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Main > Documentation > Fiction >/ Profiles > Durus Quatinus Ferrum > Ferrum's Adventure at Antioc Ends.

+++ FICTION - FERRUM'S ADVENTURE AT ANTIOC ENDS +++
A short story of one of Durus Quatinus Ferrum's exploits during
the Crusade for Antioc Campaign with the Legio B&C.
Last Updated; April 21. 2007 - Imperial Record 1.303.7.2.


THE CRUSADE FOR ANTIOC CAMPAIGN
FERRUM'S ADVENTURE AT ANTIOC ENDS

There they where again; the claxon calls of life, the beep beep beeps of twin heart monitors.
Durus Quatinus Ferrum opened his eyes and looked up at a pair of familiar faces.
Fautor, his long time friend and Algidus, the NCO of his squad.
Algidus was smiling broadly; Fautor just shook his head, but he to couldn't help but smile.
"You know sarge... you're becoming quite the legend for surviving against the odds", Algidus said.
Fautor nodded. "Mhm. They're starting to compare you to Golgotha".
Ferrum was surprised. "Golgotha?"
"Yes. Rumour has it you are Chosen by the Emperor and that you must have at least as many lives as Golgotha to survive falling from obit and nearly being cut in two, twice."
Ferrum laughed, but was quickly cut short by the Artificer sitting at his side.
Looking over to his left he could see the complicated instruments working to repair his left bionic arm and chest.
After his near fatal battle on the bridge of the Legio Battle barge "Purgator", Ferrum had been assumed dead and had been reverently carried to the Apotecharion where he had been laid to rest in a morgue stasis-chamber for processing and gene-seed removal.
The Apotecharion had been extremely busy that horrible day, and so it had taken a few days before the Apothecaries had gotten around to him, but when they finally did, the Chief Apotecharion was furious to find that the younger Apothecaries of his institution had mistaken a suspended animation for true death.

And now he was here, in the Forge.
Ferrum strained his neck to look over at his side where a Tech-Marine was busy adjusting some instruments attached to the bionic half of Ferrum's chest.
"Could you show me the hololithic surveillance recording again?" Ferrum asked the Tech-Marine overseeing the operation, and the Tech Adept merely nodded content to get the "patient's" attention away from the complicated technology being tampered with in his chest.
Behind Algidus and Fautor a hololithic projection from the bridge of the Legio Battle Barge Purgator appeared, and as Ferrum watched from his seated bedrest, his two friends turned to look at the recording as well:

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The slightly monochrome hololithics showed Durus Quatinus Ferrum rushing in to attack a Chaos Marine, as former Legio-Sergeant Lucius Draconis fell dead at his side.
Ever the canny fighter, Ferrum shifted his grip on the bolter, grasping his chainsword with his now-free left hand. The bolter feinted forward, seeking to become the focus of the traitor's attention.
The renegade answered by releasing his own bolter and pulling at the Legio bolter, dragging Ferrum off balance for a moment.
Ferrum's attack had been thwarted and he was forced to parry a incoming blow. His extensive training and acrobatic skill prevented the traitor's blow from landing though, as Ferrum leapt back.

Behind the pair, the last of the Legio Serfs serving as defensive soldiers onboard the Purgator fell dead.
Three members of Ferrum's Squad Nexum were still fighting; the others had been killed or extensively wounded. The number of traitors was severely diminished though, and Apothecary Meton continued to advance carefully on Legio Brother-Captain Antaeus' position.
In order that the Apothecary might succeed in reaching the Crusade's wounded Captain, Ferrum let out a battle-cry that drowned out the din of battle upon the bridge and drew every traitors attention for a second. He leapt suddenly, moving within the range of his renegade opponent and lashing forward with his Chainsword.

The Word Bearer Chaos Marine's sword smoked as the energies of the blade sizzled the blood and gore that coated its length. With a deft flick of his wrist, the Chaos Marine smashed the bolter from Ferrum's grasp, who in turn answered by thrusting out with his Chainsword, biting into the Word Bearer's upper leg.
The Chaos Marine brought his weapon down forcibly, driving Ferrum's buzzing blade into the deck.

Ferrum reacted instantly to the traitor's riposte, bringing his augmetic arm up to block the counterattack. The renegade bellowed in frustration as his attack failed. The shock of the blow forced Ferrum to withdraw a step from the heretic, but he had not moved fast enough.
Both the power sword-wielding traitor and a companion Chaos Marine struck forward.
Ferrum swept his blade up with shocking agility, the sword knocking the chainsword of the horned traitor to the side. The Word bearer's Power Sword landed heavily though, in the space between Ferrum's neck guard and helm. The burning blade chopped down, cutting deep into Ferrum's torso. - Into his augmented bionic torso.
The blow knocked the Legio Space Marine to his knees, then the Word Bearer kicked Ferrum off his blade, leaving the Legio Marine for dead and quickly turning around to assess the situation on the rest of the bridge.

