Return of the Star Angel Short Story

NOT GREY KNIGHTS AND ANY SIMILARITY TO A FAMOUS FILM IS ENTIRELY INTENTIONAL.

Hope you enjoy.

The chamber of the Lord Sorceror was set high above the rock of the asteroid fortress.
With a hiss of compressed air the doors to the chamber opened and revealed in the turbolift were two figures. One broad and dark armoured in the livery of the Death Shadows, the other smaller and arrayed in the silver armour of the Star Angels.
From far across the chamber the Lord Sorceror watched the two figures approach, past the vigilant guards, to the base of the steps before his throne. A slow smile creased his features as he thought of the possibilities now coming together in this meeting. His cowled features were nearly hidden from view, but his black power armour hummed with power as he raised his arm to halt the two figures’ progress.
“Welcome young warrior. I have been expecting you” the sorcerer rasped, his voice made thin and cruel by extreme age and the corruption of Chaos.
The Star Angel Librarian next to the hulking Death Shadow flinched as if the sorceror’s voice had physically touched him.
“Guards, leave us” the Sorceror commanded.
Behind the Star Angel the two dark clad guards silently turned and walked into adjoining alcoves.
His attention was returned to the Sorceror as the Chaos warrior started talking again.
“I’m looking forward to completing your conversion. In time you will call ME Master......”
Tyrel found himself icily calm. He was in the fortress of the Sorceror Lord his chapter had been fighting for 20 long years, with his mentor turned traitor beside him, and still fear could find no purchase on him.
“You’re gravely mistaken” he replied, “You won’t convert me as you did my forebear.”
The Sorceror Lord rose from his throne, his ravaged features menacingly revealed as he strode towards the pair of warriors.
“Oh no, my young Astartes, you will find that it is YOU who are mistaken about a great many things!”
To Tyrel’s left the hulking presence of his former mentor and the Chapter’s Chief Librarian brought up Tyrel’s precious Force Sword, presenting it to the Dark Lord.
“His Force Sword” Zacharus rumbled.
The Sorceror Lord took it, studying it and stroking the revered weapon like a lover.
“Ah yes, a worthy weapon. Much like your mentor’s. By now you must know your forebear can never be turned from Chaos. So will it be with you.....”
A flash of anger, quickly damped down, surged through Tyrel.
“You’re wrong. Soon i’ll be dead, and you with me” he proclaimed.
A cunning sneer crossed the Sorceror’s face.
“Perhaps you refer to the imminent attack of your Chapter Fleet? Yes? I assure you, we are quite safe from your friends here!”
As the Sorceror turned away to return to his throne Tyrel couldn’t resist trying to jibe him.
“Your overconfidence is your weakness.”
The Sorceror wheeled round, quick as a cat and snarled
“Your faith in your friends is yours.”
By Tyrel’s side Zacharus turned his head to his former pupil and rumbled
“It is pointless to resist, my student.”

As the Sorceror sat down, Tyrel’s Force Sword laying on the wide arm to the right of the Chaos Warrior, the ancient psyker spoke again.
“Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design! Your company, up there on the barren moon, is walking into a trap. As is your chapter fleet! It was I who allowed the Astropaths on Beridus to learn the location of this secret base. It is quite safe from your pitiful little chapter. An entire LEGION of troops await them. Oh i’m afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your fleet arrives....”

Tyrel could only watch in silent horror as holes in space were ripped open around the base and through them came the valiant ships of the Star Angels fleet. White and silver, guns blazing. And all the fury of each ship wasted on the asteroid’s warp powered shields.
From around the asteroid base more holes in the fabric of reality appeared, and to Tyrel’s alarm a fleet much larger than his Chapter’s own started to pour through. Battlecruisers, strike cruisers, no less than three battlebarges from different Chaos Warbands.....all heeding the call of the Sorceror Lord.
“Come boy, see for yourself! From here you will witness the final destruction of your fleet, and the end of the Star Angels Chapter!”
Zacharus advanced to the throne, with Tyrel in tow. Taking his place by his master’s side, the former Chief Librarian passively watched as Tyrel fought the emotions roiling inside him.
The Sorceror Lord sensed Tyrel’s turmoil as well.
“You want this don’t you...” he mused, stroking Tyrel’s sword by his side. “Take your weapon, use it. I am unarmed. Strike me down with it! Give into your anger! With each passing moment you make yourself more my servant!”
Tyrel whirled on him, eyes blazing, before he got control over himself again.
“No.....”
“It is unavoidable, it is your destiny” the Sorceror murmured before his tone became icier.
“You, like your mentor, are now MINE.”

