‘So,’ the Lord Commander mused, ‘the Cabal has arrived and shown itself.’
‘My lord?’ asked Van Aunger.
Namatjira looked up from the pictures. ‘Return to the bridge, fleet master. Set the fleet to a war footing. Charge all main battery weapons, and target that object. You will only commence bombardment on my instruction.’
‘Sir, we have significant ground troop deployments adjacent to that craft,’ said Van Aunger. ‘They would most likely be caught in any orbital bombardment we unleashed. I told you this, Lord Commander, before the day began. I told you that bombardment tactics would—’
‘Charge all main battery weapons and target that object,’ hissed Namatjira. ‘Is that too complex an order for you? Should I break it down? Target that object! If that’s beyond you, expect to be stripped of your mastery with immediate effect. I understand Admiral Kalkoa is eager to rise to fleet command.’
Van Aunger glared at Namatjira, made a sullen namaste and left the lookout.
Namatjira sat down on one of the window couches, and stroked the flank of his gene-bred pet.
Chayne entered the lookout, and dismissed the companion on duty.
‘Did you see?’ asked Namatjira.
Chayne nodded. ‘The Cabal is clearly more potent than we feared.’
‘They’re not playing by Alpharius’s rules either,’ said the Lord Commander. ‘This is not the schedule the primarch told me to expect. He anticipated that our ground forces would have the area surrounded and in our control before—’
He paused.
‘Sir?’ asked Chayne.
‘Unless he lied to me,’ said Namatjira. ‘Unless he is already making contact with the Cabal and learning their precious secrets for himself.’
Namatjira rose. He crossed the lookout and poured a flute of wine, sipped it, and then dashed the glass against the window ports with a snarl of fury.
‘He plays us!’ he growled. ‘He plays us and uses us! Everything he promised me, the honour, the glory, the Emperor’s gratitude, was that all lies too?’
Chayne shrugged. ‘I have not trusted the Astartes Alpha Legion from the start, sir. They do not practise the codes of nobility and honour shown by the other Legions Astartes. I believe their operation and conduct should be reported to the Council of Terra, pending censure or dissolution. It wouldn’t be the first time a Legion Astartes has overstepped the mark, after all. They must be stopped and held accountable before they become too powerful.’
Namatjira nodded, thoughtfully. ‘Agreed, and I will be the one to bring the matter directly to the Emperor’s attention. Perhaps then I can salvage some of my reputation. We need to find them culpable, Dinas. We need firm evidence of their miscreant nature. I need to know precisely what they’re doing, and what infernal compart they are making with these xenoform bastards.’
Chayne poured another drink, and handed it to his master. ‘Thank you, Dinas,’ Namatjira replied. He began to pace.
‘We already have evidence of their espionage, sir,’ said Chayne. ‘I have detained an officer of the Geno Five-Two Chiliad, and have manifest proof that he has been working as an operative of the Alpha Legion.’
‘In our own damn ranks?’
‘The man is Bronzi, sir. It is shocking to discover that the Alpha Legion has infiltrated at the highest operational level.’
Namatjira nodded. ‘That’s a start. Good. You have interrogated him?’
‘He is resisting us, my lord, stoically, but my men are very skilled and patient. I do not know how much longer a man, even a man of Bronzi’s considerable constitution, can withstand such levels of pain.’
‘Get me a link to the primarch, Dinas,’ Namatjira said, ‘person to person. Let’s see what new lies he chooses to spin me, and see if we can’t establish his location while we listen to them. Prepare the Lucifer Blacks for teleport assault.’
Chayne saluted.
‘And Dinas?’
‘Yes, sir?’
‘Show this Bronzi no mercy,’ said Namatjira. ‘Break him mind, body and soul, and pluck his secrets from him.’
‘Yes, my lord,’ replied Dinas Chayne.
TEN
The Acuity
SONEKA HAD NEVER travelled by teleport before. It wasn’t an experience he’d care to repeat. It made him feel sick and disoriented, as if he’d been put back together the wrong way around.
The Astartes showed no sign of being remotely discomforted.
The teleport arrays of the battle-barge had relocated them all, Imperials and Cabal aliens alike, from the dank cave to a wet rock platform at the halting site, just below the gilded lip of the Cabal’s parked vessel.
