CLEANSE AND BURN

'No matter the honours he already bears, a true Astartes is still willing to sacrifice himself in the name of the Emperor. Greater is his glory as such. And so shall he be remembered.'
Chapter Master Dante, Blood Angels Chapter

The five hulking terminators filled the tight metal corridor. The grate floor squealed and protested beneath the ancient armour's combined weight. Broken cables hissed and cracked above them like snakes whose nest has been disturbed. The darkness was cut by the bright suit lamps on each of the marines. At the front of the column Brother-Sergeant Lorenzo readied his power sword. It glowed sea green and hummed with deadly power. He outstretched his other arm and hit the blinking door release control with the twin barrels of his storm bolter. The panel beeped twice and the bulkhead door peeled back on heavy pistons.

Lorenzo immediately strode though into the adjoining junction. A square space with two further doors leading off, both also closed. The auspex readings in his armour indicated no movement or threats. Regardless he swept his weapon from floor to ceiling. The rest of the squad formed up tightly behind him. Last in line and filling the doorway was Brother Zeal. His heavy flamer slung menacingly at his side. Its pilot light spat a vicious blue flame upwards, keen to be unleashed.

Lorenzo open his vox channel. 'We must be swift, Brothers. They will be coming. Captain Raphael has tasked us with this mission as he understands its importance. The control bridge of this accursed beast must be destroyed - at any cost. For the memory of our lost Brothers, the Sin of Damnation will burn! We will not allow it to escape again.'

His voice ached with personal rage. It was he who had been the sole survivor of the attempt to cleanse Sin of Damnation six centuries previous. The doomed mission had torn the heart out the veteran 1st Company and the Chapter. It had been his first mission and he had watched his entire squad butchered. He had vowed vengeance. Over half a millennia of glorious service to the Throne later; his chance had arrived.

'Brother Noctis.' he part turned as he addressed the fourth marine in the squad. 'You are my rock. You have our rear.'

Noctis manoeuvred his massive frame towards the door on the right of the junction. Known as the Castellan of the Black Tower, there was not a sturdier marine in the chapter. He would be immovable in his task and Lorenzo trusted him with all their lives. He used his mighty power fist to open the door, which groaned as it slowly opened. Behind was a short gang way and another identical doorway. He double checked his bolter's action and assumed a defensive position.

'By my blood they will not pass, Brother-Sergeant.' he stated in a deep rumble.

Suddenly the auspexes in each of their helms beeped into life. Three contacts of movement flashed as green dots on their tactical layouts in their helmet lenses. Lorenzo activated his display and it swirled to overlay his vision. Unlike the marines under his command he did not wear a full helm. Rather his suit connected directly to his skull via neural link cables. He preferred to use his own eyes and let the stench of battle fill his nostrils. The contacts were distant, still some way beyond their target of the control room. However he instantly knew they would not reach it before alien filth that infected the hulk. They would have to destroy them, but speed was critical. They were coming. With a thought the display withdrew to his peripheral vision.

He slammed his bolter against the remaining door release. The metal slid open and revealed a long hexagonal passageway. His suit lamps barely illuminated the far end. A few dim glow globes created islands of light at random points down it. Emergency beacons strobbed a piecing yellow, casting flashing shadows of twisted metalwork. Cogitator panels and junction points that still functioned flickered green and red behind thin grills. A sigh of wind brushed passed Lorenzo's face as the pressure equalised.

'Move!' he ordered.

The quartet of terminators thundered down the corridor. Lorenzo, with the split fingers of his black cloak whipping behind him, was follow by Brothers Valencio, Goriel and finally Zeal. They ducked under the stalactites of broken bulkhead struts. Lorenzo slashed drooping cables out of their way with his sword. The entire hulk was twisted and damaged in this way after so many years of crashing in and out of the warp.

The movement sensor started to beep more fervently. The amount of contact blips had doubled. They still had no idea how many foul zenos each would represent. They were disgusting, lithe creatures and the scanners could not separate the individuals in the flurry of hectic movement in each contact. The closest ones were now not far away in some adjacent space, milling ominously out of sight.

They came to a left hand turning leading off and pulled to a stop. Lorenzo raised his storm bolter and pointed it squarely down the longer passageway they were still facing. He waited a fraction of a second for the motion report in his scanners to reveal itself. Just as he expected the first of the zenos appeared ahead. It launched itself from a side tunnel. Hidden in darkness it was nothing more than a flash of midnight blue. It landed against the opposite wall and began to scramble towards the red armoured giants.

