With corporal York in tow, the Cadians, Death Korps, Scarlet Army and Tallarn had mobilized with all available vehicles and assets to comb the last sectors of desert for the last enemy Forward Operations Base, the one which, presumably, held the airfield on which the enemy fighters and bombers landed and were rearmed. Right now, they needed intel. Their best source would be corporal York's own tribe.
Freesia moved ahead with Captain Al-Ahab and the Cadian brother and sister, Alvin and Yrine. She led the group ahead, toward the top of a sand dune, showing them to halt only at the top and moving to a crawl. Following them, about a dozen Tallarn soldiers, sent forth as scouts with the leading team, followed suit, crawling up to the edge. Frees pulled out a binocular. They were told to warn the rest of the forces ahead of time in case of anything and only call if there was an issue, otherwise the rest of the Regimental force would just catch up.
A small outpost sat ahead, one of the outer layers of the East Empire's and Severan Dominate's defenses. The sun burned hot enough to heat the sand to a nigh-unbearable leve for those laying on their stomachs. The Gallian hummed, looking at the Outpost's tensed-up troopers, some of them looking emaciated and afraid, their eyes glazed over like they were a bunch of dead reanimated.
Frees licked her lips, then smirked as she heard a gust of wind whisper by her ear. She looked to the Captain, a smile on her face and stated "Sounds like my tribe's nearby..." before gazing forward. A small, localized sandstorm flowed into the area, swirls of sand and air covering the position much to the Tallarn officer's and the Cadians' surprise. Al-Ahab readied her Lasgun, watching as the dust wrapped around the enemy, hiding them in a blanket, before the muffled screams and the sounds of flesh tearing echoed.
Farah smirked, then looked to their right, watching those that now watched them. She gave them simple, low motion of her hand, before she patted Freesia on the back and said "Your people need to tell me how they just brought about a sandstorm..." Before clambering over the hill with the team. The sandstorm ahead of them dissipated, revealing corpses left with blade wounds and gashes commonly seen in sword wounds.
Stood above the corpses, young, tanned folk with their faces hidden behind similar cloth as those of the Tallarn, held bloody knives, daggers and swords, whilst some still toted single-shot rifles and even old shields from an ancient empire forgotten by time. Some of them were clearly Darcsen, but most seemed to be of Freesia's ethnicity. The leader of the party strode forth, unveiling the face of a middle-aged woman, her hand wrapped around what looked to be a piece of ancient technology attached to her belt.
The woman smiled, "Freesia. It is such a joy to see you alive and well."
Frees smiled, bowing "Chieftain. I am glad we found you."
"As am I." She stated, turning to Captain Al-Ahab and the Cadians. She hummed, "Ah, yes, the foes of those foreigners in red armor. Greetings to you, Guardians of Cadia and Tallarn. We've heard fearful whispers of both your parties of warriors... Of the Tallarn most when it came to fighting like us... I am Chieftain Rose York, leader of the Tribe of the Ashanti and aunt to Freesia York."
"An honor." Bowed Farah, "I am Captain Farah Al-Ahab of the Tallarn Nine-hundred-fifteenth Infantry Regiment, belonging to the True Imperial Guard. We've met other tribes who spoke of yours, holding it in high regard as some of the best in this unnatural Desert."
"The Kharak, chief among the Warrior Tribes in the South of Barious, spoke highly of us, a meager group of dancers...?" Rose beamed, "We must truly be doing something right to these Eastern Imperial bastards and their scarlet-clad allies of this 'Severan Dominate'. Come, we've much to talk about." And she motioned toward the cliffs far away, all of which seemed to have some holes carved in them, what looked to be lascannon wounds in the rock face itself.
"Uh, ma'am?" Yrine started, "Yeah, sorry, Chieftain, but... We've gotta wait for the rest of our Regiment to come along. As well as, Emperor protect, the rest of our battle formation. Colonel Telos wants a briefing of enemy power left in the area."
