Dark Imperium Episode 6:Pain Within Pain Without

by menofwarhide

Alistravia, still struggling with her own regret takes a dangerous path to get off Vigilus but finds more than she bargained for in the tunnels, meanwhile the fleet is sent to system to investigate weather the random incursions by Drukhari raiders are related to a spate of mass disappearances.

It had been half a day since the attack on the base, most of what the marines could carry with them without restricting their combat efficacy had been put together and organized. The explosives were a must and great care was taken in handing out the last remaining Krak grenades whilst the rocket launcher with the two remaining missiles was handed to Marklar, the imperial fist, as he had proven capable of using it in previous raids Koman and the others had conducted, most of the others had what remaining bolter rounds they had spread between them and the one flamer they had was given to the ultramarine, Demos.

Koman walked over to Alistravia who was loading what bolter rounds they had passed to her into the make shift rifle, it looked like would fall apart any second and Alistravia noticed that worry on his face.

"It will have to do, were Perturabo still here... and loyal, he would likely of made an entire armoury by now... and the weapons would have been a lot better looking but needs must"

"It is still impressive that you can build a weapon out of spare parts" he said as the guardsman sniper walked up to them

The snipers name was Kendra, she had dark olive looking skin and was wearing her camouflage suit with her rifle was slung over her back.

"It's not good" she said and activated a basic holo map device

It lit up to show the whole hive and some of the surrounding area, Kendra had been invaluable to Koman as she was able scout far ahead of the others and was good at mapping out areas and assessing the best points of attack, she had explored a good potion of the hive and new much of what went on around them.

She pointed to the upper hive.

"we can't use the high streets because there swarming with ork's fighting the black legion, they have more guns and bodies on both sides and we would be cut down rather quickly.

"What about going through the middle?" Koman asked

Kendra shook her head.

"There are Eldar on the mid levels and while they are fewer in number they have collapsed most of the through routes and it was force us to go straight into their lines and I imagine they will not be looking to talk"

"So" Koman started "our options are go over and get killed by traitors and green-skins or through the middle which seams more likely to succeed but it would take months if the through routes are all destroyed"

He looked to Alistravia who was examining the map, she zoomed it out and then lowered it towards the bottom of the hive close to where they were.

"We will go under the hive city" she said "the tunnels still look intact there and we can hopefully find a working train car"

"Those tunnels were abandoned after those xenos cultists overran them along with the hybrids, most avoid those tunnels and that incudes our enemy's"

Alistravia glared at him with some confusion.

"I understand your trepidation but as long as we take it slowly and quietly we hopefully won't draw much attention to ourselves"

Alistravia knew what she was suggesting was a risk but the Eldar could not be trusted and both the orks and Black legion would kill them on sight, it was a gamble going into the dark below the city but one they had to take.

Koman looked at Kendra who shrugged.

"If what Intel we have is accurate only the less transformed ones leave there tunnels and you are right in that if we are careful we will get through without even disturbing them..." Koman said before nodding to Alistravia "...and I guess we don't have time for a full length debate so I suggest we head out now before someone comes looking for those missing traitors"

Alistravia picked up her make shift rifle and as they left a trigger was activated on a countdown that would detonate the small about of explosives they could spare and collapse the roof covering any sign they were ever there but Koman couldn't help but wonder what was going through the mind of the primarch, was she simply using the marines as a tool to get her where she needed to go or was she genuine about helping them redeem themselves, either way they were about to step into the dark below the city and who knew what dangers they might face in the tunnels...

Pain within, Pain without

The Pequad and the rest of the fleet had anchored around a busy imperial world at the request of Sankara who had asked them to investigate the distant systems reports of Eldar slavers sending small fleets towards one of the outer worlds and then running in time before the system patrol fleet could engage them but despite setting up hundreds of stealth satellites so far they had seen no sign of any incursion into the system and the the admiral was becoming frustrated, something she was making abundantly clear to Sankara.

"This is pointless Sankara, there's nothing but a quiet system here, were the Drukhari making incursions it seams likely they would of given up by now and won't come back for months!" she said to the hololith image of Alistravia's equerry who ran his fingers through what remained of Estrellan blonde hair

Velar was stood beside her and even he was growing bored of waiting for something that might never happen.

"I understand your annoyance Admiral but while mother is absent the fleet can not be just sat around and this presents an opportunity for the 2nd to show it's continued support for the imperium, with rebellion being a worry since mothers appointment we must do what we can to elevate the pressure on other fleets"

"I understand that but still I fail to see how a few unsolved disappearances on one world links to the Drukhari incursions"

Another holo image pointed is finger at her.

"Firstly admiral it is not just a few disappearances it is several hundred ranging form those in the upper hives all the way to the lower tiers and it has been getting worse"

Kandahar's governor was an old slightly over wight with old man who had become somewhat of annoyance to the High Lords, not enough to have him removed yet but decisions he had been making were delaying the tithe the planet owed by months and sometimes years but given their limited resources chasing up this issue had been put on the back burner until situations elsewhere could be resolved.

Of course it wasn't a coincidence that the Pequad and it's fleet was here and Sankara's speech about continued support was simply to keep the governor from picking up on any anterior motive for the fleets arrival.

Another holo figure flicked her short hair back from obscuring her face.

"while we have found no evidence to link these disappearances to the Drukhari there continued incursions into our system must be dealt with!"

The chief of the adeptus arbites was a sullen tall woman who looked like she had seen too much action in her younger years and that had made her hard headed.

"No one is denying that chief Unalaska but we need to ascertain if there is any link here and if so how the dammed xenos are getting people off the world and to their fleet" Sankara responded

"we have numerous teams on the ground and our primarchs personal assistant, Kalia, is going through all reports to see if she can find a pattern but so far there has been no luck" Velar said

"Governor, Chief I suggest you work to safeguard from any future disappearances whilst the legion deals with the overall investigation" said Sankara

"I should be involved at some level, I am the Chief arbites"

"Should we need your assistance with anything we will request it!" Velar snarled at her

He didn't like talking to people in that manner but her response showed just how dogmatic and fearful imperial citizens were of space marines.

"Of course my lord... I apologise"

"As soon as we have something we will notify you" The admiral said and the holo image of the governor and chief vanished

Sankara's image was left and Velar asked the most urgent question on his mind.

"Any news of mother?"

Sankara shook his head.

"No but my hope is the neutral Alis has returned by now and is finding away off Vigilus"

"It's a dangerous planet, are we sure she will be ok?" Velar asked

"Oh I am sure she will make every effort to find the safest way back without putting her self in any tactically unsafe situations..."

Vigilus

Kendra returned to the group as they took shelter in a burnt out hab just down the street from the entrance to the train station. She had been gone a few hours but that had been expected and she returned earlier that most thought she would.

"The entrance is clear of any traps and the whole station looks deserted, can't see any sign of a working train car though"

Alistravia looked to Koman who nodded.

"Alright" he said as he turned to the group "Once were in the tunnels no firing"

The others nodded, it was not a disagreed with order because noise would only attract the attention of the xenos and in the maze of tunnels they would have the advantage.

Alistravia was content to let Koman give the orders to the group for several reasons, firstly she was a stranger to them and despite being a primarch she knew these men had lost all sense of rank and authority when they committed what ever mistake it was they made.

The second reason was that Koman was a captain and she had made a point of never directly interfering with her captains command and she was happy to do the same here and besides that Koman had kept them together for a long time and she knew they trusted him more than they would ever trust her.

She couldn't imagine what each of them had done and as they marched carefully towards the entrance of the train station she looked a few of them over.

The white scar was always quiet and always seamed to be separate from the others, whether that was a form of punishment on himself or just his normal personality she didn't know.

Marching closest to him was the ultramarine and he was wide eyed and very young... whatever choice had led him here had not faltered his lust for war but behind his eyes was a sadness that spoke of a greater tragedy.

A crimson fist with one eye marched at the other side of her and gave her a curt nod as she glanced in his direction, she returned the gesture. He was a proud dignified looking warrior and seamed to understand the mistakes he had made were not to be constantly relived, he just had to go forward and try to undo them.

The small group of fifteen astartes one human and a primarch descended the stairs down into the train station, the platforms were a mess of dropped items and luggage as well as dead servitors and other rusted machinery, in the roof a few birds fluttered off looking for food while along the train lines a few rodents scurried along back and forth.

Alistravia had never seen this world before and an idealistic picture half rotted away was left on the side of a vendors cart. It showed blue sky's and marching astartes with a slogan saying we stand ready to defend you along with the imperial guard and others so that no traitors will set foot on this world.

"How wrong they were" Koman said as he noticed her looking at the picture "your much quieter than your other self"

Alistravia looked back at him with some curiosity.

"If words are needed I will speak them..." She sighed as Koman looked back at her confused "We are different people, me and her so yes I am less talkative because I see no need for conversation and try to bare in mind for the last ten millennia I have been shut away punishing myself so I am still assessing this new, darker imperium"

"you can not access her memories?"

"I can remember things she did and said but visual details about the world around me are not as easily passed on to the other personalities" Alistravia responded as they made there way towards the main line tunnel entrance that would take them to the other side of the hive city

It was strangely quiet, in the distance somewhere off towards the top of the hive the sounds of war could be heard but down here those distant sounds did nothing to upset the quiet and the marines dropped down onto the tracks.

Emergency lighting was still operational and extended down the tunnel as they looked on.

"Alright let's stay close and don't lose each other, those still recovering from injury stay to centre with Maxis, remember no bolter usage so stick to blades and brute force until were at the other end" Koman said briefing the others "It should take us no more than week providing there are no obstructions"

"What about suit lumens?" Kinkade the blood angel asked

The blood angel had been the one who carried Alistravia back to the base when they had found her.

"keep them to minimal setting" Alistravia said "if it gets too dark you will have to rely on the night vision in your helms"

The group nodded and went about organising themselves as they prepared to go down the tunnel.

Kendra had gone slightly ahead and came back running up to them with a smile on her face.

"I found an intact car, it need pushing back on the rails but it has power in it's generator... enough to see us through I think"

She led them a few hundred feet inside the tunnel to a train car with no damage, it was slightly askew off the rails.

Alistravia lifted the back of the car on to the tracks, it felt odd to her after being out of control for so long, she could feel the strength increase almost immediately after she had taken control.

She had never been as strong as her brothers and had often relied on them for moving large objects but now the car felt so light it intrigued her to know what else she could do with this new found power, her alters test against Roboute had shown some limits to her knew strength but to truly understand it she needed an actual foe to fight, not a training partner.

The car was just big enough for the everyone to fit in and they organized themselves so that they could cover any approach should they be attacked, Alistravia and the Iron hand, Faraq, worked on restoring power from the generator which, as Kendra had suggested, had more than enough power to get them through the tunnel.

It started up with a low hum and low level lumens came on, Alistravia broke the high beam on the front leaving only the low intensity forward lighting and while it would mean they had reduced viability it would help lower the chances of being spotted.

After an hour the train car was ready and Kinkade was given the duty of driving for the first day, it shuddered forward then stopped before Alistravia gave the generator a thump and it came back to life.

The car pushed forward and descended into the tunnel with it's passengers, a shift rotation was worked out so some of the marines could put them selves into their sleep like state and rest up so everyone was fresh and ready, Alistravia on the other hand was wide awake... maybe it was because she had been out of control for so long she didn't want to miss anything or maybe it was just the amount of sleep her other self had but the events of the past weighed on her mind and the darkness of the tunnel only reflected to darkness of that day on Ariel and inside her own thoughts absolution was still far away.

Kandahar

Kalia had wanted to start on her research project, she had gotten everything ready and even worked out the progression of notes and observations she would need to do in order to get it right but instead she was stuck in the basement of the arbites records building looking for some kind of pattern to the disappearances but so far she was at a loss with the people.

They were all from different backgrounds with no real common factor, some were rich and some were poor, male and female, old and young. Nothing connected them until they disappeared which was odd as some of these people barley left their local districts yet somehow they were no longer in the hive city.

So she had given in on finding a connection with the people, it was impossible and she had no more energy to waste time on it so she had asked the junior scribe to get her information ships coming and going along with cargo and crew to see if there was any oddities, people trafficking wasn't unusual on the outer cluster, the strange mix of wealth and age would suggest a trafficker simply taking a unusual group of different classes of people to confuse the arbites and combined with the Drukhari incursions it would make it easier to get away with.

For the past few hours the scribe had been sending her the records and initially there had been nothing unusual, there was obvious smuggling and shady deals being made but most of these the adeptus arbites were tracking so she could likely rule them out but it was when she had discovered unusual cargo shipments to the planet furthest out in the system she got curious.

The cargo was listed as carrying other supplies for the colony on that world but the supplies inside the container had no transfix codes or identity of any kind which was odd considering it was standard imperial law to label all cargo no matter how inconsequential it was and what was more interesting was that this particular shipment occurred once every six weeks which did not line up with any imperial operational codes considering that any ship delivering cargo within system had to undergo regular checks to be allowed to operate but according to this no checks had ever been carried out.

There was also no crew listed which made even less sense as most other ships registered their command crews at bare minimum, she briefly considered that this was some kind of shadow operation by the arbites against some larger criminal syndicate but as far as she knew they had no such operations in progress and the deliveries to the outer most planet made less sense if that's what they were doing.

She tracked the cargo containers through a bunch of buried accounts until she finally found a departure number indicating what platform the cargo was being dispatched from, like most hive city's a massive rail system ferried cargo back and forth to the outer ports where smaller ships would ferry cargo to a capital ship waiting in orbit and if she could find out which station of the port the cargo was dispatching from she could solve this mystery.

Sargent Malcan stopped her as she went to leave, he was a rather over zealous marine who took his duty's seriously and Gerik had ordered him to watch over Kalia to protect her although she surmised Gerik knew how curious she could be at times and that might get her into trouble.

"You were told to remain here" he said scratching his beard that was so thick it would of made a space wolf jealous

"I need to follow up on a lead" she responded as he and the three other members of squad "Carmine" blocked the exit

Malcan stared down at her and rubbed his beard again.

"Then we will come with you"

"People are less likely to answer questions from an astartes so it's best if I go and ask them by myself" she stated

Malcan grunted in response.

"And if those people your talking to are involved with these disappearances in some way then you may find yourself in trouble so... no I will not allow you to go alone"

Kalia knew he was right in that regard, if she questioned the wrong person and it turned out they knew or were involved with the missing people she could find herself the next target for vanishing so she gave a nod in response.

"I suppose that's... true" She said reluctantly "But you should stay back so it's not as intimidating"

"Agreed" came the grunted response

They made there way down to the main lifts that carried people between the different levels of the hive, Kalia noted the rest of the squad were staying quiet or perhaps they were talking via the vox in their helms but either way they showed no outward appearance of interest. She had noticed the marines that had come down to the city were avoiding high population areas as it made them uncomfortable to be looked up on with such god like adoration and be showered with praise and sung at by hordes of people who did not understand the Knights Of Estrella were not like the other astartes chapters.

The lift opened on a fairly quiet underground area with branches off to multiple platforms, a few people were walking through while a group of workers were playing some kind of dice game, they looked to where Kalia stepped through the smoke created from the underground vents and a few made moves to get up as they smiled at each other, that was until a squad of four space marines stepped out behind her and the men quickly acted like they were moving to do something else before sitting back down.

"were looking for platform 86z1-alpha, it should be one of these" Kalia said as they marched down the road

The first few platforms were operating as normal and servitors along with human work crews were loading or unloading crates of different sizes and shapes whilst the odd foreman stood watching. A few of them looked as they passed and some made holy signs or muttered a short prayer under their breath.

They passed through several corridors and the area got quieter and Kalia asked a passing worker for directions and he pointed them towards the end of the road and round the corner.

"I have a bad feeling about this" Malcan said as they rounded a corner to be greeted with a great sealed door

The designation above said "86z1-alpha".

Malcan prodded at the door controls but they were unresponsive.

"It is sealed from the other side"

"Sir" one of the squad said and indicated a small vent walk way

"You can fit through there" he said to Kalia "I suggest you go and open the door from the other side but be careful"

Kalia nodded and crawled into the vent, it was hot and so full of steam she had to feel her way forward for the first few feet, then the vent turned in the direction of the bay.

She crawled another few feet before it turned again and she had to push hard against the metal grate before it came loose, she stood up and found the controls on the other side. Malcan was right it had been sealed from this side and it looked as if the terminal had been hacked in some way as it displayed a strange set of symbols.

