Editing The Tales of the Emperasque: Part Eleven (section)

==6-085-001-M42==
“Forward, Angels of Death!” Lord Commander Dante roared, the flames of his Assault Jump pack flaring behind him like a miniature sun. The septet of Assault Terminators behind him followed suit, their Lightning Claws gleaming in the sunlight. The eight Power Armored Astartes landed amongst the startled pack of Hrud they had been targeting, ripping several to shreds in moments.<br>
The leader of the shambling herd of xenos clutched a primitive stubber in its filthy claws, and hosed the nearest Terminator down. He may as well have been throwing spitballs; the Terminator was close enough to simply flex his elbow and throw the monster back a pace, toppling the Hrud into its still-standing fellows. Dante sighted the thrashing pile of aliens and incinerated them all with a burst of fire from the Perdition Pistol, grimacing in distaste as he did so.<br>
“Filthy Hrud,” he said, carefully wiping his axe on the shriveling grass next to the pile of ash.<br>
“Permission to ask a question, Lord Dante?” one of the Terminators asked, staring at the aliens’ remains.<br>
“Granted, brother-Sergeant,” Dante replied, glancing back at them.<br>
“I understand that these…’bendies’ are to be exterminated wherever they’re found, my Lord, but why were you dispatched here? Surely, with the Emperor’s personal return, you could have been assigned a more…vital task,” the Terminator said respectfully.<br>
“Because Rordek is a vital agri-world, and I would rather be here sharpening my blade on Hrud skin than sitting in a transport brooding,” Dante snapped. “Besides, it’s between Terra and Baal. More than that, you need neither know nor question.”<br>
“As you will, my Lord,” the Terminator said, bowing his head.

Dante’s vox beeped. “Lord Commander, this is Brother Mephiston. The Hrud infestation source has been located: the sewage tunnels adjacent to the cargo spaceport. They must have ridden in on one of the heavy agri-freighters,” his Chief Librarian’s gravelly voice reported.
Dante nodded with satisfaction. “I guessed as much. Numbers?”<br>
“Disconcerting,” Mephiston confessed. “I would guess nine thousand at least. They’re-”<br>
“Nine thousand?” Dante said in shock. “How is that even possible? There aren’t even ten million humans on the whole planet!”<br>
“The sewer tunnels extend as far as six hundred miles from the starport, my Lord. Sewage plants the size of cities process the grit and shuck from farms that span continental bodies. If the Hrud infested the entire tunnel network, they would have almost unlimited space to breed,” Mephiston pointed out.<br>
Dante was silent for a long moment. “We have only two hundred Marines on this planet, and the PDF is all but spent. If we take each tunnel individually, we could be here for centuries.”<br>
“We may not need to, my Lord,” Mephiston voxed grimly. “The Hrud are congregating at the spaceport. The tunnel walls of the sewage network are visibly crumbling, such are their numbers.”<br>
Dante thought that over. There was precious little available to them here, the Dark Angel and Raven Guard task forces having dispersed back to where they had been before the Emperor diverted them. The rest of the Zargh 3 taskforce was either helping mop up on Earth, or returning to Segmentum Command for fresh instructions. He had only a Strike Cruiser and a few Falchions at his disposal in orbit – not enough to target enemies underground with any degree of accuracy.

“Gather the Sanguinary Guard and whatever Dreadnoughts we have available at the spaceport and set up a cordon,” Dante said. “I am en route. Have we any vehicles left?”<br>
“Two Land Speeders, a Stormraven, and a single Predator, Baal variant,” Mephiston replied.<br>
“Dispatch them to the spaceport as well,” Dante ordered. “They will hold the rear as we advance into the tunnels.”<br>
“As ordered, my Lord,” Mephiston acknowledged, cutting the channel. Dante turned to his Terminators.<br>
“Brothers, the heart of the xenos infestation has been found. The sewers beneath the spaceport are packed with them. We must go to Brother Mephiston’s aid.”<br>
“Acknowledged, Lord Commander,” the nearest Terminator spoke on behalf of the others. “Estimated strength?”<br>
“Significant. Nine battalion strength. Maybe more,” Dante said, signaling for their Thunderhawk to come and retrieve them.<br>
“How could there be that many when the infestation began mere years ago?” the Terminator asked.<br>
“Apparently, there was breeding space. What I’d rather know is how the colonists managed to miss an infestation that large,” Dante said disapprovingly. “Hrud are hard to miss.”

