According to the newest maps they had, the nearest Slaaneshi forces were a half a dozen systems away. There were no better options, so Kayla and Makhos turned the Katakor in that direction, hoping that those they sought had done the same.

Days passed. Kayla's vision cleared, and her arm returned to full function. If Makhos had injuries he was recovering from, he gave no sign of it. Across the void, distant suns were visible only as tiny points of light. Mostly they travelled in silence, taking turns at the helm.

In shorts bursts she talked of her old team. Skathia, her medical expert, capable of torturing information out of a stone, given the opportunity. Mishrak, her comms officer, who'd more than once managed to find them a signal when they were stuck on some backwater xenos warren of a planet with no friendly ship in sight. And Keras, her bodyguard, a guardsman who'd volunteered, giving up a promising career in the corps. He had started instead to show great promise at being an inquisitor, some way down the line. All dead now, dissolved away in an instant by the acidic demolition of the Tyranids, remaining just as personnel files and faces in her head.

Makhos told one tale of his own: his first sergeant, a grizzled veteran he only referred to as the Ghost. Most of the squad had perished fighting waves of purple-winged demons on a planet Makhos said might not exist now. A frontier of war that nobody now would have heard of, he said. But the Ghost, left for dead, had returned, armour caked with demon ichor, to lead what remained of the squad for the next two decades, only meeting his end when torn in two by a Chaos dreadnought.

'The man was deranged,' said Makhos. 'Barely a leader at all. He charged forward and never considered whether we would follow or no. Taught me a lot about fighting, but the day I met I knew I would never be like him.'

'Why?' asked Kayla.

'He thought his job was to die. I think mine is to live, and keep killing.'

More than two weeks after leaving Perregal, they came into a system dominated by a massive gas giant the maps said was called Atuan. Still a ways out, Kayla peered at their scanner.

'There's a massive signal behind the planet,' she said.

'That will be the Chaos station,' said Makhos.

'Yes, but there's something else.' She pointed at the hazy images on the screen. 'There's a gap here. A small ship, on this side of the planet. Something trying to hide.'

Makhos looked over her shoulder. 'Imperial?'

'No way of telling without getting close enough for them to see us.'

'Hail them.'

'What if they're hostile?' she asked.

Makhos shrugged. 'If they're hiding, they're not a threat.'

Kayla honed in on the smaller signal, finding their frequency. 'This is the Katakor, do you receive?'

There was a long silence before a response came. 'This is Imperial scout ship Rithmere. Identify yourself.'

'Inquisitor Kayla Jastremski, in pursuit of traitors to the Emperor. What's your status? Do you require assistance?'

There was another silence. 'Can you connect to visuals? We received a report the Katakor had fallen to Chaos.'

'Bad news travels fast,' said Makhos, as Kayla flicked the necessary switches to establish a visual connection with the other ship. A low-resolution picture of a harried-looking Imperial soldier came into view, with a red beard and sunken eyes. He squinted through the bad connection at them, then nodded.

'My apologies, Inquisitor,' he said. 'Can't be too careful. Captain Karanda, commanding officer.'

Kayla felt herself sitting straighter in her seat. 'I commend your caution, Captain. The reports you received were correct, but are now out of date. This ship was stolen by traitors, but is now back in the hands of faithful servants of the Emperor, as you can see. I repeat: what is your status?'

'I assume you've noticed the other signal,' said Karanda. Kayla nodded. 'It's a huge Chaos ship, really dozens of ships docked together. An armada. Flare from the planet fried our shields, we're laying low here until we can get them running, hoping they don't suddenly start paying more attention to their scanners.'

'Hope is not a strategy,' said Makhos. Captain Karanda looked like he was going to argue with this, but Kayla cut him off.

'We were told there were Slaaneshi forces in this system,' she said. 'Can you confirm this? This armada you speak of may contain the traitors we are hunting.'

'We got a brief scan off when we first entered the system,' said the Captain. 'Slaaneshi, yes, and Black Legion. Our estimates were up to ten thousand souls on board.'

'Careful, Captain. Suggesting followers of Chaos have souls might lose you your position.'

