Solaris Pt 4: The Heart of the Hive

Solaris lifted himself to his feet, taking his gleaming sword staff from the rack, and strode out the doorway, his recently cleaned armour gleaming in the cold light of the corridor. He strode without thought down the vast network of passageways.

The events of the week previous had been very disturbing. A splinter hive fleet, Draco, had descended upon Durin IV, destroying every defender of the planet. Everyone beside himself and newly risen Chapter Master Causen. But that was not the disturbing thing. A chaos Daemon strike force had been summoned within the facility they had chosen to defend, lead by a Chaos Lord Solaris had faced many years before. Arizon had tracked down Solaris to kill him. Arizon, who he had duelled and cut down many years before, and he had mustered an almighty force to face him. Daemons had spilt from the warp, but more troubling, within the wake of a Tyranid Hive fleet to hunt him down. For the millionth time he decided that revenge must have been the motive, before two seconds later he reconsidered it, dragging out more submerged memories of the lord. But it was useless. There could be motive for the assault other than revenge.

Quickly he probed the warp, meeting nothing but a vast crushing blackness; it had become more potent every day they had been within this Cruiser, the ‘Hidden Blade.’ But that was for good reason. They were hunting down the same Tyranid Hive fleet that had decimated their forces days previously.

They had found a way to destroy the fleet, with minimal loss of life. Only a small ‘kill team’ of ten Space Marines would be required in this do-or-die attempt to annihilate the Tyranid menace.

‘Solaris, we are now within short jump range of the heart of the fleet,’ a voice pierced into his thoughts.

Solaris had made it to the bridge without realising that he had made the journey.

‘Very well… Once again I would like to express my fears for you coming on this endeavour. It is most likely that none will survive the attack, for we need to make it into the heart of the hive ship.’

A marine in ornate wargear who had been standing in the shadows stepped into the light before speaking his opinion.

‘Solaris, I still do not see why we cannot just detonate the viral within the centre of the hive fleet and let it take its toll. The way you have described it, it will decimate their biomass anyway.’

‘The very nature of a Hive fleet is that it is constantly evolving. If a viral is introduced to the system from the outside of the organism, the inner bio-systems will have evolved to be resilient to the virus by the time it reaches where it will do the real damage.’

‘Causen. With your permission I would like to lead this strike force myself. Having already lost one Chapter Master in the last week this would wound our chapter beyond recovery.’

‘*****, as you full well know, I am not your Chapter Master at the current time, merely the Assassin Lord who has taken up the mantle. Shall I not return, I trust that you will be wise enough to take up that position and to lead our chapter?’

The marine nodded, and after a brief silence, left the bridge. Solaris then stepped up alongside Causen.

‘You know that I will not be able to use my powers within the hive fleet. The shadow in the warp will be too strong to breach, plus the instant I do; every organism in the bio-ship will hunt us down and destroy us.’ Solaris said, a grim tone on his voice.

‘I know all too well, but you are a warrior unlike that I have seen before, even without the use of your gifts.’

‘Causen, you have never seen my fight without my gifts, it is the very nature of them that you do not understand. It will be the equivalent of you fighting blind and one handed.’

‘I have faith in you as a warrior and a brother, and that is what matters. Plus, you are the only one that can use this fighter to make the short range jump effectively.’

‘Then we should launch the fighter within the hour. Assemble your finest men, for we will need them when the time comes.’

* * *

Solaris strapped himself into the pilots chair of the prototype fighter as a squad of five other Marines strapped themselves to harnesses on the walls. Causen quickly introduced Solaris to each of the Marines in turn; Hector – wielding a mighty power fist, Pan – a great sword gleaming upon his belt, Xan – bearing a storm shield and a mighty double bladed axe, Leon – carrying a plasma rifle, and a selection of short blades and Hypatos – a storm bolter and combat shield in one hand with a chainsword locked in his other.

‘Ready?’ Solaris asked from the cockpit, his voice carrying a tone of concern.

