WH40K - Plague of the Damned

[Kuja]

This is for wanyone who is a fan of Stravo's excellent Paths of the Damnedand might want to see more of the most awesome Brother-captain Mordred De La Croix. Especially it's for Chris O'Farrell, Captain Cyran, Brother-captain Gaius, SirNitram, and of course, the fantastic Stravo himself.


Warhammer 40,000: Plague of the Damned


The six Ultramarines moved through the pitch darkness like wraiths. This deep below the surface of the world, there was no source of light. Yet the air was hot and humid, and the floor of the cave was slippery with bilious and worse substances. One of the Ultramarines nearly had a foot slip out from underneath him but managed to maintain his balance at the last moment.

"Battle-brother Two Left Feet on the Drilling Field," commented the one who carried a massive Executioner chainsword. A minor chuckle went around the group as the unfortunate marine glared at the jester, yet even in their mirth they were ever cautious. An outsider would never have known of the words or the laughter, since none of the marines had opened an external channel.

"That's enough," the one in the lead said after a moment. The others immediately were silenced. "This is no place for humor."

"I apologize, brother-captain," the swordsman said.

"We continue," was the only reply. They moved on. The mission clock now stood at one hour and thirty-seven minutes, and they had re-synced immediately before entering the network of caverns.

The clock stood at one and forty-nine before one of the marines halted and other others, reacting to him, stood frozen. "I have movement, brother-captain," the eagle-eyed marine said.

"Weapons free," the leader replied. Three bolters, one flamer, one rocket launcher, and one bolt pistol were immediately drawn and glaring down the tunnel only a moment later. Tension rose and though their heartbeats remained steady, each of them was suddenly on a hair trigger. "Advance half," the leader said, and they began to inch their way down the tunnel, careful of where they placed their feet. The swordsman rested his thumb on the massive weapon's activation rune.

The tunnel opened into a cave roughly six meters across, after which it closed back into another narrow tunnel. Here the thick, phlegmy slime covered the floor nearly up to their feet. In the center of the room, something hard and angular rose from the pool of snot. Something that twitched, and blinked yellow light. The brother-captain nodded at it. "Scan."

One of the marines carrying a bolter took his hand from it and retrieved an auspex. Waving it in the direction of the protrusion, he reported. "Some kind of electronic device. According to this its power source is nearly gone. And there's a-" He was cut off by a hissing sound as the protrusion began to unravel, revealing itself as an insectoid creature resembling a millipede uncurled from a metal device coated by hardened mucous. Four long joints extended from its mouth to reveal sharp teeth that dripped clear slime. It hissed at the marines.

"Nuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrgllllllllleeeeeeeee," it seemed to whisper.

"Kill it," the captain said flatly, and the marines opened up with a storm of bolter shells that punched through the small creature's carapace and detonated within. It screamed but did not die, and the marine with the flamer leveled it, clicked the pilot flame on, and from the weapon erupted an eye-searing jet of flame that flowed out to envelop the little daemon. It squealed and thrashed in pain, then seemed to collapse in on itself. But a moment later, the device it had rested upon whined with an ear-piercing strength and flashed.

Then everything went dark.

The air erupted in a chorus of confused babble as the marines suddenly pulled at their armor. Where before they had moved with grace, now they jerked to and fro seemingly at random.

The first to get his helmet off was the one who had slung his rocket launcher to fire his pistol in the fray. He stripped off the suffocating piece of armor to reveal hard brown eyes and hair the color of sand. "I have a full failure in my armor systems!" he spat.

"As do I," replied the swordsman, removing his own helmet to reveal a proud mane of silver hair.

"My flamer is not responding, brother-captain."

"Nothing from the auspex either, brother captain."

"Emperor hang it all, is anything working?" the man demanded.

"That machine must have put out some kind of disabling pulse," one of the other marines said. "Anything active would be affected."

"A trap. A warp-damned trap!"

"And an effective one. Go for a restart."

The marines fumbled with their armor. Where normally it accentuated their strength, without its power it only hampered them and made their movements stiff and difficult.

"Emperor but this place stinks," one of them said in disgust.

"Do not breathe too deeply," the captain said. "The air is not safe here."

"Aye sir."

The swordsman was the first to get his armor in working condition. Yet even when he had replaced his helmet all was not well. "Brother-captain, be advised. All operating parameters have been erased. My compass is gone and my mission clock is zero." There was a sniffing sound. "My ventilation system is inoperative as well."

