Shadow of a Doubt

Chapter 1

Commander Kyreg opened his eyes and for a moment, he pictured that he could still see the bridge of his beloved former home for a moment but it was not to be. It was 10 thousand years too late for that. He shifted slightly as he stood watching the blue uniformed serfs manning the Kilo Zeta, a vanguard class strike cruiser that was the home of the Shrouded. 10 thousand years ago, he would have been part of the 8th but now in the year M42 he was just a relic, perhaps a mistake made by those who battled in the Warp now. His cameoline cloak made no sound as the Legionnaire turned to look at the blue clad figure standing one foot in front of the command throne of the strike cruiser, one of the last few Artificer Centurions, Maygis.

A polite cough shook Kyreg from his reminiscence, the sound from behind him causing him to shift his armoured body to regard the source of the sound. Three Legionnaires stood in a relaxed pattern five feet away from him, stalker pattern combi-bolters locked to their armour, power axes strapped to their backs, and the power daggers unique to his former Legion locked to their armoured shoulder pauldrons. This was Xythos, his own unit that had followed him all the way here, from the killing fields of Istavaan to the small brown planet of Tythen V which rested at the edge of the Ultima Segmentum.

"Commander. We were summoned." The legionnaire standing foremost bowed his head slightly in respect to Kyreg. Their armour were the same dusk blue as his own, armour that has been repaired, modified, each was artificer armour in its own right. The Mark IV Maximus pattern power armour is seen as a mark of a veteran Astartes warrior in the Imperium but for those who have lived through the Crusade, it is simply a mark of the Long War.

"Thodor. Is Xythos ready? We have much work to do.. and there is still much more to be done." A simple mark of a skull on the power armour of Thodor marked him as a witch, one of those gifted with the powers of a psyker. A hood had been attached to the armour as an add-on, repainted and integrated into the sorcerers armour. Was it a Novamarine Librarian that Thodor had taken it off of? Or perhaps it could have even been one of the witches that had sworn allegiance to the Tyrant of Badab. It mattered little to Kyreg. Lately, he found he cared little for the details of their victories, instead in his spare time remembering the times of the Crusade.

Thodor nodded. Behind him stood another legionnaire dressed in the same dusk blue armour with an addition of a small black cross on his gorget, the mark of an Apothecary. Kyreg remembered Mytis from the days of the 8th, where they had brought compliance through shrouded blades and poisoned supplies of the enemy. Ulyr was the last member, formerly of the 11th but had been amalgamated into the Xythos after Istavaan. Kyreg rested a hand on the hilt of the blade at his hip. The phase sword was an item he had gone to great length to capture from a dark elder ship. Where they had gotten it from.. the two still alive Callidus assassins who had their skin flayed off had provided the answer for that. The technology behind it was ill understood but the ability to cut through the hull of a land raider made the weapon useful, especially to someone of Kyregs nature.

"And what of Gungnir?" He asked the three who looked at him with a slight casual shrug borne of those used to constant war. The answer came from behind him in the form of the Centurion. "Gungnir readies itself still. I believe that my adjustment to the armoury forge aboard our vessel has meant more adjustments to compensate for the modified bolter rounds." Maygis had turned his head towards the legionnaire commander. Although technically of the same rank as Kyreg, Maygis was a legionnaire trained in the ways of Mars so he had little concern of command, only that as the senior artificer on board it was his right to captain the actual strike cruiser. Kyreg nodded his head at the techmarine and smiled a little. "Rythor sometimes reminds me more of a techpriest than even you Maygis." The Centurion only chuckled deeply in response. Rythor was the Sergeant of the Gungnir, a legion reconnaissance squad that had barely made it out of Istavaan alongside Xythos. He was a legionnaire of immense precision, the difference of a single gnat length in between different bolter shots landing was enough to send him into great displeasure, whether it was his own mistake or one of Gungnir other legionnaires.

