Tergum Cultro Chapter 10

From the outside the Mechanicus shrine resembled a large gate way built into solid rock, soaring high above and engraved with the bifurcated skull symbol of Mars. It was easily large enough for a pair of Dreadnoughts to pass through unimpeded yet to approach it would be deadly. The archway was festooned with defensive multi-lasers, plasma cavaliers and servitors bearing Grav-cannons. Sadly this elaborate defence was now useless, the jerked randomly in their firing slits seeking targets that they could not find. The Cavaliers sparked uselessly as they powered up and down repeatedly while the Servitors wandered aimlessly about finding nothing. The gate itself was sitting wide open, split down the middle of the great icon to form two separate images, one of flesh the other of steel.

"What happened here?" asked Toran surveying the crippled armaments.

"Some form of scrapcode infestation," replied Canesh, "It must have infected the Machine Spirits with data-djinns and trickster engrams."

"Then Castabore is already here," excalimed Toran, "Quickly we may still catch her!"

IXth squad bounded forwards, weapons raised as they swept for enemies but Canesh paused and said to her Stormtroopers, "Stay here and form a perimeter, we will scout ahead."

The Stormtroopers saluted and turned their Hellguns outwards as the Inquisitor followed the Space Marines inside. The Imperials progressed swiftly under the shadow of the defences, alert for the slightest sign that they were being targeted but nothing happened and they passed under the archway into the shrine itself. Beyond the gate the fane was carved deep into the bed rock of the planet, stretching away in a long nave. The space was bare save for devotional icons to the glory of the Omnissiah and large vox casters that blared binaric hymns on a continuous loop. More gun servitors wandered aimlessly around in the interior but their weapons were pointed at the ground and their targeting scanners were blind to the world. At the far end of the nave were the smoking remains of a rood screen before a smashed altar. Behind that were a pair of smaller doors which were ajar and hanging off their frames.

Toran took in the shattered remains of the shrine and snarled, "Warp Hells, the Heretic has been and gone, she must already have the archive!"

Inquisitor Canesh stepped forwards and said, "Take your Space Marines and secure the inner sanctum, we must know what has been stolen. I will sweep this area and try to discern if there is any trail to follow."

Toran bristled at her assumption of authority and said, "Inquisitor we are not under your command, you do not give us orders."

Canesh raised a prim eyebrow and said, "Do you want to waste time arguing about jurisdiction or do you want to catch a Traitor?"

Toran wanted to argue further but knew her words made sense so he waved the squad forwards and reluctantly said, "Very well, I will take your suggestions under advisement, for now."

Leaving Canesh behind they approached the end of the nave. The interior doors had been blown wide open, leaving a gaping hole into the sanctum. Beyond those doors they found an octagonal chamber some fifty paces wide, clad in marble tiles cut to microscopically exact measurements. The roof was beautiful dome with reinforced flying buttresses, leading into a central Keystone the length of a Space Marine. Short plinths were placed with geometric precision around the sanctum, each bearing strange ornaments and shimmering with the light of stasis fields. On the far wall was a curious emblem, brazenly out of place, for it was a large white circle banded with an iron chain. Emblazoned on the circle was large black avian creature with wings wide spread and claws gripping the chain.

Novak pointed at the emblem and said, "That is the seal of the Raven Guard, what is it doing here?" He stepped between the plinths for a closer look but pulled up short as Furion yelled, "Stop!"

Novak froze with one foot still in mid air and held his breath as Furion slowly crept closer. He set down his Heavy Flamer and inched forwards to gingerly probe at a loose flagstone right under where Novak was about to put his boot. He lifted it a hairsbreadth and peered underneath declaring, "Seismic mine, similar to the one that brought down the gate. One more step and you would have brought this whole place down on our heads."

Novak pulled his boot back and took a large step away as he asked, "Can you disarm it?"

Furion snorted in derision, "Give me time and I can disarm anything."

