Sergeant Kelly felt a sharp pain in her chest and wanted to reach for her pills but suppressed the urge so she could keep her lasgun trained on her target. She wondered if hallucinations were a symptom of the antibiotics she should be worried about, as what she was looking at defied explanation. Laying on a shattered box of lasgun batteries was a giant humanoid, appearing superficially female. The strange interloper seemed about 17 or 18 feet tall and could have passed for a human… were it not for her size, the giant elk horns on her head, and the red-furred tail peeking out from under her.
"Um… hello?" Admu said nervously, worried about why the little people seemed to tense. Then she realized where she had landed. "Oh! I'm terribly sorry, I didn't mean to break that." She said, standing upright. She bumped her head on the wooden shack's ceiling, causing more planks to fall to the floor. "Ah! Sorry, I've really made a mess…" She began dusting herself off, all while the trembling guardsmen continued to point their weapons at her. "Oh, I never introduced myself! Hello, my name is-" She reached out her hand, causing Corporal Han to panic and begin shooting. Ramirez and Jeremiah quickly joined in, and instinctually Kelly decided it was better to support the barrage than try and come up with an alternate solution. The four guardsmen peppered the giant with lasfire, causing her to raise her arms up defensively.
"Hey- ow! Stop it!" She said, mildly upset by the feeling of the hot pinpricks on her skin. It reminded her of the time she had gotten stuck in a sticker bush as a child. The guardsmen expended their charges after a short but intense few seconds, leaving the air silent and filled with the distinct smell of ozone. "I'm awfully sorry for breaking your things, but it's still quite rude to do that kind of thing to someone you just met don't you think?" Admu said with a pouty face.
"Our weapons don't do shit… we're fucking dead!" Private Jeremiah said, falling down onto his knees.
"Goddammit Priv-" Kelly said, before erupting into a violent coughing fit. She reached for her bottle of pills but was hit by a sharp pain in her gut. She stumbled, spilling the pills all over the floor.
"Sergeant are you-" Ramirez said, reaching down to help her.
"I'm fi-" Kelly tried to say, before vomiting. She clutched her chest and fell backwards, looking towards the sky with a mortified expression.
Suddenly, a strange look flashed across Admu's face. Her emerald eyes became glassy, and she approached the ailing guardswoman. Han and Jeremiah, too frozen by fear to interfere, watched as the giant kneeled down next to Kelly and placed a hand on her abdomen. The giant's eyes closed, and a faint blue-green light flashed underneath her palm. Admu blinked several times, her eyes returning to normal. She retracted her hand and rose to her feet with a look of surprise.
"Huh? What just-" Admu said. Suddenly, Kelly shot up with a loud gasp. Her eyes were wide open, and she was breathing heavily. Ramirez snapped out of his stupor and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Sarge, you alright?" he said.
"Yeah…" Kelly said with a dazed expression. "I feel… fine. Better than I have in weeks." The dull aching, the sharp pains, the weakness in her legs… all of it was completely gone. It felt like she had just slept for 3 days straight and then woken up to a fresh cup of recaf.
After several minutes of awkward silence, Jeremiah opened his mouth.
"What in the Emperor's name just happened?" he said.
"Hey… I know him. He's Mister Russ's papa, right?" Admu said. The guardsmen looked at her with blank stares.
"Leman… Russ?" Ramirez said.
"What, like the tank?" Jeremiah said.
"No, dipshit, the guy they named the tank after." Han said. "The primarch? One of the Emperor's sons?"
"Yeah, I know him! I've been traveling with him for a while now. At least, We were together… but I'm not sure where he ran off too. Anyway, you guys must be humans, right? Mister Russ and I were sent here to help you guys!" Admu said. The guardsmen quickly huddled together to strategize.
"You know, I heard stories…" Ramirez said. "about the Fall of Cadia, from some of the guardsmen who made it out alive. They said that just when they were about to lose some giant glowing lady appeared, called herself Saint Celestine. They said she was a living saint, some kinda servant of the Emperor…"
"You really think that thing is a living saint? It doesn't look like one at all!" Han said. "It's got horns and a tail!"
"Han, have you ever seen a living saint?" Kelly said.
"Well, no, but-" Han said.
"Then how the fuck do you know what one looks like?" Kelly said. Han rubbed his chin with a contemplative expression.
"...but, what if it's a daemon in disguise or something?" Han said.
"Well, it hasn't tried to kill us yet." Ramirez said.
