Editing Trip Into Hell (Warhammer High) (section)

===The War Room on Terra===

Buried deep with the Imperial Palace on Terra, the War Room of the palace was the central hub of the entire Imperial War Machine, a massive open space full of Logic-Engines, scanners, operators, analysts and strategists, and even with its own specialist team of astropaths to send coded messages to warfleets and armies far away. One wall was dominated by ‘the board’ a huge flatscreen rendition of the entire Imperium with small red lights for active warzones. There were a few too many of those on there now. It had been constructed after the Crusade ended, in order to centralise military command, which before had been disjointed between the hundreds of Crusade Fleets reconquering the galaxy in the name of the Emperor.

Warmaster Horus Lupercal stood before the massive round Holo-Desk which occupied the centre of the room, staring intently at the images displayed upon it, analysing vast amounts of tactical data sent from conflicts waged all across the galaxy. One particular area had almost his full attention, one lone planet which now held the centre of attention, for all the wrong reasons.

A figure in golden armour entered the room flanked by two of the Custodes, and Horus did not need to look up to know who it was.

“What is the situation?” The Emperor asked as he came closer.

“No doubt about it, this is a potential catastrophe. We should have seen that Seadelant wasn’t fortified enough, wouldn’t be able to stand against an invasion of this magnitude. And we can’t establish contact thanks to the psychic ECM the Hulk is producing.”

“I should have seen this coming.” The Emperor mused. “The recent rise in Ork raids on our shipping; this was a natural outgrowth of that.”

“It’s horribly ironic. We sent the final order, mobilizing nearly a third of the Navy and several Legion Fleets in order to burn the Orks off of the Imperium’s lanes of trade, and no sooner do we do that than an Ork hulk drops out of the warp astride the single most important warp-lane in the entire Imperium, the Terra-Ultramar Road. Forget about the void walks, now that the road is cut, all traffic between Terra and Ultramar has to take an alternate and more treacherous route which adds weeks if not months to the travel time and drastically increases the risk of losing ships to the warp. Already I’m hearing complaints from the Chartists and the trade unions about disruptions.”

“I’ll speak with them on that one. Let’s see how much they complain after that.”
Horus nodded. “And all this on top of those Ork pirates we’re trying to destroy in the void walks, those sightings of Daemonships near Cadia and now the Dark Eldar have begin raiding around the Armando Cluster. Conquering the Galaxy was one thing, holding it something else.”

The Emperor walked around the table, examining the data Himself. Horus had no doubt that if he’d missed anything, the Emperor would point it out. It was a skill which had saved them many times in the past, on Gorro and other places when the Crusade was new and he was the Emperors only son.

“These delays are unacceptable, we can’t give the Orks a chance to dig in and consolidate. The Thousand Sons are closest to Seadelant, have they sent word?”

“Brother Magnus has promised the third and fifth Fellowships, they are being mustered and trained on Prospero as we speak. Most of the other legions are occupied with various duties, I’ve sent out messages to then all to see what troops can be spared, but I hold out little hope. I need to enquire with brother Vulkan about the Salamanders troops stationed on Nocturne; we need every soldier we can get to respond to this.”

“I’m seeing him later this afternoon about his daughter’s trip; I’ll bring it up then myself. What about your own legion?”

“I’m sending the first, second, fifth and tenth companies, the ones stationed here on Terra as an honour guard. I don’t need them here, and the others are too far away to respond in time.”

“Giving the Mournival a break?”

Horus smiled. “I fear I may have worn them out, they need some time away from me.”

“And what about the other matter, the one Angela brought up?”

“I inquired with the astropaths around Ultramar, but no sign. Unless he got off the planet in time, he’s still on Seadelant.”

“Does Isis know?”

“She does, though she and Julius haven’t spoken much since the incident in the Petitioner’s City she did receive a copy of his itinerary from Oll. Unless I receive actual news, I see no need to fill her with false hope or false fear regarding his survival. She’ll understand. You know I told her I would never stick my neck out for him again, and now it seems I’ll have to. How things turn out.” Horus remembered the look on her face when he told her the news, the look of shock mixed with horror. He’d tried his best to reassure her he would be in no danger, though he knew that was a lie, and she knew it too.

“About the petitioner’s city, have you spoken with Kurze about hunting down this ‘Babuk’? I can’t have someone experimenting with forbidden gene-tech on my very doorstep.”

“I have mentioned it, but Kurze wants to wait for Ahriman to return, says he’d rather do it with someone he knows, and who knows the foe. As close to sentimentality as I’ve ever seen the Night Haunter.”

“And speaking of Ahriman, he’s commanding the defence of this planet in person, isn’t he?”

“Yes. I was startled when I found his identification rune on the transmission. Seems like he was there to get away from Prospero. The way he’s going, I expect he’ll end up on Angelus before long, as far away from Terra as it is possible to get.”

The Emperor had been very angry with his sojourn through the Hive Tops and the Petitioner’s City; Horus could almost see the anger that day. No wonder Ahriman wanted to get as far away from that as possible. However he being on Seadelant was a lucky stroke, with his psychic mastery and strategic genius, Horus couldn’t think of any Astarte more suited to leading the defence of a Planet.

An analyst dashed up to Horus with a data-slate in her hand. Horus took it, scanned it and handed it back with a frown.

“So, none of the Alpha Legion can be spared either. This just isn’t getting any better. We’re scraping the barrel to find troops to respond to this threat, and even with the troops I can currently drag up, it will be at least a month before the force can be fully mobilised to reach Seadelant. We’d better hope they can hold out that long.”

There was a pause, before Horus added. “I feel at least one of us should command this in person.”

The Emperor didn’t have to ask what ‘one of us’ meant. It had been a while since many of the Primarchs had held field command, only Angron and Russ still did it regularly, because those two were ill suited to much else.

“Mortarion is still angry, still full of rage after what happened to Morticia, and he’s sitting at home doing nothing. I would suggest him.”

“You know how much he hates sorcery; he and Ahriman won’t get on.”

“I’ll speak to him on that one myself. No matter how much he might disagree about Magnus and his Legion’s methods, he’ll do what I tell him.”

Horus decided to change the topic. “How’s Remalia, Venus, Freya and their friends little excursion going?”

“They are on their way to Fenris even as we speak.”

“Good, very few of the Greenskin scum around there; they’ll be safe, or at least as safe as you can be on Fenris.”

The Emperor snorted, a sound which startled many of the analysts.

“When this is over, I intend to get Dorn or Peturabo to refortify the planet to ensure such a thing doesn’t happen again. We were sloppy, the fact it was far from any potential threat made us lax, and now we’re paying the price. But first we need to liberate that world.” The Emperor left without another word, while Horus turned his attention back to the escalating situation.