Chapter 126: (Telkan) (2/2)
THERE IS NO LIFE
IN THE VOID
OF STARS
ONLY DEATH
The thinking array flinched from that burning eye, every thinking array on the planet flinched away from that terrible voice that rang inside their own thoughts, tearing at them with licking devouring flames of the ruined hyperatomic flame.
WE WHO DEFY THE DWELLERSPAWN
SAY UNTO THEE
NAY
There was a flash, eye watering and twisting, flash after flash after flash, behind the human lines. Tens of thousands of the feral life appeared, raising up weapons, and screaming in one voice.
FOR LOST TERRASOL
FOR THE IMPERIUM OF RAGE
FOR WRATH, FOR HATE, FOR HONOR AND GLORY!
Tanks and artillery pieces rolled out of nothingness, from razor thin portals that beyond showed plains of madness, churned bloody mud, molten iron raining down, taking up places within the feral lines as if they had been there the whole time.
CPL Palzen, Second Telkan Scouts, stared as tens of thousands of Terrans flooded out of the gates, all in green plasteel armor and carrying weapons, charged out, their voices upraised as one, firing as they charged.
The insects and creatures flinched back from the sudden onslaught as the lasers shot out in a web that was almost solid. Missiles and grenades exploded bioweapon flesh and chitin, tanks began firing as they rumbled out of the gates, artillery pieces rolled out and slammed down their outriggers, firing explosive bolts to spike them deep into the bedrock for stability.
”Glory to the first man who dies!” roared one of the Terrans.
Palzen stopped staring, going back to firing the heavy mag-ac rotary autocannon, strafing the lines of insects, as the human reinforcements redeployed. The autocannon was stuttering, three of the barrels damaged, the motor whining as it shed teeth into the belt and chain.
”I will heal the machine's war spirit's pain,” a robed human surrounded by floating warsteel skulls said, stepping up next to Palzen. Before Palzen could saw anything black mist poured from the warsteel skulls, enveloping the weapon, even as Palzen kept firing. The robed figure chanted, lifted a hand and blue lightning crackled over the weapon, the mist tattering and vanishing.
The figure stepped back, leaning on the staff.
The autocannon roared, the cyclic rate back up, the ammunition gleaming as it fed into the gun, the two damaged barrels fixed, the teeth, chain, and belt all repaired.
Palzen didn't bother to say anything, just nodded as he directed the fire into the fact of a crab the size of a large hovertruck.
The robed figure shuffled away, heat rippling showing above three of the black skulls that hovered around him.
Brentili'ik stared at Colonel Harvey, pointing at the Telkan Marine who was firing the heavy cannon.
”Magic? Terrans do magic now?” She almost screeched.
”It's not really magic, it's technology. Old, forbidden, dangerous technologies,” Harvey said, wiping his forehead. ”It was all proscribed after the end of the Mantid War. It requires psykers to use it and there hasn't been a psyker born of humanity in almost eight thousand years.”
Brentili'ik stared at the holotank, at what was being displayed, and felt a cold shudder come over her.
We had only seen their martial might. Now we see their wrath, she thought to herself.
Vuxten had a ringside seat to the entire thing, but was more concentrating on what was happening in his tiny bubble. The gun he was on was beeping, the tips of the barrels smoking white, the nano-forge connected to the ammo hopper pouring out what looked like thick white mist.
He couldn't let up. The massive kaiju has burst through the ranks of the still arriving power armor soldiers and was charging the wall. Vuxten kept up the fire, pouring that last of the rotary autocannon's strength into the creature's face.
It slammed into the warsteel wall hard enough to make it shudder.
Vuxten fell from the wall, trying to hold onto the mounted gun.
The firing handles snapped free and he found himself falling.
Vuxten kicked in the grav-spike, punching it against the wall, twisting himself, kicking off from the wall to somersault in mid-air as 471 held on for dear life. Vuxten managed to right himself, coming down, and Vuxten spun up the graviton generators in his boots, slamming down on the thick rigid hide of the kaiju that was moving back to get ready for another charge at the deeply dented wall.
471 understood what Vuxten was doing and drove the graviton spike deep into the creature's flesh as Vuxten's mass and weight spiked artificially thanks to the graviton generators.
Vuxten hit the kaiju as if was a two thousand ton anvil dropped in 5 G's, the massive graviton spike spearing deep into the kaiju's body.
471 dumped the inertia into the spike right as he cut it off.
The kaiju screamed as its back erupted in a shower of gore as the gravity spike ripped and squeezed its internals that exploded.
Vuxten knew it wasn't down and brought around his magack rifle, firing it into the tattered and torn flesh at his feet, emptying three quarters of the solid block of ammunition in one long trigger pull as the creature screamed and bucked, it's mile long body undulating with pain, 471 keeping him anchored to the creature through his graviton enhanced boots. 471 slapped a template into the creation engine and wet-printed a heavy rocket even as it reached out and banged a wrench against the damaged rocket-launcher tube to get the teeth of the aiming gearing to mesh again.
