Forgotten Saint

Several amazing people have been doing their own takes on Warhammer Month including and not limited to mini painting, discussion, their own fan art, and DUN DUN fan fiction!

Here is a short story by the amazing Celestian Jesselea! It is translated from German/Dutch so pardon some of the rougher parts. If you guys want to see the original German transcript, let me know and I will ask her if she wishes to share!

GIVE HER LOVE SO I CAN SCREEN CAPTURE AND PROVE TO HER SHE'S PRETTY GOOD!

The Last stand
of the
Order of the Forgotten Saint

Chapter *1*
The World of Arcosia

The world of Arcosia was a small world at the southern borders of the cursed Gothic Sector. An unimportant world, more of a barren rock in it's early days and something the Impirium would have normal ignored as the world neither had a human populace back when it was discovered nor was it a resource rich world. That however was to change as some 300 years ago before the appearance of the Great Rift a minor Saint of the Adepta Sororita was slain there as she hunted down a Heretic Astartes that had tried to destroy the reliquary of the Ecclesiarchy. None of the Combatants, not the minor Saints nor the names of her Sisters or that of the Heretic Astartes or his warband survived the clash.
 

What was untypical however was that usually in such a case the Ecclesiarchy would push that under the Rug and let that story be a forgotten one but that small ordo of the Sisterhood had enough friends in high enough places who fought tooth and nail to not let them be forgotten, even if time would be unkind and wipe their names from the Impiriums history save from mentionings deep within the Ecclesiarchal Archives. The friends they had within the Ranks of both orders Ordos of the Adepta Sororitas and the Ecclessiarchy also ensured that a small ordo was build on that world to protect their Remains, though over time as the small monastery was build and a small farming community was established to feed the monastery’s Sisterhood, time forgot and diluted knowledge and only the Bones of the forgotten Saint of the Sisterhood were saved and put into an reliquary to be protected until the Stars would die out.
 

To further honor their duty to their former Sisters and the Saint the Ordo took up the colors of the wiped out Ordo and the Saint to show their commitment to their duty. And so the Ordo renamed itself as the Ordo of the Forgotten Saint, bearing colors of a long dead Ordo of the Sisterhood. From that time on, their armor was painted snow white with their cloaks being the color of icy waters, bearing the symbols of not only the Ecclesarchy but the symbol for a forgotten Saint in their heraldry. For a long time it was a rather peaceful existence for the small Sisterhood protecting the remains of the Forgotten Saint as was it for the small community that was formed around them. Since they were so far off of any stable route to receive recruits on a regular basis, they recruited young girls from the Local populace as needed. Mostly when other Sisters Reached the age were they would have to be replaced in order to keep up their Fighting strength.
 

But those peaceful times were to be shattered once the Cicadrix Maledictum would break the Galaxy apart and paint the sky of their home world in a mad man’s colors. The Sisters knew that Something horrible has happened and prepared as best as they could knowing full well they might not survive this bad omen. So they did what they could and build fortifications and took in the community into their monastery to protect them, while the fortifications around their home and community was little more then walls of mud and dirt that could not hope to withstand a serious attack. The Sisters never lost hope however, their lives and Souls belonged to the Emperor of Mankind and they would gladly sacrifice them in order to protect the Saint’s remains and the people that lived among them. The Leading Celestian of the small ordo, which since it's founding was about 150 Sisters strong,  gave her Sisters the rites of unity with the emperor and granted the same to the civilian populace ensuring them that if they would die, the emperor would take them to his side and protect them in his eternal realm from harm.


Chapter *2*
Dark Times arise

In the same moment the Sky above their World tore asunder and it was drenched in the colors of a madman, all the Sisters knew, this was the day of Ruin, the day they might be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice to the Emperor and their oath. Among all the Sisters, only one felt uneasy about this. A simple, young Battle Sister called Sister Khalora. She was the youngest and latest recruit that has been raised on their home world, joined their order and raised to be a fully fledged Battle Sister. She was a quiet one, never talked to anyone aside from when getting orders or being talked to. She preferred to be alone and pray to the Emperor, feeling the need to thank him with devotion, but she never slacked of in the regular combat training, proving to be a good marksmen with the bolter, but it was in close combat where she was a protege, defeating even the most Senior of Members of  her order with comparable ease. The Celestian noted that Khalora was almost a berserker when in close quarters combat, but not an ugly unholy one like those that served the Forces of Chaos, she was a pure Berserker, clad in light that brought the Emperors wrath down with every swing of her weapon.
Sister Khalora, was a tall pale skinned beauty with long flowing red hair, piercing green eyes and freckles on her cheeks. She was an athletic woman, thanks to her constant training. But despite her tall and imposing stature she was a kind hearted soft spoken and hermit like soul.
 

