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

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00:00:00the worldly. Motep drew the psychic hood over his head, securing it firmly to the scarab-shaped

00:00:06clasps on his gorget. He drew the wand out before him and activated it. The small stave

00:00:12extended into the spear again, and a small crackle of energy played down its length,

00:00:17as if reacting to the air around it. This ghost-ship in which he walked had a phantom.

00:00:23Motep knew it for certain.

00:00:26Calmly, the Thousand Sun walked down the narrow passageways that would lead him to the bridge,

00:00:31where he knew his destiny awaited. The lines of fate had been very specific. This was the

00:00:36path he had chosen, despite the efforts of the Other to try and change his mind, to will

00:00:41him into divine madness.

00:00:45Motep reached the bridge without encountering a single soul. It was as if the crew had been

00:00:49devoured utterly. He moved his hand in a swift chopping motion, and the sealed blast-doors

00:00:55opened, venting a small cloud of pressure.

00:00:59Carnage greeted him as the Thousand Sun stepped into the chamber. It was as if the bleeding

00:01:04heart of the Rothel had been laid open upon the surgeon's slab. The heart of the ship,

00:01:09of course, was its crew. Their blood and viscera painted the walls, an incarnadine portrait

00:01:15rendered by an obscene and demented artist. Skin was flayed from bone, organs eviscerated.

00:01:22A bizarre skeleton ribbed the walls and ceiling, the concomitant elements harvested from the

00:01:26slain crew-members, changing the bridge into a macabre ossuary.

00:01:32Motep ignored the abattoir stink assailing his nostrils, even through his battle-helm.

00:01:36The wet redness of the chamber cast starkly in the intermittent flare of warning-lamps.

00:01:42He saw Admiral Kaminska slumped against the floor, a pistol in her hand.

00:01:48Get out of her! she breathed, blood flecking her lips as she spoke. Standing before them

00:01:55both, an insane grin etched upon her face, was Helm's Mistress Venkmire. She was bloody,

00:02:02and her toes, pointing downward in her boots, just scraped the floor, as if she were a marionette

00:02:07held limply by its strings.

00:02:10Get out! Kaminska urged again, struggling to stand, as she fired her pistol on empty

00:02:16at the abomination that used to be her second-in-command. The Venkmire puppet lashed out, her arm extending

00:02:22as if it were made of clay, and sheared off Kaminska's head with its talon-like fingers.

00:02:27The Admiral dead, the creature's arm shrank back into position, glistening with blood.

00:02:33You dwell within, said Motep calmly, taking a step forward as he mustered his psychic

00:02:39resolve.

00:02:40Come forth!

00:02:42The Venkmire puppet grinned back at him.

00:02:45I am a servant of the Crimson Eye. I am a vassal of Magnus the All-Knowing, said Motep,

00:02:50taking another step as he reaffirmed the grip on his spear.

00:02:54Come forth!

00:02:56Eerie quiet had descended like a veil, and the temperature readings in the Thousand Suns'

00:03:01helmet were registering sub-zero. He saw miniature icicles of hoarfrost building on his gauntlets.

00:03:08A faint white patina was emerging slowly on his cuirass as he advanced.

00:03:13Still the Venkmire puppet did not answer.

00:03:16I know you are here, cried Motep, his voice resonating around the bridge. You have been

00:03:22here all along. You cannot hide from me. I have the Eye of Magnus.

00:03:28Motep levelled his spear at Venkmire, as if she was a wild beast poised to attack.

00:03:33Come forth! he hissed, and the briefest flash of recognition appeared on Venkmire's face,

00:03:39but was swallowed by agony.

00:03:41The thing that used to be the Helmsmistress opened its mouth, and the jaw distended to

00:03:46reveal a hollow maw of deep red. A gush of blood spewed outwards, coating Motep in its

00:03:52sickly gore. The Thousand Sun did not falter against the crimson tide, and held his ground.

00:03:58The sound of cracking bone filled the air as Venkmire's spine was ripped out of her

00:04:03back and arced up and over her head like a scorpion's sting. Her neck snapped, and her

00:04:08jaw distended further, tendons severing. Beneath her tarnished uniform her ribs writhed

00:04:14as a shape fought to free itself from the flesh and bone-sack of her body. Convulsions

00:04:18racked her, and the head came apart in a shower of gore and matter. A shape of raw muscle

00:04:25emerged, unfolding and opening like a bloody flower. Venkmire's hands became claws, and

00:04:31enhanced musculature spread across her ravaged body in a riot. Wet and pink, the muscle swelled

00:04:37until a hard black carapace formed over it. What had once been Venkmire, little more than

00:04:43a conduit for something to wrench itself into existence, grew exponentially until it had

00:04:47to crouch to fit into the chamber. The nubs of horns sprouted from a bulbous head, from

00:04:53which eyes like pits of tar blinked maliciously. A slit ran across the near featureless head,

00:04:59like the cut from a surgeon's scalpel, and a wide mouth opened from it, revealing rows

00:05:03of razor-teeth. Talons like scythe-blades scraped along the floor from distended simian-like

00:05:09arms. A long sinewy tail spilled from its back, made of tough muscle-bound vines and

00:05:15twisted spine.

00:05:16"'There you are!' said Motep, looking up at the towering abomination.

00:05:22"'Ursorik!'

00:05:24It was a thing of the warp, a demon-made flesh, and it stared at the Thousand Sun, allowing

00:05:29its malign presence to wash over him.

00:05:32"'I am gorged!' the thing gurgled, drooling blood, as its mouth deformed to make the words.

00:05:41"'But there is always room for more!'

00:05:48Motep knew, then, that the beast had been aboard the ship for weeks, devouring souls

00:05:53to gather its strength. It had been the temptation in his head that had almost made him slip

00:05:58into madness. It had fanned the flames of the space-wolf's enmity against him. It had

00:06:02fostered the madness that had claimed the lives of so many of the crew. Motep brandished

00:06:07his spear, and a corona of crackling energy arced over it.

00:06:11"'Feeding-time is over!' he promised.

00:06:17The seventh circle of Hell, two steps closer to the heart of damnation, was for rebels,

00:06:23those who had cast off the natural order, who had defied their betters or refused to

00:06:27accept their place in the world. In ages past those who had taken up arms against Macragge's

00:06:32battle-kings had found themselves here, alongside children who had turned against their parents,

00:06:38and deviants and agitators of every kind. It was a machine, a vast, complex, endless

00:06:44construction of cogs and steel, that churned through the seventh circle. Rebels had failed

00:06:50to realize that they were required to be a part of a larger machine, and so the seventh

00:06:54hell was to educate them in their place. Sinners became a part of that machine, bent

00:07:00and stretched into component parts. The machine never let them alone, always twisting them

00:07:05or thrusting a piston through them, until they gave up their individuality in the hope

00:07:09of ending the pain. The seventh hell was not just a punishment, it was a lesson, and it

00:07:15would break the pupil's spirit in the telling.

00:07:20Marcus's spine was bent backwards. Spurs of metal were slid in at his wrists, down

00:07:24through the muscle of his arms, and into his chest. Metal merged with the back of his skull

00:07:29and snapped it back every few seconds, as the teeth of a cog hammered by behind him.

00:07:35This circle of hell was dark and dripping with blood. Other sinners were everywhere,

00:07:40their bodies so deformed by the machine that they were little more than cogs or cans of

00:07:44gristle and bone, facial features barely discernible. A few others were new, and their bodies were

00:07:50still resisting. They screamed, bones poking through their skin and muscles ripping.

00:07:56"'Cestus!' cried someone above him. Cestus tried to look back, grimacing as metal pushed

00:08:01through the skin of his scalp. It was Antigui's. The ultramarine had been stripped of his armour

00:08:07and was bolted spread-eagled to a cog. His limbs were being forced around to follow the

00:08:12circle of the cog. His shins and forearms were being bent into curves, and they looked

00:08:18like they would shatter at any moment. Another, smaller cog, inside the larger, was fixed

00:08:23to its back, slowly twisting his spine. Already his torso looked lopsided, and his head had

00:08:28been forced down onto one shoulder.

00:08:31"'Antigui's!' gasped Cestus.

00:08:33"'I had thought you were lost. I am,' said Antigui's, a brief lull in his suffering before

00:08:40the agony returned. So are you. Fathers of Macragge, this pain! I cannot suffer it much

00:08:47longer. If only there were some! Some new death! Some oblivion!'

00:08:52"'This is the hell for rebels!' said Cestus. He felt a note of panic in his mind as the

00:08:58spurs in his forearms and chest began to force apart, drawing his arms behind him.

00:09:03"'We are not rebels. We were always loyal sons of Macragge. We served the imperial truth

00:09:08until the end. Nothing was worth more to us than our duty.'

00:09:11"'Your duties were on terror,' said Antigui's. You took a ship and left your post. You took

00:09:18us all on your mission to Macragge, and damned the rest. There was no duty that told you

00:09:23to gather your fleet and abandon terror. That was your personal crusade, Cestus. That was

00:09:28your rebellion. I had a duty to Macragge, and to my battle-brothers. Everything I did,

00:09:34I did because it was demanded of me by my legion. Loyalty drove me on. Loyalty, Cestus,

00:09:40loyalty for yourself!'

00:09:42Antigui's threw his head back and screamed. One leg shattered, snapping at the shin. The

00:09:47other one was wrenched apart at the knee. A shoulder followed, the bone torn out of

00:09:51the socket. Skin split, and Antigui's arm was held on only by a few tendons. His eyes

00:09:58rolled back and his breathing turned ragged. An Astartes could take pain that would kill

00:10:03a normal man, but even Antigui's had his limits.

00:10:07"'Brother!' shouted Cestus. Hold on! Do not leave me! Fight!'

00:10:12Cestus's part of the machine, hummed with power, diverted to the engines chugging away

00:10:16beneath him. He felt his arms forced back further, and a sharp pressure in his back.

00:10:22His head was forced back too, snapping back and forth, as it was ratcheted tight into

00:10:26the top of his spine. The pressure in his chest was tremendous, and Astartes' ribs were

00:10:31fused into a breastplate of bone, and Cestus could feel them grinding as it made ready

00:10:35to split down the middle. The pain grew, and the Ultramarine could feel nothing else,

00:10:41only the awful inevitability of his breaking.

00:10:45"'I am no rebel!' shouted Cestus, drawing resolve from a pit of strength he didn't know

00:10:51he had. 'I only serve! My legion is my life! I do not belong in this hell of Macragge,

00:10:57and so this hell is not real! I am no rebel! I defy you all!'

00:11:05There a taskmaster turned a rusting wheel, and the machine shuddered with power. Cestus's

00:11:11chest split open. He screamed. Hot air shrieked through his organs. His legs kicked frantically,

00:11:17and both his arms snapped. His neck broke, but the pain did not die, and his body was

00:11:22forced to accept the form of the machine.

00:11:25"'I defy you!' gasped Cestus, with his last breath.

00:11:35CHAPTER 19 PACK MENTALITY

00:11:38WUSSORIK REUNION

00:11:40Bryngar stalked on all fours amongst the steaming carcasses of the pack. He had rent them apart

00:11:47with tooth and claw, his furred muzzle stained with their blood. They had challenged him,

00:11:52and he had proved he was dominant. Upon the snowy Fenrisian plain his feral eyes cast

00:11:57across a silver ocean so still that it was like glass. He sniffed the air, the scent

00:12:03of something drifting towards him on the cold breeze. Long wolf-ears, pricking at the faintest

00:12:09sound of disturbed tundra, he saw a shape above him, moving stealthily up a craggy

00:12:13peak under a shawl of snow. Another wolf still lived, and was stalking him. Bryngar emitted

00:12:21a baleful howl that echoed across the soaring mountains. Its challenge was met by another.

00:12:27The hackles rose on Bryngar's back as the other wolf loped into view. He was smaller,

00:12:32but lean and well-muscled. Reddish-brown fur covered his lupine body, and he pawed at the

00:12:37ground with blood-red claws. Bryngar growled at the red wolf's approach, a deep and ululating

00:12:43sound that resonated through his body. The challenger stepped down onto the plain, and

00:12:49they began circling each other, the old and venerable grey versus the youthful red. Death

00:12:55was the only outcome. The only thing that was uncertain was whether the duel would claim

00:13:00them both. Ribbons of wolf-flesh still clung to Bryngar's fangs. The blood-taste was intoxicating,

00:13:08and the scent set his feral senses aflame. With a roar he dived at the other wolf, biting

00:13:13and clawing with savage abandon. So furious was the attack that the red wolf was bowled

00:13:18briefly off-balance. He twisted in Bryngar's jaws, scraping wildly with his claws and biting

00:13:23down against the grey's back. The wolves broke apart, both bloodied and full of fury.

