Chapter- 5
Farseer Ameria of Craftworld Iybraesil was looking at the battlefield from a plateau, the Monkiegh were losing and soon the combined threat of Orks and a Chaos Space Marine warband would no longer loom over the their craftworld, she had made sure both the Ork, Chaos and Imperial fleets were taken out, further guarantees were made with the help of her Rangers who destroyed the Imperial communications array and assassinated their Astropaths. Without orbital support the three factions would have to face each other head on. The Farseer's second in command, a Howling Banshee Exarch asked 'What of the three forces on the planet? The victor would surely be much stronger?' she turned on her heel, 'The Imperials will deal with that', Gilmela tilted her head sideways in confusion, Ameria took the initiative and explained, 'An Inquisitor was present among the Imperial forces, the zealous fool managed to take recover a cyclonic bomb from the wreckage of a ship' she smiled than continued, 'You know of their kind, the Inquisitor would see this planet and everything upon it destroyed before they let the Orks or the faces of Chaos'.
They were talking about the morale of the warhost when their attention was drawn by a shouting, the two of them turned their heads to see a Howling Banshee kick a Monkiegh child, and she could have been no older than in her teens. The Howling Banshee in question was joined by her comrades who chased her around, the Farseer gripped her singing spear and proceeded to give them a piece of her mind when the Gilmela stopped her with her power sword, 'What is the meaning of this Gilmela? You approve of such barbarism?' the Exarch replied in a disinterested voice, 'You brought them to this heap of dirt and had us all stay here for over six months to ensure the survival of our craftworld. They are pleased with your results, nevertheless they are still stressed from being on a Monkiegh world, let them have this moment, if only to cool their heads so that in a fight their pent up frustration won't result in the reckless loss of lives', Ameria grit her teeth in anger she shook off Gilmela's sword off and was forced to watch the scene in front of them, her subordinate was right pent up emotions never ended beneficially for anyone, especially Eldar.
Other Eldar had taken notice and had gathered around to see the "Show", the girl ran around scared, the Howling Banshees continued chasing her, she ran crying all the while crying out to her Emperor who was probably watching but was helpless. The Banshees tired of playing closed in on their prey and started attacking her, they beat her up with their fists while the others gathered around them threw insults in Low Gothic and Eldari, 'Filthy Monkiegh', 'You're nothing but an animal' such insults were thrown around as they continued their assault, the Rangers at the back looked away in disgust, when they finally stopped, the girl beaten, bruised and bloody feebly tried to crawl away all the while crying out the same thing, over and over. The Farseer moved closer to get a better look even though her moral fibre clawed at her to stop it, she could stop them but a darker part of her told her to let them continue, the child's voice was very clear now, 'My Emperor! Why have you forsaken me?' the Howling Banshee, the very one who started it stepped on the child's head making her whimper in pain, she bowed down and said in a low voice, 'Because he doesn't care ' and she raised her foot and stomped on the child's head ending her life.
The others left, Ameria stayed and stared at the corpse, she could feel her memories, the nights the father would bring home treats from work, the celebration on Emperor's day, and a thousand other precious memories flooded and threatened to overwhelm her, harnessing power from the warp she used it to move the earth nearby and make a small grave, she put her Singing Spear down and slowly lifted the dead girl and carried her over to the grave and lowered her in. She then covered the hole and went to a nearby boulder and cut it in half with her singing spear, slicing the thick slab again using her psyker powers she made a small headstone, it was simple yet elegant and had the gothic architecture that was so common in the Imperium, she burned a name into the stone and set it down in front of the mound of dirt, 'I am sorry Abby', she bowed her head in silence for a moment and then went back towards her spot, she didn't care if the others saw her, they were the superior race yet they acted no better than their twisted cousins, it was infuriating. The battlefield had changed, the Imperial Guard lines had thinned greatly, the civilians were still clogged up near the mountain pass, 'They won't escape in time' her subordinate stated coldly, Ameria replied coldly 'unless they get a miracle'.
