All was pain and confusion. Ichiban wearliy wiped away some of the ichor from his armor, and staggered forward. Their plan had been a success, insofar that they had found a demolitions crew. He had lost count of how many hours, or possibly days they had been wandering around. Every now and then, they would come upon another pocket of besieged Emperors Own.
Every now and then, they would stumble over some half dissolved battle armours, or find a piece of matted and charred fur.
Yet eventually, they had gathered enough. Demolitions experts and warriors, all battle weary but alive. And they had begun their journey... Their journey downwards. Into the beast.
How long ago was that? Ichiban didn't know. Down here, time lost its meaning. A while back he had felt a shudder of sorts, and then the attacks had increased, as if someone, or something, had managed to anger the monster even further. Anger it beyond belief.
And this was as far as they could go. Oh, the slimy tunnels led ever downwards, into the belly of the beast. Much further down he guessed, into darkness and madness. But this was as far as the Emperors Own could go. Even the valiant and the honourable have a breaking point, and he knew that his troops could not go further. Death they did not fear, but this madness was much worse than death.
And so they begun. Engineering crews working together with demolitions experts, aiming the tremendous blast force of their equipment upwards. They would strike a hole to the surface, and the glorious light of the Emperor would shine as a beacon, a beacon of hope.
And yet Ichiban pondered grimly, it might all be for naught. He did not know where the Kemchara was, if his timing was far too late or far too early. He thought he was close, but in this place? He could not be sure.
The work progressed slowly, but eventually came to an end, the last of the charges having been set.
And so, the retreat began. Though it made the bile rise in Ichibans throat, he retreated. To make it worse, only a dozen warriors could join him. The rest would cover the engineers and their ilk until the explosion. And go up in a blast of glory.
"Will the same be allowed us?", he wondered. "Or willl we die here, digested by the beast?".
Slowly, fighting against the impulse to break into a mad run towards the surface, the Honour Guard retreated, Ichiban in their midst. Soon they had other things to fight than impulses, and their numbers grew smaller.
An endless amount of time seemed to pass. Then suddenly, from the lower tunnels there came a fierce roar. Though they could not see it, they could feel the heat of plasma, and sense the shuddering convulsions of the beast.
As one, the survivng members of the Honour Guard turned their faces skywards.
