AN UNLIKELY ALLIANCE (FEMALE CUSTODES x MALE GUARDSMAN): A WARHAMMER 40K STORY

Day 1

The door of the ship opens. The blinding sunlight falls on Caius Bront’s face. He squints under the sunlight. The Lieutenant shouts, “Move Move move!!”. The Guardsmen run out of the ship into the horde of Slaaneshi Daemonettes. One of the Guardsmen yells “Watch out!!” to his colleague before she's eaten alive by a Fiend. Caius gasps in horror but he keeps heading forward. A shell falls and explodes near him. He falls. But he gets up and runs forward.

He runs and takes cover behind a toppled tank. His colleague beside him says, “It's an ambush! They sent us to die here!”. Caius says, “We're expendable, Lucius. That's what we've always been”. He checks out and shoots down a Daemonette. Caius and Lucius get out and keep running. Caius says, “We gotta get to the trenches, then nuke it.” They hear an explosion and a mushroom cloud in the distance. Lucius says, “Looks like one of the boys did it! We'll do it too. Victory will be ours!”. Suddenly Caius hears on his radio, “Unit 411 has suffered heavy casualties due to a nuclear warhead accidentally detonating way before”. Caius says, “Dang it!”. Lucius says, “We're going to fail too, won't we?”.

They find the trench. It's almost a mile away. Heavily guarded by Daemonettes, Fiends and Steeds. Caius looks and hides behind a rock and says, “Nope. We won't even be within a mile of a trench”. Lucius says, “By the Emperor, I wish there was an angel here to save us!”. That's when Fiend crawls up in front of them and says, “Yummy. You will all be a great feast for me and my children”. Caius and Lucius pull out their guns. The Fiend opens its mouth, and jumps to devour them, when suddenly, it stops. Wind starts to blow and the sand on the ground shifts to one place where a blue electric pillar opens. A member of the Adeptus Custodes is thrown out of the portal and they fall on the ground. This is different. Not an ordinary Custodian, but in an armor that is both black and gold. They wake up, punching the sand, saying, “They need to improve this machine”. They stand up, dusting off the sand. The Fiend sees them, yells and jumps at them. It wraps around the Custodian like a snake. The Custodian take out their Misericordia knife and rips out its stomach. Its bodily fluids cover them. The Custodian says, “Disgusting”. They set their sight on Caius and Lucius and head towards them. “Officers, is there any problem?”. Caius says, “Yes my lord. We have to blow up that trench filled with daemons a mile away. But we can't get a clear path.” The Custodian replies, “Leave that to me. Just run behind me”.

The 9 feet tall, Armor clad warrior pulls out their Guardian Spear and charges towards the daemons at speeds exceeding a blur. Lucius says, “How are we going to keep up with that?!”. Caius says, “Just run! Run like you ran after your wife when you first met her!”. Lucius replies, “Don't remind me of that”. The Custodian slashes through hordes of Daemonettes like butter, till the trench is clearly visible. That's when the ground starts to shake. A giant Keeper of Secrets emerges from the ground. It stares at the Custodian and screams, “You wretched unholy perversion with blood of that cursed god you call the Emperor. Join us in ascending to the highest levels of pleasure!”. The Custodian replies, “You're talking too much. Boys, the nuke”. Caius hands it to them. The Custodian says, “Alright. Now run. Run as fast as you can. And tells others to run too. Now go! Go! Go!”. Caius and Lucius run. Lucius says, “What are we going to do now?”. Caius relies, “Run you fucking moron!”. The Custodian jumps at the Keeper and gets inside its mouth, arms the nuke and jabs it into its throat. “This should keep you shut”, they say before getting out of its mouth. They get out, covered in mucus. The Keeper chokes with the bomb in its throat. The Custodian starts running and shouts in Low Gothic, “Retreat! Retreat!”. The Demonettes think the Guardsmen are retreating and rejoice. The Keeper vomits out the bomb, not realizing what it is. It leans forward to check what it is, and BOOM.

