Blood of Calth

Universal Museum.

This landmark building on Calth had now completely lost its former dazzling splendor.

War had coated it in dust.

The smooth stone walls, once capable of reflecting specific light to create beautiful scenery, were now covered in shell craters, scorched and blasted in countless places.

Large numbers of surviving civilians, mortal auxilia, Mechanicus Secutarii, and others had gathered after receiving the signal sent by the transmitter. Relying on the thick underground shelters and void shield generators here, this area could be considered temporarily safe.

It was only temporarily safe because the orbital bombardment had yet to reach this district, while the enemy's Titan war engines remained bogged down in the mire of war.

The thunderous artillery fire never ceased. The Word Bearers and their mortal auxilia sought to pull out this stubborn nail, but the gathered remnants of the Ultramarines held their advance firmly in check.

Thanks to the precious early warning, Ventanus had assembled roughly seven hundred battle-brothers. Their original companies had suffered grievous losses in the Word Bearers' ambush, yet many Ultramarines had survived and set out independently to stop the enemy.

Now, these Ultramarines had regrouped into squads. Under the cover of friendly artillery, they entered the city's ruins and used guerrilla tactics to exact vengeance upon the Word Bearers.

Cowering inside the Universal Museum would only lead to death. Ventanus understood that only by fighting a mobile war against the enemy could they avoid being singled out and destroyed by heavy firepower and Titans.

Artillery fire had relentlessly pursued Ventanus's squad. Bolt weapons from heavy vehicles tore apart the warehouses and shops where they hid. Amid the dust filling the sky, the remaining factories and warehouses were swallowed by seas of flame. This city was steadily becoming nothing more than a battlefield ruin.

The squad of twenty Space Marines moved through concrete tunnels. Corpses lay everywhere in these dark places, most of them civilians.

Ordinary people were far too fragile on such a devastating battlefield.

Panicked by explosions and bombardment, these crowds had instinctively fled into the tunnels in search of survival. Yet before those high-energy weapons, even the aftershock was enough to drag them into death.

Most bodies killed by shockwaves bled from the mouth and nose. A light touch made their corpses sway and ripple like water-filled sacks.

The bodies of those burned by flames or killed after the air had been sucked away wore expressions of terror and agony. Before dying, they had torn apart their own faces with their fingernails, dying in desperate struggle.

Ventanus silently looked upon these dead people of Calth.

There were also many auxilia soldiers among the corpses, and even several Ultramarines.

The cobalt-blue power armor that symbolized honor was battered beyond recognition. Some pieces had fallen away, scattered amid blood and mud. Some corpses had been cleaved in half, and the warriors' remains within had suffered unimaginable insult and desecration.

The Word Bearers had stripped their armor and flayed their skin, bound them with steel cables into blasphemous sacrificial rites, or nailed them to pillars and carved words of curses into them with blades.

Every Ultramarine had been tortured to death. Even after death, they had been repeatedly tormented and desecrated.

"May your souls return to the Golden Throne, battle-brothers."

Astartes did not fear death, but shameful betrayal and desecration stirred incomparable rage.

Their actions not only disgraced the very name of the Astartes Legions, but also twisted the truths and creeds of the Imperium. They had utterly lost the moral conscience of humanity.

Ventanus wiped away the eight-pointed star and other blasphemous symbols of Chaos painted onto the walls in blood. Witnessing these evils from the Warp, he instinctively felt profound disgust.

The fog of war shrouded the entire city. Ventanus knew it was a gelatinous mist formed from burning soot and dust mixed with the immense volume of water vaporized by energy weapons.

Light was heavily blocked and refracted, turning every source of illumination into a hazy halo.

They passed through the tunnel and immediately encountered six Word Bearers. The instant the two sides met, battle erupted under the impetus of superhuman reflexes.

A bolt shot from a steel crane tower near a factory and struck Brother Atani's helmet. Half his skull was instantly destroyed by the explosive round, and his uncontrolled body collapsed limply.

Ventanus fired several precise bolt shots back in that direction. After the sound of something heavy striking the ground, the hidden sniper finally fell silent.

Two Word Bearers in crimson armor moved in to flank the Ultramarines from behind, but several warriors spotted them. At such close range, both sides fought with melee weapons.

An Ultramarine wielding a power hammer knocked aside his opponent's chainsword and smashed it viciously into the edge of the Word Bearer's breastplate. He then flung him away. The warrior rolled to a stop, his power armor shattered and twisted, his spine and ribs pulverized by the power weapon.

The Ultramarines' autocannon opened fire. This heavy weapon was originally meant to be mounted on a vehicle, but it could still be used after being dismantled. The storm of metal tore apart every obstruction, riddling that Word Bearer with holes.

The enemy had far more vehicles than the Ultramarines. Having assembled in haste, the loyalists had been forced to abandon their own vehicles and heavy weapons. Now, what they faced was a Land Raider charging out from the ruins.

The Land Raider slowly turned, every weapon on the vehicle taking aim as it waited to fire.

The Ultramarines spread out, using the distance between them to reduce the damage from the artillery shockwaves. They tried to use their boltguns to penetrate its vulnerable points, but achieved little.

They began to withdraw slowly, shifting the battlefield into a warehouse. Bolts flew back and forth, while the roar of the massive vehicle's engine grew louder and louder.

Ventanus and his comrades planted high-energy explosives along the wall. With a thunderous crash, the entire building and a nearby crane came down, burying the Land Raider beneath the rubble.

Yet such a war vehicle could not be easily trapped. Powerful engines drove the steel monster crawling out of the ruins, its black gun barrels turning under the control of its servo-automata to aim at the Ultramarines.

Then, in an instant, intense light pierced the misty surroundings. Superheated force embraced the Land Raider, and searing plasma cut through its heavy armor.

Molten alloy killed the vehicle's crew, while flickering green beams pierced the surviving Word Bearers' power armor, killing these tenacious Astartes.

A large force of Adeptus Mechanicus Secutarii arrived. They were another friendly unit that had answered the assembly order.

Dozens of heavily augmented Secutarii soldiers, radiating terrifying levels of radiation, appeared beside a tall old veteran.

"Aruxerotide, Calth Secutarii Cohort."

"Ventanus, 4th Captain."

"We've been pursuing the Word Bearers. I only caught up after this force encountered you," Aruka said. "Our firepower is strong, but our energy reserves are limited. We need supplies."

"Follow me out through the breakout point. We have supplies." Ventanus made the decision at once, intending to lead the Secutarii back to the Universal Museum stronghold first.

As usual, please vote and bookmark. Anyone interested can suggest some cameo characters in the comments; they might be added later.