Feral loyalty
"I summoned you, Lord of the Space Wolves."
The ancient high lord of the Wolves of Fenris' eyes narrowed as Kay's armor shifted from sisterhood colors to golden. She spoke again.
"This is all in the mind and mere moments will pass in the real world. There are no threats here. Only opportunities for glory."
"You..." He blew out a deep breath. "Who the hell are you, woman?"
"I have a war that needs warriors, Logan Grimnar." Kay said quietly. "You may call me Kay."
"I don't deal with women!" Logan Grimnar snapped, looking at Ricardo who fought hard not to quail. This was a being who had killed Inquisitors in large numbers and made no bones about his feelings about doing it again. He hated the Inquisition and his warriors mirrored him.
"You will deal with me." Kay didn't move. Didn't flinch at all as the Great Wolf scoffed at her. He turned back to the golden circles, but she spoke again. "Or have you no honor?"
"You dare question my honor, you who stand with a xenos and a man who stinks of the Inquisition?" Grimnar snapped, spinning back to face her, eyes flashing.
"If you walk away without at least hearing me out, then yes." Kay snapped right back, showing no fear at all as the huge Space Marine in even larger armor glared at her.
The other forms resolved into other space marines, also in Space Wolves heraldry. None wore helmets, but none showed any expression either. All held weapons ready. Grimnar, for his part, was eyeing her. Kay did not move, did not react at all as his massive double bitted ax swished nearby. It looked larger than Ricardo himself and if Ricardo wasn't mistaken, it was the Axe Morkai, a weapon that had claimed the lives of dozens of Inquisitors as well as uncounted numbers of enemies of the Imperium. This being had led one of the most savage of the Space Marine chapters for hundreds of years. Not someone to take lightly. Ever.
"You have courage." Grimnar finally said. "And the call..." He stared around, shaking his head. "The legends speak of the call. But our sagas say Russ will call. Not a woman with an Inquisitor in tow." The scorn in his voice would have cut steel.
"Russ or one other." Kay was not arguing. She was stating fact. Grimnar barked a laugh.
"Okay, you have some serious stones, woman." Grimnar chuckled. "But you are not the Emperor."
"No." Kay agreed. "But he told me to call you."
"Right." Grimnar spat that out and his ax swept it only to clang as Kay caught the blade in her fingers! She was holding both sides with her armored fingers! Ricardo was hardly the only one to gawk as Kay stood there, her fingers clenched on the massive ax, holding the whining power field away from herself by sheer strength. Grimnar stared at her, not even bothering to try and recover from his swing, he was that shocked.
"I don't blame you for doubting." Kay sounded sad, as if holding such a weapon in such a way bare inches from her armored skin was nothing. "It has been a very long time since I fought beside the Sons of Russ. Tell me, is Ulrik the Red still kicking around?"
"Wait. Kay?" A startled voice spoke up from behind Grimnar and Ricardo's eyes were pulled to a black armored Space Wolf who strode forward, his Crozius Arcanum- the badge of rank of Space Marine chaplains, hanging limp in his hand. Whereas a normal Space Marine chaplain would have a skull mask on his armor, this one had a wolf skull instead. A Wolf Priest and not just any Wolf Priest! "KAY?" He demanded.
"Hello, young Ulrik." Kay said with a small sad smile. "Or I guess I shouldn't call you 'young' anymore, should I? It has been a very long time."
"That it has, Lady. Lower your ax, Grimnar." Ulrik the Slayer said with a growl worthy of one of the Wolves that made his home planet of Fenris such a deathtrap. "Now!" That was not a suggestion. At that command, everyone in the area but Kay stared at the bone white mask. Ulrik hefted his mace and it glowed in readiness. "If you don't lower your ax right now, if she doesn't kill you, I will! And if I fail? Bjorn will rip you apart. Slowly."
"Ulrik, what?" Grimnar retreated a step. Kay released his ax and he did not resume his attack. "Who are you?" He demanded of Kay.
"Who else could call us that way?" Ulrik stepped right up to Kay and then the utterly unthinkable happened. He knelt. Ricardo's eyes bulged almost to fall out of his head as the double eagle that crowned the head of the Slayer's mace went to the ground and the black armored Space Marine knelt in front of Kay who growled at him as he bowed his helmeted head to her.