"Centurion. Our cloaking is on full and the vessel is properly hidden from the augurs of the planet?" Kyreg asked as he looked through the viewscreen of the strike cruiser. Maygis examined the display infront of him and nodded in affirmation. "Well, the PDF on the planet hardly possess the skill or the technology to detect us even uncloaked." Kyreg laughed in response to the arrogant reply of the artificer. "I'm not worried about the PDF. I'm asking if they can detect us." Kyregs eyes were pointedly glancing at the ship on the other side of the planet. The warship he was looking at was over 12 km long, a monster of a ship that had defaced Imperial symbols on the outside now sporting various markings in blood of its various allegiances. Well, blood seemed the most likely but knowing its occupants, it could be any form of body fluid which marked and desecrated the ship. It was the ship known as the 'Angelic Purity', a battle barge that had been built by Mars and gifted to the occupants when they were still part of the IX Legion.

"Traitors once again approaches a planet of the Emperor, and none of the High Lords lapdogs seem to be able to stop a single warband." The comment came from a legionnaire that just a second ago, was not there. No one on the bridge, mortal or legionnaire had detected his entrance. "Rythor, nice of you to join us in between trying to defy the laws of physics." Maygis made the comment rather dryly, Ulyr turning his head and coughing politely to mask the slight chuckle which threatened the rather seriousness of the legionnaire sergeants comment.

"Centurion. Commander." The bald sergeant nodded slightly and gave a rather melancholic smile that didn't reach his eyes at the techmarines comment. "Typical of Guilliman, split the legions and make chapters. Now the Imperium is defended by whelps cast off from their mother legions still with their milk teeth." The words the sergeant said were laced with venom in his voice. He held a long grudge against those of the XIII legion, he was one of the terran born legionnaires recruited for his legion and had heard the insults of the XIII against his first hand. "And every one of Guillimans children sing his name in praise for his insult to the legions." Replied Thodor who had taken a few steps to stand next to Kyreg.

Maygis was the one to break the insults against the XIII, Kyreg raising his eyebrows slightly at the unusual choler coming to the fore of the normally reserved psyker. "I don't believe anything that Mars produces can detect us. I find it fascinating still that they reject the samples seized from the Tau Empire when there is so many innovations which benefit us, and can benefit the Imperium." Kyreg ignored the last part. Maygis was very, very unconventional. In fact, the techmarine seized xenos tech any chance he got. Every suit of power armour had some form of xeno modification and additions done to it, and the strike cruiser itself had some rather advanced xenos cloaking technology in it that was a great advantage to its occupants. "Be ready then. Rythor, ensure the Gungnir are ready to deploy. Maygis, have your artificers prepare the vehicles for war then." Last but not least, he turned to the only mortal that dared to stand so close to the right of him. "Colonel. Prepare Gamma 6-7. Your orders will come soon." Colonel Curtix Aibel bowed at Kyregs words. "Yes my lord. And when you are ready, the most recent reports from the assets have just been decoded."

Kyreg nodded his thanks at the mortal and departed, knowing that the report will be sent to his quarters. "And make sure Centurion that ammunition is sufficient to supply everything.. we just might need it this time." He would say as he departed the bridge, the only sign of acknowledgement from the armoured Centurion was a simple blip of the vox. Kyreg entered his quarters, the only ones in the hallways were Servitors doing the menial tasks of cleaning a strike cruiser clean and serviceable. With a soft sight, he unclipped his helmet and locked it against his power armour as he picked up his dataslate and glanced through the report. The governor of the planet was a woman named Adriana Hyberg, some offshoot of ancient Terran nobility no doubt but the interesting part was the fact that on the planet according to the report compiled by the human agent, accidents had befallen various Ecclesiarch buildings and churches, as well as the main Arbites building had an unfortunate accident earlier this week. Yes, a truck filled with explosives had accidentally crashed into the building and exploded. He was no fan of the emperor worshipping ilk nor was he a believer in the ability of the Imperial Arbites. But a planet with these many issues against symbols of Imperial power was not a good thing, especially when a chaos warband was approaching the planet. Putting down the data slate, he picked up the stalker combi-bolter locked to his armour and glanced over it, checking the action carefully before loading a 30 round magazine. He could feel it in his augmented body, it was going to be a rather bad operation but what choice did he truly have. The armoured legionnaire sat down on the seat beside the bed and closed his eyes. Xythos and Gungnir will both be readying for war. Yingr will have a briefing for him too before they deploy. He sighed a little and shut his brain off.