She eventually found the switch she was looking for and the doors opened allowing the squad in, immediately one of the marines stopped and looked around at the console she had used on the door.

"Xenos language identified, enemy targets possible"

Malcan nodded and the squad drew it's bolters and Kalia flicked the safety off her own phase pistol as Malcan locked his helmet over his head and handed Kalia an ear bud so she could hear their comms.

"Spread out but don't lose sight of each other, Kalia stay behind us!"

Kalia was happy enough to with that order, now they confirmation of some xenos activity she did not want to be at the front when the shooting started.

"Admiral"

"yes Sargent?" Came the response from orbit

"we are in cargo shipping station 86z1-alpha and have identified xenos language... can you scan the area and tell us what were dealing with?" Malcan asked as the squad spread out

"One moment... Sargent I am not registering any lifeforms in that area and that includes you, it is being shielded for some reason"

Malcan feared that as his personal auspex was not registering anything either.

"I will send reinforcements your way now, I suggest you hold off on an assault until they arrive"

"Acknowledged" he responded as a woman's scream echoed through from deeper in to the entrance way

"So were just going to sit here and not do anything? They could escape!" Kalia whispered as another scream and then a whimper echoed

"We are only four and have no idea of the tactical situation... patience"

Another scream and then the screams of a man this time and Kalia began moving forward.

"Wait!" Malcan hissed to her but her mind was made up and she pushed forward into the open bay and took cover behind some large boxes

As she looked over she spied eight creatures with dark green armour and black rifles that seamed to be dripping some kind of venom, they were fairly tall and two of them were stood in front of a large container where just inside Kalia could see many bodies of humans, still breathing but unconscious.

A ninth creature, a female, stood with no helm. Her face was scared and her crimson red hair pulled her face tighter that it looked like it should be, she carried some kind of energy whip and on the floor in front of her was a woman on laying on her front, still alive but with a wound still bleeding that had clearly been made by the whip. The male she had heard scream was laying on his side and had also suffered a strike from the whip.

The leader with the whip said something in a language Kalia could never hope to understand and two of the eight creatures grabbed the man and dragged him into the container with the rest of the people, the woman however was still awake somehow and was trying to get back up but the creature whipped her again and she screamed a sound that Kalia didn't even know a human could make but somehow she did not collapse and tried to push her self back up.

The creature drew her arm back to flog her once more but Kalia stood up and shot a round just past the creatures head, it turned to her and Kalia came out from her position aiming at the leaders head.

"Brave" it said in some kind of bastardised crudely learned version of High Gothic

Several of the other creatures aimed their weapons towards her but she shouted.

"One more step and I'll kill her!"

"They... not afraid... you" the leader said

Kalia glanced at them and just out the corner of her eye she caught the movement of of an astartes shaped shadow slipping around the side.

"surrender" the creature said motioning at her "you only one"

"No!" Kalia said and moved towards the woman who then looked at her with fear shaking her head as if to say no don't try to help me

And with that look for a moment Kalia was distracted and the leader raised it's whip to attack her as her aim drifted off, Kalia realised and started to swing her gun back round and turn away from a hit that never came.

A bolter round severed the creatures lower arm instantly and then the whole room erupted in gun fire, Malcan had sent two of the squad round one side and he and the other marine had flanked the other side and the Drukhari were caught in a deadly cross fire. Four of them went down before they could even react whilst the other four were in a pitched battle as they attempted to use parts of the station for cover.

The leader was not angry and seamed to be enjoying the pain from having her arm severed but she wasn't enjoying the pleasure so much that she did not have time to draw and raise a deadly looking pistol to shoot Kalia but then a larger charging object drew her attention as Malcan charged towards her, the leader but a few shots into him but he kept charging and smashed her head open with his fist as she tried to evade him.

The last four Drukhari were killed when two more squads arrived along with Gerik who surveyed the carnage.

Malcan had rolled over onto his back and released his helm, black blotches had appeared on his face and an apothecary attended to him as Gerik came over.

"You were supposed to wait Sargent!"

Malcan was about to utter some excuse but Kalia stepped in.

"It's my fault... I was worried they would escape"

Gerik loomed over her and took a deep breath.

"You and I will need to have a discussion later about operational procedure and learning to listen to orders... but for now, gather what evidence led you here and return to the Pequad, Vorhees go with her and don't let her out of your sight" he said indicating a close by marine who nodded in response.

Vigilus

It had been about a day and a half now since they had appropriated the train car and set off, the tunnels were quiet and very empty with noting unusual within them, low level lumens were still active along the sides but overall it was dark even inside the car.

Alistravia was sat locked in her own thoughts about her past when Kamen approached, she knew his smell and the sounds he made as he moved well enough now and would have been able to identify him without ever opening her eyes.

The rest of the marines were either asleep or keeping watch, one of the injured marines who had recovered enough to be capable of fighting again was currently driving and apart from the odd clickety clack of the track the train car made little sound as it carried on.

"I still see you are struggling with your past mistake" Koman said as he sat opposite her

"my alters have accepted some responsibility but it was I who pulled the trigger on those people not them" Alistravia responded "But I understand now to hide myself away and not confront it was a mistake"
Koman lent back against the soft foam on the long seat, it was meant to be able to seat three people but a space marine took up most of the seat.

"Why did you not talk with your brothers... or the emperor?"

Alistravia sighed.

"in all honesty I don't know... I guess I believed they would just shrug and say get over it and my father well... he would have been himself"

"You say that as if he would not of cared? You are his daughter" Koman said in response

"True but it was hard with him at times"

"How so?" Koman said leaning forward now curious to hear something about the emperor

Alistravia smiled and glance up at the Black Templar.

"he had a habit of distancing himself from us and making out that we were simply tools which was a description I challenged him on a few times... mainly because I don't believe he did not care about us but I do think it was easier for him to see us that way otherwise emotion might cloud his judgment"

"Interesting..." Koman started "interesting that you could challenge him at all"

Alistravia shrugged.

"Perhaps challenge is too strong of a word... at times I asked him uncomfortable questions and he would often become annoyed at them because I believed he saw us as more but simply did not wish to acknowledge his feelings for fear of seaming less... royal"

"so you believe he cared for you and your brothers!"

Alistravia nodded.

"I said to him once, why when we were lost did you not simply start again and create new primarchs"

Koman leant in closer enjoying the tale.

"what was his response?"

Alistravia laughed a little.

"he gave none so I said that you must care deeply for us to come looking rather than simply start again, but again he gave no response and that was him in a nutshell, in truth I do believe somewhere in that mind of his he does care but the wight of his task was too much for him to be ever worrying about his children"

Koman nodded and lent back.

"perhaps this is why I am here... to be that person for you to speak to?"

Alistravia chuckled.

"you think our meeting divine providence?"

"what else could it be?"

Alistravia chuckled again and then smiled at the marine.

"Chaos theory, coincidence or the law of large numbers... pick which terminology you think fits best"

Koman made a displeased face at her.

"I was guided here by the emperor, I know that for certain"

"Do tell!?" Alistravia said in response

Koman did not know how to take that response, he knew that Alistravia, no matter which one was in control, did not believe in the emperor as a god but it was hard to tell if she was mocking him for his beliefs or genuinely interested.

He could tell from the tone in her voice that this Alistravia had less tolerance for his beliefs but yet looking into her eyes he could see no malice or sarcasm but simply someone with a desire to understand and maybe this was part of the god emperors divine plan, to soften his daughters heart into understanding his true divinity.

"after I left my legion I had a vision of Vigilus and I knew I must come here for some reason, initially I though it was to help these marines find their peace" he said indicating the others "but now I see it had a greater meaning which was to meet you"

"Interesting" Alistravia said "but I was not guided here by my father, I was stranded by my brother and my equerry"

Koman nodded.

"perhaps the emperor was working through them, who can say, but I now see my reason for being here and understand his will"

Alistravia started laughing and Koman growled.

"Oh forgive me I am not laughing at you only the irony of this whole situation"

"Of us being here?" Koman queried

Alistravia shook her head.

"My father wanted to lead the imperium to an age of enlightenment and I whole heartedly supported that goal, it was one of the few things we bonded over... a desire for an age of science and discovery where mankind would not be restricted by nonsensical superstitious beliefs"

Koman narrowed his eyes a little trying to understand the point she was trying to make.

"Don't you see the irony here?" she said "All that was for nothing"

Koman shrugged.

"So you could never believe the emperor a god?"

"My father was a man... I know this because I knew him and yes he was powerful but he was not a god nor has he ascended to being one now..." she sighed and looked into Koman's eyes "You know who you sound like don't you and please don't be upset at the comparison"

"Who?" Koman asked even though he knew exactly who she was referring to

"Lorgar!" she said and Koman had to bite his tongue so as not to respond with any aggression "Not that I am implying you are traitorous... far from it, but he spoke as you do now and look where that took him, it led him to xenos creatures that played on his beliefs and they turned him against the imperium... that is the folly of religion... it can be twisted from something good to be used for tremendous evil because in reality religion is nothing more than a tool for humans with more power and money to control those lesser to them"

"That traitor should have been stronger" Koman growled

Alistravia shrugged.

"he was always a concern for me but others didn't see it... at least until it was too late"

Koman starred at her for a few moments considering her last few words, it had never occurred to him that his devout beliefs might of reflected some of Lorgar's but then he had never met him or lived in that time so perhaps those reflections were simply out of date.

In his life even before his accession to an astartes he had always been devout and loyal to the emperor so that idea that his faith could be perverted astonished him but yet he knew it to be true.

"I suppose my mistakes reflect that of my own inner turmoil" she said suddenly

"Which is?"

"That I was smarter than everyone else and that I could overcome the weakness of being human but I spent so long believing that that when I saw those people in that basement and realised I was no better than any other it consumed me... simply because I refused to accept who I am because my mind told me I was better and above it all"

Koman smiled.

"we are only human... maybe that is what you...we all need to accept"

Alistravia lent back and closed her eyes.

"The human condition is arrogant, arrogance is what kills the best of us, who would take this unmerciful burden upon their back and be able to withstand it, look at what we have done to deserve the human condition"

Koman nodded.

"that is rather apt"

"poetry is not my strong suit" she responded before looking at Koman " but I'll start again and what ever pain may come this has to end... I need to forgive myself for what I've done... maybe then others can forgive me"

Koman let a few minutes pass before he looked back up towards the primarch.

"have you ever had a spiritual experience"

Alistravia looked back at him and shrugged.

"how would you define it?"

Koman lent back and thought for a moment, he knew his definition would have to avoid certain terminologies and representations as well as staying away from any divination of anyone the primarch might know.

"have you ever had something out side the realms of what your science could quantify, a experience where even you know that your technology would be useless"

Alistravia nodded and thought about this, she knew of two instances recently and part of her wanted to refuse to answer the question but in Koman she saw a person who despite his beliefs was seeking knowledge and that pleased her, if more who worshipped the god emperor asked questions, even if those answers did not change their beliefs, then it was at least a step forward.

"my lighter self did recently... and I can recall these memories myself because they are so vivid"

She took a breath and looked down at her own hands, a few stands of her long black hair had fallen over her shoulder and she found herself playing with them absent mindedly as she spoke.

"Seeing father as noting but a rotting corpse was horrifying... I mean I always believed he was mortal but to see him like that was disturbing"

She could see Koman was uncomfortable with the image of the emperors corpse and continued on quickly.

"Then as she knelt the throne room vanished and she... we were on a beach and he was stood looking out over it, she tried to analyse and he just said... must you analyse everything..."

She laughed at this as she realized without knowing it her alter had been unaware of how humorous it was.

"For father to communicate with me was one thing, that I could understand but the beach was so real and the sea smelt so sweet to her that there was no way to deny it was beyond our comprehension"

Koman smiled.

"Does that upset you, that you could not understand it?"

She shook her head.

"No not really, my father was unique and no one could of ever truly understood what he was capable of"

Koman looked into her eyes.

"But the other one, it did upset you didn't... I can see even now it shakes you"

She nodded.

"It was not like the experience with the emperor, that I could accept but what happened on Baal was something all of us can not processes easily"

"What happened?"

"I touched a piece of cloth stained with the blood of Sanguinius, I was warned it could cause psychic episodes and I was drawn into an old memory but before it ended I beheld a vision of a great descending angel armoured in pure gold..."

Koman took a breath as he sat quietly listening.

"We told Dante it was just a memory but later we went back and the same thing occurred, after seeing the past we again saw the angel and... we knew it... it said my name"

Koman nodded and looked her over, in a way she was like a lost child desperately trying to understand a world she once knew but had now changed beyond her recognition but something about her also spoke of an older wisdom, like she had seen too much too fast and it had carried her so far beyond her true self it had taken being stranded here to allow it to catch up and only now was she seeing the true reality of things.

"Who do you think the golden angel was?"

"I suppose the easiest answer would be Sanguinius, but if it was why was he there and ….. was he trying to communicate" She shook her head as if to shake the answer-less questions away "perhaps I am not meant to know..." she looked back over at Koman "Is this an event you would consider spiritual?"

"Yes and I can see the fact that you are unable to understand it is disturbing to you but maybe if you let go of your intelligence and simply allowed yourself to feel... well maybe then you would understand these events better than you do now"

Alistravia nodded, she was begging to realise as these events played out beyond the control of her technology, beyond the safety of her ship or Estrella and even her sons that much of whom she was could not accept reality unless it could be defined by the cold sterile process of science and she had to let that go, her darker self had done that, she could see that now... it was why she of all of them understood truly her role and her own mortality.

Her lighter self used the idea of superior technology to distance her self and make herself feel superior, she remembered when Ferrus had told her she was too high and mighty and that while here technology was indeed powerful, she was not equal to it and in no way superior to anyone, least of all her own brothers.

He was right and now she found herself shedding tears for him as Koman watched on because in truth as much as she could blame her lighter self for being the one who ran away, it was her who was responsible for never listening and the deaths of her brothers and all those who died were tied to her and she had to own that part of her now or be forever consumed by it, then the lights in the train car suddenly went off.

A hand rested on hers and she looked up expecting to see Koman but instead found herself staring into the face of her father

"Why do you shed tears daughter?"

"because I am a destroyer of lives" she responded

The emperor shook his head.

"No, no tears should you cry for all that as past, you may accept it but tears do not save those still left behind, you are more than just flesh and bone, Rogal knew this as did your equerry... you are three but you are not a house divided"

Alistravia looked back at the master of mankind.

"you knew, always?"

"I knew you since your birth because you are my daughter...all of you"

"I can not be what you ask of me, not like this... it hurts to be this lost" She said

The figure of the emperor smiled at her, it was as if this vision of her father was filed with the love for his children he had hidden away, there was a warmth and serenity within his face, something she had not seen before.

"dear daughter that is what all this is... pain within and pain without, embrace that and you embrace... life"

"I am conflicted, these warriors I find myself with seek to redeem themselves and I wish to do that also but I also wish to run back home and I dare not tell them that for they would think me a coward... and I would fail you again"

The emperor placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Daughter, sometimes we have to fall so we can pick ourselves back up and be stronger for it, so be stronger, be the person I made you to be, embrace it all and step forward and then you will see the pieces fall into place"

Alistravia looked up at the beaming smile of her father and knew then truth, he was no god but he his love for humanity did not diminish, nor had it for her.

"there are monsters ahead... and after that he will come to face you... that will be your ultimate test here because only by accepting who you truly are will you overcome..."

The train car lights flicked back on and and everyone was standing with their weapons raised.

Koman looked down at her and noticed her face had become more serious.

Alistravia could smell it now, the rotted flesh and sounds of things in the tunnel up ahead... they had always been there but her doubt and sorrow had covered up the dangers and she now realised the true danger they faced under the city.

Pequad

They had assembled in the briefing around the large circular table, it's white neon surface stood out in stark contrast to it's black borders and golden etching. The white walls of the room were reflecting some of the light as well and whole room felt as if it was glowing.

Two were here by hololith, projected from the surface of the world the governor and Chief Unalaska stood firmly waiting for the meeting to start.

Most were already here, the admiral stood looking over a data slate as she waited along with Lore master Velar who seamed to be lost in thought, the captain of the 6th, Gerik stood next to him along with Kalia who had a multitude of data slates laid out in front of her.

The last to enter was Gerik's brother and Chief Apothecary Nev, he came and stood beside Kalia and nodded to Velar who gave a nod back.

"Good now we are all assembled we can begin, Kalia?"

