Know No Fear (Warhammer 40K/Warcraft) Chapter 1 (Patreon)

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His name was Titus, Captain of the Ultramarines Second Company. Loyal Firstborn Son of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman. Though young by the standards of the Astartes, he was already a veteran of numerous campaigns and had just recently, stopped a Chaos incursion into the Forgeworld Graia by beating to death with every inch of his traitorous life the Chaos Sorceror responsible for everything. 

He was also dreadfully and utterly lost. 

The earth shook as he strode upon the soft and green grass, his power armor whining with each step. His helmet took careful note of his surroundings and so far, Titus could not see anything that was remotely tainted of the warp. The avian species of the world he was in sang their birdsong, the leaves of the tall trees were swayed slightly in the breeze. A far cry from the war-torn world he was in. Despite the tranquility of the place, he wasn't going to let his guard down. 

He passed through forestry, his movement was unimpeded by the growth as he easily trudged through, crunching branch as easily as a man would crack an egg. Then finally, he was clear of the growth and found himself in a clearing. Easily, he noticed a path infront of him. Taking note of the path, Titus saw that it was a road. A simple one that was by all appearances a haphazard line without pavement but it was a road nontheless. That was good as roads meant civilization. And civilization meant returning to the folds of the Imperium. 

Titus halted for a moment, considering where the road should take him. Should he go left or should he go east? Taking a moment to think, he finally decided to go east and thus, he strode forward. 

He presented a rather attractive target, Titus mused, as ceramite boots trudged the path. Opposing forces could take cover in the either side of the road, hidden in the underbrush and love whatever they had at him. Making it even more attractive was the fact that in the fight against that Chaos Sorcerer, he found himself seperated from his other weapons.  When he awoke, he only had his boltpistol at his side as well as his chainsword. Never matter for those were simply tools that made him only more effective in his grim work. He was a Space Marine, an Angel of Death. 

If anything, more weapons simply made things less fair for the Emperor's enemies. 

His thoughts halted however as his helmet quickly took note of a disturbance in the distance. Zooming closely, Titus saw something that was a unfortunate sight common in the galaxy. That of panicking refugees fleeing from a threat whilst steel-hearted defenders attempted to stall that which chased them. Target reticles landed on them but he ignored it. Behind them, Titus saw what was chasing them. Sick and emaciated things that was signature to those tainted with the Plague God's touch. 

Titus then knew what he had to do, and it was to remind those Nurglites that the Emperor was ever watchful of his flock. 

And if need be, send his Angels of Death to decimate the hungry wolves. 

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"Fight and pull back!" roared Captain Elaine Rumer, her throat straining as she projected her voice amidst the screams of the living and the dying "Do not let yourselves get surrounded! We must defend the refugees with our lives!" 

Her men did the best they could, using shield, sword, spear, and rifles to cover the remnants of what had been a larger caravan but thanks to the Scourge catching up to them faster than anticipated, they were reduced from an organized mass of a thousand to a paltry five-hundred souls who were slowly getting whittled by their undead foe. 

Gripping the reigns of her horse, she urged Indomitable, a brown courser she had bonded with since he was a foal, to charge forward, eyeing ghouls coming to close for comfot. Her stallion charged, his cries adding into their song of defiance. She closed the distance and with great skill, took the heads off the shambling corpses.  

This was their deadly roulette. The Scourge would occassionally send forces to harass them, and what remained of a mighty garrison would cut them down. But everytime it happened, a footman would fall here and there. A Dwarven Rifleman taken from somewhere. 

She had counted the remains of her unit, and found the remaining to be too small for her liking. 

Still, she was going to protect the refugees for as long as she and her men could and if need be, stay behind to delay the Scourge long enough for some distance to be placed for them. That time was coming too close, Elaine could feel it. In the distance, there was a shriek and Elaine turned to see its source, and soon, her eyes widened. 

"Gargoyles!" she cried out. Her shout was thankfully heard as their riflemen looked up and spotted the nasty things, fell creatures with freak features and dark wings that allowed them to fly and either swoop at those below or spit out a nasty acid that burned men. The rifleman, Dwarves all of them, levelled their weapons at the nearing creatures and fired. Some of the dark shapes fell, holes through their chests or wings that couldn't support the creatures in the air, but there were too many of them and she had too few riflemen left. 

"No! No!" she cried out in horror as the gargoyles were heading closer and closer to the refugees. Despair consumed Elaine as she screamed out to the Light for salvation, to protect them. 

