Chương 37: Chapter 36: Portal Perils

POV: Astartes Sergeant Isaban Andrica Isaban leveled his heavy Bolter down the access corridor. The ancient weapon was normally quite finicky and always jammed every two hundred and fifty rounds. Every Single. Time. This day it had yet to jam once. Isaban hadn't taken the Oath from the Princeps seriously. The Heretics had tried twice to reclaim the shield station and had been firmly rebuffed. They were massing for a third attempt but it wouldn't save them.

They had to cross a choke point that stood at a hundred and twelve meters long and two meters wide to assault his now fortified position. Isaban racked his bolt as he hooked up the backpack belt feed to his weapon and took aim. As the venerable had said. It was his duty to Kill. Them. All.

"Sergeant Isaban, the enemy may bring heavily armored units and shields. Will that be a problem?" asked his Brother who was serving as their spotter.

"No. It won't save them." Isaban replied as one of his brothers came over, hefting a lascannon and taking up a position slightly behind him.

"They may have a Sorcerer this time." His spotter warned.

"Good. They will come. They will die." Isaban said as he tightened his finger on the trigger. He let the horde rush forward and reach the halfway mark before he decided to finally put them down. —----------------------------------------------------------- POV: Nicole I lean against the cool metal of the wall as I recover from the small headache induced by the Oath I gave.

It was just a few too many targets all at once for my current level of power since I hit every single weapon, armor, and item with a machine spirit within the confines of the Teleportarium.

"Is everyone ready? Once the pad cycles and recharges we will move to reinforce Bolaar at the enemy stronghold. It should be far easier with Bolaar carrying the Teleport Homer." I muse before I take a big gulp of water from my canteen. I glance around taking in the group. Lael has a full squad of battle sisters with her this time. Delta-A3 has a cadre of hand-picked Skitarii. Brother Silverwalker is armed to the teeth.

Then there's my full cohort of Thallax, my four Scyllax, I hadn't had much room left over, and considering the assumed theater of war I elected to only bring the Vorax Battle-Automata Maniple. The large mantis-like hunter-killer Automata loomed taller than everyone else, not quite as dense as Baldos but as tall and wide. I shake off my musing as the transmission from Bolaar comes in.

"Warp portal?" I mutter making a face as we briskly move onto the pad.

"Time to charge?" I ask one of the Tech Priests operating the Teleportarium.

"Two minutes, Princeps! We have a lock on the Teleport Homer Captain Bolaar has deployed." the Tech Priest replies without looking up from their station.

"Please remember to avoid staring directly at the hell portal whenever possible!" I tell everyone in my usual chipper voice. I get a few odd looks, some amused, some incredulous from some of the sisters who quickly don their helmets and prepare their weapons. I hold my axe at the ready as the pad finishes charging. There was a flash and a brief bout of disorientation before we instantly appeared inside the metal and stone structure. The Homer had been placed in an open space to the far side of the room.

Ahead, I could see the line of Terminators. Beyond them was the flickering wrongness of the portal, and behind that was the lead Sorcerer chanting away. My Auspex is busy feeding me data on the immediate surroundings as everyone spreads out, I have a portion of my mind going through various combat software packages. I settle on one of the older versatile applications and call out "Spread out and assist the First Scale!"

I split the Scyllax, two to escort Lael and the sisters as they break off to provide support for Bolaar and keep the remaining two near me. I glance around and frown as I spot Astrovas in the middle of dueling four chaos sorcerers in an attempt to get to the ritual master. The four are carelessly throwing power after power and it really doesn't surprise me when one of them spontaneously detonates moments later.

The walls nearby all start to bleed as reality twitches but it allows Astrovas to put a bolt through the skull of another heretic psyker.

"The Perils of the Warp," I grumble wrinkling my nose as I direct the Vorax towards the rift portal to help with the waves of horrors and chaff daemons spilling forth. At the moment it's just the occasional larger daemon but each moment the rift remains open the higher the risk becomes of something terrible taking notice. The sisters waste little time as Lael moves along the other side of the room.

