Galaxy in Flames

by Ben Counter

  Cassar looked down at the trenches through the Titan's eyes. The Death Guard were still advancing through the trenches and bunker ruins. 'But prinВ­ceps, the Astartes-'

  'You have your orders, Moderati Cassar,’ shouted Turnet, 'and you will follow them. Seal us up, every vent, every hatch or we die,’

  Cassar willed the Dies Irae to shut its hatches and seal all its entranceways, his reluctance making the procedures sluggish.

  On the ground below, he watched the Death Guard continue to grind their way through the

  Choral City's defences, apparently unconcerned that the Isstvanians were about to launch Throne knew what at them, or unaware. As the battle raged on, the Dies Irae fell silent.

  The маш audience chamber of the Vengeful Spirit was a colossal, columned chamber with walls of marble and pilasters of solid gold. Its magnificence was like nothing Sindermann had ever seen, and the thousands of remembrancers who filled the chamber wore the expressions of awed children who had been shown some new, unheard of wonВ­der. Seeing many familiar faces, Sindermann guessed that the fleet's entire complement of remembrancers was present for the Warmaster's announcement.

  The Warmaster and Maloghurst stood on a raised podium at the far end of the hall, too far away for either of them to recognise Sindermann, Mersadie or Euphrati.

  Or at least he hoped so. Who knew how sharp an Astartes eyesight was, let alone a primarch's?

  Both Astartes were wrapped in cream robes edged in gold and silver and a detail of warriors stood beside them. A number of large pict screens nad been hung from the walls.

  'It looks like an iterators' rally on a compliant world, said Mersadie, echoing his own thoughts So similar was it that he began to wonder what mesВ­sage was to be imparted and how it would be reinforced. He looked around for plants in the

  audience who would clap and cheer at precise points to direct the crowd in the desired manner. Each of the screens displayed a slice of Isstvan Р©, set against a black backdrop scattered with bright silver specks of the Warmaster's fleet.

  'Euphrati,' said Mersadie as they made their way through the crowds of remembrancers. 'Remember how I said that this was a bad idea?'

  'Yes?' said Euphrati, her face creased in a wide, innocent smile.

  'Well, now I think that this was a really bad idea. I mean, look at the number of Astartes here.'

  Sindermann followed Mersadie's gaze, already starting to sweat at the sight of so many armed warВ­riors surrounding them. If even one of them recognised their faces, it was all over.

  'We have to see,’ said Euphrati, turning and grabВ­bing his sleeve. 'You have to see.'

  Sindermann felt the heat of her touch and saw the fire behind her eyes, like thunder before a storm and he realised with a start, that he was a litde afraid of Euphrati. The crowd milled in eager impatience and Sindermann kept his face turned from the Astartes staring into the middle of the audience chamber.

  Euphrati squeezed Mersadie's hand as the pict screens leapt to life and a gasp went up from the assembled remembrancers as they saw the bloody streets of the Choral City. Clearly shot from an airВ­craft, the images filled the giant pict screens and Sindermann felt his gorge rise at the sight of so much butchery.

  He remembered the carnage of the Whisperheads a nd reminded himself that this was what the Astartes had been created to do, but the sheer visВ­ceral nature of that reality was something he knew he would never get used to. Bodies filled the streets and arterial gore covered almost every surface as though the heavens had rained blood.

  'You remembrancers say you want to see war,’ said Horus, his voice easily carrying to the furthest corВ­ners of the hall. 'Well, this is it,’

  Sindermann watched as the image shifted on the screen, pulling back and panning up through the sky and into the dark, star-spattered heavens above.

  Burning spears of light fell towards the battle below.

  What are those?' asked Mersadie.

  They're bombs,’ said Sindermann in horrified disbelief. 'The planet is being bombarded,’

  'And so it begins,’ said Euphrati.

  The plaza was a truly horrendous sight, ankle-deep in blood and strewn with thousands upon thouВ­sands of bodies. Most were blown open by bolter rounds, but many had been hacked down with chainblades or otherwise torn limb from limb.

  Tarvitz hurried towards the makeshift strongpoint at its centre, the battlements formed from carved up bodies heaped between the battered forms of fallen drop-pods.