"Yeah, but-" Han said, before Kelly interrupted him.
"Listen, we unloaded 4 fully charged lasgun cartridges into that thing's face and it didn't so much as give her a sunburn. Worst case scenario, we play along until we can figure out something else." Kelly said. "You got any better ideas?"
"Uh… not really." Han said.
"Alright then, until further notice, as far as I or any of you are concerned, that thing is a living saint. Got it?" Kelly said. The guardsmen nodded. They broke their huddle and turned to face the newly christened living saint.
"Alright then, saint…" Kelly said.
"Admu! My name's Admu." Admu said.
"So, Saint 'Admu'... why exactly are you here?" Kelly said.
"Here specifically? Um, I'm not really sure. Leman and I were going to his home on Fenris, but then we got attacked by a giant octopus or something, and then I think we got saved by a clown? Thinking about it kind of makes my head hurt, though." Admu said. The guardsmen exchanged worried glances. "I'm sure Leman will know what to do, but I seem to have lost him." she said. She looked down and wondered the best method of finding her lost friend. Then she had an idea. "I know, Leman loves fighting! I'm sure wherever there's fighting there's a good chance he'd be there too." she said. Ramirez looked at Kelly.
"If it's fighting you're looking for…" Ramirez said.
Captain Anthrakinos leaned back into his moldy captain's chair, overlooking the bridge of the Terminus Est. As much of a loyal servant of the Plague God as he was, he also had a basic understanding of naval protocol and felt that it was better to risk minor religious infractions than crashing Lord Typhus's flagship. As such, despite a general atmosphere of filth and uncleanliness, the bridge was relatively uncluttered. He scratched at a legion of boils just underneath his heavy rebreather, and his hand brushed past the tangled coil of wires and tubing connecting him to the ship's mainframe. Hectic feeds of dense datastreams flashed through his mind, fed to him by half-maddened machine spirits all across the immense daemonship. One of the pieces of data that slipped through his mind was that of a number of missing crew reports in the lower decks of the starboard bow.
Probably just another plague toad on the loose again. He thought.
He dismissed the reports, half-mindedly ordering someone to pull some more cultists out of the filth-pits to replace them. However, another report flashed across his mind that he couldn't dismiss as easily. A patrol of plague marines had been reported missing in the same area, something which could not have been explained by a single plague toad. Lord Typhus had impressed on Anthrakinos how important their current mission was, and the captain had no intention of letting his liege down. He immediately sent a squad of plague marines to search the area and ordered a platoon to remain on stand-by should the need arise. He would ensure there would be no more unforeseen complications upon the Terminus Est from this point forward.
Admu followed the four guardsmen through muddy trenches and scorched fields, marked by dead, blackened trees and sludge-filled craters.
"Was this place always like this?" Admu asked.
"Beats me. We only got rotated here after the Death Guard invaded. Then they blew up all our transports before we were supposed to be rotated out." Ramirez said.
"Oh, you aren't from here?" Admu said.
"Nope, I'm from Azura." Ramirez said.
"What's that place like?" Admu said.
"Well, it's an ocean world, so… lots of water, lots of islands, uh… that's pretty much it." Ramirez said. Admu looked at him quizzically.
"...ocean? What's that?" Admu said.
"Uh, it's like a lake but… bigger. And salty." Ramirez said.
"Wow… a whole planet covered in salty water…" Admu said, nodding in fascination.
"You all must be from Azura too, right?" Admu said.
"No, only Ramirez." Kelly said. "I'm from Laryon, Han is from Zhenxun, and Jeremiah back there is from Khaldun."
"Wait, you're all from completely different planets!?" Admu said. The guardsmen looked at her with confused expressions.
"Yeah… the Guard conscripts soldiers from every planet in the Imperium. Some of the special ones get to stay together with their own people, but we're just run-of-the-mill cannon fodder." Ramirez said.
"H-how many planets are in the Imperium?" Admu said, becoming visibly excited.
"Uh… shit, I don't know, like a million?" Ramirez said. Admu gasped and covered her mouth in shock.
"A m-m-million!? I can't even imagine it…" Admu said with stars in her eyes. The guardsmen exchanged more worried glances. The quiet was interrupted by the sound of artillery fire shaking the earth, and in the distance Admu could faintly make out a line of guns.
"We must be close to the front." Kelly said.
