章 1: Tekov the Captain
Tekov and his squadron ran through the dark hallway of the underground bunker-like structure. They were to investigate an anomaly that was captured from time to time on their scanners from orbit.
So far It had been over an hour since they made their way inside with no resistance to speak of. Tekov couldn't understand how anything significant could be found in this desolate place.
As they made their way through the hallway the atmosphere around them felt heavier with every step they took. Soon enough they came across another intersection, luckily this one only had one option and that was to continue moving forward. The other passageways were buried under the rubble of the collapsing building. In order to ensure they wouldn't be attacked from behind, Tekov had left a team to guard their flank on the last intersection.
Tekov disliked splitting his unit into two. It was bad enough that they were on an unknown world in the middle of Wild Space, but the bombardment of the planet had begun and they needed to quicken their pace. They couldn't afford to be looking over their shoulder the entire time.
Tekov didn't know why the Inquisition wanted to destroy the ruins they had discovered, but he didn't question it. The Inquisition had its charge just as he did.
Tarkov didn't blame them for their actions either. If there truly was something that could endanger Humanity on this world then orbital bombardment would be the quickest and most efficient solution.
Tekov briefly thought of his battle-brothers left on the last intersection and continued his march forward. His battle brothers followed him with large strides. They were lucky, few non-imperial structures were large enough to accommodate a fully armored terminator. This structure could allow for two to run side by side.
Tekov led his chapter's terminator squad of six. He had earned this honor through his service and faith. Tekov was not a proud man. In fact, he was humbled every day by his chapter chaplains sermons and his chapter masters lessons.
When Tekov was granted the honor of the title Champion he had grown arrogant for a time. Until he fought against the Tyranids of the hive fleet Moloch. The Tyranids had quickly brought his arrogance to humbled closure. He would never forget how they devoured everything in their path. His Chapter had battled the splinter fleet for over eighty years across three worlds. And each world was left more devastated than the last. To bring the battle to a close their Chapter Master had them join forces with an Inquisitor of the Ordo Nihil and his fleet.
The Inquisitor was named Bahel, a strange man by all accounts. He was covered from head to toe in power armor and never allowed anyone to see his face. His crew was human… mostly. His fleet consisted of four Dictator Class Cruisers and five Firestorm Class Frigates. But nothing else was known about him. The Chapter Master had even checked within the Imperial archives to ensure he was who he so claimed to be.
At first, Tekov and his battle-brothers avoided the Inquisitor finding him and his retinue rather suspicious. They had met Inquisitors before, but never one like Bahel. Although that quickly changed when he turned the splinter fleet of Hive fleet Moloch into cinders along with a world inhabited by a nonspace faring race. But Tekov and his chapter understood that sacrifices must be made for the greater good. If the splinter fleet was allowed to grow, one could only imagine the consequences.
Tekov and his battle-brothers continued forward. They began counting the minutes between tremors caused by the orbital bombardment. The structure would occasionally shake dropping dust and small debris unto their power armor.
It had been exactly twelve minutes thirty-two seconds since Tekov and his squad had left the last intersection before encountering a large round door at the end of the hallway. Since then they had felt four tremors, the last of which they felt so strongly they had considered halting their march to ensure the structure wasn't collapsing above them.
The door was massive, to say the least. At least eighteen feet tall was Tekov's guess. What was stranger was how the hallway grew in size so quickly to accommodate the large round door.
"Behind us."
Tekov quickly spun around with the rest of his brothers and began to fire without hesitation. Their weapons released a flurry of ammunition in the hallway behind them and only stopping when Tekov gave the order.
"Cease Fire."
Tekov scanned the area around him through his visor. It had been Darius who had called out the enemy.
Darius was the squads, heavy hitter. He sported an assault cannon on his left, a power fist on his right, and he wore Indomitus pattern power armor. Tekov knew Darius wouldn't make a call like that lightly so he didn't question his brother. The silence was eerie, it was almost defining.
"Captain, the tremors. They've stopped. The next one should have come 13 seconds ago."
The one that had spoken was Tacis, the squads Seargent. He was outfitted with a power sword and storm bolter. A standard setup for a terminator squads Seargent.
He was known for painting lines on his Indomitus patterned power armor for each kill he deemed special enough to remember. Currently, he had four.
"Defensive positions around the entrance. Tecis and Auriel get that door open. The rest of us will cover you." Tekov felt off, his gut was telling him that something wasn't right.
A giant door inside an underground xenos bunker on a strange planet. And an Inquisitor who desperately needed to investigate and destroy it so badly he had conscripted the whole chapter to go with him. Tekov didn't like the silence, and he disliked the situation they had found themselves in even less.
"Captain, do you hear that on the vox?" Kerack and Auriel had been with Tekov for over two centuries now. They had been in the same scout company after their initiation into the chapter and since then had never been apart.
"It sounds like running?" Pursus chimed in.
It was rare for Pursus to speak of anything other than the Holy Emperor of Mankind. Pursus only liked three things in life. The Emperor, the chapter, and his chain fist. All other things outside of those three were as he put them "Inconsequential obstructions of my faith and duty". He held a storm bolter on his free hand and kept his Indomitus power armor as clean as the day he first wore it. Only the chapter's colors of blue and black paint on it.