Then, the Light answered. 

There was a staccato boom, unlike any Elaine had heard, then the gargoyles fell. No, they were absolutely obliterated. The first gargoyle erupted in a squall of gore, showering those underneath it with its foul remains. The second one, she saw, had its wing clipped and thousands of pieces of bone and flesh rained. The gargoyle shrieked in a manner Elaine never thought possible as it fell into the earth, black blood sputtering from its exposed wing. All the gargoyles died quickly and in such a fasion, she first thought that she was becoming mad and had started seeing things. 

Elaine then heard and felt it. The high whining, the earth shaking, quaking with each passing step. No, it was running and in speeds faster than what most men could run. Elaine turned to see where the sound was coming from but despite her best attempts, she couldn't see it. Her eyes were too slow to catch a cobalt blue form run past the fleeing refugees, a block weapon in its left hand and a sharp-toothed sword in the other, but she could catch the destruction it left in its wake. 

It ran through the shambling ghouls, their forms to weak and pitiful to stand against the rampaging thing. They were all  squashed underneath its boots. Finally, it stopped and Elaine registered the thing fully. It was, by all purposes, a giant clad in full metal. On its back was a pack of some kind and it was connected to the armor. The thing had decorations all over it, most notably spread golden wings that had a skull in the middle and on its massive pauldrons and on its right knee was a letter, her mind told her, and that letter was a distinctive U. 

By all accounts, Elaine should fear the giant. But she did not feel fear as she looked into it. No, she felt something else. 

She felt hope. 

As much as she watched the giant, it had watched her as well. It turned slightly and twin eyes that glowed a bright red regarded her. It did not say anything but Elaine felt it communicate to her somehow, and as she looked, the thing was telling her one thing. 

Fight. 

And fight, she was going to do. 

"Salvation, men of Lordaeron!" she yelled out, calming the murmurs that were breaking out in her ranks. So far, it was attacking the Scourge and as far as she was concerned, it was an ally. "Are you going to sit back and do nothing while our Salvation takes more undead than you? Take up your weapons and earn your keep!" 

With that, the men broke out of their stupor and charged. Coincidentally, so too did the giant. It was a blur to Elaine's eyes, blasting through foul undead and decorating the earth with their tainted innards. With its sharp-teethed sword that sung a terrible song, it sliced and cleaved and eviscerated whatever undead it could encounted. The zombies and the ghouls and other reanimated creatures, the sword was used to return them to the ground. With speed, the giant had found a shambling mass of zombies coming towards it and in a second, heads were flying, bodies were torn in two, and one particular zombie the giant had picked up and had crushed underneath its boots, the sickening crunch of bone echoing through her ears. 

She wasn't exactly idle however, as she and her men charged forward. Indomitable was like a hurricane, trampling undead underneath his hooves. Elaine's sword flashed as well. One undead, a former footman, shambled towards her, his arms outstretched and his eyes milky. He tried to swipe at Elaine but the woman swun her sword down and sliced the man's arms off. If he were alive, he would be screaming in pain, but the undead footman only moaned as if nothing had happened and continued on to bite at her. 

Elaine gave the man the mercy he needed and brought her sword down through his exposed head. Once what had been a vibrant and healthy pink hue now a drab and grey mass crumpled as a Elaine's weapon went through him. Bits of brain matter leaked and through its decaying flesh, Elaine could see bone sticking out. WIth an armored heel, she kicked the undead footman off and he fell back into the earth's embrace. 

She had no time to think about her act however, as the moaning of the dead echoed through her helm. Turning, she cried out. "Forward, men! For Lordaeron!"

"FOR LORDAERON!" her fighting men bellowed. 

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At their shout, Titus turned to see the archaic warriors of the world charge forward against the teeming mass of Nurglite rot. Though there was fear in them, there too was defiance and rage. Qualities any Astartes could appreciate and already, he could find it himself to respect these men and their captain, astride a horse and armed with sword and shield, a golden yellow cape fluttering in the breeze. 

Salvation, that female captain had called him. Well, Titus thought to himself, he wasn't going to disappoint. 

