chapter one dramatis personae and prologue
'because we couldn't be trusted. The empress needed a weapon that would never obey it's own desires before those of the imperium. She needed a weapon that would never bite the hand that feeds. the griffons of rage were not that weapon. we've all drawn blades purely for the sake of shedding blood'',and we've all felt the exultation of winning a war that never even needed to happen. We are not the tame, reliable pets that the empress wanted The wolves obey, when we would not. the wolves can be trusted, when we never could. They have a discipline we lack, because their passions are not aflame with the butchers nails buzzing in the back of their skulls.
'The wolves will always come to heel when called. In that regard, it is a mystery why they call themselves wolves. they are tame, collared by the empress, obeying her every whim. but a wolf does't behave that way. Only a dog does.
'That is why we are the griffons of rage and the war peagsi no longer'
- Eighth captain scootaloo
from her unpublished treatise the eighteen leigons
PROLOGUE
Isstvan III
Skane was the one to find the body. He stood knee-deep in the dead next to the wrecked hull of a Land Raider battle tank, his armour stained black by the sin of the weapons he wielded.
‘Kargos’ he voxed. His voice was tinny, laden with static. One of the enemy had caught him in the throat during the battle, and it had jarred his augmetic vocal cords. They'd need retuning once he returned to the Conqueror.
‘Kargos’ he said again, across the tomb-quiet vox-channel.
‘What’ His brothers reply was also flawed by static, but from more traditional vox-corruption rather than a bionic trachea.
‘Track my locator rune,’ said skane ‘get over here,’
‘i’m busy. Look around you, sergeant. You think you’re the only one that needs my help at the moment?.
Skane didn’t bother looking. He knew where he was and what he’d - he was at the heart of it all, and the dead numbered in the thousands.Most her wore armour the blueish black of the deep ocean cracked and shattered by the treachery of their former kindred.These were Luna’s former sons, betrayed by their brethren and slain for their disloyalty. Among their number, armour of blood stained white stood out like pearls among the black. Too many griffons of rage had fallen here, though victory was undeniable. The city was dead in every direction, reduced to ash and rubble.
A shadow fell across Skane, blocking out the weak sun as a Legio Audax Warhound passed with its rattle-clank stride, shaking the tortured ground. He lifted a hand to the war machine, receiving no acknowledgement beyond dull sunlight glinting on the titan’s ursus claw spear. It stalked onwards, splayed feet grinding ceramite and bone and twisted iron into the earth, its wolfish cockpit lowered as it hunted for life signs and scanner-scents among the dead and the dying.
Skane turned back to the ruined tank, kneeling by its front end where the minesweeper plough was decorated in scratches and gore. a body impaled on the dozer blade’s spikes twitched in uneasy repose, its fingers still scraping in futility across the metal. Skane wasn’t sure how the pinned warrior still lived, and doubted the trembling, bleeding figure would survive being pulled away from the blade. Nevertheless, he spoke again
‘Kargos,’ he said for the third time. it took the apothecary several seconds to answer.
‘I told you i’m busy. Fix your own damn throat, or shut up and wait until we’re back aboard the ship.’
Skane disengaged the seals at the dying warrior’s neck, lifting the helm free with a hiss of released air pressure. the revealed orange face was pale, bloodstained from the lips down, the eyes open and blind while the mouth worked in silent, wordless pain
‘I’ve found scootaloo,’ Skane voxed
This time, there was no delay in Kargos’s reply ‘I’m on my way.’
1
vox reports from the dragon-mar system
'any who hear these words. I implore you to carry them across the imperium. i am vice admiral filthy rich of the andarion Fleet stationed in the Quietus spread of dragon-mar. my personnel clearance numerical's are: 3-3-via-9-1-K-O-L-5-1 We have come under intentional and Malign attack by a fleet flying the colors of the Twelfth Griffons of rage Legion. our escorts are already dead. our remaining capital ships are suffering boarding actions. Most were destroyed outright. Get word t-
'Variano, they're still strangling this signal. I don't care how your do it, break through this jamming or i'll shoot you myself-
'This is admiral filthy rich of the andarion Fleet. Get word to the muster at Calth. Get word to Lord Spike. we are betrayed, we are betrayed.'
-Admiral Flithy rich
aboard the dragon marines battleship Legate, stationed at Latona
'Theodos to all remaining forces, maintain defensive formation above the arctic circle. Deny them bombardment until the uni-pathic cry is sent. Any unengaged support frigates in the seventeenth grid allocation, target the element of the words vessel identification Deadsong. kill it before it brings its lances to bear on the arctic bastion-.
'all Aequitas crew without sacrificial oaths, to the escape pods-.
'thoedos to the fleet: we're crippled and aflame, all non-essential crew abandoning ship. Disengage from any attempts to defend us. Repeat: Disengage from any attempts to defend us. Use your guns elsewhere-.
how is this not working? why are the uni-paths silent-.
'Put me through to the Deadsong. I don't care if they answer-
' I know you can hear me, seventeenth. We are your brothers. What madness has taken you? What mad-'
- Fleetmaster sorin, Theodos
Aboard the dragon marines warship Aequitas, stationed at Ulixis
'Still no word from the muster at calth muster. The signal may not even be reaching them.
'One of us has to get out of here alive...
'This is the flagship to the Azureus: break free by any means necessary. the tears of Kyanos and the Immortal patriarch are to move in support, executing a seven rises manoeuvre to take any and all punishment inbound for the Azureus. All escort squadrons, form up around the Azureus in a Deniquo interception pattern.
Igitur, break off your attack and bring your guns to bear in the thrid grid to support theAzureus. I want you to peel that twelfth ship off her tail. We'll only have one shot at this.
'Azureus in the name of the empress and the five hundred worlds, run and do not stop. run to Armatura, and give my regards to Orfeo.