The landing at the halting site had churned up the local atmosphere. It was raining hard, and a vapour like steam was rising from the cubic blocks and the oil black pools. The encircling cliffs of the Shivering Hills surrounded them in a ring forty kilometres in diameter. The water particles in the air had created a fabulous half rainbow over the steaming bowl of the halting site.
The Cabal’s immense vessel, dazzling with gold and copper reflections, was too vast to comprehend. Soneka looked at it for a while, seeing it as a budding flower, opening its fimbriate petals to the sky, or a crown of oddly twisted thorns.
He realised at length, that it was simply too big, too alien, too unparalleled, for his mind to accommodate without collapsing into madness. He looked away. He’d seen enough of the extraordinary for one lifetime.
‘It’s…’ Rukhsana mumbled. ‘It’s… simply…’
‘I know,’ Soneka said, and gently turned her aside to look at the rim of black cliffs through the rain. ‘It’s best not to look at it for too long.’
‘What have we got ourselves into, Peto?’ she asked.
He smiled. ‘I really don’t know any more. We’ve played our parts. I don’t believe we matter at all now. A great destiny is being shaped, I think. Can’t you feel it, the weight of future ages hanging over us?’
She nodded, and hooked her rain-plastered hair off her face. ‘Absolutely,’ she said.
‘This is a task for stronger minds,’ said Soneka, ‘post-human minds, not our weak brains. We have to trust the Astartes to do what they were created to do. We have to trust them to keep our species safe.’
‘Do you trust them, Peto?’ Rukhsana asked.
‘We both carry their mark, uxor,’ he said. ‘I think it’s far too late to ask that question.’
She looked around. A considerable way away, down the rainswept platform, Grammaticus sat hunched under the guard of an Astartes.
‘He hates us,’ she said.
‘Of course he does,’ said Soneka, ‘we betrayed him.’
‘That was hard to do,’ she said. To use him—’
‘He’s used everybody, every step of the way,’ Soneka replied. ‘He’ll get over it. It may not have gone the way he’d have liked it to, but we got him what he wanted.’
‘No, you have to understand, I loved him,’ she said, ‘or I thought I did, and I thought he loved me. I didn’t understand what he was, even when he told me to my face. I didn’t understand the scale of it all.’
‘You were never supposed to,’ said Soneka. ‘Pawns are never supposed to perceive the game as a whole.’
A golden ramp, like a curving tongue, had extended from the rim of the Cabal vessel to meet the edge of the stone platform. The Astartes, bolters ready, had begun to steer the huddle of alien sentients up into the craft. Some whimpered or murmured as they were herded along. Slau Dha, the great autarch, walked with his crested head up, ignoring the trained bolters.
‘Signal relayed from the battle-barge,’ Herzog said to Alpharius.
‘Content?’
‘Lord Commander Namatjira requests personal vox audience. He worries that you have begun the meeting without him.’
‘Tell him I can’t be reached at this time,’ said Alpharius. ‘Tell him to maintain position and keep his forces on standby.’
‘He won’t li
ke it,’ said Herzog.
‘That’s his problem,’ Omegon replied.
‘I probably shouldn’t tell him that, though, should I?’ asked Herzog.
‘Tell him I appreciate his patience, and I will contact him directly,’ said Alpharius.
THEY BOARDED THE copper craft. Its internal compartments bore no relation to a ship of human design. Odd spaces opened out into curious chambers, or turned back on themselves like a maze. The walls glowed softly with inner radiance. In places, the ceiling seemed to soar away forever. Soneka felt muddled and uncomfortable.
The air smelled like burnt sugar and fused plastek.
They were left alone for a while in a chamber formed from three golden petals.
‘What’s that noise?’ Rukhsana asked.
‘I don’t hear anything,’ said Soneka.
‘It’s in my ’cept then, like a swarm of bees.’
First Captain Pech appeared and strode over to them. ‘The primarch has called for you, Peto,’ he said.
‘Me?’
‘He needs you. Follow me.’
Soneka glanced at Rukhsana. ‘Go on,’ she urged.
Pech led him through the luminous halls of the Cabal vessel to a chamber where Alpharius, Omegon and Shere were waiting.
‘My lord?’ asked Soneka.
