Salutations, readers. Sorry for how late this is, but it turned out to be 6000 words total, so it took quite a while.
This piece covers Caramel's last stand, and how she was captured by the agents of Chaos.
Enjoy.
Caramel smiled as her squad launched themselves into the sky with almost perfect synchronization and landed with a resounding crash amongst the training dummies. The Seraphim immediately began to lash out against their stuffed foes, each woman quickly dispatching her designated targets. Caramel jogged leisurely into their midst, clapping pauldrons as she entered the group, saying with a satisfied air, "Excellent job, everyone. I didn't see any problems, except a small one for you, Eve. Try to let your forward momentum carry you forward when you land. You landed a bit flatly, and the few seconds it took you to recover could mean the difference between life and death."
The Sister in question ducked her head, a blush of shame on her face. Caramel frowned slightly at this. Eve was the youngest of the women that had been put under her command to train, and the girl was always sensitive to any criticism because of it. The girl had potential, though, she only needed to stop being so self conscious. Caramel made a snap decision, and pulled her into a half hug and said reassuringly, "Just give it one more go," she then addressed the rest of the squad, "And this will be the last time. You have all improved considerably, so I think you have all earned a little free time."
Eve's blush faded, and she gave a small nod of thanks. Caramel grinned rakishly, and gave her a gentle push to follow her group. She watched with satisfaction as they chatted happily amongst themselves while they quickly jogged to the location they launched from last time. They were a good squad, especially for being relatively green for Seraphim, Caramel noted. The Argent Shroud's campaign in the Third War for Armageddon had caused a great deal of casualties,and many of the understrength squads from the conflict had been dissolved to have the veterans serve as teachers for the next generation of Sisters. Caramel had earned her promotion to Sister Superior and duty to train these women during the fierce fighting against the Orks, though she at times did not feel that she had earned the honor. Many better women than she had fallen on that blasted planet, it was only by luck...
She shook her head to clear the thoughts. The Initiates must not detect any uncertainty in her. They looked to her for guidance, and she couldn't fail them. These women were the future of the order, after all. She put the thoughts on hold as she saw that the squad had reached their launching point and were waiting for her command. Nodding in satisfaction, Caramel raised her hand, and brought it down swiftly. The women rose on towering columns of flame, and tore into their foe. Not seeing an error to rectify, Caramel walked amidst the group and directed them back to the convent they called home.
The enthusiastic air of the group swiftly dissipated as the ancient sirens housed in the convent raised in a haunting wail. The stern voice of the Prioress crackled through each of the women's vox, "All Sisters, make for the convent immediately! Watch for any suspicious activity. You will be briefed further when you arrive."
The color drained from Caramel's face, and she immediately ordered the squad into a sprint towards the squat structure that was their home. Rushing through the front gates and courtyard, the squad joined the swiftly growing mass of women that milled about in the great hall, waiting for the Prioress to arrive. Caramel felt a growing dread as the sirens continued to wail. This was supposed to be a quiet assignment on a backwater farming world. The only reason there was even a convent here was because it was a common stop on a pilgrimage route. It only had a single hive to service the spaceport, for Emperor's sake, what could be attacking them? To distract herself from her thoughts, she calmed her squad, making small jokes to break up the aura of dread that had settled over the group.
Her efforts were cut short by the appearance of the Prioress, who's presence alone calmed the madhouse feel of the massive hall. As the chatter quickly subsided, she launched without preamble into the briefing, "Hive Bremen has gone mad. The entire hive is in full revolt, and the Arbites and PDF were completely overwhelmed. We have no idea what caused this, but there have been reports of mutation and...Chaos worship," she practically spit the word out, the fury on her face evident.
She let the announcement hang in the air, and after a pregnant pause continued, "The city is already lost. We are much too few to retake it, and so we must hold here and act as a rallying point for loyal forces until aid arrives. Sister Superiors, report to me for orders. The Emperor protects, Sisters."
