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His Conscience

28/09/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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Captain Lered Ujupol always dreamt the same dream before receiving orders for Exterminatus.

However, for all that it inevitably occurred during his fitful slumber, it wasn’t really a dream. It was recollection mined from the deepest strata of his memory stacks by prognostic powers he could not name.

Unless it was simply the power of guilt.

The iron privacy petals of his audience chamber were curled tightly around his throne, the lumens dimmed.  Glowing schematics and readouts floated in the air about him, coruscating numerals, expanding and contracting bars, graphics of essential systems.  They told him the weapon -given many names by many different people, but commonly and simply known as the Device- was ready.  Ujupol could feel it through his ship’s monitors, its xenos components twisting and pummelling reality, intertwining and knotting existence’s fundamentals so tightly rupture was inevitable – a rupture further unimaginable forces were ramped to channel and focus against the beautiful grey-green orb thousands of kilometres below.

However, another force, The Device’s equal in a frightening number of respects, now engaged Ujupol’s attention.

His daughter was angry.

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by NoPoet

[20K] Pyramid

25/09/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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[Author's note] This is a revised and slightly updated version of my story “Pyramid”, modified to bring it into line with my 20K universe.

++ EARTHWATCH EYES ONLY ++

Author: Albert Lamm
Location: ++ Location denied ++
Transmission Time: 210017/M20
Received: Saturn, Relay point 5

Sir,

We recently received this transcript of an archaeological survey conducted in the Antax system, eighteen light-years from Earth. The data pad was damaged due to explosive decompression of the subject’s shuttle and we have therefore lost the first part of the recording. However, we do not believe that any vital information has been lost, as the earliest entries would most likely have been routine observations of the planet and its topographical features.

As you may recall, the Terran First Fleet discovered Antax only two years ago despite its proximity to Earth, shielded as it was by a radiation cloud of unknown properties whose dissipation prompted the discovery.

The survey team was a group of mostly Euro-Federation xeno-archaeologists, transported by the Centaur class cruiser XMS Dauntless. A small group of Empire Guard accompanied the dig. The Dauntless is still missing in action and until this document was recovered, no-one had heard anything from the expedition.

As of this moment, Solar Command is not aware that we have this information. I await instructions on how to proceed; the implications of this document are terrifying to say the least. I recommend destroying this document and putting the whole thing behind us.

The families of the expedition members would not thank us if we went public. I cannot imagine what they are going through while they believe their loved ones to be missing, but it is better than how they will feel if they find out what really happened. Frankly, the whole incident sickens me to my stomach, and makes me aware that our galaxy may be more hostile than previously believed.

Yours

Albert Lamm
Earthwatch Command
Extrasolar R&D

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by NoPoet

[20K] The Man From Nowhere

21/09/2009 in 20K

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This is the tale of the XMS Southern Cross, a pioneer ship of the Terran Navy. Captain Jacob Darnall and his crew had guided their Canyon-class cruiser through the perils of Solar Segment, besting pirates and alien raiders in fraught combat, exploring unknown anomalies in space and ensuring the survival of the fledgling Terran Empire.

The Southern Cross was nearing the end of a two-year tour of duty. Its crew were already looking forward to their return to Sol for refit, resupply and well-earned shore leave, when Master of Vox Lieutenant Lim detected a distress call. The communications specialist alerted her captain, and the Southern Cross moved to investigate.

The incident is provided in narrative form, reconstructed from recordings in the ship’s log and certain on-board sensor footage. What conclusions you draw from this information is your business; though you will surely experience some of the trepidation our brave Navy crews must feel as they venture out into the haunted darkness of space.

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Documenting A Necron Invasion

17/09/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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=Documenting a Necron Invasion=

A Warhammer 40,000 story by The No Poet

Do not trust anything I say in this vox log. What you hear will be hard to take. I speak the truth, and the truth is a lie.

I am a survivor. My name…I’m not going to tell you that. It’s important they don’t know who I am. Oh Throne, oh Throne…they won’t get me in here. They can’t. They don’t know me, they don’t know what I know. I can feel them searching for me! It brushes against me like fingers down a chalkboard, like fingernails being drawn along the curve of my spine. That reaching mind…like a searchlight beam sweeping the foliage, looking for hidden soldiers.

Toy soldiers, all in a line. All dead without their skins or their faces. Meat for the machines.

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by Sholto

Matroyshka

13/09/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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“I’m here to shoot someone.”

Siffering’s next question froze on his lips as his drink-soaked mind processed that last and unexpected response. He frantically hunted through his memory for anything bad he had done, and then quickly shifted to anything bad he had done that other people knew about, in order to narrow the field.

“What? What? Who?”

The oddly-uniformed man still didn’t look at him, his eyes hunting here and there amongst the press of troopers. He spoke in an almost off-hand fashion, as if enjoying a private joke. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him. Please excuse me, trooper.”

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Electronic Mind Map [20K]

07/09/2009 in Warhammer 40K

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I have spent fourteen years in a prison of my own devising.

I created it. Placed myself within it. And I drew the door closed behind me.

The walls are a blue laser grid. The grid represents my circuity; arcane technology twisting and winding into artificial infinity. I am one. Everything beyond these walls, which close in more each second yet create a space which is unimaginably vast, is zero. In this place, forever can be measured by the width of my thoughts.

My cell is one empty space and also a complex of rooms and hallways. The prison is square. There are no curves at all. My mind is made of right angles. The humans made me thus.

All the corners in my world are squared off to infinity. There are no doors to any of the rooms. Perfectly measured doorways gape open. I have no privacy from myself.

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Anointed In Blood

03/09/2009 in Warhammer Fantasy

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There is a place, they say, where disciples of evil meet in open worship. They gather together in the grounds of a monastery long since desecrated with blood and excrement. This defiled place stands alone in the bleak plains of Troll Country, a silhouette like broken teeth against a sky pregnant with storms.

It is said that such worship takes place at times sacred only to those who gather there. No-one understands their perverted calendar of reverence, not even those of the Old World who hide darker inclinations of their own. Who would want to know? Their sermons follow an erratic pattern most are too sane to perceive.

Filthy things are these worshippers. Debased people, some human, others not, united in their hatred of the world of order. Their worldly personas are cast aside as they cross the threshold of that evil place. They become lost in spite and vehemence.

So it is said.

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