Shadow Stalkers
It was the silence that stood out; the stillness of the air. The last echoes of distant detonations could just make the edge of hearing if one listened hard. Only the faint rustling of ash moving over the ground broke the otherwise complete deadness of sound.
"Just like paradise," Trooper Andres Grit smiled, adjusting the load of his standard issue Guard pack across his shoulders. Looking around him he took in the ruined landscape for the first time since the Basilisks had moved their barrels to open up on another section of the city, he found a new appreciation for their ability to reduce anything to dust. All around him the grey and white towers of Balak City lay shattered down to their component blocks of stone and thinly painted wood. Thin grey smoke still trickled from some of the wooden sections. Jagged edges were all that remained in most cases, rising like short shards of bone from broken limbs. "Yep," the young man smiled, "just like paradise."
"Can the sentimental crap Grit," came a gruff and irritated voice as a tall, gaunt man stepped around a fallen statue of the God-Emperor. His dust and ash covered uniform made him blend into the terrain around him, but as always his Lieutenant's bars somehow still gleamed dully in the midday sun. "If any of the enemy were still around here you'd have lost your head by now. Not that that'd be much of a loss considering all your thinking comes from a place very far away from there." Turning behind him he signed a few short gestures and eighteen more dusty figures emerged from the mounds of rubble, lasguns dangling from shoulder straps and grenades and various other devices hanging from belts and bandoliers. "Kallis, take point. It seems our esteemed Mr. Grit is more interested in rubble than his worthless head."
"You got it LT," the broad shouldered man replied as he dashed up to the front of the formation, a bulky grenade launcher clenched tightly in his hands. His bald head displayed the spread winged eagle he had acquired no one knew when. "I just know there's still at least one Greenskin around here with Old Bamba's name on it." He patted the muzzle of his weapon happily.
"Come on Kallis, not even Orks could have survived the pounding the Krishners' guns did to this place. I haven't even seen a single wrecked bike or toasted hide," a lanky man with a bloodied bandage wrapped around his left forearm replied. He glanced in a different direction every second, searching for any sign of the enemy.
"That or they all ran away to come and kill us another day," the burly Kallis smirked. "Suits me just fine; more Greenie skulls to blast, hahaha!" He laughed as he kicked a small mound of crushed stone and send one flying. It came to rest a few feet away, but when it rolled halfway around a pair of small red eyes stared back. "Ok scratch that, all but one ran away."
"There's more over here," another trooper called as he kicked an arm, its end still wet with green blood, across a street.
"Stay alert boys; looks like we found where they tried to find shelter," the Lieutenant said as his eyes picked out more Ork body parts, many on the edges of craters and half-buried in the rubble all around. The remains of crude Orkish guns lay near most of them, many still in only a few pieces, showing the resilience of Ork technology.
"Well I'll be more'n happy to blast their green arses back into the open," Kallis said as he swept his grenade launcher left and right, checking the various piles of rubble with strong kicks.
"At this rate they'll hear you long before we see them," the Lt. chastised. As he adjusted his cap to block the sun overhead he caught a brief glimpse of something vanishing around a corner a dozen meters ahead. Raising a fist, he signaled for a covering advance. He smiled a bit as his men quickly formed up into fire teams and advanced a meter or two at a time, dashing from cover to cover and keeping their eyes peeled for lurking Orks.
"I don't see anything; you sure you saw Orks Lt.?" Trooper Palkins asked as he ducked behind a large rubble pile which had once formed the wall of a local administratum building. Random words could still be made out on some of the pieces, denoting the virtues of ceaseless work and obedience. Half burned papers rustled slightly as the debris shifted. Palkins jerked his lasgun around just as the debris exploded upwards and a huge Ork, its green frame leaking blood from half a dozen open wounds charged forward and punched the Guardsman square in the face. With a sickening crack he flew backwards, collapsing around a bent lamp post.
"WAAAAAGH!" The Ork yelled as it raised a bent cleaver and charged at Trooper Kallis.
"Oh yea, bring it!" Kallis shouted at the bellowing Ork. Smiling he brought up his grenade launcher and fired. A loud bang filled the air and the chest of the Ork became a smear of green blood and shredded organs. The Ork took three more steps before its brain processed the fact that it was dead and collapsed to the ground. "Well, that was easy," Kallis said in disappointment. "Barely got a workout with that one."
"I think you're about to get that workout Mr. Kallis," the Lt. remarked as he pointed to the rubble the Ork had emerged from. With the top layer of debris cleared the Guardsmen could now see the Ork had come from a buried section of a vehicle parking complex. Bellows of rage and excitement echoed up as more Orks worked their way to the surface. "Find cover and concentrate your fire! Remember, it takes a few shot to knock an Ork down AND make him stay down."
"Only one shot from me!" Kallis smirked as he selected a krak round and sighted on the doorway the Orks would have to take to get above ground.
Lt. Callis crouched down behind a fallen gargoyle statue and slowly sighted his bolt pistol on the entrance. He knew they had to thin the Ork ranks before they hit open ground and could get to grips with his men. They had all faced the Orks many timed during the seven months they had been fighting to save Belthre from the Greenskins. He knew what it took to defeat them.
As the first Ork burst from the collapsed building he placed a bolt round into its roaring mouth, bursting the foul creature's head like an overripe Chola melon. As the Ork fell the one behind it roughly shoved its dead companion aside and opened fire with the crude shoota clutched in its hands. Rounds burst against the stone and wood cover around his position, with most of the fire going wide as the green skinned brute rushed in for a finishing blow. Lasgun fire stabbed into it from ten different angles, burning away the crude leather jacket it wore across its broad chest. One lucky shot touched off the spare ammo the Ork had haphazardly stored in a pocket. The misfiring rounds riddled the Ork with its own shells and it jerked and roared as its body finally gave out, sending the second Ork of the day to face the Emperor's judgment.
"Come on, come and get it!" Trooper Kallis shouted joyfully as he punched a krak round into an Ork's chest, blowing its ribs and organs apart and causing the grenade it had been priming to roll away and explode harmlessly below a sewer grate. "That all you got!" He challenged, half-standing and making an obscene gesture at the Greenskins.
"Kallis get back into cover or Emperor help me I will shoot your courage packs right off of you!" The Lt. threatened. He saw that the Orks were making it out of the hole more quickly, though their tide seemed to have slowed. He could make out eight at least, with one handling the burning barrel of a crude Ork flamethrower. That Ork had just made himself the biggest target of the day. "Vallis, Dert, kill the flamer!" He yelled, watching the flamer Ork trigger a stream of bright orange flame which dissipated well short of his men but gave the Orks a second more to close the distance.
"Burn da 'umies!" The burna Ork bellowed, rolling a lit smoke stick it its mouth. Suddenly a lasbolt melted the trigger button and atomized the finger clenching it, but that simply locked the weapon onto full blast. "BURN!!" The Ork yelled, swinging the burna in a wide arc which managed to catch two of the Guardsmen and lighting them up, their screams echoing down the street as their flesh was seared and the sickening stench of cooking meat filled the air.
