In one quick sweep, the space marines entered this level, cleared it and rushed all the way to the elevator at the end of this deck. We could hear bolter rounds being fired as we did put on our rebreathers and boarded the Rubicon. The Space Marines, together with the inquisitors and Rafael's acolytes, made their way up to the bridge, leaving us behind to guard this area. Scattered around the corridors and rooms were charred remains of some kind of bipedal beings, no doubt Xenos, and there was the unmistakable smell of promethium lingering here.
With the Space Marines and the inquisitors on their way to the bridge, again we could hear firefight from up ahead where they were heading, we began our duty of keeping this level secure until the extraction. We started to move out to the appointed strategic spots as we discussed in our pre-mission meeting. Ragaa and Fylan made their way to their vantage point at the crossing of the two largest corridors, but when they arrived at the first hallway leading up to the crossing, they met opposition. Instead of backing away, Fylan ran and crouched in the corner of the hallway. Meanwhile Calvin found a desk in the room with a computer on it and he tried to interact with it. Clearly it had no power so he had to look for a source where he could reroute some from to this unit. Walking up to the doorway he took out his auspex and looked at the strange readings. Five mayor blips on the display, one in the corridor, and judging by the color of the dots, the were radiating a very high temperature. Not knowing what to make from it, he glanced at Fylan sitting in the corner of that same corridor. |
Not communicated thus only known to Fylan. The moment Fylan stepped into the corridor, a Xenos voice sounded in his head. Although in a language unknown to him, he could understand what it was saying. "Where is it?" Along with the question, an image popped into his mind. It sure looks like something he has seen before... |
Victus and myself stayed at the end of the deck near the elevator to secure this part of the level. All was clear. The next thing I knew was the sound of gunfight sounding from all the way across the deck from where the others headed. "Report in team! ... For the Emperors sake, talk damnit! ... What the hell is going on!" I yelled in my vox unit. We started rushing towards the combat.
The sound of gunfire impacting on and penetrating armor sounded awful. I cursed even harder as I hurried across the last meters. I will not repeat here what came out of my mouth for it even shocked me back then. As I dashed in the room where the rest were, I could see that Ragaa had pulled Fylan back out of the corridor. Fylan's helmet had been reduced to a wrangled piece of scrap because of two well aimed shots in the head. Blood dripped from the twisted remains of his helmet. As if having a true death wish, he pushed past Calvin and Ragaa again into the doorway and launched a grenade into the passageway. The sound of an explosion rang in our ears and debris came flying through the door. |
The bang of the explosion died away and we could hear the tread of something giant coming towards us. Victus had entered into the room as well by now. More shots were ringing through the corridor, hitting wide and leaving gigantic holes in the wall. "Idiot!"
I was really losing my temper here. In a swift move, I grabbed hold of Fylan and tossed him as far as possible down the room and away from the gunfight. "Get into defensive positions and let nothing pass through that door!" I ordered them. The psyker showed up at the end of the hallway and opened fire, shots hitting the cover we were using. The shots that we managed to land on the psyker that did hurt him made him bleed. Thou I had never seen anything like this. Instead of normal fluids gushing out of him, it looked more like lava and behaved exactly that way, melting holes in the surfaces of everything it landed on.
I was really losing my temper here. In a swift move, I grabbed hold of Fylan and tossed him as far as possible down the room and away from the gunfight. "Get into defensive positions and let nothing pass through that door!" I ordered them. The psyker showed up at the end of the hallway and opened fire, shots hitting the cover we were using. The shots that we managed to land on the psyker that did hurt him made him bleed. Thou I had never seen anything like this. Instead of normal fluids gushing out of him, it looked more like lava and behaved exactly that way, melting holes in the surfaces of everything it landed on.
The sound of the thundering footsteps were very close now. A Xenos Heavy showed up in the doorway. Instantly, all of us opened fire on the thing. Blasts bouncing of its massive armor. It opened fire on Victus who stood closest to him. The giant gun of the Xenos Heavy blasted and nearly blew off Victus' leg. To make matters worse, he seemed to be under the influence of some kind of a trick of the psyker. I dashed to push him out of the way of the Heavy's gun and instantly Calvin pointed his autogun towards the Heavy and pulled the trigger. His perfect aim found a weakspot in its armor and obliterated him. A strange thing happened when it died. No sooner as the volley of blasts penetrated the armor and killed the thing, it instantly froze over and became a solid statue of ice. Not for long though as the burst of Calvin's gun continued and shattered it to pieces. With the Xenos Heavy gone, we held the room once more. |
Making the most out of this opportunity, Ragaa stepped in and tossed a fire grenade down the corridor. A loud bang followed by the roar of fire and the multiple screaming Xenos voices confirmed he did hit the right spot. It was close though and with a quick reaction, Ragaa managed to dodge out of the raging fire blast. Even the psyker in front of the doorway was caught in the blast radius, setting him on fire and killing him. Again, the alien instantly froze to a solid block of ice, this time melting him as it stood in the blazing fire. The sound of battle died away.
Checking the auspex again, we noticed that there still were three targets moving on this level. The signs showed that one of them was a Heavy. The fact that we knew there position gave us the advantage. Calvin and I sneaked up the corridor to the crossing where the last Xenos were lying in ambush. Calvin threw a frag grenade around the corner but when he came out of cover he was hit by a salvo from the Heavy.
We both were going to jump out simultaneously, attacking the two Xenos waiting behind the corners at the same time, but Calvin changed his mind mid action, leaving my back uncovered and open to attack. He, instead of following the plan, threw a frag grenade. Luckily, his target ignored me and retaliated on him. He himself did hit the Xenos with an excellent shot, knocking him flat. I hacked at the Heavy with the Baptismal Mace. Glancing the first blow on its sturdy armor. Victus, who followed up took a shot at him, hitting him in the leg. In the distance we saw the last one running away but we were unable to pursue because the Heavy was blocking the path. It took some coordinated attacks from Ragaa, Victus and myself to push him back and cripple him before I was able to finish him off with a fatal blow to the head. The corpse fell to the ground and froze over. To make sure he was dealt with, I used the Baptismal Mace to soak the Heavy in promethium and set him ablaze. The fight was over.