Chapter 55, The Wolf and the Crimson King

M30.885

Lord Wolfen

Ark Reach IV

The sounds of artillery were coming to life as the sun set on the battlefield. The shells they spat out painted the darkness, clouding our vision and making it harder to aim precisely. Our guns would be opening fire as the night went on, ensuring the enemy didn't attempt any counterattacks to regain the territory they lost during the day's fighting. Or, if the Word Bearers were preparing any night attacks, we might open fire around the positions they were planning to strike. It was hard to predict their plan of action, as the Word Bearers tended to mix up their attacks to avoid establishing a routine before launching an assault.

But what mattered was that darkness was falling, and night was overtaking the battlefield, and all I could think was that it had been a long day. The fighting on this world was nearly coming to an end, with only three cities of major contention left. These three cities could basically be called a mega-city, as their suburbs ran into each other and allowed for internal lines of supply both above ground and beneath. Apparently, they had tunnels running from one city to another, so any attack against one city would have to deal with reinforcements from the others. That's why when attacks went off, they tended to happen simultaneously, locking the enemy in its position and preventing them from reinforcing anywhere else they were trying to break through.

The people of the Ark Reach were tough customers, which was funny considering how fragile they individually were when compared to baseline humans. To be quite clear, if anything, they reminded me of the Eldar to some extent. Human-sized, obviously from human stock, but I wouldn't put it past this particular area to have had some sort of appreciation for Eldar culture at some point and gene-modded their population to be more Eldar-like. Very lithe and tall of stature with a preference for long hair. The only thing missing were the pointy ears, though considering I hadn't seen the ruling class, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they had pointed ears as well. Anyone with common ancestry was easier to pick out by the rounded ears of a normal human.

Looking down the trench, I saw more of my Valkyrie sisters hard at work. Some were cleaning their weapons, armor, and doing the usual things necessary for combat, but many were relaxing. It was hard to see why not, as this was not good fighting for Fenris' people. It was slaughter, plain and simple. Many men would die, and many more would be wounded and sent back to Fenris.

Well, those from Fenris were actually outnumbered by the Guardsmen here with the Valkyrie. We were supported by the Word Bearers and some of their auxiliary forces, a strange batch of soldiers, to say the least, many of whom seemed to engage in idolatry. I had been through their trenches once or twice in order to reach the Word Bearers' main camp for a conversation with their leader, and seen their makeshift altars to the Emperor. They seem to consider him... I would almost say "God."

I don't really know what I believe anymore. Perhaps it was my exposure to Tanya; perhaps it was just being a soldier slowly draining you of your beliefs, or perhaps it was something else, but I just could not see the Emperor as the All-Father, not anymore. I might have believed it once when he first arrived; after all, it was a rather awe inspiring thing to see when he stood up from his chair and grew to the size of a giant, clad in shining gold armor that had not existed a moment before. But years passed, and the exposure to that sort of drains all the wonder out of you.

Shaking my head, I leaned back against the trench wall and closed my eyes, thinking about heading to sleep early. The next organized attack wasn't for another 36 hours, and I probably should be as rested as I could be before then.

But I was prevented from doing that as I heard the familiar thumping of heavy armor moving in my direction.

"Lord Wolfen," called the familiar voice of Kor as he approached. He was in his Terminator armor, although it appeared he had his servants remove his lightning claws before approaching my position.

"Captain Phaeron," I said, giving him a nod, and gesturing towards a wooden log that passed for a bench that had been moved into the trenches. "Take a seat. That heavy armor must be weighing heavily on your spine."

"Ha, gladly," Kor said before sitting down next to me. His weight didn't push me into the air like it did last time. Thankfully, the log I was on was even and slightly buried into the dirt.

"This has been a long campaign, and we still look like we have another half year in front of us," Kor mused as he sat back.

I nodded. We had been fighting over this planet for nearly 6 months, and so far, we had been winning. It was a slow operation because our forces were split across five other worlds and compliance actions on the sixth, but it had been moving at a steady pace. Sure, the population of this planet was proving to be some of the most stubborn humans in the galaxy when it came to fighting, but we were winning. It just was going to take time and blood.

Nodding my head, I said, "I spoke with Tanya a few weeks back. She said that the Thousand Sons should be getting here sooner or later. That should help speed this operation up."

Kor nodded before saying, "Yes, Magnus and his Marines should help. They are quite adept in the powers of the Warp. It should help us gain the edge we need for our future operations, especially on Ark Reach I and II. I've heard those operations have basically fizzled out into nothing, our forces repulsed from the landings."

I nodded, though not all intel was spread evenly throughout the army. It was kind of apparent at this point that most of the fighting that was going on was on Ark Reach V, IV, and III. Ark Reach VI, of course, was an operational supply depot and in the middle of compliance action, and the forces that were dedicated to Ark Reach I and II had been rededicated to Ark Reach III, IV, and V. What had happened on those operations, I didn't know. I had not had a chance to probe Tanya too hard on that matter, or perhaps she just was not willing to talk about it.

I shrugged before saying, "Well, I hope you're right. I never met this Magnus, though, or their Legion. We've never run into them during our campaigns."

"Ahhh, that's unfortunate," Kor said. "He happened to be with the Emperor when they arrived at our homeworld Colchis, in training or something of that matter. Magnus and Lorgar got along quite well, I dare say. They're probably the best of friends when it comes to siblings."

"Really? That's interesting. Well, at least there'll be something interesting to talk about when they arrive. They are spellcasters, I assume they have their own system for protecting themselves from the things in the Warp?"

