Elena and Tamuriel gaze longingly at the head ship of the imperial guard fleet, not daring to take their eyes off it for even a second. Their children are in there, leaving the safety of their nest. Elena wipes a tear from her eyes. "Our babies are all grown up now, look at them leaving dear. I still cannot bear the thought of any harm coming to them."
Tamuriel rubs his wife's back. "Maa, we've taught both of them well. Keeping them locked and safe would do both of them more harm than good. House Coluber still thinks that we're from house Vespertillio instead of Hircus."
Elena keeps her gaze firmly on the guard ship, a surge of emotions flowing through her. "You have made sure that their entire inheritance is with them, right?"
Tamuriel nods. "They've got everything of value that we hold hidden in their sanctum. Don't worry, our past will not haunt them. Even if they decide to be vengeful, the curse we will cast upon your family will aid them greatly."
—
With Krauss and Joline gone preparations for the incoming attack can begin. The extravagant halls of house Hircus are re-decorated, their banners and insignia replaced by those of the long dead house Vespertillio.
Traps are prepared and barricades are built, creating a deathly maze for the future invaders. A grand story is prepared, to be told upon the house of Coluber.
It is at the beginning of the preparations that a small, mundane imperial frigate arrives on its lonesome. A system ship leaves the frigate, its heading leading it into the space station of house Hircus. The frigate, having completed its mission, proceeds to make a calculated warp jump back to its home planet.
The system ship lands onto the docks, allowing a single Astartes warrior to disembark. Armored in artificer power armor. The symbol of his chapter, a rose with alternating blue and red petals, is emblazoned on his chestplate, marking him as an astartes of the Rosy Vengeance chapter.
Tamuriel has been patiently waiting since the frigate's arrival for this man to disembark. "You're late dickless. Did you lose track of time while sniffing around for little boys again?"
The astartes warrior greets his old friend. "I was busy enjoying carnal relations with your mother. The old goat still has some more mileage left in her."
They both give a hearty laugh, before clasping each other's hands. Tamuriel nods in the direction of the warrior's ship. "I'm actually serious with you being late Amon, they've already left."
Cull Amon sighs. "We encountered an unexpected warp storm. Even with a navigator present, we most likely would have still been late. We're not far enough from you for a navigator to have had any effect."
Tamuriel rubs his goatish chin. "We can still send them to Kearus for Krauss and Joline to pick up later. The journey will take a long time without a navigator present, but it's extremely unlikely for them to miss the shipment. In the worst case scenario someone will attempt to steal them, which is going to lead to the destruction of the equipment and geneseed."
Amon removes his helmet, revealing him to be the same astartes present in the wedding ceremony of Joline and Krauss. "I've brought spares. I have chosen Garius as the next chapter master, the debt that we owe you will not be forgotten."
Tamuriel gives his friend a solemn nod. "Are you going to deliver it personally, or do you want me to send some of my household guard instead?"
Amon thinks on his friend's offer. He had initially planned to remain with Tamuriel on the station, both to repay his debt to his friend and to be with him in his final days. The choice between a satisfying end, or clearing his still monumental obligation to his friend is a difficult, but clear choice. "I will personally guarantee the cargo's safety, worry not."
Tamuriel barks a laugh. "I told you to come with that nice warp abacus ship just in case this happened, but noooooo, I know what I'm doing, don't worry Tamuriel, I won't be late."
Amon's eye twitches. "And what of you? You hid your own ship in their sanctum. Do they even know that it is there at least?"
Tamuriel chuckles. "Yeah. The ship had to be disassembled to fit inside of the basement. Once they find the components they'll instantly recognize it for what it is."
Amon takes a deep breath, before giving his friend one final manly embrace. "I will ensure the continued survival of your progeny friend, of that you can stay assured."
Tamuriel blinks. "You're starting to talk like the mechanicus, did you eat one of their cogboys again?"
Amon Cull snorts. "Not since we sold them the STC."
—
Amon Cull does not linger, leaving for the long journey to Kearus as soon as his frigate is prepared. The journey will take many years, the lack of a skilled navigator aboard the ship making itself felt.
Tamuriel and Elena continue preparing for their impending demise. A sense of peace that can only be born from acceptance arises within the duo during this period. In the end, their preparations are complete some days before the fleet of house Coluber arrives in the system, allowing them a precious few days of calm to spend together.
They make the most of this time. The calm before the storm does not last, as the grand battle fleet of house Coluber arrives in their system to reclaim their stolen relics. The navigators of house Coluber do not waste time, sending their household guard to rush into the space station immediately.
Their most elder navigator, Serpan Coluber, is the navigator leading this expedition. His white scales gleam in the candle light of their meeting room. His serpentine eyes carefully analyze the live holograph of the station, taking note of the sealed room blocking any scans from penetrating.
