by Henry Zou
Picking up the Ophidian tablet, Vigoth traced the rune with his fingers. The serpentine lacuna was a portent of cycles, resembling a snake devouring its own tail. It symbolised destruction and the rebirth of history. Muhr would be a new beginning. But to create anew, Muhr would dismantle the old. Vigoth feared for the old with a deep conviction.
Autoloaders clicked on cyclical. He swivelled, and the paralysed bulk of his lascannon arms tingled gently where machine fibre was sutured to flesh nerves.
His name was Gunner-156X, but the maintenance slave jokingly referred to him as ‘Sternface’.
The world outside was boundless and black, impossible for him to understand. Cocooned against the universe, human eyes attuned to nothing but signature scans.
He locked onto a target, a sudden blip on the auspex. He framed it under target lock for a brief second, and then it was gone.
Wires thrummed and electricity coursed through his veins. His focus was singular. In the distance, he heard the deep throb of celebration as the Blood Gorgons revelled. There was the sound of the ship’s auspex systems sweeping the regional asteroids, bypassing debris and the looming nearby moons. He heard all these things, but his focus remained singular.
Gunner-156X was a gun servitor. His sole reason for existence was the functioning las blister 156X, a six-stack lascannon turret. A tiny pore on the oceanic hide of the Cauldron Born. He was hard-wired, his fleshy torso plugged at the hip into a swivel turret and his arms amputated by the triple pod lascannons affixed to his shoulder sockets.
There. A target again.
Multiple targets. Sizeable threat. Cruiser-sized craft and shoals of escorts. A swarm of unknown predators encircling the leviathan bulk of the Cauldron Born.
With a domino effect, defence blisters and lance ports all reported the same active reading. The entire starboard sector came alive with warning.
Gunner-156X suddenly felt alive. This was the only time that he remembered the human concept of excitement. He swivelled his las-stack, locking onto the approaching fleet. They were too far away for him to see, but he could feel them like cold pricks on his skin from the ship’s hardplugged monitors.
+All automatic defences stand down. All automatic stand down.++
Gunner-156X paused. His muscles twitched. Where the locking clamps of the turret connected to his shoulders he itched. He waited for the override authorization.
+Defence system down. Authorisation: Lord Anko Muhr.++
Muhr...
Gunner-156X brought up his memory banks. Muhr was the master now. He knew this had not always been the case. There had been another, but the information had been blanked out. Changed. His machine mind could never bring up that data again.
+Authorisation cleared.++
As the unknown fleet lurked closer, Gunner-156X powered down simultaneously along with all the ship’s defences.
The fleet of Opsarus stole upon them suddenly, ambushing them from behind the flare of a gas giant. Skulking cruisers of rusted white, great shambling things, drifting together like listless corpses. They entered the Cauldron Born’s docking bays without challenge.
No strike fighters were scrambled to intercept the intruders even as eight Light-class cruisers berthed themselves inside the Gorgons’ fortress. Neither did the space hulk’s lance batteries and gun towers and defence blisters fire upon them. The alarms within the docks did not sound. Void seals did not activate to trap the invaders within the exterior bulkheads.
Most Blood Gorgons, lost within the depths of their delight, did not know what had occurred. Many were still pleasure-drowsed and heavily intoxicated. After all, Lord Muhr had granted them permission – nay, he had encouraged it.
Within eight minutes of landing, squads of Plague Marines prowled the lower decks of the floating fortress. The cruisers disgorged almost five full companies of Plague Marines and several regiments of Septic infantry.
Reports were mixed as to what followed; there was considerable confusion. There were a minority of squads who had remained vigilant in the wake of Sabtah’s death, Muhr’s dissenters. They engaged the invaders in a brief, sporadic firefight in the Maze of Acts Martial and the slave barracks of mid-level 42. Other reports held that armed Blood Gorgons, surprised by the swiftness of the Plague Marine boarding action, could do nothing. Muhr declared on mass broad-speakers that the Nurgle Marines were allies and brothers. In any event, the invaders seized the Cauldron Born with minimal resistance and no casualties.
