Chapter 19

"My lord, the trail ends here they are likely upon this ice planet." states one of the naval officers onboard the Nightfall.

Sitting upon his command throne, Konrad feels and sees a veritable feeling of death radiating from the planet and the partially destroyed moon beside it. Looking upon the once ocean world, now the ice world, as if it was flash, frozen in some super event.

"What do we have on ancient records of this planet?" I ask the charter.

"It used to be a research outpost due to this planet and moon appearing from the warp during a massive warp storm during the height of humanity, and the researchers named it Tau Volantis, but sadly all other information has ben lost to our records and from our sensors it seems to lake any life besides the xenos we chased." Reported the Intel officer reading from a data pad next to the throne.

Holding back my smirk at the irony of a planet named similarly to the fish heads, but for some reason, the name sounds familiar. But the chance of ancient tech is very lucrative information indeed, and with this being the last of any known hrudds migrations, humanity can be safe from such a horrible species. Turning my gaze back upon the moon and all of my pysker powers are giving me a rather foreboding feeling from it and the planet to a lesser extent and so contacting my brother we agree to send our sons to scour the moon first and send some mortals to the planet side to secure a landing for the rest of us.

"Keep me up to date on any reports from the moon and have them make a soil sample while on it. There is something off about it, and it gives me a bad feeling."I order before leaving the bridge to help work of the gauss weapon projects.

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I was working over an upgrade to my claws when a naval officer started to bang on my door.

"My lord, we have grave news and worrying reports from your brothers fleet." He rambles, seemingly shaken by the report he must deliver.

"It has only been a few hours. What could have caused you to become so shaken?" I ask the officer

"The results of the soil test of the moon has returned along with reports from your sons. the moon is made of decayed flesh, and the nightlords on it have reported that the moon itself seems to be a large frozen organism and..." Reports the officer before I interrupted him as I'm struck by the implications of the findings.

"Pull all personnel from the moon and alert my brother of our findings and for all vessels to prepare to destroy that abomination!" I yell at the poor man as I quickly mount my armor and equip my claws.

"But sir, Lord Perturabo has reported that the ground crew has lost vox communication, but their vital scans show they are fine. How should we proceed?" Asks the officer

"We don't have time for the planet yet. We must destroy the abomination before it could thaw. Get Perturabo on comms. We must notify him immediately." I state while marching to the bridge.

Once there, the whole bridge is abuzz as orders are given, and based on the many landing vessels leaving the moon, the message was received. Sitting upon my throne, I wait for the comms to connect, and with a humm, they do as I hear the voice of my brother.

"What is the meaning of this call, Konrad? We must prepare to siege whatever whole the xenos have hidden in." Questions Perturabo

"I would not contact you with so little notice if the situation was not dire. The very moon of this planet is made of dead flesh and appears to be a large frozen entity. Such an abomination must be destroyed, so I plead with your brother to send you ships and let us destroy this creature before it becomes a threat." I state while staring, imploring my brother to side with reason

"Is this true, brother? No, I know you to be no liar. Very well, we will destroy the false moon before landing upon the planet." States my brother with his usual cold tone, but I see the understanding in his eyes of what this threat may represent.

"Sigh..... thank you, brother. I shall send all the information we have of the planet to you while we maneuver our ships into position."I stated while relaxing only a little into my throne as the whole fleet began to move.

Eventually, all ships began to hover over the small moon and all across the fleet a bright glow forms under the ships with clear separation of the two fleets being the color of their batteries with one glowing a baleful red and the other an ominous green. With an order given all across the fleets, all ships fired upon the moon, and at first, nothing happened till the moon itself started to fall apart, with most of it burning to ashes and when the moon broke a veritable Shockwave pf psykic energy was released through the warp and reality scaring even the daemons away for a time. In real space, it was much different as a psykic screen ripped across the fleet with only one word *NOOOOOOO* able to be deciphered before the mortal psykers heads popped.

Shaking the headache away, I loomed back to the many mortals on board my ship, most still reeling from the shockwave.

"Contact Perturabo Now!" I shout, bringing most mortals near me back to reality as they scramble to follow my order.

With a buzz, my brothers voice comes through along with the hologram connecting to his ship.

"It seems we made the right call to destroy such a being, brother, but what about the planet. We can not destroy it due to the possibility of ancient tech on the planet, and we lack planet crackers to do so. How do you think we should proceed? " asks my brother, sitting upon his own throne, no doubt, thinking of thousands of strategies to fight the hrud.

"We shall land as planned, but we must be cautious. We know not what influence that creature had on the planet, so I suggest we keep our comms connected" I state while I myself ponder any possible winning strategy but that's when I'm hit with a vision as a grimace crosses my face being the only physical sign of it.

"A vision, Brother? Do share," Asks Perturabo with if I didn't know better, he sounded worried for me.

"Death and undeath await on that planet, and it seems to involve some mind manipulation to cause the death, but the cause of the undead abominations is still unknown to me and it seems the hrudd are close to causing a thaw to occur on the planet." I answer while trying to rub my temples to make the headache go away.

"From the records sent to us, this used to be a water planet, so any mortals going planet side are highly probable to die both during and after the battle." States Perturabo with his face, looking even more grimm understanding we would only be able to deploy our sons and our selves to fight this threat due to our engineered anatomy.

"We can have all mortal forces provide orbital bombardment if it comes to it, so it would be better than nothing........Why is one of your destroyers beging to shut down, brother? "

With the order given, all ships began to halt with the lead destroyer being the only one to float aimlessly.

"Someone get in contact with that vessel and have all ships retreat to a safe distance. I'm case the ship explodes. " I ordered as all the comms officer tried to connect to the ship, and I truly wish they didn't. When the connection was made, I could hear the screams as some humans chanted make us whole while another set of voices chant to destroy the marker and mixed with the mad chants was the sound of the crew loudly killing each other or even mass suicide and looking to the sight of my brother he had heard it as well.

"Destroy, that ship it is already lost." I ordered

"Have no vessel go farther than this perimeter if they have any base humans on board and have all astartes vessels and landing ships loaded it seems the threat has revealed itself to be planetside " I order while standing as the hologram of my brother moves from my throne to the transponder on my gauntlet. It was while I was exiting the bridge that a comms officer called out.

"My lord, all our forward units on the planet are starting to die. Only two hundred remain, and the number is dropping quickly." States the officer obviously shaken by recent events

"Then we must hurry." I state while exiting the bridge with my Atramentar