Chapter 9, Building legends 2

Tanya
"Congratulations, Tanya you've managed to raise your rank from Wolf Tamer to Dragon Slayer," I uttered as I looked down at the scaly reptilian beast that I had just had the unpleasant task to fight.

Four hours ago, I was told there was a monster that needed to be killed and, seeing that the opportunity to raise my worth in the community often came from killing monsters, I really had no other option but to agree to kill the thing.

I had expected another large wolf, Those were very common this time of year, or perhaps an ice troll. Heck, I'd even considered the possibility of it being a tribe of ice fiends, which were apparently the correct name of the smaller yetis. Being that I was now hunting the monsters, I thought it was best to have a proper education on what kind of creatures were out in this world that I would have to deal with. Frankly, there were way too many mega animals on this near-frozen Winter Wonderland called Fenris.

And today, I happen to have run into one of the two species that could pass for dragons. Why were there dragons on this planet? I do not know, by all scientific understanding of the word they did not exist and were just misconceptions of dinosaur bones. But not here on Fenris! Oh no, on Fenris, there were two animals that could pass for dragons. First, the ice wyrm, a reptile with fur that looked very similar to an Asian style dragon with its long snake-like body. The only good thing about that beast was it could not fly, which was why I would have preferred to have fought it.

No, I had run into the second. The one that could fly, the Drake. It had apparently come down from the mountains in search of food and tried to eat one of my wolves when it had spotted us coming around as we were looking for any other ravenous creature that somehow managed to live on this planet.

Thankfully, I had been able to get my arms around the damn thing’s neck and pulled it away from my wolf before it had gone further. Unthankfully, it had taken flight and I had no real option but to hold on for dear life.

For 3 hours I had held on to the neck as it had tried to get me off of it in a desperate mid-air struggle of survival.

Honestly,I was terrified the entire time that I would fall and die. Oh sure my healing Factor was good but as far up as we've got I don't think it would have worked very well. No, more likely that I would have ended up splattered across the rocks and hopefully dead. I say hopefully because for all I knew I could end up healing just enough to not die and be left a crippled mess for the rest of my life and I was sure that that life would be fairly short in such a state.

But somehow, over the course of those 3 hours and more adrenaline than I think had ever pumped through my system in all my life as a personnel manager, I was able to hold on to the Drake. After longer than I would have liked my untrustworthy steed finally got too tired flying about and landed. Where I was I wasn't exactly sure but it didn't matter as, now that the damn thing was on the ground, I was able to shove my sword deep into its spine.

Drakes, from my understanding, were an uncommon nuisance during the winter, usually only killing off farmers’ livestock in their search for something to eat during the harshest parts of Helwinter. And I just couldn't be bothered to try and feed this thing if it had somehow been tamed by that ride, which I doubted. More likely it was just exhausted from having to carry my weight on its back for so long.

With the beast dead I removed its head and generally picked the direction I believe we had flown from. I figured it would take a few hours to find my way home but that was not a problem.

I'm sure that my wolves were not too far behind me and, once I reunited with them, it would be an easy ride home.

Several hours later that's exactly what happened. I walked out of a thicket of heavy Bushcraft to see my wolves, with several of the volunteer Wolf riders that had started to accompany me in the last month or so, looking around for me.

Before I even got to say anything Geri charged up to me and began licking my face, obviously having had some worry about my life I would assume. After all if I passed on who would negotiate the food rations from the King and local farmers? I was important for the pack’s survival and that was a good feeling in its own way.

“Lady Tanya! it's good you survived.” one of the volunteers said as he held on to his wolf as it ambled up next to Geri. Poking my memory I was able to remember that he was Lord Tyr, the man who'd taken several wounds from the ice troll a month back. He was doing much better now and had consistently volunteered to take part in my trips into the wild to hunt beasts.

Frankly, I was a bit worried about him. I could hunt these monsters because I had the advantage of an abnormal healing ability and strength while he was just a simple human who was getting off on the feeling of being involved in a hunt for monsters. He was no better than a battle maniac in that way, except instead of battling other humans, he was interested in fighting the massive megafaunas of this world.

Also, I felt a bit responsible for this. I did not know for sure that he had been like this before the fight with the ice troll, but he definitely seemed to have taken to it ever since that fight. So I was under the assumption that he had become addicted to this adrenaline rush because he'd nearly died and survived.

Take that I may be responsible, and adding that he was a local Lord, I had plenty of reason to watch out for him. Because nothing could get your boss faster in here than having the manager above you getting into major trouble that you could have helped them stay out of. Not to mention, with how dangerous this was, it was not impossible that in his battle Maniac stupidity he could get himself killed, and his family may take personal umbrage with that and come after me in some way.

Wait… Battle maniac, why does that ring a bell? Oh, the headache was starting up again. I didn't feel like dealing with that right now, so I would leave it and poke at it later when I was safely at home.

Instead, I simply held up the head of the Drake that I had severed from its body and addressed them all.

“Yeah, I survived, and the Drake did not. It was a clash of wills to see who would hold out longer. If I'm stubborn enough not to let go when I got bucked the first 10 times, I wasn't going let go over the 300th time either.”

The casual way of depicting the situation seemed to bring a chuckle to the mass of volunteers. Something I noted about Fenrisian humor; when it wasn't very crude it tended to be very dry and witty. So I found that downplaying the severity of the situations I found myself in tended to at least elicit a laugh and laughter was a good way to build a rapport with anyone.

Lord Tyr nodded and then “Not many have dared take on a Drake, at least not as close as you have. I believe that the last one was killed with a giant crossbow mounted on the walls of the castle Fenris, 50 great years ago. Taking one down as you have is a spectacular showing and a sign of greatness in your future.”

I slightly chuckled at that. It seemed that he was trying to get in my good graces even more than I was with him, either that or he had theories about me having plans of taking over the kingdom of Russ. I wouldn't be surprised if that had been attempted in generations before, when people of great standing came to power. But I had no interest in the petty politics of the Kingdom, I just wanted to live a nice quiet life as comfortably as possible in this world. With that being said there was ways to make sure my life was as comfortable as possible.

“Lord Tyr, this victory is not just for me. It's for all of Fenris. Every monster I take down improves the lives of the folk around me, and it is also your victory for if you hadn't stayed dedicated to a search to find me who knows what could have happened to me out here in the wilds.” Better to butter up potential kings in the making than to piss them off by taking all the credits, that was the best way to maintain my potentially safe and quiet life.

Lord Tyr laughed. “You humble me with your humbleness, my lady. But if you wish to share credit I won't say no, even just seeing such a great beast lose its head is a great honor in and of itself. And I am simply glad to be of service in letting the Great Humble Hunter of Monsters return safely from her hunt.“

Man… He was really trying to butter me up, I thought, wondering exactly why. Perhaps I had gained some sort of soft power by killing these monsters and he was hoping that, being close to me, it would rub off on him? It was not impossible and if it was the case… That could be useful in the future, having people looking out for me in high places was a way to maintain a safe and relaxed life after I had accumulated enough wealth to maintain my retirement. Whenever that may be.

Rubbing Geri’s head I simply smiled back..

“Well, we've killed the beast and we've had our moment of joy at our survival. Now is the time to go home,” I said, before pulling myself on the back of Geri. “I'm sure the king will be glad to have this new head for his mantle place and will reward us greatly for this victory.”

“The king will definitely be pleased by this victory, though I think likely the priests will be even more interested.” Tyr said matter of factly.

Raising my eyebrow I tilted my head and asked. ”The priests? Why would they be interested in this head?”

“Drake’s teeth are often used in their runecraft. They won't take all of the teeth, my lady, just a couple of the back ones and the ones inside the jaw and they'll turn them into items for use with their craft.”

Ah, superstition was alive and well in this world. To be expected but at least they weren't demanding my worship or anything of that sort. As long as these priests were willing to negotiate a favorable price on the teeth I was willing to sell them to them.

Well… Considering the strange things I had seen on this world, mainly the wolf with psychic abilities and the fact that dragons existed… Maybe I should take this a little bit more carefully and with interest.

There was the distinct possibility magic was real and if that was a thing I had to consider… There were two things I needed to know: one, could I use it for my own benefit? And two, how did I prevent it from being used on me? If the priests were the practitioners of this magic runecraft well, then I guess I needed to talk to them about this matter.

Shrugging my shoulders I turn to Lord Tyr and said. “Well then if the priests want a token from the drake, we shall give them a token from the drake.”

“I'm not very familiar with contacting them though. Do you happen to have a way of getting in contact with them and setting up a meeting with me at my home?” If I was going to meet with some practitioner of magic I'd rather do it in the safety of my own home and with my wolves watching.

Even if the priest sent was an illusionist he'd think twice about trying to scam me when a hundred hungry pairs of eyes were watching him from all angles, with jaws and smiles firmly set.

Tanya
It had been a few days since my unscheduled flight on top of a dragon, something that I would both ever fear happening again and cherish as a moment where I sored above the skies outside of a plane. Haven't had many opportunities in my last life to travel in planes but from what I remembered it was quite a different experience. Also not as cold.

Since that time I had enjoyed a few days of peace and rest, caring for my wolves and maintaining my humble abode. I was with Freki in the process of commissioning a few giant dog houses or rather, perhaps it would be better just to call them what they were, barns for my wolves to live in.

At the current population, I would need at least seven, dotted around the area. I could currently get away with five since a lot of wolves enjoyed sleeping next to the warm buildings. Something I noticed in the mornings when I come out of my home and found them gathered around besides of my house.

Well, I would need more: the population was steadily expanding. For example, Freki and his mate, as I now thought of the old alpha I'd beaten, had a couple of pups that followed them around. At least I was under the assumption those were their pups. They sure looked very familiar. Though It was not impossible, they were adopted pups from the common wolves we had taken out near the start of Helwinter.

I guess I would find out eventually when they grew up, Blackmaned wolves seemed to have a maturation rate that allowed them to reach maturity within half a great year or just a year, so it shouldn't take too long to find out.

As for the common wolves, they were doing all right as part of the pack. I had moved them into the pack completely by this point, and they lived amongst my Blackmaned. I had been worried that there'd be some sort of integration issues because they were separate species of wolves, but it seemed that once they acknowledged someone as the alpha of a pack, it didn't matter who else was in that pack. I was going off a working theory that the so-called Thunder Wolves, being massive tank-like animals that lived in the mountains, sometimes broke their Lone Wolf schtick to come down and take command of lesser wolves.

Such as the King of the Mountain, something I only recently learned was the name of the black wolf I had fought several months before. Apparently, it had a reputation for being a monster, and a mean one, that had caused terror and mayhem in the lowlands. Supposedly it was also older than the king himself. Considering he was 60 great years old It meant that wolves could live a ridiculously long time.

Although humans apparently could live a ridiculously long time too. How the King was nearly 120 years old I had no idea. He looked not a day over 70. I guess a hard life could work in some people's favors? Perhaps the cold was keeping them fresh? I didn't know, and it was even distinctly possible that there was something screwy going on with the genetics of the human population of this planet that I was unaware of.

I had been trying to find out more about the history of the world. Fenris, for all its Scandinavian influences, seemed… hollow, to me.

The world made no sense. During Helwinter, a period of 4 to 6 months out of a year, the planet was so far away from the Sun that the storms would instantly freeze anyone in the Northern and southernmost poles. This sent the animals into either the deeper depths in the mountains that were warmer and around the active volcanoes or into the lowlands of the only main continent on the planet, where they would cause harm and havoc among the human population.

And there would be a period of 6 months where everything would calm down with the beasts, but there would be conflicts between the people of the main continent of this world, Asaheim. They were, from what I could understand, mostly disputes about hunting rights and old grudges that needed to be settled. Wasteful amount of resources went towards these wars by my estimates and I would have no part of them if I could. There seemed to be some festivals between allied groups during the same period which encouraged trade.

Made sense. The same weather conditions that could allow an army to move would also allow trade to move if the fighting could be ended. I had a feeling that it would be the best for everyone as the economy would have a good opportunity to grow and expand. Who knows what that could lead to.

After that came the summer when the planet was drawing the closest to the star the planet circled, known as The Wolf’s Eye. This period I had not yet experienced but from what I understand the glaciers would actually melt heavily during this period and there would be a bounty of sea life in the mass of ocean of the planet.

This would draw out the sea monsters that apparently existed, as if there weren't already enough reasons for trade to be disrupted.

This would push the sea tribes and the glacier tribes groups that did not live on the continent onto itt, which would bring more conflict as resources were then broken up between three groups fighting for survival. If it was just that this might not be so bad but at the zenith of Summer came the Season of Fire when the planet drew close enough to the local star that something incredible apparently happened. The mantle kicked into overdrive, setting the ocean on fire outside of the main continent. The world literally reshaped itself as new volcanoes rose from the sea and older ones fell back in, unleashing massive steam clouds that would kill anyone who didn't have somewhere safe to live. Which tended to mean the main continent.

It also had the effect of bringing somewhat warmer conditions to the main continent. Being near the North Pole it didn't get that often, but it was worth enjoying when it was here.

These conditions were not conducive to the flourishing of life, these conditions were conducive to death and extinction. Of humans, of animals, of trade. There should be no reason for anyone to live on this planet and yet there were people here. I had theories but they were generally that this was some lost colony of humanity and once that was taken into account that meant there were things I could not understand with any reasonable certainty.

I probably knew where the answers were: under the planet's surface, where I've been told not to go. I was not tempted to investigate that too much yet as I could see no gain from it.

That being said it was more likely than not that the humanity here was a Lost colony of some other group that had been reduced to the nomadic stage when something happened. Perhaps the original group had World War three’d themself out of existence? Wasn't impossible, once you have access to nuclear weapons. With the ability to colonize other planets, causing great environmental damage probably seemed like less of an issue.

Why they chose a world so overrun with disastrous things I didn't know, but factor that in with the possibility that the animals were not native and that the humans had some sort of genetic deviations… I could come up with a theory that this was some sort of reserve, an attempt to try and create a Nordic style legend world to preserve their history. Perhaps even used as a tourist trap at one point.

If true I was kind of interested in the possibility that there were other reserves like this. Was there a Greek reserve? A Roman reserve? If those two exist, was there a Japan reserve? That brought a chuckle whenever I thought about it, wondering how that one would shape up. Would it be super serious and trying to stay true to the ancient legends or were there catgirls in fake shrine maiden robes running around?

If I ever found a way to get off this planet, something that seemed very unlikely but I entertained the thought now and again, that would be one of my goals: just to find out what the Japan Myth Reserve looked like.

But I'd gone off-topic. it had have been a few days since my impromptu flight and I was enjoying my morning drink. There was a particular type of bark that, when cooked thoroughly, produced some sort of caffeine effect that I rather enjoyed. Didn't taste the best but it was better than no caffeine.

When I heard a knock on my door, there were many possibilities of who it could be from. Possibilities ranging from a message from the King, to local shield maidens wanting to take me out, to someone looking for more fundraising or some young volunteer wanting to learn how to ride a wolf.

Whatever it is I knew it was an opportunity to raise my general standing in the community and my work so I got up and walked over to the door. Pulling the wood latch out of position to open it, I saw an elderly gentleman with a staff in one hand, a raven on his shoulder, and an attempted blonde mohawk drooping to the left side. Besides that, he was wearing a fine set of clothing that looked like he had paid a pretty penny to acquire it. Not ‘Noble’ fine but definitely some sort of clerk position, I would estimate. Then I did see the runes on his staff and realized exactly who I was dealing with.

Standing before me must be a rune priest.

“Good morning,” I said with a cheery tone, opening the door fully.

The man, whose stature fell off a foot and a half less than my own, looked up at me then smiled.

“Good afternoon, Wolf Girl. I've heard tell that you have slaughtered a Drake and, as commissioned by my order, I have come to determine the age of said beast as well as ask to purchase some of its teeth for our order’s needs.

‘Wolf Girl’? Well, that raised an eyebrow. It was the first time anyone had called me that since I came to civilization, but I wasn't going to let that comment sidetrack me. It could be a sign of appreciation for all I knew. Opening the door wider I allowed him to see inside the main area, which was my kitchen and motioned him in.

“Take a seat, I will retrieve the head.”

The man simply nodded and took a step in, stopping when he saw the number of wolves that were inside my house and now watching him. I tried to only let in Mother Wolf and Cunning and Fierce but I occasionally let in a few others on colder days, those who hadn't grown good enough coats in my opinion.

Smiling, I said “Don't worry, they will not fight,” before I stepped past him into the outside, heading towards the area where I'd buried the head.

With six to seven wolves watching him I doubted he would try and steal anything. So, knowing everything would be secure inside the house, I went to dig the head out. I had buried that outside to keep it good as I didn't know if they needed the flesh for identification. Still I figured that the fresher the head was, even if frozen, the better.

Took me about 3 minutes to walk where I buried it, another five to dig it out. By the time I returned to my little home I had expected him to have either fled because he did something stupid or to be sitting there all nervous.

I underestimated him. He was sitting in the chair right next to one of the wolves and giving them a scratch behind their ears, that was a good sign. That the wolves were willing to put up with him probably meant he was at least fair and kind enough. Considering I didn't smell any sweat of fear in the air he wasn't afraid of the wolves either, which would probably have endeared him even more to them.

Carefully I came back with the head in a burlap bag and placed the large thing on my table. I would just clean it off later so I wasn't worried about any of the gunk that used to be its blood melting into the wood. Carefully I pulled it out, letting the green and red scales blink off in the morning sun that was coming through the double-pane window I had commissioned for my home.

The priest sat up with great interest and began to inspect the head, carefully pulling back the lips to check out the teeth then tapping areas of the skull and listening to something. Perhaps their brains case were more hollow when they were younger? I didn't know. After a while he stood up and nodded at something before addressing me.

“What we have here is a middle-aged Drake, male. In my estimation it probably came down from the mountains for a simple hunt before it ran afoul of you and your hunting party. The teeth are worth their weight in gold, really.”

“Really, now? So if I were to ask for gold for the teeth you would have to meet that price?” I answered, poking at that little statement.

The old man chuckled, looked at me then went back to studying the skull. he shrugged and replied. “Quite. In fact… Well, if you were to give them to me as a gift I could definitely ask the Ravens to send a message to the Allfather for you. I'm sure any message you wished to send him he would answer quite readily.

I sat down in the chair across from him and calmly spoke.

”I've already had a discussion with the Allfather, I don't need anything from the Ravens. I'm simply looking into things that can help me with having a quiet honest life here.” As if to make my point, one of the Ravens that had become part of my pack fell in from the rafters of my house to land on my shoulder.

His eyes seem to widen at that before he sat quickly back to think, apparently having some sort of internal debate. He was most likely trying to find a way to negotiate a great price that wouldn't break the bank for his order. I had asked the full price simply to start the negotiations, I was fully expecting to have to come down eventually.

Finally he stopped whatever he was doing and replied.

“If the Ravens have chosen you as a Worthy messenger of the Allfather I could offer to teach the runes to you. With proper use and dedication then you can hope to use the Allfather's powers for the benefits of yourself and those who would side with you.”

That reason why I hadn't considered the possibility that I'd be offered magic lessons. That was fairly entry- Oh, there's the headache.

My hand went up to my forehead as the thought of using magic caused the now familiar headache, which would imply that I had done so before. If my theory about these headaches was right and they were triggered by coming in contact with things that had been lost to me due to the cheese grater effect that some unknown entity had applied to me between my time with Being X and Fenris. That would mean that, at some point, I would have had to come across or use magic, which means if I learned it here I might be able to slowly chip away at those headaches and find out what parts from my last life I was denied in this one.

I took a moment with my hand covering my right side of the face trying to calm the pain but as soon as it was over I looked up to him and said “That is an intriguing offer, one that I would be willing to partake in. However I'm not a big fan of being called a priest.”

The old priest simply chuckled and replied. “No, you're not a priest. But if your statement that he has been in contact you with is true then you're a chosen, someone the Allfather believes will bring great good to Fenris. Teaching you how runes work would simply be what the Allfather would want.”

I was not a fan of religion but I was not exactly going to turn down the chance to learn something about myself. If this magic was real and could be harnessed for my benefits, well… That made the situation even better in my mind.

“That's something I can agree to,” I said, holding up my hand to let him shake it so that the deal could be sealed.

His hand lost itself in mine and we shook on it before he reached into his robes and pulled out a string with several rocks and beads running through them.

“These are rune beads, one of the methods for channeling the Allfather's powers. It could take years for you to learn what they mean but it's a good starting method, though very limited compared to other methods.”

Nodding my head I took the beads and looked at them then did a double-take.

The runes carved into various stones and bones were familiar, they were the same kind of runes I started using when I first appeared in this world. Some of them were alphabetical but a lot of them were numerical and I could see that this was some sort of method for creating a calculation of power. You would tune the runes to represent a certain code as it were to get a value.

In essence, this was math. I was very good at math.

“One thing, though. You must first learn how the runes are working and why they work. Jumping into this without the appropriate knowledge could have consequences for you and everything around you. Deadly, if you are not careful.”

That raised my eyebrows. I looked up to him and he continued. “The powers of the runes are more stable than anything that can be achieved when not using the runes, but they can still leave you at the worst possible time and cause a disaster if you are not careful.“

“How bad of a disaster are we talking here?” I asked, wanting to get a good understanding of what he was talking about.

“One young acolyte turned himself to stone, at least that's the legend. It was a long time ago, even though the statue still stands at the center of our Temple. It is now very badly degraded and there's no way for sure to know if the legend is true but well… He's there for a warning and it's a pretty good warning.”

“Right.” I said out loud, instantly placing this magic stuff on the ‘use only as last resort’ list. I would still go through the process of learning it because I hoped it would unlock my memories, but I wanted to be here and alive and flesh and not a stone statue in a temple somewhere.

Tanya

Hellwinter was coming to an end and it was glorious, no long arduous terrible winter nor monsters that would come down from the mountains for 6 full months. Then I would have to worry about monsters coming up from the sea for 6 months then I would have 6 months of freedom again… They really needed to work on how to deal with these monsters more effectively so they could have periods longer than 6 months.

As it was I had been called up, along with many people, to attend a banquet in celebration of the coming spring. Understandable given how winter was hell here, celebrating surviving it made sense. As someone who had helped them survive I guess this was a celebration in my honor in a way? I'd tried to not let that go to my head, I was simply a hunter for them. Nothing more, nothing much else.

Although I was a hunter who was currently drunk. I admit it I was drinking a little too much, I had survived nearly a year and it was a party in celebration of me in a way so letting myself go a bit was somewhat unorthodox but frankly expected from the parties I'd seen.

There had been a few get-togethers called between the beginning of Helwinter and the end, for various reasons. First-born sons, coming of age ceremonies, those sorts of things and I had seen people who were related to the reason yet so smashed that they woke up three days later. One guy had been thought dead, only to turn up walking in the woods outside my house naked. Why he had been like that I had no idea but I rolled him up in a blanket, tied him to a back of a wolf, and sent him on his way home.

But with a precedent like that I assumed it was expected of me to get drunk and so I let myself indulge.

Somewhere along the way someone had even found a mug that was my size so I was having a larger portion than I probably had in most of my first life.

But I was safe, I had wolves, I had coworkers. Sure, they were just as drunk as me but I felt they were reasonable and responsible gentlemen. And the shield girls were watching over me so I'm sure they would get me get home if I got too drunk.

It was a splendid and relaxing time and I was generally happy.

The King was sitting at the head of the table and had said a few things at the start of our little celebration but he had mostly stayed by himself, enjoying his food. Now, with the party seemingly coming to an end, he stood back up and declared.

“Lady Tanya? Please, stand.” In the grumbly voice he always had.

Holding on to my chair for a little extra support I stood up and looked towards him, wondering what this was about.

“Lady Tanya, there is a monster on the other side of the mountains that needs to be dealt with. A creature so vile and treacherous that it must be cut out before its depredations on our society is allowed to spread. Will you be my champion across the mountains and deal with it?”

You want me to kill a monster on that was a problem for society? Well I wasn't going to say no to that. The removal of problems for society was a net benefit for me as far as I was concerned, and the reputation would be worth it.

“Yes, my king! I will hunt this monster and bring him down for you.” I said with a cheery smile.

The king smiled and then called out.“Then it is agreed! Lady Tanya will lead the forces of Russ and any ally that wishes to help us across the mountains and into Lord Farthegn’s territory and end the threat of his machinations once and for all.”

I blinked and instantly sobered. How I instantly sobered I wasn't exactly sure, it was as if my liver went into overtime immediately and cleared my system of alcohol.

I had just been conned, and there was nothing I could do about it. I had agreed to hunt a monster without getting more details and now I had to lead an army across the mountains to kill a man who attempted to kill the king. I had to lead a war effort. Oh this was… This was terrible, what a wasteful wasteful thing. But there was nothing I could do. If I attempted to back out of it now my reputation would be ruined and I needed that reputation to look after my pack. There was no choice but to go through with it.

Carefully, my brain spinning a mile a minute, I sat down in the chair, feeling quite small and weak at that moment at my mistake and misunderstanding. I felt so sick and fooled and this all felt so so very familiar- Here comes my headache again.

Writers note: little bit flying fighting magic and drinks, all in a good days work. Let me know what you folks think!

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Chapter 10, legend building 3

Tanya

I shook my head as I walked down the line of men who I would have to lead. I had never led anyone into battle, the wolves didn't count. If I had done so in the period I did not remember, that did not count either. The closest I had ever gotten to armed combat was a few FPS games and Medieval Total War 2. Neither of these qualified me as a military commander so leading Men into combat situations was well and truly above my head.

But I understood a few things. I'd watched Patton and a few war movies in my day, not to mention I had spent a good portion of my younger life reading up on military history. So I had some ideas of what to do: look impressive, act confident, and hope no one asked any important questions. It seemed like the best way to maintain control of the horde of barbarians I would be leading through the mountains to attack Lord Farthegn.

And they were a horde, of course. There were Russ's housecarls, at least 400 of them now, and another 200 shield maidens who had volunteered for this operation. As the king's personal soldiers they at least seemed to have some training and were lined up like a professional army should be. But the rest could best be summed up as a horde; three other Lords had volunteered forces, each of about 150 to 200 men, for a total of 550. They were not wearing the light blues of Russ; their colors were green, red, one extremely dark navy blue, and yellow. And their lines were not very professionally maintained, they simply were grouped up into what I would assume were cliques of friends. At least there seemed to be a standardization of equipment between most of the forces and Russ's personal army as almost everyone was equipped with spears and shields, with either a sword or personal axe as a sidearm for when the enemy was too close or the spear broke.

Except the yellows, every one of those 200 men carried a great axe of some kind. Their formation was also a bit heavier, I noted, having a lot more metal than fur and leather. I would have to find out who was the head commander of this force, because I would need to find out how to properly use them. The other three forces I could easily put into the wings of the main force but the 200 great axe soldiers… Well, they might need to be treated with a little bit more care on their positioning.

Besides those more lord-focused forces there was also what I was mentally calling the Adventurers Guild lackeys. Archers, scouts, adventurers, hunters, men of the wilds who were generally good with the bow. They had been paid good money from what I understood to work as scouts for our force, though how well they would do… I'd get to see if a lot of them were just as bad as the lesser lords’ forces but I doubted that 200 archers would be a problem. They would find some usefulness in the coming fighting, but I wasn't exactly sure how I would use them yet. I had ideas but I would need to have a better understanding of the situation on the other side of the mountains.

I had nearly 1600 soldiers under my command, that did not seem like a lot but I was unaware of how many humans there were on the planet. I understood though that each person who was being contributed was someone who was not going to be able to help with farming duties as spring took full effect, so they had to limit the amount they were sending.

The same was not true of my enemy I would assume, which was a problem. Assuming that each one of these men needed at least one or two farmers to contribute to the food supply in their stead I meant I was possibly looking at an enemy that was double or triple my force in number, which was not a good odds. I did have an extra 200 wolves to add to the mix though, and they were each worth three to four humans in a fight.

Finishing my long walk down the line, I shook my head and took a breath. I needed to think of either a way to get out of this or a way to make sure that we all survived this. We had 6 months to cross the mountain, defeat an enemy with superior forces, and cross back before summer, when the environmental conditions would degrade again making crossing the mountains unhealthy.

How was I going to manage this? Looking back down the line I started to come up with an idea. It was not the most impressive idea but it was an idea and it was triggering a headache, which seemed to be a good sign.

Walking back towards the center of the line I found the king standing with several other lords who had contributed forces, all having what seemed like a lovely chat.

“Ah, Tanya! Do these forces meet your approval?” He asked with a smile that I almost thought was genuine. Man was using me for his own purposes. There was no way he really thought I would declare the truthful situation in front of him.

However, I could get away with playing up my wolf girl reputation. “The men are strong, yes. Though, as a pack, they seem unready.”

‘My men are ready.” the lord in yellow said, seeming a little bit insulted. As expected, unfortunately. ‘I assure you, miss, that my men will fight to their utmost and will bring victory and honor to this allied army.’

“Oh, I'm sure they will,” I said, “every single one of these men and women will bring victory and honor, for a time.”

“Is there an issue you've spotted that has missed our eyes?” the king asked, sounding intrigued, which was what I was hoping for.

“No doubt the fighting styles of each unit here are similar but they are not the same, meaning each engagement will have to be carefully planned for and set up. However, it would be more practical and successful if the set up happened here. If I was allowed to retrain them all so that they know how to work with each other in the field… An army that is more adaptable on a tactical level will have more success in this operation, since there is a possibility we will be facing a larger force.” I proposed ignoring the headache.

The king nodded, seeming to understand my point, before asking. “How long would this retraining take? We cannot delay too long or the campaign could be caught on the other side of the mountains when summer hits. “

‘A week here of heavy training and then, instead of a heavy march across the mountain, a light march with a light training to finish.” I proposed.

“That would be cutting it close,” he said. “If you're unable to defeat his army within the first 3 months you will have trouble getting back over and, as we get closer to summer, what supplies we can send over will become less and less.”

“I do not have a good understanding of the enemy forces just yet I'll need these ranger types to give me more info about his movements and such but once I have this information I could theoretically have the army defeated within that time. It's all a matter of gathering the proper information and keeping my man out of the enemy’s grasp until we're ready to strike.”

“You have your week then. Good luck, Tanya.’

“Thank you, my Lord,” I said before turning back to the forces arrayed before me.

This was going to take some time but where there are wolves there's a way. Nothing beats a pair of hungry teeth into forcing people into doing what you want, I hoped. Stepping forward I set out to get at work. First things first, time to find the sub-commanders and get them on board with the retraining.

Thankfully the subcommanders I had been granted for this operation were all having a very heated conversion, by the sound of it about who would be bringing home the most glory. The first was a man in heavy armor and yellow livery, he was most likely the leader of the yellow axe men due to the fact he was lugging around a giant great axe. If he wasn't as broad-shouldered as one of my wolves he probably would not be able to haul that thing around and I wouldn't be surprised that he might pull his arms out of their sockets if he moved wrong with an attack with how heavy it looked to be. Frankly it looked like a vanity weapon that was compensating for something but I would keep that comment to myself.

Besides him was the commander of the housecarls who had been assigned to this operation. His armor was almost as heavy as his warriors though he preferred what appeared to be a round shield and a one-handed axe as his main weapon. To their right was a man in red and green armor who had a two-handed sword strapped to his back. It didn't appear incredibly large but looked fairly old on him, possibly an heirloom of some kind. The last commander representing what could be best understood as noble forces wore dark blue and had a simple round shield and sword on his side. The last man I already knew as the leader of the Adventurer Guild and he played up the part well, wearing what appeared to be a wolf fur coat with the head of the wolf turned into a cowl. He seemed to be eyeing those of my wolves that were walking around with a wary gaze.

“Gentlemen!" I called as I walked up to them, getting them to stop whatever their conversation had been about and face me. "I'll make this quick and simple since we all want to get to work. What we have here are five different forces who have never worked together for a long-term operation. If we were fighting on our own territory this would be an acceptable situation but we are going to be crossing into enemy territory. As a result, we need to make these five different forces into a united one.

“And how do you propose we do that?” The cock sure attitude coming off of the leader of the Adventurers Guild frankly annoyed me but I did not let that show. Instead I reached into the pack at Geri’s side and pulled out a shovel before tossing it to him then tossing an ax to the man in dark blue.

“Today is simple. Today we build a camp.” I said pointing to the area around the men. “If we can't build a simple camp that is defensible and will not result in us coming down with diseases this expeditionary force will be killed by its own hubris. So let us learn to build a camp together.”

The Adventurer shrugged before taking that comment in and nodding. “Sounds reasonable.” Which was the important part. In order for a force to work with each other in the battlefield they had to learn to work with each other off the field, building a camp that would be sanitary was a step in the right direction. Tomorrow I would work on marching, shield walls, and anything else I could think of. Though I'd most likely use the sub-commanders to my advantage and ask how they usually trained their men, trying to give each one a day to train the entire force in their preferred tactics. If they at least understood how each fourth worked it would be able to work together better.

The only real problems were the heavy axe and the Adventurers Guild. I would need to spend some time figuring out what to do with them. Perhaps I could get the Adventurers Guild to learn to ride my wolves? Archer cavalry didn't sound like so bad an investment.

And if the trainees got a little too uppity about it, I'm sure my wolves could convince them to stick to their training regime. Nothing like a pair of sharp and hungry teeth looking your way to improve a person's outlook on their situation.

Sub Commander Ulfrik Eilifsson

God damn, it's cold! You think you get used to the cold and then you go up into the mountains and are reminded just how cold this world is. Didn't matter how many times I went up here either. I've been on several raids via the mountain pass before, even done even more dangerous sea travels but one trip on the sea had convinced me that I didn't want to step one foot on a ship again.

The sea clans in the coastal region may have a good time out there but me? Well, the queasiness would make sure I never really wanted to go on the water again.

Besides, despite the monsters that live here, these mountains were a safer pass to where we wanted to attack. Even if the travel was at least a week longer.

Too many boats moving would cause the sea creatures to stir. Unless you were hunting sea creatures, or you really really wanted to get somewhere fast, it was best to take the land route.

Looking down from my horse on the column of men moving I was fairly impressed at the good order they were showing. This giant witch the Russ had found seemed to have a wide set of skills besides the wide tracts of land and hips. I've seen quite a few men simply do what she told them to because she told it to them. And some of those men were the most obstinate soldiers in any of our forces.

I didn't know if it was the beauty or the commanding voice she could put on that got them to do what she wanted, though I would probably put it money down on the wolves. They seemed to be tame enough around her but it was best not to push one’s luck. For myself, I didn't feel any compulsion to do what she said, her curves played no part on my mind because I was a happily married man. She had proven herself capable when it came to organizing marches and setting up camps honestly, and a real logistics-minded person too. How she would do once we got to the actual fighting, that was something I would have to see. If she got herself killed though I was definitely going to angle myself for the commander spot. All they needed to do is raid the hell out of trucebreaker Farthegn’s land, no reason to fight him on the open as Tanya seemed to be preparing to do.

Not that I was against our Commander, the infighting in my own region tended to make such offices very problematicfor leadership. Having a commander from one faction controlling the others usually ended with bickering. The only reason that wasn't happening now was that Tanya was technically an independent party, with her own forces as the wolves. Yeah, she was allied to the Russ but everyone was allied to the Russ so that didn't mean much.

For now, though I was willing to wait and see what happened. Who knows maybe this time I would see some great and spectacular plan actually win against a superior force? More likely than not that we'd end up raiding and marching back over mountains, a little bit more tired than we could have been if we had just gone with straight raiding instead of training for a fight.

The glory would probably be about the same either way, it only mattered that it happened and not how it happened after all.

Riding forward on my horse, I got in front of my men and then continued on, wanting to see what was ahead on the way.

The low ends of these mountains that separated the coasts from each other were not as terrifying as the peaks near the top of the world, but the small and windy paths did make everything feel smaller. There was really only room for 3 men to walk abreast with a horse rider alongside them. It would seem like more than enough room to move but you needed to keep an eye on your men or they would do something stupid, so we had to maintain enough room for a horse to ride on the side.

I already had to save some farm boy from being attacked by a giant snake that lived in these mountains. Slimy little bugger came out of a hole and tried to drag him in, one good swing of my axe though and I cut that thing's head from its shoulders! Or neck? Do snakes have shoulders? That's a question for another time.

Whatever thought I was going to have was interrupted by a shout and large amount of noise breaking out from somewhere down the road. What was up I didn't know but I was fairly curious so I rode my horse hard in that direction to find out.

It wasn't that far, over by the dark blue company of troops really or near the center of the line. What I found when I got there was that apparently one of the larger Thunder Wolves had made it through our screens of ‘rangers’ as Tanya had referred to them as and was currently menacing that troop. The men were holding well and slashing at them, using their shields to keep it away, but they were not able to get in close enough for their swords to do any good.

Fine! I reached to take the great axe from the side of my horse and get ready to try and do battle with this beast when the situation developed in a strange way.

The wolf was snarling and biting at them from the left side of the road, pushing the men towards the right which was basically against a cliff face. Not a tall one, I estimated it only to be 20 feet high.

But it was high enough that I did not notice right off the bat that Tanya was at the top of it. Where she had come from, how she had gotten there? I didn't know. She tended to move up and down the line, making sure everyone was marching, being a little bit stricter with those who fell behind, and having her wolves menace anyone who tried to give her lip.

Apparently she found a way up onto the cliff and was using that as a shortcut to keep an eye on everybody since it would provide a larger viewpoint than being down on the ground with the rest of the marching column.

This, however, also meant that she was in perfect position to do something which I thought looked rather ridiculous. But very effective. She jumped over the column of blue soldiers and let gravity do the work to bring her down right on top of the big white Thunder Wolf that was menacing them.

There was a sickening crack as the armor she wore smacked against the heavy fur, possibly breaking some sort of bone inside the beast. Hard to say, could easily just be that there was ice frozen in its fur somewhere that made the noise.

Either way, Tanya was now on top of the beast and immediately got her arms around its neck. I think that was not easily achieved by the looks of it as she was barely able to hold on and pull at the same time.

The beast in question immediately started bucking and trying to get her off, smacking itself against a dead tree that had marked the side of the road before taking a few steps down the right slope and slipping off the cliff with Tanya.

As ways to go that was a marvelous one, I thought. Not only does she get a legend about taking on the king of wolves but she attempted to bring down one of the king of wolves’ cousins in one on one combat. She only died because positioning screwed her over.

I shook my head and then prepared myself for the inevitable discussion with the other sub-commanders about replacing our noble wolf witch.

Then the wind picked up at an incredible rate as if a storm had been summoned and was hitting the mountains below our passage. The men, fearful of whatever this was, grabbed onto the side of the mountain and hoped they weren't blown away. I simply sat there on the back of my horse, looking stoic. I was not exactly sure about what was going on but knew that a show of confidence would lead to a better position in taking over, after her death was declared real.

Then the Thunder Wolf was thrown back up onto the cliffside by the massive amount of wind. Tanya was still holding on to the damn Thunder Wolf as if her life depended on it and I swore I saw something glowing in her left hand before they both crashed into the ground.

Everyone just stood there. We were shocked, unsure on what to do. All of a sudden Tanya pulled herself up, brushed off a little bit of snow and dirt that had gathered on her cloak, and walked over to the Thunder Wolf and checked up on it as she would have any of her others.

I expected many things but the wolf actually not trying to bite her hand off as she began making sure it was okay was not one of them. My best guess was that the Thunder Wolf I thought it was dead and wasn't exactly sure how to handle not being among the living anymore.

After a few moments of thought it seemed to shake itself free of whatever stupidity this was and stood back up. It looked around at everyone before its eyes focused on Tanya. One of her crows landed on her shoulder at that exact moment, which drew its notice. It bowed its head and backed away slowly, showing more deference than I've seen from any human to a lord.

Once it was far enough away it turned around and ran off, apparently deciding that human meat was off the menu today. Tanya turned around with a big smile on her face and said “well, gentlemen, it seems that situation is handled. Back to our march, we got a Trucebreaker to teach a lesson to and we can't waste our time up here.”

The men immediately got to work doing what she said, marching in the general direction, but I just sat there on the horse stunned by the turn of events and listening to the soldiers as they walked by. Comments such as Chosen of the Allfather and Wolf King were made as they walked by.

Tanya for her part did not seem to care, only turning towards me after a few minutes to say, “good work coming up when you heard the racket. I wasn't sure what I was going to do when that thing first showed up but when I saw you there I knew I would have support.”

“No, my Lady. Thanks to you, I've never seen something so wondrous as a Thunder Wolf being tackled. That is a scene that I shall replay in my memories for some time”. I said, trying to be nice.

Tanya simply smiled and nodded “it was an honor, though I wish I could have done it without falling off that cliff. That was a close one.”

“Yes, quite lucky that the wind kicked up right then weren't you?” I poked.

“Yes. Lucky.” she said, slipping something into her pocket. My eyes caught what looked to be a rune priest beads as it was stored back.

My eyebrow raised a bit when I realized that she was dabbling with magic, making my comment about being a witch more realistic than I thought. But, as long as she was safe… That could be useful in the coming days. Having someone with powers could change any battlefield. Most of the rune priests tended to stay out of combat so it was likely to come in handy in most situations.

Nodding in my head I said “Well then, Lady Tanya, I believe we have a march to get back to. The Trucebreaker isn't going to defeat himself after all.”

I got a smile from her, which was a sign I was doing something right. Someone with powers you did not want to cross as well, better to be on her good side unless I wanted to end up a Wolf myself. Who knew what kind of other powers she had.

Tanya

Felt good to be out of those mountains. There was less stress now but I had to put out so many fires and near chaotic moments.

The road we had chosen apparently was known to be hunted by Thunder Wolves, as a result we had run into four. After talking with the subcommanders I learned that it was actually expected that something like this would happen and that they had expected to take 10% losses from the wolf attacks. Thankfully we only took 1% losses, mainly from people who had done stupid things and fallen off the mountain or got their feet frozen off and had to be taken back by my wolves. At least I hope they made it back safe? They were riding on wolf back, they should be fine enough. I guess I would find out when I got home.

Either way we'd made it safely across the mountains and we were now setting up a base in an area that seemed less populated. We had a freshwater stream and I'd had the latrines dug well away from it and from the camp. I also sent out the Adventurers Guild mounted on my wolves to find out more information about the area around us.

So far their information gathering was acceptable. We had arrived in the furthest west of the Trucebreaker’s territory. So far there was nothing of more than vague interest, my Adventurers Guild Riders had located several old fortresses similar to the ones I had seen when I first entered the lowlands on the other side of the mountains.

They also were long since overgrown and abandoned for the most part. Good positions for a siege if something were to happen but not one that I would like to be caught in. Best to keep the force moving as often as possible and doing as much damage to the enemy as I could.

As for the rest of the terrain it was allsnow and villages, I used the Adventurers Guild as barebone diplomats to see if those villages would be willing to give us supplies while we were engaging in hostilities against their leadership.

They had politely refused the first time which had required me to go deal with them myself. After an hour of long negotiations, while my wolves padded around the village, I was able to secure a local supply in exchange for the local currency that we would most likely be getting off the enemy once we started fighting them.

It wasn't a great deal but it was better than nothing and they seemed happy enough to have it. Although considering that the other subcommander said that we should just raid them and take what we needed, there was probably a reason for that. They were based off Vikings in their culture, I wouldn't be surprised if raiding and fighting were just as common as Viking culture had it.

So working on negotiating a deal was a definite improvement for the peasants of this land. This also gathered to me a bit of intelligence from the locals as I knew that the Trucebreaker was still in his castle far to the South.

However some of his lesser lords were gathering forces, apparently they were taking this whole situation very seriously compared to their lord. They had not called up the citizenry of their little peasant villages though, relying on the warrior class of this region. From what I understood it meant there were seven armies of around 500 to 700 men each, scattered across this side of the continent and slowly moving in my direction.

I didn't need the constant headaches that I had been having since taking on this job to know how to handle such a situation; I was quite a fan of military history and I was well aware of Napoleon's strategy of hitting the enemy army while it was separated and destroying it piecemeal.

And that was exactly what I was planning to do. I only had close to 1600 men while the enemy had twice that minimum, if all their forces came together I would not have a victory on my hands. So I set about making sure that they would not come together. I had my Wolf Rider Rangers, the 100 or so men I had been able to train to ride the wolves without getting themselves bitten in two, to head towards the second closest army with the plan to simply engage, distract them, and keep them chasing my men in the wrong direction.

The rest of my forces had been split up into three columns and were moving out of camp, we were going to hit the closest force of around 600 men in the afternoon.

As far as I could tell they were being lackadaisical and lazy as they didn't even have pickets out to let them know that my rangers had gotten within breathing distance of them.

Which was not my problem. If the enemy chose to be terrible at their job that just made my life easier.

Mounting up on Freki I looked over at the other commanders who were eyeing my wolf carefully.

“All right, gentlemen! Let's go settle the score on the ambush number. They don't have much right to complain, considering what they told with their crossbowmen.” I said trying to exude authority and confidence.

It seemed to work as they chuckled before leader in dark blue Jon Alfgeirsson said “Yes, let's go teach these trucebreakers why you don't break the freaking truce. I swear Lord Farthegn was a fool who got lucky or a genius who overplayed. Either way this is not going to go the way he thinks.’

Nikolas Larlsson of Green and red nodded his approval before adding “a good point! Though I think he didn't believe we'd be as bold as Lady Tanya is proposing with this march. Most commanders would simply come over the mountains and raid everything, not interfere with the local systems. Really the more gold you bring across usually means the more glory.”

I nodded my understanding but I simply said, “The king asked me to end a monster, that's a certain expectation that I shall meet. Raiding the countryside and being an improvision on the citizenry of this country will not meet that expectation, it'll simply put off the inevitable fight that will come from not taking this truce breaker down while we have the chance. Better to kill the poisonous snake today, while it is still outside your property, than to clean up the remains of your animals tomorrow.” trying to make my opinion on the matter as clear as possible.

And I did agree with this opinion on every level. The man had broken the laws of civilization as those people understood it. Letting him walk around like that was nothing would just encourage him to do it more.

Laws exist for a reason, to protect civilization from its worse excesses. You could bend them, you could find loopholes around them, but to break them that was a betrayal of civilization. And I would not live with something that was no better than an uncivilized barbarian waiting on my borders for the best moment to cause mayhem and disaster for the people that I worked with.

Writers note: Not happy with a chapter, it serves the goal but I admit I could have done better, it was written over the course of 2/24-26, so yeah I was a bit distracted. I believe all of are and that's all I’m going to say on that matter. That's why diced to not do any of the battles I had planned for this chapter instead of shove off them to next week so I hoped I would be less distracted, chapter 10 of mando came easier so I assumed I will be able to to do that.

Let me know what you all think and enjoy.

Edited by: Preier, M.G. , Sunny
Community edited by:
Community editable doc (Chapter 10) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

Runt 11, Builder of legend 4

Subcommander Ulfrik Eilifsson

What a glorious day for a battle, there's nothing else to say really. The last 10 minutes I have been chopping heads and breaking shields with my massive ax as the Trucebreaker’s forces broke themselves on our shield wall.

The wolf witch had experimented with several ways to use my brawlers and I thought this one was the best. When the battle had started an hour ago only three formations had been in position.

My own, the dark blue commander’s Jon Alfgeirsson troops and the Russ’s forces.

We were well aware of where the enemy was, our scouts had been keeping a tab on them and sending back information but Larlsson’s forces had simply taken a wrong turn and ended up running into a large formation of enemy flanker units.

Exact number of the enemy unit was unknown but Tanya had elected to take her Wolf Cavalry to find out if it was a real problem or something that could be handled by the red and green of Commander Nikolas Larlsson.

But she had not left before giving direct orders on how we were to handle the enemy formation in front of us, which was relatively equal to ours. I think we even had a few more troops than them.

It was a simple plan, an easy plan, and that's why it was working. We had let the enemy move their shield wall directly into contact with ours at the shallow end of the valley with heavy forest on all sides, especially behind us. Thankfully our scouts had managed to keep the exact numbers of our men hidden and the enemy had assumed that there were only the two formations, shield walls and archers, to their flanks so they'd only stretched their shield wall out as far as necessary. At the last moment our shield wall had opened up, making room for my formation of heavy ax Men to take the center.

Granted my heavy Ax Men were not doing as much damage as I would prefer, they would need to get onto a flank to do that, but this particular method had allowed us to wedge into their center, which had generally led to their formation backing up as we pushed forward. We couldn't push too hard because their own archer formations were firing into anyone who exposed themselves too much but counterfire was evenly returned and we appeared to be winning.

Unless some other formation came out of the woods behind them to support I think we’re not going to lose this fight. If anything I believe we’re going to push them all the livelong day until they break.

Of course that would not be the fate of this formation as whatever aid they may have been calling for seemed to have not made it in time. I had taken a step back to let some of my men get a chance to get some hits and catch my breath for another spot in the front line when I saw the Wolf Witch herself appear on the hill behind the enemy. Waving her sword about, several other wolves of common variety appeared around her as well as some Blackmaned with Russ troops riding their backs.

I expected her to charge down and slaughter the enemy from behind but apparently that was not the plan as her wolves let out a howl. The surprise attack was replaced with a stunning amount of wolf howls echoing throughout the valley that we had chosen for our little fight.

This got several of the enemies facing us to turn to see what was going on and realize their new predicament. The enemy commander seemed to realize his predicament as well and started to holler for his men to turn their back ranks around to face this new threat, which would severely weaken their whole formation.

Their attempt to turtle up and protect themselves resulted in an opening for my man to fight their way through. After all, there was now only two ranks of men between them and the center of the newly formed square.

My ax man had seen the opportunity and immediately began chopping their way through the shield wall, battering it down and trying to force their way in. This resulted in the enemy formation giving more ground and I had to call my men back a bit as there was a risk for them to be encircled by accident if they got too far forward.

This brief break in the battle resulted in the lines falling away from each other as the now much smaller force tried to compact itself and help the archers, who were being pummeled by our own scouts, retreat into their formation.

I wondered what Tanya was doing since she was up there watching this. She could definitely see the opportunity, laid bare for everyone, of a chance to unleash her wolves and butcher the enemy formation but she seemed content to let them compact themselves.

after a bit though she got off her wolf and reached into a saddlebag before pulling out a white shield. She waved it over, most likely trying to get the enemy to see that she was holding up the standard signal for a ceasefire.

Curious, I called for our archers to stop firing. This had not been in the plan but I wanted to see what she was doing.

Their own archers soon stopped firing and a silence, besides the wails of the wounded, overtook the field. Carefully the Wolf Witch walked down from where her wolves were watching and headed towards the enemy formation.

Part of me was worried as, at the angle I was at, we couldn't exactly see what was going on but she was tall enough that I could see the banner of her blonde hair above them. If she was in danger we would know and I’d get us attacking right away. Actually the wolves would howl and start charging right away if she came under direct threat, which would be a better indication than just seeing if her head went down.

What happened there I wasn't sure. After all it was quite a distance away but, by the looks of it, she was parlaying with the enemy commander. And by the fact that the conversation went on for about half an hour I assumed it was a very lengthy parlay.

After a while Tanya came around the side of the formation and walked up to me. The other commanders had gathered to my side while we waited and I could see the green and red formation had taken up the hill behind the wolves so the enemy was truly encircled at this point, there was no way they were getting out of it.

In her hand she was holding a sword and looked rather pleased with herself.

“Good news! The enemy Commander has seen reason.”

“When you say ‘see reason’, what do you mean?” Jon Alfgeirsson asked, curious.

“In exchange for letting him and his men go, he has promised to never take up swords against us for the rest of the campaign season.”

“Sounds risky. How do we know he's going to stick to the deal?” my counterpart asked, pointing out the obvious.

“Greed! It's a wonderful thing when you know how to use it to your advantage. I simply said that we have no interest in occupying the Trucebreaker’s territory after this conflict. Which means that, with severely depleted forces, whoever takes over after him will not be able to hold on to that territory. I simply brought up the fact that if he gets out now there's a better chance that he will secure himself a larger piece of the pie after the conflict. He was more than willing to hand over his sword after that.”

“That's a bit underhanded.” I brought up, not particularly enjoying the fact that I had been prevented from some glory in battle.

“Underhanded, yes. But better for everyone in the long run; wasting resources fighting the Trucebreaker’s minions will just tire us out before we get the chance to break into his fortress. So if we can find ways to get them to either side with us or flip out of the conflict entirely I'm going to take it.” Tanya said, tightening her newly captured sword to her belt.

There was some sort of wisdom in what she said and, though it pained me to admit it, she was probably right.

“Fine, then can you explain what happened with the other formation that Larlsson’s men ran into? I thought the only other formation in the area was being handled by the scouts we sent out earlier to keep them busy.”

“As far as I can tell? That is still happening. Our scouts are keeping that next army busy chasing its tail. This formation appears to have been an advanced force that was sent to link up with our recently defeated foes from the second formation. Apparently there have been rumors of giant wolves in our army and the enemy commander of the second formation had great axes designed for fighting wolves so he thought he'd send them along ahead. Was a bit of trouble dealing with them but, well, they were mainly pointing their great axes at the shield wall of Larlsson’s red and green men which meant it was easier to flank them than it would have been.”

Of course the axes they brought were for normal giant wolves, not Blackmaned. They would have been much less effective than they should have been.

“Must have been a slaughter,”. Jon Alfgeirsson surmised.

“Unfortunately. I would have preferred to offer them a surrender but the situation did not allow the opportunity, so I had to deal with them the old-fashioned way.”

“So, we've dealt with this advance formation of the enemy there. I assume our next move is to move on to the enemy you have currently chasing your scout Cavalry?”

“Better than that. Our Cavalry will be coming into an area to the north of here, great ground for a little bit of an ambush. We can rest up there and wait for them to show up then we’ll destroy them or get them to capitulate. Either way leaves our goals accomplished for today.”

“Take 20 minutes for our men to scavenge any resources from the dead or wounded. What they can't take will probably be taken by the enemy formation that has surrendered. We’ll be moving out in 30’.” She ordered casually, expecting us to obey without a question by her simple decree.

And frankly I saw no reason not to. Oh, the men would grouch up about not being able to fully divest the dead of their valuables. But 20 minutes was more than enough time to find anything of worth, and anything that you left behind was basically a bribe to the enemy formation to not change sides back on them.

And, well, she was right on about one thing. Greed has its ways and a bribe to stay out of the conflict was going to work a lot better than an offer to stay out of the conflict so you might get something afterwards.

Nodding my head I said ”let's get to work. We've got another enemy formation to beat the hell out of and not a lot of time.”

Tanya

Organizing men came rather easy to me. You would think that trying to get a formation of men to fight a battle the way you wanted to would be a complex and hard process for someone who'd never done it before. As far as I was aware the closest I'd ever come to this sort of situation would be organizing the firing of individuals who had failed so spectacularly that caution required several people to tell them to leave. A very rare and minimal occurrence.

But I was beginning to think I was familiar with giving orders. The headaches had been killer when I first started marching men around, they left over time but they were still there. Either whatever mental wall that kept my memories of whatever had come before locked away was weakening or I was deadening the nerves responsible for transmitting the pain about it. Both were supposedly an option so it was hard to say and I was no doctor or anyone with a degree in how the brain works.

And frankly I don't think even they would have any idea what was going on with a person who had memories from their previous life. Last time I had checked such discussions had always been about crackpot fools claiming they were Nefertiti in the last life or maybe Caesar. Yes, reincarnation was part of Buddhism but I was not a follower of that religion, wasn't a follower of most religions. Yes, Patton had claimed to be the reincarnation of several military figures throughout history, but I had always put that down to him being very eccentric and being more about soldiers and generals being of the same stuff throughout history.

That being said I was fairly certain at this point that my last life had been in the military. At first I had thought that maybe this was more of that other instinctive guide I felt when I first arrived on this planet, providing knowledge of how things could be created that I could not explain. But there was definitely something else going on; the way I gave orders felt comfortable not in an ‘I know how to give orders’ kind of way but more with the feeling that I had done this before.

And because I seemed to be able to exude confidence at a high enough level that the men who ultimately led the forces I controlled tended to believe my statements. After our battle with the first enemy force we had been able to quickly maneuver to the next position and ambush the second enemy force. That force had not been as large as the first one, thanks to our early crushing of their advanced units, but they did give a good little fight for a while.

They even refused to surrender when I offered it, which had been a stupid and foolhardy thing. With their rejection I had been left with no other efficient way to defeat them than unleashing the wolves.

Casualties from that fight had been minimal; catching an enemy unaware and then grinding them down from all sides till they broke tended to result in that way.

By my estimate about a third of the army I defeated was still in action, another third dead, and another my prisoners either as wounded or in better shape.

That was the position I did not want to be in, holding captives, so I had paroled them as quickly as I could after giving them basic medical care.

That's for the enemy army that had been still in the field but I did not believe it had maintained that number. It looked like half was under control of their commanding officers but the other half looked like they were just running, which meant it was probably more like a sixth of the army was still in functioning capability. And a sixth was small enough that my wolf scouts could pummel them with arrows till they were either nothing or broke completely, which is what they were currently doing. I hoped that, in the morning, I'd hear a report that they were completely wiped out or at least out of the fight, but I wouldn't know till though the wolf scouts returned.

As for myself I was preparing for the next day of combat. There was a third force moving towards us, this one was a combined elements of two of the forces we were already preparing to fight so it was on par with our own formation. I really did not want to have to fight them at parity, that would just grind both forces down to nothing. Which would mean the end of the whole campaign as there would be no way I'd be able to defeat the Trucebreaker’s main army inside his castle.

Which meant I would need to think of some way of defeating this Force piecemeal. Maybe have them chase us and string them out? That was an option but not a good one, that would just tire out my own forces if done improperly and there was not a lot of room to maneuver in this area. The roads were few and a lot of the trail was tough, the scouts could get around with my wolves fine enough but moving the entire formation of the army? That would turn anything under our feet into mud and bog us down. Which is why I had taken to moving my men in three columns on separate roads, less mud buildup. Of course it opened me up to the possibility of also being defeated in detail but so far they didn't have the forces in the region to do that, or weren't employing the scouts which I assumed they had in an effective way.

Never assume your enemy is dumber than you, this is something all militaries must grapple with and I understood that well enough. Just because I was making great use of my scouts didn't mean they weren't. The only way they could possibly be screwing that up is some sort of humorous and as far as I'd seen they didn't have much hubris.

But that was a problem for morning Tanya! Right now I was tired, it had been a long day and I just wanted to get a little bit of a rest. Laying against Fierce's side so we could share warmth I closed my eyes and prepared to get some sleep.

Then a clattering of bangs and noises broke that attempt. Sitting up, confused, I quickly got up and stepped out of my tent, looking around and trying to figure out what was the racket about.

That racket turned out to be one of my wolf scouts who apparently rode his wolf into a rack of weapons that had been put aside for a cleaning crew to make sure they were in good condition for tomorrow.

“Lady Tanya!” The man in question said, jumping off the wolf and landing in the light layer of mud that spring had brought in before running in my general direction. If he had not called my name I might have gone back into the tent but I assumed that if he was calling for me there was some important reason for it. So I folded my hands across my chest and waited for him to arrive.

The scout in question was on the shorter side so I was forced to look down on him as he ran up to me, stopping as he did and leaning over to catch his breath.

“Good evening, Mr?” I fished for his name as I was not familiar with this particular scout.

“Trygve, of second wolf scout company. I bring news of grave importance.” He apparently was dead tired from whatever spurred his charge to me so I let him catch his breath, even if I was fairly worried that I was about to hear news that the enemy had encircled my position and we were about to be besieged.

If that happened we weren't in the worst position we had taken ownership of one of the Hill forts my scouts had found in the days after arrival in this region.

“Go on.” I said after he took just a moment too long.

“Yes, ma'am! Styr reports the enemy formation we fought today has surrendered 5 miles from here, the prisoners were paroled as advised and their Commander’s sword was confiscated. Apparently he took an arrow earlier in the battle and was not in control of the formation this entire time, he finally passed after the battle and the force’s subcommanders offered the sword as proof that they will stick to their word.”

I blinked a couple times, a bit stunned by this. I had assumed toughness and gritty stubbornness had been the inspiration for their holding out as long as they did, finding out it was simply that their Commander was near death and no one knew what to do was a bit saddening really. If they had taken a moment to try and communicate with us instead of shooting at me when I raised the white shield a lot more of them would be alive right now.

“But that's not all, Lady Tanya. Third company reports making contact with the new enemy formation. They’re coming down the road from the east.”

“What happened? What are the losses like?” I asked, trying to determine how bad the situation was. Moving our formation at night was not something I had expected but then again night and day were relative this far up in the longitudes. So it was possible there were night fighters amongst this formation that could help their unit move when it got too dark.

“They requested a parlay with, I quote, the ‘wolf priestess’.”

I blinked again then took a calming breath and said “They want to have a parlay?”. This was not what I had expected, this was in fact the opposite of what I expected. But then again I had defeated two enemy forces the day before, even with a larger force maybe the commanders of this formation had realized that it would be better to try diplomacy.

And that was something I was willing to give them, a chance to stop the waste of human resources over a trucebreaker was worth a little risk of them trying to assassinate me. Which, considering the superhuman abilities my body had displayed, I did not believe would be successful.

Looking down at the scout, noting that he was trying to figure out if I was asking him what a parlay was, I brushed that off and asked “When do they want to have this meeting?”

“Tomorrow, at midday. There's a river with an island in the middle of it, 3 miles from here, and they want to meet on the island.”

Nodding my agreement I said “All right. Find a scout to send back to your formation to let them know we agreed to this, then find a place to sleep.“

“Yes, ma'am!” The man replied, giving a variant on their local salute before wandering off. I shrugged and turned back towards the main command tent around the corner. I would need to track down the subcommanders and let them know the situation. Thank goodness I could operate on just a little sleep, I would probably only be getting a couple hours at this point.

Tanya

I had expected many possible things when I had heard they wanted to meet: a trap, perhaps demands for surrender. All of those things had been based on the preparatory idea that I would be facing Noble Lords wanting to suck up to their boss by handling a situation for him.

Well, one of them was a noble Lord and his forces were equipped as heavily as Russ's, their armors and weapons not too dissimilar from the housecarls that followed me besides having an orange tint to their clothing.

The other however was not a noble Lord. From the top down it was a priest of some kind and, judging by all the fur that looks suspiciously like it had come from a wolf, I was thinking it was some sort of wolf priest.

His men were no different, though with less wolf fur and claws strapped to them. They appeared to be more of a masonic order of light infantry.

Why were the wolf priests leading an army against me? I did not know, did I piss off some local deity? Was it a Tuesday? I really wish I understood more of the stuff I ended up getting myself involved in.

As for where we were meeting the island in the river was barely 10 yards wide. My enemies had arrived first and set up a table, with chairs for people to sit at.

At least, most people. I, being unfortunately of larger height than most, was afraid that the campaign chairs they had brought might snap under my weight so I was standing.

We had just gone through the pleasantries of good morning take a seat oh you can't because you're too tall no problem and were moving on to the meat of the conversation.

The noble started us off with a simple statement, “all right Russ dog witch! As Geir Bretakollrsson, Jarl under Lord Farthegn; I ask you quite clearly: what are your intentions in this attack on our lands.”

