Once again, thank you for your reviews, especially to ArcherReborn2 for providing valuable insight. I hope to be able to address all of the mistakes highlighted in the previous chapters in the following chapters. Keep reading, and keep the reviews coming! Thanks.
0700 hours, Fairchild Subway Saferoom. Survivors, five minutes after surviving the Horde.
Zoey had just finished reloading both her weapons and was about to find a chair to shake off the screaming faces of the Infected from her head when the door of the Saferoom disappeared with a shriek of tearing metal.
A massive, hulking figure stood in the entrance, the steel door crashing to the ground behind it. Zoey's survival instincts kicked in, her fingers closed around the grip of her pistol and without actively thinking about it, she had already aimed it at the massive beast. She was just about to pull the trigger when she realized that the others were not firing.
"What……..the fuck are you?" Bill managed to say, his submachine gun aimed at the thing's head.
She realized then that the thing was not a tank, despite its size. It wore what seemed like white plates of armor, with red trimmings. A blood red two-headed eagle gleamed on its chest. Like something that had just walked out of a science fiction cosplay.
It also carried a very big gun.
The thing, or whatever it was, seemed to realize that as it stared at the barrel of Bill's gun. Its helmeted head turned slightly to regard the others, pausing slightly as the red eyes of its helmet came to rest on Francis, which, incidentally, was standing next to her.
"Heretic!" It hissed, its voice deep and metallic and laced with hatred. It reached out and shoved Bill aside, the old man flying across the room. He might have broken something if he hadn't crashed into Louis. As the two men crumpled to the ground, the thing raised its massive weapon in both hands, and brought it to bear on the stunned biker.
Dammit dammit dammit. Zoey fired her pistol, the bark of the weapon deafening in the small room. The shots pinged off the massive thing's armor. The cosplayer, she didn't know what else to call it, ignored the shots, and fired its massive gun.
A white blur shot past Zoey, slamming into the cosplayer just as it fired. While Louis merely bounced off the massive assailant, he did disrupt its aim. The walls around them exploded in showers of dust and powder.
"Warp-spawn! Feel the Emperor's wrath!" The metallic voice boomed.
Spawn, like the creature from the movies……She ceased fire, the coin dropping at last.
"Wait!" She called out. "We're not infected! We're immune, survivors!"
The figure turned towards her, aiming the massive weapon in her direction.
Oh crap, me and my big mouth. She dove under a table just as Francis opened up with his shotgun, the deafening boom blowing a large dent in the figure's oversized shoulders. It turned around again, opening fire, tearing chunks out of the wall as Francis ran for cover.
Zoey remained under the table, momentarily forgotten. She saw the massive weapon of the figure as it fired, churning out bullets the size of her thumb. Then she spotted the belt leading from the weapon to the large backpack it carried.
It looked something like the ammo belts the movie leads carried, although they never seemed to run out of ammo. She gritted her teeth, and dived towards the belt, catching it with both hands and giving it a tug with all her strength.
Bingo.
The gun spluttered and died out. The figure, unfazed, tossed aside the gun and ran at Francis with unbelievable speed for something its size. It caught the biker in both hands and drove him against the wall, ignoring the shots from Bill and Louis.
"Die heretic!" It boomed, choking the breath out of Francis. The bike let loose a stream of gasping curses and kicked futilely against the thing's chestplate.
"Francis!" Zoey screamed, rushing forward to pull at the figure's massive arms. She might as well be pulling against a tree trunk. It reached out and swatted her aside. The breath left her lungs in a hurry as she slammed into the damaged wall, the room swam before her eyes as she fought to stay conscious.
A bloodcurdling howl pierced Francis's strangled swearing. The figure froze, letting go of Francis, who crashed to the floor, gasping and coughing for breath while simultaneously trying to crawl away from the armored hulk.
"Oh shit! We're fucked!" Louis yelled as the infected began pouring into the Saferoom through the open space where the door once was.
Bill and Louis opened fire, halting the attack in its tracks. Zoey rushed to help Francis to his feet, firing as she ran.
The armored hulk, clearly deciding that the horde of bloodthirsty zombies was significantly more dangerous than Francis, grabbed its discarded weapon, reattached the ammo belt, and opened fire.
