The Ultramarines Omnibus

by Graham McNeill

  As she turned to leave with Barzano and Corteo, Governor Shonai placed her hand on Chanda’s shoulder with a weary smile. ‘You are a good man, Almerz. Thank you.’

  Almerz Chanda bowed and returned to watching the girl’s questioning.

  ‘SO YOU’VE HAD experience in these matters before, Adept Barzano?’ asked Leland Corteo, filling his pipe once more. Barzano sat cross-legged upon his bed and nodded, sipping his uskavar. An informal mood had descended upon the trio almost as soon as they had entered his chambers.

  ‘Yes, Mr Corteo, I have. I have travelled to lots of different places and dealt with many people who believed that they were exempt from the Emperor’s laws.’

  ‘And you showed them that they were not?’ put in Mykola Shonai.

  ‘I did indeed,’ smiled Barzano.

  ‘And what will you do here once you have what you want?’

  The question was casually asked, but Barzano could sense the seriousness behind the words. Briefly he considered lying to her, but realised that she deserved to know the truth.

  ‘In all likelihood you will be removed from control of this world. Failure to maintain one of the Emperor’s worlds is a crime, and your regime here can hardly be qualified as a success, can it?’

  Corteo’s face reddened in anger at Barzano’s forthright answer and slammed his glass down on the adept’s table. ‘Now see here, damn you! You may be some fancy trouble-shooter from Terra, but you have no right to speak to an Imperial Commander like that.’

  ‘No, Leland, he has every right,’ whispered Shonai. ‘He is correct, after all. I did fail, I let the small things mount up and tried to hide what was going on for too long. Perhaps we do deserve to be replaced.’

  Barzano leaned forward, setting his drink down beside him and resting his elbows on his knees. ‘Perhaps you do, but I haven’t decided yet. After all, who would I put in your place? Ballion Varle? Vendare Taloun? Taryn Honan? I hardly think so, my dear governor. No, let us leave talk of dismissals for the moment and concentrate on the problem at hand.’

  ‘Which is?’ snapped Corteo, still angry at Barzano’s rudeness.

  ‘I think it is possible that persons on this planet are working with the eldar, using their piratical raids to cover up other activities while fermenting discord on Pavonis to divert attention from what their true purpose may be,’ explained Barzano, leaning back against the wall. Both the governor and Corteo were speechless. The idea that their planet’s troubles had been set in motion deliberately was appalling, and neither knew how to respond.

  ‘I do not believe that the events which have occurred here could have done so without some guiding influence. There are too many coincidences, and I do not believe in coincidences.’

  ‘But who?’ finally managed Shonai.

  Barzano shrugged. ‘I don’t know yet. That’s what I’m hoping we can find out soon, for I fear events are approaching critical mass.’

  ‘And what does that mean?’

  ‘It means, my dear governor, that things are about to explode.’

  IN A SECLUDED corridor of the Imperial palace, a shimmering point of light fluttered in the air, bobbing like a tiny balloon caught in a gentle updraught. Slowly the point of light began to expand, swirling in a lazy spiral with a violet glow. The fabric of the air seemed to stretch like a painting with an invisible weight placed at its centre, pulled insistently towards the glow.

  The illuminators on the ceiling suddenly imploded as a soft moaning issued from the light, a gurgling, chittering sound that reeked of obscene lusts and eternal hunger. Four points of darkness began forming within the light, twisting and swelling like fluid cancers in its heart. The liquid shapes followed the spiral of the twisting nimbus of dirty light, their jelly-like forms gradually coalescing into more solid matter and pushing clear of the glowing mass.

  Enveloped in membranous, amniotic skins, the rapidly solidifying things pushed through the light, creaking and fisting the air out of shape with the pain of their dark birth. With a tortured shriek, the fabric of reality ripped and the four purple-red forms dropped to the stone floor as their glowing womb spiralled back on itself, vanishing with incredible speed, leaving the corridor in semi-darkness once more.

  The four glistening forms lay shuddering for a few seconds only, before unfolding long, sinuous legs, envenomed spines, rippling muscle-ridged arms and fang filled maws.