Didn't even bother to ask my name? Not a lot of respect coming from these people, but then again I was the enemy so that was to be expected. “I, Tanya, champion of the king of Russ, have been given a simple mission: deal with Lord Farthegn who has attempted to destabilize the other side of the mountains by assassinating the king of the Russ. How I will go about doing this is up to me, though I would prefer minimal casualties to all sides and no dead children if I can help it.”

“So you don't wish you put yourself as the new king of this territory?” Jarl Geir Bretakollrsson asked, as a servant of his handed him a goblet of mead. There were several servants running around and one was handing one to the priest. One was even heading towards me though I waved them off. I doubted that they would try and poison me but I wanted a clear and sharp mind for whatever this conversation provided and I had already been screwed once by drinking a little bit too much.

“I have no need for the land, I raise wolves and hunt monsters for sport. Lord Farthegn broke the truce with that assassination attempt, he is a monster that needs to be dealt with but no one else needs to die for his crimes.”

The Jarl Geir Bretakollrsson nodded as he listened and then finally he just put the cup down on the table.

“And if I were to offer to join your little mission against Lord Farthegn in exchange for his castle? Would you be willing to accept this alliance?”

I blinked a couple times as I had not expected outright treason. It should have been something to consider, those were cruel times and I'd already proven that, given the right situation, the enemy”s smaller forces were willing to bow out of the fight.

Treason that was a bit more than I expected. “Why do you want his castle dearly enough that you'd be willing to commit treason?” I asked it outright, there was no reason to not dance around the central question.

“The castle is a family heirloom, Lord Farthegn took it when he rose the power 10 great years ago. I've been waiting for an opportunity to get it back for a long time and considering you've already defeated two of the enemy forces I would have had to fight… Siding with you seems like a good opportunity to accomplish my overarching goals of retrieving the castle.”

Regional politics? Figures that an a****** willing to attempt politics by other means in the region next door would have quite a few enemies at home.

“I would be willing to accept this alliance though, let me make this clear if you were to break this alliance you would be no better than the trucebreaker to me. So unless you are willing to stick by this alliance and fight Lord Farthegn with me it would be better for you to just pull out of the war completely. I would rather you safe at home with your troops than at my back preparing to stab it.”

The Jarl Geir Bretakollrsson nodded then said “There's a lot of bad blood between his family and mine. And no bad blood between you and me. I wish to see Lord Farthegn removed from power. If you will have my forces we will pay him back for the humiliation he put on my family 10 years ago.”

He put his hand out and I took it, giving it a shake. Having a few hundred extra men to throw at an enemy force would be worthwhile. I would just have to be careful about how to use them and make sure that they didn't degrade the work ethic of my original forces.

Turning to the wolf priest I said “Are you also a victim of Farthegn wishing for a little bit of vengeance?”

“Oh goodness, no,” the elderly man said as he sipped his Mead.

“No, no. I'm but a simple priest and follower of the Allfather, I simply came to see if the rumors were true that the enemy force was led by a warrior marked by wolves.” He continued, looking directly at my right eye where the scars from the fight with the wolves still cut across my face.

“Well, the rumors are true,” I answered, folding my arms in front of me. “I also lead packs wolves, what does it matter to your priesthood?”

“Oh, Legends. Nothing too serious, just that the chosen one will be marked by wolves and have them come at their Beck and call. The old stuff I've always believed was simply allegory.”

“Chosen one?” I said, sounding a bit more dumbstruck than I wanted to. I was really hoping this was not going where it was looked like it was going.

“Ye,s yes, a wolf master who would unite the continent through deed and merit to bring honor and trade across the world of Fenris.”

“Those are some very specific old Legends,” I said, taking a moment to consider my options. 500 more light infantry would help in the coming campaign, there was still a good number of forces to hit and there was a chance they would reach a large enough number that my forces could not take them out piecemeal as we had done the first few. But on the other hand allowing the religious types to believe me some sort of Chosen One… Well, that could be bad in the long run. Not that I would abuse the power, more that the people would expect you to do things. Things such as uniting the continent and bringing trade and honor. I just wanted to raise wolves and have as good a retirement as I could get on a medieval world.

“Yes, very specific, the final proof in fact is foretold that they will call the thunder wolves to them in their moment of need. And in order to find this event someone needs to be there and witness it,” He stood up and bowed. “The wolf priesthood offers our services to your campaign. Lord Farthegn has been demanding more taxes from us either way so an opportunity to remind him that he is not the chosen one is something we would greatly enjoy doing.”

Ah, so that's the game. In order to prove someone was the chosen one they needed to call the thunder wolves which is something I could not do, but they also had problems with Lord Farthegn and simply wanted to piss him off. Well, enemy of my enemy is convenient

Holding out my hand, I said “I accept your services, wolf priest…” I said it in a way that I indicated I was fishing for his name

“Nafni of the Wolf order,” he said with a smile, taking the hand and shaking it.

Tanya

I had feared the enemy would be able to piece together some sort of better operation, after all I had a large area of territory to cover before meeting the next enemies on my list.

Even with a stable pace of march we were only 1/3 of the distance to Lord Farthegn's Castle in 2 weeks. Those two weeks helped me integrate the new formations of troops into my own, not as well as I would have liked but having more manpower was better than having no manpower.

Over those two weeks though the land turned to mud as spring went into full effect and slowed us down to a pace that was insulting the very idea of speed. In that time the other three formations raised under the enemy Lord had managed to come together and had taken position between my Target and myself. The lowlands we traveled through were mostly trees and mud but the particular area they had chosen to set up camp was a river with only two possible points of crossing. With an amount of troops similar to my own there was no real way for me to just bully my way through either point. If I tried to they would simply pull the troops from one Target location to the other and I would be stuck at a chokepoint, sending my men into an unstable battleground whichever any Ford we tried to cross.

This was not a good position to be in, but at least we weren't starving. Our allies were able to convince local villages to supply us with food to feed my man in walls and thankfully the game around here was plentiful. And rivers, so our source of fresh water was covered.

Figuring out how we were going to get across was the big issue of the day. Part of me wished I could just fly over that River. If we could just get men on the other side and the situation maybe we could force a crossing. But trying to force our way across another Ford, even against a destabilized force, was not likely to succeed. Unless it was a big stabilization.

We needed some sort of distraction, some massive upheaval that could change the rules of the field.

What that would be I had no idea yet. Being mad at myself I decided I need to clear my head and I took Fierce out for a ride. I didn't fear an ambush so I didn't bring anyone along with me, better to leave the scouts in their place to make sure the enemy didn't hold some third secret forwarding location and attempted to hit us in our side when we weren't looking.

In other words, I just traveled alone upriver towards the North and the mountains. I had come across a few maps during the planning of this campaign so I had a better understanding of how this world, at least the main continent of Asaheim, locked; it was basically divided up into three or four zones with mountains making up the central area and lowlands being split up between mountain ranges that ran to the coast. Around the coast were icefields for the most part. Oh there were breaks in those, warm water currents that allowed natural harbors to be used during spring and summer, but even they were somewhat surrounded by icebergs till full-on summer hit and the ice was destroyed in the season of Fire.

Granted I wanted to see that from my residence, and not on this Coast. Because if that happened we were pretty much trapped in an area with people who probably would turn on us eventually. Which is why I needed to come up with some way to get us through that blockade and onto the other side. But how was I going to do it? Oh, if only i had some expl... That hurt. Pain, utter pain. I nearly fell off Fierce as a headache ripped through me but it was almost worth it as an answer to the question finally came to my mind. Though it raised about a dozen more. Explosive spell, how did I know that? Was I a wizard in my last life?? what the hell…

Writers note: this one more balanced the last chapter and I feel better about it, besides that, I would like to thank SuperiorFreak from fanfiction for providing cover art. If you like to see all the possible covers fine the space battles or SV thread as I provided a link to them there. I was honored that someone was interested enough to make something based on my work so that is all that really matters to me.

Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…

Edited by: reier, M.G. ,
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Chapter 12, Building a legend 5

Tanya

Well at least my headaches were making some sense now, because obviously the last world I was in made no sense whatsoever. Magic had been real apparently, not only had it been real but apparently I was a practitioner of it. There are still massive holes in my memory but apparently a lot of my time had been spent in some kind of military institution for magicians.

I had flashes of… well, war. A lot of war, looking suspiciously like something from a World War One movie. Trenches, muck and grime, explosions mowing earth and men alike, the smell of death, all of that had come through as well as formulas. Magical formulas.

I had to assume that my life had revolved around those, which is why they had broken through easier or I just wore through whatever was holding them back quicker than everything else. Either way I was now aware of the fact that magic was real.

Or at least it had been real in that world. I actually had no evidence that it was the exact same thing in this world that I was now dealing with, which was why I was not screwing around with the enhancement spells I remembered.

But what I did remember was that I needed a specialized tool which I did not have, and a way to pull the power in an item. That, though… That was not an impossible thing for me.

This was all very conjecture and theory, not particularly my strong suit as I preferred to be more certain about what I was working with. But I knew a few things about the way this world's magic was after basically using the rune beads to summon a wind storm to save my life.

So it was real, it did work, and it required focus items in order to be practiced in safety. Not too dissimilar from how magic worked in the last world. Instead of safety though the magic needed a focus item for power control. Both of them used a form of math based on runes. The runes used here on Fenris were more simplistic than the ones used in the empire but they were similar enough that they could be read interchangeably. If anything I believed that the wider ‘vocabulary’ of the empire’s runes made it possible to have finer control of the magic than what was possible with Fenris’ runes.

That was theory and it would take time to test that out, time I really didn't have and testing that I really didn't want to do. Fighting monsters, making a little money? That was all good, I wanted to retire. Learning magic had been a pastime that would hopefully unlock my memories, which it did, but this was the extent I had intended. All it had done was give me more questions than answers, something that I thought was going to be a repeating mantra as I tried to unlock whatever memories I had of my second life.

Execution though of this theory was going to be where we learned if I was smart stupid or dead, with the manpower of one of the divisions I was able to get the men building a catapult. Catapults were apparently uncommon but happened often enough that a few commanders were familiar with how they were built, plus I appeared to have knowledge on them. This knowledge hadn't come with a headache so I think this may have been whatever was programmed into the body, and I was leaning more and more towards ‘programmed ‘as time went on.

Either way, as the men worked on getting me the wood rope and hides and assembling it into a rudimentary catapult with basic wheels, I went to work gathering up huge stones. A few men helped me but few had sufficient muscles to work together to pull these things around. Thankfully I was strong enough that I could do it by myself for the most part. Once I had a collection of 10 or 15 of these stones I told priest Nafni to please make contact with the local runecrafters and see if they could get me a set of tools.

It took an afternoon but Nafni was able to secure me a set of stone-carving tools. From there it was all about engraving the runes into the stones, trying to make them mean something. The first stone took too long though, trying to use the empire's runes meant it was too complex and too difficult. So I switched over to the more simplistic version that was Fenris’ runes for the next dozen or so.

Before long I had 15 stones that were supposedly set to explode once enough power was inputed into them and they hit something. How well that would work out, I wasn't sure. I didn't know how I was going to be able to transfer the power into them or if my theories on how magic worked in this world would be anywhere close to my ideas of how they worked in my last.

Come morning of the fourth day of the stalemate at the river I felt I had all the resources I needed to pull something.

The night before I set up the catapult just out of sight and set up the target area on the position where any enemy formation would want to be to contest a river crossing.

Then all I had to do was wait for morning. Said morning I had the housecarls approach the beach and prepare for a crossing. They had the biggest and heaviest shield so any archery that was targeted at them would be relatively well dampened and not as damaging. My theory on that would be put to test as the enemy archers went straight to work from the safety of their forest. Arrows started to come in and the enemy didn't move their forces forward to the river until my men were nearly knee-deep.

Most of the enemies looked like they had been asleep in the last few moments, it was rather early to be trying this but the earlier it was the more chaotic it would be. So as the three lines of enemy soldiers formed up, creating a wall of shields just at the edge of the river that would make it difficult for my man to complete the crossing, I was busy attempting to put power into the stones.

Trying to draw on magic power that I couldn't exactly feel was strange. In my last life the power had been within me, something I became intimately familiar with using over time. At least that had been my sense of it. This power felt like it was ambient, being drawn towards me by some unknown means, Pushing it into what I wanted it to be was slower than I would have liked. I also probably shouldn't have started with the Empire Ball, which is what I was calling the one that used the empire's runes, which was now giving me a headache as wondered what the empire was, but I managed to get it to feel like it would explode when it hit something heavy. Like the ground.

Carefully I picked it up and carried it over to the catapult which had been prepared by my men, laying it down in the scoop that would toss it into the enemy formation.

Taking a step back I nodded my head to the person I assigned as the commander of this operation, the adventurers’ guild leader Styr.

Nodding back he gave a simple order to his men, who took a step back, before he pulled the lever, causing the catapult to launch the boulder high.

I had done the math last night on the exact amount of power and distance it would need to reach its target so I was a bit worried that in the end something would show a flaw in my mathematics. But I was never terrible at mathematics. The boulder flew true and crashed just behind the enemy formation. Being slightly off was to be expected considering that it wasn't exact science and it was a rather small target. It wasn't like I was trying to hit a fortress wall.

The boulder landed just behind the enemy formation and at first nothing happened, then there was a snap-hiss followed by a bright flash of light. My attempt to make an explosive ordinance had backfired as it appeared to have come out more like a flashbang. The fire from the Archer stopped as they appeared to have been blinded by the bright flash of light that had lit up the ground we were fighting over. It didn't help that beyond being early in the morning the sun was naturally a blue color and that light had been quite white.

Knowing that magic worked, and that the empire’s textbook was not really going to work for the situation, I moved over and grabbed the next ball. Channeling the energy from around me into it only took a minute but in that minute the archers started to fire again into the Housecarl's as they continued to cross the river. Apparently they had had their shields up, which blocked the light as they continued to move, and the enemy formation had been facing the wrong way for the most part so it didn’t affect those two forces.

Hopefully though the same would not be true for the next boulder as they placed it on the catapult, which was already being wound back into place. The design was rather rapid-firing in my opinion as it was in position and ready to fire again after 2 minutes. I simply nodded to the man at the controls of the catapult and the next shot was let loose.

This shot actually landed in the midst of the enemy formation, making me wonder if luck was on our side or if Styr had adjusted the shot in some way when I wasn't looking. I would have to ask later and see that he was rewarded for his efforts if he did.

Either way the rock landed in the exact middle of the formation, killing at least one man. Then it exploded in a thunderous bang, sending shards of rocks in anything else in all directions.

There was a momentary pause from the enemy archers and my own men who were attempting to cross the river as the central line of the enemy formation buckled, folding on itself. From where I was standing I could see many of them looking down at their former comrades, now reduced to wailing injured or piles of meat, in absolute shock.

To be expected. Explosives were not exactly a norm in Fenrisian combat, the real question is what would they do now they knew that something like this existed. Part of me hoped that realizing the enemy had superior firepower would cause them to run, it would save their lives in the meantime. After all what hope did they have if I could kill large swaths of them without even leaving my side of the river?

Unfortunately they did not appear to be ready to run, as they simply started to reform their line. As much as I hoped that overwhelming firepower would cause some sort of panic I had to remember that they were used to magic in one way or another. They knew this sort of stuff existed so they might be surprised about its way of delivery but they most likely were prepared for some casualties through supernatural means

Which meant this was going to be a little bit longer. As I began to prepare the next Rock I ordered the Archer, who had stayed relatively silent till now and hiding in the woods around me, to begin counter fire on their archers. I could have started them earlier but I wanted to give the enemy the idea that our archers were elsewhere so that they would be more open about where they were shooting from, which would mean the first few shots from my archers were directed at their counterparts with foreknowledge of their placement. They quickly got to work, firing their bows to bring down as many archers as they could, while I loaded up the next shot. It flew a little bit higher and landed behind the enemy formation, but considering this one was the more simplistic Fenrisian type it blasted nonetheless and cut down a large swath of men from behind.

Over the next 4 minutes two more rounds landed near their target, ripping up the enemy's line. At this point though it came apparent that I had a stockpile up and the counter-battery fire from my archers was being successful as the enemy formation on the shore began to fall back towards the tree line.

And opposed crossing is only really successful if you can stop them from even getting up onto the shore. Without those men there to stop my HouseCarls were able to finish the crossing and began moving towards the treeline, securing the area around the crossing. This was the signal that Alfgeirsson, my commander of blue, and Larlsson, commander of red and greens, had been waiting for and they began to cross themselves. The enemy fire was dwidling as they seemed to be retreating further into the woods. Most likely they had already realized they couldn't hold the bridge and were pulling back to their next position. What that position would be I didn't know but a crossing was a crossing.

As soon as the next two infantry units were across I sent the Wolf riders and my wolves as well as my adventurer guild scouts. I needed information on where the enemy was going and sending my trained scouts as pursuer units was the best way to find out what was going on.

Leader of the Wolf riders Authgrim Bardisson

“You know, sir… I had doubts about lady Tanya.” The commander of the wolf scouts, Styr, said.

“Is that so?” I said as I looked through my monocular, an ancient relica dating back to my family's past when they were sea explorers. At least that's how the Legends went. Most relic items like this had a legend about them, about where they came from and how they came to be. Personally I just was glad to have something that gave me an advantage on trips like this; being able to see a good distance away and keep track of a target was unbelievably useful.

“Yes, sir. I thought she was going to be overhyped and overcautious. I mean sure she's big and seems to be able to command these wolves fine enough. But that's not combat experience. Just because she's out fighting monsters does not mean she knows how to fight a war. I go out there and fight monsters all the time and I know I don't know how to command in a war.”

Styr was a mercenary hired from the local guild of monster hunters on our coast of Asaheim. He and men like him had been brought in because they were skilled at hunting in the wilderness and they had voted him to be their leader as he was the oldest of their group and had the most experience. Well, not old enough to be unable to learn new tricks as he'd taken quite well to riding a wolf and figured out how to fire his bow from their back easily enough.

“True, she does seem to have some sort of innate knowledge on how to make stratagems work. Wish someone could get more history out of her than ‘I came from the mountain’.” The mystery of Tanya was not one of the ones he was interested in, he did his job and he did it well, that's all that mattered to him. And as far as he'd seen that's all that mattered to her as they got on well enough, though she seemed to be a very private individual.

“Yeah, that's something. I do have to wonder where that innate skill comes from, cuz I don't think it came from Fenris. Any Fenrisian Commander worth their salt would have attacked across that River in separate locations to try and force at least one of them while tying down the other forces.” He said as he rubbed the wolf absent-mindedly. One of the tricks Tanya had been engraving into them was that the wolves enjoyed companionship, this was a quick and easy way to build a rapport between them and the Wolf.

“Oh no. No, she just prefers to surprise the enemy with magic, still surprised that was a thing, and brute force punch across the river at one location, decimating a third or half of the army of her enemy in one go.” The wolf scout leader continued as he too rubbed his wolf’s ears.

“That's a pretty good summarization of situation, but wolf priests and rune priests are things. Perhaps she is a daughter of both their orders, some hidden love child of a pair of young priests who had been cast out that learned the skills of both?” He doubted that actually, but it was an interesting take on the possibility. The woman was way too private about her origins and he wondered if she'd ever open up about it.

“Okay then… Well, that explains the control of the wolves and the control of runes. Does not explain her military prowess though.” Discount said as if that was still a pressing issue.

“I don't know, I think it does fairly well. She used her skills as a wolf to determine how her prey was set up and used their expectation of what a Fenris soldier would do against them as you said. A normal Fenrisian commander would have broken his formation up and tried to cross at all points, hoping to successfully push one area more than the other.”

“Maybe… I don't know but the more I spend time around her the more orders she seems to give,” Styr said with a shrug.

“Of course she gives more orders, she's a commander,“I countered, giving him an odd look and not exactly sure of what he meant.

“Not what I mean. When she started this campaign she was giving orders but they seemed more like she was starting to learn how to get orders. Now she's giving them as easy as a King would.”

“Well a king expects their soldiers to be able to do what they demand of them, cuz they trust that their soldiers have trained to their expectations. She probably just better understands how to use each unit now.”

“I don't know, man. It feels more like she knows what she's doing because she's done it before,” he said, shaking his head in disagreement.

“Probably just residuals from controlling these wolves that she generously lets us ride.” I said, reaching forward to pat the Wolf on its head. Before looking over at him and saying “But that doesn't matter. What's the info on the enemy formation? Where are they, what's going on?”

Styr sighed before answering. “My scouts have been tracking them and came in contact with the rear of the enemy formation earlier today. They are pressing hard for the next river, which is a day’s march before them.“

“So they want to try and pull the same stunt they pulled at this River, I assume. Not going to hold all us too long now that we know how to build those catapults and Tanya could obviously use those runes again.”

“That's what I think too, though the river they’re heading for only has one good forwarding location so they can concentrate. We know that because my scouts have been talking to the locals and they've given us a couple of good maps of the area. There is a bridge much further to the north but apparently it is currently occupied by an Ice Troll who decided that it would make a great home so he’s currently living under it. I think neither one of our forces want to deal with that, too much chance for that to spill into something worse.”

“Good. They'll get wrecked like they just were. We have catapults that send exploding ammunition, there is no way for them to hold a situation like that without something to counter it.”

“That's my concern. I don't want to find out if they have something to counter it, do you mind if I propose a plan?”

I gave him a nod to continue, wondering why he had not brought this up to Tanya herself since she was in overall command. Though she was also with the main army, which was half a day behind us, so letting us have a little initiative wouldn't be that big of an issue I assumed.

“Well, it's quite simple: the enemy army will be at the ford by the end of tomorrow while we can be there by the end of the day. It would not be impossible to get around them, their are scouts are shit. I don't know who they hired, what band of morons they decided were going to be experts, but they're not. They're just not. We can navigate around them, get in front of them, and take the Ford.”

“Okay but that puts 200 men against nearly a thousand. Those are those aren't exactly great odds and it deprives Tanya of her scouts.”

“That deprives Tanya of her long-range scouts; she still has a hundred of my ground scouts with her so they won't be caught by surprise. As for the one-on-five odds I admit that's not exactly great except it's not one on five when you really think about it. Tomorrow that formation will be crossing the river after a long hard day's March. They will be tired, they will be worn out, and they will not be expecting to be fired on by arrows and then charged by a bunch of wolves as they're coming out of the water. We could cause a panic and maybe kill a good number of men before they get themselves sorted out. When they do get themselves sorted out they'll have a choice: they can either camp by their side of the river and be attacked by the main army, which is at this point double their size after whatever losses we just inflicted. Or they can try and push us, right? Well if they push us, we just fall back. All of a sudden they've secured the other side of the river, sure, but now we are going to be shooting at them from the woods whenever they're not on guard duty, ensuring that they won't have a good night's rest. When Tanya arrives the next day they'll be worn out.”

“If we can pull that off that would end the fight for the river days ahead of schedule. They might even be willing to lay down their arms once they realize the situation and we can get on our way to the castle straight away.” I mused, thinking on what he had proposed.

As a Housecarl I knew what was expected from me: follow the orders directly given to me, which had been to scout and keep an eye on the enemy formation, figure out what was going on. This would certainly be a step beyond those orders.

However I could not disregard that, with the distance between us and Tanya's men, what mattered now was initiative, not orders.

Turning to face the leader of the wolf scouts I told “Find someone to send a message to Tanya and tell her the plan. We're moving out now, we're not going to wait for her response.” He nodded and rode off with his wolf while I observed the horizon.

Tanya

I was fairly annoyed, happy but annoyed. I did not like having members of my command acting too independently. With their operation my wolf Calvary and wolf scouts had undertaken to create a situation where my enemy had a no-win situation and been very successful. By the time the army had caught up to the enemy force they had broken down. The losses they took crossing the river and the nightlong tactics to keep them from getting a good night's rest had resulted in a formation that was falling apart at its seams.

At least half of the enemy had fled in the night or had been killed attempting to flee, from what I could gather, meaning the formation did not have the manpower to stop my wolves if they were unleashed.

Which meant the battle was over before I even had to do anything. So making a big deal out of the fact they had gone against my orders was unlikely to win me any favors. But the most annoying part about all this, the part that really upset me, is that I would have ordered them to do the same. I would have ordered them to cross that River before the enemy and do exactly what they did. I would have just been concerned they would refuse because it looked like a death sentence. Cutting off your scouts from your supporting forces and expecting them to harass the enemy throughout the night was a way to get your scouts destroyed if you didn't make contact with them again within a reasonable amount of time, which she was sure she could.

So, while everyone around me was celebrating a successful victory, I was looking at the two sub-commanders with a faint bit of annoyance, biting my lip trying to figure out how I was going to handle this. The slight headache in the back of my head was not helping, like I had come across situations similar to this before.

Finally I decided the best tack was to congratulate them but be slightly disapproving.

“Well done, gentlemen,” I said, looking them over. “You have managed to save us days on this campaign and for that you have my thanks. But, in the future, do try to keep in mind that you are the army's eyes and ears. Without you we are blind and deaf, the next time you attempt such a gamble please keep some of your men on this side of the river to at least keep us somewhat informed.” I gave them a very concerned and thoughtful look, hoping they would see the mistake and try to not do it again in the future.

“Yes, lady Tanya!” the two responded with broad smiles, nodding their understanding. I really could only hope they actually did.

“Fools, you'll pay for this! When Lord Farthegn hears that you've destroyed our army he will call upon the monsters to kill you.” One of the soldiers… no, wait, that was a commander by the looks of his coat called from where he'd been tied up. Officially the enemy army had not surrendered so I did not have a way to parole them just yet. I was thinking I would leave them tied up against the tree and then cut one of them free with a knife after taking all their weapons, assuming they’d figure it out from there. I was also considering doing that but spaced out over several miles, that way they could not just regroup quickly into another formation in my rear.

“Monsters, you say?” I queried, walking towards him. “What monsters will he call upon that you feel will come to his aid?”

“Shut up, Bob!” another Commander ordered from where he was sitting next to him.

“I will not! I am not afraid of this oversized shield maiden and I'm not afraid of you.” He bit back, turning his head to look at the person who told him to shut up before looking back at me.

“The ice fiends will come to his call. He has dark magic that allows him to bring them to the battlefield. Any army that comes to oppose him at his castle will be swept under their relentless charge.”

“Interesting.” I said, looking him over and trying to figure out what this could mean. Ice Fiends were the yetis I had fought in the mountains. I knew they had some level of sentience but did not know if they had the ability to communicate with other species, at the time I had assumed they did not. This, however, seemed to imply that at least in one case they could communicate with humans and had struck some sort of bargain. I wondered what this bargain was… no, wait, I didn't: dark magic.

“Let me guess. The Ice Fiends raid the outer edges of his territory that do not submit to him on his terms.”

“Yes, of course. Anyone not willing to submit to him is a traitor anyways.”

Great. So either he was letting the Ice Fiends eat his potential troublemakers, or he was pushing out those troublemakers into areas where they were more likely to be eaten by the yetis.

Neither one of them were definite proof that he was controlling them with dark magic and had some sort of alliance with the yetis though.

“He's already moving his forces against you. This place was chosen specifically do end this whole charade.”

I was going to ask what he meant when I heard a thump and a roar. Looking north where the sound came from I saw an Ice Troll slowly marching its way down the river towards us. In one hand appeared to be one of this man's soldiers, crushed, and the other held a massive log, meant for smashing people by my guess.

“You see! Here comes one of Lord Farthegn’s servants now, to destroy you all.”

“You daft idiot!” Ulfrik Eilifsson said, slapping the back of his head. “You sent one of your men to rile up an Ice Troll and now it's come downriver to find whoever sent the idiot.”.

“Still that means you're going to have to fight it and that'll destroy your army.” This man was getting on my nerves now. Reaching over to Freki I pulled my spear off its side-saddle. This spear had an antler tip, like my old Spears, but it had a few new additions. First it was more finely created, crafted with materials I could get from the somewhat more modern society of Fenris rather than what I could get while living in the woods. And, second, I had inscribed the spell for piercing on the side.

I wanted to see what would happen so, carefully channeling energy from the earth beneath me into the spear, I took aim and let loose.

A few moments after it left my hand it seemed to speed up and then there was a rather loud bang before it smashed into the chest of the ice roll, piercing through to the other side. Right, apparently I had been well on target. It fell forward face-first to the river the fist-sized hole pouring its acid blood everywhere.

“If your lord depends on beasts to fight me you'll find that a rather unpromising answer to the question of stopping me.” I said, giving the man a smile before padding Freki on the head.

“All right, gentlemen. Pack everything up, we're moving out.” I called. It was time to be on our way and see about ending this whole campaign.

Lord Farthegn

How have things come to this? I had simply wanted to assassinate one God damned King and push my power across the continent, finally uniting this world from the barbaric mess it had become. And now most of my subcommanders and Lords were dead, in hiding, or had betrayed me because they saw an opportunity to strike at their betters.

I had spent most of my life trying to unify the damned continent of Asaheim, ever since I realized that none of the people on this world mattered. The signs that this was some remnant of an ancient civilization, that we had fallen far from where we had once stood, were everywhere when you had the eyes to look for it. Most people just assumed it was the gods’ work but for me it was obvious that humanity had had a higher position at one point.

And I thoroughly believe that if I could unify the continent under my rule I would be able to bring humanity back to that point. If the continent could be brought under my single rule there was a chance of finding out what was in the caves beneath the mountains, what secrets were there and what powers could be unlocked for the people.

In my youth I had traveled with a group of adventurers into one of those caves, seen the dark City that laid beneath the mountains. We had been too fearful to go too close. The legends of the monsters that lived in there were rare due to the simple fact that those who got too close usually ended up dead, so their stories were lost with them.

Small scouting parties like I had been part of would have been chewed up and killed if we had attempted to enter that city, as the creatures there would have made sure we never saw the light of day again. But I could tell that it was far more advanced than anything on the surface, the fact that there were flameless light sources on the streets were sign alone that there was a great power down there.

And now my dreams of someday uniting the continent and leading an army down there to take it for humanity were going up in smoke. All because some upstart giant bitch had decided to ruin my day.

Well, I would just have to ruin hers. There was no way I was going to let my dreams die because some lapdog of Russ got lucky and defeated my so-called loyal servants. I still had the item I retrieved from the outskirts of the dark city so many years ago. A small device powered by some unknown means that, with a few presses of a button, agitated every Ice Fiend within a radius of 50 miles and brought them towards my location. It would take time for them to arrive but they would come and they would eat this enemy army as they attempted to lay siege to my castle. It would be hilarious watching the screaming and murder from the safety of my own home.

"My Lord? There's something you may want to see," one of my servants said as he walked into my study where I had been going over the paperwork that came from running a large Kingdom. So much taxes to collect, so little time.

“What is it, Valgard?" I asked, not even looking up.

“The enemy army is doing something. I think they're building siege equipment, my Lord." He said, sounding more concerned than he should be.

“Of course they're building huge equipment. Won't do them any good, this place is impenetrable. There is no way for anything to break down the walls of this fortress. " I asserted. Nothing but the truth as this Castle had stood for longer than most kingdoms had existed, which was one of the reasons I had made a point of taking it in my conquest of his continent. An impregnable fortress was the key towards victory in any conflict, especially when you could call monsters to do your bidding. Just because you called them didn't mean you could control them, they would just as easily eat me if given the chance.

‘My Lord, this is true but… They have a rune priest with them, by the looks of it."

I chuckled at that and said "What is he going to do? Call the thunder? Freeze the outer layer of the castle in the storm? This place has seen such conflicts before and survived, there is nothing-"

There was a thunderous bang, as if a clap of lightning hit outside the castle, and then my windowless study now had a window and the servant who had been standing in front of me was a red smear across the wall and floor.

“Well… That was unexpected." I muttered as I got up from my seat and walked over to the newly formed hole in my wall. I was two layers of rock in and yet there was a hole. Looking down through the hole I could see the enemy army was preparing a catapult, some blonde giant of a woman holding a massive stone in her hands before placing it on the scoop. I watched as the piece of rock was thrown from the catapult into the air. It got a certain distance away before all of a sudden accelerating with a thunderous boom, smashing into my castle with such speed that it left a rather large hole.

“There goes another plan,” I muttered, knowing that this would require an actual fight on my part.

Writers note: Alright there we go chapter for this week, and may I say this week has been good for me in a writing capacity, I think the next chapter has a chance of being much longer than this one. Anyways what to say about this chapter, magic, memories, fighting, and build up.

What else to say, One shot and info post will now have a section that tell you what to be expected to come out how some projects are coming, it will update at least every Thursday or so. There will also be commissioned Warhammer one-shot for youjo senki coming out, in the said one-shot thread. L4's Snippet, one-shots and Index

Edited by: Preier, M.G. ,
Community edited by:
Community editable doc (Chapter 12) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

Chapter 13, Legendary Build

Tanya

I was drinking a lovely cup of alcohol as I sat against a tree, patting Geri behind the ears. I had already prepared several dozen explosive ammunition balls and a few piercers as well on the trip to the castle Lord Farthegn inhabited. So I was getting better at casting the spells into the runes though the more I used the energies and the more I was noticing strangeness to them. From what memories I had been able to unlock my magic had come from within, this magic seemed to come from outside myself but I could direct it. And there were two types of magic present, I could just barely feel the difference but it was definitely there.

Type 1, the type I had been using the most, seemed to come from the planet itself. It just seemed to radiate from the dirt, the trees, everything as if Fenris itself was a conductor for magic. Type 2 seemed weaker, I could only just sense it below whatever type 1 was and it felt… it had a feeling to it that wasn't like type 1.

Type 1 felt alive, grounded, and refined. Type 2 felt dirty, unrefined, and distant as if it was coming from further away than type 1. I should be focusing more on the siege in front of me but I was basically just sitting back and letting my men throw rocks at the Castle at the moment, so I had time to think about the concept of magic.

What about more data points? I couldn't make a good estimate but I had a distinct feeling that what I was feeling was the exact same magic. Type 2 was more unrefined and everywhere while type 1 was something that had been refined here on Fenris. What was doing that refining was up for debate. I wondered if the Allfather, as he had dubbed himself, might have some sort of hand in that. After all my original theory was it was some kind of AI caretaker, could one of its duties have been to refine some sort of cosmic energy that existed in this universe for ease of use for the people of this planet.

Without more details I would never know. I guess I could try and search the caves that I've been warned about going down into. I would assume the answer to the question is usually the place you're told not to go to, but the reality was that I didn't care that much. As long as the power stayed useful, safe for me, and helped me get to my retirement I didn't care where it came from.

Well… Feeling energy was new. I was not exactly a spiritual sort, and here I was attempting to feel the energy out and try and understand where it came from. Granted I was applying the scientific method to it, trying to understand it from some sort of reasonable take other than oh it's just magic. This was some sort of energy, even if the source of this energy was yet to be determined. I might not be the one to figure it out but I would at least try. That would at least alleviate my concerns of religious overtones.

My thoughts though were interrupted as the hackles on Geri raised. Normally I would probably be wondering why that was happening but I could feel it too. That type 2 energy just increased tenfold and seemed to be coming from the castle that we were laying siege to. It was a disturbing and corrupting Force that felt like it was pushing the type one energy away and down, smothering it.

I stood up from where I had been sitting, looking around and trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I quickly noted that I appeared to be the only one feeling it. At least among the humans. They all seemed to be going about their jobs like nothing had happened, though I noted my wolves were definitely on edge at feeling the disturbing energies flowing from the castle.

Wait. I wasn't the only one looking off, I saw the wolf priest looking a bit disturbed as well, pushing his way through the crowd towards me. I moved in his general direction, wanting to find out what he knew on this subject.

The wolf priest pushed past the last couple people and stood in front of me, breathing heavily before saying, “my lady, I regret to inform you it appears that lord Farthegn has engaged in his dark magic once again.”

“Dark magic once again?” I asked questioningly, looking at him, “What dark magic has he engaged in before and what dark magic is he engaged in right now?”

“The Lord of this Castle has an item that allows him to call upon the Ice Fiends for his protection. He doesn't use it often because it often sets back his plans but it's his guarantee of survival trick. Normally he only turns it on at a low rate, letting the fiends come in at a trickle. It feels like he doesn't like having his castle blowing apart underneath him and has pushed whatever this item is to its fullest extent.”

I nodded my head as I understood what he was saying. Well, I understood the concept at the very least. The nature of this item left me a bit perplexed, but overall it didn't matter what it was.

Lord Farthegn had an item that was calling monsters to fight me, he turned it up on full which meant we probably had an hour before we were surrounded by creatures who ate humans. Which meant I did not have the time to lay back and let the siege engines demolish the castle piece by piece until he came out and fought himself.

“Well, looks like I'm going to have to learn to climb,” I muttered, turning to look at the castle and trying to figure out what I would need to do to get inside. There were plenty of guards around the walls I could see and a lot of them had bows. Any movement in that direction would result in arrow holes in me. Maybe I could keep the artillery going as I tried to climb? It would keep them down and give me the opportunity. What I needed was some sort of cover, massive cover and a distraction. A way to white out the field so they couldn't see what I was doing. Wait… There was something that could be done with that concept, wasn't there?

Taking a breath I looked at the wolf priest and nodded, saying “Thank you for telling me this information and I will deal with this promptly.” Looking in the direction of my sub-commanders who were having a conversation with Jarl Bretakollrsson, I moved over there and said “Gentlemen according to our priest the enemy is about to engage in dark magic, and he’s summoning Ice Fiends from the wilds. We have a bit of a warning and probably an hour to set up.“

They looked at me, a bit stunned, before sub Commander yellow said ”Okay, that's not good. Do we have a plan for dealing with this?”

“Unfortunately not yet. I have an idea that might buy us some time but the fact of the matter is that our best option is to withdraw from the siege to our camp and fortify it as best we can.” Thankfully I just trained the majority of my army on how to set up a defensive camp so it wouldn't be much harder to increase those defenses.

Sub Commander green red asked ”So we pull back to our camp, build up our defenses, and hope we can kill more of them than they can kill of us while hoping the dark magic is not too terrible? Well, that sounds like a very great way to go out. Just in case we don't make it out of this, Tanya, can I just say how much I've enjoyed being part of your army? The fights are always a lot more than bash one line against the other till someone gives up.”

“You're welcome, I guess,” I said, remembering all of a sudden that the people before me were basing their culture on Vikings. Or were Vikings, still out on all the details. Dying in glorious battle was good for them. Dying in glorious battle against an evil sorcerer probably was the stuff of Legends to them. Well, at least morale would be high I figured.

“I have a possible strategy that could buy us some time but we need to pull back everyone to the camp and just start building up our defenses. Cut down trees, dig trenches, if there’s anything you can do, do it.” Looking at Geri, I said, “Follow them, dig and carry.” Geri nodded, understanding the orders. He would organize the wolves to do the job. And with men and wolves working together I believe we could get this camp so fortified the Ice Fiends would never be able to take the camp.

“And this powerful strategy is what exactly?” jarl Bretakollrsson asked from his seated position.

“Man up there decides he's going to be a dark sorcerer? Guess I have to meet him in combat on his own fields.” I answered with a shrug. The commanders chuckled at that and left, seeming to take my snarkiness as overconfidence. It was better than nothing and better than a depressed morale.

I took a few steps away before pulling out the rune beads I had been given so long ago, and shifted them around till I reached the desired calculation. Holding them between my hands I began channeling the energy from Fenris as best I could, focusing it to run through the calculations on the rune beads. Said beads began to immediately get colder in my hands dropping the temperature below the ambient temperature.

There was a lot of energy I needed to channel but I focused and kept at it, pushing more and more through the beads until I could feel it building up around me. The repulsive dirty energy that I had been sensing since lord Farthegn started using his mysterious item felt like it was being pushed away from me and the area around me swirling about.

I was so focused on working this spell that I lost track of exactly how long I was doing it. I was only aware that something had changed when Commander Eilifsson grabbed my shoulder and shook it, interrupting my focus.

Looking around, a bit confused, I saw that the men had been hard at work building up the defenses. When I closed my eyes there had only been a low 2-feet wall around the camp, made up of debris and such just to keep things out. Now it appeared that the hour had passed and that wall was now about 3 feet high and someone had dug a trench in front of it. So it looked like 3 feet from inside the camp but if you were outside it was more like five.

I nodded my head in approval at seeing the upgrade in defenses. By my estimate, Ice Fiends were around 7 to 6 ft tall which meant they would be more easily able to stab the creatures in their chest and upper body from this angle. Men were already lining up and preparing their weapons along the wall.

“Preparations working out?” I asked, looking to the commander.

“Yes, lady Tanya. Are you okay?” He said, looking at my hands with a bit of worry. This caused me to look at them and realize that a layer of ice had formed over them, sealing them together. It wasn't too thick but apparently I hadn't even noticed this was happening. Cracking the ice I freed my hands and brushed them off, hoping that there would not be any lasting freezer burn or anything of that nature.

“Perfectly fine.” I said, once I confirmed my fingers moved as they should. Looking up I saw that the sky had clouded over as I had hoped and a bit of snow was falling. With any luck what I had just done would pay off and the snow that was already falling would block the view from the castle of the ground below, allowing an operation to sneak in and be pulled off.

Theoretically what I had just done was create an area of low pressure, pulling the storms that still stuck to the sea toward the mountains in our general direction. It was a bit interesting on how exactly you could pull that off, considering I had needed to create a massive area of low pressure for something like this to even work. And I was 90% sure that if I had the ability to do this in my salaryman life I would have ended up dead, my body destroying itself while focusing that energy through the item. Or frozen solid, either or was a possibility.

Looking around me I noticed that a lot of the shield maidens had created a protective circle around me. They had been serving along with the rest of the housecarls since their training was pretty much exactly the same and I didn't make note of them that often.

Fenris was an ‘everyone fights, no one quits’ kind of place, which also meant that little things like how many men and how many women are in a force could be easily missed. Hell a full third of jarl Bretakollrsson ’s force was female. Which seemed disproportionately odd so I'd asked one of my shield maidens to ask around and why this was a thing. It turned out that most of the female forces under his command were wives and mothers of those who died fighting Lord Farthegn. They had a vendetta and had eagerly volunteered to join jarl Farthegn’s forces since they knew they would have the best chance of causing pain to the one who caused the loss of their loved ones.

Not really caring why the shield maidens had decided that I was the person that needed to be protected while focusing on that energy spell. Or caring why some of them appeared to actually be from jarl Bretakollrsson’s force. I looked to the sub commander of Eilifsson and asked. “Any news on the Ice Fiends? How far are they out?”

“Scouts have been reporting them coming in from pretty much all directions, except South as expected. We're not too far from the sea in our position so I doubt there's many Fiends living out on the slowly melting glaciers out there.”

I noted my understanding before asking ”And how bad are the numbers?”

“About two times our number, maybe more. The scouts and wolf scouts have been doing their best to murder every single one they find with archery but that's not slowing them down. Only good news is that they do not show any organization. In fact I'd say they're dumber than usual, moving as if they are compelled to come here. If they were hunting or searching as they usually would our scouts would not be having as much luck as they currently have. Frankly, I don't understand the numbers that are getting reported. We have Ice Fiends on our coast, and it has never been this bad.”

“If we believe the local Intel he's been using them as some sort of ‘I win’ spell, most likely he forbids heavily hunting and cleaning these pests.” I answered, shaking my head. I could in fact see why you would allow such a pest creature to move around and grow if he had control over them. Having something at your beck and call does allow your ability to experiment, see if you can organize it like I had done with my wolves. He obviously was not very good at it because all he could do was summon them to his castle while he hid in there. But if you have a castle and the ability to summon monsters to eat anything outside that castle, then you might as well use it.

Looking at subcommander yellow, I said “I'm going to go see about preventing this conflict from getting any worse. Hold this position and kill anything that tries to kill you, sound good?”

“Sounds like an amazing time!” The commander of the yellow said, before adding. “Jarl Bretakollrsson asks to try and minimize damage to the internal structure of the castle. He wasn't that big of a fan of the bombardment idea to begin with and he says there's some relic or something in there that he really doesn't want destroyed.“

I looked over towards jarl Bretakollrsson , throwing a suspicious look his way. It was uniquely possible that he wanted the relic that Lord Farthegn was using to attempt to kill us all. Just because your enemy has evil objects doesn't mean you don't want them. If it was though he was going to be disappointed because I was totally going to destroy it. As far as I could see the Ice Fiends were a civilization dead-end. At least the wolves had uses outside of killing such as digging for the trenches or moving things around. They were useful to humanity. The ice fiends were just a ravaging horde. They were locusts but for people instead of farms and they needed to be dealt with, sent back to the mountains where they belonged or eliminated completely.

“Tell him I'll try and keep the damage as minimal as possible but things happen.” I said with a shrug before walking towards the edge of the camp. I hopped over the short wall onto a wooden log that had been put across the trench. It was a good thing I did because I noticed that apparently they had time to put sharpened stakes at the bottom of the trench. That would cause some damage to the Ice Fiends but I expected that the moment the trench filled with their acidic blood those would become less useful.

Nodding my head in approval I walked on, heading towards the castle and taking out the beads again. I just rearranged them and tried to focus the energies on creating an optical illusions spell of sorts. With luck I would be able to hide my presence from sight and the snow and everything else would make sure no one else caught on that I was making a move. All I needed to do was climb the side of a castle wall that… Yeah we put a good few holes in, so it shouldn’t be that hard to find somewhere to squeeze in. Once inside I'd go about finding the relic, device, whatever colorful term this Lord Farthegn used, and then I’d kill the bastard.

Every day on this side of the coast had proven that the man was a destructive force for civilization, he had attempted to destabilize the government through assassination, got the armies of others destroyed in order to weaken his enemies, and now he was using man-eating monsters in order to win a fight he couldn't win. As much as I was for live and let live as a principle there was a limit. For me, that limit was when civilization itself was being degraded and damaged by irresponsible behavior.

Assassinating the king would lead to chaos, mayhem, and, if I had not been there, in a rise in wolf attacks. Letting his armies get destroyed fighting me would have destabilized this region, allowing its rampant Ice Fiend problem to grow even more. And this calling of the Ice Fiends to destroy my army meant that they were coming down from the hills and mountains into civilized territory. Even if he turned it off immediately after my army was destroyed, which would not be happening today, they would be scattered across civilized lands and causing mayhem and destruction for years. Lord Farthegn had proven himself to be a threat to civilization, letting him live would simply create a status quo with him becoming a Saturday morning cartoon villain level of evil. I did not want to be dealing with his bullshit every 2 years.

I simply wanted to go home, retire, raise my wolves, maybe train a few Wolf riders and hunt some monsters. None of that would be possible if I had to assemble an army every two years to march over the mountain pass and deal with his bullshit. So I would be destroying this albatross around my economic future’s neck while I could.

Now the question was how was I going to get into that castle.

Sub-commander Eilifsson

It had been an hour since Tanya had left on her one-woman mission to kill Lord Farthegn and destroy whatever item he was using to summon the Ice Fiends. If this had been another Lord or Commander I might have been worried that we had just been abandoned to a fate worse than death as said Lord ran for the hills in hopes of surviving to fight another day.

But this was Tanya, the lady of the wolves, and she left her wolves here. If there was one thing about Tanya I could say, it was that there was one constant with her. And that constant was that she cared for her wolves. Especially Freki and Geri, who had been hanging out near me and the other commanders this entire time as if they were on the command staff themselves. Better be fair: considering they seemed to have some sort of authority over the other wolves, maybe they were.

Either way the fact was that, no matter what, you could trust that Tanya would return just to save her wolves if nothing else. So, as long as the wolves were there, I knew she wasn't running. She was doing something to try and win them this fight even if what that something was he didn't know. Literally, because the Wolf Witch had vanished before my eyes just a few moments after stepping out of the fort, so she could really be anywhere.

Whatever she had done before then had taken full effect though, as a winter storm had set in even though it was the middle of Spring. Snow was falling heavily when it usually fell lightly this time of year and this favored our joint Force. Ice fiends had an okay sense of smell and often used that over their own eyes when dealing with parties of hunters, like those we were employing to try and whittle down their numbers. The snow was doing wonders to neutralize that sense, allowing our Wolf Scouts to run circles around the oncoming horde of monsters.

And they were coming in numbers large enough to be called a horde. At first they only showed up in small groups of 10 to 15, a regular tribe’s size, something that could be expected on our side of the mountains and was easily dispatched by clever tactics and good shots to heads and hearts. But they had slowed up when they realized that someone was hunting them, obviously leaving corpses lying around would clue in even the dumbest animals that enemies were about. After that they started to come in larger groups of 30 to 40. These groups had been whittled down as best we could before they made contact with our fortifications. So far though those groups had been dispatched through Mass volley.

But all good things come to an end look because the main body of them was coming now, reports of Ice Fiends in the thousands had been coming in for the last 10 minutes. Scouts and Wolf Scouts had done their best trying to whittle them down but they were running low on ammo at this point. Unfortunate side effect of their acidic blood, meaning that even arrows that didn't break from them struggling or dying were still ruined.

Not much we could do but hope that our reserves of projectiles would last some more, that and the spears we had been crafting for the last 2 hours. We had been creating as many wooden spears as possible since killing the creatures at a distance would be better for everyone, lest acidic blood get everywhere. One thing about this that made me a little bit happy was that this was the time for my men to shine. My particular brand of troops was specifically designed to fight Fiends as my particular area of coast was snugly fit against the mountains and we had to deal with their bullshit at an abnormal level compared to everyone else. So, for generations, my family had been working on improving our fighting techniques for this kind of battle: heavier armor and Dai axes with heavy heads at the end of a long metal pole, designed to withstand the acidic blood and keep on cutting and smashing until the enemy was dead. Even if the tip was dulled by the acid there was enough weight at the head of the ax to smash a skull. And given that my men were experts at fighting those things I had gone about making sure that the majority of my men was on the north side of our line. I sent a few detachments of my men to the East and West lines, just to make sure we could show off there as well, but I wanted the glory of this fight to go to me and my people.

I was perhaps enjoying a little bit too much the idea of taking a good share of this final battle’s Fame for myself, as I almost missed a runner coming from the Western Wall of our fortified square.

“Sir, a large contingent of the enemy is breaking through the woods. Commander Larlssonhas opened up with archery fire but they are still approaching. He thinks this is the big one, sir, there's more and more coming through.”

Nodding my thanks I got up from my seat and turned to the other commanders, “It looks like today’s fight is about to truly begin. In case I don't see any of you after this is over… It's been an honor serving with you all,” I said, before reaching down and grabbing my helmet. Quickly securing it over my head, I walked to the Western Wall.

I took my place at the center of the line and smiled at the formation of ugly beasts trying to struggle their way through archery fire. The snow was coming down all around us, adding a mythical aspect to their valiant charge. They were wielding nothing but clubs, though a few of them did have what appeared to be crude Shields. They attempted to cross the open Fields around our camp and, of course, were slowly accomplishing this but they were paying a heavy price. The ground here would be acidic forever, probably nothing would grow for a long time.

This would be a glorious fight, the only thing better would be the approval of the Allfather himself. The sky then rumbled, a flash of lights as lightning crackled across the sky, signaling his approval. There was nothing better than to have the Allfather's attention before a fight, nothing better to restore morale, boost it, or create one when you lacked it.

This was the kind of moment that swept you up and I let myself be swept up in it. Standing up onto the wall itself, looking back at my men, I said "warriors of djævelske mordere, today is a glorious day! Today we get to fight hundreds of the creatures we have fought for generations and prove that we are the best at doing it. Not only to our brothers and the Russ, Kystnære and Fjell but also to the Brothers in this land across the mountains. You are here at a moment of History, a moment of legend! You are here at the moment that djævelske mordere stood their ground and proved their worth and helped bring down a dark lord! What better story to tell your children than how you helped bring down a dark lord.“

“But I don't have any,” a heckler in the crowd said, getting a good chuckle from the other yellow-coated soldiers.

Laughing, I said “Well, then this story will definitely help you fix that. Nothing gets a lass more excited than defeating great evils and destroying monsters.” I got a roar of approval from my men, a few of them hitting their Dai axes against the ground in a rumble answering the ones that were going on in the sky.

“Men of djævelske mordere, Allfatther is watching us from above. Though our fearless Wolf witch has gone to deal with the evil Lord Farthegn herself, she is here in spirit. Where her wolves go, she goes,” I said, waving to the many wolves about the camp and lines. The sky rumbled again, seeming to punctuate my point.

“We will hold this line for the wolf witch! We will help defeat these monsters and claim Glory for our djævelske mordere, this is already decided. The only thing that is left to do is to make it happen.” Raising my double-headed Dai ax above my head I shouted, “So who is ready to write our Fate in The legend today?”

I'd expected a cheer for my men, which I did get. What I did not expect was a cheer from some of the other clans, nor the wolves howling in approval. But I gladly took it as it was a good sign in my book. Smiling, I stepped down and turned to face the still oncoming horde of Ice Fiends. They were much closer but legend was already written at this point, now it was all about making it happen.

Tanya

Finding my way into the castle proved ridiculously easy, my optical illusion spell worked like planned and the snow muffled any sounds on my trip up the side of the castle wall. Thankfully I found a few holes that had been burst into the wall before I had to climb all the way up. Finding one that was about the right size and then using my Superior strength to widen it further was nothing.

Before I knew it I was inside the castle, enjoying a little bit of warmth even if the room had been sealed to try and keep the cold out. Thankfully the room’s sealing was literally just a bunch of blankets shoved under the door, which I was able to push open without much issue.

From there I worked my way further into the castle, trying to use a spell I remembered meant for detecting energy sources as my guide to the item, relic, whatever it was called, that was drawing in the Ice Fiends. Well, before I did, I took a look from my much higher position to try and guess and make how many ice Fiends there were.

Too many. Actually, I couldn't see them all because there were a lot of trees around this Castle, tactical mistake under the best of circumstances, but I was able to see enough moving around that I could guess. Yeah, it was going to be a while before the monsters were all killed. If I could find the device and turn it to repel them that would be useful. If not… Well, lots and lots of dead Ice Fiends were in my future.

Shuffling further into the castle though I found lots of armor stands and tapestries, normal rich people stuff for this period in time. This was to be expected, after all this was the highest-ranking Noble on this Coast so he was going to have the most stuff. Hopefully he didn't have some sort of super armor or something. That would make this already unnecessary fight ridiculously stupid. But the fact of the matter was that I had no idea what strange mysteries this guy had been screwing around with so I really couldn't make assumptions either way on what he was and what he wasn't. Was he a wizard capable of dark magic or was he using some sort of ancient technology that he possibly found? With the world as it was either could be true, which annoyed me to a certain extent.

Thankfully though my answer soon stood in front of me and I ripped the door off its hinges. It had been locked and I really didn't want to bother with this stuff anymore as I felt whatever was causing this dark dirty feeling, just on the other side of the door. Tossing the door off to the side I stepped in, having to duck my head a bit since the place had been designed for people of 6 ft average and not my 7-foot frame. I found a crystal of some sort on a pedestal, hovering over a hunk of metal with dials and buttons.

“So it's tech,” I muttered, stepping towards it. I walked around the pedestal, seeing if I could figure out if there were any directions on how to turn it off. Unfortunately whatever user-friendly abilities this device once had seemed to have worn off long ago. Most of the metal looked blackened by age and there were a few dials missing, so it did not seem to have been treated nicely over the years.

I was considering just smashing it when the guest of honor appeared. A 6 ft tall man stepped into the room wearing full armor, not just chain and fur but actual plate, and carrying a large sword. He was black of hair and kept his face shaved by the looks of it which let me see a scar running down his left cheek. “Who the hell are you and how did you get in here?”

Smiling, I said “Greetings, Lord Farthegn.” With a bow, I continued “I am lady Tanya, servant of the Russ.”

He took one look at me and drew his sword off his side, “Well, you match the description of the bitch tearing up my kingdom. What the hell are you doing here and how did you get inside? I'd like to know before I kill you, so I can increase the security.”

“I walked and climbed and walked some more,” I said matter of factly. “That's why I'm here, I'm here to destroy this,” I said, pointing towards the object. “Unless you can show me how to turn it to repulse the creatures below? I would have figured that it would have a feature like that.”

That seemed to stop him for a moment as he looked me and the device over, “You understand that that's technology and not some sorcerer's gambits.”

“Why, of course, I understand this is technology,” I said with a smile, “Though I would point out that it's from a time where sorcery and technology seem to have merged, as I can feel the arcane energies of coming off of it.”

“Bullshit!” The man said matter of factly, “This machine is a device like any other from the period behind history, when we were a great people and sailed the Stars. It is not some arcane trinket.”

I shrugged and said “If that's what you want to believe. I just know that I feel the energy coming off from it and there are two possibilities for that: either humanity has developed technology that could interfere with supernatural magical items such as this or my own biology happens to pick up on the signal that you use to control the Ice Fiends. By the way, does it control the Ice Trolls? That one has been bugging me since I've only seen the Fiends and as far as I'm aware the Trolls are just their more grown-up cousins.”

The man was standing, ready to assault me with a sword, but I really showed no fear at this point. He was human, he was not one of the monsters I'd fought. I could take him one to one, even with his armor advantage. “It doesn't, I've tried. Ice Trolls are repulsed by it. Now, if you understand this is technology, do you understand what I'm doing here? Do you understand that I'm trying to rebuild civilization?”

I looked around as if in confusion, almost actually a bit of confused myself but I was just humoring him. “You believe you are building Civilization by killing the pillars of what keeps a civilization together on this planet, its leaders? I'm afraid you're doing a hell of a terrible job at that. If anything I think you turned yourself into a degrading force on civilization and whatever civilization you finally create will be an authoritarian mess that will be worse than what was here before.”

“Pretty words for a Savage! Humanity needs authority to control it, otherwise it would be driven to insanity by the monsters on this planet.“

“I don't technically disagree with you. We need an authority figure, someone able to rally forces to deal with problems as they come up. You're not rallying forces though, you are just ruling through might and destroying the foundations by which others may be allowed to protect the people of this planet. And, best of all, this thing,” I said, pointing to the psi-emitter-like object.

“You wield a club of monsters to keep your people in line but you have no control of it. You just depend on them receding if you turn it off, is this what I am to believe?”

“Believe what you will, that item has gotten me power over this continent that none of the other Lords have ever managed. It will be the key to reuniting our civilization into one fist and taking it back into the Stars.”

“Really? An item that attracts monsters will do that?” I reached out with both hands, grabbed the object, and then smashed it over my knee in front of him. It fell apart rather easily, probably fragile from decades or maybe generations of existence. Who knew how long this thing had been around. The look on his face was quite hilarious to watch.

He screwed up his face and said, “Fine! You destroyed a key component of my power, now I get to kill you. Unless, of course, your next objective is to kill me? Wouldn't that make you no better than what you called me?”

I gave him the eyebrow at that, “Oh yes, assassinating pillars of the community and destroying the centers of power? Yeah, I see how you could think that this would make me similar to you. Problem with that though? You're a degrading Force while I have built up. The actions are similar but the overall outcomes are different.”

“What moral game are you playing? There's no difference! Killing a pillar of a community is killing a pillar of a community by your own logic.”

Was he really trying to logic me? Did he think I was some sort of robot that would freeze up? I just shook my head and started walking towards him, “I am many things, and there are many things I don't even know. Here's the real difference, the one that makes this act different: your killing of the pillars of my communities would have drastically affected my quality of life downwards while me killing you will drastically make sure that my quality of life will continue to build up.”

“What are you, a psychopath?” He swung the sword, trying to chop my head.

I caught it in my hand and ripped it out of his, reaching down and grabbing him by the neck. I lifted him up a foot in the air, “No, I'm a Human Resource manager and your net contribution to civilization is detrimental to our society and my retirement package.”

Sub-commander Eilifsson

The enemy just kept coming, wave after wave of Ice Fiends charged across the open field and fell under arrow fire before getting the honor of falling to my men's axes. The fun had been going on for an hour and a half now and I had been forced to take a moment out of the line every once in a while. Fact of the matter was that the men were getting tired, even with efforts to switch men out in order to give them time to rest they were running low on the energy needed to keep striking these things dead.

Not to mention the wounded were beginning to pile up. One lucky acid spurt here, a lucky clawing there, and all of a sudden I needed to take men off the line to care for the wounded and hope that they'd either be able to take up the position in the line again or at least survive this combat. A couple good things about the snow though: the temperature had dropped so it was easier for the blood to solidify, sealing wounds, and nothing helped better against spurts of acid than rubbing snow on it to wash it away.

About 45 minutes ago though things had started to slack off a bit, the horde’s behavior had changed. For the worst or the better, depending on your point of view. they stopped charging like they were mindless creatures and started charging more like animals on the hunt. The archers’ effectiveness had gone down considerably but there also appeared to be less of them attempting to charge. Perhaps Tanya had been successful in destroying the device? Only time would tell at this point, if it took her an hour and 30 minutes to locate it then it would probably take at least that long for her to get back.

The change did have more benefits though. There were plenty of explosive ammunition left around so I had organized a couple of crews into firing the catapults into the midst of the monsters. It was somewhat effective.

Getting up I was about to go check up on the catapults when I looked around, noticing that Larlsson was not resting here with us. Turning to the second commander of Russ's forces after Wolf Rider leader Authgrim Bardisson, who I knew was holding the Eastern side of the line, Isgerd Buidottir of the shield maidens I asked, “Where is Larlsson?”

“He’s with Allfather now, they managed to break through for a moment on the western side of the line. The wolves deployed and handled it though, so nothing too drastic there. We’ve been able to reestablish the line and fighting has returned to normal.“

“Damn, I have to make sure to give him a good funeral after this,” I muttered, looking out at the line. If commanders were falling things were starting to get desperate. We needed some sort of strategy to break the enemies’ will to fight, otherwise we were going to be swarmed over and eaten. As much as a glorious end that would be I'd rather prefer to live a few more years. I just needed to find some way to restore them around, keep the fight going and maybe in an hour or two the Ice Fiends would retreat.

The sky rumbled as it had been doing for the entire battle. The storm was picking up, maybe? I didn't know what Tanya had done but it definitely brought in a hefty cold front. Shrugging I started heading towards the line when a howl greeted me. A large thunderous howl that seemed to shake the ground itself. And then the sky lit up as lightning bolts began raining down on the Fiends around the camp.

Pushing my way through the dazed members of our expedition to get to the line I held myself up to see what the hell was going on outside our fortifications. And was thoroughly shocked and stunned by the sight in front of me: dozens, if not hundreds, of Ice Fiends burning, the lightning having hit them and set them up on fire. Guess that acid blood came with a few issues, uh? The trees were not doing much better either as they too were burning, though at a much-reduced rate compared to a dry season.

And to top off this sight of devastation, and completely restore the morale of everyone around me, a massive Thunder Wolf came out of the trees. It came from the direction from which the Ice Fiends had been coming from, and it was surrounded both by common Fenrisian wolves and Blackmanned. They let out a howl in unison before charging into the combat; ripping into the rear of the dazed formation of ice fiends.

How had Tanya summoned these creatures, I did not know. All I knew was that I was glad to see them as they were murdering the hell out of our enemy. It was not long before the Ice Fiends began to just scatter, running into the woods to try to get away from the massacre.

The wolves did not stay as the monsters fled, instead they gave chase and ran after them. Before long the only ones left in the field were the Dead, the dying, and the Thunder Wolf who was looking us over rather intently. As if judging if we were worthy to be left alone.

Whatever final conclusion it would have come to was cut off as the snapping of a branch brought everyone's eyes to the side of the battlefield that faced Lord Farthegn’s Castle. There stood Tanya, carrying something over her shoulder that looked like it might be a person. She was looking at the Thunder Wolf, curiously by the way her eyes took it in.

