A Monster in Hell: A 40K Story

Chapter-10

From a random Guardsman to a war hero and now a sub-leader of a Regiment. I had risen quite high. Now there could be no problem... except one.

It happened a week after, shortly after I was commanding a clean-up operation. With several Luna Russ, a line of Fellblades, and even a Baneblade. Not to mention the three Warlord-Class Titans General Veers had so kindly lent me. The Titans commenced clean-up, supported by some limited orbital bombardment. It was another small military base we were cleaning up. 

This system was too valuable to declare an Exterminatus. With the help of Vice-Admiral Throne, I was busy destroying Ork bases. 

So far... I had not witnessed the unique grimdark flavor of 40k. The Orks were a generic enemy when it came to inflicting the horrors of war. I had mostly cruised by smoothly until this point. Until then.

Olga approached me. Something about her was oddly grim today. She had a hardened expression in war, but she was not emotionless. Something was absolutely odd about her.

"Olga," I asked her. "Is everything going well?"

"All fronts are secure. Several erstwhile fortifications and command posts are under our control and have been used as launching grounds for further attacks. Let us get going, Hades."

This was not working. She always called me Private on the battlefield, playfully, despite my promotion. She would also mock-threaten to have me shot for insolence. She would not speak like this. What was...

It was as I turned to go: it was only due to my powers, my suspicions and my luck that I survived.

A knife barely missed me in the back. I catapulted away, vaulting myself through a window at the command post. I saw the very, very fake Olga jumping after me, and I rolled away to avoid her. I ran back through the doors of my current headquarters, and two Guardsmen, obviously stupefied, looked as we danced across the corridors. I was on the defensive, dodging attacks left and right. Why did this style look so familiar...

I jumped up the wall, and Not-Olga surprisingly followed, jumping from wall to wall in pursuit after me. I knew there could not be any catch-up, or I was dead. I spun a full 360 degrees in the air, sliding out of reach of her knife, before knocking the knife out of her hand and once again sliding off.

The fuck was going on?! The training and my powers were the only reasons I was alive at this point. I extended my hand in a Darth Vader-like choke, enjoying Not-Olga's look of shock as I choked her and punted her from the wall. I then fired psionic blasts at her, hitting all her vitals more than several times. But then she was upon me again, and I was shanked, but my thigh healed extremely fast. I was able to swing myself over her, and use my powers to augment my strength to hold her down, choking her. 

But then she used a supreme kick to throw me off her, though she seemed to be panting after that. I quickly stuck a knife in her, but that did not affect her much. What affected her was when I used a super-powered blast to throw her through two walls, and then jumped through them to hit her. 

Ah. Of course.

Lying on the floor was a Callidus assassin, choking and covered in blood. Well... she was dead, and there was nothing I could do about it. Anyway. I then remembered that I had actually asked Olga to check out the command posts for some time, while I looked at the fortress opposite and planned something to pull off the battle.

I had almost died. This began to dawn on me. The only reason I had survived the encounter was because of my powers---

"Major Bryant!" The voice of Tech-Priest Matthias came through, as the guy himself burst into the room, white-faced. "There has been an assassin---"