Lucia's eyes flew open and she shot up in her bed, gasping for air, as if she had just clawed her way up from the crushing depths of an ocean. Panic gripped her and she took in her surroundings quickly, looking for any sign of the mouths that had been closing in, of the eyes that had pierced her soul with their unwavering gaze.
But they were gone. The Immaterium was gone. She sat in the darkness of her quarters, on Dovator's ship, alone.No, not alone.
Hands reached out of the darkness. She struggled, tried to pull away.
"Hey, hey… It's okay… You're safe."
Kraken?
Lucia turned to face the voice. James Kraken's caring face floated toward her out of the gloom. His comforting hands landed softly on her shoulders, the first human touch after an eternity in the void. Relief washed over her, and she collapsed into his warmth. She tried to speak, but her parched mouth drank up the words. Instead, she wept.
She wept for the loss of innocence that night on Glanvill; for Erebus, consumed by unimaginable horrors in her stead; and even for the faceless masses of Mercator and Gaea Prime, whose fates had been so callously governed by the whims of mad men.
She wept because Kraken was alive, becauseshewas alive. Because the nightmare had finally ended.
Kraken held her until her tears ran dry. At last, he pulled away gently, just enough that she could see his face, look into his eyes.
"There's something you should know." His voice was soft, the soothing tone that often accompanied the worst kind of news. Lucia's heart skipped a beat.
"Everyone's okay," Kraken quickly clarified. "We received a distress call from Noctis Quintus a few days ago. It's the gateway to the Noctis system. Space ports, refineries, governance. It's all there. Lose that world, we lose the resources of the entire system. We don't have all the details yet, but we know they're under heavy siege."
He looked away for a moment, took a breath while he tried to find the words. "It's daemons, Lucia. And it's bad. Really bad. Dovator already sent for the Grey Knights."
Lucia's eyes widened, fear and intrigue in equal measure. She had never witnessed the Grey Knights in action, but she had heard stories of their bravery and prowess. The Grey Knights were a mysterious Chapter of Space Marines, the military might of the Ordo Malleus. Each Brother was a powerful psyker in his own right, specially trained and equipped for combating all things daemonic. They were the hammer to the Inquisition's scalpel.If Dovator needstheirhelp…
Kraken continued: "Their strike cruisers are fast, but we were a lot closer. Weiss is taking us down now, and the Grey Knights should be here before the day is through. I just came in here to check on you before we disembark."
Lucia looked down at her hands, white knuckled and clasped tightly on her lap. She took a shuddering breath. It was a lot to take in. "Out of the frying pan…" she half whispered, mostly to herself.
"If you want to sit this one out, I wouldn't blame you. I'll tell the others you're still—"
"No!" Lucia's eyes hardened, pushing back against Kraken's concerned gaze. "No. I… I'm okay. I can do this. Ineedto do this."
"Alright," Kraken sighed. He helped her to unsteady feet, gently supporting her until her balance returned. As one, they shuffled out of the gloom of her quarters, stopped briefly at the armoury, and continued on toward the rear ramp of the ship.
The others were already there, Weiss and Sara lost in one of their usual conversations, Dovator pensive as he often was before a mission. They looked over in stunned silence as Lucia approached, still leaning on Kraken for support.
Joy and disbelief danced across the Inquisitor's face. "Lucia! I had hoped, but… And yet here you stand. You made it back to us." His sentiment was echoed by the other two.
Lucia was silent for a moment, looking at each of her friends in turn, a smile on her face. "I did." The smile faded. "It was… I'll tell you about it later."
Dovator nodded and turned to a nearby panel, activating a series of runes. The mechanism screamed to life and the ramp lowered slowly, revealing the large landing pad on which they had set down. High above, a transparent dome protected them from the thin, toxic atmosphere of Noctis Quintus. The world lived up to its name: the distant orange dwarf hung high in the summer sky, but its light barely reached them; this was a world whose people were trapped in an endless cycle of oppressive nights and anaemic days.
Lucia shuddered. If she had to imagine a place in the physical world that perfectly captured the overwhelming hopelessness of the Immaterium, Noctis Quintus would be it. She couldn't fathom how anyone that lived here retained their sanity.
Dovator, Weiss, and Sara had already exited the transport and were half way across the landing pad to where a small contingent of the planetary defense force had assembled. The psyker hurried after them.
"—either repair it, or reroute to backup systems before we can restore communications," the ranking officer was saying, her corporal stripes barely visible under the dust and blood that caked her fatigues. She had the nervous energy of someone recently, and unexpectedly, thrust into command. Two dozen troopers flanked her, each looking more battered than the next. "We've been unable to break the siege on the facility's main gate. And not for lack of trying. We lost a lot of good people in the attempts… Captain Mercer personally led the last push, and…" She shook her head, dead eyes staring off into nothingness.
Dovator's voice was kind but firm. "I need to know what we face."
The officer snapped back to reality. "Right, yes. Of course, Lord Inquisitor. It's easier if I show you. Follow me, please."
