Chapter 23 Where Have You Taken Me Now?
Inside the hive, panic spread like molten metal flooding an anthill.
A single order propagated through vox relays, sirens, and shouted commands:
Run.
Karagan was insane.
This was his hive. His population. His industry. His power base.
Yet he intended to annihilate Yuki along with hundreds of millions of his own subjects.
The Astartes executed Yuki's evacuation directive with mechanical discipline. Heavy weapons blasted breach corridors through the hive's outer shell, carving escape routes toward the wastelands beyond.
It was too slow.
Far too slow.
A hive population numbered in the hundreds of millions.
Even if one in ten thousand escaped, it would be a miracle.
Yuki launched into the air toward the hovering engine of annihilation.
Her twin swords lengthened as she flew, psionic energy extending the disintegration fields along their blades.
Ten meters.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Thirty-meter blades of annihilation flared with blinding light.
She struck.
The disintegration field screamed at maximum output as her blade carved a colossal wound into the descending machine, exposing layered internal structures and gravitic cores.
Then the wound flowed shut.
A metallic buzzing rose from within as swarms of micron-scale repair constructs surged outward like liquid metal, sealing the breach seamlessly.
She struck again.
This time she plunged into the wound itself, unleashing psionic shockwaves that vaporized internal mechanisms and melted repair swarms into molten slag.
The machine healed.
Faster.
Faster than she could destroy it.
Then it reacted.
Crimson energy conduits ignited along its surface.
Light converged from its upper mass toward the central focusing aperture beneath the inverted cone.
A sphere of incandescent plasma formed at its core.
As Yuki drew near, the air itself ignited. Heat washed over her like the breath of a newborn star.
She landed atop a shattered spire and activated her comms.
"Julius. Status."
"Your Highness. Two-thirds of the Astartes have withdrawn. Approximately two hundred thousand civilians have evacuated. We are five kilometers beyond the hive perimeter and continuing extraction."
"Damn it."
She attempted to reach the Emperor.
Nothing.
She tried Makador.
Silence.
Communications blackout.
This was no coincidence.
Whether Karagan's doing… or the work of darker forces… this was a trap designed for one target.
Her.
Yuki could flee.
Nothing present could stop her escape.
But could she run?
Could she abandon the warriors who trusted her?
The civilians she had promised protection?
She laughed bitterly.
"Karagan… if I survive this, I will tear you apart."
She rose to the apex of the highest spire.
Her eyes closed.
White light enveloped her wings.
They expanded.
Expanded.
Expanded.
Across the hive, every person who could see the sky witnessed it:
A machine of destruction descending from the heavens…
and vast wings of radiant white unfolding beneath it.
They spread wider.
Wider.
Until they spanned the entire hive.
A luminous shield raised against divine judgment.
"No… sister… no…" Alpharis whispered, staring upward, cold dread flooding his veins.
The Red Engine fired.
A pillar of stellar fire descended.
When it struck the luminous wings, the impact resembled a pressure jet smashing against bedrock. The beam spread outward along the barrier's curvature, flooding the sky in a blazing corona.
Below, Yuki knelt beneath the inferno.
Her psionic shield bled energy at catastrophic rates.
Heat like a newborn sun pressed downward.
In the futures she could glimpse, the beam only intensified.
Alpharis ran.
He knew the Custodians had withdrawn.
He knew she stood alone.
He knew he could change nothing.
But he could not abandon her.
The barrier thinned.
Flames pierced through.
Yuki laughed weakly.
"…I'm going to end up as roasted wings…"
When the fire touched her feathers, she screamed.
Heat.
Then unbearable cold.
Her senses fractured.
Darkness crept inward.
She bit into her own hand to remain conscious.
Her wings blackened.
Feathers burned away.
Blood seeped through charred plumage.
A rain of crimson fell across the hive.
Time lost meaning.
A minute.
An hour.
An eternity.
Then—
the beam ceased.
Alpharis reached her and gently removed her mangled hand from her mouth.
"Sister… stop. It's over."
Was it?
Her wings shrank slowly, returning to their natural size. The once radiant white feathers were gone, replaced by charred remnants and dried blood.
She collapsed.
Her injuries were survivable.
But her psychic reserves were utterly drained.
She could no longer remain conscious.
Alpharis lifted her onto his back and ran.
Through shattered corridors.
Past stunned civilians.
Toward the nearest functioning medical facility.
As the Astartes saw her carried past, they silently formed the Aquila over their chests.
The civilians did not understand the gesture.
But they imitated it with trembling fingers.
"Doctor! Please— save her!"
Alpharis burst into a medical ward.
"I will do everything possible," the physician replied.
Astartes apothecaries had already evacuated.
He would have to suffice.
Alpharis waited outside.
More Astartes gathered in silence.
No words.
Only vigil.
Only prayer.
Then a smell reached him.
Sweet.
Rotting.
Wrong.
He kicked the ward door open.
The bed was empty.
A bloated figure in a physician's coat turned toward him, its flesh swollen and leaking, maggots writhing in its folds.
It chuckled wetly.
"Join the embrace of the loving Father…"
Alpharis seized it by the throat.
"Where is she?"
"Hehehe…"
"WHERE IS SHE?"
Darkness.
Yuki's eyes opened.
Grotesque faces scattered before her.
She sat upright.
The creatures fled, giggling.
The landscape was wrong.
Twisted trees.
Rivers of viscous filth.
Clouds of flies.
Rot.
Decay.
Watching from the growths were pale green, bloated creatures with glistening sores and glassy eyes.
They observed her with slow curiosity.
Yuki blinked.
"…Where have you dragged me now?"