This changed things, their primary objective was apparently a traitor who's brains now decorated the floor of the Alcazar. John looked down at his equipment, Mesarine was receiving a message from the Fleet on the Command channel, it was coded Magenta level and he was not cleared to see it's content. He signalled to her, she read it and signed out in battle cant that they needed to withdraw and head down a passageway to their west. They didn't make a sound, but as they started to move Jhon heard a dark alien laughter. He couldn't see, but somehow he knew that it was coming from the Genestealer. It was in his mind and while it didn't use words it told him, and everyone around him, that the thing knew exactly where they were.
The chattering and praying stopped and the room was silent, except for the laughter in their heads. Jhon was compelled to look back over the balcony, it was as if he had to see the beast again. This time the things in the congregation were looking straight up at them, all of their eyes glowing, yellow and intense.
A bald priest came forward and started to speak. Despite the huge room Jhon heard him as clearly as if he were wearing the voxset. "Do you not see how glorious it is?" Intoned the priest in a voice that was forceful but seemed full of compassion. "Just like your Lord you are welcome here with us. We do not judge you for the actions you committed in the name of the Terran King. We offer you a chance to join us and be one with the Star Gods themselves. Soon they will arrive to end this benighted world. The faithful will travel with them forever as part of their glorious family. Join us. Join us!". Thousands of eyes, carpeting the floor of the vast room, looked up at them and began to chant the words of the Xenos priest. Perfectly with one voice, "Join Us. Join with the Star Gods." They repeated themselves, growing in volume and ferocity with each loop "Join Us. Join with the Star Gods. Join Us. Join with the Star Gods."
Mesarine's detached calm voice filled his ears. "Tactical withdrawal, down the passageway to our right - Echo pattern. Estevez, you take point. Alain, Cuthbert, brace weapons and provide covering fire until full withdrawal. On my mark". Echo pattern meant a phased withdrawal with each trooper taking targets of opportunity until the Scion to their left had moved off station. Alain & Cuthbert would stay behind until the rest of the squad was clear. They all knew that the two of them wouldn't have a good chance of escape, but they checked and prepared their weapons all the same.
The rest of the squad followed suit and braced their Hellguns on the ornate edge of the balcony. The chanting continued, the voices now breaking into an ugly snarling. So far the crowd hadn't moved, but they could see that the doors at the sides of the chamber were opening and vicious knives were being drawn. Obviously the chanting had worked in the past; now with a clear view Jhon could see the yellow and purple uniform of the Uhlan Cavalry among the crowd. These once loyal guardsmen were drawing their lasguns as others racked rusty auto weapons.
They started to move and the crowd seemed to rise like a wave, cresting as it started to break towards the doors at the edges of the room. No doubt some of them led up to their position and it wouldn't take long for the tide of filth to reach them. The Scions all had their weapons branced, but they held their nerve until Mesarine's voice came through their vox beads "Open Fire Squad".
Hellgun beams stabbed out in dazzling lances and Alain and Cuthbert's volley guns spat a blistering haze of high energy pulses. The lights were cut across the room, but the sheer volume of las fire that the squad was putting out bathed the room in enough light that none of them needed to use their lumens. Cultists were cut down in droves, tightly packed crowds were mown down rank by rank as weapons were swept back and forth across them from an elevated position. The trooper to Jhon's right, Icby, tapped Jhon on the shoulder. Icby pointed over to a doorway which led onto their balcony "There coming up!" He yelled over the gunfire "Frag!". Jhon unhooked a frag grenade from his webbing, primed the base and hurled it in the general direction that Icby had indicated.
Jhon had to keep up his rate of fire, but he watched the grenade as it sailed over the void in the centre of the room. It was a perfect throw, more through luck than judgement. It bounced off one wall of the passageway to fall further into the group of cultists who were starting to emerge onto the landing. The grenade went off with a bass crump sound, fragments of grenade and masonry mixed with blood and ichor spraying out of the passageway and stemming the flow of bodies. Jhon shifted his aim and lent his fire to the fusilade which brought down the remainder of the group who had already made it up the stairs. He aimed and fired with mechanical regularity, boring holes in the wretches as they ran at him.
But this group was only the vanguard. More and more cultists poured up and out of that passageway and the others around the upper levels. Some even started climbing down the walls from exits higher above them. They were using wickedly sharp claws to grip the columns, claws which protruded from horrifying vestigial limbs. They were Mutants and Xenos worshipping heretics and that only made them fight harder as they were pushed backwards. Troopers peeled off to follow Estevez when an opportunity was presented, but that meant that the volume of fire that they could put out decreased as each member of the squad that extracted themselves. Even though purple and grey corpses littered the floor around them, they were still getting closer and closer.
By the time it was his turn to withdraw Alain and Cuthbert's Volly guns were still keeping them at bay. Mesarine was still with them too, her bolt pistol roaring and with each blas. She had drawn her chain sword in her other hand and was making sure that any of them that slipped through the volley fire was dealt with swiftly and brutally. Before Jhon withdrew he yelled to Mesarine "Only the three of you left Ma'am, should I cover your retreat?"
Her reply, through the vox, was almost as calm and cold as before, only the slightest hint of effort gave away the fact that she was crushing the skull of one of the larger berserker cultists at the same time. "Withdraw as ordered Specialist" clearly she switched to the squad channel and continued talking "Alain, Cuthbert, remained on station until overwhelmed and re-group with the unit further down the passageway. All other troopers, continue to rally point Gamma, I have marked your terminals''.
It was clear what that meant, Alain and Cuthbert were not going to get clear. Jhon had never met two troopers more staunch, more steadfast. Despite knowing this, they both had their weapons against their hips. They weren't going to waver, they were going to sell their lives as well as they could to fulfill their duty to the God Emperor. Jhon turned and ran, as fast as he could with his equipment and his heavy vox rig.
Jhon hesitated and watched as he ran. A wave of chittering bodies rose up, crested and started crashing down against the volley-gun fire. At the last second Mesarine jumped away, landed hard and rolled forwards onto her feet. It was an incredible athletic display from someone who usually stayed in the Medicae. As she ran down the tunnel towards Jhon, the wave crashed down and completely enveloped Alain and Cuthbert. Mesarine crashed into him and pulled him behind her with an iron grip. "Prime your grenades Troopers. All of them; Frag and Krak. Now" Jhon knew what she meant, they had both taken off their bandoleers and while running they primed all of their remaining charges. "Aim true, Trooper, let the Emperor's aim guide you".
Together they hurled the bandoleers back down the passageway, where the press of bodies was so thick that they blocked out the sickly purple light from behind them. Mesarine shoved him hard to the right, behind a pillar that would have been hard to miss, even with their lumen amplifiers. One or two grenades turned into a roaring blast, the pressure wave rolled down the passageway and knocked the air from their lungs. They both dropped as low as possible as they were pelted with shrapnel and falling masonry, mercifully most of it pinging off of their carapace. It was only after the blast that Jhon realised that where he wasn't wearing a helmet he could have been killed by that shrapnel.
Instead Mesarine had fallen on top of him and shielded his head. "Are you injured Trooper?" She asked with her blank lenses staring into his. He shook his head "Good." she replied breathlessly "We should continue onwards to join the rest of the squad". They both moved off without another word, leaving the mess of rubble and corpses blocking the mouth of the tunnel behind them.