‘Green,’ the marines chorused back as one, and Solaris activated the craft through the interface to his hood.

It rose off the floor of the hanger as the metal plating underneath opened up, and the instant the gap was wide enough, the ship dropped through the hatch into free space. Quickly he righted the ship as diagnostics filled his mind, and he filed all the irrelevant information while arranging all that he needed to know on the front screen.

An instant later, once he was outside the gravity well of Hidden Blade he activated the warp drive and they vanished through a tear of reality into the warp.

Solaris guided the craft quickly to the somehow peaceful and calm region of chaos before he deactivated the warp drive and closed off his mind from the warp as they rematerialised within real space. Quickly he unstrapped himself from the seat, and manually activated the exterior cameras, a vast and terrifying sight meeting his eyes.

There was no way to describe how ominous the great bio-ship before them looked. A great living triangular mass, ominously the red black colour of the Tyranids sat before them, each portion of its surface living, an organism. From the rear of the ship great tentacles sat, drifting backwards into space, used to withdraw all life from a planet once it was digested.

The other Marines unstrapped themselves, each wielding a wide assortment of weaponry from ancient swords, to mighty fists, ornately crafted bolters and specialist weapons. Causen had picked his bodyguard well, each Marine the veteran of one thousand campaigns. A master of silence, hand to hand combat, and ranged warfare.

Solaris placed more barriers between his mind and the warp before taking another glance out the front projector. One of the great hive ships had turned towards their tiny insignificant craft and was almost upon them, its great bulging ‘hull’ bearing down on them.

‘Prepare for a lightning assault. I believe they can sense us.’ Solaris said, his voice set in a rock hard tone.

‘Brothers, we will get in and out of there in less than an hour, for any longer and we will surely be destroyed. Solaris, as soon as we enter, relay our location to ****** and get them to send the relative coordinates of the Tyranid ichor and spawning pools. We fight hard and fast, and let nothing slow us down.’ Causen ordered, drawing his blade, and dragging his bolter from his shoulder mount.

‘We are inside some kind of digestion bay. Relaying our coordinates now, and prepare for the gauntlet. Solaris drew his swordstaff and a bolt pistol from his belt, unable to use his usual method of ranged combat.

* * *

With a hiss the rear door lowered and the Marines charged out as one, into a knee deep thick sludge their bolters shouldered. Solaris smelt ammonia in the chamber, the smell of rotting flesh, and quickly they made their way through the slime-filled pools towards the opposite edge of the chamber.

The Marines took in everything, the slightly acidic feel of the ooze beneath their feet, the ‘walls’ bulging with great veins running along its edges. And along the wall were a series of doorways, if they could be called back. Great round alcoves were sunk into the wall, closed by a muscle of the red flesh.

Solaris received the coordinates of the nearest ichor distribution and quickly loaded it into their HUDs, little more than one kilometre away, amongst the great organism. One of the honour guard took a step closer to the door, and touched it. An instant later the great muscle slid out of the way, a score of Genestealers lurking on the other side. They reacted an instant later, leaping savagely at the Marines, who filled them full of bolts, the Genestealers not even reaching melee combat. The attack served its purpose however, as a scream of agony echoed throughout the hive mind.

‘Hector, take the lead, and proceed to HUD point beta. Marines fall in behind,’ Causen shouted, ejecting a clip from his bolter, and clipped in a fresh magazine, before cocking the gun.

Hector charged up the corridor, the mighty power fist over his own, crackling with disruptive energy fields, as the other Marines fell in behind. He punched the next ‘door’ rather than using any hesitation, tearing it into ragged strips and leapt through to be confronted with a more organised threat. A brood of Hormogaunts, with paired Warriors was moving towards them at an incredible speed, scything talons glinting menacingly in the light. Once again the Marines opened fire, the bolts tearing the first three ranks into shreds before they hit combat.