Delta-A3 manages to snipe one of the ritualists and I have to watch as the ritual consumes the psyker, corpse and all, and moments later the sputtering portal widens and stabilizes slightly.

"It's eating them." I mutter, horrified by the implications.

"Master Astrovas, the ritual circle is feeding the psykers to the portal each time we kill them!" I warn him as I move from pillar to pillar trying to keep some cover between me and the heretic and daemonic forces that are rapidly being chewed through.

"We know! We need to kill the lead sorcerer! Can you get close enough? He is projecting a protective field!" Astrovas asks me and I immediately understand what he wants. I sense a third wave of Skitarii reinforcements arriving on our heels and press forward. I activate my pendant and flick on the power field of my axe as I dart forward. Delta-A3 and Brother Silverwalker are right on my heels, though only briefly before Brother Silverwalker moves to take point.

"Get me close!" I call out. As we near Master Astrovas, I swing my axe and cleave a cultist in half at the waist before continuing forward. I can feel the protective runes on my underlayers running hot as the warp energy infusing the area near the portal runs wild, creating more chaotic warp phenomena.

Frost was spreading out in all directions around the lead sorcerer, even the protective bubble that continually deflects the multitude of sniper shots aimed at his position had a thin layer of frost forming and rapidly peeling off. We push forward gunning down the remaining opposition until just the lead sorcerer remains near us.

"You fools are too late!" The Sorcerer cackles drunk with the power flowing through him.

"You will soon face the wrath of Master Eligael! His machines will purge you from this world and devour your souls! This barrier is linked to the portal itself! As long as I live the portal remains anchored! You! Lose!" He declares gleefully as we surround him. I sling my axe and draw my plasma pistol aiming it at the sorcerer as I get up close, nearly point-blank range. Everyone else raises their weapons and aims. Master Astrovas nods at me, and I flicker on my null field to maximum output.

The field disrupts his protective bubble just enough to give us an opening. I pull the trigger and watch as it bores a hole right into the back of his head before his body detonates from the other rounds impacting his body as his upper half simply vaporizes from the intense volume of fire. Unfortunately, the portal does not close immediately despite his death. It starts to destabilize a little, flickering and growing wider one moment before contracting randomly the next.

The portal has gorged on the energy of their ritual and shows no sign of closing.

"There is likely a dangerous creature on the other side helping keep it stable now. Just waiting for it to grow wide enough for it to slip through." Astrovas says as he examines the runes on the floor.

"Argent Drake, how viable is an orbital strike on our location?" Bolaar calls out over Vox.

"Negative Captain, Your current position is too deep for a guaranteed strike even with the lances." They reply. I glance around Bolaar's terminators. Inspecting the line holding back the tide of horrors it's stable for now but pushing towards the rift is proving difficult due to the sheer number of Horrors that keep slipping through, dying, and then splitting into two smaller Blue and then Pink Horrors. The daemonic traffic jam might have been comical if it wasn't so unsettling and horrifying.

"Lael! I'm sending one of my Scyllax to your location. It's carrying TOOB, my Archeotech launcher, along with some ammunition. There are several Krak missiles and a single other missile. I want you to load one of the Krak missiles and try to fire it into the rift."

"Yes, My Lady" Lael replies curtly as our group retreats into a position with more cover and firing lines.

"Nicole, a single Krak missile won't work." Astrovas tells me.

"I know, I have an idea but I need Lael to test this first." I reply as I use my Auspex to monitor the shot.

"Firing. Shot is good." Lael informs me as the missile flies through the portal and detonates on the face of some screaming Horror.

"Yes! Okay, Lael, I want you to get the one missile that is not a Krak missile and load it. Then you and the sisters need to give it the Emperor's blessing. Once blessed it MUST go through the portal. Can you do that?" I ask her with hesitation.

