Early 36th Millennium, dawn of the Plague of Unbelief
Orbit over Abalus
Onboard the Artemis, voidship of the League of Black Ships
Outer Hull Repair Zone
Attalus strode down the corridor, Omnissian Power Axe on his back, glancing at the menials Sergei had brought onboard the Artemis. A crew of four men were pulling a heavy cable, the tenth and final one of the run, while two more were bundling the run together and another two pulling along a cart laden with gear and parts were closing the hangars through which the run passed. "Well done," he said to the men closing the bundles. Then, to the entire crew, he added, "One more hour of work and you can break for lunch." He continued down the corridor inspecting the work already accomplished. His auspex quickly locked onto various targets for analysis. Ten cable identification match- SAT, cable sag radius of curvature between hangars- SAT, hangar fastener weld- SAT, hangar fastener tightness- SAT, and on and on. He took pride in the craftsmanship he was inspecting. I don't know how much of the Omnissiah's higher order plans Sergei has shared with them, but they are at least competent in the skills they have developed.
Attalus glanced ahead to see the massive Enginseer waiting on him, hands fidgeting while his many mechadendrites moved about. Another eight menials were with him as well as two more part-carts. Everything is proceeding as planned, Attalus said to himself with a smile. Though his hatred for the Mechanicus of Vichka burned brightly, he held no enmity against the League of Black Ships and understood the importance of their duty. Is he smiling?
A long snake-headed cable extended from the chassis of the Enginseer and toward Attalus. He allowed the cable to mate with one of his ports so that Sergei could send him a hard-wire transmission. -MISSION ACCOMPLISHED- the transmission relayed. -GELLAR FIELD DATA OBTAINED-.
"Are you certain that you didn't get caught?" Attalus asked, through his MIU patch to the cable.
TECH-PRIESTS OFF-LINE- Sergei responded. COORDINATING SOMETHING.
"That can't be good," Attalus answered, again through his patch. No sooner had those words left his mouth than Sergei's cable immediately retracted back to the Enginseer, and Attalus' auspex sent warnings to his brain. -MULTIPLE HOSTILES-. His targeting sensors locked onto two Tech-Priests and one woman who had just rounded the passage corner a handful of metres away. The woman was dressed in heavy armour with a two-handed sword in her hand, a Sister of Silence, and blood dripped from several punctures and tears in her armour.
As she ran toward Sergei and Attalus, the Tech-Priests locked onto her and each fired the laspistol hard-wired into a mechadendrite extending form his chassis. She collapsed into one of Attalus' arms and the Tech-Priests froze, looking as if caught in a loop glitch, when in fact they were awaiting an action from the Techmarine. The Sister struggled to raise her helmeted head and look into Attalus' masked face. However, his cybernetic eyes caught more. Her left hand, obscured from the vision of the Tech-Priests by her torso and his arm, was signaling him. Signaling in the hand cant of the Sisters of Silence. Mechanicus. Traitors, she signed and then her head slumped downward. His auspex quickly determined she was dead.
"This is for you," Attalus said and stepped toward the two Tech-Priests, presenting her body. "Some have genetic augmentations which facilitate rapid recovery, even from apparent death," he added. "You may wish to examine her or simply ensure she is dead."
The lead Tech-Priest reached out with his two natural arms to take the Sister but he never took hold of her. His arms fell to the deck, removed by the Omnissian Power Axe which had leapt into Attalus' other hand as he began his swing. The ballistic mechadendrites of each Tech-Priest immediately fired at the Techmarine but he had already dropped the Sister's body and started moving, rage filling his mind. Rage at their betrayal of the Emperor by attacking the Sister. Rage at the death of his brothers on Vichka. He buried his shoulder into the lead Tech-Priest, pushing him against the bulkhead even as his momentum carried him past. He split in twain the head of the second Tech-Priest with an overhand follow through of his axe that didn't stop until it was in his enemy's chest. In response, its laspistol fired wildly in all directions, but Attalus had already pulled his axe free and reversed his momentum. He pulled back from the second Tech-Priest and away from the first he had shouldered into, and he spun around, bringing his axe back in a horizontal swing that cut the torso of his first enemy in half, rending in two the Tech-Priest's cybernetic chassis. The Tech-Priest's big body collapsed to the deck but continued twitching and firing its laspistol while its bodily fluids, in the form of black oil, drained onto the deck. Attalus swung again with his axe at the second and completely removed its split head. The Tech-Priest's chassis sank to its knees, blood, both red and black, squirting up into the air above where its head had been.
"Well done," said Sergei's voice from over the Techmarine's shoulder. "I was expecting this," he added. Attalus looked back to see the human remaining portion of Sergei's face exhibit a smile. "When I discovered the Mechanicus work crew had gone offline, I took the liberty of ensuring my minions were properly armed. Their arc torches have been modified into arc weapons through an evolutionary process I learned studying the artefacts found onboard Veeland's Kiln. An ancient process superior to the one whose template is still possessed in our time."