"Ah. Of course." Rose nodded, watching the rearmost sand dunes just as the first vehicles appeared. Surprise plastered across her face as she stared at the superheavy leading the pack, the woman stated "So that is what the East Empire was so afraid of." noticing also the arrival of the Death Korps and their finest horse-riding soldiers, the Death Riders. Following them in was the squadrons of the Scarlet Army, soldiers formerly belonging to the East Empire, now acting as active-duty troops allied with the Cadians and Crew.
"Yeah, they're something, Chieftain." Freesia smirked.
"So I see." The woman nodded, watching as Colonel Telos and his Krieger counterpart disembarked from the Superheavy.
Matt said "We've caught up, it seems. And just in time." nodding to the Ashanti tribe leader and her compatriots. Freesia saluted the two, then looked to her Aunt as the Colonel began, "Greetings, Chieftain of the Ashanti Tribe. I am Colonel Matias Telos and this is my compatriot of the Death Korps of Krieg, Colonel Maria Stern. We are here to assist you in eliminating the False Empire and Severan Dominate forces and drive them off of your lands."
Colonel Stern herself gave a nod of approval, despite her face being shielded behind the frightening gas mask of the soldiers of Krieg. The Chieftain bowed, then said "An honor to meet both you and your troops, Colonels. I am Chieftain Rose York, Freesia's aunt. Please, follow me and my men and women back to our encampment nearby... So that we may discuss recent developments."
Under the shade of the broken cliffs, the Imperial Guard had found themselves entering a relatively big nomad encampment, complete with dozens of small carriages dragged along by horses. Youngsters, teens and many families sat around, greeting the Imperial Guardsmen with waves of their hands or even quick salutes. Around these kids sat the fighting-age males and females of the tribe, wielding the same arsenal as the welcoming party.
"Forgive the surroundings..." Rose stated, "More dust than we were able to truly clean."
A few chuckles came from the Cadians, but the Krieg remained ever the stoic bunch. Rose smiled, seeing the joke catch on even among her own. She looked to Freesia, then asked "What brings you and your allies here, my girl? With the Kharak so wounded after the first assault, we may be next to be targeted by the Eastern Empire's forces... Especially since that forward base of theirs was sacked."
"Wait, what?" Frees raised a brow, looking to see the Guard officers listening.
"Yes. The base, a massive structure of concrete on the flattest terrain available in the Barious desert area, has been sacked. Some other tribe attacked them... Or at least so the word of mouth goes."
"Must be an Airbase if it's that big..." Matt hummed, "Do you mind if we send forward some scouts to verify the place?"
"I will send some of my men with yours." She stated, waving forward a pair of Ashanti armed with high-caliber single-shot breech-loaded rifles. The Cadian officer nodded, looking to Maria and to Farah, both of whom were readying their own exploration teams to join them, among which a Krieg pair of twins that were part of the Grenadier unit of the Regiment and a pair of Farah's best snipers, to be exact.
He looked over to Alvin and Yrine and said "Take Freesia with you, you two. Scout that airbase and report back if you find anything worthwhile."
"Yessir." Alvin nodded, his face impassive.
"We'll get it done, sir." Yrine nodded, dragging her brother out of the place. The Colonel hummed, then sighed, fully aware of how the two felt about his decision. If one would have had to elect between saving an entire Regiment and a convoy of youthful Whiteshields, the Colonel wasn't sure if he'd have made the same choice twice. He watched them rally up the rest of their team and depart.
With a sigh, the man said to his Commissar "Be ready for anything."
"I will have my ear to the Vox at all times." Colin replied, "Come, Amy, Ace. Let us leave the Colonels to discuss matters with the kind Chieftain."
