In the Astartes ready room, Sergeant Kartox and his Battle-Brothers were watching the clash between the two fleets unfold. It was possible to gain a full overview of the frenzied fleet action on a holo-display in the center of the room, but Sergeant Kartox was looking out into space through a great reinforced window. The Pride of Hydraphur was now little more than a black, rudderless wreck surrounded by a cloud of debris. The course of the great cruiser was such that it would probably fall into the atmosphere of Atopos XIV within a few hours, causing untold devastation on the planet's surface.
"How do you assess the battle, Sergeant?" said Battle-brother Klang.
"We are holding them off for now. But I believe it is only a matter of time before our force is overwhelmed. Lord Offenbach seems very eager to sacrifice his own life, and those of many others, in service of the Imperium".
"A pointless sacrifice", said Battle-brother Oskar – one of the younger Space Marines in the squadron. Kartox turned abruptly toward him. "You are in fact correct, Battle-Brother", he said. "In this case we should withdraw, regroup, and wait for reinforcements. It is the only sound strategy. But I wouldn't quote me on that in front of an Inquisitor".
The other Astartes chuckled. Then, one of the large triangles on the holo-display that signified a capital ship began to flash bright yellow.
"Sergeant", said Battle-Brother Oskar. "The cogitator indicates that the Justificatum Dolor is now in a vulnerable position. The corsairs are forming up to attack".
"The auguries of the machine spirit are seldom false", said Kartox. "Bring up a holoview of the vessel".
The Astartes watched as the Justificatum Dolor unleashed a storm of ordinance against the gathering Dark Eldar ships. To Kartox, there was something strangely alluring about the corsair vessels – some sort of jagged, menacing eroticism that stirred a part of what remained of his humanity. He reminded himself of the fact that all Eldar were sworn arch-enemies of his chapter, and silently recited a litany against the xenos taint.
The cruiser Wrath of Tellus was moving in to support, all its weapons firing at full capacity. But it was not enough. The corsairs were targeting the engines of the Inquisition barge. There was a series of explosions on board the great Imperial vessel.
"She is dead in the void, Sergeant", said Battle-Brother Klang. One of the Dark Eldar cruisers was maneuvering closer, and then a boarding tube, mostly resembling some kind of obscene proboscis, began to extend from its prow toward the Justificatum Dolor. The tube attached itself to the hull by means of the black artifice of the Dark Eldar. It looked as though some vile parasite had begun to feed from the Inquisition Barge. A signal sounded, and the voice of Inquisitor Ztern was heard through the voxcaster.
"Sergeant Kartox – you are probably aware that the corsairs are boarding Lord Offenbach's ship. We must counterattack. I suggest that you and your Astartes spearhead our advance".
"I concur", said Kartox. "Battle-Brothers – rituals of readiness. We muster in the teleportarium in two minutes".
The Astartes were already in their power armor. They rushed to the armory and began to burden themselves with as much ammunition and grenades as they could carry. They knew that combat aboard voidships was often a brutal close quarters affair where a bolter clip seldom lasted for long. They would probably have to resort to chainswords and combat knives before their bloody chores were finished.
A few minutes later, the Astartes materialized out of the warp in the austere teleportarium of the Justificatum Dolor. Since only one of the injured space marines had recovered from the damage inflicted upon him by Atikus Noille's rogue psyker, the squad was almost at half strength. When the bulkhead door opened, some sort of strange miasma of a pale greenish hue billowed in from the corridor beyond.
"Sergeant", said the Apothecary, "it is a gas of unknown composition. Probably of xenos origin".
"It is torture gas", said Kartox. "The Haemonculi of the Dark Eldar concoct it in endless variations, but it always results in a protracted and painful death. Brother Oskar – deploy the skull probe".
"Heretics, Xenos", muttered Brother Klang. "They all lack honor".
"Not to worry, Battle-Brother", said Kartox as he viewed the images transmitted from the skull probe, superimposed over his normal auto-senses. "You will get to unleash the Emperor's vengeance on this xenos filth soon enough". At first he saw only empty corridors, but after a hundred yards or so the first victims of the torture gas came into view. Their bodies were contorted into disturbing and unnatural positions that seemed to defy the limitations of the human physique. Their faces were paralyzed in insane expressions of horror. Even as a veteran Sergeant of the White Guardians, Kartox could not quite grow accustomed to the perverse practices of the Dark Eldar. Had he been fully capable of experiencing fear, he would probably have felt it now.
For a brief moment, a ghostly shape flickered across the skull probe's field of vision.
"Advance", sargeant Kartox ordered across the vox-link."Squad pattern beta, checkered. Cleanse and purge".
The squad moved through a hallway littered with bodies. "Sergeant", said the apothecary. "These voidsmen are alive!"
Yes, thought Sergeant Kartox. They are alive. The foul alchemy of the Dark Eldar has trapped them in a comatose dream-state, where every hour is like a year of constant and unbearable torture. Their metabolisms have slowed down, so that they may remain in this state for weeks without dying of thirst or starvation.
"There is not enough time to help them. We must focus on our objectives. Stay sharp, Battle-Brothers".
