Sicarius laughed it off, even as he was enjoying the bellowed affirmations of his men.

'I am my own man,' Scipio repeated, watching Sicarius and the Lions of Macragge climb aboard their drop pod. It was something he and Iulus should also be doing.

'Just watch yourself, brother. Promise me that at least.'

Scipio nodded, not liking the hint of anxiety in Iulus's eyes. They clapped pauldrons, their brief disagreement forgotten, and made for the drop pods.

It would be a long time before they saw each other again.

When the Lions were in their positions and the access hatch was closing, Sicarius's expression changed. Swathed in shadows, with only the internal lumes of the pod interior to light it, his face took on a much darker cast.

'These revenants are not like the greenskins,' he warned. 'The warriors outside this covenant are Second Company there are none better but they require steel and fire, not cold hard facts. Let the tactica briefings give them the knowledge they require to do their duty. You, my Lions, are chosen chosen. You, as I do, will know what we face on the d.a.m.nos soil.' Sicarius looked to his second-in-command.

Veteran-Sergeant Daceus narrowed his eyes. He swept his gaze across the other eight s.p.a.ce Marines in the drop pod. A countdown timer had begun. Intermittent vox-chimes signalled the imminence of launch; the shuddering impacts felt against the hull conveyed its urgency.

'There have been few reported sightings, let alone engagements with these creatures. We, the Second, have yet to lock blades with them but they are a foe unlike any other. Your tactica briefings are inloaded to your retinal displays I suggest we all a.n.a.lyse that data during launch. Their technology, resilience and ability to self-repair are all in there.'

The vox-chimes were getting closer together as the countdown started to reach its final cycle.

'There is no drill, no amount of training or physical honing that can prepare you for this foe,' he went on. 'Preparing for the unknown, adapting to face the unforeseen scenario, it is what we s.p.a.ce Marines excel at. We are not the Guard, mere men, who would balk and pale in the face of this enemy. We are Ultramarines, but our mettle will be tested here yours, the valiant Lions, most of all. To be chosen means something. It is more than honour, it is responsibility. Inspire your battle-brothers, for we will need inspiration and visible courage this day.'

Each of the warriors present met Daceus's hard eyes. Vandius, their Company Banner Bearer, wore a determined expression his duty was to keep the standard of the Second aloft. Gaius Prabian, as Champion, was charged with keeping Sicarius alive and allowing him to lead the line Daceus didn't envy him, but there was steel in his eyes and aggression. Of the others, all showing grim resolve and ready violence, only Venatio remained carefully neutral. The Apothecary knew his task would be hardest of all and it carried the most weight in his hands was the future of the Chapter, the harvesting and safeguard of the gene-seed.

'Trust in the Codex, and in your captain,' Daceus concluded. 'Through that we will triumph.'

'You all know my mind,' said Sicarius. 'Know this, also: I do not want this fight. I desire to gild our banner with victory, to elevate our station, to glorify our Lord Calgar and the Chapter. But our chances of victory here, on d.a.m.nos, are almost none. We will do what is needed, because it is asked of us and as Adeptus Astartes it is our solemn calling, but we are stepping onto a dead world.'

He thrust out a clenched fist.

The move was immediately mirrored by every warrior in the drop pod, until ten spokes of ceramite formed a wheel of brotherhood around the interior.

'Courage and honour.'

The words were returned to Sicarius, spoken with stern conviction.

The vox-chimes reached a long sustained whine. Launch engines were burning outside the drop pod. The bays opened in unison. There was a sense of weightlessness, then of gravity pulling them downwards through the atmosphere. Temperature gauges rose; so too did the sound of the necron guns.

The liberation of d.a.m.nos had begun.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Iulus issued a series of orders using Ultramarines battle-sign and his squad tightened around him in a defensive cordon centred on the drop pod. Sicarius and his Lions had landed ahead of them. Somehow, impossibly, even their transport was more eager than everyone else's to close with the enemy.