All after-action reports agreed, however, that Muhr welcomed the invaders on the mezzanine level of the ship’s helm. In the vast bowels of the armoured prow, the Lord-Sorcerer knelt and greeted the captains of Nurgle. They removed their helmets and clasped forearms.
From around the ship, most of the Blood Gorgons were rounded up and herded into the ship’s mezzanine prow. Disorientated and naked, they were forced to obey at gunpoint. The shamed Chaos Space Marines were manhandled, pushed and kicked like animals. The only casualty was Brother-Sergeant Kroder of Squad Zargos, shot through the skull as an example for his squad who assaulted the invaders with their bare hands. A minority managed to flee into the forgotten bowels of the ship, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. The shame was overwhelming.
Under the glittering chandeliers and candle tiers of the mid-prow, Muhr addressed his fallen Chapter, or at least those who had been shepherded there. The Lord Sorcerer pledged his allegiance to the Plague Marines and to Nurgle and grovelled. There was a sickness to his enthusiasm that was utterly at odds with the indignity and fury that raged amongst his Chapter. Even those who had supported his ascension began to doubt the wisdom of their decision.
But it would amount to an impotent rage. There was nothing the Blood Gorgons could do. Two-thirds were unarmoured and shamefully naked. They had been stripped of their weapons. Already, the Plague Marines mocked them, taunting them about desecrating their sacred suits of armour. Surrounded by a thousand Plague Marines, the Blood Gorgons became hostages aboard their own ship.
As a final shame, Opsarus the Crow appeared before them. In his Tactical Dreadnought Armour, he was a living totem of Nurgle’s corpulent aesthetics. Hulking and leviathan, his every movement was like the slow grind of a tectonic plate. His head was miniscule in comparison to his mountainous body, a hooded face shaded from light, set in the centre of his torso case. Spores, chittering parasites and entire hives of honeycombed growth glowed an almost lambent green against the ivory surface of his plate. He placed a hand on Muhr’s bowed head and raised the other.
‘This is my conquest,’ Opsarus began. His voice throbbed like a migraine. ‘I will carve an empire in the name of Mortarion, and Hauts Bassiq will be the foundation for my fleet. A stepping stone. I thank you for giving me your world, and be assured I will repay you in time. But for now,’ he laughed, ‘I must subjugate the Blood Gorgons.’
The Plague Marines turned the battle into a massacre. A seven-man squad of Plague Marines broke through the main line of fighting and overran into the camp itself. They clambered over the carriages, spilling the heavy steel structures onto their sides, belly-up, tracks whirling. The plainsmen’s screams were driven to hysterical heights. Grenades flattened tents and wagons.
Upon hearing the wails of their relatives, a flock of mounted braves broke away from the main battleline. Barsabbas cursed their lack of discipline. The enemy pushed through the gap that had opened up, punching through the Bassiq muster. Plague Marines spearheaded the rush, tearing braves off their mounts and snapping them with their big, broad hands.
Barsabbas tried to manoeuvre his flanking forces to plug the hole in the line, but his voice was lost under the war clamour. Three squads of Plague Marines, twenty-one warriors, punched through and doubled back to hit the mounted plainsmen from behind. Shambling, horned, heavy with fur and mould, solid like steel-cased ogres, they tore into the braves. The line threatened to break as the solid phalan
x of mounted riders became disjointed, fragmented and slowly isolated.
Frustrated, Barsabbas tried to fight his way towards the gap. A bolt shot smacked off his shoulder pad and a small-calibre round cracked his visor. Ahead, he saw a talon squall rear up and kick a Plague Marine in the pelvis with its powerful legs. It staggered the Traitor Marine. Another talon squall seized the momentary advantage and leapt onto his chest, the one-tonne beast driving the Chaos Space Marine into the ground and worrying his chest plate with a hooked beak. Others piled on, snapping and kicking at the downed enemy. A brave drew his recurve smoothly and unleashed an arrow into the Plague Marine’s throat, piercing the rubberised neck seal. The Plague Marine died. It was an island of triumph amidst a rolling ocean of slaughter. Four squads of Plague Marines were too many.
