Read Deathwing for Free Online Page B

up with their lasrifles than
     we returned
     fire with our bolters,
     cutting them down. Van Dam tried to contact
     the
     fleet
     but
     our
     comm-links
     were
     being
     jammed.
     and
     we
     could
     not
     teleport
     out. There was nothing
     for it. We had
     to fight our way to the
     planet's
     surface
     and
     hope
     that
     a dropship
     could
     reach us.
    "It seemed as
     if the
     whole planet
     had
     turned
     against
     us,
     and
     that
     was
     more
     or
     less
     what
     had happened.
     Two
     hundred of us
     fought
     our way out
     of
     the
     audience
     room.
     We
     were
     met
     by
     armed
     men,
     unarmed
     children
     and
     their
     mothers.
     All threw themselves
     against
     us
     with insane
     ferocity. As
     we cut
     them down, they
     showed
     no fear
     -
     only
     a
     strange,
     unholy joy. The whole world had
     been
     infected.
    "Our
     trip
     to
     the
     surface
     was
     a
     nightmare.
     We
     battled
     along
     dark
     corridors,
     crawled
     up
     access
     ladders
     and through narrow hatches
     never
     meant for Marines.
     I saw Steel Fist tumble back headless
     from one
     hatchway.
     Van
     Dam
     lobbed
     a handful
     of crack grenades through
     and
     we were spattered
     with the
     remains of a full-grown Stealer"
    "My
     brother
     Red Sky was pulled down by a wave of feral children with explosives
     in their hands.
     They
     detonated
     them as
     they
     crawled over his body.
     He did not
     live.
    "Twice
     in
     the endless
     corridors,
     we
     were
     almost
     overrun.
     It
     came
     to hand-to-hand
     combat
     with
     purestrain
     Stealers. Twenty
     of our brothers
     were cut
     down before Two Heads
     Talking's force axe and
     Cloud
     Runner's
     power
     sword
     carried us
     clear.
    "It
     was
     while
     guarding
     the
     final
     hatchway
     that
     I
     lost
     the
     use
     of
     my
     leg.
     A
     Stealer
     cut
     right through
     the
     floor
     and grabbed
     me, trying to pull me down. I blasted
     frantically at it. The last thing
     I remember was its horrid,
     leering
     face
     as
     it pulled me down toward it. Around
     it was a group
     of' Thranxians who stroked
     and
     pushed
     against
     it fondly.
    "The others
     told
     me
     what
     had happened
     when
     I
     woke
     up
     in
     the
     medical
     bay
     of
     the
     ship
     with
     a
     new
     bionic
     leg.
     Two Heads
     Talking
     and
     Cloud
     Runner
     had
     pulled
     me
     clear
     and
     carried
     me
     to
     the
     roof
     of
     the
     world.
     where
     the
     dropship waited.
    "There
     was only one
     thing
     to do: order
     the
     Exterminatus.
     The
     whole
     place
     was
     sterilised
     from
     orbit
     with
     virus
     bombs. Later,
     inquisitorial investigators
     ascertained
     that
     the
     whole
     business had begun
     only
     sixty
     years
     before,
     when
     an unrecorded space
     hulk had
     swung through
     the
     system.
    "It
     had
     taken
     only
     three generations
     for
     the
     Stealers
     to
     infect
     a
     whole
     world.
     For
     that
     is
     how
     they
     reproduce
     -
     by turning
     people
     into hosts
     for their offspring.
     Their victims endure
     this
     willingly, due
     to the
     Stealers' hypnotic
     powers.
    'Many nights
     I
     have
     lain
     awake
     wondering
     whether
     we
     could
     have saved
     the
     world
     if
     only
     we
     had
     arrived
     sooner. Perhaps
     if we had
     been
     able to eliminate the
     Stealers before the
     cancer
     had
     spread,
     we would not
     have
     had
     to
     order
     the Exterminatus.
    Cloud Runner
     could
     see
     that
     the
     warriors
     had
     been
     swayed
     and
     angered
     by
     Lame
     Bear's
     tale.
     He
     could
     tell
     that
     they were considering
     the
     assimilation of their People as
     breeding
     stock
     and
     the
     possibility
     that,
     by swift
     action,
     they