Chapter 233: For Hades!
The cramped cockpit was stifling. The rubber protective suits, soaked with sweat, reeked with a nauseating stench.
The rumbling of the tank treads echoed through the narrow corridor, occasionally accompanied by a sharp crunch—had the Hadeshound just run over another Xenos's skeleton?
[Maintain forward movement. Four elite enemy units ahead.]
[Firing direction: 100. Load high-concentration rounds.]
The commander's voice echoed down the metal conduit.
She silently felt the trigger beneath her fingers, scanning for prey through the auto-cannon's targeting scope.
They were advancing through the Xenos vessel—a massive ship under siege by the Death Guard. Thick, green venom was spreading through its capillary-like systems; the giant was approaching its end.
As a temporary mobile squad, they were composed of one Hadeshound and seven Death Guards.
Screams and gunfire rang out in the distance. Countless similar squads were fighting along different branches. Scenes like these were playing out constantly.
She heard the Death Guards beside the Hadeshound reloading. She heard the clang of a scythe scraping against the wall. Inside the hellishly hot protective suit, hearing was her only means of sensing the world.
And she heard it—the breath of a loathsome Xenos.
[Fire!]
A wave of dense green mist instantly flooded the entire corridor. The confined space doubled the effect of the Hadeshound's toxic attack. Screams and the sizzling of flesh erupted simultaneously.
As the mist spread, the Death Guards beside the Hadeshound rushed into it, using their positional advantage to secure a precious opening strike.
The venom would corrode the Rangda's armor and flesh, and briefly blind them—but only for three seconds.
Sparks flickered in the haze. The Rangda shouted angrily, but their cries were met only with silence.
The Death Guards never roared in battle.
She silently recited the names of the Lord of Death and the Lord of the Underworld, anxiously awaiting the commander's next order. Past combat experience had taught the Hadeshound crew never to get too close to the Rangdas.
Load. Aim. Fire. Fire. Fire!
The swirling green mist rolled and churned, forming a wall of toxic fog.
Suddenly, a shriek erupted—a piercing scream that seemed to tear through everything, hoarse and blood-curdling. Her mind went blank.
O Death...
The monster burst from the mist. Severed limbs flailed, blood spraying. It thrashed wildly, trying to claw its way onto the Hadeshound. Slime and chunks of tissue splattered the hull.
The vehicle jolted violently, groaning under the assault. But inside the Hadeshound, the crew sat motionless, as if sleepwalking—no one reacted.
A scythe emerged from the fog, slashing straight into the monster's flesh. The dying Rangda shrieked in agony, dragging itself forward—but like a dying fish, it was pulled back into the mist.
Blood left a desperate smear on the ground.
The screaming continued.
+Attack! Attack!!! Firing direction: 700!!!+
The offensive loader slowly cooled the transport pipe. The commander remained silent, trembling. No, no...
+Attack! Fire!! Fire!!!+
The roar of the engine and the driver echoed together, "Wake up! Wake up!!" The Hadeshound suddenly lurched backward—the driver was trying to move the vehicle into a firing blind spot.
The loader remained silent. He stared directly at her. Her finger on the trigger was stiff like deadwood, unmoving.
No... no. She still couldn't move her body.
The loader leaned forward and grasped her hand on the trigger—
"In the name of the Lord of Death and the Lord of the Underworld, wake the hell up!!!"
[Hades, Lord of the Underworld]
She jolted.
A wave of nausea surged from her convulsing stomach. Pain and sensation crept up through her esophagus. She shoved the loader away.
A dull thud sounded as he hit the wall. She drew her gun, grabbed the loader with one hand, and with the butt of her weapon, began hammering his head.
"In the name of Hades!!! Wake up!!!"
Words carried power. She felt that title change tone in her throat—it sounded like a shout from the distant misty sea, muffled and distorted.
[People's thoughts determine the direction of their current. Currents can converge into a sea, granting them strength. A powerful torrent can even shift the flows around it.]
[This is the law of the High Heavens.]
[But what if the current chooses to leap into the empty void?]
[Hades blinked. A faint sensation flickered and vanished. He quickly forgot that trivial little thing.]
Her thoughts were growing weak—but they were no longer confused.
