by Mike Lee
The moment has come, brothers. Jonson has cast us aside; the Emperor, who once demanded our fealty, has forgotten us. Now we must decide whether to accept their judgment and give in to the darkness, or to defy them for the sake of our home and our people.
He glanced across the compartment to the jump seats nearest the ramp. There, the Saviour of Caliban sat, clad in his gleaming armour like a hero of old. Luther’s gaunt features were composed as he studied page after page of arcane text from the ancient grimoire propped across his knees. Lord Cypher sat closest to him, arms folded across his chest. He stared back at Zahariel from the depths of his hood, his expression unreadable.
Zahariel focused on his breathing. Images came and went in his mind: Sar Daviel, wreathed in tongues of blue fire; Luther, marked with glowing runes and haloed by the same terrible flame; Brother-Librarian Israfael, smoke rising from the wound in his chest, his features distorted with anguish as he sank slowly to his knees.
Shall we side with those who scorn us, or choose our own path, to protect the innocent from those who would exploit and corrupt them? The noise of the thrusters rose to a screaming crescendo, and then the Stormbird touched down with a tremendous, spine-rattling jolt. Jump restraints released with a metallic clatter and servomotors whined as the assault ramp deployed, letting in the cold, smoke-tinged air of the Northwilds. Boots thundered as the Astartes leapt to their feet; bolt pistols cleared their holsters and chainswords roared to angry life. Zahariel felt his body respond without conscious thought, caught up with all the rest in the intricate dance of death.
Luther passed the book to Lord Cypher and led the way, his black cloak flapping wildly in the howling gale kicked up by the Stormbird’s thrusters. Zahariel followed six paces behind Lord Cypher, flanked by Brother Attias to his right. Six other Astartes, all veterans of the fighting on Sarosh, fanned out around them, their weapons ready. Three other assault squads were deploying from their own transports on the landing platform as well, spreading out in a wide arc to cover the command squad’s flanks and rear.
The heavy blast doors leading to the arcology’s upper levels had already slid open by the time Luther and his warriors had disembarked, and a large group of green-uniformed Jaeger officers were struggling to reach them through the gale spawned by the drop ships’ thrusters. Leading the Jaeger troops was a wiry, sharp-featured officer in smoke-stained flak armour and fatigues.
‘Colonel Hadziel,’ Luther said in greeting, his powerful voice carrying easily over the roaring wind.
‘An honour, my lord,’ Hadziel shouted back. One hand was pressed to the top of his helmet to keep it in place, and he squinted into the grit kicked up by the Stormbirds. ‘I apologise for not being able to keep you apprised of the situation during the trip, but the rebels have found some way to jam all of our vox transmissions. I can’t coordinate with my squads inside the arcology, much less send or receive signals outside.’
‘No need for apologies, Colonel. Frankly, we expected something like this.’ Luther paused for a moment as the four transports took off with a bone-jarring roar, then spoke into the ringing silence that followed. ‘One thing we need to be clear on from the outset, however, is that the rebels are not responsible for this. In fact, as of three hours ago, I concluded a truce with the rebel leaders, and they have agreed to assist us against our common enemy.’
Hadziel and his staff exchanged bemused looks. ‘Common enemy, my lord?’ he asked carefully.
‘Now is not the time for a detailed briefing, Colonel,’ Luther said sternly. ‘I assure you, all will be made clear once we’ve gotten this situation under control. Suffice it to say that a cabal of off-worlders housed here at the arcology have hidden themselves somewhere in the lowest sub-levels and are exposing this entire area to the malign effects of the warp.’
To his credit, Colonel Hadziel accepted the bizarre turn of events with surprising poise. He blinked once, and nodded curtly. ‘How can I and my Jaegers be of service, my lord?’
‘Good man,’ Luther said proudly. To a man, Hadziel’s staff grinned, their confidence restored. The Master of Caliban beckoned them to fall in around him. ‘First,’ he said, ‘what’s the current situation and the disposition of the civilians?’
Colonel Hadziel gestured to a pair of staff officers, who presented a portable hololith table and set it up at Luther’s feet.
