Rivers of blood

Bolter rounds of every kind kept flying. The towering Luna Wolves Terminator in the corridor was already dead, and the remaining warriors used his enormous corpse as cover as they traded fire with Evan and the others.

The Luna Wolves were the Sixteenth Legion of the First Founding Legions. Once one of the Emperor's proudest forces, they had been the first to venture into the stars. Their first battle had secured the base on Luna, earning them the name Luna Wolves.

They could be called the Chapter that had once enjoyed the closest relationship with the White Scars. On Ullanor, the two Chapters had launched a joint assault on the leader of a vast Ork empire and beheaded him. After that battle, the Emperor had named Horus, Primarch of the Luna Wolves, Warmaster and placed him in command of the entire Expeditionary Force.

The Luna Wolves had renamed themselves the Sons of Horus. It had been an honor.

Unfortunately, the Chaos Gods had seduced them into rebellion.

Horus had led half the Astartes in revolt and fought his way to Terra.

In the end, the Emperor had faced Horus, empowered by the four Dark Gods of the Warp, in single combat and won. But his own wounds had been too severe. At the final moment before death, he had been seated within the special stasis field of the Golden Throne. From then on, he had become a living corpse, unable to speak or move.

After the Emperor had obliterated Horus in body and soul, the Sons of Horus had fled into the Warp. Most now served in the Black Legion under Abaddon.

The name Luna Wolves had been absent from the Warhammer World for ten thousand years. Evan had no such reservations. Luna Wolves simply rolled off the tongue.

"Aren't the Luna Wolves a Chaos force without any particular allegiance? Shouldn't they be openly fighting the Imperium under Abaddon right now? What the hell brought them here to help Khorne? Did Khorne lose his underpants to them in a bet?"

"Who knows? Be careful. These Sons of Horus still have another suit of Terminator armour. I just saw his right arm."

Both sides traded fire, but the Green Templars held the advantage behind their prepared defenses. Gajie's ion rifle, in particular, could inflict serious damage on Terminators. After it blasted the already-dead Cataphractii Terminator into scrap, the Luna Wolves withdrew, leaving another ordinary warrior dead behind them.

"William, William, can you hear me? This is Zerelo. We're under heavy attack at the Church. We need support."

William looked around at the Astartes. Evan was the first to volunteer.

"I'll go. I'm a Primaris Astartes." If someone had to reinforce them, only a Primaris Astartes could provide effective support without leaving their own line at risk of collapse.

Evan took the Fear Spear from Gajie, detached the Ion Pistol and tucked it at his waist, then grabbed a few Melta Bombs and set off.

Charles took Evan's Bolter and flashed him a victory sign.

"Hold that Church. Hero of Atris."

Evan took another passage and crossed the Kitchen Area. Just before reaching his destination, he heard an unusual sound.

It sounded like several Astartes running.

Once again, his powerful White Scars gifts gave him the initiative. Evan quickly ducked into a storage room, planted a Melta Bomb, and quietly readied the Fear Spear.

The footsteps drew closer. Evan had no idea whether they belonged to friends or foes, but his right hand had already tightened around the Fear Spear. He raised it overhead like Runtu poised to spear a cha, while his left hand rested on the grip of his Ion Pistol.

A dark-gold head appeared before him. An enemy!

The Fear Spear struck instantly, hitting the enemy squarely in his oversized head. An Astartes' enormous pauldrons normally protected his head against attacks from the side, but Evan, as a Primaris Astartes, stood half a meter taller than them. With his spear raised, the thrust came almost directly from above.

With the first strike landed, Evan dropped low and fired an overloaded shot from his Ion Pistol at the enemies behind.

A violent explosion erupted in the rear. He seemed to have hit an enemy's magazine and set off the ammunition.

Evan did not dare poke his head out to check. He pulled the Fear Spear free and ducked back into the room.

The Luna Wolves reacted by hurling several grenades and bombs. Furious, they planned to charge as the grenades detonated, using the blasts to conceal their footsteps.

But Evan's Melta Bomb went off first. A sudden melta blast erupted behind the Chaos Astartes' formation, flinging the rearmost Luna Wolf away.

Bursting out from behind them, Evan drove the Fear Spear into the first enemy he saw.