As Sergei was speaking, the menials were dragging gear out of their part-cart. A heavy autogun was pulled out and mounted to the top of the cart with a modified arc torch alongside it. The sides of the cart were expanded and folded out, forming a shield for those manning it, a mobile weapons platform armed with a heavy autogun and a powerful arc weapon. Four more menials were walking up another cart which did not appear to have been similarly outfitted. A hum emitted from the dark power blade in one of Sergei's mechadendrites and a blue haze quickly surrounded the blade too, signaling its ignition. The Enginseer also had arc torches modified into arc weapons onto two of his mechadendrites as well as a laspistol in two more. Two of Sergei's mechadendrites reached over to the second cart and accessed it, drawing forth a lascannon and another power sword. Working independently, the 'arms' of his mechadendrite nest quickly mounted the lascannon to his shoulder while the second power blade lit up with its own blue glow.
"How long can you maintain this war configuration?" Attalus asked him.
"Let's just say for a very long while," Sergei answered. "I replaced my Potentia Coils with a model produced from a superior template I found onboard the Interex vessel." The human portions of his face continued to smile. Attalus simply nodded in response. "Outside of simulators, my battle experience is limited," Sergei added. "Will you transfer to me our objectives and parameters of operation?" The Enginseer's snake-headed communication mechadendrite waited impatiently, staring at the Techmarine.
Attalus did not acknowledge the gesture. He simply answered, "Seek and destroy," then turned down the corridor from whence the Tech-Priests and Sister had come. 'For Moyere!" he said aloud but to no one in particular other than himself, his voice filled more with anger than volume. "For my Brothers lost there in battle with the Mechanicus!"
Attalus spied the Enginseer and menials via his back-mounted pict-corder as he reached the corner. Sergei petulantly retracted his communication mechadendrite and began following the Techmarine down the corridor with his menials following him. The menials turned around the weapons-cart so it would shield against foes approaching from the rear and pulled it behind them. "I also accessed the Locus Damnum Imperium three Terran standard days ago," Sergei added. "As soon as I reach a Cogitator Data Port, I will awaken the worm I laid to rest within the cogitators of the Locus."
Attalus reached the corner which turned to his right, his sensors detecting the sounds of heavy shuffling feat. TARGETS 3, announced his auspex. IDENTIFICATION Servitor, 90% Accuracy, IFF Undetermined. He didn't wait for more information. Attalus leapt around the corner, power axe in hand. Three armed servitors awaited him, but they carried improvised melee weapons rather than quality melee or ranged weapons.
The first raised an iron bar to block the haft of Attalus' axe as he swung for its head. The Techmarine swung through the block as if it weren't there and lopped off the servitor's head. A roar from the weapon cart's heavy autogun filled the corridor behind Attalus as the second servitor swung at his back with what was literally a diamond-edged chain saw for cutting bulkheads. The huge body of the Techmarine nimbly skipped away from the unwieldy weapon, up into the air and against the bulkhead. He sprang back from the bulkhead, slamming his shoulder into the servitor and driving it into the far bulkhead. He pulled back, allowing the servitor to lean its weight forward, and swept its lead leg out from under it. The servitor tumbled to the deck and Attalus buried his axe in the deck through its neck.
Flame engulfed him for an instant before he sidestepped the blast from a flamer in the third servitor's hands. The servitor spun, fanning its blast of fire in an arc as it tried to keep up with the moving Techmarine, but without success. Attalus lopped off its head. The twitching servitor fell back into the bulkhead with flame jetting up to the ceiling then collapsed into a crouch while the fire spread. Attalus reached down to the flamer and removed it from the servitor's hand. The flame stopped but the ceiling and bulkhead were already scorched black and thick smoke filled the air.
He turned around to find that the battle behind him had ended too. Limbs and pieces of flesh were scattered about in pools of blood, the remnants of three servitors the heavy autogun had chewed up. Amidst the carnage, a Tech-Priest in a red tunic was crouched but motionless. Two long mechadendrites from Sergei were stretched out and attached to the Tech-Priest. The auspex in Attalus' helmet told him the Tech-Priest's power system was shut down and biological activity had ceased too.
Sergei spoke over his shoulder to Attalus without turning around while his two mechadendrites returned. "After I neutralized his systems with my arc weapon, I removed his Potentia Coil and ruptured his heart. Hopefully we will be able to capture intact most of our foes Implants," he said.
"Seek and destroy is the primary objective," Attalus simply stated. "Activating your worm when we find a Cogitator Data Port is secondary. We will accomplish that as the opportunity arises. Everything else comes later." As if on cue, the flamer-wielding servitor toppled over from its crouched position, revealing a data port. "The Emperor has provided," laughed the Techmarine. "Awaken your worm and we will continue our primary objective."