"My Astropath and Navigator told me that this Warp storm was unprecedented in scale. Even the light of the Astronomican had vanished. The Imperium's territory had been severed apart on the Warp level, and returning to Macragge would be exceedingly difficult."
Lox's expression immediately darkened. Through his psychic link with the Cogitator, he knew that was indeed the truth.
Even the Red Alert, controlled by the Cogitator, could not guarantee its direction within a Warp storm. Entering the Warp at such a time was no different from courting death.
The Red Alert was crucial to the plan. Deep down, Lox had come to regard this Doomsday Ark as some fragile, untouchable treasure of civilization.
He wanted to use it in an absolutely safe environment, to make use of its capabilities, rather than in a perilous situation where war could erupt at any moment.
But now, it seemed he had little choice.
After pondering for a moment, he continued, "Until the Ruinstorm ends, I will remain in Ultramar. But if I am able to leave, you must not prevent me from doing so."
Both sides understood that this would be a transaction as fair as possible. Lox would provide the Five Hundred Worlds with suitable technology, allowing Guilliman to forge a stronger military force against his traitor brothers.
Guilliman, in turn, had to do everything possible to provide shelter and necessary support. He would tacitly permit the existence of an aberration who used artificial intelligence within the Five Hundred Worlds. Neither Imperial forces nor those traitors could cross Lox's bottom line.
This was, in truth, an unwritten alliance. From then on, they would become a community of shared interests, watching over and aiding one another according to their pact.
"You will not regret this." Guilliman revealed a smile as radiant as the sun. "The Imperium may not be able to accept you, but I can. I am the lord of the Five Hundred Worlds. No one may pass over me to judge you."
"Now we must evacuate Calth. The radiation levels here are no longer suitable for human survival."
"What about those still in the underground shelters?" Lox asked.
"Our ships can only take some of them away, but the fleet has been damaged too severely. We can only do our utmost."
Guilliman spoke with complete sincerity. The Ultramarines currently lacked the ability to save everyone. Some people were destined to remain on Calth until he could spare the resources to dispatch another fleet to collect those left behind.
"The remaining Word Bearers have also entered Calth's underground. Relying on its complex subterranean cities, they are conducting guerrilla warfare. We must continue exterminating them as well, and I have assigned that task to Ventanus."
Guilliman summoned Ventanus before him.
"I appoint you supreme commander of Calth. Its underground cities and tangled networks can shelter those who failed to evacuate in time. They need a leader. Can you do this, my son?"
"I will do everything within my power," Ventanus said.
"It may be many years before we send a fleet to rescue you. We are about to march to the battlefield against the traitors, and no one knows when the war will end."
"But I can promise you this: reinforcements will come, once we have gained a chance to catch our breath."
Ventanus, son of Guilliman, stood calmly before his primarch.
Macragge's Honour and its fleet departed the Veridian System. Calth was left on its own.
Ventanus and a group of Ultramarines remained on Calth. They returned to the underground fortress beneath the Universal Museum. The transmitter Lox had left behind continued operating, and Senior Tech-priest Tauren would continue maintaining the machine.
The voice of Calth's supreme commander played repeatedly across the planet through the broadcast system:
"The star of this system has been affected by anomalous flare activity. Radiation levels on Calth's surface will kill all unprotected life. If you are a local resident, a soldier of the Imperium, or a warrior of the XIII Legion, proceed immediately to the nearest underground passage."
"We can endure this stellar activity. We can defeat the Word Bearers traitors lurking below. All loyalists capable of receiving this broadcast should proceed directly to the nearest underground city. Information on those cities can be found in this broadcast's encrypted attachment."
Ventanus finished recording the message and looked at the servitor who had stayed behind.
"You may leave. The primarch needs a Senior Tech-priest like you."
The female servitor merely gave a soft laugh.
"Compared to the illusory stars, I prefer the feeling of standing on solid ground."
Her electronic augmetic eye flickered. In the darkness underground, the lover she knew best had never left.
Lox did not remain aboard his own ship. At that moment, he was accompanying Guilliman.
He had also gained a new identity: adviser to the primarch.
"We must return to Macragge first. The flagship and fleet have suffered devastating damage. I believe my traitor brothers will not limit themselves to attacking Calth. We must restore my Legion's strength before they launch even larger acts of destruction."
Guilliman stood on the bridge. Nearly two hundred and fifty thousand Ultramarines had gathered on Calth, but after betrayal and bloody slaughter, that number had been reduced by nearly half. Around seventy thousand Astartes had died, while more than thirty thousand had been grievously wounded.
