towards him, claws flashing. In an instant, his hand was severed at the wrist by the flashing claws,
the bolt pistol in his hand still firing as it hit the ground, and Marduk stared into the venomous eyes
of the deadly killer.
The creature was bipedal and hunched, its four arms hanging low from its armoured carapace,
and its hypnotic eyes, glinting yellow slashes, set deep into a wide, pallid face. Marduk found
himself ensnared by the power in those golden orbs, and for a second he was frozen in place, staring
dumbly at the alien.
It pulled the disarmed warrior into a tight embrace, and its jaws closed around the Word
Bearer’s helmet.
Bolter fire struck the xenos creature from behind and a high-pitched, inhuman scream was
ripped from its throat as chunks of chitin were blasted from its body, splattering Marduk with its
vile, xenos blood.
The splatter of blood upon the skull-face of his helmet broke his hypnotic reverie, and Marduk
lifted his bolt pistol. Even as his finger was squeezing the trigger, the xenos creature spun towards
its assailant.
Marduk’s shots took the creature in the back of the head, and its forehead exploded like a
ruptured egg, spraying brain matter, blood and shards of skull, and it fell to the ground, dead, a
tangle of alien limbs.
Khalaxis gave a warning shout as his auspex suddenly lit up with movement.
“Contact,” he shouted.
“Where?” bellowed Kol Badar.
“Everywhere!” came the frantic response.
Marduk swore, and stared down in disgusted fascination at the lifeless corpse of the xenos
creature on the ground.
The exposed flesh of its head and hands was pallid, tinged slightly purple-blue, and its chitinous
shell, like that of an insect’s, was the colour of the night sky. It had been monstrously fast and
strong, and the fact that one creature had managed to kill two veteran Astartes and injure another in
mere seconds meant that this corridor was not a place Marduk wanted to be when more of them
appeared.
“Move!” he hollered.
With a nod from the Coryphaus, the Anointed at the forefront of the group began advancing.
The Anointed in the rear began firing, their combi-bolters barking loudly as they fired at the
wave of creatures surging at them from behind. Passing a side passage, Marduk looked to the left
and began firing, seeing another of the creatures scuttling up the corridor towards him with
sickening speed. He dropped it with a controlled burst from his bolt pistol.
The warriors at the front of the group halted, opening up with their weapon systems as more of
the xenos creatures appeared.
“A powerful foe,” growled Burias-Drak’shal with relish, forming the words with some difficulty
now that his mouth was filled with daemonic tusks and teeth.
Marduk shook his head, and swung to his right, blasting another of the xenos creatures.
A sheet of metal in the shadowy ceiling overhead smashed down in front of him, and another of
the creature’s leapt towards him, murderous claws flashing for his face.
Burias-Drak’shal leapt past Marduk and hit the creature in mid-air, driving it into the reinforced
steel wall, which buckled inwards at the force of the blow. The possessed warrior and the deadly
xenos creature were locked together as they slid to the floor, thrashing frantically, limbs entangled.
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After a few frantic seconds of combat, the fight ended, Burias-Drak’shal pinning the creature’s
head to the wall with one of his thick talons. Pulling his talon free, the creature slumped to the
ground. Burias looked up at Marduk, a feral grin plastered across his daemonic visage. His armour
was hanging loose from his body in half a dozen places, and strips of flesh had been torn from him,
but his pleasure was palpable.
“Good fight,” he said with some difficulty.
“Good fight,” said Marduk, with somewhat less enthusiasm.
The Anointed had picked up their pace again, blasting with their combi-bolters as they stamped
forwards. Marduk heard the roar of a reaper autocannon firing on full auto, and the alien screams of
dying xenos.
To Marduk’s right, one of the 17th coterie was standing braced in an open doorway. A dozen
xenos creatures were hurtling up the side-corridor towards him, their claws clicking like the legs of
an insect scuttling along a metal table. The warrior’s flamer roared, and they screamed and thrashed
as they were engulfed in flaming promethium.
One of the creatures, its body wreathed in flame, leapt through the inferno, and ripped the
warrior’s head from his shoulders with one sweep of its claws. Marduk hacked his chainsword into
the alien’s neck, the teeth of the weapon whirring madly as they ripped through chitin and flesh,
spraying blood in all directions, and the creature fell twitching to the ground, tongues of fire still
burning across its body.
