Armorum Fidei Chapter 46
The Sour Note was everywhere, emanating from all quarters. It oozed from the pores of the ragged mass of humans, wafting off them like a bad stench. The Song drew back in revulsion, repelled by the bitterness and iron certainty bound within. Never in Psybrid history had they encountered so many caught up in its vile resonances, never had a foe come against them with such ignorant fervour. Around the embattled knot of humans the Song became discordant confusion, unable to impose any sense of order or obedience. It was galling for a Psybrid to be denied so and there was only one possible response for this threat: total extermination.
Chuqik fought in the midst of the fray, directing the slaves to crush all resistance. The ragged band of humans and Praetorians fought in the shadow of their warrens and the guns reaped a fearful tally among the slaves. Seeing them charge into the fight had been another nasty surprise, humans ran and hid from Psybrids, but empowered by the Sour Note they turned to face their oppressors at last. Chuqik was outraged that they dared to attack a superior race and directed all the slaves they had to engulf the defiant charge. Thousands of slaves had fallen already, tens of thousands, but he cared nothing for their deaths. So long as they stopped the charge, so long as the Nexus Array stood, he would sell every last one of their lives.
Of greater concern was the warren that walked on legs. It had broken away from the pack and was making a direct charge for the Nexus Array. Alone and unsupported it closed on the heart of the Psybrid race, threatening to bring it down and the Gestalts buried within. Chuqik wasn't going to let that happen and had despatched Mewak to destroy it, using portals to drop troops on the warren even as it was overwhelmed from below.
Sure that the threat had been dealt with he returned his focus to the wider battle. The humans were bogged down, their charge coming to a grinding halt. They were dying drop by drop and yet he was not content and the crush of time lay upon him. Frustrated he reached into the Song and called, "Yeuek, are you ready?"
From the top of the Nexus Array came the reply, "Not yet, the energies build slowly."
"Make haste," Chuqik snarled, "Time grows short."
"You try shaping the Otherness with barely half the lives I require. At this rate the waveform will fail to reach a self-sustaining mass, it will dissipate in mere decades."
"I'll take what I can get," Chuqik snapped, "Decades is better than what we will get if the humans reach the Nexus Array."
Frustrated he turned his attention to the fight itself. The human charge had stalled and they were beset on all sides. The Praetorians formed a solid knot of defiance but their allies were diminishing with every moment. The warrens fired ceaselessly but they could wait, Chuqik wanted this fight done once and for all. He judged the moment had come to intervene and called into the Song, "They are weak and vulnerable, strike now and end this!"
A score of Psybrids obeyed the call, advancing towards the raging fight, blister-spines and needle fingers gleaming with deadly power. Chuqik was with them, Shatter-whips extending as he stalked towards the prey, anticipation thrumming through him. Bloodlust was unfamiliar to him but he could not deny the thrill of the kill made his heart beat faster and just for once he revelled in it. At a thought the slaves parted and he beheld the combat first-hand. Bulky Praetorians, smaller armoured females and ragged humans in cloth and mud, the best the humans could offer. The motley band of resistors was fighting hard, holding their line with the last gasps of strength but Chuqik was not impressed.
The emergence of the Psybrids sent a shudder through their line, fear seeping into their auras, only to become rage. With mushy cries they leapt into a headlong charge, rushing the Psybrids with blades and guns drawn. The Psybrids met them with blurring strikes of their own, Exo-cuirass' letting them dodge feeble attacks and return twice as many in return. Chuqik was rushed by a human carrying a crude projectile weapon fitted with a knife, he smartly sidestepped and swept his shatter-whip about, taking the head clean off. Another was gutted by a low strike, another had its legs torn off and another was dissected head to groin, letting two halves fall with veins and organs perfectly exposed. The combat became a mad swirl of hacking and slashing and Chuqik moved through it with confidence and speed. Nothing could touch him; no human could penetrate his exo-cuirass and where he walked death followed. Fearsome roars betrayed Praetorians engaging and brief spikes in the Song told him Psybrids were dying to their brutal attacks. Anger seeped into his spirit at the losses but his cold logic reassured that the balance was yet with the Psybrids. Their speed and strength had tipped the scales, and their endless slaves were more than enough to finish this.
Chuqik gathered himself for one last effort but then calamity struck. A surge of distress shrieked into the Song and made him spin about, to see the walking warren had closed upon the Nexus Array. It was teeming with slaves, covering every inch in flapping and slithering flesh, but yet it strode on. The guns were silent, the walls crumbling and flames licked its walls, but that was not enough to stop it, the warren was about to plunge into the Array and bring it down.
"Mewak!" Chuqik screamed, "Make it stop!"
