+THOUGHT FOR THE DAY+
Give everything to the Emperor, and you shall have nothing left to suffer.
"Corridor clear," Emmerich voxed.
Bodies littered the long hallway. Blinking lights illuminated hole-strewn corpses, slumped against walls or strewn on the ground. At the end of the hallway a pair of blast-doors stood stalwart.
You trained your bolt pistol at the doors. "Tear them down, Gottfried."
Click.
The gigantic neophyte sunk his fingers into the plasteel doors, grunted, tore them open. Immediately he took cover to the door's side as strobing lines of las fire poured out from the room.
You and your brothers answered in turn, bolters booming. Chainsword revving, you charged. You barreled into the room, crashing into an overturned desk and the traitors behind it. Las fire sunk warmly into your armor, and with every hit, every sting, the tang of combat-chemicals clung closer and closer to your throat.
The other neophytes charged in suit, bringing with them the clangor of bolt and chain, of war cry and prayer. The foe barely lasted two minutes.
You walked to the main console of the array. The screens' green light washed over you, and behind the screens you could dimly see the disembodied brains that powered these machines.
One of the array's vox-stations crackled to life. "-master is displeased. The Imperials must be repelled. He is-"
You pressed a rune and spoke back. "Imperials have been repelled. Don't bother coming."
"What? We were just told Space Marines had infiltrated the fortress. We're sending-"
"They're dead," you lied. "Do you really want to waste resources on a won battle? Spare me your stupidity. No reinforcements."
"Fine, you're on your own, bastards. Wait until the master-"
Boom. A bolt round put an end to the cogitator's brain, and the conversation. Your brothers took out the rest of the array. Now, the forces outside had no way of receiving orders, and without the command of their officers inside, they would crumble under Imperial might soon enough.
"Sigismund," Reynauld voxed. "We've driven back the forces at the entrance. Report."
"We've taken the communications array. No reinforcements are on their way."
"Good. Now rendezvous. We're going to pay this colonel a visit."
---
"Good work, little savage."
You shot your mentor a look. "We're the same height now."
Reynauld barked a laugh. "Believe what you wish, cur."
The crusader squad stood outside a massive set of doors. Imperial aquilas once spread their wings proudly on these doors; now they had been defaced and defiled, replaced with the eye-watering symbols of the Enemy.
"Ready yourselves, brothers," Reynauld said. "Kill them all, but leave the colonel to me."
With his signal, two Templars pushed the heavy doors open. The squad suffered a withering torrent of autogun slugs and lasfire, but the initiates and their mighty warplate bore the brunt of the assault.
The Astartes unleashed a storm of their own, a torrent of bolter fire and grenades that reduced the room into a ruined bedlam. A score of traitors died in the initial volley, the rest retreating to cover further back in the room.
"For the Emperor!"
You and your brothers charged, chainswords revving, bolt-pistols roaring. The humans were pathetically slow. You cut a laggard down with contempt, shot another one in the back. How pitiful it was to die fleeing.
The Astartes charge abruptly stopped as an autocannon opened fire. The marble floor erupted into clouds of debris. You dove for cover behind one of the many pillars of the vaulted chamber. You peeked around the pillar, aimed at the distant gunner, fired. The shot missed.
Autocannon rounds tore into the pillar. Then it stopped abruptly. You saw the new neophyte, Leofric, and his smoking bolt-pistol. You nodded thanks.
The charge resumed. A firing line of foes lined itself near the back of the room, the traitorous colonel center among his men.
When mortals see Astartes, they either stand in awe or flee in terror. What they don't do is laugh, and the colonel was laughing ecstatically. He laughed as his men died around him. He laughed as he grabbed a man and used him as a shield, laughed as the man died in his arms.
Reynauld was the first to crash into the enemy line. You and your brothers leaped into the fray, chainswords making short work of the foe. The colonel kept laughing. In moments, the laughing lunatic was the only one left.
Your mentor grabbed the human by the neck, lifted him two feet from the ground. "Still feel like laughing?"
Suddenly, your palms itched. Something clawed at the back of your mind.
The colonel spat blood. "A lot of my men died. Of course I feel like laughing."
+Sigismund+
Your teeth ached at the mental intrusion. What? What is this?"
+There is little time. You must leave, now. The inquisitor's teleportarium is ready to extract you and your brothers.+
Agamemnon? You can tell him to keep whatever he's plotting to himself.
"I had one hundred men in this fortress, more than two hundred outside, and who knows how many in the sky. Who knows how many in this spire? On this planet? Your men killed mine, mine killed plenty of yours. A lot of deaths, today."
"I'll enjoy crushing your skull."
+Sigismund, you must trust us.+
Get out of my head, witch!
The colonel smiled as Reynauld choked him to death.
---
[ ] Follow the voice in your head and accept their help.
[ ] Ignore the witch and finish your mission.
