03 - Savage Scars Read Online Free

the labouring
projectors was audible. Only the harsh light cast by the lectern screen lit the
bridge, the surface laced with racing numerals. A new icon resolved in the
mid-range band, to the Nomad ’s aft.
    “Energy spike!” Loccum reported, his voice seeming shockingly loud in the
sudden near silence. “Brace!”
    Sarik didn’t need to be told. Another cold blue pulse filled the portal, a
white pinprick of light in the black void marking its source. An instant later,
the hyper-velocity projectile slammed into the Nomad ’s forward shield,
and this time, the screen could not contain the terrific energy of its impact.
    With a staggering release of blinding energies, the frigate’s forward shield
collapsed. The solid mass of the tau projectile was transformed into raw energy
as it passed through the screen, and struck the Nomad ’s blocky, armoured
prow.
    The gut-wrenching impact passed through the vessel in seconds, the deck
beneath Sarik’s armoured boots buckling with a tortured metallic scream.
Secondary explosions ripped along the vessel’s spine, scores of Chapter-serfs
dying in an instant as ravaging flames scoured entire compartments or the cold
vacuum of space plucked them away. The helm station erupted in a shower of
molten brass, blasting Conversi Kuro backwards even as he was consumed in
flames. The lectern screen died, plunging the entire bridge into near darkness,
the only illumination that of guttering flames.
    Bracing himself on the lectern, Sarik drew himself to his full height,
looking around him as he did so to confirm his crew’s predicament. His bridge,
his personal domain over which he was undisputed master, was burning around him.
Why had the conflagration-suppressors not engaged?
    Sarik looked down at his dead command lectern, and realised that the impact
of the tau weapon had ripped the soul from his vessel, its core logic engines
and cogitation transmission conduits crippled, or at the very least silenced for
a spell, at the worst possible moment.
    The flames picked up as they rushed along the length of the bridge, consuming
terminals as they progressed. Conversi Nord dashed across the deck towards the
sprawled form of the helmsman, Kuro, rolling his body over as he knelt down
beside it. It was immediately obvious that the veteran bridge-serf was burned
beyond aid, the flesh of his face sloughing away in smoking chunks.
    Conversi Loccum’s station was as yet untouched, but Sarik saw that it was
directly in the path of the onrushing flames. Hard-wired into his mind impulse
unit, there was nothing Loccum could do to avoid imminent and horrific death.
    Having lost one valued servant, Sarik vowed in that instant not to allow the
other to suffer a similar fate. He knew what he had to do.
    “Bridge crew!” Sarik yelled over the raging flames and the shattering of
glass terminal screens. Conversi Loccum had closed his eyes, his tattooed face
almost serene in the face of death. “Vacuum protocols, purging now!”
    Sarik turned and hauled down on a large brass lever. The manually operated
purge valve mounted in the vaulted ceiling irised open and the hatch to the rear
of the bridge locked shut with a resounding clang. A new siren started up, its
rapid rise and fall specifically keyed to the purge protocol. Those bridge-serfs
not already at their station made quickly for their seats, following
long-rehearsed purge drills. Sarik had no need to strap himself into a seat, his
superhuman grip on the lectern sufficient to hold him against the coming storm
of depressurisation.
    Seconds later, that storm erupted.
    With explosive force, the air in the bridge compartment was sucked through
the valve almost directly above Sarik’s lectern. He redoubled his grip, screwing
his eyes tight shut and forcing the air out of his lungs to avoid internal
injury. Loose objects were sucked upwards towards the valve, the grate across
its surface stopping them jamming its mechanism. A