The sounds of a last minute rally could be heard all the way from their position, 'That right there Farseer' the Banshee Exarch pointed at the faraway Imperial lines, 'Is perhaps the one redeeming quality of the human race, even in the face of insurmountable odds they refuse to back down', Ameria tilted her head, 'Yes, I agree with you but their lack of elegance and general barbarism is what prevents them from achieving greater heights' she was trying hard not to think about the girl. Amelia opened her mouth to speak but stopped when she heard a message, 'Farseer two ships of unknown origin are heading towards the Imperial lines', 'Ready the ship I want to take a closer look' she alerted her subordinates and within a minute a craft had landed beside them and she along with a group of Dire Avengers and Howling Banshees climbed in. Within minutes they landed in a secluded cliff overlooking the mountain passes, Ameria used her Psychic might and disguised the small group, 'What in the name of Khaine are those?' she squinted her eyes at two shapes approaching in the distance.
Nick was hanging by holding on to his seat and peering below, 'Are you sure this is safe?' his vox boosted voice boomed over the sound of rushing air, 'I meant for them' Alex replied with annoyance in her voice, 'Spartacus and the others will be fine', 'I meant the Imperial Guard' Achilles' voice cut in, 'It's Astra Militarium now' Nick screamed back into their comm systems, 'The Wall of Guns!, will the Wall of Guns be fine?' , Alex sighed 'As long as they see the giant boxes filled with ammo dropping from the sky they and manage to dodge them, Yes they will be fine' Nick frowned, he did not like it but had no choice. They passed low over imperial lines, Nick leaned out a bit and started his rehearsed dialogue, 'HO!HO!HO! TAKE JOY IN SMITING THE ENEMIES OF MANKIND GUARDSMEN, I HOPE ALL OF YOU HAVE BEEN GOOD MEN AND WOMEN AND I HOPE YOU LIKE YOUR PRESENTS!' as they passed by, standard Imperial ammo crates which were tied up by red ribbons into the shapes of bows began dropping out from the Uberpanzer's undercarriage hatch, as the crates fell out the Grav chutes attached to them activated and they landed softly. The Guardsmen wasted no time and rushed over and loaded up, they were content with having ammo to face the oncoming Chaos horde and they were not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
After they had finished dropping off ammo to the guardsmen holding the lines, Alex turned the Uberpanzer towards the oncoming horde, she magnified the camera on the horde and a clear picture of Daemonettes and Slaneeshi cultists charging headfirst into the fight not caring for the flashes of red light that burned and dismembered many of them, many fell and many more fell to the assualt of heavy bolters, autocannons and heavy mortars that came to life once again. Alex and Achilles manuvered their respective ships in the direction of the oncoming horde, Nick activated his comms and asked, 'Spartacus is your team ready', a reply came quickly, 'Yes but I fail to see how two aircraft, and ten ground personnel will change anything against nearly half a million of our foes', 'Eleven, I'll be joining you and besides you're all piloting the AMP MK-IV armed with PEW-90s', 'Let us just hope for the best' he replied in defeat. The Uberpanzer released a salvo of rockets and it' triple linked energy cannons whirred to life resulting in massive amounts of kills, Alex spoke up, 'Approaching the drop zone in ten, nine, eight', the transport craft Achilles was piloting opened it's underside revealing eleven giant humanoid shapes dangling, 'Seven, six, five, four, three' Nick readied himself to jump out, 'Two, one, GO! GO!' Nick somersaulted out of the Uberpanzer and started falling and the Uberpanzer immediately broke off and descended lower for a deadly strafing run.