Solaris leapt forward, his blade cleaving a space through the first Warriors head as he felt the shockwave of a power fist impact behind him. He continued the sweeping motion in his left hand, cutting a limb off one warrior as the bolt pistol instantly in his right bucked, decapitating another. He felt a splatter of blood impact with his back as the sound of a chain blades roar filled the chamber, as the Hormogaunts were mercilessly cut down. Solaris drew his sword back across the wounded warrior, tearing a great hole into its chest as it roared in pain, before collapsing to the ground, and within an instant they were all dead.

Within an instant the Marines were moving again, and formed up around the next doorway. Quickly, Hector slammed his fist through it, great ragged strips of flesh, lining the hole that he had created. An instant later a stream of Genestealers tore through the gap to the sound of bolter fire. One dragged Hector, who was the closest, to the ground and back through the portal, while the swarm continued to plough through, exploding with every bolt fired.

Solaris leapt forwards into the horde, his great staff sweeping through the masses of flesh, which continued to fill the fleshy hole. Quickly he launched himself through into the next chamber, cutting a bloody swath through the Genestealers, to be confronted by a terrifying sight. A Broodlord, its black and red chitinous plating gleaming in the dull light stood erect only a few feet away, a blood-soaked blue helmet in one hand, and a power armoured figure underneath his gaze.

The Genestealers moved back, as if the Broodlord was issuing Solaris a challenge, before the rest of the Marines moved into the chamber. Quickly Solaris waved to them to lower their weapons, before dropping into a crouching stance, his swordstaff poised to strike over his head. He understood the challenge that the Broodlord was issuing.

It leapt forward at a lightning pace, limbs flailing out in several odd directions to confuse him. Quickly he dragged his staff up, and blocked the blows with a rapid sweeping motion, before lashing out with the blade, but the Broodlord had already retreated out of range. Quickly he leapt forward, his staff cutting into its chest, a splattering of ichor hitting the ground. He pushed the staff further forwards and felt the crunch of it pushing through the shell on the other side of the beast’s torso. But it continued to stare straight into his face, grabbing the staff, and pulling itself further forwards, into reach of his torso.

An instant later it lashed out at his face as he threw the entire thing backwards, and in one motion drew and fired his bolt pistol. The shell cleaved a hole through its skull, and the beast collapsed to the ground, well and truly dead.

At the same moment the Genestealers leapt forwards and the Marines bolters began to blaze, cutting them down in mid air, and instead of any of the beasts clawing at Solaris, each hit the ground with a dull thump. Quickly he wrenched his staff out of the beast’s torso and approached the next doorway, as the rest of the Marines formed up around him. Quickly he checked the HUD, the pool was little more than 100 metres ahead of them. Solaris quickly cut a great hole through the next doorway, and leapt through to be confronted with a great hulking creature. A Carnifex stood ahead of them in the corridor, bearing two great scythes and two claws, which looked capable of tearing through a Land Raider.

As one the Marines opened fire, great plasma projectiles impacting with the beast as it charged towards them, gaining momentum. The bolts impacted with little or no effect upon the beast, and at the last second the Marines dived out of the way, drawing their blades. Solaris leapt forward his blade impacting with the beast’s chest, but not piercing its thick plating as it lashed at him with two talons. As it turned Pan and Xan both moved in on it, their blades cutting into its legs whilst it swung madly at Solaris in front of it. Quickly it turned, lashing out at the other Marines, trying to encircle it. Xan, leapt backwards, avoiding the lethal blow, which continued into Pan, tearing a great ragged hole through his chest. He collapsed to the ground as each other the other Marines leapt forward, Causen’s Blade tearing into its thigh with his poison-imbued blade while Xan cut down on its tail and Hypatos’s chainsword dug into its torso. It reared up in pain, exposing its neck, and Solaris javelined his weapon into the weak spot, piercing the creature’s skull and destroying its brain. A second later it collapsed forward, the swordstaff being thrusted out the thick skull plate, and remained upright, protruding from the beasts head.