In moments, he opened his eyes and knew that he was asleep already and dreaming. He looked down at the bolter in his hands and across at Helix Squad all crouched behind the ditch. This was it. He gave a single hand gesture and the last legionnaire in line active the melta breacher and placed it against the wall of the structure that the ditch was behind. In a few moments, the melta bomb exploded inwards, opening a large hole in the wall. Around the fortress walls, the sound of plasma and bolter fire could be heard. The sound of armoured treads and large calibre artillery guns could be heard exchanging shots and maneuvering. As soon as the wall was breached, he led Helix Squad through, his bolter barking at the humans who were facing the wrong way behind sandbagged autocannon emplacements. His squad all rushed in behind him in precise synchronised movements, their bolters also barking in bursts that cut through the green armoured humans who desperate tried to turn around in time only to be turned into pulp by the explosive bolter rounds.

"Up the stairs. Our objective lays on the third floor." His squad all voxed in affirmatives after breaking through the poorly set up defensive line. It led to the main foyer and through the windows of the mansion, he could see battle still ongoing. He could spot the dark grey of the IV and of course the blue of the XIII, each picking a defensive line to breakthrough. However, it was not going to be the IV or the XIII which ended the war, it was going to be Helix. Kyreg and Helix squad charged up the stairs, solid auto rounds whizzing past him. He charged pauldron first into a soldier with a bayonet on his rifle, reaching out and shattering the rifle with his armoured fist before breaking the man's skull by jabbing his bolter into his head. His squad all opened fire as they moved up the stairs fluidly, most ignoring the resistance there but instead firing at those who fired at them. Those that ran for it, they didn't bother with. The third floor however, was much more defended. Autocannons on tripods opened fire on them the minute they emerged only to stop with loud clicks as the belts jammed the mechanisms. This is what happened when the proper steel belt for autocannons were replaced with lacquered plastic, a melted mess of plastic jamming and gunking up the firing mechanisms. Kyreg smiled a little at the sound, it seems that Cerberus had fulfilled its objectives. However, the first few rounds they were able to fire had killed Norit and Ersev, the two legionnaires behind him but it mattered little, they would be mourned later on. The last legionnaire fired a punishing fusillade from the heavy bolter he carried which cut through the gold-laced uniforms of the Autocrats personal guard as the rest of Helix charged towards the main door. A kick splintered the double doors locks and two stun grenades were tossed in. With a blinding flash, they both detonated and Helix squad followed right after. In the room was the man and his closest advisors, sitting at a large planning table. In a flash, his squad opened fire, cutting down any armed guards in the room. As the blinding whiteness left the eyes of the regally suited Autocrat and his generals, they found themselves being shoved up against the wall.

With a single hand gesture, one legionnaire set up a pict capturer on video recording. Without a word, the execution of the planets rulers were captured digitally and in seconds, the recording was sent to their agents. Five minutes later, the firing outside had stopped as every command center of the enemy had their displays overrode and the execution was played out over and over again. Ten minutes later, the firing outside had stopped. Kyreg without a word, gestured for his squad to follow him as he placed a single beacon on the third floor and then made his way to a window where he was able to make his way out and climb down the side of the structure. After the last legionnaire made it down, they moved through to the ditch again and wrapped their cameoline cloak around themselves, making their way past the various soldiers who seemed to be in shock as news of the assassination made it through the ranks like wildfire. Most just seemed to give up and walk off, finding a way to survive the armoured superhuman troops that were not just walking through the main defensive lines collecting prisoners but also those that seemed to have sneaked through an entire defensive line and assassinated their leader.