00:13:29This time the red wolf attacked, launching a swift assault that saw him rake his claws

00:13:34down Bryngar's flank. The old grey wolf yelped in pain and skidded away across the ice-plain

00:13:39on all fours before regrouping to charge again. The red wolf slashed a claw across Bryngar's

00:13:45muzzle as he came at him, but the old grey was not to be deterred. Ignoring the pain,

00:13:51Bryngar locked his jaw around the red wolf's neck and bit down. Claws raked his flank as

00:13:56the red wolf's back legs kicked out in desperation. Bryngar could hear his opponent's frantic

00:14:01breathing and feel the hotness against his fur, the vapour cooling in the cold. With

00:14:06a grunt of effort he snapped the red wolf's neck. It yelped just before it died, and fell

00:14:12limp in Bryngar's jaw. The old wolf shook the corpse loose and howled in triumph, blood

00:14:18drizzling from his maw, as he brandished gory fangs.

00:14:24The Silver Ocean was before him once more, and Bryngar felt it caught him. Snow spilled

00:14:29across its mirror-sheen in fat white drifts. It fell upon the ground where Bryngar stood,

00:14:34covering up the spilled blood of the slain wolves. The old grey was about to lope off

00:14:40when a shadow fell across the ice-plane. He looked up, and for a moment could see nothing

00:14:45through the heavy snowfall. Then, slowly, a figure resolved itself. It was a black wolf,

00:14:52easily twice his size, sitting on its haunches, watching him calmly. There was no challenge

00:14:58in its posture. Bryngar detected no threat in either its tone or manner. It merely watched.

00:15:04The grey wolf had seen this black-furred beast before. He approached it slowly, warily,

00:15:10and stopped as the black wolf got up. Its eyes bore into him, and it opened its mouth

00:15:15as if to howl.

00:15:17"'Look around you!' said the black wolf, and though it spoke the words of man, Bryngar

00:15:24the grey wolf understood.

00:15:26"'Look around you, Bryngar!' said the giant black wolf again.

00:15:31"'This is not Fenris!'

00:15:36Bryngar woke from a dream straight into a nightmare. Roogeveld lay dead at his feet.

00:15:42The blood-claw's throat had been ripped out, and vital fluids pooled around his corpse.

00:15:48Bryngar tasted copper in his mouth, and knew at once that he had killed him. Out of the

00:15:53corner of his eye the wolf-guard saw the other grey-armoured forms, and realised that

00:15:59he had slain all of his kinsmen. He shut his eyes against the horror, willing it to be

00:16:04his fevered imagination, but when Bryngar opened them again he knew it was not.

00:16:10The wolf-guard got unsteadily to his feet. The last thing he remembered was approaching

00:16:14the furious abyss. Their shuttle had been hit, and they had crashed in a place of darkness.

00:16:19The rest was lost. He had emerged onto what he thought was Fenris. He knew that this was

00:16:25some form of psychic lie. He clenched his fists at the thought of being manipulated

00:16:29by witchcraft. It had cost the lives of his battle-brothers. He had been damned by it.

00:16:36Senses returning, Bryngar looked around. The chamber was gloomy in the extreme, but felt

00:16:42large and tall. It was some kind of armoury. He stood face to face with a suit of dreadnought

00:16:48armour. Startled at first, the wolf-guard took an instinctive step back and reached

00:16:53for Feltooth. When he realised that the sarcophagus of the mighty war-machine was empty and dormant,

00:17:00he relaxed. There was another dreadnought next to it, similarly harnessed, made ready

00:17:05for the warrior who would become entombed within it for all time, or until they fell

00:17:09in service to the Legion. The armoury was vast and well-stocked. There were crates of

00:17:15munitions stacked in rows. They joined ranks of bolter-clips, fuel-cells, and harnessed

00:17:20grenades. It was the hulking presence of the dreadnoughts, however, that caught the space-wolf's

00:17:25attention. Next to the second war-machine there was another, and another, and another.

00:17:31Bryngar gazed up and across the chamber, his enhanced eyesight adjusting to the darkness.

00:17:37At least a hundred dreadnoughts filled the massive armoury-hall, their somnambulant forms

00:17:42held fast in racks and rows. Weapons-systems, great piston-hammers, power-flails, autocannons,

00:17:49heavy-bolters, twin-linked flamers, and missile-pods were arrayed next to them, waiting to be attached

00:17:55to the dreadnought body. Bryngar balked at the firepower on display and the thought of

00:18:00thousands of these armoured leviathans going to war in Lorgar's name.

00:18:04Bryngar's ears pricked up. He had lost his battle-helm at some point, he could not recall.

00:18:10A slab of metal slid away from a bare wall in the armoury-hall, and a shaft of one red

00:18:15light issued through the gap. A tall, thin shadow was waiting outside, and, with the

00:18:21way open, it moved into the room. It was clad in black robes, and Bryngar detected the glint

00:18:27of a metal artifice at its back.

00:18:31MECHANICUM

00:18:32The magus turned when it noticed the Astartes in the armoury. Without preamble it came at

00:18:38the space-wolf, a mechadendrite drill emerging from the folds of its robes. Bryngar slashed

00:18:44the mechanical arm of the weapon, oil spilling from the severed metal limb like blood, and

00:18:49brought Feltooth down onto the hapless magus with a roar. The creature gurgled as it died

00:18:55in what might have been an expression of pain or regret. It twitched for a moment, as if

00:19:00its mechanical body was taking time to realise that it was already dead, before at last it

00:19:06lay still.

00:19:08The red light continued to issue from the portal opened by the magus. Bryngar had no

00:19:13idea where it led, but perhaps he could find some vulnerable location on the ship and do

00:19:17some damage, making the sacrifice of his blood-claws and his own terrible act worth something.

00:19:24Maybe even the ultramarine was still alive, and he could find him. These thoughts running

00:19:28through his mind, the wolf-guard took a step towards the portal, but stopped when he heard

00:19:33the shift of metal in the chamber, followed by the pressure hiss of a disengaging harness.

00:19:39Bryngar turned towards the sound, his accentuated hearing pinpointing its location exactly,

00:19:45and paused. He did not have to wait long for the source of the disturbance to reveal itself.

00:19:51"'I serve the Legion eternally,' a scratchy voice said, emitted from a voxcaster out of

00:19:59the darkness. Heavy metal footfalls like the thunk of giant hammers hitting metal echoed

00:20:04in the armoury as a massive dreadnought emerged from the shadows. The thing was an abomination,

00:20:10only part way through the procedure of interment. The armoured sarcophagus hung open, revealing

00:20:15a translucent blister-pod in which a naked form was surrounded in amniotic fluid. The

00:20:21viscous material clung to the body, casting the enhanced musculature of the entombed Astartes

00:20:26in a dull sheen through the blister. It walked unsteadily, and one of its arms was missing,

00:20:32disconnected cabling flapping like cut veins, doubtless still awaiting the weapons of destruction

00:20:37through which it would express the art of war. The other arm, though, was more than

00:20:42ready, a massive spiked hammer swinging from it. A faint energy crackle played along its

00:20:48surface, casting stark flashes onto the dreadnought as it primed the deadly weapon subconsciously.

00:20:54A sense of palpable menace came from a metal monster that towered over Bryngar. The old

00:20:59wolf took a step back, swinging Feltooth in readiness. The armour of his opponent looked

00:21:04thick, and he hoped that the rune-axe could pierce it.

00:21:07"'My enemy!' droned the dreadnought, lumbering forward to close off the exit to the armoury

00:21:13as a flare of recognition coloured its tone and demeanour.

00:21:17"'Altice must die!' it added, pausing for a moment, as if suddenly confused, before

00:21:23it refocused on the space-wolf, and continued,

00:21:26"'You will not gain the ship!'

00:21:29Bryngar knew this warrior. He had killed him once already, at Bacca Triumviran.

00:21:35"'Bellanus!' it said with machine coldness.

00:21:40The assault, captain.

00:21:42"'Didn't I kill you once already?' growled the wolf-guard.

00:21:45"'Destroy you!' the dreadnought replied, the sarcophagus closing up over the blister.

00:21:54"'Round two!' Bryngar whispered, as Bellanus, the dreadnought, charged.

00:22:03Motap crashed through the blast-doors of the bridge, and skidded across the floor of an

00:22:07adjoining corridor. Fire wreathed his armour, and scorch-marks tarnished it from where the

00:22:12demon had burned him with its breath. The force of the blow was such that Motap tried

00:22:16to claw at the corridor walls to slow his passage, but the wood veneer and metal tore

00:22:21away in his grasp, revealing bare wiring and fat cables that spat sparks and flame.

00:22:27The Thousand Sun struck a bulkhead at the corridor's intersection, and crumpled to a

00:22:31halt, pain lancing his back and shoulder.

00:22:35Heat coiled from the edges of Motap's armour. The face-plate of his helmet had taken the

00:22:39worst of the impact, and he ripped it away, half-melted, leaving the rest of the headgear

00:22:44intact, together with the psychic hood.

00:22:48Slipping the battle-helm face-plate, Motap got to his feet. Three claw-marks were cut

00:22:53so deep into his cuirass that they bled. The Astartes staggered at first, but drew on his

00:22:58psychic reserves to steel himself. Forcing one foot in front of the other, banishing

00:23:03the pain, he made his way back to the bridge.

00:23:07Wessorick stepped from the shattered blast-doors, metal squealing as the demon pushed its immense

00:23:12bulk through the ragged hole left by Motap. The beast would meet him half-way.

00:23:19As it got closer, Motap saw that the black-armour carapace was cracked in places, and faintly

00:23:24glowing ica seeped from minor cuts on its body. It could be hurt, at least. Motap clung

00:23:31to that small sliver of hope as he readied his spear. With a muttered incantation he

00:23:36sent an arc of crimson lightning towards the demon. The creature shied away at first, using

00:23:41its muscular forearm to fend off the psychic assault, but the cerulean energy quickly died,

00:23:46and Wessorick emerged unscathed.

00:23:49"'Like an insect,' said the demon, its voice accompanied by the sliver of muscle and the

00:23:57cracking of bone. "'You are harder to kill than your feeble frame suggests.'

00:24:05"'I am Astartes. I am an avenging angel of the Emperor of Mankind,' Motap challenged,

00:24:14using the brief respite to marshal his strength. Though he was weak and in pain, the Thousand

00:24:19Sun was careful not to show weakness, not even to contemplate defeat, for if he did,

00:24:24the demon would seize upon it and all would be lost.

00:24:28"'I am your doom,' Wessorick promised, and came forward with preternatural speed. "'As

00:24:38I am yours,' Motap hissed.

00:24:42Talons like blades scythed the air, and Motap's spear spat golden sparks as he used it to

00:24:47parry the blow. He was staggered by the force of it and took an involuntary step back, boots

00:24:52grinding metal. He lunged with his spear, igniting the tip in an aura of crimson fire,

00:24:57and pierced Wessorick's side. The demon's skin felt like iron, and the resonance of

00:25:03the blow rippled down Motap's forearm and into his shoulder. The effect was numbing,

00:25:07and he nearly dropped the weapon. Wessorick's pain bellow was immense, and the Thousand

00:25:12Sun winced against its intensity before withdrawing. With the servos in his armour assisting his

00:25:18muscles, Motap leapt backwards, the tattered robes of his armour flapping like a cloak,

00:25:22and landed, spear in hand, before the demon could retaliate.

00:25:26"'You have failed here, spirit,' he said, filling his voice with absolute certainty.

00:25:31"'Wraith of times past, I name thee. Native thing of the warp, I shall send you back there.

00:25:38However much you hunger, you are known to me, and you will not prevail. You will be

00:25:42banished by the light of the Emperor.'

00:25:44"'You know nothing,' Wessorick sneered, 'of what we are.' The terrible wound in its side

00:25:58was already healing. "'You are misled, and you know not of your fate.' An image flashed

00:26:09briefly in Motap's mind of the spires of Prospero burning, and the howling of wolves.

00:26:15It was the same vision he had seen when Wessorick had first tried to subvert him, and it came

00:26:20back like a recurring nightmare to haunt him. Motap focused, determined not to give in,

00:26:25and slowly the image faded away like smoke.

