The Second Dark Age

[Monk]

well finally got my internet hooked up and working...looks like i should update this soon.

@ ceasar: glad you like it...

@ Ludens: yes, i realize that i've probably almost worn this theme out in regards to plot twists that i could take with it. Yet still, i've always managed to do a decent job in presenting the plot (sometimes better than others). I've kept the same theme, for the most part, but i've always tried to make the ending different with each story i do, even if the differences are few they are there, so i've not yet felt i need to change the theme. As to branching out to a new theme, i hadn't given a thought as to what i'd do next, because this current project will take a lot of lime to finish, but i am most likely going to try something new.

But i'm not going to worry about that now since i'm working on this, i'll think about my next story/theme when i get done with this one. i'm glad you enjoyed it...

[Monk]

Ahh, the Holidays are a good time...Half-life 2 has been bought and finished, so now i can concentrate on this again hope everybody else had a nice holiday. This part is small(or at least seems small...maybe it's me), the next will be bigger if so

and before you ask (for those who notice it) Yes, the guy who ruled the "ORDER" had a military like the one in warhammer 40k


part v
The Serpent Strikes

Ever since ancient times, the vast Imperium of the Knightly Order has stood, shrouded in mysteries more numerous than the salts of the seas, Those who live within are feared by all who border them, for the technology of what has become known simply as "The ORDER" vastly surpasses any others known on the earth. Yet Solicous, one of many small nations that bordered the vast Imperium, never once feared them. Instead, a strange bond of friendship had formed between the two over many centuries...a bond that was shattered quite easily...

"Prometheus" Outpost, Upper Earth Orbit
0400 hours, First encounter +2 (days)

The warning alarms of the space station were sounding, yellow lights were flashing on the hull and in the hallways of the orbiting outpost which spun high above the earth's surface. The huge station was busy with activity, the proximity alarms were raging, but what set them off was unknown. Security teams were already arming themselves, not knowing what to expect. Power was feeding into the auto-cannons mounted upon the hull, they were charging up incase they needed to be used.

Command Bridge

A door on the bridge opened swiftly with a smooth sound, the metal door receded and a single man walked on the bridge, it was the captain. He rubbed his weary eyes and held back a yawn, this was the third time in the last five hours the proximity alert had sounded, the other two times he was greatly annoyed to find nothing as the scanners swept the area about the station, yet this time, there would be a terrible surprise.

He hurried over to the long line of technicians sitting at their stations, each doing their jobs working everything from communications to sensors at a large control center that sat in front of a huge force field protected view of earth. As he passed by the large window looking down on the world, his mind wondered why they had not received a transmission from their home nation of Solicous in the last two days; it was not common for protocol to be broken like this. He sighed and kept walking; first he had to worry about the proximity alert that was sounding over head. The captain moved to the tech monitoring the scanners, who sat in front of a large green screen with a circling bright green sweeper, and as it moved in a clockwise motion, large blips appeared in its wake.

"What do we got?" the captain asked as he slowly bent down and looked at the screen, his voice was tired as his eyes settled upon the green arm moving in a clockwise motion, one could also detect how annoyed he was that this was the third time he had been summoned to the bridge on his off hours.

"Not looking good sir." the technician replied, his voice was full of worry as he reviewed the readings on the screen "I've got three objects moving toward the station at high speed, contact in..." he checked the read outs quickly and sighed. "One hundred thirty seconds."

"Are they asteroids?" the captain asked partly confused, yet before the tech replied he almost figured out the answer himself.

"No sir! Too sophisticated." the tech replied, his hands bean punching keys on the board. "They are metal...they appear to be some type of ship"

The captain's hair on the back of his neck slowly stood as he asked another question, he had to keep his own fear from straying into his voice as he said in a low tone "Do the ships match anything on file?" As the tech finished pressing buttons his mouth slowly opened in quiet shock. A readout screen slowly came up and displayed a list of design figures of the object currently being scanned.

"thre..th.....Three ORDER battle barges!" the tech could barely summon the breath to make the words necessary, his eyes opened wide and his voice was frantic. The entire Bridge crew heard him and immediately they stopped their work and turned their eyes to him. The ORDER had agreed to keep its battleships away from earth, their arrival could only mean a single thing; war. The captain stood up straight and sighed, he knew the station could not hope to repel an organized attack by the ORDER, yet with communications with Solicous down and time short, he knew that those on the station were on their own.

