Revelation Chapter 33: Flante Deo Perisse, a Warhammer + Worm Crossover fanfic

A/N: Chap 32 review responses are in my forums. This last stretch was a bit of a slog. One long-time reader suggested I should have double-posted, and I honesty considered it, but I was travelling last week and didn't have the time to get this chapter prepped as well as the last. But this chapter wraps up the Vervunhive and gets us ready for Hagia, where things finally get started.

Chapter Thirty-Three: Flante Deo Perisse

Taylor was proud of her Scratchers. Loomgirls, miners, clerks and habrats came together and formed a cohesive fighting force that helped defend their hive city against the seemingly endless hordes of Ferrozoica Hive.

She considered them soldiers.

The Tanith Ghosts and the Volpone Bluebloods were better. They had better training, better equipment, and more tactical experience. And so Taylor didn't even try to position her people or herself to go into the massive gunports first.

No, the first into the gunport was none other than Colonel-Commissar Gaunt himself. The man removed his glove to get a better grip on the port stanchion, pulled his bolt pistol with the other, and then literally swung into the opening of the weapon's port as if he were on a playground ride with the Volpone that Bragg saved a second after. She heard weapons fire almost immediately, and she glimpsed the very same Volpone blown apart in an outward shower of body parts.

Gaunt must have survived, though, because she heard more shooting from within. The Volpone officer, Gilbear, jumped in surrounded by four of the Tanith, with the rest of the teams and Scratchers following right after.

What followed was the exact type of firefight Taylor and Kolea both tried their best to avoid. Zoican personnel were defending the opening despite the infiltrators' heavy fire. The Bluebloods advanced in teams of three, using their hellguns to devastating effect as they pushed forward to secure the weapons deck around the massive beam emitters.

Taylor signaled Nessa to proceed while she searched for targets while her people retrieved their wounded. For all the vicious fire, though, they suffered only light casualties. In just minutes, all of them were inside the weapon, and Gaunt was personally fileting the secure hatch that led to the interior with his power sword.

"Move! Move!"

The interior of the Spike was the color of raw meat, as if they were walking through a living body. Taylor ignored the engineering of the place, which was a marvel of itself. Instead, she found herself staring at sickening runes embedded in the walls, each made from what looked like human bones. They were Chaos symbols and made her eyes ache just looking at them.

"How did Ferrozoica become so tainted?" she muttered.

"We believe Heritor Asphodel may be on this world, possibly in this very machine."

The answer surprised her. Gaunt had fallen back as they made their way through the open bowels of the machine and motioned at the machinery all around them. "This has all the earmarks of something he would make."

"I don't know that name."

"A champion of Chaos, and a former magos, we believe," the Colonel said. "His machines have murdered millions of guardsmen across the Sabbat worlds. Warmaster Macaroth is undoubtedly on his way, but we can't afford to wait for him to arrive. Not if we want to save the people of Vervunhive."

Before he could say more, another team of enemy soldiers in heavier armor rushed out from the accessway ahead, weapons blazing up the sloping tunnel at them.

Taylor bit back a cry when she saw one of Gol's miners, Harson, blown apart by the enemy fire. His blood splashed across one of the symbols, which began to wiggle almost like worms as the dark, chaotic magic absorbed the death.

It was one of the more horrifying things Taylor could remember, and she lifted her lasrifle and shot the symbol instinctively.

The squirming symbol screamed. The sound of it made the Imperials and scratchers cover the ears in horror. However, it completely froze the Zoicans. The enemy heavy fire team stood in place, weapons forgotten, as the inhuman sound completely overwhelmed them.

A Volpone fire team, recovering more quickly because of their enclosed helmets, gunned the enemy down with their hellguns.

"Let's not do that again, shall we?" Gaunt said when they cleared the tunnel.

The respite was short lived; more Zoican's arrived, and soon the running firefight began again.

