The mont Enkidu turned his back, the alpha beast struck.
It didn't pounce or lunge in a simple arc. Instead, the lavender-skinned abomination leaped high, its mutated claws hooking into the overhead pipes. It beca a violet blur, darting through the layered maze of the ship's industrial guts.
Ting. Ting. Ting-ting-ting—
The sound of claws striking tal was faint and rapid, nearly swallowed by the rhythmic thrum of the training deck's machinery. But to an Astartes with a fully operational Lyman's Ear, those sounds were as clear as a hamr on an anvil.
Enkidu focused, his mind instantly mapping the beast's trajectory through the shadows.
As a creature of Slaanesh, it perfectly embodied the Warp-born speed of its patron. It was a mystery how such a mass of mutated at could slip through the narrow gaps between the conduits with such fluid haste.
In his mind's eye, the target flickered left, then right, ascending and descending in a route as tangled as a ball of yarn shredded by a cat.
No. Wait.
He narrowed his eyes.
The alpha was trying to use the complexity of the piping to confuse his tracking. It was drawing him out, extending the distance so the ship's ambient noise would eventually mask its movents. Once it vanished from his senses—
It would strike from his blind spot.
He couldn't let the beast dictate the distance.
Without a second thought, his body responded. He surged upward like a bolt from a crossbow. The mont his toes touched a vertical support, his knees coiled and snapped, launching him higher. Enkidu discarded his makeshift "spear," reaching out to snag the edge of a low-hanging ventilation duct.
His muscles bunched; he swung his body upward, his legs adjusting mid-air to find purchase on a horizontal pipe. He pushed off again. His palms slapped against a vertical main, his fingertips nearly sinking into the cold tal as he scaled the wall like a predatory insect.
The hot, stale air hissed against his face. Enkidu closed his eyes, surrendering his focus entirely to his hearing.
The vibration of tal, the hiss of steam, the frantic heartbeat of a slave in the distance, the hum of the engine—and then, that sequence of rapid, tallic clicks growing louder.
His eyes snapped open.
Fifteen ters. Front-left. The primary vertical conduit.
Before logic could interfere, his body was already in motion. He sprinted along the curve of a pipe, leaped, and spun mid-air, intercepting the alpha beast's path before it could reach the junction.
The cloying, fetid musk of the Warp slamd into him as the beast, unable to check its montum, crashed into a dangerously close proximity.
The alpha exhaled a thick cloud of paralytic fog. Enkidu held his breath and plunged through the mist. His left hand shot out, intercepting the two chitinous pincers as they snapped toward his throat.
The beast shrieked, its scorpion tails lashing out in a blur of toxic purple.
Enkidu caught the tails with his free right hand. He applied a sudden, violent torque. A sickening crack echoed through the pipe as the creature's forelimbs were twisted into a grotesque angle. Behind his head, he felt the rush of the second tail. He leaned his head aside, sliding and rotating with a grace that was as precise as it was elegant, dodging the sting by a hair's breadth. With a guttural snarl, he ripped the fractured pincers clean from the beast's torso.
The alpha let out a long, shuddering moan that sounded disturbingly like pleasure amidst the pain. Its whip-like tongue lashed out, coiling toward the Astartes' face.
Enkidu leaped. He slipped through a narrow gap between two overhead pipes and stood atop them, using the beast's own bulk to jam it into the crevice. Now, the tongue and tails were no longer threats; they were rely handles. With a asured, powerful tug, the Astartes pulled until the creature's spine shattered into several distinct segnts.
Blood rained down like a warm, foul tide.
Enkidu let out a soft exhale and descended the pipes, level by level. As the gore dripped from his skin and his comrades turned toward him with looks of fervent admiration, he felt—for the first ti since his arrival—a fleeting sense of sothing like relief.
"Interesting."
Telax leaned against the railing of the observation gallery, his eyes fixed on the blood-soaked recruit below.
From the start of the pursuit to the kill: thirty-four seconds. By the standards of a veteran Astartes, it was nothing. But for a raw initiate in his first day of training, it was remarkable.
"That one. Subject Four." He turned to the two veterans beside him. "Did you see that?"
"See what?" one of the veterans rumbled. A thousand years of the Long War had ruined his once-noble features, leaving behind a mass of burn-scars and hollow pits where eyes should be. "I have little patience for these clumsy displays."
"Don't be so sour, Armand," the second veteran interjected, shaking his head. "There are a few in this batch worth noting. Especially Four. The kill on those beasts was clean. And he had the instinct to pursue the alpha into the conduits—to hunt it in its own terrain."
"That is what is expected of them," Armand countered stubbornly. "Those who cannot do as much are not fit to be called my brothers."
"Then they will be your brothers soon enough," Telax said coldly. "The quality of this batch is high. It seems Fabius actually used the good stock for once; it was worth the private bribe I sent him. Aside from Four, Subject Two has raw strength, though he lacks finesse. Five is fast, but his footwork is erratic. Even Seventeen—the one I took to the collection room—managed to kill two of them today."
"Yes, the quality is good," the second veteran, Virsuto, said. His voice drifted into a hazy, recollective tone. "Especially Four. His movents... his agility... his precision... it almost reminds of the old days."
The old days.
The three of them fell into a heavy silence for a few seconds before shifting the subject.
"And what does it matter?" Armand spat, his voice filled with bitterness. "As long as we stay in this gutter, they'll all turn into drug-addled trash eventually. Tell , Telax, do you even rember what Varex promised you when you joined him?"
"Varex..."
Telax chewed the na as if it were a piece of gristle. After a mont, he forced a mirthless grin.
"I rember. How could I forget? I was at Istvaan V. I killed Cassian with my own hands—my closest friend, an Iron Hand." He shuddered slightly. "After the Siege of Terra, I followed the Legion into the Eye. Then that dog Abaddon blew up Harmony. I was ready to die in the ash until Varex found and made his promise."
"He said we'd leave the wreckage of the Legion behind. He said we'd liberate worlds from the False Emperor's tyranny. We were to be glorious liberators, wise rulers. We were going to build a pocket empire, where the people—"
"He's done none of it," Armand growled. "He only hosts his banquets. Endless, mindless banquets."
The veterans lowered their heads, the silence thick with resentnt.
"What do we have left?" Telax spread his arms, a gesture of both explanation and accusation. "A few rotting ships, a handful of slaves, and a party every night? Oh, and the narcotics Morpheus brews for him. That's it. That's all of it."
"I regret leaving the Legion," Telax said, his voice dry. "Even if my brothers have changed, there were still shadows of what we were. But following Varex?"
"It's not all bad," Virsuto said softly, glancing down at the deck. Below, the recruits had gathered in a circle, watching as Enkidu held the alpha beast's head aloft like a trophy.
"Sotis, when Varex's power grows, your own power grows with it. No?"
The fire in Telax's eyes shifted. The anger of a loser was replaced by the cold, biting fla of ambition.
"Indeed, my dear brother Virsuto. Your wisdom clears the fog from my mind."
Virsuto offered a thin smile and looked away.
"Don't thank . We are bound by the sa dream. Use these recruits well. When the ti cos, we shall give Varex a surprise he won't forget. But there is one thing to watch."
"What?"
"The na." A cryptic light flickered in Virsuto's eyes. "Subject Four. Varex nad him personally. 'Enkidu.' Do you know what that ans?"
Telax nodded slowly.
"It's a complication. But I will watch him," Telax said, his gaze locking onto the silver-haired figure surrounded by the cheering initiates. "If he truly becos what I need him to be, I will have a private talk with him."
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