Secret War (fanfic)

"My jaw set slightly at his mention of “faith.” Faith was an utterly idiotic concept that never, ever, fit within the realms of reality..."

—Attelus Kaltos

A Warhammer 40,000 fan fiction from the perspective of a young assassin apprentice "Secret War" has drawn inspiration from many sources but most the prolific being the Ravenor series by Dan Abnett.

After his mercenary organization is hired by a rogue trader to hunt down a highly influential gang leader on the Hive world of Omnartus. Attelus Kaltos is embroiled even deeper into the complex and convoluted world of the hired killer. Soon he finds that not all is what it seems and that his enemies and allies are not at all what he believed them to be, that this is the mission which will truly test him mentally and physically and change him, for the better or for the worst, forever more.

"Secret War" is still a work in progress a work and can be found Here.

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Tropes used in Secret War (fanfic) include:

• Alliterative Name: Karmen Kons who's also Estella Erith.
• Anguished Declaration of Love; although the word "love" isn't used Attelus to Elandria:

"Because Elandria," I sighed, "I don't want you to die, it's because I know what you have been through."
I paused trying to swallow back the lump in my throat, "and I know that you never had any choice in the matter, no choice to be what you wanted to be, to do what you wanted to do. That-that any real choice in your life was stolen from you when you were so young a-and you didn't deserve that Elandria, no one does, I-I want you to live so you could one day have your own life to escape this crap, to, to."
My left hand clenched into a tight ball while the right gripped my sword's hilt all the harder, "and that maybe in your new life that I'd be able to be part of it, that I'd like be by your side to help you through I-I."

• Author Appeal; There seems to be allot of effort to detail the faces of each female character.
• Badass Boast; could be this or Narm but Attelus says this before the fire fight with the as yet unnamed man;

"Well either way your fighting me now and either way you are going to pay the consequences!"

• Ascended Meme; an in-universe one after the as yet unnamed captured throne agent refers to himself as "No one of Consequence" Attelus, Karmen Kons and even Darrance refer him so.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension; Between Attelus and Elandria, Lampshaded buy Darrance and even earlier by Garrakson.
• Berserk Button; don't betray Glaitis and don't call the Mimic "pet" as Attelus found out the hard way.
  • Which Attelus intends to exploit if given the choice.
• Big Bad; Inquisitor Edracian.
  • He is also a Outside Context Villain, for Attelus, and the reader, anyway.
• Bishounen; Darrance.
• Bond One-Liner; After shooting a mook through the head Attelus says and also as a shout out to;

"Shame about the face."

• Breaking the Fourth Wall the first time Attelus does it is when Taryst's psykers attack the Twilight Bar while Attelus and Elandria are trying to infiltrate it which also may count as a Crowning Moment of Awesome for him

I don't know if you had thought I had forgotten about Taryst's little psyker cadre or you had forgotten, but this, this I had actually seen coming this I knew was coming, yes.

• Career Killers
• The Casanova: Olinthre implied by Attelus although he doesn't live long enough to show it.
• Character Alignment; Castella Lethe is Chaotic Neutral Glaitis is Neutral Evil actually being mostly about assassins allot of the cast are Neutral Evil.
• Chase Scene: A brief one when Attellus attempts to escape Edracian and his Mooks.
  • Now with a far more intense one with Attelus running over roof tops and through abandoned old buildings in the underhive while daemons are chasing him.
• Chekhov's Gunman; a few; medicae Feiult, Major Olinthre and perhaps colonel Barhurst.
  • And Vex Carpompter.
    • No One of Consequence.
• The Chessmaster; Glaitis, Taryst and Brutis Bones.
  • Why Edracian, OF COURSE!!
• Chess Motifs; Edracian and the Eldar Farseer seem to love to call Attelus their "pawn".
• Cloudcuckoolander; Castella Lethe is knee deep in this trope.
• Cold Sniper; Hayden Tresch which is Lampshaded by Attelus.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when Attelus finally manages to confess his affection for Elandria.
• Crowning Moment of Sadness: Then Elandria's sudden and cruel death when Taryst shoots her in the back.
• Expy; both Garrakson and Elandria are Expys of Wilkenson and Latashe from an earlier story and one could say that Attelus is an expy of Company Master Remiel the main character from an another old fiction about the Dark Angels.
• Forceful Kiss: Karmen Kons does this to Attelus, doing it even though he's still in mourning over Elandria's death and is in shock. This doesn't stop her from being surprised when he pulls away, though.
• Hero Antagonist; Brutis Bones is looking more and more to be one of these.
• Heroic BSOD Attelus has an epic one after Elandria dies in his arms.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: Brutis Bones, and Taryst's psyker cadre
• The Mole; Feuilt is Taryst's medicae, Glaitis' spy and also Edracian's agent, epic triple agent
• This Is Sparta;

Attelus: "Do. You. Have. Any idea the crap. I have been through to find you!"

