Battle for the Abyss:The Horus Heresy Book 8 Part 5/6

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Transcript

00:00:00Using the shadows like a concealing cloak, Scrawl moved into the room. As he got further

00:00:06inside, he realised that it was an anatomy theatre. A surgeon's slab dominated the centre

00:00:12of the room, surrounded by circular tiers of seating, though they were not occupied.

00:00:17Whatever ritual or experiment was to be performed here was a clandestine one. The chaplain,

00:00:23the vestments he wore across his armour fringed with black trim, beckoned the acolytes forward.

00:00:29The debased creatures, hunchbacked and robed, slunk to the table as one. Sibilant emanations

00:00:34pierced the silence softly, as they took the disparate sections of Antigues's corpse and

00:00:40laid them out on the slab. Obscene and profane, the gorge in Scrawl's throat rose and his

00:00:46anger swelled at the sight of the act. Taken apart like that, it was as if Antigues was

00:00:51no more than a machine to be stripped down or meat cleaved at the butcher's block. Coldness

00:00:57smothered the anger and bile within Scrawl, as if his blood had been drained away and

00:01:01replaced with ice. It was as if a film of dirt overlaid him and choked him all at once.

00:01:08Scrawl had done terrible things. At the sack of Sholomgrad, and the burning of the Athelion

00:01:13fleet, innocents had died. Even at Bacchotriambaron he had killed in cold blood for the sake of

00:01:18slaking his thirst for carnage. But this was different. It was calculated and precise.

00:01:24The systematic and ritual dismemberment of another Astartes, so invasive, so fundamentally

00:01:30destructive, that his essence was forever lost. There would be no honours for him, no

00:01:35clean death on the field of battle, as it should be for all warriors. There was dignity

00:01:39in that. No, this was an aberration, soulless and terrible. To think of a fellow Astartes

00:01:46being so shamed, and by one of his battle-brothers! It took all of Scrawl's resolve not to wade

00:01:52in and kill them all for such defilement.

00:01:56Stepping forward, the chaplain approached the table, the Acolytes retreating obsequiously

00:02:00as he picked up one of Antigus's arms to inspect it.

00:02:04"'There is no head,' he asked, setting the limb back down as he turned to his fellow

00:02:09word-bearer.

00:02:10"'Wassoric required it,' replied Rescul.

00:02:14"'I see. And now our omniscient lord would have us yoke this chaplain for further favours

00:02:20of the warp.' There was an almost contemptuous tone to the chaplain's words.

00:02:25"'You speak out of turn, Icthalon,' Rescul snapped.

00:02:28"'You would do well to remember who is master aboard this ship. Be still, sycophant!'

00:02:34The chaplain, Icthalon, fashioned his retort into a snarl.

00:02:37"'Your allegiance is well known to all, as is your ambition.'

00:02:43Rescul moved to respond, but was cut off.

00:02:45"'Hold your tongue! Think on the fate of those left at Baca Triumviron. Think of Altys before

00:02:52you speak of whom is master. In this place,' he said, spreading his arms to encompass the

00:02:58macabre surgery, 'you supplicate yourself to me. Zadkiel's wizened astropath has had

00:03:04his turn and sealed the pact with Wassoric. Now I will divine what I can from what remains.

00:03:11Think no further. I have need to concentrate, and you try my patience, Rescul.'

00:03:19The other word-bearer, cowed by the tirade, retreated back into the shadows to let the

00:03:24chaplain work. Scrawl kept watching with her bored satisfaction, but was intrigued by the

00:03:30obvious dissension within the word-bearer's ranks.

00:03:33"'Warrior's hands,' said Icthalon, gauntleted fingers tracing Antiguis's palm, as he resumed

00:03:40his morbid examination, "'strong and instinctive. But I will need more.' The chaplain gestured

00:03:48at the former ultramarine's torso. "'Open it.'

00:03:53One of the acolytes took a las-cutter from beneath the slab and sheared through the front

00:03:57of Antiguis's breastplate. The gilded decoration split off from the ceramite and clattered

00:04:02to the floor. The word-bearer ignored it. Once the acolyte with the cutter retreated,

00:04:08Icthalon inserted his fingers into the cut. With a grunt of effort he forced the ultramarine's

00:04:12chest open. The complex mass of an Astarte's organs was exposed. Scrawl could make out

00:04:19the two hearts and third lung, together with the reverse of the bony breastplate that fused

00:04:24from every Astarte's ribs.

00:04:27The chaplain dug a hand into the gory dark and extracted an organ. It looked like the

00:04:32ulytic kidney, or perhaps the omophagea. Icthalon regarded it coolly, putting the organ down

00:04:38and yanking out a handful of entrails. He cast them across the slab and stood for a

00:04:43long time, peering into the loops of tissue and sprays of blood.

00:04:47"'Macragge suspects nothing,' he hissed, discerning meaning from the act. Running a finger through

00:04:53the bloody miasma, he added, "'Here, that's our route. It lies open to us.'

00:05:00"'What of Calth?' Rescul asked from the darkness.

00:05:03"'That is unclear,' Icthalon replied. "'Corferon has no obstacles, save any he makes for himself.'

00:05:12The chaplain peered into Antigus's open chest again.

00:05:15"'There is veining on the third lung. Guilliman is represented there as just a man—not a

00:05:21Primarch, just a man—ignorant of his fate.' Icthalon's voice dripped with malice.

00:05:28The chaplain looked further, his gaze lingering for a moment on one of Antigus's hearts before

00:05:33his head snapped up quickly.

00:05:35"'We are not alone,' he snarled.

00:05:38Rescul's bolter swung up in readiness, and he barked into the transponder in his gorget.

00:05:42"'In the anatomy theatre—now!' A troop of four word-bearers barged into the room, weapons

00:05:48drawn.

00:05:49"'Spread out!' Rescul bellowed.

00:05:51"'Find him!'

00:05:53Scrawl backed out of the chamber. He forged back down the way he had come, and split off

00:05:57from the candlelit path, kicking open a maintenance hatch and dropping into a tangle of wiring

00:06:02and circuitry. He stormed ahead, relying on the ship to hide him for a little longer.

00:06:07He wanted to feel rage and be comforted by it, but he couldn't reach it. He felt numb.

00:06:16Visions raced into Cestus's mind as he felt all of tangible reality fall away around him.

00:06:22At once he was suspended in the depths of real space, for Masca rolled beneath its laborious

00:06:27orbit somehow visible. Silvered torpedoes struck suddenly against its surface at strategic

00:06:33points across the moon. Miniature detonations were discernible as a slow shock-wave resonated

00:06:38over it in ripples of destructive force. Cestus saw tiny fractures in the outer crust, magnifying

00:06:45with each passing second into massive fissures that yawned like jagged mouths. For Masca

00:06:51glowed and pulsed as if it were a throbbing heart giving out its last inexorable beat.

00:06:57The moon exploded. Debris cascaded outwards in shuddering waves, minuscule asteroids burning

00:07:04up in the atmosphere of nearby Macragge. A fleet suspended in the planet's upper atmosphere

00:07:10was destroyed. Impossibly, Cestus heard the screams of his home-world's inhabitants below,

00:07:15as the detritus of Ormasca's death rained upon them in superheated waves of rock.

00:07:21Everything moved in the debris field, shielded from the thundering defence lasers of Macragge's

00:07:26surface. Getting ever closer, the dark shape breached the planet's atmosphere. The vision

00:07:31shifted to the industrial hive of the cities. A cloud of gas boiled along the streets, engulfing

00:07:36the screaming populace. The image changed again, depicting other ships, great vessels

00:07:42of the Crusade, held in orbit at Calth, hit by an errant meteor storm.

00:07:48Cestus watched in horror as they broke up against the onslaught, the stylized ewe of

00:07:53his legion immolated in flame. The meteor shower struck Calth, forcing its way through

00:07:58the planet's atmosphere to where his battle-brothers mustered below. Cestus roared in anguish,

00:08:04furious at his impotence, screaming a desperate warning that his brothers and his primarch

00:08:08would never hear.

00:08:10The scene changed once more, as the void of real space became metal. As if propelled at

00:08:15subsonic speed, Cestus flew through the tunnels and chambers of a ship. Through conducts,

00:08:21across heaving generators, beyond the fire of immense plasma-driven engines, he came

00:08:25at last to an ordnance deck. There, sitting innocuously amongst the other munitions, was

00:08:31a lethal payload. Though he could not explain how, he knew it at once to be a viral torpedo

00:08:37and the effective death warrant of Macragge.

00:08:41The words resolved themselves in the ultramarine's mind, taunting him, goading him. Cestus railed

00:08:49against the sense of doom, the fathomless despair they evoked. He bellowed, loud and

00:08:54hard, the only name he could think of to repel it—'Kill him, man!'

00:09:00Cestus was back in the isolation-chamber. He saw Motep sitting across from him. The

00:09:06grandson's face was haggard and covered in a sheen of sweat.

00:09:10Cestus staggered backwards as recall returned, wrenching his bolt-pistol from its holster

00:09:14with difficulty, and pointing it waveringly at Motep.

00:09:18"'What did you do to me?' he hissed, shaking his head in an effort to banish the lingering

00:09:23images and sensations.

00:09:25"'I showed you the truth,' Motep gasped, breathing raggedly as he propped himself up

00:09:31against the wall of a cell, "'by sharing my memories, the memories of Ultus, with you.'

00:09:38"'It is no different to the homophagia, though the absorption of memory is conducted

00:09:43psychically and not biologically,' he pleaded.

00:09:47Cestus kept his aim on the Thousand Sun.

00:09:49"'Was it real?' he asked.

00:09:51"'What I witnessed, was it real?' he demanded, stowing the bolt-pistol in favour of grabbing

00:09:55Motep by the throat.

00:09:57"'Yes!' the Thousand Sun spat through choking breaths.

00:10:02Cestus held him there for a moment longer, thinking that he might crush the life out

00:10:05of the fellow-Astartes.

00:10:06Exhaling deeply, Cestus let Motep go.

00:10:11The Thousand Sun doubled over, coughing as he gasped for breath and rubbed his throat.

00:10:15"'They do not plan to attack Kalth or destroy Macragge.

00:10:19They want to conquer them both and bring the Legion to heel, or vanquish it if it does

00:10:23not yield,' said Cestus, his thoughts and fears coming out in a flood.

00:10:28Motep looked up at the frantic ultramarine and nodded.

00:10:30"'And the destruction of Formasca is where it will begin.'

00:10:34"'The ship,' Cestus ventured, beginning to calm down.

00:10:39"'That was the furious abyss, wasn't it?

00:10:42And the viral payload is the method of extermination for the people of Macragge.'

00:10:46"'You have seen what I saw, and what Altus knew,' Motep confirmed, regaining his composure

00:10:53and sitting up.

00:10:55Cestus's gaze was distant as he struggled to process everything he had learned, together

00:10:59with resisting the urge to vomit against the invasive psychic experience.

00:11:04He looked back at Motep, a suspicious cast to his eyes and face.

00:11:08"'Why are you here, Motep?

00:11:11I mean, why are you really here?'

00:11:14The Thousand Sun gazed back for a moment, and then withdrew his hood, and sighed deeply.

00:11:20"'I have seen the lines of fate, ultramarine.

00:11:25"'I knew long before we made contact with the furious abyss, back when we were on Vangelis,

00:11:30that my destiny lay with this ship, that this mission—your mission—was important.

00:11:37My legion is cursed with psychic mutation, but my lord Magnus taught us to harness it,

00:11:41to commune with the warp, and fashion that communion into true power.'