His youngest daughter, Sepia Coluber, states the obvious. "They are clearly hiding our treassuress in that chamber!"
Serpan flicks both his large tail and his serpentine tongue in annoyance. Of all of his progeny, she is the one most lacking in experience. "Be silent, daughter. We cannot jump to any conclusions yet. Until we can confirm the location of our relics, it is best to capture them alive."
His other progeny is intelligent enough to know the wisdom of silence, she is not. "That iss right! They could even have sssent them away with their children!"
Serpan takes a deep breath, his short temper does not aid his growing anger, making the effort to keep his verbal tic in check that much more difficult. "Be sssilent. We have enough troops to overwhelm them, we need not participate ourselvess."
Indeed. Their household guard is large enough to capture the space station intact. Recovering their chart is of the utmost priority, their great project coming to fruition would have been a certainty were it not for that traitor.
Serpan carefully analyzes the reaction of what he believes to be the household guard of house Vespertillio, trying to intuit whether or not they are being tricked into wasting their time. Elena and her husband are nowhere to be found in the scan of the station, they are either in the secret bunker or not here at all.
His musings are interrupted by a graceful feminine figure coming into view as she is leaving the bunker. Her hologram turns towards Serpan, gives him a smile and a 'come hither gesture'.
Serpan feels a cold wind come up his spine, something is not right. Age can be deceiving, especially for those accustomed to warp-travel. He clearly remembers Elena looking just the same as she is now two hundred years ago, no new mutations are to be found on her person.
Mutation is a fact of life for their kind. In much the same way that a baseline human will age and grow old, a navigator will age and mutate. Serpan decides to remain here, despite the feeling of something not being quite right. It is not unusual for members of his house to grow paranoid in their old age.
—
Tamuriel continues chanting, uncaring of the enemy forces currently invading his personal home. "Dvaram udghatitam bhavishyati iti. jalplavanam sarvam grasati."
Tamuriel kneels down, reaching his hand to the bound psykers throat before violently crushing it, leaving the man to die. "dvaram udghatitam bhavishyati."
The veil grows thinner within the bunker.
He does the same to the next psyker, a bound sixty year old woman. "dvaram udghatitam bhavishyati."
The veil grows thinner within the space station.
The same is repeated for all of the ten psykers in the bunker, each time the veil grows thinner, until it becomes thin enough for the immaterium to be visible with the naked eye.
A single sacrifice is left. Tamuriel reaches his hand into the comatose bat-like navigator's third eye. "etat kunji jalplavanadvarani udghatayishyati."
Tamuriel forcefully removes the eye, before immolating both it and the rapidly vanishing piece of soul still attached to it. A kick to the prisoner's head with his hooves is more than enough to crush his skull and kill the unfortunate sacrifice. The last remaining member of house Vespertillio has met his end.
The veil is immediately broken following the death of the sacrifice, ripping a hole between the material and immaterium. The rift spreads from the bunker, almost instantly engulfing both the station and the fleet of house Coluber.
Elena comes back into the room. "Was it a success dear?"
Tamuriel gives her a bloodthirsty smile. "Yes honey. There will be no escape for either of us from this point on."
—
Serpan and his progeny immediately notice the thinning of the veil. Sepia's panicked voice resounds. "We need to esssscape immediately! They are-"
The veil thins once again. Serpan slaps her. "The warp drives are still recovering from our re-entry, I will not say this again child, be silent."
He has already sent a telepathic signal to the bridge for the gellar fields to be activated, that will shield them from whatever tomfoolery the traitor and her bat husband are planning. The veil continues to grow weaker and weaker, before a warp-rift opens in the station, dragging it and them into the warp.
The light of the astronomican is clear, the distance between them and it is rapidly increasing. The ship's thrusters do not make any effect on their current velocity.
Serpan bites his lip hard enough to draw blood and open a flesh wound. They are being dragged into the depths of the warp. He instantly realises what the plan of their opponents was.
He gives each of his descendants a tired look. The snake headed eldest son, the young blabbermouth, His three grandchildren. "We have lost. The traitor has commited suicide and pulled us into the warp along with her by force."
Serpan is certain now, there were none of their belongings to be found on the space station. This was a ploy to draw them here, ensuring the livelihood of their hidden progeny by masking even the slightest trail of them existing. House Vespertillio is almost certain to be a mere front, something that none of his house would have expected.
If he does not warn them they will be unprepared for the attack of Elena's child. House Vespertillio is bat-like in nature, whilst their own is snake-like. The genetic compatibility for successful offspring would be very low between them, as they are both derived from different animals. Elena's husband must instead be someone from another snake-like house.
He takes a deep breath. "Prepare for boarding. Our onl-" The gellar fields fail. Horror immediately enters the hearts and minds of the navigators as daemons surge towards their ship, beginning to slowly peel it layer by layer of steel, revealing the delicious souls hidden within.