"Hey, who's that?" Admu said, pointing towards a shape in the distance, obscured by fog. The guardsmen squinted, studying the distant figure's clumsy movements. As it slowly came into view, they noticed its ragged clothing and pallid skin, and the grievous wounds covering its skin from head to toe. "Oh no, he looks hurt!" she said.
"FIRE!" Kelly shouted, and the guardsmen opened fire. The shambling figure was riddled with beams of red-hot lasfire, searing through its pale flesh and leaving blackened, smoking holes behind. One of the beams severed a tendon in its right leg, causing it to lose balance and fall over.
"Hey! What are you doing!?" Admu said, rushing out in front of them to try and stop their attack. She turned and saw that the body was still moving and rushed over to its side. She wasn't sure how she had healed the sergeant before, but she figured she still had to try. The prone body's face was gaunt and torn, with thin skin and exposed muscles loosely sliding over grey bones. Admu was a bit disturbed that this person was still alive after being so grievously injured, but she laid her hand upon him anyway. She closed her eyes and concentrated, seeing in the swirling darkness behind her eyelids a faint, pale glow. The shifting shapes looked sickly and malignant, burrowing in and out of a faint, ghost-like silhouette. She focused on the shape, allowing her instincts to take over and guide her. Bright green root-like rhizomes began to spread out over the ghostly figure, prodding for and choking out the wriggling, malevolent presences until they had all dissolved away. She opened her eyes, hoping to see the fruits of her labor. The bloodshot eyes of the sickly man beneath her shot open, and he let out one long, pained gasp before falling limp with a blank yet almost serene expression. His body began to rapidly decay, the pallid flesh rapidly turning to dust until all the was left was blackened bones and tattered clothing. "I-I'm sorry, I was just… I didn't mean to…" Admu said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Walking Pox." Han said. "Seen it once or twice. Curing it's impossible because the body is already dead, keeping the soul hostage like a prison of rotting flesh."He said. Admu looked upon the remains with horror.
"You didn't kill him, you just freed him from his suffering." Ramirez said.
"That's… that's… horrible." Admu struggled to say.
"That's the Death Guard for you." Kelly said. "Only thing they like more than finding horrific ways to kill you is finding horrific ways to not kill you."
Admu looked up, seeing the battlefield stretch out in front of her. There were hundreds of guns stretched out in a line, though few of them were still manned. Clouds of noxious-looking gasses billowed across the barren fields in the distance, and the sky had taken on a sickly pale color. Huge pits of burning bodies were piled all over, with more dead being carried to and dumped in by the minute. Shivering, tired guardsmen were everywhere, their faces gaunt with hunger and their eyes dark and sunken. She walked across the muddy field to a half-destroyed building, too stunned by the horrors to speak. Then she looked down and saw what looked like the aftermath off a battle, with dead space marines in muddied, blue-violet armor lying in various positions with huge gashes and fatal wounds. Then, in the corner of the room, she saw another marine. This one was wearing a pale, greyish-green armor, like the color of long-rotted meat. It was covered in rust and grime and had fleshy pustules and entrails protruding from cracks in its filth-encrusted armor. On one pauldron it had an insignia of three skulls, but on its chest was an all-too familiar symbol. Carved into the rusted ceramite were three circles inlaid over three arrows, pointing outwards in opposing directions.
"Hey, uh… "Saint' Admu, what are you-" Kelly said, walking over the space marine corpses and falling silent when she looked upon Admu's face.
"That… is the Death Guard?" Admu said, with a slow and chilling intonation.
"Y-yes." Kelly said, chills running up her spine uncontrollably in the towering giant's presence. Her piercing emerald eyes had taken on a fiery intensity, and her face bore an expression of absolute contempt. Admu turned and began walking towards the front line, paying no mind to the numerous startled guardsmen shocked by her presence as she passed them. She walked up to an overturned Rhino, grabbing a large protruding metal bar on the side of its hull. With some effort, she tore off the entire side panel of the armored personnel carrier and held it up as a makeshift shield. The four guardsmen who had accompanied her caught up with her. "Hey, what are you doing!" Kelly shouted.
"Stay here." Admu said. "I'll be back when all of the enemies are dead."