After a moment the wolf bowed its head and I realized I'd seen this wolf before, back on the march through the mountains. Had it been following us this whole time? I had no idea, I wanted to finish this battle. The wolf headed off into the wilderness, hunting most likely the remnants of the Ice Fiends.

With a shrug Tanya stopped looking at the wolf and marched the rest of the way into camp before dumping an armored body on the ground. Geri and Freki immediately came up and began cuddling up next to her and she patted them on the head before saying.

“Job is done and it looks like you guys managed to survive. What are our losses?”

Smiling, I said, “Minimal, Lady Tanya.” I didn't have the exact numbers but that would serve, I believed.

She nodded and walked past me, heading towards her tent, “Alright, see to the wounded and make sure everyone is good and healthy. We’ll clean up the area around the camp as best we can but I'm going to take a moment to reorient myself, I feel exhausted.”

“Yes, Lady Tanya!” The voices came not just from the command staff but most of the camp as well, we were all in agreement at this point. Everyone would have their moments of Glory or two to look back on this campaign, but the campaign as a whole was Tanya's Glory.

Writer note: And there we go chapter 13, lot of little things ending their end of the evil lord saga, the end of the war, and fleshing out some culture. I hope everyone enjoys it! Out showing my wring process this (Siege of Keep/troll/wolves) is all I had in mind when I wrote this chapter, you be the judge if I fulfill those points.

Edited by: Preier, M.G. ,
Community edited by:
Community editable doc (Chapter 13) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

Art thanks Sky66 who Commissioned the Artist J-likes-to-draw

Chapter 14, Build a Legend

Tanya

Dealing with a fallen Kingdom is not something I had expected to do after crossing the mountains. I knew there was a possibility, and I was kind of hoping that there would be like an heir or something to easily replace lord Farthegn.

Unfortunately the dark sorcerer, as my men had started to call him and I was still not sure how that name had taken off, was unmarried and had no kids. I would assume his quest for the conquest of Fenris had so enraptured him that he'd forgotten the important part of setting up a kingdom: having someone to take over when you're done.

Without an official heir, at minimum one of proper age, his Kingdom would have fallen apart the moment he got sick or died. Then all his so-called progress would have been for nothing, resulting in a serious backstep in the civilization of this planet.

Everyday I found more reasons to be glad I'd murdered the former Lord of this land with my bare hands. Though without him around chaos would ensue and all his so-called games were lost anyways. Really I should have just packed up everything and set course for home, what happened here after I left should have been none of my concern.

However I realized quite quickly that leaving the situation as it stood would just require me to come back over here to fix it, sooner or later. I was not one to waste time and I had two weeks before I needed to start making the trip back across the mountains. So, like a good salaryman, I got to work.

Jarl Bretakollrsson wanted his castle back so I let him have the castle back but I asked if he'd be interested in signing an alliance with the Russ. That way he would appear to be the legitimate government replacement after we left. This would also spur trade relations across the mountains, which I figured would lead to a better, safer, and less warlike community. At least I hoped so. It could result in me coming across the mountains again. but at least then I'd have troops and supplies here already with general knowledge of the territory. Not to mention Jarl Bretakollrsson had watched how effective my troops had been during the combat and had started to implement some of my methods into his own formations. At the very minimum the troops here would have similar training and thus be better able to work with my troops if something like this ever happened again.

He took a minute to consider it before finally agreeing, which showed a lot of hope for the future in my mind.

The wolf priest had also agreed to this situation, as they themselves had had Independence before Lord Farthegn had tried to force everyone under his rule.

Once that was cleared up came the… well, clean up operations. Out of the seven minor Lords that had made up the support structure of Lord Farthegn’s Kingdom, I had two on my side. Another one was out of the fight and waiting in his castle to find out what the world would look like after the war was over. Two were dead and another two my prisoners. I held quite a number of cards so I got to work playing them for a more peaceful situation after I left. I couldn't exactly do anything about the one waiting to find out what the world would look like after war but I could do something about my prisoners. I simply pointed out that with their forces ravaged terribly the jarl Ali Geitirgestsson, who had sat out most of the fight here, could easily pick them off one by one, thus they might be wise to align themselves with jarl Bretakollrsson.

They immediately got the hint and asked to speak with him. I had him brought to the tent where I was meeting with these prisoners and they pledged allegiance to him, setting up Jarl Bretakollrsson as a strong ally in the region.

As for the land of the two Lords who were dead, there was not much I could really do about that. Most likely they would be divided amongst jarl Bretakollrsson and jarl Geitirgestsson. A situation that was not set up for a return to the complete peaceful standards I would enjoy having but it would do and it would be safe enough for my army to return home without worrying about a massive murderfest going on behind me.

But that settled, I allowed my troops and sub-commanders to raid Lord Farthegn's vaults underneath the castle. As much as Jarl Bretakollrsson had been an ally, I needed to make sure my army was good and happy. And he didn't say that the vaults underneath the castle were what he wanted: he said he wanted the castle. With men carrying tons of wealth and other items I began the Long March home that would take us back through the mountains and to the borders of Russ where I would report the victory, receive whatever reward I was guaranteed to receive, and recluse myself back to my home with my wolves, where I hoped to not be bothered with such situations in the near future.

Marching through the lowlands was the easy part though, as all we had to do was appear somewhere and anyone who would threaten us backed down. I figured that the bandit population would be on the rise, now that the major military forces in the region were devastated, but they seemed pretty low on the ground as no one attempted to accost us. Of course being a large army tended to dissuade even enthusiasts from such behaviors. That and the Ice Fiends had probably kept such banditry down before the shift in control. There were also large populations of wolves that apparently had moved in while I had been dealing with Lord Farthegn.

I spotted them watching us the entire time we were heading back towards the mountain pass to our homeland and got the main story of how they had shown up to help finish off the Ice Fiends in the final battle. It was interesting and I wondered if that Thunder Wolf was the one I had fought in the mountain pass but I figured it was probably not, that would be a ridiculous coincidence for that wolf to have been the exact same Wolf. Most likely some other Thunder Wolf with his own wolf tribe saw an opportunity to deal with the Ice Fiends and claim the territory of the wilderness for himself.

Every creature was motivated by their own needs and wants, so I saw no reason why it would want to aid us in this fight unless it somehow helped itself.

Which is what I assumed while we were marching through the glacier mountains that separated this region from our home region. Then another Thunder Wolf appeared at the front of our column with his pack and I knew that something terrible was about to happen.

I found out about this while I was in the middle of the formation; watching for problems to appear. Being the golden quote expert monster Hunter unquote it was basically my job to make sure that any mass of wolves or any other nasties didn't hit us from the sides.

But because of the appearance of the wolf I had to abandon this job and move to the front to find out what was going on.

Eilifsson was at the front of the line, looking at the mass of wolves with what I thought was a bit of trepidation. I couldn't really tell for certain as his helmet did a good job of hiding the features that would give me a definite opinion on the matter. His heavy armored soldiers had done a wonderful job at the battle a few weeks before, so I had given them the honor of being at the front of the column. They seemed to be able to battle through most monsters after all.

Riding on Geri's back up next to him I asked, “So what do we have here? Hungry wolves trying to accost us or are they trying to rob us? I know I said we would run into bandit activity later but I didn't think the wolves would turn to it.”

I got a chuckle and sub Commander yellow nodded his head in the direction of the wolf. “That's the wolf that showed up during the battle,” he said matter of factly. “In fact… I'm sure that is the wolf that knocked you off the cliff on our first trip across the mountains.”

I looked at it, squinted, and asked, “Are you sure? It could literally be any wolf. I know that Thunder Wolves are rare and very territorial but I don't think it would have tracked us down like that. It was probably just some other Thunder Wolf summoned by the thunder that rained down during the fight.”

“Nope, that wolf has the same scar on the nose.” I looked again and noted that there was indeed a scar on its muzzle but that was not definite proof of anything. Frankly, I didn't really remember all the features of the Thunder Wolf I'd fought in close quarters combat several weeks back. Shrugging, I dismounted from Cunning's back and patted him on the shoulder to tell him to wait.

Looking up to sub-Commander yellow I said, ”Well, keep them in back and I'll find out what this thing wants.” Before starting to walk across the open cliffside to the wolf.

The roadside was not narrow as some good eight men could walk side by side without issue here but it was slippery and I had to be careful because of the ice. Once I got up to it the wolf sat on its haunches and looked back at me while I studied it. We stared at each other for a good few minutes before I shrugged and said.

“Unless you have the ability to speak through your mind I'm not going to be able to tell what you want just by sitting there and looking at me. Still, I rather hope you don't have that ability. The last wolf that did, I had to kill.”

The wolf made a scoffing noise as if it understood me. In fact it probably did, its head was at least as large as mine so who knew how well the brain cavity had expanded on these wolves. What the wolf did next though surprised me a bit as it laid its head into the snow, grabbed something that had been hidden there, and shook it loose before tossing it to me.

Grabbing it I looked at it and saw that it was white hair, or fur, coming out of scaly skin that had been molted like a snake by my guess. Just going by the size of that piece, the darn thing was probably big enough to eat a human whole.

The wolf looked at the fur and then down into the valley that we were heading towards, one of the stopover points for our journey home. I followed its gaze and saw that the glacier at one end of the valley, which had been solid on our trip here, was now not so solid as the base of it had been melted by the looks of it and a cave-like structure sat there in a pool of water.

“Warning me about some kind of threat?” I asked. The Thunder Wolf nodded, which confirmed my theory on its intelligence. It looked past me to the men who were gathering to see the conversation between me and the wolves, then it nodded at the fur pelt again.

“They'll have more details,” I offered and the Wolf nodded. Which seriously was kind of impressive. I could tell my wolves were intelligent from my time with them, maybe not fully on the level of humans but definitely able to learn and understand with time. Even the common Fenrisian wolves were somewhat intelligent and they would accept the lead of the Blackmaned so it was good enough.

Thunder Wolves appeared to be on a whole another level, as intelligent as humans. Possibly even more if they could instantly understand the local language, or maybe they were just that old? They were easily the size of tanks and elephants, if elephants could live a long time then maybe these wolves could live a ridiculously long time and it had been able to learn a lot in these years? Or maybe they were an example of an old dog learning new tricks, for all I knew.

I nodded my head before saying “Thank you for this warning. We will come up with a plan to deal with whatever is down there. We will also leave you whatever meat is left on the beast after we've killed it, as payment for this service and your help.“

The wolf panted with what I could best approximate as a wolf smile before nodding and wandering off, heading up a rather steep cliff further into the mountains. Unfortunately it looked like it was not going to help out in whatever conflict was about to take place in the valley below. As it just did them a good service by giving a warning of the creature down there, and probably saved them from a surprise attack, I wasn't going to hold it against it.

“Fine!” I held the fur-lined scales in my hand and walked back to the gathering group of commanders as they removed themselves from their positions in the line to find out what the holdup had been.

Holding the fur-lined scales up for them to see, I said “Apparently Mr. Thunderwolf has issued us a warning of an unknown creature living in the valley below. Are any of you familiar with this beast?”

There was a notable pause before the leader of the adventures guild and wolf scout leader Styr said “Alfather hammer! That's an Ice Wyrm skin… Those skins are worth their weight in gold.” I looked at said skin in appraisal. If that was true that probably could pay off any food expenses for the next two years.

“Ice Wyrm, you say? What is an Ice Wyrm and how do we defeat it?”

“We don't! We find some other way around,” the leader of the Wolf Scouts answered, as if that was a matter of course. “Large Ice Wyrms are incredibly dangerous even at the best of times and attempting to kill them is something only a demigod should attempt.” It was at that moment he seemed to look at me harder then continued, “That being said… Ice Wyrms can detect motion through the ground, they can feel the vibrations of a person walking. The only one who's ever successfully killed an Ice Wyrm and been able to live to profit used a weapon that created a thunderous mass of fire that shattered much of the ice in the region south of the Russ.“

Yellow Commander nodded his head in agreement before adding, “The clan Gummer still profit off that corpse their ancestor created even now. It was such a large Ice Wyrm that bits of it still are found to this day and since they had enough to purchase the area where the last of the bits had probably rained as their property… They've controlled the market on Ice Wyrm skins for the last 100 great years.”

If this was an animated work I have the distinct feeling my pupils would have turned into money signs. The beast had set up a family to live for 200 years, that… That was impressive, that was beyond impressive, that was financial stability on a level I don't believe anyone in my entire family line had ever experienced!

Even if my life span was as long as Fenrisians, which was relatively long from what I've been able to learn as King Russ was 60 great years old or nearly 120 years, that would mean I would have 80 years of excess wealth to invest into my future and making sure my wolves were taken care of in case something were to ever happen to me. Granted if the army helped me I would have to share the kill with them but from the implication alone I don't think it would break the profitable status of killing this beast.

Turning to look down at the valley I rubbed my chin and thought. The creature was drawn to sound, I didn't have any explosives which was obviously what they were talking about… hold on don't I have explosives? An explosive spell would actually work, I would need something to draw the beast’s notice as I couldn't just fling a rock at it and hope to hit. I would assume this beast was much faster than that and with the way they talked about it I would also assume it moved through the Earth with some speed.

Which would mean someone would need to get close to put the explosive spell right on it or near it. Any of my wolves or the men under my command who attempted that would just end up dead, which meant that was my job. Probably for the best anyway, handling an explosive spell that was active was not a safe situation at the best of times. And I would need to be the one to do that.

So I would need to be near but I would need something to distract the beast, something big and loud and… looking at my army, I had that covered. I also had another option as I felt around for the rune beads that could create some noise.

I had an idea. It was not a good idea, it was not the best idea, but it was an idea that could work from what I estimated. So the real question was: should I do it? Setting up my army for having a windfall of wealth would ensure that I was seen as a good person to have around and a prime member of the community, those were both useful things to have talked about you in the long term as it meant that people were more willing to deal with you or take a bit of loss during trade negotiations.

But I could organize things to march by it, maybe. Turning to Eilifsson I asked “If we reorganize ourselves, how long would it take us to get around this situation?”

“That's the problem, this is the major pathway between our coasts. This valley is a chokepoint that all roads go through and one of the reasons we don't like to move through it at this time of year is because of Ice Wyrms. They do tend to live in these valleys in the glaciers and eat anyone who comes through. Most of them are very small and easy to deal with but there are big ones, like the ones which the Wolf warned you about. Those are not only maneaters in size but have the full armor that make them hard to kill and worth their weight in gold.”

“We could attempt to go around this valley, there are other passes that go into other valleys if the ice has melted enough… but if it’s this warm the other Ice Wyrms might be up and all we'd be doing is preventing ourselves from getting home as fast as possible, meaning more Ice Wyrms will get up. This route was chosen because there's only one such situation like this along it, others have multiple.”

“Well, that settles that,” I said. “We need to kill that thing. And I think I have a plan to do it though we're all going to need to work together and be careful. Since we're going to need to work together I will split the profits from this kill: whatever you can carry away of its skin you can keep.” I said, seeing the telltale lighting in people's eyes as they realized how much wealth that would be. Of course most of them would grab more than they could carry and then, once they realized they had to carry it all back, the road would be scattered with skin. That was a problem for the next army or trade group that had to come down this road. Probably not even a problem, that would just be a boon.

Turning to the group that contained all my commanders, I began to explain my plan.

Tanya

I carefully walked across the ice-covered floor of the valley. From what I understood, during full on summer, this area was a low lake at the end of the glacier and you could usually walk across it with some difficulty. At least that was the belief of those who had come across this road during summer time. That did not happen often because the Ice Wyrm was more active during summer as it could easily maneuver its way through the sandy floor of the lake.

Looking around I could see there had been attempts to sidestep this issue by building bridges across the parts of the lake that were only a foot or two deep. They had seemingly attempted to build a bridge that was 3 ft higher than the water level. These projects appeared to have always failed as there were plenty of holes and debris around them. That's the problem with monsters that lived underground, you couldn't tell they were coming till it was nearly too late.

At least humans couldn't, I could. Unexpected genetic ability created by whoever created this body or unexpected adaptation I had acquired on this planet, hard to say. But I could smell that creature through the Earth itself. Didn't matter that it was under layers of ice, snow, dirt and rock, I just could smell it. It was a familiar smell of death, one that I had only experienced in the life that I could barely remember. It was a stench that reeked of the dead, the dying, the sick.

Why did it smell like this? I couldn't say, perhaps it didn't clean its teeth. Perhaps it was like the Komodo dragon and developed some sort of viral poison from the things it caught in those teeth. Perhaps it just stunk because it could stink, trying to scare away predators that could harm it.

The monsters of this planet were numerous, the reasons they existed were unbelievable and frankly trying to figure out why something existed on this world was like trying to figure out why humanity existed in the first place. Which of course was probably random chance but did not help when there were creatures like being X screwing around and giving the impression that they had created the universe.

A laughable thought the more I thought about it, considering how terrible they were at their job.

But, besides that point of contention, the ability to smell the beast even under the ground gave me a lot more control of the situation then most anyone else would have. As such I knew exactly where it was and how it was slowly moving towards my location as I took a few steps onto the thin ice. The fact it was not moving fast meant it was more an ambush predator, which was good for me. An ambush predator would imply that there were restrictions on how it could attack.

Restrictions I could use for my benefit and, looking along at the 3 ft by 3 ft boulder harboring some of the most powerful explosive spells I could think of engraved on its sides, I needed those restrictions.

If I had more time I probably would have let some poor animal walk across this ice and observed what it did but without that I couldn't do a thorough investigation.

So I was left with option number two: create a situation that would lock the animal up.

Waving a signal to the army that had gathered around the entrance of the valley the beast was waiting in, my men began to pound their spears and feet onto the ground, creating seismic vibrations at quite a level. Such a level that I was able to instantly detect a shift in the direction of the creature’s movements, its slow movement towards me had slowed even more as it turned to sense in the general direction of my army. No doubt it was trying to figure out what kind of creature could make such a racket. The distraction gave me quite an opportunity to move quickly in the direction of the creature, just to the side of where it was as I could see a group of heavy stones larger than me. I had a feeling that if I got up on top of them he couldn't get to me quite as easily as it could on the ice, which would force it to come to the surface.

From there it became a waiting game of drawing it in and, well… Force feeding it the boulder and hoping that its explosion killed it, since I doubted the explosion outside of it would do much being given that its hide was considered good enough for armor.

Now in a good position I signaled the army to stop making a racket, which they did slowly but effectively. I could tell that the Ice Wyrm was now slowly moving towards the army still since that was the last thing it had heard but I got to work on part two of the plan.

Carefully I put the explosive boulder down in front of the pile of giant rocks I was standing on top of. Then I put down my rune beads, but not before setting them to cast a spell continuously. Carefully I placed it on the ground and let it do its thing before hiding as far back on the rock as I could.

The rune beads thumped as they jumped, fell back on the ground, waited a couple seconds and did it again. With some varying in the time every 2 to 3 seconds it would have a charge go through it and thump itself into the air before landing on the ground.

In a sense I turned it into an automated noisemaker, one that was directly targeted at drawing the notice of the Ice Wyrm.

And, by the slowly growing stench of the creature, I knew it was working. I wondered how slow it would stay, right up until the moment it just gave up on its slow hunting style. The ice in front of the boulders began to crack as something rushed underneath it, causing snow and other debris to be thrown into the air as the creature underneath the ice rushed at the noisemaker. That's when I got a good idea of just how big this creature was, because the amount of debris was closer to a tank driving through a river and the on the wave is made in the water.

In the last few moments the swelling of the ice that was causing it to fracture stopped as the Ice Wyrms seemed to sail underneath the rocks I was standing on. I could feel it causing a slight quake in the Earth as it moved. Circling below, evaluating its target, before the creature burst through the ground right underneath the rune beads and the explosive Rock.

I could see why people had called it a worm, its face was scaly like the dragons I had fought but it was obviously just a long snake-like creature. Really kind of reminded me of dragons from Eastern mythologies more than Western mythology ones, which is what I'd seen so far. Except instead of flying through the air it flew through the ice. Also it was not as intelligent as the creatures of my home country’s mythology, as it readily swallowed the beads and the explosive rock before looking around, obviously annoyed that it had not gotten whatever was making that racket.

Looking was probably not the correct word, it didn't seem to have a pair of eyes anywhere on the body, but it did seem to be trying to move its sensory organs to detect me. Perhaps it assumed that because it didn't taste any blood or material it had not got its prey. Which was unfortunate for it but good for me. The white-furred torso shifted and turned, allowing the head to look around out of the dirt and reminding me a bit of those photos of the Loch Ness monster where the head was on a long neck. Must have extremely good neck strength, I thought, considering how heavy that skull must be to be able to smash its way through the rocks and debris of the underground.

The creature then sniffed the air quite audibly, which annoyed me. I had assumed that it was blind and relied on sound after my first few moments of seeing it but now the creature’s head turned in my general direction. It had definitely smelled me and, as I drew my sword, I was really hoping the explosive would go off already.

The creature opened its massive maw, displaying its rows of sharp fangs and letting out a roar as it lunged towards my location on the rocks.

Jumping out of the way I slashed at its face, cutting a bit into the skin I thought, but I saw no blood. Obviously the skin was a lot thicker on the face, to prevent damage from sharp rocks and such. This was not a situation I enjoyed at all, I was fighting a creature that had no noticeable weaknesses and which was well on its way to chomping me into small pieces.

Quickly I rolled and scrambled further into the large rocks that made up this miniature island in the middle of the lake. The creature held itself up higher, trying to get above said island so it could strike down at anywhere I attempted to hide. Thankfully, before it got a chance to remove my existence from the census data, the rock inside it detonated.

With a bang the neck of the creature exploded outward, spilling Orange guts and blood everywhere and sending parts of the skin flying away in ribbons as the rock shredded the neck.

The head of the creature wobbled on what was left of the neck for a moment before the weight literally ripped it off, the head coming to rest on top of the rocks just a few inches from me and nearly completing its objective of removing me from life.

The neck I couldn't see very well but I assumed it just simply fell over and slumped around the stone island. disconnected from the creature's control it probably would lay there until my men and wolves got the chance to harvest everything they needed from it.

As for myself I avoided most of the damage, I had taken no wounds from the explosion, the rocks having covered me from any shrapnel. Did not save me from the fact that I was now covered head to toe in orange goop.

Trying not to breathe in the disgusting mixture of blood and viscera I pulled myself up, looking around to see just how massive the devastation was. I was surprised to see that it wasn't too terrible.

Sure, my island was now a gore-covered mess and the rocky ice around it was in no better shape but the explosion had been successful in killing the creature and doing nothing else, so I would count that as a win. Seeing that the soldiers of my army were already celebrating as they saw me pop up, I assumed victory had been fully achieved and there was not like a second head on the other end of the wyrm I had to worry about. Or that this was like a Hydra and would grow another head. So far animals had to respect the laws of nature but I didn't put it past the animals of this planet to pull something like that, as dragons kind of did break those laws. Especially the way they flew, those wings weren't big enough in my opinion.

Blinking I walked out of the boulders and tried to wipe away the muck from my face, which is when I got an interesting surprise. I tasted a bit of the viscera and realized it tasted like pumpkins, which was a strange flavor for meat to have but… All right, guess we would be eating well tonight if it tasted that good.

Tanya

I was correct in my theory that we would eat well that night. not only was the beast very flavorful but its meat was rather easy to preserve. I wondered where that smell had been coming from but quickly figured out that, yes, it indeed came from the head. There were shreds of animals and such inside the teeth, caught there and festering.

Not the most hygienic of creatures but I'm sure the ability to poison things that are bigger was handy. No doubts it could also be used to bring down flying creatures if you got a lucky bite on them before it flew away.

But that was not my concern. My concern was about the men who had gone to task trying to free the teeth because apparently the bone was as good as ivory. And it was interesting to learn that you could use the creature’s skin or scales to protect yourself from its teeth. That would imply these creatures probably didn't fight each other often. If its own species could perfectly counter its main attack vector then I doubted that they ate each other.

But that was besides the point. We quickly had a great meal that night and packed up what worm leather and other materials that we could salvage from it then began the last leg of our journey home.

And, as I had estimated, what could not be kept was thrown to the side of the road. Soldiers dumped spare Shields, silverware, anything that I'd allowed them to gather while on campaign. I imagine the trade convoys on this road would be very thankful for these resources over the years. I also imagine that some of these men planned to come back and try and gather it on their own time, probably with carts.

None of my concern if they wanted to risk their lives going through these mountains fighting monsters. Unless they were going to pay me I wasn't going to be too interested in what they got up to.

But it was a quick last leg of the journey. After a week of travel we were back on our side of the mountains, celebrating a successful war. Well, semi celebrating. We'd arrived into our South mountains, hit the first town, and I'd allowed the men to buy as many drinks as they wanted. Something that I mainly forbade during the trip, except for special occasions, so that men would be as active and perceptive on their night watches. The celebrations unfortunately went on for a couple days, most of the men making rather good fools of themselves with the amount of alcohol they drank. I would have moved the army on and got back to King Russ in order to have my mission completed but it was hard mobilizing the men with the way they were acting. Finally I decided the best option was to send a wolf Rider in charge of the Housecarls to King Russ, to let him know that we were returned to the lands with victory and were trying to make it to the castle to report in full.

I would have preferred to do it myself but I hoped that at least my attempts would be seen as it were, dealing with the nature of armies.

I received a response the next day, informing me that the army could disband and I could meet him myself at his castle for an official celebration of the end of the war, which was a quite acceptable order in my opinion.

I gave my thank yous and acknowledgments to the command staff, wished warriors of the army a happy summer and was off with my wolves, heading towards the king before the evening rolled in. No doubt the army would slowly disband, each Force returning to their lord to bring them wealth and Glory, but that was their tales. Mine was to just go home and get the mission completed so I could go home and take care of my wolves.

By that evening I was already walking up the steps of the castle, having been let in by a Housecarl that had stayed to watch over it.

They led me to the Great Hall where the King was sitting on his throne as various local and lower nobility had their conversations.

“Tanya! Tanya, come in. Come in!” He said, seeing me enter.

Bowing, I said “King Russ, I come bearing the news of a great victory on the other coast. Lord Farthegn has been defeated and removed from power, the new Lord in charge of that region has sworn to be our allies. I have brought the spoils of victory, and a bit of a hunting trip sidequest.” Several Housecarls were behind me and I stepped out of the way as they brought then unfurled the white-furred scales of the Ice Wyrm that I had packed on one of my wolves. It was enough for him to make a new Cape so I was hoping it would be appreciated quite a bit.

The king stood up from his throne and stepped down to walk towards me, looking over the white fur as his men held it up. He nodded at me in approval.

“A wonderful gift,” he said, running his hand down the fur before turning to me. “And you say that Lord Farthegn is dead? Even more of a success than I had hoped, you are truly sent by the Allfather.” He exclaimed cheerfully before he took a step away. “Tanya, would you do me the honor of kneeling before me?”

Oh? Oh, this could be unfortunate. No doubt I was about to get some form of lower nobility. Hopefully the territory that I would have to deal with wouldn't be too hard to control. I wanted to take care of my wolves, not run the countryside. Well hopefully it won't be too bad, I thought as I took a knee and bowed my head.

One of the Housecarls came forward, bringing with him a small ceremonial Ax. With a hand the king picked it up and carefully laid the blunt end of the ax against one shoulder then the other.

“Tanya of the wilderness, you have proven your Worth to the people of Russ! Because of you the world is a safer place, not only from monsters that hunt Us in the nights but also from monsters that would hunt Us in the day. I bestow upon you this honor and pronounce you Tanya Russ, my daughter.” The crowd erupted in applause and calls of Joy at the pronunciation. Everyone seemed quite happy, except myself.

It felt like my stomach dropped a good few feet below the ground as I realized how much my position in the world had just been raised. I was no longer just some wilderness wild woman who'd wandered into civilization. I wasn't even a local Noble, I had gone straight to heir of the king. I had to take a couple heavy breaths to settle my mental faculties as I realized how heavily I had been played. I had known the King was childless but I never thought he was looking to create an heir when he'd sent me on this mission. I thought too short-term, the near indestructibility of my body had allowed me to become too self-assured with my existence and now I was paying for it. Oh no… I had to say something or I'd look even worse and I could not refuse.

Clearing my throat, I said “Thank you, my king. It is an honor to be your daughter and I will serve the kingdom well.”

I was then slapped backhanded across the face, which was a shock to the system even seeing it coming. “And that is a family ritual passed down through our line, to always remember we are not here to make ourselves profit. We are not here to abuse our people, we are the Russ. We either serve the people or we don't deserve to lead them. Do you understand?”

I noted my understanding, though I took some amusement in the way he was shaking his hand as if he was in some pain after slapping me. Having a stronger skull paid off in that one moment.

But I was now trapped. I'd basically been told I would either take the position, serve with honor and serve the people, or I would be removed from the Russ. I doubt they could kill me, but you didn't need to kill someone to exile them. You just needed to burn down everything they loved to do that. Was that the threat he was putting forward? I doubt it but it was something to make it clear that if I did not serve up to the people of Russ's opinion they could remove me. I would need to be on my best behavior and serve the community as best I could, or everything I built could fall apart.

Writers note:…. Tremors best movies series in the world sue me.

Beyond that look like some got her last name.

And now… now I have to figuere out how to fill the next 29 years in the timeline.

Edited by: Preier, M.G. ,Scranity
Community edited by: AlphaOmega
Community editable doc (Chapter 14) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

Chapter 15,  Fishing Trip

Tanya Russ

What is that saying, ‘time flies when you're having fun’? Well, I don't believe that but I will admit the last 10 years have gone by rather quickly. That could be because, with how the year system worked on this planet, that 10 years meant five Great Years. It did feel kind of faster.

I had been proclaimed the next heir to the Russ kingdom 10 years ago today and, in that time, I had learned quite a bit about how the kingdom was managed. Frankly it was rather hands-off, The Russ really only needed to act when a war was on the horizon or to make sure the military was in proper condition for defending their lands at all times. Also there was keeping the wildlife populations from overrunning civilian homesteads.

These were just the general tasks the Russ government had to deal with and frankly it was kind of an easy job. During the winter I took Housecarls out to hunt monsters, though not an easy part of the job it was rather rewarding as I was allowed to keep any rare resources I acquired. I believe that if I could transfer my life's current wealth status to my last life I'd be a millionaire. I made more than enough money to set up several barns and homes for my wolves, as well as the creation of several more houses in the wilds of Russ for my expeditions to hunt monsters.

One of my first major projects to try and make my life a little bit easier when dealing with the monsters, while also making everyone else's life a little bit easier, was the takeover of those old fortresses that had been abandoned centuries before. Getting the local civilian population and my wolves to work on it I'd quickly converted them into functioning fortresses once again, though not as strong as they probably had been in their heyday. They were not really meant for defense though, they were meant to be outposts and were often run by my wolves. Oh yes, there were lodgings for soldiers but really there only needed to be 10 housecarls in an outpost like that. The rest of the facilities were at work for the wolves who had created a pack-like structure to hunt in the territory I had given them. They would work together to clean up the monsters that had come down from the mountains or forcibly incorporate other wolf tribes, which had become a favorite tactic of my wolves.

When I left for the war on the other coast I had maybe 300 wolves, counting the pups. 10 years later I now estimated I had somewhere around 2000 wolves, spread out across the entirety of this coastline. Many were just the common Fenris wolf, often led by a member of the original pack of Blackmanned wolves I had created. These packs ranged across the continent in around 15 territories, keeping the civilian population safe and operating out of fortresses like the old ones I had rebuilt and a few other structures I'd come across that could be turned into defensive positions. Not all of them had actually been in the Russ territory. After the first year of success with this operation I had allowed my wolves to clean up the monsters in the dark areas. The Lords who had allied with the Russ during the war had asked if I could do the same in their territory, which is how I had been able to spread them across the entirety of this Coast. Apparently, the damage we had received from monster attacks in winter was so low that those lords were now willing to risk having animals that were loyal to the Russ in their territory if they could gain the same effect. Either they were certain that the Russ would not betray the alliance or they saw the possibility of the Russ growing stronger than they already were while they only could maintain their current position without the aid of the wolves. Whatever the reason I knew that the last five great years of peace were thanks to the wolves.

Who would have known that creating packs of loyal wolves could be used as diplomatic tokens to bring a lasting peace to half the continent? It was such an effective model that I was wondering if there was a way to spread it to the other side of the continent. I didn't like going through the mountains but I guessed I would have to find some way of getting trained wolves across at some point if I wanted to make sure that this peace lasted a good long time. It was in my interest since… well, I think I might be around for a long time.

My aging had plateaued in what I think were early 20s. It was hard to tell for sure but I didn't seem to be aging at a normal rate anymore, which was good for my lifespan I assumed. But that also meant I was going to be around for a long time and I was not sure I approved the idea of running the Russ for the rest of existence. Granted I had no way to know for sure that I could live for the rest of existence but… Either way if I became too complacent in my long life and didn't set up a system that could take over if something were to ever happen to me the falling apart of whatever I had built would be inevitable. So I was already making plans to create some sort of representative government, in order to run most of the levers of power that made the government that protected the Russ.

But back on the wolf subject I did enjoy the fact that Geri and Freki had both found mates and founded their own families. This had been comforting to me though it meant I didn't get to see them as much as I would have liked, as they ran a couple of the packs that hunted monsters. Mother wolf was always by my side though, helping me make sure the younger wolf generations were well trained to work with their human counterparts. And I wasn't the only Wolf Trainer at this point.

Those wolf pups I handed out 10 years ago had all grown up with their Housecarl’s families and some of them had just become part of the growing wolf calvary. Which was a definite thing at this point, the industry around creating armors and harnesses for the wolves had sprung up rather quickly and they were kind of edging out the horse when it came to preferred mount.

At least for a short distance. Horses still ruled when it came to longer distance operations but at short distance wolf cavalry was a little bit better. At least they had more shock and impact during the charge.

Something I had found out rather quickly when summer had arrived in my first Great Year as the sea tribes and glacier tribes attempted to invade the continent to escape the season of fire that caused the oceans to boil. It was a rather horrifying thing to see for the first time, watching people attempt to force their way onto the continent just so they could avoid the natural disaster going on out at sea. And, make no mistake, they were forcing their way; they had burned and raided their way along the coast, gathering supplies that had been meant to be saved up for winter and taking them for themselves.

I was not a fan of the particular kind of warfare that developed in this. We were in essence fighting refugees trying to avoid a natural disaster but they were perfectly willing and able to just steal from the people on the continent. Unfortunately for them this year when they attempted that I had trained the army. A large portion of the Sea People were captured in separate skirmishes and taken prisoner. The rest ended up massacred as they tried to fight their way deeper into the continent and were hunted down by my wolves.

Outside of the Russ territory the Sea People were able to establish temporary colonies and forced the Lords to acknowledge the land as theirs till fall, when the Summer of Fire ended. Inside the Russ territory they were taken prisoner, which left us with an interesting question of what to do with them. So I did what I did best and suggested the best way to use the resources in front of me.

We forced them to build a small town on the coast and made them swear loyalty to the Russ. Granted it was a town with its walls facing both ways so it was kind of a prison camp but it was the best we could do and we had enough foodstuff and supplies to maintain this population of nomadic people.

As soon as summer ended they'd gone right back in their boats and left, gone to find safe hunting grounds at sea and return to whatever islands hadn't sunk beneath the waves or find a new island to live on.

The town, however, remained and that was the main goal. There was now a place for these people to return during the next Summer of Fire. And because local artisans and traders had been trading with the Sea People inside the town it was sort of a trade city. A few of them had even moved in once the Sea People had left because the Sea People did come back to trade with us.

A more permanent solution to the whole conflict, I had reasoned at the start of it, was to create something they could come stay at without fighting us over it while also giving them a reason to trade with us. This town’s main goal had been that and King Russ had agreed with me once I proposed the idea. As a result there was now a new city on the continent, hopefully one that would grow to maintain the peace I so wanted to enjoy.

So far it worked as, for the last 4 years, I had only had conflicts outside of Russ to deal with the Sea People who had not been defeated inside our territory as they continued their attempts to just take what they wanted from the coastliners. Oh sure there had been one small raid near the borders of our territory by one of the colonies, but that had been easily dealt with by the local wolves and guards.

I did have to, as the heir to Russ, lead several expeditions to our allies in the region in order to stabilize fronts against those Sea Peoples. We forced them back and in one case I proposed the same technique we used in Russ, though the Lord of that particular territory was apparently very vengeful against Sea Peoples or just didn't like the idea of trading with them. I couldn't tell for sure as he had simply wanted to burn them all out.

Either way though, the raids on Russ's direct territory either stopped or were so minimal that the local Garrisons could handle it. The Sea People who would have been doing that had eagerly gone back to the trade city since it gave them an opportunity to trade resources they abundantly picked up from the sea for resources we got from the land.

During a couple of my visits over the years to said city, which for some reason was named Tanyaville, I'd even seen wolves on a few boats. I had a feeling that the peace of the Wolf was going to be spreading to the Sea soon enough, which I was all in favor of. If some tribe of Sea People managed to get itself strong enough to bring the others into its control and owed its strength to an alliance with the Russ… That seemed like a win in my book.

Anyways with the Sea Peoples mostly dealt with, the allies on this side of the mountain firmly allied, and the other side of the mountain being pacified… Life was easy. It became a repetitive cycle of me hunting monsters that attempted to make their homes in the lowlands and handling small crises for the king, raising wolves all the while.

I pursued runecraft a bit, using materials to create basic rune beads for certain situations and more complex ones for more complex situations. Small explosives were easy, weather-changing items were a little bit harder but possible, and past that I was still experimenting. I had remembered and managed to recreate a shield rune bead set. Which the rune priest had eagerly bought from me when I'd shown him its usefulness. Other than that I hadn't been able to manage to transfer my still fairly unknown second life’s magical knowledge into this life's rune knowledge.

As for other memories of my previous life they still remained fairly hidden behind whatever wall was there. I had shaken it enough to have some basic understanding that it had been a military career in something called a mage role. If I would ever uncover more memories, I wasn't sure. Oh, I believed that they would totally uncover themselves in time but I had not gone out of my way to work on uncovering it.

I did run into an interesting phenomenon though, more and more Lords were competing with me for my hunting of monsters. Either directly competing or joining my trips in attempts to kill more creatures than I. I assumed it was some sort of prestige thing that had developed since I had shown that I was so good at the killing of monsters that others were using me as the benchmark. If they kept it up they could gain more prestige when they somehow got more than me, which was rare but when it did happen it was even more of a glorious thing.

And being that it allowed me to network with these Lords I was more than willing to entertain them on these trips in a friendly atmosphere of rivalry. One that quickly spread amongst the Lords and other warriors of our realm. The build-up to Winter, a thing that had once been dreaded, was now a bit more festive since wars seemed to have come to a general end and people had the time to build up to actually fight the monsters back into the mountains when they came down.

Thus Spring and Summer became a time of trade, as the resources from the mountains were traded to the coast where it was then traded for the resources from the Sea and trade grew.

This world may be stuck in a barter economy but it was a functioning barter economy now, interconnecting the entire coastline and the sea, showing the profitability and importance of trade. I figured that within the next 10 to 20 years the wars, at least around the main continent of this world, would subside completely as trade would dominate the environment. Oh I'm sure there would still be some wars, rivalries that overstepped their bounds or conflicts with remote Sea Tribes that were unable to get their hands on rare resources for trading. But I believed with enough time even those would fade, at least I hoped they would. After all if my aging had plateaued at around the early twenties that generally meant I'd probably be around for a while. If I had continued to speedily age I would have assumed my time was short but as it was I could assume I was going to get at least to a hundred years, maybe more. I would prefer those years to be spent in peace, not in war.

Which is why when a representative of the sea tribes we traded with had asked for my aid in settling a little bit of a conflict between themselves and another sea tribe I had agreed to go with them. I had never been on the sea myself in either my first life or this life. Not sure about my middle life, still quite a lot of blanks there, but I figured it couldn't be too bad. And I was feeling a bit… stuck. My life had become a little too routine and fighting monsters from the mountains was just getting a little dull at this point. The wolves and local garrisons could handle them in most cases and nobles were more than willing to go out there and fight them since they weren't fighting each other. From what I understood the adventurers guild was basically out of business and most of them were taking government jobs as part of the garrisons. At least those who did not move to the other side of the coast where, from what I heard, things were still pretty wild and uncapped.

From my point of view it was a simple process. I'd send my ravens out to find the monster and they would come back to point the way. I would ride my wolves to it and kill the thing. It was easy, repetitive, dull. So I wanted to experience something new. I heard there were hunts of sea monsters once in a while so I figured if an opportunity arose I would take it and hunt a sea monster.

Though mainly I was being contracted to negotiate some sort of peace between a couple Sea Tribes over a newly grown landmass. It apparently had been relatively stable over the last five Great Years and a Confederacy of two tribes that traded with the Russ had claims on half the island while a Confederacy of three tribes that traded with the glacier nomads was claiming the other half and the half of our allies. It was hoped that my reasonable and calm demeanor would allow for some sort of conclusion to be put on the whole conflict. I had to give something to the king of Russ, he knew how to groom an heir. Having had 10 years to reflect on the events leading to my establishment I'd quickly realized that he'd been working on getting me in this position for quite a long while, nearly since we first met. Even if he had what I would guess were many years left in him he wanted to make sure someone would be there to take care of Russ after he was gone. Just what a good CEO of a company would do, in my mind.

Tanya Russ

Man, was the sea cold! It was Fall of my 10th year on this planet and we were making our way towards the landmass that had come up a few years back. Nothing too strange, as during the Summer of Fire the oceans and the ocean floor’s crust became… fluid, to say the least.

How this island had survived so long I wasn't exactly sure. What reports I got simply said it had managed to keep growing so… Maybe it was like Hawaii and there was a vent down there somewhere that was pushing up enough material to keep it from going down during the season of fire? I know that it looked somewhat like it when we finally got in range of the Big Rock, as the Sea Peoples referred to it.

But anyways the weather on the seas was awful, even in mid-spring as time got closer to summer from what the crew told me. From my point of view it had quite a bit to do with just how open the boats were. I may not be a ship person but you come across stuff in history and the fact of the matter was that the boats they were using were very similar to what the Vikings used in their age. Some severe upscaling though. I'd noted a wider frame for the longer distances but otherwise it was a large sailboat for carrying supplies between here and there, with no underdeck cargo area. And no underdeck sleeping there, either. Each night I would have to cuddle up with Geri, who had come along on this journey, to stay warm.

As much as being out in absolute near darkness was a new experience it was also quite terrifying actually. At least laying when you were in absolute darkness you knew you were on land and nothing could come up from beneath you. Let's say things got a little bit more uncertain at sea as we had started the trip with four vessels and there were now three.

What had happened to the 4th vessel? Well, one night we had gone to sleep and then everyone had been on watch after hearing a strange noise. Next morning we could only see it was gone and the only thing anyone knew was there had been a splash at some point during the night. Oh yeah, a loud splash. Which resulted in the oldest member of the Sea People telling me about how some creatures could eat a boat this big with one bite. Leviathan, giant squid, or giant octopus, whatever they wanted to call it, or them if there were different species, there apparently were quite a few of those monsters out here. If one decided that it wanted you for a snack… there wasn't much you could do to stop it.

Thankfully those attacks were rare as… Well, the Sea people thought there wasn't enough meat on boats to be worth the attack so the monsters would rather go after other creatures of their species or creatures that actually were full of meat. This simply said to me that the Sea Peoples needed upgrades in their boats. There needed to be both bigger and better vessels than the ones they were producing, things that could actually stand up to the monsters out here and with weapons that could actually do something. I had been looking into the production of guns since I'd gotten a lot of free time a few years before and I had tracked down sources of sulfur and charcoal. Those were easy to come by, being that there were lots of volcanoes on the main continent. The only ingredients I was not having a lot of luck finding was nitrate and phosphorus. For niter deposits, there were no real deserts on the main continent as far as I'd been able to find in my five Great Years of traveling. Perhaps beyond the mountains, in the core, there might be some but… Most tales said that there were just bigger mountains, that if you got past the mountains we could see from Russ you only found mountains so large that they supposedly pierced the heavens and entered the realm of the Allfather. Wonderful story but not helpful for dealing with my situation. As for phosphorus, I was looking into the situation. There was no large bird population where you could just search the cliffside for deposits. As for the bat populations on this planet there could be some but most of the bats that I had seen came from those caves that tended to have stories about dark things being at the bottom of them. So I was not going to be able to get weapons like cannons onto the battlefield here unless I found a third option.

No, I was not giving up on the idea of coming up with something that could be used to counter the underwater threats. Freeing the seas would allow trade to flourish even more than it did right now and a trading world was one less at war in my opinion. So I needed something that would work at sea, to fight monsters that lived underwater or at least came out of the water. So far I'd come up with options for ballistas, which would probably be powerful enough to pierce the creature's skin and easy to sell to these people since they did tend to hunt the whales out here and a ballista would be useful for that. And Greek fire. I was not very familiar with the creation of Greek fire though, mostly knowing that it was very similar to napalm in behavior but I knew it worked at Sea since the Byzantines used it on their ships. if I could create it, it might work against the monsters well enough. I doubted a creature used to living under the water would enjoy having its skin burnt by something that would not go away whatever it did.

My thoughts were interrupted as the crew of the boat started to make a ruckus, causing me to get up from where I was laying against the wall of the boat. Looking off in the direction they were pointing I saw the island that we were heading to, a black jagged thing though it appeared that there were areas of it that had been overgrown with life. How it managed that with the conditions that summer brought I did not know. Perhaps the plant life down here was a lot hardier than some would think? Leave anything alone long enough and, if it finds its way to survive, it'll find a way to reproduce and thrive. Who's to say there weren't a few islands that didn't go under for hundreds of great years? It would be more than enough time for plant life to evolve to survive in the harsh conditions of the ocean.

Well I was glad to see it, I wanted to be off the ever-changing waves as soon as we could be. Since the attack I had been thinking that there was some monster waiting beneath the waves, hiding, ready to strike and pull down the entire ship I was on. That was a disturbing thought, one that I wished I did not have. I just needed to get on land and I wouldn't have to worry about that anymore.

I heard water splash behind me and then the screaming started. Quickly drawing my sword I saw what could only be described as a massive tentacle reaching out of the water to grab one of the Sea People’s men by the throat before pulling him in.

A scream of ‘Kraken’ started to go up as the crew around me started grabbing their swords and shields as more and more tentacles started to rise out of the water, striking at those unfortunate enough not to have found cover or a weapon. One of the tentacles reached for me and I simply slashed it up, cutting it in half. One half quickly withdrew into the water while another tentacle came whipping out the water towards me. I simply grabbed it and slashed the end off, preventing it from withdrawing completely unscathed. This was a losing fight as I had no idea how many tentacles could come out and, as I fought each one that did, another one would sneak around me and get a member of the crew to be pulled beneath the waves. Having very few options I reached for one of my spears I brought along, already engraved with a piercing spell, and hoped I could hit the beast from up here.

I moved to the edge of the boat and looked down in the water, charging the spear and waiting for the creature to make a move, when a tentacle wrapped around my leg from behind. I had made a mistake and I paid for it by getting smashed face-first into the side of the ship as I was pulled backwards, only barely managing to hold on to the spear as I was pulled beneath the freezing cold water. Looking up I could just barely make out the boat in the sun as I was pulled deeper and deeper, I thought I even saw Geri looking down into the water after me.

But even that soon faded from view as the darkness around me grew heavier. I had never had the opportunity to test how long I could hold my breath. Water being as cold as it was on the planet, it was best to not even get a little bit soaked so dunking deep was not something I had been interested in trying. But today I would have to learn how long I could hold my breath as I held on to the spear and was dragged deeper and deeper, my eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness.

One good thing about being dragged this deep, and that was the only good thing, was I could finally see the beast. It was a massive monster the size of a skyscraper, with hundreds of tentacles. It was a strange pale coloration with a purple carapace-like armor around the core of the beast. As I watched tentacles were pulling down the remnants of the crew into the gaping maw of sharp almost metallic-looking things that made up its mouth. Which I took as a sign that this was not related to anything from Earth as, if my memory served, octopuses had beaks. Or was it squids? I was not a biologist so I had no idea for sure. All I knew is the piercing spell wasn't going to do much and I was drawing closer and closer to the gaping Maw, the sharp teeth of the beast glowing with a strange blue light. I had a few moments before I joined the slowly growing number of bodies going down its gullet so I pulled my knife from the scabbard and quickly started to engrave an explosive spell on the end of the spear. It was my best chance of survival. Frankly I knew that explosions were not great for people underwater but I also knew that my chances were already pretty close to zero of even surviving this. I’d need some help to manage to kill it, so risks needed to be taken.

Finishing the engraving I tossed the knife downwards in a futile attempt to cut the beast’s tentacle, quickly realizing that it wouldn't work since the water slowed the knife too much. I then took a gamble with my spear and decided I needed to get close as possible to make sure this worked. Too close, probably.

At the last possible moment, I chucked the explosive spear into the gullet and kissed my ass goodbye. A moment later there was a massive boom as the spear exploded inside the creature’s mouth-analog. The shockwave loosened the hold of the creature’s tentacle on my ankle and I was able to get free. I was not able to celebrate that as shrapnel from the beast's mouth had been sent upwards into my side.

Intense pain and cold took me by surprise and I started to lose a bit of consciousness.

Captain of the Sea People's ship, Sigegar Atlisson

“I'm so dead,” I muttered as I walked along the end of my ship, looking at what was left of my crew after the Kraken had raided us.

This was not supposed to go the way it had, we were supposed to make a simple easy trip from the main continent to Big Rock so the daughter of the king of Russ could negotiate for us as an impartial third party.

Instead, the daughter of the king of Russ was now dead. I was here, with the Kraken deep below my feet somewhere, and I was going to have to explain this to the king of Russ at some point. I was going to be fed to the wolves. Hell, I might not even make it back. Looking at the wolf staring at me from the edge of the boat… It looked rather angry and ready to have a meal right now.

Maybe they could push the dog off before it got any ideas? No, that wouldn't work. The creature was probably too fast and too strong for that. I just needed to think and think hard about how he was going to get out of this…. Nope, I had no idea! Maybe the Kraken would come back up and finish me off? At least then it would be a quick death, because I was sure the king of Russ would make it less than quick for a failure such as this. I literally got the Golden Goose killed, there was no hope for my survival. I should just jump off the edge of the boat now.

Walking to the edge of my boat I looked down into the water, thinking deeply about how long it would take me to die. The shock of the cold would probably kill me long before I drowned, but even if I didn't I'm pretty sure I'd be out from the cold long before I started the process of drowning. Then I saw something blue glowing in the water, moving fast up to the surface. Was the beast returning? Well if it would make my choices a lot easier and it would solve a lot of my tribe’s problems since they could blame it all on me and thus save the trade situation between the Russ and them.

Stepping back I closed my eyes and waited for the tentacle to grab me. A moment later I heard a splash of something breaking the water surface and a bump as something grabbed onto the side of the boat, followed by heavy breathing.

“Good captain, mind giving me a hand here?” Came a familiar voice from in front of me, one that I would have sworn I would never hear again just a few moments ago. Opening my eyes I confirmed it. There was Tanya, long hair frazzled but somehow still alive even though she was covered in freezing water. A bit shocked I moved quickly to her side, calling for the others to help me pull her in. With some effort, I and two of the strongest men on the boat were able to help her in from the side. She laid against the edge of the hull, breathing and trying to recover from what looked like a very near thing.

“Lady Russ?” I said, standing by her. “Are you all right?”

“Fine,” she coughed. “Never better, just went for a little fishing trip.” Her wolf came over quickly and began to lick her face, trying to warm her up as she breathed slowly. “I just needed to have a little bit of a conversation with the beast below. After I determined he wasn't worthy prey he swam away in a bit of fear. Oh, and I got a parting gift from him.”

Reaching down to her side, which had been covered by the cape, I heard the terrible sound of something being pulled from flesh. Pulling out from underneath her cloak she revealed a blood covered three-foot long kraken fang. The metal thing glowed with a strange blue light, showing the purity of the material. As I watched some of the blood on it froze solid, a byproduct of this particular kind of metal since it often ran colder than the conditions around it.

“Gentlemen, could you give me some bandages and a lot of alcohol? Oh, and thread! Lots and lots of thread.” Lady Russ said as she moved around in some pain. Going by the size of the tooth alone she probably had a massive hole in her side, though considering that anything the thing touched would freeze… It most likely was not bleeding as profusely as it would have just based on size.

“Yes! Go get her what she needs!” I ordered the crew before turning back to Lady Russ and pleading “Do you need anything else? And what should I do with this?” I added, pointing to the metal thing. “I'll be honest that thing is worth quite a bit of money, there always is a market amongst blacksmiths for that material as they’re always trying to find ways to actually forge it. There have been some half-hearted attempts and a few have had some success but never fully, they have never created a blade that used that material to its fullest.”

“Store it in my gear, I'll deal with it when I get to somewhere safe. Thank you.” She said, matter of factly pointing to where her stuff had been for most of the trip. I kneeled, picking up the Kraken fang and, walking over there, slid it into her backpack. Turning back I saw several of the Shield Maidens of my tribe coming over to help her and doing their best to give her privacy as they got to work closing her wounds.

Tanya Russ

After recovering from the Kraken attack, the negotiations were somewhat successful. It would seem being a person who could frighten off the beast of the sea gave me a lot of prestige amongst all factions of the Sea People.

And, being as that may, it was not hard at all to negotiate a treaty that would separate the island neatly in half between those allied to the Russ and those who weren't. All I had to do was confirm that they could engage in trade with us and we would be willing to take any materials that they were willing to trade.

Once that was confirmed all that was left was a little bit of charting the island and coming up with a parting line everyone would accept, at least for this Great Year and maybe the next two. With contract stipulations to revisit it every 3 Great Years, so that if one side of the island became less livable due to the Seasons of Fire it could be adjusted as needed.

With luck it would bring a lasting peace and with that I was able to depart and head home, hopefully not to see another sea monster until I had a ship that could actually fight the damn things. The one that nearly killed me had gone away. I was sure that it had probably been severely wounded by the explosion but it definitely swam away under its own ability. It disturbed me quite a bit because I had not yet met a creature that could survive when I had set my mind to dealing with it. Leaving something around that can kill you is not a good way to maintain life, even if it was a creature that lived under the sea. Who was to say it only lived under said sea? Maybe it only chose that as the easiest way of movement, what is to say it couldn't come up on the land and come after me? That's why I didn't like when things got away.

That was something I would deal with another time, for now I simply worried about getting home and seeing the port town of Tanyaville again. Unfortunately, as our ship came into that port, I realized something was wrong. There was a Black banner hanging at half-mast over the dockyards, which signified someone important had passed. And as the ship came to a stop at the dock and I stepped onto it I immediately had the answer of who had passed as the local mayor came up and said "Lady Russ, I'm afraid I bring terrible news of your father."

Writers note: So here how I’m thinking I’ll do the time skip chapters, brief mention of events to cover the time, as well as one story from time period. Which let me tell you I wanted to stop what I was doing and go back and write out the sea people war, but i held back because ah she going to win it only matter time. So I will leave that to omake writers those who want take stable writing that story or creating content for her to gotten up to during that ten-year break.

Edited by: Preier,
Community edited by: Salazar, Ryan Pirtle
Community editable doc (Chapter 15) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

Chapter 17, A challenger.

Tanya Russ
20 years since arrival

Setting the other coast of the continent straight proved easy enough. The enemy armies hadn't learned a damn thing since the last time I'd been on that coast and I was quickly able to break the will of the their armies. Mobility was a key factor in the conflict as I quickly moved my forces into positions that allowed me to defeat armies in detail without letting them merge. Once you do that two times the rest start losing hope.

Thankfully that allowed me to end the conflict with the lords underneath the king of this side of the continent quickly, as I was able to negotiate them down once they saw the possibility of winning against my forces was zero.

Really what proved to be more of an issue were the Sea People and the Ice Nomads. They had most of their fleet damaged or destroyed in our first battle but what was left attempted to raid my supply lines. Granted most of the ships I had put away for supply duty were too large to be captured in the traditional way of jumping from one boat to another but it did prove able to slow down supplies, which made things a little less smooth than I would have liked.

Not to mention it helped stir up sea monsters in the area as conflict always drew them in for an easy meal. Thankfully the attempts at Greek fire had worked out. It did have a tendency to freeze during the winter but at this time of year it was more than functional and improved chances in battles between humans and the sea monsters, making outcomes relatively equal. Also it had a wonderful effect on the morale of the sailors, wonderful in the sense that it ended battles a lot quicker. For the tribes of the Sea People, their ships were their lives: the possibility of losing a ship to fire was the greatest threat they could face, one of the things I had learned about them over the years from my interactions.

The fleet that was still functioning eventually either surrendered or fled south. How far south was a mystery but it was far enough that I wouldn't have to worry about them. They would either come back eventually and become invested in the trade network I've established or be conquered by the Sea People who already have. It was up to them and I didn't care what they choose.

As for the Sea People's mercenaries, they proved a bit of an issue as well on land as they didn't surrender when the other lords did. Instead, they retreated straight to the coastline and hunkered down, laying fortifications as they waited in hopes of boarding any ships their brothers managed to keep afloat. I spent a month besieging their makeshift fort.

I could have crushed them easily if I was willing to waste the manpower. I was not. What I did have and was more than willing to capitalize on, was possession of a larger stockpile of food than they did, a fact guaranteed by my ships positioned to blockade any resupply.

Eventually the starved contingent finally surrendered and I made them swear loyalty as I had done with their brothers who had surrendered at sea.

The Glacier Nomads proved a bit more troublesome than even the Sea People as they were more than familiar with what could best be considered guerilla tactics.

Any supply chain I established anywhere was raided. Thankfully my wolves were able to track down several of them but they did lose a few of the pack in the fighting. The Glacier Nomads were a hardy and tough bunch and they were no slouches in combat, so I could see now why they had been brought in to settle the conflict.

Thankfully, over time I was able to clear the coastline of their type by pushing them further inland towards the mountains. I was hoping they would surrender once they had no option to get back out to the glaciers but they instead retreated into the mountains, which turned out less than ideal for either of us. Supply chains into the mountains were a terrible thing due to the monsters that lived there. Thus, tracking and hunting them down was difficult to say the least.

On the other hand, the nomads seemed to know how to avoid most of the monsters in the mountains. I suspected they were a lot more familiar with the territory than I had been informed. Going into the mountains to fight these people was not something I wanted to do, but it was not like I could attempt Byzantine diplomacy and offer them gold to stop fighting me. Not that such diplomacy worked all that well for the Byzantines, as that simply incentivizes people to wait some time before attacking again for more money. So, with the consent of the king of this region, I built a fort not too dissimilar from the ones I had created on my coast and established a system by which forces could be dispatched to reinforce a permanent garrison.

The boy king agreed to basically all my terms and even offered to join his military with mine. I hadn't considered that, but I figured the boy was feeling unsure of himself and was looking for a way to improve his standing after the disastrous first year.

What better way to get a professional army trained than by connecting it to my preexisting professional army? So I agreed. I even taught them all the techniques I had been using on my coast to maintain control, figuring it would help him over the coming years. Once that was all settled I took 3/4 of my army back home to celebrate the victorious war.

I did take one detour though. Instead of the quick path which we had taken before, I directed the fleet to sail the longer path up towards an island called The Isle of the Iron Masters. I only heard about them through the Iron priests who said that their order had originally come from this island just off the coast of Asaheim, one of the very few islands that survived the constant shifting of Summer in the season of fire. The people there were, from what I had been told, isolationists to an extreme degree and didn't like outsiders. Which I was willing to respect. I didn't want to declare war, or anything of the sort, even if I was moving my fleet right next to the island. I simply wished to catch a glimpse of something promising in my passing, to see if there was any truth to the words one of the Iron priests had mentioned in passing as I toured the construction of the forge works; that the ships of the Isle were fueled by flame.

That was a very interesting piece of information, as the Sea People always spoke about wind being the major component of how their ships moved so I knew the majority of the fleets on this planet did so either by wind power or muscle power through oars. So why were the Iron priests’ described ships of this island as running on flame?

Well, now I had my answer. As soon as my fleet got too close to the island for their comfort, what could be best described as a steam ironclad with cannons sailed out to meet us.

This was a surprise and quite concerning. Though my ships were much larger than the one approaching us, I did not have any illusions that we would fare well against an ironclad if it decided to smash us up. Boarding action could work, but that would be costly and not worth the trouble.

So I ordered we adjust course and we sped up to get past the island as fast as possible. The ironclad basically shadowed us the entire time, keeping its guns pointed in our direction menacingly.

Before we lost sight of the island, I was able to glimpse smoke as it billowed out from what could definitely not be a volcano. If I were to take a guess? There were functioning factories on that island!

Once the threat of being sunk by an ironclad faded away and we were on our way home I had to have a little chuckle at the realization that there was an island nation out there with ironclads while everyone else was reduced to the medieval era. I had to bet the people of that island lived in a potential technocracy in order to maintain that level of advancement, given that it was closer to the 18th century than the 7th.

Though that proved something: if a single island on this planet could raise itself to the tech level of the 18th century it was not impossible for the rest of the continents to at least do the same. If I was a true barbarian the quickest way to get that level would probably be to gather up the largest fleet this world had ever seen and lay siege to that island. They probably had a couple ironclads but with enough fleets it wouldn't matter. But I abhor war and I abhorred the idea of wasting human life on such a pitiful conflict when there were other options.

As far as I could see it I now controlled a large majority of the planet's trade through intermediaries, either direct vassals or my allies on the other coast. Everyone would listen to me. If I wanted to I could attempt what Napoleon never succeeded at and cut that island off completely from the trade network unless they are willing to open themselves up. I doubted the island produced much in the way of food, they would need to trade to feed their population so it would probably be the most successful tactic. But I would hold that card for now. Instead I opted for the policy of trying to draw them deeper into the trade network. There was always the possibility that the island was self-sufficient, and if that was true then cutting them off right away would only serve to create tensions.

Better to keep them trading. Once their island needed resources from us because they had grown thanks to that trade, then I’d suggest giving over some of their technology or be removed from the trade network.

Hopefully that last thing would not be necessary but it did give me time to think about the future.

I had been reacting heavily for the last few years. Besides the general idea of trying to improve things for the people I now shepherded, I hadn't really thought about what would happen if we reached the 18th-century level technology. Maybe even the 19th? Hell what if we even reached the 21st? Those seemed like such impossibilities since a normal human lifespan was maybe a hundred years if you got extremely lucky, and that was when the tech level was of the 21st century, but I had no idea how long my lifespan was. Sure there was a potential of a leap to the 18th or 19th-century tech level being dangled in front of me by that island but what if I was around long enough that I got to 21st-century level the long way.

I quickly became very uncomfortable with that thought process, as having a lifespan that long would turn me into basically a god-king. I did not like the idea, my potential retirement would be thrown out the window as everyone would come to depend on me.

I would need to develop a system that produces good leadership in both the officer core of the army and within the parliament I planned to create. Leaving either group dependent upon me for everything would lead to a terrible outcome for our society. In my mind, there could be no one person that would ever have total authority over the people. That, more than anything, would be a sure path to failure for if anything were to happen to me, from those subordinates who never fully embraced the changes I'd brought could emerge a leader set on choosing the path of regression. It was a nightmare frequently conjured by my mind, that one would rise after my passing who stood to lead my people back into the past, undoing all the progress I strove to make and driving us back into the dark as a "return to our roots". It was one I hoped would never come to pass.

