Chapter Three


A Forge-world was never a silent thing. Even in the depths of night machines groaned, pistons heaved and hammers smote metal into shape. Within Manufactorums endless laboror's worked under the lash of taskmasters, backs bent from a lifetime of repeated tasks. They worked until their fingers worn to the bone and beyond, each individual completing only a fraction of their masters quota.

I stayed on the Forge-world for six days, speaking more with the Magos about the construction of machinery to see my planet grow. Concrete mixers, ore smelters and basic components of manufactorums of a wide selection. Tarth would be able to produce its own civilian goods, of that I wanted to be sure. Military production, such as lasguns and bolters was left in the hands of the Forge-world, for now.

The greatest of things that I bartered for during my time there, besides two rhino transports, was an aging and unused escort class shipyard that sat in their orbit. They had railed against me for desiring such a thing, but I had pressed for the ability to protect my own system, nor would I be asking them for ships. They had relinquished it after a bit of debate, the structure attached to my ship with massive cables and much effort.

Ocvatian had been wary of being around the other Tech-priests, and while he personally checked over every piece of wargear that came aboard, bolters and lasguns, even a few suits of Power Armor. Bolt shells in their thousands came in massive crates that were moved by industrial servitors, the boxes loaded onto carts and wheeled deep inside the ship.

I planned on building a shipyard on one of the three moons that orbited my planet. Some sparing ideas for what may be done with the last unclaimed orbital, but that was not a concern right now. As the last of the arvus lighters of the Forge-world set down in the hanger, its slaved servitors quickly unloading the material before the craft left. Despair sat by my side, almost up to my knee now.

Octavian continued to go about marking off the crates before his own servitors started to take them away. I stood off to the side, undead and living servants alike parting around me like ants before a flame.

"This will aid in our fabrication efforts greatly Chapter Master, but I must ask how you managed to make such a pact with the Magos." A second set of arms had joined his first, made from plastic and steel, powered by pistons and wires, the barrel of some weapon fitting snugly between iron bones.

"I must go to a nearby mining world and ensure they uphold their side of an old trade deal." Octavian let out a small burst of binary, almost sounding like laughter. Those few mortal crew around us casted quick glances of fear towards the towering Tech-priest. They muttered prayers to the Emperor. The cult of Mars would never be understood by the wider Imperium.

Just as they liked it.

"Perhaps you will have to kill another Governor." A small grimace came to my face. I truly hoped to never make a habit of being involved in human politics. Perhaps this was why my old Chapter Master was always wrathful after he came from meetings with mortal dignitaries.

"I truly hope that will not be the case. I had little interest in getting involved in the Sub-sectors politics as it is. But, it isn't something I should be ignorant of either."

"It is the policy of the Mechanicus to know the mood of the Sector they are in. Ignorance is a sin."

"How many of their servants snuck upon my ship?" For a second time his face stretches in a wide smile. It unnerves me just as much as the first time.

"Three, but they can do you no harm."

"I see." We regarded one another for a few beats of silent understanding.

"Does it bother you?" He tests, steel arms folding back inside his robes, rejoining his core.

"No. But I call into question how they will react when such servants do not report back."

"I am not so crude. They will report back, and they will report only what I desire."

Was he truly so talented? Able to outdo the lords of a Forge-world?

Without prompting he started off, power axe clanking heavily upon the deck, metal cog dominant for all the bare witness to the power of the machine.


The ship gently pulls away from the planet's gravity well, steel cables tensing as the shipyard is dragged along. It needed to be close to be inside our geller field. We are directed through the space lanes, around minefields and countless other ships doing business upon the world of metal and smoke. We pass the outer defenses, stations stacked with lances tracking us as we do.

We left the Forge-world far richer than we had come, the thousands of colonists in my hull are seen too by the ships Confessors, who preached calming sermons to those souls who were still fearful of being inside the warp for so long. Compared to the short trips before Tarth was farther away from the Forge-world at the top of the collection of the Sub-sector. As such our return trip took almost three and a half weeks, by our time. The shadows of the ship flickering and growing as we traveled back towards our home.

I couldn't shake a sense of foreboding that came over me the nearer we grew to our destination, unease that nipped at my heels and plagued my silent moments. I was used to such feelings, the constant grinding of war left little hope in the galaxy, the terror of a billion souls bleeding into the warp. Such feelings inside the immaterium were often seen as premonitions by those of a Psychic kind. But I was not one of them, and ignored the thoughts as they curled around me.

