Chapter Thirty-three

It was a solemn gathering at the table that evening. Astrid sat across from Sara, as usual, but the captain was preoccupied. Kat and Janey also faced each other as normal, but they too were quiet and thoughtful. Conversation was muted, not much more than requests for condiments.

Sedreth watched the four women – it was hard to think of Janey as a woman, but she was no longer a child – with quiet concern. He had not expected them to be quite as affected by the raising of the memorial as they had been. He had not, for that matter, expected to be so affected himself. Still, it was done, and well done. He reached for a bread roll, broke it and smeared the soft inside with fruit preserve.

"Sara, you should make more of this. It is remarkably good."

She gave him a startled glance. He rarely commented on the food. He smiled back. "The plinth is done, and well done, and tomorrow we can commence local scans for possible salvage. The Fallen will not mind."

Sara nodded slowly, then sighed. "No. I suppose they won't."

"Good. Now, all of you, eat. We have been working hard this last few days, and once we go back to normal workouts, I will not have anyone complain about being too tired."

Janey gave a short laugh. "Thanks, Mr Morgan. We needed that."

He returned her smile. "Yes, you did. No more moping?"

They nodded, not quite in unison.

"Excellent. Astrid, Janey and I will start fitting your armour properly tomorrow. I know you feel it is uncomfortable, and possibly unnecessary, but it needs to be done. We have been boarded a couple of times now, and I will not have you defenceless."

She nodded, not mentioning the fact that a Navigator was never entirely defenceless, since opening her third eye to ordinary people was invariably fatal.

He grinned and turned back to his plate, smiling inwardly as the conversation slowly rose back to something approaching normal.

"Mr Morgan, I think I have a combat site that's mostly intact."

Sedreth turned in his chair with a brief smile. "Excellent. That makes four. Can you get much of a reading on the wreckage?"

"Not yet. Kat, can you help me fine it down?"

The red-haired woman slid across from her neighbouring station. In a few seconds the two of them were deep in discussion, Janey's self-taught technical tricks marrying well – as they usually did – with Kat's extensive naval and merchant training.

Less that ten minutes later, a fourth location was confirmed on Sedreth's display. He re-ran the analyses; they had no especial schedule, but he still had no wish to linger in the system too long. Still, there was a decent possibility that, even after all this time, some salvageable artefacts might be recovered. None of the traitor Legions had made more than a token attempt at salvage at the time, and he was fairly certain that none had ever returned once the Rebellion had unfolded. Yet, ten millennia ago, the Legions had been equipped with many now-lost technologies. As the Imperium had deteriorated and knowledge been lost, that once-common equipment had become rarer and rarer. Like Phoenix herself, much of that ancient technology was immensely superior to its modern equivalent. Hence their current search.

That he had certain hopes he had not shared with anyone else was not something he cared to consider, even to himself. The Emperor had led them here; there must be a purpose beyond the obvious.

"Sedreth, I have an energy reading. Extremely faint, bearing 174, range fourteen metres. I think it might be underground."

"An energy reading? Can you tell anything else?"

"Not much. Just a minimal emission wave, slightly unstable. It's probably underneath all the rubble." She pointed.

An dangerous-looking pile of shattered rubble, a few twisted metal girders poking through it, met their collective gaze. Sedreth took advantage of his armour's auto-senses to scan it. "There is an opening under the pile. But the debris is not stable enough to walk upon. We will have to move it. Janey, can you bring up the rock-miner, please? The servitors will not be enough for this."

With the vehicle's assistance they were able to excavate the main mass of rubble fairly quickly, leaving a downward passage gaping open.

"Definitely a reading from down that passage. But there's no way you can fit down that hole in Terminator armour, Sedreth," said Kat quietly.

"No life signs or movement, though," said Janey. "We could send down a servitor. To look round."

He nodded. "A good idea. Let us do that. It can check for stability at the same time; the masonry is ancient, even if there has been no plant life to take root in the cracks."

Several minutes later, they watched on their tactical displays as the servitor, properly programmed, advanced down a steep crumbled stairwell.

"On the left. A shoulder-plate. White."

"I see it. Scanning. That's Death Guard, 5th Grand Company. The nameplate is too damaged to make out."

