Standing wounded upon a creaking gantry, Marksman Drevesh sees death bearing down upon him. A pair of Vespids streak through the haze, wings thrumming and their weapons’ neutron crystals flaring as they prepare to fire.
The xenos have already slain every other Tempestus Aquilon of Fire Team Alphex. However, in doing so the insectile aliens have focused all their attention on Drevesh and his three – now deceased – comrades. The rune flashing in the Marksman’s helm-display tells him this has given Fire Team Betarius – the other half of Drevesh’s kill team – time to get into position.
Time seems to slow in the instant before the lead Vespid fires. If Tempestus Aquilons were normal Human soldiers, Drevesh might feel fear. Instead – indoctrinated, conditioned and with his bloodstream singing with combat stimms – all he feels is hate.
A searing bolt of plasma streaks down from the high gantry to Drevesh’s right. It strikes the lead Vespid in a flash of searing light and swats the creature from the air. Blazing and unravelling into streamers of glowing ash, the xenos plummets and is lost in the gloom below.
Fully shaking off his disorientation at last, Drevesh throws himself into the cover of a stack of scorched metal crates. Neutron blasts chase his heels as the second Vespid whips overhead, firing as it goes.
Drevesh has seen the jerky agility of these flying abominations; he knows he has split seconds at most. Barely has he hit the decking behind the crates when he is rolling aside. A neutron stream passes close enough to splash Drevesh’s helm-display with rad-static and scald his shoulder through his armour. It doesn’t hit him clean, though, and between this heartbeat and the next his survival is victory enough.
Prone against the deck and forced to fire his powerful hot-shot long-las clumsily from the hip, Drevesh nonetheless scores a hit on the attacking Vespid. The laser rips through one of the xenos’ wings. Instinctively it jerks back into the air, perhaps seeking to put some distance between itself and its cornered prey. In doing so, it places itself perfectly in the sights of Fire Team Betarius.
The howl of hot-shot lascarbines echoes through the cavernous space of the ammunitorum shrine. Vivid beams of energy pass through the Vespid’s head and body; several of its eyes burst on impact. It thumps to the gantry, abdomen curling and limbs thrashing in death.
With his immediate attackers slain, Drevesh has a moment to take stock. Scrambling to his feet and checking the charge of his long-las, he glances up to see Fire Team Betarius on the high gantry to his right. They have dropped in through an access chute similar to the one he and his comrades used. When the rest of Alphex were all alive.
Dismissing the thought, Drevesh checks his helm-display’s auspex. It still shows hostile contacts moving within the ammunitorum shrine. This fight is not done.
‘Sweep pattern nine-ajaxis,’ comes the voice of the kill team’s Precursor, Olexa, through Drevesh’s helm-vox. She is already advancing, dagger flashing in the gloom.
‘Acknowledged,’ Drevesh says. Olexa dashes along the high gantry and peels off onto a pipe-tangled maintenance platform. The rest of Betarius follow more cautiously: Aquilon Troopers Bastaine and Jorega with their hot-shot lascarbines pulled tight to their shoulders, and Gunner McVade with his plasma carbine venting puffs of steam. Waypoint runes flash up on Drevesh’s helm-display, indicating his comrades’ intention to advance to a connecting ramp one hundred and twelve yards ahead. Bastaine and McVade will then filter down to Drevesh’s lower gantry and the entire team will advance again, their firepower better distributed to cover the gantries and platforms above and below.
Drevesh knows his part is to provide cover. The Vespids have pulled back, more cautious now, but they are still out there. Ignoring his bruises and neutron-burns, the Marksman accelerates into a limping run, then drops into cover behind a hoist control shrine. He braces his long-las atop the runic console, and has barely begun sighting through its scope when his auspex chimes. Drevesh catches the jerky, here-and-gone motion of Vespids flitting through the gloom. His gun whines as it charges.
The first enemy to show itself is the xenos sniper that wrought carnage amongst Fire Team Alphex. Drevesh’s helm-display provides the Imperial appellation for this foe: Longsting. The creature alights within one massive link of a dangling macro-chain and draws a bead on the Aquilons on the high gantry. Lip curling, Drevesh takes his shot, but the Longsting’s reflexes save it – barely. The las bolt burns a crease through the Vespid’s thorax as it darts aside, but if the wound pains the alien it doesn’t show it. Wings vibrating and the crystal in its sniper weapon glowing, it fires. Drevesh has thrown off its aim, however, and its neutron stream flies wide.
Snap shooting with the speed of trained instinct, Troopers Bastaine and Jorega hammer the Longsting’s position. Jinking again, the xenos evades their shots only to swing back into Drevesh’s sights. This time he hits clean; the Vespid drops limply into the gloom.
