CHAPTER 28.8

​

Approx. 1700 words

All Rights Reserved

Copyright 2015   SJ

​

Slaanesh:

Noise Marines

 

written by  SJ

 

 

​

    Melinda suddenly got a anxious call from Yngvild inside the mansion. “I don’t know where they came from, but there’s bunch of soldiers up stairs! By the sound of it, they must be wearing battle suits.”
    “Yes. I just picked up a WARP pulse several seconds ago.” Dion gasped. “The monorail is taking off! It’s heading back to the city.” She turned to Jennifer. “Are they demons?”
    “No.” She pointed at the monorail car taking off away from them. “They’re Chaos Marines...the Emperor’s Children.”
    Yngvild gave an order to her twin-linked bolter. “Lynn, fire on that monorail. Shoot it to pieces!”
    Melinda had been standing next to the shuttle. She began firing with her Tau plasma rifle, aiming for the monorail track hoping to disable it so the car would lose power. However, she quickly realized, as the car continued to move, that it had its own power, something privately-own monorails tended to have.
    At the same time as Dion fired, the Rhino’s twin-linked bolter also fired, aiming at the monorail car itself. But, then something fired back, something they had trouble comprehending.
    Dion’s shuttle was struck with some kind of heavy blast which gave off a loud resonating sound, Melinda and Jennifer ducking, then taking cover behind the shuttle; Sergeant de la Vega was inside, acting like she was in pain, cussing several times before yelling, “what the hell was that?”
    Then the Rhino was hit multiple times, sound resonating like a musical instrument played loudly out of tune. The back hatch of the Rhino suddenly opened then the twin-linked bolter stopped firing, Lynn crying out in pain.
    Jennifer readied her bolter then began firing, but she was only able to get off a couple bursts before the monorail car was too far away. Melinda ran inside the Rhino to give medical aid to Lynn.
    One whole side of the twin-linked bolter’s gun mantelet was twisted out of shape. Lynn had dropped down inside the Rhino and was holding her arm, still in pain; Melinda quickly determined her wrist and forearm had been fractured in several different places, shattered by what had to be a blast of sound.
    After the Sisters of Battle had exited the mansion, Yngvild took over giving medical aid to Lynn. She was informed, at that time, by the Rhino’s driver, that it had lost power, but could be fixed in about ten minutes. When Melinda returned to her shuttle, de la Vega, her ears still ringing and having trouble hearing, said the shuttle was the same way, no power; some kind of sound blast had knocked out a couple systems, but could be repaired quickly enough.
    “Sound weapons!” Melinda was amazed. “They hit us with some kind of sound weapon. I can’t believe it.” She turned to Jennifer. “Those were Chaos Marines, right?”
    “Yes.” She pointed. “And they’re heading back to town in that monorail.”
    “I need to call the guys.” Melinda quickly connected with Petrovsky and Koufax. “Nikolai, there’s a squad of Chaos Marines heading back to town in the mansion’s monorail. At their current speed, they should be there in a little less than five minutes.”
    “What’s your situation, there?” Petrovsky asked, needing to know.
    Melinda responded quickly. “They knocked out my shuttle and Yngvild’s Rhino with some kind of sound weapon. We should have them both fixed in about ten minutes. We won’t be able to do anything too help you until then.”
    “You said these are Chaos Marines, right?” Koufax wanted clarification. “There are none of those girly demons that can make us see them as sexy women?”
    “No.” Jennifer answered. “No demonettes...or demons of any kind.”
    “These Chaos Marines are all yours, guys.” Yngvild added. “Take care of them for us.”
    “We’ll be in position to give them a warm reception once they reach our location.” Koufax assured.
    “You know these are Chaos Marines, right?” Melinda was still concerned. “They’re in battle suits and probably have bolters as well as some kind of sound weapons. Besides the weapons you two guys have, all you’ll have are lasguns. You’ll be badly out gunned--”
    “I think we have the situation under control.” Petrovsky sounded sure.
    “Yeah...after you dropped us off, we got an offer from some civilian militia.” Koufax sounded equally as sure. “Hey--I see the monorail coming. Got to get ready. Koufax out.”
    ******
    Once the monorail car came to a stop on top the platform, Chaos Marines, wearing pink and black battle suits, began exiting the vehicle. Before they fired, they were met with a massive hail of lasgun fire, hitting them from two sides, from the south and east, a deadly cross fire.
    The monorail platform and the car itself was quickly shot literally to pieces, blackened with lasgun fire. It was hard to even see the Chaos Marines because of the overwhelming amount of lasguns firing, a veritable hornets nest of beams, approximately one hundred total, two groups of fifty militiamen each.
