Chapter 25

Clash of Titans

Part 1

"Fight fire with fire"

Captain Florn

The lightning bolt slammed into the assassin, sending him flying backwards and smashing into the wall at near bone-breaking speed, as he slumped to the floor Rosso took the chance and broke out into a run, her lightsabre spinning over her head, she plunged the blood coloured blade into the deck where the assassin once was, surprised she spun just in time to see the assassin at the other side of the room, a bolt pistol in his hand. He aimed and squeezed the trigger, sending a hail of bolt rounds towards his target, the ex-emperors hand weaved her lightsabre, hearing the fizzing as the rounds crashed into her lightsabre, disintegrating on impact.

As she deflected the last round she found the assassin charging her, he skidded to a halt and swung his power-sword in a sweeping arc, Rosso jumped back missing the blade by millimetres before bringing her own lightsabre down in an attempt to cut him in half, the assassin sidestepped her and swung his power sword, the imperial captain tried to duck but was a split second too slow as the blade grazed her left shoulder, drawing blood, ignoring the shot of pain she did a handstand and kicked him in the side of his head, sending him corkscrewing in midair and landing roughly on the deck, he rolled and came back up to his feet, throwing several knives as he did so.

She tried to deflect the projectiles but one made it through her defence and imbedded itself into her shoulder, she screamed in pain before the assassin drew his bolt pistol again and fired of a round, she tried to dodge but the bolter shell hit her square in the left leg, exploding as it impacted, she screamed again before receiving a stiff kick to her abdomen, throwing her roughly to the ground. It was then that the two Alliance guardsmen entered the chamber, hearing their captains pained screams, they saw the assassin and raised their blaster rifles, unleashing a hail of crimson blaster bolts. The assassin back-flipped, missing the crimson bolts by millimetres, he then corkscrewed to the side, landing in a crouch and grabbing the hilt of his power-sword charged the guardsmen, he ducked the butt of the first guards blaster and drove the sword through his abdomen, exited through his back.

Kicking the guard off his sword he dodged another hail of blaster fire and charged the last guard, to his credit the guardsmen dropped his blaster and drew a pair of vibrodaggers from his belt, he crossed the smaller weapons just in time to meet the power-sword, the guard then tried to deliver a kick to the assassins stomach, but the assassin skidded backwards, missing the kick and swinging his power-sword in a sweeping arc, slicing the last guard neatly in half.

Smiling he turned back to the crumpled form of the captain who was leaning against one of the bulkheads, her teeth clenched in pure agony, he spun his massive sword in his hand before surging forward, ready to finish his mission, he brought his sword over his head and sliced downward, the sword met the crimson blade of her lightsabre, she held the impressive weapon single-handed, her entire form trembling with the effort, suddenly the lightsabre was switched off, the sudden shift in weight made the assassin lose balance and he fell forward, the lightsabre reactivated and extended through his stomach and exited his back.

"Rule one, a force-sensitive is never completely defenceless" she managed through hacking coughs. She then froze, the force essence from the assassin was growing brighter, like the dying flames of a fire, she realised what was happening and gathering the last of her strength force pushed him away, his dying form flew into her sleeping area and with a flick of her wrist the transparisteel sealing door closed, she heard a massive explosion at the other side of the door and realised why his essence glowed like it did, he was a living time-bomb, if he died he would take his target with him.

She suddenly felt groggy, groggier than she should, darkness began to cloud her vision and it was only then that she realized what was going on, the assassins blades were covered in poison, and she got hit by them twice, as she began to lose consciousness she felt the superstructure of her star destroyer shake as weapon batteries impacted its shields, she lost consciousness just as a group of stormtroopers rushed to her side, shouting to get her to the infirmary.

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Magi Durin gritted his teeth as the Inquisition black-ships opened fire on the recently arrived Mechanicus forces, spraying their shields with lance and plasma fire, in return the Mechanicus vessels returned fire and released swarms of thunderbolt starfighters from their hangers, the little fighters meet with their Inquisition equivalents in the middle of the two forces and began skirmishing with each other in deadly dog-fights.

In response to this the last able star destroyer Vengeance released her contingent of starfighters, X-wings, Tie Interceptors, A-wings, K-wings and Tie Defenders flew across the void to help the Adeptus Mechanicus' fighters. While the starfighters were soaring towards the battle admiral Halos stalked onto the bridge of the Vengeance, Inquisitor Vallace and the ARC trooper squad right behind him.

"Where is Rosso!?" Halos said, getting control of his anger for the moment.

"She was found critically wounded in her quarters sir" her first officer replied, a young man who didn't look old enough to buy a drink "Along with the bodies of two Alliance guards and what was left of an assassin, she's being rushed to the infirmary"

"Great" Joseph growled under his breath "Get me Magi Durin!"

