To all those that asked: This is the backstory for a Warhammer 40000 character who features in the latter part of The Zogmekiad. Nozbet is a Blood Axe Ork warlord. See Ork for a description of the species.
Von Brams was finally starting to relax. Not because the heroic Achernar Guard had repelled the Orkoid assault force, but because he knew his death was about to come.
The Orkoids were practically rattling his cage. Since their planetfall only three weeks ago, the Orks had been decimating the Guard lines as a farmer might burn gorse off his land. They were already assailing the capital city of
Mannervale. It was a matter of only a half hour or so before they breached his bunker.
But compared to the reports he was getting from the polar regions, death at the hands of an Ork rated as a blissful release. For the space marines had landed there, at a listening post deep within the frozen continent. The mere arrival of a squad or two of the Adeptus Astartes had boosted the morale of Lucius' troops tenfold. But it soon became apparent that rather than come for the Orks, they had come for everyone.
Contact had been lost with the Polar Garrison and the water mines within 10 minutes of their arrival.
But at least they wouldn't get to him in time. The warriors of the Emperor would not be able to punish him for cowardice. No, he would die a hero, fighting to repel the alien invaders.
He could hear the fighting above him now, as the Orks swept out the floors above his command station. He drew his bolt pistol. Perhaps in his final moments he could summon the courage to actually fire it...
'Hello, General.'
Lucius spun about to find himself staring into the mask of a ghostly looking figure at least nine feet tall. Behind him, a small tear in reality was closing up.
'Your men are truly loyal, Lucius. The commander of the polar garrison was able to give me the exact coordinates of this bunker in exchange for his life."
"Wh.... what do you want?" babbled the general. The ghostly figure was draped in robes, but Lucius' eyes were unable to distinguish any of the colours. "Why... I've come here for the courageous General Lucius of course. I've come
to honour you for your acts of heroism in the service of the divine Emperor."
From under the robes, the figure pulled a colossal axe, its blade snarling with a magnesium aura.
Lucius screamed and ran for the door. But it was locked, and he could not remember the ancient rites that opened it. He whirled about as the figure moved towards him. "You can help me, Lucius. My fleet is trapped in the Maelstrom.
They need our help."
The axe rose above the figures head. It was truly colossal. Tongues of flame danced across its face. Energy spat and hissed across its edge.
"Where have you buried the
warp gate?" the figure asked.
Lucius' face froze in horror. He felt his bowels turn traitor.
He knew he would soon be dead. He thought about his earlier life.. his childhood friends. He tried to leave his body in the room that would become his tomb, and escape to a happier place. Or to the Void. Or anywhere. Anywhere except here. Even the Forges were kinder than this...
A deafening crack staunched his dreaming, and he was sucked back into the vessel of cowardice that passed for his body.
The figure in front of him bent forward, and slumped to the ground. The axe slipped from the creatures grip, and clattered on the floor. A pool of nebulous black blood began to form around the robed body. In his hand, Lucius' bolt pistol was smoking.
The body in front him began to boil and distort, its own blood dissolving flesh and garment. The stench was unbearable. In no time the body had been reduced to
a pool of steaming ichor.
The axe lay in its center, its blade eating away at the unholy bile. Lucius was entranced by its glittering edge.
"Take me", he thought he heard.
The axe was calling to him. "Take me", it repeated. Lucius' feeble mind was already sodden with its magic. He held his hand out at it and whimpered.
"Come here and take me", it whispered. He wanted nothing more, but his feet refused to walk. So he fell forward, and shattered his jaw on the hard concrete. But how he could drag himself towards the magnificent weapon, which was all he could think of doing.
He didnt even notice the sphere of plasma that destroyed the ancient doors behind him. Nor did he hear the heavy footsteps of an Ork wearing Imperial boots. He only heard the axe. "Take me. Now." He feebly reached for it, but his fingers snapped back as the ichor hissed at them.
A figure stooped over him, and a green hand reached down to lift the weapon out of his field of vision. "Yes, take me.. take me.... No.. NOOOOOO!!!'
The room was filled with a supernatural wail. Lucius felt the daemon within the axe try to reach into its new body, but was turned away by the Ork's alien mind. Its frustration burned Lucius' mind from his body.
The axe screamed and snarled and spat and writhed in the grasp of the Ork, but it was held firm. There was nothing it could do. After thousands of years and hundreds of attempts, it had been mastered. By an Ork, whos mind wholly and
completely rejected its temptations and promises.
It screamed. Its blade turned from white to black. It was now bound to this new, alien owner.
The Ork swung its new weapon at an imaginary opponent, before turning to walk out the burned and shattered door.
Supream Kommander Nozbet Nargrond (The Defiler of Kardon)
WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
5 2 5 4 3 4 4 10 (4+)
Wargear: Kustom 'Nade Launcha (see below), Garghurrslagur, Kommisar
Hat (+1 Ld), Mesh Armor Cloak (invulnerable 4+ save)
Kustom 'Nade Launcha
: This one handed weapon fires rocket-propelled plasma grenades.
Rng Str AP Notes
16 8 2 Assault 1/Blast