Despite being surrounded by space marines, Inquisitor Kayla Jastremski had never felt more alone. The squad of Novamarines moved in a tight formation through the dense jungle, her in the centre. Heavy in her right hand was a metal case, containing the ancient scrolls that had been the alleged reason for the mission. Making landfall on the planet hadn't been a problem. Retrieving the scrolls hadn't been a problem. But making it out was another matter entirely, for swarming across from the other side of the planet, far faster than the commanders in orbit had predicted, was a massive Tyranid army.

Kayla ground her teeth at the bungle. A mass retreat was underway, all Imperial Guard and space marine forces leaving the planet and the system as soon as possible. The Raptor chapter was here to assist in the extraction, she understood, though she hadn't seen any of them as yet. What should have been a simple in-and-out for her and her backup had now become a desperate race to the nearest teleportation beacon, the previous one now burned down to nothing by the Tyranids' corrosive explosives.

'Shame about your henchmen,' said one of the marines. His name was Daevas, Kayla knew. She'd done her research. He was the newest addition to the squad. He talked too much. Another thing lost in the deluge of acid that came from the maws of those foul beasts had been her own little squad. They numbered just three, but she had picked them all personally on her trips around the galaxy. In time, they could have been honed into a perfect unit. In time, she could have recommended them for promotion to inquisitor.

'Apprentices,' she growled at Daevas, aware she was being taunted and yet unable to stop herself. Her black robe had been removed from its usual place to be wound tight around her left forearm. The second time it had snagged on a branch, she had given up on the theatrics of it, though she still wished to hide her form.

'You seem incapable of showing the Inquisitor the respect she is due,' said another marine, Ophiel. He was a devout soldier, his armour studded with various icons, and Kayla had multiple times heard him muttering prayers to the Emperor under his breath, even in the short hours they had been together.

'Quiet, all of you,' said the sergeant. His name was Jahad, and he usually only spoke to issue orders or criticise his squad. The squad in turn talked back or even ignored the more minor orders, though Kayla had not heard them question his authority outright.

She was keeping her eye on Jahad in particular, though the squad entire had been mentioned in the file that she'd received. The scrolls she carried were of minor value only; their real purpose was a smokescreen. This squad was, through numerous reports, suspected of having Chaos sympathies. The delight they took in their victories, the violent looting, the hoarding of what could only be described as the trappings of excess, marked them out as susceptible to Slaanesh, Lord of Dark Delights. A god of pure hedonism who reached its tendrils into the hearts of even the most supposedly devoted servants of the Emperor. Many legions had been lost in the past, and Kayla was here to put out a spark before it could grow into a raging fire.

'The bugs are busy with all the guardsmen,' said Daevas. 'We've got nothing to worry about.' He looked around through the thick foliage. 'Though I'd kill for a clear line of sight.'

'I could do something about that,' said Trinidius, another marine, hefting his huge flamer, his trigger finger jumping and tapping. Kayla was long-used to assessing the personalities and emotions of space marines without being able to see their faces. She was sure that Trinidius was grinning behind his helmet. She certainly had a growing compendium of evidence that he was dangerously unstable, though some commanders would regard that as an asset.

'If you wish to burn half the planet down,' said Ophiel.

Trinidius laughed. 'Shouldn't let the bugs have all the fun.'

'Do bugs have fun?' asked Daevas. 'I can't tell if they're having fun. Sometimes they gnash their teeth. What do you think, Inquisitor?'

'I agree with your sergeant,' said Kayla. 'You should be quiet.'

'Is that box heavy, Inquisitor?' asked Daevas. He moved closer. 'Do you require assistance, Inquisitor?'

Kayla shunned away from him. 'I'm under strict instructions not to let the relics out of my hands, once acquired,' she said.

'Of course, of course,' said Daevas.

'Wouldn't dream of disobeying your strict instructions,' said Trinidius. 'Strict strict strict, always the word.'

This sort of talk was fairly standard for the squad, Kayla had learned. It was evidence, definitely, and she'd surreptitiously recorded the entire squad, bar Jahad and Ophiel, saying something close enough to heretical. But actions were always more damning than words.

She had thought the disaster at the last teleporter beacon would have been enough, but it was circumstantial, her word against theirs. Her word counted for more than theirs did, but she'd learned that the more ammunition you had, the better. The Tyranid attack had come without warning, despite the marines supposedly having sentries watching all angles. When the roof had melted inwards, taking her apprentices with it, Kayla had only just escaped with her life. All the marines had been unscathed. It was entirely too neat.

