Chapter 57, Wounded Pride

Lord Wolfen
Ark Reach 2

Finally, some success, by the All-Father! The fighting on the first planet had taken a few months but was finally coming to an end. Unfortunately, the city center had been completely demolished, but success was success nonetheless. With that handled, we could finally move on to the last and final battle: Ark Reach II, Ark Reach Secundus, or any other number of names, including a supposed true name of Heliosa. Though we didn't care that much. I didn't care that much. We just needed to finish this campaign and get on to the next operation.

Assuming we would probably be heading towards the outer rim of the galaxy, far, far away from anywhere we thought. Reportedly, there was a campaign out there that was slow going and gathering the forces due to the fact that the Primarchs in the region near it were busy with other operations.

But those were just rumors. There was also a story that Tanya would have to involve herself again, that there was a bit of a kerfuffle down near the Wheel of Fire, and it needed a little bit of a Space Marine's gentle hand to settle.

I didn't know what would happen. All I knew was that I was looking out across the hell we had set up operations on, as the city was slowly encircled. The enemy's main army had been defeated just south of here, which would hopefully mean the city would be taken without much trouble, though considering we had to destroy the city center on the last one, I doubted that it would be an easy operation.

Reaching out, I could feel the psychic energy emanating from the city. A large amount of it. What were they doing in there that could draw such energy to this planet? More energy than I think I'd felt since... since Tanya had called up her blizzard on the Rangdan.

Whatever they were planning would probably require the aid of the Thousand Sons to keep it under control. But hopefully, combined we would be able to handle it. After all, we seemed to be quite adept at dealing with psychic powers ourselves. Not only had we been able to sniff out hidden enemy forces hours earlier, but we had also been able to neutralize the enemy Psykers in the enemies unit before they could become useful.

Personally, I wasn't so sure about that. But I could understand the belief. The people of Fenris had long misunderstood psychic potential. To be fair, if I hadn't undergone a crash course in it over the last few years, I'd probably think the same. Simply because I had not been a psyker before. Before my change, I had been a noble Lord. Now, I am a Valkyrie and not only just a Valkyrie but one of its new leaders as well… I think I'm starting to understand why mother indulges herself so much, when I initially asked her for permission to reform the Valkyrie corps I didn't realize there would be so many issues to account for.

Firstly was the recruitment issues involved with the Valkyries as a whole since due to our unique circumstances we took in recruits form either two groups; The Daughters of Russ the aspirant women of Fenris who took a modified version of my own Gene-Seed and The Reborned, the failed Space Marine aspirants who at one point in the journey changed and became female. The former were generally fine during their orientation if not a bit overeager but the main issues lay with the latter as understandably such a large change in one's life can lead to a great deal of issues that unfortunately cannot be easily remedied, too further compound on this issue there is hearsay amongst the troops that the Reborned are not true Valkyries and should be castaway.

Secondly was the slowly rising numbers of psykers or individuals with psyker potential within the Valkyries as a whole, though there seemed to be a greater proportion of them coming from The Daughters of Russ compared to the Reborned, maybe that was due to… Nope, no, definitely not those thoughts only lead to madness. Normally this wouldn't be an issue as we would assign them to a Rune-Priest as apprentices however this practice was starting to become unsustainable as the number of Apprentices were growing too large for individual Rune-Priests to teach. I would need to confer with Ysra and Chris Kragh and members of the Rune-Priests to share some of my ideas and find a good solution for this growing mess.

Still I can't really complain too much since at the very least the other leaders Ysra and Chris Kragh were in charge of the other parts of the reformation with Ysra making good progress dealing with the restructuring of our chain of command and non-combat groups. However Chris was having issues with the direction of our military forces, she believes that it would be better for the Valkyrie as a whole to branch out and find niches in combat the the Wolves cannot easily fulfill and have more specialized contingents instead of just a training for direct combat and was in the middle of talks with Wolf Lord Henry Fyf who had plans of their own. Personally I wasn't sure along with other Valkyries since it seemed unhonorable for warriors of Fenris to skulk in the shadows and not find their glory in battle. Surprisingly it was the Reborned who seemed the most happy with this direction, that I didn't really understand. In the end hopefully the Valkyrie will be able to stand proudly beside our brothers and be more than just a glorified harem for our Primarch.

I needed to finish my work on this project soon and get to work on my other projects. I needed to understand the strange oddities that have led to my existence, the Canis Helix as it's being called by some more learned Wolf Priests who are investigating it. Find out how that works and see if we can put it to our own use.

Shaking my head, I looked out over the city, wondering what they were up to when I heard a familiar set of heavy footsteps.

"Good afternoon," I called, turning as he approached.

"Good afternoon, Lord Wolfen. What a wonderful day for a campaign, don't you think? We seem to have pushed the enemy to their brink, and soon this whole conflict will be over."

"Wonderful, in my opinion. Less death once this is all over. Though with how things are going, we need to do something to help rebuild the society of these planets. The whole place is going to be wrecked up pretty badly from what I've seen."

Kor Phaeron nodded his head before saying, "My Primarch agrees. Unfortunately, it's more likely than not that the administration will be taking full control of these planets. They tend to step in whenever there's any debate about who gets to rebuild a system."

I raised an eyebrow before saying, "That's rather odd. There are six planets here. We could easily divide the six planets between three Primarchs, or even, if we wanted to be more favorable, three planets to one Primarch and three to the Administratum. At the very least, that would make sure that everyone got something out of this whole ordeal."

Kor Phaeron nodded his head before saying, "Well, that's not a bad idea. I'll raise this with my Primarch. You should do the same. Perhaps we can prevent this planet from falling into the tender mercies of the Administratum."

I nodded my head in agreement. I had heard stories and seen a few planets during our time campaigning. Not to mention the fact that Rangdan controlled space had been ordered to be completely annihilated had originated from the Administratum. The Lords of Terra seemed a bit clumsy at times, and like they didn't know what they were doing. We could have taken those planets and repurposed them in other ways, made productive areas out of them for the Imperium. Instead, now they didn't exist, which was unfortunate. I would say it was almost a waste of resources, considering we had put so much into it, only to have a higher authority trash all our work as unnecessary and unneeded.