‘The Cabal is about to display the Acuity to us, Peto,’ Alpharius told him. ‘As far as we can tell, it’s a perception device, a means of temporal lensing, based on eldar principles of farseeing.’
‘Yes, lord. I don’t really understand anything you just said.’
‘We are about to have the future revealed to us,’ said Omegon.
‘Sirs, why did you send for me?’ asked Soneka.
‘I need to determine, as accurately as I possibly can, the viability of what they are about to show us,’ said Alpharius. ‘I have suggested that the witnesses should be Omegon and myself, Shere from the psyker perspective, and you as an unmodified human. Do you consent?’
‘Sir, I—’
‘Do you consent?’ demanded Omegon. ‘We haven’t got time to waste.’
Soneka nodded. ‘I will do whatever I can, my lords,’ he replied.
‘Thank you, Peto,’ said Alpharius. ‘We’re ready,’ he called out.
A wall that had seemed solid parted like smoke. The four men walked into the chamber beyond, side by side.
It was dark, and lit by a ruddy glow that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Ahead of them, a monolithic slab of silver light shivered in the darkness.
+I am Gahet.+
‘I am Alpharius, primarch of the Twentieth Legion Astartes,’ Alpharius replied.
+Welcome. Let us know the others, and your other self.+
‘I am Omegon, primarch of the Twentieth Legion Astartes,’ said Omegon. +Welcome. Den Dang Keyat Shere, welcome.+ Shere bowed.
+Peto Soneka. Welcome.+
‘Hello,’ said Soneka. ‘You’re inside my head.’
+I am+
‘That’s not entirely pleasant,’ said Soneka.
‘Oh, get a backbone, het,’ snapped Omegon.
+You are prepared to observe the Acuity?+
‘Yes,’ said Alpharius. ‘Any tricks will result in our bolters dismantling this vessel piece by piece. Are we understood?’
+Yes. You are a violent species, human. You threaten quickly. The violence will come later, and will be entirely your business.+
‘Get on with it,’ said Omegon.
+We have battled to deny the Primordial Annihilator for longer than you have been evolved. Chaos cannot be permitted to gain control of the galaxy.+
‘This fact has already been established, Gahet,’ said Alpharius.
+The human race is virile. It thrives, unruly and edacious. It is, in its ignorance, especially susceptible to the influence of Chaos. The Primordial Annihilator has buried its fingers into mankind, intending to turn it into a weapon.+
‘Mankind will resist,’ said Alpharius.
+You will not know how to resist. The Primordial Annihilator is cunning. It will trigger civil war within the Imperium of Man, and bring all creation crashing down. See.+
The slab of silver light trembled and opened. They saw what was inside it. It felt as if they were falling from orbit onto a burning world. Shere began to weep.
+This is our veridical testimony. This is the future as it will happen. The great war will erupt across the firmament and engulf the human race. The stars will go out. The Annihilator will rise.+
‘No,’ said Omegon bluntly. His eyes were wide.
+You cannot deny it, Omegon. It is a process already underway.+
‘You damn liar!’ Omegon roared, and looked away from the Acuity’s vision.
+I cannot lie. I do not lie. The human race will become the absolute masters of teratogeny. They will create the greatest monster of all: Horus!+
Soneka’s mind was numb. What he had witnessed made the sight of the giant copper craft seem unremarkable.
‘How… how do we stop this?’ he asked with a trembling voice.
+You don’t, but the Alpha Legion Astartes is perfectly placed to control and direct it.+
‘Explain!’ Alpharius demanded.
+The civil war brought against the Emperor by Horus Lupercal will end one of two ways. Either Horus will win, and Chaos will triumph, or the Emperor’s forces will prevail and drive Chaos into retreat.+
‘The Alpha Legion has always, always, been for the Emperor,’ Alpharius stated.
The slab of silver light flickered.
+Regard, then, the future. Horus wins, and Chaos triumphs, a terrible prospect, but likely. The Cabal sees a scintilla of honour remaining in bright Lupercal. He will secretly hate himself for the atrocities committed in his name. If he wins, his fury will accelerate, along with his self-loathing. He will immolate the human species inside two or three generations. The self-destructive, redemptive urge in Horus will drive him to exterminate mankind in shame. Even his closest allies will war against him in a final armageddon. Chaos will burn brighter than ever before, and will then be extinguished. Its great victory will flare, and then gutter, as the dying Imperium takes it to the grave. The races of the galaxy will be spared, through the sacrifice of the human race.+
‘Horus will not be allowed to win!’ Omegon retorted.
