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本章概述：

????????????這一次，伊莎萊太慢了。

????????????In which Isarae is, for once, too slow.

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正文：

一場風(fēng)暴在安菲特里亞上空爆發(fā)。

我盡可能地帶著速度和優(yōu)雅移動(dòng)，同時(shí)躲避著傾盆大雨。雨水中不知有什么類型的化學(xué)物質(zhì)，而我也不想因沒能設(shè)法躲開雨水而受到化學(xué)灼傷。

這場雨的成因很可能是所有這些被噴到空中的碎屑以及自獸人的粗糙炮臺(tái)射向天空的持續(xù)不斷的地對(duì)空火力。然而，空氣中有一種厚重感，某些更為寬廣的事物正在趕來，或許是來自幾十公里外的海岸線。

如同地震前的輕顫一樣，這預(yù)示著一場更猛烈的風(fēng)暴正在向內(nèi)陸推進(jìn)，我覺得離它的到來還有三十或四十個(gè)晝夜。

不過這或許也是種祝福。帝國衛(wèi)軍仍然在試圖管控登陸場，但從我所瞥見的在巢都附近爆發(fā)的數(shù)場小規(guī)模戰(zhàn)斗和交火來看，他們似乎運(yùn)氣并不好，而風(fēng)暴的掩護(hù)可能會(huì)改變這一點(diǎn)。

不過，我并不驚訝于他們的接連失敗，畢竟將獸人從城市地帶中挖出來的那種煩躁感很少有其他類型的敵人能比擬。由于不缺乏小巷子和大量能讓它們拼湊出丑惡的技術(shù)產(chǎn)品的廢料，這樣的城市幾乎不值得重新占領(lǐng)。

盡管如此，我認(rèn)為這樣的努力是應(yīng)有的，即便被擊落的炮艇上的士兵中沒人同意這點(diǎn)。

當(dāng)我離那遠(yuǎn)離著我所知的獸人密集點(diǎn)的尖塔越來越遠(yuǎn)時(shí)，我笑了起來。正如它們所有的同類那樣，獸人聚集在一起，掠奪并摧毀任何觸手可及的東西，成群結(jié)隊(duì)地從一個(gè)地方轉(zhuǎn)移到另一個(gè)地方，一個(gè)尖塔到另一個(gè)尖塔，帶走任何沒被螺栓固定著的閃亮或危險(xiǎn)的物品，然后撕下任何仍被固定著的。

不過，即便獸人們也只有這么多的可供光顧的尸體，而且也不乏完好無損的尖塔。

我落在其中一個(gè)明顯比周圍的要精致許多的尖塔的陽臺(tái)上，并調(diào)整了我?guī)淼目姘膸ё右员銛y帶任何我可能找到的東西。

門都緊閉著，我則心血來潮地用手拂過它們，欣賞著主人顯然花了很多功夫來配置的堅(jiān)硬的裝甲玻璃。鎖是生物識(shí)別的，裝飾華美的門也是被加固過的，但這完全不足以將我拒之門外。

我的剃刀連枷伸展到了它的全長，拇指沿著綁定在骨質(zhì)柄上的反應(yīng)網(wǎng)孔滑動(dòng)，將之縮回到刀片的形狀，我隨后將其高高舉起，然后直接向下?lián)]到陽臺(tái)的雙開門正中間的縫隙里。黑暗精靈的刀刃輕易地切開了螺栓鎖定機(jī)構(gòu)，片刻之后，一陣刺耳的刮擦聲響了起來，提示了某種警報(bào)系統(tǒng)的到來。

我無視了這一點(diǎn)，踢開門走了進(jìn)去。

“現(xiàn)在……食物，藥品補(bǔ)給……還有什么？”我掃視著這棟華麗的建筑若有所思地說。

“停止行動(dòng)，立刻投降！”

