95 Reports to the Chapter Master
William was the first to arrive at the final destination with his royal guards and first company. The trip wasn't that much difficult as William didn't get to do much since the first company did all the heavy lifting.
When a massive siege was about to happen two cities ago, William was about to jump into action to take out the main gate with his terminator armor. But as a Chapter Master of the newly made company, William was blocked by his royal guards while the first company did all the work of conquering the city.
'Where is all the fun when you can't part take on the action itself? "Oh, let us handle this Chapter Master," "Save your energy for our final battle against the Ruinous Power, Chapter Master." Man, they literally drain all the fun out of this whole Peace Keeping.' For this reason, William ends up with a pile of paperwork and goes through reports on other campaigns around the country.
The first report was from Lord Creed who managed to conquer most of the cities and took major casualties, for the other side. One part even mentions how he managed to lure out the city leaders and nobles using massive artillery bombardment. It was a 3D chess move to scare the living shit out of your enemy while thinking three steps ahead of them.
After that, Lord Creed took out a few more cities and armies including an army of mercenaries using nothing but tanks at his disposal. Let's just say Baneblade heavy battle tanks can reshape the landscape just by running over thousands of spearmen and swordsmen. Overall, Lord Creed accomplish all his objectives and didn't even slow down to take a day or two to take the day off. The only reason William made it first to the final location before Lord Creed did was because of the number of cities he had to take compared to others. Compare to that, William only took out three cities and none of them did he get to fire a single bolter round.
The second report is from Lord Commissar Cain and his campaign through the mountain region. Commissar Cain's report is what William expects exactly as Cain's report gave off his adventure just like in the novel.
When William got into half of the report about the new Black Templar, William got excited but near the end, he realized that this Black Templar who claim to be Emperor's Champion might be someone else. In the end, William realized that this man might be from one of the Alpha Legion, aka no idea which side these guys belong to. Because these guys are mysterious and much unknown to Imperium (Unless you are High Lords of Terra) Commissar Cain report about this fake Space Marine as an unknown man and require more investigation in the future.
The rest of the report from Commissar Cain was about him and his troops taking over the three additional cities and one outpost in which Cain and Jurgen managed to make a campfire because and this is from letter to letter 'Jurgen wanted to make a marshmallow' to which William spill his drinks in his mouth and cough for two minutes.
Overall, Lord Commissar Cain did a great job to take out the cities in the harsh environment of the mountain legion without any issues (Beside Alpha Legion). Cain is expected to arrive at the final location within three days and a happy Valhallans who consider winter on the mountain top as a summer vacation.
The four other reports are from the companies that recently went through genetic and equipment upgrades. Unlike how Roboute Guilliman who mixed his new Space Marines with old ones based on their origin chapter, William decided to mix everyone to form new types of independent companies.
In the tabletop, building an army is limited to points given to each player, but this isn't tabletop so William placed certain types of Space Marines with certain specialties in each company. Each company has stealth, sniper, siege specialist, melee, mid-range, and heavy weaponry on top of traditional Liberians and heavy units such as Dreadnoughts.
Each company took out three to five cities and towns including critical locations such as military bases and port cities. One particular company did overreact by burning the entire town into the ground but it was expected since the town was infested with witches. Unfortunately, that company was led by the former Space Wolves and he personally crushed the head witch's skull using his blank ability. The town is no longer on the map and William believes no one will settle in that ruined place for a long time. All four companies are expected to arrive in two days.
Finally, William grabs the report from the Sisters of Battle. As expected, William casually read about the report and expected it to be a perfect campaign considering Rana was involved.
'Let's see. Ok, night raid and reverse ambush to counter the enemy forces. Oh, Chaos Cultists… What? Night Lords? Any named characters? Talos? Anyone from the 1st Claw? Good, there are none.' William continues reading the report. A short time later, everyone outside of the command tent heard William's voice as he reach the part where Sister Superior praise the Emperor's name with good reason.
"WTF! A LIVING SAINT?!" William read through the report written by the surviving Sister Superior and was shocked to read about the part where Rana died and was resurrected back to life as a Living Saint.
William's only love and connection to his humanity as a whole is now part of the Emperor's plan. He wasn't expecting Star Child to personally take action, especially when that person is a Rana, a local human from a foreign world outside of the 40k universe.
Rana, her army, and Sisters of Battle are expected to arrive four days later due to massive casualties and damage to their vehicles. Considering who they were up against, William couldn't blame them, hell he would have joined them if he knew they were up against Night Lords.
'I'm glad she is alive but this changes everything. Someone is changing the rule of the game. Or maybe, it is reacting to my action. But to make her a Living Saint. Someone needs to answer for it and I'm taking my gloves on to get it.' William finishes the report and steps outside of his command tent. His two royal guards followed him while everyone else continue their work as the sun was about to set behind the mountain.