  Sloughing their dripping birth sacs, the creatures sniffed the air in unison, their entire existence enslaved to the one imperative their mistress had seeded them with.

  To kill the prey.

  TROOPERS KORNER AND Tarnin crept down the darkened corridor, lasguns held before them. There was something down here, that was for sure. Korner had heard some damn strange noises and had voxed the guard station that they were investigating.

  Tarnin took the lead, noticing the shattered glow-globes and hearing glass crunch underfoot.

  A slithering, dripping sound was coming from up ahead.

  Without turning, he hissed, ‘Korner, gimme your illuminator,’ and reached behind to receive the portable light source.

  He flicked on the illuminator and trained it down the corridor. He never really saw the creature that killed him.

  A fluid shape launched itself from the darkness and disembowelled him with one stroke of its massive claws. Twenty centimetre talons tore him in two, and his skull was crashed with one snap of massive jaws.

  Korner caught a glimpse of roaring fangs and talons, spraying blood and heard Tarnin’s hideous scream abruptly cut short. He turned to run.

  Something heavy hammered into his back, smashing him to the ground. His lasgun spun away. Furnace-hot breath burned his skin and he felt his uniform and flesh dissolving under the beast’s paws. Korner opened his mouth to scream.

  The warp-spawned beast tore his head off in a welter of gore and swallowed it whole in a single bite. It buried its bloody fangs in the trooper’s back, swallowing great chunks of meat and crunching his bones as it began to feed.

  A second beast snapped its lethal maw, a threatening growling emanating from its wide chest. Chastened, the bloody hound abandoned its feast and followed the leader as the four beasts padded unerringly through the palace corridors.

  The prey was close.

  BARZANO’S HEAD SNAPPED up. He unfolded his legs, standing with a smooth grace and glanced hurriedly at Governor Shonai, worry plain on his features. He dashed to the door of his chambers, wrenching it open and stepping into the corridor.

  The two Ultramarines guards snapped to attention as the adept emerged, bolters held across their breastplates. Brother Cleander turned and looked down at the adept.

  ‘Brother Barzano, is something amiss?’

  Barzano nodded hurriedly. ‘Oh, yes, very much amiss, I believe. Where are the rest of your squad?’

  ‘At the cardinal entry points to this wing of the palace. Nothing will approach without coming past one of my battle-brothers.’

  ‘Or through him,’ muttered Barzano.

  ‘I beg your pardon?’

  ‘Nothing. Brother Cleander, I need you to vox everyone on duty and tell them that something extremely dangerous has penetrated the security of the palace. We are all in grave danger.’

  Cleander indicated that his fellow sentry should carry out the adept’s wishes and racked the slide on his bolter.

  ‘What is happening, adept?’

  ‘I don’t have time to explain right now. Just tell all the guards to be ready for anything and shoot anyone or anything they don’t recognise. Do it!’

  Brother Cleander’s face was hidden within his helmet, but Barzano could feel his anger at being ordered about by a lowly scribe.

  ‘Your tone is disrespectful—,’ he began.

  ‘Damn my tone, Cleander. Just do it!’ snapped Barzano as the heavy crack of boltgun fire sounded from somewhere close by. More shots followed and a ululating howl echoed through the palace corridors.

  ‘Too late,’ said Barzano.<
br />
  THE THREE BEASTS raced along the corridors at a terrifying rate, speeding around corridors and evading cries of pursuit in their wake. The body of the fourth lay behind them, dissolving into a foetid pile of indigo ooze atop the armoured corpses of two Ultramarines.

  The net was closing on them, but they had no thought for their own survival.

  The prey was all that mattered.

  BARZANO RUSHED BACK into his room and skidded onto his knees before the long footlocker at the end of his bed. He slid his finger into the geno-key as Shonai and Corteo rose to their feet. Both were panicked by his behaviour, and he couldn’t blame them.

  ‘What the hell is going on?’ demanded Shonai.

  The lid of the footlocker slid open and Barzano reached inside, saying, ‘Remember that burning fuse you talked about earlier?’

  ‘Yes, of course’

  ‘Well, it turns out it’s a lot shorter than we thought. Our enemies have just raised the stakes. Here,’ said Barzano, tossing each of them a pistol. ‘You know how to use these?’

