Locum Ignotum Chapter26

The docking tower rang with the thunder of boots and talons, as a rising tide of Ceramite and twisted flesh charged up the ramps. The bulky forms of Chaos Marines jostled for space with twisted nightmares, all of them dashing upwards as fast as they could. The whole tower rang with the distant noise of guns, the starship above denying aerial access and forcing the army to advance on foot.

Among that horde Jubila ran, his face a furious scowl of anger and resentment. He had been watching as his army had battled the Storm Heralds and seen the defeat. He and his Marines had been carried away by the broken Daemons, forced to spend hours regrouping and cajoling their Daemonic allies to return once more. Normally Jubila cherished new sensations and emotions but it seemed defeat was too bitter even for him.

Jubila held his allies in contempt for their feeble will and brittle courage but he knew there was no point in blaming them. These lesser Daemons were fickle by nature, creatures of instinct and sensation with no real intelligence. They did what they wanted, when they wanted, nothing held them back save fear of one greater than they. He knew that the entities would have already forgotten their defeat; memory was of little use to them.

Jubila replayed the battle once more in his mind, seeing the duel between his Soul-Grinder and the Dreadnought. It had been galling to watch, a most unexpected turn of events. Had he not known the bindings made it impossible he would have suspected that Ozymandias had been fighting to lose. Yet lose he had, his vessel had been shattered and his essence banished. That last part worried Jubila more than he cared to admit, Ozymandias wasn't dead, the loyalists had no power to produce that result. The Daemon Prince was free and would neither forgive nor forget his imprisonment. Jubila had gone to extraordinary lengths to capture Ozymandias and now suspected that his former master was planning to repay the slight.

Ahead his Chosen raced, sprinting up the ramps as they climbed level after level. Soon they would reach the ship itself then they would carve their way inside. Jubila thought it was odd that the lickspittles had fallen back to a ship, it wasn't like they had anywhere to go, at best they had delayed their annihilation by a few hours. Chaos would rule this land, just as it did the galaxy beyond. As they crested another ramp his musings were interrupted by an actinic flash. It came from behind a doorway and bore into his warriors. It was a tight beam of focussed energy and it stuck a Chosen dead-on. The beam bored through his power armour like a drill and then blasted out of his back, spraying ashes and burnt chunks of flesh into the crowd behind. Jubila blinked in surprise for that was a volkite beam; he hadn't seen one of those in millennia.

The crowd scattered but were hemmed in by the angle of the ramp and could not avoid another blast. Jubila snarled, "Forward you scum!" and shoved a warrior in the back but the Daemons all around hampered their movements and they were pinned. From the cover of a stone doorway Jubila spied a warrior in ancient armour, bereft of insignia. He wasn't a Storm Herald but Jubila had no time for speculation as the warrior levelled his weapon and discharged it shouting, "From Iron cometh Strength, from Strength cometh Will!"

A Volkite beam missed Jubila by the smallest of margins and blasted a Daemon apart instead. The warlord snarled, "Baeghost, take him down!"

Unfortunately the glutton was struggling with the milling Daemons and shouted, "Can't get an angle!"

Jubila gritted his teeth, with allies like this who needed enemies. Meanwhile the warrior fired again shouting, "From Will cometh Faith, from Faith cometh Honour!"

Another Volkite beam hit a Chosen and ripped his guts out, turning his innards to ash. Jubila snarled at the damage being wrought by one mysterious warrior and saw that his warriors were pinned. He gritted his teeth and growled, "If you want someone killed right, kill them yourself."

The warrior leaned out again and fired his Volkite shouting, "From Honour cometh Iron. This is my unbreakable litany, may it be forever…"

The mysterious warrior was interrupted as a shining plasma bolt hit him right in the head. The blast burned hotter than a man could conceive and in one moment his skull was incinerated, leaving a headless corpse to collapse to the ground. Jubila lowered his pistol, still shimmering with heat and remarked, "Wasn't he dull?"

"Who was that?" asked Rebis in a masculine tone and then answered his own question in feminine timbre, "A relic, a ghost from long ago."

"I don't care," Jubila snarled, "He's delayed us, we must move faster. On my pretties, fly like the lash of Slaanesh was upon you!"

Jubila led the horde onwards, racing up another level and then another. The warlord was suspicious of traps and he was keenly aware that the lickspittles wouldn't have left a lone rear-guard, there must be more. He was proved right as they reached the base of another ramp and saw a single warrior standing there. He was in grey armour as before but this one was standing right out in the open.

The warrior had a slim grey power sword in one hand and his head was exposed, revealing a stern face with a waxed moustache. Jubila was about to wave his horde forward, intending to rush the warrior but then he started in surprise. The warlord held up a fist and cried, "Hold!"

Jubila stared in shock at the warrior for a long second and then whispered, "Maxivus… Maxivus Dane, can it be?"

The warrior sneered, "Jubila, still don't have the good grace to die I see."

"Ha… haha…. Hahaha!" Jubila cried in amusement, the laugh ripping out of him.

Maxivus scowled and said, "What's so funny?"

Jubila snorted, "Everything! You're still alive and here of all places. This was meant to be, Chaos ordained it!"

Maxivus growled, "Speak not to me of your wretched Gods, I have no use for them."

