Day 67, continued
In the Freezing Wastes, light that could have been mistaken for being purple flashed as something slipped back into the universe. The pod, easily the size of several tanks, was simple, crude metal that froze quickly, growing brittle. When its door was unlatched from the inside and slammed down onto the icy, wind-blasted rock, it shattered. Stepping out, a humanoid clad in white plates of carefully grown carapace stepped out, its internal reactor thrumming, servos of its limbs whirring, hands holding a carefully built lascannon.
Then, another emerged behind it. Then another, and another, and another. Almost a hundred, near-perfect copies of each other stepped out onto the wind-blasted terrain, each equipped with either lascannons or gripping long, flat blades that crackled with electricity and ended in a horizontal spike. A few possessed other weapons as well.
The Anchorage-pattern Powered Frame units turned as one, gazing into the thick snows where the ruined Chaos vessel rested, half-buried under the snows. Shadows moved in the edges of their vision and humanoid shapes appeared. Some were the size of average humans, but most were a head or so taller than most men. There were a dozen and the one who blocked the most direct path was the tallest, nearly twice the height of a human. Each simply stood there, still as statues, watching. Waiting.
In turn, one of the intruders clutching a shock blade stepped forward. The blade sliced into the ground as the warrior placed both hands upon its hilt.
"My name is Aliciel Prian. We have come for those that survive within that crashed ship and seek harm upon no others. If you understand our language, then know this."
The warrior drew the blade out, pointing it towards the tallest of the Wendigos in a challenge that could be recognized as such regardless of species or culture.
"You will not stop us."
The water was shaking, Uirus abruptly realized as he stepped back, concern and fear flooding into him all at once. No, not shaking, moving, of its own volition. In the depths, the massive crystal pulsed with energy and the water began to freeze, great chunks of ice shifting over one another, reshaping, reforming into something enormous.
The cultists and serfs trying to rescue the food stopped and stared at the unbelievable sight. Uirus was already moving, sprinting out of the room, towards Ahsael's chambers. The Rubric Marine blocked the way, but it stepped aside and Uirus was barely able to slow himself before the door opened and Ahsael emerged, still putting on his gauntlets.
"What happened?!?" Ahsael demanded of him.
"There's-," Uirus wasn't even sure how to describe what it was. In the end, he didn't have to, as screams echoed from the storage room as cultists and serfs began to flee. He could hear the rumbling like that of continent-sized glaciers moving and the tearing of metal as something was starting to rip its way towards them. The decks of the ship were beginning to shake and Ahsael rushed forwards, Rubric and Uirus close behind him.
"Is it an army of those things?" Ahsael asked, though it seemed to be more to himself. "Just how many of them are there?"
"I only saw the one crystal," Uirus said and Ahsael halted, turning around quickly.
"Why didn't you report that to me?!?" Ahsael almost shrieked, his hands wreathing themselves in Warp lightning. Uirus stopped and held his hands up in a placating gesture.
"I was about to-!"
"Silence!" Ahsael thundered, his eyes alight with power, just as there came the sound of metal being ripped through with the ease of a power sword through flesh. They whipped around and saw a claw made of ice, easily the length of a baneblade and still emerging, slicing through the walls into the power chamber. The room was huge, easily a hundred meters tall to make room for the power core, but Uirus wondered if it was large enough to fit whatever was coming.
Then, a second claw, just as long as the first sliced through the metal, dragging away from the other, and there was another rumble, even louder, like a glacier cracking in half, and serfs and cultists fell to their knees, hands pressed against their ears as they tried to muffle the terrible noise. Even Uirus couldn't help but grunt in pain, almost collapsing, while Ahsael would have fallen to his knees if it weren't for the Rubric holding him up. It seemed to affect Ahsael far more than it had Uirus, and he thought he could see his sorcerous brother's lightning ebbing and almost being drawn towards the wall where the thing was emerging, like a conductor.
