Editing Warhammer High (section)

==Tales of Victory==

Professor Ahzek Ahriman cleared off his desk, and smiled as he pulled out the bottle of wine. It was one of his own wines, M31.260 vintage, one of the best known wines across the entire Imperium. He had been waiting for it for several months, and the latest bulk hauler from Prospero delivered. He felt it would be good company for his afternoon plans, and the tale he was about to tell.
Today was another of his customary afternoons with Miranda, and today he promised to tell her about the Great Triumph at Angelus, where the Great Crusade was finally declared over, and the Primarchs returned to their homeworlds and the surprises waiting for them there. She had been begging him to tell her that tale for many months, and only now had he finally relented.
He poured himself out a goblet of Wine, removed his Helmet and slowly sipped as he waited for 1600 hours to arrive.

A soft tapping sound on the door. Enter! he sent telepathically.
Miranda cautiously opened the door. “Ahriman?” she said quietly. During these sessions she was allowed to speak to him as equals, instead of teacher and pupil.
“I…kinda told some of my friends about this and they wanted to hear the story as well.”
Miranda slipped in, followed by Freya, Cora, Kiara, Farah, Venus, Lyra and an unknown girl, who looked way too young to be present at Imperator High. Ahriman raised an eyebrow.
“This is Lofn, granddaughter of the Eldar Representative. She’s here on an exchange program.”
Ahriman gazed intently at Lofn. She was a strange girl, with a strange mix of Eldar and Human features which struck Ahriman as suspicious. But he trusted Miranda, and if Miranda trusted Lofn…

“I thought these sessions were just for us two. Now it seems you’ve brought the entire class along with you.”

“They all want to know about Angelus. Wasn’t it there that we, I mean our fathers…”
“Learnt that you were on the way? We’ll get to that, but first, if you’ll all drag up some chairs, I’ll begin.”
There was a scraping of chairs as the girls sat in a tight semicircle around Ahriman. He pulled out several more goblets, filled them with wine and offered them around. Lyra, Kiara and Miranda were the only ones to accept.
Ahriman hefted his trusty Hequa staff. Usually he liked to use the power of the Great Ocean to share his memories with Miranda in a more intimate fashion, but in this case the others wouldn’t get to see anything, so he would have to tell it the old fashioned way, with a little Warp magic added for effect. He took a sip of wine, cleared his throat, and began.

“It all starts with Angelus, star system XCV-103. A dead world once inhabited by an ancient civilization far more advanced than our own.”

“The Necrontyr.” It wasn’t Miranda who said that, but Lofn. Ahriman replied, surprised.

“Exactly. They were wiped out millions of years ago; long before humans arose on earth, long before even the Eldar reached the heights of their glory. A Remembrancer I know is currently doing excavations on their ruins on Naogeddon. Continuing. So Angelus remained empty and forgotten, until by chance the 12th Expeditionary Fleet came across this dead world.”

“My Father’s?” That voice came from the door. Roberta was there, along with Remilia.

“Still more of you come.” He sighed, though his heart was warming to his story. “Come in, grab a chair and join us. I’m telling them about Angelus.”

“I heard. Miranda was bragging about it all week.”
Ahriman shot Miranda a look, waited for Roberta to grab a chair and join them, offered her some wine, and continued.

“So Lord Guilliman found this world, and spent a week orbiting it. What he discovered would set everything in motion. There were no stars beyond it. His navigators were frozen with fear, blind and beyond the Astronomican. It was quite literally the end of the line, the last planet in the Galaxy.
By that point virtually everyone knew the Great Crusade was practically over. Conquest had tapered off, there was only a few scattered campaigns being wound down. It was then that the Emperor made a general broadcast to all the Primarchs, his first in many years. He declared a great triumph at Angelus, to celebrate the Warmaster’s successes, and declared that he would be there in person. We were told that it would be a spectacle to rival Ullanor, a spectacle the likes of which the galaxy would never see again. Of course we all suspected it would be to declare the Great Crusade over, however we were still caught up in the excitement. The Emperor joining us again? Returning to his sons? Excitement was in there air in every ship, on every world. 
Lord Guilliman remained on station and landed troops to prepare the stage as hundreds of ships started to translate in system to prepare for the great triumph. First were Mechanicum vessels, carrying four Labour Fleets of geoformers, the great terraforming machines which would level flat the rocky wastes of Angelus. Soon after that the vessels of the Thousand Sons joined them.”

“You and Father?” Miranda piped up.

“Yes. We were asked to use our ‘gifts’ to help clear the stage, direct the millions of servitors, automatons and penal battalions and do what we could to help with the preparations.
As he paused to take another sip, he said aloud. “I know you’re out there, come on in.” 
Angela guiltily walked into the room, her small wings quivering. Behind her was Athena. How was it that so many of them were still here so long after lessons had finished? Pushing the thought to the back of his mind, he waited for her to join them, and continued.

