Word Bearers

by Anthony Reynolds

  Five new enemy blips appeared on the holo-screens. ‘First realisation complete. Astartes vessels. Two battle-barges, three cruisers. More inbound.’

  The Chaos fleet began to splinter, reacting to the sudden appearance of these new threats.

  Marduk swore then dropped to his knees as pain blossomed in his mind.

  Activate the device now, roared Ekodas.

  ‘We have been target-acquired by the Crucius Maledictus,’ said Kol Badar, his voice a warning growl. ‘Its nova cannon is re-energising.’

  You dare defy me? roared Ekodas, making blood ooze from Marduk’s nose, ears and eye sockets.

  ‘This… is… not… my… time,’ gasped Marduk through clenched teeth.

  Burias-Drak’shal bounded down the corridor, skidding as he rounded a tight corner, his talons gouging deep wounds in the latticed floor. He burst through the doors of the workshop, shattering plate glass.

  Magos Darioq-Grendh’al was standing before the spinning hoops rotating with increasing speed around the Nexus Arrangement, his four articulated servo arms spread wide. His mechadendrites waved languidly around him as the Nexus, hanging motionless in the air, began to vibrate and spin. Burias-Drak’shal hurled himself at the corrupted magos.

  The red beams of light transfixing the Nexus in place expanded, filling the sphere formed by the spinning hoops of ensorcelled metal so that it looked like a globe of hellish light, a sun with a gleaming metallic centre.

  The perfect silver orb of the xenos device shimmered, and glowing green hieroglyphs of alien design appeared upon its spinning surface. The speed of its rotation increased exponentially, so that the hieroglyphs were soon nothing more than a gleaming green blur, and then it seemed to melt and come apart, forming seven rapidly spinning rings.

  Green light spilled from the device. As the Nexus spun faster and faster, it let off a keening wail that was at the upper echelon of augmented hearing. The noise was painful, and Burias-Drak’shal roared as it cut through him, Still, he came on. He leapt, bony talons extended to impale the corrupted magos.

  In mid-leap, Burias-Drak’shal heard the corrupted magos say, ‘Completion.’

  Then everything changed.

  Burias-Drak’shal was hurled against the far wall by the force of the blast from the Nexus Arrangement, blinding white light spilling from it in a sudden, devastating burst. Burias felt the daemon within him scream in agony as it retreated deep within him and his hyper-evolved and augmented physiology struggled to maintain consciousness.

  Amid the blinding inferno of light and sound stood Darioq-Grendh’al, arms and tentacles spread wide, and he began to laugh, a horrible clucking sound akin to the grind of rusted pistons.

  A ripple in realspace burst from the Nexus Arrangement and expanded outwards, gathering speed exponentially as it grew. It exploded outwards from the Infidus Diabolus and engulfed both warring fleets, knocking out communications and scanning relays aboard every vessel in an explosion of sparks and fire. All those with even a modicum of psychic ability fell to their knees, lesser minds bursting with aneurisms and clots, those of stronger stuff suffering intense pain and temporary blindness. Those who had been peering into the warp, notably the astropaths of the Imperial fleet, fell into sub-catatonic states, their minds wiped of all notable activity, collapsing at their posts.

  The ripple continued to expand, engulfing nearby planets and moons. Within seconds it had spread across the entire solar system. Only when it reached neighbouring solar systems, over four light years away, did its strength waver.

  ‘Enemy realisation has failed,’ said Kol Badar, blinking at the sensor array in front of him as it flickered and came back online.

  A feral grin spread across Marduk’s face, despite the lingering pain and emptiness that the ripple had caused him.

  ‘It worked,’ he said.

  Kol Badar shook his head in wonder. ‘The wormhole has been shut down. The whole of the Boros Gate has been shut down.’

  ‘Open up a link with the Crucius Maledictus,’ said Marduk.

  ‘Warp-link down. Switching to conventional hail.’

  ‘Ekodas,’ said Marduk as the hail was received. ‘I’d ask you remove that target lock on my ship now.’

  ‘Marduk,’ said Ekodas. ‘A second later and–’

  ‘You’re most welcome, Grand Apostle,’ said Marduk, cutting Ekodas off and severing the link.

