+++Kanihirium, Mormark system, Core worlds, Sector Deus, Segmentum Obscurus+++
+++163.320.M41+++
Kargos looked out the window of the small shuttle as it arced across the sky over Kanihirium, capital city of Mormark, and home to 77 million Imperial citizens. A colossal urban sprawl, enormous hive spires loomed into the sky, the narrow tips adorned in glittering decoration and grandeur, but dark and gloomy towards the wider bases, it was a true definition of society in the 41st millennium.
Looking further out across the city, Kargos saw the central spire of the city, ‘Blizzard peak’, named for the large snow build-up that gathers around it during Mormark’s fierce ice winds. It was here that Kerius Dermont, Lord Regent of Mormark, lived and worked, as well as the rest of the Planetary command staff.
Kargos turned his attention to the inside of the Shuttle, next to him was Scout Master Geron, commander of the Ghost Company, and across from the both of them, Chief Librarian Anterion, a member of the Chapter Council and therefore one of the few other than the Ghost Company themselves that knows of their existence. Anterion spoke:
“Sorry we couldn’t have the briefing back at the Tombstone, but time is of the essence. A situation is developing in Kanihirium that Dermont has requested the Ghosts of Retribution to take care of. It seems a few days ago a shipment of weaponry from Telemark was ambushed in the outskirts of Kanihirium, 40 Guardsmen dead and the entire shipment hijacked. Unfortunately, one of the trucks they stole contained a very special order, a large order of new Meltaguns. Already the repercussions are being felt, the local Arbites report gangs of criminals ‘melting’ their way into bank vaults and armouries, stealing vast amounts of money and hardware. Not to mention the ‘ash piles’ found around the last known locations of patrolling law enforcers. This gang has quickly utilised their overwhelming firepower to consolidate their control over other spires, and now roughly 4 million citizens live within the bounds of their territory, a place where law enforcement cannot go because they keep being ambushed and slaughtered. Thankfully, Dermont discovered which spire they’re based in, so your mission is to enter that spire and eradicate the scum within.”
Geron inquired:
“With respect to Dermont, surely this is a task more suited for his Guardsmen? They could easily take the spire now they know its location, Space Marines are soldiers, not policemen.”
Anterion had expected this question:
“Under normal circumstances I’d agree with you, however, Intel indicates a large portion of the gang is involved in......Chaos worship.......there is great worry that an all out-assault could result in certain Chaotic side-effects, and the LAST thing anyone wants is a Warp Portal in the middle of Kanihirium. So it was concluded between Dermont and the Chapter Council that a stealthy attack by the Space Marines would give the best outcome.”
Geron nodded:
“Understood, we’ll cleanse that spire of all taint.”
“Good, Dermont’s got Storm Troopers set up in positions around the exits of the spire, so any of them trying to escape won’t get far, you just worry about getting to the top and killing the leadership.”
Suddenly a call came back from the cockpit, where Prinium, Master of the Forge and Chapter Council member was flying the shuttle:
“We’re hovering over the infiltration point now, get ready to jump!”
Kargos was surprised:
“Jump? What does he mean?”
Anterion pulled out two, Space Marine sized Grav Chutes from the rear of shuttle and passed them to Geron and Kargos:
“What do you think he means, Marine? Put these on, you’ll be dropping down onto the landing pad halfway up the spire, it’s the only reliable access point you can access. There’ll probably be a few guards, but they shouldn’t be a problem.”
Geron and Kargos hefted the large devices over their shoulders and affixed the straps round their armour, moving to the rear door of the shuttle, they checked their weapons, Boltguns, Suppressed Bolt pistols, Frag Grenades and large broad mono-knives. The ramp edged down, and the howling winds about Kanihirum swirled into the cabin. Looking down, Kargos could see the landing pad, a good several hundred metres down. Anterion stood beside and gave a finger count, 3.....2.......1.......
Geron leapt first, and Kargos a few seconds later, rapidly descending in their heavy power armour, soon they activated their Grav Chutes, and their fall slowed at a tremendous rate. Both were now descending side-by-side, when Geron spoke over the Vox:
“Better activate the cloaks now.”
