Chapter 11

Gamma swung the axe and the air sang as it sailed by. His opponent ducked and the blade passed over his head, whistling past harmlessly. Gamma pulled back but his opponent was already leaping at him with twin blades extended towards his heart. Gamma snarled angrily as he met the strike with the haft of his axe and brought the pommel about to throw the foe away. The opponent hit the ground and rolled, coming back to his feet with fluid grace. The two circled looking for an opening, then they moved. The foe came at him in a blur of flashing knives, a dizzying ballet of silver cuts. Gamma however merely let go one hand from his axe and backhanded his foe across the bare face, sending him crashing to the deck. Before the enemy could rise again Gamma placed his blade across his neck and snarled, "You're dead."

From the mat Delta raised his hands and said, "So I am, well done Brother."

Gamma snorted and stepped back as Delta picked himself up from the deck and collected his knives, then he said, "Again?"

Delta shook his head and said, "Give me five minutes; you're really going for it. What's got into you?"

Gamma snarled, "That superior cur Dramaq, I've seen the way he looks at me. We both know it will come down to him or me at some point."

Delta rubbed his sore jaw and said, "I think he's going to be unpleasantly surprised when that happens."

Gamma shook off the compliment, Delta was his cell-Brother but he was also the best infiltrator in the cell which made him a slimy weasel. There were few inviolable bonds within the Alpha Legion but the brotherhood within a cell was one of them. Gamma however didn't care much about anything beyond the next fight; he respected his Brothers for their skills but didn't think of them as friends. Gamma looked about the quarters they had been granted on the Dark Eldar ship, stripped bare of the obscene furniture that they had smashed upon arrival. He and Delta were training on a bare patch of deck while the others did their own thing. Beta was meditating in a corner with his staff by his side and his helm off. Epsilon was fussing over some bulky device on the floor; he was the cell's tech-expert and was as skilled with machines as Delta was at slipping in somewhere he shouldn't be.

Gamma shook his head and said, "I don't like any of this, making deals with Xenos, sitting around while others fight… it isn't right."

Delta remarked, "You agreed to the plan."

Gamma knew he was right, the Alpha Legion didn't believe in rigid orders or mindless obedience. Plans were thrashed out as a group, debated and queried in a way no other Astartes would tolerate. Beta may be the cell-leader and had trained them all since induction, but they were not mindless drones like the Imperial lapdogs.

Delta stepped up and said quietly, "Gamma look at this."

Gamma glanced down and saw Delta had pulled of a gauntlet, revealing a nasty scar on his right hand. He raised an eyebrow and said, "I don't remember you taking a wound there."

Delta shook his head and said, "I didn't, I did that myself."

"Why?" Gamma asked.

Delta answered, "After that infiltration into the Pit of Galeshi. You know where we summoned those Daemons to overrun the defences, something started growing there. I think it was an extra finger… or a tentacle."

Gamma spat, "Chaos taint, we have to be wary of such things."

"Why though?" asked Delta looking doubtful, "I cut it out naturally but afterwards I felt weaker for it. I started to wonder, why can't we take the power of Chaos for ourselves? Why not embrace the Dark Gods and their gifts?"

Gamma didn't rebuke him but said in a rare moment of introspection, "Sometimes in battle I hear a voice, offering me power and might. Offering me the power that comes from the Blood God and the strength that comes from the Skull Throne."

From the corner Beta spoke up and said, "Do not heed the lies of Daemons, they offer pretty baubles but what they want in return is everything."

Delta looked at him and said in annoyance, "You take their power for yourself, why can't we?"

Beta sighed and stood up, he shook out his neck and replied, "Chaos is a tool to be used and discarded as any other, but only with extreme caution. Daemons will do anything to gain control over us and we must always be wary of what they offer. The power I take from them is only that which I can master, no more. I determine my own fate, as does this Legion. We are one, a union of the like and like-minded, the Legion is all and we are all Legion. We serve ourselves and each other, not some Dark God."

Delta growled, "Was that from the teachings of the twin Primarchs?"

Beta replied, "Alpharius and Omegan were disloyal curs, but they got that right at least."

Delta commented, "I have never understood your vehemence for the Primarchs."

Beta replied nonchalantly, "It hardly matters now."

From the corner Epsilon said without looking up from his workings, "I thought we were a Brotherhood of equals."

Beta looked at them all and then sighed as he said, "You really want to know?"

"Yes!" spat Delta.

Beta drew in a breath and said, "It all goes back to the Great Crusade, it was moving too fast you see, too hastily. Behind the front lines rebellion and sedition seethed. The other Legions thought they left order in their wake but it was all a sham, as soon as their eyes moved on rebellions inevitably erupted. The XXth were made to fight those unseen battles, the shadow campaigns that the other legions didn't care about. For every rebellion those drama-queens in the VIIIth put down we nipped a hundred in the bud. But unlike them we moved in silence and few even knew of our existence, only Malcador and his ilk. To them were the Harrowing, the Combine, the Threefold Path and the Azure Serpent. We earned no glory, no renown or titles, even honour was denied us, there was only the mission and its completion. Yet the one thing we had was our brotherhood, our family."