00:26:30"'I am Motap, Thousand Sun of Magnus the Red. The wisdom of Ahriman flows within me.'

00:26:38The affirmation steeled him, and power coursed through his body. Wessorick's body, all muscle

00:26:43and blemished skin, like the hide of a diseased corpse, shuddered with what the Thousand Sun

00:26:49could only think was laughter. The demon's bloody lips peeled back from its dog-like

00:26:54skull, and its pure black eyes shimmered wetly in sunken sockets of gore. One of Wessorick's

00:27:00hands turned in on itself with a foul sucking sound, forming a wide orifice which the monster

00:27:06aimed like a gun. The demon roared with effort, and a bolt of purple fire spat from its hand.

00:27:13Motap couldn't get out of the way quickly enough, and the blast caught his pauldron,

00:27:17hitting him hard enough to throw him spinning down the corridor. The Thousand Sun was on

00:27:22his feet as soon as he landed, feeling the armour down one side char with the heat and

00:27:27the exposed skin of his face blistering.

00:27:30Wessorick fired again, a heavy chain of caged fire spitting from his hand. The monster was

00:27:35laughing loudly, a horrendous gurgling sound that sprayed blood from its throat. Motap

00:27:41rolled around the intersection, tumbling into another corridor as lances of fire tore through

00:27:46the bulkhead.

00:27:48The stink of burning metal filled his nostrils, and wretched heat plagued his skin, but Motap

00:27:53was not about to give up. Once the conflagration had died down, he swung back around the intersection.

00:27:59From his outstretched palm he sent a boiling mass of crimson fire against the demon, which

00:28:03coursed over its weapon-arm, searing it shut.

00:28:06"'The Ward-Bearers will not succeed,' he said, rushing forward with his spear.

00:28:12"'The Emperor knows he's betrayed. Lorgar will not escape his justice.'

00:28:17"'I care nothing for Lorgar's dogs,' roared Wessorick. "'They are beholden to the will

00:28:29of the Warp, the ancient ones that dwell in the Empyrean. The slave Lorgar is merely

00:28:39a tool in the fashioning of our grand design. Mankind will fall as Old Night returns to

00:28:51the galaxy, shrouding it in a second darkness. You will all be slaves!'

00:29:03Astartes and Demon clashed. Motap ran his spear through Wessorick's side, while the

00:29:08Demon swatted him against the corridor wall with the sweep of its gargantuan claws. Before

00:29:13the Thousand Sun could recover, it seized upon his skull and started to squeeze. Motap

00:29:18could hear the bone cracking inside his head as dark spots flecked his failing vision.

00:29:23"'Your Emperor can plot and cower all he likes,' said Wessorick. "'What has the Warp to fear

00:29:33from him?' he taunted, exerting more pressure. "'Knowledge,' hissed Motap through clenched

00:29:42teeth, "'is power!' Twin beams of light seared from his eyes, burning Wessorick's face and

00:29:50torso. The Demon recoiled, loosing its grip, and Motap rammed his spear into its neck.

00:29:56Shrieking in pain, Wessorick let him down, and the Thousand Sun clattered to the floor,

00:30:01the spear still embedded in the Demon's neck. With a massive effort, Motap got up and threw

00:30:06the Demon off, a mental shield forming in his mind and crystallising in the air before

00:30:10him. Wessorick was angry, its red raw flesh charred and bleeding, Aiko. The fresh spear-wound

00:30:18had not closed. Wessorick came at the Thousand Sun again, tearing through the psychic shield

00:30:24as if it was parchment.

00:30:28Sestos fell flat on his face, dry heaving. He couldn't tell which way was up. He was

00:30:33cold, appallingly cold, as if he was wrapped in ice or exposed to the naked void. The feeling

00:30:40of his body coming apart was an agonising echo in every bone and tendon. To turn like

00:30:45that from a living, breathing man to a piece of mangled meat, to be trapped in that transition,

00:30:50feeling his spine cracking and his chest splitting, had been as obscene as it was tortuous. He

00:30:55felt violated, as if his flesh didn't belong to him any more.

00:31:00Sestos opened his eyes. He was in the last circle of Hell. It was an endless shaft of

00:31:07blackness, reaching up and down for infinity. Hundreds of long, thin blades penetrated the

00:31:12darkened void, hanging down from above and spearing down for ever. On these blades were

00:31:18impaled traitors to Macragge. They slid, centimetre by centimetre, down into the black.

00:31:25Sestos stood on a thin spur of rock reaching from the wall of this circle of Hell. He saw

00:31:30the faces of the condemned locked in eternal screams as the blades bit slowly through them.

00:31:36"'You have as many circles of sin as Hell itself!' said the Taskmaster, standing behind

00:31:43Sestos.

00:31:44The Ultramarine got a good look at him for the first time, as burly as an Astartes, dressed

00:31:48in tarnished steel armour such as that worn by Macragge's ancient battle-kings. He wore

00:31:54a leather apron stained with blood and sweat. His face was like a solid slab, features worn

00:31:59down by an eternity serving in Hell. The whip in his hand was as cruel and ugly a weapon

00:32:06as Sestos had ever seen.

00:32:07"'I am not a traitor!' said Sestos.

00:32:10"'Neither are these!' said the Taskmaster, pointing with his whip towards the damned

00:32:16souls, sliding their way into eternity.

00:32:18"'They think they are! Theirs is a sin more of arrogance than treachery. They thought

00:32:25they really had the capacity to betray their fellow-man, but in truth they're just petty

00:32:30thieves and killers. Unremarkable!

00:32:35"'To be a true betrayer you need power to turn against your brother. Very few ever possess

00:32:41it. That the virtue in acquiring that very power should be so tainted by the act of betrayal,

00:32:47that is the truth of the sin. That is what makes it fouler still than anything else!'

00:32:55Sestos looked down at his body. His armour was gone, and he wore the deep blue padded

00:32:59armour of an aspirant of Macragge, with the crest of the battle-kings on his chest. It

00:33:05was what he had worn when he had first stepped up to the Ultramarine's chaplain and declared

00:33:10that he believed he was ready to join the Sons of Gilliman. It was tattered and torn,

00:33:15stained with the blood of a thousand battles.

00:33:17"'I am no traitor, imagined or otherwise. I have never turned on my brothers.'

00:33:24"'As for you, Lysimachus, where do you really belong? You are an Astartes with all the power

00:33:32and brutality that brings. You're a murderer too, given all the people and xenos you have

00:33:37killed. Do you really believe that not one of them could have been undeserving of their fate?

00:33:43Think of all those sins, and that is without the mission you died fighting. You led a whole

00:33:49fleet to its destruction. You allowed your battle-brothers to die in vain. You protected

00:33:55a Psyker, knowing full well that he was in breach of the Council of Nicaea. All of this to fight

00:34:01your fellow Astartes. Where, captain, do we start with you?'

00:34:08Sestos looked down over the edge of the precipice. The true heart of hell was there.

00:34:13Something enormous roiled down, barely visible against the darkness. A vast moor ground

00:34:19traitors beneath its teeth. Thousands of eyes accused them with every flash of pain.

00:34:24"'None of this is real,' said Sestos. The Ultramarine smiled, despite his surroundings,

00:34:30as the clarity of understanding washed away all doubt, like blue water.

00:34:36"'I am not dead, and this is not hell,' he affirmed.

00:34:42"'How can you be sure?' asked the Taskmaster.

00:34:46"'Because I may be guilty of everything you have said. I have led men to their deaths,

00:34:51and killed and maimed and turned on fellow Astartes, but I am no traitor.'

00:34:57Sestos stepped off the ledge and fell into the last hell.

00:35:04Pain, real tangible pain, slammed into Sestos as he hit the ground. He had escaped. Somehow,

00:35:11through resolve and belief in himself, he had shrugged off the psychic glamour,

00:35:16the cage of his own mind, and emerged intact. The booming of the big guns hammered at him

00:35:22through the floor, and recollection returned. He was on the furious abyss. Cynically he wondered

00:35:29if it might have been more prudent to stay in hell. Sestos's body ached, and he tested

00:35:34himself for injuries. He was bruised and rattled, but otherwise fine, and he still had his armour.

00:35:40Getting to his feet, he saw Excellinor beside him. In his fever dream he must have dragged

00:35:46his battle-brother along with him, although the ultramarine captain had no idea where he actually

00:35:51was. Sestos felt a pang of grief in his heart. Excellinor was dead. It was possible that under

00:35:59the psychic assault the Astartes-Sussan membrane had shut his body down into stasis. It hardly

00:36:04mattered. There would be no waking him. Sestos crouched over his fallen battle-brother and rested

00:36:10his arms across his chest, placing the short blade in his grasp in a death salute.

00:36:16The ultramarine captain could do little more. He stood up again and backed up against a wall,

00:36:22ignoring the throbbing in his head. He felt his armour dispensing painkillers into his system,

00:36:28and detected his altered physiognomy at work, enabling him to move and fight.

00:36:33Scanning his surroundings, Sestos gathered that he was no longer outside the ordnance-decks.

00:36:38He had no idea how he had got to this place, and assumed that he had staggered through the

00:36:42tunnels of the furious abyss in a psychic-induced delirium, some innate survival instinct carrying

00:36:47him from immediate danger. It looked like a barracks. He dredged flashes of schematic

00:36:53implanted in his mind by motep. Several dormitories made up the deck, and there was a temple at the

00:36:59far end. It was the only exit. Treading cautiously, assuming that the deck must be largely

00:37:06unoccupied, or he would have been discovered already, Sestos made for the temple. The chamber

00:37:11was anathema to everything the Emperor had taught them to believe. It opposed the era of

00:37:16enlightenment that the great crusade was meant to usher in for mankind, the banishment of barbarian

00:37:21customs, and the value of the empirical over the superstitious. The temple flouted everything the

00:37:27Astartes stood for. It was a place of worship, but of what craven deities Sestos did not know.

00:37:35An altar sat against one wall, and there were pews arranged for prayer. The chamber was dressed

00:37:40with deep-scarlet banners and crimson embroidery. The ultramarine tried to focus on the designs,

00:37:46but found he couldn't, as they appeared to squirm and congeal before his eyes.

00:37:50Several small blood-stained objects stood on the altar. Sestos realised that they were severed

00:37:56fingers—hundreds of them. An image of the Furious's crewmen lining up to mutilate themselves

00:38:01in the name of Lorgar filled his mind. Sestos shook it away and forced himself to focus.

00:38:07His mind was still reeling. He had been to hell. The aftertaste of it was in his mouth,

00:38:13and his body remembered the feeling of being wrenched apart.

00:38:17The sound of footsteps snapped his attention to the present. They were approaching fast. Voices

00:38:22barked orders, and armoured bodies clattered through a doorway nearby.

00:38:26Though it rankled to hide, Sestos moved swiftly to the far end of the room,

00:38:30where he could disappear into a shadowy alcove. It stank of old blood and decaying flesh.

00:38:36For the span of the Furious's short life the crew had used it constantly for their devotions.

00:38:42Books were piled up behind the altar nearby, each one with a rune of an eight-pointed star

00:38:46on the cover. Sestos averted his gaze, unwilling to learn of the myriad forms of

00:38:52damnation that awaited him within those pages.

00:38:55There! The blood-tray is in here. Guns up and execute!

00:39:00It came from inside the room. Sestos slid his bolt-pistol from his holster and risked a glance

00:39:05around the altar. A squad of five word-bearers had entered the room and were sweeping every

00:39:10corner with bolters. One wore an open book worked into the breastplate of his armour,

00:39:15words upon it inscribed in gold intaglio. Sestos assumed that he was a Legion veteran

00:39:20given command of the squad.

00:39:22Check the barrack-rooms! growled the veteran, with a voice like churning gravel.

00:39:28The word-bearer cradled a low-slung melter-gun, a short-range weapon that burned through armour

00:39:33and flesh like parchment. It was an Astartes killer, the perfect hunting-weapon.

00:39:39The veteran and two others were left in the temple. The squad fanned out at a silent battle

00:39:43sign from their leader, and were working their way through the pews.

00:39:47Sestos needed to act while he still maintained the element of surprise. Unclipping a pair of

00:39:52frag-grenades from his belt, he thumbed the activation icon on each, and rolled them

00:39:57slowly across the ground.

00:39:59One of the word-bearers reacted to the sound and swung his bolter around to fire.