She led them into a large building on the edge of the landing pad. Inside and off to the right, a wall-to-wall maze of screens and cogitators threatened to spill out of a small, brightly lit room. The sharp contrast to the world outside made Lucia blink violently.
"Where does that go?" Kraken asked, gesturing to the far wall where the large doors of a cargo elevator stood open ominously.
"Down to the warehouses. There's an access tunnel through to receiving, and out to the facility's main gate from there. When the last attempt to break the siege failed, we raised the elevator and restricted access to this level as a precaution." The officer beckoned them over to the control room. "This way."
She stopped at the nearest device and tapped a few keys; a large screen to her left came to life. "There," she pointed. "That's live from the gate."
Dovator leaned in for a closer look.
Lucia moved closer to the Inquisitor, anxious to finally see the daemons Kraken had warned her about. She had only ever faced cultists in battle before, and while some had been mutated beyond all recognition, they were still human, they still bled.
The thick, plasteel gate held, but deep tears from the prolonged assault threatened its integrity, growing deeper and deeper as an endless wave of horrifying creatures crashed against it. Their movements were inhuman, a sporadic stutter as they blinked in and out of existence, glowing with ethereal energies in iridescent pink. Spindly arms and legs extended in every direction from a body that was entirely too small, reappearing after each blink in the wrong number and in the wrong places.
"Horrors," Dovator muttered.
Lesser Daemons of Tzeentch, these hideous creatures made up the bulk of the god's daemonic host. And, like their patron, they were Chaos in its purest form. For it was through the Immaterium that all psychic energy flowed, and Tzeentch, the Lord of Change, of evolution, ambition, and deception, was its master.
Movement to the right caught Lucia's eye. One of the troopers had pulled away from the group and was circling behind them. He raised his weapon, Dovator in his sights. Lucia spun toward him, drawing her laspistol, but she was too slow.
The sharpcrackof a lasgun discharging echoed in the cramped space. The trooper crumpled to the floor, a smoldering hole burnt through his chest. Kraken stood behind him, lasgun still trained on the dead man.
Lucia tensed, ready for a fight. If the remaining troopers raised their weapons, she knew she would have no choice but to enter the Warp; there were too many of them.
The trooper's body twitched once. Twice. And then it shook violently, contorting and reforming until what lay before them was the same vile creature assaulting the gate. Warp energy surged through its body, pink and blue and purple pulsing faster and faster. It shuddered once more, and was gone.
An audible gasp escaped the corporal and her troopers as a fog of fear and confusion descended on the room. They drew their weapons, frantically pointing at Kraken, Dovator, and each other, unsure of where the next threat might come from.
"How many of you have been alone since this all started?" Dovator's voice was calm, a valiant attempt to slice through the tension. "Think. Which of you have been alone?"
Lucia's hands trembled as she felt the chance at peaceful resolution slipping away. She tried to prepare herself mentally, but it wasn't working. Fear and despair were winning.I can't do this. Don't make me do this.
"Only him," one of the troopers replied at last, nodding to where the body had been, his suspicious eyes still flitting from face to face.
The corporal nodded. "We're what's left of three squads, but he found us later. Sole survivor of the last sortie, he said." She lowered her weapon slowly; her troopers followed her lead.
Dovator gestured for his retinue to do the same. "We face the spawn of Tzeentch, a master of the ethereal and no stranger to trickery. Trust only those that have never left your sight. We will split into two groups, large enough to guard against infiltration. Weiss, Sara, you four. Restore communications. The rest of you, with me to the gate."
Lucia lagged behind as the rest of them followed Dovator into the elevator, doubt tugging at her mind. Could she really do this? She had barely held herself together under the threat ofhumanviolence. Once she descended that elevator, she was committed to a fight beyond any she had previously experienced.
Lucia looked to the Inquisitor, and he met her gaze. 'Ask, and you shall remain here,' those caring blue eyes seemed to say. It would be so easy. But babysitting Weiss and the communications equipment was not what she had trained six years for. Terrified or not, she was a warrior. She would fight through this, just as she had every other time before. Lucia shook her head and hurried into the elevator, riding it down into the depths of the facility.
They rushed along the access tunnel and spilled into the receiving bay, Dovator in the lead. The ear-piercing screech of plasteel being rent greeted them, and an endless stream of Horrors surged through the tear, lunatic cackles erupting from large mouths in the centre of their chests.
Dovator drew his power sword, cleaving the nearest horror in two as he rushed ahead, looking for some way to seal the breach. The two halves shuddered and shifted, pink fading to blue as the pieces reformed into two smaller Horrors.
Lucia fired her laspistol again and again at the terrible creatures screaming toward her, unable to bring herself to advance as Dovator had, yet unwilling to turn and flee.
To her left, Horrors leapt at the troopers, hurling Warp fire and tearing into them with razor sharp teeth and talons, their insane giggles and excited squeals making the carnage feel like some savage game.
To her right, several of the creatures had grabbed hold of the corporal. The woman screamed, trying with all her might to shake them loose, but their inhuman strength proved too much. They tore at her, shimmering talons everywhere at once. Lucia fired over and over, but none of the monsters seemed to notice. With a gleeful howl, they pulled in all directions, and the shrieking woman came apart in a cloud of viscera.