一陣通過扭曲的機(jī)械發(fā)聲器發(fā)出的呆板的尖叫響起，我轉(zhuǎn)身看到一個(gè)帝國機(jī)仆——那些切除了腦葉的血肉機(jī)器中的一員——從墻上的壁龕里現(xiàn)身。它的下半身被某種昆蟲般的六足底盤所取代，不知為何還鍍了一層金，它的手臂早已被截肢，取而代之的是一個(gè)由四只機(jī)械臂組成的武器系統(tǒng)，每側(cè)各兩個(gè)，每一個(gè)末端都帶著一根噼啪作響的放電警棍。

“嗯……不，我不覺得我會(huì)，”我片刻之后回答道，然后放下挎包，再次用拇指翻動(dòng)網(wǎng)狀織物，以此在我跳向那笨重的構(gòu)造體時(shí)釋放了剃刀連枷上的張力。

它以令人敬佩的速度移動(dòng)起來，以一系列復(fù)雜的弧形攻擊揮舞著它所有的武器，如果我直沖上去的話就會(huì)被放倒在地。

然而，這個(gè)構(gòu)造體有一個(gè)格外明顯的盲點(diǎn)，而我則欣然利用之。由于其攻擊力全部用于前向，它無法攻向自己的下方，而我一邊疾馳向前一邊壓低姿態(tài)從它的交叉攻擊下滑過。

隨著我在它身后現(xiàn)身，我手腕的一陣抖動(dòng)令剃刀連枷彎曲起來，尾隨著我纏繞在了它腿上的陀螺儀和驅(qū)動(dòng)件上。

“請(qǐng)就坐，好嗎？”我用力一拉我的連枷，刀片們同時(shí)切斷了它的全部四條腿的關(guān)節(jié)，使之從體內(nèi)泵出了陣陣惡臭的液壓液和某種營養(yǎng)泥的噴流，濺在了精美的地毯上。

它開始念叨起了自己的機(jī)械語句，為它經(jīng)受的災(zāi)難性的損害列舉出各種錯(cuò)誤代碼。又是一個(gè)迅猛的動(dòng)作，它的腦袋便飛了起來，隨后是它的手臂，最終，它的各類系統(tǒng)同時(shí)迎來宕機(jī)，這東西的生命力隨著一聲古怪的機(jī)械打嗝聲終止了。

“真是惡心，”我一邊評(píng)論道，一邊將挎包扯離緩慢擴(kuò)張的惡臭、渾濁的綠色有機(jī)潤滑劑混合物——我相信它也兼作血液。

我在這家里四處走動(dòng)，忽略了正中央時(shí)不時(shí)地冒出火花的尸體，并找到了許多防腐的食物。大多都是某種宣稱有各種口味的“綠色豆制品（Soylens Viridiens，也就是尸體淀粉）”，我壓根不確定這些對(duì)口味的描述是否準(zhǔn)確。即便如此，這也比挨餓要好，并且我和亞歷桑德拉當(dāng)前占據(jù)的住所內(nèi)沒有太多食物可供選擇。

我聳了聳肩，我把這些罐頭裝進(jìn)挎包。更多象征性的探索讓食物上多了一個(gè)滿載的醫(yī)療用品包，我因而決定把噴氣摩托帶過來，這樣我就能在獸人把它們骯臟的綠手伸過來前帶回更多的補(bǔ)給。

我的探索將我?guī)肓伺P室，并發(fā)現(xiàn)了一些華而不實(shí)的物品，毫無疑問地，獸人會(huì)很樂意偷走它們。我把這些東西留給了綠皮，它們對(duì)我來說沒有任何用處，而且還挺難看的，不過我想普通的Mon-Keigh在美學(xué)造詣上并不比普通的獸人發(fā)達(dá)多少，對(duì)更多的他們來說也是如此。

我一時(shí)興起地挑選了一些衣服。與我選擇的住所的臥室不同，這個(gè)地方的陳設(shè)要復(fù)雜得多。例如衣柜就是由旋轉(zhuǎn)著的人體模特構(gòu)成的復(fù)雜機(jī)器，每個(gè)模特身上都穿著全套服裝。

