Lysander looked up at the Imperial Fists who were now waiting for his orders. They knew from the tone of his voice that the time for reflection was gone, and that they were back at war.

*Shon'tu has launched his final attack,' said Lysander. *We have humiliated him and he is sending everything he has to destroy us. But that also means he is risking everything he has. Take comfort from the examples of the brothers we have lost. Through sacrifice, they have defied Shon'tu this far. Through sacrifice, if needs be, we shall defy him again. You have your orders. You know what is expected of you. To your stations, sons of Dorn.'

As the Imperial Fists split up to man the positions Lysander had dictated, Lysander took a final look through the airlock porthole. Hestion's coffin was invisible against the backdrop of stars. The Techmarine had gone to join Dorn and the Emperor at the end of time, to fight the final battle for mankind's soul. Lysander had at least one more battle to fight before he could take his place there too.

It was worth it. There was no doubt about that. Everything could be gambled and lost, if that was what it took to achieve victory.

Everything.

Though the Obliterators could no longer speak a their vocal cords having long ago been sacrificed for yet another gun barrel a there was never any doubt about their mood. They existed in a permanent state of anger, for the tech-virus that had altered their bodies also took a hold of their minds and filled them with the desire to destroy everything around them. Commanding such troops was as much a matter of reining them in as letting them loose.

Steelwatcher Mhul had the task of commanding the coven of Obliterators that belonged to Shon'tu's warband. Only two such creatures remained, the other having fallen to Lysander and the Fist of Dorn or to the virus in the Tomb of Ionis. Two was more than enough.

Mhul watched the Obliterators tear through the layers of steel and circuitry surrounding the ma.s.sive cylindrical base of the defence laser. The laser was the largest weapon in the western spur of the star fort, a t.i.tanic weapon which focused enough power to punch a torrent of las-fire straight through the hull of a s.p.a.ceship the size of the Ferrous Malice. The Obliterators could not fit through the narrow pa.s.sages designed for the unaugmented crew of the Endeavour of Will, so they made their own path. Mhul followed, prodding the Obliterators in the right direction with bursts of pain from the mind impulse unit that surrounded his head like a steel halo.

The Obliterators' hands reformed into steel claws that ripped away the metal of the weapon's housing, revealing stacks of datamedium amid the destruction.

*Stop,' said Mhul, his words accompanied by a burst of psychic code that seized the Obliterators' muscles. *There. You. Infect it.'

One of the Obliterators took a step back and reeled as if struck. His face split open and cycled through various calibres of gun barrels, melding from one to the other from the flesh and steel inside its skull. Finally something other than a weapon emerged a a nest of tendrils, fleshy and red, that probed in front of them accompanied by a wet hissing sound. The tendrils found the crystalline datamedium and wrapped around it, slithering across its surface to find a way in.

The Obliterators were created when an Iron Warrior, already as much machine as s.p.a.ce Marine, became host to a tech-virus. The virus itself had its origin in the warp. Perhaps it was a gift from one of the dark G.o.ds that reigned there, or was a curse on the Traitor Legions. Perhaps it was a natural predator (as natural as anything could be in the warp), or it was a daemon itself, one that existed entirely in information form. Whatever its reason for being, it took the substance of a s.p.a.ce Marine and turned it into a biomechanical weapon, every muscle and bone adapted to form part of the hundreds of weapon systems an Obliterator could form from his mutating body. And the tech-virus had another property even more dangerous than its capacity to turn flesh into a weapon. It was infectious, and could be transmitted.

The tendrils wormed their way under the surface of the datamedium. The crystal became blotchy and discoloured as the virus found a new place to live and thrive, forming mottled blooms like bacteria on a Petri dish.

The air was filled with the sound of grinding metal as the whole defence laser shuddered. It rotated in its mountings, the building-sized laser barrel turning towards the main structure of the Endeavour of Will. Flakes of rust fell like a dark rain around Steelwatcher Mhul, and loose components clattered to the deck around him. The Obliterators extracted themselves from the tangle of metal as it churned with the movement. The one who had infected the gun stumbled out of the wreckage as its face reformed into the scowl it always carried, one eye narrow and hateful, the other replaced with a gun barrel.

The Obliterators crouched down beside Steelwatcher Mhul like attack dogs deprived of prey, scanning for targets.

*Good,' said Mhul, sending a wave of pacifying code through the coven. He switched to the command vox-channel. *Warsmith,' he said. *It is done.'