Quickly Leon knelt down beside Pan, and checked his vitals, before shaking his head, and drawing the broadsword from the floor by his side.

After a moments silence, they charged down the corridor once again, as Leon took a Meltabomb from his belt. A second later, in an explosion of fire and magma the fleshy wall leading into the ichor circulation ponds was burnt to nothing, and the Marines charged through, guns shouldered. Before them was a great cavern-like structure, with pools of biomass before them, being circulated throughout the hive ship as elements for the cells. This was where the viral would be unleashed. Quickly Causen reached down to his belt as a tremendous roar echoed throughout the cavern, and the entire wall opposing them split, opening into another corridor.

And out poured the Tyranids, the front few ranks Gaunts, followed by Warriors, and then to the progressively larger beasts, amidst them all, the Hive Tyrant.

Solaris broke down his warp barriers in an instant and entered the warp, to nothing but a crushing shadow; quickly he drew on its strength and threw out his arms, constructing a shimmering field before them amidst the cavern. Causen gave him a shocked look as the shield burst to life, before turning back to the viral, and priming the virus, activating the devise through a series of checks know only by the Chapter Master.

‘I figure the Tyranids already know that we are here, so I guess it doesn’t matter that much if I alert them to our position anymore,’ Solaris spoke out as his voice began to strain.

He continued to draw on the warp as the first Gaunts hit the shield, but the vast amounts of power that he normally drew on were non-existent, the shadow in the warp reducing everything to nothing. He shuddered as the Warriors reached the field, slamming into it, the energy weakening with each blow. Each of the three remaining Honour Guard shouldered their Bolters as Solaris shuddered again, the shimmering wall beginning to lessen, out of existence. There was not enough power in the warp to be harnessed.

‘I need about a minute to unleash the last safety guards,’ Causen spoke up, in deep concentration, tapping away at the miniscule touch pad on the device.

Safeguards had been put on the viral, because it poisoned all biological organisms that it contaminated, causing cells to shrivel up and die, leaving nothing but a blackened crust. A virus like it released on a Space Marine flagship could devastate an entire chapter.

Solaris began to shake, adding his own strength to the shield as the Carnifexs hit it, and the shield faltered, winking out of existence, as Solaris collapsed to the ground, holding his staff as support.

Then the Marines opened fire as one, Gaunts falling in spouts of ichor back into whence they were made. The Warriors tore through the Gaunt ranks, bearing down on the Marines. Solaris watched, on his knees as the Marines drew their blades meeting the Tyranids head on, with no chance of victory. They were truly honourable brothers, each taking great sweeping blows on the Tyranids, felling great beasts with their blades. He watched as three Warriors attacked Leon at one instant, their great talons plunging through his armour into his fleshy chest, and dragging him to the ground.

Causen took another step back, away from the fight as the Tyranids pushed forward and Solaris once again pushed himself to his feet as the Carnifex met the Marines.

‘Five seconds, four, three, two…’

The first Carnifex backhanded Hypatos with one great claw, as another caught him in its jaws, tearing him into two fleshy chunks as Xan weathered several other blows, the protective energies of the Storm Shield leaping to his defence. At that instant Causen took the viral charges, and threw them into the masses of the ichor pools, set on a timer for destruction. The marines would have less than five minutes to leave the Hive ship.

Quickly he drew his blade, and leapt to Xan’s defence, an instant too late as a Carnifex’s great talon cut through his neck, the Marine collapsing to the ground in a pool of blood.

Solaris watched as Causen’s blade bit into one of the Carnifex, and once again tapped into the warp as he saw the Hive Tyrant pushing through the masses towards his Chapter Master.

Once again there was no power to draw on, and he leapt forward to Carson’s aid, his blade lashing out at another monstrous creature as Causen parried one blow, before his bolter burst to life, sending a flurry of shells into his foes neck.

The flesh melted away as the Hellfire rounds hit home, and the great beast collapsed to the ground, its scythes digging into the flesh of the hive ship.

