Killing in the Rain
“Beetles ? They leave their lieutenants un-poisoned to guard, and their King goes off into the Stars to find a cure to save beetles. Am I missing something here?” There was an air of total incredulity to Ben’s voice he wasn’t trying to mask.
“You’re missing the point Ben, I think the beetles are just part of it, they maybe tidy up the place whilst no-ones around, just like they do in nature. They get rid of the waste, the carrion. Without them we’d be knee deep in shite and rotting carcasses, I mean what else do you think strips down the dead Morac’s for Kell’s sake ! The important bit was that chamber and the Crystal, holder, no Sarcophagus for want of a better word. I stood in the same room as it and it was a Psychic void. Have you any idea the amount of power that thing could contain ? If what’s in there gets out, I don’t want to be on this planet, Kell not even this system !”
“Well I still don’t know what to make of it, but the whole business is at least sealed off which…. “
“Still gives us a shape-shifter to deal with !” announced Nathan, returning from his trip to the market and old man Orsan’s home. “Still bed-ridden and been so for cycles and the Apothecary says the next time he moves, it will be to the burial grounds in the Peaks.”
“Then at the market, what Alice saw was…..”
“Someone being someone who’s identity they thought they’d get away with borrowing to check us and this place out” replied Carolynn, “and they will find us, that’s what they do, Kell that’s all they do !”
“So we just wait for a stiletto in the spine, is that it ?”demanded Ben, “Just wait to be hung out to dry, well I’ve done near death and I’m not doing it again !”
“No!” said Carolynn, “by now, if things are as they seem, it will come for me or Jed, figuring we have the most to learn from, so Jed stays here with the three of you. These things are good, but they are still flesh and blood, and if this one was top-class, we would not be having this conversation now, believe me. I will draw it off, and then see how the cards fall, you can write to me with any objections ?”
“No-one to watch your back ? You think you have a chance ?”
“You think I have a choice Nate ? I’ll see the four of you next light, at exactly when the disc is full over Mount Sacrum. Accept no reason for me to alter that in any respect, we understood ?“ And with that, Carolynn shouldered Shotgun and pack, and disappeared into the continuing drizzle, as a fresh peal of thunder echoed through the distant Peaks, and the rain picked up its pace once more.
A long way away, the forgotten and disused Eldar Webway Portal was steaming, each fresh drop of rain evaporating as it struck the surface. In his cell in the Moon-House, Samuel had ordered the Psychic Dampers switched to their maximum setting, sensing all was not well, but still Crowley howled the moan of the damned !
Aboard his ship, Lord Inquisitor Hector-Rex prepared himself, reciting the Litanies’ of Purification as he strapped Arias to his side, the Force-Sword he had used to fell the Greater DaemonAn'ggrath, Lord of Bloodthirsters, Guardian of the throne of Skulls and favoured of Khorne. Fighting the Daemon was what he did, it was the very fibre of him, the reason why he had come to a failing planet like Zalthar that was ripe for the taking. It would not fall on his watch, as he had demonstrated with those Dragon-kin, the “would be sons of Vulkan“, loyal son to the rightful ruler of mankind, our beloved Emperor. Hector knelt at the very thought of his leige, for to have been in his presence, he an Auditorii Imperator, yes indeed he was blessed. He took a sideways glance at the world spinning in the void below, the rich blue of the seas, the vast western desert and majestic snow-capped mountains. By his grace it would look exactly the same the next time he viewed it from this very portal, and swearing an oath of the moment, he pressed it into place by the cluster of purity seals and the many chains’ that held the huge golden Aquila in place across his chest.
His forces were already in line, Fighters fuelled and armed, Assault Craft loaded and ready to go at a moments notice. He had already demanded that that up-start Samuel declare Marshall Law and place such PDF Forces under his Command as he deemed “necessary” to ensure he had a sufficient force Planet side in advance. There was no telling where the fabric of the materium was at its thinnest, where the Warp would haemorrhage its foulness forth onto Zalthar. That leak would have to be plugged as soon as possible to allow his troops time to intervene, wrap up the incursion in full and destroy it utterly ! Yes, it would be most satisfying, his consultation with the Emperors Tarot read well and the Grimoire suggested the “catch” would include some very notable names indeed.
Carolynn stopped, the storm had found its second wind, the rain was pouring hard and thunder and lightning challenged one another in a battle royale older than time itself. There was someone there, of that he was certain, but what had they sent and was the Officio Assassinorum involved at all ? Was it a Clade killer that lurked just out of sight in the rain counting off the seconds of Carolynn’s life ? The Callidus Temple was well known for their use of shape-shifting to attain their nefarious ends, and this bore all their hallmarks’, apart for it’s clumsy execution. This did not have the feel of a devious plot to stealthily creep in and assassinate an “enemy of the state,” as sanctioned by one of the High Lords of Terra. This was amateur hour, for Carolynn truly believed what he had told the others about the certainty of their demise, it being sooner rather than later. He pulled his cloak tighter against the rain more from habit, for he was already sodden and the water squelched in his boots. One more dazzling blue bolt lit his surroundings and told him all he needed to know now, the hand of Kell would turn the next card.
