"Fire teams advance!"
"This whole place feels like the Hive Mind to me," said Ajax as skald Omar and skald sniper Hart fell in with the shieldwall, neither of them carrying flak boards but each with their rifle at the ready.
"Breathe, Ajax, and let your intuition guide you," whispered Hart over their peer-to-peer. "You found Grendel, you found Loki's children, you will find the Hive Mind."
"Performance anxiety?" asked Rama with a smile, and Ajax couldn't help chuckling at the man's impossible gallows humor. "It's only the fate of humanity."
"No pressure," added Ford before he drilled a bolt through the thorax of a hive defender that had come down from the ceiling.
Ajax said nothing and did as Hart recommended, focusing on his breathing, and reaching out with his senses. He knew they had to start moving, or they'd be surrounded and overwhelmed. This would only work if they stayed on the bounce, moving and fighting so that the enemy could not box them in or overwhelm them. Much of Hydra Company was already pushing into the ship, and behind them, the dropships of Gorgon were beginning to make their intentional crash landings.
Ajax felt a pull, inside and upwards somehow, and he went with it. The marine began marching forward, his rifle braced against his shield. The others around him wordlessly fell in with him, the years of fighting alongside one another giving them a level of cooperation that reminded Ajax of the garm swarms themselves. Ahead, he saw a corridor, the one that Boone had fought his way inside, and knew that it was the first step. What lay beyond that he could not fathom, but for now, he knew that he just had to keep putting one foot in front of the other until he found the Hive Mind, and killing anything that got in his way.
The shieldwall pushed forward, their flak board offering modest protection from the enemy projectiles as more hive defenders poured into the chamber.
The berserkers had broken the strength of the enemy counterattack, though hive defenders continued to appear sporadically, in enough numbers that the chamber itself was still a blistering battleground. The pulse rifle fire increased suddenly, and more of the hive defenders began to go down.
"Gorgon moving to support," said the voice of marine Jorah, "Push on, Hydra, we have your six."
A spine projectile embedded itself into Ajax's flak board, and the marine responded by splattering the enemy creature who fired it across the fleshy wall of the corridor. The passageway was tight, though the marines had enough room to march three abreast, their shields interlocking as they pressed forward. Boone had done his job well, and as they marched, the fire team had to step over body after body of broken garm defenders.
They emerged into a sizeable chamber that had the appearance of a giant heart. It contracted and expanded around them and the marines could see thick veins pulsing in the walls. At the base of the organlike room, Boone's ravaged body lay still, filled with spine projectiles and surrounded by garm bodies. Ajax said nothing and moved into the room as he fired on one of the four beasts that yet defended the chamber.
Behind him, Hart's sniper rifle boomed, and Ajax saw a full breed WarGarm tumble from a ledge above them, its head neatly cored by the high velocity round. Poole took heed of the terrain and swiftly pumped six grenade rounds into each of the larger openings in the chamber, his efforts rewarded by great gouts of gore showering down around them as the explosives killed defenders and tore chunks out of the walls themselves.
The other defenders had been dropped by rifle fire, and Ajax followed his intuition and rushed up the ridged edge of the wall towards a smaller opening. Once inside the marines had to move single file, but so did the garm. Ajax was very thankful for his shield after a brutal exchange with another defender, the enemy died in a burst of carnage and the marine entered another chamber.
The shieldwall formed up around him. The chamber was more like a tremendous transit tube, and Ajax imagined that fledgling bio-vessels would be moved along here on their way to launch bays elsewhere on the ship.
"Rippers!" shouted Ford suddenly. The group moved double-time down the transit tube in time to see a vast swarm of them charging down the tube.
"The Hive Mind knows you are on board, it is following your progress as much as you are seeking it," said Hart as he slung his sniper rifle and slid out his pistol, "Those beasts just hatched, look at how they yet glisten with afterbirth."
