The black rose chapter 49
The servitor´s engines hummed as it applied her armor. It was dull thing, eyes hidden behind a slab of metal and no mouth remaning. All it knew was how to put on and remove the armor of the Adepta Sororita.
"go." Johana said before it tightened the final joints. There seemed to be some hesitation from the machine-slave, but it left just before Johana turned to look at it.
Today is the day. It is the final day. Johana thought as she held her helmet in her armor-clad hands. There was a dent above one of the eye lenses. A small one that had slipped her mind until now. It´s from back then. It must be.
She pushed the helmet down over her head and runes came to life like embers in a fire. The gears between her head and neck made a sucking sound as the helmet sank into its joints. A rune confirmed that the armor´s seal was complete. Her hand sank down on the sword. Emma´s sword. She looked at the pommel as she gently brushed her thumb against it. My second oath. My second burden. My…
Her mind went quiet. The images retreated, if only for a moment as if they were pinned under the weight of Johana´s memories. They quickly wormed their way out, and once they were free they were starving to torment her. Even as Johana heard the screams and felt the blood on her skin, she didn´t react. She felt the pain in her mind. She felt the stabbing pulses jerking through her body. It felt as if her brain was freezing from the inside out, and the rest of her body tried desperately to shiver, just so some heat could reach up to her head. But she didn´t. She stared forward with a stare that searched for a horizon in an endless void.
The ash is gone. Blown away in by a soft wind. Only a hollow husk remains.
Johana put her leg up before her. She reached for her knee and pulled at the gears. A rune flashed. It warned Johana that the seal was broken. She blinked it away and did the same for her other legs but now she reached up to her thigh as well. When she put both her legs down, the plating on both her legs hanged loose.
Today is the day. The day that it ends.
"COME!" Hjalmar roared. "GIVE THE HERETICS A REASON TO FEAR US!"
If I can hear you from back there, then they should already have a reason to. Emma thought as she waited for the Baneblade to advance. With the fire power of both her sisters of the Tail and the Space Wolves, the Talons made a slow advance under the cover of the sheet of fire and the shield of Leman Russ Battle Tanks. This was a tactic that had been constructed by the night before. Hjalmar was as always eager to lead the charge, but both the Inquisitor and the General disputed him.
"On the battlefield, there are no equals, and some have to be valued more than others." "Derik said, in his usual soft-spoken manner.
"Though I don´t like to admit it, my soldiers are far more numerous and far more expendable than your brothers." Garius said.
"In that case my sister will lead the charge with your soldiers." Emma butted in. "When the heretics start assaulting us, we will make sure their attack doesn´t land on a soft front."
Derik and Garius quietly agreed. Hjalmar looked at the Inquisitor and laughed.
Though as they now advanced, Emma was starting to second-guess this tactic, as she did with many things of late.
Isn´t that what a good commander does? Emma recalled her conversation with Hjalmar. Doubts their abilities and wonders what could have been?
"Sergeant Vargo." Emma vox-reached the commander of the tank in front of her.
"Sister of the Hawk."
"What´s the status on the walls turrets?"
"They´re spitting madly forward."
Emma felt her fingers shift around the handle of her blade. "How far of is the Baneblade?"
"Four hundred meters." Vargo replied with some static. "We´ll need to half that if the Hellhammer cannon´s going to smash down the gate."
"Copy that." Emma closed the vox.
What are they doing? Emma thought while a hail of turret fire rained down on the tank in front of them. She picked up her pace and put her right hand on the tank. Could they-
Her thoughts where cut off by a shoot that punched through the tanks armor and exploded next to her hand. Emma jerked her hand back as the tank came to a sudden halt. The runes in her display show no signs of breach or break. The armor told Emma that her hand was unhurt, but her senses seemed sure that it was blown off.
Her sisters rushed up to pull their palatine to her feet. Leaning against the tank, Emma clenched her teeth as the hand throbbed.
"Sergeant Vargo." Emma opened the vox. "Status."
"The right side have taken some damage. Don´t know what hit us but it smashed the damned treads right of their gears."
"Abandon the tank!" Emma punched the rear of the tank with her fist. "You´re sitting ducks in there!"
"Copy that."
Emma looked quickly to the tanks flanks. "Russ Tank Five, Rhino Two. Move to guard Russ Tank Four while the crew evacuates."
"This sergeant Baldwin," The commander of Russ Five came through the vox. "We cannot risk moving out of formation with the Baneblade."
Emma cursed as she struggled the urge to climb on top of the tank and start pulling the guardsmen out of the tank herself.
"Emma." Galatea´s voice came through the vox. "Rhino Two will not be able to acts as guard while the crew evacuates. We can only head up to provide you cover for you."
Emma flexed her hand and felt like she was squeezing a thorny ball. "Move into position for us."
"The Rhino´s coming."
"Get ready to move when the Rhino gets into position." Emma commanded her sisters. "Until then keep your heads down." She didn´t wait to hear her sister's response. "You´re going to have to manage on your own, sergeant Vargo."
There was no response.