Lorenzo squeezed the trigger of his archaic storm bolter. The beautiful weapon, inscribed with gilt script of thousands of years of glory and the names of its bearers, bucked in his hand. In the confined space it boomed like a titan's war horn. Its flash briefly revealed the alien. Its deep violet head and vicious maw full of incisors the colour of rotting ivory. Its shiny black eyes harboured murder. Before it were four elongated arms full of sinewy strength. At the end of each were talons the length of a marine's forearm. A genestealer.

It exploded violently as the mass reactive shell punctured straight through its head and erupted within its body. Its momentum carried the mass of limbs tumbling forward while purple ichors sprayed the deck, shorting out sparking cogitator circuits.

'Goriel,' barked Lorenzo. 'Hold them here. Thin them out if you can. Valencio, Zeal, we must press left. We must get to the control bank before their number is too great. With me!'

Goriel stepped forward and cradled his bolter in his power fist. He cast his aim on the cross junction where the genestealer had emerged. His finger put weight on the hair trigger. Despite his superhuman enhanced reflexes he might only have the smallest fraction of a second to make a shot. His targeting reticule darted around eagerly.

Lorenzo and Valencio peeled off left with Zeal bringing the bulk of the cumbersome heavy flamer more slowly around the corner. Valencio kept in tight behind his Sergeant. Newly promoted to the ranks of the 1st Company veterans this was his first mission as Terminator warrior of the Blood Angels. He had served over a hundred years as an Adeptus Astartes already and fought countless bloody battles, but now he felt as he had done in those first years as an initiate. Not nervous or apprehensive, but raw and untested. The figure of the Brother-Sergeant in front of him was a comfort. Such a warrior was almost without match. Indeed Lorenzo had saved his own life just before his promotion. His motion scanner no longer beeped the contacts, but squealed a continuous tone as dots began to flood his tactical map. They were so close now. He had no doubt he would kill them all.

Back at the deployment area Brother Noctis had not moved an inch. He was following the squads advance and the report of first blood, but his eyes had not left the door in front of him. His auspex pinged to life. Large movement beyond the door. He didn't even blink.

Lorenzo and Valencio reached the end of the short passage which took a ninety degree turn to the right. In front of them was another closed bulkhead, this time striped yellow and black warning colours. A beacon above it flashed red as if specifically meant for them. Their auspexes were screaming now. Valencio felt his suit release combat stimulants into his body on reflex. This was it. Time to test his strength in the name of the Emperor. He and Lorenzo would slaughter the alien scum.

Goriel fired.

A genestealer had streaked across the junction. He'd missed. He cursed and awaited another. He knew it had seen him, but chosen not to attack. 'Sergeant, they're coming to you!' he voxed urgently.

Lorenzo was already engaged though. The door had flung open and vomited an alien abomination. Its claws sliced though the reinforced steel as it pushed it open impatiently. It was desperate to close and kill. Its tongue licked forwards and it screeched with rage. No more than one stride from him, Lorenzo opened up with his storm bolter once more. Multiple rounds ripped it apart like a bloody firework. It was followed instantly by another. He had no time to adjust his aim and his shots went wide blowing great holes in the ship's structure. The genestealer landed on him and battered the bolter sideways, but Lorenzo help his grip. Its other claws sank into the ancient tactical dreadnought armour like a bayonet into plain flesh. It tore deeply into his shoulder pauldron and thigh guard. Its fangs lunged for the marine's exposed head.

The door in front of Noctis tore open. A genestealer burst through the centre itself. Motionless he put it down with a burst from his bolter. It crumpled to the decking. He placed another two rounds into its head destroying it utterly.

'Contact rear!', he voxed.

Another stealer leapt up through the hole made by its dead companion and attached itself to the ceiling. Noctis tracked it and began firing. It wheeled down the side of the walls in the short passage way. The bolt shells destroyed the metal work where it had just been. It reached the floor and made a killing leap at Noctis. He took a moment and retrained his bolter. The stealer was face to face with his barrel as he fired again. Its head and torso blew backwards in a fountain of gore. The body of the odious creature slammed in to his lower half and slumped at his feet. The claws still clicked angrily in spasm. He looked up as a third monster emerged through the hole. He calmly raised the bolter again and pulled the trigger. He was met with a click. His weapon had jammed.

Lorenzo twisted at the hip trying to use the creature's own momentum. He slammed his head sideways against his own armour at the same time. The stealer's teeth raked across his cheek and he felt his own hot blood splash across his face. With a speed to almost match the genestealer's he continued the motion and brought his power sword round. He stabbed in upwards from underneath the alien piecing its chest and the point coming out of the nape of its neck. It shrieked in agony. He swung the sword outwards and away from his body and straightened himself. The power sword sliced along the alien body and cleaved it in two. Energy crackled along the sword's length and it burned brighter as the alien's fetid blood boiled on the blade. He shrugged off the remnants of the genestealer still embedded in his shoulder.

