No one answered. Were the city's defenders fools? Bolter shells ripped through the trees, tearing through bark and wood. They were still firing. Ragnar was furious, and the other Space Wolves started yelling. Despite the noise, Ragnar's ears caught the whirr of large servo-motors. The Sentinels were coming.
'We're under fire from our own side. Go defensive. Let's show them that we're Space Wolves, not animals,' Ragnar said, but in his heart, he wanted to teach the men a lesson.
'Ragnar, native predators attacking from the rear,' said one of the Space Wolves.
Ragnar heard Haegr yell a war cry, using the sound of snapping bones to punctuate his statement. The alien creatures had attacked the rear of the patrol. In his zeal, Ragnar had strung out his squad, and the creatures had ambushed them.
'Pull back and regroup,' Ragnar shouted to his men. 'If something comes at us from the jungle, kill it.'
Again, he tried to contact Lethe. 'By the tendrils of the kraken, someone answer this comm. We're on your side.' More bolter shells tore through the jungle canopy. Ragnar realised that the comm wasn't working. The men on the wall probably didn't know that they were firing on their own side.
The ground shook, and acidic sap sprayed from the side of the path as a chainblade ripped the jungle asunder. Like a giant of legend, a Sentinel towered over the Space Marines. The two-legged walker was armed with a chainblade mounted on a mechanical arm, and it had a heavy flamer attached on its side, just beneath the pilot's compartment.
Without even hesitating long enough to identify his targets, the pilot activated the Sentinel's heavy flamer. A bright fireball of promethium blew through the jungle, turning everything in its path to ash.
Ragnar's superhuman reflexes barely saved him as he dived towards the walker. He knew from countless battles that the flames spread outwards in a cone, meaning that the safest place was right next to the Sentinel. Of course, most Sentinels weren't armed with chainblades.
The blade pivoted downwards, slicing towards Ragnar in a deadly arc. The blades blurred as they cried out for his head. Ragnar raised his glowing sword in an attempt to parry. The large chainblade struck the sword with enough force to make the Space Wolfs arm go numb. Gritting his teeth and straining his enhanced muscles, Ragnar kept his grip on the sword. The runes on the ancient blade glowed as it held against the Sentinel's chain-weapon. The teeth of the chainblade snapped, flying in all directions. Then Ragnar's sword cut through the mechanism, sending sparks flying after the blade's teeth.
Ragnar could hear the rest of the squad fighting off their alien attackers. From the sounds of blades, bolters and breaking bones, he suspected that his men had the best of the enemy. One of them fired a bolter at the Sentinel, but the rounds bounced off its armour.
Not wanting his squad to endure another blast from the heavy flamer, Ragnar gripped his sword with both hands and swung it around at the two-legged walker's knee joint. The sword ripped through the servos and maimed the mechanical beast. The walker balanced on its sole remaining leg for a moment, and then fell forwards, driving the nozzle of the heavy flamer into the soil.
Haegr flung the body of an ape-lizard into the upper branches of the jungle. Bolter fire echoed as the other members of the Wolfblade dispatched the hissing lizard things. Even in an ambush, the creatures were no match for the Space Wolves.
The guns stopped. The ground shook. Another Sentinel was approaching. Then, Ragnar felt the earth vibrate. Years of warfare had taught the Space Wolf what an approaching tank felt like. From the engine noise, Ragnar could identify the vehicle. Lethe's planetary defence force was sending a Hellhound to roast the entire section of jungle.
Several members of the squad shook themselves while their armour smoked from the heat. The Sentinel's heavy flamer had whitened the ceramite and discoloured the heraldry on every Space Marine caught in the blast. Besides Magni, two other members of the Wolfblade were down.
'Ragnar, what's going on?' yelled Haegr.
'No comms. They think we're the enemy and they are shooting at us.'
'Give me a moment, I'll do something,' said Haegr.
Ragnar looked out of the jungle to the kill zone. He had to think of something. The Space Wolves might be among the best warriors in the Imperium but they weren't ready to fight the defences of an entire city.
Haegr grabbed the hatch on the fallen Sentinel. In an impressive display of strength, the giant Space Marine ripped open the hatch to reveal the frightened man inside.
'Get out,' ordered the Space Wolf.
