Peril 2.2

Shadows of the Hive

If there is one planet prized by the elite of the Nyx Sector for its superb sights and heavenly conditions of life, this planet is not Wuhan Secundus. Discovered in 906M31 by the 811th Expedition Fleet of Lady Admiral Theresa, Wuhan Secundus was recognised as a Hive World at the beginning of M34 and started to pay the Administratum tithes still in effect today. Six Great Hives have been built during the previous millennia in addition to a hundred minor Hives, thousands of factorum and various production hubs for the Departmento Munitorum. The skies are permanently clouded by the pollution of the sheer industry manufacturing day and night the guns and tanks the Imperial Guard needs to fight in His Most Divine Majesty's name. The gravity is recorded at 1.34G and the average temperature on the ground is 14 Celsius degrees. While augmentation and other procedures are not strictly necessary for visitors staying less than a day on the surface, the protocols demand every non-augmented personnel to use a rebreather mask outside the air-purified sectors.

Together with the Imperial Navy facilities around the ice giant Wuhan Sextus and the sparsely populated Mining World of Wuhan Tertius, the Wuhan System is the sub-sector capital, boasting one hundred and thirty-five billion souls in the service of the God-Emperor. Its security has not been violated since the 'Gadargh Incident' in 004M35 and hundreds of regiments and warships are serving proudly the Imperium of Mankind all over the galaxy. Wuhan Secundus is the seat of well-known trade organisations such as the Hubei Cartel, the Shanxi United Shipping Company and of course the Wuhan-Cao Cartel.

Extract from The Systems of the Nyx Sector Volume Three by Adept Victor Yew, 204M35.

"Assaulting a Hive is never an easy task. Many campaigns and crusades have been lost in those types of assaults. Try not to add your name to this list." General Urskomov of the Valhallan Ice Warriors, 457M34.

"Colonel...is there any law forbidding us from inducting these nobles in a Penal Legion?" Major Taylor Hebert, 289M35.

"The authority of the Inquisition is absolute! Any who contest this are heretics and must be dispensed the Emperor's justice immediately!" Pontifex Mundi Padvarkine 'the Glorious' Jasonius, highest-ranking Ecclesiarchy Priest in the Wuhan System.

"The Fay 20th is losing their Priests at a fast rate." Governor Ilvyna Dalten, 290M35.

Ultima Segmentum

Nyx Sector

Moros Sub-Sector

Wuhan system

Wuhan II

7.245.289M35

Thought for the day: The same hammer that shatters the glass, forges the steel.

Major Taylor Hebert

When she had been told humanity had a way to travel between the stars without passing hundreds of years in a stasis cocoon, Taylor had been very excited. Mind you she had not expected something as grandiose as the speed of the Falcon Millennium. Starships able to cross the entire galaxy in mere minutes looked good on movies, but it was unlikely to say the least this could be translated in practise. But still, when she had been informed the entire trip from Wuhan to Fay was going to take only four days, the former supervillain known as Skitter had not registered why certain veterans under her command looked so devoted in front of the God-Emperor altar.

A few inquiries later, she had learned that the four standard days were a vague estimation, nothing more. The travel in real-space to the Sub-Sector of Wuhan would take three days – one and a half in the Fay System, one and a half in the Wuhan one - a feat possible due to the excellent speed of Magos Lankovar's cruiser. But the real way to shorten the length of the travel was to enter a mysterious dimension known as 'Warp Space'. The name wasn't at all engaging and the nicknames the few Mechanicus and Imperial guardsmen willing to talk had nothing funny in them. The Warp. The Immaterium. The Empyrean. The Sea of Souls. The Nightmare Realm. According to Questor Alena Wismer who had supervised her training with the new insects she was given, the Warp was the source of all psionic powers. Every starship without exception needed to activate a powerful shield-bubble known as the Gellar field once the Warp-drive was lighted on. The non-obedience to this cardinal rule would destroy immediately any Imperial ship and send the crew into a dimension which made Hell and an infested world with Orks a paradise by comparison. And because it could not be that simple, the Warp was not something answering to the good old laws of physics. The crewmen and crewwomen could pass one day in Warp transit. But it was also possible one century or a millennium would pass before they re-emerged in the reality of the Milky Way. Sometimes it was even weirder as reinforcements were dispatched and arrived earlier than they had entered the Warp. What it could create in term of casual loops, Weaver preferred not to think about it. Although it explained why her 'out-of Earth, out-of-time' situation was accepted so readily. It surely wasn't the first time the galaxy recorded such an impossible case.

She went back thinking about the dimension of horrors. Without the Guild of Navigators, apparently navigating the Warp was impossible. Despite all the precautions and technology supposed to protect the humans in the stars, hundreds of starships were lost every year. The more speeches she listened to the speech, the more horrifying it was, a horrible way to conquer the stars at the image of the Imperium, only made possible because the Navigators had the Light of the God-Emperor to focus their mysterious abilities. And the best part: there was no alternative. Without the Warp, the best plasma drives humanity had been able to build would make the 'short' journey to Wuhan in two months. And it was for a system which was not difficult of access and practically on Fay's next door, seven light-years away.

One thing was sure: when the Magos Laurentis left the Warp, everyone sighed in relief from the normally imperturbable red robes of the Mechanicus to the lowliest troopers of the Fay regiment. Prayers echoed from every vox-operator – with great reluctance she had abandoned her quest to call their futurist radios by a more rational name – and even the master of the ship signed himself in the Mechanicus equivalent of the Sign of the Aquila. The Warp drive was stopped, the Gellar field was put on stand-by, the plasma drives entered action and started their acceleration towards Wuhan Secundus.

The plasteel plates on the bays rose up, letting all passengers have a first sight of the new stellar system they had entered the gravity dwell of.

It was an impressive sight and for the second time the beauty of the stars was such she could only marvel at them. The Mechanicus cruiser had a full view on the planet named Wuhan Sextus. Like hundreds of guardsmen, she watched the frozen blue-coloured aster and the dozens of warships surrounding it. Wuhan had a lot of space traffic, dozens could be seen without difficulty and given the limitations of the human eye it was likely there were hundreds more. Fay had not had the quarter of that. And it was only the outermost planet. Close to the local star shining of a billion flashes, Wuhan Secundus awaited.

"Major, the Colonel demands your presence." Informed her Alya Sevrov, rushing out of a nearby metallic corridor. Taylor had seen her arriving well before this of course...in fact she had heard Larkine himself send her staff's sword expert to find her. But the fact that her power gave her more or less the ability to spy on every man and woman of the regiment didn't mean she would mention it in public. As long as the regulations weren't broken, the displaced parahuman had decided – with the advice of the girls of her staff – to let them have their illusion of intimacy. Besides she had already been mercilessly teased when she had walked in the quarters where she slept and surprised Captain Tanya Sevrev in a very compromising position. There was no need to add more tales to her name.

"Let's go then." The other members of her staff marched back to their unending paperwork while she and Alya went in the direction of the conference room which had been graciously loaned by Magos Lankovar to the Fay 20th for the duration of the travel.