"Vargo!" Emma felt her vice echo something familiar and unpleasant.
"I heard you!" His voice came from above. He was on climbing out of the tank, rising out of the hatch like a sprouting flower.
Emma only had time to look up and notice him before his chest exploded in a splash of shattered bones and smoking blood. He jerked as if he was being shook by and invisible hand before sinking down on the tank with crimson oozing from his wounds.
Cold fingers wrapped around Emma´s heart. She reached up the tanks edge.
"Palatine!" One of her sisters put a hand on Emma´s shoulder. She pointed to the left of the tank. "The Rhino´s almost here."
Emma tore her hand free from the edge. "Prepare to move."
As they waited few intense moments Emma looked back up at the tank. Emperor bless you for your service.
"Go!"
They ran a short distance to the Rhino and gathered up behind the Sororita Tank as another burst of bullets splashed into the ground. A missile dived of the wall and crashed before the Rhino with an explosion that reached three times the tanks height.
Emma felt a spray of dirt and rocks clang against her armor. She threw a quick glance behind her to make sure that all her sisters were accounted for. "Rhino Two, move!"
Without a reply, the treads started spinning and the Rhino rolled its way forward with the sisters following its rear.
Six sisters behind it. Emma counted herself. And fifteen inside not counting the driver. The ones inside are of the Tail. They could be reserves for the Wings or the Talons. Emma glanced up at the wall. Won´t make much of a difference. The Wings will never be able to reach the top of the wall with their jump packs alone.
The ground flanking the sisters started being turned over by bullets missiles throwing chunks of the ground into the air.
Why are they starting to fire those now? The missiles may have had a short range to them but any soldier with a descent aim should have been able to aim for a tank heading towards the fortress, let alone an entire formation.
A part of Emma wanted to think their supply of ammo was low and wanted to spare it until they were sure of their shoots, but that idea didn´t sit right in her mind.
"What´s the Baneblade´s position?" Emma voxed.
"Three hundred meters from the gate." Galatea´s voice answered.
"Make it two hundred, quick."
"We´ll pick up the pace."
"Hurry it up!" Emma shouted to her sisters.
The walk they had behind the Rhino turned into a sprint. The other tanks followed with the Baneblade acting as the front and center of the formation. Its flanks guarded by two Exorcist tanks, the most potent artillery unit of the Adepta Sororita, it could unleash barrages of armor-shredding missiles from its organ shaped barrels. Beyond the Exorcists came the Rhinos and after them the Leman Russ Tanks. They made for a formidable force as they charged across the planes, leaving trails of dusty smoke behind their tracks. Something that made for a good hiding for the sisters and Imperial guard behind them.
The Rhino´s treads lost their blur and the tank slowed its pace. This was followed by a thundering groan of metal and whirr of machines.
With her sight blurred by the dust, Emma had a difficult time to see past the Rhino and was in no hurry to stick her head out again. "What´s going on?" She voxed. "Why have we slowed down?" The moment she finished the tank came to complete stop.
"Fall into position!" Galatea voice commanded every tank in a shout. "Take aim and fire when you have clear sights!"
The Rhino turned so quickly that Emma and her sisters where left exposed to the Mountbatten´s turrets for a few short moments. It wasn´t enough to kill any of her sisters, but it was enough for Emma to see what was causing the tanks to shift so suddenly.
And then she experienced it.
The three tanks to the left of the Rhino where spat on by the sweeping arch of an autocannon. The gun shrieked with hatred as the shells cut through the tanks armor and churned the innards of them into battered metal. When the trail of shells reached the Rhino, Emma ducked out of the way. She heard the autocannon punch through the Rhino´s armor and felt the strike of the shells it the other side of the Rhino´s armor through her back. It was over a breath later and the Knight slowed its cannon down, the tip of barrels shimmering by the orange glowing metal. The Traitor Knight prepared to enter a sprint to charge forward when the assault was interrupted by rain of missiles from the Exorcist. The explosions of the warheads were enough to cover the Knight from head to knee in black smoke.
This was not an opportunity Emma was going to miss. With two of her sisters she ran for the rear of the Rhino and forced the back hatch open by prying their swords in between the plates.
The inside was a slaughter. Sisters where leaking blood from still smoking wounds in their armor. The machine-spirit had been gutted. The only light that could paint the macabre scene were the beams that peaked in through the holes in the Rhino´s hull.
There was no chance or time to hesitate. Emma sent one of her sisters up to the driver´s seat and commanded the other one to release any sister that showed signs of life from their harnesses and pull them out. They searched frantically, knowing that the Knight could take another shot at any moment, and that the armor between them and its cannon was little more than paper to its shells.
"Driver´s dead." The sister said from the front. "Emperor bless her soul." She prayed as she came back. She joined her palatine in searching the rest of the sisters.
Emma jerked the sisters in their straps. She gave them quick shakes before moving on to the next one. None of them gave any response. Emma´s hand tensed and her fingers stung. "Move out!" She jerked a heavy bolter from its maglock. Of all the things inside this Rhino, Emma pulled the backpack loose and tossed it over her shoulders. This was the only thing that was spared. She ran out with her sisters.
