# The Progeny



## Israfil (Jul 6, 2008)

Seeing as how the only thing I've ever posted here was written when I was reallllly drunk I figured I would post something that I'm working on right now and showcase some non rushed and inebriated work. so here tis 


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Castigator Phractus stalked the dark halls, his heavy crooked steps reverberated through the vast hollow spaces of the deranged vessel. His maul dripped with the blood of Eridus and Khome the thralls had been caught tampering with the datacores, Malcun wanted to sacrifice them to 

the Demoniacs that lived in the cogitator nexus. 
The captain would not have it though they had lost too many capable fighting men in the last incursion into real-space, how long had that been? Phractus tried to remember... three years? or was it five shift cycles back? His mind ached through the attempt to measure the duration of this current jump. 

Before he realized it he had reached the Astrographium he had been wandering aimlessly lost in the echoes of his distant past and mesmerized by the whispers of the future. He saw the faces of his mother and father as he stepped onto the lander never to return. 

He could still taste the sweet lips of Jana Swener the lovely round faced blonde who made him a man. He saw himself in another time dressed in his naval uniform chest covered in medals staring down from an observation deck at the sprawling continents of a unnamed world. The dreams came on at those times of mindless reverie, he often found himself wandering through time and space on his patrols through the vessel. 

Captain Arvatav was bent over a small round holotable the projector had been piled over with charts of various systems and Imperial sub-sectors. The charts had to be at least eight hundred years out of date, but Arvatav insisted on spending his time with them attempting to plot some semblance of a course. 

His predecessor Wekker was also concerned with the star charts, Wekker's head now housed the luminant globe that hung above the holotable. Lord Champion Vertec thought it was an ironic sentence for the traitor captain. Phractus still remembered the sentencing. According to Vertec and the other Lord Champions Wekker was attempting to chart the hulk into Imperial Space in the hopes of turning it over to the Imperium. 

Phractus was the one they had execute Wekker, Castigator Gortiz handed him a chainsword it was rusted old thing missing teeth and clogged with bone and gore. Looking up he could still see the ragged cut the blade left in Wekkers neck. 

Arvatav was consumed in the charts for another reason. He wanted to survive. He met daily with the Divinatus and Malcun attempting to uncover where the hulk might translate out to next. He charted out planets that could be raided for resources and slaves. He often whispered to empty spaces around the holotable absorbed in conversation with ghosts and shades over the varying the charts. 

When Phractus entered Arvatav looked up distracted somewhat frustrated at being torn away from his charts. 

“It's done.” Phractus said his voice had long ago gone dead and cold, worn out from fits of horror induced screaming and maniacal laughter. Arvatav said nothing just stared at the weathered castigator for a moment then returned to his charts. 

Phractus leaned on his good leg the other had been injured long ago after a shotgun blast took him in the hip the chirurgion had managed to stitch most of him back together the mutation took care of the rest leaving him with a permanently disfigured leg. 

He stood there looking at the Captain trying to find that memory of Jana Swener and her blonde hair and round breasts, but at every attempt to grab onto it the memory slipped from his grasp. 

He didn't know how long he had been standing there trying to force a happy thought when Arvatav began laughing. At first it was nothing more than a light chuckle that grew and grew into a hyena cackle lost on the line between a bark and a laugh.

Phractus watched the captain shake and howl indifferent to the mans ecstatic rapture. It was a common occurrence amongst the Progeny, fits of wild laughter, bouts of violent rage even outbreaks of tormented nostalgia, emotions seethed and stormed through the hulks corridors and cavities. 

“It's here! We're here!” Arvatav screamed between roars. He continued his outburst of laughter when Phractus felt that all familiar feeling. A vibration coursed up from the deck though his legs and up his spine his heart dropped into his chest with a thud and his head began to clear the whispers receding back into his subconscious.

He felt finally alive, a miasma had been lifted from his soul and it burned with ferocity. He straightened up distributing his weight evenly between his legs, he clutched the maul tighter in his hand, took a deep breath and cracked a smile.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Interesting snapshot of life trapped on a hulk; are you planning to add more?

I found the paragraphs a little broken; I suggest only starting a new paragraph for a real change in events.


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## Israfil (Jul 6, 2008)

I do plan on adding more as it comes along and as far as the paragraphs they were originally larger and more collected I just went through adding some more breaks to make it easier to read on here rather than just put up a big wall of text.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Israfil said:


> ...I just went through adding some more breaks to make it easier to read on here rather than just put up a big wall of text.


Picking the right paragraph length is tricky. It is definitely better at the moment than a wall of text.


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