In space, no one can hear you DIE!

The Chaos battleship shuddered as the strike teams of Space Marines did what they did best. Part of Techmarien Martellus wanted to be there with his battle brothers, scouring the universe of the filth that had for so long plagued the Imperium, but that was not his task this day. Space Marine vessels had very few crew compared to almost any other known ship in existence. Space Marines were simply too rare to leave standing watches or shifting ammunition between weapons as naval crew would do. As a matter of fact, the only Space Marines on the entire strike cruiser at the moment were Martellus and another Techmarine, an Ultramarine named Genadi. The ship was crewed almost entirely by Ultramarine serfs,-humans who had been indoctrinated since birth to serve the chapter as vassals, and servitors, half- human half-machine beings who existed to do menial work that required little thought or oversight. If an enemy happened to figure out how thinly the ship was held, the Winds of Tallassar was in trouble. But for now? The only ones who could possibly take advantage at all were in trouble themselves.

Martellus finished his repair rites to the damaged bridge system he had been focused on and turned back to the console. Genadi was nominally in charge being an Ultramarine, but the other had gone to the engine room to repair a connector that had exploded there killing almost twenty serfs and damaging half a hundred servitors. It spoke of the other's trust that he hadn't even bothered to give instructions, just dashed out as soon as he heard the alarms. Then again, both had been the same places, both served the Omnissiah.

The Techmarine noted a small Tau vessel fleeing from the moon. He directed a serf to calculate firing vectors and sighed in regret as then the results came back and he realized it was beyond engagement range. It was small and looked old. It had to be to have been able to land on the moon. Most modern ships used shuttles to land for several very good reasons. One, few Void capable ships were designed to operate in atmosphere. They could for a few minutes with the proper angling of shields, but after that the structural damage would be catastrophic. Imperial ships in particular were not streamlined for atmosphere. Two, while on the surface, any ship would be hideously vulnerable to attack. His thoughts broke off suddenly and he keyed his com.

"Genadi?" The Techmarine watched his consoles carefully as the Winds of Tallassar came about again under the serf's direction, maintaining the massive vessel's position behind the Chaos ship where the enemy could not fire on it. "Bridge is fully functional again. Status?"

"We will need extensive repairs, but bless the Omnissiah, the damage here wasn't catastrophic. We will need more servitors." The Ultramarine didn't feel the need to comment on the lost serfs. "How goes the battle?"

"Most of our brothers are still alive and fighting." Martellus felt no regret at the loss. Any Space Marine who fell fighting Chaos was a hero to be lauded by the Chapter. "Captain Janus and his Terminator squad have disabled three of the battleship's engines. Your other brothers have wrought all kinds of havoc. Captain Thule and my battle brothers has torn their launch bays to shreds."

"I regret that I once wondered about your Chapter's reputation, brother." Genadi said with a sigh. "I listened to hearsay, to my cost."

"The old Blood Ravens deserved it. We were tainted." Martellus replied coldly, his mind flashing back to a dead world, a battle in a crater with horror almost beyond imagining. A horror he and many had once called 'Chapter Master'. "It has been and will be a long road back. But we will walk it. For the Emperor."

"For the Emperor." Genadi replied. "On my way back to the bridge. Anything else?"

"A Tau ship fled the moon but was out of range before I could lock weapons." Martellus wasn't making excuses, simply stating fact. "Odd though. They don't seem to be heading for any planet and they could have jumped almost from the time I detected them."

"Show me." Genadi said as he entered the bridge Martellus didn't bother to speak, instead he sent a data packet. The other Techmarine could interpret it almost as fast as a logic engine. "Old ship. A decoy?"

"Maybe." It didn't feel quite right to Martellus. The Tau ship was still piling on acceleration but it was heading into deep space. "They are moving very fast and will be outside of augur range in a few minutes."

"The scouts reported an attack by Tau forces." Genadi mused. "Nothing since then."

"If we haven't seen any explosions from here, they are fine." Martellus replied. The Ultramarine turned to look at him and the Blood Raven chuckled without mirth. "You haven't seen Cyrus angry. Pray you never do. I may know no fear of enemies, but he is dang scary when he gets angry. Loyal though. Utterly."