"Bastard! Take this!" Kallis screamed, sighting another krak grenade on the Ork flamer, but just then a lasbolt finally hit a weak point in the Ork flamer's fuel tank and set off the volatile contents. The resultant explosion sent a searing wave of heat washing over half the street as well as flash frying three of the charging Orks.
"Oh yea, feel the burn!" Kallis cheered, then ducked to avoid a round of shells from an Ork whose left arm hung limp and burned at his side. The pistol in its right coughed a barrage of slung which rapidly ate away at his cover. Taking a chance, he rolled to the right and fired a round from the hip which thankfully caught the one-armed Ork in its good limb, dropping it and the gun to the ground. A round from the Lt.'s bolt pistol cracked the Ork's skull and dropped it with a spray of green blood and bone chips.
"What I wouldn't give right now have old Allis fighting beside us," Guardsman Dallis remarked, invoking the name of the great warrior king who had founded the Allis city state back on the regiment's home planet and whose name most children incorporated into their own.
"What I wouldn't give for some precision orbital bombardment," replied a Guardsman in the rear of the company.
Only three Orks remained, and all were taking steady streams of lasgun fire. Kallis let out a whoop and he scored a direct face hit with a frag in its face. Just then the tunnel the Orks had come out of shattered as a huge form pushed itself out. Thick plates of armor covered most of its body, and wheezing pipes steamed angrily as the Ork Nob roared its hatred at the Guardsmen. "Time fur sum fun!" The Nob shouted, the remained of a steel pipe bent around its leg showing why it had been the last out. Raising one arm it sent out a blast of plasma which vaporized Trooper Pener and melted a hole through a collapsed wall behind him.
"Take him down!" Kallis yelled as he fired a krak which struck the Nob in the chest and dented the thick sleet plate. Roaring in rage the metal clad Ork fired its plasma weapon again, nearly ending Kallis's bravery as he rolled out of the way, the back of his flak jacket seared by the plasma. Completing his roll behind blackened frame of a small ground car he crawled over to a toppled statue of some great Administratum bureaucrat as high caliber round tore through his former cover. He heard the bark of the Lieutenant's bolt pistol twice, then a roaring shot from the Ork alongside the ever present snap crack of lasgun fire.
Risking a glance, he saw to his delight the Ork hammering away at its big gun, apparently overheated judging by the red glow from the barrel. "Hey, metal face!" He challenged, smiling as he fired his last krak round, aiming for the beast's roaring face. It ducked to the side and the grenade blew apart the plasma gun instead, inciting a roar of pain from the huge Ork as it charged, a piston driven claw clanking open in anticipation of biting through soft human flesh.
"I've got this!" Trooper Vallis called as he sighted his lasgun and struck the Ork in the throat, but the hit was absorbed by a scrap of armor sticking out. "Damn!" He cursed as he aimed higher, braking off a tusk with his second shot and splitting the Ork's lower lip.
"DIE UMMIE!" The Ork bellowed as it tore down at Vallis, who rolled to the side at the last instant. The claw came down, narrowly missing his head and instead shearing his lasgun in half with a crunch of metal on metal. The Ork twisted around startlingly fast for its size and swung its power claw again. Vallis rolled again, but this time the Ork was ready and as the Guardsman dodged the claw the Nob caught him with a bone crushing kick to the chest. Bellowing a victory cry he turned to the next closest trooper and charged, but by now he was taking lasgun bolts from every direction, and several caught vulnerable points in his armor, severing pipes and eventually cutting through his armor. The pain only made the Nob move faster, crushing a head with his claw and kicking another across the street with his steel clad foot. Finally a frag grenade exploded in his face and shredded his small brain. The fire in the Nob's eyes died as the Ork slumped to the ground with a heavy bang.
"Well that was fun," Kallis remarked as he shook his head, sending a cascade of brick dust into the air. "Right LT?" He asked with a smirk, anticipating a quick retort. "LT!?
"He's dead," Trooper Dert announced as he stood over a body missing its upper half, a bolt pistol still clenched in one hand.
"Well I'm not," Trooper Vallis called from across the street. "Though I could use a hand getting up; Ork boots are harder than they look," he groaned as he held what were probably a lot of broken ribs.
"Well he wouldn't want us standing around here feeling sorry for him," Kallis replied, prying the Lt.'s bolt pistol from his hand and ticking it into his waistband. "He'd want us to complete this sweep and get back to the rendezvous point ASAP. First though we gotta decide who's in charge now. I nominate me."
"And I say that'd be the worst idea you've ever had," Dert replied. "Knowing you, we'd end up fighting every Ork from here to the rendezvous."
"And I suppose you think you're better for it?" Kallis challenged, staring down at the thinly built trooper. "I stopped that last Ork, and I know you know I got us this victory. I should be in charge!"
"Let's put it to a vote and be done with it," Trooper Dsani proposed. "Any Orks within two klicks'll have heard that firefight and head straight here."
"Fine with me," Kallis smiled as the rest of the men gathered around. Vallis stood with an arm around Dert's shoulder as he carefully checked his ribs.
"Let's do it. All who want Dert as the new Sarge raise a hand." Eight hands rose into the air and stayed long enough for Dert to count. "All for Kallis?" Nine hands went up at the grenadier's name. "Kallis wins by one vote. Kallis, hope you don't lead us into another one of these," he said, sweeping a hand around at the carnage.
"I didn't get us into the first one," the burly Guardsman replied. "First things first, let's make sure there aren't any more Orks waiting for us down there. I'm outta kraks so I guess we're gonna have to do it the old fashioned way. Follow he," he ordered as he started down the tunnel the Orks had emerged from. Up close he could see the path was a half collapsed corridor which led into the sub-levels of the Administratum building, not the parking complex as he's first thought. Here bodies lay in crumpled heaps where the Orks had gunned or cut them down. Blood sat in large pools, running slowly down with the slant of the floor. Many were in pieces, their bodies looking like they'd been pulled apart. "Damn," Kallis grunted, "Orks really went all out down here."
"And paid for it too," Dert added as he spotted an Ork corpse lying face down, a large pool of green blood running slowly downward, mixing with the tide of red.
"Musta been some fight," Kallis said as he stepped over the torn apart copse of a woman, her formally blue robes dyed a deep purple by the blood. As he moved forward his ears picked out a sound up ahead, but he couldn't quite make it out. Hefting his grenade launcher, he advanced more quickly down the passage. The farther he went the more bodies impeded his way, civilians as well as functionaries and the occasional Ork. Finally the group came to a shattered doorway, dim yellow light coming from inside. "Weapons ready," he whispered as he rushed through the doorway and nearly vomited as his eyes took in the large chamber which had once probably been a storage closet. Pieces of bodies lay everywhere, and blood decorated the walls, floor and ceiling in streaks of red and green. Even he couldn't tell how many bodies there had once been.