"Ha, I'm sure of that," Kor said as he looked down the trench, noticing one of the icons I had been observing. "I see some of my men's retinue have been in the area."

I nodded before saying, "It's strange, folks that run with your Legion. Last time I checked, worship of the Emperor was not exactly approved."

Kor nodded his head before saying, "Yes, that's something that Lorgar's been working on. Personally, I'm not sure about that whole situation, but I will follow my daughter and Primarch into whatever she deems as necessary for the Imperium."

I nodded at my own head as I would do the same for my own leader. But before I could make a comment, Kor continued.

"Although you are probably in a very similar situation. I've heard that your people somewhat consider the Emperor something called the All-Father, and that Tanya Russ is the child of the All-Father."

I let out a sigh. "Yeah, yeah, that is a thing. Old religious rites and such. It's not hard to see why that came to be. Many of our people were just scraping by when Tanya arrived, and things have improved vastly under her rule, even better once the Emperor came around. There were no full cities really before the Emperor's brought technology of the stars back to Fenris. Now there are cities on Fenris with populations in the millions. It's not hard to see that our people would put some of our beliefs of our ancient past onto these new arrivals."

"A strange way of saying it," Kor noted. "So you don't believe that your Primarch is the daughter of a god?"

Chuckling, I said, "My mother is many things, but I don't believe she is a demigod. I've seen her fights, I know she is vastly better than many people, but she is human. Besides, the gods of Fenris are few and far between. The All-Father watches over the surface, the Great Wolf Morkai watches over the underworld. And both have been tamed by Tanya, as far as I'm aware."

"Taming the gods of Fenris, huh? That's a strange way of looking at it," Kor mused before saying, "You couldn't actually do that if they were real gods. A true deity would have such great power that there would be no way for us mortals to upset them in such ways that we could take the lead."

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow before shrugging and saying, "I don't know. Tanya is rather convinced that she could defeat anything that she comes across, and I wouldn't bet against her, that's for sure."

"Haha, of course, of course," Kor chuckled. "So, I do wonder if we are not going to run into a problem where creatures of such great ability may encounter the Emperor at some point. After all, it's hubris that slayed humanity the last time they believed that they understood the universe, and the universe decided to show them that they didn't. What is the Emperor doing? He believes he understands the galaxy and is trying to conquer it. That's humorous, and that could be taken advantage of if not careful. Same for Primarch Russ."

I nodded at that. It was words of wisdom, I could say for sure. "Humanity is reaching out into the stars, trying to conquer them, and the stars do not like that."

Kor nodded thoughtfully before saying, "True, true. Though we possibly are dealing with something that is so large that we don't really know how far their reach goes. My own studies on the subject could imply that, well, quite a bit more than we are informed by our Primarchs and Emperor."

I leaned forward, somewhat interested. "Okay, you have my attention, Kor. Tell me what your research has shown into the subject. If we are at risk of hubris, it's better for us to have a few people planning for disaster."

Kor nodded his head before saying, "I believe that there are four entities in the Warp, or at least four factions of entities in the Warp. I don't know all of what they are exactly, but my research has shown that these four entities have their influence in the real world. If you've ever come across a world where there are more warriors than you would expect, that tends to be one of, let's call him, the Red One. Worlds that are filled with decay and rot tend to be the domain of the Green One. Pleasure worlds, of course, are the domain of the Purple One. They seem to have a unique connection to the Eldar. I believe that they possibly were awakened from whatever deep sleep they were in by the collapse of the Aeldari Empire before the fall of humanity. And finally, there's the Blue One, master of magic and mysteries. These four entities have their domains within our Galaxy and have been possibly just feuding against each other for who knows how long. And now the Emperor is, well, the Golden One, the one who's trying to push these four factions back. The question is, how long will they let the Emperor play at this game before striking back?"

"The real question in my mind," I said, "is why do we think that they cannot be defeated? Even if these entities are based in the Warp, well, obviously there are ways to defeat their influence. Fenris has had a priesthood for a long time, and we haven't had any experiences with these four."

"Are you sure of that?" Kor asked. "Have you not found any ruins or temples that do not quite make sense, things that could be relics of one of these four, on your own world?"

A brief memory came to me of something deep inside the mountains of Fenris, something I've seen while I've been nothing but an animal – a temple shimmering with blue light. I raised my hand to my forehead, trying to cause the slight headache that came with it to go away before saying, "Maybe one such place, but if it was connected to the one you talk of, it's a lost domain. If anything, that place is overrun by creatures that are less than human and could not be worshipers of it."

"Hmm, the Red One, I would assume, considering your world's brutal past," Kor mused, and I did not deem it necessary to correct him.

Shaking his head, he said, "These ancient underground altars that worship these things, even if we destroy and bury every single one of them, there's probably more hidden in the galaxy that we don't know about. And where one is, they can gather support. Yes, this place you refer to appears to have fallen into disrepair from what your statement says, but it's only controlled by the most basic of creatures. Those creatures are still probably considered servants of them in one form or another, protecting the place until people who the entities deem worthy of its secrets journey down into it."

"Well, that's probably won't happen then," I mused before adding, "Tanya has struck a deal with the god of the underworld to keep such creatures from gathering outside the underworld and keep whatever is down there down there, away from what few populations we allow to examine the underground cities."

"Hmmm, interesting. This God of your underworld must not be one of the four or one of their major aspects. Very interesting," Kor noted.

"Why is that?" I asked, leaning back.

