Second floor.
Cain's parry blocked the arm, whose nails were like claws, and he felt the blade had cut through the chitinous hide.
When the vicious maw was only a hand's breadth from his face, Cain swiftly recoiled, dodging the fatal bite.
Sheriff Vinita fired again, and for a moment Cain thought she had missed, but then realized she was delaying the other Genestealers.
Cain turned his buzzing blade and counter-attacked, striking the chest of the hybrid and severing its spine.
Foul pus gushed out, reminding Cain of the Tyranids / Tyranids he had faced on Dislathia, and he now understood why Li Feng had vomited back then.
The monster, which had called itself Camella, fell at Cain's feet, while Sheriff Vinita, firing desperately nearby, shouted, "We're trapped!"
Indeed, the situation looked exactly like that; the cramped cubicle had no windows, and the only exit was packed with severely twisted human facsimiles, roaring and intent on taking their lives.
Sheriff Vinita carefully rationed her ammunition, targeting only those who directly exposed themselves, shooting them in the head or chest with Las-fire, and occasionally firing at the thin wall to prevent them from rushing into the narrow space.
After surveying his surroundings, a desperate plan began to form in Cain's mind… "Buy as much time as you can, don't let them get close to us!"
Cain swung his buzzing Chainsword at the fragile wooden partition wall of the adjacent room; the blade hungrily gnawed at the wall, emitting a loud wail, and wood splinters flew into the room.
Within seconds, Cain had cut a hole large enough for a person to pass through.
He jumped through, raising his Chainsword, ready to parry any attack from the other side of the wall as he emerged.
But the room on the other side was empty, and Cain immediately praised the Golden Throne; bright morning light filtered through a window so dirty it was almost opaque, illuminating a dilapidated bedroom almost identical to the room he had just left.
Cain easily shattered the window glass with the hilt of his Chainsword, no longer caring about the drop on the other side, and hastily jumped out the window.
At that moment, Sheriff Vinita fired a parting volley through the gap behind him to delay their pursuers.
The two landed heavily on the pavement, ignoring the intense jolt that squeezed the air from their lungs, and upon landing, instinctively relaxed their bodies to absorb the impact, a skill honed years ago on the Schola Progenium's field training grounds, then turned and raised their laspistols.
Moments later, Sheriff Vinita landed beside him, and Cain, with vengeful fervor, sprayed Las-fire continuously at the window above, blowing a stout man's head from his shoulders.
As the body fell, Cain noticed a third arm, complete with sharp claws, growing from its right shoulder.
Suddenly, a louder noise erupted; countless bolter rounds shattered the dilapidated facade of the bar, followed by Li Feng and the Battle Sisters collectively retreating from inside in a sliding maneuver.
"How many more of these freaks are there?" Cain shouted at Li Feng, who was holding his pistol high, firing into the broken doorway of the bar, and yelling, "I don't know!"
When the several-times-sturdier Bartender burst out, leveling a lumberjack's shotgun at them, Cain knew he was asking the obvious.
Before it could fire, Fides, with a lightning-fast leap, drew her power sword from her hip, and its blue energy field began to glow.
A flash of blue light, and Fides had cleaved the Bartender in half from top to bottom… At this point, everyone clearly understood that the situation was very unfavorable for them.
Fides's radio was now communicating with the rear camp: "This is Fides.
The number of Gretchin is more than we can handle.
Requesting support! Also… Ginny, she… she has returned to the Golden Throne… May the Emperor protect her!"
More monsters now emerged from the shadows of the alley, surging towards their position with coordinated purpose, and even more unsettling was the dead silence of the surroundings.
A rising chill made the hairs on Li Feng's neck stand on end; he noticed that among the enemies, there were also some seemingly normal humans.
"They" were carriers of Genestealer infection, destined to birth more deformed hybrid monsters, and their wills had already been twisted by the influence of the Hive Mind's telepathy.
Li Feng recognized a parasitic Administratum official they had passed earlier; he was carrying a pipe and rushing towards them with murderous eyes, a stark contrast to his cautious bureaucratic demeanor from a short while ago.
"Retreat!"
Cain turned his suggestion into action; he felt like a student playing ball during self-study when the homeroom teacher walked in, drawn by the outstretched wings of the Aquila over the main entrance of the Precinct Office, which seemed to offer shelter to the world, and fled straight there.
Sheriff Vinita strode behind Cain, while Li Feng and the Nuns provided alternating cover, shooting down cultists who were cutting diagonally across the street to block their path.
While Cain and the others fled for their lives, Sheriff Vinita activated her communicator: "Larabi, get all the weapons out, it's urgent."
The only reply Cain could hear beside her was faint static, meaning her earpiece was activated, and her expression was enough for everyone to guess the content of the conversation on the other end of the communicator.
"We've discovered a Genestealer cult.
Report the situation immediately to the Sub-sector Office and the local Defence Force units."
She paused: "No, he's dead.
It's just me and Commissar Cain left, Lieutenant and the Battle Sisters are buying us time!"
Cain missed the subsequent conversation as he was busy dodging a frantic charge from a hybrid.
He parried and severed a chain the creature was wielding with his Chainsword, then agilely spun his body to launch a desperate counterattack, swinging his sword and lopping off its head.
Li Feng watched Cain's extremely difficult spinning slash, and Cain's combat movements betrayed his persona… Li Feng knew that Commissar Cain was never weak, nor a coward; his combat skills were extremely high… ("Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to resist and control fear." — Mark Twain)
When Cain regained his balance, he found the Sheriff looking at him.
"Are your men reliable?"
Cain sighed, thinking of the drunken louts; it was certainly debatable, but in this situation, Cain still hoped they would act like Soldiers, so he nodded.
Sheriff Vinita activated her communicator again: "Issue weapons to the Soldiers."
She paused.
"I don't care if they're still drunk; even if they only remember which way to point the guns, that's better than nothing!"
"They can do much better than that."
As a Political Officer, hearing this implicit disparagement of the Soldiers he served alongside made Cain uncomfortable.
Admittedly, they belonged to a rear support unit, not a front-line combat unit… However, give them one or two earthshaker cannons, and they could level an entire city block at your whim, and wielding light weapons was indeed not their specialty.
However, they were diligent on the firing range, and Li Feng clearly recognized this; Elson, for example, was a remarkably good shot, once hitting a coin tossed into the sky after two drinks.
At the same time! They were the Astra Militarum! The largest armed force under the Emperor, with only one in a thousand warriors from each planet entering the Astra Militarum to serve.
And let's not forget they repelled the Tyranids / Tyranid horde on Dislathia, so even if they weren't battle-hardened veterans, they had proven they could handle close-quarters combat and individual engagements if necessary.
(Many people have the misconception that the Astra Militarum are weak.
However, the Astra Militarum are not conscripts; they are a force composed of carefully selected Soldiers from billions of people on each planet, serving as part of the Imperial "tithe," becoming "the Emperor's currency.")
(For example, on our Earth, if all the armies of all countries were assembled, and the most elite warriors were chosen from them to form a unit, and then this unit was given the most powerful weapons and equipment on our Earth.
Do you still think they are weak? They would be like Rainbow Six, for crying out loud!)
"I hope so," Sheriff Vinita said, shooting down a cultist blocking the way between them and the Precinct Office, followed by a rain of bolter rounds from the Nuns that completely cleared the entrance to the Precinct Office.
They crossed the open plaza in front of the door, their footsteps echoing on the flagstones from the surrounding Administratum buildings, stone chips flying everywhere, followed by the distinctive ionized air crackle of laser weapons and the deeper roar of one or two lumberjack shotguns.