The Flight of the Eisenstein

'Correct/ said Dorn. 'This phantom joined us as we cleared the shadow of Neptune and fell in to match us in course and speed. They brought with them orders from the Council of Terra itself and directions to harbour. Specific reference was made to you, captain, and the woman Keeler. You will tell me why'

Garro hesitated, unsure of how to proceed. 'I have had dealings with Amendera Kendel, a senior Oblivion Knight among the Silent Sisterhood/ he began.

Dorn shook his head once, a curt gesture of command. 'Your dealings with these Untouchables do not concern me, Garro. What troubles me is that they know Keeler is aboard my ship, and they have bid me to have her isolated.'

Garro felt a surge of concern. 'Euphrati Keeler is no threat to the Phalanx, sir. She is… a gifted individual.'

'Gifted.' Dorn made the word a growl. 'I know the kinds of "gifts" that the Sisterhood come seeking. Have you brought a mind-witch aboard my fortress, Death Guard? Does this remembrancer bear the mark of the psyker?' He grimaced. 'I was there at Nikaea when the Emperor himself censured the use of these warp-spawned powers for the good of the Imperium! I will not allow such forces to run unchecked among my warriors!'

'She is no witch, lord/ Garro retorted. 'If anything, her gift is that she has felt the Emperor's touch more keenly than any one of us!' The tremor in his voice drew Qruze's attention and the Luna Wolf came closer.

'We shall see. Sister Amendera has requested that Keeler be kept under lock and key, and Halbrecht's men have placed a guard upon her. The woman and her cohorts will be turned over to the Sisters of Silence once we make orbit at Luna.'

'Sir, I cannot permit that.' The words streamed from him before he could stop himself. 'They are under my protection.'

'And mine!' broke in Qruze. Token entrusted their safety to me personally!'

'What you wish and what you will permit are of no interest to the Imperial Fists!' snapped Halbrecht, stepping up to face Garro. 'You are guests of the VII Legion and you will conduct yourselves as such.'

'You labour under a misapprehension, both of you,' said Dorn, moving to the windows. 'Have you forgotten what you said to me? The Death Guard and the Sons of Horns have turned against the Emperor, and if so then their Legions are soon to be declared renegade, as will all their warriors, protectorates and crews in service.'

'We risked everything to bring the warning!' Garro's words were brittle ice. 'And now you all but name us traitor?'

'I say only what some already have, what others will. Why do you think we travel to make port at the Luna base instead of taking orbit about Terra? I will not risk the lives of the Council and the Emperor on a whim!'

Qruze spat angrily, the old warrior's normally reticent manner melting away. 'Forgive me, Lord Dorn, but did you not see the Lady Oliton's mnemonic recording? Are not the sworn words of seventy Astartes proof enough for you?'

'Seventy Astartes whose Legions have turned their backs on Terra/ said Efried grimly.

The primarch nodded. 'Understand my position. Despite all the evidence you bring me, I cannot be certain of this until I see it through the eyes of an Imperial Fist. I do not call you liars, brothers, but I must see all sides of this, consider every possibility.'

'What if you are the traitors here?' demanded Halbrecht. 'Suppose Horus has been laid low by some conspiracy among his own men, and you have been sent to assassinate the Emperor?'

Garro's hand fell to the hilt of Libertas. 'I have killed men for lesser insults, Imperial Fist! Pray tell, how could we do such an impossible thing?'

'Perhaps by bringing a witch-psyker to Terra in secret/ said Efried, 'or a man wracked with a plague that no medicine can defeat?'

Ice formed in Garro's chest and the anger left him in a cold rush. 'No… no.' He turned to Dorn. 'Lord, if what I have told you and shown you is not enough to convince you, then I beg to know what it will take! Must I fall upon my own blade before you believe me?'

'I have this hour spoken to the Imperial Regent, Malcador the Sigillite, via machine-call vox/ said the primarch. 'It was my affirmation to him that, despite the dedication you have shown to the Emperor in braving the gauntlet to carry forth your warning, the Council of Terra cannot be fully certain where the loyalties of such men ultimately lie.' There was a hard edge to Dorn's voice, but for the first time Garro sensed the tension in him. It was not easy for the primarch to utter such words to fellow Astartes. 'My orders were to return to Terra to bulwark the planet's defences and it seems that I may have to do that in order to resist my own brothers' He glanced at Garro. 'I will attend the Imperial Palace and brief the Emperor on this grave news. You, the refugees from the Vengeful Spirit and all the Astartes from the Eisen-stein, will remain in secure holding at the Somnus Citadel on Luna until our master decides what your fate will be.'

Slowly and carefully, Garro drew his sword and turned it in his grip, offering the weapon to Dorn just as Voyen had offered his combat knife to Garro. 'Take my sword and end me with it if I am a deceiver, lord, I implore you, for I grow weary of each test that is heaped upon us! With all the lies and distrust that have bombarded me, I cannot face the same from those I call kinsmen!' With his free hand, Garro reached up to his chest and touched the eagle cuirass. He nodded to the primarch's armour and the similar aegis there, both echoes of the wargear worn by the Master of Mankind. *We both carry the mark of the Emperor's aquila. Does that count for so little?'

'In these dark times, nothing can be certain.' Dorn's face turned to stone once again. 'Put away your weapon and be silent, Battle-Captain Garro. Know

this: if you resist the edict of the Sigillite in any way, then the full and unfettered wrath of the Imperial Fists will be set upon you and your cohorts.'

4Ve will not resist/ Garro said, defeated. 'If this is what must be done, then so be it.' Libertas returned to its sheath in silence.

The primarch turned away. 'We will arrive in a few hours. Assemble your men and be ready to disembark.'

The distance across the marble floor to the chamber's doors seemed to expand as Garro's injured leg tensed with ghostly pain on every step he took.

The Phalanx approached Luna through the hanging ornaments of orbital defence stations and commerce platforms, her path an open corridor through the darkness towards Terra's natural satellite. As the fortress of the Imperial Fists found harbour at the gravity-null La Grange point beyond the moon, the Phalanx mimicked the orbit of Luna around its parent world.

Once, the satellite had been a mottled stone wasteland where humans had ventured in their first infantile steps away from their birth world. They had built colonies there, testing their mettle in the pitiless cold of the void in preparation for future voyages to other planets, but as Terra's people had advanced, Luna had become little more than a way station, a place to pass by on the journey to the interplanetary – and later, interstellar – deeps.

For a time, in the Age of Strife when Terra was engulfed in war and blood, the moon had become desolate and empty once again, but after the rise of the Emperor, Luna had known a rebirth. Waxing and waning, the satellite came full circle as the Age of Imperium brought it new life.

Bisecting the grey stone sphere across its equator lay a man-made valley many kilometres wide. This was the Circuit, an artificial canyon that laid open me rock and stone beneath the dusty lunar surface. All along the length of the chasm lay gateways into the moon's interior, vast doors to the honeycomb of spaces carved by mankind in the heart of Luna. The ancient, dead boulder of the moon became the largest military complex ever built by humans. A vast shipyard for the armada of the Imperium, thousands of starships from the smallest shuttle to the largest battle barge were built and maintained there, and across the face of the far side there were complex stations for observation of the great void beyond. Port Luna was the cold, stone heart of humankind's great fleets.