Stealing away (Warhammer 40,000 Imperial Knight short story)

Stealing away

“For Emperor’s sake, why are we forced to patrol this world?!”

Tomoyuki Tanaka sighed as he listened to Shirou Sato whining over the vox, his partner’s voice ghosting over the phantom voices that constantly whispered to him inside the dark, coffin-like space of his Throne Mechanicum. He already had what amounted to a throbbing headache plaguing his temples, and Sato’s complaints were making things worse.

“Because the Shogun wills it. And we’re the only military forces in the sector.”

“Ah, yeah. The Draconian Armored Force are preoccupied with keeping those…those things at bay back home. And we can’t expect reinforcements anytime soon, can we?”

At Sato’s words, Tanaka glanced upward. His steed followed the motion, its visual receptors inclining toward the sky. Even now, the heavens looked like it was torn apart, an ugly scar tearing through the black fabric of space like an angry wound.

The Cicatrix Maledictum. For a long time now, it had dominated the heavens, cutting off the Draconis system from the other worlds of the Imperium. Apparently the warp storm had abated somewhat, and the Astra telepathica choir in Draconis III had finally begun receiving signals again, but for a long time now it had remained an impenetrable barrier to warp travel and communication. The Draconis system had been left on its own for years, somberly aware that they could not expect reinforcements from the Imperium that they had pledged their allegiance to.

The Daemons came, hideous creatures from the Warp, flooding through the lush, verdant surface of Draconis III and the industrial juggernaut of the forge world Draconis IV. The agri-world of Draconis VI had been assaulted by the plague daemons of Nurgle, and the berserk daemons of Khorne had descended upon Draconis IV, howling in bloodlust. Even the heavily fortified knight world of Draconis III was not left unscathed, subjected to the wily machinations of Tzeentch, which left countless thousands of citizens awakening to their psychic abilities and inadvertently summoning more of those horrors before they succumbed to rampant mutations.

It took years of tenacious, determined effort, but the knightly houses of Draconis III in conjunction with the Imperial Guard tank regiments of the Draconian Armored and the highly elite strike forces of Kamikaze Troopers eventually cleansed the system of Daemons. There were often times where these grotesque monstrosities would rear their heads, only to be slain by the whirring Reaper chainsword of a Knight, or annihilated by the Leman Russ tanks’ Executioner cannons that Draconis IV was so famous for producing.

Clawing back one world at a time, Tanaka and Sato eventually found themselves patrolling Draconis Beta, one of the moons orbiting Draconis III. A mining outpost had been established there, and after clearing the station of Slaneesh Daemonettes, they received reports that there had been a Genestealer Cult infestation.

“Man, we were supposed to be returning to Draconis III by now. Why can’t they get the Imperial Guard to do this? This is the kind of job we’re paying them for!”

Tanaka ignored Sato and checked his auspex, frowning when he caught sight of a shadow on the side of his visual.

“Sato, something’s in here.”

“Huh? Where?”

The two towering Knights had moved into a substation on the moon, with tall, ragged ruins dotting the blasted landscape. The atmosphere was thin and barely breathable, and the temperatures could fall to below zero, which left Tomoyuki very relieved for the protection from his Throne Mechanicum. Despite Sato’s claims, the Kamikaze Troopers of the Draconian regiments might find themselves hard-pressed to battle in such a hostile environment. Even if they received the most advanced gear, equipment and void-armor from the Adeptus Mechanicus, they were still not the revered Adeptus Astartes, who could survive in such harsh climates for weeks without protection.

Tanaka deftly guided his metallic steed through the ruins of the mining station, taking note of a scorched building that had been blown open by his rapid-fire battle cannon earlier when he took out a bunch of gibbering Daemonettes. Now it looked bereft of life, its inside charred by fire.

“Is there anyone alive left in here?” Sato asked doubtfully. “I mean, I was sure the miners took shelter underground, and we haven’t given them the okay to emerge yet…”

“I don’t know,” Tanaka interrupted. “But we’re not alone out here. Keep sharp, Sir Sato.”

“Yeah, yeah, Sir Tanaka. You really ought to loosen up. That’s why you haven’t gotten a consort yet.”

“Stop that.”