Kyreg led Helix squad to the battle lines where the IV and XIII legionnaires advancing through the mostly abandoned defensive earthworks, the Imperial Army soldiers assigned to their expedition fleets gathering the prisoners past. He would reveal himself to them and smirked inside his helmet at the dour looks he received from the IV and the slight sneer on the face of the XIII Captain who advanced towards him. "Was this your doing?" The Captain asked him while looking around at the surrendered garrison. Kyreg nodded only once before giving a sign to his squad, and they began to move out. The IV Warsmith at least gave a nod of respect to Kyreg and his legionnaires for carrying out the assault but the XIII Captain would put a hand out and stop Kyreg from going any further. "You need to give me your report, legionnaire." Kyreg looked at the armoured hand infront of him and turned to the Ultramarine officer. "I do not answer to you Ultramarine. Your entire battalion could not do what a single squad of mine was able to do. Now move your hand before you become a casualty." The blue armoured officer hissed at the insult and placed a hand on his sheathed blade hilt. Kyreg turned his head to look at the Stormbird gunship that was just landing in an empty space near them, the gunship in the liveries of his legion. "You can draw your blade if you feel your honour insulted Ultramarine. But a blade is no match for duel linked heavy bolters or hunter killer missiles." Kyreg shoved the Captains hand aside and his squad would stride into the open hold of the Stormbird, the Ultramarine staring at him with anger in his eyes. Kyreg allowed himself a small smile and opened his eyes to see the inside of his quarters again. He would check the chronos and see that only two standard hours had passed by. That was enough rest for him.

A few moments later, Xythos and Gungnir were assembled on the flight deck of the strike cruiser, each squad performing final weapons and equipment check. As befit their status of over 10 thousand years of operations with a few thousand years of Suspended Animation, their equipment were a mixture of conventional weapons as well as rare combi-stalker bolters first used by Legionnaire Reconnaissance Squads as well as Legionnaire Stealth Squads during the great crusade. "Extra breaching charges as well as explosives." Kyreg ordered, the dusk blue armoured legionnaires nodding their agreement as more grenades and explosive charges were taken from a large crate of ammunition. With them stood Taleon, a former Legion Support Squad led by Sergeant Lefias, who's other four legionnaires stood there. With power spears and combat shields locked onto their backs while in their hands were held an assortment of various heavy weapons, they were as close to a heavy powerful weapons squad as could be found aboard the Kilo Zeta.

"Ensure you have your Cainite magazines as well as your specialist magazines separated and ready." Kyreg would order out as he checked his own magazines. There were multiple magazines with a slightly different symbol on them. Cainite rounds were a modification of the infamous Banestrike bolter rounds used by traitor legions on Istavaan. A tiny metal charge was placed at the forefront ready to silently melt most forms of armour that can be carried by a human, modified or not. Behind it however instead of a solid core, a heavy tungsten rod was surrounded by mutagenic acid, the melta charge meant to melt through the armour while the tungsten round forced the rest of the shell inwards and the acid did the actual damage. It was technology taken from the dark elder and modified by Centurion Maygis, the chief techmarine of the strike cruiser. Bolt pistols with suppressors screwed onto the ends were checked, suppressors around the stalker bolters were tightened and final preparations would be complete. With a glance around, Kyreg gave a gesture and the two squads each loaded onto their own separate Stormeagles, each taken from a different Astartes Chapter and repainted with their machine spirits appeased to accept the xeno modifications of the strike cruisers occupants. The legionnaires who were the pilots of the crafts had long complete the pre-flight check list. Servitors were slaved to the gunships gunnery and communication controls. With a quiet hiss, the modified engines lifted the two crafts up and they entered the void of space.

Nineteen days earlier

Every legionnaire on board had gathered in the war room of the Kilo Zeta and looked at the star map surrounding Tythen V. There were a few small space stations around it, the Planetary Defence Fleet of aging laser cannons and the like that were thinly manned by barely trained conscripts. The small brown planet had a rather warm temperature comparatively speaking, but it had quite a bit of underground water reservoirs. It had a rather dusty external shell while the underground hives were quite moist, moisture somehow being protected by the arid surface of the planet.

