Legends of the Smoke Jaguars Chapter 199
Vitcos stood in the darkness and wrapped himself in Shadow-path alongside his Kinsmen. Blazing Shadow Prowl lurked in an underground basement, plain and stark, without furnishings, illuminated only by the faint light of the burning city through a tiny grate. The Smoke Jaguars were mere suggestions of shapes in the gloom, each drifting deep in their own thoughts. Introspection and solitude came naturally to the descendants of the Raven Guard, they were part and parcel of their unique ability, but never had it been more important. Today they could not be noticed.
The noises of war echoed down from the street above. Metres above Vitcos' head the battle was enjoined, ferocious exchanges of firepower tearing the flimsy buildings apart. Guardsmen and Storm Heralds fighting for all they were worth to bleed the Greenskin hordes as they advanced. A part of Vitcos wanted to be up there, meeting the heart-foe face to face but his hunt demanded he remain still. They must let the violence pass them as a wave over the beach, then they could advance unseen. Huacho had promised to strike elsewhere and draw Orkamemnon's eye away, Vitcos could do nothing save wait and trust in the plan.
Slight vibrations in his feet told of explosions not too far away. The Imperials or the Xenos he could not say and dared not investigate. As the minutes crawled past he reflected on his conversation with Arjax-lel. What a revelation it had been. Always Vitcos had assumed his childhood shame was proof of imperfection, that he was unwanted and unworthy. How he had raged against that injustice, the fires of defiance lending him strength. Now he was forced to confront the idea that he was not the weak one, that he had been chosen to survive, not die. It should bring him comfort, any sane soul would assume so, but in his hearts Vitcos wondered if he would have achieved so much without that burning coal of resentment. Always there, always goading him on to greatness, causing him to surpass all expectations and doubts. This was a question he must ponder another day, for the battle was moving on.
"Thunder fades," Ilquitio whispered in the dark.
"Make your passage as soft as the first snow," Vitcos ordered as he moved to the far wall.
"The tunnelling snake travels unseen," Sechura observed.
"As far as the mountain roots, but then we must risk the sky," Vitcos warned
Blazing Shadow Prowl moved to the far wall and prepared to create an opening. Coronam was an old city, and many of its poorer districts were built over the ruins of older dwellings. Generations piling up bricks and mortar on the bones of their ancestors. Throughout the Rathaus were warrens of empty basements, collapsed buildings and forgotten workshops. Vitcos judged they could move unseen for a long distance, if they made a road of their own. Obsidian blades were applied to the soft brick in a circular pattern. Transonic harmonies aligned and the matter fell apart as thoroughly as if blown through by a melta-bomb. A large hole was made into the next house, and they passed through one by one.
Vitcos listened for any signs of detection as the Smoke Jaguars picked their way from cellar to cellar. Light faded as night rolled over the city, and the Smoke Jaguars had to rely on muted stablights, barely a firefly's glow strong, even Space Marines could not see in total blackness. No hint of discovery was heard, no trace of alarmed Orruk was evident. Orkamemnon's attention was elsewhere and so they had a clear run as they moved from room to room. Vitcos found himself surprised when they broke into a room filled with aged furniture, piled up in ragged heaps for reasons he cared not to ponder. It took a few minutes to shift the piles without making a ruckus, then they pressed on. Another cellar was revealed to be packed with narcotics, some drug-lord's stash no doubt. He did wonder why the criminals hadn't come back for their wares, but it saved him from having to kill them.
On the Prowl pressed, moving from basement to cellar, the only trace of their passage was the holes bored through rooms. Each chamber was a snapshot of life, a picture of the people who were born and died in this city. They passed through rude mechanical's workshops, filled with abandoned tools, worn by decades of use. Then a poor scholam, where some destitute scholar spent his last days trying to elevate the young out of misery and toil. Another cellar contained a young lady's corpse, in a wedding dress no less. She'd expired decades ago, by the withered state of her cadaver. Before dying of dehydration, and using her fingernails alone, she'd prised the flimsy door off its hinges, only to find the stair leading upwards had been bricked off and forgotten. There was a tale there, but not one that impeded Vitcos' hunt.
Another wall fell before the Smoke Jaguars and Vitcos was stunned to find himself stepping onto an underground street. A whole row of houses buried deep, facing a road. The roof was low, forcing him to stoop awkwardly, but it ran in the right direction and gave them a clear run deep behind enemy lines. How strange, Vitcos was baffled by its existence.
Ilquitio glanced about, "A badger-mole's tunnel?"
Vitcos frowned under his helm, "No beast wrought this, the work of men's hands it is."
