He blinked, and the semblance was gone. The Death Guard were twisted, diseased, far beyond human, deserving only of death. His power sword crackled, echoing his own hunger to strike them down.

Through rotten stands of dying trees the battle raged, the Ultramarines fighting into the teeth of the Death Guard’s withdrawal, the wood disintegrating into a vile slop when hit. The Primaris Space Marines were slowed by the terrain, while the Plague Marines did not seem to be, melting back into the mist which flowed like an endless river from deeper within the spire. The entrance to the skypark was ahead, its ornamental brickwork choked with evil-looking creepers and streaked with green tracks of moisture. Beneath the arch, dense mats of pulsating mushrooms grew, their stalks so woody that they jammed the park’s blast doors open, preventing them from closing. The last enemy squad was departing the dome, chased out by burning lines of plasma and swift bolts. They paused a moment, taking shelter behind the columns supporting the archway in order to give out one last volley while their fellows vanished into the murk of the Sighing Spire. Felix saw his chance.

‘Charge!’ he roared, and leapt through the mulchy growths of the park, running at full tilt towards the foe.

Bolts burst against his energy field and whined from his pauldrons. The bolts’ mass detectors, damaged by the contact, set off in mid-air, so that he ran through a maelstrom of fire and shrapnel. So many explosions so close to his head caused his displays to jump and his auditory suppressors to burr angrily.

The Plague Marines were unbelievably resilient. One was a burning torch, his body fat liquefying in the fire and fuelling the fire, but he stood firm, blazing away with his gun. Not one of them had weathered this fight unscathed, but still they fought on with cratered flesh and sundered armour. The plasma streams of the Hellblaster squads’ incinerators were the only sure way to slay these twisted Space Marines. The power of a sun vented as a glaring pike of superheated gas, the plasma shots melted through ancient ceramite and burned the Plague Marines from inside out.

A couple of the last Death Guard fell back, and they were subject to the concentrated firepower of Felix’s half company as they turned to leave. Though the enemy were quicker than they looked, they were not quick enough.