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Chapter 11: Daemon's Bane

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Part 5

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Deimos Peninsula

Kronus

U'zhul's task just became much easier. His second primary target decided to come out and meet him openly. That was good, great even. The Bloodletter laughed. It was time to end this, and he could enjoy himself later.

"Khul'tyran, hanker to me! Give me your strength!" The Skulltaker demanded. The bond he had with his War-steed pulsed once, and he drank deeply from it.

It would take at least a century before Khul'tyran could manifest again in the materium, but that didn't matter. Here and now, he would ensure victory. Daemonic flesh unraveled in a vortex of Warp energy that strengthened the nearby Daemons. The remaining Pylons pushed away some of it, however, U'zhul managed to consume more than enough. It was easy really. This time around, he didn't have to fight against the barriers to touch the Warp energy.

A hundred empowered Bloodletters swarmed over the Necron line and tore a breach into it. Human Dreadnoughts and Terminator poured fire into the breach, followed by the guards of the second target. Daemons fell blasted to bloody chunks and vanished, only for more to take their place. The breach widened, and yet another Pylon went down. Chaos-aligned mortals finally began their assault, and a lot of the firepower directed at the diminished number of Daemons had shift targets.

This was it. The victory was at hand!

U'zhul could draw on a bit more power from the Warp, and he put it to good use. The Herald of Khorne fell upon the Necron World like the judgment of his blood-thirsty God., and with every swing, he tore away chunks of metal flesh. The only thing that could have made this better would have been blood and screams of pain.

Instead, the doomed Necron fought on silently. No matter, the end was night!

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From where I stood, the plan looked less than clever. There were Daemons in front of us, pouring through the broken Necron line. More of the bastards did their best to overwhelm the line on the flanks. If they succeeded, they could swarm our positions en masse.

Suddenly, it looked very lonely out here, between our hastily dug-in forces and the enemies of Humanity.

When in doubt, attack. That thought came unbidden, and it wasn't like I had a better idea.

"In the Emperor's name, at them! Purge the Daemons!" I screamed as loud as I could and brandished my brand new power mace – courtesy of a traditionalist Cogboy who no longer needed it.

"For the Emprah! For the Inquisitor!" My dumb Ogryn chorused and heedless of the danger charged straight at the rampaging Daemons.

The neverborn did their best to swarm over a small group of Terminators and Dreadnoughts who made a stand near the breach and did their best to stop the monsters.

"Driver, charge the big Daemon!" I snapped and pointed a tweaked las-pistol at the giant ugly bastard making a decent effort at dismembering the Necron Lord. If he fell, we were fucked.

A litany of curses and prayers came from the Chimera below me. Despite that, its engine roared, and with a lurch, we headed straight at the skirmish. All around us, I beheld carnage. Groups of Necron Warriors flashed into existence around us. However, they could barely slow down the Daemons. Our heavier support was busy intercepting enemy artillery heading our way or had to engage the leading elements of the Traitor's armored columns. At least the flanks held thanks to the two Necron Monoliths. Unfortunately, they could scarcely spare any firepower for the center, and it was here where this battle would be decided.

My Ogryns blasted apart the first group of Daemons that came at them. Large bore automatic shotguns and blessed ammunition proved their worth. Unfortunately, more Daemons came, and good men's blood flowed freely.

I had no more time to watch the carnage because we were there. I saw the Necron Lord fall, skewered by the huge Daemon he fought. The monster pulled out its Hellblade from his chest, dragging-half melted equipment out, and raised a hand for a decapitating strike. The remote operated heavy bolter in front of me opened up, peppering up the Daemon with blessed rounds.

A burst caught it in its hand, making it flinch. The Hellblade fell anyway. It sliced clean through the Necron's neck at an angle that brought it down into his chest. A backhand strike sent the mangled Necron flying, and the Daemon ran at us almost faster than the eye could follow.

