The Primarchs Return

by HarmonicaJay

Anthology Series. The Loyalist Primarchs have returned to save the Imperium from itself and its enemies. Warning: Contains a mixture of Heartwarming Family Fluff and Blood and Gore

40. The Ghosts of Istvaan V: Chapter 4

Chapter Four

9,900 Years Ago

If Narik Dreygur could still spit, he would do so in the face of Barban Falk, or as he insisted on being called "The Warsmith". Unfortunately, he lacked a fully functioning mouth. In the skies above Istvaan V, Dreygur was held by the throat in one hand while Falk held a bolt pistol against his temple. For years, they had harried the Traitors, retrieving Loyalist gene-seeds, attacking the fortresses of their former brethren, and generally making things slightly more difficult for them. Their luck had run out. Falk had found them and had declared open war on Istvaan.

From orbit, he had bombarded their fortress, killing a majority of their men. The Salamanders that had come with Cassian had died when Dreygur's ship had been boarded. Cassian had voluntarily given up his Dreadnought armor to Tarrasch after his body was all but obliterated in battle against a Terminator Squad. Saying goodbye to his battle brother was one of the hardest things Dreygur had ever had to do. He'd held his one remaining hand as the former Lord Commander of the Salamanders had died.

The rest had gone into hiding underground. If they were able to fool the auspex scanners, then their new fortress would be undetectable from orbit. The remainder of his brothers would be outfitting it and then going into hibernation as per his instructions. Dreygur had volunteered to take the fight to Falk under the guise of escaping with the retrieved gene-seed. As he guessed, Falk had intercepted and boarded the ship. Dreygur was alone on the ship, his men dead, and he was about to die at the hands of one of the most insane Iron Warriors to exist.

"Where are the Gene-Seeds," Falk asked. "Tell me and I will kill you quickly."

"And if I don't tell you, 'Warsmith,'" Dreygur asked with a mocking tone. "Either way, I die. And that does not appeal to me. You have already taken everything from me. What is left?"

Falk considered that for a moment. "You have a point. You know... I always liked you, Narik. You had promise. It's a shame you chose the wrong side. You could have been one of the Triarch."

"A yes man to an insane and petulant bastard? Sorry, but being banished from his sight because of this," he motioned to his augmentations. "Was probably the best thing to ever happen to me."

"The point is, I will find them. So you might as well tell me now."

It was time. Dreygur's last gambit. He was going to die, but he could at least make sure their sacrifice had not been in vain. His voice carried the tone of a smile. "You blew them up."

"What?"

"You blew them up. They were in the fortress the whole time. My 'escape'? A diversion. The rest of my brothers should be off planet by now. You killed our reason for existing, Falk. Congratulations. You go back to Perturabo with nothing!"

"My name... is Warsmith," Falk growled. He pressed the boltpistol against Narik's head. "Goodbye, Dreygur."

Dreygur didn't hear the blast that killed him. It wasn't a mass reactive round. Just a clean shot through the head that took out the back of his skull. As Falk released him to fall to the deck, under his mask, Narik Dreygur had died with what amounted to a smile on his face.

Falk looked at the hologram of the ruins of the fortress he'd ordered bombarded from orbit. It had been a good fortress, combining the talents of two Legions to create something that, had he fought on the ground, would have been a long siege. But he was above such arrogance. What mattered was ending the fight and destroying those that had crossed him. However, he had to admit that desire to end a traitor like Dreygur had possibly cost him his true victory.

Falk cued up the vox to his commanding officer on the surface. "Captain, are there any signs of life left on the surface?"

"None, Warsmith. We've only found corpses and what looks like the remains of a laboratory. I believe the Gene-Seed is gone."

Falk cut the link and sighed. They'd already searched Dreygur's ship top to bottom and found nothing. He turned to the Shipmaster. "Destroy the ship. Leave nothing and have our forces return to ship. We are done here."

"Yes, Warsmith," the Shipmaster nodded.

Now

Ruban strode across the depression towards Corax, a smile on his face. They had won a great victory and it was thanks to the Primarch. "My Lord," he said with a bow. "Congratulations on your victory. You must be proud."

Corax shook his head. "We have not won yet. Toramino is still up there and he still has forces to deploy. Be prepared, Priest."