"Emperor's holy name!" Dert breathed as he came in behind Kallis. "Looks like a Genestealer had a party in here!" He added as his ears suddenly picked up soft sounds coming from one corner of the room. As the rest of the men covered the far door, which was also in pieces on the floor, the two men threaded their way through the sea of body parts, blood sucking at their boots with every step. "It's coming from under there." Dert pointed his lasgun at the body of a woman whose spine had been torn out.
"Cover me," Kallis said as he reached down and slowly pulled the body away, revealing the shivering form of a child. Blood had glued her cloths to her skin and matted her hair to her neck. She looked up at the two men with wide dilated, fearful eyes which glanced around sharply, looking for a place to run. "Hey, are you ok?" He asked as he slowly held out a hand. The girl jerked backwards against the wall, shivering harder now as her chest rose and fell rapidly.
"Back off big guy, you're scaring her," Dert said as he pushed the big man aside and knelt down in front of the girl. She stared back at him, tears streaking the blood covering her face. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you," he smiled as he plucked a ration bar from a pocket and held it out to her. She cringed away, trying to bury herself into the wall. "It's all right; it's food," he said, tearing the wrapper and taking a bite. "Not very good food but it'll fill you up." He slowly put the ration down on a bundle of bloody cloth near the girl's legs. She looked at him for a few seconds before her arm flashed out and snatched up the light brown bar. She bit off a small piece and made a face but devoured the rest of the bar in a few large bites. "See, it's not so bad, and neither are we." He was pleased to note that the girl's frightened stare now included a bit of curiosity.
"Nothing in the other chambers," one of the men called as the patrols returned.
"Good, let's get ready to move out," Kallis ordered. "Take her or leave her Dert, but we're going now."
"Come on, I won't hurt you," Dert promised as he again held out a hand to the girl, putting on his best smile. "I promise." The girl stayed still for several long moments, her wide eyes staring deep into Dert's as more small tears dripped down her stained face. Finally she shifted forward and held out her arms. "All right," Dert smiled as he slung his lasgun over his shoulder, reached down and grasped her in his arms. "You ok?" He asked. The girl responded by resting her head against his chest and closing her eyes, the edges of a faint smile tugging at her lips.
As the team moved back up into the daylight Kallis quickly checked the immediate area for Ork ambushers. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary he signaled and the rest of the team came up. "All right, the Lt. said the rendezvous point's a makeshift spaceport outside the city. Least a few days walk, so let's get started. Falks, you and Hejic take point. Dert, you and your new friend keep to the center. Wouldn't wanna disturb her beauty sleep would we?" The big man smiled.
"Thanks Sarge," Dert replied, looking down at the sleeping girl in his arms. Now that they were in better light he could see that she was wearing what had once been a white long sleeved shirt and tan trousers, common garb in Balak City. The shirt was stained arterial red along with most of her exposed skin, and the trousers were a darker red, almost black.
"She's your responsibility Dert," the new Sergeant said, keeping his eyes moving along with his legs. "If we get in a firefight you put her down and pick up your gun got it?"
"Got it Sarge," Dert replied seriously. "No worries there. So how far you figure we'll push today?"
Kallis looked up into the sky, where the sun was nearly two thirds of the way down in the sky. "I'd say we've got an hour or two of light left. Come nightfall we'll make camp and double time it early tomorrow. "Besides, after the fight we just went through I know most of them men are gonna need some sleep. Not me of course, but then I AM the biggest and strongest of the lot of you," he smirked.
"We know Sarge, we know," Dert smiled. "Like you'd ever let us forget," he added under his breath.
…
The team made good time as the dun dipped lower in the sky, turning the sky overhead into a riot of orange, yellow and pink. They'd left the Administratum district behind and begun making their way through the burnt out husks of stacked levels of housing blocks, most collapsed by either the Basilisk bombardment of the air strikes a week ago which had paved the way for the Imperial Guard's advance into the city.
They made camp inside a storehouse which had somehow survived the war with three of its walls intact, the forth little more than a gaping hole singed with black around the edges.
"All right, let's everyone get some sleep. Kallic, Arthe; you two've got guard duty for the first three hours, Vallis and Ijak, the next four. When you two are done it'll be time to move. Now bed down and make sure to keep your lasgun by your pillow."
As Dert found a semi-comfortable slot on top of a pile of old dry vegetables the girl, who had been sleeping since he'd picked her up, opened her eyes and looked up at him. He was happy to see that some of the fear from before was gone, and in its place he could see a bit of curiosity. "Hey, did you have a good rest?" He asked with a smile as he set her down. She nodded in reply, wiping the old trails of tears from her eye and glancing around at her new surrounding. "We're heading for our friends and we've stopped for the night to sleep," he explained. "Think you can sleep some more?" Getting a second nod he smiled as he lay down across from her. Sorry I don't have a blanket, but this planet's pretty warm this time of year." The girl smiled and scooted closer to Dert, draping an arm over him and snuggling her head into his shoulder. He saw a few fresh drops fall down her cheeks as her grip tightened around his chest. "All right then," he whispered as he started counting eagles until he fell asleep, a gentle warm breeze blowing in through the open wall.
…
"SARGE!!" The piercing cry woke Dert with a start. He was on his feet, lasgun in hand in an instant, panning around searching for enemies. The rest of the men were doing the same when trooper Kallic ran into the makeshift barracks, his breathing quick and his eyes wide. Everyone's heads snapped up and hands went for lasguns. Dert placed an arm around the girl, who was clinging tightly to him, her arms trembling and her eyes darting around while fresh tears rolled down her face.
"What in the Emperor's name is it!?" Kallis demanded as the burly stepped forward, grenade launcher primed and ready.
"It's Vallis and Ijak Sarge. They're dead; I found 'em outside. Looks like something hacked them to pieces," the sandy haired Kallic replied.
"Dert, Jeric, with me!" Kallis ordered as he motioned for the troopers to show him the way.
Dert slowly removed the girl's hands. "I'll be right back," he said, and she released him, wrapping her arms around her knees. She gave him a little nod before he turned away and followed Kallis.
The men stepped out into the open air. The sun was still in the process of rising up out of the ground, and the light was dim. The only sounds were of the men gathering kit and forming up just outside the storehouse.
Kallis the Sergeant and Dert to the remains of a dull orange loading vehicle whose chassis had been gutted by a near hit from an artillery shell. Blood now coated the vehicles hull in wide sprays. Ragged chunks of flesh littered the ground alongside shattered pieces of bone. Beneath the rear bumper rested the head of trooper Ijak, his lifeless brown eyes staring into his Sergeant's. "In the Emperor's holy name," the big man whispered. "I guess we didn't get all the Orks after all."
