Seraphs of the Emperor’s Judgment

Chapter 13: Terminators

The trembling of the World Engine was intensifying. Soshyan had no way of knowing what this signified, but he had a very bad feeling.

And the terrible thing was, his feelings rarely deviated too far from reality.

Along the way, Soshyan noticed bloodstains on the ground. It was clear that a battle had occurred in this passage not long ago, but it was extremely strange that there were absolutely no corpses or wreckage on the ground, whether of Xenos or Battle Brothers.

After leaving the passage, Soshyan led the squad following the trail of blood droplets toward the left, passing through several towering archways, and taking a spiral staircase toward the upper levels.

At this moment, a faint groan was sharply caught by Soshyan. He could discern that this was a human voice, and it was filled with agony.

Driven by some terrible premonition, Soshyan suddenly accelerated into a sprint.

"Contact!"

As he sprinted through another corridor, this hurried rush brought him to a terrace. Below was an expansive space where several passages intersected. Explosions, rising one after another, were destroying those orderly spaces.

At the far end of the terrace was an archway. A crimson figure lay sprawled on the ground, and beside him was a mechanical Necron with clawed hands, currently flaying his skin.

The fury in his heart ignited instantly. Soshyan charged straight up to attack, wanting to land the first blow before the target even realized the danger.But some sort of sixth sense warned that depraved Xenos. It executed a sharp turn, its bloodstained, giant razor-sharp claws locking perfectly against Soshyan's weapon, striking out a shower of sparks and a screech of grinding metal.

This parry forced Soshyan back a step, but he lunged forward again, swinging his whirling, howling Chainsword toward the opponent's abdomen.

This ferocious and swift attack pierced straight through the other party's torso. It was only when he raised his weapon again to launch another strike that he clearly saw his opponent's face.

That was a bloody human face.

"Scum!"

The enraged Soshyan directly twisted off the opponent's head, and then stomped it into an unrecognizable mush. The other four squad members swiftly surrounded them, attempting to save their Battle Brother on the ground.

But when Axel gently shook his head, it announced that the other party's string of life had already snapped. Soshyan discerned from the other party's shattered pauldron that this was a veteran of the Second Company.

This also indicated that they were getting closer and closer to the Chapter Master.

But just as they spent a moment of silence for their Battle Brother who died in combat, a massive number of enemies appeared at the archway. Soshyan surveyed their surroundings and discovered that only the path ahead was viable.

Then, only one tactical option remained.

"Fire!"

With a furious roar, the nearest Necron fell, blasting into pieces under the effect of the hail-like bolts.

The four warriors spread out into a line on either side of Soshyan, ensuring maximum width of firepower. Although they were few in number, because the passage was not very wide, the enemies they needed to face were not very many.

However, ammunition quickly became their new problem.

Without realizing it, they had already been fighting continuously for several hours. The ammunition they had prepared beforehand was already exhausted. Soon, they would only be able to use melee weapons.

"Conserve ammunition and push forward!"

In order to cope with the impending battles, Soshyan intended to utilize assault tactics. His voice subsequently rang out over the squad channel.

According to his observations, the leader of the vanguard Necrons was nearby. Identifying it by its size, it was roughly a hundred meters ahead—a mechanical leader with a humanoid upper body and an arachnid lower body.

As Soshyan was reloading his ammunition, he was interrupted by an icy low hum. That Xenos leader was taking the lead in charging toward the Space Marines.

Although these Necrodermis Warriors were supposedly all soulless, blasphemous constructs, Soshyan seemed able to sense something akin to emotion from that Xenos leader. It was as if these high-ranking mechanical Necrons were still able to maintain a sliver of their biological attributes.

At the very least, there was one thing it couldn't tolerate—a challenge to its authority.

"Hold the line."

Soshyan's voice rang out across the channel. Subsequently, the space between him and the Necron leader was once again filled with bullets.

In an instant, the air was filled with dry, dusty, hissing metal. Three warriors in the squad sustained minor injuries in the crossfire. Under completely exposed conditions, it was impossible for them to maintain their small battle line for more than a few minutes.

