But the Fates was not on their side again. The careless twisted hands of a renegade threw his rusty frag grenade into the rucksack while the others shouted "Brian, NOOOooo....!", but it was too late. The pin of the grenade was already arming. The last mistake of bad luck Brian, renegade guardsman. Jack grunted as he again was forced to hurl himself from the fools to escape the wham of the grenades detonating, followed by the shortlived cries of agony from the injured renegades.
"Incompetent maggots!" Jack's gave voice to his rage, which had reached deafening volumes.
Flying body parts enthralled the mercenaries and series of wet slaps as chunks of gore sprayed all over the corridor. Moking Laughs reverberated around the corridor. At least something for warming up during strangely changed temperatures.
As all this occurred, Makroth said to himself ''I haven't seen such a rare spectacle in years.'' and began laughing.
''I say we take some of the rubble left after your little stunt, and use it as cover. We'll push it forward, while moving under the cover of the rubble, and when we are close enough, throw a handful of grenades into their trenches and blast them into a million pieces.'' Makroth suggested. Iron Warriors are masters of siege warfare and as such, it came as no surprise that Makroth excellent suggestion would favour his Legions preferred tactics, and their practical nature.
"Lets roast them out, brother!" Jack almost foamed, his fury had grown to monumental levels and spewed out several gulps from his Betcher's Gland towards the renegades. They were already trembling with fear and now that those acid spits had almost blinded one, theyy looked ready to break, but what could they do? There mistake to take on this contract was clear to see, they would be killed if they fled and almost certainly die if they didn't.
The servos in Jack's power armour whined and groaned as they worked the false muscles in his suit. They took him away from the still shocked renegades, propelling Jack to the crack in the wall. "Help me move this chunk off wall" He hissed as rubble fell from the crack and clattered on the floor.
In the meantime, Acastus, feeling that he was finally able to pierce the dark fortress that was Tarves mind, attempted to learn more from the warpsmith about the circumstances of his findings:
"I notice that you have amassed quite a fortune." Actastus intoned by way of an ice breaker
"I have amassed one or two pretty trinkets, yes, is there something in particular that has your eye?" Tarves could tell that the thousand sun was after something.
"You are perceptive. But you should realise that I would appreciate it if you recounted what you collected within the last few months." went on getting closer to the matter at hand, but approaching it with all due care, as to not give the game away.
"You mean other than these foul cretins?" Tarves gave a sinister chuckle, someone had to make light of this whole mess.
"Hah. But yes, they appear to be of little interest to almost anyone." Acastus Agreed
"True, but enough of this, your skirting around like I am a damsel to be won, out with it man." Tarves was clearly running out of his limited patience, he wanted to know wht was so important that the Thousand sun would care what he thought.
"Ah, but I believe that we can be reasonable people, and you do have a list of such items. I hope that we both understand that a possibility of deception is best kept as small as possible." Acastus continued, clearly with a goal in mind.
"Tell you what Acastus, help me clean my ship of these foul cretins and convince the others to be reasonable and afterwards you can have your pick from my treasury, how does that sound?" Tarves did not really care what the sorcerer wanted but if it helped him get his ship back he was more than happy to let him have it.
"That seems fair. I will see to what can be done." Acastus intoned, getting ever closer to his goal.
"Glad to have you on board." and with that the concord was struck, and the deal made.
Makroth came close to the wall and gripped the weak spots near the cracks.
"One.... Two...." Jack began counting and with a violent tug shouted "Three!!".
The wall wailed and shriekedas the force brought to bear by the mighty legionnaires forced it to moved little by little. On Medrengard, they say, everything that happens once can never happen again, but everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time. Suddenly, the ping-whine of tearing metals echoed throughout the facility, accentuated by the intermittent bang of lift doors as three figures barrelled through smoke near hallway. The wall was reduced to chunks of metallic rubble and fell over under the force of the traitor marines and they instinctively jumped back readying their weapons, to face whoever had just appeared.
A huge towering monstrosity the light gleaming of its carapace and saliva dripping from its gapping maw lined with far to many teeth. It appeared that a Broodlord had burst out of vents and was ready to reduce its intended victims to bloody chunks with its impossibly sharp claws.
