The Outskirt's Part 2
At the bottom of a ditch miles long, cold and hot, the champion of Khorne, stared at a shadow… in the form of a raven on two legs, with blue and purple mystics, the figure nodded, floating just above a pool of Eldar blood… and with a wave of his hand, the hound heard a voice that was not his master.
[I changed you, and now you bare my mark… my touch… you may not like it, nor will your master… but so what… the great game continues… and you are just as much my chess piece as you are his… now then… play your part…]
As the voice finished his exchange of words, the bird man vanished from where he stood as did the black bubble that coated the area, which only now the champion of Khorne noticed! Feeling the cold night air on his scales, the champion scuffed and what the bird man had said... like it didn't matter nor would it change him in any significant way.
And while he stood there staring into the moon, an Eldar warlock sighed, as he waited for the appointed time to retrieve his fallen kin's soul crystals, knowing they were going to their death, they accepted it, as he watched them… as he raised them… he knew this had to play out as his god suggested… and while he waited… the servants in a mansion bowed…
Naked and riddled with scars, scores of men and women, played their roles in lustful plays and rituals, as a door opened! With a sacrificial dagger through the heart of an innocent child, blood led the way! Though small, the door allowed a few demons from Slaanesh to enter the material realm!
Through beautiful harp music, they marched, as the stone demons that guarded the way, became alive! Their skin is a shine of purple, while their ample breasts shake while they dance! Coated in fine purple cloth, their claws clamp in rhythm to the song…
The first to come were men like horses, with four-legged bodies with a tongue so long like an ant eater, and a face like one, with tails like a scorpion or a trident spear, the demon fiends of Slaanesh! Road in first in glory and honor, while behind them stood their handlers… A group of daemonettes!
Were each was more beautiful than the last, the men in the room only wished there were more than just the five that came in with their mounts. Dressed in fine armor and silk, creatures whose claws were in crested with jewels… with fine hair and a face that didn't match a typical demoness of Slaanesh… intoxicated and alluring, with a figure of perfection! With a smell as sweet as a honey glow… were golden artistic chains looped their breast, and horns of many different shapes and colors, with eyes that could trap men's souls… the five were like demigods…
The leading demoness had the finest eyes, shaped like a snake and colored like a glowing jewel stolen from heaven's hands, and with a voice sweet and delicious that made men and women fall to their knees… her charismatic charm made anything she said like a rule from God!
Not bothering to give her name to those beneath her, the demoness, simply toyed with the humans for a moment before demanding for the doors to be opened! Feeling the night wind in the mortal plane for the first time in centuries, the leading demoness, took pleasure in its excess before having her mount sniff the air, to find her target's inner desire… to chase it and find it for her master…
Though riddled with jealousy that her master craves for another, but right as they were about to leave, a human girl... Nova asked one question:
[how… how can I be like you…]
Hearing, the honest pleading words of a human, the leading demoness, smiled like an angel and said:
[you can't… because your only human… even with his gifts… you can never be like us… we were forged out of his perfection… while you were made from imperfection… he may be able to cover it up, but that fact will never change… you will always just be human… you will never garner the same authority we have… the power… the looks… maybe… hell even his favor… but in the end… you'll never be truly his.]
As the leading demoness turned away from Nova, the words said, didn't sting Nova's heart… instead, she felt sorry for the demon, because, in the end there, she felt it… in the last words of the demoness… even with gaining all that power, everything Nova wanted… the demoness still never had her prince's heart! She was nothing more than a glorious face in a sea of perfection… what could she be in such a being heart?
While the demonesses race down the mountain, the plain forest on the outskirts of Absodon is painted in the colors of blood! White corpses incrusted in fungus, and poisonous blood soaking into the ground, the servants of Mortarion wait in ambush for a train! But their heavy steps and corpse trail, left a scene for the imperium to follow!
Men dressed in black and skill, the imperium finest! The Tempestus scions! Ment worthy enough to be commissars in their own right, stalk their prey in camo…waiting… but the followers of Nurgle were not blind to them… even when the first hot shot Lasgun fired, and turned the night red, the terminators, felt the laser… and accept them against their armor!
Curious as to why, their target wasn't shooting back, never crossed the scion's minds, as their job was always to follow orders, but to never question! Even as their volley-guns opened up, their targets didn't budge! Their flesh burning, but like an uncaring wall, they did nothing but show the scions their back!
Emboldened and believing they had the upper hand, the scions continued to fire, but never realized there were already dead men! Believing the high inquisitor's words, they did dress for the plague's followers, but even then… they didn't know… how could they… that one of their targets was from the screaming Vortex…
Bourgidus laughed at the imperium as his back soaked the gunfire, and he laughed harder still when it stopped! Silence as a gentle breeze… Not even subtle footsteps… just silence of a cold night… with moons overhead, the Death-guard continued to wait…as if nothing happened… but behind them in a cherub eye, in a room filled with monitors, the commanding imperium slammed his hand against the table, as other members felt the uneasiness of what they just witness…
For as the tall grass blows and sways, the scions they sent rose one by one… but not as humans… but monsters!