“我真搞不懂這群生物，”我輕聲嘟噥著翻弄著各種選項(xiàng)。

那些女性人體模特看上去與亞歷桑德拉的體型更為接近，這是最讓我感興趣的地方。盡管它與我的Cre’yth相比仍有些纖細(xì)，但那雙肩膀制造了更多的空間，而它的身高也擺在那里。

“哦，那倒不算壞，”當(dāng)?shù)箶?shù)第二個(gè)選項(xiàng)呈現(xiàn)為一件看上去很舒適、帶有金色紐扣的深綠色柔軟休閑連衣裙時(shí)，我露出了笑容。

我把那件衣服從人體模特上取下，和食物藏在了一起。

在我轉(zhuǎn)身離開衣櫥回到主室的過程中，我愈發(fā)不安地盯著挎包。

食物是有實(shí)用價(jià)值的，藥品也是。我不能再負(fù)擔(dān)得起燒掉收集到的魂石碎片，在一卷繃帶就足夠應(yīng)付的情況下也沒理由再使用它們。

可這件裙子……

我想要把它送給亞歷桑德拉，并非因?yàn)樗枰?，而是因?yàn)槲矣X得她會(huì)喜歡。

“這對(duì)我有什么重要的嗎？”我停在了陽臺(tái)門邊，把挎包放下來并盯著它，好像它剛剛為了什么不得體的事指責(zé)了我似的。

我希望她能喜歡它，因?yàn)椤蚁胱屗俅温冻鲂θ?。我希望她能像在我離開前那樣對(duì)我微笑。她在那種簡單的表情后噴薄而出的情感是獨(dú)一無二的，而我想我要再次品味它們。

更重要的是，我希望她能笑出來。

“毫無疑問，我正在變成有史以來最爛的黑暗靈族，”我喃喃著拎起挎包。“不過我活不了多少天了，那看來這也沒什么大不了。”

在我踏上陽臺(tái)的瞬間。爆彈槍的開火聲在我耳邊響起，我皺起眉來尋找著源頭。入侵的獸人的主力本該尚未到達(dá)這片區(qū)域，但這并不意味著一些零散的小股劫掠者們不會(huì)決定深入城市以拔得頭籌。

更多的爆彈開火聲，我瞇起眼睛找出了幾個(gè)單獨(dú)的聲源。

“七個(gè)，九個(gè)……不對(duì)，目前只有七把武器，”我數(shù)了數(shù)，其中一些槍聲斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的，伴隨著獸人射擊小子制造的明顯不健康的噪音模式，但另外三個(gè)有著平穩(wěn)而鮮明的槍聲。

帝國的爆彈槍，但更具體地講……

我把挎包扔到陽臺(tái)上，并向槍聲的方位疾馳而去。它正迅速變得愈發(fā)密集，并正從一個(gè)像是帝國圣殿的地方傳出來——這個(gè)比較小，所以我覺得應(yīng)該是個(gè)小教堂，它被強(qiáng)行闖入的高拱門上壓印著帝國天鷹。而天鷹旁的裝飾物則有著亞歷桑德拉臉上的三瓣花紋身樣式的圖案，這證實(shí)了我的懷疑。

那些爆彈槍不僅僅是帝國的，它們與亞歷桑德拉使用的武器屬于同一樣式。

我在開火聲停息時(shí)將將落到教堂的屋頂上，我低聲咒罵著落到一處被炸開的窗戶旁，向里面窺視著。

七個(gè)獸人：四個(gè)已經(jīng)死了，兩個(gè)受了輕傷，剩下的那個(gè)看起來完好無損。在教堂的中央是三個(gè)有著像亞歷桑德拉那樣雪白的發(fā)色的女性，被存活下來的獸人的爆彈雨擊倒在自己的血泊中。這幾個(gè)女人進(jìn)行了一場令人傾佩的戰(zhàn)斗，但說到底獸人還是太多了，而對(duì)于大多數(shù)類似的戰(zhàn)斗來說都會(huì)是這樣的情況。