“Over the course of eight months, more and more ships entered the system, turning it into the single most heavily defended system in the entire Imperium. Fleet after fleet joined. After my Lord’s Twenty-Seventh Expeditionary Fleet, the next fleet to join us was the Fourth Expeditionary Fleet.”

“My Father’s forces.” Lyra added.

“Right. We met him personally on the bridge of his flagship. I have always been struck how seemingly emotionless your father is.”
Lyra nodded. Even she found her father somewhat unresponsive, rivalling the way that Petra found Perturabo.
“Anyway, barely a week after he arrived it was the turn of the 52nd Expeditionary Fleet to join us. I already know what you’re going to say Farah; it was your father, along with Vulkan. The Emperor wanted them to make some items for the Triumph, decorative metalwork and other objects. We all had to pitch in to ensure this was bigger and grander than Ullanor. I’ll spare you the further details, but one by one the other Primarchs arrived, until all eighteen of us were busy on Angelus, while the skies above were filled with ships of all different shapes, sizes and classes. I was present when the Expeditionary Fleets massed over Terra, and I thought that was a grand sight. When I saw the fleets over Angelus, I was proven wrong. That was a sight I will carry with me forever. Here, I’ll show you.”

He hefted his Hequa Staff, muttered a few words, and struck the desk top. As he did a bubble of memory appeared in the middle of the group. It swiftly expanded to engulf the entire room. Miranda smiled, while Farah and Freya looked distinctively uncomfortable as they were swallowed up. Now the classroom had vanished and they sat suspended in an empty black void, the void of space. The scene shifted and they found themselves in orbit around a solitary planet, orbiting twin stars.

“This was Angelus after Lord Guilliman found it. Now you will see it as it looked before the Emperor arrived.”

The scene shifted again. Angelus was still there, but it was now surrounded by a sea of ships. Thousands upon thousands of Warships of every description and class clustered around the Planet. Ahriman pointed out the Primarch’s Flagships. The ''Vengeful Spirit'' sat alongside the ''Phalanx''; the ''Pride of the Emperor'' was flanked on either side by the ''Alpha'' and ''Macragge’s Fist''.  There was even an Eldar Void Stalker class battleship sticking out like a sore thumb among the legions of Imperial Ships.
He heard a loud voice cut through the bubble of memory. “Where the fug are they all?” he could recognise that voice anywhere.
A door miraculously appeared in the void, slammed open and Furia stormed in. for a second she didn’t realise what was going on, until she abruptly stopped and stared at the sight arrayed around her. He could tell even without using his gifts that she was impressed.

“Good grief. You’re the last person I expected to see here. Never mind, grab a chair and join us. We haven’t reached the good part yet.”

After yet another interruption when Hana walked in looking for Furia, Ahriman resumed his tale. “Now I shall take you to the surface, show you what I saw as we escorted my Lord Primarch to the Dais.”

The scene around them blurred. Now they sat on the surface of Angelus, a sun-baked plain of sand and rock. Before them stood a great road, so wide a full platoon of Baneblades could drive line abreast along it. Poles were placed every ten metres lining the road, each pole topped with the head of a different foe the Imperium had vanquished during the Great Crusade. The road was lined by troops from all over the Imperial Army, and Marines from all the Legions. Behind them were columns of tanks and the massive God-Machines of the Titan Legions. 
The road faced the ancient Pyramids of the Necrontyr, each of which was overlaid with great friezes and frescos celebrating the many triumphs of the crusade.
Between the two tallest pyramids stood a great dais suspended between them, and Ahriman explained that it was there that Magnus and his Brothers stood with the Emperor and reviewed the troops. Everything about that was designed to exceed the Great Triumph at Ullanor, and it did.
“I was there along with my Primarch’s equerry, Amon, as his personal escorts. We prepared for many days, every word, and every move.”
Though this was but a memory, he could still see how overawed the girls were. Even Furia stared around her with amazement as the endless ranks of soldiers, the towering Titans and the distant pyramids.

“Finally the moment came. A golden ship translated in system on the eighth of Novembus. The Emperor had finally arrived, unlooked for and unannounced. Now the Triumph could commence.” Ahriman smiled, and he continued with a strange note of awe in his voice.

