Ben Counter - Galaxy in Flames

then the Warmaster will win and there won't even be the memory of this betrayal,’

Aruken shook his head in frustration. 'Cassar, if I could just make you see-'

'You're trying to tell me you haven't seen anything to believe in?' asked Cassar, turning away in disapВ­pointment. He looked through the scorched panes of the viewing bay at the assembling Death Guard.

Titus, I haven't believed in anything for a long time,’ said Aruken. 'For that I'm truly sorry, and I'm sorry for this too,’

Cassar turned to see that Jonah Aruken had drawn his pistol and had it aimed squarely at his chest.

'Jonah?' said Cassar. You would betray me? After all we have seen?'

There's only one thing I want, Titus, and that's command of my own Titan. One day I want to be Princeps Aruken and that's not going to happen if I let you do this,’

Cassar said, To know that this whole galaxy is starved of belief and to think that you might be the only one who believes… and yet to still believe in spite of all that. That is faith, Aruken. I wish that you could understand that,’

'It's too late for that, Titus,’ said Aruken. 'I'm sorry,’

Aruken's gun barked three times, filling the bridge with bursts of light and noise.

* 6B Р¤

Tarvitz could see the battle from the shadow of an entrance arch leading into the Precentor's Palace. He had escaped the cyclone of carnage that Angron had slaughtered into life, to link up with his own warriors in the palace, but the sight of the World Eater's primarch was still a vivid red horror in his

mind.

Tarvitz glanced back into the palace, its vaulted hallways strewn with the bodies of the dead palace guard darkening as late afternoon turned the shadВ­ows long and dim. Soon it would be night.

'Lucius,' voxed Tarvitz, static howling. 'Lucius, come in.' 'Saul, what do you see?'

'Gunships and drop-pods too, our colours, land­ing just north of here.' 'Has the primarch blessed us with his presence?' 'Looks like Eidolon,’ said Tarvitz with relish. The vox was heavy with static and he knew that the War-master's forces would be attempting to jam their vox-channels without blocking their own.

'Listen, Lucius, Angron is going to break through here. The loyal World Eaters down there won't be able to hold him. He's going to head for the palace,’

'Then there will be a battle,’ deadpanned Lucius. 'I hope Angron makes it a good fight. I think I might have found a decent fencing opponent at

last,’

'You're welcome to him. We need to make this stand count. Start barricading the central dome.

We'll move to fortifying the main domes and junc­tions if Angron gives us that long,’

'Since when did you become the leader here?' asked Lucius petulantly. 'I was the one who killed Vardus Praal,’

Tarvitz felt his anger rise at his friend's childish­ness at such a volatile time, but bit back his anger to say, 'Get in there and help man the barricades. We don't have long before we'll be in the thick of it,’

The Thunderhawk sped away from the Vengeful Spirit, gathering speed as Qruze kicked in the afterВ­burners. Mersadie felt unutterably light-headed to be off the Warmaster's ship at last, but the cold realВ­isation that they had nowhere to go sobered her as she saw glinting specks of the fleet all around them.

'Now what?' asked Qruze. We're away, but where to next?'

'I told you we were not without friends, did I not, Iacton?' said Euphrati, sitting in the co-pilot's chair beside the Astartes warrior.

The warrior gave her a brief sideways look. 'Be that as it may, remembrancer. Friends do us little good if we die out here,’

'But what a death it would be,’ said Keeler, with the trace of a ghostly smile.

Sindermann shared a worried glance with her, no doubt wondering if they had overreached themВ­selves in trusting that Euphrati could deliver them to safety out in the dark of space. The old man looked tiny and feeble and she took his hand in hers.

Through the viewshield, Mersadie could see a field of glittering lights: starships belonging to the Sixty-Third Expedition, and every one of them hosВ­tile.

As if to contradict her, Euphrati pointed upwards through the viewshield towards the belly of an ugly vessel they would pass beneath if they continued on their current course. The weak sun of Isstvan glinted from its unpainted gunmetal hull.

'Head towards that one,’ commanded Euphrati and Mersadie was surprised to see Qruze turn the controls without a word of protest.

Mersadie didn't know a great deal about spaceВ­craft but she knew that the cruiser would be bristling with turrets that could pick off the Thun-derhawk as it shot past, and could maybe even deploy fighters.

У \ Плу are we getting closer?' she asked hurriedly. 'Surely we want to head away?'

Trust me, Sadie,’ said Euphrati. This is the way it

has to be,’

At least it will be quick, she thought, as the vessel grew larger in the viewshield.

'It's Death Guard,’ said Qruze,

Mersadie bit her lip and glanced at Sindermann.

The old man looked calm and said, 'Quite the adventure, eh?'

Mersadie smiled in spite of herself.

What are we going to do, Kyril?' asked Mersadie, tears springing from her eyes. 'What do we have left to us?'

'This is still our fight, Mersadie,’ said Euphrati, turning from the viewshield. 'Sometimes that fight must be open warfare, sometimes it must be fought with words and ideas. We all have our parts to play,’

Mersadie let out a breath, unable and unwilling to believe that there were allies in the cruiser loom­ing in front of them. 'We are not alone,’ smiled Euphrati. 'But this fight… it feels a lot bigger than me,’ You are wrong. Each of us has as much right to have their say in the fate of the galaxy as the War-master. Believing that is how we will defeat him,’

Mersadie nodded and watched the cruiser above them drawing ever nearer, its long, dark shape edged in starlight and its engines wreathed in clouds of crystalline gasses.

Thunderhawk gunship, identify yourself,’ said a gruff, gravel-laden voice crackling from the vox-caster.

'Be truthful,’ warned Euphrati. 'All depends on it,’

Qruze nodded and said, 'My name is Iacton Qruze, formerly of the Sons of Horus,’

'Formerly?' came the reply.

Yes, formerly,’ said Qruze.

'Explain yourself,’

'I am no longer part of the Legion,’ said Qruze, and Mersadie could hear the pain it caused him to give voice to these words. 'I can no longer be party to what the Warmaster is doing,’

After a long pause, the voice returned. 'Then you are welcome on my ship, Iacton Qruze.' 'And who are you?' asked Qruze. 'I am Captain Nathaniel Garro of the Eisenstein.'

PART THREE

BROTHERS

FOURTEEN

Until it's over

Charmoisan

Betrayal

'I've lost count of the days,’ said Loken, crouching by one of the makeshift battlements that looked over the smouldering ruins of the Choral City.

'I don't think Isstvan III has days and nights any more,’ replied Saul Tarvitz.

Loken looked into the steel grey sky, a mantle of cloud kicked up by the catastrophic climate change forced on Isstvan III by the sudden extinction of almost all life on its surface. A thin drizzle of ash rained, the remains of the firestorm swept up by dry, dead winds a continent away.

'They're massing for another attack,’ said Tarvitz, indicating the tangle of twisted, ash-wreathed rub­ble that had once been a vast mass of tenement blocks to the east of the palace.