The two marines activated the cloaking abilities of their Revenant Armour, and faded from view in midair, fortunately the cloaking field was just powerful enough to encompass the added area of the Grav Chutes.
The jump went perfectly, and the two gently touched down on the landing pad. There were four gangers watching the entrance to the spire from the pad, and all were paying little attention to their job. Discarding their Chutes and drawing their pistols, Geron and Kargos approached them, 4 suppressed shots whispered out, 4 bodies hit the floor. Fighting humans was a welcome change to the Orks the Revenants had grown familiar with, much easier to kill.
Easing the heavy external door open, the invisible Revenants moved in. Shutting the door behind them, they crept down the long corridor towards the service elevator, pistols raised. As they got near the elevator doors, it arrived. The doors slid open to reveal 10 more gang-members walk out. Hastily sidestepping out of their way, the Revenants followed them from behind and they headed towards the landing pad and spoke among themselves:
“So where the fuck are those four pricks?!”
“Hell if I know, but they’re not responding on the vox so let’s find out why. I tell ya, if they’re sleeping on the job they’d better throw ‘emselves off the edge, ‘cause otherwise the boss’ll ‘take care’ of them....”
Geron and Kargos drew their Boltguns and unleashed a hail of projectiles into the packed group of criminals from behind, they were all scraps of gore before they could even turn around. Returning to the elevator, Geron attempted to call it, much to the Revenants annoyance, a mechanical voice protested:
“Public lockdown has been enacted by spire control, you do not have required authorisation”
Geron was angered:
“Dammit! The bastard must have control of the elevator!”
Kargos agreed:
“Definitely, we could use our Space Marine authorisation codes to override the lockdown, but then he’d know we’re here. Look like we’re taking the stairs boss.”
Geron walked towards the adjacent stairway access door:
“Seems so Kargos. Eurgh......got about 40 floors to go up, then we have to move across the floor because the stairway to the very top is on the other side.”
Rushing up the stairs with pistols ready, the tireless Revenant’s soon reached the end of the stairway, leaving about a dozen bodies slumped over the stairs below them.
“Okay, so we gotta move along this floor to the other side......”
As he spoke, Kargos eased open the door, after a quick peer deftly closed it:
“Doesn’t look good, they got this floor fortified to hell. I saw the door to the other stairway, the floor’s gotta set-up with four paths in a square shape, within them is a gap leading to the bottom of the spire, and the opposite corridors are overlooking each other, the door we gotta reach is on the opposite corner to where we are now, and it’s not gonna be easy to get there. They got Heavy Bolters along the balconies, about 30 scum walking around the hallways, saw a few Meltaguns as well.”
Geron sighed:
“Never like to make it easy do they? Oh well, better get to it.”
One of the patrolling gangers saw the door swing open, but no one was there, confused, he went to investigate. Entering the stairway shaft, he felt a massive armoured hand wrap round his head, and a large knife plunge through his back.
Kargos let the dead body fall to the ground:
“Well that takes care of one....let’s move.”
Geron and Kargos walked onto the floor, both going down different corridors, to meet up on the opposite corner. Realising there were too many foes in such a small space to attain stealthy kills, Geron made a call:
“Boltguns Kargos, no point in going silent here.”
Smiling beneath his helmet, Kargos took out his Boltgun and blasted down his first corridor, shredding several of the gangers and sending the rest fleeting for cover in the adjacent hallway, Geron followed suit and soon the criminals were screaming in terror:
“WHERE THE FUCK DID THAT COME FROM!?!?”
“THAT WAS A FUCKING BOLTER MAN! IT’S SPACE MARINES!!!! OH SHIT WE’RE SO DEAD!!!!”
“SHUT THE HELL UP YOU SNIVELLING LITTLE SHIT, DOES ANYONE SEE THE BASTARDS?!”
“NOTHING CHIEF, NO ONE SEEMS TO BE THERE!”