Tanya, 30 years since arrival
Tanya Russ

It was good to be the king and it was even better to be the king of a nation at peace. Might be best when it basically controlled the entire planet, though I tried not to think about how I'd grown a kingdom into an empire over the last 10 years.

Frankly, I should be more focused on enjoying the night. Tonight was my 30th birthday party, I think. I kept a good number of calendars over my many moves so I had been able to go back to those locations and check the numbers till I had an almost exact day of my arrival on this planet. Give or take a day of course.

So, since one of the ways to maintain control of the nobles was to throw lavish parties to celebrate various deeds, I intended to throw exactly that for my birthday. Granted we were really celebrating all the progress of the year, all the minor deeds that didn't deserve a full-on celebration by themselves. Fixing the tax code was not killing a dragon and thus was not worthy of a celebration but fixing a tax code and settling a minor border dispute and building fortified ports for the Sea People to continue the trade network? Those were all the minor deeds we were celebrating together, so why not celebrate them on my birthday? I had accomplished them and nobles didn't care that much when the mead was flowing.

Hell, as far as major deeds were concerned, this year was doing fairly well on that front too! Finally the Iron Isles were starting to come into my sphere of influence and had started sharing minor technologies. They weren't handing over their steamships, of course. But the fact that the forge works the Iron priests had been building had finally produced the first canon, which I had mounted on the one trade ship they allowed to enter their port, had done a good job of showing that their tech lead would slowly dissipate. They now knew that it was better to cash it in while they had the chance.

Looking out at the feast hall where the many noble lords, clan leaders, and various skilled warriors who swore loyalty to me were enjoying the feast I could already see a shift from the first time I had stepped into this castle. Where once stood dirty barbarians in skins of fur with only a few having finer bits of armor, There were now quite a number of finer armors and bits of finery to the clothing beyond leather and fur.

Not to mention the walls, which had been bare stone when I first took ownership of this Hall, were now quite improved. Make no mistake there were no fine artists out there that I was aware of who could put frescoes on the wall, at least not yet but over the years I had acquired quite a collection of items. Above the fireplace behind me was an Ice Wyrm skull belonging to the second creature of that type that I'd killed, along the left wall were many ceremonial weapons I had acquired either through victory or gifts and along the right were other skulls of creatures that plagued the planet of Fenris that I had slain over the years.

It was a bit tacky in my opinion but I understood their worth, they presented a level of prestige. And prestige was a good tool for controlling the nobility. Not only did it make sure those who served me directly understood that they were dealing with someone who had done great deeds on their world, and would do more in the coming years. When they brought their kids to my hall for various meetings it also impressed upon them my abilities, making sure the next generation would be loyal as well.

Taking a good gulp of mead I sat back and relaxed in my large wooden chair, specially designed for my 8-ft frame. This was the life, this was probably even better than retirement. In my last life I had always thought about getting to there as my end goal, acquiring some middle to high position in a company as a step to secure that retirement. I had never factored in the idea of becoming a CEO. Oh sure I thought about it but I always discarded the idea, gaining the connections necessary for a CEO position made it a near impossibility. I wanted better than a one in a million chance so it was better to plan for the possible. This was that one in a million chance. I was at the top of the government, I ran things well enough from my position and made sure competent people were running things further down the line. As it was I had no reason to retire anytime soon.

I wasn't working myself to death either. I basically worked 8 hours a day, with the rest spent either enjoying raising wolves or training military commanders. We directed miniature armies to try and explain my thinking during several conflicts. My various attempts to push the level of technology further were also going well and bearing nice fruits. Even some of the work during the 8 hours I frankly enjoyed as I liked solving problems with numbers and most problems came down to numbers. Need more troops on this border because there's been more animal activity. Clean out an infestation of Ice Fiends. It's all about moving the troops into the right place and funding construction projects to make sure logistics systems would support the troops in that area.

Placing my now drained cup on the table, I idly wondered if there was anything on the southern pole of this planet when Ingegärd Bergvidottir, one of the maids in my service, brought a new cup to replace mine. “More mead, my king?”, she asked with a charming voice.

Trying not to let my eyes wander too much I replied, “Yes, Ingegärd, that would be wonderful.”. She switched out the cups and we shared a smile and I couldn’t help but ask ”Ingegärd, are you free later tonight?”

Her smile grew wider as she leaned in closer, whispering, “For the king, I'm free. All. Night. Long,” with a charming giggle.

“Until tonight then,” I replied with a knowing smile as she stepped away, heading towards the kitchen area. I shook my head, watching her leave. Not because it was a sad thing to see her walk away, the view was quite splendid. But simply because I had never thought I'd end up in a situation where I would have multiple relationships going on at once. In my life as a salaryman that was fairly taboo and looked down upon. Here, well… Besides some knowing looks of amusement I caught from lords who probably wished my tastes were more open, everyone was rather accepting of this behavior, if not outright supportive of it.

Made sense, really. When you thought about it I wasn't securing the Russ bloodline with my preferences as they were their own with these relations, which meant if I ever died any one of them would still have an opportunity to take the crown. That and I was quite sure some of them put their sisters up for positions in my household to try and get favors nonetheless. Didn't work of course, I was too principled to engage in unscrupulous behavior like that. Not that I didn't find jobs for them, most simply ended up amongst the shield maidens tasked with guarding castle Russ.

Though shield maidens was a bit of an odd term, considering they were all armed with the experimental hand cannons. They were so primitive I really could not call them muskets. My guard was also dressed in some of the best armor and furs that could be found in Russ for second-line troops. They watched over the castle 24/7 and swore to be on guard even when most of the people inside were… well, as drunk as they were at the moment. Now that I thought about it, I wondered whose idea it was to add boob armor to the plate mail. I really should find out what the Iron priests got up to when I wasn't looking… but then again as long as they produce good first-grade armor and weapons for the housecarls that maintained the peace, I really didn't care what they did with their second-rate jobs.

Reaching forward to grab my freshly filled cup of mead I froze as I sensed a disturbance in the surrounding mana. It was impossible to miss , a Golden presence had entered the castle and was now moving through its Halls in my general direction. Over the last 20 years I had trained my magical senses quite well, to the point that I could pick up when a Rune Priest entered within a few miles radius of the castle. And for all the time I've lived on this planet, I've never felt anything this strong.

That's a troublesome thought. Bringing the cup to my lips, I drank deeply and pretended not to watch the main hall door while wondering who was going to enter the room. As I did so I tuned out the revelry of the partygoers. The sounds of food being eaten, drinks spilling, and the occasional 'romantic’ noises all faded away as I focused on the door. My liver seemed to clean out a bit more alcohol than normal, assuming the worst that a threat was coming.

As I watched the door opened and a tall figure, about 8 ft 5, stepped in. My guards paid absolutely no attention to him and most of the pretty girls did the same.

I watched him without watching him, a technique I picked up while hunting in the wilds since animals tended to get a feeling when you stared directly at them but didn't get one when you use the peripheries of your vision. I saw him slowly make his way around the table in my general direction, looking around the hall. In study, perhaps? At first glance the robes and cloak the person wore were rather plain but at the edges of the clothing I saw runes woven into them. Which spoke a lot about their understanding of magic, I would assume. It also spoke of them not being from the continent. Oh there was finery on this planet, but to have runes woven into a cloak? That required a bit of wealth and a lot of time. Even I hadn't gotten something like that, but then again I still wore the black fur cloak I'd taken from the demon many years before.

The figure was halfway through the room before anyone seemed to notice them and as soon as they did they started to back away from the figure as if its mere presence was applying a pressure onto them, making them want to subconsciously draw away in fear.

The figure was halfway to where I sat at the head of the table when they stopped, finally looking at me closely. They were tilting their head, in confusion I would think, though their features were hidden by the shadows of the cloak. They paused, still looking at me, before taking a step back and turning to leave. Which was rather annoying, they just made a rather large spectacle of themselves to those who had seen them. So all of a sudden deciding to turn back was frankly not going to sit well with me.

“Well, now. What do we have here? A cloaked figure hiding their identity with not only a bit of stealth but also a bit of magic”? I called out after the figure, turning my head to look at them directly.

The figure stopped then turned back to face me, their features still hidden by their dark cloak. The room went silent as everyone became aware of their presence at my pointing it out. The person who had been sitting right next to him basically stopped and turned, with a yip that would have made many wolf pups laugh, before ducking underneath the table.

“So you can see me, King Russ.” The figure said, leaning on a gnarled walking stick I hadn't noticed before. Had that been there since he entered?

“I felt your presence the moment you entered the castle, Mr…” I fished for his name and the figure simply nodded and said “You may call me wanderer for now, my king.” The figure answered with a dramatic bow before starting his walk towards me again.

“I come from afar in search of something I have long lost.”

“Long lost things are often hard to find,” I stated with a shrug, before sipping my drink. “Is this long-lost thing the reason you have entered my domain cloaked with sorcery, rune priest wanderer?”

“In a matter of speaking, yes, but the reason I have come today is to issue a simple challenge to you, my king.”

“A challenge?” I said, raising an eyebrow with a chuckle. “I've bested many challenges over the years,” I said, indicating the walls around us. “So whatever challenge you wish to offer better be a good one.”

The figure nodded, looking around the walls before saying “The challenge, and I do not really care for its nature, can be one of your choice. I simply wish to win the right to drink at your right hand for this feast.”

Ah, the right hand. The most important position in feudal cultures, either this person wanted to become very important in the structures of my power or they wanted to be able to talk to me in private. I probably would have talked to them in private if they just came after the feast but I was always up for a little bit of entertainment nowadays, plus they were obviously powerful in some way. Perhaps they knew magic I didn't and then I’d need to spend a little bit more time than just a feast talking to them.

Nodding my head, I said, “I can agree to this, if you are willing to serve at my behest for a year should you fail.”

“To be at your service would be no issue to my timetable.” The wanderer said with a bow.

Turning to one of the maids I said “Bring out the good stuff,” before turning back to the wanderer. I indicated a seat at my left-hand side that was open, the occupants having fled to hide somewhere. “Take a seat, wanderer, and I will tell you the challenge and the rules.”

The wanderer nodded and took the seat, his face somehow still remaining hidden. Which at this point told me there was something unnatural going on, an illusion spell of some kind perhaps? Or maybe a spell to deepen the shadows of the cloak. When I got the chance I would have to ask him about that, it could be useful for multiple situations. “What shall be the first challenge, my king? An eating contest of sorts, perhaps? Or a drinking contest maybe?”

“First challenge? You’re assuming I'd make others. We’ll see. I may even come up with some more if you really want to play this out.” The maid brought forward 6 cups and laid them between us.

“A simple question game mixed with alcohol as it were. You ask a question. If I get it right you drink, if I get it wrong I drink. I ask a question and vice versa. The one who drinks the most loses, not that I imagine it is quite that big of a loss when you’re drinking some of the finest alcohol Fenris has to offer.”

The voice of the wanderer seemed to lighten with mirth. “A splendid challenge indeed. Well, my king, since it is your game you may go first.”

Smiling I looked the figure over and then said “You seem to have a good understanding of magic, so answer me this: Why are there two forms of magic?” This was a bit of a low blow since I didn't actually know the answer and it would be more if I agreed with what they proposed as the answer. Then again if they could convince me of their solution to a question I had been wondering about for a while now they deserved the win.

“What you refer to as magic is the psychic potential of humanity, stored in an alternative dimension known as the Warp. This dimension stores energy from all psychic beings that have ever existed and possibly ever will exist. That is the form that you probably don't feel as easily. I would assume it feels distant when you've reached for it?”

I nodded my head in agreement.

“It is uncontrolled and chaotic in nature. The other form though is Fenris itself.”

“Fenris?” I asked, trying to clarify.

“This world used to belong to another people and has much of their understanding of controlling the Warp imbued into it. It would seem the potential of the people who lived on this planet is stored within it and made available for use to those who are born here, instead of going directly to the Warp. If someone were to leave they would still be able to access this magic even if they were halfway across the galaxy, though the further you are the more you will have to draw on the other more uncontrolled form to allow the use of some of the more powerful abilities the Warp affords.”

I nodded my head, thought about it for a bit, and picked up the glass. I drank half of it before sliding it to him. “I don't know the answer but I buy a good portion of that, though some of it I don't. We'll call it a draw.”

The figure nodded, took what was left of the glass and drank it down.

He looked at it for a moment then asked “This is very strong. If I didn't know better I'd say that anyone who didn't have quite an improved ability to drink would be passed out drunk on four glasses.”

I drank half the glass in front of me before sliding it across to the wanderer. “Two and a half glasses is actually the upper limit most people can take before they pass out.”

“Ah … a secret challenge within a challenge, I quite appreciate that,” the wanderer said before drinking what was left of the class.

“You're not from Fenris, correct?” I asked matter of factly.

The wanderer picked up a cup and drank deeply, finishing it before placing it back on the table. “Correct. I traveled far to come here, far enough that I would be considered not of Fenris. I guess I let that slip when I mentioned being halfway across the galaxy. Though I would have guessed someone who had grown up on this world would never come across the idea of traveling off the planet. Let me guess you came across many relics from a bygone age that didn't add up? Perhaps technology that this world has never reached before as far as you were concerned and you instinctively assumed there was a possibility that this was not the birthplace of humanity.”

I grabbed the glass and drank deeply, finishing it before putting it down. “That's correct, though I had a few theories beyond just an instinct. But generally, yes. Frankly humanity is not at the top of the food chain on this planet unless we have tools, I don't think humanity could have developed on this planet which means we had to come from somewhere else. Going by my past experiences I would say probably Earth.”

“Past experiences? You should have no past experiences to draw on but from this planet itself, unless… unless you remember a past life. But that's impossible, prolonged exposure to the Warp would erase all trace of memories from a soul, bleach it of its former existence. You're lying about past experiences in order to get the win.“

I could see a flash of anger now even though the hood was obscuring the face, it was like his eyes were glowing with embers of rage. But I was not about to be cowed by some stranger with a mysterious past into backing down on the truth of the matter and I slid the glass across to him. ”I do have past experiences. I remember a life before this one and I remember yet another life before that. The middle life is foggy, walled off for the most part, but I've managed to recover some of those memories over the years. However, I remember my first life quite well.

I was a human resources officer for a corporation in Japan. I had just fired a drug addict that refused to get help, even though we tried to give him every chance possible, because he was using corporate funds to feed his habits. I was going to ride the train home, and at the time I believed the human condition was that of logic. A quick push and a short flight quickly changed my mind on that.”

“Hmm, multiple reincarnations? An unintended factor I was unaware of… still… yes, that could explain…” The wanderer looked me over as if something was falling in place for him. He reached over to the glass, took it, and drank it all down. Then, after a moment, he said “Well, it seems I've asked my three questions and you've asked two. May I ask a favor then?”

“You may,” I said, wondering what he was going to ask.

“I'm quite familiar with the history of old Terra, intimately familiar. Ask a question from the time period of your last life, preferably a hard one.”

I nodded my head, understanding why he wanted that particular question if he was that familiar. Frankly, at this point, I pretty much came to the conclusion that the man before me was most likely the creator of this body. Most likely he was trying to figure out what had gone wrong in my creation that I remembered things. No doubt he also wanted an idea of what year I was from. Well I had a suitable question, one I stumbled across a few years back that would do well to figure out how this reincarnation worked.

I reclined in my seat and said matter of factly, “Who was the Devil of the Rhine?”.

The wanderer chuckled and said “Such an old question, one I've not heard in 27,000 years. The Devil of the Rhine, or the 11th goddess as the newspapers termed her many years later, was a propaganda movement to imply that the empire of Germania had some sort of super psyker. She was supposed to be running around and putting out fires, making sure that they were winning the war. Frankly their system was quite efficient but there's no evidence this soldier ever existed. No doubt it's simply a mix of Germania’s propaganda and everyone else wanting to have someone to blame for their failures. Better to blame some mythical mage than to admit the Imperial system was more efficient and effective than their own.”

I couldn't help myself, I laughed at that. 27,000 years and they still hadn't figured out who the 11th goddess was? Grabbing the glass I drank half of it before placing it on the table and pushing it across to The wanderer.

Then, in what I considered perfect German though I hadn't spoken it in probably 27,030 years, I said “I did a good job burning those records I see. I'm afraid though the propaganda was not so much propaganda as the truth. Though I don't remember my name so we'll call that a tie. Well that would be three and a half for you and two and a half for me, I believe I've won this little…”

Before I could finish that sentence the wanderer reached over to his left shoulder and ripped the cloak from his body. And I was stunned as the figure that had been about my size doubled, his head just barely avoiding touching the large ceiling of the hall. I was given the first actual view of the person though and I was quite shocked at what I saw. Before me stood a man in heavy platemail armor, finely crafted in a baroque style with what I must assume was burnished gold. Everywhere I looked there were gold eagles and red jewelry.

Throughout the hall the gathered lords screamed in fear and moved away from the gigantic man now standing at the head of the table. Not all, I noted with some pride. My shield maidens quickly reformed, bringing their large spears to point at the giant that the wanderer had turned into.

Even part of me wanted to run but I stood my ground. Well, in a manner of speaking. I was still seated after all. I looked up at him and waited to see what he would do, noting that the look of anger and frustration across his face was mixed with confusion and something else I couldn't make out through the other emotions.

The Emperor
Hours before

I looked down at the ice ball below with some trepidation. For 30 years I had found my way across the galaxy, looking for my 20 lost sons robbed from me by the creatures of the Warp.

Thankfully the crusade I had been planning for a long time to reunite humanity was nearly ready so I was able to launch it with the new goal to find my sons. Being patient would have probably resulted in fewer casualties but I didn't have patience enough. The longer my sons were out there, the more likely they were to be corrupted by the powers of the Warp. And what better weapon to turn against me would the powers of the Warp ever receive.

Thankfully, again, I already recovered one of them, Horus Lupercal. It would be better to say he had nearly recovered himself as he had unified the world he'd fallen on and was in the process of trying to put together an expeditionary fleet to Terra. At the time I had wondered if perhaps one of the training programs I had installed in the gestation chambers had induced an intense urge to return to Terra in my sons. But I'd soon come to realize he had been taking a lot after me when it came to my dreams of reuniting humanity.

However I could not depend on my sons to find themselves, I would need to do it myself. So far though, until a few years ago, I had only found Horus. As my crusade expanded across the Stars I had heard rumors of various beings coming to power, trade and rumors always moved faster than armies which was useful when you needed to find people who had been scattered across the stars.

One such rumor came from Fenris, that a giant had taken the planet and brought an age of peace and prosperity to the main continent and the nomadic tribes that lived on it.

Light years away and it could be nothing, the rumors of giants were common. Often when they meant giant they just meant that a person was a bit bigger than normal, storytellers adding an extra foot from there to make them sound even more amazing than they really were. But I had no other leads so I had redirected the fleet to Fenris.

And now that I was here, standing above the planet. I could sense my son, the same trace of our connection was there as I had used a bit of my own soul’s psychic ability to fuse the strong souls I'd taken from the warp to the body. A process that had been needed since the prototype, my true first son, had not undergone such a process and as a result had been unstable.

“Father, I must insist you should let me go down with you,” came the voice of Horus from behind me. Turning I saw him in his armor with a wolf pelt strewn across his shoulders.

Smiling I folded my hands behind my back and turned to look at the ice ball once again. “Son, I have nothing to fear from the creatures of this planet. Your brother, whoever they are, will have been raised by the natives of this world. They have not known technology and more likely than not they will not know how to handle the idea that I am their father.“

“Uh-huh… Father, if you just wanted to be the first to meet them you could just say that.” Horus stated, folding his arms in front of him.

“Fine, yes. I want to be the first member of their family they meet. I want to see them first to create the connection that was taken from me by the scattering. “I said out loud while internally I continued and added ‘And then judge if they have been corrupted by Chaos and will need to be put down like a sick dog.’ It was an unfortunate truth but the idea that some of his sons would be corrupted by the forces of the Ruinous Powers was not an impossibility. And if they were too far gone to save he may have to put them down to spare their brothers the horrors of seeing what they could have become of themselves.

“All right, father, but as soon as you're sure that this barbarian king is one of my brothers and you've had your father son time please let me know. I would like to meet my new sibling.” He said with his hive ganger accent coming to the fore. A sure sign that he was quite interested in meeting his potential brother.

Smiling I turned to face him and said “There's no one else to call but you, my son. As soon as I am sure and have had a moment with him I shall call you down to the planet.” With that I stepped past him, walking towards the hallway that would lead to the transport ship that would take me down to the planet. I only stopped to grab an old rune cloak that would give me some ability to sneak around once I hit the planet.

The shuttle would take me down to outside the so-called capital of Fenris’ civilization, a Castle Russ. There I would have to march about a mile to get to the castle but it was still much quicker than having to rely on the normal tradeways of this planet.

There was exactly one connection to the outside world on this entire planet, the Isle of the Iron Masters. All trade, in and off world, went through them and though they were nowhere near advanced as the rest of the Galaxy they at least had safe ports for the traders of the region to land on. If I attempted to go by their routes it would have probably taken me about 3 weeks to get to Castle Russ. I could be a patient man but I wasn't that patient, so I might accidentally started a few legends about a golden giant coming down to the surface of the planet to find their son. Hopefully the planet could advance enough to see that for what it was and not turn it into a religious thing.

The landing went off without a hitch and I soon was marching through the snow towards the castle. And I was enjoying the pleasant walk. I had not been to Fenris in a long time, the old Scandinavian cultural preserve had been built just around the start of the age of strife. Or at least officially created. There had been many attempts to turn this planet into something of use for a long time before that. It had been everything from a prison to a theme park. I actually quite enjoyed the theme park before that had been torn down to build the preserve.

I didn't have a chance to visit it during the full operation of the preserve, though one thing I knew about that time was that they had founded underground cities that were supposed to keep the planet in pristine condition. Considering humanity now seemed to be dispersed across the surface of the world I would have to assume something went wrong with those.

Oh perhaps I would have time to explore this planet, find out what secrets had been hidden by the Old Night? That would be a good father-son activity actually, perhaps I would have my son show me around this world and we would delve deep into its secrets together.

Imagining that future I soon found myself in front of the castle, which brought a burst of laughter to my lips. Those who lived on this world probably did not know but this was definitely one of the castles that had been made for the theme park, I could even see a few bolt holes in the bricks near the base of the structure where a roller coaster track had once been. It had been built up over many years and I doubt it looked exactly like this all those years ago.

Filled with mirth I stepped out of the cold and into the castle, ignoring the guards that did not see me. At least at first I ignored them, after all they were just average humans and thus not the person I was looking for. But after you come across a fourth female guard without having seen a male guard you start to notice that.

A bit of worry came up at the back of my mind. Was my son a lecher or were they corrupted by the Ruinous Power of pleasure? Looking at the walls and the armors closely though I didn't believe they were corrupted, at least not too greatly. The castle still looked like a castle and not a flesh den. It also wasn't a mansion full of harlots, although I did wonder why they went with an all-female guard staff. A little closer inspection did reveal that they were not all samples of beauty, some of them had some rather nasty scars. Perhaps it was a second-line troop sort of situation. They let women into their armies to guard important locations like this, those that didn't require males who could be of more use fighting on the frontier.

Intriguing thought but I would know soon enough I figured. I walked up the stairs to a central hall area. I could feel my son in this castle. They were just beyond the door in the central hall. I could not wait to meet them, to see what kind of man they had become.

With a little trepidation that I quickly crushed I opened the door and stepped into the room. Before me was a great feast as local lords and ladies enjoyed what I had to assume was a celebration in honor of the king. The room was not finely decorated by my standards though I did appreciate the skulls of the creatures and weapons on the walls. A perfect impression for a barbarian king to give off, one of conquest and victories over monsters. My eyes moved across the walls to the end of the table which was quite far away and there I saw a giant among men, though on the shorter side for my brood, enjoying a drink. Their long flowing gold hair was almost as flowing as my own dark brown and they looked quite happy.

At that moment I knew they were my son and I began to make my way towards them, trying to figure out how to introduce myself. But as I got closer my vision cleared a bit and I was left a little bit dumbstruck. About halfway down the table I stopped and looked again as I realized that was not a man, the figure was too slim and there was definitely a chest on them. Had I made some mistake? Was I picking up the wrong signal? I had created 20 sons and before me was definitely a woman, so this must not be one of my sons. I had most likely been too eager when I felt whoever this person's psychic presence was, being stronger than the rest, and assumed they were my son. He must be somewhere else on this planet. Sighing in annoyance I turned to leave to begin anew my search for where my son was when a voice called up after me.

The Emperor
Now

Staring down at the woman I cracked my knuckles in anger inside the armored gloves. I had been robbed, robbed of a chance to raise 20 sons. And I thought for sure that at least finding them as soon as possible would guarantee that I would have some emotional connection with them, something to keep them loyal to me as we reunited humanity.

But it seemed, either through my own hubris or the Ruinous Power of change, at least one of my sons had been denied to me entirely. I was thoroughly angry, thoroughly wanting to strangle the Ruinous Powers, and annoyed with myself as I had reached into the Warp with an assumption. And the woman in front of me proved that that assumption was wrong.

Even all these years later the Warp still maintained its mysteries to me and that… That annoyed me.

After a deep breath though I came back to myself, the Russ King sat there without a care in the world. I respected that quite a bit, considering how unleashed I'd let my anger get. Taking another breath and letting it out I shaved a few feet off my height until I was something a little bit more reasonable for the castle we were in.

Though I had lost the opportunity to raise a son, possibly to raise an individual, I may have gained another opportunity. If this individual's story that they had memories of their previous lives was true… then they had quite a large bit of military experience at their back, one that would be needed in the coming crusade. And to be fair, according to them, they had fragments of memories. Perhaps my chance at shaping this relationship was not lost entirely yet. Malcador had suggested that I include a few daughters amongst my sons over the years, it would give me an opportunity to test his hypothesis that they would fight less.

“King of the Russ, I am the emperor and your father. My child, I have come from Terra to bring you into the fold. I have launched a grand crusade to reunite all of humanity, will you join me on this venture?”

“No.” the king of Russ said matter of factly, before turning to her guards and giving them the order to clear the room.

Immediately the female guards began pushing the guests out of the room as I stood there, dumbfounded by the fact that I had been denied so easily.

My sons, correction my primarchs, should roll out the red carpet for me. I figured that when I offered such an opportunity to leave whatever world they were stuck on they would jump on it, especially in the case of one who was stuck on such a primitive world.

As soon as the room was cleared the king of Russ turned her head to look at me.

“No, I will not leave Fenris for some Grand Crusade to establish whatever faith you believe in.”

My eyes widened as I realized my mistake and I had to let out a hearty laugh at that. “My apologies, child. I forgot that crusade meant ‘war of the cross’ in the time you came from. Such religious meanings have been lost in the last 27,000 years. In fact, I serve no God. I wish only to see humanity take its proper place among the stars.”

The king of Russ nodded and seemed to think for a moment before saying, “Well, at least we have a starting point. My answer is still no but I'm now willing to negotiate.”

“Negotiate?“ I asked, a bit taken aback.

“Yes, negotiate. What are the terms of the contract for this ‘crusade’ as you put it? What good does this crusade do for Fenris and myself?”

Sighing I shrunk down till I could sit at the table without issue. “I can have a contract lawyer down from my ship within an hour and we can begin negotiations. Does that meet with your approval?”

The king of Russ reached out and grabbed the cup of alcohol she had been drinking from when I had arrived. She tilted it in my direction. “Very much so. To the opening of negotiations.” She then drank down the last of that cup.

Writers note: and thus we move on from King Russ of Fenris to the future! To the unknown! So… people may not like the characterization of Big E here, to those people I say: Current characterization of Big E is grimderp, it takes a tragedy story and turns it to a deserved outcome story. Besides that let me know what all you folks think, next chapter should be fun as Big E and Tanya have a talk.

Edited by: Pierre
Community edited by:Justin R, Ryan Pirtle, Pudy15236, Joe Generic

Community editable doc ( Chapter 17 ) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

Chapter 19, Family Time
Fenris
828.M30

Tanya Russ

The snow was falling lightly today on Fenris, dusting the grounds with a powder of white. A good day to go hunting, or for a walk or ride. Today I was going for a walk with my quote-unquote father. Apparently, the gold giant was interested in working off his year of service as quickly as possible and he had suggested that we could continue our conversations about the greater galaxy and things that I would need to understand in order to take part in his ‘Great Crusade’.

I still didn't like the fact I was using the word crusade but I couldn't really complain that much, working with him would get this planet to a more comfortable level of living for the people here and myself. If I had to engage in a little bit of diplomatic violence against other people to do that… well, that's what was required.

So far I had learned a few important things. For one, despite the ability to send armored giants on walkabouts, most conflicts still came down to the ground sloggers being sent in to secure everything. Which is why he had Space Marines as a thing but second-line troops were still mostly humans. Space Marines being, I guess the correct term would be post-human, first-line troops, sent in to secure planets and fight the initial battles while the second-line troops came in to clean things up afterward.

I also learned that mage conflict was pretty much dead. Sure some spells and formulas still worked but the level of power a mage would need to use in order to obtain the status they had during my life was such that you were more likely to end up as a pile of bubbling flesh. Warp energy was not as forgiving as it once had been.

Which aligned with what I'd already known to some extent, the Rune Priests always warned that one needed to be careful with the powers of Fenris or you'd end up something worse than dead such as the man who got turned into a solid stone statue. Even with the apparent filtering qualities of Fenris the Warp was still not conducive to using psyker powers as heavily as I had in my mage days.

That was something I was going to have to keep in mind for my quote-unquote legion, the one I would be required to lead. If magic was so unstable compared to what it once had been I couldn't rely on it to be the most powerful weapon in my arsenal, it was a tool and one that should be used as necessary but I couldn’t default to it if I intended to live a long life.

Which, at the moment, looked very long considering the implications of the Emperor being around when I was alive 28,000 years ago… I was going to have to build up a lot of systems to get my retirement if that was what I was facing. Hell even if I developed a lot of systems, I got the distinct feeling that I would still have to come out of retirement once in a while to set things right, like some of those Roman generals did in the latter half of their empire.

Anyways I was walking with Emperor when Mother Wolf happened to trot up next to me, smiling, I rubbed the top of her head.

“Wolves seem very important to you,” father said, looking over as I patted the wolf's head.

“First creatures I ran into that were not trying to kill me when they had the ability to do so. Of course I bribed them but still, simple economic transfer there: you let me live with you and you'll get a portion of the food I make. Over time I came to live amongst the wolves and then lead them. They're very loyal; they understand basic economics and they are good fighters. Not to mention they live an extremely long time, Mother here has been with me since I first arrived pretty much.”

“Mother?” Emperor asked, his eyebrow raised.

I shrugged and responded, “I never actually got around to figuring out a name for her. Her pups, Cunning and Fierce? Sure I came up with names for them over time. Mother though? She was just Mother.

Emperor nodded and stepped around me to pet the head of Mother. “Well, I must thank this wolf as there was no guarantee that you would survive on whatever planet you landed. If not for her guidance I'm sure you would have had a harder time of it.”

Nodding, I finally decided to ask a question that had been bugging me. “So you've been around the galaxy for a while, I assume? Do you happen to know what the deal with the cultures on Fenris is? I've seen quite a lot of strange things and a lot of it does not make sense. My current theory is the planet was some sort of Scandinavian cultural preserve.”

Emperor laughed then said, “That was its third interpretation, I believe. Or, to be fair, there were only three I paid attention to. There might have been other attempts to colonize this planet at various times with different methods. I know the first time humanity messed around with this planet was as a prison, sending humans here to… Well, survive the best they could. They were given genetic alterations and it was hoped that it would allow them to survive this world’s harsh conditions.”

I nodded as it did make sense, considering the last king of Russ had been in his 120s and looking like he was in his 60s. “What happened to that attempt?” I asked.

“The genetic modifications weren't stable. Half the population got left on the planet and formed tribal units to survive. The other half…” He looked at the wolf. “They devolved, let's call it that.”

My eyes literally widened so much I thought they might roll out of my skull as I turned to look at Mother, realizing that though she was a wolf she apparently may be genetically closer to human than was comfortable. That might explain the intelligence I had seen in her eyes since day one.

“The next attempt to colonize this planet that I paid attention to was an amusement park; one I came to. It kept the tribals out and let people… well the term is LARP, as Vikings. It was, in my opinion, an interesting concept though one that I believe ultimately failed. From what I understand they built cities built under mountain ranges that would still be there.

“There's a city under the mountains near which I landed,” I said, remembering what the Allfather had said about not going into the tunnels.

“Yes. A series of cities, in fact. They were meant to be support structures for the people on the surface while they LARPed as Vikings amongst the tribals. As well as keeping the small fortress amusement parks, like the one Russ Castle was built as, running. Some people didn't come to play Viking amongst the savages, some simply came for the roller coasters or were brought along by those who worked as play-Vikings and needed some more modern entertainment.”

I blinked at the reveal that the castle I had spent the last 20 years of my life in was the remnants of an amusement park attraction. If that didn't show the versatility of a castle I did not know what else would but that was quite amazing.

“The last major colonization effort on this planet was, as you theorized, a Norse preserve. Well, I think the attractions were still running during that effort? Anyway, a bunch of colonies of Scandinavians moved in and basically tried to live amongst the tribals and teach them their version of Scandinavia. I don't know how that turned as that was just before the start of the Old Night. No doubt once the planet was cut off from everything they just mixed together to create the situation you found yourself in, though I would assume the tribals basically integrated the other groups and whatever knowledge was useful to them.

“So this planet went from Australia to Disneyland and finally to a national park. That's a turnaround only humanity could come up with.”

“You have no idea,” Emperor said, shaking his head in amusement. “Well, you'll learn. With such a long lifespan you'll learn just how humanity thinks. And then you'll still be surprised by the things they'll do.”

I nodded my head and said, “About those cities under the mountains; was there an AI-like thing to help run those cities?”

Emperor stopped his petting of Mother and looked up at me, a bit more hardness to him all of a sudden. “Now that you mentioned it I do recall there was a virtual intelligence that looked a bit like Odin, back in the day.”

“Virtual intelligence?” I asked, not familiar with that term.

“It's more rudimentary and cheaper than an artificial intelligence. They also tend to be not self-aware compared to AI.“

“Strange,” I rubbed my chin. “Well your VI seems to have upgraded since he appeared to me and offered help in at least one instance.”

Emperor stood taller as heard that. “Hmm, it is theoretically possible for a VI that's been running long enough to develop artificial intelligence, although that would usually require some sort of outside influence.” He said, sounding concerned.

“You said this planet was once controlled by other people, could that be related?”

Emperor nodded his head in approval and chopped his right fist into the palm of his left hand. “Of course, the Eldar! Many of their planets have something called a World Spirit, which is why Fenris has a slightly purified access to psychic powers. This World Spirit could have taken control of the VI in order to operate and communicate with the people of this planet. Strange that it would think humans worthy of contact though. Eldars and their things are usually… Well, they’re not exactly pleasant to deal with.“

I shrugged and said, “I don't know about that, I don't know who the Eldar are. All I know is he seemed pleasant enough, if somewhat excessively mysterious. Gave a warning about going into those cities though, stated outright that the things below the mountains don't want humanity nor have any mercy for it.

Emperor nodded his head, “That's concerning. No doubt we'll need to clear that issue out. I would prefer this planet to be securely under your control. An AI that plays mysterious games means you have one element that is not under control.”

After a moment though he shrugged and said, “No, that's a fight for another day. Tell me, Tanya, what exactly is your opinion on the matter of rule. how do you rule this society you’re king of.”

I shrugged and said, “With a careful hand, really. I guide things in the direction I generally want them to go and I set up systems to sort of propel things to go that way without my intervention. Trade builds wealth, wealth builds other things which increase trade, and so on and so forth. Sooner or later the common peasant will have enough money to influence the government. With the schools I've been trying to set up they'll have a better general understanding of the world than they did before the schools existed.”

Emperor raised an eyebrow, “A modernization, mixed with a constitutional monarchy in a sense.“

I nodded my head, “I don't want to rule this planet forever. People should rule themselves, I should just be there to guide them when they're making a stupid mistake.“

The biggest and broadest smile I think I had ever seen in any of my lives graced Emperor's face. “That is how it should be, that is the goal. We are going to reunite humanity and guide it once in a while, to make sure it doesn't do something stupid. Otherwise we should be able to sit back and enjoy our lives.“

“I attempted to rule like that, on and off throughout humanity’s history, moving things from the shadows every now and again but relatively often I was enjoying the fruits of my efforts in retirement after improving humanity's lot. That is one of the reasons I decided to make 20 sons instead of some other arbitrary number. I figured 20 was a good number for how many it would take to run the galaxy from that sort of condition.”

“20 individuals to run an entire galaxy? Seems low.” I said, matter of factly.

Emperor shrugged, “20 generals, all commanding their own legions of Space Marines who are doing their own efforts to try and improve the Galaxy, helping humanity reach its inevitable apotheosis into superhumans like us. I could have done more but I figured 20 was the most reasonable number as the human mind can really only manage so many relationships. So I figured having a number within the general amount of relationships a human mind can have would guarantee that those relationships would be strong, that you brothers and I guess sister now, would be able to come to each other in times of emergency and be there for each other. Something you will have that I never did in my long years in existence.”

Well, that was rather touching in a way. Although I wondered how that would work out now that each one of the brothers would have spent who knows how long away from each other.

“Anyway, have you thought about where you will place the fortress for your legion?”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “I haven't yet given that much thought, though I feel I probably should. It would need to be in a secure place since it would be an installation for the creation of my legion, I guess. Probably also need to be centralized since the entire planet would be our recruitment grounds. Hmm…”

“During my travels on Fenris I've visited a few places. I started near the Top of the World, that's a plateau where a lot of the winter storms come down from. There are massive mountains around it, some of them I think are taller than Everest itself.”

Emperor chuckled and noticed my confusion at that. He explained, “Everest has actually sunk quite a bit since your time. Also paved over at one point.”

I blinked and said, “Wow. Terra does not sound like it's had a good run of it.”

“No, but continue.”

I cleared my throat and continued, “This mountain range has a peak that nearly goes all the way to space. It's centrally located and the winter storms should keep the worst of the monsters away. If we could hollow out that mountain, we would not only have probably the most defensible location on the entire planet but also a place that was kept generally cold all year long without need for power. I would assume this Geneseed needed for the creation of space Marines requires cooling, otherwise the seed would go bad? So that would be a win-win in my thinking.”

Emperor nodded his head in agreement, “Yes, we're probably going to have to be really careful with your Geneseed, due to,” he looked at me,” unfortunate changes.”

I looked down at myself and up at Emperor before saying, “Is there an issue I'm unaware of?”

“Perhaps,“ Emperor said, before sighing in worry. “Space Marines are made from men, the Geneseed is designed to work with XY chromosomes, so I'm unaware if the Geneseed that is produced from your DNA in your current state is still working as intended. If something unfortunate has happened… When this new fortress is created and the biolabs are installed, we will need to run several tests to figure it out.”

“What are the possible outcomes to be worried about?” I asked clearly.

Emperor nodded at me again and listed off the possibilities, one finger at a time,

“One, it still works on XY. No issue, this would be the best outcome for everyone.”

“Two, it now works with XX. This is not terrible as you can still create a legion from such conditions, though sending women to the front line is more detrimental to this planet's biological diversity than sending men, that's just the simple fact of the matter. Also, upper body strength would be lesser among the females who took this, as a lot of the strength improving aspects of the Geneseed are key to the Y chromosome.”

“Three is an interesting case, we would have both options opened though the arguments against XX are still quite valid. The potential for humanity to develop a subspecies of Space Marines grows, instead of them staying only an improvement on humanity. I would prefer that not to happen. Space Marines are meant to be of humanity, not controlling humanity.”

“Option four is that we can’t produce Geneseed with your DNA, this is frankly the worst option but you are still not out of options at that point. I did build a redundancy in the legionaries to produce their own Geneseeds that can be harvested. You would simply be forced to use the Geneseeds of the legion coming to this planet instead of your own.”

“Here's hoping for option one,” I stated, giving a thumbs up. Sure option three was probably actually better. Though if he was worried about that kind of bioengineering running amok I would respect his opinions on the matter, to a point.

“So when will my legion arrive?” I asked the reasonable follow-up question.

Emperor said turning to look around at Fenris, ‘The crusade needs to go on and the sooner I get them here the sooner you and their Commander can set up the institutions to build the legion as is necessary. I figure it'll take you 5 years to get things up and running, which is the amount of time I will give you to do so. Though I might give you a few years more depending on what I see and what need arises. Once you’ve got your legion to good enough numbers for a fight I will call upon you to join the crusade in full.”

I nodded. Five years, two and a half Great Years, wasn't terrible and I had done a lot with less time. I mean the professional legionaries that were coming were probably already better trained than what the warriors of Russ had produced. The real question was what did Emperor want my legion to do. So far it seemed like I would have free reign on how I would train my legion so I wasn't exactly going to push the subject and be told otherwise.

Emperor looked off towards the mountains and said. “Well, king of Russ, I think we've had enough questions today. You say those mountains are full of monsters? Shall we go hunt these creatures together? I would not mind a skull like that one above your mantle place.”

I blinked and said, “That's an Ice Worm, it's one of the most dangerous creatures on land.”

“Sounds like the perfect creature for a little father-daughter bonding time.”

I blinked and mentally commented that he may really want this family thing. Shaking my head, I said, “They're normally asleep this time of year, deep under the glaciers, but there are plenty of other creatures we can hunt.” Looking to Mother Wolf, I said, “Go get me a couple Spears, Mother.” She nodded and trotted off.

“Mega elks are more common, but no less dangerous if you engage them in close combat.”

Emperor smiled and nodded, “Baby steps then. Mega elk today, something bigger tomorrow.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I said, trying to think of something bigger that wouldn't be too dangerous.

Horus Lupercal

To have a sister was still a strange thing to process, I had expected to run into Brothers. But in the grand scheme of things It was no real difference in how I would interact with my sibling.

Though I would admit, as siblings go, I was a bit jealous. Not through any major disagreement with her or anything of that manner. But comparatively her stories were rather interesting, I had quickly risen amongst the ranks of the gangsters on my homeworld and eventually taken over the planet. It was a simple story, taking no longer than a year or two as I was a fast learner and driven by an urge to see the stars for myself.

Tanya on the other hand had 30 years to consolidate a rule and it wasn't because she was terrible at it. From the story she told me as we walked through the forest and headed for the closest mountain range, she had simply been realistic about her opportunities.

The planet was, in her words, trapped in a medieval stasis and on the brink of having humanity destroyed every couple of years. Just from that statement alone it told me everything I needed to know about her way of thought. She couldn't reach space yet so she took the slower path of gradually unifying the world. I wonder how many other brothers, and maybe sisters, would do the same.

It was also quite apparent she had embraced the culture of this world with abandon. From her wolf cloak to her medieval-style armor she radiated the presence of an ancient barbarian king or hero. Even her dialect of Low Gothic felt somehow like the growl of a predatory wolf waiting to emerge.

Again I think I felt somewhat jealous of it. As I said I had conquered my homeworld in a year and I quickly found myself by the Emperor’s side. Cthonia was where I was from but it was not really my homeworld. Sure I could put on the accents to be more familiar to my legionaries or seem more down to earth when talking to military commanders that I had to work for with a campaign.

But everything about Tanya said that Fenris was her homeworld. Strange, considering she supposedly had other lives, but apparently she was willing to abandon whatever elements of those lives in favor of letting this world mold her.

Made me wonder what would have happened if I had not pushed for space so quickly and not joined father in the first few years of the crusade. Would I have become more like my supposed homeworld? Would I have adapted and come up with what the world needed as she had? It was an interesting question and one I was thinking more about than usual.

Might have thought too hard on the matter as I spaced off a bit, looking into the horizon of trees as we walked.

“Horus,” Tanya said as she walked next to me several of her wolves trotting alongside her. “I've been wondering about this whole legion situation. How exactly does father want us to run our legions anyways?”

I smiled at that. Tanya may have life experience, more than me supposedly, but it would appear that she was willing to defer to her elders when It came to the legions. Which was good, it was something that I had that she had not. Something I could help her with.

“Well for the most part the legions run themselves, they've been fighting for a long time and learning how to fight that entire time. The Luna Wolves, my legion, are known for sudden overwhelming shock assaults and I've not changed what works for them. “

Tanya seemed to perk up at the mention of wolves so I explained the name as I understood it. “The Little wolves, or the 16th legion’s first engagement, was fought on Luna against various forces there. From my understanding their fierce aggression got them called ‘The Wolves of The Emperor’ by the enemy and my legion liked that so they added the planet where they gained that name to form the new name; Luna Wolves.“

Tanya nodded her head, saying, “Hmm… So the legions name themselves?” Tanya muttered. “I hadn't considered that. What is my legion calling itself?”

“The sixth legion calls itself The Rout, a play on the fact that they tend to cause the enemy to rout and then keep pursuing them until they're destroyed. They're very effective at seek and destroy missions. Though if you want I'm sure father would allow you to change their name. They're still registered as the sixth legion, The Rout is just what people call them,” I said, stopping to look at a particularly large tree as it had scratch marks unlike anything I'd ever seen before. “Is this from some more of your familiars?” I asked.

Tanya leaned around to look past me and said, “Thunder Wolf, they also come down from the mountains for easier prey.” She shook her head in disappointment. “Looks like I'm going to have to kill another one of those creatures.”

At that I turned to look at her and the wolves trotting around her. “By the company you keep I would have thought your kingship extended to all wolves.”

Tanya looked at me and then seemed to consider what to say, before finally asking, “What do you know of wolves?”

At that I could do nothing much but shrug, “Not much, sister. There are some wolves in my legion, real beasts and animals, but they are genetically modified creatures and often more rabid weapons than pets. They’re sometimes unleashed during the battles but their effectiveness has been failing over the years and I have a feeling they'll be abandoned at some point. As for beyond that… The wolves of Terra, as far as I'm aware, have all gone extinct besides specimens kept alive for their genetic information.”

Tanya nodded her head before saying, “There are three types of wolves on Fenris. The common wolf is a human-sized creature that can be tamed. Then you have the Blackmaned ones, which can be bartered with, and then there's the Thunder Wolves. For the last ones the younger ones could be tamed I believe, if you got to them quick enough. With the middle-aged ones you could probably barter if you already had a relationship or had shown yourself someone worth dealing with. But the older ones are kings. They rule the mountains and give little care to anything that is not themselves. Some of them are quite powerful in other ways as well,” She looked off into the distance at some unmentioned memory, her hand playing with the black fur of her cloak.

“The problem is that even if you get them to barter… With age they’ll also think themselves kings until you've shown them otherwise. Which means you have to fight them and in a fight there's no guarantee of your survival. It's kill or be killed. What few connections I've made with the Thunder Wolves over the years were down to luck, in most cases I've had to kill them. Apex predators do not like giving up their position, it's a simple fact of the biological world.”

I nodded my head as that seemed like a reasonable understanding of a world like this, a deathworld as it were. Those were places where humans should not be able to survive and you had to find ways to. I wondered how that line of thinking would translate to her legion when they were equipped with Fenrisians and joined the Crusade.

Shaking her head, Tanya stepped past me to get a closer look at the cuts in the wood, “This is definitely an older one. The marks are spaced in such a way that it can easily kill a mega elk with one swipe. There will be no barter or negotiations, most likely it'll be a fight.” Turning to me, she asked, “Would you like to join me in dealing with this creature before it becomes a problem for the people of this world?”

I had to think about that for a moment since I wasn't exactly wearing my power armor, but then again.. Neither was Tanya and she seemed rather confident about hunting this creature while she was about half my size.

If she could take on this beast then I was sure I could do it without armor. Nodding my head, I said, “It would be an honor to join you on this hunt.” Reaching to my side I pulled my sword out of its scabbard, intent on having it at the ready in case the beast tried to ambush us. Nodding Tanya pulled out the long sword at her own side and started to walk in a seemingly random direction in the snow, quickly pointing to some tracks. “It seems to be heading further into the lowlands. There's a town in that direction, it most likely plans to hunt humans. That’s the worst possible outcome because once a Thunder Wolf gets a taste for human meat that's undefended they tend to start going for that primarily, even trying to avoid soldiers and the such.”

I nodded as I followed, her explanation made sense. Though I had to wonder how many of these Thunder Wolves she had hunted in her time.

She stopped all of a sudden, looking around at the tracks again. “Rout is an interesting name, but it's not exactly the most noble name for a legion. I'll probably change that. Also, without showing any emotions or concern, be ready to whip around and attack.”

I blinked, confused by that, before my eyes followed the tracks. They went from the tree into the tree line and then, though I couldn't see all of them, they seemed to go down the side of the road we had just come up.

Tanya sniffed the air as if she was smelling something and I started to get the feeling that something was staring at my back. Carefully I moved my other hand onto the end of my sword, not fast enough to draw any notice but slow enough that I was able to get a good grip.

There was a moment of silence, the woods making no noise whatsoever. And then there was a crack of wood behind me. I didn't even wait for Tanya telling to turn, moving with the speed given to me by my Primarch biology. I was turned around quickly and managed to use my sword to stop a massive maw from biting down on my shoulder.

The flat end of my blade was pushing against the snout of a beast with brown fur that was attempting to rip and bite at me with such ferocity that I was almost taken aback just by the sheer determination of it.

What's worse the beast was comparable almost to me in size, enough that I thought a Space Marine could probably ride this creature with no issue. The hate it seemed to have in its beautiful eyes was strangely terrifying.

The brown-furred beast made a pained noise before stepping back a few feet. On its left side was a slice wound nearly cutting through to the bone by the looks of it, blood was pouring from it profusely. Looking to my right I saw that Tanya had taken a position there, her blade already bloody with the beast’s red life fluid.

This seemed to have angered the beast even more as it charged at her. Tanya did the same as I had and blocked the beast with her sword but she was pulled over in the attempt, the creature pinning her to the ground with its one good claw.

It seemed to have forgotten me though. I was able to come up to its side and shoved my sword deep into its chest cavity. That didn't seem to kill it however as it just turned, ripping the sword out of my hand, and tried to bite at my free hands. I grabbed it by its snout and lifted it off the ground by its head before tossing it into a nearby tree. Somehow my blade found its way all the way through the beast in that action, pinning it to the tree by the sword.

It hung there for a few moments, clawing at the air before life seemed to give away and the pitiless nature of the eyes faded over time until nothing was there.

Turning I saw Tanya standing up, brushing herself off with a wide smile across her face, “Thank you, big brother. You just saved my life there,” She said, leaning down to pick up her sword and put it back into its scabbard before walking towards the now dead beast.

“No issue, my sister. That was an unexpected bit of adrenaline,” I said, following her over to the creature. The brown fur was a nice shade, it blended in well with the tree line.

“For a creature that comes from the mountains they sure do seem to have a good coloration for these lowlands,” I mentioned.

Tanya nodded as she inspected the beast, “The younger ones have a fur that’s more brownish in color so they can hunt amongst the lowlands. The older ones are usually white or in a few cases black. I have theories that the creatures are able to adapt to their environment a little bit quicker than ancient wolves could. But then again I believe these creatures can live a couple hundred years, so having the ability to adapt would be favorable in those conditions.”

I nodded as she explained the inner workings of the biology of Fenris’ Thunder Wolves. With a swift motion she grabbed the handle of my sword and pulled, removing it from the beast which allowed it to tumble to the ground, before handing it to me.

“Thank you, sister,” I said, taking the blade and swishing it through the air to clean the blood and gunk off of it before sheathing it again.

“No problem would be in the way anyways,” Tanya said pulling out a knife for leaning down on the beast and starting to cut at it.

“What are you doing, sister?” I asked out of curiosity.

“You killed the beast. At least by my reckoning you deserve its skin. Besides that a leader of wolves should have a wolf pelt,” she said matter of factly as she turned the body over to start cutting areas of the skin and fur free.

Well… That was rather touching, really. And I wasn't going to say no to having a wolf skin to add to my armor. No doubt this was what father always talked about growing bonds and connections, this was a way for us to become the family he talked about.

And with that thought I leaned down and said ‘Is there any way I can help?” Tanya looked at me in thought for a moment then handed me the dagger and said, “Well, I can teach you how to skin the wolf. With your upper body strength it should be a lot easier to get through some of these tougher areas.”

Smiling I took the knife and said, “Of course, sister.” And I followed her directions as she explained how to skin a wolf.

Tanya Russ

I did not like this one bit. Tightening my cloak as I followed Emperor, or father, deeper into the cave. Years ago I had burned out this cave with carcasses and wood, to cleanse it of what I thought might be some form of mountain or underground rabies. Since then I had not been back into these mountains for nearly 20 years, not this particular area at least.

Some of my wolves still made the trip to these mountains, but to get back to the matter at hand, due to my influence on the kingdom of Russ it was a safe place for my wolves to rear their young and grow their tribe.

And since it was only some dedicated few that still made that trip I hadn't had any reason to come up here.

Not until Emperor asked me to take him to the underground, the place I had been warned to never go by the Allfather.

It had been nearly 3 months since his arrival on my world and in that time he had hunted almost every creature on the planet with me, explained quite a bit about the universe, and told me some of what had happened to humanity. Including the Men of Iron.

Who could have forseen Terminator as an eventual actual reality, I always thought that movie was a little bit over the top. But apparently not as, according to Emperor, one of the pitfalls that brought down humanity into the Old Night was AI running amok. Which is most likely why we were making the trip down into these caves. He wanted to know if the Allfather was a threat to the people on the surface so he wanted to go down into the caves. Personally I didn't think he was, if he had been a threat I don't think he would have given me that bit of help in my first days on this world.

But I would not deny that, after the last 30 years, I was theoretically curious about what was beneath the planet's surface.

With all the monsters on the surface and the seas and running through the ice… What creature would be so monstrous that the planet itself would tell us to avoid it?

We weren't going alone though even if none of my people were coming with us, of course. I wasn't going to risk them or my wolves in this venture but Emperor had summoned four men in golden armor, all taller than me. I wondered if they were Space Marines but I had not asked yet, they seemed to carry themselves with grim determination and the looks they gave me were ones of evaluation.

Almost like they didn't trust me to guard Emperor. Although I did find their choice of weaponry rather interesting, it looked like some sort of massive bayoneted pistol on the end of a pole.

As we went deeper though I finally got up the nerve to ask “So who exactly are your guards here, father?”

Emperor had been examining some striations in the side of the wall from, I would assume, ancient mining equipment and he said. “They are my Custodes, my personal guard. They have been at my side for a long time. Each one of them is worth an army and has shown a great skill in combat. Frankly I think I could have gone down here with two of them and it would be overkill but since there's two of us I figured I should have two to guard you as well, just in case something monstrous is down here.”

I chuckled and said, “Thank you for that. Do you have any idea about what could be down here that would cause the entity behind Fenris to warn us from going down?”.

He shook his head, “with the amount of things the Old Night unleashed… It could be anything, from orks to machines. I prefer it be neither.”

I blinked several times repeatedly as I followed him, before finally saying, “Orcs? Like Lord of the Rings orcs or?”

Emperor stopped and thought for a moment before laughing, “I had forgotten about those books! Its orks with a k, a Xeno species that has been around for a long time. I've heard many theories on where they came from, personally I believe a story about them being biological weapons created to fight some war well before my time.

They don't tend to do well on cold planets, being fungal creatures, but underground anything is possible.”

I nodded my head then stopped and said, “The galaxy is strange. Did you just say space fungi are a thing and they have become intelligent?”

“Intelligent is a bold statement but yes. In fact we are at war with various Ork empires even now. The Old Night was good for them as they expanded and grew on the carcass of the Human Federation. Orks have a natural attraction to war, violence, and bloodshed and the amount of those and other nastiness that was unleashed by the Old Night was very profitable for them.

Plus the things that kept them in check are no longer on the field. At least not in the sense they once were but we'll talk about the Eldar another time.”

I noted down the use of the name Eldar again, I needed to ask about them when I had the chance. If they once kept the Orksin check and weren't anymore I had to find out why that was.

“Anyway it’s unfortunately true that we can't trust the Xenos with the fate of humanity. If you ever come across Orks offering to work for you for money, be careful. They are an effective tool but one that can easily cut both ways. They're mercenaries and whoever pays them the best will be the ones they work for.”

“Well, that's terrible. Breaking a contract of work over better payments just shows they are unreliable.” I said, shaking my head.

“Not the lesson I intended to impart but yes that's true. Your way of couching things in economic terms is very intriguing. I do wonder how that will serve you out in the depthsof space.”

“Served me well so far,” I said with a smile, “Will continue to serve me well, I'm sure.”

“I hope you're right about that,” Emperor said, taking the last few steps before we came to a solid wall.

“Well, that's a cheap trick,” Emperor said matter of factly before running his hand along the wall till he found something. Then he pulled and the wall moved out of the way. There was a lot of screeching but it moved, slowly opening up to reveal a dark space larger than I could easily determine.

Taking a few steps forward I looked down at where the wall had separated, seeing what could best be described as slots for metal wheels to run on.

“Oldest trick in the book to hide something you don't want people to see,” He muttered before looking about the dark space. The area right around the other side of the door was barren rocks with a few clumps of more interesting rocks thereabout. But about 30ft away the darkness became all-encompassing and we couldn't really see much in what was pure blackness. Or was it? Focusing my eyes on one particular point I saw a light, and another, and then more.

As if something had sensed our arrival I saw what could be best described as a cityscape in the distance, windows lighting on buildings of a blocky design as internal lights were powered. Near the base of these buildings a lamp post came on then another then another. Before long more came on until they were stopping just before where we were, revealing a rudimentary street.

“I think the Allfather knows we're here,” I said matter of factly.

“That he does,” Emperor said, looking about, “And he's rolled out the welcoming mat. The question is why, since he warned people from going down here.”

Then the screaming started. Some of it was an incomprehensible babble while others I could vaguely understand. I heard complaints about something being too bright and some of it sounded like they were screaming about being burned. The lights in the distance went out and the screaming seemed to fade with it.

“Well, that's… charming,” one of the Custodes said, sounding a bit disturbed.

“Yes, a terrible thing,” came a familiar voice from behind us. Turning faster than most I saw that it was the Allfather in his Odin appearance. He was wearing gray robes and leaning on a spear as he looked at us.

“I thought I told you not to come down here?” He said with a bemused smile as he looked at me. Before turning to look at Emperor. “Welcome to the caverns cities of Fenris, Emperor of Man. Do not dwell in the deep too long as the things here are hungry and care not for your humanity.”

Emperor looked at the Allfather and said, “Those were humans, weren't they?”

“On a broader scale? Yes, they would be classified as humans. Though it would need to be a very broad scale to get that classification.” The Allfather replied, taking a few steps to stand looking over the ledge towards the city. The building lights were out but you could still make it out from the street lamps.

“This place was meant to keep humanity safe from the worst of Fenris. But deep beneath the surface, where light doesn't come, all it took was one person to shut down the Virtual Intelligence that kept everything running and this world was cast into the darkness.”

“And the humans who stayed down here and didn't take their chances on the surface developed to live down here, didn't they?” Emperor asked, matter of factly.

The Allfather nodded, ”through one method or another people of the underworld have become monsters. It's only thanks to the entrances of the caves being guarded by wolves in most cases that they don't come on to the surface during the night and raid the humans of the world above.”

Emperor nodded, “Perhaps when the sixth legion gets here they can deal with these creatures. The wealth of such a city could be very beneficial for the people above.”

The Allfather shrugged and said, “You can try but I think the creatures of this world have destroyed most of the wealth you would want. It is not like Fenrisians have not found their way down here before and I've seen one or two attempts at genocide against these creatures. The caves are expansive and there's a city under almost every major mountain on the main continent. kill off the creatures of one city and It will be colonized by those from another sooner or later. Best you'll be able to do is keep the population down.”

Emperor looked at me and said, “Well, that would be something for the sixth legion to worry about. If these humans are unredeemable then we must not let them become a threat, neither to the humanity above nor to your legion.

“If they are unredeemable you are right,” I said, a bit concerned by the talk of casually genociding the people down here.

The Allfather looked at me and said, “They will not work with you. They will not attempt to abide by economic policies. Their minds are corrupted well beyond the capabilities of any order you would see imposed.”

Great, both of them were in favor of genocide. Well, I was not going to play Devil's advocate on this one, I just nodded my head though I would probably look into the situation more when I had the chance.

“Anyways I assume you've made this trip down under the mountains for a reason, possibly to discover what I am?” The Allfather asked.

“In a matter of speaking, yes. I just wanted to learn if you were a threat to humanity and see if you were an AI.”

The Allfather chuckled and said, “No, not really. Not in the way you humans created AI anyway. The people who were here before humanity created me, I've simply joined myself with the systems of this planet in order to talk to the humans who now live here.”

“You’re being a lot more candid about information down here,” I noted.

“The programs for me talking on the surface and the programs allowing me to talk down here are slightly different. Up there I need to be mysterious, in hopes of helping people find out who they really are. Down here I can be a bit more honest. Of course, down here are also creatures that will attempt to eat you if you're not careful so I wouldn't make many trips down here if I were you.”

“Noted,” I said.

Emperor nodded, “So this planet has an Eldar world spirit… Well, that explains enough for me. Doesn't tell us whether you're a threat.”

The Alfather shrugged, “I am not, the only threat I could possibly represent is maybe turning on the lights to try and force these creatures to the surface. Even then that's more likely to cause the creatures to find my control panel and shut down all access to humanity.”

Emperor nodded his head, still looking rather concerned, but said, “That will do for now then.”

Turning to me and the others he said, “let us return to the surface and leave these night creatures to their hell.“

Before we left though I turned to the Allfather and said, “Thank you for your help all those years ago, you set me on the right path. Though I do wonder, how did you know about my condition?”

Alfather smiled, “Anything that comes to Fenris and spends any amount of time here I learn a little bit about, simply from existing on me. The more powerful the soul, the more I might learn. I did not know everything but I knew enough to send you on your path. So far you've done a good job of making this world better. For that I thank you, king of Russ.” He bowed and faded away in that digital holographic way he did.

Shaking my head, I turned to follow Emperor. I was still unsure what to think of the World Spirit of Fenris.

Legion Master Enoch Rathvin

Man, this planet was cold. Last night their ship it finally arrived in orbit of the planet of Fenris. It had not been a quick journey but it was as fast as they could push the engines, since their Primarch had been found they were not going to disappoint them.

Their warship had joined in the orbit of the plent with The Emperor's personal warship, which told them that while their Primarch had been found they were still under the command of The Emperor until he officially handed over command. So, when the orders to disembark from their ship and land on the planet had come up, they readily got to work.

Over the course of the last 24 hours they had dropped their entire legion on the planet outside a local castle and had built up a base camp. Once the blue sun of the world started to rise the entire legion, all 7000 Space Marines, stood in a parade ground facing a raised platform in front of the castle.

The chatter was low though he could hear some asking questions about the castle belonging to our Primarch, why it was so damn cold and, probably the most prevalent, what do you think the Primarch will be like. No one had any answers and everyone had their theories so the discussions continued quite unabated. I was content to let the men talk. I had those questions as well and I hoped to get the answers soon enough.