Ruban had to admit he was correct. He looked up at the sky and decided it was time to break the truth to him. "My Lord, you were with the original Therion Cohort during the Great Crusade, correct?"

"I was."

"And their commanding officer was Marcus Valerius whom you banished to die in battle, correct?"

"Yes."

"My Lord, he did not die in battle. He survived and wandered around the Galaxy... where he eventually ended up on Kiavahr."

Corax's eyes narrowed. "What are you saying, Priest?"

"My Lord..." Then they heard a rumble in the sky. Both looked up to see Drop Pods and carrier dropships falling from the sky. The final assault had begun.

Corax activated his vox immediately. "ALL IMPERIAL FORCES! ASSUME BATTLE FORMATIONS! THE FINAL ASSAULT HAS BEGUN!"

All around him, the Imperial Guard and Space Marines assumed defensive positions, following the line of descent of the Pods. One in particular, large enough to hold a Dreadnought, crash landed in the center of the depression. As the Pod began to open, a disfigured Dreadnought with Chaos marking adorning its armor, smashed through the doors with a roar. Many of the pods landed outside of the depression but a grand majority of them landed inside with the Imperials. Corax turned to Ingoldt.

"Ingoldt, have your defense measures attack the siege weaponry. We can handle the troops."

Yes, my Lord. And one other thing to help this siege." He activated his vox. "Master Tarrasch, we need your help out here. Have the defense turrets attack the siege weaponry on automatic before you leave. Iron Within, Master."

As the Traitor Iron Warriors emerged, the various Space Marine Squads assumed defensive patterns, training their bolters. "Open fire," Corax ordered. Both sides opened fire while Corax charged the Chaos Dreadnought, claws ignited for battle. He leaped onto the Dreadnought, landing on its carapace and stabbing downwards into the coffin. As he did, a power claw grabbed at him. He swiped at it with his free hand, slicing a piece of it off.

The other arm rose, a flamer attachment blazing forth into Corax's face, causing him to instinctively retract his buried lightning claw to cover his face. The Dreadnought spun around on its axis, flinging the Primarch off and onto his back. The Dreadnought roared and stomped on Corax's chest, grinding against the ceramite plating. Corax sneered as he pushed against the Dreadnought's foot. Just as he was about to shove it off, something crashed into the Dreadnought, causing it to release Corax. He quickly rose to his feet to see Tarrasch wrestling with the other Dreadnought.

A Chaos Terminator squad opened fire upon Corax before he could come to Tarrasch's aid and he pounced on them. With claw and bolter rifle, Corax began his slaughter of the Terminators. One he blasted point blank in the face one-handed with the bolter while he impaled another with his lightning claw. He hurled the Terminator into the rest of the squad and activated his jump pack, sending him flying into the downed squad. He crushed the head of one and blasted another in the chest. Surprisingly, the one he impaled managed to get up and opened fire with his Storm Bolter. Ducking his head low and raising his shoulder, Corax barreled into the Terminator, knocking them both to the ground. Corax stabbed it through the helm lenses, finishing it off.

As he rose to survey the battle, he noticed his helm's sensors were failing. "Damn flamer," he cursed, tearing off the helm as he did. He looked at it to find that the side that had been scorched by the flamer had begun to melt. He looked around the battlefield to find that the battle had devolved into a melee.

Many of the Imperial Guard had switched to using bayonets at the ends of their rifles, aiming for the neck seals or the helm lenses, but were wheat for the chaff. The Iron Hands were adept at close range fighting and were suitably holding their own against the Iron Warriors. Corax noted that a majority of them were Firstborns and he smiled to himself, seeing this as proof the previous generation of Space Marines were not obsolete just yet. The Raven Guard were pressing the offensive, though their losses were slowly growing. They were strong, but their tactics of striking and fading were no good in close quarters. Still, the Primaris under Kadus were giving them an advantage over the Firstborn Iron Warriors. "Fight well, Captain. Fight well."

The Salamanders still retained defensive positions with their flamers and were managing to protect as many fallen Imperial Guard as they could, sacrificing the offensive in exchange. Corax went to their aid first, lashing his power whip through the front line of advancing Iron Warriors. Wielding the fallen Terminator's Storm Bolter, he blasted as many as he could until its ammo ran dry. Seeing the Salamanders would hold now that their attacker's numbers were down, he turned his attention to the Raven Guard and moved to join his sons.