"That would be good," I said, but Kor noticed my tone and said, "Not a fan of the Administratum?"

"Fan would be a misuse of the term," I replied. "I'm simply paying attention to what's going on around me, that's all."

I didn't step closer until we were separated enough from the camp, so he spoke. "You know, I believe the Administratum might be the biggest problem for this whole campaign when you think about it. The way they're taking control of things that we conquer for them seems to, well, not be done right. See, the decision for the species that could either be brought under the heel of humanity or annihilated wholesale feels arbitrary under the Administratum, and well the only reason some are kept around is because the Emperor was personally involved in that decision. Sometimes the decision between what is considered human and what is considered Xenos gets completely chosen by the Mechanicum who have their hands deep into the Administratum. I worry that they'll cause the largest issue in the future."

"How so?" I asked, interested in where he was going with this.

"Well, I know your people believe in something called the All-Father, a spiritual being that protects the people of Fenris. I know that it also gets confused with the Emperor in some aspects, but the important part is that you have a spiritual belief. The same goes for some of our people. Some of us believe the Emperor is a being worth deifying, others at least acknowledge that he's extremely powerful and we should do our best to look to him in our life. The Mechanicum, though, believe differently. Some aspects of them believe he is some sort of prophet of their machine religion. I wonder, though, which of these three views of the world will be allowed to survive in the bureaucracy that is the Administratum."

"Bureaucracies, from what I've seen, don't exactly like having multiple choices and answers. They prefer a single answer, and they stick to it. So, which one is it? Is the Emperor some sort of spiritual deity from another plane? Is he just somebody to look up to? Or is he a prophet of the Mechanicum's God? Or is the Emperor exactly what he says, that he's just a man and that religious worship in any capacity is bad, which is laughable considering his allowance to your own people and the Mechanicum? You must have some areas he considers not worth pushing on, but will the Administratum abide by that?"

"You think the Administratum will make a choice and try to make everyone go by it even if it's not exactly what the Emperor means."

"Exactly. It's a simple worry but not impossible. They might again use the fact that they help the Administratum to assure that all other beliefs are put into a secondary class and be removed besides their own, simply using the dictates that the Emperor does not want religion as a tool to achieve it."

I nodded, "It's not an impossibility. The Mechanicum has quite an interesting path to getting followers. We used to have this order on our planet called the Iron Priests. They were simply learned men of metal who built armor and weapons. Though there was also some connection to this island of iron who had a bit more technology under their belt, they still do, though not as compared to what we have now thanks to the Imperium. Anyways, these Iron Priests have basically been almost absorbed into the Mechanicum's belief system. They still allow them to call their version of the Omnissiah the All-Father, but it's basically the Omnissiah in everything but words."

Kor nodded his head before saying, "Exactly, my concern is spreading their beliefs while the Emperor has simply said no beliefs is an obvious loophole. And why are they allowed to have such a loophole, I wonder."

"That's not hard to see," I said. "They provide the weapons, at least they do now."

"Oh?" Kor looked at me with interest, and I smiled, saying, "I don't know what the Emperor's plan is, but I know what my Primarch's plan is. From what I can understand, she likes redundancies, that's why she works with the leagues to get some supplies from them."

"I would assume though that plan is approved by the Emperor to some extent."

I smiled before replying "Better than just approved, Tanya has gotten express permission from both the Emperor and Malcador to ally and tie the Leagues as close to the Imperium as possible, if it so happens they would help us with our issues with the Administratum is just a benefit from our friendship"

"Hmm, that would make sense. The best way to try and control the bureaucracy, I guess, is to try and bring in more people from other factions, not let one faction have sole control over it. Although that'll be in the long term, it's still hard to say at this moment. After all, it seems like the Mechanicum has gotten their mechanical fingers into all aspects of the Administratum."

I nodded in agreement but said, "True, but they only have that now. There are other factions already trying to gain control. I'm not very familiar, though, with the politics of the core. I just pay attention to what happens on Fenris. Tanya sold the moon Svellgard to the Mechanicum so that she can get supplies as quickly as possible for her men. But on the other hand, she also let the leagues set up a colony in the under cities that have long since been abandoned by our people. I assume that Tanya has plans within those. The Emperor may imagine that it is a microscape of what should be happening in the Administratum as well, trying to balance out the different actions by bringing in different factions that give you options."

"She's playing a very interesting game of alliances there. From what I hear, the Mechanicum and the Leagues don't exactly get along very well. Too much overlap in what they can offer the Emperor. What's to prevent them from having some sort of conflict?"

I smiled before I said, "I would imagine the Space Marines are what's there to prevent the conflict between these manufacturers within the empire. The Emperor would make a decision on that as it happens and send his forces to what he determines should be the winner in this conflict. At least, that's what I would assume would happen. That's based on how Tanya has talked about this sort of stuff in the past."

"Oh, has Tanya theorized a conflict within the Imperium in the past?" he asked. I shrugged before saying, "She likes to theorize about every possible worst-case scenario during her drinking. One of the ones she's thought of and talked about while being drunk and debated heavily was the possibility of an internal civil war between the lower factions of the Imperium. Mechanicum against the league, the Imperialis Armada against rogue traders, issues with the Navigator houses fighting against each other, things like that."

"Well, that makes sense. Being prepared for outcomes before they happen does give you a bit of a head start." He looked out over the city and thought before asking, "Has she ever thought of a full civil war where factions that you've listed join together against other factions?"

I thought back on it before saying, "I don't think so. She doesn't think it would ever get that far. If one section went to war, every other one would come together to prevent that eventually, she believes at least."

"Hmm, interesting," Kor said. He didn't get to finish his thought as an intense wave of psychic energy washed out from the city. It felt like a psychic pulse was smashing into the camp, electrifying everything for a brief moment. In that moment, I felt wrong, as if the bonds that held me in my current form were weakened. I had to hold onto my staff and grit my teeth in pain as my body seemed to want to shift into something else. I swear I saw my left hand become less human and more canine for a moment, a familiar sight. But I gritted my teeth and held myself together until the sensation passed.

