If you've ever talked to someone who's been in combat, especially indirect or ship-to-ship, they'll tell you. It's not the bombs or the gunshots that get to you, make you stir-crazy…it's the waiting.
The god-forsaken waiting.
The crew had told me before this battle that space combat was near-silent. That wasn't the case for me.
I could still hear everything the machine-spirits were doing. Where the vacuum of space would silence the sounds of Macro-cannon rounds and plasma impacting our shields, my ears rang and bled with the sounds of bolter-fire, war cries and clashing steel.
It was infuriating, watching as the holoprojector showed me the data. Targets destroyed and fighters, men, lost. I flinched at each one.
"…I need communications established with both the Navy warship and the Blood Ravens, clear up that damned interference and get me a vox line! That Lance shot killed that Barque in the water, if we can help direct its fire, we can get the tide moving in our favor."
"We're already on it, Interrogator. Our connection is getting stronger, but still not stable enough for combat communications." Lena and the sisters of the Lance were my liaisons to the Astropathic Choir.
"Get it done. Send our identification codes to make sure neither of them get trigger-happy." I gave a small sigh as I stepped away from the holotable. I walked over to the viewport and watched, standing alongside the armored form of Tu'Shan as my friends, my soldiers worked tirelessly.
"Command weighs on you." Tu'Shan speaks, more of an observation than anything else, buzzing through my helm's comm-bead than his own helm's speaker.
"I'm a craftsman, Tu'Shan. Not a soldier, not a tactician, not a general. I don't know strategy, tactics, outside of the few desperate conflicts I've been in. I don't know the first thing about Void Conflicts. Dataslates don't prepare you for…this." I muttered, my voice only buzzing in Tu'Shan's helm.
"The Emperor doesn't place us where we want to be, David. But where we will have the most impact on the war effort."
"A Twenty-Eight year old fresh-faced father with anger issues and an issue with authority. Yeah, I'm definitely having an effect on the war effort here." The sarcasm in my voice must've been amusing to the chapter master, as I saw his helm shifting as if he was chuckling. "I'd be more at home loading shells into the macro-cannons than here giving orders. Hell…Despite the blood, I feel I was more effective among the steel."
"Your ability is a weapon whose capabilities we are not entirely sure of. Even with your enhancements, I can hear your mechanical heart struggling with the stress on your body."
"Then why do I hardly feel it?" I muttered, giving a huff, beyond the blood and a dull ache in my muscles, I wasn't feeling the strain I had put on my body fistfighting a bloody starfighter. But considering Raya was hovering closer than usual and everyone was looking like I was going to burst into flame.
"It's called 'blind fury' for a reason, David." Raya huffed, arms crossed as she lingered over my shoulder.
"How's Peter?" I ask softly before I feel a decent weight impact my legs. Looking down I see that pudgy little face looking up at me with a frown on his face…he's got a few drops of my blood on his face.
"He wouldn't go to sleep. He wouldn't let Lena take him to our quarters either." Raya spoke as I knelt down and wiped away the dried blood from the baby custodian's face.
"C'mon little man. You have to listen to your mama when I'm not around." I spoke, only to have the child lunge into my arms and bury his face in my chest, giving decidedly negative grumbles that couldn't really be counted as words.
I would fistfight Asterion Moloc if I needed to, but I will admit that my eight month old child knocked my ass flat.
"Your child is a willful one, it seems, David." Tu'Shan chuckled as I hoisted myself up with the child clinging to my chest.
"He gets it from his father, I would say." Raya huffed, straight-faced. I sensed a bit of irritation at having to deal with a toddler in an active space battle.
"Then he'll go far, I'd say…What's the status of our attack run? How's Zach and Soline faring?"
"They're approaching the Destroyer now, Commandant." Anya spoke, drawing all of our attention to the Vostroyan as she came onto the observation deck. She was stressed, irritated, but I could see how some of the tension had bled from her shoulders with our efforts bearing some fruit.
"Alright…let's pray that those old bastards are as good as they say they are."
The Blood Raven Stormtalon escort had proven quite effective in the assault run. Diverting the battleship's own fighters away from the bomber and gunship.
Soline sent the gunship into a steep dive, targeting the underside of the Iconoclast Destroyer's underside. Triton alongside a cadre of other tech adepts in void gear were operating the gun deck. Triton barking orders in Binaric as they loaded prepared the shells for the 105mm and 40mm cannons, the 25mm gatlings reserved for starfighter defenses.
"I need as many armor piercing rounds as we have on deck! We're going to crack through their armor and follow up with the plasma rounds!" Triton buzzed, each of the red-robed crewmen bustling around, mechadendrites clasping volatile rounds of ammunition in anticipation.
