Horus sat in the Lupercal's Court, listening to a report from Garviel Loken. He had sent Loken out with some of the Luna Wolves to see what they could learn about Rogal's battle plans. It didn't seem like they had gotten much.
"They are set in three spheres," Loken was saying. "Three Legions in each sphere."
"Do you know how they're grouped?" Maloghurst asked.
"Yes," Loken said and relayed the groupings of Legions and roughly where they were on the system plane.
"Interesting," Abaddon said when Loken was done. "From what you've told us of your brothers, I would have thought Lord Jonson would have been grouped with Lords Vulkan and Corax."
"Balance," Horus said. "Rogal has made some good choices. It also helps him keep Leman on a tight leash."
"Do we meet trio with trio?" Torgaddon asked.
"It might be fun to brawl a bit," Little Horus Aximand said. "That's what I think it would turn into if we do that. What do you think, Sejanus?"
"No doubt," Sejanus said. "Is that a bad thing?"
"Not at all!" Aximand said. "What say you, Horus?"
"Hmm," Horus said, drawing out the hum. "Brothers?" As he asked this, hololithic projections of the others on his team appeared in the Court. Loken quickly moved to the side to be out of the way. He hadn't been dismissed, so he remained in the Court, excited to get to see them plan.
"Why are you asking if I want to brawl?" Angron asked. "Of course I want to brawl."
"Ooh! Ooh!" Konrad said, practically bouncing. "I just found the theme for Jaws in the music archive. Perhaps we can use it to jam the vox?"
"That's silly," Mortarion said. "Since when have you wanted to announce yourself?"
"But it's atmospheric!" Konrad protested. "We'll be like sharks hunting them. And if we use it to jam the vox, that would make them more isolated."
"I guess?" Mortarion questioned. "On the sharks part. I can get behind the isolation."
"I like this idea," Fulgrim said, to no one's surprise. "Who's going against who?"
"I'll think about it," Horus said. "Though, I will let Fulgrim go up against Ferrus if he wants."
"I do," Fulgrim said. Horus nodded, and decided to pair him with Mortarion and Alpharius.
"Konrad, you'll go with Angron and Lorgar," Horus said after thinking about it more. "You can go against the Lion, I know you've had a fight with him recently."
"When is he not fighting with the Lion?" Mortarion grumbled a little too loudly. Horus shot him a look before continuing.
"That will leave Perturabo and Magnus with me," he concluded. "Let's meet in our trios and figure out who's taking on who, except for the three we already know. I'll give you guys a few minutes to get things set up." With that, the hololiths of the other Primarchs went out, leaving just Perturabo, Magnus, and Horus to plan with their advisors.
*************************
"Eidolon, can you get the file location for the Jaws theme from Konrad for me?" Fulgrim asked. "We won't have long before we meet with Mortarion and Alpharius."
"Why do you want it, Lord?" Eidolon asked, even as he put in the request to the NIghtfall.
"Because he has a point about the song," Fulgrim said. "And we have a chance to out do him."
"How do you plan to do that?" Saul Tarvitz asked.
"By altering it," Fulgrim said. He seemed very happy someone had asked. "Making it creepier. Also, we can put in some of that metallic reverberation that Ferrus hates."
"The scraping one?" Vespasian asked.
"Yes," Fulgrim said with a nasty grin. "He made me look like a fool, so I can get back at him with that."
"Could we possibly record some of Ancient Rylanor's... theatrical laughter?" Tarvitz asked.
"Oh! That's a great idea!" Fulgrim said, eyes brightening at the idea. Rylanor was the Ancient of Rites, and also a Dreadnought. This made even his regular laughter sound odd. His theatrical laughter was even worse.
"I'll get on it," Tarvitz said. He and Rylanor were close, and he wouldn't be needed for the strategy meeting.
*************************
Erebus stormed out of Lorgar's private audience chamber, huffing as he cut across Joysepha's path. He glared at her, then continued on his way, saying something under his breath in Colchesian that she didn't quite get. She paused and stared after him, trying to figure of why he was so upset. Shaking her head, she continued to the door which had stayed open.
"Lord Aurelian?" she asked, stepping just inside the door in case it closed. "Is everything alright?"
"Oh, you saw Erebus?" Lorgar asked, turning to face her.
"Yes," Joysepha said. "He seemed most distraught."
"We are, disagreeing, on what stance to take in the coming engagement," Lorgar said. "He wants us to be more aggressive."
"I would think that was Lord Angron's forte," Joysepha said.