"This is our objective. More precisely, it seems that miners in this region have dug up a relic of the crusade era. A legionnaire base meant for recruitment as well as re-supply. The bolter shells might still be functional; any chemical explosives in heavy munitions are probably long useless. The treasure at the end of the day will be the command terminal. The command terminal is linked up to the vault itself, and inside the vault contains a treasure that is worth every drop of blood onboard this vessel." Sergeant Yingr, the intelligence officer was a rarely seen figure amongst the strike cruiser itself. More often than not, the legionnaire was in his own office plotting operations, recruiting assets and dealing with the Cerberus assets, the human intelligence operatives that he used to gather information and put together strike packages with. "The command terminal itself contains a series of information onto hidden legion assets across the galaxy itself. The password is our genes which will grant us access. The vault itself contains a secure source of gene seeds that can be used to replenish our ranks, but also the a copy of the data that was gifted to the XIX legion by the Anathema himself in order for the Ravens to replenish their ranks after Istavaan. These are valuable treasures my brothers.. and we must reclaim them in the name of the legion." With that, he stood aside. It was pointless to ask how he had managed to find out such information, Cerberus assets were mighty and many, and Sergeant Yingr was truly gifted in the hidden war.

"That is our most important objective. There is more than that however.." This is where Kyreg stepped in, a hand reaching up to remove his helmet and set on the planning table itself. "Our assets have detected that an astartes warship is also approaching the system. For what, we do not know. What we do know is that this is a warship of chaos aligned marines.. the Flawless Host." The legionnaires gathered around the table hissed as one. Out of all the ruinous powers, those who worshipped Slaanesh was often the worst that could be found in the galaxy. It was not due to the way their god demanded worship, instead it was that any planet with Slaaneshi influences would have corruption that went deep into the planets core. The solution could not often be solved by combat operations alone as there were too many hidden sects and underground cultists who had been corrupted by the promise of their hearts desires.

"It seems that they are heading to the planet for reasons that are entirely unknown to us at this point, and we must gather more information. We cannot utilise Cerberus assets in this operation except for perhaps the Gamma 6-7 strike teams. The chances of infiltrators becoming corrupted by the proximity to this is too much. We already have assets in place conducting passive monitoring of the planets communication and security organizations, but so far no one has dug to find any one distinct source that might be waiting in the wings. So our objective is to recover the legion assets, but we also must find a way to scuttle their warship. If need be, we can conduct a Theta cleansing of the planet itself." Kyreg looked at each legionnaire around the table so that they understood the seriousness of the chaos threat. A Theta cleansing was a false flag operation to provoke the Imperium into exterminates of a planet, it was easily done as long as the right message went to the right source inside the Inquisition. "The capital of the planet seems to be Lorhenge, an underground massive hive city just a bit north of the equatorial lines. Legionnaire assets are in Station 88305 which will be 15 kilometers south of the capital city. Its conditions, we are unable to ascertain but that will be our first objective. We will land near the jungle just south of it so we can bypass the capitals air defence scanners and infiltrate through the jungle. This is all underground underneath the dust shell of the planet surface, so I believe that the best route is to deploy through Stormbird and land on the surface. Once on the surface, we will need to enter through one of the tunnels into the actual hives of the planet itself. Once we can secure legionnaire assets, then we will liase with Cerberus assets and we will find out just how far this corruption goes." He looked around again at the legionnaires, all of whom were at veteran legionnaires and had no questions. That was the simple enough part, however they lacked the intelligence to truly see what their potential enemy had planned. Chaos warbands made for extremely good distractions during operations. "If there are no questions, then Gungnir, Taleon, and Xythos, remain behind. I will issue squad objectives." The other legionnaires departed the war room to prepare their own specialty craft in support of the mission. Weapons needed to be checked and readied, specialist equipment needed to be readied as well as intelligence assets needed to be activated.