This was a rather monotone walk. On the plus side, the Mechanicus did not paint everything in yellow-gold, the double-eagles were not graved everywhere and the warship had been clearly designed with efficiency in mind. On the negative side, white-black skulls and symbols of the Mechanicus cog could be counted by the thousands. The Adeptus Mechanicus was not exactly shy in showing their emblems and while the crew was efficient, it was somewhat weird to be surrounded by so many robots, cyborgs and Tech-Priests. And having a crew the producers of the Terminator movie would have sold their souls to acquire had also a marked effect on the comfort of their quarters. Taylor had seen the size of the rooms the enlisted were sleeping in. Compared to them, she had slept in a palace...and her 'private' bedroom had been shared with the Captain of the 2nd Company and was the size of a very small apartment. There were certainly wardrobes in the abandoned Brockton houses which had been larger at any rate.

As they passed in front of the place serving as refectory, several Fay troopers began to sing when they saw her.

"They told him don't you ever come around here
Don't want to see your face, you better disappear
The fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear
So beat it, just beat it

You better run, you better do what you can
Don't want to see no blood, don't be a macho man
You want to be tough, better do what you can
So beat it, but you want to be bad

Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it
No one wants to be defeated
Showin' how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn't matter who's wrong or right
Just beat it, beat it
Just beat it, beat it
Just beat it, beat it
Just beat it, beat it"

"I should never have told them that song." The bug-controller grumbled to Alya on her side. After arriving on the starship and ensuring everything was stored at the correct place, one man from the 5th Company had asked if she knew any good songs from where she came. She had bet Michael Jackson of Earth Aleph was not remembered anymore...and she had been right. But it had also created an incredible frenzy. How was she supposed to know the Ecclesiarchy and the Governor –especially the latter in fact - were vetoing most of the music on Fay? Beat It had spread from prow to stern of the Magos Laurentis and the phenomenon had taken such proportions certain Tech-Priests had come to her after she woke up today to discover the history of the song. It had been a strange conversation. No, another strange conversation after the hundreds she had already had since her arrival in this dark millennium.

"Why?" The brown-haired trooper had a wide smile on her face as the Fay singers continued their performance. Traitor. "It's a great song! You should teach the Companies new ones!"

And have them sing Thriller or Billy Jean in the middle of a battle? No, thank you.

But as her sword expert gave her amazing puppy eyes, Weaver answered by a noncommittal 'I will think about it'. As her subordinate's expression went happier, Taylor just knew she had made a colossal mistake.

The metallic door and the two guards protecting the conference room was before them ten seconds later and after a series of formal salutes Taylor entered, leaving Alya behind. The adjutants of the senior officers were not allowed in today. In fact, the insects she had left in the vicinity had informed her none of the Company Captains had been invited.

The conference room was not fully lighted when she came in as the hololith in the middle was functioning and projecting an image of Wuhan Secundus.

It was not a pretty sight. Taylor's first impression was that the planet was diseased...and when she pushed a few buttons to request further information she saw this wasn't exactly far from the truth. Every part of the planet had been swallowed by gigantic hubs of metal and man-made constructions. The skies, the seas, the plains, the mountains and every part of the landscape had been excavated and polluted beyond measure.

So this is what a Hive World looks like.

Until now they had been a lot of whispers but no one of the regiment had visited this stellar system before. Now that she had the details however Taylor felt nauseous. This was pollution making the levels of the Fay's starport look like an amusing joke. When they debarked, everyone would have to use the Earth equivalent of mask gas at the very least. And the number of humans living on this world...God it was beyond obscene.

How in the Simurgh's name have they managed to fill over one hundred billion humans on a single world?

The door opened a last time to admit Tech-Priest Morkys and as the Colonel stood, the sign everyone invited had indeed arrived. Zuhev was here of course – it would have been completely unconscionable to begin a conference between the two highest-ranked officers without the senior Commissar. But the presence in the shadows of Priest Warchost Solav-Byukur was unexpected...and not welcome at all. In her best moments, Weaver told herself she was clearly prejudiced against the man due to his serious obesity.

The rest of the time she reflected that the Ecclesiarchy envoy had nothing pleasant in him. His manners were atrocious, he hadn't yet pronounced a sermon – and yes he was supposed to, she had demanded confirmation to Zuhev. The man was eating twice the rations an officer was supposed to eat; he was rude all the time with everyone and didn't understand the slightest thing about military life. Taylor herself and most of the regiment were intelligent enough to acknowledge they had huge holes in their knowledge of Imperial tactics, policies and strategies. Solav-Byukur may be more in the know, but his willingness to rub everyone's the wrong way was going to make sure this advance was going to be extremely short-lived.

That is, unless the men of the 4th Company got him first. The Priest had condemned one of their own as a 'heretic' and the Priest-Militant with him had killed the man with a hundred strikes of a barbed whip. And of course it was a coincidence she had been on the other end of the ship in a meeting with Wismer while this happened.

"I apologise to summon you like this, but we have just received an update from Wuhan's surface and the situation is more complicated than we were led to believe."

"What is complicated, Colonel?" Exclaimed the obese Priest, elevating himself to the rank of 'moron' in her private opinion. "We have been summoned to assist the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition. We must land our forces and kill the heretics the Inquisitor has found."

The Colonel sent a fierce glare at the far-removed cousin of the unlamented Exalted-Overlord...and the member of the Ecclesiarchy didn't seem that bothered. Inside, she felt sick at the idea this man really believed what he said despite not having a single clue how things were unravelling on Wuhan. The men of the 4th Company were right. If an accident was to happen to this piece of garbage, there would be no one to mourn him. Perhaps it was Governor Dalten's intention?

"In fact, the fighting is between two factions of the Inquisition." Zuhev's voice was not charming at the best of times, but this time the cold tone was as warm as Antarctica in a blizzard. "Two Inquisitors are on Wuhan and their...divergence of point of view has led to full-scale fighting in Hive Asao. The Governor and several of the highest-ranked nobles have been killed when the fighting broke out."

A push on one of the hololith commands and the image zoomed on one of the six astounding structures rising through the polluted skies. Several parts of it were flashing ugly black and green icons. A cordon of PDF units was surrounding it but it was a defensive blockade. No one apparently wanted to challenge the will of an Inquisitor, never mind two of them.

"Inquisitor Colin Steadham brought with him thousands of xenos. According to the reports, they are known by the name of 'Tarellian Dog-Soldiers'. Imperium policy in normal circumstances is to exterminate this vermin as soon as we meet them. They are man-eaters and incredibly belligerent. Initial numbers were estimated to be in the thirty-thousand-plus."

The image whish flashed for several seconds had nothing in appearance with a dog. In front of her eyes, Taylor had a sort of bipedal crocodile with several impressive thorns, claws and fangs. Yes, this alien was dangerous all right.

"The other Inquisitor is named Morgaur Stradivarik. His followers are incredibly varied but the main strength of his forces is a Penal Legion they recently recruited on the Prison World of Alamo." Taylor tried not to look startled at the name of the famous last-stand against the Mexicans. "The 4th Penal Legion of Alamo is very badly equipped and had only light weapons but they are more than one hundred and twenty thousand of them."

The image of the mutant crocodile was replaced with shaven-skulled men and women who would not have looked displaced in the ABB, Empire or another of the gang she had fought in Brockton Bay.

"And logic dictates they are all criminals." Added Morkys with his typical mechanic sentence lacking humour and emotion.

