A light breeze blew through the courtyard, it pushed a few grains of dust around before it dissipated and left the area, birds were pushing up from their perches in the rubble as if flying off to somewhere safer.
The same was true for the rodents and other vermin, they skittered away on mass towards anywhere else, a few homeless canines ran from the safety of their nests fleeing in fear but the question was who were they fleeing, the primarch, or the astartes playing at war-master.
The despoiler hadn't moved from his position, he stood with his massive sword in one hand and Horus's talon mounted on the other, it was clear the arm had been reattached in some form and Alistravia looked it over as they stood face to face but still he did not approach.
Alistravia walked slowly forward sizing up her old friend, the reports were true, he had grown in size, likely bloated and enhanced by some power of the warp xenos the ignorant call gods, still he was barley filling out the armour he wore and he was no bigger than she was, in fact were she wearing her own suit of armour she would likely be the taller, though not by much.
Gone was the face of the proud honourable man she once knew, his welcoming smile was replaced with a constant snarl, the smooth skinned almost baby faced warrior was replaced with a pale almost white face that was covered in the scars of old wounds and constant betrayal.
She had read a report that had claimed the despoiler was a clone himself of Horus which was not far from the truth, what her lighter self had told Guilliman, after their sparring match on the Mechanicum world, was true in some ways but she had skipped over some details in order to protect herself as usual however Alistravia wondered how much Ezekyle knew of that time and if he had ever found out what she and Horus did to save him.
As she got closer Ezekyle held Drach'nyen, his demonic sword, out to his side and then plunged it into the ground with his still naturally attached human arm, Alistravia stopped and did the same dropping the thunder hammer head first into the rockrete that covered the courtyard, then with their weapons put aside they walked towards each other finally, this was how generals spoke on the battlefield when some parley was needed but what form it would take here she could not say and she doubted even Ezekyle knew exactly how this would go.
As they stopped a few feet apart Alistravia took a long look into his eyes, rage, hate and a lust for power could be seen but behind that, hidden but visible to those who looked was fear, not much but it was their.
Celestine, Greyfax and others had badly wounded him on Cadia and he had run back to his flagship realising even he was not unkillable and those were just humans, strong humans to be sure but Alistravia was beyond them, she was a primarch an immortal legendary being and that little fear that Ezekyle had was due to that because Alistravia wasn't just equal to the five warriors who had defeated him beneath Cadia's surface, she was equal to more than a thousand and Ezekyle despite his arrogance would know that challenging a primarch even without their weapons and armour, even with all the boons the warp creatures had given him, it could be considered suicide... yet here he was, alone.
For a long time the two simply starred at each other as another light breeze blew past them, it was quiet and in a way peaceful, it reminded her when she and Horus would stand together over looking the aftermath of a battle but that was a long time ago, as another gust of wind blew past them and as more time passed in silence Alistravia realised being here was not just a test of inner or outer strength, it was a test of her capabilities as a whole, to lead the imperium by facing up to it's greatest foe.
As the sunlight came over the horizon and lit up the courtyard, peace seamed to settle over the planet, as if it was holding it's breath as it waited for one of them to speak so it could exhale and continue it's daily orbit, then, with the parting of dry lips, Ezekyle Abbadon spoke...
The First Stone
"You have not changed much in ten thousand years"
"You have" Alistravia responded looking around the empty courtyard "No bodyguard, I'm insulted"
Ezekyle let out a grunt.
"I am not here to fight you!"
"well I didn't expect a surrender but so be it... do you want your execution on Terra or shall I just do it here?"
Ezekyle was not amused and snarled back is response.
"You make jokes, like this is some game to you"
Alistravia shook her head.
"Oh you misunderstand first captain..."
"WARMASTER!" the despoiler shouted back but Alistravia shook her head
"No, your no war-master, your just an astartes with delusions of grandeur, I will not give you an undeserved title!"
Ezekyle gritted his teeth as if pulling in some anger at the last statement before hissing out his response.
"I came from nothing, pulled myself above all those that dared to look down on me, even the primarchs themselves envy me, the dark gods are my only equal!"
"You are there puppet!" Alistravia spat in response "You were stronger than most, you had ambition and set your goals high but you understood your place... and ….maybe if you had any of that understanding left you would have pulled Horus back from the brink before he died!"
Ezekyle did not respond as Alistravia pointed at him with anger.
"but those things in the warp saw that ambition and twisted it, gave you a title and a goal but it means nothing Ezekyle because after all your triumphs, all your glorious victories you are still just a space marine who got too big for his boots!"
The despoiler snarled in her direction.
"There was a time when you would of shown me respect!"
"Those days are long gone first captain..." Alistravia responded with sadness ".. if your not here to fight then what do you want!?"
"I came to make you an offer"
Alistravia looked at him curiously, she had not expected this and wanted to see where he was going.
"and what would that be?"
"Take your legion and go back through your gate, we will not pursue and you can live in peace"
Alistravia was quite surprised by the offer at first, it had the makings of a good opening negotiation but she knew why he was saying this.
Since the arrival of the second the black crusade had ground to a halt, unable to deal with the Knights of Estrella and the advanced technology they brought with them the forces of chaos had suffered several major defeats, Kyros, her first captain, had routed the word bearers at Nazareth, Roboute was making life difficult for Mortarion and his death guard and the black legion ship yards at Blastula had been destroyed by the imperial navy in one of the fastest naval assaults ever launched and much of this had been possible because the forces of the 2nd legion had allowed other fleets and company's to be redirected elsewhere and counter the advance of the traitor forces.
Alistravia thought back on all that had happened since she arrived here on Vigilus, she had come here as woman divided but she would return whole, Ezekyle had not known of her multiple personalities and she assumed he would not know how she had arrived here as well but his offer was interesting.
She sent the thought to her lighter self who was disgusted by the offer, once maybe but not now although she could use still use that desire.
"You know several weeks ago I might of said yes to that offer all on it's own but now I would want more"
"What more could you want!?"
Alistravia held her hand out towards the despoiler.
"I'll go if you come with me, give up this war, you can finally rest and we can be friends again"
The despoiler was both curious and annoyed, she could see that on his face.
Right now he was probably trying to decide if she was serious or just playing games with him, she had no intention of taking any deal he offered because the truth was no matter what assurances he made to her once he was done with the imperium the rest of the galaxy would be next and that would include her little cluster.
"not until the emperor is truly dead and I sit on Terra's throne"
"Ezekyle" Alistravia started "This war could be endless and if it does end there will be no on true winner because humanity lost when Horus turned against my father so even if you one day sit on that throne, you will have nothing left to rule but dust and bones and this war you have will have been for nothing" Alistravia sighed "Look at Cadia, it is destroyed because in your rage you crashed a fortress into it just so you would win but you didn't win because you have no world to plant your flag on and saw you conquered it... you failed because your ambition blinds you to the truth"
Abbadon said nothing in response and looked out towards the land raider.
"if you have no other offer to make then were done here!" Alistravia said and Ezekyle looked back to her
"We are not done!" he growled and clenched his fist
"go on Ezekyle strike out at me, your so much better than us all now so killing me should be a walk in the park..." Alistravia responded knowing he would not attack, at least not right now "... I rejected your offer and you rejected mine so I do not see what else is to be gained from this interaction so either attack me or don't" Alistravia turned and began walking back towards the thunder hammer when a voice called after her
"According Harrken's sources you just appeared here..." Alistravia turned back to face the despoiler "a traitor guardsman had said you were not yourself, yet Oren is missing and I assume you have something to do with that... so tell me, old friend..." Ezekyle said with accusation and suspicion "... Why are you here?"
"Wormhole malfunction, how about you?" Alistravia responded but she could see Ezekyle was not convinced
"I was already on my way when I was informed of your presence so a gate was opened for me... and whilst you were an excellent diplomat, lying was never your strong suit... so since you have no bodyguard of your own I can only assume you were stranded here..."
Alistravia starred down at him with an icy gaze, his lack of escort was easy to explain now as it was likely the warp gate could not allow more than one to pass through but how much Ezekyle knew about her situation she wasn't sure but she did not want reveal too much to him, her other two personae were concerned about him knowing too much as well and she stepped back towards him slightly.
"why do you care?"
"If you had come here to free this planet from it's constant war half your legion would be stood with you right now but instead you are alone and seam determined to leave the planet, so again I ask, why are you here?"
Alistravia did not know what to say but she could not doubt Abbadon's persistence, lying would simply be pointless but she couldn't tell him everything either so decided to give him the answer to his first question before others arose.
"Rogal..., Rogal stranded me here"
Terra
Sankara's Role as chief librarian and equerry to his primarch was some what mute at the moment, he had spent the days since Alistravia had been sent to Vigilus keeping as busy as he could, dealing with some of the high lords issues as well as reviewing reports from across the imperium.
On several occasions he had had long conversations with Rogal Dorn, but while lord Dorn was well meaning in his company it irritated him to think he was able to sit in front of a fire and discuss politics with a primarch that was not his own.
He initially had not regretted what he had done to Alistravia but now an uncomfortable feeling was growing in the back of his mind that he had made a mistake, it had been weeks now and he had expected to get some news but so far nothing about Alistravia or her current well-being had been received.
He was busy in his own quarters mulling over a few requests from some imperial factions demanding access to the legion, the main one was an auditor whose job it was to catalogue everything for the imperium but the 2nd and their ships were unregistered, then there was demands from the ecclesiarchy to bless every Estrellan ship with the holy light of the emperor, that one was an easy response, the answer would be no but the religious arm of the imperium had been getting restless and an eventual political confrontation was inevitable but for that he needed Alistravia back.
A chime told him some one was at his door and he hit the response rune.
"I'm busy what is it?"
The door pushed open revealing an elderly serf who bowed
"my Lord a representative of the sixth legion is here, he says it is important"
"Fine, let him in" Sankara mumbled back before standing to receive his guest
A rather burley looking space wolf with a long beard and a necklace of wolf and other canid teeth stepped through the door as the serf moved away.
"I am Kanor of the 6th and proud son of Russ"
Sankara nodded to him.
"And what can I do for you son of Russ?"
The wolf stepped forward and held out a data slate.
"This has been playing consistently over all sixth legion vox channels, I was hoping you could explain it"
Sankara took the data slate and played the audio file that was already loaded in.
"My son's" Sankara recognised the voice immediately as Leaman Russ "If you are receiving this message it means my sister, Alistravia Tempera, had activated the distress beacon I gave to her, I can not say how much or little time has passed but someone of you may not know her, despite that I request you go to her assistance immediately, all other priority's are rescinded..."
After that the message began repeating and Sankara shut it off.
"she activated the beacon" Sankara said to himself before looking to Kanor "I assume this signal originates on Vigilus"
The space wolf nodded in response.
"we have tried to override it but it can not be stopped... it is getting in the way of our general comms traffic"
"I must speak with one of your brothers on Vigilus" Sankara said before heading into another room fitted with a massive Vox device and helm designed to fit a psyker.
