Evius smashed aside the flimsy construction of the barricade, the wooden paneling breaking apart as he reached out and crushed the skull of the Heretic that though to cover behind it. Blood ran down his frame in rivulets, and more than some hissed and spat as it made contact with the warding runes layered across his armor.
"We are making good time, Brothers, be swift and vengeful!" he called over the Vox as he pulped another Heretic cultist clad in rags and scavenged armor with bolter fire. "Thunderhawks- Be ready for immediate extraction on my command at the given locations."
+Captain!+ The Epistolary shouted over the vox, the sound of heavy combat echoed over his communication, "Epistolary, how do you fare?" Evius asked, already an inkling of forewarning dripped through his veins.
+The Traitor Lord moves- he has sensed our presence I gander.+
"Where does he flee? Give me an intercept at once." Another Berserker Marine- bolter and axe this one had- swung madly and without care for self- so lost was he in the agonizing wrath of Khorns madness. A blistering blue blade intercepted its course from Evius' flank- Ilitarus was there- inseparable from his Captains side since the days of Cor. The blade cut through the long haft of the Axe as if it were flimsy plasteel paneling and continued to cut through the head of the Traitor marine behind it.
+You forget the ways of Khorns children, captain,+ The Epistolary spoke with a slight laugh despite the situation. +He is not running away from us, he is running towards us- you in particular.+
"Ah," Evius nodded, slightly humbled, but smiling just the same. "We should have announced our presence when we landed, if that is the case."
…
Cranto was a mass of stolen adamantium armor and boiling mechanical rage. Warp stuff bled off of him in globules of corrupted black oily ichor. Augmetics and pistons throbbed and wheezed with every movement. Daemonhide horns erupted from a shaven bulbous skull of steel and carbon. Lengths of barbed ruby veins flowed underneath slaps of ceramite armor welded by madmen priests of the Dark mechanicus. In each hand the traitor Lord now held a defiantly growling chainaxe baptized in battle.
Sputtering from his mouth was more faithful prayer. Humble blessings. Self-deprecating impeachments. Grandiose Sermons.
These were all hollow, though. Despite the passion he bled into his prayer he knew that he could only truly reach the Blood Gods ears through the slaughter of the weak and wrong and strong and mighty. Though he prayed with the fervor of a word bearer apostle and knew every word to the psalms of the pilgrim and had slaughtered his old warmaster- a Daemon Prince and former Captain no less- for 'lack of conviction' he knew that these word-prayers were not the same as 'gore-prayer.' Khorn existed only for the flowing of blood and claiming of glory, words were for the lesser gods and their subtlety- such useless subtlety!
Khorn had heard him, however- Khorn had heard his word-prayer and saw what it desired and gave him a blessing because of his devotion to gore-prayer. Mad red eyes- eyes of a daemon saw through the pathetic steel walls- good walls though- blood stained walls carved with the marks of Khorn- and he saw.
In the distance- witch lights PSYKER Lights, awful, cowardly witches with warp powers and cowardly skulls. He raged- the false-nails clawed at his skull, his worthy skull. He raged he pained and slathered the stuff of madness, axes roaring in sympathetic pain.
Wait. Closer- more lights, little lights bright and sparkly and filled with- Praises be –blood. Silver lights, silver warriors with Blades and –Praises be –skulls.
Astartes Skulls.
He opened one of his five maws and-
…
Screaming, no, roaring. The wild call to battle by a savage beast. Evius steadied himself- not because of fear but because the entire Hive seemed to shake.
"What in the name of the Throne is that manner of beast?" A strike marine scowled, helmet lost to a pack of fleshhounds- his Halbred was stained with their blood in return for such an affront.
"A dead one- I promise you that." A brother interceptor coolly replied.
"Curb your arrogance- that is the Warlord, no doubt." Stated a Terminator, readying his Thunder hammer in preparation for the coming storm.
"Move forwards, there is a market of sorts just ahead, we must reach it before he, or else we will not have room to maneuver in these narrow streets." Evius commanded, and the Grey Knights fell in line behind him, the booming echoes of the Dreadnaughts to their rear rolling off the Hive buildings.
…
The Grand Market of Oluriti's primary hive was a grandiose venture that attracted farmers and merchantmen from the entire system over. It was a vast complex that occupied the heart of the Primary hive spires very core. It spread nearly a mile across and a great distant ceiling dome was painted with the murals of Merchant saints and benedictions pleasing to the eye. Great stands and stalls made up the grand marketplace, wooden and metal contrivances painted in bright and gaudy colors in order to attract the attention of the passing browser.
All of it was now smashed and broken.