Kor said, "I've done my research, and it appears that the four appear to jostle for territory, but there are possibly Independents here or there that maintain their individuality. Although, from my research, it seems to me that they eventually fall either into being aspects of one of the main four or are absorbed by the main four in one way or another."

"Hmm, well, those four, as you call them, are going to need a lot of luck. Tanya is not one for letting something like that take root on her planets. She may not be as strict when it comes to religion as the Emperor, but she does follow the main rule that there are no organized religions on her worlds. She's okay with disorganized, sure, small communities that believe in similar things, that's no problem. But they have to obey the rules that are set down by her law, and our law is pretty much, as long as you don't do anything to harm anyone else, she doesn't give a damn about it. But if you do do something, well, then you'll probably have a Space Marine knocking down your front door within a week."

Kor chuckled before saying, "Well, I hope you're right. Frankly, I've heard some rather strange rumors that make me wonder if she is not being hunted by the purple one."

When I shook my head, saying, "Rumors are rumors; don't give them the time of day. They waste my time and yours, anyway the only one doing any hunting is Tanya, and she's probably going to end up hunting those four sooner or later by the sound of it. Should be a fun fight."

Kor Phaeron shook his head, "You Fenris folk are strange and wonderful people." He slowly got up, brushing himself off, as he said, "Anyways, I thought I would let you know that the attack that was scheduled for 32 hours from now, give or take, was pushed off another day. Assets that were being devoted to it had to be moved, as the enemies over the northern city attempted to push out and break our lines there and ended up overextending, allowing a counter-attack that may have doomed the northern city."

"Supposed to be the toughest nut to crack," I said, annoyed, which got a nod from Kor.

"Correct. They made a mistake, and we're likely to capitalize on it and save ourselves a lot of lives lost and time for the planet to fall within the month, I think. Now, though, it could be later if something gets through the fleet in orbit."

"Here's to that not happening," I said, reaching into my cloak and pulling out an alcoholic drink in a metal canister I carried. I quickly unscrewed it and took a sip before offering it to Kor, saying, "Not the best drink from Fenris, but it's something to celebrate a victory."

"Thank you," Kor said, reaching out and taking a sip, and the darkness settled around us.

Kori Bretakollrsson

Ark Reach III

Holding my hand up, I paused the column, the sensors on my helmet pinging off what were most likely soldiers moving from the debris of what once used to be a wondrously golden decorated City.

Ark Reach III had apparently been one of the major trade capitals of the Ark Reach Cluster, and they had shown their wealth in everything they built, from towers that appeared to have had bricks coated in a golden substance to a giant diamond in one part of the city that appeared to have been either forged or created for some process only the creators of such works would know. On display for anyone to see, now, not so much anymore as artillery rounds had done a number on what probably would've been a spectacle in its day.

Seeing such a richly decorated city in this state was sort of a sad thing, but well, if they didn't want their city turned into broken rubble, they should have not declared themselves vehemently against integration into the Imperium. There were plenty of other options; They just needed to take one of them. Instead, they had gone out of their way to start a war, and well, wars tend to leave destruction in their wake.

Operations had scaled up since the early days of invasions on Ark Reach III. When we first landed, we had just been trying to cause as much chaos and mayhem as possible, as Ark Reach IV and V were the heads of the operation. But things in Ark Reach I and II had been rebuffed, and more troops had been deployed to Ark Reach III in hopes of settling the score there. Two companies had been deployed to each planet, and only half of a company had returned. The powers on display there were so great that I wondered what Tanya would do to try and even the score. She wasn't one for using planetary destruction weapons, so we were going to have to go back in there, and I was all for it. Of course, some may say wasting our time on taking a planet so people can live there was a waste of time, but I got it. If we took the planet, they would give us a place for human colonization from the Imperium, which would mean more support in this region, making further invasions in this area easier. It was a simple system.

Of course, the problem was that the abilities on display here meant that anything that got off Ark Reach I and II onto the other worlds in the sector that we were trying to bring to compliance could cause a lot of trouble.

That's why I slowly moved forward with Bjorn to my right as we carefully watched for any enemies hiding in the debris of a once proud civilization, waiting to spring its traps on us.

After about 10 minutes, I shook my head. We'd moved quite a bit forward from the column, and nothing had attacked us, which was a sign that we might have been overreacting. At least, I had thought so at first. Then I heard gunshots on the other side of the building we were currently in front of.

Looking towards Bjorn, I said, "Who's on the left of us?"

Bjorn looked thoughtful for a moment before saying, "I believe it's the Word Bearers' column led by Erebus."

"He must not have noticed the ambush like we did and walked right into it," I mused as I racked my gun and kicked the door of the building down, finding two infantrymen who might as well have been half-asleep, considering they had been too busy refilling what looked like improvised firebombs to actually check if they were being surrounded.

Leveling my gun, I unleashed a quick burst of fire into them, blowing them away and splattering their remains against the wall.

Two more infantrymen charged out of a side room, bringing up their guns and firing off a few rounds at us. The ammunition wasn't piercing or explosive enough to actually do any damage before Bjorn brought his volkite charger to bear onto them, turning them into burning shadows against the wall.

Not caring for silence, we moved quickly, blasting our way through the building with vengeance and anger, killing anything that moved. Before long, the first floor was cleared, and the second floor might as well have been, because Bjorn simply lit the stairs on fire with his weapon.

"We probably shouldn't have done that," I thought out loud, before Bjorn nodded his head, saying, "Might have gone a little bit too far, but I think the point was made: ambushes aren't going to work."

