All across the front line, weary guardsmen who had become used to constant chemical and biological weapons bombardment by Death Guard forces from beyond the fog and ruined buildings began to take notice of the sudden silence. One by one, it seemed that the enemy was being drawn back for some unknown purpose, leaving the battlefield eerily quiet. Rumors began to spread about the possibility of an imminent offensive or some other nefarious tactic, as none of them dared to hope that it could have been anything good.
On the other side of the front line, the Death Guard were being rapidly re-deployed to deal with an apparent breach in the defensive lines, something that should have been impossible. Information was sparse and slow to spread, all that the nearest squad commanders could determine was that a squad had been attacked and completely wiped out. This understandably warranted an immediate response, even for the typically slow and deliberate Death Guard. A division was sent to deal with the unexpected assault, replete with blightbringers and supported by a squad of terminators and a corrupted Chaos Predator tank. At their head was the Death Guard Lord Marbus, clad in corrupted Cataphractii terminator armor. When he had heard the reports, Marbus immediately assumed the Guard had mounted a final combined assault on a weak point in their front line, though how they had managed to assemble enough troops and vehicles without them noticing was strange to him. Regardless, if the Guard wished to dig their own graves, then he would happily oblige. Ordering his forces to take up positions in the wrecked city all around where the reported assault had taken place, Marbus prepared to attack the enemy flanks and encircle them before moving in with his terminators and tank support to finish off whatever was left. He would show these pitiful dogs of the Corpse Emperor the power of Lord Typhus's 1st Plague Company.
The plague marines assigned to the flanks advanced slowly and deliberately, their plasma pistols, meltaguns, and bolters trained on the streets and ruined buildings of the city outskirts. Their rusted armor clanked and rattled, echoing throughout the empty streets. Toxic fog wafted through the air, shortening their field of vision. They were unafraid of the Guardsmen's weapons, knowing that Nurgle's blessing made them immune to pain and all but the most powerful of ordinance. Then, in the dense miasma a group of figures appeared, and the plague marines prepared to engage. However, just as they were about to fire their weapons, the other group of Death Guard assigned to the flank emerged from the mist in front of them.
"You… found no enemy forces?" Marbus said over his voxcaster.
"Indeed, we've encountered no resistance. We did find the remains of the 6th squad, though it doesn't appear they were killed by guardsmen. All of them were killed by blunt force or physical mauling." the marine on the other end of the voxcaster said.
Marbus clenched his armored gauntlet into a fist. Was he fighting ghosts? He breathed out toxic clouds from his diseased lungs in frustration and ordered his main force to advance. He was going to get to the bottom of this mess and destroy it with the full might of Nurgle's blessed host. The terminators' heavy armor combined with the stumbling gait brought on by Nurgle's blessings created a cacophony of rusted metal and crushed pavement on top of the thunderous rumbling of the Predator following them. The lumbering tank was covered in bony protrusions and fleshy growths, evidence of the daemonic machine spirit which possessed it. Its large cannon swept across the battlefield in search of its next target, its treads whirring as its engine billowed toxic smoke. Marbus tightened the grip of his combi-bolter and unsheathed his blighted power sword, eyeing the empty windows of the buildings that had been emptied by their pestilent bombardments. He suddenly heard a loud crash and spun around to see a giant figure standing atop the crushed roof of their battle tank holding some kind of shield and what appeared to be the trunk of a dead tree. He immediately began firing at her, riddling the giant piece of reinforced ceramite she was using as a makeshift shield with bolter rounds. The others followed suit, causing her to take cover behind the wrecked predator. She reared up her right foot and kicked the ruined tank, sending it careening into their ranks. Marbus jumped out of the way, but a number of plague marines were flattened by the now-flaming wreck. Admu charged into the plague marines, swatting them with her improvised club like rot flies. Their bodies were mangled and crushed upon impact, doing considerable damage even to the incredibly durable bodies of the Death Guard.
What in Nurgle's name? Marbus thought. Some kind of… daemonette? What's going on here?
He raised his combi-bolter once again, this time catching Admu off-guard. The bolter rounds exploded upon contact, knocking her back and causing her to wince in pain. Shockingly, they seemed unable to penetrate her skin. Incensed, Admu charged at Marbus and swung the dead tree down at him. He raised his sword, slicing the makeshift club in half with ease and managing to strike Admu's arm. The wound was superficial, barely managing to draw blood, but it was something. The plague marines meant to attack the flanks reached the main battle and joined the fray, peppering Admu with bolter rounds.
