"Yes, my lord."
Bondswoman Susanne said little else, for she had no intention of incurring any further wrath from her lord. Sir Justin Hemmington's furious expression was displayed upon a pict-screen in her Helm Mechanicum, and honestly, she didn't blame him. When House Donovar discovered the presence of a Genestealer Cult within their serfdom, they mobilized entire lances to hunt down the xenos-tainted heretics and burn them out.
Susanne's lance was but one of them. Commanding a trio of Armiger-class Knights, she led them to the depths of the Hive City of Dronar, intent on carrying out her lord's orders. Sir Hemmington's Knight Preceptor had lumbered away, taking a lance of his own to seek out the Patriarch and destroy it before it could further subvert more of their loyal subjects.
"What do we know about these heretics?" Justine asked. Another bondswoman, she was Sir Hemmington's daughter. Susanne didn't like her much, for Justine's hot-headedness and impulsiveness often cost the lance dear. However, Sir Hemmington's orders had been clear. She was to take charge of the younger bondswoman and teach her the chivalrous ways of House Donovar. Normally a pilot of a Knight Preceptor would have been given the role, but the forces of House Donovar had been stretched.
And now they learned there was a Genestealer Cultist infection runnng rampant within their own home world.
"They seem to be from the Cult of the Twisted Helix," Susanne said eventually, consulting the data-screeds that flashed over the holo-feeds that linked to the noosphere of the Mechanicus. "They were discovered conducting heretical gene-therapy to enhance their physiques, mixing xenos DNA with sacred human genomes."
"That is unforgivable," Jerome growled. The last third of their Armiger lance, he had his Armiger Warglaive stride forward. "We shall cleanse their taint from our world!"
"Be careful," Susanne warned, noting that her two lance mates were pulling too far ahead. "We cannot afford to underestimate the enemy."
"Yes, my lady."
While Jerome agreed, Justine ignored her superior and surged ahead. Susanne felt a stab of irration and was about to call her back, but Justine's voice fizzled excitedly over the vox.
"Enemy vehicle spotted! Moving in to eliminate it!"
"Wait..." Susanne began, but Justine paid her no attention. Her Armiger Warglaive was already loping forward, its carapace meltagun swiveling about. Incandescent beams lanced out from both the meltagun and thermal spear, punching molten holes through the swerving vehicle several dozen meters forward. Susanne caught sight of an Achilles Ridgerunner, a rugged four wheel drive that was used by the poorer citizens of Hive Dronar. Her lip curled when she realized that the xenos-loving Cultists must have appropriated one of them.
"I see more," Jerome reported, switching the aim of his steed. Melta beams glowed red-hot as they bathed a mob of cultists carrying autoguns and what looked like mining equipment. A few of them disintegrated almost immediately, and the bondsman barked out in laughter. "These mere dregs of humanity think they can challenge our noble house?"
"Be careful," Susanne repeated. "We don't know if they have laid any traps..."
"Just look at them, ma'am." Justine snorted. "They aren't fit to lick the boots of even the PDF."
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye out for anything that might be out of order." Despite Jerome's assurance, there was no mistaking the bloodlust in his voice. His Armiger Warglaive was already charging into the beleaguered crowd of bald mutants, laying into them with his reaper chain-cleaver. Several cultists ceased to exist as the power field enveloped them.
Susanne took aim and crushed a few stragglers with the pair of graviton pulsars that her Armiger was equipped with, trying not to sigh. Even as she did so, she kept an eye on her auspex.
Despite her caution, she never saw the trap sprung.
The first warning she received that something was amiss was when Justine screamed. Spinning her steed about, she caught sight of the younger girl's Armiger Warglaive falling. A swarm of abhorrent mutants had her surrounded, smashing the limbs with pick axes, drills and other power equipment. Much larger than the bald cultists, the newcomers were hulking abominations whose skin had darkened to a sickly purple. Susanne felt revulsion soak through her at the sight of the foul creatures. She took aim and tried to fire at them, but hesitated when she realized that Justine's machine was in the way.
The poor girl's screams ceased when one of the huge mutants smashed its way into her cockpit, its drill penetrating the adamantium and gouging something out. There was a spray of blood, and Susanne turned away with her eyes closed. She did not have to note the cessation of Justine's bio-signs in her Helm Mechanicum to confirm her death.
"You monsters!" Jerome yelled furiously, his Armiger Warglaive attempting to move back, but he found himself surrounded by more Cultists, all of them swarming out of ruins and buildings. There were more of them than House Donovar had expected. Jerome's engine flailed about, crushing the frenzied mob and just barely extricating himself out of the situation.
"Retreat!" Susanne shouted into the vox. "Fall back!"
"I'm trying to!" Jerome growled, his Armiger Warglaive limping out of the pulped remains of the cultists. He wasn't able to get far, however. Before the Warglaive could duck behind a building for cover, several of the Aberrants reached him, their hammers, pickaxes and drills crackling with power fields. Beside them, a Biophagus cackled, its syringe dripping with some sort of vile serum.
Whatever it had injected its charges with, it had made them stronger. The berserk mutants tore into Jerome's Armiger, smashing it down and clambering on top of it. Jerome yelled something, anger turning into fear...and then silence.