Present

The stormbirds made their way through the atmosphere, Kyreg checking over his own equipment and weapons again. Each marine was clamped into their seats as they watched the descent, the shielding of the stormbirds heating up as they descended through the atmosphere of Tythen V, the viewports revealing the stark tundra and desert mixture of the surface itself. "We are approaching landing zone. Stealth field is still at maximum, we will descend through the cloud cover in 10." The pilot spoke, the servitors scanning the horizon for threats. The tau ion cannons that had been attached to the Imperial pattern gunship scanned around as well, slaved to the targeting system of the pilot. As the gunship descended towards the surface, Kyreg shook his head a little bit. With his age now, he was becoming nostalgic in the wrong moments at time. The primarch had always pointed it to him with humour but now was not the moment. Not during such a delicate part of the operation. "Gungnir will sweep forward after landing. Xythis will follow in support." The Legion encouraged initiative, and the two squads were some of the most adaptive ones that the Legion had ever forged. Kyreg chambered a round in his stalker-bolter and checked the underslung melta gun, ensuring that a charge canister was loaded as well. The rest of his squad did the same while Gungnir checked their bolters but also their sniper rifles, feeding magazines delicately into the receiver and then chambering a round. Suppressors were given a quick tighten. With a soft thud, the ramp lowered, remaining about four feet off the ground as the squads disembarked. Moving quickly to establish a perimeter, the 8 Legionnaires all checked their targeting systems. So far, no threat. Without a sound, Gungnir disappeared as the adaptive camouflage was activated. A second later, Kyreg and his legionnaires did the same.

The dust was causing little issues to the legionnaires, except perhaps if they were Nightlords or Ravenguard, they might have found themselves grounded as the windy sands did not allow for jump packs. After an hour north east an opening to one of the tunnels was found with four guards standing around it wearing the sand coloured uniforms of the Tythen PDF. Las rifles strapped around their flak vests, they were arguing with a small group of merchants, two large trucks obviously loaded with trade goods from another hive stopped behind them. The leader of the merchants, a portly man with a taste for silver jewellery was gesturing at a piece of paper in his hands, and pointing to the open cab where it seemed a woman of some importance in the clothing of nobility was staring at the guards with open distaste the way high born nobles often looked at wait staff that was too slow in fetching their 7th drink of the evening. Although the legionnaires were hidden, their IFFs still formed an outline around each individual one. Kyreg could see one of the Gungnir legionnaires Denlow raise his sniper rifle. The other sniper Brachus did the same; the team spread about 30 meters apart. With a slight gesture, Kyreg led Xythis closer towards the back of the trucks silently, their large size moving surprisingly stealthy but that was the way of the Legion.

Commbeads were in each of the traders ears, and Kyreg scanned for their frequency before saying a single phrase over the traders vox: "The Emperors sun will no longer rise." As one, each of the traders replied back: "Without the serpents of His darkest nights." The guards looked confused at these words but the traders all stood back from the guards while the noblewoman exited the truck cabin and raised both her hands, needle pistols appearing in them as all four guards were taken out with precise shots to the soft part of their throats, the toxic needles puncturing through the soft skin through to their spines and dropping them onto the ground. Faster than an eye can blink, both weapons were hidden once again and the woman dropped to one knee along with the traders there, their heads down. Kyreg smiled as he revealed himself. "Well done as always Galya." He would say to the noble woman who smiled slightly at her lords compliment. "We are ready Lord." The woman would answer as a reply. Nodding slightly, Kyreg gestured for his team to enter the back of the trucks, their active camouflage back on as the trailer doors were closed, bathing the interior in darkness. Outside the truck, the bodies would be disposed of as a third truck made its way to the tunnel entrance, a disposal crew fulfilling their end of their obligations. The sound of the airbrakes being released preceded the loud sound of the diesel engine as the two trucks made their way down into the underhive.