The corridor was a charnel house, promethium burning fiercely across the walls and floor, and
the blackened corpses of the aliens were smoking ruins. Still, more of the creatures were leaping
forwards, throwing themselves towards Marduk along the blackened hallway.
Snatching up the flamer from the lifeless hands of the headless warrior at his feet, Marduk
squeezed the trigger, sending a wall of flame roaring down the corridor, lighting up the darkness and
engulfing the wave of xenos creatures. They screamed as they died, chitin melting and eyes dripping
down their blackened faces. Still, several of the creatures continued to claw their way towards him,
and he sent another burst of flame shooting down the corridor.
The warriors of the Legion continued their advance for five minutes, being attacked by wave
after wave of xenos assailants that hurtled headlong into their gunfire. They must have killed
somewhere in the realms of thirty of the deadly creatures, ripping them apart with concentrated
bursts of bolter fire and flame, though it was clear that they could not endure such a furious assault
indefinitely.
It was impossible to gauge the number of the enemy in the shadowy confines, but the Word
Bearers were already running low on ammunition. Firing a final burst of flame behind them,
Marduk discarded the flamer unit, dropping it to the ground, its promethium canister expended.
“Keep moving,” he barked as he drew his bolt pistol once more.
Kol Badar hissed as the claws of a xenos creatures sheared through one of his immense shoulder
plates, gouging a deep wound in his flesh. Firing his combi-bolter at point blank range, explosive
rounds tore through the thorax of the creature, ripping it in two. He smashed another alien predator
away with a backhand sweep of his fist, the blow crushing bone and sending it reeling into the wall.
Another creature leapt upon him, claws scraping deep furrows through his Terminator armour, and
its jaws opened wide as its thick, muscular tongue darted towards his throat.
The Coryphaus closed his power talons around his xenos attacker’s head, coruscating energy
rippling up the long blades. With a twist, he ripped the alien’s head from its shoulders, half a metre
of its spinal column still attached, and flung it away from him before unloading with his combibolter
once more, tearing another two aliens apart with concentrated bursts of fire. Warning icons
flickered before his eyes as the chambers of his weapon emptied.
“Swap,” ordered the hulking Coryphaus, and he stepped to the side to allow the Anointed
warrior behind him to pass.
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The massive warrior stamped forwards to take up the position at the front of the formation, and
his freshly loaded weapon roared.
“Keep moving,” ordered Kol Badar as he reloaded, feeding a fresh pair of ammunition belts into
his weapon system and locking them into position. His weapon whined and pulled the first bolts into
the firing chambers, and the warning icon within his helmet flashed green and disappeared.
The formation approached a cross-junction, the side-passages hidden from view by the dull
metal corners.
“Khalaxis,” said Kol Badar. “Grenades.” The column paused briefly as the sergeant-champion
of the 17th primed a pair of frag grenades.
“Fire in the hole!” he shouted, tossing the grenades forward. Kol Badar’s optic stabilisers
compensated for the sudden flash as the grenades exploded, dimming his vision so that the sudden
flash did not blind him, and instantly the column was moving once more, the lead warriors stepping
around the blind corners.
Lumps of flesh and severed xenos limbs had been scattered by the explosions, and Kol Badar
began to fire as he picked up movement. The creatures had been lying in ambush for them, and he
gunned a pair of them down as his auto-sensors flashed up targeting cross-hairs before his eyes.
Too late, he registered a flash of movement to his flank, and tried to bring his weapon to bear on
the alien leaping towards him from the side, but the bulk of his Terminator armour slowed his
movements.
A chainaxe slammed the creature into the ground, whirring teeth ripping it almost in two, its hot
blood steaming as it poured over the floor panels, dripping down between the metal grid. Khalaxis
kicked the corpse off the blade of his axe, his bolt pistol making another alien’s head disappear in a
red mist, and Kol Badar nodded his thanks to the veteran berserker.
“Advance to the east,” said Marduk through the vox network. “Our quarry is near.”
Kol Badar took up the lead once more, stamping forward down the long corridor leading to the
east, wary of attacks, but sighting no enemies. The corridor was a hundred metres long, and he felt a
growing unease as he led the advance.
Behind him, the rest of the formation was following in his footsteps, the Anointed warrior in the
rear walking backwards steadily, his combi-bolter firing almost constantly.
