Chapter 3 The Incomprehensible and The Indomitable
Time/Place 023 009.M42 / Segmentum Solar Northern Mobile Command on Oulia.
Lord Commander of the Imperium Roboute Guilliman's Thunderhawk carried him and his Praetorian Squad back to HQ. It had been a long ugly day of warfare. A group of traitorous Astartes calling themselves The Cleaved had tried to push through the line using the all too common tactic of using civilians as shields. Unfortunately for the traitors, they did not know the accuracy of the Cawl Bolt Rifle. The Cleaved had simply been sniped through the gaps in their human shields and been reduced to a handful of their former number. The traitors had fled and the day was won.
Within the week all active Chaos forces would be blasted from this world, Then the Primarch would move to the next. His eyes shut and his brow furrowed Guilliman pondered memories of the past. The Great Crusade had been no less bloody, yet… there was something different about War in this damned future, no not future but the present. He had to occasionally remind himself of that saddening fact. His brothers were all dead, missing or insane. His father...well the thing he considered his father was not truly alive nor Human, he wondered if he had ever been. He was alone in this horrifying reality and only he could save Humanity from damnation and destruction.
The Thunderhawk landed and they disembarked. Tech Priests and Chapter Serfs swarmed its passengers checking their armor and weapons as they removed them. Next teams of Ordo Hospitallers checked them for injury or corruption. All Squadrons that faced long term exposure to Chaos underwent this to ensure nothing slipped through the cracks. Even though he had penned this procedure and was considered beyond such thing Guilliman insisted in undergoing it himself. Once he and his Honor Guard exams finished he returned to his quarters. The Honor Guard slowly peeled off to take up other duties until only his Equerry and a Custodian known as Gataki followed Guilliman. (The Custodes Guard insisted on having one of their number with him at all time, officially to protect him, unofficially to monitor him)
Throngs of bureaucrats and officials surrounded them as they walked through the Fortress that Guilliman was operating from. Data Slates and forms poured into and out of the Primarchs hands. He may have mixed feelings for his "Father" but was grateful for the superhuman processing and reasoning abilities he had inherited from Him. As infrastructure plans, campaign orders, and governmental reforms finished up one last scribe came forward. "My Lord there is a Chapter Master who just lead a fleet into the system and refuses to speak to any except yourself"
Placing his hand over his Eyes Guilliman sighed and asked for more details. It was not too uncommon in the first few years of the Indomitus Crusade to have half-mad chapters demand an audience to confirm who he was, despite the valuable time it took up it was useful to establishing some form of command among the Astartes and distributing Primaris reinforcements. "They claim to be the Imperial Lions along with remains of Battlefleet Cadia, Agripinaa, and Scarus. The head of the fleet, a "Chapter Master Gustavus" claims to have urgent news that you alone should hear first" The Lord Commander's eyes shot open. "Imperial Lions?" they had been one of the first encountered and assigned chapters, they had been sent to the edge of the Eye near the halo stars… Whatever reason they were here could not be good. "Tell them there are no remaining Chaos vessels in the system and we control all orbital defenses. Have them join our Fleet and I shall meet them."
Guilliman finished up his duties for the day and retired for the few hours of sleep his transhuman form required. Awaking the next day he received his briefing and moved to his personal Thunderhawk, he tried to find an old Stormbird but had not succeeded so his modified craft known as The Gladius would have to do. Eating a meal and conversing with his Chief lieutenants The 13th was confident that he was not necessary to mop up this battle. Astropathic communications informed him that the other branches of the Crusade were going well. Calgar, Dante, Hagan, Shrike, and the others were making progress throughout the Imperium, hopefully by the end of the year, Segmentum Solar would fully be back in Imperial Hands. Then they would be onto the rest of the Galaxy. Boarding the Thunderhawk with his Honor Guard the Primarch prepared for this meeting. The Gladius flew into orbit and docked with the Imperial Lions Battle Barge.
Time/Place 024 009.M42 / Battle Barge "Courage of Carolus"
Guilliman and his guards entered the main hanger to the sight of two hundred Astartes kneeling before them. While he was an advocate for discipline and order the sight of kneeling Astartes bothered him, it never used to until Monarchia… If only he had convinced his "father" to handle things differently then maybe… No, it was pointless to dwell on the past the future needed him. Walking past the rows of supplicant superhumans he noticed that the officers and other without Helms wore haggard stressed looks on their faces. He had seen that look on Astartes only a few times in his life. On Calth and in the aftermath of the Siege of Terra. Whatever in Macarages name this was it was not good.