There were rapid shots from up ahead. Kayla's gun had been in her hand for what felt like hours. The marines spread wide, coming into a clearing containing a tiny communications centre. Nothing more than a single room with a steel-frame tower atop it, stretching upwards to the beyond. And outside the doorway, a single space marine, of the Raptors chapter, his gun levelled at the newcomers. He grunted, then lowered it.

'Thought you were more Tyranids,' he said. Behind him, around him, inside the room, were perhaps a dozen humans in Imperial Guard uniforms. As Kayla and the Novamarines drew closer, she could see that most were heavily injured, and a couple had some other condition, boils and pustules pulsing with dark yellow and pale green. Scattered around the clearing were dozens of Tyranid corpses.

'Is the beacon working?' asked Jahad.

'Sure,' said the Raptor marine. 'Ship's not in position yet. Few minutes.'

The Novamarines spread out in the clearing, Ophiel disappearing around the rear of the building, soon followed by another marine by the name of Bethor. Kayla stepped over the Tyranid bodies and approached the Raptor marine. Jahad came alongside her.

'What are you doing here?' she asked.

'Aiding with the extraction,' said the Raptor marine. 'We were at a medical centre. This is what's left.' He looked at Kayla, then around at the Novamarines. 'Am I allowed to ask what you're doing here? Didn't know your chapter was in this system.'

'Our chapter isn't,' said Daevas, calling out from further across the clearing. 'We are.'

The Raptor marine looked at Kayla, as if expecting a further explanation from her. Something about the stillness of his bearing made her want to take a step back, but she held firm.

'What's your name?' she asked.

'Makhos,' he said. He turned away then, surveying the area, then treading inside, appearing again with a clean rag. He kneeled by one of the guards and helped them press the rag down over a wound. He looked up at the newcomers. 'I'm going to ask that the injured go first, when the signal comes.'

Jahad was silent for a moment. 'This disease is xenos,' he said. 'These assets should be liquidated before it can spread further.'

'If you try to do that, we're going to have a problem,' said Makhos. He stood up, very slowly. 'It's not contagious. I've seen something similar before. It can be treated once we get to the ship.'

'Familiar with these xenos plagues, are you?' asked Trinidius, approaching. Kayla could swear he was grinning again.

'It's my job to be familiar with xenos,' said Makhos. 'Yours too, I would have thought.'

He and Trinidius stared at each other for a few seconds, until they were interrupted by a burst of static coming from inside the building, followed by a crackling voice saying the ship was in position, ready to transmit. Jahad's voice rang strong out over the clearing.

'It's time,' he said.

The Novamarines stomped towards the building, Tyranid corpses crunching under their feet. Trinidius levelled his flamer at Makhos and Jahad did the same to Kayla with his bolter. A single shot rang out from behind the building. A moment later, Bethor came into view, without Ophiel. Kayla couldn't help the jolt of satisfaction that ran through her. All of her suspicions confirmed in a single moment.

One by one the Novamarines entered the building and hit the beacon, their forms dissipating from the planet, reconstituted in a moment far above their heads. Trinidius and Jahad were the last to go, the sergeant lingering in the doorway.

'We knew why you were really with us,' he said.

'And now what are you going to do?' asked Kayla.

'Take that ship. And then take my fill of the galaxy. The Tyranids will take care of you.'

He turned, and was gone. Makhos make a sound akin to a roar and rushed inside, Kayla just behind. Makhos slammed the beacon, but nothing happened. He hit the line for communications and they were treated to a rush of gunfire and screams. Makhos bellowed down the line.

'Do you hear me?'

After a moment, the sounds zagging down the line abated. There was a brief silence. Then the voice of Jahad came through.

'Yes,' he said.

Makhos' breathing was heavy, but when he spoke, his voice was clear and calm.

'You're all going to die,' he said.

Jahad cut the link.

'Damn them,' said Kayla. She had dropped the box of ancient scrolls somewhere in the confusion and now gestured violently with her free hand. 'My intel was right, but out of date. They weren't showing signs of going to Chaos, they were already deep in it.'

Makhos had turned to a nearby guard and said, 'Can you get us another ship?'

The guard, bandages wrapped around their torso and blood soaking one pant leg, nodded. 'Don't know how long it'll take, though,' they said.

Makhos nodded and exited the building. Kayla remained, still fuming.

'There are so many ships up there, no one will notice one heading in a slightly different direction,' she said. 'Fuck!' She kicked at the wall. The guards flinched away from her, and the one who had spoken approached and began broadcasting an emergency signal.

