Galaxy in Flames

by Ben Counter

  He stole a glance towards the top of the pyramid, seeing the burnished Death Guard warriors climbВ­ing ahead of him to reach the figure at the summit.

  Leading the Death Guard was the familiar, brutal form of Nathanial Garro, his old friend forging upwards with powerful strides and his familiar grim determination. Even amid the furious battle, Tarvitz was glad to be fighting alongside his sworn honour brother once again. Garro forced his way towards the top of the pyramid, aiming his charge towards the glowing figure that commanded the battlefield.

  Long hair whipped around it, and as sheets of lightning arced upwards, Tarvitz saw that it was a

  woman, her sweeping silk robes lashing like the tendrils of some undersea creature.

  Even above the chaos of battle, he could hear her voice and it was singing.

  The force of the music lifted her from the pyraВ­mid, suspending her above the pinnacle on a song of pure force. Hundreds of harmonies wound impossibly over one another, screeching notes smashing together as they ripped from her unnatВ­ural throat. Stones flew from the pyramid's summit, spiralling towards the dome's ceiling as her song broke apart the warp and weft of reality.

  As Tarvitz watched, a single discordant note rose to the surface in a tremendous crescendo, and an explosion blew out a huge chunk of the pyramid, massive blocks of stone tumbling in the currents of light. The pyramid shuddered and stones crashed down amongst the Emperor's Children, crushing some and knocking many more from its side.

  Tarvitz fought to keep his balance as portions of the pyramid collapsed in a rumbling landslide of splintered stone and rubble. The armoured body of a Death Guard slithered down the slope towards a sheer drop into the falling masonry and Tarvitz saw that it was the bloodied form of Garro.

  He scrambled across the disintegrating pyramid and leapt towards the drop, catching hold of the warrior's armour and dragging him towards firmer ground.

  Tarvitz pulled Garro away from the fighting, seeВ­ing that his friend was badly wounded. One leg was severed at mid thigh and portions of his chest and

  upper arm were crushed. Frozen, coagulated blood swelled like blown glass around his injuries and shards of stone jutted from his abdomen.

  Tarvitz!' growled Garro, his anger greater than his pain. 'It's a Warsinger. Don't listen.'

  'Hold on, brother,’ said Tarvitz. 'I'll be back for you,’ 'Just kill it,’ spat Garro.

  Tarvitz looked up, seeing the Warsinger closer as she drifted towards the Emperor's Children. Her face was serene and her arms were open as if to welВ­come them, her eyes closed as she drew the terrible song from her.

  Yet more blocks of stone were lifting from the pyraВ­mid around the Emperor's Children. Tarvitz saw one warrior – Captain Odovocar, the Bearer of the Legion banner – dragged from his feet and into the air by the Warsinger's chorus. His armour jerked as if torn at by invisible fingers, sparking sheets of ceramite peeling back as the Warsinger's power took it apart.

  Odovocar came apart with it, his helmet ripping free and trailing glittering streamers of blood and bone as it took his head off.

  As Odovocar died, Tarvitz was struck by the savВ­age beauty of the song, a song he felt she was singing just for him. Beauty and death were capВ­tured in its discordant notes, the wonderful peace that would come if he just gave himself up to it and let the music of oblivion take him. War would end and violence wouldn't even be a memory. Don't listen to it.

  Tarvitz snarled and his bolt pistol kicked in his hand as he fired at the Warsinger, the sound of the shots drowned by the cacophony. Shells impacted against a sheath of shimmering force around the Warsinger, blooms of white light exploding around her as they detonated prematurely. More and more of the Astartes, Emperor's Children and Death Guard both, were being pulled up into the air and sonically dismembered, and Tarvitz knew they didn't have much time before their cause was lost.

  The surviving Isstvanian soldiers were regrouping, storming up the pyramid after the Astartes. Tarvitz saw Lucius among them, sword slashing black-armoured limbs from bodies as they fought to surround him.