"T-minus thirty seconds! Aligning firing angle now, target macro-cannon batteries and Nova cannon emplacements!" Soline's voice rang through the vox, Triton took position behind the 105mm, his auspex alight with a holographic display highlighting the Destroyer and targets of opportunity.
"Firing solution acquired, sending to Auspex, FIRE AT WILL! DELIVER THE OMNISSIAH'S WRATH!"
Immediately, the gun deck spurred to life, the vacuum of space muffled the report of the guns, but the efficiency of the tech adepts is not to be understated. Triton firing the 105mm, the 40mm cannons letting out a steady stream of rounds until a nova cannon battery was impacted by an armor piercing round.
"LOAD PLASMA, NOW!" Triton roared, wrenching open the breech of the artillery piece and removing the spent casing from the chamber as the adepts shunted a shell with a glowing blue projectile into the barrel.
With a binaric snarl, Trition sent the plasma shell, the projectile burning through the void, glowing a baleful blue as it sought out its target, the vulnerable core of the damaged nova battery.
Unfortunately, the round would miss, providing an effective hit on the macro-cannon battery less than fifty meters away from the damaged Nova cannon, but not providing the desired effect.
No, that was provided by the plasma torpedo delivered by Zacchaeus and the B-52 spinning through the crossfire a moment later, Brother Virgil's crimson armored form hurtling the massive ordnance out of the back of the open bomb bay with enough alacrity that the torpedo's own engines only kicked on for the last kilometer of movement.
The Torpedo pierced through the remainder of the cracked armor, the warhead reacting with the destabilizing core of the Nova Battery.
What happened next was visible from the planet's surface.
Plasma detonations are often compared to the heat of a miniature sun. An unstable plasma detonation can dwarf that. The Nova Cannon's generator and ammunition all coalesced into a combined explosion that engulfed the Despoiler-class Battleship in its wake. Blue fire burning in the void akin to the dying breath of a star, reducing the heretic ship into two semi liquid pieces of metal that hung in the battlefield.
A dreadful reminder of the fate of those who would stand against the Imperium of Man.
"This is Zacchaeus reporting in. Attack run was successful, target purged. Glory to the Omnissiah."
As the light of the miniature supernova lit up the viewport of the bridge, I couldn't help but let a vicious grin grow on my face. Even as I activated my comm bead, I was chuckling maliciously.
"Zacchaeus, you just did me proud, boy!" I laughed,
"Regroup and prepare for another attack run on the Despoiler Battleship." I spoke into the vox, a notably vicious tint in my voice. "Help or no help, we're going to finish this!"
I handed off Peter to Raya and marched back over to the holoprojector and the rest of my Lieutenants.
We were still bleeding men, bleeding fighters, but progress was being made. By the standards of the 41st millennium, we were outright winning. Winning by attrition, but winning either way. I didn't like it, it sat like a stone in my stomach, but looking at the pure math of it, we had turned a disadvantageous position into a slow but steady rout.
However, the enemy wasn't stupid, and coordinated their fighters to defend their remaining active ship and to reinforce the drifting assault Barque.
The Mercy's End, the planetary Assault Barque. Its engines had been disabled if not destroyed by our Navy friends' Lance, but there were still Dreadclaws being deployed.
Modified ones, turned into some crude amalgamation of boarding torpedo and drop pod. Say what you will about the Chaos Marines…they're nothing if not resourceful.
"They've been launching boarding torpedos and modified drop pods throughout the conflict." Al'Nagara reported from his position across from me at the holotable. "We've been lucky enough so far. The cannons have intercepted the boarding craft and our shields are holding, but-"
"BRACE! BRACE! BRACE!" The rumbling impact of munitions crashing into our armor playing way too close to the bridge for my comfort actually caused a few of our guardsmen to tumble over.
Tu'Shan immediately took over a guard position at the doorway as the remainder of us in the bridge leveled our weapons at it as well.
"Nazir. If you jinxed us, I'm gonna punch you in the face when this is over." I muttered through grit teeth before directing my gaze upward. "Krata, please tell me that was just a missile…"
The response from my ship was terse and bitten off.
"I'm a little busy at the moment! Be glad it's only one! FRAK OFF YE DAMNED TRAITORS!" Krata's words were accentuated by the hum of her main cannon going off once more.
Seconds felt like minutes as we waited, weapons trained on the doorway. Soon enough we could hear it, the sound of armored boots rushing through the steel, the screams of the unfortunate souls standing guard. No bolter fire…melee. A sickening thought went through my mind.
