Legends of the Smoke Jaguars Chapter 246

The sun set on Calan Gaeav and darkness was not all that came for the planet. The Eye of Terror did surge once more, ending the brief reprieve. A day alone had the world been granted parole from horrors beyond imagination and with its ending Chaos claimed its due. The roiling stormfronts swept across the system, devouring every moon, asteroid and comet in their path, snatching them from reality and dragging them down into the infernal abyss.

Calan Gaeav's doom was more spectacular. The veil spilt and a million hungry tentacles reached through the rent. Tendrils hundreds of thousands of kilometres long wrapped themselves around continents, cracking the planetary mantle with their tight embrace. Billions of screaming ghosts begged for mercy but the Eldar gods were just as dead and no force could prevent the planet from being dragged into the infinite horror of the warp. Torments that would shatter sanity awaited the ghostly population, only to see them restored exactly as they were the next time Calan Gaeav emerged into realspace. To suffer the same miseries in endless cycle, some six hundred and sixty-six years from now.

Far away Vitcos watched in mute vigil as the planet's fate overtook it. Falconer was many light-hours away, racing for the system's edge at top speed. The light of these events was many hours old when it caught up with the ship, and he watched it in a pict-screen as they sped away. The Smoke Jaguars had been wise to flee when they did, a few more hours delay on the surface and they'd have been caught in the calamity, as it was escape was a near-run thing.

Ilquitio was standing at a console and reported, "The stormfront advances but ours is the greater speed."

Sechura asked, "We shall translate before the ground crumbles under our feet?"

"The Navigator rest in surety, lacking a destination only is he."

"Where then shall we go, to the Ordo Astartes?"

Vitcos didn't take his eyes off the screen, "You intend to spread lies of these days?"

"The prudent man gets his story in first."

Vitcos shook his head, "Nay, our truths cannot be hidden. The Ordo Astartes will know. To Copan we must return, to face the consequences of our actions… my actions."

He turned about and took in Blazing Shadow Prowl. His comrades, his Kinsmen. Ten Smoke Jaguars who had followed him without question. Vitcos was pained to know how badly he had led them, how misjudged they had been to vote him as First. Faces old and new, they had looked to him to set an example and he had failed utterly. The consequences were inevitable.

Vitcos was lost for words and looked about. A small compartment in the Falconer's tight interior, a secondary control room for the gunnery Serviles. Lined with pict-screens and consoles. An undignified place to decide their future, but the ship was not overburdened with grand strategiums. It suited his mood, he was not feeling glorious today. Vitcos knew the crew would obey without question, they were trothed to the Smoke Jaguars, only he did not know what orders to give, other than to slink home.

Finally Vitcos sighed, "One of you will betray me."

Sechura lifted an eyebrow, "A prophet now are you?"

"I spit in the face of destiny," Vitcos retorted, "I chose my path and to bear the consequences for my actions."

Ilquitio cocked his head, "Your meaning?"

"I killed Tachna, with my own hand. No other can take responsibility for this. The Laws of Sedaxus are clear, a life for a life. If not mine then all of Blazing Shadow. One of you must overpower me and drag me to the Lords Headsman in chains, or all will suffer."

Sechura however snorted, "For your pride I will not hammer the martyr's nails home."

"It is not pride; it is the sentence demanded by the Testimony!"

But Sechura snorted, "You wish to escape your guilt with a swift execution, this we will not abide."

Ilquitio agreed, "Tachna was hated by more than just you. His name was a curse on many lips, all have dreamt of his death in the cold hours of the night. No matter that it was your hand that took the blood-debt, the sin lies upon all of us. Into our minds the Seers will probe, our darkest thoughts will be made known and in them lies our guilt. Our hands may not have held the knife but our hearts rejoice at Tachna's passing, this is sin enough for the Shade-Seer to denounce us before the Shade-Lord. Blazing Shadow will not evade judgment by making a scapegoat of you: Teotihuacan will condemn all no matter what we say. Your fate is our fate, First of Blazing Shadow, this is certain."

Nods from all made Vitcos realise they were right. The Chapter would not be satisfied by one death, not when it was a First who sinned. The whole Prowl would be condemned no matter what pleas of innocence they made. Vitco's attempt to take the blame would not be heeded. He could not spare his Kinsmen by throwing himself on the martyr's cross, their sentence would be dire and equal. He had failed so utterly that there was no coming back. The shaming would ring down the generations, Blazing Shadow Prowl would be reviled and mocked long after every last one of them was interred in the Stair Abyssal.