Outside the viewport the Chapter Fleet was being sore pressed. Lance batteries and bombardment cannons on both sides scored terrible damage on smaller ships. Fighter craft engaged in savage dogfights and flew bombing run after bombing run on the larger capital ships. Even though the Star Angels were outnumbered they were holding their own.

Back in the throne room, the Sorceror cackled.
“As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed. Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational base station!”
Clicking a commlink open, the sorcerer’s voice was menacingly low.
“Fire at will Commander.”
Tyrel’s mind whirled. Operational? What was operational? What terrible weapon was hidden inside this station?

From the depths of the asteroid a terrible howling, like the roar of a thousand caged daemons, rose higher and higher. An aperture in the centre of the rock face opened, revealing a swirling eye of pure Warp energy.
A stab of dark light shot forth from the Eye, piercing the side of the “Angel of the Imperium”. The mighty cruiser convulsed, then was pulled apart in a sickening sight of tortured metal twisting and tearing as the ship was consumed by daemons.

The Star Angels fleet was in disarray, harried by the Chaos fleet, and now in even greater danger from the terrible weapon on the Asteroid Fortress.

“Your fleet is lost, and your company on the barren moon will not survive...”
The Sorceror’s voice was soft, melodious even. And dripping with barely contained evil.
“There is no escape, my young apprentice. The Chapter will die....as will your friends. GOOOD! I can FEEL your anger! I am defenceless! Take your weapon! Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards Chaos will be complete!”
The feeling of Chaos all around him was pressing into Tyrel’s mind. His anger barely under control before was now reeling from the terrible sight of that weapon used against his battle brothers. And he had the power to destroy the instigator of all this........all he had to do was...
Tyrel swirled around, his hand outstretched. A single thought and Astarte flew into his hand, its blade shining with coruscating blue fire as his power coursed through it. Bringing the weapon down in a savage arc with all his strength behind it, Tyrel prepared to banish the Sorceror to hell, and damn himself in the process.
His sword was met halfway by its brother, the Star Blade, as Zacharus defended his master.
The Sorceror merely laughed as he watched the two, master and pupil, square off against each other.

Blow after blow was struck by both Tyrel and Zacharus. Tyrel’s younger body was faster, but Zacharus had nearly six hundred years of experience, and was far more powerful psychically than Tyrel.
Blue flamed sword met blue flamed sword, and the two librarians battled each other hard until finally Tyrel kicked the feet out from under Zacharus and sent him tumbling down the stairs in the centre of the room.
The Sorceror was impressed.
“Good! Use your aggressive feelings boy, let the hate flow through you!”
Turning back to Zacharus’ slowly rising form, Tyrel felt the earlier hate and anger slip away from him, leaving him clearer headed. The blue fire of his blade cooled to a dull gleam.
“I will not fight you Zacharus”
“Pontius has taught you well!” the elder warrior exclaimed, slowly climbing the stairs with his sword held before him.
“You are unwise to lower your defences!” Zacharus admonished, a second before he struck
Tyrel only just managed to raise his blade in time, holding the other warrior;s sword back with all his strength. Neither of them could afford to use their psyker powers in the tower for fear of breaching the walls into space.
Forcing himself round, he spied the heavy metal rafters above them, and driving Zacharus away for a second used his psychic might and power armour to leap up on to the rafters high above.
There he calmed himself, looking down on the once mighty warrior of the Star Angels.
“Your thoughts betray you Zacharus” he spat, “I feel the good in you. The conflict.”
Zacharus laughed.
“There is no conflict!”
“You couldn’t bring yourself to kill me before and I don’t believe you’ll destroy me now!” Tyrel rejoined.
“You underestimate the POWER of Chaos. If you will not fight then you will meet your destiny!” Zacharus proclaimed before throwing his sword in a spiral at Tyrel.
Tyrel ducked out of the way, before realising too late that Zacharus had not been aiming for him..
The heavy rafter’s supports were sheared away by the force sword, sending the metal structure crashing to the ground.
Zacharus calmly walked over to the wreckage and retrieved his sword while the Sorceror looked on cackling.
Of Tyrel there was no sign.

