Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Magnus felt the tension in him tighten as the Imperial fleet and the Mekhane finally translated into the Sol system. Now came the battle of keeping the peace as an independent polity much smaller yet much stronger than the Imperium would sully glorious Terra and Mars with its presence.

 

The initial idea of passing it off as a diplomatic courtesy was thrown out for the simple fact that the surviving Mechanicum contingent would no doubt wail of their humiliation to Mars, and there were just too many mortal Navy crew who had been part of the catastrophic defeat to guarantee any kind of discretion. The primary objective now would be to control the spread of the disaster as best as he could for as long as he could. Enough for Malcador and his agents to carefully mold the facts to some advantage.

 

It did not settle well with him, but the Sigillite was unfortunately right. The incident with the Nexus had the potential to shatter the Imperium. Morale and belief in the Emperor’s cause was important, too important.

 

His brothers accepted the fact with varying degrees of reluctance or bitterness. They fought for humanity in the end, and too many worlds would be at risk from the enemies without and within if the hegemony splintered. Not to mention the many more worlds that still needed the Imperium’s aid for liberation from xenos predation and oppression.

 

So, even to Angron’s - and surprisingly, Dorn’s - very begrudging agreement, the primarchs had agreed to setting up a great curtain of half-truth. The Crimson King dearly hoped that his brother Horus, with help from Russ and Sanguinius, would be able to persuade the Mechanicum.

 

As for himself, Magnus would serve as a guide alongside Dorn for Sev’s ‘tour’ of Terra and Mars. The primarch of the Thousand Sons did not find any issue with the assignments. Better stoic Dorn than Russ who might likely end up antagonizing Sev.

 

Angron would be sent for a final round of examination on Terra, in the Emperor’s own advanced labs. 

 

A small, niggling thought in Magnus wondered if perhaps the Emperor was hoping to find some sort of flaw in his brother’s restoration, something that showed in no uncertain terms that Angron was compromised. Something to give Him a reason to have a third empty plinth outside the Imperial Palace.

 

Banishing the treacherous voices, the primarch returned to organizing his fleet, and finalizing the orders to be sent out to his entire legion. It would take enough time for the entire XVth to muster in Prospero, plenty enough for this whole visit by Sev to be done and over with.

 

Assuming nothing went wrong. If that hostilities somehow broke out, then the muster would probably be one to brace Prospero against the likely wrath of the Nexus.

 

The ships split off to Terra, Mars and the dockyards of Jupiter. The Photep and Imperial Fists’ Eternal Crusader ran parallel on either side of the Mekhane, as if protectively escorting the captured Ark Mechanicus to their destination. For its part, the Nexus ship was silently accommodating of the formation. The occasional sensor readings showed that the Mekhane gave out only enough power to fuel its engines, provide life support and maintain basic navigation capabilities. Sev seemed confident enough to have his vessel running at a bare minimum.

 

A secured channel was established with Sev, but surprisingly the man did not offer any questions throughout the realspace journey. Magnus had expected some sort of query about the fleet splitting up, or the vast dockyards of Jupiter as they passed by it, or even subtle digs into the system’s defenses. Sev seemed to care for none of that. The communications the primarchs did hold with him were of far less significance.

 

“So, what’s the itinerary like?”

 

“You will be guided through the archives of Terra first, and then Mars, as you requested,” Dorn answered without missing a beat. “A schedule has been prepared… How long do you estimate your stay to be?”

 

The holograph of Sev gave a light shrug. “A few weeks? No more than two months, I guess. I’ll have to speedrun my visit here a little, unfortunately… Or fortunately, in your case.”

 

Magnus could not help his curiosity. “Are there other matters to attend to?”

 

“Well, in the short time we became aware of the galactic scene, the Nexus got ‘visited’ by the Imperium, and then space elves. I think it’s better to assume that our shitty luck will continue and some other trespassers will pop up.” Sev folded his arms as a light frown appeared on his digital features. “Plus, I got tweaks and reforms to oversee, especially since your fleet slagged our Mars and ruined our expansion plans.”

 

Neither primarch had a reply to that, but Sev didn’t mind when Magnus shifted the topic onto other areas. They worked on the order of locations Sev would visit, optimizing it based on the Nexus’ ruler’s interest.

 

“History repositories first, I want to see how it compares to ours. If my system is a copy of yours, I want to figure out how or when it happened. Then it’s tech archives all the way through.”