Samuel was furious, Lord Inquisitor Hector-Rex had him declare Marshall Law and the streets of every Hive were now deserted, an already frightened people now penned in in abject terror, of what they were not to be told, merely that the Dark curfew was in their best interest. Those that disagreed, under Lord Inquisitor Hector-Rex’s two Imperial decree‘s, to Prevent Civil Unrest and/or Undermining of Imperial Security, were just shot. Large sections of the PDF had been placed under the Lord Inquisitor’s Command and “Urban Pacification Squads “ composed of troops supposedly hand-picked by him ensured that dissenting voices were few and far between ! Basically Samuel had both hands tied behind his back and Hector just fiddled with the tightness of the knot for his own amusement.
In the Warp, a thousand, thousand bloated tentacles, taloned fingers and excessive tongues caressed the veil of the imaterium, each one searching for that one loose stitch that would begin the tear. Those wiser and more beguiling simply listened for there is a certain sound a soul makes, when it is torn from a living host that is easy to follow !
Aboard his flagship the “Darkening Light”, Malidus “the Crow”, Dark Apostle to the Word Bearers 19th Coven, grinned as he peered into his “Prying Glass”, fashioned from a pane of glass that held the last reflection of Sister Evangelista of the Adepta Sororitas, before she was burned at the stake having been wrongly declared Heretic and Extremis Diabolus by the Ordo Hereticus. The Glass afforded Malidus a limited “Witch-Sight” or Prescience, a foresightedness allowing him to glimpse events yet to pass.
“Drachaen“ he cawed, calling for his Coryphaus, to whom the military matters of the Coven fell whilst he attended to their spiritual needs. “And send for that worm Mourvin, my excuse for a First Acolyte, and have him fetch my Accused Crozius, for I fear we may soon be at War”. Muttering commands to the single Bridge-Crewman, Malidus‘s quick temper and Lightning Claw having ended numerous promising Naval Careers, he continued to chuckle mirthlessly to himself whilst awaiting his audience.
Long after the others had retired, The Dean was still putting Lux’s repaired knee through its paces, a punishing regime of set pattern combat exercise s within a framework like the asanas and pranayamas of the Ancient Terran Buddhist Philosophical Art of yuj samādhau. These were the physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that sought to attain a state of permanent peace of mind in order to experience one's true self, a stilling of the changing states of the mind also referred to as Yoga. With “The Dean” and Lux Aeterna though, such a union also created the most terrible of weapons, Man and Machine honed to mechanical, physical and mental perfection !
The storm raged all about Carolynn, dancing shadows surrounded him as he willed his protagonist to strike, to end this torment of being stalked, hunted like an animal.
And then, in answer to his prayer, the card was dealt.
A flash to his right as a blade was caught in the electrostatic discharge of the next bolt causingCarolynn to feint left, placing his hand upon the Great Lorelei Crystal, in who’s protecting lea he had carefully sheltered with this singular purpose. The lightning strike passed through the Great Crystal, turning the world the same violet hues as the stone itself. It arced through Carolynn, so it was the Assassin who was on the receiving end of some 40,000 Volts travelling at 1×108 m/s. Even a trained and thoroughly dedicated Assassin is not that fast ! Just the magnitude of the heat and magnetic forces alone would have been enough to destroy their internal organs, 40,000 Volts saw there was not much left to suggest what or who had stalked them or why ? Carolynn’s soaking cape helped, but you play with that kind of fire, you get burnt, and his right arm bore a jagged scar for its length, that would heal, becoming a permanent reminder, his own lightning strike !
The energies also woke Zalthar’s other Crystals, those that escaped Mineralogical detection by all save the ill-fated Professor Norman. Such Crystals even now lie unnoticed amongst the Lorelei Crystals in the field where the unfortunate remnants of the Dragon-kin are searching for safe passage from their pursuers in the Inquisition !
And the smouldering Eldar Webway Portal, unnoticed and untended for Millennia, was in no condition to harness coruscating energies of such magnitude as that of a now linked Crystal Matrix and it cracked. Then, of those thousand, thousand tentacles, fingers and tongues caressing the veil of the imaterium, searching hungrily, ceaselessly, one tongue found the one loose stitch and began the tear ! The blood was in the water, and how patiently those Sharks had waited !
Mk
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