LITANY III
"What is the situation?" a cross-armed Inquisitor Feordervich asked the Stormtrooper Captain Yegenov through a vidcom feed.
Yegenov finished saluting before answering: "I have secured the main control centre with B Company. A Company is continuing as planned to the Governor's Palace. C Company remains ready to drop onto the Palace to re-enforce the Governor's personal guard when the Sister's send word that they have finally captured the power station."
"You have not heard from the Sisters?"
Gunfire although faint, could be heard over the communication link. Fighting near the Comte's position was still in progress.
"No, Sir," the Comte answered.
The Inquisitor turned to the Psyker.
The Psyker, a withered bald man resting on an ikon topped staff closed his eyes and concentrated. The Inquisitor waited patiently, on outward features at least. None could read the inscrutable mind of a Witchunter. The Psyker opened his eyes.
"It is… difficult to see them, something is in the way… that I have not encountered before. They are alive but something threatens them, and the entire planet. Ah"
The Psyker then suddenly fell to the ground, unconscious. His attendants rushed to his aid. The Inquisitor frowned.
"Did you hear that?" he asked the Captain.
"Yes, Sir," the Captain replied without confidence. "Heresy comes in many forms; I am sure my force can handle it."
"Verona, Verona!" Gloria hissed into her mike. Trouble, like a wet chill, ran down her spine.
Rachael was next to her saying: "We should hurry, I don't like this at all."
Gloria more than agreed; if Rachael was troubled as well then that meant it was big trouble.
"At the double!" Gloria ordered. The Sisters, still in their compact all-direction formation picked up the pace and the tunnel's opening to the turbine cavern grew larger. The crunching beneath their feet gave way to solid manufactured material, a small comfort. They all had almost thought that the hissing had gone away until a terrifying screech resounded down the tunnel.
"By the Emperor, something's-" a Sister said in awed fear then her words were cut off as another Sister pressed down on the trigger of her bolter sending a hail of shells down the tunnel, red tracer rounds appearing like lances of lasfire, ricocheting off the walls, and off other things, others releasing tiny explosions, burst flesh of some kind.
"Hold your fire," Gloria ordered, wanting control.
Until one of the things leapt out of the wall, a purple grimacing face of razor sharp teeth and reaching talons, into the middle of her squad.
Half the Sisters were bowled over by the monster, a four-armed hissing gargoyle, that swept more to the ground with its carapace covered claws. It turned and faced Gloria directly, beady red eyes glowing caustically. It hissed at her, forgetting the other Sisters, and the four arms began to move rhythmically in a hypnotizing manner that made Gloria dizzy and her knees weak. She hardly saw the monster's face loom inches from her own.
"Gloria!" Rachael screamed and threw herself against the monster, sagging it with the weight of her power armour. The monster's eye turned on her and she shuddered but held tight. A claw raked across her face and blood filled her eyes. "Gloria…"
More Sisters leapt onto the monster, one for each arm and leg and brought it down to the hard ground where it struggled and writhed but could not dislodge the weight.
Gloria woke from her trance, being shaken by one of her Sisters. She saw the monster, and Rachael, bleeding. The monster was on the ground before her. She remembered her sword and drew it.
The monster looked at her again, ceasing most of its struggle. Even without the hypnotic motion of its arms the look from its eyes was powerful and the Sister Superior had to intone a chant of the Convent to dispel the effect it was having on her.
"Abomination!" she curved and thrust the blue glowing sword through the skull of the monster, rupturing purple skin and grey bone. Purple blood burst out of the fatal wound and the evil eyes dulled.
Gunfire, next to her and further away.
Gloria looked around, those Sisters that hadn't held the monster down were shooting in all directions. The firing further away, Verona. Rachael.
"Rachael, are you alright?" Gloria knelt down by the bleeding Sister who, a red gloved hand redder and slick with her own blood, held up on the wound nodded.
"I'll be fine. I hate it when this happens," Rachael replied.
The other Sisters had gathered their weapons and reformed the defence and were firing rapidly. There were more of the monsters, kept at bay for now.
"Lean on me," Gloria lifted Rachael's arm and put it across her shoulder and stood. The power armour made it easy. "You might have to use that soon," Gloria said, indicating the heavy flamer.
Rachael grinned, blood stained teeth. Gloria felt a pang of sadness, the wound would have to be treated quickly. Rachael was losing a lot of blood.
The Sisters retreated to the opening of the tunnel, keeping up a heavy barrage of bolter fire that kept the enemy at a safe distance. Sisters used the opening of the tunnel as cover, some lay down at the opening. Shell casings rattled off the walls and floor, adding another dimension to the cacophony of sound and echo.
