# Stone Dragons SM story, long but good, please comment!



## ArcAngels (Sep 19, 2007)

The basilica shook with a violent tremor as it was rained on again by weapons fire. Caiden knew there wasn’t much time left, the last of the security teams failed to check in meaning they were dead, or were dying and enemies were moving on his position right now. The 1st captain had entrusted him with setting the demolition charges and he would not fail in his divine duty. Caiden was going to die, and he knew that, it seemed ironic to him that no more then 3 days ago he had wondered how far he would go within the chapter. All of that becoming a sad realisation now……


_3 days ago_

“And what happens when your weapon jams on you during battle initiate Holtzen? Do you pray that it works like the mechanicum? Or do you field strip it and clear the round so that it can be used again?” yelled sergeant Malloy.

“you resort to finding emediate cover and field stripping of the weapon. A servant of the emperor is a weapon himself but without his bolter hes as good as dead on the battle field.” A text book awnser for the sergeant thought Caiden, what more could he ask for.

“Just because you can say it doesn’t mean you understand initiate. You’ve begun the process of becoming something great, all of you. But giving you that gift doesn’t mean you just become killing machines, angels of death who fight in the Emperors name. The astartes are a brotherhood, and we welcome all of you into it, that is why you must apreciate the lessons taught to you by us veterans. All of you are the future of this chapter and without all of you we are lost.” The sergeant finished his speech and came down from his instructional podium. He walked with grace toward a stained glass window that was casting a beautiful array of light into the room. “We have been a chapter for over eight thousand years. And we planet we call home, yet I fear that if we cannot teach new recruits the value of what we are doing as defenders, then I feel like I have failed in my duty.”

Caiden raised his fist into the air clenched tightly and yelled, “we fight for duty and honour, we are the Stone Dragons, our duty only ends in death.”

“Initiate Holtzen, know that I have plenty of faith in all of you. There is not one man who stands before me that is not worthy of being an astartes, I only give you all this lesson for when the time comes that you are in my position you properly pass on the teachings of the chapter, to ensure you keep our traditions alive, our beliefs. Now we shall speak no more of this, all eight of you are to report to the chapel for prayer. Chaplain Arwenda is waiting for all of you. Go now!”

The eight initiates neatly left the room and headed for the chapel aboard the space marine strike cruiser “angels pride”. The ship was ancient and had been in the possession of no less then four other astarte chapters before coming into the hands of the Stone Dragons. Its hull was marked with battle scars that were rumoured to date back to the age of when the primarchs still walked. Caiden had gotten lost many times in the ship, but with time and practice Caiden had learned every corner of the ship. Caiden had been aboard this ship for close five years now, after passing the trials to become a Stone Dragon he one day awoke aboard this ship and since then was being taught by his sergeants how to be a defender of humanity. The Stone Dragons were an under strength chapter who only fielded 7 companies. The 1st company were always space bound with the chapters scout reserves, believing that the future of the chapter should learn from the vetereans of the chapter. Since his inductions Caiden had been made squad leader and performed exceptionally well in combat situations. It was said that he had a bright future within the chapter and showed many great qualities demanded from an officer of the chapters ranks. All this was known by Caiden but it did not bother him, it was as if his duty was enough to satisfy him. Growing up in the hell that was his homeworld was reminder enough that the Stone Dragons were his destiny his future, and everything he would live for.

The group passed ranks of servitors while heading towards the chapel, the ship stank of scented machine oil as rights of purity were being blessed upon machines that Caiden did not know there purpose. Caiden looked over to his squad mate Larenz Forl, who had a smile pasted onto his rough features.

“Why so happy? I swear ive seen you fall asleep during Chaplain Arwenda’s sermons before this isn’t exciting for you.” Larenz laughed at the remark, “Let’s just say I have heard that we get to play our hand in imperial justice soon.”

Caiden was shocked, were they going to see action? “What have you heard?”

Larenz shook his head, “never can wait to hear it from the sergeants can you. Ive heard from brother Demius that we will be breaking warp transition near a planet that requires help in governing its populace, riots and anarchy that need our attention to be put in check.” Caiden smiled at the prospect of learning alongside the 1st company vetereans, especially during live conflict where there years of service showed how deadly they were. Maybe this wasn’t going to be such a boring sermon after all he thought…….


