It was the darkest night we had ever seen. We were 15 light years outside of the Piraeus system back in 974.M41 and the Spiders were scared. We'd been raised from the meanest, dirtiest scum Necromunda could offer but this night was different. We were hunkered down in the icy dark in blasted out ruins of some derelict ship we homed in on and calmed our nerves with drink and cards. The dancing shadows from our lum-strips cast crazed shadows that cavorted through the wreckage and one by one we were dying.
We didn't know what it was, but every 49 minutes it returned... a short gurgle, a muffled scream, then nothing. We were down to my command squad and Commissar Gyart. He was thumbing his pistol and rubbing an Aquilla necklace incessantly. It didn't make anyone feel better seeing a Commissar nervous.
Then it came for ME. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the shadows grow. They moved with a pattern of their own and formed into a blurred shape from my childhood nightmares. I peered back at my men I saw they were motionless. Not even the flames of our campfire moved and I knew I was dead already. As I turned to face this timeless horror I saw the glint of malice reflected from its impossible rings of razor teeth.
As it reared to strike I heard a BANG that shattered my very soul. Opening my eyes I saw an Astartes, bathed in green balefire step before me. He glared at my attacker, his eyes crimson coals. With bolter ablaze he struck the horror back into the shadows from whence it came.
I awoke the next morning with Commissar Gyart standing over me. He said I had slept peacefully through the night and no men had been lost. A lander was coming to pick us up and we would be off this icy rock in an hour's time. As the dawn broke over the horizon I began gathered my gear to proceed to our extraction site. I looked down at my feet and saw a single bolter shell nestled in the icy debris. A word was barely visible, etched into its ancient, corroded side. It said Firehawks.
~Its almost Halloween folks! Lets hear your 40k Ghost Stories! A special prize goes to the spookiest (and concisely written) one!
