First Contact

And I looked, and there before me was a gate standing open in the heavens. And the voice I first heard spoke to me like a trumpet and said, “Rise, and I will show you what is to come.”

At once I was in the buffer, and there before me was a space in the heavens with someone sitting on it.

And the one who sat there had the appearance of water and earth. A light that shone like a star fire encircled the throne.

Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four gestalts. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of Man.

Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living weapons, and they were covered with spears, in front and in back.

The first was like a lion, the second was like a wolf, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying fish.

Each of the four living weapons had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “ ‘Glory, Honor, and Power to Humanity and their allies, ’who was, and is, and is to come.”

Whenever the living weapons give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four gestalts fall down before they who sit on the throne and fear him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

“You are worthy, Humanity, to receive glory and honor and power, for you defeat all foes, and by your will they were reforged and have their being.”

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Then I saw in the plains ofTELKANwho would be broken, a great beast of old and it was sealed with seven seals.

And I saw a mighty gestalt proclaim in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and defeat the beast they hold?”

But none of the Telkan or Metal or Armor could break a seal or even stand against the beast behind it.

I wept and wept because none was found who was worthy to break the seals or defeat the beast beyond.

Then one of the gestalt said to me, “Do not weep! See, the last Son of the tribe ofLOST TERRASOL*, the Wrath of Humanity, has triumphed! He is able to defeat the beast and break its seven seals.”*

I watched as the Son broke the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living weapons say in a voice like thunder, “Come!”

I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a gun, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a messenger bent on vengeance.

When the Son opened the second seal, I heard the second living weapon say, “Come!”

Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the galaxy and to release the weapons of war. To him was given a great burning warsteel sword.

When the Son opened the third seal, I heard the third living weapon say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.

Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living weapons, saying, “Take from them what has been given, and release from them what is not owed, but do not damage the ones they have enslaved!”

When the Son opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living weapon say, “Come!”

I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and great ships followed close behind him. They were given power over a great fleet to kill by sword and arrow, light and dark, and by the Enraged Ones.

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those whom had been put to rest because of Universal Law and the sorrow they contained.

They called out in a loud voice, “How long, those whom we loved so dear, our oldest and most faithful friend, until you judge those who wronged us and avenge our blood?”

Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of enemy's deeds, their actions and inactions, were made known to all.

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. The whole of the Universe shook. The fires of peace and goodwill extinguished, and the sky turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs from the tree in a tempest.

The heavens tore open like a flesh beneath the jagged blade, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

Then the enemies of old who were made ally, the speakers, the workers, the dreamers, the cloners, and everyone else, hid at the edges of space and time.

They called to the heavens and to the one on the throne, “Protect us for we are innocent. Fear they who sit upon the throne and spare us from the wrath of the Son!

For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”

--Excerpt: Days of Loss & Glory, the Founding of the Forge Worlds of Telkan

Brentili'ik stared at the holotank as the battlefield suddenly altered. Around her tactical officers were yelling out the words "STATUS CHANGE!" as everyone frantically tried to alter the war plans. General Tic-Tak merely stood stock still, looking at each holotank, his left hand extended and palm up, the glittering of a holo-display above it.

"PILE DRIVERS, PAVE THE ROAD!" came Trucker's bellow over the intercom, but Brentili'ik didn't notice, instead staring at what she was seeing.

First the human female, clad in sleek black armor hung with chains and adorned with spikes, threw back her head to voice a scream that was heard even without speakers: "LET THIS WORLD SHAKE IN THE RAGE OF LOST TERRASOL!" Lightning came from the burning sky to her hands, wreathing her forearms, pouring over her as she lowered her arms to the side.

She then fired lightning from her hands at the nearby creatures, tearing at them, exploding them, tearing away massive strips of flesh as some of the creatures exploded as their innards boiled.

Brentili'ik saw movement around her and tore her eyes away from the holotank.

Every mantid in the command center had their bladearms unfolded and held up, their gripping hands held out in fists and standing up as high as they could.

"DAXIN THE UNFEELING, LIBERATOR, DEATHLESS, TYRANTBANE HAS COME!" they all shrieked in one voice. "WOE AND LAMENTATIONS! OUR SAVIOR HAS ARRIVED!"

Brentili'ik felt the command center shudder, feedback screeched across the speakers, the lights flickered, and then everything went perfectly still. To her it seemed as if the entire universe had frozen.

