God-Machines: A Warhammer 40,000 Omnibus by Various Authors

Author:Various Authors
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science fiction: space opera
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2023-10-24T00:00:00+00:00

ACT TWO

ASHES AND EMBERS

Chapter 7

Danial winced as his neural jacks uncoupled with a string of wet clicks. He let out a slow, shuddering breath and pulled off his haptic gauntlets, letting them clatter to the floor in a tangle of sensors and wires. Danial went to stand, feeling every ache and bruise from the savage battle on the plains. His head caught the deep dent in the Oath’s cockpit armour, and he sat back into his throne mechanicum with a hiss of pain. That last, spiteful hurt just seemed too much, and everything roared up at him at once. Betrayal. Loss. He realised with a sudden wrench that Fyreheart’s throne had surely been destroyed along with the Knight. He would never sit where his father had, never benefit from the advice of Tolwyn’s ghost. He would never hear his father’s voice again. Locked away inside the ironclad sanctuary of his Knight, inaudible to any but himself, Danial Tan Draconis gave in and let sorrow take him. Sobs wracked the kingsward’s body, and he pounded his fist against the arm of his throne until it was bloody.

Dry-eyed and pale, Danial clambered from the opened carapace hatch of Oath of Flame and took stock of his surroundings. The High King had chosen the sanctuary well – rally point Zeta-Lambda-Rho was a vast subterranean complex of munitions warehouses, cavernous spaces in which even the goliath Imperial Knights could hide away. Danial and the others had simply walked their Knights down the intake ramps at one end of the complex and vanished into hiding. Now, their battle damaged steeds stood still and silent in the shadows, illuminated only by the stab-lights and beacons of the surviving Sacristan Crawlers. A number of Cadians had survived too, though they had taken refuge in a separate warehouse elsewhere in the complex.

Sliding himself across the Oath’s carapace, Danial grasped the dismount rungs and clambered slowly down from his steed. The Knight had been sorely damaged in the fighting. Its heraldry was mud-spattered and fire-blackened, and every square foot of its armour was battered, scraped, bullet-riddled or buckled. I know how the Oath feels, thought Danial sourly. He pressed his forehead against the machine’s hull and whispered his thanks all the same.

Dropping to the rockcrete floor, Danial coughed at the dust that rose around him. This warehouse had not seen use for a long time, it seemed. Small heaps of rubble from crumbled pillars, and ancient, shrouded crates added to the impression. He wrenched off his skullcap and jammed it into his belt, running one hand through his short hair currently plastered to his scalp. There were people throughout the cavernous space, but almost no one spoke. Knights were gathered in small knots, staring at one another in shock and bewilderment. The surviving Sacristans cleaved to their Crawlers. Danial saw a few Cadians stood in the mouth of the tunnel that led through to the next warehouse. They held lasguns close to their chests, their grim faces impassive.

‘They’re watching us,’ said Jennika, coming to his side.

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