Caius and Lucius, laying behind a toppled tank, see the flash of the nuke going off and are then hit by the shockwave. They get up after the dust settles. They see the Custodian walking out of the dust and smoke, their cape majestically blowing in the wind, with the head of the Keeper in their hand. The Lieutenant days, “Private Caius and Lucius? You're alive!”. Caius replies, “All thanks to that Emperor's angel”. The Lieutenant pulls out his Meltagun and says, “You should have seen me killing those Daemonettes”. The Custodian says, “We missed a sight then”. Caius salutes and says, “We are alive because of you, sir. You truly are an angel”. The Custodian chuckles and says, “Sir?”. The conversation is interrupted by the Daemonettes retreating. The Lieutenant says, “They're retreating. They've accepted defeat”. The Custodian replies, “No, Lieutenant. They're going to their nests. They have laid eggs in their trenches. Thousands, if not more. They are going to feed on your soldiers they captured and nurse their babies. Tomorrow morning, you'll be overrun. Tell me Lieutenant, did the Astra Militarum not send a single Astartes to back you up?”. The Lieutenant replies, “No, sir. The General's orders were to liberate Corvus. It's a mining world for Opal, and the High Lord of Opal wants the planet untouched because it is rich in minerals”. The Custodian replies, “I'll try contacting the Militarum to send a squadron of Salamanders because you need to purify these lands to completely cleanse all signs of Slaanesh.” The Lieutenant replies, “That would be helpful, my Meltagun can't handle them all. A question, my lord, what exactly caused an Custodian like you to end up with lowly Guardsmen like us”. The Custodian replies, “I'll tell you. But first, tell your men to rest”. The General orders his men, “Fall back to the camps! We have a big day tomorrow”.

Caius sits near a tank on the camp. He takes off his helmet. The Guardsmen and women are dancing, singing. Lucius says, “Can't believe we survived a day on the battlefield”. A Guardswoman comes and says to Lucius, “Private, do you want to dance?”. Caius replies, “Oh no. He's married”. Lucius says, “Please dude. Not today. I may not even live tomorrow”. Caius says, “Okay fine. If your wife asks me again, I'm not defending you.” Lucius joins the women to dance with them. Caius takes out his wallet and pulls a photo of him, his wife and his daughter together. Suddenly, he hears heavy footsteps approaching him. It's the Custodes. Caius gets nervous and tries to get up, but they reply, “Oh no, sit.” They sit softly beside him. Caius sees his own reflection on the red left shoulder pad, with engravings in High Gothic. He can't read it, but sees his own nervous face sweating in the presence of the Custodian. The Custodian take off their helmet and place it on the ground. Caius nervously looks up, but already finds the Custodian staring back at him. It's a woman. Her majestically drawn eyes are differently colored, one brown and the other purple, matching the gemstones on her armor, her long flowing black hair, her diamond like glowing skin stuns Caius. “An angel she is”, he thinks. She smells like lavender. She says to herself, “I'll need to clean this armor properly once I get back”. Caius starts to sweat. The Custodian replies, “I'm sorry. Must be due to me. People often feel uncomfortable when they're near a Custodian. Trust me, you'll get used to it”. Caius raises his fist and salutes, “Private Caius Bront, ma'am.” The Custodian replies, “Custodian Aurora Lumina of the Shadowkeepers”.  Caius takes a deep breath, he's still afraid in her presence. He says, “I thought Custodians were dressed in all gold”. Aurora replies, “Well I'm a Shadowkeeper. I'm a warden of the Imperial jail where all sorts of horrible abominations are imprisoned. It smells crazy in there, you would not want to visit there.” Caius replies, “So, what are you doing with such lowly Guardsmen like us, my lady?”. Aurora replies, “I have a friend, Proxima. She's a Sister of Silence. We had a bet that if I lose the Blood Games of this year I will go fight alongside Guardsmen on a planet with no Astartes.” Caius replies, “So you lost?”. Aurora says, “I tried to real the Golden Throne by crawling up in a vent, but there I found a Necron pointing his gun at me. I tried to pull my own gun but the vent collapsed and we both fell down. Turns out the Necron there was bribed by the brothers of Aquilan Shield. So they won and I lost. Hence…”. “....You're here”, Caius completes the sentence. “Yes. By the way, where's your Lieutenant”, Aurora asks. Caius says, “There. That tent.” Aurora gets up, leaves her helmet and weapons, and says to Caius, “Don't touch them. You'll get killed”. Caius lets out a breath. The Guardsmen and women stop seeing her but Aurora says, “Why are you staring at me like that? Am I a Chaos Marine? Hope you don't get to see one.” She enters the tent of the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant leaves his table, gets up and salutes, “Lieutenant Tiberius reporting….”, he looks up and stares at her face, then continues, “... ma'am”. Aurora says, “I asked for a unit of Salamanders. Currently no unit is free. But one will be available the day after tomorrow. Can your men survive the morning tomorrow?”. The Lieutenant replies, “I faced World Eaters and lived. Where do you think I got these scars?”. “Well Lieutenant, I hope your men see the sunset tomorrow by the Emperor's grace and you don't get more scars”, Aurora says and leaves.