'We talk a good fight.'
-Saurus Legion motto number 1
I have not spent the last five hundred years as the Commander of this Chapter simply to
be a titular leader! When I tell you to make a cup of coffee, I mean it!
-Commander Takant.
Heresy? What do you know of heresy? In this system, in the midst of this perpetual war
we wage, we have attained a new understanding with the peoples of the galaxy. In cities on
this very planet, humans, Squats, Orks and Eldar coexist peacefully. We have learnt the
language of the Tyranids and we converse with daemons in no danger. We have something you
and your Imperium will never have; we have a unity.
-Chief Librarian Matthawa.
Tactics are a simple matter. When I see the world, I see it with the clarity of the
strategist’s board, and the impenetrable fog of the battlefield. The difficult bit is
when that Bloodthirster charges you right in the thick of it. After that, anything seems
easy.
-Captain Jatro
Incarna turned his massive, bulky body around in the confines of the laboratory within the Librarium and found the crystal focusing matrix. He handed it to the comparatively tiny figure of Chief Librarian Matthawa.
‘Thanks,’ said the Marine, ‘And, uh, hand me the test witch blade will you?’
Incarna looked up into the storage lockers in the wall, rummaged around, and produced a finely wrought Eldar sword. He suddenly looked at it in horror, as the matter of his hand seemed to melt away at the psychic material’s touch. He screamed in immortal agony as he was banished from the material realm.
‘Got you again, Raersch,’ said Matthawa, smiling to himself.
A hush descended on the hall as the Tyranid envoy and his bodyguard strode into the room. The massive Hive Tyrant’s black carapace glistened in the light, and his fangs drooled lubricating slime. Servants from the citadel scuttled under him with small cloths, attempting to mop up the mess. Four Tyranid Warriors and a single Lictor stood ranged around him, scrutinising the room for signs of a threat. The five hundred Marines and humans in the room looked up at the sight of the six aliens. There were retching sounds as some of the weaker-willed servants sickened at the sight of them. Suddenly, every head turned as one towards the other side of the hall where the robed, unarmoured figures of Takant, Valerie and Matthawa entered from the Winding Stair.
‘Commander T’th’tok’ren’ko’shon-ta,’ said Takant, striding forwards and standing before the towering monstrocity, ‘Glad you could make it...’
Commander Takant, Lieutenant Commander Valerie, Captain Jatro, Captain Karnan, Chief Librarian Matthawa, Master Reeyahr, Master Joran and Master Ouphous often enjoyed a game of four-a-side volleyball in the citadel grounds. They would wear specially made team strips, and so far Takant’s Destroyers were beating Reeyahr’s Fluffy Flower People sixteen matches to twelve. All was well, except that today, Incarna wanted to play. They had to bring in Brother Charn to make up the numbers. Most of the other volleyball players in the Chapter were too busy watching the second half of the Erestron Ork/Squat gungeyball finals.
Charn jogged onto the field as two servants hung the net up. He shook his head, trying as ever to keep the plaintive cries of the spirits that infested him from distracting him. The rest of the Destroyers came on from the other entrance, and the five of them arrayed against Reeyahr, Jatro, Karnan, Matthawa and Incarna. The sight of the towering daemon prince in the flowery pink team strip almost made Charn’s eyes water with laughter.
The game began. Valerie leapt fifteen feet into the air and thumped the ceramite ball so hard that when Jatro sprang to intercept it, it carried him back through the air and into the ground. She served again, and this time Incarna took the shot to the head. It bounced away, returned by Karnan, and the daemon staggered about in confusion. Takant volleyed the ball high into the air, and its downward force took it right through the metal floor.
They got a new ball, and play resumed until Charn finally managed to leap into the path of the fast-moving sphere. He tried to grab for it but the telekinetic spirits got there first, winding bands of warp energy around the material and clinging to it. The residual momentum was enough to send him flying, and the spirits swirled about in fright (why the spirits had such a fear of heights Charn had never discovered). They swooshed about, trying to find a purchase in the whistling air. With a crunch, he hit the wall fifty metres from the court, and was crushed into unconsciousness.
As they did every time their host was incapacitated, the spirits screamed out of his body into a massive hurricane of power. They filled the games courtyard with energy, and groped at everything inside. The random force of their assault hurled Incarna out of the real world with a thunderclap, and the Marines were thrown to the floor.
Takant waited for the tornado to calm down, and the spirits to return to the waking body of Charn, before turning to Jatro and muttering:
‘That’s the last time we let him play.’
‘From the edge of the Imperium;
‘To the great Eye of Terror;
‘We will fight in all the battles;
‘That we can find or play or stir;
‘We will fight with our big dinosaurs;
‘And with great big lascannons (big cannons!);
‘We are proud to wear the title;
‘Saurus Legion Marine.’
-Anon. (Luckily for him)
‘We have a bad life,
‘Though it’s better than Ultramar,
‘If your Machine Curse gets nullified,
‘Just hit ‘em with Lightning Arc.
‘Open your eyes,
‘Look through that disguise and SEE.
‘I’m a Librarian,
‘A big psychic Space Marine,
‘But what’s my job?
‘I don’t know,
‘Letting books out on loan.
‘If that psychic wind blows, it wouldn’t really matter, to me,
‘To-oo me.
‘Libarian, just killed a man.
‘Put a grenade down his head,
‘Ran away then - now he’s dead.
‘Librarian, your life may suck,
‘But that’s no excuse for blowing someone up.
‘Librarian, ooo-oo-wee-ooo,
‘He may have made you mad,
‘But you didn’t have to shove that krak grenade
‘Down his throat. Must have hurt.
‘I s’pose that doesn’t really matter...
‘Too late.
‘Your time has come.
‘We’ll lock you up for a short time,
‘Then we’ll consult forces divine.
‘Say goodbye to everybody,
‘You’ve got to go-
‘Got to leave your mates behind and stay in jail.
‘Librarian, ooo-ooo-wee-ooo,
‘We don’t want you to die,
‘But we wish that you’d never done this at all.
‘I see a little silhouetto of a man-
‘Is it him? Is it him?
‘Can it be the Commander?
‘Good Commander Takant, have you come to set me free?
‘Oh I hope so,
‘Oh I hope so,
‘Oh I hope so,
‘Oh I hope so,
‘Oh I hope that it is so.
‘Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh.
‘I’m a Librarian don’t you need me at the Library?
‘(He’s a Librarian don’t you need him at the Library?)
‘Spare me this cell and this slop their feeding me!
‘I killed a man in self-defence - won’t you let me go?
‘Not yet no (No we will not let you go).
‘Let me go!’
‘Not yet no (No we will not let you go).
‘Let me go!’
‘Not yet no (No we will not let you go).
‘LET ME GO!’
‘WILL NOT LET YOU GO!’
‘LET ME GO!’
‘WILL NOT LET YOU GO!’
‘LET ME GO!’
‘Oh, if you want it , really want it so much then I suppose so!’
‘Oh, thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thanks a lot.
‘You won’t regret your decision to set me free, me free, me FREEEEEEEEE!’
‘The Librarian relinquished his old life of crime,
‘He requested a transfer - got shipped to the Eye.
‘Oh, Legion, he’s a Marine in the Legion,
‘Now he’s fighting, and casting and cooking our tea.
‘So I hope our story’s told you,
‘What it’s plain to see.
‘The moral of the story...
‘Is don’t kill anybody, you see.
‘Without an airtight alibi....’
-from the Court Martial of Brother-Librarian Katz