“Hold! Hold, in the Emperor’s name!” Mephiston roared, hurling a frag grenade at the roiling mass of grey flesh and cloth. The grenade detonated a mere few centimeters from the charging mass of Hrud, blasting a hole in their front line and throwing shattered weapons about. A Furioso Dreadnaught next to him took advantage of the opening, spraying his pair of storm bolters at the standing Hrud on either side of the gap. It simply wasn’t enough, though, the gray vermin slid out of the tunnels like water.<br>
“Damnation, the xenos are heading for the fuel depot!” Mephiston snarled, stepping back a pace and focusing his energies.<br>
“Brother, do it now!” the Furioso said, taking a step aside to fill the gap left by the Librarian’s withdrawal. It pivoted at the waist and opened up with both storm bolters again, this time adding its melta’s fire to the effort. The rest of the Marines stationed across the spaceport – which was nothing more than some pipes, flat areas for fixed-wingcraft, a tower, and some VTOL pads – were rushing over as fast as they could, but the Hrud were inexorable.<br>
The Furioso caught a full salvo of bolter fire across the shoulder, and one off its robotic arms flew off in a shower of rubble. Undaunted, the Dreadnought pivoted again, maintaining fire from its other arm. “Hurry, brother! I can’t hold them!”<br>
“BURN, IN THE EMPEROR’S FLAME!” Mephiston roared, sweeping his hands forward as the Dreadnought lurched aside. The Hrud at the front of the pack suddenly halted, gibbering in fear.

Even as they watched, a gigantic golden angel swept down from the sky, brandishing a gigantic blue claymore. Before it could arrive, it raised its free hand, pointing it at them. A black mist erupted from its hands, reaching out towards the tightly-packed front ranks of the Hrud charge. The aliens squealed and split, arresting their charge completely, trying to avoid the mist.<br>
Mephiston and the Dreadnought wasted no time, sweeping the aliens with plasma, bolter, and melta fire. The other Blood Angels from the spaceport added what fire they could as they charged in from their patrol routes, slicing the gray mass apart. With a horrible chittering, the herd of aliens retreated back into the tunnel from which they had erupted, some firing wildly over their shoulders.<br>
“Fire! Fire! Breach the tunnel!” Mephiston commanded, suiting actions to words as he fired his plasma pistol down the tunnel after the retreating xenos. The apparition of the golden angel vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, since it had only been a projection of Mephiston’s.

The walls of the gently down-sloping tunnel evaporated under the concentrated fire of the Blood Angels, spraying concrete dust and chunks of rebar around the grassy battlefield. After a few more seconds, Mephiston raised a clenched fist, and the Angels’ fire ceased instantly. Mephiston concentrated for a moment, focusing his psychic powers down the tunnel, but sensed nothing but the Hrud fleeing.<br>
“They withdraw, brothers,” Mephiston said, hiding his relief. “Lord Dante will arrive shortly. We must prepare for the Hrud’s return. Begin fortifying.”<br>
“Aye, brother,” one of the newly-arrived Marines said, jogging back over to his parked Land Speeder. Mephiston turned to the damaged Dreadnought.<br>
“Venerated brother, see to your injury. Lord Dante,” he added, reopening his vox, “where are you?”<br>
“Two minutes out, brother,” Dante’s voice came back. “What happened?”<br>
“The Hrud saw me scouting the tunnel and attacked, my Lord,” Mephiston confessed. “The Hrud have been repelled – I projected Fear of the Darkness upon them – but they are massing. I sense that most of the nest may be on its way here.”<br>
“Nine battalions of Hrud…” Dante trailed off. He didn’t need to continue, those numbers could overwhelm any standing force he brought with him. The fact that there was only one exit from the tunnel would mean little: the Hrud disintegrate when they die, so even a wall of corpses would not remain an obstacle for long.