"My lord we must stop this signal as it is causing sever disruption to our battle groups in the field"
"I understand" Sankara said as he place the helm over his head "But it can only be turned off by mother, it is possible she has been rescued and just forgotten or your brothers have not responded to it and if they haven't then they must or it will not stop"
Sankara let his mind wonder away from Terra and through the warp, he could communicate over long distances anyway but even Vigilus was beyond his limits without technological extension. He drifted through time and space as a formless mass looking for a signal, some of the warp xenos got curious but Sankara had spent enough time doing this he knew how to protect himself and eventually they gave up pursuit, he found Vigilus, it was a planet screaming with dead and alive souls and to find one in the midst of that would be hard but he dived through it's blackened clouds to begin his search, he knew where about the wolves would be but nothing exact, then he heard a voice as he passed over a courtyard and there was his mother and she was with Abbadon, a space wolves land raider was sat further back.
He shouted out "Mother!" but she could not hear him, she had never been psychically sensitive, even when he had tried to teach her how to communicate telepathically it had failed but he could sense the change and feelings of serenity in her and that made him smile.
He wondered why no other warriors of chaos were nearby, did Abbadon really believe he could defeat a primarch alone? There was the chance that without her armour and weapons she could suffer defeat but she was still a primarch and the two appeared to be talking at the moment, Sankara wished he could stay to hear more but he must communicate with someone on Vigilus. He focused his mind to search and sensed the presence of a rune priest far to the east, eventually locating it in a fortress, he dove through it's walls, breaking through the psychic wards surrounding it was child's play for someone of his skill although he was surprised by the complexity of some.
Eventually he found himself stood behind a rune priest who turned to face him, he was scarred across his face and his beard looked more like a thick rope that human hair, he sneered at him before speaking.
"How did you get through my wards?"
"you call those wards!" Sankara responded with a smirk "The signal you received, your warriors responded but there is a problem"
"and that would be?" The wolf responded
"Abbadon is here and has confronted my primarch, she requires more assistance"
"Impossible, the despoiler would of brought an army with him!" The rune priest was quite obstinate in his response
"He has an agenda of that I am sure and despite what he has grown into my mother is still a primarch and quite capable however I doubt Abbadon would challenge her like this if he did not think he could win so I ask again that you send more assistance" Sankara said but the wolf bared his teeth before responding
"We can not risk sending more warriors to an area we have little intelligence on... but the Lord commander would enjoy aggravating the black legion by attacking it's war-master... I will speak to him and see but perhaps you should consider sending your own forces, some are on Vigilus?"
"they are even further away than yourselves but your point is taken, I will end this communion now and speak with my brothers, I do not wish to linger here too long as it may draw unwanted attention"
The wolf nodded and Sankara pulled himself back into his body, he was sweating and Kanor was stood looking at him, he looked to the wolf and then hit a Vox control on a nearby panel.
"Lord Dorn... I need to speak with you"
Vigilus
"Dorn... is alive?"
"you didn't know! thought your alpha legion spies might of told you" Alistravia responded walking back towards the despoiler
"The alpha legion does not always share it's knowledge"
Alistravia laughed and made a mental not, if there were divisions within the traitor legions it could be used to an advantage for the imperium.
"You should do a better job at keeping your intelligence network under control, I wonder what else they might not of told you?"
Abbadon growled at the suggestion he was not being told everything, the idea some information was being withheld annoyed him and Alistravia could see that she could be right about it from his expression, but he quickly changed the subject.
"Why did that coward send you here!?"
"Not that it's any of your business but Rogal felt I wasn't myself and he was right, years away from the imperium had made me soft... Vigilus presented an opportunity to build me back up"
The lie Alistravia crafted was made broad in the hopes that Abbadon would not pursue other avenues, she did not need him delving deeper into the situation that had brought her here and he seemed satisfied although she could see he was not entirely convinced and her other self's warned her so.
"he is rather more curios than he used to be, we should watch our words" her lighter self said
"I agree" her darker self interjected "he should also watch his tone, Rogal is still our brother"
Alistravia nodded internally but she doubted Ezekyle's tone would change much given he was on the opposing side now but the point was taken and she waited on his response.
"Another primarch for me to kill then" Abbadon said with some confidence
"You haven't killed one yet" Alistravia responded
Ezekyle narrowed his eyes at her.
"To send you here is a rather extreme way to treat a sibling, you are not angry at him? This would not be the first time he has caused you upset"
Alistravia knew this was coming the moment she told him how she got here, it was no secret Rogal and herself had sometimes come to blows over some issues, Fulgrim had suggested they were more like a married couple than brother and sister at times.
Despite this the two had forged a friendship based on those moments of disagreement and had always watched each others backs but Abbadon would try to open old wounds now in the hopes of putting a wedge between them.
"Rogal was not wrong and besides, what goes on between me and my brothers is none of your business first captain"
Ezekyle growled at her and clenched his fist.
"I am war-master, you should show me some modicum of respect!"
"why? because your trying to make up for your fathers failure or because your a pawn of greater powers"
"You are a pawn of the emperor!" the despoiler spat and Alistravia shrugged
"At least I understand my place Ezekyle, I mean seriously... how long do you think it will be before one of my traitor brothers realises how weak you are and comes to take you down"
This hit the war-master hard, Alistravia could see while he had probably considered and dismissed it, for the most part it was something he still feared in some fashion and with her speaking the words it brought the possibility back into view so he quickly shifted the arguments focus.
"You talk as if they respected you? Rogal assaulted you once!"
Alistravia remembered that day, it had been a long war and tempers were frayed due to the sisters of silence's unwillingness to obey orders, there was an attempt to claim an unregistered psyker aboard her flag ship with a commando team but they were killed although not before taking the lives of some of her sons, she had offered to give them the psyker after the campaign but their commander did otherwise and when Alistravia had learned of the attack she killed the sisters and was close to killing their commander when Rogal had walked in, then in ensuing argument he had lashed out as he tried to stop her from killing the sister, but that was a long time ago and since then, even before she left for exile, they had moved on and became friends again, in many ways the friendship she had with Rogal was the most challenging and rewarding.
"Rogal hit me once, to call it assault is rather over dramatic"
"He never respected you like Horus did!" Abbadon quickly responded
Alistravia sighed.
"No, because he was not Horus, different people different views... had they of all realised that early on and built bridges instead of mock, attack and even shun each other, then we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place and I wouldn't of had to leave"
"you were a coward!" Ezekyle spat at her expecting a particularly aggressive response but the one he actually got surprised him
"Your right, I was scared and I ran away thinking I could avoid responsibility but in truth I just made things worse, I hurt you all by not staying and trillions died in a senseless civil war"
"Even had you been there it would have been the same"
Alistravia shook her head.
"No it wouldn't because I would not of let Lorgar leave Monarchia alive and if he had do you really think you could of landed on Molech had I been defending it... and the Siege of Terra would not of lasted so long had Estrellan warships been protecting her, plus I guarantee you Sanguinius would still be alive" Alistravia knew a lot of this wasn't true but poking the bear was ok when it was already angry at you
In fact she had never truly though about what decisions she would of made had she of been around during the heresy, would she of saved her people first or gone to protect Terra or join the assault on Isstavan, she couldn't turn back time now and Abbadon could be right, she may not of made any difference.
"You are a fool if you believe you could of made such a difference, all that happened was meant to happen!"
"Really!" Alistravia exclaimed "You were meant to lose the siege of Terra? Horus was supposed to die and your forces were supposed to be routed all the way back to that rupture in space you call an eye... maybe it was good I left"
Abbadon said nothing and simply starred at her with black soulless eyes.
"I'd ask if you feel any remorse but your heart is so black now I think I know the answer"
"You talk to me like your above me? How many wars did we fight together and how many did you kill..."
"The difference is back then we did not kill indiscriminately, we did our best to avoid civilian casualties because they were innocent but you kill everyone, even those who you once protected, I am not perfect and I have made mistakes but you have become the very icon of evil"
Abbadon scoffed at this.
"You once told me evil is a point of view so how is what I am doing more wrong than what any of us did before"
"Because before we were fighting for the very survival of humanity and now you seek to destroy that!" Alistravia raged back at him "You think this is all there is, there is more than just the warp and real space to explore, I've seen layers of space where ever star is a planet and every planet a star, where space is not an empty void but a liquid ocean and where creatures bigger than planets roam, seeding life as they go...and then there are the millions of other galaxies to explore, new life, new worlds and new civilizations but all you care about is destroying this one for the sake of revenge... that's cowardice Ezekyle"
"Everything the false-emperor told us was a lie!" he responded
"No, not everything... he was trying to save us from ourselves, to save us from falling into the same trap as the Eldar"
Abbadon dismissed this with a wave of his hand.
"The Eldar were too weak and failed comprehend the power of the dark gods at the cost of their lives"
"The Eldar serve as a warning to us and my father recognized that, so did your so called gods which is why they turned Lorgar, Horus and the others against him"
"They saw the truth of it!" Abbadon raged
"No, what they saw was everything the xenos wanted you to see because they preyed on Lorgar's foolish belief in my father as a god and used that to turn brother against brother!"
Alistravia responded back with some fury
Abbadon stood in silence for an age, Alistravia could see the wheels turning in his mind as he thought and it occurred to her something was wrong here, why was Abbadon insistent on talking so much.
The first possibility is that he was genuinely worried about coming to blows with her but Abbadon was ambitious and believed himself the stronger so that while it was a possibility it clearly wasn't something he looked too concerned about, the second thought was that Abbadon might actually believe he could turn her to his cause but so far he had made no attempt to do so, in fact his attitude from the beginning had suggested he understood that she would never turn against her father. However keeping her here was keeping her away from leaving the planet and that's when it dawned on her, somewhere high above her traitor ships were trying to get into position so they could target her from orbit, so she crossed her arms behind her back and began making signals to the land raider.
Land raider
"what is she doing, why doesn't she just kill him" Koman said
"he appears to be doing most of the talking" Kinkade said as he saw her cross her arms behind her back and start making signals
Kendra recognized it immediately as imperial guard short hand code, it was used mostly by snipers to communicate.
"she's telling us to... leave... contact home... bombardment!"
Vulen rounded on them realising the warnings meaning.
"He's planning to attack her from orbit... we have to go and contact the fortress and find away to stop it!"
"We can't just leave her! Koman exclaimed
"if we don't there's no one to stop the bombardment" Maxis said and Koman nodded in realisation
Courtyard
With a Roar the land raider spun to the left and shot off leaving the despoiler and the primarch behind.
"It appears the wolves have abandoned you"
Alistravia just shrugged.
"They have places to be"
This was a gamble and a big one, her hope was Abbadon had no way to communicate with the ships in orbit and thus could not warn them an attack might be coming and even if he didn't it wouldn't be easy to stop the attack but she trusted Koman and knew he would find a way... at least she hoped he would.
Terra
Everyone had been assembled in an emergency meeting, some were here via hololith others in person, going around the room first was the praetorian himself. Stood with a stern face his white beard and hair stood out as a sign of nobility and seasoned warrior.
Second was Gigas, Alistravia's chief of security and personal bodyguard, almost the size of a primarch himself he stood with his hammer "Atom Smasher" at his side, his face was also a wall of stone but his blonde Estrellan hair made him look far younger than the primarch next to him.
Beside him was Sankara whose face showed both excitement of knowing his mother had been restored but concern that she was alone facing off against Abbadon.
Further around the room via hololith was Kyros, Gigas's brother and First captain of the legion, he was looking relieved that Sankara had sensed Alistravia's restoration of the prime personae but there was some concern on his face as well.