00:11:46Motep ignored the growing revulsion in Cestus's face as he spoke of the Imperion, and went

00:11:51on.

00:11:52"'Nykir was no council, ultramarine.

00:11:56It was a trial, not only of my lord Magnus, but of the entire Thousand Sun's legion.

00:12:02The Emperor's edict wounded him, like a father's disapproval and chastisement would wound any

00:12:07child.

00:12:09What I told you at Vangelis—that I sought to improve the reputation of my legion in

00:12:14the eyes of the sons of Gilliman, if no other—was in part true.

00:12:19I desire only to open your eyes to the potential of the psychic, and how it is a boon, a ready

00:12:25weapon to use against our enemies.'

00:12:27Cestus's expression was stern in the face of Motep's impassioned arguments.

00:12:33"'You saved us all in the lance-deck,' said the ultramarine.

00:12:36"'You probably did the same when we fought what became of the Fireblade.

00:12:41But your ambition overreaches you, Motep.

00:12:43I have stayed Bryngar's hand, but from this point on you will remain here in isolation.

00:12:50If we are successful and can reach Macragge or some other Imperial stronghold, you will

00:12:54face trial, and there your fate will be decided.'

00:12:59Cestus got to his feet and turned.

00:13:01As he was about to leave the room, he paused.

00:13:03"'If you ever invade my mind like that again, I will execute you myself,' he added, and

00:13:10left, the cell-door sliding shut behind him.

00:13:14"'How narrow your mind is,' Motep hissed, focusing at once on the reflective sheen of

00:13:20the cell-wall.

00:13:21"'How ignorant you are!

00:13:24Of what is to come!'

00:13:29CHAPTER XVI

00:13:31FLEET

00:13:32CORFERON

00:13:33A STORM BREAKS

00:13:34"'That,' said Orcadis, "'is Macragge.'

00:13:40The navigator had received instructions from his admiral that whilst they were still in

00:13:44the warp he should make regular reports on their progress.

00:13:48The appearance of the Ultramarine's home-world, albeit through the misted lens of the Imperion,

00:13:53was worthy of note, and so he had summoned her.

00:13:56The observation-blister was a chamber on the same deck of the Rothwell as the bridge, and

00:14:00within walking distance.

00:14:02The room was usually reserved for formal gatherings when officers came together to

00:14:06formalise some business within the Saturnine fleet.

00:14:09Its grand transparent dome afforded a view of space that lent gravitas to the matters

00:14:14at hand.

00:14:15In the warp, of course, it was strictly off-limits, and its eye was kept permanently closed.

00:14:21The eye was open, but the dome was masked with heavy filters that kept all but the most

00:14:26mundane wavelengths of light out of the blister.

00:14:30Admiral Kaminska faced away from the navigator, and actually followed Orcadis's gaze through

00:14:35a mirror-screen that offered a hazy representation of what he was seeing.

00:14:39To look at the warp, even filtered as it was, would be incredibly dangerous for her.

00:14:44"'If you could see it as I can,' Orcadis hissed, allowing a reverent tone to colour his voice,

00:14:51"'what wonders there are out in the void!

00:14:54There is beauty in the galaxy for those who can but see it!'

00:14:58"'I'm happy staying blind,' said Kaminska.

00:15:02The view through the filters and reflected by the mirror-screen was heavily distorted,

00:15:06but she could make out a crescent-shaped mass of light hanging over the ship.

00:15:10Though she had no frame of reference, she had an impression of enormous distance.

00:15:14"'McCragge!' muttered Orcadis.

00:15:17"'See how it glows, the brightest consolation in this depth of the abyss!

00:15:23All those hard-working souls toiling at its surface, their combined life-spark is refulgent

00:15:28to my eyes.

00:15:30Ultramar is the most heavily populated system in the whole segmentum, and the minds of its

00:15:35citizens are bright and full of hope.

00:15:37That is what I mean by beauty.

00:15:40It is a beacon, one that shines amidst the malice and bleakness of the Empyrean tide.'

00:15:47Kaminska continued to regard the dim mirror-image of the warp through the minute aperture offered

00:15:52by the filters.

00:15:54Old space-farer's tales were full of the effects the naked warp could have on a human mind.

00:16:00Madness was the most merciful fate, they said.

00:16:03Mutation, excruciating spontaneous cancers, and even possession by some malfeasant presence

00:16:08all featured prominently.

00:16:10Kaminska felt a flicker of vulnerability, and was glad that only the navigator was there

00:16:14with her.

00:16:15"'Is this why you summoned me?' she asked, having little time or inclination for a philosophical

00:16:21debate concerning the immaterium.

00:16:23Her mind was on other matters—namely, the sudden revival of Motep, Ancestus's meeting

00:16:29with a thousand sun.

00:16:30She hoped it would yield some good news.'

00:16:32"'No,' Orcardus answered simply, puncturing the admiral's introspection and pointing to

00:16:38a different region of the warp.

00:16:41It was a dim mass of glowing bluffs, like the top of endless cliffs reaching down into

00:16:45blackness.

00:16:46Above the cliffs was a streak of red.

00:16:49"'I am not well versed in reading the Imperian Tides, navigator,' she snapped, weary of Orcardus's

00:16:55eccentricities, which were ubiquitous amongst all the great navigator-houses.

00:17:00What am I looking at?'

00:17:01"'Formations like these cliffs are common enough in the abyss,' he explained, oblivious

00:17:07to Kaminska's impatience.

00:17:08"'I am steering us well clear of them, and I am certain that our quarry has taken the

00:17:14same route.

00:17:15The formation above them, however, is rather more troubling.'

00:17:18"'Another world, perhaps,' ventured Kaminska.

00:17:22'There's plenty of new settlement out here, near the fringe.'

00:17:25"'I suspected that.

00:17:28But it is not a planet.

00:17:29I believe it is another ship.'

00:17:31"'A second vessel?'

00:17:33"'No.

00:17:34I think it is a fleet.'

00:17:36"'Are they following us?' asked Kaminska, a knot of dread building in her stomach.

00:17:41"'I cannot tell.

00:17:43Distance is relative down here,' the navigator admitted.

00:17:46"'Could it be the Ultramarines?

00:17:48Their legion was heading for Kalth?'

00:17:50"'It is possible.

00:17:52Kalth could be its destination, I suppose.'

00:17:54"'If not, then what is the alternative, navigator?'

00:17:59Kaminska didn't like where this was going, as the knot in her stomach became a fist.

00:18:02"'It could be another legion fleet,' said Orcardus, leaving the implication hanging.

00:18:08"'You mean more word-bearers?'

00:18:11"'Yes,' the navigator confirmed, after a moment's pause.'

00:18:18Lord Corferron of the word-bearers scowled.

00:18:21"'He's behind schedule,' he said.

00:18:24Aboard the infamous Imperator, he and his warriors made their inexorable course towards

00:18:28Ultramar, the great flagship leading the dread fleet of battleships, cruisers, escorts, and

00:18:33frigates towards their destiny.

00:18:36The arch-commander of the legion, favoured of Lorgar, was immense in his panoply of war.

00:18:42Seated upon a throne of black iron, he towered like an all-powerful tyrant, the surveyor

00:18:47of all his deadly works.

00:18:49Votive chains, festooned with tiny silver skulls and icons of dedication, arched from

00:18:55his shoulder-pads to his cuirass.

00:18:57A spiked halo of iron arced across his mighty shoulders, fixed to his armoured backpack.

00:19:03The stout metal gorget, fixed around his neck, was forged into a high and imperious

00:19:07collar that bore the symbol of the legion.

00:19:10The tenets of it were etched, ostensibly, across every surface of Corferron's armour

00:19:15in the epistles of Lorgar.

00:19:18Parchments unfurled like ragged script-written pennants from studded pauldrons.

00:19:24Seals and scraps of vellum covered his leg-greaves like patchwork.

00:19:29In the eyes of the arch-commander there burned a relentless fervour that flowed outwards

00:19:33and ignited the room.

00:19:35It was almost as if any who fell beneath his glowering gaze would be immolated in righteous

00:19:40fire should they be found wanting.

00:19:43His voice was dominance and zeal, his word the dictate of the primarch.

00:19:48This would be his finest hour, as it was written.

00:19:53Six chapter-masters of the word-bearers stood behind Corferron, each resplendent in their

00:19:58respective panoplies.

00:19:59They still managed to fill the immense council-chamber of the infamous Imperator with their presence.

00:20:05Above them curved a great domed roof hung with smoking censers.

00:20:09The floor was a giant view-screen showing a stellar map of the space surrounding Ultramar.

00:20:15"'Our most recent reports indicate that Zadkiel was being followed,' said Ferskerel, master

00:20:21of the chapter of the opening eye.

00:20:23"'It is possible that he is just showing caution.'

00:20:26"'He has the furious abyss,' roared Corferron.

00:20:30"'He should have been able to see off anything that stood in his way.

00:20:33Zadkiel had better know the consequences for us all if we fail.'

00:20:37"'Danos, master of the Burning Hand chapter, stepped forwards.

00:20:42"'Logosh, oh, Admiral Zadkiel, all honour!' he said.

00:20:47In keeping with the name of his chapter, Danos's gauntlets were permanently wreathed in flames

00:20:52from gas-jets built into his vambraces.

00:20:54"'It was written that we will succeed.'

00:20:57"'Not,' said Corferron, measuredly, 'that we will do so without great loss.

00:21:04Kalth will fall, and the Ultramarines with it.

00:21:08That is already decided.

00:21:10But there is plenty of scope for our legion to lose a great many brothers, and we certainly

00:21:15shall if Zadkiel cannot fulfil his mission.'

00:21:18"'My lord, surely Zadkiel makes his own fate.

00:21:23We should be minded only with the progress of our own fleet.'

00:21:25It was Rukus, the master of the Crimson Mask chapter, who spoke.

00:21:30The faceplate of his helmet was wrought to resemble a fearsome, red-skinned, snarling

00:21:34creature.

00:21:35"'I will not allow our brother to fail us,' hissed Corferron, intent on the stellar map

00:21:41and the alleged progress of the furious abyss.

00:21:44"'I had not wanted to use my hand in this matter, but it seems that circumstances allow

00:21:48no other recourse.

00:21:51Such is written of Zadkiel's success and its bearing upon our own.

00:21:54To prosecute the war on Kalth we must risk nothing.'

00:21:57"'Is that understood?'

00:22:00The chapter-master's silence constituted their agreement.

00:22:04"'Scolinthos, master of the Ebony Serpent chapter, broke the quietude once his assent

00:22:09and that of his brothers was clear.

00:22:11Scolinthos's esophagus had been crushed in the early years of the great crusade, when

00:22:15it was the Emperor whom the word-bearers vaunted above all others.'

00:22:19His voice crackled, sibilantly, through a vocal synthesizer on his chest, the honorific

00:22:25of his chapter somehow perversely apt, given his affliction.

00:22:28"'Then how might we assist the Admiral?'

00:22:33"'There are still words newly written,' said Corferron, "'that you do not know of.

00:22:39They concern the warp through which we travel.

00:22:42We can reach Zadkiel even though the furious abyss lies many days ahead of us.

00:22:47Master Tenebron?'

00:22:49The chapter-master Tenebron bowed in supplication behind his lord.

00:22:53The chapter of the Void was probably the least respected among the word-bearers' legion,

00:22:58for it was by far the smallest, with less than seven hundred astartes.

00:23:02There was little glory in its history, used, moreover, as a reserve force that enacted

00:23:07its missions behind the front line.

