Noctem Oritur Chapter 50

In high orbit over Lujan II swarms of hostile vessels began to stir, lighting their engines and shifting position in a swirling ballet of motion. The transports were still taking on the last shuttles bringing up cultists from the landmasses of the world, but their shipmasters were not willing to be left behind when the rest fled so anyone who could not make it would be cruelly abandoned. Not that anyone would mourn them, half the cultist armies were rabid devotees of Chaos and the rest were merely there for the spoils, comradeship wasn't even a factor in their decisions.

At the very head of the flotilla was the monstrous Shadow of the Emperor, her mottled hide absorbing starlight and making her name all too appropriate. The other ships followed to the stars like pilot fish around an oceanic predator and her gargantuan weapons provided cover for the rest, not that they needed it. Orbital space was teeming with wreckage and the corpses of Imperial crewmen, nothing remained to challenge the fleet as they put the world to their sterns and boosted towards the distant Warp interface point.

In the amphitheatre like bridge of the Shadow the cooling bodies of the mutant crew were being dragged from command pits and being piled up in great mounds of rotting flesh. They had put up a brief resistance to the change in command but against Astartes they had stood no chance whatsoever. Many of them would have happily served whoever was on the command dais but the new owners of the ship were taking no chances. They ruthlessly executed the crew and brought in replacements from their own servants lest agents of the Dusk Prince be left among them.

Across the length of the bridge Gamma was stomping back and forth dragging out corpses and decapitating any who seemed to be moving. Resentment steamed off him and even other Chaos Marines gave him a wide berth as he took out his rage on the crew. Meanwhile on the command dais it was Beta who was directing the new crewmen to manoeuvre the ship out of orbit, while simultaneously directing his forces sweeping the lower decks. Standing behind him was the Warlord Jubila whose armour was covered in fresh skins that still oozed blood. He was lounging against the great marble throne with a grin on his face and was idly carving his initials into the stone work with the spikes on his clenched gauntlets as he observed proceedings.

He watched Gamma stomping about and leaned over to his Sorcerer companion to remark, "Seems angry doesn't he?"

Beta turned about and sauntered over with his tall staff clicking on the deck plates as he said, "Nobody likes retreating but he will get over it. I will find him some blood soaked battlefield once we are out of here to keep him busy."

"About that," queried Jubila, "How are you going to survive Warp Transit with this sorry lot?"

"Do not concern yourself," replied Beta, "My forces have secured the vital areas of the ship. Vorshaan left plenty of agents and saboteurs behind but we will root them out before anything untoward happen."

"Well you better hurry," sniffed Jubila, "The Neverborn whisper to me of Warp wakes disturbing their revelries, the lapdog's fleet barrels back to this system as we speak, they will be here in mere days."

"Sooner than we anticipated," mused Beta, "It is of no concern, we will be within the embrace of the immaterium long before they can reach this system and then there shall be changes made around here."

Jubila cocked his head to one side and needled, "Not happy with how Vorshaan ran things?"

Beta sounded resentful as he snarled, "Four decades of bowing and scraping to that bloated egotist. It was all I could do to keep from blasting his entrails all over the deck some days, it's amazing how much toadying I had to do."

"Maybe your Legion will give you a medal," quipped Jubila insolently before taunting, "Just a shame you lost your real lord to get this far."

Beta however didn't seem concerned by the barb and replied, "Alpha was never our lord, useful and respected yes, but flawed. He got too invested in his cover and was compromised by too many years standing among the Throne Worshippers, it happens to the best of us sometimes. In all likelihood the Harrowmaster would have ordered us to liquidate him regardless of how this all turned out."

Jubila asked, "You don't mourn him at all, you don't appreciate the work he did for you?"

Beta shook his head, "Any one of us would be willing to do the same, misdirection and manipulation are the keys to our success."

"Why is it every time I talk to you I getting the feeling I should be conducting a thorough purge of my followers?!" remarked Jubila with a laugh, "But what of the Storm Heralds?"

Beta replied scornfully, "Those nobodies, they were irrelevant from the start and while destroying them would have been a delightful bonus it was not essential to the plan."

Jubila raised one eyebrow and said, "But won't your masters be displeased that you failed to secure the gene-seed?"

Beta chuckled and said, "That was Vorshaan's plan not ours, our own stockpiles are vastly superior in quality and quantity to those shoddy knock-offs of Guilliman's bloodline."

"You are going to make me ask it outright aren't you?" said Jubila throwing up his hands in exasperation, "Very well if I have to say it... just what was it that your lot were after this whole time?"