  ‘Not really, no,’ admitted Corteo.

  ‘Governor?’

  ‘No. I’ve never fired a weapon before.’

  ‘Hell and damnation. Oh well, no time like the present to learn.’

  Quickly he demonstrated cocking the weapons and how to reload them. ‘When you fire, aim low, because they’ll kick like a grox in heat.’

  ‘But what are we supposed to be shooting at?’ protested the governor. ‘What’s going on?’

  Barzano returned to the footlocker and pulled out a slender bladed sword with an ornate tracery pattern etched along the length of the blade. He rose to his feet, a large pistol with ribbed coils around its flattened muzzle held in his other hand. Gone was his garrulous manner and in its place was a deadly earnestness.

  ‘Our enemies have sent creatures from the depths of hell to hunt us and they will not stop until we kill them or they kill us.’

  Barzano thumbed a rune on the pommel of his sword and Shonai and Corteo jumped as the weapon leapt to life, amber fire wreathing the blade in spiralling coils of energy.

  ‘A power sword!’ exclaimed Corteo in surprise. ‘What manner of adept are you?’

  Barzano grinned, but there was no humour evident.

  ‘The worst kind,’ he assured Corteo.

  BROTHER CLEANDER COULD hear gunfire, the heavy crack of bolters and the snap of lasfire echoing from the walls as whatever was out there moved closer.

  The echoes and twisting passages made it impossible to tell from which direction the foe was approaching, so Cleander covered one route while Brother Dambren covered the other. Cleander dearly wished he could charge to the assistance of the hunters, but this was his duty, defending the adept’s quarters. Cleander was a citizen of Macragge and he would die before deserting his post.

  The percussive blast of Brother Dambren’s bolter was the first indication that their foes were upon them. Cleander spun to see three monstrous creatures charging towards them. He added his own fire to Dambren’s, tearing the leading beast to shreds as the hail of mass-reactive bolts blew it apart from within.

  But the beasts’ speed was phenomenal and barely had the first died than the remaining two pounced. Cleander dropped as a beast leapt at him, rolling and firing as it sailed over him. His bolts missed, blasting great chunks of masonry from the roof.

  He glanced around to see the second beast bite through Dambren’s arm, ripping the limb clear in a flood of crimson. He had no time to go to his brother’s aid as the beast before him charged once more.

  Cleander fired, a single bolt punching through the creature’s belly. It howled in fury, but kept coming, thundering into Cleander’s chest. The pair hammered backwards into the doorway, smashing it to splinters and tumbling into the adept’s chambers.

  SHONAI SCREAMED AS the door exploded inwards and one of the Ultramarines guards tumbled inside, a beast spawned from her nightmares frenziedly clawing at his helmet. Its long body rippled with iridescent light, a loathsome reddish purple with bony spikes running the length of its spine. Its massive head was horned and its fangs dripped blood. Each heavily muscled limb ended in vicious, barbed claws and its eyes were jet black, dead and unfeeling.

  Barzano leapt forward, swinging his blazing sword at the hell beast before him.

  Its speed was incredible for such a large creature and the sinuous head ducked below the crackling blade, leaping clear of the Space Marine it squatted upon. It lashed out with a taloned paw, narrowly missing Barzano, but tearing a splintered chunk of timber from the heavy desk.

  Cleander rolled towards the beast, wrapping his powerful arms around the creature’s neck. It snapped at the Space Marine, its blackened claws easily tearing through his breastplate. Blood poured from the gouges and Cleander snarled in pain as his flesh burned at the beast’s touch.

  ‘Get out the way!’ yelled Barzano, aiming his plasma pistol.

  Cleander ignored the adept, tightly gripping the thrashing monster, roaring his own battle cry as its fangs and claws tore his armour open. The second beast appeared at the doorway, its bestial jaws dripping with blood, and Barzano shifted his aim.

  The white-hot plasma bolt punched through the creature’s flank, hurling it backward. Foul ichor spurted from the wound and it slumped to the ground, its fabric swiftly un-knitting.

  Cleander wrestled for his life against the last creature, vainly trying to hold its claws at bay, but he knew it was a fight he could not win. The beast was stronger than him. The hound slammed its jaw into Oleander’s face, snapping his head back against the stone floor. His helmet cracked under the impart and his grip on the beast’s neck loosened a fraction.

