No Man's Storm
Chapter 10
"The goal of all life is death"
-Sigmund Freud
Rukiel drifted in the void, the blackness around him disturbed by the flashes of weapon fire from ships and the baleful unlight of the Mealstrom. He looked around, taking in his surroundings, coming to terms with what just happened. Suddenly something hit him and Rukiel could feel something grabbing on to him. He glanced down and saw an Ultramarine warrior hanging from his legs, a jagged combat blade in his hand.
Rukiel let out a boost from his jump pack to disorientate the Ultramarine for just a moment, and then he sliced down with his power spear, cutting open the side of the Ultramarine's chest armor. The cut immediately started to vent air and blood, and if not for the silence of the void, Rukiel believed he would have heard the cursing of the dead Ultramarine. He kicked the blue clad warrior off him, sending the flailing body adrift into the orbit of Hell's Iris.
All around, Rukiel could see other transhuman shapes vented into space. Both warriors of the Crusade Host and the Ultramarine scum. Many of them were clearly bodies, either they had been one when they had been sucked out of the starfort, or their armor had been damaged beyond being sealed from vacuum and they had perished then. Some of them were still moving, those were the living warriors in the same situation as Rukiel.
The starfort itself had been hit by some heavy weapon fire, Rukiel could see the scars in the metal that he had been dragged through. He had been in the air when the breach had happened, so he had not been allowed the chance of quickly mag-locking to the floor. Rukiel hoped Karlon had not died in the breach, for if he had, the Crusade Host would fall on each other for the chance to claim the biggest spoils faster than he could say "death to the False Emperor".
Rukiel considered for a moment how to proceed from here. He felt unwillingness to approach the starfort alone, to risk the massive ordnance flying in the void at it and the defense batteries scouring the void. One small breach of his armor would render him exposed to the cold mercy of the void. It was actually a surprise his armor's integrity had not already been compromised during his violent exit into the void. And even if he had somehow managed to get inside the starfort again, he would be alone on the enemy territory. No, let Kalron and the rest of the Crusade Host take the starfort, let them win the war. Rukiel would not waste this chance to avoid potentially fatal battle when he had been given such a good way out.
Rukiel scanned the space. He needed to get out of the fire-filled void. He spotted an escort ship of the Crusade Host relatively close by, and turned to face it, activating his jump pack. The void was easy to navigate, for he was a mere speck of dust amidst the giants of the voidships. It did not take long for him to spin himself around to land on the hull of the small scout ship.
He scoured the hull and finally found an airlock for him to enter through. The doors opened to allow him entry, and then closed behind him, sealing away the cold void for the benefit of pressurized life support systems of the vessel. Rukiel did not waste time, and started making his way towards the command bridge. The mortals who he came across fled at the sight of him, no one dearing to place himself on the path of a transhuman warrior who had suddenly appeared onboard the vessel. It did not take long for Rukiel to reach the large bulkhead of the bridge entrance.
There was an armed mortal defence squad standing guard, and they fearfully aimed their weapons at Rukiel as he approached. "I am a lord of the Crusade Host," Rukiel said without slowing down his approach. "Stand in my way and I will kill you all. Open the bridge doors."
Rukiel stopped before the doors, looking down at the mortals still hesitantly pointing their guns at him, though few had lowered their weapons, unsure what to do. "Did you not hear me?" Rukiel said, grabbing the nearest mortal and smashing him against the doors, breaking the man's bones and organs with a sickening sound. "Open the door."
The doors were opened hastily, and Rukiel walked to the command bridge. A man on the command dais whose head was half made of cybernetics turned to face Rukiel, and the organic parts of his face twisted in fear.
Rukiel stopped in front of the man, towering over him. "Are you in command?" he asked with a cold voice.
"I am the captain of this vessel… my lord," the captain managed to say, his voice clearly produced by something artificial in his throat.
"I am a lord of the Crusade Host, and I am temporarily commandeering this vessel for my use," Rukiel stated without chance for refusal. "You are to focus all your capabilities to transporting me to my destination. Do this and you may return to your normal operations. Am I clear?"
"Extremely, my lord." the captain said. What is this destination you wish us to deliver to?"
"Locate the Strike Cruise Ars Moriendi and take a course towards it as soon as you locate it. I want on to that ship without delays," Rukiel delivered his demand. "Make it so."
"As you wish, my lord."