The results were spectacular as the nearest zombies were reduced to mush in a matter of seconds. The figure advanced, firing as it went, until it stood between the door and the infected. Bill and Louis fired over the thing's oversized shoulders. Francis stood aside, keeping a healthy distance between himself and the figure as possible while using his shotgun with deadly effect. Zoey ran to Bill's side, firing much more slowly and carefully than the others.
The horde wavered, then crumpled as the armored hulk mercilessly finished off the remaining creatures. When it was done, it turned back to face them. Zoey lowered her weapon slightly, while the others kept them trained on the figure.
"You stand with this heretic?" It asked, jerking an armored head towards Francis.
"Francis ain't no heretic," Bill growled. "He's just an idiot."
The figure looked Francis up and down.
"Right buddy," Louis said. "We all hate Francis, but right now, we've got bigger issues. Can't killing all of us wait until we're outta here?"
This was ridiculous, there was an entire city-full of bloodthirsty zombies, and this walking tank wanted to kill them all just because it didn't like Francis? This day was getting impossibly FUBARED.
They were moving through the city when they saw the meteors rain from the sky. They had paused, thinking that the army had started bombing the city, but Bill had claimed that it did not look like bombs at all. But when nothing had happened, they decided to move on, deciding not to check out the meteors, concentrating on getting out of the city.
"Your markings, I do not recognize the mark of Chaos on them." It said, mostly to itself. "What do they signify?"
"What the fuck?" Francis spluttered. "These signify hardcore grade 'A' badassery. What are you, some kinda geek?"
"Look," Bill said. "We can't sit here and chat all day, like it or not, we're leaving this goddam hellhole. Either you come with us and give us a hand, or you go the other direction."
After a moment, the figure lowered its weapon.
"We seem to share a common enemy," it said. "Very well, consider this a temporary alliance."
Zoey let out a faint sight of relief, and she noted, with some amusement, that Francis did too.
"Can't wait." Bill said dryly, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Now help me with this fucking door."
Ah yes, the Temple Chapter. I do not doubt their dedication in our endless war against the Great Enemy, but I do, however, doubt their faith in the Emperor while fighting His enemies. As you have no doubt already read of their impressive list of victories against the foul minions of Chaos, but you should take heed, that some of their tactics come close to heresy. Indeed, it has come to my attention, however, that for several instances, this chapter possesses a history of dangerous alliances with various Xeno factions. As stalwart as they may be, I have come to find their faith in the Emperor in serious question. In fact, they have seemed to adopt a rather more questioning attitude toward unknown entities that are not of the Imperium of Man rather than concentrating on bringing the Emperor's Light to them. How it is that such a chapter has continued to serve under the Emperor's holy banner for such a long time utterly astounds me. I request permission to place all Space Marines of the Temple Chapter under close observation, and to root out any possible heresy. The traitor's hand falls far closer than it lies.
Inquisitor Raminius,
Ordo Malleus.
0730 hours, Fairfield Subway Saferoom, Devastator Darius Onduit. 30 minutes after encounter with untainted humans.
Oddly enough, those untainted humans were not as bad as I thought they were. I still did not trust them, but under the circumstances, they have local knowledge of our enemy, and they know their way around to the city, and most importantly, they might know the routes where my brothers were last seen.
We were not briefed on how to deal with any survivors, we simply assumed there were either none, or they were with the enemy. Yet, these civilians had persisted against the warp-spawn, or Infected, as they had called the beasts, with surprising tenacity. I wondered what else this city held that we did not know about.
"Toss an old man a first aid kit, would you?" The old man said.
The young girl paused her cleaning of her weapons and handed him a red packet with a white cross on it.
"Need help with that?" She asked.
"I'm fine, help Francis. The idiot needs it more'n me."
She turned towards the heretic, although I have come to discover that he was not of Chaos, old habits die hard. At least I hadn't shot him yet.
Francis was sitting in a corner of the room, as far away from me as he could, which I understood perfectly. His neck, while already colored with tattoos, was practically livid with bruises.
The door which I had ripped open was now carelessly propped against the open frame, which was now reinforced with everything movable we could find in the room. No chair could hold me, so I contented myself with standing in a corner instead.
Louis was staring at me, or rather my blood-stained armor.
"What the hell are you?" He asked.
"I am a Space Marine in His Holy Majesty's service."
"What?"
I sighed inwardly.
"A soldier."
"Oh," he said. "Never knew our army had that kinda gear."