Stepping over ribbed pipes and cables that made his footing uneven, Kol Badar came upon a
closed room, its walls thick with a tangle of pipes and insulated wiring. His combi-bolter tracked
around the enclosed space, registering no threats, but he saw that there was no exit from the room
bar a heavy blast-door on the far side.
Cursing, he moved swiftly towards the blast-door, but it was sealed shut. It had been welded
fast, and deep gouges in its thick surface attested to its strength. Clearly, the xenos creatures had
attempted to gain access through the door, but even their deadly claws, which had torn through
power armour and even the vaunted suits of Terminator armour with contemptible ease seemed
incapable of penetrating this thick bulkhead.
A chainfist would make short work of the bulkhead, but of his Anointed warriors, only Elimkhar
was equipped with one of the weapons, and he was bringing up the rear.
Swinging his heavy, quad-tusked helmet around, the Coryphaus saw that the bulk of the warriors
had already entered the room. Only two of Khalaxis’s 17th coterie still stood, and he cursed again.
“You have led us into a dead end, First Acolyte,” barked Kol Badar.
“She is there,” said Marduk, staring resolutely towards the sealed bulkhead door.
Only Elimkhar was still moving down the long corridor, walking steadily backwards, his combibolter
firing almost constantly. The corridor was filling with the xenos dead, but still more of the
creatures were surging forwards, throwing themselves uncaring into the deadly fire.
“Brother Elimkhar, keep moving, we need your chain-fist,” ordered Kol Badar, urging the
Anointed warrior to hurry. “Brother Akkar, be ready to clear the corridor.”
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Brother Akkar nodded his acknowledgement of the order, and stepped towards the corridor, the
heavy barrels of his reaper autocannon extending forwards beneath his arm.
Abruptly, Brother Elimkhar’s weapon jammed, and he stared down at the suddenly silent,
overheated bolter.
“Move!” roared Kol Badar, but the strength and speed of the xenos creatures was staggering,
and the Anointed disappeared as a wave of enemies smashed over him, claws stabbing and rending.
He was dead in an instant, and Kol Badar swore again.
The reaper autocannnon of the Anointed warrior brother, Akkar, roared into life, the flame of the
mighty weapon’s muzzle flash lighting up the dark room as if it were daylight. Hundreds of shell
casings poured from the heavy weapon as it unleashed its full power, and a constant stream of high
calibre rounds ripped up the length of the corridor, shredding everything that they struck.
Scores of the aliens were ripped apart as the shells tore through them, the high-pitched screams
of the dying aliens all but lost beneath the roaring of the autocannon’s twin barrels.
“We must go back,” shouted Kol Badar over the roar of the heavy weapon. “There is no way
through here.”
“She is in there, I know it,” said Marduk hotly. “There is no going back.”
“How do you propose to get through that?” snapped Kol Badar, gesturing with one of his
powered talons towards the bulkhead.
Marduk stared at the door for a moment.
“Darioq-Grendh’al,” he ordered. “Open it.”
“As you wish, Marduk, First Acolyte of the Word Bearers Legion of Astartes, genetic
descendant of the glorified Primarch Lorgar,” said the hulking figure of the magos, stepping
forwards, his four mechanical servo arms unfolding from his back.
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CHAPTER TWELVE
Solon Marcabus trudged through the blinding snowstorm, leaning into the relentless winds that
threatened to knock him to the ground with every gust. He stumbled as he stepped into a small drift,
sinking up to his knees. It took all his effort to haul himself out, and he lay on his back for a
moment, catching his breath.
His eyelids flickered and closed as his breathing steadied. It would be so easy just to drift away,
to give in to exhaustion. He knew that to fall asleep out here unprotected was to die, but he almost
didn’t care anymore. He would just close his eyes for a few minutes.
It had been almost a full day since they had left the dead husk of the crawler behind. It had not
been an easy decision to try to make the starport on foot, for their chance of success was minimal,
but it was better than waiting for what the boy called ghosts return. He was jolted from his microsleep
as he felt a hand on his shoulder, shaking him, and he looked up at the boy, Dios, who was
kneeling over him. Through the circular goggles set into the boy’s oversized exposure suit hood, he
saw the concern in Dios’s eyes.
The boy’s face was an unhealthy blue, and his eyes gleamed feverishly. Solon was impressed
