Vex Chronicles 3: Hunt

Ghost ship, part II

Aes Cognis, laboratories

Audessa's plasma pistol fired a bolt of super heated gas into the swarm. The impact lit up the dark corridor and cooked more bots too pieces.

"They're dwindling. They're..." Audessa swallowed. "Gone?"

From one moment to the next the swarm had disappeared. The scrapped scarabs still laid scattered around. But all movement in the corridor had just ceased. The skittering however hadn't...

"Where are they?" Audessa looked at the broken remains. Had they really cut down only so few?

"Doesn't matter," Hakkar replied. "Squad Jubelius needs assistance. Corporal Muntis, take your half and assist. The rest, cover me!"

Hakkar moved closer to the door controls. But before the sergeant could even look at it, Vex was already at his side. The inquisitor pushed the trooper aside and snapped his gauntlet into the controls. And soon the door slammed shut.

"My half, follow me." Hakkar ordered. "We have to close the doors."

The plasma pistol in Audessa's hand suddenly felt so inviting. It would be so easy. Audessa's glance wandered to the back of Vex's head. Just a press and she would have her revenge. Hakkar grabbed her by the shoulder and dragged her along. And with that the moment was gone.

One day, Audessa promised herself, executor Vex would get what he deserved.

Hakkar's half-squad joined the inquisitor's retinue on the door. This door had been chewed open by the scarabs. And every attempt to get it closed was doomed to fail. The corridor itself riddled with shrapnel. The half-ogryn's grenade launcher had torn through the scarabs, leaving barely any remains behind.

Audessa slipped close to Sill, closer than necessary. But Sill just gave the trooper a quick side glance and turned her attention back into the corridor.

"Like robot ghosts," Sill got out. "Even the remains are gone..."

"No ghozztzz." Audessa could barely made out the guttural grumble of the lizard mutant. "Juzzt nothing..."

Audessa looked at the mutant woman with her scales and thick leathery skin. Audessa had always been... fascinated by the exotic. But somehow she couldn't see anything in the mutant psyker. They needed at least something feminine to catch Audessa's interest.

"Silence," Sill demanded. "I think I hear something."

Audessa listened. At first couldn't heat it over the carnage. But then she heard it. The heavy impacts of metal against metal rolled through the corridor. It was like the steady steps of a giant. A giant that was getting closer.

"I'm reading heavy radiation signatures," Vex warned them. "Large war machines."

The thundering steps closed in on them. Hakkar ordered their two melta soldiers forwards to take them down. Even Sill swapped her grenade launcher's drum-magazine to a high explosive payload. Audessa gripped her plasma pistol tighter. Her weapon had already proved useful against another Mechanicus war walker.

But this time Audessa didn't planed on trying to take whatever came for them face to face. She carefully took a few steps back. The other's could take the first hits.

And then, from one moment to the next, the sound just disappeared.

"The readings... just disappeared?" Even Vex sounded surprised. And that wasn't a good sign.

"Disappearing war machines, disappearing scarabs. Are we facing illusions?" Hakkar looked through his troops.

"There was some wreckage," Markos reminded him. "But too little..."