She nodded and activated a rune that projected a holoimage of all the data she had a acquired and the pattern she had followed that led her too it.

"Using a secret transport ship and a disused service platform the Drukhari have been shipping people off planet to somewhere on the last planet in the system, Sodin"

"for what purpose?" The governor asked

"These Eldar are know for slavery and torture, unlike their craft world kin they seam to revel in the pleasure pain provides" Velar said in response

Kalia was reminded of the wounded leader creature that seamed to be enjoying having it's arm missing after it was sheered off by a bolter round from Malcan.

"So the Drukhari fleet picks these kidnapped people up and then takes them out of the system?" The arbites Chief asked but Kalia shook her head slightly

"No I checked, the Drukhari ships incursions do not align with the transport of these people and they have never gone close to Sodin"

"could they have a hidden base on Sodin and be simply checking up on it?" The admiral asked as she looked over the data

"whatever the reason for these incursions we now have confirmed xenos activity within the system and steps must be take to neutralise the threat before they start taking greater liberties" The governor responded

Velar nodded in agreement before looking to Nev.

"What did those recovered from the container say?"

"They don't remember much except being out for a walk or going to their job and suddenly waking up here, but my analysis shows a trace amount of poison that could induce a coma like state in their systems, the woman and man who Kalia saw being attacked spoke of being woken up to be tortured for the sadistic pleasure of the officer in charge and examination of the Eldar bodies reveal nothing of note beyond scars and other wounds"

Velar nodded, he hadn't expected anything useful to come from the captured citizens or the bodies of the xenos.

"the arbites are ready to take over in keeping the platform under lock down if you wish to go on the hunt" The arbites Chief said suddenly

"No!" Velar said bluntly

"Surely those warriors can be useful elsewhere and the hive city is my jurisdiction so therefore..."

"...Therefore this is now a legion matter and thus those warriors will remain there until we are confident the threat is dealt with, the arbites are not equipped to deal with this" Velar said

"This is improper and my authority has to be respected..."

"There is enough evidence to suggest that the xenos were working with someone, the buried accounts and hidden transports prove this and to that end an officer of the inquisition is en route from a near by system in order to pursue this investigation... and you have no authority over a legion!"

Velar said slamming his hand on the table.

The Chief was angry and cut her link instantly.

"I apologise for her my lords, she has been under a lot of stress lately"The governor said after a few moments of quiet had passed

"Then I can trust in your co-operation with this investigation governor?" Velar asked

"As soon as the inquisitor arrives he will have my full co-operation"

Velar nodded, at first he had not trusted the governor, in fact after reviewing Kalia's evidence he had wanted to suspect him of association with the xenos but something in his voice was honest, yes he had annoyed the High Lords but the man did not seam to be traitorous in any way, just old and jaded.

"I am glad to hear this, if you will excuse us we have a tactical situation to access, we will keep you updated where necessary"

The image of the governor bowed before his projection vanished.

Velar looked around the table as Rebus entered the room and the images of the other captains present in the fleet appeared around the table, they had all been watching the briefing before that as well as being handed the evidence Kalia had gathered.

"Suggestions?"

"Without an exact location on all out assault on Sodin is not a good idea" Captain Nemo of the 13th said

"Thanks for close captioning the obvious as usual Nemo" Kothar of the 9th responded

"oh you've been pissed with me ever since your research got disproved by mine"

"I though it got dis-proven by Forin's research?" The admiral asked

"No mine only served as a foundation" Forin the captain of the 12th responded

"we can discuss this at a later date, need I remind you this is a tactical briefing" Velar said

"Apologies lore master... perhaps a heavy scan of Sodin's surface might reveal their position" Kothar said

The admiral shook her head in response.

"If they are using the same tech as they did to hide the platform then we won't ever find it, but we could scan for web way gate signatures?"

"If there was a gate they wouldn't need the transports" Kalia said and was surprised when the admiral nodded her acknowledgement to her

Gerik and Rebus, who had pushed himself to stand by Gerik, were whispering quietly to each other before Gerik nodded and said.

"It's worth a try" before he looked up and saw everyone looking at him then he simply said "Rebus has a plan"

Velar looked to the captain of the 7th.

"well?"

Rebus turned to Kalia.

"How long until the next shipment is due to be transported?"

Kalia picked up one of her pads and studied it for a second.

"Two days"

Rebus turned back to the rest of the room.

"We send as many squads as we can hidden in the container along with Forin's portable wormhole generators and then once they are within the xenos base we activate them and bring the rest of our forces down"

"What if the xenos scan the containers" Kothar said

"We can use the life sign mimicking technology you invented... at least that way some of your research won't be a complete bust" Nemo said smiling sarcastically at the captain of the 9th

"That's it! after this operation is over... you and me in a cage one on one..." Kothar responded smiling back before looking at the rest of the room "the plan has value...but we have no idea what you might run into and given the size of that container you may only be able to fit twenty warriors in anyway"

"I had a thought about that" Gerik said and looked to velar "we should wake Kelsey and take him with me"

Velar took a deep breath.

"Mother did not want to disturb him"

"She is not here and we could use his support on this operation" Gerik said in response

Velar thought about it as the others looked to him, as long as mother was elsewhere he was in command. She had not wanted to awaken him but then again she was not the correct personae and perhaps the more neutral Alistravia would of awoken him long ago.

Velar nodded.

"very well we will wake him, but it will reduce the number of battle brothers you can take with you"

"We will manage and once we are secure we can summon the rest of you"

"I agree with this plan but it might be wise to have the fleet move away from the main planet as if searching for the Eldar..." Forin said

"That is easy enough, I will take us to the other side of the system where the asteroid belt is and act as if we are searching for some hidden base there, as soon as we have conformation Gerik's team is on the move we will slowly make our way to Sodin" The admiral said and everyone nodded

"we should also consider that the Drukhari fleet may be monitoring or worse, the someone who is assisting them might alert them, we should be prepared for possible void combat" two voices chorused as one

Vidi and Midi like Kyros and Alistravia's bodyguard Gigas, were twins, and twins on Estrella were not uncommon, especially in men, but unlike Kyros and Gigas who had made different choices they had both made the same leading them to captain the twentieth and twenty first company's respectively and would often voice the same thought at the same time. They had also pushed void combat research together and had become masters of boarding.

"I am guessing you two are volunteering to stay aboard the ships then?" Nemo said and the two nodded simultaneously

"Then we are agreed" Velar said "Gerik will infiltrate the base, once inside he will activate the portable wormhole generators and a full assault will begin... full cleanse and control protocol... no survivors"

"Gerik, I want every warrior your taking with you to come to see me " Nev said "I am going to adjust your battle stimulants to help counter the poisons they may use against you, I'll deal with the rest of our forces after"

Gerik nodded.

"Kalia?" Velar said drawing her attention "You will go back down to the surface and see if you can find out who was working with the Drukhari"

"Isn't that the inquisitors job?" she asked

"Maybe so but I will not wait for his arrival to solve this mystery, I will task a squad with your protection in case our mystery man makes any move to stop you, now unless there is anything else... you are dismissed"

The projections of the other captains faded and Gerik turned to Kalia.

"I want a word with you"

Kalia followed Gerik down a corridor to one of the lifts that served the ship.

"contemptor bay" he said and the lift began descending

He was quiet for a few moments so Kalia decided to ask him a question.

"Is Malcan ok?"

"He is fine, Nev was able to purge his body of the poison before it could cause any damage" he said before looking down upon her "But you need to learn to obey orders, he told you to have patience and you should of accepted that"

Kalia nodded.

"I was worried about those people and hearing those screams was awful"

Gerik sighed.

"I understand that but when an astartes gives you an order you obey, no matter what you think of that order!"

Kalia nodded.

"Understood, it won't happen again"

The lift opened to a darkened room, in the dull lights that slowly rose as they stepped in Kalia could make out 5 chairs each with connection ports and life support systems built into them but only one was occupied.

"What happened to the others?"

"three were taken by first captain Kyros for the front and the other we lost" Gerik responded

"He died?"

"No" Gerik said as they stopped in front of the occupied chair "We lost him during a void battle... he fell into space... we searched but could not find him, we think he may have been carried off by a solar flare from a nearby star but we don't know"

Kalia looked at the giant armoured figure on the chair, there was no sound coming from the figure but the life support chair beeped and hummed as it fed the vital fluids and energy needed to sustain what remained of the marine inside the contemptor armour.

She had seen images of these dreadnoughts in the data banks but Kelsey's body looked larger and had clearly undergone a lot of modifications, on either hand instead of the blocky fists that most dreadnoughts had was a replica of a thumb and two fingers, clearly able to function to grab and hold foes and she imagined they still could spark an energy field as any power fist could. Underneath each wrist was an under-slung weapon, on his left arm he bore a long drill that looked extremely sharp, on his right was a heavy bolter.

Next to his squid faced head were two weapon mounts on either side, one appeared to be a small cluster of missiles and on the other side some kind of heavy laser cannon for tackling more armoured foes.

Gerik activated a console in front of the chair and a stream of power hit the unit and it lit up as lines of power fed there way into the contemptor, then with flash of green his eyes lit up and the massive war machine pushed it's self up from the chair and looked down upon Gerik and Kalia.

"Brother it has been to long" The sound of his voice filled the empty chamber as it echoed through his vox speakers

"That I do not deny old friend, we have a mission"

The dreadnought looked around as if scanning for someone.

"Where is mother?" he asked before looking at Kalia "And who is this?"

Gerik sighed.

"Velar will explain about mother before we leave and this is Kalia, she is a descendant of Carin and mothers personal assistant"

Kelsey said nothing in response and looked back to Gerik.

"You said we have a mission"

"Yes and we will likely be outnumbered"

The laugh the contemptor echoed out of his vox speakers chilled Kalia to the bone, even though the voice was mostly devoid of emotion it reminded her of the strange way the Drukhari officer had taken pleasure in it's wound, as if Kelsey relished the idea of being outnumbered and outgunned and it provided him some perverse pleasure to overcome it. Eventually the laughing stopped.

"Tell me more..."

Vigilus

"Stop the car!" Alistravia said and she bounded to the front where the marine driving was releasing the controls

The train slowed until it eased to a stop, Koman came up behind her and she turned to him.

"Can't you smell them? Hear them?"

Koman stopped and they stood silent for a few minutes until Koman broke it.

"I hear nothing but your senses are likely more sensitive than ours"

Alistravia looked around at them all.

"I didn't realise it before, my own self refection hid the warning signs in my own mind and now we have to turn back"

"No!" Koman said banging his foot on the floor "You do yourself a disservice again primarch, you retreat from foes as you do yourself... we go forward, always forward and if death comes then we will make it wish it hadn't and maybe some of us won't survive but the enemy will suffer greatly first... no more running away for any of us, we fight to the last... you are still dealing with much and that I understand but you are greater than the some of your parts!" Koman's speech had shot Alistravia through the heart

Not only was it exactly what her father said but it was the very truth she had rejected for so long yet now she could see it was the reality of who she was, Koman was right, she spent so much time relying on her intelligence she forgot to feel, she clenched her fists and looked back at Koman who stood firm along with the others who were nodding in agreement with him.

"when this is done and we are out of these tunnels, no matter what, you have earned your redemption... you all have, but we need a plan going forward" she said in response

"I suggest we go on foot" Kinkade started "our wounded have recovered to a sufficient level and we would be easy pickings if we remain in the car"

The others nodded as Alistravia thought and then added her own idea.

"Faraq help me remove the power core, we can use it as a makeshift bomb should we need take down something big"

The Iron hand couldn't smile with his face but she could see the delight at the idea in his one remaining biological eye.

"We should stick to our protocol of blades and fists only, we are still undetected" The crimson fist said

"I suggest we go over our munitions and supply's again to make the most of what we have" Maxis the dark angel apothecary added

Koman nodded and smiled.

"well then let's get to work"

"Faraq make a start and I will assist you in a moment" Alistravia said

The Iron hand nodded and moved off as Alistravia took off her gold and white Estrellan tunic, underneath was a dark blue tank top but over that was necklace of teeth and she lifted it over her head and fed the teeth through her hand until she found a particularly large one.

"Those look like canid teeth" Koman said

"there wolf's teeth, from Fenris... Leaman gave me this before I left, he told me if I was ever in need of assistance I could use this necklace to call on help from his sons" She responded

Koman laughed.

"I know the wolves have a rather acute sense of smell but I doubt they will pick up the scent from so far away"

"I know the space wolves sent forces here and your being too literal" She said as she pulled the large tooth apart

Inside was a small machine which she activated before placing the head of the tooth back over it and then placed the necklace back around her neck.

"You told me to let go of my intelligence and feel, well this is what I am doing... I was overthinking everything and ignoring the simple basics... the wolves will come... they have never let me down before"

It took them a short amount of time to re-organise themselves and remove the trains power core, Alistravia made sure it would be stable and it was given to Faraq to look after. The three wounded marines were paired with someone more able bodied so if they needed to fight they would have someone capable of assisting them, Kendra had gone ahead slightly and returned with bad news.

"There's a lot of movement up ahead, could be a random patrol or something more but if we want to make it through quietly there's a small tunnel divide coming up, we could ambush them from around the corner as they pass"

"How many were there?" Koman asked

"at least six, mostly cultist guardsman and at least one big guy, one of the hybrids I think"

"I'll deal with them" Alistravia said

"We should do it together" Koman responded but Alistravia shook her head

"No, if I am to break through this shame that has kept me down, kept me running for so long... then I must put myself in a position that requires me to be me!"

Koman nodded and in his mind he realised something had changed in the primarch, he had seen a new strength growing inside her before this but now she was no longer giving that new found self time to grow, she was going to drag it from her mind kicking and screaming if she had to so she could be reborn a new, he could see that now.

Something had occurred when the lights went out on the train, he had seen her staring into space in a trance like state and maybe later he would ask her about it but what ever had happened was starting a chain reaction and combined with his push to go forward it was coming to the surface, the only cause for concern he had was what this reforged Alistravia would be, a noble demi-god or a heartless monster.

Alistravia handed her rifle to Koman and set off into the distance towards the tunnel divide and her other selves began to talk.

"Do you wish me to take control?" Her darker personality asked

"No we do this as one"

"this is dangerous, we should of let Koman help" her lighter self stated

Alistravia stopped as she reached the divide and crouched down in the dark drawing the piece of metal she still had.

"Don't you get it" She whispered back in her mind "Father was right, we are three individuals but we can work together, we are not a house divided... we let ourselves believe we were because we all thought different things or at least we believed we did but we are stronger when we work together"

"...how do we do that!?"

"By standing together as one"

Alistravia closed her eyes for a moment and she was back in the great trench once again with the others, they each nodded to each other and placed a hand forward.

"We are still unique individuals but if we focus, when needed we can be one..."

She opened her eyes a second later, she could hear the heavy footsteps of the larger creature and saw it as it passed leading a line of five cultist guards men.

The thing at the front was a mess of dark green and blue muscles hefting a massive hammer, unlike it's human squad members it had no trouble seeing in the darkened tunnel so had no need for the enhancement visors the guards wore.

She snuck up behind the first guard making sure to keep her footsteps in line with there's, she snapped his neck and then laid his body down quietly before stepping in line behind the next where she repeated the process, the third guard was looking down reading some kind of map so she tapped him on the shoulder and as he looked up to turn she snapped his neck before he could respond to her. As she laid him down she took the data slate with the map and pocked it knowing it might come in handy, just two more guards and the big creature remained now but as she approached the guardsman at the back of the group suddenly stopped and in her rush to catch up she was unable to halt her self and went tumbling into the group.

She grabbed the first guards man and picked him up before throwing him into a wall with a force that shattered every bone in his body and turned his organs to pulp, the second guard had swung his weapon round to fire at her, he aimed it up towards her head but she grabbed it from him and threw it aside before pulling him close to her and punching her hand clean through his ribcage crushing his heart.

The large creature charged at her swinging it's hammer down to crush her, she reacted fast enough and the creature hit the remains of it's dead guards man comrades pulping them even further. The thing was smaller than her but not by much, she had always been shorter than her brothers but her personal suit of armour often gave her a height boost.

It attempted to tackle her and she charged back into it meeting it head on, it was strong but not as strong as a primarch and she pushed the thing back as it snarled in her face.

Jaws dripped with some kind of ooze that could have been venomous but the smell was bad enough, with a third arm it her her repeatedly in the side and she felt her grip lessen, she had to finish it fast so she lent in with her shoulder and with a big surge she pushed it back throwing it against a wall.