Outside the Rhino, she saw the Knight stepping out of its blanket of smoke, its multi-barreled cannon blurred by the speed of its rotation. The weapon started screaming accompanied by the flashes white explosions. The cannon took a firm aim for the Exorcist.
Refusing the back down, the Exorcist responded to Knight by releasing another burst of missiles from its flutes. Like before the missiles were absorbed by the Knight´s void shield. Like rocks splashing on water, their impacts merely produced harmless waves across the arcane webbing. And also, like before the explosions covered the Knight in thick, black smoke.
The Knight charged forward, stepping out of the smoke with the barrel spinning at a blur along with the teeth of its tank-length chainsword.
It was then, the moment the Knight stepped out of the smoke, that the Baneblade fired it Hellhammer cannon. A shell the size and length of a grown man was spat out of the barrel and punched into the ankle of the Knights leggings. The blast was enough to overwhelm the void shield and bend the plating out of shape. For a breath, Emma dared hope that the Knight would fall. But the warrior-machine was barely staggered. The shot had only scrapped along the Knight´s armor. The dent was the worst it suffered. The barrels flashed to life again, and the shells tore through the Exorcists armor. Hammering down, the autocannon mangled the tank into a battered corpse. But the Knight didn´t stop. It charged forward, the chainsword whirring with pink flames licking the teeth as it skewered the Exorcist´s corpse and hauled it up into the air. The Knight´s joints groaned as the tank was lifted of the ground. Roaring a mechanical roar in triumph, the Knight tossed the Exorcist aside like a piece of unwanted meat.
"Galatea." Emma voxed, hoping that she wasn´t inside that tank.
"Receiving."
Emma released a puff of air.
"Status on Rhino Two?" Galatea said before Emma could say anything.
"Destroyed."
"Curse these heretics." The second Exorcist shoot another salvo of missiles as it turned to avoid another sweep of the Knight´s autocannon.
Summon the wolves. Emma wanted to say but the words stopped at her lips. They´ll be massacred by turret fire if they try to move up. Unless…
"Leman Russ Tank Five, Six and Three." Emma voxed, and before they could answer she gave them orders. "Fall back and act as escorts for the Space Wolves. Now!"
"Orders received and understood."
The tanks made quick turns and broke out of their formation. Emma wanted to vox-reach Hjalmar and the reserves but without a beacon, it was impossible.
The Baneblade´s treads turned so quick that it almost dug itself into the ground. The Hellhammer cannon fired, and the shell rammed into the Knight´s ankle. The Knight tried to awkwardly to keep itself upright as the void-shield recharged. The autocannon turned, and when the Baneblade turned its treads to move away it only found itself sinking into the muddy ground.
The nausea almost made her wretch. The Rhino had turned so suddenly and quickly that Johana felt her head swirl. The driver said something about brazing for impact or get ready to deploy. She didn´t listen.
Moments later,a clang rang through the Rhino as the tank came to a jerking stop. Something large groaned.
"Get out of the Rhino!" The driver shouted, and all her sister started to release their harnesses.
Whether motived by whatever duty she had left or forced by old reflexes, Johana followed with her sisters and punched the central point of the harness on her chest. But once she was free, she paused. And was thrown to the ground by the driver putting herself on top of Johana.
The roof came running down. Johana´s sisters disappeared, replaced with crumbles of crushed armor. The tank echoed with a sharp ting that stabbed into her ears. It took a long while before it went silent. She tried to move but was pinned in place by the driver on top of her. She turned her head and saw the roof in the corner of her eye. Barely more than ten centimeters away from her. Squirming her arm free, Johana touched the driver and realized she was dead. Her helmet had caved in and cracked her skull open.
She saved me. Johana´s breath quickened. She saved a hollow, tainted… She winced and wheezed. Her fingers started scrambling, clawing as they tried to pull her free. They pulled and scraped until the paint of floor was peeled away and the blood seeping from her crushed sisters started making her fingers slippery. Her helm´s cogitator filtered and enhanced what little light was there with what little power it had left, but the darkness was quickly overwhelming. Her breaths felt icy and the air stung as it traveled down her throat. Tears started building behind her eyes. They burned like acid as she realized her fate. She was entombed in this Rhino, and she was going to spend the rest of her life in it.
It wasn´t… It wasn´t… The images returned. It was torture, it was a viscous butchering, and it was a feast.
Amidst the images´ feast, a tingling started spreading from her thighs. Unlike the images, it wasn´t painful. It was soothing, soft and sedating, and embracing it was the only thing that seemed to halter the feast as she started hammering her fists into the blood covered floor.
"By the Emperor." Emma gasped.