"This is close to where the XIVth Legion's assault force originally deployed under Captain Temeter. Mortarion must also have landed his forces somewhere around here; it could belong to either side. Although the absence of a body implies a traitor who was retrieved alive. Move on."

"Opening ahead. Lots of bolter impacts on the walls, and the remnants of a makeshift barrier. I think someone tried to hold here."

"Agreed. Move more slowly. That energy reading is close by; very faint."

"Still no identification?"

"No. It's not like the last flickers of a power unit though. Must be something else."

"Halt and scan, full circle."

"That is a body. Definitely Death Guard. Leg severed, looks like the armour took a melta-gun shot."

"Yes, Sedreth, I agree. That's definitely heat-based weaponry. Another body behind it, facing the entrance. Helmet is smashed; looks like heavy bolter fire?"

"Yes. Sara, are you getting this for archive?"

"Clear feed, Morgan. Can you have the servitor get a close-up on the armour pauldrons? I want i.d. if we can."

"Scanning now, mummy. Manteth, sergeant's insignia, and Odonal, battle-brother."

"Betrayed, both of them." None of them queried Sedreth's astartes-eidetic memory.

"Should we retrieve the corpses, Morgan? Give them a proper service?"

"No. Let them lie here as they died, facing their enemies."

"Affirmative. Moving past."

"Hold. There's another body. Gold on the helmet."

"I see it. Moving forward. Company captain, I think?"

"Century captain. 13th century, 5th Grand Company. Arthius."

"Another of the Betrayed?"

"Yes."

"To the left, Janey. We're past the energy source. Yes, that's better. Straight ahead. It should be less than a metre."

"I don't see anything. Wait. Under that broken power unit."

"I have it. Can the servitor retrieve it?"

"Wait. There's a wire. Might be booby-trapped."

"Even after all this time? And what would they booby-trap anyway? The corpses aren't trapped, and you might expect them to be."

"The Death Guard never took trophies. Not at that time, and not since."

"Janey, can you scan?"

"No. The servitor isn't equipped for it. Someone will have to go down."

"No, Janey. I shan't risk a life. Have the servitor move the power unit."

"Yes, mummy. Moving now."

"What is it?"

"An apothecary's storage unit for geneseed from the Fallen. It includes an inbuilt stasis device. That is definitely the energy reading?"

"Yes. Will it have?"

"Geneseed in it? Almost certainly. That explains why we picked up the energy emission; it is almost out of power and close to collapse. Normally, stasis fields are self-contained and self-sustaining, so they give off no readings at all. It is almost unheard of that a stasis generator of this type could run out of power; they were designed to be effectively eternal."

"Ten thousand years in total darkness is a long time, Morgan. Can we bring it safely aboard? It won't blow up or anything now it's losing stability?"

"It should be safe; the equipment had a fail-safe rather than risk geneseed. In any case, it should be possible to deactivate it via the unit's interface."

"Alright. Let's get it back to the ship with the rest. I'd like to break orbit and head for Isstvan V."

The dedicated servitor in the infirmary was highly capable for normal medicae, but not programmed to deal with astartes physical enhancements, and especially not with geneseed. Sedreth had a certain amount of knowledge, given that apothecaries had been rare amongst the Children's ranks for tens of centuries. Many warriors amongst the traitor Legions had learnt the hard way that personal medical skill mattered, and the 79th had not failed to learn that lesson. He could see to his own injuries, and even had a decent understanding – enough to keep them healthy even when wounded or damaged – of how his various implants worked. Still, the necessary training to properly handle the precious genetic material remained rare.

He wondered what he should do. He had recharged the apothecary's kit, and the ancient geneseed was once again safely held in stasis, but he had insufficient knowledge to test its viability, and most definitely insufficient to check it for any taint. It might not be beyond the abilities of the warp powers to infect the genetic material of a fallen Primarch, if they were aware it existed, and the traitor legions, especially the Death Guard, would certainly want it if they ever found out about it.