Poole emptied his cylinder into the oncoming swarm and bought the marines a few moments to get into a solid firing position. Jorah and a Gorgon fire team rushed to meet them, and locked their shields with the others, making a solid wall of flak boards and rifles that stretched from one side of the tube to the other. The beasts recovered from the grenade assault and continued forward, several WarGarm revealing themselves in the process.
The marines found their range and opened up, the sound of so many pulse rifles firing at once filling the tube with a deafening roar. The drones were torn apart in waves as they hurled themselves heedlessly into the wall of projectiles. Ajax knew that the rippers were simply attempting to overwhelm the marines until the WarGarm could pounce, but it still felt good to wipe out so many of the enemy with such prejudice.
Suddenly his rifle seized up, and Ajax realized that in his fury he'd forgotten his fire discipline, and his weapon had overheated. Next to him Silas cursed and flung his weapon to the ground. The blackout was creeping up on all of them, and losing fire discipline was one of the early warning signs. It was too late to draw his pistol, as a ripper leaped through the air towards him with its limbs thrashing.
The marine swung his right arm at the creature as he activated the wrist blades. The coiled launcher pushed the blade out with enough force to crack through the chitin armor of the beast and sink twelve inches of razor-sharp steel into its chest. The beast's momentum was halted, and it fell onto its back with a crunch.
Without hesitating, Ajax stepped forward and bashed another charging drone with his shield. The creature hadn't expected that and was put off balance. As it stumbled, Ajax swung his arm upwards and used the blade launcher to forcefully disembowel the drone.
Silas was suddenly next to him, batting aside the scything bladed limbs of another as he drove the point of his own blade under its armpit, transfixing enough internal organs to send the beast dropping dead to the floor. A pulse rifle roared on the other side of Ajax as Ford followed his comrades in stepping forward, using his rifle to gun down rippers at point blank range.
Ajax lost himself in the carnage, his entire existence narrowing down to a series of blocks, thrusts, and marching as he fought through the swarm. It wasn't until the top half of Silas slammed into him, knocking him to the gore-slick floor, that he was back in control of himself. Ajax blinked and looked up to see a WarGarm swinging a large projectile launcher that appeared to have an axe affixed to the front of it in place of a bayonet.
With it, the WarGarm hacked into Rama's flak board and split it apart. The beast reared back for another strike before it was showered with projectiles from the other marines.
Ajax pulled his pistol and added his own shots to the storm. In a few moments, the riddled corpse of the beast collapsed in a messy heap and no more enemies presented themselves. Ajax got to his feet to assess the damage.
In his temporary blackout, for what else could it have been, he told himself, they had wiped out the ripper swarm and killed both WarGarm. In doing so, they'd lost not only Silas but most of Jorah's fire team. The marines recovered the flak boards that were still usable and swapped out their spent magazines for fresh ones.
"Lead on, Bloodhound," growled Jarl Mahora as he racked the slide of his pulse rifle.
THE SKULL THRONE
Ajax lost track of time, the passing of it measured only in the expenditure of ammunition and the deaths of marines. He fought and he followed his instincts, doing his best not to become distracted by the losses. There was no coming back from this, and the men who had been his brothers were dying for good.
It was a blur of firefights and carnage, and as
Ajax limped down the corridor, a spine projectile having pierced his thigh, he struggled to maintain his focus. He was blacking out, that much he knew. The deaths of his brothers swirled in his imagination and he found himself incapable of recalling who had died in what order.
Jorah being decapitated by a hive defender as he shoved Ajax out of the way of an ambush, the marine giving his life to keep the Bloodhound alive for a few moments more.
Ford being pincushioned by spine fire as a WarGarm continued to shoot at the marines despite Hart having put a bullet through its skull, the second of what became many swarms that moved to check their progress.
Poole rushing headlong into a chamber full of gorehounds to distract the enemy long enough for the fire team to escape deeper into the ship, the secondary explosions from whatever organ system he destroyed rocking the corridors so hard that it was a struggle to stand for several minutes.
