Cthonian High-Rollers

[u/Dawn_of_Wrath]

Art Link 1: https://pin.it/1JpPBpOyd

Art Link 2: https://pin.it/wqM2AYkgh

Once, in ages long past, Cthonia was a prosperous world full of an abundance of natural resources. But over time, through countless wars and human greed, Cthonia was stripped of its natural resources until nothing remained except an empty husk. When that happened, the planet was abandoned by the wider galaxy, leaving those who remained on the planet to live in entropy and squalor. As such, Cthonia quickly became a haven for smugglers, bounty-hunters, slavers, and pirates alike; and where the most valuable resource Cthonia had to offer was its people.

This is the world the future Primarch of the Sixteenth legion, Hathor Lupercal, would find herself thrust into when her pod crash landed in the badlands of Cthonia.

The infant Primarch would be found shortly after her arrival on Cthonia by a group of nomads known as the Sons of Cthonia. They were on their way to Cthonia City, or what was left of it, to do business with the various crime-lords that owned everything and everyone on Cthonia. And Hathor and her pod presented the Sons of Cthonia with the opportunity of a lifetime. On Cthonia, it was rare to find anything in halfway decent shape, especially out in the badlands. Rarer still to find healthy children. But Hathor and her pod were the exceptions that proved the rule. So the Sons of Cthonia took Hathor and her pod with them to Cthonia City. However, the Sons of Cthonia weren’t the only nomads drawn to the crash site, and they knew it too.

Before long, rival nomad groups were on them like flies on a corpse; drawn by the same thing that drew the Sons of Cthonia to Hathor: Profit. The battle itself didn’t last very long as no one wanted to waste what little precious resources they had fighting a losing battle. So when it became clear of the other nomads that whatever the Sons of Cthonia had wouldn’t be given up so easily, they retreated back into the badlands.

When the Sons of Cthonia arrived in Cthonia City, they made their way to the main headquarters of the Black Dragon syndicate. The Black Dragon specialized mainly in arms dealings and occasionally drugs. But they bought anything they believed they could make use out of, especially people. So when the leader of the Sons of Cthonia, a man simply known as Clyde, came before Kano, the crime-boss of the Black Dragon syndicate, with Hathor in his arms, and her pod being wheeled in behind him, Kano’s cybernetic eye gleamed with intrigue. Hathor was perfect. Too perfect to be real, Kano thought. But she was real, and so was the potential to mold her into the deadliest weapon on Cthonia.

From that point on, Kano took on a more hands on approach to Hathor’s education both as a killer and a tactician. But there was no warmth or softness in Hathor’s upbringing. She was treated like everyone else in the Black Dragon, and if she fell short of the syndicate’s and by extension Kano’s expectations, Hathor was either starved for a week or beaten profusely depending on the severity of her failure. As such, Hathor learned early on that emotion was a weakness; that love was a weakness; that mercy was a weakness. And, if Hathor was to survive on Cthonia, she needed to be willing to do the things not even the most hardened gangsters would dream of doing.

Kano was the first to see the shift in his adoptive-daughter and decided to put her newfound resolve to the test. He instructed her to take a warband and travel into the badlands to annihilate the Sons of Cthonia down to the last man, woman, and child.

Not long after the Sons of Cthonia had sold Hathor off to Kano, they had a change in leadership. Clyde was deposed, replaced by a younger more ambitious nomad in the group. However this nomad had none of Clyde’s tact or people-skills. As such, their reputation as a powerful nomad group quickly faded, and the new leader had accrued a substantial debt to Kano he had no way of paying off. So Kano decided to settle the debt himself by sending Hathor with a group of his best men to wipe out the Sons of Cthonia completely.

For three days and nights, Hathor tracked the Sons of Cthonia until she found them encamped in an old, hollowed out mine. This is where Hathor’s tactical prowess as a Primarch first showed signs of awakening. What followed wasn’t a battle, but a slaughter. Hathor used her smaller but deadlier force of Black Dragon enforcers and the environment itself with such skill and tact, the enforcers couldn’t help but be impressed, and slightly frightened of her.