His immense Primaris strength punched through both the Chainsword raised to parry him and the Power Armour covering the enemy's chest.

The two remaining Astartes were stunned. Their own grenades lay ahead, while behind them an enormous Astartes had charged out with the melta blast and skewered their rearmost brother with a single thrust.

What else could they do? They turned and opened fire. Their Bolters roared as Evan lifted the impaled corpse with his spear, held it in front of himself, and charged.

The grenades exploded at that moment, sending a powerful shock wave into the two Astartes from behind. Normally, it would have been nothing, but now it pushed the two Chaos warriors forward just a little, shortening the distance still further.

Before they could draw their Power Swords, the bullet-riddled corpse was shoved into their faces.

Evan kept driving forward, pushing both enemies straight into the hole their own grenades had just blasted open.

Right. Pull out the spear and run.

Before leaving, he gave the enemy knocked down by the melta blast another thrust.

Five against one, three killed and two driven off. Round that up, and I'm a company champion.

In fact, once Primaris Space Marines gained enough combat experience, they were more than capable of serving as captains in companies of firstborn Space Marines. All they lacked was time and experience.

Calling them the Emperor's damned little Custodians was not just Primaris Space Marine hype. They really did carry part of a Primarch within them, and their combat strength was genuinely ferocious.

By the time the two unlucky Luna Wolves climbed out of the Seafood Storage Room below, Evan was long gone.

Evan felt miserable as he sprinted down the passage. Severed limbs lay everywhere, along with countless enemy weapons, some still attached to severed hands.

He could not pick up the enemy's weapons. Exposure to the Warp might have left them with unknown effects on him. Normally, the Adeptus Mechanicus had to bless them repeatedly before they could be used again.

As Evan kept running, it felt as though gold bars kept appearing on the floor, and he could not pick up a single one.

When he reached the Church, the fighting there was brutal. Every portrait and statue of the Emperor had been destroyed. Bombs of every kind had torn great holes in the surrounding bulkheads covered in blessings.

The Chaplain had accompanied Deika to the Steadfast Splendor. An aspirant Chaplain now held the Church, but both his legs had been blasted off. Sitting beneath the shattered statue of the Emperor, he still fired his Bolter, though he could no longer aim accurately.

Evan immediately joined the battle, sending the Terminator opposite him flying with an overloaded Ion Gun shot.

The fighting on the Storm Will side was sheer madness. A massive bombardment cannon shattered an enemy Strike Cruiser's Void Shield with a single shot. Macro-cannon batteries kept firing, and a Vortex Torpedo blew the enemy Strike Cruiser apart at close range. Only a few assault pods managed to reach their ship for boarding.

The Sons of Horus Battle Barge behaved strangely. It concentrated its fire on the largest Storm Will Battle Barge and even launched a mass boarding assault against it.

Meanwhile, the other Storm Will Battle Barge came under no attack at all and poured fire into the other warships without restraint.

This also favored the Storm Will Chapter's warriors. We might not be the best at running battles, but defending against boarders? Heh. If it has "defense" in the name, there's nothing we can't handle.

But the Sons of Horus seemed to have committed all their strength to boarding this Battle Barge. Skaro and the First Company veterans, who had originally intended to board the enemy, also joined its defense.

"Wait. Those Chaos bastards aren't planning to..."

"Damn it! Evasive maneuvers!"

Generally speaking, Battle Barges were exceptionally valuable warships. No faction would willingly abandon one unless it was confident it could seize a replacement.

The Sons of Horus Battle Barge suddenly rammed the Storm Will fleet. The Strike Cruisers reacted quickly enough to escape the collision, but the heavily armored Battle Barges finally struck each other. Whatever method the deranged Luna Wolves had used, their entire ship detonated with ten times the force of its Void Shield and Plasma Reactor exploding together. The Battle Barge Storm Will had only just acquired vanished in an instant.

"Sons of Horus! You'll pay for this!"

The fiercest fighter was not Chapter Master Skaro, but the newly thawed, "newly promoted" Dreadnought Warrior, former Chapter Master Kargas Bel.

