C. Goto - Dawn of War

Meanwhile, Matiel smashed into a building at the side of the street, slumping down its face until he crunched into the road at its base. His jump pack was still spitting gouts of fire, throwing him off balance as he struggled to his feet. He clicked the release, and the pack leapt from his back, spiralling into the air at the head of a whirling trail of black smoke. It pitched suddenly, zig-zagging down the narrow street, and then crashing into a building just ahead of the Alpha Legionaries. The explosion shook the building, dislodging a rain of masonry down onto the Chaos Marines.

The rest of the Space Marines thumped to the ground, rolling into the cover of doorways and behind abandoned vehicles. They had not expected the Alpha Legionaries to end their retreat so abruptly, and the firing line had taken them by surprise. Now a disciplined bank of fire erupted out of the Chaos line, strafing down the road towards the Blood Ravens. Matiel’s squad was pinned.

The sound of heavy footfalls pounding through the adjoining streets made Matiel look round, checking behind his own squad in case he had been led into an ambush. But he was greeted with the magnificent sight of a squadron of Blood Ravens Terminators storming into the street, with Tanthius in their heart, his storm bolter a blaze of firepower.

The line of Alpha Legionaries was broken almost immediately as the awesome power of a Terminator squadron bore down on it, pummelling it with shells and gouts of flame. Tanthius himself squeezed off a couple of cyclone rockets that zipped along the street ahead of his squad, exploding into the now disorganised clutch of Chaos Marines. Matiel waved a signal to his assault squad, and the Marines were immediately up onto their feet, joining the charge of the Terminators, adding salvoes of fire from their bolters.

The Chaos Marines scattered into side streets, vanishing from the main road, leaving three smoking corpses laying on the flagstones. As they disappeared from view, a thunderous boom shook the street, sending a series of ripples along the surface of the road, toppling the Blood Ravens as the ground under their feet oscillated and convulsed.

The thunder grew louder as the Marines rolled towards the edges of the street, searching for patches of firm ground. Tanthius stood defiantly in the middle of the road, riding the waves of rockcrete as they rolled beneath him. His feet were planted, and behind his helmet his jaw was set-a Blood Ravens Terminator would not give ground to the trickery of the Alpha Legion.

The waves of rockcrete grew higher and more powerful as gusts of wind started to rip down the street, funnelled into gales by the high buildings on either side. With an immense crack, the flagstones at the end of the street were catapulted into the air in a fountain of rockcrete. The line of the fountain accelerated down the street towards the Blood Ravens, throwing the flagstones wildly in the air as it pushed onwards. Tanthius twisted his feet, grinding them into the rockcrete beneath him, planting himself against the onslaught rather than diving for cover.

The immense wave of flagstones broke over the defiant, crimson form of the Blood Raven, exploding into a tremendous fountain of masonry and crumbling debris. The street was filled with a mist of dust and steam, as flagstones crashed down all around, shattering into fragments and throwing up plumes into the air.

As the dust finally settled, Matiel wiped the debris from his visor and surveyed the ruin of the street. There, exactly where he had been before the storm had hit, Tanthius stood proudly in the middle of the road, his blood-red armour radiant in amongst the speckling rain of debris. All around him was broken masonry and the remains of ruined flagstones. And, only a metre in front of his feet, the road had simply vanished; it had dropped away completely, swallowed up in a colossal chasm that seemed to have split the entire city in two along a line that bisected the street just in front of Tanthius’ feet.

On the far side of the chasm, about a hundred metres away from Tanthius, Matiel could see the Alpha Legionaries spilling back into the street, staring back over the destruction that had rent the road asunder. They looked as surprised as I feel, thought Matiel, watching them turn their backs and head off into the distance. Instinctively, he reached for the ignition switch for his jump pack, but then realised that he had jettisoned it already.

Whining slowly to a halt at the edge of the chasm, Gabriel peered over the lip. The bottom was about fifty metres down and, even in the fading light of the dusk, Gabriel could see that it was flooded with blood. For a brief moment, the Blood Ravens captain wondered whether the entire city had been built atop a lake of blood-it seemed to seep through everywhere when a hole appeared. He shook his head, dismissing the thought and drawing the bike back away from the ledge.

“What happened here?” asked Gabriel, addressing his question to Matiel and Tanthius, as Isador clambered out of the Rhino that ground to halt before the group. “I felt the earthquake from the plaza, but this is not quite what I expected to find here.”

“The chasm has split the entire city in two,” reported Isador, joining the group after peering down into the ravine. “Early signs are that it has cut off the Dannan district completely, isolating the Temple of Dannan at the centre of a virtual island.”

Gabriel nodded his acknowledgment to Isador, but kept his gaze on the other two, waiting for their explanations.

“We were pursuing the Alpha Legionaries, captain. They set a trap for us in this street, forcing us down onto the ground and pinning us in defensive positions,” reported Matiel. “When Brother Tanthius arrived, we drove the enemy back down the street together. They were on the point of breaking when the quake struck, ripping the street in two and cutting us off from the cursed Marines of Chaos.”

“Brother Tanthius, what happened to the eldar forces near the main gates?” asked Gabriel, keen to keep abreast of the situation throughout the city.

“There was a tremendous shrieking noise, like a scream, emanating from deeper in the city. When they heard it, they simply stopped fighting and disappeared, darting through those Emperor-forsaken warp-gates once again. The eldar are slippery creatures, captain,” replied Tanthius. “Before they fled, we inflicted great damage on their forces-they will not be so keen to tackle Terminators of the Blood Ravens again,” he added with satisfaction.

“Isador, do you have any idea where the sorcerer will take the key?” asked Gabriel, furrowing his brow as he tried to keep track of the complicated events of the day.

“Not really, Gabriel,” replied the Librarian. “I suspect that he will need consecrated ground and a controlled atmosphere to perform any rituals that he may have in mind.”

“Consecrated ground?” asked Gabriel. “What would that entail in this case?”

“It would depend upon the nature of the artefact. Judging by the markings on the altar we found in the valley, I imagine that we are dealing with a Khornate artefact here-so the ground may have to be consecrated with blood,” said Isador.

“How much blood?” asked Gabriel, walking back towards the chasm and looking down into it again. “Would you say that a lake the size of Lloovre Marr might be enough?”

“By the Throne, Gabriel!” said Isador, stepping onto the rim of the abyss. “If this blood really stretches out under the entire city, then Lloovre Marr itself would constitute ground consecrated for the Blood God, Khorne. The power of a cultist ritual here would be immense.”

“It seems that there was some measure of truth hidden in the riddles of the eldar witch,” said Gabriel, thinking of Madia’s warnings and the pool of blood that had gathered in the crater below the ruined monument. “We must get to the Temple of Dannan and stop the foul ceremony of the heretics before it can begin.”