  It was the only opening the creature needed. Its talons rose and fell, punching through Cleander’s breastplate and tearing his ribcage apart.

  Corteo and Shonai fired their pistols at the wounded beast, but neither was trained in firearms and their shots went wild.

  Barzano pushed them back as Cleander’s killer wrenched its talons clear of the body and lurched towards him. Its movements were slowed, but it was still capable of killing them all. His plasma pistol hummed, its energy cells still recharging and Barzano knew it was no use to him yet.

  The beast reared up on its reverse jointed legs and charged.

  Ario Barzano dived forwards, beneath its lethal talons.

  He rolled to his knees, swinging his power sword in a low, sweeping arc.

  The energised blade hacked the beast’s legs out from under it and it crashed to the ground, thrashing the cauterised stumps of its thighs in fury Barzano sprang to his feet and stood beside Governor Shonai and Leland Corteo as the beast clawed its way towards them across the floor, its substance unravelling in smoky trails of darkness even as it neared.

  Only its rapidly dissolving torso and head remained as Barzano stepped in, reversing his grip on his sword, and drove the blade down through its head.

  Barzano slumped next to its fading remains, pulling the blade from the floor as Sergeant Learchus and his squad arrived.

  Learchus dropped to his knees beside Cleander’s corpse and bunched his fist in anger. Barzano left him to his grief, turning to face the ashen-faced Mykola Shonai and Leland Corteo. He tossed the pistol onto the bed and deactivated his sword, laying it upon the sagging remains of the shattered desk.

  ‘You killed it,’ gasped Shonai. ‘How did you do that?’

  ‘Better I show you,’ replied Barzano, pulling aside the painting of Forlanus Shonai and exposing the secure safe in the wall.

  He punched in a ten digit code and pulled the door open.

  Inside was the box, which he removed and placed on the floor beside him.

  Barzano reached back inside the safe and removed a smaller item which he handed to Shonai, who took it with an expression of fear and surprise.

  She held a rectangular block of sapphire crystal, no larger than fifteen centimetres by eight and less than five centimetres deep. It was an inconse
quential thing but for the symbol it encased.

  A grinning skull embossed with a stylised capital I.

  Governor Shonai looked up into the face of a man she no longer knew.

  ‘I am Ario Barzano,’ he said, ‘of the Holy Orders of the Emperor’s Inquisition.’

  FOURTEEN

  AT PRECISELY 07:00 hours on the morning following the Workers’ Collective demonstration in Liberation Square, tanks from the Kharon planetary defence barracks rolled through the gates of their base along Highway 236 towards Brandon Gate. Within twenty-five minutes, the column of forty tanks, locally produced Leman Russ Conquerors bearing the artillery shell motif of the Taloun, had reached the outskirts of the city, rambling towards its centre and the Imperial palace.

  A constantly repeating message blared from speakers mounted on each tank’s hull, proclaiming that this manoeuvre was intended only to keep the peace and that people should not panic. The populace of Brandon Gate risked hurried glances through their windows as the tank column rumbled past, fearful of what this latest development might herald. The tanks passed the main population and manufactorum centres, halting only when they reached the marble walls of the inner city.

  Within an hour of the Taloun’s tanks taking to the streets, armoured vehicles rolled out from other PDF barracks sponsored by those cartels allied to the Taloun. Tanks bearing the crest of the de Valtos cartel mobilised from their base at Tarmegan Ridge and infantry carriers from six other cartel sponsored bases mounted up and made for Brandon Gate.

  By midday, one hundred and nineteen tanks and over seven thousand infantry were stationed outside the city limits. The hull speakers fell silent and a repeating vox signal cut across every frequency, announcing the PDF’s intention to keep the peace that the governor obviously could not. However, in deference to her position, none of the tanks would enter her city until such time as their armoured might would be required. Nervous heads within the city pondered exactly what that might mean.

  Despite repeated demands from Mykola Shonai, none of the mobilised PDF units withdrew from the city limits and to all intents and purposes, Brandon Gate became a city under silent siege.