There was no torc around his neck and he had but the one life to give.
"Live and die today," spat Gunnar as he charged the distracted ripper drone and slammed his bare fist into the face of the garm creature.
An instant later the deck chief disappeared under an avalanche of teeth and claws.
STEEL and FIRE
The cascading snow fell in sheets, covering the debris-littered streets in a layer of white that sparkled with light from the fires that still burned in some of the nearby urban structures.
Without a star in the sky, there was little to illuminate the endless night but those fires, a sickening reminder, that even now, it was thanks to the rage of the enemy that the All-Father's warriors had light by which to do battle.
Things moved in the smoky darkness above, their individual shapes difficult to distinguish from the billowing smoke that rose from the besieged city.
What had once been a mega-city, the name of which marine Ajax could not recall, was now a smoldering ruin and the field upon which warriors now fought monsters. He stood upon a modern street in the armor of an ancient people, his pulse rifle long discarded in favor of sword, axe, and spear. Ajax embraced the madness of it, having learned long ago in his fight with Grendel that the details of perception were fluid. He was a castaway of time and space and to keep from drowning, he accepted the table set before him.
Two ravens shrieked as they flew low over the heads of the assembled warriors and everyone present knew that the dying was soon to begin.
The blaring baritone note of a horn echoed through the maze of concrete and twisted metal and Ajax flexed his fingers around the haft of his spear. Though his armored gloves were lined with fur meant to keep his body heat in, the biting cold made his joints ache through the layers.
All around him warriors fidgeted with their weapons and their breath grew faster.
The horn sounded again.
A warrior rounded the corner of a blasted-out skyscraper. He was dressed much like Ajax and the men around him, with pieces of reinforced steel across his chest and shoulders, articulated gauntlets over his hands, and the rest of him covered in layers of chainmail and boiled leather. The helmet that protected his skull was dented, and the man's face awash in blood.
Upon seeing Ajax and the two dozen warriors filling the street the wounded man raised the horn to his lips and blew upon it once more. The single note thundered over the pavement, filling the block with its defiant sound.
As the note died away, the horn slipped from his fingers and the warrior stumbled, then fell face first into the street, his fall revealing four arrows embedded deep in his back.
"Shieldwall!" bellowed the jarl who stood just steps behind Ajax, and the warriors raised their shields of wood and steel, interlocking them to create protection for themselves and their comrades.
Ajax set his shield on the edge of the one in front of him, then hefted his spear with a reverse grip. Howls filled the night air, drowning out even the roar of the wind and the crackle of the many fires. The warriors stood, holding their formation and they waited. More howls called out, yet more answered, and soon the rumble of many hooves joined the scraping of many claws.
They were coming, and there was naught to do but meet them.
Ajax was weary, his arms already feeling like they'd been turned to lead. It felt as though he and his surviving brothers had been fighting ceaselessly. He found that he could not recall the look of the sun upon the city, nor the warmth of anything but hot blood splattering across him in the thick of combat. When night had fallen he could not dredge up many details about the battle from his memory. He knew the fight about to come was just the next in a long campaign of violence he could not possibly assign a number to it. Battles beyond counting, he growled to himself, yet still they come and still we stand.
The enemy seemed to materialize out of the darkness, the sickening shapes of them becoming visible as they emerged from shadows, crawled out of broken windows, rushed from battered down doors, and charged out of alleys and street corners.
They were not men, though plenty of them ran on two feet and appeared to carry swords of a kind. They were not wolves, though their mouths were filled with fangs and their fingers tipped with claws. They were not giants, though they towered over the men who faced them.
They were not gods either, for when the first of the warrior's spears were hurled the points bit deep and blood flowed as some throws were struck well.
Ajax howled with a voice raw from the cold as his own spear pierced the torso of a hideous creature and sent the thing sprawling and bleeding into the snow. The monsters leaped over their dead and dying with sickening grace, their bladed appendages outstretched and their fanged maws leering with anticipation of the kills to come.
"Give them the death they so crave!" shouted the jarl, and Ajax slid his short axe from the iron ring hanging at his waist.
A moment later the first of the beasts slammed into the shieldwall, lashing out with their claws and blades, using their muscular bodies to push against the shields in an attempt to break through.
Ajax strained to hold firm as the weight of a creature pounded against his shield, the force of the impact sending reverberations down his arm and into his feet.
The potency of their charge was tremendous, and the entire formation of human warriors was pushed back by inches, their boots scraping against the pavement and kicking up snow behind them. Despite the ferocity of the assault the line held firm, and the momentum of the charging beasts stalled.
As one the warriors pressed forward, slamming their shields into the creatures, who were now caught off balance. Several of the enemy fell as they were knocked off their feet by the sudden opposition, though most were able to regain their footing in an instant. However, an instant was all that the warriors needed. Suddenly axes rained down heavy blows from above, splitting skull and crushing bones, while thrusts from swords pierced abdomens and savaged legs.