Karanda shifted in his seat. 'My – my loyalty to the Imperium of Man is well-documented. I have served—'

'I'm sure it is, Captain,' said Kayla. 'How long until your shields are repaired?'

'At least an hour, Inquisitor. Maybe two.'

Makhos scoffed. 'And you think in that time none of those supposed ten thousand ravenous soldiers of Chaos will turn on their scanners?'

'What do you suggest?' asked Karanda.

'I suggest you redouble your efforts,' said Kayla. 'We will see about this armada.'

Even with the low quality of the picture, Karanda's nervous swallow was clearly visible. 'With respect, Inquisitor,' he said, 'ten thousand was a conservative estimate. I don't see how—'

'Your objection has been recorded, Captain Karanda. I am terminating this connection before you can make things any worse for yourself.'

The audio and video cut out. Kayla leaned back at the helm, her arms folded. She could hear Makhos pacing back and forth behind her. An impertinent commander, but not incorrect in his assessment. She brought up the signal for the Chaos armada again, conducting her own estimations. A direct assault would be worse than suicide: it would be completely pointless, a worthless sacrifice.

'Speak your mind,' she said without turning around.

'Bad news travels fast,' he said again. 'But there's no way they can know what happened on Perregal.'

Kayla tapped at the controls. 'You're saying we could pretend to be Chaos, bringing those supplies.'

'Hail them as Chaos, anyway. The deception lasts only as long as they can't see us.'

'It could work. Then what?'

'I'm still working on it.' He started to move deeper into the ship, away from the helm. 'Get us in sight of it, I want to see its construction.'

As his heavy tread echoed back to Kayla, she worked the controls and brought them closer to the gas giant, using its large orbit to sling them easier around to the other side. When she saw the armada, she cursed the captain. It was the size of a space station, maybe a hundred ships of different makes and sizes collected together into a roughly spherical shape. The various ships were painted with the bright purple of Slaanesh, or else the Black Legion's predictable colour. There seemed to be no reason or pattern to the arrangement of the two factions. She could see the joins, makeshift connectors turning a fleet into a base that could turn back into a fleet and scatter to the stars. It was impressive, in a twisted sort of way, though she stopped herself from admiring it any further.

Makhos returned, lugging something behind him. He came to the window and looked out at the armada. He was still for so long that Kayla had to prompt him.

'Even a bunch of insane servants of Chaos will see us any second.'

'Your armour's got a helmet?' he asked. She nodded. 'How much air?'

'Only twenty or thirty minutes.'

'They won't have a central core we can overload. But they might have a central steering mechanism.'

Kayla narrowed her eyes, comparing her view of the armada with her scans, now more detailed as they'd drawn closer. 'Here,' she said, pointing at her screen. It was near the top of the almost-sphere, with connectors through, out, and around. It would be painfully slow, but it could, if needed, change the direction of the whole armada at once.

'Then that's where we need to go,' said Makhos.

It was then that a burst of static came through their comms, followed by a high-pitched and overlong shriek of laughter.

'Come in come in come in,' said a raspy voice. 'Friendlies or foodies?'

Makhos paused, deferring to Kayla. Despite the number of times she'd interrogated followers of Chaos, she hesitated. There were few people in the Imperium who knew them as well as she did. She dropped her voice an octave down, and let it get caught in her throat to make herself sound older and harsher.

'Supplies from Perregal. Where do you want 'em?'

'Ooh, we was wondering when you'd get here. Down low on the port side there's a big hole you can stuff yourselves into. Then come up and join the party.'

Kayla grunted, and terminated the connection. She felt unclean, and knew that what she'd just done would get her reported for heresy by most of her fellow inquisitors. But all she had with her was Makhos, who just nodded approvingly and lifted what he'd found in the hold. Jump packs, like the assault squadrons used to get to the fight with lightning speed. She understood him immediately.

A few minutes later, the Katakor sailed into a dock low on the sphere of the armada. It came in too fast, ricocheting off one side of the bay and into the other, crushing a swathe of Chaos dock workers under its bulk. In the cabin, warnings flashed. Caution: core overload initiated. Just as a pack of Black Legion cultists came to mock whoever had made such a Warp-brained landing, an explosion ripped the Katakor apart, along with a good chunk of the docking bay.