Screaming warp filth echoed their hate for us as we left their domain, breaching the system edge of Tarth, auger arrays and sensors spreading out among the planets and stars as we accelerated towards the planet. The ships slaved servitors blurted back data, warnings of an energy signature above my planet.

Everybody went silent on the bridge for a moment before Alexander snapped orders.

"Bring the shields online. Gun decks are to be on standby." His voice was a whip cracked over the din of voices. For some, it may have been an overreaction, but Tarth was not a known world, and the feeling of unease in my gut grew again. The vox officer looked up from his station. We spent a dozen tense minutes waiting as a vox message blasting out before us.

"They aren't responding to our hails my lord." Alexander leaned forward in his command throne, holographic projectors around his chair giving him vast amounts of data in moments. I stood at the holotable myself, watching as we closed in on the planet, looking up at the Captain a moment later.

"The shipyard." I breathed, and Alexander's face paled for a moment before he snapped into action.

"Get voidcrews out onto the hull of the ship! I want those cables detached!" Messages were sent and crewmen in bulky suits left the safety of the ship to walk across the vast metal haul to detach the dock from our ship. We could do little else but wait as the ships engines growled and we closed in on the world. But even for the mighty speeds that Imperial warships could achieve, space was larger. Grainy images finally came in from magnified visual feeds.

It was a sleek craft, not Imperial or even Chaos in its design, but Xenos. Even from the unclear images I would recognize those dark dagger-like ships anywhere in the galaxy.

"Dark Eldar." I hissed through my teeth, the personnel of the bridge steeled themselves. Alexander barked into the vox of this throne.

"How much longer on those cables!" A static filled voice came back, the sound of a plasma cutter in the background.

"We need time my lord! We are working as fast as we can." All we could do was wait. The agonizing minutes as the last of the cables were cut away and detached as the Emperor's Light roared ahead to reach our home planet, time that the Dark Eldar would have to burn and slay.

I sent Despair to my room with Alexander's daughter, selecting her at a moment's hesitation to take care of the young drake.

We watched in silent fury as the images started to become clearer and clearer, a single ship, a minor Archon then. That boded well. The fury interceptors in the hanger decks were primed and loaded, their flight crews waiting for the moment of launching. I left command of the bridge in Alexander's hands and made for the main hanger. My thunderhawk was ready by the time I had arrived and the twenty guards that had come with me from the Feudal-world were already here, weapons held to their chests. Their leader spoke in a thick accent of low gothic.

"We will come with you lord, if you would have us!" I nodded and they filled into the hold, the minutes slowly ticking by. Then the weapon decks of the ship roared as the bombardment cannon mounted on the bow of the ship spat its cargo, firing its deady payload at the heart of our foe. We were slowing down now, Alexander easing the ship into an attack run to rake the sides of the ship that danced out of the way of our coming wrath.

The front doors of the hanger opened, massive adamantium slabs sliding apart, our thunderhawk rising within moments alongside the other craft. They would not be as combat effective as if they had been piloted by Techmarines, but they would serve well enough. A full wing of fifteen fury interceptors roared passed us, unleashing their missiles and lascannons onto the enemy fighters.

The two wings met in a furious clash of weaponry and daring maneuvers. Within seconds, it was clear which side held the better pilots.

The Dark Eldar Light Cruiser was far faster than my own ship, spinning away from our hammer bow and raking its own heavy toll across the Emperor's Lights with its Xenos lance weaponry. A burst of light struck our eyes as the energies dissipated upon the shields, taking the eyes of those unfortunate souls inside the hanger.

We drove through the lance strikes, diving towards the planet as the titans began their duel in earnest.

Alarms blare as the fighter craft of the enemy tries to tear us from the skies, but David jerks away and fires flares, the defenses of the gunship roar to life, making it peel off to find an easier foe.

The second we touched down I depart, stepping off the ramp alongside the house guard. David lifts the and goes to assist in the battle above, missiles screeching across the sky.

My eyes could just make out the detonations above as ships exploded, men and Xenos dying. Interceptors and their dark counterparts falling from the sky with screaming deathrattles of flame and smoke.

The wood doors of the colony opened with the grinding of damaged metal. Several dozen colonists had died meters from the door, hands grasping for safety. Their bodies cut to pieces, veins bulging with black blood that had caused them agony until death.

I drew my bolt pistol and blade, venturing deeper. There were no real roads yet, just a collection of buildings placed together or around more important structures. In the distance the snap of lasgun fire is followed by the chortling howls of Dark Eldar. My gaze falls to the men behind me.

