The Mercia Front: Hive Houston
In the underhive of Hive Houston lay a vast sway of territory that was held in dread for its dark reputation. A place in the hive in which the spirits of the demented, vengeful dead clung close to the realm of the living and monsters and demons of old came to hunt for souls... and sometimes one might slip a bit further out of its hunting ground in search of prey if the conditions were horribly right. A place where the shadows themselves would consume anyone or anything stupid enough to wander into them. A place where animals would go completely mad trying to flee rather then go anywhere near.
It was called it the Ghosthive. No one knew why it was the way that it was, but it had been that way for longer then living memory. The official records of the area stored in the upper hive did not make mention of any supernatural elements within the regions that made up the Ghosthive back when the idea of sending maintenance crews into the Underhive wasn't laughable, through the long and often contradictory list of dangers and issues to theoretical maintenance staff and why they couldn't send teams into that zone decades before the rest of the underhive was simply abandoned suggested that even in the relatively young days of Hive Houston that there had been something fundamentally unnatural about that part of the underhive.
It was also where Jzzist and his gang had once willingly called home. While at the time many viewed Jzzist as completely batshit insane for trying, his success at curving a place for himself and his followers in the Ghosthive proved that it could be done... through it didn't disprove the possibility of him being completely insane.
As Jzzist himself had told those in his command, both back in the past and present, surviving in such a place was simply a matter of understanding the rules of it. There had been trial and error of course, but the lessons learned were made incredibly clear:
1: Do not wander into the dark. The Shadows will eat you.
2: Do not go off by yourself. If you find yourself alone for any reason, light yourself up as much as possible and backtrack the way you came until you find the entrance to the Ghosthive you entered from. If you cannot remember the exact path you took to get where you are, you were going to die.
3: Do not trust anything you see or hear at face value. Illusions and mind games are common tactics for the ghosts and things in the shadows to try and get easy prey.
4: If at any point a member of a designated squad is not in line of sight with anyone else for any length of time longer then eight seconds, they can no longer be trusted to be who they are and need to leave.
5: Any 'human' that is not originally with your group and tried to approach your group needed to be shot on sight. No matter who it appears to be or what they say, they are not a person.
6: Anything that tries to get you to leave the path is to be ignored.
There were other rules... other entities that stood out among the shadows that they stalked in the Ghosthive... but Jzzist and his companions didn't know them. Not well enough to trust a life or death encounter at any rate. Thankfully, for the purposes of escorting the legion and its forces through the Ghosthive into the safe havens that Jzzist had originally created as strongholds against other gangs and the authorities those seven would be more then up to the task.
They would have to be.
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As far as stealth operations went, history would record this as one of the stranger ones. A fighting column solders of various types, each one lit up as brightly as the various light sources they could find or scavenge could make them while their footfalls echoed against the utter silence of the dead, dark hallways of the Ghosthive.
The first sign that something was going wrong was the death of one of the few remaining operational lights in the ceiling.
Flicker...Flicker... Dead... Darkness.
Considering the lights that was being carried by both those in the legion and their auxiliaries in order to make themselves as bright as possible at all times in the dark realm of the Ghosthive, this didn't draw the kind of attention that it might have in other circumstances.
In the moment, exactly who looked up wasn't as important as the fact that someone had done so... and the cry of "COLLAPSE! DODGE!" rang out for all to hear. Some looked up, but others bolted in whatever direction they felt would be the best for their own personal survival. The legionaries themselves, super human in reflex as they were in the rest of their body, not only clocked where the danger was coming from but were easily able to get out of harms way. Some even grabbed their slower auxiliary followers in order to carry them to more immediate safety, even as others didn't.
The titanic crunch of tonnes of metal and ceremite slamming into the ground was thunderous, even more so due to the utter silence in which the collapse had taken place. The one silver lining for those who had been too slow on the uptake or unlucky enough not to be near one of the more caring members of the legion was that their deaths were almost instantaneous; There was no time or room for suffering and pain before they left the living world.