Shon'tu and the Iron Warriors under his command stood lined up ready to advance, in the primary arterial corridor that led to the main structure of the Endeavour of Will. The top half of the corridor was transparent and so Shon'tu could see the ma.s.s of the star fort looming over him, covered with soaring battlements and arched portholes, studded with weaponry. The banners of the Imperial Fists, articulated sheets of steel half a kilometre long, hung to display the gold colours and red fist of the Chapter.

*See?' said Shon'tu, pointing up at the colours that hung from the star fort. *We shall tear them down. There shall hang the heraldry of Olympia.'

*Warsmith,' came Mhul's voice over the vox. *It is done.'

*Good,' replied Shon'tu. *Ensure that the targeting is sound, and then open fire.'

The Endeavour of Will had one ma.s.sive advantage over the Iron Warriors. Even with its weapons mostly dead and its garrison outnumbered, its sheer size made it a difficult fortress to break down. Between the Iron Warriors and the command centres at the heart of the star fort, the machine-spirit housing and datamedium vault, the bridge from which the whole star fort was controlled, were hundreds of kilometres of corridors, thousands of bulkheads and blast doors. Forcing a way through them would take time the Imperial Fists could use to set ambushes or outflank the Iron Warriors, cut them off from one another and channel them into battles they fought on their terms. The Iron Warriors would still be victorious, but only at the expense of many of Shon'tu's warband, and that was not an acceptable way for an Iron Warrior to fight a battle.

There was no easy way into the heart of the Endeavour of Will. So Shon'tu would make one.

There need be no risk at all, said a familiar but unwelcome voice in Shon'tu's head, buzzing around his cranial implants and hijacking the logic circuits wired into his brain. There is another way.

*Silence,' said Shon'tu, quietly enough for only him to hear.

Release me.

*I said silence.'

The whole western spire shuddered and thrummed with power. Behind Shon'tu's position the t.i.tanic defence laser was powering up, the energy coils along its length glowing at first a dull burnt orange, then blue, then white, as enormous amounts of power were pooled. The barrel completed its traverse to point straight at the centre of the star fort. Safety circuits that would normally prevent the laser from being aimed at the star fort itself had been burned out by the Obliterator virus, while the control circuits destroyed by the initial attack on the machine-spirit had been repaired. The defence laser was in Iron Warriors hands now, and there was nothing the star fort or anyone on board could do to stop it.

The laser fired, and it seemed that the void itself was torn open, a gash through reality that opened up to an ocean of burning light. The augmetic vision of the Iron Warriors kept them from being blinded. The heat and magnetic shielding of the star fort's structure kept them from being incinerated and irradiated. For that split second, a lance of energy hotter than a star transfixed the star fort like an arrow through the heart.

When the glare died, the star fort was laid open, a ma.s.sive wound revealing the tangled steel entrails surrounding the machine-spirit core and the command decks. Torrents of wreckage spilled out, spinning off into the void in all directions. Severed power lines spat energy at random and explosions burst silently, instantly snuffed out by the vacuum.

*Onwards,' voxed Shon'tu. *They are dead, they merely do not know it. Let us educate them. Onwards!'

The Iron Warriors followed Shon'tu as he led them down the arterial tunnel towards the ruptured heart of the Endeavour of Will, feet tramping in time, as the wreckage from the blast pattered against the transparent ceiling overhead.

Lysander forged through the dense smoke, the heavy chemical taste of it distinct even through his armour's filter, which had folded up over his mouth and nose.

He had been on his way to the command deck when the explosion had hit. He had known instantly that something huge had impacted upon the Endeavour of Will a the din echoed from every corner of the star fort, the floor shaking in a manner that told of the whole station shuddering, the sudden kaleidoscope of warning icons on his retina signifying a ma.s.sive strike.

Around him, sections of ceiling had fallen in, and slabs of flooring had collapsed into the decks below. A fire had caught light somewhere very near and within seconds had filled the corridor with toxic smoke. Lysander found his footing, bracing himself against a b.u.t.tress in the wall.

*Rigalto!' yelled Lysander into the vox. *Where are you?'

*Command deck, captain,' came the reply.

*Casualties?'

*None of my squad or Menander's. I can't tell if any of the crew is hurt, but I can scarcely believe there are no casualties. One of the defence lasers. .h.i.t us. Shon'tu must have taken control of it.'

*He has,' said Lysander. *He had four choices for his final a.s.sault. That was one of them.'

*Commander?'

*Shon'tu's way of war is much like ours,' replied Lysander. His augmetic senses had adapted to the smoke and fire, and he could see several bodies in the corridor ahead of him, knocked unconscious or killed outright by the explosion and now aflame. The crew uniforms, with the heraldry of the Imperial Fists, were being consumed by the fire. *According to our ways, only a few possibilities for capturing the fort presented themselves. This was one of them. Shon'tu has gone through the same process of thought.'