The gate stood wide open and screaming fanatics ran out of it. They howled at the top of their lungs as blood dripped from shallow cuts on their arms. They spilled from the gate like a water from a breaking dam. Hundreds upon hundreds of men and women. Their attack seemed senseless, mad even. Their armor was crumbled, and growths spurted from their skin. Sometimes it was only an extra finger or miss colored skin, but others had fully grown limbs or had their natural limbs swollen to yellow bloats, ready to burst with the puss stored within. The sight made Emma´s skin prickle, but it was not the reason for her terror.
Towering far above the horde, it marched on flat, four footed legs. Disregarding those that ran beneath, the Knight crushed anyone that was caught in its shadow. Blood and guts dripped from the machine-warrior´s feet when it rose them. Like it´s brethren it was armed with multi-barreled autocannon on its right arm, but the left was something different. Rather than a chainsword, this Knight was armed with gathering of squirming, pink, worm shaped like limbs. The wet hide covering these tentacles did not have the sheen of metal. Rather it looked soft, organic almost. From its enormous vox-grill, the Knight released a war cry as its twin charged out of the gate with a speed that blurred its titanic shape.
Behind her helmet, Emma stared at the two traitor Knights with a loose jaw and wide eyes.
"Palatine!"
She blinked and saw what caused the yell. The tide of was coming. Crying and bleeding. "Ready bolters!" Emma commanded as she shifted the heavy bolter she took from the Rhino and opened fire. The first shoots kicked harder than Emma had anticipated, and the bolters flew above her target´s heads. But she quickly adjusted, and the bolters started pounding into their soft flesh. Emma had trained with every piece of wargear of that the Sisters of the Hawk used, but she showed great talent for the blade early in her training. She was select for the Talons early and learned the art of the blade. She knew there was as much skill and subtlety to the heavy bolter as there was the sword. But when faced with an enemy charging towards in a great clog, not much of neither was needed.
Limbs and bodies exploded in blasts of discolored gore. The blood spraying and splattering from the wounds was black and red. On occasion, Emma could swear she saw beads of blood being wrapped in flames before hitting the ground with smoking hisses. Joined by her sisters, they formed a thin line of fire that tore into the tide of flesh.
But they were just a rock in the path of a wave of zealotry. They may be breaking the front of it, but there was no chance of them breaking the wave. They were about to become surrounded when a lance of fire cut through the fanatics. The fire didn´t kill them immediately, and Emma could hear their screams as the flames eat through their flesh. They were screams of pain… and otherworldly pleasure.
This fuse of these emotions became a chorus that made Emma´s stomach churn as if a snake was writhing itself beneath her muscles. She could feel it biting inside her gut.
"Hold your ground!" Emma shouted as her elbows started aching with the kick of the heavy bolter.
The Leman Russ Tank that wielded a head-mounted flamethrower swept the stream of flames in a wide arch. Painting the flesh of the House Mountbatten´s heretics in smoking black. As it was joined by the five of its brother tanks, all of them armed turrets and flamers, the tide of flesh was slowed but not stopped.
They were getting closer. They climbed over the corpses of their fallen comrades without a second thought. Their eagerness and disregard for their own lives, it was something Emma only seen once before but for different reasons.
They´re not guarding. Smoke started rising from bolter´s barrel. They want this. They want pain. They live- no, die for it.
"FOR RUSS AND THE ALLFATHER!" Giants in sky grey armor roared as they smashed into the hoard. As befitting their name, they attacked in a pack, crashing into the fanatics with a force that sent people flying through the air with shattered bones and torn limbs.
The fanatics sought deaths of pain and suffering, but the wolves only saw fit to deliver quick deaths brought on by their swords and bolters. With one swing of his chainsword, Tor cleaved three men in half. With another, he killed five as his boltpistol fired. Along with his brothers, the wolves cut through the ocean of fanatics.
"LOOK OUT!" Emma screamed as the ground started popping with explosions. From a distance, one might mistake them for the bullets from a simple autogun, but Emma knew exactly where they originated from. She dropped the heavy bolter and threw herself on top of two sisters at once. She didn´t have time to see what happened to the wolves or the tanks. She only had time to see the ground rushing up to slam into her forehead. She heard the wet splashes of bullets tearing through flesh. She heard the cry of metal as armor was being pounded. There was a silence, it lasted only a breath, and the roars returned. Emma turned over to her back, getting of both the sisters she had pinned to the ground. She saw Tor standing in a field of smoke and blood. His right arm was missing, along with all but two of his brothers. Their sky grey armor splashed by crimson. Emma looked beyond them and saw the smoking wreckages of the Leman Russ Tanks. Then another wave came approaching while the twin Knights tore into Rhinos and Leman Russ Tanks with their guns and limbs.
"Move!" Emma commanded. When only two of her own sisters, sister Aline and sister Cynthia, rose with her, ice ran down her spine.
Tor roared. An animalistic, furious roar. He let the boltpistol slip from his fingers, leaving it hanging to his gauntlet by a chain, as he lifted his battered chainsword from his torn hand and put the bloody handle between his teeth. The weapon was dented and bent but the teeth still had a sharp edge to them.
"Tor." Emma said, and the wolf turned to her. "Don´t charge ahead." She readied her weapon.
