Chapter 9
A great reckoning
The inquisitor stood behind the husk of empty armor. It once held a great man but now held nothing but a body, the soul gone forever vanquished, by the man they trusted most. The inquisitor lowered his plasma pistol, blue smoke still coiled from the end of the barrel and made a halo around the inquisitor. Cameron was shocked beyond beleife he couldn't think could understand so he did what instincts told him to. He drew a bead on the inquisitor with his bolt gun.
Aaron stared at the barrel of the bolt gun with little interest.
"you, you killed him" stammered Cameron gripping the bolt gun tighter in his grip. "you killed him you bastard!" shouted Cameron rage now overcoming his confusion.
"I did what I had to do" said Aaron waving with the pistol in a dismissive gesture.
"but. He was a man of the emperor just like you." Cameron was shaking by now just a slight tip from pulling the trigger and blasting this, man away.
"don't talk to me about the emperor!" snarled Aaron. "I toiled away in his name for years and I received nothing. Everything was taken from me and the dammed emperor never showed his face, where is he?" said Aaron shouting now and pacing over to the machine.
"where is that corpse of a man you call god?" his face was contorted with rage, spittle flying from his mouth.
Cameron had hear enough. He squeezed the trigger and the bolt gun bucked in his hands. The roar from the barrel was magnified because of the room, it sounded like the roar of god. But the inquisitor stood, unharmed un scathed surrounded by a shimmering field of energy.
"poor stupid boy" Aaron said lifting up a free hand.
Lighting flashed from that outstretched hand and blasted Cameron's grip on the bolter. His hand the bolter and his armor melted into one flowing thing Cameron fell to the floor dropping his captured power sword and curled into a ball as his molten stump began to cool.
"you think you can stop me? When the grand masters have failed, when I have tricked the ordeo heriticus? No one can stop me now, this machine is what will make me a god." He slapped the side of the machine and it began to rattle and pump. The pistons moved up and down and a metallic hammering could be heard inside it. Smoke belched from a stack on top and the whole machine vibrated.
"the inquisition will stop you" coughed Cameron through the pain of his hand.
" the inquisition?" shouted Aaron. " who do you think helped me here? Who do you think made the story of the necrons being controlled by the chaos? I have most of the interrogators and inquisitors in the helican sub sector waiting for me to give the signal." Aaron was pacing up and down the machine. As he was distracted Cameron slid over to his power sword.
Aaron spun on his heel and reached out with his mind. Cameron's insides felt like broken glass on fire. He tried to scream but blood spurted from his mouth. Twitching on the floor he was wracked with physic surges of pain. His suit tired to administer drugs to fight the pain but it wasn't his body but his mind that felt the pain. He began bleeding from his eyes his ears mouth and nose. He couldn't see anything any more and could only hear his heart beating in his chest. But Aaron stopped that to. For one lurching moment Cameron was in the calm of a great storm the pain died so suddenly only to be replaced by the inquisitors mind crushing Cameron's heart keeping it from beating making him spasm.
His eyes were still filled with blood and his ears with the absence of his heart beat when Aaron let him go. His mind was clear and suddenly the rush of drugs fro his suit hit him. His vision swam and it was hard to think. Aaron sent another wave of pain into Cameron's head.
"I want you alive to see this, my crowning achievement." Aaron was standing near the machine and Cameron could see a side door was open, black and ominous. A metal clang sounded from inside of it, then another and finally a third that brought a chrome foot out into the light. A chrome body followed with another heavy metal step.
What stood before Cameron was no machine from the adepts of mars and no necron, nothing so beautiful or cruel respectively. Instead it was fear incarnate. The body was smooth and rounded like the perfect physic of a man but there was a subtle wrongness to it. Where the metal muscles stood out Cameron could see offset lines, and instead of a right hand it had a claw with long nails crackling with energy. Around its metallic waist was what looked like a miscopied belt and scabbard holding a gleaming chrome sword. But what was most disturbing was the head. It was long and slender almost like a horses and ended in a blunt mouth with no lips so its metallic teeth were bared. In this head were set the eyes. Just LED's but behind them was a shimmer of intelligence self awareness. Life.