“Alright” he said as the crew looked at him, his voice seemed to hold nothing but a sense of desperate hope, one that said he would do all he could to survive. “Bring the station up to combat alert and charge up the main guns. Once those Ships are in range I want a full barrage!” the crew began getting back to work, an “Aye sir!” from the weapons officer was the only response anyone offered to him.

The captain moved to the intercom and spoke, opening a channel to all decks. “Listen up!” an alarm began to sound, telling the crew they were at combat alert. “ORDER troops are inbound, hostile contacts will board Prometheus in 60 seconds, Security teams Alpha through Gamma report to deck 5 and Fortify the main hall between the decks. All others report to designated….” Suddenly the intercom cut out, the ORDER had begun their particle broadcast, inner station communications were now down.

Deck 10, science station

The security teams began to fill hallways with rubble, setting charges and blowing out elevators, and closing blast doors, doing everything they could to limit the number of access ways the ORDER troops could use once they hit the station. The seconds ticked away and soon the loud echoes of the auto-cannons outside began to filter into the station, the ships were close. Booming explosions were heard as the loud repeating of the cannons kept sounding, however, on deck 10 a loud bang was heard and the whole station seemed to rock. An ORDER transport had connected to the station, soon beams of pure energy shot through the hall, cutting out a doorway for them to use to enter the station.

The hallway that the transport connected to was on deck 10, and in the hall gathered six members of one of the stations security teams, as the beams of energy cut through the metal hull they took cover on the side and readied their weapons, pointing in the direction of the energy beams. Sparks were shooting outward from the hull and the loud cutting noise was all that was heard on the silent deck, the sergeant of the six man team put his hand out and the men’s fingers on the triggers of their weapons tightened. “Once they get through” he said in a low voice, “fire at will”

Suddenly the wall burst open, and as it did, strangely all the lights in the corridor failed at once leaving utter darkness. The security team stood in the hall, their eyes scanning for any sign of life. Then out of the darkness red eyes appeared, and the sound of a scrapping metal could be heard. The defenders of the station opened fire, and the muzzle flashes of their weapons light the area around them. Yet the eyes came closer, and more sets appeared out from the whole in the hull. Bullets bounced off what sounded like some metallic surface and slammed into the walls. And then silence fell, the security team had emptied their clips. Then suddenly the lights came back up, and standing before the security team was more than ten men. They were tall, and their entire body was covered in armor, armor which covered their entire body, like that of the Black Dragons of Solicous, yet more advanced…much more. It was a dark hue of green with a symbol of a sword, wings coming out of that very sword on their shoulder pads, and upon their chest was a golden skull. They were soldiers of the Deathwing Company…the most feared of the ORDER.

The soldiers of the ORDER suddenly cried “For the Emperor!” and rushed toward the security teams, their huge rifles blazing. They cut into them easily, slaying all six members of the force sent to hold the hallway.

Their leader scanned the hallway and brought his hand up, touching the side of his helmet “we’re in..."

[zelda12]

Grrr, silly doublepost.

Delete this.

[zelda12]

Yay space marines. Dark Angels are really cool.

Really liked the last part.

By the way would it be right to assume that the critters from the beggining are Tyrinids or close contemporaries.

[Monk]

part vi
When the Walls Fell...

A huge explosion rocked the station, sending all within who were not already bracing themselves to their knees with their heads spinning. The last of the auto-cannons were destroyed, they had thus far kept order landing craft at a distance, and the only squads who had penetrated the tight defense were the legendary Deathwing. Yet now, as the scanners swept the area, a wave of movement was headed directly to the station. The warriors of the Deathwing were already cutting the defenders to pieces in exchanges of gunfire on decks 9 and 10, they were slaughtering any who came before them.

Deck 8
Access ladder passage

A long corridor separated the access ladder that would go to deck 7 from the rest of deck 8. With the main lifts destroyed, the ladder was the only way both up and down in that entire section of the station, and the Solician security teams knew that all to well. They threw debris into then hall, thick steel tables, old control systems that were no longer needed, everything they could to give themselves cover and to make the hallway as difficult to capture as it could be. It didn't take them long before they were done, and when they were the hall was strewn with toppled computer systems and old building materials along with the few scattered hull panels. Hiding in the mess they themselves had created, were four security teams, sixteen men ready to stop whatever was thrown at them. or so they hoped.