Chapter Master Gustavus Carl had met his Gene-sire before but it still was an intense experience to be so close to such a being. Mustering his will, he looked into the Primarchs face and spoke "I beg forgiveness my Liege we had orders and I should not have been so bold to ask this but I felt there was no other way" Guilliman stiffened at the word "Liege" Marnus Calgar had tried to go on a penance crusade after Guilliman explained his views on this idea of "spiritual liege" to the Chapter Master "Rise, my sons, I am your commander, not your Master for he is on Terra" The Primarch winced internally at his use of the religious undertones of his speech.
He was then led by the Chapter Master and his advisors into the Tactical chamber of the Battlebarge where a large holographic display showed a dead world, It appeared to be a former hive world it had massive lash like craters that stretched for hundreds of klicks and a massive gouged out hole that reached its core. Shuddering at the image of the world Gustavus said "This was Turba Prime. A major Hive world we arrived at to continue our mission. We found it in such a state and attempted to investigate the cause, soon our Navigators detected a Chaos fleet incoming so we moved to battle formation." "How many vessels in your fleet?" Guilliman asked, "forty at the start, 28 now." Guilliman was shocked Gustavus was well known for being an excellent Void Admiral to have such losses even against a Chaos fleet? Seeming to guess Guillimans next question The Chapter Master spoke"We did not have a single loss to the chaos fleet, M'lord our ships suffered a different fate, watch the recording"
The Hologram zoomed out showing the world and its moon. This was a patched together view of the battle using numerous sensors from the fleet. This was an often used technique for post-combat review. Guilliman watched silently as the 1st then 2nd Chaos fleet appeared, then the odd attack and the Nova Barrage. His brow furrowed deeper and deeper at the Odd Chaos behavior and then he saw it. The tendril breaking free from the moon and the attack by the Beast. His eyebrows shot up into his hairline as the devastation unfolded. Not a single word was said as the recording continued to the suicide of the Khorne-Escort and the monsters escape. As the recording ended he turned to Gustavus and let his full superhuman nature come to bear. The battle hardened Chapter Master nearly fell to his knees from the raw mental pressure as Guilliman said in a brutal whisper "get me all your data on this, NOW!"
Time/Place 026 009.M42 / Segmentum Solar Northern Mobile Command on Oulia.
Guilliman poured over stacks of documents and data slates. He had faced many foul Xenos in his time and had battled the forces of Chaos time and time again but this…. This was quite simply the physically largest threat he had ever faced. He figured that if he could track it down it would be fairly easy to kill, a Cyclonic Torpedo had solved many a problem and hopefully, it would solve this one also.
Now finding this thing though, that would be difficult. It appeared to have some sort of ability to warp travel via rift. Normally finding a stray warp rift in the entire Galaxy was not an easy task, now with Cicatrix Maledictum, it would be easier to find a chunk of space that was not a warp rift… Worryingly he wondered if this thing could appear out of any Rift in the Galaxy? If so then things would get immensely worse. The only reliable way to track this thing appeared to be by Planets that went dark, which was yet another thing not exactly uncommon in this current hellscape of a Galaxy.
The Connection between Chaos and the Tyranids was also troubling. He had seen the scars on his Sons and his Home Worlds left by those monsters. They were a threat to the galaxy all by themselves and had nearly destroyed his Sons and the sons of the only other Emperor he had served. Chaos is Chaos and corrupts all it touched, but this infection of Tyranids new according to all his records. The fact that kept sticking with him was that this "Devouring World" had not attacked or even seem to notice the Imperial Lions and only became active when the Chaos fleet entered the system. This seemed to indicate that this new enemy was just as much a threat to Chaos as the Imperium if not more. The Chaotic fleet seemed to know this fact and chased after the World when it attempted to Escape. What on Terra could this be?
Time/Place 027 009.M42 / Segmentum Solar Northern Mobile Command on Oulia.
Sighing to himself and putting aside the documents Guilliman got up from his ornate desk. (one benefit to being worshiped as a Demi-God was they kept your old furniture and gear as holy relics for easy recovery 9,000 years later) Realizing he had reached the limit of his superhuman knowledge and brain The Primarch was forced to admit he needed experts in this field. In the Dark and Grim future of the 41st millennium, there were only one group of experts who could provide him with the knowledge he needed. He was loath to call upon them but he saw no other options. Soon the message was transmitted and the word was out. The Lord Commander was seeking counsel from members of The Holy Ordos of the Emperor's Inquisition.
