Battle for the Abyss:The Horus Heresy Book 8 Part 3/6

AUDIOLIBRARY

Transcript

00:00:00cutting in.

00:00:01They are bound from a crag."

00:00:02"'From Segmentum Sola to Ultramar outside stable routes?'

00:00:07"'Yes.'

00:00:08"'The chances of success would be minimal, my lord,' Orcardus warned without emotion.

00:00:15"'Even so, that is our course,' Sestos told him.

00:00:19Orcardus considered for a moment, before replying, "'I can use their vessel as a point of reference,

00:00:26like a beacon, and follow it.

00:00:28But I cannot speak for the warp.

00:00:32If the Abyss sees fit to devour us or make us its prey, then the matter is out of my

00:00:37hands.'"

00:00:38"'Very well, chief navigator, you may return to your duties,' Sestos told him.

00:00:43Orcardus bowed almost imperceptibly, and just before retreating back to his station said,

00:00:48"'There are things abroad in the Imperion, the native creatures of the Abyss.

00:00:53A shoal of them follows the enemy ship.

00:00:56The warp around it is incumbent, as it has been in the Abyss these last several months.

00:01:03It does not bode well.'"

00:01:06At that Orcardus took his leave, swallowed up into the blister once more.

00:01:11Sestos made no remark.

00:01:13In his experiences as a fleet commander he was all too aware of the creatures that lurked

00:01:17in the warp.

00:01:18He did not know their nature, but he had seen their forms before, and knew they were dangerous.

00:01:23He did not doubt that Kaminsky knew of them, too.

00:01:27With a shared look of understanding, Sestos and Kaminsky left the sanctum and headed back

00:01:30down through a sub-deck tunnel that led to the bridge.

00:01:33They had been walking for several minutes before the ultramarine broke the charged silence.

00:01:38"'Your attitude towards me and this mission has been noted, admiral'—Kaminsky breathed

00:01:43deep as if trying to master her emotions, and then turned—'You took my ship and usurped

00:01:49my command.

00:01:50How would you feel?'

00:01:51She snapped.

00:01:52"'You serve the Emperor, admiral,' Sestos told her in a warning tone.

00:01:56You'd do well to remember that.'

00:01:58"'I am no traitor, Captain Sistos,' she replied angrily, standing her ground against the massive

00:02:03Astartes, despite his obvious bulk and superior height.

00:02:06'I am a loyal servant of the Imperium, but you have ridden roughshod over my authority

00:02:11and my ship for a chase into shadows and probable death.

00:02:15I will lay down my life on the altar of victory if I must, but I will not do so meaninglessly

00:02:20and without consideration.'

00:02:22Sestos's face was an unreadable mask as he considered the admiral's words.

00:02:26"'You are right, admiral.

00:02:28You have shown nothing but courage and honour throughout this endeavour, and I have repaid

00:02:32it with ignorance and scorn.

00:02:34This is not fitting behaviour for a member of the Legion, and I offer my humble apology.'

00:02:40Kaminsky was taken aback.

00:02:41Her expression sketched into a defiant response.

00:02:45At last her face softened, and she exhaled her anger instead.

00:02:50"'Thank you, my lord,' she said quietly.

00:02:53Sestos bowed slowly to acknowledge the admiral's gratitude.

00:02:56"'I shall meet you on the bridge,' said the Astartes, and departed.

00:03:01When Sestos was gone, Kaminsky realised that she was shaking.

00:03:04The voxer ray crackling into life got her attention.

00:03:08"'Admiral,' said Helm's mistress, Menckmire's voice, through the conduit-wall unit.

00:03:12"'Speak,' Kaminsky answered after a moment, as she mustered a composure.

00:03:15"'We've made contact with the fire-blade.'

00:03:21Aft decks three through six of the Rothwell were clear.

00:03:24Most of the non-essential crew were locked down in isolation cells for their own protection.

00:03:28For Huntsman and his small band of three armsmen it was like patrolling the halls of a ghost-ship.

00:03:33"'Squad Barbarous, report!'

00:03:37Huntsman's voice broke the grave-like silence as he strafed a hand-held loom-lamp back and

00:03:41forth across the corridor.

00:03:44He was recoiled from the grainy blade of light, throwing archways and alcoves into sharp relief.

00:03:49Huntsman could feel the tension of his men, drawn up in V-formation behind him, as the

00:03:53radio silence from the vox-bead in the officer's ear persisted.

00:03:57"'Squad Barbarous,' he repeated, adjusting his grip on the service-pistol outstretched

00:04:02in his hand next to the loom-lamp by way of nervous reflex.

00:04:06Huntsman was about to send two of his armsmen in search of the errant squad, when the vox

00:04:11crackled,

00:04:12"'Squad Barb—report—experiencing interfe—all—clear!'

00:04:13The clipped reply was fraught with static, but Huntsman was satisfied.

00:04:23The officer of the watch was breathing a sigh of relief when a figure, darted across a T-junction

00:04:27ahead, picked out briefly in the light-beam.

00:04:29"'Hogar's there,' he asked sternly.

00:04:33"'Identify yourself at once!'

00:04:36Huntsman moved to the T-junction quickly, but with measured caution, using battle-sign

00:04:40to order his armsmen to fan out behind him and cover his flanks.

00:04:44Reaching the end of the corridor, Huntsman looked left, strafing the light-beam quickly.

00:04:48"'Sir, I've got him.

00:04:49This way,' said one of the armsmen, checking down the opposite channel.

00:04:54Huntsman turned, in time to see the same figure disappearing down another corridor.

00:04:58He could swear he was wearing deck-crew fatigues, but they weren't the colours for the Rothwell.

00:05:03"'This area is locked down,' barked Huntsman, heart racing.

00:05:07"'This is your final warning, makers of known at once!'

00:05:11Silence mocked him.

00:05:13"'Weapons ready!'

00:05:15Huntsman hissed, and stalked off down the corridor, armsmen in tow.

00:05:21After the disastrous war-council in the conference-room, Motep had taken his leave of the other Astartes

00:05:26and retired to one of the Rothwell's isolation cells, intending to meditate for the remainder

00:05:31of their transit through the warp.

00:05:33In truth, the confrontation with the space-wolf had vexed him, more so his loss of control

00:05:38in the face of Bryngar's berating, and he sought the solitude of his own company to

00:05:42gather his resolve.

00:05:44Motep reached down to the compartment in his armour that contained the wand-stave rescued

00:05:48from the waning moon.

00:05:50Seeing that the item was intact, he muttered an oath to his primarch.

00:05:54Sitting upon a bench in the cell, the only furnishing in an otherwise Spartan room, Motep

00:05:58regarded the wand-stave.

00:06:00In particular, he scrutinised a silvered speculum at the item's tip, and stared into

00:06:06its depths.

00:06:08Focusing his thoughts, Motep slipped into a meditative trance as he considered the events

00:06:13unfolding, drawing on the mental acumen for which his legion was famed.

00:06:18An anomalous flicker, something inconsistent and intangible, flashed into existence abruptly,

00:06:25and was gone.

00:06:27The Geller Field, Motep realised.

00:06:29It was the soft caress of the unfettered warp that he had felt, so brief, so infinitesimal,

00:06:35that only one of Magnus' progeny, one with their own psychic awareness, could have detected

00:06:40it.

00:06:42And something else, though this, for now at least, slipped beyond Motep's mental grasp,

00:06:48like tendrils of smoke through his fingers.

00:06:51The Thousand Sun broke off the trance at once, and returned the wand-stave to its compartment

00:06:55in his armour.

00:06:57Donning his helmet, he headed for the Wrothful's primary dock.

00:07:03Captain Ulago sat strapped into his command-throne as the warp breached the blast-doors at the

00:07:08back of the Fireblade's bridge.

00:07:10All around him was chaos as the hapless crew screamed and thrashed in terror as their minds

00:07:15were unravelled by the warp.

00:07:17Some were already dead, killed by flying debris, or simply torn apart as the warp vented its

00:07:22wrath upon them.

00:07:24Ulago's calm in the face of certain disaster, with chunks of metal hull tearing away into

00:07:28nothing as his bridge was disassembled, was unnerving.

00:07:32The entire chamber was cast in an eldritch light, and strange riotous winds buffeted

00:07:38crew and captain alike.

00:07:39"'It goes on—it goes on for ever,' he said, his voice caught half-way between wonderment

00:07:47and fear.

00:07:48"'I can see my father and my brothers—I can hear them calling me.'

00:07:56They had entered the Imperion in the Wrothful's wake in accordance with Admiral Kominska's

00:08:00orders, but upon the collapse of the tertiary coreward transit their gheller fields had

00:08:05suffered catastrophic failure, leaving them undefended against the raw emotions of warp-space.

00:08:10It had already changed the place.

00:08:12The bridge shimmered with the skies of Io and the canyons of Mimas.

00:08:16The places where Ulago had grown up and trained as a pilot in the Saturnine fleet.

00:08:21The corpses of a navigation crew, slumped over the sextant array, had sprouted into

00:08:25Ganymedian mangrove-trees, twisted roots looping through the steel floor of the bridge that

00:08:30in turn was seething with river-grass.

00:08:34Waterfalls ghosted over reality, shoals of fish leaping through the shattered viewport.

00:08:39Ulago wanted very much to be there, back in the places that lived on only in his memory,

00:08:45back when he had been a boy and the universe had felt so infinite and full of wonders.

00:08:50He held out his hands and felt them brush against the reeds that grew by the River Scamandros

00:08:55on Io.

00:08:57Reptilian birds wheeled in a sky that he could somehow see beyond the torn ceiling of the

00:09:01bridge, as if the torn metal and loops of severed cabling were in another dimension

00:09:05and the reality in his head was bleeding through.

00:09:09He stepped forwards.

00:09:11The rest of the crew were dead, but that did not mean anything any more.

00:09:15They were ghosts, too.

00:09:17The stuff of the warp seethed through the blast-doors and caught Ulago up in a swirl

00:09:21of raw emotions.

00:09:23He filled up with regret, then fear, then love, each feeling so powerful that he was

00:09:29just a conduit for them—a hollow man to be buffeted by the warp.

00:09:33The way his father's eyes lit up with pride when he received his first commission.

00:09:37The grief in his mother's eyes, for she knew so many who had lost sons to the void.

00:09:43The fury of space, the ravenous vacuum, the thirsting void, that he always knew one day

00:09:48would devour him.

00:09:50In the warp they were ideas made as real as the mountains of Enceladus.

00:09:55The side of the bridge gave way, the air boomed out, and flung the corpses of the bridge crew

00:10:00out with it.

00:10:01One of the bodies was not yet dead, and in the back of his mind Ulago recognized that

00:10:05another human being was dying.

00:10:09Then he saw the warp beyond the fire-blade.

00:10:12Great masses of emotion went on for ever, seen not with his eyes, but with his mind,

00:10:17rolling incandescent mountains of passion, an ocean of grief, leading down to infinity

00:10:22through caves of misery, dripping with the poison of anger.

00:10:27Hatred was a distant sky, heaving down onto the warp, smothering.

00:10:32Love was a sun.

00:10:34The winds that stripped away the hull of the fire-blade were fingers of malice.

00:10:39It was wondrous.

00:10:41Ulago was filled with the sight of it—no, not the sight, but the sheer experience, for

00:10:45the warp was not composed of light, but of emotion, and to experience it was to let it

00:10:50speak to the most fundamental parts of his soul.

00:10:53The sky of hatred split apart, and a yawning mouth opened up above Ulago's soul.

00:10:59Teeth of wrath framed the moor.

00:11:01Beyond it was a black mass, seething like a pit of vermin.

00:11:06It was terror.

00:11:08Fire-blades were opening up everywhere, mindless things, like sharks made of malicious glee,

00:11:12slid between the thunderheads of passion.

00:11:14They snarled at the soul-specks of the fire-blade's crew, teeth-like knives through what remained

00:11:19of their minds.

00:11:21Even love was turning on them, filling them in their last moments of existence with a

00:11:25horrendous longing for all the things they would never have, and appalling, consuming

00:11:30grief for everything they once had but would never see again.

00:11:34The moor bore down on Ulago.

00:11:37Teeth closed in on him, an appalling coldness sheared through him, and he knew that it was

00:11:42the purity of death.

00:11:45The boiling mass seethed, the last vestiges of his physical self recoiled, as worms forced

00:11:51themselves into a nose and mouth that no longer existed.

00:11:56The warp turned dark, and Ulago drowned in fear.

00:12:05Little Kaminska reached the bridge to find an ashen-faced crew before her.

00:12:09Sestos had just arrived, his countenance stern and pensive, as the distress-signal emanating

00:12:14from the fire-blade repeated on the ship-to-ship vox,

00:12:17This Ulago fire-blade damaged in transit.

00:12:22Request dock repairs.

00:12:25Impossible! said Kaminska, feeling all colour drain from her face as she heard the voice

00:12:30of a man she thought was dead.

00:12:32This traffic is rendered null whilst in warp-transit.

00:12:34Admiral, the fire-blade claims to be a beam to our port-side, offered helms-mate Kant

00:12:41as he monitored further communications.

00:12:44Kaminska looked instinctively over to the view-port, and, despite the shimmering interference

00:12:49caused by the Geller field, she could see Ulago's ship, a little battered by the initial

00:12:53sortie against the furious abyss, but otherwise fine.

00:12:58Common-sense warred with the emotions of her heart.

00:13:01Ulago was a comrade-in-arms.

00:13:04Kaminska had fought him last, and now she had an opportunity to save him.

00:13:08Guide them in to make dock at once!

00:13:13Huntsman had chased the elusive figure to a dead-end in the complex of corridors aboard

00:13:17aft deck three of the Rothwell.

00:13:20Doors punctuated the apparently endless passageways that led into more barrack-rooms and occasionally

00:13:24isolation cells.

00:13:26As he approached slowly, drawing the loom-lamp across the figure's body, he noticed that

00:13:31his quarry faced the wall.

00:13:33He also saw the fatigues it was wearing more clearly.

00:13:36It was the deck-uniform of the Fireblade.

00:13:39"'Halt!' he ordered the figure sternly, with a quick glance behind him to ensure that his

00:13:44armsman was still in support.

00:13:46From the back he judged the figure to be male, but a scraggly wretch, to be sure, with unkempt

00:13:51hair like wire, and a stench that suggested he hadn't washed in many days.

00:13:57Huntsman activated the box-bead.

00:13:58"'Bridge, this is Officer Huntsman.

00:14:01I have detained a male deck-crew in aft three,' he said.

00:14:04"'He appears to be wearing a Fireblade uniform.'

00:14:07Helmsmate Kant's response came through crackling static.

00:14:12"'Repeat, did you say the Fireblade?'

00:14:15"'Affirmative.

00:14:16A deckhand from the Fireblade,' Huntsman replied, edging closer.

00:14:21"'That's impossible.

00:14:23The Fireblade has only just docked with us.'

00:14:27Huntsman felt a cold chill run down his marrow as the figure turned.

00:14:31Somehow the light from the loom-lamp wasn't able to illuminate a belt of shadow across

00:14:35the top of the figure's head and eyes, but Huntsman saw its mouth well enough.

00:14:40The deckhand made a wide, gash-like smile, with rotten lips caked in dry blood.

