Editing Trip Into Hell (Warhammer High) (section)

===The Monster of Seadelant===

The Defence Laser bunker compound was an empty shell, abandoned and sealed off before Imperial Forces finished evacuating the outer city. Because everything had been either destroyed or sealed off, the Orks had found nothing worth looting and had left it alone. However there was one thing they had both leant after fighting Orks for nearly a month, if there’s one Ork around there’s bound to be more. 

Julius led the way, Hellpistol in hand and finger on the trigger ready at the slightest movement, while Summer covered the rear with her Lasgun. They were both on edge, eyes scanning every nook and cranny in case a foe was hiding before them. The sea breeze moaned as it passed between the buildings and over the walls, an eerie, empty sound which didn’t make things any better.
Swiftly and silently they made their way across the compound towards the main entrance bunker, following the trail of Summer’s mystery Ork. The sun was rising, and soon it would be dangerous to be in the open, in case of Ork spotters.

When Julius spotted a shadow behind one of the buildings, and got close enough to get a look, Summer was proved right. There was a lone Ork making its way across the compound. It wasn’t walking with the normal, vaguely simian loping gait an Ork had, its movements were unnaturally smooth and fluid, even more so than the Eldar. It was heading towards the main entrance bunker, the barricades in front of the door torn down by the Orks and the sentry guns looted, but the reinforced blast doors still shut.
“What is it thinking?” Summer whispered to Julius, who could only shrug. There was no way it could open those doors, not on its own, especially if they had been sealed shut.

It ended up standing directly outside the door, and as he watched it banged on the door with the back of its axe. Nine times. Afterwards, Julius would swear the axe head glowed as it was doing so. With a harsh moan the armoured blast doors began to open. Julius recoiled at the loudness of the grating sound of the doors opening, and he felt Summer behind him, her presence holding him steady. Every Ork for miles would be attracted by that sound, they didn’t have long.

When the doors were open it disappeared inside. Julius suddenly felt like he didn’t want to follow it, but Summer was already halfway there, and he wouldn’t leave her.

“Oll, look!” She whispered harshly, gesturing at the doors as they reached them. The doors had been welded shut, and yet it had opened anyway. That ‘something is not right’ feeling Julius had from the moment he had first seen the Ork was only growing stronger. The mouth of the bunker yawned like some entrance into hell, and Julius hesitated to enter. Summer looked back at him.
“Come on Oll, you’re not one to back down. You’re the one who turned us from a scared bunch of civilians into guerrilla fighters. Don’t let a lone Ork scare you.”

It’s not just a lone Ork, Julius wanted to yell. But that was just a gut feeling, and it could all too easily be wrong. He’d been wrong before, and this time he hoped he was wrong, overreacting over something as mundane as a single Ork scout they could easily dispatch.
They crept through the empty corridors, trying to keep the sound of their footsteps to a minimum. They followed the Ork through every twist and turn of the labyrinth of corridors, Julius trying to remember where they were so they could escape afterwards. The last thing he wanted was to be trapped down here in the claustrophobic depths.

They emerged into a massive space, filled by the gargantuan form of the Defence laser itself. Cables and conduits covered the floors while the massive chains and hoists used to move the weapon into firing position lined the walls. Emergency lighting gave the place a gloomy air, the air of failure and defeat. The Ork was powering its way to where all the cables met, the door separating the main weapon from its power source, an integral Plasma Reactor, now shut down and decored so the Orks couldn’t reactivate it.
They crouched down behind a power box, watching as the Ork reached the reactor entrance doorway. Julius was about to ask Summer what she thought it was doing, when it started to straighten up, like a crouching human.

The Ork rose to an impossible height, and as it did its skin split like an over-ripe fruit and fell to the floor with a wet ‘splat’ sound, gore splashing the floor. Bile rose in Julius’s throat, a flood of disgust at what he had just witnessed, something totally unnatural.
A creature from the darkest nightmares of man now floated amidst the wreck of the body it had stolen, like a poisonous jellyfish shifting in invisible winds. It was clad in a blue cloak, which covered its body like a shroud. The robes were covered in runes which hurt Julius’s eyes to look at, while a pendant in the shape of a curling rune with an eye in the centre hung from what passed as its hip. The axe was now a tall staff tipped with the skull of some great bird long dead held in one arm; with on the other side of its body another three arms traced symbols into the air with fire which lingered like some mad sparkler.

