Loki let go of the girder and fell to the ground as bolts ripped the girder to pieces above him, though of the two marines who yet stood, one had anticipated the maneuver. The marine pounded Loki's chest with a well-placed shot that sent the traitor slamming into the far wall. The traitor's reinforced armor was slagged, and his flesh burned as the molten remnants flowed in rivulets down his chest on either side of the ragged hole. Had he still been only Skald Thatcher he'd have been a dead man, though he was now Loki, and the wild fire of the garm burned in his DNA.
The traitor sprayed conventional rounds in a wide arc across the intersection, more to buy himself time to recover than to kill. Both of the remaining marines were knocked off of their feet by the blasts, though Loki's keen senses knew neither of them had sustained fatal injuries.
While one struggled with his wounds, the other marine thrashed to his feet and returned fire, but by then Loki was on the move again. The shooting marine did his best to track the enemy, but there was only a blur in the iron sights.
Loki smashed his leg into the side of the shooter, feeling the armor crack at the impact as his blow sent the marine soaring across the intersection. By the time his foot returned to the floor Loki had turned and shot the other wounded marine with his pulse rifle, the super-heated bolt making a red ruin of the warrior.
To his credit, the marine with the undoubtedly shattered ribcage was already on his feet and sliding his pistol out of its holster.
"Farewell, brave men," slurred Loki, his human vocal chords struggling to form the words that he'd grown accustomed to communicating with spoor and psychic vibration, before he blasted the wounded marine off his feet.
He paused to take a deep breath, filling his multi-chambered lungs with the scent of death and sewage. He reached out with his mind and found Hel's psychic presence waiting for him. The alpha garm was restless and eager for blood, though he knew she would not leave her clutch of eggs, as many had yet to hatch. The swarms had bought them time, though perhaps not yet enough.
"Withdraw to the egg chamber and hold that position," ordered Loki over the team channel, his voice giving sound to the words, though the communication itself was more psychic missive than anything. It was just as well considering the unreliable transmissions this far beneath the streets of Tankrid.
He knew that Ajax was down here with them, and could feel the hero's psychic searching wash over him like a wave. This time Loki chose not to obfuscate himself as he sped through the tunnels, his intimate knowledge of the layout enabling him to swiftly approach the chamber, and instead made his psychic presence radiate with malevolent challenge.
Now that they'd divided the marine advance, Ajax would not be at the head of an army, but most likely a much smaller force. A manageable number of foes was ideal for what was to come next.
Loki entered the chamber within minutes, having taken a shortcut that the ripper drones had dutifully bored through the raw earth. Once he'd exited the shortcut he lifted a concussion charge from his utility belt and twisted the top after setting the dial for five seconds. He leaned back into the opening and pitched it far back down the makeshift tunnel. Moments later the dull thud of the explosion shook the raw passage and brought it collapsing in on itself. It would not do for errant marines or deputies to come crawling out of there at an inopportune moment.
Loki turned and saw that of his skalds, only four had heeded his call, Unferth among them. The skald leader strode up to Loki and handed the traitor two bloody torcs, which the traitor took and hung on his bandolier, ever did it grow heavier. Loki then turned and cast his gaze across the chamber, taking note that even now some of the eggs were hatching.
"The first clutch has already been secured aboard the Angrboda," reported Unferth, anticipating his master's question. "How long we must wait for the next, remains to be seen."
"If the Einherjar come any closer, Hel will force them to emerge," said Loki, knowing that like moths and butterflies these garm broodlings needed to hatch on their own. "Without the natural struggle they'll be too undeveloped, and as we have learned, the intellect comes only with maturity. A premature brood would be good for a last stand but futile in the face of our great work."
Loki looked at his men as he considered his options, made his choice, and then spoke.
"The Einherjar are as strong as they've ever been, much as we have accomplished, they have fought through what defenses and distractions we could mount. We will have to make do with the broodlings we have.