The creature screamed, turned to snap at Vuxten with massive jaws that would be able to snap up and devour a small building.
Vuxten fired off his rocket into the creature's maw.
The creature's head exploded as the graviton rocket went off. First it increased the local gravity in a twenty-meter radius to almost 20G, sucking flesh and meat off the bone, shattering the bone into splinters, then the rocket itself was destroyed by its own power, releasing the compressed matter to explode outward.
The creature convulsed and Vuxten found himself flying away, somersaulting through the air.
--shit shit shit shit-- 471 yelled out, slamming the tiny graviton generators in his boots to max in order to keep from being flung off by centrifugal force. --digital omnimessiah protect us--
A massive flying insect went to snap Vuxten out of the air but the Telkan Marine managed to rattle off a handful of magack shots into the soft fibrous looking white tissue in the throat, making the flying insect barf up purple blood instead of snatching a tasty Telkan treat out of the air.
Lightning surrounded Vuxten, not burning or shocking him, but instead surrounding him, turning him right side up, slowing him down on his arc, lowering him to the ground.
He hit as his training had hammered into him. Toes scraping the dirt, one fist into the dirt, graviton cranked up to slow him down. He stood up, surrounded by the massive Terrans in the heavy plated armor. Not the sleek black warsteel almost formfit to Vuxten, but rather massive suits of armor with warsteel plates as thick as Vuxten's hand was long.
”On your feet, brother,” one of them said, holding out one hand while the other poured blaster fire into the ranks of oncoming insects. ”The Emperor protects.”
Vuxten grabbed the offered hand and let himself get yanked to his feet.
--daxin Daxin DAXIN IS HERE-- 471 bleated over the comlink, flashing icons of burning fury and screaming victory, of freedom and liberation, of fear and triumph.
”Allow me to bring forth the machine's war spirit,” A figure in a stained and heavy looking black robe said to Vuxten in a deep resonating voice. Vuxten looked over and saw there was a dozen black human skulls circling the figure, who held a black staff in one hand. Mist poured out from three of the skulls, covering his rifle, his armor, enveloping. There was a loud chant that Vuxten couldn't understand and shuddered from even as 471 poured gibberish into the link. Then lightning scoured away the black mist. ”The machine's war spirit is ready,” the figure intoned.
Vuxten's rifle had gone from light and sleek to heavy, bulky, almost unfinished looking, a belt fed monstrocity. The ammo-hopper read 100% and Vuxten noticed with a shock that his heat was back down to barely 8% and his nano-forge and creation engine slush level was below 5%. His armor felt the same and looking down he saw that the concentric circles in the red splotch with the silver X over it was still there.
”Purge the unclean, brother,” one of the massive Terrans said, and Vuxten saw his HUD update.
He turned and there were massive insects rushing the Terran lines.
Vuxten rolled his shoulders to set himself, dialing up the graviton generators at his feet to plant himself firmly, shifted his grip on the massive gun's forward and rear handles, and squeezed the trigger.
The weapon howled, screamed as it poured out 20mm mass-reactive anti-matter core shells, pouring hate into the onrushing insects and creatures. Their bodies exploded as Vuxten swept the weapon across the leading ranks of the bugs and creatures and gore showered up.
Trucker turned his head and looked down slightly, bouncing the chunk of razored bone off his already cracked helmet. It brought stars to his eyes but he didn't care as he looked back up, spit blood, and triggered the quad-barrel into the face of the creature that had spit thorn-like teeth at him. The weapon's heavy caliber slugs shredded the inside of the creature's mouth and it gagged on the blood.
TARGET!
FIRE!
SHOT OUT!
HIT! TANGO DOWN!
roared out over the comlink from every Pile Drive tank as the massive main battle tanks roared toward the Log Base.
Yes, the Imperium Marines are here, but they can still get overwhelmed unless we can break the back of the Enemy's reinforcements, Trucker thought to himself.
In orbit Admiral Howell and General Nodra'ak looked at the holotanks. Their staff's were already bringing the Imperium of Wrath's ships into the war-plan, updating their data on what was happening on the ground, coordinating to start strikes on the underwater neural arrays.
The battles on Telkan-1 and Telkan-2 had shifted, the Terran and Telkan forces were no longer on the edge of losing, but victory wasn't assured.
”They want Tic-Tak bad on Telkan-1,” Nodra'ak said, slowly withdrawing a cigarette from the half-empty pack.
”They must figure he's the hive leader,” Admiral Howell said.
Nodra'ak lit the cigarette, puffing on it a few times to ensure it was lit. ”Is he not?”