"Venters, we have a boarding party attacking the bridge, move to intercept if you can. There may be a few stragglers moving to attack other infrastructure." I buzzed into his vox, the response was immediate,
"I'm on my way, Interrogator. Hold Fast."
-CLANG!- The sound of a power armored boot slamming into reinforced adamantine alloy rang through the bridge. Tu'Shan's helm turned towards me for a split second, an almost imperceptible nod.
"Clear a path!" I quickly ordered, my men doing so, I looked towards Raya, who was holding Pete to her chest with one hand, and brandishing her lance in the other. She met my gaze and shook her head.
Not enough of a threat to warrant her intervention…damn it.
Another ringing impact on the doors, more a move to intimidate than to get in, I suspect. Even so, I kept Victoria trained on the door. I focused my hearing, listening to the whispers of the other machine spirits, seeing if I could get a hint of their armor.
"Blood for the Bloo-"
"OPEN THE DOOR!" I shouted, a tech adept immediately slamming a mechadendrite into the button, the adamantine gate screeched open, and the red and bronze form of a Khornate Space Marine rushed through, his boot thrust where the gate was a half-second before.
He didn't have much time to process much else, as Tu'Shan and his Thunder Hammer reduced him and one of his conspirators behind him into a chunky mess of gore.
"OPEN FIRE!" I roared, and the bridge was filled with las and bolter fire. Tu'Shan's Iron Halo protected him from friendly fire, and my men were accurate. Now, I take pride in my soldiers' weaponry. I spent long hours with Yanbel upgrading our arsenal from your stock standard lasguns to our variable charge helguns.
Each and every one of the bridge crew were equipped with enough firepower to stop a full grown Ork in it's tracks, but the sturdiness of an astartes cannot be understated. Their armor, ramshackle and heresy-era it may be, even more so. My senses enhanced by silver, I could see the lasbolts reflecting off of the bronzed and bloodstained armor, boltshells from the sisters of the lance and my own vengeance rounds of 5.56 dug divots into the ceramite, sometimes punching through, other times deflecting. But even through all the sparks and fire, I could see Tu'Shan, practically dancing between chainswords and axes. He delivered thundering blows that reduced two more of the boarding squad into bloody smears on the wall. I was entranced, nearly to the point of my own detriment, as I almost didn't notice the straggler who jumped over Tu'Shand and rushed into the bridge, heedless of the bolter and lasfire as he tried to murder us with his hands.
It was Nazir, who surprised us. He drew a weapon from his coat that sang of fire and fury, of hunts and dangerous prey. It pulsed with a wicked keen that rang the ears and reduced the upper fourth of the Heretic Astartes to a molten slag. There was little time to appreciate it, three more hostiles remained.
"FEEL VULKAN'S WRATH!" -CRUNCH-
Two now.
It was at this time that I caught sight of Venters, sprinting full speed down the corridor, already covered in the blood of some evil bastard. Even in the adrenaline and Silver's enhancements, I could hardly believe how fast the astartes can be. I've witnessed it before, sure. But even so, it cannot be understated.
Something that large should not be capable of moving that goddamned fast!
Case and point, Venters locked into a duel, power sword v power sword with what seemed to be the leader of this little boarding party whilst Tu'Shan duelled the largest of the group. A terminator, roaring curses and swinging a massive power maul in one hand, and a massive sickle bladed chainsword in the other.
Venters got into a blade lock with the veteran Heretic. Painted in an eerie red glare by the lasfire and the sparks coming off of their blades, he tanks a lunging headbutt from the Khornate marine, then proceeds to perform a damn near perfect hip throw that sends the bronze heretic into his Terminator buddy.
This knocked the Terminator off balance for just a split second, but it was enough.
Tu'Shan lunged, taking a grip on his thunder hammer just beneath it's head, thrusting it into the Terminator's helm in a jab that shattered it in a violent spray of ceramite and circuitry. I didn't even get a shot at the bastard's face, as Tu'Shan seemed keen to remind us all that he was a chapter master, with his free hand, he thrust the muzzle of his hand flamer into the Terminator's screaming maw and proceeded to turn him into a melted bubbling sludge held in place by that ancient armor.
I hopped down from the observation platform and rushed towards the brawl, Venters had rushed the remaining heretic. Outnumbered and facing a superior skilled opponent he found himself disarmed, literally, and with a pulse of plasma from Nazir's Ryza Pistol his legs were amputated as well.
I stepped forward, glaring down at the Khornate worshiper with this burning indignation in my veins. He didn't care if he died here, he did what he was supposed to. Kill my men, disrupt our operations. He thought his soul would go before Khorne with the blood of my men on his hands, and his own skull in offering.
No.
"Burn his wounds shut." I ordered, voice like stone.