He could think of only one person who might be willing to provide the knowledge he needed without simply demanding the destruction of their find, and Fabius was not a person he wanted to deal with. Nor was it just the likelihood that he would not hesitate to sell the information should he need anything from one of the legions. It was more that, for all they had last parted on reasonably neutral terms, he dared not entrust the welfare of his companions to the renegade apothecary in any way. He didn't know what it was about Janey that gave her her sensitivity to warp energies – she wasn't a psyker or the Blood Angels would definitely have picked up on it during their long time at Baal – but if Fabius had got wind of the ability he wouldn't hesitate to dissect her to find out the reason. Mercy and pity were entirely foreign concepts to the man these days.

And Fabius was no fool; he had contacts across the known galaxy. Eyes of the Phoenix and its mysterious captain and crew would have come to his attention by now, if only because he coveted the ship for himself.

The comms sounded. Sara. "Morgan, we're approaching Isstvan V. High anchor in seven minutes."

"Acknowledged, captain. I shall be with you momentarily." His worries would have to wait. He turned and walked swiftly out and towards the bridge lift.

The bridge was all business, Sara in the pilot's chair, Kat at scan, Janey at weapons auxiliary. Astrid sat at the aux engines control station, commanding the manoeuvring thrusters which would position them precisely. Sedreth took his place at weapons tactical, Janey switching the main batteries and lances to him with the ease of long practise.

"Approaching geosynch. All engines to negative thrust on my mark."

"Acknowledged, captain. Shields and weapons online"

"Acknowledged. Standing by."

"Scans online. Ready to commence once we are in in position, captain."

"Affirmative all stations. Mark."

"Engines all back."

"Thrusters online. Orbital velocity three thousand metres per second. Two thousand; one thousand; five hundred. Two hundred metres per second. One hundred. Fifty. Ten. Geosynchronous orbit achieved."

"Scans online. I'm picking up ruins of fortifications. Hundreds of hectares of them."

Sedreth nodded in satisfaction. "That should be the fortifications used by Lupercal to lure the Iron Hands, Raven Guard and Salamanders."

"Any energy readings?"

"Negative, captain. But I am picking up thousands of pieces of wreckage – all sorts of smashed vehicles, destroyed armour, probably weapons as well – spread over about twenty thousand square kilometres. It could easily take a decade to search. And that's not even considering other areas of the planetary surface."

Sara nodded thoughtfully. "Fortunately, we are not looking to search it all. We know where we are going. Suit up. Then we take the shuttle down."

"All of us?"

"All of us. We've been in the system for more than a week and there's nothing here. Kat, you take a remote scan monitor, just in case. Janey, set the teleport to stand-by, and lock it to the suits. We can 'port up in an emergency if we have to."

"Okay, mummy." She ran the commands, her hands a blur on the console. "All armour beacons locked."

"Morgan, would you warm up the shuttle while the rest of us get our armour on?"

"Of course, Sara." He stood and headed for the hangar deck.

The hangar was much more crowded than normal, of course. They had retrieved several damaged vehicles; half a dozen drop-pods, four wrecked Rhino troop transports from which they might manage to salvage enough parts to make up two new vehicles, and several smashed-up 'Eagle-pattern' jetbikes most of which which had once belonged to the Death Guard and Emperor's Children, the main users of that pattern. He had been pleased to find those. Although the technology for their manufacture had long been lost by the Imperium, they remained a highly efficient and speedy method of traversing large distances. While not a techmarine, he had hopes of salvaging sufficient working parts to give them that option.

For now though his attention was focussed on their shuttle. He would have preferred a Thunderhawk, but it was highly unlikely that they would be able to retrieve one. Unlike common infantry transports like Rhinos or jetbikes, such complex and hardy vehicles – like the Land Raider battle transports – were far too expensive to simply leave as wreckage. Lupercal's legions would have retrieved any such that were remotely capable of repair; he had taken part in the retrieval of several of the Children's damaged craft himself. Nor was it likely that the annihilated loyalists' craft would have been left. Such would have been either taken for use, or destroyed. It was only Horus's orbital bombardment of the fighting zones on Istvaan III that had left salvageable wreckage there; all the Primarchs were well aware of the radioactive effects of orbital bombardments and had in any case been too busy culling the few remaining loyalists from amongst their astartes and naval crews to bother exploring for usable wrecks. Which was as well for him and his companions.

