Story 8

The Great Wolf Logan Grimnar, current commander of the Space Marine Chapter of the Space Wolves, awoke with a start. He perspired profusely as if standing too close to an Iron Priest’s blazing forge. Beads of sweat had formed upon his brow, and ran down in great rivulets along the length of his long sinewy back. Silently he cursed himself; ‘Acting like a young pup whom is frightened of the dark. Foolish old man, it was just a dream,’ Logan thought to himself.

Shaking himself from his restless slumber, he pulled himself up from the comfort of his massive bed. He felt the centuries weigh heavily upon him as old joints and bones cracked and popped with the effort. Responding to his movements the glowglobes above Logan’s bed brightened. He reached for his comm-net earpiece, which lay on the marble hewn rock that acted as a nightstand next to his bed. Pushing the earpiece into place, he simultaneously pressed the subvocalizer into position on his throat.

“Tal. What do you want?” the fuzzy tones of an annoyed voice answered on the other end of the comm-net. The Great Wolf’s face broke into a feral smile. Archivist Tal, the Keeper of Records. The elderly Wolf Priest was notoriously crotchety. He would rather be left alone with his vast archives of runestone records than to be bothered by anybody, especially at this Russ-forsaken hour, but given his long and dedicated service to the Chapter, Logan let this breech of protocol pass without incident.

”This is the Great Wolf. I apologize Brother Tal for disturbing you from your duties.”

“My lord,” the archivist’s voice rose in pitch, obviously caught off guard by Logan’s summons. He made no apologies for his rude behavior. “How may I be of service?” Tal inquired with a little more respectful tone.

“I need access to the Inquisition Historical Records, thirty-first millennium.” Logan asked the Keeper of Records.

“This is a hard request that you ask of me, my lord. It will take some time to sort through the indexes, which I will remind you aren’t all that accurate,” Tal informed the Great Wolf.

“Approximately how long will it take Brother Tal?” Logan respectfully asked.

“As long as it takes my lord!” the agitated archivist answered.

The archivist was beginning to get-up Logan’s ire. This time the Great Wolf’s voice was glacier-cold and full of authority, “Make it happen archivist. I want results, not excuses. As soon as you find what I have requested, notify me immediately. Understood?”

“Yes my lord,” the chastised Wolf Priest responded, “You will have what you require before the rising of the sun.”

Not more than four hours had passed when a clear, bell-like tone sounded in the Great Wolf’s ear. He became instantly alert.

“My lord. Tal. I have found what you’ve requested.” the archivist proudly told Logan.

“Excellent work brother.” the Great Wolf praised the gnarled Keeper of Records.

Wrapping a great pelt of a Fenrisian wolf about his naked body, Logan slowly shuffled barefooted across the cold metallic floor to the console of his holo-monitor. The sounds of his leathery feet padded across the floor echoing silently off the bedchamber’s walls.

Making himself comfortable at the holo-monitor workstation, the Great Wolf activated the viewscreen with a stroke of the computers’ keypad. He then proceeded to input the appropriate commands to access the vast repositories of the Chapter Historical Archives Database of the Hall of Battles.

The Hall of Battles: where the Chapter’s nearly infinite repository of knowledge, deeds, and lore was stored on millions of runestones, which known only to the Iron Priests, they were able to store great volumes of information that the great Thinking Engines of the auto-librams could read. Some records were so old that they existed only as runescript inscribed on the tablets of stone themselves. Others are held in the sagas memorized by the Wolf Priests.

It was said that the Space Wolves’ extensive archives even rivaled some of the Administorum Scribe Hololibrary Databases back on Terra, both in its grandeur of its design and for its precise attention to detail. After inputting a few more commands, Logan finally found what he was looking for within some of the ancient Inquisition Historical Records:

*** ***WARNING*** ***

THE FOLLOWING INQUISTION RECORDS ARE FOR THE EYES OF IMPERIAL COMMANDERS OR HIGHER. IF YOU HAVE READ ANY OF THE FOLLOWING TURN YOURSELF OVER TO THE ADEPTUS ARBITES OR THE NEAREST ADMINISTORUM OFFICIAL FOR INTERROGATION AND IMMEDIATE MINDSRUB, AND PRAY THAT THE EMPEROR IS MERCIFUL TO YOUR CORRUPTED SOUL!

