‘The Stormbirds are prepped on their launch rails and we await only your word to unleash them on the Laer.’
‘I know,’ nodded Julius, ‘but we must await the primarch’s order to launch.’
‘Even though Captain Demeter’s speartip has already launched?’ asked Lycaon as they passed Emperor’s Children armed with golden pilum spears at regular intervals along the triumphal way. Though they stood as immobile as the statues, the fierce potential for violence that beat within the breast of every Astartes warrior was evident in each of them.
‘Even so,’ agreed Julius, ‘it would be impolitic to begin the campaign proper without consulting the other officers of the expedition, so the speartip will be presented as reconnaissance in force rather than as the opening strike of a campaign.’
Lycaon shrugged and shook his head. ‘What do we care for the feelings of the expedition? The primarch commands and they are his to order as he sees fit. Such is only right and proper.’
Though he agreed with Lycaon, Julius didn’t answer, chafing at not leading the warriors on the planet below. He had listened to the initial vox reports of Solomon and Marius, who were, even now, involved in heavy fighting to secure the floating land-mass known as Atoll 19, with growing anger as the casualty reports flooded in.
But his primarch had ordered his presence at the council of war that would announce the manner in which the 28th Expedition would make war upon this alien species and such orders were not to be denied.
Julius already knew what the Lord Fulgrim was to present to the senior commanders of the fleet, and the audacity and scale of it still took his breath away. You didn’t need to be First Captain of the Emperor’s Children to know what their reaction would be.
‘Enough talking, Lycaon, we’re here,’ he said as he saw the great Phoenix Gate before them, a towering bronze portal that depicted the Emperor symbolically presenting Fulgrim with the Imperial eagle. The eagle was the Emperor’s own symbol, and he had commanded that Fulgrim’s Legion alone bear it upon their armour, as a mark of the regard in which they were held. The honour done to the Emperor’s Children was immeasurable. As he saw the gate, Julius felt fierce pride swell within his breast, and he reached up to touch the carved eagle on his armour.
More guards stood before the Phoenix Gate, and they bowed deeply as he approached, clashing their spears into the ground as the great leaves of bronze smoothly parted before him, a slice of white light and the hubbub of voices drifting through from beyond.
He nodded respectfully to the warriors at the gate and passed through into the Heliopolis.
SOLOMON SPUN HIS bolter to face the creature that slashed through the air towards him, its claws outstretched to tear him in two. His finger squeezed the trigger and a hail of bolts spat from the barrel of his gun. Sparks and yellow blood spattered his purple and gold armour as the creature burst apart and collapsed in a torn heap beside him. More followed it, and soon the plaza was alive with whipping, sinuous bodies and struggling Astartes.
In appearance, each Laer could be wildly diverse, their bio-forms differing between war zones, and apparently engineered for each particular theatre of war. In his short time on the oceanic world of Laeran, Solomon had seen winged, aquatic and all manner of variations on the basic Laer form. Whether they were divergent strands of genetic mutation or deliberately engineered warrior creatures, Solomon didn’t know, nor did he care.
These particular beasts were tall, sinuous monsters, with the snake-like lower body common to all Laer, and muscular thoraxes sheathed in silver armour, from which sprouted two pairs of limbs. The upper arms each bore long, lightning wreathed blades, their elegant forms curved like scimitars, while the lower arms each wielded crackling gauntlets that fired the lethal green energy bolts.
Their heads were insect-like and bulbous, with glossy, multi-faceted eyes and jutting mandibles that produced a grating screech when the Laer attacked. Solomon spun on the spot, firing his bolter at every slithering body that emerged from the alien structures carved from the hard coral of the atoll. The veterans who accompanied him formed a curving line with him at its centre, each warrior moving smoothly into his allotted place to push the Laer back towards the crackling plume of energy in the middle of the plaza with every marching step they took.
Bolter rounds filled the air, and explosions sent chunks of coral flying, as the unstoppable advance of the Emperor’s Children pushed deeper into the screaming ruins of the floating city. With no inter-suit vox, Solomon had no idea how Caphen or Thelonius were doing, but trusted their expertise and courage to see them through. Solomon had personally approved both their commands and whatever fate befell them was his responsibility.