"Attack! Show the daemonette no mercy!" Marbus shouted, rallying his troops to push their advantage and slay the attacking daemon.
Admu ran behind the wrecked Predator to escape the barrage of fire. Marbus assumed it must have been mortally wounded and attempting to escape. The predator began to make a loud creaking sound accompanied by grunts of physical exertion, and to their shock it began rising into the air. Admu lifted the smoking chassis above her head, lobbing it through the air towards a grouping of plague marines. Upon crashing into the ground and crushing 3 of them, the fuel tank burst and ignited creating an immense fireball that consumed several plague marines surrounding it in burning promethium. Marbus and the squad of terminators charged towards her, firing plasma rounds and autocannons. Her improvised shield was beginning to take considerable damage, the force of the onslaught physically pushing her backwards into the wall of a multi-story hab-block. Marbus lunged forward with his power sword, slicing the giant metal slab in half and creating a small gash on Admu's shin. She stumbled backwards, breaking through the plascrete wall and landing in a pile of rubble.
"The daemonette is weakened! Strike her down in the name of the Lord of Pestilence and Decay! For Nurgle!" he shouted, his bloodened power sword hoisted in the air.
Admu burst out of the rubble, her teeth clenched with murderous fury and her eyes burning with hatred. She turned to a huge load-bearing pillar next to her and dug her hands into it, growling and pulling against it with her prodigious strength. The reinforced plascrete cracked and groaned, before finally giving way as Admu yanked the titanic stone pillar from its foundations. Before Marbus even had time to react, she swung the massive column, striking Marbus and sending him flying across the wide city street into the opposing building. He jostled against pieces of debris that were pinning him down, struggling to his feet amidst the sound of battle outside. When he had finally emerged from the rubble, he saw Admu lifting one of the terminators up by his arm and slamming him into a wall. She stomped on another that was knocked to the ground but was interrupted by one of the terminators bludgeoning her leg with a large flail. She shouted in pain, grabbing the terminator by the helmet and tossing him across the battlefield like a ragdoll. Turning her attention back to the downed terminator, she slammed her fist into his chest plate repeatedly. While all this was going on, Marbus looked for his power sword which had slipped from his hand when he was struck. He saw it nestled in a pile of debris and began reaching for it before a giant boot slammed into his arm and pinned it to the ground. He looked up, seeing the enraged face of his attacker looking down upon him.
"How… how could you… poisoning the air… defiling the land… perverting life…" she said with gritted teeth, punctuated by deep, bestial breaths.
Marbus was taken aback for a moment, unsure what the daemonette was talking about.
"Poisoning… perverting…? We are bringing… new life to this barren galaxy! Our blessings bring… joy and salvation!" he said, struggling under the giant's crushing weight. Admu's face twisted in anger.
"Blessings!?" she said.
"The cure… for a dying galaxy… we bring the gift of everlasting life…! The blessing… of Nurgl-" before he could finish his sentence, Admu plunged Marbus's power sword into his chest. He coughed up black and green bile through his respirator but continued to struggle. So Admu stabbed him again. And again. And again.
Lord Typhus stormed through the Death Guard's encampment, gripping his Manreaper with furious intensity. He was at first annoyed to have been summoned away from his burgeoning garden of rot, but upon hearing the nature of his disturbance he was positively enraged. Somehow, a daemon of unknown origin and unknown affiliation had infiltrated his front line and managed to wipe out several squads of plague marines, a squad of terminators, and a predator tank in a matter of hours. They called up reinforcements from all sectors to stop the intruder's assault, however so far even with heavy plagueburst mortar and artillery bombardments they had only managed to slow it down. It was tearing a bloody swathe through his forces, wasting valuable manpower that was meant to be used on the siege of the Imperial fortress. He had left a considerable number of forces in reserve onboard the Terminus Est, taking only as many divisions with him planet side as he thought necessary to break the dwindling Imperial Guard forces.
"Hail the Terminus Est, relay to them that we require reinforcements planet side." Typhus ordered.
"We're trying my lord, but the Terminus Est isn't responding!" a plague marine said.
Typhus gripped his scythe even harder.
"What do you mean they aren't responding!?" Typhus uttered through clenched, rotten teeth.
"It must be some kind of signal interference or technical malfunction…" the plague marine said.
Typhus took a deep breath of fetid air and released the toxic gasses from his decayed lungs. He restrained his anger and began to formulate a plan.