‘Fanatics!’ Logan thought to himself. If anything the Inquisition was, it was unswervingly loyal and overly cautious. To say such things one could be branded a heretic. The Great Wolf knew not to underestimate the Inquisition, for they had ways of founding out things. Their reach extended far across the galaxy. After reading the warning, the Great Wolf entered his personal high-level security-clearance code. The following report appeared on the holo-monitor viewscreen:

COMMIT TO: INQUISTION REPORT LBC 98/789

CROSS-FILE TO: LEGION ASTARTES-COMPANIES

LOST IN ACTION

PLANETARY REFERENCE: FENRIS-GURANTA D,

GURANTA SYSTEM

INPUT REFERENCE: IMPERIAL AGENT

INQUISITION NUMBER 0176605

AD.AS/IV. IS78295

VIOLET CLEARANCE

INPUT DATED: 2985996.M41

INPUT CLEARANCE: INQUISITOR

ASMORALES HARKENFORTH

FURTHER REFERENCE: LIBRARIS OMNIA/

HOLOLIBRARY IM215, TERRA

TODAY’S THOUGHT: “LIFE IS A PRISON. DEATH A

RELEASE.

EVIDENCE CONCERNING THE EXISTENCE OF THE SO-CALLED SPACE WOLVES ‘LOST COMPANIES’. THIS REPORT COMPILED BY THE EMPEROR’S MOST HUMBLE SERVANT, SCRIBE CHAMBERS.

HONORED BRETHREN OF THE ORDO INQUISITION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH YOUR REQUEST I HAVE INSTIGATED AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE MATTERS RAISED BY THE ECCLESIARCHY ENVOY, BALTHASAR VAN HEPPEL. THUS FAR I HAVE CONDUCTED A LEVEL SIX PROBE INTO THE LIBRARIS OMNIA ON TERRA AND MADE A REGRETTABLY BRIEF VISIT TO THE SPACE WOLVES HOME WORLD OF FENRIS.

The Great Wolf remembered the high-and-mighty Inquisitor Harkenforth. Reading the Inquisitor’s report made Logan’s hackles rise. Despite Harkenforth showing the Great Wolf the honor and respect an Imperial Commander deserved, he saw through the Inquisitor’s fa�ade. He had dealt with Harkenforth’s kind before. The Great Wolf knew that the Inquisitor thought that Logan and his brothers were nothing more than a bunch of uncouth barbarians.

Well Logan did not care much for Harkenforth’s holier-than-thou attitude. If Harkenforth thought he was a barbarian than Logan was more than willing to play the part. He made the Inquisitor’s investigation go painfully slow: using the psychological techniques of deflection, laughing uproariously when he did not want to answer the Inquisitor’s queries, and allowing only limited access to most parts of the Fang.

The Great Wolf scanned through most of the report until he came upon something that piqued his interest:

OF GREATER INTEREST THAN VAN HEPPEL’S ACCUSATIONS IS CERTAIN INFORMATION GARNERED FROM THE LIBRARIS OMNIA. THE SERVITOR PROBE WAS PROGRAMMED TO RETRIEVE ALL AVAILABLE DATA ON THE SPACE WOLVES CHAPTER AND TURNED UP SOME UNEXPECTED FRAGMENTS ON THE SO-CALLED 'LOST COMPANIES’ OF THE SPACE WOLVES. TO PLACE THINGS IN CONTEXT, THE SPACE WOLVES’ LACK OF SUCCESSOR CHAPTERS HAS OFTEN BEEN NOTED AS UNUSUAL GIVEN ITS STATUS AS A FIRST FOUNDING LEGION WITH A HISTORY EXTENDING BACK TO THE LEGENDARY DAYS OF THE GREAT CRUSADE.