Indeed, the Colonels and Captain Al-Ahab had gone into a lengthy discussion about the role of the Ashanti and the damages sustained by the other, more militarized tribes of the place that had the Kharak, leaders of said combative tribes, merge themselves with their 'compatriots' and leave for the shade of dunes and cliffs far away from their current position. Farah had, after some deliberation with the two other Guard officers, been allowed to discuss a possible alliance and the formation of the Militarum Auxillia Ashanti. The terms stipulated by the day-long negotiation and the intervening treatise put clear as day most of the Ashanti warriors would technically answer to the Chieftain still, but their tribe fell under the Purview of the Militarum Auxillia and would hence answer to the Astra Militarum presence on the planet, which would also protect them, care for them and provide them shelter and nourishment.
Rose York was a cunning woman, clearly an able-bodied and smart warrior in her own right and an even more bright-minded and witty negotiator worthy of a place at a politicians' table, though without all the pompous talk. She was straight to the point and the Guardsmen appreciated that. She'd brought forth terms in regards to the armaments the Auxillia unit attaching itself to the Tallarn would get, as well as the accommodation and food supplies. All of them were to be equal to their Guard counterparts, no more and no less. Another round of deliberation where Farah asked Matt and Maria their opinions had them on a two-to-one vote, where Maria was against thie arrangement due to the possibility of already-thinned resources, while Matt and Farah both advocated for it, stating that supplies would hopefully be a non-issue the next time Matt managed to visit Randgriz.
Nonetheless, the issue passed with an agreeable treatise, Maria having openly stated that she would go with since the odds were stacked against her own vote. She openly stated her people would survive, but the Ashanti should show they could pull their own weight, which garnered an almost imperceptible glare from the Ashanti Chieftain. The good Colonel Telos quickly defused the situation by stating "Good, we're all in agreement." and turning to the woman, whose face now bore a relaxed smile. He stated proudly, "Chieftain Rose York, permit me and my allies to welcome you to the True Imperium and the Imperial Guard."
"My thanks to all of you." The woman bowed her head, "Let us fight proudly together in the light of the god you call the Emperor of Mankind." and the officers bowed in return and in respect. Matt watched Colin approaching, vox caster in his hand. Time had passed fast, to be quite honest. It hadn't felt as long, though. Still, Matias received the call from their scouting party... And was positively and horrifically surprised by what he heard.
... His team was calling out a Mayday.
A Few Hours Ago...
The team had hitched a ride on a Salamander for faster travel toward the target area. Of course, out of the lot of them, the Death Korps Grenadier Twins seemed to remain the most quiet, while the rest of the gang exchanged small-talk. Leaving the massive cliffs behind them, the group soon caught sight of the massive airstrip built within the place. Indeed, it was an airstrip with rockrete runways and reinforced bunkers within which to store the aircraft. Presumably, the barracks and garages for the destroyed vehicles around them lay underground.
The sprawling mess of damaged vehicles across the runway, clearly scuttled rather than destroyed by any sort of hostile fire, followed by craters that artillery had drilled into the runways themselves and blood-stains greeted them as they drew closer. Alvin, in the driver's seat of the Salamander, brought it to a halt and hummed, looking around, "Anyone got sight on bodies or something?"
"No." The Death Korps Grenadiers, Hellguns at the ready, stated.
"Got nothin'." Yrine mused as they halted in the middle of the main Runway and disembarked. The rockrete path off of which craft took off and on which they landed was slowly being eaten by the sandstorms around. The only thing more concerning to them than the creeping of the desert onto the runway was what the hell had driven what must've been a sizable False Imperial-Severan force out of this base.
"Well..." Freesia sighed, "Alvin, you're in charge right now... Any ideas?"
"Let's go check the hangars. Almost all of them look sealed." Replied the boy, sliding a flashlight attachment onto the side of his Lasgun. The place was eerily fucking silent, even as they and their comrades strode into the place, lasguns, spears and swords at the ready. Alvin looked to Freesia, who seemed a bit twitchy, then said "Hey." garnering a yelp out of the girl. He smiled reassuringly, then said "If the place is empty, means the False Imps finally got the memo. We'll be fine, alright?"
She smiled weakly back, then nodded, "Thanks..."