Tanaka didn’t like being reminded of the need to get a consort. The noble pilots of the Imperial Knights were expected to extend their lineage and keep their bloodline as pure as possible by marrying a consort from one of the noble families. However, that tradition had been slowly changing, and the three main Knight houses of Draconis III had adopted a more meritocratic system. Now, all it take to pilot a Knight was skill and knowledge. Tanaka himself was from a commoner family, drafted into the system when he eagerly volunteered to pilot one of the new, mass-produced Imperial Knights churned off the assembly belts of the forge world, Draconis IV.

After proving himself in the first few battles against the infernal fires of Daemons and other creatures of the Warp, Tanaka found himself besotted on all sides by marriage offers. Consorts who wanted to marry into a revered Knightly household, never mind that he was originally a commoner. In times of war, there were plenty of opportunities for glory and honor.

But there were also plenty of opportunities to die an ignominious, shameful death.

Something pinged his auspex at the corner of his eye, and Tanaka slowly turned his Knight to aim his battle cannon at the place. He saw nothing, but rotated his heavy stubbers to point toward the area while swiveling his battle cannon back to the front.

“I’ll take the left. You head to the right.”

“Yeah, yeah. Happy hunting.”

As Tanaka walked his Knight through the ruins of the mining station, his trackers picked up something. The pict-screen of his Throne Mechanicum displayed the familiar figure of a Leman Russ tank rolling toward him.

“Vanquisher type Leman Russ tank, coming from two o’clock,” he voxed Sato, before trying to hail the tank. “Um, Tanaka to Leman Russ squad leader, please come in. I see you approaching. Come in. What are you guys doing here?”

That was strange. There shouldn’t be any Imperial Guard forces stationed in Draconis Beta. The Astra Militarum regiments in the system had been recalled to defend the homeworld of Draconis III from the recent Daemonic incursion. Furthermore, the Vanquisher patterned Leman Russ tank was a bit of an oddity among the more common Executioner patterned Leman Russ tanks that dominated the armored columns of the Draconian Imperial Guard. To find one out here by itself was unusual to say the least.

“Sergeant? Is anyone picking my message? Anyone from the tank crew?”

The silence was making Tanaka uneasy. Something was clearly amiss, but he wasn’t able to tell what it was.

And then he saw it. A winged Hive Tyrant swooping over the Leman Russ tank, screeching its horrifying cry that rippled through the moon’s thin atmosphere. Tanaka swallowed and pivoted his Stormspear rocket pod to aim at the monstrous creature, but at the same time the Leman Russ Vanquisher fired.

“Whoa…?!”

The building next to Tanaka’s Knight vanished in a conflagration as the Vanquisher round detonated, the debris pinging off his ion shield. As Tanaka stumbled back from the impact, the searing ruby beam of a lascannon blasted toward him, only to miss and blow a huge chunk of rubble off the building to his left, turning it into a cratered ruin.

Tanaka struggled to angle his ion shield to deflect the hits, but as the rubble rained down, he caught sight of something within the shadows of the ruins. His eyes widened when his visual auspex magnified it on his pict-screen.

Hulking, humanoid beasts with knives and tools were skulking out. There were ten of them approaching from different directions, their eyes glowing red in the darkness. Even though there were slight traces of human features, their purplish skin, extra appendages and sickly, almost reptilian complexes marked them out clearly as mutants.

“Genestealer Hybrids,” Tanaka murmured, horrified. These had to be first or second generation Neophyte Hybrids. It was good that they had discovered the infestation this early before it had advanced as far as the third or fourth generation, but for it to have even taken root in one of the Imperium’s worlds was an affront to the Emperor. Tanaka swallowed as he targeted the Neophyte Hybrids, but they opened fire, their small-arms completely ineffective against his ion shield. Even if the projectiles did not bypass the ion shield, they merely pinged off harmlessly against the adamantium-ceramite armor of the Knight.

“Sir Sato, be careful! Contact with Genestealer Hybrids!”

“I see them!”

Sato’s voice was unusually tense. Tanaka risked a glance at his partner through one of his holo-picts, and saw the reason. Sato was backing his steed away from what seemed like a living horde. He couldn’t make out the features from this distance, but he saw a flurry of claws and forked tongues.

“But they’re purestrain Genestealers…man, why do I always get the short end of the stick?”

“Burn them!”

Unlike Tanaka’s Knight Paladin, Sato’s Knight Warden was equipped with a heavy flamer. If he could unleash a stream of promethium upon the charging purestrain Genestealers, he could perhaps retreat before they were upon him in battle.