This did little to damage the creature but it's moment of distance gave her time to draw the blade again, she charged into it plunging the blade into it's neck but it barley got through the tough leathery outer skin and the thing seamed to chuckle as it pusher away and tried to bring it's hammer back down to crush her but this time she grabbed it and wrenched it free from it's grip, it roared in anger and charged but she smashed it over it's head with the hammer as it charged and it stumbled and fell over it's self, before it could recover she brought the hammer down on it's head, the first hit didn't do much but after the third a satisfying pop echoed and blood pooled at her feet.

Koman and the others came along a few minutes later, he looked over the bodies and nodded.

"Did your darker self do this"

Alistravia shook her head.

"No, we all did..." she looked into his eyes she was a little hesitant to tell him but part of her realized she must "I spoke to my father when the lights went out, he reminded me... us, we might be individuals but we are not divided and you said the same shortly after"

Koman smiled.

"I am sure you still think its not part of some greater plan that we are both here but this only confirms it further to me"

"You may believe what you want, I can only go by what I know" she responded

Kendra came up to them along with Maxis, Kinkade and Faraq as the others kept watch.

"Take a look at these guns, there brand new" Kinkade said holding out a well made las rifle

Koman took it from him and examined it.

"Impressive, they must have some way of maintaining these weapons or they raided a convoy"

Alistravia pulled out the data slate containing the map.

"there's an armoury here" she said pointing to an intersection with a locked side passage "this passage was probably used to accesses the maintenance tunnels, we could stick to our current route, it would take longer but would likely only run into their border patrols which we can deal with... but if we cut through these maintenance tunnels we can be out in half the time"

Everyone looked to her.

"The decision is yours" Koman said and the others nodded

"I thought you didn't believe in rank" she stated

"we don't..." Kinkade said

"But you are a primarch and our duty is to obey" Maxis said finishing his sentence

Alistravia was about to respond but Koman held his hand up to stop her.

"we are not asking you to give orders but you are a child of the god emperor and we owe you our allegiance no matter how we view ourselves, we made this decision as a group because our allegiance to the god emperor means allegiance to you"

Alistravia took a breath and nodded.

"very well, but you must resume your role as captain"

Koman bowed his head to her.

"My life is yours" he said and got down on one knee

Alistravia had not noticed but the others had been gathering round and they also had dropped to one knee.

"It will take too long for my liking to go round these hybrids so we will go through via the armoury, Kendra scout ahead but be careful of the transformed ones as they look to have better vision... there will be plenty for us to kill but our aim should still be to pass through without drawing too much attention to ourselves... once we are through into the final tunnels we will detonate the generator and collapse the tunnels behind us"

"A sound plan" Koman said and many of the others nodded

They marched through the next series of tunnels, apart from a few lone guards, whom they dispatched easily, there were not many more patrols and they carried on, stopping every now and again to meet up with Kendra.

After the last stop, at which Kendra had identified a quicker route to the armoury, they began marching again and Kinkade walked along side Alistravia glancing at her every so often.

"You have something to say or ask?" she said

Alistravia had to glance down at him as she spoke, he wasn't the smallest marine in the group but she was just over 9ft and in her armour even bigger as it augmented her size and strength.

"I was simply curious as to how your legion and yourself had been forgotten so easily, a mistake perhaps?"

Alistravia shrugged.

"I suppose if one was to study the information that remained the clues would be there to see, after a while with out reinforcement the truth can go missing or become distorted and people reconstruct it how they see fit... then it becomes legend and eventually myth"

Kinkade nodded in understanding.

"Of course it would seam someone has been spreading information about myself and the legion" Alistravia said

"who?" the Blood angel asked

"Cypher" she responded which drew the attention of Maxis

"Why would that traitor do that"

Alistravia shrugged.

"he wants something... or wants me to see something, personally I don't care, I have no time for his cryptic clues"

As she said this Kendra came jogging back to them earlier than normal.

"I've found the entrance to the armoury, hardly any guards, just a heavy bolter overlooking the entrance and a couple of guards playing some card came on the ground"

They all gathered around in a small alcove a few hundred feet away from the entrance, Kendra was correct about the positioning and laziness of the cultists guarding it, the half transformed man on the heavy bolter over looking entrance way appeared to be asleep and the two cultists at the front were sat by a table playing cards but despite this they all had radio transmitters and could easily call for help.

"We need to kill them all at once or they could call for reinforcements but the problem is this is the only way in so we can't sneak up behind them" Koman said as they studied the situation

"Can we risk shooting them?" the white scar asked

Koman shook his head.

"In this space the noise would likely echo down the corridors and they would all come running"

"We don't necessarily need to kill them all at once" Kendra started to say "The one at the top is asleep and if we kill the others quietly without him noticing then we won't have a problem"

Maxis had looked up from the map after hearing movement.

"where did the primarch go?"

Alistravia stood at the edge of the open entrance and smeared some soot from the ground on her face as she closed her eyes and saw the trench again, she turned to her lighter self.

"Once again if we do this together we can win but I need your manipulation skills"

Her lighter self nodded and she opened her eyes back up and lowered her voice to a whisper.

"Help..." she called from the dark and the two cultists looked up towards the tunnel

The third on the gun looked up but one of the others flagged him down.

"Stay there" it said in some horrid gutter speak

The two creatures approached the tunnel entrance. The one who went to the right was Alistravia's first target, she simply reached out of the darkness and snapped his neck before his better vision saw her.

The second cultist had turned around was heading back.

"Help me..."

"Tax" it hissed with a tongue that was clearly not human any more

Before the second cultist could even step close to her she lunged out of the dark as Konrad had taught her and pushed her blade into the creatures neck slicing it open cleanly.

Tarvin had understood the purity of the xenos form and had not resisted their indoctrination as his sister had, it was a shame she had to be killed but it was better this way, although he hated being sat at this gun watching over an armoury, it was boring and pointless.

"Help me... please"

"Tax, Crispin?" he said picking up his rifle and heading towards the ladder

He descended down and dropped the last few runs and turned around to the shadow of a very tall woman with black hair.

Alistravia picked up the cultist by his neck, had she time she would of questioned him but they couldn't dally here out in the open for two long so she ripped his head from his body and tossed the two pieces aside as Kendra and Koman came round.

She looked back at them.

"I am sorry I didn't say anything but it was quicker this way"

Koman nodded.

"We have access now" he said as Alistravia activated the controls and the doors opened

Inside were rows and rows of guns, explosives and even armour, Alistravia looked down at her once clean Estrellan uniform, it was covered in blood and gore as well as being torn in places.

"get rid of the bodies and bring everyone inside, we reorganise and rearm when the door is sealed"

Kandahar

Kelsey was looming over Velar and was not happy, he had been told what had happened by the lore master and did not agree with it one bit and he was making this abundantly clear.

"You had no right to do this to mother without my input" The contemptor growled

"Forgive me brother but you were sleeping and to wake you for something so inconsequential was..."

"Standing our mother on a dangerous planet was is not inconsequential yet you took this decision and think yourself in the right" Kelsey responded

"You know as well as the rest of us the wrong Alistravia was in control brother, we had no choice!"

"Maybe not, but if she dies I will kill everyone who had a hand in in her demise"

"Even Lord Dorn?" Velar asked

"ESPECIALY LORD DORN!" the contemptor shouted before heading towards the container

Gerik approached velar.

"Forgive him, you know he's always cranky when he wakes up"

Velar looked towards Gerik and sighed.

"No, he is genuinely upset and I believe he will carry out his threat if mother dies"

"then you better hope she comes back" he responded chuckling a little

They both began walking towards the container where Kelsey was waiting, the life sign mimickers had been installed and with Kelsey, Gerik was only able to take twelve marines with him plus the portable wormhole generators.

"we won't be able to monitor you directly once in transit or they may realise something is up but once your moving the fleet will head towards Sodin" Velar said and Gerik nodded

"once we have a secure position we will set up the generators and the rest can move into assist"

"Good hunting Gerik" Velar said and the captain gave a nod back before walking into the container followed by Kelsey who glared at Velar as the container door was sealed up

Arbites office

Galway Unalaska had been frustrated since the 2nd legion ships arrived, she wasn't expecting a response from the High Lords so soon in regards to the Drukhari and she took a deep drink from the bottle Amasec in her desk draw before opening up a vox.

"Karl respond dammit"

There was silence for a moment before hiss and a voice came back.

"Galway?, you said you wouldn't contact me until after the legion fleet had gone"

"I don't have a choice now the damn space marines are on to us, some woman working for them uncovered the operation at the platform and I can't get near it... you need to get a message to our friends" she said being careful to keep her voice low

It was late at night in the offices but some officers were still here working cases and they had a habit of chatting about their case with other officers in front of her office and if she could hear them they would be able to hear her.

"I can't"

"The space marines won't know where it came from if you use the usual channels" Galway said back

"No, I mean I literally can't"

"Why?"

"Whatever those satellites were they scatted across the system it's blocking all non standard comms traffic and as the signal we use carries a non imperial bandwidth there's no way to breakthrough... believe me I've tried"

"SHIT!" Galway shouted

"So what do we do?" Karl asked but for several minutes there was no answer

"Unalaska?"

"Hang on I am thinking!"she shot back

There was another minute of silence before she answered.

"Alright here's what we do, I will go and erase all the logged information so it can't be traced any further, I will also have to kill that girl of theirs... there's a side entrance into the records building which I doubt they will have watched, I need you to keep the system patrol fleet where it is"

A laugh came back through the speaker.

"I am only the captain, unlike you after the war I didn't get a medal, promoted and a nice pension... but I suppose I can block any comms so the vice-admiral doesn't accept any requests for assistance"

"yes do that, when this inquisitor comes he will find nothing and we can leave the system before they figure it out"

"Alright Galway you have a deal but I am beginning to think this whole thing was a mistake" Karl said

"Don't get soft on me now!" she hissed

"I won't... best not to contact me again until after this all blows over"

"understood" and she cut the vox link

Galway knew she was going to have to kill Karl, he never really had the backbone for this but that could wait, she pulled an antique las pistol from her draw and holstered it before getting up and pullingstandard issue trench coat over her uniform, it was cold outside and it was about to get colder.

Vigilus

The armoury was filled with more than they could of hoped for, from basic las rifles and pistols to a few volkite weapons along with mountains of explosives, armour and stacks of ammo crates.

"there's enough here to supply an army" Kinkade had said upon entering

They had sealed the door behind them and hidden the bodies in one of the darker alcoves where they wouldn't be found easily, initially they had considered burning them but the smell of burning flesh could of attracted unwanted attention.

"Start organising it all into category's and then we can decide what we can and can't carry" Alistravia said and the marines began pulling the weapons from their racks as she turned to Koman "I am going to try and find some armour I can wear"

In the back of the armoury was a secondary room with plenty of armoured suits but most were either the average size of a non enhanced human or incomplete, that was until she came across a body glove battle suit she had seen used many times in the crusades by assassins or specialists, it was a long dark blue body glove with light armour plating covering critical areas and it even came with it's own waist holsters.

What was great about these suits is they were designed to fit most people and the suit could stretch some what to a larger person, it would likely be tested to it's limit with a primarchs size and and stature but it would be better than her torn Estrellan tunic.

She took off the white and gold tunic and threw it to the side, it's kinetic energy armour plating had been shattered when the wall had been blown open by the black legion so it was useless now, she carefully lifted the necklace of wolf teeth over her head and placed it down on a near by arming bench before carefully before slipping off her trousers leaving only her underwear for cover, for humans the cold air in the room would of registered instantly but for Alistravia it was the last thing on her mind.

Near the arming bench was a water troth for cleaning blades and weapon parts of rust and other grime and she used this to wash her face and her exposed parts of dirt and blood, there was a steel sheet that acted as a mirror and she stared into it for a moment before a knock on the wall made her turn around.

Kendra was stood in the door way with her head down a little as she carried some armour into the room.

"Forgive me but I was hoping I could get chan..." Kendra glanced up at Alistravia and dropped the armour she was carrying "Such beauty..."

Tears formed as she looked upon the vision that was Alistravia, it was rare for any human to see her in such an exposed moment but to Kendra she was looking at a demi goddess and she wept at the sight.

Alistravia pulled a near by sheet and wrapped it around her body and Kendra slowly rubbed her eyes as if she was still seeing the after image of Alistravia when she was uncovered, on seeing it she felt a need to submit that was fuelled by both adoration and fear yet despite the release of her need to submit she knew no matter how long she lived until the day she died she would wish to see it again as if she had been given a powerful addictive drug that lasted barley seconds yet she longed for the taste again and still even looking at Alistravia now she could feel it at the edge of her mind.

Kendra slowly stood and steadied herself against the door as she tried to make sense of what just happened, Alistravia looked at her and cocked her head.

"What did I just see..." Kendra muttered

"A genetic gift of my father, designed to sway non enhanced humans into complying with my orders... I thought you immune like the marines but my perhaps weathered appearance somehow obstructed it, what did you want?"

Kendra twiddled her thumbs and tried not to look directly at the primarch again as if doing so would cause some offence.

"I found some armour to replace my own, I was hoping I could get changed here out of the way of the marines"

Alistravia was puzzled by this.

"They have no sexual desires, they will not cause you any harm"

"I understand that but still..." she said shyly as she still dared not look at the primarch which annoyed Alistravia

"Kendra look at me"

The guardsman tried to raise her head but still couldn't.

"I said look at me!"

Kendra obeyed and stared into the eyes of the primarch who still had the sheet wrapped around her.

"Why are you here?" Alistravia questioned

"I wanted to get changed..."

"No I meant here on Vigilus, these marines I understand but you are an anomaly"

Kendra was weary and wanted to look away but found she couldn't, nor could she stop the words from spilling out of her mouth no matter how hard she tried.

"A couple known as the black pair... pirates, terrorised my local sub sector, I was only in training when they first began their attacks, they made sure to attack undefended settlements... they would take men and women then rape and torture them before discarding them, I was showing much promise as a sniper and a tracker so when a company was formed to help locate and stop them I was asked to come along..."

Alistravia made sure to stay as silent as Koman had for her tale and allow Kendra the time she needed.

"We were able to trap the woman as she split from the rest of the group to raid a local mining colony, she and her followers fought hard but I found a place where I knew she would have to retreat through and when she stepped into view I put a bullet through her left eye and then through her brain just to make sure... of course I was promoted and given a medal and the other half of the couple disappeared into a distant sub sector but he vowed revenge against me because I killed his beloved and he eventually came to make good on his threat..."

Alistravia took a breath and kept listening.

"... his forces had scattered after his wife was killed believing their time was up so when he came to get me he had only a few followers to throw at me and he ran in shame when he was beaten back, I could of killed him but I let him run thinking he would never return but it was several months later I found out he had tortured and murdered my parents and siblings so I went after him but he tricked me by telling me he was here on Vigilus, he knew I would be trapped here the moment I landed and now he is free to roam the galaxy killing as he goes"

Alistravia nodded.

"You still wish to kill him...?"

"I know what your thinking and it's not about revenge... it's about saving lives!" Kendra said defensively

Alistravia shook her head.

"of course it's about revenge... there's a story from old Terra about a man seeking vengeance on a creature that wounded him but it cost him a lot, including his life"

Kendra felt as if her heart had been ripped out, a primarch was telling her to abandon her quest and her need to kill this man so she could put the spirits of her dead family to rest, Alistravia noticed this look on her face and sighed.

"If you pursue him he will get the better of you again but if you act as if he no longer matters, as if he is just some distant memory to you he will re-emerge and when he does you will have your chance to finish it once and for all"

It was strange how this now made sense to Kendra, the primarch's wisdom seamed so simple yet it was a revelation to her, patience and calm were better allies that hatred and revenge.

"You can change here" Alistravia said suddenly

It was awkward for a few moments as a Kendra gathered up the dropped armour and began to undress, she made sure to face away from the primarch but questions she had flooded her mind and she started talking without really thinking.

"If the marines are immune to this gift, how come they have now pledged to follow you?"

Alistravia didn't respond so she continued.

"whilst you were off killing that patrol they all spoke as if shifting the right to lead to you was the only choice, they had been so lost and only followed Koman because brought many victories but now they seam to have a renewed sense of vigour"

"I said you could change here, I did not say you could talk" Alistravia responded as she dropped the sheet and placed the necklace back over her head

She glanced over her shoulder at Kendra who looked dejected.