Green fire washed from a previously unseen burrow entrance and a trio of Astartes warriors went down, their armour and flesh disintegrating beneath the electrochemical energies.
‘Enemy to the flank!’ shouted Solomon and his warriors reacted with smooth precision to meet the threat. As the Laer emerged from their hiding place, they were met by disciplined volleys of bolter fire, the first Emperor’s Children to meet the threat shifting position to allow their comrades to fire while they reloaded.
Solomon watched with pride as they fought with a flawless martial discipline unmatched by any other Legion. The berserk rages of Russ’s Wolves or the wild showmanship of the Khan’s Riders were not the way of the Emperor’s Children. Fulgrim’s Legion fought with the cold, clinical application of perfect force and discipline.
A huge explosion mushroomed skyward from Solomon’s right and he heard the crash of falling coral as a conch tower collapsed in a billowing cloud of dust and fire, its damnable horns silenced as it smashed to pieces. The Emperor’s Children had pushed some forty metres into the plaza, their curving line of advance carrying them into the centre of its crater and rubble strewn openness.
The plume of energy was close enough for him to feel its heat and as he gave the order to surround it, the Laer renewed their assault, their writhing bodies slipping around the ruins of their homes with unnatural speed. Whipping bolts of green light and bolter rounds crisscrossed the plaza, flaring explosions rippling the air as the occasional pair of shots impacted on one another.
A boiling tide of aliens slid towards the Emperor’s Children, their snake-like lower bodies powering them across the uneven ground with unnatural speed, and Solomon knew that the time for guns was over. He placed his bolter on the ground with reverent care and drew his chainblade from its sheath across his back.
Like his bolter, he had extensively modified his sword in the Pride of the Emperor’s armouries under the stern gaze of Marius Vairosean. The blade and grip of the weapon had been lengthened to increase his reach and to allow him to wield the blade two handed. The quillons were fashioned in the form of upswept wings and the pommel bore a majestic eagle’s head.
He thumbed the activation stud and shouted, ‘Unsheath!’
A hundred blades glittered in the sunlight as the circle of Emperor’s Children drew their swords in one smooth motion.
The Laer hit the Emperor’s Children in a blur of silver armour and crackling blades, the Astartes stepping in to meet their enemies head to head. Mars-forged steel met alien blades in a clash of fire that echoed throughout the city.
Solomon ducked a blow aimed at his head and spun inside the stroke of the alien’s second blade, driving his sword into the gap between his foe’s armoured thorax and lower body. The teeth of his blade ground on its thick spine, but he forced the blade onwards, dropping the creature into two flopping halves.
His warriors fought with calm serenity, confident in their superiority and knowing that their leader was among them. Solomon tore his blade free from the alien he had killed and stepped onwards, his warriors following his example and grimly fighting with killing strokes.
The first warning of something amiss was when a violent tremor shook the ground with a rumbling vibration. Then suddenly the world shifted as the ground violently canted to the si
de. Solomon was pitched to the ground, rolling on the slanted plaza and tumbling into one of the many deep craters that dotted the battlefield.
He quickly righted himself and scanned his immediate area for threats, but could see nothing, hearing the sound of battle from above him and gunfire closing on the plaza from either side. If the suspicions of the Mechanicum were correct and the energy coils were what kept the atolls afloat in the sky, it seemed likely that one or more elsewhere on the atoll must have been destroyed.
Solomon rolled to his feet and sheathed his sword as he began clambering up the rocky slopes of the crater. As he neared the top, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand to attention, and looked up in time to see the silhouette of a Laer warrior over the lip of the crater.
He reached for his sword, but the Lear was on him before he could draw the weapon.
THOUGH JULIUS KAESORON had stood in the Heliopolis many hundreds of times, its beauty and majesty still had the power to render him speechless with its towering walls of pale stone and rank upon rank of marble statues on golden plinths that supported the vast domed room. Intricate mosaics, too high to make out the details, filled the coffers of the dome and long, silk banners of purple and gold hung between fluted pilasters of green marble.
