The First

XV

Fleet Hellfire, under the command of Black Legion Captain Icemic Bear-scourge, had the Ultramar System Defense Fleet and all of its allies dead to rights. Led by the Abyss-class Battleship Flail of Skulls and made up of no less than two hundred other ships all steeped in the taint of the Warp and crewed by Traitors, horrors, and daemons, some of the ships are daemons themselves, they had the SDF outnumbered. Even with five Soace Marine Battle Barges and three Emperor-class Battleships in their formation with enough firepower between them to burn entire sub-sectors clear of life, they are still outgunned. The Imperial ships don't give them an easy time of it, though. They left at least fifty traitor vessels burning in space around Macragge, but the numbers are coming into play. They brought cracked one of the Emperor-class Battleship, the Decimus Rex, in half, and the Battle Barge, Mace of Calth, has been crippled and boarded. The Imperial fleet no longer has the numbers to stop the enemy from deploying ground troops to the surface of Macragge or to stop them from unleashing orbital bombardments onto the ground to air defenses that would blow the drop pods, assault craft, and landers out of the sky.
Icemic watches from the bridge of the Flail of Skulls, which is more flesh and bone than steel and wires. All of the mortal bridge crew are sealed in flesh cocoons at their stations, and the navigator hands in a fluid sack above the bridge. The only ones free to move are the Traitor Space Marines officers who act as Icemic’s advisors. Icemic is a former member of the Thousand Sons, who, even before their fall, were known as sorcerors. In their eyes, there was no knowledge too forbidden or action too extreme in the pursuit of it. Like their Daemon Primarch Magnus the Red, many of his sons are followers of Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways. The Flail of Skulls was bathed in the power of Tzeentch, and one of his daemons possesses the ship and is chained to Icemic’s will.
“The Bane of Hope has crippled the Fury of Luna,” says the hissing voice of the ship in Icemic’s mind, “The Bane of Hope’s captain has ordered a boarding action.”
“Sho Razorbound,” says Icemic, not hiding his disgust of the former Night Lord, “Any chance to glut himself on pain and terror. At least, that is another Emperor-class out of the fight.”
The ship feeds statistics directly into his mind. The enemy fleet is down to less than half their starting strength while he has lost forty percent of his. That number would be high for any sane commander, but there are no sane commanders within his fleet. Just those who have more control than others. Icemic is the commander because he has the most control, or so he believes. He is in command of the fleet while one of the Chosen of Abaddon, Lord Ravager Haxos Hellblood, a former World Eater and servant of the Blood God Khorne, leads the ground assault. He is about to order the ship to locate one of the remaining Battle Barges when the Flail nearly blows out his brain with a barrage of impossible information.
“Ships have appeared,” the hissing voice yells into his mind, “No Warp signatures, multiple classes.”
It pumps images directly into his mind. They make his blood run cold. The formation is absolutely massive, crusade strength of three to five hundred ships. At their center is the massive legendary space fortress, the Phalanx.
“That isn't possible,” says Icemic, his mind reeling, “No fleet this massive can move through the Warp without creating a tidal wave of disturbance, and I felt nothing. And there is no way to move it any other way.”
“Icemic,” yells Kar Ironheart, “You have to get the fleet organized and turned around! Now!”
“You think I don't know that,” yells Icemic as he starts shouting psychic commands that the Flail relays to all the other ships, “Disengage and turn! An enemy fleet is at our rear! Turn!”
Even as he yells the order, he knows it is useless. The daemon is still pumping images into his mind. He can't understand what he is seeing. Other than the Phalanx, he can't recognize any other class of ship. They are all sleek, almost like the ships of the hated Aeldari, but they are far larger and heavily armored like the vessels of humanity, only they are not built like massive cathedrals. He only has a short time to register this before the ship's boarding alarms start to scream.

