A/N – Another chapter written, mostly not much happens. But one major event is coming, no, two are coming. I know, short, but I want to keep it as an interlude between the last part and the next where shit hits the fan over and over again.
o-0-o
Aldrik Voldus stood perfectly still as he let the servants clad his massive body in an Errant-pattern power armor that was painted dull silver with no chapter marks. He let them finish the task and took the helmet from one of them and before placing it on his head he checked if the Machine Spirits of the armor were compliant and systems were working. Content he placed the helmet on his head and reached for a Nemesis power sword and a bolt pistol. Once he had his gear and was in this armor he walked out of his quarters and towards the Thunderhawk that waited for him.
The moment the Thunderhawk started its flight towards its target he calmed his mind and extended it in all directions, looking for psykers and their minds. Finding them was an easy task as they were like torches in the dark. He immediately detected hundreds of them, most of them weak and he immediately ignored them as unimportant ones. Once there were just few dozens of them he focused on them individually, looking for a mind that was already disciplined, yet young and showed great potential.
When he found what he sought his eyes widened and it was then when he realized why the Stormcaller wanted the boy to be trained by them. He was powerful and Aldrik could tell that he was yet nowhere near the level the boy could reach given proper training and a lot of it. He stopped probing the second he felt the boy notice him and reach with his mind, there was no need to tell him anything.
"How long before we land?" Voldus asked.
"Five minutes," one of the pilots said. "Should we return to the ship once you leave the Thunderhawk."
"No," Voldus said. "Wait for me and the person that will come with me."
o-0-o
Harry felt a throbbing pain at the base of his skull and at the same time he felt something or someone poke his mind. He dropped the scroll he was reading and sat down on the floor of the room, before closing his eyes and cleansing the mind from all of the outside influence. Then he focused on that something that attempted to get into his mind and tried to look for it, yet much to his surprise he couldn't find anything of note and he didn't try to spread his senses too far as it was the throne world and the Emperor was here.
He shook his head and got back to his work, trying to understand the content of the scroll he was reading. However before he had a chance to do progress any meaningful amount the door of the chamber he occupied and inside stepped in Torin. "You are summoned by Valkoth, now," he said curtly.
"What's going on?" Harry asked as he rolled the scroll and placed it on the desk.
"You will see once you get there," Torin said and Harry gave him a wary look. "I know the same amount of data as you. He hadn't told me a single thing I didn't tell you, so ask him. Just know that he was angry and shaken by something."
Harry nodded and reaching for his power axe and slipping it into the holster attached to his armor he followed Torin out of the room and through the corridors of the part of the spire occupied by the Wolves. He paused the moment when they stopped in front of massive gates reinforced with adamantium and looking as if they could stop determined assaults.
"The Vaults," Torin simply said and motioned at a pair of Wolves in Terminator Armors and six Skitarii to step aside. "Part of the spire you normally wouldn't see until much more experienced, but that's the place they chose for the meeting."
Harry nodded and the moment the gate was opened he felt an extremely strong stench of chaos almost cover him whole and it caused hair on the back of his back to stand up and fangs to show. "Warp and mutations," he snarled.
"Aye," Torin said and placed his hand on Harry's chestplate to stop him. "Those are very old, even ancient Navigators and this is the effect of their exposure to the Warp. They are the Elders of the house and they choose the Celestarch and are their advisors."
Harry nodded, calming quickly and somewhat relaxing before nodding at Torin. "Let's go."
Torin nodded and the two of them walked through a maze-like system of corridors that filled the Vaults with no source of light whatsoever making them rely on their superhuman senses and auspexes of their armor. However none of them put on their helmets as the Wolves never used them outside of direct combat or given a direct order as it dulled their senses. After something that felt like an eternity of a walk through the corridors they emerged inside of a circular room inside of which was a pair of Space Marines. One of them was Valkoth, while the other was dressed in silver armor with no markings and had violet, keen eyes and a short, cropped black hair.
"Good that you are here," Valkoth said noticing their arrival.
"Why did you summon us here?" Harry asked.
"He summoned you because I told him to do so," the Marine in silver armor said. "I'm Grand Master Aldrik Voldus of the Grey Knights and I'm here to take you to the Citadel of Titan for testing."
Harry's hair bristled and he looked as if he was about to hurl himself at the older Marine.
