Armorum Fidei Chapter 22
Justini turned from the fallen body and looked for the next foe. In the cramped confines of the vox-room struggling figures battled, tearing at each other tooth and nail. Raggedy people stabbing and tearing without any hint of restraint. They slammed into consoles and overturned whirring machinery, breaking and smashing in a furious outburst of anger. In that bedlam three Sisters fought, trying to keep the mob at bay. Lexia, Heleyna and Justini herself. Of Praxi, Resita and Phantea there was no sign, they had become separated hours ago in the confusion and been unable to find their comrades, unfortunately the mad defenders had found them instead.
Justini saw a woman sneaking up on Lexia with a knife in hand and murder in her eye. The Sister was encumbered by the weight of her Triptych and had only her inferno pistol to defend herself, she was vulnerable and had not seen the threat. Justini reacted smoothly, barrelling at the woman and slamming her with the length of her haft. Her armoured weight threw the woman aside, knocking her into a metal wall and making her stagger, but only for a moment. She grabbed the haft with both hands and tried to push Justini back but the Sister had fibre-bundle assistance and held firm.
Justini lifted her hand to draw back a fist, then rammed it into the woman's face. Teeth shattered under the impact of Ceramite and blood cascaded down her chin but she barely seemed to feel it. Justini had seen this before; those under alien control could be left utterly immune to pain, but not always. Sometimes a terrible blow would knock unfortunate souls out of their trance, for a moment. Some seemed to move with remarkable speed, or inhuman strength, while others moved like the elderly or babes they were. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason, no pattern she could discern and it left her with the suspicion that each individual was affected differently by alien enslavement, according to their nature.
Such thoughts were knocked aside as the woman tried to lever the polearm from her grip. Justini fought to yank it back but could not break that death grip so instead lifted her boot and slammed it into a kneecap. Bone shattered and the woman went down, incapable of standing on a leg bent sideways at a ninety-degree angle. Justini wasted not a moment to bring her polearm to bear and with a swift swing decapitated the woman.
The body fell and she turned to find the remainder of the foes broken and bleeding. Lexia stood proud over their corpses but it was Heleyna who was splattered with gore. Her mace was dripping with bodily fluids and her storm shield painted red. She was breathing hard under her armour and well she should be, her berserk fury laying waste to all she saw. Even now she wasn't content, driving the head into the twitching bodies of the survivors, making sure they were really dead.
Lexia took a step backwards and breathed, "That was an amazing display, I've never seen anyone fight like that."
Justini stepped over a body and remarked, "She a fiend in a brawl, but what of you? You're bleeding."
Indeed Lexia was weeping blood from her back, a thin trickle leaking out from a join in her power armour where a knife had scored a lucky hit. The Sister didn't sway but the leaking wasn't stopping and Justini feared she would keep leaking until she passed out from blood loss. She set aside her polearm and took a canister of quick-setting coagulant foam from her belt, standard issue for all Sisters.
"I don't need that," Lexia sniffed.
"Yes you do, we're not Space Marines," Justini argued, "You're no use if you pass out."
"If you must," Lexia sighed and turned her back.
Justini bent down and saw a gap in the soft fibre-bundle layer between two Ceramite plates. She couldn't see the wound without removing all armour but she set the nozzle to the hole and sprayed the coagulant inside. Foamy tar spilled inside and then set in moments, reacting to air to form an instant bandage over the wound.
"Two inches to the left and it would have got your spine," Justini remarked.
"The God-Emperor was with us," Lexia affirmed.
"Looks like it hurts, do you want pain-balms?"
"Pain is an ally, pain is a friend, pain is truth," Lexia quoted, reciting the ancient teachings of the Sororitas.
Justini took up her polearm and said, "This was a bust, we need to move on. Heleyna, stop worrying those corpses and follow me." Justini stepped to the door and glanced outside, thankfully there was no sign of more enemies so she headed out. They took a left and creped down a deserted corridor, alert and ready for action. No living foes presented themselves but the sounds of fighting were nearby, signs the riots were spreading to every quarter.
"These people are tearing each other apart," Lexia muttered.
"Filthy Heretics," Heleyna spat, "They deserve it for succumbing to the alien."