Which God could be behind this? No daemon of Chaos Undivided would dare interfere with an emissary of Nurgle like this. Is it Tzeentch? Slaanesh? Khorne? Typhus thought. It matters not, I will find a way to crush this interloper.
"We are the 1st Plague Company of the Death Guard Legion. We have ways of dealing with greater daemons, even ones as powerful as this." Typhus said. "We're accelerating the plan. Open all of the warp portals and begin seeding the rot gardens. Tell all of the front-line forces to pull back! The reports indicate that small arms are ineffective, but it is vulnerable to physical damage if dealt with sufficient strength. We're going to lure this monster into the jaws of an even greater beast." Typhus turned to his retinue. "It is time to awaken the siege breaker!"
Admu trudged through the plague-infested streets of what used to be a thriving city amidst the sound of artillery bombardments. She had taken to using the ruined buildings as cover, though their ordinance couldn't do so much as slow her down. Every block she advanced, the more evidence of the Death Guard's horrific actions she saw. Fledgling forests of fetid mold and rotting plants fed by the remains of countless civilians, mounds of the dead piled in filth-soaked pits full of writhing insects and other unspeakable things, bodies strung up on dead trees becoming overgrown with bile-dripping vines and creepers like some unholy offering to a cruel and sadistic god, everything she saw revolted her to her very core. If she were younger, less experienced, she might have been driven to tears by the horrific sights, found some hole to hide in and waited for someone to save her. But right now, she felt none of that. All she felt was a pure, boiling fury that filled her lungs with fire and soaked her bones in hatred. The anger was building up inside of her more and more, making it hard for her to think over the blinding, white-hot rage filling her mind. Just when she thought it was going to boil over, she saw someone standing in front of her.
He was a grotesque mockery of a space marine, bloated to unnatural size and surrounded by clouds of flesh-eating flies and putrid miasma that spewed from chitinous growths on his back. His armor was a pallid, sickly green, stained by filth and decay over millennia until it had become fused to his rotten flesh. Bony, horn-like protrusions and pus-leaking boils burst from underneath his ancient, rusted armor, constantly leaking greasy yellow-green discharge. He stared at her from behind the clouded visor of his horned helmet and planted the hilt of his great scythe on the ground. Admu glared at him with a ferocious, bestial expression.
This is the daemonette? Typhus thought. She is dressed like a peasant… what are you playing at, Slaanesh? Is this some kind of joke?
"I am impressed, daemonette." Typhus said. "I am not sure what god sent you or why, but you have become a considerable thorn in my side."
"Who are you supposed to be?" Admu said disdainfully.
Typhus restrained his anger. Such disrespect, even from a greater daemon, to the herald and champion of Nurgle himself was unforgivable.
"I know very well you know of me and my master's claim on this world." he said through gritted teeth. "But if you thought I would hand it over so easily, you are sorely mistaken."
"So you're responsible for this!?" Admu said, taking a step towards the chaos champion with murderous intent.
Just as she was about to reach towards Typhus, a colossal metal claw burst through the plascrete wall next to her and seized Admu's head in its grip. The hulking metal frame of the Leviathan-pattern siege dreadnought crashed through the building with ease, slamming Admu to the ground with its berserker strength. With maddened ferocity it bashed her head against the ground over and over, dragging her face-first through rock and rubble before sending her head crashing straight through a wall. Inside the hollowed-out, sanity-deprived mind of the dreadnought's pilot, the chittering of daemonically-possessed machine spirits reveled in the wanton violence. Admu struggled to stand, shakily grabbing hold of nearby rubble to try and steady herself. Her ears were deaf with ringing and the sound of rushing water, and it felt like everything around her was spinning. She raised a hand to her forehead, feeling a distinct wetness. She brought her wavering hand into view and through her unfocused, blurry eyes she could see it was dripping with bright-red blood. The heavy footsteps of the lumbering dreadnought pierced her ears until it loomed over her, its immense frame towering even over her 5 and half meter stature. She staggered to her feet; her legs still wobbly from the repeated blows to the head it had inflicted upon her. She tried to raise her fists in retaliation, but it caught her arms with its siege claws. She struggled against the dreadnought's iron grip, not noticing the two glowing points in the middle of its torso that began to charge up. The twin-linked volkite calivers roared to life, their arcane internal mechanisms whirring with ancient killing intent. By the time Admu recognized the danger, it was too late. Four beams of blinding energy bore into her midsection, launching her backwards and sending her crashing through an entire hab-block. She writhed on the ground, clutching her stomach and screaming in agony. The dreadnought lumbered closer and closer. Clenching her teeth to mask the pain, Admu grabbed a nearby hunk of rubble and lobbed it at the dreadnought, the projectile smashing into its frontal armor and causing it to stagger backwards. Incensed, the giant machine reared its siege claw back and smacked Admu in the face with immense force, her head smashing into the ground as blood poured from her mouth. She spit the crimson fluid from her lips, trying to crawl away so she could clamber to her feet. Typhus circled her from afar, watching her brutal mauling with perverse jubilation.
