“Will that be enough to sustain you?” asked Trazyn, his perceptive green gaze roaming over my new form.

  “For a while,” I said. “It’s still a paltry amount, Astartes geics are rotting and ing apart at the seams after all these turies. Hardly that much bio-energy in these, but I should be able to fun at full capacity — in my previous form — for … about half a minute.”

  “How powerful would that form be?” he asked, musing aloud. “And would that be the most powerful form you could take?”

  “The previous form could probably rival a weakened, unarmed Custodes,” I said, remembering the capabilities of that prototype Psyker Form. “And no, that one is far from my most powerful ohough you’ll have to cough up about five thousand more Marines like this one for me to build that body. I don’t suppose you have that lying around?”

  “No,” he said, tapping his fiips on his metallic . “You said Tyranid biomass works best, how many Termagants would that form cost?”

  [Answer: 984]

  “Around a thousand,” I said. “Tenth that in Hive Tyrants, approximately. OR a single Norn Queen. Those are extremely nutritious, surprisingly enough.”

  “I believe I do have something that could work,” he said evenly. “As, I’d be loathe to waste it should we be able to aplish my goals here without it. Let it be a st resort, and emergency measure, if you will.”

  “You do you,” I shrugged. “But I’m not letting this avatar fall into the hands of the Imperium. If I believe it is going to get captured or destroyed, I’ll self-destruct.”

  “I uand,” he nodded. “Though I believe it won’t e down to it. It’s doubtful anything tougher than a Space Marine is going to stand in our way. This should be a quick, easy in-and-out.”

  Not if my bad luck has anything to say about it. I mused. Or that bitch Fate. She seems to have something against me tely … or more like my whole life.

  I cracked my ned rolled my shoulders, a superficial gesture, but it put me into the right mindspabsp;

  “Lead the way then.”

  *****

  “This might prove to be a problem,” Trazyn whispered, hiding under some cloaking tech of his own while I stood patiently at the back of a hurong, fully armoured Samander crowd. “Perhaps bringing you was the problem, I wasn’t aware you were so … popur.”

  “Eh,” I shrugged inwardly, responding in a whisper made by vibrating the air with my soul energy. “He won’t be much of a problem. Look at him, he doesn’t even know I’m right here, though I wonder how exactly he ko track me here … w. Still, it could be fun to see how close I could get to him without him knowing.”

  “Please,” Trazyn said with what I assumed was a roll of his eyes. “We have an objective here, do not jeopardise my quest with your whims.”

  “I wouldn’t dare,” I answered with a smile in my voice. “Just slipping under his notice will be fun enough. What’s your pn anyway?”

  “Follow them,” said Trazyn. “There is supposed to be a crypt uhis base, and our target should be hidden away behind a round of riddles and whatever else, but only these Astartes of Vul’s progeny know how to open up the crypt itself.”

  “And you need me for this?” I asked, actually curious about why he pulled me out of stasis if he had that fancy cloaking tech of his.

  “Take this as both a precaution and a preliminary experiment of seeing how effective you are on a seard retrieve mission,” he said. Which is to say, he was just testi like I was some oy he just got. Oh well, whatever. I got myself some hand-delivered fun side adveo some a crypt. I couldn’t really find it in myself to feel put off, quite the opposite.

  “Sounds good,” I said. As we spoke, I watched the golden giant stao the Samander Captain, arguing about something ihe Custodian was telling the Captain that he should assist him in finding a ‘strange alien woman with white hair’ — I wonder who that could be? — while the Captain was ret that he couldn’t give less of a shit about some exotio with Vul’s Artefact being within arm’s reach.

  “I am telling you, Custodian, that if there were any such aliens present in this very base, my men would have caught wind of it.”

  Right. I rolled my eyes. I basically just walked in and these bunch of idiots didn’t even notice. I barely had to use some telepathic suggestions even to ward off suspi.

  “I am not putting doubt into the capabilities of your men,” said the Custodian. “I am merely pointing out the fact that the xeno I am pursuing is capable enough to evade them. It has mao evade capture by my battle-brothers for months now, after all.”

  Have I really?

  “I very much doubt it would have any reason to e here. This world is dead as be, it has nothing besides rock, magma aal. And we have a mission here, if apanying us on it helps in your own mission, then you are of course wele, but our objective takes prey men. I ot spare any resources to assist you in your hunt.”

  “That is agreeable,” said the Custodian. “If it is here, I have no doubt it’s after the same thing you are.”

  Spot on you are, my golden friend.

  “That would be the st mistake it makes.” The Captain said gravely, giving a nod to the Custodian before turning back to the crowd.

  Doubtful.

  “We will not let this derail our mission,” the Captain raised his voice. “Today is the day, the only day of this tury on which we have a ce at opening the a crypts below this fortress. This is the finish line, we have hunted across the stars for the ‘key’ and today we will finally put it into its lod cim the legacy of our Primarch. Onwards.”

  There was a roar from the crowd as the Captain strode through it with vi, then we all fell in step behind him in formation and followed as he led us down into twisting circur stairways leading into the depths of the mountain.

  I g the Custodian trailing behind us, dressed in full battle regalia and grasping his guardian spear in hand. No nasty surprises apparent, I should be able to handle a Custodian without Shadowkeeper toys. Well, if I get some more bio-energy, this avatar is still running on fumes.

  I could have pulled out some from my ‘emergency reserves’ stashed away in my Realm, but this didn’t quite feel like enough of an emergency to warrant that. Plus, I was sure half the p would feel me opening a gate to pull the bio-energy through. Which was a huge yikes, especially if the golden boyscout was followed by his more dangerous, broody brothers.

