Warp travel came to a halt, Gechorus had spent the past eighteen hours alone and locked away in his cabin; he had been meditating on the situation that would inevitably arise and who would be standing by his side when that decision was made.
Almost as soon as the ship had emerged from warp travel an announcement calling for astartes to arm for emergency was heard. Gechorus obeyed his summoning and left his room with the servitors once they came for him. Half the normal number of workers were on hand to prepare him, and despite this, he was ready in half the time. Such was the emergency, they only had one tech priest administering the rites and blessings of the machine god; doubtless the terminator armour would work just as well.
"…honour the battle gear of the dead," finished one of the tech priests as he began to lower the helmet onto Gechorus' head at the end of the arming process.
"I ask only…" the helmet was sealed over his head and it began to filter his breathing, "…to serve." That was the last thing said in the arming process. Gechorus was ready to meet the enemy.
As he moved through the corridors of the ship, heads up display notifications in his helmet were telling him, "Burn the heretic," "Purge the unclean," and "The Emperor Protects." All this talk of heretics and 'unclean' could only mean one thing: Chaos. The fact he was rushed through arming surely meant that there was a space bound chaos force incoming. They were going to be attacked.
"Squad Pantaleon, who is armed?" came the voice of Gechorus' sergeant. "Vox Check!"
"Loukios, Aye!" came the first response from a team member.
"Remus, Aye!" was the second marine in the squad to announce his readiness.
Gechorus waited a few seconds for a reply from Kato who he soon remembered, he would never hear from. "Gechorus, Aye," he said into the vox, completing squad Pantaleon.
"We are under attack by a chaos battlebarge," explained Pantaleon, "and the rushed arming process has left us scattered. We are to rendezvous with the Captain in the Reclusiam. Is that understood?"
"Aye!" the three understood his command and the vox channel was closed..
Gechorus now had a destination; he was already moving the right way.
His armour was heavy, but he did not so much wear it as he was implanted into it every time it was applied to him. Every movement he made was made as if the armour weighed nothing. As long has he stayed within its mechanical limitations, he could very easily forget that he had it on at all. But with the rush of marines, people, and servitors all around him, it was hard to forget that it was the scene of a battle.
That was until a deep booming thud was heard from the hull of the Strike Cruiser, the feeling of being in a space battle was disorientating; one would hear and feel nothing until something was fired or the space ship was struck. The support staff had been driven into a frenzied panic of running and stumbling from the effect of laser strikes and explosions reverberating through out the ship.
"My lord!" a small voice, familiar and soft called out to him. He looked around and saw Xilthara standing at the door of what he could only assume was her cabin, "what's going on?"
Gechorus stopped in his tracks, "Xilthara!" he called back, "Come with me! I will keep you safe."
She didn't hesitate or argue; as quickly as she could, she ran to his side.
He moved as fast as his armour could, Xilthara did not have any difficulty in running to keep up. He heard the contrast in the footsteps; the loud mechanical THUD of his terminator armour interspersed with the light tap, tap, tap of her small feet pushing her slight frame along beside him. Among the noise and disorder it was comforting to have a regular rhythm.
"Where are we going?" asked Xilthara.
"The Reclusiam," said Gechorus, "it's a rendezvous for the Space Marines, you will be safe there."
They turned a corner; another long corridor, this one with the exterior wall of the ship on their right, and more cabin and storeroom doors on their left. Gechorus knew his way around most of the ship but he was sure that Xilthara did not, he checked again that she was near, if he failed to keep sight of her now she might get lost in the busy crowd.
"Wait!" she said as she stopped.
He stopped with her "What is it?" he asked.
"Something is scratching at the walls."
Gechorus paused to listen. The unmistakable sound of metal scraping on metal; something was trying to claw its way in from the void. "It's a heldrake," said Gechorus. "A demonic mutation of an ancient fighter craft; they are strong, but not strong enough to claw though the side of a strike cruiser." He smiled to give her reassurance, despite the fact that his face was covered it appeared to give her comfort, but it was probably just his presence that gave her peace of mind. "Come on, we need to get to the reclusiam, the other marines will be waiting for us."
She didn't move, "Please tell me what's going on."
Gechorus could see fear in her eyes, she moved towards him and placed her hand on his assault cannon, her eyes were fixed on his, she didn't want to move on until she knew what kind of threat the ship was facing.
"It's a chaos attack," explained Gechorus, "It's most likely the forces of the traitor legions."
"Traitor legions?" asked Xilthara, "You mean Space Marines?"
"Yes."
The two of them were shaken by a gigantic crash on the side of the ship. That was no laser, nor was it explosive, something heavy had struck the other side of the wall. Xilthara began to ask "What was…"
"Get in that room!" he ordered with his massive power fist pointed at one of the cabin doors, "and close the door behind you!" She didn't hesitate. She ran into the room and shut the door. The blast doors for the corridor slammed down to seal the area off in case of depressurisation. All the people that were bustling around him were now stuck, there were no other marines in the area and everyone had to ready whatever weapons they had.
