Lord Antioch felt awe and unease in equal measure, awe for he was stood on the bridge of the Glorianna-Class Battleship Hammer of Ultio flagship of the Emperors Judgement. The space was gargantuan, he stood on a vast spherical floor plate which was suspended in the middle of what could only be described as an auditorium of work stations filled to the brim with personnel going about the business of coordinating troops and fleet movements. The entire fore and ceiling of the bridge was open to the stars, keeping the cold void at bay was metres thick armour glass.

 

The Lord Commander felt unease as the combined Myrmidon, Mechanicus and Emperors Judgement forces were about to commence a combat operation, a combat operation that Lord Antioch had put forward himself. As the Lord Commander looked now to Stormbird's, bulk landers and troop carriers head for the atmosphere of Paradise he thought back to the War Council that had brought about this very operation.

 

The Stratagem of the Achilles was directly behind the vessels bridge, it was cold and utilitarian, it was dimly illuminated by glow globes at regular intervals around its circumference as well as its ceiling. It was massive space easily large enough to accommodate the Astartes and Ultio Ultionis, it was a hexagonal space with tiered seating surrounding a raised dais which acted as a hololith. Around the Stratagem were Lord Antioch, Master of the Fleet Brunel, Magos Zule, Princeps Majoris Tallos, Ultio and his seven officers.

 

Introducing his warriors Ultio explained that their names were their forenames, he explained that their surnames were erased as once they were elevated to the ranks of the Astartes they left their old identities behind. Ultio did mention that his sons carried other names but they were personal and not for outsides, Lord Antioch did not think to intrude upon a Legions traditions.

 

Ultio introduced the first of his officers as Lord Commander Tiberius –the Astartes whom had first greeted them when translating in system- he was a monster of a man the closest in height to the Emperors son, he was a paradox outwardly he looked like violence incarnate but he carried himself with a measured calm and thinking manner. Next was Lord Commander Tiberius's proxy Lord Destrian, he had the look of a fearsome warrior his face marred with a multitude of scars, he rested a giant power axe across his shoulder.

 

Then there were the three lords of the Great Orders individual Orders, they were almost interchangeable each stern and serious. They wore massive greying beards, Lord Antioch figured that they rarely went into combat helmed, each of them stood in a rigid backed pose, they rested mighty Warhammers head down on the deck their gauntleted hands resting upon their hammers hafts. Their names were Lords Griswold, Gromfell and Grenwell, Ultio explained that these lords were actually triplets each having proven themselves worthy of rising to the ranks of the Legiones Astartes. Lord Antioch was correct when he thought that the next Astartes had the look of an Enginseer about him as he was Master Techmarine Grimwald. Allowing for the fact that the Techmarine was heavily augmented the Lord Commander could sense something different how he comported himself, something subtle that made him stand out from his brothers.

 

The remaining Astartes was Chief Librarian Dorvus he stood out to Lord Antioch for an entirely different reason, his teeth itched being close to the psyker. The physical discomfort the Lord Commander felt was not the sole reason the Chief Librarian put him on edge. It was the inherited distrust of the mutant and the psyker that was bread into every Myrmidon boy and girl when growing up.

 

Lord Antioch still remember as a child long before the black ships of the Imperium spirited away suspected pyskers, he remembered the public executions. In truth he believed the violence metered out was wrong, but he never forgot the ingrained distrust. In recent years he had learned tolerance, as the commander of an Expeditionary Fleet he had had to. For without the psyker his mighty vessels could not move through the immaterium or communicate effectively. Despite this tolerance he felt like a child again calling for the censor of a psyker, when he looked upon the Chief Librarian, the only reason he could justify feeling this way was the fact that he knew that this psyker was trained to kill using his powers.

 

Following the introductions there were several suggestions of how to further the campaign, Lord Destrian suggested saturating the region where the attacks took place with orbital lance or nova cannon strikes from the Imperial assets in orbit. Magos Zule suggested the construction of boring equipment to investigate the possibility of underground cities. Master Techmarine Grimwald suggested that a marker be placed on Imperial Cartographer maps of this region of the Segmentum Obscuras, indicating that this planet is quarantined pending further investigation. So that the Emperors Judgement could get back to the business of pushing the boundaries of the galaxy, Grimwald argued that this was just one world and it posed no threat to anyone if they did not set foot on the surface.