Nick looked to his left and saw the AMPs falling out as well, he dived towards them, he would hit the ground in about a few seconds so he activated his jump pack and zoomed towards them, 'Come on, just a bit closer' he muttered under his breath the AMPs activated their jump packs as well, he activated the jets in his boots and flew closer, he reached out and grabbed hold of his AMP, he slammed his fist on the button the hatch opened and he climbed in, 'Beyond Glory online' he declared over the comms just as he crash landed and crushed several cultists and daemonettes, the Beyond Glory's core pulsed with life subsequently so did his PEW-90, 'Alright gentlemen! Light them up' and with that order the eleven AMPs aimed their PEWs and unleashed their fury, hundreds died to the bright red energy beams that eradicated the enemy soldiers and daemons faster than rodents, 'Enemy astartes detected guys, best be careful' Alex said on the comms, Nick looked up and saw her break off from her strafing run to engage a group of Thunderhawks. He levelled his weapon at the approaching horde and fired again giving no quarter.
Farseer Ameria was shocked beyond words; the new participants were clearly Monkiegh but their strength was amazing, she doubted that she would be able to lead her warhost against them. 'Farseer is this the work of who the Monkiegh call Belisarius Cawl?' a Ranger asked her and even though his voice was strong Ameria knew he was nervous, 'I do not know Ranger, but remember Asuryan watches over us'. She observe as Chaos Rhinos and Predators closed in on the group releasing their own salvos, the offending projectile simply bounced off or disintegrated upon hitting their shields though the suits themselves were staggered, 'Farseer look!' she turned her head to where one of the mechanized suits put it's weapon on the left hip and reached for its back and pulled out a huge weapon that resembled a canon, it levelled it's weapon at the offending Rhinos. Ameria squinted her eyes, were her eyes betraying her or was a ball of bright green energy building up in front of the barrel, it grew bigger and bigger till it got bigger than the weapon itself, the others suits fell back and braced as the Chaos Space Marines climbed out of them and added to the salvo of deadly projectiles, the green orb shot off from the barrel and sped towards the parked Rhinos, it impacted with a Rhino and blew up covering both the Rhinos and red suits in dust.
The on looking horde of cultists looked at the smoke, eager to find out if their leaders had survived, a daemonett walked into the cloud of dust to investigate and moments later her body came flying out and crashed into the crowd, from the dust the red giants charged firing their bulky weapons all the while running over people. The one who had just caused the destruction put the weapon on it's back grabbed the weapon at it's hip and joined its brethren. 'Farseer what are your orders?' Ameria looked at her subordinate, 'Fall back, we're done here' with that the Eldar quietly pulled out. Nick along with his new friends was pushing back the horde and with their champions dead there was no one to rally them. 'Alright boys ','Hey!' Alex protested over the comms, 'Alright!, boys and girls lets wrap this up quickly and head over to the next site'
PLANETARY CAPITAL,
HIVE GOLGOL, COMMAND SPIRE
Inquisitor Helsing watched the map, they were losing and fast, until he heard about the incident at the mountain passes, 'Are you sure it wasn't Astartes?' the General shook his head, 'According to the scanners or whats left of them it wasn't there in space one second and the next it just appears out of nowhere and the automata they used was unlike anything I've ever seen Inquisitor' Helsing scratched his chin in deep thought, 'True, True, I myself have fought besides the Emperor's Angels many a times and these people-' he pointed at a holopic of a huge humanoid Walker standing on two legs carrying a bulky looking rifle which glowed a fiery white, on its red chest was a six sided white snowflake, 'Are not from any chapter I know of' the General looked at the data slate and then handed it to the Inquisitor, 'So far they are on our side, if the battle reports are any indication' Helsing looked at the slate and then put it down, his attention turned to the young man in front of him, one would say that he was inexperienced if nor for the bionic arm and scar running across his face.