If you wanted awareness, you had to give up strength.
She clenched her teeth; blood trickled from her lips as she desperately cried out to Hades.
In her near-self-destructive frenzy, the loader passed out. She quickly tied him up with rope and stuffed him into the gaps between the pipes running along the wall.
She shouted out the truth she had just discovered, hammering a wrench against the pipes.
She didn't know why the Lord of Death hadn't responded to their calls—maybe it was because that being only governed the Astartes and couldn't grant power to mortals?
But regardless, since Hades had answered her, she would become His follower.
"It's Hades! He can shield us from psychic attacks!"
"Ah, you've come to. That's a relief—can't imagine what we'd do if the main gunner got mind-controlled too."
"Can you still fight?" came the weak voice of the commander—an old man—over comms.
"Yes! RD passed out, but I can take over loading and cooling the transport pipe! Wait, it's Hades! Do you know what I'm talking about?!"
"Stop yelling! How do you think we woke up?!" the driver snapped, losing his temper.
"Oh, I wasn't thinking about them," she said.
"Believe in Imperial Truth, ladies and gents—now, back to the fight."
The commander cut in just in time to stop the bickering. The two of them sobered up from their giddy terror and exhilaration at escaping psychic domination. The engine roared back to life, and they resumed moving down the corridor.
The battle was over. One Death Guard lay forever still—helmet cracked with brutal wounds, his life leaking out onto the floor.
The captain recovered his gear and left a beacon, signaling the squad to continue on.
An apothecary would come later to retrieve his gene-seed.
Forward. Keep moving forward. They needed to secure a beachhead for the next phase of the plan.
She would never know what that "next phase" actually was—but as long as she followed orders, that was enough. The Lords who commanded the Death Guard would render judgment.
They encountered a few more Rangda squads along the way, losing another Death Guard in the process—but under the captain's command, they pressed on.
They followed the narrow corridor for what felt like forever—so long she began to feel they'd walked from one end of the ship to the other.
Finally, the captain raised a hand, signaling them to stop. His raspy voice came over the general channel:
[We've found it. Begin retreat immediately.]
[All jamming channels to max. Begin retreat—move fast.]
At the very rear, the Hadeshound began speeding backward, its driver expertly maneuvering the beast in reverse.
The other Death Guards began withdrawing as well. Something far more dangerous lurked in the dark.
Explosion!
The corridor behind the Hadeshound was blasted apart. The ceiling collapsed and crashed onto the vehicle's rear, nearly causing the Hadeshound to leap off the ground.
A bone-jarring screech followed. She could feel the front of the vehicle lurch upward.
Alarms blared. The massive blast had damaged the toxin tank—its pressure was rapidly dropping. Green venom hissed as it spewed from the ruptured container.
Damn it!
She curled up inside the cockpit, trembling, using every emergency repair skill she had—but the alarms kept blaring.
The Hadeshound's side-mounted secondary weapons had long since run out of ammo. That thought filled her with despair.
Heavy footsteps echoed—countless Xenos figures emerged from the mist. Compared to the ones they'd encountered before, these were clearly far more powerful.
Behind the Xenos soldiers was a massive figure that took up the entire width of the corridor.
A wicked, guttural chant buzzed in her ears, nearly tearing her eardrums apart.
She silently chanted Hades name—no, they should've taught her some kind of prayer. Aside from helpless pleading, she didn't know what else to say to Him.
Lord Hades,if it's really You, what would You want us to say?
Your follower needs Your guidance.
But there was no response—nothing but weakness and collapse. Desperate, she looked through her visor to observe the battlefield.
The Death Guards tried to fight back, but their movements were visibly sluggish. Against the largest of the monsters, they were like toys in a child's hands—brutally flung into the walls.
The Rangda warlord seemed agitated. After casually dispatching the Death Guards—throwing them into walls like refuse—it turned and left, leaving behind two warriors to finish them off.
Some Astartes were already dead. Others still struggled to strike back, slowing the Rangda warriors' advance. But death was only a matter of time.
"We have to do something!"
She frantically dug through the ammo crate outside the hatch and finally found two high-yield melta bombs.