Yirine smirked at her brother, then looked ahead. More blood stained the sand below their feet as they moved past what was the wreck of a transport truck of some kind. A four-wheeled monstrosity probably built in the Manufactorums of some planet on the Spinward Front. He'd seen the designs before, however, on Cadia. They once acted as heavyweight transports for the more forested areas around the Kasrs where they'd trained, transporting weapons, ammo and other supplies between the cities. They were reliable old pieces of tech, admittedly.
Sad to see one in disrepair, though...
The team entered one of the many reinforced hangars, scanning the area in its entirety with their weaponry. Alvin signaled a halt by raising his fist, then looked up with awe. While the Hangar was filled with all kinds of junk and supplies the like, all stocked on proper shelving units. Hell, it even had a second-floor observation deck not far behind, but what stunned the team was what was in the middle of the entire thing.
Sat neat and tidy on its three landing gears was a Thunderbolt fighter mounting its standard armament of linked autocannons on its nose. The blocky-yet-somehow-aerodynamic fighter wore a scratched-up scarlet paintjob with the markings of the Severan Dominate worn out, as well as a kill tally on the side. This plane probably belonged to one of the bastards' aces.
"I... Don't believe this..." Murmured Alvin, looking up at the Thunderbolt, "The hell forced them to run away so fast they ditched a bird...?"
The group of Guardsmen looked to the Ashanti aides, both of whom shook their heads. One of the Kriegers stated bluntly, "Nothing good can come out of this... Lieutenant Karon, we should report back via Vox."
"We'll be fine, corporal..." Sighed the man, walking past the vehicle under maintenance, now noticing several armor plates had been removed, exposing internal wiring and the fuel line for the right engine, which had a nasty hole in it. Dried liquid promethium fuel lay on the floor in a black mark that had once been a puddle. From it, several footsteps led toward a hatch in the back of the hangar. The entrance to the underground complex of barracks and military assets.
"How the heck did they have time to build all this?" Freesia asked, looking around with her own flashlight at the hanging banners of the East Empire and the Severan Dominate.
"Well..." Yrine hummed, picking up a tool emblazoned with the symbols of a Forge World within the Dominate's borders, "From the looks of things, they had their own Hereteks here. Something I'm sure our own Mechanicus corps would love to hear about..." And she tossed the tool aside, hefting her lasgun. She approached her brother, then said "I'll take the Grenadiers downstairs if that's okay with ya. We'll scout the bunkers while you, Frees and the Tallarn and Ashanti check the other hangars... I doubt this is the only Thunderbolt they left behind if they ran."
"Alright, sis." He nodded, hesitant at first, then looked to the Death Korps soldiers and called out, "You heard the lady, corporal. Rally up. Try to keep her alive."
"Understood. Our Vox-channel remains the same. Summon us if you need to." Stated the man as he and his pod-twin followed the young girl down into the open hatch leading to the lamp-lit underground. Alvin gave a hand signal for the others to rally up behind him, then led them out of the building and back out onto the tarmac, to the other conjoined hangars.
... Yrine Karon was not one to spook easily. She had faced the vile obscenities of Chaos with her brother by her side during the Thirteenth Black Crusade, wielding her Lasgun and bayonet proudly. She was a servant of the God-Emperor and a firm believer in His words, in His Faith and in all that the Imperium stood for, including the supremacy of Mankind, no matter its many forms, over any Xenos. Still, the spike she had suddenly felt in her heart-rate as she strode down the narrow corridor, barely meant to accomodate two persons, with her lasgun up and flashlight, her only decent source of light, did a number on her.
The place felt like an awful psychic field pressed down on her shoulders, a mental weight that could easily break even the strongest man's fortitude. It looked the part, too, with the dull grey walls, lit partially by her flashlight and partially by the orange lamp-kits, seemingly marked by what looked to be cuts and dents, as well as scrapes and bullet holes. Her boots crunched against bits of concrete left by whatever confrontation had occurred as she and her Krieg aides stalked forth, their weapons raised.