The braves broke. It began at the edges first: a tense, hesitant withdrawal as the screams of the camp became too much. The braves had accounted for themselves longer than Barsabbas had expected. After all, the Plague Marines were gods to them. Malevolent gods, but no less awesome for that. In their retreat, the braves were butchered. Autocannon and heavy bolter fire chased them, chopping them down as they fled.
The camp had been overrun. Plague Marines and their Septic minions were putting the settlement to flame. Hooded men with canister packs and nozzle guns hosed the area with gas. Native kinsmen wandered about, half-dressed and confused. Some did not even try to run, for there was nowhere to go. Clothing and household items were scattered into the dirt. Black smoke and poisonous gas gathered in thick plumes.
The moment had come for Barsabbas to steal away.
He churned across the cactus fields. He stepped amongst the dead and crushed succulents, running ankle-deep through a mire of mud, gore and crushed pulp. Hobbling several paces behind, Sindul was trawled through the fields. He ran several steps and fell, dragged along by his knees, before he regained his footing and tripped again.
A rearguard of Septic infantry spotted the lone Blood Gorgon and his captive. He was a prime target, a proud trophy. They gave chase. It was a stupid thing to do and a trained officer should have known better, perhaps voxed for reinforcements or a gun platform, but their commander was riding the high of a victorious slaughter. They gave chase and Barsabbas shot them all down. He turned and emptied the last of his clip, auto-targetters skipping from one head to the next.
Without turning, Barsabbas set a hard pace up the mountain pass, heading ever north. The sounds of the massacre echoed up the valley, but Barsabbas did not look back.
The Funeral Mountains were a desolate place. Creosote bushes squirmed from between the cracks of dolomite slabs and pupfish dwelled in the alluvial salt pans. Even the mountains themselves were small and steep, squeezed together to form telescopic peaks that fell away into vertical chasms. The plainsmen interred their ancestors here, marking their resting places with petroglyphs and stick-like carvings.
The rocks were soft and crumbled dangerously beneath his grip. Yet Barsabbas climbed on with an urgent recklessness. He vaulted onto a narrow ledge and dragged Sindul neck-first up the slope after him.
‘Please,’ choked Sindul. ‘Slower.’
Barsabbas ignored him. The enemy were still giving chase. His auspex imprinted the ghostly contrails of their pursuers across his visor.
‘Let me free. I can fight. Just let me see the daylight. I can fight,’ Sindul wheezed.
Barsabbas tugged the chain leash sharply. ‘Be still.’
He settled beyond the ledge, crouching down to minimise his profile. If the enemy insisted on pursuit, then he would give them something to find. He plucked forth one of the frag grenades that hung from chain loops across his left shoulder pad. Stilling his breath, he waited.
Beneath the rock ledge, on the rock-strewn escarpment, a single solitary reading flashed across the auspex. The target was nimble, fast, scaling up the mountain with sure-footed speed.
‘Are you stupid? You don’t need that,’ Sindul murmured from beneath his hood.
‘Quiet,’ hissed Barsabbas, yanking the chain taut. The target scrambled closer.
‘Are you scent blind? That doesn’t smell like a cultist of Nurgle. This one stinks of milk curd.’
Barsabbas paused, testing the air with his olfactory glands. Perhaps the dark eldar had a keener sense of smell than he realised. Heightened sensory perception was a trait of the eldar species, but Barsabbas had not expected anything so acute. Although he heard the skitter of pebbles bouncing down the slope, he could smell no distinguishable scent except for the blood and gunsmoke as the updraught carried the stench from the valley below.
‘Plainsman!’ Sindul shouted out.
Before Barsabbas could silence the dark eldar with a swift repercussive strike, a voice answered from below. ‘How de bod, koag!’
A long-limbed man scuttled up the ledge with his hands and feet gripping the rock with practiced ease. The shredded remains of a feather crest flapped from his head. It was Gumede.
‘Why did you follow me?’ Barsabbas growled. His hand fell to the mace looped at his hip.
‘Why did you abandon us to die?’ Gumede asked. His voice cracked. He sounded wounded although he had suffered no physical injury.
‘I have plans you would not understand. You have served me well, slavestock, and for that I will give you mercy. But do not seek to follow me. Leave now before I kill you.’
