Wolfsbane

by Guy Haley

  Conversation turned inevitably to what should be done next. Dorn activated a hololith depicting the whole wheel of the galaxy. Sunlight streamed through it, staining the stars bloody. 'This is our disposition,' said Dorn. 'Here, at Terra, we now have four Legions. The Lion pursues his policy of vengeance. Guilliman harries the traitors as he advances upon Terra.'

  'He should have come directly,' said Jaghatai. 'Swift movement wins battles.'

  'He thought it better one Legion got through rather than none,' said Sanguinius. 'Between them, the Lion and Guilliman have split the traitors' forces. We will have fewer enemy to face when Horus' hammer blow falls. Lion El'Jonson bleeds his strength, Guilliman pushes him on towards us. Their diversions allowed me through. We are at last in a position to dictate the course of the war. We can win.'

  'We are also split,' said the Khan. 'Six Legions could have been here.'

  'They outnumber us greatly,' said Sanguinius. 'Dividing their forces was the wisest action. They cannot be allowed to bring their full might to bear here.'

  Dorn nodded. 'Sanguinius is right. The Lion's campaign will buy us time, and Guilliman's activities give us the precious gift of choosing our own timing.'

  'How much time?' said the Khan.

  'It doesn't matter how much time we gain,' said Russ. 'It isn't enough. We have seen Sanguinius' ships, the Khan's.' Russ drank deeply of his wine. 'Mine. Our fleets are depleted. Mars is in open revolt. We do not have time, brothers. Horus still has two choices, he can attack us here, and smash what little remains of our strength, or wear us down by slow degree until there is nothing left. Either way, he wins.'

  The Angel and the Wolf are more similar than they appear, thought Sanguinius. I am refined on the surface and savage within, Russ is the opposite. How many mirrorings like these did the Emperor engineer into His sons? And why? He thought of Curze, another, darker reflection of himself. 'That was true a few weeks ago,' said Dorn. 'His hand is forced. Thanks to the actions of our brothers the Ruinstorm is blowing out. Now we can muster our strength, he will attack directly. He will wish to lay siege to Terra before Guilliman can bring his warriors here from Ultramar. With the Lion laying waste to the traitor's domains, his own ability to reinforce will be compromised. There will be no attrition now. We are engaged in a race.'

  'Guilliman's Legion is largely intact,' said Sanguinius. 'And he can call upon the full might of the Five Hundred Worlds. Lorgar and Angron wrought havoc there but Guilliman's realm is large and well organised. His is the largest Legion. Horus' forces have all suffered losses, many of them self-inflicted. Do not overestimate their strength. Horus will move against us soon, when he does not wish to.'

  'I do not doubt it,' said Russ. 'Still, we have no opportunity to replenish our fleets. We are not ready to bear the brunt of an assault on Terra. Alpharius' incursion should have taught us that.'

  A muscle twinge at the line of Dorn's silver hair betrayed his annoyance at Russ' statement 'You are also correct. We do need to strike back,' said Dorn. 'Now we have provoked him, we have to slow the Warmaster. If fortune is with us, we might even stop him before he gets to Terra. We can decide this strategy. It is now the Warmaster who must react and not us.'

  'Facing him before our forces are gathered will cost a lot of blood,' said Russ.

  'Where do you propose we make this stand?' said the Khan.

  'We have so many Titans here,' said Dorn. 'We cannot unleash them upon Terra. Their kind of war would be the undoing of the Throneworld. My intention is to hold Horus at Beta-Garmon.' The system in question blinked. The hololith zoomed into it at a gesture from Dorn. He pointed at it with his calloused, craftsman's hand. 'Seven major warp routes cross here. It has been contested since the beginning of the war. If we commit the majority of our forces to Beta-Garmon, we can hold Horus and our traitorous brothers there.'

  'And grind them out like cinders,' said Sanguinius. 'I do not see a better proposition.'

  Russ shook his head. 'It brings us back to attrition. They have the numbers. If we cannot best Horus quickly there, he will overcome us. Once Beta-Garmon is lost, the way to Terra is open. What will we defend ourselves with then?'

  'This kind of defensive war is your preference, Rogal,' said the Khan, 'but it is not to my liking. We risk becoming ensnared there. There are other routes to Terra. He could hold our forces in place at Beta-Garmon and outflank us.'