_Present day….._

The klaxons blared throughout the armoury. Warning all the required troops to report to their transports as ordered. Caiden stood holding his helmet in the crook of his arm. He watched astartes as they went thru their battle gear prayers and rites of battle, wondering when the day would come that he could put on a holy suit of power armour. Caiden felt a hand grab his shoulder. He turned to see Larenz starring at him with his helmet on. “Let’s go before out thunderhawk takes off without us, how often do you get to ride alongside other astartes. The two ran with their squad towards the embarkation deck, passing by menials and servitors who gave them curious glances. Caiden hadent felt this alive since he last had seen action against the vile Eldar xenos. Though his last encounter resulted in him almost being eviscerated by a group of howling female xenos, he was rescued by the 1st Captain and his honour guard.

Larenz pointed to sergeant Malloy who was in full power armour alongside his squad, and the squad hurried over to the sergeant’s position. “Sergeant, the men have finished their prayers and wish to board”, said Caiden sharply. The sergeant looked sternly at the Caiden, “there is no room in this transport, but your squad is lucky, you will be riding alongside Captain Trake and his command squad, in the lead thunderhawk, hurry because they won’t wait for you, and remember this is an opportunity to gain valuable knowledge from a superior, now move.”

Caiden felt a rush wash over him, in fact he had already started moving before he realised the honour that was bestowed upon him and his squad. Captain Trake was a legend who had never been bested in combat by a foe. His leadership pushed the chapter to achieve great things and he was credited with being an amazing tactician. To fight alongside such a figure was a rare amongst the scout auxilia, but the knowledge that could be gained has no price upon it.

The scouts approached the captain’s thunderhawk and clambered up the entry hatch only to see the captain and his honour guard already strapped in and ready for launch. Captain Trake locked eyes with Caiden, “are you squad leader?” Caiden nodded his head, “yes captain, I am.” The captain snickered at the pride in Caiden’s voice. “Get you squad in their seats before I decide this was a bad idea.” Caiden dint even need to tell his men when to do they were already doing it, the captains being enough to motivate a man out of a coma. Caiden locked away his bolter in the storage compartment and then locked himself into the grav harness of his seat. This was going to be one hell of a ride.

The thuderhawk streaked through the thick polluted air that covered the planet of Gundac. AA guns blared into the sky trying to pick off the fast moving transport ships but never hitting any mark. Caiden searched the ground for evidence of a firefight but could only see the vast miles of factories and miniature hives that barely scraped the sky. According to Captain Trake’s short and simple briefing, they were headed to a holy basilica where rioters had turned deadly and killed members of the parish. The arbites had withdrawn close to 4 days ago and it was up to the Stone Dragons to take it back in the name of the Emperor. Caiden could see other thunderhawks flying in formation alongside the one transporting him. He wondered how crazed these rioters must have been to go ahead and murder the preachers and priests of the basilica but he cared not to much on the subject as the situation would be over soon.

“ONE MINUTE T’ILL TOUCHDOWN”, screamed the pilot of the thunderhawk. Caiden could feel the ship lowering its thrust and coming down for a landing. Caiden watched as Captain Trake disengaged his grav harness and walk toward the cockpit of the thunderhawk. The Captain turned to face the whole group in their seats, “no quarter for traitors, no mercy Dragons!” Caiden felt the thunderhawk slam down and land, the Captain dint even seem phased by the hard slam that was their landing. The whole cabin disengaged their harnesses and before Caiden could even take his bolter out of its rack, the astartes were filling out of the thunderhawk.

The Basilica Dafoe was once a great place of worship. It was home to saint Dafoe in mid M32, and was the his resting place as well. The saint had come alone to the planet and one by one turned the populace to the light of the Emperor. How such a feat was done by one man was unknown but in time the people built the great basilica in his honour and he preached the word of the Emperor to great audiences of people. When saint Dafoe was assassinated, the basilica became the headquarters for the church’s presense on the planet. Whatever you once might have called a great place of worship was now rendered defiled by the corpses that littered the street or hung from the walls of the basilica. Death literally hung in the air and it almost made Caiden want to choke. He knew he would be fine due to his enhancements given to him by the chapter, but still the idea of so much gore and death seemed like it was only in legends that Caiden had heard when he was a child.