"Treat her," Gloria put Rachael down and commanded a Sister who got to work immediately. Gloria then stared down the huge chamber and easily saw more tracer rounds reaching down from the command post.
"Verona."
"Sister Superior. What is going on?" Verona said over burst of fire including her own.
"We have been attacked by… monsters," the only word Gloria could describe them, fittingly. "What is your situation?"
"Mutants, lots of them. There are even scaling the walls," a loud explosion, "too many for us too hold off."
"Understood," Gloria replied, her situation was the same. "Have they cut off the way we came in?"
"Yes."
Not good.
"Casualties?"
"None so far, beyond Henrietta. They don't have many guns, but, by the looks of them if they get in here they'll make short work of us."
Gloria checked her own troops. Down the tunnel a pile of monster corpses was building. Sometimes she could see of the monsters, illuminated by passing tracers, try and rush up the tunnel. Fortunately the fire her Sister's was putting out was enough to kill any before they got too close. But they were getting closer, and ammunition was not unlimited. At least the mutants attacking Verona hadn't split off some of their force to attack her own from behind.
"Can you break out?" Gloria asked Verona. She waited impatiently for the reply. Every second was important now.
"Faith! They're on the roof. Not without a distraction."
"I'll give you one," Gloria promised. She didn't want to distract Verona any further with questions, not when she was fighting for her life.
"Rachael?"
"Yes," Rachael stood up. Stained bandage was wrapped around her forehead, the rest of her face pale and covered with smeared blood.
"Time to use your flamer."
Any other time Rachael would have grinned and hefted her heavy flamer up. This time she only nodded and walked to the middle of the tunnel's opening.
Gloria prayed that the monsters didn't like fire. Their bodies did not look fire-resistant.
The tunnel silenced for a moment as the bolters fell silent. Hisses replaced the chatter of Imperial violence followed by scraping and clawing as the monsters rushed forward for the kill.
"C'mon!" Rachael shouted and pressed down the flamer's ignition. The tunnel immediately illuminated as a forty-foot gout of orange and red promethium flame filled it, washing over the horde of suddenly visible monsters, before the flames engulfed them. Death screams replaced the malevolent hisses of moments before. Rachael swept the flames across the breadth of the tunnel. Not a single monster came through. When she let the death jet cease the all she could see were spot flames and reflections on the charred remains. "Hell yeah," she said.
During this time Gloria had taken most of the squad, leaving Rachael with two bolter armed Sisters, and rushed back down the chamber to where Verona was being overrun. Without pausing she and the other four Sisters started firing as soon as their weapons came into rapid fire range, storm bolters opening up first and cutting down the back ranks of the mutants, those that had weapons.
"Move it, Verona!" Gloria yelled. She lifted her bolter and fell to one knee, sighting down the length of the double barrels to the staircase where a line of mutants, fortunately not the monsters she had been fighting, was advancing up the stairs even as many of their number tumbled off, shot.
They ignore the casualties.
Gloria fired. Tightly packed as the mutants were she could not miss. Five of them packed together jerked as bolt shells struck and exploded inside their bodies sending gouts of flesh and blood into the air. Their stricken bodies collapsed or fell of the stairs.
Survivors pointed and hissed at her.
From the blown office doorway two Sisters emerged, Marie and Verona, with their bolters held at their hips. They took the stairs two at a time and shot their way down fiercely. Another Sister tossed half a dozen grenades to the ground below and they went off like angry firecrackers, shrapnel scything down mutants. She then rushed after the first two.
Henrietta was the last out, coming out backward with bolter raised to the ceiling, firing all the time. Gloria looked to the roof and many mutants were on it. They scrambled, a few were hit, two appeared on the lip of the office about to jump.
Stormbolters sent them to the Emperor's judgement.
Safe, Sister Henrietta turned around and began to descent the staircase. She did not see the mutant, both of its arms the same as the monster's, rise from the office, and on coiled legs spring into the air. Those that did see could not react fast enough or shout any warning.
The mutant landed on Henrietta's back and the two of them crashed forward. The mutant was on top, a long tongue lashing about its inhuman face, and it lifted one arm high, the other pushing down on Henrietta's back, and then that three pronged claw came down.
Revenge was swift but too late. The mutant's body was destroyed, exploded into hundreds of small pieces as bolter after bolter fired upon it in cathartic agony. The closest Sister on the stairs turned around and went after the body of Sister Henrietta to recover it. Verona yelled at her to come back, ordering the Sister who reluctantly obeyed; more mutants appeared.
The three Sisters ran through the milling throng of mutants, a channel opened by their weapons and those of Gloria's force.