His body convulsed with fear. Not the normal fear, the primal, inner fear, the fear of the dark and the unknown, a fear known to man since the earliest days on ancient Terra. He wanted to puke; he could barely keep himself from retching. Julius reached down and grasped the Crux around his neck tightly, an instinctive gesture of protection as he struggled to keep his composure. Beside him, Summer had gone as white as a sheet, and she was mirroring his action with the Aquila around her neck.

Julius had never seen such a thing before, but he had heard of it, in the darkest depths of Warp Studies class, when even Professor Ahriman had been reduced to a dry whisper as he spoke about the darkest things hiding in the void, and the powers that commanded them. He had hoped he would never have to see such a thing, but his wish was now dust. He wanted to run, to get as far away from that thing as possible, but he couldn’t stop looking. His eyes hurt, his mind was blank, his conscience screaming into the void as his sanity tried to flee. Part of him wanted to pull out his pistol and destroy it, part of him wanted to run and run and not look back. And most sinister of all, part of him wanted to be like it, to have all that power at his command. Power that could so easily be his, if only he wished for it…
Finally by a supreme force of will he drove those polluted thoughts from his mind and broke free from the sight of the thing, and urgently he tugged at Summer.

‘We have to go’ he whispered to her. She did not respond, she was silently murmuring a prayer.
‘Come on, we have to go, before it notices us!’ he tried to impart as much urgency into his voice, as he continued to tug at her. Finally she too broke free of the creature’s strange spell, stared at him wide eyed, and together they crept out of the cavernous space as fast as they dared. Julius’s heart was in his mouth, he felt that any second the thing would notice them, and they would die. But it seemed luck was on their side, as they got out safely. Once they were far enough away, they broke into a run.

They didn’t stop until they were nearly at the surface, whereupon they collapsed from exhaustion, slumped against the walls.
“By the Throne, what in the God-Emperor’s name was that thing?” Summer forced out. She was clearly shocked; she would normally never be so open about her view of the Emperor.
Julius knew, but he didn’t want to say, for if he said it he would have to confront the unpleasant truth that hell was literally about to descend upon Seadelant, and once again he would be in the middle of it.

“Something bad. Something really bad.” He ended up saying.

“Worse than the Orks?” she pressed.

“Millions of times worse. Summer, what we saw was a nightmare, something from the blackest depths of the warp.” He took a deep breath. “A Daemon.” That word tumbled from his lips; bring with it all the horrors such a word entailed.

“A…Daemon? A creature of the…Primordial Annihilator?” She struggled to form words as she came to terms with the revelation. Julius couldn’t blame her; he felt the same way himself. At least he had the greatest Psykers in the Galaxy explain the powers and the dangers of Daemons to him, and he knew what he was dealing with.
None of that made him feel any better though.

“Summer, we have to get back to the bunker. We need to inform the others, and decide what to do next. Having a Daemon here changes everything.”
“How so?” She asked. Julius knew a few scenarios, each worse than the last. And there were doubtless even worse ones he was not privy to.
“You don’t want to know, but knowing you you’ll ask anyway.” She smiled at his statement. The last thing he wanted was to put her in peril. 

“I’ll tell you all once we get back to the bunker. God willing, we’ll get there fast.”

“The Emperor protects.” She said.

“The Emperor protects those who protect themselves; though I hope you are right. Now come on, let’s get out of here.”



They made good time heading for the Bunker, carefully negotiating the winding streets, eyes ever alert for Orks, or worse. That fact they had to keep their eyes open for worse made Julius distinctly uneasy. He though he’d known what he was dealing with, he thought it was nothing more than Orks out to find another fight, but now that had gone out of the window. Now there was all matter of sinister implications that came with having a Daemon or maybe more than one Daemon loose on Seadelant.
“Oll, watch where you’re going.” Too late, Julius walked smack into a lightpost and fell to the ground, dazed. As Summer helped him up, he cursed his lack of attention.

