Day 28
"FORWARD! FOR THE EMPEROR!" Serrita cried, thrusting her roaring chainsword into the air. A unified shout, a wordless warcry, went up among the Malum Cohorts, a hundred stouthearted men and women charging fearlessly into scything lances of autogun fire. Dozens fell, blown apart, but the rest did not falter and Serrita took heart from their fearlessness even as she and her sisters joined their rush.
They fought in a long tunnel, one of the many that lead through the wall of Janus and into the city itself, though it was not the service duct currently being journeyed through by Aliciel and other Sororitas. This one was protected by a small army equipped with heavy stubbers, making good use of the tight quarters to turn it into a bloodbath.
"LET HIS FURY FILL YOU!" Serrita yelled, her voice amplified by her helmet's vox. She felt an autogun round glance off her shoulder, the force of it nearly throwing her off-balance, but she managed to keep her pace.
A voice cut through her vox, shouting a warning Serrita barely heard over the blood pounding in her ears. She definitely heard the next sound, however.
CHOOM
The leman russ fired with its main gun, the force of the shell's journey over her head ripping her off her feet and shoving her to the ground, just as it struck the enemy stubber emplacement's ammo cache, causing an explosion that filled the tunnel with the screams of the enemy dying as they burned.
She rose, her armor caked in the blood of the troops from prior attacks. She tried to ignore the indignation rising in her, knowing it had been her own distraction that had led to her being unprepared for the shot. She saw her Sisters had not stopped, as was only right, and were already ahead of her by a dozen meters.
She had not lost possession of her weapons at least, and she rose to her feet, brandishing the chainblade, the words of scripture passing through her lips, growing louder and louder as she rejoined the rush.
The enemy's emplacement was still burning when she reached it, but the enemy was all dead, their screams cut short by autogun rounds. Her Sisters strode through the fire fearlessly, but the Malum troops were more cautious, not having the protection of power armor, throwing corpses onto the flames to douse them. Oddly, they didn't seem to use those of the enemy, only their own, but she chalked it up to them not wanting to touch the burned bodies.
"Fan out and secure the tunnel!" Serrita ordered and her assault force was quick to fulfill her orders. She heard the trundling of treads and turned to watch as the Leman Russ that had provided fire support rolled towards them, uncaringly crushing corpses as it passed through, as though it intended to grease its motors with the blood of the fearless. Serrita couldn't but wince a little at the sight and wondered if her assessment was wrong and these troops were simply callous towards the lives of their fellows. While she could respect their devotion, at times it seemed less like they were eager to die for the Emperor and more like they simply did not care if they lived. While the result was the same, she was starting to wonder just how these men and women were trained to acquire such a mindset. She was not overly familiar with the hive city of Malum, the journey through the tunnel that connected it and Deimos hardly qualified as visits, but she'd always thought it to be no different than the other hives. What made it so special?
A howl split the air and disrupted her thoughts, a bloodcurdling scream of rage and hunger. It was soon joined by others, countless more, a thrill of unnatural bloodlust passing through her. She recognized the feelings for what they were, the machinations of Chaos, and crushed them under her faith and will. She glanced at the Malum troops and saw, to her relief, they seemed as unaffected by the attack as she and her sisters were, merely turning to face this new threat.
The Leman Russ came to a halt, its heavy main gun pointing further down the tunnel while dozens of PDF took cover around it in the broken remains of their enemy's former choke point. Serrita and her Sisters stood in the open, unafraid of whatever was to come.
The first beastman to emerge at the end of the tunnel was small, fast, and utterly unprepared for over thirty bursts of autogun fire to slice through its flesh, chopping its mutated flesh into pieces that scattered across the ground.
Another united howl arose the moment its blood hit the ground, one somehow both delighted and infuriated. The source of the cry soon became apparent as dozens of beastmen poured into the tunnel, all wielding weapons only fit for chopping, stabbing, or bludgeoning. They wore little armor to speak of and charged ahead with reckless abandon.
"FIRE!" Serrita cried out, leveling her boltpistol and unleashing a hail of rounds into the encroaching horde, the explosive rounds ripping through flesh and detonating with devastating effect. Her own fire was joined by that of her Sisters and the rest of the PDF, cutting down the first row of beastmen with deadly efficiency.
CHOOM
The Leman Russ' main gun fired again, though Serrita was better prepared to deal with the rush of air as its shell passed by and kept to her feet, only barely pausing in her fire to regain her aim. The shell detonated in the middle of the horde, sending an explosion of blood and limbs into the air. The heavy stubbers of the tank opened up into the horde as well, slicing through flesh and muscle like a power sword through armor.