"Funny." Genadi was shaking his head. "Telion is the same way. Quiet until you piss him off and then things get really bad, really fast. A scout sergeant characteristic?"

"Must be." Martellus smiled under his helmet as the back end of the Chaos battleship erupted in fire and the engines of the heretic ship all went dead. "Ah, Captain Janus has done it."

"Did you doubt it?" Genadi asked.

"I don't know him." Martellus shrugged. "He seems competent, but so did Boreale." Genadi stiffened and then nodded slowly. "The only true test..."

"...is battle." Genadi agreed and then turned as a console flashed. "Janus and the survivors are returning. We lost seven brothers." He bowed his head. "Emperor keep them." Against a Nurgle ship that was an amazingly low casualty tally but each loss would be felt. Remembered. Added to the rolls of honor and thrown at enemies in rage and spite from their bolters.

"We lost three." Martellus said as his own display flashed. "We don't need to hoard our brothers as we once did, but it still makes my blood boil. I want that ship gone."

"Wait for the captains." Genadi replied. "Well, wait for Captain Janus, but Captain Thule can chime in over the vox."

"Speaking of captains, one thing I am curious about." Martellus asked as they waited. "Captain Titus went to Graia, but Captain Sicarus leads the Second Company. He has for centuries."

"Ah yes." Genadi growled. "Even Space Marines have politics." Martellus froze and then groaned. "Yeah."

"How bad?" The Blood Raven asked.

"No one died, but just barely." The Ultramarine replied. "There were...factions who wanted Captain Sicarus to start a successor chapter. The Inquisition was involved."

"Are they ever not?" Martellus demanded.

"Not in my experience." A familiar voice had both turning. "Captain Sicarus was occupied so Titus was given temporary command of the Company and went. He had been Captain Sicarus' second in command for a long time." Captain Janus entered the bridge, still clad in his terminator armor. It was covered in foul looking gunk and Martellus was glad his own helmet filters would stop the smell. "Their engines will not be working any time soon and their launch bays are wreckage. I have to say, your Blood Ravens know how to make a mess."

"It's a talent, sir." Martellus said with a grin that faded as the captain turned to the holo display. "All surviving brothers aboard. Orders?"

"Arm torpedoes." Captain Janus ordered. "That ship has polluted the Emperor's sky long enough."

"Yes,-" Genadi broke off as an alarm started blaring. "Sir! Incoming torpedoes! Multiple salvoes! Imperial!"

Martellus froze as he saw the massive salvoes speeding towards them. Such a salvo had to have come from every surviving Imperial ship in system capable of firing such. But why... He groaned in memory. The Imperial forces here thought nothing of slaughtering Space Marines. Or, at least Blood Ravens. Had they thought to add Ultramarines to their tally? Were they insane? Calgar would not take that lightly.

"Emergency jump!" The captain commander. No one bothered to argue. At this range, there was no way for the Winds of Tallassar to evade such a salvo. The battleship would take many of them, but the rest would have no trouble tearing through the Space Marine cruiser.

The question was simple: Would the Warp generators cycle up fast enough to avoid the torpedoes that were even now homing on the immobile Space Marine ship? Imperial torpedoes were supposed to have IFF, be able to tell friend from foe. Martellus and most other Space Marines through that a myth. Even if the tech was installed and blessed properly, Imperial Navy sailors probably couldn't get it to work. They were not well trained.

All the Asartes could do now was wait and pray to the Emperor for a chance at vengeance.

Battlecruiser Lance of Terra

"Target destroyed, sir." Admiral Geralt reported as the Chaos battleship vanished from his plot. The Lance of Terra, his battered Overlord class flagship, stormed towards the moon of Kaurava II. The rest of his fleet was still engaged with Chaos forces all over the system and they were taking a pounding but between the orbital defenses, and the bomber commands he had detached to each remaining ship commander, they were winning.

"The Ultramarines?" The Governor General snapped, he wasn't happy at all. Having an Inquisitor unilaterally take control of his fleet was bad enough. If what he suspected was true, things were about to get worse.