 

By the time they reached Terra’s orbit, a narrow spacelane had been cleared for their arrival, and a cordon established around the sites Sev would visit. Scribes, administrators, even higher council members… As much as possible, contact with the Nexus’ ruler would be reduced to nil to allow Malcador easier control to sculpt the narrative on the ensuing leaks.

 

Horus was still half-placating, half-threatening the Mechanicum magi. Apparently he had to bring out the unaugmented Val Breya to provide convincing testimony to keep Kelbor-Hal and the other archmagi from doing anything regrettable. Even then, they still debated hotly over accepting a desecrating interloper to grace their holy world. According to Russ, it seemed like Sev’s arrival to Mars was as likely to result in disaster as it was to be a quiet affair.

 

Magnus could only hope for the best, as his attention was occupied in serving as a guide while his and Dorn’s sons ensured their privacy was maintained. Sev gave the Imperium’s architecture little mind as he set foot on an emptied spaceport with no fanfare. If anything, the man gave his surroundings a brief, disapproving frown.

 

“Far denser than I thought,” he had commented before murmuring under his breath.

 

Sev did seem to mind the primarchs and their honor guard escorting him to the Library Sanctus. While his brother Dorn dutifully kept an alert eye of their surroundings, Magnus kept his psychic senses open. They finally made their way to the massive doors of the repository of the darkest records of the known galaxy. 

 

As agreed, once Sev entered the restricted archives, he was granted full access, which also had the side effect of exposing the primarchs to said knowledge. As a primarch, Magnus himself was restricted to areas of the massive repository. There was forbidden knowledge here, quarantined out of necessity. But now that Sev was allowed unrestricted access…

 

Magnus’ innate curiosity crept up, and the Crimson King found himself following after the not-so-mortal ruler of the Nexus with a tinge of eagerness. 

 

“So, is the place sorted by chronology or some other order?” Sev asked.

 

With the keepers evacuated, Magnus had to recall the layout of the vaults within the archive. “It is organized by subjects, though vault D-91 houses various general histories of the time before the Unification.”

 

“D-91 it is then.”

 

Unfortunately for Magnus, Sev did not peruse the information conventionally. Instead, he simply brushed his hands against ancient tomes and dusty data slates before moving on. “Since we’re short on time, I’ll have to peruse the stuff later,” Sev had vaguely explained. “I’ll just copy the stuff now.” 

 

Dorn had actually paused to frown at Magnus then, and the brothers shared their puzzlement. How could mere contact allow the man to copy down information he had not read nor watched at all? There had been no use of the Empyrean, no sign of artifice on Sev. Ignoring their confusion, Sev continued through the vaults, simply tapping or brushing his hands against every document and artifact that was supposed to be of his interest.

 

They cleared the massive archive in just two days. Then the still puzzled primarchs had led Sev to other smaller repositories. It only took four days of traveling across the world to get those done. 

You are reading story Console Heresy (Uncommon Wealth/30k spinoff) at novel35.com

 

Sev’s tour of Terra ended with a visit into the heart of the Imperial Palace. Unlike before, the premise was not fully evacuated. The Custodian Guard did not take orders from even the primarchs, after all. Instead, the auramite-clad bodyguards of the Emperor simply stood unmoving as Sev walked past them, unthreatened and unworried by their silent menace. 

 

He showed no signs of awe or reverence that mortals and even posthumans felt at the sight of the feats of construction within the Imperium’s seat of power. The Lion’s Gate gave the ruler of the Nexus no more pause than the sight of Terra’s skies.

 

Under the glares of the Custodes patrolling and guarding the Imperial Palace, Sev gave the not-so-insignificant vaults within the Palace the same cursory look as he did before, and then left without so much of a care about the remaining mysteries of the grand megastructure. Ignoring offers for an expanded tour,  Sev was done with Terra in little over a week.

 

Unfortunately, Mars was not ready to receive him even by then.

 

Magnus felt a spike of concern and irritation as Sanguinius relayed the news. Led by Kelbor-Hal, the majority of the Mechanicum remained fervent in their refusal to have so much as Sev’s feet touching their sacred forge world. Despite Horus’ attempts, the tech-priests would rather face extinction than what they saw as a great desecration. The forge cities mustered their personal cohorts, while the Knight Houses and Titan Legions roused to battle. Mars would stand bitterly against the Nexus’ encroachment.

 

“He is only one heretic,” Sanguinius quoted to Magnus and Dorn. “The tech-priests are unwilling to compromise on the matter.”

 

Dorn shook his head with annoyance flashing too briefly across his features. “Has Father been notified?”