"Yes." Confirmed the Colonel. "In the middle of this we have around a billion civilians and order has completely collapsed. The Mechanicus and the Administratum are furious, since the loss of life and the disorders have made production quotas plummet."

"Do we know the name of the Inquisitor who summoned us here?" Taylor asked. Not that she was very eager to know the answer, but the goals of the regiment and the enemies opposing them would have little in common if they were supposed to assist the xenos or the prison inmates.

"No." Answered Zuhev, looking calmly at the destruction provoked by the amateurism of the Inquisitors. "We had only a seal...unfortunately both Inquisitors were claiming their membership in the Ordos Nyx."

"They have the same seal." Weaver managed to maintain her tone as bland as possible but it was getting harder. She liked less and less the Inquisition. These men had the power to burn planets, replace a Governor and wield unlimited powers...and they behaved like imbeciles. The Triumvirate had violated many laws and principles with their secret activities, but at least they were heroes and participated in the Endbringer Fights. These Inquisitors did not look like they had redeeming qualities. Their actions had certainly killed tens of thousands people and put millions at risk.

A shrug was the confirmation her guess had been correct.

"We aren't the only ones in this case." Revealed the Colonel. "Magos Lankovar had contacted several ships in transit and two other regiments are in the same situation as ours. The 23rd Infantry of Wuhan and the 10th Artillery of Andes are as lost as we are."

"We have received an invitation to the Acting-Governor Hive three hours ago." It was frustrating to see the Commissar speak. Taylor had honestly no idea if he was pleased or disgusted. "The Company commanding officers can disembark the regiment near the PDF regiments encircling Hive Asao while we meet the other Guard regiments and decided for a course of action."

"We will need to gain the PDF support." The sixteen years old Major told the rest of the participants. "I think I can defeat the Tarellians and the Penal Legion with the regiment's support but my abilities aren't far-ranged enough to restore order from the top of a Hive to its bottom."

"No one is asking you to, Major." Zuhev voice was far more conciliatory this time. "In fact if we manage to gain the PDF help we may be able to limit our intervention to an evacuation of the civilians and-"

"Treason!" Screamed Priest Warchost Solav-Byukur pointing a fat finger towards the Commissar. The Guard officers and the Tech-Priest in the conference room almost jumped as for the last minute they had superbly ignored him. It may have been a mistake. Even with the minor lighting, the fat and ignoble man was transpiring like he had run an obstacle course and his eyes shone with malevolence. "I knew it! You are a traitor! You have no intention to help the Inquisitor!"

It was like everything they had discussed in ten minutes had passed in one ear and left in the other one. Given the behaviour of the Exalted-Governor at his trial, the bug-controller sent one of her white razorbeetles in the hood of his ridiculous white-and pink robe. That way...

"The Ecclesiarchy will not tolerate this lack of Faith! The Ecclesiarchy will not accept this cowardice and the refusal to service the God-Emperor! You will be all arrested! You will be all put to the question!" The greasy piece of meat was literally salivating at the lips at the idea of torture and murder. "You will-"

"Colonel?" Taylor asked. She could not say she was happy with it, but this idiot had threatened to torture her. But it was not Larkine who answered –she noticed her superior was trembling and looked paler than he had been when the debate was going on. It was Commissar Zuhev.

"Do it."

The white razorbeetle she had positioned left its hiding place and flied to bite the throat of Solav-Byukur. The Priest screamed in pain and tried to raise his hands in a futile defensive gesture, but it was too late. Alena Wismer had not underestimated the capacities of the razorbeetle in her summary and Taylor had no difficulty tearing the throat of this sad insult of a Priest in mere seconds. An impressive amount of blood poured of the wound, Warchost tried to scream but now was gurgling in his own fluids and collapsing slowly on his knees.

All the while Taylor continued to tear apart everything which might be more or less important near the Priest's mouth. Usually the insects she used inside a human body died in seconds – Alexandria body had been the apex of resistance and had needed thousands to die but the razorbeetles were resistant and when she commanded it the new addition to her weapons got out and cleaned itself on the pink part of the robe. The body of Warchost Solar-Byukur – and hopefully the entire family had been dealt permanently this time – had stopped moving and his loathing eyes were now fixing a point on the ceiling.

"Sorry for the mess, Commissar." Taylor was genuinely apologetic: the quantity of blood the man she had just killed had really dirtied the entire metallic floor. Thank whatever deity the Mechanicus wasn't fond of carpets. She knew that she should feel guiltier than this to have murdered someone, not feel a large amount of relief but...he would have killed her. And she realised she had truly hated this man. Hopefully the replacement would be less complicated to deal with.

"I will report this tragic heart attack to the Munitorum as soon as possible." Was the curt reply. For a moment she and the Colonel stared open-mouthed at the cynicism contained in this sentence. "Let's just hope the meeting with the Acting-Governor will fare better."

"The odds of this outcome are of less than one per-cent." Intervened Arcturus Morkys as the non-mechanics humans began to leave the room. "But there is a significant margin of error."

Vice-Admiral Vortigern von Drenthe the Eighth

Somehow, Vice-Admiral Vortigern had a dread feeling when he passed the golden doors of the Cao Hall of Glory. Perhaps it was part of his intuition, a feeling he had cultivated since his first boarding action against the orks when he had been an inexperienced Lieutenant aboard his father's flagship. Maybe it was the tension in the air and the numbers of nobles who pressed themselves against each other in regalia they absolutely didn't deserve. The death of the Governor and five of the Lord-Magnates ruling the principal Hives of the planets and the great cartels had completely upset the balance of influence and power; these situations were generally not resolved bloodlessly in the Imperium.

It could very well be he was anxious because the blackmail and the large amount of information he had on the main actors of Wuhan had suddenly become useless. Wuhan was suddenly not at peace anymore, and the politics suddenly favoured those who had the guns in hand. In theory, that should make him one of the most powerful men in the system...except of course the guns he had could not be used on the planet's surface. The Headquarters of Nyx wouldn't be pleased at all if he rained destruction and wiped out the sub-sector capital.

Part of his anxiety also could be blamed on the fate of the naval battle which had ended ten hours ago. The Tarellian light cruiser Great Tithe had in the end emerged victorious while the Anvil of Persecution and the Light of Intolerance were destroyed. Then the Great Tithe had tried to escape and using his own authority he had ordered the xenos to stop or face the Holy Wind's squadron wrath. The Dog-Soldiers had not deigned answering on the vox and thus he had destroyed the Great Tithe, making the Inquisitorial battle of Wuhan a complete annihilation in space. It went without saying that if any of the Inquisitors left alive Hive Asao, they weren't going to thank him and propose him a better retirement plan. The member of the von Drenthe line knew any court-martial of Kar Duniash would find him blameless and applause his conduct, but the Inquisition had not a reputation of a rational and sensible organisation.

Or simply it was because the new Acting-Governor was a human he wouldn't have given the command of his smallest lander, never mind a warship. Chen Cao had once served in the PDF and held the title of Marshal. For all the good it did when the Inquisitors had decided they could get rid of him. But at least Chen Cao had been willing to listen to his advisors. Hongfeng Cao had the opposite reputation. Vortigern knew; he had had the displeasure to meet him twice. A year ago, Hongfeng had been fifth-in-line in the Governor succession. Now he was Acting-Governor. Between the latest incident and several improbable events, over twenty members of House Cao, ruler of Hive Chao-Lai, were missing and could be safely considered dead.