The path itself was not completely blocked off. The wreckage that had fallen prevented travel, but there multiple gaps in which the makeshift obstruction could be seen through. With some time and a bit of effort, a passageway could be opened up in it to allow access through once again. A tiresome delay maybe, but safer then taking a detour into the unknown horrors of the Ghosthive.
No one realized that another of the hives limited supply of remaining lights had flickered out like the first one had until the monstrous crash that followed, mixed in with the torturous sounds of crushed metal and broken bodies. Like the first, it had broken away from the ceiling and fallen in an unnatural silence that its impact against the ground hadn't shared.
Even as those on the outside of the obstructions turned in order to work on clearing a path through them for the sake of getting things moving smoothly again, several heads started to look around at the area that they had suddenly found themselves trapped. A hallway without doors or recognizable weak points in the walls or floor that had just had the only two directions one could travel it sealed off by wreckage caused by the suspiciously silent failing of hive structure that had stood for centuries at the youngest... in two different places within the frame of twenty seconds from each other.
Guns were raised into ready positions. Knives, axes were brought to the ready and two separate chainswords roared to life as their owners slowly and methodically started to scan the area. This had to be an ambush of some kind... and yet... nothing. Only silence... and deepening shadows.
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Squad Sergent Konrad Amutiel was careful as he slowly turned in a circle, his grip on the shaft of his chainaxe tightening even as he missed the weight of a shield strapped to his forearm. Experience from before his ascension into his current form ensured that his turn was deliberately careful, so as to avoid sweeping his allies legs from under them with his thick, crocodilian tail... but it also served to allow him to take his time in absorbing all possible details at his own pace, rather then the frantic one that the situation seemed inclined to encourage.
Both paths out had been blocked, leaving himself and the sixty five other members of the expedition (Six Marines, fifty nine auxiliaries) trapped. He could already hear and observe that allies on the other side of both blockages were striving to clear a route and thus when he gave the order to those under his immediate command to rally around him, he did so with the knowledge that he could focus on the very real danger that they might be in.
Danger that manifested itself when one of the marines named Gal spotted something and announced "What is that?!" while lighting up a seemingly blank section of wall, drawing the attention of everyone else to it as well.
A more panicked or hasty look might have simply excused it as a leak from some long neglected pipe or a strain that had endured for who knew how long, but even without the benefit of putting light directly on it, careful observation would notice that it seemed to be spreading out along the wall: An inky pool of darkness so deep that it seemed to devour the light that made contact with it and made lesser shadows appear a mere, dirty shade of grey.
Puddle was the word that Konrad would have used to describe what he was seeing, because the way that it was spreading reminded him of liquid in a way; Like something was dipping down from above and causing a puddle to form and grow, only the source was coming from the other-side of the wall and rather then a traditional 'up-down' relationship with gravity, it was dripping in from a ninety degree angle.
Several beams of volkite and a wave of bullets shot out at the puddle of growing darkness... and nothing seemed to happen as a result of it. The growing darkness didn't seem to be stalled by the attack at all... and yet there was a complete lack of sounds of either bullet or burning beam striking the wall behind it.
To say 'it' stepped out of the darkness wouldn't be true. From Konrad's point of view, it was more like the puddle was pulling parts of itself towards the center in order to form new shapes that were being pushed out of the wall. While he had never seen an actual equine in his life, even the sewer depths of the hive he had originally called him had graffiti and old pictures of the creatures that had once wandered Terra freely; This... thing kind of looked like one of those old creatures, but instead of flesh and bone it was solely made of something that looked like ink and maintained that form despite the fact that its body clearly wanted to return to a puddle like state at any given moment.
Two hooves legs connected to the front half of a torso that was sticking out of the wall, leading up to an equine face with... glowing white, humanoid eyes as horns stuck haphazardly out of its head to form a nightmarish regal crown as it glared at each and every one of them... even as bullets and blasts of volkite peppered its body to no effect, all seemingly being absorbed by the darkness of its mass like drops of rain.
