Editing Trip Into Hell (Warhammer High) (section)

===T-Minus Five Minutes to Launch...and counting===
At long last, everything was in place. The Missiles were fully ready to fire, fuelled with warheads armed and targets locked. All that remained was for the Orks to take the bait, push on the walls. The sun would shortly rise, already the sky was more grey than black, and when the Orks saw how few men and women were actually on the walls their base instincts would overwhelm them and they would pour forth seeking blood and battle. That was when Ahriman would launch.

There would be nearly a five minute delay between the launching and the impact, and Ahriman wanted to be there standing on the walls when the warheads come down, and watch the Orks burn.

These thoughts were almost alien to him, and yet he welcomed them. He now knew what it must be like for a Space Wolf or a World Eater, to relish in the destruction they could cause. Once he would have hated being compared to either of those two legions, but after his failures elsewhere he now knew of the cleansing powers of bloodshed, how he could purify his soul with the blood of the foe. He understood a measure of the satisfaction such violence could bring.

“My Lord! The ground augers have detected movement, heading for the Deathstrikes!” the Caorst Sous-lieutenant called out urgently. Ahriman immediately cast his mind underground, and sure enough, burrowing its way under the city like a maggot, a looted Imperial Mole was powering its way through the earth beneath the city, clipping pipes and wires along the way. The Orks must have found out about the gift Ahriman was about to give them, and decided to stop its launch. Tracing the strings of fate forward, Ahriman found exactly where the Mole would emerge, merely a hundred yards from the Deathstrikes. Were he not here, the Orks might well have got away with it. But he was here, and all the brave or foolish Orks had earned themselves was a painful death, the first of millions to receive that gift from Ahriman.

“Akkaid Formation! Fourth company take the left, sixth company the right! Bring up some armour on the double!” His commands, amplified by his armour were swiftly taken up by the Caorst Charxers. He directed the troops to take up positions around where the Mole would emerge, and soon the position was surrounded by a ring of steel. A pair of Malcadors and a Malcador Defender took up position supporting the Charxergrenadieres. Their heavy guns would no doubt be critical to whatever happened next.
Ahriman could clearly see the Mole with his Aethersight as it made its final ascent, and he corrected the aim of the troops closest to him, so that not a single shot would be wasted. 

The blunt drilling snout of the Mole pushed its way out of the earth and through the rockrete like some evil probe, ripping apart the surface and sending chunks of rockrete flying here and there. Watching it slowly emerge from the earth, Ahriman was reminded of some repulsive grub blindly spreading disease and destruction. It was an intrusion, a blight, one he would soon lance. The Orks would not stop him getting his revenge.

“Do not fire until I give the command.” Every gun was trained on it, one word and there would be nothing left but shards of scrap metal. But he wanted the Orks to see, to know they had been beaten before he destroyed them.
Finally the armoured disembarkation hatch was exposed and a few seconds later it stopped, the spinning drill coming to a halt. Now there was no sound but the faint whine of its powerplant shutting down, the low grumble of the Caorst vehicles idling their engines and the click of weapons trained upon it.

The door hissed open, and Ahriman saw movement within. He was about to give the order to fire, but something stopped him, and when the figure revealed itself, he saw why.

Of all the things he had expected to emerge from the Mole, a human, an attractive young woman was almost literally the last thing on his list. Yet that was exactly who was now cautiously standing outside the Mole, her hands raised high above her head. She could see the troops and tanks, every gun trained on both her and the Mole.

“My Lord, what the flying fuck is going on?” the Sous-lieutenant blurted. Ahriman knew how he felt, the auras of all the Caorst troops flared with confusion at what had just come out of the Mole. Many of them had removed their fingers from the triggers of their lasguns, or lowered their weapons. However Ahriman knew that the Orks could be using human slaves to mask their entrance, making the defenders let down their guard before they revealed themselves.

“I’ll get to the bottom of this. If anything happens to me, fire.” With that, he started walking towards the Mole.
There was an awed hush among the defenders as he marched out towards the intruders. As he walked he extended his aura and filled it with fire, and crimson flames blazed along the length of his heqa staff, ways to cow the newcomers in case they were not what they appeared. As he came closer, Ahriman rose through the Enumerations to shield himself from the raw terror coming from the humans. There were now four covering before his approach, the woman having been joined by a dark skinned man, a man built like a brick wall and another man who was obviously from Tanith, with the raven hair common to his native world and a blue tattoo over one eye.
Finally he towered before them, a giant in crimson plate, his weapon wreathed in aetheric fire and his aura blazing like a nova. He could see no trace of an Ork presence, but he had to be sure.

“I am Ahzek Ahriman, Lord of the Corvidae and Chief Librarian of the XVth Legion.” He thundered. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” flames blazed in the lenses of his helmet, and all of them took a step back, pressed between him and the Mole.
“We…that is to say Oll…said we needed to see you My Lord.” The dark skinned one forced out. “He said…we have to…give you a warning.”