The doors suddenly burst open, the planetary governor stormed in with his aides, Governor Marcus Hawkwood was a mountain of a main with ripped muscles to boot, he was the opposite of the stereotype of planetary governors and judging by the bandaged eye he had been on the walls recently. Marcus walked up to the Inquisitor. 'Lord Inquisitor, I trust everything is not well' Helsing grinned and motioned to the holo picts in front of them, 'On the contrary governer, we've never been better'. The governor was briefed on their mysterious ally and their kill count, 'By the Emperor' the governor exclaimed and then leaned on the table, 'They just might win us this war' Inquisitor Helsing's smile turned grim, 'But we don't know if they have their own agendas' Marcus frowned, 'Well we can only hope that they are on our side' Helsing nodded, 'Indeed Governor, we can only hope'. They stayed silent and observed the various bits of information flowing through the spire, Hawkwood was about to leave when all the screens in the room changed to show a masked man wearing red armour with snowflakes painted here and there, 'Attention Imperial forces in about thirty minutes me and my comrades will start hitting the lines of the Great Enemy and head towards the corrupted Hives. In the meantime I suggest that you deal with your Ork infestation with everything you've got' with that the transmission ended, all the adepts and various servants stopped and looked at the Inquisitor, Hawkwood gave the Inquisitor a questioning look and the Inquisitor nodded, 'YOU HEARD THE MAN! MOVE YOUR ASSES WE HAVE ORKS TO DEAL WITH!' with that the governor and his aides rushed out of the room.
THREE WEEKS LATER,
Farseer Ameria went over the reports provided to her, the mysterious humans in red had fought on for days on end with seemingly unlimited amounts of ammunition, they had broken through the chaos lines and were chasing the Great Enemy towards the corrupted city. She had tried to pierce the ocean of the Warp and tried to see what could be done to remove them should they ever become a threat to the Eldar race but all she could see was the warriors in standing red victorious and mountains of Eldar corpses, 'Farseer the Monkiegh in red march on the corrupted city' she opened her eyes to see Gilmela standing in front of her, 'Prepare a team and the transport' she got off from where she as meditating, 'Let us see what can be found out about them' .
Nick and the rest of team were now besieging Hive Kiralik, they had picked up a regiment of Imperial guardsmen along the way who had been informed to cooperate with them thankfully, 'Brigadier Colonel Elena of the Themysciran 4th at your command my lord' Nick looked down at the woman from his AMP suit, she was exceptionally tall perhaps bordering on seven feet, 'I am not a lord, I own no estates and as such call me by my title, Commander Santa Clause or a simple Commander Clause will suffice' she nodded and moments later she called for her subordinate and the young man came speeding along, 'See that Commander Clause gets what he requires and if I hear that your performance is lacking in any way I will whip you with the notched chain tonight' the young man flinched at bit and then nodded. The woman left and the young man turned to face the Mechanised warrior in front of him and gave a salute, 'Major Diaz at your service Commander' the machine nodded or whatever counts as nodding for a machine, 'Tell me Major what was that all about?' 'What was what sir?' the machine bent down to one knee and the front opened and a giant of a man climbed out and removed his helmet revealing a normal face, 'We are face to face son there is no need to be afraid, I think you know what I am talking about' the young man looked at him and gulped, 'Well Commander...eh how do I say this, Themysira is a matriarchal world where the men are no better than slaves, when the Colonel joined I by law had to join too since I was technically her property. And the whipping she promised well that had been there since I was a little boy and joined the lady's service she would whip me, poke me with a hot iron, bite me till I bled then she'd drink my blood and spit it in my mouth and make me drink it, and she even made me burn my father alive to prove my loyalty to her' by this point the young man was teary eyed and his knuckles turned white from him tightening his fists.
Nick was lost, he didn't know any words to offer him comfort so he said the first thing that came to his mind, 'Well Major I believe the reason she does such things is because she is a sadist and because she needs you' the man tilted his head in confusion, 'She needs me?' 'Yes she hurts you to reassure herself that she is in a position of strength by doing such things' , the young man scoffed and Nick continued, 'Whenever she debases you and tries to break you, remember that you are the stronger one' the young man smiled, though it was a pained one it was still genuine. Nick hugged him and to his surprise the man hugged him back, what was more surprising was that no one saw him, 'It always turns out okay in the end you'll see' Nick pulled away and right at that moment his comm rang up, 'Nick are you there, it's Alex we've broken through the wall at sector 12, the outer defences have been taken out, head over there pronto' he didn't waste any time and jumped into his AMP, 'Major inform your superior that the defences are down!' the man nodded and rushed off.