Then there was Velar, lore-master and one of the oldest warriors in the legion, Admiral Marten who looked like she had been woken up in the middle of a REM cycle and was sipping some strong coffee and Nev, chief apothecary who was not happy, they were all broadcasting from the "Pequad" but there was also another broadcasting from the ship who had forced his way into being accepted into the meeting despite not being invited, Kelsey the ancient dreadnought stood sealed in his contemptor armour starring daggers towards Rogal Dorn who met his stare, Sylph Dinar the master of arms was also stood along side his legion brethren broadcasting from the Estrellan fleet at the great gate.
Beside Kelsey in another holo link was Roboute Guilliman, he was looking at a data slate in his hand, next to him was Marneus Calgar who was stood with his arms crossed, proud to stand next to his primarch.
Then last was a Space Wolf named Vulen and a Black Templar named Koman along with Space Wolves Lord Commander.
As the last connection was secured Sankara spoke.
"Honoured primarchs, dear brothers, and those who have been watching over our mother" he said indicating Koman and Vulen "The news is both bad, good and very bad and we must decide how to proceed"
"Before we go any further!" Roboute said interrupting "For those of you who are new here, my brothers appearance is to be kept quiet is that clear"
Koman and those new to this invited meeting nodded but it didn't stop Koman from starring in awe and his gene father, he had seen many great paintings and statues but none of them did him justice, lord Dorn glanced in his direction before giving him a curt nod.
"you said mother had been restored, are you sure, is the correct personality back in charge" Kyros said
"She is back I sensed that and much more"
"Explain" The master of Macragge stated
"There is a sense of calm over her I can not explain, she does not seam to be at odds with herself... at least not right now"
"Does that mean the other personalities are gone?" Rogal said and Sankara shook his head
"No, they are still there of that I am sure"
"What' the bad news?" The admiral asked
"Abbadon himself has appeared he appears to be conversing with our mother, at first I could not explain why but now we have that information, which is the very bad news" Sankara indicated Vulen to speak
"Some how your primarch realized Abbadon's plan, he appears to be buying time for ships in orbit to get into a strike position"
"so he plans to use the same strategy the rebel Mechanicum used to try and kill her, how unoriginal" Roboute said before looking at the blank faces of those who had not been alive during the crusades "A rebel Mechanicum faction once tried to kill Alistravia by bombarding her from orbit, ironic that it was Abbadon who pulled her into an underground railway system moments before it hit"
"our orbital groups have picked up a large battle cruiser being escorted to a spot directly above where the primarch is stood" Marneus stated "it would be difficult to attack it with the few ships we have spare!"
"I warned against this foolishness of abandoning mother on Vigilus and now she is in serious danger!" Nev said with anger
"I am with my legion brother, this was a mistake and now we are paying the price!" Kelsey said his voice also full of anger despite the mechanical voice that echoed across the room
"You were not invited to this meeting ancient one so do not over step your bounds" Rogal interjected before the contemptor could continue
"If our mother dies it will be on your head praetorian and I will take it from you"
"If she dies I may let you"
"this is getting us know where" Roboute said interrupting the two before turning to Kelsey "ancient or not, speak out of turn again and I will make sure you are put to sleep permanently and brother" He said looking back at Rogal "perhaps we should of taken more time in simply trying to talk to her, she is in danger"
"Roboute I understand your concerns but this was the only way" the praetorian looked towards Nev and Kelsey "I have only the well being of my sister in mind, you all know she needed this, you can not deny it... but I understand your anger"
Nev gave a nod in response.
"What is the plan to assist her?" Kelsey asked rather than nodding to lord Dorn
"she asked us not to interfere" Koman said
He had been nervous about speaking in front of two primarchs but seeing how easily the Knights of Estrella handled it and the exchange between Kelsey and Rogal showed him there was no shame in speaking up.
"I understand that captain but this was before we knew of the intended orbital strike" Sankara responded
"Abbadon is a coward to use such tactics, one of use should go assist her against him and I volunteer" Gigas said speaking up for the first time
"Don't be a fool Gigas, you know biological components can not survive that long of a passing through a wormhole, even if your body survived the radiation would destroy your brain functions, even Kelsey can not go" The admiral responded
"Then Sankara can open a gate for me!?" the hulking warrior said but Sankara shook his head
"It took months to craft those runes Gigas and we do not have enough time for that"
"Koman is right we should not interfere, at least not against Abbadon but we should stop this orbital bombardment" Velar said
"that might prove difficult" Marneus said "just before we learned of this assaults from the traitors began on all fronts, they are clearly trying to keep us away from assisting"
"We can not risk pulling troops away from the front" The Space Wolves lord commander echoed
"are own forces are also being occupied with continuous assaults " Sylph added who had been in contact with the 2nd legion forces on Vigilus
The whole group stood pondering for a moment and the admiral pulled a data slate and analysed for a few moments before she looked up and spoke.
"lord commanders" she started looking at the Space Wolf and Ultramarine "what can you spare for an assault on the Chaos vessel"
"as I have already stated admiral I have too few ships to attack such a strong black legion vessel!"
The admiral waved her hands in the air.
"no you misunderstand my lord, I am not talking about an assault from space, I am talking about an assault boat strike from below"
"a stratagem used in the battle of Harridan III, that is an old tactic admiral, they may see it coming" Rogal said rubbing his beard
"I don't believe they will, if they are throwing everything at us elsewhere it is logical to assume they are as pushed to the limit as we are but if we can spare a few assault boats and enough astartes to fill them we can assault them from below"
"What about their point defence guns!?" Vulen asked
"they would have to shut them down in order to skim the atmosphere to attack position or risk them being destroyed... admiral this plan could work!" Kyros saidafter mulling over the details
"we should be able to spare a few squads" The Space Wolf said
"As can I" Calgar added
"I will go also and so will all of us made it out of those tunnels, I have not come this far to have it end so pointlessly" Koman said
"I am going with you, if I may be permitted Lord Commander" Vulen said to the Space Wolves commander who nodded
"So we are agreed then, but we still have one issue"Rogal said as the group collectively nodded their agreement with the plan
"and what would that be brother" lord Guilliman said in response
"If the strike is successful and the ship is destroyed Abbadon may become desperate and attack Alistravia out right, without her equipment she could lose"
"We should send her sarcophagus to her" Velar started "that way we do not physically interfere"
"we will have move quickly" Sankara said and the others all nodded
"Very good then" Lord Dorn started "Make your preparations and attack that ship as soon as you can, it is likely Abbadon will try and move away before it fires at Alistravia and I imagine she will do her best to keep him talking so as to prevent the ship from firing but still we must be swift"
Vigilus
"You know I was thinking about the Paxin campaign recently" Alistravia said drawing Ezekyle's attention
Alistravia knew now she had to keep in talking and firmly routed here so whatever ship was in orbit would not fire, since Ezekyle had yet made no effort to leave she assumed it was still a distance away from firing but if Ezekyle had no visible means of communicating there must be some signal he had arranged to let him know when it was time.
"That was a most glorious and bloody campaign, one I nearly did not return from but your medical technology saved my life... which is why I choose to give you a chance to leave but you have rejected that"
"Because this isn't right Ezekyle, we were better than this!" Alistravia stated as she kicked a small stone out of her way
"You think to lecture me on morals?"
Alistravia shook her head in response.
"Of course not, morality is a tool used by inferior men to hold back those greater than themselves but that does not mean what you and my traitor brothers have done is right!"
"You talk as you always did, presenting yourself above us and acting like we are inferior to you!" Abbadon responded aggressively
Alistravia was annoyed at his response being so aggressive, he never would of spoken this way to her before and she was starting to feel like she would attack first if this kept up but she swallowed her anger for a moment at the behest of her other personas.
"Your right" she said reluctantly "and that was wrong of me but I am willing to admit to my faults are you?"
Abbadon seamed caught off guard by her admittance of wrong doing and he looked confused as if the expected conversational path had been lost in translation and now he was on uncharted ground, before he could speak up Alistravia continued.
"We could share the galaxy, no need to continue fighting Ezekyle"
This confused Abbadon as well and she could see it in his face but it was her best way to keep him talking and buy time and keep him close to her so his orbital attack would not be fired, the offer was obviously false and the idea of peace with the traitors made her feel queasy but it was an distracting suggestion none the less.
"When I sit on the throne then we will have..."
"Blah blah blah" Alistravia said interrupting him "As I said before, even if somehow you do reach Terra and win this war all you will have to rule is dust and bones, there will be no empire left for you to command"
"this is not about ruling an empire!" the despoiler responded
"No of course not, it's about you proving your better than everyone else right? I've walked down that road, it doesn't end in a good place" Alistravia thought for a moment before continuing "your ambition has led you down a path of destruction from which there is no return, perhaps when this started you thought this was a revolution, a way to fight back against tyranny but you are all just pawns and in the old Terra game of chess, the pawns are the first to be sacrificed"
Abbadon grunted and then laughed.
"You think I would allow myself to be controlled ever again, I am my own man"
"You have no free will Abbadon, such is the folly of religion that it gives people the illusion of free will but in truth is just another form of control... without you those things in the warp have no way to attack us because they need the willingness of humans to let them in, it's why they feared the imperium of old, all science and no religion meant they could not whisper their propaganda because it only fell on deaf ears"
"Lorgar heard them!" Abbadon said smugly
"Because he wouldn't listen to my father, so the warp xenos tricked him and he believed them because he was a failure!"
Abbadon tilted his head back as if looking for something but was clearly disappointed when he looked back down towards Alistravia.
"He who is without sin casts the first stone!" he suddenly said
Alistravia laughed hard at this, it was such a poor statement written down in a time when mankind was ignorant enough to believe a man, a woodworker of all things, could be the son of a god.
"You use that phase like you understand it's meaning but truly you don't, the so called son of god was not saying only someone without sin could cast a stone but that no one is without sin therefore no one should be so quick to judge when they are not sinless, but he was a fake, a fraud perpetuated by the primitive cultures of Terra to give their lives meaning... it's pathetic"
"The dark gods are beyond us!" Abbadon responded with some passion
"Because there made of pure energy so they have no physical limitations but if you and I were to travel back in time to primitive Terra and showed them weapons that can spit fire or ships that can carry us through the air like birds we too would be considered as gods and the things we do would appear as if like magic to them, this is why people of the imperium worship my father as a god and you think of those things in the warp as daemons or gods"
"Perhaps it is your perception is wrong" Ezekyle snarled back
Alistravia shrugged.
"Unlikely, something can appear as if a god but science can prove otherwise as it has done consistently throughout human history"
Abbadon again looked to the sky but saw nothing and returned his gaze to Alistravia.
"Religion is an ideological construct Ezekyle, it is an attempt to solve problems by filling gaps in the knowledge base by saying, this is what god did, and that's why it is an archaic principle that should of died out when humans first stepped out into the galaxy and we know this, even some people on old Terra knew this... and after all that effort my father made it was undone just so omnipotent alien beings could rule over us in some twisted nightmare civilization because at the core of what they want is no one to oppose them but the jokes on them because without us they are nothing"
Abbadon stayed silent and seamed to be contemplating the situation so Alistravia continued.