"Hahaha! The terrible daemon, reduced to a crawling worm in the dirt!" he said. "I will make you bleed a thousandfold what you inflicted upon my men!"
She clawed at the earth, dragged backwards by the dreadnought gripping her right leg. It swung her into the side of a building, then into another, and then tossed her across the battlefield until she slammed into a large rock. She grabbed onto it, trying to pull herself to her feet, all while the Leviathan dreadnought plodded towards her like a lumbering beast cornering its prey. While the volkite calivers vented heat, it began charging up the meltaguns built into its arms while snapping its claws menacingly. It slammed its claws down on her, but she managed catch to them just before they could make contact. She tried to hold back the dreadnought's immense strength with her own, but in her dazed, weakened state the dreadnought's claws were slowly but surely bearing down on her. She could feel the glowing-hot cores of the meltaguns as their barrels got closer and closer to her face, mere inches from their firing cone.
"Foolish daemon!" Typhus cackled. "You think you can disrespect me and live? I am the Lord of the Death Guard's 1st company! I am the Typhus the Traveler, honored son and chosen herald of the Great Plague God! This is the fate of all those who defy the Lord of Pestilence and Decay, the Great Corrupter, Plaguefather Nurgle!"
Admu's eyes shot open, her face contorted into an expression of absolute rage. She growled with hatred, digging her fingers into the arms of the dreadnought. Deep within a mind long-since devoid of sanity, trapped in a metal sarcophagus, the dreadnought's pilot felt the faintest pang of regret.
"Don't… you… dare…" Admu said, pushing the dreadnought's arms back. "Say… his… name!" She reared up her legs and kicked one of the dreadnought's feet, causing it to buckle and lose balance. The meltaguns fired, missing their target. Admu reared her head backwards and gored the dreadnought with her horns, piercing its frontal armor and causing sparks to fly. It stumbled backwards, but Admu pounced forward and latched onto its arm. She dug her feet into the ground and poured her strength into her grip, her biceps and forearms contracting tightly. The dreadnought's arm began to spark and spew bilious oil until the frame snapped and fell limp, hanging from sparking cables and severed metallic tendons. The dreadnought stumbled backwards, then swung its remaining siege claw at Admu's head. In an instant, she ducked and tackled the dreadnought's torso, wrapping her arms around its waist. She roared with exertion, and Typhus watched as Admu lifted the immense machine off of the ground. She hoisted it over her shoulder, slamming it down with a thunderous impact that caused the earth to shake and buckle all around them. The dreadnought floundered, attempting to get back to its feet, before Admu fell on top of it, straddling its armored torso. She slammed her fist into the heavy front armor, causing a slight dent. She punched it again, and again, and again, and again, repeatedly delivering earth-shaking blows to the fallen machine until finally the armor buckled and tore open a hole in its chest. Admu plunged her fist into the cavity, grabbing hold of its internal frame and dragging it towards a nearby building. She slammed it against the wall, causing it to buckle and crack. The dreadnought's broken volkite calivers sparked helplessly as it tried to raise its remaining arm against its attacker. Admu backfisted the siege claw away, then plunged her other arm into the dreadnought's chest cavity. She grabbed hold and poured all of her strength into her arms, clenching her teeth tighter than she ever had before and yelling in exertion. The muscles in her arms bulged and tightened, her labored grunts turning to screams as the dreadnought's ultra-thick frontal armor rasped and creaked. The tear widened, wires split, cables snapped, plasteel buckled, ceramite cracked, jets of black and green fluid sprayed everywhere, until finally the entire upper half of the Leviathan dreadnought tore apart in an instant. Its interred pilot's body was ripped in half, killing him instantly. The partially bisected dreadnought fell to its knees with its arms falling limp to its side and crashed face-first into the ground.
Admu, breathing heavy, feral breaths, her entire body covered in blood, bile, and oil, let out a bestial cry as she stood over her conquered prey.