The Vice-Admiral attention wandered on the crowd of invitees arriving by the dozens. It looked like every noble, officer or person of influence had come this evening. The Ecclesiarchy had come in force with scores of local Pontifexes. There were azure uniforms of the PDF everywhere, with sometimes a double-headed golden eagle to differentiate those who served in the Guard. Still, all these PDF officers were outnumbered about six to one by the aristocracy and their allies. Vortigern would have dearly liked to say it was a pleasure to watch them, but while Wuhanese women were exotic, the majority of the nobles assembled were fat, drug-addicted and had not served the God-Emperor a single day in their life. There were a few exceptions like Lord-Magnate Fu Chen - one of his allies in the Hubei Cartel who had just been elevated to the leadership of his House's Hive - but most of these inbred politicians were wastes of rejuvenat drugs.

And then the rest of his men ceased observing the conspiracies and little betrayals of the higher classes when a large party of the Adeptus Mechanicus appeared through the golden doors. The cogboys had been invited, but Vortigern had not thought any save the highest local representative would show up in numbers. The fact they did promised to be...interesting in the Wuhanese sense of the proverb.

"The one in the lead is Magos-Explorator Lankovar." His chief of staff murmured in his ear. Vortigern frowned before taking a glass of amasec from a pretty servant in a very revealing yellow robe. A Magos-Explorator, how formidable. Short of a Rogue Trader wandering in this grand reunion, there was no way the possibility of violence could go higher. These Tech-Priests were completely crazy and willing to begin entire crusades on the merest rumour someone had somewhere a piece of technology they wanted.

The Tech-Priests were not the only ones showing interest. Two minutes and half later, two officers in grey-black and one Commissar joined the crowd which by now was in the low thousands. Fay officers if he remembered the uniforms of the Nyx Sector correctly. The young woman with the Major insignia looked awfully young for her rank however. She had a lot of medals too. Perhaps one noble lucky enough to have Byukur good graces and the access to the rejuvenation treatments. There were not the only 'foreign' Guard officers to grace the Hall of Glory of their presence. Following on their steps there was a large party of green-grey uniforms, an Andes Regiment by the looks of it. With the Infantry Regiment of Wuhan in recovery here, this put the Guard presence in the system up to three regiments. Not that their presence was going to erase the disaster of two Inquisitors fighting in an Imperial system. The Historical Revision Unit was going to have fun explaining that.

A great bell rung in the distance, the sound in theory was supposed to announce the supposed beginning of the meeting. The men and the women not aware of the Wuhanese nobility customs stopped talking, like they were expecting the Governor to arrive soon. Vortigern felt sorry for them. The six times he had been invited here, not once the Governor had arrived less than three hours late.

In an hour – and this was if they were lucky – General Marshal Shu Han would honour them of his presence. At one hundred and fifty years old, the commanding officer of the Wuhan PDF had a huge idea of his own importance. But then the man was a political appointee and had probably never fired a lasgun in anger. Two hours past the present mark, it would be the turn of highest-ranked Ecclesiarchy Adept of Wuhan, Pontifex Mundi Padvarkine 'the Glorious' Jasonius - Hand of the Deacon Edwardyx – to illuminate them of his presence. And at least sixty minutes after this, the Acting-Governor should come and give his commands. In the mean time, a large buffet would satisfy the appetite of the guests, dancers trained for this kind of events would distract the nobility and the small chit-chat of politics could continue.

At least that was how every evening had happened until then. But as a middle-sized group formed around the red robes of the Mechanicus, Vice-Admiral Vortigern felt worry in his guts. The Fay and Andes officers were conversing cordially with the cogboys. And Magos Suvrex-Gamma, highest ranked Mechanicus Adept in the Wuhan Hive System, appeared far too deferential to his recently arrived brethren. It was a potential alliance in the making and every actor was an unknown party. This was not good at all.

Silently, the Kar Duniash-born Admiral asked Martyx Loren, one of the Lieutenants of the Holy Wind, to join this group which was increasing in size slowly but regularly. It would not be diplomatic to go himself inquire the contents of the conversation –the Navy had to remain more or less neutral in this mess – but if the equivalent of an orbital bombardment was about to come in Wuhan politics, it was better to be prepared.

What was the game of the Mechanicus here? A Magos Explorator was always searching for new technology, surely he couldn't be interested in an Inquisitor's mistake...unless...unless somehow the red-robed mechanical figure had read the records of Inquisitor Colin Steadham. The ones where the xenos-allied man had pretended he was searching for the 'Vault of Infinity'. If it was the case, the newly arrived cogboys were surely not happy someone was conspiring to acquire new technology under their watch.

"Look at them!" Guffawed Rongchun Shujia, ruler of Hive Shujia, surrounded by his PDF lackeys and the few nobles he had managed to rally to his side. "They think they belong to important organisations!"

As the aristocrat in question was the only Lord-Magnate who was not invited to the conference where the former Governor had died, this was a lot of nonsense but then the Shujia dynasty had fallen far. A thousand and five hundred years ago the Governorship had been theirs but a series of xenos attacks and an appalling amount of corruption had seen them lose a lot of their titles and privileges. Now they were unquestionably the weakest of the sixth Great Houses dominating Wuhan. Given the wits shown by Rongchun, it was quite likely it would stay that way for decades.

As the red, blue, yellow, green and purple dresses, capes, cloaks, jerkins and gowns dispersed and met all over the Hall of Glory, whatever outcome the Mechanicus had wanted had seemingly been realised. The Magos Explorator left the Cao hall without looking back and over half of the Mechanicus emissaries followed him. It was without precedent and a huge insult to the new Acting-Governor; hundreds of nobles whispered in consternation or excitement.

Finally Lieutenant Loren was back, just as the Fay and Andes officers in a common show of unity stopped their small talks and departed. A few were ostensibly looking at the large gold clocks indicating Governor Hongfeng Cao was half an hour late. More worrying for the Wuhan social scene, the Imperial Guard was not conducting alone their withdrawal: a few PDF officers had joined them.

"They have decided on a course of action?"

The brown-haired officer composure was the same as ever when he answered.

"Yes, Admiral. The assault on Hive Asao is going to begin at dawn. It is the common agreement of the two Guard regiments and the PDF having family inside Hive Asao that this disaster has lasted long enough. They want to stop the xenos and the prison scum from killing the civilians and restore order."

His superior's visage showed no sign of a grimace but internally Vortigern really wanted to. By the looks of it, the situation had become even more perilous than before.

"And the venerable Magos Explorator? What reasons has he given for the Mechanicus involvement?"

"Plenty of Tech-Priests are behind enemy lines, Admiral, and the rumours of the archeotech the Inquisitors are after would be a violation of the accords between the Imperium and Mars if it is proven."

Just as the situation wasn't bad enough...the Nyx Sector had no Forge-World since a warp storm had engulfed the Neptunia System in mid-M31 and this problem was not going to convince the Mechanicus to set up shop here.

"What of the Inquisitors?" They were after all the very reason why the PDF wasn't moving a finger and the majority of the local powers were waiting silently in their hive spires.