He raised his bolter and took aim at a third howling monster barrelling down the passage that had just been opened. He attempted to fire but the gun did not respond. The immense strength of the alien striking hit had damaged it somehow. The monster came on.

Lorenzo had served with the Chapter for over 650 years. Panic was anathema to him. Indeed even as he had managed to survive and kill a genestealer in close quarters battle he had assessed the tactical situation. Although monstrous and impossible to understand, alien as they were, the zenos were not mindless. They were governed by a keen intelligence. Goriel's report immediately told him that they were aware of their plan. Otherwise a mindless killing machine would have attacked Goriel as the nearest target. Lose the control room and there was no escape for them. This one simple act had shown they knew this. He knew they must not stop him reaching the bridge. With Noctis reporting engagement too time was running out.

Without taking his eyes of the creature now almost upon him he flicked his sword downwards onto a mag lock on his wrist, which freed his hand. Then with precision movements practices millions of times he racked the bolter, ejecting the damaged shells from its twin barrels. Simultaneously he issued orders, 'Zeal, cut them off reinforcing across from Goriel's flank!'

Zeal turned and heaved back into the main corridor. Goriel stepped back from his position to let his giant brother pass. Zeal instantly recognised what Lorenzo had assessed mid battle. The junction from where the first genestealer has come from was swarming with activity although there was nothing within line of sight. Further contacts were incoming in support from the right. If they were allowed to flood towards Lorenzo and the bridge access they would have no hope of success.

He raised the heavy weapon and took aim at the junction. With a hellish roar the flamer spat a huge gout of promethium. Suddenly the entire place was illuminated like the sun and the heat stung like the radiation fires of Baal itself.

'Burn in the wrath of the Emperor!' he bellowed on open speakers.

From the junction area Zeal heard screams as the aliens burned. With a satisfying popping their hardened carapaces burst open as their blood boiled. Their charred remains melted into the white hot running metal of the passageway itself. At least five dead he reckoned by the noise. The flames continued to lick the air and fire suppression systems activated before coughing out in pathetic surrender. The support movements stopped. There was no way through.

Noctis faced the final onrushing genestealer unflinching. He quickly ejected the magazine from the bolter and slotted a fresh one in, un-jamming the weapon. From the hip he opened fire. The rounds struck the stealer in its fore left shoulder and its entire arm went spinning away, but it was nowhere near a kill shot. Still it came. More rounds struck its carapace and chips of bone blew away. Explosive bolt fragments pierced its body, but to no effect. It closed to where Noctis could see the spittle dripping from its pink tongue in its open hungry mouth. He fed it the last five bolts in his clip. It joined the bodies of its kin in a gelatinous heap. He let the empty clip fall and slipped another new one in.

'Rear secure', he reported.

Lorenzo's bolter guided itself. It was as if its machine sprit was furious that it had been harmed and endangered its bearer. One round was all it took and the third genestealer facing him was shot though the eye, dying instantly. Valencio had watched this unfold in awe of his sergeant's martial prowess. He too would be as legend. His blood was up and he desperately wanted to join the killing.

It was now or never. In the tide of war one must time your move. Chose wisely and the tide will push you on. Unwisely and it will drag you under. Sergeant Lorenzo recognised that time as now. Zeal's fiery blockade would not last and Noctis had held for now. They had to make the next turning ahead while there was the chance of an opening. More genestealers were pouring in from distant corridors.

He released the mag lock on his power sword and it swung back into his grasp. He thumbed the holy weapon to full power and charged the junction ahead knowing full well there were abhorrent aliens waiting.

'For my Brothers!' He screamed as he tore down the corridor now lit by his pulsing turquoise sword.

He burst into the crossing which was cast sideways in bright burning light from Zeal's promethium pyre in the adjoining junction away to the right. As he rounded a genestealer already almost on top of him leapt at him. His power sword graced through the air and sliced two of its hands from its body. It twisted and saved itself from being cut straight in two. As it came past him it dug one of its remaining claws deep into the top of his armour. It carved deep and several power systems shorted out in his armour. His left arm which carried the power sword became immensely heavy all of a sudden. Then from his right a second genestealer pounced. He brought his arm up to fend it away, but it was no use. It wrapped itself around his arm and thrust its razor-sharp talons deep into Lorenzo's chest. He spat a burst of blood into the air as the monster tore his cuirass away like ripped paper and with it half of the mighty marine's torso. Lorenzo's armour slackened and slumped to its knees before slamming him face first onto the decking.

'No!' screamed Valencio.

