In Tergum Cultro: Chapter6
From the outside the Mechanicus shrine resembled a large gate way built into solid rock, soaring high and engraved with the great bifurcated skull symbol of Mars. It was easily large enough for a pair of Dreadnoughts to pass through unimpeded yet to approach it would be deadly. The archway was festooned with defensive neutron lasers, plasma cavaliers and Gun Servitors.
Sadly this elaborate defence was now useless, the lasers jerked randomly in their firing slits seeking targets that they could not find. The Cavaliers sparked uselessly as they powered up and down repetitively while the Servitors wandered aimlessly about finding nothing. The gate itself was sitting wide open, split down the middle of the great icon to form two separate images, one of flesh the other of steel.
"What happened here?" asked Toran surveying the crippled armaments.
"Some form of scrapcode infestation" replied Canesh, "It must have scrambled the defences and left them helpless."
"Then Castabore is already here" stated Toran, "Quickly we may still catch her!"
Pyrus squad bounded forwards, weapons raised as they swept for enemies but Canesh paused and said to her Stormtroopers, "Stay here and form a perimeter, we will scout ahead." The Stormtroopers saluted and turned their Hellguns outwards as the Inquisitor followed the Space Marines inside.
The Imperials progressed swiftly under the shadow of the defences, alert for the slightest sign that they were being targeted but nothing happened and they passed under the archway into the shrine itself. Beyond the gate the fane was carved deep into the bed rock, stretching away in a long nave.
The space was bare save for devotional icons to the glory of the Omnissiah and large vox casters that blared binary hymns on a continuous loop. More gun servitors wandered aimlessly around but their weapons were pointed at the ground and their targeting scanners were blind to the world.
At the far end of the nave were the smoking remains of a rood screen before a smashed altar. Behind that were a pair of smaller doors which were ajar and hanging off their frames.
Toran took in the shattered remains of the shrine and snarled, "Warp Hells, the Heretek has been and gone, she must already have the data!"
Inquisitor Canesh stepped forwards and said, "Take your Space Marines and secure the inner sanctum, we must know what has been stolen. I will sweep this area and try to discern if there is any trail to follow."
Toran bristled at her assumption of authority and said, "Inquisitor we are not under your command here, you do not give us orders."
Canesh raised a prim eyebrow and said, "Do you want to waste time arguing about jurisdiction or do you want to catch a Traitor?"
Toran wanted to argue further but knew her words made sense so he waved the squad forwards and reluctantly said, "Very well, I will take your suggestions under advisement, for now."
Leaving Canesh behind Pyrus squad advanced and approached the end of the nave. The interior doors had been blown wide open leaving a gaping hole into the sanctum. Beyond the doors they found an octagonal chamber some fifty paces wide, clad in marble tiles cut to microscopically exact measurements.
The roof was beautiful dome with reinforced flying buttresses leading into a central Keystone the length of a Space marine. Short plinths were placed with geometric precision around the space each bearing strange ornaments and shimmering with the light of stasis fields.
On the far wall was a curious emblem, brazenly out of place for it was a large white circle banded with an iron chain. Emblazoned on the circle was large black avian creature with wings wide spread and claws gripping the chain.
Novak pointed at the emblem and said, "That is the seal of the Raven Guard, what is it doing here?". He stepped between the plinths for a closer look but pulled up short as Furion yelled, "Stop!"
Novak froze still with one foot still in mid air and held his breath as Furion slowly crept closer. He set down his Heavy Flamer and inched forwards to gingerly probe at a loose flagstone right under where Novak was about to put his boot.
He lifted it a hairsbreadth and peered underneath declaring, "Seismic mine, one more step and you would have brought this whole place down on our heads."
Novak pulled his boot back and took a large step away as he asked, "Can you disarm it?"
Furion snorted in derision and said "Give me time and I can disarm anything," He pulled a pack of tools from his belt and removed a series of micro thin wires along with a device that sprouted curling Mechandrites. He slid a tiny probe under the flagstone and began disarming the mine with all the care of a master watchmaker.
Meanwhile Pyrus squad spread out and began examining the rest of the shrine, checking for more traps and hidden secrets. Toran walked around the perimeter examining the various plinths laid out before him, many bore strange devices whose purpose he could not begin to guess at and he suspected may have been heretically Xeno in origin.
