Captain Marius Fisk of the Blood Angels had to yell above the roar of the wind as it sped past the drop pod. Around him, braced for impact, were fifteen of his Battle Brothers and Librarian Shran. The psyker, as usual, had a pensive look about him as he routed Fisk's orders to the swarm of pods around them.

"Groups seven and ten will fan out around the aforementioned tomb, stay alert. Groups six, eight and eleven will enter the tomb accompanied by Brother Shran. All others and I will stay on high alert in battle positions on the surrounding cliffs. Clear?"

Shran's voice was deep as he answered. "Aye."

"Right," Fisk snapped into action as the roar of the wind stopped. "impact in five! Brace!"

There were several seconds of utter silence, and then the world ended.

The pod shook as if in an earthquake; a wall of force moved up through it and rocked the Marines. Rocks pinged and clunked against the walls and the heat from successive landings was unbearable. The Space Marines waited, heads down, for several seconds until they heard silence. With a pneumatic hiss, the exit ramp lowered and the Marines were admitted to Rathama V.

They had landed on a plateau high above the landscape; the violent touchdown had taken away a sizable portion of it. The wind was constant, and Shran recognized its movement through the craggy peaks surrounding them as the reedy wailing he had heard during his psychic foray. The ground was covered in several inches of very fine black ash, swirling about their feet and whispering away on the breeze. While they took this all in, they were more amazed by the edifice below them.

Sprawled out over the plain under them was a testament to the eventual death of the galaxy. A vast pyramidal structure, crawling with the golden hieroglyphs of a collapsed empire, sat broodingly as it had for countless millennia. Its giant green stones pulsed with a sickly green energy, mimicked by the double lines of obelisks that formed the tomb's thoroughfare.

"All groups categorized generically," said Fisk, "fan out here and take up watch on the others. Everyone else, go about the tasks assigned to you. Meet back here in three solar cycles."

Librarian Shran and the two squads accompanying him moved off down the loose, rocky slope to the pyramid. After a large amount of slipping and sliding, they reached the beginning of the funerary road. As they set off down its quarter-mile length, Shran felt a palpable sense of dread seep into his psychic senses. He dispelled it, but it was replaced by a feeling of nausea that persisted to the tomb's threshold. Upon reaching the massive stone that blocked off the entrance, the squad led by Shran stepped back as their Librarian set to work. The others fanned out among the pillars, watching the door, hills and plain for any sign of movement.

Shran faced the door and opened his psychic eye. A barrage of images from the deep past assaulted him: Gold-robed priests carrying staffs that pulsated with emerald fire. Phalanxes of gun-brandishing warriors admitted through the vast door. Feelings of fear, suffering, reverence and anticipation blended together in a macabre mix.

And one.

A priest. Higher status than all the others, assigned to care for the slumbering god-thing that waited in the twisting darkness. Armed with a staff that was more than two meters long and sent a light into the sky as its wielder entered the tomb. He reached out and touched a stone just outside the threshold. As the doors closed forever before him, he turned and looked Shran straight in the eye.

"I see you."

With a gasp, the sweating Librarian was snapped back to the present. As he had careened forwards through time, he thought he had caught a
Shala
name in the confusion. He shook his head and turned towards the squad arranged before him. "I know," he said.

He turned and advanced towards the wall, his fingers brushing the stones as he sought the key. As he reached the final stone before the door, he found it, almost completely eroded by the constant wind.

A skull had been carved there long ago. He sent the psychic command for opening to the entity there. It honored his request, and the titanic stone block ground inward to admit the Space Marines to the maze.

Deep in the stagnant darkness, the armies of the Death Priest stirred.