Chapter III: Death and Honour Sergeant Lucius stood unmoving. The dripping ichor and gore from his armour triggering the auto-extractors with a suddenness that made Sagitante jump. ""So, we are to aim for the beasts' heart, honoured librarian?" queried the sergeant. "You have located the accursed patriarch?" His squad of four stood behind him, replacing their stormbolter magazines. Gideons assault gun continued to spin silently, as the compressed air cooled the barrels rapidly. Lucidian smiled wryly. He had known and fought with Lucius for over a hundred years. One of the best. He will be a master in the chapter soon. But there were more pressing tasks to complete at present. At a glance from Lucidian, Gladius activated a three dimensional holographic display. It showed a complex series of tunnels and chambers, located beneath the Imperial Governor's Palace. Suddenly, awareness hit everyone gathered there. That was how the Governors' palace and the ruling body had been wiped out so suddenly. Lucius looked thoughtfully at the display, a frown appearing on his face. Lucidian spoke " You are right in your thinking Brother-Sergeant.! We cannot track any life signs beneath the second tier of tunnels but the chamber of the Patriarch is five levels underground." Ignoring the confused looks on Sagitantes' face he continued " I can pinpoint the Patriarch's position as long as the psychic signal is emanating and direct the teleporter's beam accurately to it's vicinity. But brother Gladius and I must remain ere to safely transport you there" The sergeant nodded without hesitation. The librarian's powers along with the techmarines presence would have been immensely helpful, and may have meant the difference between success and failure. But they had no choice but to go it alone. Five terminators against the might of the cult. All they had to do was kill the patriarch! His memories returned fleetingly to the ancient history of his chapter! Of Cloud Runner and the Plains people. Of thirty terminators liberating their home world from a similar situation. Of death and honour! They were Deathwing! Pride swelled in his chest! They shall not fail! " Will you be able to shield us momentarily from the patriarch's powers? inquired the sergeant. The genestealer patriarchs were known to be immensely strong psychics, far stronger than most librarians. But Lucidian was not a pushover either. Lucidian smiled again " I'll do one better" Gladius had walked up to the sergeant and was attaching a complicated device to his left wrist. " That is a modified teleport homer! Activated it as soon as you materialise within the chamber of the beast and the two of us shall follow" Brother Gladius will be bringing melta-implosion devices to cave in the chambers." The sergeant marveled at the librarian's cunning and tactical foresight. Brother Gladius, the techmarine was the only one in power armour, thus more vulnerable but also the only one who could handle and plant the explosive devices. And the teleport homer was another of Gladius' improvised marvels. "This might just work!" he thought to himself. "We may be able to save the world after all" Colonel Sagitante had finally recovered his composure. He was coming out of his daze and starting to take in the tactical situation. The plan was as tactically brilliant as it was cunning. As far as the cult was concerned, the loyalists were cornered in the foot hills of Bramberg and trapped in the four orbital stations. The presence of the Deathwing was unknown to them, and it was unlikely any one had reported in Sergeant Lucius' brief foray to the foot-hills. With luck and the emperor's blessings, the Patriarch may not be guarded tightly. Atleast if they maintained the pressure on the Bramberg front, it might keep the pure strain genestealers occupied there. He met the librarian's eye firmly and nodded. Lucidian nodded encouragingly. "We have station 979 on line. They have their thermal missiles back on line." If you fail I shall target it to your beacons location. It will be our last chance" The Deathwing squad began to move in to place on to the transporter circle. Chapter IV: Defence line sigma four The Zeiss binocular systems was a very ancient piece of equipment. In fact, it was more than 38,000 years old. It was a testament to the craftmanship of the artisans of old terra that the piece of handheld binocular visual aid was still in one piece, let alone function properly. The absence of any built in electronics certainly played a major part in it's survival. The concept of using prisms and lenses to amplify and light and enlarge the visual field was brilliant yet so simple. The binoculars had been brought to Qadis III by a travelling merchant five hundred years ago and gifted to the Governor as a token of gratitude for rescuing him from Eldar pirates. The piece had remained in the possession of the Governor's family since than, displayed in the courtyard as a symbol of friendship, focussed on the distant imperial eagle flag, flown atop the Council house, so that