As they moved through the city they passed through some of the wealthier neighborhoods and into the civic district, where the Alcazar's perimeter wall started. The district was too quiet and seemed to be deserted, but unlike the other side of the highway this district seemed to be untouched, almost pristine. The symbols of the Imperium were in abundance here. An Aquila on every wall and door, from the Munitorum Scriptorium to the huge, Gothic Ministorum Cathedral. It didn't make sense to Jhon, xenos inspired riots seemed to have swept through the entire city. Until now everywhere else they had seen had been befouled by their filth.
With no rubble or barricades they made quick progress; he felt as if he was marching down this processional avenue, with adoring crowds arrayed on both sides. Jhon was half lost in his reverie when Estevez shouted into the group channel "Movement! North West! 200m!" Jhon snapped his rifle round to his right, following the compass point superimposed in the corner of his vision. Nothing. There didn't seem to be anything there, they were just pointing their weapons at what seemed to be an abandoned Arbiteries Blockhouse.
None of them moved, they stayed with their weapons trained in the direction Estevez had indicated. Still, calm and careful, in line with their Tempestus training. But they were still human, they couldn't stay that way forever. As the seconds turned to minutes and those minutes multiplied upon themselves, Jhon could feel his attention starting to wane. He was grateful that he had more of an excuse to break his position. He reached back to check his Voxcaster, safe in the knowledge that Cuthbert next to him was covering the same street. He dropped down and looked over his shoulder to drop the heavy pack from his shoulders.
Reburrus was there behind him, his face a scowl of grim determination. He'd removed his helmet and respirator when the smoke had cleared, he always thought that the troopers preferred to see his face to give them comfort. It worked, it was often the only human face that Jhon saw while he was on duty, such was the tradition for everyone else in the battalion to wear facemasks at all times while on operations. So while Jhon worked on his Vox Caster, just confirming the frequency settings, he glanced up at Reburrus for reassurance. Reburrus was still a hard man and so only glanced down at Jhon. But it was enough. Enough for Reburrus to see Jhon start to recoil in horror. But not enough for him to hear Jhon's frantic warning, before his face exploded outwards.
Jhon must have been the only member of the column to be looking backwards. So he was the only one to see the long tail uncoil from a girder above them, articulated like a human spine. The blue/black, chitinous thing was shiny like a beetle covered in thick oil. In an impossibility smooth and quick motion the thing unfurled a claw that looked to be about half a meter long. Jhon tried to shout, but it was impossibly fast, the claw entered the back of Reburrus' head and casually threw his body to one side.
The thing just hung there and stared at him with black soulless eyes. They were vacant and utterly alien, but they also seemed to be somehow mocking him. It's needle teeth broke into a hideous smile as it lowered itself on what seemed to be an extra set of terrifyingly human looking hands. "Contact! Contact Rear!" he yelled, then, forgetting his chain of command he issued his own orders "Open Fire!" No-one questioned his authority as soon as they turned around. The thing in front of him moved impossibility fast as the hail of beams speared through the space it had previously occupied. It spun and lept like an acrobat, weaving it's way around the construction site around him. Volly and plasma fire followed las rounds as the volume of fire swelled. Jhon suddenly felt a cold dread of knowing as someone screamed into the vox link, "Genestealer!" He didn't recognize the voice.
He knew that one genestealer would have been an extreme threat, any new graduate PDF new that from basic training. But there wasn't just one genestealer, as Jhon looked and fired he saw more and more of them uncurl themselves from the steelwork. The creatures leapt and swirled around their fire, but somehow seemed to come directly towards them all the time. It was impossible, but they had already reached into their position, genestealers landing among them. They tore at the troopers, eviscerating them with their talons and claws. Some tried to fight back, drawing regimental blades and combat knives. A few even seemed to score a few hits, drawing purple alien blood and punching point blank wounds through their carapace. The genestealer killed them more easily, much faster. Claws passing through their armour as easily as their fatigues.