00:23:10This grim, dishonorable purpose fell to the Void, and Tenebron, their master, did not

00:23:15complain, for he knew that his chapter's true role was to create and test new weapons

00:23:20and tactics for the rest of the legion.

00:23:23It had not gone unnoticed that Lorgar's most recent orders to Tenebron had concerned the

00:23:27exploitation of the word-bearer's psychic resources.

00:23:30"'I trust you will require the use of the supplicants?' said Tenebron.

00:23:36"'How many remain?' asked Corferron, votive chains jangling as he shifted in his throne.

00:23:42"'One hundred and thirty, my lord,' Tenebron replied.

00:23:46"'Seventy here on the Infernus, thirty on the Carnomancer, and the remainder are spread

00:23:52throughout the fleet.

00:23:54I have ensured they are kept in a state of readiness.

00:23:57They can be awakened within the hour.'

00:23:58"'Get them ready,' Corferron ordered.

00:24:01"'How many can we afford to lose?'

00:24:03"'More than half would compromise the masking of the Calpasault,' Tenebron answered humbly.

00:24:10"'Then be prepared to lose them.'

00:24:12"'Understood, my lord.

00:24:14What will you have them do?'

00:24:17Corferron cracked his knuckles in annoyance.

00:24:20There could be no doubt that he had hoped everything would go more smoothly than this.

00:24:24Zadkiel's mission was supposedly easy.

00:24:26The assault on Kalth would be far more complex, with much more to go wrong.

00:24:30If Zadkiel could not fulfil his written role, then the problems at Kalth would be magnified

00:24:36greatly.

00:24:37"'Give me a storm!' said the arch-commander, darkly.

00:24:43Tenebron led Corferron down the supplicant chambers of the Infernus Imperator.

00:24:49The arch-commander had since dismissed the other masters to their respective duties,

00:24:53ignoring their obvious surprise at his bold stratagem.

00:24:56The Infernus Imperator was a great and mighty flagship that almost rivaled the immensity

00:25:01of the Furious Abyss.

00:25:03It took some time to traverse the proving grounds and ritual chambers, the ranks of

00:25:07word-bearers honing their battle-skills with bolter and blade in the arenas.

00:25:12Down here, upon every surface, the word was ubiquitous.

00:25:16Sentences inscribed on bulkheads and support-ribs, tomes penned by lorgar on pulpits overlooking

00:25:22halls and seminary chapels, libraries of law—the vessel was drenched in the Primarch's wisdom

00:25:27and zealotry.

00:25:29The ship had once been known as the Rapturous Rex, a vessel devoted to the Emperor, who

00:25:35had plucked lorgar from Colchis and placed the word-bearers at his command.

00:25:39It was a temple to another more willing and appreciative idol now—the false Emperor

00:25:45of Mankind having been stricken from its corridors.

00:25:48Tenebron reached the narrow high chamber, like a steel canyon, where the supplicants

00:25:53resided.

00:25:54Held in glass blisters on the walls, each served by a bulky life-support system feeding

00:25:59oxygen and nutrients, the supplicants slumbered.

00:26:03Curled up and naked, twitching with the force of the power held in their swollen, lacerated

00:26:08craniums, it looked like they were dreaming.

00:26:10Their eyes and mouths had grown shut.

00:26:13Some had no facial features at all, their bodies abandoning the need to breathe, eat,

00:26:18or experience externally.

00:26:20A trio of word-bearers-librarians saluted their chapter-master as Tenebron examined

00:26:25the vital signs on a picked screen, slave to the individual life-supports in the centre

00:26:30of the room.

00:26:31The librarians bowed deeply as Corferon walked in, and genuflected silently before him.

00:26:37"'Rise,' he intoned, and the librarians obeyed.

00:26:41"'Is everything in preparation?' he asked, directing the question at the chapter-master.

00:26:47Tenebron consulted the data on the picked screen, turned to his lord, and nodded.

00:26:51"'Marshal the storm!' he growled.

00:26:54"'Let them be broken by its wrath!'

00:26:58The chapter-master nodded again, and proceeded to order his librarians to activate the cogitators

00:27:03hooked to the supplicants' blisters.

00:27:05Corferon left Tenebron to his duties without further word.

00:27:10Up on the walls the supplicants stirred, as if the dream had become a nightmare.

00:27:17Zadkiel arrived on the bridge as the storm broke.

00:27:21The vista below him was bathed in strobing hazard-lights, as if lashed by lightning.

00:27:26Complicated symbolic maps of the warp shone on the three main view-screens, and indicated

00:27:31that it was in violent flux.

00:27:33Bridge-crew, Helm's master Sakharov barking orders at them, bent over their pictures,

00:27:38faces picked out in the green glow of reams of scrolling data.

00:27:43"'The warp rebels!' hissed Zadkiel.

00:27:46"'Perhaps not!' muttered Icthalon.

00:27:49The chaplain, having left Reskiel to his pursuit of their stowaway, had been summoned to the

00:27:53bridge, and stood alongside the command-throne.

00:27:57"'The supplicants were recently animated.

00:28:00It was probably a foreshadowing of the Imperians' current state of turmoil.

00:28:05I believe that a higher purpose is at work.

00:28:08Confidence, it seems, in our ability to prosecute this mission is waning.'

00:28:14Icthalon was careful to keep the barb well-hidden, but the implication at Zadkiel's ineptitude

00:28:19was still there.

00:28:20The admiral ignored it.

00:28:22The warp-storm and its origin was of greater concern to him at that moment.

00:28:27"'Cor Faron?' he wondered.

00:28:29"'I can think of no other, save our arch-lord, who would intercede on our behalf.'

00:28:36Zadkiel sneered as another thought occurred to him.

00:28:39"'It is Tenebron, no doubt, trying to claim for the Chapter of the Void that which belongs

00:28:45to the Quill.'

00:28:46"'He is ever ambitious,' Icthalon agreed, keeping his voice level.

00:28:52Zadkiel assumed his position on the command-throne.

00:28:55"'It would be rude,' Zadkiel sneered, "'to deny Tenebron his sliver of victory.

00:29:02It will be eclipsed utterly by our own.

00:29:05Helm's Master Sakharov!' he snapped.

00:29:07"'Press on from a crag.

00:29:10Let the warp take the wrathful!'

00:29:14Sestos was thrown against the wall as the wrathful shuddered violently.

00:29:18He was heading back to the bridge in order to convene with Kaminska and the remaining

00:29:22Astartes when the storm-wave hit.

00:29:24Debris was flung throughout the corridors, many bays were in disarray as desperate orderlies

00:29:29fought to hang on to the wounded, arms-men were smashed against bulkheads, and ratings

00:29:34fell to their deaths as the wrathful pitched and yawed.

00:29:38A terrible metallic moaning came from the engine-sections as the ship fought to right

00:29:42itself.

00:29:43Sestos could feel the structure flexing and straining through the floor as if the vessel

00:29:48was on the verge of snapping in two under the strain.

00:29:51The ultramarine made his way through the mayhem until he reached the bridge, blast-doors opening

00:29:56to allow him access.

00:29:58The crew clung to their posts, Helm's Mistress Venkmire issuing frantic orders set against

00:30:03the unearthly calm of servitors running through their emergency protocols.

00:30:07Drenched in crimson gloom from vermilion-alert status, the bridge looked bloody in the half-light.

00:30:14"'Navigator Aucardus, report!' snapped Kaminska, gripping the sides of her command-position

00:30:19as the shaking wrathful threatened to dethrone her.

00:30:22"'A storm!' Aucardus's voice said over the bridge-box-caster, the navigator sounding

00:30:27strained.

00:30:28"'It came out of nowhere!'

00:30:30"'Evade it!' ordered Kaminska.

00:30:32"'Admiral, we are already in it,' replied the navigator.

00:30:37"'Damage control to your posts!' bellowed Kaminska.

00:30:40"'Close off the reactor-sections and clear the gun-becks!'

00:30:44Sestos reached the admiral.

00:30:46"'This is the word bearers doing!' he shouted against the din of warning sirens and frantic

00:30:51reports from the crew.

00:30:52Another wave slammed into the wrathful.

00:30:55Bursting pipes, vented vapour and gas, crewmen were thrown off their feet.

00:30:59A view-screen was sheared off its moorings and fell in a shower of sparks and shattered

00:31:03glass, landing in the middle of the bridge.

00:31:06"'Aucardus, can we ride it out?' asked Kaminska, her eyes on the ultramarine.

00:31:11"'I see no end to it, admiral.'

00:31:15"'Captain Sestos,' she asked of the Astartes.

00:31:18"'If we drift here and ride it out, the furious abyss escapes,' Sestos confirmed.

00:31:23"'There is no choice left to us but to drive through it.'

00:31:27Kaminska nodded grimly.

00:31:28If they failed, it would mean the destruction of the ship and the deaths of over ten thousand

00:31:32crew.

00:31:33Her order would condemn them all to their fates.

00:31:37"'Engage the engines to full power,' she ordered.

00:31:40"'Let's break this storm's back,' she snarled, with fire in her eyes.

00:31:45"'We'll teach the warp to fear us!'

00:31:50From within the confines of the isolation cell, Motep could hear the anarchy outside.

00:31:55He ignored it, poring over the reflective sheen of a polished gun-metal wall instead.

00:32:00A window of fate opened up to him as he channelled his powers.

00:32:04Panic reigned on the wrathful.

00:32:06He saw fire, men and women burning, thousands sacrificed upon the altar of hopeful victory.

00:32:13They became ghosts in his mind's eye, their penitent souls devoured hungrily by the warp,

00:32:18and scattered into atoms until only residue remained.

00:32:22Death awaited on this ship.

00:32:24His death—the certainty of that fact instilled calm in him rather than fear—his place amongst

00:32:30the myriad strands of fate—was fixed.

00:32:33The vista changed, and Motep's mind ranged beyond the wrathful and into the churning

00:32:38abyss.

00:32:40The furious abyss loomed through the haze of resolution as a new scene presented itself.

00:32:45The vessel was immense, like a city laid on its side, and falling towards the wrathful.

00:32:51Thousands of gun-ports opened up like mouths, the primed glowing barrels of magnalasers

00:32:56and cannon-like tongues ready to roar.

00:32:59The furious abyss was utterly hideous, a monstrosity of dark crimson steel, and yet the beauty

00:33:05of its majesty overcame any aesthetic offence.

00:33:09Motep drifted further across the gulf, through Erzart's reality.

00:33:13As his mind expanded, he could taste the warp, the endless flavours, sounds, and sensations

00:33:19of the abyss calling to him.

00:33:21Probing tendrils pricked at his sanity, and the Thousand Sun attempted to disengage.

00:33:27He couldn't, and panic rushed into him like a flood.

00:33:30Motep mastered it quickly, recognising at once that he was in peril.

00:33:34The warp had seen him, and it sought to drive his mind asunder.

00:33:39It showed him visions of destruction, the spires of Prospero aflame, and his legion

00:33:44cast into the warp.

00:33:46In another vista he knelt before a throne of black iron in supplication before the icon

00:33:51of the word-bearers.

00:33:53Screams filled his ears, together with the howling of wolves.

00:33:57Motep clawed back some semblance of control.

00:34:00He fashioned the image of a cyclopean eye in his mind.

00:34:04It glowed with scarlet radiance, and as if following a beacon to safe harbour, Motep

00:34:09used it to guide himself away from the clutches of the Empyrean.

00:34:12He emerged at last, drained of all will, of all strength, and collapsed to the floor

00:34:18of the cell.

00:34:20The metal was cool against his cheek, though hard and unyielding it was the most invigorating

00:34:25salve he had ever felt.