"What the hell was that?" Kor asked, looking a bit better than me. He must not have as much psychic potential or none at all. I never really knew if he'd had similar issues, but either way, he had felt something, that was for sure. I cleared my throat and tried to speak, but all that came out was a growl, causing me to clear it again. Kor looked at me, confused.

"Are you okay, my friend? You seem to have taken whatever that was harder than me," he said, putting his hand on my shoulder. It was an incredibly heavy thing to do, considering he was in Terminator armor and I was simply in power armor with a cape, holding onto the staff. I nodded my head in agreement, still trying to put myself back together. I felt as if the bonds holding me in my current shape had been weakened by whatever that attack was. But before I could say anything more, the sound of a gunshot rang through the camp.

Ahriman

Ark Reach II

Sitting on the edge of a cliff, I looked out at the city. For some reason, the people of this world had decided that the best place to build their capital was inside an ancient crater. This, of course, had benefits and drawbacks. The benefit was that if they could hold the outer walls of the crater, they had substantial protection. They simply needed to maintain a shield in the middle of the city, and the world would be protected.

The problem, of course, was that we had already destroyed their army. The Corvidae and I had been able to predict where they would hide their army and had waited for our troops to return. Thanks to our aid, we had been able to locate and destroy them, leaving this city with few defenses, except for its home guard and whatever units they hadn't taken with them—possibly even civilians. But what could they do? These people, these Phoenix King worshipers, seemed determined to die fighting for their king. It was almost admirable, but also a waste of life, considering there were many other things they could be doing.

I sighed and looked out over the city, wondering what they were up to. I could sense the magic they were gathering, the psychic forces being pulled for some reason. I had already given orders to the men to try and build some sort of barrier to defend against whatever attack they would launch. We would probably be able to absorb and dissipate their attack, allowing us to then push into their city when they were completely weakened. Afterwards, we could take the library that stored its unknown secrets and what these people were working on.

Well, hopefully, we would learn all those secrets. It was very likely that the library would have nothing new for us, but then again, there was some definite cross-contamination from the Eldar with these people. The Eldar's secrets of psychic abilities were mostly unknown to us. We had learned some, but not all. Their runecraft was a mystery we had only scratched the surface of, and fully understanding it would require access to their archives, which was unlikely to happen. The Eldar didn't like humanity from what we had seen. They had three, maybe four modes of operation: steal from us, enslave us, get out of our territory, and on a good day, trade—although they usually traded nothing of historic value, just trinkets for the rich and famous.

So, if perhaps this library held the archive we were looking for, or at least one more clue to that archive, it would be a significant step toward progressing our knowledge of the Warp. Someday, we might find a way to control it or at least guide it in directions that benefited the Imperium, preventing outcomes that had led to the decimation of the Federation of Humanity in the distant past.

My thoughts were interrupted as I heard the footsteps of someone approaching. Turning my helm's head, I saw Rune Priest Ohthere Wyrdmake coming in my direction. Without much preamble, I said, "Good day, Rune Priest Wyrdmake."

"Good day, Captain Ahriman," Ohthere Wyrdmake greeted me as he glanced beyond me at the battle that was starting to rage around the rim of the city. Our scouts had found entrances along the trader wall halfway, leading downwards into the city below. Some of them were straightforward roads, although they were closed off by heavy doors that were now being blown up and used to bring tanks down into the lower parts of the city. The depth of that city was still in question, considering that the central area was a built-up spire of a castle. All I could assume was that it wasn't too deep, but who knew? Until we cleared it out, it could be miles deep down there. People could have dug deep to preserve the beauty of the world around it, especially given the lower development outside this mega city.

I nodded and said, "Yes, I think with the help of your Primarch's men and the Word Bearers, we should have this city under our control within the week, assuming there are no surprises."

Rune Priest Wyrdmake nodded and replied, "Surprises are unsurprisingly common on this planet. So far, every time we think we understand them, they seem to pull out a new trick. The only constant is that we will deal with these surprises and move further into their territory, leaving them less room to pull off these tricks."

I agreed, adding, "That psychic energy they're developing right now has me worried. What do you think they're doing?"

The Rune Priest gazed into the distance before answering, "It could be a last desperate gamble, an attempt to drive us off. If they are anything like the Rangdan, perhaps they want to summon something from the Warp, some monstrosity. We Wolves of Fenris are used to dealing with such creatures, but these people have not acted like reasonable or unreasonable monsters. They've come up with strategies we have not seen before. So perhaps they are planning something else, some sort of direct attack on us."

I nodded in agreement and said, "They'll have no luck with that. Magnus's men are already deploying shields of psychic nature around this camp. It would require a force quite powerful to overwhelm us and break through that shield."

Ohthere Wyrdmake nodded back and remarked, "But it's not impossible. For all we know, they have powers we've yet to see, some weapon that could even penetrate the Wolf King's defenses. It's always wise to prepare for the unexpected. One of the many lessons the Wolf King has passed down to us."

I sighed and said, "True, we underestimated the enemy on Aghoru, and things definitely went wrong." I referenced the reason we had been delayed in arriving at this campaign. "Things seemed so simple when we set foot on Aghoru, so very simple. And then, a demon-infested Titan had been unleashed on the planet, and we had to fight to prevent it from destroying the entire world and our forces."

That's how I met the Rune Priest in question here. He had been with the expedition sent to get us to this conflict when we had started a conversation about the nature of psychic powers. It helped me understand a bit of how theirs work, which is why I was somewhat convinced that their runecraft was just some sort of limiting factor preventing unfettered use of the warp. It's possibly related to it, though I had no evidence of that. I haven't spoken to Magnus about my thoughts about it too deeply yet. I was waiting until I had more information. I didn't want to rush to any conclusions.

Shaking my head, I continued, "That thing was unexpected, whatever it was. That creature, a primordial monster of the warp, is an outlier, something that does not commonly happen. I doubt these people could summon something like that, even if they could."

"Are these things outliers?" the Rune Priest asked, looking out over the city. He continued, "We ran into things like that during our campaigns. I was involved in several of the hunts for those monsters. We were able to stop them before they could fully manifest in this plane of existence in most cases. I wonder about these creatures, how they come about, especially considering the stories of Morkai."