With the appearance of the Great Rift she closed herself off more, claiming to having a bad feeling and wanting to calm her mind in prayer. One of her Sisters noted her concern for her well being but it was waved off, as it was just considered to be a side effect of Khaloras personality. She was a hermit that enjoyed being alone when she could but was one committed to stand by her Sisters. During the first weeks and month's the Sisters build their Fortifications, prayed and even trained the local populace giving them access to low grade weapons so they might fight for their world. The Celestian argued with her Sisters about that but in the end they saw her wisdom. They were just to few to defend this world alone without reinforcements. They needed aid and it was the emperors will that the faithful always fought together.
 

It took month's of training and preparations but in the end they could do no more, they had erected primitive trenches, mud and dirt walls, put up scheduled patrols. Trained their remaining recruits to full Sisterhood and the populace into a force to be reckoned with. Only time will tell if they did enough and if the Emperor had granted them his mercy. Month's went by and nothing happened even as news reached them of the horrible battles fought across the Impirium, which made the Sisters and their charges uneasy to say the least but that was about to change as the sky darkened even more...

Chapter *3*
The Rain of  Iron

It was but two month's after they had finished preparing their World for the inevitable it happened. The skies darkened with the red droppods of the Red Corsairs, so massive was the assault that it darkened the sky so much one would think it had become night in an instant. Chaos had finally come to them and it came in force, which the Celestian had feared it would. Her sisters Sounded the Alarm and everyone prepared for their defense as the pods crashed into the fields around the monastery, destroying farms, fields, rivers and buildings in the process. While a small heavily armed transporter descended from the bloody sky and the Red Corsairs departed from the Droppods and started to gather at the front of the Monastery, no shot was fired and a silence came across the fields as the civilians cowered and clawed at their weapons while the Sisters Stood stoic atop of their Walls.
 

The leader of the Warband moved out of the Ranks of his servants, he was a giant in an ancient set of Power Armor, decorated and warped by the powers of the Dark Gods, while the man inside that armor looked like a demon himself, with pale grey skin, a lipless mouth filled with razor sharp teeth and eyes as black as the void. He demanded them to offer themselves to the Dark Gods and become their slaves, or face annihilation. The Sisters response was an opening barrage out of their bolters into  the Ranks of the corrupted Starters ripping big holes into their ranks.
 

The Heretic Astartes then began their own attack charging at the monastery and unloading into its wall, supplemented by the tanks they brought with them, easily breaking through the mud walls and trenches as if they were nothing. Their attack left the ground and the walls shaking while the defenders answered in kind. It was clear that the Sisters had the upper hand because of the monastery but that did not Protect them from all harm. Khalora was on the part of the Wall above the main gate, shooting her  Bolter carefully, trying to preserve ammunition and killing the heretics with precise shots when she saw her sisters fall left and right to her, and even a woman with a lasgun being torn into a bloody rain of gore when a bolter shell entered her chest. It sent a shiver down her spine and ignited an anger she let out with a scream, throwing care out of the window as she picked up one of her fallen Sisters bolters, resting them onto the wall and began unloading both the Bolters into the approaching enemy.
 

An earth shattering explosion ripped her out of the her anger as she turned her head towards the noise. Seeing that one of the walls had been breached, but not only that, it had killed the celestian and 20 of her Sisters, which roused her anger anew, as the remaining sisters began to fight in the breach to keep the Attackers out. The fight lasted for 3 days straight with out rest, ammunition was running low and the Sisters were tired from the constant assaults aimed to give them neither rest nor respite but never truly aiming to break through. They wanted to break them, to show them despair. But they Stood strong, during those days Khalora, would pray more and more ,taking any chance she got to do so, while with each new attack more of them fell and they were forced to retreat to the inner sanctum on the fifth day. Barely 9 Sisters left alive, including Khalora.
 

They held the inner sanctum for 2 more days, the world now more dead then alive, with the bodies of their Sisters stripped of their dignity were hung from the walls, on the tanks of the enemy or outright gutted, Khalora and her remaining sisters knew they would die so they forged a plan. Khalora should remain in the reliquary as a last line of defense while the remaining 4 sisters would make a last final charge to buy her time to seal herself within the reliquary in hopes she can stay alive long enough to protect it from harm. It did not sit right with her but she was a Battle Sister and she knew her duty and she prayed for the Souls of her sisters and the  fallen as she prepared the reliquary to be sealed as her sisters charged to their Deaths.
 

She heard them being torn limb from limb and being tortured by the invaders and felt the glee they felt by killing her Sisters who never wavered. Now she was all alone in the darkness and prayed to the God Emperor and asked for forgiveness for their failure.