"little Cameron." Aaron mocked examining the machine with awe. "you seem so scared. Don't you like my new toy?"
"dam you to the warp Aaron!" said Cameron spitting out a mouth full of blood and scrabbling for his sword again.
"ah good" said Aaron as Cameron grabbed the sword and got back to his feet grimacing in pain as his stump flared up again even over all the drugs pumped into him. He swayed on his feet and ignited the sword. Red energy flared along the blade
"I hope you're a good fighter Cameron" said Aaron looking back at the machine man. "I did so want to test my toys power before a full scale invasion, of terra" he added the last bit with a sneer on his face. Cameron shuddered involuntarily.
"you will not leave this rock alive" promised Cameron.
Aaron looked at his "toy" and simply said "kill him"
The machine drew its chrome blade, the perfect smooth sides glinting the light. Then it lunged. There was super human speed behind the blow. Cameron brought his sword up to block just in time. Sparks flew across both blades but already the machine was spinning on the inside of his guard and plunged the blade again. Cameron jinked from the blow but was not quick enough. His armor split open along his side and the blade cut deep in his flesh.
Cameron ripped free of the chrome blade and rolled making blood splash out on to the floor.. before he could regain his footing the chrome beast was upon him again. The machine was to fast for Cameron. every blow from it was numbing his arms and the pain killers were fogging his mind.
He knew he was going to die.
The machine stabbed at Cameron again this time impaling him through the chest. Cameron spurted blood and began heaving and gasping for breath.
"enough" shouted Aaron "I want to kill him myself." Aaron stepped forward drawing a long power knife from under his belt. The blade glowed green with barley controlled power, the light cast shadows across Aarons face making his evil feral grin into a beastly shape.
Aaron grabbed Cameron by the back of the power armor and plunged the knife deep in his chest. The knife singed and burnt his insides and set his body on fire. Every motion of the blade was agony that the drugs could not compete with.
Aaron dragged the blade up and began forcing it over left slowly towards Cameron's heart. Cameron flailed around grabbing his belt pouches looking for a weapon any sort of weapon.
"how does it feel Cameron? that you know your going to die? I can feel you pain and your fear your hate, I can feel everything you think. You cant stop me. The only thing that has brought u this far has been luck." Said Aaron stopping to force his words into Cameron's brain with psychic waves. That remark was the inquisitors downfall.
Cameron reached behind him keeping the thought luck in his mind reaching for one of his back pockets unopened because he thought he would never need it. Cameron found what he was looking for, his bit of luck. Then with all of his might he wrapped round the inquisitor jamming the knife deeper into his chest. He then let go rocking back and kicking out with both his feet. Cameron could hear bones snap as his power armor practically crushed the inquisitors chest.
Aaron tumbled back and stopped rolling against the rumbling machine. He grabbed a leaver and pulled himself up to standing height lightning began to crackle around his fists and head. Arcs of pure energy blasted in random directions as Aarons full anger came to bear.
"you will pay for that you bastard." Aaron lifted both his arms aiming at Cameron the energy grew more and more powerful building up, the lights on the ceiling began to dim and the machine at Aarons back sputtered and coughed as he dragged power from all around him. Then the melta bombs 10 second fuse finished counting down.
A wave of blue venting power blasted out and was suddenly followed by the physic death throws of the alpha class psycher. The room went black and slowly began to flash in the white light of the glow globes as they tried to regain power. A fleshy mass of meat flew over Cameron and landed wetly on the floor behind him. As it flew it looked like it had the wrong number of limbs and the wrong amount of body. In the flashing Cameron could see the chrome machine take a step forward then another slowly advancing on Cameron now that Aaron was dead.
