Chapter Four: The Final Solution

K'Reng stood his hands clasped tightly behind his back, palms sweating. He watched as the attacking legion destroyed his armies on the tactical screen. His generals were flustering, his guards stood in defensive positions to repel the attackers when they burst into the command chamber.

He glanced again at the screen as the icons representing his reinforcements began to wink out of existence. Glimmering holographic starships obliterated them as they orbited his world with megatons of destruction. The Emperors forces had butchered his elite guards and crushed all who opposed them. His armies, which had marched across the stars, conquering all who stood before them were mere children compared to the Imperial Space Marines. Bitterness welled in his heart, and a tear rolled down his cheek. His face screwed up in fury as another tear splashed upon the marble floors.

"Why me? Why now! Why am I defeated where all my forefathers conquered?"

Weeping openly he cast his eyes around darkly as an idea formed in his mind. He silently checked to see if anyone was looking at him. Nobody would conquer K'Reng! Nobody would defeat him! Even in death he would conquer, after all is not the God King of the Iron Coalition invincible! He would bow to nobody, he is a god, a divine ruler… and now it is time for his destiny! He would ascend to rule the heavens! These are just barbarians, a witless sign from the gods that his time on this plane was over, he must join their ranks. Glancing up at his remaining advisors, he took one last look at the viewscreen. He saw the battle was now outside the throne room itself. His men had seconds, no more. Then they would be mopped up, a precious few Shadow Guard had fallen. His men had failed him; it was time to stem this whirlwind of destruction while he had the chance. He must act before the entrance to his lair is breached. His mind was crystal clear; he had never, ever been so sure in his life.

"Chancellor, it is time… we will destroy the planet! Activate the palaces self-destruct and detonate our remaining weapon stockpiles, if we cannot rule then we will make sure that the resulting nuclear winter renders the planet uninhabitable for them too!"

Seeing hesitation, K'Reng vaulted the throne and pushed him to one side, he raced to the security room just to the side of the throne room. The last thing he saw as he left the room was the remaining Shadow Guard placing charges on the door to the throne room, his last guards raced to cover the entrance.

Barging into the operators in his way, K'Reng placed his hand on the auto-destruct console, the machine read his DNA and flashed for confirmation.

"K'Reng, activating auto-destruct, passcode is …"

At that moment, the doors blew open and the Shadow Guard stormed in, the security chambers slid shut their blast doors automatically before the Imperials could respond.

K'Rengs corpse fell to the floor. His skull had been penetrated by a bullet from behind. Mi'Rath stood behind him with his autopistol raised. Bullets thudded into him as the operators responded to his threat; he collapsed to the floor, his face grim. His soul gently departed into the warp. His world had new rulers now, but it would live. He had made sure of that. Empires come and go, but his planet would at least now have a chance of survival.

In the throne room, the priceless art lay in pieces, bolt rounds and corpses littered the floors, the highly polished surface stained with the loyal blood of its defenders. The bodies of the valiant men who died fighting to the last second defending their leader scattered the floor. Scorch marks covered the walls, showing where grenades had left their mark. It was like a charnel house. The reaper had collected his toll this day.


Jaghati Khan, watched from the command ship, the capitol has been taken, Devestators ringed the walls and whirlwinds stood in the courtyard ready to rain death on any attackers, it was only a matter of minutes before the enemy transmitted the planets unconditional surrender. Glancing at his chronometer he smiled, a world conquered in a mere forty minutes was impressive! Luckily, without their leaders the defender's backbone faded, especially with his bikers ripping into the surrounding armies. Soon he might even beat his brother Horus's record. Moving to the strike cruiser flight deck he prepared to receive the planets terms and set up a new governor to manage this vassal world. Nothing could stand in the way of the Imperium.


Colonel Marksman - Thanks for the kind words, I hope you continue to enjoy the fiction and it meets your expectation. Believe me, the real fighting hasn't even begun to start yet. You haven't seen the Primarchs in action ;).