The wind continued howling as we walked down the pebbled shore adjacent to the river in the canyon. Oftentimes, we found our progress slowed when there wasn't a shoreline for us to walk on, requiring us to wade through the rushing water. As the day wore on, Null told little stories about his expeditions in various places of the galaxy. He told us that he was a "bit over two thousand years old" but that he had actually forgotten how old he was, and often puzzled over whether he should count his years as a fleshling. He told us a story that he and Virgil had visited a death world near Quilan because they were hunting for the remains of an Age of Technology ship. On that world, he had discovered a dying race of small intelligent mantis aliens who had reverse engineered the crashed human ship into their own technology, but had been reduced to a single city in population in a jungle world filled with disease and danger. Of course, because this is the 40k universe, Null and his fleet committed genocide against them, wiping them out and stealing their technology. The template for the Jiminy drone that Null used from time to time was made as a "nod of respect" toward the xenos.
While this was probably meant as an example of the bravery and strength of the Adeptus Mechanicus, it made me very uncomfortable. It was made even more uncomfortable when Alberich expressed interest and agreement with Null's actions. Both of these guys were bonding over genocide. Avoiding them, I walked a few steps ahead with Wolfie, who stuck by my side. I noticed that the astral hound wasn't as spirited or as active as he was before, and the howling in the canyon had become more and more ominous.
"They hoarded tech that was part of our history, and it belonged to us! The Thrynn were engaging in thieving heresy by using our sacred technology, and we simply needed to stop that," I heard Null explain behind me, actually getting along with Alberich. A chill passed over me once again, and I paused. Something had changed in the atmosphere. My spider psyker senses were tingling as we approached another blind turn in the canyon.
The howling had stopped.
"Hey," I said, turning around. "Something doesn't feel right. The wind stopped howling."
Both Null and Alberich stopped their gossiping and halted in place along with 77-X. The only sound I could hear now was the rushing of the river echoing off the canyon walls.
"How close are we to the cave, Null?" I asked as Wolfie snuffled around ahead of me.
Null held out what I assumed was an auspex of some kind, and adjusted a nob on it. "We are close. Only a little over a hundred meters away, but the interference is getting worse, so that could be off," he informed us.
"She's right you know," Alberich said, sniffing the air with his beak. "The wind still gusts, but it does not howl."
"Could simply be the rock formations here," the tech-priest dismissed as he continued to adjust the nobs on his device. I saw his eyes change from grey to blue, and animate a blinking motion as he paused. "Hmm," he said, looking at the map.
"What is it? Anything?" As I waited for Null's response, Wolfie began to paw at my leg, and began to whine. Null didn't respond as he adjusted his auspex, but I saw Wolfie walk forward, and around the next bend ahead of us. After a few moments, the dog reappeared at my side in a puff of smoke.
...DANGER... I felt the sentiment jump from the astral hound to me. ...HUMAN PAIN... Wolfie sat beside me, whining again. I felt him "point" somehow to an area around the bend.
"I can feel from Wolfie that something is wrong here," I said to my companions as we all stood on the riverbank. Null continued holding his auspex as Alberich looked over his shoulder. "What is it?" I questioned.
"We may have company," Null announced, his voice lowered. "Around this bend, I'm getting life readings from something that is coming back as vaguely human."
"Vaguely human?" I walked closer and leaned in to see what Null had found. Was that the source of the noise?
In his metal hands, Null held his auspex. Over a panel of nobs and dials, there was a black screen that flickered and glitched in and out of visibility, but I could see the outline of the canyon we were walking through. "Here we are," the tech-priest informed us, pointing at an area of three solid green dots, one white dot, and one small red one. "These three marks indicate us, the white one is 77-X, and the red one indicates the parasitic Warp beast that has been following the Scion about."
"Hey, Wolfie is a good dog," I said, petting the astral hound on his head, and feeling my fingers chill as they sank into his slightly unstable form.
Null ignored me, and zoomed out on the map with a turn of a dial. I noted that the image was very fuzzy and filled with static. "There is a great deal of electromagnetic interference in this area. It could be from a natural feature of the land, or some kind of by product of the Tomb's proximity. That doesn't matter as much as this does right now," he said, pointing at another green dot ahead of us on our path. Null did something which caused the other green dot to highlight, and a notation of "human/unknown" came up on the screen. "This could just be some bio-feedback of a malfunction in the device, as this world is very far away from any sort of human habitation. I am uncertain, but we should be ready for any trouble."
