Editing Trip Into Hell (Warhammer High) (section)

===The Lair of the Beast===
The broken defence laser bunker perimeter fence lay before them, the nightmare at the heart of the Daemon presence on Seadelant, the lair of the beast. The sky above was purple, split with silent lightning emanating from the source of the warp rift which allowed the Daemons access to Seadelant. Ahriman gripped his heqa staff tightly as he stared over the site, eyes sharp and searching for a route in. They had been fortunate, only once had they seen Daemons and they were busy fighting with a lone band of Orks. Ahriman was fine with the two enemies of mankind slaughtering each other instead of the forces of the Imperium.

Now they were at ground zero, and Ahriman was mere minutes away from confronting his nemesis, the one who had blocked his sight and brought this hell to this peaceful world. He rose through the enumerations; he would have to maintain his discipline and his composure if he was to triumph against the foe.

Carefully he crept, or tried to creep across the open ground towards the fence. A creeping Astartes was a mutually exclusive idea, but he reached it undetected. He gestured to the others to follow him across. He felt bad dragging them into the danger zone like this, but he needed Julius and Summer to show him which building the Daemon was hiding in. Once he knew that, he would have them find shelter and wait for him to finish the Daemon. He would not put their lives at risk; for one he didn’t want to have to explain to Isis how his negligence had killed her boyfriend.

For several seconds he extended his mind across the compound. Nothing. That wasn’t as good as he’d liked, Daemons could pop up at any time in any place, especially this close to the source of their entry point to the material universe.

This time he ran, he ran as fast as he could across the compound. It took less than four seconds. When he looked back, Julius and his friends were frozen, staring at him with fear. He had heard of that happening. They hadn’t seen him like this before, not from close up. Transhuman Dread. Nothing human-shaped should be so fast, so lithe, so powerful, especially not anything in excess of two metres tall and carrying over a ton of armour on his body. Finally they responded to his gestures and followed him across the compound, though much slower than him. He covered them with his bolt pistol as they crossed.

“Which Bunker?” Ahriman whispered harshly. Julius and Summer pointed in unison. They followed Ahriman out towards it, weapons held at the ready. For a brief moment Ahriman thought they had outwitted the Daemon, they would reach the bunker unscathed. He didn’t know if the Daemon read his mind at that exact moment, or if it had been planning its next move all along and was simply waiting for them to enter the trap.

The sky split before him, and three figures burst out into reality. He knew the beasts as they stood before him, contemplating him with evil eyes. Bloodcrushers. Fell servants of the blood god riding mechanical juggernauts which snarled and snapped at the charged air as they readied for a charge. They would crush him under their armoured feet if he wasn’t quick.

“Get behind me!” he yelled as he readied himself for their charge. He heard the sounds of weapons being readied to fire. He didn’t expect any of them to kill one of the Bloodcrushers, but their fire could distract the beasts long enough for him to get in the decisive blow.
They charged, the ground trembling under their fell tread as they thundered towards him. Ahriman waited until the last second before throwing himself aside, swinging his heqa staff in a wide arc. It sliced one of the riders nearly in two, the creature exploding into red sparks under the touch of his weapon. The other Bloodcrushers halted and turned to face him again, but he had his pistol raised and loosened a volley at the lead Bloodcrusher.

The shells did little, and the creature charged again. This time he was too slow, and the juggernaut clipped him, sending him flying. He crashed into the side of a building which deformed under his impact, and grunting with the pain he pulled himself up. He rose to his feet just in time as the juggernaut charged again, the rider brandishing its sword. It swung and he parried, blade meeting blade in a shower of sparks. Time and again he swung and thrusted, but every time the creature blocked him. Much as he hated it, he had to admit it was a superb swordsman. Finally he realised something, and once again his heqa staff swept out, its copper and gold bands rippling with fire. But this time it wasn’t aimed at the rider. It cut deep into the juggernaut, which roared and fell under his blow. The rider was now pinned under its dead mount, and a single thrust finished it off. Two down, one to go.

The third and final Bloodcrusher suddenly appeared out of nowhere and caught him head on. He heard his ceramite armour crack under the impact and again he was sent flying. He rolled over to see it preparing another charge. This time, he would not be able to reach his feet in time. The third rider suddenly reeled and fell out of the saddle, exploding into sparks as it hit the ground. The Juggernaut roared before it too expired. Ahriman looked to see Julius and his friends, weapons aimed where the Bloodcrusher had been standing. They had killed it with their fire. Ahriman strode over, and made the gesture of humility with his heqa staff.

“You saved me. Now come, let’s finish this.” With that, he strode towards the bunker, ignoring the pain in his chest from where the juggernaut had struck him.
The mouth of the bunker lay open before him, a mouth leading into hell. Yet he knew he had to enter it, if this planet was to be saved. He turned to the others.