"We must hurry to save what is left." They looked green, fearful and I cursed inside my helm. They had never seen Dark Eldar or their handiwork before. My suits sensorium blared warning runes. The map my battle plate had constructed for me pinged a sigil where it detected movement. I raised my bolt pistol and stalked forward, combat stimulants rising in my blood in preparation.

A talos pain engine, just one. But such things were furious and deadly. It hacks the corpses of a family, raising the corpse of a child to its maw to feast. I had seen enough.

"Fire." I hissed out and my bolt pistol roared, a few lasshots came racing from behind me, but not nearly enough. Had some of them already run? The engine turns, but does not stop in its feedings, its tail raising and spitting death.

I dodged to the side as a scream comes out from behind me, the shards blasting through the bodies of three soldiers. The venom that slips into their blood will not grant them an easy death.

My bolt pistol roars again, shells just missing the tail gun as the engine weaves and lurches towards the squad of still standing mortals. They are shell shocked into stillness, the gun keeping me behind a rockcrete building, unable to get to them.

Its mighty blades rise and fall in sick fluidity as a few try to stand their ground. They are cut to pieces for their bravery, blood coating its talons. I slam a fresh magazine as the rest of the mortals break and run, seven laying in pieces before the war machine turns towards me. Dodging as its splinter cannon spits, tracking me as I raced across the ground. Some shards impacted on my armor, puncturing through the ceramite but stopping at the adamantium underneath.

Finally a bolt round pierces its insides and explodes, the beast roaring and it comes at me, blades swinging in abandon. I slapped my bolt pistol to my side and drew my second power sword, lighting dancing down their edges. I caught the first blade on my left sword, driving forward to dodge the swing of its second arm. I take the weapon at the elbow.

Dead steel thunks to the ground and I thrusted my sword up again, twisting under the beast as it tried to turn and snatch at me with one giant hand. I drag my blade across its side, black guts and remains spilling to the ground as I tightened my grip and wrenched the blade forward.

The beast roared in agony, refusing to die, weakened now but angrier than ever. I was forced back as it began a furious assault, blades digging through ceramite, its innards dragging behind it.

I let it push me back, deflecting blows as I lead it to its deathbed. I duck through a weak wooden wall, rolling to the side as it comes crashing after me. Inside, it cannot move as it once did, knocking into chairs and tables, lower to the ground now, within striking distance. I turn, ducking through an open door and around the corner.

The material is thin enough for my auspex to penetrate, I know where it is. It bursts through the door after me but I am not there. I am above it, leaping with all my might over the low building, swords carving deep into its back, taking its tail gun.

It screeches and my helmets damper kicks in, protecting me from its death rattles.

Still it comes, innards all but pulled out, heaving as its anti-gravity engine sputters to keep it aloft. I raise my pistol and fire a single shot, its head explodes.

The engine was gone but there was no time to rest. The bodies of the squad that had entered the city had long stopped moving, toxins of the spinter rounds killing them during the fight.

High above, beyond the screech of jet engines and thundering boom of exploding rockets, the blue sky mocks the dead, sun shining brightly down upon their corpses.

I hunt through the colony, draw deeper by the sounds of screaming and lessening lasfire. Daring not go charging through the streets, unsure if ambush awaits around every corner.

Without more than a second warning my battle plate flashes runes of warning, I duck, trusting its well hones instincts just as much as my own. A glaive of black metal, still slick with the blood of innocents sails centimeters over my head. A hellion crackles as he dances into the sky above me, flipping his craft around for another go.

I raised my bolt pistol as targeting data scrolled over my vision, my armor had a lock, yet I waited. The creature upon the craft is high on narcotic and adrenaline. His eyes are red and pupils dilated from whatever disgusting substance races through his veins.

I let loose two bolts at him and he dodged them, but wasn't ready for the third that impacted his craft, the shell tearing through the machinery and causing it to fail. The fowl xenos dives from his craft, tumbling widely as it barreled into a nearby shack. His weapon torn from his grip I advanced upon him quickly. Eldar were fast, but this time, I was faster. Two swings of my blade and his arms are gone, the flesh cauterized from the arcane energy around my sword. He howled in rage and I stepped on one of his legs, bone and flesh pulping.

"Your Archon. Where is he." The eldar spat something in his alien tongue and I stepped on the other leg.

"One more chance filth, or I will leave you here to die a slow death." The Dark Eldar grinned in madness. A clipped perversion of low gothic coming from his lips.

