NOVEL NEXT Chatper 0.5: Pilot
Ctakle, kneeled, the newly painted black ceramite of his armour gleaming against the low blue light from above him, that blurred the surrounding corridor of the Indomitable's left flank. He whispered prayers and offerings, dragging the heavy weapon from his shoulder in front of him, the cables straining and lurching. The luminescent light of his brother spurted to life, the plasma whirring and mixing as his brother lay behind a barricade next door. 2 more of Tethri stood behind them, peeking from their spots behind corners. Blue eye lenses burning trails in the dim light.
"Cnathre, in position" came a hiss over the vox.
"Yanuthlu, in position" a jubilant voice followed.
Sounds glitched and spat at Ctakle as the vox resumed and ground. as though someone were smashing the frequency with rolling boulder.
"brothers" the voice came, low and depressive.
"we are the last remnants, we are the marines who served the Emperor's will for millennia. We fought to keep this imperium alive, and now it fights to destroy us." the voice paused, taking along drawn breath, before crackling again to life with newfound vigor.
"our enemies are many, and we are few, but brothers, I shall not stop, I shall not let my life go to waste and rot until I have attained vengeance for our brothers that were wrongfully slaughtered!" it had come to cry over the vox, loud and commanding.
"we will fight with anything we have in any way we can. And to serve as our first baptism we shall destroy these intruders who dare covet The Indomitable let death be the offering we give to them! We may have lost our brothers, our home world, but we shall not cower against those who wish our doom! Inshavit d'yltha cthedhi ac amlexhe!"
The sibilant ring of Shioldan screamed over the vox. At first came silence, but then one voice answered and chanted the words, over and over, then 2 voices joined, then 4, then 7 and 11, all screaming the same phrase and hammering the ground, resulting in metallic thudding that rebounded and echoed through the ship. Ctakle could feel the decks around him shaking with the hammering of the 2 squads above and below him.
He felt himself and the brothers of his squad answering the vox, and in kind hissing the same Shioldan phrase. Filling their chests as they shouted.
"Weapons ready brothers!" Ivex spoke over the vox
At once the chanting stopped, and Ctakle raised the heavy barrel again over his shoulder, as the ships port gun battery revved into life. He took a last long breath, his visor aligning with the rapidly heating barrel on his shoulder, as the boarding pod slammed into the hull in front of him.