Chapter 10: Chapter 10

“What happened, brother?”

Magnus turned to Sanguinius at his question, the shock still lingering in his features. With his own prodigious psychic talents, the Crimson King had glimpsed into the petty exchange between rulers at a level beyond the mundane. Where his brothers only felt the physical effects of Sev’s show of power, Magnus saw much, much worse.

“It…it was a display of strength,” the red-skinned primarch managed.

Russ snorted derisively as he stalked back and forth within the Stormbird’s bay. The Vlka Fenryka honor guard around him stood pensively, like hounds sensing a threat. “I wouldn’t have known. Tell us something new.”

A moment of irritation descended, but Magnus easily shook it off to level a severe gaze on his brothers. “That was more than just a psychic outburst. It was something far more foreign...something that could shape the Great Ocean.”

“Is that not how a psyker operates?” Horus asked with a furrowed brow.

The Red Cyclops shook his head. “No. Everyone of us is immersed in the Great Ocean, and those gifted enough are able to draw from it, to mold and shape the energy around them into a tangible form. Or dive into its darkest depths to glean hints of the past, present and future.”

The Wolf King’s snarl was louder this time. “I’ll say it again: tell us something new, Magnus.”

Magnus patiently waited for his Wolf King brother to finish muttering his insults and curses before he continued. “Where me, or even our Father wills maelstroms within the Great Ocean, Sev made the ocean floor rise up, to contain and force the Empyrean into channels. He created islands to shape lakes and ponds out of the Great Ocean.”

And in that disastrous meeting, the shapes slowly took the form of Gothic text, glowing brightly with the non-color of the Immaterium amidst a background of pure nothingness that circled around him like a holo-reel.

Not even the strongest psychic Nulls or psychic-canceling artifact came anywhere close to that emptiness.

Credit to Russ, the primarch of the Space Wolves stopped his pacing and looked disgusted at the described feat.

More troubling was what Magnus read from the glowing text. The words scrolled around Sev tauntingly.

“I know of the Golden Throne. I know of the price to be paid. Does he?”

It was a question that riled his curiosity, but the primarch would have to leave such questions for a better time, when his Father or the Sigillite were far more amenable to them. Or when he had the time to scour the Imperial archives.

Magnus also picked up the telepathic exchange between his Father and the Sigillite that lasted until they left the Nexus’ station, though he could not decipher what was said. That did not mean he couldn’t sense the Emperor’s wariness, or His psychic probing at the impossible phenomena.

And the Emperor - and likely Malcador as well - had probably assumed that Sev’s manipulation of the boundaries of the Great Ocean was limited. Which would explain the impending Exterminatus against the Nexus Unity, a directive against the world for harboring the means of upending the multidimensional natural order.

Magnus could find no other reason for this attack otherwise.

He also could not fault the logic. He too glimpsed at the minute imperfections in Sev’s containment of the Empyrean. His mastery of the eldritch ability was surely limited. As antagonistic as the man was, the primarch didn’t think him to be one to pull off such an audacious double-bluff. And as lethal as the Nexus were, surely they couldn’t hope to stave off the combined might of this assembled Imperial fleet?

The primarch of the Thousand Sons could understand his Father’s caution against the Nexus, yet he also felt that His desire to expunge yet another threat to the Imperium might see a loss of important, critical knowledge that would help further humanity’s ascension. Yet, he knew what the reply would be if he broached the subject, that there was such a thing as forbidden knowledge, as evidenced in Old Night.

And now was not the best of times to pursue such a topic, not when the Emperor’s wrath was thick in the Immaterium, a blinding beacon that stilled the Great Ocean around Him and burned away any unwary void beast that got too close. Even in a different Stormbird, Magnus could feel his Father’s cold displeasure.

It was perhaps somewhat comparable to Angron’s obvious anger. The restored primarch of the World Eaters was far from his old, bloodthirsty self, but the simmering rage was clear to everyone around him. He stood still, muttering to himself, probably trying to fathom the barbed words Sev had sent at the Emperor.

Admittedly, Magnus did not understand it either. Did the ruler of the Nexus truly find the Imperium’s presence and trespassing to be that detestable? Yet he had allowed for Horus and Angron to leave in peace.

Was it the presence of the Emperor then?

That notion sounded…

“This….this is a mistake,” Horus remarked, breaking Magnus out of his thoughts. “Sev might have been…less than a courteous host, but he said it himself: the Nexus was ready to stay out of the Imperium’s affairs.”

Dorn gave the slightest of nods at Magnus. “From what Magnus has seen, Father must have perceived something we did not.” He paused for the briefest of moments. “Though admittedly, this Exterminatus would heavily depleted our forces.”

“Our legions join the attack,” Sanguinius added with a dark frown marring his features. “I fear for our losses.”

“We have to trust in the Emperor,” Russ declared. “We are his sons, we are his commanders. Sev has recklessly declared himself an enemy of our Father, and by extension the Imperium.”

“And we will blindly follow Him?” Angron growled, finally joining in the discussion. “You’ve all heard it yourselves, how Sev addressed our Father. How he hinted about threats that the Emperor of Mankind knew, but we his sons were oblivious to.”

The primarchs and their honor guards shifted uncomfortably at Angron’s raging words. It was Leman Russ that managed a stiff reply. “The Emperor has his reasons for secrecy. There are threats that should not be made public, for many reasons. Surely even you know this.”

“Yet we are his commanders. We are his sons! Does he trust us so little? Does he worry we go down the path of our two-”

Sanguinius was the one to quickly cut in. “Please, brother. I know you are indebted to Sev for his aid, but our Father acts for the good of the Imperium. Even if his actions are beyond our understanding, I ask you to trust in him.”