Leaving her squad near the massive central pillar that held the roof of the hall up, Caramel waded through the crowd towards the other side of the circular room. She joined the gathering cluster of veterans that surrounded the Prioress. As soon as the last Superior made her way to the cluster, she began to speak rapidly but clearly, "From what we've heard from scouts and from a few survivors, there is a massive horde from the hive being driven our way by...something. Light infantry, eclectic weaponry, the only danger will be their numbers. Edna, I'm going to need your flamers near the gate. Keep in the courtyard until they get close. We've got our backs to the mountain, thank the Emperor, and any attack is going to be funneled right to you. Elise, I need your Retributors on the wall, load up with heavy bolters. No armor that I know of in the horde, at least nothing that you shouldn't be able to take care of. Una, Erika, I'm going to need you to fill the gaps between the Retributors. Caramel, you are my crisis unit. I'm keeping you as a mobile reserve, and you get to plug any gaps that turn up. Everybody, I know the new girls are green, but keep them calm, sing some hymns, whatever it takes. Just keep them firing. If we falter even a bit, we will get swarmed. Ave Imperator."
The Prioress' obvious competence slowly calmed the nerves of the women around her, and each of them nodded in agreement when their task was assigned. Caramel felt a tinge of nervousness at her own duty, though, as the veterans dispersed back to their charges.. Her squad would be the key to the defense, and any failure on her part would doom the thinly spread Sisters. She had trained her girls well, but this assignment would have been hard for the Silver Winged Angels, much less a group of novice Seraphim. Caramel sighed, and pushed the doubts out of her head. They had been training for months, and she had been surprised not a few times by how quickly they took to the difficult art of assault jumping. She just had to put her faith in her squad and in the Emperor. Her squad quickly snapped to attention as she drew closer, and Caramel smiled. They would do fine. She began to quickly outline their role in the coming battle.
Caramel glanced back at the structure that she was entrusting her life to. The walls of the convent stood as solid as the day they were built millenia ago. Recessed slits spread periodically over the structure stared out over the flat ground in front of the gates. The gates themselves were enormous slabs of ceramite and other less identifiable archaeotech, and should hold up to anything short of a titan. Anything that would block fields of fire had been put to the torch by Edna's squad, and the once beautiful forest nothing but ashes for a good three hundred meters. She nodded in satisfaction, and placed a large marker on the ground. Her squad was placing the plate-like objects over the field in set intervals, so that the Sisters on the walls would be able to quickly range their weaponry. This task was interrupted by the low growl of a distant engine that quickly grew into the roar of the one Rhino the convent maintained. The inelegant box of a vehicle quickly stopped, and Una poked her head out of the commander's hatch. "Get inside, the horde was right on my heels. We've done all we can to prepare, we just have to leave it up to the Emperor, now."
Nodding, Caramel and her squad swiftly followed the vehicle through the gates. The solid boom as they shut was both reassuring and terrifying. Was it the sound of a tomb closing or safety? Caramel again pushed aside these thoughts, and instead directed her squad to drink, eat, and take care of anything else before all hell broke loose. The wait before battle was always the worst part, so it was always best to keep the everyone busy for as long as possible. She smiled faintly as she saw Eve draw Katja, another Seraphim, to a secluded nook. The two tried to be quiet about their relationship, but they were so obvious that it was honestly cute. Caramel saw no harm in it, and it certainly distracted the two from the coming battle, so she did not interfere. She seated herself, and watched as the various squads began to file out of the main abbey structure and take their posts on the wall. A grimace stole across Caramel's face. It would begin soon.
Her squad soon poured out of the building as well, Eve and Katja tagging behind looking slightly flushed. They clustered nervously around her, not having any more tasks to distract them. Deciding to follow the Prioress' advice, Caramel began singing hymns to calm them down, and the familiar strains of music began to be faintly heard from the other positions. All too quickly, however, she heard the first crashing reports of the heavy bolters. "Check you weapons, praise the machine spirits. It begins," she said calmly as she began the blessings on her own power sword and bolt pistol.
