The age of the 8th Apocalypse

[chocmushroom]

“Bloatbile my son, can you feel that?”
“Hhhhmmm” he waits and tries to attune himself “I can feel nothing lord Mamon, what is it?”
“There is something, a bit like that other time, some artefact of power, but this one is subtle, I will see what it is.”replied Mamon.
For the next few days Mamon spent his time searching, it seemed to be a power somewhere, but where. Then he found it, on a planet in a system he had never been to, so he went to try to manifest there from the warp, and could not!
This was disturbing, what power could be stopping him, he needed some advice, and the Lord of the Blighted pit was the person to see.

“Lord Scabeiathrax” said Mamon when he entered the chamber “How good to see your putrid self again”
“Mamon my son, how goes things” replied the immense bloated form of one of the greatest of all unclean ones.
Mamon then explained to Scabeiathrax the issue, when he himself tried to manifest and could not, they both knew something bad was afoot.
“Mamon, we need to find out what is on that planet, but with no Daemons being able to go there, can you contact some of your tainted follower to find out” Mamon knew it was not a request that could be ignored.
I will see to it my lord and let you know the result.

Mamon, not being able to go himself knew who he could contact, Necrosius the Unying had been his loyal sorcerer to him many times and would get the job done.
After the telepathic contact Necrosius would go the planet and find out what was happening, he dispatched a small force of Death guard from a neighbouring system while he travel also.

The death guard arrived first, and while going to the place on the planet found they were not alone. Some Marines, Harlequins and another Heretic Astartes Nurgle force had also arrived.
The Marines went down quickly, being attacked by both the Harlequins and Death guard, they were quickly overpowered. The Halequins then made the mistake of attacking the lone Rhino, little did they know that the grim has been building up in it, and it exploded in a colourful dieses ridden puss ball.
It seemed that Papa Nurgle wanted the Death guard to get the artefact, as the other Nurgle army could not hurt Necrosius’s loyal troops, and they won the day and the artefact all before the sorcerer arrived on the planet.
He came down and we not presented the artefact by the Daemon Prince, as he could not get close to it without parts of him dissolving!
“Mamon, I have it” The telepathic message made the Fel Icon smile, he knew his troops would make it.
“Well done, what is it?” was the joyful reply.
“I’m not sure my lord, we found a human who had been working here, his puny mind could not resist mine and he told us what we needed before Granulationaire ripped him apart.
It seems that this planet where the legendary alchemist Dettollist settled centuries ago, it seems someone has been looking back at his work, hoping to find something to bring them either wealth or the key to make a powerful weapon or give them great power.
There is a number of these artefacts on the planet, and his boss has activated them all in the preparation for something, he did not know what. It is hoped that they will prevent anyone from disrupting his work, but I’m sure if we can destroy enough of them we can get through.
The field it’s putting out they are calling a Chloroxylenol field, and it seems deadly to some of us. I will hunt down the rest of these artefacts and destroy them my lord.”
“Well done Necrosius” and Mamon was please, such a good first outing were good omens “I will report all this to lord Scabeiathrax, just keep me posted on how finding and destroying the other artefacts go”
With that the connection was broken, and while the sorcerer was forming a plan on how to find and destroy the contraptions, Mamon was planning on how he could find out more about this Dettollist and what a Chloroxylenol field was.

[chocmushroom]

“Necrosius, report”
Mamon sounded in his head as the normal warp communication happened, and Necrosius lost his concentration on the artefact he was examining
“We followed where the emissions were coming from, and there was this strange looking machine, that was spilling this brown liquid all over the place. We were going to take it when this marine biker squad turned up to take it”
”Marines!”
“Yes Lord, there were some bikers who came and took the artefact, it did not look good for us so I requested some help from the Plaguebarge in Orbit, and Typhus himself came down with some bodyguards to help us out.
He did distract them, but went down in a number of plasma volleys, he is back on the barge now recuperating.
Anyway, his distraction allowed us time to catch and kill all of the marines, and for our prize we have the machine.”
Necrosius felt that Typhus had just tried to charge into the fray without thinking, not planning like the sorcerer would do, but it never went well if you said bad things about the blightlord, he had a way of finding things out and paying you back.
“I think you should try to find a way of turning off the artefact, and I will make a report to Scabeiathrax on this” was the daemon lords reply, and then his presence faded.
That was what I was doing before I was interrupted was all Necrosius thought before going back to examining the machine. He had almost had it before, but now he thought he understood how it worked, and it was not alone, these on the displays could have been other machines, and this was how you stopped it. He would now wait for the next communication. It was the next minute that it came through.