“I’m on it…”

Sato’s voice was cut off by a psychic screech that soared through the vox. Tanaka winced and held his head, but the pounding drill was over for a second.

“Sir Sato? Are you all right?”

He was answered by a shot. Sato’s Knight Warden pivoted around and suddenly fired at him.

“W…what?!”

The twin Icarus autocannons went wide, with only a single round nicking Tanaka’s steed and doing absolutely no damage against the stalwart adamantium-ceramite armor. Confused, and completely caught off guard, Tanaka angled his ion shield, just in time to deflect the majority of the Avenger Gatling cannon fire that Sato hosed at him.

“Gu...!”

Tanaka’s Knight staggered as the devastating impacts of the high-velocity uranium rounds slammed into it, its ion shield flaring up in protest. One of the rounds got through and tore a hole through the flank of his Knight Paladin. Servos screamed and warning lights blinked on, but Tanaka clenched his fists in his haptic gloves and forced his Knight to stand back upright. The ghosts in his Throne whispered of rage and vengeance, but he ignored him, raising to hail Sato in the vox.

“Sir Sato! What are you playing at?!”

“Sorry, Sir Tanaka.”

Sato’s voice was shaken, and his Knight Warden seemed to stumble backward, as if drunken. Sato sounded taut as he struggled to pull his machine back together, and his Knight swiveled back toward the incoming Genestealers.

“I…I don’t know what came over me. One of those Genestealers…a very big one. It looked at me, and I…I don’t know. My mind just blanked out.”

Tanaka cursed under his breath. This was worse than he feared. A Patriarch, capable of mind controlling his opponents. It was fortunate that Sato had broken free of its psychic domination for now, but the consequences could have been a lot disastrous if he had been outside of his Throne.

“Kill it! Take out the big one first!”

“I’m on it!”

Sato was about to pull the trigger when something erupted from beneath his feet, throwing his Knight off balance and sending it tumbling into a crumbling building. A massive monstrosity emerged from the ground, screeching as its scythes flailed about.

“That’s…!”

“A Mawloc!” Tanaka snapped. “Get away from it!”

“I’m trying!”

However, the purestrain Genestealers were already upon him, and Sato was forced to divert his attention back toward them.

“Aaaaah!”

He triggered his heavy flamer and washed the area with blazing promethium. At last three Genestealers disintegrated, cooked into a crisps and crumbled to ash. The rest jumped out of the way, their inhuman reflexes saving them. Sato continued to spray them with snap shots from his Avenger Gatling cannon, but the majority were able to successfully evade it. Only two unfortunate Genestealers buckled, caught by the devastating rounds, and turned into bloody pulps.

“Aha! Caught ya!”

Sir Sato’s voice was filled with triumph, but Tanaka was in no position to admonish him. After realizing that their small-arms fire were completely ineffective against the Knight’s armor and ion shield, the neophyte hybrids had chosen to charge him.

“You little…!”

Tanaka obliterated the first squad of Neophyte Hybrids, his battle cannon round splattering two of them into bloody craters, and they scattered. And then the second squad were upon him, hacking away with their knives, power drills and other assortment of tools. For now, despite their best efforts, their attacks weren’t getting through, but Tanaka knew they weren’t going to last long.

With a burst of effort, he whirled his Knight around, throwing the Neophyte Hybrids off his steed through the kinetic force. As the five hybrids fell about, stunned, Tanaka stomped on them with his Knight’s titanic feet, reducing them into crimson and purple paste.

“It’s our turn.”

Snarling, Tanaka urged his Knight forward, toward the retreating hybrids and the advancing Leman Russ Vanquisher. Even the winged Hive Tyrant swooped toward him, heedless of the Knight’s fearsome weaponry.

Tanaka would teach them of their stupidity.

On the other hand, Sato was faring a bit better. He had picked himself off the ravaged ruins of the building he had fallen into and was chasing down the fleeing purestrain Genestealers. With his heavy flamer, he incinerated six of them, the manmade inferno washing over them mercilessly. His Avenger Gatling cannon reaped a toll and forced them to disperse, but Tanaka’s rapid-fire battle cannon obliterated the rest. Straightening his Knight, Sato aimed his twin Icarus autocannons at the soaring Hive Tyrant and squeezed the trigger in his haptic gloves, but the Hive Tyrant managed to shrug off the high-impact rounds, its tough, armored body withstanding the cratering impacts.