At the center of the market place, he stood upon a grandiose pedestal. What once housed a statue of the master of mankind- forced to the side, collapsed and crushing many stands and vending stations, corpses bloodied its features- now played host to an atrocity that survived the ancient heresy.
A titan in shattered marine plate, what might have once been a tech-marine of the ancient World Eaters before the wrath of Khorn filled his veins, roared in approval as Evius and his brothers filtered out into the market square, weapons prepared and Bolters primed.
Without armor he still would have stood several heads taller than Evius did now in his Terminator Aegis plate, but with the amalgamation of stolen scraps of marine plate- looted off the corpses of slain foes- he stood a full nine feet tall. His massive frame rippled with Daemon flesh and upon is back sat two warped servo arms that snapped and clacked with serrated claws, red light from a fiendish mask of flesh and metal stared hungrily at the Grey Knights. A cluster of mouths gaped stupidly at the world from the malformed chest plate of the Insane Berserker marine.
This was Cranto- the Melded.
Over a thousand worlds were to his tally- and this would be the last.
From behind the Corrupted Chaos Lord clambered up five score blood hungry berserkers, chain axes and power weapons glittering and snarling just as much as their gore soaked masters. Daemons flittered about the air and across the walls, Hellforged blades and warp sharpened teeth gnashing and twisting.
Evius saw all of this, and lowered his blade. He stepped forward, nodding as if in approval.
He started to laugh.
"Captain?" One marine spoke, looking up at his commander in confused amusement.
"This…" Evius began, gesturing with his blade at the hellish foes arrayed before them. "This is far from acceptable… This is not nearly enough."
He again stepped forwards, leaving his brothers behind as he raised his arms as if in incredulity, "For two years I have slept without dream- without distraction. For two years I have waited for my reawakening so that I may ply my trade once more to your blighted hides- and this is what you answer with?"
Evius laughed- a single sharp bark against the roaring- defiant frenzy before him. He turns to his brothers, arms spread wide, searching for the answer for such a paltry few slaughter fiends arrayed before him. "Brothers! You are the Seventh Brotherhood! I am your Brother Captain Returned! Show me how you have dealt with fiends such as these in my absentia!"
Virtue answered Rage, war erupted across the Market.
…
Blood and steel, hatred and strength. All melded together in a swirling melee. Across a once grand market stalls were smashed aside and rotting goods and trinkets were strewn across the metal decking of the hive- only to be smashed under foot by silver and red giants in ancient plate.
A rain of blood from a murdered populace rained down from cracks in the high ceiling. Ruddy crimson light speckled off this hells rain as two mortal foes danced upon a bed of corpses. Guts and gore was trampled and squished underfoot as combatants engaged in savage solo duels.
To the left, a squad of Strike marines were blitzed by ancient world eater berserkers- pale red light glowed from their helms burning eye lenses and they roared in primal fury, chain axes high and roaring with daemonic delight at the promises of visceral bloodshed- the flesh of Loyalists so near, blocked only by flimsy ceramite. Halberds spun out and denied the first rank of blood mad warriors- a Justicar crying out the song of perpetual banishment as he dueled with a Khornate Champion, force sword glittering beautifully as it arced under and parried the savage blows of his opponent. Slightly ahead and right: lightning fast interceptors armed with twin falchions cut a bloody haze through a troop of Bloodletters, glinting like spun silk catching the momentary illumination of lightning as it storms beyond a window as the hoarfrost of warptravel encrusted their plate.
Just behind him a squad of terminators smashed through the seemingly endless hordes of cultists, autogun rounds plinking uselessly off of relic terminator plate. Daemon Hammers, Nemesis Swords and Halberds carved through the blood-crusted plate of Traitor Marines.
But at the center of the market- Kings dueled.
The Martial skill of the Khornate Warlord was something to behold. A kill-crazy techpriest from the days of the great crusade with snapping servo arms and whip like mechendrites and roaring chainaxes that drooled black ichor- splattering the caustic filth across the battlefield with every wild swing.
Evius and Ilitarus dueled this monster both at once, fending away blows in tandem. Evius pressured the machine-daemon fusion with herculean blows that sparked against corrupted plate yet refused to cut past the first layer of the things stolen armor- flesh-like growth rapidly sewing shut any lasting wounds.
Ilitarus parried lightning fast blow from the things many axes as it turned to face the champion- its servo arms swirling around like living things to snap and claw at Evius even with its backed turned.
Captain Evius struggled to find an opening in its defenses- constantly fighting to block or avoid its fanged axes- one came high an another swung low, brutal cutting implements that had feasted on the flesh of daemons and man alike in equal measure.
