'Retribution and death!' answered Zaul as his bolter ejected its empty magazine and he smoothly took another from his belt and slammed it home, las-shots pattering harmlessly off his power armour.
Las-shots also struck Boreas repeatedly, searing the paint from his left shoulder pad, scorching a mark across his left gauntlet, glancing harmlessly from the shaped armour plates protecting his thighs and groin. A ball of flickering blue plasma erupted from Hephaestus's pistol to his left, punching through a stanchion and incinerating the man cowering behind it, his steaming arm and head flung messily to the deck. Twenty metres ahead, the corridor met an intersection, with passages continuing ahead and to the left. Three dozen bodies left in their wake, the Space Marines continued their relentless assault to the junction and took up covering positions. Boreas shot away the leg of a crewman as he attempted to run away, his scream echoing in the Interrogator-Chaplain's audio pick-ups. Suddenly quiet descended, as the last enemies fled out of sight.
'Status check,' Boreas demanded, his pistol aiming down the corridor to the left. Zaul and Thumiel had the forward approach covered.
'Entry point cleared,' confirmed Zaul. 'Praise the Lion!'
'We need to orientate with the bridge,' said Boreas, bolstering his pistol and passing his auspex to Hephaestus. The Techmarine activated the scanner and swung it in a slow arc to the left and right and then up and down. Swirling static on its screen coalesced into an image of their surroundings, extending out some fifty metres.
'I have numerous life-signs ahead and to the right,' Hephaestus reported, holding out the auspex. 'I'm detecting the power grid, there seems to be a terminal thirty metres ahead, in a chamber to the right. Detecting communications nexus as well, same position.'
'Zaul, Nestor, secure this point,' Boreas ordered, taking the proffered auspex from the Techmarine. There were between thirty and forty crewman nearby, waiting around a corner ahead, and within side rooms to the left. 'Prepare for counter-attack. The rest of you with me. Take and hold the terminal chamber.'
The Space Marines stalked quickly ahead, and just as they approached the sealed door to the chamber, the crash of bolters sounded out behind them.
'Enemy attacking, heavy casualties inflicted,' Nestor reported. 'No assistance required.'
Hephaestus bent to examine the keypad next to the chamber door. At that moment, more than twenty of the Saint Carthen's crew charged from around the corner ahead. Bullets clattered off the bulkheads and lasfire flashed brightly down the corridor. Thumiel returned fire immediately, his bolter firing on semi-automatic, carving a path of bloody craters across the chests of the first line of attackers, hurling them from their feet into those that followed behind. By the time they had clambered over the dead, Boreas had his bolt pistol in his left hand and was firing, the bolts punching fist-sized holes into the poorly protected men. The last few realised their mistake too late and were cut down as they tried to turn and run, their lifeless bodies falling upon the heap of those already dead.
'They've engaged security rites, the area is locked-down,' Hephaestus reported.
'If I may?' Damas said, holding up his powerfist, which erupted with a sheen of shimmering blue energy.
'Affirmative,' Boreas agreed with a nod, turning his attention back to the auspex. There were no life signs within fifty metres.
Damas squared up to the armoured door and placed his left hand against it. Clenching his powerfist, he swung. A thunderous detonation boomed down the corridor as his fist smashed through the metal. Opening his hand, he peeled away the torn metal as if it were paper-thin, ripping a hole large enough for them to duck through.
'Thumiel, sentry point. Zaul and Nestor, remote secure area and advance to this position.' After receiving their affirmative replies, the Interrogator-Chaplain pushed his way into the power chamber, followed by Hephaestus and Damas. It was not large, barely five metres square, and filled with thrumming power conduits and coils of finger-thick communications cables.
'Relay interface,' Hephaestus said, pointing at a screen and terminal to their left. Boreas gave him a nod, and stepped over to the machine. Pulling an assortment of wires from his backpack, Hephaestus tried a couple until he found one that could connect with the interface. 'Assimilating schematics,' the Techmarine announced.
Boreas checked his chronometer. Just short of two minutes had passed since they had initiated the boarding action. Another fifteen seconds went by before Hephaestus declared that he had the information he needed.
'We're four levels down from the main control bridge, and about sixty metres to the starboard,' he told them.
He paused for a moment as he consulted with the three-dimensional layout plan he had taken from the communications grid. 'There's an ascensor shaft twenty metres further on, which will give us access to the bridge entryway.'
Boreas's comm buzzed as it received an external transmission and decoded it.
'Lord Boreas,' he heard Sen Neziel say. 'Saint Carthen has reduced her fire considerably. I believe she is mustering her crew to repel boarders.'
'Acknowledged,' Boreas answered, before he turned to Hephaestus. 'How secure is this area?'
