"I want them alive" repeated Siltak, imperceptibly nodding to his incubi master. But before the incubi could move Ishtrak hissed " Too late! She's here!" A deep red coloured raider transport had silently glided with it's engines switched off and come to a halt a mere ten meters from the marine scouts. Even before the raider had stopped, wild amazonic figures were vaulting over the sides. Armed with vicious close combat weapons and cackling hideously these wyches moved as fast as anyone Siltak had seen before. Led by a deep blue haired woman, they covered the open ground deathly beauty and practiced ease, before the scouts could react. The ambitious Zehnith had arrived! She only took trophies! No prisoners in combat! His lord would have to be content with the souls a million peasants. The marines wouldn't last long. He saw Zehnith plunge headlong in to the burly scout with the heavy bolter decapitating him without as much as breaking stride and barrel in to their leader. The third was already dead before being able to bring the clumsy sniper rifle to bear. He saw Zenith slash the scout leader across the face and plunge her combat dagger in to his chest just as his grenade exploded sending the raider in a fireball. He saw Zenith standing atop the fallen marine as she ripped his heart out with her bare hands. She purposefully held it up, waving it defiantly in his direction. Savouring the demise of the scouts, and reflecting on the fact that the greatest threat to his leadership would come from Zenith, he turned his attention back to the imperial guard camp. Dagon lay on the ground unmoving. Everything was hazy. He remembered the furious assault by the wyches. They were too many! They were too fast! He wryly smiled in his mind when he remembered his grenade exploding the raider and some of the occupants screaming as they were torched alive. His implants were pumping at maximum capacity. Hormones and enzymes were being secreted fast. His secondary heart had taken over function, managing to maintain life temporarily. The pain was dulled by endogenous narcotics. He felt the press of the wyches boot on his chest as she screamed a victory scream. He vaguely noticed the gleeful high pitched shrieks of the wyches mingling with the terrified screams of the few surviving guardsmen as the evil eldar unleashed their warp beast packs on them for sport. The warriors were collecting booty from the imperial stores and loading in to their raiders. Dagon's only thoughts were about his mission. "Did the message reach the fleet?" Then he saw it! The sigh of relief, knowing that his geneseed would be safe, also brought his continued survival to Zenith's attention. His weary eyes fixed on the spot of shimmering air, he never saw the blade that severed his head, as the world went black! * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "Why were the Dark Angels here on this planet?" Ishtrak, the haemonculi, looked at the Archon with what passed for a quizzical look on his battle scarred face. "And what was the IG garrison doing out here?" The Archon simply ignored the question. Ishtrak always asked too many question. Contemplating and savouring the death and destruction his men had caused. He was proud of his Cabal. He had trained them well! Indeed, he had trained them with an iron fist, and they had performed seamlessly. They had suffered almost no casualties, until the marine scouts made their stand. Those three damned scouts had cost him some warriors. But victory it was! This is the beginning of bigger things. "Worlds to conquer! Souls to be harvested! And then greater things to come" he thought to himself. Zehnith had been joined by her wyches, covered in blood and gore. They had found something of significance in the command bunker. An artifact shaped like a short spear, inlaid with precious jewels. It was enclosed in a clear plasteel case with a dampening field attached to it. "An ancient artifact of the Dark Gods" mused Zehnith, wiping her blades clean of the scout's blood and motioning for the closest wyche to hand her his head. "Siltak will want it for himself" said one of the wyches by her side. The comment earned her a look that would have chilled a normal person's heart. "This is mine! And it stays mine!" The words were spoken with venomous zeal. "And one day" she broke in mid sentence. The Archon's bodyguard of incubi were always alert. Although their attention was being drawn towards the scene of last resistance, where the wyches had gleefully dispatched the marine scouts, they continued to maintain constant vigil around their Archon. It was their duty to protect him from his enemies, alien and dark eldar. They even watched each other. The incubi guarding the rear slowly turned his head. "Some thing is not quite right" The Archon felt a tug in the winds of the warp. some thing unexpected.... The incubi at the rear suddenly saw it. The same shimmering Dagon had noticed with a relief before he died. The Archon felt rather than heard it. The single incubi watching his Archon's back whirled around, and brought up his splinter cannon, rippling off two shots in the blink of an eyelid in one smooth motion. He was aiming at a spot where the air was crackling with blue warp energy. Shimmering figures were appearing within the energy. As the splinter shards ripped through one of the figures, it crumpled silently to the ground. The incubi's jaw opened to shout a warning to the others. He never closed it. His face exploded into a red mist as the explosive force of a bolt shell impacted with the alien's head. It also ripped the life off his evil body. The Archon was half turning when he was flung to the ground by the force of another one of his bodyguard's lifeless bodies. Pandemonium broke loose in the camp for the second time as an eldar raider transport blew up, hit at point blank range by a salvo of cyclone missiles. The shimmering in the air had ceased, to solidify in to the forms of spacemarine terminators. Bone white armour! Red wings and a broken sword! Deathwing was here! More blue shimmers appeared as waves of Deathwing squads teleported in, homing in on the teleport beacon set up by Dagon. Dark eldar bodies flew high as explosions ripped apart their vehicles. Squads of Deathwing terminators were teleporting in, in a tightly planned deployment, surrounding the camp. Those at the periphery let loose salvo after salvo of cyclone missiles, reaping a bitter harvest of the enemy. Raiders were blasted apart as fragmentation rounds bloodied the open decks of the raider transports. Jet bikes spiraled out of control as accurate bursts of assault cannon fire tracked and then ripped apart rider and bike alike. Squads landing within the compound set to work, methodically sweeping the area with stormbolter and assault cannon. The incubi fell as round after round of assault cannon shells impacted in their lithe bodies. The falling bodies of his incubi protected him for the present. The Archon shook his head in anger. His face was a contorted in sheer frustration. He said to himself " I am the hunter! This was a trap, but I am the hunter!" He could hear the strange litany being sung by the advancing bone white armoured terminators. "What is the terror of death?" "That we die our work unfinished!" "What is the joy of life?" "That we die knowing our task is finished." These marines. They were not afraid to die? What is the meaning of life, if you cannot taste fear? Siltak slowly pushed the bodies of the incubi away. His men had been caught completely unawares. He saw the still bodies of a few mandrakes scattered about the compound. Explosions continued to rend the air, as most of the eldar vehicles died. The survivors were forming a holding position around the command bunker where he lay. Ishtrak's body lay next to him, Atleast what remained of his body. |
THE HUNTER AND THE HUNTER... By ( Shadow Guard ) |
FABLES OF THE UNFORGIVEN |