He caught his first glimpse of the monster then, through the rent in the metal that was being torn open with titanic strength. Its body looked like frosted glass and his helmet's auspex array told him it was near absolute zero. As the rent in the metal grew, the temperature in the room began to rapidly decline, regardless of the proximity to the generator, flowing into the monster and then simply vanished, as if it no longer existed.
Then, it stepped through, its mere passage crashing through the gap and further widening it. It was humanoid in shape and strangely gaunt for its size. Its long claws extended from each of its hands and were nearly the length of a third of its body, and it had four smaller fingers as well, each easily longer than Uirus was tall. Its face was featureless, and the back of its head sprouted into spikes, but what caught his attention were its eyes, if they could indeed be called eyes. Blazing with the strength of stars, two beacons of power glared mercilessly down upon them.
In the center of its chest, pulsing like the beating of a heart, the blood crystal rested, protected deep beneath layers of ice, yet glowing strongly enough that it could still be seen even through the ice that shifted and creaked with every movement.
The monstrous being tilted its head back and there was another rumbling sound of glaciers cracking that made both Uirus and Ahsael cry out in pain, while the serfs and cultists writhed about on the ground, clawing at their own ears.
It stepped forward, its weight sending shudders through the ship, while one of its hands rose up, the great claw preparing to sweep down in an unstoppable reaping motion.
Vaguely, Uirus recognized a tapping sound, coming from Ahsael. Four taps, repeated one after another. He recalled the serf's story and wondered if it was simply coincidental or… There was no time for another thought, as the giant's arm swept down, slicing through a trio of mortals that had not gotten out of the way in time.
The Rubric opened fire, its bolter barking. The shells and the explosions its attack caused seemed tiny on the massive form of the giant, and the sight elicited an old memory from Uirus, bringing to mind the sparkling firecrackers a child might throw at the ground to their delight, though he wasn't sure where it came from.
"ALL OF YOU, PICK UP YOUR WEAPONS!" Uirus roared over the din of rumbling ice. Ahsael was starting to stand up, shaking his head, and Uirus felt power being pulled towards him, starting to form around him like a cyclone being conceived. Uirus' voice snapped many out of their panic, or at least reminded them that any who ran would be forced to deal with him, and they scrambled, searching desperately for any kind of weapon, whether it was a lasgun or a metal pole that they could use.
Not that it would do them much good, he knew, and he was sure plenty of them were passing over prospective weapons in favor of searching farther afield. He couldn't do anything about that right now, given he was armed with only his khopesh.
He heard the sound of buckling metal and turned, dread filling him at the thought of another of the ice giants emerging from behind him, only to see an invisible force pulling down one of the outer walls that led into the generator. Turning again, he saw Ahsael, now swathed in a rippling shimmer of power, his fist reaching back behind him and clenched tight around nothing. The wall crumpled into itself, becoming roughly sphere shaped and it only took him a moment to realize what he was doing.
"BRACE YOURSELF!" Uirus called out, just as Ahsael's fist ripped through the air, the physical motion followed by a burst of telekinetic power. The sphere launched through the air with all the grace and beauty of a dreadnaught attempting to dance and it slammed into the head of the giant. The icy formation exploded like glass, massive chunks of razor sharp icicles raining down upon the heads of those unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. The giant tipped backwards and Uirus felt a surge of hope as it began to topple over.
Only for that hope to be crushed as it suddenly halted its fall. The headless body straightened itself, the blazing white eyes, while no longer contained within a head, nevertheless retaining their strength.
"Find a way to bring that thing down!" Ahsael shouted without look at him. The Rubric marched forward alongside him, even as Ahsael pulled more and more power towards him. "I will keep it busy! I don't care if you have to tear the ship apart, get me that crystal!"
The crystal?!? Uirus almost cried in disbelief. How could he be thinking of that now?!?
Uirus turned and sprinted across the massive chamber, his helmeted head on a swivel as he desperately tried to figure out just how the hel he was supposed to take down something the size of a scout titan with less than twenty mortals as his troops.
