Festum Gladius Chapter 31
Bullets peppered the wet stone over his head, spraying him with sodden dust as the retorts rang loud. Hevostan was forced to duck into the knee deep-water and shelter behind a bollard. The hail of rounds chewed chunks out of the barrier but did not penetrate, leaving Hevostan unharmed. He gripped his Transonic rifle tightly as he waited for the onslaught to end, thanking whichever Forgemaster it was who had armed Ajax with anti-personal assault cannons, rather than armour-piercing autocannons.
The hail of rounds petered out, signs that Ajax's ammunition hoppers were finally dwindling. Hevostan counted a single beat of his hearts then leapt up and fired. A sonic blast ripped forth, distorting the air with its passage and making the waters dance as they were shaken. The shot caught the Dreadnought full on and drove him back, metal feet splashing as he was forced to retreat lest the sonic barrage shatter his limbs to kindling. Hevostan saw his withdrawal from the large metal door and shouted, "Keep hitting him, drive him away from the gate!"
Hevostan ducked as Sigas opened fire, levelling his grav-blasters to hammer the weakened Dreadnought. Hevostan dared not look but the sounds of ceramite and plasteel shrieking told him the shots were having an effect. For long seconds the barrage continued then Sigas yelled, "He's clear, second team: hit him!"
From across the wide stone chamber came a barrage of autorifle and lasrifle shots, peppering the Contemptor. They weren't meant to injure Ajax, they hadn't the power, but the serf-artisan's fire distracted Ajax long enough for the first team to break cover and advance. Hevostan was instantly on his feet sloshing through the water as he dashed to the next cover. Dank filth coated his shins but he raced on, heedless of the stains upon his armour in the midst of battle.
As he ran Hevostan got a good look at their surroundings. They were in a sump chamber, fed by several storm drains that directed hurricane rains from the heart of the Fortress-Monastery. The walls were dank and covered in mildew, pitted by centuries of erosion while stone baffles and bollards dotted the floor to catch any debris. Little light was evident, only that which the hunters had brought with them penetrated the eternal night. Against one wall a large metal gate sealed out the ocean, fitted with complicated mechanisms that ensured water ran out and not back in. Ajax had been trying to rip this down when the Techmarines had found him, his handiwork already leaving the chamber awash with seawater. If he succeeded in breaking the door down then the ocean would flood the underground parts of the island, spreading devastation far and wide. The last time some idiot managed that it had taken decades to repair the damage.
From the far side of the sump chamber came pinning fire from another team of hunters. Led by Techmarines Amaron and Arvach, their parties of serf-artisans were laying down sheets of fire forcing Ajax to withdraw. Sprays of bullets came back but Arvach's backpack was crowned by dish-like projector vanes that created a diffraction field. Shimmering distortion spread over the team, obscuring their outlines and shifting the image of their positions. It provided no physical protection but made targeting next to impossible, all Ajax could do was fire randomly and hope to hit something. Meanwhile Amaron returned fire with a handheld Thunderfire cannon, a miniature version of the bulky artillery pieces. Rotating barrels clunked around as Amaron sent air-bursting shells at Ajax. A direct shot could not penetrate his inbuilt forcefield but the concussive blasts battered his frame with shockwaves.
"CHAOS FILTH!" Ajax roared as he was forced back another step. Hevostan's response was to throw himself against a bollard and let rip another shot. Sonic waves slammed into Ajax, shaking his frame and forcing him to stagger back. Ajax was being battered to pieces by the relentless onslaught and he could not withstand the barrage. Recognising he was outmatched the Contemptor turned and barrelled towards an axillary exit, his force-field flaring. If he got away then he would continue his rampage, destroying yet more of the Chapter but his retreat had been anticipated, in fact it was counted upon.
From the darkness of the tunnel came a furious blast of ravening energy, a Conversion beam slicing through the air and smiting Ajax's force-field. The energy barrier shrieked as it fought to hold back the blast and an angry red aura enveloped Ajax's frame, then it blew out in an electrostatic bang. Ajax's defence was shattered and instantly a hail of autocannon shots flew from the tunnel, slamming into Ajax's frontage and cracking his armour.
Hevostan felt a surge of triumph as a pair of war machines strode out of the tunnel, cutting off Ajax's retreat. To the left was Angmatan, the Forgemaster skittering forward on arachnid legs as his arms unwound deadly lashes. To the right was the Invictor, power fist crackling as mechanical legs splashed water into the pilot's compartment. Two war machines against one, meeting power with power and might with might. Hevostan saw the pair barrelling forward and heard Angmatan bellow, "This ends now!"
