Chapter 129: Slaaneshi Space Marines

"I tell you, Hal, I fought those bastards back in the day."

Wahid and Hal walked through the snow, the old man rambling on about his glory days.

"Yeah, yeah, sure."

Hal replied with indifferent, perfunctory grunts. He didn't believe for a second that this drunken old geezer had ever fought those savage orks. Why, the man didn't even know what an ork was, referring to them only as "green monsters."

*Crunch.*

Just as the pair trekked through the gale, a faint sound of snow being compressed drifted toward them from the front.

"Kid, did you hear that?" Wahid asked, his battlefield instincts and sharp senses picking up the barely audible noise.

"What sound? I didn't hear anything." Hal looked at the old man, feeling puzzled. Aside from the howling wind and swirling snow, he heard nothing else.

"Give me the rifle and the helmet." Wahid stared fixedly into the mist of snow, reaching out his hand.

Hal complied, handing over his autogun and helmet to the strange old man.

"Kid, get down." Wahid donned the helmet, leveled the autogun forward, and whispered the command.

Though confused, Hal dropped to the ground; he had never seen the old man look so serious.

*Crunch. Crunch.*

The footsteps grew closer. Wahid kept one finger on the autogun's trigger while his other hand gripped the pin of an armor-piercing grenade tucked into his coat—a lifelong habit, always carrying one just in case.

As the footsteps neared, a figure over two meters tall emerged from the snow not far ahead.

"Damn it!" Wahid cursed under his breath, pulling out the grenade. He knew exactly what he was looking at; he recognized the iconography on the monster's armor.

"Old man, what is that?" Hal whispered. His voice was quiet, but it startled the old man.

"Run! Go back and sound the alarm!" Wahid knew that even if the boy’s voice was soft, the monster must have heard it. He stopped trying to hide and shouted at Hal.

"Huh?" Hal stared at him blankly, oblivious to the terror about to unfold.

"Run!" Wahid kicked him to get him moving.

"What about you?" Hal finally reacted, looking back at him.

"Just run! Someone has to stay behind to hold it off, otherwise, neither of us will make it." Wahid knew what the creature was, and he knew someone had to draw its attention.

Hal hesitated for a moment before turning and sprinting back the way they came.

"Faster," Wahid thought, watching the boy run. He stood up instantly, leveled his autogun at the monster’s unhelmeted head, and opened fire.

Before he could get more than a few shots off, a gust of wind hit his face. In an instant, Wahid felt himself lifted into the air as a massive hand clamped onto his head.

"What are you doing?" A sharp, piercing voice reached his ears, sounding like fingernails scraping across a blackboard. It was hideously uncomfortable.

Wahid strained to raise his hand, pressing the muzzle of the autogun against the owner's power armor, and held the trigger down.

*Bang, bang, bang...*

The bullets sparked off the power armor, and one ricocheted, striking Wahid in the thigh.

"Ah!" Wahid screamed. He pulled the pin on the armor-piercing grenade with his other hand, intending to shove it into the monster’s neck.

"Look at you, still trying to pull tricks." The monster holding him watched the mortal and grabbed the hand holding the grenade.

The giant hand, clad in purple power armor lavishly decorated with gold, squeezed. Wahid’s palm was crushed into pulp, and the grenade detonated under the immense pressure.

The golden-adorned armor was blasted apart by the explosion, which tore off the monster’s hand and shredded half of Wahid’s body.

"Oh, that stings!" the monster exclaimed in excitement, looking at its mangled hand. There was no pain on its face; instead, a look of pure exhilaration was rapidly spreading.

"Enough. The mortal is dying. Stop playing and eat its brain so we can find out where we are." Another two-meter-tall figure stepped out from behind, addressing the first.

"Oh, Kaelar, you are still so incapable of enjoying yourself. I really doubt you are a true servant of our Lord." The monster glanced at its companion, joking, before crushing Wahid’s skull.

It tossed the body aside and stuffed the brain matter into its mouth. Its gene-detection nerves activated, and the monster absorbed some of Wahid’s memories.

These were Astartes—or what remained of them. The two giants were Emperor’s Children.

"Salasair, I’ve told you for ten thousand years, I do not worship that entity." Kaelar watched Salasair consuming the brain, repeating the words he had spoken for a millennium.

"Impossible, my dear Kaelar. Look at you—you bear the symbols of our Lord, your body is blessed by Him. You’ve been telling the same lie for ten thousand years, my dear brother." Salasair finished digesting the memories, turned to look Kaelar up and down, and replied with the same mocking tone it had used for ten millennia.

"Enough. Did you find out where we are?" Kaelar asked, suppressing the urge to punch the sneering Salasair.

