron Sarcophagus simply sidestepped as all hell broke loose.

Out the tunnel came a roaring train, smashing through the blockade, humans were running faster then a single Cadian in a squad of Comissars, as it detached from the rails, many pieces of the train began impacting into the weirdly built structures, thanks to the velocity at which the machine was traveling many buildings straight up collapsed, causing a thick cloud of debris to cover the area, fire had erupted from the train, and then he heard someone screaming, his helmets optical sensors quickly allowed the Dreadnought to pin point the distressed human, finding a young man being bitten in the leg by a strange black creature, The Iron Sarcophagus did not hesitate.

Running over the Dreadnought picked up the strange creature by the torso, which looked somewhat like Fenris's Thunderwolves, and simply clenched his fist, completely mauling whatever was inside the beats abominable chest, the young man stared in awe at The Iron Sarcophagus who looked down at the young man.

[+Seek safety or perish+]

The young man simply nodded and took off hobbling, clutching his bloody leg as he went along, the Dreadnought watched him leave, making sure nothing else tried to end the mans life, once he left, The Iron Sarcophagus saw many of the dark creatures running around, the smell of blood littered the air, they wanted to feed on humanity, but its funny how the hunters can become the hunted. The Contemtor Dreadnought let loose the full power of the revered Assault Cannon, its six barrels letting loose a maelstrom of bullets through the clouds, hearing the dark creatures double over and die, their flesh is weak.

Marching though the clouds he began to hear other gunfire, the PDF most likely, it annoyed The Iron Sarcophagus that the creatures were ignoring him, he was actively seeking them out, burning, punching and shooting his way through the dark mob, eventually the crowd dwindled, and out from the tunnel, came a six legged creature, a long crescent sharp tail with a glowing tip, orange dark eyes, and a strong set of mandibles with two large claws all covered in the same bone white armour, it came right for the Dreadnought.

The two squared up to each other, the dark creature flexed its strength by halving one of the train carts with a simple swipe of its tail, The Iron Sarcophagus clenched his powerfist, it began cracking to life as a blue aura surrounded the fist and sparks cackled around it, and before another bullet could fly, the two charged at each other, the dark creature launched its stinger but let out a screech of pain as the Dreadnought caught it, and like with the smaller creature, crushed it under his fist. The creature then tried then to attack with its claws, but alas, it could not even dent the armour of The Iron Sarcophagus, backing away, it once again tried its now damaged stinger, this time, it managed to get right into the Dreadnoughts puncture, it almost put the final nail in The Iron Sarcophagus' coffin, but the Contemptor Dreadnought caught it, and using his foot as leverage, ripped off the creatures stinger, as it rolled on the floor in pain the Dreadnought began beating the thing with its own stinger until it was nothing but mush, shooting his Assault Cannon, The Iron Sarcophagus incapacitated the creature by shooting out its legs, as it lay on the floor screeching, The Iron Sarcophagus walked off.

By now the battle seemed to be over, he couldn't hear much gunfire, that, or the PDF was overwhelmed, still The Sarcophagus still had one thing to do, walking over to a the halved traincart, the Contemptor Dreadnought pushed his systems to the max as he picked it up, going as far to use his Assault Cannon as a makeshift Hand, walking back to his opponent, it was barely alive, its legs couldn't save it from the looming Dreadnought, as The Iron Sarcophagus stood over it, he stared it in the eyes before bringing down retribution.

He smashed the cart right into the creatures spine, the cart broke under the pressure, but The Iron Sarcophagus could see the fruits of his work, the bone armour had cracked causing the creature to die, revving his flamer. The Iron Sarcophagus simply watched in satisfaction as his prey burned, after all, the flesh is weak.

The tunnel had been blocked off now, and as he walked through the smoke, The Dreadnought saw all manners of people looking at him in awe, in fear, and in confusion, weird machines which reminded him of the Tau Battlesuits aimed their weapons at him, what was going on here?

The Iron Sarcophogus aimed his weapons back, the citizens looked on in fear, terrified, to watch these giants fight, though he was smaller, his armour and Powerfist would ensure a victory, not to mention, his void shield would protect him long enough to get in close combat, he wasn't scared, he was an Astartes, and he would purge the Mutant, the Xenos, The Heretic.

"WHATEVER YOU ARE, STAND DOWN, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST ON SUSPICION OF TERRORISM"

[+Negative, I have the capabilities to destroy everything in the immediate vicinity, you will not issue orders to a Astartes, you will stand down+]

Everything got tenser after the Dreadnought uttered those words, it seemed like conflict was inevitable, it was a standoff, neither faction was willing to back down, until a man in a green suit and grey hair walked into the view of the Contemptor Dreadnought.

"Enough!"

His voice was firm and unwavering, The Iron Sarcophagus could respect that, it wasn't a question, it was a demand, and to his surprise, the Battlesuits lowered their weapons, so they weren't Tau, they would never accept human orders, seeing no immediate threat, The Dreadnought also lowered his weapons, many humans in the crowd looked relieved there would be no further bloodshed.

"This contraption isn't the cause of the breach, I've received word that the White Fang masterminded this tragedy, I advise all citizens to return to there homes until further instructions, for those whose homes were destroyed, relief camps will be established, everyone now just needs to remain calm, I assure you all that we are taking this attack seriously"

After the man announced this, many citizens cleared away, but not before point a weird device at the Dreadnought before leaving, looking at the man before him, he saw how he seemed nervous in front of the Dreadnought, he was just really good at hiding it.

"So...what are you?"

[+I am a Dreadnought of the Adeptus Astartes Space Marines+]

"Space as in...the one above us?"

[+That is correct+]

"And what are you doing here specifically?"

[+I was sent here+]

"By who?"

[+ By Summer Rose +]

The Iron Sarcophagus noted that the man went extremely pale when he said that name.

-Chapter 1 - END-