And yet, the horde came on, more beastmen rushing forward to replace the dead, closer and closer. Close enough that Serrita could see the madness and rage in their eyes, the pure insanity that gripped them. That she could see the spittle and froth that flew from their lips as they continued to scream in their fury, not the righteous sort that she and her sisters possessed, but a corrupted, wretched desire for blood, be it that of the God-Emperor's loyal servants or their own.
"THE SCIONS OF THE ARCHENEMY ARE UPON US!" Serrita called. "LET NOT YOUR RIGHTEOUS SPIRIT WAVER!"
There was no answering call this time as the PDF seemed to fall into a cold, precise unity of a kind. Their fire was coordinated, a sight to behold, cutting down swathes of the encroaching horde, and yet more still came closer.
"AFIX YOUR BAYONETS!" Serrita ordered and half the PDF began to do so, the other half maintaining fire to hold back the tide of bodies. Serrita pressed the activator on her chainsword, revving it to life, and holding it up above her head. "FOR THE GOD-EMPEROR! CHARGE!"
The PDF were already rushing forward, holding their autoguns out in front of them like spears, running fast and low. Serrita and her Sisters joined them and she sought out the largest beastman, the fastest, the strongest. She did not have to look long, finding a beastman with deep, red near-black fur swinging around a greatsword in a single, massive hand. It roared and bisected a pair of PDF troopers, who went down with their final acts being to shove their bayonets into the chest and stomach of the creature, though all this seemed to do was make it angrier.
"HERE, TRAITOR, HERE!" Serrita called out, slashing through another of the mad creatures that came at her, its snarls cut short in an almost pitiful whine as its flesh and bone were sawed apart by her blade. "COME AND FACE ME, SLAVE OF THE DARK!"
The beastman turned, roaring out a challenge of its own, before charging straight at her. Serrita brought her bolt pistol up and fired, but the beastman ducked low just in time and the shells detonated in the flesh of another of the wretches further back in the horde. She holstered her pistol and twohanded her chainsword, roaring a warcry of her own.
She caught the beastman's first blow, a downward slash, on her blade's guard with ease. She pushed off the strike and brought her blade around for a sideways cut, but the beastman rushed forward, catching her off guard, and she was suddenly aware of the second, smaller blade, the dagger it wielded in its free hand, already descending for the weakspot between her helmet and chestplate.
She turned and the dagger scraped harmlessly off her shoulder plate. No, not harmlessly, she realized, as the tattered ribbon of one of its purity seals fluttered away.
"FILTHY MUTANT!" Serrita screamed with pure, righteous fury at the supreme indignation. It flooded her veins with adrenaline and she moved almost faster than the gears of her power armor were able to accommodate, her chainsword digging down into the skull of the beastman, right between its maddened eyes. Her blade was already through the skull and digging into the neck when it finally collapsed, its limbs twitching and spasming. Serrita brought her boot up and stomped down onto the ruin of its head, crushing it fully and stilling it forever.
She looked up and around the battlefield, surprised to see the beastmen had begun to pull back. Perhaps the one now staining her boot had been the leader of this small group or perhaps they had been recalled by whatever other dark beings they called master. She was about to give the order to follow after them, to finish them off, when the Canoness' voice spoke to her through the vox.
"Legatine, are you there? Have you secured the tunnel?"
"Yes, Canoness," Serrita nodded despite the fact that the gesture couldn't be seen. "We also encountered a group of beastmen mutants, but saw them off."
"I'm afraid that is the only good news we have heard today. Leave the PDF to guard the tunnel, reinforcements will be along shortly, but I need you and your Sisters back at the base."
"What has happened?"
"It seems the service duct was not as unwatched as we'd suspected. Aliciel and her Sisters have gone silent."
Tide found his gaze being drawn again and again to the Warp. There was a sick fascination there, to look out into a sea of endless horror. While he did little beyond passive observation, unwilling to risk anything that might endanger himself or the souls now in his care, he did still learn several things.
Foremost in importance among that gained knowledge was his ability to move about the Warp. Or, rather, look around it? He did so by angling and moving the rift throughout his domain, almost as though he were looking through a screen.
He passed through the Warp, causing not even so much as a ripple in its waters, passing by countless predators. The daemons and other Warp entities he saw seemed to be growing increasingly agitated by something, though he couldn't say what for sure. His own presence remained undetected, as far as he knew.
In the distance, looming like dark mountains, the four floating icebergs remained around the dark storm that flashed with sporadic bursts of golden lighting. The Chaos Gods and their domains were tempting subjects to study more closely, but Tide had not dared go near their massive forms. While nothing had shown the ability to notice him yet, that did not mean it wasn't possible.
Instead, Tide began to construct a mental map of the 'local' Warp area, though it wasn't so much a map as it was a number of 'landmarks', objects or phenomena he had seen repeatedly. The largest and most prominent was what Tide could only assume to be the Warp Storm that had descended around the Monstrum system. However, notably, it was not the only recurring sight.