"I don't think many of them have," Justini whispered, "The corrupted may be few, but they've opened a door to anarchy. Anger, fear, hatred and frustration, the people were ready to riot long before the Psybrids pulled the trigger. Unfortunately all are dangerous to us."
"Can we survive another hour?" Lexia asked.
"We must, we have no choice. But we've managed to avoid being killed for five hours, we are in the final stretch."
Suddenly their voxs squawked and they heard a static-filled voice calling, "Canoness, we can't see you. Where are you?"
"Praxi?" Justini called, "Is that you?"
"Justini? Thank the Throne, I thought you were dead. Where are you?"
Justini glanced about but saw no hints as to their location in this warren and said, "No idea, but we must be close if the vox-links are working."
"I see a stairway, marked 9a-re-87… if that means anything to you."
"Wait," Lexia interrupted, "We passed that ten minutes ago."
Praxi said, "We dropped down a few levels, join us as fast as you can."
Hastily the trio reversed course and backtracked, making their way past the vox-room towards the stairs. Narthi was a maze of twisting passages and Justini worried they would not be able to retrace their route but thankfully they found it and headed down. The stair was a spiralling corkscrew and they had to make their way one at a time. Justini went first, with Heleyna bringing up the rear and then they found Praxi standing just outside a door. Justini hurried to her old friend's side and they clasped forearms as Justini said, "I'm glad to see you."
"Likewise," Praxi sighed, "We thought we were the last ones left."
"Where's Phantea?"
Resita was covering the corridor beyond with her bolter and said, "We got jumped by a mob, hundreds of them, the weight of them forced us apart. The Canoness made a fighting retreat while she ordered us to beat feet. A shameful withdrawal in the face of the enemy."
Justini caught an accusatory tone in her voice and comforted, "A necessary choice, we are but six against thousands and must fight with prudence."
"Did Saint Lucia act prudently, when recidivists tortured her for months? No, she held true to her cause and defiant to the last. Flame and knife and electro-shock could not break her, we are shamed not to match her example."
"Bad example," Praxi scoffed, "She died."
"As will we if we don't get a move on," Justini argued, "We have but an hour until reinforcements arrive, then we will cleanse this train-city of its Heretics with fire and faith. First we survive, then we cleanse. This is not cowardice Resita, this is strategy."
"So… up or down?" Praxi asked.
"Down," Justini sighed, "Lexia, how's the pain?"
Lexia spat, "No worse than that of the companions of Lucia. They held silent, no matter the tortures inflicted upon them, so to spare the blinded saint their sorrows. If they can endure so can I."
Together the Sisters headed downwards, walking in single file. Justini kept her weapon ready, alert for the first signs of an ambush. Thankfully none came and yet she was not assured. Currens Ecclesia was coming, bringing an army of Sisters with it but the task was monumental. Suppressing the uprising would be simple but weeding out the corrupted would be far harder. She was at a loss to explain how they would sort the true Heretics from the misguided, winnowing those taken by alien dominance from the merely duped. She suspected rigorous excruciations would be in order, but that was a problem for later, for now they had to avoid dying.
After an interminable descent they reached the bottom of the stair and filed out. They found no sign of directions and yet the sound of fighting was louder than ever. "We want to avoid that," Praxi muttered.
Yet Resita said, "Wait… hear that. Psalms, battle-psalms."
"Phantea!" Justini exclaimed, "Quickly sisters!"
Hurriedly they made their way towards the fighting and emerged into a large loading dock. Set within was a riot, people tearing and stabbing with wild abandon. Friends and comrades and neighbours, turned against one another. At the far end was a large ramp, open and inviting with the blessed sight of daylight beyond. Yet in the foreground was the Canoness herself. Phantea, slicing and hacking in the melee with her shining power sword.
"To the Canoness!" Justini cried and the Sisters piled into the melee. Justini's world shrank to a few inches, seeing nothing but flailing bodies and blood flowing. The mob barely seemed to notice their arrival, so consumed were they by madness. Justini hacked and stabbed and clubbed her way forward, trusting power armour to shield her from harm as she advanced. In her wake the others followed suit, tearing down any who stood in their way. With furious resolve they cut a path to Phantea and Justini cried, "Canoness!"