"They are immune in that they do not lose all control but they are still conditioned to follow a primarch although there are some who are able to even overcome that"

"Oh" Kendra responded

Alistravia pulled the body glove over her, it was tight and extenuated her chest and back, it was a little uncomfortable but it would do and it would provide better protection that her destroyed tunic, she glanced over her shoulder again at Kendra who was still changing.

She was only around 5ft 6inchies and Alistravia was just over 9ft and she wondered if Kendra would even survive the rest of the journey, Alistravia knew she could find something for her, she had already begun the idea of forming herself a private commando team out of the survivors and a sniper with her skill would fit in with such a group.

"So you did not feel safe with the marines?" Alistravia asked still curious as to why Kendra felt she needed a private area like herself

"They tolerate me I think but beyond that I doubt they truly like me"

"That is not true, they just do not show friendship in the way some might" Alistravia responded "Also you made a mistake seeking privacy, a legion is an family of warriors and to placed a divider between yourself and them shows some disrespect"

Kendra was speechless at this and remained silent for a while before Alistravia spoke again.

"They understand my desire for privacy because I am a primarch but you are just a guardsman... a talented sniper but you are not above them so in future I would not separate yourself from them, unless your using the bathroom of course"

Kendra nodded in response, she was about to say something then bit her tongue before panicking and blurting out the thought that was crossing her mind.

"Some of the things you say... how you say them seam..."

"Cruel, lack empathy, hateful?..." Alistravia interrupted "we are in an armoury getting ready to fight an enemy that we have no intelligence on and you worry more about how I am talking to you?"

Kendra stayed quiet for a moment.

"you can think whatever you like about how I have spoken to you but advice isn't always given in a pleasant manner" Alistravia said as she walked past her back into the main room

The marines were busy sorting through the weapons and Alistravia looked over a long trench coat that had light armour plating in sections and she pulled it on over the body glove, Koman approached her with two ornate volkite pistols.

"I found these in a lock box, I thought you might like them" he said and handed them over

Alistravia examined the guns, they were masterly crafted and had a rather unique design with curved handles each with the etching of a blazing skull, names were inscribed beside them.

"Sulphur" and "Brimstone"

"Thank you" she said taking them

She holstered them so the handles were facing out as Kendra entered the room and Koman gave her a nod.

"Alright" he said as he turned back to Alistravia "We have organised most of it and I think we can take a fair amount but we should destroy whatever is left here"

Alistravia nodded.

"I agree and I have a thought about that"

In the main room was a large central table that some of the marines had placed weapons on but they removed them as she placed the data slate she had recovered from the cultist on it.

"which ever tunnel we go down we are likely to face opposition but if detonate the armoury once we reach the maintenance tunnels my hope is the majority will head away from us and passage should be easier, Kendra will need to scout ahead for patrols but I believe we could get out of here with very little conflict"

"The opposite could also happen and we might find ourselves right in the nest of these creatures" Kinkade said

Alistravia sighed and shrugged.

"All battlefields are unpredictable no matter how regimental your plan, many generals and warlords have had to learn this the hard way but we always have our bomb" she said pointing to Faraq and the power core on his back

"After the armoury is destroyed they will be looking for us, shall we stick to blades still?" Maxis asked

Koman nodded.

"Until we have no other option but to use our bolters we should remain quiet"

The group carefully set up explosives and a remote detonator before gearing up to leave, Kendra had headed off to scout outside and cam back with little news.

"I saw a couple of grunts smoking and one of the big things asleep but they still are unaware of our presence"

Alistravia nodded back to her before moving off to load a grenade launcher she had found and Kendra went over to Koman who was checking his equipment.

"Was I wrong to not get changed around you and the others"

"yes" came a blunt reply "You might not be an astartes but you are part of this unit"

Kendra let out a breath, she had been hoping Alistravia was wrong and she glanced over towards her.

"she has become more, distant, do you think all the primarchs are like that?"

Koman shrugged.

"Does it matter!?"

"I suppose not"

"We all have our own personalities and ideals, which is why we did not all get along!" Alistravia said and Kendra cursed herself for thinking she wouldn't of heard the conversation

Surprisingly Alistravia said nothing to her after that and went back to loading the grenade launcher which Kendra wasn't sure whether to be worried or relived about but Koman just smiled as if the primarch had made some joke he got and she didn't.

It took them another hour or so before they were all set up and with the explosives in place they made their way back long the tracks towards the maintenance tunnels.

The air slowly became more foul and even the marines began to notice how close the air felt as they moved forward and pushed further on until they reached the entrance to maintenance tunnel, it was too quiet and Alistravia looked back into the dark behind them.

She had picked it up shortly after they had set off, movement of something large but able to hide it's self, she was sure it hadn't attacked yet because the group had stuck so close together but could imagine it was getting anxious about their proximity to the heart of the cultist base.

"What is it?" Koman asked glancing at her

"We have a follower, we should get in to the tunnels"

The door that granted access into the narrower tunnels was stuck and Alistravia and Kinkade were trying to pry it open when Kendra came running back to them.

"there's a massive group heading towards us, about thirty... some are on quads"

Straining his ears Koman could hear the low hum of the four wheeled bikes and looked to Alistravia who was having to use one of her volkite pistols to burn away the locks on the door.

"a few minutes, maybe longer" She knew his question without him asking it and he nodded and signalled the others to take up positions

Koman had found a nice sword in the armoury and gripped tight the handle as he kneeled down and aimed into the dark.

"keep your spacing and watch each others backs, as soon as the door is open we break and make a run for it, short sharp bursts and kill the big ones first"

Apart from the sound of the volkite beam burning away at the locks there was complete quiet until the sound of a vehicle engine got louder and the first cultist came round the corner, he was too busy fiddling with the controls on the bike so when his bike stopped going forward he looked up into the eyes of a space marine who jammed a knife through his throat before moving out the way of the bike and letting it ride off into the darkness except after a few moments they heard it stop again before it was flung back at them.

The sound of crashing brought shouts from in front of them but the bigger issue was what leapt out of the dark from behind, it killed the young ultramarine without any real effort as it dropped on him before it was hit by bolter rounds from the crimson fist, purple and blue blood dropped from it's face but it seamed as if it's armour plating had deflected most of the hits and it charged at the marine who dived out of it's way, from in front of them las fire began to erupt and Kendra fired several shots at the cultists as they attempted to push forward.

"Concentrate on the lictor" Koman shouted as he lobed a Krak grenade into the dark where the las far came from

The blast clearly killed a few but didn't deter them as now larger ones emerged into the light charging in swinging their massive weapons, Koman drew his sword and slashed one straight across it's exposed chest and it's innards spilled out as it collapsed to the ground, another attacked him from the side with some kind of improvised mallet, he deflected it away with a parry but another creature knocked him over.

It roared above him it's face purple and covered with strange markings and scars but before it could bring it's weapon down it's head exploded from a well placed shot by Kendra who gave a nod to the captain as the creature that he had parried away came at him, he rolled away before jumping to his feet and clashing with the big creatures weapon.

The lictor was being hit from all sides but some marines were having to break off from shooting at it to attack the cultists who were attacking from the front and despite it's wounds it kept going and had now killed three marines with only the crimson fist escaping it's clutches narrowly.

Alistravia handed the volkite pistol over to Kinkade who had stayed to help with the door and grabbed her grenade launcher and shot several grenades into the lictor that shrieked as they exploded against it's armour before turning around to charge her, it's barbed long front arms propelling it along at great speeds.

Alistravia stood her ground and fired but the creature kept it's head low so that the armour plating on it's back would take the blasts and it shook them off before getting extremely close to her, she jumped aside and fired a grenade at the ground but it didn't go off and the creature turned and struck out at her with it's massive arms, it caught her with glancing blow knocking her over and approached but as it did it walked over the grenade that had a delayed fuse and was hit by the blast as it went off, shrapnel scattered through it's softer under layer as Alistravia had intended and she took her opportunity to fire a high explosive round at it's face where it went off knocking the creature off it's feet and into a spin before it landed in a pile.

"THE LOCKS ARE OFF!" Kinkade shouted and they began to fall back as Alistravia ripped away the door

Koman didn't have time to deal with his foe any more and shoulder charged it, the thing attempted to strike at him as he did but Koman side stepped the strike and plunged his sword through it's chest before ripping it out along with most of it's vital organs but it was still standing and swung out but before it could hit another shot from Kendra cut through it's upper torso and the flinch was enough for Koman to swing his sword up and round to decapitate it.

Most of the enemy that were left were cut down as they fell back, as they retreated through the door and into the maintenance line Alistravia collapsed the entrance with a satchel charge and once again quiet filled the room.

The young ultramarine, a warrior from the Doom Eagles and one of the previously wounded warriors, a brazen skull were all gone. A few of the others were wounded but not badly and they took no moment to catch a breath and pressed forward, knowing now that the advantage of stealth was gone they had to get through the maintenance tunnels fast before they were located and surrounded, Alistravia used the remote detonator to blow the armoury hoping that would give them some time before pursuit set in.

Back out in the tunnel the lictor pulled it's self back up, it eyed the collapsed tunnel and let out a low hiss, it was wounded but it's prey was not going to get away, it had spent long enough on this world to know most if not all of it's secrets and it knew there were other ways into the maintenance tunnels.

Kandahar system

Several hours had passed inside the container, Gerik and his small team had felt it move and knew by now it was likely making it's way into orbit, the vox was silent as any communication could be caught by the Drukhari or who ever was transporting the container for them.

Like the warriors he had brought with him he had shut down all non essential systems in his suit in order to prevent any scans from detecting their power signatures, Gerik knew from the briefing the Drukhari were as about as advanced as their craft world counter parts which meant precautions had to be taken but the hope was that they had managed to move quickly enough that the Drukhari had no idea the container contained a strike team.

Suddenly there was a clunk and for a few minutes dirt on the floor of the container began to float, they had hit zero gravity, it dropped back to the floor as they felt the container be set down, they were now on whatever ship was going to take them to Sodin.

"Admiral the container has just docked with a ship in orbit, it has set course for Sodin" an auspex officer called

"Excellent, we shall wait until they are half way then we will make our way there" she responded

The Pequad was at the other side of the large asteroid belt but was using the satellites they had spread throughout the system to monitor traffic.

"Get me who ever is in command of the system patrol fleet, we could use their support should the enemy fleet show up"

Karl was stood by the Vox station aboard the "Leap of Faith"

The emperor class warship was sat along with two escorts and a small squadron of frigates along with a few simple gun boats, it's knife edge prow was painted red and green in the colours Kandahar and it was remarkably rare to see an emperor class assigned to system patrol duty but she was old and some even said she was from early days after the heresy built shortly after the siege of Terra, Karl doubted that but she was an old gal and had been delayed upgrades by the Mechanicum who felt her lack of regular combat did not require any urgent updates.

The first signal came through from the legion fleet as the ship hung silent.

"This is Admiral Elise Marten of the 2nd legion, we request communication with your commander"

"Ignore it" Karl said to the lieutenant at the station

The young officer looked at him with sheepish eyes and then looked around for the admiral who was sat in his chair dozing off.

The vice admiral was an old man who seamed bored in his role here and was most often found asleep in his command throne.

Karl had not told him of the legions arrival, his daughter had been visiting and only recently left so he felt it better not to disturb him with such a minor thing, too much excitement could kill the old fool.

"If it's from the legion sir shouldn't we at least inform him?"

Karl waved the suggestion away.

"I am sure if the admiral was interested in talking to the legion commander he would be down here right now..."

"But sir..." she said back

"I SAID NO!" Karl said loudly in frustration and the young officer turned back to her screen

Unfortunately for Karl his shout was loud enough and as a second communication request came from the Pequad a hunched figure strode up behind him.

"Problem captain?"

Karl chuckled and held his hands up.

"Just some bad Vox traffic, nothing to worry about"

"Nothing you say" the vice admiral said as he stroked the rough grey haired covered skin on his chin

He was a feeble looking old man, apparently back in his hay day he had been quiet the warrior and won many great void battles but now he just sat on his throne and slept most of the time.

"If it was nothing then why did you raise your voice to poor Valantina here" he said pointing to the young lieutenant

"it's a young officer thing, I am sure you remember being eager to impress your superiors and tell them of something you thought was of great importance... her eagerness is commendable but Valantina needs to learn a little restraint that's all" Karl said, surprised that the admiral knew the young officers name

"Tell me lieutenant what was this vox traffic that the captain deemed too irrelevant for me"

Valantina was about to speak but Karl interrupted.

"As I said sir it's nothing..."

The vice-admiral narrowed his eyes as he looked at Karl.

"so you have told me but I will be the true judge of that... go ahead my dear"

Valantina's eyes flicked to Karl who was giving her a nasty look and then back to the admiral who gave her a pleasant look, rank meant everything and despite the angry look Karl was giving her she could not ignore the vice admirals request.

"It was a message from the legion fleet, they requested communication between yourself and them"

The vice admiral rounded on Karl faster that one would think for a man of his age.

"Why did you not inform me that was a legion fleet in the system!" he said with force to Karl who held his hands up trying to look sorry

"Sir you were busy with your daughter and I didn't want to interrupt..."

"My daughter is an annoying brat, she has been since the day she was born but her I can deal with what I can not deal with is men like you... what was your plan captain, blame the lack of support for the legion on me but make sure you give the command to go valiantly to the rescue at the last second to try and have me dismissed and you promoted!"

The whole bridge crew was looking, in just a few seconds the vice admiral had gone from a weak looking quiet spoken old man to fleet commander still in his prime and Karl was shaking.

"No... sir I...I..."

"Open the Vox lieutenant, I will speak with the legion commander"

Karl drew his pistol and pointed it at the admirals head, other officers drew their weapons and pointed them at Karl.

"Admiral I can't let you respond to that ship, now your going to come with me to a shuttle and we are going to leave together" he glanced around at the others aiming guns at him "If anyone tries to stop me I will kill him"

The admiral stepped forward and his head was inches away from the barrel of Karl's weapon.

"Go ahead do it, they will kill you a second later"

Karl swallowed a lump in his throat and was struggling not to shake as the admiral smiled at him.

"You know what a good thing about being old is Captain..." he began to say "... no one expects you to do this"

The admiral suddenly stood to full height, Karl had heard he had been a tall man in his youth and well built but he almost looked like an astartes as he grabbed Karl's arm and broke it with ease,

he dropped to the floor screaming in pain as two other officers raced over and picked him up.

"Get him off my bridge!" the admiral snarled and the two officers dragged him away as the admiral turned to the lieutenant "Open the vox"

"yes sir! she said and opened the Vox line

"This is vice admiral Relkin Zalen, my apologies for the delay in our response, how can we assist you?"

Vigilus

The maintenance tunnels were even more low lit and narrower but they were out for harms way for the moment, they marched along at a steady pace as the tunnel extended into the darkness. Alistravia was glancing down at the map every so often to make sure they were on the right path, they made a sharp turn and found them selves staring at an enemy patrol, Alistravia drew her volkite pistols and killed a few as well as the marines and Kendra who kept moving and didn't stop as they smashed through them before they could truly react. More patrols came and went along with hard points that were sandbagged walls with heavy guns, Kendra would snipe out the gunner as they attacked making short work of the foes that attempted to stop them. Eventually they came to a massive split in the tunnel and they took the straight path towards their destination but found it blocked by a collapsed roof.

"Now what!" one of the marines said

Their quick march and fast silencing of the patrols and hard points had prevented the enemy from finding them so far and it seemed as if maybe destroying the armoury had distracted the cultists but that wouldn't last forever.

"We will have to take the other tunnel" Alistravia said looking the map "It links back up here after this station, then it's only a few more miles and were back to the main tunnels and we can get out"

The other tunnel turned away from the main path and led to small maintenance station, these were used to fix faulty train cars as well as housing the track repair trains and disused cars, it was a large open area and they knew it was going to be occupied but by how many foes was the question.

Kendra came back from scouting the station.

"There's a lot of cultists but most look like workers with light arms, a few of the bigger hybrids walking about but no sign of anything to worry about..."