Beta cocked his head and sounded genuinely surprised as he remarked, "I thought that was obvious, what's the one thing Vorshaan possessed that no other Chaos Lord had?"

Jubila frowned not following the Sorcerer's logic until he rapped his staff sharply on the deck plates and nodded off over the bridge. Jubila's jaw dropped and he looked around the vast amphitheatre before saying, "Oh of course, I should have realised: a Glorianna class Battleship of your very own."

Beta nodded, "The Alpha Legion knew Vorshaan was finally getting close to finishing his restorations but he proved surprisingly canny at rooting out our operatives and agents, he was annoyingly paranoid about the security around his prize. That's why we approached him openly and offered to help him with his little feud. We knew his obsession with the lapdogs was the one thing that could draw him away long enough for us to make our move, the rest was simply a matter of egging him on and putting our people in the right places."

Jubila nodded in understand but then he eyed the Sorcerer suspiciously and said, "You're not telling me this to show off, you have an ulterior motive for explaining everything."

Beta was pleased by the intelligence displayed and said, "You have proved cunning and adaptable, qualities the Legion holds in high regards, if we joined forces we could achieve much."

Jubila smirked, "Let you snakes sneak around behind my back, no, I think I would be safer trading barbs with Abaddon than standing alongside you. My ship is waiting just behind this planet's moon to collect my army I intend to transfer over with my spoils at the first opportunity."

Beta was disappointed to hear that but also slightly impressed that the other Warlord had his own surprises ready. True he could still kill Jubila, either here or during the transfer, but there was no telling what further surprises his rival had in store. Beta decided it was not worth picking another fight right now and said, "What will you do afterwards?"

Jubila rubbed a spiked gauntlet on his chin drawing blood and said, "Raiding in this sector has become tedious and repetitive, I seek new conquests further afield. I hear the worlds of the Paradism arc are ripe for plucking, the Neverborn whisper the people there have the most beautiful skins. I would like to make a cloak from it."

Beta nodded respectfully and agreed, "That may be for the best, the Legion is not done yet with this sector, it would be prudent for us to keep out of each other's way."

Jubila smiled and said, "I look forward to seeing what schemes you are concocting. I just wish I could be there to see the lapdog's faces when they see what's left of their home."

Beta conceded, "Even in victory the damage was great, the Storm Heralds will take decades to rebuild from this, giving us space to manoeuvre for the coming war. Abaddon sends words he is mustering for a fresh invasion of Imperial space and we intend to make use of the opportunities it presents."

"In that case I shall take my leave," declared Jubila clapping his hands together, "Try not to get killed before we meet again."

Then the Slaaneshi Warlord turned his back on the Sorcerer and sauntered off the bridge, heading back to his own forces. Beta watched him go and was glad that this had ended without bloodshed; perhaps there would even be a use for Jubila in future campaigns but that was an issue for another day. He grabbed a passing cultist draped in twisted snake iconography and said, "Prepare the ship for Warp Translation, and tell them to hurry installing our Navigators. We shall plot a course for Legion outpost Kappa-23-Tango immediately."

The crewman nodded and hurried to obey as Gamma stomped over, seemingly finished with his bloodletting as he said, "Is it true then, a Thirteenth Black Crusade is coming?"

"Yes," replied Beta, "The Eye of Terror is far from here but it will draw Imperial forces away, leaving us with space to make our next moves, we need to be ready."

"The slaughter shall be great," declared Gamma, "The Legion shall at last achieve primacy and show everybody our superiority."

"Careful Gamma," chided the Sorcerer, "Remember that the true victory lies with the strike that no one sees coming. Now tell me did Delta and Epsilon make it back?"

Gamma answered, "They were on the last Storm Eagle off the planet, they are leading our forces to secure the Enginarium as we speak."

Beta rapped his staff on the deck and declared, "Good, go summon them and tell them to hurry up about it, the lapdogs are distressingly close to returning home and we need to be gone before they get here. Then I have two jobs for you, first get that tawdry throne off the dais, it looks absurd giving orders with that thing looming over everybody."

Gamma nodded and asked, "And the other thing?"

Beta stood proudly and announced, "You shall signal the Harrowmaster, inform him that our splinter has completed its mission and the Alpha Legion can add another Glorianna class Battleship to its fleet roster. The Shadow shall be doing great things in our service, the Imperium thinks it has won a great victory here but we shall teach them that in the long view the Hydra always wins."