Blood and Snow: Apoc

“Fear not death, for your souls are already the Emperors!” –Lord Comissar Lucas Marin ;12^th Gallayan Rifles

Incharus

        

Incharus was an insignificant world for millennia.  It was a small backwater colony that had the single distinction of being nearly as cold and miserable as a Valhalan summer home.  It was not until the dawn of the 41^st millennium that the worth of the world was realized.

                Massive seismic quakes unearthed a large series of crystal caverns.  As the crystals caught the weak sunlight of the planets old star, the crystals somehow pulsed with energy.  This energy became focused, and coalesced in the warp surrounding the world…and Incharus became noticed.  Thousands of light years away, a power stirred in its inexorable journey.  The devourer was hungry.

                Scientists, psyichics, inquisitors came to the system, trying to learn what these strange crystals were, and how they could be used if possible.  An imperial military presence was mustered to look after the garrisoning of the world… for it was not heavily populated.  Two regiments from the nearby system of Gallaya were dispatched, and an armored regiment from the far off Petuxan cluster of worlds as well.  Added to this, a contingent of Stormtroopers was dispatched.   

                As the 41^st Millenium dragged on, the research and questioning of the crystals grew ever more.  Psychics felt the warp stronger than ever before within the presence of them, and found the risk of mishap lessened.  Laser cutters could do nothing against them, and often found their power drained.  And still, the crystals pusled… never ceasing.

Until the shadow fell…

   When the first crystals ceased pulsing, the minds of four psychics burst before the eyes of their overseers.  Their eyes crying blood as they screamed out for the few seconds they had left alive.

   Communications with the orbiting squadron led by the Battlecruiser Sullian became difficult.  The daily routines of the regiments suddenly changed... chaos perhaps... orks... maybe.  Nothing could have prepared them for the nightmare.

  As the riflemen of the Gallayan regiments took to their positions, the first spores fell.  The fires in the sky spoke of the devastation that was coming.