  Lucius could look after himself and Tarvitz forced himself onwards, struggling to keep his footing amid the chaos of the Warsinger's wanton destrucВ­tion. Gold gleamed ahead of him and he saw Eidolon's armour shining like a beacon in the Warsinger's light. The lord commander bellowed in defiance and pulled himself up the last few levels of the pyramid as Tarvitz climbed to join him.

  The Warsinger drew a shining caul of light around her and Eidolon plunged into it, the glare becoming opaque like a shining white shell. Tarvitz's pistol was empty, so he dropped it, taking a two handed grip on his sword and following his lord commander into the light.

  The deafening shrieks of the Warsinger filled his head with deathly unmusic, rising to a crescendo as he penetrated the veil of light.

  Eidolon was on his knees, his hammer lost and the Warsinger hovering over him. Her hands stretched out in front of her as she battered Eidolon with waves of force strong enough to distort the air.

  Eidolon's armour warped around him, his helmet ripped from his head in a wash of blood, but he was still alive and fighting.

  Tarvitz charged, screaming, 'For the Emperor!'

  The Warsinger saw him and smashed him to the floor with a dismissive flick of her wrist. His helmet cracked with the force of the impact and for a moment his world was filled with the awful beauty of the Warsinger's song. His vision returned in time for him to see Eidolon lunging forwards. His charge had bought Eidolon a momentary distraction, the harmonics of her song redirected for the briefest moment.

  The briefest moment was all a warrior of the Emperor's Children needed.

  Eidolon's eyes were ablaze, his hatred and revulВ­sion at this foe clear as his mouth opened in a cry of rage. His mouth opened still wider and he let loose his own screeching howl. Tarvitz rolled onto his back, dropping his sword and clutching his hands to his ears at the dreadful sound. Where the Warsinger's song had layered its death in beguiling beauty, there was no such grace in the sonic assault launched by Eidolon, it was simply agonising, deafВ­ening volume.

  The crippling noise smashed into the Warsinger and suddenly her grace was torn away. She opened

  her mouth to sing a fresh song of death, but Eidolon's scream turned her cries into a grim dirge.

  Sounds of mourning and pain layered over one another into a heavy funereal drone as the Warsinger dropped to her knees. Eidolon bent and picked up Tarvitz's fallen broadsword, his own terВ­rible scream now silenced. The Warsinger writhed in pain, arcing coils of light whipping from her as she lost control of her song.

  Eidolon waded through the light and noise. The broadsword licked out and Eidolon cut the Warsinger's head from her shoulders with a single sweep of silver.

  Finally the Warsinger was silent.

  Tarvitz clung to the crumbling summit of the pyraВ­mid and watched as Eidolon raised the sword in victory still trying to understand what he had seen.

  The Warsinger's monstrous harmonies still rang in his head, but he shook them off as he stared in disbelief at the lord commander.

  Eidolon turned to Tarvitz, and dropped the broadsword beside him. i

  'A good blade,’ he said. 'My thanks for your interВ­vention.'

  'How…?' was all Tarvitz could muster, his senses still overcome with the deafening shriek Eidolon had unleashed.

  'Strength of will, Tarvitz,' said Eidolon. That's what it was, strength of will. The bitch's damn magic was no match for a pair of warriors like us, eh?'

  'I suppose not,’ said Tarvitz, accepting a hand up from Eidolon. The dome was suddenly, eerily silent. The Isstvanians who still lived were slumped where they had fallen at the Warsinger's death, weeping and rocking back and forth like children at the loss of a parent.

  'I don't understand-' he began as warriors of the Death Guard started securing the dome.

  'You don't need to understand, Tarvitz,’ said Eidolon. 'We
won, that's what matters,’

  'But what you did-'

  'What I did was kill our enemies,’ snapped Eidolon. 'Understood?'

  'Understood,’ nodded Tarvitz, although he no more understood Eidolon's newfound ability than he did the celestial mechanics of travelling through the warp.

  Eidolon said, 'Kill any remaining enemy troops. Then destroy this place,’ before turning and making his way down the shattered pyramid to the cheers of his warriors.

  Tarvitz retrieved his fallen weapons and watched the aftermath of victory unfolding below him. The Astartes were regrouping and he made his way back down to where he had left the wounded Garro.