“I am Lord of the Corvidae, I need no warnings!” now they all were pressed against the Mole. “Why are you here?!”

“Professor?” a shockingly familiar voice came from inside the Mole, and Ahriman’s control of the Enumerations slipped and crashed.
For a second, Ahriman thought his Transhuman eyes were not working properly as a final figure emerged from the Mole and joined the others. The last time he had seen him was back in the dark depths of the Emperor’s palace, as the Emperor laid his judgement down upon the both of them. And now both of them were her, on a world at war. His aura was different, tempered, hardened by weeks of war. And there was something else too, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. There was no such thing as coincidence; they must have both been brought here for a reason. But what was that reason?
All of this flashed through Ahriman’s mind in an instant, and finally he lowered his voice.

“Julius, what in the name of the Great Ocean are you doing here?”

The others all stared, first at Ahriman and then at Julius. The way their auras flashed yellow told Ahriman that Julius hadn’t revealed his true identity to them. The cat was out of the bag, but Ahriman would let Julius reveal the truth in his own time.
Even Julius was cowed by his fearsome appearance, but he pressed on regardless.
“Professor, there is something we need you to know. Summer and I.” He gestured to the woman, and Ahriman saw his aura flicker. Something had happened between them somewhere, but Ahriman held his tongue, it was not his right to comment. “We were off somewhere in the outer city, and we saw something.”

“Are you saying you’re the resistance? The ones who have been fighting the occupiers in the outer city these past few weeks?” he asked forcefully.

“We are.” the woman, Summer Julius had called her, who now moved forward to stand beside him. Her act defused Ahriman’s anger, and he let the fire fade from his aura and his weapon, and he lowered his heqa staff.

“So, you are the ones who have been fighting the greenskin occupiers. Well met.” He reached out his hand, and the woman named Summer unhesitatingly reached out and shook it, though her slender fingers could only wrap around two of Ahriman’s digits. As she shook he abruptly recognised her. She was one of the CDA volunteers who had assisted them at the breach; the ones who Ahriman had thought were dead. It seemed he was mistaken, but this was one of the few times Ahriman was glad he had been mistaken. The others now came forward as well. Ahriman asked each their names as he greeted them. The dark one was Scvott, a name which gave Ahriman a smile as he recognised how it sounded almost the same as the name of the abhumans who dwelled in the galactic core. The Tanith was Flynn, and the broad one with a permanent scowl was Dyllion. In brief Julius explained what had happened to them, how they had been cut off when the Imperial forces retreated, how they had found a sanctuary under the city and how they had fought the greenskins for the last twenty-five days, and how they had captured and escaped with the Mole, all to deliver a warning.

“You truly are your father’s son Julius, and all of you should be proud of your achievements.” was Ahriman’s comment on all that. “Now, what is so important you have had to hijacked a Mole and burrow under the city to deliver it?”
“Professor, ser, Summer and I saw something inside the outer Defence laser bunker. Something bad, something which changes everything.” He swallowed, before forcing out. “We saw a Daemon.”

Ahriman saw their auras, and knew they weren’t lying. He wished they were though. His worst fears were realised, the Primordial Annihilator was active on this world. All those bad feelings, all those nagging doubts, now they all fell into place. The reason he hadn’t detected the Rok which had opened the outer walls, the strings of fate he couldn’t untangle, all of it now made perfect sense. He was one of the very few who understood the true nature of the Primordial Annihilator and its fell servants, and one of them being active here meant that this world or something on it was important to the schemes of Chaos.

He extended his mind out towards the Defence Laser bunker, but found a baffling nothingness around it his mind couldn’t penetrate. Time and again he probed it, seeking an entrance, but there was nothing. He briefly considered releasing his body of light, and straightaway dismissed it. His body of light would be no match for a Daemon, his mistflesh would die easily under the powers of Chaos. If the utter honesty in their auras hadn’t convinced him, this certainly did.

“Then this world is in deep danger. I will take you to the PDF command centre, where you can explain more thoroughly exactly what you saw so I can work out a proper response, and maybe we can get you all a change of clothes. Even the filtering units in my helmet can’t keep out your stench.” They all blushed at his blunt statement, and behind his helmet he offered himself a small smile, which only partly succeeded in covering the turmoil within him. He now knew the true face of the enemy, but he didn’t know how he could combat it, he was no Grey Knight. And those Deathstrikes were now a no-go. If the Daemon wanted to summon more of its kind, it would need sacrifices in the millions. And that was almost what he had unwittingly delivered. He shuddered when he realised how close he had come to damning this world with his actions.
Suddenly a PDF runner, accompanied by the Caorst Sous-lieutenant dashed up towards them at hectic speed. Their auras were blazing, important news.

“My Lord! My Lord! You are needed at the PDF command centre immediately!”

“Why? If the Graf wants to see me about why I haven’t launched yet, she can damn well stick it up her…”

“No sir, the Astropaths have made contact! It’s the Liberation Fleet sir, it’s arrived!”