KOVEX VERIN's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Kovex Verin knelt in a field of ferns and swore an oath to The Emperor of Mankind (who Kovex knew with absolute certainty could hear him regardless of where he was.) He was a Space Marine, An Astartes. His duty was to kill the Heretic beside his Battle Brothers. But The War was gone, stolen from him. The sky above held no smoke, no gunfire, only birds. His black armor steamed in the damp air. The skulls chained at his waist knocked together as he stood, alone. He did not know how he came here. One moment he had been charging toward the enemy line with Bolter roaring and the next, he awoke surrounded by silence and green trees. His bolt gun hung heavy at his hip, the small gold wings on its grip dull with grime. He had counted his Bolt Shells twice. He had cleaned the blade of his Power Sword until its edge gleamed with a mirrors shine, then powered it on watching the blade crackled with fresh blue light. Neither act gave him a target. A soldier without a war is only a weapon rusting. His battle had been stolen from him by a Warp Tainted Heretic. Kovex spat in disgust as an anger rose inside him. “But….”, he thought “There will always be another”. Kovex stood and held his Power Sword high and screamed with all of his love for his Emperor combined will his bottomless hate for his enemies and those of The Master of Mankind, “I will Dispense The Emperor’s Justice upon all of Humanity’s enemies, I will Purge The Xenos, The Mutant and The Heretic, I will dispatch all of them regardless of where I have been sent, they will all die! There is only War!!!!” "You point that sword at nothing," a voice said. Kovex spun. His blade swept up, lightning spitting across the fern tops. A small figure stood ten paces off. She was gaunt, her head shaved, her gray eyes flat and unafraid. Torn straps hung from a dirty jacket, the remains of a straightjacket. She tilted her head like a bird studying a worm. "You're not from here either," she said. "I can smell it. Ozone. Old blood. Purpose." She grinned, then let the grin die. "They put me in a room and studied me. I broke the room. Now they hunt me." Kovex lowered his Power Sword and leveled it to the strangest girl-child. "Name yourself." "They called me Patient Nine." She stepped closer, past the crackling edge, unafraid of it. "There is a woman coming for me. Tall. Scales like white glass. Claws. She serves a thing that wants this whole world dead." She reached up and pointed towards the skull pendant on the chain at his neck, the red gem winking. "You swear oaths to a dead god. She'd feed your god to hers and smile." Kovex didn’t lowered the blade an inch. He had no war. He had no Brothers. But her words gave him a shape he understood. An enemy. A servant of destruction. Something to be judged. "You lie to save yourself," he said. "Maybe." Patient 9 shrugged. "But she's real, and she's close, and you have nothing better to do." A thin whine cut the air. Far off, metal legs crushed brush. Something mechanical moved through the trees, fast and certain, tracking a scent. Patient 9's grin returned, wide and manic. Kovex turned toward the sound. His grip tightened on the black hilt. The blade roared to full power, he had crossed the whole galaxy and lost his war. Now the war had found him again, wearing new skin. "Stay behind me strange girl-child," he said. "I will meet whatever dares stand against me.” He walked toward the hunter in the trees, and for the first time since he arrived, his purpose burned clean. “There is only WAR”. Kovex said low and eventually, assuming a battle stance, his Power Sword held tight and ready to drink the blood of the enemy.