"They were very prudent not to speak of the Inquisitors, Admiral." A thin smile came to the lips of Martyx Loren. "But I had the impression Magos Lankovar would not be displeased if Steadham and Stradivarik never reported back to their Ordos."

This wasn't what Vortigern wanted to hear but there was unfortunately little he could do. Neither the Guard regiments nor the Mechanicus were in the Navy's chain of command. And with the Nyx Generals dispersed all over the Sector to crush the orks, an answer from the formal line of command would not arrive in time.

"Only thing to do: wait and enjoy the fireworks." Commented a noble about the eventual arrival of the Acting-Governor. The scion of the von Drenthe line had other preoccupations but he feared the fires were going to burn his retirement papers soon enough.

Sergeant Gavreel Forcas

The short-cut had in the end proven anything but short. At least this was the impression of Gavreel when he punched the metallic plate blocking his way out of the last pipe.

The militiaman had been unable to tell him what sort of beasts, vermin and other creatures lived in the compactors, sewers and other pipes just under their miserable quarters. Except the red-robes of the Tech-Priests and the men desperate enough to volunteer for the maintenance work, nobody sane went there. The pipes and the many unsavoury places formed an awful labyrinth according to the tales, one which had many beasts and monsters plaguing it.

After having passed over six hours in these sections, the former Sergeant of the Calibanite Independent Force could confirm a lot of these tales were true. Yes, the place was a labyrinth. No, there weren't any schematics or indications to find one's bearings in this nauseating area – and the odour was such he had to keep his helmet on the whole time. As for the monsters, unfortunately the legends had not been more firmly grounded in reality than the inhabitants of the Hive desired. The beasts were nothing problematic for a veteran of Caliban's forests to handle of course, but between the diverse packs of hound gone feral, the tiny flies forming swarms of millions and diverse reptiles which must have evolved off-world, a non-augmented human would have had good chances to perish in a matter of minutes.

And then there were the Giant Mutated Spiders. Gavreel was a Legionary and of course knew no fear, but the sight of these things had been very close to give him arachnophobia. There was no natural or artificial light in these tunnels, and the spiders had been able to grow until they reached colossal sizes, spat acid able to scratch the paint of his armour and created complex series of web-fuelled traps. Hopefully, it would be many, many years until he posed his eyes again on these creatures and the next time – because there always was a next time – he would demand a good flamer to deal with this pestilence.

But it appeared his reflexions on spiders and how to exterminate them had to wait. His grand entrance in this part of the Hive had not been a model of discretion and already there were noises of troops rushing to meet him. The odds were good these were minions and xenos troopers of this 'Inquisitor'.

But the figures which poured in what had been a miserable market place were not the scaly xenos he had expected. No, the crowd in front of him looked like a mob with every member covered in sort of papers, their clothes were rags and their hygiene of life was deplorable. Still, there were humans and he raised his left hand in salute. Perhaps these people knew where his target had gone.

But his gesture did not calm the hostile crowd. If anything it seemed to enrage them.

"FOR THE GOD-EMPEROR AND INQUISITOR STRADIVARIK! KILL THE HERETIC!" Screamed three of the men at the forefront of the melee. They charged, and the rest of their followers followed, shouting various imprecations of the same topic. Truly, the Imperium had fallen far since the Triumph of Ullanor.

For a tenth of a second, Gavreel had a sudden urge to ask if these imbeciles were serious. The mass in front of him was equipped with laspistols of extremely low quality, a few lasguns which would never pass the cleaning instruction, obsolete rust-covered chainswords and about every blunt object they must have picked on their way across the Hive. To sum-up, not a single weapon able to inconvenience him. And still they rushed at him like fanatics, dribble covering their lips, hate in their eyes and the bark of their weapons filling the air.

It went without saying that it was a slaughter.

"FOR THE EMPEROR OF MANKIND AND CALIBAN!"

Compared to the last nightmarish hours he remembered fighting on Caliban, these minutes did not deserve the term 'fight'. Each strike of the Sword of Perseverance cut in half between three and eight of these fanatics. Normally even the stupidest xenos – and the orks figured at the top of the list – figured rushing like this was not going to work and tried to bring heavier weapons. It would not have changed the outcome, but at least it would have proved they had a few brain cells and some tactical sense.

But these humans screamed, shouted and tried to kill him anyway, never making a step back. More than a few were babbling and their eyes were rolling like the worst drug-addicts. By the Throne of Terra, had they all abused war stimulants to behave like this? He did not draw his bolter once. Ammunition for Astartes weapon was scarce, and the Dark Angel Legionary was not going to waste it on this pitiful opposition.

One minute and six seconds after the crazy order was given, the massacre was over. Two hundreds and three men had fallen under his power sword without managing to touch his armour. It said really something that the journey through the pipes had been more exhausting than this skirmish. Now he could pass to the next phase.

Gavreel had to figure where he was. And as he examined the entire avenue and the nearby corridors of this underhive, most of the machines and the direction signs which should have helped him were long gone, dismantled or had broken down.

"Maybe I should have tried to capture one or two of these idiots..." The former Sergeant did not need a lot of imagination to guess what his superiors would have said about his judgement. Very likely it would something like: 'this is why we will pass you over once again for Captainship, Brother-Sergeant Gavreel'. On the other hand it was always difficult to separate the critical information from the lies and judging how deranged this group had been, forcing them to answer honestly to his questions might have been beyond his intelligence-gathering abilities. As for eating their brains to assimilate the information, the fact he had pulverised two-thirds of their heads prevented it. Not that he would have done so. Their idiocy might be contagious for all he knew.

For nine minutes according to his internal chronometers he searched live survivors in the alcoves near the bloodbath he had created but his quest was not meeting success. It was then his transhuman ears reported an explosion of noise not far from him. This was a racket he was all too familiar. Weapons were fired, and he wasn't that far. With a bit of luck, this was his target or a way to know the location of the Inquisitor.

"For the Emperor and let's hope there are no more spiders..."

Inquisitor Colin Steadham

Inquisitor Colin Steadham hated liars. Given his belonging to the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition, he was sure trillions of dead and live men, women and children would consider him an appalling hypocrite. After all, what was the Inquisition but the most powerful liars of the Imperium assembled in a single organisation?

The point that sometimes the Inquisition lied and killed for the greater good of the Imperium servants alas wasn't understood. And to be honest, the majority of his Inquisitors 'colleagues' were pathologically unable to tell a single truth without distorting it from its beginning to its end. But since the Inquisitors told how little truth the average Imperial citizen needed to know – which was really little - their clients, victims, supporters and sources of information rarely spoke the complete and unmodified truth too. After all if you were sure honesty was going to lead to your death anyway, even the most respectable, loyal and pious Imperial subject was tempted to lie to an Inquisitor. The person was dead no matter what kind of revelation they made and that way there was a chance his killer would go to their doom without accurate intelligence.

The diaries of the heretical Rogue Trader Helmut Khan fell into this 'useless and inaccurate category'. Of course Colin had known that the writings in question had been seized by Inquisitor Sultan before the traitorous Rogue Trader was tortured and then slowly descended into a pool of metal in fusion for his crimes. Still, he had believed the confessions of Helmut would be useful in navigating the underhive, deactivating the lethal traps and providing the correct codes opening the doors leading to the Vault of Infinity.