看著她們橫尸于此，眼神在無言的痛苦中逐漸凝滯，樣子像極了我的亞歷桑德拉，我的心中便燃起一股漆黑的怒火，隨著剩下的獸人用潮濕、丑陋的喉舌輕笑著，吹噓著，跨過死去的同類走向已死的戰(zhàn)士們而燃燒得愈發(fā)猛烈。我能看到它們眼中閃爍著的貪欲，它們正開始剝?nèi)ニ齻兊奈淦骱妥o(hù)甲，污損她們乃至更進(jìn)一步地褻瀆她們的尸體。

在我尚未細(xì)想我的行動(dòng)時(shí)，那個(gè)第一個(gè)碰到尸體的未受傷的家伙就碎成幾塊加入了她們的行列。我降落在被掏空內(nèi)臟的那個(gè)獸人中，猛甩著連枷清理掉上面的血跡，并用看死尸的目光望向它剩下的同伴。

“你們活不過三個(gè)數(shù)，”我平靜地用哥特語向它們宣告。

一。

那兩個(gè)獸人中的第一個(gè)和更聰敏的那個(gè)舉起了它的突突槍打出了四散開來的三槍。我穿梭在子彈間，讓它們無害地從我身邊飛過，撞擊并引爆在了教堂的遠(yuǎn)端。

二。

第二個(gè)獸人徹底丟開了他的爆彈槍向我沖來，并舉起重斧，揮出了我就算睡著了都能躲開的粗糙弧線。我繞開了他，像繞過山巒的暴風(fēng)一樣逃脫了他的攻擊，對(duì)第一個(gè)獸人因毫不在意自己的同伴而繼續(xù)開火而數(shù)度擦傷了它笑得合不攏嘴。

三。

我從下方劈斷了揮斧獸人的雙腿，并在同一個(gè)動(dòng)作中抽出一支毒晶手槍，把大量攜帶神經(jīng)毒素的一陣彈片從稍遠(yuǎn)的那個(gè)獸人的左眼窩打進(jìn)了他的腦殼，他便隨著自己結(jié)實(shí)但過分簡單的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)被糊成一灘泥而向后栽倒?，F(xiàn)在已經(jīng)沒有雙腿的最后一個(gè)獸人砸向地面時(shí)帶著痛苦的怒吼——在我用連枷沿著身體將他從腹股溝劈到頭頂時(shí)戛然而止。

我低頭看著這混亂不堪的場面，不禁皺起了眉頭，然后走過獸人們站到了那三個(gè)女人上方。

亞歷桑德拉。

戰(zhàn)斗修女，她如此稱呼自己那一類人。說真的，她們看起來確實(shí)像姐妹一樣……想到她們中的某一個(gè)可能和亞歷桑德拉有血緣關(guān)系，這景象就讓我的胃在仇恨中扭曲。

“我并不認(rèn)識(shí)你們，”我輕聲說道，“你們也無疑會(huì)在見到我的一瞬間就會(huì)對(duì)我展開殺戮?！蔽夜蛳聛砩斐鍪郑瑢⑹终品诺剿齻兠恳粋€(gè)人身上，合上她們的雙眼，使之看上去安詳了些。“但她也應(yīng)該會(huì)讓我試著解救你們，而我……而我自責(zé)于自己沒能做到這點(diǎn)，如果我一定要告訴她，更多她的姐妹們已經(jīng)死去，那她在這之后的一段時(shí)間都不會(huì)再對(duì)我露出笑容?！?/p>

我站起身來，低頭看了她們一會(huì)兒，然后轉(zhuǎn)向被強(qiáng)行打開的門?？礃幼?，修女們并沒有來得及恰當(dāng)?shù)胤舛伦〗烫茫赃@教堂并沒有被炸開，獸人們只是用肌肉強(qiáng)行擠進(jìn)了那扇雙開門。

我闊步走到門口，刻意避開了獸人的尸體，我把肩膀靠在沉重的門上將它們一一合上，放下大而沉重的橫木——如果修女們來得及把它設(shè)置好的話也就就能堅(jiān)持到我來救她們，隨后我轉(zhuǎn)過身去掃視著這座圣殿。