00:14:46"'In the name of terror,' Huntsman breathed, as the figure's jaw distended impossibly wide

00:14:52and revealed dozens of needle-like teeth.

00:14:56Fingers lengthened into talons, nails drenched in blood and razor-sharp, eyes flashed red

00:15:02in the darkness like orbs of hate.

00:15:05Huntsman fired.

00:15:08On the bridge, rending screams and scattered gunfire emitted from the vox, followed by

00:15:13an almighty static discharge that ended in total silence.

00:15:17"'Raise the officer of the watch at once,' Kaminska ordered.

00:15:22Hunt worked at the array, but looked up after a few minutes.

00:15:24"'There is no response, Admiral.'

00:15:27Kaminska snarled, hammered an icon on a command-throne, and opened another channel.

00:15:31"'Primary dock, respond.

00:15:33This is Admiral Kaminska.

00:15:35Disengage from the fire-blade at once,' she said, shouting the orders.

00:15:40Nothing.

00:15:42Communications were dead.

00:15:43A warning-klaxon sounded on the bridge.

00:15:45Seconds later the rothful shook with external hull detonations.

00:15:49"'Admiral,' cried Helms' Mistress Fenkmeyer, "'I'm reading armour damage to the port-side

00:15:54upper decks.

00:15:55How is that even possible?'

00:15:56"'The fire-blade is firing its dorsal turrets,' she answered grimly.

00:16:01"'It seems Olago's ship survived after all,' said Sestos, donning his battle-helm and tigies

00:16:07following his lead.

00:16:08"'Only not in the way we had hoped.'

00:16:10"'All Astartes,' he barked into his helmet-vox, mercifully unaffected by the radio blackout,

00:16:16"'convene on aft three, primary dock, immediately!'

00:16:21A long, low scream keened through the rothful, vibrating through the hull, then another and

00:16:27another, until a chorus of them was shrieking through the ship.

00:16:31It sounded like the death-screams of hundreds of terrified men.

00:16:35Motep lowered his smoking-bolt gun once he had dispatched the creature back to the ether.

00:16:40He had arrived too late to save the officer of the watch and his armsmen, who lay eviscerated

00:16:44on the floor and partway up the blood-slicked walls.

00:16:48The thing had been warp-spawn—that much was apparent—wearing a shadow-form of one

00:16:53of the fire-blade's crew, rather than inhabiting a body directly.

00:16:57The momentary breach in the rothful's geller-field had allowed it aboard ship.

00:17:02Motep's instincts told him that it was just a harbinger, and he headed off quickly to

00:17:06the primary dock.

00:17:08Crew-men were hurrying down the rothful's corridors, and they struggled to get past

00:17:11the bulky armoured Astartes as he fought to gain the primary dock.

00:17:16The engine-section started just sternwards of the shuttle-decks, and the ship was getting

00:17:20up to full evasion-power.

00:17:23Shouldering past the frantic crew, Motep saw another figure impeding his progress, but

00:17:27one of flesh and blood, standing rock-like in grey power-armour.

00:17:31"'Bringer!' said the Thousand Sun, levelly at the space-wolf who had just emerged from

00:17:36an adjacent corridor.

00:17:38The world-eater Skrull, with two of his Legion brothers, appeared suddenly alongside him

00:17:42from the opposite corridor.

00:17:45Standing at the intersection of the crossroads, a strange sense of impasse existed for a moment

00:17:50before the wolf-guard snarled and turned away, heading for the primary dock.

00:17:57The five Astartes emerged into chaos.

00:18:01Men and women of the rothful fled in all directions, screaming and shouting.

00:18:06Some brandished weapons, others sought higher ground, only to be torn down and butchered.

00:18:11Blood swilled like a slick on the dock, as the attendant deck-crews of the rothful were

00:18:15torn apart by fell apparitions, dressed in the garb of the Fireblade.

00:18:20The crew of the lost escort-ship had changed.

00:18:23Their mouths were long and wide, as if fixed in a perpetual sadistic grin, needle-like

00:18:28fangs filled their distended maws like those of the long-extinct Terran shark, while long

00:18:34barbed fingers curled like claws tearing at skin, flesh, and bone.

00:18:40They fell upon the human deck-crews with reckless abandon, and were devouring them, the bloodied,

00:18:45rotten faces of the gruesome predators, alive with glee.

00:18:48In the name of Rus', Bryngar breathed as he saw the docking-ports that joined the two

00:18:54ships disgorge numberless hordes of twisted Fireblade crew.

00:18:58"'They are warp-spawn,' Motep told them, drawing his scimitar.

00:19:03"'Wearing the bodies of our allies, whose souls are now hell-bound, lost to the Empyrean!

00:19:09Destroy them!'

00:19:10Bryngar threw his head back and roared, the sound eerie and resonant from within the confines

00:19:16of his battle-helm.

00:19:17With fell-tooth in one hand and bolt-pistol in the other, he charged into the fray.

00:19:24All-in-the-world eaters followed, brandishing chain-axes and bellowing the name of Angron.

00:19:31A trio of vampire-like warp-spawn fell under the withering report of Motep's bolter as

00:19:36he trudged across the primary dock and through the visceral mire sloshing at his feet.

00:19:41The copper stink assailing his nostrils would have overpowered a normal man, but the thousand

00:19:46sun crushed the sensation and closed with the enemy.

00:19:50Clicks of bolter-fire were tinny and echoing through his helmet as he cut down an advancing

00:19:55warp-spawn, parting its sternum and decapitating it with a return swing.

00:20:00The hordes were everywhere, and soon surrounded him.

00:20:02The muzzle-flare from his weapon illuminated the grim destruction he wrought with flashing

00:20:07intermittence, the keening wail of his scimitar a high-pitched chorus to the din of explosive

00:20:12fire.

00:20:13He felt something trying to push at the edges of his mind, testing his psychic defences

00:20:18with tentative mental probing.

00:20:21Slogging through the despicable horde, he was drawn closer to the source of it, even

00:20:25as it was drawn to him, and he felt the pressure on his sanity increase.

00:20:32Bryngar shrugged off a creature clinging to his arm and smashed it with fell-tooth, the

00:20:37rune-axe cutting through wasted bone like air.

00:20:40He thrust his bolt-pistol into another and used the warp-spawn's momentum to lift it

00:20:44from the ground.

00:20:46Using the weapon, he blasted the creature apart in a shower of bone and viscera.

00:20:50Then the space-wolf lunged and butted a third, almost dissolving its rotted cranium against

00:20:56his battle-helm.

00:20:57Gore and brain-matter spoiled his vision, and Bryngar wiped his helmet-visor clean with

00:21:02the back of his gauntleted hand.

00:21:05With the destruction of the physical body, the warp-spawn appeared to lose their hold

00:21:09on the material plane and dissipated.

00:21:12They were easy meat.

00:21:14Bryngar had fought far hardier foes, but in such swarms they were starting to tax him.

00:21:19Even his gene-enhanced musculature burned after the solid fighting.

00:21:23For every three the wolf-guard slew, another six took their place, pawing like rancid ants

00:21:28from the docking-portals.

00:21:29Bryngar realised to his dismay, hacking down another spawn, that gradually he was being

00:21:35pushed back.

00:21:37He caught sight of Skrall through the melee.

00:21:39The world-eater was similarly pressed, though a bloody mist surrounded him from the churning

00:21:43punishment wreaked by his chain-axe.

00:21:45He could not see Skrall's fellow-legionaries.

00:21:48Bryngar assumed that they had been swallowed by the horde.

00:21:51A sudden tearing of metal, mangled with the sound of tortured souls, rent the air, and

00:21:57Bryngar felt the deck lurch from under him as it seemed to twist in on itself.

00:22:02The integrity-fields which kept the dock pressurised when the dock-ports were open flickered once,

00:22:07but held.

00:22:08The physical structure did not.

00:22:10A huge chunk ripped out of the deck as if bitten by unseen jaws, three decks high.

00:22:16Debris was tumbling out into the ether.

00:22:18Bryngar looked away, for to do otherwise would be to comprehend the naked warp and embrace

00:22:23madness.

00:22:24Something stirred beyond the breach, out in the infinite.

00:22:28Bryngar felt it as the hackles rose on the back of his neck, and the feral nature of

00:22:32his legion became suddenly emboldened.

00:22:35For a brief moment the space-wolf wanted to tear off his helmet and gauntlets and gorge

00:22:39himself on the flesh like a beast of the wild.

00:22:42He backed away of his own volition, realising that something primal and terrible was with

00:22:47them on the dock.

00:22:50Motep had forced his way to the docking-portals through a swathe of warp-spawn.

00:22:55His armour was dented and scratched from their ether claws, and his body heaved with exhaustion.

00:23:00It was not physical prowess that would save them here, but the discipline of a mind that

00:23:04needed to hold fast.

00:23:06Motep had felt the presence, too, and, standing before the docking-portal, he beheld in it

00:23:11his mind's eye.

00:23:13It was dark and seething—a pure predator.

00:23:17"'It has seen me,' he said calmly into his helmet-box, the warp-spawn hordes recoiling

00:23:24suddenly from the Thousand Sun, regarding him in the same way a prosperine spire-hawk

00:23:29regards its prey.

00:23:30"'I cannot hide from it now.'

00:23:36Scrawl was almost back with Scrawl, the two Astartes having been fought back to the blast-doors,

00:23:41when he heard Motep through his vox.

00:23:43"'Seen what?' snarled the space-wolf, gutting another warp-spawn as Scrawl cleaved the arm

00:23:48from another.

00:23:49"'You cannot prevail here,' the voice of Motep came again.

00:23:53"'Get out and seal the doors.

00:23:55I will remain and activate the dock's auto-destruct sequence.'

00:24:00Many vessels of the Imperial fleet came with such precautionary measures built into their

00:24:04design by the Mechanicum.

00:24:06They were meant as weapons of last resort, should a ship be overrun and in danger of

00:24:10capture.

00:24:11If a ship could not be defended or retaken from an enemy, then it would be denied to

00:24:15the mutterly, although in this case Motep's sacrifice would not destroy the ship, only

00:24:20vanquish the foes that were besieging it.

00:24:22"'Do so, now!' urged the Thousand Sun.

00:24:27Bringar had lost sight of him, though his view was curtailed, as he forced himself to

00:24:31look away from the tear into the naked warp beyond.

00:24:34Although it rankled, the Space-Wolf knew he was chasing a lost cause.

00:24:38"'Come on!' he snarled to Scrawl, who hacked and hewed with berserk fury.

00:24:43"'We are leaving.'

00:24:45"'The Sons of Angron do not flee the enemy!' he raged in response.

00:24:49"'Even so,' Bringar said, smashing a warp-spawn aside.

00:24:54Ducking a blood-maddened sweep of Scrawl's chain-axe, he punched the World-Eater hard

00:24:58in the chest with the flat of his hand.

00:25:01The stunned Astartes was lifted off his feet and sent sprawling through the open blast-doors.

00:25:06Bringar trudged after Scrawl's prone form, carving a path through the horde with fell-tooth.

00:25:12A few of the warp-spawn had found their way through to the other side of the blast-doors

00:25:16that led from the primary dock.

00:25:19Bringar was about to hunt them down when a barrage of bolter-fire scythed through them

00:25:23like wheat.

00:25:25Despite his battle-helm, the Space-Wolf grinned as he saw the battered forms of the Ultramarines.

00:25:31"'Down!' cried Sestos, who was leading the group, and Bringar hit the deck as a fusillade

00:25:36of fire erupted overhead.

00:25:39Arching his neck, the Space-Wolf saw the smoking bodies of more warp-spawn fall into a heap

00:25:43at the dock threshold.

00:25:45Swinging out a hand, he thumped the portal-icon, and the blast-doors slid shut with a hydraulic-pressure

00:25:50hiss.

00:25:51"'We must seal the doors!' he snarled, roaring on his back, as Antiges, Mora, and Lexinal

00:25:58charged past him to guard the portal.

00:26:03Stripping away the very similitude of the warp-spawn crew, Motep saw that they were

00:26:07not separate entities at all.

00:26:09They were the extension of a single, conjoined, conscious, raw emotion, given form.

00:26:16Tentacles snaked from three gaping moors, lined with cruel teeth that had once been

00:26:20the docking-portals, and flesh-sacks like finger-puppets danced along them.

00:26:25As he stepped forward, he brandished his scimitar, a power-sword engraved with hieroglyphics,

00:26:31the old tongue of Prospero.

00:26:34Motep was acutely aware of the blast-doors shutting behind him, though the sound was

00:26:38far off, as if listened to in a separate dimension from the one he currently inhabited.

00:26:43Realising he was alone, the Thousand Sun tapped into the innate power of his legion, the psychic

00:26:48mutation common to all sons and daughters of Prospero that had earned Magnus the condemnation

00:26:53of Nicaea.

00:26:55Motep's power, like that of all the Astartes of his legion, was honed to a rapier-like

00:27:00point, and, when properly channelled, could be deadly.

00:27:03The naysayers of Nicaea had been right to fear it.

00:27:08Motep stowed his bolter, for it would not avail him here, and drew forth the wand-stave.

00:27:13In putting a rune-sequence, played out in the jewels along its short haft, the item

00:27:17extended into the length of a staff.

00:27:20Holding the weapon up to his helmet-lens, Motep peered through the speculum at the tip.

00:27:25The tiny silvered mirror became transparent, and through it the Thousand Sun saw the entity

00:27:32for what it was.

00:27:35The warp had been cruel.

00:27:37It had taken the ship and its crew and transfigured it into something wretched and debased.

00:27:42Tiny black eyes rolled in the armoured carapace, and the bodies of its crew writhed all over

00:27:47the surface of the ship, trapped within a translucent membrane that sheathed it like

00:27:52living tissue.

00:27:53They were deformed, fused together with their tortured expressions, stretched out as if

00:27:58melted.

00:27:59These were the souls of the Fireblade's crew, and they were lost to the warp for ever.

00:28:05The portion of the escort-ship that had penetrated the cargo-hold eeked from the belly of the

00:28:10ship like an umbilical cord, the tentacle-strings spilling from the moors at the end of them

00:28:15revealed to be tongues.

00:28:18The sound that emanated from them was appalling.

00:28:20The warp screamed from the Fireblade's throat, a screeching gale that threatened to knock

00:28:24Motep off his feet.

00:28:26He stayed upright, however, and found what he was looking for in the partly insubstantial

00:28:30hull of the former Imperial ship.

00:28:33The Thousand Sun intoned words of power, and an ellipsis of light burned into the deck-plate.

00:28:40The prosperine hieroglyphics on his staff flared bright vermilion.

00:28:45Spinning the staff around, Motep drove the scimitar into it, pommel first, and it became

00:28:50a spear.

00:28:51"'Back to the deeps!' bellowed the son of Magnus, his aim fixed upon the warp-entity's

00:28:58tainted core.

00:28:59"'There will be no feasting here for you, dead thing.

00:29:04By the silver towers and the ever-burning eye, be gone!'

00:29:10Motep flung the spear just as the tentacles closed on him, a burning trail of crimson

00:29:15light following its psychic trajectory.

00:29:18It struck the Fireblade in the heart of its central moor, and a great explosion of light

00:29:22detonated within.

00:29:23Spectral blood fountained, and the reaching tentacles withered and burned.

