The sound of clattering metal on metal echoed down the corridor.
In the dim lighting, flashes of green burst from both ends. Blinding light bounced off the necrodermis on the walls, ceiling, and floor. A stray blast struck a critical point, and a flare of released energy flooded the corridor.
A sparkling mist settled in the dim glow. The flashes of green returned, and once more the hall was filled with flickering, blinding lights.
Hoarse sighs echoed from both sides. One moved forwards, the other backed away. More flashes filled the corridor. Another blast, but the firefight continued. The other side pushed back against their foe with more explosions and hoarse sighs. There was a shriek. They continued to push their foes into the dim abyss ahead of them in one of the ancient ship's main corridors.
They plowed into a large hub with other main corridors branching off it. The corridor that they marched down passed through it, and the others branching off were sealed away. The insurrectionists broke formation and regrouped where the corridor continued at the opposite end of the chamber.
"Forward! Forward!" roared Lord Szazadrekh. Something was behind him, and he swung for it. "Damn Nephalut! That's the last time I'm supplementing privileges aboard my ship!" He looked around, and his eye caught a suspicious glow on a ledge above.
He grabbed the gauss rifle of a fallen warrior beside him. The warrior, open wide by several blasts, reached for his weapon. Szaza's firm heel came down on his head.
"NO!" The Lord said. "You couldn't even hit one of them! Wait your turn." He turned and aimed to the ledge- where the glow was. He looked around, and by instinct lunged to the floor. Where he had just stood lay a large fried crater. Slowly the floor healed itself. Prone, Szazadrekh unleashed the gauss rifle at the high points. "Damn you, Deathmark! Damn you to the void! Belakh, wake the Destroyer Lords and tell the Immortals to blockade the other passages! We're pushing this insurrection off the ship!"
Szazadrekh felt the presence of two large swift beings flanking him. He turned and saw that although they came in a timely manner, they were not what he asked for. "Heavy Destroyers?! That's better, and where did you find them?!"
Chirps echoed in the chamber.
"These are Kophtet's?!" Szazadrekh watched the Heavy Destroyers shove aside the warriors, and in sync, clear a path through the enemy lines via superior firepower. "Advance! Advance!" the Lord cried, leaping from the floor. "C'tan damn those Crypteks. I trust them and this happens!"
An electric growl hummed behind him. He turned around to see four obliterated Deathmarks laying in a semi-circle around him. Stained with a burnt black, their metallic flesh not moving to repair, but in a stasis of death. Further behind stood a flayed Cryptek with most of her false flesh roasted off. Her true face, a skull face modified not just to wear a flesh face but to embrace it, showed through where the flesh was roasted off. Her cloak of dried skin was roasted into a singed scarf that covered much of where her flesh had roasted off, primarily around the collar and shoulders, and hung low to occupy the open space where there was no skin.
"Kophtet had some counters to his special toys," Nephalut said. "Trust me or don't trust me, remember this: I always take inventory and leave nothing out." She approached him. "Malat, throw Szaza the other staff. We have a predator to kill."
The small scarab came from behind and with an anxious chirp, tossed the Lord a shorter staff.
"You mean a wand?" Szazadrekh said.
"Wand, staff... So long as it can kill whatever Kophtet was keeping."
"If you say so," he replied. "What about the insurrecters?"
"Contain them. I'll have Malat deal with them later."
Malat, in his lack of size, bounced and chirped with delight. He then scurried off into the shadows.
"Keep pushing that way and we'll have him in the bay," Nephalut said and walked toward the advancing line of warriors. Szazadrekh kept up pace . "I set up a formation to force him down to the planet's surface via teleportation."
The loyal warriors formed their lines behind the Heavy Destroyers as they advanced down the corridor. What had once been a tug of war at a crawling pace was now a brisk jog to victory. Sure, the continuing corridor was now more disfigured and in a state of complete destruction, but Szaza could care for cleanup later. For now he had to get rid of that rogue Deathmark.
"Why send him to the planet's surface when we can kill him here?" He asked.
"Tried killing him before and after I found these. Apparently Kophy hadn't discovered a weapon that could put this particular Deathmark down for long."
"Strange for a unit of infantry to be so resilient. Is he among your kind, those put in the wrong bodies?"
"Not sure," said Nephalut, zapping another Deathmark. "I was with the royalty and the scholarly, not the combatants. If I knew his motives for being so vicious- if Kophtet knew or told us- we'd be in a far better position than we are now."
"So sending him down there solves this how?"
"By giving Kophtet more time to study this bastard and keep him away from the fleet."
