Warhammer 40k in the year 2022: Trajann and the Burden of Being Innocent 

Warhammer 40k in the year 2022: Trajann and the Burden of Being Innocent 

a fan fiction by Dalton Lewis 

not copyrighted – open source 

I’m a novelist. I get paid for my novels even though I also write fan fiction, blog entries, and other writing. If you liked this please – please – buy MKM: Mecha Kaiju Mars for three dollars on amazon by looking up “MKM: Mecha Kaiju Mars by Dalton Lewis” on said amazon site. I work hard and don’t make much money off of my writing. Thanks. 

I woke up in bed next to a giggling teenage girl – she wore a cheerleader uniform. I, Trajann Valoris, remembered two things: first, being a teenage male at Old Liberty High School, and second, a past or future life as the leader of the Adeptus Custodes, a soldier for the Emperor’s forces in the far future year 40,000. I looked at the teenage girl. She smiled. 

“Hey,” she said. “I’m Cecily Jameston. It’s fantastic to meet you.”

“Hey,” I said. “I’m Trajann.”

“I work for the Sisters of Silence club after school,” she said. 

“Good,” I said. “I’m glad. I’m from the Custodes, or if not, I desperately want to join.”

“We can try to make that happen,” she said. 

I got up to a sitting position and looked around. Cecily smiled. She had bright blonde hair with red and pink and purple thin streaks in her hair – but the majority of her hair was beautiful and blonde. She played an Ariana Grande song about fucking on her phone, an expensive phone. She wore a cheerleader’s outfit and had her backpack right next to her. She had a skinny little body and was maybe five feet six inches tall. She made me feel incredibly desirous to protect her from any threat. She was in shape and had well-formed biceps – she was strong and physically fit. She could probably defend herself.

I looked around the rest of my room. I had a poster with a superhero on it. Batman. Classic. I had a computer – desktop – on a desk with a couple of textbooks next to it and the morning’s coffee. Next to the desk sat a bookshelf with old-fashioned, physical books, a lot of them. 

“We need something from you,” Cecily said. 

“Oh?” I asked. 

“We need a favor,” she said. 

“I’ll try,” I said. “It depends on the favor.”

“You know the primarchs,” she said. 

“The gene-children of the Emperor were the founders of the various space marine and chaos marine chapters,” I said. 

“Yes,” she said. “Only they were re-created on Earth in the year 2020. Now it’s 2022, and they are doing fine, but something’s wrong.”

“Oh?” I asked.

“We need them to go on the same adventures they went on last time,” she said. “The cyclical nature of life has to be honored. They have to be kidnapped and sent to the right locations to face the right trials.”

“Intriguing,” I said. 

“We need this to happen.”
“Won’t this hurt them badly?” I asked.

“Won’t putting them into combat hurt them badly?” Cecily asked. “It’s a question of whether or not you want them to grow and develop into the heroes you need them to be.”

“Ah,” I said. 

“Think about it,” Cecily said. “Let’s go to high school, stud.”

We got out of bed and downstairs to the dining room. I got bread and put it in the toaster. I got out a knife, a plate, and some butter and peanut butter. The bread popped, a little done. I got it out and spread butter and then peanut butter on the toast and started to eat it. I grabbed a soda from the fridge and drank some of it. 

I got a text from Bobby G: he’s going to be there we need to secure the perimeter

I texted back: the emperor

I got a text: he’ll be there we need to make sure that he’s okay he got kidnapped once already

I texted back: not on my watch

I got a text back: smiley-face

We, Cecily and I, got into an SUV. She started up the vehicle and played with the radio after attaching her phone to the car at the radio. She turned on her music. 

We listened to pop music while she drove. I called the Emperor. 

“Hey,” the Emperor said.

“Hey,” I said. “Are you safe, sir?”
“Yes? I’m going to guess yes. I’m surrounded by guards who seem qualified.”

“Good,” I said. “I’m on my way to school. That’s where you’re at?”

“Yeah,” he said. “You okay?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I want to, I want to get things done, but I also want to relax, enjoy myself, live a little.”

“I know,” he said. “I know. We have to grow up in this era, live a little, experience things, have adventures. Do you know what I am saying?”

“Yes, sir,” I said. 

“And don’t let Aleya speak,” he said. “She’s supposed to honor a vow of silence today.”

“Great,” I said. “Sounds good, sir.”

I looked at Cecily. “Angron was a slave last time,” I said.