00:29:29The illumination built, blazing out of the moor, and Motep was forced to look away from

00:29:33its brilliance.

00:29:35The scent of acrid smoke filled his nostrils, penetrating his helmet filters, and raging

00:29:39flames engulfed his senses, together with a primordial scream of something dying in

00:29:45the fathomless ether.

00:29:49In the corridor beyond the primary dock, ceiling-plates fell like rain as the walls of the wrathful

00:29:54shuddered with fury.

00:29:56Sestos and Antiges fought to get to the doors as the tremors hit.

00:30:00The rippling shock-waves were coming from the primary dock.

00:30:04Staying on his feet, Sestos drew his power-sword, and was about to beckon forward a group of

00:30:08engineers who were lingering behind them to fuse the blast-doors, when the horrific

00:30:13din emanating from within stopped.

00:30:16Smoke and faint white light issued through the cracks.

00:30:21All was quiet and still for a moment.

00:30:24"'Where is Motep?' the Ultramarine asked, sheathing the blade.

00:30:29He had been monitoring the helmet-box transmissions, and knew that the Thousand Sun had been at

00:30:34the primary dock.

00:30:35Following the warp-phenomenon, battles had erupted all across the wrathful, and the secondary

00:30:40and tertiary docks had also come under attack.

00:30:43Reports were flickering past on Sestos's helmet-box that the warp-spawn had abated abruptly for

00:30:48reasons unknown, dissolving back into the ether.

00:30:52Skrall was still out of it on the deck, babbling in enraged delirium.

00:30:56So Sestos turned to Bryngar for his answer.

00:30:59"'We made a noble sacrifice,' intoned the Space-Wolf as he got to his feet.

00:31:05"'That almost sounds like respect,' Sestos said, his voice tinged with bitterness.

00:31:10"'It is,' growled Bryngar.

00:31:13"'He gave his life for this ship, and in so doing saved us all.

00:31:18For that he will have the eternal gratitude of Rus.

00:31:21I am not so proud to admit that I misjudged him.'

00:31:26Ringing servos and the hiss of released pressure made the Space-Wolf turn with bolt-pistol

00:31:30raised as the blast-doors ground open.

00:31:34Sestos and the other Astartes joined him with weapons levelled at the flickering dark beyond.

00:31:39Motep emerged from the scorched ruin of the primary dock, staggering, but very much alive.

00:31:46Tendrils of smoke rose from his pitted armour, and he was drenched in viscous translucent

00:31:50gore.

00:31:52In spite of his appearance and obvious injuries, he still retained his bearing, that nobility

00:31:57and arrogance so typical of Prospero's sons.

00:32:00"'It is not possible,' Bryngar breathed, taking a step back, as if Motep were some apparition

00:32:07from the fireside sages of Fenris.

00:32:09"'None could have survived in such a conflagration.'

00:32:13Sestos lowered his bolter cautiously, and then his hand, in a gesture for the other

00:32:18ultramarines to do the same.

00:32:20"'We thought you were dead!'

00:32:23Motep unclasped and removed his helmet, breathing deep of the recycled air.

00:32:27His eyes were black orbs, and a riot of purple veins wreathed his face, but was slowly disappearing

00:32:33beneath his skin.

00:32:35"'As did I,' gasped the Thousand Sun, helmet clattering to the deck as it fell from nerveless

00:32:44fingers.

00:32:45Sestos caught his fellow Astartes as he lurched forward, and bore him down to the floor, half

00:32:49cradled in his arms.

00:32:51"'Summon Lyradis at once,' he told Antiges, who was stunned for a moment before he came

00:32:56to his senses, and went off to find the ultramarine apothecary.

00:32:59"'He lives yet,' Sestos added, noting Motep's fevered breathing.

00:33:05"'Ay,' Bryngar muttered darkly, having overcome his superstition.

00:33:09"'And there is but one way that could be so,' the space-wolf's lip curled up in profound

00:33:15distaste.

00:33:17"'Sorcery!''

00:33:23Chapter 8 Nykir, Advantage, Bacchus Triumviran

00:33:31In his private quarters, Zadkiel regarded the picked screen on the console before him

00:33:36with interest.

00:33:37The room was drenched in sepulchral light, the suggestion of idols and craven icons visible

00:33:43at the edge of the shadows.

00:33:45Zadkiel's face was bathed in cold, stark light from the picked screen, making him appear

00:33:50gaunt and almost lifeless.

00:33:53Battle-scenarios were displayed on the surface of the screen.

00:33:56An astral body the size of a moon exploded moments after being struck by a missile-payload.

00:34:03Debris spread outward in a wide field, showering a nearby planet with burning meteors.

00:34:08An icon in the scenario represented a ship, the Furious Abyss, as it moved through the

00:34:14debris field.

00:34:16Trajectory markers with distances indicated alongside were displayed, originating at

00:34:21the ship icon and terminating at the planet's surface.

00:34:25The image paused momentarily, and then cycled back to the beginning again.

00:34:30Zadkiel switched his attention to the vertical row of three supplementary screens attached

00:34:35to the main picked screen.

00:34:37The uppermost one was full of streaming data that bore the Mechanicum seal.

00:34:43Instructions concerning armour tolerances, projected orbital weapon strengths, and extrapolated

00:34:49endurance times based upon the first statistic versus the other scrolled by.

00:34:55Angles, probable firepower intensities, and shield indexes were all considered in exacting

00:35:01detail.

00:35:02The middle screen contained four stage-by-stage pickeds showing the effects of a particular

00:35:07viral strain upon human beings.

00:35:09A time code at the bottom right corner of the final picked displayed 000130.

00:35:18The final screen displayed projected casualty rates.

00:35:22Macragge orbital defences, minus 49 percent.

00:35:26Macragge orbital fleet, minus 75 percent.

00:35:30Macragge population, minus 93 percent.

00:35:36and the rest of the word-bearer's fleet would account for the rest.

00:35:40Zadkiel smiled.

00:35:41With a single blow they would all but wipe out the Ultramarine's homeworld, and the Legion

00:35:47with it.

00:35:48I saw it myself, with this very eye, snarled Bryngar, pointing to the non-cloudy orb.

00:35:56The call of my throne-king did not bind me so much that I cannot see what is before my

00:36:01face.

00:36:02Bryngar had joined Cestus, Skrull, and Antiges in a waiting-room outside the Medi-Bay where

00:36:08Eradus ministered to Motep after his collapse.

00:36:11The wolf-guard stalked back and forth across the small, sanitized chamber, which was all

00:36:15white tile and stark lighting, impatiently awaiting the Thousand Sun's return.

00:36:21No man, not even an Astarte, is going to face those hordes and live, offered Skrull, although

00:36:27I would have gladly laid down my life to dispatch them to the hell of the warp.

00:36:31The World-Eater was raging as he spoke, blood-fever clouding his vision as the endless need for

00:36:36violence and slaughter nagged at him.

00:36:39He had confessed earlier that he remembered little of the fight, engaged as he was in

00:36:43a haze of fury, only waking in the access corridor to the primary dock.

00:36:49Bryngar had deliberately chosen not to enlighten him, deciding that he didn't want to risk

00:36:53the World-Eater's wrath.

00:36:54"'Ay, but I can think of no other way that such a deed could have been done,' said Bryngar,

00:37:00coming to rest at last.

00:37:02"'You speak of witchcraft, Space-Wolf,' said Antiges, with a dark glance at Sestos.

00:37:08The Ultramarine's captain had remained silent throughout.

00:37:11If what Bryngar said was true, then it had dire ramifications.

00:37:15What was beyond doubt was that Motep's actions had saved the Rothwell from certain doom,

00:37:20but the edicts of the Emperor, laid down at Nicaea, were strict and without flexibility.

00:37:26Such things could not be ignored.

00:37:28To do so would damn them as surely as the word-bearers.

00:37:32Sestos would not embrace that fate, however rational it might seem.

00:37:36"'We do not know for certain that Motep employed such methods and devices, only that he lived

00:37:41where perhaps he should not have,' he said.

00:37:44"'Is that not proof enough?'

00:37:46Bryngar cried.

00:37:47"'The acts of Zadkiel, of this treacherous vermin, is one thing, but to have a heretic

00:37:52aboard ship is quite another.

00:37:54Let me wring the truth out of him.

00:37:57I'll—'

00:37:58"'You will do what, brother?' asked Motep, standing in the open archway of the waiting-room.

00:38:04Like the other Astartes, he wasn't wearing his helmet, but he was also stripped out of

00:38:08his power-armour and clad in robes.

00:38:12Apothecary Laeradus, together with another of the honour-guard, Amrix, there by way of

00:38:17additional security, was visible behind him.

00:38:20The apothecary was collecting his various apparatus as stooped legion-serfs scurried

00:38:25around him, gathering up Motep's discarded armour.

00:38:30Bryngar stared at the Thousand Sun, fists clenched, his face reddening as he bared his

00:38:34fangs.

00:38:35"'Laeradus?' asked Sestos, stepping in front of the space-wolf in order to defuse the tension.

00:38:41The apothecary had just emerged into the room.

00:38:44Amrix was standing silently next to him.

00:38:46"'No lasting injuries that his metabolism cannot cure?' Laeradus reported.

00:38:52"'Good,' Sestos replied.

00:38:54'Rejoin your battle-brothers in the barracks.'

00:38:56"'My captain,' said the apothecary, and gratefully left the charged atmosphere of the waiting-room

00:39:02with Amrix, of sequeous legion-serfs, in tow.

00:39:06"'What happened at the dock?' asked Skrull, weighing in on Bryngar's behalf.

00:39:11"'I lost two legion-brothers to that fight.

00:39:13How were you able to survive?'

00:39:16The two world-eaters had been discovered later, recovered by blind servitors, before

00:39:20the dock was locked down permanently and bulkheads put in place.

00:39:24The unfortunate Astartes had been transfixed by the blade-claws of the warp-spawn and died

00:39:29gurgling blood.

00:39:31Their scorched remains rested in one of the wrathful's mausoleums, awaiting proper ceremony.

00:39:36"'When I reached the auto-destruct console I found that the protocols were offline,'

00:39:42Motep explained, his face unreadable.

00:39:45"'Favour smiled on me, though, as, during the battle, a fuel-line linked to one of the

00:39:50docking-ports had come loose from its housing, and I was able to ignite it.

00:39:54I fought my way to a place where I was shielded from the blast, and the resultant conflagration

00:39:59destroyed the entities with purging fire.'

00:40:01"'Your silver tongue is fat with lies,' Bryngar accused him, stepping forward.

00:40:07'The air is thick with the stink of them.'

00:40:11Motep turned his stony gaze on the space-wolf.

00:40:13"'I can assure you, son of Ras, whatever older you are detecting it is not emanating

00:40:19from me.

00:40:20Perhaps you should seek your answer nearer to your own bedraggled self.'

00:40:25Bryngar roared and launched himself at the Thousand Sun, bearing him to the ground with

00:40:29his massive bulk.

00:40:30"'Drink it in, witch!' snarled the wolf-guard, intent on forcing Motep's head into the tiled

00:40:36floor.

00:40:37A splash of spittle landed on the Thousand Sun's grimacing face as he thrashed against

00:40:43the space-wolf's superior strength.

00:40:45Sestos, using all of his weight, smashed into Bryngar's side to dislodge him.

00:40:49The wolf roared again as he was toppled from the Thousand Sun.

00:40:53Skrall was about to wade in, but Antiges blocked his path, the ultramarine's hand resting meaningfully

00:40:59on the pommel of his short blade.

00:41:01"'Stand fast, brother!' he warned.

00:41:05Skrall's hand wavered near his chain-axe, but he snorted in mild contempt, and in the

00:41:10end relented.

00:41:11This was not the fight he wanted.

00:41:14Bryngar rolled from Sestos's body-charge and swung to his feet.

00:41:18The ultramarine's captain was quick to interpose himself between space-wolf and Thousand Sun,

00:41:23his posture low in a readied battle-stance.

00:41:25"'Stand aside, Sestos!' Bryngar growled.

00:41:29Sestos did not move, but instead kept his gaze locked with the space-wolf.

00:41:33"'Do so now!' Bryngar warned him again, his tone low and dangerous.

00:41:38"'This is not the way of the Astartes,' Sestos said, his voice calm and level in response.

00:41:45Behind the ultramarine Motep got to his feet, a little shaken, but otherwise defiant in

00:41:49the face of his aggressor.

00:41:51"'No, it is not the way of Gilliam and's legion, you mean,' answered Bryngar.

00:41:56"'Even so, I am in charge of this ship and this mission,' Sestos asserted, 'and if you

00:42:01have issue with my commands, then you will take them up with me.'

00:42:04"'He defies the Emperor's decree, and yet you defend him!' Bryngar raged and took a

00:42:10step forward.

00:42:11He stopped when he realised that the ultramarine's short-blade was at his throat.

00:42:15"'If Motep is to answer charges, then he will do so at my behest and in a proper trial,'

00:42:20Sestos told him, the blade in his hand steady.

00:42:23"'The feral laws of Fenris are not recognised on this ship, battle-brother!'

00:42:28Bryngar growled again, as if weighing up his options.

00:42:31In the end he backed down.

00:42:33"'You are no brother of mine!' he snarled, and stalked from the chamber.

00:42:38Skrall followed him, a thin smile on his lips.

00:42:42"'That went well,' said Antiguis, sighing with relief.

00:42:45He had not been relishing the idea of facing one of Angron's legion, nor had he a desire

00:42:50to see Bryngar go toe to toe with his brother-captain.

00:42:53"'Sarcasm does not become you, Antiguis,' said Sestos, darkly.

00:42:58Bryngar was his friend.

00:43:00They had fought together in countless campaigns.

00:43:02He owed the old wolf his life, and more than once Antiguis, too, had a similar debt to

00:43:07the wolf-guard.

00:43:08Sestos had defied him, however, and in so doing had besmirched his honour.

00:43:13Yet how could he not give Motep the benefit of the doubt without proof of his supposed

00:43:18actions?

00:43:19Sestos admitted to himself that his experience in the reactor-chamber at Vangelis, the vision

00:43:24of Macragge he had witnessed, might be affecting his decisions.

00:43:27"'I am grateful to you, Sestos,' said Motep, smoothing out his robes after the space-wolf's

00:43:33rough treatment.

00:43:34"'Don't be,' the ultramarine snapped, in part angry at himself for his self-doubt.

00:43:40His gaze was cold and unforgiving as it turned on the Thousand Sun.

00:43:44"'This is not over, nor am I satisfied with your explanation for what happened at the

00:43:48dock.

00:43:49You will be remanded to your quarters until we leave the warp, and I have time to decide

00:43:53what is to be done.'

00:43:55"'Antiguis,' Sestos added, 'have Admiral Kaminska sent the new officer of the watch and a squad

00:44:00of armsmen to escort Captain Motep to his cell.'

00:44:04Antiguis nodded briskly and went off towards the bridge.

00:44:07"'I could overwhelm a mere band of armsmen and defy this order,' Motep said, matching

00:44:13the ultramarine's steely gaze.

00:44:15"'Yes, you could,' said Sestos, 'but you will not.'

00:44:19"'Let it not be said,' uttered Zadkiel, 'but the warp is without imagination.'