"It is," Lorgar said. "That's why I say we need to be more defensive. Angron's admitted himself that sometimes his anger gets to the point where it controls him. This is really noticeable in a fight, and can leave him over-extended."
"And you think you can keep up with him?" she asked.
"Not necessarily," Lorgar admitted. "But we might not have to. Angron can protect himself, even if he's in rage mode. However, we can protect his lines. Make his punch stronger for longer."
"A good idea," she said, nodding in approval. "Who is he targeting?"
"I'm hoping to convince him to go against Sanguinius," he said. "Angron's so good at getting under people's skin, and Sanguinius is known for having a very tight leash on his anger. It's there, and we all know it, but we've never seen it like with Angron. Or even some of the others like Ferrus, or Magnus."
"Do you think that is wise?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Possibly not, but I still want to see it," he said. "And the only thing I'd possibly change would be to have Father here."
Joysepha nodded, then paused as Lorgar turned his head slightly. His expression darkened, becoming a scowl. Sighing, he tapped at his cogitator a moment before he turned his attention back to her.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Kor Phaeron snuck aboard," Lorgar said. "He's not currently assigned to this Chapter, but apparently forced a transfer that I wasn't aware of. I need to do something with him, but it's too late to send him back to the main Legion."
"Was he the one that struck you?" Joysepha asked.
"He did," Lorgar said, a little surprised. "I'll have him confined to quarters. Since his transfer is technically proper, I can't put him in the brig."
*************************
Perturabo sat immersed in the data flow aboard the Iron Blood. He loved the data flow as it didn't deceive him. Data was pure, clean, and as Magnus was always saying, powerful. Data lead to knowledge, which was the greatest font of power. There was a beep, something flagging in the data flow, he pulled it up and after double-checking he reached out to the vox at his side.
"Horus, look at this with me," he said.
"What am I looking at?" Horus asked, then paused as he received the data from Perturabo. "Stellar activity?"
"Yes, from this system's star," Perturabo said. "It's more active than originally predicted, and is going to cause a large electromagnetic storm that could cause issues for the ships."
"Agreed," Horus said. "We'll need to move up the attack times, try and get things taken care of before that hits. I'll tell the other two trios, can you tell Magnus?"
"Of course," Perturabo said, changing vox channels.
*************************
"We're moving faster," Martreus said.
"Why?" Dwancis mused. "Didn't Lord Alpharius say it was going to be some time?"
"He did," Omegon said.
"Who's going to be the Primarch?" Qayle asked. It was something Alpharius and Omegon were encouraging with the initiates as they'd do it with their Legion as adults. They had discussed it and decided to keep it just in case they chose to come out to their brothers first.
"We're at attack speed though," Chathyn said. "That would only happen under two conditions: a mutiny or a change of orders from Lord Lupercal. We'd know if it's the first one because there would have been a lot of activity."
"And it's way too early in something like this for a mutiny," Martreus added.
"True," Chathyn said with a nod before continuing. "So that leaves this being a change of plans from Lord Lupercal, and Lord Alpharius would know already. That means we can't come out of here, where we're known to be, and try to demand info like the Primarch."
"An excellent breakdown," Ingo Pech said as he entered the common room the initiates were in. He passed them each a data slate from the stack he was carrying. "Take a look at this data, and tell me why we've moved up plans."
Omegon read his slate quickly, then carefully watched the others out of the corner of his eye so he reacted at a similar time to them. The act of course had to go both ways, which was an advantage to doing this with both of them out. Originally they had planned for them to swap before the attack run, but that clearly wasn't going to happen now.
"Oh, that's going to cause havoc with the fleets," Dwancis said.
"Agreed," Martreus said. "It could be really dangerous if the fleets are close together, like during a battle."
"But how likely is it that we can finish before the storm hits?" Omegon mused. "Why wasn't this caught earlier?"
"We're not sure, Frederick," Pech said. "It seems Lord Perturabo spotted it while scanning the system."
"Has anyone reached out to the other side?" Omegon asked, concerned for all of his brothers.
"We're trusting that they have their own auspex," Pech admitted. "But that's handed down from Lord Lupercal."
"Understandable," Martreus said. "I bet the Phalanx at least is aware of it. She must have some impressive auspex arrays."
"Probably," Dwancis said. Omegon nodded. Rogal had graced the Primarchs with a tour of the Phalanx once and he was the one who got to go. It was a very impressive installation.
"We still haven't addressed Frederick's first question though," Qayle said. "What if the other side puts up too much resistance?"
"It's a risk that Lord Lupercal has decided to take," Pech said. "However, the Primarch has ordered us to keep the fleet in as loose a formation as possible."
*************************
"Ready?"
