Tarvitz ran, knowing that Sergeant Fulgerion"s squad would be on his heels as he made for the cover of the closest crater. A web of criss-crossing tracer fire streaked the air before the monitoring station the Isstvanians had set up on Isstvan Extremis, a tall, organ-like structure of towers, domes and antennae. Anch.o.r.ed on the barren rock surface by ma.s.sive docking claws, the station was dusted in a powdery residue of ice crystals and particulate matter.
The Isstvan system"s sun was little more than a cold disc peeking above the horizon, lining everything in a harsh blue light. Automatic gun ports spat fire at the advancing Emperor"s Children, more than two hundred Astartes converging in a cla.s.sic a.s.sault pattern to storm the ma.s.sive blast doors of the station"s eastern entrance.
Isstvan Extremis had little atmosphere to speak of and was lethally cold; only the sealed armour of the s.p.a.ce Marines made a ground a.s.sault possible.
Tarvitz slid into the crater, turret fire ripping up chunks of grey rock around him. Sergeant Fulgerion and his warriors, shields held high to shelter them from the fire, hit the ground to either side of him. Veterans only truly at home in the thick of the hardest fighting, Fulgerion and his squad had fought together for years and Tarvitz knew that he had some of the Legion"s best warriors with him.
*They were ready for us, then?" asked Fulgerion.
*They must have known that we would return to restore compliance," said Tarvitz. *Who knows how long they have been waiting for us to come back."
Tarvitz glanced over the lip of the crater, spotting purple armoured forms fanning out in front of the gates to take up their allotted positions. That was how the Emperor"s Children fought, manoeuvring into position to execute perfectly co-ordinated strikes, squads moving across a battle zone like pieces on a chess board.
*Captain Garro of the Death Guard reports that he is in position," said Eidolon"s voice over the vox-net. *Show them what war really is!"
The Death Guard had been a.s.signed the task of taking the western approach to the station, and Tarvitz smiled as he imagined his old friend Garro marching his men grimly towards the guns, winning through relentless determination rather than any finesse of tactics. Each to their own, he thought as he drew his broadsword.
Such blunt tactics were not the way of the Emperor"s Children, for war was not simply about killing, it was art.
*Tarvitz and Fulgerion in position," he reported. *All units ready."
*Execute!" came the order.
*You heard Lord Eidolon," he shouted. *Children of the Emperor!"
The warriors around him cheered as he and Fulgerion clambered over the crater lip and gunfire streaked overhead from the support squads. A perfect ballet began with every one of his units acting in complete concert, heavy weapons pounding the enemy guns as a.s.sault units moved in to attack and tactical units took up covering positions.
Splintering explosions burst in the sub-zero air, chunks of debris blasted from the surface of the entrance dome as turret guns detonated and threw chains of bursting ammunition into the air.
A missile streaked past Tarvitz and burst against the blast doors, leaving a flaming, blackened crater in the metal. Another missile followed the first, and then another, and the doors crumpled inwards. Tarvitz saw the golden armour of Eidolon flashing in the planet"s hard light, the lord commander hefting a mighty hammer with blue arcs of energy crackling around its head.
The hammer slammed into the remains of the doors, blue-white light bursting like a lightning strike as they vanished in a thunderous explosion. Eidolon charged inside the facility, the honour his by virtue of his n.o.ble rank.
Tarvitz followed Eidolon in, ducking through the wrecked blast doors.
Inside, the station was in darkness, lit only by the muzzle flashes of bolter fire and sparking cables torn from their mountings by the furious combat. Tarvitz"s enhanced vision dispelled the darkness, warm air billowing from the station through the ruptured doors and white vapour surged around him as he saw the enemy for the first time.
They wore black armour with bulky power packs and thick cables that attached to heavy rifles. The plates of their armour were traced with silver scrollwork, perhaps just for decoration, perhaps a pattern of circuitry.
Their faces were hooded, each with a single red lens over one eye. A hundred of them packed the dome, sheltering behind slabs of broken machinery and furniture. The armoured soldiers formed a solid defensive line, and no sooner had Eidolon and the Emperor"s Children emerged from the entrance tunnel than they opened fire.