  Stealth will be the key here. I do stealth. Yep. Totally won’t mess this up.

  *****

  Octavian“Honoured Custodian,” one of the Marines breaks away from the back of their formation and slows to fall into step o Octavian. “Might I bother you for a question?”

  Might as well. Octavian thought. “What is it?”

  “Why are you so certain this Xeno is here?” The Samander asked.

  Octavian turned his head, gazing at the Samander impassively for a moment. The man was entirely unbothered by his gaze, which the Custodian found half-way worthy of respebsp;

  “Some of us dream of the Emperor’s will,” Octavian said. “His orders e as symbolic visions, or clear instrus usually, but at times they are more nuanced … I myself have what is a pass, pointi what my Lord wants and that pass is aimed at this fortress.”

  “I see,” the Marine said. “I’m hohat you shared this knowledge with me, even if on a whim.”

  “Think nothing of it.”

  Where could she be? Octavian wondered, barely paying attention to the zily strutting Space Mario him. I’m sure she is in this building. I circled around and my inner pass points here.

  Unfortunately, it went almost entirely silent a while bad was merely giving him a vague feeling that he was in the right pbsp;

  She’ll show herself sooner or ter. That woma have a single subtle bone in her body.

  *****

  “I believe this is what humans call ‘tempting fate’.”

  “So they do,” I whispered. “But now I know his Emperor is somehow trag me and giving my vague location to him. That’s just poor sportsmanship.”

  “True omnisce is impossible,” said Trazyn with vi. “No gods, dead or alive, had ever seehing. A human won’t be the oo aplish what they could not. However he is trag you, must have a way to defend against.”

  “Probably,” I said, squinting in thought. Perhaps indeed. Would a Shadow keep him from seeing me? Hmmm. I could probably build some Tyranids into my eventual base to have a Shadow c it, couldn’t I? It would also allow me to tap into the to recharge with some level of safety.

  [‘Attempt the creation of an artificial Shadow in the ’ has been added to the To-Do list.]

  Thanks. That would have to do for now, I didn’t have time or even the space to experiment at the moment with one of my avatars being on this mission and the other currently streaking through space faster than light.

  “So it is time,” I caught the Captain whispering as he stepped up to a gigantient shaped into the aged iron-looking wall. The space we stood in was cavernous, the entire base the Samanders used here having been carved into a titanic mountain and we’d been desding on the gently sloping hallways for an hour at this point. “Bring the key.”

  I watched with rapt attention, probably being only slightly less enthused about beihan Trazyo me who I could tell was engraving every miail of this historient into his memory. A squad of marines in fancier armour than the rest stepped forth, surrounded by a pair of Librarians wielding staffs that could have doubled for mp-posts with he they were. They held up a rge, metallic chest, heaving even as four marines grasped its four ers to hold it up and brought it before the Captain.

  “Put it down,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper and I could hear the emotion tinting every sylble even as he spoke through his helmet.

  Every single soul hung in suspense, waiting for the grand … something to happen. As, reality was not always a perfect factory for dramatid we had to wat as the captain struggled to extract his hand from his gau food minute before he finally mao pce it upon some biometric verifier atop the box.

  “Do you think that thing takes his palm-print too, or is it just geic data like their datastes?” I asked Trazyn, leaning over to him to whisper troversially.

  “There could be,” he said, distracted. “Whatever artefact this ‘Key’ is, it should be a for them. Palm-print reition is far too primitive and easy to circumvent in this day and age, even for the Imperium.”

  “Hmm, then he could have just spit on it,” I whispered. “If all the thing needed was a geic sample.”

  “That would have been crass,” he said. “Ruining the moment … though I suppose this rui pleher way.”

  “Guillima that way,” I hummed.

  “Does he?” Trazyn asked with i clear in his voice. “I didn’t have the pleasure of ying my eyes on the Primarch as of now. Is he truly back as the rumours suggest? Or do you re it’s a e?”

  “You’ve caught this avatar on Baal,” I g him in bemusement. “He was on Baal, at the exact same time as I was. Not even that far away from where you threw me into your Labyrinth.”

  “Ah,” he froze. “Unfortunate. What a missed opportunity … adding the Lord of Ultramar to my Macragge exhibit would have beech of the millennium.”

  “That it would have been,” I said. “If you could actually catch him, he is quite strong, especially with the Emperor’s sword he carries around all day and the Armour of Fate he ’t live without.”

  “TODAY MY BROTHERS, WE RECLAIM AN ARTEFACT OF VULKAN! TODAY, WE ARE TAKING A STEP TOWARDS FULFILLING THE PROPHECY, TOWARDS REVIVING ENESIRE!”

  Thunderous shouts echoed in the darkness, making the very grouh our feet tremble. The captain held up a rge metallic key that looked oversized even in his gigantid and as he finished his speech, pushed it up against a lock carving on the wall.

  I dismissed the sound-dampening field I had up around myself and Trazyn and squinted, watg on as the wall shifted and moved before it swallowed up the key, ripping it out of the captain’s grasp. Waves flowed over the thousands of carvings, sculptures and motifs on the wall, and then it moved, splitting in the middle before peeling back.

  A dim red glow illumihe dark caverns revealed behind it as a warm, steaming gust of air surged out from the opening.

  Vulkan, Vulis System, Artefacts of Vulkan, should have expected the crypt to be built into an active volo.

  “FOLLOW ME BROTHERS! FOR VULKAN!”

  “””“FOR VUL!””””

  P3t1