26. The Drake and the Krake
The 186th expedition fleet of the Imperium of man tore its way out of the warp, great holes in reality spewing forth the hundreds of ships that had survived the journey through the immaterium, the stuff of unreality sloughing off as the Gellar fields were lowered. The fleet slowly gained speed as they sailed through the void heading to the only inhabited planet in the system.
Scouting vessels had identified a single planet in this system with human inhabitants, officially recorded in imperial records as 186-11, it was a fairly arid world rich in mineral wealth and had managed to weather the Age of strife mostly intact, the surface was unforgiving so the people had built their cities underground, expanding out from old mining tunnels.
The primarch of the 18th legion stood aboard the bridge of his flagship, the Flamewrought, he watched carefully as the world grew larger through the view ports, no communications had been received from the planet and hails sent by the fleet had been ignored. Urthar Olian, the 186th's master of the fleet, was growing increasingly agitated by the lack of any danger, he was a cautious man who was always looking over his shoulder for any danger and in his line of work it was understandable, it had saved his neck more than once.
"Will you stop tapping your foot" Vulkan noticed the voidsman had started to tap his foot, a sign he was growing even more agitated
"Sorry my lord" Urthar tensed up his legs and stopped them moving, "Are we sure there is even still life on this world?"
"Cursory scan showed human activity although the scout fleet did say that there had been signs of fighting in the system recently"
"That is clear" the fleet had passed the blown-out hulks of hundreds of ships, their shattered forms slowly drifting through the system posed little threat to the fleet but did speak of a terrifying attack
As they grew closer to the planet they could see the broken hulks of ships, satellites and orbital defences orbiting the planet. The surface was a sandy brown with black pox marks all over, obvious signs of orbital weaponry, it was clear to anyone in orbit that a battle had been fought and the inhabitants of 186-11 had lost. The 186th fell in to orbit around the planet as they performed comprehensive scans, their tools piecing deep beneath the surface and revealing several underground cities, labyrinthine tunnels that spread out for miles and cut miles under the surface, deeper than even their scanners reached. Several more attempts to hail whoever might still live in the tunnels failed and the primarch resolved to make contact personally.
The Flamwrought disgorged hundreds of stormbirds as the primarch and an entire company of marines made their way to the surface. As they made their way to the entrance of the largest underground city the 18th legion could get a closer look at the scarred surface of the planet, the blackened pox marks were now clearly surface defences that had been crushed by some overwhelming power. The sands of the world were also littered with the bones of the long dead, the surface around the city entrance being more bone than sand.
The stormbirds landed some ways away from the inconspicuous entrance, a simple metal building, it looked like some kind of warehouse standing alone in the desert the doors were wide enough that two baneblades could drive through. The 1st company of the Salamanders legion formed up in to a parade formation, the inhabitants hadn't made an enemy of them yet and Vulkan didn't wish to make an enemy of them. The primarch and his pyre guard led the formation towards the city entrance.
"Stop there!" barricades had been placed in a semicircle in front of the city entrance, people armed with simple lasguns kneeled behind them with their guns trained on the astartes, heavier cannons were placed on the flanks and had also been trained on the approaching force.
The people seemed to be little more than a cobbled together militia, they had no uniformity in weapons or clothing and no body armour to speak of, it was clear they had little discipline and were shaking from fear in the face of just a small fraction of the legion's might.
"Turn around and go back where you came from, we ain't giving you anything else" A grizzled old man who kneeled at the centre of the ramshackle formation seemed to be the leader, his hair was white and unkempt and his skin had a sickly pale, almost paper white, complexion with wrinkles deep set in to his face
"I am Vulkan of the Salamaders, the 18th legion of the legio Astartes" the primarch stepped forward and projected his voice across the stretch of desert that separated the two groups, "I am one of the sons of the Emperor of mankind, come to unite all the worlds of man after the horrors of Old night"
"We won't fall for your tricks, turn back or we shoot" the man's voice was shaky but he clearly would follow through on his threat
Vulkan took a step forward then another and another, he moved closer to the barricade as the man continued to warn him to turn back, Vulkan knew the weapons they held would barely scratch his armour. The primarch eventually got too close and the man opened fire, the 1st company had their weapons raised as soon as the las bolt pinged off of Vulkan's chest plate but the primarch put them back at ease with a raise of his hand. The defenders were frozen in fear as they waited for some brutal retaliation but Vulkan simply continued to walked towards the barricade.