Rapid firing bolts of ruby laser fire spat out from the Isstvanian troops, filling the dome with horizontal red rain. Tarvitz took a trio of shots, one to his chest, one to his greaves and another cracking against his helmet, filling his senses with a burst of static.
Fulgerion was ahead of him, wading through the las-fire that battered his shield. Eidolon surged forwards in the centre of the line and his hammer bludgeoned Isstvanians to death with each lethal swing. A body flew through the air, its torso a crushed ruin and its limbs shattered by the shock of the hammer"s impact. The weight of enemy fire faltered and the Emperor"s Children charged forward, overlapping fields of bolter fire shredding the Isstvanians" cover as close combat specialists crashed through the gaps to kill with gory sweeps of chainswords.
Tarvitz"s bolt pistol snapped shots at the darting black figures catching one in the throat and spinning him around. Squad Fulgerion took up position at the remains of the barricade, their bolters filling the dome with covering gunfire for Eidolon and his chosen warriors.
Tarvitz killed the enemy with brutally efficient shots and sweeps of his broadsword, fighting like a warrior of Fulgrim should. His every strike was a faultless killing blow, and his every step was measured and perfect. Gunfire ricocheted from his gilded armour and the light of battle reflected from his helmet as if from a hero of ancient legend.
*We have the entrance dome," shouted Eidolon as the last of the Isstvanians were efficiently despatched by the Astartes around him. *Death Guard units report heavy resistance inside. Blow the inner doors and we"ll finish this for them."
Warriors with breaching charges rushed to destroy the inner doors, and even over the flames and shots, Tarvitz could hear m.u.f.fled explosions from the other side. He lowered his sword and took a moment to survey his surroundings now that there was a lull in the fighting.
A dead body lay at his feet, the plates of the man"s black armour ruptured and a ragged tear ripped in the hood covering his face. Frozen blood lay scattered around him like precious stones and Tarvitz knelt to pull aside the torn cowl.
The man"s skin was covered in an elaborate swirling black tattoo, echoing the silver designs on his armour. A frozen eye looked up at him, hollow and darkened, and Tarvitz wondered what manner of being had the power to force this man to renounce his oaths of loyalty to the Imperium.
Tarvitz was spared thinking of an answer by the dull thump of the interior doors blowing open. He put the dead man from his mind and set off after Eidolon as he held his hammer high and charged into the central dome. He ran alongside his fellow warriors, knowing that whatever the Isstvanians could throw at him, he was an Astartes and no weapon they had could match the will of the Emperor"s Children.
Tarvitz and his men moved through the dust and smoke of the door"s explosion, the autosenses of his armour momentarily useless.
Then they were through and into the heart of the Isstvan Extremis facility.
He pulled up short as he suddenly realized that the intelligence they had been given on this facility was utterly wrong.
This was not a comms station, it was a temple.
TORGADDON"S FACE WAS ashen and leathery, puckered and scarred around a burning yellow eye. Sharpened metallic teeth glinted in a lipless mouth and twin gashes were torn in the centre of his face.
A star with eight points was gouged in his temple, mirroring its golden twin etched upon his ornate, black armour.
*No," said Loken, backing away from this terrible apparition.
*You have trespa.s.sed, Loken," hissed Torgaddon. *You have betrayed."
A dry, deathly wind carried Torgaddon"s words, gusting over him with the smell of burning bodies. As he breathed the noxious wind, a vision of broken steppes spread out before Loken, expanses of desolation and plains of rusted machinery like skeletons of extinct monsters. A hive city on the distant horizon split open like a flower, and from its broken, burning petals rose a mighty tower of bra.s.s that punctured the pollution-heavy clouds.
The sky above was burning and the laughter of Dark G.o.ds boomed from the heavens. Loken wanted to scream, this vision of devastation worse than anything he had seen before.
This wasn"t real. It couldn"t be. He did not believe in ghosts and illusions.