Taylor advanced with the rest, shouting orders to her people to find what cover they could. The Tanith and the Volpone took the brunt of the punishment, but also did the majority of the killing. Their fire teams moved with practiced efficiency around each other, and when Gaunt shouted a name their flamer was already in perfect position to shoot a white-hot sheet of flaming chemicals down a tunnel at a heavily defended passage.

The Bluebloods used grenade launchers from their hellguns to clear side passages while they continued to push forward. Every step brought injuries, and one of them inevitably was one of Taylor's loom girls.

"Vinya!" Jesse screeched the other girl's name. Taylor missed what happened, but she saw the result. The petite girl from Loom 8 bounced off one of the walls as lasgun fire took her in the stomach and burned clean through her intestines and her spine.

A wounded Tanith man was nearby where she fell, and shouted for the medic to see to the girl first. The Tanith were a male-only regiment, and had some very old-fashioned ideas about women. His arm was hurt. But Vinya…

"That's a gut shot," Gol noted grimly as he joined her. He had to shout over the fire.

"I know. Go, I'll handle it."

Ducking down under the continuing fire, she rushed to where the medic was literally pushed by the wounded, hysterical Tanith man to try and save a woman who was already dead. Taylor knelt down beside Vinya just as the medic came to help.

He stopped when Taylor took the woman's hands. She ignored his stare as she knelt over Vinya. "What do you need, Vinya?"

The girl's eyelids fluttered. She was one of the original twelve girls Taylor and Jessi pulled out of the loom plant. Tears ran down her cheeks. "I need it not to hurt anymore."

Taylor stared at the medic. "See to those you can save."

The man opened his mouth, but then nodded. When he was gone, Vinya blinked up at Taylor. "I heard Jessi tell me. What's it like to die?"

"It only hurts for a little while," Taylor whispered to the girl. "You've earned your peace, Vinya."

With a nod, the girl said, "Do it."

Taylor placed her hands on the other girl's carotid artery, gently cutting off blood flow until she passed out. A flick of her stolen Zoica knife to the artery ensured she would not wake up again. She blinked back a tear and wiped her eyes.

Next to her, the wounded Tanith stared at her in horror. "She'd do the same for any of us," Taylor told the man.

~~Revelation~~

Taylor had no idea how Gaunt knew where the command deck was. She assumed it would be somewhere in the center of the Spike itself. But as the enemy continued to surround them and their losses mounted, Gaunt ordered charges to be set at a random hatch that seemed to lead back out of the monstrous weapon, rather than down into a command center.

When the hatch blew and they charged forward, somehow they were on the command deck itself. Gaunt must have had a map. Everything became a blur of smoke and laser fire and screams. Here, on the command deck of the weapon, Taylor saw in living detail what she saw in the dead eyes of some of the Zoican over the past few weeks. Men, women and older children were violated in a way that belied description, twisted by bloody cybernetics wired directly into their heads or faces. They threw themselves at the Imperials and scratchers with the mindless expressions of puppets.

Her own people came right behind her, screaming as loud as she did as they charged in after the Tanith and Volpone. She caught brief glimpses of Gol roaring as he brandished his axe-pick in one hand and a lasrifle in the other while wading through the enemy. He fought like a man possessed. These were the people who killed his wife and children.

But of them all, Ibram Gaunt fought the hardest. Not with mindless rage, but with a seemingly endless ocean of determination and deadly skill. With his massive bolt pistol and power sword, the Imperial officer cut and blasted his way through the enemy. In fact, he was so effective, he left his own people behind.

No, that wasn't it. The wired puppets, both those in and out of armor, made only a token effort to even reach him. He didn't fight through them, he fell into their trap.

A monster appeared out of the smoke, towering over Gaunt like a shadowy dragon. It was draped in black, with glossy armor that hugged a thin frame. It wore a hooded cape of black chainmail, but under it she caught the glimpse of something inhuman.