"Did you come from the sky?" The young girl chipped in, she certainly seemed to be lively enough, despite the circumstances. "We saw lots of em from down here."
"Yes. We descended from orbit, this city must be purged."
"So," Louis said. "You're an alien?"
Horror surged through my veins.
"Emperor no!" I almost shouted. "I'm human, very human."
Zoey raised her eyebrows.
"You don't look human." She said doubtfully.
"I am."
She shrugged, then returned to tending to Francis's wounds. The rest of the civilians returned to their own errands. Only Louis persisted.
"So," he said, glancing at my armor. "Looks like that thing's tough."
I glanced to where he was pointing. The golden Aquila on my chestplate bore several scratches, no doubt a testament to my previous encounter with the leaping creature. On closer inspection, the damage did not seem as extensive as it had seemed back at the office building. I chastised myself for doubting the hardy ceramite.
"It is." I said, not entirely eager on answering his questions. So I asked some of my own.
"Why haven't you been infected like the others?" I asked.
Bill glanced up, a bandage roll in his hands.
"Cuz we're badass, and cuz we're immune."
"Immune?"
He nodded.
"These zombies are caused by some kinda virus, spread by air and by contact. They do so much as sneeze on yer best buddy's paper cut, next thing you know, he'll be trying to rip your heart out. We aren't affected by this virus. Only thing that'll stop us is a good solid bullet to tha head."
"The machinations of the foul Chaos Gods." I hissed in anger. "I must wreak righteous vengeance upon the warp-spawn!"
Bill stared at me as if I was insane, which made me want to shoot him.
"You some kinda priest or somethin?" He asked.
"A priest that goes around in a tin suit and carrying a really big gun," Zoey grinned. "That's one helluva badass priest."
I glanced at our makeshift barricade. Several fingers of sunlight were seeping through the barricade, bringing the night to gentle end.
I gripped my weapon and took a step forward, noting the four sets of eyes that snapped towards me at the movement.
"We must move." I announced. "My battle-brothers are still out there, we have to get to them."
"There's more of ya?" Francis asked, a note of unease in his voice.
"Whaddya think, genius?" Bill snapped. "Did you miss the hundreds of fire-balls from the sky?"
Francis sighed.
"I hate those fire-balls."
"Drop pods." I corrected. "Those were our drop pods."
"Whatever." Bill said. " Look, son, I don't know what's you're trying to pull, but take some advice from an old man, you go out during the day, alone, you're gonna end up as zombie food. Zombies are spruce in the morn', they're less active during the night."
I bristled.
"I think you underestimate my abilities a little too much. I am a Space Marine, I know no fear, and my brothers need me!"
Bill sighed, he seemed not the least intimidated by me, which was very unusual given most civilians in the presence of men of our stature.
"You may have no fear, son, but you gotta have brains." He went on patiently. "If they all fought like you, don't you think your brothers can hold out till night? Sides', lone wolves buy the farm out here. If we stick together, we can get out of this alive."
"I do not want to get out of here alive, old man, I am here to purge Terra of every single Infected here, even if it takes my life!"
Bill shrugged, while Louis snickered.
"Be my guest," Louis said. "Won't do your buddies any good if you're lying out there in pieces. We come with you, we can help you find them."
And drive up your chances of survival in the process, I mused. But my voice of reason urged me to stay put, as much as I didn't want to admit it, the civilians were right. I stood a better chance of succeeding in my mission if I were to learn as much as possible about my enemy's weaknesses.
"We'll make you a deal, son. We help you find your brothers, and you'll help us get outta this hell-hole. Deal?" He offered a wrinkled hand in the old Terran way of greeting.
I hesitated, then enclosed soft human flesh in unyielding ceramite.
"Get some rest," Bill nodded. "We've got a long night ahead."
Chapter Master, your chapter's records are nothing short of outstanding, but I would like to turn our attention to other pressing matters, that is the faith of several of your marines. To be direct, The Emperor's Most Holy Inquisition finds your faith in His Holy Majesty severely lacking. To even think of forming alliances with the Foul Xenos is to blaspheme against the Emperor. The questioning attitude which your chapter adopts towards unknown entities is very unbecoming of the Astartes, and must be stopped at once. As Inquisitor, I must urge you, and your chapter to cease and desist in these heretical attitudes at once. Consider this a warning on our part, we will not be so lenient in the future.