"Here's hoping," I said, shaking my head as the building started to really burn. Motioning to the column, we moved on quickly, passing the burning street and finding our way to the next horizontal street in this mega city. There were a couple of calm, almost serene, Wolves of Fenris, already putting up positions to take a moment of rest here before we made our way further down into the city. To our left came a couple of columns of Word Bearers, setting up their own defenses as they too took a moment's rest.

This city was built with height in mind due to limits of the local geography and had built up over the years and as a result was quite massive, and though we would love to just bombard them outright, there was also an extensive underground network of tunnels and chambers that from reports housed the cities slums and lower class and was the dirty underbelly of the golden city above, which allowed enemy forces to move around and set ambushes through the underground pathways.

It really came down to two things: the only way we were going to clean sweep this area around the city and the city itself was to march through it street by street, killing anything that tried to fight us.

We did try to save civilians here and there, but many of them tried to blow us up. What could you do? Some of the kids we were able to save, mostly by knocking them out and shipping them back on Rhinos to be cared for by Fenrisian guards stationed outside the city, watching over and accepting refugees. Though there were few left, a lot of people apparently really believed in their Phoenix King's ability to protect them and were not willing to accept the surrender that needed to happen. This would have to change sooner or later. But for now we needed to just rest before we moved on. The city was massive, nearly 100 square miles of urban infrastructure had overgrown much of the nature of this world. If it weren't for the fact that this was built on the coast between a mountainous region, I'm sure this place would have continued to grow sideways for eternity, or maybe they would be forced to learn how to build taller than they had previously.

How many years was that at this point? It was 885, and we'd started campaigning around the 30s, man. I've been at this for about half a century. Shaking my head, I looked over to Bjorn as he changed out his volkite charger with another Marine for a bolt gun, saying, "We need weapons that ain't going to set the place on fire as we go through it."

"I know," he replied, "We have direct orders not to burn the place down. Officially, we weren't actually given those orders. We were just ordered to take the cities in the best condition possible. We could bombard them, sure, but we weren't meant to destroy them on purpose, which is hard. The only things we had confirmed reports that we could destroy without necessary worry were enemy installations that could be proven to have hidden weapons in them, which tended to be big community buildings, churches, schools, and things like that. Unfortunately, those tended to be places where the enemy would hide their civilian population on purpose, so we usually had to surround the building and force them out before we could blow them up."

"Just more things that are slowing down this operation," I remarked. "At least we are getting tanks into the mix in the next few days. They have mostly been kept outside of the city so far because most of them were currently mounting flamethrowers, and considering we still do not have orders to burn the place down, they need to be remounted with bolt guns and other equipment that won't set the place alight on purpose."

Bjorn shook his head before saying, "Well, if the casualties keep rising, Tanya will probably give the green light on that. She's kind to a point, but there is a point where she goes, 'You know, fuck it.' That's why we follow her after all."

"True, true," I replied, "Just wish there was a way we could beat these people or make them surrender without having to spend so many lives on this operation."

"Well, there are ways," I heard the voice of Erebus from behind me. Myself known, I turned and saw the Space Marine coming forward, his helmet held under his arm as he approached. Inscriptions on the side of his face tattooed there, oddly enough, I noted. He said, "I assume they will soon have forces moved here to help us take this place. After all, it's been a tough nut to crack, so they'll probably give us a few more Space Marines to crack it. That, or your Valkyrie and our own retinues brought over from Ark Reach IV. I heard news that it's about ready to fall."

"About damn time," Bjorn said with a nod of approval. "That place has been giving everyone a pain in the ass. Any news on Ark Reach V?"

Erebus shook his head before saying, "Even my contacts aren't available for that. I've heard news that it's going okay, but it's as problematic as three and four combined, with other issues related to how much water is on the planet."

I shook my head before saying, "Aquatic combat is always a pain in the ass. Urban aquatic combat is even worse."

"Oh, have you fought in those conditions before?" Erebus asked.

I nodded my head before saying, "We fought some Dark Eldar and mercenaries on a beach planet once. Had to do a water landing to reach the compound that they were raiding out of. It was an ugly fight. Not to mention that something about the place was just wrong. It pissed everyone off to some degree. We even burned down a palace accidentally because we were just so fed up with what the Dark Eldar were up to and what we were seeing on that planet."

Bjorn nodded his head before saying, "First time Tanya ever gave an order of 'Just kill them all.' Those people pissed her off. I think it's still technically standing orders to just kill the Dark Eldar when we see them."

I nodded my agreement as Erebus said, "Interesting, quite interesting. I was unaware that Tanya had any issues like that with the Eldar, but I guess that makes sense."

"The Dark Eldar are some of the worst Xenos this side of the Maelstrom and south of the Ghoul Stars, even worse than the bioforms we encountered in the last campaign." I said, remembering the Rangdan campaign.

"Oh yes, the Rangdan. I wish our men had been able to take part in that campaign, but there were other operations we were needed for," Erebus said with a shake of his head.

"We go where the Emperor wants us," I said matter-of-factly as I magnetized the bolt gun to my back.

"Yes, as the Emperor's angels of death, we must bear the brunt of what is necessary for the continuation of humanity's existence. So, I do wish we had been available to go up there. So much we could have come to understand about their society was lost in that campaign."

I shook my head before saying, "Trust me, there was nothing you wanted to come to understand. I've read some of the reports from other commanders on that operation. They were all zealous and dangerous. We had to burn out the entire region of space surrounding that area, rendering entire planets lifeless husks because they were worried about bioweapons being left behind. Whatever we could have learned from them would not have been worth the lives that were potentially lost in the future dealing with their technology."