00:44:26A fore-admiral Zadkiel, who, having left his private quarters, was in the Furious Abysses

00:44:32Cathedral, stood rank upon rank of word-bearers.

00:44:36Their presence in the vaulted chamber was an echo of what had faced him at the vessel's

00:44:39inaugural launch at Thule.

00:44:42It was a sight that filled Zadkiel with a sense of power.

00:44:46The warriors represented the Seventh Company of the Quillborne Chapter, one of those that

00:44:51made up the greater word-bearers' legion.

00:44:54Every chapter had its own traditions and its own role within Lorgar's word.

00:44:59The Quillborne were so named because their traditions emphasised their birth, created

00:45:04in the laboratories and apothecarians of cultures.

00:45:07They were written into existence, born as syllables of the word.

00:45:11A dedicated naval formation, the Quillborne were true marines, fighting ship to ship,

00:45:17completely at home, battling through the cramped structure of a starship.

00:45:21At their head was Assault-Captain Balanus, the acting captain of the company, although

00:45:26Zadkiel was their overlord.

00:45:28"'The ghost of one of their vessels has waylaid them,' continued Zadkiel with rising oratory.

00:45:33"'It was promised that in the warp we would find our allies.

00:45:37The fate of our pursuers aboard the Rothful has shown that promise to have been kept.'

00:45:44Balanus stepped forwards.

00:45:45"'Who will hear the word?' he bellowed.

00:45:49As one, a hundred word-bearers raised their guns and chanted in salute.

00:45:53"'They will be harrying us from here to Macragge,' said the Assault-Captain, his belligerence

00:45:58a contrast to Zadkiel's authoritative confidence.

00:46:01"'And they will die for it.

00:46:04Perhaps the warp will send them to us in the end, so we can show them how we deal with

00:46:08a blind in real space.'

00:46:11The word-bearers cheered.

00:46:13Zadkiel saw Ultus among them, and felt a pang of agitation at his presence in the throng.

00:46:18"'His fate is written,' Zadkiel thought.

00:46:21"'The warp is yet a strange place to us,' said Zadkiel.

00:46:25"'Though it holds nothing for us to fear, for Lorgar knows it better than any mind ever

00:46:30has, you will be assailed by mysteries.

00:46:33You might dream that which your mind has hidden from you.

00:46:37Perhaps you will even see them as clear as day.

00:46:40These are the ways of the warp.

00:46:43Remember in all things the word of Lorgar, and it will lead you back to sanity.

00:46:48Lose sight of the word, and your mind will be carried away on currents from which it

00:46:53might never return.

00:46:55Make no mistake, the warp is dangerous.

00:46:58It is the word, and the word alone, that lets us navigate its waters.

00:47:03Soon we must make dock.

00:47:05The earlier battle took more of a toll than we thought.

00:47:08The way-station at Bacchot-Triumvirn is our next destination.'

00:47:11Zadkiel did not tell them that his overconfidence had resulted in the damage to the ship that

00:47:17meant they were forced into a detour.

00:47:20A lucky hit from the waning moon's lances had cut off the engineering teams from the

00:47:25Furious Abyss's stores of fuel-oil, as well as rupturing the primary coolant-line.

00:47:30Without regular supply they could not function, and so it was imperative that the damage be

00:47:35cleared in order to allow the crews access.

00:47:37That could only be done whilst at dock.

00:47:40Shortly after that we shall be at Macragge,' Zadkiel continued.

00:47:44Then our chapter of the word will be completed.

00:47:48To your duties, word-bearers, you are dismissed.'

00:47:51The word-bearers filed out of the cathedral, many of them heading to reclusium cells.

00:47:58Bellanus approached the pulpit where Zadkiel was standing.

00:48:01"'We won't have long at Bacca,' he said.

00:48:03'What are your orders to the Astropathic Choir?'

00:48:06"'I need to make contact with my lord Corpheron,' said Zadkiel, 'and apprise him of our progress.'

00:48:13"'What of Bussaric?' asked Bellanus, a momentary tremor evident in his outward resolve at mention

00:48:21of the name.

00:48:22"'He stirs,' replied Zadkiel.

00:48:24"'We have only to cement our pact with the Empyrean with blood, and then he will act.'

00:48:30"'The lapdogs of the Emperor are ever tenacious, my lord.'

00:48:34"'Then we shall cast them off,' Zadkiel told him.

00:48:38"'But for now we wait.

00:48:40Asking too many favours of the Empyrean might not behove us well.'

00:48:44"'As you wish, my lord,' said Bellanus, bowing slightly.

00:48:49But his reluctance was obvious.

00:48:51"'Trust me to fulfil my duties to the word, Bellanus, as I trust you,' said Zadkiel.

00:48:58"'Yes, admiral,' replied the assault-captain.

00:49:02Bellanus saluted, and headed for the engine-decks.

00:49:06Zadkiel remained in the cathedral for a moment, deep in thought.

00:49:09It was so easy to lose sight of the word, to become wrapped up in power.

00:49:14It would have been simple for him to forget what he was and where his place was in the

00:49:18galaxy.

00:49:20It was why Lorgar had chosen him for this mission.

00:49:21There was no more dedicated servant of the word, save for Lorgar.

00:49:27Zadkiel knelt before the altar, murmured a few words of prayer, and headed back up towards

00:49:31the bridge.

00:49:33"'Captain Sestos,' said Kaminska's voice over the ultramarine's helmet-box, the engine-servitors

00:49:40of the Rothwell had managed to bring on ship communications back on line.

00:49:44"'Speaking,' he replied, more irritably than he'd intended.

00:49:48"'The confrontation with Bryngar in the Medibay waiting-room was weighing on his mind, that

00:49:53and whatever Motep was hiding from them behind that veneer of indifference.

00:49:57Meet me on the bridge at once!'

00:50:00Sestos sighed deeply at the admiral's curt response.

00:50:03He had intended to patrol the lower aft-decks with Antigues.

00:50:07In the wake of the officer of the watch's death, together with all of his most experienced

00:50:11armsmen, the ship was short-handed.

00:50:13The Astartes captain had taken it upon himself to make up the shortfall and ensure that no

00:50:17other unforeseen difficulties arose for whatever time remained of their warp-passage.

00:50:23Given Admiral Kaminska's tone, the patrol would have to wait.

00:50:27So Sestos and Antigues headed for the bridge.

00:50:33Kaminska kept a lean bridge when not in combat.

00:50:36Crew-men at the sensorium, navigation and engineering helms, were all that were present.

00:50:41The admiral was standing at a table, illuminated by a hololithic star-map.

00:50:45She looked ragged as he approached her, with dark rings around her eyes and a greyish pallor

00:50:50to her complexion.

00:50:52Sestos couldn't help think how long it had been since she had slept, and Astartes could

00:50:56go for several days without, but Kaminska was merely human.

00:51:00He wondered how long she could keep going.

00:51:02"'My lord,' she said, acknowledging the giant Astartes, "'Admiral, what is it you wish to

00:51:08bring to my attention?'

00:51:10Kaminska indicated the star-map in front of her.

00:51:12It showed the sector of the galaxy around the dense galactic core.

00:51:16The core was impassable, and so much of the map was taken up with a blank void.

00:51:21Notations and calculations were scrawled in the margins.

00:51:24Beside the map was a print-out from one of the sensorium-picked screens.

00:51:28It was a close-up of the furious abyss's hull.

00:51:32"'See this?' said Kaminska, indicating a white plume issuing from the side of the word-bearer's

00:51:38ship.

00:51:39The grainy resolution made it look like gas was being vented.

00:51:42"'They have an air-leak?'

00:51:44"'Better than that,' said Kaminska.

00:51:47"'It's damage to the coolant-lines.

00:51:49If they push the engines, the plasma-reactors will burn up, and, pursued by this ship, if

00:51:54they want to stay ahead of us, they'll have to push the engines.'

00:51:58Sestos smiled grimly at the sudden turn in fortune.

00:52:01It was small recompense for all they'd lost.

00:52:04"'So the furious abyss will have to make dock to effect repairs?' the ultramarine guessed.

00:52:09"'Yes.

00:52:10They'll also be reloading ordnance and using the time to service their fighters after the

00:52:15battle outside the tertiary coreboard transit.'

00:52:17"'Show me the location, admiral,' said Sestos, assuming that Kaminska had already planned

00:52:23their strategy in part.

00:52:25Kaminska laid her finger on the hololithic display in triumph.

00:52:29the solar system there aren't many orbital docks that can support a ship that size.

00:52:35The Baka system was already circled on the map.

00:52:38"'Baka?' said Sestos.

00:52:40"'My legion mustered there for the Caranthus crusade.

00:52:44It's the Imperial Army's staging-post for half the galactic south.

00:52:48It has the only docks between the galactic core and Macragge that could handle the furious

00:52:52abyss,' Kaminska told him.

00:52:54"'I'd bet my commission that this is where they'll head.'

00:52:59Sestos thought for a moment.

00:53:01A plan was forming.

00:53:02"'How long before we break warp?'

00:53:04"'Several hours yet, but, delay or not, we can't beat the furious abyss in a straight

00:53:09fight.'

00:53:10"'Tell me this, admiral,' Sestos said, looking into Kaminska's eyes.

00:53:14"'When is a ship most vulnerable?'

00:53:17Kaminska smiled, despite her weariness.

00:53:19"'When she's at anchor,' Sestos nodded.

00:53:24Turning away from the admiral, he raised the other Astartes captains on the vox array and

00:53:28told them to meet him in the conference-room immediately.

00:53:32"'What news have you, brother Zadkiel?'

00:53:36mouthed the supplicant.

00:53:37Somehow, the creature's lolling mouth formed the words in such a way that Cor Faron's short

00:53:42temper and self-confidence were perfectly enunciated.

00:53:45"'We are on our way, my lord,' said Zadkiel, bowing.

00:53:51Cor Faron was one of the arch-commanders of the Legion, foremost in Lorgar's reckoning.

00:53:56He was the Primarch's greatest champion, and it was he, this ancient warrior of countless

00:54:00battles, that could command the forces to attack Kalth, where Gillum and Mustard and

00:54:05destroy the ultramarines, utterly.

00:54:08It was a singular honour to be in Cor Faron's presence, albeit across the infinity of warp-space,

00:54:14and Zadkiel was at once humbled by the experience.

00:54:17It was not an emotion he had great affinity with.

00:54:21The supplicant-chamber of the Furious Abyss was bathed in darkness, but the presence of

00:54:24the astropathic choir behind the supplicant was powerful enough to remove the need for

00:54:29light.

00:54:30The choir consisted of eight astropaths, but the Furious's astral cohort differed from

00:54:35those on any imperial ship.

00:54:37The fact that there were eight of them suggested their instability.

00:54:41The Furious Abyss's route through the warp and the forces brought to bear on it eroded

00:54:46the mind of an astropath with dismaying speed, and, while such creatures were all blind,

00:54:52they did not have the heavy ribbed cables running from each eye-socket attaching them

00:54:55to the macabre contraption clamped around the supplicant's swollen cranium.

00:55:00"'How goes your progress?' asked the mighty champion of the word-bearers.

00:55:04"'Half a day longer in the warp until we reach the fringes of the galactic core.

00:55:10We must make vital repairs at Bacca, before heading onwards to Macragge.'

00:55:14"'I recall no such deviation in the mission plan, Zadkiel.'

00:55:21Despite the fact that Corferon was doubtless aboard the word-bearers' battle-barge, the

00:55:25infidels' imperator, in deep communion with its own astropathic choir, and speaking through

00:55:30a flesh-puppet, his tone and manner were still dangerous.

00:55:34"'During a brief sortie with a fleet of imperial ships we sustained minor damage that could

00:55:39not be ignored, my lord,' Zadkiel explained more hurriedly than he liked.

00:55:43"'A military action?'

00:55:46Corferon's disdain was clear.

00:55:48"'Did any survive?'

00:55:50"'A single cruiser pursues us yet through the warp, please.'

00:55:54"'So they do not seek to raise a warning back on Terra,' mused the arch-champion, his

00:56:00considered tone at odds with the slack-jawed, drooling visage of the supplicant.

00:56:05"'A pity.

00:56:06I suspect Sir Talgron is itching in his traitor's shackles.'

00:56:11"'I trust that Brother Talgron would have acquitted himself with distinction, Corferon.'

00:56:17In the eyes of Zadkiel, Sir Talgron's mission was not a desirable one.

00:56:22The Lord Commander was to remain in the solar system, his four companies ostensibly guarding

00:56:27Terra, in order to maintain the pretense that Lorgar still sided with the Emperor, when,

00:56:32in fact, he had been instrumental in the war-master's defection.

00:56:36"'It matters not, my lord.

00:56:38The prospect of word-reaching Terra should not concern us.

00:56:41The warp's disquiet would prevent any warning getting to Macragge.'

00:56:45"'I disagree,' the supplicant sneered in an echo of Corferon's idiosyncratic expression.

00:56:52"'Any deviation from the plan as written holds the potential for disaster.

00:56:58The entire word could go disobeyed.'

00:57:01"'We will be a few hours at Bacca at the most exalted Lord,' said Zadkiel, plaintively,

00:57:07wary of his master's wrath.

00:57:08"'Then we will be on our way.

00:57:10If our pursuer catches up with us, she will be destroyed, as her sister-ships were.

00:57:15In any case, we will not be late.

00:57:17Our passage through the warp was swift.

00:57:20But what of you, my lord?'

00:57:21"'We've joined up with the other elements of the legion, and all is proceeding as written.

00:57:27Health has no hope.'

00:57:28"'None, my brother.'

00:57:31The supplicant lolled back, drooling blood as the connection was broken.

00:57:35The astropathic choir sank into silence, only their ragged breathing suggesting the great

00:57:40effort required to maintain the link across the immaterium.

00:57:45Zadkiel regarded the dead supplicant with detached interest.

00:57:48It was interesting to him to see how easily their physical forms could be destroyed when

00:57:53their minds were so strong.

00:57:55He considered that he would like to test that theory.

00:57:58"'All is well, my lord,' asked Altus.

00:58:02The novice was standing behind Zadkiel.

00:58:04"'All is well, novice,' said Zadkiel.

00:58:07"'You will join Balanus at Baca, Altus.

00:58:10Take the scholar-coven.

00:58:12They will know to obey you.'

00:58:14Altus saluted.

00:58:15"'It will be an honour, admiral.

00:58:17One you have earned, novice.

00:58:19Now be about your duties.'

00:58:20"'Yes, my lord.'

00:58:23Altus turned smartly, and headed for the cell-deck where the scholar-coven would be

00:58:27undergoing their scheduled meditation-doctrine training.

00:58:31Zadkiel watched him go, and smiled darkly.

00:58:35Such potential, such relentless ambition!

00:58:38The upstart would soon learn the folly of overreaching.

00:58:42"'Soon,' Zadkiel told himself, forcing down a thrill of excitement, "'soon Guillermine

00:58:47will burn, and Lorgar will rule the stars.'

00:58:53Zadkiel could feel that time approaching.

00:58:54That age was in its infancy, but it only needed time to come about.

00:58:58Zadkiel knew this as surely as he had ever known anything, because it was written.

00:59:06The wrathful broke out of the warp, almost gasping in relief as it slid back into real

00:59:11space.

