V2 Chapter 124: A Warning from Juno.
When the sun reached the centre of Tanith's sky, the last of the Chaos fleet's malice burned away with it.
The forest outside Magna was still smoking. Scattered gunfire continued near several of the crashed landing craft, but that did not constitute any real fighting.
Every major landing site in the Tanith ground battle had been cleared. What remained were stragglers, wounded, burned-out hulls, and new soldiers who had not yet fully recovered from their first night of war.
Duvette stood in the temporary command post and drank a mouthful of strong black recaf.
The thing was bitter and scalding and nearly made him wince, but it was at least enough to cut through the humid Tanith air and bring him back to clarity. He had not slept in an entire night, but with his skills sustaining him his condition remained functional.
Evan stood nearby with a data-slate, delivering the ground situation report.
"The landing sites in the Magna direction have been fully cleared. There are small enemy remnants in the Attica outer perimeter; the Catachan Hunting Company is tracking them. The Black Shield squad has confirmed three Chaos Astartes killed. No other confirmed targets identified at this time."
Duvette gave a nod.
"The three Tanith regiments?"
"Casualties within acceptable parameters. Colonel-Commissar Gaunt has begun reorganisation. Their officer structure still needs time to sort out." Evan paused. "Additionally, the Commissars attached to each unit are managing their soldiers' psychological state."
Duvette knew exactly what Evan was referring to.
The ground fight on Tanith had ended too quickly. Those Chaos forces had been unable to hold against what amounted to fifty thousand near-Astartes-grade mortal soldiers. The actual difficulty was not the battle but the aftermath.
Too many soldiers had experienced Duvette's power for the first time.
They had seen the red light. They had felt fear pressed down and out of them. They had felt something push them into their positions as though guided by a will that was not their own. The veterans were accustomed to all of it, but for the Tanith recruits and the other units newly brought under his command, these things needed an explanation they could accept.
"Have the Commissars keep working the psychological angle." Duvette said. "Tell them it is not a curse and not Warp contamination. Get Finn and the other sincere believers who can speak plainly to do the talking. Keep Werner's people away."
The corner of Evan's mouth moved slightly, as though he wanted to smile, but he only put his head down and recorded it.
"Understood, sir."
Duvette set down the recaf and was about to leave the command post to find a shaded place outside and see what the forest world he had kept alive actually looked like. He had spent an entire night fighting. He was owed at least one look.
But Evan, who had barely left, turned back.
"Sir. Admiral Villent is requesting you."
Duvette looked at him.
"Urgent communication." Evan added.
Duvette exhaled with resigned acceptance.
He had been feeling increasingly busy.
Being a Major General-Commissar had its advantages: higher access, more forces to direct, the ability to silence certain people. But the corresponding reality was that every piece of trouble arrived faster as well.
He was beginning to feel a certain nostalgic regard for his Colonel-Commissar days.
When Duvette reached the hololithic projector, Admiral Villent's image had been waiting there for some time.
The Admiral's expression was serious. There was no interest in pleasantries.
"Two pieces of news." Villent said. "First: the orbital engagement above Tanith is over. The enemy made no attempt to withdraw, so we destroyed them completely."
Duvette raised an eyebrow.
"That is good news."
"It is." Villent said. "Your recommendation made it possible. The ambush went smoothly. The Imperial fleet did not lose a single vessel."
Duvette looked at that still-serious face and paused.
"Then why do you look like your aide just died?"
Villent did not acknowledge the question.
"Second piece of news." He said. "Tanith is not far from Balhaut. The Marshal has been informed that we are here."
Duvette's expression closed down.
Villent continued. "Before we could submit a complete report on the Chaos fleet's attack on Tanith, the Marshal's reprimand and redeployment order arrived. Based on the Choir's records, this order was very likely sent one day after we arrived at Tanith. It has only just finished being received and decoded."
"Content?"
"The Marshal is redeploying us to a different front." Villent said. "At the same time he is requiring you to return to Balhaut immediately. The tone of the documentation is very severe, and the language is not particularly polite."
Duvette's eyes narrowed slightly.
Three days. That was all it had been. Four at the outside.
The Marshal could not wait even that long?
He was quiet for a moment, his fingers tapping lightly at the edge of the projector housing.
Villent looked at him. "What do you intend to do?"
Duvette was about to answer when Villent produced the option himself.
"Turn around here?"
"No."
Duvette cut it off immediately.
"Tell the Marshal what happened here. Send the complete report: Chaos fleet attack, three Tanith regiments preserved, orbital engagement resulting in total enemy fleet destruction. After we finish preparations tomorrow, we continue to the original objective."
This time it was Villent's turn to be silent.
The hololithic image flickered slightly. The Admiral stood on the Resolute's bridge with an expression that was difficult to look at. He understood what Duvette's statement meant.
It was defiance of orders.
From the documentation's wording, this would be very difficult to explain away as simple communication delay.
After a long moment, Villent quietly exhaled.
"I suppose we are bound to the same rope now."
Duvette understood what he meant.
Villent had agreed.
The Admiral had accompanied him through the Tanith operation and had watched Duvette's judgement save an entire world. Being told now to turn around immediately and return to Balhaut was not something he was willing to do either.
"Thank you." Duvette said.
"Don't thank me yet." Villent's voice went flat. "If the Marshal actually pursues this, you had better have your explanation ready."
"I will have one."