Jhon was firing too now. He threw himself to the left, narrowly avoiding a swiping claw, and fell just meters from where Reburrus' body lay limp in the dirt. Strong hands pulled him back as he kept firing at the moving black shapes ahead of him. He struggled back to his feet, part of the solid mass of gun barrels that the troopers had formed themselves into. Plasma rounds were lighting up the darkness of the scaffolding now and Jhon thought he could see even more shapes moving further and further back into the half gloom. 'Grenades!' Mesarine ordered as the squad unhooked the frag grenades from their hips and hurled them into the mass. Razor sharp shrapnel burst over their cowering heads. There was a piercing screech as the consussove booms caught some of the beasts and pushed more back into the scaffold. It was only a moment of respite, but it was all that they needed. Jhon and the rest of his unit fell out from the central mass and formed up into firing lines. Each of them was finally able to bring the full force of their weapons to bear. With this and their well trained aim the genestealers finally started to die. They were still surging forward, ducking and weaving more like a bird than a biped. They had to seize this moment, it was their only chance to escape the ambush.
The moment had not been lost on Mesarine either. Everyone knew that you didn't give an order to an Ogryn, you just held them back until you needed them. Jhon was too busy to see Mesarine pull out her medical auspex to disable the Ogryn's cerebral pacifier. But she must have, because it suddenly broke out of its usual relative docility into a slavering rage. It roared as it charged into the genestealers, who were shifting back and forth as if they were a flock of wild birds. Jhon couldn't help but think about the monster that had almost killed him earlier in this overly long day.
The genestealers pounced on the Ogryn as soon as it was in reach. He battered the first few aside with powerful sweeps of the slab shield he carried. The thick lump of plasteel snapped limbs and necks with ease and a few creatures fell at his feet. Others he slammed into with the huge power maul he carried. As tall as any one of them, his huge forearms rose and fell; rhythmically pounding away at the oncoming swarm. The force was enough that each time his arm came down it seemed to be guaranteed to smash at least one of the bulbous, unnaturally long skulls. The men around Jhon cheered at the sight and kept up their fire to try and keep more of the genestealers off the Ogryn.
But Mesarine was already in their ears "Fall back! Good order, fallback by squad and make for the Alcazar". It seemed so wrong to fall back, just as they seemed to be winning. But he didn't protest, and he fell in with his unit, a Delta pattern tactical withdrawal. He was in the second unit away from the firing line, a technical specialist and therefore quickly out. But he could already see that Mesarine was right with her order. Two genestealers had managed to get onto the Ogryn's back. Jhon could see their brutally hooked claws sink into the deep flesh of the Ogryn's shoulders as their needle teeth bit into the meat of his neck.
Jhon couldn't stay to watch the Ogryn's heroic end, just a quick look back as he jogged away towards the Alcazar. The Ogryn looked transformed, he was nothing like the oafish, smelly brute that they all avoided in the barracks. Instead he had become an avatar of the Emperor's wrath. He was standing tall while purple and sickly yellow genestealers covered his back and shoulders. Despite being eaten alive, the pain didn't seem to sap any of the Ogryn's strength, he was still swinging that shield as if it was a sheaf of paper, rather than being more like the side armour of a Leman Russ strapped to his arm.
By the time Jhon slammed himself into the curtain wall of the Alcazar he could just hear the last roar of frustration and pain from the Ogryn. The abhuman had heroically sacrificed himself for the rest of them. Jhon and the other specialists formed around the first entrance that they found in the wall. It was a small doorway, clearly for servants or serfs. Jhon pointed his weapon back down the street and watched the other members of his troop trickle in. Alain, Cuthbert and a plasma gunner were already with him. Together they welcomed in four more unknown line troopers. Mesarine came last, walking quickly rather than running, taking the time to review more information on her innumerable dataslates. Estevez moved in a loping run at her side, clearly escorting her with his head swivelling back and forth like a servitor with it's head on a gimbal.