Necrons were thronging the plaza. Hot beams from their gauss-flayers turned the acc.u.mulated snow to slush that detonated wetly beneath Iulus's armoured tread.

'Dense separation, suppressing fire,' he bellowed, voice grating through his vox-grille. Iulus seldom wore a battle-helm, preferring for his squad to see his face and the fury therein, but on this occasion he was glad of it. The snow-fog occluded the view. Retinal sensors built into his helmet lenses overcame that easily, the reddish blur of the unique necron heat signature readily discernible in his field of vision.

Staccato bolter fire, clipped and precise, rewarded the many training drills he'd put the 'Immortals' through during his tenure as their sergeant. Several of the automatons jerked and bucked against the bolt storm before collapsing into the snow-slush.

'Advance and execute,' he continued.

The Immortals moved on their sergeant's lead, charging up to the stricken necrons. Three battle-brothers hung back as the others went ahead of the enemy casualties. The loud crack-bang crack-bang of single headshots and the sonorous report of a phasal shift filled the air. of single headshots and the sonorous report of a phasal shift filled the air.

Iulus had read the Tactica briefings extensively. Nothing barring critical system damage would prevent a necron's ability to self-repair. He was taking no chances.

'Report,' he barked into the comm-feed.

'Eliminated, brother-sergeant.' Three identical replies came back before Iulus's squad were reunited. The dense chud-chud chud-chud of a heavy bolter, unleashed by 'Guilliman's Hammer', Tirian's Devastators, sounded from the left. It was paired off with another weapon, the two cannons giving off intermittent barrages that overlapped at the beginning and end of their ammo cycles. The of a heavy bolter, unleashed by 'Guilliman's Hammer', Tirian's Devastators, sounded from the left. It was paired off with another weapon, the two cannons giving off intermittent barrages that overlapped at the beginning and end of their ammo cycles. The foom foom of missile tubes provided a low chorus to the percussive refrain of the bolters. Explosions, hazy through the mist, bloomed. Snow and frag spat in diagonal bursts. It was brutal, but in the distance necrons were rising from the carnage. of missile tubes provided a low chorus to the percussive refrain of the bolters. Explosions, hazy through the mist, bloomed. Snow and frag spat in diagonal bursts. It was brutal, but in the distance necrons were rising from the carnage.

'Temple of Hera.' Iulus had moved ahead of the Devastators, but caught the flare of muzzle flashes and the fading contrail of expelled smoke in his peripheral vision as they advanced. There was little to no cover on the plaza, the necrons had levelled it with their cannonade, but that was why s.p.a.ce Marines wore power armour ceramite battle-plate was all the cover they needed.

From the right, Brother-Sergeant Atavian brought up a second squad of Devastators, the t.i.tan Slayers. Their weapons brought swift death to the mechanoids. Even the necrons' enhanced repair ability couldn't save them from the searing beam of a lascannon or metal-sloughing effects of a multi-melta. Iulus stayed close to Atavian, advancing in an oblique line. Engage, take ground, engage enacted as if on the training ground.

The first few raiders had been the exploratory elements of a vanguard. The reddish heat signature blurs on Iulus's retinal display suddenly increased as the Ultramarines reached the shadow of the first of Kellenport's defensive walls. It was overrun and the sound of desperate Guardsmen fated for death resolved on the breeze like a requiem.

Spreading out, the necrons had enveloped them. Bolters tracked and fired to compensate, relying on advanced targeting sensors the mist was so bad that the enemy were literally appearing as if from nowhere, and in numbers.

'Brother, my flank has been compromised.' It was Atavian through the comm-feed in Iulus's helmet.

'Close up battle-formation, there are more necrons than we first believed.'

An affirmation rune flashed on Iulus's retinal display. The tac-icons representing the Devastator squad started to move closer to the Immortals. Iulus noticed there were several red markers that remained static.

Squad Fennion and the two Devastators they were the rearguard. Glory belonged to others.