“Scabeiathrax is not pleased, he thinks there may be a plot on with the marines to put a dent in Nurgles power with this machine of Dettollist, and the strange Chloroxylenol field, and he is gathering a huge army of daemons to come down to the planet and wipe out anyone who was trying to gain it’s knowledge, shut the machine down and I will manifest.”
With a turn of the key the lights faded and the smelly liquid stopped flowing into the dispenser.
“That is better, but not good, I still cannot penetrate the field around the planet, but I can see more now” Mamon sounded less than pleased “do you know where the other artefacts are?”
“I think they are these dots on the display my lord, one if to the east around 100k away, the other the north about 50k.”
“I can see, No, No, there seems to be more troops heading in both them directions, and they are closest to the east now, you must get there and fast.”
“If it’s 100k, we will get the terminators to teleport in lord, not a problem” was the cool reply of Necrosius.
“Normally you would be right, but it looks like the only way in is deep, deep underground, too deep to penetrate, so you need to get there fast”.
“I will take two squares of Plague marines with me in a rhino each and head off now my lord, along with three drones and Lord Burstpus who is already on the planet, we should be able to get there in time. For the ones in the north I will send the heavy hitters up, and we will leave at once.”
With that Necrosius the Unying grabbed his troops, they jumped into some rhinos and were off within five minutes. Traveling at full speed it should not take them that long to get there, but who is the other force that is also on its way and has a head start.

[chocmushroom]

The Rhino was traveling at full speed and Necosius was feeling glad he was in with only seven Plague marines and not in the other Rhino in formation with ten people inside. He could see the three blight drones flying on the left hand side and the Daemon prince flying on the right. It gave him time to contact Typhus to sort out where the troops he would be leading were going. Typhus had decided that he wanted to go in with the tanks and terminators, they would hopefully be there by midday, a few hours after his own convoy would reach the artefact.
It was a few hours later, and they had been going full speed all through the night when he was approaching the coordinates, it was still dark when they saw the outline on the horizon, it looked like a bloody titan!
His mind working fast, Necosius decided that the best course of action would be to just hit it hard and fast with everything they had, and hopefully they could get the jump on it, it did not seem like it had seen them yet, but it was hard to miss.
They had it, the element of surprise on the titan, it had not seen them come up due to the dark, it had clouded their exhaust fumes a lot better than trying to hide the titan, so they hit it. He and his troops jumped out of the Rhino, all within shooting distance of the titan, he put the smite on it and tried to boost the drone with the fleshmower to make its rotating flails more potent when they hit. The same time the two other drones both hit the titan with their plaguespewers. They seemed to hurt the titan before it’s shield even seemed to come on, and then the fleshmower made it in and started to flail the titans body. Sparks were flying and part of the carapace armour came off, and Necosius could see the spell effects of making the plague corrode the now exposed wires.

The titan was aware of us now, and it strode over our troops and opened up on Burstpus and my marines with its weapons. The blessing of Nurgle must have been with us, as a lot of the wounds were being ignored on the marines by me, but Burstpus took a big hit and seemed to falter in his charge. The titan then charged into him, trying to kick him to back to the warp. If it had been any other daemon it would have worked, but we are Nurgle and we do not go down so easily. Burstpus was still alive, and flew away from the combat o land away from the titan, and this let the other marines in the other Rhino to jump out. They had a Biologus Putrifier with them and they all threw the more potent blight grenades wat the titan, these marines had been around a long time, they were veterans of the long war and knew where the best place to throw these grenades to do the most damage was. At the same time the putrifier himself threw his hyper blight grenades and the titan stopped moving.
Now that was quick, the sun was still not up and titan had been stopped, one of the drones had some damage and Burstpus had taken a lot of damage, the plague surgeon with us took a look at the three marines who had gone down, he thought they would all pull through in a day or two.

With the sun coming up a glint of brass was seen and that smell came in the air, the artefact was there, just where it should have been. Looking over the titan Necosius was surprised, it was not imperial but chaos, seemed that Slannesh was getting involved in this! Mamon and Scabeiathrax would want to know this latest twist, Necosius would let Mamaon know as soon as he contacted him, for now trying to work out this artefact was his first priority.
Looking at it, he could read that this one was called a Para-Chloro-meta-xylenol dispenser, he didn’t know what it was, but he would find a way to stop the field from effecting the Nurgle Daemons ability to manifest. He hoped that shutting down this one would mean they can come down and the one that Typhus was after would not be needed, only time would tell.