+Consider the alternative, Omegon primarch. This is what we have farseen. The Emperor will give his life to achieve victory. He will fall, at Terra, striking Horus down. This will be his destiny. See.+
The silver light shimmered. They saw the magnificence of the Golden Throne, and the howling rictus of the wizened cadaver locked inside it.
‘Oh my lord!’ Soneka cried.
+If the Emperor wins, stagnation will seize the Imperium. It will seek to perpetuate itself, over and again, across thousands of years, but it will decay, slowly and surely. It will decay, and gradually allow Chaos to seep back in and consume it.+
‘Victory… is defeat?’ asked Alpharius softly.
+If the Emperor wins, Alpharius, Chaos will ultimately triumph. Ten, twenty thousand years of misery and rot will follow, until the Primordial Annihilator at last achieves ascendancy.+
‘This is the choice?’ asked Omegon. He laughed bleakly.
+The slow, inexorable conquest of Chaos, or a brief period of terror and frenzy. Creeping damnation, or a bloody century or two as the human race rips itself apart, and expunges Chaos from the galaxy. This is the choice we present to you. The human race is a weapon. It can save the galaxy or destroy it.+
‘This is hardly a choice at all, Gahet,’ said Alpharius.
+I pity you, human. It is not, but you are pragmatic, that is your abiding virtue. You see the long view. You make the hard decisions. Alpharius, the stagnant future must be denied.+
‘How do we do that?’ asked Omegon. ‘How do you propose we do that, you alien bastard?’
+It is perfectly simple, Omegon. The Alpha Legion must side with the rebels. You must ensure that
Horus wins.+
‘Never!’ snarled Omegon.
‘It is unthinkable!’ Alpharius yelled.
+Then see the result. See it. See it for yourselves.+
The silvery glow shivered again. They flinched. They saw it all, in the space of a moment.
The Acuity showed them everything. Omegon and Alpharius staggered backwards, screaming.
Shere burbled furiously, and then fell down, stone dead, his mind destroyed. Soneka sank to his knees and wept.
ELEVEN
42 Hydra
THEY CAME BACK out into luminous halls that would never seem so bright again. The future came with them, like a shroud. Alpharius and Omegon were silent and expressionless. Ashen, broken, Soneka carried Shere’s corpse in his arms.
The Astartes were waiting for them, their bolters still covering the furtive, whispering members of the Cabal.
‘My lord?’ Pech began. ‘What did—’
Alpharius raised a hand for silence. He looked at his twin, and they stared into each other’s eyes for a long time.
Soneka set Shere’s body down on the deck. Rukhsana came over to him.
‘Peto? Your face!’ she whispered. ‘What was it? What did you see?’
Soneka shook his head. He couldn’t speak. She put her arms around him.
‘He saw the Acuity.’ John Grammaticus was standing behind them. ‘It is a terrible thing, isn’t it, Peto? Quite terrible, and wonderful too.’
‘Wonderful?’ Soneka burst out, pulling away from Rukhsana. ‘How can you call it that?’
‘Because in all the horror, it offers a chance,’ said John Grammaticus. ‘One pure, simple chance to save, to spare, and to protect.’
Soneka stared at him. ‘I don’t think much of the chance, John,’ he replied.
SLAU DHA STEPPED forward to face Alpharius. The Astartes followed him with their weapons, but he ignored the threat.
‘Well?’ he asked, in halting, thickly accented Low Gothic. ‘What is your response, mon-keigh? Do you have the strength to make this choice, or are you just as weak and self-serving as the rest of your vermin species?’
Alpharius gazed at the autarch levelly. ‘I stand for the Emperor,’ he replied. ‘In all things, I am loyal to Him, and I cannot break that bond. He has many great ambitions, and the noblest of intentions, but I know that above all else, He is determined to stand firm against the rise of Chaos. He has always known the truth of it. The overthrow of the Primordial Annihilator is His greatest wish. So what I do, autarch, from this moment on, I will do for the Emperor.’