Tor growled as slaver spilled from his lips. For a moment it looked like the wolf was going to ignore what she said and run ahead.
Emma was about to raise her voice in protest when Tor flicked his wrist and grabbed his boltpistol. Growling again, this time nodding as Emma saw the corners of his lips rise, Tor raised his left arm and released a muffled roar as the weapon started barking.
It was quickly joined by his brothers´ bolters, and the sisters´.
Together, they stood firm as another wave of flesh came towards them.
The ones at the front died first. They fell screaming to the ground as the ones behind them trampled over them, if they weren´t already dead it was secured by hundreds of trampling footsteps. It didn´t slow them. Nothing seemed to, and Emma wondered if they ever would. Was there a force that could make them stop, hesitate and see what they were doing?
Auuuuuuuuuoooooooooo!
The sound of the howl shot a wave through Emma. A wave of warmth that was stripped from her body by the kick of her bolter.
Hjalmar charged past Emma and her sisters as two packs worth of his brothers followed him. Emma only had time to blink and Tor joined his brother-captain.
There was no chance for the fanatics to withstand the wolves. And did not seem to want to. As Hjalmar tore one who had been climbing onto his back in half with his bare hands, they seemed to gather around the wolves, eager to meet their ends at the hands of the Space Wolves.
"Hjalmar, don´t stand still." Emma vox-reached to make sure he could hear her. "You´ll be picked off by the Knights if they notice you."
"Understood." Hjalmar slammed some of the fanatics away with his shield and raised his axe. "With me, brother! Led these bastards away from the sisters and stay out of the Knights bleeding cannon!" They assumed a formation and plowed through the fanatics, leaving a trail of steaming gore in their path.
"Follow me!" Emma led her sisters away from the fanatics. Towards the Knights. "Galatea." Emma made quick, sudden prayer.
Statics was the only response.
Emma searched for the Exorcist has she ran. She could spot the carcasses of Rhinos and Leman Russes but not anything the resembled an Exorcist or a Baneblade, though with the pillars of smoke rising out of the destroyed tanks, she could only tell the tanks apart by the shape of the hulls that remained.
The Knights were simple to spot. Imposing figures, they released sweep after sweep from their autocannons. And then came the sign that Emma wanted. One of them were bombarded by a salvo of roaring missiles.
"Take cover!" Galatea´s voice shouted over the vox.
Emma took both her sisters and hid behind the wreckage of the fallen Knight. As they slid down next to it, the machine-warrior squirmed like a turtle flipped on top of its shell. It was still alive, but unable to do anything but reach upwards in defiance.
Its brother Knight put an end to it. With a careless sweep of its autocannon, the blurred-white bullets cut through the broken void-shield and destroyed its mechanical innards. With a grunt, the fallen Knight died as it bled jet-black oil.
As the Knight´s machine spirit faded, Emma heard a faint pounding. It was irregular, like a fist smashing into a metal sheet. Muffled by the layers of metal, the pounding died the moment Cynthia opened fire.
"Save the ammunition." Emma stopped her sister. "It won´t do anything against the Knight´s shields."
"Then what do we do?" Cynthia's answer was harsh and irritated. Something that in the past would have provoked a harsh punishment.
Emma leaned against the fallen Knight. Her cheeks burned as if embers were glowing underneath her skin. When she closed her eyes, she could hear the pounding again. There´s someone trapped underneath the wreckage. The embers died and were replaced with steaming ice. She thought about how far down this person must be, and how much they must be struggling for her to hear the sound.
"Use the plasma grenades." Emma said.
Her sisters stared silently at her.
"If we can get a plasma grenade into the joints of the Knights, the heat of the plasma should be able to eat through the armor and melt the gears within."
"How many grenades do we have?" Cynthia asked.
"Three." Aline answered.
We need more. Emma vox-reached Galatea. "We need reinforcements."
"And I have no Rhinos or tanks to spare."
"Understood." Emma closed the vox.
"Well?" Cynthia asked.
Emma shock her head. "They cannot break of to bring in any reserves. And Hjalmar´s leading of the tide of mad heretics."
Cynthia went silent.
"This will be our day of judgment." Aline said. "This will be the day we finalize our duty to the God-Emperor of Mankind."
"Well have to get in close." Emma peeked over the wreckage to spot the Knights. Through her hand, she could still feel a slight tremble in the Rhino hull. She pushed it aside and looked at the Knights. Engaged in an awkward, balletic duel between the Baneblade, the Exorcist and Rhinos and Leman Russ Tanks that remained the two Knights danced with their autocannon's firing and their tendril like whips cracking as the tanks maneuvered around them.
"Remember," Emma turned back to her sisters as she dropped the heavy bolter. "you only have one life to serve the Emperor, make sure you do not waste it on a foolish death."
Cynthia and Aline put their weapons to their chest, preparing for a prayer.
"Move." Emma ran out ahead of them. It took her sisters a blink to catch up with their palatine.
She looked up at the Knight and felt a mixture of awe, quickly overwhelmed by the terror underneath. Just coming close to it could mean that it might crush them by unintentionally stepping on them.