“Squad leader Holtzen, delta pattern fan formation, grouping behind my unit, stay close and sharp”, it was captain Trake’s voice over his comm. Caiden gave the hand signals to indicate the order to his squad and the group moved out. The main doors of the basilica were a kilometre east from their position and the captain’s plan was to use breaches in the basilica’s walls and flood in from different corners cutting down the traitors in a hail of bolter fire. The captain and his honour guards movements were like fluid, and its was as if they never missed a beat, Caiden feared the idea of having to face the wrath of such experienced warriors. The whole group hit the wall and two marines form the honour guard toke out overly large melta charges from satchels strapped to their backbacks. They placed the charges and gave thumbs up to the captain once they were engaged. Trake nodded and spoke into his vox unit. “All squads report!” there was a moment of silence followed by four replies of “squad ready”. Trake ordered everyone to a safe distance and then gave the order to blow all charges.


The blast was loud. It took Caiden a moment to compose himself, but his astartes training kicked in like reflex. Caiden was running into the smoking crater that was once a wall of the basilica, right behind Captain Trake's command squad. Adrenaline pumping through his body, Caiden could feel his two hearts beating fast, it was pitch black but he swept his bolter left and right looking for targets due to his low light vision..

It wasnt long before contact was reported in, and then shots rang out in front of Caiden, he pushed himself between two marines from the honour guard and fired his bolrer on burst at the figures in front him who were retreating into the darkness of the hallway.. "Two down, captain my auspex is reading thirty to forty lifesigns converging to the center of the basilica, were pushing them back!" cried company champion Howl. The marines and scouts hurried downn the hall way firing into the darness passing over one or two corpes here and there. Las fire sprayed at them here and there but never struck true against the marines armour. Caiden ducked behind one of the marines as another burst of las fire streaked at the group, it struck the marines shoulder guard and made the stone grey paint sizzle. Caiden retook his positon in between the marines and sprayed some more bolter fire into the dark. They reached an arch way and the group split onto either side. "Captain, beyond here is the centre of the basilica, theres a large number of them, sergeant Malloy is already in there and is requesting back up." said one marine with a comm anteana jetting out of his helmet. "Move in, double time Dragons!!", shouted the captain. The whole group flooded into the chamber, spouting prayers of protection, and then the lights turned on........

Sergeant Malloy's squad was fighting with their bare hands, their enemies were a mix of humans and then something else, humanoid. A large group of the things turned their attention toward Captain Trake and his squad, hissing and spitting with wild eyes and enlarged craniums. Caiden dint need to think to know what to do, he switched his bolter to full auto and emptied his remaining rounds into the charging mob. He reloaded as fast as he could and fired another small burst, but the enemy was apon them now, Caiden drew his combat blade and stabed it forward into a charging humanoid. He pulled it back and fired his bolter at the hip into the thing, then rolled and ducked a pair of sharp claws that lashed out at him, he was lucky, the claws tore into the leg armour of one of the astartes from Trakes command squad, riping large rents into the blessed ceramite plating, surely they would have killed Caiden. He Felt like he was dancing in combat, trying to duck blows all the while thrusting his combat blade into enemy after enemy. Caiden watched three members of the his squad fall to these creatures, torn to shreds by their claws, a few astartes had fallen aswell, their fronts a mess of eviscerated flesh and armour. Caiden threw his bolter up to stop a blow from one of the creatures, the things claws tore into the weapon rendering int useless, Caiden let go of the weapon and slashed his combat blade taking off the creatures head. A fountain of dark blood spurted upwards and Caiden kicked the body away, he looked around and saw Captain Trake cleave one of the creatures in half with his mighty sword Dragons Breath, The last of the creatures were cut down by bolter fire and Caiden took a moment to catch his breath.