It flickered suddenly, changing position as it swung a massive power sword. Taylor had no idea how Gaunt managed to block it, but he did so with a determined, angry shout. Before he could riposte, the shadow flickered and teleported almost right behind him. Somehow, he dove to avoid a strike from the creature's new position, only for him to suddenly block a second monster!

The rest of the fight fell away from Taylor eyes. The roar of the Imperials and her scratchers became a dull hum as the absolute certainty fell over her that Ibram Gaunt was important. That she needed him to survive.

For the first time since waking on Verghast, Taylor let loose her constant, tight control of her soulless aura. She felt it push out around her, almost like a field of anti-Warp energy. With her only advantage against Warp sorcery unleashed, she rushed after Gaunt and flicked her rifle to full auto.

Gaunt somehow continued to fend off the two Chaos-monsters, who flickered about the platform in their quest to kill him. As she ran, she targeted one about to skewer the colonel and pressed the trigger.

The creature somehow sensed the attack and flickered. By then, Taylor herself almost reached the platform. The second creature also flickered, only to screech with a sound like nails on a chalkboard, and stumble. Her Blankness interrupted the Warp sorcery that powered their teleportation.

Gaunt was there, instantly swinging his own power sword through the chainmail covered neck of the nearest monster. Its head flew away in a shower of blue electrical sparks, while a strange, cold smoke shot up from the severed neck before the creature fell and faded away.

The other monster ignored Gaunt as it turned and glared at her personally. She sprayed more fire at it; like the first it tried to flicker but failed again with a stutter-step. It rushed her, power sword held high, when the heavy Tanith gunner named Bragg joined his fire to hers. Others joined them, pouring hundreds of lasfire rounds into the shadowy monster.

Somehow, the monster continued to reach for her until finally the wash of fire overcame it and it exploded with more of that cold smoke and blue sparks.

Two more Warp-twisted monsters launched themselves out of the smoke and shadows, wielding a pike-axe for one, and another power sword for the other. Both tried teleporting and once more flickered instead as they converged on the source of their frustration. They ignored Gaunt entirely.

Taylor stumbled back as the monsters approached. The pike-axe bisected one of the Tanith, while Gol's man Haller dropped his weapon and took up a dead Bluebood's hellgun and launched a grenade right into its head.

Taylor didn't even have to fire her rifle as the others wore the last of the monsters down in a crossfire.

The entire time, the battle for the bridge continued. Gaunt picked himself up and stumbled to one of the control pylons that seemed to run the entire machine. "Emperor preserve us!" he cried.

She turned to see what he was looking at, and felt her own stomach sink in alarm.

Just since they boarded, the machine had finally reached the curtain wall near Sondar Gate. The hive's void shield was down, destroyed utterly. From what Taylor could see, the top levels of the main spine were destroyed with it, as well as massive swaths of the city.

The colonel wasn't dwelling on the destruction. He was searching the control pylons for something. When he found it, he pulled an amulet from his pocket and inserted it into one of the pylons. Almost immediately, the lights of the command deck began to short on and off, while deep below, Taylor heard the mechanical screech of massive turbines grinding against each other.

Abruptly everything shorted out.

From the darkness, something new arose behind Gaunt. Taylor felt a pressure against her mind as a living shadow rose up from behind what was before a force field. It rose almost to twice the height of a man, draped in black silk.

Gol Kolea–brave Gol Kolea–rushed forward like a madman and chopped at the side of the shadow with his axe-rake. The shadow, which could only be the Asphodel Heritor Gaunt told her about, casually slapped the big miner across the platform.

Strange power lashed out through the Imperials, killing men randomly through a flickering of blade or fist. Through that deadly rain, Taylor saw Gaunt charge forward fearlessly with his power sword; from the shadows she saw Heritor brandish a bolt gun. She dropped her rifle, pulled her laspistols, and ran.