Tekov silenced his thoughts to listen to his vox. Pursus was right; it sounded like the slamming of power armor boots on the steel like floors of the bunker.
There was only one other group that had power armor and the same vox frequency as Tekov and his squad. It was the other half of his unit. Five firstborn had been left behind to guard their rear. They were all tactical marines that were part of the chapter's first company.
Tekov didn't believe that they would leave their posts, not for a second. Each one of them was loyal beyond remission. Trained to the best of the abilities of the chapter they had been gifted not only a sacred duty but the means to accomplish it.
"Seargent Arxim, report." Tekovs voice sounded through the vox and not a beat later Seargent Arxim's voice replied.
"Nothing to report Captain. No movement of any kind, but I have noticed that the orbital bombardment has stopped." Seargent Arxim was a bit surprised Captain Tekov would ask for a status report.
"Are all our brothers with you?" Tekov queried.
"Yes Captain, all accounted for." Arxim was become more bewildered by the second but he would never hesitate to answer a question posed by the Captain.
After Arxim's reply Tekov and his squad of terminators noticed that the footsteps weren't just getting louder, they were getting closer too. The men could still hear them coming from their vox. But what was worse was they could also hear it coming from the hallway.
"Arxim get your squad off this planet. Warn the Chapter Master that something is down here." Tekov wouldn't order his men to die pointlessly. Their orders were to find any xenos relics within this structure and extract them. If they couldn't find any they were to evacuate the planet as quickly as possible.
Tekov could hear Arxim giving orders to his squad to begin a hasty retreat out of the bunker. He also heard Arxim trying to call for a Thunderhawk to pick them up at the rally point.
"Captain, are you sure there's nothing we can do?" Arxim knew he shouldn't question his Captain's orders. But it left a bad taste in his mouth to leave his brothers behind.
"Unfortunately, Arxim, I don't believe so." Tekov wasn't a martyr. He didn't want to die. He would feel worse taking all his brothers with him, he needed Arxim to get out safely and warn his Chapter Master.
It was simple and Arxim had noticed it too. No, they had all noticed it. They couldn't reach the outside through their vox communicators anymore.
The footsteps had multiplied. Tekov guessed there were four sets now, maybe more.
"Captain, the door is powered by something below us. The cabling has been damaged but I believe I can cut through the door given enough time." Auriel gave his report to Tekov through a private channel. Only the six men here had that frequency and they all had it open.
"Good, close communication to any other channel or frequency. From now on we are on our own." Tekov had set his vox to only be able to listen and not transmit. He had done this for the same reason Auriel had. If they could hear the footsteps, then the footsteps could hear them.
The sound of the promethium torch could now be heard from behind. The footsteps were getting louder in front and there was nowhere else to go. Strangely enough, Tekov liked being cornered. It made things simple, usually whatever was behind him was what he needed to protect. Whatever was in front was what he needed to kill.
Darius was the first to start firing. His assault cannon let out a defining sound. The others were still holding onto their storm bolters. Unlike Darius, they needed to see their enemy to fire. The assault cannon didn't need that luxury.
Tekov heard whatever was on the other side of the dark tunnel roar what sounded like a warcry to him and then a loud thud. Like something heavier than a space marine falling on the ground face first.
But Darius didn't stop, and Tekov didn't order him to either. There were still at least three more.
A few seconds later, four xenos charged at Tekov and his men from the darkness. As soon as they saw them the others began to fire. Aiming for their heads, hoping to get a quick kill.
The xenos continued their charge grunting and screaming every step of the way in a language Tekov and his men didn't know.
They wore red and gold armor that covered their entire bodies in a smooth fashion that almost looked like they had no joints. They had two legs, two arms, and heads just like humans although massive in size. They were at least eight feet tall and as wide as a terminator. It explained why this structure was so accommodating.
Their armor had several decorations painted on that Tekov couldn't understand. They appeared to be claw marks, yet also looked like words. Other than that, there was a straight line of a glass-like material where Tekov assumed the eyes should be and nothing else.
Incidentally, Tekov also saw the reason they were charging at them. It was that they had massive metallic claws on their hands. Tekov didn't know how strong they were and he didn't want to find out either.
The first company terminator squad was built by elites. The best men the chapter had to offer baptized in a chorus of battles and unrecognized conflicts across Wild Space. The terminators and first company of the Crystal Eyes Chapter were not as long-lived as their brother chapters. Which only enforced to prove their skill. To survive over two hundred years as a member of the first company in the Crystal Eyes Chapter was glory in itself.
The six terminator battle-brothers didn't miss. It would be rare for them to miss a moving target; it was near impossible to miss a giant one charging right at them.
Even Darius firing wildly with his assault cannon barely missed a shot when firing into the dark before he could even clearly see the targets. Now that he had a clear shot it was as easy as it could get for him.
Yet to Tarkov's surprise, before the xenos could get to them only two had been taken down. This was without counting the one Darius slew miraculously before, making the total three.
