Silas landed, the ground shattering under the impact of his
armour causing hisses off steam to erupt from the ground. The hydraulics of his
armour whirling slightly as he raised himself to standing, keying in a series
of commands on his gauntlet each one making a faint click has it was input, a
3D hologram off the mountain and the series of tunnels and caverns that
crisscrossed like a spiders web around its crust appeared on his visor's
display, a small green Dot marking his location. This excavation had been
extensive, each tunnel capable off allowing a Leman Russ to travel along it.
Despite their erratic nature the tunnels eventually all led back to one central
location that was being shielded from
any scans, this would be the final defensive point for the traitors
and no doubt lay at the heart of what they'd be searching for.
From the size of the blank spot in the scans it gave Silas a
guide to its true size, which he placed at about half a km high and over 2km in
length. Moving his hand swiftly Silas dispatched a squad of Reivers to one of
the tunnels that lay about a third of the way up the rock face.
The reiver squad moved quietly down the tunnel their helmets
optics cutting through the blackness and relaying a live feed back to Silas's
personal feed, so far there had be no contact with the enemy and the squad was
now only a few hundred meters from where the scanners started to black out. As
they moved into the area the feed became broken and would cut out for several
seconds at a time before returning and where there had be silence before there
was now a background noise that sounds like the whisper of a thousand souls.
"The stench of chaos fills every breath Captain” the sergeant voxed back
his voice distorted by the voices that where steadily becoming louder. Emerging
onto a cliff the feed fluctuated wildly before clearing and focusing on the
cavern below. The floor was covered in hundreds of small huts and buildings
blacken from ash and dust that filled the air, all centred around a large
temple like structure in the middle of the cavern.
The smell of decay and rot filled the tunnel and even though
his helmets filters Silas was repulsed by its potency as they advanced deeper
into the tunnels, something was different from the first battle on the surface
the foe.... had changed. The first heretics that emerged ploughed head first
into the advancing marines with no care for tactics or life, their bodies had
become warped and twisted and their skin had turned a sickly white and hung
slack on their bloated bodies. Where the traitors pressed they were met with
bolter fire and ceramite armour, Silas watched with satisfaction as his men
deployed to create overlapping fields of fire catching the advancing heretics
in kill boxes. Still they pushed forward throwing themselves at the line of
ceramite armour with no clear goal other than to kill and destroy. Has the
pressure continued to mount, Silas waited holding back till the right moment.
Bursting into life a transmission came though the static, broken but the
information was clear "Enemy command, neutralised" it read. Studying
the advancing lines Silas saw their advance falter, only slightly but it was
enough, "Advance!" Silas yelled his voice amplified be his helm and
his power sword crackling into life.
Within hours the advancing tide had been routed and all but
eradicated, their blood clogging the cavern floor. "Report" said
Silas as he removed his helmet and turn to the officer at his side, "Squad
Icarus took heavy losses but the geneseed has remained untainted and so will be
recovered. The enemy sustained heavy casualties in the battle but a small force
retreated before we arrived leaving a skeleton command to oversee the defence
and it is this force which we believe to contains whatever they had been
searching for and who had the knowledge of it's whereabouts, following their
retreat, breaching charges were detonated at the mouth of each tunnels sealing
then off from pursuing forces." "Very well, send this report back to
Arathorn and inform him of the extend at which the enemy when to defend this
site." Dismissing the officer Silas turned back towards the battlefield,
even with the mountain won and the enemy driven back Silas had a feeling they
had not seen the last of this foe.
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