From the Malicious Claw, boarding torpedoes shot from its tubes, carrying the Terran Assassin Elites towards the Gate Forty-Two.
Bang, bang, bang...
One Assassin Elite repeatedly slammed his head against his restraints, each impact making his ceramite ring.
The warriors behind him jeered, their laughter laced with despair.
"Ler is head-banging again."
Ler turned his head stiffly. Behind his helmet's visor, his black eyes lacked irises.
His sunken eyes were hollow. Blood stained the rocks of the hills.
The runes flickering on his visor pulled him back from his hallucination, restoring his focus.
"I'm going to die soon."
His voice was so cold it seemed to chill the heat radiating from the boarding torpedo's forward melta array.
Click!
Ler freed himself from his restraints. As the mechanical chime sounded, superheated streams of fire coiled from his backpack, feeding into the twin barrels of his guns.
He leaped, trailing the acrid smell of sealant and hot metal. The moment the targeting runes flickered in his helmet, he pulled the trigger.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Ler raised his arms. Two streams of flame erupted.
The heat-rays struck two oncoming enemies, igniting them instantly, reducing them to ash.
The flames spread, setting others ablaze.
Screaming, the defenders fired their lasguns. Their beams struck the curved, reinforced plates of the Assassin Elite's armor, leaving scorch marks.
The Assassin Elite armor was a modified Mark II Expeditionary pattern. Its heavy weight made it slow, favored by few Raven Guard, but it was a favorite of the Assassin Elites.
Ler swept his arms. The blasts of superheated gas from his guns turned the soldiers in the corridor into steam.
Amidst the shrieking alarms, the Assassin Elites dispersed to their targets. Ler tracked the others through a thumbnail tactical display.
He advanced alone, into the crackling beams.
The Assassin Elites' sanity had long been eroded by killing; they never coordinated. It was one of the few habits shared by Terrans and Deliverance-born alike.
Ler walked two hundred meters through a corridor of debris and char, reaching an alloy door. Four green runes had vanished from his tactical display.
Suddenly, dense red runes filled the screen. Behind the door lay an enemy strongpoint, a nexus at an X-shaped junction.
Boom!
Ler burst through the door, seeing a gun platform at the center of a circular chamber.
A sapphire energy field slanted into the ground, bathing the chamber in blue light.
Gun barrels, flashing crimson, tracked his position.
Targeting runes scrolled across his visor, designating the force-field generator above and the sensor imagers on the ring mechanism.
Ler raised his arms, firing two heat-rays.
Bang!
Two bursts of blue light, and the sensor imagers exploded.
The gun platform, blind, spewed random streams of fire.
Ler was about to concentrate his fire on the generator when a mechanical whirring sound echoed.
The ring mechanism spun. A pair of bionic eyes, now blind, tracked him.
Ler's armor was struck. The curved chest plate exploded.
He was hurled back, slamming into the broken door.
'I'm going to die.' The thought flickered through Ler's mind. He smiled, raising his arms, and fired at the platform.
Boom!
He straightened, looking towards the source of the impact.
A bizarre, massive form had crashed into the platform.
Blood sprayed from the black form as it struck the energy field.
The massive chainsword it swung was quieter than a mortal's weapon.
If not for his Lyman's Ear, he would barely have heard it.
Ler rose, his black eyes fixed on the chainsword. He saw thick shadows enveloping the spinning teeth.
Each tooth was shrouded in shadow, muffling its sound.
Scrape!
The chainsword, silent, sliced through the defensive field, carving a huge gash in the platform's wall.
'The blood on the Cataphractii is a flesh-armor, tougher than the Tartaros pattern. Even Tartaros couldn't break through that field.
And the shadows that broke the field, psychic power?' Ler watched the Cataphractii armor, exposed where the flesh had been torn away.
'Shadows of Order, Tenth Chapter.' The "Rose Bishop" crashed into the platform, swinging his shadow-wreathed chainsword.
The shadowed teeth bit into the defender's armor. A chill ran through him.
He froze, staring as a shadow traced a line across his body.
Bang!
With a short, sharp crack, the defender was severed into pieces, each chunk of flesh as cold as if taken from a freezer.
The "Rose Bishop" stepped forward, blood and flesh thudding against his black armor.
He extended his spirituality. The flesh exploded, covering his black armor.
The chainsword spun, blood coiling around him like a python, layering over his form.
He burst from the platform, fourteen layers of flesh-armor now covering his Cataphractii.
Ler stared at the blood-wreathed giant, a chill running down his spine. He wondered if he was still in a hallucination.
His two hearts pounded in time with the figure's steps. His black eyes turned red.
His breathing grew heavy. He lunged forward.
"Your armor is broken. You should not continue fighting."
A smooth, jade-like hand rested on his right shoulder. Ler stopped.
Startled, he turned.
The black-armored warrior's face was angular, like a marble statue.
"I am Ramsey."
Ramsey's obsidian eyes were deep. He saw the Assassin Elite was plagued by hallucinations.
"Train your mind. Do not give in to the visions."
"I have heard of some Raven Guard who have overcome the Ash Blindness. I hope you will too."
Ler watched the tall figure walk away, a gleam in his black eyes. He slowly turned, walking out.
Ramsey strode forward, following a winding path to the outer perimeter of the Gate Forty-Two.
He surveyed the area. The Cataphractii-wearing "Rose Bishops," their flesh-shields pulsing, were charging the iron fortress.
Their flesh-armor was shredded by the defenders' fire, but the flesh on their backs and sides surged forward, reforming the shields.
The "Rose Bishops," shrugging off the hail of fire, methodically neutralized each strongpoint, using the enemy's own flesh to reforge their armor.
....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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