They continued to follow the advancing charge through the corridor; tall, dark, and with necrodermis reeking of a scent like a mix of sulfur and blood. The walls, with the ship being under a state of heavy alert, rattled with activity in the maintenance shafts running about.
Sentinels burst from walls, knocking down insurrecting warriors before digging back into the walls again. Scarabs joined in on the chaos, crawling out of the floor and latching themselves to the joints of the mutinous warriors, tearing limb from limb, and severing apart or welding joints stiff.
Lychguards came up from behind the main force charging down the main corridor to the bay. They formed a shield wall in front of the Heavy Destroyers and pushed forward, butchering fallen foes that tried to fight from the floor with their warscythes. Limbs flew, necrodermis hissed, and skulls exploded and imploded in a flurry of neon destruction.
Wraiths came to the aid of the insurrection, but their bodies could not withstand the heavy pounding from the Heavy Destroyers.
Szazadrekh and Nephalut followed the procession, providing oversight and rear support. Deathmarks phased in all around, and the two blasted them apart with specialized staff and wand. One assassin phased in close for a point blank obliteration of Nephalut's skull, only to have a wand plowed into his spine and unleash a torrent of pure fluorescent destruction. His necrodermis screamed, he fell over into kowtow, and Nephalut drove the heel of her staff down upon his skull. His eye exploded and his metallic "flesh" ripped apart.
His aid appeared behind Nephalut. With the flick of Szaza's wrist, the headless Deathmark collapsed behind her. Ten more appeared around them. Back to back they took on the relentless phasing deathsquad. "Malat! You and the other Scarabs organize the fight with the automatons and the Lychguard! Szaza and I will take it from here!"
Malat chirped and leapt away, not before tackling a Deathmark before it could phase out. Nephalut popped the heads and limbs of the three closest to her, drove the head of the staff into the fallen Deathmark's chest, and blasted him with the full power of the staff. His body shriveled with a soulless hiss, and exploded. An opening to a pocket dimension opened as result, and with a charged staff to the chest, a fifth Deathmark was shoved into opening before he could explode into a confetti of chrome shavings and green pulsing embers.
Szaza jabbed his wand into the eye of another Deathmark and popped its skull. He ducked before another Deathmark could take a shot at his head, and flicked his wand at that Deathmark's shoulders. The Necron Lord rose and with a foot to the Deathmark's chest slammed him into the wall, and blew his head off with an underhanded wand flick. A Deathmark phased in above him, mid-leap, and aimed for the Lord's head. With an over-shoulder flick, Szaza made his assailant's chest rip itself open, stunning the Deathmark. Szaza then caught him by the ribs and shoved him into another Deathmark Nephalut corned against the portal, and the two assassins tumbled inward. Nephalut made sure neither survived with one more blast from her staff. Out the portal spewed a glowing green mist and matching sparks and embers to go along. Then it closed.
The tenth Deathmark appeared behind them, two rifles in both hands. "Down!" Nephalut said, and Lord and Cryptek dropped to the ground. The Deathmark stumbled back and tried to readjust the aim of both rifles, but the Lord's wrist was quicker. Two flicks and the forearms of the Deathmark came off. Nephalut rolled on her back and swept her staff at its feet. The Deathmark phased out before it hit the ground, and phased back in on its feet.
With both ends of the staff, Nephalut lammed the Deathmark's body relentlessly. With both hands incredibly dexterous, she grabbed both ends of her staff and bunted him. He stumbled back, phased out, and phased back in only to have a wand be where his eye was supposed to. It wasn't his bad timing mostly, but rather Szazadrekh's good throw. The Deathmark struggled to phase out again to collect himself, but couldn't. His limbs and portions of his torso sporadically phased in and out.
Szazadrekh stepped up to the stunned Deathmark, grabbed the wand, and flicked his wrist while driving the wand deeper into the Deathmark's skull. Tiny screams came from the tenth Deathmark before being launched off the wand, slamming into the wall down the corridor, and imploding.
If the Lord and the Cryptek could, they would have breathed. Nonetheless they made the noises just to let out the stress of the fight. The Lord was the first to imitate catching his breath and turned to Nephalut. "After this I'm never ever allowing a Deathmark on my flagship. Ever."
Nephalut caught hers and stabilized herself on the staff. She looked for a moment at the Lord. Peeling off the burnt skin that she wore for a face, she said, "And the last time I'm ever working with another Cryptek like Kophtet."
"Azultep won't be bringing him back here anytime soon, I don't care what he says. Kophtet has some answering to do, and at a distance. You? Your fine. Just let me know when you're going to open another one of his gifts."
"Keep the wand," she said. "Even when we drive them off the ship, I doubt that will be the last we see of them."