*Then what are your orders?'

*Take your squad and Menander's to the datamedium vault,' replied Lysander.

*The vault? There are more defensible areas ofa'

*Those are your orders,' repeated Lysander. *Shon'tu relies on speed and shock. Do not give him those advantages. Go now, I will meet you there.'

Lysander ignored Rigalto's acknowledgement, as through the smoke and flames charged the shape of a s.p.a.ce Marine.

Lysander knew it was an Iron Warrior by its unnatural silhouette, broken by ungainly bionics which looked more like industrial tools than replacement limbs. A steam hammer was attached by pistons and cables to the stump of one arm, and it crashed through a sheet of fallen ceiling as it swung at Lysander.

Lysander ducked the blow and brought the Fist of Dorn around for a reverse strike. But the floor shifted beneath him and he was falling head over toe, metal twisting around him.

Lysander hit the deck below at an awkward angle, almost head-first. Flames were everywhere around him, scorching his unprotected face, rippling up the walls and along what remained of the ceiling. He forced his way back to his feet but already the Iron Warrior was falling after him, hammer-first, steam spraying as the pistons drove the weapon forwards.

The hammer crunched into Lysander's chest. Lysander sprawled onto his back under the weight, rolling onto his shield side to get out from under the enemy. The Iron Warrior stayed with him, his human hand holding on as the hammer was brought up to slam down again, this time into Lysander's face.

Lysander smacked the edge of his shield into the Iron Warrior's visor. The visor was sheared away and for a moment Lysander could see his a.s.sailant's face. The skin was grey and withered, as if it had been drained of all vital fluids and filled up with colourless sludge. The eyes were silver orbs without pupils. The nose was gone completely, leaving two slits leading to implanted filters. The face ended just above where the mouth should be, everything from that point to the collarbone a tangle of cables, gauges and valves, spurting steam.

Lysander and the Iron Warrior were bathed in flames. Lysander wrestled with his attacker as the fire rippled over him, submerging him as if in water. He could feel the skin of his face blistering, the inside of his armour heating up, as he kicked and thrashed to throw the Iron Warrior off him.

Lysander caught the Iron Warrior's hammer with the haft of his own, forcing the traitor to one side. His shield arm was free again and he forced the shield under the Iron Warrior's body, levering the traitor off of him. With a yell of effort and anger he threw the Iron Warrior back into the flames.

Lysander lost sight of his attacker. The flames and the choking smoke masked everything. Even the ceramite of Lysander's armour was faltering in the fire, scorching him at the joints. He had to get out, but if he turned and ran the enemy would have a free shot at his back a and even Terminator armour could not be trusted to save him then.

The Iron Warrior leaped through the flames, the exposed skin of his face crackling and bubbling. Lysander stepped back, raising his shield to take the charge.

The side of the Iron Warrior's head burst in a spray of dark blood and torn wires. He skidded onto the ground, sliding through the flames and coming to a halt at Lysander's feet. He twitched a little and the flames rolled over him.

Sergeant Laocos strode out of the smoke. Lysander recognised the leader of his command squad, and the glowing of the barrels of his storm bolter, the gun which had just fired the fatal shot.

*Captain!' shouted Laocos over the din of the fire. *The enemy seeks to surround and flank us! We must move!'

Brother-Scholar Demosthor was behind Laocos, tracking for targets with his a.s.sault cannon. The deck behind him was in a similar state of destruction, and while no unaugmented crew could have survived down here, the Iron Warriors could use it as a way through the star fort if they moved fast enough.

*To the datamedium vault!' shouted Lysander. *That is where our stand will be!'

Laocos nodded. *My brothers! Forge on!'

The five-strong squad gathered on Laocos and followed Lysander as he kicked his way through the burning wreckage and headed for the nearest stairwell leading upwards. The pain was great, with the burns on his face and joints just now flaring up, but a s.p.a.ce Marine could ignore pain for as long as he had to.

*I suspect I know what you are planning,' said Laocos. His voice came over an individual vox-channel a the rest of the squad could not hear. *As your sergeant, it is my duty to speak.'

*Then do so,' replied Lysander. He shouldered open a buckled door and revealed a stairwell. The deck above was smothered in smoke but there were no flames, and the way towards the vault looked clear.

*I am compelled to ask if you truly understand the consequences of this plan,' said Laocos.

*I am more aware of them than anyone,' replied Lysander.