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Did Sanguinius truly believe that, Magnus wondered?

The Angel’s placating gaze met the Red Angel’s enraged glare, but eventually the latter turned away sharply to leave the group, his fists clenched so tightly that it left a trail of blood.

Magnus was quietly impressed; The Angron of old would’ve likely broken something…or someone in a fit of rage.

“So we go to our posts, and assume our duties,” Horus said with some grimness.

“Aye, we will…” Magnus blinked in surprise, not expecting the sorrow in Russ’ voice. “We’ll have to be quick once we return to the Bucephelus. Who knows what orders were given during our absence.”

“I wish we could have done more to prevent this,” Sanguinius sighed.

Magnus kept silent, not daring to voice his doubt that anything could’ve changed this conflict. Not with the Emperor being present in the system, he was sure of it.

*****

Watching the meeting go south was highly entertaining to Piper. It was how she wished they could’ve dealt with the blood-bloated ‘gods’ that terrorized western South America. But back then, Sev wasn’t a god, and they had to rely on long-range Tiberium bombing. Now though, seeing the oversized golden thing get rebuffed, it made up for the discomfort Piper felt from her defenses working overtime against the so-called Emperor’s overbearing psychic presence.

Thanks to the wardings, Piper got to see a tired, stern man trying to look down on Sev, and she saw the psychic tendrils questing out to either infiltrate or probe her man’s defenses. The older, more normal looking man beside the gold giant was more subtle, but the faint, delicate wisps of his power were just as ineffective.

Sev had built up his defenses, built up his Nexus’ defenses up to withstand the brush of colors from out of space. This Emperor was nothing compared to that.

Piper didn’t feel the slightest of urges to puke or claw her eyes out after all.

Sev’s burst of altered divinity soothed her eldritch defenses while it lasted, and the grim concern on the Emperor and his advisor was good to see. It’d be nicer if they were a bit more expressive, but Piper could settle for their wary glares.

She wondered how Sev saw the gilded psychic being, what deeper details that her lover would’ve deciphered from the meeting. He wasn’t grumbling, so there probably weren't too many new metanatural properties to decipher.

“So their fleet’s powering up?” Sev checked once they got back to Tupile’s command center.

Eva chimed in helpfully as ever. “Energy readings are clear, their reactors are warming up.”

“We’ll be getting a fight then?” Cait asked eagerly, to which Sev just shrugged.

“I mean…that’s what we were aiming for, so hopefully, yeah. How’s our preparations going?”

Sarah Lyons gave a curt nod. “All mortal elements are ready to deploy on your orders, Sev.”

Legion’s deep voice spoke up right after Sarah. “All spaceborne vessels and robotic forces are awaiting orders.” Eva and Cabal’s younger brother paused for just the briefest moment before going on. “Planetary defenses are also at optimal readiness. Teleport network redundancies are fully operational.”

Sev gave a satisfied nod. “Good. For our sakes, let’s hope the Imperium does the wrong thing and come for us.”

Piper joined the chorus of eager nods and cheers. Maybe after this, the Imperium would finally get the hint and leave for good.

*****

Archmagos Simulos perceived the fleet coming to life through the raw data cloud wreathing every ship. The cogitators on each vessel were flares of code bursts that bloomed and faded as engines and weapons were awoken. Streams of bright data carried communications through the local and fleetwide vox. Here and there motes radiated and pulsed, his brothers and sisters chanting their litanies and undergoing rituals.

Data bursts marked the orders of Nova Cannons to be loaded with macro-plasma, grav and vortex shells. Binaric hymns streamed as the ships’ Machine Spirits were roused to zealous fury. Starfighter and bomber squadrons blinked to life like swarms of Terran lightning bugs. Out in the void, the pinpricks of the Omnissiah’s delegation were fast returning to join the bright, ordered chaos.

It was a beautiful, vibrant sight, and the heavily augmented archmagos basked in the light of visualized code and data as the combined fleet roared to fulfill its holy purpose.

The Omnissiah had rightly decreed that the heathenous Nexus Unity be purged. Such was the only fate deserved by those who cavorted with Abominable Intelligences. Omnissiah willing, their tainted technology could be picked apart and consecrated, and be converted into compliance with the Cult Mechanicus’ doctrine.

That being said, Archmagos Simulos’ computation did not find any issue if nothing was left of the Nexus Unity.

He had heard of the desecration of his brethren. The hard-earned purity and enlightenment Val Breya sought to achieve was torn away. The monsters had stolen the Omnissiah’s blessings from him and the rest of the Mechanicum contingent, and in mockery made them whole as weak, fallible flesh.

Meditating in his chambers, hooked to the fleet network by thick cables biting into his mechanical spine, Simulos allowed himself a pang of deep and ugly emotion on his brothers’ and sisters’ behalf as he felt the weapons of the Omnissiah’s fleet come alive. Archmagos Simulos sent out orders of his own. The Mechanicum would spare nothing in the extermination of the enemy. While cohorts of the Legio Cybernetica and the Ordo Reductor were raised to optimum readiness, other magi who were idle were tasked to decipher and counter the Nexus’ blasphemous technology, and whole swathes of computation servitor banks aboard the Mechanicum ships were assigned to them. They had little time until the chaos of battle, which meant every millisecond of processing was precious.

The Nexus Monstrosity might have great unholy power, but the righteous would win out in the end, even if the cost is great. These heathens would rue their desecration as the wrath of the divine fully descended upon them.

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