 

During a brief hiatus of this conjecture Ultio was asked by Lord Tiberius, which proposition seemed the most plausible, instead of giving his own opinion he gestured to Lord Antioch. 'I would hear the thoughts of the leader of the Myrmidon expedition.'

 

Lord Antioch felt like a rabbit under the scrutiny of alpha predators when he saw the Astartes look towards him for input. 'I don't know what I could add to this discussion lords, for it was me whom asked for assistance in this undertaking.'

 

'I won't accept that.' Replied Ultio, with a level facial expression. 'You asked for help because you knew your Myrmidons did not have the experience to combat such an elusive foe by yourselves. That does not mean you do not have a valid opinion on how to identify said aggressors, therefore I would have your honest assessment of the tactical situation if you will?'

 

It was true the Lord Commander had many theories, it was all he could do to keep himself sane while they waited for reinforcement. Countless hours he spent in this very stratagem going through simulations on the hololith with a bottle of amasac as his only companion. No matter what he came up with, one thing constantly came back to him every time he thought of what might be below the surface of Paradise, was those seemingly erratic patterns of tilled earth.

 

'Lord Commander?' asked Ultio.

 

'Very well, sire.' The Lord Commander jumped into action his fingers typing codes into the hololith bringing up picts as well as footage from his flyby in the Valkyrie after his Myrmidon left the surface, Lord Antioch gestured to these images. 'As you can see my lords from the pattern of the tilled earth, you can see where the attack came in. You can see that where the northern base, the relief regiment, the armoured brigade, the command post and the southern base were wiped from the surface of the planet all fall under one continuous trajectory in a north-south thrust.'

 

'We can see that.' Stated the triplet lords in perfect unison, a ghost of a smile flickered across Ultio's face.

 

'Quite, quite.' Replied Lord Antioch before continuing. 'For the longest time I thought that this must be a direct thrust attack to tear out the throat of our command by burrowing assault vehicles in order to leave us leaderless on the surface.'

 

'Horus would approve.' Put in Ultio, referencing the Luna Wolves favoured method of waging war, several of the Astartes nodded in agreement.

 

'I have he heard of this of your brother, sire.' Stated Lord Antioch, he now brought up a new series of picts that stood beside the existing ones. 'But now I do not think that this was a tactical assault, well not as we would see it. These picts here show much older tilled earth formations that were created well before our expeditionary fleet entered this system, even before the scout echelons of the Mechanicus passed through here.

 

'I believe that these patterns were created by a titanic burrowing creature for I believe that this wide continuous front was burrowed from a single entity, but I know not of anything in this galaxy which could create something so monstrous for if I am right then this thing has to be at least twice the length and breadth of your Glorianna-Class Battleship.'

 

'You have been monitoring the world below continuously while you waited for reinforcement.' Cut in Chief Librarian Dorvus, his voice surprisingly soft for what the Lord Commander had come to expect from Astartes. 'If this creature exists then surely you would have come across it?'

 

'Not necessarily.' Countered Lord Antioch, he had tried to talk himself out of this theory many times. 'If it is a gigantic wild animal then perhaps it happened upon our bases through natural migrating patterns. Perhaps it was drawn by the enormous ground vibrations created by the erection of the bases and sought out knew prey or territoriality instincts kicked in, considering my scout forces were not attacked while they were on the surface.'

 

'Or perhaps that there is a more traditional force under the surface of Paradise.' Interjected Master Techmarine Grimwald. 'And they waited until you sent substantial forces to the surface before striking, I know it is what I would do.'

 

'I cannot disagree with the logic of your argument, Master Grimwald.' Replied Lord Antioch. 'Perhaps you are right and I am wrong. The only thing that keeps bugging me is the colonisation vessel in orbit, it and its escorts are in a geostationary orbit, they have been orbiting above the same point of Paradise for Throne knows how long. What if the settlers went to the surface and were consumed like my beloved Myrmidons, what if there were more vessels but these were taken to the surface and the vessels left in orbit were lifeboats but something destroyed their means of escape.

 

'My theory would also account for the phantom encrypted vox traffic, perhaps there were survivors whom have held onto what scraps of technology they could. What is a stroke of luck is that whether mine or your theory is more likely, I would use the same stratagem to prove both.'

 

'Which is?' asked Ultio.