    Even before the battle, the civilians of Louvain had been told to take cover inside their underground cellars. During that time, many of them began gathering inside the numerous underground recreational facilities were they began forming a militia. By the time Sergeant Boz and the remaining Guardsmen had fallen back to the warehouse, they were ready to go, but were told to stay where they were...primarily because of the demonette threat. After Petrovsky and Koufax had been dropped off at the warehouse, the militia offered their services again. At that time, the two Federal sergeants had begun organizing them, dividing them into two groups, each taking command of one group each.
    The militia were armed with civilian-grade lasguns, weapons that were, at least, ninety-five percent as powerful as military lasguns, just without the extra settings. A man armed with a lasgun was no match for a man armed with a bolter in a battle suit. But, outnumbered ten to one, the lasguns would quickly wear down the battle suit’s armor and shoot it to pieces...which was exactly what happened to the Chaos Marines.
    ******
    Captain Melinda Dion had witnessed only the last part of the battle between the militia and the Chaos Marines, but found it inconceivable that many militia had been raised in such a short amount of time. After she had landed next to the ruined monorail platform, Koufax explained it to her...
    However, Melinda was still concerned about civilian casualties. Koufax told her all they had were a few minor injuries, places were walls and windows had been shattered by some kind of sound blast, people hit by debris. He eventually had to ask about it.    
    It was Lucynda that answered, her ears still ringing a bit. “They had these damn SOUND WEAPONS. I was in the shuttle when it was hit. I thought my eardrums had been busted.” She made a face. “Chaos Marines? Damn Noise Marines was more like it.”
    Then they got a call from Sergeant Boz. “Hey, guys. If your hungry, we’ve got lunch ready over at the warehouse. My world famous Tau stew.”
    Yngvild overheard. “Sound good. We’ll be there as soon as we can. You know your plasma cannon was still in good condition. We attached it to our Rhino. We have a power source for it and are thinking about using it to burn that mansion to the ground.”
    Boz chuckled, ironically. “That’s what the Captain was going to do. You ladies can have it with my blessing. See you in a little while.”
    ******
    At the warehouse, Melinda met up with Petrovsky. He had already had lunch, but stood worried. He led Dion to the cage that now contained the unconscious body of the Krootox, Tobb.
    Boz joined them, then pointed at the cage and began explaining. “We’ve had to keep him sedated. Every time he wakes up, he becomes enraged. If nothing changes, he’s going to die.”
    Nikolai was examining his medical scanner. “And we can’t keep him sedated all the time. Tobb is not doing very well. I think the stress is killing him.”
    Boz shrugged. “I don’t have anymore suggestions.”
    Petrovsky sighed, then mentioned one more solution, asking, “I would like permission to take Tobb back to Dell.” He tried to smile. “Maybe if we reunited him with his friend that will calm him down.”
    Melinda thought about it, then had to tell him, “you know, if that doesn’t help, you might have to...” She didn’t want to say the words.
    He nodded, understanding. “Yes, I’ll be ready to do it myself if I have do.”
    Later, Lucynda offered to pilot the shuttle back to the Comae Berenices solar system. Shortly after they had arrived, she was landing the shuttle back down next to the village were the Daxzan, Boot Tayls lived, the temperature just as hot, if not hotter, as it was before. With the help of a couple of the village’s residence, Nikolai was able to move the cage with the Krootox out into the open while someone else went to get Boot.
    The Krootox was awake, but the cage had been covered; however, Tobb still seemed agitated. When Boot arrived, excited, the cover was removed. Nikolai held his VSS assault rifle ready.
    Boot jumped for joy at the sight. But, it took awhile for the Krootox to understand what had happened; then he began jumping, trying to get out of the cage. Nikolai couldn’t tell if the Krootox was jumping for joy or anger, but he opened the cage anyway.
    Then he smiled as the two friends ran up to each other, dancing and hugging...a happy reunion. Eventually, Boot and Tobb came over to Nikolai and Lucynda to thank them. The big Krootox was back to his normal peaceful self; all he needed was to be with his friend.
    Petrovsky smiled, Lucynda wiping a tear. They were both glad to see the power of love was still greater than any Chaos affliction.