Its maw opened wide unlike that of a serpent, since one doesn't need to unhinge their jaw when they didn't have jaw bones. There was a horrific sound, like air trying to be pulled into lungs that can no longer hold it. A light started to glow from its open maw... and it took Konrad several moments to realize that the blocked off 'room' they were in seemed to be growing darker; The lights they had brought were still on and powered, but the light they were producing was just... not strong enough to force back the darkness anymore... and growing weaker by the second.
As the darkness deepened, other shapes started to crawl out of the dark pool that had consumed the wall completely. Some humanoid... some animal... others a twisted abomination of both and many more that Konrad doubted anything had ever been witness too and maintained sanity or life. Some of the shapes had a third dimension, but more then a few of the shadow entities clawing their way towards them under the increasing darkness were little more then monstrous shadows pressed against the ground... through there was a very human feeling of dread in Konrad's hearts that these things were still highly dangerous despite their seeming limitation.
Chaos descended upon the auxiliaries. Some primal terror that even the cruel and brutal realities of their lives on a war torn wasteland of a world couldn't dull seemed to grip each and every one of them, through how they responded was individualistic. A number continued to fire their weapons at the incoming darkness and the things within it, despite the fact that bullets clearly weren't doing anything while wailing and laughing in a manner that suggested that they weren't going to be responsive. A small handful seemed to be consumed by a maniac sort of bravery as they abandoned ranged weaponry and instead turned to melee, charging forth.
Fear driven bellows turned into some of the most agonizing screams of torment that Konrad had ever heard before and never wished to hear again.
Others ran for the wreckage that blocked either side of their current battlefield, attempting everything in their power to try and escape; Some of the more coherent ones were even able to bring themselves to plead and beg for help as they clawed at unflinching stone and steel. The shadows seemed to intentionally move to cut off these groups from the main center one that had rallied around him. Like those who charged forth, he didn't see what happened to them... a part of him didn't want too.
The ones he personally didn't understand were those that just... seemed to stop functioning at all. There were a couple who had clearly passed out or feinted sure, but some of them... it was like seeing a puppet with its strings cut, only with an actual person. They weren't out cold or anything... at least from what he could tell. They just... crumpled on themselves where they were standing. At least the others possessed some desire to live, rather then just lay down and welcome death.
The last group was the rarest... and right now the one that Konrad barked orders at to fall in with himself and the rest of the marines; Those who were somehow keeping it together... somewhat. The terror that had caused this madness and was trying to sink into himself and the rest of his squad was still present and gripped even the hardest of them with fear, but they were still coherent and able to respond to his direct order. Of the fifty nine auxiliaries, only five were were still 'combat viable' in his mind... discounting the gunners who had entered some kind of insane shooting frenzy.
Beams of volkite rounds were also being fired into the encouraging tide of nightmares and shadows but unlike the mad spraying of bullets that the maddened auxiliaries were favoring, the marines were using a more controlled, coordinated approach. The beams didn't seem to harm the shadow entities directly but it appears that the brief flashes of light and heat were slowing down their terrible advance... if only briefly.
As the tide of darkness came crashing in at last, things got... weird. Deadly, but weird. How does one describe the sounds of inhuman whispers on the edge of hearing, accompanied by the terror of screams both imaginary and horribly real that truly captured the assault on the senses? Of the sense that no matter what direction you were facing you could see dozens of bright, lifeless and predatory eyes that were locked onto their prey and were just savoring the moment before rushing in to sink in their teeth?
To swing at a foe that was trying to strike at one of his battle brothers, hear the roar of the chain as it connected with a shadowy limb as his axe proceeded to shred it as if it were flesh and blood... only for the arm to complete the swing as normal, disconnected from its body completely with a shredded mess on both sides of the limb as claw like fingers punched through chest armor like it wasn't there. To know in your gut that in this place, the rules of reality were not working as intended and you were going to die painfully because of it... but planning to go down swinging anyway because even when facing off against an impossible foe, the idea of laying down and dying was somehow worse then simply being killed.
The words to truly convey those sensations to another simply didn't exist. Not that Konrad expected to be able to ever try.
Then there was suddenly light.