Within minutes, the spaceport was looking worse for wear. The ships in orbit had done what they could to drop fortifications, but a few bolter turrets were the best they could do under the circumstances. The other Blood Angels had raced in to Mephiston’s position, reinforcing it as best they could, dragging bits of shattered concrete from the tunnels into mounds they could use as cover. A pair of Techmarines scrambled to repair the damaged Furioso, trying to reattach its severed arm. The vehicles Mephiston had listed to Dante before were carefully driven into place, leaving several dozen meters between the gaping mouth of the breached tunnel and the Marine’s desperate defensive emplacement.<br>
The piles of Hrud corpses had partially dissolved, their putrid remains flowing back down the tunnel in rivulets. The bits of clothes and the weapons they left behind lay where they were dropped, most damaged by whatever had killed their former owners.<br>
Dante himself, accompanied by the members of the Sanguinary Guard, was overseeing the placement of the defenses. The scout contingent that accompanied the Marines were set up on the balcony of the spaceport tower, where they could cover the spread of the entire gap. The gunship was busily retrieving the few Marines who weren’t already present, ferrying them to battle as fast as it could.<br>
“Brother, how long before the creatures regain their courage?” Dante asked quietly.<br>
“Not…long, Lord Dante,” Mephiston said, glancing over at the ominous gap in the pipe. “It will be overwhelming. I can sense the entire brood down there.”<br>
“What’s infuriating is that they will approach all at once,” Dante said bitterly. “If this were a field engagement, with their forces arrayed against ours, we could probably handle 45-1 odds. But all of them at the same time, from a single exit point,” he said, his voice trailing off.

“That single exit point will be our saving grace, my Lord,” Mephiston said. “They can’t exit that tunnel more than ten abreast. We’ll hold them capably until we start running into ammunition problems.”<br>
“Assuming they don’t find another exit nearby,” Dante pointed out. “If they do, they could flank us with ease, since we’ve more or less had to focus our defense in a single spot.”<br>
“Naturally. If there’s another entrance to the sewer tunnels, though, it’s nowhere aboveground, or we’d have seen it by now,” Mephiston said. Before Dante could reply to that, a hideous keening squeal erupted from the tunnel mouth.<br>
“Defensive positions, brothers! The Hrud advance!” Dante said over his vox. The Techmarines ignored the order, fixated on reattaching the Dreadnought’s arm. The rest of the Angels scattered behind the piles of concrete and the bolter turrets, sighting the entrance of the tunnel.
For several tense seconds, nothing seemed to change at all. Then, from the tower, the distinct double *crack* of an Astartes scout rifle sounded, and a Hrud stumbled out of the tunnel with a crater in its torso.<br>
That was the signal, apparently. Another several Hrud bolted out of the tunnel, spotted the Marines, and sprinted for their position as fast as their twisted legs could take them.

Even as another four double *cracks* sounded off from the tower, and another four Hrud crumpled around their impact wounds like tissue paper round a brick, Dante pumped his clenched fist twice, and the Land Speeders opened up on the tunnel mouth, shredding the aliens which were starting to emerge. The bolts detonated amongst them, casting the survivors about. It didn’t even seem to slow the rest of the horde down, as nearly a dozen more came running from the gap after a moment’s pause.<br>
“Now!” Dante roared, gesturing at the tunnel. Right on queue, one of the Devastator units in his impromptu group of defenders squeezed his detonator. A pack of satchel charges down the tunnel from where the Hrud were pouring out detonated, breaking the tunnel roof and collapsing it on the Hrud within, crushing them in a burst of viscous gray fluid.<br>
Dante smiled behind his mask at the sight, but his satisfaction was short lived. His Devastator’s calculations must have been off, because rather than collapse the tunnel, it simply blew the roof down, allowing the Hrud to continue to pass. Sure enough, the number of aliens emerging from the tunnel mouth was undiminished.<br>
Dante stared, looking over the gap of the tunnel, trying to see what he was missing. The Hrud weren’t Orks, they had no reason to just throw themselves at their defenses like cattle. So why were they throwing dozens of their troops away?