  'Our hunting brother is right,' said Russ. 'Beta-Garmon is a hell trap, and one that will too easily divide our forces, for must we not retain a portion of our strength here to fortify Terra? Fight him there, we are divided, fight him here, he has time to gather his strength. Horus has us outmanoeuvred.'

  'Any battle at Beta-Garmon will be bloody, there is no doubt of that,' said Dorn. 'The casualty figures I have projected are high, but they are bearable, and they will give us more time to fortify Terra. Guilliman will come from the galactic south-east, and trap Horus either at Beta-Garmon, or if he breaks through, against the wall of iron I have cast about this world.'

  Russ set down his goblet. 'You are forgetting something.'

  'What am I forgetting, Leman?' said Dorn.

  'We are assuming that Horus intends to strike with his full might at Terra. Why should he do so? If I were Horus, I would set the Iron Warriors to guard my back. The warp, though passable, is in turmoil. Horus still has a strategic advantage in travel speed. You can be assured he will not waste it He need only delay Guilliman for a short time, not confront him head on, and he will be able to bring overwhelming force against Beta-Garmon, then Terra, destroying our armies piece by piece.'

  'It is plausible, probable even, but I doubt the Warmaster anticipated the destruction of Davin,' said Dorn. 'Reinforcements arrive from all over the Imperium every day, and now the storm abates they come more quickly. We have access to the astrotelepathic network again, and so we exert greater control over loyalist factions. At Beta-Garmon, and at Terra, Horus will face far larger armies than he expected. He will know this, he will rush, and he will make errors. This is the race, to see who will be ready soonest.'

  'To rely on armies one does not have yet is to rely on the wind,' said Jaghatai. 'You never know which way it will blow.'

  'Aye, that is why he will run for Terra as quickly as he can,' said Russ. 'We do not have time to reinforce either system sufficiently.'

  'I think I already said that.' He poured more wine from a tall ewer and drank it down in one.

  'That is why we need to whittle him down while we can, Russ. I suggest you make for Acanto Myphos, where you will find large concentrations of the Alpha Legion. I am sure you would welcome the chance to tackle them again. Surely you would wish to have your vengeance upon them?'

  'I would,' said Russ. 'They would never pay weregild, would they?' He smiled. 'So they must die.'

  'I know you too well to take that as an agreement,' said Dorn.

  'It is not,' admitted Russ. 'Do you know what I think?'

  'You are going to tell me,' said Dorn wearily.

  Russ leaned forwards and gripped his knees. The Khan watched their exchange with interest.

  'It will not work.'

  'This is the best course of action. Divide. Hold. Reinforce, pin him between our armies here and Guilliman's Thirteenth,' insisted Dorn.

  'If we are talking about defence, then maybe it is,' said Russ. 'And in defending, we will come close to victory, and we will fail at the last.'

  Dorn gripped his stylus tightly. 'Then what would you do?'

  Russ sighed in regret. 'I will not be joining this effort at Beta-Garmon you have planned, my brother. I have business of my own to settle with the Warmaster, and I will do so in person.'

  Dorn glared at him. 'Explain yourself.'

  'Do I need to? I made my intentions known the moment I arrived here. The time has come. I am taking my warriors, and I am leaving,' said Russ. 'Can I make it clearer for you, praetorian? I am the Emperor's Executioner, I will perform my duties. I never said otherwise.'


  'I thought you would see sense.'

  'If that is sense, then no, I have yet to glimpse it.'

  'Have you heard the rumours about what has happened to Horus?' said Dorn. 'He will kill you, and you will lose us this war.'

  'He has grown powerful, my brother,' said the Khan.

  'If Jaghatai cautions you, then you should listen,' said Sanguinius. 'Of all of us, he is most akin to you in mind.'

  'Jaghatai must follow his own path, as I must follow mine,' said Russ. 'And my path leads me to the Warmaster. That is my wyrd, as it always was. Nothing has changed.'

  'Everything has changed! You cannot kill him alone!' said Dorn. 'You are throwing your life and your Legion away. This is madness.'

  Russ tapped his chest with his armoured hand. 'My life. My Legion.