Inquisitor Raminius,
Ordo Malleus.
0700 hours, Fairfield City, Inner Quarter, Librarian Joseph Niveh, Terminator Squad. Three hours after Temple Chapter's landfall.
The purge, in not going well. No, not at all. As difficult that fact is to swallow, I have to believe it. It is not a lack of firepower and armor, the Terminators standing around me a testament to that fact. It is not a lack of fighting spirit, the yelling of Chaplain Marcus over the vox-net with his Assault Terminator squad a testament to that fact. Nor was it the extreme strength of our enemies, the countless bodies piled up around our position being proof. No, it was the severe lack of proper tactics and intelligence that caused us our problems on Terra.
I suppose I was partly to blame for that. During my briefing of the embarking marines, I knew as much about the enemy we were facing as they did. Captain Destrol not being particularly fond of gathering sufficient intelligence before a deployment.
If I had launched scout parties instead of the actual strike force, not so many of our brothers would've fallen.
As for the tactics, well, there was a major blunder. The responsibility weighs heavily on both Chaplain Marcus and my shoulders, and even now, I have to keep banishing the nagging guilt from my mind.
We had no knowledge of our enemy, so when massive, muscular giants burst from the darkness to charge our carefully erected firing lines, our lines descended into chaos. Nothing short of lascannons can bring one of these beasts down, and several of our squads did not possess Devastator support.
While the normal Infected, a term which I had recently learned, can do absolutely no damage to our power armor, they can bring a marine down with sheer force of numbers once the firing line has been shattered. Individually isolated from their brothers, these Infected demonstrate surprising tenacity in tearing off the helmets of our brothers, and killing them in this brutal fashion. It does happen quickly, but happen it does.
Thankfully, the leaping Infected do little much except disrupt several of our brothers, their claws only succeeding in scratching their power armor. There has also been isolated reports of mutated Chaos witches attacking several of our squads. So far, no sorcery has been used, although it does seem like the work of the plague god.
I kicked aside a male Infected with my boot, and frowned.
If there was sorcery abound, I would have felt it. Yet, my senses remain clear, except for……I spun around and fired single round with my bolt pistol. The bolt blew the Infected's head clean off its shoulders as it slumped to the ground with a wet thud.
The Terminators around me opened fire with their storm bolters, tearing up the enemy with grim efficiency, idly swatting aside those that came too close. Leaving them to handle the regular Infected, I reached out with my senses, sweeping the buildings around us.
A leaping infected screamed and leapt from its perch on the roof of a buildings, arms outstretched to bring one of us into a brutal embrace.
He didn't have a prayer. I raised my power staff, the golden eagle seated on the top of the staff flared white as I summoned up my power. A bolt of cleansing white light lashed out and struck the infected with all the Emperor's fury, turning it into dust.
"My lord," Argus, the Terminator sergeant approached. "We should move, they increase their attacks with greater intensity the longer we remain in one fixed location."
I nodded. Most space marines in our chapter had a healthy fear of me and my fellow Librarians, not that I objected to the healthy aura of fear, but the Terminator squads which I had led bore no such illusion. We had served with each other for many millennia, and we stood together as brothers.
I slammed my staff on the ground beneath out boots, white fire rippling outwards from where we stood, turning every Infected it touched to charred husks. Librarians in our chapter were exceedingly rare, due to the fact that only individuals of exceptional psychic powers were given training. As a result, our Librarians were very much more powerful than the Librarians of other chapters.
"The path is clear, brothers." I said. "Let us move."
We trudged forward, my mind still focused on the tactical situation. Eighteen squads deployed over six sectors of the city and its outskirts. Five squads had lost contact with the Indomitable, five more were in full retreat, three were bogged down and required support, two Terminator squads under Marcus and Niveh were doing fine, as were the remaining three squads. The Astropaths of the Indomitable kept him updated with a steady stream of information on their deployed forces.
Worst yet, many of those squads did not have fixed numbers, making logistics and tactical deployments even harder. The city itself offered little vox support, making communication even more difficult. Plus, with all squads deployed completely ignorant of the special infected, things became messy very fast.
Time for radical relocations.
"Brothers, link up with Chaplain Marcus and his squad, we need to find all remaining squads and offer support, we stand a better chance of completing our mission once we are united."
The Terminators flashed acknowledgement runes and moved out along the city. In the far end of the city, I could make out the green sign of the city's medicae facilities.
