Conexiones a distancia

Magnus Johansson, 2001

"I detect movement, sir." "In what sector?" "All, sir." "Blips?" "More than twenty. Closing fast. The Auspex has gone wild, sir." "Squad Gamma, weapons ready. Porcupine defence. Fire at will. Faith in the Emperor, Ever-Vigilant." Proctor Willis and his five Arbitrators took up firing positions behind the scrap metal, determined to sell their lives dearly.

It had begun as an ordinary rescue mission, a distress signal from one of Hive Secundus´ industrial Outlands was picked up by the Surveillance Discs of a nearby Adeptus Arbites Sectorhouse. A standard retrieval squad of five, led by a senior Proctor, was dispatched and within fourteen ticks their Imperial Lightning Troop Carrier landed on site. The Arbitrators deployed and secured the block and the Lightning lifted off, hovering over the area at a few thousand feet.

At first everything had seemed fine, but something had nevertheless bothered the men. They were all tense and jumpy. After a while the men had realised what was disturbing them. The silence. No industrial sounds, no chattering of hive rats, no voices from citizens, no ion-scratch music, nothing. Just silence - an unnatural silence that made the grizzled men in their black carapace armour sweat and tremble. The men moved further into the silent industrial complex, grasping their guns and readying frags.

Ten ticks later they found the distress beacon, smashed by some great force. The strangest thing was that it clearly was of Space Marine origin - Space Wolves to be exact. This puzzled the Arbitrators even more than anything they had ever stumbled upon before. What was Space Wolves doing on the Necromunda homeworld, in their precinct and what in the Emperors

holy name could have made Space Marines call for help? They reported in and the search went on. On a nearby roof they found a drop-pod, but no trace of Marines. About twenty ticks later they ran into them, or what was left of them anyway... The area was riddled with boltgun fire, cartridges were all over the ground - this had been the place for a desperate stand off. An unsuccessful one judging from all the broken armour pieces, blood and gore... Apart from the messy remains of what apparently had been a few Space Wolves, there were no bodies, neither man nor beast.

Some strange greenish acidic and highly corrosive gish lay in pools all over the area, but as this was a common sight in these areas, none of the Arbitrators reflected on it. Something that could have hinted at what to come...

"Here they come, fire!" cried Proctor Willis. The Arbitrators pulled the triggers of their shotguns as fast as they could and the oncoming horde exploded beneath the shells. The attacking creatures fell back, a green acidic mist drifting from the distorted bodies that lay all around the perimeter.

"By the Emperor! What was that?" "Some sort of huge hymenopterans?" "Arachnoids, it must have been Arachnoids!" "Shit, then its Game Over! Fuckin´ Game Over, man!" "No, by Khorne, we wasted them! Trashed their sorry asses!" "Watch your tongue, Trooper. No cursing within my squad." Willis hissed angrily. Willis asked for a casualties and ammo report and was pleased to hear that they had suffered no losses. Trooper Smigg had some serious acidic burns on his right forearm from destroying an attacker in close combat, using his Powermaul. Ammunition level was also good, they had only used a tenth of their supply.

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"Trooper Morris, collect samples from the Arachnoid corpses. Trooper Grias, help Smigg with that wound. Trooper Skruch, report to headquarters and have the Lightning get us out of here. Trooper Aklo, use the Auspex to localise any nearby bugs and launch some frags to keep them away." The Proctor, although apparently shaken, was issuing orders and holding the squad together. "Samples collected, melting away in their own acid slime, though." "Wound cleaned." "Smigg is fully operational. Ready for payback time." "Lightning closing, ready to pick us up in five ticks. We must find an open area or roof top." "No movement detected, launched some smoke instead to shield our movement." "Good, we´ll climb that ladder. On the double, move!" Willis felt proud of his men, running in front of the squad, they were a great team and had just kicked an enemy who had destroyed Space Wolves. This was something to talk about in the Arbie Bar... "Come on men, just this ladder left before the Lightn... Aaarghhh!!" The Lictor struck just as Willis reached the ladder. The camouflaged, monstrous beast emerging from the pile of junk in which it had hidden. Willis was mortally wounded, his confused mind registering shotgun fire and screams as he fell. Despite facing the combined firepower from the Retrieval Squad, the Lictor managed to strike another Arbitrator before it was completely ripped to pieces by Executioner rounds. Shocked of their sudden losses, the Arbitrators stood motionless staring at the steaming corpse of the Lictor. A swish of air alerted Smigg who spun round, his shotgun ready. The razor sharp wings of the Gargoyle struck him in the shoulder, cutting through the carapace armour and sending his arm flying in a gush of blood. He screamed in terror but the sound ended abruptly as the Gargoyle´s fanged tail smashed through the black visor of his helmet.

The Arbitrators blew the Gargoyle away but now the Arachnoids, apparently Tyranids, were closing in from all directions. The Arbitrators were nearly run over - but then the Lightning came screaming in, lasguns blazing strafing the alien hordes. This gave the men a few centiticks respite. The once organised withdrawal was now in a complete rout, the remaining Arbitrators picked up their wounded and started a desperate climb up the ladder, cursing and firing at the incoming foes. "Eat this, your motherfucking bug!" "Come on! Just a few more ladder rungs and we can leave." "Yeah, and then we will nuke this place!" They nearly made it. The whole ladder was ripped from the wall by a gigantic spidery creature and the Lightning pilot could just watch in horror as the Arbitrators fell into the horde, disappearing among the clawed things. Watching the diagnostics screens of the six squad members, the pilot decided to wait until they were all dead before nuking the area. Quite surprisingly, the screens indicated that only four of the six were dead. Judging from the heartbeat sensors in their armour, the others were unconscious but in rather good condition. The aliens withdrew down into the sewers, carrying the six Arbitrators with them.

The Lightning pilot, not wanting to bomb the Arachnoids as there were humans still living among them, could do no more. He returned to the Sectorhouse, reporting the losses of four and the probable loss of two more. A large Purge mission, involving a dozen Combat Squads, was prepared.

A few hundred ticks later, Trooper Aklo awoke and found himself strapped onto the wall of a large humid crypt. He tried to free himself but the slime that glued him to the plasticrete surface was to strong. Looking around he saw more people stuck in the organic slime on the wall, most of them dead - their chests seemingly busted open from within. He saw two Space Marines in the characteristic grey armour, several ordinary citizens and right next to him was his close friend Grias, the medic. Strangely, none seemed to be wearing a helmet.

The whole place was hot and steamy and on the floor below he could barely see what looked like giant eggs. Brown and green and pulsating as if they were made of soft living tissue. Grias was awake but did not respond when Aklo tried to contact him. He was praying with a low, desperate voice and focusing on something on the floor below. "Oohh, shit." Aklo had just noticed what was happening. The top of an egg pod was slowly opening, slime running down the sides. Something was climbing up. A slippery, light brown, spidery creature with a long tail. It started to climb up the wall towards Grias, who now cried with fear. The spider-thing quickly ran up the wall, using its six long legs, then it jumped on to Grias head, spun its tail around his throat, wrapped the fingerlike legs around the back of his head and attached itself firmly onto his face! Aklo, turned his head to avoid the awful sight - and realised that a similar egg was placed in front of him and that egg was also starting to open!

Aklo screamed, but no one came to his rescue.

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