A blinding streak of fire caught the Daemon in the side before it could carve up the Chimera, and the next thing I knew, we rammed it. I was tumbling through the air next, right beside the monster who had lost its footing.

I hit the ground hard, felt something break, and saw stars.

The next thing I knew, Weber stood above me, screaming defiance. Blood sprayed from his left shoulder, his arm was gone, yet his trembling left hand still held a roaring Chainsword. The huge Daemon was back. It was scorched, I could see bolter rounds detonating against its back, but it didn't care. It swung once, and Charles fell to his knees. My friend's sword flew away along with a few fingers.

At that point, I didn't think. I couldn't touch the Warp to fling something at that monster. I couldn't find my weapons. All I could do was to stumble on my shaky legs and push Charles away. The Hellblade fell, and I screamed in agony. The blow brought me to my knees, leaving me helpless in front of the Daemon. I was barely aware that my right arm was gone, cut off at the shoulder.

The Hellblade rose again, and I knew I was dead.


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When a third Pylon went down, it was a mixed blessing for Anteas. The Librarian and his Assault Terminator brothers were outside, running beside the Landraider. He was right, the Inquisitor was going to get himself killed, and there was no one close enough to save him.

The Ogryns were engaged, fighting and losing against a swarm of particularly nasty Bloodletters. The Guard bodyguards simply lacked the firepower to even distract the Skulltaker, who easily shrugged off bolter fire and even survived a direct Lascannon strike.

Anteas was there, however, and he could draw just enough energy from the Warp for a single technique. He focused on his gift, fed power through his Psychic Hood, and tasted both the Chaos corruption of the Warp and the shrinking clean zone created by the Pylons.

The Librarian charged, twisting the laws of physics to get there in time. He arrived with his Power Hammer posed to strike and swung down, catching the Skulltaker in the shoulder. The strike staggered the beast. Daemon flesh burned, split, and spluttered. The Hellblade posed to decapitate Veil barely missed the Inquisitor's head. Anteas wasted no time, and bodily checked the Daemon then did his best to push him aside and buy time. He got backhanded for his trouble with enough strength to stagger him. The Hellblade flashed his way, and Anteas instinctively caught it on the thick shaft of his hammer. The blessed metal alloy spluttered in defiance, smoked but held.

A Bloodletter appeared from behind the Skulltaker just as Anteas barely parried a thrust aimed at his eyes. The second Daemon tackled him and began clawing and snapping at him. Anteas pushed the haft of his hammer into its ravenous mouth and tried to get it off. While his armor kept the damage to a minimum, he was unable to help the Inquisitor, or save himself. The Librarian was sure he would be losing his head next.


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Part 6

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Deimos Peninsula

Kronus

It all came down to contingency planning in the end… and the Human Inquisitor risking his own life. Otherwise, the Necron Lord doubted that his Phylactery would have had enough time to knit together his mangled body.

He underestimated this particular abomination, a lesson he might just survive to learn from. It cut through the guards of the Pariah child with contemptuous ease, then mangled one of the Inquisitor's closest companion, only for the Human to throw himself in peril just as he did to save the Necron Lord.

All he could do was wait and give orders. The outcome of the whole battle hung on a blade's edge. He needed just a few more moments… and the Inquisitor's other companion, Anteas, bought those precious moments. The repair machines fixed him enough to activate his Resurrection Orb, which not only hastened his own repair, but brought together the Necron Warriors fallen nearby.

Lighting arced over their corner of the battlefield and fallen Necrons knit back together, then rose to continue the battle. The two guards scampered up, back together again, grabbed their blades and charged the Abomination. Even as it took two blows in order to dismember one of its attackers, the Necron Lord could see it was tiring, slowing down. The Pylons and the nearby Pariah had an effect, just not enough of it yet.

It was time, his trump card was finally ready.

Back at his stronghold, thousands of Scarabs worked tirelessly to modify the next Monolith to come fully online. They were busy incorporating state of the art Pylons within its systems, protected by thick slabs of necrodermis, active and passive defenses.