• Deadpan Snarker; Castella Lethe, Glaitis has a few too.
  • Vex, the Mimic, No One of Consequence, Torris, practically everyone.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight; Elandria dies while cradled in Attelus' arms
• Disappeared Dad; Serghar Kaltos to Attelus.
• Face Palm
• Fate Worse Than Death; apparently if you betray Glaitis your fate won't be pretty.
• Final Speech; in her last words Elandria tells Attelus that he did actually save the people in the Twilight Bar.
  • Could be also a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming she also call him out on his idiotic paranoia in not believing Castella earlier.
• Foreshadowing: A drinking game could be made for the amount of times this trope is used allot of what has happened has been foreshadowed before although it's not hugely obvious.
• Fridge Brilliance
  • One example is when Attelus attempts to storm the Twilight Bar single handedly without any real intel besides a brief look at the schematics but once you realize that the psychic influence on everyone in the building allowing him to move almost unopposed (Though this doesn't last very long due to the presence of a blank)
    • Also that Attelus knew of the psyker attack on the Twilight Bar as after the brain washing of Vex he knew that Taryst was using them in a large capacity
• Four-Temperament Ensemble
  • Garrakson is Phlegmatic.
  • Elandria is Choleric (though she really isn't at all a leader)
  • Attelus is Melancholic.
    • Now Torris has recovered he seems to be Sanguine.
• Exposition Intuition: Attelus' genre savviness tends to come off allot like this but it is mostly subverted in that he isn't always right.
• Gambit Pileup; Everyone has their own agenda and it is still only the icing on the proverbial cake
• Genre Savvy; almost everyone but medicae Feuilt is by far the most genre savvy.
  • Glaitis, perhaps even more so than Feuilt.
• Guns Akimbo; Attelus plays this trope straight when storming the Twilight Bar.
  • Perhaps justified as he uses it only in extremely confined areas, in hand to hand combat
• Grey and Grey Morality; very much so far.
• Heroic Sacrifice; subverted as Attelus attempts it but is revived.
• Honour Before Reason; as stated in the above Genre Savvy
• Hot Mom; though she isn't a mother, Glaitis certainly is this trope.
• Ironic Echo
• It Got Worse.
• Jerkass; Darrance.
• Killed Mid-Sentence; The Honour Before Reason Mook.
  • He was also Too Dumb to Live; also as lampshaded by Attelus
  • and Elandria.
• Killed Off for Real; Elandria, Colonel Barhurst and Taryst.
• Lampshade Hanging; taken to the point that the protagonists even name the trope.
• Large Ham; Taryst, just Taryst.
  • And now Torris as Lampshaded by Garrakson

“Yeah, yeah keep it down Tor,” said Garrakson, “by the Emperor I swear you and Taryst should have a competition to see which of you can chew more scenery.”

