The Violation of Canoness Amelie (Warhammer 40,000 fiction)

1

Canoness Amelie of the Order of our Martyred Lady strode forward, her Celestian bodyguard following her closely through the carnage of battle. The angry chattering of bolters and the gushing fury of flamers filled her ears, yet she was much more focused on the blasphemous speeches and war-cries of the Sons of Verity Champions that stood upon the mound of heaped corpses before her. Snarling at the foolishness of these traitorous fools, she clenched her fist tightly on the handle of her inferno pistol, whispering the Battle-Hymn of the Adepta Sororitas as she advanced. She was suddenly caught off-guard as she heard a loud rumbling noise, and she turned to her right to see a Chaos Predator tank approaching her and her Celestians. Its hull painted in the orange and green of the Sons of Verity, it was a terrible site to behold: a mobile shrine to death and disorder, severed heads adorning the spiked trophy racks upon its roof. The pintle-gunner, a Sons of Verity Chaos Marine wearing an open-faced, horned helmet, leered down at her, cackling with glee as he readied the tank’s pintle combi-bolter for the killing shot. The tank was so close that Amelie had no trouble reading the inscription “Golgotha” upon its name-plate, and she decided to use this proximity to her advantage. Raising her inferno pistol, she pulled the trigger, and a scorching jet of superheated gas poured from the muzzle, melting a large hole through the windshield and killing the driver within. The gunner was distracted by this, and had no time to react before a second blast from the pistol reduced his head and shoulders to a molten, glutinous ooze.2

Sprinting past the Predator “Golgotha”, Amelie and her bodyguard were now a mere ten metres from the cadre of Chaos Space Marines upon the corpse-mound. The Canoness drew her sword and raised it, and then all on the battlefield fell silent as a hulking figure descended from the mound. Wearing an enormous suit of polished-black Tactical Dreadnought armour with orange and green shoulder guards, he towered over even the enormous Space Marines of the Sons of Verity. Blasphemous impurity seals and rune-scribed scrolls and liturgies had been nailed to his armour, and a belt of rope, adorned with a pair of severed heads, hung from his waist. His emaciated face, framed with receding grey-white hair and a long, wispy beard, was wrinkled with unimaginable fury, a fury which was reflected by the tight grip he had on his enormous power sword and combi-bolter. The very embodiment of millennia-old hatred, the Primarch Ataeus Morannus walked swiftly towards Amelie, his eyes widening and his snarl reforming into a perverse grin as he examined his challenger at close range.3

“My, my... what a beautiful specimen...” hissed Ataeus with glee, who was not even attempting to hide his excitement. Amelie remained calm, although her insides burned with fury – how dare this traitor scum ogle her like some low-grade whore?4

“I should rip your throat out, you perverted beast.” Amelie’s eyes were cold, throwing her beautiful facial features into a strange aura of terrible power. The traitor Primarch merely laughed and seized the string of adamantium beads hanging around her neck, pulling her close to him. Her Celestians raised their weapons, but Morannus held up the Canoness like a human shield, and the Sisters dared not fire for fear of wounding or killing their leader. Amelie, knowing that to try and fight him off would be foolish, gritted her teeth as she felt the bayonet of Ataeus’ combi-bolter penetrate her mid-back, severing her spinal cord and impaling her, but she did not cry out or show signs of weakness. Licking his lips, Ataeus tilted his head forward to whisper in her ear.5

“It's too bad that I have to kill you now, Canoness.”6