The pilot said something and leapt out of the hatch. Haegr reached inside with substantial effort and grunted before pulling out a comm. The vibration grew louder. 'Hurry,' said Ragnar.
'By the frozen hells of Fenris, this comm is jammed as well,' shouted Haegr, shaking his prize.
Ragnar knew what he had to do. 'Brothers, stay here.'
Ragnar charged out into the kill zone. The heavy bolters on the walls opened lire immediately, ripping gouts of soil from the earth. He changed direction, evading the shells, uttering a swift prayer to the Emperor that his armour would hold.
Bolter rounds clanged off Ragnar's shoulder pad, breaking his stride. To his left, another Sentinel charged forwards, although only armed with a heavy flamer, the walker remained out of range. To his right, he saw the source of the bolter fire, a Hellhound. He had hoped that the defenders would realise that a giant man in grey power armour wasn't a jungle beast.
The Sentinel slowed its advance. Perhaps the driver had some brains after all. The gunners on the wall kept firing, but fortunately their aim lacked accuracy. The Hellhound revved its engines and the front end of the tank leapt towards the Space Wolf.
Ragnar took in the situation and did the only thing that he knew the driver wouldn't expect: he charged. The turret of the tank's Inferno cannon swivelled in Ragnar's direction. This was going to hurt. Ragnar let out a howl and as the promethium flames splashed out of the Hellhound, he leapt at the tank, straining his legs and his armour's servo-motors. He only had one chance.
Flames sizzled against his leg guards as he flew through the air. The heat was overwhelming. Alarms screamed in his armour. He hoped that he had pushed himself enough. He wanted to land on the tank. If only the members of his original Claw could see him. The next time that he saw his old friend,
Sven, from his Blood Claw days, he'd have to tell him about this, assuming that he lived.
Ragnar crashed heavily against the top of the Hellhound and pulled himself onto the turret of the Inferno cannon. His plan had worked. The guns had stopped firing. Lethe's defenders didn't want to risk blowing up their own tank.
A moment of silence and indecision followed from the walls and the lone Sentinel. Ragnar took a deep breath. His hearts felt like they wanted to pound out of his flesh. He stood and pulled off his helmet, letting it bounce off the Hellhound's armour.
'We're on your side,' he shouted. 'The comms aren't working.'
A flurry of activity broke out on the wall. Amid the shapes of defenders, Ragnar saw the familiar blue-grey of Space Wolf armour. He hoped that it might be Torin, his friend and Wolfblade veteran.
Ragnar's comm crackled to life. 'What do you mean your comms aren't working?' asked Torin. The grey-armoured figure on the wall waved down to Ragnar.
'I mean that this place isn't as different from Terra as I'd hoped. We've got a problem,' answered Ragnar on the comm, 'and we're at least one man down. Magni was wounded.’
We wouldn't be Wolfblade if we didn't have problems, lad. Now, stop wrecking the paint on that Hellhound and get inside the city.'
Haegr came out of the jungle, leading the others. Two of the Space Wolves carried Magni. Haegr dragged part of the Sentinel's leg behind him. The large Space Wolf made an announcement to anyone who could hear.
'Let the planetary defence force know that they need to repair one of their Sentinels,' said Haegr with a note of disgust in his voice.
The massive gates leading into Lethe shuddered open, and the squad shed one wilderness for another. Ragnar knew that he had felt safer with the beetles. At least in the jungle, he had known that everything was an enemy.
TWO
Unknown Enemies
After entering Lethe, Ragnar and his team had quickly made their way to the central palace complex and the med labs with Magni. Although he was a Space Marine, Magni had suffered serious injuries and had lost consciousness. Lady Gabriella had joined Ragnar after the medics and chirurgeons had begun their examination. She sent the other members of the Wolfblade off to continue their duties, but she had let Ragnar wait for a time to make sure Magni recovered.
Ragnar stood watching as the medical servitors and medics worked on Magni. The lab was up to Imperial standards with prosthetics, augmetics and surgical tables. Like all labs, it was a place of antiseptic smells mixed with blood and waste, unnatural scents that irritated Ragnar's inner beast.
Despite their knowledge, the strange anatomy of a genetically enhanced Space Marine defied the medics. They had cleaned Magni up and performed some healing rituals but in the end, Magni would have to heal himself naturally.
The young Space Wolf began to stir, starting to regain consciousness.