Galaxy in Flames

by Ben Counter

  Aximand smiled bleakly. 'I've seen it, Tarik, the warp. You can't stand against that,’

  'And yet here I am,’

  'If you had just taken the chance the lodge gave you, you would have seen it too. They can give us such power. If you only knew, Tarik, you'd join us in a second. The whole future would be laid out before you,’

  You know I can't back down. No more than you can,’

  Then this is it?'

  Yes, it is. As you said, none of us would have choВ­sen this,’

  Aximand readied himself. 'Just like the practice cages, Tarik,’ 'No,’ said Torgaddon, 'nothing like that.'

  The energised claw swung at Loken's head, and he ducked, too late seeing it for the feint it was. AbadВ­don grabbed him by the edge of his shoulder guard and drove his knee into Loken's stomach. Ceramite buckled and Loken felt pain knife into him as bones broke.

  Abaddon released him and punched him in the face. He was thrown against the wall of the parliaВ­ment, scorched plaster and brick falling around him.

  The Warmaster wanted me to bring the Justaerin, but I told him it was an insult,’

  Loken saw his sword lying on the floor beside him and slid down the wall to grab it. He pushed off the wall, pivoting past Abaddon's slashing fist, swinging the blade towards the first captain's face.

  Abaddon blocked the blow with his forearm, reaching out to pluck Loken from his feet and hurl him towards the parliament building's wall. The world spun away from him and suddenly there was pain.

  His vision blurred as he smacked into the ground and shards of stone flew up around him. The pain within him felt strange, as if it belonged to someВ­one else. It felt as if his back was broken and a treacherous voice in his mind whispered that the pain would go away if he just gave up and let it all

  go away in a fog of oblivion. His grip tightened on his sword and he let his anger fuel his strength to fight against the voice in his head that told him to give up.

  A long time ago, Loken had sworn an oath to his Emperor, and that oath was never to give up, even as the moment of death approached. His vision swam back into focus, and he looked up to see the hole in the parliament house's wall his body had smashed.

  Loken rolled onto his front as Abaddon's massive armoured form charged towards him, smashing aside the blackened remains of the breach.

  He scrambled to his feet and backed away, letting Abaddon's fist swing past him. He darted in, stabВ­bing with his sword, but the thick plates of his enemy's armour turned the blade aside. He scramВ­bled back up the steps of the parliament house, hearing Torgaddon and Little Horus fighting within and knowing that he needed his brother's strength to triumph.

  РўРѕР№ can't run forever!' roared Abaddon as he turned to follow him, his steps ponderous and heavy.

  Saul Tarvitz grinned like a hunter who had finally run his prey to ground. The warriors he and Sola-then led cut a bloody swathe through Eidolon's warriors, killing them without mercy as they themВ­selves had been killed so recently. What had once been an attack that threatened to overwhelm them

  utterly was now in danger of becoming a rout for the traitors.

  Gunfire echoed fiercely through the palace as the loyalists unleashed volley after volley of gunfire at anything that moved. Loyalist Space Marines surВ­rounded Eidolon's assault force and, attacked on two fronts. The lord commander's force was buckВ­ling.

  Tarvitz could see warriors with missing limbs or massive open wounds struggling in the desperate fight, jostling to get a position where they could kill the traitors who had so nearly overrun them. His own sword reaped a bloody tally as he killed warВ­riors he had once fought with and bled alongside, each sword blow a cruel twist of fate that brought aching sadness as much as it did cathartic satisfacВ­tion.

  He saw Eidolon in the centre of the battle, smashВ­ing warriors to ruin with each swing of his hammer and fought his way through the battle to reach the lord commander. His own body ached from the duel with Lucius, but he knew that there was no point in calling for an apothecary. Whatever wounds he was suffering from would never have a chance to heal. It would end here, Tarvitz knew, but it would be a hell of a fight and he had never felt more proud to lead these brave warriors into battle.

  To have such noble fighters almost undone by a supposedly loyal comrade's betrayal was a galling, yet somehow fitting end to their struggle. Lucius had very nearly cost them this battle and Tarvitz

  swore that if he lived through this hell, he would see the bastard dead once and for all.