Gumede collapsed onto his knees. ‘My people are gone. I have nowhere to go. You may kill me if you wish, Red God.’
Barsabbas began to think tactically, an instinctive cognitive process that was the product of intense psychiatric therapy. He could kill Gumede now and be done with it. It would give him little satisfaction but it would minimise further complications. Or, he could exploit Gumede as his guide. Traversing the northern badlands would be significantly more difficult without the aid of someone who knew the land. From his brief encounter with the Bassiq, Barsabbas had learned to value their connection with the land. Perhaps this would be the most tactical choice.
‘You will come with me, Gumede. I need your knowledge of these lands,’ Barsabbas said.
‘I will not,’ Gumede said, staring vacantly. ‘You are a betrayer. You left us to die. I saw you run.’
‘I am a god to you,’ Barsabbas reminded him, rising to his feet.
‘You are a cruel god.’
Barsabbas could not understand the human’s misgivings. He knew of them, but he could not understand them. Humans formed emotional connections to things, objects, people, animals. It weakened their minds. Barsabbas knew no bond but the blood bond. The blood bond was a pragmatic thing, a multiplier of combat effectiveness. He felt no love for Sargaul, only a need to recover him, like a swordsman who was missing his swordarm. There was no place in Barsabbas’s consciousness for attachment. He did not understand Gumede at all.
‘Battles will be won and some will be lost. Today, you lost,’ Barsabbas said.
Gumede seemed to wither physically. He shook his head with a grimace. ‘I’ve lost everything.’
‘You were born naked and as you are. You have everything. You have simply lost everything you grew attached to,’ Barsabbas replied. He crossed over to the rock ledge and surveyed the boiling flames of the camp far, far below.
Gumede’s shoulders began to tremble. ‘I lost my sons.’
Barsabbas pondered this. Finally he nodded. ‘They have no gene-seed. You can replace them,’ he answered, finally enjoying his discourse with the simple-minded human.
When Gumede did not answer, Barsabbas continued. ‘You will come with me. I calculate that, with your field expertise and knowledge of terrain, you will reduce my travel time by approximately thirty per cent.’
‘Leave me be, Red God. There is nothing else you can give me.’
‘I have condemned your people. But I can still save your world.’
It was a
lie, of course. Barsabbas did not believe that. But lying was another thing that humans did not understand. To lie was to weave reality. Barsabbas did not know what stopped humans from lying – some obscure social contract to their fellow man? Another self-imposed limitation that reduced effectiveness.
‘How?’ Gumede asked, finally looking up. To see a grown man slack-mouthed from crying disgusted Barsabbas. The Chaos Space Marine was not even sure he possessed tear ducts any more. Hiding his distaste, Barsabbas put a hand on Gumede’s shoulder.
‘I am a god, remember? I have plans.’
Chapter Sixteen
And so they marched together, Gumede of the Plains navigating, the Blood Gorgon striding behind with his chained, captive dark eldar in tow. They followed the trails through the cracked, stony desert. The ground resembled the skin of a blistered heel, dry and flaking. Caprids never grazed here, for the stone wore down their hooves. Between the badlands and Ur, the nomadic kinships were considered poor due to the absence of large herds. But it was also a common tale that the denizens of Ur were shrewd traders and tricked the herdsmen of the north.
There was no trade now.
The days were dark and overcast with clouds of mustard yellow. Humid gases sluiced from the atmosphere, a weak corrosive acid that only scoured the earth. The landscape looked prematurely aged, as if the cycle of seasons, renewal and ecology had ground to a halt. New roots did not sprout from the wilted remains of the old.
During the high noon, when the suns were at their harshest and Gumede and Sindul became fatigued, Barsabbas found shelter in the deathly settlements of the northern plains. The wagons and trailers were empty but stank sour with stale air. Many were marked with the white palm-print of plague. Of the dead, however, there was no sign. It seemed they did not linger in their homes.
Finally, having found some momentary peace, he unhooded the dark eldar. Blinking weakly, Sindul flinched at the sunlight. His weeks of sensory deprivation had left him dazed and psychologically depressed. The chains on his wrists, however, remained, a tightly wound knot of heavy links.
