Byron Skalsgard

So.. it has finally come to this. After decades upon decades of service to the Emperor, and fighting to protect my home world and all the worlds left in our care. When I was finally at peace with the idea of going out into the frozen wilderness of Fenris to die in silence or to turn, whatever the will of the Emperor may be. I get called back into the fray. I was at peace to die on Fenris. BUT now I am not on Fenris, and those thoughts have perished from my mind.

    I never felt the wolf inside me burn and rage as it does within some of my brothers. Even younger brothers. But now for some reason, I am even more tranquil. My mind does not howl as it used to when I got excited with the anticipation of battle, or when some drunk brother had something personal to discuss, with his fists in my face. Even the warp seems to act strangely quiet when I draw energy from it, as if it got tired of fighting me. I used to enjoy wrestling with it every time I required it's power. I gave me a sense of greatness. As if I was wrestling the universe, and winning. No!! Now I have a clear purpose. A mission. For the Emperor has taken notice of my faith and service and has granted me this honor. With this great new goal set in front of me and with the calmest state of mind I have ever felt, I make this promise to my self, and this vow to the Emperor: I will not die, or even rest for that matter, until we have made our chapters proud and our last mission is complete. And because our resolve is unbreakable the Emperor will protect us.

     Now we are Deathwatch!! And the xenos will feel FEAR! and regret for their transgressions upon human kind.

     It is said that "Fenris breeds heroes like a bar breeds drunks -- loud, proud and spoiling for a fight." . But to have two brothers of our chapter, granted this honor at the same time, is a rare thing indeed. And this rare jewel swells the pride inside me to almost dangerous degrees. I will not  hide that.
     I am a bit older, and my inner beast seems to have calmed even more with age, despite our disposition as sons of Russ. My younger wolf brother seems to be the exact opposite of that. After we arrived on the great fortress, he seems more agitated, more willing to fight and punch everything.He must be excited for the great battles ahead. He is young and should be more calm. For as it is with us , wolves, the older we get the "angrier" we become. It is our nature.I do hope my brother finds his center and remembers to put a muzzle on that wolf. For we will both share great honor and fame in the future,as we fight our way though waves and waves of xenos towards the title of "the Emperors finest".
   
   Now, some of my deathwatch brothers may wonder. What can an old wolf like my self, that has problems hiding his long fangs, bring to the great deathwatch? Why was I chosen? And to those questions I answer : wisdom, experience and absolute devotion to the cause at hand. I have fought ,defending my home, for so much time that I feel a bit weird not being there right now.
   I've fought more than any of my deatchwatch battle brothers could claim. I am uncertain if that is true when it comes to Copper. He is a curious one indeed, with his ancient armor and almost machine like behavior. No one really knows his age. Sometimes I wonder if he is even alive anymore, or has the great Machine Spirit simply inhabited his armor. He surely has the blessing of the Machine Spirit.
   Upon that I am able to tap into the void, to borrow power from the warp, for I am a librarian before being a warrior forged in the harsh death world of Fenris. And yes, I am also a warrior that takes pride in his skill with the sword and in the ability to meld sword fighting with warp energy together into a deadly technique unique to my self, that my brothers named "Fulmin'a'thor". They may have named it as a jest at first, but I grew to like the name, and my brothers came to realize that the sparks and crackles on my blade are not just for show. The xenos realized that way too late..hehe..filthy scorched by Thor's lightning xenos. Unlike most librarians, I don't feel that being able to use the warp is a reason to not meet the enemy head on in glorious brawl.
    I might not be as valiant as our stormwarden brother for he has forged his own path. A path that uses might and tactics as bricks for the road. A road that I am sure will lead us all to great victories. I might not be as brutal as my own space wolf brother. A brutality that quakes the ground as the fight carries on. His thirst for battle is of renown even back home, always first, always breaking the enemy line. And also to my shame, I have never managed to use the warp in any curative way, and for that I will be fully reliant on the help of the apothecary brother send to us by the will of the Emperor. He will be the one that will keep us marching for a long time to come. With all my shortages I still have a right to be here, a right ordained by the will of the Emperor. And will sooner die than let my deathwatch brothers down. To me it is clear. We have been selected to match and complement each others strengths and weaknesses. Each of us is like a finger of an hand. Being five in number is no coincidence at all when you think about it this way. But unified and serving as one entity we will become a clenched fist that will strike true to the Emperor's cause.

Lately there's not much going on. All we do is take walks within the Citadel and drink ale , all day. We call it patrolling, and being "always vigilant". I call it a long overdo vacation. I haven't had this much free time between two skirmishes in my entire life. And I am really not that young. When we first arrived on the Citadel I was full of hope and excitement , for the glorious battles that , I thought , awaited us.
Ehhh, maybe the harsh life of Fenris, and being under constant assault, back home, has made me inpatient. And I actually considered my self the patient one among my brothers, when we first stepped on this floating vacation resort. Maybe this is actually the time required for the protocol and procedure, right before a big mission. I blame it all on the damn bureaucracy. The one and only plague , humanity will never be able to rid it self of.
I was hoping to die gloriously in battle . But right now I just simply wanna shoot someone in the face. Someone that isn't a target dummy that blows up whenever I zap it just a little harder, out of boredom. They better give me a damn army of xenos as a target practice, and they better do it soon.