This story is an unofficial story based, without permission, on the Warhammer/Warhammer 40,000 intellectual property owned by Games Workshop Ltd.
General Wylk turned to his staff. They were clustered in the far corner of the command section, huddled away from his anger. He would not get angry. He couldn't afford to get angry. But damn it, Grath was dead. He had been one of the General's best Operatives.
Not any more.
Of course, there were other units in the field, even within one or two sectors of the traitor, but none of those were as good as Grath. None of them had been with him for nigh on ten years.
He stared blankly at the cowering aides cringing away from his burning eyes. "You all saw that." They all nodded frantically. "Then why aren't you doing something about it?" he exploded. "I shouldn't need to order you to do every little thing! Get the damn PDF down here! I want men, tanks, aircraft, the lot! I mean to wipe that heretic from the face of this planet!"
He glared at the immobile officers and aides. "Well? Get moving!"
He used his anger to quash his grief. He turned back to the comm station and pounded his fist into the steel that held it against the wall. He would see that traitor dead. For the total chaos he had brought to the streets of Pavonis VI, but also for another.
He would do it for Grath.
Lucius looked round as he entered the rundown building. It looked to have been a church once, before the riots. Strange to think they had been only a month before. Some were still ongoing, but for the most part, their ferocity had forced them to burn out quickly. After all, what do you destroy when the whole town is gone?
The floor was covered in broken slabs of granite, slabs that had once been the floor. Now, however, they simply lay atop a sheet of steel reinforcement that had been laid long ago to stop the building collapsing or sliding. The corners and sides of the building were littered with broken shards of stained glass, the windows having been smashed in by the rioters. Dust lay thick on everything, a rough coating that turned everything the smoky grey of smog, blending with the granite stonework of the walls and what remained of the floor.
Lucius raised his head from his study, glancing up at Rahvin. The magus had walked straight through the mess and right up to the back wall, where he stood before the altar. Slowly, he drew his ravening sword, the myriad hungering mouths that covered its edge gnashing at the cloying, dead air. Lucius grimaced as his master began to speak in hushed tones, guttural syllables falling from his daemonic visage.
A white shape flashed across the window in front of Lucius. Turning to the others, he whispered "The PDF are here." He took cover below the sill of the arched window. "Khul, cover the door, but don't let them see you until I say. Boss, how long you gonna be?" He flipped the selector on his lasgun, setting it to single fire.
Rahvin did not turn, or even answer. He simply waved his arm back at Lucius, all the while chanting in that grating tongue. Lucius shrugged to himself and turned back to Khul. The mutant was huddled in the shadow of one of the thick supporting columns, readying his cannon. Lucius nodded and risked a glance over the windowsill. He glimpsed another white shape, this one scurrying into the cover afforded by a blasted hab. He surveyed the scene, taking stock of the situation.
There were at least fifty of them, just from half-seen flashes of white armour among the ruins. More were probably already hidden, waiting to strike.
Rahvin better have a way out, or they were screwed.
Lucius thought frantically, trying to figure an approach to the situation that wouldn't result in getting killed. He glanced around the church, looking for another exit. Nothing. Not even a basement. He turned back to the window, crouched out of sight of the soldiers moving up outside.
He winced as the rumble of an armoured vehicle echoed across the area, accompanied by the crunch of breaking rubble and crushed stonework. How was he going to get out of this? He had a couple of krak grenades, but nothing that could really hurt vehicles. Khul's cannon could do some damage, but if it wasn't from behind they would still die, and how could Khul get behind when they were surrounded?
He risked another glance out of the window, and saw the PDF spreading out to search the rest of the buildings, slowly but surely moving nearer and nearer to the church.
If he could have brought more men, they could have surrounded the PDF. He had some men with rocket launchers that could take out the vehicle, and the troopers would have fallen to the muties and his men. Damn Rahvin and his stealth. They were dead anyway.
He turned to Khul. "You still got that comm set?"
Hive World Terra