Eroking
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Chapter 289: Assault on the Sanctuary
🕑 Added 2025-09-11 14:31:24 +0000 UTCChapter 289: Assault on the Sanctuary
"Lord Argus, please, trust Lord Abathur! Trust the Mongorte Dynasty! We cannot miss this chance to leave Commorragh! Do you really want to be trapped here forever? Haven't we suffered enough of this life? Don't you want to return to your Chapter?"
Burns pleaded desperately. Although he held considerable prestige in the sanctuary due to the presence of the SCV, most of the survivors still chose to put their faith in the Astartes. To get everyone to leave Commorragh with them, he needed Argus's help. He had to have the support of the Space Marines.
After a brief silence, Argus made his decision. He truly had no one else to rely on. Even if his Chapter knew he was alive, they would not attack Commorragh again just for one man. And the Imperium was even less likely to launch a war against the Dark City without some profit to be gained. The only person willing to expend such a great effort to get them out was Lucan.
"I understand," Argus said. "The humans will cooperate with you. But Burns, we don't know if we still have spies among us. We can only tell everyone the news on the final day."
"I understand. The soldiers from our Dynasty can be trusted. I will secretly prepare as many supplies as I can."
Hearing Argus agree, Burns finally let out a sigh of relief. With the Barracks they had built, the more than 20,000 human survivors at least each had a powersuit. Gathered together, they were a force to be reckoned with.
Just as Argus and the others were preparing to leave, Abathur suddenly sensed an anomaly on the Creep. One after another, the Baneling mines were being detonated.
"Burns. Argus. Many... a great many Eldar are entering the lower levels. A number unlike any we have seen before," Abathur's voice hissed. "You humans must also prepare! My Swarm will hold them back."
The information transmitted from the Creep instantly alerted Abathur to a massive number of signals that were neither human nor Zerg. The sheer quantity far exceeded any previous operation against the undercity, and a portion of the intruders was heading towards the human sanctuary at high speed. The previous Dark Eldar incursions had been isolated forces driven by the bounty. This time, it was a true war. The scale of the invasion was so large that Abathur would have to respond with his full strength.
The Swarm stationed at the entrance to the lower levels had already begun to engage these Dark Eldar, but they had failed to stop them. The Dark Eldar forces were still advancing.
Hearing Abathur's words, both men felt their scalps tingle. Their plan hadn't even begun, and the Dark Eldar were already making the first move?!
"Lord Argus?! Were we exposed?!"
"Impossible. We only just learned the news ourselves. How could a traitor in the sanctuary know so quickly? There's no way the enemy could have received this intel in such a short time. However... it's possible the sanctuary's location was leaked long ago. They just hesitated to attack us because the Zerg threat was far greater, and the cost of purging us was not worth the gain."
But regardless of the truth, the enemy was heading for their settlement. They had to prepare for battle, or even evacuation. Fortunately, the sanctuary was located deep enough, and with the Zerg blocking the path, it would take the enemy a great deal of time to reach them.
Thinking of their compatriots in the sanctuary who were still unaware of the danger, neither of them dared to delay a moment longer. They immediately mounted the Zerglings and rushed back. Abathur, too, began to mobilize his Swarm. Vast numbers of Zerg began to move toward the position of the Dark Eldar army.
A brutal war was raging at the entrance. The Dark Eldar were using countless slaves and modified creatures as cannon fodder. In the past two years, they had become familiar with fighting the Zerg, and thanks to Tevantias's research, they had confirmed that the Zerg, like the Tyranid Swarm, required a large amount of biomass.
Meltas and flamethrowers cleansed the endless Creep, while slaves were forced to clear a path for the Dark Eldar army by running ahead to trigger the hidden Baneling nests with their lives. The Dark Eldar warriors watching from the rear felt nothing as the slaves were completely dissolved by the acid. The number of slaves in Commorragh was unimaginable. In the endless expanse of the Dark City, who knew how many slaves from countless races had survived over the millennia. As long as the slavers were willing, they could always capture more of these wretched souls.
The biomass from the dissolved slaves was quickly absorbed by the Creep, but the Dark Eldar warriors behind them did their best to incinerate the corpses on the Creep as quickly as possible. Feeling the tremors beneath their feet and hearing the countless screeches from the darkness ahead, the Dark Eldar knew the main Zerg Swarm was coming. None of them had much enthusiasm for the coming battle. Fighting a creature like the Zerg provided them with no sustenance of pain or fear.
But while the main Dark Eldar force was bogged down in a bloody meat grinder with the Zerg, a group of pale, ghoul-like creatures was speeding through the undercity. There were no other Dark Eldar forces with them, and the direction they were heading was precisely the location of the human sanctuary.
Just as Burns and Argus had suspected, there were still traitors within the sanctuary who had thrown in their lot with the Dark Eldar. Even with the current situation and the protection of the Zerg, these traitors still did not believe that the humans could survive an attack by the Dark Eldar. The sanctuary, which had become safer and safer, had led Burns and the others to establish it as a permanent, fortified settlement rather than a temporary hideout. This very act of setting down roots had exposed their position. During a previous raid against the Dark Eldar, a traitor had left behind intelligence marking the sanctuary's direction.
And now, this pack of pale ghouls, using their incredibly keen sense of smell, was heading towards the location indicated in the intelligence, searching for the scent of humans to pinpoint the sanctuary's exact location. When Zerg along the path charged at them, they did not stop to fight. They had a clear objective. Under the control of their Dark Eldar beastmasters, their only mission was to confirm the location of the human sanctuary, not to engage in combat.
Following this pack of ghouls was a group of nearly one hundred Harlequins. A gathering of this size was usually only seen during their own sacred performances, which happened only once every few decades. But at the call of the Laughing God, they had come from all corners of the galaxy to Commorragh to help Vect consolidate his rule and fulfill their bargain.
The Harlequins, wearing their holo-suits, moved at extreme speed. Their anti-gravity belts allowed them to control the local gravity, evading the Creep on the ground. They would occasionally intervene to clear out any major threats to the ghouls. The Overseers and Overlords floating nearby were their primary targets. During his previous attempt to assassinate Lucan, Lemire had learned the importance of these command creatures. After killing them, the Zerg attacking the ghouls indeed became sluggish and disorganized.
And the Harlequins were not the only ones in the force attacking the human sanctuary. Within a dark dimension, two hundred special beings known as Mandrakes were detaching themselves from reality, moving towards the sanctuary's location. The dark environment of the undercity was their perfect hiding place. These creatures, who lived in a dimension of shadow, could theoretically use the darkness to travel to any place where there was no light.
Imagine... a monster, pitch-black, suddenly appearing in your own bed... tsk, tsk, tsk.
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Gal Anonim
*Lucan when he finally got his hands on the $%^& Harlequins*: OM NOM NOM NOM.
