Secret War: Warhammer 40,000 by Ben Agar (reading eggs books TXT) 📖

lunged at him, slashing at his skull. Serghar rolled out the way, his kick connected with my thigh, making me stumble back, allowing him to jump to his feet.

Ignoring the pain in my leg, I darted at him, slicing at his skull diagonally. He parried, and his hook punch connected with my jaw sent waves of pain through my face. I reeled but could still parry his stab and send a sidekick for his knee, which he blocked with a shin.

I darted back from his counter, a horizontal slash and fought to control my ragged breathing, but I was still smiling.

He fell further back, and for a few seconds, we stood silent, weapons readied for the other to strike.

"You're good," I said. "Frigging good, but you're no Serghar Kaltos."

I sniggered and smiled. "If you were him, I'd be already dead. Who are you? One of his apprentices? Like me? Like Feuilt?"

The masked man didn't answer, and we started to circle each other, me right, he left.

Then a thought occurred to me, and I frowned.

"Either that or you are my father and just toying with me, you old bastard."

The assassin tilted his head. "Anyone ever said you talk too..."

He never got to finish his sentence as Darrance just suddenly seemingly appeared from nowhere and decapitated him.

I gaped in shock as the assassin's corpse collapsed, blood jetting from the neck.

"That...that was my kill you, frigger!" I snapped.

"We haven't the time, Apprentice!" he roared. "We must..."

Darrance trailed off in his sentence as he heard it; we all heard it. A familiar rumbling, chopping sound.

"Shit!" Darrance yelled. "Ornithopter, inbound!"

It appeared abruptly over the buildings in the northwest, about half a kilometre away. The Autocannon on its nose whirled dangerously.

"Why?" I gasped.

"Why, what?" snarled Darrance.

"Why didn't they send that in first?"

Darrance thought on that but could only purse his lips and shrug.

Then it opened fire.

 

Chapter 30

 I leaned aside the round and was about to dart forward, but a second shot forced me to the floor. I rolled into a crouch and, with the flat of my sword, desperately knocked aside the next. Sending it careening and exploding a large hole in the wall, it sent horrid jolts up my arms, causing me to cry out. I clenched my teeth, ignoring it and knocked away another and slowly began to advance. Dodging and ducking, deflecting and darting through shot after shot, but I was merely delaying the inevitable, I knew. The Marine laughed.

"You cannot keep this up forever!" he roared, having lost all sign of his earlier calm and calculated manner. "I will not let you close in! And I will avenge my brothers!"

I just need another metre! My mind screamed.

I took one more half a step and, in my exhaustion, miscalculated the next shot; it detonated far too close to the hilt, sending it flying from my grasp. Any other sword would've exploded into shards then, sending them slicing into me in the ultimate betrayal for a swordsman. Still, it was a mastercrafted Velrosian blade, so it stayed in one piece.

My instinct screamed that there was only one way to close the gap, and I threw myself forwards into a dive. An action that seemed to take the Marine off guard for less than a split second, he didn't expect me to keep advancing without my sword, it was only a split second, but it was enough for me. Bolter shots thundered over me by mere millimetres, and I finished in a crouch. I ejected a throwing knife from my sleeve and sent it flying with a backhanded throw. I was only two metres away; the blade moved so fast it almost instantaneously embedded into the Marine's left eye socket. He cried out and reeled. I was abruptly leaping, pulling out my last krak grenade, primed it, then stuffed it into the Marine's gaping maw.

I darted back as it went off and the Marine's head was just suddenly gone. A krak grenade was designed to take out tanks; they exploded in a small concentrated radius, so there was very little shrapnel, luckily for me or else I could've been torn apart by shards of his skull.

For a few seconds, the Marine's corpse stood deathly still before abruptly collapsing against the wall and slid to the floor.

I stood, trying to catch my breath, gazing down at the body. I'd almost liked this Space Marine; I almost regretted killing him. Then I laughed; I didn't mean to; it just burst from my throat in an insane bark. That was the third of the inhuman Astartes dead at my hand! I have managed to achieve three times in one day, not many others could claim in a lifetime! What other absurd things would I manage to do in my now limitless life?

My laughter slowly faded into a chuckle, now truly glad I hadn't used that grenade on those mercenaries in Edracian's fortress earlier. It was funny; somehow, I knew that was that very same grenade; fate was a truly strange mistress, wasn't it?

Shaking my head, I turned back and retrieved my sword, and although there was no blood on it, instinct made me whip it before sheathing it. I approached the dead Marine and bowed in the most profound respect before setting off again at a brisk pace, fighting the roiling sickness in my stomach.