Coming upon a cross-intersection, the trio maintained their formation, Yrine and the Hellgunner at the front, with his twin bringing up the rear as their protection, his own stout, shortened master-craft Hellgun raised high by his mask, his eyes glaring down the strange, specialized holographic sight that the man had received for his service. They halted in the middle of the intersection at Yrine's orders. The girl swiveled about to the right, lowering her lasgun for a split second. Something moved in the darkness. it moved at breakneck speed... And Yrine hadn't managed to raise her Lasgun in time to catch it in the flashlight's beam.
"Shite..." She murmured, a bead of sweat running down her cheek. She whispered to her Krieger compatriots, "I saw movement."
The lead brother trained his weapon exactly the way Yrine's was. He looked to her, a slight tilt of his head toward the tunnel as if to ask. She shook her head, whispered, "Keep your eyes peeled... Let's continue until we find a door... We'll double back if there's a dead-end." and swiveled about back forward, only now noticing a trail of dried blood leading forth down the corridor. The wall on their right was doused in a scattering pattern of congealed scarlet droplets, as if someone's carotid artery had been slit right there.
She felt a chill up her spine, showing her team to continue forward. The trio moved at a snail's pace now, to ensure they wouldn't get outflanked or outdone by whatever was in here with them. They followed the bloody path forward, into a string of tunnels that led to rooms shielded by armored metal doors, their locks seemingly brute-forced open so hard that they were broken. The insides of the rooms themselves were dark, from what little the girl and her comrades could see.
She pushed open a door with her rifle, poking the barrel through first alongside the flashlight as the scent of dried blood assaulted her nostrils. Her face morphed into one of disgust as she stepped into the room, scanning the blood-soaked walls and bunk beds with her rifle. Part of her wished she'd never gone in, seeing so much blood lining the walls... She winced, then stepped out and said "Place is bloodier than a Chaos cultist meeting..."
"I do not like this..." Mused the First of the Twins, shouldering his rifle.
His brother nodded, "Where are the corpses...?"
"Let's just keep looking..." The girl hummed, "May as well..."
The two Death Korps soldiers nodded. A few minutes of checking the other bunks in the barracks had them come to the realization that all of them were the same. Blood painted the walls and soaked the beds, drying into a crust atop the mattresses. The place felt eerie, even for someone who was well-versed in fighting the Nightmares of Chaos. Yrine suddenly regretted her decision to bring only the two Kriegers as they advanced farther down the hallway and to the right.
The place suddenly dipped into darkness about halfway through this long hallway bearing nothing but barracks doors and no intersection. Their flashlights barely pierced the thick veil of darkness dead ahead as they strode forward. More blood and even oil now smeared the walls, the scents mixing into an indescribably horrid smell of death and machinery. It grew worse the closer they got, reaching its apogee of horrific, gag-reflex-inducing monstrosity as they entered what they assumed to be the hangars for ground vehicles.
Indeed, inside, as they scanned their surroundings with the dim lights of their flashlights, they found a sight to behold. A dozen Leman Russes, several Chimera transports and even some transport trucks, as well as damned Tauroxes, the latter of which being only twelve that sat in the far back. Some had superficial damage from gunfire and las-marks. Three of the vehicles had been undergoing maintenance before whatever whirlwind struck the base had slaughtered these poor fuckers.
For the first time in her life, Yrine's heart actually stopped when she heard the First of the two pod-twins, a Death Korps of Krieg GRENADIER, let out a gasp of shock, his flashlight locked onto a part of the garage. She hesitated, slowly swiveling about with her own rifle and stopping only to stare with two horrified, dinner-plate-sized lilac eyes at a pile. A pile of mutilated corpses of both Imperial and Severan troops.
"By the Emperor..." Yrine whimpered, "They're..."
"Eviscerated." The Second of the brothers stated bluntly, looking at the corpses and their wounds. The pile reeked, whatever outside flies and insect creatures that had managed to come into the base hovering over the corpses in a swarm. The corpses themselves looked weeks old, decomposing already, but the eviscerations, the vivisections and the wounds they had were still horrifyingly clear and visible. Almost new, even.