He buckled himself in at co-pilot and started running the pre-flight checks.

"Set us down here, Sara. This is the valley."

Sara nodded in response to Sedreth's sombre voice and the shuttle kicked up eons-old dust as it slowly lowered itself on its landing supports. As she went through the stand-by procedures, Sedreth unbuckled and walked to the hatch, opening it on manual. Not waiting for the ramp to extend, the marine jumped easily down to the rock surface they had selected. He was swiftly followed by Janey, likewise not waiting for the ramp, then a few seconds later Kat and Astrid walked down the metal gangway to the hard ground.

Sara left her own seat to join them. The rock still bore a few scars; even millennia of weathering insufficient to entirely erase the evidence of explosions and melta blasts. Around them, the devastation remained, an artificial ocean of shattered battle-plate, broken vehicles and scorch-marked rock. She felt herself shiver. She had seen battle, but nothing on this scale. Nothing even close. She glanced at a broken Mk III suit; shards of white glinted in reflected sunlight, astartes bone undisturbed for a hundred centuries.

The others did not appear comfortable either, Kat and Astrid picking their way carefully through the remnants of black-armoured Iron Hands and doing their best to avoid the many Emperor's Children dead. Not all the Children bore the purple and gold, she noticed. Clearly the Legion's corruption had already set in before this infamous atrocity. Here and there lay a green-armoured corpse, some a rich deep colour, others paler. The dark ones were Salamanders, killed by those they'd called brother. The pale ones all had the sigil of an open eye; the Sons of Horus. Traitors.

She found herself watching the dead much more carefully than might have been expected, tense against possible daemonic ambush.

Ahead of the three of them, Janey and Sedreth walked together up a steepening incline. They paused about halfway, waiting for them all to catch up.

Sara noticed that they were surrounded by Black Terminator armour, the ancient cataphractii-pattern. Corpses in purple battle-plate lay scattered amongst these remnants of a dead elite, both ordinary astartes and Terminators. She found her voice.

"A last stand, Morgan?"

"In part. These were the Morlocks, the Terminator elite of the Iron Hands. Kaeseron led his company and the Phoenix Guard into them, while the Primarchs met up on the ridge there. If it is anywhere, it will be there, where Ferrus Manus fell."

"It will be there," said Janey solemnly, confidently.

He turned slightly to look at her, then his helmet dipped in fractional acknowledgement, as close to a nod as the Indomitus-pattern could allow. "Let us hope so. It is a long way to have come not to find it."

"Did the Iron Hands retrieve his body?"

"I believe so. It was not found afterwards – and we looked, believe me. If the surviving Iron Hands could have taken it, they would have. The Morlocks fought to the last man, as would be expected, but they gave no ground after gaining back the summit shortly after their Primarch was killed. Fulgrim took his head and presented it to Horus, but the remainder of the corpse was never found."

"Fulgrim, or the thing that has him," said Janey, her voice hard.

"Yes." He started walking up the slope again. They all followed in silent formation, bolters at carry despite the world's status.

Sedreth paused again, then struck left, and up again, to a more open but slightly lower peak. Here, rocks were smashed asunder and great gouges had torn the dusty surface. Her scout training and instruction instantly kicked in, and she tried to read the signs of an ancient duel. There, a blow had gone wide; here, one of the combatants had dodged a monstrous hammer. Suddenly she felt a certain pressure, like yet very much unlike the presence of the two Keepers, against her psi-shield. She gritted her teeth against the titanic fury.

Kat collapsed with a soft moan, the Lupus seal glowing against her armour. Sedreth was outlined in white light, the pinion of Sanguinius a star in the dusk. Janey and Astrid, both of them sensitive to the warp in their different ways, were stock-still, as if spellbound.

Something. Familiarity. Yes. She was the captain. She had agreed to this, she had to.. she forced out the words. "Lord Manus, remember yourself. Your duty. Service,.. service to the Emperor's Will." Pressure forced her to her knees; she reached up and tore off the psi-shield, ignoring Sedreth's shout of denial. "Lord Manus. Remember." Then the pain took her.