"I hope it is more reliable than your predictions have been."
Duvette was turning away to find Evan and accelerate the ground clearance and boarding preparations when Villent called him back.
"One more thing."
Duvette stopped.
"What?"
"An encrypted cryo-chip." Villent said. "Inquisitorial delivery. A small Inquisitorial vessel just reached the fleet's outer layer with no public identification transponder, left this, and departed."
Duvette's expression shifted slightly.
"That is a rather archaic delivery method."
"The more primitive the method, the harder it is to monitor." Villent said. "At minimum, this is not an Astropathic transmission, and it will not appear in any standard fleet link record."
Duvette considered it briefly and gave a nod.
"Send it down."
"It is already on its way."
The wait was not long.
A communications officer delivered a sealed case shortly afterward. The exterior carried Inquisitorial wax seal and a single-use mechanical lock. After identity verification, the case opened to reveal a slim cryo-chip inside.
Duvette looked at the chip in his hand and recognised something about it.
He did not read it in the command post.
"Vakur."
One of the two Salamanders turned.
"I need a quiet, enclosed room." Duvette said. "Guard the door. No one enters."
Vakur did not ask questions. He simply gave a nod.
Shortly afterward, Duvette was inside a temporarily cleared communications room. Outside the door, two Salamanders stood on either side of the corridor, their green power armour nearly filling the passage.
Duvette sat down and reached into his coat, finding a ring he had not used in some time.
It was something Juno, the Lord Inquisitor, had given him long ago.
He slowly pressed the cryo-chip into the hidden interface in the ring.
The familiar sound of internal mechanical movement came from the ring. A faint blue light-sheet expanded before his eyes and the room was soon lit by nothing but that glow.
This was not an assignment notification.
What appeared on the sheet was a simple letter.
[Duvette Erdmann.]
[This is Juno Karol.]
Duvette looked at that familiar name and felt his brow shift slightly. The image of the white-haired woman came to his mind.
[My absence during this period has been for the purpose of definitively determining what my colleague Heldane is searching for. I have now established an answer. It is something with the potential to alter the entire fate of humanity.]
[I cannot tell you what it is at this time. The fewer who know, the better.]
Duvette raised an eyebrow.
That was genuinely unfortunate.
He already knew.
He kept reading.
[Heldane has secured the cooperation of a General within the expedition. That General belongs to the Fifth Army Corps and is attempting to use this object to restructure the expedition's future power arrangements.]
Fifth Army Corps.
Duvette turned the words over internally.
Delavere.
Of course it was him.
[Under the original course of events, your current routing would bring you precisely into the area where the site is located. However, I have learned recently that the Marshal has issued orders requiring your redeployment, and has arranged for that General to take your place.]
[I attempted to meet with the Marshal personally and prevent this redeployment. But the Marshal's state is very strange. He is no longer willing to receive anyone's counsel. The language of his front-line orders has become increasingly erratic, and he is dismissing officers who do not meet his approval at a high frequency.]
[Most seriously: he has removed Macaroth from the position of Chief of Staff.]
Duvette's pupils contracted slightly.
The text on the light-sheet continued.
[I do not know what is happening around the Marshal, but this is not a normal military adjustment. With Macaroth removed from his core staff, there is no longer anyone sufficiently reliable near the Marshal to act as a check on his decisions.]
[Do not comply with the Marshal's order to return to Balhaut.]
[Proceed immediately to Menazoid Epsilon.]
[I will address the Marshal's situation from my end.]
[That is all.]
A countdown appeared beneath the text.
Duvette did not move.
Thirty seconds later, a faint cracking sound came from inside the cryo-chip. The crystal burned itself out from within, and the data it had held was completely erased.
The blue light-sheet disappeared.
The room went dark again.
Duvette remained seated. His expression settled into something harder by degrees.
Macaroth dismissed?
That was impossible.
Macaroth was not an ordinary staff officer. He had been at Slaydo's side throughout. He was one of the very few people within the expedition's structure who could genuinely influence the Warmaster's judgement. If even he had been removed from Slaydo's presence, it meant Slaydo's emotional state had reached something genuinely dangerous.
Duvette stood and paced the room.
What was actually happening?
Warp contamination? Some form of political pressure? Had Heldane and Delavere already done something?
He tried to connect what had been happening recently into a coherent picture, but could not find an answer that held together completely. After Balhaut, Slaydo had shown fatigue and suppressed tension, but it had not seemed to be approaching a breakdown.
The dismissal of Macaroth was too significant.
It meant the Warmaster's command core was being torn apart.
It also meant the situation at Menazoid Epsilon could be considerably more dangerous than it had originally appeared.
Duvette stopped moving.
He understood that he could not resolve every problem in front of him right now.
Slaydo's state. Juno's pressure. Heldane and Delavere's scheme. The expedition's command chain after Macaroth's removal. Any one of these things was enough to demand full attention on its own.
But one thing was absolutely clear.
The Men of Iron STC could not reach their hands.
Duvette closed his fist slowly, then turned and walked to the door.
To the outside, he would say only that they were continuing the original mission.
To himself, the decision was already made.
Secure the Men of Iron STC first.
The rest of the problems could wait.
The door opened. Both Salamanders turned to look at him.
Duvette raised his eyes to the blinding Tanith noon and found that his expression was colder than it had been when he went in.
Tanith had just held until dawn.
But the true night of the expedition had already begun.