"I have permission from the Great Wolf," Voldus added seconds later. "And if you're pure, due to your immense power I'm allowed to provide you additional instructions in psychic powers. Also the order to test you came from the Great Wolf, so if you disobey my command I can execute you like a traitor."
"If I may," Torin said and they looked at him. "I spend way too many years in the shaky waters of politics of Terra to know what there are few more bottoms to it and it sounds too nice to be true."
"Indeed," Voldus said with a nod at Torin. "There's a group of the Inquisition, better would be a splinter who thinks that Harald is some kind of a daemon in human flesh or an extremely powerful being that can be used for their goals. Leader of which also remembers Months of Shame and cannot forget the humiliation you caused to the Inquisition."
Torin nodded and smiled feraly. "So you want to test Harald to knock out few of the more dangerous cards out of the deck available to them?"
"For this talk this explanation is enough," Voldus said and gave Harry a look. "Will you come with me to the Citadel of Titan?"
"I guess that I don't have much of a choice," Harry said, some resignation visible in his voice.
"Aye, you don't have," Voldus nodded and looked at Harry. "Before we go, one last thing. An oath that you won't reveal anything you see, hear or are told at the Citadel of Titan and that secrets of the chapter will stay inside of your mind. Only one that can release you from this oath is me, other Grand Masters of the chapter and the Great Wolf."
"Is it necessary?" Valkoth asked warily.
"There are things that should remain hidden," Voldus said and looked at Harry. "Do you swear it?"
"I do," Harry said. "On my honor, on the honor of the chapter and on the Golden Throne that I won't reveal anything."
Voldus briefly smiled and looked at Harry. "Then come with me, Thunderhawk waits for us and will take to the ship."
o-0-o
A troupe of Harlequins when in combat was sight to behold, their moves acrobatic, fast and at the same time lethal. Chaos cultists that tried to make the ritual didn't even have a chance to react. The first and the last warning they had was when streams of shurikens ripped the air and their bodies, then came the Harlequins, dancing between their enemies and cutting them down as easily as if they were wheat, not humans. Once the last Cultist was dead and the ritual was destroyed the Harlequins gathered in the place of the foul event.
"It is here that it needs to be done," one of them said, looking at the starry sky. "Here and only here we can rip the Matterium to allow the thing to cross into the world."
"Is it wise?" one asked. "If we underestimate the power we will unleash demonic hordes onto the galaxy and possibly create another Eye of Terror."
"It needs to be done. The Wolf King needs to come and summoning the space hulk in which he and his flagship are trapped is the best we can do."
The rest of the group nodded and started to draw runes, same runes that were drawn on the other five planets of the system. Once completed they would allow for a ritual to happen, one that could shake the whole galaxy.
o-0-o
The Grandmaster smiled as he left the Palace of the Ecclesiarchy, while the Holy Synod of Terra took time to convince, they finally agreed that the Wolves were too big of a threat and should be declared heretics. They also promised to lend him Sororitas and to be exact their war-focused branch, Sisters of Battle. Now he needed to get his agents onto Titan and learn what was happening amongst the ranks of that chapter and why they were ignoring direct orders.
As he took a seat in his Land Speeder, a flicker of annoyance passed across his face when a hololith display flickered alive and quickly was covered in data. He frowned as he scanned it and then a growl escaped his throat. Someone was playing the game against him and somehow wrapped the Grey Knights around their fingers, how, he was not going to inquire. However he needed to hasten his plans and ensure that they would accommodate this change and that the opposition inside of the Inquisition would be silenced. He wanted power and influence, but he was not as stupid as Vandire and wasn't going to make drastic moves until he was sure he could survive and come out on top.
o-0-o
The Great Wolf looked at the message and later at the gathered Wolf Lords and their entourage. "The Sons of Sanguinius call for help against the Tyranid swarms that head for their planet. They ask for any help that can be marshaled and sent in their direction, as soon as possible."
"We have ten companies here and two more are returning from their missions," Harald Deathwolf said. "We can send the ten we have at the Fang. We should be more than enough to bolster the defenses of Baal."
"Why should we help them?" Egil Ironwolf asked. "They didn't help us in the past."
"Because we need allies," Logan Grimnar said. "The Inquisition is once again on the move and we need support from as many places as we can and those chapters can be extremely powerful allies that can save us."
"And it's not like we have plenty of missions close to home," Deathwolf said and added after a moment. "They're one of the First Founding and we cannot let them go extinct, they are one of the oldest chapters and we fought side by side during the Crusade."