‘For the last few hours, it’s been complete chaos,’ Hadziel said grimly. He keyed in a number of commands, and a cross-section of the arcology filled the air above the table. ‘As luck would have it, the evacuation order from Aldurukh had just gotten underway when the unrest began. As a result, we already had a movement order in place and there were combat squads in the hab levels when the unrest began. Those squads bought us precious time to organise and took a lot of pressure off our checkpoints in the early stages of the riots. Otherwise, our cordon would have probably been completely overrun.’
‘How many civilians were you able to evacuate?’ Zahariel interjected.
The colonel shrugged. ‘Thousands, certainly,’ he said, ‘but I’ve no way of determining an exact number of evacuees. We’re still trying to let people through, but it’s extremely difficult at this point.’
‘Why?’ Luther asked.
Colonel Hadziel took a breath, considering his reply carefully. ‘These riots are much worse than anything we’ve seen before,’ he said. ‘We’d thought maybe some kind of disease had taken hold in the hab levels – something savage, like crimson fever or rabies. The last reports we got from our squads in the lower levels reported mobs of bestial civilians attacking every living thing in sight. Gunfire didn’t seem to slow them in the least short of a las-bolt to the head. The uninfected civilians are panicking and trying to mob our checkpoints in an effort to escape.’ The colonel’s jaw tightened. ‘There have been several incidents of troops turning their guns on the civilians in order to keep the crowds at bay.’
He hit another set of keys and gestured to the holo-image. ‘As it is, I’ve been forced to give up my initial positions and fall back to level fifteen, where there are fewer access points to cover and I can pass orders using runners.’ Almost half of the lower levels of the arcology began to blink red. ‘Everything below that level, including all the sub-levels, has been lost, which includes the arcology’s thermal power plants, water and air circulation and waste recycling facilities. In purely military terms, we’re no longer in control of the arcology.’ Hadziel spread his hands. ‘We’re still trying to save as many civilians as we can, but we’ve got to check every group and make sure they’re clean before we can let them through.’
Luther turned to Zahariel. ‘Are there any measures we can take to quickly discern living humans from these walking corpses?’ Hadziel’s eyes widened. ‘Corpses, my lord? Those were reports from panicked troops. Surely you don’t believe—’
‘Make sure the checkpoints are issued thermal auspex units,’ Zahariel cut in. ‘Even a thermal lasgun sight will do. The corpses will have a much lower heat signature than the civilians around them.’
‘Well, I…’ Hadziel began, then took one look at the Astartes and thought better of his protest. ‘I mean, I’ll send the word out immediately.’ Luther nodded curtly. ‘Very good, colonel.’ He paused for a moment, studying the display carefully for a moment. ‘At this point, I want you to focus your efforts on holding the checkpoints at level fifteen and to continue evacuating civilians out of the hab levels as quickly and efficiently as possible. My warriors will form into strike forces and will pass through these checkpoints—’ He indicated seven strategic locations across level fifteen ‘—and will advance into the contested areas towards the arcology’s power plants and life support centres.’
Hadziel frowned. ‘My lord, we have no clear estimates on the number of infected individuals on the lower levels, but it certainly reaches into the hundreds, possibly thousands. They will be drawn to your warriors like blood moths to a wounded deer.’
Luther nodded in
agreement. ‘That’s the idea, colonel. My brothers will deal with the corpses and take the pressure off your troops. Once you’ve completed relocating the civilian population you’ll be able to commit your forces to securing the arcology’s lower levels. I want you to assign a liaison officer to each of my teams and ensure that their path through the checkpoints is cleared. That’s all for now, gentlemen. We’ll speak again once order is restored.’
Hadziel nodded and began issuing instructions to his staff officers, who immediately began to draft the necessary orders. Luther turned away from the Jaegers and motioned for Zahariel, Attias and Lord Cypher to join him several paces away.
‘Any word from the rebels still inside the arcology?’ he quietly asked Zahariel.
The Librarian shook his head. ‘They’re having no better luck with their vox-units than we are,’ he replied. ‘There’s no way to know if they’ve found the sorcerers or not.’
