Chapter 348: Capturing the Genestealer
Kian had been facing forward the whole time, weapon swinging in that direction, but inside his helmet, his eyes never left the auspex readout, watching every corner for a high-speed contact.
The instant the Genestealer broke from cover on his left, he caught the fast-moving red dot rushing in from that side.
He knew immediately what it meant. He spun on the spot and cut a blade through the space where the threat was.
Just as he completed the turn and the swing, the Genestealer landed right behind him, claws already rising for a strike that would have punched clean through his kidney.
The creature hadn't expected a human to react that fast. Caught flat-footed, it watched the flaming greatsword come down straight for its head.
A clean hit there would have been game over for it.
But it was already committed to the charge, moving too fast to stop or pull back. All it could do was twist its head and body, trying to slip past Kian's flank.
It worked, barely. The blade meant for its skull caught its shoulder instead, thanks to that last-second twist.
The flaming greatsword kept traveling, though, and sheared clean through both arms on that side.
The creature let out a shriek of agony. What had been four arms was now down to two.
It survived, at least, and the momentum from its original charge carried it forward, out of Kian's immediate reach.
But losing two limbs threw off its balance completely, and it ended up tumbling across the ground several times before it could recover.
The moment his real target broke cover, Kian went to full power.
The bolt rifle he'd been holding but hadn't fired all fight opened up at last.
The Stubber above his head tracked his gaze, locked onto the Genestealer, and let loose a full belt of ammunition.
Bang bang bang!!
A storm of firepower converged on the Genestealer. One bolt round caught it square in the shin and blew the leg clean off.
The 20mm rounds tore into its chest and abdomen, punching straight through its light chitinous plating and into the flesh beneath.
In that instant, the Genestealer took massive damage under the sheer weight of fire and let out a scream that tore at the ears.
That scream resonated instantly with every hybrid nearby.
They shrieked and surged forward, throwing their own bodies in front of Kian's guns, desperate to shield the being they worshipped as their Angel.
But Kian's firepower was simply too overwhelming. Both heavy weapons kept up a constant stream of fire.
Every round that left his weapons punched through multiple bodies before it ever reached its intended target, and even with a wall of hybrids trying to soak up the fire, enough of it kept getting through to the Genestealer behind them.
The creature screamed under the constant impacts. Its long tail had already been shot clean off.
One leg was gone at the thigh, the other severed at the shin by the Stubber's fire. All it had left were its two remaining right arms.
Kian adjusted his grip on the bolt rifle, lining up a finishing shot to blow the thing apart entirely.
That was when a comm channel opened in his helmet.
"Count Voss, if at all possible, don't kill it. Take it alive, please."
Kian paused. The voice was familiar. He placed it, the Magos aboard the Inquisitor's flagship.
"Count Voss, that Genestealer has real research value. Given your current position, you've clearly got the situation under control. Taking it alive shouldn't be difficult for you."
Kian slipped instantly into haggling mode.
"And what exactly would the Magos be offering in return? This thing is vicious, monstrous, and frankly terrifying. Capturing it alive puts poor, fragile, defenseless me at considerable risk."
Laughter came back over the line.
"I understand, my lord. Value flows both ways. Bring it back to me alive, and I'll make sure you have access to maintenance support for any large-scale machinery you acquire going forward."
Kian had barely started thinking about building a career out of scavenging salvage, and this Magos had already read him perfectly.
Which suited him just fine, because he genuinely did want to get into the salvage business.
In the 40K universe, the older something was, the more powerful it tended to be. Riding along with an Inquisitor meant access to countless worlds, and eventually derelict hulks and ancient battlefields, the kind of places where relics turned up.
Small stuff, rice cookers and the like, he could fix himself. But something the size of a Baneblade, a Knight-pattern war engine, or heavy artillery needed a real specialist.
With that in mind, Kian told the Magos to hold on, then keyed the general channel to the whole force.
"All units, listen up. Advance steady, clear every xenos in sight. This is the last of them!"
With that, he jumped down off the wrecked truck and charged straight at the Genestealer ahead.
The Stubber above his head was still roaring, and worried it might finish the creature off outright, Kian used his psychic power to pop the barrel's quick-release latch and yank the barrel clean off.
No barrel, no more fire from the Stubber.
He could feel the machine spirit's fury at being cut off mid-kill. He ignored it completely.
He charged forward, fully intent on pinning the Genestealer down.
The creature, now reduced to little more than a writhing torso, crawled across the ground trying to flee.
As it crawled, it let out sharp, piercing cries, forcing the surrounding hybrids to throw themselves at Kian to buy it time.
But Kian, sealed in heavy power armour and moving like a small tank, plowed straight through the crowd, greatsword swinging in wide arcs, scattering body parts in every direction.
None of these hybrids had the firepower to punch through his armour, and none of them could stop his blade. All they had was numbers, throwing bodies in his path to slow him down.
Once enough of them piled up in front of him, Kian's free right hand began charging.
Blue psychic light gathered around his fist, and the next instant, he swung it forward.
Amplified by the gauntlet's psychic amplifier, a massive wave of psychic force blasted outward, tearing through the crowd of hybrids ahead.
Those caught directly in the wave were torn apart on the spot, and those further back were left stunned and convulsing.
He charged for two more seconds and unleashed a second wave, dropping another swath of hybrids and clearing the field completely.
By then, his men had pushed past the truck wreckage and reached firing positions of their own.
Every automatic weapon in the line opened up on the remaining hybrids like ammunition was free, and the crowd went down in sheets.
With the cannon fodder cleared out, Kian closed the last few strides to the crawling Genestealer.
One swing of the flaming greatsword took its last two arms.
All that remained was a torso squirming on the ground, still shrieking, trying to summon more hybrids to its side.
But every armoured trooper behind Kian was pouring fire in every direction, and anyone stupid enough to get close was reduced to pulp instantly.
Kian closed the distance and stomped down on its jaw, crushing it shut so it couldn't scream anymore.
Then he grabbed it by one severed leg stump and, like a certain green rage-monster dealing with a certain trickster god, slammed it against the ground, again and again.
Its chitinous carapace shattered under the impacts, exoskeleton and inner bone cracking apart with sharp popping sounds, and it looked like it was about to go meet its four-armed god any second now.
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