"Not to mention that there were reports that they had the ability to summon things from the Warp into the real world. Things that should only be a problem when we're traveling through the Warp on a planet can cause massive damage and mayhem. I'm glad that we ended up eliminating the species. They are too dangerous for everyone," Bjorn said with a nod.

Erebus nodded his head before asking, "Well, that may be true of the Rangdan, but I do wonder if we sometimes go a little too overzealous with our efforts to protect humanity. Specifically, I wonder if we could have found some way to avoid the burning of this beautiful city."

I raised an eyebrow as I looked at him before saying, "What else was there to do? As far as I'm aware, your Primarch attempted to speak to them about joining the Imperium, and they profusely said no."

Erebus nodded his head in agreement before saying, "All true, though not exactly all the details if you ask me. The meeting did not get off to a good point of starting from my point of view. Lorgar was somewhat insulted by their claims that their Phoenix Kings were as wise and valuable to humanity as the Emperor himself. This put her in a bit of a testy mood in my opinion, that I believe we could have worked our way through if we had taken it slower. But flat refusal and their insulting of the Emperor's luminary status, along with pressure from the Administratum to speed up our efforts to bring planets into compliance, pushed her a bit on this one to be more brutal than I think she would normally want to be."

I raised an eyebrow before shrugging my shoulders and adding, "I will admit the pressure from the Administratum can be detrimental to our campaign sometimes, especially with how they handle things after we leave. Often grouping planets that hated each other into similar sectors and being surprised when they end up screwing each other over. But there's not much we can do on that matter. Too many needs to be united if we want to take our place amongst the stars, and we cannot waste time with planets that are outright threatening to be a problem with their own empires."

Erebus nodded his head. "True, oh well, I guess I just think too much sometimes. But what is our purpose as humans but not to think? Freedom of will and all that," He said with a shrug.

Looking out at the next road to the city, he added, "Plus, with all the butchery that's been going on these last few days, it's a bit much even for me."

"Understandable," Bjorn said before adding, "After all, you guys are more builders than fighters from what I've seen."

"Builders?" Erebus asked, puzzled.

"Just a term that gets passed around between the Wolves of Fenris and the Iron Warriors. They'd like to be the builders, but end up having to be warriors. We are pretty good at being warriors, but we end up being builders once in a while. All legions basically fall on the scale: are you a builder or a warrior, and what are you going to end up having to do? Most of the time, it's going to be warrior, but we've kind of come to the assumption that when this whole crusade is over, we'll be builders. Every one of us, in one way or another, is trying to help society improve. Don't know what the hell I will be doing. I'm a failed builder even before I was a Space Marine, but we'll figure it out as we go along or Tanya will tell us what to do. She's pretty good at that."

"Yes, yes, she must be," Erebus said, rubbing his thumb over his chin in thought before shaking his head. "Interesting. Anyways, I should be getting back to my own unit. It's good to talk to you two again. Maybe we'll see each other at the next stop point on this street assault."

"Yeah, we'll see you there," I said, nodding, as Erebus gave a bow, turned, and left us. I waited until he was out of earshot before I said, "Ever had an odd feeling that that guy is not telling us everything he's trying to tell us?"

Bjorn shook his head, saying, "Nope. I do get a bad feeling about that guy in general. Something about him just rubs me the wrong way, and I'm not sure what."

I shrugged before saying, "I don't know. Hopefully, we can get through this campaign without talking to him too much. Too intellectual, I think. Too much about this stuff probably is not good for his emotional state when we've actually got to do some heavy work."

"Maybe, maybe," Bjorn said, looking after him as I cracked my knuckles, preparing for the next assault.

Tanya Russ

Ark Reach V

Sighing, I sat back in the once-throne, now nothing more than a stool that belonged to the Phoenix King of Ark Reach V. The official name was probably going to be lost to history at the current rate things are going. Most of the political class would rather die fighting than surrender, and those who didn't tended to flee off-world or somewhere else. It seemed that the only planet we knew the official name of was Ark Reach I, simply because someone mentioned it as the throne world of the Phoenix Kings.

Sitting back, I looked out of a window at the burning city in the distance, annoyed that it had come to this destruction, but accepting that it had to be this way. They refused to surrender; they'd been given the chance many times, and it was thrown away. So, each planet would all be burnt to the ground at this rate. Ark Reach VI was in a slightly better state; V would have no major cities after this; IV would be a wasteland; and III, well, III's concentration of population into one major city guaranteed that the planet's ecosystem would survive. That was one good thing, I guess.

But they would all fall within the next few weeks, then we'd have to deal with Ark Reach I and II, the most problematic of the planets, considering the assault we had sent there had been rebuffed by forces of psychic nature.

What powers they used was still up in the air to some, but I had seen the footage and was pretty confident that psychic abilities were used to rebuff our landing efforts. These abilities were closer to my previous lifes Imperial magic than the ship blowing up from an artillery round, which should not have been able to pierce the armor, tends to indicate something weird is going on.

Was it that trace remnants of that style of magic got transplanted here and used by these faux Eldar? I could say that now with certainty after having slain the Phoenix King of this planet and gotten a good look at his ears. Hard to say about the Imperial magic, but at least the theories that these people have been culturally contaminated by the Eldar to some degree were confirmed. They probably had traded with the old empire that the Eldar had in the past, I assumed. Or maybe, well, there were rumors, rare rumors, of Eldar and humans intermingling. Perhaps the Phoenix Kings were a line of half-breeds that had maintained their power over the centuries of the long night. It was not impossible; stranger things were possible, considering what bioengineering had done to the Rangdan if some theories were confirmed true.