00:34:27He had resisted, though the lines of fate had been laid open to him.

00:34:31Motep knew, as he slipped into unconsciousness, what the visions had been about.

00:34:36It was not a lure into madness.

00:34:39It was something far more sinister and invasive.

00:34:43It was temptation.

00:34:48"'They are lost!' said Zadkiel, smiling with malice.

00:34:51He looked up at the centre-view screen, showing little emotion as alarming numbers scrolled

00:34:55past the symbol representing the wrathful.

00:34:58He looked more thoughtful than triumphant.

00:35:01"'Do we have any readings from their engines?

00:35:03Are they still void-worthy?'

00:35:06"'No readings,' Sakharov replied.

00:35:08"'The storm is too strong.'

00:35:10"'I have seen enough,' Zadkiel said.

00:35:13His response was curt.

00:35:14"'Continue at all speed.'

00:35:16"'You won't wait until we are certain of the wrathful's destruction,' counselled Icthalon,

00:35:22a sliver of doubt evident in his voice at Zadkiel's order.

00:35:25"'No, I will not,' answered the admiral.

00:35:28"'Our mission is to reach Macragge in time for Corfearon's assault.

00:35:33I cannot tarry here in order to make certain of what is inevitable.

00:35:37We need to be out of this region and back on our way.

00:35:40Return to your chambers, chaplain.

00:35:43Have the supplicants watch for the wrathful's death-throes.

00:35:47Even in a warp-storm such as this, that many deaths should make some ripple.'

00:35:52"'As you wish, my lord,' Icthalon bowed, and left the bridge.

00:35:58The furious abyss resumed its former heading in short order.

00:36:01Corfearon's plan had worked in so far as they were undamaged by the storm.

00:36:06Whether it had also put paid to the wrathful did not concern the admiral.

00:36:10A petty creature might have been angry at his lord's meddling, but Zadkiel was sanguine.

00:36:16Let lesser minds worry on such things.

00:36:19The word would play out as written.

00:36:22Nothing else mattered.'

00:36:27CHAPTER XVII STRATEGY

00:36:31OUT OF THE WARP

00:36:32FOR MASKER IN SIGHT

00:36:35Sestas turned his head away as the warp glared against the wrathful's port-side.

00:36:40The force of it shone through the metal of the ship's hull,

00:36:42as if the wrathful was made of paper transparent against the light of the abyss.

00:36:47Sestas heard screams and laughter as men's minds were stripped away by it.

00:36:52He threw himself against the housing of a torpedo-tube entrance,

00:36:55willing himself not to look.

00:36:57Saffrax and Brother Excellinor were beside him, and they too averted their gaze.

00:37:02Sestas had left the bridge almost as soon as he'd arrived.

00:37:05He'd gathered his fellow-ultramarines to patrol the corridors,

00:37:08knowing full well what awaited them and the crew of the wrathful.

00:37:12Two teams of what was left of the honour-guard and Bryngar's wolves

00:37:16moved through the decks and corridors in an effort to steal resolve

00:37:20and snuff out manifesting psychosis wherever they found it.

00:37:24Sestas hoped the presence of the Astartes would be enough.

00:37:27The need for them to be the angels of the Emperor was greater than any other.

00:37:32"'It is as if the warp has at their very beck and call,'

00:37:35bellowed Excellinor, his voice tinny through his corvus-patterned nose-cone.

00:37:40Sestas did not reply, for he knew of the terrible truth of his battle-brother's words.

00:37:46Moving defiantly down the corridor,

00:37:48the infernal light of the Empyrean was scarlet through his eyelids.

00:37:52Silhouettes of bodies fell in the blazing vista.

00:37:54Men and women felt their knees weeping and screaming.

00:37:57A gunshot rang out as an officer turned his side-arm on himself.

00:38:01The sound of a female voice was contiguous with it,

00:38:04reciting paragraphs from the Saturnine Fleet's rules and regulations

00:38:08in an effort to stay off the madness.

00:38:11Visions forced their way into the ultramarine's mind.

00:38:14The beneficent Emperor, mighty upon his golden throne,

00:38:18and the majesty of the Imperial Palace,

00:38:20and Terra, the beacon of enlightenment in a galaxy surrounded by darkness.

00:38:25Then he saw it burning, continents peeling off,

00:38:28and red gouts of magma boiling away into space.

00:38:32He was an Astartes. He was stronger than this.

00:38:35"'Do not give in to madness!' he cried aloud to all who could still listen.

00:38:40'Hold on and heed the Imperial truth!'

00:38:44For a brief moment it looked like that the warp would engulf them.

00:38:48But then the visions melted away, and the screaming ebbed and died.

00:38:52The ship was still again. The wrathful had emerged on the other side.

00:38:58Cestus breathed hard as the blazing light diminished,

00:39:01leaving a painful afterglow.

00:39:03He adjusted quickly and opened his eyes to see that his brothers were still with him.

00:39:07The shadows came back, too, swallowing the dead.

00:39:10The ultramarine nodded slowly to Saffrax and Excellinor,

00:39:14and opened up communications through his gorget as he surveyed the carnage around him.

00:39:19"'Admiral, are you still with us?'

00:39:22There was a pause before the voxlink crackled, and Kaminska's voice replied,

00:39:27"'We are through the storm,' she said, similarly breathless.

00:39:31"'Your plan was successful.'

00:39:34"'Medical teams are required at my location, as well as fleet morticians,'

00:39:38Cestus informed her.

00:39:39"'Very well.'

00:39:41"'Admiral,' Cestus added,

00:39:43"'as soon as recovery is under way, I request your presence in the conference chamber.'

00:39:48"'Of course, my lord. I shall be there momentarily. Kaminska out.'

00:39:54Half an hour later, when the crews began to organise themselves into shifts to recover

00:39:59the bodies and the wounded, Kaminska had Helmsmistress Venkmire tour the worst-hit

00:40:04sections of the ship and make a report of their losses.

00:40:07In normal circumstances, Kaminska would have done this herself, demonstrating to the crew

00:40:12that their leader cared about the deaths and the terrible tragedy that had befallen them.

00:40:16More urgent matters pressed for her attention, however, and she was not about to ignore the

00:40:21request of Anastartes. So she had made her way to the conference chamber as bidden.

00:40:26Within, the remaining Anastartes' force awaited her.

00:40:31"'Welcome, admiral,' said Cestus, standing at the edge of the oval table,

00:40:35with Saffrax to his right and his other battle-brothers arrayed around him.

00:40:39The space-wolf Bryngar sat opposite with his warriors, but did not acknowledge the

00:40:44admiral's arrival. "'Please sit,' the

00:40:47ultramarine captain said sternly, despite trying to soften his mood with a small smile.

00:40:52Now the council was assembled, Cestus surveyed the room, looking into the eyes of each person

00:40:57present. "'It is beyond all doubt,' he began,

00:41:01"'that the word-bearers are in league with the warp. They are utterly lost.'

00:41:06Hardened faces returned his gaze as the ultramarine articulated what they already knew in their

00:41:11hearts. "'With such dark allies at their disposal, together with the furious abyss,

00:41:17they are a formidable opponent,' Cestus continued.

00:41:20"'But we have a slim hope. I have discovered the nature of the word-bearers' plan,

00:41:26and how it is to be employed. Bryngar twitched at the remark.

00:41:30The space-wolf clearly knew of the methods that the ultramarine had used to discover

00:41:34the information they needed. He also knew of Motep's subsequent revival. The absence

00:41:39of the Thousand Sun from the conference spoke volumes as to his demeanour on that matter.'

00:41:46"'Make no mistake,' Cestus began, "'what the word-bearers are planning is audacious in

00:41:51the extreme. In assaulting Macragge there are several factors that any enemy must consider

00:41:56before committing his forces,' he explained. Firstly, the planetary fleet held in high orbit

00:42:03consists of a flotilla of several cruisers and escorts. It would not be easy for any

00:42:08foe, however determined or well-armed, to break through without significant losses.

00:42:14Should he be successful, though, the enemy must then face the static orbital deterrents

00:42:18on the surface—Macragge's battery of defence lasers.'

00:42:23"'And the Furious Abyss is supposed to achieve this feat?' scoffed Bryngar.

00:42:28"'Impossible!' Cestus nodded in agreement.

00:42:32"'Had you asked me the same an hour ago I would have concurred,' the ultramarine admitted.

00:42:37"'The word-bearer's strategy has two key elements. It all begins at Formasca,

00:42:42which the word-bearers plan to hit with cyclonic torpedoes to destroy it.'

00:42:47"'I know little of Ultramar,' growled the wolf-guard.

00:42:51"'But Formasca is a dead moon. Why not use their cyclonics against Macragge directly?'

00:42:58"'A direct assault against Macragge would be suicide. Its defence lasers would cripple

00:43:03their fleet before they made landfall, and render any attempt to subdue Gilliman

00:43:07untenable,' he explained. ''The debris from Formasca's destruction will achieve their ends

00:43:12indirectly. The legion will divert forces to the aid of Macragge, caught in the asteroid storm

00:43:18of the moon's demise, and the word-bearers will strike as they are divided, and take them utterly

00:43:24by surprise.' "'I've seen it,' said Bryngar.

00:43:28"'On Proxus Twelve. An asteroid passed too close and came apart. It was a feral planet. Those

00:43:35people thought the world was ending. Fire was falling from the sky. Every impact was like an

00:43:41atomic hit. It won't destroy Macragge, but it'll kill millions.'

00:43:47"'That is not all,' Cestus continued. ''The Furious Abyss will then use the debris like a shield,

00:43:53allowing them to get past the warning stations and satellites around Macragge, and draw close

00:43:57enough for a viral payload to be effective. Only that ship is powerful enough to weather

00:44:03the inevitable storm of fire from the defence lasers. The death toll from the viral strike

00:44:09will be near total. Gilliman and the legion will be divided, some of our forces probably

00:44:14destroyed on Macragge, when the remainder of the word-bearers' fleet will strike.

00:44:19I do not know whether we could recover from such a blow, should it succeed.'

00:44:24"'What, then, is to be done?' the wolf-guard asked gruffly.

00:44:28"'We are nearing Macragge, and soon we'll be out of the warp,' said the ultramarine,

00:44:33a nod from Kominska confirming his words.

00:44:36"'So, too, are our enemies. It will require discipline, guile, and timing.'

00:44:42Cestus paused and looked around the room again. His gaze ended on Kominska.

00:44:48"'Most of all, it will require sacrifice.'

00:44:53Space ruptured and spat out the Furious Abyss, edged hard in the diamond light of Macragge's sun.

00:45:00Shoals of predators shimmered out alongside it, like sea-creatures leaping around the bow of a

00:45:04ship. Caught in the anathema of reality, they coiled in on themselves and seethed out of

00:45:10existence, their psychic essence dissipating without the warp to sustain them. The Furious

00:45:15Abyss looked little worse than it had when it had left Thule. The attack of the escort

00:45:20squadron had destroyed some of the gun-batteries on its dorsal and ventral surfaces, and there

00:45:24were countless tiny pockmarks on its hull from the impacts of doomed fighter-craft that had crashed

00:45:29into it after their crews had lost their minds. Those scars did nothing to diminish the majesty

00:45:36of the vast scarlet ship, however. It took a full minute to emerge from the warp-rift torn before

00:45:42it, and in those moments the warp was full of nothing but slabs of hull-plating and engine-cowlings,

00:45:48all streaming into real space. Every warning-station around Macragge instantly recognised

00:45:55the scale of the ship and demanded its identity. No reply was forthcoming.

