Salamander

'It begs an obvious question—' Bak'en's query was left unspoken, as he was interrupted by the front embarkation ramp of the

Fire-wyvern

opening and easing to the deck with a metallic

clunk.

Pounding footfalls announced the armoured form of Venerable Brother Amadeus. The Dreadnought was an imposing sight.

The mechanised exoskeleton that framed the armoured sarcophagus of Brother Amadeus was fraught with ribbed piping, cables and whining servos. Two broad and blocky shoulders sat either side of the Salamander's casket. Brave beyond measure, Amadeus had fallen at the siege of Cluth'nir against the hated eldar. Such were his deeds that the wreckage of his mortally wounded body was taken from the battlefield and interred within a suit of Dreadnought armour, so that Amadeus might fight on in the Chapter's name forever.

Looming over five metres in height and almost as wide, it wasn't just the sheer bulk of Amadeus's cyborganic body that made him formidable - both of his mechanised arms carried a potent weapon system. The left was a massive power fist that crackled with electrical discharge; the right bore a multi- melta, its barrel nose scorched black.

Ba'ken shifted uncomfortably at the sight of the Dreadnought, though only Brother Emek noticed it.

'

In the name of Vulkan,'

Amadeus boomed in automated diction, having only recently been awakened.

The Salamanders saluted as one, rapping their plastrons with clenched fists to show their veneration and respect.

'

What is your will, Brother Pyriel?'

added Amadeus, stomping over to the Librarian. '

I live to serve the Chapter.'

Pyriel bowed.

'Venerable Amadeus,' he uttered, before straightening again. 'Your orders are to remain sentry here and guard the

Fire-wyvern.

The

Archimedes Rex

is obviously damaged. There will likely be little room for one as mighty as you, brother.'

'As you command, sire!'

The Dreadnought clanked back towards the perimeter of the gunship, weapons whirring into position as he adopted overwatch.

'Sergeants, form up your squads,' said Pyriel over the comm-feed, facing his battle-brothers, 'and follow me.' He was walking towards a pair of immense bulkhead doors at the far end of the hangar when he intoned. 'In the name of Vulkan.'

Twenty voices echoed back.

The hangar led

into a smaller, but identically shaped, airlock. Emek, who had disengaged the bulkhead and then sealed it back behind them, worked at the room's only access terminal, setting the entry protocols in motion. Oxygen flooded the chamber, amber warning beacons rotating whilst it was repressurised. The Salamanders stood stock still and silent until the process had finished and the icon on the far bulkhead door turned from red to green.

Upon interrogating the

Archimedes Rex's

maintenance logs and ship schemata, Emek was able to discern that much of the Mechanicus vessel's structural integrity was still intact. Deck by deck scans revealed that there was also still limited oxygen on board, the admittedly weak atmosphere perpetuated by reserve life support systems.

Most of the damage the Salamanders had seen outside during their approach appeared to have only affected the ship's ablative armour. Internal puncturing of the hull was restricted to only a few locations, and those areas had been sealed off.

With ponderous momentum, the vast bulkhead doors split and opened into the

Archimedes Rex

proper.

A

wide and

gloom-drenched hall stretched out before the Salamanders. The Space Marines switched on the luminators attached to their battle-helms. Several grainy, white beams strafed outwards like lances to alleviate the darkness. Scads of expelled gases clung to the deck plates in a roiling, artificial smog. Recessed columns ran the entire length of the hall. They were linked by sepulchral arches that framed Stygian alcoves, seeming to go on forever as they disappeared into the thickening shadows ahead.

Pyriel gave the order to advance, invoking a faint glow in the blade of his force sword.

'No life signs,' uttered Iagon through the comm-feed after a minute had elapsed. He glanced down intermittently at the auspex clutched in his gauntlet, scanning for bio- signatures.

'It's deserted,' rasped Tsu'gan, combi-bolter held at the ready, stalking along one side of the hall in front of his dutiful brother.

'Like a tomb…' hissed Brother Ba'ken from the other side, adjusting the weighty multi-melta he held, unknowingly echoing Tsu'gan's earlier words on the flight deck.

'Let's hope it stays that way,' Dak'ir muttered, taking point opposite Tsu'gan.

After several minutes, Brother Zo'tan articulated what they were all thinking. 'Feels like we're heading down.'

'We're in one of the ship's entry conduits,' offered Emek, flamer low-slung as he panned it back and forth with smooth sweeps. He had been promoted to special weapons trooper after the campaign on Stratos. The previous incumbent, Brother Ak'sor, had died during the engagement. He had been one of several Fire-born lost on that world. 'It leads into the bowels of the Archimedes Rex,'

Emek continued, using the data he'd accessed from the ship's schematics and then stored in his eidetic memory to ascertain their exact location. 'At this pace we should reach the end of it in approximately eight minutes.'

Eerie silence resumed with only the dull thud of the Salamanders' footfalls disturbing it.

The empty sockets

of a Mechanicus skull glared at them when they reached the end of the conduit, another massive bulkhead door impeding the way ahead.

'Brother Emek,' invited Pyriel, a brief flare erupting along the blade of his force sword as he readied his power.

Emek allowed the flamer to loll against its strap as he went to the bulkhead's control panel and prepared to engage the access mechanism. Behind him, all nineteen of his battle-brothers took up battle positions. 'Disengaging locks,' he reported, and fell back quickly to join them.

A crack split the immense door, hermetically sealed from the outside, dividing it into two. Shrieking mechanisms were immediately smothered by an intense clamour spilling out from the chamber beyond, filling the conduit with raucous noise. After the silence they had just experienced, the din was like a physical blow and the Salamanders reeled as one. Only Pyriel was unfazed.

Adapting quickly, the Salamanders filtered out the crashing wall of sound, just as Dak'ir had done aboard the

Fire-wyvern.