Soshyan judged that they had to move at the opportune moment.

In the process, that Xenos leader braved the rain of bullets to arrive in front of Soshyan, brandishing a massive metallic scythe to issue a challenge, sweeping straight toward his throat.

"Fall back."

Soshyan calmly made a judgment, vacating space for the enemy leader.

He fired continuously, blasting the Necron soldiers following the leader into garbage, shifting from one target to the next with ease and experience.

The remaining warriors held the line, pouring ammunition toward a massive horde of irrepressible mechanical frenzies that continuously increased in number.

Only Soshyan fell back.

And only the Xenos leader followed him into the squad's encirclement.

"Focus fire!"

The Xenos leader's attention was entirely focused on him. Its massive scythe carved trenches into the black ground, exuding a posture that it would absolutely not rest until he was beheaded.

Meanwhile, the other four simultaneously aimed their guns at it and began firing frantically.

The plan was very good, but Soshyan had overlooked the opponent's resolve and tenacity, and had also overestimated their own firepower.

Axel's gun was the first to fall silent. Accompanied by a series of ominous clicking sounds, his annoyed voice rang out across the channel.

"Ammunition depleted!"

At this moment, Soshyan completely lacked the time to deal with this problem, because under the opponent's fierce pursuit, he had fallen back almost all the way to the edge of the terrace, with nowhere left to go.

Then a thunderbolt struck down, saving his life.

It came from the collision of intense discharging electrical energy, which then struck the terrace, causing the ground to tremble violently.

Thanks to Soshyan's auto-stabilizers, he remained standing upright.

Some gargantuan entity landed, throwing up a cloud of ash and dry dust. The Xenos leader vanished into the dust, reduced to scattered metallic fragments under the assault of the Imperial weapon.

When the dust finally settled, Terminator Squad Sergeant Forlo towered before Soshyan. A Thunderhawk screamed through the sky above, strafing the Necrons below.

Forlo had leapt directly down from the Thunderhawk.

As he lowered his head and began inspecting Soshyan, the Servo-motors of his Terminator Armor emitted whirring and grinding sounds. Tactical Dreadnought Armor was also referred to as Terminator Armor—this was the Imperium's most precious individual combat armor, capable of turning a Space Marine into an invincible, city-breaching behemoth on the battlefield.

Terminator Armor was once bulk-manufactured during the Great Crusade Era, but due to the loss of knowledge following the Horus Heresy, only a very small handful of Forge Worlds were capable of manufacturing this formidable armor.

For the vast majority of Chapters, every single suit of Terminator Armor was an incomparably precious asset. Typically, only the veterans with the longest service times were qualified to pilot Terminator Armor, and they only obeyed the direct orders of the Chapter Master.

Forlo raised a giant metallic foot and stepped on the deformed skull of the Xenos leader, sending up a shower of sparks. His twin fists were wreathed in electrical currents. That terrifying strike just now came precisely from this pair of fists.

"Brothers."

Although Forlo spoke over the comms channel, he still looked at Soshyan.

"Now it is your turn. In the name of the Emperor, attack."

Immediately following a scream, an assault squad appeared from a nearby high point. Their jump packs spewed flickering flames as their Bolt Pistols fired frantically downward, tearing those sluggish mechanical Necrons to shreds.

Meanwhile, that Thunderhawk—Soshyan was very glad it was able to escape the destruction of the Storm—also swiftly circled back, spraying deadly metal toward the Necron ranks.

Soshyan gave Forlo a glance, then reloaded his ammunition and returned to his squad's formation.

The situation had changed.

The Terminators' precise strike shattered the Necrons' chain of command. Suddenly, those Necron soldiers fell into a dilemma. They paced back and forth, torn between the desire to continue attacking their previous enemies or turning around to face the new threat.

Forlo clearly had no intention of giving them time to make a decision.

He raised his right fist, and even though his voice was muffled, it easily drowned out the sounds of slaughter.

The roar of Chainswords heralded that Soshyan's squad was already prepared to join the battle.

"Space Marines, attack!"

(End of Chapter)