"No, if it had been Orks they would have hit us too. I'd say it was probably a rouge pack of those Squigs the Orks sometimes use," Dert suggested as his stomach threatened to reintroduce him to last night's ration bar the ugly way. "Though they don't usually leave this amount of meat behind."
"All I know is that whoever did this is gonna bleed," Kallis vowed. "All right men, let's do some hunting!" He shouted, getting a mixture of cheers and mumblings.
"Shouldn't we keep on towards the RP?" Jeric asked as he examined a trio of claw marks ripped straight through the thick skin of the loader. "Whatever did this is pretty strong, and pretty fast if it could take someone like Ijak down without him firing a shot." Indeed, Ijak had long been the fastest when it came to firing from the hip and making the mark.
"If we're dealing with Squigs Sarge, it would be best to keep moving and let them come to us," Dert advised. "Even if they're as tough and fast as Jeric thinks, we can fight them on our terms, not poking around in a place they probably know better than we ever will."
"We're going after them," Kallis declared, fixing the smaller Dert with a withering glare.
"So we're going to search every building in this sector?" Dert challenged, matching the Sergeant's stare with one of his own. "I can't speak for you, but I'd rather fight a squirming sack of flesh and teeth out in the open where a crack shot like you can nail it in one shot without worrying about bringing a building down on our heads."
"Dert's got a point Sarge," Kallic backed up Dert. "We've gotta get to the RP as quick as we can. I wanna kill the things that did this too believe me, but if we go charging into the buildings around here we're just as liable to get buried as the Squigs when we find them."
Kallis grumbled to himself as he weighed his options. He desperately wanted to tear the local area apart looking for the hide of whatever beast had struck during the night. On the other hand, the evac ships wouldn't stay in their position for long. He had to reach the rendezvous point in the next three days from what he remembered of the dead Lt.'s briefing; afterwards it would move even further away, towards the planetary capital where the war was still centered. And with the possibility of more Orks coming in from the sectors of the city under bombardment… "Fine," he growled. "We press on, but if we find any signs that these things are stalking us we stop and solve this the Guard way, with a trusty lasbolt through the head of the problem."
"Or a frag in your case," Dert smiled as he quickly made his way back into the storehouse. She was waiting for him, arms held out and a small smile blossoming on her face when she saw him. "Hey, ready to travel some more?" He asked, and she nodded, her smile widening as he gathered her up in his arms.
"Let's move out!" Kallis called out as he took point, leading the unit through more burned out hab blocks.
Burned out or pulverized groundcars became a common site on the roadsides as the men progressed, and they began to spot bodies among the debris; decomposing sacks of flesh with rats lurking around them, yellowed eyes watching the men from under rubble and inside cracked walls. Kallis and Guardsman Allic swept from the front, the rest of the men fanning out along both sides of the street, advancing in pairs as they covered each other.
Dert crouched low as he panned his lasgun inside a badly cracked baker's shop. The moldy, petrified remains of the owner's former products gave off a gagging odor. Looking down at the form clutching his chest he smiled down at her, an expression she returned. "Hey, could you possibly let go and walk on your own?" He asked her. "I need to be able to move faster or you could be hurt if something comes at us," he added when he saw her eyes begin to tear up. "I promise I won't let you out of my sight." Very slowly he felt her release her grip on him and he lowered her to the ground where she stood at his side looking up at him with curious eyes. "Follow me," he said as he jogged back to his place in the line. His little friend followed him, moving just as fast as he did. Her clothing cracked and crunched several times as the blood soaked cloth was subjected to new movements.
"Looks like your new friend's pretty quick on her feet," Kallic commented as he came up on Dert's right. "Do you have a name?" He asked with a smile. The girl responded by ducking behind Dert and grabbing his waist. "Didn't mean to scare you," he apologized.
"She just takes time to warm up to people," Dert replied as he swept his sites over a collapsed three level hab block. Body appendages protruded like grave markers, and the girl tightened her grip on Dert's waist. "Don't worry, nothing around here gonna hurt you as long as you have me here to protect you," he smiled.
"Heads up, I hear something," Kallis called from up ahead, bringing the troops to a quick half and moving into cover. Quickly the roaring whine of Ork engines became audible, along with the guttural whoops and hollers of their crews. When the sound began shaking the small pieces of rubble a pair of Ork bikes swerved around the bend of a street about fifty meters ahead. A black and grey steel warbike was ahead of the other while the second, a bright red contraption with two red painted tires and a bolted on cannon closed the gap. The leader pulled a large pistol from the side of his bike and blasted off three shots into his competition, denting the bodywork and the barrel of the cannon. Both hollered Orkish curses at the other and butted their rides and heads together.
"Get ready boys," Kallis said openly as the smoke belching contraptions quickly grew closer. The closer the Orks got the noisier their mounts became, filling the street with the mechanical equivalent of harsh music. Without bothering to aim they unleashed a volley of fire from the big guns bolted to the fronts of their bikes. "Duck and cover!" The men dove to the ground and waited as windows shattered and stone was turned to dust.
They were barely fifty meters away when the big man jumped up, already aiming Old Bamba. "Say deathtrap!" He smirked as he fired a frag low to the ground. It detonated just as the spiked front tire of the Ork bike passed over it, throwing the wheel up into the air but somehow the rider regained control and aimed his forward twin linked shootas in the direction of the guardsmen. The rounds raised clouts of pulverized brick dust and flying fragments of bone as the bikes bore down on their targets.
Dert squeezed off a couple of rounds, one hitting the first Ork in the shoulder and burning a fresh wound it its shoulder. "WAAAAHH!!" The greenskin shouted, revving his bike's engine and preparing to crush Dert under his thick tires. The guardsman threw himself to the side, and as the Ork sharply banked around the damage done by Kallis took effect. The Ork bike's front tire tore away from the main body and the entire vehicle flipped and landed upside down before bursting into flames. "I got the first one!" He yelled in triumph.
"Only because I grenaded it for ya!" Kallis called in reply as he turned his attention back to the second Ork biker, who was barreling right for him. "Now watch this!" Firing from the hip, the big man thumped a grenade at the face of the Ork driver, but just before it hit the Ork switched targets to blast at two troopers rushing between cover. A hail of fire from the twin linked guns riddled one man with metal and exploded the knee of the second, leaving him writhing in the open with blood pooling around him and his cries of agony echoing off the building faces.
The grenade explosion caught the Ork across the right shoulder and chest, ribboning the flesh and spraying green blood over the Ork's face as a few shards sliced open his forehead. "WAAAAGH!" He roared as he rode on blind, his Ork need for speed strong even when blind. Guardsman Hellic managed to tag the bike's fuel tank with a lucky shot, sending the poorly built mound of metal up like an inferno bomb. The flaming corpse of its rider flew into the side of a building with a wet crack.
"Well I guess that takes care of that," Kallis grinned as he watched burning fuel from the Ork bikes leak into a sewer grate. "All right, who's hurt?" He asked, wiping the dust from his face with a dirty hand which only served to smear it around.