Despite himself Gamma was intrigued, Beta rarely spoke of his past, so he said, "Then came Alpharius and Omegan."

Beta nodded, "Yes and at first it was wondrous, our twin fathers so like us not only in body but in mind and soul too. They thought like we did, moved like we did and their strategies were flawless in planning and execution. They led us into the light, to stand alongside the other Legions, though those Glory-hogs never respected us. Those self-righteous curs looked down their noses at us and sneered at our methods, as if they could grasp the number of their messes we had been sent to clean up."

Epsilon said sadly, "They didn't understand, they never understand."

Beta sighed deeply, "The other Legions thought we were unsound, that our methods were suspect. Guilliman even said we should be withdrawn from the front lines and sent to Macragge for retraining. So we redoubled our efforts, seeking to prove our value and worth. It was after the defeat of the Ak'Haireth bone drinkers that we discovered a great opportunity, a Xeno race that existed in the form of a sentient virus. One that would infect whole worlds, turning the people to its service before killing them. Alpharius and Omegan were delighted; they immediately ordered us to start introducing the virus to several imperial colonies."

Delta sounded surprised and said, "Wait, weren't we fighting for the Imperium at that point?"

Gamma snorted and said, "What use would it be to defeat a foe no one knows about? First you build up the threat and then you sweep in like a big hero."

Beta nodded, "Yes, in the Long View it was for the good of the Imperium, Terra had to be reminded why they needed us. But then something went wrong, a cell just disappeared, the Unbroken Chain. Alpharius said it was not a matter of concern but something about it nagged at me and I took the initiative to go track them down. I was horrified by what I found; the cell had been infected by the virus and then Alpharius had secretly purged them himself."

Epsilon didn't bother to look up as he said, "A corrupted cell got purged, so what?"

Beta snarled, "Because the Primarchs hid it from us, they didn't trust us. That's when I realised the truth: the Primarchs only purged the cell once they had fulfilled their mission. Once they were satisfied that the virus had served its purpose."

Epsilon's head snapped up and he said, "Wait, they infected the cell deliberately? Why would they do that?"

Gamma spat in disgust, "Because the Imperium doesn't care about a few human worlds, what are billion dead colonists to Terra? But a virus that could corrupt Astartes, now that's an enemy to be feared."

Delta said as understanding dawned, "If the Alpha Legion defeated such a foe then we would be heroes, there would be no more talk of us being lesser than the other Legions. The Primarchs corrupted their own sons just to prove a point."

Beta continued his tale, "Aye, Alpharius and Omegan didn't care about any of us. Our trust and brotherhood were the only things we had and it meant nothing to either of them. Gods below Malcador showed more concern for our dead than those two. I realised then that we were nothing but tools to the twin Primarchs, to be used and discarded without a second's thought. Don't get me wrong, sacrifice was no stranger to the Legions but Alpharius and Omegan betrayed our Brotherhood, they would have cast-off all of us for their own selfish advancement. For the sake of my brothers, for the sake of the Legion, they had to go. The Primarchs had to be eliminated before they got us all killed."

Delta nodded in understanding and said, "The Legion is all and we are all Legion."

Gamma shook his head and was about to ask what they were going to do now, but then there was a chime from Epsilon's equipment and he exclaimed, "Finally."

Gamma looked over and said, "What is it?"

Epsilon explained, "My data-thieves have accessed the Dark Eldar's primary cogitators."

Gamma was surprised and said, "When did you insert those?"

Epsilon smirked and said, "Athra J'rect should be more careful about who he lets touch his bridge consoles, you never know what some unscrupulous knave might do when he's not looking."

Everybody chuckled at that and Beta asked, "Can you access the ship's layout and find the Farseer's quarters?"

Epsilon bent over his device and said, "Xeno technology is weird, half the control interfaces seem to be in their heads. Still a cogitator is a cogitator; the systems are not unfamiliar, weapons, life support, Auspex. Ah, here I've found it, a complete schematic of the ship. By the Gods below how many slave pens do they need, they take up half the ship. Wait, wait there it is, the Farseer's quarters."

"Excellent work," declared Beta, "It's time to make our move, Delta go retrieve the prize from the Farseer's quarters, while Epsilon secures us a transport. Gamma and I will keep up appearances for the Dark Eldar's benefit."

The cell nodded in compliance but Gamma scowled and said, "What of the Storm Heralds?"

Beta cocked his head, "What of them? They don't matter, those nobodies are completely insignificant. Even Terra doesn't think they are worth exterminating. We will leave the lapdogs and the Xenos to each other's tender mercies while we make our escape."

Gamma growled, "I can't believe we're letting them live… again. "

Delta interjected, "Think of it this way, once we get the prize we will need someone to test it on. The Storm Heralds are as good a victim as any."

Now Gamma grinned, "That I like."

Beta put his helm on and said, "Good, now let's get to it, it's time that the Alpha Legion claims its true place as the supreme force in the galaxy."