Cameron raised his arms in a feeble gesture to try and ward away the great machine. In response it squarely kicked Cameron in the face crushing his jaw and making him spill blood everywhere.
Before the machine could strike again a great golden power glaive burst through the machines chest. Sparks flew from the mechanical wound and the machine began to twitch. Behind that glaive was the grand master, his armor was scorched and he was missing his left arm from what looked like a plasma burn. He threw the machine from his glaive and looked down at Cameron.
" in the name of the emperor I claim the heriticus and take your life."
Cameron stared down the chrome twin barrels of the grey knights storm bolter strapped to his wrist, the thumb moved towards the firing stud. Cameron threw up his arms.
"wait!" the effort was amazing, his stump still smoked and his other arm he was sure was broken. "it wasn't me it was the inquisitor."
The grand master lowered his storm bolter a bit. Letting the vessel of death aim off of Cameron.
"you were part of the inquisitors betrayal, you were the only one he wanted saved from that planet. You were the only one he didn't kill out right. You Cameron are as much a heretic as that ball of molten flesh on the floor there." He raised the gun back up. Cameron still had his arms up, smoking stump and all.
"im not a heretic!" shouted Cameron. He began to recite the litanies of hate the prayers of protection, even the nursery rhymes he learnt as a little child. Anything that would signify his purity of heart. Cameron shouted them louder and louder still as the grey knight lifted his storm bolter again. Cameron curled into a ball and closed his eyes as he waited. The smoke from his stump filled his nose and his ears were beating with his own heart rhythm. Then he heard it. The loud harsh retort of a storm bolter. Cameron waited for the warm flow of pain as round after round blasted into his body and tore him apart. But instead nothing happened. There was no pain, no warmth no darkness just his horrible stench of his fused stump of a hand.
Cameron finally looked out of his ball and stared up into the grandmaster. Still standing there bolter raised and barrels smoking. But it wasn't pointed at him, Cameron looked at where it was pointing, behind him at the fleshy mass that had been the dead inquisitor arron until it had begun to crawl at Cameron with its power knife, now fused to its body, raised.
"we need to leave now, in precisely 15 minutes there will be a shuttle landing in the large open dome that we charged through, after that the whole planet will be virus bombed and left to burn." Said the grand master stooping down and scooping Cameron up.
Cameron looked back at the mess of the inquisitor as he used the great bulk of the grey knight as a crutch.
"so im no longer a heretic?" said Cameron with a grin on his face. The grey knight looked at Cameron though he doubted he could understand any sort of humor. Then the 2 set off. Cameron looping his handless arm over the grey knight and the grandmaster holding his power glaive in his one remaining hand that had the storm bolter strapped to it.
The trip back to the surface was short and quick it seemed. The voices had stopped and the sigils on the walls had stopped moving, at the heart of the planet there could be hear a rumbling. Something was killing the planet. When the two reached the big dome the drop ship was just touching down its wings spread and engines aimed at the ground kicking up dust and covering dead bodies and machines alike as if they had never been there.
The grand master began to jog to the ship but Cameron stopped and hobbled over to a pile of black dust.
"come quickly we have very little time!" he shouted. Cameron ignored him and brushed the dust away and rolled over a half a dead chaos marine to reveal what he was looking for. His black helm a deep gouge where the chain sword had hit it, one of the wings was half missing and the right optic eye was shattered. He scoped it up and ran full pelt to the ship. As soon as he swung his legs in the engines roared to life and blasted the ship back to space.
Cameron buckled himself in and looked back out the window below at the world as it disappeared. Suddenly blue flashes could be seen in rings around where the foul machine would have been. Apparently Cameron had hit something vital. He then sat back in his grav chair and began to laugh as fatigue began to roll over him like gentle waves.
The grandmaster looked at Cameron "what is so funny?" he said taking off his helmet revealing a blond head of short cropped hair and a face of scars.
"its just a little case of dejavue" he said then fell back into that beautiful warm embrace of sleep.