Logan continued to scan the Inquisitor’s report:

IT APPEARS THAT IN SOME CASES A WOLF LORD AND HIS GREAT COMPANY SEPARATE FROM THE MAIN BODY OF THE CHAPTER, UNDERTAKING THEIR OWN QUESTS AND MISSIONS FOR A VARIETY OF REASONS. THE CASE OF JOTUN BEARCLAW, FOR EXAMPLE, INDICATES THAT HIS MEN HAD ELECTED NOT TO RETURN TO FENRIS BECAUSE OF THE LONG JOURNEY TIME THROUGH WARP SPACE, AND PRESUMABLY THE TEMPORAL DISPLACEMENT THEY WOULD SUFFER ON ARRIVAL (POTENTIALLY SEVERAL YEARS OVER SUCH A DISTANCE). I SUSPECT THAT THERE IS MORE HIDDEN MOTIVE BEHIND THE COMPANY’S ACTIONS, ONE WHICH HE CHOSE NOT TO SHARE WITH THE KIMMERIANS. THIS MAY BE RELATED TO THE SPACE WOLVES’ ANCIENT QUEST TO FIND THEIR LOST PRIMARCH.

AS TO THE LONG TERM VIABILITY OF THESE ‘LOST COMPANIES’ IT IS DIFFICULT TO SAY. GIVEN SUFFICIENT GENESEED AND TECHNICAL COMPETENCE IT IS ENTIRELY POSSIBLE FOR SUCH A COMPANY TO MAINTAIN ITS STRENGTH OVER A PROTRACTED PERIOD, INDUCTING AND TRAINING NEW RECRUITS IN THE SAME WAY AS A NORMAL CHAPTER. LESS WELL-SUPPLIED COMPANIES MIGHT HAVE TO RESORT TO TRAINING

ORDINARY HUMANS TO FILL THEIR RANKS OR FACE THE PROSPECT OF GRADUALLY DWINDLING IN NUMBERS UNTIL THE COMPANY CEASES.

SPECULATION ASIDE, THIS SUBJECT OBVIOUSLY REQUIRES FURTHER INVESTIGATION. A SPACE WOLVES GREAT COMPANY IS A SUBSTANTIAL ORGANIZATION AND THE CONCEPT OF HAVING SUCH GROUPS WANDERING THE GALAXY WITHOUT ANY KIND OF CHECK OR BALANCE IS SOMEWHAT WORRYING. I SHALL ENDEAVOR TO UNCOVER MORE INFORMATION BEFORE CONTACTING YOU AGAIN.

INQUISITOR ASMORALES HARKENFORTH

The Great Wolf looked at the three-dimensional holo-images of the fragments mentioned in Harkenforth’s report with some indifference. None of them aroused his interest until he came upon fragment pieces of text that had been excerpted from Dionerius’ “Rise of Man”, authored sometime around the thirty-first millennium entitled, “The Wulfen”:

…Among them were companies of savage creatures, their beastiality far outstripped even the barbarian Children of Russ. By the Space Wolves these were called Wulfen, at times spoken of as the Thirteenth Great Company. They were feral of eye and febrile in nature, strong of limb, and blanched by savage tattoos, able to tear a man asunder with their clawed hands and fangs. Eschewing weapons of distance they would stalk their foes as would beasts, slinking in the shadows and hunting by night ‘neath the light of the full moon. Variously, captains say the Wulfen were led by Hirkon Grail or Jorin Bloodfang, maybe when one was slain another took his place.