"What, a wonderful experience!" His head was gone under my boot in the next second, splattered across the floor. I continued to make my way toward the center of the city, where Eric's home and what had passed for a garrison had been built. If there were any soldiers left, I would need to rally them to beat back the Eldar, or die trying.

Along my way I find more corpses, flayed citizens hanging from jagged metal. Some of them are still alive, clinging to life through sheer will alone. I snarl in rage, knowing I cannot help them, cannot stop and grant them peace.

I round the corner to an open plaza to see more humans strung up and gutted, a few Kabalite warriors digging through the flesh of survivors, their screams having drawn me here. My bolt pistol bucks in my hand and two of the warriors chests became mist, the others dodged with the grace only the Eldar could have matched, rifles rising and shards of toxin impacting across my armor.

I advanced through the fire, no cover save the mound of bodies that lay in the center of the plaza. Four of them ran towards me, one more dying to well placed bolt rounds before our melee began. Kabalite warriors had been trained since birth, their dark home did not forgive weakness. But so have I, and my gifts are many.

Blades are deflected and bolt shells that could not be dodged ruined ageless flesh. My battleplate blunting blows made to cut into the weak points of the joints, but I had learned how to move to protect such weaknesses in melee.

It is not my first war against these ilk. Nor are they the greatest champions of their kind I have slain.

Like scavengers they circle me, diving in and out of my range. I will not have time to reload again, half my ammo spent. I'm shaking in my wrath, the low moans of the dying even now reaching my ears.

A whip of segmented chains manages to wrap around my sword hand. The Eldar laughing in perceived victory. I spun away and pulled on the chain with all my might. The warrior released the weapon instead of being dragged along. Just as I wanted.

He stops moving for that one moment and it is enough to catch him in the throat. His head and chest explode in a shower of gore.

The last two are better, older. They move together and drive daggers at the back of my knees, the elbow joins, the gap between my helm and chest. I hold back a driving leap, the face of my foe as furious as my own, snarling as we are locked blade to blade. His ally takes the second to slice the back of my knees. I feel pain race up my flesh, screaming out my rage. The xenos is stunned, his ears bleeding.

"Die filth!" He tries to back away but my blade strikes out, cutting him across his belly. Their fowl blood becomes paint on my armor. The last one flees, dodging frantically right and left to evade. He is panicking, too focused on living to survive.

I allow my armor to study his movements, one thunderous heartbeat passes, I start to pull the trigger, another blood rushing push of vita sloshes through my veins and the pattern is locked. I send his soul to She Who Thirsts.

May it rot there until the end of time.

A sudden roar of ship engines and I see two Dark Eldar transports lowering themselves to the colony. I raced towards them, fury and hate boiling in my blood as I went to reap my blood price for these Xenos who would dare to attack my people. One of the transports explodes and I see my thunderhawk roaring high above, more weapons raining death.

I round the corner to see the Archon stepping into the shuttle, he turns and smiles at me, the bolt rounds that race towards him are gracefully dodged. Scalps and skulls of mortals hang around his waist, he is covered in blood.

The shuttles engines howl like screaming banshees and blasts away from the planet, thunderhawks in pursuit. On the ground, laying in the center of the street, a Drakarii dagger plunged deep into his lower intestines, is Eric.

I reach him as he weakly tries to grip the dagger in his guts. His eyes are fading already, but he smiles up at me.

"I," He coughs, and blood dribbled from his mouth. "I knew you would come my lord. Knew it my heart." He coughs more and a sudden frantic strength filles his eyes.

"Something happened while you were gone." More coughing, more blood fills his mouth and I tip his head to the side to empty it. He speaks into the dirt.

"Something, fell from the sky, shook the earth. It was metal. There was a child inside. I hid him in my home, under the floors in a cellar." I can hear blood entering his lungs as whatever toxin runs in his blood eats him from the inside. He lifts a hand and places it on my own, too weak, too feeble.

"He is special, my lord, you must get to him, you must, you mus-'' The light fades from his eyes, the last of his breath leaving him. I place a hand over his eyes and close them.

"May you rest at the Emperors' side." Then I stand, the cries of the wounded and dying calling out among the rubble and destruction.

"I will do as you have asked."

On the way to Eric's home I encountered some guardsmen. They had set up a barricade when the Dark Eldar had first assaulted the colony. My armors' senses had told me of their presence, and I had rounded the corner, not expecting the lasshots to come racing towards me. In instinct I moved back, hand gripping my bolt pistol as a voice I recognized came from the group.