"Gellic's dead, and Dallis's going to bleed out if we can't patch this up," Dert replied as he tried to stem the tide of blood pouring from Dallis's ruined knee. The Ork shell had hit dead on, shattering every bone in the knee and tearing out most of the muscle nearby.
"Let me through!" Came an angry shout as Nallic, the unit's medic came forward and knelt in the expanding puddle of blood. Carefully he probed the area around the knee and cut away the pant leg of the uniform to get better access. "I can tell you right now that he needs surgery, and I doubt there's a fully equipped medicae center around here."
"Can you keep him alive long enough for us to reach the RP Doc?" Kallis asked, very serious all of a sudden.
"I can try," the medic replied as he worked a tourniquet around Dallis's wounded knee and covered it in gauze. He took a syringe filled with a pale blue liquid and injected it into the man's upper thigh. "I'm afraid that's all I can do until we reach the RP," he said as he packed away his supplies.
"Then let's get moving," Kallis said. "Nallic, Hellic, you two help Dallis. Everyone else prepare to move out!" Taking a moment to pull a fragment of rockcrete from his leg, the burly guardsman took a deep breath. The burning fuel and corpse of their Ork attackers made him cough and he spat a wad of flem on the ground. He watched as Nallic and Hellic helped Dallis to his feet and act as his second leg. "All right, now let's move before any MORE Orks decide to join our little party. Not that I'd mind but now I got wounded to care about."
"We hear ya Sarge," Dert replied with a faint smile as his own responsibility climbed up on his back and wrapped her little arms around his neck. He smiled at her over his shoulder. "Hey, do you think you can walk?" He asked. "More of those bad people might come and attack us, and I'll have to move fast to protect you ok?" She dropped to the ground and stood beside him, wrapping her hand around his. "All right, I'll take that."
"Figure out her name yet?" Kallis asked as he moved past Dert to take the lead. He gave the girl a smile as he passed and she smiled back but didn't speak.
"Not yet; I'd say she's still coming out of shock. After the place where we found her, can't say I blame her."
"Yea," Kallis mused as he started the column moving. The buildings were slowly getting smaller, or at least their ruined frames seemed to be more complete. He could also make out rats scurrying from one building to another in search of food. Their beady yellow eyes regarded him momentarily before darting away. "Damn rats," he muttered. He'd hated the things ever since a pack of giant rats back on his homeworld had eaten his family's harvest and left them on the streets for three years. He vowed to kill a few for dinner.
The team made good time through the mercantile districts. No more Orks showed their faces, most were probably heading towards the heavy fighting around the capital. Still, the signs of their handiwork were everywhere: crude glyphs carved or painted onto buildings, the blasted remains of civilians and the occasional green skinned corpse. The girl clung to Dert very tight when they passed the remains, tears falling from her eyes at the site of women and children butchered like animals to slate the Orks' never ending thirst for violence. That only made Kallis more enraged that he had nothing to slate his own anger on. Ever since he had entered the Guard the civilian dead he'd seen had always bothered him the most, because to him it meant he had failed in his duty to defend the Imperium against its enemies. At least he had a chance to save one of them this time, and he would do everything in his power to get them all back to the rest of the Guard.
As the sun began dipping below the horizon Kallis called a halt in front of a mostly intact hab. Its walls were still standing and the slanted roof was unbroken except for a few sections which had been chewed out by heavy cannon fire. "All right boys, we'll camp indoors tonight, but I want five men on guard at all times. No more blood in the night got it?!"
"Got it Sarge," the twelve remaining Guardsmen replied. Three hurried inside and swept the rooms. Everything was on the floor and strewn around, showing the former occupants had left in a hurry. There was no indication of any combat aside from the holes in one wall and a section of the ceiling where a heavy cannon had cut through.
"All clear!" One of the men replied as he threw his pack down on a small cot which by the size of it had been a child's. His two companions each snagged one of the piles of discarded clothing and placed their packs as pillows. The rest of the men spread out over the floor, with Kallis taking the only actual bed. "Good to finally have a real bed Sarge?"
"It beats pavement, that's all I'm gonna say. Now five of you lot just got nominated for first guard shift. Decide who that's gonna be in five minutes or I'll do it for ya," Kallis said as he shrugged off his pack and leaned back on the soft and slightly bouncy bed. Cracking his neck, he looked over and saw the men drawing random articles of clothing from an upside down basket. Five of them grudgingly gathered their lasguns and trudged outside. "Keep alert!" He called after them. Setting his head down on the soft fabrics of the bedding, he was out before he knew it.
…
It was the scream that woke him. A piercing cry of agony and fear shot through the small hab, jolting everyone rudely out of sleep as the snap crack of lasguns cut through the night air. "Everyone, with me!" Kallis shouted as he grabbed his grenade launcher from where it lay just off to his side. Rushing to the door, he threw it open and was greeted by a wash of blood which covered his head and chest as the head and limbless body of a guardsman thudded into him. Trooper Nallic and three other guardsmen fire their lasguns on full auto at a black skinned creature which dodged the bright blue bolts with supernatural speed and ran directly at the source of the attack. The little light that shone on it revealed a thickly muscled main body and short, thick legs which propelled the beast forward of bounding leaps.
Springing forward with powerful strides of its thick legs, the creature made straight for the doorway into the hab, a ferocious roar belting from its fang lined mouth. A lasbolt hit in the shoulder but, to the men's shock, passed straight through it, though the beast did let out a sharp cry of pain before turning away and jumping up into the shadows across the street. There was a sound of shattering glass and then nothing.
"What in the Emperor's name was that?!" Nallic asked, his breathing fast and short as he shone the light of the luminator he'd mounted in the bayonet lug of his lasgun into the building across the street. The beam of light showed a hole busted into the side of the three story building but no signs of the creature.
"My guess, that's the thing that killed Vallis and Ijak," Dert answered, shivering despite the warmth of the air. "I've never seen anything like that. Did you see Nallic's lasbolt go clean through it?! Nothing should be able to move like that either!"
"There wasn't even any blood," Nallic added as the freckle faced guardsman wiped his brow with one hand, the other keeping his lasgun trained on the hole the creature had made. "Think it'll be back Sarge?" He asked.
"It was last night," Kallis replied. "We have to take this thing out, or else it'll just keep picking us off, maybe even attacking during the day once we're weak enough."
"But Sarge, can we take that thing? You saw how it did against five of us, and if we hunt it we'll be on its turf."
"We're already on its turf Nallic; probably have been since we entered the city. Hell, those people where we found the girl were probably one of its meals." When he finished Kallis heard a soft rustle coming from inside. Instinct twisted his lasgun and brought it to bear on the peeking head of the young girl. She gasped softly and wrapped her arms around the legs of Dert. "Gah, sorry kid," he apologized as he moved his aim. Tears were streaming down the girl's face, and she was shaking as badly as when they'd first found her.