"Stories of what?" I asked, now interested in this turn of the conversation.

"Morkai, the wolf god of the Dead, a two-headed beast located somewhere under the mountains of Fenris. It guides the dead to the world beyond and is also supposedly the guardian that keeps the dead there. It's a legend, and you know how legends are. Though I've heard recently that there might be something more to it. Rumors suggest that the Wolf King defeated or struck a deal with this creature to prevent it from causing more harm to the people of Fenris."

I raised an eyebrow and asked, "Struck a deal? Can such a thing even exist? These creatures we ran into were intelligent, but they were not cognizant enough to make a deal, supposedly."

The Rune Priest raised an eyebrow in return and replied, "I don't know all the details. I was not there. I just know that there was a rumor during the operations to conquer the Fenrisian undercities, she may have run into Morkai and made it pledge allegiance to Fenris. If it's true, it's quite interesting. If not, well, it's just a story. And I'm sure you're familiar with these sorts of things. They go wrong in campaigns, with armies, and stories about our Primarchs sometimes get exaggerated. Of course, the ones I've always seen have always had a bit of a lick of truth to them."

I nodded in agreement before saying, "We have stories like that within our own Legion. I don't know if they're true or not, but there is a possibility. When we first found Magnus, we were suffering greatly from the affliction known as the flesh change. Some of our people would be corrupted into something not human, not even remotely, shivering fools. They were lucky; most likely not, they'd be left as a ball of tentacles or worse. Things were not looking great for our Legion, even with the incorporation of Magnus's fresh DNA into our stockpiles. But Magnus was determined to fix this, and well, they did. How is not exactly known, but there is some rumor that they may have struck a deal in the Warp to find the cure. I'm not sure if that's true or not. I do know that around the time we found something to stop this flesh change, they did lose an eye. So perhaps they simply lost it while looking too deep into the warp. It's hard to say."

"Hmm, a dangerous thing to try and barter with entities that live in the Warp," I replied. "I would believe then that you are right, that they delved into the warp looking for a way to prevent it and lost their eye for their troubles. Hello, if they did prevent any more of these flesh change afflictions you're worried about. But I guess it was a worthy trade. The knowledge to prevent it for an eye is a minor thing, really. There are legends of the All-Father giving up an eye for knowledge and wisdom."

I nodded and replied, "Your Primarch is a good one, I'll say that. They're willing to give up a part of themselves to try and cure your afflictions. They deserve all the loyalty you can give them."

I smiled in response before saying, "Thank you. I guess the same goes for your Primarch as well. They do seem to have a tendency to look out for the people of Fenris in general. If they did delve into the depths to fight some sort of creature and make it agree to stop causing problems for your people, then they must have a similar loyalty to their own folk."

He nodded in agreement, and we were about to continue our conversation when we felt a pulse of energy, something heavy and clawing, coming from the city. We both turned to look at it, wondering what was happening. Then, a massive wave of crushing energy smashed into everything around the city. The air felt heavy with psychic energy as the attack sizzled against the psychic shields that had been arranged there. The sky seemed to turn unusual shades of color under the assault, and I held tightly onto my staff as the attack continued.

I felt like the shield was going to break and wondered if I should try to add my own energy to the defenses. But I knew that would not help at all. Reinforcing something that had already been carefully crafted by those in charge of the operation could backfire greatly. Putting more psychic energy out like this was dangerous for everyone involved. This was the kind of thing that could turn this campaign into a disaster if not handled carefully. So, I waited and watched, holding onto the staff, as Ohthere Wyrdmake did the same, making a few runes out in front of him. I couldn't tell, but it seemed like he was creating a personal shield. After a bit, the wave of energy finally died down, and the shield held.

I turned to the Rune Priest and asked, "What the hell was that?"

He shook his head and replied, "I don't know. Whatever it was, it was much more powerful than I was expecting. We need to get into that city and crush the enemy as fast as possible. Who knows what else they're planning to unleash and what that could do to us if we had not had shields already up to defend this position."

I nodded and added, "Who knows what's already happened in positions that weren't as well defended. That felt like a wave of energy, not a targeted attack."

Then, Erebus approached, and I turned to him. He said, "I may not have the greatest psychic abilities, but even I could feel that. It felt like the whole universe was tilting."

I agreed, "We should probably get back to our Primarchs and find out what's going on, see what they know about it, and figure out how we can help. This war is not over yet. We need to get on the job as soon as possible to make sure whatever the hell that was doesn't happen again."

Ohthere nodded and turned before saying, "Agreed. And you are?"

Erebus nodded and extended his hand, saying, "Erebus, nice to meet you." I noticed that the Rune Priest shook his hand somewhat haphazardly, but I understood that me and Erebus had a pre-existing relationship and a small friendship due to our previous meetings during the encounter between Magnus and the Word Bearers. That we had struck up a kinship over our shared interest in research. If I didn't have that previous experience, I might have been a bit apprehensive about meeting someone with tattoos covering their face.

However, before I could dwell on that thought, a gunshot rang out in the direction of the Primarch's camp, grabbing everyone's attention. The Rune Priest asked, "What was that?" I didn't have an answer but started moving in the direction of the sound, with the two of them following closely behind me.

Magnus

"See, we have this situation completely under control," I said as I watched the battle unfold with one good eye. Soon, we would have the entire place surrounded, and with our combined forces, this war would come to an end. Then, we could move on to the next stage of the crusade, whatever that might be.

Lorgar nodded in agreement, saying, "We can also get to work rebuilding this society into something better than what it was. We'll take them from being these Phoenix King worshipers and turn them into proper servants of the Emperor."

Tanya chimed in, "Yeah, yeah," her attention somewhat distracted as she observed the battlefield through a pair of binoculars that someone had handed her. It seemed like a strange choice, considering our own physiology probably offered better visibility than those binoculars. Perhaps she simply enjoyed using technology or had poor eyesight. Each Primarch was unique, and that made it both interesting and sometimes challenging to understand one another.