He rushed forward, simply running over the weaker Nurglite mass before him. He focused on the heavier, fleshier, and plumper targets. Those flying beasts he had shot, those were threats. He sighted one flying down towards him, for what reason, Titus easily gueesed. He levelled his boltpistol and fired. The bolt round sailed, gyrotating as it was levelled. His aim was true and the thing exploded in a squall of gore. His helmet then alerted him to another one, this time, it was trying to swoop at the captain. His aim was quick and so was his finger and soon, the lower half of the creature was eviscerated and it crashed into the ground. But it was not enough as the creature trashed and tossed about, shrieking. The endurance of Nurglites was a thing to behold, Titus mused. But its endurance was rather tested when the Captain turned about and pierced her sword through the creatures' eyes. 

For a moment, Titus and the Captain shared a look. A smile formed on her face before saluting, her sword clasped to her chestplate and its blade gleaming despite being stained with blood. Titus afforded her a quick nod before turning to find more Nurglites to destroy. 

Quickly, his visor latched into something which shuffled closer with each passing second. The word that came to the Ultramarine's mind was 'Abomination'. It was massive and pudgy thing, its carcass skin was grey and sewn onto it from the bottom to the back were extensions, small limbs carrying blades. On what was its right hand was a bloody hook and on its left, a massive cleaver. But the worst thing it had so far was that  And it, was smiling. 

At him. 

Titus usually kept his composure. Letting emotions cloud his mind was terrible when he had to make judgements but at this moment, he afforded himself the luxury of feeling nothing but sheer and absolute digust. Steeling himself, Titus raised his boltpistol and emptied its contents at the abomination and three bolter rounds tore through the thing's flesh. Around it, lesser corpses were showered with skin, flesh, and bone. Despite the massive damage, it still moved and was rapidly gaining speed towards Titus. 

Titus simply replaced the empty magazine with a fresh one and the terrible boom of his bolt pistol echoed in the air. He targeted key points on its body, the limbs that held the blades. The bolt pistol drummed, and gore caked. But the abomination was still displaying the damnable endurance of those tainted with Nurgle and it just kept on coming. And so, he would have to end it personally. 

He charged forward and met the abomination. His eyes alerted it raising its cleaver and it was swung down into the earth. Titus stepped aside, letting the thing embed its weapon into the ground. Seeing his moment, his chainsword revved and it quickly tore through the creature's arm. The process was quick and the nurglite abomination lost its cleaver hand. His instincts warned him that the creature was going to attack again and sure enough, its had that had a hook tried to lodge itself into his chest plate. 

Tried. 

His chainsword met it mid-air and Titus clashed against the abomination. The thing was strong and would have easily crushed a normal man. Titus was far from normal however and the teeth of his chainsword tore through the primitive metal that was its hook and in a minute, the weapon was shredded and Titus forced his chainsword deep into the abominations right arm. Despite the violence being done to it, the smile on its horrid face never left. 

Titus responded by shoving his boltpistol into the abomination's open mouth and fired. The abomination's head was a fountain of bone and matter. For a second, it lingered then it fell with a great crash. 

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Her arms were burning from overuse, her throat was hoarse and sore from all the yelling she had done. But the feelings of exhaustion were nothing compared to the fire that burned in her breast. They had done it. 

They had won. 

Already, her men were taking note of which of their number had been slain and the refugees, seeing the Scourged had been decimated, calmed themselves. Those that had it went through her ranks and offered them drink while a few more enterprising of them were going through the slain picking up whatever loot could be found. 

Underneath her, Elaine could feel Indomitable breathing and heaving. Sheathing her sword and slinging her shield over her back, Elaine bent forward and gave him a pat on the head. 

"Good job, Indomitable," she whispered. "You did well." 

The horse snorted in response. 

"Captain!" a voice called out to her. She glanced down and saw one of her footmen, Sergeant Graves, stride forward. Held in his hand was a waterskin. Elaine readily accepted the gift and greedily empited its contents through her mouth.  She drank till it was empty and when it was, she returned it to Graves. 

"How many did we lose, Sergeant?" she inquired. 

"Only some injuries, but nothing we can handle," replied the sergeant, brown eyes shining brightly under his helm. "We would have lost more, if not for...it." 

The sergeant ended with a low voice as he turned towards the cobalt blue sentinel that was standing guard in the field while curious and wide-eyed refugees whispered as they glanced at it in awe. 

"What is that, Captain?" Graves asked with wonder. 

