The Unremembered Empire Part 21

No. His mind simmered, confident. His death lay somewhere and somewhen else.

The first Dark Angel pulled himself clear into the weightless s.p.a.ce, one hand on his shield straps, the other on the hatchway rail.

Curze lunged at him hard and fast, the way a shark slams into a swimmer. A crunch, a single wound trauma that nothing could survive.

The Night Haunter's claws took away both the gorget and the throat of the Dark Angel as he came clear of the hatch. Vast beads of blood bobbled away into the vacuum.

The man fell away, limp, trailing balloons of blood, his head held on by a twist of metal and a shred of gristle.

As the first victim went by, Curze took his shield from him and slammed it into the face of the warrior emerging from the hatch behind him.

The impact was hard. Things broke a a skull, primarily a beneath all of it. The blood oozed out of the crushed faceplate in oily, weightless bubbles.

The blow knocked the man back. Curze reached in and scooped him out through the hatch so he could get at his next kill. The dying Dark Angel was propelled away from the hull so hard that his twitching form quickly overtook the drifting, rotating corpse of the first victim, and dropped towards the bright, grey planet below. It began to glow blue and then burn like a shooting star.

Curze went in through the open hatch. He re-entered the ship feet first. He was moving so fast, shadows barely stuck to him. His heels met the shield of the Dark Angel advancing behind the first two, and kicked the warrior back down the gullet of the hatch's void-lock. The man dropped heavily.

Landing on a foot and one knee in the gate beside the Dark Angel, Curze slew him before he could rise again by slamming down the edge of the captured boarding shield and crushing his throat.

Now there was confusion. Now there was reaction. Possibilities flew fast. Curze obeyed the visions. He responded, reacting to things that had not yet occurred.

Two Dark Angels came at him, firing. Bolter-rounds burned silently across the narrow s.p.a.ce of the gate. Curze could hear, through vox-chatter or his visions, the outrage and profanity they were screaming, because of his attack and the murder of their brothers.

They wanted him dead.

Their wish would be entirely denied.

Curze tilted, and stopped the shoal of bolter-rounds with the captured shield. One, two, three and four, five and six, he swatted them aside. He felt the impact of their detonations transmitted up his arm. Flickering reflections had told him where each blazing sh.e.l.l would be before it had even been fired.

Curze went for the poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. He removed a head with the long claws of his right hand. He eviscerated a torso with the long claws of his left.

Conflicting arterial geysers hosed the ceiling and wall.

Another Angel, a veteran of the Deathwing, rushed at Curze. Curze impaled him upon the claws of his left hand. Blood squirted in a torrent as the poor fool bled out around the adamantium hooks rammed through his torso.

The killing was only just starting.

The visions told him that a great many more Dark Angels were closing in on his location.

That meant that a great many more lives were about to end.

*I seldom come to this chamber,' Guilliman said, *but when I do, it rea.s.sures me.'

The Lion followed him into the room. Guilliman's Cataphractii bodyguard held the broad doors open for him.

*You give me a tour of the most magnificent fortress stronghold beyond Terra itself,' The Lion said, *and believe me, I am impressed, Roboute. But you decide that this tour should include a chamber you seldom visit?'

He stopped, and looked around.

*I see,' he said, nodding. His lieutenants stood in the doorway behind him. He nodded to them, dismissing them.

*Leave us,' Guilliman said to Gorod. The warriors of the bodyguard turned, and closed the doors.

The two primarchs were alone for the first time.

*The Fortress of Hera is a true achievement, brother,' the Lion said quietly. *It is more than I could have believed. It exceeds my imaginings.'

He smiled and glanced at Guilliman.

*That was not a slight, Roboute. I have never doubted your abilities. But I stand in awe of your achievements. The Fortress. Macragge. The Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar. All of it.'

Guilliman pursed his lips. *I do what I was bred to do, brother,' he said. *What we were bred to do.'

*Ah, that,' the Lion murmured, as if contemplating things that Guilliman could not possibly know.

*The Fortress is robust,' Guilliman went on, a little stiffly. *It serves me and it serves my Legion. It is fit for purpose.'

*It is entirely and magnificently practical,' the Lion replied. *Truly, a wonder. I have no doubt it will endure for a thousand years or more. But you were always practical, Roboute. You, Rogal too. Men of the head. Led by your brains, by your processed data, not your emotions. That's why the two of you have the best and most efficient Legions in human s.p.a.ce.'

The Lion tapped his brow with one long index finger.

*You think, and you apply that thought, and you don't let emotions cloud you. Not like Vulkan, or dear Ferrus, or Jaghatai.'

*Or Russ,' Guilliman added.

*Heavens, no!' the Lion laughed.

*Terra help me, Russ.'

*So, this,' the Lion said, gesturing to the long table. *This surprises me. A work of emotion, not logic.'

The light of the late afternoon, discoloured by the storm, flooded the chamber through high windows. A long table, carved from stone, dominated the length of the room. Around it were twenty-one chairs, all built for the scale of a primarch. Each one was cut from the same mountain granite as the table.

The chair backs were draped with banners. The great seat, at the head of the long table was draped with the pennant of Terra. Two of the other pennants were plain and made of bleached, un-dyed cloth. The other eighteen were the banners of the Legiones Astartes.

*You did this?' The Lion asked.

*Are you mocking it?' asked Guilliman.

The Lion shook his head.

*It moves me. You still believe in a day when all of us, all of us, can sit at a table with our father, as equals, and talk of the matters of empire.'

*All of us,' Guilliman nodded.

*You made this room in antic.i.p.ation of that?'

*Yes, many years ago. Does that make me sentimental?' asked Guilliman.