Chapter *4*
A Light in the Darkness

As Khalora knelt in front of the relic and prayed she heard the foul heretics trying to break open the door. They seemed to desperately want to either kill her or to get the remains of the Saint, which or both she was not sure but she knew she would not Survive this and she recited an old poem she was Taught by their late Canoness and she spoke it with no fear, no remorse and most important of all with all the Faith she had. " When Chaos comes to claim our Souls, some must rise the Light of old. Names in stone, Spirits of  Legend, deeds unknown yet never forgotten. These are the Emeperor’s Chosen, of honor within and of Fear without, remember them when in Hope you doubt. "

As she spoke those words, she did not realize that her once green Eyes had started to glow with pure white light and the remains of the forgotten Saint had started to glow too, as the light of the Emperor enveloped her, warming her Soul and heart. She heard a voice in her head. Calming her, saying to her that his most Faithful daughter would not fall this day, nor will her order be forgotten as their predecessors had.  That her destiny was to restore the Honor of the fallen Ordo and her Sisters by slaying the very Chaos Marines responsible for the deaths of her ancestors and her Sisters. The voice was clear and filled with warmth and authority, it was the Emperor’s voice that spoke to this lone Sister whose faith never wavered whose only wish was to serve him on terra. He ordered her to wake up and focus her faith.
 

As Khalora opened her Eyes which had become pools of pure white Light, ethereal white Wings of an Angel spread from her back lifting her off the ground as the chamber began to vibrate and heat and light beginning to emanate outwards. Which the Heretic Astartes noted and backed off, because as the light touched them it burned their armor and very soul. The Leader barked at his men not to be cowards and blast the door open. He wanted that Sister and wanted the corpse they have been hiding to finish what he had started so long ago.
 

What he could not anticipate however was as they destroyed the door, a wave of light exited the Room almost blinding every one of his men, including himself, when they Opened their Eyes, they stood in shock, even if they all have been veterans of the Long War by now, they were stunned. They had chased a single sister into this chamber and had anticipated her to attack them, but what they saw left them speechless, even filling them with fear, an emotion they only knew from their victims.
 

As the Light subsided, Khalora came into view, still wearing the same Armor she wore when the fighting began, but now it was repaired and glowed in an holy light, ethereal wings of pure light holding her aloft, while her once broken Power Sword was restored and burned in holy flames. Below her they saw at least 400 Ghostly Battlesisters, all wearing the same Armor as Khalora did but with a difference, were 150 of them bore the same symbols that she had, the rest bore symbols only the leader remembered, the symbol of the order he destroyed, the order of the Silver Spear.
 

He could not understand what has transpired, believing it a trick, this sister must have triggered some ancient technology, this was the only thing he could think off. But it was far from the truth. The Emperor himself had lifted Khalora up to a Living Saint and sent her own fallen Sisters and the Sisters of their predecessors to her aid to crush the Traitors that sought to harm and violate the Impirium.
 

As she levitated, her glowing gaze rested upon the Leader of the Red Corsairs and she spoke in an echoing soft voice.
 

" Captain Garthorn the Reaper of Worlds, you have brought death and misery to the  Impirium your sword was to Protect, you spat at your vows and oaths, you have slaughtered the innocent and the Emperor’s most faithful for your foul amusement. Know this before I erase you from existence in the Emperor’s name. No more shall the Faithful be slain by the  likes of you. No more innocent blood will be spilled in the name of your false Gods. This I Khalora, last remaining Sister of the Order of the Forgotten Saint, vow. This day will be day you Face the Emperor’s Judgement! "
 

As soon as she had spoken the last words panic gripped the Red Corsairs, a feeling that they did not know, it stunned them as Khalora flew into them closely followed by the Ghosts of her Sisters, her blade holding a grim harvest among the traitors, while her ghostly Sisters fired their Bolters and tore into the Enemy. But their bolts where neither immaterial nor unreal, each bolt was made from the light of the Emperor and it burned the heretics bodies and souls to ash. Erasing their cursed existence from this galaxy and the warp alike.
 

While the Red Corsairs fought back with the Strength of madman and their Leader battled Khalora, it was not enough to hold the tide. The Weapon of Garthorn broke on the Sword of Khalora as he tried to block a blow from her, her sword breaking cleanly through the Axe he wielded and taking off his  Head, with her Sisters wiping the remnants of his Forces aside. His fleet unaware of what happened at the surface was torn to Shreds as a shockwave of pure psychic holy fire came from the surface of the world. Destroying each and every living heretic ship and on the world itself. Burning them from Existence so they would never return.
 

At the end of the Battle, Khalora landed in the midst of the destroyed monastery, the glow in her eyes leaving her as her wings disappeared. She looked around, she felt the darkness of exhaustion claiming her slowly but she witnessed as each Ghostly Sister started to kneel and thank her before disappearing one by one. Only as the last Sister disappeared, did Khalora allow her body to give into the Darkness as she fell to the ground on her dead home... what will become of her? Only the Emperor knows.

Short Story by Celestian Jesselea.
Hope you enjoyed it :3 Happy Warhammer Month!