Catechism Of Hate

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Book: Read Catechism Of Hate for Free Online
Authors: Gav Thorpe
of his weapon, Cassius navigated his way towards the north side of the building, glancing into cubicle windows as he passed, finding nothing. He came to a ladder leading up to a small access panel in the ceiling. As far as he could tell, the hatch had not been opened for some time. There was rust around the lock-bolt and undisturbed cobwebs on the ladder.
    It did not mean for certain that the lictor was still on the roof, though it seemed increasingly likely. There could be other ways into the warehouse from above. Still on his guard, Cassius continued his circumnavigation of the offices, the outer wall on his right hand side.
    Coming to a place where another corridor met the outer walkway from the centre of the building, Cassius paused once more, checking each approach. As he glanced behind, he thought for a moment that he saw movement in the darkness; a smudge of deeper red amongst the mist of heat left by his armour.
    Suddenly feeling that he was being observed, Cassius did not look back to verify what he had glimpsed, but instead stepped into the central corridor. He knew that the lictor would attack as soon as it thought it had been discovered, but until then would stalk its prey for the most opportune moment. At such close quarters, the Chaplain knew that the lictor would be able to strike him down in an instant if it had the chance to attack. Somehow he needed to gain the upper hand, to manoeuvre into a position from which he would be the hunter.
    Stepping backwards at the same steady pace he had been walking before, Cassius moved away from the junction, pistol raised towards the outer passageway. He knew he would not get much warning of the impending attack. The lictor's skin was covered with chameleonic scales that blended with the environment, and its exoskeleton was capable of masking all but a small fraction of its body heat. Sound would be the best detector, but with the whole warehouse quietly thrumming with the pounding of the nearby cataract, it would be almost impossible to detect the scrape of a clawed foot on the floor or the rubbing together of chitinous plates, even with the Chaplain's superhuman hearing and the aid of his armours autosenses.
    Lictors had been evolved by the tyranids to be stealth incarnate, and their oversized claws made them experts at ambush attacks, slicing apart their victims before they even knew they were in danger. Such an organism was a threat to even a power-armoured Space Marine, but it would be even more deadly if it remained undiscovered and was able to attack whilst the Ultramarines were dealing with the first wave of assault organisms that were surely following the pheromone trail it had left in its wake.
    It is behind me again.
    The thought came to Cassius from nowhere, a message sent to his reasoning mind from some animalistic, instinctual part of his brain.
    He turned and fired without questioning the moment of intuition, the muzzle flare of the bolt pistol illuminating the monstrous form of the lictor as it stretched up to its full height, nearly a metre taller than the Space Marine. Its main attack claws were drawn back overhead, serrated edges glinting sharply in the blaze of light. Its face was barely two metres from Cassius, faceted black eyes gleaming with dozens of tiny reflections of the Chaplain. Its maw was a bundle of tendrils writhing like a serpents' nest, tasting the air. Hand-like claws flexed at the ends of its lower appendances, while sharply taloned feet were curling, digging into the stone of the floor to increase the beast's purchase for the killing blow.
    The bolt hit the lictor in the left side of its abdomen, blowing out a hand-sized chunk of chitin and flesh.
    Even as he fired a second shot, Cassius dived to his left, crashing through a flimsy door, a moment before the lictor's scythe-like claws flashed down in an instantaneous reaction to the Chaplain's attack. One claw smashed into the ferrocrete where Cassius had been standing; the other caught

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