Earthquake

The Emperor had brought the Primarchs to the planet of Verracene to see some of the geothermal features that they had been learning about at Nova. Terra had finally become geologically stable which pleased the Emperor. However, it did mean that geothermal features, along with other geological phenomena that the Primarchs were learning about, were absent.
Valdor was with them, as there had been uprisings near Verracene recently. It was unlikely that there would be problems on Verracene itself, but that possibility was still there. They were all opting to stay planet-side so they could get an early start on their tour of geysers and other things.
They were staying in four rooms. The Emperor and Valdor sharing one room and six Primarchs each in the three other rooms. Two of the rooms were across the hall, but that was the best they could do and keep everyone close together.
The Emperor woke up abruptly the first night they were there. Something felt wrong, and it took him a moment to realize what it was. He could hear one of Leman's wolves whimpering in the next room. Sitting up, the Emperor turned to look at Valdor.
"Get the other Primarchs," the Emperor said quietly. He then stood, and went to the door joining the two rooms together. Perturabo, Jaghatai, Leman, Sanguinius, Magnus, and Horus were all awake. Leman was trying to coax Freki and Geri out from under the bed. They weren't moving, and Geri was whining.
Valdor opened the door from the hallway and the other twelve Primarchs followed him into the room. Everyone had already been awake, though the Primarchs looked confused, and a bit worried.
"What's going on, Father?" Magnus asked.
"Something feels wrong," the Lion said, adding his voice to Magnus'.
"I'm not sure," the Emperor said. The building they were in began to shake. "Everyone, into the bathroom."
The Emperor lead the others to the bathroom in the room. Leman tried to dive under the bed to grab at Freki and Geri. Valdor snagged him and carried him to the bathroom. The Emperor shut the door once Valdor entered. Leman escaped from Valdor's grasp and ran right into the waiting arms of the Emperor.
"Freki! Geri!" Leman yelled, nearly crying.
"They will be alright," the Emperor said. He was sitting with his back against the door. The bathroom wasn't meant for twenty people, and a little cramped with everyone inside. The Primarchs clustered as best they could around the two adults. Horus and Sanguinius were also close to the Emperor. A few of the Primarchs had ended up climbing into the tub.
The lumens went dark. Valdor activated the lumen globes on his armor. They bathed the room in stark light. Most of the Primarchs had pressed closer to the adults if they could. Those in the tub clumped together.
Finally, the shaking stopped. Leman raised his head from the Emperor's chest. The Emperor didn't open the door though.
"We'll wait in case there are after shocks," the Emperor said. There were a few short tremors, then the Emperor opened the door. The beams from Valdor's armor lights spilled out onto Freki and Geri crawling out from under the bed. Leman all but vaulted over the Emperor to get to his wolf brothers.
"Freki! Geri!" Leman called as they came together. The two wolves knocked Leman over and began to lick his face.
"How bad is the damage?" Rogal mused aloud. Ferrus pulled out his auspex unit and began a scan.
"There's no power," Ferrus said. "At least not as far as I can scan."
"Vox networks are down," Valdor reported after a moment.
"I will make contact with the planetary governor," the Emperor said. The others stepped away from the Emperor a bit, trying to keep themselves quiet. It was a few moments before the Emperor returned his attention to them.
"They have a flyer in bound so that we can assist with the rescue operations," the Emperor said.
"Separate groups or all together?" Valdor asked.
"All together at first," the Emperor said. "We will be working with different teams when we arrive at the worst affected site."
"Very well," Valdor said.
"Can Freki and Geri come?" Leman asked.
"Yes," the Emperor said. "The planetary governor was most pleased with the idea of having them assist. Other body sniffing dogs won't be on site for several hours yet."
"Alright," Leman said. Freki and Geri were trained primarily in combat, as was befitting their positions with Leman. However, they were also trained in body finding so that they could be useful in this type of situation.
The Primarchs dressed quickly. Neither of the adults had that need. The Emperor could manifest his armor, Valdor had never gotten out of his. They moved outside to wait for the flyer. It arrived and they boarded quickly.
They arrived at the epicenter of the earthquake. The building their flyer went to had been a hab block. Half the building had collapsed, and the other half didn't look very stable. The flyer landed and the Primarchs poured out. Rescue workers were eagerly waiting for the Emperor and the others.
"Perturabo, Rogal, and Ferrus" the Emperor said. "Work together, try to keep the rest of the building from collapsing."
"Right," the three Primarchs chorused. They moved off.
"What of me, Father?" Vulkan asked.
"Fire supression," the Emperor replied.
"Right," Vulkan said, smiling.
"Can they find people, lord?" a firefighter asked Leman, gesturing to Freki and Geri.
"Yeah," Leman said. "Freki, Geri, search."
The two wolves began to sniff around the collapsed area. They spread out, Leman trying to stay between them so that he could go to either if they found anyone. The other Primarchs spread out, helping to find people. The Lion looked a bit odd as he kept looking around to assure he could visually account for people he was sensing.
