James Swallow - The Flight of the Eisenstein

The veteran snorted. 'Only because Dorn's men think we are no threat to them. Look there, sir.' He nodded at the warriors at the far end of the compart­ment. They pretend to be at ease but they are too stiff to carry it off. I see the patterns of their movements through the ship. They walk as if they are on guard duty, and we are their charges'

'Perhaps so/ admitted Garro, 'but I believe it is more that Captain Halbrecht fears what we represent than who we are. I saw his face when Dorn revealed the truth of the Warmaster's deceit. He could not comprehend it.'

That may be, lord, but the tension grinds like blades upon me!' He looked around. 'It's an insult to us. They separated us, placed the Luna Wolf with Voyen and the boy Decius's capsule on another shutde, and I never saw what happened to the iterator and the women.'

Garro pointed at something through the viewport. 'We're all going to the same place, Andus. Look there.'

Outside, the sheer brass tower of the Somnus Citadel turned to meet the descending drop ship. As they came closer, Garro saw that the building was made from hundreds of gates, one atop the other, arrayed like the faceplates of the golden helmets of the Silent Sisters. The Stormbird fell into a spiralling turn, orbiting around the tower. A dome became vis­ible in the floor of the vast crater beyond, and slowly it opened, triangular segments drawing back to pre­sent a concealed landing field.

'We are on final approach to the citadel/ said Hal-brecht. 'Take your seats'

'What if I wish to stand?' replied Hakur, open defi­ance in his tone.

'Sergeant/ warned Garro, and waved him to his place.

'Are all your subordinates so obstreperous?' grum­bled the other captain.

'Of course/ said Garro, returning to his acceleration couch, 'we are Death Guard. It's our nature.'

The Stormbird's hatch yawned open and Garro strode out down the drop-ramp, catching Halbrecht unaware. Protocol meant that as it was an Imperial Fists ship, an Imperial Fist should have been first down the ramp, but Garro was finding less and less use for such pointless etiquette.

A cadre of Silent Sisters was waiting for them in a careful formation on the landing apron. Garro glanced around, up over the folding wings of the Stormbird to the open hatch far above. The soap-bubble shimmer of a porous aura field was visible, holding the atmosphere inside the chamber but allowing objects of high mass like the ships to pass through unencumbered. A second Stormbird was dropping in behind on jets of retro thrust, and out in the void a third ship was approaching, twinkling with indicator lights but too distant to see in any detail.

The Astartes came to a halt and bowed to the Sis­ters. 'Nathaniel Garro, Battle-Captain of the Death Guard. By order of the primarch Rogal Dorn, I am here.'

Halbrecht and his guards came down heavily after him, and Garro felt the annoyance radiating off them. He kept his eyes on the Sisters. Their squad markings

varied among the group and he searched for some that matched those of the Storm Dagger cadre.

Garro saw the same kinds of warriors as he had on the jorgalli world-ship, but with stylistic differences upon their armour in the same fashion as those of the various Legiones Astartes. One group wore armour detailed in wintry silver, the lower halves of their faces hidden behind spiked guards that resembled a barrier fence. Another woman, standing to the edge of the group, had no armour at all. Rather, she was clad in a thick, buckle-studded coat of blood-red leather, with matching gauntlets and a high collar ranged around her neck. The woman had no eyes. In their place were two augmetics, heavy lenses of ruby-coloured glass fixed to the skin of her brow and cheeks with hair-fine wires. She studied Garro with all the warmth of a chirurgeon observing a cancer beneath a microscope.

With an abrupt sensation, Garro felt a chill range deep through his bones. It was the same odd feeling he had encountered when he saw Sister Amendera in the Endurance's assembly chamber, the same peculiar absence of something indefinable, only now he felt surrounded by it, the disquiet pressing in on him from every side.

'Battle-Captain Garro, well met/ said a familiar voice. A slight figure in robes dropped back her hood and he recognised the novice girl he had spoken to before. And to you as well, Halbrecht of the Imperial Fists. The Silent Sisterhood welcomes you to the Som-nus Citadel. It saddens us that your arrival must come under such difficult circumstances/

Garro hesitated. He wasn't sure how much the Sis­ters knew of the Isstvan situation, or what Dorn and the Sigillite had communicated to them. He covered

with a salute. 'Sister, I thank you for granting us a haven while these matters are addressed.'

It was a lie, of course. Garro did not wish to be here and neither did his men, but the Sisterhood had proven themselves worthy of his respect and he saw no need to begin this meeting on an adversarial note. He had taken his fill of such behaviour with the Imperial Fists. 'Where is your mistress?'

The novice girl's neutral expression faltered for a moment and Garro saw her give the woman in the red coat a sideways glance. 'She will attend us momentarily'

The rest of Garro's men from the first Stormbird had fallen in behind him and under Hakur's com­mand, presented a parade ground formation. Halbrecht stood at Garro's shoulder and eyed him. 'Captain/ he said with formality, 'a word.'

'Yes?'

The Imperial Fist's eyes narrowed, but not in annoy­ance as Garro expected. Halbrecht showed what might have passed for compassion. 'I know what you must think of us. I can only begin to comprehend what you have experienced.' If it is true. Garro could almost hear the silent addendum. 'Do not think ill of my primarch. These orders he has given ar to preserve the security of the Imperium. If the price of that is a wound to your honour, then I hope you will see it is a small one to pay'

Garro met his gaze. 'My kinsmen have betrayed me. My master has turned traitor. My honour brothers are dead, and my Legion is on the path to corruption. My honour, Captain Halbrecht, is all I have left.' He turned away as the second Stormbird settled into place with jets of spent thruster gas.

The other transport opened along its flanks and servitors scurried out with the isolation capsule in

their grip. Voyen walked in lockstep with them. As Garro watched, a contingent of Silent Sisters, all of them armed with powerful inferno guns, formed a guard around the module as it was carried past them.

'Where are you taking him?' he asked.

'The Somnus Citadel has many functions, and our hospitallers are highly skilled,' said the novice. 'Per­haps they may have success where the medicae of the Astartes did not.'

'Decius is not a xenos corpse to be poked and dis­sected,' Garro replied tersely, his thoughts returning to the alien psyker-child. 'You will treat him with the respect a Death Guard is due!'

Sendek and Qruze approached, joining Hakur's for­mation with the last of the men. 'Be still, lad/ said the Luna Wolf. Your boy is not dead yet. Still he clings on to bloody life, even now. I've rarely seen a fighting spirit of the like.'

Garro grunted, his mood darkening. At last, the final vessel dropped down into the chamber and turned, landing struts extending from the spread wings and fuselage. He recognised the shuttle, the black and gold livery identical to the ship from the Aeria Gloris he had spied on the landing deck of the Endurance. The swan-like ship settled gently on the apron and fell silent. Garro knew instinctively who he would see aboard before the egress hatch opened. A ramp extruded from the ventral hull and a hand­ful of figures disembarked. Leading them was Amendera Kendel, her proud and noble bearing somewhat muted. She seemed distracted and wary. Two more of Kendel's Storm Dagger Witchseekers marshalled the other passengers from behind: Kyril Sindermann, Mersadie Oliton and at their head, Euphrati Keeler.