PlanetStrike Battle Report: The Fall of Markal, Epistolary for the Ultramarines

Epistolary Markal were doing his run of the chapter warp-based archives in a chamber lost in the huge vastness of the ultramarine’s main fleet ship in orbit around Armaggedon.

A young noviciate that had barely received his gene-seed entered. He was out of breath, proving he were still not a fully fledged space marine, and seemed terrified. Not taking the time to breathe after his long run, he immediately delivered his message:

-The scouts discovered something sir and Elivad thinks it may be the pillars of Angron.

Instantly, the room darkened at the uttering of this dark name. Markal knew Elivad, he was a brilliant Librarian that rarely knew doubt.

How could this be? The epistolary was there after the first war of Armageddon and these horrible outrages, these twisted monuments of flesh and stone,  of blood and bones standing a hundred feet tall all vanished a few days after Angron’s defeat, sent back to the warp and never seen again. For the past months, he had witnessed the warp strengthening around Armaggedon, could these horrible pillars dedicated to khorne have been sent back? Could they be the reason of the warpstorm that recently carried the worshippers of chaos?

Then, Markal remembered the noviciate in the room, waiting for him to send him away.  He was but a second away to tell him when his soul suddenly explosed. A billion claws were trying to dig out his soul. He tried to steel his mind, but they were too many and the pain excruciating, he couldn’t...

Then, suddenly, nothing. The pain just vanished. He barely saw the terror on the noviciate face before hearing a deep, paternal and reassuring voice in his back :

-You are strong, space marine, but isn’t strength a burden? Let go of fighting and duty, let go of pain and sadness.

At the precise same time, another voice made itself heard. This one were cruel and uncaring :

-Pathetic fool, did you really think you could stop us? Soon you will understand your doom.

Markal slowly turned to face the intruder. He had seen a lord of change before, a being of pure arcane and malignance, always shifting, always changing, with no true form while always staying the same. His only presence made realspace scream at such a break in reality. But this one was different, he looked older and hunchbacked, feeble for such a daemon, but the air around it crackled with powerful eldritch energies, stronger than anything he had ever seen. Then the epistolary noticed that the warp-fiend had two heads. In a flash, memories of his studies went through him. He knew that daemon, it was...

-Fateweaver, yes

This time both heads talked simultaneously, each voice interweaving with the other, producing a completely new one: Markal’s voice.

The epistolary were left untouched by such a trick and asked:

-Why are you here, pet of the changer of ways?

Fateweaver laughed at the question, both heads then answering:

-To kill you obviously, the Great Scheme wants you dead

At that moment, he pointed Markal with his old, yet mighty, hands and the daemonic claws started their job anew. This time they were not restrained. The space marine epistolary, despite all his will and training, was fast overwhelmed. After 5 seconds, Markal knew he couldn’t survive it. After 10 seconds, he was awaiting death, already seeing his soul being drained by the daemon arcane strength. A bare moment before the end, he heard 3 words, both a war shout and a praise :

-FOR THE EMPEROR!!!

Soon after those words, the pain lifted and Markal saw what happened : the noviciate had place himself between fateweaver and the epistolary, designating his own soul for an eternity of suffering in the warp. Yet, it had been a long time and still the young one seemed to resist with an incredible will, the daemon being stronger, but not by much it seemed.

After 20 seconds or so, Markal threw aside his curiosity ; never again shall those horrible claws attack his soul, for he could not bear it. He prepared himself and opened a warpgate directly to the librarians room, where his brothers could protect him from the twin-headed monstruosity.

The time to rally his brothers, they were back into the archives. Unfortunately, they were too late. They only found the empty husk that once contained a mighty space marine, an angel of death. Markal slammed the wall with his strong fists and shed tears of rage. That noviciate should have been trained and would have been a great librarian with the incredible will he showed. Fateweaver and his master’s great and malignant scheme took all that away in bare minutes.

Then, after going through the scene again and again, he realized the horrible truth: it was his entire fault. The warp spawn had barely the upper edge on the noviciate, if the epistolary had fought his fears and helped the noviciate in his psychic fight; his life could have been saved. He had failed horribly, it was his entire fault...

Part of the chaos fortress planet fall assault report
Date 12/05/41025, 22:46
Battle report number 290349839554561

Written by Brother Scribe Gabriel CC.

“Epistolary Markal : KIA by Kairos fateweaver, surviving members of the 4^th terminator squad noticed that he fought with less resolve than usual and one say that he even showed his throat for the warp-fiend to cut through.”