Warhammer: The Worst Start There Is (40k) - Chapter 20: May We Stand by the Emperor's Side

“Let us begin and bestow Nurgle’s blessings upon these pitiful people, they have been deceived by the Corpse Emperor,” Gurl said, taking large strides forward. The other Plague Marines cleared a path, allowing their leader to pass.

The Plague Marines’ armor oozed with the foul-smelling liquid, stretched to accommodate their bloated bodies, and was covered in a layer of shiny green flies. They emitted a nauseating stench and a sickly green mist from within and without.

“Let us bring Nurgle’s gifts to those fools,” Gurl’s lieutenant chimed in. His voice had a raspy, decayed quality, but he could still speak despite the putrid decay.

He followed closely behind Gurl, wielding a power hammer adorned with flesh, with distillation equipment and experimental plague grenades hanging from his body, making a clinking sound as he walked.

It’s worth noting that Gurl’s lieutenant was a Plague Alchemist, capable of creating dreadful plagues by mixing various bacteria and viruses. They could easily infect entire worlds of the Imperium, even spreading to other worlds, causing untold suffering and death.

The threat posed by Plague Alchemists was far more terrifying than other Plague Marines. They could poison the Imperium’s worlds, meddle in sacrifice rituals, and turn Imperium worlds into a Garden of Nurgle’s.

“Praise Nurgle.”

“Bestow, bestow upon them your gifts.”

“The love of Nurgle.”

“Eradicate the Corpse Emperor!”

Other Plague Marines also brandished their rusty grenade launchers, blades, heavy hammers, and the plague sprayers attached to their armor. They cheered, following Gurl, preparing for the final assault.

Leading the charge, Gurl raised his massive plague axe and let out a hoarse, terrifying battle cry. “We are the Sons of Mortarion! We are the embodiment of plague and death!”

Other Plague Marines joined in with similar battle cries. The thunderous roar of artillery fire echoed as Daemon engines and traitor-controlled cannons bombarded the fortress once again.

Plague-infested shells flew towards the fortress’s flickering shields, bursting into malevolent fire petals upon impact. A massive cloud of plague accompanied the explosion but was blocked by the shields.

The fortress’s shields were flickering erratically, clearly nearing their limit.

With the continuous bombardment, the shield generator was on the verge of overload. A few more rounds of fire, and the fortress would lose its protective shield.

Without the shield, the fortress would become vulnerable, like prey on a chopping block, ready to be carved apart.

“Release the Grandfather blessings,” Gurl commanded.

Soon, a large group of Plague Zombies was driven from a distance.

They were once living beings, residents of the planet, and members of the garrison. Now, they had become puppets and playthings of Nurgle.

Many of the Zombies still wore the uniforms of the planet’s garrison, with weapons and equipment hanging limply from their bodies.

They retained only simple instincts and were unable to use weapons.

Gurl didn’t need them to use weapons either; Plague Zombies primarily relied on the diseases they carried to inflict harm on their enemies.

These creatures stared forward with lifeless eyes, walking aimlessly. Green viscous fluid dripped from their grinning, toothy faces.

Decaying bodies and wriggling tentacles emitted a putrid stench, while the wails of lost souls echoed in the air.

Under the command of the Plague Marines, the Plague Zombies marched numbly toward the fortress, serving as expendable cannon fodder.

Thousands of undead swarmed through the ruins, staggering toward the Imperial fortress’s defensive line.

The Plague Marines followed closely, driving the Zombies like shepherds herding their flock.

Behind them, daemon engines like the Plagueburst Crawlers continued their relentless bombardment, causing the fortress’s void shields to flicker and fluctuate.

As the enemy entered optimal firing range, the Imperial defenders’ firepower came to life. Heavy laser cannons and artillery roared, harvesting rows of mutated beings covered in plague.

The artillery fire rumbled, sending numerous Zombies flying and exploding into chunks of rotten flesh scattered all around.

Massive flamers spewed forth streams of fire, incinerating any Rot Flies attempting to get close to the defensive line.

Laser beams shot out from behind cover, sizzling as they hit the Plague Zombies, turning them into charred bodies collapsing to the ground.

The Imperial soldiers shouted the Emperor’s slogans and did their best to conserve ammunition while inflicting casualties on the enemy, trying to push them back once again.

The Plague Marines responded with equal determination. Their grenade launchers precisely targeted the Imperial heavy units and key firepower positions, repeatedly pulling the triggers.

