000.M31.
Segmentum Obscurus, Ullanor System.
Ullanor's orbit held thousands of suspended ships.
Plasma engines churned, fighting the pull of the planet's gravity.
The Imperial Fists' Phalanx hung alone, while the warships of the Emperor's Children and the Blood Angels were extravagantly beautiful, dazzling to the eye.
A striking, gold-inlaid warship held the central position alone, suspended above a continent.
Horus's Vengeful Spirit.
A black-and-scarlet warship slowly approached, weaving through the voidships one by one.
Nimrod stood before the viewing window, gazing into the void at Jaghatai's swift white warships, Angron's furious red vessels, Lorgar's grey ships, and his target—Mortarion's fleet.
The Death Guard fleet formed a single line, like a steadfast spear.
Their names were written across their hulls in High Gothic, representing the Death Guard's unyielding resolve.
At the spearhead was the Tenacious, its deep-green prow etched in man-high lettering with records of the campaigns it had fought, the worlds it had visited, and the foes it had conquered.
The hull was adorned with the Imperial double-headed eagle and the Death Guard Legion's own sigil of a barbed ringed skull.
With a thought from Nimrod, the Hraf Originator Yulman, linked to his mind, immediately moved.
His tendrils swayed, and an inhuman mind projected outward in silence.
Yulman's tendrils writhed excitedly, licking at the lingering smoke and residue left after the "Great Triumph of Ullanor," and the mind that had been crushed by that terrible will recovered little by little.
Power from the void seeped into the upper decks of the Tenacious, and cold tendrils seized the brain of an officer.
"Kunsa!" A whisper from the void sank into his mind.
"Mortarion and his sons have never seen you or the others as people."
"You are regarded as lowly vermin!"
"Now they are far from the ship. Your chance has