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Chapter 296: Slaanesh's Big Surprise?
🕑 Added 2025-09-14 12:54:49 +0000 UTCChapter 296: Slaanesh's Big Surprise?
As the dust settled, Blood Ravens kill-teams emerged from their drop pods in strict tactical formation. Gabriel led half the Chapter, a thousand marines, in the assault on the Crimson Port.
A considerable number of Eldar warships had originally been docked at the port. Some had been drawn away to the main battlefront earlier, and most of those that remained were destroyed by the Blood Ravens' initial strike before they could even take off. The few Eldar ships that managed to launch did not dare to approach, and could only attempt to harass them from a distance.
The Blood Ravens' drop pods had slammed into the sprawling architectural complex. Landing with them was a full regiment of the Raiders.
Against the Dark Eldar and other non-human xenos here, the Blood Ravens and the Raiders showed no mercy. Although the Dark Eldar tried to fight back, their resistance was crushed under the weight of an assault of this magnitude. The four Thors deployed with the Raiders regiment were enough to drive the Dark Eldar here to despair. Two sacred Dreadnoughts swung their power fists and power claws, destroying any buildings that blocked their path. Under the watch of the fleet in orbit, the moment a concentration of Dark Eldar was detected, a salvo from the Thors' cannons would arrive a second later.
Gabriel held a captured Kabalite Warrior of the Poisoned Tongue in his grasp. This area was too large, a layered maze of dozens of levels making up the port. Gabriel had not yet found the factory's location, and Eldrad did not know its precise coordinates either. The armor and weapons of the captive indicated he was no mere gang member, but a figure of some importance within the Kabal. As soon as the ground battle had begun, Gabriel had noticed that some of the enemy fought with the discipline of elite Kabalite soldiers, not some random rabble. When Gabriel saw this Dark Eldar acting in a command role, he had immediately led a decapitation strike.
Gabriel ripped off the Dark Eldar's arm, demanding the factory's location. But even in the face of such pain, the creature was still smiling.
"Is that all the pain you can muster, you filthy Mon-keigh?! Don't think you'll get anything from my lips! You will all die in Commorragh!"
Gabriel looked at him with disgust. The armor on the creature's body was not so much worn as it was pierced directly into his flesh. These pain-loving Dark Eldar had a much higher tolerance for physical agony than he had imagined. And from the creature's words, Gabriel also surmised that his master had a deal with the Haemonculi. Even if they killed him now, the Haemonculi could likely resurrect him. This was the true source of his confidence.
Seeing that conventional interrogation was useless, Gabriel looked at Jonah. The Chief Librarian placed the metal box he had been carrying on his back in front of the Dark Eldar.
The moment he saw the box, the Dark Eldar's calm demeanor vanished. From within the container, he could feel the impulse of Slaanesh, an urge to devour his very soul. The fear that arose from his spirit was impossible to suppress.
"You... you Mon-keigh! What is that thing?! Are you not afraid of being declared heretics by your Imperium?! This is not something you should touch!"
"Heretics?" Gabriel scoffed. "We have always operated on the principle that if no one knows, it never happened. To deal with madmen like you, one must obviously use unconventional methods."
The box was radiating the aura of Slaanesh. Even a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh would struggle to possess this level of divine power. Were it not for the specially forged container, this amount of warp energy would be enough to tear open a rift in reality.
Neither Gabriel nor Jonah dared to open the box. Neither of them had ever seen what was inside with their own eyes. The Blood Ravens surrounding them all held Marks of Purity, ready to slap them on the box to prevent it from getting out of control.
This box had been kept under the strictest seal in the Blood Ravens' armory. This was the first time in millennia it had been taken out. Gabriel knew from the most secret of the Chapter's historical records that it had been acquired at the very beginning of the Blood Ravens' founding, during a "grave-robbing operation" in an ancient Eldar ruin. The details of the process and the nature of the object itself had been completely expunged. All he knew was that this thing had an extremely close connection to the Chaos God Slaanesh. A previous Librarian who had tried to open it was instantly corrupted and became a follower of the Dark Prince the moment he laid eyes on what was inside. Since then, every Chapter Master and Chief Librarian had forbidden any member of the Chapter from removing it from the armory.
It was only because he needed to use the Dark Eldar's fear of Slaanesh to extract information, and because of the importance of this mission, that Gabriel had dared to take it out. For insurance, he had gone to Lucan. He knew Lucan possessed the power to purify the warp. This was the main reason he had dared to bring this thing along. He hoped Lucan could add another layer of security to it.
When Gabriel had told him about the box's origins, a piece of apocryphal, satirical history had suddenly popped into Lucan's mind: that the Blood Ravens' armory contained one of Slaanesh's "great surprises"...
When Lucan had used his Mechanicus Authority to attach to the box and probe its contents, he was left speechless with shock. It was indeed a "great surprise"... but not exactly what the joke implied. It was a physical manifestation of Slaanesh's divine power in the material universe, its form constantly shifting between different anatomical parts. Having siphoned Slaanesh's power before, Lucan was all too familiar with it. This was power that came directly from Slaanesh.
For safety, Lucan had immediately covered the entire metal box with his Daemon-steel nerve clusters. This would allow him to use the purifying power of his Authority to suppress the spread of Slaanesh's power and prevent it from getting out of control. As the nerve clusters spread, he discovered that beneath the human-made shell of the box, there were also Eldar runes. After confirming that his current "devouring" capacity was sufficient to completely purify it, he had allowed Gabriel to take it, but not without repeatedly warning him never to open it under any circumstances.
Who knew where the first Blood Ravens had gotten this ridiculous thing? Lucan wondered. Does the Emperor know? Does Slaanesh itself even know? Could it be a remnant from the battle between Slaanesh and the Eldar gods at the moment of its birth? That was the only possibility he could think of.
"You may be able to be resurrected," Gabriel's voice was a low threat. "But what if your soul is devoured by Slaanesh?! I wonder if your Haemonculi are skilled enough to steal your soul back from the hands of a Chaos God."
Gabriel's words made the Dark Eldar tremble uncontrollably. No torture could be more terrifying than this. A soul captured by Slaanesh was not simply eaten; it was tormented. In all the universe, no one knew how to inflict torment better than Slaanesh.
Finally, under Gabriel's threat, the Eldar chose to betray his master.
After leading them to a junction between the Crimson Port and a section of war-torn ruins, Gabriel found a very well-hidden entrance. After confirming the intelligence, Gabriel killed the Eldar. Whether he would be resurrected or not was no longer his concern. He was not about to actually open the box.
Two Dreadnoughts, acting as the vanguard, tore through the sturdy gate at the entrance. Under the cover of the Dreadnoughts, a stream of Blood Ravens poured inside. The Raiders were left outside to establish a perimeter and guard against attacks from the flanks. This relatively narrow area was more suitable for Astartes to operate in.
However, after a preliminary search, they did not find any trace of the Dark Eldar. The various instruments and equipment were still running. The signs here proved that not long ago, a large number of "black bean sprouts" had been working here.
"First Company, no enemy contact."
"Second Company, no xenos sighted!"
"Third Company's area is secure!"
The various companies explored the different areas of the factory, their reports echoing through the vox.