Brimstone and death flooded Lucia's nostrils and endless screams filled her ears, wails of fear, despair, and pain punctuating the ceaseless mad laughter. All around her, troopers were torn asunder, immolated by Warp fire. And still she held her ground and fired. Horrors fell before her, some blinking out of existence, others dividing and continuing their mindless rampage.
Someone shouted something, but Lucia couldn't understand the words; her entire world had collapsed to a singular thought: don't fail.
The shouting continued as the few remaining troopers pushed past her.Where are you going?Lucia wanted to shout at them.We have to hold, we have to—
"Fall back!" It was Dovator. "Into the tunnel!"
Lucia forced her feet to move, pulling back with the rest of the survivors. Kraken and Dovator were already there, working the mechanism to shut the emergency bulkhead door. Horrors jostled with each other, cackling madly as they attempted to force their way past each other and into the narrow space; a handful of troopers struggled to keep them at bay.
One broke free, then another and another. They rushed at Dovator, a flurry of arms and legs and teeth falling upon him. "Get that door sealed!" he bellowed, collapsing under the writhing mass.
Lucia and two of the troopers rushed to his aid, firing and kicking and punching until they freed the Inquisitor. He was still alive, but gravely injured.
Behind her, the bulkhead door screeched as the mechanism jammed on the Horrors still attempting to force their way through. Lucia turned in time to see Kraken rush forward, lasgun braced in front him. The veteran roared as he threw himself at the daemons with his entire weight, dislodging them and tumbling through the gap after them. The door slammed shut.
Hours passed, a rhythmic banging on the door counting away the seconds. The surviving troopers had carried Dovator, barely conscious, back toward the elevator some time ago. Try as she might, Lucia couldn't bring herself to follow. Instead, she had seated herself on the ground near the bulkhead door, hugging her knees and desperately wishing to be anywhere else. She glanced up the tunnel, frowning with the realization that, in all this time, no one had bothered to come for her.They've probably given me up for dead.The Grey Knights should have been here by now too, and Weiss should have—
The banging stopped.
Slowly, Lucia climbed to her feet. She approached the door, peered through its small view port. Far across the receiving bay, a handful of Horrors wandered aimlessly, giggling to themselves before blinking out of existence. Curious, Lucia pressed her face against the cold glass, trying to get a better angle on the room.
A bloodied hand slammed against the window. Lucia jumped back, instinctively drawing her laspistol. The hand slid away slowly, revealing an equally bloodied face.
Lucia gasped. "Kraken?"
"It's me, Lucia. Open the door." His voice was muffled by the thick glass, but the pain and fear carried through all the same.
The psyker reached for the controls, hesitated. 'Trust only those that have never left your sight,' Dovator had told them. But what if this reallywasKraken?What if it isn't?This door was the last line of defense between the stuff of nightmares and the rest of the facility. They didn't have the manpower to survive another assault.
Kraken glanced around nervously. "Lucia, please. You've got to open the door."
"I… I can't. You might not be… you."
He stared at her, incredulous. "What? Of course I'm me! Stop screwing around and open the door."
Can I really do this? It can'treallybe him, can it?Lucia shook her head slowly.
"Open thefrackingdoor, Lucia!" Kraken slammed his fist against the view port. "Open it! Now!"
Lucia panicked, reaching again for the controls. She stopped herself, uncertain fingers brushing the switch that would open the door, the switch that would save Kraken. The switch that would doom them all.
"I'm sorry," she choked, the words fighting to remain unsaid. Her vision blurred. "I want to, but I can't. I can't… I…" She reached out, pressing a trembling hand firmly against the view port. "I love you." Her throat tightened. The tears broke free.
Kraken's chest exploded in a red mist. He looked down at the taloned hands tearing their way through his body, jaw slack in disbelief.
A wordless shriek erupted from the depths of Lucia's soul, primal and raw. Her chest constricted. Nausea surged, her stomach emptying into the back of her throat. She hammered impotently on the view port, incoherent screams dissolving into ragged sobs. Her eyes stung, but she refused to look away. It washerchoice that had killed Kraken, and she would bear witness to the full horror of his end. She owed him that much.
Kraken met her gaze, accusing eyes cutting deep, a knife through her heart. Blood spilled from his mouth as he tried to speak, his final words lost in an angry gurgle.
He crumpled to the ground, callously discarded by the Horror that had taken his life. The daemon leapt at Lucia, cackling wildly. It rammed the door with enough force to make the psyker jump.
The Horror dragged its misshapen body, slick with Kraken's blood, slowly across the window, the sickening squelches of its movement punctuated by Lucia's shuddering breaths. With one last wet pop, it was gone.
There, in its place, was Kraken, laughing, his voice no longer muffled through the view port. The laughter built and built, a deafening roar spreading all around her, a thousand voices laughing as one.
Lucia's remaining strength faded. She collapsed to her knees, but there was no ground to catch her.