00:40:03Frag exploded in his face before he could pull the trigger, ripping off part of his helmet.

00:40:08A secondary detonation erupted beneath the other Astartes, the impact accentuated in the close

00:40:13confines, and took off his leg at the armour joint.

00:40:16Spits of flame and a storm of splinters still clouding the air, Sestos was up and drilled a

00:40:21shot through the first word-bearer, exploiting the fact that his head-armour was compromised.

00:40:26A puff of red mist came from the back of the word-bearer's head before he died.

00:40:32The ultramarine heard the tell-tale whine of a melter-gun powering up,

00:40:35and threw himself aside as the word-bearer veteran discharged the deadly weapon.

00:40:40His sight-line was cluttered with debris, and the shot burned through the still-falling,

00:40:44one-legged word-bearer, who slumped to the ground with a smoking crater through his torso.

00:40:49Sestos was up in moments, leaping over the pews and pumping rounds from his bolt-pistol.

00:40:54The veteran, the last word-bearer standing in the Temple, saw the ultramarine, but reacted

00:40:59too slowly. Before he could swing his melter-gun around for a second shot,

00:41:03bolt-rounds punched him in the arm and torso.

00:41:06The veteran spun and bucked with the impacts.

00:41:09As Sestos reached him, he had already drawn his power-sword and lopped off the falling

00:41:13veteran's head with a grunt of effort. Ignoring the sanguine gore pouring from the veteran's neck,

00:41:19Sestos pushed on and regained the corridor outside the Temple that led to the barrack-rooms.

00:41:24A surprised word-bearer, alerted by the gunfire, emerged from one of the chambers.

00:41:29Sestos shot him through the lens of his battle-helm,

00:41:31and the enemy Astartes crumpled with a muffled cry.

00:41:35A second word-bearer sensibly employed more caution, using the extended grip of his bolter

00:41:41so that he could reach around the doorway and blindly strafe the corridor.

00:41:45Sestos hugged the wall as the shot streamed past, muzzle-flash blazing.

00:41:50An errant bolt-round struck his pauldron-armour, sending a chip spinning into Sestos's face.

00:41:56He was without his battle-helm, and fought the urge to cry out when the shard cut into

00:42:00his flesh and embedded there. Instead, he rolled his body over the wall, descending into a crouching

00:42:06stance, and squeezed his bolt-pistol trigger in an attempt to force his aggressor back into the

00:42:11chamber. The weapon clicked in his grasp. It seemed so loud and final, despite the roar of

00:42:17battle filling Sestos's ears. The ultramarine's mouth formed an oath, as the word-bearer,

00:42:23who must have heard the dry shot, came out from his hiding-place laughing.

00:42:28Instinctively, Sestos hurled his power-sword. The blade spun end over end, and thunked hard

00:42:34through the shocked word-bearer's gorget, impaling him through the neck. The Astartes staggered,

00:42:40arms splayed at first, as he struggled to comprehend what had just happened to him,

00:42:44dark fluid leaking down his breastplate like a flood.

00:42:48Sestos followed the sword's path at a run, smacking the bolt-gun out of the stricken

00:42:52traitor's hand, and wrenching the power-sword free, taking the word-bearer's head with it.

00:42:57My brother! My enemy! Sestos breathed after he took a moment to take stock,

00:43:03regarding the carnage of the dead word-bearers around him.

00:43:07Five Astartes slain, albeit traitors, by his hand. A temple devoted to heathen gods,

00:43:14enlightenment and the pragmatism of science and reason abandoned for superstition.

00:43:19Sestos felt the galaxy darkening, even as he sheathed his power-sword and discarded

00:43:24the word-bearer's unusable bolt-oclips. Grimacing, he tugged the ceramite chip from his face,

00:43:30and then he pushed on. Somewhere ahead, he knew, was an armoury.

00:43:38Bryngar leapt aside as the power-hammer crashed down onto the deck. Rolling to his feet,

00:43:43the space-wolf could only watch as Bellanus, awesome in his dreadnought armour, wrenched

00:43:48the weapon free from a crater filled with sparking wires and torn metal. Cables ripped

00:43:54out where the hammer-head was snarled around the weapon's spikes like intestines. Bellanus grunted

00:44:00as he righted himself, confusion still warring within him, and charged again. Bryngar ducked

00:44:06beneath the wild sweep of the hammer this time, the solid metal face whistling past his head like

00:44:11a death-knell. The space-wolf moved in with fell-tooth and landed a fearsome blow to Bellanus'

00:44:16armoured flank. The rune-axe spanged against the reinforced ceramite frame and bit deep,

00:44:22but the word-bearer dreadnought didn't slow. Bellanus' momentum carried him thundering into

00:44:27the space-wolf, his machine bulk like a battering-ram. Bryngar was smashed aside and lost his

00:44:32grip on fell-tooth. He skidded on his front across the deck, friction-sparks kicked up from his armour

00:44:37spitting in the space-wolf's face. Bryngar grimaced and got up, drawing a knife from his belt.

00:44:44The mono-molecular blade was honed to beyond razor-sharpness and could scythe open power-armour

00:44:49with the proper amount of pressure. The only downside was its appalling reach,

00:44:54and Bryngar doubted whether a thrown blade would even irritate his goliath enemy.

00:44:59Roaring a battle-cry, the old wolf launched himself at Bellanus, who was still turning,

00:45:04flashing in and out of lucidity. With every attack from the space-wolf, though,

00:45:09the dreadnought's memory was renewed. Clinging to the word-bearer machine's weapon-arm,

00:45:14Bryngar rammed his knife-blade into the armour-joint that sealed the sarcophagus in an

00:45:19attempt to prise it open. Bellanus spun hard, armoured feet stomping up and down, and his torso

00:45:26twisting as he sought to dislodge his opponent. Bryngar dug in, wrapping his legs around the

00:45:31dreadnought's shoulder as he pushed the blade two-handed until it reached the hilt.

00:45:36Bellanus, realising that he couldn't shake the space-wolf loose, decided to ram the Astartes

00:45:42into the armoury wall and charged headlong into it. Bryngar saw the empty dreadnought-suits coming

00:45:47towards him at speed, and realised that he was about to be crushed. He swung aside at the last

00:45:52moment, violently thrown clear, as Bellanus careered into the dormant armour with a deafening

00:45:57clang. Dislodging himself quickly, the word-bearer turned and stomped towards the prone space-wolf,

00:46:04still dazed from his hurried dismount, intending to crush him beneath his feet.

00:46:09With a groan of pain, Bryngar rolled aside, but Bellanus was getting quicker, and caught him a

00:46:14glancing blow with a power-hammer as the space-wolf struggled to rise. White fury filled Bryngar's

00:46:21body, and for a moment he was back at Fenris, though now a man, standing upon the shores of

00:46:26the silvery-grey ocean. Bryngar ducked a second swipe of the giant hammer that would have shattered

00:46:31his skull, and ended the duel then and there. He saw Feltooth in flashes, but couldn't reach the

00:46:38weapon's half to wrench it free. Bryngar also saw that the sarcophagus had sprung open, the

00:46:44collision forcing it loose with the space-wolf's knife lodged in the joint. The amniotic blister

00:46:49lay unprotected. Bryngar went for his bolt-pistol, but found it wasn't there. He cursed loudly. He

00:46:55must have lost it during the crash, or at some point in a psychic fever dream. Blood drooled

00:47:00from the space-wolf's mouth and nose, matting in the hair of his beard. His leg felt leaden and

00:47:05unresponsive, his body ached as if stuck with red-hot pins. This was the end. Unarmed and

00:47:13injured, even a warrior of Bryngar's prowess could not hope to hold out against a dreadnought.

00:47:19Bellanus seemed to sense that inevitability, and moved in slowly, as if savouring the kill.

00:47:26The space-wolf realised that he was laughing. The action of it hurt his chest. The shadow of the

00:47:32dreadnought eclipsed him completely, and Bryngar closed his eyes, imaging the ocean.

00:47:39Fenris, he whispered.

00:47:43A bolter shot, stark and hollow, resounded in the armoury. Bryngar's eyes snapped open to see a

00:47:48smoking hole in the blister, fracture lines emanating outwards from the puncture crater.

00:47:53Bellanus was rocked backwards, a gurgling sound emanating from his voximeter. Viscous amniotic

00:48:00fluid spilled out from the crack like brine. The space-wolf ran forward, despite a new pain

00:48:07flaring in his leg, and ripped fell-tooth-free from the dreadnought's bulk. He carved a line

00:48:12down the blister as Bellanus flailed in desperation, and it cracked apart. The fluid

00:48:18gushed out, taking the incumbent Astartes inside with it. Bellanus flopped out of the shattered

00:48:24blister, half suspended by the circuitry and cables linking him to the dreadnought armour.

00:48:29A second shot from the still-unseen bolt-pistol struck him in the chest,

00:48:33and thick blood oozed from the wound. The dreadnought fell backwards,

00:48:37hitting the armoury floor with a resounding clang, and was still. Bryngar crawled on top of it,

00:48:44straddling the machine, and tore into the wasted body of Bellanus with his rune-axe,

00:48:48until there was nothing left.

00:48:51"'Try coming back from that!' he breathed savagely.

00:48:57Resonating footsteps made the space-wolf turn around to regard his saviour.

00:49:02Scrawl emerged from the gloom, bolt-pistol still smoking in his outstretched fist.

00:49:08"'Thought you were dead!' grunted the old wolf, and promptly collapsed.

00:49:14MOTAP

00:49:16Motap forced the end of his arm back into his shoulder-joint. The pain didn't mean anything.

00:49:21The grimace on his face was from frustration that the arm, and with it his spear, would be weakened.

00:49:27He heaved down a couple of deep breaths and backed up against a bulkhead.

00:49:32The battle against Wessorick had passed beyond the corridor outside the bridge,

00:49:35and had progressed to the senior crew-quarters, chambers allocated to him before he'd been

00:49:40confined to isolation. They were relatively close to the bridge should an emergency necessitate the

00:49:45presence of any senior crew. That fact meant little in the face of certain death, save that

00:49:51the trail of destruction left by their battle was short-lived. As he regarded the collapsed ceiling,

00:49:57the wreckage of two decks punctuated by a few intact support-stanchions and columns still

00:50:02smouldering, Motap came to realise that he was the last living being on the command-deck.

00:50:08The Thousand Sun had lost sight of the demon when he'd been smashed through the deck and

00:50:12landed in the chamber below. Wessorick could be anywhere. He tasted blood in his mouth,

00:50:18and knew the fused carapace of his ribs was broken. His breathing was ragged, which indicated a

00:50:24punctured lung, and his shoulder burned. In truth, the fight was not going as he'd hoped.

00:50:30"'You resisted,' said the demon. "'I turned your brothers against you, showed you the path,

00:50:41and you refused it. That was folly!' Motap tried to follow the sound of Wessorick's voice,

00:50:51but it came from all around him. "'Do you realise how fragile the Emperor's house is?

00:50:59How easily his sons will war with one another? It took nothing to make the wolf turn on you,

00:51:07and little more for the Puritan captain to abandon your defence.'

00:51:14Motap ignored the goading and tried to focus. It was dark in the crew-quarters, all power having

00:51:21died on the rothel, and he closed his eyes, relying instead on his sigh-sight to guide him.

00:51:27Life-support was dead, too, and the air was growing stagnant without it.

00:51:31Motap kept his breathing steady, so as not to use up too much oxygen.

00:51:36"'The Imperium will fall,' Wessorick promised. "'And the galaxy will bathe in blood and fire.

00:51:48Humanity's dominance is at an end.'

00:51:55Motap cast about the chamber. His sigh-sight showed him a grey shadow-world that was indistinct and

00:52:01grainy. Corpses of the slain officers who had died in their quarters flickered briefly like

00:52:06dimming candles. A voracious life-spark, red and angry, got Motap's attention. He saw the demon

00:52:14form. Its skin was like incandescent fire, constantly burning, and ribbed horns curled

00:52:20from its snarling head. A hide of thick black hair covered its back from where immense tattered

00:52:26wings extended, and its clawed feet raked the floor. "'I see you,' he whispered, and threw his

00:52:34spear. The demon roared in agony as the golden spear impaled its neck. Motap's eyes snapped

00:52:42open, and Wessorick became the fleshy abomination once more, transfixed by his weapon. He ran

00:52:47headlong at the creature, trying to make the most of the small advantage he had gained.

00:52:52The demon twisted, enduring the pain it brought as the spear-tip tore at its ephemeral flesh.

