The Invasion

The recoil of the bolter kicked into his shoulder, Kraken bolts pack one 'ell of a punch. A split second before the noise of the shot echoed through the city, the chest cavity of the last of the two plague-marines exploded. The other's limp body fell with drips of molten admantium dripped onto the floor. Segments of internal organs splattered over the wall he stood by, as well as his comrade dreadnought. The shot didn't kill the traitor however. The foul blessing of the plague god had saved his wretched life. As the creature stumbled upwards, Kald'r emptied two more shots into the former marine, hitting it straight in the chest plate and the second shot entered through it's right eye lens. Both rounds detonated within the creature's flesh. This time it died, after the 25 seconds given to the battle-sister, two marines had died within 5 seconds and the the third (who had been hiding from the sight of both loyalists) had dived- or rolled more likely- into cover behind a collapsed wall. The dreadnought reacted to the gunfire, it swung it's melta to face Manin. With the skill of three centuries of combat, the marine dived away from the blast, escaping the blast of pure heat micro-seconds before it even fired. 'Where is that bloody..' before the kill-marine could finish his complaint, a blast from a melta-gun slammed into the hell-brute's spinal column- or what was a spine anyway- and before the creature fully turned to return fire into the new arrival it was met by a whole clip of Kraken bolts, shearing through the tortured soul's armour and tearing what was left of it's flesh to shreds. It was dead. The second plague-marine cried in anger as it ran towards the battle-sister's position, firing it's bolter along the way.
“No you don't you buggar!” cursed the former Crimson-Fist, as he refreshed his bolter. Pulling the trigger twice he saw as two of the former astartes' legs fell off, gore spraying from both stumps as the body fell. The creature swore in warp-tongue as it began crawling towards Manin. “Go back to the warp, scum.” spat Kald'r, before completely destroying the monster's skull with the heel of his boot. He began to calmly walk away from the bodies, before thumbing his vox;
“Battle-sister, report to the main entrance to the building...battle-sister respond...damn” with a sudden glance, he saw a crumpled body lying in the doorway. 'No, not another one!' his thoughts were panicked and un-calculating. In his haste to ensure the survival of the -to his knowledge- last Imperial that could help him with his quest, he failed to notice the sudden appearance of a scent most foul. Mere seconds before he could make it to what he believed to be the battle-sister, a sudden ear-shearing howl filled the air, closely followed by a white-blue beam of light tearing through the sky, crashing into one of the many skyscrapers littering the hive-world. Without a second of thought, Kald'r screamed though the vox;
“Battle sister! RUN!”



He lay in the dust that was once a vast skyscraper, his helmet used sophisticated laser technology to clear his visor, something he wished it didn't. He saw the battle-sister rise, he initially feared it was due to the plague filling the city. But this fear was put to rest as she clicked on the vox;
“Kill-marine...status?” her voice was raspy and rough.
“I'm alright sister.” sighed the veteran, as he stabilised himself on his powersword. “We have to continue onwards” he looked around at the destruction...what in the name of Terra could do this? As the two loyalists slowly moved forward, Kald'r was certain he could hear something following them...something with the stench of the mutant.

Chronus watched as the skyscraper fell, the Blinding light rendering the vast building to dust.

The sound of bolter fire had led him further into the upper city, a now ruined cityscape in which millions must have lived.

Chronus arrived at the location of the rubble that had once been a skyscraper, the place littered with the limbs and Armour of heretics. Near the edge of the rubble Chronus found the remains of a chaos Dreadnaught. " Whoever I'm following must have heavy ordinance, Thank the emperor they're allies".

He set off down the streets of the upper city and made an attempt to track whoever decimated the Dreadnaught, after several streets Chronus found his search complete.

Two figures at the end of the street, Chronus could not be sure of their allegiance from this range. He made his way up the street, staying behind cover so he wouldn't be spotted, he was almost close enough.

The crunch of the broken glass under his foot was quiet, but not enough for him to stay hidden.