My thoughts were interrupted as Yrsa came forward with a mug of ale from Fenris, presenting it to me with a smile. I said thank you, taking the mug and sipping it, folding my right leg over my left as I leaned back.

The city was burning; no other way to look at it. The only thing that would be left is this palace, and the only reason it would be left is because I had occupied it. Right now, the civilian population that was full of belief in their Phoenix King's superiority would rather burn their own city and kill their own people than let conquest be successful. That was why my Marines were out there, trying to prevent the wholesale slaughter of the Ark Reach's next generation from the petty tantrums of a dying culture.

These Phoenix Kings had a cult, there's no other way to look at it. They were no better than the leader of Jonestown or any other cult that had found out that there were bigger fish in the pond and they were going to come knocking.

What was I going to do with all the remaining civilians? Those few that were left, and these thousands, if not more, of kids? I couldn't exactly just leave them on this planet; they were not going to be able to survive on their own, at least not without aid.

Most likely, I was going to have to do two things: load up as many as I could on our ships and send them to Fenris, where they would probably be able to survive and integrate into that society. And secondly, ship some civilian workers from Fenris here to think about it. Perhaps some of the Fenris guard units that were coming close to the end of their contracts pretty soon; perhaps I should give them first choice of settling on these planets. It would solve the problem to some extent, plus these planets were still in relatively good condition and would need someone to look after them to make sure these cults of the Phoenix King didn't re-establish themselves.

My thoughts were interrupted from the future of this system, as I heard the voice of my sister Lorgar, bringing me from my view of the burning city to the entrance where Lorgar and some of her staff were entering. They were dressed in full armor, as I was, which at least put us on the same footing, unlike the last time we had spoken.

Lorgar, while at home, preferred to wear either their armor or simple Greek-style clothing. As for me, I preferred either the well-maintained leather clothing I had tailored for me while on Fenris or my armor. Being forced to accept a Greek-style dress to have meetings aboard Lorgar's ship just to appeal to her sensibilities was not one of those things that I felt comfortable with; too restricting for my taste.

Smiling, I said, "Welcome, sister," indicating towards one of the other thrones, that I would guess were for visiting Phoenix King. From what I'd seen of this castle, there were six thrones, one at the highest end, and five smaller on either side. A similar setup had been found on the sixth planet; the thrones in that case had been in a different position, possibly indicating which planet they belonged to.

Smiling, Lorgar dropped her war mace near a window and came forward, grabbing my hand in both of hers and shaking it. "Wonderful campaign we've accomplished here today; we've thoroughly smashed the Phoenix Kings and uprooted their evil."

"Wonderful indeed? Difficult on this planet, yes, but we still got two more to go."

"Oh, of course, of course. The other two planets will come through, and it's not like this is just one planet we've conquered. Our efforts to keep them from supporting each other have been somewhat successful, and now four of the six planets are down. There are only two left, and I imagine once the leader of the Thousand Sons arrives, we'll be able to push that enemy out of those worlds soon enough."

"Yes, if the Thousand Sons arrive, if they ever decide to do so. I'm quite annoyed by the time it has taken for them to show up. They were called nearly a year ago."

"They'll be here, don't worry," Lorgar said with a wave of her hand before adding, "Magnus wants to meet you anyway."

I raised an eyebrow as I looked at her, saying, "Magnus? You're on a first-name basis with the leader of the 15th?"

"Oh, yes. I've known them for decades," Lorgar said with a shrug as she looked out the window before turning back to me and asking, "But that can wait till they arrive. That should be any day now. You sent a unit to try and pick them up, what, 3 months ago?"

I sighed before nodding, "Yes, I sent the Fifth Company to go speed up their arrival. They've been caught up in something for the last few months. Headed by Amlothi Skarssen Skarssensson, one of my loyal Wolf lords, so they should be back soon, but I worry that something has gone wrong. After all, it seems to be taking a very long time for them to show back up."

"We are a galactic empire facing galactic threats. I'm sure whatever they're dealing with is substantial. Once they arrive, we can get to work planning the compliance of those last two worlds. But for now, what are we going to do with the four we have already?" Lorgar said as she looked out the window, musing.

"I have two plans so far. Import some Fenrisian civilians to help with the rebuilding, and migrate some of the population back to Fenris, particularly the children, since they can probably adapt better than the adults. This cult needs to be broken up, and the only way we can do that is to break the chain of connections holding it together," I explained.

"Agreed. I've already ordered my Word Bearers to hunt down the sanctuaries and religious iconography of the Phoenix King, destroy it, or replace it with those of the Emperor, showing him as the liberator for this world," Lorgar added.

I raised an eyebrow but let it pass. Yes, putting up a statue of the Emperor in a place that used to be a sanctuary could be seen as putting up your own religion to replace the last, but the religion was: "We're freeing you from crazy cults." So it could theoretically be an okay move. I doubted the Emperor would even mind, and I considered anyone would probably just be more amused at the new golden statues being erected on this world.

Finally, I said, "Well, that is true. Your people are good at rebuilding societies. From what I understand of your campaigns, in fact, I'd say you're a bit too dedicated to that aspect of our Crusade. I assume you're going to leave some men here to help rebuild this society as well."

"It's in my plans, of course," Lorgar said. "I was thinking of leaving a third of a company here, as well as some of the retinue I've gathered from various worlds. General Calgurus of the Imperial Army will take over the governorship of these six worlds. The Administratum has already declared that General Calgurus is getting long in his years, and with this successful campaign, they want to put him out to pasture."