Tarrasch's Dreadnought armor had been modified since his interment, replacing one of Cassian's flamers, replacing it with a chainfist and the other arm with an assault cannon. As the two Dreadnoughts clashed, Tarrasch studied the moves of this Dreadnought. The stance, the style, it was familiar. As if he'd fought this one before in the fighting cages. Then he realized.

"CAPTAIN KRENDL, IS THAT YOU," he rumbled.

The Chaos Dreadnought faltered for a moment before responding. "WARSMITH KRENDL! I AM STILL WARSMITH, TARRASCH! YOU WILL SHOW ME PROPER RESPECT OR I WILL DO TO YOU WHAT THE HRUD DID TO THAT CRIPPLED FOOL DANTIOCH!"

Tarrasch gunned his chainfist into Krendl's side. "YOU WILL NOT SPEAK HIS NAME! HE DIED A TRUE HERO, LOYAL TO THE EMPEROR AND TRUE TO HIS BELIEFS AS AN IRON WARRIOR! YOU WILL DIE AS A TRAITOR AND A COWARD WHO WAS TOO AFRAID TO REMAIN LOYAL!"

He opened fire with the assault cannon directly into Krendl's coffin. "AND YOU ARE STILL AS WEAK AS YOU WERE BEFORE WE ROSE THROUGH THE RANKS! YOU WILL WISH YOU HAD DIED ON LESSER DAMANTYNE!" He speared into the coffin and pushed further and further in. "FOR THE TRUE WARSMITH!" He tore the coffin off to reveal the remains of the Traitor Warsmith inside. "DIE!" He blasted what remained of Krendl apart, avenging the insult on the name of Barabas Dantioch.

High above Istvaan V, Toramino watched as his Dreadnought was blasted apart. He howled in anger as he watched his forces were beaten back by the Loyalists. While the Imperium's forces were sustaining losses, they were nowhere near as great as his losses. He turned to his Shipmaster, his teeth gritted in anger. "Open fire. Now."

The Shipmaster's eyes widened in shock. "Master Toramino... your men are still down there. You'd kill them as well."

Toramino turned on the Shipmaster and grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up. "YOU WILL OBEY ME! YOU WILL OPEN FIRE AND YOU WILL DO IT NOW!"

He threw the Shipmaster across the Bridge and turned to the Bridge Crew. "OPEN FIRE! NOW!"

As the Loyalists fought against the Traitors a loud boom could be heard in the atmosphere above. The fighting began to cease as both sides looked up into the sky to see what looked like the beginnings of an Orbital Strike. Corax turned to his marines and cried out. "EVERYONE TAKE COVER!"

The first strike came outside of the Depression causing debris to shower the combatants. More and more began to fall, smashing more and more of the combatants to pieces. "INGOLDT! GET EVERYONE BACK INTO THE BASE! NOW!" Ingoldt sent a signal to the base and from the ground, shafts opened up and people started to make for them. However, more of the blasts came closer to the shafts and to the Loyalists, sending many of them flying. As many of the Imperial Guard made it down, more were blasted to pieces.

Corax then saw something that would stay with him for the rest of his days. Ingoldt halted and keyed his vox. "Brothers! Master Tarrasch! Provide cover to the humans and the rest of Lord Corax's troops! No matter what!" The remaining Iron Warrior Loyalists formed a ring around Brahms and the rest of the Space Marines. When a strike hit, it was an Iron Warrior that took the blast. Tarrasch managed to cover ten of the Imperial Guard as he was struck in the back.

Corax looked up and glared in fury at the sky. Toramino was everything he loathed about the Iron Warriors. A cowardly bully who was fine with pounding those smaller than him into the dust as long as it advanced his cause. He turned his attention to the Iron Warriors defending his people. There were so few of them left now. They were dying and he couldn't stop it. Then he saw him. Father Ruban lying in a bloody heap, his legs blown apart. "No!"