"Don't stop running, head for the south corridor," Gloria yelled as Verona approached. "Rachael, head there too."
"Got it."
The two groups of Sisters broke contact and fell back as quickly as they could, meeting close to the mined door.
"The flamer kept them back; they didn't want to come and get fried again," Rachael said, joining up with Gloria.
Verona organised the defence around the door as Gloria and Marie went to work on disarming the mine they had put there not long ago.
"I never got to contact the Captain, Sister Superior," Sister Marie said as she worked, connecting wires from her suit to the mine.
"Don't be concerned," Gloria replied. The Captain knowing her squad's situation would have helped, if he would have done anything about it. Likely not, she thought bitterly, before berating herself for those thoughts. He was an Imperial Officer and would serve the Emperor, just as she did, to the best of his abilities.
They were not attacked. No monsters emerged from the tunnel, the mutants slunk back into the shadows out of range. A carpet of their down dead demoralising perhaps?
The door opened. Too late Gloria aimed her weapon. There was nothing on the other side however. Luckily. If there had been any of the monsters she would be dead and her squad wiped out. Next time guns would be ready.
"Let's go," Gloria waved her squad through as it fell back on itself. She counted the number, ten, before leaving the cavern. Sister Marie rearmed the mine and shut and locked the door.
"The mine will kill a lot of them, but also blow the door apart. They'll be able to come after us then," Marie told her Sister Superior quietly.
"Let's pray they don't follow too soon," Gloria responded.
"Platoon A-1 is coming under sustained attack, Captain," a seated sub-lieutenant said. "They're in hand to hand combat."
Comte Yegenov turned sharply. "Hand to hand? Hadn't Sudtler set his point defence positions correctly?"
The Captain walked over to the communicator and picked up the vox. "Lieutenant Sudtler, this is Captain Yegenov, report."
"Sir!" came back a breathless voice, "they're all over us. I -" a horrible scream followed by tearing sounds filled the room. All the Staff looked at the Captain in alarm.
"Sudtler? Sudtler!"
No response. Yegenov put the vox down slowly giving himself time to recompose. The scream had affected him too.
"Platoon A-2?"
"Just sniping, Sir. A-3 has no contact."
A-3 was in a perimeter outside the room. A-2 was next to where A-1 had been. They would be attacked next.
"Order A-2 to pull back to A-3's position; it will shift over." That would tighten his defence although give up a lot of the facility back to the enemy. Yet, A-1 had been destroyed. How had the heretics managed to do that? "Get me the Inquisitor."
"Holy Mother!" someone shouted from the window-lined wall that overlooked one of the heating shafts.
"Control yourselves!" Yengenov commanded as the Staff rushed over to the windows and started exclaiming themselves and pointing down.
Yegenov pushed his way through to the window and gazed down as well. What greeted his eyes stilled his own determined heart.
Up the circular wall of the heating shaft came, like a swarm of bugs, dozens of four-armed, purple bodied zenomorphs. And they came quickly. Pulling out his pistol: "Get a squad in here, now!" He fired at the window, exploding it. As glass flew about, swirled by hot air rushing into the room, he walked to the opening, hat sucked off his head to vanish, and leaning out, started firing.
They ran through corridor after corridor, directed by the schematic in Gloria's suit. She prayed that it was accurate.
Her objective was simple: find the Captain's Stormtroopers and fight with them. Any thoughts about the mission were long, left back in the heating chamber along with the scores of mutants and monsters, and Sister Henrietta. Her mouth moved in silent Litany for the dead. When she returned to the Chapel on the spaceship she would give proper Rites for the slain Sister. She entertained no thoughts about any more Sisters dying, or not getting back at all. Her responsibility was to get all of her Sisters back, alive.
Unless commanded not to. This she hoped the Captain or the Inquisitor were not like.
Her squad was far below where the Stormtroopers would be. One company was at a heating tower with the Captain, another further away near the Governor's Palace. She would try the Captain's force first.
They encountered no more mutants, just stunned workers, which they ignored and ran past, boots ringing down the clean corridors. The infestation had not come far from the lower depths.
Ammunition was shared out. Most of what they carried had been expended already against the monsters. Too much. Gloria did not berate her Sisters for the wasteful expenditure. This was an enemy they had not fought before. Heretics, mutants, even Orks. Nightmares, no. She couldn't say anything, her own bolter was depleted of shells. She had been afraid too. She asked for the Emperor's forgiveness.
"There's the elevator," Verona said.
Ahead was the elevator shaft that would take them up to the middle levels and an exposed bridge that crossed the exhaust shaft. On the other side was another elevator that could take them to the Stormtroopers.