The sound of heavy footsteps was heard pounding down the hall, the men in the corridor took cover and readied their weapons immediately after hearing it. ORDER troops were close, very close. They knew this was it, if they couldn't stop them here, they'd likely move on and take the bridge in a matter of minutes. The cold sound of ammunition being loaded seethed through the hall as the security teams were ready for the coming attack. One of the men let out a heavy sigh as he put his back to the cold surface of the wall he was leaning against, he could feel a gentle vibration moving through the metal, and a soft humming along with it. A smile came over his face as he said "so gentle" his voice was very soft, barely above a whisper. "Hard to believe...something as violent as a hull breach could make such a soothing noise." the words he used carried a sense of happiness, however small it may have been, it was there. He removed his dark green helmet and let his dark hair loose; his green eyes stared down the hallway where he could hear the muttering of strange voices. It was the ORDER troops, something had delayed their attack. The men of the security teams kept their weapons trained down the hallway, but they saw no combatant come to meet them, only soft whispers and the echos that they created, fear was sweeping over both forces like the light of the sun sweeps out across the land in the early morning, yet for very different reasons.

Deck 8
outside Access ladder passage

The advancing squad of ORDER marines came to a stop; their leader leaned his left hand out and took hold of the wall bracing himself from something. His other hand went up to his head and rested there, he was murmuring softly, but the five men behind were unclear as to what he was saying. The men of the Deathwing squad looked at one another in confusion for a few moments, before one went forth to speak with him.

"Brother Gabriel." the marine said, his harsh voice emanating through his mask sounded metallic and emotionless, yet to the space marines, it was a sound they were used to. Gabriel now placed both hands on his head, he was the only one among the squad not wearing a helmet, the hair on his head was white, and while the others amour was dark green, his was a light blue, he held near him a long blue sword that surged with electric energy, yet it made a resounding sound as it fell from his hand and found a home on the hall floor, he was a Chapter Librarian, with his physic powers he had helped track down many dissenters among the Imperium, yet... the ORDER had internal problems of it's own, and most Librarians died in the great civil strife that had taken hold of the mighty nation some generations ago. With his vast knowledge of the Imperium and it's enemies, he was valued...but what he saw before him was disturbing. An image only he saw, something his powers aloud him to see. "Brother Gabriel?" the marine said again, yet to Gabriel his voice seemed to be slow and he could barely hear it.

Finally he looked up at him, his eyes were wide with fear and he said "Can...you not see it?" his voice was shaking, he did not even stop to think he was the only phsyker in the squad. When the marine shook his head, looking at the others in the squad who did so as well Gabriel looked at him and said "I envy you...then"

"What is it? What does your mind see?" the marine asked, he looked into Gabriel's eyes which were now overcome with fear. For him to show fear was extraordinary, no marine ever felt fear, they never admitted to it at least. Yet here he was nearly on his knees, his eyes wide and his breath shaking.

Gabriel looked up and replied, "I can see them...scratching in my mind..."

"Who? What do you see?" asked another marine confused.

"so many voices...scratching, roaring, screaming - so...so many!!" Gabriel looked up at him. "They are coming for us."

Suddenly a piercing scream was heard, and be the man from the Imperium or Solicous, they held their ears and nearly shouted in agony. As the sound slowly filtered out, there was silence. No one knew that it was the creatures who were destroying Solicous were on the space station. The captain on the bridge knew right away what it was, now everything was clear, the shipment of test specimens they received last week... in an instant the attack on the space station by the order made sense. they knew something about these specimens he didn't.




ahh now that is done

Zelda, Tyranids? more like Tyranids with a twist you'll find out the twist later. i won't say anything more than that as i might give something away. Glad to see we've got some w/h 40k fans reading this. and don't worry about the double post, it happens.

i think i got all my typos, but as with all my work i'm sure there's a few (or more) that got through, sorry in advance

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Sounds like StarCraft.

But with much, much (much x 17) better writing.

I must confess my heart had started beating a little faster.

Brialliant.

[Monk]

part vii
Loss of "containment"

The Scrams rose up again, this time more shrill and terrifying than before. The sounds filled the station which was already throwing the sound of battle about; the two sides stopped fighting for a moment, looking all around them for signs of what was going on. Then the ORDER began to pull back, the station security teams doing the same, distancing themselves from their enemy, and from the unseen threat. Even the battle hardened strike force from the ORDER battleships could not deny that the screams were horrid, filled with pain and some sick emotion that was impossible to identify.