He pulled a pack of tools from his belt and removed a series of micro thin wires along with a device that sprouted curling Mechandrites. He slid a tiny probe under the flagstone and began disarming the mine with all the care of a master watchmaker. Meanwhile IXth squad spread out and began examining the rest of the shrine, checking for more traps and hidden secrets. Toran walked around the perimeter, careful of his steps as he examined the various plinths laid out before him. Many bore strange devices whose purpose he could not begin to guess and some he suspected may have been heretically Xeno in origin. Others supported single sheets of vellum parchment covered with text from dead and forgotten languages, while one plinth merely shone a rotating hololithic image of some esoteric fomula in mid air. Another bore a strange mask of a young boy wrought from gold, crowned with a strange cobra like headdress. Yet the most important plinth of all was not demarked by its content but rather by it's absence. It was short and otherwise indistinguishable, save for a knife that had been rammed into the mechanism to disrupt its stasis field. Toran stared at the inert block and felt the dreadful implications arising from the bare slab, that must once have held the precious STC data. Castabore had taken the archive and Toran knew not where she had fled.

He paced away snarling under his breath and inspected the progress of the rest of the squad. Toran felt frustration and bile building within him, but then he saw another of his brothers acting oddly. It was Persion and he was standing by the entrance way, staring at the doors silently and unmoving. Toran gently walked up to Persion and saw he was carefully examining the door jamb, looking over every inch from top to bottom. Toran came to stand beside Persion and asked, "Found something brother?"

Persion replied, "This door is all wrong."

"It has been blown open," Toran pointed out, "Of course there is something wrong."

"No," Persion demurred, "These doors are wrecked, smashed asunder."

"Why is that important?" Toran asked not seeing the point.

Persion answered, "The doors have been demolished with Melta bombs but this is a Mechanicus shrine, why would the Magos risk damaging the relics inside?"

Toran finally grasped what Persion was driving at and he reasoned out loud, "Yes, the Magos wouldn't have risked damaging the relics because she surely had the authority to just open the seals herself. This was sloppy and reckless work, not at all like a Tech-Priest."

Persion nodded as his Sergeant caught up and said, "Something is very wrong."

Toran tried to understand what had occurred but he knew not enough about Tech-priest thinking so he called out, "Inquisitor I need your opinion, come look at this..."

He was met by silence. A slight frown creased his brow as turned calling out, "Inquisitor?" but Canesh was not where she had been. While everybody was distracted she had silently withdrawn beyond the outer doors of the shrine and was now standing outside with her Stormtroopers. Every weapon raised to point straight inside: right at IXth squad. Shock and outrage stole over Toran and without conscious thought he began to run forwards, but time seemed to dilate and his feet appeared to move with glacial slowness. Barely had he managed to put one foot before another when Canesh held up a long silver cylinder in one hand. Then she smiled with smug superiority and contempt as her thumb hit the trigger rune.

The ground lurched beneath the Space Marines' feet as her remote detonator set off the seismic mine in an ultrasonic shriek of disruptive noise. Toran was thrown to the side as the arcane device projected overpowering sonic waves through the bedrock, the vibrations travelling instantly through the stonework to hurl everybody off their feet. Ultrasonic waves battered at Toran making his bones rattle and his teeth ache in his skull and the ground danced under his feet. The disruption was stomach-churning for anyone in range but utterly catastrophic for the shrine itself. Thick rock shook like a reed in the wind and massive cracks ran through the pillars and buttress as their integrity was shattered. Stone splinters flew like bullets and a terrible groaning filled the chamber as hundreds of tons of stone shifted on skittering foundations. With a final burst of energy the seismic mine created a crescendo of ultrasonic waves that turned the air itself blurry and indistinct then it died away. For a single moment silence reigned and all was still, then with an earth shattering rumble the entire ceiling caved in on their heads.

Toran looked up in horror as the massive Keystone broke free and dropped right on Furion's position, the rest of the roof following it down, creating an avalanche of broken masonry and rough rocks. Toran threw up his arms over his head but could not hold back the deluge. A huge boulder smashed into his helm and knocked him into unconsciousness as the Storm Heralds were buried alive.