"Well, at least we have 77-X," I said, observing the massive combat servitor. "And Alberich is tough too. Just one human wouldn't be so difficult, right?" I realized how dumb I sounded as soon as the words left my lips. This was the 40k universe, and knowing my life, that other dot was probably Lucius the Eternal randomly waiting around here in order to kill us.
"Let's hope so," the tech-priest said. "Scion, can you view around the corner for us?"
"View?"
"Yes. In this reality it is the psyker ability to see beyond the normal limitations of sight," Null explained.
"Remote viewing, you mean?" Alberich asked. "I could never quite do it back on my home world, but I can try. I am stronger now."
"Be my guest," the tech-priest said with a shrug.
I watched as Alberich gripped Valkyrie and closed his eyes. Soon after, he opened them again.
"A very large man is injured. He is wearing a suit of very heavy armor. I have an intuition that he has been envenomed by something. I see a sword with wings spread, but I am not certain what that means."
"Maybe a space marine, but all the way out here? And alone?" I said in surprise. "Can you see if there are any more on your map, Null?"
"The auspex is being affected by interference. This is as far as it can read concerning life forms."
I wondered if I could consciously do the remote viewing thing like Alberich had just done. I closed my eyes, and focused on what I felt from the strange dot on the map. Another low howl echoed through the canyon.
A man in green and black armor was fighting with a giant beast of some kind with two others. The beast had a scream that could chill even the most stalwart of hearts, and in that moment, the man broke and left his two compatriots. The monster's scream was a powerful psychic weapon, and it held a lethal venom in its spines and teeth. An image of the other two armored men being slaughtered by some kind of red, yellow, and black patterned giant spiny dinosaur creature with sharp teeth and claws. The remaining man had been bitten and thrown aside as he had fled, and the monster had left after taking one of the dead men with it. After a short time, it returned for the second dead man.
I sensed all of this with strange clarity, and it caused a heavy sense of danger. I abruptly knew that the predator would return eventually for the last man. It had a den somewhere in another part of the canyon, high up, and it was feeding its babies. It would return for the injured one, and it would return soon.
My eyes snapped open in alarm. "We're in danger! There's a big monster here somewhere that can kill space marines. The dot is a wounded space marine, I'm not sure what chapter, right on the other side of the bend! It'll come back soon! We have to make for the cave! The monster's den is somewhere up high, and we need to get out from the open!"
"Is the space marine a hazard? Is he conscious?" Null quickly asked me.
"I'm not sure. I think he's just really hurt. Maybe poisoned," I said. "We have to go, or else the giant monster will return. It has a scream that has power enough to incapacitate space marines!"
"To the cave!" Alberich said, his feathers bristling in fear as the three of us made for the turn in the canyon.
Just as we started rounding the bend, I heard a noise above and far ahead of me, much further into the canyon. It sounded like a thousand strangled wolves howling together, and it chilled me to the core. I received a mental image of the creature skulking around the top of the canyon on six legs, bellowing into it as it walked. It was coming back!
"I can hear it!" Alberich said, rushing forward around the bend ahead of me.
I quickly followed, because whatever that thing was, it sounded terrifying. Null also agreed, and he and 77-X trailed behind us.
After emerging from the turn, we discovered a long, straight-ish area of the river that ended with another blind turn about the length of a football field. Some distance down the river and on the right side of the bank, I could vaguely make out a small opening in the canyon wall. This was what we were looking for, I presumed.
The three of us walked as quickly as we could on the shoreline, with Alberich ahead of us. The creature was definitely too big to get into the cave, so I hoped that we'd be safe in there.
As we walked further, I noticed a battered figure, who was helmetless and leaning under a depression in the canyon walls on the opposite side of the river. Since he was in shadow, I couldn't make out the exact color of his armor or heraldry from here, but it appeared to be either a very dark grey, green, or even black. I could see that he wore a white shroud over his armor, but that it was also torn. A sword lay next to him, along with some kind of heavy firearm that could be a boltgun. He didn't appear very injured, but there was a cut on his cheek and neck, and his helmet appeared to have been thrown nearby on the shore.
It was then that I realized something. I recognized him! This space marine was the injured one I had seen in my vision. The one who had lamented the loss of his brothers! As everyone else continued onward, making toward the cave which was now visible at the end of a long straight path on our side of the river, I stopped.
"He's still alive!" I announced.
"No time, no time!" Null and Alberich both said. I heard another yawning howl echo across the canyon.