"You idiots! That was the Space Marine! Are you trying to kill our only hope?" I turned the corner again to see Sergeant Monzn yelling at a few of his men. He ran up to me and saluted in his Helikian manner before pointing to his men.

"My deepest apologies my lord, these three will be punished for their lack of discipline." I gave the Guardsmen a glance, seeing the fear and determination in their eyes, and it was not from me.

"Use is as a learning experience, look before you shoot." All of them stood baffled that I hadn't disciplined them on the spot. The sergeant was the first to recover.

"Well? Are you going to sit there like idiots or thank the Space Marine for sparing your lives?" They got to that in a heartbeat, but I had more pressing matters to attend to that be praised.

"Sargent I need a few of your men to come with me, I am going to look for survivors." Monzn nodded and pointed to five of his men.

"You there, go with him, do anything he asks." The men scrambled to catch up, for I was already walking away. We made it to Eric's home, badly burned and broken, more than one soul had tried to hide here, and they had paid for it. Their blood soaks the floor Through the rubble I search as the guardsman went out to look for survivors.

I could hear something under the floorboards, the movement as my auger inside my suit pierced the material. There was a baby down there. I moved away the broken beams and ashes before simply tearing at the wood with my gauntlets, piercing the darkness below.

Eyes of gray with red and gold streaks looked back at me. Alien, intelligent, deadly. My body reacted, combat stimulants threatening to pour into my blood at the glare that came at me from the child. Eric had been right, whatever this being was. It was not a normal human babe.

"I will not harm you." I say and the being below continues to stare, rising to his feet. He was covered in clothing, fit for a human of his size.

"Let me get you out of there." I lowered a hand into the cellar and the child regarded it for a moment before grasping it and I lifted him out.

"Where is Eric." The tiny being asked, and I was surprised again. Capable of speech? He looked around the destroyed building, his head cocked to one side.

"Dead." He frowned and his nose turned up towards the air, wrinkling in disgust.

"It smells." I nodded, mind still churning over the unnatural being before me. Was it a mutant? Some kind of alien that took human form? No, I knew at once. No alien could be so perfect, so pure. That gaze turned to regard me, dominating and filled with power.

"What, are you?" I asked before I could help myself, sitting on my haunches to be closer to the child's level.

"What are you?" He asks back at me, tasting the words on his tongue.

"I am an Adeptus Astartes, a warrior of the Emperor of Mankind." The boy nodded as if that answered all questions, looking up into the blue sky.

"What happens now?" I paused, knowing that I was needed outside, to see to the people that remained, start the work of repairing the colony and setting up the infrastructure to support the terror filled colonists above.

To bury the dead and ensure no xenos remained behind.

"Our world has just come under attack. Its people have suffered, they mourn the loss of their loved ones and bear the wounds of torment. I must see them." His eyes close, listening.

"I can hear them, many are crying, they are sad." A pause before looking up at me.

"Eric said you would come back, that we were supposed to meet with you to talk about me." I did not know what to do in this situation. So I went to work holding out a hand, and the child grasped it, making no noise as I lifted him into my arms and carried him from the burnt house.

"We must rebuild and see to the planet's people. They will look to me for protection, and it will be given to them. They need hope in these times." Thunderhawks roared overhead, the Dark Eldar Ship had fled from the system, Alexander heading back to catch the still drifting dockyard before it shattered on something in space. Still, relief was on its way, and cargo shuttles were soon landing outside the colony, supplies and workers dispersing among the survivors.

I kept the child with me as I gathered the still living people of the colony together, those that hadn't been airlifted to the medical centers on the Emperor's Light for treatment. Only two hundred of the original colonists remained. A handful of souls out of all those who had survived for so long against the wilds of Tarth. The militia had been all but wiped out, Sosa surviving with minor injuries.

I let them have the day to mourn their fallen, the next spent directing work crews to clear away rubble and organizing funeral rites for the deceased. We burned the bodies, cleansing them in fire and if there were any family remaining, gathering ashes of the fallen if they desired. Many did.

I commended Monzn for adding several Eldar bodies to the pile of corpses we burned outside the walls, their weapons were taken, armor stripped and sent away to the Emperor's Light, where they would remain until I disposed of them, or found some use of them. But every one was to be accounted for, of that I made clear.

Despair rejoined me on the surface. He was annoyed with being left behind, of that I could feel through our bond, but what had happened here was too much for him. He was larger now, reaching up to my belt and two or more meters long. His small squeaks had changed into growls, his eyes losing its constant wonder, and growing more predatory, more dominating.