"Stay back, next shot won't be a warning" the man backed up slightly as Vulkan approached, "Stay back please stay back"
The defenders all flinched as Vulkan arrived at the barricade, towering above the mortals that cowered before him, "I told you I am here to reunite you with your long lost cousins" Vulkan kneeled so he was on the level of the defenders, "You have clearly endured some hardships allow the Imperium to help relieve you of them"
The man looked up at Vulkan, his appearance normally caused people to fear him, his charcoal skin and burning red eyes making him look like some fire primordial but this man had clearly witnessed something worse, "You're not like them" Vulkan held out a hand and the man took it, allowing the primarch to pull him to his feet, "We're saved"
Vulkan and his guard were invited in to the city, the surface building seemed to be a guard station with even more men and weapons waiting inside, an elevator in the centre of the building brought the group below the surface. The elevator stopped and led out in to a semi circular tunnel that was slightly taller than Vulkan, the man, who Vulkan had learned was named Kon, led the primarch and astartes through the tunnels, moving through the extremely complex twists and turns with practised ease. The primarch noted that the walls of the tunnel were covered in scorch marks and dried blood, fighting had occurred through the tunnels and from what Vulkan could see the invaders had pieced quite deep. As the astartes were led deeper in to the city other inhabitants of the underground city would occasionally pop their heads out of offshoots that served as homes, gawking at the size of the visitors before fearfully dipping back in to their caves.
Kon took them to the central nexus of the city, a great cavern that reached up so high that it had its own clouds, hundreds of people moved through the cavern but they all avoided Vulkan and his sons, clearly suspicious of outsiders. The primarch was led to an unassuming hole in the wall that widened out in to a secondary cavern, smaller but still big enough to comfortably fit the primarch and his guard. The cavern was filled with several men and women that seemed to be important, they each sat on a stone throne with the largest one being in the middle, it was occupied by a young man, he looked barely older than 18 with scraggly patches of beard on his face. All the thrones seemed to be occupied by someone strangely young, none of them looked older than 30, and as Vulkan thought about it he had not seen any elderly, the oldest person the primarch had seen was Kon and he guessed he was no older than 50 though he had been prematurely aged by a hard life.
"Who are these people?" the man on the centre throne was clearly the leader and he didn't sound happy to be meeting the primarch
Kon bowed his head slightly to the council, "They came from the stars I believe they can be our salvation"
"Our salvation will come from below the surface not above it, send them away!"
"My lords they can help u….."
"We will not bring others in to solve our problems, if the raiders return we will deal with them" the leader cut him off
"When the raiders come back they will slaughter us, we can't just hide in a deeper cave" Kon was clearly angry, "They wish to help us and with them we can beat the raiders back for once, we will get to keep what we mined"
"And how do we know that they aren't allied with the raiders, that this isn't a trick and after we accept their help they won't turn on us"
Vulkan stepped forward and stood beside Kon, "My lord, I am Vulkan of the Salamanders legion, son of the Emperor of mankind" the primarch bowed his head slightly, "The Imperium wishes to help all the worlds of man, please tell us what is plaguing your world so we can help rid you of it"
The leader sighed, "Raiders, about 30 years they came, Eret was an industrious world back then, it is rich in natural resources but we can't grow much food, luckily after being cut off from Terra we managed to maintain ties with several other systems and traded what we had for what we didn't but 30 years ago the raiders first struck" the young man seemed to have lived through one of the raids from the haunted look on his face, "We had a large fleet, mainly for trading but it could defend itself, though it didn't matter they cut though our ships and our orbital defences with ease and then they destroyed all our surface defences before they invaded our cities, they scoured whole cities clean of life and took all they could get their hands on, they returned time and again and we became less able to resist each time, they just took whatever they wanted; my brothers, my mother even my father's life"
Everyone in the cavern hung their heads, they had all lost someone to the raiders and as Vulkan heard about them a conclusion formed in his head, "What are these raiders like?" he asked
"They look human but they can't be something is off about them, they radiate fear wherever they go"
"I think I know who you're dealing with, they plagued my homeworld, I defeated them there and I will defeat them here"
The leader seemed to have warmed to Vulkan but he wasn't taking any chances, "Then do it in the void, I will not put my people in danger, stop them and I will give you whatever you want"
Vulkan bowed to the council and Kon led him back up to the surface, "Have you truly defeated them before?" he asked as they rode the elevator up
"I have, they are cowardly by nature as soon as you show you won't bow to their demands they will flee"
"I hope you are correct, I lost my wife and daughter in one of their raids, I watched one of them burn the hole the two of them were hiding in, there was nothing left of them" tears fell from Kon's face, "Kill as many of them as you can for me"
"I wil…." alarms started blaring throughout the city and all its inhabitants scrambled to find a place to hide, "What is that?"