'Take and hold the ground.' Those had been his orders during the mission briefing. Thirty Ultramarines to keep a simple esplanade from the enemy. It had seemed like overkill; now, Iulus Fennion wasn't so sure.

A swarm of beetle-like creatures droned out of the fog, mandibles champing.

The Immortals turned with battle-honed efficiency and cut them down. Brother Galvia cried out as one of the creatures clamped onto his forearm. Iulus stepped in and excised the mechanoid with his chainsword. A stamp of his armoured boot ceased the beetle's squirming after it was removed. A bolter salvo exploded another with ma.s.s-reactive fury before it could refashion itself and attack anew.

'They're hard to keep down,' breathed Galvia. 'I've never seen such'

A gauss-beam skewering his shoulder and upper torso cut him off. Iulus reached for Galvia, who grunted and slumped to his knee. Blood-stained slush spattered his armour viscerally as he fell hard.

The wounding preceded a fusillade of gauss-fire as the necron vanguard force tried to pin them. Enfilading beams streaked across the trio of s.p.a.ce Marine squads diagonally while more of the drone beetles pressed an a.s.sault from the front. Iulus had one arm under Galvia to support him; with the other he wielded a whirring chainsword with menace. He swatted the first scarab-like creature, cracking its carapace but not disabling it; a second he carved with a heavy downward swing. A third latched to his vambrace but he was able to shake it off and crush it under his boot.

Another dug into his back, gnawing at the power generator. Emergency icons flashed up on his retinal display warning of an imminent energy drain. Iulus reached for the creature but staggered when a pair of scarabs fastened themselves to his pauldron. He cried out as one attached itself to his battle-helm. Below, Galvia screamed in agony and frustration.

'Aristaeus!' The comm-feed was wretched with interference. The creatures were slowly disabling it.

The low whoosh whoosh of pressure-release and the acrid stench of promethium filled the air as Iulus and Galvia were consumed by fire. Aristaeus had kept the aperture of his flamer narrow. Both Ultramarines emerged from the conflagration blackened but otherwise unscathed. Smoking, burning scarabs writhed about on the scorched earth. Iulus crushed one underfoot before dispatching the others with a desultory burst from his bolt pistol. of pressure-release and the acrid stench of promethium filled the air as Iulus and Galvia were consumed by fire. Aristaeus had kept the aperture of his flamer narrow. Both Ultramarines emerged from the conflagration blackened but otherwise unscathed. Smoking, burning scarabs writhed about on the scorched earth. Iulus crushed one underfoot before dispatching the others with a desultory burst from his bolt pistol.

He waved Aristaeus forwards. 'Bring the heat.'

The Ultramarine had lost his battle-helm in the fight and wore a scarred grimace instead. His eyes became hateful slits as he unleashed the full fury of his flamer.

The swarm died in a nucleonic storm and Iulus was readying to advance when his retinal display was overloaded by a beam hit to his eye. He cried out, dropping his chainsword so he could rip his helmet off before it corroded through and the gauss-flayer started in on his face, but still held onto Galvia.

The battle-helm hit the ground with a dull thud thud and rolled, the right ocular lens partially dissolved, the ceramite around it bare and raw. and rolled, the right ocular lens partially dissolved, the ceramite around it bare and raw.

'Set me down,' Galvia mumbled. Even lying on his side, an unknown number of internal organs ruptured, he triggered his bolter. The swathe of sh.e.l.ls found several marks and the scarabs exploded aerially like flak.

Iulus resisted the urge to touch his injured face. It hurt but pain-suppressing chemicals were already flooding his system to fight the pain and keep him fighting.

With the gauss-fire intensifying around them, forming an almost lattice-like web of emerald, any ordinary soldier would have retreated. Bolt pistol blazing as he stooped for his chainsword, Iulus's order demonstrated that s.p.a.ce Marines were no ordinary soldiers.

'Hold the line and return fire. In Guilliman's name!'