Those were not mere combat wounds. Not on all of them, anyway.
Some of them were torture wounds.
The girl, already in a state of panic, yelped and swiveled about as a canister of some kind was knocked on the floor. Her finger squeezed the trigger of her Lasgun instinctively and the weapon itself had been set to full auto. Thusly, she sprayed inaccurate fire around, into the side of one of the Leman Russes and onto the canister of fuel, which burst. She'd missed everything but the thing that made the commotion:A rat. A god-damned sand-colored rat that had somehow scurried inside, the little bastard.
The two brothers, already having their weapons trained on the noise as well, hummed, looking to the girl. She looked to them and asked "What?! It's standard human reaction to this kind of insane fuckery! I..." and she cut herself off. She knew how Kriegers behaved, quite honestly. Cold, calculate and honest to a fault, the bastards were always ready to dispense both justice and insults toward those they perceived as 'lesser guardsmen'. Though, this time, both brothers seemed keen on being quiet, either for the sake of Yrine, or for the fact that they did not want to attract whatever had done this. Yrine figured it was definitely the latter, so she didn't press.
"Let's go back... We gotta report this. And I don't think layers of ferrocrete and reinforcements are gonna give us any good Vox reception." She stated, bowing her head and sighing. The two brothers nodded, then one of them looked to her as if asking for permission to stay and investigate. She sighed, then said to him, "I understand curiosity, man, but... God-Emperor dammit, I'm not leaving someone in my unit behind if I can help it."
"I will be fine... I merely wish to check the rear workshop area." The man pointed toward the door in the rear and next to the corpses, his Hellgun at the ready, "We need to know as much as possible..."
"I will escort you back to the surface." The other said, Yrine just now realizing how similar their voices were. They were brothers, of course. Yrine knew that much from the fact that their number tags, Zero-Three-Three and Zero-Three-Four, were only one digit apart. She'd only talked to them once before this mission(of course, they'd only just met before it), but had been told by them that they came from the same 'pod', whatever the hell that meant. The man spoke again, "My brother can handle himself. You will need an escort... Provided whatever is here still lurks."
"Which... Considering the movement I saw...?" She chuckled darkly, "Yeah, fair enough... I'm not the brave Krieg woman, I'm a scaredy-Cadian..." She smirked, "C'mon, then Oh-Thirty-Three. Lead the way. Thirty-Four." She looked to the younger-by-seconds brother of the two, who simply turned. She ordered, "At the first sign of trouble, you make a bee-line for us. I don't wanna hear I lost someone, because even a member of the Death Korps is worth much to his fellow Guardsmen, despite what you may think, understood?"
The man nodded. He looked to his brother and gave a simple hand signal, a wave, to which his brother responded in kind, before taking the lead. Yrine followed the man out of the garage/hangars and down the corridors, back into the dim light of the lamp-kits. She looked back, covering the rear with her own gun as they walked, her light washing over the tunnel. She spoke softly, "You two care about each-other... Right?"
"Mhm." The Krieger responded briefly.
"... Right..." She sighed, "That's as inconclusive an answer as can be."
"It was a fairly conclusive 'yes'. We do care." He stated rather bluntly, "Though we know our work is the most dangerous the Emperor has blessed us with. We both convened neither would mourn if we died in the line of duty, for we would do so in the Emperor's name. And to gain our people's forgiveness."
The girl snorted, "Seeing how I and my brother are in comparison... You're some cold sons-of-bitches, no offense..."
"None taken. Not every Guard regiment sees eye-to-eye with us." The man stated, "Expected, as you do not know our circumstances."
"And you don't know ours either..." The Cadian replied sadly, then looked back, "What do you think happened here?"
"Speculation won't be of use to us." He offered, "An investigation would be the best... And for that, we need both regiments and those Scarlet Army soldiers here."
"Right... Just making conversation." She replied, "Taking my mind off the insanity... Y'know?"