"The truth is existence is just a continuous cycle of life and death and the sooner humanity accepts that the sooner it can move forward"
"Are you done with your lecture?" The despoiler asked
"Well no actually, I had more but since your not listening why bother..."
Pequad
Alistravia's sarcophagus was named for it's appearance, it was a tall black and green obelisk with a myriad of defensive systems that sat at the centre of her personal armoury.
Velar looked it up and down as he circled it and a tech-marine worked on forming a wormhole.
"I've locked on to mothers distress signal and I am using that to thread a wormhole, and I'm increasing it's wave form to almost treble it's traditional speed but this is a risk and I can not guarantee success"
Velar looked over to the tech-marine, he was well versed in wormhole meta physics and was the best chance to get the sarcophagus to Vigilus in time but he was right, at this range the stability of a wormhole without structural reinforcement was questionable.
Normally an object or ship passing through a wormhole would reinforce it's structure as it went and the sarcophagus did have some internal technology to assist that during it's travel but they had never sent it this far before, usually it was a simple transfer to surface from orbit or at very worse one star system to another nearby one but this was across sectors and whilst the admiral had taken the fleet to a an area of empty space to prevent any disruptions it was no guarantee of success.
He had understood Gigas's want to go personally but no living being or anything with a biological component could survive such a long journey without the meta-phasic shielding a star ship provided to block out the deadly radiation created from passing through a layer of space that was in essence the inside of a star, it was a crude way to describe what most people called slip space but it wasn't far from the truth.
The only exception was the great gate because it created a permanently stable wormhole and used a series of multi loop vortices to control the radiation levels.
"Is there anyway to assist it's progress?" Velar asked
The tech-marine pulled back from his workstation and thought for a moment.
"If we had something smaller, something needle like to puncture through slip space ahead of the wormhole, like a javelin or a..."
"Trident!" Velar said finishing his though
The tech-marine nodded.
"I'll be back in a moment" the lore-master said before leaving the room
He came back a minute later with Alistravia's trident she had received from Cawl, he held it out towards the tech-marine.
"Will this do?"
"It's will have to, did mother name it?"
Velar shook his head.
"No, but perhaps it can earn it's name on Vigilus"
The tech-marine placed the trident ahead of the sarcophagus and a wormhole slowly formed in front of it, then without a sound the trident shot forward causing the wormhole to envelope half the room.
Velar and the tech-marine stood back and watched as the Sarcophagus activated it's antigravity units and floated into the event horizon before being pulled in after the trident.
The wormhole closed with a bang sending some of the weapons held on plinths flying off their mounts and leaving the two space marines in a quiet much emptier room.
"Now what?" the tech-marine asked
"now" Velar said taking a breath "we wait"
Space wolves fortress: Vigilus
Eighteen assault boats sat in the courtyard, where in reality there were only two physical landing pads but space had been cleared for the other sixteen, squads of ultramarines and space wolves were making checks of weapons and armour as they made final preparations before launch, some had already boarded their assigned boat and were strapped in but most were waiting for the signal.
The boats were fairly typical of imperial design, a massive wedge shaped ram on the front would fire a mass of lasers to cut through the outer hull then the ram would force it's way in deeper before the marines began their assault.
In the centre of the boats was a small group speaking to a figure via hololith.
"The enemy vessel will be in orbit shortly so I suggest you don't waste any more time on the ground" Marneus Calgar said
"do we still have no support from any ships?" Vulen questioned
"The 2nd are attempting to free up a few ships but nothing can be guaranteed, the traitor forces are putting a lot of pressure on our positions right now so you maybe on your own"
"there's a good chance we may not return from this fight" Koman said bluntly "But we will destroy that ship"
"If you don't return I promise you will not be forgotten, good luck"
With that the holo image shut off leaving the two captains mulling over the situation.
"What's the plan for destroying the ship? As long as we cripple it we will have done our job" Vulen stated
"It is my understanding that the black-stone fortress Abbadon brought to Cadia had also been crippled but it was used as missile of sorts and launched at the surface so this vessel must be completely destroyed or else the same might occur and to do that we must overheat it's engine core"
Vulen nodded in understanding.
"that is true and we can attempt this but are first priority should be to disable it's weapons then it can not fire on the primarch"
"Agreed" Koman said recognizing Vulen was correct
There was no pint in racing all the way to the engine core when the ship could still fire.
"To do that" Vulen continued "We must attack it's bridge and and gun decks so I suggest we split into two groups"
"A fair assessment, if we can cause enough damage to their bridge then they won't be able to do anything but it will be heavily guarded and our first problem is going to be getting off the assault boats quickly enough that they can't alert their heavier defenders"
Vulen nodded knowing Koman meant the actual traitors, the majority of the enemy thrown at them would be cultists who were dangerous in groups but easily put down however the traitor marines would be an entirely different matter.
"Once we board they will attempt to lock us down fast so we must move quickly, I will take what terminators I have with me and go after the gun decks if you go after the bridge, the quicker you get there the more chance you have of catching it before they reinforce"
"Then our mission is clear, cripple and if possible destroy the ship" Koman said and Vulen nodded
"Let's get everyone boarded and get on our way" The space wolf responded walking off in one direction as Koman went another
He was met by Kendra and some of the others.
"We will hit the bridge with our groups and while Vulen goes after the gun decks but should it become necessary we will destroy the ship completely" he turned to Kendra who was carrying an auto-gun with her rifle slung over her back "Are you sure your prepared for this, it won't just be cultists aboard that ship?"
"I am part of this unit, where it goes I go!" she responded sternly
Koman smiled and patted her on the shoulder as he passed her to walk up the assault boats assault ramp.
A the eighteen boats powered up Vulen made a vox call to all the little assault boats.
"Know this brothers, cousins... are duty is stop that ship from firing on a primarch and we will accomplish that even if it costs us our lives, For The Emperor!"
Across the vox responses of the same could be heard as the forty six warriors took to the sky as the boats lifted from their position and shot towards the sky with a most important task.
Koman was concerned, a lot could go wrong and without naval support this could go horribly wrong even faster but they had to try, penetrating the soft underbelly should be easy but what they faced inside would be the real test.
Traitor warship
Vokan Ship-reaper was restless, dodging the countless patrols had been tough with only two escort ships to watch their flanks but they had managed to make it through past the outer patrols although they were still in danger even now as they approached first position.
The ship was only a medium sized cruiser with two destroyer escorts so if they were caught by the patrolling imperial fleets away from the support of the larger traitor ships they would be easy prey for any large imperial capitol ship but now the assaults on their positions had begun there was some relief as most imperial ships would be focused elsewhere and wouldn't notice three ships that had already slipped through the outer net.
Vokan rarely slept anyway so there was no increase in his irritability as the ship began dropping towards the upper atmosphere, he had been surprised when he had been chosen for this role, to attack and even possibly kill a primarch was so appealing it made what remained of his mouth water at the very prospect.
The war master had warned him though not to be over confident.
"Once Alistravia realises what is happening she will do her best to mitigate the damage she receives but if you can at least wound her that will be enough, and if you kill her... then you will honoured be the dark gods themselves"
"My lord we are almost at first position, our escorts are pulling back to watch for enemy ships" another marine called out
"good... prepare to... fire the signal... flare then begin moving... into firing position" it was hard to get his words out with the hunk of mutilated flesh where his jaw used to be
The damage had been caused by an imperial ship whose commander had chosen to ram him but he had boarded them as he attempted the manoeuvrer and ripped his flesh from his bones slowly in retaliation, humans were useless in a fight and he had yet to meet a loyalist astartes who was his equal.
"and get me eyes on the surface so we know when the war-master is out of harms way"
Vigilus
There had been silence between Alistravia and Abbadon for some time now and both seamed to not know how to address the other, tension was still high but Alistravia did have one thought, a question she hadn't even bothered to pursue for an answer before but maybe that was her lighter personas way of avoiding any hurt that might come from an answer.
She looked towards the despoiler who was staring up at the sky again pretending he was in thought but clearly waiting for a signal of some kind.
"Ezekyle" she said drawing his attention "I need to know what happened to Carin, what happened to my son"
"I don't know"
Alistravia wanted to call him a liar but he sounded honest, more honest than he had so far.
"a rebel fleet must of attacked the sub-sector he was ruling, you must have some idea!?"
Abbadon shook his head and then hung it in shame, it was odd that all the crimes against the imperium he had committed, all the deaths he was responsible for he felt no remorse but not knowing what happened to Alistravia's only biological son bothered him so much he acknowledged this as a failing.
"The sector was taken early in the war but Carin was never found, Horus assumed he must of retreated to Terra with his family but we never saw him and his presence on any battlefield would have been obvious"
Alistravia nodded, Abbadon was honest and she could hear that in his voice, it actually seamed as if the despoiler was genuinely bothered by her missing son, this could be because while her son wasn't a true primarch he still had a few of their attributes and could have been a valuable ally for Horus if he could of turned him.
Carin had grown to good size and even appeared taller than her, though that could be put down to simply biology that most men were taller on average than most women even in standard humans but he had some of a primarchs strength and speed, like most primarchs his memory was excellent and he picked up many skills from his uncles, his desire to learn more about the universe came not only from his Estrellan genes but from the nights he spent with Magnus gathering knowledge, Ferrus and Perturabo showed him how to forge weapons and Roboute had taught him politics.
The greatest skill he had was his ability with a sword, Alistravia had never learned much skill with them but he picked it up quickly and eventually drew the attention of Fulgrim who gave him more advanced training but that was all so long ago and if the traitors never found him could that mean he was still out there somewhere?
She couldn't let herself get distracted by that for now, she would look into it when she returned to Terra, right now she had to keep Abbadon glued to this spot and she was rapidly running out of conversation topics.
"do you ever think about the old days? Me you and Horus gallivanting around the galaxy playing hero and destroying xenos, we had some good times"
"The past does not concern me only the future and the path the dark gods have laid out for me"
Alistravia laughed hard at this.
"A little while ago you told me you were not their puppet and now you have a set path?" Alistravia sighed "A great man once said... There is no fate but what we make for ourselves... like take this moment right now, you think it's all preordained... no because if it were you and I would have come to blows by now, it is only through our own self restraint we do not"
"The dark gods have seen our futures" Abbadon responded as he attempted to counter the discussion
"Oh I don't think they do, my people discovered a long time ago that time, like space, has an infinite number of dimensions so I would theorise, that beyond their own dimension and ours your dark gods are limited in their vision otherwise Horus would of succeeded or they would of chosen a different champion to begin with"
Alistravia could see Abbadon thinking this over and she knew she had hit him with some pocket of realisation he was struggling to process, the theory had been developed by another Estrellan scientist many years ago and it stated that given the infinite number of dimensions in time that any being with the gift of foresight would still be limited in there view, they could not see aberrations or alterations that occurred until after they had been introduced so no being could truly see the future because time was not a straight line.
"You do not understand their power!" the despoiler raged as if he was defending a brother
"No it's you who doesn't understand Ezekyle, just like us those dark gods as you call them are still subject to the laws of the universe, if they weren't they could destroy humanity with a single thought but they can't because they are just another species in a vast and unforgiving universe and here's the kicker, there might be far more dangerous and powerful xenos out there somewhere and to the xenos in the warp... those creatures... would... be... GODS!"
Abbadon sneered at this before looking up into the sky, a small yellow flare was making it's way across the blackened clouds and he smiled.