Inside the storm itself, he occasionally saw what could have been starships. Some were clearly Imperial, others obviously of Chaotic origin, some even looking closer to daemons than true warships. However, a great many of them appeared to be neither and even of a variety of different styles. They would flicker into his view and then disappear. He wasn't sure if they were being destroyed or simply returning to realspace.
Additionally, sometimes, he'd see the remnants of something like the branches of a giant tree. Sometimes they seemed to be connected to things. The ones that weren't were often swarming with daemons, like maggots on spoiled meat.
Finally, he'd occasionally see something akin to a glowing pillar floating through the Warp. At first, he'd thought it might have been the Astronomicon, that his suspicions regarding the dark storm where the Chaos Gods rested were wrong, but he'd quickly realized this to not be the case. The pillar was actually a trio of pillars, closer in color to molten yellow than true gold. They were also far too small to be what he had heard the Astronomicon to be, though size had little meaning in the Warp. Perhaps power was a better descriptor.
For whatever reason, few of the daemons and Warp predators drew near these pillars, perhaps put off by the similarities, however distant, to the true beacon used by the Imperium to navigate the Warp. He doubted any Navigator could use the pillars in a similar way, but he kept in mind the fact that the daemons seemed to dislike them.
Finally, there was something akin to an idea of 'up and down' in the Warp. Though, it was not uniform across the Warp and it was determined by something Tide had yet to really nail down. Sometimes 'Up' was left, sometimes it was right, sometimes it was a direction that couldn't be known by a Material being, though was more understandable to him for reasons he couldn't quite parse, though he assumed it to be his nature as a Precursor. 'Down' was even more complex, as it seemed to utilize higher dimensions more often than not.
It was down that fascinated him more. He'd already decided pursuing Slipspace was a worthwhile endeavor, but been stumped by having little ability to determine the presence of higher dimensions beyond those he already knew to exist. The down direction, what he had mentally labelled the Deep Warp, was intriguing for its greater complexities that he seemed to be well-suited to studying.
Tide took control of the rift once more and began 'moving' throughout the Warp, searching for a place where he could begin looking into the Deep. He passed by innumerable predators and daemons, some small, others titanic.
He neared the storm and saw the three pillars. He saw a fleet of alien craft made of webs and black wings slicing through the Immaterium, chased by a horde of enraged daemons kept at bay by some strange black energy. It was hours in real-time before he found it, but it could have been seconds or millennia in the Warp.
Then, he found it. A way down, travelling across the sixth dimension before cutting through the seventh. It was strange, moving across dimensions he could never have imagined in his previous life, yet it felt even more strangely from how natural it was. Precursors, his kind, this was simply something they did.
How much more could he be, were he not corrupted? If he were not trapped as a parasite? He wondered, if he gained enough biomass, would he gain all the abilities of the Precursors? Or would there still be some things denied to him, because he was, fundamentally, broken?
He didn't like that train of thought and he pressed further down into the Warp. Across dimensions in a labyrinth of nigh-infinite complexity. He briefly thought he might have stumbled into Tzeentch's realm, but he doubted it.
All the while, the Warp grew darker. However evil they might have been, the Chaos Gods and Warp Storms did cast light, of a sort. It was not warm, but cold and dim, but it was still light. And now, it was starting to disappear.
Similarly, the number of daemons he encountered also began to grow fewer and fewer. For a while, other Warp entities began to grow in number to replace them, before even they began to disappear. By the time he no longer saw any at all, he could tell he was at the edges of the light cast by the Chaos Gods.
Below him yawned a black abyss, empty and endless. Except it wasn't empty.
He could tell there was something down there. Or rather, some things.
A part of him wanted to go forward, wanted to keep exploring. A much louder, much more cautious part of him brought up a fear from his past life, a fear that had haunted him for years. A moment of his life where he was out swimming in the ocean… and had looked down. Down into the blackness that stretched beneath him. Down into the infinite dark… and something had moved.
Something was moving now. Through the black, up towards the light. The light that began to recede behind him.
For the first time since arriving in the Warp, Tide felt something notice him. Countless not-eyes, gazing up at him, through the rift and into his Domain, with feelings so utterly alien he was certain they could not have existed. And they were coming closer.
Tide fled from the Deep with all the haste he could muster, not quite retracing his steps back to the shoals, but near enough. Eventually, the darkness rising behind him receded, whatever creatures chasing him departing for some impossible to understand reason. He basked in the wretched light of the Dark Gods, once more hidden, once more unnoticed, once more safe. New knowledge and perspective, however dangerously acquired, had given him new insight:
It was safer to be among the gods than the things that fed on them.
