Decarion had a Sister by the throat. She was shouting something as he looked over to see Varik putting away his trophy. Then he heard his brother shout through the short-range vox and raise his bolter.
"HAND!"
Decarion barely turned his head before he heard the click, and he was hurling the Sister away. Barely clear of his hand, an explosion rocked the Sergeant's body, forcing him to stumble back. Part of his armor was blackened from the blast.
It took but half a moment for Decarion to understand what had happened. The fool had blown herself up.
The last of the servitors came charging at him with a loader claw. He stopped it with his axe as he called over the vox. "Where is the Tech-Priest? Vosk, do you see them?"
The final servitor was blasted in two by a bolter round. Vosk scanned the room and saw the Tech-Priest at a console, saying a prayer and typing in an activation command. The Night Lord recognized the prayer and fired, striking center mass. A spray of metal, gore, and wires coated the terminal.
An alarm rang out as three servitor-operated heavy bolter turrets came alive and descended from the ceiling, firing on all in the room — not caring who was struck, Loyalist or traitor. Decarion heard Kael curse and the Guardsmen scream as they were cut down by the turrets.
The Night Lords took cover from the rain of fire. Decarion looked to the console for the void shield generator but lacked a shot that wouldn't see him riddled with bolter rounds.
It was then Varik's voice came in over the vox.
"Why didn't the Loyalists use these turrets earlier? Some of them may have lived longer."
"Ha! You saw what it did to those Guardsmen. My guess is those turrets' servitors are under commands to fire on anyone not of the Mechanicus. Wouldn't be the first, from what I hear."
Malith's voice rang through the vox as he took a shot at one of the three turrets, managing to land a few before the turret turned on him, forcing him back to cover.
The turrets kept firing and switching targets.
The first turret went down with a clean shot from Vosk to its rotation axis, locking it into a single position firing straight down the middle of the hall, forcing the other two to try and compensate. Soon enough Varik managed to disable the second, Decarion finished the first, and Malith alongside Kael rendered the third into a burning wreck.
With the turrets disabled, Decarion looked at the void shield generator's control cogitator and, despite Marcus's expectation for the sergeant to do something complicated, Decarion struck the console with his axe as Malith started shooting at the generator. Varik shrugged and joined in while Kael reloaded his flamer, Vosk keeping watch. A great whine rang through the hall as the void generator died, as if letting out a death wail.
Decarion watched as the lights of the hall dimmed and emergency lumens came to life. The sergeant of Fifth Claw began trying to contact Solm. The squad vox crackled to life as Solm's voice came through, irritation apparent in the pilot's tone.
"Finally took down that void shield I see. What did you do, take your time to collect souvenirs? The Corsairs are throwing everything they have now — I can already see drop pods coming down. Hurry up and find me a landing zone so we can leave. I am almost out of fuel. Unless you want to walk."
The hall shook as the distant sounds of drop pods crashing into the facility joined the song of war that already filled the air. The squad looked to Decarion, who took his axe and led them out of the hall. "Solm, land the Thunderhawk at the insertion point, we will meet you there. Fifth Claw, we are leaving — kill anything that gets in our way." The Sergeant did not wait for a response before leaving the hall, Nightlords following close behind.
The gunship seemed to whine as Solm flew the Thunderhawk down towards the facility. Fifth Claw's Thunderhawk always did this if it was made to work long enough. Solm thought on how Malith had said that the machine spirit of the Thunderhawk was a lazy one. He could see the attack on the facility starting to break through on the other gates now. But then he looked to the sunset and immediately forced the Thunderhawk into a dive for the landing zone and cursed.
"Aren't these things usually supposed to happen to First Claw!?"
From the setting sun, a storm of Imperial vengeance was heading straight for the supply facility — a regiment of the Imperial Guard and the Adeptus Sororitas, and leading the charge, the Imperial Knights of House Canorem.