"It will be done." Lael replies confidently as she retreats with a few of the sisters to do as I instructed.

"Nicole, please explain." Astrovas presses me.

"Well normally I don't think the man-portable warhead has enough oomph to close the portal but if we add the holy blessing from the Omnissiah I think we can destabilize it. If not it will at the very least give us a momentary reprieve from the daemons." I explain even as I duck back behind a pillar. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"What warhead?" Astrovas asks, sounding slightly exasperated and confused.

"Uhhhh… Don't worry about it! Yes, Master Doll?" I answer as he pings me." Nicole, why in the name of the Omnissiah did you build one of those!? When did you even make that thing!?" Master Doll screeches in binaric.

"It was practice? To validate the design files and perform a field test?" I squeak out in reply.

"I only made one." I mutter with a small whine." Your idea of a field test is to fire it through an unstable warp portal?" Master Doll growls.

"Yes? We don't have an atomic or vortex bomb handy so… next best thing?" I reply with a small nervous giggle." We are going to have a long talk about this later, young lady.

"Doll hisses" However, given the situation you may proceed with your test."

"Yesss!" I hiss as I do a little fist pump. —-------------------------------------------------------- POV: Lael Lael felt a modicum of concern as she loaded the strange missile into the launcher. She didn't recognize the make and that concerned her greatly. She knew every standard missile type used by the Imperium and whatever this one was it was anything but standard. Despite the Battle Sister's insistence that she could do it, the idea of blessing objects was still foreign to her.

She focused and drew on the memory of the Emperor, the battlefield, and the war that changed her life.

"May the Emperor bless this weapon so that it may burn His enemies with His Holy Light! May the vile scourge of chaos be cleansed in the Emperor's name and banished back to the abyss!" The missile gained a faint glow and the sisters gasped with glee. Lael quickly hefted the launcher and took up her firing position taking careful aim "Blessing complete! Firing!" She yelled out.

"Everyone get away from the portal! Look away and shield your eyes!" Nicole yelled at everyone over the Vox right as Lael pulled the trigger. Lael barely had time to close her eyes just as the missile vanished through the portal less than a second later it detonated and the portal turned pure white as the far side was engulfed in fire. Even with her eyes closed and her helmet on it felt too bright and left Lael blinking away spots.

There was a deep near madness-inducing scream on the far side of the portal as the greater daemon helping keep it stable recoiled in pain as the lesser daemons all around it were utterly incinerated. The portal rapidly shrank down contending the light emanating from it until it was small enough to leave a burning hole in one of the far walls before finally winking out.

"Nicole!? What was that!?" Bolaar yelled.

"Portable sun." Nicole replied demurely.

"Hey! Don't look at me like that, it worked didn't it!?" Whatever other words they exchanged were drowned out as Baldos began deeply and loudly laughing his giant metal ass off. Pausing only to stomp on one of the cultists that had managed to survive. —----------------------------------------------------------- POV: Nicole No one had time to dwell on or question me further about the warhead. We still had a base full of chaos worshipers to purge.

I get a notification from one of the teams a couple of minutes after they disperse into the facility.

"Princeps, we found something that you might want to see. Relaying coordinates." I depart for the area which is a deck up, the facility is marked as a medical wing. I spot the Skitarii who called me standing in front of one of the beds with his rifle aimed at the individual resting there. I move up to stand at the foot of the bed and take in the decrepit form of the individual resting there.

The mark on his forearm from Rebuke would have given away his identity even if I couldn't read his remaining implants like a book.

"ZR-999 we meet at last." The Heretek is glaring at me but I just smile behind my helmet.

"I will" hiss"tell you" hiss"nothing." I roll my eyes as I remotely disable the explosive device my Auspex noticed he has under the bed. I step forward and pull out a data spike loading it with Master Xor's recommended suite of data extraction programs.