  The Imperials had no hope of further reinforcement now, and were committed to a battle in which the XVII Legion held the advantage, despite the additional White Consuls ships that had arrived before the Nexus had been activated.

  Yet a lingering doubt hung over him like a cloud. In the moment of activation, something had happened. He’d felt a stabbing pain in the core of his being. It felt as if his link to the warp had diminished. But then, that was a minor thing when set alongside what the Nexus had achieved. He pushed his concerns aside.

  Marduk smiled broadly. ‘Let’s get to killing, my brothers.’

  ‘In the name of the Throne,’ said Proconsul Ostorius as the hololith display and all the data-slates bearing incoming fleet transmissions went dead. With a strangled cry the astropath maintaining the link collapsed to the ground.

  Coadjutor Aquilius went to his aid. As he rolled the astropath onto his side he saw that blood was leaking from the man’s nose and ears. He felt for a pulse – it was weak. The astropath began to twitch and convulse.

  ‘Repair the links now!’ barked Ostorius.

  ‘We’re trying, my lord,’ replied a robed tech-adept as he and a dozen others worked frantically over the dozens of consoles and cogitation units.

  ‘Try harder! I need an astropath!’

  ‘None are responding, my lord,’ said an exasperated comms-technician.

  Ostorius looked down at the twitching astropath on the floor of the chamber. ‘Communications?’

  ‘Sir, it… it is as if the entire system has been cut off.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘There are no transmission-links into or out of the Boros Gate, Proconsul,’ said the man, paling. ‘We are alone.’

  Alone.

  What had happened to the incoming Adeptus Praeses reinforcements? Battlefleet Gorgon? Had they made realisation?

  With the astropaths down, communications were limited to standard transmissions – at a sluggish light speed. He cursed. Transmitting at that speed, he would not hear word from the fleet regarding the outcome of the battle out on the Trajan Belt for over three hours. The enemy may have annihilated the defence fleet and be ploughing towards Boros Prime by then.

  ‘Alone,’ he breathed grimly.

  Half a galaxy away, an immense black ship suddenly altered its trajectory. It began to accelerate at an exponential rate, swiftly reaching, then surpassing, the speed of light. Impossibly, its momentum continued to increase.

  It streaked through the cold darkness of the universe, guided by inhuman will. It passed through dazzling solar systems in the blink of eye and crossed vast empty tracts of space in seconds. On and on it hurtled, moving faster than any Imperial tracking station could follow.

  As if responding to some distant siren’s call, inexorably, it closed on the Boros Gate.

  BOOK TWO:

  THE BROTHERHOOD

  ‘Our fraternity represents divine change. On ancient Colchis, a billion souls were released from earthly flesh in the Brotherhood’s purge of the Covenant, and great was the rejoicing; and stronger did Colchis become. The second cleansing saw the Legion’s ranks purified of Terran taint; and stronger did the Legion become, its chaff cast aside. Change is inevitable; the Brotherhood’s return is inevitable. And so shall the Legion be strengthened once more.’

  –The Arch-Prophet Baz-Ezael, recorded during his torture/death-vigil after being condemned by the Council of Sicarus for heresy and blasphemy

  CHAPTER SIX

  The battle of the Trajan Belt was short and brutal, the furious exchange seeing a dozen cruisers and battleships crippled with
in the space of ten minutes, yet to those involved it seemed to last an age.

  The Boros Defence Fleet realised too late that reinforcements were not coming, yet by then it was already fully committed. As they tried desperately to extricate themselves from the engagement, the Chaos battleships exacted a terrible toll.

  Of the expected relief force, only the White Consuls battle-barges Sword of Deliverance and Sword of the Truth made realisation, four full companies of White Consuls borne within them, plus an attendant flotilla of Gladius- and Nova-class frigates. The Imperial allied fleet that had been ready to make the transition from the warp would have obliterated this Chaos fleet in the space of minutes, such was its size, but no other vessels had made it through before the entire region had been shrouded by the Nexus Arrangement, ensuring that no further warp-traffic was able to enter or exit the Boros Gate binary system. Within the bridge of the Sword of Deliverance, Chapter Master Valens, 5th Captain Marcus Decimus, and the captain of the 7th reserve company, Cato Paulinus, viewed the enemy fleet with dawning horror.