“Damn it, I couldn’t bring the flyer down!”

“Leave it to me! Take care of the Mawloc!”

“On it!”

Sato whirled around to fire his meltagun on the Mawloc, which was still trying to get itself out of the ground. Its serpentine tail was coiled and stuck beneath the earth, which saved Sato’s life. If it had been able to charge him immediately, he would have died.

Or so he thought, but at the last moment the Mawloc tugged itself free and his meltagun shot missed spectacularly. Grimly, Sato then prepared to charge the monstrosity, revving up his Reaper chainsword with his left haptic glove.

Tanaka rotated his heavy stubbers to fire on the neophyte hybrids, but they dodged, and he was forced to stomp them to oblivion as he did their comrades. His rockets blasted toward the tank, which reversed, only for the rockets to impact uselessly against the crumbling ruins it took cover in. Meanwhile, Sato managed to stab the flailing Mawloc with its Reaper chainsword, dealing it a mortal wound.

With a screech, the Mawloc disengaged, its claws and tail scrabbling uselessly against the Knight’s formidable armor, and sought to flee.

The Leman Russ Vanquisher then stopped and surged forward again, its gigantic cannon barking. However, the sudden movement caused it to miss the vital shot, and Tanaka winced as the ruins where he had stomped the Neophyte Hybrids vanished in a shower of debris. The ruby las-fire of the lascannon lanced toward Tanaka again, only to graze the side of his Knight and barely even singed his ion shield. The multi-meltas had better luck and the thermal blasts of the anti-tank cannons sent Tanaka rocking backward, but somehow he absorbed the hits with his ion shield to mitigate the otherwise devastating damage.

The Hive Tyrant descended with a roar, pinging Tanaka’s armor with biological weaponry, but most of those leeches were incinerated instantly when they came into contact with the crackling energy sheen of the ion shield. The few that made it through failed to penetrate the thick armor, dying in droves as they splattered the adamantium and slid off harmlessly on the ground.

And then the Hive Tyrant collided with Tanaka’s Knight, almost knocking it off its feet and sending it sprawling to the ground. With a vengeful shriek, it left a terrible gash as it slashed the stalwart Knight, causing it to rock backward. Tanaka gritted his teeth and poured his will into his haptic gloves. With a single movement, he gutted the Hive Tyrant that grappled with his Knight, driving his Reaper chainsword deep into its gut.

The Hive Tyrant wailed and tried to disengage, but Tanaka wasn’t done. He plunged his Reaper chainsword into its abdomen and eviscerated before beheading it. The headless Hive Tyrant toppled over, spilling noxious fluids over the rocky surface of the moon.

Panting, Tanaka turned his attention to the Vanquisher-patterned Leman Russ tank, which was very much alone. Further back stood the Patriarch, who had not foreseen such a turn of events.

“Time to finish you off,” he snarled.

Sato agreed. As the Mawloc reared away, he loosed a final stream of Avenger Gatling cannon rounds into its back, the uranium projectiles piercing through its armored scales and blowing the creature apart from the inside. Wailing, the Mawloc fell over, dropping into its death throes as it thrashed about. Sato gave it one disgusted look, and then proceeded toward the Patriarch, determined to avenge his dishonor by taking its head.

Tanaka let loose another couple of battle rounds that slammed into the Leman Russ tank’s heavily fortified front. The tank held, just barely, before a rocket from Tanaka’s Stormspear rocket pod slammed into it and exploded. Smoke and flames fumed out of the doomed Leman Russ tank, and its cultist crew struggled to escape.

Tanaka refused to let them flee.

He moved his steed forward and drove his Reaper chainsword into the wrecked vehicle, slicing through metal and cultist alike, and blew up the tank. Tossing away the wreckage from the shimmering power field that wreathed his Reaper chainsword, he then embarked toward the Patriarch, which was now quailing before the might of the two Imperial Knights.

Tanaka and Sato didn’t even need ten seconds to destroy the hideous beast. In fact, Tanaka allowed Sato the honors, and the latter happily ripped the poor thing apart with his Avenger Gatling cannon. As the Patriarch’s cratered corpse fell, Draconis Beta was finally cleansed of the Genestealer taint.

Author's note: Yeah, it's based off the Imperial Knight versus Genestealer Cultist battle report I wrote yesterday. Sorry for the amateurish writing and awful narrative. There's a reason why I'm not hired by Black Library.