Cecily laughed. “Someone probably didn’t know that.”

“Or knew it and wanted it to happen again,” I said. “I have to tell him.”

I walked into school after we arrived at school – the SUV made it to school without incident. We walked into school, me and Cecily, and I immediately saw Bobby G. I gave him a hug. 

“What’s up?” I asked.

“How’s it going?” he asked. 

“What is the right thing to do?” I asked. “Someone made a bad mistake, or someone is framing people and undermining people. I don’t know which.”

“Well, learn the truth,” he said. “Figure it out. Poke around. Nothing like a little detective work.”

Bobby G. wore khakis and a dress shirt that had been perfectly pressed and ironed. He had shaven perfectly and showered before school and after his morning workout. I didn’t know how he managed perfection. 

“I’ll ask around,” I said. 

I texted Liselle, the AI Adeptus Mechanicus helper, to send a text to Angron to meet me above the gym before first period. She said that he would beat me there. 

I made it up there a few minutes later. Angron, an angry black man, stood there, in perfect shape, six feet four inches, tattoos and muscles and everything powerful. He wore blue jeans and a t-shirt with a rap group on it. 

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked.

“Someone tried to suggest that we abduct the primarchs, do what happened to them last time,” I said.

“Someone tried to send me back there,” he said.

“To enslave you,” I said. “Maybe by accident.”

“Maybe not,” he said. “Cool. Thanks for telling me.”

“What do you intend to do?”

“What I always do,” he said. “Kill my enemies, all of them. Blood for the blood god. Skulls for the skull throne. Same as always. Good luck, Trajann.”

“I can help you,” I said. 

“Cool,” he said. “Let’s talk to the person who suggested it.”

“Cecily mentioned it to me,” I said. “A sister of silence. We can talk to her at fourth period lunch.”

“I’ll get out of my class and meet you two there,” he said. “Dope.”

“Dope,” I said. “Let’s get to class, get an education.”

“Cool,” he said. 

I went to class then. School was the same as it always was – a dull monotony in which I learned essential information that I didn’t want to have to learn. I learned about a lot of American history and then learned about Shakespeare and his time period and what defined a tragedy. Then third period was study hall – in which I did the reading for history for the following day. After that was fourth period lunch. I sat down next to Cecily. Angron sat on her other side.

“Gentlemen, hello,” Cecily said. “You two are adorable.”

“Talk,” Angron said.

“I’ll say anything you want,” Cecily said. 

“The truth,” Angron said. “Who wanted the primarchs sent to the same places they went to last time?”

“It was Ahriman,” Cecily said. 

“What?” Angron asked. “That motherfucker!”

“Let’s talk to him,” I said. 

“Let’s kill him,” Angron said. 

“He didn’t think about what would happen to you,” I said. “I’m certain.”

Angron looked up Ahriman’s location: AP Computer Programming. He walked over to the classroom with me following behind. Angron walked into the classroom to see a dozen or so geeks eating lunch and playing esports. He picked up Ahriman and held him above his head. 

“The fuck?” he asked.

“Oh, you don’t want to as well?” Ahriman asked. “We’re nobodies, in a space marine club. In a club. I do homework for the stud space marines. The girls ignore me. Everyone ignores me. I have nothing. No one. I’m a lonely geek, sitting around, at the bottom of the space marine food chain, working for asshole jocks that I’d rather stab through both eyeballs and drink the blood of. Don’t pretend you feel any different. Magnus gets sent away, hires me, bam, I’m a thousand son, I’m an important person. Here, on Earth, I’m a nobody. We can’t live like this, here, on Earth, I hate this fucking place.”

Angron put him down. “I was a slave, last time, when we were kidnapped,” he said. “You should have thought of that.”

“And you would have another chance to stop said slavers and save your precious fellow slaves,” Ahriman said. “They’re around. The slavers that hurt you. That planet. They are around.”

“Desh’ea. House Thal’kr. The enemy,” Angron said. 

“We three can burn them to the ground,” Ahriman said. “Let’s attend a match today and see if we can process some intel.”

“Cool,” Angron said. He put Ahriman down. “Someone’s going to die. Pray it isn’t you.”

“I’m praying to Tzeentch, to the chaos gods, the same gods that you love,” Ahriman said. He turned to me. “And I hope you can respect our religion.”

I nodded. “Worship who you want,” I said. “Slavers are the enemy. Let’s check it out. Do we have transport there?”

