Imperial Knight Hauteclaire [Warhammer 40k]

[tantalus45]

Roncevaux Barony, Kimdaria, Tempestus Segmentum
560.995 M41
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.

Slowly, I returned to consciousness.

Harsh phosphorescent lights assailed my senses. I attempted to close my eyes against the bright light, but it was impossible. Something must have been forcing open my eyelids.

The corners of my vision were marked by the dark green text of a video game's Heads Up Display (HUD). The bottom left side of the HUD read [0/1,200]. The bottom right side of the HUD read [0/90] and [0/1,200]. On the top left corner of the HUD, three words appeared in large green letters.

[IMPERIAL KNIGHT HAUTECLAIRE]

Once my senses adjusted, I was able to take in the scene around me. I stood within a large cylindrical room that contained a dozen bipedal war machines. They must have been models, I thought, since the mechs were about the same height as myself. The mechs were surrounded by small metal catwalks that would typically be used for the maintenance of large industrial machines. Some of the catwalks were paired with large cranes that clung to the mechs.

After a moment, I realized that my body was also girded by a metal walkway. More notably, a person stood on the catwalk beside me. The individual was absolutely miniscule. They would have stood no higher than my knee if they were on the ground, and they wore the unmistakable red robes of the Tech Priests of Warhammer 40k.

Forcefully, I buried the fear and confusion rising within my psyche. I was a man of logic before anything else, and uncontrolled emotion would do little to improve my situation.

Clumsily, I looked down at my own body. I wore heavy armor that was painted black, red, and yellow. A black half-cape hung from my right shoulder-piece, and a metal tilt-shield on my chest bore a severe-looking coat of arms.

With an exertion of will, I attempted to lift both of my arms. There was no response from my right arm, but I felt feedback from the left side of my body. The sound of blazing fire filled my ears, and my left arm rose. A menacing Reaper Chainsword, easily the length of three people, rose into view. I clenched my fist, and the chainsaw roared into a violent rotation.

The Tech Priest turned toward me and, in an unaugmented man's voice, shouted, "He lives! Glory to Sir Alexander of Hauteclaire!"

He must have been referring to me. Though it was hard to believe, I had somehow ended up sealed within the cockpit of a Questoris Knight from Warhammer 40k. Due to the Throne Mechanicum, I felt as if I actually was the Imperial Knight, but I was still a human within the machine. That was a small weight off my shoulders, at least.

"Do you remember me, Sir Alexander!? I am Hauteclaire's Sacristan, Melchior Val," the Tech Priest said in an amplified voice.

Honestly, I did not remember the Sacristan. Something lurked in the dark corners of my cognition, dancing like flickering shadows cast by an uncovered fire, but I could not grasp them. Memories of another man lurked there, dark and ruinous, though they remained far out of my reach.

A loud, dull sound like metal against stone filled the room before I could think of an answer. I turned my gargantuan frame toward the sound's source and saw a single set of large metal doors that served as the main entrance to the chamber. There was another ringing slam, and I saw the metal door deform as if some force on the other side was bending it inward.

"The Golem!" Sacristan Melchior cried out in fear.

The Golem? That rang a bell. They were an obscure xenos race that House Cadmus wiped out before the Horus Heresy. The armaments of the Knights in the chamber were all post-Heresy, and the black paint on my armor didn't match the livery of House Cadmus.

"Sir Alexander," Melchior continued, "the other Knight pilots are out protecting the city walls. You're the only one who can stop the Golem from destroying the remaining Knights of the Karling Family. You must…"

The Sacristan's words were cut off by the sound of tearing metal. Within seconds, the heavy blast doors at the chamber's entrance had been torn open.

As the blast doors were sundered, a gargantuan creature was revealed. The monster at the gate stood a head taller than my Questoris Knight, and it was made from spiralling wood and imposing stone. Two tall wooden boughs grew out of the monster's stone skull, giving it the appearance of a giant bipedal deer. The Golem screamed like a gargantuan deer as it ran into the chamber with impossible speed.

I tore my Knight out of its berth with all the force available within its mechanical frame, rending metal and freeing me from unseen clasps. My 120 ton body moved with speed comparable to a speeding train as I charged toward the Golem.

With a single fluid motion, the Golem pulled a three-ton chunk of stone from the ground and hurled it at me. The boulder struck my chest plate and shattered into dozens of smaller pieces, causing several [WARNING] messages to flash red across my HUD. Still, the attack did not halt my locomotion, so I kept moving.

I'd like to say that I had a master plan to kill the Golem, but I didn't have the time to think. If the Golem could tear through 50cm thick blast doors within a matter of seconds, the armor of my Knight would do little to slow it down. I only had a few seconds to kill the Golem if I wanted to come out of this fight unscathed. In truth, my only coherent thought at the time was that a chainsaw should be a useful tool for cutting through wood.

Within seconds, my charging Knight reached the Golem with its chainsword pulled back to strike. Halfway through its charge, the Golem tried to stop its momentum and reverse direction away from me. The amalgamated beast, no doubt empowered by psychic energy, sprouted long obsidian claws from its stone fists.

My Reaper Chainsword revved with cataclysmic force, and the kickback of the spinning blades pulled my arm forward. I stabbed the multi-ton chainsword forward, allowing its adamantine teeth to bite into the xenos.

It screamed like a huge, dying animal as I tore into its soft flesh. I expected the Golem to counterattack with its obsidian claws, but it seemed to be paralyzed with pain as my roaring Reaper Chainsword wrenched deep into its body.

The Golem fell to the ground in two equal pieces, though the monster's amalgamated flesh writhed upon the ground. Somehow, the beast wasn't dead yet.

I looked down at the Golem. It reminded me of the giant elementals one would see in fantasy games, and those elementals usually had a core of some kind.

Then I saw it. In the center of the Golem's body, there was a two-meter-wide obsidian orb that glowed with an eternal flame.

The Golem's core was beautiful. It shined with a sublime glow as I crushed it under my metal foot.[/WARNING]