"The alarm, they're here" Kon's face had gone pale and he was clearly having a panic attack
"Take the elevator back down and find a place to hide" Vulkan pushed Kon in to the corner as his guard gathered close to him and he lifted his hammer, Dawnbringer, he activated the teleportation device imbedded in the head and in a flash of light the primarch and his guard were on the bridge of the Flamewrought.
The bridge was alive with sirens as naval personnel ran about and the fleet moved to get in to attack formation, "What happened?" Vulkan approached Urthar as he directed the fleet and prepared for combat
"We detected large gravitational fluctuations and then suddenly there was a large fleet at the edge of the system, we are tracking them as we speak"
A large screen hanging over the bridge showed hundreds of signatures heading towards the planet, if the scanners were correct then the fleet was at least twice as large as the 186th and heading for them fast.
"I have reason to believe we are facing Dark Eldar" Vulkans homeworld, Nocturn, had been subject to Dark Eldar raids for centuries before he arrived but as soon as he grew to manhood he drove them off and made sure they did not return and he would do the same again although he did have some doubts. The Dark Eldar weren't ones to announce themselves, their targets didn't know they were there until the last possible second and their ships had advanced cloaking tech that would make it impossible for Imperial ships to detect them from so far out, they also travelled in much smaller fleets, normally a couple dozen ships that quickly blow through defences and allow them to snatch up all they can and the gravitational fluctuations before their arrival were also strange. The primarch was starting to doubt his assessment.
The 186th waited in battle formation, waiting for the approaching fleet to get in to visual range, the second they were the approaching fleet was put up on a large screen and scrutinised by every eye in the fleet. It was clear they were not facing Dark Eldar. The fleet was comprised of ships equal in size and firepower to those of Imperial make, they were covered in overlapping armoured plates, like the scales on a fish, with bows that curved up like a scimitar and hundreds of gunports lining the ship across multiple decks. The fleet was clearly ready for battle and despite being outnumbered the 186th would meet them.
"My lord, the fleet is hailing us?" an officer informed the primarch of an incoming message
"Put it through"
A deep voice came over the speakers, speaking gothic with a heavy accent, "This Evis Nelson, 4th son of the great pirate emperor of Krake Ovis, the illustrious bla bla bla it doesn't matter what I want to know is, who the hell are you?"
"This is Vulkan of the Imperium of man, Lord of the Salamanders legion, this world is under my protection and you will no longer raid it"
The ships were clearly of human make but the magos attached to the fleet couldn't find any records matching the ships they were facing or even mentioning Krake.
"You are trespassing on Kraken territory Vulkan, if my father or one of my brothers found you here they wouldn't hesitate to mount your head on their ship but I'm reasonable and I have places to be so what will it take to get you out of my way?"
"Nothing will get me to abandon these people, I will not allow you to raid this world any longer" Vulkan was insulted by such an offer
"I prefer to negotiate face to face, there is a habitat on the moon, meet me there and feel free to bring as many guards as you like"
The communication cut and Urthar looked to the primarch for orders. The fleet was larger than them with ships that seemed to be the equal of the imperial designs so fighting would be unwise when negotiations were on the table.
