Warhammer 40k: The Harmony Crusade

                                                                                    Chapter 3

                                                                                    Sabotage

The Lunar-class Imperial cruiser Hammer's Retribution sped through the warp, engines burning as it made good speed towards the Imperial Navy world of Hydraphur.

Inquisitor Hallaman sat at the bridge, compiling a full mission report for his superiors on Cadia. He would be returning back there after the prisoner had been successfully handed over to the interrogation authorities on Enceladus. It would be nice to return to his homeworld again for a while, but that was another three and a half months away. It was a two-week voyage to Hydraphur, where they would be dropping the surviving elements of the Cadian 412th, then a month from there to the Sol system and Enceladus, where the Grey Knights would depart to their fortress-monastery on Titan, then two months from there back to Cadia.

He sighed and rubbed his head. His superiors would just have to wait, and they would not be happy about the enemy's plans coming so close to fruition. He could not blame Justicar Vakarrian and the rest of the Grey Knights, it was his mission and his responsibility. He'd probably be put on probation for near-failure, the Ordo Malleus didn't become so effective for being soft on it's Inquisitors and it's troops.

But oh well, he was scheduled for three weeks shore leave when he got back, and Abaddon probably wouldn't be pulling anymore Black Crusades out of his arse for a while after the defeat of the Thirteenth five years ago, so him and his retinue would have time to relax. Well, if you call relaxing catching up on tedious paperwork while Levin was constantly firing off rounds at the shooting range and Umbra was cutting up the targets at his sparring gym with her C'tan Phase Sword.

He sighed again and stood up. This vessel was five kilometres long, and he was going to take a walk.

“That's a load of crap!” exclaimed Captain Belknap, as he realised that Sergeant Roland had once again beaten him at regicide.

“It's called skill, Captain” replied Roland calmly, beginning to pack up the board and pieces, “Now, I believe you owe me something?”

Belknap groaned and pulled out a packette of cigarettes, handing them over. “I'm almost all out. I'm gonna have to stop making bets” he said.

“You seemed fine with making them when we were down on the battlefield”

“Sometimes risks have to be taken. There were men's lives at stake down there, not just a simple packet of smokes” He swung himself onto bunk and began cleaning his lasrifle, still blackened from the mud and dirt of the battlefield.

“You did good down there, Captain, we wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for you”

“Thank the Emperor for good luck, and that that Blood Raven was in a forgiving mood” he laughed.

“I still can't believe we got away with that. If our commanders were still alive, we probably would have been punished or executed”

“We're Kasrkin. I'm sure we're not that expendable”

“Perhaps. But that reminds me, I have something for you” said Roland, reaching under his bunk and pulling something out of his backpack.

“This isn't a coming out speech is it? Your not gonna try anything on me?”

“....What?”

“Don't worry Roland, I trust you” he chuckled.

“Oh, fuck off” he laughed, “This was in Rex's backpack, I'm sure you'll like it”

He handed Belknap a picture frame. It was a picture of him and Rex on shore leave outside their favourite bar back on Cadia. Both men were smiling. He remembered that, it was six months after the remains of the Thirteenth Black Crusade had been driven back into the Eye Of Terror.

“I can't believe he kept this” said Belknap.

“A reminder of home. Remember the punch-up you guys had with those loudmouths from the 413th?”

He laughed. “Hell yeah! Bastards had no clue we were Kasrkin, we took them to the fucking cleaners! Whole place was cheering for us after we threw them out!”

“Good times, eh?”

He smiled wistfully, “Yeah. Hopefully there'll be more to come...”

Brother Tarrik knelt at the ship's chapel, murmuring the Rites Of Purification as he did after every battle. He wore nothing but a black bodyglove, his armour and weapons being recharged and repaired by the tech-priests at the armoury. His hands were placed in the sign of the aquila across his chest. He prayed to purify his mind and body from the taint of Chaos, but also for forgiveness that he had almost failed his mission.

“I am the Hammer, I am the Sword, I am the Spear, I am the Shield, I am the soldier at the End Of Time. Ave Imperator”

He finished as he got up and bowed to the altar. He lit a candle at the side for the fallen battle-brothers of the Blood Ravens and the soldiers of Cadia, and made to leave.

He heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Brother Tarses walking between the pews towards him.

“Greetings, Brother” said Tarrik.

“Same to you” said Tarses, who had never been big on formality. “How're you holding up?”

“I've recovered. But then again, there wasn't really any damage in the first place. It's something you should probably be asking Anvar”

“He's out of the infirmary now. It's nothing his body couldn't handle by itself if need be, but he's been given minor surgery, bandaged up and given some drugs to help him on the way”

“Really? We've only been in transit a few hours”

“The medics work fast. He's lucky it was only a clean glancing shot, it could have been a lot worse, and his armour is being repaired now. He's in the sparring hall with Kaska and Vakarrian. Come on, I'm sure you'll want to see Vakarrian kick Kaska's arse again”

“Kaska knows he's going to lose. Why did he volunteer to get the shit kicked out of him?”

