Uriel's heart turned to ice as he saw the savage joy in the faces of the Unfleshed.
Whatever hopes he had held of their redemption, or for a new life, were being dashed before his eyes. There could be no atonement or forgiveness for relish taken in wanton slaughter.
Even as he ran to join the battle, a missile skewed in flight as its firer was disembowelled by a hooking punch from a clawed fist. It slashed through the air in a wild, spiral pattern before impacting on the compound's main generator building.
Uriel dived forward as the warhead punched through the lightly armoured door of the building and exploded, destroying the generator in a mighty blast that lifted the roof hundreds of feet into the air on a column of fire and demolished a portion of the outer wall.
The compound was plunged into darkness.
'What do you mean, Sylvanus Thayer's still alive?' demanded Cawlen Hurq.
'Just what I said, Cawlen,' said Pascal. 'Although he might as well be dead.'
Daron Nisato was as shocked as Hurq at the revelation that the old leader of the Sons of Salinas was alive, but the anger in Pascal's bodyguard was raw and in need of venting.
'You told us he was dead!' said Hurq, and Mesira put her hands over her ears at the noise. Nisato put an arm around her, but she flinched at his touch, moaning in anguish.
'And he was, to all intents and purposes,' said Pascal, trying to defuse Cawlen's anger. 'I found him on the battlefield the day after the fighting. There was almost nothing left of him, Cawlen, just scraps of flesh and blood. I don't know how he was still alive, but he was. I couldn't help him, so I took him to Serj Casuaban at the House of Providence.'
'To Casuaban?' said Cawlen. 'He's a Falcata!'
Pascal shook his head. 'No, he's been helping us since the Killing Ground Massacre.'
'He's been helping us? How?'
'Where did you think our medical supplies were coming from?'
Daron Nisato tried to concentrate on what the two men were saying, but Mesira was rocking back and forth with ever greater urgency.
'Why didn't you tell us?' asked Cawlen. 'We could have let the people know?'
'What good would it have done? Sylvanus was already a martyr. He had done more for us by dying than he ever could again,' said Pascal. 'Besides… He's… He's not the same man he was before.'
Nisato caught the strangeness of Pascal's tone and looked up from the weeping Mesira Bardhyl. 'What do you mean? How is he different?'
Cawlen Hurq glanced around at him and said, 'Stay out of this, enforcer. This doesn't concern you.'
Nisato stood and spun Hurq around. The big man looked set to go for his gun, but Nisato deftly plucked the weapon from the man's holster. He jammed the barrel in Hurq's belly and said, 'Sit down and shut up.'
Reluctantly, Hurq did as he was ordered and Nisato turned to Pascal Blaise. 'What did you mean he's not the same man? I've had to shoot men who woke from comas or serious injuries with latent abilities that they did not possess before. Is that what you mean?'
'Something like that,' agreed Pascal. 'He couldn't speak or move. There wasn't enough left of him to do either, but… you could feel it when you were around him.'
'Feel what?'
'His anger,' said Pascal, 'his unquenchable anger.'
A scream made both men flinch and Nisato turned to see Mesira Bardhyl standing by the window, looking out into the night's darkness with her arm extended. Her face was lit by the soft glow of the city beyond, but as they watched a brighter glow from beyond the glass illuminated her face with hot, orange light.
Nisato rushed to her side. 'What is it?' he asked.
'The Mourner,' hissed Mesira.
Daron Nisato and Pascal Blaise watched as a blooming pillar of fire lifted from beyond the edges of the city. Seconds later, the rumble of the explosion rolled over them, accompanied by the popping crack of small-arms fire.
'That's the Screaming Eagles' compound,' said Nisato. 'Your handiwork, Blaise?'
'No,' said Pascal, and Nisato believed him, 'not mine, I swear.'
'It's the Mourner,' said Mesira Bardhyl. 'He's found one. He's killing them all to get to her.'
She turned to face him and Nisato saw that she was smiling with calm serenity.
'He's coming for me next.'
Uriel had no weapon but his sword, and this he put to good use as he fought his way into the mass of struggling bodies. The Unfleshed were stronger than ever, their bodies filled with a power they had not possessed before, and they had been horrifically powerful then.
A towering shape rose up before him, a monster with lumpy stumps for legs and a frill of flesh that hung from its chest and rippled with life. Unnatural bone structures beneath the skin lashed out at Uriel, but he parried desperately as taloned hooks sought the soft meat of his throat.
He rolled beneath a lashing bone hook and slashed his sword through the beast's flesh. The blade cleaved through its body, but no sooner had it torn clear than the strange light that filled the beast restored the flesh whole.
The creature howled, despite the healing effect of the light, and it backed away from him, seeking easier prey among the Screaming Eagles. Uriel let it go as he sought out Colonel Kain in the confusion of the battle.
With the generator destroyed, the conflict was being fought in the strobing darkness of muzzle flashes, las-bolts and the diffuse glow of reflected starlight. Struggling knots of soldiers ran from cover to cover as the Unfleshed tore through the compound, demolishing barricades, gun emplacements and buildings as they went.
The fuel store erupted in a great mushroom-cloud of fire as a stray round punctured its skin and the reek of promethium filled the air. Burning clouds billowed upwards and burning streams of promethium spilled through the compound.
Uriel ran through the chaos of the battle to join Pasanius, his friend firing the last of his bolt rounds at a monster with swollen arms that pounded its way through the medicae building and butchered the wounded with great, clubbing sweeps of its iron-hard fists.
'How many rounds do you have?' shouted Uriel over the din of battle.
'One magazine left,' said Pasanius, 'but it's tricky to reload.'
Uriel swapped his sword for the bolter, ducking behind the cover of an avalanche of sandbags as he quickly and expertly reloaded the weapon.
'Thanks,' said Pasanius, as Uriel returned the weapon and took his sword back. 'Now what? What in the name of the Emperor is going on? Why are they doing this?'
'They're not,' said Uriel, finally catching sight of Colonel Kain.
The bark of heavy weapons joined the fight as soldiers clambered up to the hatches of parked Chimeras and unleashed torrents of las-fire from muld-lasers or hails of shells from heavy bolters.
'What do you mean?' demanded Pasanius, firing over the sandbags into the monster attacking the medicae building. 'I'd say they are.'
'This isn't them,' persisted Uriel. 'I don't know what, but there's something controlling them, I'm sure of it.'
Pasanius shrugged, and Uriel realised that, at this moment, it didn't matter why the Unfleshed were attacking the Screaming Eagles, just that they were. The Lord of the Unfleshed was killing men by the dozen with every roar and swing of his massive fists, his flesh an impregnable fortress and proof against all weapons.
'Then I hope you have a plan,' said Pasanius. 'Otherwise they're going to kill everyone here, including us.'
Uriel had no answer for Pasanius, but then the roar of engines sounded from the hangars as a trio of Leman Russ battle tanks rumbled from within. The main guns would be useless within the compound, but each vehicle carried a host of support weapons and their bulk alone could turn the tide of the battle.
A great cheer went up from the Screaming Eagles as the tanks emerged, and Colonel Kain lifted her sword high for all to see. A soldier unfurled a banner and the sight of the crimson emblem of the Achaman Falcatas gave the soldiers heart.