Susanne was backpedaling her Armiger Knight right now, suddenly all alone. A cold chill gripped her spine. With both of her lance mates down, there wasn't much she could do but retreat.
As she turned her Knight Moirax around, however, she found herself staring right at a second group of Aberrants.
"When did you...?"
Their response was to smash their power picks and hammers into her Knight Moirax. There was a shudder and her machine crashed backward in a shower of sparks. Susanne's head hit the back of her seat, causing her to almost black out.
Mercilessly, she recovered her consciousness just in time to see the Aberrants tear their way into her cockpit.
She screamed.
*
"Did House Donovar fall?" Tanaka asked nervously, skirting along the edge of the bastion in his Armiger Warglaive, Kazan, and watching the buildings anxiously. He was expecting the enemy to pop out any moment now. They all were. They had heard the screams and the gunfire...and then silence.
"Apparently," Suzuki replied heavily, swiveling his Armiger Warglaive, Hebi, about as he continued the patrol. "Sir Yato and Lance Ryuu are rescuing the survivors before they get overrun."
Tanaka nodded and glanced at the bastion. It was their job to guard this stronghold until House Donovar could evacuate what remained of their beleaguered lances. Apparently their strike against the Cult of the Twisted Helix had ended in failure and most of their machines were wrecked by insidious ambushes. Answering their call for aid, House Yato had landed Knight Lances of their own to help their fellow nobles extricate themselves from the situation.
If the bastion fell to the hands of the xenos-infected cultists, then they would gain access to the orbital guns. They couldn't allow that to happen, or the fleet above would come under fire from the orbital guns spread across the planet's surface. House Donovar had prepared for an invasion from the void, but they had never expected to be betrayed from within.
"They are coming," Kanda reported dispassionately, reflexively taking cover behind the bastion. A mining laser blasted toward them, catching Tanaka's Armiger Warglaive and causing it to shudder despite his best efforts to deflect it with his ion shield.
Taking a deep breath, Tanaka depressed the trigger in his haptic gloves and blew almost half of the advancing Achilles Ridgerunner apart. The smoldering vehicle skidded forward and contunued peppering him with stubber rounds, though. Cursing himself for not having fired off a clean shot, Tanaka charged the half-wrecked vehicle and finished it off by plowing his reaper chain-cleaver into it.
Not far from him, Suzuki's Hebi disintegrated a couple of Aberrants with the high-powered melta weapons mounted on his Armiger Warglaive. Three of them flaked away into ashes, completely vaporized by the sheer heat of the thermal beams. Kanda added to the fire with his paired graviton pulsars, his Knight Moirax striding from cover to cover. The small, nimble Armiger Knights were able to hide behind the ruined buildings, making use of their size and agility to avoid the mining lasers that came their way from the hordes of mutant cultists emerging from the ceramite shells of once pristine hab blocks.
"Ugh!" Suzuki cried out in frustration when one of the mining lasers snapped off the leg of his Armiger, causing it to topple over. "Of all the Throne frakking things to hit...!"
"Be careful!" Tanaka warned. He was somehow able to finish off the Primus and the cultists that it was leading with a swing of his reaper chain-cleaver, even as Hebi eradicated the last of the Aberrants before the twitching Knight went still. However, a second wave of cultists surrounded him, egged on by a Biophagus who had seemed to inject them with stimulants. Clicking his tongue, he tried to have Kazan fall back, but...
Crack!
"Huh?"
Tanaka gaped in utter astonishment when the cultists did a couple of mortal wounds to his damaged Armiger, causing it to topple over. He blinked, unable to believe what had just happened.
"What on Holy Terra...?"
"Don't worry, I got you!" Kanda assured him, sweeping his graviton pulsars over the remaining cultists and crushing them with waves of gravity. The Biophagus growled and hopped away, sneaking into the bastion.
"Oh, that's not good..." Tanaka moaned. They weren't supposed to let the stronghold fall into the hands of the enemy. And for some reason, the rules prevented them from disembarking from their Knights and pursuing a single character into the bastion. Well, at least they could still hold the objective because of their Armiger-class Knights, and it appeared that the Biophagus couldn't do anything to them...
...until Tanaka spotted the falling beam from above.
"What's that?!"
"Orbital bombardment," Kanda replied calmly, also staring at the heavens. Apparently the Cult of Twisted Helix had seized one of the cruisers and was launching a firestorm at them, not realizing that one of their own had captured the bastion. The three Bondsmen watched in amazement from their damaged Knights as the blinding lances struck the bastion and obliterated it, turning it into chunks of ceramite and debris.
The Biophagus staggered out of the rubble, spluttering in shock and dismay at the apparent betrayal. Kanda blinked and then fired, crushing the foul monstrosity with waves of gravity and turning him into a bloody smear across the ruins of the bastion.
"Uh oh..." Suzuki gulped as he watched the ruins of the bastion, his Knight still lying on the ground, immobilized. "The nine bloody hells! Does that mean we failed our mission?"
"Well...at least nobody would be getting control of the orbital guns now," Tanaka said with a shrug, trying to look on the bright side as usual.
No comments:
Post a Comment