Aftermath

[Rahvin_Dashiva]

Tell you what, here is the next installment of Extremis Diabolus. (I'm working it like a kind of series of interconnected short stories), Aftermath: (this isn't all of it)

Aftermath



Lucius stepped nervously through the blasted streets of the abandoned town. Ahead of him, Rahvin stalked onwards, his massive bolt pistol held in one gauntleted fist. Khul trailed behind, ponderously dragging his massive weapon, along with its ammo, with him.

Lucius passed the husk of what he thought had once been a shop. The windows were blown out and the grey stone wall were pitted and gouged. A stray stone fell deep in the building, the tiny sound echoing through the silence that pervaded the once prosperous town.

Looters and cultists had done this, raided the town, overwhelmed the local arbites, raped and pillaged their way through the streets, burning what they could not steal, then vanishing before the PDF could respond. Lucius was just taking advantage of the situation.

Of course, Rahvin had caused the destruction, that went without saying. He had worked up the tensions and violence within the local gangs, promoting conflict whilst appearing to quell it. The hate and aggression had built up and up until it reached breaking point.

When it had broken, it was as if all the fears of a lifetime of nightmares had come to life and were walking the streets. Cultists openly displaying the marks of the Chaos Gods had risen up from the gutters, murdering, raping, burning, torturing, overwhelming the hysterical populace with pure ferocity.

This was all that was left of most of the World’s cities. Empty, barren streets and the age-old scent of dried blood, cloying in the stillness of the tomb-like town.

Movement.

Lucius span, bringing his lasgun to his shoulder and dropping to his knee. “Boss!”

“What?” Rahvin’s reply was low and threatening, unwilling to accept distractions now.

“I… I saw something,” said Lucius. “Over there, behind that house. I swear it.” He was nervous at incurring Rahvin’s wrath.

“You better have…”

“I swear, boss. I saw it.”

Rahvin gestured with his free hand. “Show me.”

* * * * * *

Grath crouched behind the shattered wall, clutching his old, much-repaired autogun. They hadn’t seen him. He was sure.

He flipped his omm. down over his eye. The wavy image of his commander floated on the screen. “Sir.”

“Yes?” The voice that emerged into his ear through the microbead speaker was hazy and indistinct, distorted by static and the distance between them.

“I have located the target. The magus is accompanied by two others, a cultist and a mutant, both armed from what I saw. Sector four-eighteen…”

His voice trailed off as he heard the target’s voice over the intervening terrain. Damn. They had spotted him. He shut off the omm., hoping the general would understand, and pressed his back up against the coarse brickwork of the building.

Thinking fast, he climbed over the lowest point in the wall, a section that had been knocked in, or exploded, as the to half was gone and all that remained was a jagged v shape. He slipped up to the roof of the building, trying not to make a sound. Slithering over the cold, battered steel of the roof.

He would have only one chance at this.

* * * * * *

Lucius was almost to the side of the building when he glimpsed a dark shape fly off the roof. He whirled, just in time to see it slam into Khul, the muted thump of autogun slugs sounding from the tangle of limbs and flesh. He heard Khul screech in pain, then the assailant was thrown upwards, propelled into the air by Khul’s mutant strength.

The attacker hit the ground with a slap, his weapon skittering across the paving slabs. Lucius whipped his lasgun around, aiming it at the gasping figure.

“No!”

The command was loud and harsh, echoing over the rubble as Rahvin strode forwards, pistol held towards the man. Their assailant struggled to rise, groaning with what Lucius thought was a broken rib or two.

“You are a brave little man. Three of us and only one of you? How good of you to waste your last hours of life trying to rid the galaxy of scum like me.” Rahvin smiled. “Of course, there will be more of you. You wouldn’t have attacked if you were the only one.” He picked up the mans autogun. “And by the look of this, you’re military. The General’s finally found some guts, then. No matter.” Rahvin looked down at the straining form of the man. “I will be gone from here in a matter of hours, and with me will go the Planet.”

The man found strength to reply, his voice thick, filled with confusion. “The…the planet? What d-do you mean?” He coughed, blood spraying from his lips.

“Ah-ah-ah. That would be telling,” replied Rahvin, his voice mocking. “We can’t have you knowing too much, can we now?”

Lucius watched as Rahvin bent to the man, picking the omm. from his ear. He raised it to his face, pressing the activation rune. A hazy image appeared before Rahvin, recognisable as the General of the PDF.

The General’s voice was surprised and angry. “Grath? Who is this?”

“Hello, General.” Rahvin smiled at the omm.. “This is Rahvin. It’s nice to see me without the hood, isn’t it?”

“Rahv- Damn! You shall pay for your treachery, heretic!”

Rahvin pressed his pistol to the quivering man’s forehead. “Don’t despair about you man, General. His death will be much quicker than yours, I promise you.” Rahvin squeezed the trigger.

The bolt blew out the back of the man’s skull, detonating in the centre of his head. The man’s face disappeared, obliterated by a cloud of shrapnel, smoke and blood. The deafening sound bounced around the surroundings, echoing off buildings and down streets.

“Good bye, General.” Rahvin threw the comm. to the floor, then crushed it beneath his armoured heel.