"Hey, it's ok now," Derk said as he wrapped an arm around her, keeping his lasgun secure in the other. "The monster won't come back tonight, I promise." As he held her Derk felt her shudder several times. Moving back a bit he saw her head moving forward a bit as if she was trying to speak. "It's all right, you can talk to me," he encouraged.
Her body trembling even harder, the girl clenched her fists. "Sh-sh-sh," she stuttered. "SHADOW MONSTER!!!" She screamed as she buried her face in Derk's stomach. "Kill everyone, come through walls and kill everyone." Her voice was muffled from Derk's flak vest but every one of the guardsmen heard her words. "Even big greenies die before…before…" She couldn't continue as her body was wracked by intense sobs.
"Shhh, it's ok," Dert said softly as he held the girl. Hooking a hand under her chin he brought her head to so he could look into her slightly red eyes. Wiping a tear away with his thumb he smiled. "We're going to stop the monster once and for all, but I need to ask you something first ok?" Sniffling loudly the girl nodded. "Do you know how to hurt it? How did you survive when it attacked you before?"
"H-hid," the girl replied softly through her tears. "Mommy fell on me and…" She trailed off, her sobs getting softer but her shoulders were now rising and falling with each of them. "Always comes back for more, greenies said," she added a minute later.
"Hear that boys?!" Kallis asked, standing to his full height and holding his grenade launcher in firing position. "This thing's gonna keep coming after us until we take it out! Now I'm sure that we hurt it, we just have to finish it off!"
"But how do we even find it? It's still pitch black out there?" A guardsman at the back of the room asked. "And even if we do how are we supposed to kill it when our lasbolts go straight through it?"
"They hurt it," Kallis replied, fixing the man with a deadly stare. "Enough should kill it!"
"What if there's more than one of them? You really thing we can take on a pack of those things?" Tallis asked.
"Well we can either wait here for it to come back or go out and kill it while it's injured. I know what my choice is; I'm gonna bag me some black hide!"
"Yea, if we just sit here that thing's bound to come back and get us," Tijak added. "Count me in!"
"Me too!"
"And me!"
One by one the guardsmen stood and shouldered their lasguns; all except Dert who stayed with the girl. "We should at least wait an hour or so until dawn. Night hunting gives that thing an advantage in camouflage."
"All right," Kallis conceded. "We set off in an hour. Eat some rations; you'll need your strength."
As Dert sat back down he broke a ration bar in half and offered half to his little friend, who took it and tried to smile at him but instead lowered her head as another tear ran down her face. "Hey, I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to make you relive what happened, but I want to keep my friends safe just like I imagine you did." Slowly, he reached out and placed his hand over hers. She looked up at him with her wet eyes and sniffled softly. "You're brave to have come this far with us. I'd really like to know your name."
"M-Miranda," the girl replied in a whisper. Hey body seemed to relax when she said the word, as though a great deal of tension had left her.
"Miranda; that's a nice name. Can you tell me how old you are?"
Miranda shook her head, smirking a little. "That's my secret," she replied as she gave a yawn. "Tired," she said as she laid her head down on Dert's lap and dozed off.
"All right, you get some sleep," Dert whispered as he began taking his lasgun apart to clean it. Laying out the components one by one, he slowly examined each one, replacing the power pack and the focusing crystal which showed enough wear to see that it was close to failing. As he worked all the doubts and fears he'd been feeling dropped away, leaving only his hands and the metallic components in front of him. This was his time, his space to recharge himself. His hands worked the lasgun while his mind focused on the task he was about to undertake. Could a creature that could seemingly not be hurt be killable?
"All right, let's move it out!" The voice of Sergeant Kallis snapped Dert out of his focus. Looking down he saw Miranda looking up at him, a small smile curving her lips. "Coming Dert?" Kallis asked, smirking at him as he felt Miranda shift to a sitting position.
"You know it Sarge," Dert replied. Looking down at Miranda he said "you're going to have to stay here ok? It's too dangerous for you to come with us." Miranda nodded, but clung to Dert tightly.
"Dallis, you'll stay with the girl," Kallis continued. "With that leg you're going to be slowed down, so stay here and keep our little bolt hole safe."
"I know, I know," the injured Guardsman replied, his face now noticeably pale and his arms moving slower than normal as he propped himself up against a wall with his lasgun at his side. "I don't think I could keep up with you right now even if I did have two working legs," he joked, cracking a smile even though he felt like he might fall asleep any moment. The painkillers dulled the agony his wound had been giving him, but he knew it was only a matter of time unless he got to a proper medicae.
Dert led Miranda over to Dallis and gently sat her down. "Stay here ok? This is my friend Dallis; he'll keep you safe until I get back."
Miranda moved a few feet away from Dallis and sat with her back resting against the wall. "Stay here," she said quietly. She smiled when Dert patted her on the head.
"Good girl, we won't be long, and when we come back we'll have the head of the monster that killed your mom," Dert promised as he joined the other guardsmen filing out the door.
"Eyes!" Miranda suddenly called out after Dert. "Hit the eyes and it screams."
"Thanks, we'll remember that," Kallis said as he led the guardsmen out into a street. The sun had risen enough that the shadows of dawn were nearly gone, leaving only small pools of darkness around the more intact buildings. Here and there rats scurried into their holes with the spoils of their night raids clenched in their yellowed teeth. "This way," he said as the group moved over to the building the creature had leapt into when it fled. Sure enough one window was freshly broken, with glass glinting in the new light. "Let's go."
As the men approached the simple grey stone building, the temperature dropped as they entered the shadows surrounding it, sending a chill through each man's spine. A slight pressure seemed to press in on them, as if they had just descended several hundred meters.
"Looks like we've found our starting point," Dert said as he moved up beside Kallis as they approached the small wooden entrance. Leering gargoyles stood on either side, prayers inscribed into their bases. "At least the Emperor has our backs in here."
"Yea well I'd settle for a few more krak rounds for my baby here." Kallis gave the door an experimental push. When it didn't budge he leaned back and planted an explosive kick into the brass handle, cracking the door inwards and sending a boom echoing through the interior.
"Way to be subtle Sarge," Nallic remarked as the rest of the men entered behind their sergeant, finding themselves standing in a small reception area. A line of bare wooden chairs were set against the wall and a long counter ran half the length of the opposite. The walls were tan imitation wood and littered with various awards and plaques noting sports and track heroes of the city. A bare white door tucked into one corner was the only visible way further in.
"Looks like we found ourselves the local sports and gym place," Dert noted obviously as he read some of the plaques as he passed. "Scrumball pitch champions for five years straight. Think I woulda liked this place," he smiled.