Ajax pulled hard and yanked his axe from the spurting wound he'd made in the neck of one creature, only to bring it down again a mere second later to shear away a piece of another's hideous skull. The warrior stepped forward and bashed his shield into the beast he'd hit in the neck, and hissed in satisfaction as it fell backward to lay still. A bladed appendage suddenly raked against his side and Ajax felt the edge part his chainmail and leather armor like a knife through cloth. He managed to deflect the next attack with his shield, turning aside the appendage and cleaving the limb from its master with a swift chop from his axe into what passed for an elbow.
The beast screamed in pain and raised more of its limbs to attack him. The action was cut short as another warrior skewered it with his sword, driving his blade underneath the beast's natural chest armor and up through a few of its hearts. As the warrior pulled his sword free his arm and head were simultaneously separated from his body by the powerful strokes of another creature's scything blades. Ajax's vision was obscured for a moment as his comrade's blood splattered across his helmet, some of it getting through the eye-slits and blinding him.
The moment that blood hit his pupils Ajax's mind was filled with the sound of children calling out for him. Why in the name of the All-Father would children be in this place? Yet they called his name, their voices brittle and insistent. Ajax shook his head as he struggled to keep their voices from overwhelming his senses at such a deadly moment.
Ajax covered himself with his shield as he stumbled to the side, and in doing so narrowly avoided death from the strike of multiple blades filling the space where he'd just stood. A blade bit into his thigh and clawed hands attempted to rip the shield off his arm, the strength of the beast forcing him to his knees. Ajax swung his axe blindly and shouted with victory as he felt the weapon connect with enemy flesh, though the blade was pulled from his hand as the monster reacted. The beast collapsed on top of his shield, it’s weight pressing down on him until he was able to heave it off to the side. Free of the corpse’s weight, Ajax w
as able to get back on his feet, pushing through the pain in his thigh.
The creature fell hard onto the snow-covered pavement, and before it could rise Ajax brought the edge of his shield down onto its chest.
All the while he could hear the children screaming for rescue.
The warrior put all his weight behind his shield for the next strike and the next, blindly working his way up the creature's body as he continued to pound it with his shield. He knew that his strikes would do little but keep it pinned down until he eventually found its head. When he did, several strikes later, it took three tries to crush the beast's skull.
Ajax risked removing his helmet and wiping his bloody eyes. Doing so did nothing to quiet the voices in his ears, though having his sight back was at least something. When his vision cleared he saw that the fighting had escalated significantly. The shieldwall was broken, and the battle had devolved into a wild melee. His own group of warriors looked to have lost at least half their number, though they had done as much, if not worse to the enemy. More warriors of the All-Father had marched into the streets and were engaging yet more swarms of the nightmare creatures.
The children called out again, and Ajax felt as if he'd heard them with his ears as much as his mind this time. It sounded to him that they were just beyond the battle, through the ruins of a skyscraper across the street. He was compelled to move towards them, and he could not tell if it was some draw against him that was outside himself or his own will to reach them. Regardless, he knew he had to go.
"On me!" shouted Ajax as he slid his helmet back over his head and recovered his gore-caked axe from the leg of the beast he'd just slain.
The warrior rushed forward, shield held before him, and after a few hurried steps he was joined by four other warriors who'd heard his voice over the din of violence.
Ajax knocked aside a creature that stood in his way, slamming the edge of his shield into the small of its back producing a satisfying, wet crack. He kept running, not taking time to kill the creature, instead taking several more strides and sinking his axe into the shoulder of another. One of the warriors next to him stabbed the beast in the abdomen with his sword and then bowled it over with his shield as he continued to follow Ajax.
Moments later Ajax and three warriors reached the smoldering ruins of the skyscraper. One of their number lay dying in the street behind them, his innards spilled across the pavement as two creatures feasted upon him, tearing apart his layers of armor to get at his flesh. They had no time to seek revenge, that much Ajax knew, as the voices of the children became more insistent. Ajax nodded at the men with him and they entered the ruined building, leaving the storm of battle behind them, and plunging into the half-light of the structure.
The skyscraper was being held aloft by the thick pylons that supported the super-structure, though the entire ground floor had been torn to shreds. Whether it was from artillery shell or the thrashing of a giant, perhaps lightning strikes or earthquakes, Ajax could not recall. Such memories seemed lost to him, as it was to the others. One of the warriors tapped flint to steel and the sparks ignited a torch, which he used to light those carried by the rest of the men.
The light of their torches threw shadows around them, the ragged interior of the building causing many tricks in the light. The warriors looked expectantly at him and Ajax closed his eyes, narrowing his focus to the sounds of the children, and he was able to hear them. Their voices were muffled now, and it felt to him that their pleas were carrying up from under his feet.
Ajax swung his torch about and saw an ash-covered metro sign. As he stalked closer he saw that it pointed to a stairwell leading downwards.
Ajax knew better than to think that the elevator would work so kicked open the stairwell door with a booted foot and thrust his torch into the darkness. When no enemy presented itself, he nodded to the other warriors and they all began to make their way down the stairs. As they went down the first flight they began to hear the enemy above them, howls and snarls of the beasts that no doubt had picked up their scent. None could escape the battle that would never be ended, Ajax found himself thinking, and he locked eyes with the warrior nearest him.