00:59:13The vessel's hull was torn and scorched, and chunks of its engine cowlings were ripped

00:59:17out.

00:59:18The winds of the warp had carved strange patterns into its armour-plate around the prow and

00:59:22all over the underside.

00:59:24Claws had raked deep gouges all over the upper hull, and torn turrets from their mountings.

00:59:30Sitting in her command-throne, Admiral Kaminska looked out of the view-port, and saw that

00:59:34the wrathful had not emerged alone.

00:59:37Leprous and wretched with its pitted, rusting hull and disease-ridden ports, the fire-blade

00:59:42limped into existence alongside them.

00:59:45It was a ship of the damned, the thousands of souls aboard condemned to endless, torturous

00:59:50oblivion.

00:59:52Such a thing could not be allowed to endure.

00:59:55Kaminska gave the order to train laser-batteries on the decrepit vessel.

00:59:59There was a few seconds' pause when the wrathful unleashed a blistering salvo of fire.

01:00:04Without operational shields, the fire-blade crumpled under the onslaught.

01:00:08A few seconds more, and all that remained of the blighted escort-ship was a scorched

01:00:12wreck and space-debris.

01:00:15It was a duty that gave Kaminska no pleasure but necessary all the same, much like the

01:00:19expulsion of their own dead.

01:00:21It was bad luck to keep the deceased on board, not to mention unhygienic.

01:00:26Bodies were never returned to their home-port in the Saturnine fleet.

01:00:29What the void killed, it kept.

01:00:32The tiny gleaming sparks that fell away from the wrathful were corpses enclosed in body-bags

01:00:37reflecting the light of the star Baka that burned in a magnesium spark a few light-hours

01:00:42away.

01:00:43Much closer was Baka Triumviran, a titanic gas-cloud far bigger than the Solar System's

01:00:49Jupiter, bright yellow streaked with violet, and ringed with scores of shimmering bands

01:00:53of ice and rock.

01:00:55Baka was a mystery, its gaseous form far too stormy and strange to admit any craft, while

01:01:01its rings were death-traps many times more lethal than the rings of Saturn.

01:01:05Baka's outlying moons, however, were habitable, each one almost the size of Terra, and all

01:01:10of them heavily populated.

01:01:13Rogalin, Sanctuary, Half-Hope, Grey Harbour—these hive-cities were just fledglings compared

01:01:19to the teeming pinnacles of the Solar System, but they were still home to billions of Imperial

01:01:23citizens.

01:01:25The Baka system was one of the most populated in the segmentum, certainly the largest concentration

01:01:30of human life this close to the galactic core.

01:01:33Baka Triumviran's fourteenth moon had no cities, but instead was enclosed within a thin black

01:01:38spider-web that looked like some planetary disease.

01:01:42It was, in fact, the underlying structure of its orbital docks, held over the moon so

01:01:47that they could benefit from its enormous stores of geothermal energy.

01:01:51The moon was uninhabited, thanks to its relentlessly shifting tectonic plates and accompanying

01:01:56cataclysms, but the dockyards above Triumviran Fourteen were some of the main reasons why

01:02:01Baka was populated at all.

01:02:05Three assault-boats headed out from the launch-bays of the Rothwell.

01:02:08They approached the farthest docking-spike of Baka Triumviran Fourteen, and did so with

01:02:12stealth and subterfuge.

01:02:15It was imperative that they not be discovered by the enemy.

01:02:18It also meant that the troops on board would have a long trek to the furious abyss.

01:02:24Three assault-boats, three discrete combat formations.

01:02:28Skrall joined his legion-warriors in one.

01:02:31Their mode of approach was a central avenue between overlooking docking-towers, decks

01:02:35sprawling out from jutting partisans, and the world-eaters and their captain were to

01:02:39take the lead.

01:02:40Two flanks branched out from the central avenue, and these channels would be taken by the blood-claws

01:02:45led by Bryngar, in spite of the space-wolf's earlier altercation with Cestus, and a second

01:02:50group of world-eaters led by the only ultramarine in the raiding party.

01:02:55Antigui sat boat-upright in the flight-couch of the gloom-drenched troop-hold of an assault-boat,

01:03:00as they made their way closer to the gaseous expanse that was Baka Triumviran, and the

01:03:04moon that would support their embarkation.

01:03:07He was the only ultramarine aboard the assault-boat, accompanied as he was by two combat-squads

01:03:12of Skrall's remaining world-eaters.

01:03:15To Antigui's mind they were brutal warriors, festooned with the trophies of war, crude

01:03:20kill-markings like badges of honour carved into their armour.

01:03:24Each and every one was possessed of a murderous mien, a faint echo of their Primarch's battle-rage.

01:03:30Dimly, as if the infinite expanse of black space that existed between them had smothered

01:03:35it, Antigui recalled his last conversation with his captain.

01:03:40"'Stand aside, Antiguis,' Cestus barked, bedecked in a stripped-down version of his

01:03:46honour-guard regalia, and battle-ready with short-blade, power-sword, and bolter.

01:03:52Adjusting to the half-light of the assembly-deck, Cestus saw that his battle-brother was similarly

01:03:56attired.

01:03:57"'I have told you before, Antiguis, the sons of Gilliman will remain aboard ship in case

01:04:01anything goes wrong.

01:04:02I shall accompany the mission as its leader to ensure that it goes to plan.'

01:04:08Cestus had gone over the plan several times since it was first broached in the conference-room

01:04:11to the rest of the Astartes' captains.

01:04:14If they were to make the most of the Furious Abyss's current disposition, they would need

01:04:17to act in subterfuge and in secret.

01:04:21Even with that caveat in mind, the strike would need to be brutal and at close quarters.

01:04:25The world-eaters and the space-wolves had no equals in that regard, save for the sons

01:04:29of Sanguinius, but the angels were far off in another part of the galaxy.

01:04:34These were the tools at their disposal.

01:04:36They had but to unleash them.

01:04:39The assault force was to infiltrate Baca Triumviran XIV, where the word-bearers had made dock,

01:04:44in three teams in a classic feint-and-strike manoeuvre, in order that they get close enough

01:04:48to scupper the ship at close range.

01:04:51Military charges—crack and melter-bombs—were to be carried as standard.

01:04:55It was a feint hope, but it was hope none the less, and all had embraced it.

01:05:00Even Bringar, his demeanour sullen and belligerent, had acceded to the plan, doubtless eager to

01:05:05vent his wrath, much like his brother-captain, Scrawl.

01:05:08"'With respect, brother-captain,' said Antiges, levelly, purposefully standing his ground.

01:05:14"'You shall not!'

01:05:16Cestus's face creased in consternation.

01:05:18"'I did not expect disobedience from you, Antiges.

01:05:22"'It is not disobedience, sire, rather it is sense.'

01:05:25Antiges still did not move.

01:05:26His expression brook no argument.

01:05:28"'Very well,' said Cestus, letting his battle-brother have this indulgence before he rebuked him

01:05:33for his insolence.

01:05:34"'Explain yourself.'

01:05:35Antiges's face softened, a trace of pleading behind his eyes.

01:05:41"'Allow me to lead the strike,' he said.

01:05:44"'This mission is too dangerous, and our plight too great, to risk your life, my captain.

01:05:49Without you there is no mission.

01:05:52"'Even now we hold to our cause by a mere thread.

01:05:54Were you to be lost, then so too would be Macragge.

01:05:57You know this to be true.'

01:05:59Antiges stepped forward, allowing the light to fall on his face and armour.

01:06:03The effect was not unlike a bodily halo.

01:06:05"'I entreat you, Liege, let me do this service.

01:06:08I shall not fail you.'

01:06:10At first Cestus had thought to deny him, but he knew his brother-ultramarine was right.

01:06:15Cestus was acutely aware of the other combat squads mustering on the deck behind him, readying

01:06:20to take to the assault-boats.

01:06:21"'It would do me great honour to have you, Brother Antiges, as my representative,' he

01:06:27said, and clapped Antiges on the shoulder.

01:06:29"'My lord!' the fellow-ultramarine intoned, and bowed to his knee.

01:06:34"'No, Antiges,' said Cestus, grasping his battle-brother's shoulder to stop him mid-genuflect.

01:06:39"'We are equals, and such deference is not necessary.'

01:06:43Antiges rose and nodded instead.

01:06:46"'Courage and honour, my brother,' said Cestus.

01:06:49"'Courage and honour,' Antiges replied, and turned to walk away towards the assault-boats.'

01:06:57The words were distant now, and Antiges crushed whatever sentiment they held as he intoned

01:07:02the odes of battle.

01:07:04The world-eaters were similarly engaged, their lips moving in entreaty to their weapons and

01:07:08armaments that they should not fail them, and, rather, that they be covered in glory

01:07:13and speak with righteous anger.

01:07:15The warriors of the Twelfth Legion were well armed with chain-axes and storm-shields.

01:07:20They bore side-arms, too, but Antiges suspected that they were rarely drawn.

01:07:24World-eaters fought up close in face-to-face melee, where the force of a charge and the

01:07:29shock of their ferocity counted the most.

01:07:32Antiges steeled himself and mouthed the name of Raboot Gilliamon as the assault-boat screamed

01:07:37towards its destination.

01:07:41The dockmaster had demanded to know why prior notification had not been given for the arrival

01:07:46of such an enormous ship.

01:07:48His obstinate and imperious attitude had faltered and withered upon the arrival of the Astartes

01:07:52on his deck.

01:07:55Once Altus had gained entry to the observation-balcony, he had had the dockmaster put his deck-crews

01:08:00to work to receive the furious abyss.

01:08:03Violence at this point was unnecessary.

01:08:05To the menials and underlings of Bacchus Triumvirum XIV they were still Astartes, and as such

01:08:11their word carried the authority of the Emperor.

01:08:13No man of the Imperium would dare brook that.

01:08:17From the observation-balcony overlooking the battleship dock, Altus could see the automated

01:08:21coolant-tanks picking their way through the docking-clamps and other dockside detritus

01:08:25towards the towering shape of the furious abyss.

01:08:29The dock was a hive of activity, track-servitors and human-indentured workers bustling back

01:08:34and forth on loaders, carrying massive fuel-drums and swathes of heavy piping.

01:08:39The frenetic scene fraught with activity was as a mustering of ants before the towering

01:08:44hive that was the word-bearer's ship.

01:08:48It was the first time Altus had been able to truly appreciate the vessel's gigantic

01:08:52size.

01:08:53Like a city of crenellated towers, arching spires, and fanged fortress-like decks, it

01:08:58dwarfed the puny dock, easily clearing the highest antennae and cranes.

01:09:02The book, resplendent upon the furious's prow, easily eclipsed the observation-building in

01:09:07which Altus was standing.

01:09:09"'We are in control,' Altus voxed privately through his helmet-array.

01:09:14The dock-master busied at his consoles with the massive ship's sudden arrival.

01:09:18"'Good,' said Zadkiel, back on the ship.

01:09:21"'Did you encounter any resistance?'

01:09:23"'They accept the authority of their starties like the dutiful and deluded lap-dogs they

01:09:28are, my lord,' Altus replied, looking around at the scholar-coven.

01:09:33These warriors had been assembled from the word-bearers under Zadkiel's command who showed

01:09:38the greatest adherence to Lorgar's word.

01:09:40They were all more recent recruits to the Legion, all from Colchis, and all dedicated

01:09:44scholars of Lorgar's writings.

01:09:47They were motivated not by the glory of the great crusade, but by the ideology of the

01:09:51word-bearers.

01:09:52Zadkiel greatly valued such followers, since they could be counted on to support the Legion's

01:09:57latest endeavours, which would be sure to bring the word-bearers into conflict with

01:10:01elements of the Imperium before long.

01:10:04Altus looked over at the man he would soon kill, once preparations were fully under way,

01:10:09and reasoned that the conflicts were already beginning to come about.

01:10:12The fact meant absolutely nothing to him.

01:10:15Altus had no loyalty save to the word.

01:10:18There was nothing in the galaxy in that moment other than that which was written.'

01:10:23The novice smiled.

01:10:24This day his destiny would be etched in the word for all time.

01:10:34Chapter 9 Infiltration, Ambush, Sons of Angron

01:10:40The assault-boat stocked quickly and without incident, the pilot having avoided radar and

01:10:45long-range scans to insert the Astartes' squads outside the main thoroughfares of Baccha Triumviron

01:10:50XIV.

01:10:51Antiges, clad in the blue and gold of his Legion's honour-guard, was first out of the

01:10:55assault-boat, speeding from the embarkation-ramp.

01:10:59Chainsword held low at his hip, and adopting a crouching stance, he moved stealthily across

01:11:04an open plaza of steel plates, flanked by towering cranes and disused craft, in for

01:11:09non-urgent repairs.

01:11:11The few servitors meandering back and forth on tracks, enslaved to an aerial rail-system,

01:11:16ignored the Astartes.

01:11:18Working through pre-assigned protocols as dictated by their command-wafers, they were

01:11:22not even aware of their presence.

01:11:24Close behind the ultramarine, one of the world-eaters, Hargrath, gave the servitors a wary glance

01:11:30as he piled through the open channel with his battle-brothers.

01:11:32"'Pay them no heed,' Antiges hissed, looking back to check on his charges.

01:11:39Hargrath nodded, and continued on his way towards the massive crimson horizon ahead,

01:11:44visible across the entire length of the shipyard.

01:11:47The furious abyss, the largest vessel any of them had ever seen.

01:11:51"'Keep in cover,' said Antiges, as the plaza gave way to a maze-like refuelling and maintenance

01:11:56bay full of passing loaders and stacks of drums.

01:12:00The ultramarine was careful to keep his squad out of the view of the labouring indentured

01:12:03workers and other menials busying themselves at the dock.

01:12:07They clung to the shadows, using them like a second skin.

01:12:12Once they had reached their destination, their targets would be the engines and ordnance-ports.

01:12:17The ultramarine checked a bandolier of crack-grenades at his hip.

01:12:20There was a cluster of melter-bombs flanking it on the opposite side, and as the furious

01:12:24abyss drew closer, he hoped it would be enough.

01:12:29Bryngar was festooned with trophies and fetishes, wolf's teeth and claws, and a necklace of

01:12:35uncut gemstones, polished pebbles carved with runes.

01:12:39If he were to go to war at last against his brother Astartes, then he would do so in his

01:12:42full regalia.

01:12:44Let them witness the majesty and savage power of the Sons of Rus in their most feral aspect,

01:12:49before they were torn asunder for their treachery.'

01:12:52The wolf-guard was focused on the battle ahead, crushing all thoughts of his altercation with

01:12:57Sestus to the back of his mind for now.

01:12:59There would be a time for a reckoning later.

01:13:02It was only a pity that the ultramarine had eschewed the mission in favour of overall

01:13:05command aboard the Rothwell.

01:13:08Bryngar wanted to think him cowardly, but he had fought alongside the Son of Guilliman

01:13:11many times, and knew this not to be the case.

01:13:14It was probably a display of the Thirteenth Legion's much-vaunted tactical acumen.

01:13:20The space-wolf's aspect of attack was a narrow cordon riddled with junked carriers used for

01:13:25spare parts.

01:13:27It was more like an open warehouse, with machine carcasses piled high and banded tightly together

01:13:32to prevent them toppling when stacked.