"Indeed," Ulrik the Slayer said and everybody looked at him. "We need to strengthen the bonds between various chapters and us, especially now. On our own we won't survive the storm that's coming and with the Inquisition meddling, we need allies."
Grimnar let his Lords quarrel for a few moments before he slammed his gauntleted hand into the hard stone of the table and this single noise cut every other. Lords looked at him, subdued and silent, patiently awaiting his judgement and decision.
"You all rise valid points," Grimnar said and looked at the Lords. "I decided that we will come to help of the Sons of Sanguinius and we will do it with all of the might we have available. Prepare your companies for war and in three weeks the fleet will deploy."
o-0-o
Harry looked in amazement at the spires of the Citadel of Titan as a Thunderhawk carrying him and the Grand Master Voldus descended from the orbit and towards the surface. He grew so accustomed to the crude and cumbersome style of the Fang which was mostly carved inside of the mountain, that a proper fortress looked like a wonder of architecture.
He could see hundreds of spires rise into the atmosphere, between them corridors full of high, gothic stained glass windows and around them positions of ground to orbit weapons. Weapons that could incinerate most of the threats coming towards the Citadel and that is assuming they wouldn't be first blow out of the sky by the Battlefleet Solar.
"This is just a small portion of the complex," the Grand Master said and Harry looked at him. "Psychic veils hide a lot and even more is built underground in various caverns, corridors and chambers."
"I see," Harry said and looked around the spartan interior of the gunship.
"If the trial passes without any suspicions we will begin your training immediately," the Grand Master said and moments later the gunship touched down right outside of the complex. "Put on your helmet and don't speak unless ordered."
Harry nodded and put on the helmet on his head before checking seals and systems of it, once he was content with the way it worked he thought the command that activated the seals and soon he felt the flow and smell of recycled air.
"I'm ready," Harry said and added after a moment. "Even if I think it is a stupidity that robs me of most of my senses."
"Your secrecy is the most important thing for us," Voldus said and gave Harry's armor a look. "If you pass the trial you will need to change the color of your armor. You will need to get it repainted to the same color our armors are as we might assign you to a strike force or two and we need not to show a sign of division in our ranks."
Harry gave a look the Grand Master, but with their heads hidden inside of their helmets it didn't look very menacing. The moment the ramp was lowered onto the rocky surface of Titan Harry stepped out of the ship, trailing slightly behind the Grey Knight. Before they got even remotely close to the massive walls of the Citadel they were approached by a squad of Grey Knights with swords.
"Surrender your weapons," one of them said.
Harry felt hair bristle on the back of his neck at those words. "Why should I do it?" he asked, snarl leaving his mouth.
"Because we will kill you," Voldus calmly said and Harry glared at him. "I promised that nothing will happen to you, but the trial was not a part of it and if you won't be willing to leave your weapons, which will be returned to you the moment we are sure you are pure we will assume you are tainted and need to be put down."
Harry growled, but nodded and handed the axe, all of his grenades and bolter rounds to the Grey Knights that came for him.
"Follow us."
Harry nodded and walked after Voldus, Grey Knights surrounding him and not letting him move in any other direction. Soon they entered the Citadel and once inside he wasn't given a chance to look around and instead he was guided into a small circular room. As he entered he noticed seven Grey Knights await them, their armors polished to perfection and shining with some inner light.
"Kneel in the middle and close your eyes," Voldus said.
Harry nodded and kneeled in the middle of the chamber and closed his eyes, the moment he did it he felt psychic energies gather around him and his body.
o-0-o
Over twelve hours later Aldrik Voldus looked at the body of Harald and nodded in some respect. "He is powerful and pure," he said. "As pure as it can get and those powers of his need to be harnessed and controlled."
"Indeed," Grand Master Perdron said. "Once he wakes up we will begin his training and we'll refine his powers."
"How much?"
"As much as we can," Perdron said and frowned. "For now I will gauge his skills and look for weaknesses, later we can focus on adding more."
"The Great Wolf didn't give any set date upon which he needs to be returned," Aldrik said.
"In two or so years he should be taught everything he should know. Maybe sooner if he shows that he can understand what we are showing him and masters it."
Aldrik nodded and with a snap of his fingers he summoned a couple of servants. "Take him to one of the cells and ensure that he has everything he desires once he is awake."