  A World Eater with blood-soaked armour and a scarred face nodded to him as he climbed the

  gruesome ramp of bodies. The warrior's armour was so drenched in blood that Tarvitz wondered for a moment why he hadn't just painted himself red to begin with. 'Captain Ehrlen,’ said Tarvitz. ^Vhere is he?' The warrior wasted no breath on words and simply jerked a thumb in the direction of a warrior with dozens of fluttering oath papers hanging from his breastplate. Tarvitz nodded his thanks and set off through the sttongpoint. He passed wounded Astartes who were tended by an apothecary who looked as if he had fought as hard as any of his patients. Beside him lay two fallen World Eaters, their bodies uncereВ­moniously dumped out of the way.

  Ehrlen looked up as Tarvitz approached. The capВ­tain's face had been badly burned in some previous battle and his axe was clotted with so much blood that it better resembled a club.

  'Looks like the Emperor's Children have sent us reinforcements!' shouted Ehrlen, to grunts of laughter from his fellow World Eaters. 'One whole warrior! We are blessed, the enemy will run away for sure.'

  'Captain,’ said Tarvitz, joining Ehrlen at the barriВ­cade of Isstvanian dead. 'My name is Captain Saul Tarvitz and I'm here to warn you that you have to get your squads into cover,’

  'Into cover? Unacceptable,’ said Ehrlen, nodding towards the far side of the plaza. Shapes moved in their windows and between the mansions. They're regrouping. If we move now they will overwhelm us.'

  'The Isstvanians have a bio-weapon,’ said Tarvitz, knowing a lie was the only way to conВ­vince the World Eaters. 'They're going to fire it. It'll kill everyone and everything in the Choral City,’

  They're going to destroy their own capital? I thought this place was some kind of church? Holy to them?'

  They've shown how much they value their own,’ replied Tarvitz quickly, indicating the heaps of dead in front of them. They'll sacrifice this city to kill us. Driving us from their planet is worth more to them than this city,’

  'So you would have us abandon this position?' demanded Ehrlen, as if Tarvitz had personally insulted his honour. 'How do you know all this?'

  'I just got here from orbit. The weapon has already been unleashed. If you're above ground when the virus strike hits you will die. If you believe nothing else, believe that,’ Then where do you suggest we move to?' 'Just to the west of this position, captain,’ said Tarvitz, stealing a glance at the sky. The edge of the trench system is thick with bunkers, blast proof shelters. If you get your men into them, they should be safe,’

  'Should be?' snapped Ehrlen. 'That's the best you can offer me?'

  Ehrlen stared at Tarvitz for a moment. 'If you are wrong the blood of my warriors will be on your hands and I will kill you for their deaths,’

  'I understand that, captain,’ urged Tarvitz, 'but we don't have much time.'

  Very well, Captain Tarvitz,' said Ehrlen. 'Sergeant Fleiste, left flank! Sergeant Wronde, right! World Eaters, general advance to the west, blades out!'

  The World Eaters drew their chainaxes and swords. The bloodstained assault units hurried to the front and stepped over the makeshift barricades of corpses.

  'Are you coming, Tarvitz?' asked Ehrlen.

  Tarvitz nodded, drawing his broadsword and folВ­lowing the World Eaters into the plaza.

  Although they were fellow Astartes, he knew he was a stranger among them as they ran, spitting battle curses and spla
shing through the dead towards the potential safety of the bunkers.

  Tarvitz glanced up at the gathering clouds and felt his chest tighten.

  The first burning streaks were falling towards the

  city.

  It's started,' said Loken.

  Lachost looked up from the field vox. Fire was streaking through the sky towards the Choral City. Loken tried to judge the angle and speed of the falling darts of fire – some of them would come down between the spires of the Sirenhold, just like the Sons of Horus's own drop-pods had done hours earlier, and they would hit in a matter of minutes.

  'Did Lucius say anything else?'

  'No,’ said Lachost. 'Some bio-weapon. That was all. It sounded like he ran into a fire fight.'

  Tarik,’ shouted Loken. 'We need to get into cover, now. Beneath the Sirenhold,’

  'Will that be enough?'