Too many worst case scenarios were now pulsing through Julius’s mind, too many theories about what the Daemon meant, what it was doing on Seadelant, what it wanted to achieve. There were only two beings on this planet who could properly appreciate what it meant to have a Daemon around. And they were separated by a wall and several million angry Orks.
The still air was split by the scream of falling shells and the distant howl of Orks. They had been fighting long enough to know what that meant: the Orks were making another push on the walls, and Imperial Artillery was now falling upon them in a rain of explosive death. Useful cover, they could sneak back to the bunker with the Orks distracted by the goings on at the Walls.
They turned the next corner and were confronted by over a hundred Orks, making their way to the walls. Julius didn’t know who was more surprised, them or the Orks. For a few seconds they just stood staring at each other. But it was the Orks who recovered first, and weapons raised they threw themselves at the pair of Humans who had blundered into them.

“Run!” Julius shouted as he turned and fled, Summer right behind him. From the pounding of boots coming from behind him, the Orks were not about to let them escape. Of all the things that could have happened to them, walking into a mob of Orks was one of the worst.
“We…can’t…run…forever.” Summer panted as they belted down yet another side road. Julius agreed. There was no way they could outrun a hundred Orks, and fighting them would be suicide. There had to be a third option and glancing at the Habs flanking the road and their shape and spacing in particular as he ran past, he saw one. A reckless one, a dangerous one, but a way they could give the Orks the slip and get back safely.

“Quick, in here.” He gestured to an abandoned Hab, the door hanging off its hinges. She gave him a questioning look but followed him inside. He led her up through the building, kicking down shelves and moving chairs to create as many barricades as possible, until they reached the exterior landings which circled the pyramid roof, where people grew pot plants and rested in happier times.
“Um, Oll?” she asked as the Orks followed them into the building. “What do we do now? The Orks are right behind us, and they’ll be on top of us before long. Do we fight them?”

“No, we Jump.” With that, he turned, ran and leapt off the building. For a second he fell through the air before impacting on the sloped roof of the next-door building, rolling to ensure he took the landing without breaking any bones. He’d been taught that skill at one of the youth military camps when they were teaching urban warfare strategies, where he and Andrew had competed to see who could jump the furthest. He never thought back then that he would be using that skill to evade Orks on a faraway planet.
He slid down to the landing, got up and gestured at Summer, beaconing her to follow him. Summer looked at him like he was insane, but a second later she leapt after him. She landed safely, and he helped her up as the first Orks exited onto the landing. They gestured angrily as the Humans disappeared into the adjacent Hab, some of them firing randomly with Sluggas and Shootas. They powered through the Hab as fast as possible to the other side, and with another leap they jumped over to yet another house lining the street. Julius wondered if kids used to do this in peacetime, jumping from Hab to Hab, going up and down the streets without once touching the ground.
By the time they reached the forth Hab, they’d left the Orks well behind. Julius could hear them howling in frustration somewhere behind him. They nipped out of the Hab and crept away.

“Once again Oll, you save the day. Where would I be without you?” Summer beamed as they stopped. Julius returned the smile, thankful that they had got away. Yet another close shave. Too close this one. It was getting harder and harder to get around in the occupied outer city, and before long they would be confined to the bunker.

Now all they needed to do was get their bearings, find a sewer entrance, and make their way back.
Nearly half an hour later, they returned to the Bunker. They found the others waiting for them in the entrance space. Flynn as always started off.  “Seriously, if you two wanted some alone time, you could have simply asked us. You don’t need to leave the bunker, exposing yourself to the Orks.”

Julius scowled at Flynn’s grin, before bringing up the important point. “Scvott, Flynn, Dyllion. Something has come up, something bad. Really bad. We need to discuss it right away.”

They peered at him quizzically, turned to Summer to see her expression matching Julius’s, and then Scvott nodded. They all turned and headed for the briefing room.