"Brother-captain, the enemy has anticipated us."

"It would seem that way, Brother Cristofer. Nevertheless, we have a mission and we will complete it. Is that clear?"

"Clear, brother-captain," they all chorused. The leader drew his sword and pointed father down the tunnel. "We go on," he pronounced. They did so, slogging through the pool of slime that sucked at their feet and tried to pull them down. As they went, the man with the rocket launcher pulled his helmet off. "Replace your helmet brother Tahalshia," the captain said immediately.

"My visual sensors are flickering on and off intermittently," the marine replied. "If I am to remain a part of this team rather than a dead weight, I cannot wear it."

"You already present enough dead weight as it is," the swordsman interjected merrily.

"Brother Kuja, still thy ever-running mouth," the leader snapped.

"As ordered, Captain De La Croix."

"Brother Gaius, can you get your auspex working?"

The marine in question had been fiddling with the device ever since replacing his helmet. "No, brother-captain, its machine spirit will not respond."

Mordred De La Croix sucked in a quick breath. "Then we are truly on our own, brothers. Now is when we prove out worth to the Emperor and the primarch."

They went on, down a tunnel whose very walls with slicked with slime that seemed to pulse with a heartbeat. "We grow very near, brother-captain," the marine that had been silent up to this point said.

"Do you sense it, brother Cyran?"

The marine nodded. "Brother-Librarian Caspian warned me of the signs for which I should take note. I believe it is somewhere up ahead." Mordred nodded and once again thanked the Emperor for a psyker too weak to enter the ranks of the chapter librarians but just strong enough to warn them when a daemon loomed near.

"Brother Cristofer, prepare your flame, Brother Kuja, ready your sword, Brother Nitram, arm your rocket launcher. Cyran, Gaius, you will flank me." He paused. "This is what we came here to do, my brothers. We must not falter now." Behind his faceplate, his eyes blazed. "Forward, and know no fear!"

The Ultramarines wordlessly charged down the tunnel at a reckless pace. Initially they were able to run shoulder to shoulder, but as they went on the tube grew more and more narrow until they had to fall into a single line. One of them – Mordred thought it was Cristofer O'Farrell's voice – was murmuring a battle prayer under his breath.

Ahead of them loomed a wall of hardened mucous. Without hesitation, Mordred put his head down and charged at it, breaking right through the brittle barrier. His battle-brothers followed him into the larger chamber, alternately moving left and right to flank him.

The smell was horrific, a combination of dysentery, rot, and blood that made Nitram screw up his face in disgust. The cavern was a hundred-meter void in the rock and every solid surface was covered in fluids both thick and thin, of every imaginable color, all of them terrible. Bodies writhed in the slime, some moaning in terror, some scooping up as much as they could and pour it over their heads and down their throats. Wretched, misshapen little creatures cavorted here and there, squealing evil joy. And beyond them all lay their master, the daemon of plagues. It was a gross, gigantic, centipedal creature with no discernable eyes. Twenty stick-thin legs jutted from its body at irregular intervals. Its mouth was nearly a two meters in width, and lined with teeth that reached from gum to the opposite jaw. It slowly turned to look at the invaders and sneered, yet more slime dipping foully from its mouth.

"Weeeeelllllllcoooooommmmeee toooooooo myyyyyy doooomaaaaaiiiiin maaaaaaariiiiiinesssss," it slurred.

"In nomine Imperator," Mordred replied.

"Ssssspeeeeaaak the naaaaaame oooooofffff the coooorrrrrpsssssse gooooood? Iiiiiiii willllllll riiiiiiiip yoooooouuurr heeeaaaaaadsssss frrrroooom yoooooourrrr neeeeeckssss."

"For Macragge!" Kuja shouted.

"For Guilliman!" Cyran added.

"For Ultramar!" Gaius replied.

De La Croix raised his power sword and switched it on. The bright blue glow filled the chamber and the nearest plague fiends recoiled from it. "COURAGE AND HONOR!" he bellowed. The marines charged forward, bolter rounds thudding into the plague daemon.

It howled. "KIIIIIIIILLLL THEEEEEEM!" and the plague-spewing creatures rose up to attack the Ultramarines. There were dozens of them, more than De La Croix had suspected. They were literally rising out of the slime that had concealed far more than had been on the surface.