And then, his eyes caught sight of the mass tear Ahsael had made. The containment walls that lead into the generator, normally incredibly important to keep the dangerous amounts of heat it generated separate from the crew. The generator was on low power at the moment, so that level of heat wasn't excessive… but he watched as his helmet's auspexes noted the slow temperature increase, in spite of the giant's movements.
A plan started to form in his mind. But if he was wrong, the generator would almost certainly… Perhaps… he looked around and soon found what he was looking for. He wasn't a tech-marine, but the consoles were similar enough to those found on the bridge that he recognized them anyways. They were intended for use in case the bridge was taken or destroyed, with the generator being the natural choice for a secondary command center. It hadn't mattered much, with the ship crashed before, but now?
It might save them all. Or it might kill them all.
He'd take his chances.
Perhaps not the best thing to say, under the circumstances.
"Kind of busy here, Tide." She didn't have to speak to him for her thoughts to reach him, she knew, but Aliciel was, as she said, kind of busy trying not to get sliced in half by the largest creature's claws. She ducked and rolled out of the way, narrowly avoiding the slicing claw. Her blade was up again in an instant, but while the strength of this puppet body and new power armor he had let her borrow was a match for that of her old wargear, its agility was somewhat lacking in comparison.
The Wendigo leapt back and vanished into the snow, the blade only managing to score a slice across its head before it escaped its reach. She felt the blade pass through the ice with a soft crunch, sending tiny shards flittering across the wind. Around her, her sisters fought like women possessed, a thought that sent a flittering of humor that wasn't hers across her mind.
Tide had not asked them to fight for him. If left up to him, they never would have had to even lay eyes on a blade meant for killing, she knew. Instead, she and her sisters had approached him.
They were warriors. It was all they had been raised to be. He may have been encouraging them to branch out, to become more than just warriors, but… warriors they were still.
Through the eyes of one of her sisters, a silent warning sent her leaping forwards into a roll. She felt something sharp scrape along the back of her armor, narrowly avoiding having her borrowed form's heart skewered. She leapt up and lashed out behind her at the Wendigo, that had somehow emerged from the snow behind her like a serpent rising from the ground.
She and her sisters were not the only ones fighting these creatures, she knew. One puppet armor wielded an enlarged version of the flat blades with even more deftness than her sisters did, even as the mind behind it analyzed the creatures for weaknesses and any other information she might have gathered. Catherine Ellen did not share their cause, but she had been demanding the chance to fight in armor for weeks.
Another puppet armor moved with surprising grace and speed, even in the bulky armor, using not just the sword in its hand as a weapon, but punching and kicking in ways that pushed the suit to its extremes. She was not sure which mind controlled that form and even reaching out to them mentally through Tide elicited no response save for a sensation of the razor-sharp focus of said mind.
Tide himself controlled roughly half of the puppet armors and she got the vague feeling of minds other than his watching her and the others as well, analyzing her and her armor's capabilities as they fought. The tech-priests most likely, but she was not overly fond of either Vidriov or Sathar in the same way they were not fond of her. She could forgive Tide's decision to give the tech-priests the Sororitas armor, she would die happy if she never again saw her own set again, but she wasn't sure they shared in Tide's goals in the same way she and her sisters did.
Duck.
Tide's warning was the only thing that kept her from not losing her head or, rather, her borrowed head. As the battle had worn on, the Wendigos had shifted tactics from trying to strike them each through the hearts to simply trying to kill them, cutting through their shells and letting the frost sneak inside. A dozen of the puppets, now frozen statues encased in semi-organic armor, had failed to warrant this attention, but the Wendigos had not lost a single one of their number, as they moved about with evasion superior to that of even a damned eldar.
While they are technically damned, I know that's not what you meant.
"Right, sorry, sorry," Aliciel huffed as she brought her blade up in a guard that intercepted the incoming slash of the Wendigo. Its claws, in comparison to its head which had the strength of regular ice, were hard enough to cut through ceramite and there was a strange ringing sound as her blade collided with the claw.