 

With the Marine dead, I now heard the battle still rumbling through the lower floors. The now way too familiar sound of bolter shots, accompanied by the immediate screams of agony and death. I could hear las shots and solid projectile fire here and there, sometimes.

I peered around the corner, leading to the elevator lobby cautiously and held back a relieved sigh when I found the coast was clear. Unlike on the other lower levels, this lobby only had one exit and entrance, yet another reason why I'd chosen this floor. I was glad I'd taken the time to learn the layout of much of Taryst's tower. I'd decided to use the southern elevators, guessing that Karmen would have her puppets guard that side the most due to it having the only lift to Taryst's grotto.

I pushed the elevator call button then instantly slipped to the left side wall; as I saw the elevator, there was the one ascending, my sword activated and readied. They were large, strong, sturdy things. I knew they could carry two, maybe three, Space Marines, so my caution was more than justified.

It only took a few seconds for the elevator to find this floor, but it felt like a lifetime before it finally dinged, and the doors opened.

I had to fight the almost overwhelming urge to immediately just run in there; I kept waiting, watching. It wasn't until the doors had almost slid completely closed that I moved, placing my foot between them, so they opened again. It was empty, much to my relief, and I stepped inside.

I pushed the button for the 31st floor, such an absurdly, stupidly simple act under the circumstances I couldn't help but laugh.

The elevator surged into its ascent, and I slipped my shaking hands into the pockets of my flak jacket then tapped the tip of my shoe on the floor at an even faster rate than usual. I was still high on adrenaline; it made me twitchy and impatient, my breathing shallow while watching the changing numbers on the screen overhead.

It felt like my lungs could explode at any second, and my thoughts whirled with anxiety. Had Helma and the others reached the 31st floor? Had they even made it to the elevators? If they had, was Karmen still with them? Had a stray bolt round managed to hit her? We were risking much in this escape attempt; what was going to happen after we lifted off? How were we going to escape the Astartes ships and into the warp? So much was left to do, left to achieve.

I sighed and turned to look out the window, away from the ascending numbers. Omnartus travelled out before me, as far as I could see and the mountain range further south. I remembered what seemed like a lifetime ago, looking out at the mountains, thinking of the flowers that had evolved to survive at high altitudes to avoid the pollution that had covered most of the surface of the world. I'd never thought until now that it was a good metaphor for me. I'd gained much since then, an almost indestructible bone structure reflexes far beyond that of a normal human being, but what I'd gained more than anything else was wisdom.

The elevator found the 31st floor, and there, the view of the hive outside the window was abruptly engulfed in thick blackish brown of the pollution clouds.

As I turned and exited the elevator, knowing that was, perhaps, the last look I would ever get of Omnartus. Then abruptly, I realised that it was most definitely the last good look I would get of Omnartus; it was soon to be dead. Dead just because of a simple pict I took. There was no way we could stop the Space Marines from destroying it. No way in hell.

My heart sunk and horrid regret, fear, and anger seemed to expand through my chest like cold, painful writhing tendrils.

"Why did it have to come to this?" I whispered to myself while walking into the corridors. "Why? Emperor, why?"

I felt tears welling in my eyes and let them flow freely.

What had I done to deserve this?

Despite being almost lost in loathing self-pity, I walked the corridors, instinct making me innately find the fastest way. When I'd reached the vast cogitator cavern, I saw six Stormtroopers, Selg, Hayden, Torris, Jelket and Roldar, standing guard around the medicae assistant and Karmen's bed, just outside Vex's office. They all looked far more beaten and battered than when I last saw them, and I had a bad feeling those storm troopers included the ones Olinthre had earlier left to look after Vex. I hurried my pace, jogging toward Karmen to see if she was okay.

Without a word of greeting, they let me through, and I only just managed to notice their silent expressions of awe at seeing me still alive.

"How is she?" I asked, and it took me a second or so to recall his name again. "Halsin?"

"She is fine," said Halsin, his already enlarged eyes even larger behind his glasses. "I...I..."

"I, what?" I snapped and instantly regretted my tone; I was tired and oh so irritable. "I'm sorry."

"I do not understand how you can still be fine," he said.

I pursed my lips and shrugged. "Got lucky, I suppose," I said.

Hayden approached, patted me on the shoulder and said, "that and a frigging shit ton of skill, I bet. Do you know how Darrance is?"

I flinched, realising I hadn't spared one thought for my erstwhile comrade. "I don't know; we got split up in the chaos. It looks like you guys ran into trouble too."

Hayden nodded. "Found another Space Marine on the ground floor, tore its way through us like a whirlwind, killed six of the Stormtroopers with us. Would've killed us all if Thol hadn't purposely overloaded his plasma gun; the explosion vaporised him and mortally wounded the Marine. I finished it off with a point-blank