  The captain of the Death Guard was sitting propped up against the side of the pyramid, his chest heaving with the effort of breathing and Tarvitz could see it had taken a supreme effort of will not to let the pain balms of his armour render him unconscious.

  Tarvitz, you're alive,’ said Garro as he climbed down the last step.

  'Just about,’ he said. 'More than can be said for you,’

  This?' sneered Garro. 'I've had worse than this. You mark my words, lad, I'll be up and teaching you a few new tricks in the training cages again before you know it,’

  Despite the strangeness of the battle and the lives that had been lost, Tarvitz smiled.

  'It is good to see you again, Nathaniel,’ said Tarvitz, leaning down and taking Garro's proffered hand. 'It has been too long since we fought together,’

  'It has that, my honour brother,’ nodded Garro, 'but I have a feeling we will have plenty of opporВ­tunities to fight as one before this campaign is over,’

  'Not if you keep letting yourself get injured like this. You need an apothecary,’

  'Nonsense, boy, there's plenty worse than me that need a sawbones first,’

  'You never did learn to accept that you'd been hurt did you?' smiled Tarvitz.

  'No,’ agreed Garro. 'It's not the Death Guard way, is it?'

  'I wouldn't know,’ said Tarvitz, waving over an Emperor's Children apothecary despite Garro's protests. You're too barbarous a Legion for me to ever understand,’

  'And you're a bunch of pretty boys, more conВ­cerned with looking good than getting the job

  done,’ said Garro, rounding off the traditional insults that passed for greetings between them. Both warriors had been through too much in their long friendship and saved each other's lives too many times to allow formality and petty differences between their Legions to matter.

  Garro jerked his thumb in the direction of the summit. You killed her?'

  'No,’ said Tarvitz. 'Lord Commander Eidolon did,’

  'Eidolon, eh?' mused Garro. 'Never did have much time for him. Still, if he managed to bring her down, he's obviously learned a thing or two since I last met him,’

  'I think you might be right,’ said Tarvitz.

  SIX

  The soul of the Legion

  Everything will be different

  Abomination

  Loken found Abaddon in the observation dome that blistered from the hull of the upper decks of the Vengeful Spirit, the transparent glass looking out onto the barren wasteland of Isstvan Extremis. The dome was quiet and dark, a perfect place for reflecВ­tion and calm, and Abaddon looked out of place, his power and energy like that of a caged beast poised to attack.

  'Loken,’ said Abaddon as he walked into the chamber. 'You summoned me here?'

  'I did,’

  'Why?' demanded Abaddon.

  'Loyalty,’ said Loken simply.

  Abaddon snorted. 'You don't know the meaning of the word. You have never had it tested,’

  'Like you did on Davin?'

  Ah,’ sighed Abaddon, 'so that is what this is about. Don't think to lecture me, Loken. You couldn't have taken the steps we did to save the Warmaster.'

  'Maybe I'm the only one who took a stand.'

  'Against what? You would have allowed the War-master to die rather than accept that there might be something in this universe you don't underВ­stand?'

  'I am not here to debate what happened on Davin,’ said Loken, already feeling that he had lost control of the conversation.

  Then why are you here? I have warriors to make ready, and I won't waste time with you on idle words.'

  'I called you here because I need answers. About this,’ said Loken, casting the book he had taken from the fane behind the strategium onto the mosaic floor of the observation dome.

  Abaddon stooped to retrieve the book. In the hands of the first captain, it looked tiny, like one of Ignace Karkasy's pamphlets.

  'So you're a thief now,’ said Abaddon.

  'Do not dare speak to me of such things, Ezekyle, not until you have given me answers. I know that Erebus conspired against us. He stole the anathame from the interex and brought it to Davin. I know it and you know it,’

  'You know nothing, Loken,’ sneered Abaddon. 'What happens in this Crusade happens for the good of the Imperium. The Warmaster has a plan.'

  'A plan?' said Loken. And this plan requires the murder of innocent people? Hektor Varvarus? Ignace Karkasy? Petronella Vivar?'