"I don't know, Sergeant, but I intend to find out." declared Elaine as she strode forward. Some of the refugees made way for her to pass and Elaine slowly found herself underneath the giant. Indomitable was a mighty warhorse and Elaine herself was tall, standing at a good six and two inches but she was massively dwarfed by the giant. Speaking of dwarves, her riflemen were mumbling amongst themselves, their eyes never leaving the gun holstered on the giant. 

"Hail, giant!" she greeted it as she halted Indomitable. "I am Captain Elaine Rumer of the Kingdom of Lordaeron. Do you have a name?"

A part of her felt ridiculous asking a giant for a name but she had to, it was simply courtesy. Surprise filled her when the giant actually spoke, its voice baritone and garbled through metal. 

"Hail, Captain. I am Captain Titus, of the Ultramarines. You have fought well on this day," the giant named Titus responded. Her brow rose as she regarded the thing. A Captain, hm. And Ultramarine? It sounded like a group of sorts but she had never heard it before. 

Never matter. She was going to continue talking and get this Captain Titus on her good side. 

"We do our best, Captain. Unfortunately, best is simply not enough sometimes," said Elaine. "If you had not interefered, we would have joined the Scourge. For that, I thank you," she ended with pure and utter sincerety. 

Titus dipped his head. "It is no matter, Guardsman. Tis is the duty of Space Marines, now tell me, where is the nearest Imperial outpost? We must reunite with them if we ever wish to resist the taint that threatens your world." 

It was not the first nor would it be the last that Titus would save guardsmen. Miranda and her guardsmen specifically came to mind. Titus did not particularly feel the need to lord over the people he had saved. They all had duties and ensuring they all could accomplish it, Imperial Guard or Astartes, was an important thing to account. Speaking of guardsmen, at this point, lower humans would be on their knees to give Astartes such as him respect. This woman was certainly brazen to be speaking to him on her horse and other Space Marine Chapters would certainly have something to say about the disrespect but judging by the expression on the woman's face, it was becoming apparent to Titus that she utterly had no idea who he was or what he represented. 

"Imperial outpost?" Elaine asked, confused. "There is no Imperial Outpost here, Captain, nor are there any Emperors I know. There are Kingdoms here however and you are standing on its soil. The Kingdom which you stand is called the Kingdom of Lordaeron and its...king was Terenas before he was...murdered." 

Elaine ended with barely contained fury, fury that Titus was quick to detect, among other things. No Imperial outpost? Lordaeron? 

"Tell me then Captain. Have you heard of the Imperium of Man? Of the God Emperor of Mankind?" Titus asked once more. 

The woman shook her head. 

Behind his helmet, Titus's lips were thin. This was a quandry. The warp was a powerful thing, TItus knew. It was a known fact that ships that travelled the warp could find themselves in places that was not their intended destination. He hadn't heard of it being possible for astartes like him though. There were plans and measures should such a thing occur and all Titus could do now was to wait for help to find him. If he was in a barren planet or moon, such a thing would have been quite a lonely task but thankfully, the planet he was in was anything but. 

There were humans here and that meant he could still act according to what the Emperor made him and his brothers for. 

To shield the humanity from the dark that would dare consume it. 

"Never matter then, Captain Elaine," said Titus. "I may be far from the Imperium but my mission and purpose remains the same." 

"And what would that be, Captain Titus?" Elaine asked curiously. She watched as Titus glanced at some refugees who cheered and waved at him. Titus nodded at them before returning his sight to Elaine. He looked into her eyes, and recited one of the oaths that he had taken upon his initiation. One of the many oaths that defined him and his brothers. That which they had all uttered and allowed humanity to continue to burn against the galaxy that would want nothing more to consume them.

"To be the bulwark against Terror. To be a defender of humanity. I am one of the Emperor's Space Marines," he recited. "And I know no fear."

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A/N: Ever since I had read the God of Death, I had been hooked. And here is my attempt at that, with Captain Titus of the Warhammer 40K: Space Marine fame instead of Brother Avarian. Titus is one of my favourite Space Marine Characters. Dude is level-headed and while certainly a blue-blooded Loyalist, he doesn't look like the type to antagonize the natives simply because of who they are. Don't mistake me though as he will be your typical 40K human but his insight and restraint will certainly make him much more likable Astartes. Imagine if you will, a Black Templar shows up? it will take both the Alliance and Horde everything to stop Dorn's angy boys from crusading the warp out of them.

For my higher tier patrons, tell me if you wish to join in the fun as a character. If you do, go and send me a message!

So, what do ya'll think?