The combined forces of Nick's walkers and Guard tanks stood at the ready, with Nick and his team leading the charge followed by a Baneblade leading the tanks, a female voice speaking in a British accent interrupted Nick's thinking 'Commander Clause, the bombardment will cease shortly please prepare yourself', 'Copy that, Alright boys you heard the lady prepare to move in as soon as possible and remember this is the last place part of the hive that is to be conquered'. Nick waited, and soon as the last shell exploded his mechanical legs whirred to life and he rushed in, within minutes he was inside the sector's wall and started blowing everything apart, here an armoured truck exploded there a group of traitor guardsmen operating a bolter were turned to mush, 'Spartacus how's the new openings coming?' Spartacus' AMP turned around and shot a group of traitor marines with a lascanon before continuing his work and speaking, 'Almost done just need to set the charges ,'Which way is the wall going to fall?' 'Well that's hardly relevant here commander but since you asked it will fall towards the inside', 'Good, it'll crush more of the enemy and make it easier for the Guard to secure the area' a moment later the bases of the nearby walls exploded and toppled over crushing hundreds of soldiers and traitor marines.
The rest of the trip through the hive was uneventful, the Guard converged in from all the exits and even the sewers and blocked off all escape, Currently Nick and his team were inside the main spire, they had long since left their AMP suits on the 7th level as they couldn't fit through the narrow hallways and currently Nick wished that he had them on as he dodged another swing from the Primarch size Keeper Of Secrets, 'My lord Slaneesh will feast on your succulent soul and I will be one of the chosen to grovel at his feet' Nick dashed to the side of Greater Daemon and slashed at its ribs with his power axe only for it to start healing, 'Damn it! Should have told my team of my location at the least most, never thought I'd duke iit out with a six titted Daemon' the Keeper of secrets giggled and then started increasing the attacks Nick's body was pushed to it's absolute limit, the greater daemon managed to hit him and he went flying across the room and into the wall, 'COMMANDER!' Nick turned to see Spartacus, Alex and the rest of his team along with a few Guardsmen enter the room but that was his undoing and in that split second the Keeper of Secrets closed the distance grabbed him and it stretched it's mouth to beyond what logic would allow and swallowed him whole.
Alex screamed in anger and unleashed hell with her rifle, 'YOU ATE MY FRIEND YOU HERMAPRHODITE!' she screamed out in anger meanwhile the Keeper stroked its belly all the while avoiding the oncoming missiles, it laughed sinisterly all the while so as to agitate them into making mistakes, 'You're next on the menu my dear and OOH! Slaneesh! do you smell good' the team continued to dodge its attacks by rolling to the side when suddenly the Daemon stopped. They all looked at it's pot-like stomach, it was stretching at certain points as if something was alive inside it, well something was alive but it was clearly struggling, Alex noticed it first and screamed out, 'DON'T SHOOT THE STOMACH, NICK'S ALIVE IN THERE' the rest of the team gave nods of approval and continued shooting, she noticed the thousands sons gathered together and they were all chanting, all of them had their hands on Rameses, and suddenly he glowed with brilliant energy and he formed a lightning bolt twice his size in his hand, 'WITNESS YOUR DOOM!' he screamed and hurled the bolt at the Daemon's head and it staggered.
The Keeper recovered but was clearly weakened as it's wounds did not heal as they did before, it moved to attack, only to stop and look down at its belly, a small patch of blue crystal appeared on its skin and it kept spreading, in a flash an Axe tore through the frozen skin and slid all the upwards till it's chest, one valiant cry echoed throughout the hall, "HO! FUCKING HO! DAEMON!".