A cacophony of screaming sounded from the dark streets before us. The Terminators raised their weapons and advanced, moving with increased alertness.
I did not wear a helmet, wearing instead the reassuring feel of my psychic hood. The chapter's armorer had offered me a suit of Terminator Armor to match my brothers, but I had declined the offer, preferring my own suit of blue artificer armor which my former master once wore.
"Forward brothers, for the Emperor!" Argus, the Terminator sergeant roared. Their storm bolters barked as the infected came into range, the shells ripping apart the decaying flesh with contemptuous ease.
A sleek rope shot out from one of the building windows, wrapping itself firmly around the arm of one of the Terminators. Another one of the special infected, this one preferring some measure of discretion compared to its foul brethren. The Terminator gave a low chuckle, gripped the rope, which resembled the creature's tongue with his power fist, and gave the tongue a mighty tug. A strangled shriek from the infected sounded from the window, followed by the entire length of the creature as it hurtled towards us. It landed heavy at the Terminator's boots, still shrieking as the warrior raised a massive ceramite boot and caved in its entire torso.
The assault had faltered, and the Terminators were now mopping up the remaining infected. How many citizens did this city have? How many have we killed? I found myself unable to keep count. not enough, I thought as I trudged through the corpses.
My senses spiked a warning, something big was headed this way.
"Incoming." I warned, keeping my voice calm and steady. "One of the giants."
"Defensive positions!" Argus ordered.
"Cancel that." I said. "Clear off the streets, leave this creature to me." There was a reason I wanted to best the beast alone, and it wasn't empty bravado. If this creature had a weakness, I needed to find one, fast.
I could see the shape of the creature, charging towards me with berserk fury. I stood calmly in the center of the street, my staff in both hands, pulsing softly with white light. Once it came close enough, I pushed out with my mind, not to wound, but to seek.
The giant recoiled as my mind touched its own. I raked its relatively small mind, searching for the distinctive feeling of taint, and finding none. My suspicions were confirmed. This beast was not of Chaos. Touching the mind of a minion of Chaos other than to kill it was very dangerous, and even frowned on by the Inquisition. But I have had my suspicions for some time, since I have felt the lack of Chaos sorcery in the city.
The Inquisitors never had to listen to their brothers die while they remained halfway across an infected city, so as far as I was concerned, the Inquisitors could go gak themselves.
Stop. I sent the whisper through my mind. The beast came to a screeching halt, panting heavily, resting on all fours. It was human, no doubt about that, the small head and the remnants of civilian clothing proving that. Its lower jaw was missing, and on close inspection, I found it partially absorbed by the thick layer of skin and muscle around it.
Obey. I willed it, pushing out again. The creature shuddered, then let loose a deafening roar, with amazing speed, it swung a massive fist in my direction. I raised my staff, letting my mind flow through the staff's power. The creature's fist smacked against a rock-solid white shield of pure faith, bouncing off harmlessly. The force of the blow sent me reeling backwards, otherwise unharmed.
"Stay back." I ordered as several of the Terminators raised their weapons.
The creature came forward again, bellowing in rage. Too little of a mind left to control then, the remnants of its ravaged mind only capable of primeval functions, which was pounding me into red paste at the moment.
I dodged another wild swing of its fists, rolling under its guard. I slammed my staff into its chest, sending a bolt of white-hot energy smashing into it. The beast roared and reeled back, its chest smoking and charred.
Mostly immune to physical strikes. I dived away again as it attempted to pound me to the ground, leaving massive craters on the road. Before it could move its arms, I ran towards it and gripped one of the pillars of muscles. The creature bellowed in rage as it tried to shake me off, to no avail. I tightened the grip on my gauntlets, and swung upwards onto its massive shoulders. It shook itself violently as it tried to dislodge me.
Not a chance.
I raised my staff with both hands, and brought it down on the creature's head with a surge of psychic energy. White light tore through the creature's head, exploding outwards through the wounds on its body. Lifeless, it crumpled to the ground as I leapt off it in one fluid motion.
Psychic attacks, very vulnerable.
"That was interesting," I remarked to myself as we resumed our advance. "Let's move, lots of ground to cover."
I now knew the enemy's prime weakness, and now, my brothers needed help.
Only countless infected stood in our way.
Oh well, at least we've got lots of ammunition.