The thought gave him strength. He wrenched his mind away from the dying world, and suddenly he was soaring through the galaxy, tumbling between the stars. He saw them destroyed, bleeding glowing plumes of stellar matter into the void. A baleful ma.s.s of red stars glowered above him, staring like a great and terrible eye of flame. An endless tide of t.i.tanic monsters and vast s.p.a.ce fleets vomited from that eye, drowning the universe in a tide of blood.
A sea of burning flames spat and leapt from the blood, consuming all in its path, leaving black, barren wasteland in its wake.
Was this a vision of some lunatic"s h.e.l.l, a dimension of destruction and chaos where sinners went when they died? Loken forced himself to remember the lurid descriptions from the Chronicles of Ursh, the outlandish scenes described by inventions of dark faith. No, said the voice of Torgaddon, this is no madman"s delusion. It is the future.
*You"re not Torgaddon!" shouted Loken, shaking the whispering voice from his head. You are seeing the galaxy die. Loken saw the Sons of Horus in the tide of fiery madness that poured from the red eye, armoured in black and surrounded by leaping, deformed creatures. Abaddon was there, and Horus himself, an immense obsidian giant who crushed worlds in his gauntlets.
This could not be the future. This was a diseased distorted vision of the future.
A galaxy in which mankind was led by the Emperor could never become such a terrible maelstrom of chaos and death. You are wrong.
The galaxy in flames receded and Loken scrabbled for some solidity, something to rea.s.sure him that this terrifying vision could never come to pa.s.s. He was tumbling again, his vision blurring until he opened his eyes and found himself in Archive Chamber Three, a place he had felt safe, surrounded by books that rendered the universe down to pure logic and kept the madness locked up in crude pagan epics where it belonged.
But something was wrong, the books were burning around him, this purest of knowledge being systematically destroyed to keep the ma.s.ses ignorant of their truths. The shelves held nothing but flames and ash, the heat battering against Loken as he tried to save the dying books. His hands blistered and blackened as he fought to save the wisdom of ancient times, the flesh peeling back from his bones.
The music of the spheres. The mechanisms of reality, invisible and all around...
Loken could see it where the flames burned through, the endless churning ma.s.s of the warp at the heart of everything and the eyes of dark forces seething with malevolence. Grotesque creatures cavorted obscenely among heaps of corpses, horned heads and braying, goat-like faces twisted by the mindless artifice of the warp. Bloated monsters, their bodies heaving with maggots and filth, devoured dead stars as a bra.s.s-clad giant bellowed an endless war cry from its throne of skulls and soulless magicians sacrificed billions in a silver city built of lies.
Loken fought to tear his sight from this madness. Remembering the words he had thrown in Horus Aximand"s face at the Delphos Gate, he screamed them aloud once more: *I will not bow to any fane or acknowledge any spirit. I own only the empirical clarity of Imperial Truth!"
In an instant, the walls of the dark temple slammed back into place around him, the air thick with incense, and he gasped for breath. Loken"s heart pumped wildly and his head spun, sick with the effort of casting out what he had seen.
This was not fear. This was anger.
Those who came to this fane were selling out the entire human race to dark forces that lurked unseen in the depths of the warp. Were these the same forces that had infected Xavyer Jubal? The same forces that had nearly killed Sindermann in the ship"s archive?
Loken felt sick as he realized that everything he knew about the warp was wrong.
He had been told that there were no such things as G.o.ds.
He had been told that there was nothing in the warp but insensate, elemental power.
He had been told that the galaxy was too sterile for melodrama.
Everything he had been told was a lie.
Feeding on the strength his anger gave him, Loken lurched towards the altar and slammed the ancient book closed, snapping the bra.s.s hasp over the lock. Even shut, he could feel the terrible purpose locked within its pages. The idea that a book could have some sort of power would have sounded ludicrous to Loken only a few months ago, but he could not doubt the evidence of his own senses, despite the incredible, terrifying, unimaginable things he had seen and heard. He gathered up the book and clutching it under one arm, turned and made his way from the fane.