"Our time here is done" he said stepping back to pick up Drach'nyen
Alistravia took some steps back and picked up the thunder hammer.
"Can't let you leave old friend, not alive anyway"
Alistravia ran forward as Abbadon was turning to leave, she had two options now... keep Abbadon in this position or push him further away forcing the ship in orbit to readjust it's position which would buy her more time and hopefully, assuming they were planning to, give Koman chance to assault the ship.
Abbadon swing Drach'nyen back around and Alistravia parried it away and narrowly avoided the talon on his other hand, he brought Drach'nyen back round in an arc and she blocked it with the thunder hammer.
He was strong, much stronger than she expected and she had to let go some of her own restraint now in order to deal with his power, she pulled the hammer away and his sword cut into the jacket she had over the body glove narrowly avoiding her actual flesh, she slammed him in the side and was surprised she was able to knock him off balance so she threw all her strength at him with one blow to his chest piece and sent him stumbling back.
As the dust settled over the first and short skirmish Ezekyle was stood looking down at his chest piece, a crack had formed... it was only small and there was still layers of secondary armour but it was visible and Alistravia smiled along with her two other personalities, no wonder he wanted to attack her from orbit.
On Cadia it had taken hours of long fighting for Celestine and the others to break though his armour but it had taken a primarch mere seconds to put a simple crack in it and as he looked back over Alistravia could see his ambition, he wanted to kill her but behind all that was fear, with a roar of anger he charged forward his ambition getting in the way of sense as he forgot about the ship in orbit...
Traitor warship
"My lord I have view on the war-master" Spat a marine on the auspex
"Show me" Vokan said
The forward oculus shifted but instead of seeing the war-master leaving the area he was duelling with the primarch and seamed to be making no effort to leave the area, in fact the actual target position had moved as the battle went back and forth.
"What is he doing, he needs to pull away or we can not fire"
This was confusing and annoying, obviously something had gone wrong or the primarch had openly attacked him before he could leave, he could still fire but would now risk hitting the war-master and if he did no matter what happened to the primarch he would likely be killed for it.
"Commander we will have to adjust our position to keep target in sight" a shout came from one of the stations
Centuries ago Vokan would of gritted his teeth but he was unable to now and it angered him.
"Adjust our position and load weapons, we will fire the moment the war-master is away from the primarch!"
Assault Boats
Koman felt the boats shift position and opened the vox to Vulen.
"Why are changing out approach vector?"
"the traitors are shifting position, something must of changed on the surface... I am trying to find out what but our mission remains the same"
"If the primarch has forced Abbadon to move even slightly it should buy us some time, ETA till impact is two minutes" Koman responded
A hologram of the underside of the enemy ship appeared in the dark of the assault boats as it would be across all eighteen. It's showed the two groups of assault boats splitting up and moving to penetrate certain areas.
"My groups will impact here" The space wolf said and six of the boats lit up in space wolves colours on approach to an area just below the main gun decks "Your group will penetrate here just below the main command decks and work your way to the bridge, with the auspex focused on the surface we should have a few minutes before they realise they have been boarded but the jamming signal will blind them anyway to make sure, then it will be a race against time"
Koman looked over the plan, it was sound but he still felt they should attempt to destroy the vessel.
"once I am on the bridge I will disable or destroy as many of the core functions as I can"
"killing their command crew would also benefit us but I doubt the despoiler gave this task to someone unable to defend his ship so watch your back" Vulen said with respect in his voice
"I suggest you do the same cousin, good luck"
Vigilus
Initially Alistravia had thought Abbadon was just swinging at her wildly but she quickly realised he had a different strategy altogether and that was to try and keep her at some distance so he could either try to retreat away or unleash the bolter that was mounted on top of the talon.
There was also a secondary reason for him to be fighting as he was and that was to prevent her from widening the crack in his armour something which would be needed if she was going to do any serious damage to him before Drach'nyen cut her too deeply.
So far most of his attacks had been in an attempt to direct her in to an open position but she had done her best to keep him from doing that, the armour Ezekyle was wearing was fairly bulky and despite how fast a space marine could move he was still somewhat restricted by it's shell.
As the two clashed weapons more and more Alistravia began to build up a picture of Ezekyle's movement so as he swung Drach'nyen down towards her again instead of stepping back and deflecting the blow away she pushed in closer to him and swing the hammer hard and aimed an upper cut towards his face, it caught him just under the chin and he took a few steps back in an awkward stumble before bringing the talon round as he fell back, from a second hit she delivered, and slicing through the thing body glove armour.
He hadn't cut too deep due to the angle he swiped at but it forced Alistravia to move away before she could deliver another attack, she could feel the blood running before the advanced healing kicked in and stopped it but the greater concern was how easily the talon had sliced through.
Ezekyle coughed up some blood and a tooth that looked rotted before glaring up at her.
"Your stronger than you used to be but your holding back... why?" he said wiping the blood from his chin
"I'd like a story to tell and, I killed Abbadon with little effort, feels a little bland... but your holding back too"
He stood back up and pointed at her.
"I am not going to continue this waste of my time" he said before turning to walk away
This time Alistravia wasn't going to let him get away at all, she ran forward and he turned to shoot at her with the talon but she knew it was coming and threw the hammer which caught it just as it unleashed it's first shot which was still partially inside the barrel when it exploded destroying the mechanism.
Ezekyle reeled back as the gloves systems froze from the explosive shock but Alistravia had no time to give the war-master now and she punched him hard in the face before side stepping him and kicking into the side of his leg, in a human it would of broken the bone instantly but Abbadon was simply forced to turn away but before Alistravia could capitalize on his open defence he swung the talon back round catching her lower torso and forcing her to move back but the damage she had intended to do was done, the bolter was broken and the joints in his right knee were damaged.
Ezekyle ripped the broken bolter from atop the talon and threw it on the ground as the two stood apart from a moment, his knee joint and most of the servos were shattered because Alistravia had known where to hit him to slow him down.
She couldn't read his mind but she could see he was some what frustrated, perhaps this was because he had been unable to leave or perhaps it was he was beginning to see how out classed he was compared to a primarch.
He had hurt her but the cuts were not deep and her rapid healing was not being over stretched as it had been during the early days her on Vigilus when the artillery strike had almost killed her, she was also far more agile in the lighter suit despite it's limited defensive capabilities and she was clearly causing problems for the despoiler not just in preventing him from leaving but she could see in his eyes he expected to be able to deal with her but he was struggling.
Ezekyle spat out another tooth along with some more blood before he roared and pushed into attack again, he wasn't going to hold back now and whatever plan he had initially to bombard her from orbit was not going as intended, she understood now he likely needed to wound her enough so she could not pursue him if he made another attempt to flee.
There was no way she was going to let this happen and she signalled her other selves, she would need her darker self's strength and the lighter ones wisdom to overcome him because he was still in a full suit of armour and had weapons so there was no allowing him to hit her and building up a retaliatory hit here, she would have to disarm him or hope for a miracle.
She met his charge with her own hoping against hope that someone somewhere was watching over her...
Pequad
Velar got off the lift at the contemptor bay and stepped into the room.
Kelsey was sat in his chair looking at holo images of events he had missed and feeding all tactical information into his memory core and filing it away for any future use.
Three holo screens were streaming information to him as he sat and Velar approached slowly as he entered the contemptor's vision.
"You know I half expected you to try and sneak into mothers sarcophagus and stowaway to get to her"
The dreadnought didn't respond and Velar kept talking.
"You are a vital part of this legion, you do not have to hide down here brother..."
"What is it you want lore-master!" he boomed back while still looking at the feeds
Velar sighed.
"I wanted to apologise, it was wrong of me not to at least warn you about what we were planning"
"You are all superior to me, I had no right to make the threats I did but... I have been fighting since before the legion was founded, I stood as a flesh and bone human against the Mechanicum when they stumbled upon the colony at Nautilus... I deserve some modicum of respect"
Velar nodded in agreement.
"It is not in doubt Kelsey which is why after much discussion it has been agreed to bring you into the inner command structure along with Gigas, Kyros, Sankara and myself... I don't think mother will have any objections"
The three holo screens shut off and Kelsey angled his head towards the lore-master.
"Surely Gerik would be a better fit?"
"We offered him the position but he refused, he's a good captain and does not want to abandon his company but it was he who suggested yourself as an alternative and despite some reservations Gerik was very persuasive and he made some valuable points"
"Reservations?" the contemptor asked
"Your going to have to learn a little bit more respect brother, I know you were angry but the level of disrespect you showed the primarchs by forcing your way into that meeting and the way you spoke to lord Dorn was not right... no matter your feelings he is a primarch and sibling to our mother"
Kelsey stood from his position and towered over the lore-master, the floating remains of an unkillable soul stared down at Velar before nodding as best he could given his helm had little movement to it.
"I would not of been able to fit inside mothers sarcophagus which is a shame" he said as he started walking towards the lift
Velar walked beside him and they boarded the lift together.
"Why?"
"Abbadon would have been a worthy foe..."
Assault Boats
The boats were on final approach and the ship had not shifted position again. With an automated system they began emitting auto jamming to system to blind the traitor cruisers auspex and then with a final boost they accelerated towards the target.
Traitor ship
"why is he still fighting her!" Vokan growled as he watched the primarch and the war-master exchange blows
This would have been his greatest moment, helping the war-master defeat a primarch. It would of propelled him to great heights among his peers and the dark gods would be rewarding of his role but now it seamed as if the war-master had changed the plan but then perhaps not, perhaps something else had gone wrong...
The primarch had landed several good attacks and it was possible without support the war-master would not be able to get away.
"Get me lord Harrken" he said then the oculus went blank "now what!"
"My lord our auspex is being jammed" another legionnaire shouted back
Vokan rushed over to the station and looked over the readings and then several small thuds were heard and another warrior spoke.
"something just hit us!"
"A ship?" Vokan responded
"I detect no ships but I... Gunfire reported on several decks! we have been boarded!"
"Impossible!" Vokan said but the evidence was their on the screen as the auspex came back online
"Our vox signals are still being blocked my lord, I can not signal the surface"
Vokan flew into such a rage he killed one of the servitors without thinking and began bellowing orders.
"Defend the ship and try to get through to lord Harrken! Send units to the gun decks and shore up the bridge"
Lower decks
The cultists for all their cowardice threw themselves at the Koman's group and the ultramarines that joined them, bolter rounds, auto guns and other types of gun fire filled the air but the cultists were just chaff and were being slaughtered with little effort.
A random group of traitors charged through the sea of cultists trampling them trying to get close but a squad of ultramarines focused them down and bolter rounds tore through their helms before they could get too close.
At the death of the traitor marines the cultists pulled back taking up hard points with heavy auto guns and missile launchers but Koman wasn't stopping and these points were overrun quickly as more of the chaff died as they threw themselves at the space marines in an effort to slow them down but it was not having the desired effect as most of the black legion warriors had been sent to defend the gun decks and the few that stood with the cultists were brought down quickly with the usual practical efficiency of the ultramarines.