“A mixture of boredom and still being sour about missing out on fighting the daemon”

“Ah” said Tarrik.

They hurried through the halls, towards the sparring hall.

“How long do you reckon it will be until our next deployment? I mean, after we return to Titan?” asked Tarses.

“I don't know” replied Tarrik, “Things have calmed down a bit since the end of the last Black Crusade. The number of daemonic incursions have decreased in Segmentums Obscurus, Solar and Pacificus. It's gotten to the point where it's nothing the local Guard or Astartes can't handle. It took two years for us just be to be called in for this one, but only because it was serious. Maybe we could get called out for long-haul operative duty around the Maelstrom, or the Eastern Fringe around Segmentums Tempestus or Ultima, just like those squads from the 8th company, but I doubt it. I know you hate hanging around Titan, but until Chaos decides to stop crying it's eyes out after it's last big failure, we're probably only gonna be stuck with the occasional mission to sort out something that can't be readily handled”

“Hmm..”

They rounded the corner to the sparring hall just in time to see Vakarrian block a uppercut from Kaska, and take advantage of his exposed torso to swing in a devastating punch that sprawled Kaska across the floor.

Kaska slowly rose to his feet and bowed, making the sign of the aquila across his chest. “Good fight, Justicar” he remarked.

“Same to you Brother, but remember to anticipate and block next time. It would help, especially since you take longer to recover from swings of your hammer due to weight” Vakarrian replied, taking up a combat stance, “Rematch?”

Tarrik and Tarses walked over to Anvar as Kaska renewed his attack, who was sitting on a bench on the far side of the room, his exposed shoulder wrapped in bandages.

“How're your shoulder?” asked Tarrik as he and Tarses took a seat next to him.

“Not too bad” said Kaska, “The shot missed any major muscles and the wound was clean. It should be healed enough to effectively carry my Incinerator again within the next day”

“With the decreased amount of missions lately, I doubt you'll be needing it” replied Tarses sombrely.

“I know what you mean Brother, but have faith” he said as he looked over to see Vakarrian once again knock Kaska onto his back.

Sorcerer Sonorious kept to the shadows, avoiding the light of the aft bay as he crept round the corner towards the prison cells. He turned to Arazakh and Mhotep, “You two go to the engine room. When I give the signal, disable the ship's Gellar fields, void shields and engines, let the daemons aboard. We will cripple this ship from the inside, and the let the crew die or be killed. I will go after the prisoner, he failed us, and for that, there will be punishment”

“And what will become of us once the ship has been exposed to the warp?” growled Arazakh.

“Ahriman knows of our plans. The daemons know not to attack us, and a recovery squad will be coming for us”

“Very well. We will contact you when we reach the engine room”

“Tzeentch watches over you, sons of Magnus” Sonorious bid them, as they went their separate ways.

The heretic Klinus sat snivelling in his tiny, dank cell, the cold stone floor no better than the wooden bench that was his bed. He had failed, his dreams of the warp ripped away from him by the thrice-damned Imperium and that thrice-damned Inquisitor. Death to them he growled in his mind, Death to them and to the false corpse-Emperor.

His head jerked upwards as he heard two loud bangs, and the two Inquisitional soldiers guarding the cell fell back in a shower of blood. A towering figure stepped into view, the muzzle of his bolt pistol still smoking as his blue and gold power armour glinted in the darkness, the red eyes of his helmet glowing.

“Master!” cried Klinus, falling forward as he bowed, “You came to rescue me!”

“Shut up!” roared Sonorious, raising a hand. He curled his warp powers around the cultist's neck, picking him up and slamming him against the far wall. “You failed, Klinus” he growled.

“N- No” the cultist spluttered, “The daemon was b- birthed...”

“That wasn't a birth, that was a fucking miscarriage!” he shouted, his voice echoing around the small cell as he smashed the cultist against the wall a second time, “You know the price for failure, Klinus...”

“No, wait!” Klinus cried in a final attempt to save himself. The cultist screamed as Sonorious tightened his grip on the warp, crushing every bone in the heretic's body and turning him inside out, spraying blood and organs all over the cell and corridor. Sonorious grimaced as he turned away, wiping splatters of gore from his eye-lenses with a gauntleted hand.

Inquisitor Hallaman was walking through the aft bay when he heard two loud gunshots from the direction of the holding cells. He immediately broke into a run as he shouted into his comlink, “Magos, send a containment squad to the holding cells now! The prisoner is possibly loose, and I want a full bio-scan of the ship, search reference non-Imperial life-forms!”