I glanced back and noticed many of the Rune Priests and my fellow Thousand Sons working together to maintain a protective shield around our area, guarding against any potential psychic attacks. While I doubted the enemy possessed the ability to launch such attacks, safety was always a priority.

Turning to Tanya, I asked, "What's on your mind, sister? You seem preoccupied."

She nodded before replying, "What's on my mind is the fact that the enemy hasn't attacked us in force yet. We got lucky with your little precognitives over there detecting where they were hiding their army. But I highly doubt that was the only component of their force. I wouldn't store my entire army in one place, hoping the enemy drives by so I can spring an attack on their backlines. It just makes no sense."

Lorgar reassured her, "These Phoenix King worshipers are too self-absorbed. They would never come up with a better strategy than what they've shown. Worry not, sister, this is almost over."

Tanya lowered her binoculars and gave Lorgar a raised eyebrow before saying, "Being that self-certain is how you get ambushed by the unexpected. Always expect something to go wrong, and you won't be surprised. It's a thing to consider in the future, if you ask me, sister."

Lorgar cleared her throat before responding, "Perhaps you're right. Well, I'm quite determined that we'll complete this victory soon, and we can take a break from this conflict to discuss other things, like my book I'm working on."

I chuckled and patted the tome on my side, saying, "Ha, oh yes, your book. I've got several copies in existence now, and I keep updating it with new stuff as I find it. If you want, I can send one of the older copies to your ship when we're done here."

Lorgar was pleased and replied, "That would be wonderful. I'd love to read about the interesting Warp phenomena you've discovered."

"Make sure to send one over to me too," Tanya mused before adding, "I doubt I'll be able to integrate any of its mechanics into my own spellcraft, but it's always good to be learning about what exists in the realm of war magic."

I agreed, "Ha, always so practical. I'll make sure to send one over, and I'll even send one once we have their library deciphered. I can't wait to read what's hidden in those tomes."

Tanya emphasized the importance of being practical, saying, "Well, we've got to be practical; otherwise, we'll probably make mistakes. Plus, we've got to learn how some of this technology works. I still have no idea how the Astronomicon actually functions in some cases."

I proudly explained, "Oh, I know that one. The Astronomicon produces a warp signature that can be seen by any navigator and a few gifted individuals across the galaxy, allowing people to travel the stars."

Tanya raised a valid question, "If it's visible to anyone with psychic powers, doesn't that mean anything with Warp powers can see the Astronomicon?"

I paused to consider her point, rubbing my chin. It was indeed a good point that I hadn't thought about. If the warp signature could be seen by anything in the warp, including the primordial annihilators, that could pose a problem. It signaled to the entire galaxy where our home world was, potentially attracting dangerous entities. I decided I needed to discuss this with our father, the Emperor, as it was a concerning and potentially dangerous technology.

Outwardly, I nodded and said, "Hmm, I assume Father knows of that possibility. I'm not as familiar with this subject as I should be. I should ask him more when I have the chance."

Tanya agreed, saying, "I really should do the same. I wonder if we should probably set up more Astronomicons across the galaxy if we can. Relying on one point of failure... well, everything's going to look at that one point of failure."

The thought of the primordial annihilators targeting the Astronomicon sent a shiver down my spine. She was right; there needed to be redundancies in the system if we were to advance beyond this era and ensure humanity's continued progress in the galaxy.

I was about to ask her opinion on how we could create such devices when she turned to me and mentioned, "By the way, I've had time to talk to my men I sent to retrieve you for the siege here. They told me about that Titan on planet Aghoru."

I looked at her in confusion before recalling, "Oh, yes, that thing. Something had escaped from the Warp and found a body. But it was dealt with; there's nothing to worry about."

Tanya expressed her concern, "I think it's something to be concerned about. I mean, some of my men reported that it called itself a demon, and that's got me concerned."

"Demon?" Lorgar echoed, with growing concern.

Clearing my throat, I simply shrugged before saying, "On the planet Aghoru, we came across a Titan that had been infested by a warp entity. Who knows when and where it acquired this vessel, but we have dealt with it. Yes, I know it spoke of being a demon, but it is simply a primordial annihilator, a creature that is not very intelligent and came from the warp. Not too dissimilar from an enslaver."

Not exactly true; there were some differences between an enslaver and the Neverborn, but that was a story for another time. Many Astartes were around us, but most were too busy to pay attention to our conversation. I could feel that Tanya was ready to raise a silence field, as she had done before.

Tanya nodded before saying, "Well, I'm concerned about the fact that there is a creature that can possess objects like that. I know that there are stories from the fall that they could also possess people, and I'm simply concerned about these entities, especially the fact that they take the term 'demon' as their moniker," she said, snapping her fingers and bringing down a dome of silence around us three.

Clearing my throat, I said, "I don't see what's there to be so concerned about. They've claimed themselves to be demons, but that doesn't mean much. They are creatures of the warp that must be brought to heel by asserting control over the universe."

Tanya interrupted, asking, "Yes, well, I'm simply concerned that these things are trying to set themselves up as demons on principle. For instance, if demons exist, what are their angels, their counterparts? Obviously, that must be us, which would explain why the Emperor is apprehensive about the use of religion," she said, looking at Lorgar.

Lorgar raised an eyebrow before saying, "You did bring up before, the possibility that something could try and make itself the antithesis to the Emperor's positive influence. Is this what you're referring to? These warp entities?"

Tanya nodded before saying, "This is my concern, yes. If something sets itself up as the antithesis to the Emperor's positive, as you put it, then it can gain influence from that. Because these creatures, from what I can understand, do not care where the faith comes from, only that there is faith. Faith in the Emperor proves that there's faith in something that can fight the Emperor. There's something that the Emperor must fight, thus, in an around-about way, empowering the so-called 'evil' that the Emperor must fight."

I pondered this idea for a moment and then said, "Hmm, that seems a little out there, I will admit. I mean, I can see your point of view that any and all belief structures can be infiltrated by the creatures in the warp to take a place. But let's be serious here; I doubt it would be that successful of an operation. Nothing can defeat the Emperor, so anything posing itself to be the counter to the Emperor would always be defeated in the end."