But it didn't even get to take a single step.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!" with these words, a boltgun thundered into life, beating over the beasts roars with the 'thwump-crack' of each shot. Rocket-propelled shells streaked forward, slamming into the monster's hardened exoskeleton. "I WILL BE TEARING YOU LIMB FROM LIMB FROM LIMB UNTIL THIS SHIP IS PAINTED RED WITH YOUR INNARDS BEAST!". Finally, Jack and Makroth saw what the fuss was about. A marine in clad in armour lined with brass and the majority of which was coloured the scabrous red of a healing wound, except the shoulder plates which where the dark black-grey of a dying ember, furiously fought side by side together with two human heretics. Jack and Makroth noticed this and the many pairs of eyes radiating hunger from all around - a full brood of genestealers!.
"Are those fighters with us? Damnation! They will thank me, before death's embrace causes their lids to close." Jack smirked and readied his trusted death messenger - the boltgun.
''Finally, foes worthy of my blade!'' Makroth yelled eagerly. ''IRON WITHIN! IRON WITHOUT!''
Meanwhile the commotion had drawn the attention of the rest of the group at the terminal, they reacted quickly and realised that they needed the rest of the group as much as the group needed them right now and started to move.
With a keening shriek that hurt the ears the xenos rushed the Berzerker and his group, almost disembowling one of the less fortunate minions of the marine with one swipe. As ferocious as their assault was it was a limited success for the aliens, however, and the warband's leader managed to avoid all but one attack. Unconcerned with the minor wound or the threat his enemies posed, the Khornate warrior prepared to return the blow with vengence.
Meanwhile a single genestealer circumnavigated the wall that stood between it and Jack, flailing its talons as it was trying to reach his armour, like a mewling babe for food.
"Borthers, rejoice! For blood donors shows themselves!" and Jack chuckled heartedly though he preferred the subtlety of backstabbing tactics and subterfuge to a plain head-on scrap, like the preferred method of khorne followers do, he still enjoyed a good fight. He aimed at the inadequately effective alien and pumped a burst from his bolt pistol into its body, though all stray. "Slippery muck! Stay still! It's feeding time for you!" Jack mocked the genestealer.
Makroth quickly jumped into the fray, and charged the geanestealer attacking Jack. A Space Marine is a super human soldier who has almost no match in speed and of course this also the case with the Traitor Astartes.
But there are always exceptions.
The genestealer is a creature with no rival in speed and agility, and so it dodges Makroth's chainsword by mere inches.
''FILTHY ABOMINATION! YOU WON'T ELUDE ME! I'LL GUT YOU YET!'' The Iron Warrior roared at the Xenos with deafening volume.
The marine in red gave a roaring battle-cry while throttling his chainaxe to make it sing singing an angry buzzing song of doom, Eager for its turn to shed any foe's life fluid. With a violent twist he slams himself into the fray and rewards the chainaxe's eagerness by ramming it into the aliens hardened body caking the axe with gore. All the while he was pumping bolts from the bolt pistol into its centre mass. The sheer force of the combined attack pummelled the broodlord backwards and to the floor.
Both of the minions followed it's master example though, much to their chagrin, their chainsword and chain greataxe went clean through air rather through the nearby genestealers.
It was getting boring for those in the trenches, though strange war sounds echoed from corridors. Some mercenaries adjusted their positions for the better aim, others for comfort. It was getting bitterly cold now.
The remaining members of the renegade phalanx turned back and brought their own fire-power into play, disciplined overlapping fields of fire swept the area. The snap-crack of lasgun reports filled the air between genestealers and on occasion struck home, though when they did it had all the effect of a gnat trying to kill a Catachan Devil. The other renegades still further down fainted through fear.
With an intensity borne of hatred the genstealers tried to rid themselves of these foes who would dare harm their Broodlord. The one fighting Jack and Markoth let loose with a blind flurry almost taking out one of Jacks eyes, if not for a deft dodge from the marine at the last second, leaving its claw whistling through empty space. The other warband faced a similar enraged foe, letting loose with there razor sharp claws, however the bounty hunter miraculously emerged unscathed from the flurry. The same could not be said of his companion however as a bladed claw found purchase in the meat of his shoulder and tore it open. The broodlord rose to its feat, clearly a bit unstable and rushed in for the kill however it had miscalculated and its blows went wide of the mark, the chaos marine giving a mocking smirk in response.