  The lord commander was almost within his reach, but no sooner had Eidolon seen him than the traitors began falling back in disciplined ranks. Tarvitz wanted to scream in frustration, but knew better than to simply hurl himself after his foe.

  'Firing line across the nave!' shouted Tarvitz at the top of his voice and instantly, a contingent of Astartes formed up and began firing disciplined volleys of bolter fire at the retreating enemy

  He lowered his sword and leaned against the broВ­ken wall as he realised that, against all odds, they had held once more. Before he had a moment to savour the unlikeliness of their latest victory, the vox-bead chimed in his ear.

  'Captain Tarvitz,' said a voice he recognised as one of the Luna Wolves,

  'Tarvitz here,' he said.

  'This is Vipus, captain. The position on the roof is sound but we've got company'

  'I know,’ replied Tarvitz. 'The Sons of Horus.'

  'Worse than that,' said Vipus. 'To the west, look up.'

  Tarvitz pushed through the remains of the battle and scanned the sky above the crumbling, smoke wreathed ruins. Something moved towards the palace, something distant, but utterly huge.

  'Sweet Terra,’ he said, 'the Dies Irae.'

  'I'll make the Titan our priority target,’ swore Vipus.

  'No, you can't hurt it. Just kill enemy Space Marines.'

  Yes, captain.'

  'Enemy units!' a voice yelled from near the temВ­ple entrance. 'Armour and support!'

  Tarvitz pushed himself from the wall, drawing on his last reserves of energy to once again muster his warriors for the defence of the palace. 'Assault units by the doors! All other Astartes, fire at will!'

  Tarvitz could see a huge strike force of enemy forces, boxy Land Raiders and Rhinos massing on the outskirts of the Precentor's Palace. Beyond them, Sons of Horus, World Eaters and Emperor's Children set up fields of fire to surround the temВ­ple.

  The Dies Irae would soon be in range to blast them with its enormous weaponry.

  'They'll be coming again soon,' shouted Tarvitz, 'but we'll see them off again, my brothers! No matВ­ter what occurs, they will not forget the fight we've given them here!'

  Looking at the size of the army arrayed for the final assault, Tarvitz knew that there would be no holding against it.

  This was the endgame.

  Terminator armour was huge. It made a man into a walking tank, but what it added in protection, it lost in speed. Abaddon was skilful and could fight almost as fast as any other Astartes while clad in its thick plates.

  But 'almost' wasn't good enough when life or death was at stake

  Chunks of rubble spilled into the parliament house as Abaddon battered his way back inside, the brutal high-shouldered shape of his Terminator armour wreathed in chalky plaster dust. As AbadВ­don smashed his way back inside, he passed beneath a sagging portico that supported a vast swathe of sculpted marble statuary above. Loken struck out at one of the cracked pillars supporting the portico, the fluted support smashing apart under the power of the blow.

  The parliament filled with dust as the huge slabs above came down on Abaddon, the entire weight of the statuary collapsing on top of the first captain. Loken could hear Abaddon roaring in anger as the stonework thundered down in a flurry of rubble and destruction.

  He turned away from the avalanche of debris and fought his way through the billowing clouds of dust towards the centre o
f the parliament building.

  He saw Torgaddon and Horus Aximand upon the central stage.

  Torgaddon was on his knees, blood raining from his body and his limbs shattered. Aximand held his sword upraised, ready to deliver the deathblow.

  He saw what would happen next even as he screamed at his former brother to stay his hand. Even over the crash of rubble being displaced as Abaddon forced himself free of the collapsed statues, he heard Aximand's words with a terrible clarity.

  'I'm sorry,’ said Aximand.

  And the sword slashed down against Torgaddon's neck.

  The plasma bolt was like a finger of the sun, reachВ­ing down from the guns of the Dies Irae and smashing through the wall of the Warsingers' TemВ­ple, the liquid fire boring deep into the ground. With a sound like the city dying, one wall of the temple collapsed as dust and fire filled the air and shards of green stone flew like knives. Warriors melted in the heat blast or died beneath the heaps of stone that collapsed around them.