"I hear a but coming" Kinkade said

"Well it's a mess in there of disused cars and broken parts, no easy path and we can't really avoid confrontation"

"Then we won't!" Alistravia said bluntly "We rush it and get through the area fast, don't waste time going after targets, take the fastest route possible and don't stop for anything"

The group charged into the station with a fury that caught the majority of the workers and guards by surprise, bodies exploded as bolter rounds sliced through them, a worker who was frozen like a creature caught in the headlights of a transport was turned into paste as he was run over by Koman who didn't bother raising his sword as one of the bigger creatures got in his way, he simply smashed it aside. Some las fire erupted as some guards from outside the room began to push in upon hearing the commotion and the fire fight stretched across the station as the guards moved up trying to stop the rushing marines who fired back accurate shots killing the cultists as they fought back, Kinkade dived into a group of four cultists and ripped them apart before they could blink before moving on.

Alistravia had just exited one of the cars when something big hit her knocking her back into the front of the car, the lictor stated at her and made a motion as if challenging her to some kind of combat but she had no time for this and she swung up her rifle unleashing a flurry of bolter rounds as it charged her and despite it's previous wounds it kept coming and swung at her with it;s barbed arms, she ducked under one arm but the other caught her legs and threw her aside away from her rifle. She quickly brought up the grenade launcher but the creature wasn't going to allow it's self to be hit again and leaped forward with a powerful strike but despite being cleaver enough to avoid grenades it was still just a creature, no matter how much higher it was on the Tyranid danger scale and as Alistravia rolled forward to avoid it she rolled a powerful incendiary grenade back, it exploded as the creature landed covering it in promethium that ignited instantly.

The lictor rolled about screeching as it attempted to put out the flames but now Alistravia had time and unleashed a full clip of bolter rounds into it's chest, it screeched more as the mass reactive rounds exploded inside it and with heavy blood loss it struggled to get back up so she stood on it's neck and emptied another clip into it's face which exploded causing it's body to twitch one more time then collapse.

They were now about half way through the station but resistance was getting stronger and progress was slowing.

"We can't get stuck here!" Koman shouted as Alistravia ran past him unleashing volkite beams into the oncoming crowd of cultists

Many of them caught on fire as the beams swept over them and Alistravia pushed on creating a kind of corridor between the foes that were beginning to surround them.

"Follow the primarch!" Maxis shouted as he pulled his knife loose from a dead cultist

Alistravia kept pushing and as she cut through the cultists their morale began to shake, the bigger ones were not running but those still mostly human panicked as she seamed unstoppable, she swept the beams back and forth as she approached the exit. Huge amounts of fire spat back at her but she kept going and broke through the enemy lines into the outer corridor followed by the marines and Kendra, Koman threw several Krak grenades behind them as they turned back to join up at the other side of the blocked tunnel.

"I think it's safe to say were not losing them anytime soon!" Kinkade shouted as las fire pursued them down the tunnel

"As soon as were back in the main tunnels we can detonate the power core and stop any further pursuit"

The cultists could be heard in pursuit but most were simple humans and couldn't keep up with the pace of the group, some of the larger ones were able to pursue for longer but their heavy figures made them unable to match the groups pace for long.

They approached the end of the maintenance tunnels and found a lightly garrisoned check point with two heavy bolters that were facing outward into the main tunnels system and not towards them, the small group of cultists guards men were not expecting an attack from behind them and were killed quickly with Alistravia ripping apart a defending Ogryn as it tried to swipe at her with it's big gun.

There was silence for a moment as they recovered.

"This seams like a good place to set the bomb" Faraq said as he unhooked it from his back

"Agreed" Alistravia said before glancing back down the tunnel "but I can hear them, hundreds, all coming this way"

Marklar smiled as he walked over to them.

"This area can be turned into a kill zone if we turn those guns around and moved the aegis defence line to face inward, plus I found some mines so we can give them some early trouble"

Koman slapped the son of Dorn on his shoulder.

"Now that's what I expect to hear from an imperial fist, get the others to help you deploy the mines and reset the barriers"

Alistravia smiled, she liked the idea too.

"I will help Faraq with the bomb, I trust you can keep the cultists at bay long enough for is to get it set?"

"It will be our pleasure" Koman said

Drukhari base:

Mikreith let the mechanical arm that lowered the container to the ground move aside before he walked over to the control panel to open it, as he moved the pain spikes in his joints sent jolts of pain throughout his body, they were only small and the pleasure was little but it was enough until his shift ended and he could return to his quarters and subject himself to something far more pain inducing and pleasing.

He licked his dry cut lips at the thought about it and activated the container door, it slid aside but he quickly realised something was odd, the lighting mechanism that normally activated when it opened had not worked and as he peered into the darkness he could make out a shape of something large and then two bright green eyes lit up in the darkness and a laugh echoed that made him step back from the container.

"It is not your day... little xenos"

The monster that was Kelsey charged out of the container flattening Mikreith, the other Drukhari were stunned as the contemptor swung his wrist mounted bolter around spraying shells every where.

In human ideals the lucky Drukhari were the ones who died instantly but to the xenos the idea of feeling excruciating pain as the mass reactive rounds blew your body in half and left you to die bleeding out in agony left a smile on their faces.

A few of the xenos unleashed their side arms into Kelsey who shrugged off the small arms fire, as he charged out killing the Drukhari, Gerik and the twelve warriors emerged also opening fire at any xenos.

"For the emperor!" Gerik shouted as he drove his sword through a xenos's chest

Two more came at him with some kind of shock sticks but they were not match for Gerik's sword play and he cut the firsts arms off in a clean sweep before decapitating the other one.

The rest of the squad moved about with Kelsey as they slowly cleared the open cargo bay, a few xenos ran and sealed doors behind them, Kelsey banged against the one of the doors to start breaking it down as the last xenos were dispatched.

"Kelsey leave that, we need reinforcements first" Gerik said and the contemptor stood back

"As you wish brother"

"Kliden, Burahl" he called to two of the marines "... get the portable wormhole generators set up now, Kelvin" he said calling over the tech-marine "Get me a full map of this base and find out where we are"

"yes captain" all three echoed

"Admiral, we are in are you receiving me?"

"Barley, there is some interference, your signal appears to be coming from a mountain range on the southern continent... can you get us an exact location?"

"I am working on it, are the 7th and 12th ready for wormhole arrival"

"As soon as you open a gate we can lock in and send them through" The admiral responded

"Good, because by now they know were here and it won't be long before they counter attack"

It took several minutes for the portable generator to be set up and another ten before the wormholes were linked, rebus and the 6th arrived just as the Drukhari counter attack began.

A monstrous creature Gerik recognised as a Talos broke through a door to the rear of the bay and charged at Kelsey who shoulder charged into it and the two war engines battled as Drukhari warriors charged in behind the creature firing and the two forces met in a combination of melee and fire fights as miniature battlegrounds erupted throughout the room.

"Protect the generator" Gerik shouted as he sliced open a wrack that got too close to him

Rebus came charging through with his specialized bolter, firing three round highly accurate bursts he was unstoppable, Drukhari were tough but they were still just Eldar and no more a challenge than any other member of that defunct race.

"Captain I have the full base plans and location, I am transmitting them to the Pequad"

"understood" Gerik voxed back to the tech-marine

Kelsey was quite impressed by his opponents strength, despite it's organic body underneath it's hard shell it was ruthless and wrapped the coil on it's left arm around the dreadnought's right arm before trying to use the scythe on it's left arm to strike at his side.

Kelsey chuckled and activated his arm drill, swinging it around to smash the scythe aside, he tried to bring the drill back round but the Talos disengaged and tried to pull him over by wrapping it's coil around his leg.

Kelsey admired the creatures tenacity but he had killed much bigger opponents in his time so this poor fusion of machine and flesh would be no match for him, he drove forward ignoring the coil around his leg and lit up his power fists before driving them down into the Talos's armour plated skull, it released it's grip on his leg in an attempt to move away from the contemptor but this was what Kelsey was looking for and as it turned he plunged his power fist into the exposed flesh and ripped out what appeared to be some kind of power core, then as it flailed around he grabbed it and slammed it to the ground before stomping on it's head and ending it's life.

As the Talos died and Kelsey gave a roar of victory the Drukhari pulled back and the marines pushed forward, now Forin and the 12 th had come through bringing with them several war drones the xenos counter attack faltered and they were routed from the cargo hold.

Gerik, Forin and Rebus studied the map of the base as the rest of their companies began exterminating any remaining resistance in the nearby corridors to give themselves a safe perimeter.

"Were at the top" Gerik said and pointed to the hologram "there's an exit to the near by plains here, the admiral is going to drop the 13th and the 9th there with drone support to cut them off"

"this looks like a control centre" Forin said pointing to a structure about halfway down "we should knock that out"

"It looks like they have a lot of prisoners here in this section" Rebus mused as he pointed out a series of catacombs near the bottom of the base"

"we should divide and conquer then, I will go after the command centre" Forin said

Gerik nodded in response.

"Rebus and I will drive them towards the exit, once we reach the prison levels I will break off and begin clearing them of xenos whilst Rebus drives them into the open"

"Agreed" Rebus said before resealing his helm "good hunting brothers"

Pequad

The fleet had arrived just after they had detected the ship descending to the surface and was now in low orbit, hundreds of drop pods and stork battle transports descended to the surface as they ferried the 9th and 13th to block off the Drukhari escape and make sure none survived.

Velar stared down at the planet and rubbed his chin.

"you should join the battle Velar" The admiral said as she looked over the completed deployment feedback

"My place is here for now" he said resting his hand on his sword "killspark" Alistravia had given him it on the day the legion had been founded, it was made from the shards of a creature known as the blade shark, the Estrellan's would harvest them after the creatures discarded their old blade that covered the back of their bodies to grow a new one, to build devices used for their research but in this case Alistravia had the guild make him a sword, it had gotten it's name from Velar's reputation of staying out of fights until he was needed but if he arrived on the battlefield with his sword drawn it would spark the killing of all those who opposed the legion.

The last of the transports returned from the surface and the ships began moving into higher orbit, as they did a alarm sounded and the auspex officer turned to face the throne.

"Admiral!, thirty two enemy vessels entering the system, they will intercept us in eighteen minutes, they will be in weapons range in fourteen"

"BATTLESTATIONS!" she shouted and the ships lights dimmed and glowed red "Charge weapons, shields and load all torpedo tubes"

The crew began to move about carefully around the bridge but at a much quicker pace as orders from junior officers were sent out around the ship to get the crew ready for void combat.

"show me the enemy fleet" Elise said and the central holo projector lit up to show the xenos fleet as it approached

"most of this fleet is made up cruisers and destroyers" Velar said looking over the jagged and inelegant forms of the Drukhari fleet "But this large one at the centre..."

Velar pointed towards a large warship surrounded by escorts, it was much larger than it's counter parts, it had the jagged spires and sharp looking edges of an assassins knife being thrown towards an opponents heart.

"... I want that ship, tell Vidi and Midi to ready their companies for boarding and I will join them and leave the void battle in your capable hands Elise"

"Good hunting Velar" she said as the old marine turned and left the bridge

The Drukhari fleet had obviously never fought an Estrellan battle group before because if they had they would not be attacking in such a scattered formation, obviously assuming Estrellan warships relied on the same kind of broadside fighting that imperial ships did they sent most of the destroyers ahead while the larger ship and it's escorts stayed behind.

It was an old strategy and it was the most basic one taught at the Estrellan naval academy because it was so easily counted, especially when you had ships who could fire from all angles. The idea behind this tactic was to bog down an enemy fleet in combat with smaller vessels while larger ships positioned themselves for their broadside assaults, this would often involve two groups of supports ships made up of frigates and destroyers engaging each other to break through the lines to the main fleet and as void battles would take place over thousands of kilometres across space it would often play out like a grand strategy game with each fleet commander trying to out manoeuvrer the other to unleash devastating broadside or torpedo strikes to force defeat or retreat depending on the objective.

Of course this was different for some species like orks who enjoyed ramming other ship, Elise had being going over some holo tapes of Drukhari void strategy before they arrived at Sodin and whilst they were fluid in their fleet tactics they looked primarily to crippling strikes with hit and run tactics being the norm but here it seamed as if they had no choice but to attack, this incoming fleet was larger than the ones that had been initially making incursions into the system and it was feasible this larger fleet had been on station for exactly this kind of contingency, their tactics of crippling fast attack strikes was not to be ignored but she had planned out a strategy to counter the Drukhari.

"Starfish formation"

The fleet began arranging it's self into a star shape with the battle cruiser "Invincible cetacean" took position as the top point of the star, the "Odysseus" and the "Mermaid" formed the left and right upper points of the star flanking the "Pequad" that sat in the centre, the two smaller battle cruisers "Black Rudder" and the "Ishmael" formed the two bottom points of the star.

The fighter carrier the "White Gull" sat behind the formation, it had a role to play in the coming fight and Elise found her mouth watering at the prospect of getting this right, a few of the previous admirals of Alistravia`s fleets had manoeuvres and formations named after them and she was hoping to do the same here.

The formation originally had been built as way to counter a larger enemy fleet but she had modified it slightly after reviewing Drukhari void strategy, hoping to prey on their need for quick strikes she would lure them close and when the time was right trap the xenos in net so tight it would be like shooting birds in a barrel.

Drukhari base

The damned xenos were making them pay for every inch of ground they took with choke points full of warriors and auto defences, Forin had split off and was almost at the command centre but as he turned towards it a flurry of fire from enemy troops shot down the hall.

"Bah this is getting irritating, get me a drone here!" he shouted down the line and a big lobster shaped mech stomped forward

He gave it some commands though his helm and the robot charge forward weapons blazing, hundreds of rounds peppered it's body but the armoured shell that covered it was designed in the same way all Estrellan armour was designed, every hit generated kinetic energy that was slowly being built up into a retaliatory strike, in this war drones case it was the dark matter cannon on it's right shoulder that was charging.

It stopped as it got close to the sealed arch that led into the command centre and allowed the defenders to hit it with all they had before unleashing a shot from the dark matter gun, an orb of pure darkness shot out from it's shoulder cannon and as it impacted with the defenders it trebled in size exploding like a star and consuming all those who were with in it's influence, those Drukhari caught on the outer edge were showered with cosmic radiation that caused their skin to melt and minds to be become nothing but tumours, of course being Drukhari screams of what were normally pain were screams of joy as they died in pure agony.

They were silenced as the the 12th marched up to the door and killed them, Forin ordered his tech-marine to begin working on the door but it was sealed so the drone began to cut at the locks, when the door fell open and the 12th along with their drones stormed in to heavy resistance, one marine went down, a red flashing rune in Forin's helm told him as much, another flashed yellow taking wounds but the Drukhari were trapped and as more drones and marines stormed through they were killed and resistance fell to a small group of Drukhari who attempted to charge Forin alone but he drew his chain sword and cut them in to several pieces.

Blood pooled at the feet of the marines and Forin made a disgusted face at the xenos blood splattered over his white and gold armour, a tech-marine worked on the command centres main control system and they pulled up a map, he mulled it over before opening the vox.

"Gerik, the prison is heavily guarded but some of the Drukhari are trying to get to the exit"

"The admiral has informed me the enemy fleet has arrived, good chance they may try and land troops to extract those trying to leave, my guess is they will try and take any prisoners they have too" Gerik responded with the sounds of bolter fire behind him

Forin looked over the map again.

"There's a secondary escape route into the mountains from the prison, I will head back up, there's a path on the surface I can take to try and intercept them" Forin said

"Understood, Rebus will continue to push down ward, good hunting"

Pequad

"Thirty seconds to minimum weapons range" the tactical officer called out

The enemy ships were approaching and as soon as they entered range they would open fire, Elise looked over the enemy formation as they approached one more time.

"Lock weapons, torpedoes only no point in showing our whole hand until necessary"

"Admiral the rest of the enemy fleet is pushing forward, I think they mean to rush us" the auspex officer called

Elise nodded, it wasn't something unexpected, in fact she had gone over this possibility in her mind and it didn't change much other than she would need to call the vice admiral earlier than expected.

"All ships show ready ma'am" an officer called

Elise watched as the first few enemy ships crossed the threshold and targeting solutions lit up across the board.

"Fire!"

The actual ships of Drukhari were quite a distance away so could barley be made out by the naked eye but the enhanced sensors locked onto each ship and independently targeted a torpedo, of course there were no guarantees in void combat at this range, many of the torpedoes would be intercepted by enemy counter measures, some may miss due to enemy manoeuvres or just go wide of their target as it moved along it's course but never the less after the admirals acknowledgement to shoot the fleet did and hundreds of torpedoes shot out towards the incoming enemy ships who for their part reacted quicker than expected throwing up defensive measures and making careful course changes to avoid a direct strike and out of the sixteen ships that were approaching only five were destroyed or crippled, the rest either avoided taking hits or were able to put enough power to their shields to defect the damage.