"I believe you have been misinformed, Heretek. You do not have a choice in the matter." I say as I watch one of his remaining working eyes widen in a panic as the trigger in his hand fails to go off. His bionic arm bearing the mark of Rebuke sparks and spasms rendering the limb useless. —--------------------------------------------------------------"Master Doll, I have extracted a plethora of relevant data from the enemy Heretek ZR-999; they did not survive the extraction."

I say as I start forwarding all the data I managed to harvest from ZR-999 to Master Doll and Master Xor.

"I believe I have the location of the STC. It is in a structure deep below the underhive in something the locals call the 'Forgotten depths'. Unfortunately, it's located extremely far down and the Imposter has a several-hour head start." I say with a small sigh as I consider the map.

"Excellent. Receiving now." Master Doll replies.

"That location is problematic." Master Xor states as he parses the data,"Their data indicates large portions have only a single viable route down. Which they have no doubt trapped or hindered for pursuers."

"Without a Teleport Homer, it's too deep for blind teleportation. Not that deep into the crust we could pull individuals out but insertion has too high a risk of deviation" Master Doll adds after running his analysis. I get an idea and I double-check the Noosphere to confirm the inventory.

"I have a possible alternative." I forward them the suggestion.

"Acceptable. Operation approved." Master Doll declares. With his tacit approval, I access the Vox network"Guard station 12-C, this is Princeps Cavalerio. Under the full authority of the Adeptus Mechanicus, I am requisitioning the use of two of your vehicles effective immediately. Please make ready the two Hellbore units in Bays H3 and H4 and deliver them to the following coordinates. This is a priority request. Astartes are en route to secure their transport."

I inform them before I relay the optimal coordinates not too far from our current location.

"This is Guard Station 12-C. Orders acknowledged, Princeps!" The Guard Vox operator replies startled by the sudden request "... I don't know what they want them for. Just tell them to do it!" he hissed before remembering to change channels. —------------------------------------------------------------------ Location: The Forgotten Depths Deep below the chaotic labyrinth of the Cycladon underhive was a structure.

Teetering on the edge of the massive sinkhole that had slowly and steadily drawn the structure deeper and deeper into the dark earthen abyss. The structure was ancient, the craftsmanship of the walls and interior predating modern Imperial aesthetics, this was the sleek aesthetics of the Age of Technology. It was a laboratory, a structure of science, learning, and experimentation. In the center of the sprawling laboratory complex beat the heart of a stable micro-reactor still feeding power into the primary systems.

A mess of cables and feed tubes full of materials from the mundane to the exotic and precious led to the single functional printer in the lab at the rear of the facility. Carved above the entrance to the lab was the name 'YGGDRASIL'. Some of the feed lines had run dry centuries ago but the printer continued its work trying to produce what it was made for, molecule by molecule. Each print attempt only took a mere century and the current print job was almost at the halfway mark.

Lining the shelves were dozens if not hundreds of past attempts; the vast majority were failures or had since expired and decayed. The cases in which they resided glowed a dark red or did not glow at all, while three cases still held a soft green glow indicating the viability of their contents. Behind the printer, situated in the dead center of the lab, next to a massive transparent window that overlooked the sinkhole chasm, sat the STC, or rather, the Frankenstein mess that made up the YGGDRASIL STC.

It was a crystalline structure in the shape of a tree, one of the most fragile of the data constructs, the roots of the crystalline were composed of dozens of crystal wafer STC fragments from various disciplines that were all meshed together and joined to the trunk of the crystalline web. The various STC fragments were meshed together into the whole of the project's new STC.

Genetic databanks, mechanical specifications, and detailed planetary science structures, some extremely broad with others exactingly specific, were all feeding data into the crystalline tree. The structure itself was precisely calibrated and held a ludicrous amount of data within itself as its limited and failing virtual intelligence tried to compile substitutes for missing materials that would not compromise the performance of the end product.

The lab, undisturbed for thousands of years, was about to have its first visitors in millennia.