Falsa Verum Chapter 11
Screaming rounds filled the air, an onslaught of catastrophic proportions as lethal shards blazed through the narrow confines and ricocheted off the thick pipes. The heavy industrial engineering withstood the barrage, albeit with deep scoring, but the rounds flew everywhere, bouncing away in random directions. Anything caught in that space would have been shredded, but Beta had already relocated.
Even as Anurax's hands came up Beta was already dropping, hitting the floor and rolling back under a pipe. He felt his backpack generator clip the underside and for a heart-stopping moment he thought he was stuck, but then he cleared the gap and rolled into cover. A moment later the roar of assault cannons let rip and the space he had vacated became a deathtrap. Beta hurriedly rose to his feet and saw out of the corner of his eye Zeck had also withdrawn, one did not live long in a feral environment like this without the ability to run away.
Beta paid him no mind as he dove among the knotwork of pipes, the complicated tangles of metal obscuring his location. The wound in his flank pulled tight and sent knives of pain into his chest but he ignored it, even snivelling loyalist Space Marines knew how to master pain. Behind him the heavy stomps of the Obliterator closed, firing off screeching rounds as he sought to get an angle on the Sorcerer's position. Beta withdrew further into the maze of pipes and tried to lose himself in the mass of twisting ducts but Anurax roared after him, "You can't escape me Beta, this is your death!"
Yet flight was the last thing on Beta's mind, for his mind was already working the problem. Anurax was fierce and powerful, but more than this he was an Alpha Legionnaire, as cunning and guileful as any who ever lived. Yet Anurax's mind had been decaying for years, the Obliterator virus overwhelming his subtle intellect. For all his power and ferocity Anurax was noticeably alone, he had brought no back-up. The conclusion was inescapable, Anurax wanted this kill for himself, he had not alerted his kin so Beta had to kill him before he sent word forth.
Beta slithered through the darkness, seeking to elude Anurax's fury but he heard the unmistakable slurping sound of the Obliterator changing weapons and a moment later the snap-hiss of melta guns. Anurax was cutting his way through the pipes, forcing his way into the tangled knot of convoluted ducts. The air temperature fell rapidly as coolant began to leak out but Anurax cared not, he hacked his way into the space with blasts of searing heat and light that painted shadows onto the walls.
Beta began to feel a germ of an idea forming and he changed direction and as he did so he called out, "Did the Harrowmaster put you up to this?!"
Anurax, called back, "Ha, I volunteered!"
Beta moved through the shadows again and he yelled, "You don't have to do this!"
"But I want to," Anurax snarled back, "I have always wanted to tear off that ridiculous helm of yours and spit down the stump of your neck!"
Beta ducked around a pipe and pressed his back against it as the Obliterator smashed his way nearer, yet the Sorcerer was ready. In the darkness his hands began making arcane gestures and he felt his connection to the warp open as he funnelled power into his casting. Beta had once been a Librarian of the XXth Legion, back in the time they had served the False Emperor, but that was long ago. For millennia he had explored the depths of the Warp and augmented his abilities with arcane learning.
It had been perilous, the knowledge he had accrued had been filled with snares for the unwary, but he had persisted. His power's now covered a wide range of disciplines and arcane topics of lore, including the various afflictions of Chaos. Beta knew that the Obliterator virus was a rapacious infection, consuming everything it touched. Flesh and metal, bone and skin, mind and soul, it was all food to the virus and nothing could withstand such an infection. All Obliterators were on a path to madness and dementia, which worked to his advantage, he had used it before to subdue Anurax.
Beta held still for a moment as he heard Anurax closing, waiting until the moment was right and then the Sorcerer leapt out, casting his spell with a complicated gesture. Anurax was right on the other side of the pipe and his bulk loomed high, so there was no way Beta could miss. The rippling spell washed over the Obliterator, slithering around his form and enveloping him in arcane power. Beta had expected an instant reaction, he had thought that the virus would run wild, mutating Anurax into his final, bestial amalgam of man and weapon. Yet to his complete shock nothing happened, the spell had no effect at all. Anurax's grey lips pulled back over iron teeth and he sneered, "Trying the same trick twice? You are getting feeble-minded, I took precautions against that long ago."
Then his fists came up and he unleashed beams of ravening melta power. The beams seared the air apart, flash-frying oxygen molecules as the fusion blasts sought the Sorcerer's hearts. Beta instantly flung himself aside but felt a beam clip his upper arm, the merest brush grazing his limb. It was the most fleeting contact, but the melta blast effortlessly liquefied his Ceramite, letting it run like molten lava over his vulnerable flesh.
Beta snarled in agony as he felt his left arm engulfed in fire, the inferno blistering across his skin and tearing apart the muscles beneath. With gritted teeth Beta forced the burnt limb against his chest and locked it there, even as he dove behind another pipe. Relentlessly Anurax gave pursuit, chasing him into the darkness with his heavy stomping gait even as he called out, "Come Beta, face me and I will make your death quick!"
Beta's only response was to lift his staff one-handed and dart out of cover, unleashing a blast of lightning as he did so. The warp energy skittered off the Obliterator's thick armour, leaving scorch marks but doing no damage at all to the dense plates and mutated flesh. Anurax laughed at the feeble blow and called out, "You are getting slow and weak!"