They darted and took cover behind a dead Rhino. Black fumes curled upwards from it´s wounds and reached into the sky. The ground trembled as the Knights stomped their massive feet.
"We´ll be crushed if we come to close!" Cynthia´s arm started trembling as she looked up at the Knight.
"Not if we watch ourselves." Emma released her mag-locked boltpistol.
"Watch ourselves?" Cynthia´s voice rose to a cry. "We´re like insects to that those machine-abominations." The tone in her voice was something Emma found bitterly familiar.
You want to be somewhere else. Emma held the thought to herself. "And how often have you watched for insects on the ground?"
Cynthia didn´t answer. She panted and looked at Aline, who gave her a quick nod.
"They´ll think of us as a neglectable threats." Emma said. "That we´ll be their undoing."
Cynthia nodded. "Alright."
"Give me one grenade, and make sure Cynthia has one as well." Emma commanded Aline, and she did as she was told.
"Galatea." Emma voxed and didn´t wait for an answer. "We´re going to take out the Knight moving close my position." The ground shock again, like the skin of a drum being pounded with a hammer. Emma would have lost her footing if she didn´t grab the hull of the Rhino.
"How?"
"Plasma grenades. If we can get them into the Knight's leg joints, it will collapse."
The response was so blurred by static, Emma struggled to hear what Galatea said. Thankfully it was a short reply with a simple meaning. "Hurry- p. We can- this heat much lo-."
The ground shuddered so violently it was easy to think that a meteor had hit the ground. But Emma knew what it was, and what it meant.
"Cynthia, move up with me." Emma drew her sword. "Aline, stay behind and provide covering fire." She didn´t wait for their answers. "Go!"
With blade crackling and screaming, Emma charged with Cynthia close behind. Towering before them was behemoth of roaring barrels, crying gears and fuming exhausts. More then thirty meters of open ground between them and it. The length of the Knight itself.
Thirty meters of death.
The ground shock, and Emma stumbled to her knee. Her side stung as she looked behind her to check on Cynthia.
Her sister was already running up to her. By the time Emma got up, Cynthia had run past her.
The Knight raised its foot again, unknowingly taking a step towards Cynthia. The impact pushed a wave of air and debris that tossed Cynthia of her feet.
Emma rushed to her. She was about to stop, to try and wake her up, when she closed her fist and reached for Cynthia's belt.
Ten meters. The helm´s cogitator displayed a rune that told her the distance. A turret on the wall started spitting, and Emma pushed her boot to the ground. She pulled the grenade from her belt and turned cog on the top. If not for the roar of guns, tanks and wolves, Emma would have heard the grenade´s innards activating with an exited hum.
With her thump, Emma squeezed a button until it produced a crunchy click. Mag-lock. Ten seconds from activating.
The Knight´s gear joints started buzzing.
Emma ran around the Knight's foot. She wanted to get to the back of the Knight's leg, to the fold of its knee.
As if it knew what she was aiming for, the Knight raised its foot and covered Emma in it shadow.
An iced breath pushed through her teeth. Two seconds. She threw the grenade upwards and ran. She ran to the sharp edge of the shadow, into the dim light.
Suddenly, the shadow of the Knight was consumed by the glowing, blue light of a furious sun. At the back of her head and her neck, Emma felt a surge of heat.
Then came the scream. The plasma seared through the metal with ease, and the machine-spirit within cried out in pain. The screech made Emma´s ear ring.
She wasn´t certain if she had run past the shadow. And it didn´t matter. She closed her eyes and ran. She ran as her ear screamed with the sharp ting of a bell.
The Knight cried as if it was in pain when it set down its foot. The inner workings of the foot were nothing but a melted mixture of gears, cogs and wires. When it the ground, it crumbled like it was sinking through mud, but the Knight could still stand.
Another salvo of missiles rained down on it. The void-shield rippled like water and shattered like glass. The armor dented, bent and finally cracked.
The Knight had no chance to react. The autocannon screamed as it crashed. The impact could be felt inside by those on top of the fortress walls and the thud was heard by the reserves beyond the hill. Dust flew out in a thick fog by the fallen machine-warrior´s body.
It was thick enough to clog her helm´s breath grill. Breathing was a struggle and her skin was moist with sweat, but a smile flashed on her lips. She turned to look at the Knight but was only meet with the same brown fog that blanked her vision from the other side.
"Status on the Knight?" Emma voxed Galatea.
Her answer came in the form of a shock wave, followed by the thundering boom of a shell hammering into the Knight´s head. A vague, blurred silhouette took shape and slowly grew as it rolled towards her.
"The second Knight is heading down the southern flank." It was a mans voice that reached entered Emma´s vox. A quick glance at the frequency confirmed that this channel was the one used by the Imperial Guard. "Tanks disperse."
Southern flank. Emma checked her cogitator´s compass took a guess how far of the Knight was based on the noise of its foot steeps. Hjalmar´s heading north.
"Aline." Emma voxed.
"Palatine?"