The group down the hall quickened there pace as they continued towards the others. Tarves broke into an even faster pace and dashed out of the junction to a sight he could barely believe, he readied himself to join the fray.
The Legionnaire boltpistol, decorated with a hydra scale design so common amongst the Alpha legion, was levelled at the genestealer that had dared to attack Jack, and with two loud barks had sent two .50 shells spinning into vulnerable flesh between plates of armoured chitin. The beast roars in pain, vital fluids pouring from the two craters gouged in its chest. "With this bolt pistol, I cast your worthless blood, corpse and soul to be trampled by our feet! Brother, split this foul xenos open!" Jack roared.
Makroth was all too happy to oblige, with a tremendous throttle, he smashed the chainsword viciously into the beasts arm, where it caught, chugging out flesh and viscera everywhere as it bit deeper into the monster before finally tearing free, the creature again wailed in pain, though this time it seemed to have lost a lot of its strength.
Meanwhile the Marine in Red does a merry dance around the broodlord, first doing a surprisingly graceful feint then following home with a high and low attack, bringing his chainaxe across the broodlords thigh before blasting it in the chest. He must have hit something important as blood begun to rupture everywhere coating the area in a slippery florescent green ichor. His followers spurred on by his actions followed suit both actually hitting their intended targets this time, the bounty hunter to minimal effect, however the khornate human decided that he had had enough and went into a shocking flurry of blows, ripping apart the genestealers leg and throwing it to the ground.
The renegades seeing that there leader was leaving them behind ran towards their leader Tarves, Actaves. The Mercenaries were getting uncomfortable with all this waiting, what in the warps name was going on down there.
the lone genestealer sprung at Makroth ripping into him with a fury and speed born of vengeance Makroth was wrong footed and couldn't escape the claws as they found purchase in the softer joints of his armour, pain lanced through his body but the monster never got a fatal blow. In the Mass melee in the corridor the genestealers and heretics clashed, blades and claws flew in all directions. The Genestealer fighting the bounty hunter found his mark ripping its claws through his leg and tearing it off with a meaty ripping noise, blood washed out of the wound in waves and miraculously the bounty hunter went down, but somehow clung to life, letting out deep moans of pain and suffering as his life force spilled out his stump. The Khornate warrior spun his axe around in great whirling arks, managing to keep one genstealer at bay while the broodlord and the marine lock gazes, somehow locking the Krayth into a trance, only second later to be distracted by the mocking voice of Tarves breaking through the din of combat.
"I must axe you to leave my ship, scum!" and with that Tarves drove home his barbed toothed axe into the base of the Broodlords spine, making it wail in anguish as if distracting it mid power had somehow cost it something.
"Not. Enough. Red. Paint!". Jacks's voice echoed around the ship, each word as loud and violent as a bolter's bark and each word punctuated with a blast from his bolt pistol. The brief yet merciless outburst could have been mistaken for a storm bolter firing of a burst. The beast that had been fighting Makroth and jack was riddled full of bolt shells whos mass reactive rounds shredded his exoskeleton from the inside and spreading more vicera and gore into the air to add to the already blood-splattered battlefield.
Seeing the fountain of blood and hearing Jack's request, Makroth responded "I'll tear it's insides with adamantite teeth!" quickly sheathing his chainsword and spinning out his pistol from his holster and lets its song join that of his bolter and hurled a torrent of bolts toward one of the genestealer fighting unknown warrior down corridor, and was rewarded with a screech of pain as his bolts hit home.
With the hypnotic gaze of the Broodlord disrupted the red clad marine managed to break free and and decided to rip the Broodlord apart, meanwhile on the floor the bounty hunters moans had taken on a steadier level. Like he had somehow managed to stabilise.
The Khorne warriors whirlwind of shrieking blades struck again smashing into one and decapitating the other in a bloody ballet of violence.
The Blood and viscera was beginning to slop around the feet of the combatants making the footing both slippy and sticky at the same time.
The renegades finally got there stuff together and following a nod from Tarves launched a barrage of grenades into the me-lee , though the poorly trained wretches managed to fumble their aim. the shower of grenades dropped between the khornate warrior and Tarve's group of renegades before exploding in a maelstrom of shrapnel.
After the cloud of smoke and flame has died down one genstealer and the renegade group had been torn asunder in the storm of bloodshed.