This last task complete, the Seraphim crouched in the courtyard and listened to the raging battle at the walls. Caramel longed to join her Sisters in smiting the foe, but she had to restrain herself. She would be needed soon enough. She perked up as the Prioress' voice came through her vox, "Things go well, and the gates are holding with no problem. Most of the horde is just charging blindly right into our killing fields, but it seems at least a few have brains. A group is setting up a heavy stubber back in the treeline. Kindly administer the Emperor's Mercy."
Caramel grinned and sent a terse affirmative back. Action at last! "Cowards at the tree line! With me Sisters!" she cried, the might of her jump-pack launching her from the earth. The harsh thrust of the first launch soon smoothed out into a constant push, and she reveled in the sensation of flight. She looked for her target in the split seconds she had available to her, and grinned ferally as she caught sight of figures struggling with the large gun. Cutting the power to the pack, she felt gravity over-take her, and began to plummet to the earth like a bird of prey. Her feet drove into one of the heretics, and his smashed corpse served admirably as a cushion for her landing. The rest of her squad smashed into the earth and foes around her, and the harsh bark of their bolt pistols soon ended any resistance. Casually wiping the blood from her visor, Caramel strode to the stubber the slain men had been moving, and clove it in half with her force blade. No point in killing the crew if she didn't disable the weapon after all. "Excellent job, everyone. Let's get back to the convent before their friends pay us a visit," she said into her team's vox channel.
As they were about to jump back, Caramel noticed a sudden commotion as a Chimera transport covered in heretics clinging to the hull roared by. A fiendish grin lit on her face, and she grabbed a melta bomb from Eve's belt. "Go on without me, I've got something to take care of. I'll be back soon."
The women hesitated for a moment in confusion, but they followed the order and launched themselves back at the besieged structure. Caramel watched, and waited until the vehicle had slowed down as it reached the packed mass of humanity trying to storm the gates. Her grin widening, she hit the activation rune for her pack, and felt the air leave her lungs as she was propelled towards the encumbered vehicle. She landed gracefully, dropping the bomb in her hands at the feet of one of the cultists, and let her momentum carry her forward. With a graceful leap, she again activated her pack, making sure to kick one of the heretics in the face for good measure. She couldn't help giggling as she heard a muffled whump as the bomb activated, and was outright laughing when she landed in the courtyard. Her squad clustered to her, staring in confusion as they saw their leader doubled over. "Are you hurt," Eve squeaked, rushing forward to administer what aid she could.
Caramel straightened herself and removed her helmet, and Eve stopped in confusion at the huge smile plastered on her face. Before the question could be asked, Caramel struggled to compose herself and said, "The look on those bastard's faces..." and began to laugh again at full force.
Caramel looked out over the charnel pit that the fields in front of the walls had become. The horde had tried to overwhelm the gates with sheer numbers, but the disciplined defense had slaughtered thousands of the heretics. That, and her squad's skillful dispatching of any heavy weapons or armor, Caramel thought with a satisfied air. What remained of their foe had withdrawn with the setting sun, and the Sisters were given a much needed rest. Many of them were slumped at their posts, catching what sleep they could. She glanced at her own squad, sprawled out on the rampart, and an almost maternal warmth glowed in her chest. They had done well today, and she hadn't lost a single one in the countless missions that they had accomplished outside of the compound walls.
She turned her head as she heard heavy footsteps approach her, and respectfully said, "Good evening, Prioress," as the woman joined her in looking over the wall.
The woman simply nodded in reply, and leaned against the crenelation next to Caramel. A comfortable silence fell over the two, and both left each other to their own thoughts. Caramel's head had just begun to drop forward, the weariness at last claiming her, when the Prioress spoke. "We did well today. No one lost, and that stubber shot didn't even get through Elise's helmet."
Caramel perked up, and nodded attentively. Her commander continued, "I've been getting some vox messages from a few local PDF units. They didn't catch the worst of it, so they are pretty well intact. We should expect them here in a few days. All we have to do is hold until the astropath's message to reach somebody."