*Shon'tu must fall, that is certain. And we have all heard of what his kind did to you on Malodrax. Any one of us woulda'

*I am not fighting for revenge,' said Lysander sharply. *On Malodrax I saw what the Iron Warriors truly are, and that they cannot be permitted to live on. That is the sole relevance of the events on Malodrax to this battle. Shon'tu will not die to satisfy my bloodl.u.s.t. He will die to ensure mankind never suffers from his depredations again. Does that answer your concerns, sergeant?'

*My apologies, captain,' said Laocos. *I felt I had to say something.'

*And it is said,' replied Lysander. He climbed the stairs and headed towards the central spire of the star fort, where the heavily armoured vault of datamedium lay, and where the machine-spirit of the Endeavour of Will now held court.

Rarely did anyone enter through the airlocked doors of the datamedium vault. The air was recycled from the same atmosphere that had been sealed inside the last time the datamedium stacks had been maintained, more than six hundred years ago. The stacks themselves formed rows of columns reaching up to the ceiling, like the pipes of an infernally complicated pipe organ taking up the entirety of the huge chamber. The stacks of black crystal were banded with gold and bra.s.s, and thick bundles of cables hung down between them like the viny foliage of a jungle. Freezing mist clung to the floor, generated by the coolant flowing through the pipes that criss-crossed the floor, and the air was as chill.

In those stacks of black crystal cylinders resided vast amounts of information, more than a planet's worth of human minds could contain: all the memories, wisdom and personality that made up the machine-spirit of the Endeavour of Will. It was the most sacred place on the whole star fort, and a follower of the Adeptus Mechanicus would fall to his knees in the presence of such knowledge, such closeness to the infinite wisdom of the Omnissiah.

Freezing air hissed and vapour billowed as one of the doors slid open. Rigalto and Menander's squads entered, spreading out rapidly as they scouted out the best firing zones and defensive positions.

*It is a fine place to fight,' said Menander. *Cover from every direction. Limited entrances. Very fine.'

*But a bad place to be trapped,' replied Rigalto. *And any damage here could lose a hundred years of knowledge. I would say it is an ill place for a battle. Better that we should sabotage the command circuits and hold one of the spurs, and attempt to get its weapons back on-line.'

*But then we would relinquish this vault,' said Menander, *and the enemy would have the machine-spirit at their mercy. They would succeed where they failed before, to do to it what they did to the Bastion Inviolate.'

*Perhaps you are right, Brother Menander. And Lysander has chosen this place for the battle. He knows more of such things than I.'

*Than any of us,' agreed Menander.

Menander joined his Scouts near the only other way into the vault, among a bank of bra.s.s-cased cogitators around the door set into the far wall. The three Scouts and their sergeant were armed with sniper rifles from the star fort's armoury and they concealed themselves among the knurled valve wheels and steam pipes that connected the various cogitator sections, giving themselves lanes of fire right down the length of the vault.

Rigalto formed a firing line across the vault, his men's bolters levelled like an execution squad. The squad's tattered banner was planted in the middle of the line, the bullet-riddled fist symbol on a red field surrounded by silver lightning bolts. To the battle honours embroidered beneath the symbol would be added the Endeavour of Will, if anyone from the squad survived.

The sound of gunfire and thumping explosions reached the vault. Loose components fell as the vault shuddered and distant warnings blared. The damage control signals reaching the sergeants told them that the star fort's central spire was ma.s.sively compromised, with many decks completely depressurised and the crew fighting countless fires. Crew were still dying out there, both to fire and vacuum, and to the guns of the invaders as they stormed through the ruined star fort.

The doors boomed open again and Lysander's squad stomped through, trailing smoke as they went. Lysander himself was the most badly scorched of them, his face red and raw, one side of his golden yellow armour black with soot.

*They are on our tail!' yelled Lysander. *Stand fast, Imperial Fists! They have the numbers, but we have the will!'

A burst of fire ripped through the wall beside Lysander, throwing two of his command squad to the ground. Through the wreckage crunched the two Obliterators, the vanguard of Shon'tu's force, blazing fire in every direction. Their flesh was seething and sheened with blood, black tendrils of corruption writhing from their skin. The steel of the wall they burst through became blackened and veined, the tech-virus they carried bleeding out from them into everything around them.

Lysander grabbed one of the fallen command squad and dragged him into the cover of a datamedium column. The rest of the command squad followed, Brother-Scholar Demosthor carrying Brother Tingelis over one shoulder as he turned to bring the a.s.sault cannon in his other hand to bear. Shrapnel rained off Demosthor as he returned fire, and the Obliterators disappeared in a storm of flame and debris.

*Rigalto! Watch our flank! My brothers, bring them down!'