"Yes, my lord,"
"Good, begin."
*************************
"What is that?" Roboute asked, highlighting a blip on the auspex display.
"Enemy contacts!" the master of auspex replied.
"Vox is jammed," the vox officer reported suddenly. "I'm unable to reach anyone in our fleet. There's no way to reach the other two Legions."
"Battle stations!" the shipmaster called. "We'll have to trust that everyone else knows what they're doing. At least we can see each other."
"How are they jamming the vox?" Roboute asked.
"They're broadcasting... is that music?" the vox officer said, dropping off in confusion.
"Play it," Marius Gage said. "What is that?"
"Jaws," Roboute grumbled. "Night Lords are part of this strike."
"I see them going towards the Dark Angels," the master of auspex stated. "World Eaters! They're going for the Red Tear."
"Let's see if we can distract them," Roboute said.
"What about the rest of the fleet?" the vox officer asked.
"We'll just have to trust that the fleet knows what they're doing," Gage said.
"Shots from the Fidelitas Lex!"
"Ah, that's where Lord Aurelian is," Gage muttered.
"Looks like the board is set," Roboute said. "After the Fidelitas Lex."
*************************
"My Lord Vulkan," Numeon's voice came suddenly into Vulkan's ear.
"What is it?" he asked, slowly lowering the hammer he was using.
"The vox is jammed, there's some kind of strange signal being sent out," Numeon said. He seemed uncomfortable about it.
"I'll come to the strategium and take a listen," Vulkan said, quickly issuing orders to a servitor about putting away his project before leaving.
Doors slid open as Vulkan walked into the strategium. The crew of the Flamewrought were working with a tight efficiency, much to his approval. He approached the vox station and waved for Numeon to step back a bit. The officer on duty looked a little traumatized he thought.
"What signal is jamming us?" he asked, trying to keep his voice gentle.
"I-- don't know, my lord," the officer said.
"May I?" Vulkan asked, holding his hand out for the headset. He put it on, and they opened the vox channel. A small pocket of quiet descended around the station as Vulkan listened, his face twitching a little. "Are there any Night Lords or possibly Emperor's Children in the area?"
"We've just registered the Pride of the Emperor on auspex, my lord," the auspex officer said. "How did you know?"
"It had to be one of those two," Vulkan said handing the headset back. "Though what exactly Fulgrim has done to this I don't know."
"My lord! The Iron Hands are breaking formation!" came a report from the lower part of the strategium. "They're going after the Emperor's Children."
"Somehow I'm not surprised," Vulkan muttered. "There's I think four things in this abomination of a song that Ferrus hates. Is Fulgrim alone?"
"No, lord," the master of auspex replied. "We have also marked the Endurance and the Gamma."
"What of the Shadow?" Numeon asked.
"Approaching the Gamma, lord," the officer replied.
"They're leaving us with the Death Guard then," Vulkan said. "Let's show Mortarion what we can do."
*************************
Geri whined, looking at the door to the strategium of the Hrafknel. Freki was pacing around the upper levels, the crew trying to remain as calm as possible. The Space Wolves' flagship was one of only two ships that had gates to the lower levels of the bridge. The other was the Imperator Somnium.
"Hush, Geri," Leman said. He had decided to man the vox station himself. "I'm trying to listen."
"Do you hear anything, lord?" Gunnar Gunnhilt asked.
"Possibly," Leman answered, he pulled a face and tried to open a channel to the Swordstorm and the Phalanx. After trying a few more times he scowled, then turned to the rest of the bridge. "Auspex, is there any sign of the Photep?"
"Why do you ask, jarl?" the auspex officer asked.
"Because we're being jammed, and Magnus left a calling card," Leman growled. Like Fulgrim, Magnus had added his own flair to the theme. His was him creepily whispering "I'm coming to get you, Leman" at a frequency only transhumans could hear.
"I do see the Photep, jarl, the officer reported. "Along with the Iron Blood and the Vengeful Spirit."
"Ah, so Horus is trying against the Phalanx," Leman said. "Unless Perturabo beats him to it. Raise shields. Ordnance, I want firing solutions to take out the Photep's vox system, that should clear up the jamming."
"Aye, jarl!" the crew chorused.
"What of your brother Legions?" Gunn asked quietly.
"They have their own eyes," Leman said. "You can't tell me that Rogal's blind on the Phalanx."
"The Swordstorm is moving to meet the Iron Blood," the auspex officer reported suddenly.
"Oh, interesting that Jaghatai is cutting in on that rivalry," Leman said. "Though it makes sense with Horus being here. It's time to play at war."
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