Acastus reached deep within the warp and brought forth the power deep within, several bolts of pure energy blasted from his hand however the chaos of the battle had somehow lessened the force of these blast, leaving the broodlord and the marine almost unharmed.
The Broodlord spun round and sent a furios series of swipes at Tarves, as Tarves threw everything into a swipe at the Broodlords neck. The claws failed to find any purchase until the final swipe where one of the claws scored a shallow slash across his throat, this was enough to throw of Tarves aim by enough that the axe missed its target and sunk into the pooling blood on the floor flash boiling it in an instant.
Then Jack raised his arms aimed, and bellowed "Taste this, you ugly mama!" and launched towards the broodlord a legionnaire frag grenade. The Broodlord, Tarves and marine in red almost felt a scratch, almost. however the Khornate warrior was not so lucky almost cooked and his leg shredded into mince, though alive, probably from the dark gods favour, he probably wished he was not. The other minion just burned, either dead or unconscious.
After Jack's shout,and attack Makroth continued his bolt weapons loud mouthed tirade, rocket propelled bolts burst the brood lords head like an overripe watermelon. plastering all around in xenos blood and cranial tissue.
"Now this is an artwork, wouldn't you agree Alpharius?"
"You might be one of the best artist I have seen, brother Makroth" Jack responded with a chuckle.
"Blood! Skulls! Blood! Skulls!" For the the red marine there was nothing but targets in this corridor, Skulls and blood to who served, blood and skulls for he who raged, that was all that mattered to Krayth. He attacked the only genestealer still alive but failed as an explosion made him disoriented.
Acastus continued raining shadowy bolts towards the unknown red clad marine, but he he hardly felt anything.
For the remaining genestealer it was a nightmare, he had lost his connection with the hivemind with the broodlords death and this caused his fragile bestial brain to snap sending it into a fury the god of blood would have been proud of and took the marines leg of at the hip in a wit and slap of gore. The marine fell screaming, even his final words before collapse gave praise to his master "Blooo...d..!".
It appears that his service to the ruinous powers had not gone without favour, as it appears the bloodgod was not finished with him yet, as he continued to live.
The entire corridor was unrecognisable as of splashes of crimson lined the walls and the floor was a pool of blood with gore and bits of appendage floating around in it.
After the fight, the Chaos Space Marines began stripping loot from their fallen enemies. Makroth took the Berzerkers Chain axe and held it in the air, admiring its craftsmanship. He smiled as a child who just got a new toy.
After they had looted their fallen enemies, they had to decide what to do with the prisoners. They eventually came to the agreement that the fate of the berzerker would be decided after they had taken the ship. His two lackeys however...
Makroth throttled his new chainaxe into life and took the head of the Khornate minion, adding more blood to the pools around them. He picked up the decapitated head and watched the blood flowing down on the floor, savoring the first kill with his new weapon.
Jack operated the heart of broodlord, for he wanted a trophy.
"Brother Tarves, Fighting along you is a joy." Jack showed his acknowledgement.
"Haha, anytime" chuckled Tarves.
"Though we should continue to the bridge. I and Makroth devised a plan to use this laying chunk of wall as cover while we move to their trenches in order to be in good range to rain grenades" with serious voice Jack continued.
"We will make short work of these wretches, now that we have slaughtered their ''leader''. I bet they're soiling themselves up there."Makroth boomed.
"We won the fight, but there still war to win, brother Makroth. " Jack was concerned.
"Always." Makroth agreed.
"Remember to not underestimate our enemies' cohesion and communications. We should take into account that our flank may be exposed" Acastus was concerned too
"Right you are , too" Jack nodded.
"Just that knowledge will have to do, for now" Acastus added.
With theese words ended, Jack, Tarves and Makroth took a chunk of wall and readied their pushing assault. Mercenaries did not expect such tactic at all. The marines suddenly pushed a three meter wall, which fully covered them and Acastus with renegades. As they appeared in corridor, mercenaries opened their heavy stubber rain, tough it did little to nothin to the cover as it neared.
The sudden burst of barrange made the guests pinned, though not for long. The marines pushed once more. The Mercenaries switched to hellguns and continued their barrage though it still was ineffective before this one meter block of metal wall. The Chaos Marines pushed once more and each threw a grenade over the wall towards mercenaries in trenches. All but Jack's took alines of many mercenaries. That did not stop them from continuing their hell gun hellupon the wall. Then Jack, Makroth and Tarves toppled the wall and opened the bolt bark while reducing mercenaries in count again. Renegades rained grenades on mercenaries too. Acastus finished them with his arcane magic bolts. The tactics of the marines met no match against the puny humans. The first line of trenches were destroyed.
