Crucible of War by Marc Gascoigne & Christian Dunn

Author:Marc Gascoigne & Christian Dunn [Gascoigne, Marc & Dunn, Christian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Anthologies (Multiple Authors), Space Opera, General, Science Fiction, Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743443555
Google: uC-0AgAACAAJ
Publisher: The Black Library
Published: 2003-06-16T23:00:00+00:00

BLOOD RAN RED FROM the ork's bade where it had been laid open to the bone by Uriel's power sword. Apothecary Selenus knelt beside the mutilated body of the dead ork leader and looked up at Uriel. 'What exactly am I looking for?' he asked.

'Look at the wounds this creature has suffered and tell me what you see,' said Uriel.

Pasanius nodded towards the hulking corpse. 'What are you looking for?'

'I want to know if these orks were attacked by the same things that killed the ones we found earlier in the frozen tomb. I want to know why we beat them so easily and why they didn't stay to fight. Have you ever known orks to run from a battle?'

'No,' said Pasanius, 'but you killed their leader. Orks don't do well seeing the strongest amongst them defeated.'

'I know, but there was more to it than that.'

'Maybe' shrugged Pasanius as Selenus gave a grunt of recognition. Both Uriel and Pasanius squatted beside the Apothecary, watching as he pulled apart two slabs of skin and muscle from the ork's chest.

'Look here,' began Selenus. 'Brother-Captain, this is where your power blade cut the xenos. As you can see, the edges of the wound are smooth and cauterised from the heat of your weapon.'

The Apothecary then rolled the ork onto its side and pointed to a wound running from its left shoulder to the base of its ribs on the right hand side of its torso.

'So what are we looking at here, Selenus?' asked Pasanius.

The blow that caused this wound cut through the creature's armour plating on its shoulders and sheared through the thickly ossified bone of its ribs with something incredibly sharp.'

'Another power weapon?' suggested Pasanius.

Selenus shook his head. 'No, the edges of this wound have not sealed or been seared as the wounds on its front have been. This was done by something so sharp it was able to cut through iron and ork flesh with almost no effort at all.'

'Greenskins fight each other almost as much as they fight us,' pointed out Pasanius. 'Maybe another ork did it or it's an old wound?'

'No,' said Selenus. The wound is too dean. An ork weapon would have torn the flesh around the wound much more thoroughly than this.'

'Do you know of any weapons that could have inflicted such a wound?' asked Uriel, already fearing he knew the answer and what the orks had fled from.

'Not many,' admitted Selenus, 'but here on a space hulk, there is one thing I know could have inflicted it.'

'Genestealers,' spat Pasanius.

'We need to get out of here,' said Uriel, 'and quickly.'

Selenus nodded as the soft, regular chiming of Brother Flavian's auspex suddenly sounded with greater urgency.

Uriel and Pasanius looked up as the walls seethed and hissed and chittered with sudden movement all around them.

Shadows darted across the ceiling, the clatter of claws scraping on metal echoing from the glistening walls.

'Too late,' whispered Uriel, 'they're coming.'

THE WALLS CHURNED with movement, the screeching hiss of aliens seeming to come from everywhere at once.

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