Luther nodded. ‘Do you believe Colonel Hadziel’s estimate of the number of corpses in the lower levels?’
Zahariel shook his head grimly. ‘Not in the least. They must number in the thousands, possibly the tens of thousands.’ ‘An army of the dead,’ Brother Attias said in his hollow, synthetic voice. ‘But to what purpose?’
‘Fuel for the fire,’ Luther said, half to himself. ‘The sorcerers are using the violence and bloodshed to weaken the barrier between the physical world and the warp and facilitate their master ritual.’ He cast a meaningful glance at Lord Cypher, who nodded.
Zahariel scowled at the secret exchange, wondering what secrets Luther had uncovered from the forbidden library. ‘Then we have to find a way to strike directly at the sorcerers and their ritual,’ he declared.
‘If we can locate them in time,’ Luther said grimly. ‘The ritual must be close to completion at this point.’
‘Zahariel can lead us there,’ Cypher said. His hooded head swivelled to regard the Librarian. ‘You can sense the turbulence in the warp generated by the ritual, can you not?’
‘I…’ Zahariel paused, glancing from Lord Cypher to Luther. The Master of Caliban was staring at him expectantly. Was he being manoeuvred into something? Israfael’s stricken face hovered before his mind’s eye like a ghost. He shook his head, as though to clear it. ‘That is, yes, I can, but that kind of prolonged exposure to warp energy is not without risk.’
Luther grinned wryly. ‘Brother, believe me when I tell you that if we don’t stop this ritual we’re all going to be exposed to more warp energy than is really healthy.’
A strange, wheezing note blurted from Attias’s vox grille. Zahariel turned to stare at the skull-faced Astartes. The sound continued, and it took the Librarian a few moments to realise that Attias was laughing. Cypher started to chuckle, and then Zahariel couldn’t help but join in as well, dispelling the tension of the moment.
‘Well, brother?’ Luther prompted.
Zahariel bowed his head. ‘Give me a moment to centre myself,’ he said, clenching the force staff tightly and focusing his awareness through his armour’s psychic hood.
At once he felt the churning maelstrom of the warp whirling about him. Its energy licked at him like tongues of flame, trying to find purchase in his soul. Jagged slivers of ice dug painfully into the back of his skull as the hood tried to shield him from the storm.
The whirlwind spun about him, drawing him downward towards its locus like a gaping maw. Something lay at its centre, he sensed; a seed of darkness, hungry and impatient for release.
Zahariel staggered slightly at the vertiginous pull of the ritual, holding himself apart from it by sheer effort of will. ‘I can feel it,’ he gasped. ‘The sorcerers are trying to open a path for something to come through. Like Sarosh, only… worse, somehow.’
‘Can you lead us to them?’ Luther said.
Zahariel concentrated on the vortex, following its currents with his mind. The biting cold in his head increased. Frost spread along the force staff’s metal shaft. ‘The locus is deep within the earth,’ he said with a grimace. ‘I’ll be able to refine its position more precisely as we go.’
‘Excellent,’ Luther said. ‘We’ll have Hadziel unlock a bank of maintenance lifts that will take us directly to the lowest sub-level, then fight our way to the locus from there.’
The Master of Caliban spun on his heel, snapping orders to Colonel Hadziel and to the other three squad leaders waiting at the landing pad. With an effort, Zahariel tried to re-orient himself in the physical world once more. The transition was much more difficult than he expected; even with the buffer provided by the psychic hood, the energies of the maelstrom still plucked at him, as though it had sunk barbs deep into his soul. He felt strangely numbed, unmoored within his own skin, and he knew that the grip of the storm would only grow stronger the closer he came to the centre of the ritual.
He blinked, trying to clear his eyes, and found Lord Cypher studying him speculatively. Before Zahariel could ask what he was staring at, the enigmatic Astartes abruptly turned away.
