The Nest

<Hey all, Koto Tomoya here to write a new suspense filled, gory, horror story from the Warhammer 40k universe! I’ll be updating it chapter by chapter, perhaps one or two a week, you know, whenever I have time... so sit back and enjoy!>

Chapter One:
Welcome Wagon

--Pvt E.Fletcher, Imperial Catchan Guard
-ID#0000000000194058388929802948893
--Loc: P-L96825B7542DS (Fernaltia)
---START LOG---
---Date: 07/29/48997

-What is your name?

-M...My name? It’s... Fletcher.... Everett Fletcher.... Unit number 406 of the Catchan Guard... Stationed on the p...planet of.... Fernaltia....

-It says here that you fled during battle? Children like you have been executed for such acts of cowardice... I feel almost sick to be in the same room as you... *papers shuffling* But it seems you have valuable information on our enemy... I’m only wondering what tidbit of information you hold that is so valuable to keep you alive for so long... But start from the beginning, be honest and leave no detail out boy....

-Y...Yes sir....

Three months ago:
The drop ships launched from the imperial cruiser The Celestius Mortae, I looked out the window watching as the giant green sphere grew closer to us. It was here I would be stationed for the next 10 years, possibly even longer assuming I’d even last the first one. Ten years of looking over my shoulder for predators capable of tearing men in half with one swipe, exposed to poisonous insect life and a variety of blood sucking parasites, not to mention that half the plants were poison and the other half would just plain eat you alive, all to protect a small Ferrite mine that could barely produce more than 10 metric tons per day. A useless planet, but one of the God Emperors' and I would die before any damned xeno or demon would lay a foot on this protected soil.
There were 200 of us in a small encampment near the mine along with 50 planetary veterans. My comrades Lucius and Dax were the closest thing I had to a family since we had all survived our training together. My other two friends were not so lucky during training, shot dead by our commander for coughing during his morale speech.
I was jolted out of my memory when the ship landed solidly on the ground in the midst of the small clearing. We immediately hustled out, our las rifles raised defensively in case a predator of significance made an appearance, though there wasn't much that we would be able to do if that happened. 'Flashlights' our rifles were called, because they could do barely more damage than what they were named after. Hmpf... And my prep book said that the emperor would bestow upon us his finest armour and most powerful weapons...
We finally made it to the encampment, a few ramshackle buildings overgrown with vegetation, all bearing the mark of the imperial Aquila, a mandatory tattoo and symbol for all of the emperors warriors in the imperial guard. A few veterans came by; they looked fairly grizzled wearing the black bandanna of the catchan guard, shirtless, one carrying a heavy bolter with relative ease while the other picked his teeth with a knife half as big as my arm as he set the 90lb ammo box on the ground "Ahh... Fresh meat fer the grinder!" the old man said with a sooty grin before spitting out a gob of blackened... whatever it was... "Welcome to hell kiddies! Roll call is in ten so grab a bunk and get comfy cause yer gonna be using that same one for the next ten years!" he spat again before grabbing the ammo box and leaving us along with his partner.
I and my friends quickly grabbed our bunks, the cleanest ones we could find, or at least, the ones that didn't smell like piss or have questionable stains on them. One even broke the moment a comrade sat on it sending us into a row of laughter as we settled in.
Ten minutes later a servitor came to fetch us, looking as old and grizzled as the two blokes we had just seen, all of his parts had rust and his joints creaked distinctly as he walked about. He stomped in and stood in the doorway watching over us "TEN HUT!!!" crackled the metal box attached to its throat. We immediately stood straight next to our bunks in neat lines "I AM GUNNERY SGT.CRANK! FOR THE NEXT TEN YEARS I EXPECT YOU MAGGOTS OUT OF YOUR BUNKS AND SALUTING BEFORE I EVEN REACH THE ROOM! THIS ISN'T A SOCIAL GATHERING! YOU ARE HERE TO WORK UNDER THE NAME OF THE GOD EMPEROR AND YOU WILL WORK UNTIL YOU DIE, AND POSSIBLY IN SOME LUCKY CASES END UP LIKE ME, SERVING THE GOD EMPEROR UNTIL YOU RUST!" he grinned, a sickening one that I had never seen on a servitor