"Damn I expected to get more than that" Elise said banging her fist against the throne "launch all fighters!"

Hundreds of fighters and bombers shot forward from the fleet for the first sortie, their job was not simply harass the enemy fleet and deal with the Drukhari void fighters that were providing fighter cover for their approaching fleet but to provide a distraction while the fleet charged it's phase cannons which went very well as the Drukhari found themselves becoming irritated with the swarms of fighters and bombers they actually stopped to wait for their larger ship to catch up so more of their own void craft could be brought in to help chase off the harassing craft.

Two of the Drukhari destroyers were lit up by bombing runs moments before the Estrellan craft began to retreat as the phase canons reached peek charge.

"Fire!" the admiral shouted

Five beams of energy spat out across the void and this time the Drukhari could not react and five of their ships were torn apart while several others were stunned by the resulting shock wave, the Drukhari fleet and it's fighters surged forward in retaliation as they realised the longer the stayed at a distance the more vulnerable they were but this was the trick of Elise's strategy, let the enemy believe they were safer engaging at close range and Elise smiled as the Drukhari played right into her hand.

"On my mark all ships break formation..." she watched as the Drukhari ships began to launch their own torpedoes "Now!"

All ships of the battle group instantly broke formation, the "invincible Cetacean" Dived into massive down ward strike and unleashed it's dizzying array of cannons and torpedoes out at the enemy fleet, the few enemy torpedoes that reached it exploded against it's heavy shield array and the energy absorbed was used to push more power to the weapons. It's job was draw the fire of the forward line while the "Odysseus" and the "mermaid" flanked around the side firing massive particle beams to pick at the enemy shields, the "Black Rudder" and the "Ishmael" acted as if they were diving down to attack from underneath but with speed they angled their bodies so they were facing up at the underside of the enemy fleet, they unleashed shot after shot disrupting the enemy formations and causing them to have to divide themselves to tackle each opponent.

The "White Gull" had descended into a lower orbit, it's job was to prevent enemy landers from reinforcing the base and it was not long before that task began.

"Admiral multiple enemy landers following a group of fighters!" an officer called out

Elise looked over the numbers, there were over a hundred and the white gull couldn't stop them all.

"Inform legion commanders they are about to have company"

The large enemy ship was surging forward trying to get shots on the defenders but the disruption the early battle events had caused to it's picket squadrons slowed it's advance down and now it was exactly where she needed it to be, a few torpedoes hit the "Pequad" and caused a slight rumbling across the hull.

"Shields holding and boarding torpedoes are primed" the tactical officer called

"very good, contact vice admiral Zalen and tell him it's time to close the lid on this battle"

From behind the sentry moon came the system patrol fleet, it charged forward so fast the Drukhari rear guard was almost completely knocked out before they had chance to retaliate, one of the frigates took a direct hit and split in two but now the Drukhari were trapped between two fleets.

"we are coordinating our fire with yours, we will wipe this xenos fleet from our sight" The old man said with quite the passion

"Do not target the largest vessel, we are going to take it for ourselves"

The vice admiral looked puzzled.

"Why would you dirty yourselves by capturing a xenos vessel?"

"We will be analysing it's technology to develop better methods of attack future, then we will break it down for parts... waste not, want not"

"I do not understand, that is not imperial protocol... but your legion has it's ways, so be it"

Elise nodded though she could tell the vice admiral had held off on saying more, she knew he was likely to make some kind of protest claiming this act was heretical and without sanction by higher authority but that was something that could be dealt with at a later date.

"Helm! Plot a course towards the enemy cruiser" she shouted and Talvin nodded his acceptance of the order "Tactical!, on my signal target the enemy shield grid and launch boarding torpedoes the moment their down"

"Yes ma'am" the officer called out in return

Despite some unexpected changes in the enemy formation the battle was going as well as could be expected, the Drukhari had done well to reorganise it's self and she made a mental note to review this battle carefully to see if she could pick up anything from their strategy, the "Pequad" moved forward to engage the enemy cruiser and beams of energy shot between the two as they exchange early fire.

"Admiral the enemy escort vessels are targeting our engines!" an officer called out as alarms began to sound

"Redistribute shield power to compensate and have all absorbed power from their weapons channelled into reinforcing the secondary shield grid in case the first gives out" She called back

It was dangerous duelling with an enemy cruiser at such extreme range, despite the more advanced nature of the Estrellan fleet caution had to be maintained, Eldar no matter their allegiance had powerful weapons and had been in the galaxy much longer than humanity so they knew how to fight and had developed effective weapons against most foes.

An explosion blew out a lighting grid on the bridge.

"Direct hit to primary shield generator, switching to back up!"

Elise recognised the critical strikes, the enemy's escorts were targeting them with dogged determination because this what the Drukhari aiming for because they knew as long as the "Pequad" was in their way there was no chance of them assisting their fleet, destroying the ship was not their aim right now but a crippling strike to the engines would be enough to slow her down.

"Status of Enemy shields!"

"They are falling admiral" the tactical officer called

Elise looked out at the oncoming enemy cruiser before looking at the over all tactical situation, she had to fire the boarding torpedoes now and peel away before the "Pequad" came in to danger of being heavily damaged.

"Launch boarding torpedoes then pull us away!"

From the Pequad hundreds of torpedoes flew out in quick succession, each torpedo contained space marines on the twentieth and twenty first and they shot towards the enemy cruiser which unleashed it's flak guns towards the incoming salvo, of course this was an error on their part.

Vidi and Midi were boarding specialists and had spend centuries during the crusades and after perfecting boarding techniques weather they be teleportation, assault boats or boarding torpedoes, as the flak fire reached them the pods shields lit up absorbing the hits which fed power into their engines accelerating their approach and the more the enemy fired the quicker they got.

Like all boarding torpedoes they had four petal like segments crafted into a point which normally would penetrate the enemy's hull then open up allowing the marines to board however these were lamprey class boarding torpedoes and did not work like that, as they reached close to the hull of the cruiser the petals opened up and slammed into the side of the ship like the lamprey in Estrella's ocean that would hide in wait for a whale calf to lose it's mother, wonder into a cave for protection and then swarm and devour it, it was one of the most violent actions that occurred with the lifeforms that lived in Estrella's ocean but it was part of the natural order and had given rise to these torpedoes.

Standard imperial boarding torpedoes were strong but many would fail or marines inside would be killed if the torpedo hit a heavily armoured part of an enemy vessel but these lamprey torpedoes were far superior, now they were latched on powerful particle beams would cut a route through to the first safe area for deployment the system could find before opening it's pod doors and allowing the marines do disembark, this did of course leave the pod vulnerable to fighter attack as they rested on the side of the ship, if the marines were lucky the beams wouldn't have to cut too far into the Drukhari cruiser, several pods were hit and one flashed red as it exploded killing those warrior inside, it was only thanks to the fourth sortie being launched from the hanger bays that the enemy fighters were chased off away from targeting the pods.

Confirmation signals activated from ninety five percent of the pods as they deployed their warriors, the other five percent was either destroyed or still cutting through the hull but it was enough.

"Pull us away and swat down those damn escorts" The admiral shouted "let's end this!"

Kandahar, Records Building: Basement

Kalia had been sat for hours going over the previous information to see if there was anything she had missed but there wasn't so she had expanded her search outside of the system and was starting to make progress, approximate thirty two years ago their was a war against a rebel faction in a near by sub-sector in which Kandahar's government, loyal to the imperium, had been involved, at first she found this to be a dead end until she found reports by a few commanders of xenos ships scouring battlefields and capturing survivors, only one man had recognised the creatures as the Drukhari and that was the current vice-admiral of the system patrol fleet and he had noted that the xenos must be working with someone on the imperial side as the xenos knew exactly where to be and when, so she had dug further and found hundreds of names of people who were still alive from the war. Most were old men and women who had never left Kandahar since the war and given their background were not given over to association with xenos, although would still face investigation to be certain, however a few of the names on the list caught her attention, the first was a junior ensign and now captain who had served in the navy "Karl Ostinati", he had disappeared for a month before being reportedly discovered inside an escape pod, he had claimed the pods beacon had malfunctioned and he had drifted for weeks yet a magos-biologis reported he had been in quite good health for a man who had gone weeks with only rations to sustain him.

The rest of the names were ether officers with in the PDF or amongst the governors staff but it was the last name rang an alarm bell in her head "Galway Unalaska" The current Chief of the Adeptus Arbites, she had been a very young corporal in the guard at the time and had also gone missing and was then found under unusual circumstances after several weeks, there was a holo image of her and standing close beside her was "Karl Ostinati", of course this wasn't proof of anything except a friendship or possibly more that had grown from surviving the war, it wasn't unusual for returning guardsman and naval officers to form bonds and even have relationships that led to marriage because of shared experiences but something was wrong with these two, despite all the pain and horror of war the two looked... happy and this sent a chill down her spine, of course that might also of been the result of hearing a las pistol be primed as it aimed at the back of her head.

"You should of left well enough alone" Unalaska said

Kalia slid her hand across to the vox device on the side and Unalaska quickly shot it but that was what Kalia was hoping for and she slid the chair back with force into the Chiefs body knocking her over, she drew her own pistol and turned as a shot went wide of her arm, more las shots streaked towards her as she fired back at the chief who dived over the desk she had been using as Kalia ducked behind one of the stacks, a door close by was partially open and she ran through it knowing that even with her training she was no match for a seasoned soldier like Galway.

Galway made sure the coast was clear and followed the direction Kalia had run to a door she opened carefully, the room was musty, filled with old cogitators and data banks caked in dust. A storage room for defunct items whose machine sprit had fled or died long ago, she listened carefully for any movement but could hear none, the wretched girl was smarter than she thought, this room was filled with hiding spots and it wouldn't be long before one of the astartes came to check on her... she had to be quick.

Records Building: Main Hall

A middle aged moustached man approached Malcan, he wore a short trench coat over a beautifully tailored double buttoned blue blazer with fine trousers and a las pistol holstered at his waist. He strode up to the astartes in the hall with no fear of them, the other humans who worked here had kept a wide berth apart from stopping to bow or say a prayer on occasions, those ones he had wanted to kill for their superstitious views but he was here to watch over Kalia with the rest of the squad, despite what had happened in the cargo bay he had begged Gerik to let him back on duty to protect her.

"Greeting sergeant, I am inquisitor Roan Van-sinus of the inquisition" his voice was almost royal like and as he spoke he pulled his wallet out and showed his rosette to confirm his identity

"You are late" Malcan grunted

Roan ran his hands through his short but curled hair.

"Yes well... with a void battle in action above Sodin I had to wait while my ships identity was checked far too many times, but I am here now"

Malcan nodded, he had nothing against the inquisitor personally but his organisation was close to the religious arm of the imperium and that made things uncomfortable for a legion who had no place for superstitious nonsense.

"We will escort you to Kalia, she had been conducting the investigation so far and will brief you on everything"

They marched through the hall to the main foyer and the door that led down to the records section, Malcan hit the servitor node on the door but nothing happened, he pushed it again but still no response so he turned noticing a red robed adept walking past.

"You!" he said pointing at the tech-adept who froze in place before looking over with a glowing red eye "Come here and fix this blasted door"

The tech-adept did not respond verbally and looked irritated at the command but never the less he went to the door and began working on it, he soon recognised the problem.

"The internal blast doors have been sealed my lord, it will take time to open them" a wet raspy human voice said from under the robe

"your investigator could not have authorized such a command" The inquisitor said concerned at the situation

Malcan nodded as the priest responded.

"The command codes used are that of the Chief Arbites... query are you unaware of side entrance? This has no internal blast door"

Despite the neutral tone Malcan could hear the condescension in the tech-adepts voice and wanted to snap his neck right there but the fact that Kalia might be in danger was more important than being talked down to by a Martian.

"Sergeant I suggest we go to the side door and try and get in through there" Roan responded with an urgent tone

"agreed" he turned to the rest of the squad "stay here and wait for the priest to open the door"

The three marines nodded their conformation and Malcan ran off followed by the inquisitor.

Records Building: Basement

Galway was about to reach for her torch but thought better about it, this might be just some young woman but she was attached to a legion and was armed, she knew they would of given her some training so turning her torch on would of made her an easy target.

She crept down one of the aisles with her pistol raised, it was quiet so either she wasn't moving or was fairly light on her feet.

"Come out, come out wherever you are"

The sound of her voice echoed and made her curse, the rooms chambered ceiling would make it difficult to locate via sound, she stopped and leaned round a corner before continuing on.

"How about me make a deal" Galway said out loud "I will shoot you through the leg, your choice of which, then knock you out and you can say you have no idea who it was..."

"I don't get anything out of that deal other than a hole in my leg!" came a reply and Galway turned around believing the sound came from the other direction

"You won't be dead though, that's something...right"

"Your a traitor to the imperium, I don't know what those xenos offered you but your a fool for agreeing to it!"

Galway shook her head as she turned down a dark row of old data banks, plastic sheets covered them and do not use signs from the Mechanicum were attached to them.

"Offered me... no they offered me nothing but they awoke me to the truth of existence" she said in response

"They lied to you!"

"No not true at all, see existence is pain and suffering... we as humans fear it but we shouldn't"

There was no response this time and Galway bent down to look underneath some old tables for any movement.

"See as they tortured me, ripped my bones apart and peeled my flesh from my muscles I realised that pain could be pleasure, when they saw I was enjoying their tortures they knew I was a kindred sprit so I agreed to help them set up a hidden base within the system where they could take abducted humans and awaken them to the truth"

A creaking from an area a few rows up caught her attention and she moved swiftly towards it.

"But they became impatient and started sending fleets to acquire more slaves..."

"….. and your friend Karl arranged for the system patrol fleet to always be late so they could never be caught" Kalia responded

"correct" Galway said rounding a corner expecting Kalia to be there but finding no one

She carefully edged down the hall until she heard feet steeping out behind her and felt a gun barrel close to the back of her skull.

"Clever girl" she said pretending to drop her arms as if to lower her gun

but instead she rounded on Kalia who was not ready for the counter, she broke Kalia's arm before throwing her to the ground, Kalia was whimpering and Galway moved to stand over her with her las pistol ready.

"take my offer and, pretend you didn't see my face and erase all the data..."

"Now why would she do that" a voice with a noble stature said from behind her

She looked around to two people, a man she assumed was the inquisitor and a space marine.

Roan pointed his gun towards her.

"Drop the gun Chief, no one has to die"

Galway began to lower the gun, then in a quick move she spun back to bring her weapon to bear on the inquisitor but a bolter round exploded her upper torso before she even realised Malcan had fired, as she lay dying from blood loss a smile came over her face... at least she died in ecstasy.

Malcan lifted Kalia who had lost consciousness before turning to the inquisitor.

"so ends the traitors life"

Roan nodded as he examined the paper work in her jacket, there was a ticket for a vessel that would of take her to another system as well as some keys cards and food wrappers, a data slate in her to jacket contained the names of the other collaborators like Karl.

"It appears some of their number left the system the moment you arrived, she was planning to track them down and silence them I would wager... typical collaborator filth"

"once their base and fleet is destroyed the system will cleansed" Malcan responded

Roan stood up and sighed.

"If only ridding the rest of the galaxy of those damn things was this easy... lets get the building on lock-down, and you best get your investigator..."

"friend" Malcan interrupted to correct him

"My apologies... your friend to an apothecary"

Drukhari Cruiser

Velar sliced open several xenos at the same time as they pushed forward towards the bridge, they had rallied quickly and shown effective resistance to their boarders but they did not have infinite numbers and as more boarding torpedoes cut through the hull the Drukhari had become divided as Midi took his company towards the engineering section to capture it while Velar and Vidi were pushing towards the front of the ship.

"Master, we have breached the engineering deck, heavy resistance" Midi said

"Acknowledged, as soon as you have it secured find a way to cut power to the weapons" Velar responded as a Talos came charging down the corridor

The war engine was hit by plasma and las cannon fire from the marines that had brought heavier weapons but it kept coming knocking marines aside until Vidi charged back and activated his jump pack, he shot forward with his power harpoon and skewered through it's chest, of course it didn't die but it's advance was stopped and the marines focused the thing down with everything they had.

The xenos corridor they were in fell quiet as the Drukhari fell back due to the death of the Talos and the company took time to reload or asses the wounded, so far three marines were dead and two injured.

