The Horus Heresy Volume Two (The Horus Heresy Omnibuses Book 2) by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2015-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

Twelve

Sirens/Screams and silence/Here be monsters

Cestus’s teeth clenched at the horrific noises emanating from within the isolation chamber. Excelinor and Amryx followed their captain’s example, stoically bearing the sounds of psychic torture, secretly glad that they were not the subject of Mhotep’s attentions.

Through the viewport, the isolation cell was shrouded in shadow. Cestus could see Mhotep from the back only. The Thousand Son moved almost imperceptibly as he stood before the prisoner who, by contrast, spasmed intermittently as his mind was ransacked.

On several occasions, when the screaming was at its height, Cestus had wanted to go in and end it, abhorred at the mental damage being inflicted on what was once a brother Astartes, but he had stopped himself every time, even warning off Excelinor and Amryx from taking action. Instead, the two battle-brothers had turned away from the viewport, leaving Cestus alone to observe the imagined horrors of the Word Bearer’s torture.

Twice already, he had angrily ordered worried arms-men away, after they had come to investigate the sound, fearing another warp attack as they patrolled the decks.

As the shipboard vox crackled, issuing a warning, obliquely, they were right.

‘Captain Cestus, come to the bridge at once. We are under attack!’

Loathe as he was to leave Mhotep, albeit with Excelinor and Amryx, Cestus had little choice but to do as bidden. He reached the bridge quickly and Saphrax quickly apprised him of the situation.

The alert had come when several unknown projectiles had been expelled from the vicinity of the Furious Abyss, and were snaking across the warp towards the Wrathful. At first it was believed that the missiles were in fact torpedoes launched in a punitive attempt to dissuade pursuit. That assumption was crushed in the moment when Admiral Kaminska’s helmsmistress, Venkmyer, had identified their erratic trajectory and the truth had been revealed.

‘Sirens,’ Kaminska breathed, looking up at the tactical display before her that showed the inexorable advance of the creatures. A dark atmosphere seemed to pervade the bridge, and the admiral looked uncomfortable because of it. Her uniform was in slight disarray – she had clearly been roused from quarters when the alert had come in – and only added to her apparent sense of unease. ‘I had thought such things were void-born myths.’

‘They are the denizens of the empyrean,’ Cestus told her, the disquieting mood affecting him less acutely. Something was awry. The Ultramarine captain put it down to the sudden appearance of the warp beasts. ‘Can we avoid them, admiral?’

Kaminska’s face was grave as she considered the path of the warp creatures on the tactical display in front of her command throne.

‘Admiral,’ Cestus said sternly, snapping Kaminska free of the dark mood that had suddenly ensnared her.

‘Yes, captain?’ she gasped, face pale and unsteady in her command throne.

‘Can Orcadus find a way around these creatures?’

Kaminska shook her head. ‘We are on a collision course.’

Cestus turned to Saphrax.

‘Ready the honour guard and have them gather on the assembly deck at once; Amryx and Excelinor, too.’ He didn’t want to leave

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