00:52:57Its gaping maw split open all the way down through its torso, and just as Motap reached it,

00:53:03the demon vomited a hail of burning bone-shards. The Thousand Sun took a shard in his leg that

00:53:09pierced his battle-plate with ease. Limping backwards, he ripped the spear out of Wessorick's

00:53:14neck, Icarus spewing in its wake, and thrust again, shredding through the muscle of the demon's

00:53:19shoulder. With a lurch of straining steel, the deck collapsed, Astartes and demon plunging into

00:53:26a dark void below. They landed in a dead space in the hull, separating the crew-quarters from

00:53:31the lower industrial decks. A freezing gloom persisted there, crisscrossed with support-beams.

00:53:38Motap rolled off the creature which had taken the brunt of the fall and staggered backwards.

00:53:43Wessorick rose with the screech of sundered metal. The struts around it were already damaged,

00:53:48the ship was breaking apart. The demon roared its anger, preparing to vent its wrath

00:53:54when the supports gave way. Together they tumbled down into the cold blackness.

00:54:00The sound of the ocean receded as Bryngar came round. The scarred visage of the world-eater in

00:54:06his battle-helm looked down on him.

00:54:09"'You're a sore sight for my eyes,' grumbled the old wolf and got to his feet.

00:54:16Bryngar's body felt bruised with the effort, and the pain down one leg made him stagger at first

00:54:21before he righted himself. Blood flecked his beard and armour.

00:54:25"'How long was I out?' he asked, aware that they were still in the armoury-hall.

00:54:33"'Just a few minutes,' Skrull replied.

00:54:36"'But we've no time to rest. Word-bearers are patrolling the ship, looking for us.'

00:54:41"'Been hunting you for a while, eh?' guessed the space-wolf,

00:54:45taking in the rents and burns on Skrull's armour. He could almost imagine the fevered look in his

00:54:50eyes, the kind of nervous expression that any man on the run might adopt after being chased

00:54:55for long enough. The world-eater was already volatile. Shaken up as he was, he might crack

00:55:00at any moment. "'Several weeks, I think.'

00:55:05The son of Angron came across a little dazed as his time aboard the ship had dulled his

00:55:10sense of what was real and what were merely phantoms of the mind.

00:55:15"'Did anyone else get aboard?' Bryngar asked,

00:55:18swinging fell-tooth to better remember the strength of his arm.

00:55:22The old wolf noticed that the red-limbed portal was still open.

00:55:26"'I am the only survivor,' Skrull responded curtly, and headed for the light.

00:55:32"'You know where that leads?' asked the wolf-guard, noting the nonchalant way the

00:55:37world-eater approached the doorway. "'The corridor beyond will get us to the engine-deck.'

00:55:43"'We need to reach Ordnance and destroy the cyclonic payload,'

00:55:47said Bryngar. "'And how do you know that we can reach the engines from there?'

00:55:53"'He knows, because I told him,' said a familiar voice from the gloom that sent the

00:55:58hackles on the back of Bryngar's neck rising. "'Destroying the cyclonics is no longer viable,'

00:56:05he added, emerging out of the penumbra. "'Cestus!' Bryngar growled when he said it.

00:56:14The ultramarine slammed a fresh clip from the armoury's stores into his bolt-pistol,

00:56:19and nodded to the space-wolf. "'There is but one opportunity left to us,'

00:56:24Cestus said. "'The easier course is no longer possible. We must walk the harder road.

00:56:30It is the only one open to us.' Bryngar's silence held the question.

00:56:36"'We must destroy the ship,' said Cestus.

00:56:43CHAPTER XX CONTENTION

00:56:46AVENGE ME

00:56:47IMMOLATION

00:56:50"'Destroy the ship!' Bryngar laughed as he limped after his battle-brothers.

00:56:56When Cestus went to aid him he snarled,

00:56:58"'I'm fine,' before continuing,

00:57:01"'This is the single largest and most powerful vessel I have ever seen.

00:57:06A few incendiaries,' the space-wolf indicated the grenade-harness he still carried,

00:57:11"'will not see to its ruin. Have you lost your mind as well as your honour, son of Gheeliman?'

00:57:18"'Neither,' Cestus replied.

00:57:20"'The furious abyss can be destroyed. In order to do it we must reach the engines

00:57:25and the plasma-reactor that fuels them. If we can overload them with an incendiary payload of our

00:57:31own, the resulting explosion will commence a chain-reaction that cannot be averted by the

00:57:36ship's fail-safes and redundant systems.'

00:57:39Bryngar seized Cestus by the shoulder. The space-wolf's eyes were full of anger.

00:57:44"'You knew this, and yet said nothing?'

00:57:48"'It was irrelevant before,' Cestus returned, shaking free of the wolf-guard's grip.

00:57:53"'Our only way in was through the torpedo-tubes, which made the cyclonics our obvious and most

00:57:58immediate target. There was no way of knowing we could have made it this far into the ship

00:58:03for an assault on the main-reactor to be even possible.'

00:58:07"'Leaving aside the matter of how you even know this,' snarled the wolf-guard,

00:58:11"'how do you plan on getting close enough to destroy it? Have you seen the size of this

00:58:16vessel? It will be like a labyrinth in the engineering decks. We might never find it.'

00:58:22"'I can guide us. It will take minutes,' Cestus replied curtly.

00:58:26He was about to head off when Bryngar grabbed his arm again.

00:58:30"'I don't know what pact you have made with the witch that cowers aboard the

00:58:34Wrothful, and what secrets you may be privy to,' growled the space-wolf dangerously.

00:58:39"'But know this. I will not abide sorcery in any form. Once we gain the reactor

00:58:47and set this ship burning, our alliance is at an end, ultramarine.'

00:58:52Bryngar let Cestus go, and stalked away, taking a bolt-pistol from the armoury,

00:58:57and making ready at the open portal.

00:59:00"'So be it,' said Cestus grimly to himself, and went to join his battle-brothers.

00:59:07The Furious Abyss had been forced out of position during the battle with the Wrothful.

00:59:12Formasca glowered well to its starboard side, Macragge scarcely less ominous well below it.

00:59:18The planet's local defence fleet was also in sight, lingering above Macragge's upper atmosphere.

00:59:23With the supplicants dead, the Furious's surveyor-dampening systems, which had allowed

00:59:28it to ambush the Fist of Macragge, were no longer effective. Slowly the vessels were

00:59:33moving into defensive positions. Without knowledge of the word-bearer's intentions,

00:59:38or their defection from the Imperium, though, the Macragge fleet was cautious and had yet to engage.

00:59:45They would try to hail them first. It was all the time that the Furious Abyss would need to realign,

00:59:51destroy Formasca, and thus cripple the fleet in one stroke. The Wrothful was gone from the

00:59:57massive ship's view-screens, now little more than a chilling tomb of dead lights and lost souls,

01:00:02as it floundered in the void without power. Gravity would claim it.

01:00:08Orders were relayed down to the Furious Abyss's engine-rooms to engage the directional thrusters

01:00:13and orient the ship back towards Formasca. The ordnance-decks had been retaken,

01:00:19although the damage done by the enemy assault was extensive in some areas.

01:00:23The explosive discharge from a rapidly detonated melter-bomb cluster had been ill-targeted,

01:00:28but destructive. The repair-crews were hard at work clearing debris and expelling corpses into

01:00:34the void, but reaching operational status again would take time. It meant, although the cyclonic

01:00:39payload was intact, the launch would be delayed further. Zadkiel felt his glory slipping through

01:00:46his grasp, even as he listened to the toiling of the ratings on the ordnance-deck. He shut down

01:00:52the voxlink and closed his eyes, trying to master his anger. Opening them again, Zadkiel looked at

01:00:59the positional display on one of his command-throne's view-screens. The Furious had yet

01:01:04to change its heading and reset the launch-vectors for the torpedoes.

01:01:08"'Guryod!' he barked into the vox array.

01:01:11Silence answered.

01:01:12"'Damn it, Magos! Why are the engines not engaged?'

01:01:16Nothing again. Now the Magos was just mocking him.

01:01:20"'Reskill!' snarled Zadkiel, his tone impatient.

01:01:24"'My lord,' said the voice of the sergeant-commander, the thudding retort of gunfire,

01:01:28audible in the background.

01:01:30"'Get to engineering, and find out why the ship has stalled.'

01:01:34"'My lord,' said Reskill again,

01:01:36"'we are at engineering. The enemy are here. They move through the ship as if they know

01:01:40every tunnel and access conduit. My squad is moving in to eliminate—'

01:01:44The sound of a thunderous explosion broke the voxlink for a moment.

01:01:48Crackling static reigned for a few seconds before Reskill returned.

01:01:52"'We have made contact. They are at the edge of the main reactor approach.'

01:01:56Frantic cries and the screams of word-bearers punctuated the chorus of bolt-of-fire

01:02:01before the voxlink went dead.

01:02:03Zadkiel clenched his fist and bit out his next words.

01:02:07"'Icthalon, lead three squads down to engineering.

01:02:11Seek those curs out and destroy them!'

01:02:14Zadkiel's veneer of calm cracked and fell away completely.

01:02:17He was shaking with apoplectic rage.

01:02:19Icthalon had returned to the bridge following the death of the supplicants,

01:02:23and had until now observed proceedings with silent deference.

01:02:27"'No, my lord,' he responded in his usual sibilant cadence, adding,

01:02:32"'I have endured your ineptitude for long enough.

01:02:35It threatens the glory of Cor Faron and our lord Lorgar.'

01:02:40Zadkiel heard the chaplain draw his bolt-pistol from its holster.

01:02:44"'I had fought you, impudent, Icthalon,' said the admiral calmly,

01:02:48his composure returning as he turned to the chaplain.

01:02:51Zadkiel saw that he did indeed have his pistol trained upon him.

01:02:55"'I did not believe you to be stupid.'

01:02:58The chaplain's posture was neutral and unassuming.

01:03:01"'Stand down!' he said simply, lifting the pistol a fraction to emphasise his point.

01:03:07Zadkiel bowed his head.

01:03:09In the corner of his eye he saw Icthalon start to lower his weapon.

01:03:13It would be the chaplain's last mistake.

01:03:16Zadkiel moved swiftly to the side, his rapier-like power-sword drawn fluidly.

01:03:21The bucking report of the bolt-pistol sounded on the bridge,

01:03:24but Icthalon's shot, confounded by the admiral's sudden movement, missed.

01:03:29Zadkiel slid the blade through the chaplain's gorget,

01:03:31smacking the bolt-pistol from his grasp at the same time.

01:03:35"'Did you think I would leave this bridge, my bridge, to a snake like you?'

01:03:41Icthalon could only gurgle in reply.

01:03:44Zadkiel ripped away the chaplain's battle-helm.

01:03:47Underneath it Icthalon was scarred, his face a mass of burned tissue,

01:03:51his ravaged throat a wreck of scabrous flesh.

01:03:54He stared into the chaplain's pink-tinged eyes with intense hate.

01:03:58"'You thought wrong,' he hissed, and pushed Icthalon off the blade

01:04:03to land with a clang of ceramite on the deck.

01:04:06The chaplain floundered at first, trying to speak, clutching ineffectually at his throat,

01:04:11but was then still, the blood pooling slowly beneath him.

01:04:15Zadkiel turned to Sakharov.

01:04:17"'Clean that up and monitor all stations.

01:04:20You have the bridge.

01:04:21As soon as we are in a state of readiness again, inform me at once,' ordered Zadkiel.

01:04:27Pale-faced at the chaplain's sudden death,

01:04:29the helms-master snapped at a ragged salute,

01:04:32and gestured to a group of legion-serfs to act as a clean-up crew.

01:04:36Zadkiel stalked away, wiping the blood off his blade.

01:04:39He would deal with the infiltrators and be damned to ignominy

01:04:42if he was going to let them interfere any further with his plans.

01:04:45Besides, it would not look favourable in the eyes of the arch-commander

01:04:49if he needed his lackeys to deal with their enemies.

01:04:52No, the only way to be sure was to kill them all himself."

01:04:59Reskiel was pleased.

01:05:00Though he had lost several of his squad fighting the Loyalists,

01:05:03he had them boxed in, having forced them into a tunnel that he knew was a dead end.

01:05:08The sound of gunfire had abated, but the roar of the primary reactor

01:05:11and all the workings of the ship were still incredibly loud inside his battle-helm.