THEY DESCENDED INTO darkness, lit only by feeble red emergency lighting inside the maintenance lift’s metal cage. Hadziel had authorised the activation of a bank of four lifts that would allow Luther’s four assault squads to deploy together, concentrating their strength against whatever foes awaited them. Based on their experience at Sigma Five-One-Seven, Zahariel had advised choosing the set of lifts in the closest proximity to the arcology’s main thermal core.
The strength of the maelstrom increased steadily the deeper they went, until Zahariel scarcely had to focus his awareness in order to sense it. The unnatural energies sank effortlessly through his armour and pulsed sickeningly against his skin. Frost coated the housing of his psychic hood and sent needles of icy feedback into his brain. The storm winds tugged ruthlessly at him, tearing at his mind and soul with increasing vigour.
Finally the lift jerked roughly to a halt, two hundred metres below the earth. They’d reached the lowest sub-level of the arcology. Luther gave a nod to the Astartes manning the controls, and the lift doors clattered open, revealing a broad, low-ceilinged chamber formed of fused permacrete. The air was stiflingly humid and thick with the stench of corruption.
Here, as with the lower levels at Sigma Five-One-Seven, the earth had already begun to reclaim the space. Glossy greenish-black vines sprouted from cracks in the walls and along the floor, and a dripping, greenish mould covered much of the ceiling. Inserts chittered and squirmed through the tainted growth, or droned through the thick air on blurring wings. Sickly blue luminescence radiated from colonies of fungus that sprouted in haphazard clusters overhead, providing ample light to the Astartes’ enhanced night vision.
The Dark Angel squads deployed swiftly from the adjoining lifts. Three assault squads took the lead, forming a protective arc in front of Luther and the command squad, and orienting their weapons on the three entryways on the opposite side of the chamber. Two men in each of the assault squads carried a hand flamer, while two of the veterans in Luther’s command squad were armed with powerful, short range meltaguns. The rest carried roaring chainswords and blunt-nosed bolt pistols, ideal for the kind of close-quarters fighting they expected to encounter. They were forty strong, a fearsome display of force. Entire worlds had been brought into compliance with less.
Luther led the command squad into the chamber. His huge sword Nightfall burned a fierce blue in his right hand, and his ornate bolt pistol gleamed dully in his left. Zahariel stood next to him, clutching his force staff with both hands, while Brother Attias and Lord Cypher brought up the rear. Cypher held his plasma pistol ready in his right hand. The leather-bound grimoire was clutched tightly against his chest.
The Master of Caliban leaned close to Zahariel. ‘Can you sense the ritual in process?’ he asked quietly.
Gritting his teeth, Zahariel focused his awareness through the psychic hood. The dampener was already straining at the limit of its abilities; he could smell the strange mix of overheated circuitry and frozen metal
. This close, he could sense rhythms pulsing through the howling psychic wind, like discordant notes struck by a madman’s hand. The vibrations represented the symbolic chants that coaxed the energies of the warp into the physical realm.
‘The ritual is well advanced,’ the Librarian said, suppressing a groan of disgust. ‘It could reach its climax at any time. We have to hurry!’ Luther nodded. His dark eyes shone with fevered intensity. ‘Listen, Zahariel. When we reach the ritual site, I want you to keep close to me. We have to confront this entity, together. I have the knowledge, but I lack the ability to manipulate the forces of the warp.’
Zahariel shook his head. ‘Confront it? You mean drive it back.’
‘No,’ Luther said. ‘At least, not yet.’ He turned and nodded at the grimoire that Cypher carried. ‘That book contains the means to subjugate the spirit, bend it to our will. If we can reach it at the right moment, while it’s still weak.’
‘You can’t be serious!’ Zahariel cried. ‘What you’re talking about is madness! The Emperor—’
Luther stepped close, until he was nearly whispering in Zahariel’s ear. ‘Yes. The Emperor has forbidden this. Why? Because he fears the beings of the warp. That’s something we must learn to exploit, if Caliban is to remain free.’ He looked deeply into Zahariel’s eyes. ‘Do you trust me, brother?’
Zahariel found himself nodding, despite the misgivings in his heart. ‘Yes. Of course.’
‘Then help me. It’s the only way.’