The call from The Emperor had not exactly explained everything. It just said he had been found, where to go, and how to set up. It had all been accomplished without major issue, though I was not doubting that the 7000 Space Marines had drawn a bit of a crowd. At the edge of the wood line I saw regular humans of this world, watching and talking amongst each other. Some of them were treating this as some sort of picnic, by the looks of it.

They started coming the night before, mainly primitive hunters by the gear they carried about, and quickly followed by townsfolk. More recently men in light blue armor had joined them and were looking at us with curiosity. I would guess they were the local military, though their gear was as primitive as the hunters based on the spears and swords they carried about.

My attention was called away from the crowds around us as I saw some of The Emperor's finest, his Custodes, walking onto the stage from outside of the castle and taking position on the steps at either end of the stage.

With a guttural bark I ordered a silence, which was passed down the lines. My sub commanders quickly got the troops in order, one good thing about the Disciplinary Corps was that they had been effective at making orders stick.

As the men silenced themselves The Emperor walked out from behind the stone wall of the castle, quickly stepping up onto the stage in front of us.

“Astartes of the sixth legion, today is a glorious and wonderful day for your legion as your Primarch has been found. They have come to rule this world through might of arms and justly deserved glory. In my eyes they are a worthy leader for you and ready to bring your legion to its maximum potential.” He smiled, a golden hue seeming to glow about his head.

“I will not take any more moments of time as this is not my day but yours and your Primarch’s. So let me present to you said Primarch,”. Stepping to the side he motioned with his hands. “Come forth Gene Father of the Sixth Legion, Tanya Russ.”

Subconsciously I had been looking about 14 ft in the air, expecting to see the face of my Primarch come around the bend in the wall. Instead a smaller but still no less impressive figure came around, 8 or maybe 9 ft it was hard to tell.

Said figure was dressed in a mix of leather and metal armor, with a black cape and light blue colorings here or there. On its side was a sword, impressively large for their size, but… Well that was not where my eyes ended up resting.

As the figure walked through the shadows of the gate it was hard to see their face at first but as they came into the light there was definitely something I was not expecting to see. The face was beautiful and feminine, the hair long and styled similarly to the natives and blonde in color. The eyes were blue, I think.

There was an audible ripple through the Marines as confusion seem to have taken them. I was a bit stunned myself, unsure of how to react to this but thank The Emperor for the Disciplinary Corp. They quickly yelled at anyone that so much as murmured and got the men quiet

The figure stepped up to the front of the stage and nodded to The Emperor. “Thank you, Father, for this introduction,” She said and that was definitely a female voice though there was an unnatural growl to it in the lower basic she was using. To add on to that growl two rather large wolves who had gone unnoticed up to now stepped onto the stage on either side of her, sitting as if they were common hunting dogs waiting for orders.

“Legionaries of the 6th, I suspect I am not what you were expecting,” She said with a smile, looking out onto us. “No, I dare say after meeting my brother Horus that you were expecting something just as imposing and grandiose as that giant of a man. Do not worry I've been told I'm a bit of a late bloomer, I will develop such heights eventually.” The start of the speech was given with such a humorous tone that I couldn't help a little bit of a chuckle. I heard low-key laughter from further back and felt a bit easier from just how relaxed that start of a speech was.

Smiling the Primarch said, “As The Emperor said, I am Tanya Russ, Primarch of your legion. I am also King of Russ of the ruling dynasty of this world. It did not start off that way, this world used to be very divided but through my efforts both in combat and in negotiation peace was brought to this planet.” She paused and thought for a moment before saying.

“But in a way you probably don't care about my history per se. You're worried about what my joining you means, what the future brings for your legion. Well, the answer is simple: Greatness! Humanity among the stars is just as divided and broken as it had been on this world. My father's dream is to unify it, and I will see that dream completed.”

Smiling she looked at the legion over again before saying, “I have been told that the sixth legion has no official name, though its unofficial name is The Rout, a play on its ability to pursue enemies even after they have broken. This term is thrown around as if that is a bad thing but the realities of war are far more complex than that. An enemy broken does not stay that way unless you capture or defeat them completely. This is a reality that I understand and completely accept, something that I have grown to understand because I've lived on this planet for so long.“

Reaching down she pet one of her wolves on the head before she continued, “When I fell on this planet I had nothing. I was in the middle of nowhere and had no resources to my name. I fought hard to get what I could and showed my ability in combat. I was rewarded for this by being taken in by the wolves of Fenris and, with their aid, I slowly turned this world into a place of economic power. A place ready to progress its civilization from this cold dark-age into something more, something better. This has led to me being called the Wolf King, a title I have embraced for it is the truth.

Now 7000 sons have fallen to Fenris and I will do what the wolves did for me. They call you The Rout because you hunt down enemies that may come back to haunt you if left to fester. From what I understand this is a name of a creature that roams the wastelands of Terra but this is also the behavior of wolves, for if you do not make sure your potential enemies are thoroughly defeated they will come back. And this is a method of combat I have often used here on Fenris. So you will not be known as The Rout anymore, you will be known as the Wolves of Fenris and together we will hunt the enemies of the Imperium across the blackness of space till nothing stands in the way of a safe and prosperous human society.”

Well that was a damn good speech, I mentally thought. Most of the Space Marines around me were already breaking out and sharing a few fuck yes and other expletives as well as things I'd never heard before. And it was an honor to do what I was going to do next. Stepping forward I lowered to one knee in the snow and presented my sword to her.

The Primarch smiled as she watched the cheering troops but once she noticed me she quickly stepped off the stage, landing in front of me. The crowd seemed to quiet as she walked up.

“My Primarch, I, legion master Enoch Rathvin of the sixth legion, offer full control of the legion to you.“

Smiling she reached down and took the sword examining it with interest before flipping it in the air and catching it by the blade to hand the pummel back to me.

“I take the legion, though no need for your finely crafted sword. I will need capable men to help me lead this legion, someone who's been here from the start will be the most capable in such a situation. And besides that the sword is going to get a lot of work when we get out there, I assume, so you'll need this blade more than I.”

“Thank you, my king,” I said, taking the sword back before standing.

She smiled to me before saying “Well then let's all get to know each other, shall we? I've had several warehouses readied and we've been preparing a massive feast for this day. The alcohol shall flow, the food shall be consumed, and we shall know each other.” And, as she said this, she pointed in the direction of the gate where I watched several women in armor starting to pull out tables and barrels of alcohol as well. More men in the uniform colors I'd seen before were bringing it out large barbecues by the looks of its and massive plates of food that seemed to need only a little bit of cooking. “Let us feast and be merry,” She said proudly, to a round of applause and cheers of the sixth legion.

Writers note: alright chapter 19 some mysteries solved others opened, Tanya meats her legion, brother sister time, father-daughter time. I’m just finished chapter 20 and going to start work on chapter 21 this weekend, though have to ask anyone know of any maps that would show faction whereabouts in 30k, causes otherwise going to have a lot of freedom to make stuff up, and that never good.

Edited by: Pierre
Community edited by:Ryan Pirtle, Justin R
Community editable doc (Chapter 19) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

Chapter 21, A Trip to Terra
835.M30

Earth
Tanya Russ

Looking at the window… though for all I knew, it was a cleverly hidden screen? It would make more sense. Anyway I looked down on, well, Earth. My first homeworld I guess, though this was the Earth of my second life. The planet was in a sorry state. Brown lands covered most of what had once been green and blue as the ocean had been long since dried out or converted for industrial use. And well, the plant life didn't seem to be doing much better. I wondered how anything could survive down there in that condition, but hydroponics were a thing. And they'd had 28,000 years of research into hydroponics, so perhaps they were more productive in food creation than it would have been with free-flowing water. Still, to see a planet that had been beautiful, reduced to such a state was… unsettling.

Though my coming to Earth, or Terra now, was not part of some sort of trip down memory lane. Oh, I did somewhat hope that some of my memories might trigger from my time on this world that had yet to happen but looking at the state of the planet, I doubted anything down there would even look familiar.

No, I'd come to this planet on business. Three points of business in fact. One, the quickest way from Fenris to the sub-sector Wheel of Fire was to go through the center of the imperium. I could avoid Earth if I wanted to but it would actually be slower than going to Terra. Considering I had other things here I need to do, it made only sense. Two, my armor was here. The data had been sent ahead of us to the Smiths on Mars who had been creating some sort of power armor for me, I guess. I was unfamiliar with all this techno-babble but I wasn't going to turn down a good suit of armor, not to mention my request for a bolter that I could use as a hand weapon had apparently intrigued one of their gunsmiths enough to inspire him to create a Primarch-sized version of the weapon. It would be delivered later today and would use the same ammunition, it just would be comfortable to use for a Primarch. Which was good. As much as I was somewhat competent in a sword fight nowadays, thanks to years of fighting monsters in the wilderness, I preferred to hit the target at range before engaging.

Third, I had to pick up elements of the Imperial Army that would be joining us on this campaign. I had yet to meet their commanding officers as I was waiting for the armor to arrive, considering that a good set of armor can set a good precedent and focus the mind of people on what to expect. When all that was completed we would be on our way into the Ultima Segmentum, following a trade route that winded through the galaxy to the area known as the Wheel of Fire. from what I understood the Ork kingdom’s very presence made it harder just threading the trade routes running between the Imperium and the recently discovered Coreward Leagues. I wasn't aware of much of these Core leagues other than a description of them being humans of shorter stature and very tech literate, which was enough to make me see why we would want connections with them.

Humanity for the most part had been reduced from a technologically advanced federation across the galaxy to a majority of primitive civilizations with a few lights here or there keeping progress going. Earth was just barely set above that and the Mechanicus and its empire of forge worlds put in the majority of the work on that. I'm sure in time this would be righted, but that time would be decreased by bringing in these short humans as they were already quite advanced.

From the map I had seen when talking to the naval captains of the Gloriana battleship, this Coreward Leagues was almost half the size of the central segmentum. Being that most of their worlds were as advanced as Mars, if not more so, that meant they could be a potential threat or the greatest ally the Imperium ever had. So far, from what I could understand, dad was working on trying to make them allies which was why the Wheel of Fire needed to be dealt with.

But not only that. Bringing them into the alliance by dealing with that Ork empire would open roads further on to the other side of the Galaxy. Which, by increasing the range of trade and the reach of the Imperium, would do wonders for humanity as far as I was concerned. Though I do wonder if he was overstretching a bit. Pushing this hard this fast was bound to result in issues down the line. Hell, he was basically letting in these Coreward leagues without conditions, and the cult-like way the red-robed cyborgs talked about him and technology was concerning.

I didn't know what the future held, but I knew that grouping people together into one empire without taking into consideration how those people might interact with each other could and would end badly. Perhaps the next time I saw dear old dad I would ask him if he was thinking this through as thoroughly as he should, or if he was rushing a bit too much.

Then again he was looking for his missing sons. If you were to look at some of the more recent discoveries of civilizations that had been wiped out just within the last 30 years in the Western segments… Perhaps he was just feeling under the weight of the clock to try and get as much of humanity together as fast as possible, before whatever specialty tech they had was lost to time itself.

My thoughts were interrupted as the door to my room simply opened which caused me to sit up in surprise as I swore that I had locked that door, and, as far as I was aware, I was the only one with permission to open it. Even my shield maidens I brought along were not given that access.

Then, seemingly without a care in the world, an old man walked in. He was wearing a brown robe over his clothing, his face somewhat obscured by a hood. In his hands he carried a staff with a golden eagle at the top of it. He looked around my room with the most appraising and jaded eyes I'd ever seen.

Taking note of the way he looked at the many furs I brought along, as well as a few other trinkets from my time on Fenris, I interjected “I usually don't go for decorating but, well, the room that I've been given was quite bare. Considering this would be one of my main places to stay between campaigns and other engagements, I figured I might as well make it somewhat homie.”

The man who had apparently decided they could just invade anyone's personal property finally looked at me and said. “You know, I told the Emperor that he should have had all daughters. That there would be fewer rivalries than what would come from brotherly squabbles. When I heard that one of his sons had come out a daughter, I had a good chuckle.”

He walked further into the room. “Of course when I found out that said daughter was also a barbarian king, that she had managed to conquer a planet all by herself… well, I threw out the notion that you wouldn't cause some sort of rivalries. Time will tell though if this is for the better or for the worst. Well, I'm personally hoping more of his sons turn out to be daughters, just to put the test to my theory on the possible nest of rivalries that will spring forth.”

I looked over at the elderly gentleman and thought about what was in front of me for a moment. Of course, I had no idea who this was, but the implication was that they spoke to the Emperor about my creation and were high up in the chain of command. Someone who the Emperor probably trusted. Getting in good with them could be good for my prospects. Sure I was the daughter of the Emperor and probably had access to more resources than most people realized, but it wouldn't mean much if you didn't have people who like you along the command chain to move those resources.

Finally, I said, “I don't believe gender would really impact rivalries. Humanity has a quite good record of building them no matter the situation, and it's not like sisters do not have things to be rivals on: the boys they like, the hairstyle they choose, the clothing they wear… they're different rivalries, but can be just as grating or more from what I've seen on television.”

The elderly man nodded before saying “True, true. Now I do wonder what the universe would be like if he had gone with my suggestion, considering you managed to conquer the world of Fenris through the implications of trade. I do wonder if that would have set the standard for the rivals. Trade being the cornerstone of bringing the empire together instead of, well, conquest to prevent the continued death of civilization that was the Long Night.”

Shaking his head he seemed to think about something before saying, “Well, anyway. I am Malcador the Sigillite, Imperial Regent of Terra and you are Tanya Russ, second found of the Emperor and wolf king of Fenris.”

“The Emperor has told me some interesting tales, that you were raised by wolves and conquered the planet through trade and guile. Quite splendid indeed. He's also told me that due to your primitive upbringing you may need a refresher course on how the galaxy works, how to deal with the Imperial Army, the Mechanicus, and other legions.”

“Of course,” He continued, “Being the Emperor, he left out… details, things that we will need to work on.”

“Such as?” I asked, tilting my head. My wolves, having finally realized that someone had entered the premises, came out of the closet I designated as their wolf house. Freki and Geri bared their fangs at Malcador when they saw him, then he smiled in their direction and they simply stopped, looking confused and befuddled.

“Well the psychic nature of your abilities, for one. I could sense the moment I stepped onto the ship that you were not Horus, whose psychic abilities are… well, not much more above an average human. If I had to guess from what I've seen so far you’re mediocre when it comes to your powers.”

“And he left out the bit about the time-traveling soul, no one calls the communication equipment of this age televisions anymore. If I had to guess no one's used that term since before the fall of the human federation. The Mechanicus way of talking about tech has spread much too far for that to have survived. Well, maybe the Squats still use that term? I haven't visited their homeworld yet.”

I was going to ask another question but he continued. “So then Tanya Russ, king of wolves, tell me: what is your name?”

“Tanya von Degurechaf” came to my lips unbidden, leaving me stunned for a moment. That was very similar to my current name and that was nowhere similar to my old name so where did that come from.

The old man nodded with a chuckle, “A German name, what year were you born?”

I attempted to resist for a moment but I finally said, “Unified year 1914.” I was holding my hand to my head at this point, the headache was coming on bad as I guess Malcador was digging into the middle life. The one I didn't remember very well.

“That is a long time ago and I imagine your perspective of how humanity should be is very out of date,” Malcador said, rubbing his chin. “Well the first thing we're going to have to do is strengthen your mental defenses so no one can pull the same trick I just did on you ever again but I doubt many could. Yo put up a good defense on the second one. I'd almost say you'd run into some sort of psychically active being before.”

Rubbing my head I took my hand off to grab my BlackManned fur cape, saying, “There was a Thunder Wolf with strange abilities.” My voice was a bit pained from the headache but I was able to get it out. I could have mentioned Being X but I had been told to keep quiet about those sorts of things unless the Emperor told me it was okay and I was willing to keep that to myself for now. It was a very confusing situation to begin with.

“Good, then we aren't building off a plateau of sand as you've been tempered at least once. Not going to work then.” Walking over to a table he took a seat in one of the chairs that were more human-sized. Most of the room had been designed for someone of, well, my brother's size, giving me a good guess on what was expected when this ship had been constructed.

Hoping the headache would go away I took the seat across from him, sitting down heavily. “So, what brings the Imperial Regent to my quarters this day unannounced?”

“Many things. I was never given a chance to talk with Horus much, the Emperor wanted to get out on the field and start finding his sons as quickly as possible then reunite humanity. Getting the chance to speak to one of his children without him there is intriguing. I’d really like to find out what your're like when your old dad isn't looking over you.“

“The other is, being that you are psychically inclined, I could detect your presence a bit when you entered the system. It would be better to get you trained up on how to defend yourself against the psychic creatures out here in the galaxy and I am considered perhaps the second greatest psyker in the entire galaxy. After the Emperor of course.” He asserted, rather sure of himself.

“And, seeing that I am the first Lord of Terra, I'm needed to attend one of the rounds of negotiations with the squat leagues which happen to be along the trail you must follow to go to your new battlefront. So I thought I would commandeer your vessel to take me.”

I nodded my head, understanding this Malcador was not offering me the chance to study under him. He was informing me that I was going to study under him, to make sure that my psychic powers were under control. Understandable, considering what I'd heard of the Old Night. That and he also needed the ride. So there was no way he was not going to be onboard the ship, he had all the authority in the galaxy.

Well, he might actually have all the authority in the galaxy. He was the second most powerful man in the Imperium if I were to take the implications of his titles at face value. And I would guess he was the most trusted ally of the Emperor if he had been involved in conversations on what gender his children should be.

In other words, to put it in a corporate sense, I was speaking to the CEO’s Chief secretary. This was the man who kept the operation running at all times, even when the CEO was off doing generally frivolous things. Which meant I really had only one option: agree.

Nodding my head, I said “Fine, fine. It would be an honor to learn from you and to take someone of such a high standing to this league of squats. Oh, I thought they were called The Coreward Leagues.”

The old man chuckled and nodded. “I see someone has been reading the maps I've been putting out for details. You would not believe how many military commanders just stumble into our own allies and almost start a war, it's rather ridiculous really. Anyways the Coreward Leagues is the name I’ve proposed for their official designation. Currently the actual name of the squats is hard to pronounce in high Gothic, and well low Gothic would see them settled with a name based off their genetic adaptation to the stronger gravity in the region short and squat of course. To be expected from a people who live underground mining resources in the heaviest gravities in the galaxy.

I blinked several times then finally said “So there are space dwarves.”

Malcador chuckled and nodded his head, “Oh, yes. That's actually one of the other names I proposed, though that had been shut down quickly by the commander who first encountered them. Apparently he called them space dwarves and they kicked him in the shins until his shins broke off. That's seemingly a great insult to their people while squats is by all accounts not, which I find humorous in a way. But I'm not going to hold them to our standards on such a small issue.”

“That makes sense,” I said, before asking, “So what kind of trade deals are you working on with this Squat Leagues? I may not be very familiar with the current economic systems of the galaxy but I can understand that there must be some sort of resources that would make an alliance with them extremely useful.”

“Someone who actually cares about the economic situation after the conquest? We're going to get along,” He answered matter of factly, before continuing. “The Squats have access to texts that have been lost to the majority of the galaxy. They have given us some in free trade and we have given some others back. This alone is a reason we want to have connections with them but there's another reason: those regions of stars where the Squat planets are settled are loaded with mineral wealth unlike anything found anywhere else in the galaxy. During the Human Federation’s height whole agri-worlds were set up to ship food to those worlds so they could ship alloys and various metals out for use by the rest of the Galaxy. No doubt we will have to settle many new agri-worlds, just due to how many worlds have degenerated into primitive worlds thanks to the Old Night. If the Leagues are still as profitable as they were before the Old Night… Even if we direct half our food production to them there will still be plenty for the Mechanicus and other Hive worlds and we'll have plenty of not only finished products but materials that can be used for other products throughout the Galaxy.“

“Yeah I could see the economic boom that would bring to a lot of places, just based on my understanding of history. Though won't that increase piracy quite a bit?”

“Very likely could but, well, we're already going to be dealing with pirates. Both the Eldar and the Orks enjoy that as a pastime when they can’t go on their own straight-up conquest of planets.”

“Sounds like we have a lot of bad neighbors.” I mused, getting another chuckle from the elder statesman.

“More than you realize, young Russ. More than you realize. Now you got your mind together enough to start a few more lessons on controlling your powers?”

“Yes, sir Malcador.”

“Then, let us begin.”

Kori Bretakollrsson

There were a lot of mistakes in my life, a lot of things that had screwed me up so far. Risking everything on the chance to get my leg back was something I did not regret.

When the Allfather descended from on high to bring his child Tanya back into the fold I had been across the continent, ruling in her name after she saved my kingdom. Oh sure, sure, she hadn't directly taken control of the kingdom but she had recommended several institutions and government styles that had slowly taken away the power of the king. Rendering me a figurehead, and with my crippled leg I was not a very good one. I couldn't even go out and conquer in the name of my kingdom or some other adventure. Before Tanya came the world had been very big I've been told. Well after her conquest of the planet everything was quite small and adventure was hard to come by, ways to regain one's honor even more so. Especially for one with a bum leg.

But I'd soldiered on. I had gotten myself married, had a couple kids, and simply tried to plan for some sort of future where maybe they would have a better chance at glory than I did.

But then the Allfather came. With the Allfather came the possibility of a new chance at glory and redeeming the family name.

I admit the basic requirements that Tanya had put down for the adult section of recruitment helped. I wasn't even that old compared to some of the people who had volunteered, most warriors being in their 40s or 50s and a smaller section being in our mid-20s. So our chances of survival were supposedly better than the 30% the older had.

I wasn't amongst the first batch to go through it either, but there had still been a 50% chance of my death when I'd signed up. A chance I was willing to take for the ability to regain the honor of my family, and to end my status as a figurehead.

What followed was a year of pain, suffering, and being dumped in the middle of the wilderness to survive for three months. Thankfully that three months was after they fixed my leg through their gene magic. Otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have died, there were plenty of wolves out there that were not friends of the wolf king and would just look at my enlarged figure as extra meat on the menu.

But either way I managed to survive the trials and tribulations and now stood amongst the other generations who had taken the gray armor representing the standard uniform of a legionary So far the legion was broken up into two colors when it came to command staff and the new version of royal guard Tanya had created they tended to wear the light blues of the Russ. For the majority of us who were new to the war we wore the grays, the unpainted color that the armor came in, only adding remnants of Fenris in the form of a few wolf furs and markings here and there.

I imagined that all the armors would become more adorned with items either of our nature or token of conquest taken, as was a natural and right with our people.

The majority of the legion at this point was from Fenris. There were still around 6 to 7,000 Space Marines from the world of Terra, most of them made up parts of the command staff now but a few of them were still part of the regular soldiery. Apparently, Tanya had attempted to spread them out a bit so that they could share the skills they had acquired in conflict with the newer Space Marines. Made sense, though by some quirk of numbers our squad had none of them. It was all Fenrisians from across the planet. The majority of which were from the main continent though four of them were from the Sea Folk. Our 20-man squad was led by Bjorn of Tra. He was one of the few sergeants to get ranked as soon as he joined the legion, apparently he had shown talent at commanding troops during training. Part of me wanted to be jealous of such a young man reaching such a rank while here I was in my thirties and a simple grunt but the other part of me was okay with it. All I ever wanted was to get a chance to prove myself. I had it and would get more opportunities soon enough so there was no reason for hard feelings about a lower rank. After all, a former king was no better than an average peasant in combat when all things were made equal, perhaps he was a better commander than me.

Anyways I was in the main area of the Ulv Hjem, the name that people had started calling the Gloriana battleship since an official name had never been given. I think it meant something along the lines of ‘home of the wolves’ so it made sense and would probably work out. From legends I knew that the Wolf King had chosen the name of her siblings based on their admirable traits and when she had explained that to her fenrisian father he had given her the idea of using the Fenris version of those words for their names, so no doubt she would quickly adopt the name for this ship when she heard it.

Today was like any other day on the ship. I was cleaning my armor, making sure it functioned properly as well as preparing for a contest of strength in one of the arenas. One of the newer recruits was claiming they were the strongest Wolf of Fenris alive and had gone six and oh in arm wrestling contests so far. I kind of wanted to put the man in his place so I had volunteered, I and about a dozen others.

If I won it would be neat, if I lost… well I'm sure someone would beat him but if by some miracle that man managed to win every arm wrestling contest he deserved all the accolades he got from it and to go around claiming he was the strongest all he wanted.

But that was later today. Right now I was simply waiting for one of the many shield maidens who found their way aboard the ship and were helping as the staff.

Not all of them were Tanya's personal harem, as rumors called them. Many were just simply sisters and wives of those who'd survived the process of becoming Space Marines and there were a few who had come along on this trip wishing only to be of service in some way or another.

Being so far down the food chain I didn't know the exact thought processes of the Wolf King but this was almost a standard practice on some of the shorter campaigns within the borders of a continental coast. Camp followers were a thing and bringing one’s shield maidens was natural, it made the parties more fun after a conquest or victory.

Had the wolf King brought them along in accordance with those ancient traditions? I didn't know but they were here. I was not going to avoid their services and so I had asked for food and drink to be brought up to the training area.

As I sat there, waiting, I felt the bench next to me groan and someone as heavy as myself sat down next to me. Looking over I saw my sergeant and smiled, giving a nod. “Morning, Bjorn .”

“Morning, Kori,” He greeted matter of factly, rubbing his chin and the short beard on his face. “How's the day treating you?”

“Been treating me alright,” I answered, rubbing my own beard as I leaned back. “How's the sergeant life treating you?”

“Terribly,” he mused with a shake of his head. “Paperwork is terrible and making sure that we got everything in order is a pain in my ass. Kind of wish we'd got one of the Tanyas in our squad.“

I chuckled at that. “If we'd gotten one of the Tanyas in our squad, you wouldn't be sergeant.”

“Good,” he said with a laugh before continuing, “then I could focus on gaining some glory for myself.”

I shook my head and chuckled. The Tanyas we were referring to were Space Marines who got a little bit too much of Tanya's magic genes. They often ended up with a face exactly like Tanya's and could pass for her at a distance, which was why most of them grew out their beards to try and obscure that feature. It helped a bit, though at close distance you could tell that the face was a little bit too Tanya-like. No one razzled them too badly over it since they seemed to inherit a gift for paperwork that put every other Wolf of Fenris to shame. And that was saying something considering, despite how many of us disliked it, we were pretty good at it.

The Tanyas were one of the genetic oddities that the legion had produced. Though they were the most benign and least problematic of the genetic issues so they were the most common and everyone knew about them.

There were others, supposedly. I hadn't seen them yet, most of them were being kept on Fenris within the training course till their abnormalities were judged not an issue anymore. Or not. In any case it was such a rarity for one of those things to happen that I hadn't seen any of them so I didn't know what they were, just the rumors that there were more than the frankly innocuous Tanyas.

Letting out a deep sigh, I asked, “So you’re positioned up higher the ranks than me. Hear anything about this ‘wheel of fire’ we're going to go into?”

Bjorn shook his head before saying, “Most I've heard is we'll be fighting massive creatures that enjoy close combats so this will be the most fun we’ll ever have if I had to make a guess. Besides that, we'll have an element of the Imperial Army to back us up and a few other legions supporting us.”

“Other legions? I wonder what they're like.” I asked the universe at large.

Bjorn shrugged “Glad to get reinforcements? If they’re anything like ours they'll be interesting and enjoy a good fight, beyond that I don't know. Did talk to one of the old-timers and he said that one of the legions was pretty good with siege warfare so that's a thing. Oh yeah, the others are apparently good with long-distance travel, so that's another thing. I get the feeling though that we will be doing the majority of the fighting and they'll just be there to support us, maybe teach us a few tricks about fighting orks.”

I nodded my head in agreement, “It makes sense. Sounds like we'll have a fun time of it at least and who knows? Maybe we'll make some friends in these other legions that will come in handy in the future. As someone who had to call upon Tanya in time of war for aid, let me tell you that having trustworthy allies at your back is worth its weight in gold.

Bjorn nodded his head, agreeing with that statement.

As we sat there one of the shield maidens approached, carrying a tray of drinks. “My lords,” she said with a bow, offering us two cups.

“Thank you,” I answered, taking it. I’d never seen the drink but it was, oddly, warm. Taking a sip I could not tell what this brew was but it was oddly satisfying and made me feel more awake.

Bjorn drank down his cup pretty quickly, before saying, “Yeah, this is not alcohol…” Before continuing, “How? This is not alcohol but I quite enjoy this. What is it?” He asked the Shield Maiden, flashing a smile.

She smiled back before saying, “Something called Recaff. King Russ apparently recently tried it and quite enjoyed it. She has ordered a full storage facility of it.”

“A full storage facility?” I said in shock? ”Isn't that like enough for a person to drink for 200 years?”

The woman shook her head, “This concoction is not stored in a liquid state. So, technically, it's quite a bit more than 200 years worth of stockpile. Soon as it arrived on board she said that the crew and her Wolves were welcome to have as much as they wanted.”

I nodded. It sounded like something she would do, show us the benefits of working with the Imperium so we would fight harder for it.

“Well then,” Bjorn said, “To the Primarch and her wisdom of getting us good drinks, to show us what we're fighting for.” Then he downed the rest of his glass.

“She's always thinking ahead,” I said matter of factly, sipping mine before I looked over at the Shield Maiden. “Actually that draws an interesting thought. The legionaries are expected to be the ones in the fighting, right? How has she been thinking ahead for the Shield Maidens? I haven't been down to your side of the ship so I don't really understand how she expects to use you, considering… well, our improved combat physique.”

The girl chuckled and said “I think we're postal service auxiliary forces, garden supply lines, and that sort of thing. The armor I was given when we arrived is, well, armor and it can take a hit from a sword or arrow but from a bolter? I don't think it would hold very well. Some of the older girls have been asking for some sort of armor improvement to be done for us but the King of Russ has made no moves on that. As for weapons we've been given a bunch of energy weapons, still trying to wrap my head around how they work. From what I understand the weapons can basically be charged by leaving them out in the sun or near a fire, so our forces don't require much in the way of logistics.”

“Backline support? Lots of Shield Maidens aren't going to like that position.” I reflected, noting that they had often served in the front line. In most major conflicts on Fenris… well our planet was a place where everyone fought and no one quit, leaving any resources on the table that could be used was a mistake in most cases.

The girl nodded her head before saying, “I heard an interesting rumor, if you'd like to hear?”

“Rumors are always fun,” I smiled, leaning forward.

“Rumors are usually bunk but I'm willing to hear,” Bjorn said.

Leaning towards us a bit conspiratory, the girl said, “My aunt works with the medical staff in the gene bay. King Russ has laid down The Rules quite simply: they are not to make any female Space Marines, as that is what the Allfather wants. However she went out of the way to specify that a Space Marine is someone who is meant to become part of the sixth legion, and has told the geniuses in the Gene Bay that they can experiment a bit with her DNA. Something about finding cures for cancer and things like that being the main drive of those experiments… but she left no major restrictions on them.

I started to laugh as I saw what was being implied, Bjorn soon joining me.

“So Allfather has denied female Space Marines but Lord Russ, being a good daughter of Fenris, sees the shame in denying her sisters the chance to fight like we are and is trying to find a side path? That sounds like the King of the Wolves alright. Never leave opportunities unexplored.” I mused as I sat back in my chair.

Bjorn sat back and thought before querying “You think it'll be successful?

“I sure have no idea other than that she will try. From what I've been able to understand… these computers and the information they provided? Humanity is known for quite a bit of genetic diversity. Creating another subcategory of humans isn't exactly going to annoy the Allfather I would guess.”

Bjorn nodded his head “Then let us hope that the gene boys can figure out how to make non-Space Marine females. Perhaps they'll be called the Valkyries or something. Would be entertaining. And that would be more fair for the people of Fenris. I know when my little sister, Yrsa, comes of age, I would love to have her by my side fighting for the Wolf King. Would be nice making it a family affair, as it were.”

“That does sound nice,” I said in agreement, before raising my cup to toast the hopes of that coming to pass.

Tanya Russ

Looking at the armor in front of me I could do nothing but shake my head. A few hours ago members of the Mars Mechanicus had arrived aboard my ship, bringing with them the new equipment. With it we would finally be able to begin our journey to the Wheel of Fire subsector and whatever may lay there for us.

I don't know what I had been expecting from this armor but what I got had seriously thrown me for a loop. The armor was, well, power armor. No I didn't understand most of how it worked but I could understand what I was seeing to a point. The legs were plate armor with a bit of freedom around the knees, more plates were around the hips as protection against side shots while large shoulder pads and more plates ran up the arms. Everything made sense. Then we got to the central body, which didn't make as much sense. Boob armor. I had the distinct feeling someone had seen my Shield Maidens back at Fenris and passed along that I liked my armor to be formfitting in such a way, as instead of a single solid plate somewhat rounded as was the standard with the other Astartes… it was a single solid plate with two conspicuous orbs.

The only saving grace came from the fact that there was no easy place for a weapon to be caught in between the chest region. A white metals wolf skull was positioned there, honestly meant to deflect any rounds that hit that region. Besides that the armor plating around the guts seemed a bit light. People would be able to see my figure, that's for sure. Granted there was so much armor plating on my arms and shoulders that, as long as I didn't expose my front too much, I should be fine. And, to be fair, most of the plating would only be necessary if I closed range and was fighting in melee, something I would prefer not to be in. Besides those, strange as I said choices, there were the other choices: parts of the armor has been made from a metal that looked rather like gold, possibly an implication of being related to the emperor considering how much gold he wore. And it appeared they had requisitioned wolf fur for areas in between the plate for warmth. Where they got that I'm not sure, it didn't appear to be from Fenrisian wolves but I could be wrong. After all they had a few years to gather up all the materials for this armor and my Wolves of Fenris had most likely hunted a few beasts in that time so it was not impossible that they used some sort of shipping method to get some sent from Fenris or brought along and then added it to the armor just before showing it to me.

Besides that there was the backpack, or powerpack, and at least it looked mostly standard and would provide plenty of back armor. Though the two giant snarling wolf heads made of gold were a bit gaudy, poking out behind the shoulders of the armor. On one hand this made me a giant target, on the other… well, at least my Space Marines would be able to tell my position on the battlefield easily and quickly come talk to me. Having the ability to quickly spot your commander in a chaotic situation was always useful.

Shaking my head I was just glad that my old black cloak would at least fit in with this set of armor. Sure it would no longer be fully covering like it had been before my recent growth spurts but a stiff cape to catch a blade was always useful in combat.

Besides those issues, everything looked fine… as long as the armor stayed on. The black skintight muscle suit that would make Samus blush was a bit concerning but then again it apparently allowed for the transfer of powers so walking around in a bundle of wires was just something I would have to get used to.

Shaking my head I had to admit it. I didn't think about this very often but I was probably going to become some sort of fetish idol, especially if anyone ever saw the undersuit without the armor.

I was going to go through my shield maidens to find a group that were loyal enough not to talk about what happened during the armoring. I mean, for Fenris’ sake, the instructions that came along with the darn armor included oiling up before even getting in the darn suit, as a step one! Every other step after that included the number of servitors, whatever that meant, that were required to lift and fit the pieces of the armor in place.

Shaking my head I wondered if I was making the right choice by signing up for the Imperium all of a sudden. Fighting wars to secure resources for Fenris had made some sense. Trying to improve trade? That was perfectly fine. Wearing armor that would probably make me a propaganda darling? That was giving me a goddamn headache. And not just the ‘oh your memories are locked behind a graded wall’ headache as that was there as well.

Fine. I stepped away from the armor rack and walked over towards the guns. As I had hoped it was a Primarch-sized bolt rifle, full auto, with plenty of ammunition storage too. Whoever designed it was at least good with sights, they even put a bayonet lug on the end of it that allowed me to attach any one of the blades they'd sent up. And they'd send up quite a collection.

Something called a chainsword, another thing called a power sword, and a few other strange devices that could be attached to the end of it. One of them possibly being a grenade launcher.

Frankly I was not wanting for gear options, they had even sent a bolt pistol. There was also apparently a massive sword that could be wielded, though how I was going to wield such a thing with chain sw teath or ig uess a chain sword. Aka someone was crazy enough to put a chainsaw on the end of a sword. How that was meant to work without the damn things running out of your hand and shooting across the battlefield as uncontrolled missiles, chopping up anything that happened in its way, I didn't know. I guess I would have to learn but, being large enough to probably cut a Space Marine in half height-wise, it was a dangerous weapon to wield.

Shaking my head there was just one thing missing and that was the fact that amongst all the equipment that had been delivered to my room there was no helmet for the set of armor. Why that was I wasn't sure but it was annoying. Walking out into combat without a helmet was just asking for a lucky bolt to blow your brains out. I was going to have to ask what was going on when I got the chance. I'm sure Martians could build a helmet, for goodness’ sakes they've done it for every other Space Marine.

My thoughts were interrupted as there was a very solid knock from my door, which was a good sign. It meant it wasn't Malcador, who treated doors as, well, his door to do with as he pleased. As much as I enjoyed our conversations and the teaching he was giving me I did find it a bit annoying that he had such a high opinion of himself that he didn't care for other people's privacy. Then again when you could literally just hear people's thoughts… perhaps you just didn't give a damn anymore?

A good reason not to get too invested in psychic powers then, as I was of the opinion people deserved their privacy. Combat applications were perfectly feasible though.

Looking toward the door, I said, “Come in,” Before taking a seat at one of the chairs that looked across the room. As I sat there the door opened and a creature walked in.

No, that wasn't fair. I admit that. But when you have more limbs than a human you are going to draw attention, even if those legs are made of metal. The cyborg in a red robe with as many limbs as Dr Octopus stepped into the room, one fleshy human hand on a staff while four mechanical ones held data sheets up to the person's face which was obscured by the shadows and mechanical equipment.

“Good evening, Primarch Russ,” The mechanical voice came as the red-robbed cyborg bowed, appearing a bit top-heavy with the weights that it must have been putting on its legs for that. It quickly assumed a standing position again and said, “you may call me Adelheid, I am of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and I've been assigned by the Lord of Mars to be your personal representative to the Mechanicus, as well as your personal Armorsmith until one of your Astartes can be trained up to care for it themselves.”

I nodded it at that before saying, “Well thank you for introducing yourself. I actually have a few questions about the design choices of this wonderful armor.” I added, trying to be tactful.

There were several beeps and dial-up tones’ 01100001 01110010 01100001 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100001” before the mechanical voice returned. “I'm sorry! I'm just so pleased that you like the craftsmanship. To have a piece of something you've worked on receive praise from the Omnissiah’s child is a great honor.”

“Wait. You put this together?” I asked, trying to clarify the situation.

“Of course. Though many of the other Martians armorsmiths wanted to do this job it was decided that, since I have a preference for the creation of female armors, that I should do it. Not to mention being one of the few females to take up the armor craft, I know what is required in a proper set of armor for a woman.”

I nodded my head in understanding, though frankly I couldn't tell Miss Dr Octopus here from regular Doctor Octopus in one of those red robes. So for all I knew this was just some guy lying to me but… For now I would take them at their word. “Well, thank you Miss Adelheid,” I said. “The armor is very well crafted and I'm sure it will work well on the battlefield though…” What I wanted to bring up was the boob plate but, considering that they seemed to have taken quite an enjoyment in me saying good things about their armor and their preference for the creation of the armor style, I decided to sidestep that and ask about the second issue.
“Where's the helmet?”

The red-robed woman bowed her head in understanding before saying, “Due to the statistical data provided by the Emperor about your biology and information provided by members of our order within the legions we know that space Marines of your bloodline will have a greater olfactory capacity than many of their others. In this case a helmet, for most of those of your bloodline, is actually detrimental. So I had to put the helmet on the back burner as I worked on the craftsmanship for the armor itself. That being said, I do have a design for it, what I've been calling the Wolf’s Howl, that could be put in production as a one-off run if you are interested.” As she spoke one of her tendrils reached into her robes and grabbed some sort of datapad before bringing it up so I could take it. Carefully I took it and turned it on seeing what she was referring to and having a chuckle. The wolf helm was exactly as she had described it, a helmet that looked like a wolf’s head with a growling snout similar to the ones on the shoulders of the power unit. Putting that on would make me look like some sort of Cerberus which could be terrifying in the right conditions and useful when in combat, though going by where the eye holes were it would restrict my vision quite a bit.

As I looked over the schematics the red-robed woman continued “This will have a function that will allow you to open up the nostrils in order to make use of your olfactory senses again in an emergency, or for hunting. When this is not in use it is a perfectly space sealed and worthy helmet for your armor.”

“Well I don't mind too much customization like this, I guess,” Adelheid had made a fine point about a regular helmet interfering with my increased senses, not to mention wearing a helmet of any kind would interfere with an average person's ability to maintain awareness of the situation they were in. So, looking at the helmet, it was something I'd wear only if I closed distance or was on a spacewalk, a situation that was too deadly for even my primarch’s ability to survive. I was sure it would be fine. Once this red-robed Mechanicus agent moved on perhaps I would have my Space Marines come up with something a little bit more reasonable.

“Excellent! I will have the information for the creation of this helmet sent to the forges on this ship. It'll be ready by the time of your campaign.” The mechanical voice somehow just beamed enjoyment of the armor craft, which was good I guess. Having someone who loved their work was a sign that they probably knew what they were doing. Hopefully.

Breathing a sigh I reached over, grabbed the manual, and asked, “By the way what is this about servitors? What is that?”

The red-robed woman tilted her head, revealing a bit of brown hair which had not been seen before. “Servitors are criminals who have been judged for their crimes and been converted into something more useful for humanity. Their personalities, minds, brains, whatever you want to call them are gone and replaced with a mechanical machine that will follow orders without question.”

I blinked and then said, “Yeah, I'm not letting that anywhere in my room.” Adelheid tilted her head, confused, so I explained. “I'm not a fan of the idea of a walking corpse generally, that's all. There are other ways to explain it, but that's basically a walking corpse: you've killed the person and you've inserted a robot to control the body and well… Yeah, I'm just not going to be allowing that to help me with my armor. I got plenty of people on board who will be more than willing to help”.

She nodded her head before saying, “That is fine. If you need someone to help teach these people how to get the armor on I'm more than willing to explain that to them.” She tilted her head to the side “By the way, have you looked at the possible modifications presented in the back of the manual I had sent up?”

“No. No, I did not,” I said, opening the manual and heading to the back of the book. I read quickly, seeing that there were options for adding weapons and other items and kits to the armor.

“Thought so,” Adelheid said, “None of the other Primarchs apparently looked at their information kits either.“

That raised my eyebrow, “Other Primarchs, plural? Other Primarchs have been discovered?” Wonder why no one had told me, I thought.

“Yes. The Primarchs of the second, the tenth, the third, the eighteenth, and the seventh have all been found, in that order. Besides you, lady Russ, and Lord Horus of course. Their legions are currently undergoing refittings at their new homeworlds as we speak, no doubt they will soon be joining the campaign again as well.

I chuckled as I said, “Looks like father has been busy while he's been away,” I commented, before asking, “Have you heard anything about my other siblings or is information about them still coming in?”

The red-robed woman shrugged, one of her mechanical tentacles appearing to brush off some dust from the armor she created for me.

“Information on them is currently marked of utmost secrecy, even their homeworlds are currently being kept secret until they are fully protected and well-stocked, the Omnissiah is leaving nothing to chance,“ She said, before continuing, “Though some things can be learned through studying the data. It appears all the legions are doing well and are recuperating. I suspect they shall be rejoining the fight around the same timespan it took you to get your legion back into formation, 3 to 7 years give or take. Being that the Primarch of the second had been found five years ago I suspect they will be on their way here not too long after you.”

That raised an eyebrow, “Well, damn. I guess I'll miss my sibling on the way out,” I mused with a chuckle before saying. “Thank you for this intelligence, Miss Adelheid. As for helping me get this armor on, well, we'll schedule a few meetings for that matter down the line. It's probably going to take a couple months to get to the Wheel of Fire but even before then I will probably have to make an appearance when we visit the Squat Leagues. I need to have some people trained to help me get this armor on by that time, so your offer is most welcome.”

There was another round of beeps and dial tone sounds, ‘01100001 01110010 01100001 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100001’ before the mechanical voice returned “It will be an honor to help the Primarch wear the finely crafted armor I've created,” she gave a bow and stepped a few foot back before saying “‘Till next time you require my services, Primarch. I'm sure you have many thoughts and plans to be set in motion for the coming campaign and I would not wish to take up your time more than necessary.”

I gave a head nod and said, somewhat unsure of myself, “Yes. Plans. See you around, Adelheid.” Once she left I let out a breath, glad to be done with that. Something about her was setting off an alarm in my mind. Nothing too serious, just something I should remember from my first life… But I couldn't place it.

Writers note: so here new chapter, bit perspectives on armor, bit meeting other important people in the galaxy, and catching up with some old and new friends. Hope folks enjoy.

Edited by: Pierre
Community edited by: Ryan Pirtle, Pudy15236, Odds, Humphrey Appleby

Community editable doc (Chapter 21) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

Chapter 23, Wolf Fight

Kori Bretakollrsson

“WAAGH!!!” came the screams as another wave of Orks came running across the killzone that we were currently facing. These creatures gave no consideration to their losses and seemed more interested in the act of dying for the chance to fight than to fight themselves.

Didn't help that they apparently had armored vehicles in spades. Makeshift tanks of all sizes, colors, and designs rolled across the killzone. They didn't make it to our lines thankfully since we had more than enough anti-armor weapons but when they died they left plenty of wrecks that the Orks would then use to get their charges ever closer to our position.

At the current rate they would hit us and go into melee combat probably in the next 20 minutes. Which would probably be a great fight… If our orders were not to hold this position in order to save the town behind us from being overrun by the Orks.

This operation was not what we had expected when we came to the Wheel of Fire’s periphery. We had been told at Terra that we would be on the attack and hunting Orks in their own space and that was what we were hoping for. but when we arrived the Iron Warriors had told us that the situation was well in the hand, that all we needed to do was take the first planet in the chain and that the Orks would be sealed up inside the Wheel of Fire.

Obviously that was not true as, when we began preparing to seal up the entrance, word came that several Ork attacks had taken place on the planets behind us. Planets that should have been negotiating themselves into the Imperium thanks to Lord Russ's rescuing of their civilians 3 weeks ago.

This would not stand for our Lord as this showed a weakness in our abilities to defend the people. It implied that the Imperium could not defend them from the Orks they were trying to leave.

In response, Lord Russ had broken the legion in half. We left half our forces with the Iron Warriors and the Imperial Army to keep the main entrance and exit out of the Wheel of Fire closed up while the other half had split into separate chapters to try and hunt down these rogue Orks. I would assume, based on the strategy which left her personal chapter or enlarged company ready to redeploy at any target, that she was working under the assumption that maybe these Orks went on their raids before the door was closed and just needed to be wiped out. Thus we were deployed in such a way as to draw them into fights while her main force stood ready to land and destroy them, which is why we were here holding this line as the Orks kept pushing us.

Hopefully though Lord Russ would arrive soon as things are getting a little bit close to the village and it looked like they were bringing up artillery pieces now that our sights were obscured by the overgrown wrecks they had called tanks. If this village had been on a hilltop we probably wouldn't have that much of a worry but unluckily enough this village had been built on the edges of a massive river system in very low lands. If anything we were in a dip in the ground, giving the Ork units the ability to shoot into our lines from an angle.

There were a few things I considered may have been possible mistakes but bringing along the Valkyries, as some of my brothers in the Astartes had started coining Tanya's personal shieldmaidens, as a support staff was not one of them.

They not only helped fill out the line of 400 Astartes with about 800 of themselves but they often were carrying shovels and went immediately to work digging trenches. Mars had basically refused to issue Astartes-sized shovels to the legion, implying that materials were best spent on other things. However they had no problem supplying regular shovels to the Valkyries, due to them being humans and considered as just a form of the Imperial Army specific to Fenris.

If not for their ability to dig with their shovels, and share the shovels they had with us, we would be in a bit of a bind. Standing out pretty much in the open, bar whatever sandbags we could put up, was not my idea of a good place to stand against armor. Instead, we now had a bit of trenchwork around the town.

Obviously we were meant for offensive operations but we were figuring out how to do defensive work nonetheless. It may gall us that we were just standing here, only shooting at things as they got closer, but we knew what was coming.

Sooner or later Lord Russ would arrive and would bring with her a hail of gunfire and brothers to fight the Orks in the field. That would be the moment when we could charge out there and deal the finishing blow and rip these Orks apart.

Just had to be patient, something that had been beaten into us during Tanya's training on Fenris. An experience I would not soon forget…

Wasn't too often you were dumped into the woods, nearly naked and alone, and told to work your way to civilization alone or find your fellow brothers who had been dumped alone too and work together to do it.

It might have been one week of that and there had been hundreds of other exercises to deal with, getting to learn the physical feats we could muster. From hiking through the mountains under artillery fire to wrestling the Ice Fiends in their den, every Space Marine on this line had done acts of great valor and deeds worthy of legend in their training alone. The overarching goal however had been simple: teach us patience, give us the ability to follow orders and know when it was time to spring the proper charge. That charge would come soon enough, I could feel it, though I was starting to worry about our ammunition reserves. We had sent out a call for supplies about 30 minutes ago so the other groups of Space Marines on the planet should either be mustering reinforcements or supplies for us and sending them via Stormeagle or Stormbird.

As if my thoughts had conjured such a ship into being one came over the horizon, its guns blazing. It fired into the Orks as it flew over and didn't even stop to make a complete landing. instead, I saw Marines tossing out boxes of ammunition from its back as it made a low pass over the back lines. I would have preferred not to have nearly had a full ammo pack for my Vulture bounce a few feet and nearly take my head off but then again if the choice was between getting ammo or not getting ammo… I'd take the ammo. Besides, it wouldn't kill us. Might kill the Valkyries, though the fact that most of the Space Marines near them had immediately covered them with their arms to protect them generally spoke well of that not happening.

Well, its flyover did provide us supplies. It was not a lot but it probably bought us another hour or two. Hopefully more would arrive soon I thought as I watched the craft leave, avoiding the fire of the Orks who were attempting to shoot it down.

My thoughts were interrupted as Bjorn came up to my side, clapping me on the shoulder and saying. “Hell of a day for a good fight.” I turned to look at him and could almost see his smile through his helmet as he looked across the field of dead and dying Orks, their tanks burning out here and there from plasma and auto gunfire.

“Good day but we're going to need a lot of help to try and clean this up,” I mused, looking at the field. I knew that without volkite weapons, which were rare still, these Ork wrecks were just going to be piles of mushroom clusters for the next generation. We would need to go out there and burn them all to the ground, which would require a cleanup operation that could take weeks. Thank goodness the Primarch had managed to swing a deal with the Mechanicus and armed the Valkyries with some flamethrowers. That would make the job a bit easier but it would still take time.

Bjorn nodded his head but smiled and said, “It may take a while to clean up but the fighting we're going to do now will be worth the mess we’ll have to clean up later. Besides, I think the enemy is starting to slow down.“

“Really? why do you say that?” I asked. The enemy formation seemed to be still pretty much still throwing its easily expendable elements at our lines.

“Used to be 10 Orks a squad, now it's down to like five or six to a squad.

“You been keeping count of how many Orks there were in each squad that has charged our lines? Sure you don't have a little Tanya in you?”

Bjorn let out a belly laugh before holding his chin with his hands and saying, “I'm pretty sure I don't, this mug is not pretty enough to be a Tanya. Besides my hair color is wrong, need to be blonde to be a Tanya after all.”

I shook my head before saying “Oh? Have you not seen Mackenzie Buckle over in the logistics department? Guy’s got hair black as night but his face is totally Tanya's if you cut off the beard.”

“Huh… he must stick out like a sore thumb in the logistics department, everyone knows everyone there is blonde.”

“Geneseed genetics, who knows how they work”? I mused, “There's more than one kind magic, I think. I've seen in the runes the priest to call upon the spirits of the wind or whatever they call their magic.”

Bjorn nodded before saying, “But back to the point, sending half the men they used to. Which to me means they're either down to half the men they had or they're running out of men they're willing to throw away on these charges. I think they're going to stop attacking us soon and maybe try and hold out till night and try something.”

“I mean, they can try. But I think we're pretty much dug in here, and night will just mean that we'll have more ammunition coming in. I'm sure unless the other Wolves of Fenris elements on the planet are as engaged as we are, they'll find some way to get some supplies to us. Hopefully with fewer possibilities of dropping a bolter on someone's head and killing them.”

“Already are, from what I've heard from Commander Svæin Isisson. They're going to use the river system to bring ammunition up, apparently they have a very good logistics network here on this planet. Lots of canals and man-made rivers connecting hundreds of waterways, allowing them to pretty much transfer supplies across the planet. Guess when you only have one major ocean and a bunch of small lakes you get to do things like that.”

I chuckled, “Reverse Fenris then. Wish there were some mountains around here though, this is a terrible place to fight a battle and they can basically throw a barrel full of explosives from half a mile at us and hit us without issue.”

“Yeah, Captain Oystæin Boesson has been complaining about that a lot, says that we need artillery here for counter-battery fire but we don't have it so we're going to have to depend on the Air Force when they get into orbit, whenever that is.”

“They'll probably arrive with Lord Russ, which will make this whole conflict a bit of a haphazard win. Nonetheless, she'll bring what stores of Volkite weapons we have and we should be able to knock these monstrous green bastards back off the planet.“

Bjorn started to nod then held the side of his head, listening to a communication from somewhere.”

“What in the Frozen hills? Orks are inside the town.”

“What?” I said, confused, as I sat up. “How could they get inside the town, we have that whole place surrounded.”

“I don't know but there's reports of fires and explosions and a request for aid.” He looked off towards the town for a moment before he said, “Orders just came in were being redeployed to deal with it.” Looking to the Valkyries, he said, “Tell your commanding officers here to hold the line even as we pull out. We’ll return once the situation in the town is dealt with.”

The nearest Valkyrie, a blonde-haired green-eyed one, snapped off a smart salute before saying, “Give the Orks hell, son of Russ.”

Bjorn smiled and nodded, returning the salute, “Will do,” Before he pulled himself into one of the trenches that led back into the town, running at max speed, I and the other Space Marines of this squad following close behind.

As we got closer to the town I saw not only the damage that had been expected, explosions on the edges of the town, destroyed buildings, and fires but there was also smoke coming from the center of the town and the sounds of fighting from what was unmistakably melee combat.

We pushed ourselves hard and soon found ourselves in the town, finding somewhere North of 60 Orks. Some wore flamethrowers, others just held explosives or their own versions of bolt rifles and any other weapon they could find. They were wearing armor painted purple as they destroyed and exploded, killed and maimed, murdered and shanked to their hearts’ delight.

In the center of the formation was one Ork wearing a purple cloak, carrying what looked like a bolt pistol and a hastily constructed chain ax. “Ah, look wot we got ere boyz: a bunch uv dese super-humiez have kome ta play.” He called, pointing in the direction of our squad of 20 Space Marines.

"You know wot ta do, boyz." He roared as several of the flamethrower-holding Orks stepped up and unleashed waves of fire in our direction. Thankfully most of us had our helmets close at hand and had quickly shoved them on since we were going into close-quarter combat. One of the men gave no damn about the fact his beard was set on fire as he rushed through the flames, drawing his oversized knife and getting into a fist fight with a flamethrower-wielding Ork. He tackled it over, punching it repeatedly and trying to stab its eyes out. one of the other Orks turned his own flamethrower on him and his friend but didn't get a chance to put too much of a consecutive beam of flame on our squadmate. We all brought up our bolters and started unleashing hell on the enemy formation, causing them to scatter as a good portion of the flamethrowers went down or exploded in fiery deaths.

Then a lot of us pushed further into the town square but that was apparently what the enemy Orks were expecting, proving that this lot was a lot smarter.

The windows behind us opened up and shoota fire came out. Lots of it just pinged off armor although a few of my fellow squad mates died under the surprise attack, the rounds catching them in weak places in the back armor. What had been a simple operation to get us in contact with the enemy had quickly sprung out of control as we were now surrounded by the enemy. using our shoulder pad armor for all its worth we formed up into a circle and started to fire into the houses under enemy control and into various alleyways where the Orks had been hiding. In the center of our formation, looking pissed off even with his helmet on, Bjorn was trying to contact anyone in command to get more troops and help get us out of this spot. After a moment all he did was shake his head and yell “Someone's cut all the communications in and out of the town. The bastards have organized this thing.”

“Oh great, smart Orks.” I mused as a burst ricocheted off my shoulder pad, “Hopefully the fact that we're not in communication will warn someone that something's gone wrong in the town. How did these things get in here?”

My question was answered as underneath my foot a metal plate was pushed up in the street. Stepping back I watched as the plate was moved out of the way and an Ork started to come out, then looked shocked at where he was.

“Ohhh… that's why he said to get ou at number three,” The Ork managed to say before I shot it full of bolter rounds, splattering us and the Orks bellow. Pulling a grenade off my belt I threw it down the tunnel before shoving the panel back in place. I stepped back and that proved to be the right decision. I had considered holding the thing down with my foot, which apparently would have been the bad decision as I would have gone from cripple to normal to crippled again if I had. The explosion of a grenade was not that great but whatever was in those tunnels was apparently a lot more powerful. The panel in front of me, as well as a large number of panels around the square and down the streets in various directions, went flying off as fire jetted out into the sky.

Turning to Bjorn, I asked, “You think those in charge saw that happen?”

Bjorn shook his head before saying “I think the Alfather himself saw that happen. You'd have to be blind to miss dozens of columns of fire shooting 60 feet into the air.”

“Well, good. I think all that’s left is to survive then,” I concluded, going back to shooting my gun at the Orks that were attempting to overwhelm us with gunfire.

The one Ork with the purple cape appeared on top of a nearby building and yelled, "Surrenda now, humies! I have yer surrounded, yer lives are worth more ta me 'n da mines dan dead." The answer was basically every Marine that could shoot in that direction trying to blow his brains out of his head. He had ducked down immediately behind cover of the building though, guaranteeing that he survived a little bit longer.

As we prepared to take the next withering rounds of fire I pointed off to our left and said, “That building is not putting out as much fire as the rest, I think there are less enemies in it.”

Bjorn nodded and ordered, “Then let's clear it out!” Grabbing the more wounded Marines we performed a fighting retreat towards the building, trying to cover each other best as we could under the withering fire of the Ork shootas.

I was the first one to the door and kicked it off its hinges, sending an Ork that had been hiding behind it across the room to smack into a staircase. I quickly put two bursts into its head before moving further into the building, killing another Ork that had been shooting out a window. Gunfire rang out as Space Marines quickly occupied the architecture of the building, killing the Orks and taking their gun positions for ourselves.

The building was a mix of brick and wood, not the greatest material as a defensive structure but better than being out in the open… as long as they didn't have any more flamethrowers, that was. If they did, well… things would get toasty, that's for sure. Which was one reason why we needed to be sure to clean out the place and keep the enemy quite far away from the building.

The Orks for their part stopped retreating and immediately did what Orks always do: charge. Purple-wearing Orks rushed toward our position out of alleyways and various hiding positions, wielding axes and shooters as they came. We gave those the answer they deserved, lashing away with our bolters as they rushed our position. This quickly discouraged the Orks that remained in hiding from coming out.

“Do you think they're falling back?” I asked Bjorn, as there seemed to be a lull in the battle.

“Definitely regrouping,” he said as we watched an Ork pull one of its mates, one who had lost its lower half, into the shadows of the alleyway.

Looking out the same window I shrugged, “What's with all the purple? I've seen them wear red and yellow before but I don't think I've seen them wear purple.”

Bjorn shrugged. “I don't know what or how these Xenos think. All I know is they need to die and we need help or we're going to be overrun and killed. Leif Audgislisson, did you get the radios working again?” he queried, turning to one of the Marines with more of a technical background unbeknownst to me. Apparently he had been given an order to work on the problem as he had pulled his helmet off and was currently using some sort of tool to try and manipulate wires inside the radio.

“Trying to increase power to the signal but it's just… whatever they're using to block out the signals is too strong, Bjorn.”

“Damn. Well, we got to hope someone saw the explosion then.” Bjorn muttered as I looked out the window, watching the Orks. they were a lot more still there than we had thought. They were moving between buildings, obviously preparing for another round of fighting.

It was at this moment I felt something I only felt once before, something whose meaning I knew right away. The presence of a cold logic, evaluating what was before them before springing into action in a terribly swift attack, as if a predator was striking its unsuspecting prey.

Looking around I could tell that every Marine in the room felt it. After all we all had taken part in the attack on the planet of Icrinda, and we felt something very similar there. Looking to Bjorn I saw he was smiling as he said “Russ is coming.“

At that moment there was a massive thud in front of the house that was facing us, causing everyone to look through the windows to see what just happened.

Standing in a small depression in the stone walkway that made up the street was the Lord of Wolves. In one hand they were carrying a bolter and a massive chainsword in the other. I looked across the field at the Orks who had been preparing for another charge. In fact, they had just stepped out of their hiding places.

There was a bit of stunned silence as the Wolf Lord Primarch looked across the field at the Orks gathering there for another attack. Then she was moving. Faster than most eyes could keep up she was across the field and in front of the nearest Ork, blowing its brains out with her bolter before slashing her blade down into another. The Orks tried to turn on her but at that moment the Stormeagles she jumped from made itself known again, unloading its fire as more Marines began dropping down from its holds. They quickly spread out and encircled our building, firing at any Orks that tried to come out of hiding. Another Stormeagle came to a very low pass to land in the nearby square, its doors rolling open on their own before hordes of Fenrisian wolves were unleashed into the plaza. They immediately got to work hunting down the Orks, their superior hunting senses allowing them to find and dig out any Orks that were attempting to hide.

A few apothecaries broke their way into the building to check over the wounded before Bjorn, seeing that the situation was under control, called. “Alright, boys! We're not going to let the Primarch and their Varagyr get all the fun, are we? Let's go.”

There was a round of agreeing sounds as everyone, including myself, followed Bjorn into the street to charge at the house where the leader of these Orks had last been seen. Bjorn most likely wanted to hunt him down since he was the obvious candidate for the architect of this attack.

Of course Ork fire was coming directly at us as we charged, bullets pinging off our helmets and shoulder pads, but that was not going to stop our counter assault. Several of our brothers were now severely wounded, possibly on the verge of dying and we wanted to vent. There would be only one payment acceptable for our vengeance, that would be the Ork’s blood.

Bjorn was the first one into the building, smashing through with his shoulder. He unloaded a few rounds into the nearest Ork, followed by myself. I covered him as we moved further in while Leif Audgislisson came behind us and shot into the room next to us as some Ork tried to come around the corner and side-swipe us. As one, our unit began to clear the building room by room, a few men going upstairs to deal with the second floor as we searched for the architect of this monstrosity.

He did not deign appear, unfortunately. He probably moved on, I thought, but we were not going to risk him hiding somewhere so we just started smashing the place up.

Outside we could hear the fire slowly dying out as what Orks were in the city either died or were forced to retreat further away from the square, no doubt searching for a new redoubt from which to cause us harm or just harm the people of this town.

As I kicked in the back door of the house to start looking into the next house over a pair of wolves rushed past, having apparently tracked something into this building and out the back. As I watched the beasts jumped on two Orks, tearing at their faces. The pair had apparently been busy with what could best be described as a giant rocket. They had been assembling it there, for some reason or another, and had their backs turned to me when we came out here.