“I’ll ask Liselle,” Ahriman said. “There, we have a ship. It’s not much, but it will take us to Desh’ea and House Thal’kr. The enemy. Angron’s enemy.”

Cecily stood outside the classroom. “I’m coming with,” she said. “My name is actually Aleya. Sorry for the deception.”

“Cool,” I said. “Glad to have you on the team, Aleya. Aren’t you supposed to never talk?”

Aleya leaned in. “I’m not supposed to, but I ignore that rule.”

Our spaceship was a little freighter, a ship about fifty yards by fifty yards. It had plenty of room for a dozen or so rooms with various functions – we had two bedrooms and a CIC, a bridge, an armory, a medical area, and a play area with video games, computers and a big-screen television. Liselle flew us there and said that the destination would take two days. 

“Cool,” Angron said. 

“Freedom,” I said. “They might take our freedom from us.”

“Yeah,” Angron said. “House Thal’kr likes that.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I must seem very spoiled to you.”

“Do you have millions and millions?” Angron asked.

“No,” I said. 

“Neither do I,” Angron said. “So, not spoiled. I know plenty of people who have millions, who never work. I don’t respect people who don’t work.”

“I work at this,” I said. “It might not pay.”

Angron grinned. “No problem,” he said. “It’s still something. It still helps. It still counts as work.”

Ahriman walked into the entertainment room and turned on a singing competition show. We started to watch the people compete. 

“Ah, nothing like competition,” Ahriman said. “Brutally bring out the worst in people.”

“Exactly,” Angron said. “This is terrible, people fighting amongst themselves. I should kill the lot of them.”

“Exactly,” Ahriman said.

“No!” I said.

“I mean, exactly not, because it would be wrong,” Ahriman said. 

“Let’s try to be good people right now,” I said. 

“Why?” Angron asked. 

“Why?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Angron said. “Who are you, anyway?”
“You know, I’m Trajann Valoris.”

“Yeah, I know that, and I know you’re the leader of the Adeptus Custodes, the badass protectors of the Emperor, the elite guardians. That I know. But your personality. I know nothing about you. You seem like a blank slate to me.”

“I have a personality,” I said. “I fight. I fight for what’s right. I argue my case. I do the right thing, even when it’s hard. I’m rough on people for their own good. I don’t take anything lightly or easily.”

“Okay,” Angron said. “Fair enough. Fair enough.” 

We spent the night binging the first season of the singing competition, being more and more surprised by who won the competition. Eventually Aleya and Liselle joined us, bringing popcorn and soda and other snacks. We ate candy and snacks and drank soda and watched bad television all night long. 

Aleya fucked Angron in one room, and Liselle, Ahriman, and I slept in the other bedroom. We woke up around noon the following day – according to the clock, since we were nowhere near Earth. Aleya walked out into the CIC wearing panties and smiled. 

“Angron’s a stud,” she said. 

“Cool,” I said, trying to stay neutral.

She walked over to the shower and started to shower herself. 

I grabbed breakfast, eating scrambled eggs and toast. So did everyone else. We sat around the eating area, hanging out and eating. 

“What’s the plan?” I asked. 

“We need to kill the current leader of House Thal’kr and give weapons to the slaves and help them to fight the slavers,” Angron said. “Win the fight that I lost last time.”

“I planned ahead,” Liselle said. “Two hundred bolters and two hundred power swords are in the cargo hold. We can give those to slaves. That’s better than anything that Thal’kr will have.”

“Good,” I said. “Good. Liselle, you and Aleya will arm the slaves. Ahriman, you use spells to get Angron and me into the House Thal’kr leader’s mansion and monitor the situation – help out wherever the disasters are the worst. Okay?”

Everyone nodded. 

“We might not all make it,” I said. “Let’s just remember that we’re doing this to help people, people who are suffering more than anyone can imagine.”

“Cool,” Angron said. “Thanks.’

We dropped out of the freighter onto the roof of a building adjacent to the House Thal’kr home. Angron, Ahriman and I stood with our best armor and weapons. Angron had a huge battleaxe, Ahriman had a black staff, and I had a similarly wicked axe. We landed and looked around.
The palace that was House Thal’kr was crawling with goons. There were bad guys walking through the corridors at a regular interval. The leaders were somewhere inside. 

“The leaders are in the banquet hall,” Ahriman whispered. “We’ll have to fight our way down.”

“Okay,” Angron said. 

“The leader is named Aninsyn,” Ahriman said. 

