Intro: The Awakening
Even before I could open my eyes, I felt the comforting presence of my mother and the soft, warm bodies of my siblings wrapped closely together in the nest. It was a world of innocence, filled with hunger, competition, and deep warmth.
As we grew bolder, we ventured outside the nest to explore the vast underground surroundings of the mine. The tunnels were a labyrinth of mystery and excitement, where we played and wrestled with each other, enjoying our tiny adventures in the dark.
However, one fateful day, my life took an unexpected turn. Tall figures in orange suits appeared, their movements fast and precise. As if handpicked by fate, they captured only me, leaving my siblings to run free. My heart raced as they confined me to a cage, cutting me off from the only family I had ever known.
In the following days, I underwent rigorous training by the orange-suited people. They taught me to lie on my back with pawns up in the air whenever the smell of gas filled the air. The reason for this unusual skill remained a mystery to me, but I obeyed with a curious determination.
Soon, I found myself traveling in the mines with these orange-suited convicts. Those were nerve-wracking experiences, surrounded by darkness, dangers, smells of gas and uncertainty. Along the way, we were followed by a terrifying man in a black coat and a high hat. He possessed an aura of power that sent shivers down my spine. He yelled and beat and blew up the orange-suited miners relentlessly, creating an atmosphere of fear and dread.
Despite the hardships, there were moments of respite. Whenever we returned to our cozily cramped and properly barred communal nest, the orange-suited people would bathe me in a helmet and preen my fur with care and affection. They even gave me portions of fermented water, a special treat that made me feel warm and content, reminiscent of the half-forgotten atmosphere of my birthing nest.
But our last journey together shattered the semblance of safety we had. The orange-suited people seemed agitated, their voices filled with urgency and fear. Shouts echoed through the tunnels, followed by fearful silence. The air was filled with loud bangs and was thick with the smell of blood, as green monsters emerged, wreaking havoc in their wake.
Suddenly, the ground trembled beneath our feet, and the walls of the mine shook violently. A great earthquake had struck, sending rocks and debris tumbling down upon us. As the chamber collapsed, I found myself falling into a deep darkness.
As the cage lunged towards the depths, I felt the enormous cavern around me. The world seemed to blur as the fall grew longer, and panic gripped my rapidly beating heart. Suddenly, with a loud splash, the cage hit the surface of an underground lake.
I desperately tried to escape from the cage, but my efforts were in vain, and the weight dragged me down into the water. As the glowing, soft green light of the lake surrounded me, an otherworldly sensation washed over me. It was as if ancient truths and primordial secrets were swirling into my head, filling it with thoughts of mythological proportions.
In a flash of thought, my instincts kicked in, and I somehow managed to instantly comprehend the mechanism of the bolt latch. Summoning all my strength, I opened the door of the cage and lunged towards the surface of the lake, gasping for breath as I broke free.
As I swam towards a small rock island in the middle of the lake, my mind was abuzz with strange insights. It was as if the fall and the plunge into the waters had awakened something profound within me. I began to understand that I existed, that I had a past and a future. In a moment of clarity, I realized that I had been given a name by the orange suited men—Private Squeejk.
Lost in my thoughts, I instinctively directed to the island nearby and settled on its rocky surface. To my surprise, I recognized soon two familiar characters swimming towards the island, both dressed in the orange suits and fancy collars I had grown accustomed to. They stumbled onto the island, clearly exhausted from the turmoil they had experienced.
Curiosity drove me to delve further into my newfound understanding of names. Drawing from a deep well of knowledge that seemed to flow from inside, I instinctively articulate the names of my orange companions and silently utter “Stan” and “Oliver.” The names feel right, and a connection forms between us, transcending the barriers of our existences.
As I sit on the island, pondering the mysteries of intelligence and identity, Stan and Oliver begin to recover from their exhaustion. They observe each other with a mix of desperation and confusion, completely unaware of the profound transformation I have undergone.
With newfound comprehension and a spark of enlightenment within me, I realize that my journey is far from over. There is a greater significance to my existence, and I feel a calling to explore this underground world and the secrets it holds with my trusted orange companions.
Inspired by: The Secret of NIMH
Chapter 1: The Bonding
…Overjoyed from seeing my friends alive and mostly unharmed I rushed to greet them with squieek and dance. They recognized me immediately and were very happy to see something familiar in this unfamiliar and hostile place and situation.