"We are resisted!" she cried back.
"Break them, kill them. Stop it, stop it now before they ruin it all!"
The slaves rallied, throwing themselves into the gears and pistons of its legs but it was too late. The warren drifted right at the last moment but still clipped the edge of the array, smashing its immense bulk into the honeycombs that made up the structure. Broken stone work showered from the impact site, bringing tons of black girders down with it. The whole array shuddered as the warren sheared along its flank, sending broken parts flying as it scraped through. The juddering caused higher portions to break free, raining down to slam into the roof and punch through but that was not enough to stop it. The warren drove on, breaking free of the other side, leaving a massive gouge carved into the array's flank as it strode off in a lurching limp.
"No..." Chuqik breathed in horror as he urged the Nexus Array to stay upright. It was a forlorn hope, for more and more girders fell into the gouge, raining like black hail. A few at first, then more and more, the slide growing ever more terrible as the whole side of the array began to slump. It was like watching a mountain landslide, waves of motion shimmering up the flanks as more parts were dragged in and the structure began to tilt over, the distant summit leaning perilously far.
"Yeuek!" Chuqik screamed, "Activate it now!"
"I can't!" Yeuek screamed, "It's collapsing, everything is falling apart!"
Chuqik heard his terror and knew well what it spelt. Sure enough the inevitable collapse began, the summit swinging ever further out until the mass of the Nexus Array was placed all on one side. It was too much for the supports and about halfway up a section of girders imploded, dropping the upper sections. The force of the drop shattered the next layers of girders and the plunge continued, layer after layer imploding in a slumping collapse. Dust fountained as the summit disappeared into choking fog, thunderous reverberations shaking the world beneath their feet and the air shivered as rolling booms heralded the coming end. Choking fogs of dirt and pulverised girders filled the air as the array fell into itself, its last moments lost in a suffocating miasma that swept over the battlefield and blinded all.
Battle paused as slaves and humans fell to the dirt, choking on thick ashes. Chuqik was immune in his Exo-cuirass, but his grief was no less. In his mind a piercing scream ripped through his consciousness, proclaiming the deaths of the Gestalts, all seven of them. They had been bound to the Nexus Array and with its destruction their existence came to an end, as did their ordering of the Song.
Chuqik's mind burned as the strict harmonies of his race exploded into anarchy, psychic voices crying out in grief and terror. There was no unity anymore, no order, each Psybrid screamed alone and entirely to their own direction. Conflict and discord teemed as the Psybrids screamed at each other, hated individuality given free rein. Worse than this was the loss of their kindred. The Gestalts had been their connection to nests light-years away and without them the Psybrids present were alone, for the first time in their lives unable to hear millions of their kind singing. The shock was too much, their collective will broke and they became a clashing din of blaring discord.
Tofak of the Choir for Destruction sank to the ground and clutched her armoured head as she wailed, "All is lost, we are undone, all is lost!"
"Stand and get back into formation!" Chuqik roared, only to be completely ignored.
"Kill them!" Betak of the Choir for Revenge bellowed as he laid into fallen humans, "Take as many of them with you as you can!"
"I am your Praecentor and you will obey me!" Chuqik screamed.
Yet Geyik of the Choir for Exodus shouted, "The end has come, we must retreat to the stars! Return to our ships and tell our people to flee!"
"No," Chuqik snarled, "Not that way."
It was pointless, Geyik ripped open a glowing portal and dove in headfirst. Chuqik doubted he'd make it back to their ships, without the protection of the Gestalts the Song would not shield him from the predators of the Otherness. Still he was not alone, many others opened portals and fled, taking their chances with the fangs of immaterial horrors rather than endure this calamity. Other Psybrids fell to the ground and abandoned all hope while some threw themselves into the cloying murk, seeking bloodshed and death.
Chuqik knew his efforts to impose order were hopeless, the Song was in tatters and their vaunted unity a shambles. All he had left was to choose: fight, flee or give up. He chose to fight. He let go of cold logic and allowed anger to rise in his being, filling him with red hate as he flexed his shatter-whips and stepped forth, seeking a foe to take his rage out upon. The universe provided him with a fine opportunity. The murk parted to reveal a pair of humans stumbling about, searching for their kin. One was a female in a large mechanical suit, that loomed over even his Exo-cuirass. He didn't know this one, though she must be of some importance, but the other he recognised instantly, a Praetorian in a tatty cloak and bearing a long sword: their leader.
Chuqik saw a chance to strike a telling blow on the humans by eliminating their leaders and he readied to pounce, his Shatter-whips crackling with lethal potential, as he growled, "You've ruined everything but I can at least have the satisfaction of killing you!"
