still held by the rebellion ’ s forces . A few had devastated buildings or infrastructure , shattering roadways or collapsing rooftops with the violence of their arrival , but nothing vital had been hit ; the closest that the pods had come to destroying something of true strategic value was one that had impacted just a short distance away from an old cathedral that the rebels had repurposed to a command hub . Indeed , a small squad of rebel soldiers , shaking off the shell-shock of the sudden crash , had already set across the rubblestrewn streets to investigate the crater . Donning rebreather masks to avoid choking on the dustclogged air , they descended into the ruins of the hab-block the pod had obliterated with its landing , cautiously making their way past the wrecked building to investigate what remained of the sudden arrivals .
They had died quietly .
As the black-clad rebels had fretted over the danger of descending into the crater with such poor visibility , concerned with the danger presented by the terrain , a far more proactive threat had emerged from the dust and the smoke . It seemed , for a moment , to be some hideously oversized piece of statuary , a glorified depiction of an Imperial legend that they had yet to deface in the chaos of their uprising . Looming over them , somehow untouched by the carnage the falling pod had wrought .
And then it had moved , far faster than anything that size should be able to move , and simply reached out , crushing a man ’ s skull with each hand . Both men were dead before they could scream , blood seeping out from beneath the creature ’ s oversized gauntlets , dribbling down onto their black fatigues . It opened its hands again , and two carcasses fell limply to the ground . Their compatriots shook off the dread that had grasped them , going to raise their weapons a moment too late , as the terrible giant leapt forward with an unnatural speed . It raised its still-bloody hands , and the rebels had only a moment in which to feel terror before they too were silenced .
“ The enemy is dispatched , brothers .” The killer intoned to his fellows over the vox . “ No alarms raised ; we have the element of surprise for a while longer ”.
More figures emerged from the dust ; each two heads taller than a mortal man , clad in heavy power armour that whirred softly with each step on the unstable ground , each unscathed by the furious landing that had destroyed the building they stood on . All wore the same dark blue livery , emblazoned with a white ultima ; the symbol of the vaunted Ultramarines .
Two stepped out to join the killer who had dispatched the scouts , all three armed alike with combat boltguns ; dreadfully effective weapons , but not fit for the silent slaughter that had just been performed bare-handed . Another stepped out , an exposed cybernetic in place of his left arm , with a missile launcher tube clipped to the back of his power-pack . Finally , a fifth marine stepped forward , hand resting on the pommel of a sheathed chainsword , surveying the destruction around him , both that of the shattered building and of the slaughtered rebels ; the damage to the city ’ s infrastructure would be of greater consequence when it came to rebuilding this world later .
Horatius removed the red-painted helm that marked him as the squad ’ s sergeant , taking in the destruction with his own eyes , not through the optic-lenses of his power armour , breathing deep the metallic tang of blood on the air , and the choking smoke of a city ablaze . Even just from those senses , he could see that the situation here was as dire as they ’ d been told .
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