Cigovax and Unferth, secure the garm whelk, get them aboard and prep the ship for hard burn," ordered Loki. The traitor turned to the remaining two. "Karn and Hastur, roll out the incendiary canisters and get them into position."
"What about you, sir?" asked Unferth as he slowly lifted one of the garm whelks out of the fetid pool.
"It is high time Ajax and I crossed swords," growled Loki as he ejected his half-spent magazine and replaced it with a fresh one.
THE ALL CHANGE
Ajax fought to keep his hands steady as he led the fire team through the maddening system of tunnels. His mind was completely open, and he gritted his teeth with the effort of maintaining his forward momentum despite the crushing presence of Hel.
That wasn't the only thing weighing down on him. For the first time, there was a second presence with them in the underworld. It was at once familiar and alien, like a half-remembered resurrection dream, and it distinctly reminded him of Grendel. If psychic emanations could leave a taste in the back of a man's throat then this would be not unlike the sharp copper of blood.
The Hive Mind was getting stronger, the force of it squeezing his mind and what felt like his very soul as he careened through the flickering shadows of the tunnel network. Now that he was so close to the source, and far too exhausted to close himself off to it, he began to detect subtleties he'd not yet encountered, that he suspected had been there all along.
Hel wasn't the Hive Mind, it was an alpha garm, and this other presence, the familiar one, wasn't the Hive Mind either. Nor were the multitudes of ripper drones and gorehounds that continued to rampage through the tunnels without stratagem now that their WarGarm had been slain.
They were all the Hive Mind.
Such a simple concept to grasp, yet so unfathomable in the experience of it.
It felt, to Ajax, that if he grasped at the Hive Mind too hard, not only would it fade before his awareness, but he would risk slipping into the murky depths of the garm collective unconsciousness.
The realization made him wish, fervently, that Skald Omar or Jarl Mahora also stood with him in this moment, but they, like so many others, were lost to him now.
He recalled the sight of the traitorous skald Fagan driving his trench spike into Omar and he, too, shook with the impact of that blow. It was as if the entire world Ajax had built around himself had collapsed in that single moment.
The traitor skald's blood was still wet upon him, a cruel reminder of an unthinkable betrayal. Up was down, down was sideways, and it was all inside out.
"We are close now," Ajax whispered over the team channel, trusting that the deputies would keep quiet and just follow the marines without question.
"Lead on, Bloodhound," said Hart flatly, in his usual monotone, his sniper rifle slung across his back and a scavenged pulse rifle held at the ready.
Yao nodded, as did Silas, and they kept pace with Ajax as the marine held his rifle before him, the mounted light illuminating a two-way intersection. When he came to the intersection, Ajax felt himself pulled down one end of the tunnel, but was determined to open the hatch that lay ahead. He signaled for Yao and Rama to take either end, and as they popped it open, Ajax and Hart rushed in ready for anything.
Almost anything, but his eyes were met, not with a horrible garm hive, but with a modest chamber seemingly occupied by a human. There was a small table, a sleeping mat, and what appeared to be an incense burner set in the center of the chamber. The presence of the alien other was strong here, as i
f whatever it was, had left behind a psychic spoor that Ajax could taste.
It was Hart who noticed the hands first.
"Ajax, take heed," warned the skald sniper as he gestured with the muzzle of his weapon. "Again, the sign of Tyr is set before us."
Ajax followed with his eyes and stifled a groan as he saw nine hands messily bolted into the concrete wall above the modest sleeping mat. They were old, the blood that seeped from them having dried in streaks along the wall.
They stood in silence for a moment, until Deputy Springer stepped forward and pointed to one with a small circular tattoo on the thumb.
"That belongs to Deputy Stratton. A family crest, he was so proud of that thing, I'd recognize it anywhere," he rasped, the stinking air and strain of battle having made him rather hoarse. "Who would do this to a man?"