Kayla trod outside and froze. Just for a moment, she thought there was movement among the trees. But now she peered closer, she couldn't see anything. Makhos came around from the side of the building, dragging the body of Ophiel with him. The Novamarines' helmet was off, and he had been shot in the eye.

'Dead?' asked Kayla.

'Maybe,' said Makhos, propping Ophiel against the wall. 'No exit wound. The bullet's still in his brain.' He gestured to the remaining guards, who were looking rather paler than before. 'You get inside. Anyone who can still shoot in the doorway. Hit the beacon as soon as it's up.' The guards obeyed him in silence. Makhos scanned the treeline, then looked at Kayla. 'You a psyker, Inquisitor?'

Kayla blinked. 'How did you know that?'

'What discipline?'

'Biomancy.'

'Good. This clearing is surrounded. We've got a minute, maybe, before they come in. I need you next to the doorway. Pick the biggest bug and boil its brains.'

Kayla knew she could take command. The Inquisition could always take command. It was a privilege she'd exercised on many occasions before. But Makhos had littered this place with death. Sometimes, experience was all that mattered. She moved where he had indicated, gun in one hand. With her other hand she drew the longsword strapped to her back. While it could cut flesh with ease, its primary function was as a focus for her powers. She could manage without it if she had to, but channelling the energies through the blade made it both quicker and less painful for her.

Makhos trod to a nearby Tyranid corpse and pulled his chainsword from it with a squelch. His head jerked up. 'Now,' he said, and as the word was still hanging in the humid air, dozens of Tyranids poured into the clearing.

As the defenders poured bullets in wide arcs, Kayla scanned the alien forces for something worthy of her evil eye. There, in amongst a pack of genestealers, stomped a larger creature, stockier and with more limbs. A broodlord. She levelled her sword at it, focussing her mind against its. The broodlord went down on all its limbs and cried out, a wet sound deep from within. The brood around it turned and headed for Kayla. She narrowed her eyes, exhaled, and seams opened in the broodlord's head, its brain twisting and bursting. It slumped to the dirt. The brood around it lost cohesion, attacking whatever was nearest.

For some of them, that meant Kayla. For the bulk of the invading force, that meant Makhos. He started up his chainsword and went to meet them.

Kayla had seen space marines fight countless times, on countless worlds. She had seen them succeed in the face of seemingly impossible odds and come back from attacks that should have torn them in two. So at first, she took no particular notice when Makhos cut his way through the Tyranids with ruthless efficiency. That was, after all, what the marines were made for.

She knew she was dealing with a more than ordinary warrior, however, when he turned from decapitating a genestealer and swung around, his bolter cascading bullets over Kayla's head, tearing through a row of bugs that had been swarming over the roof. Without breaking the movement, he completed the circle, placing more bullets in bodies getting too close to the guards, and again meeting claws with his chainsword. All of it smooth, all of it clean and calculated.

She wondered if he could do this forever. The clearing was thick with gore and Kayla felt her blood pulse in her brain as she used her psychic powers to open wounds in the larger Tyranid warriors that burst from the trees. Their legs collapsed under them, their poison innards leaking into the soil. Many were not dead, merely debilitated or stunned, and there would always be more, but it was enough to buy them time.

Time enough for another ship to move into place far above them, and for the guard to yell that the beacon was working. One by one, the guards teleported into orbit, making way for the most injured to go first. Makhos fell back towards the building, his armour splattered with the insides of Tyranids, still pummelling their foes with bullets.

The last of the guards gone, Kayla moved inside, Makhos in the doorway, dragging Ophiel's body with him.

'Go,' he said, turning to look at her for a moment. He nodded, then said, 'Your nose is bleeding.'

Kayla wiped it away with her cloak, still wrapped around her arm, and hit the beacon. The world grew hazy around her. Just before it vanished completely, she saw Makhos toss a grenade into the clearing, now packed with Tyranids, before turning to the beacon.

The haze reformed into shapes, the inside of an Imperial troop ship. Medics were already attending to the wounded and diseased guards, though all those on duty stood to attention at the appearance of an inquisitor. She waved a hand and they resumed their duties, though the posture of many was still stiff, their movements shaky. She strode to the nearest senior officer, who saluted her.

All the eyes in the room momentarily moved to the appearance of Makhos and Ophiel. The Raptor marine had managed to get even more gore on his armour in the few seconds he had been out of Kayla's sight. She turned back to the officer.

'Take me to whoever's in command,' she said.

The officer turned and led her out of the room. Makhos fell in behind her as they trod through dark corridors, their feet clanging on the metal floors. Makhos turned himself sideways to allow another medical team through, then leaned closer to Kayla.

'You know their names,' he said.