Raising my gun I thought about trying to get a shot past the wolves into the boyz but they seemed to be dying well enough, might as well save the ammunition and not risk annoying the wolves.

Looking past the massacre, though I finally saw the bastard responsible for this. The Ork was fastening something onto the rocket, his purple cape blowing in the wind as he turned in my direction.

“"Ahh, hummie… must say, dat was a gud showz! I thought we had ya smash until dat big hummie showed up. 'dat was someth'n I had not 'pected but, ah… ya live, ya learn.”

I raised my bolter and fired two shots, expecting to see him splatter across the rocket in gore. Instead the Ork simply pulled a smaller green creature out from its cloak and held it in front of him. It took the bolts, splattering him in the little creature’s guts.

"Dirty diev'n bastard! I was told da damn grotz was supposed ta take five rounds, easy." He grumbled, before bowing to me and saying, "well, I gave yer 'da chances uv surrenda. Will ya at least give me 'da chance ta do 'da same?"

I will admit that was not what I was expecting to come out of his mouth and I was not prepared for it. I lowered my gun without intent, actually having to think about that.

"ah, dank yer. Dank yer for at least konsider'n it. Well let me introduce myself: I am Drkshdow, an today will be da day dat yer nearly got me."

Nearly as soon as he had confused me the Ork smashed its foot down on something. A moment later the rocket behind it started throwing fire into the ground and took off, straight up at first but then a little bit of a curve and as it went up. The Ork went with it as it held on tight to the side of the rocket, laughing all the way.

I watched with some… no, with many layers of confusion as the rocket slowly made a turn away from the city and took the Ork out of gunfire range faster than I could think to do anything about it.

A moment later Bjorn came out of the house. He looked around at the dead Orks and scorch marks on the ground before asking, “What the hell just happened?” I shook my head, not sure how to respond to that, before simply saying “DrkShdow got away.”

“Who?” Bjorn asked, looking at me with as much confusion as I felt.

I shrugged in response, “The Ork commando leader, I guess,” not really having a good answer since the creature had managed to escape.

Bjorn simply shrugged, then said, “Well, I think we've managed to kill off the ones in this house. Let us see what's over in the next one.”

Nodding my agreement I followed him to the next house. Together we breached the front door and cleared the immediate area, finding nothing but civilians hiding in pantry cupboards.

Not wanting to spend time trying to assure them we simply moved on, ignoring them and moving on to the next house where there were actually two Orks pinned down from the other side as they had been surrounded.

We broke in and with some fancy ax work dealt with them. Once It was under control we moved on into the middle of the street, looking around to see if we could find the next area of concern that needed to be dealt with. Instead, we were treated to the show of an Ork being punted out of an alleyway and smashing its head directly into a solid brick wall. Out of the alleyway, covered in Ork gore, came our Primarch. Apparently her gun was jammed because she had simply attached it to her side and was using the chainsword to cut through an Ork that had tried to escape.

Said Ork toppled over in two, the top half still trying to drag itself away even as Lord Russ moved on to the one she had punted and smashed its head in with a good downward motion of their power-footed boots. Once that beast was dead and stopped moving they turned to the one that was trying to crawl away and revved up the blade again before chopping it down into the Ork's head, sending gore splatters all over her again.

A pair of wolves came out of the alleyway, carrying the limbs of other Orks in their teeth as if they were their favorite chew toys. Our Primarch looked down at the wolves, took a knee, and patted both their heads before grabbing the limbs out of their mouths and tossing them down the street quite a distance. The pair of wolves perked up at her and then rushed after the foul meat, having no care in the world it seemed that this was an active battle zone.

Our Primarch started to turn towards our direction when a raven landed on her shoulder. I watched as it tapped a couple times on her shoulder pad, her head turning to look in his general direction as it did, before flying off. She nodded before turning and, seeing us, started walking in our direction as she put the sword back in place on her back.

“Good morning, gentlemen. Or is it evening? I didn't get a chance to check the clock,” Our Primarch said as she pulled off her helmet. She let the breeze catch her hair a bit and gave it a shake then, holding the helmet under her arm, she looked at us and said. “Sorry for the late arrival. That place was not the only attack we had to deal with on this planet, or even this sector. I think we can conclusively say that the Orks have a way out of the Wheel of Fire that was missed, which means we're going to have to go in. But that's high level issues,” she said, waving it off. “How did things go here?”

Bjorn gave the sign of the Aquila before pulling off his helmet and answering “Things go well, my Primarch, we are holding the line. A little bit of a close call but we are holding.

“Excellent, excellent. Means we won't have much more issues once the Air Force starts pounding the enemies outside the lines, then we can work on trying to figure out how they're getting out of the containment.” She would have continued her statement but she stopped when she saw me pulling off my own helmet and said, “I know you.”

A bit stunning that she recognized me, I said, “Yes, my Primarch,” and I was about to say more when she continued, “Give me a moment.”

She held her free right hand to her forehead for a second before saying, “Kori Bretakollrsson, king of the other side of the continent, was it not?”

“Yes, my king!” I replied, in shock that she even remembered me. We hadn't had that many conversations and that was nearly two decades ago. I had not even talked to her when I'd signed up for the procedure, I didn't see the use of it, and if I didn't see the use… I doubted she would.

“Excellent!” she said, slapping my shoulder warmly and spreading a bit of her Ork gunk all over the side of my armor. “Always was wondering what you'd make of yourself, good to see you here with the Wolves and carving your legend into the stars.”

I smiled and nodded my head in thanks before answering, “Thank you, my friend. It is an honor to serve in your legion and to, as you say, write my name in the stars.”

Turning to Bjorn she asked, “You are?”

“Bjorn of Tra, my Lord King. It’s an honor to serve in your legion as well.”

Russ nodded before putting her hand on his shoulder in turn, adding a bit of more gore to his already covered body. “It's an honor to have you in my legion, Bjorn. I saw a bit of the combat on my way down, excellent job thinking on your feet and dealing with the situation as it came up. We need capable commanders like you in the legion.”

“Thank you, my Lord,” Bjorn replied, giving her a bow.

Nodding her approval she flipped above us but said, “Keep up the good work, men. I have a feeling you two will make it into my Varagyr, if you keep performing with excellent qualities as you've done today. Just remember: follow your orders, try and keep the civilians from getting too roughed up, and kill the monsters that would harm them.“

“Yes, my Primarch!” we answered in unison, giving salutes as she turned to walk away. She stopped to pet one of her wolves that had come up with an Ork’s arm, grabbing it and tossing it off again, the wolf chasing after it as she did.

Letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding I turned and saw Bjorn looking at me with a smug smirk. “What?” I asked, confused, before he clapped his arm around my shoulders

“Brother, have I ever told you you're a good luck charm? Both times we've seen action has resulted in us being in range to see the Primarch. Not only that the second time she comes to our rescue and she knows you? The Allfather is looking out for you I can feel it. And I'm going to make sure I stay close to you, my friend, and get as much benefit out of that as possible.”

I shook my head and laid out a laugh before saying, “Well you can do that as much as you want, we're still both stuck in the lower ranks. Come on, let's go finish searching the town for Orks.”

“Alright, let's do that.”

Tanya Russ

I chuckled inside my helmet as I stood in the cargo area of the Hrafnkel as several of my shield maidens used what amounted to fire hoses to blow the Ork gunk off my armor.

I swear those creatures exploded into gore and guts more than you would have found in a Bethesda game. Or maybe I just let my blood get up a bit sometimes? I did feel sort of a combat high every time I fought, one that seemed really satisfying. I didn't really give it much thought since most of the time I had to think about the moral situation but well, we were fighting Orks, I didn't have to think too much about the moral situation.

Yes, they were sentient creatures like humans. But obviously they were not good for civilization, They were a species that enslaved other species and willingly wasted useful resources such as intelligence and traded it for mere brute labor. Not to mention their penchant for war and destruction meant that they couldn't really build, could they? Not unless it was for bringing death and destruction to millions of people, which again was wasting human resources on a scale that I found insulting. It was probably almost close to the numbers of people who died under communism. Almost being operative, it was very possible commies still held the record as I didn't know what had come after my death in my first world. The fact of the matter was Marx had done a great job in setting the record, to a point that I doubted even Orks could intentionally hit.

Pulling my blade off my back I held it in front of me as two shield maidens directed the water cannon at it. Thankfully the blade itself was water-resistant so I simply turned it a couple times, allowing the water to get into every nook and cranny and making sure that it would also be cleaned of the Ork gunk.

The shield maidens were standing a good 5 ft away from me, trying not to spray each other with the blasts I think. Although the fact that some of them had stripped down into some rather light clothing and were having as much fun as proverbial American television implied girls did at a car wash could imply that I was wrong about them not trying to get each other soaked.

If I wasn't in a sour mood I might have a bit more fun as well, enjoying what I was seeing, but at the moment I just focused on what was on my schedule after this. Obviously the Orks had a way in and out of the Wheel of Fire that we still didn't know about, which meant the idea of maybe simply sealing it off was not going to work. No, I would have to direct the legion in and then find the enemy. Once we found a location to lay siege to I’d call in the Iron Warriors’ legion to help us out, or at least give us a bit of teaching on how to lay siege since they were reportedly pretty good at that.

An unfortunate thing but something that we need to be done. This region of space would not be at peace until the Orks were dealt with and they could only be dealt with by my men going into the Wheel of Fire. There was no ifs, ands, or butts, that must be it which meant we were probably going to take a lot of losses.

Shaking my head I noticed that the shield maidens had finished their job and were trying to turn off their hoses. Nodding my approval I pulled off my helmet, taking in a breath of the recycled air of the ship. not bad but not as enjoyable as the air that I had been breathing on the planet below. “Fierce, Cunning,” I called the two wolves who were still chewing on Ork bones that they had gathered during the fight. They ran up to me and I petted them on the head before looking to the shield maidens, saying. “These two had a bit too much fun down there. Make sure to clean them up good, got it?”

The shield maidens immediately gave salutes and replied in choral, “Yes, my king,” giving off an air of professionalism, one that I quite enjoyed as I turned to walk away. The fact that they immediately went to talk, as was expected from people when they are chatting with dogs, did not annoy me as I was leaving. Fierce and Cunning would have to put up with it though, they had been covered in Ork gunk as much as me. All the wolves had. If the battles were going to be this messy I was going to need to set up a procedure for cleaning every single piece of equipment, not to mention the possibility of contamination from Ork spores could cause Orks to grow up anywhere we went if we didn't decontaminate everything.

More things to add to my list of objectives. I needed to get to working on this coming attack into the Wheel of Fire. Shaking my head I continued on my way down the hallway until I found the door that led to my quarters. Quickly typing in the code I entered and took a seat on a chair meant to stand the weight of my armor and myself. Getting the armor off myself was a chore but I could at least get some of the extremities off, bringing my arms and hands out from the metal around them and allowing my fingers to do dexterous tasks such as filling out the orders that needed to be filled out.

And pressing my button that would summon a few of the shield maidens trained in helping me get this armor off.

Putting my armored gloves down on the floor, I pulled my sword off my back before putting it down on the table and then reached for my bolter rifle and laid it on the same table. They had both been cleaned but it was only a surface-level thing. We needed to take them apart and make sure every piece of equipment was well oiled and gunk free before the next fight. That being said, first things first, I carefully removed the magazine of the bolterand manipulated the pieces to eject the round in the chamber without firing it.

Now, safe I double-checked, never know when something weird would happen with a weapon of war. Just because I had ejected a round from the chamber didn't mean somehow there was not a round stuck somewhere. You can have the most well-engineered weapon in the world and mistakes will still happen. Once I was sure that it was safe as could be I reached under my table and pulled out a kit for taking apart my gun. Yes, I could send my weapon down to the gunsmiths in the logistics department to do it but I felt it was my duty to do at least do some of the work myself.

Couldn't leave all the work to the Iron Priests, after all. That denomination seemed to have followed me from Fenris as, apparently, it was just so ingrained in the culture of the Fenrisians that those who work with Iron are the Iron Priests. Thus those who worked with keeping weapons in good condition became Iron Priest in their minds. That and the Mechanicus had recruited heavily from the Iron Priests because they had the initial skill set, so they were now totally going to be called the Iron Priests across my legions and auxiliaries. I was seeing similar situations develop amongst the other organizations that were recruiting from the priesthoods that made up Fenrisian spiritual orders. The Apothecaries were often called Wolf Priests as much as medics. And those of a psyker persuasion were slowly just being called the Rune Priests.

I was glad that they didn't actually worship anything, instead seeing stuff as more of spiritualism. Although I guess you could say they worshiped the AI that was the Alfather, but as long as it didn't get too bad or they tried to spread it as a real religion-

My thoughts were interrupted as the doors to my room opened, revealing three shield maidens I knew very well.

Helga Arndottir, a blonde woman who had good upper body strength and was very adept at getting the chest armor off.

Turid Ulfketildottir, a red-headed woman with… I believe the term ‘wide tracts of land’ might have been heard once or twice while on Fenris, used by some of the male nobles referring to women with similar body shapes. I swear it was older though, I heard it before.

And the third was Maria Hæfnirdottir, a brunette woman who had great dexterity with dealing with some of the latches on the leg armor.

“Evening, girls,” I said with a smile. “Need a little help getting this armor off.”

The three giggling shield maidens bowed and all greeted me with “Good evening Primarch. We're here at your service,” before they walked over. Pulling a workbench open behind me they grabbed the tools to unscrew certain areas of the armor so they could get me out of it. I simply leaned back in my chair and gave them access to all the bolts they had to work on.

Hands steady, they removed the pieces of armor. Before long my chest area was finally free, which allowed me to breathe a little bit easier. The measurements apparently had not been quite right, either that or I just was a lot more top-heavy than the armor had been designed for. One thing about Fenris that I was somewhat thankful for now, all these years later, was that culturally it was expected for a king to have a harem of women at their beck and call for whatever reason necessary. Though that reason tended to be more carnal, which I made plenty of use of, it was nice just to have someone to help me with armor that wouldn't end up staring at my body. Though if that was because they had seen it before or because they were women was up in the air.

Maria Hæfnirdottir leaned across my chest and was helping me to undo my shoulder pads, her face not too far from mine, and I considered moving this from a simple armor removal job to something more intimate. It had been a while after all and I had worked up a bit of energy that could be expended in an enjoyable manner. But something prevented that moment from coming to pass.

“You know, if you studied your curriculum as much as you womanized we could probably build an entire second Astronomicon on Fenris in the next decade. That would help with expanding The crusade quite a bit.”

Standing in the doorway, looking at me and the three shield maidens on top of me, stood Malcador. He had apparently decided that privacy was not meant for Primarchs. Again.

Shaking my head at the comment I chuckled before saying, “That might be held a kernel of truth but I believe in human-Primarch relations, it helps keep me grounded and working to help my fellow man improve their lot in the galaxy.”

The first Lord of Terra laughed at that, walking into the room, giving no damn to the fact that I wore only the bodysuit required for under the armor and some leg armor.

“That's some good speech work, I'll give you that. If I didn't know who you were and how you thought I might even believe that line of logic.”

“Why, thank you,” I said with a smile, already preparing my defenses for what I was expecting to come.

“Of course we both know that’s not really why you keep yourself entertained like this.” Immediately after he said that his eyes glowed a bit and I felt the poking presence of his psychic abilities trying to enter my mind. I felt him search for some faults that he could use to pierce into my consciousness and see what I was thinking about.

I did my best to keep him out, blocking as hard as I could and erecting a second barrier just under the first in my mental war. I fully intended to keep him out even in case he broke through.

After a moment the assault ended and I could breathe easier again as I felt the pressure lessening on my defenses.

“Well, that's good. You did improve,” Malcaador said, giving the faintest indication of praise. Before continuing by saying, “We may need to get some proper psychic equipment to move your training along. We'll see if I can have the Mechanicus set something up for you here.”.

I nodded before saying, “Hopefully it won't take too long for something like that to come in, we're most likely going into the Wheel of Fire soon and everything here will have to wait.”

“Ah… unfortunate. Then I guess the Iron Warriors’ hope that the Orks would not have another way out of the system appears to be a mistaken one?”

I nodded my agreement before I really understood the words and turn to them saying “you already suspected, didn't you?”

Speaking a little bit louder to be heard over the mechanical tools as the girls worked on getting the leg armor off me, he said, “Orks are many things but they're not ones to let themselves be easily contained. The planet Icrina was obviously an easy draw, a way to make sure that any army that tried to assault them would go there instead of searching for other exits. A trap but not one that they were able to spring yet at least.”

“As such, I've already taken action to try and rectify the situation. To get this campaign back on track I have directed the Star Hunters to do a second pass and watch for Orks fleeing from this battle. We’ll see if we can't find the way they are coming in and out, then hit them in their back lines.”

I smiled at that, nodding my agreement, “Perfect. Not only will it close down one more route they're using to get in and out of the Wheel of Fire, who knows where that back line will pop out. If we’re lucky maybe it'll get us closer to the core of their empire.”

“And you can then perform one of your excellent decapitation actions that you are so known for. Removing the Ork leadership would do wonders in making the campaign last half as long.”

I tipped my head in thought and said “Most of the times, when I've removed leadership for the wolves and people of Fenris… I have tended to inherit that leadership. We're not going to have to deal with something like that amongst the Orks, right?

Malcador shook his head, saying, “No, no. Orks don't tend to take leaders outside their own kind. No, they'll simply start fighting over the leadership. They’ll kill each other to try to determine who is their new ruler, which will work in your favor as you could then target the more powerful Orks and take them out.”

Nodding, I said, “Divide and conquer. Old tactic but not a bad one… We may even actually be able to run a defeat in detail campaign, considering they've got their army spread out amongst the worlds of the Wheel of Fire.“

“Exactly,” Malcador said with a nod. “All you need to do is find the weak points and strike where you can. The Imperial Army will try and keep the Orks spread out and unable to get their forces together for a single attack.“

I felt a migraine try to grip my head and I sat back in the chair, lifting my legs so the shield maidens could pull the armor boots off.

“Alright, then. Well I think we have a plan: wait for the Star Hunters to find the way in, go in, find out where exactly that leads us in, attack their leadership if possible, and depend on the Iron Warriors to hold the front door shut so we can just raid the Orks until we're done cleaning them up.“

“That about sums it up.” Malcador said, going on to add, ”By the way the Squats are not enjoying just hanging out in space. They have demanded that you allow them to join you in your attack into the Wheel of Fire, whenever that may be. Remember that we are trying to keep them happy and joining with the Imperium so bringing them along will serve us well.”

I nodded my head before saying, “I have no problem with this. I want to see how they fight anyways, I imagine those armored trains are going to be invaluable in the coming fights.”

I continued, “Aerial resupplying is good and all but having something on the ground to use as a command center is going to be important, I feel. If Orks have had plenty of time to build up these worlds then I would not be surprised if they have more anti-air hidden than we will be able to find.”

Malcador nodded his approval before getting up and saying, “Well, with that discussed, I believe this conversation is at an end.” He started to walk towards the door before stopping and saying, “One more thing though. I know your job is going out there, fighting monsters, and killing enemy leaders. I know you need time to take off and relax. Just remember not to become too bloodthirsty in your fighting or too relaxed in your womanizing behaviors.”

“It's better for everyone to have a little bit of moderation in everything as it's too easy to become stuck in bad behaviors, and opening yourself up to things that would not have the best intentions for the Imperium in mind. Do you understand basically what I'm trying to say?”

I raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out exactly what he was trying to say. It sounded like there was some sort of codded message he was trying to give without alerting the girls of what was going on. Or maybe he was not sure what I knew, but I think I understood the gist of it. I replied “Of course, Malcador. I won’t overindulge in either work and afterwork behaviors.”

He nodded his agreement before shutting the door behind him, leaving me alone with the girls and finally able to get some time to relax.

Writers note: alright, first of many long form battles I hope, and I hope this one dose well, Anyways we got are self 6000 words of fighting and 3000 of after battle Tanya, and Malcadore being snippy about doing her lessons. Which I managed to make lesson in chapter 24.

Edited by: Pierre, Michael Sauer
Community edited by: Ryan Pirtle
Community editable doc (Chapter 23) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

Chapter 30, Wolf and Salmander family time.
844. M30

Tanya
San Katos

The planet of San Katos burned. Well, its cities at least. Across multiple fronts my legion and the forces of the salamander legion work together to destroy and break down every pirate holding there was from work to Eldar to several other variant species that I didn't know and of course the shark people but they seem to be more like hired muscle for whatever faction was willing to pay.

They must have been paid well because every faction was sending them in first to fight us and they were taking horrendous losses but they seem to care little for that. Was their morale just unbelievably high or did they just not care it was hard to say but either way we fought them and their Dark Eldar commanders as they continue to try and push us off the planet and failed miserably. I was trying to be very scalable about it all but the fact that there were Orks on this planet meant that I had to burn some sections of it just to be sure that we cleared out the fungal infections. Nothing on the level of new Vietnam. A name that had come to be a thing because I had muttered about the similarities between Vietnam and the planet we were fighting when we first arrived in the sector in front of someone who'd noted it down. Before I even had time to try and change that everyone was calling the planet New Vietnam, which was unfortunate. I'm sure the planet had some sort of name before I’d done that but now the only record read New Vietnam.
That being said the situation on the ground was completely handled between my Marines’ skill at hunting mixed with Vulkan's Marines’ skill at just burning everything down. They were quite effective at that, I acknowledged it. Together we were able to keep the enemy from getting in position to turn things around for themselves and, by my calculations, the planet would fall to our combined forces within 2 months. Maybe three if they pulled some sort of miracle.

Such as if we had trouble taking the capital, which was on our agenda for today.

The capital was a city fortress ringed by several walls on the edge of the Western sea. Well, maybe not the edge as several sections of the walled City actually floated on what was the sea. Many of their ships took advantage of this to just park right on the water.

In essence we were going to have to attack a massive naval harbor complex with infantry and other tricks it had been building up over the last few years. Casualties were expected to be relatively low, though with the amount of Shark people and Dark Eldars being a larger contingent of that city's population rather than just Orks it could be something different. Orcs were known to be more gung-ho about attacking in straight-up fights even when they thought they were doing sneak attacks. And though the Sharks tended to do the same they tended to do the same on the orders of the Orks. The Dark Eldars, a silly name as they seemed to just be Eldar but with Spikier armor from what I had seen so far, tended to favor night attacks and stealth attacks, which could make our losses a bit heavier if they got really good at sniping my men's weak points. Which, I will admit, had become a bit of an issue.

Weak points, I mean, when we talked of the Dark Eldars specifically set in the back area of the joints. I'd had a whole company devoted to finding out where every injury and damage had been taken on the armor ever since arriving on this planet, for the one goal of sending that information back to the Mechanicum as to let them know where the weaknesses were. Any improvement on the Mark 2, when it would be provided, would probably give us a lot of leeway in fighting the enemies of the future.

Back on the subject of the attack. We were going to have to attack a massive naval harbor, which meant we would need good precision in planning which is why I’d invited Vulkan to my ship for a conversation on the matter.

I would have liked to get started on this planning segment of the whole operation immediately but he had actually refused for two days now. Well refused was a bit of a harsher word, large segments of his legion were in contact with several forces across the planet and he simply didn't want to leave his men alone which was good commander instinct, to some extent.

He handled his troops in a way that was almost similar to mine in a way, treating them like his sons more than anything. Further than myself as I treated them as employees, good employees who did their jobs but simply employees. Still, I could get the notion of being there for your employees. But I would have preferred him to get his ass up to the ship so we could have a conversation on how we were going to proceed with the invasion of this half-water World City.

That being said he'd finally sent up a message that he would be attending the meeting, which was good. All I need to do was wait for them in my grand hall which I had made sure was set up with chairs that should be able to take his weight and my own, as well as chairs for Malcador who had said he wanted to meet Vulkan. General Vavem of the Squats was also attending since he was working on ways to bring his Land Train against a water City, something I did not think would work out but if he wanted to give it a try I wasn't going to stop him.

That's right where I was at the moment, sitting in the main hall with Malcador and waiting for Vulkan to arrive when Malcador asked a question I was not exactly expecting.

“So how are you enjoying fighting the Dark Eldar? I heard many things about them in my time, it seems like the kind of people that just would tick you off from what you've done in the Wheel of Fire.”

I nodded my head at that, saying, “Oh they do annoy me, yes. I am not a fan of slavery at the worst of times and somehow they've found a way to go beyond slavery as a bondage issue to slavery as a sadistic issue.” I had seen several of the slaves we'd freed from camps that had more of the Dark Eldar than the other species and they were all mutilated to some extent. The people I'd talked to who had survived the mutilations simply said that the pointy ears enjoyed causing pain, which was disgusting to me. Causing harm to another sentient for your own enjoyment was a level somehow beyond cannibalism in my levels of hatred. I had not thought anyone could get there but if anyone could do it it was those Eldars.

Shaking my head, I said, “If there is one species that, In my slowly growing opinion, needs to be removed from galactic politics for the foreseeable future, if not ever, it’s these Dark Eldar. Even if they break the trope I was hoping to come across.”

“Trope?” Malcador asked, his tone interested, and I sighed before answering, “ Right, there was a trope in…” Remembering that the squad was sitting to my other side I decided to go with a little bit of misdirection that I’d let Malcador figure out. “In the legends of Fenris of creatures called darkness this or dark that weren't really evil, they just had darker skin tone.”

“Huh? I've never heard of this trope back then.” He said before shrugging. “Unfortunately the Dark Eldar are, well, one of the major surviving species of the Eldar empire that once existed. You've already met the Eldars that are considered the Craftworlders in the Wheel of Fire then there's the Dark Eldar who tend to be raiders and cause mayhem. There's also the Exodites which are, from what I can tell, Eldar that gave up all advanced technology to go live on a planet like their ancient ancestors.”

I chuckled at that. “I wouldn't consider these full Dark Eldar though,” he continued. “There are definitely Dark Eldar among them but I believe the majority of them must be the Corsair type, outcasts of the Craftworlds who have left for various reasons over the generations. Maybe some of them are on their way to becoming Dark Eldar I will note, it's not that hard to do for that species.”

“Is it a cultural thing or a subspecies thing?” I finally asked, a bit confused by the wording.

“Both,” Malcador said. “Maybe not genetic but most definitely cultural at the bare minimum. I've never actually spoken to any Eldar, I've mostly dealt with internal human politics. The Emperor has had a little bit more contact with them, I believe he even has a few friends amongst some of the Craftworlds out there. But the main difference between what's considered a Dark Eldar and an Eldar is sadistic torture. No one knows exactly why the darker variants are into that sort of thing but there are rumors, rumors I can't discuss right now.” I had been watching his eyes and I saw where they went, noting that he'd gone to general Vavem which told me enough that these were top-tier highly classified rumors. The kind of knowledge that they didn't want spreading amongst the general population then.

Doesn't matter how high of a rank general Vavem is, he was a known braggart and I'd seen him talk quite a lot amongst his own people and our own during many drunken nights. More likely than not that if he was told something he might spill it, so better not to tell him.

Carefully, I bowed my head without revealing what I was doing to general Vavem, signaling I understood what Malcador was saying before adding. “These corsairs? Its an ancient Terran term for piracy, I believe. Is there any potential to use these pirates for our needs, possibly get them to surrender?”

Malcador shrugged before saying, “It's possible, we have actually hired a few groups like this in the past to work for us. They’ll do the job if you pay them the right money though in this case I believe it's well past that point. As you pointed out to the shark folk a few months back, committing attacks on the subjects of the Imperium will not be taken lightly. This planet must be cleansed of its pirate population and that means no ships must be left around for them to be able to leave and go raiding.”

“We offer them two paths then. They either die fighting or they surrender their vessels to be destroyed. They’ll become Exodites on this planet, reduced to Stone age technology and left to be alone.”

Malcador blinked for a moment, scratching his beard in thoughts, eventually saying, “That's not actually a bad idea. Reducing these pirates down to nothing more than Exodites could theoretically save us time. Granted I don't think you'll get the entire population to do it as the matter of if we have defeated all their ships outside this sector is still up in the air. If we simply destroy what's here and leave the population only for some ships to come in, well… It may slow down their attacks but they will pick up eventually.”

I nodded, saying “That is a point of contention I hadn’t considered. Well maybe we should offer them to surrender at the midpoint of the battle, once we've assured the complete destruction of their fleet and most of the city? Give those willing to give up their arms the chance to walk out into the jungles of the world and survive on whatever assets they can create through their own two hands.”

“A wonderful idea, sister, if they weren't Dark Eldar.” Came the booming voice of Vulkan as he entered from the end of the hall. He looked happy in his green and gold armor and he walked with a certain hop to his step that said that he was at home here on my ship.

“Is there a particular reason why them being somewhat connected to the Dark Eldar has a bearing on possibilities of getting them to surrender?” I asked, sitting back in my chair.

Vulkan shrugged before simply saying “My folk on my homeworld have always had to deal with Dark Eldar raids. My people will not accept their surrender, too many of our people have suffered at their hands. If some of them can prove that they are not Dark Eldar, or show that they have attempted to keep the Dark Eldar vices at Bay, maybe you might be able to get a few of them to be allowed to live. However I hold the opinion that the Dark Eldar and those who would consort with them must be eradicated from the Galaxy.”

Genocide the Dark Eldar and genocide those adjacent to the Dark Eldar? I had simply wanted to remove them from political power in whatever Nation allowed them to do such criminally insane acts but apparently I was probably the nicest Primarch in this situation. Hope that was not a routine thing in the future.

Nodding my head I said, “Well, that is a point to consider. Perhaps they won't even give their surrender when we offer it, anyway. From what little of the Eldars I've seen they seem rather proud of who they are and are unlikely to take an offered surrender.“

“This is true,” Malcador concurred, nodding his head in approval. “They tend to be… Well, their hubris is the reason their empire no longer exists. Craftworlders do tend to be a little bit better than the Dark Eldars, it's mainly the Dark Eldars’ fault that their empire no longer exists though so as you might expect the worst of the worst probably lead this band.”

“Good,” Vulkan said matter of factly, “I’d rather not have to deal with the Dark Eldar trying to falsely surrender.” He pulled out a chair and sat down in front of me. The table in front of us had a small hole of a graphic projector on top of it, allowing us to have an overlook of the city from a man’s perspective to give us an idea of every angle, and he immediately began observing it.

“Doubt they even gave that a thought.” general Vavem said, “We fought them during the age of war and let me tell you… They do not offer or take surrender. They simply take what they want.”

That raised my eyebrow. The way he said that sounded almost like he had been around during the Age of War, which theoretically should not be possible. From what I understood the Age of War had officially ended the moment the Imperium had arrived and there hadn't been major conflicts in this age for the last 500 years. How old did squats live however? I have to look into that.

Vulkan apparently had finished looking at the map, simply saying, “I could have my legion attack from the land there, wouldn't be that hard to push the Eldar and their minions to that front and keep them busy.“

He pointed towards the front entrance, the most expected and hardest point to attack in my opinion since they had been digging trenches and fortifications. Or rather forced slaves to dig trenches and fortifications. There was probably a war crime in that but considering that if they were being used to dig trenches and fortifications they weren't being tortured I think the slaves were in a better position in the front lines than they would have been if we had not come down to the planet. And isn't that a dark thought when you think about it?

Definitely need to deal with the Dark Eldar when I got the chance to find out where they came from and burn it to the ground.

Putting that thought to the side though, I said, “Well my wolves aren't exactly known for Aerial combat but we do have quite a large supply of air transports. If you can keep the enemy focused on the front Gates I could probably drop my men right inside the city. Won't use drop pods though,” I said, looking at the water areas of the city. Pods would probably burst through whatever structure was holding the building up and end up with a whole bunch of half-drowned Marines.

I mean there was the possibility that they would break through, go into the water, and then just swim back up. But still it would put them on the back foot. The enemy was preoccupied fighting soldiers at their front gate we wouldn't need rapid decent drop pods and could use regular landing craft easily enough.

“I think our new Land Train can help you get right up into that city rather easily.” General Vavem said, looking at the map.

“Oh?” Vulkan asked. “What a Land train?” “What's a land train? Oh, you'll see, you'll see and you'll love it. Trust me, everyone loves a Land Train and this one… This one may soon be considered a Sea Train if I'm successful with the modifications,” The general replied with a wide smile, before getting up from his seat and saying, “Which reminds me: if that plan is the basics of it I can get back to my ship and get to work on finishing those modifications. Is that right with everyone?”

“I believe that's everything,” I said, looking at Vulkan. “Yes I think this general plan will be the main idea. we might have some points of interest that our Space Marines will have to talk about but if you need to get going to work on the project feel free.”

General Vavem nodded his head and then gave a bow before saying, “Talk to you Giants later,” and walked out, his pompadour hair popping up and down as he did.

“Strange little man,” Vulkan noted, before saying “But I do want to see this Land Train.”

“He's right about one thing, it is an enjoyable sight to watch those things crush their way across the battlefield. Even if they do have a tendency to get their wheels knocked off. Don't know how he's going to make it a Sea Train but I'm willing to see how he does it,” I added.

Before continuing and saying “Anyway. What interrogations I've been able to get out of my men from the enemy indicate this building,” I pointed to a place near the center of the city, a small chateau-like mansion with a large swimming area, that either was a personal landing pad for a vessel or just a large swimming area for some sort of sharky parties, “may be the house of the ruler of this planet, a man going by the name of Bazhasath. He's been in charge for nearly 3,000 years although one guy said something like 8,000 years so it's hard to say. Either way we take that central point and we’ll probably cut off whatever lines of communication hold the city together. With the chaos caused we can break the enemy’s lines from behind and allow your men to enter the city.”

Vulkan nodded his head in a subtle agreement, before commenting, “Most of the city seems to be made of wood. If there were no slaves in it I would recommend we just dump some explosive and fire-combusting material across the city to burn it all down.”

I nodded. “I noted that as well but, as I said, perhaps after the battle we’ll do that. There are plenty of land-based cities across the planet to settle any slaves that don't know where they came from so they can build up their new lives here. No reason to keep that seaport though, it will probably be just full of the holes that we’re going to leave, I’d be surprised if much is left standing after it's all over.”

Vulkan nodded just I was saying that, “I would agree to leave it full of holes and leave the Eldars nothing. If we can burn it all down we should.” I nodded before adding “Still, we should probably be on the lookout for any relics in this city. If this planet has been colonized by humanity some time in the past and then taken over by the Eldar and their subjects here on this planet sometime in the last 8000 years, that means there could be things that the Mechanicum would be interested in.”

Vulkan nodded his head in agreement before saying “If there are any relics I think they're in that central mansion. I know Eldar and they usually keep everything they consider worth something to them close at hand.”

I nodded at that, before a thought occurred to me, “Close at hand as in ready to be grabbed to run away or close at hand because they just enjoy the look.”

Vulkan shrugged before saying, “Both, I guess.”

Looking at the pool that could be a personal landing pad I wondered. Could they have stashed a ship under the water there? Scanning hadn't been done to see if there were things beneath the water and it would make sense to hide your escape vessel where your enemy would not be totally expecting it to be. I would issue some orders about that to make sure that, when the attack went off, if there was a vessel there it was not getting away.

My thoughts on that though were interrupted as Vulkan leaned back in his chair and said, “Well I think we've discussed the matters of importance for this operation now. Sister, let us talk as family! I barely know anything about you and I'm sure you barely know anything about me as Father is rather secretive about our family. Tell me, what is your homeworld like?”

I smiled and quipped, “Cold. Real cold, there's ice almost all year long and a year is two Terran years. For about 3 months out of the Year there is a period that is almost warm enough that the entire continent dethaws but the oceans are so boiling hot that it's not safe to be near. There are monsters you would not believe in the water, ones who pull ships under when they try to make voyages around that time of year, cutting them people off from each other. Fenris is a tough world, one that weeds out weakness and favors the strong but, through hard work and determination, people can master its conditions and thrive. That's what I think I've proven the last few decades of my rule.”

“Sounds hazardous though not much more hazardous than my own, though less cold and much hotter. Prometheus is a world of fire and lava though there are other conditions like your planet. During certain times of the year it gets rather cold in fact but for the most part the massive Moon that orbits our world draws out fire and flame, polluting our sky with smoke and causing rivers to run with alkaline and other not-so-healthy chemicals.”

“How do your people survive in such conditions?” I had to ask, Fenris was dangerous because of its cold and monsters but fire was something on a level that I just didn't think anyone could survive in.

“Hard work. The population lives in great underground cities for the most part. We do go up to the surface now and again and we have to fight off the Dark Eldar when they make raids. Survival has made us stronger, I think.”

I chuckled at that, “Seems humanity has a way of surviving the worst and coming out better for it.” I wouldn't be surprised if that was true. Although I was curious that, of the Primarchs I’d have met so far at least two, counting myself, had ended up on what would be considered Deathworlds and one of them ended up on what could be considered a crime-ridden hell hole. I wondered if that's going to be a theme with our other siblings.

“Well, it very well could be. I guess if it was something we all shared then, that great adversity making us stronger and giving us a better chance of surviving these coming Crusade to unite humanity. Perhaps it was a good thing,” Vulkan mused.

I nodded at that before saying, “A rather large task that Father has given us. I believe that trying to unite us across the Stars will take a long time, unless of course the Imperium is just so successful in its efforts to unite humanity that we just start to draw in civilizations who want to be part of this success.”

Vulkan replied with enthusiasm, “Well that's why we're out here, to show that we are the most successful at building humanity up I would assume. I fought on three campaigns so far but most of them were against Orks and the results of all three were bringing in several human federations that were interested in the protection the Imperium would offer.”

I smiled at that before saying “I think I've been on three myself at this point and the campaign of the Wheel of Fire was a long one, most of them have been against Orks as well but there was one species that was in my opinion worse than the Orks.”

“Are they as bad as the Dark Eldar?” He asked. Man, I had to sit back in my chair to think. It was a good question, the Taralaiss had been sort of evil bastards but there had been some logic to it… I couldn't see what logic the Dark Eldar had for just torturing people except self-gratification and even that was the most disgusting version of logic I think I could come up with. “I guess I could say better than the Dark Eldar but not by much, they were willing to genocide several hundred farming worlds mostly populated by humans out of sheer pettiness at losing their rule.”

Vulkan nodded and said, “What happened to them?”

“Not sure I can say. After I defeated their forces, destroyed their communication networks, and left their planet pretty much reduced to a stone age I left it to the Administratum to deal with. I would assume that they've probably imparted several warnings and fines on the Taralaiss left on that planet and we’ll have to figure out some way to pay them back for several genocides and attempted genocide they are responsible for.”

Vulkan sighed before saying, “If they're that dangerous wouldn't it be better to just wipe them out completely? After all what if they get the ability to commit the genocide they were prevented from doing this time?”

“They can definitely never be allowed to get to a tech level where that would be possible again but just wiping the entire planet out is a waste of resources, better to make the few survivors of that war work for us than wipe them out and get nothing from them. Besides if we just destroy everything we come across because we can it makes us no better than the Orks. Destroying civilization because we can is what they do. We need to be better than that in my opinion, build things up even if we have to knock a few things down to do it.”

Malcador coughed and laughed at that moment, before saying, “Are you sure about that? I mean didn't the Orks build up their own civilization after they knocked down human civilization?”

Well damn it, I mentally thought before I nodded my head, admitting his remark, “Good point. I think I let myself get a little too focused on the humanity aspect of civilization there.”

“Oh in one sense that's a good thing, “Malcador said. “Remember that one of the reasons the federation that once held all beings together fell apart is because we trusted the Xenos to be loyal in times of hardships. When those time came, they decided to go build their own empires on human worlds. The realities of the Galaxy are complex but also simple. Yes, we all want to build civilization. But we all have to decide which civilization we want to exist in. Do we want to live in a brutal Ork society or do we want to live in a human society that at least will attempt to create some sort of peace? The Orks will always fight against us and other species have already shown that they will betray us if we turn our back on them. If we can find the few that are willing to work for us and be contained within their systems that's fine, but they have to prove that they didn't do anything during the Old Night. If it turns out that they did do something then they are not trustworthy and I expect that the Administratum will not be taking kindly to any planet that can be proven to have betrayed us during the Old Night.”

That raised an eyebrow. I turned to look at him, “What do you mean they won't be taking it kindly?”

Malcador shrugged before saying, “Well I would not be surprised to hear that that planet will be given just the bare minimum of supplies to survive and they'll just try and let nature take its course.”

“Oh.” I muttered as what that meant sunk in.

“What does that mean?” Vulkan queried, slightly curious of my reaction.

Taralais had been a world covered in cityscapes, they had to bring in food from those farm worlds. If those farm worlds output were, let us say, redirected to Imperium worlds there would be no food coming. At least not in an amount that could support several billion people. “We destroyed quite a bit of the infrastructure on the planet to begin with, which means they have a food deficit.”

“Oh. Vulkan mirrored me, seeming to get exactly what I was going at.

“They'll either have to work together to survive or die out, and their civilization will never be able to recover to anything close to what it was before they were visited by your wolves.” Malcador said matter of factly before continuing, “Plus, from what I saw, they had all their records on digital so, having no power, they can’t maintain their records anymore. I imagine that world will quickly fall apart into post-apocalyptic barbarian strongholds. Not too dissimilar to what Terra endured during the Old Night.”

“Haven't we then just set ourselves up for a repeating of the cycle? We were put through the Old Night, now we put them through their own Night. What's going to stop them from crusading in 15,000 years?” I asked, not liking the implication that we had just sown the seeds of our own possible destruction.

“Well, if they survive, I imagine you two will still be around to stop them. No, I doubt they'll be given the opportunity to completely rebuild. More likely that, in a thousand years or so, someone will try to begin a process of colonizing worlds that have been left to go fallow as their environments rebuild themselves. By that time that planet will have been added to that collection of worlds and, if there is any survivors of that species, they will be integrated during the colonization or dealt with by the settlers.”

Well that was rather dark, I mused. I hadn't really considered the fact that humankind might even want to get a little bit of revenge for the Old Night but I couldn't exactly say anything about it. This is just how humanity worked.

Well that made it clear that every civilization I got to surrender without getting themselves destroyed had a better chance of surviving the new order we were creating. I’d have to keep that in mind when dealing with future civilizations and never forget that every civilization that I brought to near destruction would probably have the job finished by the Administratum.

Nodding my head I simply said “Well that's good to know, but I hope the Administratum doesn't get too comfortable with that method of dealing with problems. More likely than not that it will make more problems for us in the future. Simply trying to cut off a civilization and letting die alone will most likely result in unexpected consequences.”

Malcador nodded his head, agreeing, as he said, “Yes, let's hope they come up with a few better methods when dealing with troublesome issues such as those Xenos. As much as they have it coming some could probably be of use in the Imperium. Perhaps some form of the way you handled those sharks, that was a rather splendid way of dealing with them. Finding out what they wanted and offering it to them in exchange for promises. If they ever break those promises it's not good for them but if they stay true to them they will have a good place in the galaxy under the Imperium. We can always use warriors that are well adapted to fights on Ocean Worlds.”

“Hmm, about that…” I looked at the map and said, “I wonder how honorable those mercenaries are? Is their honor only to coin or are they true to their word?”

“What are you thinking, sister?” Vulkan asked, leaning forward. I shrugged before saying “Well we have a deal with the shark people's homeworld and there are's shark people here. I wonder if we offered them payment to switch sides, would they do it? If they did that would give us an actual force they could swim up right on the city and cause mayhem in some of its ports just before we launch the Aerial landings.”

“Hmm?” Malcador seemed to think about that before saying “Well it's not a bad idea perhaps, worth investigating. It'll also give us an idea of how well we can trust these shark people, at least outside their system. We’ll know if they are honorable to their word or if they'll backstab us the moment someone offers them more money.”

I nodded and said, “If the employer believes you will switch sides for a little bit of money they're unlikely to employ you. At the bare minimum that will either encourage the shark people to be more honorable to their word or we’ll know for a fact we can't trust them and can't use them in conflicts unless it's so far away that they can't risk upsetting their employers.”

Vulkan asked “How do we get in contact with the mercenaries then? After all they’re shooting at us when we're in range of them.”

“Good point, perhaps a parlay between one of the battlefronts? We can find out where the majority of their troops are and try and pull that. It might be successful though that'll be dependent on them knowing and respecting a parlay.”

“It'll take a couple days to get everything together for this attack anyway so we can put down some standing orders to try and get in contact with the shark folks. At worse nothing happens, at best we have a little bit more firepower for the assault on the city.“

Vulkan nodded before saying “It's worth a shot, every one of those sharks that died fighting for us is one of our children who survived so it's worth seeing if we can pull it off. Though what exactly would we pay these shark folk with? I'm not exactly familiar with their currency and I doubt they take the imperial money yet.”

I snorted before saying, “I believe sooner or later they will go on the imperial credit but right now they're using Ork credits, or teeth. Before I set out from the Wheel of Fire I made sure to take a large stockpile of their so-called money into the vaults of my ship, one never knows when we need to might pay off Orks to fight each other and It seemed better to have Ork money at hand if I ever had to recruit Orks”.

Vulkan said, rubbing his chin, “I might have to do that myself the next Ork fight I get into, sounds like a good way to keep the Orks from unifying into something worse if we just pay them to fight each other.”

“Exactly,” I noted, “though of course we would have to fight them eventually, never fighting an enemy just leads to what happened with Byzantium and Rome: you paid them off and they got somewhere else, inevitably coming back. No better to pay them off to fight each other, to keep each other weak, and then step in to destroy both sides.” It was a more solid plan in the long run.

Vulkan nodded, saying, “Understanding your enemy and using that understanding to ensure that we win? Not a bad way of doing things. Personally I just prefer to light things on fire and return it to Ash when it's a problem but making things easier on us is not a bad idea. I’ll definitely have to see about using this method in the future.”

Cracking my neck I got up from my chair and said, “well, I think we've concluded the initial planning and we've got to know each other a bit better. Is there anything you want to talk about, brother?”

He got up, towering above me as he cracked his own neck, and said, “Not particularly, though I quite enjoyed our chat today. I think we should do it more, creating good relations between the legions and our family is probably one of the more important aspects that we need to do during this crusade.”

I chuckled at that, “Same, you sound like Father.”

He smiled, obviously taking that as a compliment. “Good. That's where I got the idea from, well I have to admit it's one of these strong suits of my people. Close family connections is how we survive.”

I nodded at that and moved around the table to hold out my hand so we could shake, “Well then, to a successful campaign here on San Catos.”

“To a successful campaign,” he said, reaching out to take my hand. However before both of us could start shaking we both froze. I don't know why he froze exactly though I could take a guess as I felt a presence enter the sector, one heavy with weight and pride. We both blinked as we somewhat tried to make sense of what was going on though Malcador commented first on what we were both thinking.

Laughing he got up from his chair but didn't put it back into place. He said, “Looks like your father has come to say hello, about time. He said he would be here years ago, I wonder how many Primarchs he got sidetracked with.” Shaking his head he tapped his staff against the ground as he started to walk towards the elevator that went up to the bridge.

“Come along you two, I'm sure your father has much to talk about with you and I'm sure he has thoughts on this whole crusade up to now. Perhaps he’ll even tell us about your other siblings? Quite annoying that he keeps these things to himself in my opinion.”

I nodded before finishing the shake for which I had given my hand to Vulkan in the first place and said, “Well, then I guess our meeting is not over yet.”

“Yes, it would appear so. Father is a busy man so whatever he's here for must be rather important.“

I laughed at that before saying “It's just as likely he's here because he heard two of his children were meeting for the first time and wanted to be here for it, he seems like that kind of father.”

Vulkan laughed at that. “I will admit he does seem to enjoy the aspect of being a father, even if he seems to have been denied the whole raising the children part. Though perhaps he just brings orders for us on our next campaign after this one.”

“If we’re sent on the same campaign that means it's a pretty terrible place, considering I was sent on a campaign that was supposed to last 10 years with minimal support from legions that did not have a Primarch. Sending two legions with their Primarchs would mean a nightmare scenario in my mind, Some great unknown threatening to invade Imperial space and coming to defeat us all or some such nonsense.”

“Huh,” He said, thinking on that before saying “That is a rather dour take. If that's the realities of the Galaxy that means we would never really run into each other, except by accident or when a massive emergency was coming to be an issue. That's a rather sad thing.”

I shook my head brushing my hair back a bit with my hand and said “It's a sad thing but I think we'll probably, as the war goes on, get more time to ourselves. We’ll be able to have a little bit of free time for meetings away from the war and the other exhausting activities that we will generally be doing all the time. Good management always makes time for that sort of stuff, bad management would run us all ragged and leave us tired of Father before we even got to the whole Imperium thing being a galactic thing. Considering he did manage to conquer Earth all by himself and his original legions I would think he knows how to manage a campaign correctly. We'll get our time to be generally family as the years go on.”

Vulkan nodded his head in agreement before slapping his hand down on my shoulder… Which actually hurt, surprisingly much more than I expected. Seemed that he got a little bit more strength than he knew what to do with I immediately thought as he spoke, “That is a wonderful way of looking at the world. Yes, things are currently chaotic and we need to run around and fix things, but once things calm down we’ll have more time to ourselves. That is a lovely thought. And by that same thought the sooner we get everything chaotic dealt with, the sooner we can have that time. Let us go meet Dad and find out what wondrous adventures he has planned for us so we can have that time to be a family.”

Man, Vulkan could be really upbeat when he wanted to be. It was kind of infectious because even I was smiling at the idea of adventures to get to a peaceful retirement.

Tanya Russ

“Vulkan, Tanya, good to see you!” came the booming voice of Father as he stepped onto the bridge of the vessel. he seemed to have shrunk a foot or two, probably to fit inside.

“Good to see you too Fath-” I didn't get to finish that word as he took both of us into a giant hug, getting a rather good squeeze of it too. I needed to take a breath after he let go, slapping both of us on our shoulders. He said, “I've been paying attention to both your dispatches and you seem to have been doing great jobs out there. I would come by and say it more often but tracking down your brothers and sisters is a bit of a hassle.”

“Sisters?” I queried, raising an eyebrow. I was aware of my condition being related to possible being X meddling so the fact that there might be more sisters was a bit concerning at the bare minimum and made me wonder what their souls had been before being ripped out of the Warp to be used as the internal core of these bodies.

But, unfortunately, my question went unanswered as he simply said “I don't want to spoil the moment for you, you'll meet them sooner or later.” He then simply stepped past us further onto the bridge, his Custodes right behind him taking up positions of guarding.

Looking down at the planet through the windows he mused out loud as he said. “I see you two are having fun cleaning up some Xenos who have been problems in this area for millennia.”

“Yes, Father,” Vulkan said seeming proud of his work. “We've just been discussing how we are going to remove these Xenos as a threat to the future of the Imperium and we're planning the final assault on their main capital.”

He nodded and said, “Good, good. The more secure we get this area of space the better it'll be in the future.“

Stepping forward and being a little bit inquisitive about this matter I decided to ask a question that had been on my mind for a while now. “Father, what Primarchs have been found since I left Terra for the Wheel of Fire campaign?”

He chuckled and said “Don't even need to ask if any were before I say it? Good, finding Intel is a good skill.” Looking out the window he said “Well if we're just to go with the ones that have been found since you left… In order it was the Primarch of the 13th legion, which you opened the gateway to find, then the Primarch of the 15th who is actually on my ship right now though I'm still getting them up to speed on certain things so your meeting with them will have to wait. The Primarch of the 9th legion and the Primarch of the first legion, who I think you'll get along with really well, were next.”

“And the Primarch of the fourth legion, which has been reconnected to their legion recently…” He seemed to look annoyed for a moment, before shaking his head and sighing. “Though they are still learning the ropes of it but they are very effective at what they do.”

He shook his head again before saying, “Besides that I'm running down a few leads on a few possible other Primarchs. I expect that number to grow by four more by the end of the next decade with any luck.”

“I thought it an insane task to find 20 people across a galaxy, but finding 12 of us already and four more to come that quickly is impressive. And with that done there will be only four more brothers and possibly sisters missing out there. I'd say as insane a project that it is to try and find 20 missing people across an entire galaxy you're doing an excellent job at that, Father.”

“Why, thank you. But you don't need to butter me up, Tanya, that Wheel of Fire campaign already did that.” He looked at me, eyes full of mirth before continuing, “Getting rid of those raiders opened up a trade route to the other side of the Galaxy and we found one of your siblings because of that. Then I found that they had acquired almost an entire empire out there, I am impressed with them. And I can't wait for the day you two work together, really. Something tells me that's going to be terrifying for the enemies of Terra, seeing the second and the 13th coming at them.

That raised an eyebrow. So the 13th was someone that I would get along with? Well I'd have to look into that but I wished he wasn't being so wishy-washy about the details. Sure it was somewhat amusing to discover them on my own and I was sure I would meet them sooner or later so it wasn't like I needed to know who they were right now. Still I would admit that if I knew who they were now it would allow me to do a lot more prep work for our meetings, to make sure that we would have a better starting working relationship. And a good working relationship was key to any business objective, be it acquiring money or acquiring planets.

My thoughts were interrupted as another of The Emperor's Custodes entered, this one wearing the most uptight of uniform codes I think I'd seen amongst them. Most seemed to embellish their armor in some way but this one seemed to be by the book to a level that was somewhat impressive. He was carrying a long cylinder of some type, covered in a fabric sock, and he approached the Emperor before offering it to him. “There you go, my Lord.” He said with a cheery tone

“Ah, Katyan. Thank you, I almost forgot about this, “ He said, taking the pole before motioning me forward. “Wish I could have done this sooner, Tanya, but we are on a clock. Every day some human civilization is facing an Extinction event and we must save as much as we can, so we must do what we can in the field.”

Pulling the red sock off the Pole revealed it to be a golden spear with intricate carvings and I could see bits of runecraft in some areas of it.

“Primarch Russ, leader of the sixth legion, the wolves of Fenris. For accomplishing the conquest of the Wheel of Fire, I present to you a weapon I forged during the bad days. This is one of the first weapons I forged to try and help rebuild humanity on terra. This is the Dionysian Spear. A spear that grants enlightenment to those that it pierces.”

“Thank you, Father,” I replied, taking the offered weapon and immediately feeling power flowing through it. There was something unnatural about it and I could tell that just by touching it. That spear almost reminded me of… Well, whatever it was reminding me of was giving me a headache so probably something from my second life. And my eye twitched in a way that apparently was obvious to the Emperor as he reached out his hand and put it on my shoulder, leaning in and saying, “You don't need to take a full on piercing. Slice your hand on it when you get the chance, I think it will help.”

I blinked as I realized what exactly he was implying. This might help me remember my second life, which had two indications in my mind: One that the emperor was a damn good boss that was looking out for me. Of course he considered me his child so there was a little bit of that mixed in there but the important part was that I had landed an employer who was going to look out for me. This was a much better situation than I had in my second life if the memories I did recover had anything to say about it.

The other thing was that my headaches would soon be a thing of the past, because no matter how much I was disliking the feeling that was coming off of this spear… The possibility to get rid of the headaches and find out what I had lost was too much of an opportunity not to take it. So far I had been lucky that none of the headaches had ever come during a combat, as it could have been disastrous for my life. It didn't mean that would never happen so getting rid of the headaches would improve my chances of survival. Finding out what happened in my last life would also explain some things at the very minimum and rob this Being X of any satisfaction it may have had for throwing me into the Warp.

Smiling at this realization I simply said, “I will, Father! Thank you for holding on to the spear.” while wondering what exactly it would show me when I got the chance later.”

With that done he moved on to Vulkan and, clapping him on the shoulder, exclaimed, “And I've heard you've been having a good time campaigning, Vulkan. All reports I've been reading indicate that we'll see the Imperial Army enjoy their time working with your men quite dearly and civilian casualties are close to absolute zero which is rather unusual. Even Tanya over here has mentioned several civilian casualties in her anti-slavery raids.”

“Thank you, Father!” Vulkan said, nodding his head. “I do my best.“

The Emperor tapped him on the chest and said, “Keep doing your best as it seems to be the right way to do it. We're going to restore humanity to the place we had before the Old Night and we need to be shining examples of how humanity can stand amongst the Stars. You two are doing a great job of creating that example.“

“Thank you, Father!” We both said, bowing our heads.

He simply smiled before clapping us on the shoulders and saying, “Well, now that we've had a bit of overall boost to morale I think it's time we retire from this claustrophobic bridge and head down to the main hall I believe is on this ship.” He said, looking towards the elevator. “It has been a long voyage from Olympia. I would like to hear more of what you two have been up to outside of the combat reports I've been receiving. We could have a nice meal together while we talk.”

“Of course, Father. Should we invite our other sibling on your vessel to join us?” I asked, poking at the obvious question that should be asked.”

He chuckled and replied, “They're not ready to meet and you, they're currently busy going through almost every book in the entire library on that ship so I think they'd say no even if I offered.”

“Interesting,” I said, mentally noting that this still unknown Primarch was a bookworm. I’d Have to keep my eyes on that for future interests, having someone who is well-read and intelligent as a comrade was something that was always useful in a conflict. I would have to hope he was good about actually doing his job and not some slacker. Trying to work with an individual who is no better than a neet could be rather annoying.

Emperor seemed ready to head out with both of us before suddenly stopping to look at Malcador. “That explains why there's a large stockpile of paperwork at the palace nowadays.“

Malcador immediately chuckled and said, “Well, what can I say. I've been trapped on Terra for a long time and I thought I'd go on a little adventure.“

“Teaching Tanya how to use her gifts, I assume?” The emperor requested, folding his arm and looking a bit amused.

“Reteaching more than anything, she's got a good head and she's had teaching before as you already know. She just needed a little bit of a refresher.”

“Well that's good but I have to ask if your adventure is coming to an end anytime soon. Because the Administratum is asking someone to fill out that paperwork and I'm needed at the front looking for the Lost Primarchs.”

Malcador sagged before saying, “Okay, okay. I'll be on the next ship heading to Terra, is that fine?”

“Perfectly fine, that being said, come join us for a little drink, eat, and make merry.”

Tanya Russ

Well I'm going to need to stockpile up on more supplies, I thought, as I stumbled back to my room using my newly acquired spear as a walking stick. Considering we drank enough to get us a little bit buzzed…

Granted I was pretty sure I had mentally turned off parts of my ability to filter out poisons again so I was getting the full effect that way. If I wanted to I could turn it back on but well sometimes you just needed to be drunk.

For the last 7 hours I think we had just partied, drank, and had long talks about our first meetings. Vulkan seemed rather surprised that I had technically won the contest against Emperor. He apparently had pulled the same trick he pulled on me, showing up as some unknown stranger. Except he actually, technically, won in the end.

I was surprised that Emperor had pulled that trick twice and asked if he just enjoyed showing up, which got a bit of a laugh from him and an answer of maybe. That was a ‘probably, yes’ in my book.

Both Vulkan and I had tried to get the first meeting of the Emperor and Malcador out of them both but the Emperor had left it off and said it was too long ago and he didn't remember while Malcador had simply teased that some secrets are best kept secret or they're not worth keeping.

Rather infuriating but if they wanted to keep their secrets they could do it. It's not like it was a matter of life or death and I'm sure with a little bit more work someone would get it out of them. Perhaps, when the crusade was over, we'd get them so drunk they would just spill it… Something to keep in mind and attempt.

That being said I was too drunk to do anything more than stumble into my room after opening the door. I think I opened the door? Why was there a hole in the wall? I was too drunk to deal with this right now. I stumbled over to my bed and sat down, starting to pull off what armor pieces I had on, before laying back and looking up at the ceiling.

It was rather plain compared to what I'd grown accustomed to at the start of this life, just metal separating the decks. Perhaps I should hire an artisan next time I was on Fenris; have them improve the general look of my room. I was after all a king and Primarch, a general with quite a bit of experience under their hat. At this point it would be expected of someone of my status to have a degree of opulence in their main room.

Shaking my head I tried to get up but fell back in the bed, realizing that I was not going to be doing much today. That being said as I looked around my room I noticed the spear was right next to me. Seeing that I didn't have anything else to do figured that I might as well get this over with so, pulling off my armored glove, I took the spear and looked at it a bit closer. It was gold, with a golden eagle near the top as a sort of blocker to prevent it from going in too deep and getting stuck. It felt rather impressive but had a weird boxed-in form that made me wonder if there was not a bolter gun hidden beneath the eagle.

I'd have to examine it closer when I was more conscious, see if it was capable of that. If it could function as a rifle as well as a spear that would be useful, though my bolter rifle would probably be better than an up-gunned spear.

Shrugging I lowered the spear till I looked at the blade, which looked rather nicely done. Father had made this? he was a good Craftsman, that's for sure. Shaking my head I wondered if I needed to think of something before I did it but Father had not exactly given me a good explanation of what to do. So I thought ‘why do I have these headaches?’ before running my hand along the blade, cutting it rather nastily as I flipped some blood across the room.

Nothing seemed to be happening so I wondered if I'd done something wrong and then I blinked and there was a tree in my room. I blinked once again and it was snowing, a couple more blinks and my room just started to dissolve more and more until I was no longer lying on my bed but was laid in a field of snow then trees. Confused I looked up and saw a rather familiar sight. It was the Moon, as I had remembered it. There was no city or even any light, it was a dead world exactly as it had been for most of humanity’s existence. At least before this life. I blinked once more and everything simply flashed out of existence as I lost track of everything.

What had happened simply needed to be experienced to understand I figured, as everything seemed to flow together before reforming and I found myself lying in the snow with a massive pain in my chest and 6 feet smaller.

Writers note: and there we go this chapter gives couple interesting things i think will not send folk thue the roof no siry… by they way have bunker ment with stand virus bombs, i be in that for nex 2 weeks.

Seriously though bit an issues that popped up Pierre gotten a new job and is moving so he not going to have as much time as he has had for some time, this could be an issues with getting chapter out, so this golden opportunity for the Community editers if you edited this work in the past contact me anyway you can and i see if i can’t add you to the discord to help with getting theses chapters out.

Edited by: Pierre
Community edited by:
Community editable doc (Chapter) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

Chapter 31, A Drunken wolf Vision

Tanya von Degurechaff

I coughed up something, not exactly sure what. The impact into the ground had been rather devastating and who knew what internal damage I was dealing with. I was trying to use my magic to generate some form of healing but my hands were too cold and I couldn't move my fingers correctly.

Today had been a terrible day. I finally got in my unit out of rotation on the front line in Russy and was trying to get us some kind of desk job before we were all sent back to the fight. So far It had not been a very easy thing to accomplish but things were generally moving in the right direction.

Until the Americans joined the war and then things went south again.

Well… North, actually. An American expeditionary force had landed in the Entente and was currently arming the remnants of their military and taking control of that territory for themselves.

This, of course, could not stand. Given that my force was already well on its way to being rebuilt we were in a perfect position to be sent North.

I would not be granted a moment's peace to try and get myself back into fighting shape or at least get me out of the fight. So Northward we had been sent, the entire army group Salamander. We had been fighting the Entente remnants and the Americans for the last half month, stalling out their advance and pushing them generally back towards the mountains in Norway. Of course we couldn't push them too hard because they had withdrawn into places where they could easily defend.

Really, all of this was standard at this point. Things got unstandard in the fact that the damn berserker who had fought me all across the federation somehow got herself reassigned to the front I was now fighting on and well… Whenever we met things got explosive.