The Seraphim felt a growing sense of relief. They would be able to pull this off after all. She looked to the burning hive that sprawled over the neighboring mountain, and the sight no longer caused any worry. They could hold indefinitely up here.
Then, as if fate was laughing at her sense of peace, half of the hive was devoured by an enormous warp portal. The spires buckled and folded in on themselves, and massive chunks of masonry crashed into the lower cities. Both women stared in utter beffudlement, before a shock wave knocked them off their feet. Caramel righted herself, and watched in horror as portions of the hive slowly slid off of the mountain. The Sisters who had been sleeping on the walls scrambled to their feet and joined her in staring at the pulsing, jagged tear in reality. Caramel did not know who started the prayer, but every woman swiftly joined in. It was the only thing they could do, after all.
The assault began at dawn. A filthy wave of cultists sprinted from the tree line, scrambling over the corpses of their slain brethren to reach the gates. They were met with withering fire immediately, as none of the Sisters could go back to sleep after what they had seen the night before. Caramel had stayed on the parapet, and watched her Sister's work as massive gaps were torn out of the approaching mass. She felt a wave of revulsion wash over her as the figures drew near enough to see clearly. They had been...changed. Strange symbols had been carved into their flesh, and some sported unspeakable mutations. Turning disgustedly away, she descended to the courtyard and joined her waiting squad. They would be needed soon enough, and she had no urge to watch what the citizens of Bremen had become.
All too soon, her vox crackled into life. "Daemonettes! They are scaling the wall near Elise!"
Careamel felt her stomach drop at the news. Fighting the cultists was easy enough, but daemons? Furiously pushing aside her nagging thoughts, she pointed her squad to the location, and they lifted as a single unit. Landing carefully amongst their Sisters, the Seraphim quickly began to pick off the daemons, keeping the foul things off the Retributors so they could focus on the mass of former humanity below them. Caramel blew the arm off of one of the beasts, and the thing squealed in what sounded like pleasure as it plummeted to the ground. She grimaced, and placed a round through its head to shut it up. She calmly dispatched a few more of the pink creatures, before another vox message blared into her helmet, "They are on the wall! We need support, now!"
Caramel swiftly emptied the rest of her clip into what remained of the group that had tried to scale the wall, and shouted, "With me!" as she leapt into the air to face this new threat.
As the Seraphim hung in the air, they could see the true extent of what they faced. The forest beyond the burned perimeter seemed alive with movement, and the winding road leading up to the convent was filled by barely distinguishable creatures. Caramel barked sharply, "Look to where you are landing!" to keep their eyes off of it; seeing the extent of their foe would only weaken their resolve.
What awaited them was little better. A mass of the pink savages had scaled the wall near Una's squad, and the women had stopped firing on the writhing horde below them to deal with the new threat. Caramel snarled as she watched one of the Initiates get pulled under by a pack of the daemons, and slammed into the rampart nearby. Furiously charging forward, she swung her sword in barely restrained hacks, the motions removing limbs and heads with terrifying ease. She struggled to reach her fallen Sister, but replacements for the daemonettes she had killed continuously swarmed onto the wall. Her Seraphim were also pushing into the mass of pink flesh, their bolt pistols tearing gaping wounds into the relatively soft tissue of the beasts. The foe was so tightly packed, the bolts would pass through three or four of the things before exploding. Wavering under the attack from both sides, the daemonettes tried to flee, but the vengeful Sisters purged them to the last.
Gasping for air, Caramel strode to where she had seen the woman get dragged under by the daemons, and kicked aside their corpses, looking to see if she could be saved. Caramel blinked in surprise, though. There was no sign of the woman, and the only corpses nearby were the newly dispatched daemonettes. Before she could ponder too much on this turn of events, though, her vox burst into frenzied life, "MARINES! Sweet Emperor, Chaos Marines!"