He closed the door and eased past the banner of the Seventh, emerging once more into the secluded darkness of the strategium.
Sindermann had been right. Loken was hearing the music of the spheres, and it was a terrible sound that spoke of corruption, blood and the death of the universe.
Loken knew with utter certainty that it was up to him to silence it.
THE INTERIOR OF the Isstvan Extremis facility was dominated by a wide, stepped pyramid, its huge stone blocks fashioned from a material that clearly had no place on such a world. Each block came from some other building, many of them still bearing architectural carvings, sections of friezes, gargoyles or even statues jutting crazily from the structure Isstvanian soldiers swarmed around the base of the pyramid, fighting in desperate close quarters battle with the steel-armoured figures of the Death Guard. The battle had no shape, the art of war having given way to the grinding brutality of simple killing.
Tarvitz"s gaze was drawn from the slaughter to the very top of the pyramid, where a bright light spun and twisted around a half-glimpsed figure surrounded by keening harmonics.
*Attack!" bellowed Eidolon, charging forwards as the tip of the spear, a.s.sault units the killing edges around him. Tarvitz forgot about the strange figure and followed the lord commander, driving Eidolon forwards by covering him and holding off enemies who tried to surround him.
More Emperors" Children stormed into the dome and the battle at the base of the pyramid. Tarvitz saw Lucius beside Eidolon, the swordsman"s blade shining like a harnessed star.
It was typical that Lucius would be at the front, demonstrating that he would rise swiftly through the ranks and take his place alongside Eidolon as the Legion"s best. Tarvitz slashed his weapon left and right, needing no skill to kill these foes, simply a strong sword arm and the will to win. He clambered onto the first level of the pyramid, fighting his way up its side through rank after rank of black armoured foes.
He stole a glance towards the top of the pyramid, seeing the burnished Death Guard warriors climbing ahead of him to reach the figure at the summit.
Leading the Death Guard was the familiar, brutal form of Nathaniel Garro, his old friend forging upwards with powerful strides and his familiar grim determination. Even amid the furious battle, Tarvitz was glad to be fighting alongside his sworn honour brother once again. Garro forced his way towards the top of the pyramid, aiming his charge towards the glowing figure that commanded the battlefield.
Long hair whipped around it, and as sheets of lightning arced upwards, Tarvitz saw that it was a woman, her sweeping silk robes lashing like the tendrils of some undersea creature.
Even above the chaos of battle, he could hear her voice and it was singing.
The force of the music lifted her from the pyramid, suspending her above the pinnacle on a song of pure force. Hundreds of harmonies wound impossibly over one another, screeching notes smashing together as they ripped from her unnatural throat. Stones flew from the pyramid"s summit, spiraling towards the dome"s ceiling as her song broke apart the warp and waft of reality.
As Tarvitz watched, a single discordant note rose to the surface in a tremendous crescendo, and an explosion blew out a huge chunk of the pyramid, ma.s.sive blocks of stone tumbling in the currents of light. The pyramid shuddered and stones crashed down amongst the Emperor"s Children, crushing some and knocking many more from its side.
Tarvitz fought to keep his balance as portions of the pyramid collapsed in a rumbling landslide of splintered stone and rubble. The armoured body of a Death Guard slithered down the slope towards a sheer drop into the falling masonry and Tarvitz saw that it was the bloodied form of Garro.
He scrambled across the disintegrating pyramid and leapt towards the drop, catching hold of the warrior"s armour and dragging him towards firmer ground.
Tarvitz pulled Garro away from the fighting, seeing that his friend was badly wounded. One leg was severed at mid thigh and portions of his chest and upper arm were crushed. Frozen, coagulated blood swelled like blown gla.s.s around his injuries and shards of stone jutted from his abdomen.
*Tarvitz!" growled Garro, his anger greater than his pain. *It"s a Warsinger. Don"t listen."
*Hold on, brother," said Tarvitz. *I"ll be back for you,"
*Just kill it," spat Garro.
Tarvitz looked up, seeing the Warsinger closer as she drifted towards the Emperor"s Children. Her face was serene and her arms were open as if to welcome them, her eyes closed as she drew the terrible song from her.