‘We need to get out of here now!’ Solaris yelled, diving under a vicious blow from the nearest beast, digging his swordstaff into its thigh, satisfied with its roar of pain.

‘There is no way that we can outrun this horde. They will cut us down in our retreat.’ Causen called back, his blade cutting down several Gaunts in one swing before he brought his bolter to bare, the Tyranids falling underneath the mutagenic shells in its ammunition drums.

‘Not on my watch…’ Solaris muttered, trying to draw on another source of energy, as he had seen the Eldar Farseers and Ork Wierdboyz do countless times.

They drew on the warp through their companions. He was not attempting to use Causen as a host however, instead pushing himself into the very thing that was assaulting them. The mind of the hive. As he entered he felt an enormous amount of power flow into his system, as the cold orders and panic of the hive mind felt his presence, a million nearby minds, seeking to destroy him. The sheer weight of thoughts overwhelmed him for an instant, but he continued to feed on the power, siphoning it into his staff, storing as much energy as he could into his system. The sheer vastness of the mind was shocking, a million individual thoughts meshed together to drive the menace onwards, a million thoughts all bent on his destruction.

It growled as it bore down on the source of the intrusion of the hive mind, a sense of anger entering its thoughts for an instant whilst it readied its limbs to fight the large blue coloured figure. All it bore was a small staff with a blade on it at its side, but the creature radiated warp energy, and was a surreal threat to the hive. Solaris found his mind wishing the creature on, calling for the Marine’s death. Then, within reach, it raised its bonesword, and slashed downwards.

Solaris launched himself to the side, throwing all connections to the hive mind aside as the bonesword came crashing down upon him. He had almost become lost in the passageway of the mind, not seeing his own death as a threat, through the eyes of the hive, but rather an achievement. He had almost become one of them.

Quickly he rolled to his feet, shaking off the call for his own death he had felt an instant before and leapt at the Hive Tyrant, avoiding the lash of its whip. The beast knocked his blow out of the way, before lunging forward with two of its scything blades. Solaris ducked the blow, drawing on the power flowing through his system, and sent a shockwave into the beasts chest, causing it to stumble backwards as its whip wrapped around his staff. Quickly he drew on the warp, summoning a blue blade, its hue as deep as the light of midnight in his off hand, lashing down at the whip, cutting its feelers off, at the same moment digging his swordstaff into the gap between its armoured plating and its bonded exoskeleton. It roared in fury before lunching at him, all of its blades sweeping through the air. He ducked, the blue sword cutting clean through one of the joints in its talons as he discharged a large amount of the warp energy he had gathered into the beast, which collapsed in an explosion of blue light.

Causen watched in fascination as Solaris summoned the great blue sword, a blade that he had seen before. His own blade cut into a Warrior as he watched Solaris sweep the blade down upon the Hive Tyrant’s talon, cutting clean through the ragged flesh, before his staff exploded within the beasts back, throwing it to the ground, stone dead. The blade dissipated within his hand as he retrieved his swordstaff, and lashed out again at the next nearest threat.

‘We leave now!’ Solaris called out, tapping into the energy stored within his staff as he rose into the air above the masses.

He watched as Causen watched him, and after a brief nod, turned and fled, as a bolt of lightning leapt out, cutting down the Warrior that had attempted to follow him. The hive hesitated for but a moment, before Solaris summoned a flame from nowhere, which grew in magnitude as he fuelled them with unreal powers, which grew into a raging inferno, blackening everything that it touched, the Tyranids cowering backwards from the pain.

Then he dropped to the ground, the fire blazing around him and sprinted forward, leaving the Tyranids in his wake, taking great leaps, and within an instant he was by Causen’s side. His armour was dented, and cut, great chunks of ceramite hanging free revealing freshly clotted wounds caused by the Tyranids blades.

‘How long do we have, before the viral detonates?’ He asked as they charged down the corpse ridden corridors, weapons ready for anything.