"Koman what's your position!" Vulen roared over the sounds of heavy fire
"I am on final approach to the bridge, not many traitors here mostly just cultists"
"that's because all the black legion are here defending the gun decks!" Vulen responded
"Do you want me to send a few squads your way?" Koman asked as he mowed down a group of cultists trying to recover a heavy gun
"No! I can beat these turn coat dogs, just get to the bridge"
The approach to bridge had two squads of traitors defending it along with a large group of cultists, an ultramarine went down as the two sides clashed up close, blood and gore flew everywhere as cultists exploded.
The two traitor squads were a different problem and they charged back with blades and chain swords barred clashing up close killing two more marines, one of the traitors didn't make it too far as a sniper round shot through his eye lens and blew out the back of his skull.
Kendra had been valuable in this assault with her sniping skill by taking out officers and cultists manning heavy guns and Koman would of struggled without her, the fact she had separated herself from them had bothered him at first but in a way he understood it.
Koman roared and gutted the traitor that tried to swipe at him with a combat knife with his sword, another came at him from the side but Kinkade skewered him with his own sword before he could do anything, as the last few traitors fell and the cultists began to flee a melta charge was placed on the door.
Bridge
The holo image of Harrken was distorted as the barley established vox signals quality was so weak.
"Wha..., why... you not...ired?"
"My lord the war-master is still engaged with the primarch and now we have been boarded and..."
An explosion cut off Vokan's message as the the bridge door melted away behind them and loyalist marines charged in, mostly ultramarines but there was a small rag tag group of marines from different chapters and a lone human who shot an explosive tipped sniper round through the helm control console causing heavy damage to it.
Vokan knew this would be their aim, to destroy the ships systems to prevent it firing, he didn't know how they had found out about this plan but he was not going to let his chance to become a champion of the legion be torn away now.
"Defend the bridge!" he shouted before drawing his black sword and moving towards the sniper
He was stopped by a Black Templar with a drawn sword.
"Your fight is with me traitor"
Vigilus
Alistravia had been focusing on the mechanical mechanisms inside Ezekyle's suit to slow him down and keep him from leaving but he was doing a good job defending and kept her from inflicting any really severe damage.
As the two broke apart again she heard the others speaking.
"I think it's time we accepted we can't do anything with that sword of his still in play... plus the talon is still in the way and breaking that will be impossible with just this hammer and our fists"
"Agreed, it's time we stop holding back... use all our strength"
Alistravia knew they were right, as long as she was holding back Ezekyle would have the advantage, he was holding back as well and it was likely for the same reason, they had been friends once and fought together on many occasion but the same could be said for her traitor brothers... even those she was close to and they would be unlikely to hold back.
Ezekyle charged at her bringing Drach'nyen in sweeping from the side but she was done playing games and threw a single punch straight to his face before the sword could connect.
It was odd to see the surprise on his face as his head snapped back and to the side with such force from the impact that it carried him down into the dirt.
If this were some kind of opera that she had watched with Fulgrim aboard his flagship back in the crusades the villain, usually a xenos, would now have a moment to recover and make some one lined quote to make it sound grand but in reality life wasn't some grand opera with a script and stock characters... it was at times like this kill or be killed so before the despoiler could recover she kicked him hard in the side turning him over to expose his belly like a turtle.
He swung Drach'nyen round to catch her but she parried it away with the hammer before stomping down hard and causing the crack in his armour to increase in size.
Then he brought the Talon round and she was forced to move before it could slash her again but as she did she swung the hammer down towards his head and he was forced to roll away before it impacted giving her some space.
He was on his knee for a moment as he stood back up, his face was covered in blood that dripped down his chest plate and Alistravia could see the anger and fear in his eyes as he considered his next move but she couldn't give him any chance now and as he stood up to his full height she charged into him.
Ezekyle was clever though and threw the talon forward forcing her to slow her momentum and move aside, then he charged back into her blind side for the few seconds he had of safety and Alistravia turned her self and grabbed the edge of his armour and pulled him down with her and the two rolled across the broken rubble of the road for a moment.
Alistravia stood up first but the impact had take it's toll, his strength was formidable and her arm had dislocated in the roll so she forced it back in to it's socket as her body mended the other cuts and bruises she had sustained.
Without her armour and weapons the risk of a lethal blow from the despoiler was becoming more likely, it would take her time to break though his armour and that was time she might not have...
Traitor warship
Koman and Vokan clashed as the battle continued around them, the black legion were doing an excellent job of defending the bridge systems and it was proving difficult to break through their defence as they pushed what cultists remained forward to bog down the loyalists and frustrate their efforts.
Kendra had had to switch to the auto gun she brought as she could no longer get a clear shot on any of the systems and the cultists were keeping her from locking down any position to strike from.
Koman found out quickly he was out matched against Vokan and struggled to parry his blows away, the traitor was shorter than him and looked as if he had been badly mutilated around his jaw area but had a lot of skill.
Koman parried one of his hits and stabbed forward with his own sword but Vokan countered quickly with a punch to his helm that broke his eye lenses and he was forced to removed it quickly before his vision was obscured.
Vokan was clearly upset his ship had been boarded and smashed his fist into Koman's face before he could recover from removing his helm, this sent Koman reeling but he managed to regain his composure as another traitor came at him with a chain fist but unsurprisingly Vokan barrelled into him knocking him away.
"HE'S MINE!"
Koman used the distraction to make a swipe and caught Vokan's exposed neck almost slicing deep enough to cause severe damage, Vokan had reacted fast enough to avoid any serious damage but he was angry and he charged back into Koman knocking him on to his back.
Koman slid across the floor and into a body of a dead traitor who lay next to a dead Ultramarine, looking around both loyal and traitor marines were suffering casualties but hardly any of the bridge systems had been damaged.
He pulled him self up as Vokan approached but he could see in traitors eyes he was no longer interested in continuing this fight that must of felt below him, he moved to the side to strike Vokan before realising that was what the traitor had hoped he would do and he winced as he felt the sword plunge through his waist and fell onto his hands and knees dropping his sword.
Vokan sighed.
"For a minute there I thought you might of actually been a worthy foe but I will give you credit, you tried"
The traitor raised his sword to strike but then a series of explosions ripped through the bridge throwing loyalist and traitor alike around and causing Vokan to look over to another traitor who was pushing the body of a cultist off a console and accessing it, the traitor looked over at Vokan with a face of disbelief.
"Well... what hit us!" Vokan shouted at the stunned traitor marine
"A torpedo, five enemy ships on approach, one cruiser and four attack ships"
"Raise shields and get our escorts to block their approach!" Vokan shouted
But as the traitor went to do it he stopped and seamed to convulse before he was split perfectly in half by some kind of opening from which Knights of Estrella walked from and into the battle.
Vokan was about to attack when a Sword tore through his belly, he glanced around to see Koman.
"You should pay more attention traitor" he spat before ripping the sword from Vokan's belly and cutting his head free from his body
The "sirens Ballard" was only a light cruiser and on it's own it would of struggled to overcome the escorts that had accompanied the traitor warship but the four corvettes had balanced out the engagement by cloaking themselves and when the escorts approached to engage they de-cloaked and stripped them of their shields allowing the "Sirens Ballard's" forward guns to tear them apart before it moved on to approach the main warship.
It had used a full torpedo spread to disable it's propulsion systems and stun the bridge crew before spawning a wormhole on the bridge and sending boarding teams as it was faster than using the boarding torpedoes.
As the balance tipped in favour the loyalists the bridge fell silent, Koman was impressed and somewhat dismayed by how the knights had approached this, unlike their cousins they refused to get into close quarters combat and began executing each traitor with a well placed shot whilst making sure not to hit their allies.
It was very clinical but he could see the effectiveness of it, if you don't have to engage your enemy close up why bother, Koman opened the vox to Vulen.
"Cousin, status..."
"we are secure here brother, the knights are a little late to the party but always welcome" Vulen responded as a 2nd legion captain walked over to Koman with an apothecary
He was rather tall and rough shaven but his golden blonde hair was perfectly styled.
"you look like hell captain" he said as the apothecary began scanning him
Koman waved it away with a grin.
"you couldn't of cut that any closer?"
The 2nd legion captain gave a hearty laugh.
"Come on, lets get you all of this vessel of the damned so we can destroy it"
Vigilus
Alistravia had frustrated the war-master but was badly beaten herself, constant small cuts and heavy concussive hits between them where wearing her armoured body glove down to it's basic lining and reduced any defence it could of provided, after she had shown her true strength Ezekyle had returned the gesture and while he was still strong he couldn't match her for pure power but he still had his weapons.
The thunder hammer had become more of a shield than a weapon to attack with and she found herself consistently parrying sword and talon attacks that forced her to always be on the defensive, she managed a few blows into him when she had seen an opening and she had made them count which had only led to Abbadon becoming more infuriated and clever with his positioning, he had armour to spare she did not.
At the sound of large muffled but audible explosion the two stopped and looked to the sky, in the atmosphere above them the distinct burning broken hull of a traitor ship was falling like a meteor, some bits were burning up whilst others would impact the ground.
Alistravia could see the look of anger on Ezekyle's face and it amused her that he was so bothered by these events, he was winning this engagement on the ground right now but the question was without support could he outlast her.
"Looks like someone lost a fight" she said and he roared before turning and hacking at her with very little self control
Alistravia used this to her advantage by allowing him to overextend himself before delivering a kick to his sword arm breaking some of the outer armour and causing Drach'nyen to slip from his grasp for a moment.
She was about to capitalize on this but the war-master regained his composure and swing the talon around slashing her frontal armour to shreds and knocking her back down to the ground.
Her healing was kicking in but the hit had cut deeper than most and now parts of her body were openly exposed to attack which would prove a long term issue, she reached for the necklace that Leaman had given her but it wasn't there.
She glanced over and saw it laying on the side until the war-master's foot stood on it.
All three of her personas felt wounded as this happened and Alistravia stood as Abbadon approached with Drach'nyen raised for a killing strike.
"That was a gift from Leaman!" she shouted before charging at him
He went to strike at her but as the two were about to meet Alistravia recognised that smell, that burning metallic smell as oxygen reacted with neutrons that were emitted upon the opening of a wormhole.
Ezekyle was already committed to his attack and was too late to see the Trident emerge from the wormhole, it shot straight into his belly piercing the armour with relative easy due to the speed it was travelling at, it pushed him back away from her as if it had a mind of it's own.
Alistravia was about to grab it when the Sarcophagus emerged and landed beside her opening up instantly to real a glowing blue interior, one side was a mixture of rifles and pistols along with a few melee weapons and the other her green and gold armour.
She wasted no time as Abbadon was already recovering, he threw the trident to the ground behind him as if daring her to go after it but she cared not now the sarcophagus was here, she stood on the centre pad and smiled at him knowingly and he charged forward towards her.
"Recall and close" she said and the sarcophagus obeyed
As it began to fold back in and close off the trident shot back into it's interior and Alistravia's hands, Ezekyle was fast but the doors closed and he hit the solid outer armour of the sarcophagus that absorbed the kinetic energy of his attacks before unleashing a shock-wave that forced the despoiler to retreat away.
Inside the sarcophagus's systems wasted no time in engaging it's mechanisms, the first thing it did was asses Alistravia's condition and when it detected her wounds it injected her with a high does of nanites pushing her bodies recovery systems into overdrive as well as a few stimulants for a quick boost.
Then it began to armour her, it deconstructed her suit in to many pieces before reconstructing it around her.