'I have their files. I know everything there is to know about them.'

'You're going to hunt them.'

Kayla just nodded. Makhos was silent. Another group of guards hurried past them. Kayla unwrapped her cloak and reattached it. In an environment such as this, it added to her power. She waited. The officer leading them looked back frequently, each time revealing the fear spread across his face. Makhos let out a low mutter, something unintelligible. Kayla stopped walking, and Makhos and the guard officer immediately copied her. She faced Makhos.

'You have something you're trying to say, marine?'

'I wish to accompany you, Inquisitor,' he said. 'I made a vow to those traitors and I intend to follow through.'

'They are my responsibility, not yours,' she said.

'They left those guards to die,' said Makhos. 'They had a duty to protect and they failed. I wish to remind them of it.'

Kayla looked at the guard officer, who made an incoherent noise and backed away several paces. She stared into the expressionless eyeholes of Makhos' helmet. She knew that sending out her psychic hand for a rummage through his brain would be of little use. But something must have gotten through, for he pulled off his helmet, revealing a pale face with narrow features and dark hair cropped near vanishing point.

There was no irony in his expression. No insolence, either, though she was sure that were she to deny his request, he would find another way to follow through on his threat to Jahad and the rest of the traitor squad. Even if he had to scour the galaxy alone, he would find a way. She stared into his dark eyes, then nodded. He returned the gesture and replaced his helmet.

Kayla gestured to the guard officer, and they continued on through the corridors of the ship. Someone must have sent word ahead, for the captain was ready to receive them in the wide hall outside the bridge. She was a short, stocky woman with dark frizzy hair and she gave them a short bow and said her name was Tertullus. She showed no surprise at seeing her visitors still dripping with the remnants of battle.

'What assistance can we provide, Inquisitor?' she asked.

'A squadron of Novamarines have turned to the traitor legions,' said Kayla. 'They have taken over the ship that was meant to extract them, and us.'

'What was the ship?' asked Tertullus, snapping her fingers at the guard officer. 'I'll have the word sent out.'

'The Katakor,' said Makhos. The senior officer disappeared through the door to the bridge.

'There are so many ships here for the extraction,' said Tertullus. 'It would be easy to slip out of the system.' Her eyes narrowed. 'We've received reports of a Chaos base not far from here. Perregal, I think the name was.'

'That's two systems over,' said Makhos.

'Yes, but my orders have me heading in the opposite direction,' said Tertullus. She looked at Kayla, waiting for something to the contrary. Kayla drew a breath.

'I could commandeer this ship,' she said.

'You could,' said Tertullus.

'But it is full of wounded evacuees. I wouldn't send them from one hell to another.'

Tertullus inclined her head slightly. If she felt relief, it didn't show on her face. 'I have a small dropship you could use,' she said. 'It's not designed for anything long-haul, but it'd get you to Perregal. It might not get you back.'

'And you'd be gone anyway,' said Kayla.

'Indeed.' There was silence for a moment, then Tertullus added, 'But if you wish it, it is yours, Inquisitor.'

Kayla nodded. 'Thank you, Captain. You have done the Inquisition two favours today. It shall not be forgotten.'

Tertullus' expression went a fraction colder. She forced a smile and said, 'The galaxy's too big to go about counting favours.'

'Maybe so,' said Kayla. 'You have my gratitude, regardless.'

'And mine,' added Makhos.

Tertullus summoned the guard officer again and instructed them to guide the pair to their new ship. Another round of nods, and the captain returned to the bridge. Kayla and Makhos were led deeper into the ship, down passages that creaked and groaned at their passage, lights of uncertain meaning flickering overhead, and always more people rushing past on various tasks.

Their ship was called the Auron. It could have fit a full squad of space marines, loaded up side by side and ready to be dropped on another planet to dish out death. With just the two of them at the controls, it felt hollow, nothing but an empty room behind them and empty space ahead of them.

'You could have gotten us more boots,' said Makhos.

'I could,' said Kayla. Her powers of requisition were wide-ranging. 'Do you want them?'

'No. We can handle them.' He paused. 'You fight well, for an inquisitor.'

Kayla suppressed a smile. 'I'm choosing not to take that as insubordination.'

'With some work, you could get it all the way to heresy,' said Makhos.

As they geared up the ship, Captain Tertullus' voice came through on the comms. Kayla watched through the cockpit as the way into the darkness was opened up in front of them.

'All clear,' said the captain. 'You're good to go.' Her voice sounded more brittle than it had in person. 'Good luck out there,' she added.

'And to you,' said Kayla. She pulled a lever and sent them into the void.