“I know him,” Angron said. 

They stood fifty feet from the roof of the Thal’kr mansion. Ahriman chanted and held out the black staff. A river of black matter appeared to allow them to walk across from the one roof to the next. We bolted across the river of matter and made it onto the roof of the estate. Two guards immediately walked up to us. 

“Identification,” one of them said. 

“Right here,” Angron said. He held up his battleaxe and swung at one, creating a huge gash in his chest. He screamed and fell backwards. Ahriman knocked the other one off the roof with a doombolt and he fell to the ground below with a huge crash. 

“Surprise gone,” I said. 

We walked into the building and started downstairs. There was amazing art – portraits of beautiful people, many naked – along the walls. We walked into the room with five naked teenage girls. Two were white, two black, and one Asian. They smiled and waved at us.

“Hey, studs, what are you doing in the palace?” one asked. She was blonde, with long curly hair. 

“We’re killing the lead slaver,” I said. “Are you slaves?”

They nodded. “We do what the master says,” the blonde girl said. 

“Ahriman, take them to the girls and get them armor and weapons,” I said. 

“Okay,” Ahriman said. “Come on, ladies, follow me.”

“Okay, an adventure,” the blonde girl said. “We’re killing the slavers finally? And is that Angron? That guy is famous. You are famous.”

“Thanks,” Angron said. 

We walked past them and into the area with the stairs down to the second level. There were five guys on the area at the top of the stairs, white humans with lasguns. I shot the back two with my bolter while closing on the closest three. Angron ripped one’s head off with his axe and then dismembered an army and a leg from the second one – who collapsed and died. Angron swung aggressively at the fifth one, but he blocked and stabbed Angron in the chest – through his power armor. 

Angron grunted. 

“Hey, Angron,” the fifth guard said. 

“Hey, Tabin,” Angron said. 

“Who’s this?” I asked. 

“Old slaver,” Angron said. “Old bad guy.”

“I’m just a businessman,” Tabin said. “I’m just making money. I’m just funding arena fights. I’m not raping anyone. If anyone dies it’s a shame.”

“Bullshit, you’re a slaver,” I said. “You’re just a slaver.”

“I can give them back to you,” Tabin said. “All the people you failed, all those slaves who died, who you failed to save, I can give them back to you, if you clear me.”

“I will clear you,” Angron said. He put down his axe and turned to me.

I looked something up. “You’re the head of House Thal’kr, aren’t you?” I asked Tabin. 

Tabin nodded. “I suppose,” he said. “I can give them back to you. All of them. And freed. I’m sorry, Angron. I screwed up. I inherited this from Dad, and his dad, and I just sort of went along with it. I’m sorry.”

“Fine,” Angron said. “How do we get them back?”

“We have to go to the place where they died,” he said. “You’ll need some hover vehicles to get there. I’ll need to get access to a datapad.”

“Cool,” Angron said. Angron watched him type something. 

Tabin walked downstairs and gestured for his men to put their guns down. “Relax,” he said. “Everyone relax.”

We got into a hovercar and started to travel to the mountain where they died. It took a few minutes to get there.

“Those five girls upstairs?” I asked.

“Dad’s little girls?” Tabin asked. “I don’t partake, young man. I’m happily married and quite faithful. I’m a family man. I stupidly thought my slaves were family and I could love and care for them. I was a moron.”

“You can learn,” Angron said. 

“Yes,” I said. “You can learn, learn to help people. Do good deeds.”

“I thought I was,” Tabin said. “I’ll redouble my efforts. We’ll go over how to help people.”

I texted Ahriman and told him the plan. Ahriman texted back: what? what the flying fuck? How is he planning to bring them back? Bullshit.

“Ahriman wants to know how you will bring them back,” I asked. 

“We can summon them from the past to the present,” Tabin said. 

Ahriman appeared in the back seat. “I suppose I can make sure to pull that off,” he said.

“Good,” Tabin said. “You didn’t mention bringing Ahriman along. Did you really need your sorcerer?”

“Yes,” I said. 

“Yeah,” Angron said. 

They made it to the mountain – the site of the massacre of the slaves in the year 30,000. Angron stood there. “You can bring them to this time?” he asked.

“Yes,” Tabin said. He gestured. There was a huge valley in which they stood, and there were hills above them on both sides. There was a large empty area around them. “I mean, no, but I had to say a lie that you’d believe while we prepared for you.”