  'If they dug their catacombs deep enough, then maybe,’

  'And if not?'

  'From what Lucius said, we'll die,’

  'Then we'd better get a move on,’

  Loken turned to the Sons of Horns advancing around him. 'Incoming! Get to the Sirenhold and head down! Now!'

  The closest spire of the Sirenhold was a towering monstrosity of grotesque writhing figures and leerВ­ing gargoyle faces, a vision taken from some ancient hell of Isstvan's myths. The Sons of Horas broke their advance formation and ran towards it.

  Loken heard the distinctive boom of an airborne detonation high above the city and pushed himself harder as he entered the darkness of the tomb-spire. Inside, it was dark and ugly, the floor paved with tortured, half-human figures who reached up with stone hands, as if through the bars of a cage.

  There's a way down,’ said Torgaddon. Loken folВ­lowed as Astartes ran towards the catacomb entrance, a huge monstrous stone head with a pasВ­sageway leading down its throat.

  As the darkness closed around him, Loken heard a familiar sound drifting from beyond the walls of the Sirenhold.

  It was screaming.

  It was the song of the Choral City's death.

  The first virus bombs detonated high above the Choral City, the huge explosions spreading the deadly payloads far and wide into the atmosphere. Designed to kill every living thing on the surface of a planet, the viral strains released on Isstvan Р© were the most efficient killers in the Warmaster's arsenal. The bombs had a high enough yield to murder the planet a hundred times over and were set to burst at numerous differing altitudes and locations across the surface of the planet.

  The virus leapt through forests and plains, sweepВ­ing along algal blooms and riding air currents across the globe. It crossed mountains, forded rivers, burrowed through glaciers. The Imperium's deadliest weapons, the Emperor himself had been loath to use them.

  The bombs fell all across Isstvan III, but most of all, they fell on the Choral City.

  The World Eaters were the furthest from cover and suffered the worst of the initial bombardВ­ment. Some had reached the safety of the bunkers, but many more had not. Warriors fell to their knees as the virus penetrated their armoured bodВ­ies, deadly corrosive agents laced into the viral structure of the weapons dissolving exposed pipes and armour joints, or finding their way inside through battle damage.

  Astartes screamed. The sound was all the more shocking for its very existence rather than for the horror of its tone. The virus broke down cellular bonds at the molecular level and its victims literally dissolved into a soup of rancid meat within minВ­utes of exposure, leaving little but sloshing suits of rotted armour. Even many of those who reached the safety of the sealed bunkers died in agony as they shut the doors only to find they had brought the lethal virus inside with them.

  The virus spread through the civilian populace of Isstvan III at the speed of thought, leaping from vicВ­tim to victim in the time it took to breathe in its foul contagion. People dropped where they stood, the flesh sloughing from their skeletons as their nervous systems collapsed and their bones turned to the consistency of jelly.

  Bright explosions fed the viral feast, perpetuating the fatal reactions of corruption. The very lethality of the virus was its own worst enemy, for without a host organism to carry it from victim to victim, the virus quickly consumed itself.

  However, the bombardment from orbit was unreВ­lenting, smothering the entire planet in a precisely targeted array of overlapping fire plans that ensured that nothing would escape the virus.

  Entire kingdoms and vassal states across the surВ­face were obliterated in minutes. Ancient cultures that had survived Old Night and endured the horВ­ror of invasion a dozen times over fell without even knowing why, millions dying in screaming agony as

  their bodies betrayed them and fell apart, reducing them to rotted, decaying matter.

  Sindermann watched the bloom of darkness spread across the slice of the planet visible on the giant pict screens. It spread in a wide black ring, eating its way across the surface of the planet with astonishing speed, leaving grey desolation behind it. Another wave of corruption crept in from another part of the surface, the two dark masses meeting and continuing to spread like the symptom of a horrible disease. 'What… what is it?' whispered Mersadie. 'You have already seen it,’ said Euphrati. 'The Emperor showed you, through me. It is death.'

  Sindermann's stomach lurched as he rememВ­bered the hideous vision of decay, his flesh disintegrating before him and black corruption consuming everything around him. That was what was happening on Isstvan HI. This was the betrayal.