Ajax and the warrior held each other's gaze for a moment, then the warrior turned to face the stairs above them. He moved back up several steps and then stood on the platform just under the door they'd entered through. In the tight confines, his sword would be more useful than the axes carried by Ajax and the others. He would be able to buy them some time, not much, but perhaps enough. Ajax turned, and he began to take the stairs downwards two at a time.
By the time they reached the bottom of the stairwell they'd gone down what Ajax thought had to have been at least five flights. They had not bothered to open any of the doors to the other subterranean floors. Down this far everything would be maintenance levels and storage. Ajax was sure the voices were coming from the bottommost level, down where the metro tunnels were built, forming the underground circulatory system of the once glittering mega-city.
When the warriors opened the door and rushed onto the platform with torch and axe in hand, their eyes were greeted with a curious sight. In place of the metro tunnel they'd expected, there was a vast black ocean before them, the dark waters churning in the half-light of their torches and seeming to go on forever. In place of the familiar mag-train there were two boats, identical to the low-slung dragon ships of an ancient warrior culture, their wooden masts carved with an assortment of spirals and runes. On the platform rested a haphazard pile of supplies, everything from casks of whale oil and sacks of seed, to farming tools and bolts of cloth.
As the warriors looked upon the pile, trying to make sense of what they were seeing, an inhuman roar made their heads snap to the right. The heavy steel door of the platform's maintenance closet was set into the concrete wall, and it was covered in the dents and deep claw rents of the nightmare creature that raged against it.
The beast was just as foul as any they'd faced on the streets above, and as it turned, finally noticing the warriors, Ajax realized that the children he heard were behind the door. He could hear them pleading for help through the steel, and this time the other two warriors with him heard it too.
The creature rushed the warriors, all four of its scything bladed appendages outstretched. Ajax reacted swiftly, and hurled his axe at the beast, raising his shield and stepping to his left. The creature was fast, and it batted the axe out of the air just as it came in range, though in doing so left itself exposed to the axe from another warrior. The creature stumbled as the thrown axe thudded into the side of its head, opening a deep gash through the beast's natural armor before clattering to the platform floor. Another axe tore into the beast's right knee, the bladed head wedging into the small gap where the beast's natural thigh armor was overlapped by the plate that protected its knee.
The monster howled in pain and fury, and the warriors surged forward as they yanked their daggers from the sheaths at their waists. The monster lashed out with its blades only to have its blows turned away by the shields of the men as they used their defensive tools to push in unison against the creature. The three warriors shoved the creature back and against the platform wall, next to the door it had only moments before been assaulting. While the warriors held the beast pinned, they stabbed at it with their short daggers. In a matter of seconds, the creature was bleeding from half a dozen more wounds. Finally, all the strength left it and the warriors stepped away to allow the corpse to fall in a heap before them.
The warriors turned from their slain enemy and saw that two children had emerged from the maintenance closet. They were dressed in peasant's garb, simple layers of cloth and fur, with boots and gloves to protect them from the cold. They couldn't have been more than ten or twelve years old from the look of them, their breath misting heavily in the underground cold. Their faces were not familiar to him, though, like the warriors who had fought and died beside him for what seemed an eternity, he felt as if he'd known them all his life. The
y were silent now, and they looked from Ajax and his warriors to the boats even as inhuman screams echoed out from the stairwell to join the dying roars of the warrior they'd left behind.
One of the warriors responded by pulling his axe from the knee of the dead monster and setting his torch into a crack in the wall. He fastened his shield to his left arm and then picked his torch back up, holding it in his shield arm. He nodded to the two men and hefted his axe before walking to the door and disappearing up the stairwell.
Ajax and the remaining warrior rushed to get the children into the boats and did not argue when it appeared that each child demanded their own ship. It made sense to Ajax, as much as anything did, and he obliged them. The boy he placed in the leftmost ship as his comrade lifted the girl up and set her down on the bow of the rightmost ship. The two men then moved as quickly as they could, tossing cargo onto the boats as the sounds of battle reverberated on the platform. They'd loaded the boats with about half of what rested on the platform when a hideous roar boomed in the stairwell, and it was clear that the enemy was upon them.
The last warrior said nothing, only turned and lifted his shield as he swung his axe back and forth to limber up his killing hand. He reached the door just as it was torn from its hinges by the first of the creatures, and he rewarded the beast by hewing its head from its shoulders with two swift strokes.
Ajax turned from the grisly sight and picked up the torch left by the warrior. He handed his own to the girl and then gave the other to the boy.
Ajax dared not turn around yet, though he heard the warrior cry out in pain and rage, and knew that the time had come. Ajax used his axe to cut the mooring lines of the first boat, the girl's, and heaved with all his might against the prow. The ship cut through the water as it left the platform, and Ajax dared not stop to take a breath before cutting the line on the boy's ship. He pushed his shoulder into the prow and sent the ship away from the platform, the prow of the boat suddenly coated in his own blood as a wicked blade erupted from his mid-section.
Space Marine Apocalypse (Extinction Fleet Book 3) Page 12