'One access point by the stairwell within one hundred metres, three ascensors within the same distance,' he replied after a brief pause.
'Can you shut down the ascensors from here?' Boreas asked.
'Not quickly, rites of command have been initiated,' the Techmarine said with a shake of his head. 'However, from here we can cut the power grid to the whole section, which will slow down reinforcements.'
'Agreed,' Boreas said with a nod. 'Set melta-bombs.'
As Hephaestus began placing the charges, helped by Damas, who was following the Techmarine's directions for the best sites, Boreas ducked back into the corridor where Zaul, Thumiel and Nestor were waiting for him.
'Zaul, Thumiel, advance around the corner and secure the ascensor,' he ordered. They headed off up the corridor, bolters held ready. Hephaestus and Damas hurried back out of the relay chamber, a moment before the interior was lit by white-hot light. Sparks cascaded from the severed energy lines and instantly the lights died. Boreas's artificial sight bathed everything in a red haze.
'Quick advance, that will only slow them down for a short while,' Boreas said, leading the others after Zaul and Thumiel. Passing the corner, he saw the two battle-brothers flanking the double doors that gave access to the ascensor shaft. With his power armour-enhanced strength, it only took a moment for Boreas to force the doors open. The shaft stretched several levels above and below their position. The ascensor itself was on the next level down.
Thumiel, Zaul, covering positions on the shaft. Nestor hold this point. Hephaestus and Damas with me,' he said before bolstering his pistol and jumping out into the shaft to cling onto the ascensor's cables. The threaded metal creaked under the additional weight. Certain that it would not hold up to the strain of three fully armoured Space Marines, Boreas leant across the shaft and drove his fingers through the comparatively thin metal walls, securing himself a hand hold. Releasing the grip of his other hand, he swung over the gap, the toe of his boot driving into the wall. Steadying himself, he set about climbing up the shaft, punching hand and footholds as he went.
Suddenly light filled the shaft as doors opened above. Zaul fired immediately, the traces of the bolts screaming up past Boreas to explode three levels above his head. Something bloody and ragged fell past him and landed on the top of the ascensor with a wet thud. He ignored the intermittent gunfire coming from above and below as he climbed, concentrating on maintaining his balance as he clambered up through the erratic lasfire and the whirring of bullets.
One level down from the open doorway, which was also the floor on which the bridge was located, Boreas stopped and glanced down. Hephaestus was just a couple of metres below him, and Damas a similar distance further down. He signalled for them to stop climbing and pulled a fragmentation grenade from his belt. With his free hand, he primed the timer for a one-second delay then flipped the firing pin and lobbed the grenade up. It arced slighdy towards the open door and exploded in mid-flight, shrapnel clattering noisily off his armour and shredding anything stood in the open portal. With a grunt, he pulled himself up a couple more handholds and then leapt for the opening, his fingers digging into the mesh of the floor.
Hauling himself up, he pulled out his crozius and looked around. Four dismembered bodies littered the hallway he found himself in. He stared face-to-face with a group of more than a dozen crewmen, armed with las-guns and shotguns, who staggered back, terrified.
'External address. No mercy, no respite, no retreat!' Boreas bellowed, his exterior speakers turning his battle-cry into a deafening roar that stunned the traitors even more.
He was on them before they could react, his crozius smashing the jaw from one and crushing the chest of another with his return swing. Hephaestus sprinted past him, his glowing axe cleaving another in two through the midriff and lopping the arm off another. They broke and fled, but couldn't outrun the Space Marines as they bounded forward with long, powered strides, hacking them down from behind, their power weapons leaving a trail of steaming blood and cauterised flesh.
'Exit point secured,' barked Boreas. 'Reform at my position.'
As he waited for Nestor, Zaul and Thumiel to catch up, Boreas checked the chronometer again. Five and a half minutes since the operation had begun. He unslung the auspex and activated it, pointing it in the direction of the bridge. The flickering screen was almost completely white with pulsing life signals.
'Full charge, close assault,' he announced when the others were all present. 'Covering fire Zaul and Thumiel, rearguard Nestor.'
They nodded in understanding and readied their weapons for the final push. Hephaestus jabbed the button to open the chamber's portal.
'For the Lion!' cried Boreas, launching himself out into the entryway that led to the bridge.
The passageway was deserted and Boreas halted just a few steps down, momentarily puzzled. It stretched ahead for twenty metres before opening out onto a hallway. Right in front of him stood the doors to the bridge, a heavily armoured portal with hydraulic bars dropped into place. He checked the auspex again; it still read overwhelming life signals. He thumped it with the butt of his pistol and it gave a plaintive electronic whine and the display faded.
'Brother-chaplain, I am detecting an interference signal emanating from the bridge,' Hephaestus announced. 'They are jamming our scanners.'