"Mhm..." He nodded. The two walked a few more meters before finally clambering up the steep stairwell that led to the aircraft hangar. Still lit by similar lamp-kits, the place glowed an eerie orange, like the halls, though thankfully there was far less blood spilled around here than inside the bunkers. The Krieger stopped by the stairwell while the girl climbed up, on guard duty, his gun trained down the path.
Yrine nodded, then walked out onto the tarmac as night began to set. She flicked on her com bead and whispered to herself, "Emperor please, let them hear this wherever they are." before voicing into the Voxcast Bead "Alvin, this is Yrine. I and one of the Kriegers are out of the place. We've found a lot of bodies in the vehicle hangars the way we went in. You guys and gals have any luck out there?"
Static first crackled over the com, before her brother's voice finally cleared up. He said to her "That explains the blood... We've got a lot of still-active vehicles in here, believe it or not. Some just need minor repairs. I'm looking at, at least, one squadron of Marauder bombers and two Thunderbolt flights, as well as about half-a-dozen Lightning fighters... Hell, there's even three Valkyries in here. Whatever drove these bastards off must've caught them with their pants down... Especially with the bodies you mentioned."
"Emperor and Throne, Al..." She smirked, "Finally, some good news. We also found still-active vehicles down below. Trucks, Chimeras, tanks, hell, even Tauroxes."
"Colonel and the AdMech are gonna have a fucking field day in here." Alvin stated rather jovially, "Head back into the first hangar and hang tight. I'll vox in with the Colonel about the dead Traitors and the active vehicles, then come get you and the two Kriegers."
"Roger that." She said, "Yrine, over and out." And she strode back inside, walking up to beside the hatch. She noticed the Death Korps soldier was slightly more tense than before, then asked "He ain't back yet?" to which she got a shake of the head, then a look as if asking if he could go after him. With a sigh, the girl stated "Go. You know where to find him best after all. God-Emperor knows, maybe he found something like a hobby."
He nodded, then stepped down the stairwell, Hellgun at the ready. Yrine called out, "Don't be too long. The others are coming back here as well." to which the man simply gave another nod before fully descending. He sprinted down the hallways, a feeling of dread suddenly washing over him as he moved into the darkness, his Hellgun raised at his hip and ready to wash whatever abomination lay out there with red-hot hatred. He slowed his pace only as he entered the hangar, passing by the decomposing corpses of the traitors to his right. He walked carefully into the workshop, raising his Hellgun high and looking down the prism-scope as he switched it to heat-sensor mode. He peered around the corner of a wall separating the main workshop from the parts storage area, a feeling of genuine dread suddenly welling up in his gut.
He stopped, seeing a still-warm corpse laying on the ground in front of him. His eyes grew wide behind his gas-mask, noticing the Death Korps-standard uniform on it, colored the desert-tan they wore for their operations. He took a knee by the corpse, watching as blood spewed out of the slit throat of his brother, before he stood again to his feet, looking around and past where his Corpse had been.
No Death Korps soldier should've felt any sort of fear in their heart. They were all meant to die, the expendable, fatalistic warriors of the God-Emperor. Yet here Oh-Thirty-Three was, his pod-twin's corpse laying sprawled across the floor and he, next to it and scanning the surroundings for his killer, a combination of fear and hatred in his mind. He swallowed empty, feeling sweat start to drip down through his mask, sticking the leather to his face. He looked around, watching the shadows dance around him as his flashlight washed over mere spots.
He heard something scratch the wall behind him, then swiveled about. All he saw was disgusting green runes on a shimmering ebon body made of flesh and shadow before his head flew off his shoulders, his brain unable to process the deadly swing that had managed to cut clean through both his rebreather mask's tube and through the faint shred of flak armor he had around his neck before he fell to the floor. The beast standing above him vanished into the shadows moments later, the blood dripping off its scythe-sword vanishing with it.
... The Guard was no longer alone within the confines of this place.
The hunt had begun.