From her experience, she believed that these two bombs would be enough to kill those monsters.
Suddenly, she turned and called out cautiously for the driver and the commander, but received no response.
The blast from earlier had knocked them both out.
Now, she was the only one left.
No... no, death wasn't the scary part. What mattered was giving death meaning.
If she truly followed the Lord of Death and the Lord of the Underworld, then she must not fear death.
She shook her head violently, clearing the fog off her visor. Then she ordered herself to focus on the battlefield. Only the captain remained, facing off against the two Xenoss.
His armor was heavily damaged, his wounds exposed to the toxic mist, glowing with a sickly hue.
The captain was barely holding on. The two warriors seemed to be toying with him, refusing to land the killing blow.
She opened the channel, voice trembling but clear and fast:
[My lord, I have two melta bombs. The payload is sufficient.]
[I'm coming to you. Hadeshound—can you hold a Rangda in melee for two seconds?]
Two seconds was the minimum time required for a melta bomb to detonate.
[I can, my lord. I can.]
[Good. Hand me one of the bombs when the time comes.]
Her voice cracked with a faint sob, but she still clutched the two bombs firmly. Crawling through the Hadeshound's pipeways, she carefully opened the hatch and slipped out under cover of darkness.
Because she was so small, so insignificant, the two Rangdas didn't notice her. She crawled through the rubble from the collapsed ceiling, lying in wait.
According to the Techmarine who always hung around with them, a Hadeshound crew member who left their tank in battle had an average survival time of forty-six minutes.
Looks like I'm going to lower the average.
She dipped her finger in the venom flowing on the ground and wrote "Hades" on the melta bomb.
[I'm coming.]
[Understood, my lord.]
[In the name of the Lord of the Underworld.]
She whispered.
The Death Guard struggled to fend off the Rangdas' taunts and attacks, retreating step by step as if unable to keep up. The two fools followed him, without a care in the world.
Then, just as the captain stepped near the wreckage of the Hadeshound—
"For Hades!"
A thunderous cry rang out, shaking the entire corridor, echoing through the air like a war drum.
She burst out of hiding, tossing one melta bomb to the captain while pressing the other to her chest. She leapt forward, driving her dagger into the creature and pinning her arm to its body.
She could feel the blistering heat of the bomb blooming over her heart—
In the critical instant, a colossal burst of light exploded from the far end of the corridor. The entire ship shuddered violently. A solemn force descended—powerful enough to blot out consciousness in any living being.
An electronic signal pulsed through the air as well. The indicator lights on the melta bombs blinked… and went dark.
Two shots. Two Rangda lives, ended in an instant.
Her mind was on the brink of collapse. She struggled to push the corpse off her chest. The wound on her arm rapidly festered in the toxic fog. But at the end of the black corridor, a miracle had appeared.
Through the smoke and flame, a single silhouette emerged—dim and indistinct, yet unmistakable.
The Lord of the Underworld stood there, surrounded by mountains of Xenos corpses and rivers of blood.
The barrel of his gun was still pointed in their direction, its searing charge only just having faded.
His crimson left eye cut through the darkness and mist, gazing at them—his followers.
God had heard the call of His faithful.
She passed out.
. . . . . . . . .
Hades stood there in silence. The voice of that Hadeshound soldier still echoed faintly through the corridor.
The courage to sacrifice deserved praise.
—But hold on. He never taught them to yell weird stuff like that, did he???
Honestly, it was a little embarrassing—even if he was moved.
Being charged at while someone screamed his name—Hades was starting to understand why Mortarion didn't allow the Death Guard to shout war cries.
This sort of thing, combined with what Alpharius had said earlier… if Mortarion didn't trust him, wouldn't this kind of behavior look like he was trying to build a cult or seize power?
Wait… could she be with the Alpha Legion?
It was one thing for the oily Mechanicus types to start praying to him—Hades could chalk that up to some scrap of C'tan messing with their heads—but now even the Hadeshound crew?
Other than teaching them how to drive and fight, Hades didn't recall doing anything else!
His head swirled with question marks, but the war wasn't over. There was no time to think. He had to call in the Apothecaries and immediately move on to the next battlefield.
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Note: Hades got some believer
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