"Head for my position. Hurry and use the smoke as cover before it fades."
"Yes, palatine."
I need her plasma grenade. Emma pressed against the dead Knight´s armor. She heard screams spilling from the fortress. "Galatea. I´ve got troops coming out of the fortress again, numbers and direction are unknown. Send all the loaded Rhinos you can and send all the tanks you can spare to bring the reserves."
"Only two Rhinos left, and I can only send three Leman Tanks to bring troops. Listen, you have to break through this new wave of heretics and take out the turrets. We need to take this fortress while the gates still reaming open."
"What about the-"
"We´ll take the Knight down ourselves." Galatea answered.
Emma bit down on her lip until it broke. "Understood."
A shape came running towards her. Out of reflex, Emma flexed the grip around her sword, but the shape soon solidified and took revealed itself as Aline.
"Cynthia?"
Emma shock her head. "I don´t know." She turned to the fortress as she heard the thunder growing in its roar. "The heretics are coming again."
Aline raised her bolter, ready to fire, but Emma put her hand on the weapon.
"Wait." Emma said as she opened a vox-channel. "Hjalmar."
"Aye." She could hear the growls of his brother´s chainswords behind his voice.
"We need reinforcements."
"Where?"
"On my position. We need to break this new wave and assault the gate before it closes." Emma adjusted the finger wrapped around the sword´s hilt.
"On my way."
A screaming man leaped from the dead Knight onto Emma. He wore the flak armor that was standard to Imperial Guard. Black with the sigils of House Mountbatten. But his skin was pulsing red. Emma seized him by the throat and a slithering, slaver drenched tongue snaked out from his misshapen teeth. It wrapped around Emma´s arm and her armor smoked with black fumes as the tongue started sinking in.
She closed her fist and crushed his throat between her fingers. She could feel the neck snapping like a dry twig as his limbs went soft and heavy. He quickly sank from her hand.
Aline´s bolter barked. The ten men that had come for her, armed with bayonets covered with wet-dripping skin, exploded in squalls of gore.
Emma pulled her boltpistol and joined her sister. They came around the corner of the Knight. She had no idea how many, but she assumed and feared another tide. Emma turned and faced them.
Another squad, this one coming from the other side.
Emma activated the sword´s rune and charged with a barking pistol and a screaming blade.
They fired their las-guns at her. The rifle´s flashed and punched against her armor, but faded with only silvery, pebble sized scrapes in the jet-black plating.
The ribcages of two of them burst open as the bolts punched into their armor. And like before, they seemed to lavish these last moments of pain before their lives faded. When Emma´s blade came within reach, they drew blades coated and dripping with a liquid that Emma assumed to be a poison. One of them came for her, and Emma cut his head from his shoulders, the head frozen in a toxic grin. The expression disgusted as much as it puzzled her. And Emma got sharp answer to her confusion. A blade sprouted from his belly, screaming like hers and thrusting sharply towards her stomach.
The lighting coated sword cut through the ceramite. For a moment, Emma had to reaction to grasp the blade with her bare hand. Her hand rolled into a fist that crashed into the side of the blade. On her knuckles, Emma could feel the lighting furiously biting into her skin, right down to the bone without needing to cut through her armor.
The point of the sword left a trail of silver where it touched the armor. Emma took a step to the side and drove her own blade through the dead man´s chest. The sword gave a short pause of resistance before Emma felt it cutting through flesh again. Tearing her sword through the corpse, the blade carved through the man behind.
Blood guzzled from the gashes that opened their ribcages from chest to shoulder. In a shower of gore, the two corpses sank and revealed the final man of the squad.
He looked young. Untouched and confused. His eyes were brown, like oak and his short-trimmed hair was dirt-blond.
Emma paused as her fingers flexed as she entered into a sprint.
The young man blinked, and Emma put her sword through his chest. It happened quick. Quicker than others. When the blade slipped out of him, Emma pulled him close and uttered a small prayer. He sank with closed eyes and blood seeping from his lips.
"EMMA!" Hjalmar roared.
She turned. The old wolf was next to the fallen Knight, along with his brothers and Aline.
"How long until reinforcements arrive?" Hjalmar asked when Emma reached them.
"Too long." Emma reloaded her boltpistol. "We need to break through the heretics and hold the gate until they arrive."
"Alright." Hjalmar turned to his brothers. "Its time we assault the bloody gate! Brother, sisters," Hjalmar raised his axe. "with me!" He and his brothers charged.
Emma and Aline quickly followed. Emma kept close to Hjalmar but when she saw Aline breaking of, she quickly pulled her back.
"Stay close to Hjalmar." Emma said. "His shield will keep us alive until we reach the gate."
A second wave came. They spilled out from the gate. The tide of pink splashed screaming onto the howling wolves. Hjalmar and his brothers hammered through them. The swings of their axes and chainswords cut down men like weed. Quick, almost quicker than Emma could run, they pushed their way through the fanatics as blood mixed with the mud.