"Rise!" Kay's snarl echoed Ulrik's. He ignored her. "Damn you, rise! You Wolves kneel to no one except your Primarch and my father. NO ONE!" She grabbed him by the arm and he was on his feet, obviously shocked by her strength to lift him like that. All of the Space Wolves were staring at her as were Ricardo and Liriel.
"Your..." For the first time in what was probably centuries, Logan Grimnar was struck absolutely speechless.
"The proper code is 'Frejya', High Lord of the Sixth Legion." Kay was quiet and calm again. "As I said, my name is Kay. Do you remember the countersign?"
"Uh..." Grimnar looked at Ulrik who shook his head.
"None of us will remember such, Lady Kay." Ulrik admitted. "I was but a Grey Hunter at the time, myself. That was before Armageddon."
"If anyone will, Bjorn will remember." Another Wolf spoke up from behind them, his eyes on Kay. "If you remember her, he will."
"We all remember her, but few knew her name," Ulrik said sternly. "May I, Lady Kay?" He inclined his helmet to her and she nodded. "Brothers? May I present Lady Kay, also known as 'The Iron Dragoness'."
At that, every Space Wolf stiffened. Grimnar himself stared at Kay as if seeing her for the first time.
"You." Grimnar seemed to hardly be breathing. "You led the breakout at Krookfall Ridge?"
"I did." Kay bowed her head. "So many lost in that horrible place, but victory was won." That name meant nothing to Ricardo, but every Space Wolf seemed to be hanging on her every word. "Alicia ordered me on when I reported hearing firing, that your brothers still fought. She told me that you were heretics in all but name. That you were mutants. Evil, abased creatures. But you fought the Emperor's foes. Trapped and alone, you Wolves fought without hope. Without a chance, you stood and held the hordes of Orks off that pass for three weeks." She shook her head. "I could not simply pass by. I heard your brothers singing as they fought and died." Was she crying? She was. A tear fell.
"The damn Orks screwed up all the vox. We knew we had to hold them off, so we did. We were lost when the mountain came down, blocking the pass." Ulrik said softly. "Even our rage was not enough. Half a dozen of us were still standing at the end, all wounded. We were out of ammunition. The last wave we beat hand to hand, but far more were coming and their artillery just wouldn't stop. Our way was blocked and we were doomed. A glorious death indeed, but still a death. Then we heard it. We thought it was Ork music at first, but none them can carry a tune." Was he joking? One of the other Wolves started to hum a tune and Ulrik nodded. "That is the tune. The March of Cambreadth. We remember."
"The Iron Dragoness blew a hole in the avalanche that had blocked the way out and her tank held off the Orks long enough for our brothers to withdraw with their dead and wounded." Grimnar said slowly. "But… The Iron Dragoness… Her tank was destroyed by an Ork dreadnought. Even then, she stymied them, the wreckage blocked the pass and when the ammunition blew, the avalanche it caused blocked it beyond clearing. She perished with her tank."
"Do not-" Ulrik started, but paused when Kay laid a hand on his power armored arm. "Lady?"
"You and your pack pulled what was left of me out of the wreckage of my Baneblade, Ulrik." Kay said quietly. "You witnessed what happened after. I took your oath that day. I release you from it now."
"Only I still breathe who saw the events." Ulrik said formally. "Are you certain, Lady?"
"No." Kay admitted. "I am fallible. I make mistakes." She patted his arm. "Saving you and your brothers that day was not a mistake no matter how mad Alicia got that I broke her new toy." Her grin was impish and Ulrik chuckled as well.
"She perished." Ulrik said quietly. "My brother Fraj heard a voice screaming from the tank as it burned. None of us spoke a word, we simply turned and went back despite the danger. Some held off the xenos who tried to get past the burning tank with their bare hands or whatever weapons we had left. The rest of us tore the tank apart to get the crew out. We found one mortally wounded being inside. A female human. We could not find any others. We grabbed her and retreated just before the tank exploded, bringing the whole mountain down on the remaining xenos. We would not leave our savior's corpse for the foul xenos."