A lustrous beam of focused starlight shone down from the centre of the dome, reflecting dazzlingly from the black terrazzo floor of the Heliopolis. Marble and quartz chips laid into the mortar and ground to a polished sheen turned the floor into a glittering, dark mirror that shone like the heavens beyond. Dust motes danced in the brightness, and the smoky aroma of scented oils filled the air.
Rows of marble benches ran around the circumference of Fulgrim’s council chamber, rising in stepped tiers towards the walls in serried ranks, enough to seat two thousand men, though barely a quarter of that number were present for this council of war. A chair of polished black marble sat in the centre of the pillar of starlight and it was from here that Lord Fulgrim heard the petitions of his warriors and granted audiences. Though the primarch had not yet graced this assemblage with his arrival, the empty chair was a potent presence in the chamber.
Julius saw officers drawn from all the military arms of the 28th Expedition seated in the marble benches, and moved to take his place on the bench nearest the floor, nodding to men whose faces he knew and noticing wary glances at his red lacerna cloak. Those who had served with the Emperor’s Children for any length of time knew that the wearing of such a cloak signified a warrior about to go into battle.
Julius ignored their stares and retrieved his sword and helmet from his bearers before taking his seat. He cast his eyes around the chamber, seeing silver and scarlet officers of the Imperial Army filling the lower tiers of the Heliopolis, their closeness to the floor indicative of their higher ranks.
Lord Commander Fayle sat at the centre of a gaggle of flunkies and aides. He was a stern man with a horribly scarred face, augmented with a steel plate that obscured the left side of his head. Julius had never spoken to the man, but knew him by reputation; a skilled general, a blunt speaker and a ruthless, unforgiving soldier.
Behind the officers of the army, occupying the mid-level of seating, were the adepts of the Mechanicum, looking uncomfortable in the bright light of the Heliopolis. Their hooded robes hid much of their features, and Julius could not remember if he had ever seen one with his hood down. He shook his head at the foolish veils of secrecy and ritual they surrounded themselves with.
Alongside the Mechanicum were the remembrancers, earnest men and women in beige robes that scrawled in battered notepads and data-slates or sketched on cartridge paper with charcoals. The greatest artists, writers and poets of the Imperium had spread through the expedition fleets in their thousands to document the monumental achievements of the Great Crusade, meeting varying degrees of welcome. Precious few of the Legions appreciated their efforts, but Fulgrim had declared their presence to be a great boon and had granted them unprecedented access to his most intimate and guarded ceremonies.
Following his gaze, Lycaon spat, ‘Remembrancers. What purpose do scriveners and their ilk serve at a council of war? Look, one of them has even brought an easel!’
Julius smiled and said, ‘Perhaps he is attempting to capture the glory of the Heliopolis for future generations, my friend.’
‘Russ has the truth of it,’ said Lycaon. ‘We are warriors, not subjects for poetry or portraits.’
‘The pursuit of perfection extends beyond the martial disciplines, Lycaon. It encompasses fine arts, literary works and music. Only recently, I was privileged to hear Bequa Kynska’s recital and my heart soared to hear such sweet music.’
‘You’ve been reading poetry again, haven’t you?’ asked Lycaon, shaking his head.
‘When I have the chance, I delve into one of Ignace Karkasy’s Imperial Cantos,’ admitted Julius. ‘You should try it sometime. A little culture would be no bad thing for you. Fulgrim himself has a sculpture in his chambers that he commissioned from Ostian Delafour, and it’s said that Eidolon has a landscape of Chemos painted by Kelan Roget hanging above his bed.’
‘Never! Eidolon?’
‘So they say,’ nodded Julius
‘Who’d have thought it?’ mused Lycaon. ‘Anyway, I’ll stick to achieving perfection in war if it’s all the same to you.’
‘Your loss,’ said Julius, as the benches in the upper reaches of the Heliopolis filled with people; the scribes, notaries and functionaries who served those nearer the centre of power.
‘Big turnout,’ noted Lycaon.
‘The primarch is going to speak,’ said Julius. ‘That always brings the adorers out.’