To Mordred's right, Kuja surged ahead of his brothers, the massive chainsword he wielded now working and roaring like a daemon itself. Kuja wielded the weapon seemingly without effort, chopping through the Nurglings and plague addicts alike, his battle song drowning out their death screams. To his left, Cyran and O'Farrell swept the oncoming enemies with bolter rounds and eye-searing bursts of flame. Behind their chevron, Nitram brought up the rocket launcher and with a shout of warning, squeezed the trigger. With a blast of flame and a whistle to pierce the eardrums, the Ultramarine's rocket soared past Mordred and towards the plague lord. For a moment, it looked to be a certain hit, but the horrible creature suddenly rose off its bed of rock and with frightening speed scuttled out of the line of fire. The warhead instead impacted on the cavern wall with a blast that shook the world.

"Brother Nitram, be cautious!" Mordred shouted. "One false hit could bring the whole cavern down!" As he spoke these worlds his sword described a glowing figure eight through the air that sliced through two of the plague addicts and dropped them to the floor in smoking pieces. Above them, the plague lord hissed angrily and began to skitter down the wall towards them. "Gaius, Cyran, to the enemy!" he bellowed, and the three of them focused their bolter fire on the foul beast, Mordred holding his full-sized bolter in one arm. The volley of explosive rounds punched through mucoid carapace and rock wall alike, and the plague lord howled its anger. Then it contorted and made a deep growl. A moment later its head shot forward and it hocked a spray of bilious green liquid at the marines. Cyran shouted a warning and they all ducked their heads. The only unlucky one was Nitram, who without a helmet fell vulnerable as the spray landed on the side of his head and face. A sizzling sound immediately began and he groaned.

"Don't inhale, don't inhale!" Gaius shouted as we went over to Nitram and began scraping the noxious substance off his face. Nitram snarled as Gaius poured a vial of water over the affected area to wash it off.

"Guilliman is with me and I am with he, come death and come hell there is naught but we!" Kuja sang at the top of his lungs as he carved a trail of death through the plague addicts. Mordred shook his head briefly at the virago, then reminded himself he'd picked the swordsman precisely for his overzealous style. Another blast went off as O'Farrell tossed a grenade into a knot of Nurglings. Between them and the bodies that he had turned the flamer upon, the cavern was now alight, the flames illuminating the plague lord as it crawled back and forth across the ceiling.

"Nitram!"

"Brother-captain!"

"Bring that damned insect down to our level!"

"As ordered!" Nitram pushed Gaius away and in one smooth motion dropped another rocket into the tube, took a knee, and fired almost straight up. This time, the plague lord wasn't fast enough. The rocket punched into its side, blowing a great chunk of internal organs and two legs out from its body. It screamed and in its pain lost its grip, plummeting to the ground and sending a virtual wave of slime in every direction.

"Ultramarines! Attack now!" Mordred shouted as he ran towards the stunned daemon.

"Brother-captain, no! It's a trap!" Cyran yelled, but he was already too late as the plague lord raised its head and spewed its venom. Mordred felt Cyran slam into him and knock him out of the way, taking the brunt of the spray himself. The captain nearly lost his footing in the slime, but retained enough balance to again fire at the daemon as it flipped itself over and coiled up like a snake. It looked down upon the Ultramarines and hissed again, as it jerked its eyeless gaze from one to another, trying to decide who best to strike at. Nitram dropped another rocket into the tube and that made up its mind. With the speed of a rattler it struck, sinking teeth nearly a meter long into his torso. Nitram howled pain and rage from inside the daemon's mouth. With an equal howl Kuja struck, sinking his whirring chainsword into the daemon up to the hilt. Mordred struck from the opposite side but the plague lord seemed to not notice the blows, rearing and throwing Nitram across the cavern. As he fell, Nitram's finger pull the trigger of his weapon and the errant rocket sped into the ground, detonating and sending another tidal wave of slime through the air.

"Ultramarines! Avenge your fallen brother!" Mordred barked. They responded with wordless cries and fell upon the plague lord with their chainswords. Yet as soon as they attacked, the retaliated, heaving a glob of mucous that hit Kuja square in the face. The swordsman immediately bent double and began tearing at his helmet before the mucous that had got through his speaker grille suffocated him in his own armor. One leg rose and came down on Cristofer's chest, immediately thrusting him down into the slime where he began to thrash against the constraining limb. Gaius took a knee and aimed, firing an expert shot that shattered one of the plague lord's teeth. The daemon bellowed and struck, sinking its teeth into the marine's limb and swinging him around to crash into Cryan where they both fell into the slime.