One of the more overconfident of the gangers poked his head over the edge of the balcony looking over the other hallways.
“I DON’T SEE ANYTH-“
Suddenly a bolt round, seemingly originating from thin air, impacted his head and detonated, this sent the remainder into even more panic:
“OH FUCKING HELL MAN! THEY’RE FUCKING INVISIBLE!!!”
With the panic overcoming their fear, they leapt up and manned the Heavy Bolters, blasting away at the opposite hallways and tearing them apart. After a many seconds of mad shooting, they held their fire. One of them hopefully inquired:
“Are......are they dead!?!”
Suddenly a terrifying voice growled from behind him:
“NO.”
Barely a whimper escaped the ganger’s mouth as his head was crushed beneath the Geron’s hands. From the opposite end of the hallway, Kargos, his Boltgun reloaded, rained bolts into the cowering enemies, targeting the 3 criminals wielding Meltaguns first. Discarding the headless body in his hands, Geron drew his knife and charged into the other side of the gangers, hacking them apart. With nowhere to run, the criminals fired off their autoguns madly at the invisible Space Marines tearing them to pieces, but even if they had been able to see them, with only autoguns left it would have done little good. After a brief few seconds of gore, the gangers were all dead, and the marines regrouped at the door to the next stairway. Momentarily looking back at the blood-slicked hallways they had left behind them, Geron nodded:
“Nice shooting Kargos. Up the stair we go....again....”
Kargos hesitated a moment:
“Yeah sure.....just lemme get one thing....”
The two Space Marines entered the second stairway, and began their ascent to the top floor. Unbeknownst to them, one of the gangers on the floor they just left was still alive, barely, given the majority of his lower body had been blown off from a burst of Kargos’ boltgun. He turned towards the door the Revenants had exited, hearing the stutter of silenced rounds as the Marines took care of the Stairway guards. He painfully dragged himself round to the body of the man with the vox across the floor, which they were unable to get to get to whilst the marines were shooting on them. Rasping into the mouthpiece, the dying ganger eked out his last message:
“This is........Jerdem.......Space Marines attacked.....killed us all.......they were......inv-......”
The ganger breathed his last as the fevered responses from the top floor came back over the vox:
“Jerdem! Report! SPACE MARINES!?!”
At the top floor, the gang-leader was furious:
“What do you mean “space marines”!?!?!? Are you telling me Jerdem’s floor has been wiped out?!”
The vox operator stumbled out his reply:
“Er....yes sir, it seems so!”
“DAMMIT! Get a team down there, I want CONFIRMATION, I swear if Jerdem’s drunk on Amasec again I’ll kill him myself!”
Soon enough 6 gangers appeared on the bloody floor in the elevator, looking on the scene of carnage in horror. Their leader rushed to the vox station, kicked away Jerdem’s corpse and spoke into the mouthpiece:
“They’re dead......all of them....orders?”
He heard the gang-leader reply:
“Get back here right now, those bastards are probably coming up the stairway, we need defence here NOW!”
Rushing back up the elevator, the 6 gangers rejoined the other gang members who had been called to the top floor, about 40 criminals all-in-all, heavily armed, and in the process of setting up barricades around the door to the stairway.
Back in the stairway, Geron and Kargos were just a few floors away from the top, with Geron slightly ahead as Kargos was lugging a heavy load. Just as Geron turned the final corner in the stairs, a fleeing ganger blasted in wild panic at the approaching footsteps with a Meltagun. The intense blast seared through the air and the edge of the ray caught Geron’s left arm, burning it away to ash. Falling to one knee, he snapped off a shot with his Bolt pistol, killing her before she could finish the job.
Hearing the commotion, Kargos hurried up to Geron. He saw his commander standing there with his left-arm missing, and his armour’s cloak malfunctioning:
“Gah, little bitch took my arm!”
“You’re cloak’s broken boss. You’ll have to stay here.”
“Not gonna happen Kargos, we gotta mission to do.”
Kargos spoke firmly to the Scout Master:
“Don’t be stupid, you wouldn’t survive a second on that floor uncloaked with the hardware they’re packing, besides if you stay here none of them will be able to escape.”