  Tarvitz fell to his knees on the winding stairway that climbed to the upper reaches of the temple. A choking mass of burning ash billowed around him and he fought his way upwards, knowing that hunВ­dreds of the last loyalist Space Marines were dead. The sound was appalling, the roar of the collapsing temple stark against the silence of the traitors that surrounded the temple on all sides.

  A body fell past him, one of the Luna Wolves, his arm blown off by weapons fire hammering the upper floors.

  'To the roof!' ordered Tarvitz, not knowing if anyВ­one could hear him over the cacophony of the Titan's guns. Abandon the nave!'

  Tarvitz reached the gallery running the length of the temple, finding it crammed with Space Marines, their Legion colours unrecognisable beneath layers of grime and blood. Such distinctions were

  irrelevant, Tarvitz realised, for they were one band of brothers fighting for the same cause.

  Above this level was the roof, and Tarvitz spotted Sergeant Raetherin, a solid line officer and veteran of the Murder campaign.

  'Sergeant!' he yelled. 'Report!'

  Raetherin looked up from the window through which he was aiming his bolter. He had caught a glancing blow to the side of his head and his face streamed with blood

  'Not good, captain!' he replied. 'We've held them this long, but we won't hold another attack. There's too many of them and that Titan is going to blow us away any second,’

  Tarvitz nodded and risked a glance through a shatВ­tered loophole to the ground far below, feeling his hate for these traitors, warriors for whom notions of honour and loyalty were non-existent, swell as he saw the multitude of bodies sprawled around the palace. He knew these dead warriors, having led them in batВ­tle these last few months and more than anything, he knew what they represented.

  They were the galaxy's best soldiers, the saviours of the human race and the chosen of the Emperor. Their lives of heroic service and sacrifice had been ended by brute treachery and he had never felt so helpless.

  'No,’ he said, as resolve filled him. 'No, we will not falter,’

  Tarvitz met Raetherin's eyes and said. The Titan is going to hit the same corner of the temple again,

  higher up, and then the traitors are going to storm us. Get the men back and make ready for the assault.'

  He knew the traitors were just waiting for the temple to fall so they could storm in and kill the loyalists at their leisure. This was not just a battle; it was the Warmaster demonstrating his superiority.

  Massive calibre gunfire thundered from the Dies Irae, an awesome storm of fire and death that smashed the plaza outside the temple, blasting apart loyalists in great columns of fire.

  Infernal heat battered against the temple, and a hot gale blew through the gallery.

  'Is that the best you've got?' he yelled in anger. 'You'll never kill us all!'

  His warriors looked at him with savage light in their eyes. The words had sounded hollow in his ears, spoken out of rage rather than bravado, but he saw the effect it had and smiled, remembering that he had a duty to these men.

  He had a duty to make their last moments mean something.

  Suddenly, the air ripped apart as the Titan's plasma gun fired and white heat filled the gallery, throwing Tarvitz to the floor. Molten fragments of stone sprayed him and warriors fell, broken and burning around him. Blinded and deafened, Tarvitz dragged himself away from the destruction. Hot air boomed back into the vacuum blasted by the plasma and it was like a burning wind of destruction come to scour the loyalists from the face of Isstvan III.

  He rolled onto his back, seeing that the bolt had ripped right through the temple roof, leaving a huge glowing-edged hole, like a monstrous bite mark, through one corner of the temple. Fully a third of the temple's mass had collapsed in a great rockslide of liquefied stone, flooding out like a long tongue of jade.

  Tarvitz tried to shake the ringing from his ears and forced his eyes to focus.

  Through the miasma of heat, he could hear a war-cry arise from the enemy warriors.

  A similar clamour rose from the other side of the temple, where the World Eaters and the Emperor's Children were arrayed among the ruins of the palace.

  The attack was coming.

  Loken dropped то his knees in horror at the sight of Torgaddon's head parting from his shoulders. The blood fountained slowly, the silver sheen of the sword wreathed in a spray of red.