The moment she came within a dozen feet of him, the Warp sorcery that ravaged their men sputtered to a halt, just like the teleporting monsters. Heritor spun, striking Gaunt a glancing blow to the side that sent him bouncing off the control pylons with a pained cry. Ignoring all the rest of the imperials, the Chaos champion's red eyes, glowing from within a horned helm, burned angrily. A voice bellowed through the chamber. "YOU!"

Even as Gaunt picked himself up and plunged his power sword through the monster's chest from behind, Heritor ignored him entirely and brought the bolt gun to bear on Taylor. She saw a flash of light…

"Come back to me, child."

~~Revelation~~

"Don't even bother, kid. Too young."

The recruiter looked back down at his data slate until the shadow blocked his table. The man looked back up to see Gol Kolea standing beside Taylor. The huge miner was still on crutches, with much of his body still wrapped up in mediplas bindings. Even so, he looked threatening.

"So," Gol said dryly. "This here's Jada Washton, the Angel of the Outhabs. Our people are responsible for almost six thousand enemy dead. We were part of the insertion team that killed Asphodel. Everyone in line behind us are her scratchers. You don't want her? Then you don't want any of us."

The clerk opened his mouth, but he never had a chance to speak. A bearded colonel in the black body armor and slacks of the Tanith First stepped up to the table. "What was that you said?"

Taylor didn't recognize the man, but he had the Tanith look. "Brevet-Lieutenant Jada Washton, Vervun Primary," Taylor said.

"Brevet-Lieutenant Gol Kolea, Vervun Primary."

They both saluted sharply, and Taylor was pleased when the colonel returned the salute just like Gaunt might have. "Colonel Colm Corbec. Heard of you both. A lot, in fact. You saved Gaunt's life, so they say. Miracle you walked out of the Spike alive."

"I get that a lot, sir."

The clerk sputtered. "Colonel, with respect, this...the brevet-lieutenant is obviously too young to enlist."

"Is she?" Corbec raised one brow. "Lieutenant, are you over eighteen?"

Without even lying, Taylor said. "I am. I just look very young for my age."

"Do you understand that your ranks will not transfer?"

"We do," Gol said. "You Ghosts came and gave us the tools we needed to kill the enemy. Your Colonel Gaunt led us in person. If you'll have us, we're for the Ghosts."

With a bellowing laugh, Colonel Corbec slapped the clerk in the back hard enough to make the poor man yelp. "Sign these people up, corporal."

Taylor's borrowed name was the first signature in that day's recruitment ledger.

~~Revelation~~

Vervunhive was dead.

In the aftermath, the Warmaster crafted a law called the Act of Consolation which permitted any survivors to join the Guard if they chose, while providing aid and resources for the founding of new hive cities.

In the sixty days that followed the war–days that Taylor and her people spent aiding in rescue operations in return for food and shelter–the surviving nobles of the hive agreed with the Warmaster that the city had become a necropolis. Vital systems of the city, including water, power and other basic aspects of its infrastructure, were destroyed beyond any possible repair. Even if many parts of the massive hive looked intact, the arterial network that kept it alive was destroyed.

Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt received the news with a pained air of frustration. "Feth. After all we did?"

Colm Corbec settled down in a chair beside his recovering superior. "Maybe because of everything we did. There's not much left standing."

The colonel gingerly moved his legs over the side of his cot. Doc Dorden did his normal excellent work in repairing his shoulder and thigh wounds. It was time for him to get back to work.

"Did you read up about the Warmaster's Act of Consolation?"

"Yes. What of it?"

Colm grinned. "Your angel was the very first person to sign up."

It took Gaunt a moment. "My angel?"

"Brevet-Lieutenant Jada Washton. The scratcher girl that saved you on the Spike? We can't rightly promote her to officer rank, but I'm thinking she and the scratch leaders will make good sergeants for the new units. Her, Kolea and that smeltery boss, Soric."