[chocmushroom]

A few hours later Necosius had contact from Typhus, the man was a blunt as ever with him, just reporting that he had found the artefact, there had been some resistance but his team had destroyed them all, he sent an image of the artefact through and wanted to know what to do with it. Necosius had worked out how to turn off the one in front of him, but had decided that that with only the two left once this one was turned off, the last one could just be destroyed.
“Destroy it” was all Necosius said to the Blight lord after he had turned his one off.
“Necosius, you have done it!” The voice of Mamon was so clear, “I will inform Scabeiathrax himself and we will come down soon. He wants to destroy the people in the city where it was found, it’s to the north of here, we will meet you there on Saturday morning. The Daemons of Nurgle are coming to town and will bring gifts of diseases on all who have been bad……. and all who have been good. Will you get Typhus to join us?”
“I’m not sure Mamon, he mentioned that for some reason the terminator teleporter was not working in last night’s battle so he is not sure if he will be able to make it in time, but I will be there.”
“Let him know that his farther, Lord Mortarion will be coming, he may want to fight alongside him again for the cause of the great plaguefather.”
I’m not sure that will make him more likely to join us, thought Necosius “I will let him know” he relied to Mamon.
Now Necosius had one job to do, get his death guard ready to fight with the Nurgle Daemons that are coming down on Saturday, now that was a lot of prep.

[chocmushroom]

The dust had cleared.
The battle had not gone well for the followers of Great Papa Nurgle. It had been confusing out there, there did not seem to be any sides except your own. The band of loyal Nurgle followers and the daemons devoted to him had been cut down. The Slannesh daemons had attacked, along with the hated space wolves, then another marine chapter had joined them along with some orks.
That was some time ago, the battlefield had been bloody and normally this would have been a time for Nurgle to rejoice, with all the decay and dieseas that frequent most aftermass, but that would only be in normal times.
This was not normal, there was no presence of decay on this planet.
That had not been the worst though, as normally when the daemons have their essence in this world broken, they appear back in The Garden, but not this time. Every since Lord Scabeiathrax had gone, there had been no sign on him in the garden or anywhere in the warp. Necrosis knew of death, and on this planet he had not even been able to raise a single poxwalker to do his bidding, it was that damn artefact!

"Lord" Bloatbile said as he entered the ruined house. The house that the survivors of the apocalyptic battle were now using as their HQ. They had been slowly getting all the injured their, repairing the vehicles and trying to contact more of their daemon brethren.
Mamon and Necrosis both looked up at him.
"Sorry, I mean Lords" Bloatbile corrected himself as he was that Mamon was not alone.
"From your hasty entrance, I do hope this is good news Bloatbile" Mamon replied. He had gone down during the battle, but his Nurgle gifts had kept him alive, and he was soon back and trying to bring back together the army.
"almost my Lord, we have found it, the artefact that is"

"Great" no matter how long Bloatbile had known Necrosis, he was always a bit surprised at how high pitched the sorcerers voice was. "so we turn it off and then we can see what happened to Lord Scabeiathrax"
"it's not that simple Lord, as it seems them space wolves are also in the area, getting very close to it". Bloatbile replied.
"So get your scouts to pick it up and come back here now then, before they get there" Mamon chimed in.
"That is the problem my Lords, the scouts that have found it, well, they are nurglings Lords"
The room was quite for a bit while that sunk in, then Mamon stood up and went outside.
"Everyone listen" he bellowed "I want the fasted warband you can muster, we have a place to go and we need to get there fast".

[Robstrosity]

Demons and traitors abroad, seeking their prize.
The packs unleashed, bolters roared, lightning flashed.
Many were the valiant dead, few of the mighty remained.
But victory to the warriors of Russ and the Allfather.

[chocmushroom]

It had been too long.
He could still feel it, it didn’t seem to affect him as much as the actual daemons, but it was still there, the constant swirling vapours in the air that seemed to be cleansing it.
“They must have failed” It was quite, Necrosis did not expect anything quite from Mamon, but it was barely above a whisper.
“It does seem that way” Necrosis responded “or it could be that they have the device, but don’t know what to do with it and are returning it to us. No matter, I think we have a good lead to follow up on. This Dettollist and his Chloroxylenol filed he created, it seems that someone was already working to try to stop it before. His studies had found that someone going by the name of Ben-Thriocab had created a device he called an anti-thiocarbamate cholinesterase inhibitor which he used to offer some sort of protection against the Chloroxylenol filed. He now had it down to a few leads or where parts of it were. He would need to send out the marines to recover it, as for some reason, where the rumours said it was, was deep inside the field and the daemons could not get close enough to help.
It was then that they hear the sound of jump packs in the distance, hoping that it was the warband returning he prepared for the debrief.

