novelraw Chapter 220: Miasma
Chapter 220: Miasma
Between the hab-blocks and the temple lay a forest of rock—a dense concentration of pale grey stone pillars of varying sizes, with only a scant few narrow paths winding through them.
Even though Soshyan was exercising the utmost caution, an accident still occurred while traversing the stone forest.
The man leading the way suddenly vanished as he guided the squad around a three-meter-tall pillar—without any warning whatsoever.
Soshyan hadn't sensed a thing.
There was no cry of alarm, no sound of rushing footsteps, and certainly no trace of psyker activity.
The man had simply vanished into thin air, entirely soundlessly, less than three meters ahead of them.
"Is this a trap?"
Armin shielded the boy behind him, his eyes scanning their surroundings with intense vigilance. The boy had awakened ten minutes prior, but had yet to utter a single word.
"Maintain high vigilance and keep moving."
Despite losing their guide, Soshyan glanced toward the temple in the near distance, calculating they were no more than five hundred meters away from it.It was glaringly obvious that remaining stationary here was far more dangerous than pressing on.
The squad subsequently resumed their advance toward the temple.
However, after marching for five minutes, Soshyan realized they hadn't closed the distance to the temple at all. There was something deeply unnatural about the layout of this stone forest.
"Sol, what's your assessment?"
At this critical juncture, he once again deferred to the veteran's wealth of experience.
Sol swept a glance over their surroundings. He then unclipped several frag grenades from his belt and said with a smile:
"I once heard the World Eaters say something interesting: 'There is no maze you cannot escape, because the maze itself is merely a cognitive trap. Therefore, you must discard all unnecessary thoughts and concepts.'"
With that, he violently hurled a grenade straight ahead.
BOOM————!
The high-explosive, armor-piercing frag grenade detonated with a deafening roar, followed instantly by a torrential rain of shattered stone raining down from above.
"Move."
The squad stepped into the billowing cordite smoke, finding that a massive breach had been blasted through the dense stone pillars, bringing them perceptibly closer to their objective.
Then came another grenade, but this explosion was significantly larger than the first, kicking up a blinding cloud of smoke and pulverized rock that instantly engulfed the squad.
Soshyan took a step backward. Stripped of visual contact with his battle-brothers, he could only track them via his remaining senses.
Suddenly, he sensed what felt like an extra presence within their formation—
Or rather, a shadow.
Shadowing him closely, directly behind him...
"Who's there!"
Soshyan reacted instantaneously, diving to his left in an evasive roll, sensing the attack a split-second before the hiss of displaced air reached his ears.
It was a silent, lethal strike, truly praiseworthy in its execution.
Soshyan completed an ungraceful roll across the ground, instantly bringing his sword up in a guard to deflect the follow-up attack.
A resounding clang rang out as metal violently clashed against metal.
Yet inexplicably, Soshyan abruptly realized he could no longer sense the presence of the other Space Marines.
It was as if he had been entirely cut off, or perhaps dragged into an isolated pocket of reality where nothing existed but the lingering smoke, himself, and an unknown aggressor.
At that moment, the screech of parting air heralded another strike.
Soshyan twisted his body, intending to seize the initiative and launch a counter-offensive, but the maneuver briefly exposed his left flank.
Given only a momentary opening, a set of barbed, metallic claws darted forward with serpentine speed, punching precisely into the narrow gap between Soshyan's left pauldron and the armored gorget shielding his neck.
A sharp lance of pain shot through his neck. Feeling an unprecedented wave of mortal peril wash over him, Soshyan swallowed the roar rising in his throat and violently shot his left hand out, intending to crush his attacker's wrist.
But he grasped empty air. Before he had even fully extended his arm, the attacker had already disengaged, ripping the claws free and tearing loose a spray of blood droplets in the process.
"Who are you?"
Soshyan could sense the entity was hovering barely a meter away, yet he couldn't see a single thing.
Then, another shrieking gale rushed toward him, fast as lightning.
Soshyan was forced to throw himself backward, sensing the razor-sharp claws thrusting directly for his face—aiming specifically for his eyes. It was an attack designed to blind, rather than kill.
He swayed to narrowly avoid the strike, then swept his sword forward in a heavy cleave, only to hit nothing but air.
Just then, a freezing touch ghosted against the back of his neck.
A mere twitch, and his head would likely part from his shoulders.
"Hold fast!"
Suddenly, Sol's sharp bark shattered the tension, immediately followed by the thunderous roar of a bolt pistol. A rapid burst of explosive rounds shrieked past, whistling mere inches behind Soshyan.
Accompanied by a violent gust of wind, the freezing touch vanished from the back of Soshyan's neck. He heard the distinct crack-thump of bolt rounds detonating in mid-air right after striking something, and then the mysterious entity vanished back into the gloom.
"Where did he go?"
Pistol in one hand and sword in the other, Soshyan slowly pivoted on his heel, straining his ears for even the faintest whisper of movement, while his eyes and other augmented senses scoured the area for any sign of an impending assault.
But everything was gone. The smoke gradually began to thin, and soon after, Sol strode out of the haze toward him, bolt pistol still drawn. The other brothers materialized nearby shortly after.
"Chapter Master, what happened? Why did you suddenly break formation?"
Hearing Armin's question, Soshyan looked sharply at Sol.
"You suddenly broke away from the squad just a moment ago. We've been searching for you, but we couldn't find any trace of you until I heard the sounds of you engaging."
"Is that so?"
Soshyan fell deep into thought, his gaze turning back toward the dissipating smoke.
"This smoke... there's something anomalous about it."
"It's not smoke."
Suddenly, a timid, childish voice drew the Space Marines' attention. Looking down, they saw little Nick, cowering slightly.
"What is it, Nick?"
"Uhm... my grandma told me stories about ghost-bugs that live underground. They're super, super tiny, but when they swarm together, they look just like a huge cloud of smoke. They make it so you can't see or hear anything, so even if you're standing right next to someone, you can't feel them at all. Miners that get trapped by ghost-bugs get stuck in the tunnels until they die... and then the ghost-bugs eat their bodies..."
"So that's it..."
Sol nodded in understanding.
"Microscopic organisms capable of secreting a pheromone that induces extreme sensory dislocation."
"The paramount question is: will we encounter more of them further ahead?"
Soshyan cut straight to the core issue.
Sol tilted his head in thought for several seconds before looking toward the crater left by his second grenade.
"If this species feeds on corpses, then that implies..."
He led the squad forward a few dozen meters, and sure enough, they discovered a grisly cluster of flayed corpses plastered against the stone pillars. The vast majority were purestrain Genestealers.
"Do not disturb the bodies."
Noticing the thick layer of white "fuzz" blanketing the corpses, Sol immediately warned the other warriors.
It was glaringly obvious that the explosions had disturbed these microscopic insects, creating the opening the unknown assailant had exploited.
Now armed with this knowledge, the squad maneuvered with extreme caution. Before using grenades to clear a path, they meticulously inspected the area for any sign of corpses.
After an agonizing half hour of this tedious inching forward, they finally arrived at the temple.
While it was referred to as a temple, structurally it more closely resembled a crude edifice constructed from simple, stacked blocks of hewn rock. It entirely lacked the intricate ornamentation typical of Imperial religious architecture; there were no engraved scriptures, no memorial steles, not even a basic shrine or altar to be seen. The only feature of note was a single, straight flight of stairs leading directly to a pair of open doors at the structure's heart.
Vigilant against the suffocating darkness surrounding them, the squad began to ascend the steps, one by one.