Yet more blocks of stone were lifting from the pyramid around the Emperor"s Children. Tarvitz saw one warrior a Captain Odovocar, the Bearer of the Legion banner a dragged from his feet and into the air by the Warsinger"s chorus. His armour jerked as if torn at by invisible fingers, sparking sheets of ceramite peeling back as the Warsinger"s power took it apart.
Odovocar came apart with it, his helmet ripping free and trailing glittering streamers of blood and bone as it took his head off.
As Odovocar died, Tarvitz was struck by the savage beauty of the song, a song he felt she was singing just for him. Beauty and death were captured in its discordant notes, the wonderful peace that would come if he just gave himself up to it and let the music of oblivion take him. War would end and violence wouldn"t even be a memory. Don"t listen to it.
Tarvitz snarled and his bolt pistol kicked in his hand as he fired at the Warsinger, the sound of the shots drowned by the cacophony. Sh.e.l.ls impacted against a sheath of shimmering force around the Warsinger, blooms of white light exploding around her as they detonated prematurely. More and more of the Astartes, Emperor"s Children and Death Guard both, were being pulled up into the air and sonically dismembered, and Tarvitz knew they didn"t have much time before their cause was lost.
The surviving Isstvanian soldiers were regrouping, storming up the pyramid after the Astartes. Tarvitz saw Lucius among them, sword slashing black-armoured limbs from bodies as they fought to surround him.
Lucius could look after himself and Tarvitz forced himself onwards, struggling to keep his footing amid the chaos of the Warsinger"s wanton destruction. Gold gleamed ahead of him and he saw Eidolon"s armour shining like a beacon in the Warsinger"s light. The lord commander bellowed in defiance and pulled himself up the last few levels of the pyramid as Tarvitz climbed to join him.
The Warsinger drew a shining caul of light around her and Eidolon plunged into it, the glare becoming opaque like a shining white sh.e.l.l. Tarvitz"s pistol was empty, so he dropped it, taking a two handed grip on his sword and following his lord commander into the light.
The deafening shrieks of the Warsinger filled his head with deathly unmusic, rising to a crescendo as he penetrated the veil of light.
Eidolon was on his knees, his hammer lost and the Warsinger hovering over him. Her hands stretched out in front of her as she battered Eidolon with waves of force strong enough to distort the air.
Eidolon"s armour warped around him, his helmet ripped from his head in a wash of blood, but he was still alive and fighting.
Tarvitz charged, screaming, *For the Emperor!"
The Warsinger saw him and smashed him to the floor with a dismissive flick of her wrist. His helmet cracked with the force of the impact and for a moment his world was filled with the awful beauty of the Warsinger"s song. His vision returned in time for him to see Eidolon lunging forwards. His charge had bought Eidolon a momentary distraction, the harmonics of her song redirected for the briefest moment.
The briefest moment was all a warrior of the Emperor"s Children needed.
Eidolon"s eyes were ablaze, his hatred and revulsion at this foe clear as his mouth opened in a cry of rage. His mouth opened still wider and he let loose his own screeching howl. Tarvitz rolled onto his back, dropping his sword and clutching his hands to his ears at the dreadful sound. Where the Warsinger"s song had layered its death in beguiling beauty, there was no such grace in the sonic a.s.sault launched by Eidolon, it was simply agonizing, deafening volume.
The crippling noise smashed into the Warsinger and suddenly her grace was torn away. She opened her mouth to sing a fresh song of death, but Eidolon"s scream turned her cries into a grim dirge.
Sounds of mourning and pain layered over one another into a heavy funereal drone as the Warsinger dropped to her knees. Eidolon bent and picked up Tarvitz"s fallen broadsword, his own terrible scream now silenced. The Warsinger writhed in pain, arcing coils of light whipping from her as she lost control of her song.
Eidolon waded through the light and noise. The broadsword licked out and Eidolon cut the Warsinger"s head from her shoulders with a single sweep of silver.
Finally the Warsinger was silent.