Off in the distance she heard it, faint but still there.

warm podling safe podling sing podling sing the song of hope sing the song of love sing the song of warmth one and one make two two and two make four three and three make six warm podling brave podling smart podling

Even through tons of warsteel armor, levels of the building she was in, past the armor, past the integrity and sterilization fields, she could see that the sky had gone black, the clouds and the stars going out.

The blackness bulged, the heavens screamed, and two warsteel hands pushed through the blackness, tearing open the sky itself to reveal a massive figure in black warsteel armor, spikes on the shoulders each flying a banner that roared in rage with the promises of freedom or death, a human face stretched over a warsteel skull. Skeletal hands made of black nothingness, crafted from the entropic death of the universe, ripped the wound in the sky open further, leaking out profane and insane energy as the figure stepped from the wound in the sky, dropping to the surface, massive barbed chains of agony and madness attached to the armor pouring from the wound.

The figure hit the ground, knees flexing, going down on one knee, a first braced in the dirt, the other fist holding tight to a massive gun, that death mask slowly rising to stare at the sky as the figure stood up and the chains shattered into shards of night.

Beside the massive figure was a huge black quadraped that Brentili'ik suddenly, somehow, knew was a hound, blood red molten warsteel dripping from its fanged jaws.

The world came back in a rush to Brentili'ik's senses as she found herself staring again at the holotank.

"HE HAS COME!" the human female screamed, raising one hand to the sky. Lightning, purple and black, poured from the ugly burning clouds into her fist. She aimed her other hand, now holding a barbed and cruel black warsteel sword, at one of the massive bugs. Lightning poured from the blade, tearing and ripping at the massive kaiju's head as gunfire from the walls tore at it.

The creature convulsed once and exploded as the mantids cried out again.

"HE HAS COME!" they all screeched.

The massive figure had drawn itself fully upright, looking about it with burning eyes of fire, then waded into the battle. One hand holding a sword, the other wielding a heavy blocky gun that screamed as it fired, the slugs from it detonating when they hit in the bright ugly flashes of mass reactive shells. From the blade lashed out black fire and red lightning that tore and ripped at the creatures.

Another human, ancient beyond what Brentili'ik even knew humans could be, an old, gaunt man, thin stringy hair and wild eyes, clad in a black tattered robe that flowed impossibly about it, wreathed in red and purple flame. In his hands he held a bloodstained book bound in iron and leather in one hand and a staff of black iron capped with a sigil that hurt Brentili'ik's eyes just to look at. Bugs swarmed to strike him down and were wreathed in lightning before shivering into dust.

Brentili'ik turned to Colonel Harvey, knowing her fur was standing up over her spine.

"SINCE WHEN CAN HUMANS SHOOT LIGHTNING FROM THEIR HANDS?" she shrieked.

"We can't. Not any more," Colonel Harvey said, and Brentili'ik realized his eyes were wide with fear or horror and sweat was on his forehead.

"Well they are!" Brentili'ik snapped back, pointing at the holotank.

"Those are the Enraged Ones! They're legend, myth, everyone knows they don't exist!" Harvey said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

"They sure as the Nine Hells think they exist!" Brentili'ik said. She turned to the holotank of Telkan-2 and found herself gaping as she stared.

On Telkan-2 the massive intelligence array could sense that victory was close despite the hammering of the Terran guns. Their lines were shrinking, their territory diminishing, and even their insanely accurate artillery and rockets had begun to strike less and less often.

It computed that within three planetary rotations it would all be over.

The sky went black, as if the clouds and stars had been wiped away.

A burning line of fire appeared in the sky. It expanded, opening, ripping the sky open to reveal fire.

The computing array felt as if the fire was looking for something, trying to find something, when it suddenly seemed to find what it was looking for.

The thinking array.

I SEE YOU

BENEATH THE EYE

YOU CANNOT HIDE

THERE IS NO LIFE

IN THE VOID

OF STARS

ONLY DEATH

The thinking array flinched from that burning eye, every thinking array on the planet flinched away from that terrible voice that rang inside their own thoughts, tearing at them with licking devouring flames of the ruined hyperatomic flame.

WE WHO DEFY THE DWELLERSPAWN

SAY UNTO THEE

NAY

There was a flash, eye watering and twisting, flash after flash after flash, behind the human lines. Tens of thousands of the feral life appeared, raising up weapons, and screaming in one voice.

FOR LOST TERRASOL

FOR THE IMPERIUM OF RAGE

FOR WRATH, FOR HATE, FOR HONOR AND GLORY!