Tanya responded, "And like a cheesy Saturday cartoon villain, they'd come back the next time," leaving Lorgar and me both somewhat puzzled and amused.

"All right, I forgot. Basically what I'm saying is, yes, anything that can place itself as the antithesis to the Emperor is going to fail eventually, but it doesn't need to succeed to win in this situation. It just needs to create enough strength so that it can survive its inevitable conflict with the Emperor, to come back another day. Imagine something that comes back every 10 or 20 years to cause trouble, avoids notice for as long as possible, building up its resources before taking an attack on the throne world."

"That seems unlikely," Lorgar said with a shake of her head. "Any villain that crosses blades with the Emperor would be defeated solely and removed from the board. There would be no ability for it to return."

"If they were human, you would be correct," I said before continuing. "But the primordial annihilators, the creatures that live in the warp, don't abide by the rules of the Materium; they abide by the rules of the Immaterium, which means they can be reborn in time as long as something believes in them. Tanya makes a good point here, something to keep in mind in future conflicts. If we ever run into these things in force, one or two enemies now and again is not hard to expect. But it's not impossible that these creatures may one day breach the veil between the material and the immaterial."

"It's not like it has not happened before. There were reports of breaches during the fall of the human federation, though this was mostly, I believe, due to the problems the Eldar created. It's not outside the possibility that something else could be created to break the material wall. And I would not be surprised, Lorgar, that the denizens of the Immaterium are not interested in the merging of our two realms. What that would do, I don't know, but yeah, I could believe it would be something they'd be interested in. After all, the material is made up of hopes and dreams and nightmares; everything there is simply a reflection of what's here. So if the reflection could be reflected back into here, it would create some sort of ever-growing monstrosity. Two mirrors reflecting each other, going on for eternity, creating worse and worse variances of each other's existence."

"That's horrible," Lorgar said, shaking her head, about to say something more when something changed.

All of a sudden, a wave of energy washed out from the city, battering the shields around us. I looked on in confusion, wondering what had unleashed such power as Tanya dropped the sound barrier.

"What's going on?" she called, drawing the notice of some of her Rune Priests who were trying to reinforce the shield.

"An enemy attack, Wolf King!" he called, only for the energy of the attack to grow exponentially, battering heavily against the shield and sending a few of the Rune Priests, as well as my own Thousand Sons, flying against the back wall. It looked like it might fail, so I added some of my energy to it, trying to keep it steady, noting Tanya doing the same. The attack was quite heavy and taxing, surprisingly enough. Thankfully, the shield held until the last moments of the attack, dying at the exact moment the attack ended.

I took a deep breath, wondering what the hell had just happened, only to hear a scream from within the group of the First Fellowship, one of my Thousand Sons. Looking in that direction, I wondered what had happened, only to feel my guts drop out of my stomach as I saw Hastar, one of my Marines, screaming as they ceased to be human.

Their bodies seemed to shift and shake, reconfiguring itself into a monstrosity of tentacles and other inhuman mutations. It was as if that person had come down with a case of the Flesh-Change. Could it have returned, I thought, or had this been some sort of overpowering event that simply triggered it? I thought I'd gotten rid of it all those years ago when I dealt with that thing in the warp. I started moving in the direction of the stricken Marine. Some of the other Marines around them pushed themselves away, some of them holding onto their chests as if they were feeling similar sensations. The fallen Marine lashed out and attacked a few comrades nearby, seeming to be losing control. Thankfully, those Marines were okay, with only some damage to their armor as they backed away, raising their staffs and weapons to defend themselves.

Recognizing the Marine based on the armor, I called, "Hastar, stop yourself now." Reaching out with my psychic powers to try and calm the thing that had once been Hastar, I could feel his soul still in there, dulled and tainted by whatever was happening to him. I tried to soothe it as the creature turned to face me, slowly and steadily stumbling towards me, its arms outstretched as if coming to give me a hug. I held out my arms, hoping to gain control over him.

Nothing about Hastar looked human anymore; he looked more like a denizen of the warp than a proud member of my Thousand Sons. But perhaps I could reverse this. After all, a warp attack could trigger this. I was not beyond the possibility that I could undo this taint that had created this monster. I simply needed to get it under control and put it back into the mental state of a proper Thousand Sons.

I heard someone yelling over my shoulder, but I tuned their voice out. I needed to use my abilities at full concentration to calm Hastar. I did not need someone distracting me.

It would take time, a long time to do, but it was possible. I simply needed to get him under control and back to Prospero. There, I would have the time and ability to do what was necessary.

There was that yelling again tilting my head back I saw it was from my sister Tanya "Magnus, I need you to listen to me right now, if you do not kill that man the rest of your Legion will suffer just like him"

I shook my head, absolute insanity. I had perfect control over this situation, she did not have the insight or the understanding of the Warp as I did, I was the one who made a deal to gain the knowledge and power to save my legion, I have done it before in the past and now I shall have to do it again, she just did not understand. "Now is not the time Tanya!" I said ignoring her, focusing back on Hastar. I continued to focus my psychic energies into stabilizing Hastar, but it wasn't working. I had to reign my emotions in otherwise the procedure could fail… yes if I calmed myself I could make this work all I nee-"Magnus! look at the bigger picture your men are suffering, you need to put him down before he infects the rest".AGAIN I already told her once to not interfere in things she did not understand, and those words 'put down', who did she think she was to command me and the affairs of my legion!

"Put him down! PUT HIM DOWN! This is a man!, not a dog of your legion NOW CEASE SISTER"

I would have to have a chat with her later but for now she needed to be silent, I let loose some of my presence and felt composed. Good it seems Tanya's emotions have calmed, now that distraction was out of the way I could finally get back to work.

Hastar's head exploded as a bolter round was fired from my right. Hastar's form crumbled apart into dust, and what was left of his soul fled into the Warp. I could feel his soul desperately reach out towards me and I could feel how it was ripped from my grasp by the taint as it was dragged beyond the veil of the material and into the immaterial. I could feel Hastar's warm blood on my face, dripping downwards onto the armor that had been given to me by the people aboard my ship. One of my sons was gone because someone had made a mistake.