Gaunt shook his head. "Colm, I called her my angel because she took Heritor Asphodel's bolter round in the chest for me. He ignored me and shot her point-blank. It was the only reason I was able to kill the monster."

"What else do you remember?"

Gaunt bit back a frustrated sight. "Not much. Even dying, the bastard knocked me senseless."

The bearded Tanith man shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you, Colonel. You must have seen it wrong, because she personally helped carry you out of the Spike. I watched her and her scratchers sign up not two days ago. Her only condition in serving was permission to send a single message via astropath offworld. She should be on a convoy to the trooper carriers as we speak."

~~Revelation~~

The troop convoy cars had six wheels, and at thirty meters long could easily carry two hundred recruits.

Taylor sat beside Jesse. Those loom girls they managed to save clumped together in the convoy, talking or signing excitedly to each other about the prospect of leaving Verghast. Most were young enough that the horrors they lived through were already in the past, only to emerge again in their future nightmares and panic attacks. None had ever been off world. In fact, none had ever even been outside of Vervunhive.

Jessi Banda sat beside her. She stared out the window of the transport truck with a pensive, distant look. "Did you get your message out?"

"Yeah. Part of the Acts. I got to write up a short message."

"When do you think it'll…reach whoever you need to reach?"

"Honestly, it might be years. Galaxy's a big place. And I don't even know for sure who'll show up."

"Until then?"

"Until then, you can call me Sarge."

Jessi snorted before her eyes drifted back to the remnants of her home.

Gol's people were in another car down the convoy. She didn't know the final numbers, but the best word through the dwindling refugee camps was close to forty thousand former residents of the now dead Vervunhive had elected to join the Guard.

They didn't have uniforms yet. Taylor's new rank as sergeant was conveyed with a badge on her synthfab tunic. There were other recruits going to other units, but she and her people were bound for the one regiment she could be certain would not throw their lives away for nothing. It was all she could ask for.

The ships that were going to take them into orbit looked like giant flying bricks with stabilizing wings and hab-unit sized rocket thrusters. Each one rose up above the hills behind them just beyond the river. There were hundreds of them, each with large landing ramps and gaping mouths to gobble up their latest sacrifices.

The vehicles rolled to a stop. "All right people!" Taylor called out. "Grab what you have and fall in."

She led her group out with all the others and gathered on the muddy, feet-churned fields before the rows of massive landing ramps. She saw Gol hobbling along on his crutches, while another scratcher from inside the Hive itself was overseeing his people just like Taylor did. Like Gol, this man wore a sergeant's badge, but was older than Gol and Taylor combined, and almost as heavy in build as them both. He had one eye covered in a plain bandage. He was saying something to Gol, but caught sight of her and grinned. "This your angel, Gol?"

"Right, you don't know her. Jada, this is Agun Soric. Argun, Jada Washton."

The man towered over her, and was three times her girth. But he had a strong handshake and a genial smile. "I have heard your name praised all over. Colonel Gaunt is the Hero of Vervunhive, but you're its guardian angel."

"I didn't do anything you and Gol didn't do as well," Taylor said.

Soric agreed. "Aye, but I'm fat and ugly. Gol's not fat, at least. They don't call folk like us angels. But a pretty girl with wicked aim and the will to win? Let's say I look forward to fighting with you."

Taylor forced an embarrassed laugh. "Well, I'm a girl, at least. It's an honor, Soric. Just like it's been an honor knowing Gol. Those Ghosts better watch out, they don't know what they're getting."

"Aye, but they're about to find out," Soric said with a belly laugh.

*Heavily inspired and drawn from Necropolis, by Dan Abnett.

A/N: I've mentioned how difficult I found this story to write before. I wrote all of Titanomachy and Voluspa in the time it took me to do just the first twenty chapters of Revelation. Unfortunately, I think it shows in these last handful of chapters. I believe I do better the farther away from cannon I can get. Thank you for those who've stayed with me and continue to review. Taylor's story is about to take a radical change.