"Of course not." Grimnar was back on firm ground it seemed. "But if you died..."
"Let Ulrik finish." Kay's words were not a command, not quite. Grimnar looked at her and nodded to the skull headed Wolf.
"There was nothing we could do." Ulrik was quiet, reflective. Lost in the memory? "None of us were healers and her body was broken probably beyond any healing Imperium tech could manage. The vox was still jammed, so we had no way to call for help. We did what we could. We carried her towards our rendezvous and hoped, but she breathed her last before we made it there. We did not know what rites to give her, so we were going to carry her to the Wolf Lord, let him see her and judge if she needed a grave or a pyre." Ulrik paused as if gathering himself. "And then, her body vanished in a haze of golden light. A moment later, Kay stepped out of another golden light, whole as you see her now."
"Heresy!" Grimnar began, only to recoil as Ulrik hit him. The Wolf Priest's Crozius was not powered, so it simply made a clang, but it sure got the Great Wolf's attention.
"No." Ulrik actually had a smile in his voice. "Not heresy. Far from it. Kay..." He bowed his head.
"If you kneel to me again, I will hit you." Kay warned but her voice held humor and more than one of the grim warriors chuckled with Ulrik. "I do not want to do this, Ulrik, but I do not have a choice. As I said, I am one woman, I cannot fight a war alone. I must maintain my balance. I must not fall."
"You will not fall. We swore it then and I swear it now! Your brothers stand with you." Rock would have shied away from the Space Wolf's voice. All of the other Wolves were staring at him in shock. "May I introduce you properly to the Wolf Lord?"
"Yes." Kay said as Grimnar stared from Ulrik to her and back.
"Great Wolf of Fenris, High Lord Logan Grimnar, may I present the human woman known to us as 'The Iron Dragoness', Kay, First Born and only known True Born Daughter of the Emperor of Mankind." Ulrik said softly.
After the Wolf Priest had spoken, there was utter silence in the void.
"I..." Grimnar slowly shook his head. "I do not understand." He said finally.
"It is complicated." Kay started, only to pause as Ulrik laid a hand on her arm. "Ulrik?"
"No, it is not." Ulrik said sternly. "He made us. He made you. For the exact same reason. To defend the Imperium." Kay glared at him but her heart wasn't in it. The old Wolf Priest chuckled again. "Tell me I lie."
"And here I was kind of hoping your sense of humor had improved over the centuries." Kay said sourly, but she was grinning as the Space Wolves all smiled.
"Fat chance of that." Grimnar said with a grunt. "And you are revealing yourself to us, now, because…?" He trailed off, expecting her to fill in the gap.
"Because I have a problem that needs a fairly big hammer to fix." Kay said with a sigh. She took a deep breath and started to explain.
"It is like this..."
Ten minutes later
He had heard stories. He had seen records. He had seen a lot of people angry in his life. It wasn't enough to prepare him.
Nothing could have possibly prepared Ricardo Illusmar for the rage of the Wolves of Fenris. The only good thing? They were not angry with him.
"They are dead!" Grimnar was cold as ice. That was somehow scarier than him raging and tossing his ax around. "Every last one of those filthy cogs is dead! They dare to violate you? To profane the Emperor's great work?"
"They didn't know who I was." Kay seemed unmoved by his rage, but the sheer ferocity that had awoken in all of the grey armored forms as she had spoken had made both Liriel and Ricardo retreat several steps. "I don't think they would have cared, but they didn't know."
"That doesn't matter." Ulrik was a grim statue. "What they did demands blood." All of the other Wolves growled agreement.
"Oh, I totally agree and if I get a shot, I am taking it." Kay retorted. "But right now, the vehicle is what matters. The last time they broke into one, it self destructed and blew out one of their massive matter-antimatter reactors at the base they had taken it to for dismantling. The resulting secondary blast destroyed half a continent on one of their Forge Worlds." More than one of the listeners winced at that. "The loss of life was immense. They think I did it. I have encouraged that belief."
"Make them fear you, wise." Ulrik nodded to her. "What do you want from us then?"