My fist clenched heavily against my staff as I turned in the direction the shot had been fired, ready to unleash my wrath at whoever had done it, only to see that it was Tanya standing there. Her gun was still held up, pointing at the corpse. A scowl crossed her face, revealing some of her fangs, and a look of disgust.

"How dare you!" I called out, drawing upon the Warp energies and channeling them into my staff weapon. I felt myself growing taller, my normal height increasing with anger. I glared down at my sister with absolute wrath and fury while the very air started to twist and burn from my rage.

She had the gall to interfere, to usurp my authority with my legion, my Thousand I had authority over my Legion, no one else and definitely not her. I could feel the strong emotions of anger and bitter betrayal emanate from the rest of my Thousand Sons. There would be recompense for this betrayal and if I had to duel her to get it, I would gladly educate her as well. I raised my blade to challenge her only to falter at the look of confusion slowly creeping into her eyes..

Tanya Russ

That thing was not human. There was no other way to say it. Whatever it had been, it was not human. Yes, I could see some similarities between that creature and what had become of Lord Wolfen, but there were also some very severe differences.

Lord Wolfen had been self-contained. Yes, there was the possibility that he would go rampant, as that creature had done, but he was a singular entity. That creature was not.

I watched the taint of that creature being produced like some sort of pollen, and every Marine near him that had been attacked, including some of my own, seemed to be shaking as if fighting off some sort of infection. Whatever had happened to that marine was on the cusp of spreading like some sorta infectious mutagenic disease.

"Magnus kill that thing now!" I shouted, turning to look at them assuming they saw what I saw. Only to realize they did not. They were doing… exactly what I would do if I did not see the big picture, they were laser focused on the mutant not watching how their own men seemed to have their flesh bulge in areas or how my men who were near growling in pain and were falling to their knees pulling at their armor.

They were too focused on that one man, and were going to end up losing their entire legion at this rate if something wasn't done.

"Magnus! He is lost and if you do not kill him now more of your men will join him" I yelled but again I was ignored. What was worse was that the thing was not fully under Magnus's control as I saw its body's newly developed tentacle reach toward her direction in a crude facsimile of a hug. That thing was going to impale her and what would happen when that creature infected its psyker mutagenic disease into Magnus?

"Magnus I get your concern for your man but he is lost and needs to be put down for his own sake" she ignored me.

She did worse than ignore me, she waved me off so focused on what was in front of her she probably had no idea what I was saying.

"Magnus, I need you to listen to me right now, if you do not kill that man the rest of your Legion will suffer just like him" I intoned, Magnus only gave me the briefest of looks before turning back to the man "Now is not the time Tanya!".

I grimaced as I realized I wasn't getting through to him, I needed to approach this from a different angle "Magnus! Look at the bigger picture your men are suffering, you need to put him down before he infects the rest"

"Put him down! PUT HIM DOWN! This is a man!, not a dog of your legion NOW CEASE SISTER"

I felt a strong wave of pressure emanate from Magnus, this was not a good situation, I looked around and confirmed it more men from both sides were falling to their knees now. I resolved myself and drew Scornspitter.

Raising my bolt gun I aimed and pulled the trigger and like that the shaking of the space marines ended, the moment that creature died. I was left with the distinct impression that if I had not done it, more of the Thousand Sons would have turned into a thing like that creature. Possibly, some of my men would have suffered the same fate as Lord Wolfen. It had been a simple choice: that creature's life or the lives of my Marines, and I was going to choose my Marines over whatever that thing used to be.

Unfortunately, my decision to blow apart its skull with a shot from my weapon had angered my brother. Magnus, still in his female form, had gone full gigantic, looming over me with her polearm as if she were about ready to slash me down to my former size in my last life for killing a single Marine.

I knew I was not going to have a chance to explain my actions right away, as Magnus was in the moment, calling me a barbarian and a lunatic murderer, and other unflattering things. Still this reaction I expected when I pulled the trigger, what I didn't expect was how my men would react to it, I could feel their anger grow by each passing second, even worse I could see the Thousands sons starting to get more incensed with each accusation from Magnus. They were gathering all around, some behind Magnus and their fallen comrade, and others behind me, slowly forming two halves of a circle of men who were pretty much ready to fight each other over a dead man. I would need to say something soon before this could devolve any further.

Clearing my throat, I said, "Magnus, I apologize for acting without your permission, but perhaps you should calm yourself and take stock of the current situation, and let me explain my piece."

He laughed. It was cold and bitter, "Hah! An apology. Utterly ridiculous you tampered with my legion and murdered a man and you believe an apology is enough!"

"That thing was no longer a man, nor was it a member of your legion. I don't know if you were fully aware , but his eyes were dulled. Whatever intelligence was once there was gone, and it was at risk of doing much more than simply hurting members of the legions around it if I did not act then" I said, trying to be a bigger person in that moment, pulling myself up to my full height and bringing my gun down to holster it. I wasn't going to let my anger control me, unlike Magnus, who seemed to be full of fury at this moment. I was not going to let the fact that I was armed encourage anyone to start a fight between our two legions.

"I could still feel his soul inside of him. He was still there. It was possible to possibly bring him back from whatever that was." Magnus exclaimed angrily

Looking at Magnus, channeling my past experience from my life as a salaryman, I simply said," Apologies I did not know that, but still I did what needed to be done in that moment and in that moment unfortunately it required one of your son's death otherwise there would of been far more. The longer your man was alive and infected the higher the likelihood that would of spread beyond him and into the rest of the Legions, and that is an event I cannot allow to pass not just for my sake but for your own as well Magnus, One life to save the many even you must agree in that rationality"

"Impossible! That was a fluke, some sort of psychic spell backlash. It could not spread through my men," Magnus said, sounding insulted that I even suggested that it was possible.

I was a bit annoyed, though, because I had suggested that it was possible that it would spread throughout all our men, and they seemed to have been so pointedly worried about their own that they didn't give a damn about my own men possibly being turned into something. This caused me to narrow my eyes as I looked up at Magnus and said, "Believe whatever you wish to believe but not all of us can turn a blind eye to the situation."