Tanks and artillery pieces rolled out of nothingness, from razor thin portals that beyond showed plains of madness, churned bloody mud, molten iron raining down, taking up places within the feral lines as if they had been there the whole time.

CPL Palzen, Second Telkan Scouts, stared as tens of thousands of Terrans flooded out of the gates, all in green plasteel armor and carrying weapons, charged out, their voices upraised as one, firing as they charged.

The insects and creatures flinched back from the sudden onslaught as the lasers shot out in a web that was almost solid. Missiles and grenades exploded bioweapon flesh and chitin, tanks began firing as they rumbled out of the gates, artillery pieces rolled out and slammed down their outriggers, firing explosive bolts to spike them deep into the bedrock for stability.

"Glory to the first man who dies!" roared one of the Terrans.

Palzen stopped staring, going back to firing the heavy mag-ac rotary autocannon, strafing the lines of insects, as the human reinforcements redeployed. The autocannon was stuttering, three of the barrels damaged, the motor whining as it shed teeth into the belt and chain.

"I will heal the machine's war spirit's pain," a robed human surrounded by floating warsteel skulls said, stepping up next to Palzen. Before Palzen could saw anything black mist poured from the warsteel skulls, enveloping the weapon, even as Palzen kept firing. The robed figure chanted, lifted a hand and blue lightning crackled over the weapon, the mist tattering and vanishing.

The figure stepped back, leaning on the staff.

The autocannon roared, the cyclic rate back up, the ammunition gleaming as it fed into the gun, the two damaged barrels fixed, the teeth, chain, and belt all repaired.

Palzen didn't bother to say anything, just nodded as he directed the fire into the fact of a crab the size of a large hovertruck.

The robed figure shuffled away, heat rippling showing above three of the black skulls that hovered around him.

Brentili'ik stared at Colonel Harvey, pointing at the Telkan Marine who was firing the heavy cannon.

"Magic? Terrans do magic now?" She almost screeched.

"It's not really magic, it's technology. Old, forbidden, dangerous technologies," Harvey said, wiping his forehead. "It was all proscribed after the end of the Mantid War. It requires psykers to use it and there hasn't been a psyker born of humanity in almost eight thousand years."

Brentili'ik stared at the holotank, at what was being displayed, and felt a cold shudder come over her.

We had only seen their martial might. Now we see their wrath, she thought to herself.

Vuxten had a ringside seat to the entire thing, but was more concentrating on what was happening in his tiny bubble. The gun he was on was beeping, the tips of the barrels smoking white, the nano-forge connected to the ammo hopper pouring out what looked like thick white mist.

He couldn't let up. The massive kaiju has burst through the ranks of the still arriving power armor soldiers and was charging the wall. Vuxten kept up the fire, pouring that last of the rotary autocannon's strength into the creature's face.

It slammed into the warsteel wall hard enough to make it shudder.

Vuxten fell from the wall, trying to hold onto the mounted gun.

The firing handles snapped free and he found himself falling.

Vuxten kicked in the grav-spike, punching it against the wall, twisting himself, kicking off from the wall to somersault in mid-air as 471 held on for dear life. Vuxten managed to right himself, coming down, and Vuxten spun up the graviton generators in his boots, slamming down on the thick rigid hide of the kaiju that was moving back to get ready for another charge at the deeply dented wall.

471 understood what Vuxten was doing and drove the graviton spike deep into the creature's flesh as Vuxten's mass and weight spiked artificially thanks to the graviton generators.

Vuxten hit the kaiju as if was a two thousand ton anvil dropped in 5 G's, the massive graviton spike spearing deep into the kaiju's body.

471 dumped the inertia into the spike right as he cut it off.

The kaiju screamed as its back erupted in a shower of gore as the gravity spike ripped and squeezed its internals that exploded.

Vuxten knew it wasn't down and brought around his magack rifle, firing it into the tattered and torn flesh at his feet, emptying three quarters of the solid block of ammunition in one long trigger pull as the creature screamed and bucked, it's mile long body undulating with pain, 471 keeping him anchored to the creature through his graviton enhanced boots. 471 slapped a template into the creation engine and wet-printed a heavy rocket even as it reached out and banged a wrench against the damaged rocket-launcher tube to get the teeth of the aiming gearing to mesh again.

The creature screamed, turned to snap at Vuxten with massive jaws that would be able to snap up and devour a small building.