00:46:03The image of Macragge filled the central viewport on the bridge of the Furious Abyss. Flanking it

00:46:08were tactical readouts of the system, which were full of early warning-stations and military

00:46:12satellites.

00:46:14"'There it is!' said Zadkiel. "'Hateful is it not! Like a boulder squatting in the path of

00:46:20the future!'

00:46:21Magos Guriod stood beside Zadkiel, mechadendrites clicking like insectoid limbs, withered arms

00:46:27folded across his chest.

00:46:30"'It evokes no emotion,' the Magos replied neutrally. Zadkiel sniffed his mild contempt

00:46:36at the passionless Mechanicum drone.

00:46:39"'As a symbol it has no equal,' he said. ''The majesty of a stagnant universe! The ignorance

00:46:46of the powerful! The ultramarines could have done anything with the worlds under their

00:46:52dominion, and they chose to forge this tired echo of a past that never was!'

00:46:58Guriod remained unmoved. He had come to bear witness to the launching of the torpedoes

00:47:04that would end a world—the unbridled destructive forces yielded by the mech-science of Mars's

00:47:09devotion to the Omniscire. The Magos were standing in the position once occupied by

00:47:15Velanus, who had fallen at Baca.

00:47:18"'I take it your presence means that my former assault-captain has been recovered?'

00:47:22Zadkiel snapped, annoyed at Guriod's unwillingness to bask in his self-perceived reflected glory.

00:47:29"'He dreams fitfully, my lord. When the sus-an-membrane failed and he roused somewhat

00:47:36unexpectedly, I was forced to take more drastic methods to secure him,' said the Magos.

00:47:43"'See that he does not waken again until the transition is complete. Once Formasca

00:47:49is destroyed, we shall be joining Corferon's forces on the ground. Velanus is to be part

00:47:55of that invasion force.'

00:47:57"'Yes, my lord,' Guriod said, showing no fear.

00:48:01Zadkiel turned his attention back to the viewport. All was in place now. He would lead the assault

00:48:07that would be remembered for ever in history. A few moments passed. Then the bridge-vox

00:48:13units crackled.

00:48:15"'Awaiting your mark, admiral,' said Corferon's voice, transmitted across the system from

00:48:20Kalth. Even at these relatively short distances, only the most advanced system could allow

00:48:26communication between the two ships without the need for an astropath.

00:48:30"'It shall be forthcoming,' said Zadkiel, turning his attention to another view-screen.

00:48:35"'Master Malfurion,' he intoned, awaiting the grizzled countenance of his weapon-master.

00:48:41The nightmarish visage of the badly injured word-bearer was forthcoming.

00:48:46"'At your command, my lord,' Malfurion responded.

00:48:50"'Open the frontal torpedo apertures and load the first wave of cyclonics,' Zadkiel

00:48:56commanded with relish.

00:48:57"'It begins at Formasca. Let us unleash devastation and bring about a new era of man.'

00:49:05Sakharov snapped orders at the bridge-crew and dispatched runners as the furious abyss

00:49:09prepared for battle-stations. The navigation-crew began orienting the ship towards Formasca,

00:49:15its prow-arc aimed like a sniper's sight on his kill.

00:49:20The moon was on the screen. Deep lava-filled gullies wormed their way across its continents,

00:49:25broken by boiling seas. The primitives of ancient Macragge thought Formasca was the

00:49:32eye of a god, and that it was bloodshot with anger, Zadkiel said, to himself more than

00:49:38the unappreciative Magos. Sometimes, when the lava-fields grew, they thought the eye

00:49:43had opened, and looked down on them as prey. They prophesied the day when the god would

00:49:49finally decide to reach down and consume them all.

00:49:53"'That day has arrived,' he concluded.

00:49:57"'Admiral!' The sibilant voice of Chaplain Ichthalon came through on the bridge-vox.

00:50:02"'What is it, chaplain?' Zadkiel snapped.

00:50:05"'The supplicants are stirring,' Ichthalon told him.

00:50:09"'There is movement in the warp. It seems that our pursuers have yet to give up the fight.'

00:50:16"'See that they do not interfere,' snarled Corpheron from the long-wave-vox,

00:50:21before Zadkiel could reply.

00:50:22"'I'm bringing the fleet into an assault pattern. Killiman knows we are here by now.

00:50:29Fulfill your mission, Zadkiel.'

00:50:32"'So it is written,' replied Zadkiel.

00:50:35"'So it shall be.' He returned to Malfurion.

00:50:39"'Your status, weapon-master?'

00:50:41"'A few more minutes, my liege,' Malfurion replied.

00:50:45"'We are encountering some problems with the torpedo apertures.'

00:50:50"'Inform me as soon as we are ready to fire the cyclonics,'

00:50:54ordered Zadkiel, his tone betraying his impatience at the unforeseen delay.

00:50:59"'My lord,' Helmsmaster Sakharov interrupted,

00:51:01''the Wrothful is coming abeam. They are priming weapons.'

00:51:05Zadkiel exhaled his annoyance.

00:51:07He should have excised this thorn from his side long ago.

00:51:12"'Malfurion,' he barked into the vox,

00:51:15"'send all targeting solutions to the bridge once the Imperial lapdogs are in our sights.

00:51:20"'The Wrothful does not deserve the honour of dying as part of this history,

00:51:24"'but we shall grant them that honour nonetheless.'

00:51:28"'The Wrothful appeared on the left view-screen.

00:51:30"'She had lost half her guns down one side,

00:51:33"'and was followed by a tail of wreckage tumbling out of her ravaged engine and cargo areas.

00:51:38"'Her hull was weathered and pitted by the lashes of the warp,

00:51:41"'covered in the tooth-marks of Empyrean predators.

00:51:45"'Zadkiel smiled maliciously when he saw the wrecked ship.

00:51:48"'He would derive great pleasure from this.

00:51:52"'Let us finish her!'

00:51:56The Wrothful limped from the warp and went immediately to battle stations.

00:52:00Aft thrusters burning as hot as they were able, the once formidable Imperial vessel

00:52:04drove head on towards the waiting form of the furious abyss.

00:52:08Diverting power to its port-side, the great ship turned grindingly slowly on its aft axis,

00:52:14until its still-functioning broad-sides were presented to the foe.

00:52:19Beams of azure light lit up all the way down the Wrothful's flank,

00:52:23and in seconds the blazing fury of her lances was unleashed.

00:52:27Explosions rippled down the armoured hull of the furious abyss,

00:52:30together with the immense blast-flares of shield-impacts.

00:52:33These wounds were a mere sting to a beast such as this,

00:52:37and the word-bearer vessel responded with a devastating salvo.

00:52:41As the crimson light-rays of the furious's broad-side cannons spat out,

00:52:45the Wrothful was already moving, trying to bring the enemy vessel's prow abeam of their lances.

00:52:51The shields of the Imperial ship disintegrated against the assault,

00:52:55and the aft-decks were raked by deadly fire,

00:52:58explosive impacts sending out chunks of debris and spilling swathes of crew.

00:53:03Still, the Wrothful endured, its last-ditch manoeuvre bringing it away from the deadly

00:53:08barrage. Torpedoes soared from the vessel's prow, followed by a second volley from the lances.

00:53:14Again the furious was stung, and dorsal cannons swung in their mounts

00:53:18to bring their munitions to bear. Incendiaries crumpled against the

00:53:22Wrothful's swerving prow, fully extended broad-sides punching ragged holes through its hull-armour.

00:53:28Annoyed at the tenacity of this little wasp, the mighty furious abyss turned to present

00:53:34its full armament against their aggressor. The damage sustained by the Wrothful had slowed it,

00:53:40but even still it could have fled if it had wanted to.

00:53:43Instead, the Imperial vessel stood its ground, making a defiant last stand.

00:53:49Lances flashing, the Wrothful poured everything it had left at the word-bearers.

00:53:54It wasn't enough. The furious abyss had turned, and now it unleashed devastation.

00:54:01Zadkiel observed the short-lived battle from the bridge. The Wrothful was in their sights.

00:54:06The might of his ship was at his disposal.

00:54:10"'Crush them!' he snarled.

00:54:13Malfurion replied his affirmation. Light and fire filled the view-screen a moment later,

00:54:18as the furious's guns wrecked the Imperial vessel. Its engines died, and great fissures were rent in

00:54:25its hull as it slowly drifted, pulled by the gravity-well of Formasca. As the Wrothful fell

00:54:32away, sparks flashed sporadically, rendering it in a grim cast, as vented coolant-pipes

00:54:38billowed in hazy plumes.

00:54:40"'I had expected more from a son of Gilliman,' Zadkiel admitted.

00:54:45"'How could such a desperate plan ever succeed? The Ultramarines are deserving of their death-warrant.'

00:54:52"'Lord Zadkiel!' it was Sakharov again. Zadkiel turned to face him.

00:54:57"'What is it, Helmsmaster?' he snapped.

00:55:00"'Shuttles, my liege,' he explained.

00:55:03"'Heading for the port-side.'

00:55:05Zadkiel was nonplussed.

00:55:07"'How many?'

00:55:09"'Fifteen, my lord,' Sakharov replied.

00:55:12"'Too close for lances.'

00:55:14Zadkiel paused for a moment, still confused as to this latest Imperial gambit.

00:55:19The answer came swiftly.

00:55:21"'They seek to gain entry through the torpedo-apertures,' he said.

00:55:27"'Should I give the order to close them, Lord Zadkiel?'

00:55:30"'Do it,' Zadkiel snapped,

00:55:32"'and engage dorsal cannons. Bring them down!'

00:55:40Chapter 18 Gauntlet, Infiltration, Dark Dreams

00:55:46Mringar smiled as the shuttle shuddered, spirals of flak and countermeasures hammering against its

00:55:53hull. Roogeveld and the Bloodclaws sat in the tight crew-compartment with him. They were strapped

00:55:59down in their shuttle-couches, braced across the shoulders, chest, and waist. The engines were

00:56:04screaming, and intermittent flashes from the explosions outside threw sharp light into the

00:56:09compartment. The small vessel was armoured, but it wasn't designed to take this punishment.

00:56:15Every bolt and stanchion was straining with the speed.

00:56:19"'Do you hear it, lads?' he roared above the din, utterly at ease. His Bloodclaws,

00:56:24even Roogeveld, looked back, perplexed.

00:56:27"'It is the call to combat,' he told them proudly.

00:56:31"'Those are the arms of Mother Fenris. That's the embrace of war.'

00:56:37The Wolfguard howled, and the Bloodclaws howled with him.

00:56:40Beyond the vision-slits, it and several other shuttles soared through the void towards the

00:56:47Furious Abyss. Deployed before the suicide-attack, the Rothfuls' feint had given them the time they

00:56:53needed to close the gap. It had provided a chance to reach the gaping apertures of the

00:56:58vessel's torpedo-tubes before being scattered into debris by its guns.

00:57:05Dorsal guns pulsed and rocked in their turrets as the Furious Abyss sought to obliterate the

00:57:10attacker's force. In the third shuttle, Sestos saw three of his sister-vessels explode under a

00:57:16hail of flak. They broke and split apart, their desperate speed abruptly arrested as if they were

00:57:21a sailboat breaking up on the rocks of some ragged cliff-line. The bodies of naval arms-men spilled

00:57:27from the crew-compartments, frozen in spasms of pain as they were exposed to the void.

00:57:33Three of his battle-brothers were alongside the ultramarine captain—Lexenal, Piteron,

00:57:38and Excellinor—helping to fill up the compartment with their armoured bulk.