Well, maybe throwing that insult was a bit much, but I thought that was more than warranted considering the spiel about me being a barbarian they had gone off on. Give as you receive, and all that. Hell, I would say that's what I really gave was a minor insult compared to being called a barbarian, and on some good days, I think being called a barbarian is kind of a permanent endearment, considering all the things my barbarians have done for the Imperium.

But Magnus was obviously not taking any of it. She looked ready to bring that polearm down on top of me, energy glowing around her, and her hair seemed to poof out with anger.

Thankfully, there was one person with a good head on their shoulders, as Lorgar stepped in between us, putting her hands on us to stop any fighting.

"Stop it, you two! You're acting like children!" she called, pushing us further apart before saying, "This was a psychic attack from the enemy; that is clear. What caused it is easy to understand. Why it resulted in that is a little bit harder, and its effects... can we at least acknowledge?" She said, looking at Magnus, "It was unexpected. You didn't know they could launch an attack, and you didn't know that they could do something like that to one of your men. How do you know that it couldn't do more than what you saw?"

Magnus bit her lip before letting out a sigh and decompressing, going from nearly 20 ft tall at this point back to her normal size. She breathed in slowly and said, "Yes, I guess you're right. I did underestimate the enemy. Still, I would think it would be important to speak on the matter before slaying one of my men."

"As I said, there was no time," I replied, folding my arms across my chest. I continued, "I needed to act before whatever that was spread to our men."

"Our?" Magnus asked, finally noticing the use of the word.

"Yeah, I noticed that too," Lorgar said, interrupting me before I could speak up. "Both your men and Tanya's men seem to react negatively when they were around the creature. None of my men, though. None of my men were nearby. It could have affected all of our legions for all we know," she mused.

"Your men were at risk," Magnus said, looking at me, seeming intrigued for reasons I didn't know. I simply nodded, saying, "I could sense the taint spreading, so I made the act necessary to stop said taint. I don't know what would have happened, but it would be better, I think, for everyone if it ended quicker. I am sorry, Magnus, that I was unable to inform you of my decision or what needed to be done in time for you to understand, but it was an act that needed to be done as quickly as possible to save as many lives as possible. I think you can agree to that, can't you?"

Magnus sighed before saying, "Yes, yes, I can agree to this. But we will have a conversation about this matter later, in privacy." She looked left and right at the gathered Marines who were watching the conversation, waving her hand as she said, "Get back out of here, get to work. We still have a war to win, and this conversation is over."

The Thousand Sons immediately started to file out, my own troops taking a bit longer until I gave them a wave. Before long, it was just the three of us, as Lorgar's men had stayed at a distance and filed out as both the other forces did.

Magnus looked at me before saying, "Sorry for calling you a barbarian. I was just upset. I did not like losing one of my few sons to this affliction that you saw."

"Affliction?" I said, raising an eyebrow. The way they said it implied that this was not just because of a warp attack. I looked at Lorgar, who bit her lip, seeming to know something I didn't. "What affliction?" I asked.

"As I said, this is a matter for privacy, something not talked about in the open and not on the planet controlled by the enemy. When this battle is over, and once we are back aboard our ships, I will discuss this more openly. Though I would like some information on why your men seem to be affected as well, Tanya."

I narrowed my eyes before saying, "Perhaps we can come to an information exchange, then. After all, who knows? Perhaps we can help each other in ways that we do not realize."

"Yes, yes, perhaps we can," Magnus said with a nod of her head. She turned to look at her fallen soldier again before saying, "But never do that again. It was my responsibility to put him down if it was necessary. "

I nodded before saying, "I understand Magnus, I'll try to do better next time. Also once again I am sorry that I needed to do that, but I do not regret my actions."

Magnus nodded her head, tapping her staff onto the ground a few times before looking at some distant Marines of her unit, calling them to bring a body bag and put Hastar in it. She instructed them to transport it back to Prospero for a proper internment.

"Yes, my Primarch," one of the Marines called as he gathered two others to find a body bag and get to work. Magnus watched them for a moment before saying, "And I'm sorry that I had to put you in the position where you needed to make that choice. Perhaps I should have done it myself right away, but for a moment, I thought maybe I could bring them back. I thought they possibly were still there, still in control more than they are now. I see that it is possible that I was a little too attached at that moment."

"It's all right, Magnus," Lorgar said. "We're all attached to our men. We put a lot of work into them, train them, get them ready for combat, and then work with them in our fights against the enemy. It's understandable to be locked on them and not want to lose them."

I nodded, saying, "You put a lot of investment into every single soldier you bring into combat. To lose one in front of you is a sorrowful event no matter how it's done. Sometimes it's better to lose several together because then they're just a statistic, and you can put it out of your mind for a bit. It'll catch up with you sooner or later."

Magnus agreed, saying, "True, very true, Tanya." She then sighed and said, "I need to get to work. We will talk later. Goodbye." With that, she walked away, leaving me and Lorgar behind.

Lorgar commented, "Well, that could have gone a lot worse."

I replied, "Oh, it's probably going to get a lot worse," looking towards the city. "Whatever attack they just launched just put their leadership and whoever did that on a kill list, as far as I'm concerned. I don't want anyone to have whatever power that was at their disposal within the Imperium."

Lorgar noted, "They just pushed you from 'Happy barbarian' to 'Emperor's executioner,' didn't they?"

I bit my lip, slightly annoyed at the title, before looking at her and saying, "Yes, they did."

Writers note:off well that could gone… much worst… but hey they didn't kill each other i'm sure next chapter they will have nice long conversation. Or strangle each other… really could go eather way.

Please comment, review, and generally enjoy yourselves…

Edited by: John Mandrage, Golden

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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Reviews
ayab: logar fine...
TOPCAT-59: hmmm a thought
end5: have another
Another Guest: correct
evilstatistic19: evil duo? don;t know what your talking about
Spartastic 4: thank you maybe will catch up with haris another day
Australian Dealer: mhmmm
Black Doberman: na let him cook
Not another me: one more
Eedura: good
Guest: that not going to be canon
Isiah walker: pretty sure that a nacron
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tajarim: and i'm always looking for editores feel free to join the discord.