"The Mechanicus have apparently attached Liriel's soul stone to Georgia in the hopes that they can enslave the Eldar to guide them along the Webway to Mars." Kay shook her head. "That is madness. In life, Liriel was a bonesinger, not a wayfinder. We, um, encountered each other a few times."
"The warhost I served tried to kill her several times. We hunted her across the stars for perceived insults." Liriel said weakly. "We didn't know who she was or what until the dark cousins trapped us." The Space Wolves looked at her and she quailed. "We were doomed, all of us. Almost an entire warhost. She saved us from them. Her reward? The moron Kadas shot you." She wasn't faking the rage she was showing.
All of the Space Wolves stared at Kay as the human sighed.
"I knew he was going to, Liriel." Kay reassured the other. Then she grinned. "I did sort of steal and wreck his Fire Prism."
"Yeah and he was very unhappy about that." Liriel smirked as Kay chuckled. "You should have heard him curse when his pilot came tumbling out and it flew off without him."
"You stole an Eldar tank?" Grimnar asked, eyes wide.
"Eldar hell. She has stolen Mechanicus, Ork, Eldar, Tau, Imperial Guard, Sisters, Arbites and Necron tanks, and those are just the ones I know of." Liriel was grinning wide as Kay made a shush motion. "The only tanks she won't touch are Chaos ones."
"It would be worth my sanity to touch one of those with anything but long range fire. I have also never stolen from Adeptes Astartes." Kay said primly. "I have some sense."
"Could you?" Grimnar asked, brow furrowed in thought. "Steal vehicles from us?"
"Uh, maybe? With Imperial equipment, it is mainly about identifying myself to the machine spirits." Kay admitted. "Since my codes are all valid, the security systems don't activate and the machine spirits consider me an authorized user. So… They don't think I am stealing the vehicles." She paused. "Uh, I consider it stealing although the last Mechanicus tank I 'borrowed' considered it 'liberating'. And yes, some of their vehicles have minds of their own even though they shouldn't."
"This just gets better and better. Don't steal from us, but if you happen across any Dark Angels? Feel free." Kay shook her head, but Grimnar was smiling. "I think I like you, Kay. Ulrik speaks for us all, we are your brothers." He held out a hand to her and she took it, wrist to wrist in a warrior's handclasp.
"You don't know what that means to me, High Wolf Logan Grimnar." Kay said in a husky voice. "Not all of the Astartes will think the same."
"No. Maybe not all of us wolves, but they will shut up around me if they have any sense at all." Grimnar released her hand and shook his head. "So, you have Titans and who knows what else heading for your daughter and a masterwork of the Emperor's. A good fight." He mused. "I hate to miss it but I am a long ways away."
"You can authorize your forces nearby to intervene." Kay said with a nod. "With Warp travel so screwed up after the mess at Cadia, it may take years for more forces to reach Caligari."
"I can and I will." Logan Grimnar promised her. Then he grinned again. "Highfell has been pestering me anyway about joining the fight in Caligari. He hates passing by a good armored rumble." Kay looked at him and Grimnar stretched a little. His smile turned feral. "He took over the Ironwolves when Egin fell at Fenris."
"Oh." Kay's smile matched the Great Wolf's. "I have seen your Ironwolves work. It is impressive." Grimnar stepped back to the golden circle he had appeared in but Ulrik did not move. "Ulrik?" Kay asked.
"We come, sister." The Wolf Priest promised. A hungry growl sounded from the other Space Wolves. "And if, should the worst happen, know that you will never fight alone again. The Wolves of Fenris stand with our sister. You are part of our pack, now and always!"
Everything stopped as Kay threw back her head and howled. A long, drawn out cry of blood and fury. Each of the Space Wolves mirrored her, their howls joining with hers until Ulrik stepped back into the golden light and all of the gray armored forms vanished.
"Is it bad that even dead, I really need the facilities right now?" Liriel asked weakly as her form shimmered a bit.
"Not really." Kay admitted. "They are scary, no question."
"They thought it was Russ calling them." Ricardo said softly. Kay nodded. "And...?"
"No comment." Kay said sternly. "As in, you don't say anything to anyone about what just happened. Ever. This never happened and we were never here."
"Story of my life."