Others supported single sheets of vellum parchment covered with text from dead and forgotten languages, one plinth merely shone a rotating hololithic image of some esoteric fomula in mid air. Another bore a strange mask of a young boy wrought from gold, crowned with a strange cobra like headdress.
Yet the most important plinth of all was not demarked by its content but rather by it's absence. It was short and otherwise indistinguishable save for a short knife that had been rammed into the mechanism to disrupt its stasis field.
Toran stared at the inert block and felt the dreadful implications arising from the bare slab that must once have held the precious STC data. He swore to make the Traitor pay for her perfidy and for betraying the bonds of honour between warriors.
He paced away snarling and inspected the progress of the rest of the squad. He approached Persion and said, "Anything else missing?"
"No" reported Persion, "She went straight for the most valuable thing in here, she knew exactly what she was looking for."
Toran felt frustration and bile building within him, but then he saw another of his brothers acting oddly. It was Daite and he was standing by the entrance way staring at the doors silently and unmoving.
Toran approached with a hint of caution in his step for Daite was a strange one even by Astartes standards. The Marine had been blessed and cursed in equal measure by a defective Catalapsean node that occasionally misfired. The result of this was that Daite sometimes could be struck by astounding leaps of intuition and deductive logic that bordered on prophecy. Yet useful as they had proven Toran had never fully trusted these insights.
Toran gently walked up to Daite and was relieved to see his brother was not in the grips of some vision. Instead he was carefully examining the door jamb, looking over every inch from top to bottom. Toran came to stand beside Daite and said, "Found something brother?"
Daite replied, "This door is all wrong."
"It has been blown open" replied Toran, "Of course there is something wrong."
"No not that" Daite, "These doors are wrecked, smashed asunder."
"Why is that important?" Toran asked curiously.
Daite answered "The doors have been demolished with Melta bombs but this is a Mechanicus shrine, why would the Magos risk damaging the relics inside?"
Toran realised what Daite was driving at and he reasoned out loud, "Yes, the Magos wouldn't have needed to risk damaging the relics because she should have had the authority to just open the seals herself. This was sloppy and reckless work, not at all like a Tech-Priest."
Daite nodded as his Sergeant caught up and said, "Something is very wrong here."
Toran called out, "Inquisitor I need your opinion, come look at this..." he was met by silence. A slight frown creased his brow and he straightened up and turned calling out "Inquisitor?" but Canesh was not where she had been.
While everybody was distracted she had silently withdrawn beyond the outer doors of the shrine and was now standing outside with her Stormtroopers. Every weapon was raised to point straight inside: right at Pyrus squad.
Shock and outrage stole over Toran and without conscious thought he began to run forwards but time seemed to dilate and his feet appeared to move with glacial slowness. Barely had he managed to put one foot before another when Canesh held up a long silver cylinder in one hand. Then she smiled with smug superiority and contempt as her thumb hit the trigger rune.
The ground lurched beneath the Space Marines' feet as her remote detonator set off the seismic mine in an ultrasonic shriek of disruptive noise.
Toran was thrown to the side as the arcane device projected overpowering sonic waves through the bedrock, the vibrations travelling instantly through the stonework to hurl everybody off their feet. The disruption was stomach churning for anyone in range but utterly catastrophic for the shrine itself.
Thick rock shook like a reed in the wind and massive cracks ran through the pillars and buttress as their integrity was shattered. Stone splinters flew out like bullets and a terrible groaning filled the chamber as hundreds of tons of stone shifted on skittering foundations.
With a final burst of energy the seismic mine created a crescendo of ultrasonic waves that turned the air itself blurry and indistinct then it died away. For a single moment silence reigned and all was still, then with an earth shattering rumble the entire ceiling caved in on their heads.
Toran looked up in horror as the massive Keystone broke free and dropped right on Furion's position. The rest of the roof followed it down creating an avalanche of broken masonry and rough rocks from above.
Toran threw up his arms over his head but could not hold back the deluge. A huge boulder smashed into his helm and knocked him into unconsciousness as Pyrus squad were buried alive.