01:13:34Servitors, slave to loaders, hummed back and forth amongst the towers of rusted metal,

01:13:40like bees harvesting a nest.

01:13:42If they cared about the space-wolf captain and his blood-claws, tooled up with broad-bladed

01:13:46axes and bolt-pistols and weaving criss-cross fashion through their domain, they did not

01:13:51show it.

01:13:53Bryngar knew that he would spill blood this day, and it would be the blood of his erstwhile

01:13:57brothers.

01:13:58This was no fight against mere heathen men, misguided in their beliefs, nor was it foul

01:14:03Xenos breeds ever intent on corralling the human galaxy to their yoke.

01:14:08No, this was Astartes against Astartes.

01:14:11It was unprecedented.

01:14:13Speaking of the devastation the word-bearers had already wrought, the space-wolf took a

01:14:17better grip of Feltooth, and vowed to make the traitors pay for their transgressions.

01:14:23They are making their final approach towards the dock, said Kaminska, poring over the hololithic

01:14:29tactical display in front of her command-throne.

01:14:32Having been preparing the other ultramarines for potential combat, and distributing them

01:14:36around the ship accordingly, Sestos had returned to the bridge and joined the admiral at the

01:14:40tactical display-table.

01:14:43The runes moved over a top-down green-rimed blueprint of Bucca Triumviran XIV, indicating

01:14:49the progress of the three attack-waves heading for the immense swathe of bulky red that represented

01:14:55the furious abyss.

01:14:57The ship's magos, Agantes, had tapped into one of the satellite feeds of the orbital

01:15:01moon, and was using it to reroute images to the Rothwell's tactical network.

01:15:07It had a short delay, but was an otherwise excellent way to keep track of their forces

01:15:11on the ground.

01:15:12Even so, Sestos felt impotent directing the action from the relative safety of real space

01:15:17where the cruiser lingered to stay out of radar and sensorium range.

01:15:22"'Antiges, report!' he barked into the ship's vox, synced with his fellow ultramarines'

01:15:27boosted helmet array.

01:15:29"'Assault protocol Alpha proceeding as planned, Captain,' Antiges's voice said after a few

01:15:35seconds' delay.

01:15:36The reply was fraught with static, even with the boosted array rigged by the Rothwell's

01:15:40engineers, the gulf of real space between them impinged greatly.

01:15:45"'We will be making our initial insertion onto the dock in T-minus three minutes.'

01:15:50"'Well enough, Brother Antiges.

01:15:52Keep me appraised.

01:15:54If you meet any resistance, you have your orders,' said Sestos.

01:15:57"'I shall prosecute my duties with all the fury of the Legion, my lord.'

01:16:02The vox cut out.

01:16:04Sestos sighed deeply.

01:16:06To think it had come to this!

01:16:09This was no foray into the jaws of alien overlords or the misguided worshippers of

01:16:13the Arcane, not this time.

01:16:15It was brother versus brother.

01:16:18Sestos could barely bring himself to think on it.

01:16:21Fighting across the gulf of real space was one thing, but to be face to face with those

01:16:25who had betrayed the Emperor, those who had killed warriors they once called friend and

01:16:29comrade in cold blood, was indeed harrowing.

01:16:32It felt like an end of things, and the sense of it caught in the ultramarine's throat.

01:16:38"'Admiral Kaminska,' said Sestos, after the momentary silence, 'you have risked much in

01:16:43the pursuit of this mission.

01:16:44You have done and continue to do me great honour with your sterling service to our cause.'

01:16:50Kaminska was clearly taken aback, and failed to hide her shock from the ultramarine completely.

01:16:54"'I thank you, Lord Astartes,' she said, bowing slightly.

01:16:58"'But if I am honest, I would have chosen to undertake this duty, although perhaps of

01:17:03my own volition,' she added candidly.

01:17:06Sestos's gaze was mildly questioning.

01:17:08"'I am the last of a dying breed,' she confessed, her shoulders sagging, and not from physical

01:17:14fatigue.

01:17:15"'The Saturnine fleet is to be decommissioned.'

01:17:17"'Is that so?'

01:17:19"'Yes, captain.

01:17:21It doesn't do to have such an anachronism on the rostrum of the new imperium.

01:17:26All those gentlemen in their powdered wigs talking about good breeding, it hardly speaks

01:17:30of efficiency and impartiality.

01:17:33Our ships are to be refitted for a new imperial navy.

01:17:37"'I am a part of the last generation.

01:17:39I suppose I should be glad that at least Vorloff didn't see it.

01:17:42"'You see, captain, this is really my last hurrah, the last great journey of the Wrothful,

01:17:48as I know it.'

01:17:50Sestos smiled mirthlessly.

01:17:52His eyes were cold orbs tinged with a deep sense of burden and regret.

01:17:56"'It might be for us all, admiral.'

01:18:02Carl's assault force sped down the central channel of the dock, a loading bay for fuel

01:18:06and munitions tankers, with reckless abandon.

01:18:09The berserker fury was building within the world eater-captain, and he knew his battle-brothers

01:18:14were experiencing the same rush.

01:18:16They were the sons of Angron, and like their lord they were implanted with an echo of the

01:18:21neural technology that had unlocked the primarch's violent potential.

01:18:25At the cusp of battle the Astartes warriors could tap into that font of boiling rage and

01:18:30use it like an edged blade to cut their enemies down.

01:18:34After several bloody incidents the emperor had censured the further use of implants in

01:18:38the false belief that they made the world eaters unstable killing-machines.

01:18:43Angron in his wisdom had eschewed the edict of the Emperor of Mankind and had continued

01:18:47in spite of it.

01:18:49They were killing-machines.

01:18:51Skrall felt it in his burning blood and in the core of his marrow, but then what greater

01:18:55accolade was there for the eternal warriors of the Astartes?

01:19:00Although the orders of the ultramarine and Tigis had forbidden it, Skrall encouraged

01:19:04his warriors to kill as they converged on the furious abyss.

01:19:07A spate of blood-letting would sharpen the senses for the battle to come.

01:19:11The only directive—leave none alive to tell or warn others of their approach.

01:19:17The world eaters pursued this duty with brutal efficiency, and a trail of menial corpses

01:19:21littered the ground between the assault-boat insertion-point and their current position.

01:19:26Such reckless slaying had not, however, gone unnoticed.

01:19:31"'My lord!' hissed Altus into the vox array of the observation-platform.

01:19:37Zadkiel's voice responded from the furious.

01:19:39"'It seems we are not alone,' Altus concluded.

01:19:43The novice-in-command of the scholar-coven consulted a hollow map of the entire dock-yard.

01:19:48His gauntleted finger was pressed against a flashing diode near one of the many refuelling

01:19:52conduits.

01:19:54"'Where is that?' he demanded of the dock-master, still engrossed in the refit and refuel of

01:19:59the vast starship.

01:20:00"'Tanker-yard Epsilon IV, my lord,' said the dock-master, who looked closer when he

01:20:05saw the flashing red diode.

01:20:07"'An emergency alarm!'

01:20:09The dock-master moved to another part of the console and brought up a view-screen.

01:20:14Warriors in blue and white power-armour were visible in the grainy resolution surging through

01:20:18the tanker-yard.

01:20:20Bone-forms dressed in worker-fatigues slumped in their wake, surrounded by dark pools.

01:20:25"'By terror!' said the dock-master, turning to face Altus.

01:20:29"'They are Astartes!'

01:20:32The novice faced the dock-master and shot the man through the face point-blank with

01:20:36his bolt-pistol.

01:20:38After his head exploded in a shower of viscera and bone-riddled gore, his streaming carcass

01:20:43slid to the deck.

01:20:45The rest of the dock-crew on the observation-platform had failed to react before the rest of the

01:20:50power-coven had taken Altus's lead, and shot them, too.

01:20:54"'The Astartes have tracked us here and move in on the Furious Abyss as we speak,' said

01:20:58Altus down the box.

01:20:59"'I have eliminated all platform personnel to prevent any interference.'

01:21:03"'Very well, brother Altus.

01:21:06You have your orders,' said Zadkiel's voice through the array.

01:21:10Altus looked down through the building's windows to the expanse of the docking-stage.

01:21:15Velanus's assault-squad was standing guard there.

01:21:18"'I shall show them what fates are written for them,' said Altus, drawing his sword.

01:21:24"'Educate them,' replied Zadkiel.'

01:21:29The battleship dock looked like a tangled web of metal, a scrawl and his warriors forged

01:21:34onward.

01:21:35Beyond that, the massive Furious Abyss loomed like a slumbering predator in repose.

01:21:41The stink of blood from the previous slaughter was heady through the world-eater captain's

01:21:45nose-grill as he raced towards the end of the channel and the open dock beyond.

01:21:50The cordon tightened ahead, and the legionaries were forced together as they rifled through

01:21:54it.

01:21:55Just as Skrall was feeling confident that they had not been discovered, a group of word-bearers

01:21:59in crimson ceramite emerged before them to block their path.

01:22:03Bolterfire wreathed the opening, lighting up the half-dark of the channel with four-pronged

01:22:08muzzle-flares.

01:22:09Kellock, the warrior next to Skrall, took a full burst in the chest that tore open his

01:22:14armour and left him oozing blood.

01:22:16Kellock crumpled and fell, both his primary and secondary hearts punctured.

01:22:21The combat-squads were pinned on either side by fuel-drums stacked against bulky warehouse-structures.

01:22:27Fleeing menials and mindless servitors, alerted by the commotion, wandered into their path

01:22:32and were cut down with chain-blades, or battered by shields, as the world-eater sought to close

01:22:37with a foe and wrest the advantage back.

01:22:41One of the drums was struck by an errant bolter-round, and exploded in a bright bloom

01:22:45of yellow-white fury.

01:22:46A fiery plume spilled into the air like ink in water, and a wrecked servitor was cast

01:22:51like a broken doll at the edge of its blossoming blast-wave.

01:22:55Three world-eaters were shredded by the concussive force of the explosion, and smashed aside

01:22:59into the metallic siding of a warehouse-unit.

01:23:02The siding didn't yield to the sudden impact of massed flesh and ceramite, and the two

01:23:06warriors were crushed.

01:23:09Hal felt the heat of the explosion against his face, even through his helmet, as the

01:23:13warning sensors went crazy.

01:23:15He staggered, but kept his footing, and yelled the order to charge.

01:23:22Antigues was stalking through the refueling-bay when he heard the explosion from across the

01:23:26dock and saw fire and smoke billowing into the air.

01:23:29They were close.

01:23:31The furious abyss, a dense dark wall, filled the ultramarine sights.

01:23:36"'Antigues, report,' Cestus's voice said, through the helmet-box, the tactical display

01:23:41obviously registering the sudden influx of heat.

01:23:44"'An explosion in the central channel.

01:23:46I fear we are discovered, brother captain.

01:23:49Get over there.

01:23:50Unite your forces and push on through to the Furious.'

01:23:52"'As you command, captain,' he replied, and ordered his combat squads through a maze of

01:23:57piping that connected to the central channel, where he knew Scrawl and his insertion team

01:24:02were placed.

01:24:04As they moved, Antigues at the lead, a shadow fell across the ultramarine, cast by the vast

01:24:09observation-platform overlooking the dock above.

01:24:12Out of instinct he looked up and saw the line of crimson-armoured warriors bearing down

01:24:17on them with bolter and plasma-gun.

01:24:19Death rained down in a hail of venting promethium and spent electrum.

01:24:24Antigues rode out of its way into the shadow of the docking-clamp.

01:24:27Hargarth was distracted and a fraction slower.

01:24:30He paid for his laxity when a bolt of searing plasma blasted a hole in his torso, cooking

01:24:35the world-eater in his armour.

01:24:37He fell with a resounding clang, the wound cauterised before he hit the ground.

01:24:42Several of his brothers heaved his body towards them, but to act as improvised cover rather

01:24:46than out of any sense of reverence for their dead comrade.

01:24:50Antigues replied with barking retorts of his bolt-pistol, half glimpsing the target above

01:24:54between bursts of chipped plascreet and metal as the docking-clamp was chewed up around

01:24:59him.

01:25:00The rest of the world-eaters followed his lead, stowing storm-shields and drawing bolt-pistols,

01:25:05their weapons adding to the return fire.

01:25:08Menials, put to flight at the start of the attack and spilling into the rapidly erupting

01:25:12war-zone, were ripped apart in the cross-fire.

01:25:15The roar of gun-fire and the shriek of shrapnel mangled together with their screams.

01:25:20Antigues pressed up against the closest docking-clamp and looked around it, gauging the terrain

01:25:25leading the rest of the way to the purious abyss.

01:25:28The docks formed a landscape of narrow fire-lanes between clamps and fuel-tanks.

01:25:33Above was the observation-platform, strung on metal struts, and beyond that rings of

01:25:38steel holding fuelling-gantries, defence-turrets, and bouquets of sensor-spines.

01:25:44Antigues slammed himself back against the steel of the docking-clamp as bolter-fire

01:25:48continued to pin them.

01:25:49"'Captain, we are ambushed!' he yelled into the box in an attempt to overcome the

01:25:54din.

01:25:55Despite his volume, the ultramarine's tone was calm as he cycled through a number of

01:25:59potential battle-protocols learned by rote during his training.

01:26:03There was a moment's pause as the message went through, and his captain assessed the

01:26:06options open to him.

01:26:08"'Relief is incoming,' came the clipped reply.

01:26:12"'Be ready!'

01:26:15After a second bout of return-fire, a chain of small explosions erupted across the observation-platform,

01:26:21showering frag.

01:26:22Beyond the destruction and across the dockyard, embarkation-ports were opening in the side

01:26:26of the furious abyss.

01:26:28Antigues was on his feet and bellowing orders before the resulting smoke had cleared.

01:26:33"'Don't give them time!

01:26:34Hit them!

01:26:35Hit them now!'

01:26:37The Astartes broke cover and charged, leaving the dead in their wake.

01:26:41Two hundred robed cohorts in the crimson of the word-bearers emerged from the furious

01:26:46abyss and charged right back.

01:26:48"'Open fire!' shouted Antigues.

01:26:52The ultramarine felt the immediate pressure-wave of discharged boat-pistols behind him as the

01:26:56world-eaters obeyed.

01:26:58The effect was brutal.

01:27:01Lines of the crudely armoured word-bearer lackeys fell beneath the onslaught.

01:27:05Bodies pitched into their comrades jerked and spun as the munition struck.

01:27:10Blood sprayed in directions too numerous to count, and the corpses mounted like a bank

01:27:14of fleshy sandbags, tripping those following.

01:27:18There was only time for a single volley, and the disciplined Astartes holstered pistols

01:27:22before closing with the first of the furious's cannon-fodder.

01:27:25A brutish cohort, scarred and tarnished like an engine-ganger, came at Antigues with an

01:27:30axe-blade.

01:27:31The ultramarine met the ganger's roar with a screech of his chainsword, plunging it into

01:27:36the man's chest.

01:27:38The cohort fell, wrenching the weapon from Antigues's hand.

01:27:41The Astartes didn't pause, and threw the wretch aside with such force that the corpse spun

01:27:46in the air before crashing into its debased brethren.