“Oh,” Angron said. Any humanity or kindness he had died in that very moment. 

Tabin gestured, and an illusion lifted, and they were in an arena, me, Angron, Ahriman, and Tabin was safely protected by a force field. He smiled. 

“I raped all five of those little bitches,” he said. “Countless times, every position, every combination of girls. And I own a thousand people. A thousand. A fucking thousand people. And no one regrets it or doesn’t understand what he or she is doing.”

“Fuck you,” Angron said, quietly. 

“But I’m smarter than you, Angron, and I’m more clever. I will always think a step ahead of you,” Tabin said. 

“No,” Angron said. “No.”

“No,” I said. “No, I am a good person. I am on Angron’s side. I cannot allow you to win, Tabin. I am warning you to surrender immediately.”

Tabin smiled. “No, you’re bluffing. Who are you again?”

“I’m Trajann Valoris, leader of the Adeptus Custodes, guardians of the emperor,” I said. “I don’t think that you understand. You don’t want this, Tabin. Surrender.”

“No,” Tabin said. “Let’s fight some arena fights, okay?” He gestured, and a giant troll appeared in one corner of the arena, and a harpy in another corner, and a bear in the third corner. “Fight!” 

The bear started to lumber towards me. I looked at Angron.

“Cut yourself,” I said. 

Angron did so.

“Ahriman, tell him the words to summon the Khorne daemons. All of the fucking khorne daemons.”

Ahriman whistled. “I’m on it. I’ll start summoning with Angron’s blood. Angron, the more damage you do to these three victims, the more bloodletters and the like I can summon. It will snowball.”

The harpy flew towards Ahriman, but Angron charged at it, leaping with his greataxe. The greataxe exploded the harpy’s body, and the harpy fell backwards, injured badly. She shrieked and tried to fly away, but I shot her with my bolter and she fell to the ground. Angron pounced again, and this time he ripped her heart out of her chest and gave it to Arhiman. Ahriman chanted harder, and then twenty bloodletters appeared in the stadium’s crowd – around the fans and slavers watching the fight. The twenty bloodletters began to attack and kill the slavers and crowd at random, ripping them to pieces with their swords. 

The fans shrieked and started to run to the exits. Aleya, Liselle, and the other slaves covered the exits with boltguns, shooting anyone who tried to run away from the stadium. They screamed and screamed, trying to explain that they were free and the slaves were slaves and this wasn’t allowed to happent to them, that the slaves couldn’t do this to them, that this couldn’t happen. 

Then the troll and the bear rushed Angron, and he grinned. 

I charged the bear and it slammed its paw into me. I fell backwards and collapsed onto the ground, but I got up with enough time to stab it as it rushed to finish me off. I stabbed it repeatedly, knocking the bear to the ground and stabbing it over and over. 

Angron stabbed at the troll – who wielded a power sword the size of a greatsword. He slashed at Angron, who blocked and countered by slamming the troll with his pommel. The troll spit at Angron and tried to bite Angron, who stabbed the troll in the face for trying. The troll fell to the ground. 

A hundred more bloodletters appeared in the stands then, killing everyone in the stands and massacring them in the most horrible of ways. A dozen bloodcrushers appeared on huge juggernaut steeds in each section of the arena, and two bloodthirsters appeared, huge demons with wings and horns and twenty feet tall each. They led the battle and ripped any surviving fans into pieces. 

The force field around Tabin fell and collapsed. He looked at Angron. 

“Angron, let’s make a deal,” he said. 

Angron chopped his fucking slaver head off. Ahriman chanted something. 

“That guy’s never coming back,” Ahriman said. “Everyone’s free. Done. Mission accomplished.”

I hugged Angron, who said, “Thanks for the idea, man. You really came through. Bringing in khorne daemons? Fantastic. Fantastic.”

We made certain that the slaves were free and had adequate security for a few hours before heading back to the spaceship and leaving them alone with their planet. We got back into the spaceship and started the trek back home to Earth. 

For two days we hung out and watched singing competitions and ate fast food – whatever the unhealthiest, most delicious food that the freighter could make. We partied and relaxed and hung out and talked until the time came to make it home. Then we made it back to Earth and went our separate ways. 

I looked at them in the school parking lot. 

“Gentlemen,” I said. “Ladies. It has been a pleasure. I hope to see all of you again for more crazy adventures.”

We hugged, and they agreed, and I went home. I had done the right thing. 

It was the burden of being a good man.