The Ultramarines were dauntless, but so too were the implacable necrons. One side would have to break. The low booming voice, rendered through a vox-caster, decided which side that would be.

'For Chapter and the Lords of Ultramar!' The a.s.sault cannon of Brother Ultracius whirled into a blur of muzzle flare. Out in the cloying snow-fog, Iulus saw necron raider constructs torn apart. Instantly, the gauss enfilade lessened.

Ponderous but redoubtable, the Dreadnought had taken a little longer to reach the hold-point than the rest of the rearguard. It had been a long few minutes before his arrival but now the veteran warrior had arrived, Iulus knew the tide was with them.

'Defend the line; maintain it until the veterans of the Second can join you.' It had been a sound plan and one that suited the sergeant's intractable nature.

What was more, Ultracius was not alone.

'I am the warrior eternal of my Chapter. Long live Macragge and the Empire of Ultramar.' Where Ultracius was bombastic and glorifying, Brother Agnathio was unshakable and pragmatic. He moved with the slow but inexorable purpose of a glacier, his multi-melta scything the distant raider formations with impunity.

'Spread and engage,' bellowed Iulus, taking advantage as the necrons faltered, 'slow and exacting.'

He nodded to Agnathio who had pounded up alongside him.

'Good to have you with us, Venerable One.'

'I am the avatar of my Chapter's will. I serve eternally.' The Dreadnought's mind was not as lucid as it had once been. Agnathio knew not what year, what conflict he was embroiled in, only that he fought for the glory of the Ultramarines. A part of Iulus relished the simplicity of that existence as much as another part pitied it.

'For Ultramar.'

'Aye, for Ultramar!' The multi-melta sang its shrieking refrain again, spearing the necron constructs that were moving to engage them at closer quarters.

Tirian's gravelly voice came over the comm-feed. 'They're adopting more aggressive protocols.'

'They react,' said Iulus, 'as if directed. These sh.e.l.ls are automatons with only hate and fell technology to animate them, but a will is at work here. Engage and destroy.'

Iulus felt his grip on the esplanade tightening. Despite the change in tactics, the necrons would not prevent him making a fist and holding the ground indefinitely. It was then, as the rearguard was fanning out and punishing the necron vanguard, that two things happened almost simultaneously to change the complexion of the battle.

First, the ma.s.sive gates behind the Ultramarines opened and a human Guard force poured out, lasguns flashing. Second, a larger and much more densely packed necron cohort emerged from the fog ahead. They were bigger than the raider constructs and more heavily armed. Iulus was forced to rea.s.sess the internal boast he had made. His fist had become an open palm, clinging with fingertips. The tide had shifted again. Instinctively, the Ultramarines closed ranks. Even the Dreadnoughts paused in the face of this latest threat.

'Bring them down,' Iulus roared as the necron elites unleashed a gauss-storm of terrifying potency. 'Give them nothing!'

Estimating thirty of the hulking necrons and factoring in the remnants of the raider constructs that were still operational, Iulus made a quick a.s.sessment of their odds. His conclusion was muttered defiantly. 'We need more men.'

The sky above Kellenport was wracked with incandescent thunder. The city was a distant silhouette, leavened only by the flash of explosions.

Scipio wanted to be there, alongside his brothers Iulus and Praxor, but that was not his lot in this war. Instead, he was crouched in a slowly melting mire of slush and hard earth, peering through a pair of magnoculars.

'How does it look, brother-sergeant?' asked Largo, flat against the escarpment on his armoured chest.

Power armour didn't really lend itself to stealth missions, it was too bulky and better suited to more direct engagements, but without any of the Tenth to reconnoitre the Thunderbolts were being used as de-facto scouts.

'Busy,' Scipio grumbled. He handed Largo the magnoculars for a look. He was bearing his earlier injury well, the sergeant noted. Barely a flinch when Scipio had forced him to twist and reach for the scopes.