The Wendigo raised its other claw, preparing to strike down at her, but Aliciel simply went down to one knee, clearing the line of sight for a sister behind her who was ready with one of the lascannons. She saw the Wendigo leap back, raising both claws in front of its chest like some kind of shield. Her sister made a last-minute adjustment and the lascannon barked with a roar of superheated air. A bolt of light zipped past Aliciel's helmet, taking the creature squarely in its neck. In an instant, the ice of its neck, head, and upper torso vanished in a plume of steam that existed for a single moment before turning into water and then snowflakes that were whipped away in the wind.
The Wendigo fell backwards, but it was not dead. She saw the crimson crystal over where a human heart would have been pulse for a moment as its body came apart the moment before contact with the ground and vanishing below the snowy cover.
In an instant, it was elsewhere. More specifically, looming over her sister with the lascannon, claw already arcing downwards in a lethal cut that slashed through the puppet armor with ease. She felt her sister's mind withdraw and then invest itself into another of Tide's armors, rejoining the battle in an instant.
Aliciel rushed towards the creature and what might have been its eyes looked up at her, glowing with a dim blaze, but it was not her it should have been watching. Another lascannon, from the same sister and simply a different body, slammed into the Wendigo, this time striking at the waist, bisecting the beast. The two halves collapsed, though only the upper half fell apart as it touched the snow and vanished. This time, when it reappeared, it had regained its legs but had clearly been reduced in size.
Interesting. Let's try modifying our tactics a bit.
Ahsael was sprinting even as sorcerous power rippled through and around him. He felt the storm building, threatening to consume him, but he dared hold nothing back.
The giant's claws slashed through the air where he'd been standing a moment earlier, leaving a gouge through the deck that opened up to the lower floors. In a moment of inspiration, Ahsael reached out with his might, this time not aiming for the walls or the metal he had ripped from them, but the section of the deck right where the giant's next step would take it.
The moment before impact, the metal of the floor buckled and twisted. The giant let out another of its roars that made Ahsael nearly lose control of the storm within as its leg collapsed the floor and it fell forwards. As large and as strong as it was, it wasn't durable it seemed. Its leg cracked and broke off at the knee and it fell onto its hands. Those serfs and mortals caught by its long claws or beneath its weight had barely a moment to scream before they were crushed into paste or bisected entirely. Ahsael watched their ruined corpses shimmer for a moment and then freeze over, transforming into ice, and a small part of him wished to study it closer and in more detail.
But the giant's form was shifting and that drew his attention once more. Its head had already reformed, somewhat dimming the blaze of its eyes, but they burned with the focus it had for Ahsael. Now, however, the body seemed to be shrinking, its surface shimmering and rippling as water flowed downwards.
It's melting? He thought at first, before he saw how unnaturally the water moved, like rivers and currents had formed in the skin of the creature. Both legs, whole and stump, shrunk to nothing, even as spears emerged from the giant's waist. No, not spears, new legs, twelve in total that bent and articulated like a Soul Grinder's. The giant rose, its claws and fingers shifting as well into massive scythes.
The ice is just a puppet, he realized. Could it use the water to move as well, or was it limited to simply shifting?
His own curiosity would get the better of him if he let it. The now spider-like monster was shorter, perhaps half its original height, but wider and still far larger than him. As it neared, the Rubric opened fire once more, its bolter aimed for the head of the creature. The smaller size meant the damage inflicted was greater than before, but still insignificant. Chunks of ice collapsed and tumbled off it, but the creature responded, the scythe of its new limb arcing out towards the Rubric. In an instant, the ceramite was slashed through and the sorcerous automaton exploded in a burst of light as its bindings were undone. As it collapsed into pieces, only dust and armor remained.
Ahsael swore and ripped the metal projectile he had made through the air again, this time aiming for the new legs. However, the creature leapt aside with a grace that belied its huge form. In the same motion, its scything limbs shot out once more and Ahsael lost his grip on the sphere as it was sliced neatly in twain.
However, all that meant was he now had two projectiles to wield.
With an effort of supreme will, he reached out and clutched each half. Lightning arced along his armor and fire seared his eyes and he felt his soul flickering like a candle being buffeted by a powerful gust.