"The trophy taker is here then," said Yao, his voice and body trembling with rage, a reminder that he struggled daily with the black, even more than Ajax. "Somewhere in the dark."
"I suspect the trophy taker has always been near us," said Hart, drawing looks from the others. "I suspect the narrative has been compromised since Heorot."
Before he could properly respond, Ajax was suddenly overcome with the sensation of a new psychic presence in his mental landscape, something raw and young, though possessed of much tenacity and hunger. It was as if one moment he had achieved a sort of equilibrium with the dueling presences in his psychic mindscape, then all of a sudden, many more sparks exploded from the flame, nearly overwhelming him. The psychic sensation was complemented by a distinct tearing sound that filled the passageway outside. Everyone had their guns up in an instant, and then looked at Ajax for orders.
Ajax said nothing, but looked at his Einherjar comrades with steel in his eyes and turned to leave the chamber. Once back into the intersection, he started making his way down the passage.
Coming up the opposite way they saw several mounted lights that revealed themselves to be Jorah and another marine from Gorgon Company. They said nothing, but as Ajax and Hart pressed forward they fell in line just after Yao and Silas, leaving the deputies to bring up the rear.
As the rest of the group fell in behind him, Ajax's mounted light reflected against the glistening resin that he recognized as a garm secretion. The massive archway led into darkness, so the marine slipped a flare out of his utility belt. The other two marines did the same.
Ajax popped the flare and tossed it into the chamber as he slammed his shoulder into the wall on the left side of the entrance. Yao tossed his as he took the right, and Silas rushed up the middle to throw his deeper into the chamber. As soon as they threw the flares, the three marines formed a firing line and advanced as Hart, Jorah, and the other Gorgon marine backed them up. Deputy Springer and his two men followed, their sub-machine guns at the ready.
The combined light of the flares glinted off polished black eyes, and the marines were met with a sight none of them could have anticipated.
A garm monstrosity that could only be Hel squatted in the center of the chamber, surrounded by multitudes of eggs that were spread out across the massive room. She had the look of a WarGarm, but warped and twisted to resemble something like an arachnid. In the flickering red light of the flares, Ajax could see that the chamber was covered in eggs. The alpha garm screamed and they all began to quiver violently.
Before Ajax’s horrified gaze, one of the eggs split open and the shuddering, naked form of a man arose from the shards.
The marines and deputies were paralyzed by what they saw, nothing, in all their years at war, even with the oddities of recent conflicts with Grendel and the alpha garm, could equal the nightmare laid before them.
As birthing fluids ran down the man's body, he turned to face the intruders and the deputies fell to their hands and knees vomiting.
The man looked normal enough at first glance, then his eyes opened to reveal the same polished black of Hel, of the ripper drones, of the garm. The skin on his face suddenly shifted, tearing in several places, sliding back across his face to partially reveal a hideous garm beneath. It had the cockroach meets reptile facial traits shared by all organisms of the swarm, though it looked far too human for Ajax to keep himself from screaming.
The man's body followed his face and parts of his human facade tore and receded to unleash the terrible claws and scything blades that the Einherjar knew all too well. It lent its inhuman voice to the screams coming from the marines and charged.
As it ran towards them, dozens more eggs split apart and slime covered, naked men and women-looking creatures stood erect.
Somewhere in the half-light Hart shouted for the marines to open fire.
Ajax's mind was suddenly overwhelmed with rage. There was a fury surging in him that could not be held in check, and he charged the abomination as he fired from the hip.
The marine's first round blew out the creature's mid-section. The second round knocked it off its feet to send it tumbling backwards onto the floor.
Another beast tore its way out of an egg as Hel continued her keening, and Ajax didn’t hesitate to shove the barrel of his pulse rifle under the naked woman's chin and reduce her head to a steaming stump.
Yao was suddenly at his side, and Ajax could see that Yao was gone. The sight of the humanoid garm, the presence of Hel, and the sudden death of Omar at the hands of a betrayal they still could not understand had finally pushed him over the edge.