They reached the gate and a beast came charging. Its disformed limbs and misshapen mandibles flayed and flung madly around it. It came for Emma, but Hjalmar caught the charge with his shield. The joints and servos of his armor buzzed loudly as the beast slammed into him.
Emma took a few dashing steps to Hjalmar´s side and raised her sword. There wasn´t any visible head to speak of on this beast. It was more of an abomination of hulking muscles and limbs curled with barbed claws and teeth.
When the blade cut through the beast´s flesh, Emma could feel the flesh trying to push her out. As if there were hands underneath it´s skin that were grasping the blade. She grabbed the sword with both hands and opened the beast´s side. It cried out in pain as the blood sprayed from the gash. One of its tendrils lashed out and wrapped themselves around Emma´s head. Silvery white sparks sprayed where the teeth grinded against the black ceramite, blinding her and tugging at her. She caught the slithering limb with her hand and cut it with her sword as the curled, talon-shaped teeth dug themselves into the flesh of her palm.
Hjalmar´s brothers tried rushing to their aid, but the old wolf told them otherwise when he noticed them.
"Take the bloody gate!" Hjalmar bellowed. "Take it and hold it!" He slammed his axe into the side of the beast and the flesh absorbed by folding the leather-like inwards. Hjalmar saw the head of his axe sinking and bashed his shield into the beast, sending it staggering backwards. Not dazzled by the impact, but rather pushed back by the sheer force of Hjalmar´s swing.
Emma pulled the still twitching tendril from her hand and fired her boltpistol against a lump that she assumed was the beast´s head. The pink matter that spilled from the cracks in the bone-plate along with the growling sigh confirmed Emma´s idea. The beast went down.
"To the gate!" Hjalmar shouted.
At first Emma thought he was saying that to her, but she heard the growl of engines behind her. The reinforcement as arrived. She looked behind her and saw wolves, sisters and soldiers.
"With me brothers!" Hjalmar roared. "Come with me and take down these cursed walls!"
"Sisters and soldiers to me!" Emma raised her sword. "Capture the courtyard and the fortress!" She could feel her legs throbbing. Pounding even. But they still carried her forward. That was all that mattered.
The sisters followed Emma close behind. Coming clean from the reserves, they had little trouble following her flank, despite carrying heavy flamers.
The courtyard was an easy conquest. The ones who were still in there came charging towards the sisters with open arms. Any weapons they carried they quickly thrown to the side when they saw the flamers carried by the sisters. The streams of burning promethium poured over them and the flames were slow to finish them. The flesh hissed and fumed as they fell to the ground screaming or sighing. Regardless of their final noise they made, what remained of their faces were twisted by pleasure.
"Do you see what this is?" Sophia´s voice appeared behind Emma. "This is heresy."
Emma didn´t answer.
Sophia walked up next to Emma. Her claws drawn and dripping with lighting. "Fire purges."
Emma looked to her side. Beneath her helmet, her eyes narrowed. "Fire cleanses." She pushed the words through her teeth.
Sophia walked past Emma, taking her squads of winged sisters with her. With their jump packs, they leaped over the second wall and attacked the few remaining soldiers posted there.
Emma was about to call for her sisters to move forward, when she heard a clang of metal, followed by the death-roar of a giant.
"The Knight as fallen." Galatea voxed.
"And we have entered the fortress. We have won."
"Not yet. We need to purge every heretic in the fortress."
"I understand." Emma closed the channel before Galatea could say anything else. She looked at her sisters, they had come armed with bolters, swords… and flamers.
"Come with me and end this war!" Emma charged.
They pushed their way through the fortress tunnels but found no one. The fortress seemed more like tomb than anything else. Their boots clanged and echoed against the black metal covering the floor as they charged through the fortress´s bowls, looking for foes that they didn´t find. Her helm´s cogitator displayed and map of the fortress and marked the path they needed to take in order to find the seat of House Mountbatten.
It took them longer to reach than Emma had excepted. She assumed that Sophia and the Wings, with their jump packs would have reached the throne room before she did. That idea was washed aside when they reached the gate. A thick, beautifully decorated thing made from iron and silver. The markings on it where almost splendid and masterfully crafted to Emma´s eyes, but when she put her hand on the gate, she felt an odd tingle in her fingers.
It took three of her sisters pulling each door to open the gate. When the doors split, a pulse rushed out. Like pressure being released but Emma didn´t feel hear or feel any brush of wind. Yet she felt something press against her skin. Something that somehow pushed through her power armor, and that washed of her like a cold wind in the sun.
Her sisters made another heave and the gate groaned until it was wide open.
Once the gate went silent, Emma heard the moans from within the chamber. Moans and sighs that transported her back. She looked into the throne room and was yanked back by hands made of ice so cold they burned.
She wanted to look away but stared forward with wide eyes. She wanted to run but her body stood still. She wanted to scream but her mouth hung open in silence. Was this the debauchery of the Dark Gods?
"Palatine?" Aline asked. "What are your orders?"
Emma looked at her sisters. "Purge this place of sin." She said, coldly. "Burn them. Make sure none survives."