On all these points, Steadham had been so far disappointed. Khan's last visit to Wuhan had been forty years ago and in this interval the partially-accurate maps had become useless. It was also evident many doors had been shattered with the use of military-grade explosives then sealed with ferrocrete when Khan had finished his little underground expedition. Colin had lost hours blasting his way through the natural and man-made obstacles with the Tarellians. These were hours he likely didn't have if he wanted his quest to succeed and escape in the aftermath of this battle. Despite multiplying the stratagems, Stradivarik and his band of brainless Gathalamorians supported by prisoners scum were still pursuing him.

But for the moment it was best to concentrate on the Vault of Infinity. He and his last acolyte had descended deeper in the foundations of Hive Asao escorted by two hundred Tarellian Dog-Soldiers – the rest of his xenos allies were busy battling Stradivarik minions above their heads. And after a series of passages and caverns no one must have used in the last millennia, they had found it. In this case Helmut Khan had not lied: it was indeed a great ten-meter high silver gate decorated with curious inscriptions. The symbols were not in silver but a bright shining green; their signification escaped him: it was a combination of two small circles and two big circles linked by a stray line from top to bottom. The greater circle at the lowest extremity was surrounded by eight rays, denoting something of importance.

This time Colin Steadham had not even tried to use one of the codes Helmut Khan had obviously invented in his delirious mind. The melta charges were placed by the Tarellians and the Inquisitor looked with satisfaction as the bipedal xenos activated the detonation sequence. Everyone ran to cover behind debris greater than a super-heavy Tank and waited for the explosion.

When it came, the third-longest serving member of the Ordos Nyx grimaced because there was absolutely no way Stradivarik and his minions could have missed it. Not unless they were all deaf. But the explosives he had brought specifically for this task had done the job. A hole large enough for two humans of average weight and height had been created in the silver gate.

"In His Name, advance!" Colin barked.

His Acolyte shouted a battle-cry to the God-Emperor and the Tarellians vanguard barked in their barbaric language. A group of twenty passed the newly-created opening while he and the rest of the strike force were covering their rear. A few seconds later their vigilance was justified as the scum of the Penal Legions came charging from the tunnels. They were persistent the Inquisitor had to give them that. Colin personally killed four and the Tarellians strafed the entire battleground with lasers, disruption shots and frag grenades. More than a shaved-skull exploded without realising they were facing too many enemies. Unfortunately, a dozen survived and took cover behind the same ruins they had used themselves to protect from the shockwave of the melta charges.

"A score of warriors remain here to defend. Kill everyone who tries to follow us."

Loud smacks of the Tarellian maws told him the xenos had no problem whatsoever with this order.

Steadham continued his progression straight on, since there was no alternative road and withdrawal had become impossible with Stradivarik on his heels. But the environment was...out of the standard for ancient ruins. Behind the silver gate he had expected more tunnels and caverns or a room giving him access to the Vault of Infinity. Instead this was a large corridor entirely built in the same silver material. And it was perfectly symmetric with no visible decoration. Strangely, the air was perfectly breathable and there was none of the pollution permeating the foundations of the Underhive. After ten minutes, they descended a large stair and arrived in what had to be the equivalent of a throne room.

It certainly wasn't a construction any human would have thought to build. The ground was silver and too hard, too perfect...too cold. The same thing applied to the pillars, structures and architectural elements. Everything was in silver sometimes accompanied by the mysterious symbol. Everything was cold, alien and hard. Everything was dead. The reason Inquisitor Steadham could tell it was a throne room...well, it had a throne against a wall. Roughly two kilometres away, the being who had commissioned it had certainly not modesty in mind. There were a lot of Planetary Governors living in smaller constructions.

"My Lord..." Gasped his last Acolyte, a former dark-skinned gunslinger of the Nyx aristocracy. "What is this place?"

"The throne room of the ancient culture we came for." Replied tersely his master. "Now we have to find the vaults..."

But the task was anything but simple. Every hundred metres on the left and the right, there were corridors leading...somewhere. And the most problematic issue was that the accesses were all identical. The Tarellians and the two humans walked in the direction of the throne in complete silence. The air was cold, at the image of the spectacle before their eyes. The walls were still the same deep silver. In Colin's opinion, this was not anything Chaos could have built. It was too orderly. It was too neat and the Great Enemy would have tried to desecrate this place if they found it. Nevertheless it was unnerving. He had explored the ruins of eleven xenos civilisations before this one – eight of them had been exterminated on his orders – and never had he seen monuments like this. It was like the builders had wanted to create a palace-tomb...but that was stupid. What kind of civilisation would want to live with their dead?

They were three hundred metres away from the great silver throne when the 'clangs' began to be heard. The Tarellian alpha hissed and instantly his soldiers dispersed in group of two and three, each formation pointing its guns at a possible arrival of an enemy force.

But the enemy did not come from the corridors. The very ground in front of the massive throne opened to disgorge a slow-moving mass of silver automatons. Colin would have wanted to laugh at them. He couldn't. Because as much as their corpse-like appearance, their slowness and their close-range formation was clearly a disaster military speaking, the guns in their metallic hands were shining malevolently of a bright green light.

"Fire!"

Over two hundred Imperial weapons discharged in less than three seconds.

Five of the automatons fell, but the rest endured the discharge of his force's weapons without blinking. To make it worse, the metallic warriors didn't even bother firing back. It was like nothing could bother them.

The Tarellians poured a storm of lasers and disruptors shots, volley after volley. One by one the first line of ten automatons collapsed...but just then there were deep flashes of green energy and the crippled automatons disappeared.

Automatic teleportation? Such a technology would place this complex at the very top of research sites if it came to be known!

The silver-coloured things were taking immense casualties. There had to be three hundred-plus of them marching towards the Inquisitor, but none of them were firing their big weapons, which had to be a default in their programming. After all, guns were the logical choice for middle and long-range fighting. Chainswords, chainaxes and power fists were for cases when the enemy came at close-contact. But in a few moments it wouldn't matter. Already half of the automatons had fallen. The defences of the Vault of Infinity would not stop him. Over a score of Tarellians stopped moving and directly faced their opponents, pouring the maximum rate of fire in their silver ranks.

The enemy fired at last.

A hundred green rays of energy rushed on ten Tarellians. It was an awful butchery...literally. The horrific devices did not shattered the Dog-Soldiers or fell them. No, the green lights flayed them. It was like a nightmare, with the scales coming first, then the blood, the organs and then the bones, all in an accelerated choreography which should have been utterly impossible according to the laws of physics.

The Tarellians screamed in anger and replaced their empty las-batteries by new ones before pouring new volleys into the metallic warriors. Many fell, but the automatons had apparently no self-preservation and stood firm against the onslaught. Each of their horrific weapons was uncoordinated and erratic. But did it really matter when the rays which missed proved their ability to melt the silver-coloured ceiling walls and ceiling?

The masters of the throne room went down hard, but by the God-Emperor the price was steep. In this wide avenue it was impossible to find walls to take cover – the corridors were too far away and the enemy had weapons able to melt their own place – and for every automaton falling, one to two Dog-Soldiers were flayed by the green rays. When the last of these abominable constructions was dismantled by the fire of his personal plasma weapon and over thirty lasguns, the calm of the grave came back. Half of the Tarellians were dead and for no gain: the destroyed xenos equivalent of Skitarii had all been dematerialised.

