The blue sabatons crunched as they moved quickly over the shattered concrete of the planet's surface.
The last anyone had heard from Inquisitor Karamazof was a curt message. It said "Come. Come now."
So they had. Lt. Decimus had gotten his entire contingent of Astartes aboard drop pods and launched as quickly as they could actually move to do it. Twenty minutes later and they were running across the rubble strewn streets making their way for the stairwell to the lower levels of the city.
A quick pair of shots from weaponry aboard the ship had ensured that anything to prevent their landing would at least be distracted and has Decimus scanned the area he saw another advantage, there were now two methods to get below the surface.
"Gaius, take your men to that crater, if it goes through to the next level drop down, Vibius, follow me down the stairs," he ordered over the coms, "Tacitus, follow Gaius with your hellblasters."
Suddenly there was a communique from the ship. It was Inquisitor Karamazof's brother. "Lt. Decimus, I have received another message from my brother. He says there is a creature below, some hideous Xenos. It has corrupted the men of this planet."
As Decimus paused to listen, he waived Vibius on and the intercessors rushed past and through the door leading to the stairwell, their armoured bulk just barely fit through the opening.
He followed them asking "What should we do?"
"He says that the creature is now communicating with more of its kind across the vast void. If it can complete its message the creatures will come and bring destruction to this world. You must disrupt this."
"Understood."
They could hear footfalls indicating that the enemy was responding to their presence, the sound of men rushing up the steps was not as loud as the sound of them descending it but their helmets senses could pick up the difference.
They also heard the metallic crash of Gaius' men jumping down through the crater to the level below them coming through the open portal two flights down.
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Landing and rolling into a crouch Gaius scanned the area around him, it was dark, not completely dark as light shone through various craters their preliminary bombardment had made in the surface.
He could hear the sound of men running up the stair just meters away from him and had his gun trained on the portal as the rest of his squad dropped down. The enemy emerged shooting and he fired his bolt rifle at them as they came out.
There were many of them and his men were still dropping down as the enemy struck them, catching them off guard. Then it was all Gaius could do to keep track of himself. The enemy were all over them, a swarm of men and mutants.
The bolt rifle is a finely tuned weapon, the perfect blend of precision and fire power. It is capable of blowing a man apart with a single shot and capable of putting a round downrange and exploding it so that even men in cover may be hurt or killed by the round. In a pinch it even makes a fine club and that is what Gaius used it as now, the barrel knocking teeth out of his assailants.
Still, despite the bulk and skill of the marines, they were being overwhelmed. All of a sudden the pressure let up and Gaius stole a glance to his left. He saw Tacitus and his men entered the fray, most had their plasma guns slung as they set about them with their knives and fists and soon it was over. The last of the heretical mutants were running.
Just as Gaius moved to grab Tacitus by the wrist to thank him for his assistance both men whirled at the sound coming from the door. It was another flood of assailants.
Gaius started firing immediately but Tacitus and his men seemed dazed and just stood somewhat limply.
The enemy were upon them in moments and the fighting started afresh.
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Decimus heard the sounds of fighting ahead of him. The men had fired at something down the stairs and then they had moved forwards.
"What is it Vibius?" he asked.
"It is one of the enemy, sir," he said through deep breaths. "Impossibly . . . fast . . . and strong, some . . . sort of . . . mutant"
Then Decimus saw the status icon for Vibius turn from green to red.
He couldn't get through to help his men this way, they could barely support each other, the stairwell was so cramped, so he turned and ran back up the stairs. He would follow Gaius.
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The fighting was hard but the enemy was more spaced out this time and had rushed forward in an uncoordinated fashion. Vibius and Gaius and their men cut them down quickly despite the haze that Vibius and his men seemed to be under, the squad seemed to be making up in force what they lacked in quickness.
Gaius held the last mutant aloft and crushed his throat, tossing him down a crater where their bombardment had punched through the second layer.
"Cover us, Gaius, we are going down," and Vibius and his men dropped through the opening into the darkness below.
Gaius looked down to see hordes of the enemy surrounding his brothers and he fired into the dark crowds but it was no use, the blue armoured marines were swarmed and overwhelmed by hideous alien monstrosities before they could even fire.
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Gaius continued to shoot, only looking up when he heard a clang and saw Decimus land where he himself had dropped down.
He didn't get much chance to think about it as he felt an alien presence in his psyche, the pain was intense as visions of multi-legged insectoid aliens flood his mind. He gripped his head with both hands, gritting his teeth in agony, before dropping over, unconscious.
Decimus caught him before he hit the floor. He took one look through the crater at the swarming, undulating masses below and, throwing Gaius over his shoulder, made his way to the stairwell.
His men were engaged with some hideous mutants, struggling desperately, but seemingly winning. Both parties were surprised as he barged his way in slamming the last mutant into the wall. He handed Gaius over to one of the men.
"Get back up, we are too few to penetrate any further, I'll cover the retreat."
He fired repeatedly down the stair well, keeping anything that may be advancing from moving forward a step. Eventually his shots had damaged the plascrete steps enough that he felt enemy egress that way was effectively halted and he made his way back to the surface following his men.
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