James Swallow - The Flight of the Eisenstein

'Quickly,' Garro ordered.

'From Lord Commander Eidolon, starship Andro-nius. Message reads: Fugitive Thunderhawk is acting against the Warmaster's commands and is to be con­sidered a renegade. All fleet elements are ordered to destroy the ship on sight.'

'Shoot down one of our own vessels?' Sendek was clearly aghast at the mere thought of such an idea. 'Has he taken leave of his senses?'

'The Thunderhawk is turning/ reported the deck officer, 'he's seen our approach. Confirm, the Thun­derhawk is closing in on us.' She looked up at Garro. 'He's well within lascannon range, lord.'

Carya's face was stony, and a hard silence fell across the bridge. 'What are your orders, Captain Garro?'

Decius's commander threw him a look, and then turned to Maas. 'Can you get me a ship-to-ship link with that Thunderhawk?'

'Aye, sir.'

'Then do it now.'

'But, lord, the orders-' began Decius.

Garro shot the warrior a sharp glare. 'Eidolon can give all the orders he wants. I will not fire on a fellow Astartes without first knowing why' The battle-captain strode to the mouth of the vox hide and snatched a hand communicator from Maas. 'Thunderhawk on a closing course with the Eisenstein! he barked, 'identify yourself!'

Through the crackle of interference came an anx­ious reply. 'Nathaniel?' Decius saw the colour drain from Garro's face in recognition. 'It's Saul. It's good to hear your voice, my brother!'

'Saul Tarvitz/ whispered Sendek, 'First Captain of the Emperor's Children. Impossible! He's a man of honour! If he's turned traitor, then the galaxy has gone insane!'

Decius found he couldn't look away from Garro's shocked expression. 'Perhaps it has.' It was a long moment before Decius realised the words had been his.

PART TWO

A SUNDERED VOW

EIGHT

Point of no Return

Sacrifice Oath of Moment

Tollen Sendek prided himself on his orderly mind and his controlled, regimented will. It was a point of honour for him to be logical and intent in his service to the XIV Legion and to the Emperor. He eschewed irrationality and the incautious nature that some of his brethren embraced. Rahl had often made fun of him about it, joking that Sendek took the word 'stoic' to new extremes, but he thought of his dead comrade now and wondered what Pyr would have made of the look on his face, the purely emotional surprise that gripped him.

It had taken only a moment to bring him to this state. The rogue Thunderhawk, the signal from Eidolon, the incredible command to terminate the fleeing vessel and the ranking Astartes officer aboard it… Sendek shook his head, trying to fight off the con­fusion. Had Decius been correct, was it a test? Some bizarre sort of battle drill to assess the mettle of the

Eisenstein's command crew? Or could it be true that Saul Tarvitz had indeed turned renegade and was fit only for execution? If it was possible for an Imperial governor like Vardus Praal to go against the Emperor, then perhaps an Astartes might do the same.

Captain Garro gripped a vox microphone in his hand and was speaking urgently into it, his knuckles white around the device. 'Tarvitz? What in the name of the Emperor is going on? Are those fighters trying to shoot you down?'

Sendek flashed a look at the Eisenstein's hololith. The answer to Garro's question was self-evident, as the frigate's sensors showed flickers of beam fire dash­ing from the flight of Ravens, snapping at the Thunderhawk's stern. As he watched, the raptor-like interceptors adopted an attack posture. They were lin ing up to make a final strike.

He heard Garro shout into the vox, demanding some explanation, any explanation. 'Be quick, Saul. They almost have you!'

Tarvitz's next words made Sendek's guts knot. This is treachery!' bellowed the captain of the Emperor's Children, desperation filling his voice. 'All of this! We are betrayed! The fleet is going to bombard the planet's surface with virus bombs'

At once, everyone on the bridge in earshot of the vox speaker was shocked rigid. 'What? No!' said Vought, shaking her head. Officers at other deck sta­tions looked up from the command pit in disbelief.

That cannot be/ began the shipmaster, taking a wary step forward.

Decius's face was tense. 'He's mistaken. Our broth­ers are down there-'

Their voices overlapped one another in loud pro­fusion, and Sendek heard only snatches of Garro's

conversation with Tarvitz. 'On my life, I swear I do not lie to you/ cried the captain. Sendek's comman­der sagged, as if the weight of the man's claim was pressing down on him. He caught Tarvitz's final, frustrated words. 'Every Astartes on Isstvan III is going to die!'

He looked back at the hololith. Tarvitz's life was measured only in ticks of the clock. The Thunder-hawk was wallowing badly, bleeding fuel as the Ravens moved in for the kill.

Captain Garro shoved himself away from the vox alcove and stormed across the bridge. 'Weapons!' he shouted. 'I want lascannon command, this very sec­ond!'

Vought's fingers danced over her console. 'Close-quarters batteries are active, sir/ she reported, 'cogitators are computing a firing solution.' The woman blinked. 'Sir, are… are you going to shoot him down?'

'Give me manual control.' Garro waved her away from the panel. 'If anyone is to pull this trigger, it will be me.' The battle-captain gripped the side of the pul­pit and then stabbed at an activation rune.

'Firing/ reported one of the toneless servitors.

On the Eisenstein's dorsal hull, a cluster of high-energy laser cannons swivelled and shifted in unison, tracking to face the Thunderhawk and the Ravens. The guns discharged silently through the void, for a single instant filling the dark with a storm of flickering energy. Spears of collimated, coherent light reached out and found their target, tearing through armoured hull metal, ceramite and plastic. Fusion cores detonated in a flashing cas­cade, a thick cloud of radioactive debris riding out

in a perfect sphere behind a wall of electromagnetic radiation.

Sender's eyes narrowed as light flared in through the bridge's viewing slits and the hololith bloomed with a sudden globe of crackling, impenetrable static. The Astartes looked to Garro as his captain stepped down from Vought's console and limped back to Maas's sta­tion at the vox hide. 'He killed him.' Tollen's voice was barely audible. 'Blood's oath, he killed Tarvitz.'

Decius eyed him, conflict visible on his face. 'Those were the orders.'

'Those were Eidolon's orders!' Sendek snapped, his usual calm disintegrating. 'You see that eagle carved upon the captain's vambrace? Tarvitz has one just like it, Hakur told me of it! Garro and Tarvitz are honour brothers! He wouldn't just murder him in cold blood!'

'But if Tarvitz had turned…'

The battle-captain gave the communications officer Maas a hard shove and pushed him out of the vox hide. Garro bent to allow his armoured form into the alcove and yanked the sound curtain across the entrance with a savage swipe of his hand, cutting himself off from the bridge.

Sendek heard Vought's question to Carya. What is he doing in there?'

'Reporting back to Eidolon,' suggested the shipmas­ter.

The Astartes leaned down, almost with his face in the edges of the hololith cube. Flickering storms of energy and colour made it impossible to read. The power of the explosion out there reflecting off the planet's upper atmosphere would fog the ship's sen­sors for several minutes.

Tollen,' began Decius, 'whatever bond the battle-captain had with Tarvitz, that cannot rise above the duty of the service. Eidolon is a lord commander. He outranks Garro.'

'No.' Sendek shook his head, working the controls on the hololifh's projector podium, spooling back the time index record. 'I refuse to accept he would do such a thing. You know him as well as I do, Solun. "Straight-Arrow Garro", the men call him. He is an archetype for the nobility of the Legiones Astartes! Can you ever imag­ine our commander agreeing to slay a battle-brother on the whim of one of the Emperor's Children?'