Skaron saw one of his squad member life runes go dark, and another of his brothers was gone, without him knowing who it was. The Titan's guns were merciless, killing anything within its line of fire with brutal ease. And it was fast, far faster than anything of such size had right to be. Skaron was not sure if it was because of some demonic assistance, or some dark techno heresy. Maybe Reaver-class Titans simple were so fast.
The Ultramarine counter attack from the east was making it impossible for squad Skaron to escape from the Titan's path. The Titan had a lot of targets, and it could not engage all of them at once, unlike the massive Ultramarine force that obliterated any elements of the retreating Crusade Host forces it came across. Hiding was also not an option, despite the generous number of structures all around. The Titan could sense hiding enemies by sensor or Warp means, and it easily leveled any structure in its path, killing anything within. The only way to stay alive was to keep running.
There was only three members of squad Skaron left in addition to himself. Only four brother left of a squad that had once numbered ten. The number would be getting even smaller if they did outrun the Titan.
"Enemy Predator, left flank!" Skaron heard the voice of Kar-III, and his helmet's warning marks instantly showed the new threat. Skaorn turned his head, seeing the blue main battle tank with rich decorations of ruin grind itself through collapsed debris, its weapons already turning towards his squad. The autocannon's barrel inched closer and closer, and Skaron could almost hear the autoloaders clicking and targeting systems focusing on him. He knew the moment the gun started leveling at them that the four of them would not all be living through the next ten seconds.
"Scatter..." Skaron rasped the order with anger, rather than yell it out in alarm. They needed to reach the building on the other side of the open ground, to get away from the tank's line of fire. There was no turning back, as the Titan's bellowing warhorn reminded from behind them.
The four man squad scattered, and almost instantly the Predator pulled to a halt and startted firing. Skaron could hear the high caliber round leaving the barrel with an exposing release, and then the sound of it impacting something long after the projectile had already hit. The Three first shots out of the barrel were misses. Skaron did not know by what margin, for none of them came even close to him. In the couple of heartbeats it took the gun to fire, he had already made almost half of the way to safety. He needed his heart to remain in one piece and functional just a couple of beats longer.
He registered the death of his brother before he heard the crash into the ground behind him. The life sign mark went dark, and with his sensitive hearing he could almost sense behind him that he had not time to turn to look. He had heard three high velocity projectiles hitting power armor in quick succession, one of them a glancing hit, two of them devastating blows that tore the warrior apart.
And then Skaron was out of the open ground, and the autocannon behind stopped firing. He had lost a brother, again. He could not see his living squad members. They had dived out of the firing line of the Predator behind different buildings and alleyways. He needed to regroup with them.
"Continue forward, seek regrouping routes and you go," Skaron said into the vox. "And watch out, that Predator was not alone."
As if the prove him right, the next blurt of noise from the squad vox a brief and harsh bark. "Enemy Astartes contact!" Skaron could hear the boltgun fire somewhere very close. A couple of seconds after another healthy life marker turned to mortis black. Skaron cursed violently, hoping he had something within reach for him to kill. "Continue forward!" he cried to his two remaining brothers.
There was a massive explosion as the Titan fired. The building next to Skaron vanished in a explosion of stone and metal, sending a huge dust cloud into the air. He was hurled from his feet, and he could feel stone raining on him, some impacts enough to trigger armor damage signifiers. It was all chaos and noise and hits.
It finally ended, and after a moment Skaron pulled himself up from under a pile of rock and dust. He was wounded, and his armor told him of multiple damage points. He righted himself, staggered for a second, and looked around him. He had no idea where his weapons were. They were buried beneath the house that was now all over the place rather than next to Skaron. And one more squad life signal was dead.
Skaron could hear the Titan getting closer. He started moving, not running, but limping. He took support from a massive rock that had once been a corner of a house, and called out with his vox. "Brother…" he called out for his only remaining squad member. "Brother..."
"I am here," came a reply from Delvos-VIII"
"Brother. Come to me," Scaron rasped.
"Should we not continue running?" Vel-II asked.
"I am wounded," Skaron said as something red tainted his right eye lense from inside his helmet.
"Acknowledged. I am coming for you," came the voice of Loranik-X. "What is your location?" Now it was Haron-VI.
"I am south of the Titan's weapon impact," Skaron wheezed. "Brother… come to me."
"I will be there in a moment." Goran-IV now.
"Borther…" Skaron cried out as he stumbled and had to push himself up again. "Brother."