He would have to get rid of them. "Ilitarus!" He shouted over the Vox to his Champion at the back of the thing.
+Yes- Captain!+ Came the reply from his Brother Champion, a whirlwind of madly glinting silver against viper-like mechendrites and crushing mechanical arms. +Slightly- busy at the moment!+ He grunted.
"I have an idea on how we can best this brute, but I need you hold its full attention for a moment."
+Why do I have the feeling that I am not going to like this?+
"Because you most certainly will not like it, now listen-" Quickly explaining his plan to his champion- whose concern deepened by the second- Evius parried another wild flurry of axe swings, "Can you do it?" He asked.
+Aye, Captain, on your word.+
Evius readied for the transition, at the same time he swatted another overhead strike away, and ducked back from follow up blow from the second chainaxe- its ichor splattering and hissing against his armor.
"Now!" He shouted, and he ducked left around the Brute- even as it made to follow him Ilitarus dove under a Mechendrite and raked his force sword along its flank- cutting into its armor and drawing the brutes ire like nothing else- its many mouths along its corroded front howled in rage and it leapt at the Dancing champion like a hound on a gristly bone.
Now Evius faced the back of the beast- its servo arms clicked and hissed and mechendrites snaked along like patient vipers- surveying the Grey Knight Captain before them. Evius grunted in clear disgust, he let the odium fuel him as he let the power of the warp sink into his bones and grant him strength and endurance.
"This is going to hurt." He admitted, and charged forwards.
He didn't try to block the mechendrites as they scoured his armor with lamprey mouths, he focused on the servo arms that twisted with unnatural grace, his blade and fist striking out in tandem- he gripped one around arm and held it firmly in place while his blade knocked the other aside, hitting with enough force to stun the daemonicly infused appendage- this gave him the time he needed.
Reversing his grip on is sword with a quick flick of the wrist he jammed it with as much force as he could muster into the flesh like generator on the back of the corrupted traitor marine, sparks and blood erupted as one as the Beast thing howled in rage, Mechendrites and servo arm swinging wildly at Ilitarus now as rage overcame its pain and it managed to land a scathing cut across the pauldron of the Champion marine, knocking him back and giving it room to spin on its heel and face Evius once again.
"Brother Librarian! Now!" Evius shouted racking his bolter he unloaded a full magazine into the chest of the Beast- watching it howl as the sanctified bolts exploded across its surface but doing little else aside from staggering it back.
From across the market, came the sound of thunder- and as its harbinger lightning followed in bright coruscating patterns. The searing bolts homed in on the back of the Daemon marine- striking The Captains sword and covering it in warp lightning that slammed down into the beast who played host to the Nemesis sword- Howling in bitter agony the Beast fell to its knees- body erupting on the inside as lightning scoured its hulking frame- it did not suffer for long.
Ilitarus leapt to its front and as it was wracked with lightning He let his blade fall and sever its head in a single strike. Evius retrieved his blade- hot to the touch as a cry of agony rose up across the blood stained market- Daemons raged as the air of control that their master held over them suddenly vanished and the battle soon turned into a route as the hulking frames of Dreadnaughts smashed into the Traitors.
Ilitarus looked out across this and then back up to Ilitarus. "That move of yours was risky- It depended on you getting close enough to impale the beast with your blade."
Evius shook his head. "When you are in Tactical Dreadnaught Armor, few things are risky." He said as he thumped his plate, ignoring the gouges the Mechendrite leach-things left on its surface.
"What possessed you to go to such lengths for this 'plan' of yours? We would have been able to overwhelm it together soon enough."
"Aye, but there is nothing better than humiliating the scions of Khorn through the use of the Warp- they despise such things and any slight I can put against them is worth any potential risk. And this 'Plan' of mine worked for me on Cor, and has proven its worth to me once again."
Evius turned away from his champion, casting his augmented gaze over the battlefield gifted to them by this bloodied hive. Red armored fiends lay in the repose of death across the field of corpses that they themselves had created. Ash fires from decomposing daemons left an acrid stench in the air and the smell of cordite was insufferably palpable even with a helmet. He saw his Brothers stalk the corpse field; Halberds and blades searching for those that still lived among the dead. Some were wounded, but to his satisfaction all still stood firm.
…
Evius found his brothers in dialogue. A young Marine stood over the butchered corpses of a family within a ruined food stand- their last act to seek shelter among familiar faces wasted as the blood scent of the Traitors rooted them out in due time.
"If we had arrived sooner, would we have been able to save these people?"
"Where Daemons walk, corruption spreads, and for those who are corrupted there can be no saving." A veteran Brother, an Interceptor, answered his solemn question.