( ooc: as always apologies if this messes with anything or i have made mistakes.)

Suddenly, a large selection of sounds were picked up by the astartes' highly sensitive ears. A metallic clang, metal pipe, fell from a reasonable hight. As well the near silent sound of grinding glass. The latter came from some distance behind them, not as much of a worry.
“Hush” whispered Manin, suddenly halting. He signalled for her to crouch behind a small wall which had somehow survived the blast. His motion tracker appeared on his HUD at a twitch of the eye. Something was crawling around above them, and something else had frozen in cover far behind them...the latter seemed to be a trained warrior, but the former...that could be anything.
The pair sat there for what seemed like an age. Manin crouched staring at the motion tracker as it blipped like a radar, readied to pounce he was a coiled spring...and suddenly without a nano-second of delay, he sprang upwards. His gauntlet wrapped around the neck of the creature above them.
The creature was torn from the shadows in which it stalked. Its eyes were huge, seemingly glowing with mystery, it's oversized ears twitched in surprise. Obviously it relied on echoelocation rather than conventional sight. Pressing the muzzle of his bolter hard into it's chest, Manin stared coldly into the creature's panicked eyes, with his hand wrapped tight around it's neck hard enough so that it only just doesn't crush the windpipe.
“Mutant scum” growled the Kill-Marine. He was about to fire a round into it's chest cavity before the Battle-Sister pointed out something unusual;
“Kill-Marine, look!” Kald'r followed her pointing finger, she was pointing towards the brand upon the monster's leg. It seemed familiar, well it should to Kald'r as he too bore it -on his shoulder rather than his thigh- it was the Eye of the Holy Inquisition...ironic for a blind creature to bear this.
“Inquisition. Ordos unknown. Must be a scavenger.” muttered the soldier of the Ordos Xenos, before throwing the creature to the floor. He still had his bolter trained on the mutant's chest. “Now then, you got a name? Or shall I just call you 'Mutant'?” the mutant seemed to stutter, it's filthy white hair covering it's albino face. It weakly answered the marine's question;
“It's...it's F...Faust” the creature quivered in fear as the marine rose his bolter to it's face.
“I trust you..Faust. Now can you use one of these” asked Manin as he spun his bolter into a reverse grip, offering the grip it to the mutant. It was only then did Kald'r notice that 'Faust' lacked what could be classified as fingers, rather long digets with huge, sharp claws. Tutting to himself Manin returned the bolter to its mag-clamp. “Well then, you better be of use to us. I don't want to be dragged behind by you.” He silently signalled to them to stay there and act normal -somehow Faust understood the order- and began walking towards the other intruder.


Despite the vast amount of both shattered glass and stray rocks, Kald'r managed to silently move through the shadows towards the signal in his tracker. This was one of the few times he was glad of his pitch black armour, as it has often lead to him being confused for a heretic of the Black Legion. He could now see the second intruder of his surroundings. Green and black armour? Salamander? Typical, there's always a humanitarian in a war-zone. But he couldn't take any chances, for this new comer may have betrayed his oath as an astartes. Deciding not to use his bolter, he unclipped the mag-locked scabbard -as the scraping of the sword my give away his position. Slowly moving forward, he decided to break stealth, tearing his sword from it's protective brown leather scabbard, he strode forwards and brought his target to the floor with a feirce tackle. Within micro-seconds both fighters were standing upright, Manin had his sword placed against his combatant's neck, slightly slicing the soft armour joint. The other had a power-spear against Manin's neck, however Manin's Mark VIII Errant class chest piece -which gave extra protection to the neck though a rather bulky collar- prevented any chance for him to damage.
“I'm on your side brother” cried the warrior clad in green, in the alien accent Manin had heard earlier that day, but from another person than this. Not being one of a trusting nature, Manin refuse to move his blade.
“Prove it.” cut Kald'r coldly.
“Propugnaculum meum super eos timor. Defensores sunt homines.” spoke the astartes in fluent High Gothic.
“Mei sunt spatium naualis. Et scient nullum timorem” replied the veteran deathwatch soldier as cold as before. “Deathwatch. Kald'r Manin. Kill-Marine.”
“Salamanders, 3rd Company. Infernatos Chronus. Acting sergeant”
“3rd company? I met you lot on Ekernt V. One Captain Ulysses Keegan, and his honour guard the Theophylacts. They were tough buggars.” the new member of Manin's small force was more suited to his fighting style, however it was clear he lacked proper knowledge of tactics and stratigies to be a proper 2-I-C, it seems he shouldn't plan for that, as few seemed to fit the role as of yet. “We have to press on. Space Port 219-Alpha is not far away.” However before they could press on, the vox began to buzz;
"This is Inquisitor Caddock Eldebrandt of the Ordo Archimedes." The voice was calm, not that surprising for an Inquisitor. "I am in the Underhive at coordinate Alpha-Foxtrot 23648973. I need immediate assistance." that wasn't far from their position. They might have to kick in some walls to get there, but it is their duty to assist the Inquisition at all times.
“Squad! Rally! It's time to save us an Inquisitor!”