"No signals." Admiral Geralt said slowly. "Sir... An entire Company of Adeptus Asartes? We could have warned them." He was careful to keep his voice level. The commissar standing behind the Governor General had no sense of humor. However, with everything, the Admiral was rapidly ceasing to care.

"I take responsibility." The Governor General shook his head. "It is regrettable, but we had to stop that ship. If they are trying to recreate the Warp Storm, then we are screwed. The moon?"

"We are reading torpedo strikes on the surface, but the cannon is still firing. On what, we cannot tell." The Admiral knew that whatever else happened, his career and in almost all probability his life were both over. He wasn't disobeying the Inquisitor's command, not quite. But he had waited to pick up the Governor General and a strike force of Guard and he also had just been party to the murder of a company of loyal Space Marines. The Ultramarines were not the Blood Ravens. They did not take such things quietly. "Orders?"

"Close on the moon and get ready to drop troops." The Governor General said flatly. "Our heavy support in on the way, but if we wait for the Baneblade and base construction materials, we may miss our chance to nip this threat in the bud." He noted the Admiral's expression and smiled. "Come, Admiral. We don't need Space Marines to beat a few Tau."

"And if they dropped troops?" The Admiral asked tightly. The Governor General froze and the Admiral nodded. "Either side? Oh never mind, you will just kill them all."

"I don't care for your tone, Admiral." The Commissar had his hand on his pistol, but the Governor General shook his head.

"The Governor General just started a fight with the Ultramarines, Commissar. You better hope he killed them all and no one will come looking for them. Or, everyone on this ship's lives are forfeit." The Admiral said flatly. "All you can do is kill me. I am an officer of the Imperial Navy. It is what I am. It is what I do. But I serve the Emperor first." He stepped right up to the commissar, daring the man to draw and fire. "Go ahead. Gun me down for being the hand that killed the Adeptus Asartes. Give the Governor an out." He snarled. "And let me die with my soul CLEAN! You won't!" The last was a shout and the Commissar's pistol was coming up.

"Stand down, Brenn!" The Governor General pushed between the two men, his battle claws extended. "Both of you! I take responsibility for this. It was my order, Admiral!" He turned to the Commissar who did not take his eyes from Geralt. "We need him."

"There are others who can take his place." The commissar's gaze swept the bridge, but no one stepped forward. No one moved at all, not even the ship's commissar. "I see discipline has lapsed significantly in the navy." The ship's commissar bristled, but did not reply.

"That was uncalled for, Commissar Brenn." The Governor General said with a snarl as he batted the Commissar's pistol to the side. "Put it way. We have to secure the system and then we can determine guilt. We take the cannon and use it to assault the Chaos fortress site." He glared at the Commissar who met his gaze challengingly. "Commissar... Get the men ready to drop. Now."

"I will be back to ensure proper discipline is maintained everywhere in the Kaurava system." Brenn promised as he holstered his pistol and stalked off the bridge. No one relaxed.

"Antagonizing him is a bad idea, Admiral." The Governor General said mildly. "He will make your life hell."

"With all due respect, Governor General,..." The Admiral turned back to his displays. "We have Chaos raiders all over the system, an unknown force in charge of an incredibly powerful xenos cannon, a possible rogue Inquisitor and two planetary scale assaults to manage. Whether we killed them or not, we have angered the Ultramarines now in addition to the Blood Ravens and the Order of the Sacred Rose. My life expectancy wasn't very long anyway. If he wants the job, he can have it." He said with a snap. "There is someone on that moon that the cannon is firing on. Ultramarines or Chaos, either way..." He trailed off. The Governor General winced and nodded.

"Either way it is going to be a fight." The leader of the Guard in Kaurava agreed with a frown. "If needed, you are cleared to fire on the cannon using any and all firepower necessary to breach the shields surrounding it." The admiral looked at him and the Governor general nodded. "And yes, I know what that means. We are going to drop close to it, try to take it by storm before whoever is there can fire on us. If they do, this is going to get bloody fast. It did last time. If I order it, you will fire."

"Yes sir." The Admiral stood up and braced to attention. He saluted the Governor General who returned it. "One thing, has anyone tried to contact the forces stationed there?"