It was a devastating figure. In addition, more than a hundred Titans had been destroyed, roughly one and a half million mortal auxilia had perished, and half the fleet had sunk.
Even for the Ultramarines, the most numerous Astartes Legion, such a blow had severely wounded their strength.
Hill compiled the detailed statistics of the Battle of Calth. A data-slate filled with figures was delivered before Guilliman, and the primarch needed only one glance at its contents to determine the enemy's losses.
"The Word Bearers lost at least fifty thousand Astartes, sixty-five Titans, and over five hundred thousand cultists on Calth."
"Grievous losses," Lox said.
Although he had personally experienced the war, he had been confined to the battlefield around the Universal Museum and knew little about the rest of the planet.
Countless brave souls had used their lives to resist the Word Bearers' assault: Astartes, mortal auxilia, and the pilots of those god-machines, the Titans.
"Thanks to you, we confirmed that Kor Phaeron was aboard that False Emperor. That greatest culprit nearly escaped, but you intercepted and destroyed him."
"Because of your warning as well, our losses were reduced considerably. I believe that without it, the XIII Legion might have been annihilated on Calth, fulfilling the ambitions of my damned brother Lorgar."
Guilliman placed his broad hand on Lox's shoulder, expressing his gratitude with that heavy gesture.
"This is a cruel age. Humanity's greatest enemy is not the xenos in the void, but other humans who harbor different ideals."
"A great empire never falls to foreign enemies. Only collapse from within can bring an empire apart."
Lox let out a wistful sigh. After humanity ventured into the stars in the past, it had formed alliances. Though the relationships between them had not been especially close, such brutal civil wars had never occurred.
Or rather, even when wars occurred, their primary mode of fighting had been war machines such as the Iron Men. Humans themselves had rarely taken the field to slaughter one another with blades and firearms.
This age had shown him only a small corner of itself, yet it had already left him deeply shaken.
At every moment, his worldview was being rewritten. He had no choice but to spend time and effort adapting to this damned reality.
Though its warfare did not compare to the intensity of the past, in that age humanity had eradicated xenos threats with Iron Men numerous enough to fill entire star systems. Those terrifying warships could extinguish stars with a single shot, while nanomachines could easily break down everything on an entire planet into the materials required.
Apart from the Aeldari who called themselves the Aeldari, and the Necrons discovered on certain death worlds, humanity had encountered almost no enemies.
Even the things called Greenskin Orks would be exterminated before they could form terrifying green tides. They had their own Emperor as well, and both sides maintained restraint.
But the wars of this age were far more barbaric and bloody. Warriors slaughtered one another with bolters and swords. Titan god-machines exchanged fire at extremely close range and fought with immense melee weapons suited to their size.
Both sides that bled were human. The losses always belonged to humanity as a whole.
"We have come to understand the dangers of the Warp. My brother Lorgar embraced it, and I do not even know whether some evil entities within it deceived him."
Even after being betrayed by his closest brother, Guilliman felt waves of sorrow after calming down. They shared the same father, yet Lorgar had swung the blade of betrayal without hesitation.
Lox noticed Guilliman's low spirits.
While the primarch observed him, he was silently observing the other man as well.
What an incredible creature. How did that man called the Emperor create a life so close to perfection? More importantly—his humanity is far stronger than I imagined.
A primarch's strength was certainly not something as crude as physical might. That was merely a faint projection of their true nature. Their essence was of a higher order, far beyond ordinary humans.
Even during the Dark Age of Technology, Lox had never seen a creation of genetic engineering so perfect.
Since awakening, Lox had done his best to analyze everything he saw from an objective perspective. Though he had taken in some warriors of the Shattered Legions after Isstvan V and assisted the Ultramarines during the Battle of Calth, that did not mean he had taken the Imperium's side.
The barbarity and fanaticism displayed by the Imperium were likewise difficult for him to accept. It was simply that compared to those enemies, the Imperium was not rotten quite so thoroughly.
Yet after coming into contact with Guilliman, Lox had to admit that he had been somewhat influenced by the aura the other man carried.
He had originally intended to leave once this was over and never involve himself in these tangled affairs again, but after debating with Guilliman, he had begun to waver.
Perhaps running away truly was not the best solution.
Guilliman possessed the air of a leader that made people trust him and feel favorably toward him without even realizing it.
Therefore, so long as the Red Alert's safety could be ensured, Lox did not mind lending this primarch a hand.
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