  Outnumbered and outgunned, the reeling Imperial fleet sought to pull back. The White Consuls ships hurled themselves into the maelstrom of battle with guns blazing, attempting to buy the beleaguered defence fleet some relief. Powering into the middle of the Chaos battlefleet, the White Consuls ships brought their full battery arrays to bear, blasting away at close range.

  The battleship Sanctus Diabolica was ripped apart between the concentrated fire of the two Space Marine battle-barges, and another Chaos ship, the Dominus Violatus, was rendered defenceless by the combined weight of fire of the Chapter’s strike cruisers and frigates.

  The monstrously powerful Crucius Maledictus annihilated the light cruiser Scythe of Faith, and a further four Boros Defence Fleet cruisers and frigates were destroyed as they tried to disengage. A desperate swathe of torpedoes, fired at extreme close range, critically damaged Dark Apostle Belagosa’s Dies Mortis. Squadrons of Starhawk bombers riddled her hull with plasma detonations before themselves being obliterated by the battleship’s cloud of daemon-infused fighters.

  More manoeuvrable than the larger Chaos battleships, the White Consuls strike cruisers cut through the field of destruction like knives. They focussed their weapon batteries on the isolated and defenceless Dominus Violatus, pummelling it with bombardment cannons and las-batteries until it was a shattered wreck. The strike cruisers retreated as the heavier Chaos ships lurched around to bring their broadsides to bear, though the Eternal Faith, holding the entirety of the Chapter’s 2nd Company, suffered grievous damage as she was caught at the edge of a nova cannon blast from the hulking Crucius Maledictus.

  The Pride of Redolus, a truly ancient Avenger-class grand cruiser, was surrounded by three Chaos ships that circled it like sharks. They pounded it into submission as it attempted to disengage. Under the calm direction of its captain, it inflicted major structural damage upon Ankh-Heloth’s flagship, the Corruptus Maligniatus, and stripped the shields of the Infidus Diabolus before it died, exploding in a series of catastrophic plasma-core detonations.

  One of the White Consuls battle-barges, the Sword of Deliverance, caught a glancing blow from the Crucius Maledictus, knocking out almost half of its starboard cannon arrays and sending it keening off course as it came to a new heading. It collided with the Dies Mortis, and the powerful ships were locked together for some minutes before the Sword blasted its way free.

  Now isolated from the Boros battlefleet, the Sword of Deliverance was rounded upon by the Chaos fleet, which battered it with ordnance and waves of heavy cannon fire. As powerfully armoured and shielded as the mighty battle-barge was, even it could not stand against such overwhelming hatred, and it reeled as its shields were torn apart and its hull hammered by the heavy incoming fire. Gleaming towers and castellated sensor arrays were ripped from its body, and its port-mounted lance batteries were shorn off, spinning into space.

  Formations of Thunderhawks erupted from the launch bays of the Sword of Deliverance, but they were not enough to hold off the plague of fighters and Stormbirds that descended over her like a vicious swarm of predatory insects, tearing at the battle-barge’s hide with plasma charges and cluster bombs. The proud vessel’s core was approaching critical, and fuel and air bled from the gashes in its side. Still it continued to fight on, its active turrets and gun batteries blasting away at the enemy swarming around it.

  The Sword of Truth and the surviving frigates of the White Consuls Chapter turned back into the face of the Chaos fleet. Desperate to save Chapter Master Valens and the mighty battle-barge, they launched a swift strike back into the fray. The desperate manoeuvre cut through the Chaos line, and while the White Consuls ships took heavy damage, the Sword of Deliverance managed to limp out of the danger zone under the protective fire of the Chapter’s gunships.

  As the survivors of the Boros Defence Fleet pulled away, finally extricating themselves from the slower vessels of the XVII Legion, the Chaos fleet vented its fury upon the White Consuls, enveloping them and pounding them with thousands of tonnes of ordnance. Having bought enough time for the Sword of Deliverance to extricate itself from the heaviest fighting, the heavily outnumbered Consuls vessels veered away sharply, attempting to pull back. The strike cruiser Sacred Blade was severely damaged in the firefight, and almost half the Chapter’s frigates were destroyed in that one engagement as they attempted to fight their way free of the Chaos fleet surrounding them.

