A Song of War and Hammers

by Simon Said

Young Interrogator Methius, in charge of the 1st Merweg Infantry Regiment is tasked with conquering a primitive world to bring it towards the Emperor's light. He must not only unite the planet under one banner but also protect it from the Others, a xenos species of Chaos worshippers that inhabit the far North. For this he must made alliances and break armies.

10. The Citadel

He came back to his guard post to find the other hyspasist standing upright. For a second he feared an inspection or a patrol had came and find him away from his post, that would not go well, but there was nothing of the sort. Only a wooden door with several locks and bars barricading it and his fellow guard, standing upright and looking at him with no expression.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

He got a look that told nothing and noticed something behind him, he got a few steps closer.

"What is that?"

An unaugmented hand closed around his throat at the same time he noticed the naked augmented feet coming out of the barrels and boxes against the wall, he tried to use his rifle as a club to broke the grip around his throat, but the man used a knife to cut his right wrist, upper throat and connecting cables. The hand around his throat let go and the man who supposedly was his fellow guard stabbed him once more, this time between the armour plates of his lower chest and started walking towards the door.

Far from dead, the hyspasist guard reached for his rifle with his left hand and bathed with his own blood stood up again using his augmented legs and aimed. His shot went wild thanks to the throwing knife that hit his gun, the attacker jumped sideways and then towards him as he aimed again, with his throat cut and bleeding he couldn't call for help, but the shooting would probably be more than enough.

The attacker took hold of the rifle barrel, the hyspasist used his bleeding wrist as a weapon and filled with blood the man's face and eyes for enough time to take back the rifle and club him, too close to aim the long barrel. The man's arms embraced him and they both fell down. The man's face was no longer the one of the dead hyspasist but a more native face, with curly hair and a scar on his cheek.

They fought in the floor for a while but the man was too good, even an augmented hyspasist with years of battle experience proved not enough and during the battle got stabbed a few times more between the armour plates as he tried to get the man off of him.

The guard finally lost his strength due to massive blood loss and passed out, just in time to hear a platoon of Hyspasists and Skitarii coming and his attacker unlocking the door.