This Dreadnought was no suit of Tactical Dreadnought Armour, but a genuine, enormous killing machine. From the outside, it resembled a giant mechanical box, fully 3.8 meters wide and 4 meters tall. It carried the strongest shields and the most terrifying infantry-scale weapons, and was normally piloted by a grievously wounded figure of importance within the Chapter.

Piloting such a machine required most of the pilot's flesh to be destroyed, with all his neural connection points converted into terminals linked to the Dreadnought. This gave him complete control over it, but also left him in constant, tremendous pain. Only ceaseless slaughter could ease his suffering.

Outside wartime, Dreadnoughts were frozen or placed within a stasis field to extend their pilots' lives and relieve their suffering until the enemy arrived.

At this moment of life and death, every Storm Will Dreadnought had been awakened. Eleven giant machines guarded different parts of the Battle Barge with devastating firepower. Even enemy Terminators were instantly shredded by their terrifying weapons.

Of the Green Templars' five Dreadnoughts, four had already entered battle aboard the Battle Barge.

The last was aboard the Strike Cruiser: Morgkin, the Chapter Master before the previous one. Deika had left him here to ensure that someone could step forward and temporarily lead the Chapter if anything happened to him and the Battle Barge.

Now Morgkin had stepped forward. Machines this enormous could hardly board enemy warships in assault pods. Without a Chief Librarian or special machinery aboard a warship to teleport them through the Warp, they generally remained aboard their own ships or traveled by transport.

His steps were lumbering, but nothing could shake him. Morgkin's Cyclone-pattern Hurricane Bolter and Meltagun opened fire in succession. An enemy in Indomitus-pattern Terminator armour, with five heads mounted on his power pack, some Astartes and some Ork, roared and charged him. He seemed to be a champion.

"When I return, I shall slay the False Emperor!"

Morgkin sneered. Two seconds. If you last two seconds, I'll spell my name backward. His immense firepower tore apart both the enemy and the ship's wall behind him. You dare run your mouth in front of me without a heavy tank to hide behind?

I was the man who fought through an entire Renegade Knight House in a Dreadnought. (He could boast all he liked. Everyone who knew what had really happened had already gone to the Throne.)

Evan had successfully ambushed a Terminator and was savoring the pleasure of being a sneaky bastard when a burst of bolter fire punched through the wall to his left and struck him.

"Fuck!" Evan took three bolter rounds in succession. His entire left pauldron exploded, and the Fear Spear in his hand snapped.

He immediately dropped prone and drew his Plasma Pistol. It was still overloaded. Forget it, forget it. Evan, a self-proclaimed utterly disloyal materialist, decided not to take that gamble after all.

He pulled out a Melta Bomb and prepared to throw it.

"Huh? White armour? Isn't that our Dreadnought?"

"Ho ho ho! Sorry, lad. Couldn't stop firing in time. Huh, why are you so big?"

Big? Do you have any idea how big you are?

Right. He probably hasn't come out to fight in at least a hundred years. An old freezer fossil. How do I explain this? I can't start with the Primarch parts implanted in me. That'd take nine chapters and eighteen installments.

"Custodes experiment."

(The old Dreadnought had meant to ask why Evan was taller than an ordinary Primaris, but Evan thought he had never seen a Primaris before.)

"Good lad. I've got high hopes for you." He understood, sure, but why do I keep dropping down the seniority ladder?

With those two reinforcing them, everyone quickly cleared out the enemies in front of the Church.

"Lad, there aren't any enemies left. I'm bored."

Evan was busy collecting their own weapons from the battlefield. Oh, this Power Sword still works. Hey, there's another Melta Bomb over there.

"Hey. Hey, lad. Did you hear me? I'm talking to you."

"What do you want, old man?"

"What do you mean, old man? Call me former-former Chapter Master Mor—forget it. Battle-brother... actually, old man will do." He had nearly raised Evan to his own standing. Everyone in the Chapter called each other brother, but this new... never mind. Old man it was.

"Go lure some enemies over for me to kill."

"What? These are Chaos Space Marines, not Orks. I'm afraid they'll kill me if I'm even a little slow to shoot, and you want me to lure them over?"

The old man was speechless.

He simply turned the Dreadnought's loudspeaker up to maximum. "For the Emperor! You vile traitors, come and die!"

The deafening voice even made the Chaplain, who was bandaging his own legs, flinch.

