Legends of the Smoke Jaguars Chapter 157
It was quickly dawning on Von Tor that he'd made a mistake. As they descended through the connection between Nu Zantium's baseplate and the Capitol Imperialis it occurred to him he was running towards Terran Space Marines, him a mortal man, rushing into a confrontation with the galaxy's finest warriors. He had an energy pistol and a power sword, but that meant less than nothing. He should have left the fighting to Vorshaan and stayed above to command the defences, not putting himself in danger where he could make no difference.
Around him Night Lords and Dark Tusks pushed through the narrow connections. Six Capitol Imperialis were being targeted by the Fire Lords as primary access points, natural chokeholds where the invaders could be bottled up. The size of his companions was awesome, the ringing of their footsteps deafening and the mass of them incredible. He was sure if he stumbled to the ground they would crush him under their Ceramite boots without even noticing, but that was not the problem. Near a thousand Fire Lords were breaking in, too many for a couple of hundred Chaos Marines to halt.
"What's the plan?!" Von Tor spat as he ran.
Vorshaan was running at his side, "Bottle them up in the chokepoints, cut them down as they approach and take them blade to blade."
"These aren't mewling Guardsmen!" Von Tor hissed, "They're every bit as tough and skilled as you are."
"Callow babes in arms," Vorshaan sneered, "No match for giants who bestrode the Heresy wars."
"Babes in arms who outnumber you five-to-one! How are you going to manage that?!"
The Dusk Prince's reply was plain and simple, "I'm Vorshaan."
The narrow access they were descending suddenly split into a web of corridors and the Chaos Marines spilt up, heading for their designated chokepoints. Helplessly Von Tor trailed after the Dusk Prince, almost forgotten. Some three squads of Night Lords and Dark Tusks were with them, scarily few compared to what was coming. Von Tor wanted to demand again what the plan was, but the god's hammer of Behemoth Cannons discharging drowned out his words, battering his ears and leaving him ringing with tinnitus.
A steep ladder let them drop into a Capitol Imperialis proper and Von Tor wondered again what he was doing here. He cast a quizzical glance over at Kazial but the gunslinger merely racked a bolt pistol as a reply, more eloquent than a thousand words. Resigned to his mistake Von Tor saw the Chaos Marines splitting up further, moving to prepared defence positions. A Capitol Imperialis was a fortress in its own right, with built-in barricades and defence posts. Von Tor had seen them stormed before and knew no defence was invincible, but they should slow down the boarders. Soon they reached an ammunition track for Behemoth shells, a natural passage through the superstructure. Any invader would have to pass through here and so it was well defended with Heavy Bolter teams and Autocannons set up to fire down the length of the corridor.
"Stay here!" Vorshaan barked.
"Where are you going?!" Von Tor gulped.
"To get ready."
"But…"
"If they get past this position they'll have a clear run at the reactor and drive mechanisms. Take those out and Nu Zantium grounds to a halt. Hold this position, and don't die, I need you alive for what comes next."
"What comes next?!" Von Tor yelled but Vorshaan and his squad had taken off down the passage and swiftly disappeared. Von Tor had no choice but to settle behind a raised barricade, listening and watching. To both sides Novan Wardsmen lingered, confused and dismayed. They were trained to obey without question but seeing midnight-clad Astartes barrel past had bewildered them. None would meet Von Tor's eye, that was good, they still knew to respect their new overlord but respect was no replacement for a foot of plasteel armour between the Disquisitor and hostile Space Marines.
All too soon the ring of Ceramite boots echoed up the corridor. Kazial inched out from behind the barricade and pointed a pistol down the corridor, and Von Tor followed suit. Nervous Wardsmen took positions by their heavy weapons and waited for the enemy to emerge. From the darkness they came, a wall of red and gold figures marching in lockstep. Von Tor had seen Black Templars in combat, charging with harsh cries on their lips and roaring chainswords in hand, scornful of the weapons of the foe. The Fire Lords were not like that. They came as a solid wall of Ceramite, boarding shields locked together as a solid mass, with notched grooves for protruding bolters. Ten wide, perhaps two or three ranks deep, there was no way to tell.
Von Tor opened his mouth to give an order but the Wardsmen reacted as they had been trained. Fingers tightened on triggers and the defenders let fly. Bolt shells swept the line, gouging at boarding shields and Autocannons thundered, knocking them back a step. The sounds of planets breaking and continents being ripped asunder assailed Von Tor's ears as guns fired inches from his head, but that pain was nothing compared to the sight.
The Fire Lords took the hits and kept on coming. Shields locked, stepping forward as one with the synchronicity of Mechanicus Automata. Furious lashes of firepower swept their line and they just stepped forward again, unheeding of the danger they were in. Suddenly the front rank dropped to their knees, allowing those behind to extend their bolters. Twenty guns barked but once, and defenders left and right flew backwards from their positions, heads demolished by pin-point shots. The incoming fire slackened somewhat and the Fire Lords were up and moving again, two steps, three closing inexorably. An Autocannon finally broke through a shield and a Fire Lord went down, but his place was instantly taken by the Marine behind, their line unbroken. The front rank dropped to their knees again and twenty shots struck Wardsmen from their places, reducing the defender's fire to next to nothing. The Fire Lords were almost through.
Von Tor gulped as he prepared to lift his pistol and make a good account of himself, but then the roof exploded. Night Lords appeared from nowhere, raining bent grilles and torn cabling from where they had concealed themselves. Von Tor had no idea how they had hidden themselves so quickly and well, but it certainly caught the Fire Lords by surprise. Vorshaan was in amongst them before they knew it, Chainglaive sweeping about with Transhuman blood spraying from its Adamantine teeth.