As everyone else was driven toward the cave, I splashed across the shallow river to the far shore. The marine was pale with short disheveled hair, and a line of drool hung from his mouth as he limply leaned against the canyon wall.
"Erika, you must come back!" I heard Alberich call out behind me. "The monster approaches!"
The space marine's green eyes snapped open as I leaned over to investigate if I could do anything. The marine gasped, and choked out a stream of blood. He then made eye contact with me, and said "...holy Emperor!"
"We need to help him!" I shouted back as the downed marine tried to move. Another echoing howl across the canyon. Yeah, that definitely wasn't the wind, I thought with a chill.
"Venom... the Screamer... run away!" he sputtered. The yawning howl ended in a terrifying screech. Whatever that thing was, it sounded terrifying! I turned around and saw that Null, Alberich, and 77-X were still rushing along the shore toward the cave. I could sense that they reeked of fear. Wolfie remained by my side this entire time, happily hopping from paw to paw. That little dog was fearless and lived for danger, so this was probably all extra fun for him.
"Get back here you two cowards!" I shouted at my running compatriots, amplifying my voice according to an instruction in Evanora's journal in order to psychically influence my companions. Everything in my intuition screamed that I had to help this man.
Alberich, the man has been poisoned! Null carries antitoxins with him! Both of you get back here and help me! I psychically screamed at the Tzaangor, who staggered, holding his temple for a moment. He reached out and grabbed Null as he tried to walk past, and Null turned around to me.
"Null, help me! We have to help him!" The tech-priest had injected me in the neck with all sorts of drugs at least twice by now, so I was hoping this was part of his arsenal.
The scream has frightened him! Alberich protested as he held Null.
I don't fucking care! Both of you come here!
The howling was gradually coming closer, and whatever the creature was, it would be here within a few minutes. I had another flash in my mind. Large burnt holes bled and smoked from its body, and it had a chunk of a shoulder missing. It was injured. The last two marines had put up a good fight. But, holy shit, a monster that can kill space marines like that? Fuck! And Null said this planet was safe! We weren't even in the fucking Necron Tomb yet. If it weren't for the vision I had had in the Divine Retribution, I'd probably still be running like hell.
Both Null and Alberich appeared by my side. Null's eyes were a blazing orange in what I assumed was fear. "Let me see!" he said next to the downed marine. Before doing anything, I saw Null examine the heraldry on his armor. "Oh, a Dark Angel," he said, nodding. "Wait, no..."
"Help me!" the marine said, the howling was growing closer.
"This is a Fallen Dark Angel, Scion! You best let him die!" Null tried to stand up.
I got mad enough that with a psychic hand, I forced the tech-priest to his knees beside the Dark Angel. "No, help him!"
Null glared at me, his eyes red with both fear and anger. "First the mutant, now this! You make mistakes! Your predecessor would've never have made such mistakes," the tech-priest barked.
"If you have any kind of antitoxin, use it on him!" I commanded. Alberich stood back with 77-X, watching for any trouble.
"What I carry probably won't even work on him! There are many kinds of venom, and something that brings down an astartes can- "
"Just do it!"
Null reached inside a compartment in his chest, and pulled out an ampule filled with a clear liquid. "This general antitoxin might work, or it might not, but he will need a proper antidote later," Null said as Alberich kept watch. The tech-priest fastened the ampule inside one of his mechadendrites, and told the stricken marine to hold still. The mechadendrite lashed forward, and struck him under the jaw near where he had been scraped, causing the marine to grunt in pain. "If it works, he will soon be on his feet, at least for a short time. We should still go!"
I pushed my awareness ahead, trying to see where the monster was, and I saw it hopping down into the canyon from rocky outcrops, lowly growling and roaring as it went along. Luckily, it didn't seem to be in that much of a hurry. "Can 77-X carry him to the cave? He's heavy."
"May need help from the mutant here, but it is possible," Null said as he gave some kind of indication to the muscled servitor, who reached down under the marine's pauldrons and picked him up. "Mutant, get his legs."
Alberich didn't argue about being called a mutant, and picked up the Fallen's legs. We turned around and started dragging the injured marine across the river to the cave at a distant part of the far shore.
In my mind's eye, I saw the thing snuffling at the air walking on the pebbled shore next to the river. Wolfie walked alongside me, his tail held low as he walked above the water as if it were solid.
After a few slow minutes of hauling the marine toward the cave, I heard the monster begin to scream again, this time it was much closer.