"I will meet with this pirate but you will keep the fleet in attack formation and battle ready, I want to be able to blow them out of the void at a moments notice" Urthar saluted the primarch and he gathered his pyre guard and headed to the launch bay to take a stormbird to the moon
The moon of 186-11 was a small thing, planetarily speaking, a silver thing it was dotted with craters and looked incredibly similar to Luna. The surface was covered with domed habitats, nearly all of them were broken and no longer held atmosphere, the only one that remained habitable was one near the moons north pole. The habitat was very simple, being little more than a great glass dome miles in diameter with atmospheric scrubbers maintaining a liveable condition inside. The stormbird landed on one of the many landing pads and was brought in to the habitat, while it could still be inhabited it no longer was, plants growing over the many habblocks that filled the dome.
"Are you sure this was a good idea?" Artellus Numeon, commander of Vulkan's pyre guard spoke up, he was a steadfast and loyal warrior and Vulkan valued his opinion
"I will not shed the blood of our brothers if it can be avoided, he wants to talk and we shall"
The primarch and his guard made their way to the centre of the habitat, moving through the overgrown and ruined street, evidence of the raiders was obvious everywhere; carbon scoring, slaughtered bodies and overturned containers emptied of everything. At the centre of the habitat was a towering monolith that rose up to the apex of the dome, the pyre guard took up positions around their primarch as they scanned all directions for any threats.
Vulkan waited only a few minutes before the Kraken party were spotted walking down the road, they all looked to be baseline humans with some wearing the fitted jackets of officers and even more wearing the armour and helmets of regular soldiers but their leader stood out. He looked like a young man at least 10 feet tall, a hulking mass of muscle that stood taller than even the superhuman astartes, he kept his void black hair shoulder length and braided with threads of silver woven in, his features were sharp and almost inhumanly symmetrical but his most notable feature were his almost reflective silver eyes.
"I didn't think you would be such a beast" Evis laughed as he approached the primarch, the pyre guard raising their weapons to ward him off
Vulkan looked at Evis in awe, he moved past his guards and approached the pirate, "Brother" he grabbed Evis by his shoulders and looked in his eyes
His eyes were the same as those of the 11th legionaries and Vulkan could tell he had the same null aura, his size and obvious power pretty much confirmed it in his mind, there was no other conclusion that could be drawn, Evis was one of his lost brothers.
"Whoa" Evis pushed Vulkan back slightly, "We are not that close, I'm just here to get you to leave me alone to do my job"
"Do you not see it, we are brothers" Vulkan needed to convince Evis to meet their father and join the Imperium, "I have been reunited with our father, he lost us but he's be scouring the galaxy for over a century trying to find us"
"What are you talking about?" Evis gave Vulkan a confused look
"You fell from the sky as a shooting star in a metallic pod, correct?"
Evis stepped back slightly, clearly suspicious, "Why would you say that?"
"It's true isn't it, you know you're not like these mortals, you're one of the sons of the Emperor"
"It's not true but why would you say that?" Evis reached for the sword at his hip, "Tell me"
Now it was Vulkan's turn to be confused, "That was how I came to my homeworld, that was how all our brothers fell to their homeworlds"
Evis turned to the officers that had accompanied him, "Tell the fleet to prepare to head out, we're heading to Krake immediately" Evis turned back to Vulkan and levelled a finger at him, "And you're coming with us, you will meet my father"
The pyre guard rushed forward and stood between their gene-father and the pirates, weapons at the ready, Evis looked at them for a second, he seemed confident he could kill the seven marines of Vulkan's pyre guard and if he truly was primarch then he probably could.
"This isn't a threat, it's an invitation, I told you I was much more reasonable than the rest of my family"
Vulkan thought about it for a few seconds, from what he had gathered Krake was some kind of marauding empire and if Evis wasn't the 11th primarch as he claimed then they certainly had some information on him.
"Why do you want me to meet your father?"
