<span style="font-size: 15px"><div style="text-align: center">Prologue: The Heart of Madness​</div></span><br/><div style="text-align: center"><img alt="[​IMG]" class="bbCodeImage LbImage" data-url="http://www.goodwp.com/mini/201103/15855.jpg" src="http://www.goodwp.com/mini/201103/15855.jpg" style=""/>​</div><br/><b>Wolf 359<br/>
Planet Serenity<br/>
September 20th, 2948<br/>
21:43 hours Local Time.</b><br/><br/><br/>"Down down down!" he shrieked as the scream of eighty eights met an abrupt end ten meters south of their position. Mangled earth and limbs went raining down upon like some kind of nightmarish confetti.<br/><br/>"Overlord, this is Bulldog 3-1. Shift fire! Direction 50, Right 20, Add 30. Fire for effect!"<br/><i>"Bulldog 3-1, solid copy on your last. Incoming rain." </i><br/><br/>Like a distant stormcloud thundering in the night, the distant horizon rumbled and groaned as muzzle flashes lit up the dingy clouds. The growls and gibbering war screams were closing again. He could almost smell them, that rotting stench of decay and unkempt flesh, the scent of fresh blood, like a woman's favourite perfume, wafting over the barricades into their trench. They were closing... their shambling footsteps barely audible over the sound of distant fire..and the steady whistling of shells that were coming fast.<br/><br/>With a scream of rage, the ghouls surged forward, as in somewhere in their primative brains they realized, almost as an collective, the fate that was about the befall them. Out of the darkness they came, shrieking like animals towards the battlements.<br/>"Light em up!"<br/>The Lt yelled, and the entire firing line became a blaze of incandescent fury as round after round pounded downrange into the oncoming berserkers, cutting the ghouls to pieces.<br/><br/>"Aim for the head, lads! They cann't regenerate with out their damned heads!" cried out Sgt. Farquhar over the din.<br/>It was only a matter of seconds, but the ghouls soon realized their error and those that still remained mobile, turned and ran back into the darkness...just as the shells from the artillery landed. Silhouttes of surprised ghouls went flying up into the air, crashing back down to the ground only to be shredded by airbursts.<br/>The sound of the ghouls unholy cries of anguish were met by cheers and celebratory whoops from the Imperial marines.<br/><br/><br/>"Overlord, this is Bulldog 3-1. Good effect on target. End of mission."<br/><i>"Roger that, Bulldog. Ceasing fire."<br/>
</i><br/>The Lt grinned, "Good work men. I doubt the zombies will be back anytime soon. Let's get CASEVAC out here to take the wounded back to the...<br/><br/>The Lt's voiced trailed off as a horrific sight edged slowly out of the darkness. A massive form, hulking and bulging with muscle, great thick brown skin like leather. Its face , twisted and inhuman was broken into a snarling maw of razor sharp teeth and bloodied flesh.<br/><br/>"REAVER!" someone cried out, and if on cue, the night forward again, a babbling and murderous tide of maddened creatures, baying for blood.<br/><br/>"Light those fuckers up!" the Lt screamed over the din, and across the entire trenchline plumes of fire burst forth, lancing the oncoming ghouls with desperate fire.<br/><br/>The Reaver stood, as solemn as a graveyard as the horde surged forward, like fire ants protecting they queen they came, dying by the dozens in the muddied and bloodied field.<br/>It stood there, almost if pondering, or perhaps lusting for the meal to come. And as quick as lightning breaks the sky. It charged.<br/><br/>The bellowing warcry shook the ground, knocking foe and minion alike from their feet, as it crashed forward, crushing ghouls as it bounded.<br/><br/>Yet even as it came on, something caught its eye. A red spark, so tender and spry. The great beast was enthralled, and slowed its step. After all there was no need to eat just yet. The little red spark flew with great speed far away from the trenches which housed the marines.<br/><br/>To a chorus and cry, the ghouls chased after that little red spark, so spry.<br/>Into the darkness the Lieutenant fled, carrying that red flare in his hand.<br/>They fired their weapons and lamented their chase, that they could not make the little spark stay in place.<br/>A hit they scored to the Lt's chest and arm, yet he carried on towards an abandoned farm<br/>"Just a bit further." He told himself as his limbs began to ache.<br/>"Just a bit more..." as he stated as his bloodied chest began to quake.<br/>Two miles out, he had so dutifully fled. Into the darkness, and soon to be dead.<br/>He laid down in a crater, as the last of the flare gave out, with growls of the ghouls quickly closing about.<br/>He gave a quick smile, and pulled the pin on his grenade belt. And waited for his life to be snuffed out.<br/><br/><br/>"Not yet, Lieutenant." came a strange voice right as he blacked out.<br/><br/><br/>When he awoke, he was in a hospital bed. His right arm and chest were still sore, and felt as if they had been bludgeoned with a blunt sword.<br/>He looked around, it was dark in his room, night had long since fallen and there were no signs of any life other than the door which led to another room.<br/>He wondered about his men, he wondered about his saviour, but he could not move more than a inch or two. His legs still slightly burned and the pain in his chest was enough to keep him planted firmly on the bed. He felt short of breath as well, even laying motionless he could not seem to get enough air. All these things and the late hour made him decide that he'd rather wait until dawn to inquire on the fate of his men.<br/>Yet as he was about to lay back down, and ponder his fate, a voice out of the darkness. Spoke.<br/>"First Lieutenant William Lancaster."  a strangers voice came, ponderous and low and out of the shadows, the slip of several faces began to show.<br/><br/>Dark eyes and furrowed brows their lips were like arrows, straight and grave. Then spoke the one again, at the head of his bed.<br/>"Lt. Lancaster. I have the unfortunate obligation to inform you, you are dead."<br/><br/>William raised a brow, he was skeptical and for good reason. "I doubt that very much." he said with a somewhat sardonic grin. "This place hurts too much to be the afterlife that the Alliance believes in."<br/>The speaker held for a moment, with a somewhat devilish grin. "Oh you are right, this is not heaven. Nor it is hell. But you are dead just the same, Mr Lancaster. Of that have no doubt."<br/>William looked at the man, tall and thin, his eyes were like emerald fire in a deep pit. His teeth were like knives, white and pearl'd and his brow was heavy and black as raven's down. He wore a trenchcoat, crisp and clean, the color of twilight, kissing the sun's last rays.<br/><br/>"Then what I do now?" William said at last, propping himself up on his good arm.<br/>"That is why we are here." the man mirthlessly grinned. "We have come to give you a second chance at life again."<br/>"Two choices are given, one must be yours. You may return to your life, your men, and your war... or join us, and live forever in the shadows."<br/><br/>William looked perplexed, his brow furrowed, as he asked. "Join you? Who are you?"<br/><br/>And as one, the men chanted in chorus.<br/>"We are the watchers in the night. We are those without name, without love, without fear. We are the first and last line. We are the agents of the Emperor, silent and faithful. We are the SS."<br/><br/>A moment of silence passed between Williamd and the men as the gravity of the situation slowly started to sink into his skull.<br/><br/>The man spoke again, his words as clear and solemn as death itself.<br/><br/>"If you join us, you will never again see those you love. You will be a ghost, living in a world with no memory of you. You will do great things, but no one will ever know. And if you die, you will die in obscurity. Only the Emperor will know what you do for Tyrend."<br/><br/>William looked down, at his right hand, that bore the ring of his family's crest. Thoughts rushing through his head, incoherent and babbling, and from that feverish dervish of thought he pulled three words.<br/><br/>"That'd be enough."<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>