Stopping at the top of the hill, William saw his final and last obstacle on the opposite of the field. Carved half of the mountain was the fortress and its wall, near impossible to knock it down with low-tech siege machines. For William, the fortress wasn't the issue, the army guarding the place is the problem and he is certain this one is going to be a challenge.
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Three Days Later,
Rana and her army of faithful march through rough roads and terrain but eventually they arrived close to their final destination. It would take another day to reach the main base but due to tired soldiers, Rana decided to take a short break from a town nearby.
When the army arrived, no one welcomed them or even bother to watch new arrivals. The town was silent, only a few shadows watching the army from the windows. One other strange thing was the smell of the town. The air was ripe with rotten things and the unpleasant scent of death. Soon, the Sisters of Battle sensed the wrongness and search each building with full power armor with helmets.
"Living Saint, you have to see this." One of the Medical Sister radio Rana's vox earpiece with the location of the building. When Rana and her bodyguards arrived they saw a building full of sick people. From little kids to old seniors, the room was filled with all kinds of symptoms and diseases.
"Sister, what happened?" Rana ask the sister what happened and soon she got cold chills on her back.
"They all got the sickness but not from a single strain. I checked before calling you, Saint. Each and every one of them have different diseases. They all have a plague from the Ruinous Power."
"By the God-Emperor, save us from the damnation." One of the bodyguards spoke without realizing while the second guard vox channel for cleansing to be done.
"Can't we do anything for them? There must be a doctor or healer in this town who can give us more information." Rana was devastated by the scene and asked the sister to see if there was a solution to fix this. If a local doctor knows anything maybe there is a way to fix all this.
"I'm sorry, but according to the townsfolks, the healer died two days ago while on duty. It seems his abilities couldn't prevent him from being infected in the end."
"No," Rana whispered and activated her ability to shine the entire room with golden light. Surely, her ability to heal would save the townspeople but the effort was useless as it only paused the sickness for a few seconds.
Rana approached the old woman in her late 70s to comfort her. With golden light still shining, Rana gave a cup of clean water to the old woman.
"You will be fine, grandma. You will be back on your feet in no time." Rana said in her soft voice to comfort the old woman but she knew the truth. This old woman won't survive for long as her body was already beyond saving even with Emperor's light.
Hearing Rana's words, the old woman cried. Soon, the woman spoke, and what she said surprised Rana beyond her belief.
"I'm only 15 years old. I'm not even married yet." An old woman said and soon with last great effort, she gasp for air and died in Rana's arms.
Rana shed tears and use her free hand to close the 'young lady's eyes. With great sorrow and heartbreak, Rana once again brightens the building and beyond with Emperor's light.
"Stop, please. I know you are trying to help us but we are beyond help." An old man in his 50s spoke in his bed after the light died down.
"What?" Rana spoke, still holding the dead woman in her arms.
"I said we are a lost cause. We first got sick when a stranger stopped by a week ago. He didn't talk to anyone or did anything besides wandering around the town fountain but after he left, that's when sickness began to spread. You know what must be done to stop the plague from spreading. We were waiting for someone to end our suffering." The old man's request wasn't from just him but from every townfolks and Rana knew what must be done.
Putting down the dead woman back in her bed, Rana ordered the Sisters to give last rites and bless every building with holy water before cleaning it with fire. With orders given, the Sisters of Battle follow each order to the word as they did their best to comfort the folks with Emperor's holy words and holy water to wash away their sins and doubts.
When everything was done and ready, Sisters with flamers washed their pain and suffering. The entire town soon burned with holy fire as holy oil and fire from the flamer cleansed the plague and any trace of diseases. By the time night time began, the town burned to the ground, leaving only a fountain still standing located in the center of the former town.
'The old man said someone was here a week ago, wandering around the fountain. Why? To spread the plague through water source?' Rana recalls the old man's words and exam the fountain for a few minutes and found the cause of the plague. Discovering recently disturbed dirt close to the fountain itself, Rana unearthed a foreign object that caused so much pain and suffering.
A rusty metal of one of the Chaos Gods' symbols was buried at the center of the town and based on the symbol, Rana knew who it belonged to. Thanks to the Star Child's blessing, she knew more than enough of the Ruinous Power and how devastating it is as this one was one of the worst of them all.
'Nurgle.' Rana then crushes the green rustly metal with a symbol of Plague God with her power armor and destroys the source of the town's plague. With this, the last Chaos Gods to wage war against the New World are revealed and all the chess pieces moved once again according to the Star Child's plan.