"What is it admiral?" Durin asked as his image appeared.

"Where are we needed?"

"Order your starfighters to break off their assaults and move in on the Inquisition black-ships" Durin said through gritted teeth as his vessel rocked from a direct lance battery hit "They can disable those ships so we can board them, I don't know about you but I want some answers from that scrawny inquisitor"

"Agreed" Halos replied "Let's show them what turbolance batteries can do as well, shall we?"

Immediately the Emperors Fire and Vengeance came on line and fired from a safe distance, long thick beams of destructive energy lanced across the void and smashed into the lead Inquisition ship, a Lunar-class Cruiser, the newer weapon systems disintegrating the void shields in a few barrages before chewing through the hull armour, as ordered a group of K-wing bombers came up behind the struggling cruiser, dodging anti-air fire left and right before releasing their payload of proton bombs, aimed at the engines, the bombs collided with a great flash, causing a chain reaction that destroyed the engine compartment of the cruiser, leaving it dead in space.

Once that was done the Mechanicus ships, lead by the Emperor battleship Lord of Machines moved in, firing continuous streams of lance and plasma fire on the Inquisition black-ships, aiming for their engines and main weapon systems, two more Cruisers succumbed to the superior force and lay dead in space, their main weapon batteries and engine compartments erupting in fire and wreckage.

"Admiral" one of the radar operators shouted "One of the cruisers has gotten past us, its heading for the fleet!"

Halos spun on his heel just in time to see an Avenger Cruiser lumbering towards the fleet, to far away for the Vengeance to intercept "Alert the Magi" Halos said "Turn us around, fire at will!"

The Vengeance turned around and went after the cruiser at full speed, firing sporadic turbolance fire from its new batteries, but they were too far away from the cruiser who was now within firing range of the fleet, but instead of firing with its lance batteries it unleashed several black pods from its hanger, which flew towards the fleet at high speed.

"Insurgence pods" Vallace growled "Their not going to destroy the ships, their going to board them and take them by force!"

"That's if they get through that first" Halos replied, pointing towards the disabled star destroyers, clouds of starfighters were rising from the Vigilance and the Spirit, moving towards the incoming cruiser like a horde of angry Mynocks, but it was too late for the first wave of pods smashed into the tattered hull of the Dominator and the Vigilance, ploughing through the hull armour.

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The pods broke through the durasteel bulkheads of the two star destroyers and allowed their payloads of Arco-Flagellants to run lose, these monsters where the inquisitions special shock units, once humans who where subject to extensive physical surgery and mental reconditioning. Their mechanical forms implanted with a devastating array of weapons and chemical stim injectors, once released on the field of battle they injected themselves with deadly combat stimms, turning them into deadly, berserk killing machines that felt no remorse or pain.

They rushed through the corridors of the star destroyers, killing anything with a pulse, the stormtroopers, Alliance marines and Guardsmen managed to take a few down as they charged but once they were on them they hacked and cut them to pieces, leaving a horrific scene of dissected bodies and blood spattered walls as they continued on. Blaster fire, slashing sounds, screams of fear and agony were a giveaway to where they were and a deadly silence was testimony to where they had been.

From the bridge captain Florn felt sick to his stomach as the screams of the dying and the slashes of the Flagellants resounded through the bridge, he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes before turning of the ships comm. The crew of the bridge were feeling the same and some where on the edge of extreme panic.

Without a word the captain rose from his command chair and walked towards a control console that was barely used, he pulled out a keycard and slotted it into the console, his hands then danced across the keyboard, disabling safety locks and typing in passwords, the admiral said never use these things unless there was no other choice, well Florn thought, there was no other choice, it was either unleash the deadliest weapons the empire had ever created for combat…or perish.

Finally the last barrier was passed and without a word the captain pushed a red button in the middle of the console.

"Fight fire with fire" he muttered under his breath.

By know the Flagellants had broke through to the hanger bay and attacked the remaining pilots and soldiers, within moments the hanger was in chaos with alliance soldiers being torn to pieces, they managed to take down a few of the creatures but they were just too fast. Suddenly several of the large storage containers in the back started to steam, their doors opening revealing the dank interiors, silhouettes of massive creatures stood unmoving within, the darkness was suddenly illuminated with flashes of light, dozens of eyes opened up to the world for the first time in decades and the sound of moving mechanical joints finally got the attention of a few of the Flagellants, they stopped what they were doing and moved towards the storage containers, it was then that the empires own monsters stepped into the light.

Its short, I know, but bear with me on this. I have wanted to do this for a long time, pit the monsters of the Empire against the monsters of the Inquisition, if anyone knows who these guys are, then you'll thoroughly enjoy the next chapter, Clash of Titans: Part 2.