Kaelar did not believe in Slaanesh, yet he had been corrupted by the Prince of Pleasure over the long ages. He had joined Chaos only because of his Primarch’s betrayal, and he had no love for the Imperium. As a Slaaneshi Astartes, he knew exactly what the entity was; he would not actively worship it, but he would not refuse its gifts either. He believed he was the one wielding the power, not the other way around.

"Ah... let me see. We are on Kaja Island. It’s a small island with a village of about two hundred people not far from here. Oh, and this world has orks! Hahaha, how amusing." Salasair reported the information gleaned from the memories. Upon learning about the orks, it began to laugh, feeling that this mission would be quite entertaining.

"Fine. We head to the village first. Once we have enough mortal souls and flesh, we can summon our brothers and carry out His plan. Stop laughing!" Kaelar commanded.

"Very well. But before the sacrifice, let me have some fun. Don't worry, I'll be quick." Salasair stopped laughing and replied.

"Just don't let it interfere with the mission," Kaelar sighed, watching the brother he had traveled with for ten thousand years.

With their goal set, the two Chaos Space Marines moved rapidly toward the village. Even in the deep snow, their speed was immense. They would reach the nearby settlement in less than five minutes.

"Faster, faster, faster!" Hal sprinted desperately through the snow. Behind him, the two Chaos Space Marines followed with an unhurried, steady pace. Compared to them, his frantic steps were like a caterpillar crawling against a rabbit.

"Salasair, enough playing. The mission! Focus on the mission!" Kaelar shouted at his companion, who kept blocking his path to kill the mortal.

"Oh, my dear brother, learn to enjoy it. Look at the mortal’s fear—it’s getting my adrenaline flowing. You must learn to savor the moment."

Salasair reached out with a forked tongue, lizard-like, and licked the dried blood of the mortal from his power armor.

Salasair had clearly never spent time in an ice world before, as he did not know the consequences of licking metal in sub-zero temperatures.

"Kaelar, help me, my tongue is stuck to my arm."

Kaelar, who had been watching the mortal ahead, heard the muffled request. He turned to see Salasair’s tongue frozen to his own arm.

"You idiot!" Kaelar couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed Salasair’s tongue, ripped it clean from his mouth, and then, with all his might, hurled the heavy Astartes toward the running boy.

The power granted by Slaanesh was manifest; Kaelar threw the ton-heavy Space Marine like a projectile.

Salasair soared through the air and slammed into Hal. There wasn't even time for a scream; Hal was instantly crushed into a smear of flesh and bone.

"If you do that again, I will send you back to the Warp myself," Kaelar said furiously, looking at Salasair sitting in the gore.

"Understood, understood. You’re as boring as a follower of the Blood God. It’s always the same with you." Salasair stood up, picked up a fragment of Hal, and began to chew. Kaelar frowned.

"Collecting intelligence, collecting intelligence," Salasair quipped, ignoring the other’s scowl.

Kaelar stared at him for a moment, then turned and marched silently toward the village.

"Kaelar, wait for me!" Salasair scrambled to catch up. The two Chaos Space Marines continued their advance toward the defenseless village.

"Strange. What’s going on today? Where are old man Wahid and Hal? They should have been back by now." In the guard post, one of the soldiers looked at the empty room, confused.

"Sigh, probably the old man got drunk and passed out in the snow again. Hal is likely still trying to carry him back." The other soldier didn't look up, instead tossing his autogun onto the rack and picking up two mugs to prepare some strong tea.

"Sigh, always the same. Only a good lad like Hal could put up with old Wahid." The man sighed, slung his rifle over his shoulder, and prepared to take his turn on watch.

"Who says otherwise? Hal is a great guy—hardworking and obedient. If I had a daughter, I’d marry her off to him in a heartbeat. Too bad my own boy is a lazy good-for-nothing." The companion replied, echoing the general sentiment that Hal was well-liked among the PDF soldiers.

"Hah! Then it would be my daughter's lucky day." The man chuckled, half-joking, half-serious. He did indeed have a daughter. The two shared a laugh.

"Alright, enough joking. Give me the tea, I’m heading to the post."

"Here, take it. Bring it back in two hours, I’m going to catch some sleep." The companion handed over the steaming tea and collapsed onto the bed.

"Right." The man stepped out of the guard post and into the sentry booth.

"Whew, the weather is miserable today. Wonder when Hal will finally bring the old man back." The man blew on his tea, took a sip, and looked out into the storm.

The villagers had no idea that two creatures of pure nightmare were closing in. Their arrival would bring nothing but total annihilation to the quiet little village.