Kayla and Makhos saw it below them, zipping up around the outside of the base, jump packs on their back. Without any gravity or friction to slow them down, they could move at a ludicrous rate. The pair leapfrogged up the Chaos ships, pausing momentarily after each leap to ensure the other was still with them.

It was disconcerting, as entire warships passed by in a flash, and exhilarating. Kayla found herself grinning as they climbed the base. Thousands of heretics inside and none the wiser to their presence. As scanners got more and more powerful, the chances of someone taking the effort to actually look out a window grew smaller and smaller. Sometimes she felt the universe got stupider every cycle.

The outsides of the Chaos ships were rough, studded with spikes and ridges and sections hastily bolted together, as well as filthy, stains of oil and blood flaking away into space under their fingers as they gripped the cold metal. When they were nearly at the peak of the sphere, Makhos gestured upwards. Kayla looked and could see what her own scans had picked out: the ship that served as the central steering hub for the armada. Here there would be a window that someone might actually be looking out of, protected by glass that would resist their regular gunfire. But they still had a lot of grenades.

The next explosion put spots in Kayla's eyes, but she surged up after Makhos, through the busted window and over the scrambled remains of the pilot. The interior door had automatically sealed to prevent all the ship's air draining out into the void, so they were alone. Floating in that airless and gravityless cockpit, Kayla moved to the controls while Makhos moved to the door.

It was surprisingly simple. The jury-rigging would have made any Imperial engineer wince, but it worked. The entire spherical armada had cables crisscrossing its entire bulk, redirecting control to this panel, allowing someone to move the base as a whole, if at a painstakingly slow speed. With a bit of luck and some distractions, the Chaos forces might not be able to detach their individual ships before it was too late, before they were caught in the immense gravity of the gas giant.

Makhos signalled to her: how long?

Kayla wavered her fingers: half an hour, forty minutes. Hard to provide a clear estimate in regards to something so massive and unfamiliar. Their short-range communication was low quality, buzzing with static, and probably easily hackable to anyone who had a mind to, but Makhos risked it.

'Time enough to look for our friends,' he said.

Kayla nodded and flicked the switch to bring down the emergency shutter, cutting off her view of the stars. There was a hissing sound as the room was refilled with air. She retracted her helmet back, taking deep breaths. It wouldn't be long before her suit's reserves were back up to full, and she had a strong feeling she was going to need them again soon. Makhos looked at her, waiting. She nodded again and he swung the door open.

'The fuck is going—'

Was all the person outside the door got out before Makhos put a bullet in their brain.

'Saw a Slaaneshi ship below this one,' he said.

'Plenty of Black Legion between them and us,' said Kayla.

'Maybe they'll just get out of our way.'

'Least we can do is ask.'

Later, when she tried to remember their descent into the armada, Kayla would have trouble separating out the images. Screaming alarms mixed with the gunfire and explosions. First for the intruders, then for the true calamity of the base sliding into the gravity and immense storms of the planet below.

Their grenades tore holes in the walls. Their bullets ripped apart flesh. The ships they travelled through shuddered around them. The floors grew thick with blood and still they moved on. Whatever the specific allegiance of the Chaos followers, they fell before the fury of the space marine and the inquisitor, taking advantage of the disarray, the lack of organisation, the sheer panic that set in as the base tilted and began to fall.

As they dropped into a new Slaaneshi ship, Kayla could hear the roar of engines all around as the Chaos forces tried to splinter the armada, to scatter and frantically try to escape their slowly approaching doom. She saw Makhos waiting ahead of her. Neither of them had discussed any sort of exit strategy. If the will of the Emperor saw fit to provide them one, they would take it. If not, they would be torn apart in the storms with the heretics, attempting to bring death until their own final breath.

As Kayla edged around Makhos to stand by his side, she saw that he was waiting not for her to catch up, but because he had seen something. Down at the other end of a long metal corridor were two figures. One was a Black Legion marine, wielding a longsword that glowed white, stealing the light from around. The humming coming off the blade made Kayla's brain feel dry and shrivelled.

'Demon,' she gasped out, and then saw the Slaaneshi marine standing further behind. Amon, one of the traitor squad they were hunting. Grinding her teeth against the nearness of the Warp, she saw Amon raising a weapon with an immense barrel.