Geron yielded:
“Alright fine, but if you get killed up there I’ll put you on a charge for disobeying orders!”
Kargos laughed:
“HAH, go right ahead......”
Kargos lumbered up to the stairway exit with his heavy load from the lower floor, and prepared to kick in the door.
Inside the top floor, guns of every kind were trained on the entrance door, Autoguns, Meltaguns, Lasguns, Heavy Bolters and others. Suddenly the entrance door flew open, torn off the hinges by the force of Kargos’ kick.
Every ganger opened fire and riddled the entrance with bullets, tearing apart the surrounding wall and doorframe as hundreds of rounds impacted. After a good several seconds, the firing died down, one of them shrieked out:
“WHERE IS IT!?!”
His answer came back faster than he would have liked, as a pair of Frag Grenades flew through the doorway.
“GET DOOWW-“
The grenades rolled up against the make-shift barricades and detonated, killing several gangers and tearing a hole in the barrier. Whilst they were disoriented, the invisible Kargos strode through the doorway and let fly with the Heavy Bolter he had torn of its mounting and hauled up to the top floor. Inaccurate rounds pinged off his armour as he poured fire into the enemy. The massive bolts, guided by his accurate hand, tore the defenders apart by the dozen, the gangers clambered over each other to try and escape the invisible Heavy Bolter firing on them, but Kargos’ relentless onslaught spared none of them, shooting them in the back as they fled.
Once all his Heavy Bolter ammunition was expended, Kargos drew his Boltgun and finished off the last few gangers, at this point his armour’s cloak, heavily taxed from the incoming fire, ran out of power and he returned to visibility. “Just in time” Kargos thought. He then went around inspecting the bodies and executing the ones still alive.
As he approached the further end of the floor, he heard muffled screams of terror from an adjacent room. He burst in holding up his pistol, and was presented with a horrifying scene. The walls of the small room were covered with symbols of Slaanesh, incense burners filled the air with an intoxicating aroma, and dim oil lamps illuminated the dark scene.
In the centre of the room the gang-leader was raping a young woman, gagged and bound to a bed, while speaking dark words of Chaos as the girl screamed from under her gag. A swirling pool of warp energy was starting to erupt from his chest, just one more foul act would complete the portal summoning. The gang-leader raised a long ornate dagger above the back of the girl’s neck, ready to sacrifice her to Slaanesh and open a warp portal in Kanihirium, if he succeeded the planet would be lost.
Knowing that the death of the gang-leader would also result in a portal opening at this stage, Kargos acted fast, firing his bolt pistol at the leader’s outstretched arms, the bolt ripped both of them off and the dagger fell. Pulling the heretic off the woman and throwing him against the wall, Kargos pinned him against the wall until the swirling energy within him died down without the dark acts and incantations to sustain it. The heretic struggled with all the strength he could muster, but he was no match for a Space Marine, especially armless. Once he was sure the warp energy had subsided, Kargos took his knife and decapitated the heretic.
Hearing a weak gurgling sound he turned back to the woman, it seemed that when the dagger fell it sliced the side of her neck badly. Swiftly cutting her free of the bed, Kargos took her gag and used it to staunch the blood flow from her neck. Fortunately it was just a superficial wound, and Kargos spoke to her as he tied the strip of cloth gently round her neck:
“You’ll be okay citizen, the bleeding has stopped. What is your name?”
She wrapped the bed covers around herself and replied weakly:
“Eli-......Eliza......thank you so much.....”
She looked over at the body of the gang-leader, and asked fearfully:
“Are.....are they all....-“
“Dead? Yes, this floor has been eradicated of possible threats. Come, we should move now, can you walk?”
Eliza shook her head.
“No.....they’ve kept me tied up for days....”
“No matter.”
Kargos picked Eliza up in his arms with ease, and carried her towards the stairway, where he found Geron holding a smoking boltgun in his good hand, and standing in front of around 6 dead gangers, he said sarcastically:
“Good work on the body checking there Kargos......these mugs tried to escape once you moved past them.”