Vuxten fired off his rocket into the creature's maw.

The creature's head exploded as the graviton rocket went off. First it increased the local gravity in a twenty-meter radius to almost 20G, sucking flesh and meat off the bone, shattering the bone into splinters, then the rocket itself was destroyed by its own power, releasing the compressed matter to explode outward.

The creature convulsed and Vuxten found himself flying away, somersaulting through the air.

--shit shit shit shit-- 471 yelled out, slamming the tiny graviton generators in his boots to max in order to keep from being flung off by centrifugal force. --digital omnimessiah protect us--

A massive flying insect went to snap Vuxten out of the air but the Telkan Marine managed to rattle off a handful of magack shots into the soft fibrous looking white tissue in the throat, making the flying insect barf up purple blood instead of snatching a tasty Telkan treat out of the air.

Lightning surrounded Vuxten, not burning or shocking him, but instead surrounding him, turning him right side up, slowing him down on his arc, lowering him to the ground.

He hit as his training had hammered into him. Toes scraping the dirt, one fist into the dirt, graviton cranked up to slow him down. He stood up, surrounded by the massive Terrans in the heavy plated armor. Not the sleek black warsteel almost formfit to Vuxten, but rather massive suits of armor with warsteel plates as thick as Vuxten's hand was long.

"On your feet, brother," one of them said, holding out one hand while the other poured blaster fire into the ranks of oncoming insects. "The Emperor protects."

Vuxten grabbed the offered hand and let himself get yanked to his feet.

--daxin Daxin DAXIN IS HERE-- 471 bleated over the comlink, flashing icons of burning fury and screaming victory, of freedom and liberation, of fear and triumph.

"Allow me to bring forth the machine's war spirit," A figure in a stained and heavy looking black robe said to Vuxten in a deep resonating voice. Vuxten looked over and saw there was a dozen black human skulls circling the figure, who held a black staff in one hand. Mist poured out from three of the skulls, covering his rifle, his armor, enveloping. There was a loud chant that Vuxten couldn't understand and shuddered from even as 471 poured gibberish into the link. Then lightning scoured away the black mist. "The machine's war spirit is ready," the figure intoned.

Vuxten's rifle had gone from light and sleek to heavy, bulky, almost unfinished looking, a belt fed monstrocity. The ammo-hopper read 100% and Vuxten noticed with a shock that his heat was back down to barely 8% and his nano-forge and creation engine slush level was below 5%. His armor felt the same and looking down he saw that the concentric circles in the red splotch with the silver X over it was still there.

"Purge the unclean, brother," one of the massive Terrans said, and Vuxten saw his HUD update.

He turned and there were massive insects rushing the Terran lines.

Vuxten rolled his shoulders to set himself, dialing up the graviton generators at his feet to plant himself firmly, shifted his grip on the massive gun's forward and rear handles, and squeezed the trigger.

The weapon howled, screamed as it poured out 20mm mass-reactive anti-matter core shells, pouring hate into the onrushing insects and creatures. Their bodies exploded as Vuxten swept the weapon across the leading ranks of the bugs and creatures and gore showered up.

Trucker turned his head and looked down slightly, bouncing the chunk of razored bone off his already cracked helmet. It brought stars to his eyes but he didn't care as he looked back up, spit blood, and triggered the quad-barrel into the face of the creature that had spit thorn-like teeth at him. The weapon's heavy caliber slugs shredded the inside of the creature's mouth and it gagged on the blood.

TARGET!

FIRE!

SHOT OUT!

HIT! TANGO DOWN!

roared out over the comlink from every Pile Drive tank as the massive main battle tanks roared toward the Log Base.

Yes, the Imperium Marines are here, but they can still get overwhelmed unless we can break the back of the Enemy's reinforcements, Trucker thought to himself.

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In orbit Admiral Howell and General Nodra'ak looked at the holotanks. Their staff's were already bringing the Imperium of Wrath's ships into the war-plan, updating their data on what was happening on the ground, coordinating to start strikes on the underwater neural arrays.

The battles on Telkan-1 and Telkan-2 had shifted, the Terran and Telkan forces were no longer on the edge of losing, but victory wasn't assured.

"They want Tic-Tak bad on Telkan-1," Nodra'ak said, slowly withdrawing a cigarette from the half-empty pack.

"They must figure he's the hive leader," Admiral Howell said.

Nodra'ak lit the cigarette, puffing on it a few times to ensure it was lit. "Is he not?"