"My Lord...we should retreat." Murmured his Acolyte. "These things are better armed than the Tarellians."

"Certainly not!" After over ten years of difficult investigations and billions of Thrones spent buying favours right and left, Inquisitor Colin Steadham was not going to back the headquarters empty-handed.

And Stradivarik will condemn me as soon as he arrives. I will not give him more ammunition.

The Ordos Xenos representative was at this state of his reflexions when the 'clangs' were heard again. From the same overture, the silver automatons were coming back...the same automatons. Not believing his own eyes, Steadham watched incredulous the arms and the heads of the metallic units self-repaired the damage that had been inflicted by their lasers as they advanced. Obviously it had limits: a lot of automatons were rather the worse for wear and a visible minority were suffering of what would have been crippling rounds, crawling or falling out of formation, firing at inexistent targets. But they had been beaten before and now they were back, a miracle only the God-Emperor was said to achieve while He walked among Mankind.

There was only one order he could give before the flayer rays flew anew.

"Run!"

Colonel Daviev Larkine

The attack of the Hive had begun at dawn as planned and for the moment it was going well. Too well, he acknowledged in the privacy of his mind. Larkine had known that the support of the Artillery of Andes and the bugs of his new Major combined with the local knowledge of the PDF were going to make their task easier than it should be but he had not expected such a walk-over.

The Basilisks had methodically pulverised the few batteries the Tarellians and the Penal convicts had under their control while at the same time local units had infiltrated themselves and opened the great gates. Once it had been done, the Fay 20th had entered the action, the Chimeras of the 2nd Company leading the Tauros and the Sentinels into the breach. The two thousand-strong force of hive-gangers, murderers and opportunist scum which had flocked to the banner of the rebels had been cut down after an extremely short and violent battle. A few of the Penal convicts had been willing to surrender but the denizens of the nearby blocks had left their homes once the outcome was clear. Once the horror stories had begun to spread, neither the Fay guardsmen nor their Wuhanese guides had been in favour of mercy. This part of the 4th Penal legion of Alamo had committed crimes ranging from the usual rapes and thievery to the much repugnant cannibalism and extreme torture. And for those violations of the Lex Imperialis, there was only one sentence: death. The 3rd Company had executed it immediately under the thunderous cheers of the crowd and the offensive continued into the Hive, the angry men and women of Hive Asao providing the much needed scouting for the low numbers of the Guard.

The enemy had tried to counter-attack. Over three hundred Tarellians, armed with lasguns and heavier weaponry they had no doubt stolen from the Arbites and PDF armouries, had tried to ambush the 2nd and 3rd Companies once a gap had formed between them and the rest of the regiment.

"I have them in visual." Had said simply Taylor 'Weaver' Hebert and that had been in that. For a couple of seconds the superior of the Heroine of Fay had wondered how the Dog-Soldiers were going to be dealt with. Then the screams had started in the vox. The Tarellians had suddenly found within themselves a willingness to learn Low Gothic, promising to surrender if he "called back the spiders."

At first Daviev Larkine had thought his operators were playing a joke on him but the report of Captain Suhur Baltomin from the 4th Company had explained the reversal of Tarellian morale was indeed genuine. The Dog-Soldiers had not recognised beforehand that the place of their counterattack had had one of their sewers pierced by a Chimera shell. For the common Mechanised Infantry regiment of the Imperial Guard this would have had little importance. For the Fay 20th this meant two huge mutated spiders dripping acid and jumping across buildings as reinforcements. A swarm of flies and mother minor insects had emerged from the underground too. For the first time in their heretical lives, these xenos had learned the significance of the word 'fear' and thrown down their weapons in mass.

On one hand, this was good news for him since a surrender always translated in fewer men and women lost in battle. After the casualties they had taken against the orks at Petersburg and Fay, this was not a minor issue. On the other hand, it created an interesting dilemma. This dilemma in the last hour was becoming a real problem, in fact. And since it was not improving a meeting of the senior officers had been called in front of an intact church of the God-Emperor. Two Chimeras had barred each extremity of the street, guardsmen and Skitarii had placed themselves on the heights of this level, ready to shoot any sniper who had escaped the first hours of battle. At last Magos Explorator Lankovar arrived and the Colonel of Fay did his best to keep a calm and collected expression. In the last hours he had discovered he did not like at all the Tech-Priest. Assuredly the representative of the Mechanicus was their shield from the fury of the rest of the Imperium since they assaulted the Hive at his behest. But his behaviour was...bordering on the heretical and that was if he wanted to stay polite. The 'analysis' he made on every xenos and human corpse the cogboys gathered was horrible and he had been forced to make clear from the start no man or woman of Fay would be dissected in such a manner.

"We are taking too many prisoners, Colonel."

The voice of Commissar Zuhev was as stony as ever. There was no need for him to add another sentence: his views on the place of traitors and xenos were those of the Commissariat. Unfortunately or fortunately, the Fay 20th hadn't the ammunition to spare for the organisation of firing squads at every corner of the Hive. When it came to it, they had less than twenty thousand men to pacify a Hive where millions dwelled under the artificial lights.

"Our men and the PDF aren't coping well with the influx of captured enemies." Agreed Captain Steph Urskovoy, commanding officer of the 1st Company, looking at the data-slate a cogboy gave him. "We have seven hundred Tarellians, three thousand Alamo convicts and several thousand hive-gangers of the lower levels in our custody. And the numbers are still climbing." The mouth of the Captain slightly twitched under his blonde moustache. "Your spiders have been a bit too efficient, Major."

"It's not my fault they can't handle their own local species." The tone of the young woman was completely unrepentant. Unlike the majority of the men and women present, her modified armour was still pristine and bore none of the minor scratches or scars. No enemy or obstacle had had the occasion to wound her. As she had removed her helmet but not her rebreather, her voice was almost buzzing under the metallic apparatus. Her dark hair and the dozen or so beetles made her even more menacing under the moderate light of the Hive. "Besides, these spiders are flexible and cool."

'Cool' was not a term Daviev would have ever used to describe the great spiders. He had seen the monsters from a hundred meters away. The beasts were one meter tall, spat acid and the things they had at the end of their legs were sharp to impale a Tarellian whether the xenos wore armour or not. No, the spiders were completely terrifying. But Taylor Hebert was seemingly unable to really understand how terrifying her auxiliaries could be for the opposition. Perhaps it was a side-effect of her powers?

"If you want to keep them after the battle Major Hebert, a Mechanicus crew will have to handle the decontamination procedures." The voice of Lankovar was particularly creepy as the Magos consulted a dozen screens his servitors were manipulating all around him. "These specimens of Gigantis Mutatis Arachnae are slightly radioactive."

"Fantastic." Whispered someone in the group of twenty or so guardsmen chosen for the security detail. "Mutated spiders and killing beetles. What's next?"

"Beat it." Laughed another and the chuckles resonated all around the officers before Captain Tanya Sevrev returned back to the matter at hand.

"Why don't we use them as our own Penal Legion? That way we will limit our casualties and the enemy will kill each other."

"It will not work for the Tarellians." Lankovar said in a blunt statement. "These xenos are mercenaries and unable to understand the glory of the Omnissiah. Deliver them to me and I will ensure they will not trouble you anymore."

