Sundered Knives

Nine months. For nine months the brutal civil war known as the sundering had torn the soul from the Jade Knives and wrought brother against brother in a conflict that threatened to destroy the chapter almost from its very inception. And here of all places that history was inescapable, these once proud halls were originally bedecked in the elaborate calligraphy and tapestries of Zhongqian. Here Jiangjun Tarkhut had presented his original draft of the Fadian Zhu, the borderline heretical text that had sparked the civil war, now those tapestries lay in burnt rags around scorched, pockmarked pillars, strewn with bolter fire as they weakly strained against the collapsing roof. Luo’s boot crunched as he trampled one of those banners underfoot, the once beautiful calligraphy was given little respect in this dark era, internally he cursed himself, he was one to respect the arts, a loyal son of Sakhat, unlike the heretical traitors of the Paladins. Still, he pressed forward, the darkness being cast away by the green glow of his power lance as he stalked the shadowed corridors. He turned on his heel around the final corner and spun his Guan Dao to face the new direction, his blade now facing the great hall, an errant moonbeam broke through the domed ceiling, illuminating the stone dais in the centre of the room, for a fleeting second he almost expected to see his lost brothers there, the grim assault marine Emchi, the sergeant Taogan, but that squad was dead now. Only he remained of squad Qiong of The Brotherhood of the Claw. And now he would honour their memory by retrieving their weapons, to be displayed in the tomb of the fallen. As he stepped in, Luo was greeted by the bodies of his former brothers, he knelt over the corpse of emchi, his once jade armour was cracked and blackened, a chainsword protruded from his sternum, the gaping maw it left unsettled even Luo, a man who had fought this war at its most bloody flashpoints and seen more death than he cared to admit for such a young age. Next to him lay another marine clad In the garish colours of the paladins, his head crushed under a fallen slab of ceramite. Ever the warrior, emchi died with his hands still clutching his twin power swords. One bent and twisted under the ceramite hulk that now replaced the traitor's skull “Will the Khagan forgive them,” Jian asked himself He did not expect an answer. “Forgiveness? Jaghatai would bless our cause!” a mocking voice rang out from above. Jian wheeled to meet the new voice, raising his blade as he scanned the darkness for his target, it was not difficult to find him, for all their martial prowess, the Paladins were often lacking in subtlety, his enemy stood above the doorway, his bright green and red armour shone out against the greys and blues of the moonlit hallway, he unsheathed a pair of blades at his hip. a long slender Jian and shorter Thicker Dao, raising them in a defensive stance he laughed. “Chisan Hua of the Jade Paladins greets you... Brother" Brother. Of all the insults he had been given over this long war, that one hurt the most, for it was true. Less than a year ago he would have called the traitor standing before his brother, would have died for him, fought through blood and iron together against the T'au Xenos, now they stood, blades shifting as they circled each other, like two Berkhut hawks watching for each other's weaknesses. “there is no fraternity among your kind, turncoat” Luo laughed,   “and yet we stand, united under master Zhelan. Tell me, how many of the knives are truly loyal to Jiangjun Tarkhut?”  Again, the traitors blow stung, it was no secret that many disliked Tarkhut, the new leader of the Knives, but they were loyal to his predecessor Sakhat and many more simply saw the act of rebellion as barely better than turning to Chaos.   Luo had had enough,  he thrust at the paladin, screaming, his blade was deflected up by a twist of the Paladin's first sword, as his second swung at the young Jade Knife. Luo twisted his body, narrowly avoiding the blade and throwing a punch at Chisan’s head, the sound of Ceramite clashing mixed with a sickening crunch, the blow sending him reeling backwards. The clang of metal on metal rang out as Luo pressed the advantage, he swung, thrusted, and cut with his lance, parrying away thrusts and jabs, as the Paladin backed away in the face of such force, using his range to his advantage Luo probed at his opponent, finishing with a successful strike to his enemies head. The hit sent the Paladin to the floor with a resounding smack, shattering the floors already defaced mosaic tiles, and sending his swords clattering across the ground “pathetic”, Luo sneered, pressing his blade to the throat of his disarmed enemy, “you didn’t even land a single hit on me Chisan, know that Jian Luo, last surviving son of squad qiong ended your life” Jian boasted, with mock surprise. The paladin's response was short, “Jian Luo... ‘falling blade’. How appropriate!” From his prone position, he smacked away the power lance, using the moment of surprise to right himself and barrel forward at Jian. the blade had bit deep into his forearm as he smacked it aside, but now he had an opening, ignoring the pain, Chisan charged at Luo, but the jade knife was able to keep his grip on the weapon, he swung it low, hoping to catch the legs of Chisan, but as he swung he was met by a furious flying kick to his chest, knocking him back, and sending his Guan Dao from his grasp as it spiralled away into some corner of the room, Luo returned blows with a punch to Chisan’s chest, which he avoided with astonishing grace, flinging himself down to duck under the blow, and jumping up with a cry to deliver a scissor kick to Luo’s helmet, staggering the jade knife backwards from the sheer force of the unexpected attack. He stumbled, as he nearly fell over something underfoot in his retreat, only when he heard the crack of metal snapping that he realised what it was, he had stumbled over the corpse of his fallen brother emchi, and destroyed the generator of the the power sword in his wrist, with one sword destroyed by his own clumsiness and another bent into rent shards by the ceramite slab, there was now only a single weapon to hand The chainsword embedded in his brother's chest. He attempted to pull it loose, only for it to refuse to move from its morbid scabbard in his brother's chest, he pulled again, before realising he could only get it to loose by removing the viscera and bone that entombed it. He activated the chainsword, sending the guts and bone of his brother spraying out, widening the gaping maw in his brother's armour, he tugged once more and with a vile crunch he ripped it loose and tried to ignore the squelching and clattering of what organs he dared not imagine hitting the floor. The paladin had also rearmed himself, advancing now with his long bladed Jian, Luo launched at the paladin, his vision was blurred from the multiple hits to his head, gripping the chainsword in both hands, he swung, disregarding his own safety or any finesse. Again and again he swung his chainsword, kicked, screamed, punched and headbutted at the paladin, who weaved and cut in return, smacking the helmet from Luo's head with a well-timed duck under a charging swing of Luo’s chainsword, and a spinning high kick to his head, following with a slicing cut that just cut Luo under his eye, a narrow red gash bloodied his vision. until finally one of Luo's blows hit. as Chisan leapt into the air to deliver a punch to Luo’s exposed head, Luo leapt in return as they flew through the air at each other, he swung the chain sword up and over his head, the catching a joining in the soft armour between Chisan’s head and body, following up with the motion, Luo used the chainsword to push Chisan down in one fluid arcing motion over his head. Luopressed into his enemies neck harder as they fell, hitting the floor with a cracking blast that shattered pillars and felled parts of the decaying falls roof. his adversary clutched at his throat, barely audibly he whispered. “that technique... The flying blade... Sakhat didn’t teach you that!” the rest of him pinned under Luo’s body now, Luo pressed the power beyond its safe capacity, causing it to spray and hemorrhage Chisan’s enhanced flesh across the room as he gurgled and screamed his last breaths, a red mist decorating both their armour and covering their faces. Until suddenly. Silence. The body slumped to the floor and the whirring blades of the chainsword finally died. As Luo stood over the corpse of his once brother. “Sakhat didn’t teach me that. Brother” he sneered “Zhelan Dai did” he laughed. Looking up at the temple's dais, he proclaimed to the heavens “no more shall I be Jian Luo, the falling blade, instead, I am reborn as Jian Fei, the flying blade!”