Free Deathwing by William King, David Pringle, Neil Jones Page B

gates
     and
     were
     assaulted
     by
     Stealers.
     At
     first
     they
     seemed confused,
     as
     if
     they
     had suffered a
     great
     shock.
     They
     attacked
     in
     small groups
     with
     no
     pattern
     and
     no
     guiding
     intelligence,
     and
     we
     cut
     them down.
     
     
     

    "We
     pushed through
     crowds
     of screaming people
     as
     we followed our Librarian's locator beacon
     toward the
     city centre. Huge purestrain
     Stealers erupted
     from buildings
     as
     we advanced.
     They
     attacked
     with insane
     fury, but
     without thought, and
     so
     we bested
     them easily.
    "In the
     centre
     of the
     city we found
     a temple - a building that obscenely
     parodied
     the
     Imperial cult, dominated
     by a huge four-armed
     statue
     of
     what
     was
     intended
     to
     be
     the Emperor.
     We
     toppled
     it
     into
     the
     street
     and beneath
     it
     found
     an entrance
     into the
     underworld.
    "Down
     we
     went
     into
     the
     cold,
     metal
     corridors.
     We
     passed through
     airlocks
     and
     bulkheads.
     It
     was
     like a buried spacecraft.
     We still followed the
     locator fix, determined to reclaim Two Heads
     Talking's armour and
     avenge
     his death.
    "At
     first
     we
     made
     easy progress
     against
     isolated
     Stealer
     attacks,
     but
     then
     a
     change
     occurred.
     For
     a
     while,
     there
     was peace.
    'We exchanged
     wary looks. Bloody Moon
     asked
     if
     we
     could possibly
     have
     killed
     them
     all.
     I
     can
     even
     now
     picture
     the puzzled look on his face. It was still there
     when a
     Stealer
     dropped through
     an
     air
     vent
     and
     took
     his
     head
     off.
     I
     blasted the
     thing
     with bolter fire, reducing
     it to bloody
     mush.
    "Now
     the
     Stealers
     began
     to
     attack
     again.
     But
     this
     time their
     attacks
     were
     co-ordinated,
     guided
     by
     some
     malign intelligence. It was as
     if they
     had
     been
     leaderless
     for a time, but
     a new fiend had
     now taken charge.
    "They
     flanked us through
     parallel corridors,
     dropped through
     vents
     in the
     ceiling.
     Hordes
     of
     Stealers
     and
     their
     human brood
     attacked
     from all sides. Waves
     of them scuttled
     forward
     with
     blinding
     speed,
     threatening
     to
     overwhelm
     us
     with sheer
     numbers.
     It
     was a
     horrible
     sight,
     watching
     those
     great
     armoured
     beasts
     race
     closer,
     ignoring
     their
     kin
     as
     they
    were cut
     down.
    "Still
     they
     came.
     Our
     point
     men
     and
     rearguard
     were
     ambushed
     and
     killed.
     The threats
     came
     so
     fast,
     we
     almost
     didn't have
     time to respond.
    "I saw
     a
     score
     of
     than
     slain
     by
     flamer
     fire,
     and
     the
     stench
     that
     filled
     the
     air
     was
     indescribable.
     They
     spent
     their
     lives recklessly
     in their blind lust
     to kill us.
     There was a sense
     of terrible, oppressive
     anger
     in
     the
     air.
     It
     was
     as
     if
     they
     had
     a personal
     score
     with us
     and
     were all prepared
     to die to settle
     it
    "Any
     other squad,
     even
     other
     Terminator, would have
     been
     beaten
     back by the
     sheer
     fury of
     their
     attack,
     but
     we
     wore the
     mark of Deathwing. Our funeral dirges
     had
     been
     sung
     - fear was not
     in us,
     and
     we had
     our own scores
     to settle.
     We pushed
     forward. inch by tortuous
     inch.
     
     
    "Blood
     washed
     the
     corridors
     as
     we
     fought
     our
     way
     into
     a
     great
     central
     chamber.
     There
     we
     found
     the
     body
     of
     Two Heads
     Talking. He
     was
     dead,
     his
     body
     rent
     by
     great
     wounds.
     Nearby
     lay
     the
     body
     of
     the
     Patriarch,
     not
     a
     mark
     upon him.
    "The
     hall was full of foes,