"You ask me if I fell from the sky, I didn't, I remember the day I was born and it didn't involve any void pods but my father is a different story"
Vulkan and his guard quickly figured what Evis was saying and Artellus was the first to speak, "You're saying that you're the son of one of the primarchs?" he was clearly denying such a scenario
"No clue what a primarch is but the only person I've ever met that is as large as my father is your leader" Evis turned and started to leave, "My fleet will spend the next few hours getting in formation to leave, you are invited to join us on our trip back but we can only really tow your flagship and a handful of others"
Evis and his entourage left the meeting and were soon out of sight, Artellus turned to his primarch, "Are you going to accept?"
"If the emperor of this pirate empire is truly one of my brothers then I have no choice"
"He could be lying, some gene twisted monster trying to lure us in to a trap" another pyre guard, Leodrakk, spoke
"No, he held the same traits as the 11th legion, you felt his null aura and he had their silver eyes"
"So will you accept?" Artellus asked again
"Even if my 11th brother can't be found here we will have to deal with this empire eventually better to do it now and without bolter fire"
Vulkan returned to his ship and informed the fleet of the outcome of the talks, Urthar was send to another ship to continue to command the 186th in Vulkan's absence, the Flamewrought and several supporting ships would leave with the pirates while the rest of the fleet stayed in orbit around 186-11 and sought to bring the world in to compliance peacefully.
On the formal invitation of Evis, Vulkan and his guard took a stormbird to the pirate fleets flagship, a colossal battleship that they named the Marauding son. The ship almost rivalled Vulkan's own in size with the overlapping scale armour all their ships had, the bow curved like a sword and at the very tip sat a golden statue, the image of a beautiful woman singing a song out in to the universe or maybe heralding the arrival of the pirates.
Access to the ships hangers ran along the top of the ship, several great gates with specialised shield generators that allowed small craft in and out but not the atmosphere, the stormbird lowered itself through the red hewed threshold and on to a landing space. As soon as the stormbird touched down and its engines started winding down, hanger crew rushed forward and started to attach it to a pully system and get it taxied in to a parking spot.
Vulkan and his guard walked out in to the busy hanger as hundreds of mortal crew men maintained and armed hundreds of aircraft, they were shouting in a strange language that was obviously descended from gothic but quite different from it but the most unexpected thing about the crew couldn't be seen.
"Do you feel that?" Leodrakk leaned over to his brother, Skatar'var
"Yes it's all of them" Skatar'var eyed the hanger crew suspiciously, their soulless nature grating on his mind and putting him on edge, "If the whole fleet is like this then there are more of them here than on the Somnus citadel"
"Get a hold of yourselves" their primarch chided them, "We are invited guests so we should try to be cordial"
"Vulkan!" Evis entered the hanger and approached the primarch, greeting them as if they weren't about to come to blows a few hours ago, "My captains are guiding you ships in to position, why don't I show you around"
The Marauding son was a colossal battleship that matched its imperial counterparts and even exceeded them in some areas, as Vulkan was shown around he could clearly see that the Krakens were excellent shipwrights. After hours Vulkan's ships had been guided in to place and the formation had reached the edge of the system, the Kraken ships formed a shell around the imperial ones as they came to the edge of the system, Evis brought Vulkan and his guard to the bridge as they prepared for the journey home.
The bridge of the Marauding son was not that different from the Flamewrought, officers and junior officers ran about delivering orders and checking every system on the ship and on the fleet at large. The bridge was awash with noise, with everyone speaking in that strange dialect, but they all silenced themselves as soon as they walked in to the bridge, someone announcing Evis' presence.