"They don't have the codes to use the cannon or the authorization." The Governor General said with a sigh. "The commissar there could technically fire it, but he would be executed for such." He paused. "Then again, if they were being overrun..."

The Admiral glanced at the com tech who nodded and bent to his console.

"Response!" The tech replied, but his voice held confusion. "Codes check out. Sir, they say the Commissar is dead and the Tau control the cannon, but they are free and were trying to keep Chaos forces from taking it. They say Chaos forces are attacking. Vox signal cut off mid-word, sir."

"Trap?" The admiral asked as the Governor General paused. "This place is a punishment detail."

"I know." The Governor General said with a deeper frown. "But if we land anywhere further away and the cannon is live, we will lose hundreds. Closer in, we have a chance. After the battle last time, we traced the control runs for the cannon. We know where the control center for it was located. Did they say who is in command?"

"A Lieutenant Mira, sir." The tech paused. "No Mira is listed in personnel on base."

"Okay, it is a trap." The Governor General nodded savagely. "But we can use that to our advantage. Set up to drop our troops right on top of their position. The xenos don't like shelling their own." No one dared comment on that. "Once we have the cannon under our control, we will need immediate transport to Kaurava IV."

"Should we divert the heavy transports?" Geralt asked, fully aware that if he did, the Chaos forces would take advantage of the change in defenses.

"No." The Governor General said after a moment. "If this is a trap works and we cannot take the cannon immediately, we still might be able to with a sustained assault. Pity those xenos gates stopped working when the Warp Storm faded, but it's probably just as well. Those made my skin crawl."

"Good luck, Governor General." The Admiral said and the commander of Kaurava's human forces nodded and left the bridge. Only after he left did anyone relax.

"Brenn will kill you." The commissar said mildly.

"Of course he will." The Admiral snorted. "But between the Ultramarines, the Blood Ravens, the Order of the Sacred Rose, the Chaos forces and now, the Tau..." He shrugged. "I don't have time to be terrified of him. I need you to go to the armory and ready the Vortex torpedoes for loading. They will need your codes to open the vault. Those will break those shields if we need to." What they would do to the moon beneath the shields was horrible to contemplate, especially since there were about to be a sizable number of Imperial Guard on it.

"Sir, if we are in orbit, we may not be able to escape the blast." The Commissar said softly. The Admiral just looked at him and the Commissar had his answer. "Yes sir." He saluted and left the bridge.

Moon base, in the shadow of the Ar'ka cannon

"They are coming." Mira said as she finished with the Imperial vox. She didn't need it talk to her troops. There were not that many of them. "They will probably drop right on top of us." She stared up at the imposing orange bulk of the Ar'ka cannon and looked away as it discharged again. "It is what I would do."

"Get down!" Simons snapped at her and Mira smiled as she did. A volley of bolts sailed through where she had just been and Simons' long-las cracked. "One Traitor Space Marine down, four more maneuvering to flank."

A cheer went up through the ranks as a Defiler in distance which had been pounding their defensive positions with indirect fire took a direct hit from the Ar'Ka and melted. The cannon had helped, but really the only thing that had saved Mira's tiny force was that the base armory had possessed a large quantity of automated Heavy Bolter turrets which she had spaced in elaborate arcs around three different trenches that the guard had built sometime in the past to protect the cannon. The Chaos forces would charge, take horrendous casualties only to find the trench deserted except for traps that went off when they tried to take cover from her teams' fire. Problem was, the Chaos force had a lot of troops. And not just troops.

"Demon! Demon!" Came the call and Mira swung her rifle even as Simons did likewise. A Bloodletter had teleported into the middle of one of her heavy support teams. They had no chance. It was rising from their dismembered bodies as Mira's lasgun bolt and Simons' long-las bolt hit it at almost exactly the same time. Other fire slammed into it and the demon fell, twitched horribly and vanished in a puff of evil looking smoke. A whine from overhead had Mira look up and she nodded, keying her other com as she saw Imperial Guard Valkyries on approach, screened by Vendetta gunships and Imperial Navy fighters.

"Shas'Vre, everything is on schedule. We are in position. Ready for phase two."