 

The Angel nodded. “He is on his way to Mars as we speak.” A faint smile graced Sanguinius. “In the meantime, Horus and Leman are alternating between persuasion and cowing them into acquiescence. As little effect as it has on the magi, it has been the most exasperated I’ve ever seen our brother.”

 

“Horus?” Magnus asked.

 

“Russ,” Sanguinius clarified, his amused smile growing a little. “If he had his way, our brother would likely try to bludgeon them into compliance.”

 

“Amusing as the sight might be, it still does not solve our problem. We know that Sev is capable of carrying out his threat, and that we are woefully unprepared to face such a thing.”

 

Dorn and Sanguinius nodded in agreement. “Then I hope that you two are capable of buying us time until Father arrives,” the latter said. “Or better yet, find a way to achieve a compromise on Sev’s part.”

 

Unfortunately Sev would not compromise, when Magnus and Dorn met him aboard the Mekhane, though he was willing to wait for the Emperor’s arrival on Mars. 

 

“They really don’t like me, huh?”

 

Magnus carefully schooled his expression. “Your victory was deemed as…exaggerated, even with the recordings made available to them.”

 

Sev raised an eyebrow at them. “Seriously?”

 

“They allege that the information was somehow doctored,” Dorn explained, a trace of disbelief in his voice. “And that Val Breya’s recounting was affected by his…weakness of the flesh.”

 

Magnus could understand why they might come to that conclusion. If he were not there himself, hearing of the utter defeat of several Imperial fleets to a backwater system might have sounded too far-fetched to him. If he had not seen the results personally, Magnus would likely scoff at the idea of weapons that were easily capable of shearing through the vaunted Ark Mechanicus. If he had not seen the results, both on the mundane plane and Immaterium, the primarch wouldn’t be able to grasp the idea of the Emperor of Mankind, the Cult Mechanicus’ Omnissiah, being brought low by a being in the shell of a man.

 

And that lack of plausibility presented a major issue right now.

 

“Well, if push comes to shove, I suppose I can budge the goalpost a bit,” Sev finally offered after mulling in silence for a while.

 

Magnus and Dorn shared a glance before the former asked, “And what is that?”

 

Taking that as a cue, Sev smirked as the hollow interior of the Mekhane hummed quietly with unseen energies.

 

“If the cog-fuckers still refuses my right to visit, I’ll land and take my tour regardless. The Nexus will invade your Mars to achieve my objectives, but I’m willing to keep the fighting confined to the world so long as the Imperium keeps out of it. And I’m willing to not break the planet once I’m done.”

 

Invasion? A look to Magnus’ side showed that even Dorn betrayed naked confusion at Sev’s words.

 

The Nexus’ ruler seemed to pick up on the primarchs’ reaction though, and he gave a theatrical chuckle as the humming throughout the ship grew to an audible pitch. “Ah, I forgot to mention… One of the major upgrades to this ship?”

 

Ball lightnings crackled and snapped in the space behind Sev, and in their wake familiar armored figures appeared, laconically marching into formation. More Nexus warforms appeared out of thin air behind them.

 

“I hooked the Mekhane to our teleport network. Works pretty well too, considering the distance.”

 

Unfortunately, Kelbor-Hal decried the Emperor as a false god when He tried to reason with them. Mars would stand against the infidel Nexus, and once it was done the Cult Mechanicus would renegotiate the Treaty of Mars with its duplicitous ally. 

 

The Emperor accepted Sev’s offer of a restrained conflict immediately after. The Imperium of Man would not interfere on either side of the invasion of Mars.

 

As the Mekhane split off towards Mars on its own, the primarchs took to their respective fleets to observe the coming engagement from the edge of Mars’ orbital borders. Maybe the secret knowledge hoarded by the tech-priests might include a weapon to effectively bring to bear against the Nexus? Maybe the deep vaults might hold the key to humbling Sev?

 

When the battle was finally joined, such hopes were clearly proven false. As Magnus beheld the Nexus warmachine unleashed on the surface of Mars, he began to revisit Sev’s offer to him, and wondered why the man bothered establishing friendly relations at all.

You can find story with these keywords: Console Heresy (Uncommon Wealth/30k spinoff), Read Console Heresy (Uncommon Wealth/30k spinoff), Console Heresy (Uncommon Wealth/30k spinoff) novel, Console Heresy (Uncommon Wealth/30k spinoff) book, Console Heresy (Uncommon Wealth/30k spinoff) story, Console Heresy (Uncommon Wealth/30k spinoff) full, Console Heresy (Uncommon Wealth/30k spinoff) Latest Chapter