01:05:16Using Astarte's battle-sign,

01:05:19he signalled for the three warriors with him to descend from the upper stacks

01:05:22where they had spread out and exploited their vantage-point

01:05:25to corral the Loyalists into a death-trap.

01:05:28For a moment, Reskiel lost sight of two of his warriors as they moved into position.

01:05:33Reaching the ground floor of the engineering deck, they converged on the tunnel.

01:05:38That was when Reskiel first realised that something was wrong.

01:05:42One of his warriors was missing.

01:05:45"'Where is Vorkan?' he hissed through the helmet-box.

01:05:49"'I lost sight of him as he changed position, sergeant.'

01:05:52"'One of the others,' Cardax replied.

01:05:54Reskiel turned to the second word-bearer, Eridan.

01:05:58"'I was watching the space-wolf and the ultramarine,' he said by way of explanation.

01:06:03A cold chill ran down Reskiel's spine, despite the heat of exertion

01:06:07and the warmth of the engineering deck.

01:06:10"'What of the third?'

01:06:11"'What of the world-eater?'

01:06:14The hunters had suddenly become the prey.

01:06:16Eridan's neck and chest exploded outwards in a rain of blood and flesh,

01:06:20the whirring of chain-teeth visible through all the gore.

01:06:23"'I'm right here,' said Skrall, his voice dead of all emotion,

01:06:29as the word-bearer he had slain fell face-forward onto the deck.

01:06:33He killed Cardax next, cutting off his head as he charged.

01:06:37Whatever oath or battle-cry the word-bearer was about to shout

01:06:40died on his lips as his decapitated head hit the ground.

01:06:44Skrall kicked the still-failing body out of his path and came at Reskiel.

01:06:49To the sergeant-commander's credit, he did not flinch in the face of the killing-machine

01:06:53before him, and even managed to put a bolt round through Skrall's thigh

01:06:57before the world-eater buried his chain-axe into him.

01:07:01Skrall tore his bloodied weapon out of the still-quivering body

01:07:04as Sestos and Bryngar emerged from the tunnel.

01:07:07It was with some degree of satisfaction that the world-eater had killed Reskiel.

01:07:12He had slain Antiges and chased him like a dog through the bowels of the ship.

01:07:16Four other word-bearers lay within the tunnel nearby,

01:07:19variously punctured with boater-wounds and cleaved by blades.

01:07:22They were the other remnants of Reskiel's hunter-squad, dispatched by the Astartes.

01:07:28"'Next time you're the bait,' Bryngar growled at Skrall,

01:07:32who smacked his chain-axe against the deck to dislodge some of the flesh snarled up in its blades.

01:07:38"'There will be more,' said Sestos,

01:07:40ramming a fresh clip that he'd taken from the armoury-haul into his bolt-pistol.

01:07:44"'There's always more,' growled Bryngar, eager not to linger.

01:07:49"'Lead on!'

01:07:51Warning klaxons were sounding everywhere as the search for the Astartes saboteurs

01:07:56intensified and found its focus.

01:07:58Red hazard-lights flashed with insistent intermittence,

01:08:01and the shouts of the distant hunters echoed through the metal labyrinth of piping conduits

01:08:05and machinery.

01:08:06Gantries overhead provided only a curtailed view of the maze below,

01:08:10but Sestos instructed them to seek what cover they could whilst moving swiftly.

01:08:15Determined to inflict as much damage as possible en route to the main reactor,

01:08:19the three Astartes had moved through the secondary reactors,

01:08:22systematically wrecking them as they went.

01:08:25Already Reactor 3 had shut down,

01:08:27several coolant pipes torn free of its side,

01:08:30and its crews scythed down with bolt of fire at their dead man's handles.

01:08:35Escaped coolant poured down from it in a scalding thunderhead of steam.

01:08:41Sestos dispatched a reactor crewman emerging from a control-room with a snapshot from his bolt-pistol.

01:08:47Another came from the opposite aisle of conduits.

01:08:49The ultramarine killed him, too.

01:08:52The death-dealing was indiscriminate.

01:08:54Fighting in and amongst the close confines of the pipe-works was like guerrilla warfare.

01:08:59Despite the overwhelming forces arrayed against them,

01:09:02the loyalist Astartes had a chance in this arena.

01:09:05Numerous improvised booby-traps, simple frag-grenade and trip-wire arrangements,

01:09:09had been left in their wake,

01:09:11and the occasional explosion behind them meant that Sestos knew when their enemies were closing.

01:09:16Only the frag- and crack-grenades were used for traps.

01:09:20They would need the melter-bombs for the main reactor.

01:09:22Once they reached it, they would need to infiltrate the protective shielding

01:09:26and plant the explosives into the reactor swell.

01:09:29That was, assuming the reactor's immense radiation didn't kill them first.

01:09:33It was a journey that Sestos planned on making alone,

01:09:36and not one he was expecting to come back from.

01:09:39A fusillade of bolter-fire from a gantry above them got the ultramarine's attention,

01:09:44tearing up sections of piping.

01:09:46The word-bearers had found them.

01:09:48Zadkiel watched the Astartes scurry into cover as his squads opened fire from the main access gantry.

01:09:54From his vantage-point, he could see the whole reactor section like an ocean of darkness,

01:09:58with the reactor's immense steel islands,

01:10:01connected by a flimsy spider's-web of catwalks, coolant pipes and maintenance ladders.

01:10:06He recognised the armour of three legions amongst the saboteurs,

01:10:10and knew that this was the last of them,

01:10:12the last desperate attempt to try and make a difference.

01:10:16"'It will do you no good,' Zadkiel whispered to himself, and turned to his sergeants.

01:10:22"'Grazias! Hound them from up here!

01:10:24"'The rest of us will press on to the main reactor and intercept them!'

01:10:29The sergeants saluted, snapping an affirmative response as Zadkiel departed.

01:10:34"'Such impudence!' Zadkiel muttered as he headed towards the main reactor.

01:10:39"'It would end, here and now, with the death of the ultramarines.

01:10:43"'With the death of the ultramarines!'

01:10:47Motep dragged himself along the floor of the ordnance-deck.

01:10:50The air was still thick with the stench of death,

01:10:53dried blood caked the walls,

01:10:55and the bulkheads on either side were sealed with super-hot torches.

01:10:59The Thousand Sun rolled on to his back with effort,

01:11:02and peered up at the rent in the ceiling far above, through which he had plummeted.

01:11:06Wessorek had fallen with him.

01:11:08Craning his neck to look down the charnel-house gangway,

01:11:11Motep saw rotting corpses on either side,

01:11:13prickling with frost as the void penetrated the Rothwell's hull.

01:11:17Breathing was difficult, the air was thinning,

01:11:20and with the life-support inoperative it would not replenish itself.

01:11:24Pain kept the Astartes moving.

01:11:26The red-hot needles in his body let him know he was alive and still fighting.

01:11:32He was dying—Motep knew this—but death held no fear for him.

01:11:36It was fate, his fate, and he embraced it,

01:11:39struggling to his feet, the hellish agony intensified,

01:11:42and for a moment Motep thought he might pass out.

01:11:45Wessorek was a short distance away, squatting over a heap of corpses.

01:11:49They were the remains of the ratings and gang-masters

01:11:52that had been sealed in when the deck was quarantined.

01:11:55Already lost to madness, Motep could only imagine what they had thought,

01:11:59half frozen from the cold of space, when the demon approached them.

01:12:02Perhaps they had welcomed it, perhaps they had forfeited their souls.

01:12:07Wessorek stood and arched its neck.

01:12:09Distended flesh bulged and writhed as it consumed the last of the survivors in body,

01:12:15and in doing so claimed their souls.

01:12:18The demon turned, an apparition in the blackness of the abattoir its kind had created,

01:12:23smiling at the Thousand Suns' pitiful attempt to escape it.

01:12:27I ever hunger Astartes, it told him.

01:12:33The thirst for souls is never slaked.

01:12:38It is like an eternal keening in my skull upon this plain.

01:12:44You will quiet it for a time, it promised, heading for Motep.

01:12:51The Thousand Sun fell as he went to flee the demon.

01:12:54Blood was seeping from his cuirass where Wessorek had raked him with its claws.

01:12:58Bloody and battered, the Astartes had been granted a short reprieve when the creature

01:13:03detected the mewling terror from within the deck.

01:13:06It had found the ratings easily, drawn by the scent of their fear.

01:13:09Motep had been made to watch as the demon butchered them.

01:13:13I will drink of your hope and bravery until you are hollow, promised Wessorek.

01:13:23Motep dragged himself up, using his spear as a crutch.

01:13:26He would meet his destruction face to face and on his feet.

01:13:30Outstretching his palm, a nimbus of scarlet light played about his fingertips.

01:13:35Wessorek was almost upon him, and reached out, crushing the Thousand Sun's hand in

01:13:40his taloned fist.

01:13:42Motep screamed in agony as his bones were splintered even within his gauntlet.

01:13:46He dropped the spear and sagged, only held up by the strength of the demon.

01:13:50Still you fight, insignificant speck, it said, mouth forming into a feral sneer, to

01:14:00think that one such as you could kill one such as I.

01:14:09The demon's booming laughter flecked caustic spittle and dead blood into Motep's face.

01:14:14I wasn't trying to kill you, muttered the Thousand Sun, looking up at the beast as he

01:14:19unclipped something from his belt.

01:14:21It was an incendiary grenade.

01:14:24What do you intend to do with that, little man?

01:14:30asked Wessorek, with an obscene smile.

01:14:33You have tarried here too long, said Motep.

01:14:36At any moment you could have swum across the Empyrean to the Furious Abyss or back into

01:14:41the Immaterium, but your gluttony for reaping souls has undone you, warp-beast.

01:14:47Look!

01:14:47Look!"

01:14:48Wessorek's flesh was leaking icorous fluid as the psychic energy required to keep it

01:14:54in the material universe broke down.

01:14:56Its form was becoming gelatinous and ephemeral.

01:15:00Motep had detected the creature weakening all the time he fought it.

01:15:03Every psychic exertion had taken its toll, sloughing away some of the matter that kept

01:15:08it stable and in existence.

01:15:11I wasn't trying to kill you, said Motep, with his failing breath, just to keep you

01:15:17here for long enough.

01:15:20He thrust his free hand forward, punching through Wessorek's melting skin and releasing

01:15:25the grenade's detonator.

01:15:27The demon snarled in rage and sudden fear.

01:15:31Pure human, I will feast upon you!

01:15:37Motep was thrown back by the blast as Wessorek exploded from the inside, destroyed by the

01:15:43dissolution of its corporeal body.

01:15:46Lying in an expanding pool of his own blood, Motep could see through one of the aiming

01:15:51ports in the ordnance-deck starboard wall.

01:15:54Roaring fire burned at the edges of the wrothful's armoured hull as the ship, caught in the

01:15:58moon's gravity well, hurtled towards Formasca.

01:16:02He imagined the rivers of lava on its barren surface, the crags and mountainous expanses,

01:16:07and smiled, accepting his doom.

01:16:12The noise of the main reactor, even closed off within its housing, was immense.

01:16:18Beyond, Sestos knew there was an approach corridor designed to enable close maintenance

01:16:23of the reactor when not in use.

01:16:25Beyond that was the incandescent core of energy.

01:16:27To step into it meant certain death.

01:16:30It was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

01:16:33Using Astarte's battle-sign, the ultramarine indicated for Bryngar to take her position

01:16:38on the opposite side of the armoured hatch that led into the approach corridor.

01:16:42The space-wolf obeyed swiftly, and was about to cleave into the first layer of shielding

01:16:47when a hail of bolter-fire rebounded off the metal, forcing him into cover.

01:16:51Sestos followed, Strahl next to him.

01:16:54The Astartes saw a squad of word-bearers in firing-drill formation on a lofted gantry,

01:17:00led by a commander in gilded crimson armour.

01:17:03So resplendent and arrogant did he look that Sestos assumed at once that he was the captain

01:17:08of the ship.

01:17:10"'We are honoured,' he said sarcastically, shouting at Strahl to be heard.

01:17:15The world-eater nodded.

01:17:17He had recognised the captain, too—the one he knew to be called Zadkiel, the taunting

01:17:23orator who would try to twist his loyalty and prey upon his inner weakness.

01:17:28Strahl despised that.

01:17:30Crouching as he ran, he left cover and disappeared for a moment behind a riot of piping.

01:17:35He emerged, bolt-pistol blazing.