“You cannot hide forever Tyrel!” Zacharus called out
“I will not fight you!” came the disembodied reply echoing around the chamber.
“Give yourself to Chaos. It is the only way you can save your friends!” Zacharus spoke, his voice soft yet mencacing, “Yes! Your thoughts betray you! Your loyalty to them is strong. Especially for.......Amon! So....you have taken yourself a pupil! Your feelings have now betrayed him too! Pontius was wise to hide him from me. Now his failure is complete. If YOU will not turn to Chaos....then perhaps HE WILL!”
“NEVER!”
From one of the alcoves to Zacharus’ left Tyrel came charging out, his eyes ablaze with power, the sword Astarte not only wreathed in flame but flame burning white hot. A power coursing through the young librarian that Zacharus had rarely seen.
Raising his sword in defence he prepared to parry his pupil’s brash attack.
Tyrel struck not only with his sword but his mind too.
Shards of psychic might assailed Zacharus’ mind, pummelling his defences in a way his former pupil had never been able to do before. The elder librarian barely managed to keep the blazing sword of the younger librarian away from him, and desperately threw up stronger psychic defences, preparing to strike back.
Tyrel didn’t let up, didn’t give him time. Strike after strike. Each one harder than the last. His power feeding on the anger and hatred and well of daemonic power far below them.
Zacharus was pushed back further and further, towards the turbolift, towards the open shaft the Sorceror used to have a direct conduit to the Daemon Arc far below them...
He desperately tried to attack back, sending powerful psychic jabs against his pupil, forces that would have torn his student’s mind apart years before. Now they were met by an impenetrable barrier that was frightening in its power.
A savage uppercut forced Zacharus’s sword up above his head, laying his body open to his pupil. Tyrel instead punched the heavy pommel of his sword into the plate of his mentor’s armour, cracking it and forcing the old warrior down on one knee next to the open shaft.
There Tyrel proceeded to hack away at Zacharus’ guard, blow after blow in an almost maniacal state, roaring as he forced the warrior to tire and eventually to leave his arm open to the final cut.
Astarte cut through armour and bone, sending the revered but now tainted Star Blade falling into the swirling nexus of warp energy far below.
Standing over Zacharus, eyes blazing, Tyrel held his sword at his mentor’s throat.
The sound of clapping behind him brought Tyrel out of his killing haze.
“Good! Hahahaha your hate has made you powerful!” the Sorceror Lord pronounced, his face twisted into a rictus grin.
“Now.......fulfil your destiny and take your mentor’s place at my side!”
Looking down at Zacharus Tyrel saw a beaten old man, not the proud warrior at the head of the Star Procession on the Moon Parade, or the terrifying Death Shadow who had killed so many of his battlebrothers....
His anger cooled.
“Never” he stated, standing up and throwing down his sword.”I’ll never turn to Chaos. You’ve failed ‘my lord’. I am a Star Angel. Like Zacharus before me..”
The rictus grin turned to a snarl.
“So be it.......Astartes” the Sorceror growled, the air around him crystallizing and growing icy.
“If you will not be turned.....you will be destroyed!!!”
Twin tendrils of pure warp leapt from the Sorceror’s hands and wracked Tyrel’s body with coursing and unthinkable pain. The power that he had felt before and used against Zacharus was gone, and his mental blocks were no match for the raw malevolence the Sorceror employed.
Screaming in agony Tyrel fell to the floor, wrtihing and convulsing.
“Blind fool,” the Sorceror mused as he continued to torture the Star Angel, “Only now, at the end, do you understand. Your feeble skills are no match for the power of Chaos! You will pay the price for your lack of vision!”
Through his agony, Tyrel could just make out Zacharus rising slowly to his feet.
“Zacharus please! Help meeee! Arrrgghhh!” he implored his former mentor.
The Sorceror stopped his torture. Looking with satisfaction down on the broken junior librarian.
“Now young Maxentius, you will die...” he announced calmly before a sneering smile came back to his lips