*No, brother,' said the Lion. *It shows you possess a soul.'

He set his hands on the back of one of the chairs bearing an un-dyed banner and leaned.

*Two will never come,' he said.

*Yet their absence must be marked,' replied Guilliman. *Places must be left for them. That is simply honour.'

The Lion straightened up, and slowly pointed, in turn, at the banners of Horus, Magnus, Perturabo, Mortarion, Curze, Angron, Alpharius, Lorgar and Fulgrim.

*Others will never take their seats, unless as conquerors,' he said.

*I know,' said Guilliman. *Yet their places must be kept. I believe in the Imperium... In the continuity of the Imperium.'

*That it will endure?'

*That it must endure. That we must make it endure.'

*Without a doubt,' replied the Lion, *but this is a universe of uncertainty. We know the names of many of our traitor enemies, but not all.'

*No?'

*I am certain there is more treachery to be revealed.' The Lion looked at the draped banner of the Fifth Legion.

*The White Scars?' asked Guilliman. *You suspect them too?'

*The Khan is a mercurial figure. Who of us can say we know him or trust him? His nature is rebellious, and he keeps himself much apart from us. Only one brother stands close to him, and that is Lupercal. The Khan always had great affinity with Horus Lupercal.'

*And on this basis...'

*Tell me your theoretical simulations have not suggested this?'

Guilliman was silent.

*And don't pretend you haven't run multiple theatrical simulations on all of us, Roboute,' the Lion sneered.

*I won't,' replied Guilliman. *You are quite correct. The projections concerning the Khan were troubling. But neither of us have heard a single whisper that he has turned too.'

*We have not,' The Lion agreed. *But until I arrived here out of the warp storm, I had not seen confirmation of Magnus's treachery either. That was data you could impart to me, data that you had only just come upon. We knew they had ignored the Edict, and that Russ's hounds had been unslipped to chastise Magnus, but neither of us knew the grim outcome a the fate of Prospero, the full disgrace of the Fifteenth. This is a universe of uncertainties. What else do we not know?'

Guilliman paused. Then he turned to look the Lion in the eye.

*You have made it plain that I am one of your uncertainties,' he said.

*Brothera'

*You mistrust me, and my motives,' said Guilliman. *You have told me so, clearly. You suspect me of a treason at least as great as Horus's, if not deeper.'

The Lion sat in the seat marked with his Legion's banner, and placed his armoured hands flat upon the table in front of him.

*Imperium Secundus,' The Lion said, staring down at his mailed hands. *You do not deny it. You are establishing a second Imperium on the corpse of the first.'

*No,' replied Guilliman.

*No?'

*No. I am trying to keep the flame alive. This is not about empire-building, or thrusting for the main prize. I have an empire already! Ultramar! Five Hundred Worlds! Brother, I do this only so that we may persist. Terra may have fallen, and our father may already be dead. Whatever the facts, the Ruinstorm prevents us from knowing the truth. I am not taking this moment to move to my advantage, and I am not using the crisis as an opportunity to usurp. I am not Lupercal.'

The Lion looked up and held Guilliman's stare.

*I am simply keeping the flame alive,' said Guilliman. *If we need another capital world, another figurehead, then let us have one, if it keeps our father's vision of the Imperium alive. If Terra burns, then Macragge lives. The Imperium endures. Do you know the real difference between me and Horus Lupercal, brother?'

*Tell me.'

*I don't want to be Emperor,' Guilliman said.

The Lion didn't reply.

*Help me do this, brother,' said Guilliman. *Help me keep what is left together. Help me preserve the human intent. Don't make argument with me and misinterpret my motives.'

*I want to trust you, Roboute,' the Lion replied, *but I have always been wary of your ambition.'

Guilliman sighed and shook his head.

*I cannot be more open with you. It is ironic. With respect, my dear brother, you come here full of doubts about me, yet you have always been one of the most opaque amongst us. You are a man of secrets, Lion, or at least of silent privacy. No one knows your mind or fully appreciates your intent, not even our father. Yet you doubt me?'

A tiny tremor of irritation crossed the Lion's n.o.ble face.

*Hard words,' he said.

*But true,' Guilliman replied, *and perhaps I should have spoken them before now, long before. I do not doubt your loyalty or your prowess, but you and your Dark Angels are secretive beings, my brother, and Caliban is a world of mystery. I am wounded that you come to me with distrust when no one knows you well enough to know your heart.'

*You have never spoken this way before,' said the Lion.

*There has never been a time before,' replied Guilliman. *The universe has never closed in so tightly around us to squeeze the words out. I will be plain. I have never had the courage before. I have always been too in awe of the n.o.ble Lord of the First.'

*The Master of the Five Hundred Worlds in awe of me?' laughed the Lion.

*You know it. You know we all were. When Horus was named Warmaster, he did not much care that he had succeeded above me, or Rogal, or Ferrus. What he truly savoured was being chosen over you.'

Guilliman felt a curious wash of relief at having spoken so candidly. He saw, though he wondered if it was his imagination, that the Lion seemed uncomfortable when confronted by such openness.

*Your Imperium, then,' said the Lion, *this Imperium Secundus, this great scheme of survival... How do you intend to proceed? Do you intend to declare yourself regent?'

*I do not,' Guilliman replied. *I will not found an empire and then crown myself. Such arrogance would confirm every doubt and suspicion lurking in the minds of men like you. I need a figurehead for the public to rally around while I fight to keep the mechanisms of Imperium turning over and protected.'

*But...' the Lion began. He looked pointedly at the great central seat, draped with its Terran standard. *Who then? Surely it must be blood?'

*Agreed,' said Guilliman. *It must be a primarch.'