“為什么要來這里？”我若有所思?！皩で竽銈兊氖实谋幼o(hù)？它可真幫了大忙了?！?/p>

我繞開所有的死者走到神殿中央的雕像前，上下打量著它。那是一個(gè)女性，看起來很像這些修女們，她的眼睛低垂下來看著這間教堂，但卻穿著一件比其他人的更古老的盔甲，手握一柄長矛，其尖端刺向下方看上去像是某個(gè)對(duì)混沌卵的稍微體面的藝術(shù)呈現(xiàn)。

“等等……”我向雕像走近幾步，仔細(xì)查看著這件盔甲?！八遣皇恰?/p>

我瞪大了眼睛。

它是實(shí)物。

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原文：

A storm had broken over Amphitria.

I moved with as much speed and grace as possible while avoiding the downpour, there was no telling what kind of chemicals were in that water and I had no desire to develop chemical burns because I hadn’t managed to stay out of the rain.

The rain was most likely a result of all the detritus being spewed into the air and the constant ground to air fire being lobbed skyward by the Ork’s crude gun batteries. There was a thickness in the air though, something more expansive was coming in, probably from the coastline several dozen kilometers away.?

Like a tremor before a quake, this was a herald of a much greater storm pushing inwards, and I gave it another thirty or forty cycles before it made it here.

Perhaps that would be a blessing though. The Imperials still trying to manage landing zones but didn’t seem to be having much luck from the few glimpses I got of the various skirmishes and firefights being waged around the Hive, and storm-cover might change that.

Not that I was surprised at their ongoing failure, though, since there were few foes quite as irritating to dig out of an urban landscape than the Orks. With no shortage of alleyways and plenty of scrap for them to hodge-podge together their hideous excuses for technology, such cities were rarely worth retaking.

Still, I suppose credit for the effort was due, even if all the soldiers aboard the shot-down gunships would disagree.

I chuckled as I ranged further from the spire away from where I knew the Orks had been most dense. Like all the rest of their kind, Orks congregated en masse, looting and destroying anything in reach and moving in a horde from one place to the next, spire by spire, taking anything shiny or dangerous that wasn’t bolted down and ripping up whatever was.

Still, even the Orks only had so many bodies to go around, and there were no shortage of spires that were still intact.

I landed on the balcony of one such spire that was significantly nicer than most of the rest around it and adjusted the strap of the satchel I’d brought along for carrying whatever I might find.

The doors were shut, and on a whim I slid my hand over them, admiring the hard armorglass that the owner had clearly put quite a bit of work into. The lock was biometric and the fancifully adorned doors were reinforced, and it was not going to be nearly enough to keep me out.

My razorflail snapped to its full length, and I slid my thumb along the reactive mesh bound into the bone handle to retract it back into its blade form, then raised it high before swinging straight down the middle where the double doors of the balcony met. The Druchi blade cut through the bolted locking mechanism with ease, and a moment later a sharp, grating buzz sounded heralding some kind of alarm system.

I ignored it as I kicked the doors open and stepped inside.

“Now… food, medical supplies… what else?” I mused as I glanced about the lushly appointed domicile.?

“CEASE MOVEMENT AND SURRENDER!”

The voice was a mechanical scream pushed through a distorted vocaliser and I turned to see an Imperial servitor, one of those lobotomised flesh machines, emerged from an alcove on the wall. It’s lower half had been replaced with some kind of insectile six-legged chassis, gilded with gold for some reason, and its arms had been amputated and replaced with a weapon system consisting of four mechanical limbs, two on each side, each ending in a spiked baton which crackled with electrical discharge.

“Mm… no, I don’t think I will,” I replied after a moment before dropping the satchel and thumbing the mesh weave again to release the tension on the razorflail just as I leapt towards the hulking construct.

It moved with admirable speed, swinging all of its weapons in a complicated arcing series of blows that would have crushed me to the floor if I’d been coming straight at it.

The construct had a particularly obvious blind spot, however, which I gleefully took advantage of. For all of its forward-facing attack power, it had no ability to strike beneath it, and as I surged forward I dropped low and slid under its crossing blows.