"Did he agree to that?" I asked, as the way Lorgar phrased it made me suspicious that someone in the Administratum didn't like General Calgurus and was trying to get him out of the field.

"I assume so. I haven't had a chance to speak to him on the matter. I've only been informed of it within the last 24 hours."

"Hmm," I shook my head before saying, "I'll have to have a conversation with General Calgurus about that. Sounds too much like the Administratum just trying to meddle in military matters that they should not be screwing with."

"Ah, oh yes, I've heard that you've had some run-ins with the Administratum. I've got nearly a dozen letters telling me to speed up my conquest because they want results now, and you know they don't care for the intricacies and difficulties of war, it feels like sometimes."

I nodded, about to say something about how every day we are fighting against forces that are throwing themselves at the borders of humanity when the doors to the central hall burst open as if under an invisible force.

I turned, half reaching for my weapons, expecting to end up in a firefight, but I saw some Space Marines in red armor step through, their weapons firmly on their backs, not in a sign of readiness to start a fight. One of their officers stepped forward with a staff in his hands. Another thing I noted about the new arrivals, besides the coloration, was the fairly Egyptian-esque style headdress on their armor.

Every Legion handles slight differences in how they handle their armor when it comes to helmets, but this was the first one I'd seen leaning heavily into head ornaments.

As the red guards cleared the way, a person who could be called a giant leaned down to step into the room, an almost impossibly large individual even compared to us, his head barely not scraping the surface of this Grand Palace as he looked around.

There were two surprising things about him: one, he had red skin, hair, everything was red; two, he didn't have a lot of armor, only legs and chest armor, but his arms were fully exposed, and his head, well, I wasn't sure what he was wearing, but it was definitely not a full helmet, considering his hair was fully exposed.

He looked through what I realized was one eye; the other one was completely non-existent, as the patch of skin that should be there was smooth as if it had never been there.

I probably should have asked who it was, but that was rather evident as I said, "Ah, you must be the mysterious Magnus I've been waiting for."

"It's good to see you too, sister. It's been what, 50 years? 40 years?" he said, stepping forward.

That drew a confused look from me as I said, "We've never met before."

"Oh right, I forgot," as Magnus stepped forward, he clicked his fingers and fell in stature, changing quite drastically from a giant to the average height of a human female with red skin and red hair, still missing an eye, which I noted, though now they looked very familiar.

"You're that woman who was with the Emperor all those years ago, his new apprentice."

"Got it in one," the female Magnus said, clicking her fingers and returning to her male form and giant stature. "Sorry that I took so long to get here. As your captain of the Fifth Company will attest, we ran into unfortunate situations on my last campaign. Some things from the Sea of Emotions escaped and had to be dealt with."

"A Warp invasion?" I asked, which got a nod.

"Yes, unfortunately. This creature, a poor imitation of what could be considered life, had possessed a Titan, and we had to deal with it."

"A war Titan infested with a Warp creature? Okay, you're forgiven for being late. That is an issue that needs to be dealt with. Welcome to Ark Reach V, Magnus, and to the most most wasteful campaign we could have run into," I said with a shake of my head.

Noticing my Wolves, who had been in a corner staring at the new arrivals with barely contained fear and anger, I couldn't exactly place the emotion that was being drawn from them. I followed their eyes and noticed what they were looking at—one, no, more than one of Magnus's followers had some sort of creature on their shoulders. I didn't recognize them, and they didn't look exactly right, except for the fact that they were birds.

"What are those things?" I said, looking past Magnus at the creatures.

"What things?" Lorgar said, following my eyes.

"Oh, she's noticing our companions. Well, that's quite interesting. So far, only those with extremely high psychic abilities have been able to notice them. The Emperor, for one," Magnus said. "Quite interesting. They're just simply an element of training within my Legion, allowing us to gain access to intelligence about our enemies without putting ourselves or our equipment at risk."

I raised an eyebrow, saying, "You've chained Warp beasts to your will to be your scouts?" I asked, frankly stunned by that realization, considering that he had just been involved in dealing with one that had gone rampant.

"Have you not?" Magnus said, looking over my shoulder at the top of what used to be the throne I was sitting in. Following his gaze, I saw my Raven sitting at the top of the throne, watching from up above. It tilted its head and looked down at me in confusion. I shrugged before saying, "That's different. That's a living creature, not a Warp creature."

"Are you sure of that? I sense some other powers to it, something that would only be common amongst creatures of the Warp and their ilk."

"Fenris is a weird planet," I said matter-of-factly, waving off the notion that the birds were in any way abnormal.

"If you say so, sister, if you say so," Magnus said, approaching before adding, "I must say, I feel a bit out of place, being the only male Primarch."

I cleared my throat before saying, "Well, now you know how we feel most of the time, I suppose. Considering you apparently can switch genders at the thought, it doesn't seem like a big problem to me that you have."

"True, true," Magnus said, clicking his fingers and taking on a still very tall but female form—a very eye-catching one at that. "There, now we all are on the same footing, at least," she said as she swept her long hair back.

"Not sure about that," Lorgar said, her eyes locked on the impressive bust that even made me feel a pang of jealousy. I know I was sure I would feel quite a lot of back pain if I had something that size, considering the muscular nature of the arms Magnus was pulling off. Magnus was quite tall, making the impressive bust look even more massive because she was a good 4 ft taller than everyone in the room.