'Get your helmet up,' said Makhos, and tackled her to the ground.

First the world went sideways. The explosion tore the ship behind them apart. Somewhere in it Kayla did get her helmet on, as the air rushed from the corridor. She could see through to the next ship in the armada, drifting away from theirs. Makhos was gone, and by reflex Kayla rose with her sword in hand, deflecting the blinding blade of the chaos marine.

Then the world disappeared. There was nothing but white void. Kayla tried to look down at her body and could not find it. And yet, she thought, she was not without weapons. Out of the white came a gaunt bony face the size of a city, teeth that had torn worlds apart and eyes that already knew what she wanted. When it spoke, it spoke from inside her mind, in her own voice.

'Death is not the end,' it said. 'Their souls even now linger in my caverns.'

And she saw them, her old squad. Skathia, Mishrak, Keras, as bright as they had been in life, brighter, waiting for her command. It would only take a single word. She could walk beside them forever. She could walk the path of pleasure and never have cause to leave it.

'Why do you care?' she asked.

'I don't,' it said. 'I just thought you deserved a little happiness.'

It flooded her. Years dropped away from her. A taste of what it would be like to have no worries, no duties, no fear. It would be so easy. Her tired bones could finally rest.

Bones. She remembered, somewhere, sometime, having a body. She opened her eyes. Both her hands were wrapped around that white blade, holding its point away from her throat. Floating, falling, twirling in wreckage. The blade ate her blood. She pushed back, with body and mind.

False promises that led only to death. Her job wasn't to die, but to live, and keep fighting. She looked at the face of the Black Legion marine, manic with the ecstasy of battle.

'Pleasure in everything,' she said. 'Try finding it in this.'

She stopped resisting the force of the blade and twisted her body at the same time. In the fall, in the feverish pitch of demon-fuelled combat, the marine hadn't noticed that his thrust would take him deeper towards the gravity of the gas giant. Kayla spun away from him, grasping for some semblance of a structure. The marine's own momentum carried him down, away. The demon's voice came in her head again, screaming in pain or pleasure or both, growing fainter and fainter until it was just an echo.

Kayla tried to look around her, to take stock. Her own sword had been lost. The ship, the whole armada, was falling apart. She could see the approaching planet through the cracks, large enough to blot out all other views. It was too late. Even the jump packs wouldn't be enough to resist the descent. She twisted a little in place and saw that half of hers had been crushed in the fight anyway.

A nearby wall crumpled and burst and Makhos was there, floating near her. He grabbed her arm. She noticed vaguely that his armour was scorched and bloodied.

'You still in there?' he asked.

Kayla could only nod.

He stared at her for a moment, then gestured the way he'd come. 'Found a working escape pod. Might give us enough thrust to get out.'

Together they flung themselves through the collapsing armada. All around them was the wreckage of ships and followers of chaos, tearing themselves apart in the struggle to escape the coming doom. Bullets and bodies were strewn in their path, but all were too focussed on their own survival to give too much thought to stopping two tiny figures in all that mayhem. Barely noticed, crawling and floating through the destruction they had wrought.

'What about Amon?' said Kayla, memories of before coming back to her in fragments.

'Shoved his head in his missile launcher and pulled the trigger,' said Makhos.

'Did that work?' she asked. She remembered what he'd said about Ophiel, how a bullet lodged in his skull might not spell death.

'Seemed to.' He thunked into the side of the escape pod and opened the hatch, letting Kayla go in first. She guided her trajectory and managed to flail her way inside, hitting the far wall of the tiny craft and blacking out for a second. When she opened her eyes, the demon's face appeared every time she blinked. Makhos was in, had the hatch closed, and was powering up the pod. She felt rather than heard Makhos calling Captain Karanda and the Rithmere to be ready to pick them up, the danger greatly lessened now that the armada was collapsing. The comms were bad, crackling and crowded with screaming heretics.

'—to get out?' came the captain's voice.

The pod shuddered and what limited engines there were screeched with the strain they were under. Kayla felt herself losing consciousness. Somewhere, she was sure, Slaanesh saw the destruction and smiled.