Chapter 60: The Serpent of Time
The Dark Eldar fleet dispersed like smoke before the storm.
The Black Spike Conspiracy's hubris had sealed their fate.
They had sought to penetrate the expeditionary fleet's battle-line with characteristic xenos arrogance, attempting a boarding action against vessels that carried the Emperor's own gene-sons.
Such desperation reeked of madness, a gambit that would deliver them either a headless fleet to torment or see them annihilated utterly.
The latter proved their destiny.
The expeditionary fleet's warships outnumbered the raiders by a factor of ten. When the boarding assault failed, when the Eighth Legion's sons counter-boarded the flagship Black Spike itself, the alien corsairs found themselves encircled, trapped like prey beasts in a snare of adamantium and wrath.
The void became a slaughterhouse.
Missile barrages and lance beams carved luminous death through the darkness.
Void mines, scattered like the Emperor's judgment across the system's approaches, chained into brilliant detonations that rent armor plating asunder.
One Torture-class raider, fleeing toward the system's edge, triggered a mine cluster. Its engines guttered and died.
The expeditionary fleet descended upon it with predatory efficiency, solid shot and focused energy carving through its grotesque hull.
The alien ship endured twenty seconds of concentrated bombardment before its spine cracked.
A moment later, its power core achieved critical mass. A miniature star bloomed in the void, perfect, terrible, and brief.
Nearby Imperial vessels activated their viewing port filters against the nuclear fury.
They maneuvered with practiced precision to avoid the expanding debris field that had once been a ship of torturers and murderers.
The other corsair vessels met similar fates, overwhelmed by Imperial firepower and gene-forged fury. The Black Spike hung dead in space, its engines and reactors gutted by the Eighth Legion's methodical savagery.
Those Dark Eldar who had resisted to the last were scattered as corpses throughout their ship's twisted corridors.
The survivors, those whose cowardice had preserved them, now wore restraint collars that crackled with punitive current.
When the slaughter ended, Koz materialized aboard the Emperor's Grand Design through teleportation's embrace.
As always, the transition through the Empyrean brought visions, stars consumed, brothers turning upon brothers, the chittering laughter of entities that should not be.
He felt the familiar urge to peer deeper into those twisted depths, to embrace the truths that writhed in Subspace's heart.
He resisted, as he always did. The path of damnation was paved with such curiosities.
Reality reasserted itself. The dense Warp energies dissipated, leaving only the sterile air of the flagship's bridge and the weight of his spoils, Blood Reaver Master Rakarth, unconscious and secured.
"It seems you have won a great victory."
The Raven's voice drew his attention. Koz looked toward the command throne and saw the strange being perched upon the Master of Mankind's shoulder.
A fragment of memory stirred, something about keeping prisoners, about cultivation on ice worlds.
Yet whenever his gaze left the Raven, such recollections faded like dreams upon waking. Even recorded notes seemed to slip from his awareness, ignored by some deeper compulsion.
Koz cast aside his confusion and hurled the captive Dark Eldar before the Emperor's throne.
"My lord. Master Raven. This wretch held the highest rank among our enemies."
Rakarth raised his head, his predator's gaze sweeping across each figure before him as if memorizing their faces for future vengeance. Blood trickled from his lips as he spoke.
"This matter will not end here."
The Raven descended from the Emperor's shoulder, alighting before the captive with an almost curious tilt of his head.
"You are correct. This matter cannot end here."
Rakarth's expression faltered. This was not the response he had anticipated.
Where were the threats? The righteous anger? The predictable human rage that would drive them to hasty execution and grant him the swift death that would trigger his resurrection protocols?
Every few cycles, he reset the temporal triggers in his Commorragh laboratory. Should he fail to provide the proper codes, his resurrection would commence automatically, soul fragments and flesh samples reassembling into life, seeking the memory cores that would restore his consciousness complete.
"Tell us of Commorragh," the Raven continued conversationally. "Share what you know, and we shall consider mercy."
"You wish to understand the Dark City?" Rakarth's tone carried acid mockery. "Do you jest?"
"Is there a problem?" The Raven seemed genuinely curious. "We intend to visit Commorragh personally. To discuss reparations for your attacks upon human colonies."
"You, you wish to enter Commorragh? To discuss reparations?" Rakarth stared as if witnessing madness. "Have you taken leave of your senses?"
He turned toward the Emperor and Koz, seeking sanity. "Do you find amusement in letting a dead bird mock me? You, "
Koz's lightning claw punched through Rakarth's throat before the insult could fully form. Arterial blood sprayed across the deck plates as the Astartes withdrew his weapon.
"You will not speak ill of Master Raven."
The wound, while painful, was insufficient to kill a Dark Eldar of Rakarth's enhancement. It did, however, encourage silence.
"Share what you know," the Raven said mildly. "In return, we shall grant you a quick death."
"Never!" Rakarth snarled through bloodied teeth. "No one threatens a Blood Reaver and lives. I will remember this day, corvid. All of you will pay the price for this humiliation."
The Raven studied him for a long moment, then glanced around the chamber. After confirming they were alone save for the Emperor and his son, he turned back to the prisoner.
"My lord," he said conversationally to the Emperor, "perhaps we might locate a Chaos cult. Sacrifice this one to Slaanesh. I refuse to believe he can resurrect himself from the Prince of Excess's embrace."
Rakarth's defiance crumbled like ash. "Wait!"
The bird was more vicious than any torturer he had known. Once offered to the Dark Prince, no resurrection protocol could reclaim his soul from that eternal torment.
"You wish to know of Commorragh? Ask! I will tell you everything, every district, every portal, every political alliance. I will guide you personally if required!"
Better that the fools die in the Dark City's labyrinthine depths than that he face an eternity of Slaanesh's tender mercies.
Thus motivated, Rakarth proved remarkably forthcoming. He detailed the Dark City's defenses, its political structure, its hidden vulnerabilities.
Every secret he possessed spilled forth like blood from an opened vein.
When the interrogation concluded, the Raven smiled, an expression that would have given pause to daemons.
"Send him to the ice world. Set him to growing potatoes. Should his agricultural efforts prove insufficient, find some cultists and sacrifice him anyway."
All captured Dark Eldar received similar treatment, restraint collars and involuntary relocation to agricultural servitude.
The Emperor's justice took many forms, but it was always absolute.
While the expeditionary force concluded various affairs in the Antimone System, the Emperor and the Raven discussed their postponed journey.
"Antimone's matter is concluded," the Raven said. "We must embark upon a new journey."
"Which universe shall we traverse?" the Emperor asked.
"The End of Eternity" the Raven replied. "There, we shall have the opportunity to acquire temporal technology that permits travel through past and future."
The Emperor's golden eyes fixed upon his companion. "This realm, what awaits us there?"
"Temporal mastery," the Raven said simply. "Technology that grants dominion over past and future."
The Emperor contemplated this revelation. To possess such power would render the Imperium truly eternal.
"When do we depart?" he asked.
As the Emperor's Grand Design faded from view, the Emperor felt the strange thrill of anticipation. Each universe they conquered brought new tools to the Imperium's arsenal. Each reality they plundered made humanity stronger.
Soon, even time itself would kneel before the Aquila.
Here, in Eternal Spacetime, the next phase of the Great Crusade would begin.
...….
(T/N: Eternal Spacetime comes from Asimov's "The End of Eternity.")