A twitch of my wrist as I came up behind it sent my razorflail twisting as it trailed after me to tangle around the gyros and actuators of its legs.

“Take a seat, won’t you?” I gave my flail a hard tug and the blades cut through all four of its legs at the joints simultaneously, sending spurts of noisome hydraulic fluid and some kind of nutrient grime that was pumped through its body spilling across the fine carpeting.

It began blurting its machine cant, reciting various error codes for the catastrophic damage it had taken. Another quick movement and its head went flying, followed by its arms, and finally, the thing’s animating force gave up with an odd, mechanical burp as its various systems suffered simultaneous failure.

“Disgusting,” I remarked as I plucked my satchel back up and away from the slowly expanding pool of foul-smelling and vaguely green bio-organic lubricant mixture that, I believed, also doubled as blood.

I moved around the home, ignoring the occasionally sparking carcass in the middle of it, and found a good number of nonperishable bits of food. Mostly something called ‘Soylens Viridiens’ of various purported flavors that I wasn’t certain were accurate descriptors of their taste at all. Still, it was better than starving, and the small set of quarters Alessandra and I were currently occupying didn’t have much in the way of food.

With a shrug, I stashed the cans in the satchel. A further amount of token snooping turned up a decently filled kit of medical supplies which went on top of the food, and I resolved to bring the jetbike back here so I could take back more of the supplies before the Orks got their grubby green hands on it.

My exploring took me into the bedrooms, and I found a quite of bit of gaudy accouterment that the Orks would no doubt happily steal. I left those for them, they served me no purpose and looked awful, but I suppose the average Mon-Keigh isn’t much more aesthetically developed than the average Ork, so more for them.

On a whim, I sifted through some of the clothing. Unlike the bedchambers of the quarters I’d chosen, this place had a far more elaborate setup. The closet, such as it was, was a complicated machine made up of revolving mannequins that were each dress in full outfits.

“I do not understand these creatures,” I muttered quietly as I thumbed through the various selections.

My interest was mostly kept by the fact that the female set of mannequins seemed to be much closer to Alessandra’s frame. Still a bit wispy by comparison to my?Cre’yth, but the shoulders had more room to them, and the height was there.

“Oh that’s not bad,” I smiled as the second-to-last selection turned up a long, comfortable-looking lounging dress of some soft, dark green material accented with gold buttons.

I pulled that one off of the mannequin and stashed it along with the food.

As I turned away from the closet and made my way back out to the main room, I stared down at the satchel with growing unease.

The food was sensible, the medicine was too. I couldn’t afford to burn through the Spirit Stone fragments I’d collected, and there was no reason to use them when a bandage would do just fine.?

The dress though…

I wanted to give it to Alessandra, not because she needed it but because I thought she might like it.

“Why does that matter to me?” I paused at the balcony doors and set the satchel down, staring at it as if it had just accused me of something indecorous.

I wanted her to like it because… I wanted her to smile again. I wanted her to smile at me the way she had before I’d left. The outpouring of emotion she’d felt on the heels of that simple expression had been unique, and I wanted to taste them again.

More than that though, I wanted her to smile.

“I am, without a doubt, becoming the worst example of a Druchari to ever live,” I mumbled as I hefted the satchel. “But I’m going to die in a few cycles, so I don’t suppose it matters.”

Bolter fire met my ears as I stepped onto the balcony, and I furrowed my brow as I scanned for the source. The main body of the Ork incursion shouldn’t have reached this area yet, but that didn’t mean some small splinter group of looters hadn’t decided to make their way further into the city to get first pick.

More bolter fire, and I narrowed my eyes as I picked out the individual sounds.

“Seven, nine… no, just seven weapons now,” I counted multiple shots, a few cutting off here and there, with the distinctly unhealthy barking pattern of noise that Orkish shootas made, but the other three had smooth, sharp reports.