Now in the aftermath of the Siege of Terra there was a great confusion among the followers of the Emperor, for they had lost their liege lord and were as knights without their king. [ [ Text lost ] ] Many voiced loud the thought in the hearts of all-give chase to the traitors and destroy them utterly for the woe they had wrought. The voice of Russ was the loudest of all, [ [ Text lost ] ] but Guilliman and Dorn gainsaid his counsel. To enter the Occularis Terribilis would bring disorder on the surviving Legions, they said, leaving Man vulnerable to both the xenite and apostate. It is said that Russ, as was often the way, took his own counsel and sent forth the Wulfen to hunt down Abaddon and his followers. Others say that the Thirteenth Great Company pursued the heretics of their own accord, as hounds at the chase who heed not the calls of their huntsman. Others still maintain that the Wulfen had been tainted by the Dark Gods and were summoned by their call to join the Traitor Legions in the netherworld.

The Wulfen were never seen nor heard again, passing into the void and becoming lost to the eye and ear of Man. It is said that upon the Space Wolves homeworld of Fenris the loss of the Wulfen was known by the wolves of Asaheim. The great packs gathered before the gates of the Space Wolves monastery in their thousands until every wolf in the world was there. That great grey host howled of their loss for a hundred nights before returning to the hinterlands.

As Logan Grimnar studied the arcane texts before him, he absentmindedly stroked his long, gray and course beard, which stretched to his waist. He did not know what answers he was hoping to find. For the

past few weeks the Great Wolf had been plagued with feverish dreams filled with visions of an eclipsing moon and a foreboding totem not seen in over ten millennia. Logan had discussed these visions in great length with the Chapter’s Rune Priests. Currently they were still analyzing and trying to interpret these visions granted by their Primarch, Leman Russ. He had heard in hushed whispers amongst them that possibly it was time for him to call for another Great Hunt.

The ancient warrior’s thoughts drifted across the ages, back to the time of the Horus Heresy. From those dark times over ten millennia ago come few details of any certainty. It was a time of legends. An age of war. He envied those that fought alongside Lord Russ, their Father, taking part in the Chapter’s most renowned actions during that bygone era. The Chapter’s mightiest sagas were composed during this tumultuous point in history.

The only one with any knowledge from that archaic age was Bjorn the Fell-Handed, the most ancient living Space Wolf warrior. Bjorn walked at the side of Russ himself, fighting his way across the galaxy from Fenris to distant Earth during those dark days of the Horus Heresy. Now this Living Ancestor was an immortal Dreadnought, dormant in his stasis chamber within the deepest shrine of the Fang, the Space Wolves fortress-monastery, alone with his ancient memories waiting for Russ’ return.

The Great Wolf could use Bjorn’s particular brand of wisdom and knowledge of ancient times, but given his exemplary record and long history of dedication to the Chapter, he decided to leave his Living Ancestor undisturbed.

The chiming of a klaxon at his chamber door interrupted Logan’s brief reverie. “Come!” the gnarled old commander growled, slightly annoyed by the interruption.

A tall, foreboding image of a man entered the Great Wolf’s chambers. The dim incandescent glow of the holo-monitor viewscreen reflected brightly off the highly polished carapace of the visitor’s jet- black armor. He held a Crozius Arcanum, crowned with a winged wolf’s skull at the end of the majestic silver staff. A rosarius with Terminator honors hung about his neck. These were badges of his station. It was Brother Ulrik the Slayer, who outside of the Dreadnoughts, was the oldest of all living Space Wolves, and the wisest of all Wolf Priests.

The Wolf Priest stopped in front of the Great Wolf and turned to face the commander of his beloved Chapter. Logan looked up from the holo-monitor viewscreen and gazed into a pair of piercing, red-glowing eyes that stared back at him intently from the hollowed sockets of a grinning skull-helm of a great wolf. The finely crafted helm worn by Ulrik was the famous Wolf Helm of Russ, which according to legend was originally made for their Primarch Russ himself.