before... because they never smiled... "ALRIGHT WORMS, OUTSIDE, NOW!" we all took formation and headed out the door as the sgt let us pass. There was another vet standing before us, he rather scared us since his towering muscled form reminded us of a Leman Russ tank. we quickly got into neat lines before he smiled and held up his hand "at ease soldiers... don't pay much attention to what old crankshaft says, he's still programmed to be a mean old bastard...." he said as we relaxed a bit "My name is Captain Notch and we do remind you that you boys represent the Emperor while you're here on this forsaken moss rock, but trust me, you'll learn quick! It's adapt or die out here boys, and hopefully you won't face the latter!" he grinned and a few of us chuckled nervously. He began the roll call, assigning us to our duties for the day. When he got to me and my two friends he checked the list on his beaten up clipboard “all right, Everett, Hunter, Grimes... you boys are lucky lucky! You got guard duty on the shaft...” he took our map and made a small, quick ‘X’ on it before sending us on our way. We met up with two more vets who were on their way to the same place. All the while we walked the men kept quiet as we talked amongst ourselves; suddenly one of the vets pushed me out of the way and ducked down as a thin vine snapped forward towards our necks. The other who was carrying a combo bolter/flamer let loose a torrent of cleansing fire into the growth that seemed to make a shrieking sound as it withered to ash. As the flames crackled happily the vet let out a good chuckle “neck snatch... it’d be best to keep quiet when we’re on this part of the trail... it’s sound sensitive and I’ve seen more than one of my friends snatched up by it when they tried to take a leak...” I nodded and made a mental note to draw a small skull on the area of my map later.
After hiking for another hour we finally reached the mineshaft, and it wasn’t as simple as the commander had said it was... The ‘shaft’ was a giant hole with a one click diameter and large, heavily rusted elevators hooked around it. One of my friends picked up an old bolter round casing and chucked it over the edge, but there was no sound at all to let us know it had hit the bottom.
We all sighed as the two vets saluted and climbed into an elevator before leaving us alone to do our job. We were pretty well equipped with two heavy bolters mounted in fox holes on either side of the path and enough ammo to take down a squad of at least 100 enemies of the imperium and their tank to boot! As we were manning our weapons though, we suddenly heard the small echo of metal on rock behind us. Dax grinned nervously “now that’s a deep hole...”
Time went by uneventfully as we guarded the position, from whom I don’t know, but we were ordered to shoot on sight at anyone who came down without getting the go ahead, even the captain himself. We wondered why such a large operation would have so little to defend it. We knew we’d be squashed like bugs if an enemy cruiser came our way. Though it only looked like a big operation to us, we were just a grain of sand adrift in the imperium’s vast desert of occupied space, probably so small that they wouldn't even notice the drop of raw material if we were taken over. So on our day went, letting all of the shift miners into the shaft, all of them giving us nods and waves as they headed down into the darkness.
Hours passed until nightfall was upon us, but suddenly an unscheduled crackle on our radio let us know that something was up, especially since it was captain Notch addressing us “where are Corp.Shepherd and Barkley? They were only supposed to be in the shaft for a five hour inspection, and the miners haven’t come back either! over...” we had blank looks on our faces as we turned to look at the shaft, Lucius going over to raise the nearest elevator. I picked up the radio and clicked the button “roger that... they never came up... did they travel to a different entrance, over?” I asked “negative on that, that shaft is the only way in or out... you’re telling me that not a single person has come back out of that hole?... over.” A loud clank signalled the arrival of the elevator platform, the entire floor of which was covered in blood with a single human leg sitting in the middle of the pool and some entrails sitting beside it, both obviously torn from their owner. We were all pale as I slowly raised the radio to my mouth and clicked the button again “negative... we may have a bit of a situation... over...”