"A street made underground?" Ilquitio mused.
"It was once open to the sky," Sechura commented.
"How so?"
The savage hunter knelt and touched the walls at a low angle, wiping away a grime of dried mud, "The river flooded one year, the waters did rise high and carry mud far inland. The streets were filled with impassable slit and so the people simply built over them. Boards and bricks laid over the surface made new streets and in time were built into iron-hard roads. But the waters lapped at the soft mud below and in time carried away the dirt that had filled them. The first street was left hollow, as feet travelled above uncaring."
Vitcos was amazed at his insight but there was a more pressing issue. Noise echoed down the street and he saw a flash of motion. Instantly their guard was up, bolters aimed down the street as eyes sought Orruk foes. It wasn't Xenos. Into the faint light of their muted stablights stumbled a trio of mortals, blinking in the wan glow. A father, a mother and their daughter. They looked terrified, eyes watering from lack of light. Vitcos had wondered where the people of the Rathaus had vanished too; it seemed they had sought shelter underground.
"Whose there?!" the man called out.
"Space Marines!" the mother cried in awe.
"God-Emperor be praised!" the girl cried with innocence.
"Hush!" Vitcos hissed at the noise they were making, "You draw Orruk with your bleating!"
"I'm sorry…" the man gulped in a sotto voice, "We thought we'd been abandoned. They said we'd been left to the Xenos fiends. But you're here, you will save us!"
"We?" Sechura hissed.
"There's more people that way," the man pointed into a door, "I'm Jerom, this is my wife Lushia and our daughter Mindra."
"Tell us not your names," Sechura hissed, "That weight we will not carry."
"I… don't understand," Jerom blinked as they drew near, seeking protection from the Ceramite giants.
Vitcos explained, "We are on a hunt, our passing must be swift and unnoticed. To stay and fight would not save this city, we must be fast and fleet and you cannot come with us. Your voices are too loud, your tread too heavy, we can smell you. If we can track your spoor, then the Orruk can too. You must stay hidden while we press on."
Jerom blinked, "You're leaving us?"
"We must," Vitcos hissed.
"I knew it!" the mother spat, "They are just more snobs from the high and mighty Imperium! Come to lord over us poor wretches. They don't care, Terra doesn't care about us!"
"Dear, do not speak blasphemy in front of the Space Marines," Jerom gulped with a worried glance.
But the girl bleated, "Dada, they're scary!"
Sechura switched tongues, "This stamping of feet draws Orruk as prey to the water hole."
Vitcos agreed, "The dawn over the mountains is swift and the Arcupine must be in its den before the light touches the jungle canopy."
"Leavings of dung make a fine trail to follow!" Sechura hissed.
"Water the roots with tears?" Vitcos blinked in shock.
Ilquitio gasped, "The Testimony teaches the perfect war is won with a single shot!"
"The sands of time pause not once turned," Sechura snapped, "This banquet of sin is mine to eat."
Vitcos however resignedly said, "Choice is my master, as is consequence. I am First of Blazing Shadow, the deed is mine. Thus it is written, thus shall it be."
Jerom looked baffled, "My lords, I don't…" Vitcos cut him off as his Chakrams flashed, removing the mortal's head entirely. The mother gasped in disbelief as the girl opened her mouth to scream, but Vitcos' arm was faster. His blades blurred in the air as he removed their heads, three blows in the time it took to draw a breath, three lives snuffed out. It brought him no joy but it was necessary. Witnesses could be made to talk, the Orruk might pick up the Smoke Jaguar's trail if these people were discovered and that could not be risked. No trace of Blazing Shadow could be permitted to remain, no witnesses could they permit to live. Vitcos let the bodies fall to the dirt unremarked, just three more casualties among tens of thousands.
Ilquitio breathed, "May the Sun-Emperor smile upon them."
"The bodies should be hidden," Sechura urged callously.
"No need," Vitcos breathed as he clipped his weapons to his hips, "Three more dead cause no alarm. Their silence is assured."
"The tides of fate left us no choice," Ilquitio lamented.
But Vitcos admonished, "Fate has no part in this, only choice and consequence. I chose so I bear the weight of their deaths. I am strong enough to face consequences, and there shall be more to come. I am an evil man, but I work in the service of higher truths. As the Eldest teaches, we are monsters, born to fight monsters. That the helpless are caught between the clashing of giants cannot be changed, it is the way of the galaxy. Cruel and harsh must we be, but above all strong. The black carriage awaits, Orkamemnon's secrets are ours to claim, let us waste not a moment more on idle talk. Away Blazing Shadow, away!"