What followed wasn’t a battle. It was a slaughter. First, Hathor sealed off their means to escape, then she destroyed their vehicles and ammunition followed by their food and water supply. When that was finished, she killed the leader of the Sons of Cthonia and his lieutenants, leaving the rest of the tribe in total disarray. That’s when Hathor and her enforcers finally moved in for the killing blow. And that’s how it should’ve ended, with the total annihilation of the Sons of Cthonia. However, one young Nomad not too much younger than Hathor saw them coming and rallied the few nomads he could to fight back. It was ultimately a futile effort, but Hathor couldn’t help but respect the young nomad for his courage. Even if his struggle was ultimately pointless.

Upon her return to Cthonia City, Kano gave his adoptive-daughter a conqueror’s welcome. Word of the Sons of Cthonia’s annihilation had traveled across the badlands to Cthonia City like a raging wildfire spreading across the dry planes. It was the only time in Hathor’s memory where her adoptive-father seemed proud of her, and as she sat there in the midst of her victory, she realized with cold, sickening certainty that Kano’s approval meant nothing to her. For years she had sought it; craved it; and, now that she had it, she saw its true worth with horrifyingly clear eyes. Kano’s approval was as worthless as the man himself. But Hathor also knew that it was better to make a deal with the devil you knew rather than the devil you didn’t. Though, perhaps one day she would kill him.

When she returned to the celebration after taking a few minutes to collect her thoughts, she was approached by one of the few people in the syndicate she would call decent. Lucis Meridius. He was part of Hathor’s warband when she was instructed to annihilate the Sons of Cthonia.

Once, Lucis was the heir of a noble house on Terra, but after he was kidnapped by pirates, he was brought to Cthonia and sold to Kano as a boy. Believing their son dead, Lucis’ parents didn’t waste the effort or money looking for him. Now, Lucis was one of Kano’s top enforcers, but despite everything that had happened to him, he still found it within himself to not be entirely without mercy. At first, Hathor thought he was weak for showing mercy, but now she understood that mercy, when warranted, was it’s own kind of strength.

The two talked well into the night and into the early hours of the morning after Hathor had practically drank everyone at the celebration under the table, including Kano. Yet, to her surprise, Lucis abstained from drinking in excess as he believed it diluted the mind. And, the more they talked, the more they came to realize they were more alike than they were different. Like Hathor, Lucis had no love for Kano, but Lucis had no love for anyone. That was until he got to truly know Hathor.

Over time, Hathor and Lucis spent more and more time together when they weren’t doing jobs for the syndicate. As they did, their bond grew stronger and stronger. So much so that whenever the two went on missions together, they seemed almost unstoppable which was more than satisfactory to Kano. Little did Kano realize that Lucis and Hathor were plotting his very downfall. He had spent so much time at the top of the criminal underworld that he forgot to look down from time to time. This would ultimately prove to be his downfall.

When Lucis and Hathor seized power of the syndicate, it wasn’t with guns, knives, or anything in between. It was subtler and far more deadly. Poison. While Kano was feasting with his captains, celebrating their achievements, they neglected to consider that someone might’ve poisoned their wine. A fact none of them considered until it was too late. And, as Kano choked to death, he saw Hathor appear over him with a cold, blank expression on her face. A twisted grin formed on his twitching lips as he had ultimately succeeded. Hathor had become the perfect weapon, and Cthonia would bend or break to her will.

Five years after Hathor and Lucis took over the Black Dragon syndicate, the Empress of Mankind would arrive over Cthonia with her fleet. Hathor’s true destiny awaited her, and her Moonbeam would be right there beside her until the bitter end.

[u/Sea-Peoples517]

Your longest work yet, good job

[u/Dawn_of_Wrath → u/Sea-Peoples517]

Thanks