00:57:42They stared impassively into space as the flash of explosions was thrown through the viewports

00:57:47and the armoured hull shook. Their lips moved as they swore silent oaths of moment.

00:57:54Sestos did the same, watching three more shuttles shredded apart by heavy turret-fire.

00:58:00"'Come on!' he urged through gritted teeth, the gaping more of the torpedo-aperture

00:58:05getting ever closer. "'Come on!'

00:58:10"'Impact in one minute!' said the vox from the shuttle's pilot.

00:58:14"'One minute from mother's love!' shouted Bryndar, taking a firm grip on fell-tooth.

00:58:21Embarkation would need to be swift. There could be enemy forces already in position to repel any

00:58:26borders. For a moment he wondered whether or not Sestos had made it through the fuselage.

00:58:31Putting the thought out of his mind, he took up the battle-cry once more. They were almost in.

00:58:37"'She's waiting for us there, mother Fenris! Mother of war! Mother of war!'

00:58:44yelled the blood-claws. "'Mother of war! Mother of hate!'

00:58:50A few feet from the aperture a stray round struck the left aerofoil of the shuttle,

00:58:54and it spiralled wildly out of control. Exploding shrapnel shattered the front-viewing arc.

00:59:00The sound of breaking armour-glass could even be heard in the troop-compartment.

00:59:04The pilot died with a shard of hot metal in his neck before the icy cool of space froze him and

00:59:09his desperate co-pilot to their flight-couches. Bryndar's shuttle dipped sharply away from the

00:59:15aperture and downward into another void entirely. A shuttle exploded, its nose sheared off by a

00:59:24shell-casing thrown out of the furious abyss's gun-decks. The remaining craft looped up beneath

00:59:29the battleship's ventral surface, the valleys and peaks of the city-sized ship streaking past.

00:59:36Sestos saw another vessel explode, the bursting shrapnel shredding much of its frontal arc.

00:59:41It dipped, engines blazing ineffectually, and fell downward until it was lost from

00:59:46view behind a slab of crimson hull. Ahead the torpedo-apertures were closing.

00:59:52"'More speed!' Sestos roared into his helmet-box. The blazing shuttle-engines

00:59:58screeched even louder. A snatched glimpse through the view-port showed a third shuttle

01:00:04banking sharply in an attempt to avoid the flak-fire and arrow back towards the battleship.

01:00:09Its retro-engines flared as it braked. It didn't slow fast enough and slammed into the

01:00:14hull beside the torpedo-aperture. The fat metal body crumpled under the impact and split.

01:00:20Broken bodies were cast into the void. They were wearing the blue armour of the ultramarines.

01:00:26"'Safraks and Amrix are dead!' thought Sestos bitterly.

01:00:31Twisting sharply, the shuttle found a way through the rapidly diminishing aperture.

01:00:35As the furious abyss swallowed them, Sestos thought he heard the explosions of the shuttles

01:00:40following them as they crashed against the sealed hull.

01:00:43"'Brace!' yelled the pilot. Tortured metal boomed. Sestos was thrown against the restraints of his

01:00:49grav-couch and felt them stretch and pull against his cuirass. A terrible twisting,

01:00:54howling sound, like a metal earthquake, filled the ultramarines' ears.

01:00:59"'Umbilicals away!' said the pilot's voice. The hatch in the roof of the passenger compartment

01:01:04slid open. White vapour filled the shuttle.

01:01:08"'Pressurising!' shouted the pilot.

01:01:11Sestos knew what was next, and hammered the icon on his chest that would disengage the harness.

01:01:16It came apart quickly, and he was on his feet, his battle-brothers beside him.

01:01:20Excellinor, Piteron, and Lexinol, two with bolters low-slung, and another carrying a

01:01:25plasma-gun. They would have to be enough. Sestos checked the load in his bolt-pistol,

01:01:30and unsheathed his sword, thumbing the activation-stud that sent frantic lines of power

01:01:35coursing through the blade.

01:01:37"'Courage and honour!' he yelled, and his battle-brothers returned the battle-cry.

01:01:43Explosive bolts detonated like gunshots. The second hatch was flung open,

01:01:48and the long, dark throat of the torpedo-tube opened up above them.

01:01:52Sestos stormed through the short umbilicus, through the hatch, and into the tube.

01:01:57It sloped upwards and was wide enough for Anastartes to walk with his head bowed.

01:02:01Its ribbed metal interior was caked in ice. The shuttle had pumped air into it,

01:02:06and the vapour in that air had frozen instantly.

01:02:09"'Move!' ordered the ultramarine captain, and headed upwards.

01:02:12As Sestos led the way up the torpedo-tube,

01:02:15the sounds of thundering guns and shell-impacts echoed dimly through the

01:02:19structure of the furious abyss, a terrible chorus welcoming them onto the ship.

01:02:25Sestos saw light ahead—the fires of a forge.

01:02:28He had his bolt-pistol up in front of him, ready to fire.

01:02:31The light was coming through a thick armour-glass window in a heavy hatch,

01:02:35sealing the far end of the tube.

01:02:37"'Charges!' he ordered.

01:02:39Excellinor on Piteron reacted quickly, planting a cluster of crack-grenades

01:02:43around the weak points of the hatch.

01:02:45Charges primed, the Astartes retreated as one.

01:02:48A few feet from the entrance Sestos bellowed,

01:02:51"'No!' a muffled explosion radiated through the tube, echoing off the

01:02:56concave interior, and the hatch fell away in a shower of sparks and fire.

01:03:01Combat protocols and stratagems learned when he was a neophyte,

01:03:05and honed in countless conflicts throughout the great crusade,

01:03:08cycled through Sestos's battle-attuned mind.

01:03:11Bursting onto the ship, the ultramarines found themselves amidst the

01:03:14massive workings of an ordnance-deck.

01:03:16Torpedo-cranes, ammunition, and fuel-hoppers—cavernous spaces crisscrossed

01:03:21with gantries and crowded with gangs of sweating menials—were all in

01:03:25abundance.

01:03:26With tactical precision the Astartes fanned out.

01:03:30Sestos drove forward with Lexinol, the punch of his battle-brother's

01:03:34plasma-gun, backing up the ferocity of the ultramarine captain at close

01:03:37quarters.

01:03:39A group of deckhands came at them with a clutch of heavy tools.

01:03:42Sestos swept low through their clumsy attacks, and rose quickly,

01:03:46cutting through two with a savage crisscross strike, and killing a

01:03:50third with a headbutt.

01:03:51Barking fire from his boat-pistol put paid to two more.

01:03:55An actinic flash sent the temperature warnings in his battle-helm

01:03:58spiking as a beam of plasma ignited a fuel-hopper.

01:04:02Fire blossomed in plumes of orange and white, twinned with billowing

01:04:05smoke.

01:04:06A squad of rushing arms-men were incinerated in the blaze, and the

01:04:10heavy stubber-mount, hastily erected above, was thrown to oblivion.

01:04:15Left and right, Excellinor and Piteron let rip with their bolters,

01:04:18creating a deadly cross-fire that shredded anything that dared to

01:04:22advance through it.

01:04:23They surged steadily into the deck, dispatching targets with brutal

01:04:27efficiency.

01:04:28But these were only ratings and arms-men.

01:04:30Sestos knew that the Astartes of the word-bearers would be coming.

01:04:34They had to act quickly and disable the cyclonics before the real

01:04:37threat arrived.

01:04:39Without the destruction of Formasca, the word-bearers could not

01:04:42fulfil their plan and get close enough to Macragge to unleash the

01:04:46viral strain.

01:04:48His super-advanced mind skipping ahead to the tactical tasking to

01:04:51come, Sestos almost missed the scarred-faced officer flying at him

01:04:55with a power-mace.

01:04:56This one was Astartes, although he wore a half-armour variant of

01:05:01full battle-plate.

01:05:02Most of the bottom half of his face was destroyed and had been

01:05:05replaced with a metal grill.

01:05:07Deep pink scar-lines ran like fat veins up his jaw and across his

01:05:11cheekbones.

01:05:12Quail before the might of the word, he bellowed, voice metallic and

01:05:17resonant through the augmetics.

01:05:19Sestos parried a deft swing of the mace with his power-sword.

01:05:22Arcs of miniature lightning danced across the two weapons as they

01:05:26were locked in a brief pyrotechnic struggle.

01:05:28The ultramarine broke away and brought up his bolt-pistol, only for

01:05:32the grill-faced word-bearer to smash it out of his grasp.

01:05:35Pain lanced through Sestos's fingers, even though his armour bore

01:05:39the brunt of the blow, numbing his shoulder.

01:05:42"'Lorgar will guide us to victory!' snarled the word-bearer, allowing

01:05:46his fervour to fuel his swings, though they dulled his accuracy.

01:05:50Sestos wove out of the death-arc from an overhand smash designed to

01:05:53finish him, and brought his blazing blade onto the word-bearer's

01:05:57bare head.

01:05:58Slicing through flesh, bone, and eventually armour, he sheared the

01:06:02warrior in two, the corpse flopping on either side of the blow.

01:06:06"'No, that gillerman is righteous!' Sestos snarled, gritting back the

01:06:11pain to reclaim his fallen pistol.

01:06:14Rearmed, he drove on into the building firestorm, focused on the

01:06:18killing.

01:06:21"'Where are they?' demanded Zadkiel.

01:06:23"'All over the gun-decks,' came the reply from one of Malfurion's

01:06:27subordinates.

01:06:28In the weapon-master's absence, Zadkiel assumed that he was dead, or

01:06:32otherwise incapacitated.

01:06:34"'Reports say there are starties.

01:06:36They'll be going for the torpedo payload,' said Zadkiel, mainly to

01:06:40himself.

01:06:41The admiral turned his attentions to his helms-master.

01:06:44"'Sakharov, are we in position to launch?'

01:06:47"'Yes, my lord, but we cannot deploy the torpedoes while the deck is

01:06:51contested,' Zadkiel swore beneath his breath.

01:06:55"'Reskiel!' he snarled into the throne-box, with growing annoyance.

01:06:58The sergeant-commander responded, after a moment's pause.

01:07:02"'I'm calling up the hunt for our interloper.

01:07:04Gather your brethren and head for the ordnance-decks at once.

01:07:08Destroy any starties you find on that deck.

01:07:10Do you understand?'

01:07:12Reskiel replied in the affirmative, and the voxlink died.

01:07:16"'If the attack is to be delayed, I will return to my sanctum,' said

01:07:21Magos Guriod, already blending away into the darkness.

01:07:24"'Do as you must,' Zadkiel muttered, his agitation obvious, the

01:07:28veneer of calm ever slipping.

01:07:30"'Ikthalon!' he snarled into the vox, a plan forming in his mind.

01:07:35"'My lords!' the sibilant voice of a chaplain replied.

01:07:39"'Wake the supplicants!'

01:07:42There was no need to spare the supplicants.

01:07:45The furious abyss had reached its destination.

01:07:47The mission was over.

01:07:49Their role had been to help with the manipulation of the warp,

01:07:51and fend off attacks against the ship.

01:07:54Zadkiel's order meant using them to destruction.

01:07:57The streams of nutrients were replaced with psychoactive drugs.

01:08:01Restraints snapped apart, and cortical simulators crackled, waking

01:08:06the supplicants from their comatose state to halfway between sleep

01:08:09and waking, where sensations and nightmares alike were real.

01:08:13Some of the supplicants, the ones whose mouths and throats still

01:08:16worked, moaned and mewled as they slithered out of their restraints

01:08:20onto the floor.

01:08:21Some, convulsed as unfamiliar impulses flooded their muscles, one

01:08:25or two died, their hearts finally giving out.