It was finally fully operational, and ready for deployment.

The capacitors at the stronghold dumped all the energy they had in one monstrous torrent. A mountain-sized bolt of lighting twisted time and space until two distant points became one. All that energy manifested right in front of an enemy armored column, which was just beginning to spread out into an assault formation. Everything nearby ceased to exist. Those looking at the event with unprotected eyes went blind. The resulting shock-wave and deafening thunderclap brought a brief pause into the fighting.

The Necron Lord staggered to his feet and he would have smiled if he could. As soon as the new Pylon was in position and working, he removed the safeties of the remaining ones, supercharging them. The effect was immediate and profound. A full third of the remaining abominations found themselves caught by the strongest part of the field.

Every single one of them, including the large one, recoiled. Some of them burst into white flame where they stood, probably the weaker ones.

It was high time to put their immortality to test.

The Abomination had enough strength left to stab the Necron it fought in the chest, then nearly punch the Warrior's head off. Fortunately, doing so too its toll.

Meanwhile, the red armored human managed to dispatch the weakened abomination on top of him and got up just in time to intercept a mortal blow aimed at the severely wounded Inquisitor. A few stumbling abominations tried to intercept the still struggling to walk Necron Lord, who dispatched them with his Gauntlet of Fire. As soon as he struck them down, they to burst into white flames, screaming in agony.

That was a good sign, surely?


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Adrenaline and sheer desperation kept me somewhat coherent. Anteas' briefly suspended my death sentence, then two more Necrons jumped at the Daemon. I was properly hallucinating, or it might have been wishful thinking. Nevertheless, it looked like the Daemon was weakening and slowing down. It still managed to cut down the Necrons and was about to finish me, when Anteas came to the rescue, again. They clashed again, and this time, my Librarian friend could hold his own.

I would have cheered if I could, instead I rasped in pain. I could feel myself weakening by the heartbeat, and it finally dawned to me that I must do something about my missing arm. My left hand went for the med pack I was sure I carried, when a small lithe form dashing towards us caught my attention and the world froze.

Selene appeared all right, even if her sealed armor was a bit banged up and dirty. She carried my power mace and a few times nearly stumbled over its weight, yet she persisted with bloody-minded determination and bee-lined towards the Daemon.

Anteas was still fighting it, and both of them appeared worse to wear now. I cursed and didn't care I was rapidly bleeding out. I looked around for a weapon and saw one of the Necrons nearby. It was cut nearly in two, yet it struggled to reach its sword. I stumbled forward and grabbed the weapon's hilt, which neatly fit in my arm.

"Selene, stay back!" I slurred out and stumbled towards the battle.

"Veil, back off!" Anteas shouted and it cost him. The Daemon slipped his blade through his guard and stabbed him under the right shoulder. That effort proved too much and the neverborn fell to his knees. It bled profusely, bolters blew off chunks of its corrupted flesh, which soon burst into silver flames. Yet, it refused to die.

The Daemon surged up with furious roar and pushed he blade in, nearly severing Anteas' arm. A streak of fire struck it into the side and made him stumble away from the Librarian. Some of its wounds caught fire, which began to slowly spread.

It still refused to die. Anteas fell to one knee, his right arm hanging limp. He grabbed the shaft of his hammer near the head and lunged at the Daemon. The monster twisted with unexpected burst of speed and instead of smashing its skull in, Anteas landed a glancing blow that took off half its face and stumbled past it.

The Daemon wasted no time and with the last strength it had left charged at me. Bolters staggered it, a second lance of fire struck him in the back and ignited it properly this time, yet it kept coming.

Selene was there then, She swung the power mace wildly and caught the Daemon in the kneecap. It imploded, finally bringing it down in front of me, as I staggered towards it, swinging blindly. My blade found purchase and the world ended in soothing silver fire.


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