Clearing my throat, I said, "You don't need to do that if you prefer to be male. I mean, it's impressive that you can switch forms quite easily and confirm some theories that I've had, but it's not necessary."

Magnus continued to brush her hair as she said, "Oh, yes, I am male by birth, I guess you would say, but there's nothing wrong with a little exploration. Besides, if this campaign is mainly run by my sisters, why not join in with their number and make it a fully female campaign?"

"Not sure that works that way," I said, "but we'll work with what we got, all right. Magnus, have you been studying the reports that have been sent to you about Ark Reach II and I, and what do you have to say about it?"

Placing her hands on her hips, she said, "Well, it's not much to say. The people of Ark Reach I and II obviously have Warp powers. I've been doing some studying over the reports that you've been sending, and intelligence has been able to gather. They seem to have a school of some sort within a Great Library, full of ancient and forgotten knowledge and teachings—something we should endeavor to seize for our own knowledge and powers."

"But from my own studies, I don't believe these magic wielders of the Phoenix King are that powerful compared to my own men. Adding my forces to yours, we should be able to breach any defenses that they are able to deploy."

"Are you sure about that?" I mused, leaning back and putting my hand on the side of my face as I leaned to the side. "These mages that they deploy are quite skilled in their craft. The landing force that tried to invade the city on Ark Reach I was prevented from doing so by a massive shield being deployed. We're going to need something that can take that down, and I'm not sure that anything lesser than orbital bombardment will do that."

"I have some abilities that will give us the edge, not to worry. Besides, I'm more worried about Ark Reach II. One of the reports indicated that several of your Marines went missing on that attack."

I nodded my head, not a fan of that information getting out there, but not much we could do on the matter. Ark Reach II's expedition had been blown out of the sky, and though we had managed to land a recovery force far away from civilization, several Marines were never found. Even during ground combat, we had not been able to locate remnants of their armor or biological material, indicating that they had been captured. Oh sure, there was a possibility they were just dead in a ditch that we had missed, but we had reports that they had arrived on the planet safely from others who had been with them before they split up in different directions to avoid capture. That was more than enough information to make assumptions that, well, they had been captured.

What the enemy could learn from such an operation, I don't know, but I would rather not find out. "Fine, we'll need to be quite thorough in this conquest, then. Recover anything that was lost and make sure they can't pull any tricks on us."

"Agreed," Magnus said before continuing, "We do not have a large legion, so we will need to go to each planet one at a time. I would prefer we hit the second planet first, but if you prefer, we could hit the first planet. After all, it does have that library, and the longer they have it under their control, the more likely they are to start destroying records to deny them from us if they realize they are not going to win."

I nodded before saying, "Can you not split your force in half? How many Marines do you have?"

Shaking her head, Magnus said, "10,000. My force was greatly diminished before they reconnected with me. That's why they're called the Thousand Sons, but we have grown some since then. Though we are a small legion, we are very elite in our abilities."

Hmm, breaking up a small legion of 10,000 into two groups of 5,000 may sound like a reasonable request, I thought. But no doubt they were a group that worked better together than separated. Nodding my head, I said, "We'll hit the Ark Reach I first if you believe those books in that library are of use to the Imperium. We better take them while they are still untouched, although I doubt we'll find anything interesting. This cult of the Phoenix is a rather ugly affair."

"Cult of the Phoenix," Magnus mused, rubbing her chin before adding, "We need to be careful then. Fire is something that is important to the Phoenix; rebirth comes from it. If they have the same assumptions, they may have some sort of world-devastating weapon on their planet, ready to spring off, possibly with bunkers hidden somewhere to keep a portion of their population safe so they can rebuild after we've been destroyed."

"The only ones who will be doing any rebuilding once this is over are our forces," Lorgar said proudly, and I gave her a nod in agreement.

Turning to Magnus, I asked, "So, one question though, whose idea was it to hide that you were you when we met back all those years ago? It's going to bug me if I don't ask."

"Oh, that was the Emperor's idea. He thought it would be funny to have me pose as some psychic disciple human just to throw you off the scent that you might be in the presence of the other Primarch aboard his ship. By the way, did that work? I've always wondered if you had seen through it or not."

I chuckled before saying, "I don't think I saw through it, but I was suspecting that something was going on there. I wouldn't say I knew for sure, but it was a possibility, so I played with it."

"Interesting, quite interesting," Magnus said, rubbing her chin before adding, "Well then, now that we no longer have to play and pretend not knowing each other, I cannot wait to work with you. There's so much about your specific brand of spellcraft I want to learn. Perhaps we can teach each other something."

"Perhaps we can, perhaps we can," I said with a nod before turning to Yrsa and saying, "Why don't you get the good ale out? Might as well celebrate a union of three Primarchs working together with a night of drinking before we launch our next assaults in a week or so on Ark Reach I."

"Sounds like a plan," Lorgar said, and Magnus nodded her agreement.

Yrsa quickly hurried off, gathering other Valkyries and getting to work. Not only bringing in large amounts of alcohol but plenty of foodstuff as well, not only for the three Primarchs but for the rest of them as well. The palace, now surrounded by a burning city, became a rather cheerful little place as we all drank ourselves into a stupor, enjoying a night of relaxing camaraderie.

Writers note: oh hey… i fool you all! Of courses the shap shifter whas a shap shifter hahaha, magnus is dude this whole time hahaha. Beyond that sure look like everyone getting along.

Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…

Edited by: Y1

Community edited by:

Community editable doc (Chapter) No story suggestions in the community editing document, Keep all story suggestions and comments in the thread

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