[OOC- the thing about Ekernt V is a wee spoiler for my Deathwatch story, in which Kald'r appears in the latest instalment...no more spoilers]

The crashing tread of the Chaos Titan jolted the bodies that were earthbound. Diomhaire found the earth reeling up at him, as countless others lost their footing as well. Another sniped shot clipped the air around him, killing a shouting Nurgle officer. The diseased ichor of the man burned and sizzled in the sorcerer flame and was dissolved before touching Diomhaires perfect skin. The Titan continued to stride forward firing randomly with it's world shattering weapons.
Diomhaire was getting bored, a dangerous predicament for those around him, without the sniper continually risking his life... Glancing up at the wall of the Palace the fell sorcerer smiled to himself. Wrapping himself in more unholy magic he lifted himself from the ground, the flame surrounding him becoming a screaming inferno. Striding forward the warp priest strode past the chaos front line, right into no-mans land. Raising his arms as if daring the defenders to shoot him Diomhaire began to dance. At first his movements were slow and controlled, but as the invisible beat of the defenders heartbeats began to raise so did his pace. At first it seemed as if the warp smith had lost his mind, becoming a clear target with no defense. Then the first rank of Rouge Guardsman became infected by his magics. Their eyes burst and their mouths flamed as the passion of fire overcame them. Ever so slowly that same thin line of fire stretched towards the defending line of Imperials.

The Governor nodded, in complete agreement with the hiver. "Well, with any hope most of the plague zombies have shuffled on towards more populated areas, we'll have to take our chances." He unholstered his hellpistol and crouched next to a door, making sure that he wasn't leaning against the wall. He elected to use the hellpistol because the plasma pistol was much louder and in close quarters the explosive plasma was likely to wound him as well. After a moment's pause he reared up and with a powerful kick, blasted the door off of its hinges.

He quickly stormed inside with his hellpistol raised. A plague zombie hissed from across the room, but he quickly silenced it with a shot to the head. Another one bolted at him from a corridor but he blasted it back with two shots to the chest then dropped it with a headshot. He checked his corners then called back to the girl, "Room clear, take point."

"Inquisitor, this location is no longer safe, we can't stay here."

Inquisitor Eldebrandt glared back at the speaker, a Rayne's World Ronin clad in ceremonial armor. The man looked uneasy, something he wasn't used to seeing in his agents. "It doesn't matter, my work isn't done here." He returned his attention to the ancient terminal, trying to read the ancient glyphs that fed diagnostic results and other system functions. If he could only get this blasted machine running, he could save this world. Behind him, a scream erupted. Fueled by instinct, he drew his powered Katana from its sheathe and whirled around to see one of his ronin fall with a blade in his throat.