The two trucks drove through the dimly lit tunnels, making their way through to Lorhenge with its deadly cargo. A few hours later, the trucks would stop and after a few moments of pause Kyreg saw the trailer doors being opened in the rear. The traders and the assassin were there, kneeled once again. The legionnaires would exit and look at their place of arrival. He smiled within his helmet as he saw what looked just like a side of a mountain before turning to face the mortals kneeling. "Well done. Now, disperse. You all know your objectives." The humans nodded and went back into the trucks, driving off while the legionnaires advanced towards the mountain side. He looked towards Ulyr who manually would input a vox frequency and then clicked it eight times. Somewhere inside the mountain, ancient mechanics began to move and door opened upwards. Swiftly, the legionnaires made for the inside of the mountain and away from prying eyes. After a moment, the door would close again. Inside was a dark hallway with barely any lights. Kyreg held up a hand before taking off a gauntlet, walking towards a dais with no markings on it at all. At the eye in the middle of the console, he would lightly jab his fingertip with a small needle from his power armour and placed the bleeding fingertip onto the eye. Ancient machines were brought to life as his DNA was scanned and monitored. "You are welcome to the Den of Tythen V Commander." An automated voice would speak to the collective legionnaires. The lights came on, and at the end of the hallway were a series of automated guns that had been pointed at them the entire time. "By my authority, establish IFF with legionnaires assembled here." Kyreg ordered as he led the other marines deeper into the base, walking past the automated sentry guns to encounter a massive space behind them with rows upon rows of genelocked crates and a massive command console. "IFF scan complete." Kyreg would power up the command console and remove his helmet as he placed his face infront of a scanner. The iris scanner lit up and scanned his eye once again, and this time the automated sentry guns on the ceiling stopped tracking the collective group of marines. He would quickly type in an addition and added in the names of his last group, Taleon squad into the IFF system. The green light on the side of the command console blinked once in acknowledgement. He nodded this time at Rythor who walked to a large open section and placed a teleport homer onto the ground, activating it quickly before stepping back. A few moments later with a bright flash, Sergeant Lefias appeared with his Taleon marines.

"Excellent Commander, your timeliness always had the primarchs favour." The Sergeant said with a large grin as he looked around, his combi-bolter ever in his hand with a drum magazine loaded in. "Alright Taleon, we've stood around enough on the Kilo Zeta, now it's time to stand around a cave." The Sergeant would call out to the amusement of the other marines. As the Taleon legionnaires separated and began setting up defensive positions towards the only entrance and exit of the place, one of the legionnaires carrying a plasma cannon would step away from the group towards Kyreg. "Commander, this is truly.. this is truly a treasure beyond my wildest dreams." The legionnaires servo-harness almost twitching a little in a reflection of its wearers excitement. "Yes it is Mordin, and I hope you will be able to unlock its secrets." Kyreg replied. The techmarine nodded as he undid his helmet and looked at the massive command console in awe and went to work. "This shall be our base for now. Taleon squad, you will be here to ensure it is secure. Unless.. we need your firepower." Kyreg grinned rather mirthless at his last words. Lefias snorted slightly as he undid his helmet as well. "Commander, heavy firepower is always needed. But I assume that as one of the Primarchs favoured, you will do your best to ensure we do not waste precious bolter ammunition." The other Taleon marines chuckled even as they moved the sentry guns to set up better fields of fire and the like. The techmarine Mordin quickly went to work, a small mechanical wire snaking from his servo-harness into a port at the side of the command consoles keyboard. "Commander, I have accessed the inventory listings. It seems this was first established by the 14th during their expeditionary here. The original occupants of this place was a group of humans ruled over by xenos. It was first encountered by the XV legion, but their psyker powers was a weakness when they encountered the xenos… the ruling class of the xenos all seemed to have been psychic nulls." At the last part, Kyreg looked over at Ulyr for a second. "I'm no xenos brother Commander.. " The legionnaire would reply in amusement as his hands idly flicked the safety on and off on the stalker-bolter clamped to his chest. "No, but it seems you have something in common." The legionnaire muttered and shrugged casually as Mordin coughed again politely, giving the Commander and his legionnaire both pointed looks before going back to the screen. The artificer was known to be short on patience when it came to his briefings.

"The XV Legion suffered casualties but the 14th happened to be in the zone and assisted. The 14th put every xenos on the planet to the sword and after the battle, the XV took a large group of potential aspirants as did the 14th. Before they left however, the 14th established this hidden base and kept it well stocked. The last to be in here before you was at M31. The only items taken were ammunition and that was it." The techmarine finished before typing in a few more lines of code and changing the screen to display a list.