Kuja had worked his helmet off and taken a deep breath of the foul air, then he released it in another battle cry and ran at the daemon, again sinking his chainsword into it all the way up to the hilt. Blood and guts flew as the Ultramarine pressed the weapon deeper into the daemon's innards. O'Farrell sat up from the slime and leveled his flamer with one hand, squeezing the trigger and roaring with fury. The clogged weapon spat grease and globs of slime before igniting and hurling its trademark jet of flame. Kuja slashed and tore while O'Farrell burned and Mordred, Cyran, and Gaius fired round after round until their bolters glowed red-hot.

Unnoticed by any, Nitram slowly managed to rise to his feet.

The daemon snarled and charged forward. Cyran leapt aside in time but De La Croix and Gaius were both flattened by its immense weight. Mordred found himself smothered in the slime and a foul taste filled his mouth before he spat it out and jammed his sword up into the plague lord's belly. It split itself open on the impaling blade, tearing the rip along as it ran. Finally, it was past and Mordred flipped himself over to watch it again climb the wall.

Halfway to the ceiling it halted and turned its upper torso towards him. Was it his imagination or was that grotesque thing smiling at him? "Yoooooouuuuuu thiiiiinnnnnk toooo wiiiiiinnnnn thiiiiiiisssssss baaaaattle, maaaaarrrrriiiinnnneeee," it hissed fearsomely. "Buuuuut, yooooouuuu haaaave allllllllreeeeeaaaaadyyyyyy looooosssssst."

"Come down here and repeat that, foul one!" he snarled, springing to his feet.

"Aaaaaasssss yoooooouuuu wiiiiiissssh," it replied, and immediately made a u-turn to come rushing back down the wall. It came straight for him, slavering mouth wide open. Mordred De La Croix readied his sword, willing to meet death with his blade at the ready.

Then a blur of movement came from behind and rushed to meet the plague lord. It was Nitram, his body so torn he could barely stand. A ragged scream issued from his lungs. To Mordred it sounded like the cry of the damned. The daemon eagerly met the marine's crazed charge, opening its mouth to an obscene width and swallowing him whole.

Before any of the others could howl or issue a denial of reality, the daemon's head exploded in a blast powerful enough to knock them all flat. Gory chunks and body parts flew through the air and Mordred raised his head enough to see the still-burning remnants of the daemon's head. He could even see a few bits of metal, painted blue.

"No," one of the marines said almost plaintively. Mordred slowly rose to his feet as the others did the same.

"So quickly," Gaius commented.

"Such is the fate of a space marine," Kuja said piously, his head bowed. "Adeo mori veritae servus Imperator. So die all true servants of the Emperor." He made the sign of the aquila with his free hand.

They left Nitram Tahalshia with the body of their foe. It was the highest honor they could give him. Then they scattered timed grenades throughout the cavern and left, leaving them to detonate and collapse the cursed place behind them. As they slowly retraced their route through the tunnels, they murmured.

"We revere the immortal Emperor," De La Croix said.

"For his undying guard," the others replied.

"We venerate the immortal Emperor."

"For his holy wisdom."

"We honor the immortal Emperor."

"For his external strength."

And so it went until the five of them finally returned to the surface. Blinking quickly to adjust their eyes to the light, they found their brothers waiting for them. Front and center were Brother Godric, Brother-Initiate Jericho, and Librarian Caspian. Jericho's eyes were enormous on his face and the eyebrow over the Librarian's good eye raised in surprise. Mordred smiled and imagined how they looked to their brothers; five marines in battered and incomplete suits of armor streaked with blood and snot.

"You have returned, brother-captain," Godric said, the speakers booming out his voice.

"Yes, we have. And we are victorious!" he shouted.

"COURAGE AND HONOR!" the company chorused.

"Where is Brother Tahalshia?" Caspian asked.

Mordred's smile slowly melted. "Gone," he replied flatly. "He gave his life to save our own. But through his bravery the plague lord was destroyed."

Caspian shook his head. "You should have allowed me to accompany you, my friend."

"Oh come now, Caspian," Cristofer interjected.

"Had I come with you-"

"Caspian," Mordred said firmly, "what's done is done." The Librarian scowled deeply.

"Nizerius, you give the captain too little credit," Kuja said, his trademark smile forming. "After all, we won, did we not?" He chuckled and spat upon the ground. And chuckled. And coughed. And coughed again. And bent over, coughing furiously.