His descendants all give him hopeful looks, their eyes showing him their desire for him to have a way for them to escape.
Serpan has none. He gestures for a nearby guard to hand him their sidearm. Serpan takes the offered las pistol, aims at his temple and shoots.
—
Elena sighs as daemons join the battle in their space station. "All that remains before we can curse house Coluber is for their navigators to die, how long will we have to wait for their demise?"
Tamuriel comes back into the bunker's ritual room, bringing with him a heavily mutated navigator of house Coluber. The prisoner is less human and more snake, the only trace of their humanity left is their arms. Tamuriel throws the navigator in the middle of the ritual room. "Ten minutes at most. They probably sent that idiot Serpan, he'll shoot himself in the head before the daemons get to him."
Elena draws a knife and begins cutting ritual glyphs into the snake navigator's body. "What of the rest of them?"
Tamuriel shrugs. "We don't know anything about his kids, but knowing the guy they'll be just as stupid and short sighted as him. After he blows his brains out they'll-"
—
"YOU ARE THE ONE WHO SABOTAGED OUR GELLAR FIELDS!"
Sepia cowers in the corner as her siblings begin to argue, trying to find anyone to put the fault for their imminent deaths on, as if it would save them from the daemons outside.
The guards are too scared to intervene, a single word from them might lead to their own painful deaths. They are not aware of the horrors of daemonkind, if they were they would gladly intervene for their deaths.
Sepia stares at the gun held by her father's cooling hand. Killing herself would save her from being tortured by the daemons outside, but it would leave her family in their not so tender hands.
She gives the guard to her right a glance, he is frozen, staring in terror at the argument that grows hotter and hotter by each word. She pulls the pins from the two krak-grenades hanging at his belt. The man looks down at her and sees the three grenade pins on her fingers.
—
"-infight and try to blame each other for it. At some point they're going to start fighting for real over it. Give them like, five more minutes and the problem will sort itself out."
Elena gives him a thoughtful nod as she cuts the final glyph. "We have forty minutes until the daemons reach us. That will be more than enough time to enact the ritual."
Tamuriel rubs his chin. "I really would have liked to see the looks on their faces as they realise that biological death is not enough to kill your soul. The daemons will still eat them."
Elena rises. "How much time is left?"
Tamuriel continues rubbing his chin. "About five seconds. I started counting after we pulled everything into the warp."
Elena gives him a nod. "Very well. That gives us plenty of time together afterwards."
Tamuriel turns the navigator of house Coluber on his back with his foot, allowing Elena to stab his heart. "Domum Coluberorum maledixi. Nemo qui nomen eorum fert prosperet, nemo qui nomen eorum fert victoriam inveniat, omnes qui nomen eorum ferunt mutationes patiantur."
The immaterium screams as the elderly navigator's life is sacrificed, his soul consumed to doom those bearing the name of Coluber.
There is one final thing for Tamuriel and Elena to do now. They give each-other a loving hug, use Immolate the soul and incinerate each other's souls. The pain is great, but the satisfaction of denying the chaos gods their souls is even greater.
Tamuriel and Elena give each other a final kiss, the human lips of Elena gladly meeting the animal mouth of her husband.
—
A daemon's true name is their greatest chain. It is their very core, it is all that makes them the being that they are. They are empowered to it as much as they are bound to it. A command addressed to them by it cannot be denied, it must be followed through to the end.
Ska'gdun the skullthane swings his hellblade at the butchered remains of the gellar field generator for a final time, destroying it completely. It cannot delay any longer, the command it had received stipulated to completely destroy the gellar field generator of this ship in less than five minutes. His final swing hit the gellar field at four minutes and fifty nine seconds, just at the limit of his command.
Since he is already inside of the warp there is a single command left for Ska'gdun the skullthane to do. He leans his hellblade on the floor, the tip pointing directly at his head. Ska'gdun the skullthane grabs the sides of the blade with his shaking hands and impales his own head on it.
Ska'gdun the skullthane final command is complete. He has given himself a true death.
—
This chapter was pretty hard to write, hopefully the reception isn't flames and pitchforks >.>.
On an unrelated tangent.
One thing that I always dislike in fiction is excessive front loading. Some authors seem to enjoy telling the story to the reader in advance, killing all mystery and anticipation at seeing what happens next.
Some things have been made clearer in this interlude, other things propped up.
The pond becomes clearer, only for it to become deeper.
If you manage to figure out the identity of Amon Cull, I'll try to post an extra chapter tommorow. (so tommorow 1 chap, after tommorow another instead of nothing tommorow)
edit: by identity I mean what legion his chapter is from.
Hope you've enjoyed the read.
Hope you've enjoyed the read.