Larkine shivered and as he observed his officers he saw he wasn't the only one. Every Fay Guardsman knew what the 'give them to me' implied. Yes, the Tarellians were xenos and a taint Mankind had to erase if they wanted to continue their domination of the stars.

"The xenos-crocodiles surrendered to us in good faith." Daviev was not sure what a crocodile was, but given Weaver's history it had to be an ancient reptile Terran species. "If we kill them now, I don't think it will bring honour to the regiment. And as much as the Imperium propaganda tells us to hate xenos, I remarked that the worst crimes we have met today have been done by the Penal convicts and their accomplices. The Tarellians have been fighting against armed opponents but remained relatively clean otherwise."

By the expression shown on Commissar Zuhev's face, this was not something he enjoyed listening to, and if he could have dismissed it, the heavily-augmented man would have in a heartbeat.

"I suppose you have a suggestion to deal with them, then?"

"We give the arbitrators and the PDF all our gang members and any convicts we have seen murder and rape." The tone Taylor Hebert was not the insecure young woman she used in the restrooms or off duty. It was not the one of a hardened commander...one who had made clear to every Fay company that if a man or woman under her command was observed rape someone, they'd pray for the mercy of the God-Emperor before she terminated them. So far, no Fay soldier had taken up the challenge. "We let the Andes guardsmen guard the xenos on the outward perimeters since their artillery is becoming less and less efficient."

"And the convicts you consider reliable?" Lankovar's emotionless sounded almost...disappointed the xenos weren't going to be given to him.

"We use them to track their former leaders in the underhive. So far, we haven't seen them and the communications which have been restored in the upper levels indicate they have descended the elevators. The Inquisitors must be somewhere and by deduction it must be under our feet."

"Let me take a Company and my Skitarii in the foundations of Hive Asao." Pressed the Magos Explorator. "Mars can't allow these traitors to seize blessed technology!"

And here came the matter he had prayed very hard to avoid. How do you reply to this sort of suggestion without endangering your relationship with the Mechanicus?

"With all due respect, I'm afraid our control of the Hive is still too shaky to think about that, Magos." Affirmed Steph Urskovoy. "We must continue and press on for the main armoury on level 48. There are also three secondary plasma reactors we need to-"

The earth shook beyond their feet and a sort of violent green flash illuminated the entire hive. Curses and insults were shouted from every quarter but fire discipline held and no enemy came out of the shadows to assault them. Ultimately after a few seconds of inquiries it was Captain Tanya Sevrev who spoke first.

"All those who believe the Inquisitors have dabbled in something way beyond their abilities to contain, raise your hand."

For the first time since he had taken command of the Fay 20th, Larkine saw his regiment answer in complete unanimity.

Somewhere in the entrails of the earth

If the Artificial Intelligence controlling the Coreworld of the Horth Dynasty could have felt emotions, there would have been a high probability it would have been deeply offended. Fortunately, the Necron Cryptek who had built this complex had not done so. For all his faults and his personal vendetta against the ruling Overlord, the Necron architect had judged giving emotions to an entity which had been for ten thousand years treated like a worthless peasant was a bit too risky. It was 'better' to sabotage the Coreworld and induce a cascade of failures ranging from failures of self-repair mechanisms to the deactivation of programs supposed to protect the defences from tectonic plates' collisions.

Technically, the warriors who had just been sent to repel the vermin invading the Coreworld had been victorious. But the processors of the Artificial Intelligence didn't see it that way. The Thamoket Gate had been breached and the inner sanctum of the Horth dynasty sullied by an inferior feral species. It was an achievement entire hosts of Aeldari had utterly failed to accomplish sixty-five million years ago. But before the Long Sleep there had been millions of Necrons to form a first line of defence and world-shattering weapons behind them to support them in case their infamous molecular-shattering guns were unable to reduce the enemy into cinders.

These defences were long gone now. Their commanders were piles of rusted materials or crushed under the rocks which had buried the stasis chambers. The great Monoliths and the guardians had been dismantled in vain attempts to safeguard the core assets. The greatest reaction for the Artificial Intelligence had been able to muster was three hundred and ten strong, and to rally that many functional servants had been a hard and long endeavour. Moreover, it looked like even these warriors had seen their efficiency diminish to an unacceptable point. Reaction times were definitely sub-par, weapon accuracy had fallen by seventy-nine per cent and the casualty rate was disastrous for such a minor skirmish. Self-repairing mechanisms were failing not once, but multiple times, decreasing the number of operable units below half of their initial complement.

The strategic battlefield was not optimal and continued to worsen as the inferior vermin continued to pour by the Thamoket Gate, with more coming by the caverns the Artificial Intelligence itself had ordered dug to scavenge repair materials.

A complete war simulation was made. The Artificial Intelligence was forced to concede it had not the strength to repulse the invaders without reinforcements. The last Destroyer and a half-repaired Canoptek Wraith were released from stasis, but their offensive armament would give the Tomb-complex nine hours in the best simulation it had been able to compute.

The Artificial Intelligence could not tremble at the thought of despair but proceedings to unleash the small phalanx of Immortals accelerated. It was a risky gamble as it would lead the vaults dangerously unprotected and with the energy reserves so low...

Then the communication the Artificial Intelligence had regarded as its last possibility of victory came.

"Alkarekh-Sytharek-Ultharek-Bytherek. Priority 1547-A9587-14567."

A series of codes followed, more complex and voluminous than the ones the Administratum used to protect the picts-recordings of the Senatorum Imperialis on Holy Terra. The Artificial Intelligence compared the codes just transmitted to its immemorial list and accepted it. While it was not the identification of a code-bearer of the Horth Dynasty, this code belonged to an Honoured Overlord and the Artificial Intelligence processors were not programmed to take into account the six hundred and eighty thousand disputes with other dynasties and other Necron factions.

Anti-teleportation shields were lowered to allow the arrival of the intact warriors. Columns of green light opened and from the chronometric displacement devices marched phalanxes of warriors commanded by Immortals.

At the centre of his troops was the Honoured Overlord.

"The Priority Jethamahak is to defend the Tesseract Vault." Ordered the Necron noble, transmitting a long and detailed plan of attack to his troops and the Artificial Intelligence concurred. As scandalous as tolerating the vermin in these sacred halls was, it was a disgrace that had to be endured. If the Vault was breached and its prisoner released in the material realm, the survival of the Artificial Intelligence and everything nearby would be measured in seconds.

The processors of the unloving administrator did not stop examine the hundreds of perfectly-lined warriors pouring in his control room on the other hand, even if the speed of said examinations was rather low with the thousands of other preoccupations demanding its attention. But the symbols on the chest of the Immortals and the Overlord himself had evident discrepancies. These were not the honoured icons of the great Charnovokh Dynasty! These were the troops of-

"Infinite Override."

The weapons of the command room were all suddenly inactive and the Artificial Intelligence was rendered powerless. The very code it had acknowledged in the last milli-cycles were breaking his priorities, preventing millions of years old orders to be enforced. The Artificial Intelligence would retake control of course. But it would take a full cycle of the local star if the Overlord had not more surprises in reserve and previous interactions let the intelligence speculate the odds were not good.

"Oh, oh, oh. You're lucky I passed by, Szarekh would have exacted a terrible punishment if he knew your dynasty had gone against his orders."