visitors may see the Emperor's Insignia through these ancient view pieces. Now, those ancient lenses were focussing on something altogether more menacing and alien. A sea of genestealer cultists could be seen stretching back over the horizon. They were approaching from every direction of the compass. Interspersed within the sea of teeming cultists were vehicles and war engines, so much like flotsam after a shipwreck. Captain Graffer removed the binoculars from his eyes and wiped his forehead. He had grabbed the ancient piece as an after thought as he fought the fighting withdrawal from the Governors mansion. He had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the cultists, rallying the last two squads of Decarde's to make a break for the Arbites precincts of Judge Malligannon. Seething with anger and frustration at not being able to stop the execution of the Governor nor the gory deaths of his family, he now looked at the approach of the cult army with grim satisfaction. He could laude himself on the brilliant last minute defense of the foot-hills which had bought just enough time for all the armoured vehicles of the Death-Killers to be winched up the steep slope of the cliffs, along pre-constructed paths. Those paths were the only land access to the peaks and had all been then blown up, burying thousands of the cultists in the rubble. The cult was milling around at the base of the massive cliffs, like breakers in an ocean of filth. The peaks were made up of natural granite of adamantine strength. The prepared underground bunkers at the top had been dug only at vast expense and the liberal sue of squat drilling technology. Graffer silently passed another prayer of thanks to the foresight of his superior, Colonel Sagitante. Due to the lack of foot and claw holds and the sheer drop of the cliffs, even the purestrain genestealers were having difficulty coming up those natural granite edifices. His heavy weapon fire temas made every one of them pay dearly. Defence Line Sigma Four was holding! But at what price? It was only the sacrifice of nearly two thirds of his Decarde Storm troopers, that had bought them the time needed to fortify this line with every armoured vehicle belonging to the Death-Killers. The sacrifice of Decarde Stormtroopers .. and his bodyguard Jandar the Ogryn! And the timely arrival of that single squad of terminators.They just had to hold this bastion until relief arrived.or the Hive fleet.the sheer inevitability of that thought made him wretch with disgust. The Death-Killers' basilisks were now starting to drop their ordnance with unerring precision at the milling hoard at the base of the cliffs. Thousands were blown in to oblivion. But yet they came. Innumerable hoard of cultists, hybrids and pure strains blotted the roads up to the horizon. Then he saw vehicles!!! Imperial Guard vehicles!! Bombards! Basilisks! Manticores!! They were bringing up the heavy stuff from the rebelling regiments. "This is going to be very warm" he said to himself, thanking the emperor for Colonel Sagitante's foresight which had deployed small squads of the Decarde on all imperial airfields. It was an insurance against a coup, the Decarde teams were highly trained and tasked with destroying all aircraft at the airfields when given the command. Graffer swore eternal faith to his commander, for having given the order. It was a credit to the training of the Decarde's that no imperial combat aircraft fell in to the cultists hand that day, despite Sagitante's order not reaching all units. Independent thought and action was drilled in to the Decardes from training. They had also wiped out all the pilots. That was a price to pay. A price for freedom! That did make life a little bit more tolerable that day. "Dig in deeper! Incoming in five minutes max! Tag team rotation to observation posts! You men keep us informed" He rapped out orders quickly. as all along the defence line men dug in deeper. In their exposed trenches. Heavy weapon teams pulled their weapons inward. Those fortunate enough to be manning the adamantium bunkers slammed the heavy blast doors with a clang. Others crawled under the massive tanks of the Death-Killers. Some sombre faced men, the few unlucky ones who had drawn the short straws, dejectedly stepped in to the OP sites. They would be the first casualtiesbut they were the line's eyes and ears. They were to report on enemy movement during the coming bombardment, until it stopped or they were cut down and another took their place. The rest would hunker down until the enemy assaulted the mountain. "This is going to be bloody" Graffer looked at his wife's holo-image for the final time before pocketing it away and dropping in to the command post. He didn't have time to grieve their deaths in Capitol City. The thought that they may be down at the foot-hills as part of the cult never crossed his mind. He slammed the bunkers' adamantium door shut as the first cultist bombard shells began to land. |
DEATH ON QADIS III By ( Shadow Guard ) |
FABLES OF THE UNFORGIVEN |