  'The remembrancers?' laughed Abaddon. 'You really care about those people? They are lesser people, Loken, beneath us. The Council of Terra wants to drown us in these petty bureaucrats to stifle us and strangle our ambitions to conquer the galaxy.'

  'Erebus,’ said Loken, trying to keep his anger in check, 'why was he on the Vengeful Spirit!'

  Abaddon crossed the width of the observation dome in a second. 'None of your damn business,’

  'This is my Legion!' shouted Loken. That makes it my damn business,’

  'Not any more,’

  Loken felt his choler rise and clenched his hands into murderous fists.

  Abaddon saw the tension in him and said, Thinking of settling this like a warrior?'

  'No, Ezekyle,’ said Loken through clenched teeth. 'Despite all that has happened, you are still my Mournival brother and I will not fight you,’

  The Mournival,’ nodded Abaddon. A noble idea while it lasted, but I regret ever bringing you in. In any case, if it came down to bloodshed do you really think you could beat me?'

  Loken ignored the taunt and said, 'Is Erebus still here?'

  'Erebus is a guest on the Warmaster's flagship,’ said Abaddon. 'You would do well to remember

  that. If you had joined us when you had the chance instead of turning your back on us, you would have all your answers, but that's the choice you made, Loken. Live with it,’

  'The lodge has brought something evil into our Legion, Ezekyle, maybe the other Legions too, something from the warp. It's what killed Jubal and it's what took Temba on Davin. Erebus is lying to all of us!'

  'And we're being used, is that right? Erebus is manipulating us all towards a fate worse than death?' spat Abaddon. 'You know so little. If you understood the scale of the Warmaster's designs then you would beg us to take you back,’

  Then tell me, Ezekyle, and maybe I'll beg. We were brothers once and we can be again,’

  'Do you really believe that, Loken? You've made it plain enough that you're against us. Torgaddon said as much,’

  'For my Legion, for my Warmaster, there is always a way back,’ replied Loken, 'as long as you feel the same,’

  'But you'll never surrender, eh?'

  'Never! Not when the soul of my Legion is at stake,’

  Abaddon shook his head. We tie ourselves in such knots because men like you are too proud to make compromises,’

  'Compromise will be the death of us, Ezekyle,’

  'Forget this until after Isstvan, Loken,’ ordered Abaddon. 'After Isstvan, this will end,’

  'I will not forget it, Ezekyle. I will have my answers,’ snarled Loken, turning and walking away from his brother.

  'If you fig
ht us, you'll lose,’ promised Abaddon.

  'Maybe,’ replied Loken, 'but others will stand against you,’

  Then they will die too,’

  'Thank you all for coming,’ said Sindermann, overВ­whelmed and a little afraid at the number of people gathered before him. 'I appreciate that you have all taken a great risk to be here, but this is too much,’

  Crammed into a dark maintenance space, filthy with grease and hemmed in by low hissing pipe work, the faithful had come from all over the ship to hear the saint's words, mistakenly believing that she was awake. Amongst the crowd, Sindermann saw the uniforms of Titan crewmen, fleet mainteВ­nance workers, medical staff, security personnel, and even a few Imperial Army troopers. Men with guns guarded the entrances to the maintenance space and their presence served as a stark reminder of the danger they were in just by being here.

  Such a large gathering was dangerous, too easily noticed, and Sindermann knew that he had to disВ­perse them quickly before they were discovered, and do it in such a way as not to incite a riot.

  You have escaped notice thus far thanks to the size of your gatherings, but so many cannot avoid notice for long,’ continued Sindermann. You will no doubt have heard many strange and wonderful

  things recently, and I hope you will forgive me for putting you in harm's way'

  The news of Keeler's rescue had spread quickly в– through the ship. It had been whispered among the grime-covered ratings, it had been communicated through the remembrancer order with the rapidity of an epidemic and it had reached the ears of even the lowliest member of the expedition. Embellishments and wild rumour followed in the wake of the news and tales abounded of the saint and her miraculous powers, incredible stories of bullets turned aside and of visions of the Emperor speaking direcdy to her in order to show His people the way