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The recording stopped and the hololithic projection disappeared with a flicker.
That had been over a week ago and Ferrum had been forced to reside in the Legio Apotecharium for most of that time, resting and healing up after damage and injuries suffered at Antioc. Most of it suffered due to one of the longest falls ever recorded in the history of the Legio.
Now after a week in the Apotecharion he had been transferred to the inner sanctum of the Forge.

As the hololithic projection of Ferrum being kicked off a Traitor Marine's sword disappeared, Fautor and Algidus turned back to the injured Sergeant again.
"Ouch, that must have hurt!" was Fautor's immediate comment.
"Not really", said Ferrum. The blow hardly touched my organic chest at all, but it did damage the bionics of my chest quite extensively. "It mostly hurt my pride. - It pains me every time I see that thing, to know that my friends and allies where dying around me while I was unconscious and unable to move.
If it hadn't been for that Epistolary Jaris arrived on the bridge..." Ferrum let the sentence hang in the air for a moment, leaving it at that. They all knew what the consequences would have been if the powerful Psycher hadn?t arrived in time.

Ferrum sighed, seeming a bit down.
Algidus was the one to ask the blunt question. "So, considering that only your Chest Bionics where cut open, why couldn?t you react?"
Ferrum looked down at his heavily augmented chest that had been part of him ever since the Chaos Marine Alpharius had cut him almost in two in a previous battle, where Fautor had ended up saving his life.
He just shook his head. "I don't know", he said simply, shrugging.

The Tech Adept to his side gave a low growl. - "Why cant you sit still?!"
The trio's attention turned to the flustered Tech-Marine who looked up at them with an apologetic look on his face.
"Sorry!", he said. "This is hard and delicate work".
"If it where up to me I would put you under, but the Apothecaries say that is not an option right now.
As to your question; Sergeant Ferrum here suffered a Neurological feedback overload that temporarily knocked out parts of his neurologics, forcing a neurological shutdown and automated activation of suspended animation.

The Apothecaries also tell me that due to the pressure your Bionic parts where subject to as a result of the sword blow, you had a rapture in an internal injury they had overlooked, where the Bionics burned your organs during your fall from Orbit. - Apparently it's a wonder you could even walk with that kind of injury.
Besides, with the amount of damage done to the Bionics you would have a hard time doing anything, even if it hadn't been for the neurological shutdown.

Repairing this thing has been no easy task I must tell you! - We had to redefine the activation circuitry of the dysfunctional bioneural phase variance modulator, and calibrate the frequency of the quantum leason capacitor before we could even think about traducing the passive proton polarizing coil and get to wo..."
The Tech Marine stopped mid sentence as he saw the perplexed faces on the three Marines he was addressing. - They obviously didn't have a clue what he was talking about.
"Never mind!", he said and returned to concentrating on sealing up his work.

"Maybe I'm not so much chosen by fate or the Emperor as I am clumsy and unlucky?" said Ferrum looking up at his brotherly friends again.
"Nah!" came Fautor's instant reply. "With the amount of people, including Astartes, that fell to the voices of Chaos in the last days on that planet, it was the Emperor's will that you not set foot upon it again, because he still has other work for you to do.
No, you are chosen you are!". Fautor smiled. - "Besides you have more lives than a cat, and you've already proven that you can land on your feet no matter how high the fall".

NCO Algidus looked confused. "What's a cat?" he said eyes wide in wonder.
Ferrum looked up at his squad's NCO, almost as surprised as Algidus.
"You don't know what a cat is?"
"No. - Should I?"
Fautor looked at Algidus and shook his head in wonder with a sly smile on his face.
"It must be one tough creature to be compared to Sergeant Ferrum" Algidus managed, trying to right the situation. "Is it huge, thick skinned and fierce with several heads and legs?"
Ferrum and Fautor both burst out in laughter and this time the Tech-Marine couldn't help but join in.

Yes indeed, they would have many fine days together yet.



Related Pages:
Allies
Durus Quatinus Ferrum's Character Entry
The Legio Record on Ferrum
Local Copy of Legio Records
Stories of Ferrum's other exploits with the Legio B&C

 

 


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