The Thesonian assault craft’s momentum through the cold darkness of space bore it deep into the Contempt’s heavily armoured hull as it slammed purposefully into the rebel star cruiser. Powerful laser drills roared into life, cutting ever deeper through the multiple layers of armour cladding that protected the Contempt from the void and loyalist Alliance firepower. Once the assault craft had penetrated the hull, Captain Xurtose disengaged his suppression clamp and prepared to board the rebel cruiser. He drew his energy sword which seemed to flicker and hiss in anticipation of the coming conflict and hefted his rail rifle, flicking off the safety catch to allow the electrical current to flow through the electromagnetic rails along its barrel. He advanced through the nearest boarding hatch as it crashed open, closely followed by Khul’s Assault Squad and Zhenoki’s Heavy Support Unit.
Xurtose emerged into a narrow corridor; its metallic walls were daubed in blasphemous iconography and script from the rebel unholy texts. Xurtose inwardly shuddered as he thought of how blind faith in the Unseen corrupted the minds of the weak-willed. Two pallid figures, their jet black flak jackets and fatigues dusty and torn, were picking themselves off the floor having been thrown aside by the shock of the assault craft’s impact. Xurtose’s railgun hummed as electromagnetic force pulsed down the length of its barrel and the renegades were torn apart by the hail of high-speed projectiles unleashed by the gun.
Xurtose analysed the readouts flickering across his visor. The other two assault crafts had engaged and the Alliance had secured two more footholds on the cruiser. He opened his commlink, “Lieutenant Jesu, Engineer Yugen secure the engine room and initiate engine overload. Then disengage and get off this ship. We’ll make for the bridge and plot a course into the orbital defence ray. Xurtose out.”
Without a word, the captain led his assault force down the corridor towards a sealed fire door covered in idolatrous script, which led deeper into the ship.
“Multiple targets beyond the door, Captain,” Zhenoki said glancing down at the sensor array attached to his combat suit’s wrist. “They appear to have made a defensive position around an access lift.”
Xurtose grunted in response and slashed his energy sword into the door’s control panel and the heavy door ground open. His railgun raged again, throwing a leather-clad traitor from the ragged defences. Xurtose pushed towards the lift shaft as Khul’s Assault Squad followed him through the door. Pistol rounds from the rebels’ sidearms bounced harmlessly off their combat suits as they surged towards the renegades’ hastily erected barricades. The Assault Squad raised their flame lances and unleashed torrents of fire that engulfed the ill-prepared crew, incinerating them as they thrashed manically in the flames. Zhenoki’s squad stalked forward; their rail rifles snatching rebels from their feet.
Barrelling forward, Xurtose charged towards a tall sergeant wearing an ornate, hooded ceremonial robe over his flak jacket, who led a last knot of resistance. The sergeant raised his baroque energy mace and fired round after round from his pistol at the heavily armoured Alliance Captain; the shots ricocheted erratically off his solid combat armour. With a snarl, the hooded rebel ordered his surviving troopers to engage. The two surviving renegade troopers leapt towards Xurtose, clutching viciously serrated blades. Xurtose swung his energy sword in a wide arc, decapitating one before burying it into the torso of the other. He threw the rebel off his blade with a quick flick of his wrist. The sergeant lunged forward; his heavy mace clutched angrily in his grasp. Xurtose parried the sergeant’s wild blow with his sword, the force of his block sufficient to send the mace reeling. Xurtose counterattacked by slamming his rail rifle into the sergeant’s chest. He pulled the trigger and the force of the impact of the point-blank rail round flung the rebel back towards the chamber’s wall, breaking his neck with a sickening crack.
“Position secured Captain,” Khul reported.
Xurtose acknowledged the report with a nod. “Into the lift, we need to reach the bridge.”
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