"DAEMON ENGINES!" Ajax roared as he charged to meet them. His power fist swinging in a roundhouse blow. Hevostan saw Angmatan lurch left to avoid being hit but still the fist clipped his shoulder, cracking an armour plate. In return his lashes struck, tearing deep furrows through already battered armour with the shriek of a buzzsaw. Ajax rode the blows and punched for the centre mass but then the Invictor weighed in. The lighter war machine moved much faster than the Contemptor, slamming a fist into his side with the sound of a clocktower bell being rung. Ajax was bracketed on both sides, unable to fight to full effect. He had to fall back lest be crushed between the raging machines. Angmatan and the Invictor gave him no respite, chasing him every step of the way, weapons striking over and over.
The sump chamber was filled with the sounds of metal impacting metal, screaming servos and breaking pistons. Light and thunder and concussive blasts rang as the three war machines battled, the dank waters frothing in outrage as hammering blasts carried through them. Hevostan was amazed by the power on display and he saw Ajax was finally outmatched. Flanked on both sides he could not defend his rear and his efforts to fight left him exposed to yet more blows. His armour was hanging off him in tatters and it was only a matter of time until something critical broke within him.
Ajax was dying but yet he roared, "YOU CAN KILL ME BUT YOU CANNOT BREAK ME, I SHALL NEVER YIELD!"
"You are mad!" Angmatan bellowed, "You must die before you destroy everything!"
A blow shattered the armour on the Contemptor's right shoulder but then Ajax unlocked his waist gimbal and swung his whole torso. His fist swung completely around as he flung a punch at Angmatan. Driven by all his power and hate it would have cracked the Forgemaster wide open but Angmatan was not surprised. His rear legs bowed low and his torso swayed back, letting the fist pass by without making contact. Ajax had missed and Hevostan thought they had him, but as the Invictor pressed in to finish him off the Honourable showed why he had survived five millennia of war.
As the crackling fist swung for his flank Ajax's fist caught it in his palm, disruption fields flaring as they battled for dominance. The blast staggered the lighter Invictor and in that moment of weakness Ajax rammed his assault cannon into the pilot's cage and fired right into the Primaris' face. Spinning barrels shot bullets at point-blank range through the bars, tearing into the pilot. Hundreds of rounds punched through ceramite, eviscerating the Marine in seconds. Bright blood burst out of the Invictor as the pilot was shredded, spraying gore everywhere. Yet Ajax was not unharmed himself. The spinning barrels were too close to their target and the heat and violence of the impacts rang through the cannon. Three seconds it endured and then the barrels shattered, exploding outwards like a hand clenched around a grenade. Ajax roared as his assault cannon was destroyed, leaving his right arm a fused mess of twisted metal.
Instantly Angmatan rallied, diving back into the fray but Ajax's fist closed around the Invictor's dangling arm and ripped it free. As the Forgemaster pounced Ajax whipped the broken arm around, using it as a club to slam into the side of his foe. Angmatan staggered under the weight of the blow, a crater left in his flank from the impact. He sprawled into the water, legs stumbling under him as he fought for balance. Ajax wasted not a moment to strike again, slamming the broken arm backhanded to smash Angmatan on the other side. The Forgemaster was left stunned, legs giving out as Ajax lifted the truncated club high and brought it down on Angmatan's cowling, driving the metal hood inwards and crushing his faceplate.
One more blow would see Ajax shatter the life support coffin of the Forgemaster but so consumed was he by the fight that he did not see Hevostan closing from the rear. Leaping from bollard to bollard the Techmarine raced to intervene. He dared not fire with the combatants so close together but he had another idea. As Ajax's arm lifted Hevostan leapt onto the last bollard and then jumped high. His servo-arm caught a ripped shoulder plate and dragged him higher and as he came level with Ajax's sensor dome his right hand flexed and shot forth the data-spike, driving it into the narrow gap where connections and input feeds clustered.