He froze as he rounded the corner. There, towering in the corridor, facing away from him, stood a space marine, garbed in the armour of the Thousand Sons. A Traitor Marine. Hallaman noticed the marine was covered in gore and blood, as was much of the cell. Well fuck he thought, drawing his bolt pistol, This is gonna make one hell of a report to my superiors.

He backed away, taking aim with one hand while raising his comlink to his mouth and changing the frequency to Justicar Vakarrian's, “Justicar” he whispered, “We have traitor marines in the prison block, near the aft bay, grab your gear and reinforce now!”

Unfortunately, the marine decided just then to turn around. He saw the Inquisitor backing away, and drew his bolt pistol. Hallaman dived into cover as he backed into the aft bay, the explosive bolts flying over his head. The marine followed him out, his eyes glinting as he swivelled his head round for his target. A squad of Inquisitional Guards rounded the corner in front of him and opened fire with their lasguns, peppering the marine with lasfire, to no effect.

The marine became enraged, shooting two of the guards and forcing the rest to duck into cover before moving back towards the opposite corridor that led to the engine room.

“Bio-scan complete” came the voice of Magos Tevlan through Hallaman's comlink. “Scans reveal an unknown space marine in the aft bay. Have you seen him?”

“I'm fighting him right now!” yelled back Hallaman.

“Oh, well you should probably know that it would appear he has two more comrades in the engine room”

Sonorious backed off down the corridor, taking potshots with his bolt pistol as he ran. It was now or never.

“Do it now!” he shouted into his comlink.

“It will be done” replied Arazakh as he shot the last servitor off of the maintenance ramp, “Mhotep, cut the engines!”

Mhotep pulled the levers to deactivate the engines and opened fire with his bolter, utterly destroying the console. Arazakh did the same with the Gellar field and void shield generators. “There” he said, “Now they can't reactivate them unless they come down here. Let's go, the sorcerer needs us”

Both marines ran out of the engine room as daemons began clawing at the hull.

“Gellar fields down! Gellar fields down!” shouted Tevlan over the ship's intercom.

Hallaman screamed as the ship was exposed to the warp, his pycho-sensitive mind burning with pain. He knew the daemons would be trying to get inside to feast on the crew. “Magos! Cut the warp drives now!” he yelled into the comms.

“It is too dangerous” replied Tevlan, “We could easily re-enter in the heart of a star, or the ship could tear itself apart without the protection of the void shields and Gellar fields, or-”

“Shut up and do it!” shouted Hallaman.

“I cannot shut it off directly. An exit point must be formulated. I estimate ten minutes until warp expulsion, with a twelve point one-three percent chance of survival”

A violent explosion wracked the ship as the daemons forced their way through weak points in the hull.

“Now!” screamed Hallaman.

Tarrik and the rest of Purge 1 sprinted down the hall, their psychic wards burning as the ship was exposed to the warp. Crewmen were scattered around them, screaming as they bled out of their eyes and ears and the powers of the Immaterium forced it's way into their minds, driving them insane.

Tarrik cut apart a gibbering daemon as it forced it's way up through the floor in front of him, sending it back into the Empyrean. Kaska smashed another one into a pulpy mess with his hammer against the wall and Anvar let out a wash of promethium flame from his Incinerator, burning through a mass of daemons that were scuttling towards them through the narrow corridor.

“The Inquisitor is trapped in the aft bay! We will meet up with the assassins and reinforce him! Preliminary reports suggest there are three Traitor Marines of the Thousand Sons and several daemons attacking him and the two squads of Inquisitorial Guards holding out there!” shouted Vakarrian, leading the way with his sword, the blade crackling with energy as they charged down the dark corridor.

Several horrors rose up through the floor in front of them in a spout of pink flame, spitting bolts of blue energy at the squad. The first shots impacted and washed over Vakarrian's armour, the runes shining as they held against the psychic power. Vakarrian roared and decapitated a daemon and filled another with explosive bolter rounds and it charged at him. Tarses ran another through as it recovered for a next attack.

“Keep moving!” yelled Tarrik, “We're almost there!”

Another pack of daemons rounded the corner in front of them, snarling and growling as they ran towards the Knights. Their heads exploded in a shower of brain matter and warp energy, painting the walls with blood. Vindicare Assassin Levin stepped into view, his Exitus pistol still smoking.

“Afternoon gentlemen” he said casually as he rammed another clip home, “Just another fine day in the warp eh?”

“Suppose so. Where's Umbra?” asked Vakarrian, wondering where the assassin's usual partner was.

“Already met up with the Inquisitor. I knew she could move fast, but she was there within five minutes of the distress call. Must've been practicing. Come on, they're getting slaughtered in there”

Levin holstered his pistol and began to sprint towards the aft bay, the Grey Knights in toe.

Belknap yelled in pain as he and Roland fell to the floor, the energies of the warp forcing it's way into their minds.