Rama, with a smile on his face, staying behind to defend a choke point from yet another ripper swarm, his death all but guaranteed as he sold his life to stall the increasing numbers of enemies that appeared to be converging on the Bloodhound's mobile position.
Marines whose names were forgotten, just on the tip of his tongue. Men of Hydra and Men of Gorgon. All dead in the belly of the beast.
Another explosion somewhere in the depths of the hive ship shook him from his reverie, and he reached out to steady himself against Mahora's shoulder. The jarl held Ajax firmly and looked around behind them.
"Some of those needle ships must have hit a few vital systems," observed the jarl, his voice haggard from shouting orders to men who were no longer with them.
"Their frequency has increased," agreed Hart from in front of the pair as he surveyed the corridor ahead of them, "Given that this is a living ship, I imagine that some manner of cascading organ failure has begun to occur."
"Press on then, we haven't got the time or the manpower for this to drag on much longer," said Mahora as he started forward, firmly but gently pushing Ajax ahead of him.
The men continued into a dual chambered organ-like room and Ajax pointed to their right. His vision continued to blur and swim as the psychic pressure of the Hive Mind plowed into his consciousness. It was getting stronger, and the pain increased with every step. Ajax had started navigating by his pain, forcing himself to march into the trauma, knowing that the Hive Mind was getting ever closer.
The sounds of gunfire rang out, though still somewhat muffled by the thick fleshy walls of the ship. The fighting continued as the marines pressed on and only abated after several grueling minutes of rushing as best they could towards the sounds.
They began to see bodies of hive defenders and evidence of a running battle as they continued. It was as if someone else had happened upon the same path that he now led them on, and soon it was clear that a sizeable battle had occurred only shortly before. When they came upon the ravaged body of a skald amongst the garm dead, they realized what they were seeing.
"The Angrboda's contingent of skalds," observed Hart as he checked the body. "This one was named Cigovax. I remember him, before the betrayal, a good man."
"Scum," spat Mahora as he kicked the corpse.
The marines soon came upon a wider chamber and discovered the rest of the skalds. The garm dead were in heaps, many of them still quivering from the recent slaughter. Ajax took note that several WarGarm were among the dead aliens, as if they had led the hive defenders against the skalds, a testament to the prowess of the traitors.
"Bloodhound," rasped a voice, the sound of it wet and painful, drawing the eyes of the marines to a skald that was sitting on the far side of the chamber, leaning his back against the wall.
The men approached and saw that the skald had been pierced in several places by spine projectiles and parts of his armor rent by claws. His rifle was still in his hands, and as they approached, he slowly, agonizingly, attempted to swap out magazines. His hands were too clumsy from blood loss to do so, and the magazine dropped to the deck.
"Unferth," said Hart as he knelt and helped the skald to load and prime his weapon. "Report skald."
"We marched and fought blind, like every other fire team, save yours, led as you are by the hound," coughed the dying skald, "Though I suspect we are near the Hive Mind's physical form. These WarGarm are different, subtle things, and they fought like devils the moment we attempted to move on that corridor. We are close, but could not get past this chamber."
"Nor will you leave it," snarled Jarl Mahora as he stomped over to the skald, seeming ready to shoot the man at point-blank range, though as more alien howls filled the corridors leading into the room, he paused and looked back, "I suppose we will not either."
"There is only the one way forward," breathed the skald as he indicated a single arched corridor, unique among all the other tunnels that opened into the chamber.
Ajax had the distinct impression that while the man was indeed pointing out the way to reach the Hive Mind, there was a firm reminder in Unferth's pained face of what Loki had said shortly before his demise.
Hart and Mahora looked at Ajax, and they were all silent for a moment.
"Die well, marine," said Jarl Mahora, and he turned towards the noise of the oncoming swarms.
Hart said nothing but inclined his head slightly before shouldering his sniper rifle and turning as well.