• • And now Inquisitor Edracian who is also quite unhinged as well.
• Mama Bear: Castella Lethe is hinted to be this to Attelus that her ruthless beating of No One Of Consequence was in revenge for him setting the Arco Flagellent on Attelus at the Twilight Bar. Of course when Attelus sees this he misinterprets it completely.
• Take That; a not too subtle one toward Twilight.
• The Man Behind the Man: Or Woman behind the woman or The Xenos Behind the Woman as it seems that Glaitis owes allegiance to the Eldar for reasons as yet unknown
• The Sixth Ranger: a subversion as that Torris was originally in the team he was badly injured, confined to a hospital bed during most of the story so far, but now he is up and about when it's Attelus' turn to be bedridden
• Obvious Trap; subverted (maybe) Glatis thinks that that Edracian letting Attelus live with the information he knows was so they would ally with Brutis Bones in desperation to hunt down the Inquisitor, so it would lead both groups together into a trap, she thinks this is obvious. But no one else ever even began to think of it.
• Offhand Backhand; Attelus does this to one of Edracian's Mooks.
• Offstage Villainy: Glaitis, Taryst and Brutis Bones seem to get this treatment, though who is really the villain isn't quite clear yet and maybe justified as it is always in first person perspective and all of them being Chessmasters who seem to work exclusively through subordinates.
• Oh Crap: Attelus when Garrakson sees through his Batman Gambit.
• Posthumous Character: Attelus' mother in a dream.
• Properly Paranoid; Taryst, which ironically is his downfall, having all his Mooks minds easily readable to Karmen Kons but not his top officers Major Olinthre and Colonel Barhurst was what allowed the Mimic to get close and ultimately assassinate him and having Attelus and Elandria's minds read during the briefing for the Twilight Bar incident was what led him to fall for Glaitis' incredibly elaborate Justified Gambit Roulette.
  • It was more of a Batman Gambit as Glaitis' plan hinged in Taryst sending in his psyker to the Twilight bar.
  • Attelus too.
• Mangst: major Olinthre over the horrific end implied to his and Garrakson's Imperial Guard regiment.
• Manipulative Bitch; Glaitis, just Glaitis.
  • and Attelus is becoming a Manipulative Bastard, as Lampshaded by the Mimic.
• Mauve Shirt: poor, poor Olinthre...
  • Actually most of the supporting cast could be interpreted as being Mauve Shirts.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero; Attelus taking the pict of the dead Interrogator is heavily implied to follow this trope.
• Torture Always Works; averted with No One of Consequence
• Manly Tears: Attelus sheds tears before attempting to sacrifice himself to save the club goers from a rampaging Arco Flagellent in the Twilight Bar and afterward due to being Mind Raped during his recovery.
  • And when when he confesses his love for Elandria and at her death mere seconds afterwards.
• Mood Whiplash: One example from one moment Attelus is lamenting how much of a Crapsack universe it is and in the next second, making not to subtle joking ignorant innuendo with Elandria.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Attelus gets beaten very brutally by the Mimic, so much so that even he is surprised he didn't come out of it worse.
• Playful Hacker; Vex Carpompter and due to Garrakson's training becoming a Badass Bookworm.
• Red Herring; and you thought Taryst would be the Big Bad, didn't you?
• Red Oni, Blue Oni; Elandria is the Red Oni, though while not exactly being straight on the archetype Attelus is most certainly her Blue, though it is an example of the Red Oni being more villainous but Your Mileage May Vary.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Averted (so far) Attelus intended to do this to Glaitis to get revenge on Elandria's death, but Karmen Kons has convinced him not to. She knows they need Glaitis alive still and she is Genre Savvy enough to know that it's exactly what Glaitis wants.
• Secret Test of Character: Attelus being an apprentice Assassin is always being tested but usually he is Genre Savvy enough to know it but his Bad Dreams and Mind Rape during his recovery are now revealed to follow this trope.
• Secret War; Uhm...
• Shout-Out; a few.
  • When in a particularly devious mood Attelus uses the Verbal Tic, Yesss.
  • another along with the Take That to Twilight.

Attelus; Pretentious, I can almost smell the pretentiousness in the air.

• • One conversation between Elandria and Attelus goes like this.

Attelus; No it means what it means “some semblance,” I’ll think of something, I’ m…Adaptable.
Elandria; Adaptable? Is that what you are calling it now?

• • "Some semblance" is also a line used allot by the Spoony one.
  • In the latest part Attelus is ambushed by a group of well dressed axe wielding Mooks sound familiar?
  • and this exchange of dialogue earlier

Attelus: “well that's anti climactic, who the hell are you anyway?”
Man With No Name: “No one of consequence.”
Attelus: “I must know.”
Man With No Name: “Get used to dissapointment.”

Attelus: “Hmm, okay.”

• • and Attelus says right after Elandria's death "The Bitch is dead."
  • Inquisitor Edracian seems to be a Shout-Out machine; he looks over his shoulder at the captured Attelus shouting "Of Course!" and also is fond of saying "Inconceivable!
  • Attelus uses the quote, "there are no miracles, there is only men,"
• Self-Deprecation; Feuilt's What the Hell, Hero? speech could also be taken as a Take That to the author and the plot Secret War as a whole.
• Shower of Angst.
• Smug Snake: The Mimic, is this to an extreme, although he/she/it is more effective than the average Smug Snake, shown after the utter beating it dealt to Attelus
• Stealth Insult: a backhanded compliment to Attelus from Olinthre goes like this;

"Tathe was his name and he actually had a son working inside the regiment as a commissar, apparently his father forced him into the scolar progneium when he was young. Delan Tathe was his name he was an arrogant little punk, but very skilled with a blade, you kind of remind me of him actually."

• • Subverted, as Attelus quickly realises that it's this trope and Olinthre didn't seem to do it on purpose.
• Unexplained Recovery: After Attelus gets almost every bone in his body shattered he manages to survive, but this is also invoked by a case of; A psyker did it
• What the Hell, Hero?; Attelus gets a harsh one from Medicae Feuilt after his highly selfish and paranoid reaction to Elandria's death.
  • Also how most people react this way after his treatment of Vex.