"Not for those who are pure of heart and hold to the God Emperor, though. Chaos can find no hold on them, is that not true for the Sisters Sororitas?"
"Common folk do not hold to the Word of the Emperor as firmly as they of the Ecclesiarchy."
"Some may not, but not all. This was a cardinal world after all; did they not hold open prayer? How could the ways of chaos hold sway over a people so pious?"
Evius opened his mouth to halt such talk; it had no place on a mission. But found himself instead staring at the ground before him.
It was a fragment of the stained glass dome that covered the market place.
He looked up.
"CONTACT! DAEMONS!" A cry rang out, but not from Evius.
All at once, bolter fire erupted throughout the ranks of the grey knights, all of it directed upwards into the twisting mutable forms of furies and manta shaped screamers- all of them rained down from newly formed cracks in the dome- just beyond its gilded surface dark shapes fluttered about, pressing against the mural to reach the souls that resided just under it.
"Brothers! Close ranks and focus fire! Do not let them single you out!" Evius shouted, at once Ilitarus was at his side, standing shoulder to shoulder with his captain as his own storm bolter roared- its dual barrels glowing white hot from a constant beat of bolter rounds- he ejected another spent a magazine and replaced it with another stacked mag of consecrated shells.
The Screamers fell upon them- fanged maws and razor wings glistening in the red light of a blood soaked sun. Tzeentchian Flamers fell from the roof- arms flailing and seizures wracking their body as gouts of warpfire erupted from their tubular arms in spasmodic conflagrations, wretched squig-like beasts with purple flesh scampered along the walls, squealing and mewling as they vomited up glittering balls of warp energy that they spat at the grey knights in selfish jealousy- eyeless faces twisting and shifting into the visages of those damned to wander the warp.
They were being overwhelmed. That much was certain to Evius as he snapped off another precision burst from his stormbolter- watching with no small measure of satisfaction as a squealing screamer fell to the ground- its death ensured as a strike marine impaled it with his Halbred.
Burning crystal blue soul empowered rounds scoured the skies above them clean as purgation squads moved in, Psilencers, Psycannons and Incinerators working overtime to keep up with the deluge of targets that fell upon them. Something shifted in the attacking Daemons and the shrieked as they swarmed down around the Purgation specialists, engulfing them in Daemon flesh. "Brothers! To the Aid of Purgation squads!" Evius shouted, redirecting his fire in an effort to scour the besieged marines clean of their besiegers.
Several other bolter storms made themselves known, raking fire across the endangered marines but nearly not as many as their should have been. Evius snapped his eyes over the field of battle in order so see what withheld his Brothers wrath and felt a cold chill run through him- scenes just like what he saw now played out before him- swarms of Screamers falling through the roof and setting upon isolated squads like a hive of Jagwasps stirred to action by the bumbling of some unfortunate child.
"As you command. Captain."
There were those who payed no heed to the cawing Daemons, striding through battle like arrogant demigods. Adaphal was among these, and he made his presence known on the field of battle once more. "To me, my brothers." The rolling sonorous boom of his Vox carried over the field of battle, the Corpse Marine walked. The heavy frame of the Dreadnaught was impervious to the biting teeth and scourge claws of the Daemons- but they were very much aware of just how deadly he was to them.
Spiritual power radiated off the frame of Mighty Adaphal, his armored bulk seem to glow as if the Emperor himself had taken notice of the Seventh brotherhood- Casting His gaze in their direction- his servants bolstered by the knowing that the Master of Mankind had taken notice.
Around him came the mighty form of the Sevenths Dreadnaughts, stomping after their venerable brother- stormbolters chattering, heavy flamers unleashing coruscating death upon the enemy that swamped them in hateful numbers and assault cannons spun and spat annihilating streams of death. "Brothers! Rally to the Ancients!" Evius shouted, stumbling over a mound of corpses nearly as deep as he was Huge.
"Confirmed!"
"Acknowledged"
"Aye!"
The strained reply of Justicars filtered through to him, Evius knew this wasn't an engagement that could be won through strength of arms alone- there were simply too many of the bestial things to account for. But the armored might of the Sevenths Dreadnaughts were gifting them the respite they needed- he just had to lead his brothers to their side- where the halo of purity they exuded would offer them protection- a position of power.
"Forwards Brothers! By the Captains words!" Ilitarus shouted, blade raised and gleaming with power- he grabbed a struggling Knight by his gorgot and hauled him to his feet. "This is not where we fall!"