  'I will return to Fenris, where my priests will question the spirit of my world and learn Horus' vulnerability. He will have one, every monster does. I will exploit it, and I will strike him down before he comes within a light year of Terra.'

  Dorn snorted.

  'You think me a fool, brother?' said Russ, with dangerous innocence.

  'I think you are reckless. I think you are in danger of treading the same road as Magnus, or Lorgar, cavorting with priests. Where has your conviction gone? Where is the wolf who spoke at Nikaea?'

  This stung Russ, and his smile dropped. 'Nikaea was another trick. Another manipulation. Why do you think our enemies duped us into abandoning the Librarius? Why do you think I was tricked into killing Magnus?'

  'You express regret for that now?' said Dorn. 'Last I heard you I were crowing about it.'

  'I have crowed. I do crow. I am proud of what I did. When attacked, Magnus resorted to powers he should never have unleashed, and he deserved what he got for that alone. But things could have been different. Horus lied to me because they fear the power of the warp. He feared Magnus' sorcery. It is what the enemy are. It is what will beat them.'

  Dorn sighed sadly, and looked down at his slate of plans. 'And that is Magnus talking.'

  Sanguinius roused himself from his miserable introspection. 'Do you believe you were wrong at Nikaea, Leman?'

  'Perhaps,' said Russ honestly. 'But I was not wrong to call for Magnus' sanction, nor was I wrong to call for the suppression of the Librarius as it was. Who knows where Magnus' path would have led had he been let alone? He might have won the war, but would we then have had another Horus to contend with, or maybe two? The Librarius could have proven as poisonous as the thrice-damned lodges.'

  'The great proponent of the Nikaean edict, who kept his own sorcerers. You have many qualities, my brother,' said Dorn. 'I never thought to say hypocrisy was one.'

  'Is it? The priests of my Legion and the Stormseers of Jaghatai's are different to the Librarians that were. Our warriors draw on an older tradition. A limited tradition. Magnus did not believe in limits. That was his error.'

  'Similar traditions were outlawed by our father on every world,' said Dorn hotly.

  'We have seen where His close-mouthedness on the matter of the warp has got us,' Russ scoffed.

  Sanguinius made a silent gesture of agreement.

  'Leman is right,' said the Khan. 'Our seers do not draw directly on the warp. Their gifts are mediated. We know what limits are.'

  'Limits on power?' said Dorn. 'Power has no limits. Every morsel of power engenders more hunger. It is never satisfied. A man's soul needs to be a fortress.'

  'Not limits of power, Rogal,' said Jaghatai. 'Our limits are those of human wisdom. You look for enlightenment in the wrong place. Wisdom is the limit that must be observed.'

  'So now humility can tame the powers of the warp,' said Dorn. 'This is ridiculous.'

  'Humility is one of the ways,' said Jaghatai. 'Our father is a psyker, so is Sanguinius, and Malcador.'

  'The enemy fears the warp as much as they plunge themselves into it,' said Leman Russ. 'We must use it,' he held up his hands, 'safely, to help us win this war.'

  'I still name you hypocrite. How can you stand it, Jaghatai? He opposed you at Nikaea.'

  'That was then, this is now Dwelling on the past will solve nothing,' said the Khan. 'We must stand united.'

  Dorn shook his head. 'Whatever your intentions on Fenris may be, they are unimportant to the defence of Terra. What concerns me is that you will not be here where father needs you.'

  'If it is for father to decide where I should be and where I should not, why isn't He here?' Russ looked around, as if the Emperor of Mankind might be hiding behind the drapes. 'What is He doing in the Dungeon?'

  Dorn hung his head. 'I do not know.'

  'I think perhaps you might,' said Russ. 'You do. And you do too, don't you, Malcador?'

  The regent said nothing.

  'You won't tell us. I tell you what,' said Russ, 'if our father Himself comes forth and commands me to remain, and tells me that my decided course will end in disaster, then I will stay.' Russ stood up, threw his arms out and shouted to the ceiling. 'Do you hear that, father? Can you hear me? I plea for guidance!' He cocked his head dramatically to one side, then let his arms drop.

  'Nothing,' Russ whispered. 'He says nothing. So I will go. Forgive me, my brothers, I have preparations to make. I wish you good fortune with your Great Muster at Beta-Garmon.'