Demosthor shrugged Tingelis off his shoulder and braced beside one of the columns, keeping up the storm of fire as his a.s.sault cannon's barrels span. Lysander looked down to see that he had dragged Sergeant Laocos from the fray a Laocos's armour was smoking and battered but he did not look badly hurt. Laocos rolled to one knee and hammered out fire in the same direction as Demosthor with his storm bolter.

The attack was a diversion. The Obliterators' task was to draw the attention of the Imperial Fists' gun-line. The real attack ripped through the opposite wall, explosive charges blasting out a section of the wall and sending shards of datamedium crystal showering down. An Iron Warriors champion was first through the breach, surrounded by the baying remnants of the possessed who had been mauled so badly at the Tomb of Ionis. He wore a debased echo of a Chaplain's garb, his face an iron skull, a mace in his hand with a head in the shape of an eight-pointed star.

The possessed charged right into the teeth of Rigalto's guns. The bolter drill that Rigalto had taught them with such discipline sent chains of fire rattling through the bodies of the possessed. Eyes and mouths, clawed and taloned limbs, burst from the shredded flesh of the possessed. They fell and mutated where they lay, forms liquefying into piles of quivering, warp-tainted gore.

The Chaplain was struck in the chest and thrown against one of the columns. He rolled into the cover, the last of the possessed loping through the carnage towards the gun-line. One of them vaulted over a bundle of pipes behind which two of the Imperial Fists were sheltering a Rigalto stepped forwards and impaled the possessed Iron Warrior with a thrust of his chainsword. The blade carved out through the Iron Warrior's lower back and Rigalto twisted it, pulling it out and bringing the contents of the Iron Warrior's abdomen with it. Rigalto plunged the blade over and over again into the possessed, each withdrawal bringing out a fouler knot of squirming flesh, until there was not enough structure left in the Iron Warrior's body to contain its corruption and its armour clattered to the deck, liquid gore spilling out.

But the Iron Warriors had their foothold. Shon'tu's hulking form was just visible through the mist of bolter smoke, surrounded by perhaps forty Iron Warriors taking advantage of the possessed's charge to sprint through the wreckage and into cover of their own. Lysander could see Shon'tu's battle plan unfolding even as Rigalto's squad returned fire and the first Iron Warriors fire fell among them. He had his beachhead, his breach had been secured. And he had more guns than the Imperial Fists.

He would win. There was no doubt about that. It was a fine piece of strike warfare, a besieger's gambit to force the beseiged into fighting a final battle that he could not win.

*Shon'tu!' bellowed Lysander, knowing that the Iron Warrior could hear him. *Here is the head of Lysander! Here is a trophy for the halls of your Legion! Take it and become a G.o.d!'

In spite of what he had become, of all the inhuman filth in which his soul was steeped, warsmith Shon'tu was still a s.p.a.ce Marine, and he still suffered from a weakness that was so definingly theirs. He still had the pride which had seen Chapters, and Legions before them, refuse to quit the field when all was lost; which had created animosity when there should have been brotherhood. It was the pride from which the Horus Heresy itself had taken root.

Shon'tu's augmetic eyes focused on Lysander. Bolter fire punched through the datamedium around him but Lysander stood proud of the cover, impossible to mistake even through the grime and chaos of the battle. Shon'tu shoved aside the Iron Warrior in front of him and broke into a run, gunfire sparking against his armour.

Lysander's command squad drew in around him, but they too recognised a warrior's pride when it was brought into play. Their efforts were focused on keeping their commander safe from the advancing Obliterators. Lysander alone would face Shon'tu.

Shon'tu seemed to cover the breadth of the datamedium vault in a few huge strides. In a cloud of steam and smoke he fell upon Lysander like a comet from the sky. His claw sliced forwards, talons snapping shut towards Lysander's face. Lysander ducked and took as much of the impact as he could on his shield. He was thrown back, bowling Sergeant Laocos aside, and rolled as he landed to bring him out of the way of the claw, which ripped into the deck beneath him.

Lysander and Shon'tu were face to face for half a second, more than long enough for Lysander to learn that there was nothing human in what remained of the warsmith's face.

Lysander batted aside Shon'tu's next attack with his shield, knowing it was a feint. The real attack was from Shon'tu's triple-barrelled boltgun, which he tried to ram up into Lysander's midriff so he could unload half its ammo chain into the Imperial Fist's body. Lysander span, knocked the gun aside with the haft of the Fist of Dorn, and kicked out hard enough to shatter the bronze struts lending strength to Shon'tu's right leg.

Shon'tu stumbled back and Lysander had a moment to seize the advantage. It had to be enough. He placed his hand against the nearest datamedium column and let his armour's interface connect with it, a probe in his gauntlet extending to dip into the ocean of knowledge inside.