I had decided to name the child Aragorn. The two met for the first time in the house I had selected for myself to rest in during the colony reconstruction. It was a bare structure, spartan and utilitarian. Aragorn would stay here when I couldn't see him, something he accepted easily.

With the arrival of Despair the two had stared one another down for an uncomfortable amount of time, both baring their teeth. It was only then I noticed the pointed canines in the child's mouth, almost like the fangs of Space Wolf. Then, Despair had made a small rumble in his chest and laid down, Aragorn coming over and scratching his chin.

"What did you do?" I asked, his far to intelligent eyes turning to me with a small smile, the first I had seen on his face.

"We were establishing who the leader between us was." I frowned, crossing my arms over my ceramite covered chest.

"Was that necessary? Aragorn's head cocked to the side in confusion and nodded, as if it was simple.

"Of course, there must be one leader, and the followers, it is the way." Despair couldn't verbally agree, but I felt his contentment through our bond, as if it was natural.

"And where do I fall into this hierarchy?" The boy frowned for a moment, looking up at me.

"You are, caretaker?" He mulled over the word for a moment, as if deciding if he liked it. "Like Eric was for a few days until he died. You, teach me, show me the world. But you are not one of us." I blinked at the tone in the child's voice.

"One of what?" He gestured to Despair.

"A drake." He responded plainly. My confusion only grew.

"What are you?" I asked again, as I had many times, often only to myself. The child shrugged, something he had seen from those around him, constantly learning, absorbing everything around him with startling speed.

"I don't know." He said, still scratching Despair's chin. A thought plagued my mind, alien and undesired. I had spent hours of everyday thinking about the small boy in front of me, of his power, his intelligence.

Primarch.

The word coiled inside my mind, but that was impossible. The traitorous sons of the Emperor were inside the Eye of Terror, many bound to the service of the dark gods. The loyalists, dead or missing. Only the Primarch of the Ultramarines was known, and he was in stasis for the rest of time.

But how to confirm my idea? If this being was in fact a long lost son of the Emperor of Mankind, what did that mean for the Imperium? Should I bring the child to Terra? Give him over the Custodies there to be raised? Or would they simply kill him? Call him an abomination and be done with it? Would the High Lords do the same and see him as a threat to their power?

I needed to observe and raise him. If he was a mutant, some trick by the Dark Gods, I would ensure his destruction, but if he was not.

If he was not, then it changed everything.

A sudden weight came upon my shoulders, not physical, but the burden of realization at the task I had before me. I had to keep him safe, hidden from powerful eyes until my decision was made.

It was after a moment I realized that the two of them were looking at me, Despair trying to comfort me from across our bond. Aragorn regarding me with his usual intensity. As if he could read my thoughts, know my intentions. I sighed, and felt a heachache building, something that should have been all but impossible.

"I am going to go see the workers." The pair nodded and I left, more than pleased to be doing something simple for a while. The days continued to pass, the scent of blood washed away with rainfall. The cold started creeping across Tarth as it spun away from its sun.

. A group of men had approached me during reconstruction, their eyes set on some task. Some of them were militia members who had survived.

"My lord, we would like to volunteer for the militia. None of us want what happened to happen again. We want to be able to protect our homes." I nodded and directed them to Sosa and Sargent Monzn. The Helikian had shown me he and his men were capable in combat. Sosa had been a Captain during his guard days, leading a comparatively large group of soldiers during his time. I put my faith in two of them to train up those who would serve in the garrison.

Munitions that I had brought from the Forge-world were distributed to them for training purposes. The facilities to hold such munitions on the planet would have to come later.

One and a half weeks after the raid, the first of the colonists came from the ship in thunderhawks and arvus lighters. They were more than happy to have solid ground under them again after the terror of void combat and the warp. The people were directed to habitation units that had been partially finished.

Tech-priests from the Strike Cruiser descend to help set up the prefabricated manufactorums that would help in building all manners of tools and materials that the colony needed.

The mines continued their drilling, the loggers cut down lumber, the colony picked itself up from its near destruction and started to grow. More of the colonists from the other worlds made their way down, the Agri-worlders were curious of the fruit that grew in the forests, the animals and rich fishing from the colossal river nearby, many finding work in such areas. Those of the Feudal-world made good manual laborers, much of what was needed.