Looking over the reclaimed parapet, Caramel looked on it mute horror as hideous giants in garish armor waded through the crush of mutated humans, each bearing strange, horrid weapons. The Retributors swiftly shifted their fire, and riddled the approaching figures with bolts. There were at least twenty four of the fallen marines though, and this fire was only able to bring down four of their number. One of the marines leveled a massive cannon at the wall that Erika's squad held, and a throbbing pulse emitted from the thing. Caramel had to lean against the parapet as she felt her very bones vibrate inside her, and watched helplessly as the section exploded into the courtyard, carrying some of her Sisters to the hard cobblestone. The battle paused for a brief second, the might of the weapon astounding both sides. It had carved a bloody swath through the daemonettes and cultists who had stood in its path, and a small breach had been opened in the wall. This pause swiftly ended as the full might of the remaining Sisters hammered into the lone marine, bolter fire ripping him limb from limb. "No Sister goes unavenged," the Prioress fiercely snarled over the vox.
Caramel saw Edna's squad sprint to the opened wall, and at last realized the danger the breach entailed. Barking orders swiftly to her squad, she leapt to join the Sisters holding the breach. The flamers were thankfully keeping the horde at bay when she slammed into the cobblestones behind Edna's thin line of Initiates, and she quickly positioned the women under her command to stand in the shelter of the wall on either side of the breach. If anything made it through the gap, her Seraphim would swiftly cut it to pieces.
For a few minutes, the situation seemed to have been resolved. All too soon, though, hulking figures began to stride through the torrent of flames that Edna's squad had been pouring into the gap. With a deafening screech, the marines pounded into the courtyard, strange speakers that covered their bodies emitting sounds that made Caramel's skull hurt and teeth ache. The fallen demi-gods were terrifying, but they had walked into a killing zone. All of Caramel's Seraphim opened up at once, their bolts tearing massive chunks out of the marine's armor, many finding purchase in flesh. Backed by the additional fire from Edna's squad, the weight of fire dropped the giants one by one, and Caramel shook in both wonder and outright fear at the corpses. They had killed six of them! She noticed that the victory had not been without cost though, as she saw that four of Edna's squad had fallen to the strange weaponry the marines bore.
This triumph over the marines was short-lived, however. The brutes had served as an excellent distraction, and the horde surged forward into the breach. Edna's weakened squad laid down withering fire, the remaining flamers turning the rubble into a towering inferno, but many had already broken into the courtyard. Caramel fought viciously, her blade cleaving through flesh like it was paper. She thrust into a daemonette, then pulled the sword through the beast's torso in a sweeping hack that clove through three cultists. The fighting was quickly degenerating into a swirling melee, as Edna's Initiates ran out of promethium and bolts, and engaged the foe in hand to hand. The lack of fire meant that more cultists and daemons were flooding through the gap, and Caramel looked on with horror as six more marines began to pick their way through the rubble. She resolved to die on her feet, when she heard Edna's harried voice through her vox, "Get your girls out of here. Pull everybody back, we can't hold."
Caramel was about to protest, when she saw Edna, the lone survivor of her squad, charge directly into the breach, and detonate the remaining fuel in her flamer. The massive burst of flame filled the gap, and the horde wavered back. Weeping, she ordered the retreat to the remaining Seraphim, but before she could move, the Prioress strode past her towards the rubble and corpses that she had withdrawn from. Her vox activated once again, and the Prioress spoke in a grim but strangely calm voice, "All Sisters, fall back into the main building. The wall has fallen, and holding would be suicide. I will hold the breach long enough for you to escape."
Nodding, Caramel launched her squad towards the doors of the convent, and set up a perimeter to guard her Sister's retreat from the wall. The remains of Erika's squad, the Retributors. And Eva's Initiates streamed back through Caramel's line to the relative safety of the squat building, but a few were dragged down by daemonettes that had swiftly climbed the wall after the fire the women had been laying down ceased. Caramel fought desperately to hold back the swarm that had made it into the courtyard, but was swiftly pushed back towards the doors. She swung her blade in great arcs, cutting down multiple daemonettes with each swing, and her squad was ripping into the beasts as well, but they might as well have been trying to hold back the tide. The sheer numbers of the things ensured that their doom was imminent. None too soon, thankfully, the remaining Retributors opened up with their mighty guns, and the screeching wave of foes was pushed back long enough for the Seraphim to disengage and launch themselves into the shelter of the convent. Caramel turned as she landed to catch a brief glimpse of the Prioress fighting the Chaos Marines in hand to hand, two of the massive brutes laying dead at her feet. This sight was quickly ended as two Sisters threw themselves into the doors, swinging the massive metals constructs shut.