"Let me down!" the marine abruptly said, groaning. "I am capable now. Thank you, tech-priest." Immediately on his feet in the water, the marine ran splashing back to where he had been laying, and retrieved his power sword and bolter, and began to motion for us to quickly follow him to the cave. Watching how fast the marine rebounded and how quickly he was able to run through the river was astonishing. In my mind, I saw the creature still advancing as it bellowed. It would be here very soon if we couldn't get to the cave in time!
On dry land again, we sped along the riverbank, and I continued to literally feel the fear reeking off my traveling companions, with the exception of 77-X, who wasn't really sentient. The monster was growling as it began to round the corner directly ahead of us, and it put forth a scream louder than a jet engine or a doom metal concert. It was so loud that I could hear it through my bones, and it wasn't even here yet! Ahead of me, we still had about 50 meters to clear before the sanctuary of the cave. And in that cave, there were Necrons, I thought, internally laughing at my bad fortune. The marine was now ahead of me, and he switched on his powersword with a crackle, holding the bolter in his other hand. I finally got to get a good look at the loud behemoth that had been chasing us as it finally advanced around the corner.
It was like something out of a nightmare, and the sight of it left me speechless. The creature was at least five meters tall at the shoulder with a tiger striped hide of red, yellow, and black across scaled skin. It had a long neck topped with an alligator-like head that had a four-way jaw topped with razor sharp teeth, and four reptilian yellow eyes. Long quills that resembled that of a porcupine's emerged from the creatures head and traveled down its humped back. It had six strong limbs that terminated in webbed claws, and a long spiny tail half the length of its body terminated in a bony spade. Its left flank appeared blackened and injured, but it was still able to move well enough to hunt. Its chest and rib cage were broad, and I saw it inhale as it began to scream again.
There was something unnaturally terrible about that scream, as if it actually caused my soul to cry out in pain. I saw my companions freeze. The Screamer began to slowly advance toward us through the river, its head low and continuously screeching through its four jaws. It moved like a giant crocodile, swaying its tail above the water as it walked along. It was so big that the river only reached up to its ankles. Even the marine, who was trying to remain stoic, was visibly shuddering as the beast screamed.
Strangely, I realized that I didn't really seem to be all that affected, and I wasn't sure why. Everyone else around me had become instinctually terrified to the point of freezing, even the marine, but while this thing was terrifying, it didn't cause me to lock up in fear. Taking a breath, I tried to take this feeling of strength, and spread it to my companions around me to help them. I was rewarded when I heard Alberich say Thank you! in my mind. The marine stopped shuddering and waved his power sword threateningly ahead of him at the advancing monstrosity.
"The Screamer knows he is finally defeated, for we have no fear! Death awaits it!" the Fallen challenged the creature as it walked through the water toward us. "I fight for the memory of my brothers!" he shouted bravely, standing his ground ahead of us.
"77-X, activate defensive battle program!" Null called out behind me. Awesome, we're gonna see that monster servitor in action!
I remained facing the creature, oddly fascinated by it. It looked like some kind of mockery of evolution, ridiculous in its over-the-top threatening appearance. "You want a piece of me? Do you, you ugly piece of shit? I killed a fucking greater daemon. What the fuck are you? Some kind of Tremors worm crossed with a porcupine?" I said, hyping myself up, trying to pull enough energy into myself to be able to use my psyker power. "Those colors went out with the 90's, asshole, and its time you got skinned of them!" Once again, I felt the warm rush of power washing over and through me, and I fixated all my anger at the monster. Air and wind began to flow about me, and I held out my hand as I felt a ball of white fire blossom in my hand. Fuck yeah, magic missile! Wolfie stood growling beside me, his ears down and hackles up.
The Screamer then charged through the shallow water onto the shore, going for the marine ahead of me first with a snap of its four jaws. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alberich jump up past me and rebound off the canyon wall to land behind the beast. The Fallen sidestepped each bite, and with his power sword, he jumped to land a gash on its throat. "An eye..." he dodged another bite from the monster, which then whirled around to see Alberich slash into its injured flank with his blue flaming glaive. Taking advantage of the distraction, the marine quickly shot the beast in the head with his boltgun, which blinded one of its four eyes. "...for an eye!"