A vision, brief, of a figure robed in black standing before an altar.
Gone.
Gloria shook her head. A hand touched her shoulder, Rachael's. "You okay?" she was being asked. She laughed. Rachael looked at her strangely.
"You saying that? You look like you have been through ten battles," Gloria said.
"And I'll be through ten more, Emperor Willing," Rachael said. "Let's go."
The eleven of them filled the elevator. It wasn't a cargo one like they took earlier. Guns, and a flamer nozzle, pointed at the doors nervously.
The Sisters piled out as quickly as the opening doors would allow. Outside was safe. Turning right they made their way down a corridor that grew increasingly heated. The bridge was not enclosed and the air of the exhaust tower occupied the corridor as well.
They approached the bridge cautiously. Some mutants had been able to climb walls and as they were corrupted hybrids of the monsters, a sick mating of human and monster, the monsters would be able to climb walls as well. More guns pointed up than level.
Gloria, sword in hand, ran onto the bridge. The sudden heat and updraft almost sent her sprawling and she took grip of the railing with her free hand. White hair swirled frantically around her face.
"Look," Sister Marie pointed. Her voice was sad.
Gloria instantly knew why. Ten floors above them was the level where the Captain and his men were. She knew because muzzle flashes were coming from a line of broken windows. The flashes were pointed down and her eyes followed until they came to rest on the Stormtroopers target: a climbing mass of the purple monsters she had just fought. They were like a living wall of carapace. Occasionally one would fall and disappear silently, vaporised at the bottom of the shaft. They rest continued to climb coming ever closer to the windows. Not enough were being killed.
"Can you reach the Captain now?" Gloria asked. The other Sisters had joined her on the bridge and were also watching the vertical tide. No monsters were on their side of the bridge.
Sister Marie tried and nodded.
Gloria opened the channel. "Captain Yegenov?"
"Who's this?" a shaky voice replied. Certainly not the Captain's.
"Sister Superior Gloria," Gloria answered rotely, what other women were there? "I want to speak to the Captain."
"Wait a moment, he's fighting."
Squinting Gloria believed she could make out the figure of the Captain leaning out the window and firing down at the monsters. She had to admire him too. He was the kind who would elect to stay and fight to the death if he had to, surrounded by wounded but defiant Imperial soldiers, a recruitment poster's hero. Gloria was shamed by her earlier thoughts.
The Captain came on line. "Sister Gloria?"
"Yes, Captain. I-"
"Why aren't you at your post? I saw you and your women on the bridge below."
"Sir, we were attacked by the same monsters that are climbing up the tower. Their… hive, was located next to our objective." Bad thoughts returned, Gloria could not believe that she would be questioned about her objective when they were all in danger of being overrun. These monsters were beyond heresy.
"Well, shoot at them then, you can do that can't you?"
Gloria frowned but thought she heard an undertone of worry on the Captain's voice, that the 'order' was more of a request for help. She was about to reply when another voice came over the communication link. One not at all in control of himself.
"They're here! They're in and killing us all!" cried a lost cause. There was a single, loud, shot, and the voice was gone.
"Get a move on, Sisters," was the last Gloria heard from the Captain as the sounds of gunfire grew louder.
The monsters were at the lip of the window, hellgun butts trying to knock them down. A Stormtrooper was caught and yanked out of the room; he fell screaming down the tower.
"Sister Superior, what do we do?" young Sister Helen said. Fear was in her eyes and she held onto the Stormbolter tightly to stop her shake from overtaking her.
"Kill some of them," Gloria said, "with your weapon."
Only the Stormbolters had the range to reach the monsters. The two weapons chattered noisily in controlled bursts. The monsters were so tightly packed that missing was impossible. Ammunition had to be conserved however. Pieces of monster fell, whole bodies. Only a small consolation for the Stormtroopers.
Gloria checked the schematic for the other location of the other Stormtrooper company. It was them or.
The Palace.
They could reach the Palace. Emperor let the monsters not have taken it over. The Palace had landing facilities for an extraction or re-enforcements. They hadn't landed that way because the heretic's heavy weapons would be trained on the pads. If the Stormtroopers had destroyed them then getting out or getting help was possible. If she knew the Inquisitor he'd send down more men, leading personally, to destroy the infestation. Gloria would welcome his presence.
Gloria quickly made up her mind and plan and passed it on to her squad. Reluctantly, although they could do nothing, they turned from the bridge and went back into the facility. Their pace did not slow. Each moment could mean discovery and the further they were from the battle, or massacre as many thought, the better. The closer to the Palace the better as well.