"The great scouring then. That was the last time any of our legion had been here." Kyreg muttered almost to himself. The great scouring was a trying time for those under his command. The warship itself was forcefully hijacked by Kyreg and his company of loyalist legionnaires from a group of XIX legionnaires who had fired upon him, refusing to believe that they were loyal to the Emperor. In those days, Kyreg had the foresight to go to each planet that was still loyalist and had large quantities of aspirants taken, usually forcefully, onto their ship. Now, the Shrouded had spread and remained under the radar of the Imperium thankfully with their strength slowly being rebuilt. He wished to reform the 8th, his men all knew that as they too wanted it. Unfortunately now the Imperium has been changed much, the Imperial Truth forgotten and the worship of the Emperor based on a book that Lorgar himself had written. It was a travesty, an irony that was the basis of Imperial rule. "Very well. Apothecary, check the vault for the geneseeds. If they are still there, I want them teleported back onto the strike cruiser for safe keeping. Check them, carefully." Mytis nodded and accompanied by Thodor, he entered the vault itself. The vault door was almost 5 feet thick made of ceramite and admanatium made to resist even a direct shot from a volcano cannon. Inside the vault, there were rows upon rows of various armaments along with ammunition in large crates. The gene storage section had a sealed off door with a decontamination chamber. Mytis entered first, the chamber activating and unleashing a sleuth of disinfection liquid at high pressure followed up by a UV drying. A few moments later as he entered the actual gene vault, Thodor was given the same treatment. The apothecary examined the room and saw that it was still powered in no small thanks to the massive quantities of geothermal energy underneath the planet. Geneseed was rare for his legion now, the usual source coming from fallen brothers on the battlefield but the geneseed here stored in hardened plasteel tubes was plentiful. Yet caution had to be exercised. Thodor stepped forth and summoned his talents as each geneseed tube was carefully scanned for warp taint. Finding none, he stepped back and soon Mytis had begun to test each tube using the console inside the vault itself.

Kyreg placed his helmet on a table and set down a map slate, looking over the various sections now, and where they were. At this rate, their assets should be soon back in the city of Lorhenge itself to carry out their next part. Techmarine Mordin approached him with an interesting look on his face, the artificer having long taken off the armoured helm in order to "connect with a spiritual level with the console." Kyreg was half tempted to tell him that the legionnaires sexual organs had long been disabled but thought better of it. "Commander, there is an.. interesting defence mechanism in place. Do you remember when I said that the xeno rulers here were mostly psychic nulls?" Kyreg nodded, wondering where he was going with this. "Well it seems that the 14th had taken some of the xenos technology and built it into the defensive measures of this place. A psychic null ring has been set up around this place to prevent detection. But in order to allow the 14th own psykers to use this place, it was set up in a ring instead of filling up every nook and cranny. It effectively would block this place off to psyker intrusions.. right now it's deactivated.." Kyreg nodded at the last part and chuckled. He would vox a simple "Ready yourself" to Thodor before gesturing for the techmarine to activate it. In what could only be superhuman joy, the artificer sped off to the console and typed in a few buttons. A few seconds later, a strange feeling settled over the inside of the base while in the gene vault, Thodor had gasped and fallen to his knees for a second, the apothecary merely glancing at him and drawing his bolt pistol to aim at the psyker marines head. "Do you require assistance brother, or do I?" Thodor waved his hand a few times towards the apothecary before standing up. "Bastard.. a null shield was just activated and overwhelmed my senses for a moment." He would look up to see the bolt pistol aimed at him and sighed slightly. "I don't believe I need the Emperors peace just yet Apothecary." Mytis nodded and clamped it to his thigh again before going back to the gene seeds. "A warning would have been nice Commander." The psyker hissed over the vox only to hear the slight chuckles of the other legionnaires who seemed to have been in on it. 10 thousand years couldn't change the reaction the Commander had to the Verdict of Nikea. Pranking psykers, really Commander. What would the primarch think of one of his favoured commander now still behaving like a new initiate. Regardless, Thobos still had a smile underneath his helmet.