Chapter Master Valrak and the Trial of Vindication
The war-torn skies of Scamious Prime burned crimson as Chapter Master Valrak strode across the shattered battlefield, his Yellow-Gold-Orange artificer armour dulled by the soot and blood of a thousand conflicts. The vox chatter crackled in his ear, a constant stream of reports, praise, and the occasional grey lament. His Brother Astartes, The Members of the Green Legion, stood resolute behind him, boltguns primed and blades eager. They had been waiting for this moment—the moment of vindication.
For weeks, the whispers had spread like a Nurgle-blessed plague. Dissenters in the ranks, cowardly agitators on the vox-net, and even some among the high command doubted his warnings. “There will be nothing revealed,” they sneered. “A fool’s errand.” the jeered. "Pedro Kantor model when?" came the chant from the back, Yet, Valrak knew. He always knew. The un-memberd enemy would reveal itself, as it always did, in the most insidious of ways.
A shadow passed overhead, a massive war barge descending from the upper atmosphere. The heraldry of the Dark Mechanicum was unmistakable. The Betrayers of Mars had arrived, their twisted steel forming a blasphemous mockery of the Omnissiah’s will. The battlefield trembled as corrupted Skitarii legions advanced, their cybernetic limbs clicking in discordant rhythm, while towering war constructs loomed in the distance, their eyes glowing with the sickly light of warp-tainted machine spirits.
Valrak activated his vox-link, his voice carrying the righteous fury of one who had been mocked for his foresight. “Well, well, well. It would seem that I was right. Again.”
Brother-Captain Tallahasse chuckled. “Vindication, my lord?”
“Double vindication,” Valrak corrected, raising a strangely larger than normal hand whilst igniting his power sword in the other. “Not only did they come, but they brought with them the very horrors I predicted. Now, brothers, let us show them the price of doubting the Emperor’s chosen!”
The FaithfulGreen surged forward, bolters roaring in unison. The battlefield erupted into carnage as the first line of Skitarii fell, their bodies shredded under the hail of mass-reactive shells. Valrak himself was a storm of righteous destruction, his blade cleaving through heretical servitors like parchment. The air burned with the scent of ozone as plasma bolts rained down, turning traitorous constructs into molten slag.
Yet the battle was not without its trials. A towering Thanatar Siege Automata locked onto Valrak, its massive graviton cannon charging with an ominous hum. The Chapter Master growled, pushing forward even as the gravitational field around him twisted and bent. His armour strained, servos whirring in protest, but he would not falter. With a roar that echoed across the battlefield, he hurled his power sword, the blade spinning end over end before embedding itself deep in the automata’s central cortex. The construct spasmed, its systems shorting out in a cascade of sparks before toppling to the ground.
As silence fell over the battlefield, the remaining Dark Mechanicum forces withdrew, dragging their broken war machines with them. Valrak surveyed the carnage, exhaling slowly. He activated his vox once more.
“To those who doubted, who called me a liar, a fool, a madman,” he said, voice thick with triumph. “This is your answer.”
His Astartes erupted in a chorus of laughter and cheers. The battle was won, but more importantly—Valrak had, once again, been vindicated.
As the sun set over Scamiuos Prime, the Chapter Master turned his gaze skyward, already thinking of the next war, the next revelation, the next time he would prove them all wrong...
For in the grim darkness of the far future of Dogginghammer 50,0000 there is only rumours, which as we all know, are lies...until those who know the truth decide to try and get ahead of the leaks and do a reveal last minute and pretend it was their marketing plan all along...
But know this...Valrak will always ready.