What remained of the squads were pouring fire into the writhing mass of flesh that had rushed forward after the Seraphim had withdrawn, and Caramel called for her Seraphim to gather to her. She counted their number, and was relieved, though saddened as well. She had lost only three in that mad melee. Gently touching the pauldron of each of her squad, she quietly said, "I'm extremely proud of all of you. A group of Silver Winged Angels would have been hard pressed to do as well as you have all done, and I am proud to have served with you. Whatever comes next, remember that."
She drew the six remaining women into an awkward group hug, and held it for a sweet, but all too brief second. "Come, we have work to do," she said softly, and the squad took positions amongst their Sisters, adding what fire they could.
The doors began to buckle from under the fierce assault launched upon them from the exterior, and Caramel had to hack at daemonettes scrambling to get through the windows. She saw a few of the remaining women crumble as lucky shots pierced their armor. Seeing that the position was nearly overrun, Caramel spoke into the vox, "Fall back into the great hall, they will get through the door any second!"
Moving without hesitation, the painfully small group of Sisters sprinted down familiar hallways, the screeching sound of the doors being breached behind them spurring them on faster. They tumbled into the wide space that they had been in only a day before, and saw that it was completely indefensible. There was no cover, and the horde could only be held so long by their bolters alone. Caramel ran through options in her head desperately, trying to think of something they could do, when Eve stumbled through the doorway, clutching a heavily bleeding Katja to her. Caramel's face paled, and she strode forward to help her young charge carry the wounded woman, as the rest of the women set up a firing line facing the door. "What happened? Where are you hit?" Caramel said desperately, noticing the steady flow of bright arterial blood spilling down the wonded woman's armor.
The two set Katja against the massive pillar that supported the roof, and listened intently as she slowly spoke, "A bolter round. It punched right through my armor, and I can't feel my legs anymore. Funny, it really doesn't hurt."
Eve looked desperately at Caramel, her eyes pleading for a solution. Caramel tried to staunch the wounds, but was pushed softly away by her patient. "No...Leave it. I'm already dead," she gazed firmly at Eve as she began to object, "No, hon, you won't be able to fix this. Give me a melta pack. I'll bring the roof down on these heretics, and buy you all some time. It is better to die serving a purpose than for me to bleed to death."
Bolters roared behind them as the edge of the horde discovered them, and Caramel slowly nodded her head, while hating herself for it. She set the charge against the massive column, and placed the detonator in the hand of the reclining woman. Katja nodded her thanks, and Eve leaned in and kissed her, tears pouring down her face. Caramel turned to the firing line, and ordered them back into the inner sanctum of the convent. It was a dead end, with only one entrance, but it seemed that this had become a last stand. She threw her final frag grenade through the entrance to the hall to buy the retreating women a few seconds, and pulled Eve behind her to follow them. She had to drag the poor novice away, and it hurt her nearly as much as it did Eve to leave Katja behind them.
As they sprinted through the doorway, a few resounding reports sounded, the bark of one of the bolt pistols that Katja wielded unmistakable, followed by a roaring explosion and the sound of crumbling masonry. The two Seraphim stumbled into the arms of their waiting Sisters, and Caramel blanched at their few number. Seven Seraphim, including herself, six Initiates with bolters, and a single Retributor with her heavy bolter. She saw none of the other Sister Superiors, and surmised that she was the commanding officer of the entire convent now. Smiling grimly, she directed the women to begin to barricade the entrance and create cover for themselves.
