Ben Counter - Galaxy in Flames

Where lay one last chance of a victory on Isstvan III.

The sounds of battle echoed from all around him and Tarvitz hugged the shadows as he made his careful way through the ruins of the east wing of the palace. Squads of Emperor's Children swarmed through the palace grounds, sweeping through the shattered domes and gunfire riddled rooms as they plunged the knife of their attack into the heart of the defences.

Here and there he saw squad markings he recogВ­nised and had to fight the ingrained urge to call out to them. But these warriors were the enemy and there would be no brotherly embrace or comradely welcome were they to discover him.

The very obsessiveness of their attack was workВ­ing in Tarvitz's favour as these warriors possessed the same single mindedness as Eidolon, fixated on the prize of the palace rather than proper battlefield awareness. For once, Eidolon's flaws were working in his favour, thought Tarvitz, as he ghosted through the strobe lit wasteland of the palace.

'You're going to need to tighten up discipline, Eidolon,’ he whispered, 'or someone's going to make you pay'

The eastern sectors he had assigned Lucius and his men to watch over were bombed out ruins, the frescoes burned from the walls by the firestorm,

and the mighty statue gardens pulverised by conВ­stant shelling and the battles that had raged furiously over the past months. To have held out this long was a miracle in itself and Tarvitz was not blind enough to try and fool himself into thinking that it could last much longer.

He saw dozens of bodies and checked every one for a sign that the swordsman had fallen. Each body was a warrior he knew, a warrior who had folВ­lowed him into battle at the palace and trusted that he could lead them to victory. Each set of eyes accused him of their death, but he knew that there was nothing more he could have done.

The further eastward he went the less he encounВ­tered the invading Emperor's Children, their attack pushing into the centre of the Precentor's Palace rather than spreading out to capture its entirety.

Trust Eidolon to go for the glory rather than stanВ­dard battlefield practice.

Give me a hundred Space Marines and I would punВ­ish your arrogance, thought Tarvitz.

Even as the thought occurred to him, a slow smile spread across his face. He had a hundred Space Marines. True, they were engaged in batde, but if any force of warriors could disengage from battle in good order and hand over to a friendly force in the middle of a desperate firefight, it was the Emperor's Children.

He crouched in the shadow of a fallen statue and opened a vox-channel. 'Solathen,’ he hissed. 'Can you hear me?'

Static washed from the vox bead in his ear and he

cursed at the idea of his plan being undone by

something as trivial as a failure of communications.

'I hear you, captain, but we're a little busy right

now!' said Solathen's voice.

'Understood,’ said Tarvitz, 'but I have new orders for you. Disengage from the fight and hand over to the Luna Wolves. Let them take the brunt of the fighting and gather as many warriors as you can rally to you. Then converge on my position,’ 'Sir?'

Take the eastern passages along the servants' wing. That should bring you to me without too much trouble. We have an opportunity to hurt these bastards, Solathen, so I need you to get here with all possible speed!' 'Understood, sir,’ said Solathen, signing off. Tarvitz froze as he heard a voice say, 'It won't do any good, Saul. The Precentor's Palace is as good as lost. Even you should be able to see that,’

He looked up and saw Lucius standing in the cen-tte of the dome in front of him, his shimmering sword in one hand and a shard of broken glass in the other. He raised the glass to his face and sliced its razor edge along his cheek, drawing a line of blood from his skin that dripped to the dome's floor.

'Lucius,’ said Tarvitz, rising to his feet and enter­ing the dome to meet the swordsman. 'I thought you were dead,’

Bright starlight filled the dome and Tarvitz saw it was filled with the corpses of Emperor's Children.

Not traitors, but loyalists and he could see that not one had fallen to a gunshot wound, but had been carved up by a powerful edged weapon. These warВ­riors had been cut apart, and a horrible suspicion began to form in his mind.

'Dead?' laughed Lucius. 'Mel Remember what Loken said to me when I humbled him in the pracВ­tice cages?'

Wary now, Tarvitz nodded. 'He said there was someone out there who could beat you,’

'And do you remember what I told him?'

'Yes,’ replied Tarvitz, sliding his hand to the hilt of his broadsword. 'You said, "Not in this lifetime," didn't you?'

'You have a good memory,’ said Lucius, dropping the bloody shard of glass to the floor.

'Who's that latest scar for?' asked Tarvitz.

Lucius smiled, though there was no warmth to it.

'It's for you, Saul,’

The great forum of the Mackaran Basilica was a desert of ashen bone, for as the virus bombs had dropped, thousands of Isstvanians had gathered there in the hope that the parliament house at one end of the forum would receive them. They had thronged the place and died there, their scorched remains resembling an ancient swamp from which rose the columns that bounded the forum on three sides. On the fourth was the parliament house itself, befouled by black tendrils of ash that reached up from the forum.

The building had been the seat of the Choral City's civilian parliament, a counterpart to the nobles who had ruled from the Precentor's Palace, but the promiВ­nent citizens who had taken shelter inside had died as surely as the horde of civilians outside.

Loken pushed through the sea of black bones, his sword ready in his hand as he forged through the thicket of bone. A skull grinned up at him, its burned and empty eye sockets accusing. Behind him, Torgaddon covered the forum beyond them.

'Wait,’ said Loken quietly.

Torgaddon halted and looked round. 'Is it them?'

'I don't know, maybe,’ said Loken, looking up at the parliament house. Beyond it he could just see the lines of a spacecraft, a stormbird in Sons of Horus colours. 'Someone landed here, that's for sure,’

They continued onwards to the edge of the parВ­liament building, climbing the smooth marble steps. Its great doors had been thick studded oak, but they had been eaten away by the virus and burned to ash by the firestorm.

'Shall we?' asked Torgaddon.

Loken nodded, suddenly wishing that they had not come here, as a terrible feeling of doom settled on him. He looked at Torgaddon and wished he had some fitting words to say to him before they took these last, fateful steps.

Torgaddon seemed to understand what he was thinking and said, 'Yes. I know, but what choice do we have?'

'None,’ said Loken, marching through the arch­way and into the parliament house.

The interior of the building had been protected from the worst of the virus bombing and firestorm, only a few tangled blackened corpses lying sprawled among the dark wood panels and furВ­nishings. The walls of the circular building were adorned with faded frescoes of the Choral City's magnificent past, telling the tales of its growth and conquests.

The benches and voting-tables of the parliament were arranged around a central stage with a lectern from which the debates were led.

On the stage, in front of the lectern, stood Ezekyle Abaddon and Horus Aximand.

'You betrayed us,' said Tarvitz, the hurt and disapВ­pointment almost too much to bear. You killed your own men and let Eidolon and his warriors into the palace. Didn't you?'

'I did,’ said Lucius, swinging his sword in loops around his body as he loosened his muscles in preparation for the fight Tarvitz knew must come next. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat,’