The Screamer revealed itself to be extremely tough, as a bolt projectile to the head didn't actually kill it, and only took out an eye. It focused its ire on the marine again, and managed to grasp him in its jaws, screaming the whole time. With a shake, the creature threw the marine against the canyon wall behind us, and he landed after a short fall on the river's shore. The Fallen got right back up again and charged as the creature began to chase after Alberich, who artfully dodged each snap of its jaws. The Tzaangor's glaive was glowing with blue fire as it was aimed at the head of the behemoth, cutting clean through one of the jaws. The beast wailed in pain as Alberich danced out of the way with his glaive. The monster decided to go after me next, and inhaled as it opened its four jaws to scream.
"Shut. Up!" I said, throwing the ball of white hot energy in my hand into the creature's open mouth. It choked, screaming in agony, and started to back off, flailing its tail blindly, one crack of which struck Alberich in the chest, throwing him a into the river. Ahead and hiding in the cave, I could see Null peering outside as 77-X stood guard, not helping. What in the hell?
The marine was ready for more action, and had thrown aside his boltgun for his powersword as he advanced ahead of me. He began shouting at the monster as it yowled, "Come at me, you big ugly brute! I'll make you pay for my brothers!"
Seeing that the Screamer was entirely fixated on the marine, I visualized the energy writhing around me into a shield as I started to dash around to the creature's wounded flank. I thought if I could blast it with fire where it had been hurt, this fight would be over. A layer of heat washed over my body, and strangely, I felt that something was white hot at my side. I quickly reached down, and snatched up the scissors instead of the dagger. Hugging the canyon wall and holding my scissors, I slunk around toward the beast's flank.
Distantly, I saw Alberich stand, soaking wet and very angry. Ever useful, Wolfie popped into existence next to the monster, between its front legs, barking and biting at it. I felt that the beast began to panic as it started to try to back away, its spines on end as a defensive measure. Wolfie did me a solid just then and herded the monster into a position where its injured flank was extremely vulnerable to any long pointy weapons that I might be wielding.
I focused the hot energy wreathing around me into the scissors I had clasped in my hand, and with a leap, I plunged them into the open wound in the beast's midsection, causing a large area of the Screamer's flank to burst into white flames. At that very moment, I saw the marine manage to skewer the beast with his powersword from within its mouth, up and into where its brain might have been, even as it had lifted him in the air. I withdrew the scissors and ran out of the way as the flaming monster staggered. The Screamer made a pained, keening sound before falling heavily into the shallow river. The marine pulled his sword out of its mouth and screamed triumphantly at it, only to collapse into the water a few seconds later.
Fuck yeah, we did it! We killed it! We're great, I thought triumphantly, only half aware. I felt the Key at my heart begin to grow warmer, and whatever soul this thing possessed was pulled into the artifact I wore. I felt the sensation of a predator providing for her scaly babies in a nest, and her desperation at not being able to find enough food, and the pain she had felt when she had been injured. Oh. Now I felt bad.
I became dizzy and lost my balance in the river. I felt the now-familiar sensation of mechadendrites lifting me up and out of the water. It was Null. This tech-priest hid in the cave when things got scary, I thought to myself. I tasted blood as a bit of a nosebleed started trickling down my face, but I didn't feel nearly as bad as I did after fighting daemonettes at the farmhouse back on Levant. It was more like I had been hit in the head, momentarily stunned.
Null helped me to wade through the water toward the cave, and I passed the collapsed space marine laying face down in the river.
Alberich, pick up that man and take him along with us. I have a feeling he's important, I commanded. The Tzaangor quickly walked to where the space marine was, and with some effort, he began to drag him along in the river.
"Tell 77-X to help Alberich, Null," I said as we approached the cave. Wolfie was as happy as ever as he stood just inside the cave entrance.
I could feel that Null was very reluctant to help this marine, and honestly, I was too, but if this was the same guy I had seen in my vision, it probably meant that he was important to us. In addition, I really wasn't happy that Null decided to hide instead of fight. Finally, the tech-priest said, "77-X, aid the mutant with hauling the traitor marine."
The inside of the cave was dry and cool, and just past the entryway, I saw an electric lantern hanging on the ceiling. This place had definitely been recently inhabited. Null continued helping me to walk. "I can stand now, thanks," I said, still not quite stable. Null nodded, without saying anything as he slowly made our way down a slightly rising path carved in the stone. Behind us, I heard Alberich and 77-X begin to walk through the cave opening, holding the heavy marine. Wolfie appeared in front of us, leading the way.
Quietly, I said to Null, "I have an intuition that we need this guy. Please don't hurt him."
"As you wish, Scion," the tech-priest responded flatly.