01:08:28As part of his chaplain's attire, Ikthalon drew a heavy scarlet cowl

01:08:32over his battle-helm to prevent excess psychic energy from staining

01:08:36his mind, and moved carefully among the walking supplicants,

01:08:40inspecting readouts and checking for swallowed tongues.

01:08:43One by one he switched off the inhibitor's circuits, the loops of

01:08:47psychoactive material that kept the supplicants' minds from feeding

01:08:50back into the furious abyss.

01:08:52The cogitators, hooked into the debased creature's consciousness,

01:08:56fed them the image of the ship's prow, the engineering works behind

01:09:00the plasma lance, and the ordnance decks below.

01:09:03Finally, the supply of stupefying narcotics and soothing brainwave

01:09:07instigators was cut off, and the supplicants were given their last

01:09:12silent orders.

01:09:16Sestos sprayed a gantry with bolt of fire.

01:09:19Bodies plummeted and crumpled against his fury.

01:09:22The ultramarines had gained a foothold on the primary ordnance deck,

01:09:25but Sestos could still see no sign of the space-wolves.

01:09:28He hoped that they had not shared the same fate as Saffrax.

01:09:32The schematic as witnessed in the vision bestowed upon him by Motep

01:09:35filled his eidetic memory.

01:09:37The cluster of cyclonics destined for Formaska was at the end of the

01:09:41deck, doubtless in mid-transit to the torpedo apertures.

01:09:44The viral payload was secured in a drop-chamber in the hull.

01:09:48There was no way to get to it.

01:09:49They would have to hobble the word-bearer's plan at its first

01:09:53juncture.

01:09:54Barking fire from a pair of pintle-mounted cannons, set up on a

01:09:58loading-platform above, had the ultramarines pinned for a moment.

01:10:02Sestos's battle-brothers regrouped behind a pair of empty fuel-bowsers

01:10:06and the housing of a torpedo-crane.

01:10:08Lexanal, plasma-gun cradled in his gauntlets, slid in beside Sestos.

01:10:13"'What now, captain?' he asked, as the barrage above them intensified.

01:10:17Sestos memorized an open stretch of deck, and then the huge metal

01:10:21cliff-face of the furious abyss's prow, broken by the loading

01:10:24mechanisms and the torpedo-tubes.

01:10:27He visualized an industrial tangle on the other side, including

01:10:31giant hoppers, stacked with further munitions, and the rearing

01:10:34masses of arming-chambers, where yet more ordnance was stored.

01:10:38"'We have to clear the deck and then get to the munitions-store

01:10:41and deploy our melter-bombs,' he replied.

01:10:44"'What about Bryngar?' Lexanal asked, using a break in the fuselage

01:10:47to fire off a snapshot that bathed the loading-platform in

01:10:50superheated plasma.

01:10:52The screams died, and the raging battled in.

01:10:55"'Once we take out the cyclonics, we link up with whoever is left

01:10:58and do what damage we can,' said Sestos, once Lexanal had resumed

01:11:02cover.

01:11:03The ultramarine nodded his understanding.

01:11:06Sestos relayed the same order through his helmet-vox on a

01:11:09discrete frequency in Ultramar battle-camp to Piteron and

01:11:13Excellinor.

01:11:14The two battle-brothers flanked the captain's position, heavy-duty

01:11:17munitions crates in front of them being chipped apart by

01:11:20persistent fire.

01:11:22Sestos glanced between the two bowsers.

01:11:25The furious crewmen, in dark scarlet overalls and fatigues, had

01:11:28been hit hard by the shock of the assault.

01:11:31Dozens of them lay dead around the torpedo-hatches or shot down

01:11:34from the gantries and cranes.

01:11:36The Astartes had exacted a heavy toll, but the enemy were

01:11:39regrouping, and reinforcements covered their losses in short

01:11:43order.

01:11:44There was no time to delay.

01:11:46"'On me!' Sestos cried.

01:11:48"'Battle formation Theta Epsilon!

01:11:50Macragge in ascendance!'

01:11:52He vaulted the bowser.

01:11:53Bolt-pistol flaring and lasgun impact spattered his cuirass.

01:11:57Sestos held his sword in salute stance, in front of his face,

01:12:01and the upright blade deflected energy blasts from his battle-

01:12:04helm.

01:12:05Twin bolters blazed, cross-shaped muzzle-flashes glaring, as

01:12:09Excellinor and Piteron moved in staggered battle formation to

01:12:12Sestos's left.

01:12:14Lexinor took the right flank, firing his plasma-gun in controlled

01:12:18bursts to prevent the deadly weapon from overheating.

01:12:21Towards the last third of the deck they broke up, each taking a

01:12:25channel into the industrial tangle of machinery.

01:12:28Troops of arms-men had mobilized and came at Sestos with shock-

01:12:31mauls and lengths of spiked chain.

01:12:33The ultramarine captain cut them down, Guilliman's name a mantra

01:12:37on his lips.

01:12:39Amidst the killing he noticed an access portal to the ordnance

01:12:42deck, and wondered why the word-bearers Astartes had not yet

01:12:45shown themselves.

01:12:47"'Link up and force through to the Cyclonics!'

01:12:50Sestos ordered through his helmet-box as he moved into a

01:12:52labyrinth of munitions.

01:12:54His battle-brothers obeyed, and together they converged on a pair

01:12:57of Cyclonics, still harnessed in their mobile racking.

01:13:01Shots spattered from gantries above, most of the lasboats and

01:13:04hard rounds smacking into cranes and clusters of machinery.

01:13:08Sestos saw a lucky shot ricochet from Lexinor's breastplate, and

01:13:12he staggered.

01:13:13A second burst from a heavy cannon somewhere above them raked

01:13:16his leg-greave, and he was down.

01:13:19Out of the corner of his eye Sestos saw a group of arms-men

01:13:22converging on the prone ultramarine.

01:13:24A lasboat clipping his pauldron, Sestos twisted as he ran, slamming

01:13:28a fresh magazine in his boat-pistol, and discharging a furious

01:13:32burst into the arms-men.

01:13:34Two disappeared in a red haze, another crumpled to the ground,

01:13:37nursing the wet crater in his stomach.

01:13:40Sestos didn't see the rest.

01:13:42Lexinor was getting to his feet when a round struck an active

01:13:45fuel-bowser.

01:13:46The resulting explosion engulfed the Astartes in coruscating

01:13:49flame, the blast-wave throwing him half-way across the deck.

01:13:53The ultramarine captain averted his gaze, muttering a battle-oath,

01:13:57and refocused ahead.

01:13:59Deploy incendiaries, Sestos ordered, when they finally reached

01:14:03the first batch of Cyclonics.

01:14:05Piteron unclipped a melter-bomb from his armour, disengaging the

01:14:08magna-clamp that kept it in place.

01:14:10Exselinor provided covering fire with his bolter.

01:14:14Bringer!

01:14:15Sestos shouted into his helmet-box, crouching beside Exselinor

01:14:18as he desperately tried to make contact.

01:14:20Bringer!

01:14:21Respond!

01:14:23Dead air came back at him.

01:14:25Either the wolf had been killed, or he was in another part of the

01:14:28ship where they couldn't reach him.

01:14:30Charges deployed, reported Piteron.

01:14:33As he turned to his captain, a heavy round struck him in the neck,

01:14:36piercing his gorget.

01:14:37He clutched the wound with one hand, the melter-bomb detonator in

01:14:40the other, and fell to one knee as blood streamed down his

01:14:44breastplate.

01:14:45Larumen cells within Piteron's body worked hard to slow the

01:14:49bleeding and speed up clotting, but the wound was serious.

01:14:52Even an Astarte's enhanced physiology would be unable to save

01:14:55the battle-brother.

01:14:57Take it!

01:14:58Piteron said, gurgling his words through blood.

01:15:02Sestos took the detonator, his hands around Piteron's.

01:15:05You will be honoured!

01:15:07Sestos's voice trailed away as the air around him suddenly turned

01:15:11cold, receptors built into his battle-plate, registering a severe

01:15:15drop in temperature.

01:15:16For an awful second he thought that the deck had depressurised,

01:15:20and the void would claim them all.

01:15:22With a cold came screaming, a thousand voices echoing out from the

01:15:26inside of Sestos's head.

01:15:29It was not the void, reaching into the ship to freeze them solid.

01:15:32It was something far worse.

01:15:34Prickling talons, probing his mental defences like ice-blades,

01:15:38reminded Sestos of his earlier encounter with Motep aboard the

01:15:42Wrothful.

01:15:43Psyker!

01:15:45he hissed with sudden realisation.

01:15:47Psyker!

01:15:48he shouted this time to get Exselinor's attention.

01:15:51We are under attack!

01:15:53One of the furious Abyssus crewmen stumbled out into the open.

01:15:57He clutched an autogun loosely in one hand, his arm hanging down by

01:16:00his side.

01:16:01With his other hand he appeared to be trying to tear out his own

01:16:05tongue.

01:16:06Sestos shot the man in the chest.

01:16:08He bucked violently and fell still against the deck.

01:16:11He then turned and saw Exselinor slowly raise his bolt-gun to his

01:16:15head.

01:16:15No!

01:16:16Sestos cried, yanking his fellow battle-brother to his senses.

01:16:21Voices in my head!

01:16:23I can't stop them!

01:16:24whispered Exselinor through his vox, still struggling with his

01:16:27bolter.

01:16:28Fight it!

01:16:29Sestos snarled at him, feeling the shreds of his own sanity slowly

01:16:33being devoured by the unseen force of the warp.

01:16:36They had to get out, right now.

01:16:39The ultramarine captain seized Exselinor's arm, the world starting

01:16:42to blur around him, and hauled him towards the access portal.

01:16:46Come on!

01:16:47Sestos breathed as the floor shifted beneath him and the walls began

01:16:51to melt.

01:16:52Try as he might, Sestos could not keep himself from falling into

01:16:55madness.

01:16:56The last thing he remembered was his fist closing on the detonator

01:17:00and the rush of fire.

01:17:02They think it's alive!

01:17:04breathed Zadkiel, standing before his command-throne.

01:17:07This ship has been a part of them for so long that the supplicants

01:17:11regard it as an extension of their own bodies.

01:17:14No!

01:17:15It is a host in which they are parasites.

01:17:17There won't be a mind left intact among them.

01:17:20The enemy will be driven mad long before we kill them.

01:17:25Your orders, admiral?

01:17:26The voice of sergeant-commander Reskiel, through the throne-vox,

01:17:29interrupted.

01:17:30You have gained the area outside of the ordnance-deck, he asked,

01:17:34imagining the warriors of Reskiel looming in the corridor

01:17:36intersections.

01:17:37Yes, my lord, Reskiel answered.

01:17:40Just prior to entering the ordnance-deck, the sergeant-commander

01:17:43and his warriors had been ordered to secure the exits, Zadkiel

01:17:46having no desire for his forces to be caught up in the psychic

01:17:50attack.

01:17:51Although a massive detonation destroyed much of the tertiary

01:17:54access points, as yet we have been unable to break through the

01:17:57tertiary access points, as yet we have been unable to break

01:18:00through, Reskiel added.

01:18:02Is it possible that the Astartes escaped the deck?

01:18:05The irritation in Zadkiel's voice obvious, even through the

01:18:08voxlink.

01:18:09There was a short pause as Reskiel considered his response.

01:18:13It is possible?

01:18:15Yes.

01:18:16Find them, Reskiel.

01:18:18Do it, or do not return to my bridge.

01:18:21Zadkiel cut the voxlink abruptly.