Roboute Guilliman had grown to hate the Inquisition, he had met some of its founders when he first served on the High-Lords and they seemed decent if paranoid servants of the Imperium. Now the current ones were to quote a series of memoirs he had picked up to help understand the "modern Imperium" "The Emperor's pet Psychopaths" This was a disturbingly accurate label he had learned after reading the reports supplied by their representative to the High Lords. Fanaticism, paranoia, and hypocrisy appeared rampant in their numbers and it did not help he had to use the Officio Assassinorum to stop multiple attempts on his life by more radical elements. Now the Inquisition were sending their best members of the Ordos Xenos and Malleus at his begrudging request.
They finally rendezvoused with Macragge's Honor Four Months after the completion of the battle on Ouila when the Gloriana-class Battleship was being repaired at the orbital shipyards of Elysia after a particularly nasty Void engagement with a Black Legion fleet. Twin Inquisitorial Black Ships entered the system almost in unison. They glided up to the Honor and requested right to board. By the end of the hour, Guilliman found himself dealing with two Inquisitors who could not be more different. Lady Inquisitor Myla Heimdall was a stern Puritan of the Ordo Malleus, a friend of the legendary Torquemada Coteaz. While Lord Inquisitor Honos Stigler was the near antithesis in the form of a radical Ordo Xenos with a flamboyant personality. They were greeted by a Primaris Honor Guard when they boarded and were escorted to the Primarch. Guilliman had quickly learned an immediate show of strength and authority was very useful in dealing with the Inquisition.
They entered his Office and Bowed. Unsurprisingly Heimdall's was the stiff jerky bow of one unused to not being the top of the chain of command. While Stigler's was more akin to a performer exiting the stage. Guilliman was reminded of happier times involving his flamboyant brother and "murderer," Fulgrim would pay a steep price for his crimes. With what little ceremony he allowed over the Lord Commander simply asked: "So what do you know about Chaos tainted Tyranids?"
Time/Place 191 009.M42 / Macragge's Honor, in orbit of Elysia
The Lord and Lady Inquisitor had the exact same response and said it almost at the same time. "What?" Guilliman stood up from his desk and activated the holo display in his office. The Eight Pointed Oroborus (as it was being called) from Turba Prime appeared. The Inquisitors studied intently, "That was found on a destroyed Hive world, a Veteran of the Deathwatch confirmed the killers were Tyranid but he noted something odd about the bites and claw marks. Unfortunately whatever did that is our secondary concern." The Image flickered to the recording of the battle. They watched it just as the Lord Commander had months earlier. Guilliman watched their faces for any sign of recognition or deceit as the Monster revealed itself, and the ensuing clash with it.
Heimdall's was a rictus of fury and disgust at what she saw, and Stigler's was one of stunned fascination. As the recording finished they sat in silence for a moment as Guilliman allowed them to process, Stigler spoke first. "Forgive my shock My Lord but this… this is impossible. The Tyranid Hive-Mind makes their bioforms immune to the touch of Chaos, there have been accounts of Hive Fleets battling Daemonic forces with the Tyranids not being affected in the slightest." Regaining her composure Heimdall began to speak "I concur, while I know better than most the danger and corrupting touch of Chaos this seems impossible. The nature of both threats prevent something like this from existing"
Guilliman sighed "I figured as much but the fact that still troubles me is how they reacted to the Chaos fleet and how they seem to be targeting it. Almost as if they were built to hunt Chaos. It's antithetical to everything I know and have experienced but the idea of fighting one enemy with another has some merit. It's what the Eldar have been doing since the Great Crusade."
Stigler replied "Fighting one Xeno threat with another, that has never worked well for the Imperium. Only one of our Ordo was mad enough to try that…." The Lord Inquisitor trailed off and his eyes widened. "This monster was first sighted in the Halo Stars?" Guilliman nodded yes. "Oh by the Emperor that's last where HE was spotted! After the Octarius incident, the trail went cold but sightings have persisted in that part of the galaxy." Realizing who Stigler was referring to Heimdall's face became a mask of cold anger. "He should be dead, by times hand or by the very things he hunted. You failed to clean up after him Ordo Xenos and find him, but if he is still out there than he is our best chance of getting to the bottom of this!" The Primarch calmly interjected, "Who are you talking about?" The Inquisitor's half whispered the name that might hold all the answers. "Kryptman"