As I had expected, business owners soon came to me, there were few established laws on Tarth, no ruling body besides my own voice. They had questions, who could cut what areas of the wood, who would be allowed to sell their goods. I was not made for such things, and instead turned to those of the colonists who had experience in the fields of running a city. By the Emperor's grace there were a few individuals who were able to help me set up proper infrastructure and organize logistical systems.

I watched them, not knowing how influential I should let such men and women become. Would they try to form a council outside the one I had created from them? Would they try to force me to sign away power and responsibility? I had seen so many war councils include the nobility, who did nothing but yell and scream about how they deserved to be included, how their holdings were being displaced, the entitlement was infuriating during a war.

But it was also these people who saw a city run, it's almost uncountable facets that had to be managed at every level. Bureaucracy, if there was any one true enemy to a Space Marine, it may have been it.

No wonder the Administratum had so many scribes, trying to organize the Imperium was an impossible task, but they did their best nonetheless.

It was then that I received the ships Confessor, who had finally chosen a successor for the Strike Cruiser and descended to the planet to start tending his flock. Unaware to me, there had been some kind of holy man here before, but he had been killed during the raid.

A few dozen men had been selected to help in the construction of the planet's first official church, a small thing, able to fit perhaps a hundred worshipers, but the priest had only smiled at my question.

"It does not need to be large my lord, it will be open for any and all who wish to stand in a small space blessed by the Emperor's divinity. Would you like to come to a sermon after it is finished?" I had respectfully declined and gone back to my other duties. One of which, I was about to undergo.

With one hundred craftsman and all the mining equipment that could be spared, we traveled by thunderhawks to the mountain where my Fortress-Monastery was to be built.

Aragorn and Drake came with me during this time. I was unwilling to let any other watch the child. The Emperor's Light came as low as it could in orbit, using its powerful auger arrays to deep scan the stone, mapping its structural faults and strongpoints, where we could build without supports, and what places would need them.

I had defended and attacked many fortresses during my long years of war. I was not a son of Dorn, but I knew what worked and what did not on both sides of a siege. It was in this mind that I had developed my plans for my Fortress-Monastery, and the cities of my planet.

The barren rock of the mountain was its own advantage, and I was not eager to see it defaced, a natural defense to weaker enemies in its own right. There would be few paths up to where we stood, overlooking the plains.

I looked again to the mountains around us, imagining them lined with large defensive systems. The fields below could be turned into a killing field, if the proper firepower could be leveled against it.

I turned my head at the small pad of feet on the stone, Aragorn came to stand beside me, Despair having climbed the rocks to go and visit his own. The child, if I could even continue to call him such, stared out over the land, looking up into the sun for a moment before frowning.

"Something is coming." He said and I looked up as he was. I saw nothing, but for a few seconds continued to look up at the sun. Behind us, the miners were cutting away at the stone, much of which would be repurposed and turned into the rockcrete that I would build mighty walls and bastions to cover this mountain in. I looked away from the sun just before an ear splitting screech filled the air.

A massive avian, the same species I had seen before soared fifty meters overhead, its shadow making many of the miners out in the open flinch.

The huge bird slowly circled, feathers rippling as it rode a wind blowing up the mountainside. It's great wings folded, streaking towards a beast upon the plains, Aragorn's eyes never leaving it.

I almost asked how he had seen the creature so far off, but stopped myself. I knew how, and it was another note I made in my book of Aragorn. Tents were set up as night fell, rations were given out and the men rested for another day's hard labor.

So much to do, and yet I felt like I had no time for it. Tarth had already been found by one Xenos raider. What if Orks came next? Infested the planet with their fowl presence?

There was nothing to do but do what must be done. My eyes dropped to the boy still beside me, looking out over the lands like they were his own, with visions of great things they could become.

For six months the men labored, many entering my service permanently as Chapter serfs, the first of their kind. Day and night I and others pored over huge sheets of paper, schematics and sketches drafted and redrafted as I pondered how to best make my new home the greatest bastion possible.

The Iron Mountain, as it would be named, held humble beginnings. Beyond the great doors a simple hallway stretched to a circular chamber, twenty meters wide with a deep groove cut in its center. There, a hearth would burn, a crackling fire to greet all outsiders. For they would go no further into my Fortress without good reason.

From there, an endless connection of more chambers and corridors, defensive fallbacks and traps laid into the very stone. It was taxing work but one all took to with grand conviction.

The collection of chambers was only a dozen, yet I had Octavian and his Tech-priests start to lay the foundations of systems inside the Monastery. Hardwired and wireless vox relays, lifts and generators, lumens to work onwards during the night and all manner of technological wonders he and I knew of putting into the Monastery.