“Sir, what the hell is going on!?” shouted Corporal Caughran, holding her head in pain as she emerged in the doorway.

“I don't know Corporal!” cried back Belknap as he forced himself to his feet, “Suit up and grab the rest of the squad, this can't be good!”

The last time he had felt like this was during the Thirteenth Black Crusade on Cadia when the enemy forces had brought in psykers to attack their lines.

Him and Roland stumbled out of the barracks, their ears ringing. The rest of their squad, now numbering at around ten after boarding the Hammer's Retribution, was huddled around the door way, clawing at their heads in pain, some were retching on the floor and bleeding through their ears.

“Squad! Work through it! Suit up, grab your weapons and head to the saviour pods, I'll try to find out what's going on!”

He grabbed his helmet from his bunk and put it on, the visor flashing up and illuminating as tactical information read out onto the screen and the targeting computers attached to the side of his head aligned themselves.

He picked up his hotshot lasgun and synced it to his helmet, the firing lock on the gun deactivating.

A rough mechanical voice boomed over the intercom, “Gellar fields failed! Warp expulsion in seven minutes twenty-three seconds and counting! All personnel make your way to your closest saviour pods! Material re-entry calculations and astropathic observations place us on a collision course with a star!”

“Shit!” swore Belknap, hurrying after the rest of his squad. At least he had been right about the saviour pods.

He hurried down the dark corridors towards the aft pod bays, the screams of the crew members filling his own burning head as he ran.

He turned a corner to see a pink and blue warp form tearing out the throat of a crew member, screeching as it devoured him.

“Fuck, daemons!” wailed Belknap as he fired his lasgun, blowing holes through the daemon and destroying its physical body.

He sprinted past the dying mass after his squad. He entered into the bay to see Squad Solace Of The Aquila, their new name for their new squad loading into an available pod. He climbed in after them and sat there panting as Roland clapped him on the shoulder. They would wait there until it was time to go.

Levin and Purge 1 burst into the aft bay, rounds streaming from their bolters as they closed in on the Inquisitor's position.

“Keep them suppressed!” called Levin as he hurried over to Hallaman, “Sir, we have to get to the saviour pods!”

“No! We have to hold the ship!” cried back Hallaman in defiance.

“Sir, our exit point puts us on a collision course with a star, we have to go!” shouted Umbra as she landed in a crouching position next to the pair, her C'tan Phase Sword slick with blood, “The daemons will die, there is no need for us to as well!”

“Damn!” swore Hallaman to himself, “Fine, let's go!”

“What about the Traitor Marines?” asked Vakarrian as they hurried past him.

“They will die too. We need to get to the saviour pods if we do not wish to share their fate” said Hallaman.

“Then let us go” replied Vakarrian, Purge 1 bringing up the rear as Levin and Umbra led them towards the saviour pods.

The warp tore open into the material universe as the Hammer's Retribution finally deactivated its warp drive.

Magos Tevlan struggled with the controls as he tried to prevent the ship from tearing itself apart as it entered the system.

“Re-entry successful” he mumbled to himself, “However, death still imminent if saviour pods have nowhere to go. Performing system scan now....Scan complete, 0.453 seconds, data returns one planet within habitable zone, unknown. Locking drop co-ordinates to nearest land mass”

The doomed ship sped towards the blazing sun, it's engine brakes of no use at this velocity, even if they had been working.

“60 seconds until collision, entering range of planet now”, he pressed a button on the intercom, “All personnel, suitable landing planet detected, firing saviour pods in three, two...” he pressed a button on the command console and the saviour pods fired out into space, flying in an arc towards the designated co-ordinates on the planet.

He rose out of his command seat for the last time, grabbed Astropath Dyreson and climbed into the bridge's “essential crew only” pod, leaving the rest of the crew and bridge servitors to their fate.

He closed the airlock and looked back at the bridge, full of crew members who had resigned themselves to their fate. “Goodbye, old girl” he murmured with what might have been touch of sadness in his droning mechanical voice. The pod shot out into space, thrusters burning as it corrected it's flight path due to the late launch.

Tevlan unconsciously crossed his hands in the meshed cog symbol of the Mechanicus as he watched the Hammer's Retribution plough towards the alien star through the pods tinted viewing window, “Deus Ex Omnissiah” he muttered to himself, and turned to see them hurtling through the planet's atmosphere. He sat down and strapped himself in. It wasn't going to be a soft landing.

Twilight Sparkle woke with a start as a loud roaring filled her treehouse and an unnatural light filled the windows, blinding her.

The roaring seemed to quieten for a moment, then she heard several loud booms in the direction of what she could only guess was the Everfree Forest.

She trotted to her balcony and looked over Ponyville, angry cries rising into the midnight air as the town's residents came out to see what in Celestia's name all the commotion was about.