The fighting had been so intense, Caiden hadnt noticed the rest of the squads arrive. The creatures had taken many with them, sergeant Malloy stood covered in gore from head to toe with a wild look in his eyes, his squad had suffered casualties and only four of his men were still alive, the scouts he had brought with him were dead and litered the floor of the circular chamber. Caiden called a squad check, Larenz was still alive, reloading his bolter, and so was Fimius. Caiden hadnt realised how many were dead until now, he loked around and counted heads, out of the fifty men that landed in the thunderhawks Caiden counted a little over thirty men still alive. Captain Trake kicked one of the things corpses, "I recognise this, a vile creature of the Tyranid species, that can only mean one thing though..." The captain stared down at his feet, and slowly Caiden could feel the rumbling beneath him, he could also start to hear the clicking sound of claws onto stone. "Angels Pride, this is Captain Trake, i want thirty men in suites of Tactical dreadnought armour teleported onto the position of Beacon 'Delta-Omnicron-Pyrus3467', hurry, in the Emperors name as fast as you can". The captain looked around and saw Caiden, "you want your stripes boy, heres where you earn them, Brother Fellux, Brother Lichstics, escort these scouts to the four corners of this basilica and plant demo charges, i dont want this structure standing anymore, im assigning security teams of three men each to spread out int othe corridors and clear out any remaining xenos. My command squad and I is going down there", he pointed to the ground "if you loose contact with me and the men destoy this foul place, do you understand?"

Caiden nodded, "yes captain, anything for the chapter.", the Captain turned away and headed down a spiral stone staircaise in the centre of the room, Caiden picked up a bolt pistol and noticed an apothecary removing the prognoid glands from the throats of fallen marines. He snapped back to the situation and noticed everyone was already grouping up and moving out. Caiden caught up to Brother Fellux and Lichstics. Larenz and Fimius were close behind and Caiden shot Larenz a glance and smiled, he dint look at him but spoke to him "I guess we got to see some action after all eh brother", Larenz shook his head, "I guess so brother". The five men headed out to set the bombs...............

The first three bombs were easy to set up with meeting very little resistance, but once the renegade PDF moved in with tanks Brother Lichtics was killed in a blast from section of wall and Fellux was trapped under a section of collapsed wall, giving his life to hold off any enemies that followed. So now here Caiden was, fumbling with the last melta charge, trying to fix a broken pin on the detonator stud. Larenz and Fimmius hadn’t checked in and brother Fellux and Lichstics were dead. Tanks had moved in and started pounding the basilica with demolisher cannons and shook the very ground Caiden stood on. Thats when they hit a section near Caiden and he was thrown into a spiral staircase that led up to the rafters of the basilica. Caiden's arm was broken but he picked himself up from the mess and fumbled with the detonator pin until it was fixed enough to fit into the charge. He jammed it in and no sooner then he did the room flooded with creatures only known to Caiden as Genestealers. He swept up his bolter and fired into the mass of six limbed frolicking monsters. Caiden looked at the spiral staircase and took it as his last chance, he could maybe bottle neck the creatures into one on one fighting, he hurried up its twisting spiral of steps turning back to fire into the following creatures. He barely made it to the rafters when he felt something rake into his back followed by a hot flare of pain. Caiden turned and boot kicked the closest Genestealer back into the mass of them. Caiden dove into the rafters, picking himself back up with speed unknown to himself. He ducked and ran down the sketchy rafters used by painters to pint the ceiling of the basilica with wonderous murals. Caiden felt another rake across his back and lost his footing, throwing his bolter aside; he drew his combat blade and turned to face his attacker. Caiden stabbed his blade into its swollen head and slashed across to deliver a death blow; no sooner was he faced with another two of the creatures who hissed at him like hungry animals. The struck in unison and the first claw caught Caiden in the chest and dug deep piercing his second heart, Caiden howled in immense pain and no sooner did the second monster struck his right leg, cutting through his armour as if it were cloth, exposing torn tendons and muscle. Caiden took all his last reserves to bring his combat blade up into a sweep that removed the clawed arm in him chest from its owner, he stabbed and swung wildly at the two thrashing creatures and then felt a sudden wave wash over him. Its felt like a psychic scream of death and it seemed to bother the Genestealers even more the Caiden who’s ears were bleeding, the creatures turned tail and ran. Caiden was left there trying to breathe normally, wounded beyond anything he had ever experienced. That’s when the charges blew, and Caiden felt the world shake and he lay there, vision swimming as he was ready to pass out from the pain. The last thing he saw before everything went black was the rafters collapsing followed by Caiden falling from the rafters along with large sections of the ceiling, he blacked out mid fall.