Contact, the sudden rush of Binaric data flowing through his soul as Hevostan's mind was propelled into the sacred realm of pure data. Time compressed as his internal cogitators processed the data-flows, projecting his awareness into Ajax's Mind Impulse Unit, the arcane device that fused organic and mechanical components into one blessed whole. Hevostan had expected to find Ajax's flesh-mind a raving and withered thing, lost to dementia and madness. Yet what he found instead shocked him to his core. Lodged in Ajax's sensoria was a vile canker of corrupted code-cant, a twisted diseased thing spreading tendrils of distortion through the input feeds. A malicious data-djinn inserted into his mechanisms, a viral-clade injected into his veins. It was rewriting his perceptions, painting Ajax's eyes with the colours of falsehood and the heraldry of untruth. For a moment Hevostan saw what Ajax saw, not noble Storm Heralds and serfs but vile Alpha Legionnaires and cultists. Colours were changed in the space between his optical sensors and his organic brain, icons altered and silhouettes adjusted. When the Contemptor looked upon his Brothers he literally saw enemies, no wonder he had gone mad.
Hevostan's soul screamed with sacred revulsion against this crime against the Machine Spirits. Mad or not this was an offence to the Omnissiah and the Universal Laws, the deliberate and wilful altering of data struck to the core of the Cult Technis. Hevostan had intended to break Ajax from within but he could not let this vile curse endure. With a flash he released purgation-codes into the Sensoria, letting loose antiviral blessings and hexes of data-purification cyphers. Like a flamer into a bunker of Heretics the purge-code ripped into the corruption, scouring it from the Sensoria. The data-djinn wailed under the assault but it was not defenceless and spilled forth counter-charms, meeting his efforts to eradicate it with adaptive algorithms and barbed snares of defence protocols. This was no random canker, this data-djinn had been designed to resist efforts to remove it.
Hevostan's outraged flared and he sent forth his most vicious info-praetorians but before he could see what effect it had his contact was broken. He was rudely ripped from the Binaric environment and found himself back in the real world, clutched in Ajax's fist as he was thrown bodily away. Hevostan's world spun as he sailed through the air, slamming down into the water with a fountain of frothing filth.
He expected to be stomped upon but to his surprise Ajax was not attacking. Instead the Contemptor was shaking his back and forth, like a drunk trying to set the world straight. He staggered back and forth as he yelled, "TRAITORS EVERYWHERE! No they are my Brothers… HERETIC FILTH… l CAN'T SEE… what is this madness?!"
Hevostan's jaw fell as he realised his efforts were having an effect, the veil laid over Ajax's eyes was shredding, revealing the truth. Yet the data-djinn was fighting back trying to sow fresh lies in his mind. It must have been utter bedlam in the Dreadnought's Sensoria, two images of reality fighting for supremacy, colours swimming and shapes flicking from one form to another. Ajax's demented mind could not make sense of what he was seeing and he flailed about wildly, trying to clear his sight.
Hevostan got to his feet and waved his arms shouting, "Honourable Ajax, stand down! Do not trust your eyes, you are bewitched!" For a moment Hevostan thought he had reached the Dreadnought but then Ajax turned and slammed his fist into the looming metal door that separated the sump chamber from the ocean. Disruption fields flared and metal parted as the sea beyond broke through.
Hevostan gaped in horror, his attempt to reach Ajax had failed, the Contemptor was too far gone to save. But then he was slammed in the chest by a wall of water and was dragged backwards by the weight of it, carried helplessly away to crash into the wall. Water flooded over his helm and he heard the screams of serfs as they were picked up by the flood and thrown into the walls, breaking bones and shattering skulls against the unforgiving rock. Ajax disappeared, fleeing down the dark tunnel and vanishing even as his cries of pain and torment rang forth, like a maimed steer limping away to die from its wounds.
Hevostan could not move, so great was the force pinning him to the wall. He heard his armour shrieking in alarm and knew the seals were about to fail, rent and battered as they were. He braced himself for death but suddenly the weight was lifted from him. The water fell still and silent as the flood was cut off at its source. Hevostan lifted his head and saw Angmatan, the Forgemaster was pressed up against the sundered door and was holding it shut with his mechanical bulk. He was physically holding back the ocean, sealing the door with his arms but leaving him unable to move.
The Techmarines picked themselves up and Hevostan called, "Master, are you hale?"
"This…" Angmatan growled, "Is… exceedingly… heavy…"
Sigas hastily urged, "We must return to the Forge and bring back welding gear to seal this door."
"We don't have time," Geryon urged, "Ajax is getting away."
Yet Hevostan said, "He is crippled and beset by viral-clades, he cannot survive another fight."
"Are you sure?" Geryon asked warily.
"Amaron will lead the hunt to corner him," Hevostan declared, "First we get this door fixed and then we run Ajax down and put and put an end to him once and for all." Yet what he did not say was what he had uncovered in Ajax's Sensoria. Someone had done this to him, someone had driven him mad and Hevostan had the darkest suspicion he knew who it was.