The great cavern with underground sea, where we had fallen, was getting more and more dangerous as debris from the destruction of the green one’s fortification we had worked so hard to de-stabilize in the past month rained on us. We had to get off this small rock island as soon as possible and I pointed with my tail the way to the nearest coastline, just visible in the darkness past unsafe waters.
Barely avoiding the falling stones, the raining fire and the mysterious creatures from the deep, stirred awake by all this sudden unrest in their dark and cold home, we managed to get safely to the shore and into tunnels built long time ago by people like orange-clad-ones.
Soon it become clear that relative safety of the tunnels was in its own way just as hostile as collapsing sea cavern had been. There was not any threatening creatures or lurking enemies in the dark because there was nothing to sustain life. Just some mildly poisonous fungi and rotten mold and on the lower level one much more poisonous pocket of gas and that was it.
So days passed on and Stan and Oliver… or me, even with our experience in navigating underground tunnels and mines, could not find our way out, they started to get anxious, frightful and desperate. Especially Stan and Oliver, who were running out of the Emperor-person´s Will which they were injecting themself to keep themselves on going.
And when, after several failed attempts to find a safe way out, Oliver used the last injection even when Stan looked like he needed it more. I tried to stop him but it was no use. It was in his possession and decided to use it himself. (And that is probably what Emperor´s will is all about. With fresh borrowed strength Oliver stormed on to find our salvation or at least his as soiled and vomiting Stan was unable to keep up and me and him were left behind. What Oliver found was only more darkness and dead ends before he too succumbed to sorry state Stan was already. And it seemed that that was the end of us.
Yet after some undefined time in darkness and despair had passed, it was clear we had done something rats and humans have done countless of times and what have made us great again and again. We failed to die. Stan got slightly better and we managed to find and tend Oliver. We also had learned that the only way we were going to survive was as a family. And that only way out of this emperor forsaken maze was thru the poisonous gas pocket we had avoided from the start.
I Had no chance getting past the gas filled corridor so stayed safely inside Stan’s vest as he and Oliver rushed onward without any certainty how long it would take to get past the gas. I passed out and they were also going to, when as a last desperate measure they decided to ignite the gas and hope that following explosion would clear the tunnel. And it did.
Without the protecting cover of nearby rocks we would have surely died but as soon as the fiery inferno passed we felt the new fresh air rushing in to replace the gas. And we knew we were on a right path.
The tunnel led us to large opening formed when some past cataclysm ripped apart these underground levels of this human made hive we have been wandering. There was not only fresh air but also some light, here and there, as placed by someone living there. A few floor levels below us flowed river of water originating from a rapids falling from the upper structures of the hive ruins. After what felt like eternity of wandering in dry an barren tunnels we didn’t wasted much time considering alternatives as we leaped into inviting water. It felt warm and slightly strange, but It was wonderful! As were our dreams as we rested on the riverbank.
After a rest on the glowing beach, we all felt not exactly refreshed but ready to continue, thus we started to look a way to one of the lights above other bank of the stream. As I had no trouble climbing the rocks surfaces I started to look something to help Oliver and Stan get there also. Only thing I could find was the light source. It was large globe of glass filled with glowing liquid. The stand it was on was put together from three sticks tied together with long rope. Seeing the rope as helpful tool for my friends I started to cut it with my teeth. As soon as the rope was cut the stand fell apart and globe crashed down and exploded. I managed just to get away as the liquid flowed down and melted rockcrete like it was butter. Fortunately, this turn of events created climbable slope to Stan and Oliver after it cooled down first.
From that point we decided to continue towards another light on higher level as human-made structures they would bring us to contact with someone who would know a way out. As we made our way into the new maze of maintenance hallways, we heard a group of people moving fast
somewhere near. Instead of making a contact with them we decided to be cautious, and I was sent to investigate.
I learned fast that there was people nearby as I heard them running in parallel walkways and soon I saw some of them. A small group, a family, passing me worried looking when I hid in the shadows. Then I found a human so badly wounded he was barely alive. Soon after we all got to him and Oliver asked what had happened he died of his wounds. Last thing he said was “…they are coming from the deep…!”
We didn’t know what he meant but it seem clear that humans living in these tunnels were running away from those that came from the deep and cause horrible wounds. Scared more than any time before my life I was already making my way opposing direction from where I suspected them coming. Then I heard them. And all too soon Stan and Oliver heard them too.
Horrible sound of rampaging horde of creatures from so deep no one had seen them but were remembered atavistic by men and rats alike. And they were soon here…
Ignis Aeternus WH 40K campaign notes 