He ran to the priest's side and picked him up, shielding him with his body as he descended into the base, following the last of the Imperial Guard and Space Marines. He keyed Ingoldt as he made it below. None of the Iron Warriors had made it down. "Ingoldt! Where are you? Get down here now!"

Ingoldt's reply was ragged, as if he had trouble breathing. "We're sorry, my Lord. Your people will be safe down below. The base defenses should hold. They have for 10,000 years. Take the Gene-Seed. Rebuild what our father took from you. We protected them as best we could. We were the Iron Wall for the lifeblood of your sons and it was our honor. Dominum... Imperator... ac Ferrum... Aeturnum... The vox cut out and the shafts all closed. Corax turned and ran for the main control room, handing Ruban over to one of his Apothecaries. "Take him to the infirmary! KEEP HIM ALIVE!" He spotted Brahms, her head bleeding from a gash on her forehead.

"My Lord, we have to contact our ship!"

"I know, Praefactor! I know! Get the base's long range vox online! Contact The Shadow of the Emperor!"

As he watched The Fire of Olympia rain death upon Istvaan V, Toramino smiled in delight. He would find what remained of Corax's body and present it to Lord Perturabo. He would win! So what if he'd lost most of his Grand Company? Once he was Lord Perturabo's right hand, he would have the entire Legion at his command! It would all be his! A call from the Shipmaster interrupted his thoughts.

"My Master, another ship just appeared on the Auspex."

Toramino's smile widened. "Good. Corax's ship has returned to save it. Cease bombarding the planet and prepare to open fire on the ship."

"My Lord... it's not a Raven Guard ship. It's an Iron Warriors vessel and it's translating into real space."

"What?!"

From a tear in reality came a Gloriana Class Battleship. An ancient remnant of the Great Crusade that Toramino knew well. It was the Iron Blood, the flagship of the Iron Warriors Legion. Lord Perturabo had come.

"Open a channel to the Iron Blood! I must speak with Lord Perturabo!"

The master of vox gave a shaky reply. "M-my Lord... they are hailing us."

Toramino smiled. "Activate the hololith projector! I must see him!"

The projector activated, displaying the image of an Iron Warrior with a metallic right arm. It was not Lord Perturabo. The Iron Warrior sneered as he stared down at Toramino. "Hello, Toramino. I'm surprised you're still alive."

Toramino's blood ran cold. "Honsou... You bastard! What are you doing on Lord Perturabo's flagship?!"

"I speak for Lord Perturabo as his representative while he is indisposed during his recovery period."

"Then Lord Perturabo is here! Please, I must speak with him! I have found Corvus Corax down below on the planet! We can deal a great blow to the Imperium!"

"Lord Perturabo is aware of his brother's presence here and does not want him dead. Not yet. It is not the fate of Corax to die here."

Toramino was flabbergast at this revelation. "My men have died in battle to kill him! I will not be denied this victory! Let me speak with Lord Perturabo!"

Honsou's image smiled. "Lord Perturabo... only knows that a warband is here. He does not know you are here. As far as he is concerned, a nobody is here trying to make himself noticed by him. He is not wrong in this assumption. Toramino... what I do, I do under his orders. Corax must live. But, I assure you... I do take great personal pleasure in it. You should have died at Khalan-Ghol when you had the chance. It would have saved me all this trouble. Goodbye, Toramino."

The hololith deactivated and Toramino turned to the Shipmaster. "ACTIVATE THE SHIELDS!"

As soon as he said this, an explosion rocked the bridge as the Iron Blood opened fire with all batteries on The Fire of Olympia. Toramino was about to order return fire when he saw what looked to be a lance beam heading for the bridge. Before it hit, Toramino had one final thought. "I deserved better than this..." It was the last thing Warsmith Toramino of the Stor-Bezashk ever thought before he and the bridge were obliterated.

Below the surface, Corax watched as The Fire of Olympia was obliterated by the newly arrived Iron Blood. Corax wanted to be up there. To board the ship to kill Perturabo with his bare hands. But he could not. He was need here. He needed to make contact with The Shadow of the Emperor before it was too late. He watched as the Iron Blood departed from orbit and reentered the Warp. "I will find you again, Brother. Be sure of that."

He turned to Brahms. "Have your people contact The Shadow. I will... I will be with my sons."