No, he told himself. I will not die here. I will not be consumed. I will live.
Will you? A dark, familiar voice asked in a whisper filled with humor. One he had heard not long ago.
Kalfen's voice nearly disrupted his concentration, but he managed somehow. The wreckage was flung towards the ice giant, slamming into its legs where they met the torso and the creature was once more falling to the ground.
I can aid you, Kalfen said, the daemon's voice growing louder as Ahsael opened himself up more and more to the Warp, pulling more power towards himself. I can destroy this creature.
"In exchange for what," Ahsael asked aloud with a grunt of both mockery and annoyance, even as he brought the wreckage back again, slamming through the head of the giant.
Give yourself to me, Kalfen answered. Fully. Completely. Willingly. Do this, and I will save you.
The giant roared again and Ahsael felt his grip on the projectiles loosen. His eyes widened and he leapt aside just in time to be missed by one of them, which travelled on, crushing a mortal servant as it embedded itself into the wall.
"Never," Ahsael replied with a snarl.
Are you sure? Kalfen asked. This creature is not the only one who hunts you now.
"I will have their power for myself," Ahsael said, this time focusing on only one of the projectiles. He could feel exhaustion creeping in at the edges of his mind, could feel blood trickling down his upper lip. "And then this world."
This world is lost to you, Kalfen said. Just give in. Give in and let me save you.
Yours is not to save, Ahsael said into his mind. It was no exhaustion he felt, but the claws of the daemon, reaching in, searching for resistance. An exertion of will was all it took to shove it away.
The creature had reformed already, this time into the form of a massive serpent. It struck forwards, blindingly fast for something so large. He aimed for its head once more.
I can show you how to harness its power, Kalfen said, but Ahsael was beyond listening now. Like a flail, he floated the half-sphere up and then brought it down in a thunderous crash that traveled through the serpent's head and then the floor. Once more, the creature's weight was its undoing and its collapsed through the deck, this time disappearing along with the wreckage.
Ahsael let out a breath and tried to take the moment of respite to restore his mind's defenses, but it wouldn't last.
He felt the rumble below his boots. He felt the metal buckle and cave, felt it press up under him as something massive forced its way upwards. He saw the serpent's fangs cutting through the metal, mere meters from him on all sides. He was about to be swallowed whole.
He called upon the last of his power and then some and felt the world change. A dark fog surrounded him and just as the jaws of the ice beast snapped shut, he vanished.
"You have no other options now," Kalfen said to him and his voice seemed realer for the briefest of moments. He saw an eye staring at him, Kalfen's eye, but it wasn't the daemon he had thought he'd known, but something larger, something greater.
He reappeared a hundred meters away and collapsed to his knees, retching into his helmet. He ripped it off and tossed it aside, coughing as pain wracked his body. Where was Uirus? Why had that fool not done anything?
He had been foolish. He had been weakening throughout the battle, but never once had he considered actually slaying the beast. He could have ended it by targeting the crystal, and yet… He tried to move, but only succeeded in feeling even greater pain. Now, he could do nothing and he looked up, watching as the icy serpent's blazing eyes stared down upon him, drawing closer with each movement of its body.
Say yes, Ahsael, Kalfen said. Say yes and live.
No, he had been foolish for far longer than the battle. As he looked death in the eye, he saw his own life and saw nothing but a litany of mistakes and misplaced pride. He had never been the most powerful of sorcerers among the Thousand Sons. He was middling at best, it was why he'd sought to surround himself with those he saw as inferior, like Uirus. Yet he thought he could rule. He thought he could be something greater.
I can give you that power, Ahsael, power to not just survive, but thrive! Kalfen's voice seemed almost… desperate. A part of Ahsael wondered if it needed him for something, but he knew that wasn't the case. Daemons didn't 'need' anyone, they just wanted more pawns for themselves. Like he had.
The serpent loomed low and he felt frost nipping at him through its arms as it opened its maw to swallow him whole. He opened his mouth to give his answer… Only for a flash of blinding white light to fill his vision.