There was a sudden outbreak of gunfire, screaming and explosions ahead of the squad. Through the flashes and the haze Kartox could see emaciated shapes clad in armor of perverse designs, bedecked with sharp thorns and blades. Brother Klang's heavy bolter began its howl of destruction. One of the Dark Eldar had his legs cut of from beneath him, and another was blown completely to pieces, showering the surroundings with gore and pieces of pale flesh. Through the vox-link Kartox heard a wordless expression of pain and surprise. He spun around, and saw a sinister shape materializing out of the shadows, its blade of plundered wraithbone already wedged in between the cuirass and shoulder guard of Brother Oskar. Kartox hewed with his chainsword but sliced only air as the Mandrake somersaulted backwards. Brother Oskar threw himself forward and managed to pin the hateful creature to the floor beneath the bulk of his power armor. There was a brief but desperate struggle before the Space Marine succeeded in driving his combat knife into the chest of the monstrosity, which burst and melted into a puddle of a pitch black, tar-like substance.
The Dark Eldar were returning fire. The corridor was filled by a storm of splinter rifle fire – it sounded like a thousand panes of glass breaking at once, but the corsair's weapons were not powerful enough to penetrate the Power Armor of the Astartes quite so easily. One of the Space Marines lobbed a grenade down the corridor and there was a flash of light and a visceral thud. But the Dark Eldar had already vanished, the echoes of their mocking staccato laughter fading away into the distance. Battle-Brother Oskar rose to his feet and tried to wipe the disgusting, oily remains of the Mandrake from his Power Armour.
"This is Inquisitor Ztern", heard Kartox through his vox-link. "Astartes squadron – you must try to cut off the corsair's access to reinforcements. Otherwise we'll never get this xenos scum off this vessel".
"Affirmative", said Sergeant Kartox. "We will attempt to sever their boarding tube. How are you advancing, Inquisitor?"
"Slowly. We are encountering stiff resistance. May the Emperor be with you, Sergeant".
With the aid of his war-scanner, Sergeant Kartox led his Squadron toward the point where the Dark Eldar had breached the hull. It was a bloody business as the Space Marines fought their way through a labyrinth of shadowy hallways, chambers and corridors. Here and there they found places where the Stormtroopers had put up resistance, but inevitably they had all been slaughtered by the bloodthirsty corsairs. The Astartes cut down Dark Eldar by the dozens with their bolters, but by the time they had reached their objective, only Kartox and four of his Space marines remained. There was no time to mourn the fallen.
The compartment where the Dark Eldar boarding ram had punched through the hull was a mess of debris and broken bodies. A ring of cruel barbs held the corsair vessel attached to the Justificatum Dolor, almost in the manner of a giant grappling hook. Battle-Brother Oskar knelt down and began to construct a makeshift bomb by attaching several plasma grenades together.
"I request the honor of carrying out this assignment, Sergeant". It was Brother Hanuman, one of the senior Astartes of the company, who spoke.
"So be it, Battle-Brother", said Sergeant Kartox. As Brother Hanuman grabbed the bundle of grenades, they saw a new wave of corsairs in sinister armor and barbed helmets begin to surge up the length of the tube. "Covering fire", Sergeant Kartox ordered, and then the Space Marine carrying the bomb began to run down the boarding tube. As he ran, Dark Eldar were cut down to the left and right of him by the overpowering fire of the Astartes bolters. The Space Marines watched tensely as a leader among the corsairs appeared, wielding a great splinter cannon. Upon the spikes of his armor the shriveled heads of human infants were impaled, and the face mask of his helmet was a snarling demon face. Even the Armor of an Astartes, among the strongest in the galaxy, could not withstand the velocity of the mono-molecular shards of his evil weapon. Brother Hanuman fell to the ground, mortally wounded; a fraction of a second later there was a bright light and a sound like thunder.
Sergeant Kartox knew little of the workings of the vessels of the Xenos corsairs, but to him it looked like the plasma explosion must have ruptured something vital in the cruiser's foul machine spirit. There was a sudden chain reaction that spread into the ship itself, and moments later a series of gigantic explosions tore the prow of the corsair cruiser to pieces. The air started rushing out of the chamber into space, and the Space Marines activated the magnetic anchors in the soles of their boots to avoid getting sucked out to the cold void.
"One Space Marine for a xenos cruiser", said Brother Klang. "A most advantageous exchange".
"Indeed", said Kartox. "The name of Brother Hanuman will surely be entered into the annals of our chapter as that of a true hero".
The remaining Space Marines left the now airless chamber and sealed the airtight bulkhead doors behind themselves. Scattered gunfire and explosions still echoed through the corridors of the Justificatum Dolor, but the corsairs who still remained on the ship were cut off from their reinforcements, and had nowhere to run. Sergeant Kartox received a distress call from Inquisitor Ztern – the remainder of the corsair boarders were still a threat to be reckoned with, and had managed to split the Inquisition force in half.
The Space Marines hurried through the ruined, corpse-strewn innards of the Inquisition barge. In some places the Imperial dead lay in heaps, and in others the Dark Eldar had submitted them to slow torturous deaths by flaying, disembowelment, or worse. Even in the heat of battle, the Dark Eldar could not quell their thirst for the suffering of other beings.
