Isha couldn't help but feel giddy as she and the Emperor made their way through his fortress.
The idea of leaving Terra for the first time in years, even if only briefly and still under supervision, was intoxicating. Terra was a strong world that had endured a great deal and not died, and she had enjoyed restoring it to beauty and life, but seeing another world would be wonderful.
What sort of world would Cthonia be, she wondered. A war-torn world like Terra? A desolate hellscape? A lush, verdant world brimming with life?
Isha would be delighted if it was the last one, but seeing any sort of world other than Terra would be wonderful. These last few years of being constrained in a way she had never been before had not been...unpleasant, exactly, especially given what she was escaping from, but certainly limiting and somewhat uncomfortable.
She longed for the day she could return to the stars, and reach out to her children, and help them at last. When she could finally strike back at Chaos actively and in her own way, instead of having to play at being the Emperor's servant.
It would not happen anytime soon, Isha knew, but it was also not out of reach.
The Emperor brooded silently, fear and worry gnawing at his mind. All the terror and horror and rage he had felt when the Primarchs had been stolen had returned with full force after he had spent years suppressing it, and now he could not stop himself from conjuring nightmarish visions of what his son might have become.
A warlord, worshipping the Four and drenched in their foul power? A priest-king, preaching madness and horror, corrupting the innocent and transforming them into monsters? An insane sorcerer, delving into the darkest and most forbidden arts in pursuit of power, uncaring of the price he had to pay, whether it was something of his own or the lives of others? A child trapped in his own mind, screaming in agony as a daemon possessed its body and used it as a tool to carry out atrocities?
Revelation hated to even think it, but the last might be the easiest to deal with. He had freed people from possession before, and with Isha's aid, healing any damage would be a trivial matter.
Don't be paranoid, he told himself. If things were as bad as he feared, the Star Hunters would have said something in their report. But there was always the chance that Chaos was deceiving them, waiting for its moment to strike. And the Star Hunter report had not exactly been detailed about the Primarch, only that they had briefly encountered and were attempting to track him down.
But whatever they found would not be easy to deal with, of that much the Emperor was certain. His foresight was still clouded by Chaos, it was a struggle to divine anything, let alone his sons, whom the Four had done everything they could to obscure from him, but one did not need prophetic abilities to predict that Chaos would not make this easy.
It was honestly something of a relief to have Isha at his side. If she were not here, the Emperor did not know what he might have to do with his son. As it was, there was still a chance he might have to kill his own child, but the odds of that would be drastically reduced with Isha's aid.
Isha and he working together could purify and save his sons from Chaos, in a way that he alone most likely could not. It would not be easy, but it could be done.
We are coming, my son. The Emperor promised silently. And nothing shall stop us from saving you.
"What is Cthonia like?" Isha's voice interrupted his thoughts, her voice light and curious.
The Emperor looked at her and felt a sharp flicker of annoyance as he realized that Isha was looking forward to this.
Well, of course she was, he reminded himself. It was hardly a surprise. Anyone in her position would have been.
Squashing his annoyance as best as he could, the Emperor considered her question. "I have not visited Cthonia in thousands of years, but during the Golden Age, it was mainly an industrial world. It served as a great centre of industry, and was rich with resources for mining. Now...the reports for the Star Hunters tell me it is a polluted hive world. Most of the industrial infrastructure has broken down or been stolen, and the cities are overrun by gangs and criminals. However, the true masters of the world are agents of the Mechanicum."
"The Mechanicum?" Isha repeated, her eyes alight with curiosity. "The polity that rules Mars, yes? What interest do they have in Cthonia?"
"They have been scavenging it for any remaining scraps of its resources and more importantly, remnants of Golden Age technology that might remain there," The Emperor explained. "According to the Star Hunters, they have been there for at least a few decades, and have likely found all there is to be found, but the Tech-Priests are obsessive. They will not leave until and unless that obsession is satisfied. Calling them Cthonia's masters is perhaps something of a misoner, they have no interest in ruling it, but they are the most powerful faction on the planet, and the gangs all fear They should not be any obstacle to us, but we will have to be careful. I intend to bring Mars into the Imperium in time, and it would be best not to antagonize them."
Isha nodded in understanding. "Of course. But this Mechanicum...they worship a Machine God, do they not? A deity they believe is the source of all knowledge and technology. That is the core of their ideology."
"They do," The Emperor acknowledged, suspicion flaring in his heart. Did Isha know, or at least suspect? She had known of him before coming to Terra, so clearly she and her brethren had observed him before, but he had never been quite sure just how much she knew.
"I'm curious," Isha said lightly. "How exactly do you intend to deal with their religion when integrating them into the Imperium?"
The Emperor felt another spike of annoyance. "I have prepared plans on how to deal with" He informed her curtly, unwilling to admit that he would probably have to tolerate the Mechanicum religion in order to gain access to the Ring of Iron. "I will let you know of them when you need to know."
Isha inclined her head, not pressing the point, though there was still amusement glittering in her eyes.
"If I might ask, what are the people of Cthonia like?" Isha asked instead. "Yes, the world has been overrun by gangs, but that does not tell me much."
"The report from the Star Hunters did not say so much," The Emperor admitted. "But what they did say is that Cthonia is a lawless and brutal world, where survival of the fittest is the order of the day. The people of Cthonia apparently refer to themselves with a word that is best translated as gangs into Gothic, but I believe that is merely a quirk of the language. Tribes or clans would be a better description of how they work. Each gang rules over a certain amount of territory, imposes its own laws and competes with the others. That said, their organization and structure does seem to be closer to that of powerful criminal syndicates than more primitive tribal structures or noble families."