The powered armor that each of them wore made the task quick work, as each Sister moved every piece of invaluable furniture and relics in the room to either block the doorway or serve as a barrier to hide behind. Again, Caramel could not help smile as she noticed the enormous scale of heresy that they were committing. It was a good thing they wouldn't survive the coming engagement. Their position completed, the women squatted behind their barricades, and waited patiently for the coming battle. Caramel walked amongst them, touching each woman's pauldron as she passed. She spoke quietly as she walked, "We have a rare privelege, Sisters. Not many know the time of their death, and are so able to face it bravely. We will slay as many of these foul things as possible, and I shall be honored to greet you at the Emperor's side when you arrive. No fear, Sisters, die well."
The women looked to her, what faces that were not hidden under helmets expressing both a deep trust and resolve. Caramel nodded, and took her position amongst them. They did not have to wait long. The first few daemonettes were cut to ribbons by the concentrated fire of the Sisters, the doorway funneling whatever foe approached into a murderous gauntlet. This pattern continued for what felt like hours, a crush of bodies would try and make it over the barricades, and would be rapidly ripped apart by the massive bolts the Sisters fired.
This could not last forever, though. Caramel loaded the last of her clips into her pistol, and strode to the doorway. Most of the women around her also dropped their bolters, drawing blades to engage in close combat. Caramel planted herself firmly, and leapt into frenzied motion as the first foe crawled through the blockaded entrance. What followed was an eternity of sword work, her blade rising and falling almost of its own accord. Some of the beasts slipped around her, though, and the rest of her Sisters fell upon them, their blades not killing as quickly, but just as surely.
Suddenly, a massive figure blasted through the barriers, his bulk reducing the things to so many splinters and fragments. Caramel, reacting more out of instinct than thought, dodged his blow. She desperately parried his next strike, and fell into a blindingly fast duel with the fallen marine. His blows were almost too quick to follow, and Caramel felt herself flagging. Suddenly, his blade found a hole in her defenses caused by the weariness, and she felt multiple ribs snap as her armor buckled beneath the blow. She slammed against a wall, and slumped downward as he slowly approached to finish her off.
Time seemed to slow, and she felt an overwhelming urge to give up and simply die. She had surely done enough. Suddenly, Eve threw herself onto the towering figure, lashing wildly with her blade. The garishly colored warrior paused, surprised by the ferocity of the assault. Though he swiftly slammed his sword into the Seraphim, the act had given Caramel the will for one last act of defiance. She staggered to her feet, and plunged her sword into the Marine's side, which had been left open while he dealt with Eve. He roared, turning to strike her down, but came face to face with Caramel's bolt pistol. She emptied what remained of the magazine into the brute's skull, and the massive figure toppled over.
The horde withdrew briefly, the death of their leader cowing them momentarily. Caramel staggered forward, stopping to reverently close Eve's eyes as she passed, and planted herself firmly before the doorway. The daemonettes soon launched themselves forward again, and Caramel once more lost herself in the swing of her blade. She soon noticed an odd pattern, though. She should have died multiple times, her weary arms leaving massive gaps in her defence, but the beasts seemed to be pulling their blows. She at first puzzled over this, but then pure terror shot through her as she finally figured it out. Why she wasn't able to find the body of the fallen Sister on the wall. Why she was still alive. The beasts weren't trying to kill the Sisters, they were trying to capture them. And she had not saved a bolt for her own skull. She screeched into the vox, "Kill yourselves! Save yourself, the beasts are trying to capture us!"
She desperately threw herself into the doorway, trying to buy the women behind her enough time to administer the Emperor's Mercy to themselves, but there were only a few bolts left, and many had charged with her into the fray. She heard only a few reports behind her, and wept in helpless frustration. Sweet Emperor why? Why was she being denied a proper death?
The weight of the bodies eventually won out, and she felt her sword get knocked from her grasp. She tried to rely on her fists, but the daemonettes piled on top of her, immobilizing her limbs. She tried to thrash about, but her head was rocked by multiple impacts. As she slowly lost consciousness, her last thought was simple.
Why?