Brahms gave a short bow. "At once, Lord Corax." As the Primarch turned to depart, she gave a slight cough. "My Lord, my soldiers were proud to give their lives. This was the best test the Therion Cohort could have asked for."

Corax did not respond and made his way to the infirmary. As he entered, he came across a sight he'd never wanted to see again. His sons had been battered and bloodied and more than half of the company of Ravens he'd brought with him had been killed in the bombardment. The Iron Hands had suffered the least amount of casualties while the Salamanders had lost an entire two thirds of the company. "This was meant to be a memorial service," he muttered.

"Lord... Corax..."

He turned to see Ruban hooked up to life support machines. Now that the blood had been cleaned off, Corax could see his injuries were worse than he'd thought before. Ruban's chest had been crushed in addition to him losing his legs. His left eye was gone and he was breathing through tubes. Despite all that, he was smiling.

"Priest..."

"Do not grieve, Lord Corax... This was... meant to be. I finally fulfilled my ancestor's final mission from you... A Valerius redeems his honor by dying for you in battle..."

He coughed, covering the breathing mask in blood. Corax looked to the Raven Guard Apothecary who just shook his head. Ruban was dying.

"Only Marcus was supposed to die. His family was not supposed to share in his disgrace. This was not supposed to happen!"

A tear trickled down from Ruban's right eye as he smiled. "It was not your fault, my Lord... This would have happened on some other battlefield." He held up the ragged piece of red cloth, stained further red with his blood. "Istvaan V has been purified in the flames of righteous battle. Betrayal has been met with retribution. The God-Emperor smiles upon his people this day..."

Corax stood over Ruban's bed. "How can you believe at a time like this? Why do you not fear?"

Ruban shook his head. "I do fear, my Lord... But I choose to face my fear. I choose... to face the God-Emperor alongside the heroes of ages and to have my soul judged. I choose... to believe there is a better life after for me..."

Corax had traveled through the Warp. He had seen what awaited the dead. He'd fought the minions of Chaos and had failed to kill his brother Lorgar before his ascension. He chose to fight... but only because there was nothing else. He fought for the sake of fighting. Not because he believed in a better life, but because there was nothing else to do. Now a human was facing death and had hope for a better life in the afterwards. It made him laugh.

"You have to be... one of the most deluded humans I have ever met in my life, Priest. To believe in something better... to hope for something better in this Hell we call life, is the height of insanity. It is... amazing."

Ruban gave a bloody chuckle. "Hope and Faith are the greatest weapons and weaknesses we have against the Dark. It just depends on who holds them. And I will keep them clenched to my breast. The Four Dark Ones shall not take them from me. I will... not give up."

He coughed again before looking up at Corax with a faint smile. "One last request, my lord... the Ghosts... set their souls to rest. Give them peace as true servants of the Emperor. Let Istvaan V be the graveyard of heroes..."

The priest's eyes rolled back into his head and the hand that clutched the remnants of the sash of House Valerius fell to his side and the last descendant of Praefactor Marcus Valerius of the Therion Cohort died.

Corax lowered his head in respect to the priest. When he'd banished the Praefactor, he'd done so out of duty and anger. Marcus had earned his respect many times over and had saved his life from this planet. To send a good man like him to die had been hard, but necessary at the time. Now he was about to bury his descendant.

He turned to see Brahms and her second in command saluting the priest. He nodded to them. "My Lord, The Shadow of the Emperor has been contacted. They are returning to pick us up."

Corax gave his last orders. "Take the Space Marine Apothecaries and begin harvesting the Gene-Seeds of the fallen. All those that fought for us. Salamanders, Raven Guard, Iron Hand... and Iron Warriors. Salvage and preserve what can be saved. Then have the Gene-Seed in the vault brought up to The Shadow. Then we will bury our dead out of range of the base. Away from this damned Depression. Istvaan V will not be a Forge World. It deserves a better legacy than industry. This shall be a Cemetery World... or Shrine World or whatever your damned Ministorum calls it. My sons and nephews deserve better than to have died fighting for the Mechanicus' future. And I will brook no argument. Understood, Praefactor?"

Brahms smiled at this. "Actually, My Lord, I think that's preferable than to let those Tech-Priests salvage our dead. What of the Traitor dead?"

