The Beast Arises

‘The blisternest, or what’s left of it,’ said Diligent. ‘And survivors.’

The survivors of the original undertaking assault had taken shelter in the ruins of the blisternest, using its structure to weather out the worst the gravity storms threw at them. They had, in the weeks since, constructed a makeshift stockade from boulders, wreckage and parts of the nest structure.

Inside the jagged walls, there were men from Ballad Gateway, Hemispheric, Anterior Six Gate and Daylight walls, about one hundred and thirty of them all told, together with a few, fragile servitors. There was no substantial equipment, no heavy weapons or vehicles with them, and precious little munitions supply.

First Captain Algerin of Hemispheric had command.

‘Well met in bad days,’ he said to Severance and Daylight. He looked at Daylight, and at Tranquility and Zarathustra nearby.

‘You left the walls unguarded to come for us? I’m not sure I approve.’

‘You’re not the first person to express that thought, captain,’ said Daylight. ‘We made our choice. The Chapter was beset.’

‘Worse than beset,’ said Algerin. His voice dropped. ‘Worse than beset.’

He looked at the ground. His armour was almost black with filth, and it showed hundreds of nicks and gouges from Chrome claws.

‘The Chapter Master is dead,’ he said, aiming each word like a las-bolt at the ground. ‘He reached the surface by teleport before the flagship was lost. He came to us. He was with us for three weeks. Chromes took him. Rent him. There were three hundred of us then. They wear us down. There are so many of them. Attrition, the coward’s tactic.’

Algerin looked at them.

‘He was so angry,’ he said. ‘Mirhen, such a great man, but so angry. He railed at the gods, at the stars, to see his fleet wrecked and his Chapter shredded, and the honour that has carried us through at the forefront of all Chapters, since the very start, shredded away… by animals. By vermin and a crooked planet.’

He took a breath.

‘They killed him because of his anger, you know,’ he said. ‘He wanted to kill them. He wanted to kill them all, but there were too many. I tried to pull him back. He—’

Algerin stopped. He looked at Daylight.

‘You have brought ships to take us off here, wall-brother?’ he asked.

‘I have,’ replied Daylight. ‘But conditions are still bad. We have to devise a way for them to get close enough to effect evac.’

‘I don’t think conditions will improve,’ said Algerin. ‘Not any time soon.’

He looked up as Severance’s men brought the Asmodai stragglers into the makeshift fortification.

‘Men,’ he said, unimpressed. ‘They will not last long. We had about fifty auxiliaries with us at the start. The noises drove them mad in the first week. We had to… It wasn’t a good situation. Only one of them survived. I suspect it’s because he was scatter-brained to begin with. He’s determined though, I’ll give him that. Determined to puzzle it out.’

‘What do you mean?’ asked Daylight.

‘See for yourself,’ Algerin invited. ‘He’s with one of yours.’

‘I am Slaughter,’ said the second captain of Daylight Wall Company.

‘I am… Daylight,’ said Daylight.

‘I’m glad of the sight of you,’ said Slaughter. ‘You came for us. That won’t be forgotten.’

Daylight nodded. ‘I am heartened to hear that sentiment from one mouth at least. Who is your charge here?’ he asked. A bedraggled and filthy human in ragged robes was hunkered in the corner of the nest chamber, working at various pieces of Imperial apparatus. The devices, stacked and piled against the chamber wall, many of them damaged, were running off battery power. Several of them had clearly been customised, refitted, or repurposed.

‘He is the magos biologis sent to accompany our mission,’ Slaughter explained. The chamber was gloomy and dank, part of the surviving underground burrows of the blisternest. Water dripped from the organic arch of the roof.

‘He was supposed to study the xenoforms while we killed them. I was set to guard him when our fortunes changed. I’ve been doing that ever since, pretty much.’

They approached the scientist. He was intent on his work, muttering to himself. He was in need of a decent shave. His hair, dirty and unruly, had been clipped back in a bunch using the bent clasp of an ammunition pack.

‘His name is Laurentis,’ said Slaughter.

‘Magos,’ said Daylight, crouching beside the magos biologis. ‘Magos? I am Daylight.’

Laurentis looked at him for a moment.

‘Oh, a new one,’ he said. ‘You’re new. He’s new, Slaughter. See? See, there? I’m beginning to tell you apart.’

He smiled.

Noise bursts echoed outside the chamber, and Laurentis winced and rubbed his ears roughly with begrimed knuckles.

‘The wavelength is changing. It’s changing. Today, and these last few days. Greater intensity. Yes, greater intensity.’

The magos biologis looked at them as if they might understand.

‘I had specialist equipment,’ he said. ‘I was sent it by the Chapter Master himself…’

He paused, and thought, his eyes darkening.

‘He’s dead now, isn’t he?’

‘Yes,’ said Slaughter.