Freki began to howl, he had found someone below the rubble. Leman rushed over, rewarding Freki for a good job, and then instructing the wolf to dig. Other rescuers were helping as well. After a few moments Leman heard someone calling up to them.
"Please, help," came the faint voice.
"We're getting close," Leman said. "I can hear a woman calling for help."
"We have a problem though," said one of the rescuers. They had gotten to what had once been an interior wall. It had fallen almost completely intact, creating a very large slab. "This is going to take a lifter to move."
"We don't have a lifter here though," one of the others said. "We have las-cutters though."
"That'll take hours," the first one said. Leman looked about, and noted that Valdor didn't seem too busy.
"Valdor," Leman called over to the Custodian. "Can you help us over here?"
"I should be able to," Valdor said. He approached, and noted the size and relative weight of the wall. He picked two of the larger men in the group with Leman and had them help him lever up the wall.
Leman slipped into the space they had made. There was a woman, with two very small children. The younger was maybe two or three Terran standard. The woman lifted this one up to Leman who took the child and moved away. Other rescuers moved into the space and retrieved the older child and the mother.
"Thank you," the woman was sobbing to the rescuers who had pulled her out. With everyone out of the area, Valdor let the wall back to the ground.
Sanguinius was proving very helpful in getting ropes and gear to people. This was often when they had to tunnel to a person, or create a deep hole. He came up on a location where they were just opening a space they knew would be deep. One of the men had an auspex and was detecting a faint life sign in the space.
They got the last layer out of the way, and Sanguinius prepared to take a rope and basket down. He glanced in the hole, and spotted a baby. The mother, he was certain, was dead, the body shielding the baby. He waved the basket away and glided down into the hole. The baby was wailing, and squirmed a bit when he picked it up.
"It's alright," Sanguinius said to the baby as he held it carefully. "You're just going on a quick ride." With that he launched himself back into the air, holding the baby close to his chest.
"You should probably take her to the medicae," one of the rescuers said. Sanguinius nodded, he landed and carried the baby. He was certain that would be safer. The medicae took the baby from him once he arrived.
"What of the mother?" the medicae who took the baby asked.
"Dead," Sanguinius said. "She was shielding the baby."
"Very well," the medicae said.
Sanguinius headed back to where the main operations was, to see who else needed his help. He paused, still thinking about the baby's mother. A hand on his shoulder startled him a moment. Looking up, he found Valdor standing next to him.
"Are you alright, Sanguinius?" Valdor asked.
"Yes," Sanguinius said. "I was just thinking about a body I found. A mother, shielding her baby."
"I see," Valdor said. He was taking some time to check on all the Primarchs to see how they were handling the situation. Several of them were distressed at the destruction that they were witnessing. This didn't make it any easier to handle.
"It's weird," Sanguinius said. "For this kind of destruction there's usually someone to blame for it. But this time, there's no one, just the planet itself."
"It is a bit strange," Valdor said. "There is no guarantee that it won't happen again."
"Yes," Sanguinius said.
The two were distracted by the sound of Angron yelling as he ran into the remains of a wall. It collapsed neatly, while other rescuers came in behind and began to pull people out of the rubble.
"Seems like someone's having a good time with it," Sanguinius said with a chuckle.
"Agreed," Valdor said with a smile on his face.
They continued helping for a few more hours before the Emperor pulled them out. They had to wait a few moments while Mortarion was cleared by the medicae. He had run into an area of the hab unit that had a large gas leak in it. He had saved all three people that could be found.
"You're quite lucky, my lord," the medicae checking Mortarion said.
"Maybe," Mortarion said. "I'm immune to most gasses, beyond those from Barbaras. What about the people I pulled out?"
"They should make full recoveries," the medicae assured him.
"That's good," Mortarion said as he stepped away from the area the medicae had set up in.
"This wasn't the experience I was thinking of," Perturabo said. "It was good though."
"Agreed," Magnus said. "Experiencing the earthquake was very interesting."
"This here was also important," Roboute said. "This is the wider effect of geologic activity that we can forget about on Terra."
"It's surprising how easy it is to forget," Ferrus said. "And how much can be lost because of it. The people of Medusa had to relearn how to build so that things like this wouldn't happen often there."
"Nocturne has a similar issue," Vulkan said. "As does Fenris I believe."
"Yes," Leman said. "The tectonic activity on Fenris is a major reason why the Fang took so long to build."
"It gives more weight to some of what Malcador does," Horus said. "Keeping knowledge so that it isn't fully lost."
"True," Lorgar said. "However, it does have to be spread for it to not be lost."
"If it's kept safe, it can be recovered," Corvus pointed out. "Like STCs."
"Fair enough," Lorgar said. "I guess nothing truly stays around forever."
"But almost nothing is truly lost either," the Emperor said. "It's always rediscovered, or reinvented."