Within seconds, he had his answer. All of his scouts ceased fire at once, and their vox channel dissolved into panicked shouts. Dante spun around, and watched in horror as a group of Hrud with wicked-looking knives set upon the scouts on their balcony…coming from inside the building!<br>
“Stormraven! Double back and cover the tower!” Dante ordered, turning his gaze back to the tunnel, where nearly a hundred Hrud were now crouched, firing from behind cover. A spattering of stub rounds glanced off his armor, and he ducked back, cursing himself for a fool. Of course the Hrud were throwing themselves at the Blood Angels: they had had the means of denying the Angels their long-range cover from the beginning. Even as the Stormraven whirled about in mid-air to hose down the Hrud now bolting for cover on the balcony over the corpses of the scouts, the tiny hangar on the side of the airstrip next to the VTOL pad erupted in gray-skinned aliens as well.<br>
Mephiston spotted the xenos emerging from the hangar and cursed. There was no way he could have failed to detect the presence of so many aliens so close…so were there tunnel entrances under the hangar and control tower? For disposing of fuel leaks, perhaps? He sighted down his plasma pistol and fired, though at that range he was too far to do more than singe their cloaks. It served its purpose, though, scattering the first line of Hrud.

The Hrud are not artisans, but they can use a stubber as well as the humans from which they steal them. The abruptly surrounded Blood Angels were standing under a veritable hailstorm of stubber rounds now, from the tower, hangar, and tunnel. The armored units were weathering it well, protected behind their plates of ceramite and plasteel, but the lighter units and helmetless Marines were faring poorly. Dante and his men rallied quickly against the sustained projectile assault, but even Space Marines can be vulnerable when outflanked, and indeed they were.
Dante and the Sanguinary Guard were quick to react to their sudden outflanking. They and the other Assault units in their contingent were quick to fan out, attacking the three sites with all the strength desperation can lend. The Tactical forces they left at the barricade they had erected, which now looked dangerously unprotected indeed. The Techmarines were both down, now, though one had managed to repair the Dreadnought before succumbing to the hail of stubber fire. A few shots from what looked like a hunting lasrifle bounced off of the Stormraven’s underside, and its Hurricane pivoted to sweep the gunner with bolts.<br>
Dante ducked the flying debris and swung the Axe Mortalis low, slicing the nearest Hrud apart at the knees. He took advantage of the moment of uninterrupted breathing room to glance over the men at his side. The three members of the Sanguinary Guard at his side were still standing, but Mephiston was down, a pockmarking of bullet damage scattered across his collar and head. He was still breathing, but clearly out of it.

The other two breach points were faring no better by now. The relentless hail of fire from the base of the tower was broadening as the gradually diminishing fire from the defenders allowed more and more gunners to flee for cover and resume their attack. The Stormraven was doing its best, but its ammunition supply was not infinite, and the Hrud were directing as much fire against it as they were the men on the ground.
Eventually, it took its toll. The Stormraven lurched to one side as an impossibly lucky bullet tore through its exposed engine, sending the aircraft into a spin. The pilot struggled with the vehicle’s controls, before a krak missile rose from the packs of Hrud at the base of the tower to slam into the lascannon slung from the vehicle’s underside. The gunship shuddered and sank, plummeting towards the ground.
To Dante’s shielded eyes, it looked like a particularly large flare had gone off. To everyone else, it looked more like a miniature sun, as the aircraft crashed down on top of the Predator, detonating both in a spectacular fireball. Dante and his team at the hanger were far enough away to escape damage, but none of the men at the barricade were: the tank had been parked at the middle of the formation. The impossibly unlucky blast blew the formation apart, with several dozen Angels torn to ribbons on the spot. The sheer size of the blast knocked the survivors off their feet.<br>
Dante gaped at the sight until a patter of stubber rounds off his helmet snapped him back to grim reality. The heart of the Blood Angels’ defense was gone, and unless he did something quickly, the rest would die too, and probably take the planet with them. “Fall back!” he ordered over the vox, managing to keep his voice free of the bitterness he was feeling.


''Continued in [[The Tales of the Emperasque: Part Twelve]].

[[Category:The Tales of the Emperasque]]