Beta dove back into cover but as he did so he heard the Obliterator sucking his melta weapons back in and the slurp of new barrels emerging from his arms. Beta hastily fled down a narrow alcove but as he did so a hammering rattle shot forth. Stubber rounds, hundreds of them battering at his cover. Beta's lip curled at the implied contempt, such a weapon would normally pose no threat to an Astartes but in his damaged state it could wear him down until it found a vital spot.
"What happened to making it quick?!" Beta cried as he wove among the tangled pipes.
"I lied!" Anurax chortled as he moved to find a clear angle of attack, "The Harrowmaster said to finish you quickly but I want you to suffer!"
Beta made to dart across a short gap but was pulled up short when he found the Obliterator had got there ahead of him. Anurax was facing slightly away, looking among the forest of ducts, but it would take him only a single step to come about. Instantly Beta lifted his staff and let loose his lightning, not at the Obliterator but at the conduits around him, breaking them apart to shower down in pieces. Razor sharp metal and freezing coolant rained down upon Anurax, bouncing off his plates in a clatter of metal on Ceramite.
Beta knew it could not harm the mutated Space Marine but it did buy him a second to retreat, falling back to desperately seek cover. He knew his options were diminishing, the chances of survival dropping second by second. He was injured and weakened, his arm rendered useless and his strength failing. His body's ability to regenerate was crippled by the Warp Venom coursing through him and the pain was actually starting to become annoying. His battle spells had done nothing to slow the Obliterator and Beta knew his most potent Sorceries required time to prepare that he simply didn't have. For the first time Beta found death closing in for him and he had no idea what to do.
Suddenly a hammering rattle rang out and Beta felt concussive impacts slamming into his back. Stubber rounds, tearing deep furrows into his armour. Beta forced his legs to take another step and another but then the flexible seals around his knee gave way as bullets tore into his tendons. Beta cried out as his leg gave way beneath him, dropping him to the deck in an undignified heap. He rolled over and saw Anurax closing, that abhorrent face grinning widely. The monstrous beast of a Marine loomed over him and raised his hands to point right at the Sorcerer's head.
Beta refused to stoop to pleading for his life and raised his head to look death in the face. He thought he could see the bullets in the gun that would surely end his life but one second before it fired there was a flash of light. From nowhere a las-shot flew forth, chipping Anurax's shoulder and marring the paintwork. Beta's head snapped about and he saw Zeck lurking among the tangle of pipes, looking shocked at his own temerity.
Anurax frowned at the disruption and said, "Are you serious?" He lifted his hands to kill the annoying gnat but as he did so another mutant charged out of the dark, holding a short spear in his hands. It was the one with too many eyes and he screamed as he ran forward, slamming his spear into Anurax's waist.
The Obliterator didn't even sway as the metal sank deep. He merely moved his elbow in a casual fashion and clubbed the mutant to the deck. The pathetic wretch wailed as his jaw broke and he clasped both hands to his face as he rolled about in pain. But that was nothing compared to what happened next.
Anurax extruded a flamer nozzle from one hand and then with barely a twitch he doused the mutant in burning promethium. Terrible shrieks arose as the mutant burned, sheets of yellow flames covering him head to toe. Shrill cries were torn from his throat as the mutant flailed wildly but nothing could prevent this agonising death. Yet Beta paid it no mind, for his attention was fixed firmly upon the spear in Anurax's flank.
The shaft of metal was shrinking, being sucked within the Obliterator and eaten by the virus, turned into raw material for the production of ammunition. Suddenly an idea sparked in Beta's mind and he spat a cantrip, a short spell in a long dead language. Anurax was already turning back but as he did so a long strip of metal shot out from the walls and stabbed into his arm. Another and another followed, each one binding him in a web of metal ropes, no more than a finger width in diameter.
"Pathetic," Anurax sneered as he made to break the web but he was shocked to find he could not move. His arms refused to respond to his will and he looked stunned as he cried, "What is happening?!"
Beta slowly picked himself up off the floor as he said, "You should be more careful about where you place your ambushes, your virus has a hunger you can't control."
It was true, the Obliterator virus was rapidly devouring the metal strands and more was being ripped from the walls as the warp infestation sought to sate its endless hunger, dragging ever more material into itself. Anurax's flesh was starting to bulge as his virus consumed more material than it could cope with, swelling obscenely as he pleaded, "No! Make it stop!"
Beta however declared, "The more your virus eats the stronger it gets and the stronger it gets the more it wants to eat. It will never stop until it consumes everything it can, but how can it eat an entire starship? How can you devour the Shadow? The answer is: you can't, no more than a man can drink an ocean."
Anurax's form was barely recognisable now, a lumpy mass of metal as round as a ball, with barely a few scraps of flesh pulled over the surface. His stretched face moved slightly and he whispered, "I can't…"
But Beta had no mercy as he said, "Goodbye Anurax, I won't miss you."
The ball of swollen material was almost pure metal now, the last scraps of flesh disappearing under its ever-increasing bulk. Then Anurax ceased to be, killed by his own virus and as his lifeforce failed it took the infestation into the embrace of death with him. Yet Beta did not bother to watch, merely collapsing on the floor as the pain of his injuries at last overwhelmed him.