01:18:23The admiral turned to a secondary force of word-bearers who had

01:18:26assembled behind him.

01:18:28Secure the ordnance-deck, port, and starboard access portals.

01:18:31Get in there and recover what is left of our cyclonic payload.

01:18:35Yes, my lord, said a chorus of voices from the assembled

01:18:38word-bearers.

01:18:39Do so now, Zadkiel raged, and the clattering sounds of booted

01:18:44feet erupted behind him as the word-bearers deployed.

01:18:48The infiltrators had to be stopped.

01:18:50Despite the psychic assault, Zadkiel needed to be sure that any

01:18:54further loose ends had been tied up.

01:18:56Nothing must prevent the bombardment against Formasca.

01:18:59Without it, the rest of the plan could not proceed.

01:19:02He would not allow his soul to be forfeit from Cor Faron's rage

01:19:05at his failure.

01:19:07Success was inevitable.

01:19:08It had to be.

01:19:10It was written.

01:19:13Macragge's natives—the people who had been there before the

01:19:16emperor's great crusade had rediscovered them—had believed in a

01:19:20hell that was very specific in its cruelties.

01:19:23Its circles each held a certain breed of sinner.

01:19:26All suffering punishments appropriate to their misdeeds.

01:19:30The further in a dead man went, the more horrible and varied his

01:19:33punishments became, until the very worst of the worst—traitors to

01:19:38Macragge's battle-kings and those who had betrayed their own

01:19:41families—were held in the very centre in a series of torments that

01:19:45a living mind could not comprehend, and upon which the legends

01:19:48refused to speculate.

01:19:50Those beliefs had survived alongside the imperial truth as

01:19:54folktales and allegories.

01:19:56Macragge's circles of hell were the subject of epic verse,

01:19:59cautionary tales, and colourful curses.

01:20:03Sestos was, at that moment, in the circle of hell reserved for

01:20:07cowards.

01:20:09"'Run!' shouted the taskmaster.

01:20:11"'You ran from everything.

01:20:12You sacrificed everything to run.

01:20:14Run now, as you did in life.

01:20:16Never stop!'

01:20:18Sestos was blinded by tears.

01:20:20His hands and feet screamed at him, cut to tatters.

01:20:23A miniature sun rolled towards him, blistering the skin on the

01:20:27back of his torso and legs.

01:20:29It was relentless, never slowing, as it ground its way along the

01:20:32vast circular track, bounded by walls of granite, its light

01:20:37flickering against the stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling

01:20:40overhead.

01:20:41The floor was covered in blades, swords dropped by failed soldiers

01:20:45as they fled the battlefield.

01:20:47As the ball of fire approached, the sinners fled, tearing

01:20:50themselves on the blades to escape the fire.

01:20:53Their punishment was to flee for ever.

01:20:57Sestos remembered being told of this hell by drill-sergeants on

01:21:00Macragge in the half-remembered time before Gilliman's legion had

01:21:04taken him from among hundreds of supplicants to be turned into an

01:21:07ultramarine.

01:21:09This hell was half-way through the levels of hell, for while

01:21:12cowards were despised on Macragge, theirs was a pathetic sin, a sin

01:21:17of failure, and not comparable to the treachery of murder punished

01:21:20closer to hell's heart.

01:21:22It compounded the punishment not only to suffer, not only to know

01:21:26the weight of failure, but to be reminded that even in sin a coward

01:21:30was lacking.

01:21:32Sestos stumbled and fell, steel bit into his hands, his knees, and

01:21:37his chest.

01:21:38A blade slid through the softer skin of his lips, and he tasted

01:21:42blood.

01:21:42He coughed, desperate for it to end.

01:21:45It felt like he had been there for years, the relentless sun

01:21:48driving him on.

01:21:50The taskmaster was a drill sergeant of Macragge, the same kind of

01:21:54man who had ordered him to march and fight and strive as a child.

01:21:58Sestos remembered the fear of failure, of letting his betters down.

01:22:02He got to his feet, and somehow the flesh was still screaming.

01:22:05"'I am not a coward!' he gasped.

01:22:08"'Please, I am not a coward!'

01:22:10The taskmaster's whip lashed down.

01:22:13It was a tongue of flame from the sun, scoring a red-black line of

01:22:17agony against Sestos's back.

01:22:19"'You all but murdered your battle-brother because you feared to

01:22:22take his place!' the taskmaster shouted.

01:22:25"'You doomed your fellow-warriors because you feared failure, and

01:22:29now you beg for your just punishment to end!

01:22:32What are these but the actions of a coward?

01:22:35And you wore the colours of Gilliman!

01:22:37What shame you have brought to your legion!'

01:22:40"'I have never run!' yelled Sestos.

01:22:43"'Not once!

01:22:44I never back down.

01:22:45I never turn from the enemy.

01:22:47Fear never made my choice!'

01:22:50"'Do you deny?' shouted the taskmaster.

01:22:52"'I deny!

01:22:53I deny you!

01:22:54The imperial truth has no room for hells.

01:22:57The only hells are those we make for ourselves.

01:23:00Another lifetime, Lysimachus Sestos, and you will break!'

01:23:06The sun roared closer.

01:23:07It swelled up, angry and orange.

01:23:10Dark spots flared on its surface.

01:23:12Flaming tongues licked out at Sestos,

01:23:15searing the soles of his feet, the backs of his legs.

01:23:18One wrapped around his face, and he moaned as it burned

01:23:21through his skin, his cheek, and nose, his ear.

01:23:24Sestos fought to escape, but the blade snagged him.

01:23:28One leg was trapped by hooks between the bones,

01:23:31and he felt steel scraping along his shin,

01:23:33flaying skin and muscle away.

01:23:36One hand was stuck too, pierced through by the barbed head of a spear.

01:23:40"'I am not a coward!' yelled Sestos.

01:23:44He tore himself free of the bladed ground.

01:23:47Muscle and blood sloughed away.

01:23:49"'I know no fear!'

01:23:52He turned around and walked, on what remained of his feet,

01:23:55into the heart of the sun.

01:23:59Admiral Kaminska sat in her command-throne in front of the blast-doors

01:24:03leading to the bridge of the Rothwell.

01:24:05The doors were closed.

01:24:06The bridge sealed off against the secondary explosions

01:24:09wracking the ship.

01:24:11Another huge explosion thundered up from the generatoria

01:24:14deep in the stern.

01:24:15The Rothwell was breaking up.

01:24:18Formaska's weak gravity well was slowly dragging it into a death-spiral.

01:24:23There, upon the barren rock, they would be broken.

01:24:26That was, if a catastrophic reactor collapse

01:24:28didn't destroy the ship completely first.

01:24:31Kaminska felt curiously calm as they drifted through the void,

01:24:35completely at the whim of gravity.

01:24:37There was still a trace of underlying disquiet

01:24:39at the edge of her senses, however,

01:24:41as if the feeling she had experienced before had remained,

01:24:45but she had become inured to it.

01:24:48She had known, when Cestus proposed his plan and spoke of sacrifice,

01:24:51that this would be her last mission.

01:24:54She wore her full admiral's regalia,

01:24:56and had instructed all of her bridge-staff to do the same.

01:24:59There would be honour in this final act.

01:25:02They had fought a giant in the form of the furious abyss,

01:25:05and they had lost.

01:25:07But like the fly irritates the bison,

01:25:09perhaps it would be enough to distract their enemy long enough

01:25:12for the angels of the Emperor to do what they must.

01:25:15"'Helm's mistress,' said Kaminska.

01:25:18Her eyes on the forward-view screen and space

01:25:20as scattered debris from her ship spiralled slowly past.

01:25:24"'Dismiss the bridge-crew, yourself included.

01:25:27You are to evacuate the wrathful at once,

01:25:29and take the saviour pods.

01:25:30May fortune favour you in the void!'

01:25:33"'I'm sorry, admiral.

01:25:34I cannot speak for the rest of the crew,

01:25:36but I will not obey that order,'

01:25:38answered Venkmire.

01:25:40Kaminska whirled in her command-throne,

01:25:42and fixed her helm's mistress with an icy glare.

01:25:45"'I am your captain, and you will do as I bid,' she said.

01:25:49"'I request to remain on board the wrathful and go down with the ship,'

01:25:53Venkmire responded.

01:25:54For a moment Kaminska looked as if she were about to erupt

01:25:57into a fit of apoplexy at such insubordination,

01:26:00but the determined expression on her helm's mistress' face

01:26:03made the ice soften and melt.

01:26:06Kaminska saluted Venkmire and her bridge-crew.

01:26:09"'You do me great honour!'

01:26:11Kaminska was about to smile proudly,

01:26:13when the feeling of unease intensified,

01:26:16and she realised it was emanating from her helm's mistress.

01:26:19"'No, admiral,' Venkmire replied,

01:26:22and from the obvious demeanour of the crew around her

01:26:24they were all in agreement.

01:26:26"'We are honoured!'

01:26:28Venkmire raised her hand to return the naval salute,

01:26:32when she suddenly clutched her stomach.

01:26:34She grimaced in pain and felt of her deck convulsing violently.

01:26:38Helmsmaid Camp, standing close by, went immediately to her aid.

01:26:42"'Officer Venkmire!' shouted Kaminska,

01:26:45getting off her throne to go to her helm's mistress' aid.

01:26:48She stopped short when she saw her breath misting in front of her.

01:26:52A profound chill filled the bridge

01:26:54as if it were suddenly converted into a meat-locker.

01:26:57Eyes wide as Venkmire bucked and thrashed,

01:27:00she drew her naval side-arm.

01:27:03Armed or not, it wouldn't matter.

01:27:06It was already too late for them all."

01:27:10Motap was meditating in the isolation chamber,

01:27:13his gaze fixed on the reflective surface of the speculum in his wand.

01:27:18Abruptly his glazed expression bled away,

01:27:21and he was at full awareness again.

01:27:23It was time.

01:27:25The Thousand Sun got to his feet.

01:27:27His jailers had allowed him to wear his battle-plate,

01:27:29and the heavily armoured boots resonated against the metal floor.

01:27:33He approached the locked cell door and raised his hand.

01:27:36Chanting eldritch words in a sibilant tongue,

01:27:39the door dissolved before Motap's open palm,

01:27:42disintegrating back into atoms.

01:27:45The Astartes stepped through,

01:27:46and was struck immediately by a profound sense of emptiness.

01:27:50The corridors were utterly bereft of life.

01:27:53He knew the Wrothful had only a skeleton crew,

01:27:55but this was something else—an absence of existence

01:27:59that smacked of the otherworldly.

01:28:01Motap drew the psychic hood over his head,

01:28:04securing it firmly to the scarab-shaped clasps on his gorget.

01:28:08He drew the wand out before him and activated it.

01:28:11The small stave extended into the spear again,

01:28:14and a small crackle of energy played down its length,

01:28:16as if reacting to the air around it.

01:28:19This ghost-ship in which he walked had a phantom.

01:28:23Motap knew it for certain.

01:28:26Calmly the Thousand Sun walked down the narrow passageways

01:28:29that would lead him to the bridge,

01:28:31where he knew his destiny awaited.

01:28:33The lines of fate had been very specific.

01:28:36This was the path he had chosen,

01:28:38despite the efforts of the Other to try and change his mind,

01:28:41to will him into divine madness.

01:28:44Motap reached the bridge without encountering a single soul.

01:28:48It was as if the crew had been devoured utterly.

01:28:51He moved his hand in a swift chopping motion,

01:28:53and the sealed blast-doors opened,

01:28:56venting a small cloud of pressure.

01:28:57Carnage, Greek.

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