Leman stepped over the butchered corpses of the plague marine squad sent after him, his black blade sizzling as the putrid blood covering its surface boiled away. He made his way through the labyrinthine living halls of the daemonship, searching in vain for any sign of Admu. Being in the heart of a nurglite daemonship, he was initially worried about potential contamination; however, it appeared that the wards on his helmet were doing their job perfectly. In fact, as he walked through the infected bowels of the daemonic plague-infested battleship, the fleshy walls of the ship seemed to almost recoil at his presence as if the magical items he wore unnerved the daemonic construct through their very presence. He retracted the ice blades from his gauntlet, then began to feel a slight tingling in his left arm. The crystal eye was glowing, which was slightly worrying to Leman though he didn't have much time to ponder it any more deeply than that. When he turned a corner, a hail of heavy bolter fire filled the hallway and forced him to duck into a nearby side room. He peaked around the corner, seeing the heavily fortified gun emplacement the Death Guard reinforcements had set up at the end of the hall before another round of bolter fire forced him back into cover. He looked around for an alternative exit, finding nothing but solid metal (and flesh) walls. With no other options, he decided to make an exit. He walked up to one of the walls and extended his ice claws, raising them to tear through the metal and create a makeshift escape route. The cerulean eye on his gauntlet began to glow and crackle fiercely just as he tore into the side of the room. Leman's eyes widened. He looked down at his gauntlet, which was still glowing intensely. Instead of a simple hole in the wall, Leman was staring through a tear in the warp.
Did… did I do that? Leman thought.
The warp tear slowly dissipated, sealing itself without anything to hold it open. He heard the plague marines moving up the hall with their heavy guns, and a slight smile grew on his face as had an idea.
The plague marines knew that their unknown assailant had ducked into a room with no way out, and so were confident that they could smoke the intruder out with little difficulty, as they had the upper hand now.
At least, that's what they thought, until reality tore open behind them.
In a chaotic storm of gunfire, shouting, slashing, and flying body parts, Leman effortlessly dissected the plague marines with extreme prejudice. As the dismembered traitor marines fell to the floor in heaps of limbs and entrails, Leman heard more teams of Death Guard approaching his position and readied his ice claw once again.
On the contact line with the Imperial forces, a plague marine squad was patrolling the blown-out ruins of a former city on the outskirts of the fortress where the remaining guardsmen were holding out. Their rusted armor clanked and clattered as they awkwardly trudged across the barren earth and cracked pavement, their rebreathers making a steady sound somewhere between wheezing and gurgling. Disease-bearing flies buzzed around them, occasionally landing on exposed portions of their flesh and taking small bites.
"I miss the loyalist marines, they put up a much better fight than these pitiful guardsmen." One of them said with a sickly voice.
"Yeah, shame we already killed the lot of 'em." Another said. "Then they put up that ward around the fortress so we couldn't just walk through the weak lasfire barrages and smoke out the defenders like we always do."
"Nurgle provides for his children, the guardsmen will join the rot soon enough." Their commander said. "We need only be patient."
"Hey…" one of the plague marines said. "Is that someone walking across no man's land?"
The plague marines all looked across the scarred battlefield, and sure enough in the distance they could see a faint shape through the dense fog and noxious gas.
"That guardsman's either brave or stupid. Either way, it's target practice for us." The commander said.
They opened fire with their rusted bolters, chaotic magic allowing the decrepit weapons to work like new. Yellow-white streaks flew across the air as the miniature self-propelled munitions hurtled towards their target. They each made a faint 'thud' sound as they exploded upon their target.
"Don't see any more… maybe it was just a scout." One of them said.
The smoke cleared, and to their shock the figure was still standing, and still approaching.
"You incompetent idiots, you missed!" The commander shouted. "Fire again!"
The plague marines continued firing, but the figure only seemed to get closer… and faster. As the shape got closer, the plague marines realized that it wasn't an average guardsman. Namely, that it was about 3 times the size of an average guardsmen, had large horns, and was blocking their bolter rounds with the detached side of a Rhino APC.
"What in the Plaguefather's… everyone switch to close quarters weapons immedia-!" The commander said, before being interrupted by a giant metal wall slamming into him, sending him flying until he splattered against a nearby wall. The remaining marines pulled out manreapers and plague knives, charging the hostile giant. Admu raised her shield and crushed two of them against the pavement, kicking another and severing his upper body from his lower in the process. She viciously stomped on the corpses until they showed no more signs of movement, continuing until even their involuntary twitching ceased. The commander, badly wounded but still moving thanks to Nurgle's blessing, attempted to crawl away and seek reinforcements.
"This is commander Braxus of the 6th squad…" he said, speaking into his voxcaster. "We need reinforcements in sector 13… encountered an unknown, hostile daemon… I repeat, this is-" All anyone listening to the broadcast could hear after this was a sickening crunch, and then static.