The marine held his pistol in one hand and his trench spike in the other as he leapt into the thick of the humanoid garm, slaughtering them as they emerged from their eggs. Such was the potency of Yao's sudden blackout that it shocked Ajax back to sanity. He knelt, bringing his rifle to his shoulder. He'd rushed in, and was downrange from his comrades, so knew he had to make himself the smallest target possible to avoid friendly fire while still conducting himself effectively.
Yao was a whirlwind of carnage, and in the brief respite from enemy attention, Ajax risked a look back. Behind him, the other marines were falling back, laying down methodical bursts of fire with a cold discipline that would have made the All-Father proud indeed. The marines were screaming as they fired, though they were managing to keep their shooting form in top condition. Four determined marines in a target rich environment were a sight to behold.
The deputies were struggling to their feet, lacking the mental and physical constitution of the Einherjar, but doing what they could in the face of cosmic terror. In truth it was a testament to their dedication that the deputies hadn't cut and run after the first swarm came raging out of the darkness. More of the sickening humanoid garm were rushing the deputies. Just in time, Ajax saw Deputy Springer paste one with his sub-machine gun.
Ajax felt something moving up on his flank, and he turned muzzle first to face a humanoid garm as it pounced upon him. His pulse rifle kept its teeth from clamping down on his face, but as he pulled the trigger two tiny fangs protruded suddenly from inside the beast's maw. Its throat constricted as the marine blew a massive hole through its torso and a thick cloud of what Ajax presumed were spores temporarily obscured his vision.
Ajax rolled and brought his rifle in, giving him the chance to smash the stock of the rifle into the dying creature's jaw and send it sprawling. He'd cranked the filter of his helmet to its max setting, and was thankful for that. The marine rolled onto his back and pointed his rifle upwards.
To his surprise Hel had not moved, and he noticed that she was still attached to a massive undulating sack. As the firefight continued Ajax saw that Hel was still laying eggs.
She was single-minded in her task, perhaps some part of her garm instinct giving her an intense focus on her work and an implicit trust in her offspring to protect the hive. Ajax snapped his rifle to his shoulder and unleashed three quick bursts of fire at the alpha garm, taking deep satisfaction in the great chunks of burning flesh and chitin his attack ripped from Hel's abdomen.
He cast about for Yao and saw the marine's ravaged body strewn across the ch
amber, his rage only having carried him so far before his pistol ran dry, and his spike was no match against the scything blades of the garm.
"Meat!" screamed Deputy Springer as he tackled Ajax to the ground.
Ajax lost his grip on the pulse rifle and it clattered across the gore-slick floor. The deputy gripped Ajax by the helmet and smashed the marine's face into the concrete floor. Like the other ragmen that Ajax had encountered over his long tour of duty, ragman Springer was using every last ounce of strength in his body, caring little for torn muscles or broken bones. Ajax reeled from the second blow and tried to roll over to grapple with the deputy. Quite unlike the usual ragmen, the deputy retained an understanding of how to fight. Ajax managed to get the deputy into an arm bar, but instead of yielding, the deputy allowed the marine to snap his arm at the elbow.
The sacrifice of his arm allowed the deputy to let go of Ajax with his other hand and yank his short pistol out of its holster.
Ragmen did not use guns.
The thought played over and over in the marine's mind as he felt the first shot slam into his armor and crack it. The deputy apparently lost patience and stood up for a cleaner shot, moving the pistol up to point it at Ajax's head. Just as he started to squeeze the trigger, the deputy's chest exploded.
Ajax scurried out from under the remains of the deputy and yanked his own sidearm out of its holster. He saw Hart kneel to vent his pulse rifle. The deputies were both dead on the floor, one of them with the rictus smile that marked him as having become a ragman. Silas was limping with the help of Jorah, and the other Gorgon marine looked to have been torn apart by blade and claw.
Space Marine Loki (Extinction Fleet Book 2) Page 14