01:27:50The ultramarine drew his short blade, duelling shield already in hand, and cut down a second

01:27:55assailant with a low, arcing sweep.

01:27:57Rogarth, a world-eater sergeant, came alongside Antigues and forged into the melee with brutal

01:28:03abandon.

01:28:05Limbs fell like rain as he churned through his enemies, his face a grisly mask of wrath

01:28:09without his helmet.

01:28:11Out of the corner of his eye Antigues saw another of Rogarth's kin decapitate a cohort

01:28:15officer trying to ram home the charge and extol his warriors to greater fervour.

01:28:20Others disappeared in clouds of red mist and the dreadful din of chain-axes' rending bone,

01:28:26yet despite the relentless carnage wreaked upon them, the lowly cohorts refused to break,

01:28:31and the killing-ground became mired in blood.

01:28:34"'They're fanatics!' grumbled Rogarth, burying his blade in the face of an oncoming cohort.

01:28:39"'Drive them back!' snarled Antigues through gritted teeth, smashing an enemy with the

01:28:43blunt force of his duelling-shield.

01:28:46About to redouble his efforts, the ultramarine fell back as two or three bodies flew at him.

01:28:52In the madness he dropped his short-blade, but as he foraged for it in the sea of pressing

01:28:56bodies, he found the hilt of his chain-sword.

01:29:00Tearing the weapon loose, Antigues cut a path through bone and flesh to free himself.

01:29:04Hands were grabbing at him to drag the Astartes down, and even as he tried to emerge bullets

01:29:09rang off his armour.

01:29:11None of the world-eaters yelled in anger and pain.

01:29:15The furious abyss disappeared from view as more enemy crewmen threw themselves forward.

01:29:21This was not how men fought.

01:29:24Very few xenos were content to simply die, even when there was something to be gained

01:29:27by it.

01:29:29That was why the Astartes were such lethal warriors.

01:29:32They were the ultimate weapon against any enemy tainted by natural cowardice, since

01:29:36a space-marine could control and banish his own fear.

01:29:40The word-bearers had created another kind of enemy, one that even space-marines could

01:29:45not break.

01:29:46"'Damn you!' hissed Antigues as he threw another man off him, and was sprayed by a

01:29:51shard of blood as Rogarth disembowelled yet another.

01:29:54"'Now we have to kill them all!'

01:29:58Driving on, pain burst against Antigues's side as a blade or a bullet found its way

01:30:02through his armour.

01:30:04He staggered, and it gave the enemy the opening they needed.

01:30:07A sudden flurry of cohorts sprang on the stricken Astartes.

01:30:11Then the weight of the attacks was dragging him down, their death-cries and the smell

01:30:14of their sundered bodies filling his senses.

01:30:20Bryngar hefted his last belt of frag-grenades at the observation-platform.

01:30:24A cluster of explosions rippled over the pitted surface, hewing off chunks of ferrocrete and

01:30:28scorching metal.

01:30:30The assault had achieved its desired effect, forcing the ambushers above Antigues's position

01:30:35back for a few moments, who were unseen from the channel the space-wolf and his blood-claws

01:30:39charged down, and switching their attention.

01:30:43Fire erupted again from the platform before the last of the grenades had even detonated,

01:30:48but this time their focus was upon the wolf-guard and his squad.

01:30:51Bryngar's highly attuned animal senses picked up on the stink of cordite and blood, and

01:30:57the sporadic clatter of weapons-fire, and he assumed that his brother-ultramarine was

01:31:00otherwise occupied—hence their popularity.

01:31:05Rudgeveld slid into cover beside his venerable leader as he appraised the disposition of

01:31:10the ambushers strafing them.

01:31:12Fire streaked down from the observation-gallery and prevented them joining the fight beyond.

01:31:16"'They knew we were coming,' Bryngar growled to the stony-faced blood-claw.

01:31:21"'What are your orders, wolf-guard?'

01:31:24Bryngar turned his feral gaze onto his pack-brother.

01:31:27"'We bring them down!' he grinned, displaying his fangs.

01:31:32"'Jorl!

01:31:33Borund!' bellowed the space-wolf-captain, and two of his charges abandoned their ready

01:31:38positions to approach their leader.

01:31:40"'Melter-bombs!' snarled Bryngar.

01:31:42"'One of those struts!' he pointed to the source of the platform's elevation.

01:31:48Jorl and Borund nodded as one, priming their melter-charges before heading across a gauntlet

01:31:53of open ground that led to the structure.

01:31:56A raging fire struck the first blood-claw before he ventured more than a few feet, the

01:32:00impacts kicking him off his feet and spinning him around before he fell in a bloody heap.

01:32:06Borund had greater fortune.

01:32:07A feral war-cry on his lips as he reached the base of the platform.

01:32:11Clamping the charge onto one of the struts, he took a hit in the shoulder.

01:32:15Another struck him across the torso as word-bearers positioned near the building's base realised

01:32:20what he was doing.

01:32:21Borund pressed the detonator before they could stop him.

01:32:24He roared in savage defiance as the melter-bomb exploded, vaporising him in a flare of superheated

01:32:30chemicals.

01:32:31The platform held.

01:32:34Bryngar was about to head into the gauntlet to finish the job when a second explosion

01:32:37erupted after the first.

01:32:39The space-wolf-captain turned away from the sudden blast, an actinic stench prickling

01:32:44his nostrils when he looked back.

01:32:46The sound of wrenching metal followed, and the observation-platform finally collapsed,

01:32:51kicking up clouds of dust and ferrocrete.

01:32:54The structure was robust, and Astartes could withstand worse.

01:32:57There would be survivors.

01:32:59Unconcerned where the secondary blast had come from, Bryngar got to his feet and howled

01:33:04in triumph.

01:33:06Running across the open to the ruined mass of crumpled metal and broken ferrocrete, he

01:33:10swung his rune-axe in preparation for battle, knowing that his blood-claws were right behind

01:33:15him.

01:33:18Aboard the Wrothful, Cestus wore a pained expression as he reviewed the tactical display.

01:33:24Tragic vox-chatter was coming in over the ship's array, but it was indistinct and impossible

01:33:28to discern.

01:33:29The three icons representing the relative positions of his assault-teams had stalled.

01:33:35A silver icon indicating the space-wolves and Bryngar's warriors was moving slowly towards

01:33:40an area obscured by a sudden belt of smoke and bright light, hazing the readout.

01:33:46Judging from the schematic, this was the observation-platform.

01:33:50Cestus assumed that the attack had been successful.

01:33:53Elsewhere, in a flanking channel close by, an azure icon represented Antiges and was

01:33:59shown embroiled in a brutal close-quarters fight against massed enemies.

01:34:03The dark slab of crimson that was the furious abyss was not far beyond the melee, but it

01:34:08didn't appear as if the ultramarine was making progress.

01:34:12All Cestus's subsequent attempts to raise Antiges on the vox had thus far failed.

01:34:17A third icon, depicted in stark white, converged on Antiges's position.

01:34:23To Cestus's dismay, they were not alone.

01:34:31Chapter 10 Into the Belly of the Beast

01:34:34Sacrifice!

01:34:36My Future is Written The scream of chain-axes brought Antiges to

01:34:41his senses.

01:34:42The whine of their spinning teeth turned to a crunching drone as they bit into flesh and

01:34:47bone.

01:34:49Antiges saw white armour trimmed with blue, sprayed liberally with crimson, and the legion

01:34:53markings of a captain.

01:34:56Scrawl dragged the ultramarine out of the mess of bodies.

01:34:59The Furious's crewmen were being bludgeoned to the ground or thrown through the air, the

01:35:03World-Eaters' squad painting every surface with crescents of gore.

01:35:07Antiges took a moment to set himself, such was the impact of the second charge from Scrawl's

01:35:12World-Eaters.

01:35:13The captain of a Twelfth Legion was butchering a man on the floor.

01:35:17Such reckless, murderous enthusiasm was alien to the ultramarines, and Antiges fought the

01:35:22urge to put a stop to it.

01:35:24The battlefield was no place for recrimination.

01:35:27Instead, the ultramarine looked across the dock, a brief lull in the fighting provided

01:35:31by the sudden appearance of Scrawl's forces allowing him to take stock.

01:35:36A clutter of crimson-armoured corpses lay at the end of the central channel, victims

01:35:41of the World-Eaters' ferocity.

01:35:43He also saw Bryngar, leading his blood-claws, tangled up in a short-range fire-storm, with

01:35:48a squad of word-bearers emerging from the ruin of the collapsed observation-platform.

01:35:54The fighting was fierce, and it didn't look like the Sons of Rus would be able to bolster

01:35:58them.

01:35:59Scrawl heaved a dying man off the floor and cut him in two at the waist with a slash of

01:36:03his chain-axe.

01:36:05It got Antiges's attention.

01:36:07"'Captain,' called the ultramarine, seeing a break in the cohort's ranks for the first

01:36:11time, "'drive on to the ship, now!'

01:36:15Scrawl looked back at him.

01:36:16For a split second there was nothing in the World-Eater's face but hatred, nothing to

01:36:20suggest that he saw Antiges as anything but another enemy.

01:36:24The moment passed, and the eyes that looked at the ultramarine belonged to Scrawl again.

01:36:29The World-Eater picked up his shield from the ground, discarded in his lust for carnage,

01:36:34shook his head to get the worst of the blood out of his eyes, and called to his squad to

01:36:38follow.

01:36:39"'Form up on me, and keep moving!' shouted Antiges, pointing towards the furious abyss

01:36:45with his chain-sword.

01:36:46A word-bearer stumbled out of the wreckage of the platform, strafing wildly with his

01:36:52bolter.

01:36:53Bryngar stepped out of the kill-zone and beheaded the Astartes with a sweep of fell-tooth.

01:36:58A second followed, and the Space-Wolf leapt forward, burying the blade in the legionary's

01:37:03cranium.

01:37:04A third was dragged from the collapsed building, half-dazed, by Roogeveld, who executed him

01:37:09with a burst from his bolt-pistol.

01:37:12After the initial slaughter, though, the word-bearers managed to put up more of a fight.

01:37:17Wreathed in superheated plasma, Elfjall fell screaming, and Vorrick was dismembered by

01:37:21a fusillade of bolter-fire.

01:37:23Bryngar snarled at the losses, whipping another word-bearer off his feet at the edge of the

01:37:29ruins, before lunging down to tear out his throat with his teeth.

01:37:33Howling in fury, the wolf-guard was about to press on when whickering bolter-fire churned

01:37:38up the ferrocrete debris around him.

01:37:40Reeling against the sudden assault, the venerable wolf could only watch as a line of blood stitched

01:37:45up Svorevel's cuirass.

01:37:47He spun and fell in a lifeless heap.

01:37:51A second squad of word-bearers advanced on them, unseen from the original route of attack.

01:37:56Bryngar unhitched his bolter in the face of this new threat, and blew the face-plate off

01:38:00one word-bearer's helmet, and smashed a chunk from the shoulder-pad of another as they came

01:38:04on.

01:38:05"'In to them!' he raged, weapon blazing as he charged the enemy.

01:38:11The howling reply of his remaining blood-claws was a feral chorus to the brutal bolter din.

01:38:19Antigues thrust his chainsaw through the word-bearer's chest.

01:38:22As they had closed on the furious abyss, the cohorts, a bloody mess in their wake, another

01:38:26line of defenders had emerged.

01:38:29Fellow Astartes, their erstwhile brothers, the word-bearers, decked in crimson armour

01:38:33replete with debased scratchings and ragged scrolls of parchment, they were a dark shadow

01:38:38of the proud warriors Antigues remembered.

01:38:41The word-bearer jerked as he tried to wrench himself free of the churning blade that impaled

01:38:46him, but then it passed through his spine, and all he could do was vomit a plume of blood.

01:38:53Suddenly it was real.

01:38:55These word-bearers, Astartes and brothers to all space-marines, were the enemy.

01:39:02Antigues realised in that moment that he hadn't really believed it before.

01:39:05There was no time to consider it further, as a second word-bearer came at him with a

01:39:09power-maul.

01:39:11Antigues caught the weapon just before it cleaved through his face, and rammed his knee

01:39:14into the Astartes' stomach, but his enemy stayed locked with him.

01:39:18Behind the lenses of the word-bearer's helmet the ultramarine could just see an eye narrowed

01:39:22in anger.

01:39:24There was no brotherhood there.

01:39:26In a sudden fury of churning steel and wrath, Skrull tore the word-bearer off Antigues and

01:39:31ripped him apart with his chain-axe.

01:39:34Finishing the grisly work quickly, the World-Eater glanced back at his battle-brother.

01:39:39Too intense for you, ultramarine!

01:39:43A word-bearer's elbow caught Bringar on the side of the head, and the space-wolf fell

01:39:47back.

01:39:49Rolling out of a second attack, he switched to his bolter and, one-handed, unloaded the

01:39:53magazine into his assailant's stomach.

01:39:56The word-bearer had life in him yet, though, and Roosevelt stalked forward, drawing a knife

01:40:00from a scabbard at his waist.

01:40:02He jammed the point through the gap in the wounded traitor's gorget.

01:40:07Bringar grunted thanks to the blood-claw and moved on into the word-bearer squad that

01:40:11had set upon them.

01:40:13Combined with the survivors from the platform's destruction, the space-wolves were hard-pressed.

01:40:17The wolf-guard was determined to lead by example, however, and scythed through crimson ceramite,

01:40:23the bloody fell-tooth clutched in his grasp.

01:40:27Cutting down an enemy Astartes with a swift diagonal slice across the neck and chest,

01:40:32Bringar kicked the word-bearer aside to face a new opponent.

01:40:35Suddenly the tempo of the battle changed.

01:40:38The fury and ferocity exploding around him dulled and slowed as he stood eye to eye with

01:40:43a fellow-captain.

01:40:45This was clearly their leader—clearly a veteran, if the ruin and subsequent reconstruction

01:40:49of his face was any measure.

01:40:51A two-handed power-sword swung freely in his fists, which he wielded like a mace.

01:40:57A trio of blood-claws lay at the warrior's feet.

01:41:00They had died on that sword, their bodies split in two and spilling organs over the

01:41:04floor of the dock.

01:41:06Now face me! snarled the wolf-guard, and hefted fell-tooth in a feral challenge.

01:41:13The word-bearer-captain drove at the space-wolf, using his body like a battering-ram, the blade

01:41:18as its tip.

01:41:20The charge was fast—so fast that Bringar didn't get out of the way in time, and took

01:41:24a glancing blow against his pauldron.

01:41:27White fire surged into his shoulder, but the wolf-guard mastered the pain quickly and turned

01:41:31with the attack, using its momentum and raking fell-tooth down his opponent's back.

01:41:36The word-bearer roared and spun on his heel, driving the two-handed blade at him, like

01:41:40a spear at first, to pitch the space-wolf off balance, and then as a club to bludgeon

01:41:45him to death.

01:41:46A wild swipe slapped the flat edge of the weapon against Bringar's outstretched arm.

01:41:51His bolter fell from nerveless fingers as the blow struck a muscle-cluster, numbed even

01:41:56through his power-armour.

01:41:58Bringar smashed the brutal sword aside as it came for another slash, and used his forward

01:42:02momentum to get inside his attacker's reach.

01:42:06Pressing a rune on fell-tooth's hilt, a long spike slid from the tip of the axe.

