Shadow of the Throne, Primarch's Office.
"Nimrod, there is still much about what happened on Nuceria that I do not understand."
Roboute Guilliman wore a brand-new suit of diamond-blue armour. The Hand of Dominion had not yet been reinstalled.
"Lorgar Aurelian intended to sacrifice Angron to the Warp gods."
"I killed him."
"Gods... Father said there were no gods in this world." Guilliman gazed quietly at Nimrod, awaiting his answer.
"Look outside. How do you think that Warp Storm came to be?"
Guilliman stared at the swirling, resplendent storm, where arcs of lightning tore through the void with endless shrieks.
"Lorgar went from Andermung... to Armatura... to Nuceria." Guilliman recited the names of a hundred destroyed worlds.
"The atrocities he committed were not merely... an outlet for his fury over Kuhl's destruction. He was performing a sacrificial ritual.
"He created... the Warp Storm."
"His purpose was to tear apart the Imperium and cut us off from Terra."
Having finished his assessment of the situation, he looked at Nimrod with hope.
"Do you have a way to break through... the Warp Storm?"
During the brief time Guilliman had spent returning to Macragge's Honour, he had listened to a report from his attendant, Marius Gage.
All star charts had become fragmented and scattered. Though every surviving Navigator was attempting to find a solution, while the Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Logis-Engine systems ran calculations, even the most basic navigational readings remained uncertain.
Even systems theoretically adjacent to Nuceria had become as invisible as Terra.
A stable route spanning merely a few light-years was beyond reach, even for a short-range jump.
The Ultramarines' pursuit fleet had vanished into the dark void, leaving only a vague area within which it could be located.
The surviving Astropaths, dragging their shattered bodies along, struggled