It felt like forever for his last living brother to emerge from the middle of the wreckage, so long that Skaron was afraid he had lost all of his squad. But eventually he could hear noise, and he turned to see a black and white armored member of Squad Skaron coming towards him. "Brother…" Sakron said desperately. He threw himself in front of the other Astartes, grabbing hold of the power armor the same color as his own.
"I…" Skaron rapsed. "Brother… Remove your helmet. I must see your face…"
"What?" Kar-III asked.
"Just obey!" Skaron pleaded. He could feel the ground tremors, could hear the warhorn growing louder. "I must know… I must see, Brother…"
The other warrior was unmoving and silent, so Skaron pulled himself up and leaned forward. He placed his gauntlets around the helmet of his brother. The Astartes remained immobile. The warhorn let out a horrible roar. Something exploded somewhere close by.
Skaron clasped around the neck seals and started working to disengage the helmet. A massive shadow fell over him and his brother.
The black helmet fell to the ground next to Skaron. It rolled aside, discarded. There was one final gigantic foot depth. Just before the Reaver fired and obliterated Skaron, he watched upon the figure standing in front of him, and he saw. He saw just what had been hidden under the helmet.
Rukiel exited the the ramshackle shuttle he had taken from the escort and finally was on board proper Legion ship again. His ship.
The way to the command bridge seemed to take far less time than normally, which was probably thanks to the storm of thoughts racing in Rukiel's head. He entered the bridge, stepping through the door guarded by the two loyal brain dead Spawn Marines he kept around for sentimentality, and sat down on his command throne without saying a word. The shipmaster kept his distance, allowing his lord room to think. He knew Rukiel would call if he need something.
Rukiel reached up and disengaged his helmet, laying it on the arm of the command throne. Similarly he set his power spear to rest against his throne, before pulling a small capsule from his belt to under his eyes. The tiny container was filled with meat and blood, and he rolled it in his hand as he thought.
Savardin was dead. Rukiel was holding the flesh of his dead Legion brother in his hands. He was gone. How did this change things?
Rukiel did not know how long he sat there, thinking upon the the small piece of the carrion chain. His consideration was only broken when the ship master informed him of an incoming transmission.
"From the Dark Harbinger?" Rukiel asked, making a guess of the call's origin before it was revealed to him.
"Yes, my lord. They have disengaged from the void war and are on course towards us. They are requesting a direct link with you," the shipmaster confirmed the suspicion.
"Put it through," Rukiel said with an emotionless tone, laying his hand holding the capsule to rest on the arm of his throne by his helmet.
It did not take a long for the hololithic projection to appear before him, and he was greeted with a vision of another Legion Pureblood, also sitting upon a command throne. Rukiel nodded to the lieutenant of late Savardin. "Voraks," he greeted with a cold tone.
"Rukiel," answered the Astartes currently commanding the Dark Harbinger. "I assume you can guess why we are talking?"
"I do." Rukiel said. He knew this was a strong possibility from the moment he returned from the void. "Savardin is dead." He was sure Voraks already knew.
"Yes. Mechromance informed me of the demise of my lord at the hands of the enemy," Voraks confirmed. The sorcerer had probably used Warp to inform Voraks the second Savardin fell. "He also told me you harvested his carrion flesh."
"I did." Rukiel admitted. "It is here with me, safe and secure." Rukiel demonstrated by lifting the capsule he was holding between his ceramite clad fingers.
"I see. I would like you to return our lord's remains to the Onyx Sons. The rest of our lord's body was lost because of the incident onboard the spacefort."
Rukiel had assumed as much. The incident that had hurled him out into the void had probably taken all the bodies as well. This meant Rukiel was holding in his hand the only way to resurrect Savardin.
"I am on my way to retrieve my lord's flesh personally. Please lower your shields and prepare from my arrival via teleportation. If you refuse to lower your shield, my ship will be forced to lower them by opening fire," Voraks stated his intent.
"I understand." Rukiel said as his hand moved a bit closer to his spear. The link cut off without further pleasantries. He knew he had no choice. The Dark Harbinger vastly overpowered the Ars Moriendi. Not lowering the shield would have been pointless, as Rukiel's ship would not have been capable of mounting much resistance in any case. A single full broadside from an Astartes Battle Barge would probably the collapse the shields already not in the best possible condition.