Imperial bolters, but more specifically…

I dropped the satchel on the balcony and hared off towards the gunfire. It was picking up in earnest, and it was coming from what looked like an Imperial shrine, a small one, so a chapel I supposed, and it was embossed with the Imperial eagle along the high archway that made up its broken-open entrance. The embellishments around the eagle, though, carried the repeating pattern of that three-petaled flower tattoo that decorated Alessandra’s cheek, confirming my suspicions.

Those bolters weren’t just Imperial, they were the same mark of weapon that Alessandra used.

I had barely landed on the roof of the chapel as the weapons fire ceased, and I cursed under my breath as I dropped to a blown-out window, and I peered inside.

Seven Orks; four dead, two lightly wounded, the other looked unscathed. In the middle of the chapel were three women with pale hair the same snowy color of Alessandra’s, splayed out in a wash of their own gore, cut down by a hail of bolter fire from the surviving Orks. The women had put up an admirable fight, but in the end there were just too many Orks, and that was going to be the case for most of these little holdouts.

Seeing them laying there, dead, their eyes glazed over in silent agony and looking so very much like my Alessandra, set a black flame of rage in my chest that bloomed hotter as the remaining Orks chuckled and bragged in their wet, ugly, guttural tongue while they stepped over their fallen kin towards the dead warriors. I could see the glint of greed in their eyes, they were set on stripping them of their weapons and armor, defacing them and defiling the bodies even further.

The unscathed one who reached the bodies first joined them in several pieces on the floor before I could even consider my own actions. I landed amidst the eviscerated Ork, lashing my flail around me to clear the gore from it, and glared death at its remaining fellows.

“You die in a three-count,” I informed them quietly in Gothic.

One.

The first and quicker of the two raised his shoota and fired three scattered shots. I wove between them, letting the rounds fly harmlessly around me to impact and detonate at the far end of the chapel.

Two.

The second dropped his bolter entirely and charged me, raising a heavy axe and swinging it in a crude arc that wouldn’t have hit me if I were asleep. I stepped around him, slipping past his blows like a stormfront ‘round a mountain, and grinned as the first Ork continued to fire heedless of his own ally, winging him several times.?

Three.

I cut the legs out from under the axe-wielding Ork, and in the same motion drew one of my splinter pistols and unloaded a heavy spray of the neurotoxic shards into the brainpan of the further Ork through its left eye, and he keeled over backwards as his robust but simplistic nervous system was turned into a slurry of meat. The now-legless and last Ork struck the ground with a roar a rage and agony that was ended abruptly as I snapped my flail along the length of his body, splitting him from groin to crown.?

I looked down at the mess and grimaced, then stepped over the Orks to stand over the three women.

Alessandra.

Sisters of Battle, she had called her kind. Truly, they did look like sisters… any one of them could have been blood-related to Alessandra and the sight of it made my stomach twist in hatred.

“I do not know you,” I said quietly, “and no doubt you would have slain me on sight had you encountered me,” I knelt and reached out, laying a hand over each one, closing their eyes and giving them a semblance of peace. “But she would have had me try to save you, and I… I regret that I could not have done so, if only because I must now tell her that more of her sisters are dead, and she will not smile for me for some time after that.”

Standing, I stared down at them for a few more moments before turning to the doors that had been forced open. From the look of it, the Sisters hadn’t had the opportunity to properly barricade the chapel so it hadn’t been blown open, the double-doors had just been forced in by Orkish muscle.

Striding over to the doors, past the Ork corpses which I studiously avoided the remains of, I put my shoulder to each of the heavy doors and closed them, lowered the large, heavy crossbar that might have preserved the Sisters long enough for me to reach them had they been able to set it, then turned to look over the Shrine.

“Why here?” I mused quietly. “Seeking the protection of your corpse Emperor? Much good it did you.”?

I moved past all of the dead to the statue in the center of the shrine and looked it up and down.

It was a woman, much like the sisters, with its eyes cast down to look over the chapel itself, but it was wearing an older mark of armor than the others and gripping the shaft of a long spear with its tip thrust downward into what looked like a half-decent artistic representation of a chaos spawn.?

“Wait…” I stepped closer to the statue and examined the armor. “Is that…”

My eyes widened.

It was real.