01:42:11Bringar roared in savage exultation as he plunged it deep into one of the word-bearer's

01:42:15biceps and twisted.

01:42:18The word-bearer's arm was torn open, revealing wet muscle and gore.

01:42:22No pain registered on his face as he leapt towards Bringar in an attempt to throw him

01:42:27off balance and bring his sword to bear again.

01:42:30Using his opponent's momentum, Bringar lifted the word-bearer off his feet and smashed him

01:42:34to the ground.

01:42:35He yanked the dazed enemy captain up again, gripping his gorget, and seized his head by

01:42:39the chin.

01:42:40Emitting a terrible roar that flung blood and spittle into his enemy's face, Bringar

01:42:45rammed the spike of fell-tooth through his throat.

01:42:48The word-bearer's good eye bulged out as it fought the wracking pain of his imminent death.

01:42:53He coughed up blood, and it sheeted down the front of his armour, covering it with

01:42:57a new wet shade of crimson.

01:43:00Bringar spat in his face and let the word-bearer fall.

01:43:05Bolter-shells blistered the ground around him as yet more word-bearers converged on

01:43:09them.

01:43:10Bringar, in what was left of his blood-claws, returned fire and sought cover even as they

01:43:14fell back.

01:43:15The attack was short-lived, the Astartes merely dragging away the body of their fallen captain

01:43:20before retreating too.

01:43:23Rapid and sporadic gunfire kept the space-wolves at bay as the remaining word-bearers fell

01:43:28back.

01:43:29Crouching behind the ruin of a disused fuel-tanker, Bringar snatched a glance across the battlefield.

01:43:35Skrall and Antiges were advancing towards the furious abyss with a small combat squad

01:43:39of world-eaters scattering crew-men from the battleship as they went.

01:43:44Bringar envied them.

01:43:46Even before the plasma drives of the word-bearer's mighty battleship started to power up, he

01:43:51knew that the enemy was leaving.

01:43:54The pinning-fire from their retreating assailants was gradually diminishing, and all across

01:43:57the dockyard enemy Astartes were heading back to embarkation-ports in the hull of the vast

01:44:02vessel.

01:44:03Like the orca, I would have gutted that beast inside out, he thought with dark regret, and

01:44:10cried out his lament.

01:44:12Blood flecked from his beard and hair as he threw back his head, and the long hollow note

01:44:16tore from his throat.

01:44:19Picking up the call, his blood-claws arched their necks back as one, and joined the chorus-howl.

01:44:27Gun-fire spattered down at the Astartes, ricocheting off metal and kicking out sparks.

01:44:32Together with the ultramarine, Antiges, and three of his battle-brothers, the world-eater

01:44:36captain had gained a furious abyss, entering into the belly of the ship through one of

01:44:41the embarkation-ports and heading down.

01:44:44Their progress had been arrested inevitably when the on-board patrols had caught up with

01:44:48them at the intersection of a coolant-pipe.

01:44:50The fire was coming from one end of the corridor, distant, shadowy figures tramping urgently

01:44:55down the wide, curved diameter of the pipe.

01:44:58Metal instrumentation provided some cover, but the Astartes were as good as dead if they

01:45:02didn't move on quickly.

01:45:04Skrall took part of the fusillade on his storm-shield, casings striking the grating at his feet like

01:45:10brass rain, bolter-fire.

01:45:13Those danced against the muzzle-flashes, huge armoured bodies, helmets and shoulder-pads—Astartes—word-bearers.

01:45:23One of Skrall's warriors, Orlac, cut through a hatch in the ceiling with his chain-axe.

01:45:28The slab of metal clanged down, and he hauled himself up swiftly.

01:45:32Rogarth stood point as the legionaries made their way further inwards.

01:45:36Having lost both his weapons in the brutal melee outside the ship, he slammed the bolter

01:45:40he had scavenged into rapid fire and hosed the conduit, punching ragged holes into the

01:45:45metal.

01:45:46The other world-eaters lent the fire of their bolt-pistols, keeping their enemies at bay.

01:45:51Half the world-eaters were through the hatch before the word-bearers returned fire.

01:45:56Only Skrall and Antiges remained, the ultramarine taking over from Rogarth as he unclipped a

01:46:00brace of frag-grenades from his belt and rolled them down the conduit.

01:46:05Skrall leapt up the hatch as return bolter-fire blazed past him.

01:46:09Antiges followed, the world-eater-captain hauling the ultramarine up, as the first of

01:46:13the explosions ripped down the conduit, shredding plating and buying time.

01:46:19"'Mountains of mackrack!' breathed Antiges.

01:46:24The engine-room of a furious abyss was like a cathedral to machinery.

01:46:29It was vast.

01:46:31The criss-crossing ribs of a vaulted ceiling reached through the gloom.

01:46:35The immense hulks of the cylindrical exhaust chambers were decorated with steel ribbing

01:46:39and iron scroll-work, and inscribed with high Gothic text running along their whole length.

01:46:45Multiple levels were delineated by gantries and lattice-like overhead walkways.

01:46:50Word-bearers' banners hung from the web of iron above them, bearing the symbols of the

01:46:54Legion's chapters.

01:46:55A quill with a drop of blood at its nib, an open hand with an eye in the palm, a burning

01:47:01book, and a sceptre crowned with a skull.

01:47:05The metallic throb of the engines was like the ship's own monstrous heartbeat.

01:47:10The conduit in the labyrinthine ship had led the Astartes to this place, and though the

01:47:14sounds of pursuit were distant and hollow, the enemy would not be far behind.

01:47:19"'Find something to destroy,' said Skrull.

01:47:22"'Get to the reactors, if you can!'

01:47:25Antiges tried to take in the vastness of the engine-room.

01:47:28Even with the munitions they had at their disposal, and the fact that they were Astartes,

01:47:32they would still have a hard time doing anything that could cripple the furious abyss.

01:47:36"'No,' said Antiges, 'we drive onwards.

01:47:39Look for ordnance or cogitators.

01:47:41We can't sabotage this vessel attacking blindly.'

01:47:43Skrull looked back at his squad.

01:47:46The last of them was being dragged up through the hatch.

01:47:49The coolant-pipe they had entered through was one of many forming a tangle of pipes

01:47:53and junctions around the exhaust-chambers.

01:47:56Between the pipes was darkness, and there was no telling how far down it went.

01:48:00"'We might not find her!'

01:48:02"'We're not getting back out!' snapped Antiges.

01:48:05Skrull nodded.

01:48:07"'Forwards, then!'

01:48:09Antiges led the Astartes up onto the nearest walkway above the exhaust-chambers.

01:48:14The immense shapes of generatoria loomed towards the ship's stern, connected to the even larger

01:48:19plasma-reactors somewhere below.

01:48:22Ahead of them, the walkway wound into a dark steel valley between enormous pounding pistons.

01:48:29Shapes were gathering on a walkway above them, hidden by the solid metal of a control-deck.

01:48:33It seemed that the engineering menials had been ordered out of the chamber, which meant

01:48:37that the word-bearers planned to stop them here.

01:48:40"'Cover!' shouted Skrull, but there was little to be had when the volt of fire from the word-bearers

01:48:45hammered down at them.

01:48:47Rogarth returned fire with his scavenged bolter, but there was little the others could do with

01:48:51pistols and close-combat weapons.

01:48:53One of Skrull's battle-brothers was hit square in the chest and knocked over a guard-rail.

01:48:58He fell onto the engine-block below, and was pounded flat by a piston hammering down

01:49:03on him.

01:49:04Orlac's arm disappeared in a spray of blood, and he fell to the walkway.

01:49:09Antigues hoisted him bodily to his feet, and dragged him along as more gun-fire streaked

01:49:13from above.

01:49:14"'Break for it!' Skrull bellowed, seeing a lull in the fuselage hammering them.

01:49:20Then he was on his feet, and running for the cover at the end of the engine-block, where

01:49:24the walkway led up into a great wall of galleries and machinery.

01:49:28Even hurried by Antigues, Orlac lingered behind, and was speared through the back by storm-bolter

01:49:34rounds.

01:49:35Smoke poured from the backpack of his armour, mixed with a spray of blood.

01:49:40Orlac!

01:49:41Skrull had led him through a dozen battlefields.

01:49:44He was a brother, as they all were.

01:49:46The World-Eater-Captain took that grief and locked it away beneath his consciousness,

01:49:51but it mixed with the pool of rage that he would call on again when the time was right.

01:49:56Skrull reached cover.

01:49:58The furious abyss closed around him.

01:50:00He was in an equipment-room, the walls covered in racks of hydraulic drills, wrenches, and

01:50:04hammers.

01:50:06Human deck-crews fled in wild panic as the World-Eaters burst in, followed by Antigues.

01:50:12There were just three left.

01:50:13It was hardly the raiding force they needed to bring the vast ship to heel.

01:50:18Skrull noticed something inscribed on the ceiling of the chamber.

01:50:22BUILD THE WORD OF LORGAR FROM THIS STEEL.

01:50:26LIVE AS IT IS WRITTEN.

01:50:28MOVE!

01:50:29MOVE!

01:50:30THEY'RE HEADING DOWN AFTER US, bellowed Antigues, demanding his attention.

01:50:34WE NEED TO HOLD THEM UP.

01:50:35NO WAY WE CAN DODGE BOAT OF FIRE AND WRECK THE SHIP AT THE SAME TIME, said Skrull, slamming

01:50:40the portal shut behind them and using a stolen wrench to wedge it.

01:50:43THREE SQUADS AT LEAST, Antigues replied, his breathing heavy but measured.

01:50:47NO WAY WE CAN BEAT THEM.

01:50:49I'LL SLOW THEM, said Rogarth, planting his feet and checking the clip in his bolter.

01:50:55Antigues regarded the World-Eater.

01:50:56The white and blue of his armour was already scored by bullet wounds and scorched by plasma

01:51:01burns.

01:51:02YOUR SACRIFICE WILL BE REMEMBERED, said Antigues reverently.

01:51:06No such sentiment was evident from the World-Eater's captain, who tossed Rogarth his boat-pistol.

01:51:11GIVE THEM NO QUARTER, he snarled, turning abruptly to lead what was left of the raiding

01:51:16party through the tangle of anterooms and corridors.

01:51:20The shouts of pursuers relaying their position followed them like hollow ghost-whispers,

01:51:25and the thud of armoured feet on the floor was dull and resonant in their wake.

01:51:30Together Antigues and Skrull moved swiftly across the hinterlands of the engine-room

01:51:34and through a doorway in the bulkhead.

01:51:37Not long before they had left the chamber, the fierce bark of bolt of fire erupted behind

01:51:41them.

01:51:42It didn't last long, and deathly silence reigned for a moment before their relentless

01:51:46pursuers could be heard once more.

01:51:49Mangled with a cacophony of voices emitted from the ship's voxer-ray, it became obvious

01:51:53that a widespread search had begun.

01:51:55The Furious's warriors were converging on the Astartes.

01:51:59They were getting closer every second.

01:52:03Passing through an empty storage-chamber, Skrull kicked open a door to reveal another

01:52:07corridor.

01:52:08The atmosphere was close and hot, the walls lined with burning torches.

01:52:12The sight was incongruous amongst the decks and trappings of a space-ship, but it also

01:52:16led downwards and prowards in the direction where the Astartes guessed the primary ordnance

01:52:21deck would be.

01:52:22What did they build in here?

01:52:25hissed Antigues, giving voice to his thoughts as they moved down the corridor.

01:52:29The Ultramarine got his answer as he emerged from the far end of the tunnel.

01:52:34A vast plaza stretched out in front of them.

01:52:38Walls lined with baroque statues of deep red steel rose up into a domed ceiling.

01:52:43The vault at the apex of the massive chamber was hazy with incense and supported by dramatic

01:52:48false columns.

01:52:50Prayers were inscribed on the flagstone floor.

01:52:53An altar and pulpit stood at the far end of a central aisle.

01:52:56There was only one word to describe it—a cathedral.

01:53:00In the supposed Age of Enlightenment, when all superstition and religion was to be expunged

01:53:04from the galaxy to be replaced by science and understanding, all that the Emperor had

01:53:09decreed was dishonoured by the chamber's very existence.

01:53:14Antigues found that he had left a bitter taste in his mouth, and was ready to tear down the

01:53:18effigies and rend this temple of false idolatry to the ground with his bare hands, when a

01:53:23voice echoed out of the surrounding gloom.

01:53:26There is no escape!

01:53:28The ultramarine saw Skrall throw himself against a pillar.

01:53:32Antigues swiftly adopted a crouching position, bolt-pistol outstretched in a two-handed grip,

01:53:37scanning the darkness.

01:53:38He could just make out the crimson armour at the far end of the cathedral.

01:53:42The speaker, his tone eerily calm and cultured, was sheltering behind the altar.

01:53:47The word-bearer was not alone.

01:53:50Booted feet clacking against the stone floor behind the Astartes confirmed the threat.

01:53:55Antigues and the World-Eater were covered from both sides of the chamber.

01:53:58"'I am Sergeant-Commander Reskiel of the Word-Bearers,' said the speaker, identifying

01:54:04himself.

01:54:05"'Throw down your arms and surrender at once,' he warned, all the culture evaporating.

01:54:09"'After you've fired on us and slew our brothers,' Skrall raged.

01:54:14"'This need not end in further bloodshed,' Reskiel added.

01:54:19Antigues felt the enemy converging on them, heard the faint scrape of ceramite against

01:54:23the stone as they closed.

01:54:25"'What is this place, word-bearer?' asked the ultramarine, panning his sights first

01:54:30across the pulpit and then further out until he had swept the gloom around them.

01:54:34"'Such religiosity is not condoned by the Emperor.

01:54:37You openly defy his will.

01:54:39Have you reverted to primitive debasement and superstition?' he asked, trying to goad

01:54:44them, trying to find time to devise a plan, expose a weakness.

01:54:48"'Is all cultus like this now?'

01:54:51"'There is nothing primitive about the vision of our Primarch or his home world,' said Reskiel

01:54:57levelly, clearly wise to the ultramarine's stratagem.

01:55:01Stepping out from behind the altar, the sergeant-commander allowed the diffuse torchlight to bathe him

01:55:06in its glow.

01:55:07He was young, but highly decorated, judging by the honour studs and medals on his crimson

01:55:12armour.

01:55:13The trappings of heroism and glory, warred with strips of parchment and leaves of tattered

01:55:17vellum scripted in wretched verse.

01:55:20A squad of word-bearers emerged into the cathedral behind him, their bolters trained on the shadows

01:55:25where Antigues and Skrull were in cover.

01:55:27"'Show yourselves and let us speak brother to brother,' said Reskiel, allowing his guardians

01:55:33to move in front of him.

01:55:34"'You are no brother of mine!' shouted Skrull.

01:55:38"'Get ready!'

01:55:39Antigues hissed to his ally as Reskiel raised a hand.

01:55:43The ultramarine knew, with an ingrained warrior instinct, that he was about to give the order

01:55:47to open fire.

01:55:49He trained his bolt-pistol on a cluster of word-bearers at the front of the advancing

01:55:53guards.

01:55:54Skrull roared, surging out of cover and throwing his chain-axe.

01:55:58He thumbed the activation-stud as if it were his own.

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