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

and still keep going, that's just...that's just..."

"Impossible?" I said.

Arlathan only shrugged. "It's more unnatural. How? How did you get that way?"

I hissed through clenched teeth and closed my eyes as a new wave of pain passed through me. I almost lost myself to sleep in that second; it was an act of tempered will just to open my eyes again.

"It's...It's a long story," I hissed. "I'll tell you later."

Arlathan looked pointedly at my arm. "And that wound. I was given basic medicae training in the scholarium, and that wound shouldn't have stopped bleeding; hell, you should be unconscious from blood loss!"

"You say that with Jelket in the room," I growled. "Now, can you leave me alone? It's pretty frigging obvious I don't want to talk about this right now, okay?"

"You were the one who brought it up," said Arlathan with a shrug he instantly regretted. "At least give me smoke, could really use one right now."

With a heavy sigh, I opened my case of Lhos and handed him one. I was getting low; only five were left.

Arlathan smiled, took it, and I hesitantly lit it for him with my igniter.

"Think about this," Arlathan said as he exhaled smoke. "If I thought you were some; therefore, would I be sitting next to you, smoking your Lhos?"

"Yes," I said, without missing a beat.

Then we laughed, laughed like there was no tomorrow, laughed with the idiot joy that only those who knew they had survived something they shouldn't have survived could. I laughed even though each time it hurt.

Our laughter drew all attention to us and took us a good half a minute for us to stop.

I looked at Adelana once finally done; her expression was one of bemused, gaping horror as she gazed at me. The old woman had regained some of herself as she smiled at us in understanding.

"I can't believe we are still alive," gasped someone, and we looked to see it was the Stormtrooper; he kneeled on the floor, his hellgun pointed to the ceiling. "We should all be dead, Space Marines. I can't believe it; I just can't..."

He trailed off in his sentence, then he turned to me, his expression unreadable beneath his helm. "All because of you."

I furrowed my brow, unsure what to make of his panicked tone and started to get to my feet; sensing something wrong; I reached for my sword.

The Stormtrooper tore off his helmet, revealing plain, ruddy features and short messy blonde hair stood up and abruptly approached, his heavy boots clanging across the metal floor.

Then he suddenly fell into a kneel.

"Surely you are blessed," he said. "Surely you are an avatar of the Emperor's will! To be able to move so fast and survive those bolt rounds, you truly must be. The God-Emperor must have sent you to protect us!"

I took a step back, utterly bewildered, and Torris burst out in a bitter barking laugh, followed immediately by a horrid groan of pain.

"I'm not, I'm not," I stammered.

"Yes, you must be!" he said on. "In the scholam, they taught us of the saints, ones said to be an embodiment of the God-Emperor himself, they taught us they fought with inhuman strength, speed; Iand endurance. Just the same as you."

I laughed nervously and realised everyone's attention was on me. Arlathan looked on with an amused smile. Adelana's expression was that of profound confusion. Still, I could see a bit of understanding glinting in her bright blue eyes, she too must've been wondering how I was able to do what I did, and she must've thought his explanation made sense; the old woman had a very similar look. My heart sunk at such a thought.

Verenth's brow furrowed, and his arms folded over his chest as if the mere thought I could be the chosen of the Emperor made him want to break something, probably me.

Vex was sitting, arms wrapped around his knees, looking up at me through his glasses, his expression unreadable, and yet again, I was reminded how frigging young he was.

Torris seemed amused like Arlathan, but sarcastically, as though he knew that I was so far from being chosen by the Emperor, the Stormtrooper couldn't have been any more mistaken.

And I wholeheartedly agreed with him.

"I'm not!" I snapped, managing to regain my wits. "Get the frig up now!"

"But..!"

"Get the frig up!" I yelled, anger abruptly overtaking me. "I don't even think the Emperor is even a god! I Haven't even been to an ecclesiarchy service for years! I'm the least pious person you could ever meet! You're so frigging mistaken it isn't funny! Now get the hell up!"

Again, the Stormtrooper hesitated.

"Now!" I roared.

He slowly got to his feet, glaring at me balefully and almost nose to nose. "So, what are you then, huh?" he snarled through his teeth.

I said nothing, just glared back, a glare that said, 'someone who can kill you before you can blink, so shut up and back down.'

The Stormtrooper did, spitting on the floor before retreating into a corner, his face foul.

I held back a sigh and turned away, trying to look discretely sidelong at Adelana to see how she'd reacted to that. She watched me walk by, gaping up at me in what could've been awe or fear in equal measure.

The elevator then abruptly found the floor, shaking to a halt, before the doors slid swiftly open.

I was the first to step into that familiar white, brightly lit corridor, the cells lining the sides of the walls and couldn't help but blanch as I realised the others were going to see the corpses still in them.

Vex, who was helping Halsin, was the next out; then it was the Stormtrooper with Helma and Verenth aiding Jelket. Last were the bewildered Adelana and old woman pushing Karmen's bed. I meant to ask what the woman's name was but felt it would've seemed rude.

