Achilles lead his squad through the darkness for a further hour in complete silence, not because the mission called for it but because his mind was running through all the possible scenarios as to how this mess of a mission was going to end up. Surely they would all be mind-wiped again, the act of killing a fellow Astartes is not something the chapter would want memory of. Suddenly inquisitor Prall broke the silence "There," he whispered as he pointed to the peaks of the church as their form rose out of the flickering half-light of a nearby burning building.
"Should we expect resistance inquisitor?" Asked Achilles as he raised his stalker bolter.
Prall looked at him with cold eyes. "we kill anyone there, no witnesses sergeant."
Achilles nodded but didn't reply instead setting a faster pace to the target. As they continued the sergeant couldn't help but delve further into his thoughts. would Taber and Ares even be reprimanded for their actions? Should Achilles even bother to report it, or were their actions automatically pardoned by the presence of the inquisitor? Had Captain Corro hidden intel of the mission from him? Or was the inquisitor hiding it from the captain? Achilles didn't know but before he lost his memory again he was going to find out.
As they reached the end of their current alleyway they saw their destination across from them. rising up to fill their vision was the mass of the church its giant double brass doors depicting the emperor in a glorious battle sealed tightly shut, its high gothic windows smashed leaving coloured glass like confetti across the ferrocrete in front. That however was the least of Achilles squads problems. Right in front of those doors were sandbags stacked into makeshift barricades and behind them were at least a dozen cultists. It seemed once they had been planetary defence forces yet now their skin had marks of chaos cut into them and their armour was adorned with all sorts of heretic iconography.
Achilles breathed a sigh of relief. It was much easier to kill heretics, yet there was no cover and they were bottlenecked in the opening of the alley. As soon as they were spotted they would be at a disadvantage.
Looking behind him the sergeant spotted an emergency stairwell leading to the rooftop of the building next to them. "We take to the roof," he ordered as he turned to double back.
But before he could even take a step the librarian stepped forward. "Allow me," He offered with an unusual grin as he stepped forward into the open.
The first cultist heard the librarian before he even saw him, the heavy clang of ceramite boots as Razor no longer bothered to hide his footfalls. Instantly the cultist raised alarm and a dozen lasguns came to bear in his direction. The Possessed librarian relished the violence to come and began to fuse his demonic power with the librarian's psychic prowess as he stepped fully into view.
A moment later las fire reigned down on his position, cultists burning through magazines as fast as they possibly could in attempts to stop the space marine. Yet where the torrent of fire should have begun to hammer its way into the target, instead it stopped a foot short and dissolved away into nothing. Walking ever forward Razor could see his victim's terror growing. Realising that their weapons were ineffective some cultists tried to bang on the door of the church and get inside, others dropped their weapons and went to run.
Razor would give them no such opportunity, raising both hands his entire body crackled with psychic potential for a moment. Then in an instant plumes of purple fire burst forward from the librarian's palms and engulfed the entire area in the fire. The cultists screamed as they ran from the flames in all directions, frantically trying to extinguish the flames by any means their terrified minds could think of.
Achilles squad stepped into the open streets now and gunned down the flaming heretics as they tried to flee, Oritars heavy bolter mowing down more than half in an instant. "Quite impressive," noted Prall as he blew off the head of the last fleeing cultist with his plasma pistol and marched up to the grand double doors "now to get inside."
"Fire in the hole," called Oritar as he clamped a melta bomb at the door, backing up quickly to get to a safe distance. A moment later the thermal destruction of the melta bomb was unleashed and it blew a gaping hole in the solid metal door large enough for an Astartes to stoop through.
Sergeant Achilles was first to the breach and as soon as he looked in he realised they had walked right into a cultist base. The door opened up to the main hall of the church and was filled with cultists, some in guard posts, some simply sitting around and others huddled around a map perhaps to discuss tactics. However now they were all silent for a moment and looking in the direction of the blast.
Achilles had stopped counting bodies at eighty and drew his chain sword. "CHARGE!" He roared as he dived into the closest group of cultists. One by one each Astartes ducked through the breach and made for the nearest enemy blasting and slashing as the tore down foe after foe in a wash of blood. Even the inquisitor finally showed his mettle and discarded his cloak to reveal a black power armour underneath. In the confusion of melee lasguns fired in every which direction as they tried to hit the ever-moving Astartes.
"LET THE HERETIC BURN!" shouted Albion as he lobbed another melta bomb into the back half of the room, Its flames engulfing a shoddy pillbox the cultists and put together.
The Corrupted Astartes in the group could not help themselves, they tore ahead and savagely raked in as many kills as they could gather even utilising some of their demonic power to hit harder and move faster, assuming that in the chaos of melee they would get away with the slight increase unnoticed.
Yet they were not unnoticed. Artorias, the squads overzealous conformist was always watching and he saw that once again the two scorched black members of the group were behaving both out of character and ignoring doctrine to pursue melee with wild abandon and this time they were joined by the librarian.
