Chapter 21

Konrad POV:

"What's our current stock of flame weaponry?" I ask, breaking the silence that reigns in the command center.

"We have enough to arm two companies and plenty of fuel to go around." Stated one of the officers.

"I want each talon in all companies to now have a flamer added to its arsenal. Someone get me contact with my brother now!" I shout.

I was met with a resounding yes father as the command center went into full motion, and before long, I worked out a battle plan to combat the coming threat. Within the next two hours, I facilitated the combined operations to be carried out by our legions with each of my talons working as forward scouts marking down any large groupings of the necromorphs for the iron legion to obliterate these groupings l that could be found.

Equiping my warplate and gathering my Atramentar, I set out to help quarantine the tunnel, and I could tell the moment I set foot in the tunnel that a psykic force was watching through the ice but all tensions in the air was at its peak when we came upon the opening in the wall. Inside the cavern, we found many casings litering all across the ice and from the many piles of ash showed that the guass weaponry was effective in the removal of any biomass for the necromorphs to repurpose but a problem became apparent where are the corpses of the astates that fought. Following the signs of battle, I tracked down the last stand of my brave sons as I found a blackened crater from a krak grenades explosion and inside the center was the charred husk if a single astartes and about twenty corpses of necromorphs all burned to the bone and judging from the barely visible marking on the astartes pauldron revealing it as the captain from the recording.

"Gather his warplate and bring it back to camp cremated the body." I order

As two of my sons do so, I can't help but remember all the sons I've lost in the campaign against the hrrud, and it's soon to end with our fight of the necromorphs, a repectable goal to end humanity's threats but it make their deaths no less bitter. I was brought out of my thoughts as a message came through my vox

"My lord, we have found the main research facility in the other tunnels." reported the voice with the usual monotone of the Iron legion.

"Seal the entrance to the cave and pull back to the entrance our target has been found." I ordered as I leave, followed by the rest of the astartes.

Arriving at the new site, I was momentarily stunned by the scene infornt of me as a large hulk of a space vessel was barrelly revealed out of the ice with a breach in its hull attached to a building made of ferrocrete built around it. Approaching the building passing by many iron warriors building defenses and preparing killzones in any openings of the giant hulk of a spaceship that the golden age humans built their research station on.

Inside the secured part of the research station, I found my brother actually smiling over some broken, dark age technology.

"Has something peaked your interest, brother?" I asked.

"It's truly marvelous what humanity was capable of in the golden era thay even I can't easily understand their tech and for years I thought I could never be stumped by a machines function due to our fathers gift of understanding of machines just like he gave you your sight." stated perturabo with a somewhat curious smile as he looked back to the ancient tech.

"Do you have any ideas what the purpose of this tech is, brother?" I ask as I also look at the odd coil and wires that led to some type of gauntlet.

"I know it's purpose but not how it functions. This technology is infact capable of inducing stasis for short periods of time and is even capable of levitating objects, but it seems to only be possible of simple motion like pushing and pulling again truly magnificent that they created such technology to be used by hand without have a huge apparatus for it to function and with time and research I could replicate this technology not just for war but engineering as well. Just imagine it, brother, how fast we could build hive cities if a single base human could lift hundreds of pounds of construction or logistic material, a truly revolutionary type of technology but sadly there are some groups in the mechanicum that would never see such tech used by other besides themselves." ranted perturabo with his voice, starting out hopeful but turning frustrated by the end.

"The stasis tech could also prove useful imagine if instead of tackling a criminal down to apprehend them we could simply freeze them then simply detain them while frozen this could also help in any maintenance work as temporarily freezing machinery could allow engineers to repair our machines without putting themselves at greater risk. Let us hope we find even better troves of technology in the bowels of this ship." I state as I step away from the technology.

Making my way towards the hallway leading into the ship, I hear the heavy foot falls of my brother as we walk single file down the hallway as it was too narrow for us to walk shoulder to shoulder. The moment I stepped foot onto the hulk, I was washed over by the death screams of thousands of dead ancient souls, some crazed souls chanting 'Make us whole' while others scream 'destroy the marker'. It was after I pushed the voices from my head that I realized that I wasn't alone in my reaction to it as some of my more pyskic inclined sons acutely stumbled once the voice washes over them but like me they pushed it aside and all I could feel is pride in my sons mental fortitude. My thoughts were abruptly ended by a vision of a large appendage breaking through the ground and responding accordingly. I step aside as said appendage rips through the steel floor of the hulk as a claw of a hunter variant necromorph breaks through but before it could get further up I bisect it with my powerd claw named mercy before using my other one to rip the rest of it from its position and throwing it down a nearby hallway as my sons light it up with gauss fire burning what remains to ash.

"It seems they know we are here, but all I can say to this foul alien itelegence if it can even hear me is that justice and punishment have come for it." I state loudly while glaring down the open way into the bowels of the ship with only the echos of growls and screeches responding to my statement.

For the next few hours, we cleared every accessible room with my sons checking for ambushes and my brothers sons destroying any ambush to be found with well placed shots and almost religious use of flame and gauss weaponry to leave behind now corpses. It seemed the further we went down, the more monstrosities we found each with different mutations, but it was after our hundredth room we found a great opening revealing ancient xenos architecture that spilt the hulk in twain and all over the walls of each structure was deep carvings of a twisted spire that almost looks like two crossed fingers. As we made our way further down into the xenos structure, we came across a command room littered with human skeletons with one in particular that had its hand over a off switch for what looked like an ancient generator.

"I want this room cleared and any tech to be checked for repairs. We may just have found what remained of the research team." I ordered as tech marines moved forward and began the long process of checking the ancient equipment.

looking around the room, I noticed a large window with an even larger metal shutter covering most of it and lifting it I saw something truly horrific as what was beyond to glass was a black stone spire that was pulsing with red alien runes as giant frozen tentecals made of dead flesh was wrapped around it almost shielding it from something as it donned on me that a hive mind was still planetside. Looking lower towards the base of the giant cavern, I could see with my enhanced vision that u could see thousands of necromorphs, both old and new, chipping away at the ice trying to free that monster.

"Someone get incontact with the fleet. We need multiple virus bombs loaded to the surface, this planet must be destroyed at all costs and shall all tunnels but our own and some one prepare for a siege it seems well might have to fight that giant abomination if we want off this planet alive." I ordered as I stared out at the frozen beast as a larger baleful yellow eye in the ice stares right back into my pitch black eyes.