Out of nowhere, dozens of cultists poured into the derelict labratory, screaming chants and litanies that made his head swim. The remaining ronin in the room leapt into action, drawing blades and cutting down any cultists that stumbled within reach. The cultists couldn't compare to the ronin man to man, but the sheer numbers threatened to overwhelm them. Another Ronin was dragged into the crowd, kicking and lashing out to no avail, only to be beaten and stabbed to death. A single cultist made it to Eldebrandt's location, but the Inquisitor leapt at it, decapitating the heretic with a clean slash of his blade.

The Inquisitor charged into the crowd of cultists, swirling his blade and body around as if a dancer in one of the ancient dramas that the Ronins were particularly fond of. The swordsmen followed their leader, leaping into the fray with reckless abandon. Several ronin fell in the brutal combat, but they were slaughtering the cultists. "Push these bastards back, they cannot sabotage the device!"

"You ever consider the door might have been unlocked?" The ganger said as she moved in. "I mean sure it would have ruined that whole breach and clear thing you did... but it also wouldn't have woken up half the damn hive."

Scelene shouldered past the Governor without so much as a word of thanks, silently disappointed that they hadn't taken the sewers. She glanced around the hab for a brief moment. She recognized the layout, it was one she'd a dozen times on a dozen robberies, a generic layout copied and pasted across an entire block of habs. Everyone exactly the same.

She wondered briefly how the mid-hivers didn't drown in the endless sea of monotony.

Monotony or no, the familiarity was a good sign. It meant that, just like all the others she'd been in there should be a... yes, there it was. Bending low she pried open the small door leading to an equally small tunnel that would connect it to the unit next door. She imagined they'd been built for some kind of maintenance purpose but long since fallen into disuse, now used as little more than shared storage.

She bent low and began crawling through the tunnel, pushing dust covered boxes out of the way as she went. It would be a tight fit for the Governor, but for Scelene's thin malnourished frame it was an easy crawl.

She opened the door at the other end and drew her stub-automatic from its holster as she emerged quickly from the tunnel. Two zombies, three shots put the first one on the floor, and two for the second. She stomped on both heads, crushing them just to be sure.

"We should be good to head back to the alley now." She told the Governor. "It's not much further."

The Inquisitor blocked a clumsily swung hammer from a rotting cultist to the pommel of his blade. The CUltist gurgled angrily and began to swing again, but the expert duelist caught him offguard midswing. He caught the cultist's arm, and performed a perfect ippon seoi nage, throwing the cultist over his shoulder and sprawling him onto the ground. Before the cultist could recover from the shock, Caddoc silenced him forever with a concealed dagger to the throat. He heard a roar of anger and malice behind him and he lashed out with a swirling slash with his blade. Two halves of a cultist slumped to the ground. The laboratory exploded with a rush of new sounds that nearly overwhelmed him, as two armored giants stormed into the room and began to mow down the cultists. He watched in sheer awe at the brutality of their grim work, and thanked the Emperor his Ronins sought cover faster than the heretics.

At most of the cultists died in rapid succession, leaving only one, terrified one left, holding an extremely potent plasma rifle trained on one of the astartes. He could not let that happen. He walked briskly up behind the cultist and slashed the tendons behind the cultist's knees. The cultist dropped to his knees, and began to scream, but was cut off when Inquisitor Eldebrandt beheaded him. "Good." The Inquisitor stated plainly, wiping a splash of blood off of his paper-white face. "Now we can get to work."

Lord Craft rose an eyebrow at the young woman then proceeded closely behind her, surprisingly wry for a middle-age man. Though she wouldn't know it from looking at him, he had been in the guard at her age, fighting horrors beyond mentioning across the galaxy. He had seen hive ignite with nuclear fire, entire worlds enticed to chaos worship. He had been one of the lucky ones who returned home.

His noble birth had ensured him a high rank in the guard, but he had never expected to be placed above the true high noble family. Maybe the Imperium thought of him as a tool. It mattered not, he would protect and serve his people over the Imperium any day. He was getting distracted, people died because of moments like that. He brought himself out of the small tunnel with a grunt and stood up. "Good work, We'll be safer off of the main roads."