As it had today, the fighting had probably destroyed a couple miles of forest and things had not looked great. Not that things were looking pretty right now but… Oh, I think… I think I won?

Laying across from me was the berserker, her body broken though not her life as she was still moaning in pain. Her legs and arms were most definitely broken as they were facing ways that really were not humanly possible unless they were broken.

It was a great victory as she seemed to be delirious and unable to attack me but I seemed to be dealing with internal injuries.

Unfortunately, things weren't much better on my end. I wasn't really sure where my mage backup was but I was definitely behind enemy lines and my radio was kaput. I was definitely looking at either death by cold or, if I was lucky, I’d be taken prisoner by the Americans.

Although… all things considered, that wouldn’t be a terrible outcome, would it?

If I was in an American prison camp I'd probably get an okay life when this is all over and, as far as I was aware, the Empire never committed any war crimes on the level of the Third Reich. So I was probably looking, at worst, whatever treatment German POWs got in World war 1. Well then again maybe even better than then, because being an officer for rank and a teenage girl could come in handy. Maybe I could play up the fact that I was just a dumb teenager swept up in the war. That could possibly work. I might feel sorry for screwing over the Empire but, well, if I was going to be a prisoner of war I’d rather spend it in comfort than misery if I could help it.

Coughs alerted me that my erstwhile enemy had finally woken up. She muttered something and said ‘papa’ before blinking several times and then she saw me.

Rather interesting, watching her face contort. When she had been unconscious her face had looked absolutely charming but the moment she saw me all that beauty went away and was replaced by a bitter rage.

“Devil!” She called and tried to sit up, immediately screaming as her limbs responded with just pain.

Coughing, I said “I'd recommend not doing that. You're pretty screwed up from what I can see and if you want to live with functionality restored you better just wait till some sort of medical corp finds us.”

I Spoke in Scandinavian, with the hope that maybe we could have some communication and my English was not exactly top-notch as I had not had many occasions to practice it in this life.

“I won't live with any functionality unless I make sure you die, you killed my father.”

I sighed and shook my head., “Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows things down? I can’t even begin to count how many fathers I’ve probably killed in this war.”

A ragged cough escaped my lips, but the look on Mary’s face made me push through. “After all, the Empire sends their best to the bloodiest battlefields and, well, not to be immodest…but I was one of the best. Ugly as it might be, I have quite the kill count.”

Blinking, I looked up at the sky before adding, “although… I guess if you're speaking Scandinavian that does cut down the options a bit, doesn’t it?”

“What do you mean you were the best?” The brown-haired girl said, sounding disgusted and annoyed by my statement.

“Well I have internal bleeding, I'm sure of it, so most likely I'm not going to make it unless I get some good medical care. Unless your allies find us any moment now I'm probably dead for the world.”

“Good, a monster like you deserves to die here alone in the cold.”

I coughed at that and said, “I'm not alone though, am I?”.

“Well, enemies don't count! Guess I've just been granted a front-row seat confirmation of your death.”

I chuckled at that and pulled out my pistol and pointed it in her direction, the look of fear that came over her as she realized that I could take away that front row seat was somewhat humorous if not truly sad.

“Bang,” I said, before lowering it back down to the ground. “As much as you think I'm a monster I'm really not, I just went where the military sent me. I attempted to never bring my feelings, except for wanting to live into the battlefield, unlike you.”

“You killed my father, I'm allowed to bring my feelings onto the battlefield.”

Coughing, I asked, “How do you know I killed your father, by the way? That's really been bugging me over the last couple of years, you keep saying that but you've never explained it.”

“Your gun, it has my father's initials on it. You obviously stole it from him after you murdered him.”

I coughed and thought about it and then nodded. “Oh! That guy. To be fair he came right at me trying to kill me for patriotism’s sake when we were withdrawing, so stealing that from him was not really the point. More something that just happened and he didn't even die when I stole it from him.”

“What?” The girl said leaning forward, seeming to have been granted some hope that I had unfortunately unleashed.

Coughing, again, and damn that hurt, I said, “He did not die in our first battle. Heck, he didn't even die in our second, though the second one is when I stole the gun. I killed him in our third encounter, over the Channel.”

“So, you admit you've murdered him? At least you'll have some forgiveness for your sins.”

I coughed and said, “Can you knock off the good godly girl crap? What are you going to do when someone comes after you for murdering people during the war, are you going to let them kill you because you killed their father?”

The girl stuttered and said “You're the bad guys, you invaded my country! Anything that happens after that point is a totally responsible-”

“Bullshit!” I cut her off, leaning forward. “I was there on the very first day of the war, the Entente invaded the Empire. If you're trying to make that argument you are sorely misinformed about how the war actually started.“

Coughing again I raised my hand to try and stem it a bit but it came away wet with blood. Sighing I leaned back against the tree, “The world is not black and white, berserker. I'm a damn orphan, I joined the military so I could have a chance at a reasonable life. Then the war broke out and I defended myself. You came to this war to kill me because I defended myself in a war. Which one of those sounds more like the bad guy in the scenario here.”

I expected some sort of comeback but all I got was silence. Focusing my eyes better I saw that she was looking at me, biting her lips in thought. Finally she said, “Mary, my name is Mary.”

Coughing, I answered, “Tanya,” returning the name in exchange since I had no idea what she was thinking.

Well, apparently what she was thinking was rather painful as she flopped her arm down into somewhat of a usable position and screamed as she straightened it.

“Is there some reason you're engaging in self-harm?” I asked. She slowly maneuvered her arm into a better position to reach something on her side.

“My radio is still functioning, I think. If you surrender I'll use it to call for help.” Mary said, still slowly reaching down towards what I could now see was a somewhat busted box by the looks of it.

Well, considering I was all for actually surviving… I said, “I surrender. You have my parole, Miss Mary.”

She nodded and slowly unclipped the radio and brought it to her face. “This is Mary Sue. I've gone down in the woods somewhere, can anyone hear me?

There was a brief pause but nothing came back. She shook her radio and said, “Well, I guess a quick escape is not going to be guaranteed.“

“Unfortunate” I replied, only to be interrupted as the radio broke whatever silence was ongoing.

“Sir, there's no sign of Mary and the enemy mages are pushing on our flags.” Came a female voice.

Mary's face lit up as she talked into the radio, saying, “I'm not sure where I am but I'm here.”

“Damnation! We can't hold this location, we have to pull back,” Responded an older male voice.

“Guys? Guys?” Mary was questioning, trying to figure it out.

Shaking my head, I said, “Transmitter must be broken but we are still able to get communications or overhear communications.”

“Ducking damn it,” Mary said in a mutter. How old was she?

“What about Mary, we can't leave her out here.” The female voice said again.

“That's not our problem now. Our command is putting this defeat on her shoulders, that explosion took out the center of the line and a lot of people are dead. If we see her we're supposed to arrest her... Better to have died a hero than come back and be charged.”

Mary seemed stunned by that bit of info but really I was surprised that this had taken so long. Her antics had cost her side quite a number of victories in my opinion. I just scraped by each time so apparently was scraping by this time.

If I was petty I might try and rub that in, but I was in far too much pain and Mary was getting some functionality back to her arms. Better to not tick off the person who was already considering strangling you.

Instead I said, “Well, Mary, on the off chance that it's my people that find us first, do you want to surrender or should we just leave that situation standing here and now?”

She gave me a glare, which I nodded my head at. “Leave that for now, got it.”

“Can't believe they just left me. Aren't we the good guys? Aren't we supposed to be watching out for each other?”

The urge to roll my eyes was a thing that I had to fight but I think I managed it quite well. Instead, I said, “You're an accomplished mage, Mary, they're going to assume you can either figure out how to survive on your own or you're already dead. I don't know if you know this but mage combat is not one where prisoners are taken all the time, we’re far too dangerous to be left to each other… And infantry tends to carry grudges against us.”

“Damn it.” Mary muttered, before throwing the radio right above my head. It impacted the tree, was smashed, and fell to pieces around me.

“Bit much,” I muttered, but not much else I could say on the matter. Instead I reached down and put the pistol back in my holster before pulling myself up with a branch.

“What are you doing?” Mary asked as I got myself standing, coughing into my hand before starting to stumble in her direction.

“Well, we are in the Northern latitudes and it's snowing. We are very likely to die if we sit across from each other for this entire night. The fact of the matter is the only chance we'll have of surviving is to share body heat.” I came to a stop next to where she was lying and then slowly lowered myself till I was against her shoulder. ‘That's what we're going to do. Even if it's just a minimal bit of heat it might keep us alive long enough for someone to find us. Hopefully the fact that we're not shooting each other will encourage them not to shoot either one of us when they show up and we can be taken prisoner by whichever side is the one who finds us. Sounds like a deal?”

Mary nodded before saying “Fine, Devil, that sounds like a deal.”

Coughing I looked up at the sky and said, “Well, probably not the way you thought you'd spend today?”

“No. No, it is not.” Mary muttered.

Sighing I asked a question that had been bugging me, one that normally I would not ask. In fact I was very well possibly going to die before I got the answer but something spurred me on. “So, does being X talk to you?”

“Who?” Mary asked, sounding confused.

“When your eyes glow yellow and you feel unnatural amounts of power flowing through you, does a voice talk to you to spur you on and tell you what to do?”

She shook her head, seeming confused, before replying, “No. That's not something that has ever happened.”

I coughed before saying, “Man, you really hate me then. Guess being X wasn't pushing you to attack me.”

“Who is this being X?”

“A parasitical creature that calls itself God,” I said, before coughing again. Looking up I saw the snow had stopped falling and not in the sense that the clouds were clearing, more in the sense of the time had stopped.

“Really, now? This is the first time you actually try and talk to someone about me. This is momentous, my child. I'm quite inspired by this, to have the disbeliever go to the believer to try and understand.”

Coughing, I looked around and saw a figure walking toward me, this time it was a muscular man with a beard and wearing a toga.

“Speak of the parasite,” I muttered as he came closer.

“Please, my child, we have known each other so long and you still call me Being X and a parasite? Have I not made it clear that I am who I say I am?”

“You've made some things clear, still not going to worship you as some all-knowing god.”

“Wait, what? Are you saying this is God?!”

I stopped and looked to my side, seeing Mary was still functionally here and not frozen. Turning back to being X, I asked, “Why is she here?”

“I don't know…” X murmured, his face going weird as if he was scared or confused. The answer was forthcoming though as a chuckle came from the woods around us.

“Oh, what a grand show! What a bloody good time this has been. Two players of strategy locked in a contest of plans within plans, fighting to achieve their goals at each other's expense. This was a grand sight that I do not wish to ever see go away again.”

There was a thump, loud enough that it reminded me of a T-Rex taking a step in the Jurassic Park movies, then another. Out of the trees came a grotesque figure, a bird-like creature that stood a good 10 ft tall. Its feathering was in majority blue though there was a riot of other colors showing as it leaned over and gave a bow, using its walking staff as a way to give it the most depth without falling over.

“Good evening, my entertainment. I must say this has been a wonderful show for me and my master over the last few years, and I am honestly quite sad to see it go. Truly, I am.”The creature grabbed its chest and looked up at the sky what might have resembled a twisted mockery of a smile, had it not been for its beak., I think it was smiling but it was hard to tell considering it wore a beak.“To have it end with the death of the Berserker and the Devil as they take a moment to actually get to know each other and share warmth, as they both slowly pass into that good night… Ah, it warms my heart!”

“What are you doing here, Daemon?” Called being X as he turned on the creature, drawing a lightning bolt out of The ether and holding it like a javelin.

“Haha? Mimicking Jupiter, or is it Zeus… Which would you prefer? You minor gods all look the same to me.”

At that insult being X tossed the lightning bolt at the creature, which stopped it amidst air with a simple wave of its feathered arm.

Chuckling, it said, “Quite an amazing feat you tried there, to slay a minion of The God of change. I'm afraid I’m going to have to say no to that, God of Reincarnation. I think it's time for you to leave this world as we have no need of Reincarnation here.”

With that it raised a feathered hand into the air and a chain shot out from the snow, quickly encircling being X, and began to pull him down. A blue flaming circle quickly drew itself over the area as he was pulled through the ground to some unknown place, leaving me and Mary sitting there stunned.

The bird-like being stepped forward onto the recently scorched ground where being X had once stood and ran its claws through it, almost seeming to inspect something, before Mary asked, “What are you?” with a bit of fear in her voice.

This inspired the bird to look at us, its strange eyes seeming to hum with power in a way that I don't think most mages could.

“Change. And now Reincarnation, after all someone has to take over the job now that little minor God has been vanquished and since I was the one doing the vanquishing I guess I get access to all his powers. And all his toys.” As it said this it looked directly at us, making its intentions towards us rather clear. I reached for my pistol first but somehow Mary managed to get her pistol up at the same time and we unloaded our chambers into the creature. Her m1911 and my Mauser were both left smoking and the creature, still standing in front of us utterly unconcerned, had blood pouring from numerous holes ripped through its form.

“Oh, no! I've been shot! However may I recover?” the bird said in the most mocking tone I’d probably ever heard, all as it continued to give that weird facsimile of a smile.

Finally it just started laughing at us and said, “You have no power over entities of the Warp, the one who does is currently far far away from this Coast… Though I can feel him already turning in this direction, so I think it's time for us to go.“

Snapping its quad fingers there was a flash of light and everything around us changed, it was as if the earth we were sitting on had been scooped out of its place and deposited somewhere else. Three feet around us there was snow and then there was just this new ground, strange glowing blue stone walls to either side of us.

“Now, here's what's going to happen, “the bird said, seeming to stalk around us like some sort of overgrown turkey. “You are currently within the labyrinth, there are only a few places to go in this realm. Make it out and you'll find your way home, don't and well… This realm is connected to multiple dimensions and times, there are monsters within here that have not seen the light of day in millions of years and will not see the light of day in millions of years. There are also monsters from realms that don't exist as you understand it and they're hungry, so I imagine you understand what will happen if they find you.”

Coughing, I said, “How the hell are we supposed to find our way out when we're severely injured?”

Its macabre smile widened, “Why, that just adds to the challenge.“

“Sounds more like you're just trying to kill us.”

The bird stopped and tilted its neck to look in our direction. “Well death is just the beginning for you, I think. After all, I can reincarnate you over and over and over and gleefully watch you fail each and every time. Or succeed! That would certainly be a massive, and fascinating, change in my plans. Have fun, girls, and don't die too quickly.”

It stopped and snapped its feathery fingers, as if it had just remembered something.“Oh! By the way if you stare into the abyss too long you'll go mad so… don't do that. Also be wary of what doors you open as you might find yourself in the war proper instead of this little maze beneath it and… Well, there are things out there much worse than in here. Toodaloo.”

And like that the bird was gone, leaving us sitting there against a tree in a labyrinth that I had no idea where the hell even was. Coughing I pulled off my coat. It wasn't as cold now so I didn't need it and got to work looking over Mary.

“What are you doing?” She asked as I looked over her injuries.

“Compartmentalizing things. We need to escape. In order to escape you need to be able to walk. In order for you to walk I need to set your legs into something reasonable.” With that I looked at the tree, called upon a mage blade, and sliced through a couple branches. Then I cut my coat in half and started to set her legs. “This is going to hurt but if we're going to escape you need to bear it. Got it?”

She nodded and I did the job. Her screams were loud, and I realized too late that I Probably should have given her something to bite down on to keep her calm so we didn't draw any notice. Once her legs were set I said about carving up the first branch until I had something she could use as a walking stick, then I went about helping her get up.

“Why are you helping me?” She asked. “It seems to me I'm kind of a burden in this situation and well… I wasn't exactly not rooting for you to die a moment ago.”

I nodded and replied, “I understand that, but from the sounds of things, the fact of the matter is that we’re surrounded by unknown monsters who’d happily have us for dinner. That means the only people we can trust are each other. It sucks, but that’s the reality we’re living in, no use whining about it. If we can get out of here maybe we'll have time to complain later.”

“And if we don't?”

I looked up at her and shrugged before saying, “Well as the bird said, it’s probably just going to reincarnate us over and over again…and I think sooner or later madness will take us. unless of course we get lucky and it forgets to reincarnate us.”

Mary chuckled and said “So we’re hoping that the bird brain just forgets about us so we can stay dead? Well, that's better than nothing.“

“Sometimes my optimism surprises me.” I idly quipped. “And today? Well, today I just want to live.”

With that we exchanged nods and again tried to move down the hallway. She used the staff to hold herself up on one side and I held on to the other as we moved.

Question of what the void was was quickly answered as we came to a window and saw, well, complete blackness. Now I could assume that we were just under something and had no light out there or I could assume that the void we saw meant actual void and if we fell through that window we would fall for eternity.

Either way I said, “Don't look out there.” as Mary turned to look at the window.

She nodded and we kept going, walking further into the labyrinth, me coughing occasionally as I tried not to move as much and her groaning as her limbs settled into something that was probably not going to be healthy in the long run. I generally kept us connected to the right side of the wall by leaving my hand there as we did, remembering some old tactics from when I was a kid and was interested in this kind of stuff.

“Why do you have your hand on the wall?” Mary asked after a while. I shrugged before saying, “You keep your hand on one wall, you'll reach the end of the maze eventually. Sooner or later you'll have exhausted all outcomes.”

“Okay but what if we're on some sort of middle segment without really the connection to the edge of the maze?”

“Well that teaches us something,” I said. “We move on to the next segment and just keep going until we hit something that doesn't go around in a circle.”

“Okay, then what if the maze is changing every time we're not looking at it?”

“Well then we're screwed,” I replied with a shrug. “We have to hope that there's some sort of fair rule in this game that we've been sent to. Otherwise, it’s just trying to kill us.”

“Didn't he say he was a servant of the god of change?”

I made an annoyed sound at that before saying, “Parasite of change but, sure, I can see your point.”

“Parasite?” came a voice from behind us causing us to turn to see… I don't know what I saw. There were teeth, some sort of floating creature, I couldn't tell up or down about it. All I could tell was that it was looking insulted.

“I don't like to interfere in the games of my minions but that was rather insulting. I think a change of rules is required.” It snapped its fingers and Mary was gone. Where to I don't know, or perhaps it was I that had changed places? Possibly. It was hard to tell since the labyrinth seemed the same but the creature was gone as well. Although I could still hear its voice like it was right next to me.

“That's more like it. Now the game is fairer! Oh I doubt you'll find your way free of this place now and, just for that insult, new reincarnations for you.”

I heard another snap of its fingers coming from nowhere, and the creature added with enthusiasm.

“Oh hey want to hear a story? inside this maze there are two wolves: one is young and stupid, thinking they know everything about the world and know nothing at all. The other is old and wise but a fool who has traveled far from his home in hopes of undoing the past. Neither will reach their goals really but it will be amazing to see which one will survive.”

“What the hell are you on about?” I simply asked, drawing my pistol as I leaned against a wall.

“Oh, it's quite simple. Look behind you.” I blinked, confused, before turning and finding a monster standing there. It was a werewolf, a goddamn werewolf, standing up to 14 feet tall and having barely any room to move in the labyrinth. Its hands were splayed to show its clawed fingers as it slowly stalked forward, its golden fur making it easy to see its blue eyes shining with unnatural intelligence and bestial instincts.

More terrifying of all was the fact that it was wearing gray bits of armor that looked ill-fitted to its form.

As soon as our eyes met, it howled and started rocketing towards my location, scratching up the walls as it charged. I pulled out my gun and unleashed a series of shots into its head but it seemed to have too strong of a skull as it bowled me over and attempted to bite down on me.

I rolled out of the way as it bit the ground where my neck had been. Taking the fraction of a second it gave me, I cast a mage blade spell on my hand and tried to slash at the armored chest in front of me.

It barely noticed, instead swiping at my hand and slicing off my arm effortlessly. I watched, stunned for a moment as the magic faded from my severed hand and it tumbled across the ground, but I quickly forced myself to roll out of the way as another bite came for my head. Blood was everywhere and I was feeling weaker by the moment but I held on tight to my determination as adrenaline sang in my veins.

Moving back to give myself space and time, I tried again, summoning another mage blade, and this time inspected the armor closer to try to find any weak point. By some luck I noticed there was a crack just above the heart. It wasn’t much, but I had a target.

It turned around, hunger burning bright in its gaze, its massive claws twitching in anticipation, and its razor-sharp teeth gleaming in the unnatural light. I could feel my injuries catching up with me, the blood loss getting to my head and the agony pounding my chest. I knew I only had one last chance to make it out of this.

So I gathered up all the mana I had left. Time slowed to a crawl as my perception spells burned out the last of my focus. Power gathered at my feet, ready to shoot me forward like a bullet. The searing light of my blade blazed brightly in my hand.

Then the werewolf moved.

I ducked, barely missing its claw as it cut through my hair, wind whistling as it passed. From below, I shot up with the force of a gun, bladed hand extended to meet its chest flying towards me. It tried to dodge at the last second, but it was far too late. With the laser precision born from overclocking my mind with magic, I shoved my mage blade directly into the crack right over its heart.

For a moment, my hand stopped.

Then something cracked, and it burst right through.

Even as it knocked me over, my hand plunged into its chest, burrowing through muscle and bone. Finally, I felt my hand wrap around something pulsing behind its ribs. It had to be the creature’s heart. Just then, the creature sprung up, dragging me with it, and sending the top of my head crashing into the underside of its jaw. The collision knocked the last bits of focus from me, and the mage blade spell slipped from my mind.

Not yet!

I don’t know what it was. Maybe adrenaline, or human survival instinct, or maybe a level of stubbornness I didn’t know I had, but in that moment I pushed through the pain, the blood loss, and the existential terror, and I squeezed.

The creature cried and stumbled around, but I held on till but I held on with every inch of determination I had left in my body. I squeezed and squeezed, crushing the life out of it like I had nothing else to live for in this world. .

I can’t really recall if I was successful as blackness, either from the loss of blood or the release of death, overcame my vision and my consciousness faded.

Tanya Russ

I groaned as I pulled myself out of my bed, confused by everything, as I sat up and looked around. For one I now remembered everything from my second life, and what a crappy second life that had been. For two my perception had been thrown off a bit, being so close to the ground for even a few moments in my dream had every move making me a little bit dizzy when I woke up.

Also, apparently, I had been stripped out of my armor while I slept. Not hard to see why as there were a couple of my girls sleeping next to me. They must have come in while I was out and helped me out of my armor. Why do they decide to stick around to sleep next to me?

… Well, I was told I was quite warm, and these days I had no wish to complain about these sorts of things.

Sighing I got up from the bed and looked at my hand, seeing the wound already healed. That was good, I didn't want to risk an infection. Shaking my head I stumbled over to a table and jotted down the important bits about the story I had just been given.

Had that really happened, I wondered. The spear was supposed to help me see what had happened… So, theoretically, yes, but I had also been drunk off my ass last night. Maybe what I had been given was a bit of an interpretation through an alcoholic lens? So I probably only had to keep the important parts in mind..

I nearly died at the end of a war, was picked up by one supernatural entity that thought itself a God, who was swiftly defeated by a different, and somehow far worse, such entity, and then had a werewolf sicked on me in some kind of hell maze. It was probable that at least one of these elements was fueled by alcohol, but I couldn't say that for sure. I would need to ask the Emperor when I spoke to him next.

There was something else to be considered as well. Was Mary currently still trapped in The Labyrinth? After all, it had been tens of thousands of years since we’d been thrown in there. Assuming any of it was real.

Was the maze even a real thing or not?

On one hand I shouldn't really care what the berserker was up to, after all she tried to kill me enough times. On the other hand, well…

The only reason she would be stuck in there would be because of the pissing contest between being X and me, a thing that had been going on too long and drawn the notice of paranormal entities beyond his parasitical control. As much as I'd like to say it wasn't my fault I did possibly bear some blame. At the very least, I felt a little guilty about getting her involved. Assuming that the same energies that kept my soul together in the Warp would have affected hers, that might mean she was still in there, and perhaps I would need to look into finding a way to get her out.

Not because she needed to be saved but because well she was a danger to me. In my last life she was about to see me dead and the only reason that hadn't happened was that she had been unbelievably broken by her attack. She was a tool that could be used to fight me and leaving a tool that could be used to fight me in the hands of creatures whose motives I did not understand was a bad idea.

Of course, I could be overthinking this. It had been tens of thousands of years. there was a good possibility that whatever remnants of her soul that had existed had been used up in the constant experiments of reincarnation. The damned bird that sent us there might have even forgotten about her, or gotten bored, and just left her dead by now. There was also probably no way to actually get into that labyrinth without the enemy’s aid as far as I knew.

Who I needed to speak to about this was the Emperor. In fact the matter was urgent as I was playing in a game without knowing the rules or the participants. Emperor would have a better idea of the situation at the very least and could clear up things that didn't make sense to me.

Turning to the girls I thought about waking them up to help me get my armor on but I honestly didn't need my armor for this. Instead I went over to the closet and pulled out a pair of pants and a linen shirt, pulling them on over the hard suit I'd slept in. Once I had that handled I grabbed a jacket, just for a little extra warmth, and started to walk out of my room. I only stopped when I noticed something odd by my door. The spear I used to cut myself last night was sitting there but it was different, the head of the spirit near the front of it had been of an eagle. It was the head of a wolf now, which was weird. I started to reach for it and it jumped off the wall and into my hand as if I beckoned it.

I blinked several times before shrugging. As much as I would like some explanation for a spear shapeshifting to go on brand with my Wolf theme, the fact that it could jump off a wall to my hand if I summoned it pretty much made it clear that this spear was as paranormal in nature as anything else the Emperor made.

Laying the spear back against the wall I shook my head before walking out into the Hall and heading towards the shuttle bays. Grabbing a communicator off my belt I called up to the bridge and asked “Captain Nemmius Tetanus is the Emperor’s ship still in the local sector?”

“Yes, my Primarch, he's still here though I don't know for how much longer. Malcador has just transferred over to His ship so he's probably getting ready to take off.”

“Ask him to wait a moment and get clearance for me to shuttle over there. I have to ask him a question.”

“Yes, I will endeavor to do so for my Primarch.”

Quickly I made my way down to the shuttle area and negotiated one of the vehicles for transport to the other ship. Granted there wasn't really much of a negotiation, more an ‘I need your shuttle’ but that's just a perk of being in charge.

After a few moments, I got clearance to move across the void to Emperor's Ship and was on my way.

Didn't take long and as soon as the shuttle landed and I stepped out I found myself staring at Custodes waiting for me. I gave a nod and they answered me in kind. One said, “The Emperor is waiting for you in the library, we are to escort you there.”

“Thank you,” I acknowledged, before saying, “Lead the way.” and they did. Walking through the Emperor's personal ship revealed some interesting things of note. Mine had slowly become more rustic as the years went on, becoming more akin to the world of Fenris. This one was… well, gold. There was lots of opulent wealth but in color it was all gold. Real gold? Hard to say but it definitely matched the style of his armor and his Custodes.

Through the wide hallways of the ship we soon arrived at a heavy set of golden doors. There were imperial eagles all over the place that basically screamed that this was the Emperor's personal library and the fact the two guards stopped and took a position by the door told me enough. nodding my thanks I opened the door and stepped in.

Which was when I found myself surprised, it wasn't that opulent. Oh, sure, there was a bit of gold but it looked more like a library than a statement about what a library could look like. I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of books as well as scrolls and other stone tablets, some of them behind museum glass.

The room was set up in a massive circle and, stepping in, I saw that it went up at least three levels if not more and that was only what I could see. It seemed that once you got up to the third level there might be hallways, which was interesting.

In the center of the room was a round table where the Emperor was sitting, having a discussion with Malcador. For the most part that was all I saw, except for a figure currently reading a book behind the Emperor.

I couldn't tell much about them. They were only about 5 ft tall and were wearing brown robes that discouraged identifying any further details.

“Tanya, welcome to my sanctum,” the Emperor said, his hands outstretched to greet me and welcome me in. “I was about to have our ship get on your way when I got your call. Does something trouble you, my daughter?”

“Yes and no, “I said, looking over at the brown-clothed figure. The Emperor quickly spotted where I was looking and said, “Do not worry about them, they are safe to speak around. They won't tell a single secret learned in this room, trust me.”

Nodding, I stepped forward and pulled out a seat, which thankfully was large enough for me.

“I used that spear you gave me last night.”

The Emperor nodded and said, “I hope that was an enlightening experience. Did it clear up the headaches as I hoped?”

“The physical headaches are gone so far,” I said. “If they come back I'll give it another try, instead I now have a mental headache from the information that was given to me.”

“What information is that, my daughter?” The Emperor asked, leaning forward.

I sat, before saying, “To make it quick and easy, I have reason to believe there is another like me trapped in the Warp. Me and this other individual were pulled into the war by a bird-like entity claiming to be a servant of change.”

The Emperor started rubbing his chin in interest while Malcador sat up. ”Well now, isn't that interesting.” Malcador said, running his hand through his beard.

“Do you think it's possible that her soul was as strong as yours and capable of surviving its existence within the Warp Emperor asked as he motioned with his hand?”

I shrugged and said, “It is not impossible, she was… Driven, let us say. I saw her do some quite impossible things in my time and I fought her enough to know that she would not have died without a fight.”

“Then perhaps she's already escaped the confines of the Warp.” came a female voice from behind the Emperor.

The brown-robed figure was still facing away but beginning to turn. Most of their features were hidden though I could see locks of red hair coming through the opening of the hood they wore.

“Escaped?” I asked, “How did someone escape the Warp without aid?”

The figure stepped forward and replied,d “I never said they didn't have aid. After all, you had to have escaped the Warp with the aid of the Emperor. Who's to say he did not help do the same with this unknown friend of yours?”

“My understudy here raises a good point, even though they were told not to talk during this,” said the Emperor as he tapped the table with his fingers. “Primarch souls were created using the souls of powerful humans who were left in the Warp for millennia, it is well within the possibility that this friend of yours was amongst the 19 other souls that were chosen.”

“Perhaps,” I agreed. After all, I had no idea how the exact mechanics worked, though it seemed unlikely that I would be that lucky. “Perhaps but I would like some way to be sure. If there's one person that berserker-”

Malcador spoke up, asking, “This individual of the same time period as you, what is their name?”

I shrugged before replying, “I only really… Actually, I think I learned their name in our last few days, she was called Mary Sioux.”

The Emperor immediately stifled a laugh and snorted. “No, we're serious. What's their name?” He asked, looking at me intently.

“That is their name.” I countered, confused by that reaction.

“That can't be right.”

“Why?”

“Because Mary Sioux is the name various armies gave to mages who became too much of a nuisance in the latter part of the 20th century. Idiots who would put their own Glory or revenge against what their Nation wanted and were often drummed out of the military because they were not stable.”

Well…that sounds about right.

I shrugged and stated, “There were several notable instances where Mary screwed up a potential victory for her side in her blind quest for revenge..”

“Huh… I suppose I Should have looked into it at the time. Then again I was busy with plenty of other missions and objectives at that time period, the world was a busy place then.” He looked off into his memories before shaking his head before saying, “Well, as it stands, if this Mary Sue is still in the Warp it is very likely that they no longer bear any resemblance to what you remember.

“If by some chance they've gotten out of the Warp due to my efforts to create Primarchs, your mission objective has already been achieved and it's just a matter of figuring out which Primarch is this enemy/friend. You will have to either make sure they never figure out who you are or attempt to smooth over this awful business that apparently set her on a path to get revenge against you.”

True enough, I nodded. It was not like I could just kill a Primarch simply because we’d been on opposite sides thousands of years ago. We would need to learn to work with each other, or at least be able to live with each other if they were amongst the souls chosen.

“I will keep my ears close to the ground and poke around amongst your siblings. If anyone reacts to the name Mary Sioux I'll let you know. Until such time, how is the spear doing? I had always wondered what would happen when I gave it to someone.”

I shrugged my shoulders before saying, “The eagle turned into a wolf. And apparently it can come to me if I just will it now.”

“Hmm, interesting. I wasn’t aware it had such powers, but it's likely a sign I chose the proper child to give it to.” Emperor mused, rubbing his chin, before adding, “That reminds me. When is the assault on the planet below supposed to take place?”

“Tomorrow I believe, or perhaps the day after. Depends how long I was out cold, but either way we'll be breaking up that City and freeing the sector from Pirate raids within the week.”

“Good, good,” the Emperor said, nodding his head.

His understudy, a woman if the subtle curves under the brown robe was any indication, coughed into her hand, likely trying to get the Emperor's attention.

He looked over to her and nodded his understanding before saying, “Well I think we've had our conversation and gotten most of this trouble sorted. With that handled I think it's about time for you to go back to planning the attack with your brother Vulkan and for us to be on our way.”

“Of course, Father,” I said as I got out of my seat, giving a nod to him.

“Thank you for meeting with me and clarifying some of this issue, I hope that you're right and that they were pulled out of the Warp.”

“For an enemy you seem rather worried about them,” Emperor said.

I simply smiled and replied, “If they had not been involved with me they would not be in the place they are and I feel some responsibility for that.”

Before I even finished I felt Malcador poking and prodding, then he started to laugh.“You mean kinship. You feel some kinship because you were both screwed over by a thing from the Warp.”

I couldn’t help the smile on my lips. “Perhaps I do, yet either way my statement stands. I feel some responsibility towards them.”

“What thing in the Warp?”, the cloaked figure asked, getting the Emperor to look at her before saying.

The Emperor shot her a look. “As I've said before, young sorcerer, there are things in the Warp that should not be trifled with. It is an ocean of psychic potential, and like with any other ocean, there are strange and dangerous things that lurk just below the surface..”

“Of course, my Emperor,” the young woman said, nodding her head.

I caught an annoyed, if suppressed, tone in her voice. A familiar one, born from an inadequately answered question. It was understandable, explaining these creatures fully could probably alert them to your existence considering how even muttering that one was a parasite had alerted it to my existence while in The labyrinth.

But it was a risky thing to not tell your subordinates all the information they needed to know. I'd have to have a more private conversation to discuss this with him at another time. I needed to get a better understanding of what exactly the entities in the Warp could tag on you and learn about through simple conversations here in reality.

Anyway It looked as if our conversation was over so I gave a bow to the three and said, “Till we meet again, Father. I will go conquer this planet and then move on with my mission. Are there any tasks that you have for me before I do this, though?”

The Emperor shook his head before stopping and thought before saying, “Between here and your home world is a planet called Nova Borilia, the Mechanicum has been bugging me about sending an expedition there to try and free it from an unknown threat. It was a forge world that they lost so if you were to stop by that planet and clear it out the Mechanicum would be very thankful and I would as well.”

I nodded my head and gave a bow before saying, “It will be done, father.” With that being said I turned to Malcador and said, “Goodbye, Malcador. Hopefully we can go on another trip someday and discuss my progress on some of the various lessons you have taught me.”

He laughed before saying, “Yeah, that would be fun. Maybe in another 20 years or so.” Getting up he bowed before saying, “Good luck, king of wolves.”

Turning to the third entity, the understudy, I said with a rather cocky grin, “Make sure to listen to the Emperor, he may be a bit secretive but he's got good reasons. Trust him.” With that I turned and left, hoping that whoever this understudy was would take that lesson to heart as I didn't want to have to deal with whatever would happen if the Warp broke through over their stupidity.

Vulkan of nocturne

I hummed to myself as I worked the metal beneath my hands. The fighting down below had been near constant for the last few days and yesterday had been the first break I got in since first stepping foot in this sector.

I have fought on several planets since I joined the Emperor's crusade and I've come to be used to the constant danger of it all. It was not even a worry on my radar nowadays.

I was more interested in making sure my Salamanders came through the conflict alright than if I tired myself out, but when I was forced to take a break I would make the best of those breaks.

My sister calling me up for a conference to figure out how we would deal with the final capital of these pirates had been the impetus for a break and I will admit it have been a nice one.

The joyous time to party and make Merry with my father and sister, as well as get to know them a bit.

But as the evening had ended I asked to borrow my sister's bolter. She seemed nonplussed but she let me do it and that's what I was working on tonight.

I had noted that her gun wasn't working at peak efficiency in my opinion during the few times we fought next to each other. It was good but it could have been better and I was just doing some little bit of modifications, handcrafting pieces to replace parts from Mars using good steel from Nocturne.

What happened was shaping up to be a vast improvement in my opinion, with accuracy going up a good 30 to 40 percent. My plan was to give her back her bolter, as a gift for helping with this fight on the planet. Granted, depending on how you look at it, I was helping her but it really didn't matter. In the long run we both came to this planet by our own paths and we both were going to see the end of these pirates. That's what mattered in the long run.

That and how professional she was. I had had chances to watch her during the fighting the last few weeks and I could quite easily say, she looked after her space Marines like I and seemed to have a similar outlook on treating them like her family. She wasn't as expressive as me and gave more of a quiet approval whenever they did something right, less outward and physical approval than me, but it was there all the same.

And I had been listening to her radio communications, seeing that when someone started doing something really stupid she could be a real spitter of scorn. Hmm… oh, that's a good name.

But back on topic she seemed to be the type to build up her soldiers, make them better than when they came to her, and that I could approve of. I had not met any other siblings yet but I hoped all of them had a bit of her level-headedness, and a tendency to be careful about where to deploy her assets was always useful.

The coming fight for that capital city would probably be a hell of a thing but I had a feeling that it would be successful just because both of us were level-headed and able to deal with situations as they came.

Granted I admit that I was in favor of burning the whole place down. Eldar, dark or otherwise, were a bit of a pain in my back and I would prefer them to be removed but if Tanya thought they could be negotiated to surrender, or at least brought to some sort of state where they would not be a threat to the Imperium, I was willing to not burn the entire city down. This time.

Finishing the heavy work I stepped away from the machinery and used the towel to wipe off some sweat that had built up while I was working on the equipment. Checking the nearby clock I made sure that I still had a few more hours before I should take some rest so I was fresh for combat tomorrow. Once I confirmed that I got to work on the next step.

As I got to work on some of the more finer details of the job, cleaning off rough edges and adding a little bit of etching to pieces before I started to slowly screw pieces together and solder it all together, a beep came. It was the one alerting me that someone wanted to communicate to me from the bridge, putting down my work I got up and walked over to it, picking up the communicator.

“Vulkan here,” I said with a joyous tone, to hear what was on the other side of this phone.

“My Primarch, Captain Nemmius Tetanus here. I wanted to let you know that the Emperor is departing and he wished us good hunting on our combat strike tomorrow.“

“Good, send a signal back saying we shall hunt these pirates with extra enthusiasm thanks to that.”

“Will do, my Primarch,” Captain Nemmius Tetanus said before continuing, “Also I thought you'd like to know that Primarch Russ paid them a visit before leaving.

“Really?” my eyebrow raised at that, though he couldn't see it.

“Yes. She just had a 30 to 40 minute meeting with the Emperor before He left. I don't know what that was about but it was a thing.”

I laughed before saying, “Well, no need to pry too much into other Primarch's business. An interesting thing, yes, but I'm sure it was nothing. Let me know though if Primarch Russ wishes to talk to me. If anyone else calls you can tell them I'm currently busy with a project, unless it is absolutely necessary and a matter of life or death I need to be uninterrupted all night.”

“Of course, my Primarch,” Captain Nemmius Tetanus said before adding, “Good luck with your project, sir.”

“Thank you. Have a good night, Nemmius Tetanus.” I hung up the phone and turned it back towards the table. The fires from the forge were starting to die and I really needed something a bit more bright to actually see what I was doing so I walked over to a nearby wall and dialed up the light settings, revealing my workshop. I had modeled it a bit on my old workshop back on Nocturne, a fake facade of bricks had been installed along the walls to give it a more homely feel. And along those walls were instruments and tools that I used for crafting, as well as one wall dedicated to works and equipment I had built over the years. Weapons and such.

Humming to myself I walked back to my work desk and looked at the yet to be named gun, though I was starting to come up with one now and again, to get to work on etching a wolf into one side since that seemed to be her favorite animal.

One strange thing I had noticed that separated our legions was where the name came from. Hers apparently came from an animal that was both the fiercest creature on the planet but also their most loyal ally while mine came from the Fire Salamanders, creatures that were a menace and needed to be hunted. If left alone they would cause problems for my people. Both were some of the most powerful creatures on the planet, so it made sense to be named after them.

It was a strange thing that our animals were similar but slightly different and I wondered if that would carry over into other legions, if they would have animal names and use them differently. I guess I would only know when I ran into them and there was already quite a bit already on the moves supposedly.

I could not wait to meet the rest of my brothers, and I guess sisters possibly as well. Yes father had kept the fact of our first sister as a mystery to us but I had quickly figured it out, and if he said there was at least one other there might be at least one other. I wondered what they would be like but I imagined they would all be somewhat different, all with different goals and all with different ways of handling the problems of this galaxy, but I would love them all the same. They were family and family was the most important thing on Nocturne for survival, something I had learned and talked to my people over the years I had been there.

If we had not worked as a family to stop the threat of the Eldar we would still be fleeing into the caves whenever the Eldar rating party showed up on Nocturne. That was a lesson that must be imparted to all members of our family, be it the littlest scout initiates to my brothers and sisters. Working together, we can defeat anything. Smiling, I got to work, assembling a few pieces together.

Slowly the gun took shape and as it did it became an excellent bolter pistol. It was large enough that Tanya would be able to wield it with one hand without issue, light enough that it would be perfectly possible to wield another weapon in the other hand and most importantly the accuracy was quite good. I think the best part of the weapon was the underslung capabilities as I traded a weapon that could easily be combined with another weapon and that was with my next project.

Looking across the room I saw several weapons I had brought up from the armory. My plan was quite simple: I would take them apart, find out what could be made as small as possible, and create versions of them that could be underslung on the bolter pistol. This would make it a Combi weapon with multiple choice options. Before every battle she would be able to choose what weapon would work best as its underslung weapon. That would probably be the most useful thing of all, having the capability to switch between a plasma gun and a flamer depending on the situation.

Smiling, I finished up the initial pistol and observed it. It was a bit small in my hand but should fit her hand perfectly and, once I was sure it was not going to fall apart easily by giving it a good few shakes and a whack against the table, I pulled out a painting kit and got to work painting it in her legions colors and adding a bit of artisticness to the Wolf on the side of it. After all this was, in other words, a ‘nice to meet you’ gift and I might as well make it a good gift I thought as I worked.

I would have to have a meeting with her before The siege though, to make sure she had it and explain how everything worked.

Writers note:i was bit worried i might not get this chapter out this week but surprises with little help from meteadragon and guardsman pias, and the surprises return of Preier we pulled it off, this why i went to two week mode give my editores as much time as they needl. Anyways hope everyone enjoy this chapter and its twists and turns, mysteries, birds and fish. let me know what you all thing, and what ever you think… is wrong HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Edited by: Preier, Metaldragon, Guardsman Pius
Community edited by:
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Chapter 32, A Wolf Rage
San Katos

Tanya Russ

Preparing for the final assault was probably the easiest part of this whole campaign. There were already many companies across the planet, hunting down the last of the pirate scum with some adventures in vengeance trying to bring them to justice. We wanted at least to destroy anything they could use to ever become pirates again, leaving them trapped on this world.

I imagined that by the end of the month all the outer colonies would be completely burned or turned over to the slave population that we were turning into the now Freeman population. But as for the assault on the capital city, the main heart of this dark pirate empire, that would be a bit of a thing. The plan to take it out was already underway Vulkan's troops were marching to war and surrounding the city's land access, while my troops would soon be taking up to the sky for a contested landing on the city.

It looked to be a hell of a thing and we would take a few losses but we had to do what we had to do, and what we had to do was defeat these pirates in their nest.

How we were going to do it though, that was a bit of a thing. Alongside with the land trains that had been apparently altered to drive on water, it was also cheaper to not drop directly from orbit with some of the troops. Oh, certainly, there would be some drop pods landing in sections of the city that were a bit more stable, areas that were obviously islands that had been built over and not just wooden ramps and extensions built above the water. But for the most part we would be taking the aerial vehicles we had under our control and fly at low altitudes to the city. From there we would execute our part of the plan and cause so much mayhem behind the lines that Vulkan could push through the front of the city. Then, well, the burning would begin.

So instead of prepping up in the ship above today I was prepping down on the planet below, on a nice sunny beach in fact. Once this whole conflict was over I might give my boys and girls, the Valkyries as they had come to be termed by the boys, a day off to just relax on this beach. Maybe a week? We were in no rush and having a bit of time off would not hurt them. We had gone from campaign to campaign for the last few years, fighting our way across the stars and killing a lot of Orks. Sure there were parties but those were standard Fenrisian parties: find a nice warm place and drink till you dropped or wandered off with someone for a night on the town.

Beach barbecue parties were not on that agenda, mainly because Fenris didn't have many beaches where you could pull that off. Oh, sure, the beaches existed but they were kind of cold and there was always the chance of monsters living in the water inviting themselves.

Granted there'd be a chance of monsters living in those waters too but they could drop a few bombs in the waters around the beach, which would scare off most of the big things. Only real problem was… I didn't think any of my people would really have much in the way of beach wear. After all warriors don't usually have time to go buying bathing suits, and when salt water was usually just above the freezing point there wasn't much market pressure to invent such luxury items.

When I got back to Fenris I was going to have to see about that, I firmly decided. For the last 20 years of my rulership I had focused on building up the economy and security as well as education, to try and bring the people of Fenris to the more modern standards of living that I preferred, but I never really invested in luxuries. The fact of the matter was I probably could quite easily do that now. Fenris was a geologically active planet, it wouldn't be impossible to build hot springs resorts for people to enjoy. Once you had something like that they’d probably develop the technology of swimwear.

I’d also need to investigate another thing as well. As I sat on a crate, my girls helping me get my armor fully attached to my bodysuit, I noticed that several of the Valkyries were going into the water but never deeper than knee-deep. The same was true for many of the Wolves of Fenris, they enjoyed the shallows but they weren't going too deep, and I had a suspicion I knew why.

No doubt, none of them actually knew how to swim. Oh I'm sure there were some Fenrisians who knew how to swim, after all about a fourth of the population lived on water for most of the great year, but that was quite a small number amongst my troops as most of my warriors came from the main continent of Fenris and never had any reason to learn.

Now that was an important thing I needed to get solved, even beyond the luxury needs I had been reflecting on before. The ability to swim would very useful for these campaigns whenever we were fighting near and around water. Having the ability to actually swim and not just drown because you couldn't tended to be useful. When I got back to FenrisFenris I would have to see about building a system of pools. Or maybe could I build a heated lake? Fenris was geologically active so if I hired the Mechanicus to build some sort of system to keep our lakes warm all year long in the lowlands… That would benefit not only the population’s swimming practice but could also very well be a generator of some economic boons. Warm water probably meant more things would be able to live around us. I was not an engineer though, maybe it would be just easier to build pools. Large ones for the people to swim in and learn how to.

That was something to look into when I got back to Fenris in a couple years. Amusingly enough I actually was feeling somewhat excited about it. I had been gone from the planet for 10 years and I had initially thought I wouldn't want to go back, considering how much of a frozen wasteland it tended to be. But I guess I had grown fond of that cold world after all and I wanted to see how it had developed in the time I had been away.

I’d put in quite a bit of laws and work into building the support network for this legion before I left, I wanted to see how it matured. Not to mention that the fortress for my legion had been under construction when I left and should be probably a good way done by now. There were a lot of things that needed to be done on Fenris if that fortress was done. Moving a lot of infrastructure to now service it, one way or another. Not to mention that, if it was done, I would need to schedule how we would conquer the rest of the mountain range and turn it into an area dedicated to the training of my Space Marines, and the valkyrie to some extent, and no doubt Fenris national guard or just the Housecarls. I made a note that I would need to upgrade them to more modern weapons when I had the chance. After all, on Fenris everyone fought to survive, quit and you died. By that same thought, everyone who could contribute to the war should have the best weapons and gear and training that I could give them, to make sure that they survived it.

Frankly now that I thought about it, I had a lot to do back on Fenris and I was somewhat excited to get back to that. Now that I had been on campaign I had a generally better idea of what threats the people of Fenris would face and I needed to prepare them for it. As much as Fenris was a death world because of its fauna they had not had to deal with Orks before and would need to learn how to handle them. no doubt I would need to send some of my more experienced veterans to train the local Housecarls on how to deal with them. And we'd never had to deal with raiders from space before, no doubt this whole conflict on this little know-nothing planet would pique the interest of anyone who was allied with them and they'd probably seek vengeance upon those who destroyed their allies. I’d need to prepare Fenris for any counter-assaults, just in case.

And maybe I would speak with the AllFather again. Been a long time since I'd spoken to him and I had a better general idea of what was down in those caves now, I think, after that vision I'd had. Perhaps it was time for a little expedition down there to clear out of as many of the cave dwellers as possible and see if there was anything worth scavenging. Yes all those years ago he said there was nothing but, considering Fenris was very active geologically, perhaps they had been using geothermal power to run those facilities. If so taking those facilities for ourselves and running the power up to the surface would bypass having to make it for ourselves.

Not to mention I still had to work out that deal with the Mechanicus, see if I couldn't get the planet Svellgard sold off or at least lent to them to build a mini Forge World to try and supply my troops with gear.

Really I had a lot of things to do and though the campaign was important I think it was about time to get home as quickly as possible. I’d just make a stop at that planet that Emperor wanted me to help out and then I’d head directly to Fenris.

With a snap, the final element of my armor was pushed into place by Helga Arndottir and she let up a sigh of relief as the suit began to power up.

“Thank you, girls,” I said with a smile as I stood up, cracking my neck. “When this conflict is over make sure to visit me afterward. I imagine today is going to be a very exciting day and I'll need help getting this off.”

“Yes, my Primarch!” The girls said, giving salutes before walking over to a table where my weapons and kit were and starting to bring things to me.

First was my short sword, Krakenmaw, which I attached to my side followed by my long sword, Mjalnar, that I put over my head and magnetized to the back of my armor. Finally came my spear, Dionysian, that I was still learning to use. There was definitely some strangeness to its existence as I noticed that, even though I had left it on the ship, somehow it had found its way down to the planet.

I questioned the girls about it but they said that they didn't bring it. I question many of the staff that would have been able to get in my room, to see if they possibly brought it down. As far as they were concerned they had never seen it.

This meant that either I'd somehow forgotten that I packed it, which was very unlikely considering my memory was probably the best it had ever been especially since I touched the golden sphere. Or it got down here on its own.

Now if it was a normal spear that would be crazy but this was some sort of magic spear or psychic spear. It was very likely that it had some sort of will of its own, a will that seemed to have determined it wanted to be with me. And I wanted to test that to some extent, see exactly how far that went, so I was bringing it along on this battle.

Carefully I put it to my back and let the magnets hold it there, I would have a chance to experiment with it later. For now, I turned back to the girls before saying, “Have a wonderful battle, my girls. Don't get too close to the main fighting and make sure the enemy can't escape.” They nodded and gave a salute, smiles all the way.

I'm sure they wanted to actually be part of the landing forces going into the city but they would serve better as forces I was having dropped off on islands around the city that the enemy apparently had found no use for. Unfortunately for them, I did find quite a good use for those islands. Dropping my Valkyries on them, along with some heavy equipment, allowed me to easily build a line of anti-air equipment. Which meant once the battle started and they attempted to put their ships to space it was very likely that some of them would be shut down by groundborn guns on Islands they had just not bothered to hold control of. That would be the most humiliating thing I think a pirate would ever feel.

Turning from the valkyrie I moved along the lines of tents we had been building up this island we were using as the main deployment point for this assault since the last 36 hours. Most of the tents were mainly there to keep the environment from getting into equipment and ammunition, although I did see a few Marines using them. They were taking a few moments before this fight to catch a few hours of sleep by the looks of it. Good for them, as much as I had confirmed that the Marines could go possibly a week without sleep it was still better for them to get as much sleep as they could between times of combat. That way they would be at full mental capacity and able to do as much damage to the enemy as possible.

I stopped as I recognized one of the faces in the crowd. I recognized quite a number of them, of course, but this one was somewhat special in a way. “Kori Bretakollrsson,” I said, giving a wave to the former king of the other side of the continent.

He turned and saw me before giving me a bow. “My king, it's been a long time. I don't think we've seen each other since the fighting on new Vietnam.”

I nodded, I did not remember seeing him there but if he said so I would agree. “That was many years ago,” I said, stroking my chin with my hand before asking, “How goes your life, get many combat honors?”

He nodded and said, “Yes, my king!” He stopped for a moment, thinking, before saying, “In fact I was wondering if my comrade Bjorn of Tra and I could be transferred to your personal guard.”

Attempted nepotism? Not something I was expecting today but I should have expected it. My personal guards were going to be the force going in first on the combat today, I trusted them to be the best and so I knew they would be able to secure the initial landing points. He wanted to be at the tip of the spear but, unfortunately, I couldn't allow him to do that today. Operative word being today.

Nodding my head, I said, “I will look through your combat records and I will determine if you are worthy of joining the Varagyr. Everything is already all planned out for today's combat and it would be a bit of a stretch to shuffle some new man into the ranks today. But I will note that there will probably be a few openings when this is over and I will be looking over your combat record for the battle of San Katos. If you and your friend show yourselves to be Varagyr material I will have you transferred and you can be part of the next major assault.”

Bretakollrsson immediately gave a sign of the Aquila, folding his hands over each other to form that two-headed bird, and said, “Yes, my Primarch! It would be an honor to join your guard and I will endeavor to make sure that it happens.“

I clapped him on the shoulder and said, “Good luck then, and try not to die. I don't want to have to go through the record only to find out that you stepped on a landmine or something.”

“Of course, my Primarch,” he replied, bowing his head, and I moved on, walking towards the set of shuttles. Already several of my Varagyr were prepping for the assault but there was one shuttle that was not part of the assault waiting there. It was not part of my legion either, mine tended to be a gray to grayish blue in coloration while this one wore very green colors which told me exactly who it belonged to.

Those thoughts were interrupted as I heard, “Sister!” As two man-sized arms wrapped around my lower gut and brought me up into a hug, forcing the air out of my lungs for a moment.

“Brother, good to see you,” I managed to croak out before he loosened his grip and put me back down, allowing me to get some air.

Turning around I saw my brother Vulkan smiling proudly as he struck a pose, several of his salamanders standing behind him rather nonchalantly. “Glad I made it here in time, I was worried I'd miss your flight.”

“You're about 2 minutes early, I was about to begin the first preparations for the assault.” I said matter of factly, still trying to get it enough oxygen back into my system.

Vulkan nodded his head, “Of course, of course. Well it's good I caught you then, as I wanted to give you this.” He turned and one of his green-clad men came forward, carrying a case. Picking it up Vullkan turned and offered me a bolter gun, a rather impressive one if I do say so.

My original alterations were still there but they had been refined quite a bit, giving me a weapon that was a bit smoother in look than most of the guns out there. Taking it, I noticed that it was rather light, and looking down the sights I saw that had been calibrated. Damn well, too. Not only that, there seemed to be a slot for an underslung weapon built into it now. I would have to ask about that in a moment.

“I've reforged many of its pieces and its casings with some of the best material I had on board my ship. I’ve carefully replaced many of the internal components with, in my opinion, better materials. This should be much more accurate and much more fight-worthy than the older model you were using.”

I nodded as I looked at it then at a nearby tree. I considered pulling the trigger, just to see how much it could do. No one would exactly blame me but there was some decorum about firing a gun in a camp to follow, so I lowered it back down. “Thank you, brother. I will use this in today's fight, give it a good first combat inspection.”

“Good, good!” Vulkan said with a smile, clapping me on the shoulder as I had clapped Varagyr just moments before. I had to wonder if I was as brutal a clap, considering I felt like my shoulder was just barely holding itself back into its socket after that.

Moving my arm to try and make it feel better I asked, “How goes your preparations for the assault on the city?”

“They go well, most of the area around the city is already surrounded. It's all about moving forward at this point, there is one or two smaller outline outposts will have to deal with but once we're through them nothing is going to stop us from breaking through to the city. Then we’ll just have to get through the walls.”

“Well with any luck we'll have the gates opened by the time you get there and you can just drive right in with your armored vehicles.” I commented as I carefully brought the bolter gun to my right side, activating the magnetic clamps to hold it there. It did look rather neat on my side and from this angle I noticed that there was a little wolf emblem emblazoned on one side that I initially missed.

Vulkan nodded, “I think we'll reach the gates long before that will be necessary.”

“Oh, really now?” I asked, a thought occurring to me. “You want to make a game of it then?”

“A game?” Vulkan requested, curious. “What do you mean?”

“First legion to open the gate into the city gets to rename the capital city of this planet to something of their choosing.”

“Hmm…” He thought for a moment, looking off into the distance in contemplation before saying, “That's not a bad challenge. Nothing major so we can take our time and it's an objective we already were planning to do… Yes, I think this would be a fun game my little sister.” He held out his hand and said, “first one to the city Gates then.”

I took it and we shook, though he really needed to work on his control of his strength as I felt like I was going to have my arm pulled out of its socket again. As soon as he let go I rolled my shoulder blade to put it back in place before saying, “See you in the city, brother.”

“See you in the city, sister” he answered, starting to turn before adding, “Oh, silly me. I nearly forgot to tell you the name of the gun.”

“You named the gun?” I asked as he turned back one of the other Green Space Marines coming forward with another box.

“Yes, any weapon worthy of a Primarch should have it’s own name and its name is Scornspiter. Might it serve you well,” He then turned and grabbed the container before offering it to me. “And may these serve you as well.” Taking the box I opened it and saw about three or four underslung components for the gun, all of them masterly crafted, all of them looking like they wouldn't add much weight to the weapon.

“Thank you again, brother. I'm sure it will.” I said as I examined the underslung weapons with some interest. There were quite a few choices but I decided to go with something I figured would be a good all-around use weapon, taking out what it was obviously a downsized plasma weapon and sliding it into the slot for the combi feature on Scornspitter.

“Now then let us drive out these pirates and Eldars.” He said as he turned to his men and started walking back towards the green transport that would soon take him back to his legion.

“Yes, let's drive them out.” I concurred, turning to a member of the Varagyr who came up beside me and was obviously waiting for orders. Handing them the box with the combi weapons I ordered, “Have someone who put this in my tent.”

“Yes, my Primarch.” he agreed, taking the box before walking away and leaving me there to look at the transports. Today would be an interesting day, I thought. This would be one of the first Aerial assaults across water that the Wolves of Fenris had ever participated in. We had done a few through water and a few near beaches but never over it, and we'd have to protect the bigger transports of the dwarves, but it would be a generally good fight I think. It would teach my men a few new skills.

=

Holding on to an overhead strap I looked at one of the open doors of the aircraft as we made our way closer and closer to the enemy city, the enemy anti-aircraft fire increasing at an alarming rate as we did. But thankfully their entire fire seemed to be absolutely trash, not that I hadn't seen one or two of the transports go down from my point of view but one or two out of a couple thousand was not a big deal and I deemed it unlikely to stop this advance on their position.

My craft would be one of the first ones into the melee, with about another hundred around us carrying the spear point Onn company into the fray. Behind us was about another two to three companies that would come in waves every 5 minutes, theoretically that would put 4,000 soldiers into the city within the next 20 minutes. 4000 soldiers that would need to then fight their way to important points, take them and hold them or destroy anti-aircraft fire for the next wave of roughly 4,000 soldiers. Those waves would be carried by the same aircrafts after they had been reloaded with as many soldiers as could be stuffed in them.

And theoretically there would be another thousand or so soldiers dropping from orbit around the same time we were landing further into the city, closer to the wall. Hopefully they would be able to take it and provide an opening for the Salamanders to drive their forces directly to the city. If not they would at least divide a pretty good distraction and we would have an added objective to link up with them to establish lines of communication.

Another craft off to my left to went up in an explosion as several anti-aircraft fire shots got lucky and hit some sort of fuel tank. For the most part it looked like it still held together, though I started seeing Marines jumping from it already towards the sea below.

Over some parts of the ocean that would be a problem. After all if you got deep enough it didn’t matter what kind of armor you were wearing as it would crack and you'd die. In this part of the ocean though it would be fine, those islands that I’d set up as anti-air positions to keep the besieged from escaping served as boundary markers of the continental shelf for the most part, which meant there was only about 30 to 40 ft of water before you hit the seabed. Now some of them might get stuck in the mud marching the rest of the way but it was very likely that they’d still be able to get themselves free and eventually meet up with us there. Though they may have to abandon their entire power armor to do it.

No doubt the Mechanicus would hate hearing how I had given the order that this was condoned if necessary but, well, what was more important? The man or the armor? In my opinion, the man with the experience.

Well if they really wanted that armor to be recovered they could always send their own forces to recover it and put up an effort to try and find any that was lost in this campaign. The fact of the matter was the Imperium could produce as many armors as it would ever need so why worry about a few losses here or there? It was not like it was in limited numbers.

More anti-aircraft gunfire started to unleash on us but thankfully the pilots were able to go even lower, below the range of most of them. There were probably too many buildings between our vehicles and their guns anyway, allowing us to complete the journey across the sea as shuttles began to come above various places above the city. Anti-aircraft fire, and now regular fire, was still coming up at us but it was a lot more limited. As my shuttle, along with four others, came above the mansion that we had identified as a possible center for Command and Control it was only three anti-aircraft guns firing at us. At this range even the lesser weapons of our transport ships were quickly able to decimate their crews.

As soon as we had the initial landing site cleared troops started pouring out of the transport ships, landing below into the mass of enemies waiting. Which were not many, most had already been butchered by the transport crafts, but a few still stood. They put up a decent fight, firing shard weaponry at my man. A few of them went down, lots more got on to the ground and immediately unleashed hell into those who dared to try to stop them.

Quickly the landing zones around this command and control center were established and, seeing that it was now safe, I jumped down from the aircraft with a rather loud bang. I Thought I was good but it seemed that I had made a mistake as the place I jumped to happened to have been weakened. There was a cracking noise as my foot went straight through the wood and I nearly followed it into the water.

Thankfully I was able to grip both edges of the hole to stop my fall and pulled myself back out. A little bit of a screw up on my part but I had it under control, I thought as I pulled myself out, looking around and seeing that most of my men were too busy dealing with the enemy trying to attack us to see that embarrassing screw up by their Primarch.

Shaking off my foot to get some water off of it I took my short sword and ran a little bit of energy through it before hitting the area underneath the dock area, freezing it so if any more of my men happened to jump down in that area they would not go through straight to the bottom. Once that was secured I got ready to deal with the next situation. Turning around I opened my arms and Freki jumped down into them. “Good boy,” I said, setting him down before raising again so that Geri could jump down from the shuttle as well. Once they were both out I signaled the shuttle to get out of here and it started moving away, slowly but speeding up as it went.

Now to deal with the problems of this attack I thought, turning to the large Mansion across the lake-large pool of water that was obviously a wet landing Bay for spaceships. Already I could see my Marines opening fire at some of the Corsairs or Eldars, it was hard to tell which variant I was dealing with since they seemed to be intermingled here on this world. They were putting up a good fight it seemed, trying to push us from entering the main house but their weapons were not as well tuned for this fight as ours. They weren't penetrating my men’s armor as easily when we knew which way they were coming from.

So, slowly and steadily, I watched my men push forward, taking parts of the dock piece by piece and forcing the Eldars to withdraw from the windows of the mansion. Soon enough only a few shots were coming from the mansion and was looking like it was almost under our control. And then my expected issue arrived.