Kargos chuckled:
“Yeah well they obviously didn’t get very far.”
Geron eyed Eliza suspiciously:
“Who’s this Kargos?”
“Oh er, she was a prisoner, they were holding her in a cell up there.”
Geron was not entirely convinced:
“Hmm......no taint though, right?”
“Definitely not, seems she was kept in solitary confinement for a long time.”
Geron still felt something was wrong, but trusted Kargos’ judgment.
“Alright then, c’mon, Prinium’s gonna pick us up from the landing pad before the Imperial Guardsmen move in and mop up. We can use the lift now, it can be unlocked from the console next to it on this floor.”
The 3 of them went to the lift and descended to the landing pad. The shuttle was waiting for them. Kargos, still carrying Eliza, followed Geron in and the rear ramp eased shut. Kargos and Geron removed their helmets, and Prinium was surprised when he looked back into the passenger bay:
“By the Emperor, Geron! Your arm! And who’s that woman?”
Geron explained both points:
“Yeah, unlucky Meltagun hit. And the girl was a prisoner being kept on the top floor.”
Prinium was not satisfied:
“So what do we do with her?! We can’t take her back to the Tombstone with us!”
Eliza was becoming visibly frightened by Prinium’s raised voice, Kargos noticed:
“Look just, be quiet for a moment Prinium, let me ask her.......Eliza? Do you have a family?”
She shook her head:
“N-no, I was homeless on the streets when those people took me.”
“Okay, how old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
Geron spoke what they were all thinking:
“Probably be best to drop her off at the nearest Adepta Sororita post, Prinium, get us to one.”
Prinium swiftly located the destination from the shuttle’s maps, and flew towards the designated coordinates.
After short while the shuttle was hovering a few feet above the ground in front of an Adepta Sororita post, where a few Sisters-Hospitaller take in needy people who require medical attention. Jumping out, with Eliza still in his arms, Kargos landed gently on the ground and rapped on the front door of the post, an aged Sister answered the door and was taken aback by the Power Armoured figure in the doorway:
“An Astartes?! Hello Marine, what do you need.”
Kargos replied:
“Greetings Sister, this girl requires help, she has nowhere else to go.”
“Well she’ll be safe here, make no mistake, where's her family?”
"She doesn't have any."
The Sister sighed sadly:
"How terrible.....well, as soon as she's healed, we can send her to the Schola Progenium, she may not be the daughter of an Imperial official but a Space Marine bringing her here should be reason enough."
Kargos gently placed Eliza on her feet:
“Can you walk now?”
Eliza stumbled a little bit but managed to walk into the building:
“Yes.....thank you.”
The Sister Hospitaller put Eliza’s arm over her shoulder and helped her in, Eliza turned around and spoke to Kargos:
“Thank you........thank you for everything Kargos.”
Kargos noticed a small tear in her eye, when suddenly she moved towards him and hugged him. Completely taken aback and uncomfortable with such behaviour, Kargos awkwardly attempted to hug back without hurting her. Standing on his feet, Eliza leaned up and gave Kargos a fleeting kiss on the cheek, then let go of him and walked back inside:
“Goodbye Kargos, may the future be good to you.”
With that the door closed, and Kargos returned to the waiting shuttle, when he clambered in Prinium was less than amused:
“Well that was a massive waste of time, Kargos, why didn’t you just leave her in the spire for the Imperial Guard to pick her up?”
Seeing Kargos was deep in thought, Geron answered for him:
“More gang members could have returned to the top floor and hurt her, it’s our duty to safeguard the people of Mormark and the Imperium. Also, I suppose you and Klementhos can get me a new arm right?”
Eliza a few years later, as a member of the Order of Bloody Tears.
Barely satisfied with his excuse, Prinium sighed and returned to piloting the shuttle back to Tombstone:
“Yes Geron......you’ll be good as new, just try to avoid getting dismembered in future.....”
Geron laughed:
“No promises Forge-Master.......”