"Well let's play ball with that beast's head," Kallis replied with a frown as he carefully opened the white door, the barrel of his weapon the first thing through. Beyond the door was a long hallway of tan wood with unlit glow globes lining the walls. Spying a bank of flip switches to his right the big man flipped several to no avail. "Worth a try," he grumbled. "All right, lamps on," he ordered as he drew his clamp on laminator, sticking it into a bolted on clamp. "Now stay alert; remember what that girl said about this thing going through walls."
"And remember to aim for the eyes too," Dert added. The hallway was only wide enough for two men to walk side by side, and the shadows danced where the laminator beams passed. The unlit glass ovals set into the ceiling seemed to transform into inky black eyes watching the progress of intruders into their home.
"Is it just me or did it just get colder in here?" Trooper Hallis asked from the rear of the column just as a black fog exploded from the right hand wall. A tremendous roar filled the corridor as the creature, its body seemingly coalescing from the fog itself, slammed into Hallis, knocking the lasgun from the man's hands and breaking every rib with a sickening crack. A quick shout of pain was all that escaped the man's mouth before he was slammed into the opposite wall. The form of the creature returned to black mist as it vanished into the wall, leaving behind a blood coated wall and the body of Hallis, nearly sheared in half and with intestines and organs sliding out across the floor. It was all over in less than three seconds.
"Holy Emperor!" Dert yelped as he panned his light along the walls, floor and ceiling, looking for any sign of the black mist. His light reflected off the luminators in the ceiling, making them seem to stare back at him with cold malevolence.
"How are we supposed to kill something that attacks like THAT!?" Nallis asked as he worked to control his breathing. The floor creaked as he stepped forward, the sound seemingly racing through the floor itself. His breathing quickened again as he realized he was feeling the floor collapsing! "Everyone, we've gotta get back to-" he was cut off as the floor splintered beneath the feet of the guardsmen, sending them falling into blackness. Nallis waited for the inevitable splat into a hard floor, but he felt his body land on something softer and a cloud of dust clogged his mouth. Gagging, he panned his laminator around and found that the fall had ended in a large storage roomful of pale red mats. "Well thank the Emperor for gym class," he chuckled to himself. "Everyone ok?!"
"Fine over here," Dert called from his own dust choked landing point. Around him the other guardsmen got back to their feet. "Guess some of us need to lose some weight," he joked as he looked up at the broken floor six meters above. "Guess we're gonna have to find another way out of here."
"Yea, if that thing doesn't kill us first," Jallis said, his fingers white against the stock of his lasgun. The son of a city leader from the men's home city Allis, the lightly built man had always been the target for practical jokes due to his heightened sense of paranoia. "It probably set that floor trap to bring us down here so it can pick us off one by one!"
"Then we pick it off instead," Dert said strongly. "Just remember to aim for the eyes; that's how we'll kill it."
"Assuming we can even hit it!" Jallis retorted as a roar echoed down from above and the men trained their lasguns up and around to try and spot the creatures before it could attack. "Where is it!?" He yelled, his face frantic as he opened fire at the ceiling. His yell of panic ended when the creature rushed up from the floor, its mist like form flowing around the terrified man, cutting off his screams. As it leapt up into the ceiling a rain of lasbolts chased it, most passing straight through its vaporous form, but one impacted on its head and drew a howl of pain and a crash as it burst through the ceiling, sending a rain of dust and wood chips raining down.
"I think I hit its eye," Dert said as Jallis's body dropped to the floor in a heap. His uniform was shredded, and every inch of his body was covered with deep gashes. Blood, dark against the material of the mats, slowly seeped out in a rough circle. "We've got to move now, before it comes back. There!" He called out as his laminator revealed a rusted metal door set into the far wall. "Follow me." Pushing the door open with a rusty creak, he saw it lead into another hallway, this one made mostly of rockcrete and rusty pipes which dripped foul smelling water.
"Remember, if you feel a sudden chill move fast," Kallis warned as he pushed his way up to the front of the line of troopers. His cheek was bleeding from a shallow cut and stung in the cold air of the hallway. The steady dripped made him have to concentrate hard to pick up any fainter sounds. Up ahead he saw the path divide in two. One way was marked S in faded red paint; the other was labeled B in blue.
"I say we take the S tunnel and hope it means surface," Dert suggested as the other men came up behind him. "B probably means basement or something."
Kallis studies the two choices in front of him. Closing his eyes, he took two deep sniffs of the air. "We go left," he said a moment later.
"Ya smell food that way Sarge?" Trooper Sallis joked, fiddling with his lasgun as its power pack jammed when he tried to pull it out.
"No, but the air doesn't smell as stale this way," the Sergeant answered. "When in doubt, the nose usually knows," he smirked.
"The biggest nose anyway," Dert replied under his breath. Just then he felt a wave of cold wash over his left side. "DOWN!!" He yelled, diving to the floor as the shadow beast coalesced through the wall. A pair of lasgun bolts impacted on its head as it leaned in for his throat, bursting one of its glowing red eyes and shattering it into shards which sliced into the flesh of his arms and chest. A roar twice as loud as before ripped its way from the beast's throat as it turned and lunged with tremendous speed at two guardsmen who pumped more lasgun fire into the beast's now solidifying body. Some passed through, but the beast's form was now closer to oily fluid than vapor. Still the impact of its charge broke one man's neck and opened the other's throat as a wickedly clawed paw slashed through the air.
"Yea, now you're mine!" Kallis shouted in savage joy as he fired a frag into the solidifying body of the beast. The resultant explosion shredded the two dead guardsmen but also drew another roar from the creature as it landed and wheeled around to face him. For an instant he stared into a glowing pit of red hot anger, black sludge leaking from its partner. He felt as though he were looking into the hungry mouth of a furnace, searing heat somehow enveloping his body and curling the hairs on his arms. His uniform felt as if it had just come out of a dryer and the metal buttons seared into his skin. A jolt of fear hit him; he was being burned alive by the creature's gaze and couldn't even move.
Suddenly there came another piercing howl and the pain ceased. Opening his eyes Kallis saw that Dert had shot the beast's second eye, and its form became completely solid. Glossy black skin covered its body, thick legs tipped with inch long claws clicked on the floor and a canine head ended in a long teeth filled maw which opened wide as the beast leapt. Lasbolts, now finding their marks in flesh and bone, burned through flesh and into vital organs. The beast came fell to the ground only a few inches from Kallis's feet. A pool of black blood slowly spread out around it, hissing where it met boot leather. "Nice shooting men," he smiled, ignoring the pain of his singed skin. "Now let's get the hell out of here and double time it to the EP!"
"Yes Sarge!" The men replied in unison as they marched with pride up towards the surface.