“Not even at Ullanor were all eighteen Primarchs in attendance. Over a million Astartes from all eighteen Legions were present, along with ten million men and women of the Imperial Army, Titan Legions, and Mechanicum. Hundreds of Remembrancers covered the event, the best from every field gathered to record the great event. Karkarsy, D’Angelus, Keeler, Delafour, Vivar, Voss, Kallimakus, and a close friend of mine, Gaumon. I still pity them and the poor Imperial Army Troops, caught out in that sweltering heat. Gaumon told me it was like Aghoru, but worse.
Great pits cut into the surface were filled with great flames.
So the troops were mustered, and took up their positions along the great road. We fulfilled our duty of seeing Lord Magnus to the Emperor’s great podium, and we marched in procession alongside the honour guards of all the Primarchs. Mortarion’s Deathshroud, Dorn’s Huscarls, the Justaerian Terminators of Horus and all the others.
After all eleven million men and Astartes had paraded before the Emperor he stood up to the edge of the Podium and made his announcement. It was as epochal as when he relinquished control of the Crusade at Ullanor. The crusade was over, the Galaxy had been won. With the aid of the Eldar, the Primordial Annihilator had been driven off, and apart from the omnipresent threat of Orks and the Eldar’s dark kin, there were no more enemies left. The Imperial Army was to be demobilised, the Legions returned to their homeworlds to await further orders."

“I heard that Lord Angron kicked up quite a fuss about that.”

“You got that right.” That was Furia, lighting up a cigarette. Ahriman’s eyes narrowed, he hated them, he hated their stink, but he chose to ignore her action.

“But what about us? Weren’t you there when our father’s learnt that we were on the way?” Ahriman was so engrossed in telling his tale and sustaining his memory field he had failed to notice that Isis had joined them. When did she show up?

Ahriman paused to refill his goblet. “You make a relevant point Isis, and by the way it seems you’re late again.” Isis blushed.

“Actually I arrived before Furia, you have just been so focused on your tale you never noticed me.”

“Uh uh.” Ahriman answered. “To answer your question, alas, I wasn’t there. It was a private moment, with only the Emperor, his sons, Lord Valdor and Malcador.”

“I will finish.” A mighty figure squeezed through the door, a red giant clad in a cloak of feathers.

“Father!” Miranda squealed as she ran over to embrace Magnus.

“Yes.” He addressed the other girls. “I was sent to fetch you all and take you home, it’s nearly 2000 hours and my brothers were getting worried. they needn't have bothered. However I will conclude my first captain’s tale.”

Magnus poured himself a goblet of wine and began.

“After the Triumph my Father called me and my brothers over. While he was working on the Terran Webway Portal, he had also been working on another project, a special one just for us. He knew that we would be without purpose with the Crusade over, and so he resolved to do something which would keep us occupied, give us some joy and help create the next generation of leadership, who would rule the Imperium far into the future.
He knew that there would still be conflict, with the Eldar’s dark kin, the Ork, Hrud and many other enemies, and he wanted the Legions always ready for action.
“Of course that was before Brother Guilliman’s infamous Chapter Plan.” 
It was shortly after that that Lord Guilliman revealed his Chapter Plan, creating autonomous chapters of a thousand marines each which would act as fast response units capable of responding to any crisis, either defeating enemy threats on their own or else holding up the enemy long enough for a Legion Force to come to their aid. Most of these ‘Chapters’ came from Guilliman’s own Legion, as the others were not quite as enthusiastic about the idea of Chapters as he was.” Ahriman smiled to himself and watched the somewhat guilty looks on Freya, Cora, and Remilia’s faces as they remembered hearing the arguments and fights over the Chapter Plan. Even now it was still a hot topic.

“And so my Father presented us with a strange golden cylinder each, covered with wards and sigils and filled with the power of the Great Ocean.”

“That was us?”

“Yes. You weren’t to be created the way we were, for the Primordial Annihilator would doubtless try to snatch you away again. No, you were to be born of women, each chosen by one of us. That way you would be safe from the Primordial Annihilator and have a more…Human entry into the world. So each of us took our cylinder, our unborn child, and we returned to our homeworlds, there to search for good mothers and await your births.”
"Um, if i may ask, how did those cylinders work?"

there was unnatural silence, so suddenly and abruptly it almost broke the strange smell. Ahriman saw that Magnus wasn't looking any of them in the eye. finally he said.
"My Father said he would tell you all himslef, personally when you were ready. Unitl then, I consider that matter closed. And that is the story.” Magnus finished. The memory bubble faded, revealing the classroom again. Ahriman saw the varying expressions on the faces of the Girls, and knew that the Primarchs would have some rather awkward questions asked to them. he was glad he wouldn't be there to hear any of those.
As the girls put their chairs back, Lyra commented. “The Twins are so going to be pissed they weren't here for this.”
“But we were.” As they said that, they got up from hiding behind a desk. Ahriman facepalmed, while Magnus chuckled.