Tergum Cultro Chapter 11

Toran awoke to absolute darkness; he could not see anything but he was alive and he was awake. His autosenses could not register anything in the pitch black but he could feel his armour was covered by loose debris. He slowly brushed it off with one hand then tried to stand up but was brought up short when his helm impacted a stone barrier at just over waist height. Frustrated by his inability to see Toran ripped off his helm revealing the augmetic eye embedded in his skull, the slightest mental impulse was enough to cause it to glow and illuminate the darkness. Toran could barely see the hand before his face but it was enough to take in the situation, he appeared to be in a small cavity between two horizontal slabs of rock. The way the ceiling caved in must have piled the stonework together, leaving a tiny space between the floor and the roof.

Toran flopped onto his belly and crawled forwards, ruining what was left of his proud colours as he dragged his armour over sharp stones. He pulled himself hand over hand as he tried to find any other survivors but was stopped short as he collided with a pair of pillars in the middle of the space. Toran was puzzled for he did not recall any pillars in the sanctum and did not understand where they had come from. He looked up and gasped at what he saw looming over him. Standing in the middle of the space was Furion; he was bent over with his backpack pressed right against the central keystone of the roof. The flying buttresses seemed to have snagged just above the keystone and were supporting the weight of the entire roof on their arches. No, Toran realised in startled wonder, the buttresses were not supporting the roof: it was Furion. He was holding it aloft. Furion's arms were widely spread to brace the immense weight and his boots were cracking the bedrock of the floor as they drove into the surface. His Mark III plate was buzzing angrily at the strain and the fibre bundle muscles of the suit was bulging to absolute breaking point. Toran realised that Furion had done the impossible, he had caught the keystone as it fell upon him and now he was the only thing keeping tons upon tons of rock from crashing down and grinding everybody to paste.

Toran looked up in amazement and said, "Brother… how are you doing that?"

Furion's only response was to growl, "Gunnnngh…. unnngh…"

Toran realised Furion was pushed to the absolute limit by the weight pressing down on him, his concentration must have been total and all consuming. His brother had already surpassed everything Toran thought he knew about an Astartes' limits but he could not last long. The lifetime of any survivors was now measured by Furion's endurance, the second he wavered everybody died. Toran decided not to distract Furion again and pulled himself around seeing another body half buried in the rubble. He pushed aside the discarded Heavy Flamer to find Novak lying on his back, buried up to the chest in what was now the wall.

Toran crawled over and slapped his helm hard until his head moved. Novak looked up and said with an unhealthy gurgle, "Sergeant…"

Toran asked "Are you hale?"

Novak replied, "I regret to report…"

"Brother?" said Toran in concern.

Novak breathed in and said, "I regret to report… my blade is broken," as he held up his shattered rapier.

Toran could not help but let out a short bark of laughter at the ridiculous answer, the sheer scope of their situation overcoming his stoicism for a second. He was interrupted by a snarl over the vox as another voice cut in.

"I am alive too, if anyone cares" came the voice of Halis.

"Where are you?" asked Toran.

"No idea," said Halis, "I appear to be buried, my armour is intact but I cannot move an inch."

"Stay still," said Toran, "We will dig our way out of here."

"We?" said Halis, "Who else is left?"

"Novak is pinned" said Toran "And Furion is here too but he is busy holding back the avalanche."

"He doing WHAT?!" exclaimed Halis in disbelief.

"Just believe me," said Toran, "Is there anyone else?"

Another voice cut in saying "Sergeant this is Persion: I alive, I am in some form of cavity in the wall. Ophelion is with me, he is alive but unconscious. I don't know if he is in a Sus-an-membrane coma or just stunned."

Then another voice on the vox, "Daite reporting, I am pinned under a plinth. I am buried but can move slightly, I will try to dig my way to you."

Toran sighed in relief but realised one squad member was unaccounted for, he barked "Jediah, Jediah report damn you!"

There was a cough then a voice said, "Here Sergeant."

"Are you injured brother?" asked Toran.

Jediah replied, "There is nothing wrong with me that will not be better once I get my hands on that bitch Canesh. I am going to peel her skin off and dice her limbs into little chunks slice by slice, then I am going to make her watch me feed them to vermin."

"Jediah must be concussed," said Halis, "His wits are addled."

"Really?" Novak said, "He doesn't sound any different from normal to me."

While they were talking Toran turned about and dragged himself over to where he thought the entranceway had been. He blessed the Emperor for ensuring it was impossible to disorientate a Space Marine, otherwise he might well have been facing the wrong way. He had no tools but used his gauntlets to start digging his way up, pulling aside loose detritus and debris to create a hole.

As he dug he heard Novak saying, "We were chasing Castabore and then Canesh tries to kill us, do you think they are working together?"

Persion answered on the Vox, "If they knew the STC was here then they could have concocted this whole scheme, set up this trap to eliminate us and take the archeotech for themselves."

Halis interrupted to say, "No, you are getting it all backwards. The doors were blown before long we arrived, Castabore was never here. Canesh wants the STC all for herself but she knew the Tech-Priests would come running the second the shrine was violated. This trap was meant to catch any Tech-Priests on her trail while she made her escape."

Persion continued the narrative, "So Canesh gets her hands on the archeotech and then she has the sheer bad luck to run into us on the way out. She could not leave any witnesses behind but couldn't hope to beat us in a straight fight either. So she decides to double back and steer us into her own trap."

Daite commented, "Knifed in the back by not once but twice, by two different Heretics."

While the others had been talking Toran had been furiously digging but suddenly there was a groan and the whole structure shifted. Tons of loose rock were disturbed by his excavations and slid over each other. Dust and debris poured into the cavity, filling it with a choking miasma and the groan of rock shifting echoed through the tiny space. Furion screamed "Garrrgh!" as his knees buckled, dropping the keystone downwards. He caught himself after a couple of inches and braced the roof again, now lower than ever. He was holding the avalanche back but his position growing worse. That he had persevered this long was a miracle but his endurance was faltering, now only his sheer bloody minded refusal to quit stood between everybody and a crushing death.

"Sergeant," said Persion on the vox, "We could really use some of that unorthodox thinking right about now."

Toran looked about but saw nothing that would help their situation, nothing except the Heavy Flamer at Furion's feet. He swallowed then dragged himself forwards saying, "I have an idea."

Novak craned his neck around to see where the Sergeant was going and said, "You cannot be serious."

"What's he doing?" asked Halis on the Vox.

"He is going to try to make a bomb out of the flamer's tanks and blow a hole back into the nave," said Novak watching the sergeant drag the tanks over to the hole he had dug.

"No, no, no, no, no… that is a really, really bad idea," Halis excalimed, "If there is anything but loose debris between the sanctum and the nave the force of the blast will directed inwards and blow us all the way to the Golden Throne."

"We don't have any other choice," said Toran wedging the tanks into the hole he had dug.

"Sergeant…" said Halis but he was cut off as Furion groaned again and slipped down another inch. Dust and rock chips cascaded into the space and a terrible creaking noise made everybody freeze.

"Everybody brace!" yelled Toran as he levered the biggest piece of rock he could find up against the tanks, creating a primitive barrier. He placed his backpack hard against the rock then took a Krak grenade from his belt and leaned forward to bring the rock out a few degrees. He threw the grenade over his shoulder and flung himself backwards, pressing hard against the rock to create a hard seal around the tanks. He dug his heels into the ground, carving short grooves into the stonework and bellowed, "Fire in the Hole!"

Then the Krak grenade exploded and the world turned white.