The two figures were now locked in a super human struggle, punctuated with occasional yelps of pain, gripping my sword I rushed over to help. A single shot rang out and a scream of pain punctuated the air, I hurried over catching my foot on something on the floor. I pulled myself up and sighed with relief. Rhamam stood with his rifle covering a figure standing ahead of him.
Striding over I gave him a quick nod and straightened my coat, “Well done, Corporal” Turning my gaze to the wounded figure I fixed him with my most withering glare. Thankfully it worked, the scrawny figure visibly recoiled into himself, shaking violently. He received a quick kick to the back of his knee, forcing him down on his knees as I stood over him. “What the in Chosen are you doing here, and what on Terra’s Name did I just kill?!” I bellowed, using my best Commissarial voice.
He dropped his head and let out a slow chuckle, “You’ve no idea have you” he retorted “You have no idea…” he repeated this several times, his voice getting louder with each time.
“What is so funny?” I said, bringing my pistol up to his face, if you could call it that. He looked down the barrel at me, all traces of fear gone from his gaunt and hollowed eyes.
“Asmon the Devourer” and then he laughed again, a shrill laugh that made me cringe away reflexively. “Kill me, Let me rejoin my master!” It was at this moment I should have pulled the trigger but curiosity got the better of me.
I pointed at his knee and fired a single shot, the crack reverberated around the eerie silence that had fallen across the passageway. “What don’t I know?” I hissed, allowing my anger and frustration to poison my words. “Tell me, or I’ll keep you alive”
The figure visibly shuddered at that, “You wouldn’t dare, what if I told the next patrol about you!”
“Then they’ll die, just like all your friends did”
His lamentations echo for a moment, a disgusting mixture of devotion and madness “Asmon the Devourer, my master!” Each word was punctuated by a shrill laugh, a sickening knot drew itself in my stomach “You just killed one of his favoured children”, his voice was once again shrill, his human face barely hiding any of the sanity a normal human would. “He’s going to kill you”, the thinly veiled human face hid the insanity behind, and slowly it was starting to show. I couldn’t hear any more of his ramblings, so I pulled the trigger without a seconds hesitation. It was more than just not wanting to hear anymore, it was Blasphemous. I didn’t believe he deserved any respect so I kicked his body backwards. I fired a second time, ensuring that he wouldn’t wake up from whatever dark Reverie he was a part of.
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“We’re moving off,” I announced to the others, my voice was heavy with the overwhelming sense of urgency. This engagement was very close, we were extremely lucky to have killed that beast. I felt the need to get to the hangar bay getting more and more important as time ticked on. It was likely to be our only form of escape from this labyrinth in the void. “We need to get to the hangar bay. Where do we need to head to get there quickly?” I spun to face my companions, the blank expressions mirrored on both their faces.
I’m sure that between the three of us, we can work it out. Meanwhile, I tapped my comlink in my ear scanning all the guard frequencies and trying to find an active signal to tap into. I chanced upon one but it sounded like they were in the midst of a firefight. A pained voice in my ear was screaming bloody murder about a large abomination in the canteen near the medical station.
I tapped the ComLink again to turn it off, but no such luck so far on any of the channels. Looking up ahead of me the passage seemed to be a labyrinth of twisted illuminator strips and scorched walls. The dim glow and the spark of punctured cabling cast eerie shadows over the corpses on the ground making it look as though many of them were moving.
Whilst my disquiet about our situation grew, the thought of leaving this section of the corridor was a very welcome one, even if it meant venturing further into the ship. At Least it offered hope of an escape from the battleground that was almost our burial ground. On the other hand, the thought of fighting whatever abomination the trooper was screaming about in my ear unsettled me. The risk of unknown horrors lurking around each corner was a terrifying prospect to be sure. If I had indeed known what lay ahead, I may have considered making the frantic dash to the nearest life pod and jetting off into the great void ahead, risking being killed by a patrolling fighter than facing the horrors that had boarded our ship.
Although for now, I had no idea, blissfully unaware of how lucky I was to have avoided a majority of the horrors that were now wandering the ship in search of unlucky humans. The remaining journey down the main hall was relatively uneventful, aside from a constant tension which seemed to gnaw at my bones like a starved pet. Occasionally we would hear distant echoes of a firefight spark up, the sharp crack of Laser fire splitting the air with its distinctive noise, desperate shouts and screams and the guttural roar of the corrupted piercing our silent reverie.
The corridor twisted and turned at what seemed like random angles and intervals, the layout more like a Labyrinthine puzzle aimed to confound its occupants than a functional ship. Emergency hatches, storage rooms and sealed bulkheads sporadically lined the walls. Occasionally we would pass through a ruptured bulkhead on the main thoroughfare we were following, most likely where the worshiper had blown a hole through it during their rapid advance. We would frequently pass more signs of combat, a grim mixture of disfigured and disjointed corpses and their abandoned firearms.