'Their picket lines look thick even without magnification,' added Ortus, sighting down the barrel of his bolter. Despite the fact the Ultramarines a.s.sault force was still several kilometres away, he could tell that the war cells protecting the pylons and gauss-obliterators were numerous. He had a good eye for that. Ortus spent most of his training allocation on the firing ranges. He could deploy his weapon like a sniper rifle, so accomplished was his aim.

'Find the leader and you have my permission to take the shot,' replied Scipio, before shuffling backwards down the ridge on his stomach. Part of their scouting task, as well as a.s.sessing the level of resistance, was to find the necron hierarch commanding the force. Imperial tacticians, those that were privy to the threat of the necrontyr, had postulated that rather than being unfeeling automatons the necrons actually adhered to a series of 'protocols' not that dissimilar from a servitor's. Their logic-engines were far more advanced, of course, but by removing the sentient will that guided it, a war cell would resort to secondary functions. Their tactics would become less adaptable and more predictable. Such a disadvantage made them easier to defeat and increased the likelihood of a full scale 'phasal retreat'. These were all theories, however. There wasn't enough battle-data yet recorded that allowed any firm conclusions to be drawn concerning potential necron weaknesses.

Tigurius obviously thought the reasoning was sound Scipio agreed and so charged his 'scouts' with finding the hierarch leading the cell defending the artillery. So far, they'd had little luck in doing so.

Largo was putting the magnoculars away when he asked, 'How will we breach it?'

'Not this way, that's for certain.' As he was returned to the present, Scipio brought to mind the densely thronged access routes through the hills to the necron artillery. As well as the ubiquitous raider constructs, there were larger elites and even semi-ephemeral ghosts patrolling the enemy picket lines. They'd formed concentric rings around the ma.s.s of heavy cannons in the centre. While the ghosts phased in and out of existence, the raiders and elites stood still and unspeaking like metallic sentinels. Scipio suspected they would wait like that until the galaxy burned and the universe itself ended, if commanded to do so. At least orks bickered, even the alien tyranid chittered and the Traitor hordes exalted and chanted: these soulless machines just stood in abject silence. Despite Scipio's Adeptus Astartes hypno-conditioning, it was unnerving.

'Perhaps a diversionary attack to draw out the bulk of their troops, allowing Strabo and Ixion to neutralise the guns.'

Scipio shook his head at Largo. 'There's too many and they won't move. That's a defensive force, whatever protocol it's operating on will keep them from coming at us.'

He'd seen enough of the necrons, their mechanistic idioms, their logic-engine style tactics to know that they couldn't be coaxed or goaded. Only a certain and direct imperative would force the mechanoids to alter their battle-routines. Somehow, the Ultramarines attacking the Thanatos Hills had to find it. If executing the necron leader was the key to that, there was still a lot of work to be done.

His eyes narrowed when he spied a rocky promontory overlooking the artillery. 'How does that look to you?'

Largo went back to the scopes, magnifying to enhance the view. He scowled. 'Impenetrable.'

'No route through the terrain?'

'We need gunships and speeders,' Largo replied.

'A pity they are locked down aboard the Valin Valin then,' added Ortus. then,' added Ortus.

With the necron cannonade still in operation, not only was Kellenport subject to constant bombardment but Antaro Chronus could not deploy his tanks and any aerial support was denied to the Ultramarine spearhead.

'What are your orders, sergeant?' asked Largo after the silence started to become uncomfortable.

Scipio's expression was foul with frustration. 'Return to camp. Then we go deeper. There has to be a way through those pickets without taking them head-on.'

Scipio found Tigurius alone, looking out onto an ice expanse. Snow flurries chased each other across the barren tundra like arctic devils, whipped into sudden frenzy by the wind.

There was a rime of frost coating the Librarian's cheeks, nose and forehead but he seemed not to notice. Though his eyes were open, he was locked in psychic trance. It took Scipio a few seconds to realise before he fell into respectful silence and waited.

'The direct approach to the Thanatos Hills is denied to us,' Tigurius said without even turning around, 'and we have yet to locate the force leader.'