The water in front of me began to bubble and boil as light sprung from it then fired and then a rather smooth and sharp design for a ship rose from the water, it immediately began to turn to bring what I guessed were its main guns to bear on some of my men to the left side of the mansion. Unfortunately for the pilot of that craft this had been what I was waiting for.

Studying my target, I pulled my spear t from my back. I quickly cast a few spells on it, piercing being the main one, and took aim at where I believed the pilot would be. To make sure that I hit that target I also added a bit of tracking to the shot so it would track toward that general location. And then, once I was sure that I had the target locked, I let fly.

Throwing the golden wolf spear I don't know what I was expecting. What I got though was significantly more spectacular than I thought it would be. The spear, of course, had been augmented with a couple of my spells so it moved rather quickly through the air and should have penetrated through the craft without issue. And as far as I can tell it did do that. It also cast an illusion of a giant golden wolf’s head biting the damn craft in its teeth. I did not expect that. That was not a power I had added to its abilities, which meant that was something it could just decide to do on its own. More evidence that there was something a bit odd about this spear. Thankfully it appeared the wolf head was just that, an illusion, but it seemed to have scared the pilot for a moment and it had stunned him enough that he didn't move.

So the spear, moving at penetrator levels speed, went right through the craft in a shower of golden light. For a moment nothing happened then the spear came back through the other way, literally cutting through the front of the ship and leaving another needle hole there as it returned directly to my hand. Well… that suspicion that the spear would want to return to me if I threw it away proved both correct and a useful thing. I could get a lot of use out of the ability to throw something that would come back to me, the real question was how much could I really throw on this. Could it survive an explosive spell? I would have to be careful to test that but that was something to keep in mind for the future.

As of right now I watched the craft slowly start spinning and lose its ability to stay up. After about a minute of smoking through the holes that had been left in it and spinning it crashed into the dock on the right of the mansion, slowly sinking back into the water from there. A great cheer went up from my men as they saw the thing sink and I was myself rather impressed. One-shot one kill was always a good average to have though, again, if it could go through one target and come back could I get more in one shot? Testing for future combats I decided again.

Shaking my head I walked along the wooden dock to the front lines of the right attack vector. There I saw a company Commander doing his best to organize a defensive action on one flank, as apparently reinforcements from within the city had tried to reinforce the HQ complex, while trying to organize the attack on the HQ complex itself.

As soon as I came into view he immediately snapped off an Aquila sign before saying, “My Primarch, we are almost into the main headquarters now but this counter-assault is slowing our efforts.”

I nodded before asking, “Have we secured all entrances and exits to the headquarters?”

The captain nodded before confirming it. “As far as we can tell, yes. There may be underwater exits that we don't know about but at the moment all above ground ways in and out are closed. I have several Marines dropping over the side to see if there are any tunnels, they have explosives and they'll tig any tunnels to explode. At the very least it'll flood the lower levels and prevent anyone else from escaping, if someone has already.”

I nodded my head in approval before saying, “Good, good. Hold the line here, I'll take control of the attack.”

“Of course, my Primarch!”, He said, giving another Aquila salute before turning to go get better control over the defense against the counter-assault.

I myself moved further along, quickly finding myself at the front lines of our siege of the headquarters.

The firing from the house had diminished quite a bit since our arrival, indicating that the defenders were either low on ammunition or nearly dead or knew that anytime they popped their heads up they would probably get more bolt rounds and volkyte fired at them than it was worth popping up for. This meant, theoretically, that I could order an advance and we could break in. Of course fighting in a house was a pain and there was another option open, might as well give it a bit of a try.

Stepping forward I activated several speakers on my armor that would magnify my voice and exclaimed, “To the Eldar Lord of this house and this city! This is your one and only chance to surrender, if you do so we shall negotiate the end of your pirate career but not your life. If you agree to hear the terms out wave something white out of any window.”

As I was calling this I waved off my men so they would stop firing and give the opportunity for whoever was inside to attempt to wave out the window. It made no sense to blow off the hand of the person trying to surrender after all.

There was a pause, a bit of silence settling around the house while fighting was clearly going on throughout the rest of the city, but finally a white dining room tablecloth was waved outside the window. They were willing to surrender then, I was tempted to congratulate myself on finding an opportunity for a peaceful resolution. Turning to my men, I said, “Hold the line, I'll go in and talk to them.”

“My Primarch, shouldn't some of us come in with you?” One of the Marines asked and I shook my head before saying, “I think I have full control of the situation at this point, everything will be safe. Just wait for me to come back outside.”

They nodded and I turned, stepping forward towards the house. My wolves started to come with me but I waved them off. They weren't needed for negotiations, not yet I thought. Plus there was a chance that, as I made my way across the field, they would open up fire on me to betray the white flag of truce and all that. I could survive that, I was sure, but better to leave those who didn’t wear armor to safeguard their back.

As I crossed the open square not a single shot was fired, so obviously they weren't betraying the ceasefire. I made it easily enough up the steps to the front of the mansion, there the doors opened revealing a tall female Eldar in… not very much, it was a few pieces of armor over vital areas but there were also a few rather glaring openings in that armor that would make them easy to kill in a good fight.

“The Honorable pirate lord Arzursar will meet you,” She said, giving a bow, “but he asks for the name of his conqueror before you are allowed into the mansion.“

I nodded my head before saying, “Tanya Russ, leader of the Wolves of Fenris, child of the Emperor of Mankind and leader of the Imperium of Man.”

She bowed before closing the door on me for a few seconds, seeming to walk away and then come back. She opened the door again and invited me in, “Please come in, Miss Russ of the Wolves of Fenris.”

The door opened and I stepped into a rather lavishly decorated entryway. The place was probably more expensive than the Mansions of the Kaiser I had visited on one or two occasion in my second life. Heck some multi-billionaires from my first life would have been hard pressed, I think, to match the opulence on display. One thing though that was drawing my notice was there was someone singing, in a rather beautiful voice all things considered. It was in some foreign language, probably Eldar in nature, but it sounded rather sweet. For some reason it evoked thoughts of young love, which was strange considering I had no idea what language it was… Could this language have some sort of magical context to it, some psychic way of making itself be clear even to those that were not aware of the language enough to speak it? A mystery for another time I decided as I followed the half-dressed elf woman to a room off to the left. Carefully she opened the door, revealing a man in somewhat heavier armor and furs. He was sitting at a desk and, like before, the room was optimally decorated. however damage from the counterfire had streamed across the windows and the walls, indicating that this room had been used as one of the redoubts during the fighting.

Several sculptures up one wall appeared to be completely destroyed and some of them looked to have been from Earth in make, all were unfortunately lost to whatever history they belonged to. Shaking my head I stepped forward and said, “I'm here to discuss your surrender, Lord Arzursar.”

The eldar Lord looked up and nodded before saying, ”Yes, yes, my surrender. An unfortunate thing but these things happen.” He shook his head, saying, “The good days are ending again. Order will be restored to some extent in this little space, it shall be somewhat sad to see the world turned right but the important part is not to continue in the past but to adapt to the Future.”

Standing up he came around the desk, saying, “My pirates would be willing to go under contract of this Imperium of Man, working for them if you would be willing to spare some of our fleet and not continue your campaign of destruction across this planet.”

Well that was to be expected, I thought. Of course the moment things were going bad he would seek to try and create a situation that was favorable for him and his people. Nodding my head I said ”We may be willing to work out some deal but I'm afraid that your stance on slavery is rather disgusting to me and my people, especially what we have heard of your ties to the darker members of your brother species.”

The Corsair seemed to think before saying, “So to get peace we must renounce our ties to the Dark Eldars? This is understandable, I could see that as a possibility. If I have guarantees that this city will stand I will expunge all official members of the dark Eldars from the city and you can deal with them as they return to their hidey holes. As for slavery itself I understand that you humans have an issue with it so I could pass several laws preventing slavery of humans if that would be amenable to you.”

Not really I meant to leave that flavoring itself was a crime at the top of my list of things I hated, right next to Communism. In theory they weren't exactly the same but in practice they were the exact same, they took away a people's abilities to decide their own fate. Taking away someone’s ability to do that was a crime that I considered an almost immortal sin, humans were a free people with a free will and to dictates one's fate without giving them a choice was a disgusting practice.

However I had to admit that getting humans safe from being enslaved would be a step in the right direction and I could impress upon these elves to continue to emancipate their slaves as time went on.

Nodding my head I replied, “That will do for a start.”

“Wonderful!” the elf lord exclaimed, clapping his hands in front of him before putting them behind his back, “Now can you call off the attack across the city? I would very much like to save as much of it as possible. After all this world is going to rebuild and I'm going to need an economic power base.”

I nodded and started to reach for my coms before I noticed the singing again. It was louder now but I didn't see where I was coming from off the top of my head. There was no woman in this room beside the half-naked one next to me and she was not singing. In fact she looked absolutely creeped out and terrified.

Raising an eyebrow, I said, “What is that noise?”

“Oh that? Well that's my predecessor, the former Lady of San Katos,” he turned and pointed to a statue in the corner that I hadn't noticed before, which was not surprising considering for the most part it looked like an exact statue of some female Eldar appearing to wear some fancy dress… however, on closer inspection, I realized that though everything about it appeared to be stone the jaw was real living flesh and was moving along with the voice.

“What the…” I said, trying to piece together what I was seeing.

“She was the greatest ruler of San Katos, some say. Of course she wasn't that great, if she was I would never have been able to replace her.”

“She also used to say that she had the best voice. In my opinion that wasn't so true but I was willing to help her perfect her form, removing every flaw until there was just the perfection of her voice as it should be. Now she really does have the best voice in all of San Katos.”

“Removed?” I asked, feeling something I didn't think I had ever felt before. Not in this life at least, this life had been rather easy-going when you really thought about it. Yes, I had to fight for my life in several incidents but that was fighting for your life. This… This was something else.

“Yes! Unnecessary limbs, eyes, some parts of the brain, everything that was not necessary for the voice to be perfection was removed and what remained was encased in some of the finest Stone craftsmanship I could get at the time. One of my proudest works I think.” The Eldar said, seeming to be lost in his own world as he looked upon the stone mockery of a sentient being.

There were many things in this galaxy that I felt I had proven pretty good at handling: fighting, killing, building, and growing. It seemed that I could not handle righteous indignation very well.

What was standing before me was a mockery to free will, a person who had been able to rule a city reduced to nothing but a set of lungs, throat, voice box, and mouth so that they may sing for eternity at the pleasure of the person who did this to them. Their free will and ability to decide for their future having been taken from them and replaced with being an object.

And I just felt anger.

Out of my own control my hand went to my combi-Bolter, released it from my side, and pointed it directly at the elf Lord. Without even thinking twice I pulled the trigger on the plasma gun and, as the elf Lord turned to find out what the noise was, blue fire engulfed his head and killed him nearly instantly.

I turned the gun on the half-naked elf minion who immediately fell to the ground and started begging for her life. for a moment I considered sparing it, for another moment I considered ripping her skull out of her own head. For now I pistol-whipped her unconscious with the edge of my bolter gun, just to get some anger off, before bringing the bolter gun back to bear on the stone statue that used to be a person.

I quickly fired off a few shots, ending the infernal torment that that woman had been put through, before walking over to the corpse of the now fallen down Elda lord and putting a couple shots into its chest to be sure. Yes, I had taking his head off but I wasn't seeing the world as it was at the moment, I was seeing a monster that needed to be killed and you need to double check your kills when it comes to monsters.

There was a turmoil noise behind me before the doors that had led into the study burst opened and three Eldar in heavier armor entered the room, bringing their guns to bear. I fired off a dozen shots at them, forcing them to retreat though one of them lost his legs as he fell to the ground.

Feeling nothing but rage and anger I smashed open the window enough so I could peer out at my own Marines and called out, “Burn this cesspit to the ground.”

Vulkan of Nocturne

Enemy fire was rather unimpressive I would say. Oh they kept it up quite well as our tanks moved into position but as the rounds binged off the old Rhinos as they trundled forward and friendly forces began landing within the city. The fire slacked and we were able to drive right up to the front gates, from there the job of breaking in was rather easy. My men quickly strapped several layers of explosives on the gate and blew it up. Oh yes they did blow it. Blowing it up would have been a lot harder, of course, but blowing it in? That was easy. Once the doors were hanging off their hinges, inward facing, all we needed to do was drive in.

And that's what we had done, taking the gate first I think. I thought that perhaps the Wolves of Fenris would have been able to do it first, Tania was after all dropping forces into the city from orbit during this fight so it would make sense that they'd be able to take it first and open it for us, but something must have not going to plan.

Well my sister may be a good thinker about tactics and strategy but it must be expected that she would find something she couldn't get her head around, once in a while. We all had those things I assumed.

Hell, I even was a bit suspect about her thoughts about letting some of the Dark Eldar flee into the woods. Sure they would be rendered a toothless enemy over time but I didn't trust the Dark Eldar or these supposedly ‘Corsair’ Eldar to do nothing and stay out of the way of the human colonization efforts. In my opinion they should all be burnt down but my sister wanted to be a little bit tactful and I was willing to hear her out.

At least that's the situation as I understood it before I entered the gates. Then I saw a Wolf of Fenris chasing down a Corsair Eldar, a large blade in his hands as he slashed at the retreating elf. One lucky strike managed to find a weak point in the armor and skewered the elf, killing it as the Wolf raised the entire elf up above his head on the blade before throwing him away.

The Wolf turned and saw me along, with about 30 of my Marines, staring at him with confusion. He seemed unsure of what to say before finally saluting and saying, “ Primarch of the Salamander Legion, it is an honor to meet you.”

“Yes, an honor…” I said, looking across the street and really getting a good look at what I was seeing. I had seen plenty of battlefields fighting Dark Eldar across several planets but this seemed off, at least when compared to how I'd seen the Wolves operate before.

Across this planet, wherever they went in, I had noticed a lack… of what's the term? I would say ‘enemy civilian casualties’, an effort put forward to make sure that the only one harmed were soldiers themselves.

That seemed to have gone out the window as large sections of the city were already burning, well before my own troops had entered the city to start unleashing their own flamethrowers. Black smoke was blurring out the sky and I could see that several transport ships of the Wolves of Fenris were circling, appearing to have trouble finding a place to land. Confused, I stepped forward and asked, “Wolf of Fenris, what is going on here? I was under the impression that I would be the one setting the city to burn after we had defeated the enemy here.”

The wolf nodded before saying, “King Russ put out an order about 20 minutes ago to burn it all down, we are following that order.”

I blinked in confusion. She had put out an order to burn the city? That was unusual for her, from what I had seen. She had always seemed to have a preference for order during a battle, to start burning down the city would assuredly cause chaos in the midst of battle. And chaos tended to not go well for those fighting in it.

Confused, I asked, “Do you know where your king is? I must speak with her.”

He shook his head before replying, “Last report I had before the order of the extermination on the city was put out was that she had entered the headquarters of the Corsair pirates to negotiate a surrender. Things must not have gone well and they must have betrayed her or something.”

Had they now? Well that was not a good look, attacking someone while under the flag of truce. It was a monstrous act so I could understand the Dark Eldar wanting to do it but why would the corsairs do it? Perhaps they were more Dark Eldar than Corsair. Ahh they were too hard to tell apart and that had been the most annoying bit of all this, how were we going to separate the Dark Eldar from the Corsair? Apparently we were not anymore though. If Tanya's orders were to be followed to the letter extermination was the game now. Whoever managed to flee the city may survive but anyone inside it would burn with the city itself.

Shaking my head I pointed to several of my men and said, “You are to follow me into the city, we’ll search for Primarch Russ and get a full story of what happened. The rest of you spread out through the city find any human slaves and save them. Pass the message to anyone else that if any Eldar surrenders you’re to round them up and keep an eye on them, there's a chance that they are simply trying to buy their time for a counter-attack.“

The green-clad troops smacked their foot down onto the ground, creating a racket before saying, “Yes, Primarch Vulkan!” before breaking up into their component formations. Already a communication team near the back of the 4th was spreading my orders throughout the rest of the break-ins across the wall. No doubt the city would fall rather quickly now with the Wolves running throughout the entire city and my force is pushing in slowly. The Dark Eldar and the Corsair were soon to be squashed underfoot, it was only a matter of time.

That said I started to march into the city, watching the streets with careful eyes and wondering what had resulted in this unleashing of chaos. Tanya had seemed very put together every time I had seen her in combat. To let something go out of control like this was not like her, it was concerning in a way I did not think I had ever felt before.

Moving forward my formation soon came across a barricade of Dark Eldar or Corsair, their weapons were so interchangeable you couldn't really tell sometimes, and they unleashed a hail of fire on us. Fortunately they didn't have anything too heavy so I simply stepped out into the fire and walked forward, keeping an arm up to block any shots that would go for my face, before arriving before the blockade and using my power hammer to smash it to debris. Already the Dark Eldar had seen that their attempt to slow us down would not work and were starting to run but several of my Marines had followed me in and they rushed through the gap I made, unleashing their bolters into the backs of the fleeing enemy.

We started moving again but we were soon interrupted as several Eldar ran off a street in front of us, seeming to be in a panic. They didn't get far as several Fenrisian wolves, the actual wolf-wolf type, rushed out of the same street and began ripping the soldiers apart, tearing at them with their claws and teeth as if they were nothing but easy game for a hunt.

I looked at the wolves, they seemed even more feral than the usual. They were not the pair that followed Tanya around so they must be some of the wolves belonging to higher-ups amongst the Wolves of Fenris. They looked back at me, licking their muzzles and observing me, before going back to their lunch and seeming to give me no care, allowing me to pass. I suspected that if I followed the general direction this fighting had come from I might find my sister, after all what else would these Eldar be fleeing than the biggest and meanest soldier on the battlefield.

And my suspicions were right. As I passed through an alleyway I came out into an empty square not too far between the center of the city and the mansion and found Tanya… I think. I had seen her in combat a couple times since this campaign had started and she had always been under control. The creature in front of me did not appear to be under control. In one hand was her massive sword, in the other was Scornspitter, and both were active. She was moving across the field, quickly slashing at Eldar as they came out of their hidey holes to attempt to assassinate her, leaving nothing but ice sculptures in her wake Those who were out of range and attempted to shoot her would often fall to a bolt from her bolter gun as she would quickly locate where the fire was coming forward, then unleash a hail of fire of her own. Marines were already moving into the square but they seemed superfluous to Tanya who was… Unleashing the beast by the looks of it, that was the best way to put it. Her helmet was off, her air was flying in the wind, and her teeth were bared like one of her own wolves with incisors that seemed to have grown into proper fangs. I thought I'd spotted those before but she never smiled enough for me to have observed that properly and confirm it but there they were.

Stepping out into the field I wondered if she would have enough control to stop herself in her rampage or if she would attack me. It was hard to tell, she seemed to be operating on some sort of bestial instinct to murder, rip, and tear. I was happy to see I was wrong as, though she did immediately come to face me as soon as she seemed to sense my presence, the primal rage that seemed to be guiding her assault appeared to dissipate and she gained control of herself.

Stepping past the ice sculptures that had been Dark Eldar, I said, “Sister, what goes today? You seem to be in an extremely bad mood.”

“A bad mood doesn't describe what I feel right now,” She retorted, sounding filled with righteous indignation. “I've seen what the Eldar are capable of on their own and I think I now understand your interest in burning them out.”

Ah, that explained some of this then. Though Tanya had taken part in several of the attacks on the lesser settlements the worst she'd only ever seen was most likely the best cases of slavery instances. She had probably run across something so wretched and horrid that it just triggered some deep-seated need for vengeance for the human race and what it suffered, the same sort of feeling I had felt upon seeing the Dark Eldar at their work.

Nodding my head I walked closer to her till I was almost in front of her as I said, “Little sister, it is to be expected that you would see the worst in these creatures eventually but you seem to be a bit out of control right now. Try and take a breath.”

“I don't need a breath, I need to make sure this degenerate pit of monsters is cleansed of its filth!”

Well she had a point but she needed to get more of a control over that point so I reached forward and took her into a hug, squeezing her tight into my chest. “That may be true but you need to have more focus, being nothing but a ball of rage and murder will do your Wolves no good. They are scattered throughout the town, working as lone soldiers, and that will get them slowly picked off. So, with me, take one breath.” I took a breath and let it out and I let it out. “Now, we repeat.”

Tanya made some sort of noise, muffled as she was by my armored chest, and did struggle a bit but eventually she stopped. She even let go of her sword, letting it fall to the ground. Taking this as a sign that she had come down I slowly lowered her back to ground and let go of her.

Looking down at her I saw her face was not as rage-filled as moments ago but seemed to have calmed down. “There. Are you feeling better, my little sister?”

She sighed then smiled and said, “Much better, Onii-Chan.“

I looked at her, confused, before she snickered and said, “Always wanted to do that. Yeah, I'm calm now.” Snapping her bolter gun to her thigh she pointed past me to a marine and ordered, “Bring me a communicator! Let us see if we can get this back under control.” Turning to look back at me she said, “Thank you. Let's get back to the work of clearing out this Liberty forsaken Hell hole.” Kneeling, she picked up her sword before putting it back in place on her back.

“That I can agree with, we have much freedom to spread to the people here who have been unjustly tormented by these monsters.” I declared, putting my hand on her shoulder before we both turned to face the direction of the city. There was still a bit of it to be burnt out and cleared and I had the feeling we would not rest until this city was rubble at the edges of the sea.

Writers note: and there we go the end of San katos, in fire and wolves, tanya got to see dark ness of eldar and found point she gose murder happy. Also brother sister bonding it was cute. This was fun chapter and i hope everyone enjoy so feel free to give me your that and what not.

On subject of Eldar there, there this quote i heard where some stone sculptur said perfection was found be removing eveythign unnecessary... That where idea for that living hell i presented came from.

Edited by: Pierre,Guardsman Pius,
Community edited by:
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Chapter 34, Daughters Of the Wolf
Fenris
846. M30

Tanya Russ

“Well, this was not what I expected,” I said as I looked at the screen showing a black-haired version of myself sitting in the treatment room down the hall from where I currently sat.

I had just woken up from the party that had gone on the night before. Enjoying that to its fullest had apparently been the wisest choice, because now I had a mess on my hands and it was a massive one.

I had hoped to at least figure out what was going on on Fenris, see what the situation was like, and find out how things were progressing. Instead, I had to deal with this nightmare situation.

Turning to the Apothecary, I asked, “So this person is claiming to have been Lord Wolfen. Any way to be sure of their claims? And if they are provable, what the hell am I looking at?”

Norast Ray nodded his head as he heard my question before answering, “A failure of sorts, that's what they are. If they are Lord Wolfen as they claim is still up to debate, though I would tend to believe them as they have given quite a bit of their history and it does match up with our records on his life before… Well, attempting to ascend to a Space Marine.”

I let out a sigh before asking, “Okay, that's a start. What is a failure in this context?”

“Well let's start with our training regimen. Ever since you took Lord Wolfen out into the woods to try and get them to, well, think like you in order to retain their humanity we've taken our Aspirants out there and dumped them in the woods. They either succeed or they fail, those who make it back to civilization can begin their training and receive further modifications. Those who fail either never show up again or,” He looked towards the screen, ”end kinda like that.”

I blinked before saying, “I have heard about the incidents where a few Marines Aspirants switched gender, none of them looked like me before, and from what I heard those all happened before they were dropped in the woods. Have I missed something while I was gone?”

Norast Ray nodded his head before saying, “There have been a dozen or so cases of Aspirants changing gender before being sent in the woods and one other case like Lord Wolfen here, though this is slightly different. In fact, I would say this is really a third order of change.”

I blinked before ordering, ‘Explain. I've not gone into the research of this situation very deeply, why are marines switching genders at certain times and what does that mean for their full conversion into Marines? Also, since I'm asking questions, is there a way to reverse what has happened to them?”

Norast Ray bowed before sighing and taking a seat at a desk. He reached down and opened up a file before taking several documents out.

“As I've said there are three different cases at this point. The most common happens pre-implantation of some of the final modifications. They end up about as tall as a tall Fenrisian but they've developed female characteristics, lost some male characteristics, and their DNA has just sort of shifted into that of a female. Any further implantation of modifications is impossible once they’ve shifted, it just would not work anymore. We've actually attempted it with two who volunteered despite our predictions and the implants were rejected by their bodies. Those two, of course, died.“

“What about the remaining ones, the ones that had not been implanted yet?” I asked, trying to get an idea of the situation.

As much as they may want to undergo the final procedures I have judged that the risk is not worth it, it's really that simple. We have still a limited store of materials to produce Space Marines and it would be better to only implant in Aspirants that we know have good odds over ones that have… well, currently a 100% death rate.”

“Well, that makes sense.” I guess I would prefer fewer troops over trying to send not combat-capable troops into combat. Although… Hmm.

“Alright so these pre-modification Marines cannot be modified further once they convert to a female, the genetics just don't work. Most likely because the Emperor keyed it to males, right?”

The Apothecary nodded his head, “ I believe, with some work, I could find my way past this issue given enough time. Though most of my time is spent getting those who have been more successful into the field rather than worrying about those who have plateaued.”

“Understandable,” I said, shaking my head. “What about the ones who made it into the woods and came out female?”

The Apothecary showed another report, saying, “That was an interesting case. He seemed rather normal until they made it into the woods and then they got lost. As in we lost track of him for about a year. They should have been only been out there for 3 months but they seem to have just enjoyed living out in the woods. When we tracked him down they were fully female and somewhat resistant to rejoining the legion. She had apparently been saved by a Thunder Wolf and became friends with it, she apparently have just been partners in hunting out there this entire time.”

“Really?” I asked, leaning back as I took this in. “I didn't think Thunder Wolves could be befriended like that.”

“It's not so rare, every once in a while a Marine will come back in with a Thunder Wolf partner. There have been quite a few actually and now most Marines, when they go out for their trip into the woods, either make friends with wolves or fight wolves. It depends on how and where they are deployed.”

“Well, that's good I guess,” I said, nodding my head before continuing by asking, “So what's the state of this post-forest aspirant?”

“Unlike pre-Forest cases they are as tall as a Marine and they have a lot of the abilities of a Marine. But, like pre-Forest, we cannot progress their modifications any further. It seems that as soon as a gender shift happens their potential to become a Space Marine is lost. They have survived a few attempts of implantations but they all ended in rejections.”

Pulling out a seat on the other side of the desk I sat down to think about this. Finally I said, “Has their sacrifice of that potential taught us anything about the process of making Space Marines, something that may prevent it from happening again?”

“Yes and no, the trigger for this is still rather mysterious but those cases of gender flipping have allowed us to learn a bit about Space Marine biology when put under a different strain, which has allowed us to progress in our experiments for finding ways of using your DNA to better the lives of our people on Fenris.”

“Well… That's something,” I said, shaking my head, before pointing towards the screen and asking, “What about Lord Wolfen there? How came he shows such youth in appearance, He's not an Aspirant.

“Very true, he was one of the first volunteers after all. And that status has been very useful for us. I dare say that his appearance may be the missing link in some of our research.”

“Okay, start explaining.” I demanded with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, to be clear, he does not have most of the implantations that most Marines had. What he's had is a chemical that was supposed to make him more accepting of elements of your Geneseed, ones that would bond with his body to allow him to take up the modifications that would make him a full Marine.”

I nodded, showing my understanding but waiting for the punchline.

“That means all he's had is your Geneseed in him but none of the Emperor’s modifications, which are the last step before being left in the woods in the current process.”

“Okay?” I said, not exactly getting the biology here.

“To make it simple the pre-forest failed Marines do not have a Geneseed gland, the one post-Forest case does have a Geneseed gland but it was created while he was male.”

“This Wolfen has a Geneseed gland but it was created at an undetermined period, possibly while they were female.”

… I leaned forward a bit, blinking, before asking, “Are you saying that Lord Wolfen produces Geneseed that would be compatible with females?”

“I will need to run tests, of course, but yes. Yes, I think that is what I'm saying. I’ve got to be clear, this wouldn't exactly allow us to make females Space Marines. If that was all that was needed we could have done that just from your DNA, but we may be able to move the Pre-forest Aspirants into the post-Forest variance at the very least.”

“Not only that, this female variant of the Geneseed could be given to your Valkyrie, likely expanding their lives by up to a couple hundred years if not more and making them a bit tougher and such.”

If this, of course, worked. That would be rather useful though. Having more specialized troops never hurt and knock-off Space Marines were better than nothing. I had set out a goal to increase my numbers of troops at the front so this would help too. Plus that would definitely increase the survival rate of The Valkyrie, which currently stood at the same rate as regular humans. I was planning to see about getting them some better armor at the very least already, so giving them a bit more rapid healing wouldn't hurt.

“Has the experiments to create female Geneseed from my own DNA not gone well?” I asked, trying to clarify exactly how this one worked better than mine.

Norast Ray winced, answering, “Although we have tested the process the Emperor has given us it always results in male Geneseed. Simply using what the Emperor has given us to turn your DNA into Geneseed will not outright produce female Geneseed. However, it would appear that thanks to Lord Wolfen we now know that, under extreme circumstances, it is possible to create an Aspirant who may be able to produce it. And I'm sure that if we implanted it in other females they too would be able to produce it in time.”

“Of course they would need to go through some sort of training regime, devised to make sure they don't have the same reaction Lord Wolfen had.”

“Most likely,” Norast Ray said, before continuing, “As for why Lord Wolfen turned into a female I think I have a good understanding of why that happened.”

I turned to him, interested in what his answer would be on that.

“It has been 20 years, give or take, that Lord Wolfen has lived as some sort of creature in the woods. For 20 years he has been fighting to return to its humanity and the last thing it saw that was human was you. It's very likely that his mind was in a very malleable mental state at the moment you were talking to it.”

“You think because it saw me last and I charged him to return to humanity it thought I was humanity… so it mentally forced itself to turn him a girl?”

“Possibly, I would need more research and study on the day and also have an interview with Lord Wolfen to get every detail I can out of him. But that is likely what happened to my mind.”

“That's rather disconcerting,” I said, noting that not only did I now have to deal with the fact I had sons but I could end up with daughters at this current rate.

“There could be more to it though, I will need to run hundreds of tests and such on the matter.” He said, looking at the failed Marine with interest. “At the very least I believe it's impossible to give them any other modifications, not to mention with their size being around five two it would be impossible to start giving him some of the more important ways of becoming a Space Marine.”

Yeah, that was probably the weirdest thing about this whole situation when you really thought about it. Lord Wolfen had been around 6 feet 3 and now… Well, I estimated he was about as tall as I was in my last life and he also had my face. He still had his hair color but yeah he basically became a perfect clone of me before I become a Primarch. I was guessing, by the glowing eyes that had been reported, that they also had some psychic potential. Quite a bit of it most likely, they had to have used some sort of reinforcement spell on their limbs during the fighting that they had apparently engaged in at the city’s gates.

What other things have been basically cloned from me and adapted to this Lord Wolfen? Hopefully, it was nothing mental and just all physical… Well, I guess if he had taken on a lot of my logical thinking I wouldn't mind that…

Shaking my head, I asked, “Well we've discussed the what's and how's about the condition. now have you asked Lord Wolfen here what they want?”

“What?” Apothecary Norast Ray asked, looking up from a paper he pulled out of his desk.

“There has to be a reason that they showed up today, so why did they show up and what do they want?”

Apothecary Norast Ray shrugged, before saying, “I was more interested in the medical situation of Lord Wolfen and how it could benefit us as a whole. They did mention they wished to speak to you so I guess that's what they want.”

“Well, then,” I said, standing up, “I might as well go over there and talk to them. What room are they in?”

“Three doors down, we have a two–Marines guard in front of it just in case. They've shown themselves quite able to fight so I thought it better to be safe than sorry.”

I nodded my approval before saying, “Good luck in your research, Norast Ray.” before walking to the door and opening it, stepping out into the hallways of the Fang.

The thing wore a terrible name, though I did have to admit it did actually look a bit like a fang jutting up into the sky.

While I'd been gone the tallest mountain on the entire planet had been converted into a massive complex of bunkers, storage rooms, barracks, weapon testing ranges and weapon maintenance armories, fighter hangars and ship repair centers. Everything basically, including a massive medical center and Geneseed laboratory and vault so that we could conduct experiments and stabilize the Geneseed more. Something that looked more and more like it was absolutely needed considering, well, the conversation I just had. Not to mention that we hadn't actually spoken about it but the reason that we most likely had Marines who did not return from their little excursion into the winter snows around the Fang for their training probably shared a cause with the fact that there was a small uptick in Wolf attacks around the Fang and surrounding areas after we had those training sessions. No doubt the DNA within the humans had adaptations that were meant to help them adapt to this world but were interfering with aspects of the Geneseed, creating the occasional failure that went full wolf.

Hopefully that would be a minor issue, one that would be worked off as the years went on. They had plenty of my DNA to use for experiments in creating more stable Geneseed, so sooner or later we should be able to find a way to prevent the local DNA from making our Aspirants go full wolf.

Though I did worry about Fenrisian-produced Geneseed, after all if the Geneseed was affecting the humans into becoming wolves… What was the DNA having as an effect on the Geneseed? Would a Marine who had been implemented with Geneseed directly from another Marine have a greater chance of becoming a wolf or less of a chance? That was a concern and a reason why we needed these Gene labs and had to run these experiments.

Experiments into lesser Geneseeds, both for male and female, to give people a better chance of survival or just side jobs was something that I had thrown on the ticket somewhat at random but one of them apparently was showing some progress now.

As for the Fang it was a massive military complex, so massive that I think the legion at its current numbers of around 60 to 70,000 still had room for growth of about double that. Which was good, we were going to need as many troops as we could get. The Orks would wear us down sooner or later and who's to say there weren't other empires making their moves, I already ran into more than a few. now that had tried to do something while humanity was down. We would probably meet more as time went on.

We would probably end up converting the entire valley around the mountain into a training complex as more of it was being carved out and turned into bases as time went on. I already had put in requests for weapon systems to be delivered so that the tips of the nearby mountains could be turned into anti-orbital stations to help prevent any orbital bombardments.

And no doubt some people would always be stationed on the Gloriana battleship Hrafnkel, which was currently docked onto the tip of the Fang which poked out of the atmosphere just enough for it to be converted into a basic low-level space elevator. An impressive thing and it allowed us to ship materials up and down cheaply from low orbit, easier than if they had to travel all the way on transports.

Finally, I came to a stop in front of the door. Two Marines were waiting there, their bolter in hand, ready and waiting for something to happen, I guess. I nodded to them before addressing them, ”How's our guest?”

“Our prisoner is quiet, my Primarch.” One of the Marines answered, which was odd. I suppose they needed to consider them a prisoner but I nodded again before saying, “Well, then I guess it's time for me to meet them.”

“Opening the door I stepped in and closed it behind me, leaving me alone in the room with, in a way, another me. Our current guest was sitting at the table, wearing a light blue jumpsuit someone had found for her. The clothes that she had come in with, including her staff that seemed to radiate power, had been put in a secure room across the hall. I doubted that she'd want most of those clothes back as they were just furs from collected animals and of lesser quality than what could be produced in the cities and at the Fang.

Lord Wolfen looked up from her hands and gave a familiar smile as she saw me enter. “Primarch Russ, I was wondering if they were going to let me talk to you. Ever since I've made myself known all I've gotten is poking and prodding by various testing tools and lots of blood drawn.”

Smiling back I moved over to a chair in front of her and took a seat, saying, “Well they had to do some tests to confirm who and what you were, plus I was indisposed when you arrived. Busy with other things.”

“Ah, you were enjoying the finer things in life. I can understand that, I used to be able to do that a lot before I signed up for this whole Space Marine program.”

I nodded before saying, “Yeah. You’re looking good though, looking human is a better state than what you were in last I saw you.”

“Looking like you, you mean.” Lord Wolfen replied.

“Yeah, that's a thing. Weird but a thing we're working on. We have a few theories on why that could have happened.”

“Really doesn't matter to me now. Used to back when I first got my humanity back but I've come to be used to my lower stature in the world.”

I chuckled at the short joke, there was not much else I could do and it was a good sign that Lord Wolfen seemed to have maintained a sense of humor about their situation.

“Well nice see you, Lord Wolfen. It has been a long time since we've talked, care to fill into some blanks on where you've been and why you came to the city today? I’d also like to talk about what you want.”

“Where I've been…” She began, tapping her chin before saying, “I've been in the woods, fighting for my life against wolves, Ice Wurms, and other monsters. Including things below the woods, things deep underground in caves, though I only visited down there when I believe I was half human half wolf I think.”

Okay, that was unexpected. I knew that the entrance to the cave was near there where I dropped her off but it seemed that they had found their way into the cave at some point and killed the monsters down there? That was truly unexpected but very interesting. “When did you regain a human form?”

“About five great years ago, I think. Time is a bit weird in the wilderness, and I don't believe I regained fully until a couple years back. Mentally it took even longer, I think I only regained memories of being Lord Wolfen one great year ago.”

Nodding, I asked, “If you had memories for that long why didn't you come forward when you regain your humanity?”

She shrugged before saying, “I regained human form then I regained my memories but I had not regained my composure yet, let us say. I'm still somewhat out of it when it comes to that as well. Returning to civilization after spending so long in the wilderness takes time, though I think you might understand that to some extent.”

I nodded my head as they weren't wrong. Now I had to ask the question that was still being left open, “And how exactly did you regain human form and start the process of returning?”

She shrugged before saying, “As I said, I went into the caves. And in the caves I found the AlFather. He showed me the light and gave me my staff, which I would like back when I'm finally done here. Though it I was able to slowly visualize myself as something more than a creature of the wilderness and I became more than that.”

That was interesting, I'd have to take a look at that stuff before I was done here today. If Alfather was giving out trinkets to try and help people become human it would be interesting to know exactly what those trinkets were and why he was just now revealing he had such items.

“Okay, so that's your history. Why did you come to the capital of Russ today?” I asked, sitting back in my chair.

“Well, that's quite simple: I was called.” She said it matter of factly but, seeing my confusion, she continued. “I felt you arrive on the planet. I knew you had returned and I knew I should come see you.”

And that was another disconcerting thing, I thought. She could just tell when I arrived on the planet? That was never not weird. Though that did prove that she did have my genes running through her, many of the other Marines had reported in their reports a feeling of something when my presence was growing near. I had for the most part ignored that because it was, well… Not necessary to think much on it, just an interesting side effect at first glance, but it looked like it would extend to anyone with my Geneseed running through them. What other effects did my Geneseed have that I had been not really paying attention to… I'd have to do more research or rather have my Gene Labs look into the situation. I was familiar with the Tanyas that popped up now and again, men who without their beards could pass for me. I didn't count them as much of a problem as I had seen a few similar cases amongst Vulkan's legion and Horus’ legion so I knew it was just a standard thing that could happen. But was there something else to it? That was a question that I now was interested in and I would have to do some work to figure it out.

Focusing back on Lord Wolfen, I said, “So you can feel me coming and wanted to meet me. Well, I got good news on both fronts: you are right about your feeling and here I am. Now, what do you want? You've been having a grand old time living in the woods, you have to have a reason to want to come out of the woods other than just feeling me arrive.”

“I want what I was promised, King Russ. I was promised that I would go up into the stars and fight for Fenris and the Alfather. This has been so far denied to me but now that I am stable and quite confident in my own abilities I would like to have my chance to do as was promised: to go with you into the stars and kill the enemies of Mankind.”.

“Huh… What?” was the first thing that came out of my mouth. I don't think I had expected that, perhaps I had expected a request to return her to male, maybe some kind of refund on this or enough money so she could go live a life of luxury somewhere in the wilderness. Actually demanding to join the Crusade was at the bottom of the list. It really just showed that you can turn a Fenrisian to look like me but it didn't change the fact that they were still Fenrisian. The call of combat still rang in their ears, the crazy combat junkies they were.

Leaning back though, what was I going to say to this situation? It would take a bit of thought, after all I couldn't exactly make her a Marine now could I… Although there were things other than Marines in my retinue now, weren't there?

Smiling I leaned forward and said, “There's a group of female warriors that follow the legion into war and support us in our combat, either as troops or logistic units. If you are willing to put up with having to serve as logistics support once in a while you can join the Valkyrie, no issue.”

The smaller me seemed to blink at that before nodding her approval, saying, “Tes, that would be fine. Put me in combat; let me fight and die the way I was promised so I can gain glory for my clan.”

“Then you will have it,” I said, getting up. “I'll have a few Valkyries come down and escort you to their barracks soon enough. I’ll warn you that you'll probably still need to give plenty of DNA and other medical samples to the staff here before that though.”

“If I must give DNA for the chance to fight, I will give DNA,” she said matter of factly, before adding, “Though I will want that staff back.”

“I know,” I reassured her, “You'll get it, you'll get it. I see no reason to separate you from it, though I do wonder? I saw reports that your eyes were glowing when my men picked you up. Was that related to the staff in any way?”

She paused before saying, “To some extent. I do feel a power that I did not feel before my time as a wolf. That staff lets me sharpen it and use it as necessary.”

“Do you have to mentally think about runes in order to use that power?” I asked, directly this time.

She blinked before nodding “Yes. Yes, I do.”

Oh great I thought, shaking my head. My genes had somehow turned her into a Psyker and somehow she probably also gained access to a few of my spells. DNA memory, who could see that coming?

Letting out a sigh, I said, “Well I will probably have to give you a few lessons on how to use that power safely before you leave Fenris. Are you okay with that?” I asked stretching a bit and making ready to leave.

She nodded before saying “If that is what's necessary for me to see Glory then I will do what is necessary, there's no other choice.”

That sounded oddly familiar… It was ringing a bell in my old memories but I shook it off,, I would rather not think about the possibility that parts of my personality might have also leached into this person's existence. I did not need to think about the possibility of a full and total mini-me. For now all I said was, “Well, Lord Wolfen, welcome to the Great Crusade. I am glad to have you with us and see you tomorrow when your training really begins.”

She nodded before I exited the room, closing the door carefully behind me before turning to the two marines. “Where is her stuff being kept?” I queried.

“Down the hall, to the right,” one of the Marines said and gestured, I nodded my thanks before quickly making my way to the room that they had shown me. I noted that there was another guard on that door, probably smart. If somehow the girl in the room broke out it was better to have as many guns between her and that staff as possible on the potential that that staff had some more power than we currently saw.

Nodding I saluted the man before entering the room and moved forward into a small Warehouse of bottles. They had apparently been collected and stored here in a ‘lost and found’ style area. The staff was sitting on a table at the center of the room and I quickly stepped up to it, looking it over. At first I thought it was wood, some sort of white wood, but on closer inspection I was wrong. Maybe bone? There was also ancient writing on it or… No… These were definitely runes but I wasn't sure if they were Fenrisian or older. In fact, the material kind of looked like the same stuff that Eldar had been wearing… oh! My realization was rather quick as I understood what I was looking at, this was some sort of Eldar staff. Now, why had the Alfather given a relic belonging to the Eldar to Lord Wolfen… The answer was rather easy when you thought about it. This planet had some sort of connection to the Eldar so most likely this was either some relic from when they were attempting to turn this planet into something they could live on or something that had fallen to the earth since then. Touching it I quickly felt a thin trace of psychic power on it, very similar to what I felt when I touched the spear the Emperor had given me though much weaker. What this was and how it worked was beyond me at the moment but I would be keeping a close eye on it and doing a lot of research to try and figure this out.

Tanya Russ

A legion cannot be out of the line for too long. Yes, my legion needed time. Time to rest, to recoup, to rearm and then go back out into the fight but they needed to be able to get back in that fight as quickly as possible. There were plenty of conflicts going on throughout the Galaxy and my legion was needed. So the moment I stepped on Fenris I knew that I had a limited time to do everything that needed to be done while I was in the system.

Which meant I would most likely not have a lot of time to go partying and enjoy the general atmosphere of this place, at most I would have 5 years from my estimate. Which seemed like a somewhat good time scale when you had an infinite amount of years of life ahead of you. 20 years on campaign, 5 years back at home resting and recuperating. So I had a limited time to do a lot and a lot to plan what to do. My first objective once I reached the planet was to find out how everything was progressing and really the world was progressing quite well. They had reached a state of post-barbarianism, almost Classical era, of culture with technology verging on what was known at the end of Earth’s second millennium. The Stewards that had been left in my place while I was gone had first brought in lots of nuclear power plants to help produce energy and then quickly figured out how to use geothermal with the help of the Mechanicus. As a result, though most of the world was still rather barbaric, everyone had access to electricity and was seeing a lot of advancement in different ways.

There were greenhouses on the planet now and ways of storing food other than making a hole in the ground, which meant Summer was not as dangerous to people as it had been for the last thousand years and winter was not as bad as it had been for thousands of years as well. The ingenuity of man was conquering this planet. Sure it could still kill us if we let our guard down, but peaole interested in living rarely let their guard down on Fenris.

And I noted that my ideas about possibly using thermal lakes for pools and such had actually been greenlit by the Stewards while I had been on the way here and Were now enjoyable by many Not only did my Valkyries and Wolves of Fenris get a chance to relax in thermal pools of hot water and enjoy the atmosphere of their homeworld, which had become more peaceful and better held together than it had been for the last thousand years but they could also be trained on how to swim now. Which, considering the number of water worlds we'd run into, would always be useful.

Other things of note that happened while I had been crusading was the coalition of the priesthoods and the official military branches. The Iron Priests, a sect of blacksmiths and engineers that had kept their secrets for generations, had been completely integrated into the Space Marines and guard equivalent and now had firm contacts with the priesthood of Mars. They had even adopted the red robes. The Martians had instilled, or seem to be trying to instill, the worship of their Omnissiah but the Fenrisian still believed in their own mechanical understandings of the universe. Still all were working together rather closely. Some of the senior staff did seem to have decided that having an extra mechanical arm was not a bad idea, so no doubt the mechanical biomancy the Mechanicus proclaimed was key to their survival might spread a bit to that priesthood.

The Wolf priests had also apparently been completely subsumed by the military and now the official title of the Grand Apothecary was the Wolf Priest. I wasn't exactly as annoyed as I thought I'd be when I found that out since apparently they weren't spreading any religion, it was more or less a Commissar position. They weren't really spreading a religion but more of a belief in teamwork and how we would all work together and overcome, if we stood together. I didn't mind that as much as I could have another dogma, not to mention they also took care of a lot of healing and tending to the spiritual needs of Aspirants going through the trials so calling them priests weren't exactly wrong.

And the last major priesthood, the Rune Priests, had been fully subsumed by the psykers within my legion that I left behind. Looks like that title of priest would become a major title within our military, no matter what happened, which I guess I would just have to come to live with. We were already on a Crusade which meant the war of the cross so it seemed like we were just taking religious titles and changing them for our own needs.

It may cause some trouble down the line trying to convince people to join who were rabidly anti-religious but explanations should be able to solve that situation sooner or later

As for the rest of the things going on in my sector there had been, as I suspected, a population boom. Peace, food, and trade tended to do that, so much so that there was actually an ability to support military units outside of the Fenrisian Space Marines and Valkyrie so I would be leaving Fenris next time with a couple of divisions of Fenrisian Imperial Guards. They would be no better outfitted than the current Imperial Army, but I hoped in the future that would change. The Mechanicus seemed to have taken my interesting points of view on that one moon to heart and were in the process of converting it into a forge planet and I heard the tank was going through trials at a rather impressive speed. Soon as it had completed those trials it would be available for production on the new Forge World which meant Fenris would have its own production center and its own tank designs. That was the important part, I had spoken to the Mechanicus agents and got for ourselves a bit of a 100-year lease on the design, basically every other planet that produced it would have to send a small portion of either production or money to Fenris’s new Forge World to help me grow quicker for the next hundred years. And considering that the talk I was hearing about this Tanya Russ tank implied that it would be produced quite heavily to support local guard units as well as the Imperial Army that would probably be quite a bit of wealth that would be flowing to the planet of Svellgard.

I’d even finagled it so that Ms. Adelheid would be considered the Forgemaster, or mistress not really sure what the title would be for a female, of the Forge World and she was rather ecstatic on the whole thing as well. She was going to use the Forge World to produce a lower class of power armor for my Valkyries, as well as experiments with short runs of the current Mark II power armor so that we would have our own production in the system.

And other good news: whatever production issues that had been screwing with our Volkyte shipments had apparently finally been handled and now we were getting a steady supply of weapons. Either that or all the other legions had been sending all their damaged stuff to be repaired and they decided to ship off all the damaged but mostly repaired stuff to us.

The Iron Priests had gone through the weapons that had been delivered and all of them turned out alright so far. Either way they were holding up to a heavy standard and so we were getting enough weapons to really have an effect on the next Ork problem we ran into, enough so that we could leave a bunch of bolters behind us for training purposes.

Which was a goal that was in my plans now. The military structure of my legion had undergone several stressful situations, from the loss of former legion Master Enoch Rathvin to an attempt to split the legion in three to try and conquer the Wheel of Fire faster. Those stressing situations taught me some interesting things.

Mainly that my commanders could handle the situations when presented in front of them but they needed more experience being on their own in the field. I don't know how some of the other legions would handle their own use of forces but in my mind having commanders able to make their calls in the field and able to do it to completion and victory had priority over following orders to the letter while the situation changed around them.

So, to handle this problem, I was implementing three solutions.

An officer School was the first, based somewhat on my memories of the war college I had attended as well as some other historical information retained from my first life and experiences in this life. The goal of course was to train the candidates’ initiative while also teaching them general strategies. As much as intuition was useful, having an idea of what kind of strategies your enemies may use to counter you as well as strategies you could use to counter them could be more useful than luck.

The second was the recreation of the chapter system. Sort of.

As it stood there were something like 11 chapters in total for the entire legion, most chapters being wildly over one thousand strong at this point. Well, most of them had more than 2,000 members which was supposed to be over the number allowed for chapter design. Frankly, as far as I could see, sticking to this one thousand men per chapter thing was kind of foolish. That would also result in something like forty chapters, which would lead to confusion on the ground regarding who was in command of what.

I had heard some people starting to call chapters ‘Great Companies’, which was a bit better as a title I will admit. It was at least more thematic for our legion so I ran with that idea. I'd set up an end goal of around 100,000 soldiers across twenty Great Companies. With that as the target, I could then work on how to get men trained up for positions of leadership. Ten great companies would always be on the move with me, one of them would be the honor guard that would see some of my most veteran troops. The other nine would be the ones rotating at home to be filled with new recruits needing the hand of veteran troops to teach them how to fight.

The other 10 Great Companies would be split in five and given to the leadership of commanders I judged worthy of running an expedition, they would then set out and find enemies of the Imperium and operate as I trained them to do.

Of course this was just the grand plan. It was hard to say if this would come to pass correctly or not, but that was the hope.

And the leadership of the legion, the current commanders, was all in favor of it, though I could see why as this would create more positions of officers for them to spread around. As well as a couple more ranks that they would be able to obtain, such as mentions of something called Wolf Lords which was a suggested name for the officers who would be put in charge of these more seasoned troops who would venture on their own.

Sometimes it was annoying that my men enjoyed the branding of the wolves, other times it was amusing. Today I was rather uncaring about the subject. It was my own fault, I had basically been feeding into this branding of the wolf the entire time but what could you do? Hell, I even had a helmet that was meant to look like a wolf’s head so this was all my fault and I now had to learn to live with the branding being unfortunately effective on my own employees. I could grumble about it but I guessed, in the end, I would just have to come to accept it.

The only other major thing to think about that was politically going on was the Squats who'd come all the way from the Core to the world of Fenris and were having a grand old time in the mountains. I'd heard reports that they were exploring and fighting some of the monsters with rather avid glee and they apparently were getting on well with the Iron Priests. there had even been one report that the priests and the Squats were sharing methods of construction with each other. Where this collaboration would go I didn't know but having them close to us as firm allies was, in my opinion, for the best, especially with how problematic the Mechanicus was with their belief in the Omnissiah.

All in all, as things stood, everything was set up for a good couple years of rebuilding the legion into a stronger Force, prepping units of Fenrisian guard to deploy with us, and possibly deploying new versions of The Valkyrie as a secondary Force along with the Fenrisian guard.

My armor was also getting a slight rebuild as well. The issues with the chest plate were being smoothed out and would be finished by the next campaign I believed, as well as a new device that was being added.

Miss Adelheid had heard of how I had used my sword to freeze enemies and had gone out of her way to create what sounded like some sort of absolute-zero generator on my armor plates, one that could be deployed in a way that would create a small area of freezing cold around me.

Now I had no problem with the cold, that was a skill that I picked up quite quickly while living on Fenris, and most of my Marines seemed to share that ability but I bet most Orks And Shark people had problems dealing with the cold. Not to mention I wouldn't be surprised if Eldar did as well.

So I was in full support of this armor attachment as it was. Basically walking through a winter wonderland that I created would guarantee me the home-field advantage and any advantage on the battlefield was worth experimenting with.

She was also working on more magnetic areas to place weapons since I had grown my collection of useful weapons quite a bit while on campaign.

She was supposed to come by later today with one of the new designs for me to try out and I would probably have to call up some Valkyrie to help me. Which brought up the other situation that I had been thinking about since I had let Lord Wolfen join the valkyrie. I figured I would do the same with all the other failed Space Marines Aspirants, allow them to have the chance to fight for the Imperium. Even if they were fighting in second-line troops, which were useful in some respects, a couple of them had quite a bit of upper body strength which meant they could help me get on my armor a lot more easily than Helga Arndottir.

No doubt I would have to ask Miss Adelheid to build custom armor for all of them since several of them were near Space Marine in size but really couldn't use Mark II power armor.

Well she'd probably be ecstatic about that, really. She had always said that she was one of the few of the Mechanicus who worked on female armor designs so giving her a chance to work on that would be as a gift of the Omnissiah for her.

Oh, I wondered how the former men-turned-women would react to having to wear armor that showed off their female features as much as what I had been forced to wear.

There was no way that she would not build armors similar to what I wore, she enjoyed making female armor. Well, considering how Lord Wolfen had just been demanding a chance to fight no doubt they'd probably just settle with it being okay since well… they'd be given a chance to fight. One thing you could count on the people of Fenris: they enjoyed a good fight and would put up with a lot of things for the chance to get it.

Sighing, I stood up from where I was sitting behind a desk and cracked my neck, stepping out of the office I was in.

I had spent the last several hours going over dozens of reports and information summaries from across Fenris, both the planet and system. I still had to go through a good majority of the information that had trickled from the Imperium but that was for later, I would take a moment to step out of the office and into the main living area of my new home.

I would never have thought I'd have multiple homes and I now technically had three. Castle Russ was still technically my home but was more of a political Capital now and used by the Stewards to organize efforts to improve life on Fenris.

My old cabin still technically existed, I visited it, but it was a lot more inside the city than it had once been and they basically turned it into a museum after it had been subsumed by what could best be described as the growing suburbs of Russ. I had a feeling that if I ever wanted to live out in a cabin in the woods again I'd have to build it much further out, possibly in the valley I first arrived in. Though it had also sort of become a tourist trap but it was far enough away that the only tourists were my Space Marines.

And now I had my new home, an apartment near the top of the Fang that overlooked the mountain ranges on all sides. They had taken one entire level and just made it my apartment, with several different open windowed vistas overlooking some of the grandest sites anyone on the planet would ever see. I did appreciate that. I also appreciated that it had a well-stocked library, bar, and a small heated pool.

And that were just the things of notes that had been there when I arrived. Since I got a good understanding of what the room held I was having more stuff shipped in from Russ to fill it out. Soon enough, it would be rather well furnished. Including a pair of dog houses for my wolves, Freki and Geri.

There had been another interesting situation I had to deal with as soon as I arrived on the planet. In the chaos that had been my Ascension to Primarch I had not really been able to deal with what had once been my whole goal: raising wolves on a little farm. Since my cabin and the farm that had once been there were now a museum dedicated to me rather than working to produce tame wolves. I now had to figure out what the hell had happened while I was gone.

For the most part it just became a decentralized process instead of a centralized process, with wolves founding families alongside their owners, raising them up, so forth and so on. I'd been able to track down the majority of wolves that had been in my care and they were in the hands of nobles who were treating them well so things had worked out for the most part.

Mother Wolf was gone. Not dead, or at least I didn't know if she was dead or not, but she had definitely left civilization and gone back to the woods with several of the wolves she had under her command, including Freki's mate. What they were doing out in the wilds was anyone's guess, probably just living the life of wild wolves but that was the situation as it stood with them. If I ever wanted to rebuild my business of raising wolves for civilization… Well I'd have to go out into the wilderness to start it up again because everything I had built was no longer in a good position to do the job.

I hoped that I would soon be able to return to a peaceful life but I knew it would probably be another hundred years at the current rate of progress before Humanity was reunited and this Imperium duly established. I would just have to get used to that and, until that was accomplished, I needed to keep my mind on the game in front of me. What issues would develop when creating an Imperium that was Galaxy sized, how many aliens would we have to fight, and who would try to cause us problems?

As well as what could stab me in the back.

That's why I was going through all the reports I could get from the Imperial Navy and Army about what was going on, along the campaigns that were underway. Most of them were against pirates, minor powers, and minor aliens. Given enough time even the Imperial Army could overtake them. There were also mentions of various efforts to bring in worlds through peaceful efforts or by using mutual friends or by raising barbarian kings to unite primitive worlds. Apparently, that trick worked quite well and they were trying to use the carrot-and-stick approach to bring people into compliance.

They were mentions of the other legions, associated to new names which were obviously replacements for their old ones or numbers. I did note that the reports that arrived had a tendency to not feature the names of any of the Primarchs. Dear old dad was obviously having his laugh at all of us not knowing each other off the bat and wanted us to discover each other on our own. Well, so be it. The reports still were readable enough and I was finding out quite a bit of information. From what I gleaned, it seemed like most legions were doing a good job of conquering worlds near their original homeworld before pushing out and joining in other aspects of the Crusade.

Obviously every legion was taking baby steps, learning how to work together against the common enemy before making a move. Good tactic as far as I was concerned, a legion needed to learn its strengths before it could take on the bigger enemies out here. Yes, I'd thrown my legion into the grinder but I had a good understanding of them from the first moment I'd read their informational reports and I also had decades of military experience both consciously and unconsciously by that point. I doubted my brothers and sisters would have that ability at hand.

Hmm, that actually would be a good idea for using the two groups of five Great Companies. Securing the space around Fenris would be important for the survival of Fenris and of the Imperium itself to some extent. It would even give them time to train any recruits that entered their units over the years.

A point that was underlined now as there were reasons to fear that there might be something to worry about in the local sector, to the… I guess galactic north of Terra, in the Segmentum Obscurus. There had been a rebellion of several worlds and the legion deployed there had to deal with some sort of messed up situation. The information was still unclear, that or the censors didn't want people to know what exactly had gone down.

Probably a mix of both. Not having an understanding of why something happened and not wanting people to know that there was something they didn't understand could go hand in hand easily enough. From the reports I was able to read through the human population had rebelled and fought the Space Marines, to the point they'd actually forced them to retreat. There may have been psychic powers involved. All in all, a messed up situation that sounded terrible in all aspects.

And it got worse because apparently, a year later, the legion that had been involved returned and found that the humans weren't fighting the Space Marines anymore as they were fighting each other, apparently in some sort of suicidal civil war while whoever was responsible for this had disappeared.

This was north of Fenris, this was a threat, that could be an issue. I’d need defenders so keeping about half my legion in the general area of Fenris, just trying to perform cleanup operations to secure our borders, seemed like a reasonable thing to do. It would keep them fresh and ready if this turned out to be something bigger, something we needed the troops for.

I would hate to take my legion out on the next campaign and get it decimated to a terrible degree, only to come back and find Fenris under whatever effect had taken over the Osiris sector.

Keeping guards on Fenris, as well as a reserve ready to go into action against whatever this was, was most likely the wisest course of action as far as I was concerned.

There was also a report of a conflict between what I believed was the first legion and some species called The Rangdan. Information on that was also apparently either confused or uncertain. It also was in the North and apparently had a Forge World and several other planets along the border.

The scale of the attack had been so great that the first legion had lost 5000 Brothers over 4 months apparently. That spoke of an intensity of fighting that reminded me of the Wheel of Fire, this could mean many things. Supposedly the species had been defeated and their homeworld burned but it did indicate that something to the galactic North of the Imperium had an ability to meet the Imperium in the field and give a good fight in both accounts. Just based off that I had a suspicion that it might be the untamed North that would be a problem for the Imperium. Who knew how many empires were there and how powerful they were, we could be looking at a Europe situation where the constant fighting between several different factions had created several powerful empires that we would have to contend with as we moved into the region.

I should really try and find out who the other Primarchs were at a faster rate. If there was an enemy to my North I should know who would be the closest Allies I could count on to come join me in the defense of the Imperium. Being on the front lines of a multi-state empire was not exactly going to be fun if all I could call upon were various Forge Worlds and infantry from worlds with low technological levels.

That and I also should probably see about increasing the ability to live on some of the other worlds in the system. The jungle world of Midgardia for one was still slowly growing and I needed to see about improving its production of food, to at least handle some problems that may develop in the future unless we get some system-wide self-sustainability.

And planet Frostheim, though rather barren, could definitely see some use if I put some work into it. After all a somewhat more stable version of Fenris just a little bit further out in its solar path? There was no reason why it could not grow to be a rival of Fenris in time. We were already working on producing nuclear power plants and putting a few over on that planet, so seeing about building it up would not harm us in the long term. At worst it would give us a place for any overflow of population on Fenris while we figured out how to be… Well, a modern society.

I also needed to see about building up some defenses around Fenris. Currently all we had was what ships happened to be in the sector at the time but there was always the potential for those ships to be away when the enemy came into the system. Perhaps I could see about some of that wealth and Goodwill we had gathered from our various campaigns to have some space fortresses built, if that was even possible. I would have to hope so as every little bit would help secure our back lines and support the legion when it moved forward.

Sighing again I shook my head and turned to head towards a coffee maker which I had ordered built in my apartment. I had a long day of reading reports and working on sending out orders to deal with various problems across the sector and planet, I was going to need the energy or at least what felt like energy.

Writers note: AH and there chapter 34 or start of planning of the next ark, i’m currently working, if the Supporters ever vote for runt again, lot vote for bleach fic rectly really need to fine way to get some of that out, as i’m now at 6 chapter ahead soon to be 7.

But anyways, little bit reveal of what happen to Wolfen and a bit of info on what going on with the science team taking care of Tanya gene sead, and info on the coming and going of the fenrist system, as well as hint of what conflicts to come. I think done well but you all will be the judges of that.

Also some of you make look at think and say FEMALE SPACE MARINES! And no, only male can be made into full fledged spaces marines what going on here are the are failed aspirants most chapters have some for of failed aspirants they usually ended up and staff helping in keeping their fortresses clean, Space wolves don't have them in canon because they tend to get, well eaten or wolfed before they get full on failed, that explain why they're so rare in this case.

Now others are going to go, but Wolfen gene see can make FEMALE SPACE MARINES! and no it can be used to develop some transhuman abilities but nothing to level of space marines, remember the first batch of vultears had to be given a special drug to make space marines processes work there slightly different then standed marines and wolven from that first batch, there were in essesns proto marines because they did not have lot augmentations full flege marines have. So at best Wolfen gene sead may lead to improved healing and survivability maybe age slowing among the valkyer.

Now that that is cleaned up have fun taking in what that means and playing with the idea in omakes.

Edited by: Pierre
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