'I would have our Mechanicus allies construct sensors small enough that individually they would not draw in our allusive foe alone, but together would form a tracking network several hundred kilometres in diameter.' Lord Antioch then looked towards the Princeps Majoris. 'I would then place the largest war machines we have at our disposal on the planet's surface to lure in our foe for a closer look, we might perhaps even draw it to the surface.'

 

'You would risk another of our Titans?' asked the Princeps Majoris.

 

Lord Antioch took a sidelong glance at the Explorator Magos, before turning to Princeps Tallos. 'With the sensors in place there should be plenty of warning for you to teleport your Titans out. Might I also add that I would deploy forces to the mountain buttressing the region east and west to search for the vox signals, for if there is a lost strand of humanity still alive on the surface of Paradise I would hazard a guess that they would keep to the mountains, as far as I can see the tilled earth stays away from rocky regions'

 

'I like the plan.' Put in Ultio, with a grin splitting his face. 'It is a unique plan to combat a unique foe any other suggestions?'

 

And there hadn't been, somehow the Lord Commanders zany stratagem had won through and now it was being enacted.

 

'Assets entering the atmosphere of Paradise.' Announced Lord Admiral Leopold, the fleet master of the Hammer of Ultio surprisingly to Lord Antioch he was human. It seemed that the Primarch of the Eleventh Legion favoured human personnel into high ranking positions.

 

Standing on the vast floor plate was Ultio, his seven officers, Magos Zule, Princeps Tallos, Admiral Leopold –Master Brunel had stayed aboard the Achilles to effect repairs of the reactor – as well as the commander of the Primarch's human armed forces whom accompanied the Legion. His name was Lord Militant General Agrippa, he was a dour man who despised spaceflight.

 

'I certainly hope you're right about this.' Stated General Agrippa, he wore a soldiers combat fatigues, making Lord Antioch feel silly at still being in his dress uniform.

 

'So do I.' replied Lord Antioch. 'But surely you have to agree that my plan is one of the least overt and safest options.'

 

'That is true enough.' Agreed General Agrippa.

 

There was a long silence as they watched the fiery contrails of the vessels entering the upper atmosphere of Paradise, Lord Antioch broke the silence. 'May I ask you for information about your forces and the Emperors Judgement and how you came to be under the same expedition?'

 

'We hail from the same world.' Replied General Agrippa. 'That world is Kerak, elsewhere in the Segmentum Obscurus. It is classified as a Knight World for it manufactures Imperial Knight Walkers for the Great Crusade, in fact a great many accompanying our force being the 13th Expeditionary Fleet. The greatest honour of Kerak is that it is the home of Ultio Ultionis and the sole recruiting base of the Emperors Judgement. When the Emperor came to claim his son, Ultio decreed that we the Kerakian Feudal Guard should make war by his side, the same way we made war with him upon our planet's surface before the Emperor came.'

 

'You were at war on your home world before the Emperor came?' asked Lord Antioch, he could not believe the revelations being told to him.

 

'Yes.' Replied General Agrippa, it seemed at first that the general would not elaborate but Lord Antioch realised the general was reminiscing. 'We fought a mighty war against the Orks, they plagued our planet for centuries before the coming of Ultio. The peace after the scouring was one of the most celebrated periods in our history.' The Generals face darkened for a moment before continuing. 'Then the Emperor came.'

 

Lord Antioch picked up on the general's dark expression at the mention of the Emperors coming, he could feel the weight of things unsaid. Lord Antioch could not fathom what they might be for surely the coming of the Emperor would be the most joyous period in any human held planets history. General Agrippa sensed Lord Antioch's unease. 'Perhaps that is a story for another day.'

 

Lord Antioch merely nodded for he would not pry, evidently whatever it was, it was a sore subject for the Lord Militant General.

 

'Are you really the son of a grox herder?' asked General Agrippa, a wry grin splitting his weathered features. The two men shared a moment of laughter, breaking the awkward tension.

 

'I am indeed.' Replied Lord Antioch. 'Maybe that story is for another day too.'

 

'I think it will have to be.' Cut in Admiral Leopold. 'The assets are touching down momentarily.'

 

Lord Antioch's stomached tightened, under his orders for the second time he was sending his forces to the surface of Paradise and this time if it went wrong he was putting the Emperors Judgement in harm's way too.

 

'The first phase has made planet fall.' Stated Admiral Leopold.

 

The moment of truth had arrived.