The 2nd legion marines had a similar system and given they were scientists who did not want their bulky armour to get in the way while doing research and an efficient and quick system of getting in and out of their armour was essential something which arming servitors were too slow and inefficient to accomplish.
She closed her eyes and relaxed as the process took place, in reality it would be but a few seconds but after all her time here and fighting the cultists underground and now Abbadon it was a moment of serenity she embraced as did her two other personalities.
"This has gone on long enough..." her lighter self said
"... we end it now!" her darker self finished and she nodded as the last piece of her armour slotted around her
Two weapons were attached to her back with a complex system of magnetisation and graviton fields, the first was a rifle she hadn't tested yet and the second was the trident, two high yield pistols were attached to her waist as extras.
The sarcophagus opened back up and revealed her fully armoured, the shark mouth that was part of her ornate chest piece was gold and shone bright just like the gold trims of the rest, the green seamed shine as well despite it's darker colour tone.
She stepped down from the central pad as Abbadon stepped into view, she dropped all other emotions and took on the image of a primarch she had cast aside so long ago and she could see in the body language of the war-master that he was unnerved.
"I will give you one chance to hit me... then I am going to kill you"
Space wolves fortress
Koman, Vulen and the rest of those who survived the battle aboard the traitor ship were landing in the fortress courtyard.
A stork drop ship had brought them back and Koman had been pleased to see all of those who had survived the tunnels had, despite some minor wounds, survived the battle with the traitors, even Kendra had managed to avoid being badly injured and he was relieved.
The space wolves lord commander was waiting for them along with his escorts, he had a rather stern look on his face and looked eager to be back in whatever fight he had been returned from.
"Well done brothers, cousins" he said acknowledging the non space wolves "I am afraid to say though the destruction of that ship did not go unnoticed and the traitors have begun pulling back some forces"
"Do you think their moving to assist the despoiler?" Koman asked and the old wolf nodded
"the concern is the signal that was echoing over the vox has stopped"
Vulen stepped forward.
"Then we should go to it's last position of broadcast and make sure the primarch is safe!"
"Agreed Vulen but we don't have much to spare so you will have to find yourselves some transport" the wolf commander responded
Koman looked around at the heavy stork transport.
"We can use the drop ship, I am sure the Estrellan's won't mind us borrowing it"
Vulen nodded.
"Agreed but we should rearm first... who knows what we might face when we arrive"
"your not going alone..." The wolf commander said suddenly "We are all with you"
Vigilus
"Well Ezekyle... I am waiting"
The despoiler had spent over a minute staring at her as if looking for some kind of advantage.
"What's the matter ….First Captain!... not as interested in fighting me now?"
She saw him grow angry again at the use of "First Captain" but he held his ground.
"Fine then, I will make the first move" Alistravia said walking towards him and drawing her trident
Before she could reach him he finally moved and lunged forward before she could get with in attack distance, he swept Drach'nyen round and upward looking to catch her face but the danger sensors on her system recognised the proximity of his weapon and automatically snapped her fish shaped helm shut and Drach'nyen bounced harmlessly off leaving only a small scratch.
"my turn now" she responded through the vox grill
Alistravia headbutted the despoiler breaking any remaining bones in his nose that had not been broken from her earlier hits, he reeled back and she thrust the head end of her trident deep into his chest before lifting him up.
He was heavy and the augmentation in her suit gave her the extra boost she needed but still she could feel the servos straining and made a note to take a look at reinforcing them for future fights.
She lifted him up and swung him up high above her head, she could see the look of shock on his face and smiled before she flung him off the edge of her trident.
He crashed into a broken car crushing it with his wight and Alistravia was impressed he had managed to keep hold of Drach'nyen all this time, he pushed himself back up as she marched forward.
He wanted to speak, converse in some way but the time for talk was long gone and she wasn't going to let him use any distraction.
"Killing me will..."
She didn't care what he was trying to say and brought the trident down at him which he parried well with Drach'nyen, to her it was a stop gap at best as she brought the back end round to smash him across his face but he pushed the talon forward to block and the haft became intertwined in the blades.
So she twisted hard, they were tough and and he swung at her from the other side with Drach'nyen but the swords flat edge could not break though the curved armour she wore, she twisted hard and eventually the blades of the talon snapped.
Abbadon was incensed and barrelled forward tackling her and trying to push her to the ground.
"Remember this Alis" the memory of Horus's teaching of basic defensive manoeuvres came back to her "If an enemy is putting all his strength into knocking you down use that against him"
So she did and allowed her self to fall back and at the same time she threw the despoiler to the side separating the two of them.
They both stood after and Abbadon stared down at the broken talon, only one of the blades was intact but otherwise it was useless, he roared forward without a word swinging Drach'nyen in both hands and Alistravia brought up the trident and the two held together with their weapons scraping against each other.
Abbadon was pushing everything he had and Alistravia could see that without the advantage he had before he was not going to win this fight but his determination, his ambition... all those things that had taken him to the very top of the pile wouldn't let him leave because his pride was at stake but pride comes before a fall.
It was then as neither of them pulled apart that she realised this could reflect how she had acted over the years, she had become so prideful and arrogant she had fallen and it had cost herself and the imperium much just as Abbadon's pride would cost him now.
She broke the dead lock and spun to the side, Abbadon struck at her left side just under her chest with Drach'nyen and few minor alert runes flew into her helms heads up display.
She stepped back and buried the head of the trident through his left leg before pulling back on it to trip him up, he swung Drach'nyen again into the same position he had before and more runes lit up so she ripped the trident free of his leg and stepped back recognising she had to rid him of Drach'nyen sooner rather than later.
The despoiler managed to lunge forward with a lot of power despite his leg almost being torn to shreds, he was clotting fast and likely working on pure adrenaline and combat stimulants at this point, but the lunge was good and he knocked into her in a way she could not use his wight against him.
This threw her off balance and he swung Drach'nyen round again to hit her in the side, she managed to narrowly avoid it this time but Abbadon used the time to tackle her to the ground.
He wasted no time in jumping on her in an attempt to bring Drach'nyen down ,blade first, through her helm.
Unfortunately his pride had made him forget that every hit he had delivered carried more energy into the suit and just as the blade was a millimetre away from piercing the helm she brought her her right hand round in a fist and punched, all the built up energy was carried into that one hit and it went straight through the crack in his armour and knocking him back off her, yet still he held on to Drach'nyen.
She didn't give him time to stand and stomped down hard on his now more exposed chest before he could swing Drach'nyen round to force her away, he quickly pulled him self up and swung out at her with the sword but she had had enough of that damned cursed weapon and stepped into the swing and grabbed his arm and snapped it.
She wasn't surprised when he didn't make any sound of feeling pain but she was surprised when she felt the talons only blade slide through the side of her armour where Ezekyle had been focusing his early attacks.
She felt several organs be partially compromised and the suits medical systems began flooding her body with nanites for repairs as well as more stimulants and a few other things to prevent further damage.
It was her own fault she had taken this hit and she should of paid more attention but it was done now and it couldn't happen again so she plunged the trident head into where his arm servos reached the main suit but she wasn't just trying to break the glove free oh no, she had a different objective in mind.
That arm had only just recently been reattached and it would still have some give so she forced the trident into his flesh, his other arm broken he tried to headbutt her back but with her helm still in place he could do nothing to disrupt her and she pushed the trident all the way through and then she stepped back and turned pulling.
Abbadon tried to shake her loose but with the arm holding Drach'nyen broken he couldn't swing it hard enough to slow her down and with the sound of flesh and bone ripping apart she wrenched his hole arm free and threw it to the ground.
She pulled the last blade from where it had pierced her side before kicking the despoiler hard in the chest sending him stumbling back to fall against a large truck, she had barley realised how far they had moved from their starting point but it made no difference.
The wound Abbadon had caused was not minor and had she not had the suit it could have been the beginning of the end but it's systems were helping her own natural healing not to become over whelmed.
Still she had been impressed, this was not the Ezekyle Abbadon she once fought beside, that one had been humbled and was responsible for saving her life but this one was a self serving ambitious monster whose ambition had carried him far and she understood now why he had earned the following of her traitor brothers and the warp xenos, because he fought hard whether that was to better himself or for a greater cause and he had earned his position as the war-master of chaos.
In a way as she looked at him now she pitted him because he like Horus and many others had been drawn into a web of lies and deceit simply to further the plans of a greater power, she looked him over as his arm clotted best it could and he stared at her, Drach'nyen wasn't useless with his arm broken but in his defeated state what could he do to stop her.
She retracted her helm and smelt the air, it was a mixture of things from blood, sweat and metal to the foul smell of an open sewer somewhere nearby, she drew one of her pistols and walked towards him slowly as he stared at her.
"Ezekyle Abbadon, First Captain of the Luna Wolves, of the Sons of Horus... and war-master of Chaos"
The despoiler nodded at her when she said the last few words realising he had earned some level of respect back from her, she held the gun towards his head from a few feet away.
"You are a traitor to the imperium and the emperor of man and I see no reason for any trail to determine your guilt since it is self evident" she took a deep breath "I am probably going to regret this but... do you have anything to say?"
He looked up at her and snarled before responding.
"Only that this won't end with my death!"
Alistravia nodded.
"Perhaps not... but it's one less traitor"
She began to squeeze the trigger and looked the despoiler in his eyes to make sure it was an honourable death for him, then without warning a spear tore past her knocking the pistol aside and sending the shot wide.
A second later another traitor charged into her with jump pack but he was no war-master of chaos and she grabbed him by the scruff of his neck before starring into his eyes.
"Hello Harrken thanks for showing up... because now I get two for one"
"I am not alone!" he spat back
It was then behind him she noticed almost two entire companies of traitors on approach.
"There's always something!" she threw Harrken aside and used the graviton generators to recall the pistol back to her hand as a few of the traitors entered her range
She shot the first seven dead as they charged forward followed by a lumbering Dreadnought with bodies of dead loyalists attached to it's hull, her pistol was not going to go through it's armoured hull so she holstered it and grabbed the rifle.
Now she had never tested this, it had been built after the encounter with the Necron and was designed to pierce their living metal exoskeletons but their was a chance it wouldn't work at all, she wanted to curse her lighter self for not testing it but she understood her position now.
She aimed it at the central section where the remains of it's pilot would be and pulled the trigger, a blue beam shot out from it's barrel and blew the top completely off of the dreadnought.
"WOW!"
"WOW!"
"WOW!"
All three of them chorused together as more traitors came round along with a land raider which did not open fire but turned towards the despoiler before opening it's hatch and sending out massive terminators with heavy guns that marched towards her with haste unleashing their guns in devastating salvoes.
She moved quick as her helm once again snapped round her head and closed the distance with the first of the six hulking warriors, the first she ran through with her trident, as he was dying he unleashed a wave of las fire so she turned him to face one of the others who was hit causing some of his weapons to be disabled.
She moved quick to kill the disabled one and ripped his head clean off as the others intensified their fire, one of them attempted to use a massive lighting claw to swipe at her and she unleashed the rifle again blowing him and one other apart with it's powerful shot.
Two more terminators stood in her way and she could see several marines and Harrken dragging the war-master into the land raider where a sorcerer was waiting, they had even collected the pieces of the talon.