Phantea glimpsed them coming and called, "Just in time Sisters, make for the door. We must get outside!"
"The enemy is here!" Resita protested.
"Not for long," Phantea barked, "Press forward as one!"
With all their might the Sisters engaged, carving a blood-soaked path to the exit. Justini lost count of the number of people she cut down, giving no respite to those who stood in the way. She didn't understand why they had to reach the door, but Phantea had given orders and so they obeyed. Her polearm grew slick with blood as Heleyna's mace claimed a fearful tally of lives. Resita and Praxi picked off foes, spending the last of their ammo to clear a path while Lexia fired into knots of embattled people, killing them even as they wrestled for supremacy. Phantea's sword never stopped moving, killing with every stroke as the Sisters stepped ever nearer to the door.
At last the opening loomed and Lexia proclaimed, "We made it, we only have to hold this entrance for the reinforcements."
"No," Phantea barked, "Get out, get out now!"
Justini was confused but obeyed without question. The Sisters dashed down the ramp, setting foot on the wet ground of Suna and leaving the riot behind. It baffled her as to why but then she saw it, Curren Ecclesia, marching over the horizon, its towers and legs sharp spikes and its bells ringing. They must have pushed the Machine Spirits to the utmost to arrive so soon, and she gave thanks for the anticipated relief.
Yet Phantea didn't stop running, bounding over the algae fields as she called, "Don't stop and gawk, move, move, move!"
"But the reinforcements," Justini gasped.
"There are no reinforcements, only retribution!"
Justini finally saw what was about to happen. The walking church was not coming to pacify Narthi but to destroy it, not to quell the uprising but to burn it out root and branch. There was no salvation through pain for these people, only punishment. Justini grasped that the rebellion had warranted their extermination; unfortunately she and the rest of their squad were in the blast zone. She put her head down and ran, weapon swaying wildly in the air. All the Sisters ran, trying to get clear but barely had they set off when the Earthshakers opened fire.
From atop Curren Ecclesia flashes of light heralded artillery opening up, lobbing shells high to arc over the land and land on Narthi's flank. Explosions erupted along the length of the Train-city as ordnance ripped through the hull, blowing compartments open and spilling fire far and wide. Justini's ears rang with the noise, even through her autosenses, and she put her head down and redoubled her pace, trying to get clear.
Artillery atop Narthi responded, gunners returning fire at the closing church. Their efforts were wasted for void shields flared, blocking the impacts before they touched the hallowed stones. A furious exchange of shells erupted, battering the very air, Narthi suffering terribly while the Walking church was untouched. There could be only one outcome to such a fight and yet the Sisterhood was not satisfied.
The enormous quake canon in the prow lifted a hair and then let out a roar that split the world apart. An enormous shell blew out of the barrel, whipping the air into a torrent. Forged from the ashes of dead worlds the shell stuck a compartment of the Train-city and reduced it to flaming debris. Metal rained into the sky and pattered down as flames rippled forth, spreading along the sections fore and aft. The whole Train-city shook like a colt, compartments slamming into each other as the violence of the shot was communicated along its length. Fires erupted in every section, secondary explosions rippling and thousands died in the inferno. Corrupted and duped, rioters and those hiding, workers and families, all died the same, torn apart by a power they could not withstand.
Justini felt the wind sweeping over her back, trying to pick her up like a leaf but she kept her feet by running faster than ever as she fought for clearance. Again Currens Ecclessia fired and again, each Quake-shell blowing compartments to shrapnel. The fires were everywhere now, filling every inch of the Train-city and Justini knew it was dead. Narthi was no more, punished for its Heresy.
The squad finally stopped running and turned to face the fiery grave of ten thousand souls and Phantea proclaimed, "So perish all who defy the God-Emperor!"
"Give thanks and praise," Resita declared.
Justini didn't share their enthusiasm. They had just killed thousands of people, without care or concern for innocence or guilt. Surely some within deserved it, but not all, not all. She wasn't sure what to make of this so all she could do was cling to her weapon and say a silent prayer that the God-Emperor would judge their deeds worthy. Yet she had the awful feeling He would see this as a failure and withdraw His favour, leaving them bereft and helpless in the face of what was to come.