"If only you could see what you so casually dismiss," Jubila chuckled, "Did you ever know that there was a list of warriors who were to be purged at Istvaan III and oddly enough your name wasn't on it. We knew you cared nothing for the throne; all you wanted was to improve yourself. But then your ship got delayed in the Warp and you missed out on all the fun. The smallest twist of fate and your destiny was rewritten, but you were always intended to be with us."

Maxivus raised his blade and said, "I will cut you down like the snake you are."

Jubila smiled and said, "As exciting as that sounds, I have a more amusing opponent for you. Salmacis: front and centre!"

Salmacis approached with his Daemon sword in hand and Maxivus sneered, "A child?"

Jubila grinned saying, "That would be no challenge for you surely?"

Salmacis stalked forward, Daemon blade in hand and Maxivus took on an en-guard position, blade held loosely in one hand. The pair sized each other up and then Salmacis pounced forward, swinging his sword. Maxivus however merely stepped back and angled his sword, parrying the blow effortlessly.

In return he riposted, tearing a chunk out of his opponent's chestplate. Salmacis snarled and swung laterally but Maxivus ducked the clumsy blow and his sword snicked out, penetrating a gap in the armour between his hip and thigh. Salmacis roared angrily and threw his arm wide but Maxivus adroitly stepped back and the blow sailed past his face.

Salmacis snarled in frustration as blood ran down his leg and he advanced, hammering his arm down over and over like a piledriver. He came on like a mindless juggernaut and as he did so the Daemon in his blade roared like an animal in pain. Maxivus however fell back smoothly, his elegance a complete contrast to the brutality of his rival. His sword flicked and darted about, tearing and gouging at his foe, killing him by a thousand cuts.

To Jubila it was obvious that Maxivus was in an entirely different league to his foe, completely outclassing Salmacis in every way. The Chaos Marine could not match the ancient warrior and there had never been any hope of him killing the veteran. But then death had never been Jubila's intent.

Maxivus had inflicted terrible wounds but Salmacis kept coming and managed to back the older Marine into a corner. Maxivus responded by flicking his blade out and darting to one side but for a moment he was exposed. Salmacis saw the opening and took it, swinging his sword about to score through the grey plate across the back, drawing a thin line of blood.

As the skin was broken the Daemon in Salmacis' blade screamed wickedly and there was a tang of warp power as it discharged its infernal energies. For one instant the Daemon was connected to Maxivus's mind and it used that bridge to open a connection to the warp, pulsing a vision into the ancient warrior's very soul. For a single moment Maxivus' mind was flooded with the glories of Chaos, shown the depths of the Warp and the Ruinous Powers that dwelled there.

Maxivus collapsed in a paroxysm of joy and pain, his soul overwhelmed by the visions of Chaos that would be forevermore seared into his mind's eye. Salmacis raised his weapon to end this fight but Jubila waved him back, knowing the joyous torment Maxivus was undergoing. The warrior was seeing the heart of Chaos, the face of Slaanesh in all his dark majesty. Nobody could look upon the Prince of Excess and not be changed by it, not even an Astartes.

Jubila waited until Maxivus eventually stopped convulsing and he rolled over to whisper, "What… what was that?"

Jubila stepped up and said, "That was winning."

Maxivus gasped, "He cheated."

"Cheated?!" Jubila laughed, "We have outgrown such concepts, we have taken ourselves to the limits of what is possible and we have broken them. We have become more than the Emperor ever intended and more than he ever feared. You have just seen the power that makes this possible, you have glimpsed Chaos itself."

"It was… it was" Maxivus gasped, "Beautiful."

Jubila's smile widened, recognising the signs, this warrior had seen Slaanesh and his soul had been exposed to the wondrous addiction of Chaos. Even now the craving would be filling his mind, pushing aside all else save the compulsion for more. Jubila pressed, "You saw the path to perfection, the embodiment of the urge to improve oneself. The power to push back the boundaries of what is possible and become more than we were before."

Maxivus's eyes had a distant look and he whispered, "I… I… want to see it again, I want more."

"Of course you do," Jubila stated knowingly, "You want to exist without limits or stifling morality and I can offer you that. The means to improve beyond your wildest imaginations. All you have to do is embrace your desires, do what you have always wanted to do and re-join the Legion."

Maxivus' face was a picture of torment, the addiction and lust warring with his dedication. It was a battle for his soul and Jubila already knew the outcome. He remembered Maxivus from long ago; the warrior had never been satisfied, always striving to improve himself, always wanting to be more, but not for any noble reason. Like all Emperor's Children Maxivus had never been content with what he already had, he felt he was inadequate, that he hid flaws he could never eradicate.

"The path to perfection," Maxivus breathed, his face lost in wonder, "I want… no… I have to see it again."

Jubila smiled and said, "Of course you do, but first we need a sign of your commitment. A token of your fealty."

Maxivus looked like a drug addict who had seen a syringe stolen from before his eyes and he cried, "I'll do anything, name your price!"

Jubila grinned knowing he had claimed a new follower and said, "Blood, nothing less than blood."

Maxivus was lost in his need to experience the glory of Chaos again and he exclaimed, "That's simple, there's a Space Wolf lurking about a few levels above. Let me kill him for you and then you will show me how to become perfect."