"Cowards!" she shouted as she was hit by las blast that knocked her back
The two terminators saw their opportunity and marched forward, the hit she had taken was enough to of scrambled her systems for a few moments and they were recovering still as the terminators got closer.
As the two traitors spun up their weapons to fire one of them was hit by melta blast and died as liquid metal burned through his protective armour and bit into his flesh, Alistravia stood up and drove her trident through the seconds chest plate before throwing him aside like a piece of meat on a fork.
The melta had come from a land raider that was now ejecting Space wolves from it's hold, up above was the descending entry streaks of drop pods as hundreds came down whilst traitor rhinos and razor backs brought troops in and the two sides clashed.
The drop pods carried a variation of ultramarine and Knights of Estrella who began pushing in to the traitors flank, and giving then more than they had prepared for.
The sound of engines above Alistravia drew her attention, it was a stork drop ship with it's side hatch open and a familiar face beckoning her to come aboard.
Koman was pleased to see the primarch was mostly uninjured although he could see she was limping ever so slightly but otherwise she seemed well, she nodded to them all as the stork lifted off slightly.
"Follow that raider!" she shouted to the pilot who veered to the left in acknowledgement
The super heavy tank was doing it's best to head away from the battlefield but other traitors and loyalists were getting in the way and slowing it's progress down as it mowed through even it's own allies to escape.
"Target it's tracks with everything"
The stork swept to the side away from the raider but boosted ahead, it then turned and swept back and unleashed it's missiles and guns into the right front track of the raider causing it to turn and head down another narrower street.
"Mother the tracks are too well armoured even for a stork!" the Estrellan pilot shouted
"I can shoot them out if I can get a clean shot" Kendra said coming forward
Maxis shook his head.
"Your rifles not powerful enough"
"But this one is" Alistravia said holding out her large rifle "It's too big for you to hold but if you aim the barrel I will hold it"
Kendra nodded and they flung open the side door and aimed the barrel out.
"Hold it steady, I need to aim just below the secondary joints" Kendra said without realising she was telling a primarch what to do but Alistravia seemed to take no offence and griped it tighter.
"Mother there's a small tunnel section coming up!" the pilot shouted
Kendra took a breath and aimed down the site of the strange rifle, a few odd runes ran around the edge of the scopes view but the aiming reticule in the centre was standard, she could see how the buildings were changing as they approached the tunnel entrance, then as the last building past an opening appeared as the raider hitched up on one side to go over a small truck.
"Fire!" she said
Alistravia pulled the trigger and the shot impacted just below the main joints, below them was what was know as a rigger section designed to come apart if parts of the track needed replacing but it was supposed to be done in a controlled setting so instead of the tracks just gently dropping off they flew apart and caused the super heavy tank to almost flip over as it's drive mechanism was ripped to pieces by it's own inner workings locking up and coming apart.
"Land us behind her" Alistravia said
The stork set down and everyone prepared their weapons as they filed out, Alistravia led the way round to the front of the land raider and had the group line up like a firing squad.
"Remember Ezekyle is mine but kill everyone else"
There was some curiosity as to why no one had emerged from the raider but Maxis had suggested the crew and it's passengers may have been stunned by the crash, Alistravia ripped off a side panel that was covered in the dark runes of chaos and flung it aside before hitting the emergency release panel.
"Get ready!" she said as the assault ramp began to open
Koman slowly gripped the trigger preparing to fire but as the ramp doors separated to reveal an empty interior he relaxed a little.
Alistravia stepped in and looked around, as she did her suit began picking up radiation spikes from a particular element only found in one place.
"Damn! he must have had a sorcerer on board and gated away" she said as the lumens from her suit lit up the interior
Faraq noticed a small object on the floor and picked it up.
"Careful that could be some kind of trap"
The Iron Hand shook his head and held out the sphere towards the primarch who recognised it instantly and took it from the tech-marine.
"Another mapping sphere!" Alistravia said before looking around at the blank faces of the others "These spheres were used by the 11th primarch and his legion to map distant regions of space, I and Leaman thought we had destroyed them all on his home world but this along with the one Cypher gave Kalia makes two"
"If it's important why did the despoiler leave it?" Kendra asked and Alistravia shrugged
"I wish I knew but two more spheres would be required to complete the set... the plot thickens"
Koman was listening to the vox.
"Vulen reports the Black Legion has pulled back , the battle is over"
"No captain" Alistravia said "It hasn't even begun"
Vengeful Sprit
Abbadon lay back on the surgical table as the new arm was attached and the nerve ends reconstructed.
He had been here since arriving back from Vigilus and was still recovering from his defeat at the hands of the primarch, new cybernetic enhancements had to be created, the apothecary had told him he had been lucky because most of his rip cage had been turned to dust and his face had to be reconstructed as most of the flesh had been cut to ribbons.
His own thoughts bothered him and he continued to analyse where he might of gone wrong, did the ship take too long to get in position or was Alistravia simply too strong, he wanted to dismiss that idea but couldn't and he replayed the battle over and over again looking for something he missed.
The sound of a holo emitter engaging drew his attention and he looked to the projected figure reared up in front of him.
"That was foolissshhh" It hissed "Once again you fail war-masssster"
"If you could of done better then you should of revealed yourself!"
The figure laughed a wet snake like laugh that echoed across the medical bay.
"Patience war-masssster... wars are not won by those who russssh to victory and the time is not yet right for me because when I return..." The twisted snake face of Fulgrim leaned forward "everything must be perfect!"
Vigilus
Alistravia was stood facing the holo image of Marneus Calgar whose holo image stood next to the space wolves lord commander, the two were pleased to see the Primarch and had showered her with praise at defeating the despoiler but she cautioned them.
"Ezekyle is on his way and will arrive soon so be ready"
"I assure you my lady we will be ready but if you were to stay the advantage would be ours!" Calgar said
Alistravia shook her head.
"If I stay it will likely draw the attention of one of my traitor brothers and despite my mental recovery here I am still woefully unprepared to face them... A apace marine with delusions of grandeur is one thing but a primarch is truly different foe as the despoiler just found out"
Alistravia said it with a smug smile on her face but the battle had been hard and Ezekyle might not be a primarch but he was a skilled warrior and not to be ignored.
"We will hold Vigilus as best we can" The wolf commander said
"I have no doubt but reinforcements from my legion are coming and will send wherever else I can your way, with any luck one of my loyal brothers will return and you will have the support of a primarch but until then do what you can... and don't die, this war has enough dead heroes already"
The two figures nodded and Alistravia headed to the stork where Koman and the others were, she stood and smiled at them as they all bowed.
"No, do not bow to me... we shared an experience few others will have and I have need of your skills... all of them" she said looking to Kendra "If your willing of course"
"What need does a primarch have of us!?" Kinkade asked
Alistravia smiled.
"I will explain once we are home but for now you have all earned your freedom from this world"
"I don't know about anyone else but I am with you" Koman said
"I also!" Marklar and Maxis stated almost at the same time
"It would be nice to leave this emperor forsaken world, I am in" Kendra said
"I will serve until I die!" Kinkade said
"I also!" came the response from Faraq
Alistravia was pleased at this, Primarchs were not supposed to form bonds with those they commanded but it was hard not to for any of them and with these warriors she had shared something many others might never experience so whilst she was still their superior she felt tied to them in a personal way.
The "Corsairs blade"
The "Corsairs blade" was one of the newer ships in the Estrellan fleet classified as an interceptor, this was because in the years before Roboute came to recall Alistravia the Estrellan guilds had developed a way to increase the speed a ship could travel through a wormhole by manipulating certain particle wave forms.
This had then at first meant the development of the older fleet ships to incorporate this new technology but whilst this was occurring Kirie Opanka, one of the greatest ship designers ever to be born on Estrella began designing a new type of war-ship capable of almost quadrupling the speed of a wormhole to travel far beyond the speeds of any other ship of the line.
This had meant a completely new type of hull configuration that took years of testing and research to get right but had eventually led to the tear drop design of the interceptor cruiser class starship which had become the forward scout elements of most fleets that could play a capitol ship role and support the smaller corvettes.
Of course the tear drop shape was nothing unusual but the geometry of the outer hull had to be configured with curved edges that from a distance gave it the appearance of a great disk but this was so the wormholes conduit would not cause any drag on the ship and it's speed would remain unaffected, this of course had meant some sacrifices had to be made such as a reduced weapons load out and shield out put but it's speed could not be matched and Alistravia had chosen it to take her home.
The stork landed and the captain approached, he was a young marine who had worked hard to get to his position, Kyros had spoken highly of him last time they spoke and vouched for his capability.
As Alistravia stepped out from the stork along with the others he moved forward to greet her along with a retinue of terminators assigned to be her escort until she reached Terra.
"Mother it is a pleasure to host you on board the "Corsairs blade" your sarcophagus has been secured along with personal quarters for yourself and if there is anything you or your guests need I will make sure you have it"
Alistravia nodded to him.
"Thank you Captain Tarnham" she responded before indicating Koman and the others "Get these warriors fresh weapons, armour and medical checks... they are to have everything they need and anything they want"
"Of course mother" Tarnham said "And yourself?"
Alistravia sighed, she had agreed with her other selves the first thing they would do as soon as they got off the planet was this.
"A bath Captain... I really need a bath"
Corsairs blade
The ship had set off as soon as Alistravia was secured on board and was now on it's way to Terra.
As requested a bath had been provided, Alistravia had used the Sarcophagus to deconstruct her armour so she could be out of it's confines and into the fresh air of the ship.
She stripped down carefully removing the destroyed body glove and jacket, a small drone scuttled close and took the clothes to be destroyed.
She examined the bath for a moment, it was not as big and as ornate as her own back on the "Pequad" nor would it be as big as the one in her quarters in the palace on Terra which should be finished by now but it would do.
She added some oils and climbed in and let the water soother her, she examined the wound where Abbadon had stabbed her with the talon and could see it was barley visible now but she would forever feel it.
"we have a suggestion..."
"... or a request, we having trouble deciding which it is"
Alistravia slid back in the bath allowing her self to be submerged as she closed her eyes and then opened them again to the great trench where her darker and lighter selves stood waiting.
"What is is you are suggestion... or request?"
"This is our body as well and we believe we should have some control at times" her lighter self started to say
"we should also have names!" The darker one said cutting her off
Alistravia nodded.
"That seams wise, what would you suggest?"
"when things are relaxed as they are now I take control, I can still be assertive when needed and can always relinquish control back if things get out of hand"
"Similarly I should take control when things become difficult to handle combat wise, if our encounter with Abbadon taught is anything it's that we still have much to learn"
"A wise precaution and I can accept these terms... so what about names?"
"You should remain as Alistravia, but I would be Alis"
"And I will use our Estrellan mothers name!"
"Morgan... I like that" Alistravia said before turning to her lighter self "well then, enjoy our bath"
"I will" Alis said before pushing her self off the trench floor and swimming upward
She emerged from the water and ran her fingers through her hair.
They had much left to learn and Ezekyle would soon arrive at Vigilus but now the three personalities were united and the imperium would not fall while they were here but there was still further darkness to face and Alistravia was right when she had said... The real battle for Vigilus had only just begun...
Writers note: I started writing this at the beginning of the Vigilus 80 day countdown and I could not finish it until now due to work but please consider this story ends 1 week before Abbadon's true arrival at Vigilus.