“Yes lord, but the reports were wrong about the device, but correct about the Space wolves were there.”
“An how did you fail?” this time, Mamons voice was booming.
“Lord, we got there at the same time as them, the drones were there and we were on part of the relic. Poxvile even managed to get a look at it, it seems to be a remote transmitter not the device itself. As I was saying lord, we got to it, the Sons of Russ were there and we fought them in a splendid battle. We took many of them down, most of them in-fact. We had tied up their shooting with our Heldrake, and got close enough to stop the others. Our drones took on their bloodclaws and then when Nixhagaust the Daemon prince joined in, the claws went down dead lord.
We were just in the process of making sure they we had the device, when somehow, the runepriest, well he must have had someone guiding him, as he smote one unit, then called lighting down, that went from Captain Blotfoul all the way to Poxvile, and took them both down, then the same priest jumps on the box containing the transmitter, and then a ship came flying down to evacuate him lord. Without that ship there would have been no way he would have survived us, but he did lord.”
It was the same story as the deamon had relayed, about how the fight had been going well, when suddenly the cursed runepriest had called down lighting, somehow managed to kill everyone near the relic, then a blizzard had appeared and when it cleared all they could see was a ship flying away with the priest holding onto the outside, but with the relic.
“What do you think Necrosis?”
“Well Mamon, with the loss of the artefact I don’t even know of a way to weaken the field near where your brethren died, as far as I can tell thy are still trapped. I do not see a way of us getting Scabeiathrax freed any time soon.” Replied the sorcerer
“I do have a plan though, we have hints on where we can find this other device, this anti-thiocarbamate cholinesterase inhibitor, I say we gather an army, or rather, you gather one army and myself a second. I will go with the mortals to the heart of the field, seeing if I can shut it down, while you take the daemons to see if you can first find, then get working the inhibitor.
First though, I will chase up my first lead, see what I can find.

[chocmushroom]

He was close, the scouts had told him that there were crates in the area that had the symbol of Ben-Thriocab on them were just over the hill. Necrosis and the plague marines had been slogging all through the night and in just a few minutes the prize would be his, there was nothing that could……
There were guard here! A Baneblade and some Lemun Russ tanks and they also seemed to be looking for the crates, he would need to act fast if the prize was to be his.

He new what he had to do, his ten thousand years of battle had honed his instincts. First he would send the close combat plague marines in the rhino us with support, to take out the baneblade, while his poxwalkers would be hording themselves over the creates, stopping the imperial from getting to them. He also called up to Typus and his blightlord cohort that the fight was on, it would not take them long to come done.

Necrosis new that he would be on the back foot to start with, he only had one gun platform, the little blighthauler was rolling up with them, and he hoped it would distract the guard by opening up on the baneblade. It did so and hit with all its weapons, that was good, it would be a target now.
The Russ tanks new what the poxwalkers were doing, they shot everything at them, but the little dead buggers would not die again, somehow they, or should we say it, stood up to the hail of fire, yes only one remained, but he was on the crate.
Then the trap was sprung, the plague marines with the plague axes and flails jumped out of the rhino, along with the Putrifier, Tallyman and Blightspawn, they all went towards the baneblade, they should be able to take it out. First the Blightspawn took aim, and the hot pulsating corrosive juices from his foul concoction went all over the baneblade, seeping through it’s armour, he could even hear the screams from the guard inside, then as always, as they were running in with their plague axes, the marines all threw their extra infused blight grenades, and…… bright white light and a deafening sound, as the baneblade exploded.
Now that was not good, them marines would takes months in the chambers to before they would be ready to start even walking again, but at least it took out a russ with it, well, it blew the side off one, even if the guns still seem to work, and best of all, it took out both the guard commanders.
With the loss off their command, the guard just folder, that was the problem of normal humans, they just cannot cope with combat without being spoon fed everything they needed to do. Yes Typus came down and helped kill some more, but it seemed that the guard just faded away into the early morning mist.

With the guard gone, Necrosis went looking through the crates. There was indeed something there, and it could be parts of a machine of some type. Now all he needed to do was find more parts, and hopefully Mamon would have gathered enough daemons together to go and fight to destroy the dreaded artefact.

[chocmushroom]

"Lord Necrosis, they think they have found it!"

This message was what he had been waiting for, they had been traveling towards the suspected stash and the scouts had gone ahead.
"No lord, it's not the death guard scouts, it's, well it seems to be just some nurglings who were chasing a squirrel. They are at co-ordinates 12.25.6"
"12.25.6, thats the other side of the planet, there is no chance of us getting there in time!" Necrosis shouted into the communicator.
"Mamon, you will need to take the daemons and warp in there, contact the nurglings and see what they are doing."

"I have just been doing that Necrosis, and it seems that something big is happening, it looks like a whole hive fleet has landed, along with a dynasty and a platoon"
"We don't have enough daemons to take them on, it looks like we have lost" Necrosis was angry, how could his information been so wrong that he was on the other side of the planet.
"May not lord, it seem that others are also converging, and, we lord, there is something which we have not seen in a long time, it seems like a hive fleet or two are invading!"
A Hive fleet, now that may just swing it in his favour
"Go Mamon, see if you can find it, and hold off the eldar..... wait, have we not seen some of the Slannesh daemons around, I'm sure they would love to have a dance with the eldar, contact them, maybe with their help we will win the day.