The distraction created by the Vespid sniper has allowed its comrades to move swiftly into position. One of the xenos – Swarmguard provides Drevesh’s display – drops from on high, wings blurring as it dodges a plasma blast from McVade. Levelling a sleek weapon, the Vespid unleashes phosphor-bright flame that washes over Fire Team Betarius. In the same moment, another Vespid – Skyblast – hefting some manner of grenade launcher rises from below to flank the Tempestus Aquilons, while another – Warrior – lands on the lower gantry ahead of Drevesh.
The Warrior fires a neutron blast that forces Drevesh to duck for cover. He has a momentary impression of burning Troopers reeling and beating at themselves up above before the Skyblast fires its bulky launcher and hits the high gantry right at Gunner McVade’s feet. The radiation burst from the detonation is enough to fur Drevesh’s helm-display with static, but the subsequent detonation of the plasma coil in McVade’s gun is even more spectacular.
Drevesh’s helm triggers sensory wards to preserve his sight and hearing. For several seconds he is alone in the dark with the rasp of his breathing, the thud of his heart and the insistent ping of threat warnings. When sight and sound make a welcome return, Drevesh sees that a section of the high gantry is simply gone, its shorn ends glowing with heat and sagging on twisted chains. Drevesh can find nothing of McVade or the Swarmguard, either visually or on his auspex. Troopers Bastaine and Jorega have made it onto the next secure section of gantry, though Drevesh’s helm-display indicates both are wounded.
Another neutron stream rakes over Drevesh’s cover. As he tries to find a good position from which to fire back, his helm-display tags another enemy contact, small and high up. He focuses in and sees a T’au drone of a design he does not recognise. It is a sleek and somehow sinister thing, its purpose unclear, and it appears to be attempting to stay out of harm’s way. Its efforts are not enough. Drevesh fires a single shot and the drone detonates.
A third neutron blast streaks over Drevesh’s cover, but this one flies high and wide as though the shooter’s aim was ruined at the last moment. Drevesh snaps a glance over the control shrine and sees Precursor Olexa knelt over a prone Vespid Warrior, her dagger driven deep into the xenos’ thorax. He realises she has dropped from the maintenance platform directly onto her prey, employing her grav-chute just enough to avoid breaking her own legs. The Vespid thrashes and tries to fight, but Olexa rips her dagger free and slams it down again once, twice, thrice. Ropey arcs of ichor splash from the blade as it rises and falls. At last the Vespid shudders and lies still.
This, it seems, is enough for the foe. The Skyblast pivots in midair and streaks away toward the far end of the ammunitorum shrine. Drevesh sees other auspex contacts following suit: Vespids that had not yet performed their own attack runs against the Tempestus Aquilons. He and his fellows lean from cover to gun their foes down as they flee. Yet, in that instant, Drevesh’s auspex chimes a warning as another Vespid – unknown-unknown-unknown – shimmers into view high above the Aquilons. This xenos wears sections of T’au armour and a strange helm. As it appears, it lays down a hail of covering fire that spins Bastaine off her feet and forces Drevesh to duck again.
Teeth gritted, Drevesh pans his sights around the vaulted ceiling, but can find no further contacts. By the time he is confident there was only one stealth-capable foe, the remaining Vespids have disengaged.
‘Clear,’ he voxes to the other three surviving members of his squad. Still cautious, they converge on their waypoint.
‘Multiple xenos contacts still present on auspex around primary objective,’ observes Olexa.
‘They are regrouping,’ adds Bastaine, her voice steady despite the obvious pain of her burns.
‘Exloading updated tactical parameters,’ says Drevesh, before switching to the wider command vox to make his report. ‘Kill Team Wrath Draconic to Command Primary, reporting ammunitorum lower gallery secure with sixty percent casualties.’
He waits as more voices crackle across the static-laced channel, each a representative of another Tempestus Aquilon kill team reporting in.
‘Kill Team Drake’s Flame to Command Primary, seventh breach support purged, forty percent casualties following ambush by Kroot.’
‘Kill Team Talon Draconine to Command Primary, we have been driven back from coolant shrine Gemenon by T’au Pathfinder teams, fifty percent casualties. Regrouping with Kill Team Dragon’s Eye above the west upper hydraulic baffles. We are encircled but holding.’
‘Kill Team Dragon’s Wing to Command Primary, twentieth-tier meteorospexy shrine secure, zero casualties, commencing push on sub-generatora now.’
A priority rune lights in Drevesh’s helm-display, as he knows it has in those of his surviving comrades. Text scrolls down his peripheral vision as Command Primary responds to his status update with their next set of orders.
>> Casualty rate acceptable
>> Advance to waypoint Rho-Sixteen
>> Purge and secure
>> The Emperor expects
Drevesh exchanges a swift glance with his surviving comrades. As one, they raise their weapons and begin the advance. The God-Emperor has work for them yet on Volkus and they will do their duty, even if they must die in the attempt…