  Sindermann felt as though the blood had drained from him. An entire world was bathed in the immensity of death. He felt an echo of the fear it brought to the people of Isstvan III, and that fear, multiplied across all those billions of people was beyond his comprehension.

  'You are remembrancers,' said Keeler, a quiet sadВ­ness in her voice. 'Both of you. Remember this and pass it on. Someone must know,’

  He nodded dumbly, too numbed by what he was seeing to say anything.

  'Come on,’ said Euphrati. 'We have to go,’ 'Go?' sobbed Mersadie, her eyes still fixed on the death of a world. 'Go where?'

  'Away,’ smiled Euphrati, taking their hands and leadВ­ing them through the immobile, horrified throng of remembrancers towards the edge of the chamber.

  At first, Sindermann let her lead him, his limbs unable to do more than simply place one foot in front of another, but as he saw she was taking them towards the Astartes at the edge of the chamber, he began to pull back in alarm.

  'Euphrati!' he hissed. 'What are you doing? If those Astartes recognise us-' Trust me, Kyril,’ she said. 'I'm counting on that,’ Euphrati led them towards a hulking warrior who stood apart from the others, and Sindermann knew enough of body language to know that this man was as horrified as they were at what was happening.

  The Astartes turned to face them, his face craggy and ancient, worn like old leather.

  Euphrati stopped in front of him and said, 'lac-ton. I need your help,’

  Iacton Qruze. Sindermann had heard Loken speak of him. The 'half-heard'.

  He was a warrior of the old days, whose voice carВ­ried no weight amongst the higher echelons of command. A warrior of the old days…

  You need my help?' asked Qruze. Who are you?'

  'My name is Euphrati Keeler and this is Mersadie

  Oliton,’ said Euphrati, as if her introductions in the

  midst of such carnage were the most normal thing in the world, 'and this is Kyril Sindermann,’

  Sindermann could see the recognition in Qruze's face and he closed his eyes as he awaited the inevitable shout that would see them revealed.

  'Loken asked me to look out for you,’ said Qruze.

  Token?' asked Mersadie. 'Have you heard from

  him?'

  Qruze shook his head, but said, 'He asked me to keep you safe while he was gone. I think I know what he meant now.'

  'W
hat do you mean?' asked Sindermann, not likВ­ing the way Qruze kept casting wary glances at the armed warriors that lined the walls of the chamber.

  'Never mind,’ said Qruze.

  'Iacton,’ commanded Euphrati, her voice laden with quiet authority. 'Look at me,’

  The craggy-featured Astartes looked down at the slight form of Euphrati, and Sindermann could feel the power and determination that flowed from her.

  'You are the half-heard no longer,’ said Euphrati. 'Now your voice will be heard louder than any other in your Legion. You cling to the old ways and wish them to return with the fond nostalgia of the venerable. Those days are dying here, Iacton, but with your help we can bring them back again,’ 'What are you talking about, woman?' snarled

  Qruze.

  'I want you to remember Cthonia,’ said Euphrati, and Sindermann recoiled as he felt an electric surge

  of energy spark from her, as if her very skin was charged.

  What do you know of the planet of my birth?' 'Only what I see inside you, Iacton,’ said Euphrati, a soft glow building behind her eyes and filling her words with promise and seduction. The honour and the valour from which the Luna Wolves were forged. You are the only one who remembers, IacВ­ton. You're the only one left that still embodies what it is to be an Astartes,’

  You know nothing of me,’ he said, though SinВ­dermann could see her words were reaching him, breaking down the barriers the Astartes erected between themselves and mortals.

  Your brothers called you the Half-heard, but you do not take them to task for it. I know this is because a Cthonian warrior is honourable and cares not for petty insults. I also know that your counsel is not heard because yours is the voice of a past age, when the Great Crusade was a noble thing, done not for gain, but for the good of all humankind,’

  Sindermann watched as Qruze's face spoke volВ­umes of the conflict raging within his soul.

  Loyalty to his Legion vied with loyalty to the ideals that had forged it.

  At last he smiled ruefully and said, '"Nothing too arduous" he said,’

  He looked over towards the Warmaster and Mal-oghurst. 'Come,’ he said. 'Follow me,’