Aboard the Vengeful Spirit, in the Lupercal Council Chamber.
Horus Lupercal leaned back against his throne, looking up at the holographic display.
He frowned slightly, he had never seen a ship like this in any war council report.
Regulus's bionic eye rotated. "This is the vessel the Fabricator General built for you. It has been named the Abyss-class."
"A ship forged for me..." Horus's gaze dropped onto Regulus.
"I gave them to Lorgar. How have they ended up in the hands of my enemy?"
Regulus's bionic eye flickered. "Lord Lorgar dispatched Zadkiel to receive them. He ignored the guards' resistance and forcibly took the completed but unconsecrated vessels."
"We suspect the Word Bearers received some kind of revelation and removed the ships ahead of time."
"But now the terrible truth is laid bare, Zadkiel has betrayed his father and you."
Horus suddenly felt a foreboding. He pressed further: "What of the other two?"
Regulus knew he could not conceal the incompetence of his Martian colleagues. "Lucius and Nathaniel Garro's renegades seized them."
Crack!
The armrest of the throne was crushed in his grip.
Zadkiel had appeared in the northern Coronid Deeps.
Lucius, who had seized their homeworld, had publicly declared that he followed Nareth's orders.
He rose from the throne, his massive frame overshadowed Regulus.
"Can you tell me, how did the battleships forged for me fall into their hands?"
"Why have they become Nareth's blades of the void?"
Regulus averted his eyes from the Primarch's piercing gaze. "My deepest apologies, Warmaster, but I do not know."
"I believe he utilized supernatural powers."
Blue ripples stirred across Horus's vision. "Devote yourself wholly to me, and fate shall favor you."
"You will receive battleships mightier than the Abyss-class."
"You will receive psychic power greater than Nareth's and Magnus's."
"No!" Horus clenched the claw forged for him by the Dark Mechanicum.
"I will win victory with my own strength, in my own way."
He turned to his equerry. "Order the Navigator to plot a course to Ghana's Rock."
Ezekyle Abaddon's Justaerin Terminator armor clanked heavily. "Warmaster, you promised I would have my chance at vengeance."
"I want to personally board the Furious Abyss and tear the heads off those Word Bearer traitors."
Horus shook his head, sensing the suppressed heat of rage.
He knew he could no longer restrain Abaddon's fury. "The surface of Ghana's Rock will be your battlefield."
Abaddon raised his right arm and struck his chestplate.
"I will offer it to you."
...
The Ghana's Rock system.
The Vengeful Spirit's strategy chamber received the Warmaster, who had not set foot here for a long time.
Horus Lupercal nodded to the captains standing at the platform's corners, then turned his gaze to the holographic display.
He stared at the immense hull shaped like a Stygian trident, it was even larger than the Vengeful Spirit, surpassed among Primarch flagships only by Dorn's Phalanx.
The crimson light shed from its broadside engulfed the frigates attempting to flank it.
Overwhelming firepower destroyed four frigates in a single volley, Horus had never seen such killing efficiency.
"Warmaster, broadside shield power has been transferred to the prow."
In void warfare, when a ship's hardware could not be changed, the two factors a commander could exploit were position and conservation of momentum.
He took the gamble of diverting all power to the prow and recklessly charged at the enemy.
"Massive energy readings rising," Maloghurst reported loudly. "Augurs are going blind."
The holographic projection flickered and vanished, to prevent energy sensors from being overwhelmed.
"Plasma lance." Horus looked toward the observation port, staring at the new weapon that should have been his.
The plasma jet struck the layered shields of the Gloriana-class battleship head-on.
"Damage report." The equerry pressed his comm.
Feedback surged across the channel. "We have lost three shield layers."
"Continue forward, main lance bombardment, draw the enemy's full attention."
The Vengeful Spirit was to play the anvil, using itself as bait to draw the enemy's fire.
No one would pass up a chance to make history.
White-hot jets and blazing blue light crossed in the void, the Vengeful Spirit lost its shields at triple the enemy's rate.
With a terrible shriek, the crew's scalp-interfaces at the control stations erupted in sparks.
A catastrophic chain reaction along the cogitator arrays announced shield failure, the helm reports from the linked stations came belatedly.
"Anvil Two, engage." Horus's gaze swept over the blazing cogitator wreckage as he gave the cold order.
Fourteen destroyers' engines roared to life, they surged from the shadows of the Vengeful Spirit's flanks, hurtling straight at the Furious Abyss.
Horus watched the fighter swarms boiling from the Furious Abyss's belly. 'Thankfully, Regulus provided intelligence. Otherwise, who could have imagined that, after mounting a plasma lance capable of destroying battleships, the Abyss-class also carries a vast flight wing?'
Imperial capital ship design had always followed two mutually exclusive firepower philosophies:
Direct firepower, and carrier-based operations.
Even Gloriana-class battleships could not fulfill both roles simultaneously. Unsurprisingly, all Primarchs and most capital ships had leaned toward firepower, lances, macro-cannons, and the like.
Astartes Legions carried large numbers of Stormbirds and Thunderhawk gunships for planetary landing operations.
Compared to void warfare, they were more adept at ground assault, naturally adopting drop-assault as their primary method of war.
Even void engagements often ended in boarding actions.
Auxiliary escort formations were limited to squadron size.
A few expeditionary fleets used carriers as flagships, relying on fighter squadrons as their primary weapons, focusing on gaining void-superiority.
The Abyss-class was hailed as a revolutionary vessel, not only because of its plasma lance and other weapons, but because Kelbor-Hal had exceeded Imperial decree, creating a ship that combined both firepower and carrier capacity.
Its embarked craft reached wing strength, rivaling full carrier decks.
The Furious Abyss's flank bays slid open, fighters trailed burning exhaust as they launched into the void.
The fighter formations flew in wide arcs around the Furious Abyss, constantly strafing the destroyers.
The Moonsword's flank turrets returned fire, tiny explosions bloomed around its hull.
But for every burst of debris, four fighters dropped their bombs.
The Moonsword kept adjusting its course, but the lances of light stayed locked on its steel hull.
Beams like molten fingers bored into the ship, a dozen crew were melted to ash, then dozens more were frozen and suffocated by the inrushing void-cold.
Plasma jets screamed past, tearing dozens of ignition vanes from the Vengeful Spirit.
Blossoming explosions spread across the ship's topside, melting armor plates into flowing rivers of metal.
Horus's gaze swept over the surface damage to his flagship and gave the order.
"Hammer, execute!"
Ten frigates ignited their engines, their iron hulls ruthlessly plowing through the floating wrecks of allied ships as they charged straight for the Furious Abyss.
....
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