Boreas hooked the auspex back onto his belt and looked back at the others.
'They have taken refuge inside the bridge itself,' he said, advancing cautiously along the corridor, the others following him. 'Impossible to know how many of them there are, we must assume it will be heavily guarded.'
'We do not have breaching equipment to cut through the portal,' Hephaestus told them.
'Are there any other access points?' Boreas asked as they reached the hallway. It too was empty of life. Boreas spotted a scanning lens set into the wall above the door and shot it with his bolt pistol, sending sparks cascading down onto his armour.
'There are several weak points in the bulkhead itself,' Hephaestus replied, his head turning left and right as he surveyed the wall.
'Augment terrorsight,' Boreas muttered and his constructed vision faded to a wireframe schematic. He could see the wall, the banks of machinery and consoles beyond, the enemy crew standing out as red blobs amongst the overlapping lines. There were at least three dozen waiting inside, probably more, many of them clustered around the doorway. He saw the outline of Hephaestus moving forward as he indicated a section of the bulkhead that was thinner than the rest. 'Cease augmentation,' Boreas told his armour and a hazy approximation of normal sight returned.
'If we use the rest of our melta-bombs, we can blast a hole through here,' the Techmarine said, activating his power axe and scoring a rough oudine into the metal of the wall about five metres right of the doorway. He marked six points to indicate where to attach the melta-bombs. Damas collected the charges and set to work, de-activating their timers so that they would only explode by remote detonation. When it was done, they gathered in a semi-circle a couple of metres back from the breaching point, readying their frag grenades.
'Zaul, Damas, first in and break to the right. Hephaestus and Nestor next in to cover forward. Thumiel follow with me to the left,' Boreas snapped out the plan. 'Prime grenades with three-second fuse.'
Damas took a step forward, his powerfist glowing, with Zaul slighdy crouched behind him. Hephaestus glanced over at Boreas and the Interrogator-Chaplain gave a small nod. With a hiss and then a loud crack, the melta-bombs detonated, melting through the metal bulkhead in an instant. Damas jumped forward, his powerfist smashing through the weakened wall and clattered into the bridge, his bolt pistol firing. Zaul followed quickly, bolter held in one hand, combat knife gripped in the other. His chanting sounded over the comm-link as Nestor and Hephaestus followed up, their pistols spewing fire. Boreas charged in next and rounded to the left towards the door, Thumiel close behind him, his bolter roaring.
There were twenty or so officers and crewmen by the entry portal, armed with a mixture of lasguns, stub pistols and shotguns. They were turning in reaction to the attack but Boreas opened fire first. The first bolt tore into the face of a man with a red bandana, a moment before his head was vapourised. The second round ripped into the butt of a shotgun and flung the man back as his firearm exploded in his hands.
Boreas launched himself across the gap, still firing, his crozius held above his head. Flares of light reflected off the gleaming surfaces of control panels and displays as his conversion field burst into life as shotgun rounds, las-bolts and bullets pelted into him. He took a heavy hit to his right knee and stumbled. A lucky shot had pierced the bendium seal between the armour plates on his leg but the pain passed in an instant as his armour sdmulated his pain-suppressing glands to kick into action. Thumiel loomed over the Interrogator-Chaplain, spent bolt casings showering around him as he fired semi-automatic bursts into the enemy.
With a grunt, Boreas pushed himself upright, dropping his pistol and gripping his crozius in two hands. The first swing threw a man five metres across the bridge to land heavily in a crash of splintering dials and exploding wires. His next blow crushed the chest of an officer in a long blue coat decorated with gold braiding. He slumped to the floor, blood bubbling from his lips from his collapsed lungs. Another man had drawn his sword and chopped wildly at Boreas's head. The blade crashed off his helmet and threw his head back. The Interrogator-Chaplain let go of his crozius with his right hand and as the next attack swung in, he warded it away with his arm, his gauntleted fist closing around the blade. Exerting his strength, the blade buckled and twisted between Boreas's fingers until it snapped. He rammed the point into the man's throat and let go, leaving his body to fall to the floor drenched in arterial blood.
Only three men were left alive and they threw down their weapons and raised their hands above their heads. Zaul fired into the chest of the first, ripping apart his spine and internal organs. Boreas grabbed the head of the next in his hand and snapped his neck, tossing the body aside with ease. The third man collapsed to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks, his white trousers stained as he soiled himself. The man gibbered some unholy prayer before Boreas's booted foot crashed into the back of his head, stamping his life out on the hard deck.
'Damas, Nestor, secure entry point,' the Chaplain barked, turning from the sprawl of bodies and pointing to the smoking breach in the bulkhead. 'Hephaestus, locate and shut down artificial gravity and life support systems.'
The bridge was theirs.