  Slowest to turn and pull away was the retreating battle-barge Sword of Truth. Thanks to her guns, her sister-ship, the Sword of Deliverance, had managed to get away, bearing Chapter Master Valens to safety, but now the ship was suffering for its heroics.

  A hugely powerful yet heavy vessel, the Sword of Truth did not have the speed or manoeuvrability of the smaller Astartes vessels. Pounded from all sides, its shields and armoured hull taking a hammering, the Sword of Truth nevertheless exacted a heavy toll on the Chaos ships, rotating turrets drilling its attackers with relentless fire. Diverting huge amounts of energy to its overloading shield-arrays, it could not pull away fast enough, and like circling predators, the Chaos ships moved to cut it off from its brethren.

  Chapter Master Valens wanted to turn the Sword of Deliverance back around to aid its sister-ship, but the battle-barge was in no fit state, and he knew in his heart that if he did so both battle-barges would be lost.

  Realising that he was cut off, Captain Augustus of 2nd Company, the most senior officer aboard the battle-barge, signalled his intentions to his Chapter Master and ordered the Sword of Truth to come about to a new heading, turning and ploughing straight towards the Trajan asteroid belt. The sudden move threw off most of its attackers, and Imperial battle platforms within the asteroid belt began to fire past the approaching battle-barge, zeroing in on its pursuers.

  Alone amongst the Chaos fleet, Kol Badar had predicted the move, and the Infidus Diabolus had already been turning as the Sword of Truth swung for the safety of the asteroid belt.

  Marduk’s ship did not have the firepower to cripple the vessel before it was in amongst the asteroids, but the Dark Apostle had no intention of destroying it.

  ‘Remember, Apostles, we need one of their ships left intact,’ Ekodas had said in the conclave aboard the Crucius Maledictus. Marduk intended to be the one to claim the glory of achieving that goal.

  The Infidus Diabolus turned on her side as she came astern of the mighty White Consuls battle-barge, raking her flanks with cannon fire. Then, as the roaring of the cannons died down, waves of Dreadclaws were launched from assault tubes, spat towards the battle-barge which could do little but brace for the inevitable impact, the vast majority of her Thunderhawks having already fallen and her defensive turrets now offline.

  With pinpoint accuracy the Dreadclaws hurtled towards the battle-barge, their target locations designated by Kol Badar. The Coryphaus of the 34th knew the layout of the enemy battle-barge well, for he had orchestrated the destruction of its like in battle before
, and the XVII Legion had several similar vessels in its flotillas. He knew precisely where to hit to inflict the most damage, precisely where to aim in order that the boarding parties secreted within the Dreadclaws would cause the most havoc. He knew where to strike to take control of the ship’s engines, and the precise deck locales he needed to secure in order to bring the vessel to a halt.

  A score of boarding pods screamed towards the neck of the battle-barge, while others dipped beneath its looming hull to strike in deep towards its belly. These would assault the shield generators and the engine-core respectively, while other waves hurtled towards other locations as identified and marked by Kol Badar – boarding parties designated to take control of gun decks, to cut off expected counter-attack routes, to knock out communications, and others to isolate the warp drives.

  A last burst of Dreadclaws powered towards the towers atop the hulking stern. Rising over a kilometre above the rear of the battle-barge’s superstructure, this tiered, crenulated location was not unlike a fortress-monastery in its own right. The warrior brothers packed into those assault pods readied themselves for combat, preparing to fight their way onto the bridge.

  Leading the assault, Marduk roared the Catechisms of Defilement and Hate as his Dreadclaw screamed towards its target. Projected across all channels, his impassioned recitation drove his warriors into a fanatical blood-rage. Spouting psalms of debasement and vitriol, Marduk whipped them into a frenzied state of hyper-aggression, further heightened by the combat drugs pumping through their systems and the blaring roar of Chaos that thundered from the grilled vox-amplifiers of the Dreadclaws.

  With colossal force the Dreadclaws struck the outer hull of the battle-barge, talon-like claws latching on tightly, gouging great rents in its metal skin. Phase-cutters hissed like monstrous serpents as they carved through the Sword of Truth’s thick armour, metres of dense plating turning molten beneath the blinding arcs of energy. Blobs of liquid metal drifted off into space around the ships as the Dreadclaws burrowed through the outer shell, and unleashed their deadly cargo within.