The rough passage broke into a long straight tunnel that had been carved into a smooth, perfect arc above us. It was about twice my height, and small lights lined the ceiling of this place as we walked. It was very obvious that this place wasn't unoccupied. Null had been wrong again.
At the end of the tunnel, we came to a very heavy complex metal door, and beside it, a pedestal topped with a small glowing green screen.
"A biometrics scanner. Imperial technology," Null remarked as we came near to it. "It can only be opened by someone that has been greenlit to pass through."
I turned behind me to see Alberich and 77-X dragging the waterlogged marine along. Somewhere along the battle, he had lost his white shroud and weapons. He lolled his head, as if he was forcing himself to consciousness.
"Bring the traitor marine here. This is a hand print biometrics scanner. The door can only be opened by someone it recognizes," Null announced.
The marine was drifting in and out of consciousness as he was held near the door. His hands were covered by gauntlets, and we couldn't remove them.
"Another dose of antitoxin," Null said, pulling out another ampule. "It appears as if the poison is aggressive, and that he needs more than what I gave him. It is fortunate either of you were not envenomed. You likely would have died very quickly," Null placed the ampule on his mechadendrite, and once again, jabbed the marine under his jaw.
Soon after, the Fallen opened his eyes, and we saw as he tried to stand. 77-X supported him as he swayed, and he turned to the tech-priest and asked, "My thanks to you, strangers. Whom do you all serve?"
I answered before Null could, "We are, well, I guess, somewhat independent. We're not chaos cultists or anything like that, I assure you. We killed a Keeper of Secrets just the other day," I said very carefully. If he was a Fallen Dark Angel, we would not be making and friends by saying we were Imperials. Luckily, Null kept his mouth shut.
"You weren't sent by the others? The other Angels? The Inquisition?" he slurred, watching us.
"If we wanted to hurt you, we wouldn't have saved you," Alberich said.
"A mutant. Or a xenos. Maybe sanctioned," the marine babbled as he looked at the Tzaangor. "And a psyker, and a tech-priest," he observed audibly again. "What a motley crew. Rogue Traders, maybe. Mercenaries, travelers, pirates maybe. Fine. Very well," he finally said, breathing heavily, still appearing very intoxicated. "This place is lost anyway now, and so am I, so listen. Don't tell anyone what you see in here. I don't care whose house you serve or how much coin they offered or who signed your charter. This is important," he slurred. With one of his gauntleted hands, to hit some kind of release switch near his wrist, and his gauntlet opened to reveal his fair-skinned hand. The marine placed his hand on the green scanner, and a short alarm rang out as all the lights turned red. "Hold on, I have to do the security thing..."
"Brother Lian the Cowardly, confirmed. Warning! Presence of outsiders detected. Please initiate-"
"-security directive seven, yeah I know. Code 9X, loss of Brother Mariz and Brother Boq. May their names live forever in glory," the marine said, nodding his head wearily at the female computer voice.
Behind me, I remembered Wolfie, and said to him in my mind, Go play in the Warp for a little bit. This place might be for mortals only. I felt the astral hound pop back into the Warp with an affirmative yip.
The marine looked at us in the red light. It looked as if he was struggling to stay awake, despite the antitoxin. "Anyone else with you? This all?" he asked.
"This is all of us, correct," Null replied as he took out his auspex again.
"Alright, Aya. I, Brother Lian, highest ranking Dark Angel under Hunter's Repose Bolt-Hole, admit under trust one human psyker, one tech-priest, one mutant of avian appearance, and one, uh..." the marine looked at 77-X, and wobbled a little bit. The servitor's mechadendrites reached out to steady him, and I could definitely tell he wasn't doing well. "One combat servitor, looks like. Authorization code 845-TN9I. Those who are fallen are not lost."
A red laser revealed itself from the ceiling, and quickly scanned each one of us. The red light switched to green.
"Welcome, Brother Lian the Cowardly," the computer voice said again. I saw Lian shake his head sadly, a line of drool falling down his lip.
Wait a minute. Cowardly Lian? I choked a laugh that no one noticed.
As soon as that was finished, the door began to unlock. I could hear many bolts and hydraulics activating as we stood before it. Good thing we had saved this guy, since he was apparently the only one who could unlock this heavy security door. I glared at Null, who was still immersed in looking at his auspex.
The door pulled itself open from the sides, and we found ourselves looking at what appeared to be a secret bunker. After a short hallway, pale lights lit a square area of worn steel which branched off into three doorways. "We made it," the ragged marine said. Three steps inside, I saw him collapse again, and heard the door shut behind us.