A light and a voice, a strong voice at that asked him if he was ok. Thats the first thing caiden could see and hear. He asked if it was the Emperor who was greeting him, but he was met with cheerful laughter before he blacked out again. The next time he awoke Caiden could see more clearly, he was in the apothecaries ward aboard "angel's pride". He looked to his side and saw he no longer and a right arm, just a stump that ended right where his bicep use to be. He struggled to sit up and could see that he no longer had a left leg either. He looked over to see a brother marine sitting on a bench next to his bed. Caiden tried to form words from his mouth but hadn’t noticed a large breathing tube stuck down his throat. "Calm brother, all is well now, you are safe. I might say you are very lucky as well; you were the only survivor we plucked out of the basilica's ruins. You might know me as fourth sergeant Makit, we cleaned up the remaining traitors and xenos after the destruction of the basilica, it was after that we found you barely clinging to life in the wreck as we were collecting geneseed from the fallen brothers. You should know Captain Trake perished in the catacombs along with many of our brothers; only five terminators teleported back after the good captain defeated their leader. The apothecary tells me you will make a full recovery, and it is good news as it is time that you become a true Stone Dragon and a proud member of the Dragons Wing 1st company. We have lost many on this world and you are testament to the true heart and strength of the Stone Dragons chapter. Rest well young brother for now you begin your true life’s journey, in service of the Emperor." Caiden's vision swam as a servitor nurse gave him a strong dose of painkillers, and he fell back out of consciousness. Alive to fight another day.


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## drake1813 (Sep 23, 2007)

Awsome story. Loved it. Lots of modern military speech in it though. I would have thought the space marines would sound more low-tech.

Read mine


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## CATzeentch (Dec 25, 2007)

Well besides the occational grammer and spelling mistakes, it is an awesome story. Please continue or describe what that wierd "Psychic scream" was, I'm very interested


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## ArcAngels (Sep 19, 2007)

That psychic wave was the death scream of the genestealer patriach. When they die all the genestealers are basically hearing there father die and will drop what they are doing to try and go to the body.


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## Blackhiker (Dec 28, 2007)

Quite good. Work on your grammer and spelling thoug. those two things made it a little difficult at times


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## Sycoa (Dec 7, 2007)

Yes I agree, the grammer/spelling errors do take me out of the story at some points. That said, it is a very good plot and the perspective is done very well!


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## ArcAngels (Sep 19, 2007)

I want to make a follow up story, about Caiden Holtzen and the stone dragons space marine chapter, any suggestions about what kind of enemies they should bout with?


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## drake1813 (Sep 23, 2007)

Chaos would make it interesting


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## Triumph Of Man (Dec 27, 2007)

> You should know Captain Trake perished in the catacombs along with many of our brothers; only five terminators teleported back after the good captain defeated their leader. The apothecary tells me you will make a full recovery, and it is good news as it is time that you become a true Stone Dragon and a proud member of the Dragons Wing 1st company. We have lost many on this world and you are testament to the true heart and strength of the Stone Dragons chapter. Rest well young brother for now you begin your true life’s journey, in service of the Emperor." Caiden's vision swam as a servitor nurse gave him a strong dose of painkillers, and he fell back out of consciousness. Alive to fight another day


Just one question, I'm under the impression that Caiden is still a scout of the Tenth company? And he's going straight to a full member of the chapter Terminator wing? Dunno, just seems a bit too good to be true if you know what I mean. Terminators a serious veterans, not just a bloke that survived a genestealer attack. I mean, if you read some of the Iron Hands fluff, getting messed up in a fight doesn't make you Terminator material, it just means you get bionics. Holding a breach on your own for hours, then counterattacking and bringing the head of the enemy leader back on a pike to your commander would be closer to the deal IMO.

Just throwing that out in the open for you to consider.


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## ArcAngels (Sep 19, 2007)

thanks for the advice, caiden being inducted into the 1st company is a move thats isnt well recieved from the chapter. it will continue into the second story im writting. Im going for a caiden is a "golden boy" of the chapter, hes the youngest memeber to be inducted into the 1st company and he doesnt know why. The chief librarian and chaplain belive he has great potential and the next 2 stories will cover his first 150 years as a 1st comapny veterean


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