I allowed the others to pass and fell in step with Adelana.

"I'm sorry, Adelana," I whispered to her. "I have no idea what you can make of all this."

She looked at me, tears welling in her eyes. "I don't understand what's going on, Attelus," she hissed through clenched teeth. "Space Marines? Why are we here? Why are they killing us? I heard you talking to yourself or her," she nodded at Karmen as she laid lifeless on the bed. "You were saying something about this world dying soon and that you feel guilty about it, that at least when she dies, she could escape her guilt, but you won't be able to; what did you mean by that? How were you able to hit the Marines gunshots with your sword and dodge them? If you aren't chosen by the Emperor, then how were you able to do all of that? The way you said it, it seemed you knew for a complete fact that you weren't, and she's a psyker; how did she become part of this organisation? I...I...I."

She looked like she would have a panic attack, and I reached out to comfort her but abruptly drew it back as I thought better. I barely knew her; she barely knew me; I didn't know if it'd be appreciated.

"I'm sorry, Adelana," I sighed and shook my head. "I will tell you everything soon, I swear I will, but I will say this. This is reality; this is the era we live in; there is only war, Adelana. There may not have been war on Omnartus, nor most worlds in the Calixis sector, but it is always somewhere. It has found you; I'm sorry to say, as it had found me, as it has found countless upon of others. Trillions before us and more to come. I'm sorry, so, so sorry."

She looked at me, a sad, almost sympathetic smile on her face that seemed to say. 'What happened to you that made you like this? Whatever it was, I am sorry.'

I looked away, unable to stand her pity.

"What's the password?" growled the Stormtrooper; he stood at the keypad, his eyes hooded sullenly and looking at me. Everyone else looked into the cells with wide-eyed horror."

I cleared my throat. "It's j-garrakson."

The Stormtrooper raised an eyebrow, but that was that as he turned away and typed it in. The door swished open, and he flinched in slight fright.

"Vex!" I said; he was staring into the cell that contained Interrogator Heartsa's corpse. He instantly snapped from his stupor and looked at me.

"What?" he asked dumbly.

"Get onto Taryst's cogitator," I said, even though I knew he knew what we expected of him. "Hack it and get all the data you can."

Vex nodded, and we filed into the small room. Jelket was placed on the bed with the Halsin and Helma while the rest of us milled around. I fought the urge to join them and my eyelids from closing.

Vex pulled out a miniature cogitator from a bag slung under his shoulder, pulled out a cord and connected it into the giant black table and began to type into it loudly.

I leaned my back against the wall and began to take out my ceramic case of Lhos. Then I caught Adelana looking at me again from the other side of the room, still with that damnable smile, and she didn't look away when I looked back.

I wanted to tell her to keep her pity to herself but felt it was more than I deserved from someone like her. But the more I saw, the more it didn't seem like pity; it was something else, something I couldn't place my finger on.

Before I could think more about it, Darrance walked up to me. "We have better take a look at that ship. You know where it is; there might be medicae facilities on it."

I nodded, pushed myself off the wall and walked for that small door. It slid open, and we began down the corridor lined with shelves holding many plasteek supply boxes.

"Attelus Xanthis Kaltos," said Darrance, and it made me stop in my tracks and turn back.

"What did you just call me?" I said.

Darrance shrugged. "Your name, or has it been so long since you have heard it that you have forgotten it?"

"Is that your idea of a joke?" I asked with genuine bemusement.

He shook his head. "You don't know anything about me, do you?"

"No, I don't," I said with an uncaring shrug and folding my arms across my chest.

"Just like I don't know how you became what you are now," he said. "But I do know that it all happened after that psyker had visited your medicae room. It seemed strange to me why Glaitis had made them keep you on life support for so long after the Twilight Bar incident, and now I know why. You were going to be her new little super-assassin that you were made, no—engineered to be the one to finally kill your father. What did that psyker do to you, exactly? I saw frigging bolter rounds bounce off you. It has scared the others, but you know that already, right?"

"Yeah, I know," I sighed and turned to start. "It's even more complicated than that, believe me."

"You just have to be careful," he said. "If an Inquisitor besides Brutis Bones sees that, they might have you captured and on an operating table before even you can blink, okay?"

"Good to know you care, Darrance!" I said with a slight wave of my hand, still walking and keeping my back to him. "I'll keep that in mind."

"You bloody well better!" he snapped at my back.

The small door slid open, and I stepped into the hanger. The massive ship loomed over me and dominated the place. Weapons bristled all over it; there was a Lascannon on each wing, three high yield heavy bolter turrets, one on top, one on the bottom and one on the back. Lastly was a Plasma cannon set underneath the nose.

It was streamlined and smooth, made for speed as well as comfort, thirty metres long and a good sixteen wide, excluding the wings, which were both about