Turning to Lucius and Khul, who was just recovering, the gaping wounds in his belly sealing themselves with inhuman speed, Rahvin gestured with his smoking pistol. “Move out.”

* * * * * *

General Wylk turned to his staff. They were clustered in the far corner of the command section, huddled away from his anger. He would not get angry. He couldn’t afford to get angry. But damn it, Grath was dead. He had been one of the General’s best Operatives.

Not any more.

Of course, there were other units in the field, even within one or two sectors of the traitor, but none of those were as good as Grath. None of them had been with him for nigh on ten years.

He stared blankly at the cowering aides cringing away from his burning eyes. “You all saw that.” They all nodded frantically. “Then why aren’t you doing something about it?” he exploded. “I shouldn’t need to order you to do every little thing! Get the damn PDF down here! I want men, tanks, aircraft, the lot! I mean to mipe that heretic from the face of this planet!”

He glared at the immobile officers and aides. “Well? Get moving!”

He used his anger to quash his grief. He turned back to the comm station and pounded his fist into the steel that held it against the wall. He would see that traitor dead. For the total chaos he had brought to the streets of Pavonis VI, but also for another.

He would do it for Grath.

* * * * * *

Lucius looked round as he entered the rundown building. It looked to have been a church once, before the riots. Strange to think they had been only a month before. Some were still ongoing, but for the most part, their ferocity had forced them to burn out quickly. After all, what do you destroy when the whole town is gone?

The floor was covered in broken slabs of granite, slabs that had once been the floor. Now, however, they simply lay atop a sheet of steel reinforcement that had been laid long ago to stop the building collapsing or sliding. The corners and sides of the building were littered with broken shards of stained glass, the windows having been smashed in by the rioters. Dust lay thick on everything, a rough coating that turned everything the smoky grey of smog, blending with the granite stonework of the walls and what remained of the floor.

Lucius raised his head from his study, glancing up at Rahvin. The magus had walked straight through the mess and right up to the back wall, where he stood before the altar. Slowly, he drew his ravening sword, the myriad hungering mouths that covered its edge gnashing at the cloying, dead air. Lucius grimaced as his master began to speak in hushed tones, guttural syllables falling from his daemonic visage.

A white shape flashed across the window in front of Lucius. Turning to the others, he whispered “The PDF are here.” He took cover below the sill of the arched window. “Khul, cover the door, but don’t let them see you until I say. Boss, how long you gonna be?” He flipped the selector on his lasgun, setting it to single fire.

Rahvin did not turn, or even answer. He simply waved his arm back at Lucius, all the while chanting in that grating tongue. Lucius shrugged to himself and turned back to Khul. The mutant was huddled in the shadow of one of the thick supporting columns, readying his cannon. Lucius nodded and risked a glance over the windowsill. He glimpsed another white shape, this one scurrying into the cover afforded by a blasted hab. He surveyed the scene, taking stock of the situation.

There were at least fifty of them, just from half-seen flashes of white armour among the ruins. More were probably already hidden, waiting to strike.

Rahvin better have a way out, or they were screwed.

Lucius thought frantically, trying to figure an approach to the situation that wouldn’t result in getting killed. He glanced around the church, looking for another exit. Nothing. Not even a basement. He turned back to the window, crouched out of sight of the soldiers moving up outside.

He winced as the rumble of an armoured vehicle echoed across the area, accompanied by the crunch of breaking rubble and crushed stonework. How was he going to get out of this? He had a couple of krak grenades, but nothing that could really hurt vehicles. Khul’s cannon could do some damage, but if it wasn’t from behind they would still die, and how could Khul get behind when they were surrounded?

He risked another glance out of the window, and saw the PDF spreading out to search the rest of the buildings, slowly but surely moving nearer and nearer to the church.

If he could have brought more men, they could have surrounded the PDF. He had some men with rocket launchers that could take out the vehicle, and the troopers would have fallen to the muties and his men. Damn Rahvin and his stealth. They were dead anyway.

He turned to Khul. “You still got that comm set?”

[IBBoard]

Sorry for the delay - I almost forgot this section was here!

"Ah-ah-ah. That would be telling,” replied Rahvin, his voice mocking.

I do like that little snippet It shows a good contempt for the Imperial soldier (at first I thought he was another Marine, but I'm guessing not due to the sections after the quote and the fact he was talking to a General - I guess he has an autogun too!)

One question I have, though: What's an "omm"? Or is it just a "comm" that you missed the 'c' off in the first couple of uses? You use it a couple of times, but it doesn't match anything I can think of seeing in the 40K universe

Definitely an interesting start to a story, and the description paints a good picture. Nice cliff-hanger to leave it on as well. You get a rough idea of what he might be planning, but still leave it as to how successful it might be.

[Rahvin_Dashiva]

The "omm" is a comm. Stupid crappy keyboard...

And thanks for the compliment! I'll post up the next section when I can. Big fight. Oh yes.

[IBBoard]

I know it's a bit late after your last post, but hopefully we'll see the conclusion of this. I've posted the start of it now under the title "Extremis Diabolus: Aftermath" as we already had a story called "Aftermath".

[Sociable Stream]

Nice i enjoyed it very much, it would be nice if you would post more stuff about Soldiers of the imperium in a different light of perspective like wounded soldiers before battle stuff.