[Horus Heresy 19] - Know No Fear by Dan Abnett

Author:Dan Abnett
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-03-08T03:27:59.261651+00:00

2

[mark: 4.14.11]

„Explain this,‟ says the Word Bearer. His name is Ulmor Nul.

„There was an ambush,‟ says Vil Teth. „Two of the Ultramarines.‟

Nul looks down at the corpse of the cataphractii.

„They did this?‟

„They did this,‟ agrees Teth. „They killed my watcher, killed members of my team, and then took the speeder. One was a captain.‟

„Why didn‟t you stop them?‟ asks Nul.

„The cataphractii couldn‟t stop them,‟ says Teth, in surprise. „What makes you think I could?‟

He pauses.

„Forgiveness, majir. They were legionaries. We had no means.‟

„You have stayed in position since the attack, waiting for support?‟

„Yes, majir.‟

Ulmor Nul raises his warp-flask. He speaks into it, alerting the formation officers that at least two more of the enemy elite are loose in that section of the starport.

„They might have transport,‟ he adds.

Nul looks at his squad members.

„They need to be hunted down,‟ he says, simply.

One of his men, Kelter, nods and brings the tracker forward. He has to use the electric goad. The tracker is angry and uncooperative.

It‟s about the size of an adult mastiff, but it‟s bulkier and it‟s not canine. It growls and snuffles, drooling mucus from its flared black-flesh nostrils.

„We need something they touched,‟ says Nul.

„The captain touched me,‟ says Teth. „He knocked me down–‟

He‟s still saying it when he realises he‟s an idiot.

Nul looks at him and nods.

„Majir, no–‟ Teth begins to say.

The tracker surges forward. It‟s on him. Teth shrieks as it begins to eat him alive.

„It‟s got the taste,‟ Kelter says. He pulls the tracker off the Kaul Mandori warrior.

Teth‟s not dead. He should be. He ought to be. Too much of him is missing and gnawed away for him to ever mend or lead any kind of life. He can‟t speak. He can‟t even express his overwhelming agony, except to paddle his fingerless hands and churn what‟s left of his jaw.

The tracker starts to move, following the psyk-sense it has devoured. The Word Bearers fall in behind it.

„What about him?‟ one of them says to Ulmor Nul, indicating the twitching remains. „You could end his pain.‟

„Pain is something we learn from,‟ says Nul, „and mercy is a waste of ammunition.‟

[mark: 4.26.11]

The Ultramarines captain puts up a decent fight. Cornered and outnumbered, he tries to do as much damage as possible before the inevitable.

Sorot Tchure makes the kill. He puts two mass-reactives into the bulkhead behind the Ultramarine, and the force of the blasts, in the enclosed space, rams the cobalt-blue figure out of cover.

He tries to get up, but it‟s too late. A third shell takes his head off.

Tchure walks back to the yard‟s master control room. He masses his squads marshalling human prisoners, or dragging out the bodies of the enemy dead. A sheen of blue smoke hangs in the air. The Zetsun Verid Yard is now secure.

It‟s taken longer than expected. This irks Tchure. He had hoped that sheer bewilderment would knock the fight out of the XIII, but they stuck to it.

His only solace is that the shadow magi have exceeded their estimates too.

They‟re still at work, recalibrating the yard‟s main systems.

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