As the remains of the Space Marine Squad moved through a shadowy colonnade, Kartox gave the order to halt. Something stirred in the darkness ahead.
"Sergeant", said Brother Klang, "There is movement behind".
"I know. We are surrounded. Now comes the true test of our mettle, Battle-Brothers".
Ahead, Sergeant Kartox saw the dark outlines of great beasts congealing out of the darkness. Their eyes seemed to glow with unholy energy. They were shaped somewhat like great mastiffs, yet their forms appeared to shift and mutate as if they conformed to the worst fears and nightmares of the spectator. A shrill yet harsh voice echoed from behind.
"The game is through, mon-keigh", it said in a lilting accent. "I must say you've fought well, though. Surrender, and you will be granted glorious deaths in our arenas".
"Xenos filth", Brother Klang roared. "Come closer, and be cast into the oblivion that awaits all your kind!"
Snickering and mocking sighs of disappointment echoed out of the unnatural shadows. There was a peculiar whistling sound that seemed to cut into the very soul, and suddenly the warp-beasts hurled themselves forward with supernatural speed. A few were brought down by well placed bolter rounds, but most of them lived to overwhelm the Astartes in a tide of ravenous jaws and tearing, razor sharp claws. In the Shadows, the Dark Eldar sighed and groaned with perverse delight.
Sargeant Kartox cleft one of the beasts fully in half from snout to tail with his chainsword, but then another one caught his sword arm between its slavering jaws. It was like of a vise of such power that even the post human strength of a veteran Astartes could not shake the beast loose. Kartox felt its fangs slowly digging through his armor, into his forearm. He placed his bolt pistol to the head of the unwholesome beast and pulled the trigger, knowing that it was his last round. It exploded and splattered the white Power Armor of the struggling Apothecary with black blood and gore. Three more of the monsters jumped Kartox, one of them impaling itself on his buzzing chainsword. But the momentum of the remaining two was so powerful that Kartox was toppled off his feet. One of the warp beast was trying to tear his helmet off with its teeth.
Had he been able to watch, Sargeant Kartox would have seen a strange, almost skeletal shape dropping down from the ceiling onto one of the warp beasts. In moments it was sliced into bloody fragments, and then all Kartox could see was a flurry of green static, frantic movement and hacking, piercing blades. It took only a couple of handfuls of heartbeats before the warp beasts had been cut to pieces with almost surgical precision. Cries of horror and dismay were heard from the Dark Eldar.
For an instant it seemed as though time had frozen, and Sergeant Kartox stared straight into the eyes of the half-xenos assassin. He was dressed only in tatters, and in places his flesh had been torn asunder, exposing the glittering green metal endoskeleton below. Then the assassin Gibarius vanished once more in a blur of motions, and there were awful cries of surprise and terror from the unseen corsairs. A severed Dark Eldar head head rolled into view, the blank gaze of death in its eyes. Those of the Corsairs who managed to escape death at the hands of Gibarius fled screaming, never to be seen again.
Sargeant Kartox quickly rose to his feet and looked at his half ruined bracer. Miraculously, all the Space Marines had survived the frenzied attack of the warp beasts.
The unnatural gloom brought by the Dark Eldar began to clear, and Gibarius turned toward the Astartes as the blades of animated metal began to retract back into his palms.
"Assassin", said Kartox and nodded curtly at Gibarius.
"There's no need to feel grateful", said Gibarius. "I didn't mean to save you – it was just a coincidence. I had been stalking them for a while. Besides, I know I didn't do you much of a favor. Since your kind aren't really afraid of dying anyway".
"Abomination", hissed brother Klang. An enigmatic grin spread across the lips of the assassin, as he looked up at the hulking Space Marine.
"Why is that, anyway? Why aren't you afraid of dying?"
There was a brief silence, and then a tumult of gunfire and explosions was heard. A Dark Eldar warrior ran into view, and as he turned around to fire a salvo from his splinter rifle, his entire upper body was evaporated by the nearly blinding white beam of an inferno pistol. What remained collapsed to the floor with an unceremonious clattering thump. Inquisitor Ztern and his Stormtroopers had arrived.
"Sergeant Kartox", said the Inquisitor as he holstered his weapon. "By the looks of it, you managed to draw off most of the corsairs who were causing us trouble. Well done indeed!"
"Any further orders, Inquisitor", said Kartox.
"Well, Sergeant... There has been a rather unfortunate turn of events. The corsairs have somehow managed to trip the warp drive of this ship. My enginseers are attempting to reverse the sabotage, but I'm afraid it isn't looking too good. Within a few minutes, this vessel will self destruct, and everything within ten thousand kilometers will be dragged with it into the Immaterium".
"In that case it would seem prudent to evacuate at once". Kartox paused for a second. "But what of Lord Offenbach?"
"Lord Offenbach has fallen in battle", said Ztern in a grave tone of voice. "There is no time for further explanations at this time. Sergeant – you and your Astartes will use the teleportarium. We will leave in our boarding vessels. All hands, abandon ship!"