As though speaking his name was the key to summoning him, the Phoenix Gate opened and the Primarch of the III Legion entered the Heliopolis.
Fulgrim was flanked by his senior lord commanders, and the assembled warriors, adepts and scribes immediately rose to their feet and bowed their heads in wonder at the magnificent, perfect warrior before them.
Julius rose with them, his earlier discomfort washed away in the rush of excitement at seeing his beloved primarch once again. A swell of rippling applause and cries of ‘Phoenician!’ filled the Heliopolis, a roaring gesture of affirmation that only halted when Fulgrim raised his palms to quiet his reverent followers.
The primarch wore a long flowing toga of pale cream, and the dark iron hilt of his sword, Fireblade, was visible at his hip, the blade itself sheathed in a scabbard of gleaming purple leather. The flaring wings of an eagle were embroidered in gold thread across his chest and a slender band of lapis lazuli kept his silver hair from his face. Two of the Legion’s greatest warriors, Lord Commander Vespasian and Lord Commander Eidolon came in behind the primarch. Both warriors were dressed in plain, white togas, unadorned save for a small eagle motif over the right breast. Their stern martial bearing was an inspiration for Julius, who held himself a little straighter at their presence.
Eidolon looked unimpressed at the gathered warriors, while Vespasian’s humours were unreadable behind his flawless, classical features. Both lord commanders were armed, Vespasian’s sword held sheathed at his side and Eidolon’s hammer carried upon his shoulder.
Julius could feel the tension in the air as the expedition awaited Fulgrim’s words.
‘My friends,’ began Fulgrim, taking his seat before the assembled warriors, his pale skin radiant in the glow from above, ‘it gladdens my heart to see you gathered so. It has been too long since last we made war, but what a chance we have now to remedy that.’
Though he knew what was coming, Julius felt an unreasoning excitement build within him and saw that the normally sardonic Lycaon smiled broadly when he heard the primarch speak.
‘We orbit the world of a fearsome species that calls itself the Laer,’ continued Fulgrim, his voice having lost the Cthonic harshness he had picked up while the Emperor’s Children had fought alongside the Warmaster’s Luna Wolves. The cultured accent of Old Terra again flavoured every syll
able, and Julius found himself beguiled by the timbre and cadence of the primarch’s words. ‘And such a world it is! One that the honoured representatives from the Mechanicum tell me would be of immeasurable value to the crusade of the Emperor, he who is beloved by all.’
‘Beloved by all,’ echoed the chamber.
Fulgrim nodded and said, ‘Though a world such as this would be of immense value to us, its alien inhabitants do not wish to share what blind fortune has blessed them with. They refuse to see the manifest destiny that guides us through the stars and have made it abundantly clear that they hold us in nothing but contempt. Our peaceable advances have been rebuffed with violence, and honour demands we answer in kind!’
Angry shouts of threatened violence filled the Heliopolis. Fulgrim smiled, clasping his hands to his chest in thanks for their devotion. As the cheering and shouts died away, Julius saw Lord Commander Fayle stand and bow deeply to the primarch.
‘If I may?’ ventured the soldier, his voice deep and laden with experience.
‘Of course, Thaddeus, you are my most favoured ally,’ said Fulgrim, and Fayle’s stern mask twitched in pleasure at being addressed by his first name.
Julius smiled as he remembered the skill with which Fulgrim flattered those he spoke to, knowing full well that he was soon to blindside Fayle with hard facts and uncomfortable truths.
‘Thank you, my lord,’ began Fayle, placing his gnarled hands on the wall that separated him from the dark floor of the Heliopolis. As Thaddeus Fayle spoke, microscopic motes of crystal floating in the column of light focused on the Army commander, wreathing him in a diffuse glow. ‘Perhaps you can enlighten me as to something?’
Fulgrim smiled and his dark eyes were alive with mirth. ‘I shall endeavour to bring illumination to your ignorance.’
Fayle bristled at the implied insult, but pressed on. ‘You have called us here for a council of war regarding what is to be done with Twenty-Eight Three? Yes?’
‘Indeed I have,’ replied Fulgrim. ‘For I could not conceive of undertaking such a decision without your counsel.’