[Ghouls!] said the commanding officer, as he stared at the screen, While the member in charge of the vox looked worse for wear.
[The poor man heard everything… every scream…] thought the commanding offer as he stared at the vox master.
A few moments earlier; as the Scion engaged the enemy:
At first, everything was going as planned, the enemy didn't seem to notice them and the ambush looked to be successful, but as the leader of the Scion held that thought, the grass in front of him moved! Like an animal had just run by… but a small one, about the size of a husky dog… curiously he looked down to see a pair of eyes shine!
Not knowing if it was an enemy or a wild animal of some kind, the leader didn't care as he opened fire at it! The creature didn't move and accepted the bullet to the head! Confident he had killed it, the leader slowly approached it to verify, but what he saw, wasn't what he expected!
The creature had the shape of a man, but of one who underwent some kind of torturous mutation, but things like this weren't new to him, as he was a veteran, he had seen many 'odd' things in his career, and this will be just another one… just a memory… and just to make sure it was dead, he fired a few more rounds into the corpse just to be safe.
When that was done, he turned his attention back to the archenemy, as members of his team began to violently cough! Of course, this went unnoticed by him or his other teammates at first... But then it grew… and then it became silent, as their hands started to seize up… even their drugs and implants couldn't help them or stop what was next! Pain! Unimaginable pain!
Every cell screamed worse than any type of radiation poison could do! Organs shutting down, and nerves twisting their fingers… veins popping, and mouthfuls of blood, coupled with muscle spasms running rampant.
[impossible! Their suits were designed to stop any type of contagion! Just how…] said the commanding officer in surprise.
But no one answered him… or dared to… just a quiet exchange as they all heard men screaming and wishing for the emperor's mercy!
In the end, all that remained was a taunting laugh through the vox. As Bourgidus remembered his time with the plague mother! Septhrix! Her ghouls were always his favorite… along with Rheumalice… his vile chemicals were the perfect 'medicine' to fill his prized ghoul!
[captain… what do we do now?] asked a random member
[we? We do nothing… but I will report this to the Inquisition… but… I have a feeling they probably already know.]
Meanwhile in the throne room of the Tyranids:
While the Neurotyrant sat in his throne of bones, he heard a call deep within the earth… a psyche scream as a once powerful swarm lord died! But unbothered by its death, as it changes nothing, the plan will continue as scheduled, but what did bother him, was these creatures that towered over the humans, whose armor was like a fortress in itself!
They had exposed his kind in the city of Absodon, causing the imperium to send a 'clean-up crew' of women dressed in black and red…Of course, they were devoured by the hive, but not without losses and pushbacks… and then these creatures had the guile to enter their territory on the outskirts of the city!
But they had the right... They were strong! They had successfully gun downed anything the Neo-tyrant threw at them! But what truly made them scary in the eye of the Neo-tyrant was not their gunfire, but the unseen poison they had with them… a contagion that left the Tyranids unable to re-collect the biomass! Wanting vengeance but knowing it was better to just cut his losses, the Neo-tyrant turned to his Tervigon mothers and gave an order!
With the number of termagants swelling to an absurd degree, he commanded his cult commanders to lead them into battle! The target... The governor's mansion!
Dark... and windy… the plain fields swayed with glowing eyes…. All for the Demonesses to see a sea of drooling teeth… and between the burrows hidden in the soil, the gene-stealers jumped at the chance to give them a 'kiss'! But their plans failed! Their surprise foiled…
For how can a demon of pleasure not sense their greed… long before they even had a chance, the demonesses smiled as they worked as a team of one! The leading demoness danced with her four arms like a shield of Sparta! With a face like a plaster mask, that never changed she and her team covered for each other weaknesses!
While some in her team did revert to their more demonic appearance, showing claws and spiral spear arms, they still stood like a rock in a stream! Untired and unrelenting, the demonesses, slaughter all the termagants that washed over them in waves! Bathed in blood and pleasantries, the leading demoness removed her long curved cavalry sword from the head of a gene-stealer, while her fellow sisters cracked their sharp whips like a fire wheel!
But even with such a power display, the bugs wouldn't stop… and time was running against them! They had their orders and their mistress mark! Tattoos of a living kind, that swirled beneath their skin, beautiful but with a curse…
Knowing they can't fail her, the five charged their mounts through the horde of bugs! Risking injury and death, but coming out the end in victory! A victory with a pause as the leading demoness watched the bugs give up and just ignore them, to continue their march up the mountain!
[they're going to the mansion!] said one demon
[shouldn't we stop them?] asked another
[no! We killed enough… we have our mission, leave the rest to the mansion defenders… beside the gate, guards are awake now… I pity those bugs… now, we have a mission to complete.]
Meanwhile back on the train:
In a spot contaminated with the plague father's gift, Layla tore her sword out of Dylan's stomach! Shocked and confused, Layla looked him in the eye and said:
A quick death is too good for you… traitor…