"Pain means nothing to me, wretch." The Heretic rumbled, even as the smell of his flesh searing shut filled my nostrils with Venters obeying my command. "Every drop of blood, every broken bone goes to my Lord in the Warp!"
"You're more coherent than I expected of a devotee of the Blood God…but you misunderstand my intent, dog." I growl out, my hands clenching around Victoria's grip and forend hard enough I feel the aluminum creaking in my grasp.
"Do I? Do you not know the curse of my brothers? I can feel your rage, fool. Your desire to make me bleed, to remove my head and avenge all of your fallen." I can't see his face, but I can hear the crazed smirk in his voice. "Go ahead, finish me! Kill me knowing that your efforts only strengthen my Lord! KILL! MAIM! BURN!"
I could feel their eyes on me. Not just Venters and Tu'Shan, but the bridge crew, Lena, Nazir, Yanbel, Anya, and even little Peter. All watching, wondering what came next.
"The Blood God cares not from whence the blood flows…only that it does. This is true." I spoke, "Some of your fellow followers even flagellate themselves, offering their own blood to that wretched idol…filling the lake, feeding the Bloodthirsters."
I slowly, deliberately sling my rifle across my right shoulder, and draw Grande and Repentia from my back. Her pilot light flares, a jet of blue burning promethium that reflects in the Heretic Marine's lenses.
"You think that your soul will go before your Lord, with your own blood, your own skull in offering. That he will be pleased by the bounty you have brought to him, even in death. No. You see, I have chosen you, Heretic." I bite out the last word with enough bile and spite that I'm certain I would've earned my rosette then and there had Vail witnessed it.
"To send a message to your pitiful god: I deny him."
I start at the stumps of his legs, lighting them up in a pillar of fire that slowly begins to melt and boil.
"I deny him your Blood. For every drop will be burned and boiled away…not a single drop more will spill."
I burn. I burn and burn until what's left of his legs are melted into slag, then I move to his arms. Shortening the stumps in a slow, tortuous surgery.
"I deny him these burns, with this fire fuelled by blessed prometheum and holy fury, I purge your flesh from this realm"
I stepped back, and Repentia's pilot light flared in a lick of flame once more, preparation for what came next.
"And I deny him you. Not a single drop of blood will spill. We will burn and burn and burn until your pathetic skull is naught but slag." I'm not even shouting, yet my words seem so much louder. Ringing through the bridge, and, I would find out later on, throughout the battlefield.
"You will die with all your centuries of slaughter forgotten. All your prowess as a warrior ruined. Your soul will go before your lord as you truly are: Broken. Honorless. A useless puddle of waste that will be trodden upon by the millions for years to come."
As I spoke, the rest of the bridge crew, the sisters of the Lance, Anya, and of course Venters and Tu'Shan, in this silent concert of retribution surrounded the crippled Marine. And as I let loose with Repentia's gout of fire, they unleashed hell with their own flamers.
A dozen streams of fire, at least. It was more of an achievement of catharsis than an execution. All of our frustration and grief unleashed upon this unfortunate fool.
But that's what he gets…he killed my men.
And I will never let that go unanswered.
-PREVIEW FOR A FUTURE CHAPTER-
"I want ANSWERS, you golden FUCK!" maybe losing my temper when talking to a man that even a million light years away could reduce me to dust, but at this point…I was too angry to care.
"You take me, that's fine. I'm the fuck-up of the family, dead-end niche job, screwed up at school, no girlfriend, and just lukewarming the church bench. I wasn't someone who was anything to be proud of."
"When you nabbed me, and I wound up on Gravalax, I figured 'hey, why not. If I stick with someone as stupid lucky as Cain, I just might survive.' I found my truck, I didn't think much of it. Damn thing wasn't much of it. A fun little reminder of home. But THIS?!" I snap. Snarling out my next words in a full force shout that would get me killed had silver not silenced me to the outside world.
"I KNEW WHAT I WAS GETTING INTO. I READ THE BOOKS, I LISTENED TO THE STORIES. I KNEW HOW TO FIGHT, HOW TO SHOOT. HE DIDN'T!"
My voice cracks, and I sink to my knees, my artificial heart is sunk in my chest and my next words are choked out in sobs.
"He…he studied birds…he was so smart…so much smarter than me…and you…you threw him into a war he knew nothing about…a doomed war that you knew you were going to lose…you shove him into a robot, and send him to war."
"You deny me my duty. The moment he was born, it was my duty as the eldest son…to keep him safe…for Christ's sake he doesn't think the same way we do…you shoved a neuro-divergent biologist into a hundred ton war machine and sent him to die…and you don't even let me do my job as the elder brother of dying alongside him."