Corax spat on the floor. "Have the your flamers and the remainder of the Salamanders burn them all to ashes. Have their armor melted down. I want nothing of the Traitors to be left on this planet. Cleanse it of the taint of treachery."

With that, Corax walked away to supervise the retrieval of the Gene-Seed. As soon as he returned to The Shadow he would sleep. He was tired. He felt like he'd not slept in years. He was... done for now. He needed sleep. He looked at the palm of his hand where the piece of the sash lay. He would keep it. As a reminder of what he'd lost today and what he'd gained. Corax did not believe in hope. He thought of pinning everything on a dream that all would get better was naive. It was... childish. Such optimism only served to crush more when disappointment came about in his experience. But now he did feel something. Something... like hope. A spark of something greater.

"Damn you, Priest... you infected me with... something... Damn you for that... and thank you."

Epilogue

On board The Shadow of the Emperor, in his quarters, Corax looked at a book. It had been written by Lorgar millennia ago. The Lectitio Divinitatus. It was the book that had arguably lead to the events that would see Lorgar betray the Imperium and sow the seeds of betrayal in the Primarchs. It was something Corax had scoffed at when Lorgar had first offered it to him before the Razing of Monarchia.

"If Father saw this, he would censure you, Lorgar. You do know that, right?"

"That's why I am not giving it to him, Corvus," Lorgar had said with a smile. "I'm giving it to you. We are on a great mission to unite the human race in Father's name. You claim to believe in it, but do you have true faith in it?"

"I believe in it, brother."

"But do you have true faith? Take some time to read it," Lorgar said while pressing it into Corvus' hands. "You might enjoy it."

Corax had kept it hidden, never reading it or bothering to. It had not interested him and he'd dismissed it. Now... after so much. After seeing redemption brought about by the sons of Perturabo, after meeting and burying the last descendant of an old friend, something had reawakened in Corax. Something that he'd felt when he'd liberated Deliverance. Hope for a better tomorrow. If he could stand side by side with former enemies... what else could happen? He opened the Lectitio and began to read.

Author's notes:

Finally... the Ghosts of Istvaan V has ended. I admit the very ending was a bit like Guilliman also reading the Lectitio, but I hope the circumstances surrounding it justify it.

I am going to be honest: As someone who has spent four years becoming more and more jaded to the world, I think Corax here was more an author insert than I meant him to be. It is hard to find hope, even when things may or may not be changing for the better. Right now we are heading towards a possible 4th wave of a pandemic that has killed so many people and it is hard to find a bright light at the end. Hence why I had Ruban become Marcus Valerius' descendant. For Corax to face the last descendant of the man he'd banned for believing his father to be a God and to admit he does feel hope is something I think he needed. I'm fine with a character moping, but for them to stay that way forever? Fuck no. Fuck that right up the but. I got enough of that shit from characters like Sasuke or Shadow the Hedgehog. Let the mopers learn to gain some hope and optimism for the future, people!

Now for the deaths of the Ghosts. I had always planned it to end like this. For the Ghosts of Istvaan V, them sacrificing themselves to save their allies was pretty much on their bucket list. They had wanted this from the start and would have tried to find a way to die. But their gene-seed has been preserved and maybe they will live on in a new generation of possible Primaris Iron Warriors. Maybe. Who knows? I also hope the death of Narik Dreygur felt justified. I had planned for more, but really... I couldn't think of more than a beginning and an end.

Toramino... As I said previously, I had not planned for him to be the villain. The baddie was originally an OC, but after Angel Exterminatus, I just thought "I want this guy to get what he deserves." And to have him die at the hands of Honsou, someone who already beat him before and a half Iron Warrior/half Imperial Fist no less, was the ultimate fuck you to a guy who adopted the Zapp Brannigan method of letting his men die while he did jackshit. It was very satisfying to write.

Lastly, I want to thank my readers. I am glad this was enjoyable to them and I hope more fans are made from it. I will be doing my best to focus on the Knights-Errant now while doing one off short stories before continuing the main storyline here. I'm also gonna be working on a few things that may work for... submissions to Black Library. Might not get accepted, but hey, I'm gonna try. Thank you all for reading, folks. Stay safe out there.