More tendrils of pure warp power leapt from the Sorceror’s hands, stronger this time. Tyrel’s body started to smoke as the warp poured through it, his pain threshold destroyed by the sheer amounts of torture his soul was undergoing.
Zacharius came to his dark master’s side. Watching his pupil writhing on the floor.
He had tutored many battle brothers in his time as Chief Librarian.....but Tyrel had always been different. Pushing himself harder and harder. He would have made a good Chief Librarian in time. Under Zacharius’ tutelage he could have surpassed any preceding librarian since the chapter’s founding.....
And now that dream was gone. His old Chapter was on the brink of destruction, his greatest friend Pontius lay dead on the moon of Twilight, and here his greatest pupil was being destroyed before his eyes by the master he had sworn loyalty to, and who had just pronounced the extent of his loyalty to Zacharius.
Cold anger burned in Zacharius. Stripping away the layers of deceit and doubt that had coiled themselves around him for so long. The dark mirrors of his life since his betrayal fell away. The Lord of the Death Shadows was no more, and Zacharus felt a cleansing flame burn through him.

The Sorceror Lord was snarling as he poured his power into Tyrel’s wrecked body, only dimly did he sense a change in Zacharus beside him. Before he could react Zacharius wrapped his arms around the armoured body of his master and lifted him off his feet.
Screaming in frustration the Sorceror turned his attack to his dark pupil, pouring pure warp energy into the aged librarian. Zacharius staggered but maintained his grip, the Lahriman cells in his system having already staunched the blood flow from his lost hand. Slowly, with the Sorceror battering him with warp energy and writhing in the returned Star Angel’s grip, Zacharius moved to the banister by the chasm to the Daemon Arc far below.
With his last ounce of strength he hurled the Sorceror down the shaft, falling to his knees as he did so.
A scream of anguish and betrayal left the sorceror’s mouth as he hurtled towards the waiting ravenous daemons below him....

The psychic shock caused by the Sorceror Lord’s death started a chain reaction in the Daemon Arc. Whipping tendrils of warp energy smashed into the weakened shield surrounding the structure, straining it to its limits. Soon the shield would fail and the base would be destroyed from within.

Tyrel rose painfully, crawling over to the prone form of Zacharus. Grasping the dying warrior by his shoulder he pulled him towards him, the cracked Death Shadow helmet only letting in wheezing intakes of air as the filters malfunctioned.
“Tyrel, take his mask off me” Zacharus gently commanded.
“But you’ll die” Tyrel responded, realising the armour was more than just protection for his former teacher, it was his means of staying alive as well.
“Nothing can stop that now. Just once more i’d like to look on you with my own eyes.”
Nodding slowly, Tyrel reverently unclasped and pulled off the ruined black helmet. Underneath was revealed the scarred and mangled visage of Zacharus Helas, hero of Pylentar, bearing the wounds of Twilight where he had turned traitor and battled Pontius.
Zacharus twitched as his senses were assaulted for the first time in years by raw smells, sounds, tastes. Then he focused on Tyrel. He smiled gently, his bloodless lips giving him a rictus grin.
“Now, go my student. Leave me.”
Tyrel shook his head, hearing explosions in the distance growing closer.
“No you’re coming with me! I’ll not leave you here I have to save you!”
Zacharus’ smile widened sadly.
“You already have Tyrel. You were right..you were right about me. Tell Exthelion you were right....”
Even as he spoke the last words Zacharus’ life force began to slip away, and he slowly slid down to rest on the floor.
Tyrel watched, and inwardly wept.

Closer explosions brought him back to his senses. Quickly gathering and sheathing Astarte, he heaved the heavy corpse of Zacharus on his shoulders, and concentrated. With the Sorceror Lord and Zacharus dead there was no-one who could stop him using his psychic powers here now.
A shimmering portal opened in front of the junior librarian, and he stepped through, on to the bridge of the “Angel of the Stars”.
There he was instantly surrounded by 20 Praetorian, swords raised to strike.
Tyrel collapsed, and his last memory was the Chapter Master Exthelion looking down on him in wonder.

Awesome.

"Not at all similar to something else."

Impressive,
Most Impressive.

Very nice read!

The Emperor is strong with this one....

Thank you very much for the comments!



Here's a thing for you.



Imagine the Emperor is the Emperor of Humanity........gives Star Wars a whole new twist