It was during this time I confirmed why the Tech-priest had not joined me on the surface of the Forge-world. He, dabbled, in what some would consider dangerous fabrications. Nothing akin to true tech heresy, but modifications, simple ones. A better lens for mining lasers, an improved power cell. Small things that spoke volumes.

He showed me these things in private, a moment of trust that would go far in securing our future together.

When not directing his workers or managing the manufactorums that were slowly producing equipment for us to use, the Priest of Mars was hounded with questions by Aragorn. He had done the same to me many times, asking about everything and anything his mind set itself too. Once, he had persuaded me to recall a battle, every possible detail about it. I was often busy, but tried to indulge him when I could. Octavian was much the same, but his own questions about the child grew every day. I wondered if he thought as I did, but never voiced them.

Aragorn had grown sixty centimeters in the last few months.

His insatiable appetite for doing grew with him. Watching the men work one day he picked up a mining laser and started to help them. He labored tirelessly alongside the minors and their taskmasters, impressing many with his effort.

None of the men knew what to make of the demigod like child, and I told them he was a Space Marine in training. Octavian had not looked impressed with the horrid lie, but the mortals consumed it willingly enough.

However, when it came time for the days work to be over and the mining lasers returned to their supply depot for maintenance and charging, Aragorn had refused to give his up.

"It's mine." He stated to the assigned quartermaster of the depot named was Richard. The man was older, lines from laughter and age covered by a thick untamed beard. He was a hard man, and would chastise those who damaged their equipment during the operations.

"It's not yours young man, it's the property of the Chapter Master. And he has said that all lasers are to be put away when not in use. Now give it here." He reached for it and Aragorn took a step back.

"No." The man huffed and turned to look at me some distance away, where I had been observing. He knew I favored the boy, but he was also a stickler for rules, one of the reasons I had chosen him for the job.

"Aragorn," I called as I walked up, shadow flickering from the lumens hung on poles. "If you can prove to me that you can maintain it well. You can keep it." Aragorn only grinned and took it to his tent, he already had some tools that he had gotten from Octavian. The quartermaster gave a sigh as he stood beside me.

"That's a smart one you got there, Chapter Master. When will there be others like him?" I paused at that thought. When would the others come? In the edict the orders had been clear that other Chapters would be sending specialists to assist in the building of this one, but who would come?

I paled at the idea of a White Scar teaching my Astartes. Not that they were not rightfully feared warriors, they were, and loyalty none would ever question. But their ways of war were not what I desired for my own.

"I could not say, hopefully soon." The serf nodded and made his way to the large tent complex to see that every laser was accounted for.

All but one.

Another convoy of civilians, food and materials had made its way from the Agri-world, and if the short Astrapathic message from the Governor of the Feudal-world was to be accurate, more would be coming from them as well. The small town was growing quickly and I tried to make frequent visits to the Capital to oversee its construction. Walls and defenses were being built, the first of many. No Xenos would have such an easy time raiding my city ever again.

High in orbit the shell of a ship was being constructed, metals pulled from the crust of Tarth itself. We had set the dockyard into orbit with the farthest moon, its black surface was hard stone, and massive anchor points had been constructed soon after to hold the new addition in place.

It was a Sword class Escort, nothing mighty, but it would be enough. Alexander had asked if his daughter would be given command and I had obliged, knowing how the Imperial Navy worked in families. He saw the opportunity to establish something here, his own dynasty as ship Captains of a Chapter. I could not blame him for it.

I visited the training yards least of all. But what had been militia before, were hardening into soldiers. Sosa managed the over logistical aspect of my PDF, running large drills and formational training.

Monzn ran the men into the dirt, combat drills, live fire training and fighting. He was a hard man to please and I received many reports of injuries. But I didn't stop him. My soldiers could not be coddled in these times. Only the Helikians had proved real worth in the Dark Eldar raid, and I needed more soldiers like them. The two found a sometimes strained balance.

Our Capital, which I had finally named Ildrian, was filled with growth for an entire year, its people were happy, as far as I could tell. When I walked the streets they cheered and said prayers to the Emperor. The church had finished, and the people listened to the preachers words with devout eagerness. It was peaceful even.

All of that shattered when Alexander voxed to inform me an Inquisitorial ship had arrived in the system.


AN: Less changes in this chapter, mostly around Aragorn and some of the dark eldar fighting. Also one of the shortest chapters, but one to lay the bedrock for the future. Until next time.