Alpha Legion: Prison Break [A Warhammer Tale]

Phase One: Ascent

The coded alert was intercepted by the Adeptus Astartes stationed on Halicose Seven long before it reached the mortal soldiers defending the storm-drenched outpost. Only when it was far too late did the men and women of the garrison's Astra Militarum receive warnings of the impending attack. An attack launched from within by the very Space Marines ordered to support them.

Alarms were raised, and troops mobilized to destroy this new threat. Hundreds of elite guardsmen supported by Orgyn squads swarmed the small facility, determined to cut off all potential escape routes. The guardsmen did not panic; they had withstood years of Orc incursions, and their successes spoke to the Emperor's favor. So, despite the horror of betrayal, they hung on grimly as the base's self-destruct countdown began. Only the base commander and Tech Priests could deactivate it, and to get to them, the traitor Astartes would have to fight their way through the entire garrison. Powerful as the traitors might be, there were but four of them. If each slew two hundred guardsmen before dying, that was a price the outpost's commander could afford to pay to keep the facility out of enemy hands.

Unfortunately, the soldiers of the Imperium were hunting warriors of the Alpha Legion, and they did not stand a chance.

The first guardsman to die was crushed as Thrawl used him to break his fall after leaping from a darkened sentry tower. The guardsman's comrades could merely stare in terror at the giant warrior seemingly falling out of the sky. That he had fought alongside them for years while wearing the colors of a loyal legionary only added to their confusion and horror. Thrawl used their surprise to wade into them, using his dagger to impale the closest threat before he could raise his lasgun. Within moments, the small group of guardsmen assigned to guard the desolate landing pad were dead without firing a shot.

Thrawl stared at his handiwork with grim satisfaction. The corpse worshipers were as predictable as ever. So confident were they that he and his squad would charge headlong into their killing zone like crazed Khornites, they had pulled troops from the rest of the base to make up their "ambushing" force. Of course, not even they had been foolish enough to leave any of their Valkyrie transports grounded. He had a contingency for that. He was Alpha Legion, after all.

"Begin operation Delphi," he voxed.

His squad mates were wise enough not to respond. While the transmission was coded, it was far from up to Legion standards, and there was a chance even these mortals might intercept it. In point of fact, he was counting on it.

Thrawl drew his bolter and flashed its targeting laser five times in rapid succession. Moments later, he was rewarded with the sound of his three comrades landing on the pad behind him. The sound was surprisingly muted for three Astartes wearing full armor, yet another gift that the planet's constant storms had given, having already made it nearly impossible for any unaugmented eye to spy them leaping between the outpost's maze of thin but sturdy Interspace auspex antennae.

"They cannot call for help," muttered Tanis. The Techmarine's raspy voice was barely above a whisper, the result of a century-old wound.

Thrawl nodded. He knew his sabotage efforts had been thorough, but it was always good to have a second set of eyes, especially those augmented by the Dark Mechanicum. If there was one warrior in the squad he could trust, it was Tanis. However, the unspoken question in the other warrior's voice was unmistakable.