  Russ took up his spear and strode from the room.

  'Leman!' shouted Dorn, his face turning red. 'Leman, come back!' He launched himself upwards, scattering data-slates, cups and refreshments in his haste to catch his brother.

  Sanguinius grabbed him by the arm. The charms on his wings rattled as his feathers shifted and settled.

  'Let him be. There are many ways to serve our lord in this war,' said Sanguinius.

  Malcador stood, sighing at the cracking in his joints. 'Listen to Sanguinius, Dorn. Let Russ tread his own path,' said Malcador. He looked through the door Russ had left by. 'It is different to yours.'

  Brother primarchs unite on Terra as Sanguinius returns.

  Five

  Trisolian

  There were windows along part of Cawl's route that looked down at the vast, milky ball of Trisolian A-2. Someone, somewhen a long time ago had marked its name as Etrian upon the star charts. Nobody knew quite why, but if the name meant cold, small and unimpressive, it wouldn't have surprised Cawl.

  Trisolian was a three-star system. At the system core was the primary, Trisolian A, a large blue-white star in the mid-stages of life with a solar output several million times that of Sol. The other two stars were a pair of tidally locked red dwarfs that orbited Trisolian A at a distance a thousand times further than Neptune was from Sol.

  Though an inconceivable distance to the average human mind, the stars were dangerously close in stellar terms. The system's four planets suffered insanely erratic orbits and were tormented by conflicting solar winds. This type of star system was common in the galaxy, but it was rare to find habitable worlds there, or planets at all. Worlds around such stars were catapulted into space during their formation, or torn apart before they were born. Those that did survive were inevitably rad-blasted into sterility.

  Trisolian was no fit place for a human being, but the conditions that made Trisolian dangerous to human life made it useful to humanity. An unusual combination of gravitational flux and aggressive solar winds turned the four worlds into cosmic forges. Their atmospheres were rich with exotic heavy elements and precious isotopes.

  It was the Heptaligon's purpose to coordinate the harvest of these things.

  Each of the four planets had their own city-sized orbital mining platforms, but the Heptaligon was the largest of them, comprising seven stations anchored by tether-tubes driven right the way through the icy heart of Etrian's lonely moonlet, Momus. The interior of Momus had been hollowed out, and was also inhabited. Between the tube-tethers, long strings of macro-cabling tied the stations together in a complex web, suspending subsidiary platforms between the main, and allowing transit between all points on a bewildering number of
routes. Although involved in resource acquisition itself, the Heptaligon's main purpose was to act as the processing hub for all elements harvested from the system. In Momus' frigid centre, various gaseous compounds were compressed into ingots of bizarre metals, then shipped up the tether-tubes to station Prima for out-system export.

  As the Heptaligon was the nearest thing Trisolian could boast to a civilised world, it hosted the capital, its military command, organs of governance and so forth. This was no different to thousands of other similar outposts all over human space, and under normal circumstances Trisolian would have remained a backwater, had it not been for the major warp conduit that passed through the system on the way to the strategically vital nexus system of Beta-Garmon.

  Trisolian was Mechanicum. There had been overtures from the Imperium that the operations be turned over to Terran control, but the Martian Synod, unwilling to relinquish a potentially vital strategic asset, had dithered and procrastinated for years, all the while apportioning other roles to the Trisolian cities to increase their importance until, finally, Trisolian four had collectively been designated as a forge world, with all the rights and responsibilities thereof.

  Trisolian's position made it politically important. So the Trisolian System remained Martian, whatever that meant in those uncertain times.

  Though the war was far away it impacted on every aspect of station life. Fuel they had plenty of. Water was scarce but could be sourced from the miserably poor cometary belt of the outer system. Food was trickier to provide, grown in the enormous underground agrifarms of Trisolian A-3. Parts and machinery were in shorter supply still. Trisolian had an abundance of treasure, but a dearth of simpler materials. Flesh and metal suffered together. Organics were malnourished. Many an adept was getting by on bionics held together by jury-rigged repairs.

  Whatever the privations they must suffer, Cawl said to Friedisch, others lived under worse circumstances, and the mining must go on for the good of the Imperium. Their work was important, if not particularly glamorous.