Grenades effortlessly shattered the bodies of ordinary soldiers, destroyed heavy units, and eliminated important firepower positions of the Imperial defenders, allowing them to continue driving the Plague Zombies forward.

Daemon engines like the Plagueburst Crawlers also advanced, releasing terrible plague shells and toxins, corroding the human defenders and suppressing their firepower.

The Imperial defenders fought with all their might, even resorting to binding molten bombs to human bodies to try and stop the enemy’s advance.

However, no matter how hard they fought, faced with the relentless assault of the Plague Marines, they continued to retreat, losing ground continuously as their defensive line was compressed.

The Plague Marines deployed their fearless war machines and Daemon engines, and the terrifying firepower of these colossal monstrosities made the already firepower-deficient Imperial defenders suffer even more.

In several defensive battles, they had lost a significant number of artillery, tanks, and heavy weapons, and the defenders inside the fortress had almost no heavy firepower left.

“Oh, merciful Emperor, this time we’re really in trouble,” Jian said as she peered through his binoculars, watching the terrifyingly large and flesh-covered Dreadnoughts emerge from the noxious green mist, closely following the Plague Zombies. He knew that unless a miracle occurred, the fall of the fortress was just a matter of time.

The Plague Marines also had their own Dreadnoughts, which were even more formidable than the Imperial ones, thanks to their blessings from the Chaos gods and superior performance.

These Dreadnoughts walked past a burning Chimera transport, their massive forms making the Chimera look insignificant.

One of the Dreadnoughts wielded a colossal cannon in one hand, relentlessly unleashing firepower, while the other hand featured a spiked appendage with a large maw on its chest, surrounded by a cluster of blinking eyes, all of it quite grotesque.

Jian watched these Dreadnoughts in action several times and knew that when facing the Imperial forces, they were like a steamroller, unstoppable, and the Imperial troops couldn’t hold them back.

He had witnessed these Dreadnoughts easily demolishing a super-heavy tank, the Venomblade, with their terrifying firepower.

“No Knights to face, so what’s the point? Let’s send a squad as a suicide team, see if they can get close enough to use a Melta Bomb on it,” Jian tried to make a desperate attempt to see if she could sacrifice lives to take down one of those Dreadnoughts.

Soon, a squad rushed out, with other units providing covering fire. They carried Melta Bombs and attempted to get close.

The tactic was simple: get close enough to detonate the Melta Bomb and, even if they died, their comrades could remotely detonate it. Just getting the bomb close was the goal.

Unfortunately, while courage was a precious commodity, it couldn’t change much, especially on the battlefield, and it certainly couldn’t reverse the tide of the battle.

“It’s a pity. Failure,” Jian sighed as he watched the last soldier of the suicide squad, shouting the Emperor’s slogan, being obliterated by the long-range firepower of the Dreadnought. He had lived for over thirty years, and today, he was finally answering the Emperor’s call.

“Just these civilians,” Jian turned his head towards the depths of the fortress, his eyes filled with sadness. He knew very well the consequences of the last line of defense falling.

Chaos had never shown any mercy.

Jian raised his head, and the unstable shield shimmered, as if it would shatter in the next second. Through the shield, his bionic eye could see the hazy green plague mist that had now covered the entire sky. The planet had fallen, and their resistance was futile.

They had done their best, but the outcome was predetermined.

Facing an unbeatable enemy, they had no chance of victory. All they could do now was chant the Emperor’s slogan and march towards their deaths.

Suppressing the sadness in his heart, Jian drew his command knife and laspistol, activated the entire army’s communicator, and spoke, “It has been an honor to fight alongside all of you, comrades. May we all stand with the Emperor, and may your souls be accepted by Him. The glory of humanity will endure, and the radiance of the Emperor will shine forever. We will fight to the very end, and Chaos will never make us yield.”

As Jian finished speaking, the overwhelmed shield flickered a few more times and then disappeared completely.

Plague bombs fell on the fortress, triggering explosions and a cloud of plague mist. The sound of screams and cries echoed from the fortress.

The despairing voices of the civilians filled the entire fortress.

Everyone knew that their final moments had arrived.

The Plague Zombies and Plague Marines broke through the Imperial defense lines and unleashed a frenzied massacre on the last bastion.

The Imperial defenders also attempted to engage in hand-to-hand combat to preserve the last shreds of human dignity.