"We can't be far from the bridge now, not with this amount of resistance" Vidi said as he wrenched his weapon free of the Talos

Velar nodded in return before activating his vox.

"Admiral status of the ground teams and fleet"

"The enemy fleet is scattered but still putting up a fight, the 13th and the 9th reported being attacked by enemy ground assault teams but they were too few and dispatched easily, Rebus has pushed the Drukhari out of their base and into the open, they are being slaughtered as we speak"

"Good, we will have control of this ship shortly"

Velar cut the vox and the company proceeded forward until they reached the bridge, guarding it were two Talos, plenty of Drukhari warriors and the whole section surrounding the entrance erupted in close quarters bloody combat. One of the Talos went down early, peppered by plasma shots that blew open it's shell exposing it's vulnerable parts before it was pierced by Vidi's harpoon, Velar had found himself duelling with the other, he ducked the lash coil on it's left arm before ramming "Kill spark" through it's chest but the Talos didn't appreciate it and bashed the lore-master away with it's right arm. Velar charged back in to try and get his sword back, he dodged the lash coil but was struck by the clubbing arm again, he felt several ribs break and could taste blood, he stood back up and the thing cocked it's head before bringing the club down again but this time Velar rolled under it and grabbed hold of the lash coil as it came round and ripped it from the creatures armature before it could energise it. The Talos again brought it's clubbing arm back round but Velar ducked under it and pulled his sword free from the things chest before cutting the cubing arm clean off, without it's attacking arms the Talos attempted to use it's bulk to flatten Velar who pushed back against the monster, it's strength was tremendous and he could feel his legs starting to give out so he gave up any resistance and let the thing fall but before it could crush him he stepped aside and cut the Talos's head free of it's body as it lay scrambling on the ground.

"Master we have the engineering section, we have disabled power to it's weapons and propulsion"

"good work" Velar spoke as he dispatched one of the last Drukhari fighters "we are at the bridge, hold the section until told otherwise"

"Acknowledged" came the response

A melta charge had been planted on the door, it detonated and melted the a hole right through it, Vidi threw in several stun grenades that went off with a bang before they charged through.

There were less Drukhari on the bridge than expected, the commander of the creatures was dead before Velar could even get through, he had cut down one marine with a large axe but Vidi had thrown his harpoon clean through him in retaliation and now he was pinned to the wall with it.

"get the shields down and scan the ship for the rest of the crew, we will get hunter drones over to chase them down" Velar said to Vidi who nodded and began his work "Admiral we have the ship, you can clean up the rest at your discretion"

"Enemy fleet has only six ships remaining, they are attempting to run but several ships are in pursuit, they won't get far"

"Status on the ground?"

"the xenos have been mostly cleansed, Forin and Gerik are fighting up in the mountains and have rescued quite a few prisoners but beyond that this fight is over...it would also seam Chief Unalaska was part of the collaborators along with a member of the admirals crew"

"Understood, I need hunter drones to chase down the rest of the crew and get teams together, we need to start analysing this ship"

Pequad

One hundred and twelve warriors across all companies had been lost, better than predicted but more than anyone wanted, a ship was already on route with more warriors to replace those whose names would now be entered into the database as heroes.

The vice-admiral and his patrol fleet were pulling back to Kandahar's orbital stations for repairs, they had lost most of their gun boats and two frigates while the vice-admiral's ship had taken a beating and would need several months in space dock.

The Drukhari base on Sodin was destroyed, charges were placed at key points and the whole mountain was brought down on top of the underground structure, meanwhile in orbit the Drukhari cruiser was analysed from the inside and out as the Estrellan's looked towards new ways of handling future engagements, as a Stork approached the landing bay aboard the "Pequad" a pair of eyes looked on the xenos ship as it was being slowly dismantled and stripped for either parts or broken down further to be used for materials in the many research projects going on aboard the ship.

The stork landed aside several others and opened it's main hatch, Roan stepped aboard the ship and turned to face the approaching marine.

"Greetings inquisitor, I am Velar Breton, lore-master and commander of this battle group, your assistance on Kandahar was most appreciated"

Roan waved a dismissive.

"Just doing my job lord commander, may I ask" he said turning to point at the partially dismantled ship "why that xenos ship has not been destroyed?"

Velar sighed, he knew this might come up, it was doubtful the inquisition would agree with their methods, in the crusades unless a species was technically inferior they would do the same thing but back then it was less frowned upon.

"It is something we do to better ourselves against our foes, the best way to defeat your enemy is to know him"

"I see" came the cautious response "Well as an inquisitor and a human I am a little disturbed by this ignorance of the dangers this could bring but I hold no authority over you so do as you wish but... I would be careful about who sees this, there are others who may deem it... heretical"

Velar hated the words and the ignorance of the human but he was not wrong and he would discuss this with Sankara later.

Kalia, Malcan and the rest of the squad from Kandahar descended from the transport, Kalia was rubbing her now healed arm.

"You did good work Kalia, as always"

"Thank you, my arms still a little sore though"

The inquisitor made a cough and stepped in.

"I could show you some basic defensive moves, may help you in the future"

Kalia nodded to him before making her way into the core of the ship followed by Malcan

Velar and the inquisitor entered another lift.

"I thank you for your offer of transport, it would of taken much longer to sort out passage on an imperial vessel"

Velar nodded in response.

"So the governor gave you no trouble?"

"No, he has restarted the tithe and begun reparations towards his missed payments..., will your primarch be returning soon, I was hoping to meet her"

Velar sighed.

"Mother is busy and cannot be disturbed"

"oh" Roan said "what is she doing?"

Velar looked down at the inquisitor an smiled.

"Just the usual"

Vigilus

Alistravia had waited until the team laying the mines had returned and taken up positions, despite the limited time they had before the whole xenos hive came down on them the marines had been most efficient in their preparations.

She turned to look at them all, not much time was left, she could hear the cultists and xenos approaching but she felt like she had to say something because she knew this might be the last chance she had, not all of them would survive this battle and if she was honest with herself she wasn't sure if she would either but she looked over them all and spoke.

"I was lost when I came here, this world felt like it would be my tomb and that would be a well deserved punishment for my sins, perhaps many of you felt that way as well..."

Kendra and the marines looked at her with devotion and that made her smile inside.

"…... but this is not the end for me... or you, it is just a stop along the way and yes it is hard and it may yet get harder but we will endure just like the imperium, just like mankind has done since it's birth on Terra, we can not survive unless we fight together and make everyone of our foes tremble in fear at our coming..."

Behind her mines began to detonate as the first wave of cultists approached.

"….. none of you will be forgotten and all will achieve redemption, For The Emperor!"

Koman roared the chant back along with the others, the primarch was inspiring and he could feel the blood pumping through his veins at the power of her words.

The first things that came from down the tunnel were mostly cultist guardsman, they came firing everything from basic las rifles to small missile launchers, they fell fast as bolter rounds tore into them and ripped their bodies apart, Kinkade and Duros, the raven guard were on the heavy bolters and strafed the enemy with fire as they charged forward, some even attempting to set up heavier weapons.

Kendra had found a spot on a gantry just above the defences and was picking off officers and other more dangerous targets, she punctured the canisters of promethium being carried by a guard with a flamer which exploded spilling liquid fire over the others near by causing panic amongst the guardsmen, a few tried to hide behind the central column that supported the tunnel where the bomb was to be planted when it was ready but as they lent out to look Kendra put a shot clean through their brains before they could pull back.

"How long until the bomb is ready! Koman shouted over the gunfire

"A few minutes, we need to increase the charge" Faraq responded

Alistravia was assisting him but there was no doubt in denying the power she could add to the battle so as the guardsmen retreated in some humiliation she took a few moments to assist the Iron Hand.

"We have a problem" he said as Koman approached

"and that is?" Koman asked

"we can increase the yield but we can't detonate via remote, someone will physically have to set the bomb"

"I'll do it!"

The voice was that of the white scar, he had overheard the talk from his position and now he stood next to them.

It was the first time seeing him without his helm for most, he had the typical top knot of a white scar but weathered face, Alistravia could see the warrior image of Jaghattai shining through him.

"Brother we can't guarantee we can keep you covered, and you won't have much time to get away before it goes off" Koman said

"I understand that but it is my life to risk"

Alistravia looked down upon the white scar and smiled.

"Indeed it is, The Khan would ask no less of you were he here"

The white scar bowed to her.

"show me how to set the bomb!"

The second wave thrown at marines defence line started with a thunderous charge as from the dark came out hundreds of cultists all changed in some way, some had third arms or claw like appendages, some were the big brutes they had already encountered wielding massive hammers and other weapons and a few were actual xenos themselves and they were not as easily deterred by the roaring gun fire that reached them and for every one that did get cut down another ten would make it into close quarters.

Koman charged into the fray swinging his sword left and right drawing blood and severing limbs as he went, Alistravia charged in after him unloading her volkite weapons into every xenos she saw but the tide seamed endless and no matter how many they killed more came swarming forward.

Two of the marines died as they became over whelmed and Alistravia was beginning to wonder if the white scar would make it even two feet away from the defence line before being killed but there was no way to stop the on coming tide, if these were green skins killing their leader could cause a rout but she knew the tyranids were not so inclined but it would be a start.

In the distance, as she was pulling the arms from some hybrid monster she spotted a staff and taller man in a red robe pushing the creatures forward as well as bigger looking gene stealer that looked as if was the alpha creature here.

"Kendra! Kill the leaders" she shouted

Kendra heard the shout just barley over the carnage on the ground and sighted the hybrid human in red, she squeezed the trigger and the shot left her rifle in what seamed like slow motion before it sped up and blew the things head apart, this however did not go unnoticed and she felt a heavy judder as something landed on the gantry beside her.

A xenos of some description ran towards her with incredible speed, Kendra grabbed one of the dangling electrical wires beside her, there was no longer power surging through them and with her rifle slung over her back she swung across towards the other gantry, as she did she spun round with her pistol and shot out the bars that held the gantry in place and if dropped to the ground along with it's Tyranid passenger.

She wouldn't have long before it jumped up to her on the other gantry and quickly took sight and let lose a bullet towards the gene stealer alpha's brain, it went through but the creature just roared in anger as it some how stayed stood, it let out a shriek and a much bigger foe came from the darkness.

Alistravia looked up at the beast, from the records she had seen this was a Carnifex, bigger than a dreadnought and far more dangerous it roared forward propelled along by it's large barbed arms, similar to those of the lictor, and it's hid legs.

A bio cannon of some kind hung from underneath it's carapace which fired at the gun the raven guard was on, the bio shell exploded over the gun and the marine with some kind of acidic resin that burned straight through hi armour, as he was dying, in one last valiant move the raven guard threw his Krak grenades into the mess of bodies below, most detonated with in the oncoming crowd but one rolled close to unexploded barrel of promethium from one of the dead guards, it exploded with a shock wave that threw astartes and xenos alike from their combat, for a moment the fighting stopped and out of the corner of her eye she saw the white scar running behind the lines towards the tunnel dividers central column.

As the fight resumed shots from Kendra flew into the dark as she attempted to cover the white scars

path, the alpha creature saw him and ran in pursuit, Kendra fired another round but it failed to penetrate the tough scales on it's back and as the Carnifex became a bigger threat she was forced to change target.

A missile flew up towards the creatures face but it exploded too early and did nothing but annoy it further, it spotted Marklar reloading his launcher and charged towards him but was distracted when a flurry of shells from Kinkade, who was still on the heavy bolter, unleashed the last of the ammunition into it causing blood to poor from a massive wound to it's side.

It fired the canon again but Kinkade had already moved away and the only the gun was hit, the blood angel ran down the side and threw what little grenades he had remaining into the crowd.

The Carnifex turned following him as he shot random bolt rounds out it, it spun round still trying to reach him and Kinkade smiled as it turned far enough that Marklar had a clean shot on the open wound.

The missile had been increased in yield which was why it had taken Marklar so long to reload, the explosion tore the Carnifex to pieces, Kinkade had barley avoided the blast which had taken many of the cultists and one marine with it, purple and blue entrails and body parts were scattered across the field of battle, the xenos and cultists continued fighting but were no longer in advantage of large numbers and the marines and Alistravia took the opportunity to kill as many as they could.

"That bomb could be set any moment, pull back! " Alistravia shouted

He had heard something big die, probably the Carnifex and that was good he thought as he began to arm the bomb, he wasn't going to get out of this alive he knew it well enough but this had to be done, he remembered his name now. He had cast it aside so long ago after he had killed his own brethren and dishonoured him self and his company "Roaul" he had not felt he deserved to bear any name after his dishonour.

A large monster barrelled into him hissing, it was the Alpha creature and it was trying to stop him, the bomb had been knocked out of his hands and now it lay just under the bulky Alphas body, he drew his combat knife and charged forward aiming to plunge the knife deep in the creatures neck, one of it's arms came around with needle sharp looking claw, it bit deep into his side going through his armour with little effort as he wrestled with the creature. It tried to throw him off but he dug his heels in hard and stood his ground, he used his combat knife to hack at one of it's limbs before driving it down towards it's throat but it picked him up and slammed him on the floor before throwing him into the divider and driving some kind of bone sword through his chest.

Roaul looked up and spat blood in the creatures face, he was laughing, when the creature had slammed him on the floor he had grabbed the bomb, he held it up in front of the Alpha and it screeched it's frustration as he squeezed the trigger.

The blast shook the tunnel and as the six remaining warriors and Alistravia rounded the corner the shock wave hit them covering them in dust and knocking them over.

Alistravia looked around as they picked themselves back up, only Kendra, Koman, Kinkade, Faraq, Marklar and Maxis had survived, the others were gone but would not be forgotten, the look she had seen on the Crimson fists face when he was caught in the blast of the Carnifex was one of satisfaction, his duty was done as only in death does duty end.

They made their way down the tunnel, judging from the map they were a short sprint away from the next station and escape from the tunnels but as they walked bright lights from suit lumens lit up the dark in front of them along with the roar of an engine, the marines visors adjusted but Alistravia could already see their new arrivals and she smiled as a terminator stomped forward in space wolf colours.

"I am captain Vulen, and I bring you greetings from our lord commander, he apologises he can not greet you in person but sends his regards"

Koman and the others stepped forward.

"see I told you the sons of Russ never let me down" Alistravia said smiling

"Why is there only five of them" Kendra said looking at the four other terminators

"this area is deep in enemy territory, a larger gathering would of risked unwanted attention, we would of ignored the signal were it not carried in the voice of our primarch" he stepped forward to Alistravia

"Our fathers desire to see you safe is ours, we will get you off this world" the ruff shaven space wolf said

"These warriors will be coming also, they have been... a great help to me and have absolved their sins"

Vulen nodded.

"we have a land raider and we should leave quickly before our presence is detected"

The raider was cold and cramped but it served it's purpose as it drove out of the station and onto the side roads that led away from the thickest of fighting.

"We will be back at base in a day at most" Vulen said

"Good, then I am going to contact an Estrellan ship and get them to pick us up" she sighed and sniffed her self "I really need a bath"

"I think I could use a dri..." Koman started to say but the raider came to a sudden halt and the driver Voxed through

"Captain your not going to believe this..."

"try me?"

"There's someone stood in the court yard at the of this road... I think it's the despoiler"

Everyone in the land raider appeared shocked except Alistravia and who disconnected her harness and peered through the vision slit with Vulen, sure enough in a court yard surrounded by semi collapsed buildings was the Ezekyle Abbadon, in his fathers armour no less.

He was alone and auspex scans revealed no hidden forces.

Vulen looked at her questioning the situation, Alistravia hit the mechanism to activate the doors, she knew Vulen's question.

"If he wanted you all dead he would of attacked by now, he's here for me"

"You can't go out there he will kill you" Koman spat

"he can try!" Alistravia said rounding on the Black Templar "my father told me I would face this trial when he spoke to me in the tunnels... and I will overcome it"

Koman saw the fire in her eyes and nodded.

"I need a weapon of some sort, preferably a pole arm" she said to Vulen

"Take mine honoured primarch" One of the other terminators said and held out his Thunder hammer

Alistravia took it and thanked the marine before stepping out into the cold empty courtyard.

"close the doors behind me"

Vulen hit the controls and they slowly started to close and Alistravia looked out towards Ezekyle.

"No matter what happens..."

She said as she turned and gave a look that Koman had not seen before, it was one of true authority and power, a true primarch and as the doors were about to slam shut she said one thing and one thing only.

"...Don't interfere!

To Be Continued...