  He screamed his friend's name, watching as his body crashed to the floor of the stage and smashed the wooden lectern to splinters as it fell. His eyes met those of Horus Aximand and he saw a sorrow that matched his own echoed in this brother's eyes.

  His choler surged, hot and urgent, but his anger was not directed at Horus Aximand, but at the warВ­rior who pulled himself from the rubble behind him. He turned and forced himself to his feet, seeing Abaddon pulling himself from under the collapsed

  portico. The first captain had extricated himself from beneath slabs of marble that would have crushed even an armoured Astartes, but he was still trapped and immobile from the waist down.

  Loken gave vent to an animal cry of loss and rage and ran towards Abaddon. He leapt, driving a knee down onto Abaddon's arm and pinning it with all his weight and strength to the rubble. Abaddon's free hand reached up and grabbed Loken's wrist as Loken drove his chainsword towards Abaddon's face.

  The two warriors froze, locked face to face in a battle that would determine who lived and who died. Loken gritted his teeth and forced his arm down against Abaddon's grip.

  Abaddon looked into Loken's face and saw the hatred and loss there.

  'There's hope for you yet, Loken,’ he snarled.

  Loken forced the roaring point of the sword down with more strength than he thought could ever inhabit one body. The betrayal of the Astartes – their very essence – flashed through Loken's mind and he found the target of his hatred embodied in Abaddon's violent features.

  The chainblade's teeth whirred. Abaddon forced the point down and it ripped into his breastplate. Sparks sprayed as Loken pushed the point onwards, through thick layers of ceramite. The sword judВ­dered, but Loken kept it true.

  He knew where it would break through, straight through the bone shield that protected Abaddon's chest cavity and then into his heart.

  Even as he savoured the idea of Abaddon's death, the first captain smiled and pushed his hand upwards. Astartes battle plate enhanced a warrior's strength, but Terminator armour boosted it to levВ­els beyond belief, and Abaddon called upon that power to dislodge Loken.

  Abaddon surged upwards from the rubble with a roar of anger and slammed his energised fist into Loken's chest. His armour cracked open and the bone shield protecting his own chest cavity shatВ­tered into fragments. He staggered away from Abaddon, managing to keep his feet for a few secВ­onds before his legs gave out and he collapsed to his knees, blood dribbling from his cracked lips in bloody ropes.

  Abaddon towered over him and Loken watched numbly as Ho
rus Aximand joined him. Abaddon's eyes were filled with triumph, Aximand's with regret. Abaddon took the bloody sword from AxiВ­mand's hand with a smile. 'This killed Torgaddon and it seems only fitting that I use it to kill you.'

  The first captain raised the sword and said, 'You had your chance, Loken. Think about that while you die.'

  Loken met Abaddon's unforgiving gaze, seeing the madness that lurked behind his eyes like a mob of angry daemons, and waited for death.

  But before the blow landed, the parliament building exploded as something vast and colosВ­sal, like a primal god of war bestriding the world smashed through the back wall. Loken had a

  fleeting glimpse of a monstrous iron foot, easily the width of the building itself crashing through the stonework and demolishing the building as it went.

  He looked up in time to see a mighty red god, towering and immense striding through the remains of the Choral City, its battlements bristling with weapons and its mighty head twisted in a snarl of merciless anger.

  Rubble and debris cascaded from the roof as the Dies Irae smashed the parliament building into a splintered ruin of crushed rock, and Loken smiled as the building collapsed around him.

  Tremendous impacts smashed the marble floor and the noise of the building's destruction was like the sweetest music he had ever heard, as he felt the world go black around him.

  Saul Tarvitz looked around him at the hundred Space Marines crammed into the tiny square of cover that was all that remained of the Warsingers' temple. They had sat awaiting the final attack of the traitors for what had seemed like an age, but had been no more than thirty minutes.

  'Why don't they attack?' asked Nero Vipus, one of the few Luna Wolves still alive.

  'I don't know,’ said Tarvitz, but whatever the reaВ­son I'm thankful for it,’

  Vipus nodded, his face lined with a sadness that had nothing to do with the final battles of the PreВ­centor's Palace.