01:17:38One of the word-bearers pinning them was pitched off the gantry, clutching his neck.

01:17:42The gilded captain stood his ground at first, but took a step back when a second word-bearer

01:17:47was spun off his feet, a smoking hole in his chest-plate.

01:17:50"'Strahl, no!

01:17:52It's suicide!'

01:17:54Sestos cried as he watched the world-eater gain the stairway and head straight at the

01:17:58word-bearers.

01:17:59There was no way he would make it before they perforated him with bolter-shells.

01:18:03"'Come on!'

01:18:05Bryngar bellowed, hacking into the armoured hatch with a sudden respite.

01:18:09"'Make his sacrifice worthwhile!'

01:18:12With the word-bearers occupied, Strahl had given his comrades the time they needed to

01:18:17cut their way into the reactor and finally end the furious abyss.

01:18:22Sestos was on his feet and cleaved into the hatch with his power-sword.

01:18:26The metal fell away with a resounding clang as it struck the deck.

01:18:29A backwash of heat flowed from the approach corridor, sending the radiation warnings flickering

01:18:34on the ultramarine's helmet-display to critical.

01:18:37"'Bandoliers!'

01:18:38Sestos cried, holding out his hand for the belt of melter-bombs that Bryngar carried.

01:18:43"'It's a one-way trip,' said the old wolf.

01:18:47Sestos stared at Bryngar nonplussed.

01:18:50"'Yes.

01:18:50Now hand them over.'

01:18:52"'Not for you,' said the wolf-guard, and punched the ultramarine hard in the battle-helm.

01:18:58Sestos fell, half stunned by the sudden attack, and through his blurring vision he saw Bryngar

01:19:03enter the approach corridor.

01:19:05"'Both of us need not die here.

01:19:09Avenge me,' he heard the space-wolf say.

01:19:12"'And your legion.'

01:19:14"'No, no, no!'

01:19:16Scrawl took the gantry-steps three at a time.

01:19:19About half-way up his bolt-pistol ran dry, and he tossed it, focusing instead on his

01:19:24chain-axe.

01:19:25As he emerged into view the word-bearers fired.

01:19:28One round tore through his pauldron, another struck his thigh, a third hit his chest, and

01:19:33he staggered.

01:19:34But the fury was upon him, and nothing would prevent him from spilling the blood of the

01:19:38enemy.

01:19:39All those weeks fleeing like an animal, caged in the depths of the ship like a—like a

01:19:44slave.

01:19:45That would not be his fate.

01:19:48Two more shots to the chest, and Scrawl struck his foes.

01:19:52A word-bearer came at him with a chain-sword.

01:19:54The world-eater swatted the blow aside, and carved his enemy in two across the torso.

01:20:00A second went down, clutching the ruin of his face where Scrawl had caved it in.

01:20:04Another lost an arm, and screamed as the world-eater booted him off the gantry to his death

01:20:09below.

01:20:10Then Scrawl faced the gilded captain, standing stock still before him, as if at total ease.

01:20:17Bellowing Angron's name, Scrawl launched himself at Zadkiel, preparing to dismember him with

01:20:22his chain-axe.

01:20:24The word-bearer captain calmly raised his bolt-pistol and shot Scrawl through the neck.

01:20:30With a last effort the world-eater lashed out.

01:20:34Zadkiel screamed in pain as his bolt-pistol was cut in two, three of his fingers sheared

01:20:39off with it through the gauntlet.

01:20:41Smiling beneath his battle-helm, the world-eater felt his leg collapse beneath him.

01:20:46The spinal cord was abruptly severed, and a terrible sudden cold engulfed him, as if

01:20:51he had been plunged into ice.

01:20:53Vision fogging, he saw Zadkiel standing above, blood dripping from his severed fingers, as

01:21:00he drew a long, thin sword.

01:21:03"'I am no slave,' Scrawl hissed, as the last of his vital fluid pumped out of him

01:21:10freely.

01:21:12"'You have never been anything else,' said Zadkiel savagely, and thrust the blade

01:21:17precisely through Scrawl's helmet-lens into the world-eater's eye.

01:21:22The dead Astartes shuddered for a moment, transfixed on the word-bearer's sword, before

01:21:26Zadkiel withdrew it with a flourish, and Scrawl crumpled to the deck.

01:21:31Wiping his blade on the corpse, and with a brief glance at his ruined hand, he turned

01:21:36to his sergeants.

01:21:38"'Now kill the other two!'

01:21:42Cestus shrugged off his disorientation and went for the hatch, but the barrage of fire

01:21:47resumed, cutting him off from the wolf.

01:21:49"'Damn you, Pringar!' he bellowed, knowing that it was useless.

01:21:55Soon the engineering deck would be immolated by fire.

01:21:58The chain-reaction that followed after the main-reactor's destruction would be cataclysmic.

01:22:03Cestus didn't want to be there when that happened.

01:22:06Anger burned within him at the death of his battle-brothers, the base treachery of the

01:22:10word-bearers.

01:22:11He wanted Zadkiel, and although there was little chance of reaching him on the engineering

01:22:15deck, the ultramarine knew where he would find him.

01:22:18Cestus made his way to the shuttle-bay.

01:22:21Pringar powered through the access corridor, waves of radiation washing over him, and tore

01:22:26apart the first line of shielding that led further into the reactor-core chamber.

01:22:31He pummeled a second bulkhead with his fists.

01:22:34The sense of descent into the beating heart of the ship enveloped Pringar as he crawled

01:22:38on his hands and knees through the final access conduit.

01:22:42Ripping away the last barrier of shielding, now several metres below the surface of the

01:22:46engineering deck, he passed the threshold of the reactor-core chamber.

01:22:50A blast of intense heat struck him at once, his armour blistering before its fury, and

01:22:55for a moment the wolf recoiled.

01:22:58A deep cone fell away from a narrow platform over which the space-wolf was perched.

01:23:03Hot wind, boiled up by the lake of liquid fire churning at the nadir of the cone, whipped

01:23:08his hair.

01:23:09Pringar felt it burning, his skin too, as the intense radiation ravaged his flesh.

01:23:14Beautiful, he thought, as he regarded the glowing reactor-mass below, raw incandescent

01:23:20energy that boiled and thrashed like a captured thunderhead.

01:23:24Priming the melter-bombs around his waist, the space-wolf closed his eyes.

01:23:29It was a hundred-metre drop down into the reactor-core.

01:23:32Its smooth, angled walls were bathed in light.

01:23:36Pringar stepped off the narrow platform and fell.

01:23:39Pringar stepped off the narrow platform and fell.

01:23:43The first explosion was like a thunderclap.

01:23:47Storms ravished the platinum sky as Pringar stood upon the edge of the silver Fenrisian

01:23:52ocean.

01:23:53The tide was high, and the waves crashed against the icebergs, shattering the ice-flows with

01:23:58pounding surf.

01:24:00He was dressed in only a loincloth, with his knife tucked into a leather belt, and his

01:24:05baleen spear thrust into the hard-packed snow.

01:24:09Out beyond the glowing horizon there was a keening echo.

01:24:13The great Orkar was calling to him.

01:24:17Pringar took his spear and dived into the ice-cold waters.

01:24:21Light was rising on the horizon, the storm receding.

01:24:24As he swam, he felt a strange sensation.

01:24:29It felt as if he was going home.

01:24:33The sudden release of explosive power rippled through the main reactor.

01:24:37The conical structure ruptured and the plasma roared out.

01:24:40It fell in a massive fountain of fire, drenching the whole reactor section in a monstrous burning

01:24:45rain.

01:24:46Bolts of it punched through machinery and walkways, and through the bodies of Zadgiel's

01:24:51warriors.

01:24:52Secondary explosions tore up from the minor reactors as a terrible chain reaction took

01:24:57hold.

01:24:58There was a deep and sonorous crump of force as one of the engines shattered apart with

01:25:03a backwash of energy.

01:25:05A chunk of reactor housing shot like a missile right through the main chamber of Reactor

01:25:107, which echoed the explosion of a huge expanding flood of ignited plasma.

01:25:15Emergency systems slammed into place, but there was no way to seal the breach when plasma

01:25:19was free and expanding within the hull.

01:25:22Reactors 2 and 8 were breached, emptying their plasma into the reactor section's depths.

01:25:27The hapless menials still at work in the labyrinth were devoured in the sudden flood.

01:25:31The level of plasma reached the base of Reactor 7, which blew its top, throwing a second burst

01:25:36into the air like a vast azure fountain.

01:25:40Heat-expanded air rippled bulkheads open, the hull gave way, the inner skins breaching

01:25:45and filling with plasma before the outer hull was finally torn open, and a black-red ribbon

01:25:50of vacuum-frozen fuel bubbled out of the Furious Abyss's wounded flank.

01:25:56Zadgiel crawled away from the destruction as his ship began to destroy itself from within.

01:26:02He reached the portal, sealing it shut before the few survivors of his squad could get through.

01:26:07He watched, curious and detached, as a bolt of plasma fell like a comet and ripped the

01:26:13gantry apart on which they stood.

01:26:16Survival instincts got Zadgiel to his feet.

01:26:19Reaching the vox, he ordered the abandoned ship, and proceeded to head for the shuttle

01:26:25bays before it was too late.

01:26:31CHAPTER XXI EVE OF BATTLE, FACE TO FACE, STILL WE'LL FIGHT

01:26:39The banners of the word-bearers, deep crimson with the emblems of the Legion's chapters,

01:26:44barely stirred in the artificial air of the Cloister of Contrition.

01:26:48Corferon knelt alone in front of the altar, which was crowned with the image of Lorgar,

01:26:53the Prophet of Colchis.

01:26:55The Primarch's image, carved from porphyry and marble, was brandishing the book in which

01:27:00he had first written the word.

01:27:03The arch-commander was praying.

01:27:05It was this faith that set the word-bearers apart.

01:27:08They understood its power.

01:27:10Lorgar had been an exemplar of what a man could achieve when he realized his full potential.

01:27:15Indeed, Lorgar had become much more even than that.

01:27:19Each word-bearer prayed to commune with himself, with the forces of the universe, to discover

01:27:24the means to unlock their latent strength, so that they might use it to do the work of

01:27:29Lorgar.

01:27:30On the eve of battle, it was prayer that made the word-bearers ready.

01:27:35Footsteps echoed through the cloisters.

01:27:37It was a place of worship large enough to house three chapters of battle-brothers, or

01:27:41all of the infamous Imperator's crew, and the echoes lasted for several seconds.

01:27:47"'I am at prayer,' Corferon told the intruder, the powerful cadence of his deep voice

01:27:54exacerbated by the acoustics of the temple.

01:27:57"'My lord, we have received no signal,' came the disembodied reply.

01:28:03It was Tenebron, chapter-master of the Void.

01:28:07"'Nothing?' asked Corferon, incredulity masking his anger, as he turned to look upon

01:28:12his subordinate.

01:28:13"'The supplicants on the Furious Abyss were activated,' replied Tenebron,

01:28:18"'and some time after a psychic flare was detected, very powerful.'

01:28:24"'Formasca?'

01:28:25"'Assuredly not, Lord Corferon.'

01:28:28The arch-commander stood up.

01:28:30Bare-headed, he was resplendent in his prayer-vestments, and towered over the chapter-master.

01:28:36"'You must be certain of this, Tenebron,' he said, a warning implicit in his tone.

01:28:41"'Formasca still exists,' the chapter-master replied.

01:28:46Compared to most Astartes, he looked old and weak, and some who did not know the Legion's

01:28:50ways might have thought he was a veteran, half-crippled in body, whose role was to advise

01:28:55and lead from afar.

01:28:57In truth, his small wet eyes and sagging mournful face concealed a warrior's soul, which he

01:29:03could back up with a force-staff scavenged on his back and the inferno-pistol at his

01:29:08side.

01:29:09Even that was of little significance compared to the horrible injuries the Tenebron could

01:29:13inflict on an enemy's mind.

01:29:16"'Zadkiel has failed,' he added, unnecessarily.

01:29:21Corferon thought for a moment, turning back to the altar as if the statue of Lorgar could

01:29:26advise him.

01:29:28"'Follow,' he said at length, and marched towards the great doors at the far end of

01:29:32the cloister.

01:29:34Corferon threw them open.

01:29:36Hundreds of word-bearers knelt in prayer by the light of a thousand braziers, filling

01:29:41the cathedral to which the cloisters of contrition adjoined.