“You have done well, and you have got me to where I need to be. Now stay here, and keep out of sight.” He turned to go, before stopping.

“Before I go in Julius, here.” He handed over the object he had been carrying on his hip, the object Ir’Sem had given him just before he had left the convoy.

“Captain Ir’Sem gave this to me as a last ditch weapon against the Daemon, but I can banish it without needing this weapon. You should use it, if the worst comes to the worst. It’s a Vortex Grenade. Anything caught in the blast radius is gone, and with the veil between worlds so thin here its potency is increased dramatically. Be wary though, it can easily backfire. Only use it as a weapon of last resort. Good luck.”

Ahriman turned and marched into the corridor, the echo of his bootsteps following him in. ‘I am coming for you hell-spawn’ he thought. ‘And I will have my vengeance.’




Soon the sound of Ahriman as he headed deeper into the bunker faded away, leaving nothing but an almost artificial stillness. The silence was ominous, scary. Julius had never hated silence more than at that point. He had to break it before it drove him mad.

“Did you see how Ahriman killed those metal monsters?” he remarked, sitting in the entrance hallway of the bunker.

There were a few murmured assents, but they swiftly faded and the silence returned. It felt worse than ever; it felt like a weapon, the Daemon was trying to drive them insane with the silence.

Suddenly a thought struck Julius, and he knew he had to share it. “Once Lord Ahriman has killed the Daemon, they will all vanish, the Legions will mop up the Orks and the war will be over.”

“The war will be over.” Scvott repeated softly after a short pause. “It hardly seems possible, after all this time, that by tomorrow it will all be over.” His words captured the mood perfectly. The last month felt like a lot longer, so much had happened to Julius during those thirty short days it felt like several months had passed, not a single month. Within a few hours they would be separated, no longer bound by the ties of comradeship, civilians once again. Julius couldn’t help but feel sad at the thought. He’d lived with and fought beside these people for thirty days, they had become his friends. And Summer, Summer was more than just a friend. He loved her, he could not deny that. He loved her as fervently as he loved Isis, and he had no idea how he could reconcile that once all this was over. He supposed he would find a way, that’s the way life always worked.

“What will you do once the war is over?” Summer suddenly asked, as if she had read his mind. Her words lodged in their minds, and for nearly a minute the dreaded silence returned as they thought about it. Scvott was the first to break the silence. “I suppose I’ll still try and join the Navy as a fighter pilot, but this time thanks to Julius I’ll be in a much better position to do well as a leader.” He sent a brief smile to Julius, who felt like he’d just been awarded a medal.

Flynn ran his fingers through his hair. “I suppose I’ll continue to run the business, there will be a lot of rebuilding, and Nalwood will be in demand. I might make a profit for the first time in months because of this. Always look on the bright side they say.” He flashed one of his trademark cheeky grins, the first time in a while he had done so.

Dyllion made a vague gesture, but once he saw how the others were looking at him, he relented. “I’ll go back to the docks, back to work I suppose. There will always be a need for Longshoremen, especially now with so much of the workforce out of action, and so many of the cranes damaged in the fighting. Not very glamorous compared to any of you, but life goes on doesn’t it?” his eternal pragmatism struck a chord. Julius had to envy Dyllion and his uncomplicated train of thought. His respect for the silent man only grew.

It was Julius’s turn. What would he do once the war was over? He pondered that question for a bit. There were so many uncertainties in his life now, and with the war nearly over those uncertainties were once again moving to front and centre. “I’m not entirely sure. If I head out for Calth now, I will miss all my friends going to College, University and the rest, they will all be gone by the time I return to Terra. But the reason I left Terra was to go to Calth and see my mother and my home, where I was born, and I don’t want to leave that undone and unfinished. 
“Either way, I hope all of you will give me addresses so I can contact you after I’m gone, I’m not about to forget the people who fought with me in the war for Seadelant. You are my friends, my comrades in arms and I will remember you always.”
His words were met by a chorus of backslaps from the others and smiles from the others. Julius felt in the company of giants at that moment, and that feeling he would try to remember in darker times to come.

Finally Summer was the only one left. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say a word two things happened. A scream came from down the corridor, a sound which chilled Julius to the bone and outside reality tore apart and a host of Daemons materialised before the bunker, murder in their inhuman eyes.
They reacted immediately to the intrusion, Dyllion hefting his heavy stubber and Scvott, Flynn and Summer readying their lasguns. Julius could see immedietly they were in trouble, and Ahriman wasn’t here to help them. 

That scream came instantly to mind. “Shouldn’t we do something about Ahriman? That sounded like he needs help!” Julius yelled as the Daemons drew closer.
At that moment Scvott took command. “Julius, Summer, you go and help Lord Ahriman. We will hold off the Daemons here. These are my orders, now hurry!”
Julius threw a salute at Scvott, and together Julius and Summer followed Ahriman’s trail into hell.