Von Tor blinked as he tried to follow the action, but it was too swift for merely human eyes to follow. Two breeds of Transhuman trading blows with speed seemingly impossible for giants so big, snarls of fury and harsh condemnation finally let slip. The Night Lords had surprise on their side and were in the midst of the formation, but the Fire Lords had a three-to-one advantage in numbers. Vorshaan better be as good as he claimed, but Von Tor had concerns of his own.
A Fire Lord broke from the melee, racing at the line. A lone warrior, sent to finish the mission while his comrades bought time. Heavy weapon fire chased him but he dropped his shield and drew a knife, accelerating so fast the gunners missed entirely. Von Tor reacted on instinct, firing a purple ray but it merely scorched a groove over that broad breastplate, not slowing the Astartes in the slightest. Von Tor threw himself backwards as the Fire Lord vaulted the barricade, wielding his bolter one-handed to blow away the remaining Wardsmen with precise shots. Only when the bolter clunked empty did he slam it to his hip and advance on the Disquistor.
Von Tor scrambled backwards on his arse as he yammered, "Stay back!"
The Fire Lord snarled, "Disgusting Heretic!"
"You're fighting for the wrong side! The Emperor never wanted the rotten corpse that the Imperium has become!"
The Fire Lord advanced mercilessly, "Save me your lies traitor! You reek of the Dark Gods, Chaos has devoured your soul and I, Brother Resiho, will end your sham of an existence!"
"You don't understand…"
It was useless arguing, Von Tor knew that, but his goal had only been to provide a distraction. From the side Kazial pounced, Banestrike pistols barking. Specially crafted round-struck Ceramite and shattered it, blasting through superhard material to spray ragged shards into the flesh beneath. The Fire Lord staggered as his right pauldron was demolished, his breastplate crazed into disintegrating chunks and his hip was broken with the crunch of ceramic-bones snapping. Kazial battered the Fire Lord down, driving him to one knee. The gunslinger was not foolish enough to stop shooting, pulling the triggers over and over, but the Astartes was faster than his fingers. A free hand snagged a headless corpse oozing on the deck and in a blur threw it at Kazial, sending the pair tumbling to the deck in a heap of tangled limbs.
Von Tor was on his feet by then, gripping his power sword in both hands. The Space Marine was wounded, armour rent in a score of places and blood trickled through the cracks. Von Tor had one chance only, a damn slim chance but he dared not falter. He lunged at the Fire Lord, bringing his blade down with both hands on the exposed shoulder. Energy field met the toughened material of the undersheath and parted it, following on to cut through skin and bone. Von Tor felt like a man battering a tree trunk with his bare hands, but he exerted all his strength, forcing the blade down. In one slice he parted the arm entirely from the body, leaving the Fire Lord dismembered and without a knife. It barely slowed him down.
Reshio's other hand swung about, catching Von Tor's carapace at the shoulder. Armour deformed and Von Tor felt his bones rattling down to his toes but the Fire Lord's injuries must be severe for the blow was merely agonising, instead of instantly fatal. Still Reshio tried to follow up, lurching on a shattered hip but unable to rise as he tried to punch Von Tor's innards out. The merest tips of his Ceramite knuckles made contact, bending the Carapace plate inwards and staggering Von Tor but the mortal survived. The Disquisitor was amazed, he'd survived.
"What…" Reshio gasped in disbelief.
"Too weak," Von Tor growled as he took up his blade in both hands.
"Abomination…"
"Just die!" Von Tor shouted as he brought the blade down on the scarlet helm.
Energised blade cut through helmet, skull and brain, cleaving right down to the neck seal. Reshio remained upright for a moment, then his corpse slid sideways and crashed to the deck. Von Tor was left clinging to his sword and could scarcely believe what he'd done. He had taken on a Space Marine in combat and won, an injured and half-dead one to be fair, unarmed and unable to stand, but still it was a remarkable achievement. How many mortal men could claim such a thing, fewer than few across the entire galaxy and the heady rush of it hit like a tsunami. Von Tor had bested the best, proven himself worthy of being counted among the mightiest men who ever lived. The sheer enormity of it washed over him and his soul nearly burst with the sensation of winning an impossible fight, against a legendary foe. He'd never felt such a rush and he swayed on his feet as the urges to laugh, cry and drop to his knees fought for dominance.
"Von Tor!" Vorshaan yelled from the midst of the melee, "Snap out of it!"
"What…" the Disquisitor blinked.
"It's time!" Vorshaan snapped.
"Time for what?" Von Tor asked drunkenly.
"Spring the trap!"
"What trap?"
"We've drawn them in but this is only the first wave. We need to drop the hammer on them, the Eversors, we need your Eversors!"
The words penetrated the fog swirling in his mind and Von Tor reflexively sent an activation signal. High above bulky cryo-pods ringing the lowest level stirred, spilling frozen gasses from grilled vents. Wardsman shrank back as mirror-visored attendants fed targeting protocols into neural-links, inloading instructions. Metal ramps whirred down as nutri-feeds snapped loose and bio-stabilisers withdrew needles from veins. Taloned fingers twitched as focusing rings whirred in skull masks, the bioengineered killing machines awakening. Long had Nova Terra laboured to replicate the Officio Assasinorum and now the fruits of their labours were revealed: three hundred Eversors, set loose upon the Fire Lords.