01:29:44Each one was deep in his prayers, seeking some greater self within him that could win

01:29:49this fight in the name of Lorgar and seal the truth of the word.

01:29:53Almost the entire muster of the Chapter of the Opening Eye, that which was being transported

01:29:58by the infamous Imperator, was assembled, with Chapter-master Ferscarell in the front

01:30:03row.

01:30:04Ferscarell stood up and saluted at the arch-commander's approach.

01:30:08"'Lord Corferon,' he said, "'is it time?'

01:30:12"'Zadkiel has failed,' said Corferon.

01:30:17"'Soon the fleet's presence will be revealed, and Kalth will be waiting for us.

01:30:22It is time.

01:30:23This will not be the massacre of which we have spoken.

01:30:26This will be a fight to the end, and Kalth will not give up its victory easily.

01:30:31We must wrest it from the enemy as we have always done.'

01:30:35Ferscarell said nothing, but turned to his word-bearers, who stood to attention as one.

01:30:41"'Word-bearers!' shouted Corferon.

01:30:44"'To your drop-pods and gun-ships.

01:30:47Now is the time for war, for victory and death.

01:30:50Arm and say your final prayers, for the ultramarines are waiting.'

01:30:58Cestus reached the shuttle-bay quickly.

01:31:01In the ensuing panic, once the abandoned ship had been declared, few enemies opposed him.

01:31:06Those that did were mainly zealous ratings or blood-hungry menials,

01:31:10and he dispatched them with bolt and blade.

01:31:12The deck beneath the ultramarine shuddered and lurched to the side,

01:31:15and for a moment Cestus struggled to keep his feet.

01:31:19He heard the first of the explosions from the main reactor as they ravaged the ship.

01:31:24Now further internal detonations were erupting across all decks,

01:31:28as the chain reaction set in place by Bryngar's sacrifice tore the furious abyss apart.

01:31:34The rest of the crew, the cohorts of word-bearers and the officers of the bridge,

01:31:38had yet to reach the bay.

01:31:40As plumes of fire spat up from the bowels of the ship like white-orange jets through the deck,

01:31:45and the infrastructure of the shuttle-bay disintegrated around him,

01:31:49Cestus doubted that they ever would.

01:31:51Crossing the metal plaza of the bay was like running a gauntlet,

01:31:55as vessels exploded in storms of shrapnel and debris fell like rain.

01:32:00Cestus saw a rating crushed beneath a hunk of fallen arch,

01:32:03the corpse's hand still twitching in its death-throes.

01:32:06Hundreds of small antechambers bled off from the main bay,

01:32:10each housing a quartet of shuttles racked in two-by-two arrangement.

01:32:14Cestus stepped into the first antechamber he could find that wasn't wreathed in fire

01:32:18or sealed shut by wreckage.

01:32:20Stepping over the threshold, he saw a solitary figure lit up by the warning strobes

01:32:25set into the shuttle runways.

01:32:27It was gloomy in the chamber, but Cestus recognised the livery of the armour before him.

01:32:33"'Word-bearer,' he called out.

01:32:36The figure turned, about to step into the first shuttle,

01:32:40and regarded the ultramarine coldly.

01:32:42"'So you are the one I am to thank for this,' he said calmly,

01:32:47looking around the room as he opened his arms.

01:32:50Cestus returned the word-bearer's contempt and drew his power-sword.

01:32:54The arcing lightning coursing down the blade lit the ultramarine in a grim cast.

01:33:00"'You are Zadkiel,' Cestus said, as if it were an accusation.

01:33:04I thought the captain was meant to go down with his ship.'

01:33:08"'That will not be my destiny,' Zadkiel replied, drawing his sword.

01:33:14Energy crackled down its blade too.

01:33:16It was longer and slightly thinner than the ultramarine's weapon,

01:33:19mastercrafted by some Martian artificer, no doubt.

01:33:22The aesthetic flourish is added by a Legion artisan.

01:33:26"'I have your destiny right here,' Cestus promised him,

01:33:30and thought of Antigui slain in battle,

01:33:33his battle-brothers killed by the warp-predators aboard the Rothwell,

01:33:36of Saffrax and his warriors smashed against the hull,

01:33:40their honour denied them, of Skrall and Bryngar

01:33:43sacrificed upon the altar of victory and hope.

01:33:46This is where your words end.'

01:33:50"'You are a fool, ultramarine,' snarled Zadkiel.

01:33:54"'Ignorant of the power of the galaxy!

01:33:57Gods walk among us, Astartes—real gods!

01:34:00Not ghosts or cyphers or interloper aliens,

01:34:03but beings of true power—beings who pray back!'

01:34:08Zadkiel's eyes blazed suddenly with fervour.

01:34:11Cestus knew this was the religiosity for which the emperor had once scolded Logar's Legion.

01:34:17Zadkiel was a fanatic—all the word-bearers were.

01:34:20It was all they had ever been.

01:34:22How could their duplicity and deception have gone unnoticed for so long?'

01:34:27"'We have spoken with them.

01:34:29They hear us,' continued Zadkiel.

01:34:32"'They see the future as we do.

01:34:34The warp is not just a sea for ignorant space-bearers to drown in.

01:34:38It is another dimension, far more wondrous than real space.

01:34:43Our reality is the shadow of the warp, not the other way around.

01:34:47Logar and the intelligences of the warp have the same vision.

01:34:52For the warp and our reality to become one where the human mind has no limits.

01:34:58True enlightenment, ultramarine!

01:35:00Can you imagine it?'

01:35:03"'I can,' Cestus said simply.

01:35:05There was pity in his eyes.

01:35:07It is a nightmare, and one doomed to fail.'

01:35:11Zadkiel sniffed his contempt.

01:35:13"'You underestimate the power of a word,' he scoffed.

01:35:17"'Talk is cheap, fanatic,' Cestus snarled,

01:35:21casting aside his helmet so that his enemy could see the face of his slayer,

01:35:25and launched himself at the word-bearer.

01:35:28A massive energy flare lit the room in actinic radiation as the two power-swords clashed,

01:35:33Cestus's broad-bladed sparther versus Zadkiel's rapier-like weapon.

01:35:38Sparks cascaded as the two Astartes raked down each other's blades before withdrawing quickly.

01:35:44Cestus let anger fuel his blows, and crafted an overhead cut that would

01:35:48cleave into the word-bearer's shoulder.

01:35:50Zadkiel foresaw the attack, though, and rolled aside,

01:35:53thrusting the tip of his blade into the ultramarine's thigh.

01:35:56Cestus grimaced as the tip went in and recoiled, swiping downward to force Zadkiel back.

01:36:02"'I am an expert swordsman, ultramarine,' Zadkiel told him,

01:36:07goading his opponent carefully.

01:36:09"'As martially skilled as any of the sons of Gilliman.

01:36:13You will not best me.'

01:36:15"'Enough words,' Cestus roared.

01:36:18"'Act!' He smashed his blade two-handed against Zadkiel's defence.

01:36:23The word-bearer wove away from the blow, using the ultramarine's momentum to overbalance him,

01:36:28forging his parry into a riposte that pierced Cestus's shoulder beneath the pauldron.

01:36:33A second stinging blow cut a gash across the ultramarine's chest, and he staggered back.

01:36:39Breathing hard, using the precious seconds his retreat had given him,

01:36:42Cestus sank into a low fighting posture and went to drive in beneath Zadkiel's guard.

01:36:48The word-bearer turned, casually avoiding the ultramarine's lunge,

01:36:52and placing a fierce kick in his guts.

01:36:54Doubling over, Cestus felt a sharp pain in his side.

01:36:58There was a flash of blazing light, and he felt heat on his exposed skin

01:37:02as Zadkiel's power-sword came close.

01:37:05Searing agony filled his world utterly as the word-bearer plunged the blade

01:37:09deep into the ultramarine's leg.

01:37:12Cestus fell to one knee, dizzy with pain.

01:37:14Another blow struck him in the chin.

01:37:16It felt like a punch, and he fell over onto his back.

01:37:19Cestus brought his blade up just in time as Zadkiel launched himself at him,

01:37:24lashing his rapier down against the ultramarine's improvised guard.

01:37:27It hovered near to Cestus's face.

01:37:29His power-sword the only thing preventing it from cutting his head clean off.

01:37:34All the while the shuttle-bay and the furious abyss disintegrated around them.

01:37:38"'Give it up!' hissed Zadkiel, pressing the blade ever closer to Cestus's throat.

01:37:44"'Never!' the ultramarine snarled back.

01:37:48"'Kalf is dead, ultramarine!' shouted Zadkiel.

01:37:52"'Your legion is doomed!

01:37:54"'Gilliman's head will be mounted on the crown of Colchis,

01:37:58"'and paraded all the way to Terra.

01:38:01"'Nowhere is it written that one such as you can change the word!'

01:38:06Once, when Cestus was a mere aspirant,

01:38:09one of hundreds drawn from the valleys of Macragge to be judged before the sons of Gilliman,

01:38:14he had scrambled up the steps of the Temple of Hera.

01:38:17He defied the whips of the previous year's failed aspirants,

01:38:20who lashed at the youths as they tried to be the first to reach the top.

01:38:24He had hunted through the forests of the Valley of Laponis.

01:38:27He had learned there, not just that the weak gave up and the strong persevered,

01:38:32he had learned that at a far earlier age,

01:38:34or he would never have been considered an aspirant at all.

01:38:38He had learned that perseverance did not just make the difference between success and failure.

01:38:43It could change the test and create victory when none had been possible.

01:38:49Will alone could change the universe.

01:38:51That was what made a mere man into an ultramarine.

01:38:55It was will alone that allowed Cestus to throw off his attacker in the shuttle-bay antechamber,

01:39:01crushing the ruin of Zadkiel's severed fingers in his fist to loosen the word-bearer's hold.

01:39:06It was will alone that brought him to his feet,

01:39:09and will alone that made him cut Zadkiel's sword, hand and all, from his wrist as he hefted it.

01:39:16Clutching the stump of his arm where Cestus had cleaved it,

01:39:19the word-bearer got to his knees and bowed his head.

01:39:23It means nothing, ultramarine, he said with finality.

01:39:27It is the beginning of the end for your kind.

01:39:32Yet still we'll fight, he said,

01:39:35and with a grunt Cestus cut off Zadkiel's head.

01:39:40The word-bearer's lifeless body slid to the ground as the rest of him rolled across the deck.

01:39:45Cestus sank to one knee beside him and found that he could no longer carry his sword.

01:39:50It clattered to the floor and the ultramarine pressed his hand against his side.

01:39:55There was blood on his gauntlet.

01:39:56Zadkiel had struck him a mortal blow after all.

01:40:00Cestus laughed at the ludicrousness of it.

01:40:03It had felt like nothing more than a sting of metal, so innocuous yet so deadly.

01:40:09The world was turning to fire around Cestus as he fell bodily beside Zadkiel.

01:40:14The sound of rending metal told him that the integrity of the shuttle antechamber

01:40:18would not hold for much longer.

01:40:20The furious abyss was all but destroyed, the plan for it to cripple the Legion in tatters.

01:40:26The thought gave Cestus some solace in the moments before he died.

01:40:31As his cooling blood pooled around him, he thought of Macragge and of Glory,

01:40:37and was finally at peace.

01:40:39His duty ended at last in death.

01:40:46This conclusion to the word is no conclusion at all, for it shall go on.

01:40:52The future as it is written is but the merest fraction of the wonders that will be unveiled

01:40:58by my vision.

01:40:59When mankind and the warp are one, when our souls are joined in an endless psychic sea,

01:41:05then the truth of reality will be open to all, and we shall enter an aeon where even

01:41:10the most enlightened of us shall be revealed to have been groping in the darkness for some

01:41:16truth to sustain us.

01:41:19Yes, the wonders I seek are but the beginning.

01:41:24And for our enemies, those who would defy the future and attempt to crush the hopes

01:41:29of our species, the pain is only just beginning, too.

01:41:34Our enemies will fight, and they will lose, and destruction will be visited upon them,

01:41:41for it is written.

01:41:43Even beyond those first battles, there is a purgatory of the soul that the most tormented

01:41:50of our foes cannot imagine.

01:41:52Yes, for those who will deny their place in the word, these hateful birthpangs of the

01:41:59future will be but a splinter of their suffering.

01:42:06The Word of Lorga.

01:42:22Encounter.

01:42:23Read by Gareth Armstrong.

01:42:51This recording is copyrighted by Games Workshop 2014.

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