Evis simply waved at them to get back to work and took a seat on his command throne, "So how do you actually travel through the warp, I doubt you have navigators?" Artellus eyed every person on the bridge
"The warp? You mean the ever mad sea, no we don't touch that, too unreliable" Evis seemed shocked that they travelled with the warp
"Then how do you do it?" Vulkan was genuinely curious
"You'll see" Evis stood from his throne and approached a plinth that stood before the great view ports that looked out in to the darkness of the void
He shouted out commands in his native tongue and the many officers manning cogitator units replied. Vulkan could make out a little of their langue, it was quite far removed from gothic and he hadn't heard enough to fully decipher it, but from what could understand he figured out that they were making checks on multiple important systems and they all seemed to come back fine. Evis reached in to one of his jacket pockets and pulled out a golden key, he stuck it in to the plinth as the bridge became silent once again, he said a few words before counting down and turning the key. The ship shook and the view port was saturated with light, special tinting darkening to save the occupants' eyes, and then suddenly the blinding light was gone and replaced by the deepest darkness Vulkan had ever seen.
"What happened?" he asked as he looked out in to the darkness, it looked like there was no light at all even the light from inside the ship couldn't reach out in to it
"The grav drive, my father invented it" Evis declared with pride as he looked out in to the absolute dark, "It manipulates the gravity around the ship to such a degree that space bends as well, we compress space in front of the ship and stretch it behind us allowing us to move faster than light, well not really move but we end up where we want"
"How is the Flamewrought supposed to follow, we don't have engines like these?"
"That's the good thing about the grav drive my father made we can manipulate gravity so well that we can direct how we bend space, so if a ship is surrounded by ships with grav drives then the ones at the front can compress space and the ones at the back will stretch it bringing the entire fleet along"
"That is interesting" Vulkan could imagine what the Mechanicum would say when they got a look at these engines, "How long until we reach your home?"
"3 weeks, until then we should get to know each other better"
Vulkan and his guard were invited to dine with Evis and his top officers. Evis sat at the head of the table with his officers on his right while Vulkan sat at the other end with his guard on his right, the primarch was surprised they had chairs capable of accommodating his bulk and was glad he didn't have to sit on some makeshift construct for once. The table was filled with many dishes but most of them seemed to contain fish of some kind, Vulkan wouldn't be rude to his hosts and filled his plate, urging his guard to do the same.
"So tell me about your father?" Vulkan needed to know more about this man who could be his brother
"An undefeated naval commander, he single handily build this empire, it's thanks to his genius we're here right now" Evis clearly admired his father, it reminded Vulkan of how he saw his own father
"You said you were the 4th son, how many of you are there?"
"20 of us in all, mother said she was sick of it after that many, although that wouldn't include the others but they really don't matter"
"What is he like?"
Evis smile dropped and he became deadly serious, "My father is not kind to strangers, don't try to be friendly, you say you think he's your brother don't mention that to him or he might kill you on the spot, he'll see you as a threat so expect to be treated like one"
Vulkan was taken aback slightly by such a frank description, "Is there any way to get him to warm to me?"
"If you want one sure fire way then a gift, he is a collector so something unique would be best or something practical"
Vulkan smiled, he had a good idea of how to treat with his lost brother. For the rest of the diner Evis and Vulkan traded information on Krake and the Imperium, each managing to learn a lot from the other.
3 weeks in to the journey the Marauding son started shaking violently, Vulkan made his way to the bridge to find out what was happening. The bridge was alive as ever as the crew went about their hundreds of tasks, they all seemed unconcerned by the violent shaking, Vulkan found Evis sitting on his command throne, also uninterested in the shaking.
"What is happening?" the primarch asked
"We're about to exit FTL, this is natural" Evis reassured him
Vulkan looked out in to the darkness just outside the view port, the shaking became stronger and stronger until a bright flash of light blinded the primarch for an instant before being replaced by a sprawling asteroid belt that lay at the edge of the Krake system.
The world of Krake had advanced tremendously in the century since Ovis conquered it, with his genius they achieved space travel and spread across their solar system. They quickly achieved FTL travel and built a large fleet to raid neighbouring systems but they found them empty, all the worlds surrounding Krake were dead worlds that had once been inhabited but were driven to extinction by some cataclysm that had missed them, the Krakens colonized the dead worlds and reached out further in to the galaxy eventually finding inhabited worlds. Ovis and his fleets raided and conquered all the worlds they came across, his progeny leading armies on hundreds of worlds to subjugate them to his will, the primarch carved his empire up and handed pieces out to those who had been the most loyal to him on Krake and their descendants. While the Imperium had been undertaking its Great crusade the 11th son had been doing the same but not for the glory and ascendance of his species, he conquered to add more jewels to his crown.