‘We have approximately three minutes before it detonates I believe. That gives us plenty of time to launch the ship, and leave.’

‘Barely…’ Solaris muttered as they reached the huge digestion bay, before them, ominously standing a great beast, head lowered, with great white teeth shining in the dull light.

It was of the same build as a Hive Tyrant, but much larger, a great sword and whip, two great blades and a huge cannon wielded in its six mighty limbs. A great tail whipped around behind it, its shape cutting elegant shapes into the air. Solaris cringed, raising his blade over his head as Causen dragged his sword to bear beside him, raising his bolter at the new foe. Then a retinue of massive Warrior Carnifex stepped out from behind it, each bearing four great blades, standing in defence of its master.

Solaris tapped into the warp, dragging all the strength he could from the black emptiness and flooded it into his limbs as he threw a quick phrase to Causen.

‘You take the Carnifexs; I will take the Synapse out.’

With that word he leapt into the air, his blade spearing towards the massive beasts chest, which was promptly parried and diverted, as two blades came sweeping down at him. He leapt to the side, slamming his shaft down on one of the fleshy blades, to no effect but enraging the beast as he avoided another blow from the mighty sword, crafted of the beast’s bones. A bolt of energy leapt from his hand an instant later, cracking one of the bonded ribs of the beast as another flurry of blades lunged at him. With each block a jarring shudder coursed through his arm, shaking his body to his very bones as a cold, intelligent gleam looked down at him from its eyes.

Quickly he leapt into the air, thrusting out his palm, sending shockwave after shockwave of energy coursing into its skull, forcing the beast down. He landed on its shoulder, digging his blade into its plated back, only digging a small nick in his super human strength. An instant later a whip fastened itself around his ankle, and dragged him upside down into the air, his world inverting. As it did so the great bonesword sliced into his left arm, sending a splattering of dark red blood to the ground. He grimaced in pain, dragging energy from his blade and burst into a blue flame, destroying the whip as he fell to the ground with a sharp crunch. The beast shrieked as Solaris rolled to the side, avoiding two great talons, which plunged into the flesh beside him as he threw himself once again to his feat. He lashed out in fury with his blade whilst drawing the warp into him once again and feeding all of the power into his blade. A second later the beast lunged, and ducking under the blow, he javelined the swordstaff into the creatures solid chest with an enormous amount of force. There was a sharp as it glanced off the beast’s chest, leaving nothing but a small crack in the exoskeleton. Quickly Solaris thrust his hand out drawing the warps power once again as a midnight blue blade appeared in his hand, materialising from nothing, and leapt at the beast, ducking under flailing limbs and drove the blade into the breach in the armour, the beast roaring out in agony, as the very matter surrounding the blade disintegrated and an instant later, it dematerialised and Solaris thrust his swordstaff in its place, the enormous amount of energy it contained detonating in an explosion of warp essence, destroying the beasts mind. Quickly he leapt back, as the beast collapsed and turned to Causen, who was limping towards him from the corpse of the third Carnifex dead behind him, its head nothing but a gory spray of blood.

Solaris nodded to him in acknowledgement of the feat as he spoke out, his voice weary and laced with pain.

‘I’ll have to hand you that one. I have never seen a one on one fight with so much style.’

Solaris turned towards the shuttle and activated the rear boarding ramp as he replied, watching the timer tick down on his HUD. They had seconds left before the virus was released.

‘Maybe if you hadn’t been paying so much attention to me, you would have escaped your own fight uninjured. That is no mean feat, bringing down three of those beasts…’

Quickly he strode inside, Causen at his heels and strapped himself into the pilot seat, sealing the boarding ramp. Quickly he activated the engine, and the craft rose off the ground, a great gout of missiles launching from concealed pods, detonating on the interior of the creatures exoskeleton. An instant later the ship was into clear space the hive ship behind it rippling, as the timer on Solaris’s HUD reached zero.

