Ben Counter - Galaxy in Flames

'I think you underestimate me, lord commander,’ said Tarvitz, 'but understand that for the sake of my men I must know-'

'For the sake of our men we all make sacrifices,’ snapped Eidolon. 'For the chosen, those sacrifices are great. Foremost among these is that fact that everything is secondary to victory,’

'Commander, I don't understand,’

'You will,’ said Eidolon, leading him through a gilded archway and into the central apothecarion.

'The book?' asked Torgaddon.

The book,’ repeated Loken. 'It's the key. Erebus is on the ship, I know it,’

The ashen darkness of Archive Chamber Three was one of the few places left on the Vengeful Spirit where Loken felt at home, remembering many a lively debate with Kyril Sindermann in simpler times. Loken had not seen the iterator for weeks and he fervently hoped that the old man was safe, that he had not fallen foul of Maloghurst or his faceless soldiers.

'Abaddon and the others must be keeping him safe,’ said Torgaddon.

Loken sighed. 'How did it come to this? I would have given my life for Abaddon, Aximand, too, and I know they would have done the same for me,’

'We can't give up on this, Garviel. There will be a way out of this. We can bring the Moumival back together, or at least make sure the Warmaster sees what Erebus is doing,’

Whatever that is,’

Yes, whatever that is. Guest of the lodge or not, he's not welcome on my ship. He's the key. If we find him, we can expose what's going on to the Warmaster and end this,’

'You really believe that?'

'I don't know, but that won't stop me trying,’

Torgaddon looked around him, stirring the ashes of the charred books on the shelves with a finger and said, Why did you have to meet me here? It smells like a funeral pyre,’

'Because no one ever comes here,’ said Loken.

'I can't imagine why, seeing as how pleasant it is,’

'Don't be flippant, Tarik, not now. The Great Cru­sade was once about bringing illumination to the far corners of the galaxy, but now it is afraid of knowledge. The more we learn, the more we ques­tion and the more we question the more we see through the lies perpetrated upon us. To those who want to control us, books are dangerous,’

'Iterator Loken,’ laughed Torgaddon, 'you've enlightened me,’

'I had a good teacher,’ said Loken, again thinking of Kyril Sindermann, and the fact that everything he

had been taught to believe was being shaken to its core. 'And there's more at stake here than a split between Astartes. It's… It's philosophy, ideology, religion even… everything. Kyril taught me that this kind of blind obedience is what led to the Age of Strife. We've crossed the galaxy to bring peace and illumination, but the cause of our downfall could be right here amongst us.'

Torgaddon leaned over and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. 'Listen, we're about to go into battle on Isstvan III and the word from the Death Guard is that the enemy is led by some kind of psy­chic monsters that can kill with a scream. They're not the enemy because they read the wrong books or anything like that; they're the enemy because the Warmaster tells us they are. Forget about all this for a while. Go and fight. That'll put some perspective on things,’

'Do you even know if we'll be headed down there?'

'The Warmaster's picked the squads for the speartip. We're in it, and it looks as if we'll be in charge, too.'

'Really? After all that's happened?

'I know, but I won't look a gift horse in the mouth,’

At least I'll have the Tenth with me,’

Torgaddon shook his head. 'Not quite. The War-master hasn't chosen the speartip by company. It's squad by squad,’

'Why?'

'Because he thinks that confused look on your face is funny,’

'Please. Be serious, Tarik,’

Torgaddon shrugged. The Warmaster knows what he's doing. It won't be an easy battle. We'll be drop­ping right on top of the city,’

What about Locasta?'

'You'll have them. I don't think you could have held Vipus back anyway. You know what he's like, he'd have stowed away on a drop-pod if he'd been left out. He's like you, he needs to clear his head with a good dose of fighting. After Isstvan things will get back to normal,’

'Good. I'll feel a lot better with Locasta backing us up,’

'Well, it's true that you need the help,’ smiled Tor­gaddon.

Loken chuckled, not because Torgaddon was actually funny, but because even after everything he was still the same, a person that he could trust and a friend he could rely on.

You're right, Tarik,’ said Loken. 'After Isstvan everything will be different,’

The central apothecarion gleamed with glass and steel, dozens of medical cells branching off from the circular hub of the main laboratory. Tarvitz felt a chill travel the length of his spine as he saw Captain Odovocar's ruined body susВ­pended in a stasis tank, waiting for its gene-seed to be harvested.

Eidolon marched through the hub and down a tiled corridor that led into a gilded vestibule domiВ­nated by a huge mosaic depicting Fulgrim's victory at Tarsus, where the primarch had vanquished the deceitful eldar despite his many grievous wounds. Eidolon reached up and pressed one of the enamВ­elled chips that formed Fulgrim's belt, standing back as the mosaic arced upwards, revealing a glowВ­ing passageway and winding spiral staircase beyond. Eidolon strode down the passageway, indiВ­cating that Tarvitz should follow him.

The lack of ornamentation was a contrast to the rest of the Andronius and Tarvitz saw a cold blue glow emanating from whatever lay below as he made his way down the stairs. As they reached the end of their descent, Eidolon turned to him and said, This, Captain Tarvitz, is your answer.'

The blue light shone from a dozen ceiling-high translucent cylinders that stood against the sides of the room. Each was filled with liquid with indis­tinct shapes suspended in them – some roughly humanoid, some more like collections of organs or body parts. The rest of the room was taken up by gleaming laboratory benches covered in equip­ment, some with purposes he couldn't even begin to guess at.

He moved from tank to tank, repulsed as he saw that some were full of monstrously bloated flesh that was barely contained by the glass.

"What is this?' asked Tarvitz in horror at such grotesque sights.

'I fear my explanations would be insufficient,' said Eidolon, walking towards an archway leading into the next room. Tarvitz followed him, peering more closely at the cylinders as he passed. One conВ­tained an Astartes-sized body, but not a corpse, more like something that had never been born, its features sunken and half-formed.

Another cylinder contained only a head, but one which had large, multi-faceted eyes like an insect. As he looked closer, Tarvitz realised with sick horВ­ror mat the eyes had not been grafted on, for he saw no scars and the skull had reshaped itself to accomВ­modate them. They had been grown there. He moved on to the last cylinder, seeing a mass of brains linked by fleshy cables held in liquid susВ­pension, each one with extra lobes bulging like tumours.

Tarvitz felt a profound chill coming from the next room, its walls lined with refrigerated metal cabiВ­nets. He briefly wondered what was in them, but decided he didn't want to know as his imagination conjured all manner of deformities and mutations. A single operating slab filled the centre of the room, easily large enough for an Astartes warrior to be restrained upon, with a chirargeon device mounted on the ceiling above.

Neatly cut sections of muscle fibre were spread across the slab. Apothecary Fabius bent over them, the hissing probes and needles of his narthecium embedded in a dark mass of glistening meat.