The Krake system was filled with thousands of ships, from great battleships patrolling the system edge to cargo haulers preparing to make a trip to one of the subjugated worlds or the frontier. The first time Vulkan saw the world of Krake he found himself thinking it was quite beautiful, a pure blue marble with splotches of black clouds that occasionally flared with lightning but the most notable feature of the world was not natural. A steel ring ran around the planets equator, thousands of docks building and servicing ships of every shape and size with great space elevators connecting it to the surface and feeding it materials.
Vulkan assessed the systems defences as the Marauding son pulled in to one of the many docks around the ring, from what the primarch could see they kept a defence fleet large enough to face off against several expedition fleets and that wasn't including the static defences, some of which he was sure he couldn't see.
Evis rose from his command throne as his ship pulled in to dock, "My father's birthday is in a week, I suggest you return to your ship and work on a good gift for him" Vulkan and the man who could possibly be his nephew had forged quite an agreeable relationship and Evis admittedly didn't want to see this stranger from the stars dead, "I'll try to butter him up for you but most of the heavy lifting will be up to you"
"I will put all my skill in to it" Vulkan left the bridge and took his stormbird back to the Flamewrought to begin forging something he had been designing for the entire trip
Evis took a transport craft down to the surface of Krake, despite the century of war and conquest and all the changes Ovis kept his seat of power his childhood home. The palace that his father built, that circled the top of the mountan, remained but Ovis had greatly expanded it by completely hollowing out the mountain. The ports and waters of Kasain were as busy as ever with sea going ships pulling in to dock or leaving for a hundred destinations around the world. Evis' transport craft flew in to a large cave cut in to the mountain to act as a hanger.
As soon as the 4th son of the pirate emperor disembarked he was assaulted, a great mass that moved faster than human eyes could track tackled him and got him in to a chokehold. Evis remained calm and rammed his elbow in to the ribs of the man trying to choke him out, after getting free he turned to see a man who looked almost exactly like him except for a thick bread.
"How did you know I would be landing here?" Evis asked his brother, Korist
"We've known each other since before birth, you can't surprise me" Korist was the 2nd son, named for their maternal grandfather he was known as an eccentric but in truth Evis thought he was half mad, impulsive and prone to think of and execute plans that no sane man would even consider but they had all worked out for him so far
"Where's Little Ovi, I expected him to come greet me" Evis was the youngest of a set of triplets, Korist was the eldest and the middle one was named for their father, the 3rd son Ovis
"You know he doesn't like being called that, especially by you"
"Well he's not here to complain"
"I am" the third brother rounded a corner, the three looked incredibly similar with very little differentiating them but most people could tell them apart by how they carried themselves
Korist was in near constant motion, he couldn't sit still to save his life and had a thousand different things on his mind at once. Evis on the other hand rarely gave much his full attention, he focused on something until he found the simplest answer and followed that, no matter where it led. Ovis was unlike his two siblings, he gave his full attention to everything he did, incredibly serious and disciplined he hated the nickname given to him by his brothers, Little Ovi, which is why they loved using it so much.
"Little Ovi!" Evis moved to hug his brother but as he expected Ovis held him at arm's length
"Don't call me that and what's this I'm hearing about you bringing strange ships and people here?"
"I was on my way back and I stopped off at the Eret system, you know for some slaves, but when we got close to the planet we spotted these ships" Evis explained how he came in to contact with Vulkan, "I arrange a meeting with their leader and once I see him I'm instantly reminded of father, his size and the aura he had and then he starts talking about me being his brother and falling from the sky, I think he might know where father came from"
Evis' brothers were taken aback by that revelation, their father's origins were always a mystery to them, they had heard the tale of his birth from their grandmother when she was still alive but their father never talked about remembering anything before that.
"Well where is this man?" Korist demanded
"He's on his ship preparing a gift, he'll be at the celebrations in a week" Evis walked through the mountain with his brothers close behind, "Now where is father?"
