Cheers guys!
Just to explain a little more about the origins of the chapter I have included the following text and another short story:
The Curse of Machovik
Although his career was otherwise unremarkable Senior Adept Henar Machovik had been honoured by his assignment to the creation of a new chapter designated The Carnage Knights.
Although he was a humble man in most respects deep within his soul he harboured a longing, a dark seed of ambition and pride that whispered to him that he should be recognised for his life time of dedication and hard work.
His assignment was to prove more difficult than expected. The Gene-seed had developed unexpected flaws that had lead to radical destabilisation within the zygote structure. No-matter how he tryed he could not rememedy the problem and soon he began to overhear whispered conversations when ever he entered a room, conversations that threatened to become allegations of incompetence that would tarnish his career. He was becoming desperate.
On his homeworld of Felnir Prime there was an ancient legend of a god of whom it was said to know his true name was to know madness.
To the people of Felnir he was known as Loki'lk the Trickster God and the fables told of how he would offer all a man could desire but for at a great personal cost. The stories never ended well but Malchovik knew he was running out of time so he envoked the god in an ancient and forbidden ritual in a moment of desperation.
Loki'k appeared to Malchovik and agreed that he would help the Adept to reverse the degredation in the gene-seed. As his wish was granted Malchovik paniced and destroyed the circle of summoning that bound the trickster god to the material universe. Their bargin broken Loki'lk damned the adept and the gene-seed of the Carnage Knights as he was drawn back into the warp with the Curse of the Absurd.
Loki'lk was a minor god of the warp. His power depended on the laughter of man, the absurd and the ironic to fuel his very existance.
During the dark times of the Age of Strife his power grew weak. The terrible acts and suffering that occured since this time like the Horus Heresy, the numerous Black Crusades for example, had sapped his strength and he now faced oblivion.
Machovik had unwittedly saved him, his brief venture into the material universe had allowed him to tamper with the laws of reality.
The Curse of the Absurd would warp the very nature of the material universe around those that bore it. The real would become the surreal, the absurd would become the norm, life around those that bore the curse would become a parody and with each act of insanity Loki'lk would slowly grow more powerful.
Unknown to them the Carnage Knights would become his crusading army of the absurd and ridiculus.
Machovik realised his folly but before he could warn the others he slipped on a banana skin and was flattened by a grand piano.
Contact
Even through the external grill and advanced breathing filters of his MkVII helm Brother-Sergeant Smith's augmented senses could pick out the individual scents of his surroundings. He could indentify his power armoured brothers by their individual musks. He could taste the faint metallic taint that hung in the air produced by the distant sprawling factories of Vengist City, carried by the prevailing winds.
He could distinguish the individual sounds of the forest mapping his surroundings in his mind's eye despite the suit's sophisticated augers and auspexes. More importantly he could sense his enemy.
Smith silently raised a clenched fist signalling for his squad to halt. Each brother tensed as they immediately scanned the forest for signs of xenos activity, each brother watching the back of the man next to him.
There had been no word from Captain Maximus Vaan Damage and his brave 300 since they had left for the Hot Gates.
Supreme Grand Chapter Master Benchpress had ordered the newly created clone tactical squads to begin sweeping the forests north of the city to locate their last known position.
The Techs had a theory that there may well be a type of Ptera-Squirrel they hadn't encountered before, an intelligent leader caste, a Brain-Squirrel that must be eliminated at all costs.
Sure, the Ptera-Squirrels hadn't mounted any form of offensive to suggest sucha creature existed or displayed any form of activity other than scampering around the trees chasing each other's tails playfully.
But it was only a matter of time before they got organised and the war would begin in earnest.
The attack was sudden and unexpected. The attacker dropped from the trees above gliding on thin membranes that streched between it's limbs to land squarely on the face plate of Brother Deadmeat.
It clung to his visor briefly, staring him in the face curiously before scampering across his head and over his pack.
Unable to draw a bead on his assailant with his Plasma Cannon Deadmeat let out a squeal of anguish.
As one the squad turned and fired, the forest floor lit up with the blinding flash and roar of mass-reactive bolter shells impacting against Brother Deadmeat's armour. Then there was silence.
As the smoke cleared the squad advanced on the fallen form of their brother.
"Brother Deadmeat?... really sorry about that, are you ok?" Brother Token enquired sheepishly as he knelt next to his prone comrade and gentley prodded the marine with his index finger.
Deadmeat sat bolt up right. "YOU SHOT ME...YOU SHOT ME YOU FETHING JERKS!" He screamed almost hysterically. His armour was pitted, blackened and scarred by the bolt shells, great pits of ceramite had been torn into the suit. "THAT REALLY HURT...YOU...YOU DUMB JERKS!"
"Yeah...erm...well, sorry!" Token cringed "There was this xenos and it was sort of on your face..."
Brother-Sergeant Smith's head raised his bolter "Anyone else hear that?" He interupted.
"Hear what?" Token said as he stood adopting a combat stance.
"That whirling hissing sound," he cocked his head slightly as if listening intently "I can taste something unnatural in the air, something tainted, something industrial."
"All I can taste is fething blood" Deadmeat muttered as he wrenched his battered helmet free and spat several teeth into the palm of his hand.
Smith's mind raced back to his intensive training at Clone Acadamy several weeks previously. Being two weeks old and the eldest most experienced clone member of the squad Smith had been assigned as Sergeant.
But what was it he wasn't seeing here, what was it that whirled, hissed and produced chemical odours.
"Oh Throne..." He grimaced as he looked at Brother Deadmeat's Plasma pack, coolant gases venting from a ruptured hose.
"What?" Deadmeat said he rubbed his head smiling a toothless grin.
"Plasma reactor meltdown..."
"Oh...feth..." Deadmeat sighed.
The immediate forest was consumed by a brilliant blue ball of light. Trees and foliage were vapourised as the super heated gases of the Plasma Cannon erupted in critical mass. Then there was only darkness.
Being the furthest from Deadmeat's position when the reactor blew the Brother-Sergeant had been thrown clear of the explosion's epicenter to land deep into the forest.
As he lay on his side he became aware of the faintest sensation of a breeze blowing against his face through the shattered lenses of his visor.
Although he had no idea of how badly he'd been injured, his pounding head was a clear sign that he was still alive.
As his vison began to clear he saw it.
The Ptera-Squirrel approached in small bounding hops to stop right next to his face. Smith stared into it's two twinkling evil little eyes, his hearts pounding as it wrinkled it's tiny nose as if to sniff his visor.
Try as he might he couldn't move his arm to reach his bolt pistol sidearm.
It moved it's furry little face closer, then stopped.
Stood on it's two back leg's, it's tiny ears erect, it twiched it's head as it sniffed the air repeatedly.
The deafening crack of two trees spliting apart behind echoed across the forest as the large ceramite and admantium foot of Brother Hulk's dreadnought came crashing down squashing the xeno flat.
"Feth you, alien scum!" Smith laughed as he painfully rolled onto his front before using the venerable dreadnought's greave to haul himself to his feet.
There was little time for celebrations however.
"BROTHER-SERGEANT," Brother Hulk's voice boomed out over his external vox speakers "I'M READING MULTIPLE LIFE SIGNS ALL AROUND OUR POSITION, WE ARE SURROUNDED!"
"Throne!" Smith snarled unholstering his bolt pistol with fumbling fingers "It's a trap, we are truely undone!"