Amongst the wolf brothers it was said that the ancient Wolf Priest was older even than the Great Wolf Logan Grimnar, who has faithfully served the tenants of the Emperor for over seven hundred years. Ulrik is the only living Space Wolf who remembers Logan as a young, impetuous Blood Claw, full of fury and future promise. Ulrik witnessed this youth marked by Russ rise to glory, and accompanied him during many of his greatest exploits, forging a friendship bound by chains of honor and loyalty stronger than tempered steel. Indeed, Ulrik is the only one who still addresses the Great Wolf by name.

“Brother Logan, I bring a message from one of our routine patrols near the Segmentum Obscurus.” the gravely voice of Ulrik intoned from his helm’s commspeaker.

Even after all these centuries Logan still shuddered inwardly when he heard his former Sergeant’s commanding tone, but now he did this more out of reflex and from a sense of respect, than fear.

“Our patrols were able to intercept a very faint, but unmistakable distress beacon coming from a previously undiscovered planet. This was only possible after a warp storm of great magnitude, that has raged unabated for millennia, finally dispersed for a brief period of time.” the grizzled old Wolf Priest replied.

“Alas, the signal was very scrambled, and it was encrypted with a very archaic Imperial code not used since the time of the Horus Heresy. The only thing that we were able to ascertain with absolute certainty was that the signal was definitely sent by a Loyalist Chapter of Space Marines of an undetermined origin.” Ulrik answered.

Logan Grimnar carefully contemplated the Wolf Priest’s words. Could this be a further sign given to him by their Lord Russ? He couldn’t simply dismiss the facts as mere coincidence. The Great Wolf rose swiftly from the holo-monitor workstation and walked over to an airlock door. He activated the air lock’s control console. As the great adamantium door opened, cold arctic air rushed in, misting as it touched the warmth within Logan’s bedchamber.

Logan walked out onto the terrace located on the uppermost level of the Fang. The arctic wind whipped his wolf pelt violently, threatening to rip it from its wearer. Even with his enhanced space marine attributes Logan could still feel the frigid Fenrisian air cut into his skin like a thousand cold, steely knives. He often times came out onto the terrace to seek solace and silence.

Tonight was exceptionally peaceful. The Thunderwolf, Drekan, was unusually calm this dark night. The skies were clear, offering the Great Wolf an unobstructed view of the innumerable stars within the heavens. The Eye of Russ was completely open. The great lunar moon was full tonight. A Hunter’s Moon. Its’ basking glow guiding the predators to their prey.

Logan gazed upon the primal beauty of his world. Beyond the Asaheim peaks he could see the World Sea and the raging waters of the Sea of Storms, and beyond that he could see the endless expanse of the great forests which stretched for hundreds of miles. He caught the scent of one of his lupine brothers. Somewhere within the vastness of the forests a great Fenrisian wolf howled its mournful cry. Miles away its mate howled in reply.

As Logan inhaled the chill Fenrisian air, he cleared his mind of all unanswered questions. Silently, the Great Wolf offered up a fervent prayer to Leman Russ, to give him a clear sign of what all these visions meant, and to guide his hand as He wished it. Lord Russ heard Logan’s call and answered. As the Great Wolf gazed upon the night sky he saw two shooting stars appear simultaneously. They collided with one another, forming a single great star. The twilight of the remaining star temporarily lit up the night sky, eclipsing the Hunter’s Moon in its bright luminescence. The new star was located to the North, towards the direction of the Segmentum Obscurus.

The signs were finally clear to him. The Great Wolf had been granted the answers that he sought. As he stood there in silence, Ulrik walked up to the side of his lord.

“The Wolf that Stalks Between the Stars is calling out to us Logan.” Ulrik spoke reverently, having been a witness to such a historic event.

“Brother Ulrik, assemble the Wolf Lords within my Inner Sanctum. I am calling a Great Hunt! It is time to bring a lost pack back to its den.” the Great Wolf commanded.

YOUR MOST LOYAL SERVANT

INQUISITOR UZIEL DREDD

INQUISITOR ASMORALES HARKENFORTH