Ajax looked at them, facing towards the enemy, and then he limped into the corridor.
He walked for what seemed like ages, though was probably only a few moments, the time stretching because of the nightmarish pain.
The Hive Mind pounded against the walls of the marine's consciousness, and he could feel that he was bleeding from his nose and ears. One eye began to cloud over, and he realized that he was beginning to suffer from brain hemorrhaging.
The sounds of furious combat echoed around him, the last stand of Jarl Mahora and skald sniper Hart filling his ears as he reached the end of the corridor.
Ajax cast his sight across the chamber that he had entered. It was only because he'd spent countless lifetimes experiencing the deepest horrors of the universe that he did not sink to his knees in terror.
He was at the center of the ship, it had to be. He realized that he was standing at the base of a literal tower of human skulls. The base was nearly as wide as the chamber and rose so high that he could not see to the top lost in the darkness far above. Millions of skulls grafted to one another by what appeared to be a hard mucus. The tower itself was covered in organic tendrils that moved through the gaping mouths and open eye sockets of the skulls.
Ajax limped towards the base of the tower, each step a lifetime's worth of agony as he began to comprehend what he was seeing. Like the hoard ships, the hive ship used the enthralled human minds to project psychic emissions, giving the ship a degree of undetectability. However, it was more than that. Ajax could almost hear the human screams in his mind as he neared the tower.
There was an alien intelligence just behind the voices, a presence hidden behind the wall of psychic noise being generated by the millions of human wails.
The marine raised his rifle and began to fire as he shuffled towards the tower. Each bolt tore apart skulls and blasted away layer after layer of bone and mucus. He had no plan but of attack, and he vented his weapon after ten rounds and continued to fire. By the time his magazine was empty, he'd reached the base of the tower, and he slid his pistol out of its holster, doing his best to ignore the sound of monsters filling the corridor behind him.
He emptied the magazine into the cavernous hole he'd made in the mountain of skulls, then he let the pistol drop to the deck. His left eye had gone blind, the hemorrhaging having become severe enough to demand its price. He could feel the Hive Mind inside the tower and used his trench spike to tear away one last skull before filling his one good eye with the sight of his enemy.
It was a small thing, barely the size of a pebble, a green nodule of flesh that throbbed with psychic power. Ajax did not hesitate to rea
ch in with his open hand and rip the nodule away from the column of nerve tissue that comprised the core of the tower. As he did, the tower shook, though whether that was from the pain of his actions or the cascading organ failure he could not tell.
The devourer of humanity lay in the palm of his hand.
Split an atom and destroy a city, plant a seed and wipe out a species.
Ajax wept tears of blood as he clenched his armored fist, crushing the Hive Mind into a thick paste and then wiping it across the name stenciled on his chest.
Roars of alien beasts filled his ears as the hive ship shuddered once more.
"Her name was Rowan," snarled Ajax as he hefted his trench spike with one hand and activated his wrist blade.
When the garm reached him they found the one-eyed warrior a costly foe.
For a short time, at least.
SLEEP NOW IN THE FIRE
The damaged hive ship listed badly, and soon it was caught in the gravitational pull of Artemesia. The sun drew the great vessel into its hot embrace, and once the ship had crashed into the surface those embers that yet burned in the dying star roared to consume the alien flesh.
The impact was so great that the star itself grew unstable, and even as the extinction fleet continued to mercilessly destroy the remaining Einherjar battle force, the supernova expanded to consume them all.
Across human space, something had changed, and where there once had been a devastatingly effective brilliance in the garm's tactics, the conflict devolved into a violent rampage. From void fight to brutal street warfare, the garm swarms lost all finesse and stratagem. Upon countless battlefields, once human forces had been defeated and devoured, the rampaging monsters turned on each other.
There was only hunger.
And soon, there was only silence.
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Space Marine Apocalypse (Extinction Fleet Book 3) Page 21