The throne room of Ovis sat at the centre of the mountain, it was a great hall with vaulted ceilings with the banners and standards of conquered worlds hanging from the rafters. The throne of the pirate emperor was cobbled together heap of scrap metal, a thousand pieces of steel taken from the destroyed ships of those who had stood against him, all melted together in to an imposing throne that rose taller than the primarch himself.
Evis entered the throne room and found his parents talking, standing at the base of the throne as they looked through a dataslate. Despite being 120 something years old Evis' mother looked just as young as he did, having gone through several rejuvenation treatments to extend her life, as soon as she saw him Lusenkia ran to her son.
"You're back!" Evis' mother had always been the doting kind ever since he could remember, she was usually the fearsome pirate queen who put entire cities to death without a second thought but when it came to her children she was the complete opposite, "Your father thinks you did something wrong, apparently you brought some strange ships and people back with you but they're just slaves and trophies, right?"
Evis' father was staring him down, silently waiting for answers, off worlders weren't very welcome on Krake despite how many worlds they had conquered the people from them rarely if ever came to Krake and there was good reason for that.
"Their leader knows something about where you came from" Evis argued, "I had to bring them here"
His father scratched the stubble on his chin for a second as he considered the situation, "Are any of them witches?" he asked
"Not as far as I could tell, none of them went mad in our presence at least"
"Fine I will meet with him but tell them to keep their minds"
"I will" Evis bowed his head slightly and left the room quickly
The celebration Ovis' birthday was large, the entire world of Krake was consumed by celebration, the various families that governed his empire returned to Krake to reaffirm their loyalty and shower their emperor with gifts. The beaches of Kasain were filled with the nobility of the empire, drinking and conversing as the primarch presided over it all, gifts being piled at his feet.
As the party was getting in to full swing there was a crack of lightning, despite the clear sky, a bolt came down from the sky and struck the beach, there was a loud crack and flash that forced everyone to turn away. Once the flash subsided standing where the lightning had struck was a giant, standing tall in an armour of green and gold surrounded by seven lesser warriors in similar armour, in one hand he held a great hammer and in the other a great black case. Everyone present watched the giant and his guard with suspicious eyes was they approached Ovis.
The crowd parted as Vulkan and his guard made their way through, the overwhelming soulless aura of so many nulls pressing on their psyches and souls, the pyre guard scanned the crowd and saw threats where ever they looked. The primarch and his guard soon crossed an invisible threshold, in to the aura of the 11th primarch, Vulkan stopped in his tracks as he felt the change, he felt the switch from the null aura trying to push his soul away to Ovis' aura trying to rip it from him. Vulkan and his guard steeled themselves, focusing to keep their soul from being torn from their body. The primarch could tell instantly that Ovis was his brother, there was no doubt in his mind that they were cut from the same genetic lineage, the raw power he had in both the materium and immaterium made that clear, even his pyre guard felt themselves buckling under his unrestrained aura as it tried to tear them apart and consume the scraps.
Ovis stood as Vulkan approached him, the Lord of Drakes was about a head taller than the pirate emperor, the two primarchs eyed each other for a moment before Vulkan presented the black case he carried. It was as long as the primarch's torso and about half as wide, two of the pyre guard held it as another opened it so Ovis could see what was inside. Inside was an arm of black and gold forged in to the shape of the vicious krake, the pauldron was the roaring head of the beast, cast in obsidian with golden eyes and teeth, the body of the beast was etched down the arm ending with a hand that sported five razor sharp golden digits and a palm that sported a small nozzle that suggest an ability to spray flames. Vulkan had used what he had learned from Evis of Krake to forge Ovis the monstrous arm his namesake was known for.
Ovis picked it up and examined the gift, calling several servants over to help him put it on, he moved his arm and got a feel for the servos and the aurumite plates, turning his hand over several times he examined every inch of it before looking back up at Vulkan.
"So you wanted to talk to me about something?" Ovis sat back down and offer Vulkan a seat next to him
Next time: The word of an emperor