The darkness was pushed back, allowing Konrad to see again... through the light brought more then mere ease of sight with it. One of the attackers, caught outside of the shadows as he had swung his axe towards it, let out an inhuman noise of terror and pain as the axe tore it asunder and the being... disintegrated was the only real word that captured the wholeness of its destruction. It simply ceased to be.
The light didn't cover the whole room... merely a dome that had pushed back the darkness and caught a number of the inky, shadowy attackers in all variety of shapes and sizes in its glow. A flash of a glace backwards revealed the source of the light to have been one of the auxiliaries: A woman whose body had seemingly been infused with moth like features which included a pair of moth like wings, a large amount of surprisingly soft looking white fluff that grew out of most of her body and a second pair of arms that grow slightly lower on her torso. Her eyes were closed, clearly focusing as the warm, bright glow imitated from her body, creating the dome around them.
The shadow creatures themselves were not handling the light well; The more traditional 'shadows' that had been moving along the floor had been outright burned away, disappearing completely to the light alone. The ones with third dimensions were enduring it a bit better, but they seemed to be trying to shield what amounted to 'eyes' as something smoke-like seemed to rise from their bodies. Some were simply too overcome by what Konrad could only consider to be shock from being blinded and in pain to really do anything, while others were actively trying to blindly skitter back towards the darkness and out of the light.
There was no quarter or mercy given as Konrad's chainaxe roared and he descended upon the currently hapless monsters, seizing the opportunity to make the deathless die. He did not do so alone.
Of the battle brothers he had started with, he could only see Tragios and Zygane were still standing and able to fight; Two more laid on the ground, clearly dead from a variety of horrific wounds from all sides. The other two were unaccounted for, likely somewhere in the darkness.
Surprisingly, including the moth woman, two of the Auxiliaries were still alive as well... through in fairly bad condition. A young man with a somewhat equine face and hooves for feet with what could only be called a unicorn horn sticking out of his forehead and a young woman with goat horns and somewhat mossy skin... both of whom were covered in claw marks, bite marks and what appeared to be attempts to pry their skin off in chunks.
The 'unicorn' had suffered the worst of the two of them. Konrad wasn't trained in medicine and he had only had a glance, but even if untrained eye could tell that the situation wasn't great; Most of the damage had been inflicted on both of his arms and considering all the fingers and arm chunks that were now missing from each, Konrad couldn't blame him in the slightest for not being able to fight anymore.
The mossy goat girl was still physically able to shoot her gun, through the moment she tried there was a jarring sound of an autogun jamming. Since her companion couldn't currently use his, she grabbed it and despite the pain she was in, actually took the time to aim her shots before firing. Singular bullet holes weren't enough to actually kill the shadow entities, through the wounds seemed to start filling with light and thus caused far greater injury then simple bullet holes normally would.
Within a manner of seconds, the dome was cleared out of hostiles. New ones didn't seem inclined to try and enter it, but the moment seemed more like a reprieve rather than an end of the storm. Gesturing towards Tragios and Zygane to form a triangle around the moth woman that was the source of the dome that had saved their lives, Konrad fell into position himself as he not only tried to focus on the perimeter, but also consider the facts of their situation while ignoring the suppressed, but clearly pained noises that were coming from the surviving auxiliaries. He couldn't do anything about their injuries at the moment and he needed to focus to try and get them out of the situation alive.
The moth girl was clearly some kind of witch. He didn't know enough about witchcraft or whatever powers they generally used to know what kind or what to expect really, but she was actively trying to save them from whatever abomination it was that was outside of the dome so as far as he was concerned she was a good one and worth keeping. A quick glance in her direction suggested that not only was she deep in concentration... but also struggling rather badly; All the thing outside needed to do was maintain pressure and sooner or later it would win whatever battle of wills was taking place. Staying here was not an option.
Maintaining the dome seemed to be taking all of her attention and energy and thus wasn't likely to be able to move under her own power. He didn't know enough about this magical stuff to know if moving her would also move the dome with her... or if touching her at all would break her concentration and get them all killed...