Unshackled Grey Knights Captain Klordai Gadrian and his squad appear in the daemonic heart that is the engine room of the Flail of Skulls. He is one of hundreds of boarding teams that are being teleported about the vessels of the Chaos fleet. They are doing it this way because the fleet is so mixed in with the Imperial Fleet that opening fire would put their allies at risk. So, they are going to kill them from the inside. The daemons that infest the engine room attack immediately.
“Fire,” says Klordai into his helmet mic.
The Unshackled Knights open fire, sending perfectly aimed pure UC rounds into the incoming horde. The daemons hit are unmade, instantly suffering real deaths. The daemons fall in droves and are so shocked and confused that their attack falters. That is when the Grey Knights switch from Bolters to their powers. They call on the power of the First and unleash waves of uncreation energy in the form of fire and chain lightning. The purifying destruction is devastation to the daemons. The daemonic flesh and bone that covers the floors, walls, and ceilings is stripped away, revealing the corroded metal underneath. The daemon that lies at the heart of the Flail of Skulls is screaming in agony. Klordai walks toward the pulsing black heart at the center and draws his blade. He charges it pure UC energy and drives it into the heart, unmaking it and killing the daemon ship. From start to finish, this boarding action takes one minute before any antiboarding team can reach them. The ship starts to shudder as the force that has kept its cursed vessel alive all these millennia dies.
“Action complete, Lady Sio,” reports Klordai through his connection to the Warsphere, “Ship disabled and death is possibly imminent.”
“The ship is coming apart,” replies Sio, “You have maybe three minutes before the reactor goes critical. I can teleport you off or to the bridge to kill the commander.”
“To the bridge,” says Klordai as he and his squad switch their UC Bolters for their Vengence Bolters with a thought.
The Vengence Bolters are not nearly as silent or as clean as the UC Bolters. The Unshackled asked and received the Vengence pattern for when they didn't want their enemies to be unmade, for when they wanted to blow their enemies to pieces and make their deaths as painful as possible. The Vengence fires a round that can punch through Dreadnaught Armor like it is paper before exploding inside. It is a nasty piece of work built by the Infinitum.
“We don't leave a job half done.”

Captain Icemic Bear-scourge has never felt as much pain as he did the moment the Flail of Skulls died. The death screams of the daemon that possessed the ship for nearly seven thousand years echoed through his skull. He fell to his knees only to find trusted metal under him rather than the daemon flesh he had become so used to. He looks around through a haze of pain and sees skeletons in the corroded crew stations. The power that had kept the suffering crew alive was now gone. Kar rushes to him to help him up, but before that can happen, a Bolter roars and Kar is blown through the air over Icemic, where he lands with his armor and body in ruins on the deck. Icemic’s head snaps up to see ten figures, a pattern of gray armor he has never seen before. On their chests is a golden lemniscate, and in their hands are Bolters like he has never seen before.
They do not waste time on words as they open fire. The rounds cut down the Black Legionnaires as if their armor is non-existent. Icemic survives the attack by putting up a psy-shield. Even then, the rounds that hit it are like hammer blows to his brain.
“What kind of ammunition is this?” he thinks to himself.
But he pushes the thought to the side as he focuses on attacking. Only he and two of his battle brothers, both psykers as well survive the sudden attack. He regains his focus and channels his power before sending it out in a wave of force that rips up decking and sends it at the grey attackers like bomb shrapnel. His brothers send Warp lightning and ice blades at them. To Icemic’s shock, one of the attackers cast out his hand, and a green barrier of energy appears before the entire squad. When the attacks hit it, they just vanish, turning into glowing dust.
“Hold fire, brothers,” says the figure before he steps forward, “I am Knight Captain Klordai Gadrian of the Undhsckled Grey Knights of the New Imperium. You traitors deserve no honor, but I want you to die knowing who killed you.”
“The New Imperium,“ says Icemic as he calls upon more of his power, “What nonsense-”
The Grey Knight captain’s Boltrr disappears, and it is replaced by a glowing power sword in his hands a second before he moves like a blur. He kills Drecas and Lheorviz, first cutting their heads from their shoulders before either can react. Icemic is about to attack, but the Knight is on him with impossible speed, and the power blade is buried in his gut and comes out his back. Klordai slowly draws it upward, prolonging the messy death.
“The First has returned,” says Klordai in a whisper through his helm speakers, “And he doesn't care how we kill you, fast and clean or slow and painful, as long as you die.”
The Grey Knight kicks Icemic off the power sword and into the corroded bridge command throne, where Icemic sits like a broken and gutted puppet before turning his back on him and rejoining his brothers. Without another word, they vanish. That is Icemic’s last sight before the Flail of Skulls’s decayed reactor goes critical, and the ship explodes.