Rukiel raised from his throne, Shadower in in hand, what was left of Savardin in the other. "Ship master, lower the void shielding," Rukiel said as he stood on the command dias. The mortal man looked strangely as Rukiel but proceeded to relay the order. "And tell every Spawn Marine unit on board to prepare for battle and head for the command bridge immediately. All other personal battle stations, and prepare to be boarded."
Rukiel moved his gaze to the dataport displaying the distance of the Battle Barge. His forces would not have enough time to be ready, but he gave to order anyway. He needed to be very careful with his next move. For now he had no choice but to wait.
When the teleportation thunder clap happened, Rukiel was already standing behind his command throne, looking towards the back of the command deck and the group of black armored warriors that had suddenly appeared on his ship.
Voraks stood clad in pristine black armor, his face hidden by an ornate helmet with silvery wings cresting it. Around him stood ten Spawn Marines, also clad in full Astartes power armor and wielding bolters and chain weapons. The bolters were pointing at Rukiel.
"Voraks…" Rukiel snarled.
The other Pureblooded son of the Ravenord lifted his empty hand. "Savardin's flesh, if you would." he said.
Rukiel lifted the capsule in his hands, out of any other choice. Voraks did not make a move to approach from the safe distance, instead one of his Spawn Marines moved forward and retrieved the capsule, and swiftly carried it to the waiting palm of its master.
"Thank you," Voraks said without any trace of gratitude in his voice. Then he dropped the capsule to the deck of the bridge, and proceeded to pull out his plasma pistol sidearm. He aimed the weapon down, and pulled the trigger. There was a bright flash of a miniature sun as plasma was released, searing through the deck plating and obliterating the capsule, and any chance of Savardin's revival with it.
"I doubt lord Kalron will be pleased with the loss of one of his most valued allies," Rukiel said with a cold voice.
"He will associate with me from now on," Voraks said with a rich smile audible in his voice. "I am the lord of the Onyx Sons warband now."
"I doubt Kalron, or the rest of your warband, will see eye to eye with you when they hear what you did to Savardin's flesh," Rukiel said.
"Polryphon is dead," Voraks said. "The rest of the warband will fall in line behind me. And Kalron will never know what happened to Savardin, other than that he fell in valiant battle against the cursed Thirteenth. You will not be there to tell him otherwise." Rukiel had expected this. He was too great of a risk and a threat to Voraks' ambitions. "Kill him," Voraks let out an order.
The ten Spawn Marines rushed forward. Some of the fired their bolters, the fools. They died first, unable to counter Rukiel's attack since they had chosen to close in with bolters rather than melee weapons that such a close proximity would have required. Rukiel dodged some of the bolts with unnatural dexterity enhanced by the touch of the Warp, and he simply rushed through the rest, trusting his armor to protect him. The bolter wielding pair at the head of the formation died a heart beat after, their heads leaving their bodies in single slash from Rukiel's spear.
The rest piled in on Rukiel, and he slew a third Spawn by thrusting the tip of his spear through a crimson eye rest started slashing at him with their weapons, and he was put on the defense. His spear came up, the shaft blocking three different chainswords at once. He maneuvered so that the bodies of the locked Spawns hindered the reach of others, and then he turned his head towards the one enemy flaking from his side with a rised weapon. He looked into the eye lenses, and focused his meager psychic might into a focused strike against the incoming Spawn's weak mind.
"Die!" Rukiel snarled.
The Spawn that had been just a moment away from striking at Rukiel collapsed onto the ground as its bloodline turned against its mind, holding its head and crying out in a hideous roar. It continued to crawl on the deck, and Rukiel instantly dismissed it as not a threat. He Killed two more of the Spawns by shoulder bashing against one, and then proceeding to run his spear through the torsos of two others in one smooth move. He spun around and smashed his armored boot against the reeling Spawnkin before finishing it with a spear through the helmet.
He harnessed some dark power of the Warp again as he brought his spar around in a sweeping motion, using its shaft as a blunt impact weapon. It hit two of the Spawn marines harder than it should have by the laws of physics, and the two of them were sent flying with their armor, flesh and skulls breaking from the impact. They flew towards Voraks who stepped aside with casual ease.
The last Spawn Marine still assaulting Rukiel hurled its chainswords forward in a desperate push. Rukiel effortlessly parried it aside and struck the cloned marine down, before cutting it open with sweep of his spear's tip. The crawling Spawn Marine was still down from the psychic attack, clawing at its helm at Rukiel's feet. Rukiel put it down with a contempting spear thrust, before turning to face Voraks on the other end of the command dias.
