"Bang! Bang!"
Two sharp, violent reports erupted at the threshold connecting the narrow passage to the sitting room!
Strange's remaining left hand moved so fast it left an afterimage as he reached back and drew the Bolt Pistol from his thigh. Almost by instinct, he shifted the Gun's muzzle slightly and aimed at the first two Ultramar officers lunging at him from the sitting room behind him, their eyes blazing with frenzied red light!
At such close range, the bolts tore through the two officers without fail, shredding their chests and half their upper bodies into flying chunks of flesh and viscera! The heavy stench of blood instantly overwhelmed the Smoke.
"Move! Cover Lady Euten! Get into the passage!" Strange roared, his voice distorted by urgency and the agony of his severed arm.
He turned sideways, using his massive body as cover, and held his Bolt Pistol steady in his left hand as he kept firing at the other traitorous officers drawing weapons and charging out of the sitting room with savage expressions!
Every shot was precise and merciless, bursting into bloody blossoms amid the crowd.
The other Ultramarines reacted swiftly.
They stopped trying to push forward and rapidly contracted their defensive line, forming a small semicircle at the passage entrance with Strange as its forward anchor.
With their backs against the passage's cold walls, they shielded Lady Euten completely in the farthest corner.
Bolters and Plasma Pistols spat lethal tongues of fire, weaving a dense barrage that hammered the enemies pouring in from the sitting room.
They slowly edged farther into the passage as they fought, trying to gain distance and create room to withdraw.
"Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!!!"
Just then, an even denser, more savage burst of automatic fire swept through the sitting room from the mansion's main entrance, pouring down