The hacking wings of the Screamers and corrupted fire of flamers clawed at Evius with every heavy step- bolt rounds thudded off and none missed for the living seething mass of Daemons that surrounded him was far too thick- he felt them tear at his armor, but that was of no concern. His plate would hold up to this assault for eons- the brothers around him in Powered armor that lacked the dutiful protection of his Terminator Chassis were those he fought for.
"Push forwards!" Evius commanded, his blade hacking through the leathery hide of some changeling fiend. He looked to Ilitarus, fearing the worst as he heard the Champion grunt with strain- he watched the Champion of the Seventh dart his blade back and forth- jerking left and right to avoid the warp-sharp wings of the manta Daemons and returning every cut with one of his own. But there was simply too many targets for him to possibly handle alone- he was losing to a battle of a thousand cuts where he could only return so many.
He could see the protecting aura of the sanctified Dreadnaughts just ahead; already his Brothers gathered under their protection, their armored bulk nearly painful to look as such was their momentous resolve. He could see the thirds Epistolary staff thrust forwards and words of banishment on his lips as the crystalline psychic hood over his head flared with the proximity of the Daemons. Lightning and fire spat from his fingertips, blowing away the purple beasts and crazed flamers that thought to breach their momentary sanctuary.
There was no more time to waste, Evius grabbed Ilitarus bodily, dropping his own sword to do so and with no small amount of indignation, Evius bodily hurled the Champion forwards into the fiery ring of holy psychic power. Ilitarus landed on a bed of corpses, blood splattering against his plate as he staggered to his feet. He made to shout for his brothers to aid the captain but just as he opened his mouth to do so, Evius powered through the mass of dark wings and gelatinous flamers.
"We make our stand brothers!" His voice thundered across the battlefield, and the brotherhood thundered back in reply.
…
Ilitarus looked down at a Daemon of Tzeentch, and expected a Daemon of Nurgle to stare back at any given moment.
The squealing purple beast of tentacles and narrow limbs was trapped beneath his armored boot. He had caught it as it tried to flee with the rest of its cowardly ilk that had broke upon the combined strength of the Seventh brotherhood- bolstered by the psychic power of the thirds Epistolary.
The psychically consecrated ground that had been given to them by the powers of the sevenths dreadnaughts had burnt a hole in the mass of corpses and the majority of the Seventh now stood upon this mound of ashes, tending to the wounded.
The market was now a sea of the dead. Corpse rot hung in the air as bodies began to melt together- physical form losing meaning as daemon flesh washed over everything, turning the once proud market into an abattoir unlike any other.
"No more tricks? Changeling thing?" Ilitarus pondered aloud to the trapped beast. "A shame, my blade still hungers." He sighed and decided to put an end to this charade. He began to chant the catechism of banishment as he let his psychic power flow into his nemesis blade- at once the adamantium spike illuminated with the power of his soul and he drove it into the daemon thing at his feet. It squealed and writhed but he had it securely pinned. He watched as it burst into flame, ashes and the scent of sulfur were all that remained of its passing.
His execution done, Ilitarus sheathed his sword and returned to his brothers. He spied a pair looking over the decaying corpse of a Screamer.
"Daemons of Tzeentch?" One of the Interceptors snapped, twin falchions glittering. He kicked the head of one of the Changeling daemons and sent the twisted thing into a pit of flame. "Pets of the Blood God never march with the those of the Changer of Ways."
"It is true, they do not." Evius remarked in agreement as he stomped over, his own task complete. He studied closer the corrupted city around them, and found it lacking in the usual adornments of Khorns lackeys.
"Captain…" Illitarus began as he made his way to his captains' side. "I believe not all is as it seems…"
"You would be correct to assume so." Evius gestured around them. "Since when do followers of the Blood God not raise effigies? Or slaughter pits? This raid of theirs was all too driven."
"Perhaps they were not here on whimsy." Ilitarus was on edge; it was true, something was not right. "They may be searching for something-"
"That Psychic Rupture!" Evius snapped. "When we first arrived- the sky lit up and this planet was plunged into a false night! I thought it at first a simple affect of the Daemons but it must have been something greater! A Dark ritual of sorts!"
"Daemons of Khorn do not work in grandiose ritual."
"No, but those of the Lord of Change do." Evius scowled down at the feathered corpse, watching as it turned to ash. "Bring me the Epistolary, We must find the true source of this." Evius looked around now at last at the freshly lain carnage about a once vibrant market. Daemons overlaid marines' overlaid Daemons overlaid innocents. Mangled limbs twisted together in deathly embraces- and all about the lawn of corpses were the guts, and filth of the dead and the dying. His eyes lingered on those fallen under his command. Silver giants- gods among men, still paying in blood for the Arch Traitor Horus' treachery. "Fetch the Apothecary as well. We must take the chapters due."