"So we run," Sechura proposed, "We put our bow to the Eastern Fringe and discover what lies beyond the light of the Astronomican."

"It will not spare Copan," Vitcos sighed.

"Understanding eludes my grasp."

"The Ordo Astartes will learn of these deeds," Vitcos explained.

"Who shall tell them?"

"Not I," Ilquitio snorted.

But Vitcos answered, "Vendrick shall. We did not see the First of Censors fall, and without a body I shall not count him dead. Mull-ic I named him, Stone Eye, and such a soul does not die easily, or forget. He saw us abandon him in the field of battle, he may have seen Tachna's death. That we left the death sentence of being a Censor behind cannot be refuted. He will return to plague us again, and with him his lords of Ordo Astartes. For our actions he will condemn all Smoke Jaguars, Copan will burn in the fires of Exterminatus. Vendrick will see this done, a thousand Kinsmen, all to punish us ten."

Sechura drove his fist into his palm, "Then we take the fight to them! Steal into their great scow and slit their throats one by one!"

"Leave none alive to come after us," Ilquitio agreed to quiet raps on breastplates as the Prowl signalled their approval.

"Ten, against how many warriors?" Vitcos sighed, "Cunning and sly are we, but Lazar commands armies. Should we prevail against his mortal allies we have to contend with his wilder creations. The Censors are not his only experiments, he has more dangerous devilries we have yet to see."

Ilquitio threw up his hands, "We cannot fight, we cannot return home, we cannot flee. What path remains?!"

Vitcos drew in a breath and said, "We heed the words of Athra J'rect."

"The treacherous Xenos?" Sechura blinked.

Vitcos nodded, "Warned us of treachery did he, but it was not for his we should have watched, it was ours. We were the danger within, not him. This we must embrace more fully."

"You tread dangerous waters," Ilquitio warned.

"Into an ocean we have been thrown, it is time to learn to swim."

Sechura eyed him warily, "What proposal have you?"

Vitcos looked at his Kinsmen then said, "Long ago Aapo the Eldest taught us to embrace our twin natures, light and dark, good and evil. We have been leal sons of the Ravenlord but of the Night Haunter we have not yet delved our fullest potential. Time it is to become Kurze's true sons: to become evil incarnate. So vile, so despicable, that the Shade-Lord himself condemns us. A rogue Prowl, unseated in madness, tainted by the Devilry of the warp and the lies of Daemons. A stench in the nostrils of Sedaxus' skull. Cast out by the Chapter, disowned and spat upon. The Sun-Emperor himself will turn his gaze away from us. A stain upon the Chapter's history, one so loathsome that even the Ordo Astartes cannot hold the Smoke Jaguars to account for our deeds."

Sechura blinked, "The renegades' path you seek, to break faith with the Sun-Emperor and live in defiance of the Throne of Gold?"

"They will not believe we could be so contemptible," Ilquitio denied.

"All Chapters have had their disgraces," Vitcos argued, "By ones and twos, by squad and company even. They are not condemned for it. Not even the proud sons of Ultramar can claim to have a perfect record, they too have had their shameful renegades and yet are counted leal as a Chapter. So we must be: Teotihuacan must be forced to reject Blazing Shadow, to willingly denounce us as no Kinsmen of Copan. This alone can save the Smoke Jaguars."

Ilquitio lowered his eyes, "As sons of Curze we must walk this day hence, to save our Chapter."

Sechura however growled, "Teotihuacan dispatched us to die among Censors, our lives to be sacrificed for the whim of a mad Magos! I spit upon the Shade-lord, he has lost my allegiance. He Who Must Be Obeyed owns no power over me!"

Vitcos agreed, "To Copan we return, not as Kinsmen long missed but as savage creatures of the night. To shed blood and slit throats, and make all that was once good of Blazing Shadow into a twisted parody."

"It will be a death worthy of memorial at least," Ilquitio sighed.

Vitcos lifted his chin and declared, "Fate and destiny tell us such a battle can only end with us dying ignobly in defeat, I spit upon such a geas. I choose to live; I choose to defy those who expect me to lie down and die. Since my first breath I have suffered the withering gaze of those who thought me unworthy, I defied them all, as I defy the Sun-Emperor himself!"

Vitcos looked across the lineup and saw agreement in all eyes, "We shall be the vilest of warriors, we ten who spit upon the Testimony. Sin has moulded us and in nightmares we have been forged. We choose to take the burden of sin upon ourselves and wear it as armour. We hold the frights of men in our hands and wield them as weapons. We are the Terror that assails the bulwark, we are the night haunters of humanity. We are Smoke Jaguars no more and we shall own fear!"