Battle for The Abyss by Ben Counter Page A

flare,’ Antiges realised. ‘I had thought I was hearing things when you asked us if we’d seen anything.’
    ‘You were not, and yes, I saw it in the reactor flare, so fleeting and indistinct that at first I believed it was my imagination, that my mind was articulating what my heart longed for.’
    ‘What did you see?’
    Cestus looked Antiges directly in the eyes. ‘I saw Macragge.’
    Antiges was nonplussed. ‘I don’t—’
    ‘I saw Macragge and I felt despair, Antiges, as if it presaged something terrible.’
    ‘Signs and visions are the province of witchery, brother-captain,’ Antiges counselled warily. ‘We both know the edicts of Nikaea.’
    ‘Brothers,’ a voice broke in before Cestus could respond. It was Saphrax, come from the bridge where Cestus had instructed he maintain a watch on proceedings.
    Both Saphrax’s fellow Ultramarines turned to him expectantly.
    ‘We have made visual contact with the ship from the site of the Fist ’s destruction.’

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    Ben Counter – Battle for the Abyss
    ‘THAT IS A Legion ship, captain. You are not suggesting that a vessel of the Imperium fired upon one of its own?’ Admiral Kaminska warned the Astartes.
    Following Saphrax’s report, Cestus and Antiges had made for the bridge at once. What they saw in the viewscreen when they got there had stunned them both.
    The vessel they tracked in the void was of Mechanicum design and clearly made for the Legion. It was bedecked in the icono-graphy of the Word Bearers.
    It was the largest ship that Cestus had ever seen. Even at a considerable distance it was massive, easily three times the size of the Wrathful , and would have dwarfed an Emperor-class battleship. It bore an impressive array of weapons; tech-adepts aboard the Wrathful had suggested port and starboard broadside laser batteries and multiple torpedo tubes to the prow and stern. It was the monolithic statue towering at the vessel’s prow, however, that gave Cestus the most concern: a gigantic golden book, the echo of the fragmented image in the astropathic message on Vangelis.
    ‘We’re at extreme strike range,’ said Captain Commander Vorlov. ‘What are your orders, admiral?’
    ‘Hold them back,’ said Cestus, deliberately interrupting Kaminska. ‘They are our Legion brothers. I am certain they will be able to account for themselves. They may have information regarding the Fist of Macragge .’
    Vorlov was a paunchy man with jowls that wobbled independently of the rest of his body. He had a gnarled red nose that spoke of long nights drinking to keep away the cold of space, and dressed in the heavy furs typical of his Saturnine heritage.
    His presence filled the viewscreen through which he was communicating with the bridge of the Wrathful. ‘Yes, my lord,’ he said.
    ‘No point rattling the sword without reason,’ Cestus muttered to Antiges, who nodded his assent. ‘Hang back and keep them within range, but do not approach. Admiral Kaminska, bring the 62

    Ben Counter – Battle for the Abyss
    Wrathful in at the lead. Keep the Waning Moon and the escort fleet in our wake.’
    ‘As you wish, my lord,’ she said, swallowing her annoyance and her pride. ‘Relaying orders now.’
    The tension around the bridge was palpable. Brynngar, having joined them a moment before, growled beneath his breath.
    ‘What is your plan, Cestus?’ he asked, eyes locked on the viewscreen and the mighty vessel visible beyond it.
    ‘We draw in close enough to hail them and demand to know their business.’
    ‘On Fenris, when stalking the horned orca, I would swim the icy depths of the ocean taking care to stay in the beast’s wake,’
    Brynngar said with intensity. ‘Once I drew close enough I would slip my baleen spear from my leg and launch it into the orca’s unprotected flank. Then I would swim, long and hard, to reach the beast before it could turn and impale me on its horn. Within its thrashing swell I would seize upon it and with my blade pare its flesh