And yet, what other options did they have?
If they stayed still they were dead. If they tried to move her one of three things would happen:
1) They accidentally messed up whatever spell she was doing and they died. Either because of the magic or the things lurking in the darkness.
2) The dome doesn't move with her as the center, in which case they were kind of stuck and moving her was meaningless.
3) They could move her and thus they could walk her towards the wreckage at either side of the hallway. Not only might this remove a direction that the things could be bombarding the dome from and thus take some pressure off of her, but it maybe a passage out had been made as well?
It was a gamble, but it was merely a desperate situation rather then outright suicide.
"Tragios. I need you to carefully pick up the moth woman and start carrying her. I need you to be gentle with her because we'll all die if you're too rough." He stressed, before glancing at the two auxiliaries. "I know you're both in a lot of pain right now, but me and Zygane are going to be covering you, Tragios and moth woman as we all slowly make our way towards an exit. You're going to have to walk there."
There was some grumbling and pained noises, but even as he maintained his vigilance on the edges of the dome Konrad could see that the two auxiliaries were bringing themselves to their feet and leaning on each other for support while Tragios carefully pulled out of his spot in the triangle while Zygane and himself shifted to make up the difference. It was almost comical, watching as a giant of a man placed his hands on the much smaller moth woman's sides in order to pick her up like she was a fragile piece of pottery, but considering that the barrier was still up and her feet were no longer on the ground, Tragios was at least taking the job deathly seriously.
"Alright. On my mark we move. Slow and steady Tragios, we're not leaving anyone behind and you're carrying vital cargo. Mark."
Their movements were slow and steady... and also somewhat uneventful. The darkness and the entities lurking within it continued to maintain pressure at the edges of the light... and Konrad knew he could make out several shapes just lurking outside of the point between light and darkness, but it seemed like the entities weren't inclined to try anything more direct then to wait for the dome and its creator to falter.
Konrad had seem behavior like this in a variety of predators of all shapes and sizes... his former gang amongst them at times. Whatever these things were, they were ambush predators; They had masterfully set up a situation in which they had every possible advantage before they sprung the trap, including being practically invincible while attacking... and they had run into a situation in which those advantages were negated.
It was possible that their reluctance to attack was born of cowardice. After all, if you believed yourself immortal and immune to pain encountering an enemy that can make both of those things untrue must have been terrifying on some level. It could have also been from pragmatism; The price paid to assault the dome in order to kill the remaining survivors of its trap might simply outweigh the rewards of actually doing so. They were watching to see if the dome of light faltered on its own, but if they was going to simply cut their losses so be it.
For a flicker of a moment Konrad considered the possibility of using the dome to try and expose some of the entities in order to directly attack them. Turn a withdrawal into a charge. But he dismissed it easily enough; They weren't moving fast enough to realistically catch any of them and this situation was miraculous as it was... and like such things, if you pushed it too far it would disappear.
In time they did find the wreckage that made up the blockade of their exit. It took a little bit of a walk but an opening had been curved out and lit up by their fellow legionaries on the other side. Slipping through was a one by one affair, with Konrad making sure that he was the last one to carefully withdraw, facing the darkness as he did so.
For a moment, the void stared back. In the darkness he could make out the facial features of the horrific equine creature that had started the ambush off, glaring back at him with clear irritation in its bright white, monstrous eyes. Konrad swore that he saw what looked like chainsaw wounds on its cheek, but the inky blackness was already reforming it. Then... with what could only be considered a dismissive huff, it pulled back into the darkness and disappeared.
With its disappearance, the blackness of the literal kill-box seemed to lose whatever property that allowed it to block out normal light; Torchlight from both sides started to cast it back like normal. Soon the whole 'room' was lit up once more as the march needed to continue through it... even if those doing so were a bit more concerned while making the crossing.
Disturbingly, there was almost no evidence that anything had happened in that section of hallway outside of the twin piles of wreckage that had blocked it off from passage temporally. Bodies, blood, equipment... all of it was gone. All that remained were bullet holes and scorch marks on the walls and floor.