"Kuja?" Gaius asked. Then he suddenly heaved and coughed up a wad of phlegm.

Mordred felt something twist inside of him.

"What's happening to them?" O'Farrell asked in near-panic.

Cyran calmly reached up and wiped at the drip of bile that had appeared on his chin. "We are destroyed," he said flatly.

Mordred fell to one knee, his innards beginning to violently protest. Beside him, Kuja was violently heaving up blood.

"Brother-captain!" Jericho shouted.

"Don't go near them!" Caspian bellowed. "Get an apothecary here, now!"

----------------------------

They all died screaming in their minds. Caspian walked through the barge's clean room, looking at his doomed brothers. Gaius had died yesterday, thrashing violently and tearing at his restraining straps as blood poured from his eyes and ears. Kuja had died only an hour ago, howling a litany and spraying blood and vomit from his mouth. O'Farrell was dying now, his entire body heaving as he threw up black bile that coated his breastplate. Finally, he heaved one last time and seemed to slowly deflate, his head tilting back to look at the ceiling. When he had finally stopped, Caspian gestured and Mortus stepped through the plastic curtain that separated the corpse from the rest of the room. He delicately reached for the man's throat and removed the geneseed from his body, then cut open the ruined plate and retrieved the second geneseed from his chest. Then he briefly glanced up at Caspian. The Librarian nodded and the apothecary touched the organ with a needle, electricity coursing into the delicate tissue and tearing it apart in a brief blue flame. Caspian Nizerius closed his eyes and turned away, unable to watch what came next: Mortus moving to the foot of the bed and pushing it into its wall slot where the incinerator would burn Cristofer O'Farrell to ash, including his armor.

He walked to the next bed, where Cyran lay quietly. Blood flecked his lips as he breathed and Caspian could tell the marine's time was nearly hear. How sad, he thought, to see a marine of not yet two centuries die in such a fashion. Yet as he approached, Cyran's eyes moved to meet his. The Librarian nodded solemnly. Cyran's eyes narrowed.

<Broth…Brother-c-captain Mordred> he heard in his head and he was shocked. Cyran had never been strong enough to communicate telepathically.

<He is infected as the rest of you,> he replied. <Yet his situation is not so dire. You kept him from getting a true lungful as the rest of you did. Your quick action has lent months, perhaps years to him yet.>

Cyran nodded. <Gene…geneseed.>

<It will be destroyed the moment you pass. We will not allow this foul plague to claim any more of our brethren than it already has.>

Cyran nodded again and his eyes widened. His hand managed to rise a few inches above the bed and Caspian reached out, meeting his grasp through the plastic curtain. Cyran said no more, only fixed Caspian with an unblinking gaze that slowly grew more and more clouded. Finally, the young battle-brother's eyes closed for the last time.

Caspian slowly turned away, feeling bowed by a great weight.

Perhaps Nitram had been the lucky one.

[Vehrec]

Damn. Good stuff, although I have to wonder if the Daemon went down hard enough. I was under the impression that those things were held together by more than flesh and even rockets and Las cannons don't have the full effect on them. And even knowing the end, it was still a damn fine story.

[Feil]

*applauds*

Bleh. Definately an appropriately icky Greater Daemon of Nurgle.

[Stravo]

I cannot say enough how awesome that truly was to see someone else inspired to write something based on what you wrote and do so well at it. Great work Kuja, once again you've raised the bar on what we should consider quality 40K fiction.

[Ford Prefect]

That ending was remarkably touching.

[Chris OFarrell]

Oh my God, you killed me! You barstard!

[Shroom Man 777]

Wow...

[LadyTevar]

Ya know.. that just seems so... Nitram.

Great job, Kuja.

[Captain Cyran]

Courage and Honor!

Great stuff Kuja. I think one of the coolest things is when someone sees a part from a story that they wanna see how and write it up. For example that bit of the latest Damned. Very well done as usual.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Cool.

Good to see Nurgle get some spotlight too.

[Kuja]

Damn. Good stuff, although I have to wonder if the Daemon went down hard enough. I was under the impression that those things were held together by more than flesh and even rockets and Las cannons don't have the full effect on them. And even knowing the end, it was still a damn fine story.

Daemons range in power from negligible to obscenely strong, there's no set rule on how well they can deal with weapons in the material universe (though generally the stronger they are the more you need to throw at them).

Oh my God, you killed me! You barstard!

Blame Stravo, at least I had the decency to give you dialogue and a flamethrower.