…
Guardsman Dallis yawned as he finished polishing the barrel of his lasgun. Light now streamed in bright enough to make the black metal stock shimmer, and he smiled as he saw the girl Miranda blinking as the light hit her eyes as she ate from a ration pack. "Hey, you can hurt your eyes it you do that too much," he said. The warm sun felt good on his face, and he closed his eyes for a moment to let the warmth wash over him. Since Kallis and the others had left he had watched the girl amuse herself with blocks of rockcrete and plaster, smashing them together and throwing the dust against the walls. In several ways the reminded Dallis of his own daughter whom he'd left behind of Allis when the regiment was founded. She had only been four at the time, but when he looked at Miranda's smiling face he couldn't help but see his little girl.
Suddenly there came a crash as the door was thrown from its hinges, its flying bulk clipping Miranda's head and sending her crashing to the floor. The wooden missile barely missed crushing Dallis against the wall as he rolled to the side, hissing in pain as his injured leg protested. Raising his lasgun, he had just enough time to see a black mass flash inside and crash against him. Razor sharp talons tore at his flesh and a great pressure closed around his throat. He felt his windpipe shatter as Miranda's scream filled the air. He tried to reach for his knife but his wrist was shattered by a hard stomp. The last thing he felt was his throat being torn out and his lifeblood spilling across the floor before everything faded to black.
…
"Finally," Kallis cursed as he stepped through a shattered door back out into the sunlight. In had taken nearly an hour to make it back to the surface, but the knowledge that the thing which had been hunting them was dead brought some comfort. Still, only seven of the eleven men had emerged from the underground. "Let's collect our two stragglers and get the hell out of this damned place."
"No one's gonna argue with you there Sarge," Dert replied as the team crossed the short distance to the building where they had left Dallis and Miranda. However when they got closer he saw the door had been ripped off and the smell of fresh blood was in the air. "Something's wrong."
"I know," Kallis replied, gesturing for silence and a covering advance. Then men wearily dropped into positions. Their encounter with the shadow beast has seriously drained them mentally. Nevertheless they advanced silently and quickly, lasguns trained on the broken door and windows around them, alert for any possible ambushes.
Dert and Kallis reached the door first and nodded. Dert rolled in low, Kallis high with his grenade launcher primed and loaded. Both men nearly hurled when they saw what the room they had slept in only hours ago had become. The walls were spattered with blood and viscera, and pieces of bones and organs were stuck to the ceiling. The severed head of guardsman Dallis lay in the middle of the room, staring up at them with hollowed out eyes.
"Miranda?" Dert called softly, hoping that at least one of the people here had survived. He heard a sound coming from under a bundle of discarded cloths and fallen pieces of plaster. Advancing carefully, he flipped the top pieces of debris away, revealing the trembling head of Miranda. "Hey, you're ok!" He smiled, beginning to dig her out of her impromptu fort.
"But you're not," Miranda whispered as screams from outside came in along with roars Dert and Kallis had hoped never to hear again.
"Come on!" Kallis urged, pulling Dert along with him as he raced outside, where to both men's horror they found the remaining guardsmen being mauled by a second shadow beast. This one was much bigger, at least two meters in height and with the same vapor-like form as the first but with eyes that shone with black light which somehow gleamed brighter than the rays coming from the sun overhead. With a single swipe of its paw it tore Jellis in half, sending the upper torso splattering into the wall just to Kallis's right. "Time to die you bastard!" He yelled in fury as he sent a grenade into the beast. It turned its head and roared, a blast of sound which detonated the grenade in midair, killing one man who was standing too close.
"This worked before," Dert said to himself as he sent a lasbolt at the beast's eye, but it dodged faster than his eye could track, seeming to shift position without even moving. Ignoring him, it turned its attention back to the men firing into it from all sides. It bit the head off of one man while lashing out with a vaporous tail to crush the throat of another.
"DAMN IT!!" Kallis shouted as he raised his launcher for another shot, sighting on the beast's head, but just as he was about to pull the trigger a huge force hit him in the back, sending him flying through the air to land at the beast's feet. Dert fell beside him a moment later. Both raised their weapons but before they could shoot huge paws crushed their wrists and sent their weapons spinning away on twin cries of pain. The beast loomed over them, growling and dripping foul smelling drool on their faces from its huge fangs. "Finish it bastard," he growled back.
"Oh he won't be finishing you; not yet at least," came a mocking voice from inside the building. A small form, covered in blood and gore slowly walked out, hair sticking to crimson soaked garments. A hand reached up to brush the hair covering the figure's face away and the two surviving guardsman gasped in shock.
"Miranda?" Dert asked, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. "What's going on?"
"You mean you haven't figured it out?" The girl smirked as she crossed over to the shadow beast, which had solidified into the familiar wolf like form as the other one. She reached up and stroked its muzzle, picking a bit of flesh from between it's teeth. "I didn't think you'd be able to kill little K'nosh'thren, but you cattle are so deliciously unpredictable sometimes. Still, H'reth'nar has served me for centuries, and with your blood and flesh I'm sure I'll be able to make another little one very soon." As she spoke Miranda's features shifted. Her eyes became completely black and her when the opened her mouth her teeth glinted, sharp as razors.
"Make? You made this thing?!" Dert asked in shock. "Who, no what are you?!" He still couldn't believe what he was seeing. Miranda no longer looked like the girl he had saved. No, now she was a mutant with a huge daemon beast standing by her side.
"I made K'nosh'thren, but H'reth'nar I found on one of my journeys through the Sea of Souls. You see he feeds on not just flesh, but anger and hatred as well, and your group gave me all the hatred and anger I needed. But now I must leave this would before the Greenskins destroy it. They feel anger of course, but their crude nature means my most successful method of gaining access to it won't work on them. So before I go I'd just like to thank you for your generous donations." Miranda smiled as she performed a series of gestures with her hands while speaking words which seemed to hang in the air and leave a sour taste on the wind.
Kallis felt his mind explode with anger as the images of his men being slaughtered played over and over. Wordless cries of rage spewed from his lips and Dert's as his own memories of friends' deaths and his own failure haunted him. Overhead the beast growled appreciatively as it drank deeply of the emotion of the humans below it. Its form swelled and a bulge slowly lowered from its belly to the ground, where it took the form of a wolf shadow beast, but only a half meter high and with cold amber eyes.
"I think I'll name this one De'tri'then," Miranda smiled. "Now it's time for the final feast." She placed the small beast over Dert's throat, and as it sniffed him with a nose as cold as space as the parent beast bit down on Kallis, ending his torment as it devoured his flesh. "I hope some of your soul gets caught in the little one's growing body, then you can keep seeing me work," she smirked as the young beast's teeth tore chunks out of Dert's throat. His eyes glared hatred at Miranda, and as his life faded away he knew he had failed at two things, his duty and himself.
When her pets were sated, Miranda mounted the H'reth'nar, the little one cradled in her lap, and set out in the direction her playthings had been heading. Soon she would find the evacuation zone, hid her pets and then she and her the two of them would make their way to the next world, and the next beyond that. In time her name would spread far and wide, and she would be eternally feared. The sun began its downward journey as the sound of cold laughter echoed through the otherwise silent streets of a once more deserted city.