The bloody scene had played out right before his eyes. One the greatest ever warriors of mankind had died in the blink of an eye to a wretched alien worth nothing. He howled in rage. His blood rushed like he had never felt before. A redness took over his vision and from the depth of his soul an uncontrollable killing desire overcame him.

He ploughed forward into combat. His power fist sizzled with ozone as it responded to his hatred. He swung in with his bolter and battered the amputated genestealer away from Lorenzo's corpse. With a thrust of the oversized gauntlet he punched his sergeant's killer into the bulkhead. It gurgled as many of its bones and organs shattered. A power fist is no caparison to a power sword though and Valencio stepped in to finish the kill. He grabbed the alien by the body and lifted it up against the metal. It screamed and writhed. Its claws scratched deep furrows into his armour, but he didn't care. All he could feel was the rage. The accursed rage spewing forth from his very gene seed. He tightened the grip on the alien and slowly squeezed. He could see the strange fear in its blank black eyes. It satisfied his vengeance and he smiled manically. He closed his fist and with a sickening crunch the creature snapped and went limp. He had killed a genestealer with his hands.

Pain wracked through his body. He looked down to see the tips of two talons protruding from his gut. They twisted round and made ruins of his internal organs. The amputated genestealer's second working hand reached over the top of his armour and plunged though his eye pieces and tore his head from his body. Valencio's shuddering corpse joined his mentor's.

Zeal stepped around the corner to reveal the horrific scene before him. Despite all his conditioning he hesitated with a moment of disbelief. However unlike Valencio he did not succumb to rage or lust for glory. The rest of the squad had all seen Lorenzo and Valencio's life signs wink out.

'Goriel, advance and suppress. Noctis move up in support.' He ordered.

The tide of war was against them. The opening that had been there had been shut brutally. Zeal raised his flamer once more and took aim at the genestealer hacking at the remains of his honoured Brother-Sergeant. He unleashed a torrent of cleansing fire.

'I will make for the bridge. It is our only chance. Kill as many as you can Brothers!'

He moved up to the wall of flame and watched amputated genestealer thrash its death throws. With a heavy heart he also watched the remains of his brothers burn. Their flesh had already burned away and all but the heavy plates of the tactical dreadnought armour had burned to ruin. Fashioned an eon ago by lost technologies it could stand even the searing destruction of his flamer. His auspex still blared movement at him. He knew what to do.

Over the vox he heard Goriel shouting contact moving his way. He heard the heavy thumping of Goriel's storm bolter. One burst. Two. 'Stoppage!' he heard him say. A moment later a third burst of fire followed by a muted shout. Goriel's life signal blinked out too.

The fire in front of him began to die down. He rushed though with more speed than a terminator had any right. The power circuits in his armour whined and blew out as he pushed every once of his own muscle and power armour fibres. With the promethium singeing him he burst through the remaining flames. He turned to see more inrushing aliens through the flickering orange. He let loose another fire ball and drenched the path once more. The wailing of the genestealers was almost intolerable and he prayed they attempt to charge his wall of death. They knew they were lost.

Zeal turned and saw the large double doors of the command bridge. He battered the control panel with this power fist and it exploded in sparks. With a thunk the locking mechanism withdrew and he pounded away with the first again. Magnifying his strength many times over it buckled the doors and on the fifth strike they blew inwards. He incinerated every square inch. Cogitators exploded in showers of red embers. Memory banks were scorched to nothing. He felt the machine spirit die. The craft would never see the warp again. The Sin of Damnation was crippled. It was done. Their mission was accomplished. Victory was theirs.

Noctis raced down the corridor to join his brothers. He saw Goriel fall. Rent asunder by a stealer that had taken half a dozen bolter shells but still managed to survive. He levelled his own trusted bolter and finally blew it to pieces.

'Zeal!', he desperately voxed, 'Converging on your position! Heavy contact right. Will suppress and cover your withdrawal!'

'No brother,' Zeal replied, 'Flame behind and flame in front. I would have it no other way'

Noctis heard the deep rush of the flamer firing again over the comms link.

'Convey our victory to the Captain. Brother-Sargereant Lorenzo must be honoured. There are too many, Brother.'

Reluctantly Noctis turned, he knew Zeal was right.

'Die well, Brother,' he said.

'For the Emperor.' Zeal replied.

Noctis fell back to the insertion craft under his own covering fire.

Zeal spat liquid death at the aliens until his tanks ran dry. Then he disengaged his flamer and ran forward though his wall of death with his crackling power fist raised high, screaming Lorenzo's name.

-The End-

Thanks for reading. This is pretty much exactly how a real game played out! Needless to say I played as the Marines. All reviews welcome. F7