Clacking footsteps approached from every direction. Several Luna Wolves Terminators charged out first.

"Slay the False Emperor-fuck!" Overwhelming firepower tore every enemy who dared show himself to pieces.

Evan was speechless. This old monster's pretty good at pulling enemies.

Meanwhile, he kept throwing Melta Bombs. Hiding behind cover? Let's see whether you run when I toss a bomb over.

What? The Luna Wolves' attacks?

Evan stood behind the Dreadnought, occasionally adding a shot from his Plasma Pistol.

This Dreadnought's more reliable than the Emperor's Baneblade Super-Heavy Tank. What are you afraid of?

A battered Battle Barge sailed in from the outskirts of the system to join the Chapter.

"A disgrace! An absolute disgrace!" Skaro, the current Chapter Master of Storm Will, smashed the table apart. Despite outnumbering the enemy, they had lost two ships in one-for-one exchanges. Their Strike Cruiser had avoided the enemy's self-destruction, only for the enemy Chief Librarian to teleport six Dreadnoughts and a hundred Chaos Astartes directly aboard it. Skaro had immediately ordered every Astartes aboard the cruiser to evacuate in fighters and Drop Pods, then had the ship self-destruct.

The enormous explosion reduced some warriors in their Drop Pods to ash as well. In the end, only seventy-seven Astartes were recovered.

It was the most decisive decision in Storm Will's history, and also the costliest.

Mostly, the Luna Wolves had pulled that stunt first, and Skaro had lost his temper. So we're seeing who can be more ruthless? Bring it on.

Young men are hotheaded. Former Chapter Master Kargas Bel watched the old warship he had commanded for so many years perish along with a host of enemies, his feelings unbearably complicated... in plain terms, he was chasing Skaro around and cursing him out.

Evan and the others had held the Blessed Forest, but the force boarding the enemy warship did not seem to have succeeded either.

No one had time to concern themselves with anything else. They were strengthening their defenses for a second boarding wave, but the enemy warships seemed to have lost the will to fight and were rapidly pulling away.

Then they saw a massive bombardment cannon blast a Strike Cruiser without a Void Shield into dust.

"Your scrap metal can't protect your filthy flesh! Die, scum!" Kargas Bel's roar rang throughout the Communications Channel.

With the fighting temporarily over, Evan ran back to his original position to regroup with William, Kshevich, Gajie, and Charles.

To regroup.

To regroup...

Evan stood at the entrance to the passage. Severed limbs lay all around him. Fragments of the Meltagun and a broken Ion Gun lay forlornly on the floor. Blood flowed through the entire corridor.

"Is... anyone... Evan re... requesting permission to rejoin..."

An empty Communications Channel. An empty heart.

The enemies had been dealt with. The Green Templars Space Marines supported one another as they returned to the bridge.

Nine. Only nine Astartes remained alive. Fourth Company Captain Zhanke had died somewhere unknown. The Fifth Company Captain had boarded the enemy Strike Cruiser and had already gone to the Emperor's Throne.

Inside his Dreadnought, Morgkin was the first to break the silence.

"Is the Techmarine still alive?"

"I'm a Techmarine aspirant," said a warrior who had lost a leg.

Morgkin casually pointed to a warrior who appeared unwounded.

"Go. Carry him and inspect the Plasma Reactor and Void Shield. See whether the ship can still move."

On the enormous bridge, everyone watched the Storm Will Chapter's Battle Barge pass overhead, then plunge toward the Main Battlefield.

"Reporting in. They still work. There's also a warrior here who's unconscious with both legs blown off. We need the Apothecary."

The Apothecary Aspirant had already been collecting gene-seed throughout the ship. At the news, he rushed toward the reactor room like a madman.

Morgkin, the Chapter Master before the previous one, watched the departing Battle Barge.

"Everyone, pull yourselves together. Since I joined the Green Templars, we've never suffered a loss this bad. Follow that friendly Battle Barge and bring your Chapter Master back. I'm not dead yet. That brat Deika doesn't get to die before me."

The Blessed Forest set course for the Main Battlefield.

Every Astartes aboard the Blessed Forest voted in favor of renaming the Strike Cruiser the Vengeful Sword.

The machine spirit was pleased~~