The virus was extremely aggressive, and within a few minutes the hive ship was nothing but a blackened carbon skeleton, before the virus spread through biomaterial channels, and empty space, every single organism in the fleet shrivelling into nothing, but a black husk.

Revenge was theirs.

‘Don’t make the jump yet Solaris…I have something I want to ask you.’

‘Yes?’ he replied, his face set in a look of concentration.

A second later he rose from the cockpits seat and grabbed a med-pack from the medical cupboard of the shuttle and returned to Causen.

‘Take off your armour so that I can attend to your wound effectively then. I will have to fix it myself seems I cannot take you back to the Apothecaries straight away.’

Causen unclasped his cauldrons, followed by his chest plate, and all the guards around his arms, revealing a mass of bleeding wounds and sealed battle scars from campaigns long past.

‘That blue blade that you keep summoning from nothing. I have seen if before.’

‘You were the sergeant who delivered it to Orion then? The one Marine that knows of this blade.’

‘Yes. As soon as I became Chapter Master, the first thing I did was query its location, but the records said that it had been returned to this ship, and kept in the shrine. The records lied. How did you come to possess this blade?’

‘I took it, almost as soon as the blade was returned here. Do you understand this weapons nature?’

‘No, the only thing I know about it is that it is a blade with some aura of the warp about it. Would you care to inform me?’

‘I have encountered this blade, a long time before, in my past life.’

‘When you were a Daemonhunter?’

‘Yes. It was wielded by a mighty Chaos Lord, leading a force of Khorne. Did you know that I had fought alongside the Shadow Blades before?’

‘No.’

‘We fought alongside you in the Garros Incursion. Short, brutal attacks trying to hunt down this lord across Brutia Hive. He wielded a blade a deep blue of the midnight sky, which disintegrated anything that came across its path. All matter just vanished.’

‘We hunted this Lord with you?’

‘You held back the main force of the Daemons, defending major evacuation points and assisting the Planetary Defence Force. We ran dangerous drops into enemy territory, landing at the Lord’s feet, and fighting our way out. Quite like the way your own Shadow Company now operates. However he eluded us for some weeks.’

Solaris placed the gauze plating over Causen’s wound, and injected an amount of anaesthetics to the site of the damage before continuing.

‘It was a joint force of both Shadow Blades and Daemonhunters that finally brought him down. We dropped in, forced the Daemons into the retreat as the final stage of the incursion began, the world tearing itself apart. And you trapped them in a vice, stopping all chance of escape… I killed the lord, my Justicar and your third company Captain wounded moments before, dragging him to the earth and slicing his head from his torso. Minutes later, after I had assisted my Justicar’s healing, I returned to find the blade gone. I thought it had returned to the warp with its master. This blade can cut through anything.’

‘We removed it from the site, and hid it from the Daemonhunters?’

‘Yes. In the wrong hands this blade could cause the fall of our chapter. It carries a great daemon spirit, capable of possessing anyone but those of the sternest mind.’

‘Who was this Chaos Lord?’

‘You met him only a week previously.’

‘Arizon…he had returned for his blade?’

‘He had returned to kill me, to avenge his own death. The fact that I wielded his blade was and does still remain unknown to him.’

‘Then it is over?’

‘I suggest that it is locked in the vault of the Battle Barge ‘Dark Falchion’ along with the rest of the Chapters Artefacts. Even to me I cannot use it under any normal circumstances. The shadow cast over the warp by the Tyranids is the only thing that allows me to use it without being harmed.’

‘Then it shall be so. May I ask about why you were expelled from the Daemonhunters?’

‘No, that secret remains mine. Only when you are truly able to grasp the consequences of what occurred will you be allowed to know. You will find out in due time.’

‘Let us return to the Dark Falchion, and celebrate for the destruction of Hive Fleet Draco.’

‘The Tyranid threat will never fully be extinguished…’ Solaris muttered, an instant before the ship dove into the warp.