ORDER lead battleship
Command bridge

The captain stared out the main viewer, looking directly at the station. His dark black uniform seemed to blend in with the vast dark of space before him, his long cape came down to his knees and moved as he shifted his weight. He wore a shinning black breastplate that seemed to look part of his uniform, except that the edge of his armour was lined with red. His old wrinkled face showed the passage of time he had seen, yet his silver eyes stared with cold resolve, they appeared much younger than he, as if his eyes, and indeed maybe even his spirit, were untouched by the years.

Slowly Frantic radio messages were filtering onto the Bridge, As the words of panic stricken warriors sounded over the communication system, the captain could do nothing but sigh heavily. "Containment lost!" one nearly screamed, the loud noises of gun fire followed his voice as did pain filled howls that seemed inhuman. "Specimens released! We...we have to get out of here!!" again the sound of gun fire was heard, followed by the shouts and screams as before. Yet this time one or two human screams found their way into the transmission, angry shouts were heard and then a loud crash.

A second transmission came through, "Command, contact with Second squad lost." his voice was far more composed and showed no hint of fear, clearly he had not heard the other communication.

The captain leaned his head forward and began to speak, as he did the communications officer pressed a button to respond. his voice was smooth, and strangely held no emotion what-so-ever. "Containment breach has been detected... Diverting to Secondary tactics." There was silence after he said that. Hs troops knew what that meant and gave no response, slowly more and more transmitters were recording the sounds of gunfire and agony stricken screams from things that could never be human. Suddenly the channel closed with a hard sound and the captain looked to the weapons officer. "Target the station..." he was planning to open fire with his men still on the station.

The weapons officer looked at his shocked, "sir" he said puzzled. "We would be killing our own men..."

“I’m aware of that" the captain said as he closed his eyes and put his head up a bit. "Carry out my order." The entire bridge was silent save the humming of the different stations. No one offered a word of objection to the captain; they sat doing their jobs not saying a word. Blips from the weapon station broke the harsh silence as the weapons officer did as he was instructed. he looked up, the guilt of what he was about to do was upon his face, he knew as soon as he said the next words he would have to kill his own countrymen.

"Locked on Target." he said slowly.

"Prometheus" outpost
deck 9, starboard section

A line of ORDER troops advanced through the hallway, their heavy boots pounding loudly, their sergeant was in the lead moving them quickly past the view ports. then suddenly he stopped and looked out, as his men filed past, however soon the men who were following him stopped and looked out into space, searching for what he was staring at. Soon enough they saw it, blue energy particles were surrounding the main guns of the lead Battleship, they were being sucked into the large barrels and forming into a light inside the great gun. The weapon was charging, and it was aimed directly at the space station.

"What are they doing!?" one soldier said, he couldn't believe they were about to fire with soldiers still onboard. Their sergeant sighed heavily.

"Containment must have been lost" he said sadly, his hand reached out and touched the wall of the station just by the "window" if you would call it that.

"But... sir? What of us?" another soldier asked, looking back and forth from the sergeant and the ship which was on the verge of firing. the bright blue light from the energy weapon seemed to illuminate the space around it.

"We...knew the risks..." the sergeant said as he lifted his head. and looked at them all, one by one. Then he looked back at the ship and said "The creatures must be contained... For the Emperor."

Suddenly the ship fired, and a thick stream of blue energy shot out heading straight for the station. it traveled quickly and slammed into the station, slicing through the metal hull panels and bulkheads. The decks were ripped apart as the energy beam went all the way through the station. As it disappeared fire came in its wake and huge explosions erupted in the decks it had hit, as the beam traveled it finally hit the generator room, the very thing it had been locked onto, a great fireball consumed the station. The once mighty space station was turned into a ball of fire that broke up and lost it's orbit, it broke into several pieces and began to fall toward earth. The creatures had been contained, but as the broken station plummeted toward earth the Captain of the ORDER battleship let out a heavy sigh. “Blockade the Planet…nothing gets through” without waiting for his men to give an acknowledgement he turned around and walked off the bridge, not even bothering to look at the exploding station



the last parts were a bit short (just noticed this), but no matter. i'll make the next longer