Before the two xenos could land a hit, the team had used the wide-area formed for the door to sidestep out of the path of the raging xenos charge.
Pursus didn't miss a beat, as soon as the hulking xenos charge past him he extended his chain fist attempting to strike the Xeno's leg and incapacitate him. If the armor could survive such a beating from their storm bolters then there was no point in a direct assault.
Pursus was denied his assault when the xenos made a near-impossible side step of its own and attempted to cleave pursus in two using its claw.
How the xenos had stopped its charge and turned so quickly to attack was not something Pursus had the luxury of analyzing at the moment. Instead, he did the only thing he could do. Pursus activated the small rockets he had attached to his heels and body-slammed the xenos, hoping to pin him onto the ground.
On the other side, Kerack was not faring much better. The xenos had decided that charging at Darius and his assault cannon wasn't the most prudent decision. Instead, it did a barrel roll before crossing the arch from the hallway into the zone the terminators were using as their defense point. As soon as the xenos had crossed the arch, it stood up and charged at Kerack.
Kerack had fought the Tyranids and survived, a race of xenos that devoured worlds and learned from every battle as a hive mind. He wouldn't panic at such an obvious faint.
The first thing he and his battle-brothers had noticed about their enemy wasn't how sturdy their armor was. They had seen and killed opponents that could survive falling from near orbit and stand up as if nothing had happened. What they had noticed was how dextrous the xenos were. As terminators, they weren't known for their agility or nimbleness. Rather, they were known for being unstoppable war machines. They would walk in a straight line and everything before them would be culled by the emperor's fury that was their weapons.
The xenos seemed to have the same idea. Hoping that the heavy armor the terminators wore would be a weakness rather than a strength in close combat. They also noticed that the terminators used ranged weapons. They saw the chain fist on Pursus but believed it to be the last resort for the terminator rather than his main weapon.
They also noticed the large fists and swords on the others but believed too strongly in their own maneuverability and heavy armor to care for the slow looking enemy.
Kerack was ready for the xenos charge. He slumped his back and dug in his feel acting like he was willing to take the charge head-on. He also pointed his storm bolter at the enemy and continued to fire what little he could at such close range ensuring he didn't hit his battle brother on the other side.
The xenos yelled something that sounded like an insult and swung his large clawed hand at Kerack's head. Just before the xenos had a chance to hit its target, Kerack lunged his power fist at the xenos head that rose about a foot above his own. He simultaneously used his pauldron to protect his head. His Indomitus terminator armor gave him confidence in being able to defend against the xenos strike if necessary.
The result was as Kerack expected. The power fist slammed into the xenos head which made an audible cracking sound. Kerack couldn't tell where the enemy's chin was if it even had one under that strange helmet. What he did know was that no matter what entity, if you crushed the brain it would die. If it didn't die, then all you had to do was pulverize its head until it did.
The xenos felt a force strike his head so strongly that at first, he lost his hearing, then time slowed down to a crawl. The xenos saw how his claw had made contact on the enemy's shoulder, but before it could do any real damage his vision was gone. His brain had rattled so strongly in its own skull that it threatened to come out.
Kerack knew that the xenos wasn't dead, but he didn't need to continue his assault either. Darius was waiting for his queue the whole time. As soon as Kerack had cleared the area away from the xenos Darius had once again begun to fire. This time the xenos didn't shrug off the bullets like they were nothing. Instead, its already damaged helmet shattered to pieces under the rain of bullets revealing what was underneath.
Tekov couldn't take a look at the creature since he was charging at the last xenos pinned under Pursus.
Pursus had managed to bring it down and was in the process of using his chain fist to rip open the enemy's armor. He was using his free hand to pin down the xenos's left arm while dodging the right as best he could.
Pursus had suffered minor scratches to his terminator armor. He had quickly learned how deadly the xenos's claws were. Before the struggle could continue Tekov appeared above the xenos's head and swung his power sword straight down unto it. It wasn't as easy as a hot knife through butter, but the power sword did its job and did it well. The blade had gone straight through the helmet and out the other end.
"Thank you, Captain." Pursus was confident in being able to end the xenos's life on his own, but his pride wouldn't blind him so much that he wouldn't accept any help.
"Captain, we've cut through the door. You'll want to see this." Tacis sounded worried, and Tekov believed he understood why.
Even though they had killed off the "footsteps" and their vox was clear, he still had a bad feeling. Where there was one there were two, and where there was five there could be twenty.
Tekov made his way to the large hole carved by Auriel.
"Auriel, why are you just standing there?" However, before Auriel could answer Tekov had gotten his answer.
"Emperor, what is that?"
Tekov could hear Arxim on the vox.
"Captain….Get…. now! They're everywhere." The vox was cutting in and out. Tekov and his men didn't wait and began to run towards the exit and their rally point.
"We can't hold them…..we're taking off. Captain don't....structure it's…"
"Arxim, repeat what you said. Arxim?" They had lost communication again.
"Captain what did you see?" Curiosity wasn't a trait commonly found in space marines. Although at this time it was understandable from Tekovs point of view.
Tekov didn't answer the question and instead gave them their new orders as they ran.
"We need to inform the Inquisitor."
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