'Yes!' shouted Tarvitz, tearing the Thunderhawk around again, Isstvan III spinning below him. The Death Guard fleet was a speckling of glittering streaks against the blackness, crisscrossed by red laser blasts.
Tarvitz gunned the stormbird's remaining engine as Garro said, 'Why? And be quick, Saul. They almost have you!'
This is treachery?' shouted Tarvitz. All of this! We are betrayed. The fleet is going to bombard the planet's surface with virus bombs.'
What?' spluttered Garro, disbelief plain in his voice, That's insane,’
Trust me,' said Tarvitz, 'I know how it sounds, but as my honour brother I ask you to trust me like you
have never trusted me before. On my life I swear I do not lie to you, Nathaniel.'
'I don't know, Saul,’ said Garro.
'Nathaniel!' screamed Tarvitz in frustration. 'Ship to surface vox has been shut off, so unless I can get a warning down there, every Astartes on Isstvan III is going to die!'
Captain Nathaniel Garro could not tear his eyes from the hissing vox-unit, as if seeking to discern the truth of what Saul Tarvitz was saying just by staring hard enough. Beside him, the tactical plot displayed the weaving blips that represented Tarvitz's Thunderhawk and the pursuing fighters. His experienced eye told him that he had seconds at best to make a decision and his every instinct screamed that what he was hearing could not posВsibly be true.
Yet Saul Tarvitz was his sworn honour brother, an oath sworn on the bloody fields of the Preaixor Campaign, when they had shed blood and stood shoulder to shoulder through the entirety of a bloody, ill-fated war that had seen many of their most beloved brothers killed.
Such a friendship and bond of honour forged in the hell of combat was a powerful thing and Garro knew Saul Tarvitz well enough to know that he never exagВgerated and never, ever lied. To imagine that his honour brother was lying to him now was beyond imagining, but to hear that the fleet was set to bomВbard their battle-brothers was equally unthinkable..
His thoughts tumbled like a whirlwind in his head and he cursed his indecision. He looked down at the eagle Tarvitz had carved into his vam-brace so long ago and knew what he had to do.
Tarvitz pulled the Thunderhawk into a shallow dive, preparing to chop back the throttle and deploy his air brakes, hoping that he had descended far enough to allow the atmosphere of the planet below to slow him down sufficiently for what he planned…
He glanced down at the tactical display, seeing the fighters moving to either side of him, preparing to bracket him as his speed bled off. Judging the moment was crucial.
Tarvitz hauled back the throttle and hit the air brakes.
The grav seat harness pulled tight on his chest as he was hurled forwards and the cockpit was sudВdenly lit by brilliant flashes and a terrific juddering seized the gunship. He heard impacts on the hull and felt the Thunderhawk tumble away from his control.
He yelled in anger as he realised that those who sought to betray the Astartes had won, that his defiВance of their treachery had been in vain. Blooms of fire surged past the cockpit and Tarvitz waited for the inevitable explosion of his death.
But it never came.
Amazed, he took hold of the gunship's controls and wrestled with them as he fought to level out his
flight. The tactical display was a mess of interferВence, electromagnetic hash and radioactive debris clogging it with an impenetrable fog of a massive detonation. He couldn't see the fighters, but with such interference they could still be out there, even now drawing a bead on him.
What had just happened?
'Saul,’ said a voice, heavy with sadness and Tarvitz knew that his honour brother had not let him down. 'Ease down, the fighters are gone.'
'Gone? How?'
The Eisenstein shot them down on my orders,’ said Garro. Tell me, Saul, was I right to do so, for if you speak falsely, then I have condemned myself alongside you,’
Tarvitz wanted to laugh and wished his old friend was standing next to him so he could throw his arms around him and thank him for his trust, knowing that Nathaniel Garro had made the most monumental decision in his life on nothing but what had passed between them moments ago. The depth of trust and the honour Garro had done him was immeasurable.
'Yes,’ he said. 'You were right to trust me, my friend,’
Tell me why?' asked Garro.
Tarvitz tried to think of something reassuring to tell his old friend, but knew that nothing he could say would soften the blow of this treachery. Instead, he said, 'Do you remember what you once told me of Terra?'
Yes, my friend,’ sighed Garro. 'I told you it was old, even back in the day,’
You told me of what the Emperor built there,’ said Tarvitz. 'A whole world, where before there had been nothing, just barbarians and death. You spoke of the scars of the Age of Strife, whole glaciers burned away and mountains levelled,’
Yes,’ agreed Garro. 'I remember. The Emperor took that blasted planet and he founded the Imperium there. That's what I fight for, to stand against the darkness and build an empire for the human race to inherit,’
That's what is being betrayed, my friend,’ said Tarvitz. 'I will not allow that to happen, Saul,’ 'Nor I, my friend,’ swore Tarvitz. What will you do now?'
Garro paused, the question of what to do, now that he had chosen a side, uppermost in his mind. 'I'll tell the Andronius that I shot you down. The flare of the explosion and the fact that you're in the upper atmosphere should cover you long enough to get to the surface,’ 'And after that?'
'The other Legions must be warned of what is going on. Only the Warmaster would have the daring to conceive of such betrayal and he would not have begun an endeavour of this magnitude without swaying some of his brother primarchs to join him. Rogal Dorn or Magnus would never forsake the Emperor and if I can get the Eisenstein
out of the Isstvan system, I can bring them here: all of them.'
'Can you do it?' asked Tarvitz. 'The Warmaster will soon realise what you attempt.'
'I have some time before they will suspect, but then the whole fleet will be after me. Why is it that men have to die every time any of us tries to do what is right?'
'Because that's the Imperial Truth,’ said Tarvitz. 'Can you keep control of the Eisenstein once this gets out?
'Yes,’ said Garro. 'It will be messy, but enough of the crew are staunch Terrans, and they will side with me. Those who do not will die,’
The port engine juddered and Tarvitz knew that he didn't have much time before the gunship gave out beneath him.
'I have to make for the surface, Nathaniel,’ said Tarvitz. 'I don't know how much longer this ship will stay in the air,’
'Then this is where we part,’ said Garro, an awful note of finality in his voice.
'The next time we see one another, it'll be on Terra,’ said Tarvitz.
'If we meet again, my brother,’
'We will, Nathaniel,’ promised Tarvitz. 'By the Emperor, I swear it,’
'May the luck of Terra be with you,’ said Garro and the vox went dead.
Moments ago, he had been on the brink of death, but now he had hope that he might
succeed in preventing the Warmaster's treachery from unfolding.
That was what the Imperial Truth meant, he realised at last.
It meant hope: hope for the galaxy; hope for humanity.
Tarvitz gunned the Thunderhawk's engine, fixed its course towards the Precentor's Palace and arrowed it towards the heart of the Choral City.
TEN
The most precious truth
Praal
Death's tomb
The sub-deck was packed with people come to hear the words of the saint's apostle. Apostle: that was what they called him now, thought Sindermann, and it gave him comfort to know that even in these turbulent times, he was still a person that others looked up to. Vanity, he knew, but still… one takes what one can when circumstances change beyond one's control.