Gechorus knew exactly what it was, an assault claw, similar to a drop pod, but for delivering marines into the belly of a ship instead of the centre of a battlefield. Soon the assault claw will have bored through the side of the strike cruiser and the enemy marines would be on top of him. The claw had landed right in front of where Gechorus was standing and there were now many different support staff gathering around the position with various las guns and auto weapons. The wall started glowing with heat. It would not be long until the traitor marines came out of the transport and into the ship.
In this moment of tension before the explosion of violence that was to unfold, Gechorus thought with clarity about the situation. Perhaps this was the deliverance Myrsinus talked about.
He pressed a button on his assault cannon and the barrels began to rotate and build up speed in anticipation of the bloodshed. "Who here is loyal to the Emperor of mankind?" called out Gechorus triumphantly, raising the moral of the brave people around him.
Every single one of them raised their hand and roared in exaltation of the Emperor. Gechorus brought every one of those hands down again with a loud and bloody volley of rounds from the assault cannon.
'Betrayal, no turning back now,' were the words spinning round in Gechorus' mind. He looked around him at the death he had dealt, they were all service men and women loyal to the emperor, 'they would have died in the attack anyway,' he thought. None of the killed were fellow Astartes, he felt assured that at least he did not betray any battle brothers, but this act still left a vile taste in his mouth.
The wall was glowing and the chaos marines would be through in a matter of seconds. Gechorus dropped to his knees, closed his eyes and waited for the 'enemy' to come.
After only a brief moment, the wall exploded and out of the hole poured a squad of chaos space marines. Gechorus was not watching them but he could hear the unmistakable sound of power armour on the metal floor and the sound of flesh and bone being crushed as they stepped on Gechorus' earlier victims.
One of the chaos marines moved close to Gechorus kneeled next to him and spoke in a hushed voice, "did you do this?"
Gechorus only nodded, no further response was necessary.
"If I was to say, 'The eagle has flown out of sight behind the mountain,'" said the chaos marine, "what would you say?"
He thought briefly about the metaphor and replied with, "The eagle will never fly again."
"If I was to ask, 'How would I experience the joy of pleasures undreamt by mortals?' you would respond with…"
There was no need to think on this, the answer was obvious, "The warp is the source of sensations unknown."
The chaos marine had one more question, "If I was to say, 'Long live the Emperor!' you would say…"
"Death to the false Emperor," the words were weak in his mouth, quiet and reluctant. Despite the heresy he had already exhibited, these words were still difficult to say.
"Death to the false Emperor?" asked the Marine, needing further confirmation of Gechorus allegiances.
He looked directly at the one giving the questions, the marine was in violet armour and had horns fixed to his helm, "Death to the false Emperor." He repeated louder this time, it was easier to say now, it almost felt good; "Death to the false Emperor."
"Very good," said the Chaos Marine, "Now get to your feet." Gechorus did as he was told, "I am Brutaka, and this is my squad." Brutaka carried a power sword and was clearly designated as the squad leader. His squad was mostly marines with bolters save for two who carried plasma guns. "You realise that your company doesn't have a hope in winning this fight, you may have a strike cruiser, but we have an entire battle barge; we outnumber you three to one."
"Why are you telling me?" asked Gechorus, "I have surrendered to you."
"We need to know how many marines will be like you, and how many we will need to kill?"
"I am Gechorus of squad Pantaleon," said Gechorus, "I know my squad leader is of the same mind, and the others under his command will follow him."
"Any more?"
"Squad Myrsinus," he replied, "A devastator squad, they use lascannons."
"And the Company Commander?"
"Not to my knowledge."
"Take us to your squad."
Gechorus looked back at the room he left Xilthara in, should he bring her with him, or leave her behind? She was involved with a pleasure cult of Slaanesh, but she showed no sign of disloyalty to the Emperor. Would she accept Gechorus now, after he betrayed the Emperor?
"What is it?" asked Brutaka.
Gechorus quickly turned back to the Chaos Marine, "Nothing."
"Someone is behind that door," said Brutaka, eagerly. He began to walk to the door to investigate.
"No," argued Gechorus, "there is no one in there!"
Brutaka paused, "You are a bad liar, Brother Gechorus," he turned to face the terminator, "There is someone in this room, someone very dear to you."
Gechorus started revving his assault cannon again, and stared the Chaos Marine down, if he dared to open that door…
"Do not be afraid," said Brutaka, "I sense this relationship that you share was key to breaking though the steel wall the imperium had set in your mind."
"You will not kill her?"
"Why would we destroy a brother's source of freedom? It is precious and must be protected."
The door opened slightly, Gechorus spotted it in the corner of his vision; he wasn't the only one, some of the other marines in Brutaka's squad noticed too. None were worried or showed any signs of hostility towards what was behind it.
She saw that no one was fighting and she stepped out into the hallway. "Are these not marines of Chaos?" she asked cautiously as she looked at Gechorus standing and talking with them.
"They are our way out of here," he said, "The ways of the Imperium are not relevant anymore."
"But how can you…" she looked around at the violet space marines, their armour adorned with symbols of Chaos and Slaanesh. She moved closer to one of the symbols emblazoned onto the pauldron of the nearest space marine. Fixated by it, she touched it lightly and mumbled under her breath, "Slaanesh…"