Isha nodded thoughtfully. "It sounds interesting," She said without a hint of irony. The ancient warp entity was genuinely interested in the people of Cthonia and their social structure, and not merely from the perspective of a scientist. "I look forward to seeing it."
Isha's earnestness could be truly exasperating sometimes, the Emperor thought a little sourly.
But they were at their destination, and the Emperor's eagerness to leave and find his son overwhelmed any irritation he might have felt.
The Asteria spaceport was a marvel of engineering and technology, designed by the Emperor himself. It had been built atop Bai-heng hive and the Himalazian mountains that surrounded it, a vast, glittering structure perched upon a mountain that shone gold, capable of launching and hosting dozens upon dozens of spacecraft.
To call it a spaceport was something of a misnomer, for it was not only meant as a place for ships to land and leave, it was meant to manufacture them, and here, the first starcrafts of the Imperium had been built. Most of them were small things, gilded and gleaming as was the Emperor's preference, but nonetheless designed mainly as scout ships, to explore the rest of Sol and systems nearby. Armed and able to defend themselves, but the true warships were still in development.
Save one.
The Epona was a large golden starship, a solid four kilometres long, and everything on it had been designed by the Emperor himself. The weapons, the shields, the sublight and warp drives...indeed, a great many of those components had been crafted by the Emperor himself in his own labs, and he had personally fitted them to the ship.
It was only a precursor to the great vessels still in development, the warships that would be the Imperium's sword to conquer the stars and reunite humanity, but it was the finest and fastest ship on Terra nevertheless, and the Emperor was glad he had taken the time to build and install the Warp drive himself, rather than assigning the job to someone else.
Valdor was waiting for them at the ship's ramp, along with another Custodian and a woman dressed in a naval officer's uniform, Captain Alexandros, whom the Emperor had chosen to captain the Epona. Both of them bowed when the Emperor neared him. "Sire, everything is ready. The ship has been stocked to the fullest, there are a hundred Custodians and multiple Imperial regiments aboard." Valdor explained, quick and concise. Usually, the Emperor would have wanted a more detailed report, but he trusted Valdor and expediency was paramount at the moment.
The woman nodded as well. "Your Majesty, the ship is ready for departure. We only await your orders."
The Emperor nodded, satisfied. "And Shield-Captain Juno, are you and your detachment ready?"
"We live to serve, Lord Emperor," The Custodian replied, her voice calm and unwavering.
"Then it is time to go." The Emperor said, striding up the ramp as Isha, Captain Alexandros and Juno followed him.
The interior of the ship had been modelled according to both his tastes and the need to make a show of power, with the hallways being large and tall, embellished with gleaming golden walls, plush red carpets and the Raptor Imperialis painted on the walls.
But right now, the Emperor cared for none of that, his mind occupied with other matters.
Their group reached the command deck, and Alexandros began barking orders, but the Emperor paid it no mind. Alexandros was perfectly competent and did not need him peering over her shoulder. Instead, he focused on extending his power and wrapping it around the ship in addition to the wards that he had already placed during the constructions, and peering into the Warp to chart a path straight to their destination.
They couldn't reach Cthonia fast enough.
Isha leaned against a wall as the ship rose into the air and, gathering speed, headed straight for orbit. The rapid rise in speed might have been disconcerting for a mortal, but Isha had travelled on far faster ships, and only closed her eyes.
Looking into the Warp, she could see the intricate wards built around the Epona, and the additional layer of power the Emperor had wrapped around them, shimmering shields of golden fire.
Below them, she could see the countless sparks of life on Terra getting further and further away, but still glowing in infinite colours, from the vast population of humans to the smallest blade of grass, all of them bursting with life.
And as the ship left Terra's orbit, and entered the Immaterium, Isha could see them too. The endless horrors that now ruled the Aethyr, the countless fragments of the Chaos Gods hurling themselves at the ship's shields but unable to penetrate the Emperor's protection. The Four themselves had their gazes fixed upon the ship, upon the Emperor, upon her. They wanted her, caged and bound, unable to defy them, a helpless trophy unable to do anything but scream and weep as her children died and the galaxy hurtled towards damnation...
Isha swallowed, doing her best to ignore her sudden terror. She was safe. The Emperor would not break his side of the deal, and the wards he had crafted were potent. The Four, no matter what they might have wished, lacked the focus and will to concentrate enough power to break through the wards. They were too incoherent, shrieking storms of insanity unable to divert power away from their endless war from each other even to focus on the Anathema.
Still, Isha could not shake the fear that had suddenly taken a hold of her, her earlier joy at leaving Terra fading.
Suddenly, she was very glad for the Emperor's desire for speed. This trip couldn't be over fast enough.
Author's Note: And here we go. I decided to fiddle with what little knowledge we have of Cthonia to expand on it in hopefully interesting ways.
About the Mechanicum Expedition on Cthonia, I found that on the wiki (or to be more precise, the idea that the Mechanicum ruled Cthonia) and I have no idea if it's actually true. It wasn't cited and I have found no source (though I confess I haven't exactly looked very hard) but I thought it was an interesting idea that would spice up this arc a little, and decided to roll with it.