Tarves took communication device from one of the dead mercenaries and hacked it to play in loop "You are ours! You will Die!". At the same time, something sinister finally escaped its prison in bridge. It made sure, anybody there would get what they deserved. That, along with the sounds over the vox, terrified and scared the mercernaries so bad that they were immobilized. Meanwhile, a new and much bigger rival warband boarded the ships another end.
The traitor marines made their way to the bridge, effortlessly slaying their opposition. The disorganised rabble and mercenaries defending the entrance to the chaos space marines' destination, proved to be an insignificant threat after the defeat of the broodlord.
As the doors to the bridge opened, they witnessed the image of the burning and maimed mutineers, the massacre wrought by a large bird-like creature. A lord of change. Apparently not interested in fighting the intruders, the daemon distracted them with a token of notice of his patron - the god's gifts, as it disappeared in a flash of white light.
With the bridge secured, the four assumed command of the ship. The remaning crew who had been infected with the genestealer DNA was slaughtered to a man. The warband swore allegiance to the new masters of the ship. It was that or be vented into the cold void. The crew who hadn't been infected where more than happy to serve the warriors that saved them from the xeno. After this, the traitor legionair's took the shuttle back to Q'sal.
The sorcerer was happy for the artifact brought by marines. So happy infact, that he comepletely forgot about the fact he had only hired 2 marines, yet here there were 4. They asked if there was anything more they could do, but the sadist just shushed them. He was already planing for rituals to come on the new altar. But lastly added, that they could go to Zhu'palos, a world on the border of the Screaming Vortex. Many rogue traders come there to trade resources and services. Satisfied with the 95 thousand slaves and the wargear they where rewarded, the marines flew back to their new partly stolen and reclaimed Cruiser. The cruiser was not a simple void boat, but a Mars-class Battlecruiser. The Mars-class is a powerful starship of the Imperial Navy and a very common and respected sight across Imperial space. It represents the apex of human engineering in space combat and it is a truly multi-role vessel capable of engaging and defeating a large variety of threats to Imperial dominance in the Milky Way Galaxy. The Mars-class is well armed and equipped for its multiple roles and it mounts a Nova Cannon, a lance battery, fighter/bomber launch bays and multiple other point defence weapons batteries. The Traitor Marines would use it for a very diffrent, and much darker purpose, than what was originaly intended for this once proud vessel. They talked and settled on naming the warband "Heralds of Ruination". They also named their ship ''Murderboat''.
Owning a ship was not enough. They needed a base and that became their next objective. Thus, the journey begun. Zhu'palos was a good place to scout for planets. Just before they flew, they made several acquisitions to improve their gear. Bartering away much of their wargear, Makroth, Jack and Acastus were able to aquire 3 suits of Tactical Dreadnought Armour. Makroth now wore his Terminator armour along with a legion power mace and a reaper autocannon. Acastus used the favour that Tarves promised to act upon - let the Son pick a single item from his collection, to get a Warp Staff. A promising weapon, it was at least somewhat sufficient as a compensation for the lack of what Acastus pursued. Now, clad in a terminator armour adorned with his legion's imagery and heraldry and armed with the staff and a newly possessed force sword, he determined to employ the group's efforts to his advantage.
Zhu'palos, a necron tomb world, was won over by chaos while many ominous obelisk structures were left still intact, though chaos had already touched it by a small margin. They preached not for deities, but chaos itself. Most of the warriors during the war were beastmen. They filled the world populace after the war and elected their leader, Beastking Arthas Dracula, through blooddy arena fights. He is an undefeated warrior of the world. Not every one of them were just plain brutes, some of them searched the path for knowledge. With a help of the current literate advisor Great Shaman Bear Nerd'd, they build a quite successful trading economy through various rogue traders and pirates. In time, Bear successfully made the king his puppet thanks to his psychic powers. The king was rarely challenged and even if somebody did, they disappeared as even ran from fear of the battle. Little did anybody know, it was Bear's work. He would do anything to prevent his puppet lose the governance.