Warhammer 40K in a box

Chapter 277 Chaotic Battle

When Ahriman's psionic lightning exploded in the lower levels of the hive, the surge of riots paused briefly.

The pale blue energy beam cleaved through the polluted air like divine punishment, tearing a glaring rift between the mountains of abandoned machinery and the crumbling slum buildings.

Arcs of electricity leaped across the damp metal surface, instantly carbonizing a mob of more than a dozen blocks. Their screams were still stuck in their throats when their bodies turned into scattered ashes.

The commanders of the court forces saw on the monitors that the mob, which had been surging like a tide, suddenly turned and rushed towards Ahriman's location as if drawn by an invisible hand.

This unusual behavior, in turn, exposed the command center of the rebellion—a freight dispatch center that had been transformed into a Chaos Altar.

"Let the battle nuns advance!" Inquisitor Valence finally seized the opportunity and shouted, "All heavy weapons, aim at coordinates 37-82! Repeat, all firepower concentrated on 37-82!"

He turned and yelled into the communicator, his voice echoing in the command room, signaling the start of the court's crackdown.

The purification forces, composed of stormtroopers, battle nuns, and astral soldiers, advanced downwards from the middle of the hive, the roar of flamethrowers and heavy bomb guns echoing through the narrow streets, turning the mob's makeshift defenses into a sea of ​​fire.

The air was filled with the stench of burning flesh and the acrid smell of promethium fuel.

"For the Emperor!" a battle nun shouted as she leaped over cover, her shield protecting her body, and charged through the explosives set up by the mob, rushing towards them amidst the smoke and dust.

The mob retaliated with various homemade automatic guns and improvised explosive devices, and some even detonated pre-planted explosives in an attempt to stop the advance of the Imperial army.

A particularly powerful explosion overturned the entire metal corridor, burying three Astral Army soldiers alive under the collapsed rubble.

However, such obstacles were hardly enough to withstand the Empire's military might. Despite the involvement of Astartes, the elite mixed force of stormtroopers and battle nuns was enough to crush these traitors who were merely ordinary mobs.

After all, this was only the early stages of the rebellion. They had not yet sacrificed themselves to summon Chaos Demons or Fallen Space Marines. It would be difficult for the Fallen, who were merely mortals, to resist the Imperial elite.

During the fierce attack of the Imperial army, the outer wall of the command center collapsed, revealing the desecrated Chaos Altar inside.

But at this moment, a crack in the Chaos Altar widened in the air, and the corrupting energy of the warp gushed out like pus and blood, hissing as it corroded the nearby metal structures.

The first to emerge were a group of vampires, wielding greatswords and covered in blood-red skin, looking like the most vivid embodiment of the demons of hell from ancient legends.

They roared and pounced on the nearest living creature, tearing apart several Blood Oath followers who couldn't escape in time—these pathetic heretics only realized in their dying moments that Chaos never pities its servants.

Arriving nearby, Ahriman observed the situation from a high vantage point. Noticing the appearance of the Chaos Demon, his brow furrowed beneath his helmet.

“Just vampires? It seems their ritual isn’t complete enough.” Ahriman muttered to himself, his tone seemingly disdainful of what these heretics had summoned.

He had originally thought that the Blood Oath Order would try to summon a more powerful being, such as a demon prince, or even a great demon.

But while these vampires before us are ferocious, they are far from enough to overthrow the entire sector. Unless… they have other plans.

Just then, his psychic vision detected an unusual fluctuation coming from below the altar.

That wasn't the pulsation of chaotic energy, but rather some colder, more mechanical frequency.

Ahriman's pupils contracted sharply. "There's something else underground," he warned the Inquisitor through the communicator, simultaneously raising his hand and unleashing a psychic shockwave that shattered the altar's stone platform.

Amidst the flying debris, a hidden metal passage below was revealed.

From deep within the passage came the ear-piercing sound of metal scraping together.

That was neither the voice of a demon nor the sound of human machinery operating.

That was the unique hum of necromancer metal, like the simultaneous flapping of wings of millions of metal beetles.

“Damn it, they actually—” Ahriman’s words were interrupted by a sudden psionic shriek.

The alarm inside his helmet was flashing wildly, and the indicator pointed to a location deeper inside the hive.

“Judge, I need a strike team.” Ahriman quickly switched to the communication channel: “The real threat is elsewhere.”
-
Twenty minutes later, Ahriman personally led an elite squad of battle nuns and stormtroopers through the intricate maintenance tunnels at the bottom of the hive to raid a secret heretical meeting place located there.

The building, disguised as an abandoned water treatment plant, is actually a completely transformed dark church with ingeniously disguised exterior walls that are impossible for the naked eye to detect.

As they blasted open the last blast door with a molten metal bomb, a blast of air mixed with rotting flesh, congealed blood, and incense hit them.

The stench of blood was so strong that it almost formed a tangible red mist, causing the two stormtroopers to bend over and gag due to the sudden physiological reaction.

Ahriman stepped into the abandoned church that had been converted into a Chaos Altar, his power boots making an unsettling sound as they stomped through the viscous pool of blood.

The sight before him made him frown—the walls were covered with blasphemous runes drawn with blood and excrement, the ground was engraved with a huge eight-pointed star array, and eight skinned corpses were placed at the edge, each with its chest cavity cut open and its ribs spread out like wings.

At the same time, their heads were also cut off and held in the hands of these corpses.

On the central stone platform lay a dissected corpse—a combat nun whose power armor had been violently dismantled, revealing her pale body.

Her heart was ripped out, yet it still beat eerily, and was placed in a brass vessel atop the altar.

With each heart contraction, a stream of dark red blood is pumped out, flowing in eight directions along the grooves carved on the altar.

“Too late!” Ahriman whispered.

He noticed eight high-ranking members of the Blood Oath Order, clad in red robes, standing around the altar, chanting blasphemous incantations in low voices.

What alarmed him even more was that each red-robed believer was accompanied by a tall figure covered in a metal shell—those were definitely not human.

The moment he finished speaking, the blood on the altar suddenly boiled, the ground began to tremble violently, and a scarlet crack tore open in the air, revealing a swirling and twisting scene within.

The heart on the altar suddenly convulsed violently, and a jet of blood spurted into the fissure.

Ahriman felt a strong surge of psionic energy sweep across the entire space; he knew that the real enemy was about to arrive.

(End of this chapter)