Voraks was calmly standing his ground, his plasma pistol firmly pointing at Rukiel, a power sword in the other hand. Rukiel estimated the situation, and unless Voraks had an aim of an Ork, Rukiel would not be dodging the quick demise by a plasma discharge unless by some dark miracle of the Warp, and those boons were far from reliable. He would try kill Voraks of course. There was nothing to lose anyway, and not other possible way out. If he engaged his jump pack and rushed forward in a way that would manage to make him miss most of the lethal plasma, then maybe… maybe…
"I would have liked to have someone like you in my warband, but you are too dangerous." And you would never bow to me, would you?" Voraks asked.
"No, i would not," Rukiel spat. Maybe he would have tried to bargain for his life, tried to offer his service and convince Voraks of his usefulness, but he knew that would be pointless, so he did not bother to squirm. Voraks would kill him anyway. He gripped his spear tighterin readiness for one final, desperate attack.
There was bark of a bolter, and the plasma pistol in Vorak's hand was half shattered from the impact of a bolt shell. The pistol weapon fell, and Rukiel saw his chance. He rushed forward and charge Voraks.
Voraks' sword came up to block in a precise motion, the loss of his plasma pistol not offsetting him enough to leave an opening for a kill to exploit. He pressed back almost immediately, and Rukiel could feel the disruption fielded blade skimm his arm, cutting armor and flesh but not doing any real damage. Rukie roared and launched a series of deadly thrusts, all blocked by Voraks.
The two of them spun around for 23 second. Both of them scored minor glancing blows and meaningless flesh wounds. Rukiel's left arm was dripping his own blood, coating his palms and his spear's shaft. Suddenly he smiled, his helmetless face bare to see for Vorax. "I killed you," he snarled. He wished he could have seen Voraks' face, but the ornate helmet was covering the Pureblood's face. And you could not blink blood away from helmet's retinal lenses.
Rukiel flicked his wrist, sending a spray of his own blood into the face of Vorax. The well aimed blood hit the eye lenses and covered them, disparaging Voraks' vision. He stumbled. That was all Rukiel needed.
The Shadower pierced Voraks' throat, and a twist from Rukiel severed the spine. Voraks was dead before he hit the ground.
Rukiel breathed heavily as he stood over the body for long moment. Then he lifted his gaze to see the back of the bridge, to finally find out who had saved him, who had shot the plasma pistol of Voraks. What he saw surprised him.
Of the two Spawn Marines he kept as decoration by the bridge door, one was standing still as a statue as always. And the other was holding a boltgun that was aimed at the command dias. The Spawn Marine, one more cognitively challenged than a servitor, one that Rukiel had not even provided with a loaded weapon, was standing over one of Voraks's bodyguards, from which it had apparently scavenged a loaded boltgun, and saved Rukiel.
Rukiel stood there for a long while simply staring at the Spawn Marine. Then the Spawn dropped the boltgun, picked up its own empty autogun from the floor, and proceeded to march back to the door where it tooks its place by the other guard, once more still as a statue.
Rukiel pushed the thing from his mind and immediately took his command throne. "Shields up, full combat readiness!" he barked, and the crew slowly emerged from their covers to fulfill his will.
"Start hailing our forces on board the spacefort, connect me immediately if you manage to establish a link with Kerverax. Send a crypted message in advance, telling all our forces on board the starfort to retreat any way they can and return to Ars Moriendi. Relay similar message to all our forces planetside. I need all the warrior I can get."
Rukiel felt his spirit lift with new opportunities. "How many Spawn Marines do we have onboard?"
"We have sixty Spawn Marines left to guard the ship, making their way towards the bridge as you commanded, my lord," came a reply soon after.
"Redirect them to boarding pods and tell tell to prepare for ship to ship assault," Rukiel ordered.
"As you will, my lord."
"My lord, I have established a connection with someone who claims to be in near vicinity of lord Kerverax on board the spacefort. Still no direct connection with our own squad."
"Put me through," Rukiel said, and soon he heard voice through Vox link. He smiled. "Khulain Khan, I find myself in a sudden need of warriors who are in rapid availability, and have a once in a lifetime proposition for you."
I hope you enjoyed that. Only one chapter left to deal with the aftermath.